“Aunt Lacey.” Ben called.
“Yep” she answered as she pulled herself up higher, her entire body was now covered in charcoal, her face and hair were a dark gray, when she looked down to Ben the brightness of her eyes caught him by surprise.
“Um…” he began to laugh. “Sorry, you look so funny!”
“Um, hello, up in a tree here…can you tell me why you are interrupting my joyful climb?” She yelled sarcastically.
“Sorry, um, oh, yeah that eagle is still circling, so be careful.”
“Thanks, I hadn’t noticed its large talons and flesh eating beak from this height, I’ll keep it in mind as I attack its home.” She sighed loudly, obviously frustrated. Ben could sense the fear in her voice. She began climbing faster, obviously fear was overcoming her, and along with the fear she was eager to see if this was the last cache, she wanted this treasure hunt to be over with, she wanted that money.
She was closing in on the last ten feet when the eagle first attempted to protect its nest. It swooped in and tried to grab her hair; she tucked her head in and screamed. Ben panicked, not knowing what to do he picked up some small rocks and began to throw them at the bird, one hit Lacey in the leg, “Not helping!” She yelled. Ben then saw the pack frame, maybe he could distract the bird with the turkey sandwiches they had bought for lunch.
“I’m going to get the eagle to eat the sandwiches!” He yelled up to his aunt.
“What?” Lacey was totally thrown by his comment; she looked down at him, big mistake! Suddenly a wave of nausea came over her, she felt dizzy, and as she tightened her grip she heard the slightest bit of crackling from within the branch. She closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing. “Ben” she yelled. “You’re feeding a bird another bird?” Ben looked up at her, one of the sandwiches was already unwrapped, he was setting it on a stump about ten feet away from the tree.
“Um, yeah.” He said as he looked at the sandwich. “Is that not okay?” He asked sincerely.
Lacey analyzed her current situation, she was standing at least fifty feet up in a dead tree, holding onto a branch that may break at any moment, with an eagle swooping her as she attempted to attack its nest. “Sounds good!” She called down.
Ben took some of the pieces of meat and tossed them in the air, he took the sandwiches and lay them open faced on the old stump, and then ran to the base of the burnt tree. For a moment it was quiet, and then all of the sudden Lacey felt the draft from the huge bird as it swooped next to her, then down to the ground. It grabbed the pieces of meat that he had thrown, then landed in a tree about twenty feet away.
Lacey watched, terror came over her as she pushed herself up to the top branches, not knowing what she was going to find when she looked over the edge of the nest she reached in and felt twigs and grass. The nest was huge, it had seemed so small when they were on the ground, but it must have been three feet in diameter. She felt two eggs, and pulled her hand back quickly, almost in shock. They were large and warm, she looked at the eagle again, it was now on the stump eating the sandwiches, she couldn’t tell how much time she had, so again she stuck her hand in the nest and continued to feel around. The third egg she felt was different, it felt slippery, and cool. She used all of her strength to hoist herself up just a bit more, as she looked over the edge she saw two yellowish colored large eggs and one white plastic Easter egg.
She grabbed the plastic egg as quickly as possible and called down to Ben. Immediately she knew her mistake, as the huge bird made contact she felt the wind knocked from her lungs. She felt as though she was floating, and then realized she was falling. She reached for a branch, her nails scratched a few, as she tumbled down the tree, and amazingly the branches weren’t breaking, although she felt like her bones were. She was finally able to grab on and keep hold of a branch; she caught her breath and looked down. Ben was standing there with his hands over his mouth, obviously in shock. She rested her head against the tree and closed her eyes to try to collect herself. That bird had just come out of nowhere, she was lucky that it hadn’t used its talons to cut her open, she thought to herself. She took one more deep breath the slowly came down a few branches.
Ben seemed to collect himself, then looked around to find what had fallen, he saw the egg resting in the soil and went over to it, as he picked it up the eagle dove at him.
