November 20, 2015

Part 14 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

Talking about all of the terrible events that happened in the bunker, proved to be a difficult experience. I came to the realization though that I had a serious obligation to tell James everything that had happened in that bunker, and all of the events that eventually brought me to his home. I knew he could be in serious danger, because of the assistance he rendered me. James was a very good listener and asked few questions while I tried to speak. Nevertheless my story was frequently interrupted, due to my constantly getting lost in thought. James was patient with me though, as I struggled through the story, and helped keep me on track.

"At first when they told us that they wanted us to work on a radiation weapon for them, I refused to help in any way. I soon learned, however; that if we didn't help work on their evil project they would refuse to give us any food. Well, you can imaging what hunger can do to a person, so pretty soon we were forced to work on the project just to stay alive, though we worked very slowly and inefficiently. Through out all of this, we were also looking for a chance to escape or sabotage the mission. After the first week we thought we found a way to sabotage their weapon without them knowing, but Dr. Longhouse proved to be smarter than we originally thought, and when he found out what we had done he told 'Crazy Carl', who saw to it that we were well punished."

"After that, they kept a closer eye on us as we worked, and Dr. Longhouse carefully checked everything that we did. It was during this time that I began to get to know Dr. Harwin quite well, he was a very intelligent man from Texas, who I would guess was in his early 40's. Whenever we were working and no one was listening, we would try to come up with plans to escape or sabotage their plans. But as time drug on, I began to worry that our captors would get their evil weapon after all, as there was nothing we could do to stop them that wouldn't lead to our deaths."

"After our third week there Dr. Winkle tried to escape, he ran out a door that one of the guards had accidentally left ajar when he went to go help with the supply truck. This door opened to the outside of the bunker. From the tidbits that I gathered from the guards later, after he had ran out the door, he went around to the front of the building and straight out the front gate that was opened so the supply truck could back up to the bunker's loading dock. Dr. Winkle was shot by a guard shortly after he had run out of the gate. 'Crazy Carl' used Dr. Winkle's murder as an example of what would happened if we tried to escape, and for awhile it worked."

November 9, 2015

Part 13 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

"There were already a couple of men with guns at the bunker waiting for us when we arrived, they came out as soon as we pulled up in front of the bunker. The next thing I knew the four of us were surrounded by men with guns." "Wait a second," James interjected, "What do you mean, 'four of us'?" "Yes, there was me, Dr. Harwin, Dr. Smith, and Dr. Winkle. Everyone else there was in on their evil plan." "Okay," he said, and then I went on, "We were led inside the bunker at gun point, and then locked into individual cells, so that we couldn't talk to each other. I was horribly terrified that first night, locked alone in my cell, it was very cold in there too."

When I paused again, lost in thought, James asked, "So then what happened?" "Well, the next morning they drug us out of our cells and brought us into what appeared to be the main room of the bunker. The leader of the expedition, who went only by the name 'Crazy Carl', was there in the room, along with the infamous Dr. Perry Longhouse, who I think was the mastermind of the whole plan. Crazy Carl told us that, we were to consider ourselves prisoners and to entertain no thought of escape. We were also told that we would be shot if we did try to escape."

"There were at least ten men in the bunker, I think, and all of them were very well armed, not to mention the security systems, and chain link fence that ran all the way around the bunker. Thus you can see that at first I thought that trying to escape would be impossible. For the first three days after we arrived we were kept locked up, separated, and received very bad food, but on the fourth day we were pulled out and brought back to the main room. There Dr. Longhouse told the four of us, that we were brought to their bunker to work on a 'special project' for them."

"What was the project?" James asked. "It was a weapon," I said with my voice cracking, "A powerful radiation weapon... a weapon capable of wiping out the entire population of... of any city."

October 30, 2015

Part 12 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

The sudden flash back caught me unprepared. It was the suddenness of it really I think, that left me feeling helpless. Although, the memories were of course not very sweet either. I stood there in the middle of the kitchen staring at the gun on the wall, almost as if I had been mesmerized. In a single moment I remembered it all, all that had happened over the last few days, and weeks, as I now realized it had been. James just stood there watching me tremble, letting me take my time to think it through, before he asked the questions that were obviously on his mind: "What actually happened, how did you get here and do you know why Dr. Harwin was killed?"

