Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (8 page)
B
en’s mom looked out the window above her sink. She had the strangest feeling that something horrible had happened to Ben and Lacey. She wanted to call and check in on them, but didn’t want to ruin their fun. The doorbell interrupted her thoughts.
She dried her hands, and went to the front door. Two men in dark suits were standing at her doorstep; they were accompanied by an Oregon State trooper. The trooper removed his large hat then pulled a picture out of his shirt pocket.
“Yes Ma’am, sorry to bother you.” He paused. Ben’s mom was filled with fear, what had happened, why were the police here? The trooper lifted the picture to eye level and asked, “Is this your son?”
Ben’s mom fought off tears, “Yes, that’s Ben.” She said. “Is he okay?”
“Do you mind if we come in for a minute?”
“Um, sure,” she stepped aside and allowed the men to enter, as she pointed to a sofa in the front room.
One of the men in the dark suits spoke first. “What is your name?” he asked.
“Oh, Stephanie Connor.” She paused, “So is my son okay?”
“Oh yes, sorry, yes he is okay, as far as we know.” The trooper answered. Ben’s mom took a deep breath.
The man in the dark suit spoke again, “Well Mrs. Connor, we understand that Ben has tracked down the first clues to the Grand prize for the Cocoaliscious Cereal Treasure Hunt.”
“Yes, he and his aunt have been tracking them down all week.”
“Well, they are getting very close to the grand prize, and we wanted to invite your family to the celebration ceremony. Since we don’t know exactly when they will reach the grand prize we can’t give you an exact date or time, but we can contact you as soon as they reach the entrance to the final prize’s location.”
“How do you know they will win it? Aren’t other people out searching for the same treasure?” She asked with a perplexed look on her face.
“Well, they are the only two that we have documented as being to the various locations for the clues; we think that most people opted for the internet entry.” The two men looked at each other in agreement.
“Internet entry? What are you talking about?”
“You know for a chance to win the ten thousand dollars? When you found out what location the coordinates were pointing to, you go to the web site and enter in your answer, and then you are entered into the drawing.”
“Drawing? What drawing?” Ben’s mom stood up and went to the counter; she grabbed the instruction pamphlet and opened it up. “The way we understood it was that you had to physically go to the location, which is why they went to the lighthouse!” She was growing a bit anxious.
The man to her left reached up, “May I?” he gestured for the pamphlet. Ben’s mom handed it to him, and then sat back down.
“See if you read here on page three it says, ‘after finding the answer, log onto
GEOCACHING.COM
, enter your answer for the chance to win ten thousand dollars.” Ben’s mom grabbed the book from him.
“Oh my gosh! So they weren’t supposed to go to the lighthouse?” She began thumbing through the book. “I mean leave it to Lacey and Ben to not read instructions, but really, they weren’t supposed to go?”
“No, I’m sorry ma’am; if you turn the next page you will see the instructions for the grand prize.” He gestured to the booklet. Ben’s mom turned the page and skimmed it with her eyes, suddenly her jaw dropped,
“Is this real? Are you kidding me?” She shoved the pamphlet back into the man’s face. He took it from her,
“Yes ma’am, see they are getting so close, so we want you to be there.”
“No, no, no, of course I will be there, but this grand prize,” She pointed to the number on the page, “this is the grand prize?”
“Of course, you didn’t know that?” He looked at her as if she were some sort of idiot. “So ma’am, please if I may get your phone number, we will be in contact so that you can make arrangements for your family to be in attendance at the final location.
“Absolutely, um, where is that exactly?”
“Well, ma’am, I can’t tell you, that would be cheating.” He smiled then handed her his business card. She stood, clearly still shaken from the conversation, went to the counter and wrote down her number.
“Thank you very much,” he took the paper and slipped in into his wallet, then headed for the door. The trooper and the other man stood, nodded at Ben’s mom then opened the door for the first man. He turned and looked at her once again, “Ma’am, don’t worry, he will be okay, and just so you know, you have an amazing son, we hadn’t even considered that someone his age could do this.”
“Well for ten grand my son will do just about anything.” The man looked at her with a confused expression.
“But ma’am the grand prize is-?”
“No, I know,” She interrupted, “just imagine how excited he will be.” Ben’s mom beamed.
Lacey finally reached the ground, amazing how climbing down a tree is almost harder than climbing up she thought. She turned to see if Ben was hiding from the eagle, she was surprised he hadn’t made his way back down the trail to meet back up with her. She began to walk down the trail and out of nowhere came this blur of movement. She dove to the ground protecting her head, and then quickly peeked behind her. She wasn’t imagining it, Ben was flying through the air, it looked as if his body was completely limp and the eagle had locked its talons into his sweatshirt. She knew the eagle was huge, but couldn’t believe her eyes. How on earth could this thing be lifting her nine-year-old nephew? Quickly she dismissed the questions running through her brain, stood up and started chasing after them. Within a few feet of Ben being airborne the plastic egg fell from his pocket, she grabbed it and shoved it into her jeans pocket.
