The Incident at Pine Hills Mounds
Black-eyed kids and other shenanigans.
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“That’s all for now,” said Colonel Williams. He waved to Ghalia and took her aside for a moment. “I know you don’t have a lot of experience yet, so here’s the plan. You roam the site and find out what you can. Don’t be a hero and don’t get caught. Return as quickly as possible. Take this radio. Its signal reaches me and only me. Don’t use it unless you’re replying to me or you’re in danger.”
“Understood.” Ghalia nodded an affirmative and attached the radio to her belt. She then slipped out of the tent, heading toward the nearby trees.
Sergeant Savoy went through a preflight checklist. He completed it quickly and announced that the little aircraft was ready to fly. “Launching on your command, sir. It’s approximately 15 minutes until sunset.”
“Launch. Carry out the orders you received.”
“Yes sir.” The Shadow-9.r.7’s propellers began to spin and the buzzing machine went straight up into the air. Savoy flew the machine toward the north tree line, and then turned it west. He paused to take some test pictures and to check the video capability. When he was satisfied, he raised the drone’s elevation far above the civilian limitation, and flew to the northwest. Because they were using a very advanced aircraft, Savoy was taking pictures and video within minutes.
“Can the drone see very well in the dark?” Dr. Williamson asked.
“Yes, sir,” replied Sergeant Savoy. “Complete and excellent night vision.”
“Good. Perhaps this can be resolved tonight.”
“Hopefully,” agreed Savoy.
Sergeant Savoy began to circle the Pine Hills mound, taking pictures and video. Dr. Williamson and Sheriff Barton watched the video on one of the remote monitors, while Colonel Williams was on the phone with several people and organizations. Most of the conversations were probably classified and, indeed, Williamson did not understand most of what he heard. He did, however, recognize when the Colonel was speaking to the aircraft crew that was waiting at the airport. They were ordered to crank up and remain on standby until they received further orders.
“We’ve arrived at sunset and we have a complete package of photographs and video. Returning to staging area,” announced Sergeant Savoy. “And we received no incoming fire.”
“Ghalia, this is Colonel Williams, commence your reconnaissance.”
“Roger.”
Sergeant Savoy brought the little drone to a perfect landing. He picked it up and brought it inside the command center, where he hooked it up to what looked to be a bank of ancient computers. They were not, of course, but Sheriff Barton had originally thought to himself that they looked like they might be circa 1960s machines.
Soon, pictures were being viewed, and a video was ready. Dr. Easton began to give a commentary on the film, and Nicole started filming. Dr. Easton determined that the mound seemed typical of the kind that could be found in northeast Texas and southeast Oklahoma, especially on the south side of the Arkansas River. There was even such a mound on CR 30, the McCumber Road, in Mackenson County. Curiously, the Pine Hills mound appeared to have a vault-like entryway, a characteristic displayed by certain cultures located in Mesoamerica. A dedicated entrance to a burial chamber was not par for the course in North America, but the earthwork did seem to be a burial mound. Dr. Easton did not know and wouldn’t speculate as to why the human captives were digging in what might be a grave.
While the Pill Hills mound had features in common with others, the one on Lang’s land had other features. For one thing, most burial mounds weren’t being excavated in the dark. The party watched as Esmeralda, Grace, Elisa, Jesse, Israel, and Ramon entered and exited the vault-like structure in front of the mound. Dr. Easton had called it “the entryway.” They seemed to be removing earth from the vault (or entryway), spade by spade. Jane stood close by them, shotgun in hand. What were they doing out there?
“Ghalia?” The colonel hoped that no one heard Ghalia’s radio.
“Yes sir?”
“There’s an area in front of the mound that looks like a burial vault. Did you see it?”
“Yes sir,” came the response. “I’m almost back to your location.”
“Understood,” said Williams.
As though by magic, Ghalia was at the colonel’s side. He inadvertently jumped. She was impossibly fast, he thought to himself. “Glad you made it back,” said the colonel. “What can you tell us?”
“The humans...er...people...are excavating inside the area that looks like a burial vault. It is in fact not a burial vault, at least not for a human being. No human has ever been buried there. That which we took to be a vault is instead a tunnel that seems to slope beneath the mound.”
“Can I ask how you know that no one has ever been buried there?”
“Know? Of course. I have certain senses and abilities that exceed those of others. In short, I am as accurate as a cadaver dog when it comes to human burials. This is one of the reasons that I’m assigned to the Mackenson Institute security department.”
“Very well,” the colonel replied. She had given him quite the fright when she suddenly appeared beside him, but now he was remarkably sangfroid, as cold as usual. “Give us your complete report.”
“Yes, sir. None of the victims speak, apparently. If they do, I didn’t hear anything. I don’t know how they receive their orders, but they all appear to be under the control of the aliens. There are three adult males. There are three young females and one older woman. The latter has a shotgun, but other weapons are lying about. I’d guess that each of the hostages has access to a weapon.”
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