Waypoint Alaska

by Shauna R. Schober[thriller]

  “Got it,” He displayed the crow bar, as Lacey handed him the geocache. They put the small container on the floor and all stepped back as he used one foot to hold it steady and wiggled the bar under the lip of the container’s lid. With one swift tug the lid popped open and a key bounced out.

  “Yes!” Ben wailed, he bent down to investigate the key. It was the same as the others, small, brass, with a waypoint engraved on the back. He almost felt honored holding this. He was the first- only he and the “Cache Master” had touched the key before. Excitement shivered down his spine. “You guys ready?” he jumped up and down, like a boxer getting ready for a match, trying to calm the adrenaline that was surging through his veins.

  “Yup.” Megan said as she tied her boots.

  Lacey was slipping her jacket back on talking with Trent. “Hey Aunt Lacey, you ready?” Ben yelled a little too loudly trying to break up their conversation.

  “Yes.” She snapped, then smiled at Trent again. “Wanna walk us out to the RV?” she asked.

  “Sure!” Trent said, he grabbed his jacket, then slipped his boots back on. “So where’s that key gonna take you guys?”

  “Not sure, we’ll check it on our phone once we get cell service.” Ben replied.

  “Well, if you end up needing a pilot, you know where to find me.” He smiled at Lacey. They walked slowly down the steps of the porch from the cabin. Ben and Megan passed them, eager to get on the road. As Megan reached for the door handle of the dilapidated RV the entire vehicle shook. She gasped and jumped back.

  “What the heck was that?” she shrieked.

  “Guys, come back here, by us.” Trent said calmly. They retreated and stood next to their aunt. Trent drew his gun, and slowly walked toward the RV which was now swaying back and forth and bobbing up and down. He peeked back at the rest of the group, and took a deep breath. As quietly as he could he grabbed the door handle, twisted the knob and then jumped back, gun still drawn.

  “Come out with your hands up!” he hollered. Megan began to laugh, he peeked back to her. “What?” he asked.

  “Nothing, nothing, it’s just who says that? Ya know, ‘come out with your hands up!’” she said in a deep male like voice. She giggled again and then Lacey slapped her shoulder for being rude.

  Trent turned again and focused on the RV. It moved again, rattled, they could hear their belongings crashing to the floor inside. Ben prayed his laptop was okay. Suddenly though, his laptop wasn’t his concern at all.

  As they all stared mouths agape a huge black paw landed on the bottom step, it was followed by another, and then the massive body of a bear appeared as it slowly slid and sort of climbed down the stairs of the RV. The bear snarled and growled, but they couldn’t see its face, and it couldn’t see them, there was some sort of fabric on the bear’s head.

  Trent backed up to the group, his gun still drawn. “What is that?” he whispered. “A bandana?” he guessed. Lacey’s face was bright red. The bear stumbled again pawing at the fabric blocking its view. Trent continued, “A towel? No oh look…there are leg holes…wait…are those butterflies? And wait…” He paused and looked at Lacey who was now bright red. “Are those…underpants?” he giggled.

  Lacey desperately looked at Megan and then to Ben, and then a snarl broke their gaze. The bear had his head to the ground with one paw trying to grab the underpants off his head. They really were a perfect hat, almost like a shower cap, only through the leg holes poked the bear’s large black ears. The backside of the underpants blocked his eyes and he continued to paw and growl as he attempted to get them off his head. Finally, one of his large claws got a grip on the waistband and pulled the underpants off, the sheer force sling-shotted them up into the air and they landed conveniently on a branch of the tree that was next to Trent. He paused and looked at the underpants hanging next to his head. Everyone stared at Trent, who then turned his attention back to the threat in front of him. Trent held his gun high and pulled the trigger once to sound off a warning shot to the bear. That quickly got the bear’s attention and it ran sheepishly into the forest behind the RV.

  Trent turned to see Ben, Megan, and Lacey lying on the ground, they had dove at the sound of gun fire, “Sorry, I should’a warned you guys that I was gonna shoot,” Trent apologized, as he offered his hand to help pull them all up. As they stood, he looked to Lacey who was staring at her underpants hanging on the tree behind Trent. He turned and pulled them off the tree, then shyly handed them over to Lacey. Her face blushed even more; she quickly wadded them up, and shoved them in her coat pocket.