“Ben! Heads!” she called. Instinctively Ben dropped his head to his chest and the bird missed. “Run” she yelled. Ben looked at her, then saw the bird circling once again and made a run for it. He was headed back up the trail, he looked back to see the bird aiming for him once again. He couldn’t run fast enough, he felt the slightest scrape on his back, turned, saw the talons of the eagle coming for his face, then everything went black.
11
Ben’s mom looked out the window above her sink. She had the strangest feeling that something horrible had happened to Ben and Lacey. She wanted to call and check in on them, but didn’t want to ruin their fun. The doorbell interrupted her thoughts.
She dried her hands, and went to the front door. Two men in dark suits were standing at her doorstep; they were accompanied by an Oregon State trooper. The trooper removed his large hat then pulled a picture out of his shirt pocket.
“Yes Ma’am, sorry to bother you.” He paused. Ben’s mom was filled with fear, what had happened, why were the police here? The trooper lifted the picture to eye level and asked, “Is this your son?”
Ben’s mom fought off tears, “Yes, that’s Ben.” She said. “Is he okay?”
“Do you mind if we come in for a minute?”
“Um, sure,” she stepped aside and allowed the men to enter, as she pointed to a sofa in the front room.
One of the men in the dark suits spoke first. “What is your name?” he asked.
“Oh, Stephanie Connor.” She paused, “So is my son okay?”
“Oh yes, sorry, yes he is okay, as far as we know.” The trooper answered. Ben’s mom took a deep breath.
The man in the dark suit spoke again, “Well Mrs. Connor, we understand that Ben has tracked down the first clues to the Grand prize for the Cocoaliscious Cereal Treasure Hunt.”
“Yes, he and his aunt have been tracking them down all week.”
“Well, they are getting very close to the grand prize, and we wanted to invite your family to the celebration ceremony. Since we don’t know exactly when they will reach the grand prize we can’t give you an exact date or time, but we can contact you as soon as they reach the entrance to the final prize’s location.”
“How do you know they will win it? Aren’t other people out searching for the same treasure?” She asked with a perplexed look on her face.
“Well, they are the only two that we have documented as being to the various locations for the clues; we think that most people opted for the internet entry.” The two men looked at each other in agreement.
“Internet entry? What are you talking about?”
“You know for a chance to win the ten thousand dollars? When you found out what location the coordinates were pointing to, you go to the web site and enter in your answer, and then you are entered into the drawing.”
“Drawing? What drawing?” Ben’s mom stood up and went to the counter; she grabbed the instruction pamphlet and opened it up. “The way we understood it was that you had to physically go to the location, which is why they went to the lighthouse!” She was growing a bit anxious.
The man to her left reached up, “May I?” he gestured for the pamphlet. Ben’s mom handed it to him, and then sat back down.
“See if you read here on page three it says, ‘after finding the answer, log onto GEOCACHING.COM, enter your answer for the chance to win ten thousand dollars.” Ben’s mom grabbed the book from him.
“Oh my gosh! So they weren’t supposed to go to the lighthouse?” She began thumbing through the book. “I mean leave it to Lacey and Ben to not read instructions, but really, they weren’t supposed to go?”
“No, I�
��m sorry ma’am; if you turn the next page you will see the instructions for the grand prize.” He gestured to the booklet. Ben’s mom turned the page and skimmed it with her eyes, suddenly her jaw dropped,
“Is this real? Are you kidding me?” She shoved the pamphlet back into the man’s face. He took it from her,
“Yes ma’am, see they are getting so close, so we want you to be there.”
“No, no, no, of course I will be there, but this grand prize,” She pointed to the number on the page, “this is the grand prize?”
“Of course, you didn’t know that?” He looked at her as if she were some sort of idiot. “So ma’am, please if I may get your phone number, we will be in contact so that you can make arrangements for your family to be in attendance at the final location.
“Absolutely, um, where is that exactly?”
“Well, ma’am, I can’t tell you, that would be cheating.” He smiled then handed her his business card. She stood, clearly still shaken from the conversation, went to the counter and wrote down her number.
