by John O'Brien
Staring across the darkened landscape through the night vision scope, some of the more distant ridgelines nothing more than inky outlines, he noticed a few wisps of light snaking their way across the starry night. Taking his eye away, he looked to the western sky, seeing greenish tendrils suddenly appear, shooting across the heavens before vanishing just as quickly.
Reaching out without looking, he tapped his teammate lying on the chilled stony surface next to him.
“What do you make of that?” Reynolds whispered.
“Northern lights. Saw them in Canada once,” Hanson answered.
“Northern lights? Here?”
Before Hanson could answer, Reynolds heard a slight scuffling on the sandstone to his rear and then a tap on his leg.
“Cuddle session is over, ladies. It’s time to go,” Master Sergeant O’Malley whispered. “That solar storm we heard about is a couple of hours away.”
Reynolds turned to look into the lenses covering the eyes of the NVG’ed team leader and pointed to the show beginning to light up the nighttime sky.
“Okay, so it looks like it arrived early. But this isn’t your parent’s roof where you can watch the stars while trying to cop a feel off the neighbor girl—we need to move,” O’Malley stated.
Reynolds backed out of his concealment, pulling his long rifle and carbine with him. Hanson turned off the spotter scope and folded it up, following him with his own M-4. Their watch was over until the storm passed. They only had one more day before the long trek to catch their ride home. Reynolds was looking forward to getting back to camp, where a long, hot shower awaited. It was impossible to wash away all of the sand, and more accumulated almost instantly, but for a brief moment, there was a small reprieve. One more mission down and only seventeen days until his deployment back to the states.
The three of them continued to back away from the ledge until their silhouettes, darkened or not, couldn’t be observed. Following O’Malley along a narrow track, using the scant trees for as much cover as possible, they trudged across the loose soil, Hanson covering their tracks. With streams of greenish light swirling overhead, they entered the cave.
“The storm’s here. I want everything with a battery turned off and the batteries removed,” O’Malley stated upon arriving at their base camp.
“Are you sure that’s necessary?” Sergeant Marcus Wright asked.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere, possibly surrounded by enemy forces. We’re not taking any chances, especially with the radio. If you want to end up a bunch of bones covered with sand, that’s your prerogative, but not here…not now. I have twenty-one days left in this hellhole of a country; Reynolds here even less. I’m not letting complacency screw that up,” O’Malley answered.
Without replying, the team began to disassemble the equipment. When O’Malley was in one of his moods, it was better to just keep quiet and do your job. It wasn’t that he was a bad leader, the Irish just came out at times. He also had a penchant for going against established orders, which had actually saved their butts a few times. Often, he gave operations alternate routes of travel to their targeted location, submitted at the last moment. Or, he would change the location altogether.
He frequently stated that some lieutenant was sure to have left operation plans on his desk for some Taliban maintenance to peruse through at their leisure. Command usually took his changes in stride after finding that, on three different occasions, the master sergeant had been correct and their planned locations had been compromised. Reynolds remembers one operation where O’Malley had altered their vantage position. Reynolds had glassed their original location through binoculars to find the entire ridgeline crawling with armed men. O’Malley had only grunted when he was informed. Even though gruff with them at times, the team knew that O’Malley had their best interests at heart. The bottom line was that they worked effectively as a team, and that’s all that really mattered.
After breaking down the equipment, Dixon and Mendez rose to head out to observe the light show. Very few had witnessed the northern lights, and they wanted to watch.
“Sit down. None of us are going anywhere. Our watch is done for the night, so we might as well catch up on our beauty rest. We’ll reestablish our rotations in the morning,” O’Malley said.
The six of them spent the remainder of the night huddled inside the cave.
Sam Donaldson—Part 1
“What the hell?” Sam whispered, shaking his flashlight.
He turned the bezel and slapped the metal frame, but not even a faint glow was emitted.
“Daddy?” Erin said, her voice frightened.
“It’s okay. Just don’t move anywhere. And, hand me your light,” Sam said.
Groping in the dark, he made contact with Erin’s shoulder and felt down to her hand where he retrieved the metal tube she was holding. He tried more of the same without success.
The odds of two flashlights going out at the same time are fairly astronomical, but then it must be possible, he thought.
Tucking the two lights under his arm, he pulled a cell phone from his pocket. Thumbing the screen, he was taken aback by the lack of glow. He repeatedly pressed every button on the casing, tapped the screen again, anything to make it come to life. Nothing.
“Erin, try your phone,” he said.
Next to him, he heard rustling.
“It’s not working. What happened?” Erin asked.
“I’m not sure,” Sam answered, thinking the cave might have some radioactive or other property to it that erased any electrical charge. “But, I think it’s time to go. Put your phone away and grab my hand.”
Turning, Sam saw a pinprick of light emanating from the cave’s entrance. It wasn’t enough to see by, but it was enough to guide them in the right direction. He held Erin’s arm high in order to hold her weight should she stumble. As they slowly worked their way toward the light, Sam felt that he came into contact with every rock or ridge on the stony ground. The smooth floor of the cave they walked into seemed to have suddenly shifted into the aftereffects of an earthquake.
