DRAGONS OF PAUL HILL

LIKE BIG BROTHER, the dragon's eye was ever watching from its undisclosed settling someplace in the Vulcan Mine along RED MOUNTAIN. It could see from beneath the stratified rock of kidney red hematite which literally passed as the hide from a reptilian carcass found many generations ago by children playing in the new mining settlement. The dragon's eye could see well beyond the clays beneath the Wenonah Schools, a company-owned school series for local children of miners living within company-owned mining towns established by the Tennessee Coal and Iron Company (TCI) of 1917... but there weren't always dragons in the Valley. The dragons came because of the digging. Digging in the mines for so long and so deep in a widespread area that had not been cleansed of bones from eras long ago. The mines reached as deep as the Jurassic Era layers and pulled from Carboniferous Era tiles worked for decades of opening layer after layer, wall after connecting wall underground, some connecting into long closed mines. The Wenonah School, nearly complete as early as 1943, was destroyed by a fire caused by a lightning bolt in 1946. The Tennessee Coal & Iron (TCI) Company donated a parcel of land consisting of approximately 16 acres (6.5 ha) to be used for new elementary and high schools. Construction began but was not completed within its schedule due to vibrant antagonism from surrounding populations and accomplished work was repeatedly demolished. Because it had such drawn-out and lengthy channels to bypass before classes could be held within a building, alternate plans began in the fall of 1946. Students were sent to attend classes within the distant town of Galilee, Bryant Chapel, and Mt. Olive Baptist Church. They were grudgingly accommodated among populations of Riley and Powderly Schools for which materials were provided by TCI for heat and lights and construction projects. A new Wenonah Elementary School and Wenonah High School were built and completed on land donated by TCI by 1947. With persistence and determination, the education program took hold and students could attend their designated campus. In spite of the good it was doing in regard to educating the children of its workers, The Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI) was and had been one of the largest users of prison laborers, mostly Blacks convicted of petty crimes... a petty crime being a classification of crime that falls mostly in the category of violations and infractions. They were put to work for whatever duration in the coke furnaces for smelting or the mines for digging red ore, coal, and limestone. This, as penalization for their convictions of petty crime.. traffic offenses, disorderly conduct, and shoplifting. Petty means of little consequence or importance; as a method for paying fines... "for their sins." Petty as it was, it was their evil met with evil done them in trade. Drawn from therein was the source for mining labor in Alabama at the close of the Reconstruction Era after the America's CIVIL WAR. The number of convicts employed increased after 1907... after the end of slavery, as did the brutality of the conditions in which these mining workers labored. In 1908, almost 60 "prison" workers died from workplace-related accidents. It was as though it were simply created as a prison and not a corporate entity at all. Prisons provoke unrecounted evil built upon evil.

It was said that because of the eerie beginnings surrounding the lightning fire and the timely institution of the TCI's "whole-hearted" charity... originating just after the close of the civil war era, of provisional education for its "employees" the mine erupted. It was agreed that the distention surrounding something so simple as educating children was just "another layer of cruelty" directed at little ones. It could have been something good but was made to be of monstrous amplitude. It erupted as viciously as any eruption of fire and brimstone, in whole of its fossilized deposits. There hadn't always been dragons in the valley. Anger and animosity can provoke many miseries. Just as it had in the early years of its discovery by meandering students eager to get in a day's play in the area where they were sent, but did not dwell. The low rumbling from within the lengths of Red Mountain Mines bridged horror and terror. It promised misery from intact and mobilized fossil creatures not resembling the crustacean... precursors of clams... displayed behind glass in the showroom beneath a bronzed image of Vulcan... the Roman God of fire... perched atop a pier. The same Vulcan that was said to have been there... to have stopped the first of blood-red dragons found within the mine beneath the red clays amongst the red ore. He had stopped that particular instance of assault after it had slain miners working deep within the pits. Stopped it, but was stopped himself as he did so. He was found fossilized... his flesh and bone coated in hematite ore similar to that of the mountain's depths. Children playing near the site had heard the rumble which could simply have been concluded to be a cave-in. It could have been another blasting. It could have been "nothing." But the rumble followed by a deafening skreel then beating of wings seen high above the water towers and treetops said much more than a general... a typical conclusion. It was something. Down there, visible from the Vulcan's perch was a ridge under the canopy of trees along the length of the Shades Valley. Rising above the branches of the lowest of trees on the other side of the valley was a red dragon. It could only have come out from within one of the open mine caverns. Come out because unlike the scaley orbs of red ore that resembled scales, his scales had not been peeled, punctured, or gored by dynamite and drill bits. The question was, "Why was it here?" Everyone wondered. Not many had seen it but everyone had heard it in the distance. Nearly everyone had seen the ore pulled from the mines, more unusual than that from anyplace else. Many knew of the "fossil" reputation their mines touted, but no one suspected anything could survive the depth and cold of the underground. What they did know was that there was an additional line of caverns opened by miners in 1876 that connected to RED MOUNTAIN mines from the north under coalfields at a town named WARRIOR. Named so for unknown reasons other than that the name fit the space. Caverns beneath the town extended over 1200 miles in varied directions... including into and under Paul Hill.

