by Gerri Hill
“I think we should head on back toward home,” Graham said. “If the crew did manage to survive the crash, why the hell would they go all the way up to the top of the ridge? And on foot, no less.”
“Well, if they’re trying to flag down a search and rescue craft, then that’d be the place to go,” Jim reasoned as he rubbed the stubble on his face thoughtfully.
“Haven’t heard a single plane or another helicopter in the air since that day,” Curtis said. “And that in itself is strange.”
“I don’t care. I’m going to go check it out,” Carl said as he mounted his horse. “You can all go on back if you want.”
“I’m going with you,” Dusty said. “Something’s up there. Let’s go see what it is.”
As they rode off, Hal and the others exchanged glances and shrugs. It was Jim who spoke first.
“I guess one more night out won’t kill us.”
Graham nodded. “Suppose not.”
Hal looked at Curtis, hoping he’d offer a dissenting vote but he only shrugged again and nudged his horse, following the others. Hal looked fondly down the creek, wondering if he dared make the trek back home by himself. But he figured he’d never live to hear the end of it if he deserted them now. Besides, they were too far out to make it back home in one day, and the prospect of sleeping out alone wasn’t too appealing. So he swung Daisy around and gave her a gentle kick, moving her along to catch the others. He reckoned it would be a waste of time going all the way to the ridge, but it was probably best that they all stay together.
It was a quiet ride with no one speaking and that suited Hal just fine. He brought up the rear, his gaze going to the ridge now and again, hoping he’d see a reflection of glass or metal…anything to suggest that something was up there. But a smattering of scrub oaks amongst the rocks was all he saw.
When they came to a clump of trees at the base of the ridge, they stopped to rest. The little creek that flowed past was shallow and most likely dried up during the hottest part of summer.
“I guess this is Little Squaw Creek,” Curtis said. “When I was a boy we used to come out this way.”
“It looks too narrow for Squaw Creek,” Jim contradicted. “I’m thinking this is one of the forks off Paradox Creek that’ll meet up with her again downstream.”
“It doesn’t fork until it gets farther down the valley,” Curtis said. “Got to be Squaw Creek.”
Hal didn’t have an opinion one way or the other. He only knew they weren’t lost. They just had to find Paradox Creek again and follow it through the valley until they came to the canyon. Then they’d climb out of the canyon to the old Jeep road and head northeast for home. This was all federal land out here and he’d explored plenty of it as a boy too. Why, he and Graham used to ride ponies down to the canyon all the time. But that was sixty some-odd years ago.
Without saying a word, Carl prodded his horse and crossed over the creek. Dusty quickly followed. Hal reckoned they were anxious to get up to the top of the ridge and see if there was anything there…the mysterious thing that was a pullin’ at them.
“I hope we find something up there,” Graham said. “I would hate to think my old bones were a rattlin’ around in this saddle for nothing.”
“Well, they sure think something’s up there,” Curtis said as he crossed the creek. “Don’t know about you fellas, but I’m ready to head back home.”
“Wouldn’t mind sleeping in my own bed tonight,” Hal said. “But I figure by the time we get off this ridge, we won’t even make it to the canyon before dark.”
“I’m about tired of elk jerky too,” Graham added. “Wouldn’t mind a decent meal tonight.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Hal said.
He wondered if Jean was missing him. She’d most likely be lookin’ for him to come home already. Maybe she’d even make something special for him. He wouldn’t mind another batch of her smothered pork chops. His stomach growled just thinking about them.
The closer they got to the top of the ridge, he noticed that Carl and Dusty were getting farther ahead of them. They were pushing their horses along, despite the lack of a trail.
“They sure do seem to be in a hurry,” Jim said.
“That’s cause something’s pullin’ them,” Graham said with a smirk.
“Wonder why they’re so sure something’s up there?” Curtis asked. “I don’t feel nothing pullin’ at me. Do you?”
