SALIENT: Fast Paced SciFi Thriller

by Simon Rosser

  “So, I know it's not easy for you guys, but can you tell us again exactly what happened two nights ago up here?” Armstrong asked, clicking his fingers at John, who grabbed his handheld video camera from by his side in response.

  Tom cleared his throat, and started recounting the events once again. He knew that this time it was for the benefit of the documentary however, so he was careful not to embellish the story in any way, not that he needed to.

  “So I understand that you're a budding physicist and your passion lies in the search for extra-solar planets. What inspired you along this path?” Armstrong asked, in semi-interview mode.

  Tom took a breath and looked up to the darkening sky. A few pinpricks of light were already visible in the heavens. "Well, my inspiration came from Carl Sagan. He’s my hero. It’s a shame he died when I was just a ten-year-old kid, but by then I was already hooked on his Cosmos TV series in the U.K. One of his quotes pretty much sums up how I feel; ‘The universe is a pretty big place. If it’s just us, it's an awful waste of space.’

  “Cut; cut! Excellent, excellent,” Armstrong said, giving Tom the thumbs up sign.

  There was a short silence as everyone appeared to stop and think about what Tom, or rather Carl Sagan had said. Only the crackle of the campfire as it popped and spat embers of burning wood permeated the clearing.

  Just as Armstrong was about to speak, a hollow thud...thud...thud sound, as if someone were hitting a large tree with a baseball bat, echoed from somewhere deep in the forest, the source of the sound difficult to determine.

  “What the hell was that?” Alicia asked, somewhat alarmed.

  “Hopefully, just an overgrown, hungry woodpecker,” Bruce shrugged, looking at the others, trying to make light of the noise.

  Armstrong surveyed the darkening pine forest. “I was just about to say that I don’t mind keeping first watch.”

  “That’s fine by me. It's been a long day,” Casey said, using a small sharp twig to pick something from between his teeth.

  As they started to clear up, Jess turned to Tom. "What was that noise?"

  Tom shook his head. “It could be anything. Maybe the military are closer than we think,” he said. He was actually thinking back to a documentary he’d seen in the U.K. about Bigfoot hunters. The documentary had shown footage of supposed recordings of what was purportedly the sound of a Bigfoot communicating by using logs to bash against the sides of forest trees. He'd laughed at the suggestion at the time, but now his unease was growing.

  The time was approaching midnight, and Tom and Jess were bedded down in their tent pod. Jess had just checked through the tent pod window for the third time to make sure Armstrong hadn’t fallen asleep while on lookout; he hadn’t.

  “I feel a little safer now I must say,” she whispered, snuggling up to Tom.

  “Good, well we should be fine. I know that creature was big but it can't harm us with these guys around.”

  Tom’s phone suddenly vibrated on the small plastic night table beside the bed, making him jump. He rolled his eyes and reached over to check the screen. A text message had come in from Gerry over at MIT.

  Tom unlocked the phone using his thumb-print and read the message;

  HI TOM, HOPE YOU’RE SAFE. JUST THOUGHT YOU’D WANT TO KNOW THAT THE UNITED NATIONS ARE MEETING TOMORROW IN N.Y. TO DISCUSS THE SIGNAL. THE EVENT WILL BE STREAMED LIVE, SO TRY TO BE CLOSE TO A LAPTOP AT 3 P.M. EASTERN TIME. I'VE ALSO DONE A BIT OF HACKING INTO NASA'S OFF-SITE FILES AND YOU'RE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE WHAT I’VE DISCOVERED. IT LOOKS LIKE A RETURN MISSION TO THE MOON IS BEING PREPARED, USING A HIGHLY CLASSIFIED, RECENTLY DEVELOPED, ADVANCED SPACECRAFT. THE MISSION HAS BEEN GIVEN THE CODENAME; ODYSSEY, AND IS SCHEDULED TO LAUNCH AT 20.00, PACIFIC TIME TOMORROW NIGHT!"

  Four and a half miles northeast of their camp-site, a large, black, ten-wheeled truck was waved through the military checkpoint. Emblazoned on the truck’s side was the SETI symbol; the words spelt with an upside down S, cleverly made to look like a question mark, and set inside a large radio dish, meant to represent the Arecibo – the world’s second largest radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico and used by SETI to search for signals from space. The truck growled on up the mountain road, followed by two smaller white and green camouflage-painted military vehicles.

