“See,” Ben interrupted the man, “it’s just a geocache, not gold, I told you.”
“Well, let’s read this note first, boy.” The bearded man unfolded the note, and read, “Great work, I hope you’re enjoying playing my game. If you choose not to go to the next geocache, please return this key and geocache to the exact spot you found it in. Thank you, Cache Master.” The man stared at the note, then eyed the key.
“See, I’m telling you man, this is not what you think,” Ben insisted.
“Shut up, boy. I think I know exactly what this is. I think someone has moved the gold off that ship, that’s the only thing that makes sense…Yeah, that’s gotta be it. No one has ever found the gold from that ship wreck, over two million dollars’ worth, and that was the value in 1918, imagine what it is worth today…Yep. I bet this key leads to the gold. What do you think?” he asked the man with the spear gun.
“I think you’re right, only how do we know where to go?” he asked, genuinely confused.
“Oh that’s easy,” the other man said with a laugh. He motioned to Ben, Megan, and Lacey, “These guys are gonna take us there.”
5
Ben and Megan stared at the back of their aunt’s head. She was sitting in the seat in front of them in-between the two kidnappers. They had found out that the older one with the gray beard was named Henry, the younger one with the scratchy voice called himself Eddy. Megan had found out very early on that he was self-conscious of his full name when she purposely called him Edward. She sometimes had a knack for finding and pushing people’s buttons. In this situation it could prove useful, she thought to herself.
The driver seemed to be an acquaintance of Eddy and Henry. He was a large man, very husky, with thick black hair, and a mustache that covered his entire mouth. His name was Jim. Although he did know Eddy and Henry, he didn’t quite seem to understand what was so urgent, and why the pair was being accompanied by two children and a young woman. He played along though and did as he was told, being guaranteed along the way that he would be paid well for his help, and for keeping his mouth shut.
Megan pulled her strawberry blonde hair back into a tight pony tail, Jim looked at her in the rear view mirror, and she noticed that his dark eyes had a look of concern. “Help us,” she mouthed the words to him so the kidnappers wouldn’t hear her. Jim quickly put his attention back to the winding road, and glanced back to Megan every few moments. She felt as though he might be their only hope.
Jim pulled the van off the side of the road, in the distance a river could be seen, the thick green summer foliage had hidden it from view as they drove along the highway, but now Ben could see the water, and he could see something else. He blinked his eyes a few times, trying to decide if he was imagining this or not.
“Look at those,” Megan gasped. She nudged Ben, even though he was already staring at the same spot of water through the branches.
They all climbed out of the van, Henry and Eddy stayed next to Lacey, and held on to Ben and Megan’s shoulders once they had stepped out of the van. Jim circled around and stood next to his friends.
“Okay now Ben, you gonna tell us where to go?” Henry asked as he squeezed Ben’s shoulder harder. “You told us to come up here, so now where?”
“I don’t know. I’m just following the coordinates that were engraved on the key we found.” Ben asked to see his cell phone, Jim had taken it to look at the map while he drove.
“Yeah,” he passed the phone to Ben. “Sorry Henry, this is as close as I could get us, can’t really drive in the river.” Jim joked.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Henry complained as he stood next to Ben, looking over his shoulder.
Ben enlarged the map screen, “Well look, here are the coordinates, we got, 59 degrees 25’03.70” North and 135 degrees 55’48.02” West.” He pointed to the screen, “That’s right there, we are right here,” he moved his finger a little bit to show where they needed to head. “So, we need to go toward the river.” Ben turned and began walking. A heavy hand grabbed his shoulder.
“Wait a sec, give me the phone!” Henry barked at him. Ben handed him the phone casually. He was scared, but wasn’t too worried, he knew that once he didn’t check in with his parents they would start tracking the phone, sooner or later the police would be following the signal and they would be found. He continued walking toward the river, truthfully he was curious about what he and Megan had seen.
