FROM THE CONFISCATED JOURNAL
OF DEBORAH PHINNEY:

I cannot begin to describe the relief that I felt as a mother when my only son was returned to my arms. For days I didn't know where he was, if he was safe, if he was dead or alive. I was certainly losing grip on my sanity. Utter despair was looming over me, threatening to finally seize me in its cruel mandibles. My husband was the strong one. If he was feeling anything similar to what I was going through, he buried it beneath his determination to rectify what he felt was his wrongdoing. Quite frankly, I can't be sure I wouldn't have blamed him had we never found Joseph. Or, God forbid, if we had and it was too late.

When Darren appeared at the opening of the cave clutching Joseph in his arms, I could have fainted. It was like all the blood swarming to my head. It was like coming up for air. When I caught my breath, I released Joseph from my embrace long enough to examine him for injury. In my elation, I had not yet begun to consider what he might have been through. Kneeling in front of him, gripping his elbows, I pushed him a foot in front of me and searched his person frantically but saw little beyond a thick layer of dust.

"Belial..." Joseph kept whimpering. "Daddy shot Belial. He's dead."

"Are you okay, baby?" I wheezed. "Are you hurt, son? Where have you been?"

"With Belial, Mommy," he sniffled. "But he's gone, and now I can never go back." With that, he burst into tears and the confusion set in very suddenly.

Where had he been? How did he end up in a hole that wasn't there days before? And what about the animals that kept getting caught on the helmet cameras? What was happening? Until now, I had considered very little outside of the desperation to recover my son. By ignoring the enormity of what was taking place in the desert, I had set myself up to be bulldozed by the sudden rush of what I had avoided.

"Where were you, Joseph? Tell me!" I pleaded. "How did you get down there?"

"Zagan..." He starts to explain, as if this name should calm me down. "And Zepar... I found them in the desert. I told daddy those were dinosaur tracks."

I look up at my husband, and his expression is as confused as I feel. As if someone is controlling the volume, the din of our surroundings becomes very present, and I turn to see the chief of police barking in the face of one of the bearded scientists. Someone I don't recognize rushes to the chief's side to hand him a phone. After hearing who is on the line, the chief snatches the phone from the man's hand angrily and stomps off in the other direction. Several feet away, men are unloading a large gurney from the back of a truck while others are installing a new pulley system over the orifice in the sand.

My husband heads off into the commotion, and I look again at my son whose head is downcast, eyes red and wet.

"Look at me, Joseph" I order him. "Tell me what happened to you." He looks up at me, surprised by my question.

"Nothing bad happened, Mommy. Zagan and Zepar took me down to meet Belial, but I was going to come back home, I promise."

"How?" I ask, starting to lose it, tears welling up again. "How were you going to come back home? We were so scared, Joseph. You scared us!"

"I was coming home, Mommy, I promise!" He looks through me, wide-eyed, wanting me to believe him. "Belial said we were going to come back up for sure, but we might as well wait for them to come to us, then we'd go back up together."