by David Wood
As he strode past the Jeep, he noticed for the first time someone sitting in the passenger seat. It was Matthew, wannabe author, and Mari’s boyfriend. He inclined his head and pointed at Matthew to let him know he’d been spotted.
“Now that,” he said to himself as he turned away, “is interesting.”
Chapter 4
The knock at the door came again, harder this time. Bones turned off the shower, grabbed a towel, and opened the bathroom door.
“Hold on a minute!” He pushed his long hair back out of his face, wrapped the towel around his waist and, still dripping, headed to the door. A thin trail of water followed him across the threadbare carpet. When he got to the door, he peered out through the security peephole and smiled.
Marisol stood there, gazing intently at the door as if she could see right through it.
“This is a surprise,” he said as he unlocked the door and opened it. “Come on in.”
“This isn’t a social call. I just...” Her eyes widened when she saw his state of undress. “Do you always answer the door naked?”
“Only when somebody keeps pounding on the door when I’m trying to shower. Besides, I’m not naked. I’m wearing a towel.”
“That’s a hand towel.” She pointedly looked the other way.
Bones looked down and realized that, in his hurry, he had indeed grabbed a towel that barely covered his hips and pelvis. “First peek is free. Anything more than that you’ve got to buy me dinner.”
“Could you just get dressed? I’m in a hurry.” Mari turned her back on him and stood, arms crossed, tapping her foot while he pulled on shorts and a t-shirt.
“You don’t mind if I go commando, do you?”
She let out an exasperated sigh. Even that was cute, Bones noticed. “Oh my God,” she said, “are you always like this?”
“Give me time. I only get better.” He dropped down on the corner of the bed, eliciting a strained squeal from the aging box springs. “You can turn around now. I’m as decent as I ever get.”
Mari took a quick glance back to make sure he was, in fact, dressed, before she turned all the way around.
“What were you doing out at Halcón Rock?” she asked without preamble.
“Oh, is that what it’s called?”
“Just tell me.” She took a deep breath and bit her lip. “Please?”
“It’s cool. I’m into climbing. I went for a run, saw the, what did you call it, Halcón Rock, and thought I’d give it a go.”
“Just like that? You saw a rock and decided to scale it?”
“That’s sort of how rock climbing works. Do you climb?”
Mari shook her head. “Matthew thinks,” she hesitated, “that you went out there just to mess with him.”
“That would be a trick since I didn’t know anyone was going to be out there. I might be devilishly handsome and wickedly charming, but I’m not psychic.”
Mari considered this for a quiet moment. “And of all places, you just happened to wander out there?”
“Dude, I’ve never been here before. I went for a run to kill time, and that’s where I ended up. What’s so special about that place?”
“Nothing,” she said, much too fast. “It’s just that Matthew was out there, and I was afraid you might have gone out there to start something with him.”
“Why would I do that?” Bones knew the answer, and he suspected she did too, but he wanted to hear her say it.
“No reason, really. It’s just that he sometimes rubs people the wrong way. I saw you two talking earlier, and I thought maybe you might have, I don’t know, taken a dislike to him.”
“I hated that idiot before I even met him, and you know why.”
Mari hung her head.
He softened his tone. “Why do you put up with him? You’re awesome, and he’s a tool.”
Mari giggled at that. “You don’t know me at all. I’m not that great.”
Bones rose and, in two steps, closed the distance between them. He reached out to brush the hair back from her bruised eye, but she flinched and took a step backward.
“Sorry,” he said. “Listen, I know relationships are complicated, but this is the simplest thing in the world. You need to get away from this guy for your own safety. Hell, get out of this town. If you need my help, I’m here. Whatever it takes.” Mari was right; he didn’t know her. But he couldn’t stand to see a person stuck in a situation like hers. He had to at least offer.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “But you don’t know what you’re offering. Matthew’s dangerous, and it’s not just him.”
