Chapter 18: The Trip

"You found WHAT?" Two Voices suddenly sounded like a trio.

"An abandoned mine and village," shot back the Cheese.

"Impossible!"

"Nope ... it's there, alright." The Cheese smiled at Two Voices, "It's tucked right up under a rock ledge. Impossible to see it from the air. We counted 32 houses ... all wood, with concrete foundations. Twentieth Century construction ... two by six framed walls, sheet rock, fiberglas insulation, tin roofs with camouflage paint, maple and oak furniture with machined joints. Inner spring mattresses, box springs ... get this, iron bed rails ... newest patent on anything we found was 1999. 33 years from when we left our future.

"Kitchen chairs scattered on the kitchen floors, tables set with knives, forks and spoons ... coffee cups. Natural gas stoves with teflon pans. Electrical outlets on all the walls ... three prong too. Some special kind of thin television hooked up to a tiny radar dish on the roofs.

"The whole village looked like it had been deserted in minutes ... maybe even seconds. There were vehicles in some garages and Bill couldn't move them ... You know Bill can drive anything. We came straight back. You need to see it," Cheese tossed a toaster on the ground in front of the scientist. "Spooky, real spooky. There's more. Let Bill tell it. Bill, speak up."

"People tell me I can hear horses in my head, they might be right. I didn't really need plowing lessons. I just "nudged" the team and they went where I wanted them to go. Well, as we were leaving, I felt a plea in my head, 'don't leave me, we need you, oh, please com... ' and it was like I was either out of range or something got the crier. We need to go back but we need to go armed. Can we have Lori?"

""Yup," commented the Cheese, "Lori is all the protection we need. Good thinking, Bill."

Two Voices asked, "you don't want me?"

"You're too important to us to risk you. We don't know what's there."

"The carpets have a force field and Lori has her mind ... and she's small."

"This sounds serious." Two Voices asked, "Lori? Will you go?"

"Absolutely, Two Voices. I'm, ... we're needed. I've been bothered by crying voices since noon. We need to go now!" Lori just went. She was headed in the right direction.

"Go, Go, Gran will kill me if we lose her. Go!!"

They couldn't ask Carol or Gran, the women were in the Red Topped tipi and would be for two more days. So they followed Lori. Even at the carpets top speed it was well after dark when they reached the Village. Lori immediately homed in on the abandoned mine.

"They're in here, they're very weak and very frightened. There are weapons, I can't see how they work." She just flew in the cave and back out. "It's not a mine. All the walls are smooth and glowing. It hums. There's lots of pretty green lights and a few red lights and a great many buttons. There's a Flashing red light over a big door with a wheel in the middle. It's on the far side of the room. There's windows but they're either dark or covered.

"It's pretty complicated and I'm just a baby, and I don't understand this."

Having an intelligent conversation with a one year old baby who can fly, and talk, is a little weird, she's so smart but there's so much to learn.