“Daddy, what was that?” Erin asked.
“What was what?” Sam queried in return.
“It just got cold, like a breeze passed through, but I felt it inside instead of just on my skin,” Erin answered.
Having felt nothing, Sam wasn’t sure what his daughter was talking about.
“I didn’t feel anything. It could just be the chill of the cave,” Sam said.
“I dunno, Daddy. I suppose so. It just felt different…like a ghost passed through me,” Erin whispered. “Do you think it was one?”
“No, hun. Whatever you felt, it wasn’t that…I promise,” Sam replied, attempting to stave off any further fearful thoughts.
Sam was thankful that the tunnel was mostly straight without any forks. Otherwise, they could have easily become lost in the darkness. As they steadily neared the cave’s mouth, enough radiant light poured in to outline the cave walls and floor. Their footing became easier, but Sam had the lingering thought that something inside the cave had shut down their electronics.
Surely, if it was something known and dangerous, they would have posted a sign, he thought, trying to remember if he’d seen anything of the sort.
The two of them eventually emerged into daylight. The warmth of the sun felt good after the chill within the cave. Below, the Challenger sat beside the highway on a turn off, a fast-flowing river down an embankment on the other side. Sam glanced around, looking for a sign he’d missed, but wasn’t able to find any. This stop put them behind in their plans to be at Yellowstone, but that was part of the whole road trip experience—finding the unexpected adventures that made the entire journey such a delight.
He pulled out his phone, again trying to get it to work. Erin tried the same, but both were dead in the water. The flashlights tucked under his arm didn’t work either. They hadn’t been in the cave for long, but worry still itched at the back of Sam’s mind as to whether they had encou
ntered something that would be powerful enough to drain their batteries.
“Daddy, what’s that?” Erin asked, her hand shading her eyes as she looked skyward.
Sam looked up, shading his eyes as well. Above the high canyon walls rising steeply from the river and surrounding them, a faint green light fluttered across the eastern sky like ribbons blowing in a breeze. The streaks appeared and then vanished, others materializing in their wake. He’d never seen anything like it before, at least during the daylight hours. They stood and watched the light show for a while until they completely disappeared.
“I’m not sure what that was,” Sam at long last replied. “Some sort of atmospheric disturbance, I guess.”
“It was pretty,” Erin stated.
“Yeah. It was kind of cool. But, you know what’s even better,” Sam said, looking down at Erin. “You found real gold.”
“I know, right? I can’t wait to show everyone. Everyone is going to be sooo jealous.”
“I’m sure they will,” Sam chuckled.
“Maybe we can get new batteries and come back to find more…I mean, after we visit Yellowstone.”
“We’ll see,” Sam responded. “Speaking of which, what do you say we get our butts on the road?”
Scrambling over boulders and sliding down scree, the two maneuvered the rough slope. Unaware of the world he’d stepped into, Sam paused to listen for the sound of vehicles moving over the windy road. The steady breeze blowing through the wide ravine carried no hint of any traffic, only the soft roar of the river echoing off the steep canyon walls.
As he walked across the pavement, Sam clicked on the key fob. Expecting to hear the chirp of the alarm turning off and the doors unlocking, he was a little taken aback. More clicks of the fob didn’t elicit anything different. The lights, which usually flickered in response, remained dark.
Well, shit! Sam thought, looking through the tinted side window.
Sam stood there, repeatedly pressing the key buttons and hoping that there was some juice left in the fob battery.
Of course I’d leave the spare in the car. Real bright, Sam.
“What’s wrong, Daddy?” Erin asked.
“I think the key battery is dead. It looks like we’re going to have to find another way in,” Sam replied.
“Are we going to have to break the window? Because, that will really suck.”
“I don’t know. I hope not,” Sam replied, not paying much attention as his mind was sorting through a million different possibilities.
He’d rather not have to break the glass. Even though it was warm out, he wouldn’t be able to park the car with any safety in the crowded lots around Old Faithful. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Exasperated by the delay, Sam walked to the rear of the Challenger and pulled on the trunk, hoping that some form of magic might occur and the lid would actually open. It didn’t.
Sam pulled out his multi-tool and began working on the rear lens covers, and then the tail lights. Detaching the electrical plug, he pulled the entire assembly clear. He then reached through the opening and groped for the internal trunk release, but found that he couldn’t put his entire arm though the slot.
“Erin, slide your arm in and try to find the release,” he said.
Erin was able to get her entire arm in and began to blindly feel around.
“What am I looking for?”
“It should be a plastic tab that you can pull,” Sam answered.
“I don’t feel anything like that.”
“It should be right under the center of the trunk, near the floor.”
“I can’t. There’s just a bunch of metal and the stuff we packed,” Erin stated.
“Keep trying.”
Minutes later, there was a clunk and the trunk lid popped ajar. Lifting the trunk, Sam noticed that the light was out.
Dammit, maybe it isn’t the key fob at all.
He had Erin climb into the trunk and push open the rear seat, gaining access to the car’s interior. Walking to the driver’s side, he saw Erin repeatedly stabbing at the unlock button.