“Thank you very much,” he took the paper and slipped in into his wallet, then headed for the door. The trooper and the other man stood, nodded at Ben’s mom then opened the door for the first man. He turned and looked at her once again, “Ma’am, don’t worry, he will be okay, and just so you know, you have an amazing son, we hadn’t even considered that someone his age could do this.”
“Well for ten grand my son will do just about anything.” The man looked at her with a confused expression.
“But ma’am the grand prize is-?”
“No, I know,” She interrupted, “just imagine how excited he will be.” Ben’s mom beamed.
Lacey finally reached the ground, amazing how climbing down a tree is almost harder than climbing up she thought. She turned to see if Ben was hiding from the eagle, she was surprised he hadn’t made his way back down the trail to meet back up with her. She began to walk down the trail and out of nowhere came this blur of movement. She dove to the ground protecting her head, and then quickly peeked behind her. She wasn’t imagining it, Ben was flying through the air, it looked as if his body was completely limp and the eagle had locked its talons into his sweatshirt. She knew the eagle was huge, but couldn’t believe her eyes. How on earth could this thing be lifting her nine-year-old nephew? Quickly she dismissed the questions running through her brain, stood up and started chasing after them. Within a few feet of Ben being airborne the plastic egg fell from his pocket, she grabbed it and shoved it into her jeans pocket.
As she ran she picked up rocks and began throwing them at the eagle, which only proved to irritate the bird and so it increased its altitude. She could see it struggling to lift Ben’s weight and yet somehow it did. “Ben!” She yelled as loudly as she could, there was no response. Why wasn’t he answering? Was he dead? What had happened on that trail?
The eagle lifted him higher and higher, she assumed it would take him back to the nest, but it kept flying past and started to make its way over the lake. There was no way she would be able to keep up if she had to go around the lake. She couldn’t swim fast enough; the only thing that came to mind was how badly that bird had wanted to protect its nest. She was about ten feet from the tree, and although she swore she would never climb that high again, she lunged toward the lowest branch. As her fingers clasped the burnt skeleton of the tree, she used all of her strength to lift herself. Her body ached as she moved up branch after branch, but she tried to ignore the pain and forced herself to climb to the top.
Within minutes she was in the same location that she had been when the bird had initially swooped in and attacked her, she began making loud noises and calls, trying anything to get the bird’s attention. It continued to fly over the water, she didn’t know what to do, the only thing she could think was to stay high enough to see where the eagle would take Ben. She went against every instinct she had and stayed in the tree, as the eagle seemed to circle the lake for an eternity.
Finally the eagle circled around, she felt a small sense of relief, once again she tried whooping and calling to get the eagle’s attention. The bird seemed to zero in on her, even though it was a few hundred feet away, she could see its bright blue eyes staring at her, it sent a shiver down her spine.
Suddenly the bird dove, still carrying Ben; it dipped him into the water. He woke out of his unconsciousness, and total panic took over when he realized what was going on. He was now soaked and flying through the air. He was confused that he couldn’t feel the eagle’s grip on his back, he wiggled just enough to throw the bird off balance, again it dipped him in the water, then suddenly pulled up, he realized that the bird only had a grip on his sweatshirt, he just had to slide out of it, but couldn’t quite muster the courage, until he saw the shoreline of the lake quickly approaching. He had to wiggle out of his sweatshirt before the eagle took him over land again; falling into the water was his only hope of survival.
Fighting the overwhelming fear he reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled the GPS unit out, he shoved it into his jeans pocket and began to slide his arms out of the sweatshirt; he had to hurry, in seconds he would be over dry land again. As he looked up at the vast wingspan of the bird something in the distance caught his eye. He looked down once again then wrestled his other arm out, suddenly he was free falling.
He hadn’t thought he was up that high, but as he made contact the water felt like knives piercing his skin. He pulled his legs up to his chest, and then hit the bottom of the lake.
