Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (9 page)
B
en put his feet up on the dashboard and reclined his seat. He was still a bit overwhelmed by the whole flying experience, but was starting to appreciate all the craziness this trip had brought him. Lacey wiped her forehead then turned the air conditioning down even lower.
“Man, I’m freezing, can we warm it up a bit, please.” Ben complained.
“Sorry, I just feel really hot; I’m sweatin’ bullets over here.” Lacey replied as she turned the AC back to a comfortable level. Ben looked over to see his aunt covered with sweat, her face was bright red, and she seemed to be having a hard time concentrating.
“You okay?” He asked.
“I don’t feel so good; maybe I need to eat something.” Ben reached and grabbed the backpack from the back seat, then rummaged through until he pulled out a protein bar. He unwrapped it then handed it to Lacey. She started to take large bites, then suddenly slammed on the brakes, pulled the car off the road, opened her door and threw up. Ben handed her a water bottle, she took a sip of water then let out a loud moan as she jumped out of the car and ran to the bushes.
Ben turned the radio on and sat back in his seat, waiting. He knew from watching countless shows on the Discovery channel that stomach bacteria could be brutal, but smiled because he had warned her and she played the “I’m the adult, therefore I am right” card. She should have listened, he thought to himself.
About twenty minutes later Lacey waddled gingerly out from the bushes. She looked completely exhausted and extremely pale. She opened the door, climbed into the car carefully, then turned the engine on and pulled back onto the road.
“I told ya.” Ben said casually.
“What? That, no that is just stress I think.” Lacey said as she sipped more water.
“No, that is bacteria from drinking from the lake.”
“You are a know it all.” Lacey said with frustration.
Ben laughed then said, “Well I’m glad you can finally admit that I do know it all.”
“Whatever.” She turned the radio back up and tried to look as calm as possible. “Hey did you find exactly where we are going?”
“Yep, Crater Lake.”
“I know Crater Lake, but where?” She groaned.
“Well it looks like it is in the water, I think that for two reasons, one- the clue said something about being ‘deep’ and two- I found a cool new screen on this GPS unit that gives aerial photos, and the red dot is in the water.” he showed her the screen on the GPS unit.
Lacey looked at the screen then once again swerved off the road, turned the car off and ran into the bushes. Ben continued to play with the GPS unit until she returned a few minutes later.
“I think I need some tummy medicine.” She moaned as she sat back in her seat. “Can you look on the map and see where the nearest town is?” Ben unfolded the map and traced the route they had taken from the Sky Lakes Wilderness area.
“Okay, looks like a town called Chemult is ahead, I don’t know how far though.” he looked at her with concern this time. “You gonna be okay? Maybe we should go to the hospital.”
“I’ll be fine; I just need to get some Pepto Bismol, that’s all.” They continued to drive until they saw a gas station and Quickie market ahead. Lacey jumped out, tossed the keys to Ben and ran into the bathroom. Ben got out, stretched his legs then went inside to find his aunt some medicine. He browsed the medicine section for a few minutes, every time the dinger on the door buzzed he looked up expecting to see his aunt, she was taking longer than he thought.
Finally twenty minutes later she walked through the door, a few people noticed how horrible she looked, not just because she hadn’t showered in a few days, and had practically bathed in the lake earlier, but because she was green, not just pale, but green. Ben looked up at her; she was looking around for him, but couldn’t see him from the spot she was standing in. Just then a guy in his twenties walked up to Lacey,
“Are you okay?” He asked with genuine concern. Ben looked at the guy, worried he was bothering his aunt he yelled across the store,
“Aunt Lacey! What type of diarrhea medicine do you want?” Everyone in the store looked at Lacey, suddenly her green complexion changed to bright red.
