CHAPTER 22: Government
Much like it was night time within the dinosaur world, it was also night time in Great Britain. On various broadcasting channels on the television, live footage of the Downing Street press conference room emerged, with two union flags on either side of the podium. Emerging from the middle doors in front of the podium was the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, carrying heaps of papers in his hand.
Emerging onto the podium, Starmer rested the papers in front of him and looked straight to the camera, completely outflanked by the two big union flags on his left and right. He had a black suit on with a black and white striped tie, alongside his glasses.
"Good evening," said Starmer, directly to the cameras, "over the past few hours we've received reports of two missing men. This has been brought to a national level precisely because the way in which they disappeared has no precedent. Michael James and Nathan Horde, 24 and 28 years old respectively, were both last seen walking along a local hiking path in their local areas earlier on in the day."
Starmer cleared his throat and briefly looked at the papers below him on the podium, before looking back up to the cameras.
"The police are currently conducting a thorough search of the area that they were last seen. Their respective parents contacted the authorities when they didn't return home earlier on. A few witnesses have been brought forwards to share their details with the local authorities, to which they recalled seeing two men of the description they've been described as. What's particularly unorthodox about this awful, saddening disappearance for the families involved, is that they both vanished at the exact same time, and only after they were seen a mere five minutes before it happened by dog walkers local to the area."
The disappearance of Nathan and Michael had become a country-wide shock. To the extent the Prime Minister of Britain had been made aware of it. It was such an unorthodox and almost spooky manner in which they'd vanished, which was why it was spreading across millions of people in the country.
"The government is standing by and watching the events. We will be maintaining contact with the police and we'll be thoroughly hoping for the safe return of these two young men. To ensure any doubt of their last seen appearance is erased, Michael James was wearing, as described by his mum, a pink button-up top with khaki coloured shorts and white Nike trainers."
"Nathan Horde was last seen wearing a black Nike cap, a black hoodie and white shorts with plain black trainers. As I've mentioned already, dog walkers local to the area near the path have already said they saw the two men before their disappearance. As we speak, as I've also said, the police are conducting thorough searches around the area and have taped off the path during their search, and the government, as well as the local police, urge those with new information to come forwards so these two men can be brought home to safety."
"Our condolences must go to the families who're clearly suffering a great emotional panic at this time, but they'll have the assurance of the government and authorities that their safety is our imperative. No area of that forest will go unsearched, and at this time we cannot possibly rule anything out until more information comes to light."
Keir Starmer nodded at the cameras. Taking a small drink of water from the podium, the Prime Minister adjusted the piles of papers in front of him. He was set to take questions from the media on this nation-wide story of the missing men in Michael James and Nathan Horde.
The hiking path congregated within the dense forests was a no-go area to the public whilst the police in their green hi-vis jackets roamed the vicinity with torches and canine police dogs. Any bushes they found, they'd search thoroughly. Any part of the forest that had heavy greenery in the form of trees they'd thoroughly walk around and shine their torches to the ground, in case any possessions belonging to either Michael or Nathan were found.
Police helicopters patrolled the skies, their rotating blades made for an intimidating sound which crossed the air of the sky, to be heard from the thousands of households below on the ground. The lightning flashes of red on these helicopters made them pop out like dots in the pitch black sky.
Police cars surrounded the no-go tapes that had been attached to the entrance and exits of the dense forest, the blue and red lights battling one another endlessly, creating an everlasting collection of colours for the eye on top of the cars.
The police intended to carry on the search all night. Given the attention of the nation was now concentrated on the missing guys, they felt it even more imperative that they continued the search. To the police, it was the most puzzling disappearance that they'd ever had to deal with.
"Anything so far?" one Sergeant asked, as he turned up to the scene at the entrance of the forest.
At the entrance of the forest was a big metal sign that had a map of the path, with colourful images of animals like birds and insects like ants scattered across the sign. This forest was a well known hiking area for dog walkers and people who just generally enjoyed hiking. The sign, with its bright colours and map of the path scattered with numerous trees, gave it an innocent and safe reputation.
"We've turned up nothing, absolutely nothing," a constable replied, his big black and white hat almost invisible in the pitch black.
In the distance behind the small group of officers stood at the entrance guarding it from the public, were hundreds of lights that resembled circles roaming around the trees - these lights were coming from the police well inside the forest shining their torches across the vicinity in their hunt for Michael and Nathan. The constable, with the Sergeant, wanted to remain as hopeful as possible.