As she ran she picked up rocks and began throwing them at the eagle, which only proved to irritate the bird and so it increased its altitude. She could see it struggling to lift Ben’s weight and yet somehow it did. “Ben!” She yelled as loudly as she could, there was no response. Why wasn’t he answering? Was he dead? What had happened on that trail?
The eagle lifted him higher and higher, she assumed it would take him back to the nest, but it kept flying past and started to make its way over the lake. There was no way she would be able to keep up if she had to go around the lake. She couldn’t swim fast enough; the only thing that came to mind was how badly that bird had wanted to protect its nest. She was about ten feet from the tree, and although she swore she would never climb that high again, she lunged toward the lowest branch. As her fingers clasped the burnt skeleton of the tree, she used all of her strength to lift herself. Her body ached as she moved up branch after branch, but she tried to ignore the pain and forced herself to climb to the top.
Within minutes she was in the same location that she had been when the bird had initially swooped in and attacked her, she began making loud noises and calls, trying anything to get the bird’s attention. It continued to fly over the water, she didn’t know what to do, the only thing she could think was to stay high enough to see where the eagle would take Ben. She went against every instinct she had and stayed in the tree, as the eagle seemed to circle the lake for an eternity.
Finally the eagle circled around, she felt a small sense of relief, once again she tried whooping and calling to get the eagle’s attention. The bird seemed to zero in on her, even though it was a few hundred feet away, she could see its bright blue eyes staring at her, it sent a shiver down her spine.
Suddenly the bird dove, still carrying Ben; it dipped him into the water. He woke out of his unconsciousness, and total panic took over when he realized what was going on. He was now soaked and flying through the air. He was confused that he couldn’t feel the eagle’s grip on his back, he wiggled just enough to throw the bird off balance, again it dipped him in the water, then suddenly pulled up, he realized that the bird only had a grip on his sweatshirt, he just had to slide out of it, but couldn’t quite muster the courage, until he saw the shoreline of the lake quickly approaching. He had to wiggle out of his sweatshirt before the eagle took him over land again; falling into the water was his only hope of survival.
Fighting the overwhelming fear he reached into his sweatshirt pocket and pulled the GPS unit out, he shoved it into his jeans pocket and began to slide his arms out of the sweatshirt; he had to hurry, in seconds he would be over dry land again. As he looked up at the vast wingspan of the bird something in the distance caught his eye. He looked down once again then wrestled his other arm out, suddenly he was free falling.
He hadn’t thought he was up that high, but as he made contact the water felt like knives piercing his skin. He pulled his legs up to his chest, and then hit the bottom of the lake.
Lacey saw him drop, and then realized that without Ben’s weight the eagle was flying at an incredible speed toward her. She began dropping down as quickly as she could, trying to keep her eyes on the bird so as not to be surprised when it attacked. She was almost half way down when it swooped toward her; it made an incredible screech, then circled around and repeated the maneuver. She was almost to the bottom branch and decided to risk the fall, this bird was ticked off and she wanted to get away from it as quickly as possible.
She hit the ground, lifted herself, ignoring the shooting pains running up her legs; she began to run to the thickest tree she could find. As soon as she made it to a small, but thick tree, she pushed its branches out of the way and hid in the dense foliage. She tried to calm her breathing but was so overwhelmed, suddenly she couldn’t contain herself and tears filled her eyes.
After a few minutes she poked her head out and looked up, the eagle was perched in its nest. Feeling safer now, she crouched low to the ground and headed toward the water. She jumped over some bushes that lined the beach area and saw a bright blonde head coming out of the water, it was Ben, he was alive! She ran over to him and almost knocked him over with a huge hug. “Oh my Gosh! Are you okay? Can you believe that?” She helped him make his way out of the water. “I’m so sorry man, that was crazy! C’mon, let’s get out of here!” She grabbed his arm forcefully and began to pull him toward the trail. She was so paranoid and overwhelmed she wasn’t even paying attention to the fact that Ben was fighting her. Finally he dug his feet into the ground and yelled,
“Stop!”
Lacey was totally taken by surprise. “What?” She turned and saw that he was now jogging away from her. “Ben! What are you doing?” She ran up to him, and noticed he was pointing at something on the other side of the lake.
“We can’t leave yet.” He said. Lacey focused in on the direction he was pointing; there in the distance was a large trail of smoke.
