Bone Chase Read online

  FIVE

  They drove to the Twenty Ninth Street mall and parked the car in a covered lot. Once she turned off the engine, Shanny stared hard through the windshield.

  Ethan felt his own body trembling and folded his arms around his chest to make them stop. He began to hyperventilate. Had they really just been shot at?

  She turned and put her right arm around him. “It’s going to be fine, Ethan. We’re going to survive this.” Her jaw hardened. “And I fucking hate it when people shoot at me. Look at my car. My beautiful pink car.”

  He felt a sob bubbling forth. He tried to keep it in, but it exploded out.

  She hugged him tighter.

  He leaned into it, and it was about two minutes before he said, “Shouldn’t I be the one consoling you? Shouldn’t you be the one blubbering?”

  “First of all,” she said as her eyes softened, “you weren’t blubbering. And second of all, you never saw me after the first time I was fired on in Iraq.”

  “You’ve been shot at before?”

  “Shot at? I’ve been wounded, Ethan. It’s why I only spent six years of my commitment instead of the eight I should have stayed. I was medically discharged.”

  “I—I never knew.”

  “We haven’t exactly had time to catch each other up.” Noticing him staring at her, she asked, “What are you staring at?”

  “Just remembering college. I haven’t heard your voice in so long. I’ve thought of you every day, though. We had so much fun back then. So different from—”

  She leaned up and kissed him.

  His mouth opened partly out of shock but also in automatic response to her probing tongue. He found himself returning it, closing his eyes as she was doing, breathing into her as she breathed into him. It lasted forever or five seconds, then she pulled back.

  “As much fun as that?”

  He didn’t have a single thing to say, his mouth still open.

  She kissed him again. He returned it, but only for a few seconds. This time he pulled away. “What are you doing?”

  “I thought it was obvious.”

  She got out of the car and went to the back, where she reached through the space where the back window had been and selected a few items of clothes.

  He grabbed his pack and got out, shaking broken glass from it. He noticed the multiple holes in the side of the Fiat where the shotgun blast had impacted. The area was only a foot behind his door. The shot had clearly been meant for him. It had been so close.

  She was shaking glass out of a blouse when he approached.

  “Shannon Witherspoon, God, but I’ve missed you.”

  “Your idea for a reunion date needs some work, but I’ve missed you, too.” She turned and studied him, then shook her head and shoved the remaining clothes she’d chosen into her pack. “Look at us. We’ve been chased by police, shot at by a soccer mom, and threatened by a six-fingered man. Somewhere out there are giants and the Council of David and we are totally on our own. I don’t know who to trust. We don’t have any phones, and I have to ditch my once beautiful car…” She inhaled deeply. “And all I’m concerned with at this moment is that I’m happy we’re together again.”

  “Like Butch and Sundance,” he said.

  “Like Rocky and Bullwinkle,” she said.

  “Like Ren and Stimpy,” he added.

  “Like Beavis and—”

  He kissed her, cutting her short.

  When they parted, he gazed at her, all the love he’d felt for her before tumbling back into him.

  “So, what now, Captain Witherspoon?” he asked.

  She straightened a little. “Haven’t been addressed like that in a few months. Come on.”

  They headed into the REI across the street first. Ethan had been in one of the stores once and thought the prices were too high. He said as much to Shanny.

  “They’re high because they’re the real thing. The quality is unmatched, and we might need to depend on this stuff.”

  He stopped. “What stuff? What are you getting?”

  She grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him over to the side. A clerk began to approach, and she waved him away. “We’ve got to go off the grid, which means we need survival gear.”

  He made a sour face. “Like tents and backpacks and sleeping bags?”

  “Yes, like tents and backpacks and sleeping bags. I have a ten-thousand-dollar limit on my credit card. I intend on maxing it out.”

  “Sure that’s a good thing?”

  “Why am I going to care about it if I’m dead? They know I’m involved so I’m already burned. They’ll doubly know when I use the credit card because it will probably set off alarms if they’re already tracking it. Let’s keep back your pre-paid card as an ace in the hole. They don’t know about it and they’ll be looking for me using mine. I say we spend the hell out of it and get out of here as fast as we can.”