“All I feel are hunger pangs,” Hal said, causing the others to laugh.
When they finally got to the top of the ridge, there was no sign of Carl or Dusty. The scrub brush was tall enough in places to block their view, and Curtis stood up tall in his saddle, looking around.
“Tracks go this way,” he said, pointing to their right.
As they wove through the brush around to the west, a reflection caught Hal’s eyes. He pulled Daisy to a stop, but the others kept going. Maybe they didn’t see it, he thought. They continued riding on top of the ridge, and he turned once in his saddle, looking back down from the valley where they’d come. The region was arid and rocky, but the slice of green grass and trees that lined the flowing waters of Paradox Creek belied the high desert image of the area. He knew it would be a lot cooler down by the creek than it was up here on the ridge. He wiped the sweat from his brow, then gave Daisy a little kick.
Carl’s horse was standing under the shade of a scrawny old oak, her reins dangling free. Dusty’s mare stood out in the sun, her reins looped over the branch of a scrub.
“Where are they?” he asked.
They’d reached a deep ravine on the ridge, and Jim pointed to some dislodged rocks. “Looks like they went down here.”
“Carl? Dusty?” Curtis called loudly. “Where the hell are you?”
“Down here,” Carl called back excitedly. “We found something.”
They heard the crunching of rocks and Carl showed up below them, waving them closer. “Dusty found something. Come look.”
Hal, like the others, dismounted. He rubbed his sore back as he stood, trying to work the kinks out.
“What is it?” Graham called. “What’d you find?”
“I don’t know,” Carl said as he hurried in front them, disappearing into the ravine again.
Hal, Jim, Curtis and Graham all stopped, but Carl kept going toward where Dusty stood. A large metal disc of some sort appeared to have crashed into the ravine. Judging by the size, Hal thought nearly half of it must be lodged in the rocks.
“What the hell is that?” Curtis asked in a quiet voice.
“Looks like something from…well, I don’t know. That metal sure is slick, though,” Jim said. “Is that a…a wing on the side?”
“Don’t get too close,” Graham called as Carl took a step toward it. “It might be radioactive or something.”
“Looks like one of those spaceships they have in the movies,” Hal said.
Nervous laughter followed his statement. “Yeah, a spaceship has landed on Baker’s Ridge! Let’s hope there aren’t any Martians inside.”
“I’d take Martians over those other things that were in that Alien movie,” Jim said. “That movie scared the shit out of me.”
“It ain’t no spaceship,” Curtis said. “Maybe it’s something that fell from the sky…like a satellite or something.”
“I’ve seen pictures of satellites before and this ain’t one,” Jim said.
Dusty slid down the last few feet to the edge of it, and Carl followed close behind. Hal noted that Dusty seemed to be in some sort of a trance. Like he was hypnotized or something, oblivious to the rest of them.
“Don’t get too close,” Graham said again.
“Looks like there’s a door or something,” Carl called excitedly.
“Well, hell, don’t open it!” Jim nearly yelled.
Hal couldn’t see what was going on and he took another step closer, but Curtis stopped him with a tight grip on his arm. Dusty was tugging at the door like a man possessed. Hal watched in amazement
as Dusty started banging on the door, as if he were knocking, begging to be let inside. One more tug on the door and it flung open, causing Dusty to fall backward against the rocks. Hal’s mouth opened in shock as something—an arm?—reached out and grabbed Dusty, jerking him inside the door as if he were nothing more than a child’s doll.
Carl screamed, a loud, piercing scream that a frightened woman might make. He turned and tried to run but something grabbed his ankle, causing him to fall. Hal instinctively tried to go to him, but Curtis held him back. In a matter of seconds, Carl was dragged inside too, his screams cut off with finality as the door slammed shut.
“My God…what…what…what just happened?” Hal stuttered.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Curtis said as he pulled Hal with him. “Come on!”
