Melissa and Greg searched around the campsite while Matt went back into his tent to search it again.
“When was the last time you remember having it?” Melissa asked after they all came up empty handed.
“I know I looked at the time when I saw the storm clouds building a little while after we passed the alkali lake,” Matt recalled.
“You know that’s when we started racing each other to get here,” Melissa concluded.
“That’s right!” Matt acknowledged. “I bet it fell off when I was running after you. I’m going back to see if I can find it,” he added with a look of determination.
“Right now?” Melissa questioned.
“Yeah, that was my favorite watch. You bought it for me on my twenty first birthday,” Matt replied.
“I can get you another watch,” Melissa offered.
“I appreciate the offer, but I can go back and get it while you and Greg find the wonderful petroglyphs. I won’t be gone long,” he insisted.
“Okay,” Melissa exclaimed, realizing that Matt’s mind was already made up about the issue. “Just be careful,” she said with a concerned smile.
“Don’t worry, I will.” he reassured. Then he grabbed his water, and headed off in the direction of the lake.
Melissa watched him traverse the sandstone ledge with ease and then sighed when he disappeared from sight.
After a little bit, Melissa looked out over the valley below and was relieved when she saw a tiny blue dot walking along.
“He’s fine,” Greg remarked sarcastically when he saw her looking after him.
“I’m not worried about him, he never gets lost,” Melissa remarked.
“Then what is it?” Greg asked.
“Nothing that you would understand,” she remarked in a tone that ended the conversation.
While Matt was walking along he noticed a small tan and green lizard adjacent to him. It seemed to be following alongside him, stopping when he stopped and walking along when he walked.
“What are you doing?” Matt asked in a soft voice. The lizard blinked and then followed alongside him until it spotted a bug near a creosote bush. Then it chased after it without returning. Matt continued on for another mile or so until he saw the sunlight reflecting off a metallic object on the ground just ahead. He quickly ran over to the spot and was elated to see his watch lying neatly on the surface of the ground. As he knelt down to pick it up, he noticed a small round rock sitting inside the circle of the watchband. Ordinarily he wouldn’t have given the generic little stone a second look, except it was out of place. All the other rocks around the valley were angular as one would expect in a desert playa. “What’s an erratic doing all the way out here?” he muttered under his breath. Then he picked the stone up to examine it in more detail. Its vitreous luster and translucent faint rose color made him certain it was the mineral quartz. If he had found the stone in a river bed or on some beach, he would have simply thrown it back. There was nothing uncommon about a water-worn pebble, except they were in the one place that such a rock should not exist. Since it was somewhat of an oddity, he dropped it into his pocket after putting his watch back on. A faint chill ran down his spine despite the fact the morning air was warm and pleasant. Not one to ignore his instincts, he took one last look around, and then started back towards the camp. He glanced back from time to time, but all he saw was the tranquil alkali lake in the distance.
When he arrived back at the campsite, he could see that Melissa and Greg were both perched on a long sandstone ledge near the canyon opening.
“I found my watch,” he announced once he was close enough for them to hear him.
“That’s great,” Melissa responded. “We found something too, come up and see it.”
Melissa lowered her arm to help him climb the sheer side of the ledge. Then she pointed to a large flat area of the canyon wall that was covered in petroglyphs.
“Wow, those are amazing,” Matt remarked as he looked over her shoulder at them.
“I know, and look at the detail on the animals,” she exclaimed with excitement.
“What’s that one represent?” Matt asked as he pointed to a small round etching with radiant lines emanating from it.
“A sun symbol?” Melissa proposed.
“Come look at these,” Greg said as he took a couple of pictures of the scene with Melissa’s camera.
“What’s so interesting?” Matt asked as he scooted past Melissa to see what he was photographing.
“Look at that funny looking guy,” Greg remarked as he pointed to an image that depicted a lizard-like creature with a large head holding out an object with wavy lines around it.
“Interesting... have you seen this one yet?” Matt asked as he turned back towards Melissa.
“Yes, it seems to be a bit different from the other petroglyphs, I’m not really sure what to make of it,” she remarked.
Matt stared at it for a moment and then went further up the ledge in search of more petroglyphs.
“There are some good ones up here,” Matt announced.
“I’ll be right there,” Greg replied, as he made his way up to photograph them. Melissa followed a few moments later, and then proceeded to write down a brief description of each petroglyph as well as its size and location on the canyon wall.
After several hours of exploration, Matt noticed the sun was directly overhead but his wristwatch read 10:32. “That can’t be right?” he mumbled to himself. “Hey Greg, what time do you have?”
“Half past a freckle, and quarter to a hair!”
“Seriously, what time is it?”
“12:23, why do you ask?”
“My watch is off by a little over two hours,” Matt replied, looking a little perplexed by the discrepancy.
“It must have stopped for a couple of hours when it fell off of your wrist,” Greg surmised.
“I think I’ll head further up the canyon to make sure we didn’t miss any other interesting petroglyphs,” Matt proposed after setting his watch to the correct time.
“Sounds good,” Greg replied, seemingly content on staying in the area that he and Melissa had discovered.
