six: i'm definitely team try the key

Everyone ponders on the use of the mysterious key they found and go on the hunt.

                “I don’t feel like it’s a company,” Woods spoke out while searching on his phone. Everyone had their phones out looking up ‘mountaineer’.

                “Yeah I don’t either. All I’m finding is a car, a Mercury Mountaineer,” Hannah said. She was always on her phone, so it only made sense she’d find the answer first. She turned the phone around and displayed a picture of a red car with an older styled body.

                “That car looks familiar,” Patrick said. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it somewhere around the building. Once again everyone gave him a judgmental look. “Guys, for the last time I don’t know what these keys are all about. I just know that I’ve seen a similar vehicle driving around.”

                “So first, you say you have an obsession with keys,” Patrick tries to cut Tanner off to no prevail, “then you have a knife at work and are all of a sudden an expert at key tags. And now you think you’ve seen this car around here? I don’t know about you guys, but that straight up sounds like the most suspicious thing ever.”

                “No, listen, I had a cousin who drove that car, and one day I saw it and thought it was really weird that he was here, and not back home in Texas. So it just stuck out like a sore thumb to me.”

                Tanner continued to barrage Patrick, not letting him have an inch of relief. Matt looked at the piece of paper with messy writing and knew what had to be done.

                “Okay, well I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

                The entire group dragged themselves out of the heated office like a bunch of sardines and followed Matt as he exited the building.

                All of them, Tanner, Woods, Patrick, Hannah, Matt, Samantha, and CJ walked around the cars parked out back of the building. The day was ridiculously hot, and immediately everyone had a bit of sweat causing a furrow in their brows.

                “It was red as well, not any other color,” Patrick said, digging his grave even deeper.

                “Dude, swear to God, if we find a car that this key goes to, and it opens, and there’s the SD cards, I’m so done with you,” Tanner caused the entirety of the group to laugh.

                “For the last time, I don’t know what happen to those SD cards!” Patrick defended himself. But everyone rolled their eyes and started to look around. “I saw it near blue base, but that was forever ago.”

                The group turned and looked over to the left where blue base entrance rested. There were plenty of cars parked from employees all along the building, but sure enough, there was a red SUV looking car in the next lot.

                “Do you see it? It’s right there,” Patrick uttered before taking a sip of slushie.

                “Stop,” several said. Everyone peered over at the red vehicle resting at an incline.

                “I told you I saw one!” Patrick got too excited, causing others to shift in comfort.

                “There’s no way,” Matt started to lead the pack to the vehicle.

                The parking lot between their building and the one across the way had a parking lot separated by a three foot wall. As they approached the wall the red vehicle became more ominous with each step. The first thing they all noticed was that there was no front license plate, an obvious requirement in the state.

                On the grill was the logo for the make of the car, Mercury. As Matt walked by the side of the vehicle he briefly looked in and saw how stale the inside seemed. There were dark stains and heaps of trash in the front seat where the driver’s feet would rest as well as in the passenger’s seat. On the door was a button panel for a code.

                “Do you think this is it?” Tanner gave the vehicle an equally questionable look.

                “Like, a Mountaineer? Does it say it on the back?” Samantha answered with a question of her own while walking to the back of the vehicle. “This is so creepy guys, there’s no license plates, and it almost looks stripped of any identifiers.” CJ stayed close behind her and confirmed that there was also no decal indicating it was a Mountaineer, but remained quiet about it in the background.

                “I don’t think this is anyone’s vehicle,” Woods examined everyone crowding around it. He took a seat on the edge of the wall.

                Hannah, Tanner and Patrick watched Matt as he reached into his pocket, aware of what he was thinking, and became spectators. Samantha saw it too, but wasn’t as eager, nor quiet about it. “Matt, what if this is someone’s car. Maybe we should wait for the day and see,” she offered.

                “I’m definitely team try the key,” Tanner threw out there, letting Samantha grow a plea in her eyes.

                Matt looked over at her and saw the trepidation growing in her eyes. He turned and looked at the rest of the group, half above the way, half below. He pondered for a moment, letting his commonsense battle with his curiosity. It was a random vehicle, seemingly abandoned by the looks of it, but wasn’t on his property, giving him a reason to not try the key that he pressed into his hand.

                On the other side of his mind rested the issue of how crookedly all the keys were fitting and not fitting into other things that were being found. It all started with a set of keys, he thought to himself. Then the only thing he could think about was the connections, and made a decision.

Author's Note

**Brief disclaimer** This is a re-imagining of a preexisting story that contains real persons. For the sake of receiving entertainment from a new source, the story being presented is NOT 100% cannon with what is seen in the collection of videos provided by the Matthias YouTube channel. This written story is rather an alternate universe and should be treated as fiction. Please view the complete disclaimer in the chapter selection of the book here:
https://www.writerscafe.org/writing/dominicrosales/2767991/