"It's horrible that this has happened. No possessions or anything, can we rule anything out would you say?"
"I wouldn't want to say," replied the constable, "it's so bizarre though, the fact that we've had a couple of witnesses say they saw them literally five minutes before they disappeared, and that was pretty much near the middle of the pathway."
"I know what you mean," said the Sergeant, who adjusted his hi-vis jacket, "from what I understand as well, this is a very very dense forest, it's hard for anyone to simply get out of it other than the exit or entrance here, it's a giant cluster of trees surrounding it, so the only way they'd have realistically disappeared usually would've been if they found a way out through the trees or anything."
The police had long spoken to the mothers of Nathan and Michael prior to initiating their search, which, with the canine dogs, included specialist search teams and detectives. They'd asked them many questions about the mental wellbeing of them and such, to garner an idea of the risk assessment of the guys. They'd sounded like normal guys with nothing wrong with them, which was even more baffling.
They were going through all the nearby CCTV cameras near the pathway, looking for footage that might've given them any help in tracing the two guys down. The only footage they'd acquired from a nearby CCTV camera was them actually going through into the entrance to the forest, in which a big car park was directly in front of the entrance so families could park if they wanted to drive to the forest to get to it.
That was the last thing the CCTV camera physically had of the two guys. They were completely baffled - the only thing they could do was just carry on searching until something, ANYTHING, came up as a clue. So far, no possessions or anything had been found, like phones, items, anything.
The police checked the social media and internet history on the computers at both houses - nothing out of the ordinary. On Michael's PC there were more animated movies popping up, particularly Blue Sky ones, the most prominent one showing up being Ice Age 3, but the police brushed right past it. It hadn't once occurred to them that animated movies would be a pivotal clue. All in all, the history, internet and social media wise, seemed pretty normal for the two guys.
Back within the forests, the search teams with their specialist counterparts aimlessly shone their torches all over the dry mud. Nothing seemed to be coming up as a clue or a hint as to the whereabouts of the two missing guys. Not even the German Shepherd police dogs were sniffing anything out.
One search officer, diverting off the course that the team were initially searching, shone his torch off to a section of the forest that hadn't yet been covered by anyone from the search team, and he walked ever so slowly across the heaps of twigs snapping at the force of his shoes. His canine was sniffing the ground, until suddenly out of nowhere the dog started barking, almost begging to be let off the lead towards a specific direction.
The barking was relentless, like something was challenging the canine. The officer holding the dog walked to the direction that it was barking at, and he quickly hopped over and shone his torch over an elevated, hilly part of the ground which had an opened up, decently sized hole, fissure-looking. Immediately, the officer kept his torch lit on the hole as the canine continued barking at it.
"I'VE FOUND SOMETHING, I'VE FOUND SOMETHING!" the officer yelled, seriously and prominently from the top of his lungs.
The rest of the team sprinted over to the area and shone their torches on the hole.
"What is that?" one of the constables asked.
"Stay put for a moment, it might just be a dead end or..." one of the specialist officers said.
The bulk of the team surrounded the fissure as the specialist officer carefully walked around it, and shone his torch into the interior. It went on and on and on, and it didn't look like it ended.
"Michael?! NATHAN?! ARE YOU IN HERE FELLAS, WE'RE HERE TO HELP YOU!" he yelled, but all he got in response was an endless echo of his own voice, which gave him a realization.
"This doesn't just end here, this is a full on fissure of a cave that extends inwards."
"My god," one of the officers quietly uttered.
"Report this to the media and get the cave specialists here, it seems like if we're going to find these guys, this is gonna have to be explored and promptly entered to find any trace of them. We can't rule out the possibility that they're trapped in some sort of cave way inside."
"Don't let the dogs off, just in case they go in. We want to approach this with as much calm as possible given the stakes."
"On it, sir," replied one of the constables.
It seemed like a massive breakthrough had occurred in regards to the whereabouts of Michael and Nathan. What the police didn't know was that the fissure they'd just discovered was indeed the same one Michael and Nathan entered, but they had no idea about the world that it actually led to. They were going to send some of their team back to the entrance where the media was, with their cameras broadcasting the scenes live, and they were going to promptly call specialist cave rescue teams to the area.