Road in the Rocky Mountains, outside Denver
Jarod
looked down at the open red notebook in his hands. The bold caption across the top of the article proclaimed "Eagle
Rock Cave Declared Historic Site".
Looking up from the notebook he could see the object of the
article. A rock formation shaped
loosely like the head of an eagle that marked the entrance to a very large,
natural cave with a labyrinth of tunnels and hundreds of ancient native
hieroglyphics.
A
debate over the cave had been the reason he had this beautiful view of
Colorado. Out of state developers
wanted to build a large recreational lodge using the caves as their lobby
attraction. Locals wanted the site
protected for others to view and enjoy.
Additionally, the cave had long been a ritual site for the Native Americans
in the area. Using the state and local
politics, he had gotten a resolution that benefited all parties. The lodge would be built close enough to use
the rock as a scenic point and attraction.
Having the cave proclaimed part of a national park kept it protected and
allowed Native American ceremonies that would encourage more tourism.
A
Park Ranger beginning his next tour bus lecture brought Jarod's attention back
to the roadside parking lot where he stood.
A camera flash brought his focus to the tourists behind him. Several middle-aged women giggled at his
attention. The woman with the camera,
the tallest woman among the four quickly flashed off several more
pictures. Again the women giggled and
whispered to each other behind cupped hands.
Still
giggling, the women headed back to a Mini van.
He heard their school girl-type conversation as they loaded into the
van. "Wasn't he handsome? He will look great in my scrapbook, I am
going to name that page "Natural Wonders"!"
"No, how about young stag in the Rockies!" "No, how about handsome
buck…" "Prince of the wilderness…" The slamming of the van door shut off the
rest of their dialog.
The
mini van pulled back onto the rural mountain highway with a honk and women
waving at every window. Jarod lifted a
hand in farewell, shrugged and headed for his rental jeep. Looking at his watch, Jarod decided he had
enough time to grab some dinner in town before returning to his cabin for the
DSA's and his gear. The cabin he had
rented for the summer was isolated but close enough to the highway to allow him
to hike into town if he wished.
Shifting gears, Jarod headed towards town.
Just
a few miles down the road from the scenic stop was another local landmark. This one was a large rocky area that hosted
a different kind of attention from the locals.
Millions of years of weather and heavy snow had left a hillside of rock
along side the highway. The kids used
this area to herald the schools, relationships and various other forms of
expression commonly known as graffiti.
Today,
a group of high school boys were trying to shift a rock closer to another so
that they could make their sign bigger than the others. Levering the boulder, they heard it shift
and then an echo of other rocks shifting.
Nervous, they stepped away as the rock shifted. Rolling quickly downward, it collected
others on the way to the highway below.
Seeing
something out of the corner of his eyes, one of the boys noticed the open top
jeep just heading into the turn where the rocks would pass. Shouting and pushing at the other boys, he
headed down the trail towards the road.
Traveling
faster than the sound of the avalanche, the rocks hit the side of the jeep and
pounded it up and over the guardrail.
The roll bars of the jeep couldn't protect Jarod from the trees and
branches as it rolled along with the rocks down the embankment. Jarod was hurting all over from several
hard hits and the wind was knocked out of him before the jeep came to a stop
against a stand of old growth trees.
Dazed, Jarod could hear the snapping and hissing of the
radiator. The air was fragrant with the
smell of pine and sap. Slowly opening
his eyes, or one of them at least, he began to assess his injuries. He knew he had cracked a couple of ribs
because of the difficulty he was having breathing. Shifting his weight to try for a more comfortable position he
discovered a severely wrenched knee.
Lifting a hand to his head and face, he could feel the forehead and eye
area swelling up. Feeling wetness, he
drew back his hand to see blood, lots of it.
Probably a head concussion he thought through the massive headache that
was pushing itself to the forefront of his thoughts.
Since his left eye refused to open, Jarod felt around for
the door handle. He tugged on the door
only to realize that it was wedged shut.
Since lifting himself out over the top was not his first choice, Jarod
reached inside his coat pocket for his cell phone. Not finding it, he carefully looked around in the jeep for
it. Not seeing it in the area he was
restricted to, Jarod sighed in frustration.
