The Alien Artifact 7 (2 page)

As the old truck slowly bumped up and down
through the field Cameron’s name went through his mind
rhythmically, vanishing and reappearing, and he failed to recall a
single thing. What was he doing there? Simpson treated him like he
was part of a crime, with Simpson and the other two soldiers, which
they refused to say and which they were sure he would eventually
recall.

At a field (behind where
Rudolf Hess’s plane had crashed
during the Second World War)
, he saw a large group of
big army tents and he examined them in detail trying to see what
they were doing there, as he expected to be taken to a real army
base.

From their conversations he pieced together
that they were all new recruits and on an army mission there, which
he never grasped, and the others gave occasional gasps at, which
grasped his imagination and he wondered why he could have done such
a thing as join the army as he was sure he had no interest in
it.

As the truck rolled into the army site he
even wondered if they were playing a joke on him and that they had
not known him!

The situation was unbelievable! He did not
know what the future held and if he was in danger!

In the sleeping tent he examined everything
about his bed looking for clues and found little and realized the
three soldiers had been close to him as his bed was in the middle
of theirs and they communicated regularly as though they knew him
well.

Yet when he went away and got cleaned up, and
washed away all the muck that had been covering his face and head,
and put on new clothes and returned, they sat on their beds gasping
and examining him, giving occasional whispers, staggered mainly at
his face, and the other soldiers sat staring over for long periods
contemplating things and carrying out silent conversations.

In the end they laughed and cracked silent
jokes that he was unable to hear, leaving him wondering what the
hell was happening and what the future was.

One of the men eventually entered the tent,
after having left a few minutes earlier, and walked straight up to
Cameron and stared right in his face, and moaned, “Malone wants to
talk to you!”

“
What about?”

“
Don’t know! Probably to do with what
happened today!”

Cameron jumped up and drank what was left of
a can of beer beside him and rushed out.

When he entered Malone’s tent Malone was
sitting in a seat at a desk moaning to someone on a phone, with
another soldier standing in front of the desk, and Cameron stood
beside him.

Malone glanced over and gasped, stopped
talking and continued, and examined him looking straight into his
face as if he saw something he did not fully want to see and could
not quite grasp and studied him and left it.

Once he hanged up the phone he instantly
dismissed the other solider, who left moaning about him not
allowing him to speak.

“
I want to ask you some
questions!”

Cameron stood straight and copied one of the
soldiers he had seen saluting and he waited.

“
Why did you join the army, Dave?” he
asked, studying him with great confusion and annoyance, while
sipping tea from a cup.

“
I can’t remember!”

“
You can’t remember why you’re in the
army!” he gasped, blowing out all the tea in his mouth, in a
massive spray, covering the table.

When Cameron offered to clean it, he shouted,
“Leave it!”

“
Of course, you lost your memory ...”
he spoke, recalling the occurrence.

“
Why do you think people join?” he
finally asked.

“
To get out and about! To see the
universe!”

“
Wow! The whole universe!”

“
Or visit places one normally never
sees!”

“
Let me explain!” he explained, staring
into his face, staggered by something, and putting his elbow in a
large ashtray. “In the old days, a century ago, people joined the
French Foreign Legion to forget things! Problems! Things they
wanted to escape from! Escape from weary existences! Even hide away
from crimes they had committed!”

“
Well, I’m sure I’d have gone further
away!”

“
Really! How do you know?”

“
I have no recollection of anything! So
I can’t answer that!”

Suddenly it struck him that he was trying to
suggest something and he realized he could have done something and
that he could have found out about it! Then he gasped as he
realized his mind was blank and he had no memories of anything of
himself!

“
Have you done something to me?” he
gasped, recalling waking up in the pool of mud in the field. “I’ve
no memories ...”

He thought of all the things used by the
military on prisoners and if they could have done it.

Malone made strange faces, as though in deep
pain, and bent over and put his face in his hands, and his
shoulders quivered as though he were sobbing, and he remained doing
it for minutes until he recovered, and Cameron watched the top of
his head shuddering and rise and him calmly return to normal.

“
Just leave!” he moaned firmly, no
longer looking at him, and Cameron left confused and realized his
goal was to find out who the hell he was no matter what!

“
I’ve another question!” he quickly
asked before he left.

“
What?”

“
What the hell are we doing out here?
Surely the military doesn’t need anyone out here?”

“
We’re searching for a killer lion!” he
replied, now amused at Cameron’s face expression changing to
horror.

“
A killer lion is roaming about here!
Why are we in tents and out in the open? How the hell did it get
out here?”

“
We’ve guns! It escaped from a nearby
village circus I think! We’ve not confirmed anything yet
though!”

Cameron realized some of his memory was
returning and he considered how dangerous the lion was and wondered
what a circus was doing with a killer lion! He was sure it was
illegal to have such an animal!

“
What proof is there that it
exists?”

“
Farmers have reported seeing the thing
to the police! We’ve just arrived and are to investigate the
incident!”

A shiver ran up his spine as he considered
the danger he had been in out in the field in the pool of mud and
he considered if it had anything to do with how he ended up
there.

Chapter 2

The Treasure

Cameron’s gaze went out into a field through
the small group of trees, searching for any disturbances and signs
that the lion was about. The thing would surely give itself away
there, and he took comfort in there being no signs from the crows
flying overhead reacting to anything!

