Wilderness Artifact

rawson lake

© Google 2014

Toby and Elaine got out of their car at the trailhead at Upper Kananaskis Lake. Bill Davis, their guide, was waiting by his truck.

“You folks ready?”

Toby and his wife strapped on their backpacks. “Doesn’t seem that remote.”

“It will be.” The Cree winked at them both.

Elaine marvelled at the snow-capped mountains. “It’s really beautiful.”

“This part’s for tourists. We’d better get going. It’s a 300 meter climb to Rawson.”

“You really know where it is?” The young woman took her husband’s hand.

“I’ve lived here all my life. We know the rumor’s really a fact, and it’s only because it’s your Granddaddy’s plane you’re looking for that I said I’d help.”

“That and the reward,” added Toby.

“I know exactly where the B-24 crashed back in ’44. That spaceman tech inside’s been there for over 70 years. It’ll keep, but I don’t want to still be hoofing it come nightfall.”

I wrote this for the What Pegman Saw photo challenge. The idea is to us a Google Maps image/location as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 150 words long. My word count is 150.

Today, the Pegman takes us to Rawson Lake, Alberta, Canada. I leveraged information I found at the Hiking with Barry – Wilderness Adventure blog to set the scene, but a crashed B-24 Liberator containing alien technology is (as far as I know) totally fictional.

To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.

25 thoughts on “Wilderness Artifact”

  2. Pingback: The Alien Find | Powered by Robots ~

  4. My grandfather was part of a salvage mission to find a B-25 that crashed in the Catalina mountains back in 1944. He worked at Davis Monthan as a mechanic, so they drove up to see if anything was salvageable. The plane had been carrying a full load of fuel and was badly burned up, but they were able to retrieve the Norden bombsite and some of the navigational equipment. He was deeply moved by the sight of the burnt bodies and the utter destruction of a plane hitting a mountain. I like the idea od spaceman tech inside a Liberator.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  5. I’m amused by the idea that any part of that wilderness is “for tourists.” Great mystery you set up here, James — makes me wonder especially how Granddaddy came across an alien artifact. And was that why he crashed? Hmm, might be more dangerous to mess with than they think! (Although now that I’ve skipped ahead to read the next story, I realize that’s not the case.)

    Like

    Reply

  8. quite an adventure feel here – made me want to look for the plane with them
    also – when I read about the area – they noted this was not too tourist packed and so I liked your mention of that

    Like

    Reply

  10. Exciting set up. I liked how at the beginning the two seemed ordinary tourists but by the end you knew they were on a mission. And you wonder what the guide’ connection to the plane crash is.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.