The next week proved, despite Pacifica's sincerest wishes, to be very boring. Bud had immediately put the two of them to work, Pacifica at the counter, and Gideon restocking the shelves.
Gideon held up a snow globe for Pacifica to see. "Hey Paz, Dad said to mark up these prices, how does $20 sound?"
Pacifica looked up from her magazine at the counter and snorted. "I think $200's more like it."
He blinked at her, then shook his head in disbelief as he wrote a new tag.
Just then, Robbie slammed open the front door, panting with exhaustion. "Woo!" he whistled. "That Sheriff Durland has a surprising amount of speed for an old dude. He almost get me when I went over the fence." He smacked down a pack of beers on the counter.
"Woah!" Pacifica and Gideon gasped in unison, forgetting everything that they had been doing. Robbie only grinned at them.
"How on earth did you get that?" Pacifica breathed.
"Easy. You can just walk into the police station and they've got a whole mini fridge full of them. Unfortunately, Durland has a keener eye than most, and he caught me making off with them. Fastest I've ever ran," Robbie boasted. Gideon reached for one, but Robbie swiped it away before he could.
"Uh uh uh. Not until you've sprinted 2 miles, kid." He headed off with them, but Melody intercepted him with an uneasy expression.
"Robbie, you really shouldn't have those..." Melody was a sweet woman who always abided by Bud's rules, even if they weren't entirely fair. She had wispy caramel hair that was tied in a low ponytail, and a skin tone to match. Her chocolate brown eyes were always sparkling, and her outfit consisted of an oversized green shirt with a question mark painted on it, a pair of khaki shorts, and olive green hiking boots.
Robbie rolled his eyes. "Come on, live a little, Melody! What Bud doesn't know won't hurt him." He ducked past her and started climbing the ladder to the roof.
"Not unless I tell him." Robbie froze.
He climbed back down, grinning nervously at Melody's stern expression. "And why would you do that?"
Melody shrugged. "I could probably get a raise if I did."
Pacifica jumped into the conversation, spotting an opportunity. "Tell you what-we won't tell Bud about this if you take over both of our shifts today. How does that sound?"
He frowned, thinking about it, then eventually sighed in defeat. "Fine. But you better not tell him, or that'll be the end of you. Understand?"
"Perfectly. C'mon, Gideon, let's get out of here!" She grabbed Gideon's arm before he could even respond, dragging him out the door.
Gideon took a seat on the grass. "Well, it looks like we have the afternoon off. What should we do?"
Pacifica laughed. "What do you think? Let's check out the woods!"
Ever since they'd arrived in Gravity Ascends, Pacifica had been entranced by the sight of the woods. Hundreds of tall oak and pine trees, all bathed in an eerie glow. Melody had also told her that she shouldn't go there, which only fed her curiosity further.
"And...look for what, exactly?"
Pacifica shrugged. "I dunno!" She then started skipping over to the woods.
Gideon shook his head, but he was used to his cousin's bubbly personality by now. She had a tendency to not think things through properly, a trait that drove Gideon insane. However, he had nothing better to do, so he reluctantly followed her into the woods.
It was a hot and muggy June afternoon, so trudging through the pollen infested woods was no easy feat. Pacifica never faltered, though, and continued to stare and squeal at every tree and insect they came across.
"Pacfica..." Gideon panted, struggling to keep up with her. "Remind me again why we couldn't have just gone to a boba shop or something?"
She rolled her eyes. "But that's so boring, Gideon. Just think about what we could find in here! There could be treasures, or monsters, or ruins...I think that beats getting boba."
Gideon crossed his arms. "Pacifica. I hate to break this to you, but this isn't a fantasy novel. The most that you're ever going to find in here is some litter."
"See, this is why you'd never be a protagonist. Your mind is too closed in to see the possibilities," she said with a dreamy expression.
"I can see the high possibility of us tripping into poison oak."
"Ugh, you're such a worrywart! We'll be fine!" Pacifica groaned. The two of them continued trekking through the forest, eventually coming to a clearing with a single tree in the middle.
Gideon's face flushed. "No, I'm not! I'm just being cautious."
"Yeah, yeah, sure," Pacifica said, blowing him a raspberry. "Don't you remember your eighth birthday party?"
"We don't talk about that-"
"You were so worried that something was going to go wrong that you never even did any of your activites. Then you got so anxious you hurled all over the cake."
"I was eight, okay? I'm no worrywart!" he protested hotly.
"Oh yeah?" She put her hands on her hips. "Then go climb that tree all the way to the top." SHe pointed to the very tall tree in the middle of the clearing that had noticeably few branches.
He sputtered. "Excuse me?"
"Prove to me that you're not just a ball of stress and go climb that tree. It should be easy, right?" Pacifica smirked.
Gideon's brow furrowed. He hated it when Pacifica did this. She was always daring him to do stupid things, and then she'd call him a chicken when he refused. He could see where this was going; she expected him to back out and then she'd be calling him worrywart for the rest of the day.
But not this time.
"Sure."
Pacifica blinked in shock. She truly hadn't expected him to say yes, but she supposed it might be interesting to watch. She shook off her surprise and grinned at Gideon. "Alright, then. Go for it."
Gideon scrunched his face up in determination and stared up at the tree. I can do this.
