My Say

1

Rumors had been swirling for years, the news media would scream "Breaking NOW, a bomb took out..." or "This just in, a high ranking official just ..." or "In local news, another person has gone missing...". Just like everyone else I'd become so accustomed to hearing it I no longer paid close attention, looking back I wish I had. It was a warm day, summer hadn't taken full possession of our weather and I was bound and determined to take advantage of it. My friends and I had made plans to meet up at Red Ridge State Park for a glorious 4 days of hiking, eating, and fun. All of us had full-time jobs and full lives, so times like these were precious and few.

We'd just reached signal point, the last spot for any good signal on this trail, it was spotty all over the park. I hadn't brought mine leaving it charging at the house, Freudian slip maybe. When the phones went nuts with an alert tone, everyone was grabbing for their phones as I leaned into Nick to me to see what was up. I have to say, I figured a rogue bear or maybe a lost hiker warning, instead, it said to stay inside and not go out. That was it, the signal was gone.

"What are we going to do", Monica asked looking at her boyfriend Greg? He had always been a leader in our group.

"We can't make it back to our cars in the daylight, we'll go on to the lake, get a good night's sleep. Then get up early and head back to our cars. But I'm going to tell you if this was some prank, somebody gonna get hurt, real bad." We all laughed at his Russell Peters impersonation. Putting the phones away we headed off to enjoy our shorter than planned trip.

The sun was casting deep red and purple color onto the clouds, as we finished setting up camp. Several of the guys had offered to collect firewood if we gals would put up the tents, of course, we agreed. The tents had been replaced since last time, Nell worked at Academy so at the end of the season sale we'd gotten the new flip tents. Not a smile broke our faces as the guys smirked and congratulated each other on their new easy job. Let's just say they were super surprised when they returned and we had camp made and a small fire going.

"What took y'all so long? We had to go get starter wood ourselves." Monica asked in a very concerned voice.

"How did you?", Andrew asked with a wave of his hand. "I mean, no disrespect but there are only 4 of you and none of you are Ms. Nature."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Nan was pissed. How dare some skinny creamy skinned punk think that she was inept.

Before WW 3 started I decided to step in. "We got new tents but the arrangement is the same. We started dinner so if you want to put out your bed before we lose the light ya need to get on it." Turning away I missed the looks from the guys but they did let it drop and the firewood. Instead, moving to check out their new abodes.

Darkness had fallen before we all gathered back at the fire for dinner, tales of what had happened in our lives since the last time we were together was the talk through dinner. We each had our after dinner jobs, making quick work of the chores, returning from getting rid of the leftovers I was nearly killed by a flying beer. "Oops, my bad", Charles laughed as I fumbled with the can.

"Damn it! Not only did you nearly kill me, now it's shook to shit." I grumbled rejoining the group circled around the fire. Mark shook his head at me capturing the can before I could attempt to safely open it.

"This one is last", he says hefting the abused beer into the air and placing it back into the cooler. Popping the top he handed me a new can, "Here's to all those who couldn't be here." With that, we lifted our cans high.

"Did you hear there have been a lot of missing people in the area?" Monica spoke softly as if she didn't want the others to hear. She worked at Mother of Grace hospital, the only hospital for hundreds of miles. As currently only one of 5 RN's at the facility she was sought after but she wanted to be her own boss, taking classes to get her PA certification and her Herbalist Licence. "I heard one of the cops tell Doc Parker that only one of the people had been found."

"Which one was it", Mark called out from across the fire? Of course, he'd heard, he'd been staring at her so hard I was surprised her hair hadn't caught fire. He didn't stand a chance and it was sad to see someone pine as hard as he did.

"An old man, they found his truck crashed into a tree down by Simon's Bridge. But not a trace of his granddaughter." No one spoke as we contemplated this information. "Hey, Nick didn't you work with one of the missing women?"

Nick was closest to the investigation, he worked as a dispatcher with the Sheriff's Department, but he rarely spoke about ongoing investigations. "Yeah, Milly Talden worked as a dispatcher until she got married a couple of months ago."

"And", Nan really needed to chill and let him get there in his own time. Instead, she waved her arm attempting to hurry him along.

"And nothing. She and her husband left on their honeymoon and haven't returned." He says this as if every couple from our town has multi-month honeymoons.

"None of y'all think it's strange that they haven't returned? I mean, I realize that you're just a guy, but come on..." Nan was on an anti-man tear. Her ex-husband had done a number on her and she was taking it out on anything with a penis. The fact that her boss thinks that because she is newly divorced means she requires comforting, isn't helping. But there aren't a lot of Sous-chef positions in our town so until she can save up to move she's stuck and taking it out on all the males she can.

"Didn't their families call the police?" Nell inquired. Her mind trying to put the puzzle together.

"Yes, but there was no evidence of foul play. So the cops did nothing, instead the guy on the phone told them, "they were adults and they'd come home when they ran out of money". Monica says quietly while we all sip our beers and think on how much that sucked.

"When was that?" Nell asks.

"A couple of weeks after they left. No one has heard from them and neither was, one to not talk to their families. Her mom says they spoke at least every other day, same for his dad." Andrew piped in, "What? I do try to keep up with current events". As we looked at him in shock, "Also, I worked with him for a couple of months before the wedding. On that big job up at Canyon City."

We all just nodded. A corporation had bought over a hundred thousand acres and built what we all thought was a resort, but they had not advertised for help. Most people now assumed it was a training facility of some sort, they had brought in their own people. The grapevine had been busy with conspiracy theories on what it was they were really doing up there.

"Did they make it to wherever they were going?" I asked.

"That's the thing. They won an all-expense paid vacation to that new island resort. Oh, you know the one." Nick said snapping his fingers. "The one that the gossip shows said all the celebs were going to."

"Yeah, yeah." We all murmur as if we all do. I have no idea what he is talking about, I don't follow the celeb gossip or really any gossip. Trying to keep my head above water and my life moving in the right direction was the thing I cared about. I didn't have the time or inclination to try and follow all that buzz.

"They got on the plane that left from Dixon," our little local airport. "But from there no one will speak about it", Nick continued.

"Weird, you'd think they'd want it all solved so it would go away". Nell said and I had to agree.

"Does the alert have anything to do with all the disappearances", I ponder out loud?

"Guys, we better get some sleep if we plan to bug out early," Craig said. Heck, I'd forgotten he was there. Damn, he was quiet. Guess the 3 tours in a war zone would do that to ya. Without another word we head off to our tents, our minds swirling with the discussion of the night.