“I promise you, I’ve faced a million times worse.” He almost laughed. Mari wouldn’t believe half of the things he’d done in his life.
“I should go,” she said, taking another step back. “It’s a small town, and someone might notice me hanging around here.
“Let them talk. Maybe your boyfriend would be stupid enough to make an issue of it.”
Mari shook her head. “Will you just promise me you’ll stay away from Halcón Rock?”
“I will if you’ll tell me why.”
A curtain seemed to draw down over her eyes. That request was obviously a non-starter. She cocked her head and frowned. “Did you really run all the way out there and then climb the rock?”
“Almost. I still had about ten feet to go when Deputy Dipshit and your fellow showed up.”
Mari smiled. “Deputy Dipshit. I’ll have to remember that one.” She fell silent. They stood, gazing at one another, Mari not crossing the threshold, but not making a move to leave, either. “Is this what they call an uncomfortable silence?”
“I’m not uncomfortable, but I think you’d be a lot more comfortable if you came inside and closed the door. We can just talk.”
She twitched, as if she were about to take a step toward him, but froze. “You have a lot of scars. I peeked a little bit.”
“I was a Navy SEAL. I’ve been through some stuff.”
“I’ll bet you’ve got some stories to tell.” The eye contact was gone.
“Plenty. Want to hear a few?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Maybe tomorrow at lunchtime.” She turned and hurried away without a goodbye.
Bones moved to the doorway and watched her walk to her car, get in, and drive away. When she was gone, he closed the door, grabbed his cell phone, and did a quick search for Halcón Rock. The results made him whistle.
“Holy crap. I think I need to go back for another look.”
Chapter 5
No one was about when Bones slipped out of his motel room and headed down the street. He kept to the darkest shadows, which wasn’t difficult since there were no streetlights—at least, none that worked. The dim glow of the neon light in window of the Blue Corn Grill cast a pool of light on the ground, and Bones found himself longing for the cool, blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. That or the giant swimming pool at Mandalay Bay. He wasn’t particular.
High above, a dusting of stars twinkled in the clear night sky. The dim, glowing band of the Milky Way galaxy lay just above the horizon. Quemadura might be a hole in the wall, but the night sky was spectacular. You didn’t see skies like this back east. Humming the Eagles’ song, “Peaceful, Easy Feeling,” Bones crossed the street and struck out across the open desert.
When he was well clear of town, he turned on his phone and started reading one of the articles he had found on Halcón Rock. It was a piece from the Santa Fe Sun. He did a double-take when he saw the name of the author of the piece.
“Amanda Shores. What are the odds?” Smiling at pleasant memories, he began to read.
SUBTERRANEAN SLAUGHTER?
For more than a half-century, New Mexico and aliens have gone hand-in-hand in the national consciousness. From stories of battles at secret alien bases to perhaps the most notorious story of them all, the Roswell Incident, when someone thinks of aliens, their thoughts almost always turn to New Mexico.
Roswell, New Mexico has, understandably, receive
d the most attention in this regard. From the well-known museum to the space-themed cafes, all the way down to the streetlamps shaped like the heads of visitors from beyond, the city had cultivated the alien connection and parlayed it into a modest but respectable tourist trade, drawing both the casual visitor and the dedicated researcher. Roswell, however, is far from the first community in this state to be associated with alien contact.
While so-called UFO experts focus their attentions on the most recent and renowned stories, reports of alien contact in the region date back to the indigenous peoples who made their homes here long before contact with European explorers. Reports of strange lights in the sky, artistic representations of strange beings and crafts, and even direct contact with extraterrestrials are common to the lore of tribes of the Southwest and beyond.
One such story survives in Apache lore. According to the legend, a group of warriors were descended upon during the night by a handful of alien-looking beings. The men were short, with lean, gray bodies and bulbous heads and carried “flashing spears full of fire.”
Though Apache are widely regarded as the finest warriors among the Southwestern tribes, masters of camouflage and ambush, the dozen or more warriors were helpless against the handful of strange beings. Only two of the original party managed to escape.