Malone said he was going to visit one of the
farmers that had witnessed the killer lion and he wondered what the
hell they were talking about! The whole incident seemed strange
now!

His gaze returned to the well, and its large
circular hole at his front, going deep into the ground.

The top had clearly been recently dug
away from being buried under rotten wooden planks and soil, hidden
away in the middle of the small group of trees, and he studied
Simpson who had a rope and harness tightly attached around him as
Fogler and Hanks arrived and brought a torch, from the road on the
edge of the trees, on Floors Road, and Cameron wondered why the
hell they thought there was anything there! Then he realized
that
Rudolf Hess
had parachuted down there or at the other side of the road,
at the farm!

His close inspection of the tunnel showed it
clearly had been an ancient well and had been covered over a long
time ago, and he wondered why they had not used a nearby stream and
if it were something else.

“
What’s the hell’s there?” he
conclusively moaned, after waiting for them to say something, with
him almost screaming for them to tell him! They refused to give him
anything about anything, and what they had been doing there before
he had lost his memory!

They had secretively left the army camp when
the others had not been around, and all four of them were at the
mysterious hole searching for signs of what was there.

“
Am I the only one going down there?”
Simpson moaned, sadistically.

Seeing the other two were not interested in
going down, Cameron decided he would like to see what was there.
Anything that could give him anything on what he had been doing
before he had lost his memory was of more value than anything
else!

He announced it, searching them for any sign
of disagreements.

He was surprised that they all nodded in
agreement and one removed another harness and rope for him and he
realized that he might have been down the hole already, going by
their reactions, and he had become aware earlier that they had been
down the hole searching for treasure.

The hole was large with more than enough room
to fit both of them at the bottom and when Simpson left and
vanished into its darkness he started attaching the harness to him,
and gasped at how he knew how to fit it, and not know why, and he
realized that he had to have done it recently.

He swiftly entered the hole once he was ready
as he did not want to miss anything, and the action, even though
they had been there before, and he wondered again what exactly they
were doing.

“
What exactly will I be doing down
there?” he asked Fogler casually, desperate for anything, and any
clue.

But again they totally ignored his request
and insisted in not saying a thing, leaving him dazzled, but more
determined to get to the bottom of all the mysteries.

What were they after? What in the hell would
soldiers want?

He had to leave it and gasped as he released
the rope, edging him downwards into the deep abyss, inhaling gasps
of air, eagerly seeking the unimaginable and what was hidden
away.

As he went down he chuckled as he
recalled a story a young soldier had told them in their tent and
that
a teacher had once
asked their class what organ of the body could expand itself ten
times its size when stimulated.

When nobody had
put up their hand she had asked a girl, and she had stood up
blushing furiously, and had shouted, “How dare you ask such a
question! I going home and I will have my parents report you to the
headmaster and the police ...!”

The teacher had
ignored her reaction and had asked the same question over, and a
boy had stood and replied with, “The correct answer is the iris of
the human eye!”

“
Very
good!” she had replied, and had turned to the girl and had
announced, “I have three things to say to you! Firstly, it’s clear
you never did your homework! Secondly, you have a dirty and vicious
mind! Thirdly, I fear someday you’re going to be disappointed in
willies expanding!”

“
What the hell are you doing?” Fogler
hollered down, staring at him, and Cameron realized that he had
stopped lowering himself, and had been laughing to himself, and he
watched his distant face studying him as though he now thought he
had gone mad!

He yearned to explore so he quickly
continued, while he tried to grasp shapes buried away down in the
dimness just below, and he could not figure out what could be
there! There was not any suggestion and it reminded him of his
memory of himself! What could cause such an occurrence?

He recalled once watching archeologists at
work at the top of a construction but he could not recall what he
was doing there and certain other things, and it confused him and
left him staggered at the dangers he could confront.

Suddenly he flew down the shaft
uncontrollably and crashed into the ground and immediately jumped
to his feet as the rope above him fell on top of him.

The fall had been a large one and he was
staggered at the impact, but he was even more staggered that he had
not broken anything and he seemed to have no damage to his
body.

The end of the rope, where it had broken, had
clearly been worn away for a long time and he could not believe
that they had not even seen it, and going by the two soldiers above
they had not even noticed.

Simpson examined him in the dim torchlight
gasping at him crashing into the ground where he had been earlier,
and that he would have been flattened by it, and to Cameron’s
amazement he found another thick metal torch smashed into pieces
where he had landed on his back, and he examined his back unable to
find a bruise or sore.

How could he have fallen so far and not be
injured? He surely should have broken bones!

He considered it as he tested areas of his
body but there were no signs of anything!

“
That was some fall, Dave!” Simpson
eventually replied, focusing the beam of light from the torch up
the shaft to where he had been, and Fogler and Hanks showed
themselves at the top of the well and shouted down.

It looked as if they had been examining the
surrounding fields, away in the distance.

Even though
Cameron was not sure what would be accomplished anywhere it was
mysterious and fascinating now! They were clearly searching for
something of value down in the tunnel, and he could not even
imagine what!

Cameron removed objects about him that had
been dug up from the muck at the bottom of the well and he played
with them seeing what they were or if he could find anything, while
Simpson dug away with a spade with some expertise, clearly from
being at work there for a while.