Alien Mask (1)
Rocky River's Mountain Rescue Team Members: Joshua (Team Leader & Rescue Leader) Mora (Second in Command & First Aid Leader) Ben (Air Rescue Leader) Sara (Crisis Leader & First Aid Assistant) Alex (First year rescue team member [previously in Marines]) Earth Year: 2005 Earth Location: Rocky River, Colorado & Rocky River National Park Earth Dates: April 19 - June 11 A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all... Psalm 34: 19 Chapter I Tue., April 19 It is 6 a.m., the edge of the sun appears on the horizon, a thin layer of snow blankets the rocky ground, and a man is rappelling down one of the tree-lined mountain peaks. After he reaches a cave, the man walks towards the back and sees a married couple, who had climbed up the cliff the previous day, snuggled into one large sleeping bag. The man begins to draw out a knife, but trips on a rock causing him to fall onto the couple. Because the sun is in the couple's eyes, they can not tell who it is. The kidnapper manages to cut the husband's leg and take the wife hostage before succumbing to pain. The wife now recognizes the kidnapper as a former lover who still lived on the edge of town. After sustaining a severely sprained ankle from tripping over the rock, the kidnapper is forced to deviate from his original kidnapping plan. The kidnapper decides to have the wife radio the park's ranger station for a mountain rescue, even though the kidnapper only needs the rangers to aid him in escaping from the cave with his former girlfriend. When the mountain rescue team members arrive, they learn it is a hostage crisis, rather than a mountain rescue. Sara talks to the kidnapper and hostages through a megaphone. The rescue team is about 100 feet below the cave. Two members of the rescue team are missing but the kidnapper is unaware of this fact. The kidnapper demands a helicopter to fly the wife and him to his wilderness cabin. Even though the helicopter, which is driven by Ben, encounters swirling winds, Ben arrives with the helicopter, hovers above the cave opening, and throws down a rope ladder. Cautiously, the wife gets on the rope ladder and climbs two steps. From his vest the kidnapper pulls out a small pistol and places the knife into a sheath, which is attached at his waist. Suddenly, the helicopter flies away from the edge of the cave before the kidnapper can jump onto the ladder, and Joshua comes flying in on the kidnapper's rappelling rope and knocks down the kidnapper by planting his feet squarely onto the kidnapper's chest. The pistol falls to the cave floor and bounces away from the kidnapper. Joshua pins the kidnapper to the floor. Thu., April 21 While watching the final installations of the hydrogen-fueled space station on their Hologram-TV [H-TV] in the ranger headquarters during a storm, the group receives a distress call about two teenage boys who are unable to climb down from the side of Mt. Ariel after being caught in the rainstorm. When the team arrives at the scene, they find the rainsoaked teens 50 feet below a mountain trail and stuck on a tiny ledge. Instantly, Joshua has the rangers set up to rappel down for the rescue. Alex pounds a piton into the mountain and attaches a snaplink to the piton so he could loop the rope, and Ben prepares to scale down the cliff. While climbing down the mountain, a rock beneath Ben's foot dislodges and he loses his balance. Joshua instinctively pulls the rope to guide Ben to his feet again. Ben regains his balance and then continues his climb down to the teenagers. On the other side of Joshua, Mora and Alex help guide Sara down to the elder teenager. Once the two rappelling rangers reach the scared teenagers, they wrap rescue gear around them. Up on the mountain trail, Joshua leads Mora and Alex in setting up a pulley system to pull up the teenagers one at a time. As soon as both teenagers are pulled up to the trail and under a canopy, Mora wraps the teens in blankets, provides them with hot chocolate, and checks to see if they are physically and mentally alright. The team of rangers assists the teenagers to a park vehicle and drives them to the beginning of the trail where an ambulance and the parents of the two boys are waiting. Afterwards, the entire team returns to their cabin exhausted and fall asleep once their heads hit the pillow. Chapter II Fri., April 22 Even though they are still exhausted, the group of rangers decides to continue with plans to camp at the edge of the park's river, Rocky River. Following the morning's hearty breakfast of cheese and eggs, bagels, sausage links, orange juice, and cinnamon rolls, the group packs for a three-day camping trip. They camp 5 miles down river. During the first day, the group goes fly fishing and river