Bruce's Story - Chapter 35

The only way that man could be their father is if he had lied to Amanda and had really been an orphan since birth.  Knowing now all the lies that he had told, there was no doubt that Sam/Nicholas Patterson was the baby that had been born on Jul 1, 1947. The rest of his story that Lillian Patterson had been his mother was completely made up.  It was quite difficult to track a boy in the system when they really had no idea what name he used then. The reality of all of this is that no one really knew who the man they called dad really was.

By the time March arrived the entire crew was ready for a change. The end of their contract was in May and many really wanted to go back to civilization. Others however, like Lyle and Stuart had no one to return to and loved the ship life.

Matt and Bruce took off on March 1, 2001 to find Nicole and see if they could get any information from her. They had packed enough supplies for two weeks and knew that this was their last chance. Knowing what the coordinates of the island made the trip much shorter.  As soon as they were on the island, Bruce knew something was wrong. All of the markers had had set up were gone. His humble hut had been removed and nothing looked familiar.

“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” He asked Matt.

“These are the coordinates we wrote down when we left, so it has to be the right spot.”

“But nothing looks the same.”

The two men began to walk toward the location they had known was the village. The path had been destroyed and was completely covered with discards from the trees above. There were large boulders in the way as well as dead animals. “I didn’t even know that animals lived on this island,” Bruce commented.

As they reached the peak where they could look into the village they were stunned. What once was a thriving community was now destroyed and abandoned. “What could have done this?” Bruce asked Matt.

“I’m not sure,” he responded, “But whatever it was it used deadly force.”

“Could it have been a storm?”

“Not sure,” Matt answered, “It seems like this would have had to have been a hurricane, not just a regular storm. The fact that it is this far inland means it would have been a catastrophic hurricane. We’ll have to wait until we get back to look up weather patterns.”

“I think we should go down and explore,” Bruce suggested. “Maybe there’re clues down there that will give us more understanding.”

As the men gingerly approached the village, they had both been expecting something or someone to dart out at them. Nothing happened.  They approached the first building and found that all of the walls had been damaged, some more severely than others. What once appeared to be a building with several rooms looked like a series of misaligned walls and brick debris.  The continued walking through and discovered more buildings in the same disarray. What was not seen was any sign of life, or death.

Going from building to building extracted the same results: destruction of the buildings and no sign of life.

“Do you think they all escaped?” Bruce asked. “Or did whatever happen here take all the lives elsewhere?

“Not sure,” Matt answered. “But whatever it was, it was cataclysmic.  We can either continue to explore the island or ask for an early pickup.”

Bruce dejectedly replied, “I don’t see any point in exploring further. The truth is my mother is either dead of somewhere on this island. If she is here it would take more time than we have to find her.”

Matt radioed the chopper and asked for a pick up. The men had only been on the island for three days.

Upon arrival Matt and Bruce both headed down to the charts room and asked Lyle and Stuart to find out anything they could about weather activity within the coordinates of the island. What was revealed was devastating. There had been a hurricane in the area, but the eye of the hurricane was right over the tiny island. There would have been no way for any survival as the winds were in excess of 150 km per hour. As Lyle said, “Anything and everything in that area would have been lifted off the ground, swirled around and spit out hundreds of kilometers away. I would be amazed if any tree survived that kind of attack!”

Bruce had to resign himself to the fact that his mother was lost from him forever.