The group stepped onto the gravel pathway and headed down an embankment to the river’s edge, the river gurgled and swirled around rocks and logs, and something in the air buzzed. Ben turned to acknowledge how awesome this was to his aunt and sister, he turned again and took in this view. In front of him, spread across the river, perched on the exposed rocks and pieces of logs, and flying through the air were hundreds of Bald Eagles. The sky was filled, they reminded Ben of the seagulls at the beach, how they would flock and fly in swarms when someone would feed them. This was the same, except they were enormous eagles. A shiver ran down Ben’s spine, he recalled his adventure with the Bald Eagle in Oregon, the fear, the excitement and the ultimate reward. He wondered if this time he would be rescued again by this amazing animal.
“Well, let’s get this show on the road.” Henry snapped his fingers toward Ben. He lifted Ben’s phone up to show Ben the screen.
“Okay, we need to go about fifteen feet into the water,” Ben directed.
Henry laughed, Eddy began to walk forward toward Ben until Henry pulled him back. “Not gonna happen there Ben, you go into the water, you get the safe or geocache, whatever you say it is. Then you bring it to us. Ben turned and looked at the water once again, he would be walking by and disturbing at least twenty eagles in order to get to the proper location. He looked back to Henry, who forcefully grabbed onto Megan’s ponytail, yanking her head backwards to his beard. “C’mon Ben, let’s go!” He growled.
That was enough to make Ben hustle, he took one step into the water, he jumped from the cold as it penetrated his tennis shoe. The eagles started to notice him, they were so preoccupied with catching salmon that they hadn’t really considered this group of people as a threat, until now that is. Ben took another step, and another, the rocks were slippery, the cold water now went up to his knees. In the distance he saw a pointed rock, one that didn’t seem to belong in a river, it certainly hadn’t been there long. It wasn’t smooth like the others, it hadn’t been worn down by the water, he thought. On this rock, three eagles were perched. Ben thought for a minute and then kneeled down, he grabbed a small pebble from the river floor and tossed it into the air toward the eagles. Suddenly, at least twenty eagles swarmed and tried to grab the rock in midair. Ben ducked in fear, as they swooped toward his head and screeched in loud disappointment. He continued to walk carefully toward the pointy stone, it was now only five feet away. He balanced as he got closer, the water was much higher now and insanely cold, but he knew he had to get this geocache. Hopefully it would prove to Henry that this was all just a big mistake, there was no gold, nothing, it was just geocaching.
Ben approached the stone, one eagle had landed and was perched, eyeing him curiously, “Shoo,” Ben waved his hand at the giant bird. It looked at him as if he were an alien. He took one more step and was right next to the stone, the eagle finally raised its wings and took off into the air, clearly upset that his prime fishing spot was being overtaken by this alien boy.
Ben knelt down and searched around the stone, he saw nothing. He moved the river rocks that surrounded the large sharp rock, still finding nothing. Then, he decided he would move the large stone. He pushed as hard as he could, suddenly the rock popped out of the thick muddy sand. Through the water Ben could see something shiny. It was brass. He reached down into the mud as fast as he could, the cold water bit into his skin, the pain shot through his body and gave him an instant headache. He grabbed the key as quickly as possible, pulled it up, and looked at it thoughtfully.
Once again, the brass key was engrav
ed with a waypoint. He held it up into the air. “Okay, I’ve got it!” he called. He noticed a commotion in the sky above his head. The eagles- not only were they upset about an intruder in their river, but now hundreds of bright white heads where directed at Ben’s hand. He looked around, panic and fear, pounded through his body. “Why don’t you let Lacey and Megan go, then I’ll give you the key and you can head to the next geocache. We’ll stop looking, you can have whatever it is this guy is hiding, okay?” Ben yelled over the screeching eagles.
“No, I think, you better stick with us, you seem to be good at this kid, just toss me the key, c’mon now.” Henry tugged on Megan’s ponytail causing her to yelp in pain. The eagles heard her yelp and focused on Henry for a moment. As the eagles moved closer to him and swarmed in the sky over Ben’s head, Henry became a little nervous, “Okay Ben, let’s get on out of here, just toss it here now, okay, just toss it here,” he repeated the words trying to calm himself down.
