Meeting with G.U.L.E.A.

James mostly lay back in his seat silently watching the landscape pass by outside. Other cars, people walking down the street, trees, buildings, a fountain, some rental bikes, a wine tasting joint, everything in a typical city progressing in a seemingly typical day. James tried his best to absorb the normal groove of time hoping it would soothe his rushed life. His peace lasted until up ahead came the famed G.U.L.E.A. headquarters into view. The golden-glass windows rising up for several stories lined on the sides with solid black stone for the corner edges seemed like the fire that sparked James back into a serious disposition. Beyond the fiery taste, the top sank downwards directing room for the center where a gigantic 120 foot glass sphere—this time silver—stood surrounded by trees and flowers of all kinds growing along the downward slope. 

A moment later he was standing on the curb, Uber driving away, ready to go in for whatever crazy post-disaster meetings was awaiting him. He still hoped to find out more information regarding his fellow team members, and in fact he was so eager that he hardly glanced at their new line of jungle trekking gear displayed in the store on the main floor. You see long before the Global Untouched Lands Exploration Agency was ever started they were a billion dollar outdoor gear merchandise store until as a marketing stunt (and for science) they decided to start “exploring the unexplored of our wild world—with all of your favorite outdoor gear!” A simple idea; the government and other science affiliated organizations donate multi-millions to their store, in turn they go explore some wilderness, and in the end they gain fame and advertisement publicity for their products. So that’s how Stony Summit Outdoor Gear Co. started up G.U.L.E.A.—they just didn’t expect it would end with a disaster like this...  

James entered the “Employees Only” zone and boarded the elevator for Floor 16. A long pause. A deep breath. Ding! Second passenger. The secretary stared with puzzled eyes at the empty sleeve he bore. It was just another wait and he was off on the Administrative Offices’ Floor. Long empty hallways lined the whole length with luxerized tile floors and lavish red-wooded doors. But it wasn’t here where all the department heads worked, nor even the section round the corner where all the G.U.L.E.A. expeditions were held. This disaster had been so tragic that the office he was called to was none other than the big top himself—Brian Roberts, President of the whole shabang. Okay, technically his actual title is the lead CEO of Stony Summit, Inc., but the point is this meeting was way out of the ordinary and he had no idea what was coming. He walked up to the secretary’s desk directly ahead of the elevator door, a rather commanding view he noted. Briskly she looked up from her paper work. “May I help you?” she asked.

“I was told to talk to Mr. Roberts sometime today?”

She rolled to her computer and clicked half a dozen times. Huffing out a deep breath, she looked back at him and asked, “Name?”

“James Jordan”

She checked back at the computer, loudly scrolling her mouse. 

“I was a G.U.L.E.A. explorer in the Amazon,” he added.

“Oh gotch ya!” she said cheerfully, “Well, he doesn’t appear to be busy right now. I’ll lead you to his office.” 

The secretary left her desk and led him down the hall. She knocked loudly on the door which immediately got an answer, “Yes, come in!” Before stepping back, she opened the door for him and left towards her desk. James stepped right in without hesitation. The room expressed almost two different worlds. Along one wall were a row of business awards, his desk was covered with papers displaying new design patterns to marketing graphs, the walls were covered with built-in bookshelves filled with all sorts of books, pretty much everything you would imagine in a business office. Meshed with it however was an exotic world exuberantly filled with higher energy; from here you could certainly explore his passion for nature and the outdoors. His desk was a rustic light grey drift wood design with bamboo lined along the bottom. The screen covering the window behind was a sea green displaying prints of rich emerald jungle leaves and a sunrise of gold and hot pink flowers. Each of the office’s four corners contained potted plants of four different forest biomes, and where there wasn’t a book shelf the walls were planted with framed posters of ocean reefs or Yellowstone National Park or glass encased butterflies. Almost as marvelous as all this was the surprise of  Brian’s instant exclamation when James first entered, “James Jordan! I hoped it was you that was at the door!” Brian Roberts stood up and genially offered him to have chair. James strode right over, and they both sat down. 

“Alright, I’m very delighted to see you! How are you feeling? Anything bothering you right now?”

“Umm no. Not really.”

“Excellent,” Brian said cheerfully. He had an engagingly charismatic character that sought meet all of his correspondent’s needs before diving into the point. “Now obviously, before we get into the discussion and all, you probably want to know why you’re here in the first place. During our latest expedition which you yourself took part of ended abruptly due to a horrible catastrophe by what cause we can’t even fathom. First though I want to note that it was a perfectly tragic event and you and the rest of your team have my deepest condolences,” Brian’s voice saddened and James could doubtlessly see that he truly felt for him and this meeting was more than just a dialogue part of business protocol, “On that part there's some things I need your help with that needs discussing. First off, we all need to know the cause. The Brazilian government is now having safety concerns for the area, there might have been a malfunction in some of the equipment we possibly need to discover, many many after effects going on, so,” Brian paused, “tell me everything that happened.” 

James cleared his throat and told the whole of the adventures, how exploration went well, they stopped for lunch, the rainstorm hit creating pitch black darkness, falling asleep, until finally he described waking up in cold sweat. “I’m not sure what happened but I awoke all of a sudden like out of a nightmare. I got out my hammock and — I’m not sure what happened — oh! a dark shadow passed right in front of me so I rushed to Joe—”

“Wait,” interrupted Brian, “If it was so dark, how did you see a shadow?”

James paused for a moment, “Ya know, I didn’t think about that. Hmmm but no, the more I think about it the more I remember it. It couldn't get darker but the shadow was there like black on white. I’m not sure how though…”

“That’s very odd. Well, continue I guess.”

Still puzzled, he went on where he left off, “Well I went to Joe and saw the results on his Utilities Device for why his laptop suddenly shut off. Something ‘bout an unknown power outage and the batteries frying,” Brian’s interest increased, “I replaced the batteries as directed but once it finished booting up an alarm went off about a concernably large animal within 20 feet. I quickly woke up Joe, he told me to warn the others but then I tripped on one of the hammocks or something and I went out. I woke up behind the log they found me on to find everything was obliterated. I passed back out and found myself in the hospital. Didn’t see anyone else…” James voice was sad and slow, “Did-did anyone else make it?”

“I was going to tell you that later, but you see—no. No one else but Cole and he’s critically injured still at the hospital. I’m sorry.”

A period of silence overtook them both. When James was ready to continue they only talked about a few brief things like what James would be doing in the coming weeks, when he might be ready to go on more expeditions which James after some thought was a little bit willing but only after full physical and emotional recovery, a possible press conference that was being planned in two days, and finally a vote of thanks for being a part of the organization as they both rose and shook hands, “Thank you for what you’ve done. We’ll hopefully see you later!”

James said goodbye and went out the door. Brian watched him steadily with a silent but uneasy patience. Finally once he heard the door click shut Brian’s hand grabbed his phone and speedily dialed. “Hello? Alright. You probably won’t believe this, but I got a crazy plan.”