by Chesla, Gary
“Not really,” Rogers smiled. “It’s pretty boring around here. We have to find a way to entertain ourselves somehow.”
Chervy shook his head as he clicked the right arrow, shifting from picture to picture.
“There is a fifteen-minute delay between pictures,” Chervy added. “We might miss seeing what did this.”
“Double or nothing that we see what critter did this,” Rogers smiled.
But before Davis could respond, Chervy stopped and stared.
“I think we have something,” Chervy said. “See that light spot on the right of the screen, something is heading into the picture.”
“What is it?” Davis asked.
“I can’t tell yet,” Chervy replied as he clicked the button, bringing up the next picture.
When the next picture came up, there was a light shape next to the crate.
“Can you tell what it is yet?” Davis asked.
“Why is it green like that?” Rogers ask.
“It’s the night vision camera,” Chervy replied. “Body heat shows up as a green shape.”
“I only see one form near the crate,” Rogers said. “I think we both lost the bet. Coyotes and prairie dogs run in packs. There should be a lot more green spots.”
“Keep going Cherv,” Davis said. “Maybe we’ll get a better view on one of the other pictures. I’m not letting Rogers off the hook on our bet just yet.”
Chervy clicked the keyboard and the pictures continued to scroll across the screen.
On the fifth picture, Chervy stopped and stared.
“On that picture it looks like a ghost standing over the crate,” Rogers said.
Chervy looked up at Rogers and said, “Go find Doc.”
Rogers quickly left the room as Davis moved closer and concentrated on the picture.
“I can’t make out what we are looking at,” he said, “but I’m pretty sure it isn’t a prairie dog.”
“I think what we are seeing has to be a person,” Chervy replied.
Doc and Rogers walked into the room five minutes later.
“Rogers tells me Stone, Idaho is haunted,” Doc smiled.
Chervy looked up at Doc.
“Doc, I think we found a survivor,” Chervy said excitedly. “I can’t say for sure, these satellite images are decent during the day time, but it’s awful hard to get a decent image with the night vision lens at night. With the distance involved and all the interference of star light and cloud cover, you just can’t get the detail you can get during the day. The overall area images are OK, but it’s almost impossible to zoom in and focus on something as small as a person at night.”
“Well, just show me what you have,” Doc replied.
“OK, let me walk you through what we were looking at and you tell me what you think,” Chervy said. “The first image is of the crate we dropped off. You can see its sitting on the ground in one neat bundle. The second picture is what we saw a few minutes ago. You can see it looks like something or someone had unpacked the crate. There are a lot of things scattered around the crate. From this distance, I can’t determine what was taken, but items have definitely been removed from the crate.”
“Like someone was looking for something,” Doc said and looked at Davis. “Was the food packed on the top of the crate or was it on the bottom?”
“I don’t remember,” Davis replied. “Reynolds and Connors packed the crate. I was concentrating on just getting the crate there and dropping it where you wanted us to put it. I really didn’t pay too much attention to the crate.”
“Rogers, run down and asked Reynolds what they packed on the top of the crate,” Doc asked.
“Sure Doc,” Rogers replied and left the room.
“Please continue Mr. Chervanak,” Doc said.
“The next picture you see was taken around eleven o’clock last night. You can see a fuzzy image of the crate. The next picture, look at the right corner of the picture. That green blur I believe is someone starting to approach the crate. The green blur is an image caused by body heat picked up by the infrared cameras on the satellite. From space, it is impossible to get a clear image of the body giving off or creating the heat signature the camera is picking up.”
“Now watch as I scroll through the pictures,” Chervy said and then he began to tap on the right arrow on the keyboard.
Image after image rolled across the screen.
The blurry green image changed shapes with each picture.
Chervy finally stopped when the green image appeared to show the shape of a person with the arms and legs visible.
“I believe you are right,” Doc said. “I would also interpret what I saw as a person going through the crate. Is there any way to clean up the images to get a better look at who was there?”
“I’m sure there is a way, but all they taught me was how to adjust and realign the camera. This is the best I can do, Doc.”
“Is there a possibility that the image we see is a zombie?” Davis asked. “Maybe we are getting excited over nothing if it’s just one of the infected out there.”
“No, it’s definitely a living thing,” Doc replied. “Zombies don’t give off any body heat.”
“The last few pictures show the image leaving the scene,” Chervy said then began to scroll through the last few pictures.
“Interesting,” Doc said.
“It is interesting, but if it was a living person, there was only one person there last night,” Chervy replied.
“But like you said before, one person is more than we have seen up to this point,” Doc added.
“Maybe tonight more people will show up,” Chervy said. “That is if there are any more survivors out there.”
“We need to get a better look at who was there,” Doc said and looked to be thinking about something.
Finally Doc looked at Davis,” Go down to the electronics bay and see if we have any motion sensors and infrared cameras down there.”
