Chapter 3

Pat walked back to the mine and told everyone that whatever was happening was over now and that they could resume their trip. As they passed a small stream on the way back to the bus Pat made all of the girls that had touched anything in the mine wash their hands to get the lead dust off.

The girls got on the bus taking longer than necessary. They were chattering about the strange things that had happened in the past couple of hours. One of the girls had an idea for a t-shirt, "I SURVIVED THE BLACK HOLE."

After everyone was settled Pat started the bus. He turned on the radio to see if there was any news about the black hole but the radio only had static.

After the bus had driven a couple of miles Pat saw an accident ahead. A car had slammed into a tree. From the seriousness of the impact he knew that anyone that had been in the car was either seriously injured or dead. There was still steam coming from the radiator where it had been ruptured by the impact. There was no one around the vehicle so the accident had probably just happened.

Pat pulled over behind the car. He told the girls to stay in their seats and he got off of the bus and headed toward the car. Pauline was right behind him.

When he looked inside of the car he was shocked to find it empty. He made a quick check around the car in case an injured person had crawled out of the wreckage. He found no signs that anyone had even been in the car. He put his hand on the hood of the car and it was still hot.

"Maybe whoever had this accident is already on the way to the hospital," Pauline said.

Pat shook his head, "This just happened within the past hour or so. If someone was hurt in this accident there would been a lot of blood. Look inside the car; there's no blood anywhere."

Pauline looked at him quizzically, "Do you think someone wrecked the car on purpose?"

Pat shook his head, "I don't know what to think. This car hit the tree at a fairly high speed. It would be hard for someone to get up to that speed and get out of the car without killing themselves."

Pauline pointed down the road, "Look, there's another wreck. What is so dangerous about this area?"

Pat looked where Pauline was pointing. At a bend in the road a car had not made the slight bend in the road and was upside down along the side of the road.

Pat and Pauline ran back to the bus. They ignored the questions from the girls and drove toward that second accident. As soon as the bus was stopped Pat and Pauline ran to the car. The engine was still warm and the wheels were turning slowly but there was no one in the car. There was no sign of blood anywhere in or around the car.

"What the hell is going on Pat?"

Pat stared at the car, "I don't know. I don't think that these accidents were staged. I just don't know what to think."

From where they had stopped they could look down into the valley. Pauline pointed at something in the valley below.

"Look Pat. That looks like an airplane crash. Look, you can see the tail; the tail isn't burning yet. Oh my god there's more of them."

Pat looked down into the valley there were several trails of smoke rising from airplane accidents.

Pat took her arm and started leading her back to the bus, "There's a small town about six miles from here. We have to report this shit."

After they were on the bus Pat turned to his passengers, "I don't know what's happening but I'm going to get us off this mountain. There's a town down in the valley. I want to find out if any strange things are happening there and I want to report what we have seen. Everyone just keep calm and we'll sort this out."