  Ethan had to admire her quick thinking. It did make a certain amount of sense. They needed good equipment, and they needed wheels. “What about transportation?”

  “I have an idea about that.”

  He was about to open his mouth when she put a finger over it and said, “Trust me.”

  What followed was forty-five minutes of a clerk’s dream. They grabbed new shirts, ripstop pants, socks, underwear, and several pair of Merrell shoes. Each of them got two packs, a large one to carry everything, and a smaller bug-out bag to use if they had to leave everything behind. They also got survival gear, including knives, a hatchet, a compass, cooking equipment, and so forth. They picked up a two-man tent, watching as the clerk demonstrated how easy it was to put it up and take it down. Although it took the strapping young REI employee less than a minute, Ethan imagined him taking at least ten minutes, maybe even half an hour if it was dark. Then came flashlights, extra batteries, and an odd assortment of other things. Shanny kept adding to the total, waiting until it got closer to ten thousand including tax. Once their pile of loot was at $9,500.92, she had them wait.

  She called a taxi and waited until it got there. Once it arrived, she purchased the items. They loaded the whole mess into the taxi, then she had the taxi drive them back to the university.

  Ethan tried to ask her the plan several times, but she shushed him, pointing at the security camera in the taxi. Aware they could be under surveillance, he kept quiet until they finally arrived at the top floor of a totally different parking garage. They had the driver let them out and help them unload beside a VW Bug. Both Ethan and the driver looked at it, absolutely certain there was no way in hell the equipment would fit. Still, the driver helped, was thankful for the tip, and took off.

  Once he was out of sight, Shanny nodded to the immense pile of gear and said, “Okay, Let’s go.”

  FACT: In 1520 famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan reported in his logs that he and his men spied a red-haired giant standing more than ten feet tall near San Julián, Mexico. Almost sixty years later Sir Francis Drake traveled by the same spot and reported more giant sightings.

  I’ve seen this reported in multiple reputable sources. It just boggles the mind that people don’t know about this—Steve

  SIX

  Even as Ethan listened to Shanny read each of the collected pieces of purported fact as he drove the Denali she’d stolen from an old boyfriend who she’d referred to as Mega Creep, he was aware of the dizzying amount of it. Nonmathematicians would argue that the sheer volume of information increased the odds of the information being true. But the only way this could be the case was if the information were true. Unsubstantiated narratives held zero value, while actual facts held positive values. Zero plus zero still equaled zero. That said, he couldn’t help but believe in the possibility that some of the facts they were reading had to be true.

  She continued to read:

  FACT: The Smithsonian has been collecting giant skeletons and related artifacts on behalf of the government. If regular citizens actually knew and were able to view these artifacts it would dramatically change their view of the universe and their place within it. Many of these giants were between eight and twelve feet tall. Many of them had six-fingered hands and/or feet.

  So at the very least the American government is culpable and possibly working with either the Six-Fingered Man or the Council of David —Jonas

  More like they want to keep us pacified and happy —Matt

  FACT: Among the narratives and literature of the Native American tribes are stories of a race of white-skinned giants. These stories aren’t restricted to a single geographical area but can be found in tales across the land. A platoon of Cortez’s men sailed up the Colorado River and reported staying with a village of red-haired white skinned giants.

  Then where are they? —Sally

  FACT: The Clovis-first model asserts that the land currently known as the Americas was founded by migration across the Bering Strait ice bridge between 13,500 and 15,000 years ago. This has been the predominant migration model attributed to the settlement of Native Americans based upon the presence of Clovis-like stone tools; however, a more recent migration theory is circulating in conspiracy circles that could explain the presence of giants. The Ice Age began to recede 15,000 years ago and ended approximately 13,500 years ago. The Solutrean Bridge hypothesis asserts that because of the evidence of related 19,000-year-old artifacts in the Americas, immigration from Europe had to have occurred.