Many nights of having lived in the towns surrounding the mines... working at the furnaces smelting ore, breaking limestone and sandstone, processing coal; the townspeople commented on murmuring beneath their floors... far beneath the floors of any home with or without basements or cellars. Although the digging was in controlled areas on the outskirts of town, no one had record nor map of digs or cavern exploration from earlier generations that existed before TCI. They knew only that there were channels below the earth that ran in many unpredictable directions. Under earth at depths that could cause echo of sound from above ground. Echoes resounded through shale and boreholes left by crustaceans long fossilized by time. Children had ventured off and into caves on a typical child's game of "haunting" and "spooking" one another in tease based upon the sounds from below ground. They had gone in, and in a short distanced trek, run out after one another screaming in fear of what might lay ahead deep inside the twist and turns of underground trails. One such exploration on an early morning "hookie" venture brought what was now on display at a local museum... a mummified dinosaur with wings. Somewhat of a pterodactyl-looking creature, mentioned as a duplicate of that found at the Saints & Sinners Sandstone Quarry; was found in a wetted cave somewhere behind the waterfalled entry underneath the town of Wenonah. The mines and caverns connected by only a few breakthrough digs were randomly explored by adventurists; never by miners working for their day's wages. It was that venture which would prove the skreel and murmurs underground not to be imaginary trysts in the lives of those dwelling in Paul Hill and further. It was the breakthrough of walls joining mine and the unexplored cave which would give definition to the mascot chosen by the high school class of years ago. The Dragons were no joke. It was a truth to be found out. It was the arrival and the finding of that arrival in the space around Paul Hill that was about to bring the evil back home. The days of the ore furnaces and the cruelty which made them fruitful by way of the churned bowels of the earth beneath them was here... reborn and awake where it had never been. The Shade Valley parallel to Paul Hill was about to see its own. There had never been dragons in the valley near Paul Hill in Bessemer, Alabama, until now.

~

The cave wall somewhere deep inside the mountain's natural depths was stricken too thin on the mining side and gave way to a slight nudge from a something hidden from sight for too long. The scaley appearance of red ore was the torn away hide from what was once living beneath the surface. Like attitude torn out from the shallow core of anger, so was the something... the beast that broke through sandstone alive after so much time of pseudo hibernation. Its mind-piercing skreel was evidence that something evil was loose upon the land. I was there, just across the valley in the overhang of trees that could barely disguise the beating of wings glimpsed from the distance of Paul Hill. Paul Hill was just across the valley and up an 850 -foot run of red clay and sandstone ridge from the Shade and Little Shade Valleys. The ridge and valleys below it made playspace for youth driving vehicles not made to climb steep heights. and daring foot racers more enthused by adrenalin from not falling over a steep cliff than following the challenge of a straight-out run. The dragon was one of what was found intentionally in several late geological digs. What should have been fossilized or left in a tar pit along with other prehistoric monsters. Things like that were found elsewhere, but not near Paul Hill.

