Buffalo Mesa Mummy

Chapter 17

For a long while the three of them sat against the wall opposite from Samantha. They didn’t speak, just sat there, each enveloped in their own thoughts.

‘What must it have felt like, being down here all by yourself?’

‘Why did whoever it was, do this?’

‘Were you cold, hot, thirsty?’

‘Did you know you were going to die?’

There was no end to the questions and unfortunately, no way of knowing the answers either.

At last Peter took his digital camera from his pack and said, “We need to be very careful to not disturb anything. This is a crime scene and we don’t want to destroy any evidence. We need to get lots of shots from every angle. Charlie, stay close to the wall and get some photos of the hole where we lowered the Rover and anything that is around the area. Maria, I would like you to take pictures of everything between here and the cave in. Look for footprints that aren’t ours and be sure and get some shots of her pack.”

Peter, without ever being officially appointed the task, was the leader of their little group. He never thought of himself as giving orders, and his friends didn’t think of themselves taking them, but sometimes someone had to take the leadership role and it was usually Peter.

Without any talking each of them went about their tasks. Peter carefully moved around Samantha’s body taking photos from every possible angle. He winced as he zoomed in on her face and pushed the shutter.

For over half an hour they worked, taking hundreds of pictures. They even switched off; each of them taking pictures of the areas the other two had already covered. They also took video to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

“Everyone done?” Peter asked as he walked back down the tunnel from the slide area.

Maria and Charlie were waiting for him against the wall they had been sitting against before.

“This is how I figure it,” Peter said, “There are plenty of tracks out by the cave-in, but none of them could have belonged to Samantha.”

“Too big?” Maria asked.

“Exactly, and there are only two sets and some of the prints look like they were made by a giant. If she didn’t walk, Samantha must have been carried.” Peter continued, “It looks to me like they carried her over to that hole, the one we dropped the Rover down in, and set her down. They probably leaned her against that big rock.”

“That canteen and granola bar were left there for her.” Charlie added, motioning toward the rock where the water and food were perched.

“So they didn’t want to hurt her? Why did they put her here in the first place?” Maria asked.

“I don’t know and there isn’t anything here to tell us, at least that I can see.” Peter said.

Suddenly Maria said, “The medicine! The medicine is in the day pack. I bet she started feeling bad and was trying to make it to the medicine, but this is as far as she got.”

“What do we do now?” Charlie asked.

“I guess we go back and tell everyone what we found.” Peter answered.

“Kind of anti-climatic, isn’t it? I mean finding her…”

“Samantha.” Maria injected.

“Ok, finding Samantha with the Rover, running all over Buffalo Mesa and The Town, climbing around down here for hours, and now we just go tell someone what we did?” Charlie asked.