Shenandoah Read online

  “I’m already working on it,” said Jocelyn. “Hold on… I have gone back to the time stamp indexed at the time of the crash. Prepare yourself. The video is disturbing. Are you ready for me to proceed?”

  Kim and Wynd looked at each other for a moment and then they both agreed to proceed.

  Chapter 6

  The video started and they could tell that something was happening. The tree the camera was attached to was moving. Jocelyn had the video rolling at half the normal speed. They wanted to be sure that they didn’t miss anything. In slow motion, debris started falling from the sky. It was small limbs at first then it was larger limbs and chunks of wood falling. Then there was a blinding flash and you could see parts of the helicopter falling.

  It increased with intensity as the debris started cluttering the whole screen. The noise on the video was deafening. Then the helicopter came into view. The tail boom broke off and flew across the camera. The crumpled cockpit, along with sheared off landing skids, tree limbs, and large pieces of wood struck the ground in a horrifying crash. The cockpit was upside down. Some slight smoke started drifting up from the helicopter. It took several minutes for everything to settle down.

  Kim looked at Wynd with a worried look. Although it was only a matter of minutes, they waited for what seemed an eternity. The time stamp showed that it had been fifteen minutes. There was still no more movement. Wynd was biting her lip and Kim was wringing her hands. While they were waiting, Virg, Danielle, David, Lauren, Bob, and Deanna had slipped in behind them. Bob and Deanna were the two individuals they had rescued with David. No one said anything. They just watched with the same intensity as Kim and Wynd.

  All at once Danielle screamed, “It moved!”

  Then the others started jumping and saying, “It is moving!”

  Kim and Wynd still held their composure because they both remembered the blood. The cockpit was moving. They couldn’t see inside of it but it was obvious that something was going on inside. Then they heard a man yell in pain. Wynd brought her hands to her face. It was Marcus and he was in pain. There was more movement, the cockpit shook, and then Marcus screamed out in pain again. Wynd’s lip was quivering. It was all she could do to hold it in.

  The cockpit was moving slightly again and then they all heard the thumping coming from the forest. They heard the tyrannosaur roar before it came into the clearing. Everyone watching was holding their breath in fear.

  Wynd let out a whimper as she saw Marcus crawl out of the overturned cockpit.

  “No, no, no, no, no. Marcus, run, run, run…” said Wynd crying. Marcus was in bad shape. He was bleeding from several different places and he seemed to be favoring his shoulder. As he struggled to his feet, the huge tyrannosaurus crashed through the edge of the crash site smashing trees in the process.

  The girls all started screaming when it broke through. David yelled at them.

  “Look,” he said as he pointed at the deer that was just in front of the t-rex. The tyrannosaur struck the fleeing doe with surprising speed. As the t-rex crunched down on the fleeing deer, it raised its head and shook the deer. Blood was running down the jaws of the dinosaur as it began to eat it. Wynd started jumping up and down pointing at Marcus.

  “He’s getting away! He’s getting away!” she screamed as she watched Marcus slowly sneak out of the picture and into the forest.

  The video continued as the tyrannosaur walked around finishing its meal at the crash site. The big monster was still dripping blood as it sniffed around the crash site. It stayed about ten more minutes and then went back the way it came.

  Chapter 7

  John woke up and started tending the fire. It didn’t feel as cold as it was the day before. After he got the fire blazing again, he got up and walked toward the entrance of the cave. It was then that he realized why it was a little warmer. It had snowed another foot of snow in the night and it was still coming down hard. The snow was insulating his cave and keeping the heat in. There was no use in going out in that. He sat back down by the fire and began to concentrate on his situation.

  His memory was clearing back to the time of the crash but still nothing before that. He gathered his thoughts and went back to what had happened in the last seven days….

