“What happened here?” Rey asked.
“That’s what we’ll find out.” Finch turned left to right. “If I’m not mistaken…” He walked a short distance down a hall. “Here.” He lifted his hand and cleared away dirt from a map that hung on the wall.
“How did you know that was there?”
“I can’t even tell you how many virtual tours of an ARC I took.” His fingers smoothed across the map. “Here. The deck and crew quarters are top level. Stairs down this way.”
“Let’s hope he kept a logbook.”
“Every commander or first officer does.”
“Do you?”
“Of course. Curt kept it for a while, now I do it. It could be a few sentences or a page. Doesn’t matter.” Finch pulled out his flashlight. “Let’s head up.”
The farther down the hall they walked, the darker it grew. Rey pulled out her flashlight as well and walked closely with Finch.
Tucker figured Finch had him checking out the barns and livestock housing because he knew what he was looking at. And he did. But it didn’t take a farm expert to figure out what he did.
The barn wasn’t wooden, it was metal and open and easy to see almost every aspect.
“Anything?” Sam asked as he entered the barn.
“Yes.” Tucker turned around. “No animals, no remains, and the supply of feed is gone.”
“So there weren’t animals?”
“Oh there were. They’re gone. Someone took them.”
“Pretty much what I got from the housing as well. They took off. Left furnishings, but no food. There’s not that many units though. So we’re talking maybe forty or so people.”
“That’s nothing compared to what these ships are supposed to carry.” Tucker sighed out heavily.
“What’s wrong?”
“I just feel a little guilty leaving Buster on board. He could have been out here learning.”
Sam laughed. “Buster is fine. Let’s head out, find Nate, and go in the ARC.”
“Sounds good.”
As soon as they stepped out, they saw Nate walking at a brisk pace toward the ARC.
“Hey,” Tucker called out. “Wait up.”
Nate paused by the door.
Tucker and Sam trotted his way.
“Did you go to the top of the hill?” Tucker asked.
“I did. I have to get Finch,” Nate said. “You won’t believe what I found.”
The deck was uneventful—the equipment was still intact, windows unbroken, and everything was covered in a thick layer of dust.
A complete contrast to the commander’s quarters. They went there when they couldn’t locate the logbook.
Immediately upon entering they knew it wasn’t good.
There were windows in the quarters, no curtains and the room was bright.
They didn’t need flashlights.
Old blood stains were smeared across the walls of the main living quarters. The couch cushions were off, pictures on the walls tilted. An obvious struggle had ensued. Following the bloody trail led them to the body of a woman. She lay face down, her arm extended into the bathroom. A black stain surrounded her entire corpse. Her body was decomposed badly and nearly bones with a thin, leather-looking skin covering. She was clothed, and even though very little remained of her, there was no doubt she had been either shot, close range in the back of the head, or bludgeoned violently.
The back of her skull was shattered.
There were partial footprints that stained the dirt-covered floor and they followed them to a closed door.
Finch looked at Rey before he opened it. She nodded her approval.
He grabbed the handle, moved it downward and pushed the door.
It was as if the room had been sealed. Finch felt a bit of pressure release when he opened it and a foul, rank and dusty smell pelted them.
Rey winced and turned her head.
Stepping inside, they found the commander.
His mummified body sat on the bed, slumped with his back against the wall and a gun still in his hand.
He had taken his own life.
Finch stared at him. “Why did he do this? What happened that made him take his own life?”
“You think he put it in the logbook?”
“I would hope he would have at least put something in there that would give us a clue.”
“Like the world’s longest suicide note? Someone always leaves one. We should start looking for it.”
Finch muttered an unconvincing, “Yeah.” He didn’t hold much hope that they’d find it.
They began searching the room, checking drawers, the desk, closet. It was just when he was about to quit looking in the bedroom that Finch through about what Rey said.
Suicide note.
They usually left a suicide note.
He walked back over to the commander’s body and there it was. The gray, metal-covered binder was under his left buttock, partially covered by a blanket.
Finch grabbed it and lifted it.
“Is that it?” Rey asked.
“It is.” Finch held it in awe.
“I can’t believe they still used paper,” Rey told him.
“They have to use something other than computers.” He opened the cover. Inside the front cover were multitudes of tiny memory storage disks taped in an orderly fashion. “Jesus.”
“What are they?”
“I don’t know. And he still wrote in it.”
“Okay, you have to go to his last entry. I can’t handle the suspense.”
“That’s a good idea.” His fingers moved to the back of the book and he stopped when his radio sounded off.
“Finch,” Nate called out. “Hey, where are you guys? We’re in some sort of lobby. There’s something you need to see.”
Finch lifted the radio. “Stay there. We’ll be right back down.”
“What do you think they found?” Rey asked.
“Only one way to find out.” Finch tucked the book under his arm, and with the flashlight on again, he and Rey went to find the others.
<><><><>
It was a solemn moment for the crew of Omni-4. They stood on top of the hill looking down below. It was an area the size of three football fields, and spaced in rows evenly across were graves.
Thousands and thousands of graves.
The grass had grown tall, but the wooden cross markers stood out.
“We know…where a lot of the ARC people went,” Nate said. “Not all though. They buried their dead.