“We can’t leave them!” Jim yelled, heading toward the ravine. “Who knows—”
Curtis grabbed Jim’s arms and pulled him to a stop. “What are you going to do? Knock on the door? See if they’ll let Carl and Dusty out? Maybe see if they’ll let you in? We don’t even know what the hell that is,” Curtis said, pointing back down from where they’d come.
“We can’t leave them,” Jim said again. “We’ve got to help them.”
“Help them do what?” Graham said as he pushed past Hal and started climbing out of the ravine, back toward the horses. “You saw what happened. Something is in there.”
“But…”
“We’re all over seventy years old, Jim,” Hal said. “We’re no match for whatever the hell is in there.”
He didn’t wait for an answer. He followed Graham, not even noticing that his back was killing him. Once out of the ravine, he hurried over and grabbed Daisy’s saddle, pulling himself up. He was thankful to see that Curtis had followed with Jim in tow.
“We’ll go get help,” Curtis said firmly. “That’s what we’ll do.”
“Yeah…we’ll go get help,” Graham echoed. “Head over to Paradox. Maybe they got the power back on.”
“Maybe the sheriff is there,” Hal added. “I think we’re going to need him.”
Curtis handed him the reins of Dusty’s mare, and Hal pulled her behind him. Jim took Carl’s horse and the four of them retraced their route to the edge of the ridge. Hal looked back once, half expecting to see something chasing after them, but it was quiet and still behind them, not even a raven or magpie calling from the trees.
Hal stared back toward the ravine, in his mind, still hearing the awful screams of Carl as he was being dragged inside the door. He clenched his jaw tightly, trying to reconcile the fact that they’d left…that they’d left Carl and Dusty behind. He shook his head slowly, trying not to think about what could have happened to Dusty…to Carl. Trying not to imagine what could possibly be inside the door.
He was old and feeling every bit of his age at this very moment…but he knew without a doubt that whatever was inside that door…it was not human. Carl’s screams told him that.
And he wanted no part of it.
Chapter Nineteen
“I say we follow the creek southeast until it meets up with the Delores,” Butch said.
“What about that canyon that Anna Gail mentioned?” Dana asked.
“We’ll have to skirt it,” Butch said.
Corey sat quietly on the ground, leaning up against a tree. Dana was on the bench and Butch was pacing between them. While Corey appreciated that Butch was trying to be the man, that he was trying to take charge and get them out of there, she had no intention of heading south or east away from the helicopter. She would try to reason with him and get him to change his mind. If not, then she’d simply have to tell them who she was and what she was doing there. Harry had said it was classified, but she wasn’t really certain why all the secrecy was necessary. She understood him wanting to keep the helicopter crash from the media, but if it was a meteor that landed that wasn’t enough to warrant a classified mission.
She stood up slowly and brushed her palms off on her jeans. “I think we should try to find the helicopter,” she said as casually as she could.
Butch stopped pacing and stared at her. “Why? We have no idea where the helicopter might have crashed,” he said. “If there even was a helicopter. Anna Gail heard from Lou Wright who heard from some guys in Squaw Valley. That doesn’t help much.”
“Where is Squaw Valley, anyway?” she asked.
“It’s a little community northwest of here,” Butch said. “Just a handful of farms.”
“And it’s on this creek you’ve mentioned? Paradox Creek?”
“Yeah, kinda. It’s still part of Paradox Valley, but it’s on a fork a little farther north. Some call it Squaw Creek.”
“How far is that from where you live?”
“It’s north of here. We live about thirty miles or so south, down the road we found you on,” he said. “The road to Squaw Valley is off that county road. You would have passed it. But we already know they’re without power too. If we can get to the river, then the saline plant is there. We can—”
“If a military helicopter went down, then we’re more likely to encounter someone looking for it. They’ll send in a search team,” she said.
“That’s too far, Corey,” Butch said. “We can be to the Delores in a day and a half, I’d guess, depending on how long it takes us to skirt the canyon.”
