Holding Their Own: A Story of Survival (40 page)

Epilogue

Bishop was working on the meat, dipping salt from a large container. He had the venison spread out on a rock
, letting the sun do its work, drying out the lean strips of soon-to-be-jerky. When he first heard the noise, it sounded like a large flying insect buzzing around nearby. As he looked for the source, it dawned on him it was a sound he hadn’t heard in months – an airplane was flying overhead.

It took him a few seconds to determine the direction of the small craft because the engine noise was echoing off of the canyon walls. When he finally spotted it, he could see it was making a wide, slow turn off in the distance.

He picked up his rifle and yelled a warning to Terri, who immediately left the camper and headed for the bat cave. She was with child and didn’t appreciate having to move quickly, but did so without protest - other than a dirty look. They agreed early on that the bat cave was a much safer place to be than the camper, and it had become their storm shelter at any sign of trouble.

Bishop watched the plane circling above his property. He lost sight of it when its route took it behind Mill’s Peak off in the distance, and he wondered if it had left their area when it failed to emerge on the other side.

He jumped a little when it suddenly appeared right over his head from the back of the box canyon where they had been holed up for months. The plane made a quick loop and flew directly back at him, tipping its wings from side to side as it zoomed overhead on its second pass.

He watched the small aircraft circle off to the west, and then heard its engine change tone as its nose started angling lower toward the ground. The pilot was landing the plane, not far from Bishop and Terri’s place.

He lost sight of the plane as it vanished behind the canyon wall, then heard the engine sputter momentarily before the sound disappeared as well. He couldn’t tell if it had shut off, crashed, or simply landed. After waiting for several minutes to see if it reappeared, he decided the plane was on the ground somewhere close by and went to get Terri.

“I don’t know what to do. We don’t know anyone with a plane, and what the hell would they being doing way out here anyway?”

“Bishop, you have to go check it out. We won’t get any sleep if we are worried about someone creeping around. The baby and I will be fine here – go make sure it’s okay.”