  Inside the truck, Dr Lucy Davies and Professor Frederick Beck were seated around a small table, effectively what was a small mobile science laboratory in the rear of the large vehicle. A large monitor was fixed to the solid steel wall behind the driving cabin. The mystery signal was clearly displayed on the screen in a linear graph, its source only 3.8 miles distant, and a glacial region of Mount Shasta known as Cobalt Ridge.

  Sitting opposite the SETI scientists was Lieutenant Coffey Jordan, a U.S. Military and Homeland Security Advisor, appointed to monitor the unfolding situation.

  “Do we really need the military entourage? I mean, we’re here to investigate the source of a radio signal, not an alien invasion,” Dr Lucy Davies commented.

  Jordan looked over at her. “They’re here for your safety. We’ve no idea what we are dealing with and besides, two people have already gone missing up here in the last forty-eight hours, presumed dead. We don’t want the contact team of what might well be the greatest ever scientific discovery, being attacked by a rogue grizzly bear or a goddamn Sasquatch, now do we.”

  Lucy sighed. “I still think it's over the top.”

  Before Jordan could respond, the three of them were distracted by the glow coming from the monitor. What had been a small red dot on the screen was now pulsating brightly and was increasing in intensity as they neared the glacial region of Cobalt Ridge.

  “Come on, let’s get ready,” Jordan said, his expression serious and deadpan.

  CHAPTER 13

  A LOW, PULSATING alarm sounded somewhere outside the tent pod, waking Tom up with a start. He opened his eyes, trying to get his bearings for a moment, realising he must have drifted off to sleep some time ago. The siren seemed muffled at first, but quickly became clear. Someone, or something had set off the perimeter sensors.

  He turned to wake Jess, but he didn’t need to. She was already sat bolt upright in her sleeping bag, the sound striking a chord of fear into her. “What the hell is that?” she whispered.

  “I don’t know,” Tom replied, grabbing his fleece jacket and pulling it on over his T-shirt. The alarm stopped momentarily but started sounding again. Tom cupped his hands against the pod’s small plastic window and looked through it. Thirty feet away, a glowing computer screen where Armstrong had been keeping watch caught his attention. He then saw movement outside; it was Casey and Arran rushing over towards the glowing monitor.

  “Stay here, you’re completely safe. The guys are outside; I’ll go and see what’s going on. I'll be back shortly,” he said to Jessica, as he quickly pulled his walking boots on over his thermal leggings.

  Tom exited the pod and rushed over to where the guys were huddled over the screen, the perimeter breach alarm was still sounding.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, in a raised voice, just as the alarm fell silent again.

  “We’ve got multiple breaches of the perimeter. One over on the northeast side and a breach directly ahead,” Casey said, pointing towards the dark tree line.

  Armstrong was already standing, his automatic rifle trained at the tree line. Tom strained his eyes, following the line of the rifle.

  “Here, take these,” Casey said, offering them each what appeared to be a set of night vision goggles he'd just pulled from a large canvas bag.

  Tom grabbed them and pulled them on, Casey and Armstrong did likewise.

  As Tom’s eyes adjusted to the green backdrop, he noticed something large, dark, moving quickly just beyond the tree line. Whatever it was, it suddenly stopped. As it did, Tom was able to focus on the dark shape. It was large and as he watched it, the thing rose up on its two hind legs, its long, canine teeth appearing as a glistening, bright green-white colour through the goggle
s.

  “Jeez, it’s just a bear,” Tom whispered in relief.

  “It sure is a big mother,” Casey said, as he directed his gaze to the same spot of forest.

  Armstrong’s two cameramen emerged from the dark Mercedes van parked a short distance behind them and walked over, bringing with them one of the film cameras. “What's up?” John asked.

  “Perimeter alarm was triggered. Looks like one of the sensors was tripped by a bear,” Armstrong said, lowering the gun to talk to the boys.

  Suddenly, the alarm sounded again, indicating another perimeter breach had occurred. The monitor showed a second red blob at a location some fifty feet farther along from where the bear was positioned.