Then turning to James I said: "We left the city of Whitehorse, Yukon in late August so that we would have a chance to familiarize ourselves with the area we would be studying in before it got to cold. We had 3 specialized trucks full of gear, that were capable of traveling even through several feet of deep snow, or mud if necessary. There were sixteen of us who left on that expedition, I for one was elated with the thought of finally being able to study arctic animals first hand, and in their own environment."

I paused for a moment, and then finally sat back down in my chair. James looked at me said, "Are you feeling okay, you are looking rather pale." I just nodded silently as I sat there, rather unwilling to go on with my story. Finally though I gathered up the courage to continue. "I have to admit that I really didn't know where we were going, or in what direction. I trusted the expedition leader to know where we were, and now looking back I feel like such a fool. I was totally tricked into the whole thing, it was a complete setup." "What was the setup, what happened?" An obviously exasperated James asked.

I got back up and started pacing across the floor in the kitchen, before continuing. "When I saw the guns I knew that something was wrong, what sort of an expedition needed guns like that anyway? Finally after several days of traveling, we arrived at what looked like a small bunker. I knew that something strange was afoot but even then I still didn't get it. When they took us into the bunker, and only then did I realize that we were being made prisoners."

October 26, 2015

Part 11 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

Both me and James were up and moving very early the next morning. There really was no reason for me to get up so early, but I really didn't sleep all that well, since I was sleeping and waking in fits all night. As we ate breakfast, we discussed our plans for the day, and the future. The main thing we had to think about was the best way to get me back home safely. We also theorized about Dr. Harwin's murderers and the likely hood that they could still be in the neighborhood.

Finally we decided that the safest plan would be to get me out of here as soon as possible, rather than waiting to see if  the murderers were still around. With that in mind we began to discuss how to best achieve that goal. It would be a long ride on a sled to the nearest settlement, but it seemed there were few other options. I asked him if there was a bush pilot somewhere that could come and pick me up, but all that James said was, "Well, there isn't one very close."

While James debated in his mind about the best course of action, I stared at one of James guns thinking about all that had occurred the last could of days. Suddenly looking at that gun I remembered something, something  about the expedition. I began to grow very afraid and stood up suddenly, knocking over my chair. James looked at me in surprise and said, "What is it?" Trembling I said, "I remember, some of the men on the expedition, they had guns, lot's of guns, and big ones, when I saw them, I knew that something was wrong."

October 21, 2015

Part 10 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

The day slowly drug on, as I waited for James to return to the cabin. The hours seemed to last forever, and as I got more and more impatient, I started pacing across the small cabin. There was nothing for me to do, nothing to occupy my time. I had already read through all of James' meager supply of newspapers twice, and I really took no interest in it anyway. Eventually the time for lunch came, and awhile after I finally made up my mind to try and make something to eat. Digging around in the large cabinets, all that I found that looked good to eat at the moment, and was easy to make, were a couple of cans of soup. So I fired up the gas stove, and began heating the soup.

As I sat there watching the soup cook on the stove, it suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea where the power for the cabin came from. So I stepped outside and walked around the house, looking for a power source. There was a small gas generator, but it obviously wasn't running, and as far as I could see there were no electrical lines running to the house. Then I noticed, however; that there were several solar panels on the roof of the cabin. Apparently they provided enough power to run the small electric heater, power the lights, and a few other electrical odds and ends.

Finally at about 2:00 in the afternoon, James came back, as soon as I heard his sled pull into the yard, I decided to start a pot of coffee so he would have a warm drink. After taking care of the dogs and the sled, James came inside, and began taking his warm heavy coat off. As soon as he was done he sat down at the table and I handed him a nice steaming hot cup of coffee. For a long while James sat at the table just silently drinking his coffee, but once he had begun to warm up he said, "There was nothing on the body at all, no wallet, keys, identification, not even a stick of gum." I sat there staring at him for a moment, not realizing what that statement meant, but then it dawned on me, someone had probably searched Dr. Harwin's body.

That night as I lay on the cot trying to sleep, I pondered why the murderer would have searched Dr. Harwin's body, and then taken whatever he might have had in his pockets. Did they kill him to get something that he had, or were they trying to hide who they had killed?