  John slowly gained consciousness. Bringing his right hand to his aching head, he glanced around at his surroundings. He was hanging upside down in a harness in what looked like the inside of a helicopter. He had a good sized knot on the top of his head and as he felt his left eye, he winced with pain. It was almost swollen shut. He had a lot of scratches on his arms and there were several places on his body that were bleeding. Although he was very sore and hurting, he didn’t think anything was overly serious. He did think that his left shoulder was out of joint. Other than that, he didn’t think there was anything broken. Taking his knife from the scabbard on his belt, John started working on cutting himself out of the harness. He cut his right shoulder strap and his right side dropped but he caught as the left held. He screamed out in pain. Taking a minute to gather himself, John waited a few seconds before starting again. One thing he noticed was that when the left strap held, it had popped his shoulder back into place. Finally ready, he cut the rest of the straps and fell to the ceiling of the helicopter. He screamed in pain again. He lay there for a few minutes and looked around the cockpit. Easing himself up, he looked around the pilot’s area of the helicopter. He found a compartment with a ready bag. The bag had flares, thermal blanket, rain gear, and a .45 automatic.

  He was still looking when he felt a slight vibration. The vibration kept feeling stronger. Something was coming and it was big. Although there wasn’t a fire, there was a smoky haze from the crash. John moved over and kicked the door of the helicopter three times until he was able to get it open. It was then that John heard the enormous roar of a tyrannosaurus rex coming that way. It couldn’t be over fifty yards away. He struggled and finally made it to his feet and picked up the bag. The t-rex was almost on him by then. He tried to run but he was struggling. He glanced back and realized why it had been coming so fast. The t-rex was chasing a deer. At the edge of the clearing near the helicopter, the t-rex caught the deer and his big jaws clamped shut on the frightened deer. The t-rex raised his head and shook it. Blood was running down the jaws of the t-rex as it began to eat the deer.

  Marcus used this distraction to quietly slip away. It was slow going but he kept a steady pace to put distance between him and the dinosaur. He had only gone about a mile when he began to feel woozy and fell. He needed somewhere to rest because he had lost more blood than he thought. As he forced himself to his feet, he looked around for some kind of protection. There was a small mountain stream running through the forest to his right. He began forward again. Up ahead he was able to see that the trees were thinner and then he noticed the rocky area. There were several giant rocks and boulders in this area. Some were at least twenty or twenty five feet tall. As he got closer, he saw several smaller boulders at the base of the large ones. As he reached these, he saw an opening to what looked like a small cave. Although the entrance was tight, he was able to squeeze through the entrance into the small cave. Taking a light from the bag, he scanned the inside and quickly moved some small boulders into place to help block the entrance. The interior of the cave was spinning. It was all he could do to maintain consciousness. Although there were several rocks and branches on the base of the cave, John was able to find a flat spot and lie down. He hastily gathered some wood that was near him, used the flare to start a fire, took the thermal blanket from the bag, and wrapped himself in it. He had barely covered himself when he passed out.

  When he awoke it was bitterly cold and the middle of the night. Although the blanket kept him from freezing, the fire hadn’t lasted long. He remembered seeing several old larger limbs just on the outside of the cave. Using those he started the fire again. He checked himself over and it looked like that most of the bleeding had stopped.

  John still didn’t remember who he wa
s. It was extremely frustrating to him. How can you not know your name? He knew just from his experience over the past few days that he had been trained in survival. By who? Who was he? Who were his parents? Why was he in that helicopter? And one of his biggest questions was why were there dinosaurs running around and why did he know so much about them?

  Chapter 8

  Everyone in the room was screaming, jumping around, and hugging each other. After a few minutes they all calmed down and started to discuss what to do. Although they realized there might still be a good chance he may not have survived his injuries and exposure to the weather, they proceeded with a cautious optimism. Wynd was ready to fly up immediately but that was quickly squelched. They had not been up in the helicopter since the day they had rescued David. They didn’t want to take a chance and get shot down like Marcus. Plus, it had started snowing again and according to Wendy the weather girl it wasn’t going to stop anytime soon. It looked like Haven could get over a foot of snow or more before it was over. The radar maps showed that the storm was going to cover the entire eastern section of the United States.