  Tom swivelled his neck to focus on the spot. Moving quickly, ten feet deep beyond the tree line, were not one, but two large creatures. At first he thought they were more bears, even gorillas. They looked similar, but they were larger.

  “Je – sus,” Casey said, as he also spotted them. “Bigfoot, two of them,” he uttered, in semi-disbelief.

  “I hope you're filming all this,” Armstrong said, staring at the events unfolding at the tree line. “Have you boys got the night lens on?”

  “Of course boss,” John said, directing the camera to where the men were looking. “What the hell?” he said, as the picked up the creatures closing in on the bear.

  Tom watched in disbelief as the saw the two creatures appear to stalk the bear, which was still standing on its hind legs, presumably attempting to defend itself against the incoming, unknown threat.

  The two Bigfoot moved quickly, one along the tree line, the other disappearing deeper into the pine forest as they closed in on the bear.

  Thirty seconds later, the creatures attacked, one from the tree line, the other emerging from the depths of the forest, almost like a shark coming up from below. The bear let out a blood-curdling roar as it tried to defend itself against the creatures. One of the Bigfoot appeared to be carrying some kind of long tool that glinted in the moonlight as the creatures started smashing the bear like a pair of thugs beating a helpless kid with a baseball bat. The bear squealed as it tried to escape, but it had no chance. One of the creatures was now on the bear's back strangling it, punching its head with its huge, muscular gorilla-like arms. Then, with a sickening crack that was audible from where they were standing, the Bigfoot broke the bear’s neck. The large brown bear became limp and fell to the ground.

  “Jesus Christ, did you get all that?” Armstrong asked the camera guys.

  “I...I think so,” John stuttered back.

  The men all watched in stunned silence through the night vision goggles as the creatures then started to drag the bear deeper into the forest. As Tom stared at the unfolding spectacle, one of the creatures stopped and looked back into the clearing, and then directly at them. A column of ice raced down Tom’s spine as the thing appeared to stare at them momentarily, as if warning them not to follow, before it re-joined its mate, who was pulling the bear deeper into the forest and out of sight.

  “That was freaking unbelievable!” Arran said, lowering his goggles.

  Casey shook his head. “Seeing one Bigfoot, maybe I thought there was a chance, but seeing two attacking a bear. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d live to see that,” he added.

  “Having just one of us stand guard is clearly not an option. What if there are more than two of them? Three, maybe four? We might be out of our depth here,” Armstrong said, clearly rattled at what he'd seen.

  Tom heard Jess' voice and he spun around. “What’s going on? I thought you were coming back to the pod.”

  “You’d better take Jessica back to the pod. We’ll stay up and keep watch. You lot go get some rest. Arran and I will keep watch until dawn,” Casey said, as he pulled out a box of ammunition from the canvas bag.

  “Is everything all right?” Jess asked, anxiously.

  “Come on. It’s still only four a.m. Let's get back to bed. It was a false alarm,” Tom said, as he led Jessica back towards their pod.

  “Be out here for breakfast at seven a.m. sharp for a debriefing” Casey added.

  Tom walked Jessica back to the pod, still trying to process what he’d just witnessed. He’d wait till the morning to tell Jess. There was no reason to scare the hell out of her now. He needed some more sleep to face what tomorrow might bring.

  Three hours later, after a restless two and bit hours of sleep, Tom woke Jess to tell her what had happened during the early hours of the morning. He couldn’t keep it from her any longer. She sat there, slowly shaking her head in stunned silence. “I just knew that it was a stupid reckless idea to come back here,” she finally said.

  “Look, I know it’s bloody weird and scary, and we both knew deep down that it wasn’t just a bear that attacked us back at the camp site. What I saw earlier verifies that. This entire thing is just unreal; the signal, everything that's going on here. But just think about it. We have two guys with high-powered automatic weapons. There’s no way the creatures will attack us once those weapons are fired. I’m convinced we’re pretty safe. I wouldn’t risk our lives on this and besides, we owe it to Conner and Madison to do this. Try to find out what the hell is going on and where those things come from?” he said.

  Jessica dropped her head. “I guess so,” she muttered, after reflecting for a moment.

