Haunted (7 page)

KIM

We’ve cleaned up with a fun shower, and made some more delicious love, which meant another shower. But, finally, we are ready to get moving.

This morning, for some reason, Brian insists on trying to sneak around on the State Park construction site.

We drive over there, and then walk around a bit. I remember the time we used to play Junior Investigators when we were children, and especially that one Halloween when we found that corpse.

I shudder as the memory of the old dead woman sitting on the sofa in that haunted house comes back to me, unbidden. She’d died months before, but no one had thought to come around and ask about her.

The poor thing was half-eaten by cats and other wild animals!

It was the first thing that Brian had filmed that made any impact. He got some of the footage we shot on the six o’clock news. We caught hell from our parents, but the police and the EMT crew told us thank you and even gave us honorary badges.

As we walk around the park, we come to a large fence, and Brian grins that grin of his.

“Just like old times, eh Sis?” he says, with a wink. I wonder if he can read my mind…

After walking for a bit more, we find a hole in the fence, and he lifts it clear for me.

We walk around inside, past all the warning and no trespassing signs.

It might be trouble if we get caught.

I pull out my cell phone to call Stephanie, but there’s oddly no bars. The phone’s not getting any signal. I put it in my back pocket, under my jacket.

Hey, there’s Mr. Mitchum. I get ready to wave at him, when I see he’s not alone.

Brian shushes me, and pushes me behind him. We duck behind a tree.

Who’s that with Randy? Two guys are pushing him around, and then one of them hits him!

Shit!

They are hurting Mr. Mitchum!

Brian steps out from behind our tree, and yells at them to stop.

He’s trying to call the police, I think, but is not getting any signal either!

Suddenly, Brian runs over to help Mr. Mitchum!

One of the thugs hits Brian from behind!

My heart stops as he falls to the ground, bleeding from his head.

Oh God, No!

I run over and smack the bastard with my hand, but his partner grabs me and pins my arms behind me.

It hurts so badly; I can barely see. Tears stream out of my eyes, and down my face.

I yell, but it’s no use. There’s no one around at this time of the morning to hear me.

The men grab him, and this van comes out of nowhere, and screeches to a halt next to us.

My cell phone is hidden in my waistband, so maybe I can sneak a call when we stop.

They put us in the van and drive us out into the woods.

There’s a big hole in the side of one of the hills.

They pull to a stop in front of it and make us get out.

Brian is barely able to walk, so they yank him out and toss him on the ground.

He’s groaning, and making some noises that sound like ‘ …ick your ss…’.

Brian!

My heart is racing and I am so afraid he’s badly hurt!

They take us into the mouth of a cave and start aiming guns at us!

I grab hold of Brian, who weaves and wobbles, and try to run away from the men.

Mr. Mitchum – Randy – grabs Brian’s other arm and puts it over his shoulders.

Together, we drag him along.

He’s starting to regain consciousness.

Thank God!

Wait?

Are they going to leave us in this hole?

What are they doing?

Oh, my God!

They are still aiming those guns at us.

I turn on my cell phone, to use as a light. There’s still no signal, out here.

Brian’s hurt, he’s bleeding. The blood runs down his face in a dark stream, from the top of his head. His hair is matted and bloody.

Randy helps me move Brain deeper into the cave.

Then, he sits there and peers back at the entrance.

He digs a Marlboro out of his crumpled pack of cigarettes.

“Shit!” he says, frowning. “It’s my last one!”

He lights it with a match.

He takes a deep drag and closes his eyes for a minute. He looks contemplative, but about what I can’t tell.

“Brian’s a good man, Kim. Remember that, in the coming months,” he says.

I’m confused.

Why would Randy care about us? What does he mean about Brian? Why did he ask me to remember…

“My last cigarette…” he mutters, and just then I see the thugs.

They speak to each other; and then there’s some kind of hissing noise.

They are tossing something into the mouth of the cave!

It fizzes and smokes.