October 20, 2015

Part 9 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

As night fell it began to get very cold, I could feel it creeping into my bones, despite the warm clothes I was wearing. The snow which was bright and dazzled the eye when the sun shone on it during the day, now looked dark and ominous under the pale moon light. It all seemed very peaceful though, perfectly calm and still. The only sounds you could hear, were those being made by the dogs running through the snow. Soon enough we were back at James' cabin safe and sound.

I stood and shivered as I watched James unharness the dogs and put the sled back into the barn, once he was done we headed into the cabin together. We sat down at the table and ate a quick meal of bread and butter, and then we headed into the little bedroom. I helped James set up a narrow cot on the floor of the room. After a short discussion about who would sleep in the cot, he gave in, and I got the cot. Then after quickly cleaning up as best we could, by washing our faces and brushing our teeth we crawled into our beds. James lying comfortable in his bed, quickly fell asleep as was evidenced by his snoring, but I could not fall asleep for a long time. I kept thinking about Dr. Harwin, and wondering about what happened to him.

Once I did finally fall asleep, it was not a very peaceful sleep, as I had several disturbing dreams, and nightmares. Most of them made little or no sense at all, but some were snatches of the events that had occurred over the last couple of days. For example, I had a dream that I was running across the tundra in terror of something, I also dreamed that Dr. Harwin was trying to tell me something before he died. Needless to say I did not wake up feeling very rested the next morning. Once I got up, I joined James for a quick breakfast, before he headed off to help Rodney bury the body. I had on the other hand decided to stay behind at the cabin, alone.

I stood out on the porch, and watched as James harnessed the dogs and headed back towards the site of the murder. Once he had left, I went back inside and sat down at the table intending to read one of the months old papers that James had. Suddenly as if I had been struck by a lightening bolt, I remember something! My name! It's Kevin! Dr. Kevin Wright.

October 19, 2015

Part 8 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

As soon as his sled came to a halt, James hopped off and headed towards the body, while I on the other hand just stood on the sled clinging to the hand rail, terrified at the thought of who or what could be lurking out there. Turning my gaze from the colonel, I saw that Rodney, after getting off of his sled, had slung a hunting rifle over his shoulder. As James and Rodney stood next to the body, wondering what they should do about it, I finally decided that I need to get up the courage to head over to where they were standing, and join them.

Once I arrived to where they were standing, I looked down at the lifeless body that was lying there in the snow, and suddenly realized that I knew the person who had been shot! I just stared at the body in shock for a few moments before I muttered to myself, "It's Dr. Harwin." "What did you say?" asked James. "It's Dr. Gerald Harwin, he was a part of the expedition." Suddenly I realized, what if whoever killed Dr. Harwin, was trying to kill me? What if that was what I was running from? What if the murderer was still close, waiting for his chance to kill me.

"I have to get out of here," I said, in almost a whisper. James who seemed to be thinking along the same lines said, "I think we should get you back to my cabin where you will be a bit safer, until we can make plans to get you out of here." Then turning to Rodney he said, "It's getting rather late today, so how about we meet back here in the morning and bury the body?" "Alright colonel," Rodney agreed. And with that James turned and headed back to his sled, with me following him like a child in his footsteps. Jumping on the sled, and with a wave goodbye to Rodney we started off back to the cabin, but the light was fading fast.

October 16, 2015

Part 7 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

The colonel and I just stared at Rodney for a moment in shock. He found a dead man? "He was shot in the back of the head," Rodney said. All of a sudden I didn't feel so well... "Shot in the back of the head you say?" asked the colonel, "Well then that rules out accident, or suicide." I just stood there and stared, watching James debate about what to do about this new development. Looking across the room I saw that Rodney was looking rather shocked, and was doing the same thing as I was.

Finally James made up his mind and said, "Let's go see the body, shall we?" I gulped and nodded, but on the inside I felt extremely terrified at the thought of going outside when there was a murderer running loose. James grabbed a couple of warm jackets off the wall, and tossed one my way saying, "Here, you are going to want this."  Once we were all suited up, we all headed outside into the icy cold day. Looking around outside, I saw sitting in the yard a dog sled all ready to go, and I realized that Rodney had ridden it here. The sled had eleven dogs, which I presumed to be Huskies harnessed to it.

