by Clayborn, JJ
Edgar stopped in his tracks and slowly turned to face James. “I’ve been monitoring the situation. This fog is from the meteorite. It was mostly ice. It’s been evaporating over the last few days. There’s not much left of it now.” He stared blankly for a moment and turned back to the road.
James felt queasy. A sudden wave of anxiety washed over him. “Edgar, are you okay? You seem a little off.” James was concerned for Edgar, but he wasn’t sure why. Something was strange, but he couldn’t place it.
Edgar stopped walking but didn’t turn around. “I’m fine. I’m tired, cold, and hungry.” He started walking south again. “I just want to get home. I’d like to visit with my mother. I haven’t seen her in a while and she’s pretty sick.”
James looked around the area, sweeping his light across the ground. “And everything’s okay here? The area is secure?”
“Yes. It’s fine. Can we go now?” Edgar asked.
James nodded. “Alright, where are we going?”
Edgar continued walking. “My transportation is located in this direction.”
“Okay then.” James thought about saying something about how strange that sounded, but thought against it. He reasoned that Edgar was probably just tired from lack of sleep. James grabbed his bag and followed behind Edgar. “Where’s your flashlight?”
Edgar replied immediately. “I do not require artificial light sources. I have excellent night vision”. This was true; Edgar had always had excellent night vision. After a few short minutes they arrived at the road and James could see Edgar’s truck off in the distance. James went around to the passenger side and climbed in, setting his bag in the bed of the truck. Edgar opened the driver’s door and looked at him quizzically.
“Give me a ride back to the cabin? I’m parked there and I don’t want to hike back at night.”
Edgar nodded and climbed in. “I always seem to miss the turns to get there at night. The forest looks so different.”
James gave Edgar directions to the cabin. After a few minutes they arrived and Edgar pulled up in front of the cabin. Edgar rubbed his temples as though he had a headache.
James got out of the truck and looked at him through the open doorway. “Are you sure that you’re okay, Edgar? You had me worried.”
Edgar turned and gave James a half-smile. “I’m fine, thanks. I just need to eat something and visit with my mother.”
“Okay, Ed, have a good night then.” James closed the door, grabbed his bag, and watched as Edgar drove away, his tail lights merging into a single point of light as the truck got farther away.
The entire drive home James reviewed the encounter with Edgar in his head. Something seemed off about him and he couldn’t place it. It was eating at him. He couldn’t shake this sense of worry that he somehow failed Edgar. By the time that he got home it was very late, and he fell right asleep.
Saturday, November 8th
James awoke to the sun breaking through the clouds and streaming through the window. He thought back on the night before and swore it felt like a dream, but the bag of gear beside the door reminded him that it was no dream. He looked through his phone and selected Robert’s number and pushed dial. The phone rang several times before a voice picked up.
“Hello?” a familiar voice asked.
“Robert Kelly?” James inquired.
“Yes, who’s this?”
“Officer Hutchinson.” James paused for a moment and could hear Robert make the mental connection. “I found your cousin, Edgar, he’s fine. His phone died.”
Robert let out a sigh relief. “Thank God, I was really worried about him.”
“Yeah, I was started to get concerned too. Truth be told, I think he’s been in out the wilderness too long. He was acting strange.” James confided.
There was a pause and a hint of worry in Robert’s voice. “What do you mean strange?”
James elaborated. “He mentioned a couple of times that he had to go home, that he had to visit his mother.”
The phone went silent.
“Hello? Are you still there?” James asked.
Robert’s voice replied. “He had to visit his mother? You’re sure that’s what he said?”
James nodded. “Positive, he said it twice. Why?”
“Because his mother is dead,” Robert stated.
This time it was James’ turn to be silent. Eventually, he asked the question he already suspected the answer to. “You’re sure about that?”
Robert replied, “I’m positive. His mother, Lauraine, was my mother’s sister. I was at her funeral. She’s been dead about 15 years.”
Saturday, November 8th
James flew down the street in his car. He was obeying the stop signs and the traffic lights, but just barely. He was overcome with worry. Edgar was a good friend. They didn’t talk much about family; James had no idea about Edgar’s mother. She died before James was transferred to this Ranger District. The fact that he was talking about visiting with her made James terrified that Edgar might be suicidal for some reason. Edgar didn’t show any of the signs, but James hadn’t been around very much this last month due to training. If Edgar needed help and James let him down he would never forgive himself, especially not after Edgar was there for him.
He was definitely speeding, but he didn’t care. This was potentially a justified excuse. He whipped the SUV around the corner, flying past the stop sign, and barreled into Edgar’s neighborhood, engine roaring. Usually he would feel bad about driving so recklessly through a residential area where kids play, but it was early enough the kids were all still asleep. That still didn’t stop the early-morning joggers from giving him dirty looks as he sped by.
James screeched his SUV to a stop in front of Edgar’s house, and jumped out of the truck the second it was in park. He ran up and began pounding on the door. He could hear someone inside, running down the stairs. The door flew open and Edgar stood before him in a robe. He stepped outside and shut the door behind him.