  “Why can’t we fly up there?” asked Wynd.

  “Because we still don’t know who or why they shot Marcus down,” said Kim. “Plus Jocelyn says that a large section of the Shenandoah National Park is being jammed. There are no signals in or out.”

  “Well lets jump in the MAV and drive up there,” said Wynd. “It will take longer but at least they can’t shoot us down.”

  “The weather is going to get worse and worse. In a few days, after this clears out, we can head that way. If Marcus is still alive, I know he can take care of himself,” said Kim.

  As Kim was finishing, Jocelyn spoke up, “Everyone please look at the screen. I have found something else. The timestamp is the day after the accident.”

  The video started playing on the screen again. From the left hand side of the screen a figure slowly entered the clearing and limped toward the helicopter. It was Marcus. Wynd was jumping up and down again.

  “He is still alive!” yelled Wynd. They all celebrated with her.

  They continued watching him as he entered the cockpit and began to pull containers and bags from the wreckage. After seeing the things he pulled from the wreckage, they were convinced he was still alive and would survive until they found him. He made over five trips to the helicopter, even going as far as to strip some of the cushions from the seats. Finally Jocelyn announced that she had scanned the additional footage and that there were no more instances of Marcus being seen. She said she would continually monitor the camera feed and would let them know immediately if he showed up again.

  “Jocelyn. Judging from the speed of Marcus limping around and the time difference between trips; can you estimate how far he is from the crash site? I realize that he may be resting before coming back or maybe eating or whatever. How far can he be away if you estimated the shortest time interval?” asked David.

  “Within a standard deviation of fifteen minutes, I would estimate that Marcus is no further that two miles from the crash site, “said Jocelyn.

  Kim thought they were going to have to strap Wynd in a chair. She headed toward the door like she was going to leave then. Kim stopped her before she could get out the door.

  “We are going to have to wait. It’s supposed to snow for the next several days and if the temperatures fluctuate like the computer is saying, we should have ice mixed in with that,” said Kim. “The computer models are saying that this is the worst winter storm in two hundred years. Don’t worry about Marcus. He’s been on his own since he was thirteen so you know he knows how to survive. And you know he’s tough. Just look at the crash we watched him walk away from.”

  Kim was finally able to talk her out of it and they went back to planning how to go get him.

  Chapter 9

  Throughout the day John stayed in the cave, only going out for a few minutes at a time. The rest of the time he cooked his fish and dozed off and on. The snow was continuing to fall and the temperature was staying low. John wished that the radio in the helicopter was still working. Even though he wasn’t sure who he was, it would be nice to speak to someone else.

  The next morning John headed out into the snow to gather some more wood and check his snares. He wrapped up in every stitch of clothes he could find in the helicopter but was still cold. He realized that he was going to have to make sure that he kept his supplies stocked up. With the deepening snow, it was going to get harder and harder to keep up his food supply.

  He made several trips to and from the cave with wood he had gathered. So far he had been lucky. He hadn’t seen a dinosaur all day. John wondered if they had moved off to the southern valley to take shelter during this storm. After a couple of hours of gathering wood, he decided he would go check his snares. There was at least a foot of snow already and it was snowing harder. He had placed the first snare about a hundred yards from his cave. There was nothing there. At his second snare was a small rabbit. It wasn’t very big but he wasn’t picky. It hadn’t been there long because it wasn’t frozen yet. He quickly field dressed the rabbit and washed his hands off in the stream. His fingers ached after having them exposed cleaning the rabbit and then the cold water. He attached the rabbit to his belt loop, put his hands back in his pockets, and gradually stumbled and limped on down the trail to his next snare as the snow continued to fall heavily.