  Jessica gave Tom a long hug and the pair of them joined the others outside who were all seated around where the fire had been burning the night before. A much smaller fire was now warming a pot of water to make some tea and coffee. A pot of beans was also warming alongside the tin kettle. Casey and Arran were chatting together, still gripping their weapons; clearly neither of them had yet been to bed.

  “Morning. Did you tell Jess what happened last night?” Casey asked.

  Tom nodded. “Yep of course; she’s ok.”

  Casey nodded. “Good. Listen, we'll have some breakfast and then go and scout the perimeter, check the sensors and see if we can find anything. Then we will all walk to the signal site. It's only about a mile or so due northeast from here. We'll get back to this spot by mid-afternoon and set off before nightfall. How’s that sound? Dickie can finish shooting his documentary and we can all return with the knowledge that Bigfoot isn't just a figment of people’s imagination. We have definite proof of that now. What we have on film will astound the scientific world that’s for sure. We will be safe tonight, out of the forest.”

  Everyone looked relieved.

  “I’m happy with that. Okay with you guys?” Armstrong said, looking at his team for agreement.

  “Bloody right boss. After watching what happened last night, I'm happy to get the hell off this weird mountain,” Alicia said, stirring the pot of beans.

  “Okay good. We’re all in agreement then. What we already have on film will be worth a small fortune. Large bonuses for you all, I promise,” Armstrong said, patting one of the cameras.

  “Better be!” Alicia said, as they all finished breakfast.

  The coffee tasted good, and Tom suddenly felt awake again. His mind was spinning as he tried to grasp what he’d seen last night, whilst wrestling with the bigger mystery of the signal that had been detected by SETI.

  “Okay, Arran, you stay here and guard the camp, Dickie, John, and Tom will come with me and go take a look at the perimeter,” Casey said, looking out through a set of binoculars at the tree line, some fifty feet distant.

  Aaron nodded. “Go for it, Pa. We'll be fine here,” he said.

  “Don’t venture too far,” Jess said to Tom, as he stood up.

  “It’ll be fine. I very much doubt those things are around during the day,” Tom said.

  The four of them walked slowly to the tree line, John holding a large movie camera which he carried on his shoulder, filming everything as they proceeded into the pine forest.

  “This looks like the spot where the attack took place,” Casey said, pointing to the ground as they reached a point around ten feet
in. On the forest floor was what appeared to be a dark patch of earth. A little farther along, they came across a blood-soaked fallen tree trunk. A layer of pine needles on the ground close by were also coated in blood.

  “Okay, let's keep our wits about us and our eyes peeled. I'm sure those things are long gone, but let's just be careful,” Casey said, as they proceeded deeper into the forest, following a bloodied, four-foot wide trail that had left by the dying, bear as it had been dragged deeper into the forest.

  Around thirty feet into the forest, the bloody scuff marks appeared to end at a fallen tree. As the four of them negotiated the obstacle, Tom spotted something on the forest floor a short distance away. A low hum was also evident, flies swarming on what appeared to be one of the bear's severed arms, ripped clean from its body.

  “Jeez, those things are damn strong to have done that,” Casey said, his eyes darting between the dismembered arm and the dense forest surrounding them.

  Armstrong turned to John. “Okay, let’s get some footage. I'll introduce the scene, then you pan down to the severed arm,” he whispered, nervously.

  Armstrong started talking, as John filmed, confirming what they'd all seen last night and their current location on the mountain.

  Tom surveyed the surrounding forest, he was feeling uneasy despite the weapons they had with them. He felt as if they were being watched. As Armstrong continued talking into the camera, Tom noticed a shaft of sunlight penetrating the tree canopy from above, which was reflecting off something lying on the forest floor, some fifteen feet away. The object appeared to be metallic, and was long and narrow.

  Tom raised the binoculars to his face to get a better look. That's curious, he thought, as he stared at the object.

  “What’s up?” Casey’s voice made him jump.

  “There’s something on the ground over there. Looks very odd,” Tom said, pointing.

  Tom and Casey made their way over to the object, which was half buried under foliage, pine needles, and creepers. It looked completely out of place lying on the forest floor.