Randy sees it and yells “Run!”

He races towards the thing, his cigarette dangling from his mouth, his hat falling off as his boots clatter over the rocks on the floor of the cave.

No, Randy!

Run away from it!

I scream silently and turn to look at Brian for a moment.

When I look back, it’s like a dream.

Randy is moving in slow motion, the thing on the floor bouncing towards him. He scoops his arm towards it like he’s bowling. He grabs something and tosses it overhand, towards the cave mouth.

The cigarette glows brightly one final time…and falls to the ground.

Randy bends over to pick it up.

Just as he reaches it, there’s a loud noise.

I see Randy, completely surrounded by orange fire. He is looking back at me.

He’s smiling.

Then, it’s as if the mouth of a wolf has opened up around him!

Randy disappears in a big puff of black and white smoke and that weird, strange light!

Then loud noise envelops me, and smoke.

I smell something burning.

I feel myself falling, and my head hits the rock floor of the mine.

Darkness…

*****

BRIAN

Kim! Are you okay?

It’s hard to breathe; I think I broke a rib. And, I see blood everywhere on my clothes.

I wonder what happened? The last thing I remember was trying to help that old guy with those thugs.

Mr. Mitchum, I think.

There’s smoke and dust all around me, and I can only barely see because Kim’s cell phone is blinking off and on like a strobe.

I find Kim, face down. Her arms are covering her head, but she’s out of it.

Oh my God, is she okay?

I find my cell phone, in one of my pockets. I don’t know how it got there. I flip it on, but there’s no signal. No bars.

I use the flashlight app and see Kim doesn’t have any blood or obvious bruises.

I don’t know what happened, but my ears are ringing, and I think I can guess.

There’s a piece of something buried under some loose rubble, and I see that it’s a leg attached to a rattlesnake skin boot.

The same kind of boot Mr. Mitchum wears.

There’s, unfortunately, nothing attached to the other end of it.

I carefully move away from Kim, making sure she’s not jarred, and rest her head on one of her arms.

Then, I cover up the rest of the leg with some loose rock.

Oh, shit.

We’re in it deep.

KIM

When I finally regain my senses, Brian is hugging me, comforting me, and assuring me that it’s all going to be okay.

There’s blood on his face, and his hands, but he seems to be able to move around.

Not like before the…explosion?

Was that a bomb? Dynamite?

Oh, my God!

We’re trapped in this cave!

If we’re going to die, at least, I’m with the man of my dreams.

I can, at least, hold onto that.

Randy is nowhere to be seen.

“Brian, what happened?” I ask.

Even in the dim light, his eyes are bright blue.

He looks concerned and angry.

“Babe, we were kidnapped, and I guess they dragged us into this cave. Apparently, they must have blown up the entrance. At least, you’re not hurt,” he says, but he looks sad, too.

“Brian, what is it?” but I already know what he’s going to say.

“The old man, Mr. Mitchum,” he says.

“Randy,” I whisper.

“He didn’t make it, babe,” he says, and I begin to cry.

“I remember,” I sob.

“He went toward the bomb; I guess to try to throw it out of the cave or stop it or something!”

“He saved us, Kim. He saved us,” Brian says to me, softly.

He strokes my hair and lets me cry it out.

Finally, the wracking sobs become sniffles, and I wipe my face on his shirt.

He looks at me and laughs a bit.

“Brian?!” I exclaim.

“I’m sorry, you just look like that time you were playing near the chimney when I was pretending I was Bert from Mary Poppins, and …” he chuckles.

“You blew the leaf blower into the smokestack, and all that dust and ash covered me from head to toe!” I say.

I smiled in remembrance.

Brian is just trying to make me feel better, and I hug him tight.

He winces and goes “Ouch!”

“Oh, honey! I am so sorry! Where does it hurt?” I ask.

“It’s my head, in the back, and also, I think I may have a cracked rib, but it’ll be okay,” he tells me.

