Short Story: The Dig

The Dig

“Where did they go?”

Doctor Roger Pence wondered the same thing. He decided to take his archeology students on their first dig to ruins of a building in the Arizona foothills constructed from mud bricks formed from the iron-oxide soil and not yet explored.

Two days into the dig, they found bones not of Paleo-Indians but of a species of human never seen before, having enlarged skulls with wide eye openings, teeth more suited to a vegetarian diet, and long fingers. Excitedly, Pence emailed a photo to his department head and within hours, black helicopters descended on the dig.

Pence and his students signed national-security non-disclosure documents and were allowed to continue the dig under the watchful eyes of armor-clad guards. However, Pence knew whatever they discovered would never see the light of day.

Pence answered his student, “I think they returned to the stars.”

Word Count: 145

  Written for the wonderful writing challenge, Mondays Finish the Story. Each Monday, Barbara Beacham posts a picture prompt, along with the first line of the story. The stories must be between 100-150 words and must include the given first line, shown in italics in the story.

Special thanks to Barbara Beacham for sharing her excellent photography skills to provide such challenging prompts. Check out the MFTS blog… some great short stories posted.  https://mondaysfinishthestory.wordpress.com/ 

Direct link to this week’s stories… http://new.inlinkz.com/view.php?id=551999