Musical Chairs

I was just past nightfall when we left. Since this was John's idea, we made him sit with Erik, the driver of the jeep, while Mike insisted the two girls ride with him. For better or worse, Midge rode (dare I say it?) shotgun with me and Troy and three others rode in back.

The terrain from the highway was boring enough during the day, but here, off road in the light of a full moon it was positively unearthly. The floodlights that came with my explorer proved their worth, though, as I successfully navigated around some nasty holes. The three vehicles split up, with me in the middle. After a bit I could make out their headlights, but that was it.

And all the while Midge was asking me about UFOs. Did I see the film about the autopsy? Did I see the Swedish film about the alien at the US airbase? Did I see the photos on TV about the alien the Spanish Army had taken? How about the video of the 'real' alien that walked up to the camera on Italian TV? The monkey man of Buenos Area? The half-alien that was dissected by Swiss doctors on live television?

I've never had the pleasure of watching Europen TV, but I'm pretty well convinced they devote an inordinate amount of their time to UFO footage. Midge had seen more 'events' on UFOs on his TV in the last year than I'd seen in my lifetime on American TV.

"Keep an eye on the headlights," I pointed to Mike's truck in the distance. Truthfully, I just wanted to change the subject.

Troy, for his part, was more concerned with getting every moment of this on tape. I think he just wanted to see me getting more and more irritated with my passenger than in recording the landscape, but that didn't stop him from telling me to keep from rocking the truck. I suspect Troy has had limited experience driving off road.

Seeing The Sites

In the distance we could make out some kind of structure. A number of small red and blue lights clung to what appeared to be a lattice framework that extended upwards of fifty or sixty feet. It looked a lot like a microwave transmission tower, but it was hard to tell since we were many miles out. I crested a hill and stopped the truck. I felt safe at this distance. Through my binoculars I could make out the towers nicely. Just behind them a couple of lights hovered around in the air. Helicopters, I could only assume.

This was the range the Government had bought up in recent months. And already, there were installations built across the tops of the ridges. According to the road atlas, this area wasn't a military base at all. The map identified it as a national wildlife refuge. Unless the government was using high-tech arrays to monitor wild horses, there was some discrepancy.

Things That Go Bump In The Night Finally there was a loud crashing sound. Midge nearly jumped out of the window as he pointed South. The headlights of the jeep had gone black. Then the walkie talkie Midge was holding crackled to life.

"Shit," came a voice that sounded like John's. "Goddamn! Shit!"

"What is it?" Midge asked.

"We hit a fucking pot hole," John spat out in anger. "We're stuck!"

They guided us in on the walkie talkie. Sure enough, they had hit the mother of all pot holes. Actually, ditch would be a more appropriate term. The Jeep at first looked like it had lost its front right wheel, but after we looked at it we could see it was just at an impossible angle. For a terrain this flat, I was surprised. The small pot holes I had avoided were just that, small holes. This one was big enough to swallow a cow, and from the way it smelled it might have.

I positioned the Explorer to illuminate the scene. Two mag lites and three glow sticks later we could see the situation in enough detail to loop some cable around the front of the jeep and pull it out. In fact, we had the whole thing set up when another electronic voice came over the walkie talkie.

"Vince!" Mike's voice sounded hushed. At this point I figured he hit a ditch or something too.

"Where are you?" I inquired into the box. I looked around but couldn't see his headlights anywhere.

"I killed the lights," he explained. "There is something coming towards you! Get out of there!"

Panic set in. We were hardly in a position to get out of anywhere. The Explorer was hooked up to the Jeep, which was still in the hole. There were 7 of us milling about with headlights, glow sticks and mag lites. Given this, I doubt we could have gotten away any time in the near future.

"What do we do?" Midge pleaded with me, as if I had some inner knowledge that would somehow save us.

"Stand back," was my reply as I got into the truck. "I'm just going to pull him out."

"But someone is coming!" They practically all said at once.

"I know," I replied. "Put the jeep in neutral."

"How can you do this?" Midge yelled at me. I just looked at him. We weren't going anywhere. Whoever was coming towards would have been blind not to see us by now. There was no way to get the Jeep out in time and make a getaway. So the only thing to do was concentrate on getting the jeep out. We hadn't seen any warning signs, markers, sensors or fences yet, so I figured we were probably safe. If we weren't, there wasn't a lot we could do about it.

Midge just hopped in the truck. I think if he'd have thought about it, he'd have come to the same conclusion. Troy, never one to panic, just grabbed the binoculars and looked for the approaching vehicle.

I hit the accelerator three times, and on the third gunning of the engine pulled the jeep free. I towed the thing a good fifteen feet to make sure it was clear of the hole. I got out to disconnect the cables when I saw the vague outline of a Jeep Grand Cherokee about a quarter mile away from us. Its headlights were pointed in our direction.

"That looks like a guard vehicle," Troy observed. Sure enough, it had the classic look of the vehicles seen around Area 51. A new, white, unmarked jeep.

"What now?" Midge said.

"Back it up," I replied. "Let's leave."

"But what about the others," Midge said in a dim tone.

"I'm sure the guards know where they are," I answered.

"We should call them!"

"The guards are probably monitoring our channel."

I figured we had to be close to the base perimeter. We hadn't crossed over it obviously, or the white jeep would have no doubt come after us. Instead it just sat there, watching us. Troy and I calmly put the cabling away, packed up the light sources and started back the way we came. The white jeep stayed put until we lost track of it over a hill.

By the time we'd made it back to the road, Mike was there waiting for us. Another jeep had come down to watch him after he spotted the first one, and he had shut down and kept an eye on us from a rise about half a mile away. When he saw us leaving, he raced back too.

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