Saucer in the Dunes

31 Soldiers!

"Hey guys, where are all the cars?"

Jimmy was right. As we approached the freeway, there were no cars, none at all, driving on either side.

"Man, that is weird," Ronnie said.

I agreed. We paused for a second, looking in either direction, but nothing. There were cars and trucks parked in the middle of the freeway at the exit and military trucks coming from the other direction, but we were still too far away to see anything really good. We walked unhindered by the sun or the itchy grass until we finally came to the exit. The place was alive with movement. Men from all over the place were standing around the sinkhole. It was much larger than I expected.

"Damnit! We should have stayed on the other side." Ronnie pointed to the sinkhole.

It was on the opposite side of the freeway, opposite the exit ramp coming south. We climbed to the top of a small hill behind the ramp to use Jimmy's binoculars to see better. In the shade of the woods behind us, we took turns looking through the binoculars.

"These things suck!" Ronnie blurted out after fiddling with the eyepiece so he could see better.

"No, they don't; we just need to get closer!" Jimmy insisted.

"That's what I mean! These suck!"

Ronnie passed them to me and continued his rant.

"What's the point of having binoculars if you have to stand right next to what you are looking at?"

Jimmy shrugged.

Below us and to the right was Gibson's garage. The neon green 'open' sign above the door was on. One of the garage doors was rolled up too.

"Hey! Mr. Gibson might let us get on the roof! I have to go up to change the air filters once a month. There's a ladder built into the wall of the building in the back."

Ronnie didn't even wait for us to agree, which we would have done anyway. We had to jog a few steps to catch up to him. Then, we hustled down the hill across Kingston Road and into the open garage door. There was a blue pick-up in the air on the lift, but no one was around. Jimmy and I waited by the door while Ronnie walked around the shop, calling for Mr. Gibson. The place was eerily quiet. Jimmy noticed the Lance Cookie and Cracker stand inside the office and tried the door handle, but it was locked. He looked at me, smiled, and shrugged. Ronnie returned in another minute.

"It's weird; I can't find anyone. Even the back door to Mr. Gibson's office is locked."

He motioned for us to follow him through the shop.

"I don't think he'd mind. We'll just go up there for a few minutes. I'll take a couple of filters and change them out while I'm up there; they're due. Then I won't have to do it on Saturday."

Before going out back, Ronnie stopped and opened a storage closet and disappeared inside, returning moments later with two big round filters for the air vents on the roof. He handed me one.

"It's easier to climb with one. Usually, I have to make two trips or throw them up there."

As Ronnie said, we climbed the rungs cemented into the shop's back wall.

Jimmy ran to the opposite corner of the flat roof. Ronnie knelt in front of one of the round silver vents sticking out of the roof and began taking off a finger-sized wing nut right in the center of the vent.

"Go ahead," he said. It's only going to take me a minute to change these.

I walked over to stand behind Jimmy, who had squatted down to rest his elbows on the raised rim of the roof edge. We could see better from here. It was a lot closer.