“It won’t open,” Erin said, still jabbing at the button.
“Just pull the lock open,” Sam returned.
The door opened without a corresponding ding or inside light, and the thought again surfaced that the problem might be the car battery. He slid into the seat and turned the key. Nothing happened; not even the click of a low battery. Trying everything electrical yielded nothing. Anxiety set in as he exited and checked the battery connections. Even if he had left the interior light on, the time they were away shouldn’t have so fully drained the battery.
Fuck! he screamed internally.
He stood by the side of the road, staring at the car with its hood and trunk raised to the heavens. The rush of the river, blue skies overhead, and warmth of the day within the long canyon should have brought a feeling of peace. Instead, he was worried by the nagging feeling that getting the car moving again was going to be a lengthy process.
During the drive down the backroad into Yellowstone, they hadn’t met a single motorist. Sam looked up and down the road, hoping that one might appear now to give them a jump. The troubling thought wasn’t that the car was dead by the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, but that their flashlights and phones were dead as well. Any one of them failing wouldn’t be such a cause for concern, but all of them together began a dialogue in his mind, with disconcerting ramifications.
“Daddy?”
“Let me think, Erin,” Sam replied.
“Are we stuck here?” Erin asked.
“No. Yes. I don’t know. Give me a moment to figure this out,” Sam answered.
“Can I go play down by the river while we wait?”
Sam looked at the river below, the strong current flowing over and around rocks. The embankment was lined with stones, but it didn’t look dangerous. A wide area of smooth rocks formed a beach next to the waters.
“Yeah, that’s fine. Just don’t go near the edge of the water; the rocks might be slick there.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
As Erin scrambled down the embankment, Sam looked toward the sun fading into afternoon. The slopes on both sides rose steeply from the river, ending in vertical crowns of rock at the uppermost edges. The smell of pine and juniper carried on the breeze. Back in the direction they came, Sam knew that ranches lined the river some fifteen or twenty miles away. If they started trudging their way back for help, it would take some five hours at a minimum before they arrived at the nearest one. Sam glanced at his watch.
“What in the fuck is going on here?” he muttered, noticing that the dials had stopped moving.
The phones, the flashlights, the car, and now my watch.
He glanced back at the blue sky, remembering the streaks of light that flashed overhead. The beautiful nature of them took on a much more ominous tone. For one of the first times in his life, Sam didn’t know what to do. They were stranded in the middle of nowhere, on a road that had little traffic. If they began walking back to the ranches, he and Erin wouldn’t reach them until it was almost dark.
Sam kept listening for the sound of an approaching vehicle. Not wanting to walk in the dark, he decided that they’d remain at the car until at least morning. If no one showed up by then, they’d stuff their packs and begin the long trudge toward the houses. Still anxious at the extended delay, but feeling better about having a plan, he worked his way over to the boulders, where Erin was trying to skip rocks across the current.
* * * * * *
Shadows covered the valley as the sun sank toward the horizon. Sam and Erin finished their sandwiches by the side of the road, listening to the sound of the rushing river nearby. Several large birds wheeled overhead, searching for their dinner. The worry Sam felt earlier dissipated as he came to accept that there was nothing he could do about their situation. The only remaining anxiety stemmed from the cost and time it would take to get the Challenger back on the road. He knew it would take most of tomorr
ow to get to the houses and have a tow truck drive all of the way back out there. He made a note to have them bring a battery with them in case the current one was fucked.
“You know, Daddy, this isn’t so bad. I don’t really care that we didn’t make it today. It’s peaceful here. Too bad we can’t camp here,” Erin said between mouthfuls.
Trust her to see the silver lining.
“It is pretty nice. And, you know what, we can turn the car into a tent and camp for the night,” Sam replied.
“Oh! Can we build a fire and make s’mores?” Erin excitedly asked.
Sam glanced around, noting a few shrubs and stunted trees nearby. There might not be a lot of dry twigs around, but there were bound to be enough.
“We may be able to build a small one, but I’m not sure about the s’mores. I didn’t bring anything to make them,” Sam answered.
“I did! I put some in my pack before we left, hoping we could make some.”
“Well, let’s go see what we can gather, then.”
Later, with the embers cooling by the side of the road, Sam settled into the reclined driver’s seat, wrapped in a sleeping bag. Beside him, Erin stretched out, licking the sticky marshmallow from her fingers. Through the windshield, without the glare of city lights to interfere, stars twinkled brightly overhead across a background of black velvet. The band of the Milky Way was clearly visible arcing across the night sky. The cliffs rising to the side were dark silhouettes and the murmur of the river drifted through the closed windows.
He didn’t feel entirely comfortable sleeping in the car by the side of the road. Although they were on a turn off, it wouldn’t take much for a vehicle to come along and hit them. With little traffic to watch for, any driver might not pay close attention. But then again, for all of the hours they had been hanging out at their campground of necessity, Sam hadn’t seen or heard a single vehicle. For that matter, he didn’t recall seeing a single contrail overhead, but he didn’t really pay much attention to such things, so he could have easily missed it.