The student population, those at the ripe age for “inquisitive exploration” during the prime hours of early morn or day could bring new life into the folds of the red ore caverns what housed that new life from the old. One such exploration on an early morning "hookie" venture brought what was now on display at a local museum... a mummified dinosaur with wings. Somewhat of a pterodactyl-looking creature… or so it was thought. A pterodactyl with scales. It was mentioned by media as a duplicate of that found at the Saints & Sinners Sandstone Quarry; was found in a wetted cave somewhere behind the waterfalled entry underneath the town of Wenonah. Wenonah was far north of the Hill area. Far north but secure until now for the spaces being opened beneath the population of homes above the antiquated mines. The mines and caverns connected by only a few breakthrough digs were randomly explored by adventurists; never by miners working for their day's wages. It was that venture which would prove the skreel and murmurs underground not to be imaginary trysts in the lives of those dwelling in Paul Hill and further. It was the breakthrough of walls joining mine and the unexplored cave which would give definition to the mascot chosen by the high school class of years ago. The Dragons were no joke. It was a truth to be found out. It was the arrival and the finding of that arrival in the space around Paul Hill that was about to bring the evil back home. The days of the ore furnaces and the cruelty which made them fruitful by way of the churned bowels of the earth beneath them was here... reborn and awake where it had never been. The Shade Valley parallel to Paul Hill was about to see its own. There had never been dragons in the valley near Paul Hill, until now.

The daylight was waning long after a school day’s session had closed and sent it’s preteens home for another restful eve before their return to the school campus. Wenonah Junior High and Highschool boasted an apt student population that dug hard into local ire and folktales surrounding the mines, the pits and the ridged valleys. Theirs had become a lifestyle straight out of Netflix, strange happenings of missing persons and noises that should have died away with the dinosaurs. Bailey didn’t come home. He was nigh fifteen, going on nineteen in attitudes and wanton behavior. Anyone could have placed him at the back gate of any one of several girls from his class and above, but no one had seen him after classes. Daylight was fast closing when phone calls placed throughout the community brought a final call to the officer’s desk. “He’s been missing for most of the day now. Please file a report.” Papers were printed from the information received and Bailey was laid upon a shelf among others who “wandered away” in the recent months.

—--

The red glow in the far back reaches of the cave gave a hint of warmth that belied the rocky floor where Bailey lay naked except for the tattered scraps of clothing that remained after having been dragged, flown, and dropped through the low branches of the valley near Paul Hill. He opened his eyes to see the source of his pains… long gashes and flesh torn away from the length of each rip encrusted with blood having dried for some time since… His one good eye could pick out movement someplace in the distance near a dark wall, while the quick downward jerk of his head brought a disturbing sight of tissues and bone fragments mingled among rags from some past event. As he peered into the dark, the something pulling at him… at his legs… yanked him through a small ditch in the cave’s wall and into yet another dark cavern. Still seeing nothing, he rolled side to side in effort of ditching the unwanted attention. There was nothing now. Nothing touching, pulling and most satisfactorily, not biting him. He slid closer in to the nape of the wall nearest him to wait. He was waiting for it to all be over.

It seemed like hours… days since he’d been standing with his classmates after the rally. The school homecoming and other sports pep events were just beginning and they were all eager to meet new friends… be seen by those who barely noticed them well enough last year. Bailey was going for the attention of Jalisa. The group of girls she was ever with were her morale team… glee club pep squad leaders who rivaled even the flirtiest of cheerleaders. He had gotten their attention by provoking the bird always seen in the distant valley from the campus. He’d shot at it causing it to attack the crowd. It came skreeling toward them and when they scattered into the building and under cover of the several dugouts along the edge of the building that led to the underground access, he was caught by the leg. It caught him as he raised his hind leg to leap over the steel rail into the dugout. The flurry of students standing outside during the eatly morning class assembly hours had not made an accounting of who was or was not in place, but several recalled Bailey and his bravado at calling the bird over. Jalisa and her girls never looked back. It took him by the ankle and flew off tossing him into the air like a string doll until it could get a better grasp. If anyone looked behind it to see where it had taken him, no one made mention. Among some, he was made out to be the class clown... The jokester… prankster; and this time he’d met his match.

