To have the story read to you click the two links shown above. Click the top one first and then the second when the first has run to the end. _________________________________________________________ Tracker had heard the stories from his uncle and father. They had been there when the ice was sent down. It was a hole that had no bottom. The hole was known to their people for generations but they had always kept clear of it. Two days ago a man from Washington state came to inspect the hole. Word was that he also had a hole with apparently no bottom but the US government had come along and taken the land away from him. Now he was here to check out the only other hole on the planet thought to have no bottom. Tracker and his siblings, Tonka, Seta and Daniel, wanted to see for themselves what was so special about a hole in the ground. One of the days when his father was leaving to guide a man from Washington state to the hole so they could do experiments, the kids followed. His name was Mel. At his hole, they had used it for years as a place to dump old washing machines, stoves, dryers and other appliances. There was also a number of other things that became junk, which were thrown down the hole. Dead animals were thrown down it and some claim to have seen their animals alive a few days later. However the animals did not recognize their former owners. Mel went on nation-wide radio and told his story and a few days later the US government arrived and took over the property.

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When Mel heard about the second hole he came to see it. Although their people had known of the hole for generations, they only became aware of certain aspects about it after Mel had arrived. Tracker’s father and uncle were hired as guides. They took Mel and a few of the tribal elders out to see the hole. After viewing the hole; Mel decided to try sending something down. They decided to send down some ice to see if it melted faster or slower than a second bag which they kept up top with them. To everyone’s surprise when they pulled the ice back up from being more than a mile down, it was not melted at all. A few hours later after the bag they kept up top had long melted, the ice sent down was still unmelted. When they felt the ice it was not cold. They decided to try and melt it by holding a fire next to it. The ice caught on fire. It burned all that night and through the following day. It went on to burn for months. After sending down the ice, Mel decided to send down a living creature. He and the tribal elders were all eager to see what would happen. A sheep was chosen. Since no animals would go near the hole, they had to put the sheep into a cage. Then the sheep was lowered down into the hole. It fought fiercely to get out of the cage but of course could not escape. When the sheep had been lowered a distance of one mile it was left there for half an hour and then brought back up. When the sheep came out of the hole it was no longer living. The tribal elders did an autopsy on the spot. They were shocked to discover when they cut the sheep open to find a living creature inside. it looked like a baby seal. Sensing it wanted to go back into the hole; Mel picked it up and set it down next to the hole’s edge. The creature stayed for a few hours just looking at Mel and the tribal elders. Then it jumped into the hole and was gone. After that there were all kinds of stories about what had happened. Some said that Mel had been cured of cancer which he attributed to having touched that creature that went back down into the hole. There were some other stories which didn’t have such good endings. One was about what happened after Mel left the hole that day. Tracker and his friends had followed their father when he left to guide Mel and the others to the hole that day. After seeing what had happened to the sheep that was sent down the hole, the kids kept quiet until everyone else had left the hole. Then they came out and did their own experiment. Some of the equipment that Mel had used, was still there at the site. The rig that was used to lower the sheep was still set up. Tracker and his three friends surrounded the hole which the rig was still set up to lower something into it. Tonka happened to see a beetle crossing the desert floor so he picked it up and set it into the crate that was used to lower things into the hole. “That’s my donation to our experiment.” Tonka said grinning. “I’ve done my part. Up to you guys now.” Then he noticed he had a glass slide with a Hydra on it. He had been looking at it through a microscope earlier in the day. He picked it out of his pocket and tossed it to Seta. “Here add this too.” Seta tossed it to Daniel who gave it to Tracker who dropped it into the crate. “That’s it for me.” Tonka said and crossed his arms. The other three looked around. Seta, that only girl, who’s name in her native language meant the peacefulness of a winter’s snowfall without any wind: picked up a scorpion and carefully set it down into the crate. “There’s my contribution.” Seta exclaimed. “Send them down.” “Not yet!” Daniel hollered. He was a bit further away from the rest of them. He was looking for something to send down. He could only find a dead dragonfly laying on the ground. Most likely brought there by the jeeps that had brought Mel and his friends. Daniel brought the dead dragonfly over to the crate and set it in. “Consider me contributed.” The last of the four friends was