Artifact 15: Something Unexplained is Out There

Rusty saw something very strange, other worldly, and he convinced John that they need to go investigate the crash site-or was it the other way around?

Artifact 15: Something Unexplained is Out There

 

             Fully committed to their undertaking, the two men quickly gathered up some water and tools. They told the other men to pacify them that they had to fix some fence the army had broken. John told Mrs. Thompson they were going out to mend fences, but she obviously didn’t believe him, standing with hands on hips, and shaking her head.

            “I don’t believe it for a second because something else is up with you two,” she said. “I’ve never seen you two act like this before.”

             “What you mean, Melba?” John said taken aback with a daring act of innocence. 

             “Well, let me tell you, John Thompson. Rusty acts completely out of sorts over something because he never behaves or looks like that.” She pointed at Rusty.  Rusty tried to stand up straight and put on a face he thought was normal. “Don’t bother Rusty, I know you better.  Then, on top of that you men go in the office and put back a few whiskies, in the middle of the day no less, when I heard some loud voices in there.” She turned to her husband. “You too, John Thompson,” Melba tapped a finger on John’s chest. “Don’t play that innocent playacting with me!”

            “You’re right Melba,” said John while Rusty gave him a look as if he half expected John to reveal the whole situation to her. “But, I’m sorry Melba, I can’t tell you anything right now. We have to go, and ah see this situation for ourselves and check up on these Army men.”

            “Well John, don’t get your butt in a wringer.  You know what that man on the radio says about the Army and their ways.”

             “Robert Mavel,” Rusty interjected, with sudden recall.

            “Right, Mavel’s Truth Talk Show.  He sure has it in for the Army and everything with him is a conspiracy, the A-bomb, the Russians, the US Military, the works,” John said putting on his hat. “But he is after the truth!”

            “Sometimes you don’t want, don’t need, and can’t handle the truth,” Melba said rather bluntly.

            “You’re right, but nevertheless, we’re heading out; be back in a couple hours.”

            “Oh, all right, but you two better be careful out there. We can’t have you’uns getting in trouble with the United States Army.”

            “Sure, sure, Melba,” John said with a pacifying tone.

            John and Rusty put the few things in the cab of the truck and started it up with a cloud of smoke.  The engine idled down and John put it in gear. 

            “Oh, a little under a quarter tank of gas, you said out past well thirteen?”  Rusty nodded confirmation looking over at the gauge. “We had better gas ‘er up some.” They pulled around back of the barn to an elevated storage tank and let gravity empty out about ten gallons into the truck. “That’ll be plenty.” John said, hanging up the nozzle and getting back in the truck. Rusty just sat there apparently in deep thought. 

            Before he started the engine again, John looked at Rusty. “You know if any of the other men came to me with this c**k and bull story I’d tell them to take their s**t out to the pile, but you, you I know and this was somethin’ you saw and bothered you. So it musta’ been bad and that’s why I’m standing with you on this.”

            John put the truck into gear and released the clutch. The men headed off onto the trail Rusty had traveled earlier with the soldiers. His frame of mind didn’t really change along the way. John tried to get Rusty to talk about other things: the ranch, the men, but Rusty would just barely answer and continued to stare out the windshield.  John pointed out the towering cumulus clouds that were building in the afternoon heat. “Looks like maybe some storms tonight.” But it was no use. There wasn’t any way John could get Rusty to converse in idle chit chat, he was so immersed in his thoughts.  

            After the first two gates John said, “So you know for certain that there are no bodies left out there now?”

            Rusty shook his head as John continued, “I’m sure the Army looked around and took all the bodies to the post. In fact, they probably picked up any other unusual evidence that might show that they were up to something they didn’t want to get out.”

 Rusty sat there dispassionately not agreeing or disagreeing to John’s belief. They continued in silence through the last gate. When they rounded the last hill Rusty pointed out the crash site with the shiny metal glinting in the late afternoon sun.  John could see the tire tracks from the earlier visit and turned to Rusty.

  “If this turns out to be something as important as we think, we must be careful not to leave any trace of our search. Just look carefully and we’ll draw our own conclusions from what we see.”

Rusty sat up straighter, focused and attentive. He blurted out, “we have to find something to prove what happened here ‘cause what they took away just wasn’t right and earthly!” 

 John nodded not really sure of what he expected despite Rusty’s insistence that something strange was out here. John circled the old flatbed truck around following the tracks he could pick out in the dry soil and crushed sage grass. He halted where he saw foot tracks in the loose soil. 

            “Rusty you’re pretty much plum-tuckered out and worried about what you saw out here, but you gotta’ keep your wits about you, here and now.”  Rusty nodded, got out of the truck and rounded to John’s side.  “Watch where you walk and go slowly.”  The old footprints were faintly visible until they approached closer to the wreckage where the two men lost them in amongst the debris.  John let out low whisper. “Ooo-wee, I have never seen such a mess of stuff lying about in all my life, I can’t make heads nor tails out of nothin’.”

            Rusty stood and scanned the area. “My reckoning is that they picked up the bodies from farther out…‘cause of the time it took them to bring ‘em to the truck.”