“Oh shoot!” she exclaimed.
They continued to jog, “There aren’t supposed to be any fires right now, we have to at least see if we can put it out.” He looked at his aunt then looked back up at the smoke filling the sky; this could be a very long day.
A
s Ben and Lacey circled the lake, the smell of smoke filled the air. They didn’t know exactly what they would do when they reached the fire, but they knew they couldn’t just leave without seeing if they could help. The thought of the entire forest looking like the tree Lacey had climbed was enough motivation to force them to continue on.
The flames weren’t as big as they thought they would be, amazing how much smoke can be produced from a small fire. It seemed to be contained to three smaller trees.
“Ben, let’s dig a line around the perimeter, so that the pine needles can’t catch on fire as easily.” Lacey instructed as she took her shoe and began to kick pine needles and debris away from the fire.
“Why don’t you call 911?” Ben called over to her. She patted down her pants pocket and realized her phone was still in the pack.
“Shoot, I left the pack back at the nest” she said “All I have is the egg.” they continued to dig a line around the fire, and then started kicking dirt on the fire that was spreading across the ground. Ben ran to the lake and was carrying small handfuls back trying to dose out the flames. He just couldn’t carry enough water to really make a difference. Finally he remembered that the new GPS unit had an emergency button just like the first one they had purchased; he pulled it from his pants pocket and pressed the red button over and over again. Knowing it would take emergency personal a long time to arrive they continued to dig the line around the perimeter and tried to force the fire out by smothering it.
“I don’t know what else to do!” Lacey yelled to Ben.
“Just keep putting dirt on it; hopefully it won’t spread from the tree tops.” Ben called back.
Within ten minutes the fire on the ground appeared to be out, they stomped on anything that was smoking, but had to be mindful of the branches above falling on them, or falling and starting another ground fire. The two stepped back and just watched, there was nothing else they could do, but they ultimately knew that they had to stay there. If anyone had gotten their emergency signal they would be tracing the GPS unit. Suddenly out of the woods drove a large truck with what appeared to be a holding tank on the back. Three men jumped out, dressed in yellow reflective suits, they started unwinding a large hose and began spraying the trees. Ben and Lacey just looked at each other, and then stared; they came much quicker than either of them had thought they would. After a few minutes the fire was completely out, the trees were blackened, but surprisingly the fire fighters thought they would survive.
One of the men came over, he removed his hard hat then said, “Didn’t you guys see the sign? There are no fires allowed this time of year.”
“Oh we didn’t start this.” Lacey said as she pointed to the scorched earth. “We saw the smoke from the other side of the lake, then ran over and tried to put it out.”
“Okay, well did you see anyone around when you came over?”
“No, there wasn’t anyone.” Ben said, with a slight hint of fear in his voice, it never occurred to either of them that they would be accused of starting the fire. The firefighter called over to his partners.
The other two men came over, with a look of agitation.
“So these two say they didn’t start the fire, they saw it and came over.”
“That’s interesting.” One said. “Well if you didn’t start it, did you see anyone?”
“No” Lacey said, now she was becoming agitated.
“Well do you drive a green SUV?” the first man asked.
“Yeah, it’s parked over on the other side, about five miles away.” The firefighters looked at one another, then said, “Well we only saw one other vehicle when we were patrolling this area today,” he looked at his partners, “anyone get the plate number of that blue van?”
“What? Blue van?” Lacey asked. “Did it have tinted windows?” She looked at Ben with a fearful expression.
“Yeah, you know it?” the firefighter asked.
“We don’t know it, but we think it’s following us.” Lacey said with a terrified tone.
“Well it was heading out this direction,” He pointed to the area that they had pulled their fire engine through, “when we were headed in.” He looked again at his partners, “Let’s call it in; he couldn’t have gotten too far. If these guys are telling the truth, that van is our arsonist.” One of the men went back to his truck and picked up the CB radio. Ben and Lacey looked at each other, they were covered in dirt, and really thirsty, but didn’t want to bother the firefighters anymore.
“So you guys can go.” One of the men dismissed them.
“Go! With this jerk following us and starting fires, what if he kills us in the woods as we hike back?” Lacey stomped as she spoke. She was overwhelmed and couldn’t believe that they weren’t offering them a ride.
“Sorry, it’s just this will take us some time to look for evidence, it could be all night.” The firefighter in the truck called over to his partners,
“State cop has our guy on Highway 140, about ten miles from here!” Then the third called back to him,
“Hey I don’t think this is arson. It looks more like an exhaust pipe fire; his vehicle was probably idling here for a while. He might not even know he started anything!” He yelled to the man in the truck.
