The next morning, the team gathered in the town square, where the worn facades of old shops and homes loomed over the quiet streets. Hollow Ridge looked like a place suspended in time, with old-fashioned lampposts lining the cobbled roads and a single general store that had probably seen generations of townsfolk come and go. The people were polite but distant, their eyes flickering with suspicion when they saw outsiders.
Emily and Marcus loaded their gear into the back of Tommy's weathered truck, while Sarah Lopez, the team's historian, stood on the edge of the square, admiring the old architecture. She had a fascination with forgotten places like Hollow Ridge, places where history seemed to seep into the very stones. As she surveyed the town, she caught the eye of an elderly woman sitting on the porch of one of the homes. The woman's wrinkled face was set in a deep frown as she stared intently at the group, her lips moving as though reciting something under her breath.
"Spooky place, huh?" Sarah said, joining Marcus as they climbed into the truck.
Marcus grunted. "More like depressing. I don't see how these people live here."
As the truck rumbled to life, Tommy glanced back at the team. "You're not the first to come looking for the caves, you know," he said, his voice low.
Emily raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Back in the '60s, there was a government team that came through, wanted to explore the area around the mountains. Never found anything, though. Some of them didn't come back."
Sarah leaned forward from the back seat. "What happened to them?"
Tommy's knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. "Nobody knows. Locals said they heard screams coming from the mountains. Search teams went in, but they never found bodies. Just... vanished."
Emily scoffed. "So, what, you think the caves ate them?"
Tommy's eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. "Something did."