The NASA team stood together and compared all the notes they had so far.
“This thing couldn’t have created this crater, it is far too big and fell from such a height that the crater would have been at the very least, three times as big,” John said.
“Unless it didn’t fall from space at all?”
“We know it did, we tracked it from the lower orbit, odd that we didn’t see it before that though?” Betty responded.
“Maybe it slowed down before it crashed in the woods.” One of the younger scientists said.
They all paused to consider this for a second. It would make sense that the object appeared undamaged and why the crater was so small.
“How though, it’s clearly unmanned?”
“There is an explanation,” John said as he smiled.
“Don’t say it John, there are not little green men from Mars in there,” Betty said sternly.
John laughed, “Just saying it would explain a few thin…”
John was interrupted by an eerie voice from the top of the crater.
The man in the black suit had re-appeared, “Time is up team, please gather your things and get ready to depart.”
John looked to Betty and her body language worried him. Her shoulders slumped and she averted her gaze to the dirt beneath her feet.
“We are not finished yet Sir, we still have more procedures to complete before we have a chance of identifying this object for you.” Even as John was speaking, an uncomfortable feeling began to encroach on his unconscious mind; it felt as if his blood sugar level had just fallen through the floor, he shook his head trying to clear the grogginess.
“That will not be necessary, please gather your equipment as quickly as possible then follow me for debriefing.”
John could not fight it anymore “Yes Sir, what is going to happen to the object?”
The man in black’s face showed no emotion, “That is none of your concern.”
Betty had heard enough, “Team time to go.”
It took three minutes for the NASA team to pack their things and leave the impact crater. They were led away by the man in black to their vehicles and then were instructed to follow the mysterious man back into the heart of Kecksburg.
Unaccounted time
Cal woke with a start, he opened his eyes but it was pitch black in the room. Cal’s eyes were sore and he blinked rapidly to try and clear the multicolored hazy images that clouded his vision.
The reporter groaned as he rolled onto his back, his whole body seemed to throb and ache. He lay there on top of his own comfy bed and rolled his tongue around his mouth; it was bone dry and Cal open and closed it a few times.
Cal groaned as he sat up and gingerly reached out for the glass of water he always kept beside his bed, A sharp pain cut deep into his head though and he winced, knocking over the water in the process, the clear liquid slowly ran down the side of the table and patted slowly onto the carpet.
It was strange, Cal could not remember enjoying a smooth drink last night but he definitely felt hungover, much like the last time he finished a bottle of whiskey with the editor of the paper. Cal tried to think but every time that he tried to recall the night’s events his head began to hurt and the memories were not forthcoming.
The reporter moved his hand slowly out to the bedside lamp and pushed the switch on, the intense light burnt his eyes and the pain raced through his head, he pushed his hands over his eyes and curled his body into the fetal position; he rocked slowly as he tried to block out the pain but it was not working and finally he passed out.
Jerry Clark had been ordered to his bed just as the military had rolled into town and locked down the area. The excitement was too much for the young boy though and his imagination had run wild with images of the object flying in the woods, he tossed and turned for a couple of hours but just could not get any sleep. Finally, he decided to disobey his mom’s orders and crept towards the curtains. He opened them a tiny bit and peered out into the normally dark woods.
The young boy could see some kind of machinery in the distance, it was around the area where the strange capsule had landed and the machines appeared to be lifting it out slowly. Jerry watched wide-eyed as the object was pulled from the crater and lowered onto the back of a truck.
Suddenly a flashlight shone onto the back of the Clarks house, it slowly moved from window to window as if it was checking for something. The soldiers on the end of it watched carefully for any movement and then when they were happy there was nobody watching they moved to another window. They finally came to rest on Jerry’s window but the boy had managed to drop to the floor out of sight, just in time.
“I swear I saw movement up there!”
“Boredoms getting to you my friend, these hicks have all gone to bed.”
“Yeh, you’re probably right.” The soldier nudged his friend on the shoulder, “Looks like the jobs nearly finished here.”
They both smiled in the darkness.
Cal was finally woken by a loud rumble that sounded like it was coming from the main street that ran along his bedroom window. He managed to pull himself to his feet and shuffle across the room to the slightly open blinds; Cal still had to look away from the light but the intense pain in his head was gone.
Down on the street the curb was lined with men in military uniform, they were stationed at the end of every drive. In the road a convoy of open-top jeeps was driving through the small town. In the center of this convoy was a single, large flatbed truck. Cal strained to see what was on the back of the truck but a large tarp covered its contents. The reporter could make out a large bulge in the fabric but it was covered well and he could not see what they were hiding.
Cal was starting to regain his composure now, things were not making sense here and he needed to get to the bottom of it. As he continued to observe out of the window he took everything in. He noted that other residents were watching from their windows but nobody except the military was out on the streets.
‘They must have imposed a curfew’ Cal thought ‘but why can’t I remember this?’
Cal subconsciously ran his right hand over his wrist, a gesture he often did when he was thinking. This time something was not right, there was a band-aid on the underside of his wrist that he could not remember putting there.
“What the hell?” He said out loud as he peeled it off quickly. A small speck of blood coated the back, just a speck though. Cal looked at the tiny bump that was on his wrist, it looked like a mosquito bite but all of the annoying insects had died out by this time of year.
Cal scratched it a little and was immediately struck with a flashback pulsing through his mind; he was talking to two of the volunteer fireman in a clearing in the woods just behind the town. They were at the edge of a crater and they all peered in but just as Cal was about to catch a glimpse of what lay in the crater his flashback faded.
Another one appeared just as quickly and Cal could see State Police officers struggling with the big farmer Don and the two fire lads. That image came and went in a flash and was replaced with another one. Cal, Don, Michael and Ray were being led away from the crash site by the National Guard at gunpoint; Cal noticed the figures in the yellow spacesuits with the NASA insignia on their arms making their way towards the crash site.
That memory disappeared and was replaced by a final one of a man in a black suit putting a needle into the reports wrist but for some reason, Cal just sat there and did not struggle. Cal tried desperately to focus on the hostile man’s face but he just could not make it; then the image was gone.