Once he was out of sight, Matt jumped down onto the dry wash that lead up the canyon and started examining the various rocks and minerals along the way. As he worked his way further up the wash, he found a few pieces of rock stained green and blue indicating the presence of copper carbonates. Knowing the source of the mineralization had to be nearby, he continued onward looking for the contact zone between the sandstone of the canyons and some igneous body that he suspected was nearby.
When he finally emerged from the canyon area, he saw a large band of crystalline metamorphic rocks that abutted the dark gray granite of the Panamints on one side and the reddish sandstone on the other.
“Ah-ha,” he said to himself when he spotted several abandoned mine shafts in the distance. He quickly made his way over to the nearest one and started digging around on the tailing pile in an effort to reveal the nature of the ore deposit. His eyes immediately recognized the minerals malachite and azurite, but there was a lot more sphalerite and galena in the tailings than anything else, which he knew were the signature minerals of a silver mine. Matt also knew the early miners would not have endured the harsh desert climate for the unprofitable base metals, but silver would have drawn them in like a magnet. He knew the Panamint Range and the surrounding area produced hundreds of millions in silver before the turn of the century. As Matt walked up the tailing pile, he came to a small flat spot covered in weathered timbers. A few bits of china and a rusty cigar tin were all that remained of some old miner’s cabin. Matt wondered what had become of that nameless prospector. Had he struck it rich on this desolate hillside, or had he abandoned his mine in pursuit of riches elsewhere?
“Matt?” a familiar voice called out, interrupting his daydream.
“I’m over here,” he replied when he saw Melissa emerge from the canyon opening.
“I see you
found some old mines to snoop around,” she said with a smirk.
“You know how I lose track of time when I’m exploring,” Matt acknowledged.
“I sure do,” Melissa replied, referring to some past event.
“So, did you and Greg find any more interesting petroglyphs?” he asked in an effort to change the subject.
“Just this one curious image of a guy being beaten with a stick, I think he must have wandered off and forgotten about his friends and was being punished for it,” Melissa suggested.
“Really, you’ll have to show me that ‘petroglyph’ when we get back,” Matt remarked.
“Oh, I will,” Melissa replied jokingly as she turned to head back.
While they were walking along through the canyon, Matt noticed how the sun’s rays streamed down through the narrow passages, creating a striking contrast between the light and shadows. Each time Melissa passed from dark to light, he could not help but notice how the radiant beams accented her form.
“Is everything okay?” she asked when she noticed he was looking over at her.
“Yep, I was just looking at the erosion pattern on the sandstone wall that you passed by,” he replied, too shy to admit his real feelings for her.
“Oh,” Melissa remarked. She knew he was hiding the truth, but forcing him to reveal what she already knew was not going to be productive.
“What took you guys so long?” Greg asked with a hint of jealously in his voice.
“Matt found some abandoned mines and forgot all about us,” Melissa contended.
“Here we go…” Matt replied, knowing full well any jokes about his ‘geology obsession’ could equally apply to them.
“Maybe when we get back, we can help Matt find the support group for Rockheads,” Greg laughed.
“I don’t need any help finding it... it’s right across from the Anthronerds building,” Matt replied. Then he simulated a spider crawling along as a warning to Greg that he should stop teasing him.
“You won’t always have Mr. Crawly,” Greg said as he shook his fist at him.
“You won’t touch him,” Matt remarked as he held the spider out towards Greg.
“No, but someday soon my friend, he’s going to disappear,” Greg replied as he looked over at Melissa for support.
“Don’t involve me,” she remarked.
“Oh come on, you can’t let Matt tease me with it forever... it’s my kryptonite,” he pleaded.
“Why are you so afraid of spiders?” Melissa asked.
“I don’t know, they just creep me out,” Greg replied. “What about you, any fears you would like to share with us?” he asked in return.
“I prefer not to be on the upper floors of a skyscraper. I worry that if there was a fire, I couldn’t escape,” Melissa admitted.
“What about you Matt?” Greg asked.
“I’m not a big fan of scorpions,” Matt acknowledged, “but now that you know that, I suspect you’ll use it against me.”
“No, your secret is safe... my fear of spiders is just a few notches above scorpions, so I won’t be touching those either,” Greg promised.
“I’m starting to get a little hungry,” Melissa announced.
“Well it’s after five,” Matt said after checking his watch.
“The day goes by so fast when you’re not stuck in class,” Melissa remarked as she retrieved a chocolate covered granola bar from her pack.
“It sure does,” Greg agreed before heading off to his tent to get his food.
Matt’s stomach grumbled loudly when he saw Melissa eating and she tossed him a granola bar.
“Thanks,” he replied as he unwrapped the treat and started eating.
After dinner, they prepared for bed and each one disappeared into their tents once it got dark.
“Good night boys,” Melissa said as she tuned off the flashlight illuminating her tent.
“Good night Melissa,” Matt replied.
“See you in the morning,” Greg added.