“Ben! Shut up!” She said forcefully, and then smiled at the guy standing in front of her, who was trying to contain his laughter. Ben walked over with two items; he held a green and white box in front of his aunt’s face, looked at the guy then said,
“Ya know we should get you this gas medicine too.” He smirked, and then felt his aunt’s fist sock him in the side. She smiled at the guy, and nodded to suggest she was okay. The guy walked away giggling just as the other customers were now. “That’s what you get for not listening to me.” Ben said as they walked to the counter to pay, “just ‘cause I’m a kid doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m talking about.” He placed the items on the counter; the clerk barely made eye contact with Lacey and smiled sheepishly at Ben. As they walked through the door to leave, laughter could be heard from inside.
Ben unlocked the car, then tossed the keys to Lacey, “Pretty proud of yourself, huh?” She asked, clearly in a bad mood.
“Well, I bet you’ll never drink from a lake again.” he smiled as he sat in the car.
“Okay, Ben you were right. Is that what you want to hear, will that make you stop teasing me?”
“I know I’m right, and no, that won’t make me stop. This is just too easy.” He laughed as he handed the Pepto to his aunt; she took a large mouthful and placed it in the cup holder as they pulled out of the parking lot.
After two long stops, they finally arrived at the entrance to the Crater Lake National Monument; Lacey rolled down her window and paid the fee to a park ranger, then asked,
“Are you familiar with an old man that lives here?”
“Yeah, did you want to see it?” he answered.
“Um, yeah so he just goes by ‘Old Man’?”
“Oh no, it’s not a person, it’s a petrified log that floats upright around the lake. It bobs in and out of the water. Yeah it has floated around the lake for the last hundred years, at least. We believe that it could be an original tree from when Mt. Mazama erupted over seventy seven hundred years ago.”
“It moves?” Lacey looked at Ben with concern.
“Well there is nowhere for it to go, there are no creeks or rivers that run into the lake. The lava sealed the bottom of the lake when the mountain erupted, so it is like a huge bowl, the only current is from the wind. The water is clean and the water is cold, but that is really because the lake is nineteen hundred fifty—eight feet deep. That clean, cold water has helped preserve the log.” The ranger looked at them trying to anticipate their next question.
“How cold?” Ben asked.
The ranger smiled, “the average temperature is thirty eight degrees. Yeah, you’d get hypothermia if you tried swimming in it.”
“Okay, thanks.” Lacey said as she taped the permit to her windshield, then drove into the park. “What if the log isn’t in the right place?” She asked Ben as they drove up the narrow road that lead to the lake.
“We’ll figure it out.” Ben said as he sat up high to see the lake in the distance. They pulled into a parking spot by the main lodge and went to the railed lookout. In the middle of the vast blue lake was a small island. Lacey looked at a sign,
“Hey, looks like a boat tour is gonna start soon, wanna go?” Ben looked at his aunt, nodded then followed her to the lodge to sign up.
Ben and Lacey took a seat in the back of the large tour boat that floated the lake, they wanted to be able to hear, but also didn’t want to be noticed. They both looked around the lake, trying to spot the “old man.”
The tour guide was giving explanations of how the lake was created and that it was the seventh deepest lake in the world, and then said, “Now let me tell you a story about an old man.” Everyone was caught by surprise and giggled, thinking it must be some sort of a lead up to a joke. The guide pointed with his left hand and said, “If you look out this way you will see a log, do you see it?” He waited confirming everyone was looking. “This log has been floating upright for over a hundred years, it’s a Hemlock log and no one knows why it hasn’t rolled to its side. It usually floats all around the lake, but for some reason lately it has been in the exact same spot. We have all made our own assumptions as to why it hasn’t moved, but we’ll find out shortly, because divers are going to explore the log tomorrow morning.”
“How long has it been since it’s moved?” Lacey asked loudly.
“About one month.” the guide responded. “Any more questions?” he asked the crowd. “Okay then if there are no other questions we will go to Wizard Island; this island is a cinder cone, literally a growing mountain, because of the continued volcanic activity in this huge caldera that was formed by the volcano all those years ago.” He looked around, no one was paying attention to him, everyone was making small talk with one another as to why the “Old Man” hadn’t moved in a month, only Ben and Lacey knew the truth.
B
en kicked a rock into the bright blue water and watched the ripples advance into the lake. He stared once again at the “Old Man” it was about fifty feet offshore of Wizard Island, and just as the tour guide stated, it remained completely still.