I can see he's just trying to be brave.

“Let me help!” I beg.

“Kim, we’ve got to get out of here and find some help!” he says.

“Wait here,” I tell him. “I’ve got an idea.”

“Be careful, sweetheart!” he says, and then he kisses me.

I feel his warm breath and the muscles of his arms as we share the moment.

Then, I disengage.

As I walk deeper into the cave, following the mining cart railway, I am tingling.

In spite of all this, I am happier than I have ever been in my life.

Brian called me ‘sweetheart’!

*****

BRIAN

We end up walking for an hour, and then we come across a vertical shaft that leads to the exit. There’s a rudimentary elevator. I am tired, and so is Kim, but we manage to pull ourselves up and out into the night air.

Kim’s cell phone is still working, but there’s no signal.

We lay down on the ground, hugging each other, glad to be out and still alive.

I kiss her on her face, and she weeps a little.

“Poor Randy!” she says.

I nod, and then get up.

I give her my hand, lifting her to her feet. We both start walking towards a dim light in the distance. As we approach it, I notice it’s a State Park Ranger Tower. Parked next to it is a truck, and the Ranger is sitting there, reading his Kindle.

We shout over to him, and he turns our way.

The Park Ranger asks us a few questions, and we tell him what happened.

He says they heard the explosion, and had no idea what was going on. He normally patrols this area on alternate nights, and we were lucky he was out there. It’s a good three miles walk through the woods back to civilization.

He radios in his position and details, and tells us to sit in the truck.

He offers Kim some coffee from his Thermos, and she sips it gratefully.

About forty minutes later, we hear a helicopter approaching. It flares out and lands in a clearing a hundred yards or so away from the truck. The Park Ranger drives us over to the chopper.

Twenty-five minutes later, Kim and I are sitting in the Emergency Room at St. Bernard’s Hospital.

We get treated, and our wounds are dressed. My cracked rib hurts like a son of a bitch. I groan a bit as they wrap some tape around my abdomen.

Kim grins at me.

“What’s so fucking funny, huh?” I ask with a grimace.

“Oh, I’m just thinking of how much fun we are going to have while I ‘nurse’ your poor body back to full health!” she says, with an evil glint in her eye.

I have to laugh, even though it causes my sides to truly ache.

She’s lovely to look at, and having her near me calms me.

*****

KIM

I was so happy we had made it out of the mine!

Brian and I managed to walk to a Ranger tower; after we came out of the shaft, I had realized that I had seen the other end of the mine when Stephanie and I were researching the show. It was one of a series of videos made by tourists visiting the Park before the Landstroud company had fenced it in and put up all those No Trespassing signs.

We walked up to the Park Ranger and told them what happened. They called the local Sheriff, and he called the State Troopers. Then, we got a helicopter ride to the hospital.

Once we were at the hospital, the shock of what had happened finally hit me. Two State Troopers and the Park Ranger came by to talk to us about Mr. Mitchum. When they told us they went around to the mouth of the cave, and had found poor Randy, I cried for a long time.

It was all the stress and emotions from the past week, all coming unbottled.

Then, they asked Brian and me to go with them, and we did. I was shaking like a leaf the whole time. Luckily, Brian held me tight, and calmed me down.

I tried to put on a brave face, but I kept thinking of Randy.

The Sheriff told us that the explosives had been stolen from one of the construction sheds, and the stupid thugs hadn’t realized there were cameras taking their picture.

The Sheriff knew them from other ‘business’ in which they had engaged, and they were soon rounded up.

Brian swore out a statement about their assaulting him, and I did one about them taking us to the mine.

When they were arrested, they told the authorities they were acting on orders from Barry.

That asshole!

Now, all of them are looking at some serious time behind bars, because once Brian gets pissed off, you’d better look out.

Brian and I went back to the hotel, and spent a few days recuperating at the Bridal Suite.