….

Shift change brought mention of the new missing person call-in and Bailey’s detail in a police memo sheet was drawn down from the shelf. “This kid’s been missing for just a bit now, maybe we can ask around the campus or family of his actions just before... Or a last notice. Someone has to have seen him take off.” Detective Riley stuck the paper into Damon’s unwilling hand before continuing, “Some kids were out late after classes started.. .still celebrating the rally and probably eager to get into the rest of homecoming for this year. This kid was probably with the crowd so somebody should have seen him step away… probably with a chick.” Damon cast a sullen smile back at him, “yeh… and we’ll come back with all the dirty on who his chick was… getting busy before the good time even get started. Kids nowadays… kids.” He sauntered off toward his office with the complaint form. Damon pushed the door to his office open, tossed the form on top of a stack of forms, and turned to go to the break room. It was past time for his first coffee and donut, he had to beat the rush… it was shift change. As he heard the coffee counter above the enclosed pastry shelves he noticed Rita standing with her back to him. He could tell by the bulging hips and extended front posture that it was indeed the front desk clerk. She could not be unseen in the room of dark-suited co-workers in traditional uniforms or mandated dark suits. She glowed in the lavender knit skirt and jacket with ruffles at her forearm and platted tendrils twining down her back as if they were pointing out her curvaceous bottom for attention. She was screaming for attention and so he tapped her. The slightest touch of his hand on her hip pulled her face forward, jaw dropped and ready prattle to ward off any additional prank. “Oh… Damon,” She half turned back to the counter nodded at the clerk behind the glass case, then dropped her readied payment for her order of cappuccino and croissant; then turned back to the man behind her. “You’re late. My backside is not the issue of today and,” taking a sip of her coffee. She tucked her sweet roll into her hand with the change given her and stepped away from the counter… “I got that image online back at my desk if you’re ready to get down to business. I’ll see you up there.” She turned to leave the room casting a glare in the sea of darkness, her blonde braids swinging opposite every step taken. Had he watched her disappear into the distance he could have seen her well past the doorway. At nearly 5’9”, she was not a small woman, and the kitten heels worn with her outfit He caught up with her after his five-minute wait for a double espresso with creme. She sat at her desk and pressed a button to bring up a confidential screen then opened the door to let him in. As he stepped over to the side of the desk centered in the room he was blown away but the horrid sight she revealed. In the darkness of some sort of dimly lit cave were several images welded to the cave side in seated positions. He leaned away with a grimace pasted across his face and yelled, “What the hell!” He sloshed coffee across her lavender outfit and papers. Rita simply turned the screen toward him, batted her eyelashes, and spoke, “You asked. I delivered. This is what investigators have brought back on the missing persons cases from earlier this year. I’m not certain of where it is or what the actual situation is but…” she sipped her cup and took a bite of sweet roll, “You’ve got the case. I drew it down for you. They want you to call the special detachments unit and, “she took another bite of croissant, not bothering to slow her delivery of urgent news, “You’re to meet them later tonight.” She pulled a tablet from her drawer, ripped a sheet from it and extended it toward him. “Call his number for questions and additional details.” With that, she waived him away from her and motioned for him to get out of her office.

Back at his office, Damon threw himself into his own office chair to digest the image on Rita’s screen. The ropes holding the victims didn’t look real… more like twine… or something. The images along the floor were nearly prostrate with no upper body portions to ratify occurrences of their demise. Then he suddenly yelled out causing an echo in his own ears, “Dang it!” I forgot to mention that kid… that Bailey kid.” He’d forgotten to mention the new case and to prompt her for any updated info on it since his last shift. Most new claims usually came to her desk. He leaned back to enjoy his coffee and mull over the new assignment planned for him later today.

