Wild River Adventure

By: Global Nomad

Chapter 1

“Nice day for canoeing isn’t it Ellie?” I asked my friend, and co-worker, who was rowing in front of me.

“It is. It’s not hot out and there’s that pleasant breeze to cool us off. I’d say it’s a perfect day for just being outside.”

“Amen to that. We are a pair of lucky bugs to get paid for doing this.” I commented.

We leisurely rowed down the clean. Cool river towards a small island where we’d been stationed for the past week.

The small island was mainly a few trees on a collection of rocks sitting in the middle of the river but it was perfect for what Ellie and I needed. I steered our canoe towards the lowest point of the island and as soon as we hit land Ellie jumped out and tied the canoe to a nearby tree. Once we were situated I grabbed our bag of tools and got out myself.

“Well what’s there to finish up today? We should be almost finished right?” Ellie asked as I began to unload a few bottles and containers.

“Yeah, all we have left is to check the soil and we’re done with this section. Let’s get everything ready and then I’ll row out and get us a nice sample from upriver a little.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“So we set up our little ‘laboratory’ and then Ellie helped push me off and I started rowing up river. Once I was about twenty yards up stream from the island I put down my paddle, took a long pole with a scoop at the end, and dunked it into the water.

After getting a nice scoop of river mud I had to row my way back to the island as I had strayed a bit. Together Ellie and I examined the sample and finished filling our report. We looked at the contents of the mud; living creature, trash, rocks, etc. then we took some samples to our testing solutions to look for any chemicals or pesticides that shouldn’t be there.

We recorded our finds, which were considerable good considering some other rivers we’d investigated. We did some checking up of our little island as well before packing up and heading back to the stationary lab in Washington D.C.

“How are you ladies doing this morning?” Dr. Cortez, the head of the department asked us when we came into his office.

“Quite well actually. We have the papers on that section of the Potomac you wanted.” Ellie handed over the papers.

“Very nice you two. Here have a seat, I want you to take a look at something.” He rooted through some papers on his desk before finding a folded flyer. He gave it over to me and I unfolded and read it aloud:

“’The side of Florida you never saw! Take a boat trip you’ll never forget through Florida’s rivers and marshes. Only $100 per person for an unforgettable trip of a lifetime.’”

“What is this?” Ellie asked after a short pause.

“Well at first when the state of Florida saw it they thought it was one of those regular boat trips down the river type thing and though nothing of it. But then a new flyer came out. Here let me read it: ‘Ever wanted to see dinosaurs? Well now you can on Thomas Bailey’s Wild Boat Adventure. You can see everything from vampire like squirrels to cousins of the Loch Ness monster right here in sunny Florida.’”

“Sounds like a hoax to me. They probably just put some fake plastics animals up on the edge of the river.” I said.

“That’s what everyone thought. But then when they did their annual testing of the river that is part of this so-called ‘Wild Adventure’ they founds some very disturbing things. Just take a look at these numbers.”

He took out a folder and found a pile of papers much similar to the ones we had just given him on the Potomac. I looked it over and read some of the names the gasped. Some of the chemicals and pesticides found weren’t even legal, and there was so much of them!

“You see if what this Bailey guy claims if true about mutant animals we could have a serious problem on our hands. There is a huge farming industry all along the bank of that river and we need to find out what is going on down there. We’ve received several calls from the state asking for some government help on this problem. Would you two be willing to go down there and check this situation out? I’ve already made reservations for two with these Wild Adventure people if you’re willing.”

“I’m willing. What about you Ellie?”

“Looks like a lot more fun than the muck we’ve got up here, I’m in.”

“Great. I’ll get you directions and anything you’d need for this trip. You’ll leave tomorrow.”

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A/N: It sounds stupid I know. But I had this really weird dream and this was it. It was so weird you will never understand. However, I’m trying to make you see how awful it is when I close my eyes. Please let me know what you think. I’m not putting too much effort into this story because it’s just for fun but any comments are appreciated.