Zircon - Chapter 3

I needed time to think. How would I explain that the asteroid vanishes from view? Even if I did present my work with what I had, how could I explain this? What possible explanation could I come up with that would validate its disappearance? I just went blank, it seem much easier if I forget about that asteroid and find a new body mass to analyze. But then again I was curious to know what happen, and it’s not like I could process new images at this very second. It took a whole week for the satellite to rotate around the Earth and come across those coordinates again.

I was in deep thought, I laid in the back of my black 1970 Ford pickup truck gazing at the stars. I had decided to spend the weekend camping out in the Sonoran Desert with my dog Zeke.

Zeke is a mix breed giving to me by a girl at campus. I don’t even know her name, nor have I ever seen her again. She was walking around with a big cardboard box filled with puppies inside when she came up to me. I looked inside the box just out of curiosity without any commitment that I would take one, and that when I saw this cute little ginger pup. He was looking silently up at me while the others were barking and whining. As the puppy and I looked at each other the girl said “My father is a vet and a lady came to his clinic to have these puppies put down. I convince him that I could find homes for them.” Even before she told me about what would happen to the puppies if they went back home with her, I already knew that I couldn’t just walk away without that ginger pup… That was three years ago. Now as I gaze at the stars he rests his head in my chest while I pet his fur just behind the ear, the way he likes it.

We didn’t need a tent; I just threw a sleeping bag in the bed of the truck. We were almost fast asleep when suddenly a loud bang and an instant flash of light ran cross the pitch-black sky. As we gazed at it, the light seems to be getting closer and bigger. Until it suddenly just faded, and all went dark again. No other sounds could be heard except for the crickets.

“What was that?” I asked out loud. Zeke stood up and began to growl towards the darkness. I sat up to see where he was looking at. But all again was quite, no more light, everything seem still. Zeke then began to bark with fury. “What is it boy?” For a moment he turns his head to look at me, then without warning he ran off towards the same direction we saw the light a few minutes ago.

“Zeke!” I shouted for him to come back but I could only hear his bark become fainter by the second as he got further away. I ran towards the cabin of the truck, open the glove compartment and grabbed the torch and his leash before I ran after him. “Zeke...Zeke where are you?” I kept shouting but I couldn’t find him. “Damn it Zeke, you just had to run off in the middle of the night! You just had too!” I said to myself as I walked around looking for him. I shine the torch towards every bush, every cactus, and every stone and still no Zeke in sight. I rise my hands towards my head, I was becoming desperate that I would probably never see him again; and that’s when I heard him bark again. I ran towards the direction his voice came. It came from behind a group of boulders. “Zeke! I shouted and he came wagging his tail with his tongue sticking out of his mouth. “Zeke, what were you thinking?” he only came for a minute before running back towards the boulders again. I followed him trying to catch him by the tail, but Zeke was too fast. When I directed the torch towards Zeke I was startle by a man. “Shit!” I shouted with a jump. I took a few passes back noticing that this man was completely nude, not a stripe of cloth on his body. He stood completely still looking at Zeke who was still barking at him. The man has his back towards me, I can see him kneeling to touch my dog. Zeke ceases barking but gives out a low cry when the man touches him.

“What are you doing? I shout at him. He turns to look at me and stands. I clearly didn’t think this through. Now I had his attention focus on me. I looked at Zeke and he was just sitting next to him. I didn’t dare to say another word, I just stood motionless shining the light at him. In a splint of a second many questions arose in my mind. Like first of all, what is he doing naked in the middle of the desert? Where did he come from? Did he got lost and ended up stranded? Or was he tweaker taking a night stroll to freshen up his balls? But the biggest question of all is, what had he done to Zeke, who was now submissive by his side?

I did the best I could to not stare too long at his nudity. But damn, he looks fine! “Stop staring!” sounded a little voice inside my head. But I couldn’t help myself this man was like no other I’ve ever seen. From where I stand it was clear that he was more than six feet in height. His light brown hair flowed all the way down towards his strong broad shoulders. His strong arms rested against his side. Every muscle in his abdomen was clearly noticeable as well as his thighs. I was completely frozen staring at this Greek god of a man and he just stood there looking right back at me. “Please excuse me, I hadn’t notice that you were…” I began to say with a shaky voice but couldn’t finish my line of thought when he began to walk towards me. I could see that every muscle in his body tense as he gracefully moved. Every step forward he made in my direction was a step backward I took further away from him.

I took as many steps backwards as I could without taking my eyes off him until I felt the spines of a cactus at my back forcing me to stop. In all of this I had not notice that I had dropped Zeke’s leash. He now stood over it. Without taking his eyes away from me he bent and pick it up and made a smooth gesture towards Zeke. Zeke ran towards him wagging his tail and licking the man’s hands while he secures the leash to Zeke’s collar. “What are you doing?” I asked

He stands and continues to walk towards me.

“Don’t come any closer!” My warning wasn’t very convincing, he stood so close that I could feel his breath on my cheek. “Okay, I think that’s close enough!”