At about five, he called the number given him by Rita. The voice on the other end spoke in a low and mulled tone, I’m sending you the brief on what we got. This thing was brought back here… some sort of alien…errr uhh” the person on the other endcaughed to clear his imagination from the phone line then continued, “...in all seriousness, it’s a dinosaur…plant. We got a dinosaur plant on our hands… eatin folks we think. I’m faxing it… stand by.” The line dropped and Damon slid his end of the line across the desk and let it lay on the surface, the line hanging open. He was dumbfounded. An “alien dinosaur in Alabama… dinosaur plant… that eats people. What!” HIs fax machine sounded off and he glanced toward the machine, speaking out loud “This has got to be a prank. Nothing like that exists… has ever existed. We… our unit has to be better than that.” As the sheets fell from the machine, he turned his eyes toward the calendar on his wall. It was not October and April was long gone. He spoke out loud again, “Got to be a prank.” Minutes later he stepped over to pick up the info delivered him off the record. The system normally used was averted this one time. Something was really wrong… if it wasn’t a prank. He shuffled the papers into numbered order and read his focal assignment for the night. Mandatory overtime was always annoying, but this… “TENSILE PLANT!... he read the description beneath the largest image on the front sheet. A dinosaur era tensile plant, carnivorous, lures and licks victims?... forty million years old… and here in Alabama? He read further:

It lurked in wait for unsuspecting prey on the swampy Baltic coastline 35–47 million years ago. Now the first fossilised specimens of a carnivorous plant are helping scientists probe the organism’s early evolution and its Eocene habitat.

Researchers from the University of Göttingen in Germany found the fossil of two leaves from the plant in the Jantarny amber mine near Kaliningrad, Russia. It seems to be related to plants from the Roridulaceae family, which catch their prey using long, sticky hairs. “We were all so excited when we discovered it because it’s very beautiful and striking,” says lead researcher Eva-Maria Sadowski. “It’s amazing to look at something so old, yet so well preserved.” The fossils were a long way from where this family is endemic... their origin: South Africa.

He staggered to his seat once more. They were expecting him on site in an hour. He would have Rita to thank for this one. He pulled himself together, pulled on his trench and headed for the door with his dusting kit. The drive out to Tuscaloosa found his mind preoccupied with recall of great scientific advancement by taking and bringing samples to and from archeological digs that reawakened death from things long past humanity’s concern. He wondered about the group that could have transported or awakened such as this plant and maybe even those large winged birds gossiped about in the populations around Bessemer and the ore mines. In the old days the worst concern was a mine subsidence. Hollow pockets underground were not uncommon. Not uncommon, but they tended to only bring a community of compassion and a rush to rescue those caught underground. Recent years had turned that around. Now they were having to chase monsters in the night. The images at the base of the wall in that dark cave was not a natural occurrence. He plugged in his power cord to charge his phone. He’d have to bring his own photos back from this one. This needed to be studied long … and hard. In less than half an hour he would be on site, in person rationalization was his best feature. The lab in Tuscaloosa was the original base for studies of items returned from a launch some time ago where plants ejected into space were being studied. The plants had survived… survived and flourished in the atmosphere similar to some other planet duplicating the carbon environment. The researchers on that call had brought samples back with them to the Extension lab out in Tuscaloosa. Some space lady-scientist was researching them at a makeshift lab and studio set up in an old house in the community. Why she needed to bring anything like that into today's environment Damon could not figure. He couldn't figure the logic in any of it... but working cases, whatever came his way, is what kept him in a paycheck. What anything like that would be doing in Bessemer was beyond him. It was all beyond him. He sped up. There was an agenda awaiting him. A serious briefing agenda at the museum and later at the antiquities house… The Jemison Building where several old historic records of happening before these recent digs . Back then people were bagged for “crazy acting” performances. Some for claiming to be “seeing things” of un natural accord. Those stayed locked up with surmountable records for most of their lives. No one tended to look further… the population there wandered in from “hoodoo” and “gichee” groups in Louisiana and the islands; with a few from South America’s Belize and so forth. At any rate, this was going to be his vacation before the blitz. He pulled into the parking lot at the museum barely glancing at the introductory sign and welcome blog.

