A stir at the burial site

Land sakes

Chapter 4  A stir at the burial site

 

 

 

 

The next two days was without incident. They completed the excavation on one of the pits and discovered an adult male. He had been buried in the animal skin he wore, two feet deep in the ground. Some artifacts emerged unbroken. One that resembled a deer was from rock that was deeply striated, bearing marks like the rings of a tree.

 

Bob suggested that they move on the scope of study and start the next phase of the project on the investigation into the environment and the cultivation of the peripheral understanding of the site. It is common behavior among habitat members in any locale to raise their experience of the physical environment into an understanding of the cosmology of their lives. The Australian abo is a continuing example of the experience. They form relations to the nearest river as source of water and transportation, the mountain for a relation to the sky and personal strength. Thereafter, the community would identify and locate their home in connection with the closest wetland area as food source for fowls and small game.

 

In the Indian community this was the basis of the standard conceptualization of the Siva myth.

 

Bob suggested he might take off on a camping excursion around the environment the next day. It was meant to be a general two nights, three day trip as a mapping exercise.

 

The following day, Charles was standing knee deep in the only open pit they had excavated, when he caught sight of Susan hurrying towards him in fearful consternation. She almost tripped over the ground in her hurry and Charles called to her to slow down.

 

“I think Bob's had an accident,” she blurted, “or he's been attacked by a bear or something. I....I....heard something before the line went dead... .” She was in shock. Her eyes were crimson and watery, her lips dry and as Charles checked with his palm on her forehead, it appeared that a fever was coming on.

 

Charles squeezed his hand on her right shoulder, as she sat on a boulder. He brought his face close to her and spoke in a calm, quiet manner.

 

“Susan, we are in an alien location. Its not our normal environment.” He confined himself to short sentences as a start.

 

“ We have to manage our own shock effects or we are going to be exposed to the body's own contusion with regards to its normal handling of itself.  Don't allow yourself into a confusion!” He chose his words carefully and spoke with calm deliberation.

 

She relaxed a little. Her pupils reduced their size and she was soon breathing normally. Charles offered her a candy he always carried in his pocket and encouraged her to take it.

 

“It substitutes for the loss of sugar in the body. It stabilizes your natural feel good experience.  Keeps your responses cognizable to your mind for you to be able to respond normally.” He checked her pulse and found it slowing down.

 

“ Thank you,” she muttered, with an intuitive sense of his actions. “I think he's in trouble,” she concluded. “ We were talking, I heard a growl like a bear, Bob yelled and then the line went dead.”

 

They covered up the dig with the canvas and made their way back to camp. Charles found his mind racing.

 

“Make some coffee,” he said in a straight manner and went into the tent. The cell phones didn't work properly, way out here.

 

He went out the other way and was speaking to himself, “You can't handle yourself and her at the same time. Send her away....okay....to Tom's place.” His eyes groped with a mental picture of each situation. “ You are new in this environment....stick to individual impulses. Keep the gun....” but he already knew.

 

He walked back in. His thighs felt firm.

 

She brought in the coffee.

 

“You'll have to leave,” he announced with a trace of chauvinism. She flashed a resentment but didn't say anything. “I met a nice fella about a three mile distance on the road. You could go there. Tell him we have a situation and whether he can send some people out to help. Stay there, reach me on the cell.”

 

“Okay,” she responded with some relief. “Shall I call the police?”

 

“They won't respond until he's been missing for three days,” Charles spoke with an absent-mindedness as he packed a haversack with some canned food, strapped the bowie knife into his belt and took out the .38 from the case.

 

Then he suddenly realized what he had said and in a half apology said, “I'm sorry, I heard that one on NYPD Blue. “

 

He looked sheepish and smiled a ' wild Tom Cruise ' in his head. She on the other hand, appeared incredibly demure, her eyes had grown dark hazel, and she made the most endearing remark.

 

“I would have said the same thing.” Then she pushed on the canvas and they went outside.

 

Charles took off in the same direction as Bob had taken. As he brushed aside the shrubs, he told himself that he was now also an object of survival. It wasn't going to matter very much whether he saves Bob, or whether Bob needed saving. He was getting into a situation, he didn't plan for. And he needed to return to finish the research on the early Scythia society. He felt strongly that the country needed it.

 

Susan started the car and steered it towards the road. Soon she was on the main thoroughfare headed back to Tom's cabin below the ridge. She looked at her hands on the wheel and was surprised by a strange sense of calm. It felt nice to work in a team.

                       

Reviews

[patricia]

I wondered how they knew the body had been buried in animal skin here...could remants of it have survived?
I like how you describe the fact that the environment is studied along with the site.
I kind of forgot this was a novel, with the interesting research details, you end the chapter with drama and leave the reader wanting to know more.
Thankyou