called Tracker. He dropped in a pack of matches that he had used to pick up a fire ant. “All I can find.” Tracker said. He was called Tracker in English but his native American name actually meant the way a mountain lion tracks its prey. Together the four siblings referred to themselves as the tribe. A joke on the fact they were stuck on the reservation which wasn’t much of a reservation even as reservations went. It no longer had its own police dept and reservation laws. For the last almost twenty years the reservation inhabitants had accepted being policed by the local county sheriff rather than deal with the costs which inherently come with having your own police force and laws. The four siblings lowered the rig with the crate into the hole until all the rope was run out. They waited a few minutes and then pulled the rope back up. When the rig was again back up level with them, they examined the crate to see what had happened to each of the things they had put into the crate. Before anyone could even attempt to touch any of the items sent down, there was a flash of light so bright it temporarily blinded everyone. If they could have seen it, they would have seen a line shoot out from each of the items that were sent down, to the person who had touched that item. They would also have seen a line go from the slide Tonka had been viewing a Hydra, to each of them. When the blindness subsided the four friends were astonished at what they saw: each of their friends was changed in some manner. Tonka had grown in size and had a tough out shell that could repel almost anything that hit it. Seta had grown a tail with a stinger on it that dripped venom and her hands were now claws that were razor-sharp and she too was protected by an exoskeleton. Daniel had grown a double set of wings, and currently was hovering above the ground. Several things were on fire around Tracker who looked down at his hands and saw they too were on fire, but he felt no pain and the hands did not appear to be burning. He pointed one hand and fire shot from it like a laser, setting a small bush on fire. He also felt strong enough to pick up a car. He suspected there was something else that he was missing but currently there was enough to deal with on the surface of things. There was no need to go digging when so much was already there to handle. They were all unable to speak for a few seconds. Each person looked at the others not realizing they had changed, with the exception of Tracker who had noticed his hands were blazing fire. Tonka spoke first. “Track, are you in pain?” “Amazingly it doesn’t hurt. I don’t know what my hands are going to look like if I am ever able to get them to stop burning.” Tracker said, looking at his hands in astonishment. As he watched his hands burn he had the obvious thought come to him that he wished his hands would stop burning. As suddenly as turning off a faucet, his hands stopped burning. To his further amazement, he saw that his hands were not burned in the least. The he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about them burning and that was when they flamed back to an orange blaze. Tracker immediately thought them off again and they stopped. “This is incredible!” Obviously Seta did not feel so happy about her situation. She just kept saying, “What has happened to me? Please someone help me.” Tracker looked at his friends and saw they were frightened, astonished, and curiously trying out their new abilities (in the case of Daniel, who was fluttering this way and that: not actually setting down so his feet could touch the ground, dude was flying!). Tracker heard Seta’s cries and had a thought. “Hey guys! Try thinking about yourself being back to your old self. Like you were trying to turn off whatever has happened to you.” He watched with his breath held. Seta was probably the most frightened. She more than any of the others wanted nothing to do with her new found changes. When she thought of herself back to her normal self, the long tail folded down into her back and her claws changed back to hands. She was normal again. “Thank goodness! Oh thank you! I’m so relieved I am not going to be a scorpion the rest of my life!” Tonka watched Seta and followed her lead. He thought of himself as he was before the change, and his body returned to its former size and shape. He was his old self again. “Awesome!” Then Tonka decided to think about himself being that big and strong again. Suddenly his body changed back into the bigger size with exoskeleton. Tonka switched himself back and forth a couple of times. Seems I can change at will Daniel was the only one not to change. He was having too much fun flying around. He came hovering down so he was just a few feet above the ground. Tracker thought about his hands catching fire again and they reacted in kind. “Try thinking about yourself turning back into what you were, and if you are like me, you will change. I can turn my fire off and on.” Then Tracker pointed his hands down toward the ground and he shot out fire from both hands. It raised him into the air and he realized it could be used to fly. He wasn’t very good at it but Tracker realized that in time he would be. “This is great!” The other two that had turned their change off: turned it back on. Tonka immediately began to grow in size so that now he had huge muscles and that tough outer shell that he would eventually learn was capable of keeping out bullets. Seta again had the sharp claws, an