“The Alabama Museum of Natural History exhibits fossils and minerals. Antebellum homes like the Battle-Friedman House and Jemison-Van de Graaff Mansion mark the area's history. Welcome one and all.”

He dashed past the sign and into the heavy front doors of the museum. The new dino displays and charts of where relics were found, the condition, and what caused them to be were only a small part of notes he would need for his assignment. Within an hour he was out of the building and headed for the Jemison house. His head was abuzz with wild-eyed imagery of what he was going to find on the scene of his assignment. At the Jemison house, he was referred to several case files of missing persons, visions of “monsters” and old miners who while enslaved were forced into the mines after seeing the death or disappearance of friends or loved ones in the same channel. It was always assumed that they had fallen into the depths of decades-old mines being dug for coal and ore. Those left in the stead for “crazy” were either rescued by family members and moved north toward Bessemer and beyond, or left to die in the halls of the hospital. When the hospital closed files were left in abandonment and the populations migrated away from bad memories. Now they were needing to look back into the closed files, any files still legible and pertinent to the new missing persons of Alabama. He headed back home to Bessemer ready to work.

Bailey’s curled position against the wall kept him somewhat hidden from view of anything in the darkness of the cave mine where he lay. His legs and thighs had grown near numb of pain dealt by the flying dragon bird. If he had known… if had thought it would come after him and the other kids gathered in the schoolyard he would never have provoked it. Of all the days… all the time he and the other students had pranked each other about what it was across the valley, no one had dared to make it take notice of the school ground. Not until now, anyway. He lay there in the coolness waiting, half hoping there would be someone who saw him being flown away. There had been such a rush of running bodies that no one heard him calling, but for sure someone had looked back long enough to see him lifted and flailing to escape this dread situation. After what felt like hours, there was a tickling sensation at his ankle. The tickle worked its way up his thigh twining and twisting a trail of wet goo. He tried to shift his weight away from what felt like a bug on the cave wall, but when he raised his leg to pull himself something lodged into his buttocks causing him to arch his back harshly. When he did, his head rolled back into the wall. He lay there gored from behind, his head aching from the abrupt banging against the wall and his eyes rolling in confused ecstasy from the gyrating stem in his buttocks. Moments later, he ejaculated and the stem grew leaves that enveloped him in a tickling flutter of strokes cupping his front and back grasping his buttocks then tightening until it sprayed its own flurry of dew across the cave floor. Bailey lay jerking spasmodically for nearly half an hour before it released him, slowly drawing its stem out of Bailey to wait for its next episode.

The experimentation with prehistoric life, both flora and fauna, was the nightmare of the general public but the passion of scientists… paleontologists and others eager to earn a dime on the freak show it could provide. The upsurge of amusement parks such as the Jurassic Island tours simply posed as encouragement for adventists in historic sciences to get their name on a wall and fatten their wallets from the displays. This plant sensation would be the next big find… no one had ventured to present a living plant from the Carboniferous era… not one that interacted with life forms… carnivorous or not. There were a number of carnivorous plants… the giant pitcher plant, fly catcher and the dewy furling leaf plant brought back from recent space walks that checked the progress of rescued plant dna… pet project of Alabama’s University Science Department. To insure their role in gaining grants, the department was granted full freedoms with signature of the Dean of Sciences… for his credit on the deed… in anticipation of including their find of a mutation in the next Jurassic Island event. They were the ongoing research of a space team which was paid to guarantee it’s survival, given open expense for travel to and from an off planet lab. John and Sarah left the engine room behind May, all three confident that they had the solution to the piercing sounds shooting through the atmosphere where they hung suspended for the designated thirty days. Sarah was the least experienced of the three; hers originating from first to last reads of books by her favorite author, Stephen King, and her thirst for knowledge on anything resembling the LANGOLIERS. "They're a kinky bit... don't you think, John?" The Langoliers ... or the potential that there may be something of the sort out here?" John barely cast a backward glance over his shoulder while marching on..."We don't have time for creative imagination. We have to get our act in gear or be left here. There's a rendezvous within hours and we have got to be on spot to clear this area. Come on." He lifted one heavy boot after the other trodding across the rocky surface of the star they were taking samples from. Sarah followed him.