“Okay!” The man in the truck yelled back.
“So they have him?” Lacey asked loudly, just confirming that he wasn’t in the woods waiting to kill them and steal the clue.
“Sounds like it, what were you guys doing out here anyways?”
“Looking for a treas-” Ben began to say, but Lacey cut him off,
“We were hiking!” She said quickly. The firefighter looked at Ben suspiciously.
“I think you guys are safe to hike back, and good luck with that treasure, buddy.” He winked at Ben. Ben just stared at him, not wanting to divulge any more information, at this point in time, everyone was a possible threat to him getting his hands on that ten thousand dollars. He looked at Lacey, they both turned, and yelled thanks to the firefighters as they walked toward the other side of the lake.
“Great,” Lacey said, “that guy is still following us.”
“He won’t be now, you heard them, the cops have him.” Ben said reassuringly.
“I don’t know, this is getting so creepy.” She rubbed some dirt from her face, and then looked at the lake, “That water pretty cold?” She asked Ben.
“No, it was really nice actually.” He said with a straight face. Lacey went and ran into the water; in less than a second a bloodcurdling scream filled the air.
“You brat! This is freezing!” she yelled. Ben just laughed and pointed at his aunt who was jumping around in the water trying to get accustomed to the cold. She finally just ignored the icy temperature and started washing her face and arms off. As she washed she took a few big gulps, she was so parched from all the dust.
“Whoa! What are you doing?” Ben yelled.
“What? I’m thirsty.”
“You are gonna get so sick, I saw it on TV, you should never drink from a lake.” He said with an authoritative voice.
“No, look at how clear this water is, and it is super cold, I won’t get sick. Ya know Ben you are really paranoid for a kid.” She took another large gulp of water.
“I bet you a hundred bucks you get sick.” Ben laughed.
“Okay, if I get sick you don’t have to pay me for climbing the tree.” She took a handful of water and threw it in Ben’s direction.
“Sounds great!” Ben said, and then looked at his watch, “Yep, looks like by five o’clock tonight I won’t owe you a dime!” He started to walk again. “You may want to hurry up, unless you want to go to the bathroom in the woods!” He looked back at her and laughed. Lacey dragged her sore body out of the water, the cold was actually feeling good, but she knew they had to get going. Suddenly she realized that they had never opened the egg.
“Hey, Ben!” She yelled. “Wait up, we never opened the egg!”
“Oh man, I can’t believe we forgot!” he ran back to her. She pulled the egg from her pocket, separated the two plastic halves and revealed a rolled up piece of paper. “Great.” Ben said sarcastically.
Lacey unrolled the paper, then read
“42 degrees 56’24” North and 122 degrees 8’51” West. On the old man is your final clue, good luck in the deep, in the cold you will weep.”
she looked at Ben, “Final clue!” She started jumping up and down.
“C’mon,” Ben said as he turned on the pathway, “Let’s grab our pack and go!” they both began to run as fast as they could. They reached the area of the nest and peeked around a bush, the eagle was still in its nest; Lacey crouched low to the ground and ran over, grabbed the pack, then ran back. She slipped the shoulder straps on, fastened the waist belt, and then nodded to Ben.
He was still staring at the eagle, “Aunt Lacey, don’t you think it’s strange that the eagle could carry me?” He continued to stare.
“Ben, I am not surprised at anything that is happening on this trip.” She began walking toward the trail.
He caught up to her, “Isn’t it strange though, I mean, we wouldn’t have seen the fire if it wouldn’t have picked me up.”
“Well, I guess everything happens for a reason, I’m just glad once again that I do not have to call your mom and tell her that you are dead.” She giggled then realized that Ben was serious.
“I just think it’s strange, it could have just attacked me, I was knocked out from tripping,” he rubbed the bump on his forehead. “But it didn’t, it picked me up, and basically showed me the fire.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” Lacey said confidently, “that eagle was ticked off.” Just as the last words were coming out of her mouth she heard a loud shriek. They both looked up to see the eagle flying toward them, it was carrying something. They both dove to the ground, fear overcoming them. Suddenly they felt something fall on top of them, and then heard the eagle fly away. “Oh my gosh!” Lacey said as she lifted Ben’s torn sweatshirt off of her. She held it up to show Ben,
“You think that is strange?” he held up a piece of a charcoaled branch, then placed it in Lacey’s hand; the wood was still warm from the fire. Ben took his sweatshirt, looked at the huge holes left in the back of it, from the eagle’s claws. He held it up, and then grabbed the piece of warm wood from Lacey’s hand. He eyed both items, “You’re right,” he said, pausing acknowledging her reaction, “probably just a coincidence.”