Ben looked at the key once again, “If you say so,” he said as he tossed the key toward Henry. In that moment Ben yelled, “Heads!” Lacey and Megan ducked and curled to the ground as quickly as they could. Henry, Eddy, and Jim all kept their eyes on the key, floating through the air until suddenly, hundreds of eagles were flying right toward them. As the brass key reflected in the sunlight, the eagles instinctively thought it was a fish. They dove, they screeched, their claws fought for the key in the air. The sky filled with the huge beasts, it seemed as if every eagle on that stretch of river was now headed directly toward the three men.
Megan and Lacey took their chance and ran toward the water. As they jumped in, screamed from the cold and headed toward Ben. The eagles continued to fight, midair over the key. Henry yelled as he dove onto the sandy beach trying to protect himself from the onslaught of angry, hungry eagles that were dive bombing him, but then suddenly it was quiet.
He looked up, the swarm of eagles was dissipating, and Eddy and Jim were in the fetal position on the beach next to him, covering their heads. He looked into the river, saw Ben, Megan and Lacey fighting the current as they ran to reach the shore on the other side of the river, and then he realized, the key was gone. He looked to the sky, hundreds of birds were flying in circles, looking again for places to roost, while they waited for the perfect catch, but one eagle he noticed was flying away, as it circled toward the road he saw the glimmer of the sun reflect off of something in its talons. It was something small, but the glare of sunlight made it painfully obvious to Henry, this was the eagle that had won the fight.
He turned to see Eddy and Jim still lying on the beach, he then noticed that the ground, the bushes, and trees, and especially the three of them were covered in a thick, slimy mess of white and green goo. He wiped it off his forehead, and cursed as he made the connection and realized that they weren’t covered in goo at all, but rather the poop of at least one hundred eagles.
6
Lacey, Megan, and Ben ran as fast as they could, their clothes were soaked, water sloshed from their shoes, they leaped over rocks, ran through bushes and branches scratched their arms and faces as they tried to get as far away from the river as possible. After a good ten minutes, Lacey slowed down to look behind them. She motioned for Ben and Megan to slow and to be quiet to listen. Hearing nothing she sank down to the ground to try to rest. Ben and Megan dropped to the ground also, both panting in sheer exhaustion.
“Well, that was amazing! Good thinking throwing the key, Ben!” She patted him on the back.
“Yeah. Except now we don’t have the key for the next geocache,” Megan sighed, she wasn’t quite ready for this adventure to be over yet. Ben saw the disappointment in her eyes, and then broke a small twig off one of the bushes next to them. He cleared a small area on the ground, of all grasses and pebbles, and then took the twig and started writing something.
“No worries, Megz,” he motioned for her to look. There on the forest floor were two sets of numbers.
“58 degrees 33’ 15.54” North and 155 degrees 47’ 32.36” West. Ben you are a rock star!” Megan squealed as she jumped and hugged her brother.
“Shhhh!” Lacey shushed her as she fearfully looked around. “Seriously though, we don’t have the key to unlock the next geocache, and well, guys this is getting really dangerous.” She dropped her head to her knees and sighed loudly. “Are we really doing this?”
“Well Henry and Eddy don’t have a clue where we’re going, they never saw the key, as far as they know we’re gone now too.” Ben smiled a sneaky smile, “The only problem I see, Aunt Lacey, is that we don’t have a GPS unit now, Henry has my phone.”
“It also means that when Mom and Dad start to freak out and can’t get a hold of us, they will start tracking your phone and it will lead the police to Henry and Eddy, then they’ll be arrested! See, Aunt Lacey, nothing to worry about!” Megan beamed with excitement.
“Yeah except, we’ll be missing! We can’t not tell your parents where we’re going.” Suddenly she lifted her head, “Okay, so we’ll call your parents as soon as we get back to the RV. We won’t wanna give them all the details, they’d of course make us come home, but we’ll let them know that we’re all fine.”
Ben and Megan smiled, then lifted their knuckles and bumped them together, Lacey lifted her hand and bumped knuckles too. But, all too suddenly the sound of a car interrupted the moment. They quickly jumped to the ground, just in case it was Henry. The car proceeded by, but this gave Ben a good idea. He carefully got up, motioned for Lacey and Megan to follow him. Slowly they looked around and then made their way to the road.