“Are you thinking about trying to set up some cameras to get a close-up picture?” Chervy asked. “Do you think they will be back again? Maybe they were just passing by?”
“I feel certain they will be back,” Doc replied. “Anyone who has been struggling to find enough to eat over the last month won’t leave the area until all the food is gone.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and get a clear picture in the daylight today?” Chervy suggested.
“No, we won’t see them today,” Doc replied. “This person planned their approach to the crate carefully. They must have heard the helicopter announcement, or they found one of our flyers. I’m sure they were suspicious and used the cover of night to approach the crate. But I feel certain they will be back again tonight.”
“I could try to find some lights that would be activated by the motion detectors,” Davis said. “That way we would be sure to get a good picture of who they are.”
“No, the lights would scare them away,” Doc replied. “The lights would let them know we’re on to them. That we are aware they are coming to the crate to get food. I want to see who it is before we tip our hand. Once we know who is coming to the crate, we can try to find a way to communicate with them.”
“OK Doc,” Davis said. “I’ll go see if I can find the cameras and motion detectors.”
Davis then left the room.
Rogers and Reynolds can into the room as Davis was leaving.
“Doc,” Rogers said. “Reynolds said the food was packed at the bottom of the crate.”
“I put a few blankets and some handwarmers on top of the food to hold everything together,” Reynolds added.
“OK, that explains what we saw. They were digging through the crate until they found the food,” Doc said. “Reynolds, pack a small box with just food. Some cereal and dried fruit. I want to give them a reason to keep them coming back.”
Reynolds nodded then left the room.
“Rogers, go make sure the helicopter is fueled up,” Doc said. “I think you and Davis will be going for
another ride this morning.”
“I was hoping you would say that,” Rogers smiled, turned and ran out into the tunnel.
Chervy smiled, “The guys told me today about how they manage to fly the helicopter.”
Doc grinned, “I’m surprised they told you. I thought they would want to keep that a secret so you would think they were real pilots.”
“I grew up back in Tennessee with those two,” Chervy laughed. “If I would have been someone else, they probably wouldn’t have told me. But we are almost family, most of the time they tell me things I really don’t want to know.”
“I guess in our present situation that is good,” Doc replied.
“If you say so,” Chervy grinned. “By the way, you should probably give Rogers something for his diarrhea.”
“I didn’t know…..” Doc stopped and laughed. “I see your point. Is there anything else I should know about those two?”
“Are you also a practicing psychiatrist?” Chervy smiled.
“Only when I have to be,” Doc smiled.
“In that case,” Chervy replied, “nothing else that can’t wait.”
Doc’s smile faded and Chervy could tell Doc’s mind had returned to more serious things again.
“Is it possible to have the cameras transmit the pictures they take back to your computer,” Doc asked.
“I think I can do that,” Chervy replied.
“Good, that way we won’t have to make another trip out to Stone to see who was out there,” Doc said. “Keep an eye on the monitor Cherv, something tells me we are about to make first contact.”
“First Contact?” Chervy asked. “Wasn’t that the name of a Star Trek movie?”
“I see you’re a Star Trek fan too,” Doc replied.
“I’m not much of a Star Trek fan but I did see that movie,” Chervy said. “If I remember the movie, it is a fitting comparison to our group here.”
“How so?” Doc asked.
“The group that discovered warp drive and brought the people of earth into the modern space age was a bunch of screw ups, just like us,” Chervy replied. “Except for you of course Doc.”
Doc laughed, “Don’t sell yourself short. If you look back through history, most of the important major discoveries were made not by the experts, but by normal everyday screw ups like us. People whose thinking is limited to established norms and boundaries seldom come up with new ideas. They are afraid to think outside the box, so to speak. But us on the other hand, maybe our only advantage here is that we’re willing to consider any possibility. The fact that we don’t know what we are supposed to do, leaves us willing to try anything.”
“Yeah, Rogers, Davis and I are more like a monkey with a dart board,” Chervy laughed. “We toss a dart at a dartboard with random options written all over it to see what we should do next.”
Doc smiled, “All the experts got us into the mess we now find ourselves in. A monkey with a dartboard probably has a higher chance to get us out of our situation than a room full of experts.”
Doc turned and began to walk down the tunnel towards Bay number 47.
Chervy heard Doc laugh as he started to walk away.
“A monkey with a dartboard, I haven’t heard that one in a long time,” Doc laughed. “An analogy that truly describes our efforts here at Granite Mountain.”
Chapter 14
June 31st, Twin Falls, Idaho
Fran laid on her stomach and looked out through the high weeds that she and Snoop were hiding behind.
She held Snoop close to her with her right hand, rubbing his ears to distract him and keep him quiet and from moving around.
In her left hand, she held a string.
The other end of the string was tied to a stick that was about eight inches long and was wedged under the corner of a cardboard box that sat out in the middle of the yard, twenty-five feet away.