As
his vision began to tunnel, he said to himself, "I'll just rest a moment…"
By
the time the boys reached the road, the rocks had already pushed the jeep off
the highway. All they saw was the rocks
and debris covering the road.
"You
didn't see a car! This is just your chicken
shit way of getting out of painting the sign.
You didn't want to do it from the beginning!"
"No!
I swear. I saw a jeep. It was bright red for god's sake!"
"Well
I don't see anything, it must have passed before the rocks came down."
"Well,
we can't just leave the road like this."
"I
don't see a bulldozer in your back pocket!
I'm not going to give up my weekend cleaning up this crap!"
"Me
either. I'm outta here before someone
comes along."
"But
what if a car comes and doesn't see it, what if someone gets hurt?"
"All
the more reason to get the hell out of here!"
When
the first boy headed over the rocks to leave the slide, the others quickly
followed. The reality of getting in
trouble for causing the slide quickly overcame any responsibility for any
accidents it could cause. In no time,
they had disappeared from the scene.
Not
long after, the quiet of the mountain was disturbed again, this time by the hum
of a Chevy camper rig coming down the highway.
Out of state license tabs partially explained the leisurely pace of the
camper.
"I
love this song!" Laurie said as she turned up the radio.
"John
Denver?"
"Yeah,
how can you come to Colorado and not hear John Denver. It's like not hearing Elvis songs in Las
Vegas or Memphis."
"But
Rocky Mountain High is so hokey."
"So
why do you know all of the words to it?"
"Everybody
knows all the words to it. It's like,
Ring Around the Rosie…SHIT!"
Slamming
the breaks to his camper rig, Harry brought it to a crooked stop too close to
the rocks that blocked the road. Harry
put his hand to his chest and looked over at Laurie. She was still wide-eyed with her hands braced against the
dashboard.
"Shit
that was close!" Turning on his
emergency flashers, Harry opened the door and went to check out the slide. Laurie took a deep breath and followed.
"It
completely covers the road, we're going to have to go back the way we came."
"Do
we have enough room to turn around?"
"It
won't be easy but I don't see any other choice."
"Hey! Look at that guardrail it's bent over. Is that red paint on it?"
They
trotted over to the edge of the highway.
It was clear that something had gone over but there was no way of
telling if it was more than rocks and debris.
"Call
911, then we can go and check it out. I
have a bad feeling about this."
Calling
911 and giving the details and expressing their suspicions only took a
minute. Harry looked down the road to
see if there was anything coming that they needed to worry about. Then he scrambled over the slide to check
the other side. Laurie climbed into the
camper and got the first aid kit.
Meeting back at the rockslide, they found a safe way and started down.
Carefully
working their way down, they soon saw evidence that a something had gone over
the side. First they found a Coleman
cooler. Then it was a thermos, a
shattered cell phone, a wallet, paper, then a red notebook cover, bits and
pieces of vehicle debris and finally a red jeep in some trees.
"Hey!
Is anyone in there?" Laurie shouted as they both climbed down faster.
They
each went to opposites sides of the jeep.
They saw a man in the drivers seat.
He was bloody but he opened one eye when he heard Laurie pulling at the
passenger side door.
"Are
you okay? What hurts?"
Jarod
gave them first aid instructions but his knee hurt too much to move him from
the Jeep. His foot was wedged under the
dashboard. He had not noticed that
before because of the wrenched knee.
Harry
tried to use the cell phone but the trees were blocking its reception.
"I'll
go back up to the road and call this in.
You wait here until the ambulance arrives. Be careful." Giving
Laurie a kiss and holding her face for a second longer, Harry headed back up
the embankment.
Laurie
climbed into the passenger seat of the jeep and put a compress against Jarod's
head.
"My
name is Laurie, what's yours?"
"Jarod."
"Hello
Jarod. Do you live around here?"
"No,
just here for the summer. I was headed
for dinner, then to Florida."
"My
husband, Harry and I are on our vacation.
We're from Washington, the State.
