Chapter Text
The rental SUV rattled slightly as it rolled into the gravel parking lot, tires crunching loudly in the quiet of the mountains.
It was… empty.
Suspiciously empty.
Jeremy squinted out the window, leaning forward between the seats.
“Okay, I’m just gonna say it—this is how every horror movie starts.”
Reid didn’t even look up from the folded map in his hands. “It’s 0900 on a Tuesday, Jeremy. Normal people have jobs.”
Jeremy blinked. “Wow. Bold of you to assume serial killers don’t.”
From the driver’s seat, Victor killed the engine, the sudden silence settling around them like a blanket. The wind rustled through the trees, distant and constant. Pine. Dirt. Actual wilderness.
Behind them, Christina leaned her head slightly to the side, taking it all in through the window.
“It’s nice,” she said simply.
Jeremy turned to look at her, incredulous. “Nice? Christina, there is no cell service out here.”
“That’s kind of the point,” she replied.
“Not a good one.”
Reid finally folded the map with sharp, precise movements. “We hike eight miles in, set up camp near the ridge. NASA wants ‘team bonding under mild environmental stress.’”
Jeremy snorted. “Mild? Reid, I saw a sign back there that said ‘bear activity.’ That is not mild. That is teeth.”
Victor opened his door, stepping out and stretching like this was just another normal day. “Relax. You’ve trained for worse.”
Jeremy followed more slowly, stepping out and immediately looking around like something might lunge at him from the trees.
“Yeah,” he muttered, “but usually the danger is, like… vacuum. Or radiation. You know. Predictable stuff.”
Christina hopped out last, already grabbing one of the packs from the back.
Jeremy watched her swing it onto her shoulders like it weighed nothing.
“…how is that the same species as me,” he murmured.
Reid came around the back of the car, handing out gear with quiet efficiency. “Check your packs. Water, rations, emergency beacons—”
Jeremy froze. “Emergency beacon. Love that. Great sign. Really comforting.”
Victor slung his pack on. “You’ll be fine.”
Jeremy pointed at him. “That’s easy for you to say. You look like you befriend bears.”
Victor considered that. “If necessary.”
“That was not a joke answer.”
Christina zipped her jacket, glancing toward the trailhead where a narrow path disappeared into dense trees.
There was something about it—something quiet and waiting.
“Come on,” she said, already starting toward it. “We’re burning daylight.”
Jeremy groaned loudly but followed anyway. “If I die out here, I want it on record that this was not my idea.”
Reid fell into step beside him. “Duly noted.”
They reached the trailhead together.
A wooden sign, slightly weathered, marked the beginning. Beyond it, the path curved and vanished into green shadow.
For a moment, the four of them stood there.
No engines. No radios. No countdowns.
Just wind in the trees.
Jeremy broke the silence first, of course.
“…so, statistically speaking,” he said, adjusting his pack, “what are the odds we see a bear versus become emotionally vulnerable and bond as a team?”
Victor stepped past him onto the trail. “Let’s find out.”
Christina followed without hesitation.
Reid lingered just a second longer, glancing back at the empty parking lot—at the car, at the last easy way out.
Then he turned and stepped onto the trail too.
Jeremy sighed dramatically and trudged after them.
“Unbelievable,” he muttered. “I trained my whole life to go to space and somehow I end up on a hiking trip with no Wi-Fi.”
The trees swallowed them quickly, the light shifting as they moved deeper in.
And just like that—
the mission had already started.