exoskeleton and the scorpion’s tail which hovered menacingly above her, dripping venom, and ready to strike. Tracker asked, “Daniel. Are you ever going to see if you can turn off the flight?” “I. D. K. my friend. This is so awesome. And it feels so natural.” Daniel said, flittering this way and that and finally settling on hovering above his friends. “Was that a shot at my ability to fly?” Tracker asked with a smile. “I’ll get better. I can already tell that with some practice I will be able to fly very competently.” Seta practiced striking with her tail. She was hitting whatever she aimed at. “Do you guys think we should see a doctor? After all, who knows what might be wrong with us.” “I think we should be very close to the vest about this.” Tracker said with sudden caution. “If the military gets wind of what we can do, they will surely come after us to use us as weapons.” “I think you are wise beyond your years.” Seta said. “Look how they did our ancestors.” Seta, Tonka and Tracker were brother and sisters. Daniel was actually from England, but he had been adopted by the Whitefeathers family from the age of three. Daniel had the same attitude toward the US government as his native American family. There was no trust. Their tribe had been moved from reservation to reservation based on things like suddenly oil was discovered on their land. Another time it was because gold had been discovered. Down through the years, generation after generation, they learned to not trust the American government. “If you don’t want the government to find out we were here then we had better get going.” Daniel said, flying down close to the others. “I saw their vehicles back at the main road coming this way. They will be here in less than five minutes.” “Maybe they intercepted Mel and his group. Something happened with them too, and now the government found out and is coming here to take over this hole like they did to Mel’s hole up in Washington state.” Tonka said. “We can hide in the brush but if they look around they are going to see our tracks and come after us.” Tracker said. “Obviously we are not going to outrun them if we simply walk out of here. Maybe we should try to fly out?” “I can carry one person. I’ll try to take Tonk. You’re going to have to change back to normal. There’s no chance I can carry you while your in large size.” Daniel stated. “Seta do you think you can ride on Tracker’s back?” “I’ll try.” “Climb on my back and wrap your legs around my waist.” Tracker said. She did as he asked and Tracker turned on the fire and then he shot it out of his hands at the ground causing Tracker and Seta to rise off the ground. They got off to a shaky start but soon they were shooting across the desert about thirty feet off the ground. Daniel followed carrying Tonka by slipping his arms under Tonka’s shoulders. Daniel struggled a little to get them going in the air but soon was catching up to Tracker and Seta. “Do you think we got away clean?” Tonka asked the other three. “I don’t think the ones in the vehicles arrived in time to have seen us there.” Daniel said. “If that’s what you mean?” “Where are we going?” Seta asked, as they flew in tandem across the desert. “Home.” Tracker answered. “Where else?” “Maybe that isn’t such a good idea.” Seta said. “What if the government does know we were there but don’t know who we are? The best way to get caught would be to go straight home.” “It’ll be dark in a couple of hours.” Tonka said, hollering into the wind caused by the speed of their flight. “If we aren’t home by then, it’ll be all of us that gets grounded by the old man. So if we aren’t going to risk going home, that’s fine, but if we are, we need to get home sooner than later.” “I agree with Tonk. Lets get home before curfew and see what happens.” Daniel said. “We can take turns keeping an eye on the blacktop road. If we see anything coming tonight we can take off before they get to the house.” “Think it through.” Tracker said. “If we have to leave in a hurry, they are going to see us leave. I mean, if I have to use my firepower to fly out of there.” “We won’t fly out.” Seta said. “We can walk out in the cover of darkness if we leave with enough time to allow us the escape.” “She’s right. If we leave with enough time to allow us to get out of reach of their night vision goggles and possibly even infra-red.” Daniel said, still flapping his wings with extra effort to keep Tonka off the ground. “Its settled then. We’ll take turns through the night keeping an eye out. I figure if they were that close to arriving at the hole when we left then they knew about it for at least a few hours which means they likely were looking down from a satellite. That means they know we were there and are currently tracking us.” Tracker said. “There’s a chance they don’t know who we are. Even if they watched everything that happened, they probably couldn’t identify us from the satellite. It is probably too close to darkness for a camera so far away to pick up our faces. At least we can hope. Who knows? Maybe they didn’t even have a camera on the location. That said, they are most likely to have seen us and are tracking us right now because Tracker’s fire is lighting us up and the closer it gets to sunset the more his fire is going to stand out. We need to shut down a few miles from home and walk in. Otherwise they will follow us via satellite right to our front door.” Tonka said in a worried tone. Truth told he was tired of being flown. Plus