Some distance ahead of them, May pulled an oddly arched parapet away to reveal an entrance to a cave of some sort. She tapped the radiophone on her sleeve to call her location back to John. He and Sarah changed their direction to find her already inside. They found her standing beneath the tip of a high chamber with stationary cushions resembling gel foam. "What is it?" Sarah spoke expecting either of the others to have an astute response. "Looks like... I don't know, maybe..." May rolled her head back to peer up into the height of the structure, " I'm not sure... a tower?" John looked up and then took a step to one side to touch the side of the structure. His gloved hand brushed the wall and came back with a sordid slime. It was dripping from the higher walls as well. "I think this is what we need to get a sample of, May. Where are the tubules?" She felt at the pouches on her suit... "I think we've used them all. We could get some of this next time... of," He cut her off, "No, I can go back and get more. This is something we can test for content right now." Then I will get them. It will only take a bit of time... minutes," May headed out of the chamber. As she stepped away, John went around the walls until he found another throughway and stepped out of the first room leaving Sarah.

In the absence of the other two, Sarah's mind drifted to the tales of strange creatures in strange places. Ir was her first assignment into the voids for sample collections from near stars in the universe. The Langoliers were creatures extending from that similar source... according to King. He knew so much about them... the situation. It was as though he had been out among them. She sat against a wall to wait for the others. When her butt settled into the soft gel coating the surface beneath her a tingling sensation shot through her groin. She smiled, "no... now that's.. that's too much..." Before she could get another word out a spiked trillium appearance opened beneath her, cupping her buttocks with its three petal-like extensions and sending a jolt into her vagina. Her back arched as it gyrated into and through her lower parts sending notes of confused sensuality and causing her to arch in the throes of numbed pleasure. As she moved it clenched her bottom tighter until she rested there with only her buttocks touching the base of the chamber... the pistil planted deep inside of her. The small feathery strokes that tickled her thighs through her suit left clouds of yellow and orange dust as they waived about her. There was a woodsy... leathery scent drifting around her now, as though it was coating her with its own aura. Sarah's eyes dimmed as she winced to see through bright colors exploding through her mind and from behind her eyelids as she opened and closed her eyes. Gasping, she tried to call for John... hoping he could hear her in the next room. It coated her with a silvery slime from her planted bottom up and around the soles of her boots. Minutes later it shot a thick spray of gel into the air above her. "John... JOh..." Sarah stopped talking. There was no sound other than the dripping of fresh ejaculation mixed with the woodsy scent that had enticed Sarah to her lulled seat on the floor.

John stepped through the connecting chamber feeling along the wall, marveling at the texture there. The gel was not as prevalent here, but some residue coated the walls as in the other room. As he stroked the thinly coated surface it began to heave. John leaned against it, supporting his chest by outspread palms of his hands as if to catch a whisper of sound emitted from the walls. As he leaned, the heaving caused him to fall more heavily against the wall. When he did it drew him forward onto it. The same tri-lobed life form clenched him and drew him into the wall, closing the three petal-like appendages behind him. The pistil-like orifice stroked his groin as though it was licking at him tasting but not devouring the human form it had wrapped inside. As it licked, the walls trembled and the floor heaved. John's penis enlarged and tightened as he had never experienced and his eyes rolled as he gasped arching his back toward and away from his invader... his violator. As he arched one last time the alien life form shot its pistil into John's buttocks through his suit and within moments, shot a spray of gel across the room behind John. John hung limp against the wall saying nothing for what seemed like an hour. He stirred slightly when he heard his name. May had returned and was looking around the chambers now. She had not found Sarah and was calling out for John to help find her. John's hips peeled away from the wall that had clenched him so tightly. His legs began to regain feeling as he slid back to a standing position on the floor and his shoulders slid away permitting his head to turn slightly. May saw him move and dashed to his side to tug him free. When she did, the last spurt of gel dripped from his thighs. No one spoke. She looked at John and turned her head to shine light on the space behind him. There was a glistening swirl of gel dripping a myriad of colors that spoke of some hypnotic aura... and John, standing there in what appeared like a drug-induced high. Where John had been attached emitted small hairs now sprouting beads which popped free and fell against the gel on any portion of the chamber. What had they done? May reached for John's hand to guide him out of the chamber in his spasmodic state. "We have to make that rendezvous."