swimming, and then ends the day by telling stories around a bonfire. Ben goes to bed early, while Joshua and Mora cook marshmallows for s'mores, Sara reads her Bible, and Alex starts whittling on a torn off branch. As the full moon rises in the sky, the temperature starts to fall. Mora slides across the log until she is touching Joshua. She wraps a blanket around both of them, and Joshua puts his arm around Mora to warm her up. Mora falls asleep in Joshua's arm. A half-hour later, Joshua walks Mora back to her tent, and he strolls to his tent where Alex is still whittling. As the two men lay their heads down on pillows to sleep, they hear Mora and Sara praising and thanking some unknown being. Joshua makes a mental note to ask Mora or Sara who they were talking about. Sat., April 23 At 6 a.m. on Saturday morning, the entire group wakes up for a grueling day of hiking, whitewater rafting, rappelling, and then grilling dinner on an open fire. Alex and Sara dominate the storytelling session while they sit around the bonfire eating their dinner. After the breakup of the group to get ready for bed, Joshua grabs the arm of Mora to ask her about the person she was talking to Sara about last night. Mora tries to recall her conversation from last night and then reaches down into her tent to grab a book. When Joshua sees that the book is a Bible, he does not understand why she is showing him that book. Joshua and Mora sit down on a log next to the fire. Mora begins explaining her troubled life and how she tried to discover happiness in her life. Then two students who she studied with at college talked about how Jesus Christ taught us about how to love one another, what our purpose on Earth is, and why God allowed Jesus to die on the cross. According to the Second Corinthian chapter in the Bible, they had told her that Jesus Christ's grace and power is sufficient enough to handle her hardships, persecutions, and difficulties. For when she would be in greatest need of help, Christ's strength in her would be strongest. Joshua sits patiently while trying to understand what Mora is saying. The two talk till midnight. When Mora is finished with her testimony, Joshua expresses his gratitude for sharing her thoughts and he kisses her on the cheek. Joshua goes to sleep with a multitude of ideas and a disturbing headache. Sun., April 24 Joshua wakes up the next morning [around 9 a.m.] to the smell of pancakes and sees that the two other men were cooking pancakes and sausages for breakfast. After the group had just sat down to eat, one of the rescue team's trucks arrives at the campsite. [Joshua had inadvertently shut his pager off while sleeping. The on call rescuers were at the scene of another rescue situation.] The assistant jumps out and explains about an emergency situation called into the station 20 minutes ago. [Two children had slipped off the ledge of a hiking trail with one child unconscious. The children's older brother had run for help.] While the assistant puts the fire out and throws the trash into a garbage can, the group swiftly put on their rescue outfits, step into their vehicle, and follow the assistant to the trail leading to the fallen hikers. [The assistant had brought a stretcher, rescue equipment, first aid boxes, and called for an ambulance to arrive at the bottom of the mountain.] The group grabs the stretcher and all the needed equipment to the scene of the accident, where the children's parents and brother are standing. The children are 30 feet down. [The younger sister is unconscious and the older has a severely sprained ankle.] Sara attempts to scale down the ledge, but the stones are too loose from the previous storm. Sara is pulled back up to the ledge. Then Joshua decides to lower the stretcher down to the girls and let the conscious sister place her sister onto the stretcher. After the unconscious girl is pulled safely up to the ledge and turned over to the ambulance squad, the rescue team turns their attention to the older sister. Mora and Ben set up the ropes for a pulley system to lift the girl up to the trail. The two rescuers lower a sling down to the girl. The girl tightens the sling around her waist and then yells to the rescuers to start pulling. But when she is about to reach the top, a strong gust of swirling wind causes her to slip and she slides out of the sling, which she did not tighten enough, and starts to fall down the cliff again. All the viewers gasp. Before she could tumble down the cliff, Joshua grabs the girl's right wrist with two hands and starts to pull her back to the top of the ledge. Without warning, Joshua's head throbs with an intense pain, more intense than he can handle. As he places his outstretched hands on his head and writhes in pain, the