“Shit man, be quiet or you’ll wake Olivia.” Edgar hissed at James. “What brings you out here so early? Do we have a case? Is something the matter? Why didn’t you just call me?” Edgar stood with his arms folded over his chest, his foot tapping.
“I…” James blinked and looked at him.
Edgar cocked his head and looked at him.
James cleared his throat. “I was just checking up on you. You seemed like you were not yourself last night.”
Edgar gave a half chuckle and looked away, then back at James. “I’m fine, I assure you. I’ve never been better.”
James eyed him unconvincingly for a minute. He decided to press the issue. “You were meandering through the forest when I found you last night, kept saying that you had to visit your mother.”
This time it was Edgar’s turn to look bewildered. “I said what?” He shook his head. “There’s no way that I would have said that, my mother has been dead for years.”
James looked at him incredulously. “You said it twice. I just want to go home and visit my mother. That’s what you said, verbatim.”
Edgar shook his head in disbelief. “I was probably delirious then. I hadn’t eaten a while, nor slept, and I was kind of cold.”
“Uh huh.” James was trying to decide whether or not he believed that, but he decided that he didn’t have much choice in the matter. “Well, what’s the last thing that you do remember?”
“I remember going to the woods to investigate a meteorite.” He paused and thought for a minute. “I remember sending a sample to my cousin, then I went back the next day and found the rock itself, and…”
He shook his head and shrugged. “Then you showed up and here we are.”
“Here we are.” James fidgeted on the porch for a moment. “That's actually why I'm here. Your cousin has finished analyzing the sample that you sent him; there is a problem. Those metal fragments that you found are not natural.”
Edgar was clearly confused. “What do you mean by not natural?”
“Not natural. You know, synthetic.” He looked around like he was trying to find his words. “Whatever that metal is that you found, it does not occur naturally. It was manufactured.”
“Are you sure?” Edgar asked.
“Very sure. Why?”
Edgar frowned. “Based on the placement and distribution of the fragments in the area, it looked like they broke off from the meteorite on impact.”
James shook his head. “Your cousin says no. He said that if it were space metal it would be in an unrefined ore form, but the stuff that you found is refined. It’s been manufactured.”
Edgar began to panic. “This is bad. This is very, very bad.” He paced frantically around his porch. “We need to close off the forest. We need to evacuate and set up a roadblock establish a perimeter and get everyone out.”
“Don't you think that's a bit hasty? We don't even know what we are dealing with,” James countered.
“Exactly! This is obviously some kind of weapon or man-made metal but nobody knows anything about it.”
“Not so fast. This isn't a weapon this object came from deep space.” Logically, that line of thinking made no sense to James. “What if the fragments didn’t come from the meteorite? What if they were already there?”
Edgar shook his head. “I’ve been through those woods hundreds of times. I would have seen something like that before.”
James frowned. “What if it was something else? Something that the rock destroyed on impact?”
Edgar stopped pacing and thought. Someone else had suggested that. He read it somewhere… the memory was fuzzy. Maybe he only dreamed that he read it. “It could still be a weapon. You know the Russians are playing with weapons in deep space and one of them could have come back to Earth.” Edgar paused in thought for a moment. “…or we're under attack from somewhere else.”
“Something else? Like aliens?” James laughed. “You can't be serious.”
“Even if it is not aliens, we still don't know what this is. It could be radioactive. It could be toxic. At least let’s evacuate the forest until we know what we are dealing with,” Edgar argued.
“That's a lot of people to evacuate on a hunch.” James thought for a moment. As much as he hated to admit it, Edgar had a point. Just assuming that whatever it is wasn’t dangerous was irresponsible. James had a duty to protect the people who called the woods home. “How about this, how about we evacuate the area around the impact site? Then I will call in a research team to investigate.”
Edgar thought the proposal over. “That seems like a sound plan to me.”
“Great, I will put in some calls and set everything up.” James began to leave. He turned back around to face Edgar. “I am very glad that you are feeling better, I was really worried about you.” James gave Edgar a farewell nod and walked back to his truck. He fired up the engine, backed away from the house and drove back to the office.
Once he arrived back at the office James turned on the computer and began to browse for a very specific phone number. Eventually, he found the number he was looking for, the Office of Natural Sciences at the University of Mississippi. He picked up the phone and made a call. “Professor Jackson?”
A warm middle-aged man’s voice replied. “Yes, this is Professor Jackson. What can I do for you?”
“My name is Ranger James Hutchinson of the US Forest Service. I have a bit of a dilemma that I think might pique your curiosity.”
“I think you want Environmental Sciences, Ranger Hutchinson.”
James shook his head reflexively. “No, I need your department, Professor. I know that you’re busy, but I may have something here that could be quite profound; a career-maker.” James could almost hear the wheels in the professor’s head turning as he considered the proposition.
“Okay,” the professor relented. “You have my attention. What is it, exactly?”