  FACT: Toltec history identifies that 17,600 years ago was the beginning of the Age of White-Haired Giants. Inca historians call this time the Age of White and Bearded Gods. Aztec history defines the Age of Giants as beginning 13,600 years ago and lasting 4,000 years. Biblical historians trace the great flood as described in Genesis as occurring 9,000 years ago.

  So did this flood wipe out the giants? —
Sally

  More important, was it intentional? —Jonas

  Do you mean did God do it? HAHAHA! —Matt

  I’ve read where these were attributed as being Cro-Magnon, but what if they weren’t? What if these were giants? —Steve

  “This information is amazing.” Shanny paused from her reading aloud and stared at the geography of northern New Mexico. They’d taken I-25 south to Albuquerque, where they’d changed to I-40 heading west. She’d been reading for an hour and paused as she stared at the rich red rock formations along the side of the road. “Do you know what I like?” she finally asked.

  Ethan kept to the slow lane, keeping the Yukon just below the speed limit. “What do you like?”

  “I like that all the others made comments. It’s like they’re in a room with us, you know? And this Steve was your father, right?”

  Ethan nodded.

  “So what do you think?” she asked.

  “You mean about the facts?” he asked, using air quotes with his right hand.

  She nodded.

  “It sounds intriguing, but we have to be careful.” He shared his mathematical value system with her. “Without being able to assign values, we can’t ascertain truth.”

  She laughed aloud. “Is it all math to you?”

  “It has to be. My father said he chose me because of the way my mind worked. I have to honor that choice and can’t get sucked into believing something, no matter how compelling it is, without proof.”

  “Okay, I see that.” She chewed on her lip. “Then we make a great team. I tend to believe and you tend to disbelieve.”

  “Which makes us a null.”

  She leaned forward. “I disagree entirely. A null in structured query language denotes the absence of value. There is no absence but rather the probability of value. Given a random variable of X with values of X1, X2, X3, et cetera, and respective probabilities of P1, P2, P3, et cetera, the expected value of X can be derived from the formula E(X)=X1P1+X2P2+X3P3… XnPn.”

  He loved her science brain, especially when it slid into mathematics. “With value E being the expectation.”

  She grinned. “So now we need to determine values. Which one of these supposed facts do you think we can prove?”

  “I think we should itemize them and rank them according to positive value probability, thus enabling us to try to prove the most provable in a rank-structured order.”

  They rode in silence for a while. Heading toward Phoenix was a strategic necessity, but might also be a tactical error, as Shanny pointed out. They had to check Matt’s house for clues, but they also knew it was probably being actively watched. They’d been developing a plan, but they weren’t sure if it was going to work. It all depended upon what kind of surveillance was being used on the location—if surveillance was being used. The soccer mom with the shotgun opened up an entirely new realm of possibilities. No longer were the bad guys just six-fingered men in shadowy trench coats. Now they could be anyone.

  He checked the time. One in the morning. It was getting late, and he was getting tired. They pulled into a rest area and, after taking care of toiletries, flattened the seats in the back, shoved their gear to one side, spread out their sleeping bags, and packed it in for the night.

  Ethan dreamed he was a giant, living in a cave, staring out at the changing world. The time was accelerated, seasons beginning and ending in seconds. He was frustrated. He was angry. He felt displaced and dishonored, but hesitated to do anything about it. So instead he watched and watched and noticed how the nature of man began to change.

  Even as Ethan awoke to a new morning, the tendrils of the dream smoked above him. He’d felt an immense power and beneath it—what was it he felt beneath it… was it responsibility?

  Then it was as insubstantial as a cloud.

  FACT: Beneath the ruins of the Jupiter Baal Temple lie three hewn stones known together as the “trilithon.” Each is estimated to weigh over 750 tons and is believed to have been placed there nine thousand years ago. Scientists have no clear understanding how these stones were moved from the quarry.