Once outside James headed straight for the little barn, and in a few minutes he had all of his dogs harnessed to his sled, and was ready to go as well. He motioned me to join him on his sled, and as soon as I climbed on and grabbed the hand rail we were off! The two sleds move much faster than I thought could even be possible, as we whisked along the snowy surface. On the way there I found the presence of mind to ask James about who Rodney was. "Mr. Rodney Archer is a trapper like myself," he said, "He lives in a small cabin about five miles from my place." "I was good friends with his parents before he died." He then told me a tragic story about how Rodney's father was accidentally killed in a hunting accident. Not long after he finished we arrived at the scene of the murder.

October 15, 2015

Part 6 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

"Well don't hurt yourself thinking about it too much," James said. I nodded in agreement, even though I continued thinking about it anyway. After several minutes of silence, James got up from the chair he was sitting in and headed back into the kitchen. After a moment I also got up and mindlessly followed him into the kitchen. While James busied himself with tiding up, I took a seat and continued to think.

 The room that served as the kitchen of the cabin was slightly larger than the bedroom, and had a small gas stove, several cabinets and a small table in the middle of the room. As with the bedroom many various things hung from any open space on the wall, and there was as much furniture for storage as could be crammed into the room.

I stared out the window as I thought, and my mind began to wander from the pressing issue at hand, as the beautiful landscape had caught my eye. Looking out the window, I saw that the cabin had a small porch on the front of it, and seemed to be nestled in a quaint little valley, which lay between two massive mountain ranges. James also had a small barn which lay to the north of his little cabin.  Everything was covered in several feet of beautiful white, dazzling snow. In the still I heard, for the first time, a couple of dogs barking.

All of a sudden there was a load thundering knocking on the door, and a load voice was shouting, "Colonel J!, Colonel J, are you there!" The knocking continued without stopping. James strode across the room and over to the door in just two strides and had it open in a flash. A young man who looked like he was only in his 20's stepped in. "What is it, Rodney?" asked James. "Colonel!" he practically yelled, "I found a dead man!"

October 14, 2015

Part 5 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

I began to feel a sensation of panic rising up in my gut. My name! What is my name? I stared dumbly at James for what felt like an eternity, trying to remember, grasping at any shred of hope or light. Finally I stopped, attempted to clear the shattered cobwebs from my mind, and looking at James said, "I... I can't remember!" He just look at me with a blank stare for a bit, and then said, "Strange, do you remember anything at all?"

My thoughts started racing again, trying to pick up as many pieces of my life story as I could. I remember that my home is in Missouri, which is where I grew up. I am a scientist... I think, and more specifically a biologist. My scientific specialty has something to do with artic wildlife... I think. I ended up in the Yukon as part of an expedition to study the artic environment and wildlife. The more I thought about it, the more confused and unsure I became.

I remember leaving the city of White Horse, Yukon, in nice brand new trucks, we were headed out for the expedition. To be honest I didn't know which direction we were headed at the time. I really had no idea where we were heading. I trusted the people who were running the expedition even though I had never met any of them before. In fact I didn't know anyone on the expedition. What I couldn't remember was, what happened? Why did I end up stumbling across the artic tundra?

October 13, 2015

Part 4 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

As I sat on the edge of my bed enjoying a warm bowl of oatmeal, I listened to the old man tell me the story of how he found me. "You were lying in snow," He said, "Just few hundred feet from one of my traps." I was out checking them when I found you. "After I found you, I came back here to the house and got my dogsled, then I returned to where you were lying, and putting you on the back of my sled, I pulled you back to my cabin."

I looked at him feeling amazed and very grateful, "Thank you," I said, "Thank you very much, you have saved my life." but all he would say was in reply was, "Your welcome, but it really was nothin'." Then I realized with all of my many questions, that I had forgotten to ask him what his name was, so I plucked up the courage and asked him. "My name is James Roberts" he said, "but some folks call me 'Colonel J', you can take your pick." And with that he got up and took my bowl back into the kitchen.

