Story introduction

Light chiseled through the darkness in bursts. My eyes pried themselves open and tried to make sense of things. To my left: asphalt, grass and trees. To my right: blue sky, white clouds. It was then that two and the searing bitumen pressing against my left cheek made four. I sat up, bracing first against an elbow, then both palms, and looked around.

They looked back, frozen in their puffy white jumpsuits and gas masks, their beeping and clicking instruments drowning out the wind. One holding a metal detector, another in the middle of depositing a soil sample into a tube held by a third. The last one crouched low in front of me, both hands outstretched as he inched closer. I got the feeling he was about to say something.

"What the fuck are you people looking at?" I asked. He crouched lower and slowed his already gingerly pace, palms out as if to calm me. "Easy... we just want to talk."

"You just want to talk?" The words scratched against my throat. "Yeah. Nothing to worry about, okay?" He stole a glance back at a windowless van with an open side door. It was parked next to two unmarked black sport utility vehicles disgorging men in suits and sunglasses, chattering separately into wireless radios. A column of smoke rose from the forest nearby, and each of the trees bore witness to as much in scorched bark and broken branches.

Nothing to worry about, my ass. I inched backwards. He closed in. I looked past him at the van he'd hoped I didn't notice and at the open road behind me. He took a step closer. The van, the road. I dragged myself farther back, scraping against the asphalt. The van, the road. I looked back one last time and made my decision.