he could tell that Daniel was getting tired and that didn’t boost his confidence in flying. Finally there was no reason to get worried until there was reason to be worried. “In case they are tracking us right now we should turn and go a different direction for a short ways before shutting things down. As it is now we have been flying straight for home. Even if we shut down now…” Tracker said before being interrupted by Daniel who finished his thought. “Common sense would dictate they follow the line in which we were headed … to find us. Maybe if we turn and go a different direction they won’t figure out that we started out stupid and got smart along the way.” Tonka was in agreement with Daniel. “Yeah, turn now and go for a mile. Then we land and walk home. Sound good?” The two that were flying turned their course at a ninety-degree angle and flew onward for a mile before setting down. Everyone turned themselves back to normal and they started walking home in silence. The sun was setting in the west. To the northwest there were a lot of lights moving this way and that. It was where the four siblings had just left. They kept walking in a straight line for home but kept their eyes on the commotion going on where they had just left. It was mid-summer and the nights were warm. School was out and when you lived in a small town on the edge of a desert there wasn’t a lot to do after the sun went down. There were a couple of spots to go fishing. There were plenty of open spaces to play a game of pick-up football or to throw a Frisbee. If you got to the quickstop before midnight you could buy the things offered at such establishments. The teenagers hung out at either the cemetery or the school parking lot. Other than that or staying home for entertainment off the internet was all there was available to do where the tribe lived. They walked through the middle school grounds and past the quickstop. All four were both exhausted and energized, fueled by adrenaline and the genuine fear that the government had been able to track them. Each of the four had thoughts of the US government coming in their army green vehicles, including tanks, surrounding their modest home and demanding those inside the house come out with their hands up. Going forward from that point each had different set of images in their mind. Tonka saw them being handcuffed and hauled away. Tracker envisioned the others from his tribe denying the military the right to take them and it ending with the entire reservation in a fire-fight with the army. He saw all the familiar faces on his reservation being shot down along with soldiers that he did not know. Seta saw them all being shot while inside their home, killing their parents as well as all them. Daniel envisioned being taken back to an outpost where they were forced to become assassins, their parents held as hostage to ensure they followed orders. When they reached the point where they could see their house it was clear there was nothing out of the ordinary. Perhaps they had worried for nothing. This greatly lightened the situation. All four felt a huge relief. They had been silent for the majority of their walk. The goal was to get home without attracting any more attention than was necessary. Now that they could see there were no government vehicles waiting in their driveway things were looking up. By the time they reached the end of their long driveway a conversation had begun in the coolness that had arrived with the end of the day. “Do you guys think we will have these abilities the rest of our lives?” Daniel asked. “I really dig flying. In fact I will probably sneak out before it gets light and go for a spin around the immediate area. Just in case these abilities don’t last. I’ll keep an eye out for any military vehicles while I’m up there.” “You better be careful Pops doesn’t see you or he’ll be freaking out, seeing you up in the sky flying around. We have a lot of angles to consider before we let anybody know about this. Pops is of course, the least of our worries but we don’t want him having a heart attack.” Tonka said. “We don’t want him knowing anything that can get him in trouble with the law either. Better we don’t tell anybody until we figure out what is going on.” Seta said with a caution in her voice. “This could go sideways on us really easy. I know you guys. You’re going to want to figure out a way to turn this into some cash and that is guaranteed to get us busted. Promise me right now, all of you. You will not use your new abilities to earn money.” Tonka had already been running different scenarios in his head about how he could turn this into some green. The first thought that came to mind was he could go to any bar and bet people he could lift something really heavy. Which would be hard if not impossible for him despite his natural large size. Once he changed over however it would be no effort at all. He wondered if he was strong enough to crush a piece of coal into a diamond? He didn’t know how strong he was when in fight mode but he knew he was capable of some amazing feats of strength. He figured each of the four of them could clean up on bets and if anybody decided not too pay … well they wouldn’t because they would have just seen what the four friends were capable of accomplishing. Daniel could bet people that he could fly. Tracker could really clean up because he could make bets without even giving away his special abilities. He could enter into contests where they