Alone in the Crowd (The Chronicles of Anna Foster Book 3)

by Patrick Stutzman

  Several minutes passed as he hiked through the woods that dominated the area and found nothing worthwhile. Just as he was about to turn back, he emerged through the trees into a clearing and stopped dead in his tracks. He stared in front of him, confused. “How did that get here?” he muttered to himself.

  Coming to his senses a few seconds later, he fumbled his hand across his wrist while keeping his eyes fixed on the sight, until he finally activated the communicator.

  “Haven, this is Jason Fuller.”

  “Jason Fuller, Haven Control. Go ahead.” The person on the other end, an older male voice, sounded less than enthusiastic.

  He paused for a few seconds. “Are you sure this moon is not inhabited?”

  Sounding bored, the voice replied, “Yes, we are the first people to land on this moon.”

  “You…you’re not going to believe what I found.” Jason found it increasingly difficult to find the words to say.

  “What did you find?” the voice asked indifferently.

  After a few seconds more, Jason replied, “A pyramid.”

  The person on the other end also paused for a while. He finally responded with more interest. “What?”

  “I found a pyramid right here in the middle of the woods.”

  Another male voice broke into the conversation. “Did you say a pyramid, Jason?”

  “Yes, I did. It’s a pyramid.”

  Dozens of voices burst through the channel, all asking questions and speculating on the news.

  “Are you kidding?”

  “You’re joking!”

  “What are you drinking, and can I have some?”

  “It’s got to be some natural formation.”

  “No, no!” Jason chimed in, hoping to break through the clamor of voices. “It’s a pyramid all right, kind of Aztec-looking with stairs going up the front to a doorway at the top and sitting in the middle of this paved clearing. There’s a bunch of smaller stone buildings circling it, too.”

  “Jason,” He recognized Ms. Armstrong’s voice. “Do not approach the structure. Wait for the guards to get there and secure the area. We don’t know what’s there.”

  He smiled. “Isn’t that why you sent me over here?”

  “I sent you to look for food, not to go gallivanting into some building that holds who-knows-what. Stay where you are, and do not approach it!”

  Jason sighed. “Yes, ma’am. I’ll stay put.”

  “Thank you. Everyone else, go back to your tasks. We’ll tell all of you what we found later.”

  The radio fell silent, and Jason found a shady spot under a tree that gave him a clear view across the clearing. He sat in the sparse grass and leaned his back against the large trunk, glad to have some time off his feet while he waited for the soldiers to arrive.

  About ten minutes later, Jason heard the approach of the troops’ vehicles by the river. He waited for the engines to die down before calling to them. “Over here!”

  A dozen soldiers wearing black flak vests over their camouflage uniforms and carrying rifles held at the ready appeared in the woods and charged toward him. On reaching his position, they surrounded him and pointed their weapons into the clearing as if waiting for something to happen. A few seconds later, one of them pointed to three others and directed them toward the right side, gave a similar instruction to three more to go to the left, and two others to join him down the middle.

  A few seconds later, the squad leader gave the signal, and the three groups moved out of the trees and across the pavement toward the pyramid, while the last three troopers remained by the trees. Jason watched them hustle to the buildings surrounding the main structure, pause there while they searched the area again for activity, and then approach to the base of the pyramid. The leader ran up the steps with his two men, while the others remained on the ground. It took them a full minute to rush up the staircase, but they reached the top and quickly moved inside without hesitating.

  The three military men remained inside for only a few seconds before coming back out. They were all tapping their ear communicators but not saying anything.

  “Sarge.” One of the soldiers standing next to Jason called through his communicator. “Sarge, do you read?”

  Several seconds after the attempt, he added over his shoulder, “I’ve got nothing.”

  He tapped his ear and tried again, “Sarge, Butler, Watkins, do you read me?”

  Jason regarded him with curiosity, wondering why he continued to call them over the communicators when they were only about a hundred meters away and in line of sight. Looking back at the group in the middle of the square, he noticed they had regrouped at the bottom of the stairs and appeared to be discussing something. Several seconds after that, the leader moved a few steps back toward the woods and tapped his earpiece again.

  The soldier next to Jason tried the call again. “Sarge, do you…I read you now, sir…yes, sir…yes, sir.”

  He turned toward the other three men standing by him. “All right, you heard him. Get back to the vehicles! Let’s move!”

  Before Jason could protest, they had jogged through the woods toward the river, leaving him alone. A second later, his communicator came alive again.

  “Jason, please report back to town for debriefing.”

  As he lifted his arm to respond, he glanced back at the pyramid and the soldiers setting up a perimeter around the structure before answering, “On my way.”

  * * * * *

  Later that afternoon, Jason found himself sitting alone at a table in an empty office in the town hall. Kept waiting for over half an hour, he grew bored of staying in the room with nothing to do and felt on the verge of banging his head against the wall.

  The door opened, and Ms. Armstrong glided into the room. An older, high-ranking, uniformed man with white crew-cut hair walked right behind her. Ms. Armstrong grabbed one of the chairs opposite him at the table and sat down, while the military man stood behind her, a grim expression on his face.