girl topples down to the base of the mountain and to her death. All the rescue members and family are in total shock. Later, Joshua returns home in a deeply depressed mood. Chapter III Tue., April 26 [The rescue team is given 2 more days off for having to work on their day off.] While still depressed about the girl's fatal accident, Joshua mopes around his cabin and he starts up his holographic hockey game where he is intentionally checking as many players as possible into the wall to take out his anger. He shuts off the game and turns on the radio. After scanning a few stations, he settles on a Buddy Holly song. Nervously, Joshua sits down on a scruffy-looking couch in front of a coffee table and fireplace. He then pulls out a revolver, loads the gun with one bullet, and points the gun at his temple. While still thinking about the girl's death, Joshua slowly pulls the trigger and ... [your mind becomes fuzzy and Joshua disappears for .37 seconds]. Joshua becomes confused when the gun does not fire and the bullet is no longer in the revolver chamber. Disheartened by the failed suicide, he runs out to the raging river and throws his gun into it. An hour later, Mora arrives at Joshua's cabin. Joshua is surprised at her visit. Mora attempts to lift up Joshua's spirits with encouraging words and tells him how the entire rescue team is still 100% behind him and how they still care about him. Later that night while sleeping, Joshua has a disturbing nightmare about a flipped-over plane crashing at the Rocky River airport killing all aboard, more than 500 passengers. Chapter IV Sat., April 30 During the rescue team's next scheduled time off, the group walks to town for their biweekly trip to the grocery store and a movie. Alex sees a homeless man exit from a food pantry with a plate full of food. The homeless man sits down and eats the food with his hands. Then three teenagers jump out of a nearby alley and steal the man's food and abuse him physically and mentally. While other passersby ignore the beaten man, Sara, Ben, and Mora immediately go to his aid. After a few moments of guilty thoughts, Joshua leaves Alex and assists in helping the homeless man, too. The renegade teenagers flee the scene when they see the team approaching them. Except for a few cuts and bruises, the homeless man is okay. Then Alex starts to complain to the rest of the group why they should help this dirty man who eats with his hands. Mora takes Alex aside and states that Christ taught us that what goes into a man's mouth does not make him unclean, but what comes out of his heart is what makes him unclean. Yet while the homeless man may be poor, a man of great riches and possessions has a harder time accepting Christ because having wealth can hinder Christ's message of salvation and humbleness. Meanwhile, Ben calls for an ambulance while Sara tends to the homeless man's cuts. When Mora, Alex, and Ben return, Ben and both ladies begin to pray for the homeless man's healing and comfort and for him to learn about the love of Christ during these difficult times. Because of his disgust of the situation, Alex walks away from the group, but Joshua listens inquisitively to what each member is praying. The ambulance and police arrive five minutes later. The rescue team decides to continue their walk to the cinema, even though they are 10 minutes late. Following their exit from the cinema, the group heads down the street towards a local grocery store. Midway through the group's shopping excursion, one of the stock boys accidentally drops and shatters a glass spaghetti sauce jar next to Alex. Alex becomes furious because his brand new outfit is ruined. He is about to hit the stock boy when Ben grabs his arm. While Alex is still mumbling angry words, the Christian members not only console him, but explain to him that he should forgive the stock boy for this unfortunate accident. Alex grudgingly forgives the stock boy and then storms outside where he waits for the rest of the crew to finish shopping. All the team members return to their cabins with the groceries carried in wagons. Chapter V Fri., May 6 The following weekend, the team splits up to work on individual errands. Joshua spends his time traveling to various auto parts stores and electronic stores which sell solar supplies. Besides traveling, Joshua utilizes the remainder of his time in the garage installing the newly bought equipment into his car, a 1998 Express. While filling his next three weekends remodeling his car, Joshua avoids his friends during this time period. Joshua's friends start to worry when he does not answer the phone or accept their invitations to group activities. Finally, Joshua finishes the modifications on his car and calls Mora to come over