I finally took my first good look around the room it wasn't much, but it was well furnished. In the room was the small bed that I sat on, one large chest, two tall chest of drawers, and a couple of cabinets. A couple of nice rugs graced the floor, and there were also various bits of clothes, furs, tools, and weapons hanging from hooks and pegs in the walls. It appeared from my perch on the bed that there was only one other room in the cabin that served as the kitchen and general living space.

When James re-entered the room he asked me, "So, son what is your name?" I suddenly realized I could not remember my name!

Part 3 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

Finally my fitful dreams came to an end as I retuned to semi-consciousness. All I remember from my short waking was that it was pitch black, and that I couldn't see anything, not even a single star. It was also strangely warm, I could hear the cold wind blowing heavily nearby, but I couldn't feel it's icy fingers where I was lying. Despite my efforts to the contrary, I fell back asleep before I could figure out where I was.

The next time I woke up it was light, there was sunlight streaming though a small window in one of the walls. I was in a rather small room of a snug little log cabin. The very next thing I noticed was an old man sitting on a chair next to the bed I was lying in. He was smiling at me, which struck me as kind of odd for the situation. "Good morning!" he said, "How did you sleep?" I just stared at him dumbfounded, how on earth did I even get in here? Wasn't I trudging my way through the cold and snow? Finely I managed to find my voice and said to him, "I slept fine, but where am I?"

Getting up from his chair he leaned over me and said, "Son, your in the Yukon." Looking at him for a moment to make sure he wasn't joking, I replied, "Yes, I know, but where in the Yukon?" he paused for a moment, then finally answered, "Well, your hundreds of miles away from the closet settlement, which would be the settlement of Old Crow, which lies somewhat to the south of here."

And with that he turned and headed towards the door, but stopped short in the doorway, looked back at me and said, "Would you like some breakfast?" I nodded my head yes, and with that he left the room. In a few minutes he was back with a nice warm bowl of oatmeal. "So tell me," I asked, "How did you find me?"

October 12, 2015

Part 2 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

As the sun began to dip below the horizon, I seemed to feel the cold getting closer, it seemed to encroach every space of my clothing, every inch of my body. It became hard to even put one foot in front of the other let alone to try and piece together the memory of what took place. It felt like hours as I plodded along, and before I knew it the sun had left me altogether and all there was above me was a sky filled with stars.

And then it happened, I started to feel light headed, and was having a hard time keeping my balance. I stumbled several times, as I fought my way through the snow. Then I fell face first into the snow, I lay there for a while, too weak to rise. Soon, however; the fear of death motivated me and I rose up and began to struggle on again. I fell down again and then once again I rose back up, but the third time I fell everything went black. I had lost consciousness.

I dreamt of many things while I lay there in the snow, I dreamt of being in warmth and comfort, but I also dreamt of things that were related to the expedition, such as how we loaded up into trucks and drove out into the tundra. I was scared of something, but what?

Part 1 - The Amazing Journey of a Boring Man

There was a cold north wind blowing across the windswept Yukon tundra. I felt the extreme cold creeping into my bones, but still I pressed on. I knew that there was nothing but death to be had if I stayed put. So I struggled on through the cold, with the nagging fear of death in the corners of my mind. My clothes though they would have been considered heavy and warm by many, offered little protection against the icy biting wind.

My mind raced along as I walked, I was barely able to hold a thought for more than a minute or two, as my powers of concentration waned. I tried to retrace the events of the past few days in my mind in an attempt to remember all that occurred to get me in this mess...

I  am a scientist, and I came out here as part of a team to study the environment and its animals. It was the chance of a lifetime to get to do something that many scientist's only dreamed of, or so I thought at the time. It was all so simple, I signed up for this project as soon as I heard about it, and was given the chance to go. In a matter of a few weeks they sent me all the information about the trip, and tickets for a flight to the city of Whitehorse, Yukon. I hoped on the plane and arrived at the airport, where another team member picked me up and drove me to a hotel. In just a couple of days we were all assembled and ready to head out for our expedition.

Just then a massive gust of wind blew across the tundra, causing me to shiver heavily again, which derailed my train of thought. Try as I might I couldn't pick up where I had left off, everything that occurred after that point it was all like a gray fog in mind. My senses were all feeling very dulled, and I continued to just trudge slowly along in silence. I feared the worst as it began to get late, and the sun was starting to go down...