While most people would consider this nothing more than a story, one elder claims to have in his possession proof of the encounter. According to his account, one surviving warrior fought hand-to-hand with one of the attackers, managed to wound it with his knife, and came away holding something that belonged to the strange visitor. This artifact has allegedly been handed down for hundreds of years and has never been shown to the public. Whether it exists at all, who can say?
An interesting wrinkle to the story of this incident, which allegedly took place at the foot of Halcón Rock near Quemadura, is that the aliens came, not from the sky, but up from beneath the earth. The Apache saw neither lights in the sky nor strange crafts of any kind. Depending on which version of the story one believes, the aliens either descended from the top of the rock formation or came up from somewhere underneath it.
Few, if any, researchers have investigated the story. Those who have tried report being turned away by members of the local Sheriff’s Department. A Santa Fe Sun reporter received similar treatment when attempting to visit Halcón Rock, despite the monument’s location on public land. The deputy at the scene cited safety concerns, but otherwise declined to comment.
Quemadura-based author and self-described UFO skeptic Matthew Jameson dismissed the legend as mere fancy.
“The locals don’t take the story seriously,” said Jameson. “I promise you; no one has seen any aliens wandering around here. Spreading this sort of story is nothing more than an excuse to set up a t-shirt stand. We’ll leave that to our friends in Roswell.”
Did aliens once live beneath the red rocks of eastern New Mexico? Do they live there still? Perhaps we’ll never know.
Bones closed the browser window and turned off his phone to preserve the battery. There wasn’t much there to go on, but Matthew Jameson was obviously the same Matthew he’d encountered earlier. Mari’s boyfriend. The man had some sort of interest in Halcón Rock, and if Bones didn’t miss his guess, the man believed there was something there, and Matthew wanted to be the first to find it. Add in the fact that the local authorities consistently patrolled and chased away visitors from a location that wasn’t strictly theirs to control access to, and the whole thing stank like a men’s locker room.
Eager to see what he could find, Bones set out a steady jog. Soon, the dark shape of the rock formation loomed against the starlit horizon. Bones grinned. This time, he would make it to the top and see what Matthew was hiding up there.
Chapter 6
Aside from the view, the top of Halcón Rock had little to recommend it. Rocky spikes and spikier clumps of yucca dotted the flat top of the rock formation. To the south, a few faint lights marked Quemadura where it dozed beneath the starry sky. He took a moment to savor the cool, late-night desert breeze that swept over him, letting it reinvigorate his tired body. After a few minutes soaking up the tranquility, he was ready to search.
“All right, Matthew, let’s see what big secret you’re hiding up here.” He made a circuit of the top of the rock, relying on his keen night vision. No sense breaking out his Maglite and possibly drawing attention to himself unless absolutely necessary. He picked his way carefully along the uneven surface, keeping an eye out for anything unusual.
His turn around the rock took about twenty minutes, and nothing leaped out at him. He supposed it was possible that it wasn’t the top of the rock per se, but the rock in general that Matthew and the deputy were keeping outsiders clear of. After all, the article had said the so-called aliens might have come up from underground. But, he had gone to the trouble of climbing up here so he might as well make a thorough inspection.
He took out his Maglite and replaced the clear lens with a red one, which would better preserve his night vision and be harder to spot from a distance. Cupping the flashlight to hide the beam, he began working a grid back across the rock. Maddock, his best friend and business partner, would be proud of him. Whenever they searched for a sunken ship, Maddock preferred the orderly, painstaking approach to searches while Bones would prefer to wing it. In fairness, winging it didn’t often work out, but when it did, it saved them a great deal of time and spared Bones a wealth of boredom.
This search proved equally fruitless. Ten yards away, a tall stone spire marked the west end of the rock, with nothing but coarse stone to fill the intervening space.