Lacey stepped next to him, “So I talked with the tour guide, there is another tour coming out in about an hour and a half, he said we can stay and explore the island then take the next boat back.” Ben looked behind them; the island was very small, barely three hundred yards wide. It would make sense that they could be out for an additional hour or so, no one would question that.
“That sounds good; we just need to get this thing before tomorrow morning. If those divers find it, we won’t be winning anything.” He kicked another rock into the water and watched the ripples advance further and further across the lake, funny how such a small stone could have such an impact on a huge body of water, he thought to himself.
“Yep, I know.” Lacey dipped her fingers into the water then shivered and pulled her fingers out shaking them fiercely. “Dang, that water is cold!” They looked at each other then both immediately yelled “Not It!”
“Well one of us has to go.” Ben said.
“Yeah, and I think you should, I climbed the tree remember, and I’m still recovering from my…tummy troubles.” Lacey whined.
“But what if it is super deep; I can’t hold my breath that long, and what if I need your help?”
“If you don’t come back immediately, I’ll swim out and look for you, remember they designed this treasure hunt for kids, it won’t be too bad.” She tried to reassure him.
“Do you remember what just happened to us? This thing has been crazy!”
“Okay Ben, I know it’s scary, but c’mon, please.” Lacey said.
“Oh I’m not scared, I mean this has been awesome, it’s just so cold.” Ben said trying to cover the fear in his voice. “But since you are such a wimp, I’ll go.” He smirked as the words came out of his mouth.
They waited a few more minutes until the tour boat had finally gathered all the tourists and began to make its way back to the lodge. Ben pulled his shirt off and handed it to Lacey, and then he took the GPS unit from his pants, checked the screen once again, to make sure this was absolutely the right place. Once reassured he handed that to Lacey and started walking into the water. He breathed deeply trying not to scream from the cold. Once he was about ten feet from the shore the water was past his shoulders, he began to swim as quickly as he could. He was just praying that he wouldn’t die from hypothermia.
He reached the log and grabbed onto it to steady himself for a minute. He had to relax in order to take a big enough breath before diving under. His breathing was quick and shallow because of the cold water, and his entire body felt like it was being pricked by a million needles. He took a huge breath then plunged himself under the icy water.
Once under the water his body almost began to relax, he kept a hold of the log and used it to direct his path. He also thought this would be the best way to make sure he didn’t swim right past the clue. About five feet below the surface hundreds of fish were swimming; they were huge and seemed to have no fear of Ben at all. A few swam right to him, investigating the visitor. They must not get a lot of visitors here, he thought to himself.
He was about ten feet down and saw a bright green iridescent box chained to the log about another ten feet ahead of him, he was amazed at how well he was holding his breath, strange he thought, but continued to pull himself lower until he had the box in his hands.
The box was attached with a thick metal chain, there was no way Ben was breaking it, so instead he tried to open the lid. He worked at it for a few seconds and it wouldn’t budge. He was starting to panic, but again forced himself to stay calm. He turned the box in his hands and realized that built in to the bottom of the box was a strange combination lock. Instead of numbers the dials were made up of letters. Above the dial there was an inscription that read, “What cell phone company makes you a winner?” Ben looked at the question; he was almost annoyed at how ridiculous this was. Not only did they put this clue deep in freezing cold water, but now they are asking questions about cell phones! He let go of the box and swam quickly to the surface.
Lacey was taking her shoes off as he emerged from the water. “Oh thank God, I was just about to go in after you!” She yelled out to him.
“You won’t believe this, the box has a combo lock on it, and there is a question about cell phones.” He yelled back.
“Cell phones?” Lacey thought out loud, “what do you mean? What does it say?”
“Um, like what company makes you a winner?” he replied. The cold was beginning to bother him; he was amazed at how much colder it felt at the surface. “What do you think?” He yelled back, “and hurry, it’s freezing out here.”
“Um, how many letters?” Lacey asked loudly.
