After I pushed Chance off the cliff his broken ankle kept him out of the wilderness for weeks. The man truly loves the outdoors. The first day he got back into the forest, his grin was like a kid on Christmas morning. He had that same look on his face as we drove up to the security gate at WSMR. He was even enjoying jumping through the hoops required to gain access to the missile range. We had all been required to complete a lengthy security form which was submitted and our backgrounds checked before we were give the approval to hunt on WSMR. Chance had to call in some favors to get my application approved in time for this hunt.
We were given a briefing and directed to areas where oryx had been recently seen. This seemed weird to me. This was much different than hunting elusive cryptids. These hunts occur specifically to keep the number of oryx to a manageable level. The fish and game people want the hunters to be successful. Chance concentrated on driving the roads slowly while the rest of us scanned the area for oryx.
When one of us thought we saw an animal, Chance would park the vehicle, and we'd all grab our weapons and head off after it. Some areas were marked with signs saying to stay on the road because there was unexploded ordinance littering the desert on parts of the range where testing occurred. Like I said, surreal.
We spotted a couple of oryx but couldn't get close enough for the hunters to have a good shot. They were much bigger than I expected. Chance said they weigh around 400 pounds, and they have these long impressive horns. They're beige with black and white markings that help them blend in with their desert surroundings.
Even though no one bagged an oryx, it was still an amazing day. I was glad to share this weird and wonderful experience with Chance.
We stopped for dinner on the way back to our hotel. Everyone was in good spirits and excited for our second day of hunting. When Chance and I were alone in our room, he asked, "What did you think of the experience today?"
"It was amazing. It's just so surreal being on an active missile range. I would have never believed normal people were allowed or would want to do that. I wish we'd seen more oryx though."
"Tomorrow we're going to a place I've always had good luck before, it's a canyon the oryx seem to like. I think we'll have better luck."
XXX
Our hunt on day two was more successful. We saw several oryx and one of the hunters got his trophy. Chance handled the arrangements to deal with the animal. The head would be prepared for mounting by a taxidermist and a butcher would have all the meat shipped back to the client's home.
On our third day, the other client bagged his oryx. The hunt ended with everyone in good spirits and without incident. We had a late celebratory dinner with the clients and headed back to the hotel. I left the three men talking about plans for next year's hunt with Chance in the hotel bar and went back to our room. I was surprised that my email included a message from Cassie Dickenson. Cassie was a cryptid hunter that worked for BITES. A few weeks back, I pretended to be a reporter so that I could ask her questions about BITES and the lab we found in the woods outside Wilkins' Gap. I found out my sister Gracie Layne was missing, when I was at Cassie’s house in south Texas. One thing led to another and Cassie and her husband Jared ended up helping us free Gracie Layne from her kidnappers and capture the people associated with BITES who wanted us to give them the location of the BFFam.
I opened Cassie's message. "Hi, Everly. I hope you and Chance are doing well. Mr. Meecham wants to arrange a meeting at BITES headquarters in Montana. We need to wrap up some loose ends from the situation with the lab. I know Chance has a busy hunt schedule, but we'd like both of you to be there if you can. Send me some dates that work for you, and I'll see what we can schedule."
I left the message open on my laptop and went into the bathroom to wash up and put on my pajamas. When I came out, Chance was reading the message.
"I assumed you left this up so I'd see it. Did you send her some dates?"
"No. I wasn't sure if you'd want to go or not."
"I think we should. We still need to find out what their plan is for dealing with the cryptids Harry and Dad said they saw in the woods. I'd like to know if there are any records of escaped creatures. If there's a Dingonek running around the Idaho woods, I'd sure like to be the one to find it."
"I just figured Jared's team would handle all of that, but I'd still like to know what their plans are for the lab. Will it keep going or will they move it because we know where it is now? There are still lots of questions. I'll email her back. You've got the Valles Caldera hunt and then Mexico for Chupacabra."
"Right. It would be great if we could do it the week after that. In case that doesn't work, send her the next week I'm home too, but I hate to wait that long."
I walked over and wrapped my arms around him. "You'll be careful in Mexico, right?"
"I'm always careful," he said seriously.
"When I was interviewing Cassie, she mentioned that she was attacked by a pack of Chupacabra. She didn't go into detail, but I got the impression she had some serious injuries."
He kissed me, smoothing my hair with his hand. "I love you, Everly. I'm not going to do anything that messes up our future."