Corey scratched her head, wishing she could pull out the topo map that Duncan had given her. She had no clue as to what he was talking about. “So the road to Squaw Valley…it’s not the same one you were on?”
He shook his head. “No. There’s another county road that crosses the creek and goes north. It’s a few miles from where we met you,” he said. “But we don’t know where they saw the helicopter. It’d be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Dana had remained quiet, and Corey turned to her now. “What do you think we should do?”
Dana looked between the two of them, then shrugged. “Say we make it to the saline plant only to find out they’re without power too. Then what? Do we keep going? Will we have supplies?”
“So you want to go up to Squaw Valley?” Butch asked.
“I think maybe we should stay around our own people,” Dana said. “You know everyone around here. Out in Squaw Valley, it’s mostly farms, a few ranches. They’ll have provisions, just like my parents do, like yours do,” she said.
Butch shook his head. “The morning’s already gone. It’d take us most of the day just to get north of Paradox Creek. Sure, we’ll come upon a farm tomorrow, but who’s to say they know anything about the helicopter?” He shook his head again. “No. We go southeast along the creek. It’s our best chance.”
Dana looked over at her with raised eyebrows. “He has a point, I guess.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Unfortunately, he’s wrong.”
“You don’t know this area, Corey,” Butch said. “I do. We’ll go south, we’ll—”
“We’ll go north,” she said, interrupting him. “And you can call me Captain.”
He frowned. “What?”
“My name. It’s Captain Conaway,” she said.
He arched an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Captain Conaway, United States Army. And I’d like to commandeer you and your horses to help me locate a Black Hawk helicopter,” she said. She then gave an exaggerated smile. “Please.”
Dana stood up and walked toward her. “Are you kidding me? You’re military?”
Corey gave a genuine smile this time. “What? My haircut didn’t give me away?” she asked, rubbing a hand over her hair.
“No. I mean…you must know what’s going on then? Right?”
“Oh. Yeah. Well…that’s kinda…classified.”
Dana drew her brows together as she placed both hands on her hips. “Classified? Are you freakin’ kidding me?” she asked again.
Butch, too, walked closer. “What do you know?” he demanded. “Are we under attack or something? Is that why the power’s
out?”
She held her hands up defensively. “No, no, no. We’re not under attack,” she said. “Nothing like that.”
“Then why the secrecy?” Dana asked. “I’m assuming you weren’t really camping then.”
“Look, like I said…it’s—”
“Classified,” Dana finished for her. She turned to her cousin. “I vote we go to the saline plant.”
“Yeah. Me too,” Butch said.
Corey raised her eyebrows, surprised at Dana’s defiance. “So you think you get a vote now?”
“What? Are you going to make us look for a helicopter?”
Corey sighed. This was getting them nowhere and as Butch had said, the morning was almost gone. They needed to be too. She didn’t have time to argue with them. She needed them. Well, at least Butch. As he said, he knew the area. She needed him to get her at least as far as Squaw Valley.
“Okay. You win,” she said. “I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much.” That, at least, was true. Most everything about this mission was speculation only. “The earthquake you thought you felt was most likely from a meteor,” she said.
“A meteor?” Dana asked skeptically.
“That’s what they tell me,” she said honestly.
“And it took out a power grid or something?”
“Or something.”
“You’re being very vague,” Dana accused.
“That’s because we don’t really know. The meteor showed up as a blip on the radar. As a precaution, a helicopter was sent out…reconnaissance,” she said. “Just in case.”
“Just in case what?” Butch asked.
“Just in case the blip on the radar was from a hostile aircraft.”
“And the helicopter really crashed?”
“Disappeared off radar, yes. No communication with the crew. And the utility company confirmed the power outage in this area.”
“Why hasn’t someone come to help?” Dana asked.
“A small unit was sent in. Their vehicle became disabled and they hiked back out.”
Dana nodded. “Battery died.”
“Yes.”
“Do you know why? I mean, phones, everything is dead.”