It turned out to be a regular, and rather popular motel, called "The Deserted Roadside Motel", a name which I saw on the sign as I was leaving the next morning. Apparently the gimmick was to look deserted so as to ward off normal travelers, whilst bringing in desperate travelers and giving them rooms at a rather cheap rate. The staff, though very short and kind of grubby looking, was genuinely friendly, and was intent on making sure my stay was as pleasant as possible.

That is, until they learned I had escaped from Blackwood Grove. Then, they chased me out with shovels and flaming bits of wood. As I raced down the road, I noticed an army base in the distance. Upon reaching it, I noticed it was a bit small for a base, and looked just as dusty as the rest of this place. I wandered in and found a guard station, which seemed empty and abandoned, with cracks in the windows and cobwebs covering everything. I entered the compound and strolled toward what looked like the main barracks.

I knocked on the door, not wanting to meet up with a bunch of angry soldiers, but didn't hear a noise, so I slowly crept in, and my heart stopped cold. Over two dozen well-armed soldiers were pointing rifles at me, strangely bright-colored rifles, but rifles nonetheless.

"Wait wait, I come in peace!" I blurted out, instantly raising my arms above my head. A lead soldier with a large beard laughed and told the men to put their guns down. "He's not from around here," he reassured his troops, still grinning.

"So you got chased here by those motel people, did you?" he said, seemingly having seen this before. I nodded. "You're not the first, in fact, most of my troops were at one point or another."

"You mean you all didn't establish a base here to begin with?" I asked.

"No," he answered, "I was the only one at this base for a long time. Then, one by one, they trickled in much the same way you did."

I took a look at the men and noticed none seemed really like well-trained soldiers, more like ordinary people with uniforms and guns.

"So what do you do at this base?" I inquired, noticing the place was dusty and hot, and there seemed to be nothing electrical.

"We guard the TV-stone," he answered, gesturing to a rock slab of about 2 feet by 3 feet, which was leaning against a wall that all the troops were huddled around.

"What's that?"

"It arrived here when I first got here, and soon after its arrival, soldiers started disappearing into thin air."