“I guess it’s back down again. At least I got to do some more climbing.” More out of a sense of obligation than purpose he completed his search. When he reached the spire, he let out a whistle. “What have we got here?”
Footprints scuffed the sunbaked patch of dirt at the foot of the spire, and off to the side lay a deep scrape where something heavy had been dragged a short distance. Someone had been busy in this very spot.
A manhole-sized slab of rock lay at an angle against the base of the spire. Bones heaved against it and slid it to the side.
“Jackpot!” A dark shaft dropped down about five feet to a narrow passageway that disappeared into the darkness. By the looks of it, it was just wide enough to accommodate his bulk. “Dark, creepy tunnel heading down into who knows where? This is totally my jam.” Heart racing, he slid feet-first into the passageway.
Once inside, he exchanged his red lens for the standard clear one. Down here his night vision would be useless, and there was no danger of anyone seeing him so he might as well have as much light as possible.
The way down was steep and irregular, a natural fissure exacerbated over time by the heating and cooling of the rock and washed clean by occasional rainfalls. He slipped, slid, and clambered deeper into the darkness until he finally came down in a low chamber about twenty feet across. He shone his light all around. A few stalactites dangled from the ceiling and white cave pearls glinted on the floor. Multiple passageways led off in various directions. He’d found his way into a cavern system.
“Holy crap. I don’t have time to explore every freaking one of these.”
He didn’t have to explore at all. A quick inspection revealed that someone, Matthew, he assumed, had marked all but one of the openings with an X in yellow chalk.
“I wonder how long it took him to explore and eliminate all these other passageways.” Grinning at the thought of benefitting from what likely represented months, if not years, of Matthew’s efforts, Bones headed down the unmarked passageway.
Like most caverns, the way twisted and turned, rose and fell, but gradually descended. He lost all sense of how far he’d traveled in this dark, unrelenting stone tube. He kept a sure grip on his Maglite, knowing he’d be in trouble if he should lose it.
After traveling for a good fifteen minutes, bypassing several caves and passages marked with an X, he came to
a halt at the edge of a yawning pit. Smooth-sided and twenty feet across, it dropped fifty feet or more to a rock-choked bottom. The passageway continued on the other side.
Bones shone his light around, and the beam fell on a pile of lumber, all short lengths of two-by-fours, a box of nails, and a hammer. He chuckled. Was Matthew going to try and build a bridge out of three-foot long boards?
“I’ll bet that idiot tried to carry standard length lumber down here and couldn’t make it through the tight curves. Wish I’d been there to see it.” Smiling, he played his light around the cavern, wondering how he might make it across. One option was to climb down into the pit and then climb back up the other side, but he’d need gear and a partner for that. Perhaps there was another way.
He carefully inspected the chamber and realized that the walls weren’t smooth at all. Deep, jagged clefts split the surface, running horizontally from one side of the defile to the other. A spark of an idea kindled his adventurous spirit. His friends called it “reckless” but Bones knew his capabilities.
“I can do this.” His eyes followed the flashlight beam as it dropped to the bottom of the pit far below. “I’d better do this or else I’m screwed.”
He took a minute to try and talk himself out of this course of action. There was no need, he thought, to investigate any further. What did he care if Matthew was looking for underworld aliens? It wasn’t his problem. Why risk falling, maybe to his death, just to beat the man to the other side?
But the truth was, this wasn’t about besting Matthew. This was about Bones’ innate curiosity and his fascination with all things strange and mysterious. It was the sort of legend he and Maddock were always chasing down, and usually doing it in much more perilous circumstances than this. Bones wasn’t a fearful man, and he wasn’t about to be deterred by a challenging climb.
His mind now made up, he took time to plan his route. He wished he had a helmet lamp, and helmet to put it on, but his Maglite would have to do. His eyes traced the cracks in the rock, picking out handholds and footholds. When he was satisfied he’d chosen the best path, he clamped his flashlight in his teeth, slid his foot into a crevasse, and began to climb.
