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Lagomorphs
Copyright © June, 2015, FurryWurry
All rights reserved

Chapter 5 -- Garbage

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"I'm sorry I'm late. I got delayed in Los Alamos and then the car refused to make up for the lost time." Jeff was still annoyed and distressed. The rental car had found the Puye Lodge with no problems, but he didn't like having made Jennie, the grad student, wait for him.

"Not to worry! As I said on the phone, I enjoyed the chance to relax in the Lodge's coffee shop. Things are particularly stressful at the dig right now. Have you checked in?"

"Yeah. Do I need anything more than what was on the checklist?"

"Nope. Rugged clothes and boots, hat, and several water bottles should do it. And something to take pictures or notes, if you want. You only have to spend eight hours a day on-site. What you do with the rest of your time is up to you, although there will be some interesting talks about what we're trying to do."

"OK. I got a water filter, too. There's a stream there, right?"

"There is, but you shouldn't need to use it. We've got a small mess tent. It doesn't have much, but water it does have. It can get really hot and dry at the dig, and we don't want anyone suffering from heat stroke. Is that a solar backpack?"

"Yup. I decided I didn't want to worry about my phone going dead while I'm at the dig. It uses near-field induction so everything can be kept sealed against the dust."

"I'm sure that'll be useful. We do have a solar panel for recharging, but grime and sand are always causing connection problems.

"You also need to know we've had a major fuck up. It turns out that someone did some undocumented digging and left their own garbage in the middens we've been excavating. After we got down a ways, we found they're full of plastic crap. The Mogollons certainly didn't know how to make plastic way back then.

"Our P.I. was livid when we found it. I thought he was going to have an aneurysm or something. Of course, we had to report it to the tribal elders and they're making us haul it all out. There some real artifacts, though. They have religious significance to the local shamen, so we'll leave them. You'll be helping mostly with collecting the modern trash, at least for a while. It's nothing but a big waste of time." She sighed. "The site's so thoroughly contaminated that we'll probably never know how much was actually left by the Mogollon tribes we're trying to study."

They both were quiet on the jeep ride out to the dig site. The bumpy ride would have made talking inconvenient anyhow.