James shrugged. “No one knows. We’ve never seen anything like it. An astronomer from California called us a few days ago about a meteorite impact in the woods near us.”
“Go on…” The professor’s pen furiously scratching ink onto paper flowed faintly through the speakers.
“Well, we located the impact site. It’s… well, it’s weird. There’s this strange fog near the area…”
More scratching. “Any ideas?”
“My partner seems to think it is water vapor escaping from melting ice,” James said.
The pen stopped; a moment of silence. “No, that doesn’t make sense. Most of the ice would have been melted when the meteorite was super-heated upon entry. Any ice that did survive would have melted pretty quickly, especially after the friction-heat generated by impact.”
“I see.” James sat quiet, considering this information.
“Unless….” The professor teased.
James asked. “Unless what?”
The professor continued. “…unless the fragment is thick enough, and also sufficiently hollow. It’s conceivable that a hollow interior could have shielded enough frozen ice to produce the fog you are seeing. I’d have to examine it to be sure. Did you find anything else?”
“There are also these strange metal shards lying around. My partner had them analyzed by a metallurgist, but all he could tell us was that the material wasn’t natural,” James explained. “He said it’s not like any metal he’s ever seen before, but it’s definitely refined and not naturally occurring ore.”
The professor sighed. “This is a bit of a gamble. Being a professor on the tenure track, I am always looking for papers I can publish – it’s a numbers game in academia. There’s enormous pressure to continually produce research. If this turns out to be nothing, it will set me back from other endeavors.” He paused for a moment. “On the other hand… even if this is a bust, it could provide a good opportunity to get my grad students some excellent field work under their belt.” Another pause later, and he sighed again. “Okay, I’m in. I’ll send a team of researchers to the impact site in order to determine what we are dealing with and whether or not it holds any threats. The research team will arrive at the site tomorrow. I’ll make sure that they bring equipment for gas chromatography, metal analysis, and whatever other tools I think they might need based on what you told me.”
“Thanks, Professor. I’ll email you over the GPS coordinates.” After the professor hung up, James pulled out the log book for the office and updated the entry that Edgar made about the meteorite. James knew that he would have a long day ahead of him tomorrow. He packed up his bag, got into his car and drove to the cabin. He spent the night there by the lakeside planning the evacuation process.
Sunday, November 9th
James awoke just before dawn and cooked some eggs and bacon for breakfast. He ate a hearty meal and expected that his day would be full of strenuous work. The Holly Springs National Forest was established in 1939, but there were many people living in that area before that. A large number of them were farms that had failed during the Great Depression or earlier due to either economic instability or soil erosion, but there were still a number of farms left within the forest. Typically, private individuals are not allowed to build homes in the National Forest, but in this case these people were grandfathered in and allowed to stay. James methodically pored over the map, marking all of the homes. He double checked his work, worried that he might miss one.
He set out from the cabin and began the day by going from farm to farm and informing the people there that they must evacuate. He gave them a six hour window as they often had animals or crops to make last minute preparations for. It took him several hours before he was able to notify all of the farmers to evacuate. He marked off each house on the map as he went to keep track of where he’d been. As he drove around from site to site he put up road closure signs and barricades on the major roadways preventing people from coming back into the forest.
After all of the farmers had been notified James drove the SUV around the small trails and wooded areas closing off many of the gates
and locking them as he went. Roads that didn’t have gates he closed off with cones and barricades. He drove as close as he could to the impact site and parked the truck. He could still see the misty fog covering the ground like a blanket. He would almost swear the fog seemed a little thicker today, but he dismissed that as his mind playing tricks on him.
James set out on foot and began a grid-pattern search of the area looking for any campers who might have a site set up inside the quarantine zone. They were supposed to use designated camp sites in this part of the forest, but they often didn’t. James wanted to be extra careful not to miss anyone. He did find a few people camped out and informed them that they would have to move to another location. They didn’t have to leave the woods completely; they just had to leave this area.
James continued searching the woods methodically, looking for everyone near the crater. Every time that he walked anywhere near the impact site he would get chills that ran down his spine. If he lingered too long an uncontrollable shiver passed through him. He hated that feeling but couldn’t tell what exactly it was that made him feel like that.
After a while, James finished clearing the campers out of the area and walked back to his truck. As soon as he got there his phone beeped. There was a new email from Professor Jackson; the research team had just left I-78 and was on state route 178 heading north. “Perfect timing,” he said to himself.
James backed out and headed down the winding mountain roads towards the freeway. The team was going to meet him at Clifton’s barber shop just south of I-78. It was an easy landmark to find and kept them from getting lost in the woods.
It took James just under half an hour to drive to Clifton’s. He pulled into the parking lot and saw two large white vans parked side by side. He drove directly to them and parked in front of them. James felt a sense of relief that he would soon have some answers about what was going on. As he got out of his truck a man in his late forties got out of the passenger seat of one of the vans and walked towards him. “Ranger Hutchinson, I presume?” He extended his hand for a handshake.