Lacey saw him drop, and then realized that without Ben’s weight the eagle was flying at an incredible speed toward her. She began dropping down as quickly as she could, trying to keep her eyes on the bird so as not to be surprised when it attacked. She was almost half way down when it swooped toward her; it made an incredible screech, then circled around and repeated the maneuver. She was almost to the bottom branch and decided to risk the fall, this bird was ticked off and she wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible.
She hit the ground, lifted herself, ignoring the shooting pains running up her legs; she began to run to the thickest tree she could find. As soon as she made it to a small, but thick tree, she pushed its branches out of the way and hid in the dense foliage. She tried to calm her breathing but was so overwhelmed, suddenly she couldn’t contain herself and tears filled her eyes.
After a few minutes she poked her head out and looked up, the eagle was perched in its nest. Feeling safer now, she crouched low to the ground and headed toward the water. She jumped over some bushes that lined the beach area and saw a bright blonde head coming out of the water, it was Ben, he was alive! She ran over to him and almost knocked him over with a huge hug. “Oh my Gosh! Are you okay? Can you believe that?” She helped him make his way out of the water. “I’m so sorry man, that was crazy! C’mon, let’s get out of here!” She grabbed his arm forcefully and began to pull him toward the trail. She was so paranoid and overwhelmed she wasn’t even paying attention to the fact that Ben was fighting her. Finally he dug his feet into the ground and yelled,
“Stop!”
Lacey was totally taken by surprise. “What?” She turned and saw that he was now jogging away from her. “Ben! What are you doing?” She ran up to him, and noticed he was pointing at something on the other side of the lake.
“We can’t leave yet.” He said. Lacey focused in on the direction he was pointing; there in the distance was a large trail of smoke.
“Oh shoot!” she exclaimed.
They continued to jog, “There aren’t supposed to be any fires right now, we have to at least see if we can put it out.” He looked at his aunt then looked back up at the smoke filling the sky; this could be a very long day.
12
As Ben and Lacey circled the lake, the smell of smoke filled the air. They didn’t know exactly what they would do when they reached the fire, but they knew they couldn’t just leave without seeing if they could help. The thought of the entire forest looking like the tr
ee Lacey had climbed was enough motivation to force them to continue on.
The flames weren’t as big as they thought they would be, amazing how much smoke can be produced from a small fire. It seemed to be contained to three smaller trees.
“Ben, let’s dig a line around the perimeter, so that the pine needles can’t catch on fire as easily.” Lacey instructed as she took her shoe and began to kick pine needles and debris away from the fire.
“Why don’t you call 911?” Ben called over to her. She patted down her pants pocket and realized her phone was still in the pack.
“Shoot, I left the pack back at the nest” she said “All I have is the egg.” they continued to dig a line around the fire, and then started kicking dirt on the fire that was spreading across the ground. Ben ran to the lake and was carrying small handfuls back trying to dose out the flames. He just couldn’t carry enough water to really make a difference. Finally he remembered that the new GPS unit had an emergency button just like the first one they had purchased; he pulled it from his pants pocket and pressed the red button over and over again. Knowing it would take emergency personal a long time to arrive they continued to dig the line around the perimeter and tried to force the fire out by smothering it.
“I don’t know what else to do!” Lacey yelled to Ben.
“Just keep putting dirt on it; hopefully it won’t spread from the tree tops.” Ben called back.
Within ten minutes the fire on the ground appeared to be out, they stomped on anything that was smoking, but had to be mindful of the branches above falling on them, or falling and starting another ground fire. The two stepped back and just watched, there was nothing else they could do, but they ultimately knew that they had to stay there. If anyone had gotten their emergency signal they would be tracing the GPS unit. Suddenly out of the woods drove a large truck with what appeared to be a holding tank on the back. Three men jumped out, dressed in yellow reflective suits, they started unwinding a large hose and began spraying the trees. Ben and Lacey just looked at each other, and then stared; they came much quicker than either of them had thought they would. After a few minutes the fire was completely out, the trees were blackened, but surprisingly the fire fighters thought they would survive.
Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (Waypoint Book Series) Page 7