  “Awkward,” Megan announced, with an embarrassed look on her face.

  Trent’s face was just as red as Lacey’s, he smiled then turned and headed toward the cabin. Lacey pushed Ben and Megan toward the RV, too embarrassed to speak.

  “It’s really okay, Aunt Lacey…” Ben said quietly, “I mean, at least they were clean.”

  9

  “Well, that didn’t take long.” Trent said as Lacey, Megan and Ben walked back into the cabin.

  “Yeah, we got out of the woods and had cell service, the next geocache, it’s on Dutch Harbor.” Ben replied.

  “Dutch Harbor? Huh, really? Well then yeah you certainly need a plane then, don’t ya?” Trent stood and grabbed his coat, “Let’s go, we’ll fuel up along the way.”

  The sea plane bounced to a halt in the bay just off the docks of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. It was a tiny town, which was dwarfed even more by all of the fishing boats that surrounded the docks. There were huge boats, and small boats, nothing incredibly small, this was the Bearing Sea after all. Ben was semi familiar with the town, mainly from his obsession of watching crab fishing documentaries on the Discovery Channel. He got jittery and excited when he saw the familiar crab fishing boats that the show features, he so hoped to be able to meet some of the crab fishermen who he had grown to idolize season after season.

  Trent gently parked the seaplane on a lower dock away from the large crabbing boats, the group unloaded and started a long assent up rusty metal stairs that connected the lower docks to the main docks above. The sea air had corroded the steel, nothing could last very long here. Ben knew from watching “Deadliest Catch” that a person could survive only a minute or two if they fell into the Bearing Sea. The ocean had a way of wearing down the earth’s strongest materials, the salty air corroded and ate away at the steel steps, fresh wooden docks would weather and turn gray within weeks. This was a harsh area, Ben thought. This was an area that you didn’t goof around in, it was too unforgiving. As they ascended the top step Ben nudged Lacey to hand him her phone.

  “Okay, let’s look at the waypoint again and see how far away we are.” He started manipulating the phone’s touch screen, “We have 53 degrees 54’18.41” North and 166 degrees 30’41.08” West.” Ben paused waiting for the image to load on the screen. As soon as the image cleared up, Ben smiled broadly. “Ha, looks like this is gonna be an easy one,” he said as he started walking across the large dock toward a large industrial building where the fisherman unloaded their catch by a huge crane.

  The group walked alongside Ben, looking for anything that looked like a geocache. There really wasn’t anything there, only a few sparse sea grasses lined the edge of the metal building. Besides random shells and an abundance of seagull droppings there was nothing.

  “What do we do now?” Trent asked.

  “Maybe it’s not out here,” Megan said as she eyed a large metal rollup door.

  “Go inside?” Lacey questioned.

  “Why not?” Megan responded. Lacey sighed deeply and rolled her eyes, this adventure was quickly becoming extremely stressful.

  “I don’t think we can all go in,” Ben said quietly, “Why doesn’t one of us just slip in and see what we can find?”

  “Yeah right, Ben. I’m not letting you out of my sight again, weird things tend to happen to you at the ocean,” Lacey shook her head with a look that said ‘one hundred percent, out of the question.’

&nb
sp; “Okay then, the two of us, let’s have Trent and Megan wait out here, be a look out, we’ll go inside, just for a second, and see what we can find,” Ben waited for his aunt to shut down his idea, but was surprised when Lacey turned to Trent and asked,

  “You mind staying out here with Megan?”

  “Sure,” Trent nodded, “No problem, as long as it’s cool with Miss Megz?” he bumped her shoulder with his elbow.

  “Whatever,” Megan answered, she could actually use a bit of a break, she thought to herself.

  Ben and Lacey broke off from the group and headed toward the side of the building, they didn’t want to cause a scene by lifting the large metal door at the front of the building, facing all the fishing boats, and assumed there would be a smaller door, specifically for people to enter the building. As they headed up the side of the building, they saw what they were looking for, a simple, small, gray colored, metal door. They quickly slipped inside.

