Cave Dwellers (25 page)

   “We found the girl,” Ramira said, pointing to the blanket. “She’s alright, but has hypothermia and her leg is broken from the fall. She was freezing cold, curled up next to her dog when we found her.”

   A look of relief showed across his face. “Take her into the house. I’ll call an ambulance immediately.” He picked up his radio.

   They both were met in the front yard by a mob of people. Questions started coming from all directions? How is she? Where did you find her? Is she alright?

   When Tabitha’s parents heard the commotion out front, they rushed out the door. Zaac was just stepping up on the porch as they came out.

   “You found her?” they both asked at the same time. 

   “Yes. Can we get her in the house until the ambulance gets here?” Zaac replied.

   “Let’s take her to her bedroom. We can lay her down in her bed until they arrive,” her mother said leading the way.

   Zaac followed with Ramira still leading the dog. Her mother pulled back the covers on her bed when
they got into the room and Zaac laid her gently down.

   “She probably needs as much cover as she can get to increase her body temperature. All we had was a blanket so we wrapped it around her,” Ramira said.

   “Where did you find her?” her father asked.

  
“A little over one and a half miles out northwest of your house. She had fallen off a cliff. It looks like her leg is broken. She was curled up next to her dog at the base of the cliff trying to stay warm.” Ramira pulled all of the covers up snuggly under the girl’s neck.

   “Thank you so much for finding her. We cannot tell you enough how truly thankful we are.” The girl’s mother broke into tears.

   “We’re glad that we could help. We’ll go now and let you share this time alone.” Ramira and Zaac headed out of the room.

   They went down the hall into the living room, where they were bombarded with questions. They answered a few regarding the details of her condition and where they found her.

   Dismissing themselves with the need to go to their car for a few minutes, they left for what everyone there assumed would be a short while. The excuse provided a perfect opportunity for them to split the scene entirely. They managed to leave without ever giving away their names or who they were.

   Zaac and Ramira walked beyond sight of the vehicles and called Rogue and Siri. The birds flew down and landed next to them. They climbed up on their backs and headed to the garage on their mountain.

   The night had been a long one and they were sleeping in on Saturday morning, or so they thought. They were interrupted by a loud squawking from below and a banging on the garage door.

   Ramira jumped out of her bed, opened the window and stuck her head out. It was her dad.

   She rushed in the other bedroom to wake Zaac up. “Zaac, Zaac, it’s my dad,” she shouted shaking him.

   He moaned and turned over facing the other way.

   “Zaac, Zaac, did you hear me? It is my dad,” she said passionately trying to arouse him.

   “Tell him I said, ‘good morning,’” he said as he pulled the covers up over his head.

   “I’ll let Rogue tell him. He’s squawking louder than any guard dog I’ve ever heard.” She didn’t have to wait long for his response to that.

   He jumped up out of bed. “You greet your dad and I will quiet the birds.”

   They hurried down the stairs, Ramira to the door, Zaac to the birds.

   “Shsssssh,” he whispered, rubbing their necks as Ramira stepped out the door. The birds quieted down almost immediately with his presence and soothing voice.

   “Dad. We didn’t expect to have you visiting so early in the morning. Is anything wrong?” Ramira asked as she closed the garage side door behind her.

   “Not really. Are you not going to invite me inside?” Frank asked looking toward the door.

   “The garage and the apartment are a mess. We still have a lot of sorting to do.” There was no way he was entering the garage and seeing the birds, she thought.

   “What was that awful noise I heard? It sounded like some type of squawking.”

   “Oh, that was Zaac.” Ramira pointed over her shoulder seemingly toward the inside where Zaac was located. “He’s thinking about trying his luck at duck hunting. He’s working on his duck calls.”

   “He definitely needs more practice. That is about the worse duck call I’ve ever heard.” He was not convinced.

   At that moment Zaac stepped out the door behind Ramira.

   Frank looked at Zaac. “So that was you making that strange racket inside?”

   Ramira, wanting to clue Zaac in to what she had told her father, answered, “I was just telling dad that you were working on your duck calls.”

   “Yes, I’ve been practicing,” he said hesitantly.

   “Hmmm. If you say so. The reason I stopped by was . . . you know the girl I was telling you about yesterday?”

   “The one that was lost in the mountains?”

   “Yes, that one. She was found by an older teenage boy and girl. They left before anyone could find out who they were. You two wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”

   “How could we know anything about it? We were here playing Monopoly. By the way, I won,” she answered with a grin. “We’re glad that she was found. Was she hurt?”

   “Not too bad. She had a mild case of hypothermia and her leg was fractured from a fall. I believe she fell off a cliff.” He was not sure how to proceed. “This is really weird, but the description they gave of the two teenagers fits you two perfectly.”

   “That is weird. Not trying to change the subject or anything, but tell mom that we were planning on having dinner with all of you tonight. Isn’t that right Zaac?” She turned to Zaac.

   “Yes, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.” He spoke a little too quickly.

   “It won’t be any trouble at all. I’ll let her know. I guess we’ll see you then.” He headed towards his car.

   Ramira and Zaac waved as he pulled down the driveway.

   She turned to Zaac. “This area is starting to get too small.”

   “Yes it is,” he agreed as they went inside.

28

   After the rescue of the little girl, the need to evacuate a scene quickly was impressed on Zaac. He discussed an idea with Ramira.