held their hands over a flame, the money going to the one that could last longest. Of course, Tracker could do it all day long. The others could win a few bets before people started complaining about the special abilities but they wouldn’t spot any with Tracker. Seta could also win some bets but she would attract more attention than the other three put together. You don’t see many girls with a scorpion’s tale and when you do: you don’t forget it. Tonka decided to agree to Seta’s terms when his thoughts went to her. He didn’t mind people seeing him turn from a normal big-sized guy into an even larger creature when he went into fight mode. The thought of people seeing his sister change into something that was half human and the other half, scorpion, was more than he knew he would be able to bare. He had inherited the abilities and look of a beetle. When changed, he was bigger, stronger, and had a super-hard outer shell around himself which protected him from most things. Seta on the other hand did not have such a … Tonka searched his mind for the right words. Well what it boiled down to was that he basically looked like a body-builder that had a plain brown outer shell around his body core. His sister looked like something that was from another planet. The scorpion’s tale was attached to her lower back and it curved around so that the stinger was hanging out in front of her just above her head. When she was in fight mode, (changed over), she had a natural stance that caused her to appear like she was ready to strike at someone at any time. “Okay. So we all agree. No making money off our new skills until such time that we have all decided differently. I think we should all make a pledge now that none of us will break the promise of not making money, until there are more than just one, who vote to start making money. That prevents any one of us from going rogue and possibly ruining things for the other three.” Tracker concluded. He didn’t mention that thing that was eluding him. It was right there but yet he couldn’t nail it down. He felt like a dog that chases a squirrel around the trunk of a large tree. Always so close but never able to sink teeth into anything. Whatever it was that he was missing, he only hoped it didn’t turn out to be something that hurt the team. For now, with just the hint at the back of his mind, he saw no reason to bring it up to the others. After all, he might just be forgetting that he weighed less, or more, than before the change. Maybe it was the color of his eyes. He would have to check them when he got to a mirror. For now, he would keep his unknown worries, to himself. Tonka had finally agreed to the terms. He gave his nod and that was a promise he would keep. Daniel nodded agreement and was followed by Seta. None of them showed any signs of hesitation or confusion. A good sign Tracker thought. “When we do decide to try and make some money off this, I have an idea we could do that wouldn’t give away our abilities.” Tonka said. “What’s that?” Seta asked, certain it was going to have a flaw in the thinking. “We bet that we can somehow put a flag on top of some tall building or some place hard to reach. We tell them we will get it done sometime in the near future. Bang! We have Daniel fly it up when it is dark out and we collect on our win. Be like when they take apart the principal’s car and put it back together inside his office. Everybody is left wondering how they did it? But since it is possible, nobody questions it much more than being impressed they got it done.” “That’s actually not the worst idea I’ve ever heard.” Seta said impressed. At least he was trying to keep their identities hidden. And the idea might just work. Of course she didn’t mention to him that it was probably going to be hard to find somebody to cover such a bet but they’d cross that bridge if it came. When they reached their house it was well after the sun had set. All four of them finished their dinner and had seconds. Eager ears listened to their father when he talked about his day. “We took the man called Mel to the hole. He was impressed the way it doesn’t make any noise when you clank something metal against its metal collar.” He went on to tell about what they had experienced. Tracker and siblings were most interested to hear what happened after Pops had left the hole. “We were intercepted by the military. They interrogated all of us but they took Mel and the Tribal elders away. I guess because we were just guides they didn’t think we were important enough to take in. They let us go after being interrogated there on the road where they first stopped us.” When they had helped their parents clean up it was then time to relax on their back patio where there were several outdoor chairs to sit in. Tracker glanced back toward the house to make sure their parents hadn’t followed them out to the back yard. Their mother could be seen going back and forth past the small window with the light on. It was located in the kitchen part of the house. “Looks like they’re leaving us alone.” Tonka said in a low voice. “Agreed.” Daniel said shaking his head. “I’m going up. If you need me right away just flash a light a couple of times. I’ll do my best to keep watch. I wouldn’t go if there was a chance of my being caught. That won’t happen in my case.” He was right. When he changed over into flight-mode it was his body that changed. Suddenly he would have four wings, positioned the same as on a dragon fly. They