No one heard Sarah's recovery. She sat nailed to the floor by the pistil implanted in her by the alien life form, coated with the gel it had sprayed when it reached its height. Excelsior... came to mind and rattled from her oral parts as she came unstilled. No more screams from the sudden piercing, the ramming of strange parts into her bottom. She wasn't screaming now. It had done no good then... and now, left in the chamber alone, screaming would serve no purpose. Three hours had passed since that horrific event. Three hours and her comrades had left her planted. Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. Sarah was there and would stay there in place until and unless someone returned. It was a scene that had repeated itself over and over during the project. Someone wasn’t paying attention. Someone wasn’t following protocol… or just not fit for the research study they were brought along to perform. In any case, Sarah would become an interesting portion of the reproduction study of the tensile plant.

That was just a flashback on the progress made with their experiment. It was a winner... a true winner. On the return trip to the station, samples were taken of the combined DNA from the sputum on the wall near where Sarah still sat planted by her genitalia and anal orifices, and in some sort of comatose-hypnotic aura. Trails of sputa from varied ejaculations and lines showing extension and refurled fronds of the plant she was attached to would be the basal focus of the ongoing studies. It was too late to harvest her intact, but the samples would be named after her contribution to progress. While other plants… the carnivorous ones… would have dined on the unsuspecting party, this one, carnivorous as well, preferred smaller snacks. They were known to have dined on some of the smaller dinosaurs of their era; and now, here in the 20th Century, were reawakened and altering their life action by pairing new DNA… from us. It was seemingly feeding on hormones. With no dinosaurs to dine on, the next quest would be “what were they going to feast upon?” Bailey’s body quaked a few more times as the ejaculation emitted from his own ultimate arousal caused by the stoking fern exploded from his organ. He quivered and it released him to recover in his own strength. When he regained vision and competency of his surroundings, he slid away from the wall. He needed to get out of there.

The ore mines were busy as usual, preening the red ore of Warrior Mines from the long underground channel that ran from north or Bessemer and Birmingham southwest toward Tuscaloosa. They ran the crews overtime to recount time lost from distraction by reports of missing persons and strange birds or noises in and around the caverns they had created for well over a century. The red ore of the Warrior Mines were big industry and used pretty much around the world. Damon and the investigative team had sourced the information necessary to check the mines. Some of the children at the school did see Bailey taunting a large “bird…” and then he was gone. No one had seen him since. Reports and sightings that correlated strange events centered on the mine head near the lower hills of the valley across from the school campus at called for that being the starting point for their search for any clues of the missing. Bailey was the freshest on the list. The question of a “bird” causing him to disappear would be the haint of the developing case. They set up an office near the school and planned a team to search the lower valley. While it was hoped that they could close end on the missing kid soon as possible, there were over twenty persons from the area reported missing. There would be forensics for those, Bailey and the mysterious “bird.” It could take months… maybe even years. The caves were deep… historically old and …” Damon closed his folder for the start of the team’s ascent into the valley and cave mines. This kid and his “dragon bird”… this was going to get interesting. Damon drove home imagining what the kid was really up to. “This has to be another hookie from school case… “Run away.”

Bailey lay motionless. thoughts of what had happened and where he was flying through his mind. "The bird. The bird looked like something familiar. It was something from his books.. those that he had really taken time to notice... even if it was noticed during one of the guys many pranks and jokes in class. That bird... ugly as it was, looked like a pterodactyl! What... would it be doing in the valley?! Like a dragon... ugly and red... reddish boils... like the ore from ..." Bailey heard a noise coming his way. His mind stopped.