  I’ve wondered the same things about the pyramids. Were they built by giants? —Paul

  SEVEN

  Ethan felt Shanny pressing against his back. Lying still, he listened, only hearing the sounds of the interstate and the occasional car or truck pulling into the rest area. Once, he heard a dog bark, but he remained still. The feeling of her spooning against him, pressing against his back, her breath inches from his ear, brought back hundreds of luscious memories. Her arm was draped over his midsection, hand cupped as if to keep him there.

  Although his bladder screamed for him to do something about it, he didn’t dare move. It was a perfect moment, one in which his father could still be alive, where they weren’t being chased across America, where the Six-Fingered Man wasn’t after them, where a girl he’d always loved was even now embracing him in her sleep. He synced his breathing with hers, feeling their union in the wide-open expanse of his heart.

  They stayed that way until a car pulled up next to them and the door opened, then slammed.

  Shannon jerked, then pulled her arm free and rolled onto her back. She stretched. He rolled onto his back, as well. She sat up and looked around, then turned to him, smiling. “I dreamed I was a giant and ruled the world.”

  He started to smile, then felt it slip. “I had the same dream. I remember… I remember…” He put a hand to his head. “Ugh. It’s gone.”

  Shanny still smiled. “Must be something we read.” She pulled on her pants, then hunted around for her shoes. “You watch the car, I’ve gotta run to the girls’ room.” She popped open the back door before he could say anything, danced for a moment as she struggled to slide on her shoes, then jogged to the bathroom.

  He flipped open the laptop and continued reading to pass the time. The more information he had at his disposal, the better he might be able to react.

  FACT: Ancient Incans believed in the Ayar Auca race of giants. When the human race began moral decline, these giants caused the sky to tumble down, which created floods that obliterated much of humankind.

  More proof that the Bible was plagiarized by the so-called saints —Matt

  Interesting that the flood myth is so cross-cultural —Steve

  Ethan grinned. With the comments, it was almost like his father was having a conversation with his old friend Matt.

  FACT: Irish mythology holds that the Fomorians arrived in what would become known as Ireland after a great flood. They are attributed with, among other things, creating the Giant’s Causeway, which is a geologic formation consisting of massive basalt columns.

  FACT: The Ne-Mu were a race of giants from the island of New Guinea. They were said to be lords of the earth before the great flood. They taught the peoples of New Guinea how to farm and build but were wiped out by the raging waters of the flood.

  FACT: Fijians believed that Burotu, which was their ancestral land, sank when the heavens fell down. This caused great flooding, which in turn wiped the tribe of giants known as the Hiti from Samoa.

  FACT: Pre-Columbian peoples believed in a bearded, white-skinned giant who, when the people began to ignore him, dropped the sky on them. This also destroyed the giant and his family.

  Ethan found the connections interesting but remembered something a professor of his had said in a freshman-year anthropology class about attributing meaning to coincidences, especially when it came to the origin stories of different cultures: “Just because a culture has a belief that they came from a god or a giant or a dragon doesn’t make it true. When two or more cultures believe that they came from a god or giant or dragon that appears to be the same as the others, this does not lend weight or credence to this or any other belief. Call it coincidence. Call it a cultural response to the need for an emotional connection to a maternal or paternal deity, which, because of similarities in cultures, is often very similar in narrative.”

  Additionally, his advanced statistics professor, Hans Mueller, loved to talk at length about apophenia, which was seeing patterns or codes in seemingly random objects or sets of data. He liked to use the specific example of pareidolia, which was associated with finding the faces of religious figures in different objects, such as a piece of toast or the frost on a car window. He loved to pass around a jar of roasted peanuts, then ask everyone to remove one and not eat it. Then he told them that when they broke the peanut apart, they would see the face of Jesus. But none of them saw the face of Jesus. Then he’d asked the class if they’d seen anything. Half the class raised their hands, while the other half didn’t. Finally he’d asked if they saw the Indian head in the peanut, and within seconds, the whole class had. He’d explained that this manipulation of their judgment was caused by the brain’s desire to make sense of objects it sees that are similar to other objects, in this case a raised circular indentation with two vertical objects rising from it on the peanut half, much like Indian headdress feathers.