We called Candice and Stephanie, and then convened a special session for our teams. He called in a couple of favors from his connections in network news and was able to get exclusive coverage to shoot inside the mine.

We worked like the dickens for another week, and then released our programs at the same time.

By now, everyone has seen the Special Episode of “Haunted” about the State Park Uranium Mine Scandal, and “The Wilder Thing” has over fifteen million views about the plight of the tribe known as the People at the Indian Wells State Park.

There had been a little exploratory work there, fifty years ago, when the miners had been looking for gold and silver.

But, the legends of the glowing hills and ghosts eventually took their toll. The locals told the miners about their ancestors being buried in that area, and they finally took off. The reason was mainly that, after several years, they had not found a single trace of any precious metals.

And, they were sick a lot of the time. The People spoke of strange lights, and sounds, and the Spirits of the forest. And, maybe they were right, after all. Their own tribe suffered maladies for many years, and until they had access to hospitals, their people were sick a lot of the time. Some died, suddenly wasting away for no apparent reason.

It took a while for the dots to be connected, especially since most of the miners had moved away. But, finally, a couple of them had gone to a hospital and were diagnosed. Minor radiation poisoning was the culprit.

We managed to get some decent scientists, this time, to explain how the men could mine for all those years and not die outright.

Turns out that the cumulative effects were enough to sicken the men, but not outright cause the cancers or other debilitating symptoms. Once they left, they were able to recover.

The members of the People tribe, however, were sickened by water that ran from the mouth of the cave, and had absorbed some of the ore. Mixed with other minerals, it wasn’t detectably bad, so they drank it readily enough. Even the animals would drink from the pools and streams, so no one had any idea it was tainted.

Eventually, the residual effects added up and they began to get sick.

The miners were already beginning to decide to abandon the mine. Combined with the lack of gold and silver, and spooked already by their superstitions, the incidence of sickness was enough to convince them to close the mine and look elsewhere.

Years later, when Landstroud came in, some routine surveys revealed the uranium deposits.

But, because they had neglected to perform due diligence during the title search phase of leasing the property, they were unable to extract it. Since they didn’t have legal rights to the minerals, they tried to convince the Governor to turn his head, for a sizeable ‘contribution’.

While they harvested timber from the back forests, they were going to steal the uranium ore right out from under the State and the tribes.

Mr. Mitchum – Randy – had managed to discover almost all of this, and had submitted his findings to the State Attorney General.

She took it to the Governor, who then took it back to Barry Adams and Ms. Adair.

They told Mr. Calloway.

He cut a deal with the Governor, to allow them to tear down the old State Park and move the Indian Wells burial ground.

But, really, they were just tossing the old remains into the river, and hollowing out the mine even further. They had found a vein of uranium ore, and that was all that mattered.

Brian and I found Randy just as he was getting hassled by Landstroud’s thugs.

They had tried scaring him off, but the old man was tenacious and determined to expose the corruption.

It was just pure luck for us that the dynamite they had used was so old.

It went off, but not with enough force to kill us, since we were far enough back from the cave entrance.

Poor Randy’s bravery saved us, primarily because they investigators thought he threw the bomb away from us.

His own bad luck was that was just too close to the blast. I guess he was right about those damned cigarettes, after all.

When the investigation was over, thanks to “Haunted” and “The Wilder Thing”, those thug bastards ended up with some serious jail time.

Brian, an old hand at clandestine interviews, and getting footage via ‘questionable’ means, already had hidden a camera on him when we had set off that morning.

Everything was recorded, and the footage was captured from a pinhole lens in one of his shirt buttons.

The audio was good enough to put those assholes in the slammer for good!

“Haunted” not only got the award for best drama and documentary this season, but Brian and I were awarded several journalistic commendations.

I guess my favorite one was the “Honorary Scooby Team” medals we received, from some anonymous source.

When all the excitement was over, I had to try really hard not to pinch myself, to make sure that Brian being there with me wasn’t just a wild dream.