Chapter 7
Day 10
Today we are going to see the Magnetic Termite Mounds. I’ve heard from several people that these insect works of art are truly amazing. As we drive up to the viewing area I am surprised by the huge numbers of mounds in the open area. It’s like pulling into a cemetery because the mounds are tall, rectangular, and slender. They look like gray, weathered headstones with no writing on them. It is rather eerie. The mounds are architectural masterpieces complete with tunnels, chimneys, and passageways. All of the mounds are aligned North to South to avoid direct sunlight in the heat of the day.
After spending a few hours around the mounds, Dane decides he wants to
take us to a relaxing spot called Surprise Creek Falls. It is a perfect, peaceful spot that doesn’t get a whole lot of traffic. It is located on the southern tip of the park, so it takes us about an hour to get there. After swimming and resting for a while, we decide to end our day with a spectacular view of Tolmer Falls, which proves to be one of the prettiest waterfalls to date.
“What a day we had today.” Derrick says. “What is on the agenda for tomorrow, Dane?”
“Well, I thought we would head east to this isolated area north of my place. I haven’t been to this area for a long time, but I recall it was a good area to find snakes, which might interest you, Derrick. I know you are anxious to get some pictures and study them, but don’t be disappointed if we don’t find all of the snakes you’re looking for.”
“Now you’re talking!” Derrick says enthusiastically. “Most of the snakes I’m hunting are located in the southern part of Australia, but if we are lucky, maybe we’ll find a brown snake.”
“What do you mean if WE are lucky? Aren’t those snakes super aggressive?” I question with fear in my tone.
“Yes, they are Honey, but I don’t plan on picking one up and having tea with him…I just want to observe and catalog.” Derrick says lovingly.
We all turn in for the night and Derrick can barely contain himself because he is so excited. He can’t wait until morning.
Day 11
Derrick is the first one up this morning. It doesn’t surprise me to see him bright-eyed and raring to go. He’s so ecstatic about going snake hunting today, he
can hardly get the camp site dismantled and loaded into the car quick enough. He is acting like a kid on his way to Disneyland.
“We can eat breakfast in the car on the way.” Derrick says as he is running to the car. “Come on, let’s go!”
We are probably about eight kilometers away from the main road headed toward an area Dane hiked six or seven years ago. The dirt road ends here. Dane advises us that we will need to go by foot from here on. Not a problem for us. Derrick and I both enjoy hiking and welcome the adventure. With the car secured, we head due east and start carefully hunting for snakes. Derrick is really in his element right now. This is his heaven on earth.
As we traverse the barren, desolate landscape, Derrick very methodically overturns every rock he sees with extreme caution. The brown snake is a nocturnal snake and likes to hide in small, quiet places during the day. It is the second most venomous snake in Australia, so Derrick needs to be careful not to surprise the snake. Rock after rock is overturned with no luck. We decide to take a break and have some water. There is no shade in sight, so staying hydrated is crucial. The search continues. Just ahead is a gathering of small rocks piled up one on top of the other.
“That’s where I would be if I was a brown snake,” Derrick states with such authority. “Be the snake, be the snake,” he mumbles.
Dane and Derrick go to the rocks and slowly remove one at a time. All of sudden, like synchronized swimmers, they both jump back and freeze. Derrick looks back at me and gives me that little boy grin that I love so much, and holds his thumb up to the sky. I think he found what he was looking for. Out comes the camera. Dane has the snake hook and is controlling the snake so Derrick can get just the right angle. The hook can extend out to just over three feet, and Dane is maintaining a safe distance from the grumpy snake. Derrick estimates the snake’s length to be about five feet.
They put the rocks back in place as best they could without crushing the snake and continue walking east. It is starting to get very hot, so we decide to head south for a bit and loop around back to the car. After scanning the horizon for possible snake hideouts, we see what appears to be an aircraft tail sticking up in the air. This is not exactly something you would expect to find in such a desolate area. As we approach the crash site, we notice a building that is mostly underground with a large containment area behind it. The containment area had big fences all around it and wire cages inside of the fencing, but the impact of the plane destroyed most of the construction.
What if someone was in the containment area when the plane crashed? We have no idea what to expect when we walk into the building. Derrick and I walk down a flight of stairs and find an entrance. We turn the door handle and much to our surprise, it is unlocked. I think that is a little strange that a huge facility like this would be left unlocked. I see red flags in my head; something has gone wrong here--something unexpected.