 John bent over to touch some metal chards.  “Look. This metal is thin like paper, and there isn’t any weight to it.”

Rusty picked up a strip of what might have been the outside skin of the ‘aircraft.’   He flexed it into a loop, let it go, and it sprung back in the original flatness.  He then took the piece and between both hands crumpled it into a ball, holding it in one tight fist. 

             “John,” he called, “looky this.”  He opened his hand and the metal sprung out of his tightly clenched fist and returned to the original flatness. 

            “Well, I’ll be damned; never saw nothin’ like that.”

John picked up a little different looking piece of metal that looked more like tin foil and crumpled it up between his fingers. It stayed compressed like an old Juicy Fruit chewing gum wrapper, John realized. He stuck it in his pocket, making sure Rusty didn’t see.  Looking around, he saw a metal scrap like Rusty had and picked it up. Crumpling this piece up, he found that it acted similar to Rusty’s in that it returned to its original shape after crumpling. When Rusty glanced over at him, John feigned a close inspection and stuffed it into his pocket when Rusty turned away. 

            “John, come here!” Rusty shouted, pointing at larger piece that was curved in two directions to a crease, embedded in the ground and partially buried with loose dirt surrounding it. “Now this is hard to explain.” When John came closer, Rusty squatted down and pointed. “Look at these strange markings like no writin’ I ever saw before.”

 On the inside of the broken panel there was a shiny strip with a row of symbols or letters along it.      

            “You are right there partner, they look like some crazy foreign language or something like Egyptians or something like that. And see this here,” John pointed out. “It is like some kind of shiny wood or something.”

Rusty slowly walked out further into the debris field probably hoping to see some bodies, even though deep down he knew there weren’t any to be found and not that he wanted to see any again. He found a broken piece of the shiny wood strip and put it in his pocket.  He felt as if there wasn’t a thing out here that would validate his story of the strange bodies, but he still hoped there was something he had missed or yet to discover.

 Another small strip of metal lay in a pile of debris.  Hopefully, he carefully pulled on it. The strip was a broken strip akin to what they had seen inside the panel.  Turning it over there were two and a half marks on it. This was a keeper, Rusty thought.   Venturing on again and examining another piece, he found it to be ordinary milled lightweight wood. So very odd, Rusty thought, a mix of strange, unexplainable pieces and then pieces of ordinary material.    

            The men continued to poke in the wreckage, but realized it would be impossible to thoroughly examine the whole crash site without spending an entire day at it.  John and Rusty stood up at the same time and looked to the west because the shadows of the mountains and clouds that hugged the ridgeline fell across their position shading the crash site. 

             “We only have the headlamps on the truck to light up the area if we want to stay, but I really have doubts about finding anything unusual to back up your story of the bodies"not that I don’t believe you.”  John said.

            “We have about another hour of good daylight to burn,” Rusty said. “So, let’s keep looking around.”

            “What are your thoughts about the Army returning soon?”  John asked, while bending over to nudge a piece of debris over.  

            “They were all stern and intent about letting me know they were returning…and somethin’ I forgot about was the airplane.” 

              “Airplane, what airplane?”

            “You know, we saw it earlier before breakfast and talked about it at the table.  That Lieutenant and soldiers were talkin’ to the flyboys by radio.  Seems that the airplane, a big bomber-like plane hung around while we were out there. While we were still out here it left for gas. They were s’posed t’be right back but it didn’t return. Don’t know why except the soldier said maybe the refueling took longer.”

            “You mean the airplane could be back here anytime?” John asked incredulously.  “They could come and see us out here!” 

  “Naw, they were way the hell up there,” Rusty says with a wave, “they can’t see us down here.”

             “Rusty, Rusty, don’t ‘ya know? Those planes have big scopes on them to spot people on the ground.” 

             “Well, I knew about it and they could’ve been here before we left the house, but I took my chances.”

             “Yes, I took my chances too.”  John looked grim. “We’re headin’ back.”

            “But John.” Rusty stood with fists clenched.  “We gotta’ find somethin’ of worth.”

             “Except it’s getting too late now.”

              John turned and walked toward the truck.  Rusty continued to look around and walk among the debris to the east. He stopped and picked up some bits he saw.  John opened the truck door and waited for Rusty while scanning the sky and listening for the plane. 

            “You know, it aint goin’ rain,” John said loudly from inside the truck. “Rain would have covered our tracks some.” 

             Rusty stalled his return to the truck making John more impatient. 

            “Rusty, I’m sorry we didn’t find anything telling, but maybe we can find something out about these pieces. I picked up some small bits.” Rusty didn’t say anything, he just looked hang-dog depressed like he had been caught telling a tall tale.  “We need to go back as far as we can without the truck’s lights lit just in case that plane comes ‘round.”

 Rusty got in the truck with John and just nodded.  Rusty’s pockets bulged with parts of the debris he found, making him uncomfortable as he sat, but John didn’t seem to notice. Rusty knew that what he picked up wasn’t telling in any sort of way, but he knew for a fact that what he had seen wasn’t of this world.

How could he ever prove it?