unfolded out of his back and not only allowed him the gift of flight, but the gift of very fast flight, extreme agility, even the ability to fly backwards or hover. Dragonflies are by far the fastest flying insect. They are also the most agile, skilled flyers that enjoy a success rate when hunting of almost ninety-five percent. Consider that the black-footed cat is said to be the most successful hunter of all the cats, and it has a success rate between sixty and seventy percent. Only wild dogs have a success rate close to that of a dragonfly, and they enjoy a ninety percent success rate but they hunt in large packs. The dragonfly hunts alone. Daniel was not aware of the specifics but he did know he could fly in a manner that nothing else could. He was faster than any life-based creature and much more agile than anything that was jet driven except drones. He willed his body to change and then unfolded his double set of wings and took off up into the night sky. Daniel climbed until he was above the light pollution. It was amazing how many stars went unseen because of the many street, house and vehicle light sources that served to drown out the reflection of the stars above. He glanced in the direction of the hole they had left earlier and could see there were still many vehicle lights moving around. He flew around for a while and finally felt tired enough to get to sleep. The others were already snoozing away by the time he slipped into his own dreamy world. —————— Chapter ———————- “Captain, there are signs that someone was at the hole just before our troops arrived. Word coming in over the radio says we can probably get video if we check the sattelite for the time period of seventeen-hundred hours to sunset, which should be around twenty-one hundred hours at the latest.” “Have the video footage pulled up and get somebody with clearance to view it. I want to know if anybody was there after Mel and his bunch? If the field agents are correct and there was an unknown party or parties there; I want them identified and brought in for debriefing.” “Yes sir! Preliminary intel has confirmed another presence at the location which was unexpected and currently remains unknown. Colonel Herrington is on location and he thinks that they can track at daylight. They’ve already discovered some tracks which lead off in the opposite direction from the way the troops came in. It lends credibility to the idea the intruders were moving to get away from the arriving troops. They are currently making sure the tracks are not a decoy as the tracks apparently just ended with no explanation as to how or what transported them beyond that spot. Since it is dark they are thinking that the tracks pick up not far from where they lost them but so far have been unsuccessful in finding where they start again. The colonel said preliminary intel is that the tracks dictate that the estimated group of four had been walking and then came to a stop where they spent a short amount of time moving around in a confusion of tracks which is where their presence ends. He said the short version was that they disappeared without a hint as to where they might have gone. Or how they got there.” “Radio back my orders are to follow up on any leads. We will contact them with further orders when they come down the pipe. Until such time the troops there on location are to stay ready to move on a moment’s notice. If they don’t find reason to move out soon, then they surely will when the sun comes up and they can see better. Check with intel again, see what they’ve found out.” “Yes sir!” A few moments passed, then the young military man said, “Sir! We have footage that provides info that there were four intruders. They spent enough time there to have sent down the crate into the hole. Further footage reveals they may have experienced a change to match or even exceed that of the Mel’s group. Darkness prevented following the subjects to their destination however we do know what direction they were headed and have an idea of where they ended up.” “Have all the information sent to NSA agent Tom Crandel.” Then he leaned in and spoke in a softer tone. “A man nobody should have to meet. Guy is a total spook. He and his team worked with me on a classified action back about five years ago. I can’t tell you the specifics but what I walked away with, that I can share: is that they are the kind of military black ops who have no problem torturing a subject. Worse is I saw them promise a tortured prisoner he would be set free if he talked; so he did, and then they shot him. Not our country’s finest hour.” The colonel paused shaking his head. Then he said, “I’ve been in the military a long time now. When I started I believed we were here to protect our folk on the home turf. That we were a defensive necessity and that the ends justified the means because our ultimate goal was a noble one. After so much time and experience I wish I could claim I was correct in my assumptions early on. However there has been just too much evidence to the contrary for me to believe we are anywhere near that noble goal. That said, I’m too old to fight such a strong system. It would roll over me like a steam roller over an ant. So I will follow orders. Send the info to the creep that is suppose to be our representative. But I will always fear I have been everything I thought I was fighting against. Send Crandel the info. God help what, or whoever is on the other end of that information.” Next Page