  The next snare was empty. Heading toward his fourth snare John tripped and fell several times in the snow. Although he had been healing, the pain from the falls was almost unbearable. After he would fall, he would lay there in the snow and wait until the pain subsided. The fourth snare was empty also. With the beating he was taking from the falls, John almost turned and went back. The fifth snare was over two miles from the cave, the terrain was very rough, and John was really struggling. He knew he would need the food if he was lucky enough to have snared something so he continued on.

  The fifth snare was at the top of a hill nestled inside a dense copse of pines. There was a squirrel caught in the snare. It was barely caught and was still moving around. John came in slowly. Most people think squirrels are sweet, playful animals. They are normally but when they are cornered they will attack. They have two razor-like front teeth along with long, super-sharp claws on their feet. That’s why they can easily climb and jump from tree to tree with such ease.

  John had his knife but that would put him in close range of those teeth. He looked around until he found a three inch thick branch that was about four feet long. Taking the branch, John eased closer to the squirrel. Its back leg was caught in the snare and he was facing John. Its tail began to twitch as it assumed a defensive posture.

  John had the branch over his head ready to swing when the squirrel came loose from the snare. It jumped to the left and raced off the hill. John wasn’t about to let it go so he jumped and swung the branch hard. He just missed it and hit the ground hard. In the process of swinging, he also lost his footing in the snow and slipped and fell. He was too close to the steeper part of the hill and he started sliding and tumbling down the side of the hill. He tried to use the trees to slow himself down but was not successful. He travelled over seventy-five yards to the bottom of the hill.

  He lay there in the snow trying to catch his breath. The pain in his shoulder was throbbing. After a while, he finally was able to sit up. Lucky for him, there were still no signs of any dinosaurs. He looked around trying to get his bearings. It was then he noticed that the stream he had followed had a small tributary that flowed into a large pond up ahead. He was looking at the pond when he noticed a larger stand of huge trees located near the stream. It wasn’t the trees that were interesting. It was the large elaborate tree house that was entwined in the top of the trees. It was the size of a small house and it had an integrated staircase that circled the perimeter of the trunk of the largest tree. The staircase travelled all the way to the ground. It was camouflaged in such a way that if it hadn’t been for the snow
, John would never have seen it. Easing himself to his feet, John dusted off the snow and headed that way.

  John was tired and hurting but the sight of the tree house had invigorated him. It was over a half mile to the foot of the tree. He slowly walked around the huge tree looking at the ascending stair case. If you wiped the snow off of the stairs, the staircase blended in with the tree. He wasn’t sure how old the house was but it was expertly made. The house could be five years old or it could have been twenty. He slowly ascended the stairs and reached the first level. There was a small walkway that encircled the entire bottom level. He walked around the walkway and surveyed his surroundings. The first level was probably at least forty feet above the ground. On the opposite side of the tree was another staircase that ascended to the upper level. Before John went up to the second level, he decided to try the door on the first level. It was locked. He tried several times. There was a keypad by the door. He tried several different combinations and still nothing worked.

  He headed to the next level to try it. He thought that maybe he could get in a window or maybe another door. There were no windows on the bottom level. Although covered in snow, the second level had what John would call an enclosed sun porch and a large deck that looked out over the small pond. The door to the sun porch was locked also and John could see that the glass was reinforced glass. It looked as if the walls would rise on the porch if you had access to the inside but it was locked down tight. He looked inside the windows at the interior of the house. It looked like a honeymoon cabin you would see in a brochure. He could see that it had a fireplace, Jacuzzi, a bedroom with a king size bed, and kitchen, and everything looked intact. He looked around everywhere on the second level and couldn’t find another way in.

  The temperature was going down and John was starting to get colder. The sun was already setting. John needed to either find a way in or he needed to hurry back to his cave. He stopped at the keypad on the door. For some strange reason, he knew exactly what to do. He took his knife out and undid the screws on the keypad. Pulling the keypad out, he cut three of the wires and rewired it. Using a combination he would remember, he reset the code and mounted the keypad back in place. He punched in his numbers and the door popped open. He walked into the house and shut the door.