Currently, the night sky was out, and Dean as well as Rickle were both traversing through a dense forest.
There were a large number of trees with fallen leaves on the ground. Dean had metallic bracers attached to both of his forearms, and on his back, he carried what looked like a guitar case.
The two of them had traveled by car for a while, and when looking at the surrounding area, Dean saw no city or village life.
Just plenty of large fields and forestation. Even with the car, they had just stopped in a seemingly random location.
"I don't understand why we have to travel this way," Dean said as he continued to walk. By his calculations, they had already walked for two miles.
"What, you want to use the teleporter?" Rickle replied. "I know we used it before, but that is not something I set up everywhere. There are several technologies that will aid humanity in growing their strength.”
"I don't believe it is the right time for this one. So having such things in random locations isn’t for the best."
"Do you really think if someone found such a thing, they would even know how to replicate it?" Dean asked. "I've been following your studies for a while now.
"I can wrap my head around a few things you’ve created, but you have knowledge now that stems back, what, thousands of years? I don’t think if they found it, they could replicate it."
"You might be right about that," Rickle replied. "But there are reasons for this. Humans are reluctant to work together. With enough of them, they could perhaps accomplish such things.”
"When there is a dangerous threat that faces the whole of Earth, the world will come together. This magicless era is a tough one, one replaced by technology and the beasting process. People build on top of each other's knowledge.”
"To create an application on your phone, one doesn’t need to know the workings of the internet inside and out, and you should know if others found this technology, there would be questions."
"Right, because to them, you're meant to still be a dead man," Dean replied.
Dean hardly had direct questions for Rickle. He only knew things here and there—the fact that Rickle was a vampire who had lived for an incredibly long time.
However, Dean knew next to nothing about vampires themselves. The history of the Werewolves he had learned didn’t even mention them much.
A society that was hiding in the shadows, and yet, for some reason, Rickle was also hiding from them.
What Dean didn’t like, though, was the fact that matters were starting to involve his son.
'Although Rickle is a vampire, because he stays away from the others, he doesn’t get involved directly, so I doubt he will get involved with Gary… But for Gary to request this, what is happening?'
"There's a reason why we're walking, by the way," Rickle added. "Rumper was in charge of the excavation sites.”
"His base of operations would actually move based on where the fossils were found. He would dig up the fossils, extract valuable information, and then eventually send the fossils to one of the other NIRV locations.”
"Fossils continued to be sent to the other sites, and everything seemed smooth. I’m not one to bother someone when they’re doing their job. Right now, we're heading to the latest base and excavation site."
Up ahead, Dean could finally see the large floodlights glowing in the distance. The excavation site had to cover several miles.
There were large diggers along with drills and other machinery he didn’t even know the purpose of.
Huge mounds of dirt were split to the side, exposing large areas of ground. In the center of it all was a square building, built out of solid materials but not seeming to be a permanent structure.
"If I were to take a guess, this is where Rumper would be," Rickle stated.
"Did you try sending him a text?" Dean asked.
"To let him know we were coming? Why do you think we walked all this way? And I did try to contact him, feigning it was for work purposes, but there was no response.”
"It seems he must have some type of sixth sense that trouble is coming. So I’m trying to reach him before he flees."
On initial observation, due to it being night, work seemed to have ceased.
Dean thought this was normal until they reached the first large excavation site and stood at the edge, looking in.
He could see a large rectangular site, as if a giant being had just plucked part of the earth out.
Then there were several large tunnels leading in different directions.
"That's strange," Rickle said. "No one's working."
"It is past 6 p.m. I wouldn’t take a job if it was past 6 p.m.," Dean stated.
"Yes, and yet you’re working for me right now. Besides, this is different. These people are well-paid for their services. They wouldn’t just abandon a site.”
"And you should know that NIRV aren’t the only ones who can perform the Altered solutions; some companies might even resort to stealing, so there are supposed to be guards at all times."
Rickle jumped down into the pit, while Dean saw a ladder and began to descend.
When Dean finally reached the floor, he wondered what Rickle was looking at, as on the other side of the pit there was a group of people now standing on the edge.
"Who are they? They don’t look like scientists," Dean asked.
"No, they’re Retrievers," Rickle replied.
***