He reaches for my hand, I try to force myself free, but he hold me tight. He then put the leash on my hand, looks at me for a moment then walks away. All I did was stand there motionless, trying to process what had just happen. The man was getting further away into the darkness of the night, Zeke starts pulling and barking.

As he got further away guilt took over me. What kind of person was I for leaving him in his current situation in the middle of the desert? “Hey wait!” I shouted as I ran behind him. He stopped and looked at me. I halted a few feet from him since I didn’t exactly trust him and had no idea how he would react. “Who are you?” He didn’t said a word. “Are you lost?” Still no answer. “Ok, I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you somehow ended up lost in the desert, and for some strange reason your only way of survival was by nudity. I will also assume that your silent treatment is some sort of shock of dehydration. So seen the state you are in I will be the Good Samaritan and help you. But I warn you, try anything funny and I will leave you here.” I looked at him for a response but I only saw a grin on his face that was beginning to form. I extended my hand towards him, “come with me.”

I guided him towards the truck. I wasn’t very sure if this was even a good idea, but he had shown no intention to harm me in any way. I was feeling kind of sorry for him walking bare footed in the harsh terrain.

When we arrived at the campsite, I tied Zeke to the tow hitch in the back of my truck and took the spare blanket I had in the cabin of the truck to hand it to him.

“I know it's not much, but it's something. Not every day I stumble on naked man in the desert” I said in a chuckle, looked at him waiting for a response and still got nothing. “You don’t talk much do you?” Still no response from him and he stood still holding the blanket in his hand.

“Here let me help you with that.” I said as I took back the blanket to unfold it and put it around his shoulders. “Well, I say this camping trip is officially over, I’m going to need to take you to the hospital to get checked out. Wait here while I pack up”

I turn my back to him for a couple of minutes and the next thing I knew he was gone! What, how, where?.. were the first words that I could think of as a saw the blanket on the ground where I had left him. I looked at Zeke, he was patiently laying on the ground “And you didn’t think this would have been a good time to let me know he was walking away?” I told him and he just tilted his head looked at me with puppy eyes.

I sigh with frustration “Okay, you stay here while I look for this guy.” I got my flashlight again and walked out into the dark. “Hey guy, where are you?!” I shouted. I flashed my light in all directions and so far, I only found a bunch of saguaro cactuses, a couple of tumbleweeds and a whole lot of dirt. “How the heck did he just vanished like that? I mean, how long and far do a search for him? Is he now my responsibility?” as I kept walking I saw the same boulders up ahead and decided to search for him there. “Okay, Kathy” I told myself “If he is not at the boulders like last time just head back, notify the authorities and let them deal with the search party.”

As I got closer to the boulders I hear some strange sounds, like something heavy being moved and a dim light coming from behind some of the rocks. I turned my light off and walked as quietly as a possible to investigate. I hid behind one of the boulders and peaked my head to get a good look. It was him, the naked dude. What is he doing? He had his hands extended out and moving them like he was inspecting something with his touch, but I couldn’t see nothing but empty space. “Oh wow, he's probably high on some shit.” I said to myself. I then saw him move his fingers like entering a code into nothing. “Oh, okay buddy. This isn’t really helping your case” I said in mockery, then it happened. The empty horizon got distorted and a light started to come out of what seem to be a portal or probably like a hatch door. I couldn't believe my eyes. I stood frozen in disbelieve. He put his arm inside the bright light and a beam light came out from the front of him landed on a boulder and moved it without any effort. Holy shit! I moved backwards a bit as I kept my eyes on him, I tripped and fell on my butt. I quickly got back up to look over and now I saw him looking straight at me. Shit, Shit, Shit! He saw me! He saw me! I ran as fast as I could back to my truck, I didn’t dare to look back to see if I was being followed. I need to get out of here! I jump out of the tumbleweeds into camp, Zeke is now barking. I untie him as fast as I can from his leash, pick him up and throw him inside the cabin of the truck. Start the truck and gas it out of there. As I drive off I look in my rear view mirror and now I see a really bright light coming from the direction of the boulders. “Real great, real great!” I punch the steering wheel as a drive “Fuck Zeke, Fuck! He knows what we look like, he knows we are alone out here!” I look again in the rear-view mirror and now the light is acceding to the sky and it makes a loud bang sound as it takes off. The sound was so loud that it created a wave of dust that looked like a sandstorm. I look at Zeke and he is now hiding on the floor of the cabin under the glove compartment. I look back again, and the sand cloud is getting close fast, I can see with the moonlight how the cactuses get tipped over by the shock wave.

“Oh my God! Hold on Zeke, Hold On!” It didn’t look like we could outrun the shock wave, but I still needed to try. As I drove, I look further down the road to see if I can find any ditch to hide from the inevitable wave and notice my headlight up ahead about 30 feet got distorted like a diffraction experiment done in school. I hit the breaks as fast as I could but still ended crashing against the invisible force. All went dark after that.