“What? Letters? I don’t know!” Ben started getting aggravated, “what does a cell phone have to do with this whole thing, why would they care?”
“Oh! Oh! Try United Cellular, remember it was on the case at Devil’s Punchbowl!” Lacey yelled as she jumped up and down with excitement.
Ben took another breath of air, and then pulled himself under water. He kicked as hard as could, grabbed the green case, flipped it over and began to spin the dials; there were no spaces so the two words ran together. As he spun the last dial to the letter “R” the case popped in his hands and the lid opened slightly. He lifted the lid, inside was a green iridescent cell phone that matched the box. Ben pulled it out, and then looked at the rest of the box, there wasn’t anything else inside, so he let the box go and kicked his way back to the top.
As he emerged he tossed the phone toward the beach, Lacey ran out into the water and grabbed it. “What are you gonna do?” She asked, and then said, “What is this?” She held the phone up.
“Dunno, that was all that was in the case, it’s probably ruined being in the water, I don’t think I was supposed to open it down there.” He treaded water another few seconds. “I’m gonna go back down and see if I can undo the log, so it can go back to floating around the lake.” He said. Before Lacey could ask why, he was under water again.
The fish came to him welcoming him once more; they swam next to him and investigated his face and hair. He batted at them, but they were relentless, he didn’t see any teeth, so assumed they were all friendly, he hoped anyway.
He reached the bottom few feet of the log and saw that there was another large chain linked around the bottom, it was connected to something, he couldn’t tell what was acting as the anchor, because the chain disappeared into the deep dark water below him. He grabbed the chain and began to shimmy it back and forth, then slipped it down a few inches at a time. The log was slippery like a rock, so the chain was moving with ease. As soon as he had it within an inch of the bottom of the log he felt and enormous tug on the chain. He loosened his grip for a second, and then once again began to move it down, all of the sudden the chain pulled him down with an amazing force. It happened so fast he couldn’t even think to let go. The chain was pulling him faster and faster into the dark deep water. He turned his head to look up, trying to gain some bearings, as he did his wrist wrapped in the thick metal. It was as if a giant was pulling on the other end, and Ben was his catch.
Lacey played with the cell phone; she pressed the standard red button and the phone vibrated to life. “Sweet, it still works!” She said loudly to herself. She turned it over in her hand and analyzed the back of it. On the battery pack there were two things engraved under the United Cellular emblem, they read: ‘Water proof up to 2,000 feet and New GPS capability.’
Lacey flipped the phone over in her hand and saw that there was a voicemail. “Well that’s weird.” She pressed the blue button that had an envelope on it, assuming that was the voice mail button. A woman’s voice came on the line announcing there was one new message; Lacey hit the number one button to listen to the message as she was instructed. Just as a man’s voice came over the phone she heard a loud whoosh of water. She looked up toward the Old Man, it was as if someone was pushing it up out of the water, it shot a good twenty feet, straight up out of the water. Then with a loud splash the Old Man flipped horizontally and was now on its side.
“Oh my gosh!” Lacey yelled. First of all what on earth just happened, second of all, “Where’s Ben?” She yelled, as she looked around, praying that for some reason this was a joke. Realizing she was all alone, and there was absolutely no one there to help her, she shoved the cell phone in her pocket and ran into the icy water.
Ben continued to fight the chain as it pulled him deeper and deeper into the water. He wiggled his hand, trying anything to loosen it and free himself, the more he fought, the tighter it seemed to become. He felt the water go into his nose, it burned as it went down his throat. His eyes became blurry, the fish that had been following him were now falling behind, even they couldn’t keep up with the incredible speed at which Ben was being pulled into the depths of the lake.
For some reason Ben kept hearing the park ranger over and over in his head saying that the lake was the seventh deepest in the world. He looked up, and saw nothing, just blackness above him; he looked down and saw the same vastness. He closed his eyes and tried to relax; even if he could get his hand out he would never be able to swim all the way to the top. The water was now coming in his nose with ease, he opened his eyes once again and saw a bright light, he inhaled deeply, there was no use fighting it now.