Schizogenesis [chapter 2]

Ed Haswell had been driving a front-end loader for Red River Trucking for the last ten years. He’d just moved the loader to a new dig yesterday, so he arrived at work a little earlier than usual to make sure everything was set up correctly. He never expected to be greeted by government men waiting at six in the morning to impound his machine, but here they were. They offered no explanation, except to warn him to never come back to this spot.

Ed went to his boss at the weigh station to find out what was what.

“Hi, Glenn,” Ed said.

“Oh. Hi, Ed. Now listen. We’ll get you another rig brought in, and you can go back to work over on Mt. Dyess Road tomorrow.”

“Say, Glenn, what gives? Them fellers wouldn’t tell me squat.”

“No Ed, you just better let that alone cause they done threatened to shut us down if we give them one bit of trouble.”

“Well, what do I do for now, Glenn?”

“You just go on home for today, Ed, and we’ll pay you. Those fellows paid us for that whole fifty-acre tract. Good money, too, so just go home till tomorrow.”

“Okay, then. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Ed figured no one knew he had collected some strange things he’d dug up over the years, but the government was sure watching him.