   “After we dropped off the girl, it would have been nice if we could have disappeared immediately. I’ve thought of a way to make that possible. An in-flight pickup.”

  
“A what?”

  
“An in-flight pickup. We can train Rogue and Siri to pick us up without ever landing.” He was pleased with his idea.

   “And how do you plan on us performing this feat? Have them pick us up by their beak or their claws?” Ramira asked with her eyebrows raised.

   “Actually it ought to be pretty simple. We tie one end of a rope around their necks and let them hold the other end in their mouth. We teach them on our command to drop the rope in their mouth and scoop down lifting us up off of the ground. The end they pick us up with will have a loop in it. All we have to do is grab it and climb up the rope onto their backs. What do you think? He asked waiting expectantly.

   Ramira thought about the idea for a minute. She could picture it in her mind; it ought to work. “It sounds good and simple enough, if we can get the birds to cooperate.”

   As it turned out, it was fairly easy for Ramira and Siri to get the concept to work. It was not so simple for Zaac and Rogue.

   They got the ropes from the garage and tied them around the bird’s necks. Zaac had only used the ropes once since the earthquake climbing with Matt. Now he didn’t really have any use for them. They could both scale mountains without them. But this would give the ropes a new role if they could get the birds to understand.

   Zaac put one end of the rope in Rogue’s beak while Ramira placed hers in Siri’s. They climbed aboard and took to flight.

   It took the whole weekend for them to teach the birds to let go of the rope in their beak at the command, “Drop.” Once they dropped the rope, they taught them to scoop downward but not land. The idea was to drop the rope and fly above the ground, but not let the rope touch the ground when they glided downward. Each bird seemed to understand what they wanted them to do.

   They took them back to the cavern on Sunday night as usual, planning on finishing the next part the following weekend.

   Ramira went to Lumney University on Monday while Zaac went back as a senior at his high school. The week went by and Friday finally came. They were both looking forward to putting their plan into action.

   Arriving at the garage on the mountain, they went to the cavern to get Rogue and Siri. The birds looked forward to their time together and greeted them with happy squawks.

   They took them to the garage and tied the ropes around their necks. They wanted to make sure that they remembered what they had taught them the previous weekend. Putting the other end in their mouths, they took flight.

   When Zaac and Ramira said “drop,” the birds opened their mouths and dropped the ropes. They descended close to the ground but did not let the ropes touch. It seemed that they were ready for the next step. They would work on that part first thing in the morning. Back at the garage, they gave each one of them a fish as a reward.

   The next morning after breakfast, Zaac and Ramira took the birds down to the base of the mountain. If there were any mishaps, they did not want it to be from a great height. Falling to the ground would be bad enough without adding any extra distance.

   They tied one end of the ropes around the birds’ necks, making sure they were secure. The other end they made into loops which would be easier to snatch as the birds flew over. When they got the loops fastened tightly, they placed them in the birds’ beaks.

   Stepping away from the birds, they commanded, “Up.”

   The birds took a few running steps, stretched out their wings and rose up into the air. Making a circle, the birds came around and headed back toward Zaac and Ramira.

   As the birds were approaching them, they shouted the command, “Drop.”

   Siri dropped her rope but it missed Ramira. Then she circled around and landed beside Ramira, dragging her rope. Rogue landed right in front of Zaac and dropped his rope at Zaac’s feet.

   They placed the ropes back in the bird’s beaks and sent them into the air again. They circled around, and Zaac and Ramira gave the command to drop their ropes.

   Siri dropped hers and glided down this time right on target. Ramira grabbed the loop, quickly climbed up the rope and settled on Siri’s back. Rogue landed again in front of Zaac and dropped his rope at Zaac’s feet.

   Zaac looked at him questioningly. He didn’t know whether Rogue was doing this on purpose to yank his chain or whether he really didn’t get it.

   Ramira landed down beside of them. “Is there a problem?”

   “I’m not sure. Let’s try it again.”

   They repeated the process and again Siri’s snatch went successfully. Rogue landed in front of Zaac and dropped his rope. This time he let it fall with the loop landing around Zaac’s neck.

   “Thank you,” Zaac said as he pulled the rope from around his neck. “Do you want to hang me?”

   He could not help but love Rogue. Even if he didn’t know what the bird was doing. He was probably just being mischievous.

   There was one way to fix the problem if that was the case. He didn’t think Rogue would enjoy letting Siri outdo him.

   After Ramira landed this time, he let her repeat the process but this time he held on to Rogue’s rope. Zaac wanted him to watch.

   Ramira completed the performance without a problem. He had them going through the maneuver one more time with Rogue watching. When Siri performed her snatch this time, Rogue was chomping at the bit to fly.

   “So you think that you might be able to do it right this time?” Zaac asked rubbing Rogue on the neck.

   They put the loops back in their mouths and they took to flight. Upon hearing the command, they both dropped their ropes. Siri’s was a perfect snatch again. Rogue’s loop missed Zaac by about three feet.

   As Rogue started to circle around to land, the loop got caught on a limb. The tension on the rope became taut as Rogue increased the distance from the tree. The rope could only withstand so much strain and Rogue’s strength was not to be denied. The rope broke apart and Rogue landed next to Zaac pulling the remains of the tattered rope behind him.