...
"Okay, I don't think I can do this!" Gideon hollered shakily. He was dangling from a tree branch about ten feet off the ground, and he could already picture his bloody body lying on the grass below.
"Gideon, I didn't really mean it about you being a worrywart, alright? It's fine if you want come down!" Pacifica hollered, sweating nervously. The tree was a lot higher up than she thought.
Gideon had an image in his head of flashing sirens and being lowered by a fire truck like he was a cat. He shook his head. If that happened, he'd rather die from the fall than have Pacifica holding that over him for the rest of his life. He cotinued to climb, and he noticed that a part of the tree didn't look right. It looked almost...silver? Like the tree was covered in paint and parts of it had been slightly chipped.
As he steadyed himself on a branch, he gently rapped his knuckles on another one nearby and was surprised when an echoey, metallic sound came in response.
"Wait...is this whole tree made of metal?!"
Pacifica paused. Gideon was yelling something, but he was too high up for her to hear. "What's going on?" she called, but to no answer.
Gideon didn't hear what was Pacifica was saying, he was too busy focusing on the fact that he was sitting on top of an artifical tree in the middle of the woods. He reached over and held the branch, and he spotted a mechanism at the point where the branch was attached to the tree. He pulled the branch upwards, and he heard a faint rumbling noise.
Meanwhile, Pacifica's attempts to try and hear what Gideon was saying was interrupted by a loud groaning noise coming from the tree. All of a sudden, a metal door slid upwards, revealing a long spiral staircase.
"Well. That's uncoventional."
She finally heard up from the top of the tree Gideon calling down to her. "Pacifica, what's going on down there? I heard a loud noise!"
"Uh...yeah, you might want to come down here, Gids! Something weird just happened!"
"Yeah...I can do that. Just give me a minute."
It took fifteen minutes for Gideon to carefully scale down the towering tree, but once he did, he gawped at the narrow passageway.
"What on earth..."
Pacifica jumped up and down with excitement. "This is amazing! We're like the main protagonists in a novel, or a fanfic or something!"
Gideon stuttered. "Wait, we're not seriously going in there, are we?"
"Of course we are!" Pacifica exclaimed. "Come on, let's go check it out!"
Before Gideon could protest any further, she was already dragging him down the spiral staircase. It was rather dark and dusty on the way down, and Pacifica had to grab a flashlight from Gideon's knapsack in order to see.
They eventually reached the bottom, and were greeted by a large iron door that looked like it hadn't been opened in decades. It took the two of them and a great deal of pulling, but they got it open at last, and they looked out at the room before them.
It was very rectangular and long, but not very wide. On the right side of the room, a metal desk lined the wall, covered in papers, and held a dozen drawers. Just above that, several computers displayed digits that neither of them could make sense out of. The left side was a bit wider, and was even less well-kempt. A line of filthy bookshelves held papers, notebooks, folders, and goodness knows what. One bookshelf in particular held cans, and each shelf was labeled with a different decade in the future. Upon closer inspection, the cans were labeled as 'brown meat'. The type of meat was not disclosed.
"Woah," Gideon breathed. "It's like a horror movie setting."
"Hey look, do you think this brown meat's still good?" Pacifica exclaimed, inspecting one of the cans covered in cobwebs.
"I wouldn't count on it." He started digging through the drawers of the desk, looking for anything interesting. It was mostly just dust, spiders, and papers written in no type of language he'd ever seen. He opened the drawer furthest to the left and paused. Inside was a large book with a red cover, and a peculiar six-fingered hand with the number one on it. He started to flip through it, and saw that it was all hand-written. As Gideon read through it, his eyes went as wide as saucers.
"Uh, Paz? You might want to look at this!"
Pacifica walked over to Gideon, who was bouncing around with glee. "Check out this journal! It's filled with cryptoids, specters, and a mysterious author! Listen to this." He flipped to the very first page of the book. "In the town of Gravity Ascends, nothing is quite as it seems, and reality shifts from one plane to the other. I have taken it upon myself to research this peculiar place and document my findings in the journal you hold in your hands. A warning for those who encounter this book-knowledge is not without consequence. Close this book now if you wish to remain ignorant, and lead an unknowing, peaceful life. For those who remain, I caution you to use my research wisely and heed my warnings."
She pouted. "It kind of just looks like a dork journal to me."
Gideon chose to ignore her. "Look, it says Volume One." His eyes lit up. "Maybe there's another one here too!"
The pair scoured the room from top to bottom, but there was no journal to be found. "Ugh. I guess there's a possibility that it was destroyed. Mysterious and brilliant researchers tend to do that," Gideon grumbled. "It was there anything you want to take back to the shack? We can always come back."
"I think I'm going to take this briefcase because it makes me look science-y!" Pacifica exclaimed, picking up a thin gray case.
"Sure, I guess. Hey! Maybe there's more artifical trees that lead to hidden bunkers in these woods! We'll have to do a thorough search...we could get Melody and Robbie to help us!"
Pacifica swung an arm around him. "See, doesn't this beat the boba shop?"
Gideon scowled. "We find a secret hidden bunker in the woods and a book full of dangerous conspiracies written by an enigmatic author and that's what you got out of this?"
"Yup!"