Matt took off his shoes and socks and placed them near the opening of his tent in case he needed to get up in the middle of the night. Then he took off his pants and as he did so the small round stone fell out onto his sleeping bag. He instinctively picked it up and held it in his hand. “I wonder what geological force brought you to this place?” he said to himself while rolling the stone around in his palm. Then he tried to think back to all the natural processes that could have brought the stone to the desert, but he still couldn’t come up with a plausible explanation. After a few more minutes of puzzling over it, he put the stone back into his pant’s pocket and closed his eyes. Before he knew it, he was dreaming that he was inside a dark and misty room. Then a stranger approached from the shadows and told him in a commanding tone, “Don’t let them take the stone!”
“What are you talking about?” Matt asked.
“It’s too late to explain in detail… just do what they ask, but don’t give them the stone,” the stranger insisted. Matt abruptly woke from his dream and peeked out of his tent when he heard a rumbling noise in the distance. Through the darkness he saw a low flying helicopter searching the valley with a spotlight. Unsure of what was going on, he instinctively grabbed his pants and shoes and hurriedly got dressed. Then he ran out from his tent and was met with a blinding white light that disoriented him. Before he get back to his tent, a cloud of dust enveloped the entire campsite as a large military style chopper passed overhead and landed just behind him.
“What the hell is going on?” Greg asked in an agitated tone as he ran out from his tent.
“I don’t know, a helicopter just buzzed us and then landed behind our campsite,” Matt remarked as he shielded his eyes from the intense light.
“What’s going on?” Melissa asked as she ran over to them.
“I’m not sure,” Matt replied nervously as a group of soldiers appeared from the shadow of the helicopter’s floodlight.
“Get your belongings and come with us!” a deep booming voice commanded.
“I think we should do what they say,” Matt suggested as he remembered the warning in his dream.
“Okay,” Melissa replied, trusting his instinct. Then they hurried back to their tents to gather their things. Once they were done cramming all of their stuff into their backpacks, Melissa followed Matt towards the helicopter.
“Where’s Greg?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Matt replied as he tried to locate him through the mixture of dust and soldiers scurrying about. Then he saw Greg arguing with one of the soldiers back near the campsite.
“Come on Greg!” he yelled, but Greg did not hear him. Then a split second later he and Melissa saw him fall lifeless onto the cold hard ground.
“Greg!” Melissa yelled, as she ran back over to him.
“Stand down!” the soldier commanded when he saw her angry face.
“What did you do to him?” she demanded.
“He’s alright,” the soldier replied as he illuminated the stun gun clutched firmly in his left hand.
“What is going on here?” Melissa blurted out angrily.
“Ma’am, you and your friends are trespassing on the China Basin Proving Grounds and are in violation of the Federal Law,” the soldier stated in a matter-of-fact tone.
“No, we’re not, this is public land!” Melissa argued.
The soldier stared back at her unsympathetically and without a response. Then he motioned for her to go to the chopper as he reset the stun gun as if preparing to use it on her. Melissa reluctantly turned and headed back over to Matt.
“Did you see what they did to Greg?” she asked.
“Yeah, I didn’t hear a gunshot so I figured they must have knocked him out with something,” he replied.
“They sure did... and that soldier said we were trespassing,” Melissa remarked, barely able to contain her frustration.
“This is public land!” Matt asserted.
“I know, that’s what I told him, but he just ordered me o
ver here,” Melissa complained.
“Get inside!” another soldier interrupted. Melissa shot him her dirtiest look, but it was lost in the darkness.
Once onboard the dimly lit chopper, Matt gave her a reassuring smile as he sat down next to her adjacent to the doorway. Melissa smiled back, but her attention shifted back to the soldiers as they carried Greg in and dropped him and his pack on the metal floor. It was obvious the effects of being shocked by over 100,000 volts had not worn off yet. Matt glanced at the soldiers’ uniforms, but other than an American Flag patch in the multicam pattern, they lacked any other identifying marks. “Ironic,” Matt thought to himself as the chopper lifted into the night sky.
After a short flight, the helicopter landed in a remote area that was concealed by the darkness.
“Follow me!” a soldier commanded as he exited the chopper first. Then he led them over to a large dark building and put them into three separate rooms. Matt sat quietly wondering what would happen next as he looked around at the bleak surroundings. Every square inch of the room was painted off-white including the cold metal chair he was sitting in and a small white table that was bolted to the floor. Matt gulped down a lump that was forming in the back of his throat as he stared up at a vent on the ceiling. Although he could not see a camera inside the vent opening, he imagined it was there, and undoubtedly watching his every move. Matt tried to picture the topo map of the Panamint Valley in his head. He was certain the canyons were well within public land boundaries, but then he started to wonder if the map was out of date, as uncertainty started to settle in.
After what seemed like an hour, the door to his room suddenly opened and a tall muscular soldier walked in and slammed the door behind him. Matt sheepishly glanced at the man who was dressed in tan fatigues from head to toe. On his lapel, Matt noticed a small silver and gold patch with the letters DOD stitched in bold lettering.
“What were you and your friends doing out there?” the man asked in an aggressive tone.
“We were studying the petroglyphs in the canyons for a school project,” Matt replied innocently.
“Why were you trespassing on military land?” the interrogator demanded.
Dreamstone Page 3