  The air inside the building was heavy, it smelled of fish and sea water, not horrible, but certainly not good. They worked their way down a short hallway and came to a larger doorway. This door had a small glass window to look through before entering. Lacey lifted herself onto her tip toes to peer through the glass. On the other side of the window was a large warehouse space, lined with huge industrial size buckets that the fishermen would fill with either fish or crab. When full, these buckets would weigh easily a thousand pounds. The crane lifted the buckets to the dock where a large forklift would pick them up and drive them into this warehouse. It was in this space that the buckets would be sorted. Lacey counted six conveyor belts in the room, each belt disappeared behind a wall of hanging strips of plastic on the opposite side of the warehouse. Lacey assumed that workers would unload the large buckets, sorting the catch and then, place the catch on the conveyor belts which would then carry the catch to the other side of the warehouse. The thick plastic that cut the room in half on the other side reminded Lacey of a refrigeration unit. In places like this, where a constant conveyor system was moving into a colder or refrigerated area the plastic was thick enough to not allow too much cold air to escape, but also flexible enough to allow the catch to move the strips and allow it to come through and into that space.

  “Let’s avoid that side of the warehouse,” Lacey nudged Ben.

  “Okay, why?”

  “There must be a refrigerated room or maybe even a freezer on that side, it could be dangerous,” she responded. Ben nodded in agreement as he gripped the large handle on the thick door and slowly opened it.

  They first went to the spot in the warehouse where the coordinates had directed them to on the outside of the building. They looked around the floor finding nothing. They separated for a moment, searching the walls and then finally looking up to the ceiling at the rafters. There didn’t appear to be anything there. As they walked toward each other, Lacey’s phone vibrated. She looked at the screen,

  “Watch out,” was typed, under a picture of Megan on her screen, the text message was a warning. Just as she looked at Ben, the large rollup door along the wall began to open. Lacey grabbed Ben’s arm and pulled him to the wall, they quickly bent down and snuck behind some of the large buckets. Both held their breath as a large forklift began moving the buckets on the opposite side of the warehouse.

  “What do we do?” Ben whispered.

  “Let’s just wait it out,” Lacey responded. The two sat down and leaned up against the wall behind the bucket, peering around once every few seconds to see if they had a chance to escape. With his last peek around the bucket, Ben’s heart jumped into his throat.

  He grabbed Lacey’s shoulder, “He’s coming right for us!” he whispered loudly, as the bucket in front of them began to move. It started pushing backward as the forklift tried to wiggle its long metal lifting blades under it. Lacey was beginning to be squished against the wall, she panicked and pushed Ben, both narrowly escaped being squished. They ran from the side and hid in a small alcove space out of the view of the forklift driver.

  The space was different than the rest of the warehouse, it hadn’t been maintained at all and was filthy, loaded with large push brooms and industrial size mops. Just as Lacey was about to tell Ben they should bail out the large rollup door and just forget this whole thing she noticed something. In the farthest, darkest corner of the alcove, behind a roll of firefighter hose was a door handle. She motioned for Ben to look, they both went toward the handle.

  “Should we check it out?” Ben asked. Lacey put her hand on the door knob, and tried to turn it. It wouldn’t move, it was locked. She sighed in defeat and turned to see Ben holding up the key from the last geocache. He handed her the key, she rolled her eyes, there was no way this would fit, but the waypoint had pointed to the area, so she tried it anyway.

  The key slid in slowly, she twisted it one way, nothing happened, it was still locked. Then, she twisted the other way and heard a click, she turned and looked at Ben, one eyebrow raised, mischievously. She slowly pushed the door open, the opening on the other side was dark and damp. The air felt different as it whooshed out of the room. Lacey and Ben stepped into the room and looked around. It was very small, the size of a small closet. They turned to one another, disappointed that they hadn’t seen anything resembling the geocache in the space. Just as their eyes met they heard voices outside, it was one of the workers, they must have seen them as they hid in the alcove. Ben quickly grabbed the door handle and closed the door quietly. Just as the door clicked closed, the small room began to move.