We go through the doors and enter what appears to be a laboratory. It’s a little hard to tell what it used to be because it looks as if a tornado came through and totally rearranged the contents. The computer monitors are on the floor, totally broken apart, and shattered. There are papers and ripped up notebooks scattered all over the place.
“They really need to hire a better janitorial staff in this place, don’t you think?” Dane says to me sarcastically.
But I don’t laugh because this is a little frightening. I bend down and pick up one of the notebooks off of the floor. I open it and start to read through the first couple of pages. There are lots of equations and formulas, as well as experiment numbers. It starts with a baseline experiment and then gradually one variable is added, removed, or changed, and then recorded again. The details of the experiment are very meticulous and thoroughly documented. It appears as though something very important was going on here in this lab…but what?
I flip through a few more pages and come across experiment #39. Here is where the experiments get interesting. The test subjects prior to this experiment were small lab animals like mice and rats. Ex #39 is the first experiment in which someone is using a dingo as a test subject.
This facility must be a medical facility where new drugs are being tested on animals before they approve them for human testing.
“Where is everyone?” I whisper.
“I don’t know,” Derrick whispers shaking his head from side to side.
“Do you think it was deliberately abandoned or were they chased away by something?” I ask nervously.
“I don’t know, Baby. Let’s keep looking around. Maybe we will find a clue,” he adds.
The facility is structurally sound despite the containment facility’s being destroyed. So what caused all of this disorder in this part of the building? We don’t have an answer to that question. I close the notebook, tuck it under my arm, and the three of us continue with our walkabout of the building.
At the end of the long hall is a big steel door with half a dozen hazardous material suits hanging on the outside of the door. A glass window next to the steel door allows a view of what appears to be an airtight vault of some kind. A series of chambers permits entry to the vault where I imagine all the extremely hazardous items are stored. I’ve seen rooms like this in movies but never in real life. Suddenly, a shiver runs through my entire body.
But that room has not been touched. Looking through the glass window, I can see that everything inside the room appears to be in order. It is locked and can only be opened by a security card and a code of some sort. There is a cypher lock on the exterior door and it is showing a red light so I assume it is locked. The hall splits in two directions just beyond the steel door, so Derrick and I decide to take the left side, a
nd Dane takes the right. We agree to meet back at this spot in 10 minutes.
Derrick and I start down the hall and end up in the living quarters. There are about a dozen rooms in this wing with male and female restrooms on both ends of the hall. There is a small dining facility in the middle and a day room with a television. It looks as if the people actually lived here; they didn’t commute. The rooms still have clothes in them, but there are no personal items that we can find to identify who might have been living here. No wallets, lab tags, or anything.
We turn around and head back to the rally point to meet up with Dane, and we are waiting for him in front of the big steel door when we hear a noise coming from the lab area. We both run down the other hall to find Dane. This section is divided into six operating rooms with access to the outside containment area at the end of the hallway.
Derrick grabs Dane, “Come on man, we’ve got to go. Someone is in the lab.”
We start walking back towards the lab very slowly and stop just short of the entrance to listen. We can hear a man’s voice coming from the other room and he is obviously looking for something.
“Where is it?” a voice says desperately. “It’s got to be around here somewhere.”
We hear someone on the ground moving papers around. Computers are being tossed aside. It is obvious that this guy is frantically looking for something.
Dane says, “I only hear one guy. You?”
“Yeah, I just hear one too.” Derrick answers. “We can take this guy if we have to.” Dane nods in agreement.
Upon entering the room, we see a guy on the ground on all fours searching through the rubble talking to himself. He appears to be a relatively young man with light brown hair and a medium build. He wears a white lab jacket, and either he likes white lab jackets, or he is a doctor. He spots us out the corner of his eye, jumps up, and just about knocks himself silly when his head hits the corner of a desk. As he turns toward us rubbing the lump developing on the side of his head, I notice his piercing sea green eyes. Only right now, those eyes are showing intense pain caused by the encounter with the desk. He lashes out at us.
“Who are you people and what are you doing here? This is private property, and you have no right to be in here,” he yells.
“Sorry man, but we knocked, and the door was unlocked, so we walked in to find this mess,” Derrick explains. “Why don’t you tell us what is going on here.”
“I’m sorry but I don’t know you people and what’s going on here is none of your business,” he says sharply.