“If you’re lost, always find a road and follow it, its got to lead somewhere” Ben said proudly.
“Wow, Ben, your Bear Grylls obsession is paying off!” Megan joked. They followed the road for some time, finally ending up at the main road that went along the Chilkat River, from here they knew to head into Haines, which was the closest town.
“Ya know, Haines is actually really close to where we boarded the ferry boat to get to Juneau, I bet we can get a shuttle or something to take us back to the docks where we parked” Lacey picked up her pace to catch up with Ben and Megan.
Lacey bent down and reached her hand under the wheel well, right above the front driver’s side tire of the RV, she retrieved a magnetic key box, she slid the small black box open and pulled out the spare key to the RV.
“I never thought I would be happy to see this thing again,” Megan groaned, but then she brightened, “But I so am!”
“No kidding, home sweet redonculous home!” Ben joked as he waited for Lacey to unlock the door. Once inside, he grabbed a pen and paper and wrote the coordinates down again. He had been repeating them in his head the entire day. He smiled as he lifted the paper up and handed it to Lacey, she dug around in the glove compartment looking for her phone. They had stowed both her’s and Megan’s phones while going to Juneau, no reason to bring three along they had rationalized. And it ended up being a good thing, had they taken them Henry would have all three. Lacey turned her cell phone on, it vibrated to life, and then started dinging repeatedly as it announced all of her missed text messages and voice mails.
“This could take a minute,” Lacey apologized. A few minutes later she entered the waypoint Ben had given her into her phone’s map feature. “Looks like we’re headed to Katmai National Park,” she called to the back of the RV. There was no answer so she peered behind the seat; both Ben and Megan were sound asleep, one on the fold out chair and the other on the converted dinette table. “Well, I suppose I’ll drive,” she joked, she then looked closer at her phone’s screen, “Correction, I’ll drive forever, evidently. Dang Alaska is like huge!” She groaned. Lacey slipped her key into the ignition, buckled her seat belt and started the RV.
The small plane bobbed and swayed as it flew below the thick clouds. Megan sat up front next to the pilot and Lacey and Ben sat in the second row of seats. The seaplane could only seat a maximum of eight people. As Ben looked around he th
ought even then it would be a very tight squeeze. Luckily, today it was just the three of them and the pilot, Trent, who was about twenty-five, Ben thought. He was a nice guy, very talkative, a natural tour guide. As they approached a large lake he instructed the trio to hang on, he was bringing this bird down.
The seaplane glided down onto the water and came to a resting float in the middle of the lake. Ben had never experienced landing on water before, it was exhilarating and if he was honest, crazy scary! Trent got the plane anchored to the dock by the shore and then helped Ben, Megan, and Lacey out and onto the dock. They all pulled on a back pack, complete with bug spray, and what Trent referred to as “bear spray.” Ben was not confident in the small can of liquid, especially when he stepped off the dock onto the soft muddy ground and saw one of what seemed to be hundreds of huge bear prints. They were easily ten inches wide, and the markings left by their claws were even scarier. The claws on some of the prints seemed to stretch a good five inches in front of each toe, he shivered with fear.
“Okay, so we have our packs, get your cameras ready, and we’re just gonna go over a few more things before we head to the viewing platform.” Trent lifted his pack onto his shoulders and adjusted a holster on his hip that was carrying bear spray on one side and a gun on the other. “So, a few things about where we’re going; we want to be quiet, move slowly, no surprising these guys, okay? Also if a bear does start approaching you, don’t run, they can run forty miles per hour, so believe me, you’ll lose.” Ben laughed quietly. “We’ve all got bear spray, obviously only use it if you have to, remember we are in the bears’ home, and they are letting us watch and take pictures and most importantly, they aren’t eating us for lunch, so let’s be respectful.” With that, Trent turned and started to slowly hike up the trail. Lacey checked the GPS on her phone, they were heading in the right direction, she hoped they wouldn’t have to venture too far off the trail to find the geocache.
Waypoint Alaska Page 4