for a test drive. Later that day, Mora arrives at his cabin. Joshua walks Mora over to the garage and then lifts up the door to unveil his new creation. Overtaken by his accomplishment, Mora stands still with amazement until Joshua startles her by asking her to have a seat in the car. Joshua explains to Mora about how he changed the car to be solar-powered instead of gas-powered and that the idea popped into his head soon after the failed suicide attempt. It is nightfall when the pair starts their journey on a dimly lit highway heading out of town. Suddenly, Joshua stops the car on the side of the road and places a blindfold around Mora's head. He explains that there is one option to the car that he does not want to tell her about yet. Mora accepts the explanation and lets herself be blindfolded. Joshua starts the car up again. After several minutes, the car is traveling over 250 m.p.h., wings pop out on the side and back of the car, and the wheels begin lifting off the ground. Mora becomes startled but Joshua calms her down. Joshua flies around for five minutes and then lands smoothly on the road which leads to his cabin. He parks the car when they reach the front pathway to the cabin. Eagerly, Mora rips off her blindfold and is surprised to be facing Joshua's cabin. Mora asks Joshua what the secret option is, but he refuses to tell her. Without warning, Joshua kisses Mora on her lips, and then she steps out of his car light-headed and bewildered. Chapter VI Sun., May 8 While scanning the electronic newspaper on the H-TV in his cabin, Joshua reads about several spectacular rescues in California. Some of the most heroic rescues involve a hi-rise laboratory fire, a forest fire, and a space station shuttle. Mon., May 9 After eating lunch at the team's cabin, Joshua reads a newsletter on new rescue techniques. Suddenly, his vision blurs and he hears voices in his head. Joshua sees objects moving around him but he can not focus on any one thing. When the objects come into focus, Joshua envisions a dark metallic polyhedron, which has a symbol, resembling a cup and an arrow, on the front of it, along side a beetle-like creature, which is holding a long rod. The Voice tells Joshua that the two creatures represent alien races which coexisted on a planet, but are in search of a new home after escaping from a government that wanted to destroy them. The Voice describes its race, the limbless metallic polyhedron [referred to as Metallics], as a highly intelligent lifeform which counsels other aliens in upgrading their technology. In exchange for counseling, the aliens would provide transportation for Metallics until they memorized the planet's layout. Metallics are only able to move their mass from one place to another by using their mind to exactly envision their place of arrival, and their mass would disappear from its current position and reappear at the envisioned location. They would fizzle into nothingness if they pictured a place which did not exist. Also, Metallics can only die from an electrical-type shock administered by another Metallic. On the other hand, the clan of insect-like creatures [referred to as Bugs] have a limited intelligence and are bred to be Council Officers, guards, or slaves. The Officers are implanted with intelligence, creativity, military tactics, and management skills. The guards are implanted with the ability to change shapes and colors, obey orders, and manage the slaves with brutality. From the data collected while observing human culture, the Bug Guards have taken the shape of various species of insects. The slaves are implanted with a hardworking ethic and the ability to adapt to its current environment. Continuing on with the history of the aliens' journey, the Metallic Voice explains that the two races cooperated to scan several planets and stars in this galaxy and found that Earth had the closest environment to their home planet. Then the Metallic tells Joshua that he was contacted to help search Earth's Rocky mountain regions for a place where the two races, which included 8 Metallics and 30 Bugs, could live without human detection. The Metallic places visions of three heroic rescues by alien worker droids into Joshua's mind so that he can understand the kindheartedness of the aliens towards the humans. [Unbeknownst to the world, alien worker droids, which are undetectable to the human eye because of the ability to camouflage their ships with the surroundings, are stationed in a valley in Yosemite National Park to perform superhuman rescues whenever needed.] Joshua recalls reading about these rescues on the following H-TV's newswire: Federal Government Space Patrol Presents... The National News Register Mon., May 2
Copyright © 2002 John Barnovsky |