The box was perched delicately at a forty-five degree angle on the stick, leaving enough room for a rabbit to crawl in under the box.
Fran had placed three black raspberries on the ground under the box.
She hoped rabbits liked berries, if not she hoped they would be like Snoop and just want to go under the box so they could smell the berries.
This was her first attempt to catch a rabbit.
If she still had electricity, she would have Googled rabbits to see what they liked to eat.
Hopefully rabbits liked berries, everyone liked berries.
She knew rabbits liked to eat carrots and lettuce, but she didn’t have any carrots or lettuce.
If she had carrots, she would eat them herself.
Imagining the sound of a carrot crunching as she would bite into it made her mouth water, she had always liked eating carrots.
Then again, if she had electricity, she would have used the computer to get help.
Fran smiled to herself as she thought about how good pizza would taste right now.
Domino’s had been advertising their new online pizza ordering and delivery service just about the time the world went crazy.
Such thoughts were amusing, but they were now just a distraction and weren’t helping her concentrate on the box.
Fran had finally decided today that she was going to try to catch a rabbit.
The memory of how good the roasted snake tasted yesterday, had made her hungry.
She could also tell by the way Snoop kept looking at her, he was hoping she would give him something to eat again soon.
The snake had tasted good, and sometime in the future she might eat snake again, but it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
At least Fran hoped it wouldn’t be anytime soon.
The idea of going back to the sawmill to hunt for rattlesnakes made her skin crawl.
Sleeping in the bathtub last night, she had been having a nightmare about snakes when Snoop wiggled against her side to make himself comfortable. Fran almost had a stroke thinking it was a snake, until she woke up and realized where she was.
Fran had always liked rabbits, but the idea of going back to the sawmill to hunt snakes was enough to make her begin to see rabbits as food and not just cute fuzzy bunnies.
Killing a rabbit was going to be difficult, but not as difficult or as dangerous as hunting and killing snakes.
A snake could bite and kill her, the most dangerous thing about killing a rabbit was she could sprain her ankle jumping on the box.
Between the two, Fran decided she would rather take a chance of spraining her ankle.
But first, she had to get a rabbit to go under the box.
If the rabbits wouldn’t go in her box to get the berries today, she would have to watch what they ate so she could set a better trap next time.
But today, she thought she would give a try with the only food she had, berries, and hope if nothing else that she would get lucky.
As Fran’s mind wandered, she felt Snoop turn his head.
Fran glanced down to see his little nose begin to sniff the air, then she caught the sight of movement out in the yard.
She tightened her grip on Snoop as she noticed two rabbits hopping around the corner of the house and into the yard.
Fran let the string drop from her left hand and moved her hand over Snoop’s eyes, hoping he wouldn’t bark at what he couldn’t see.
She could always reach down and pull the string if a rabbit went under the box, but she wouldn’t catch the rabbit if Snoop scared them away first.
“Be a good boy,” Fran whispered as she held Snoop tightly and massaged his ears.
Snoop seemed to stop struggling to enjoy his massage, but Fran held her breath as she watched the rabbits knowing how unpredictable the puppy could be.
Fran continued to watch the rabbits hop lazily around the yard, seemingly unconcerned about anything.
She watched anxiously as the rabbits moved closer to the box.
Fran couldn’t believe her eyes as one of the rabbits moved close to the box. It sat next to the box and ate the leaves on a dandel
ion plant that was half under the one side of the box.
When the rabbit finished the leaves that stuck out from under the box, it stretched its head under the box to reach the other leaves.
Then slowly, the rabbit, after sniffing at the cardboard sides, crawled under the box to get at the rest of the plant.
Fran slowly removed her hand from over Snoop’s eyes and reached for the string.
She grabbed the string and pulled.
The box dropped to the ground, trapping the rabbit under the box.
“I got him, Snoop,” Fran yelled as she jumped to her feet.
Snoop rolled over and jumped to his feet, excited by Fran’s outburst and then by the sight of the rabbit in the yard.
Fran began to run for the box as Snoop set his sights on the other rabbit.
The rabbit took off, running around the corner of the house with Snoop on its trail.
As Fran was halfway to the box, she tried to decide how she should jump on the box.
Should she jump on it with both feet or should she jump and plop her butt down on top of the box.
She tried not to think about what was going to happen to the rabbit, but she wanted it to happen quickly and painlessly.
But before she could decide which way would work the best, the box bounced up into the air with the rabbit shooting out from under the front of the box.
Fran stopped and watched as the rabbit, moving as fast as it could, ran through the yard, across the road and disappeared into the weeds.
Having lost the first rabbit, due to his short legs, Snoop came trotting back around the house. He stopped to smell the box, then he ate the three berries sitting on the ground next to the box.
After sniffing around the box for a second time, he came running over to Fran, wagging his tail and panting.