  “Are we in an elevator?” Lacey asked. She grabbed onto the doorknob, frantically trying to open it, but it wouldn’t budge. The more she yanked on it the tighter it seemed to become. After a few seconds they felt a huge drop in the floor, and just as they regained their footing the floor seemed to fall more quickly. The force was so strong, they both grabbed onto the wall and looked down, they were free falling in the tiny elevator! The sound was deafening as steel scratched on steel. They looked around not knowing how to stop this thing, it just kept falling and falling, it reminded Ben of being on the drop zone ride in Las Vegas at the top of the Stratosphere Hotel, but instead of a feeling of exhilaration, fear was strangling him.

  Suddenly, the small elevator crashed to the bottom of whatever space it had entered. It threw Ben and Lacey into the ceiling upon impact, knocking them both unconscious. The door to the elevator then opened into a deep dark space. In the darkness a figure emerged, it grabbed onto Ben’s ankle and drug his unconscious body out of the elevator, leaving Lacey in a heap on the floor.

  10

  Ben’s wrists burned, he slowly regained a throbbing consciousness. Opening one eye and assessing his situation he realized he was tied up, his wrists were cinched tightly, to the point of almost bleeding. His ankles were tied so tight his circulation was being cut off and couldn’t feel his feet. The strange part was that he was hanging in the air, upon further investigation he realized he was entangled in a huge fishing net. Its thick rope was weathered and frayed, even though it was old it was at least two inches thick, he wasn’t going anywhere. Even if he could untangle himself he soon realized he would be falling to a very uncomfortable end as he was being held about fifty feet above a very jagged and rocky bottom.

  The room was dark, moist, and smelled of ocean—salty, moldy, fishy. Definitely not pleasant, he decided. He called out for help, but no one responded, it was eerily silent, except his labored breathing. Panic filled his chest and once again he hollered as loud as he could, “Anyone? Help, please help me, I’m stuck!” Again silence was the only response. He wriggled and swayed in the net, nothing seemed to be budging, he was certainly not here by accident. Looking up, Ben could see that this fishing net was being held by large rocks on the edge of a cliff, an underground cliff, he couldn’t see the top of this vast space, there appeared to be no ceiling, only a thick darkness that seemed to be never-ending.

  Ben began moving. The fight in him seemed to embrace flight and he was wil
ling to do anything at this point to get out of the net, even if he fell to the rocks below. He hoped rather that he could free one hand and then somehow get enough control to climb the net up to the cliff above. He wiggled and twisted, the rope dug in deeper into his skin, burning and prompting him to stop. He paused every few moments to breathe through his pain and then somehow got angry enough to once again force himself to wiggle some more. As he wiggled one last time and somehow managed to free one hand he noticed something in the air, it was as if someone had opened a door or a window, a slight breeze maybe? Was it a sound, what sound was it? He thought and thought, he gripped the net as his hand was freed and looked down hoping to find an answer to his question. His eyes must be deceiving him, he thought, the rocks below were turning a bright orange color, slowly a wave of orange was creeping over the rocks, he focused more, determined to decipher what was happening. Then, suddenly he realized what the noise was. Below were thousands of crabs, a literal wave of enormous King Crabs, each at least a foot wide with two foot-long legs, creepy, crawling, climbing the rocks and the walls toward him.

  A shiver ran up his spine, he twisted to get a better grip on the net, he tore his skin as he yanked his other hand free, blood dripped from his wrist. As the blood dripped off his hand and fell to the rocks below the crabs piled on top of each other making a mountain, as they tried to get closer to their prey. Ben, still tied by his ankle, started climbing. The excess net under him hung in a large loop as he worked his way up. He shook his head to clear the hair from his eyes and suddenly the crabs below him were not his concern anymore, for above him lurked something much more sinister, something that Ben quickly decided was his worst nightmare.

  A sharp pain pierced Lacey’s rib, she slowly lifted her head as she carefully adjusted her body. A scratchy voice loomed above her and a heavy hand pushed on her shoulder.