Actually from Woodinville, that is about 20 minutes north of Seattle."
"I
was a news cameraman in Seattle." He
shifted his position to help breathe easier and it sent shooting pains through
his leg. A moan escaped him.
"Don't
move. I hurt my knee skiing and I know
that's no fun. It hurts like hell as a
matter of fact. You're pretty swollen." She could see that it was swollen so much
that the knee was stretching the jeans he was wearing. Before she had finished deciding if it would
be better to cut the jeans to relieve the pressure or keep it immobilized he
spoke.
"I
think I hear sirens."
Laurie
looked up towards the highway. She
listened and could just make out the sound of sirens. It seemed to take forever for the sounds to get closer and then
for people coming down the hill.
Soon
there were several medics at the jeep.
Laurie climbed out so that one of them could get closer to Jarod. Jarod passed out again as they started to
release him from the jeep.
Soon
they had his leg cut out of the dash and had him in a sling to carry back up
the hill.
When
they got up the hill, Laurie saw crews working on the road. Laurie walked with the sling over to the
ambulance. When the medics asked if
they knew who the patient was, Laurie remembered the wallet. She pulled it from her coat pocket and
handed it to them.
The Centre, Blue Cove
Broots
hustled through the halls of the Centre.
He had been writing a program when his watchdog program gave him an
alert. Since Jarod always used his own
name in his pretends, Broots had written a program that scanned all media for
the name "Jarod". A Jarod Roosevelt had
been checked into a Denver hospital. Further
checking revealed that this Jarod was injured in an auto accident. Descriptions of the patient matched their
Pretender. He had looked for Miss
Parker in her office but she wasn't there.
Gibson, her assistant said that she was with Sydney in his office. Miss Parker was very clear in his
instructions not to use the phone for Jarod's whereabouts.
He
finally reached Sydney's office and barged in without knocking. Miss Parker and Sydney looked up from the
monitor.
"I've
found Jarod! That is, I think I've found Jarod!"
"Where
is he?"
"I
created this search program that hunts for the name Jarod, he always uses his
own name you know, his first name that is…his last name is usually symbolic to
the type of disguise he is using…."
"Broots!"
"Oh
yeah. Well anyway, my program came up
with a 911 call in Denver Colorado.
Search and Rescue pulled a guy out of a rockslide and took him to a
Denver hospital. His name is Jarod
Roosevelt and his description matches our Jarod."
"Get
me more details Broots, Now!" Miss
Parker growled as she picked up the phone and called for the Centre jet.
Within
an hour they were headed for the Centre's jet and Denver.
The Centre Jet, headed to Denver Colorado
After
the jet took off, Broots got back onto his laptop. Sydney looked over his shoulder as the hospital files came
up.
"Well,
what's up with the Lab Rat. Is it
Jarod?" Miss Parker asked in her normal sarcastic tone.
"It's
would appear to be him but he is badly injured. Broken ribs, knee, head concussion."
"I'll
take him any way I can get him. This is
the closest we have been in nearly a year and the Centre is tired of hearing
that he has gotten away again."
After
the Centre jet landed, they had a Centre helicopter fly them the hospital. They quickly located the room and barged
in. In an instant they knew it was the
Pretender despite the black eyes and head bandages. Sydney picked up the medical chart that hung on the bed. Miss Parker stopped by the head of the bed
and struck an aggressive posture with arms crossed.
"Well
look what we have here. A trapped Lab
Rat."
"Miss
Parker, he can't hear you."
Miss
Parker looked up but before she could snap at Sydney he said, "He is in a
coma. The head injury is more severe
than we believed."
In
a couple of steps she was at Sydney's side.
"What do you mean?"
"His
brain stem is swelling. This is pretty
serious, he may die."
"I
don't believe it. Go make arrangements
to have him moved back to the Centre.
GO!"
It
took longer than Miss Parker wanted.
The attending doctors all insisted that Jarod was too unstable to
move. Miss Parker insisted and with the
Centre's influence, Jarod was Medi-vac lifted to the jet and soon they were
headed back to Blue Cove.