  “Well, Jason,” she began. “You’ve had quite a day. Venture off to forage for food and find an ancient pyramid instead?”

  Jason shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “Well, you know. It’s not like I planned it that way.”

  “That may be true.” She flashed a smile for a second. “But, it seems kind of odd that we haven’t even been planet-side for twenty-four hours, and you just happen to stumble across this…astounding find. Why is that?”

  His smile dropped away. “I don’t know. I was only looking for food and happened to find it…the pyramid, that is. I don’t know why.”

  The debriefing continued for what Jason believed to be at least half an hour, consisting of questions ranging from simple fact regurgitation, such as the amount of vegetation growing around the pyramid, to the totally absurd – suggesting that he had been led there by some form of intelligence. He answered truthfully to the best of his ability, even though his answers sometimes seemed to frustrate the woman sitting across from him. Through it all, the military man standing behind her remained silent.

  Ms. Armstrong finally nodded with a tight-lipped smile. “Considering that all of our reconnaissance reports indicate no other signs of civilization on this moon, I’m truly intrigued by this pyramid. Have you discussed this with anybody else other than the two of us?”

  Jason shook his head. “No, I haven’t, except maybe the announcement made over the radio when I found it.”

  She sighed and nodded with her eyes closed. “Looks like we’re going to have to address this with everyone who had a communicator.

  “Meanwhile,” she continued, snapping her eyes open to look directly at Jason. “I do not want you discussing this with anyone else, and I want you to stay away from that pyramid. I don’t want to take any chances of anything happening if no one else is around. Understand?”

  Jason nodded.

  “All right. You can go home now, but I may want to speak with you about this again at some point.”

  “Sure. That’s
fine.”

  “Great,” she assured with a smile. “Thank you, Jason.”

  Chapter 4

  “Good morning, Catherine.”

  No response.

  “Good morning, Catherine.”

  Gradually, the young brunette awoke under the covers. She fought to free herself from the euphoric call of sleep but failed, dropping her head back into the pillow.

  “Good morning, Catherine.”

  Groggily, she called out through her pillow, muffling her speech. “Jason, tell it to shut up!”

  “Good morning, Catherine.”

  She listened for her boyfriend to respond but heard only the computer’s incessant wake-up call over and over again. Pushing herself up and arching her back, she looked around the bedroom. “Jason?”

  Slipping out of the covers, she fumbled around in the dark for a few seconds. “Window, seventy-five percent opacity.”

  The light filtering through illuminated the room enough to keep her from tripping as she moved through to the front part of their house, where the windows were fully clear. Blinking a few times at the sudden harshness of the bright sunlight from outside, she paused long enough to let her eyes adjust before continuing her search. Jason was nowhere in the house. She was tempted to look outside, but refrained as she was naked.

  She scratched her head as she furrowed her brow. “Where is he?”

  * * * * *

  Several kilometers to the east, Jason flew over the lake at high speed on his skycycle, barely skimming the surface of the water and spraying a vast wake behind him. He had ignored the requirement of wearing a helmet and laughed with glee from the rush of the wind across his face and through his hair. Seeing the approaching shore, he slowed down enough to glide over the rapids at the edge of the lake and head downstream.

  A few minutes later, he landed the vehicle on the same bank as the day before, dismounted, and ran into the woods toward the pyramid. He had gone only about a couple of dozen meters, when a voice stopped him in his tracks. “Halt!”

  Jason peered through the trees in front of him, attempting to locate the source of the command. Two soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and black flak vests stepped into view holding their rifles firmly in their hands. They looked stern, but curiosity in their eyes made them more approachable.

  One of the troopers rolled his eyes. “Jason, why are you here again?”

  The other guard chimed in with the same attitude. “Didn’t Ms. Armstrong tell you to stay away?”

  A look of confusion formed on Jason’s face, as he wondered how they would know that piece of information. “How do you know that?”

  Shocked, the first marine answered, “Dude! The colonel was in there with you during your debriefing! You think he wouldn’t tell us?”

  Jason, now feeling a bit stupid, nodded. “Yeah, you got a point.”

  “Why don’t you do something like … oh, I don’t know, like do your job!”

  Noting the sarcasm, Jason pointed a thumb over his shoulder. “Okay, I’m just…going…to look…for more food.”

  While the first sentry nodded, the second added with a thumbs-up and the same amount of attitude as before, “Good idea, Jason. Why don’t you do that?”

  “Okay. I’m going now.”

  The first one waved like he would to a child. “Goodbye!”

  Without another word, the young colonist turned and walked slowly back toward the river. He could have sworn he heard one of the guards remark about his lack of intelligence before they returned to their post, but he could not be sure.

  Upon reaching the skycycle, Jason decided to spend the morning exploring the river valley on foot, figuring it would save fuel and allow him to forage more thoroughly. Securing his backpack over his shoulders, he had not walked more than fifty meters before his communicator paged him to answer an incoming call.

  “This is Jason,” he said after pressing the button to open the channel.

  Catherine’s voice yelled, “Where the hell are you?”

  “Uh,” Jason stammered from embarrassment. “This is an open channel.”

  “I don’t care! Just answer the damn question!”

  Groaning, he reluctantly answered, “I’m out foraging. I went a little early this morning.”

  “Foraging?” she continued on her tirade. “That’s fine, but you could have at least left me a note or something!”

  He narrowed his eyes. “I did.”

  “You did? Where is it?”

  As he was about to answer, Jason thought he heard snickering somewhere behind him, but a quick glance revealed nobody there. Turning back to the matter at hand, he furrowed his brow as he replayed the events of the early morning after such a restless night. He had felt rather tired while he had showered and dressed. Had he left her a message?

  Before he could answer, another voice interrupted, “This channel is to be used for official discussions only. If you wish to continue, please move your conversation to a private channel.”

  “Look, Catherine,” Jason suggested diplomatically. “We’ll talk about it at lunch. I have to get back to work.”

  After a second, she replied after an audible sigh, “Fine. At lunch.”

  He nodded and closed the channel before turning and continuing his hike along the river, shaking his head at first while he mulled the incident over in his mind.

  As he moved down the river, Jason kept a careful eye open, taking in the sights that nature had to offer while searching for new sources of food. Although he found several berry-producing bushes, only two of them proved to be edible to humans. Out of those two, the dark blue ones tasted incredibly sweet, while the deep red ones made his lips pucker after sampling a couple. Nevertheless, he harvested several of each, bagged them, and stored them in his backpack before logging the location and moving on.

  About an hour later after a slow but steady search along the riverbanks, Jason came to an odd sight that made him doubt his sanity and his sobriety. On the far bank, near a set of rapids that traversed the river about a hundred meters further downstream from his location, appeared to be something that looked like a water wheel. Although it was not a water wheel in the traditional sense, it appeared to work in much the same fashion.

  Jason’s first thought was to report the find in to the colony. As he contemplated doing so, memories of the previous day’s events involving the pyramid came back to him. Hoping to avoid the embarrassment he might experience by calling attention to himself again, he decided to investigate further before saying anything.

  Daring to get a closer look, Jason ventured closer to the wheel. Reaching a spot across the river from it, he stopped to examine it. Built of weather-beaten wood with eight troughs fastened to a rough, square frame, the wheel turned with the tide of the river and spilled the water it picked up into some sort of V-shaped half-pipe suspended within the branches of the trees lining the river. From his viewpoint, the half-pipe disappeared into the woods, and he could not tell where it led.

  Jason stopped and listened to his surroundings but only heard the wind blowing through the trees, the breaking of the water against the rocks ahead, and the occasional squeak from the water wheel. Intrigued, he crossed the river, stepping across the rocks as if he walked a high wire, approached the old-tech device, and watched it turn on its spindle, which was secured to a large tree.

  A while later, a strange odor assaulted his nostrils. He wrinkled his face and looked around for the source. Resting against a tree several meters past the wheel, Jason found another strange contraption. It looked like a few boards had been nailed together with another wooden plank on top of it. It struck him as odd that the plank on top was sharpened and bloody on one side. The blood appeared to be the source of the scent, and he turned away as his stomach began to churn from the disgusting sight.

  As he turned away, Jason noticed a small group of trees growing a few meters further downstream. In particular, he noted the brownish-yellow fruit hanging from their branches. At first, he
thought they looked like small, overripe golden apples, but closer examination showed they were still firm and smelled wonderful. Before he knew it, he had plucked one of them off and bitten into it. Within seconds, a feeling of euphoria washed over him. He suddenly felt that everything in life was beautiful regardless of what happened.

  The euphoria passed several minutes later, and Jason found himself sitting on the bank of the river dangling his bare feet in the cool water as it flowed by. Next to him on the ground was the core of the fruit he had just consumed. A knot formed in his stomach, and he ripped his hand scanner out of his backpack and swept it over the remains. The results indicated that nothing was toxic other than a trace of arsenic in the seeds. He breathed a sigh of relief and decided to take two of the fruit back to the colony for examination.

  He dried his feet and put his shoes back on. As he stood, his eyes fell upon the pipe leading into the woods. Curious, Jason followed the pipe into the forest. After a few dozen meters, he saw that it led into a clearing filled with tall grass measuring around two meters tall.

  He entered the clearing. All he could see was the grass and the wooden channel leading him to its edge. After a short while, the pipe led to a well-tended garden nestled in the middle of the tall meadow. The pipe split into three smaller ones that inclined downward into the tilled soil, which hosted several vegetation types, some of which seemed to be rather appetizing vegetables. His eyes lit up at the cornucopia. He grabbed his scanner and took readings of everything growing in the patch. As he suspected, all of them were edible. Some were nutritious enough to be considered superfoods back on Earth, a category occupied by only a handful of vegetables.

  Jason harvested two vegetables from each of the plants and secured them in his backpack. As he stashed the last of the food, it dawned on him that somebody had cultivated these plants, and that person may be nearby and possibly watching him steal their produce.