Woman Takes Rock From The Woods, Authorities Evacuate Her Home The Next Day

No Idea What It Was

Helena didn’t know what she was dealing with. The blood in her veins ran cold when it started to dawn on her. The innocent rock she had picked up was going to get her into a lot of trouble.

She panicked, thinking the only thing to do was to hide the rock. But that would only spell her doom when the authorities arrived.

Hidden

When Helena learned what her unassuming rock really was, she panicked. She thought that the expert was going to tell her something cool about her rock. But she got a lot more than she bargained for.

She couldn’t believe what she was holding in her hands. She thought that it was nothing more than a pretty-looking rock. But it was much more than that.

A Hike Like Any Other

She thought back to the hike she was on when everything in her life changed. It wasn’t like she was looking for trouble.

Seeing the strange object, she felt the instinct to pick it up and put it in her pocket. It was pretty enough to add to her collection, but she wasn’t aware of what it really was until the police knocked on her door.

Big Trouble

But when they confronted her on her doorstep, she didn’t fully understand what was going on. This meant she made a grave mistake hiding it.

Firefighters begged her to tell them where it was, but when she wouldn’t divulge that information, they had no choice. They were about to have her life crumbling down around them, literally.

Tears

Their choice wasn’t an easy one, but once the fire department had the go-ahead, they did something that most people would think was a crime.

But with permission from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), they didn’t hesitate. They didn’t want some kind of outbreak on their hands. But it would ruin Helena’s life in the process.

Helena Richardson

Helena Richardson lived a pretty normal life. She remembered her father taking her on long hikes as a kid.

He’d carry her on his shoulders and teach her about the local plant and animal population. It was a memory she held dear, especially since he wasn’t around anymore.

Tragedy

At the age of eleven, Helena’s father tragically disappeared. The circumstances around his disappearance were strange, but no one thought too much of it.

Helena and her mother were understandably devastated, but the police didn’t seem to try too hard to find him.

On A Hike

One evening, Mike, Helena’s dad, decided to go for a hike on his own. After six hours passed, his family knew something was wrong.

They looked everywhere, and the police did a sweep of the area, but they quickly gave up. In their official statement, they said he must have fallen off of one of the cliffs. It devastated Helena.

Thinking Of Him

Every day since she lost him, a day didn’t go by when she didn’t think of her father. But over the years, it would turn from reminiscence to a dark obsession.

As an adult, Helena had countless opportunities to leave her hometown and find a more prosperous life. But she always felt she had ties to her city. It was all because of her father.

Keeping Her There

She felt that her father’s disappearance was keeping her in the city. It was the place where he disappeared after all.

He had been hiking on a trail just half an hour from where the family lived. This meant that she also had countless opportunities to go there, but she should never have.

Becoming Obsessed

The only way for Helena to cope with the loss of her father was to go visit where he had disappeared. Part of it was to keep up the tradition he started. But there was a darker reason.

She had become obsessed with the trail. She would walk it weekly, almost hoping to find something. But one day, she would.

A Normal Hike

Helena hiked every single Sunday. She would keep her eyes peeled while walking on the trail, hoping to find something that would at least give her closure.

She knew it was unlikely that she would ever find anything, but she also hiked the trail to remember her father. She sometimes brought something special with her.

Bouquet

Helena cut some flowers from her garden before hiking sometimes. She’d hike with them, scattering them along the trail for her dad.

It was a sentimental gesture that also made her feel better. Hopefully, wherever he was, he knew how much she loved him. But she was about to find something incredible.

A Sign

She was always looking for a sign from her father. She often looked up at the sky and asked him to give her anything to go off of. The poor girl still needed her closure.

But during one specific hike, Helena would finally get her sign after tripping over it. She couldn’t believe what she had found. But she should have never picked it up in the first place.

Tripping

Helena was walking up the trail like she always did. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until she tripped over something – nearly breaking her nose.

Luckily, she put out her arms, so she only suffered minor bruises and scuffs. Irritated, she looked back at what had tripped her – her mouth hung wide open.

A Strange Glow

She looked back at the trail and saw that she had dislodged a rock from the ground when she tripped over it.

The side that was on the surface looked dull enough, but the underside that was hidden before she dislodged, had a strange glow to it. She knew this was her sign.

Picking It Up

Helena approached the rock cautiously. She had no idea what it was, but then something rang clear in her mind.

She remembered something her father showed her when she was very young. It was a similar-looking rock. She couldn’t believe she had forgotten the memory until now. She immediately picked it up.

Looking Around

Helena looked around. Was this really the sign she had been looking for? She didn’t question it and put it into her bag.

She needed to know more about the strange rock and decided to rush home instead of continuing her hike. But she should never have messed with what she didn’t know.

Getting Home

Once Home, Helena carefully took the rock out of her bag and examined it more closely. It looked like some kind of geode.

It was one of the most beautiful things she had ever laid eyes on. She just wished she could remember more about it. Her father had said something important regarding stones like this.

Racking Her Brain

Helena racked her brain, trying her best to unlock the memories that were hidden deep in her brain. The scene came to her.

She remembered her father holding one just like what she had now. But what did he say? When she finally remembered, horror would creep over every fiber of her being.

Going To An Expert

After a lot of consideration, Helena decided that the best thing to do was to consult an expert. She called a local university, thinking that they would have answers for her.

After a short conversation on the phone, the professor of geology seemed excited to see what she had found. But he had no idea what he would be dealing with when she got there.

Meeting Him

The expert told Helena to urgently come by the university with the strange rock she had found. She felt butterflies in her stomach, but she had no idea how misguided she was.

She got to the university and met with the professor, who introduced himself as Ph.D. candidate Jeffrey Tambourlas. He got straight to the point and looked at the rock.

Excitement Turned To Horror

The professor’s greedy eyes examined the rock closely. Helena watched as the excitement built up in the man as he rolled it over.

But in a tragic twist of fate, his excitement soon turned to horror. His face grimaced as he looked back up at her. What was wrong?

LEAVE NOW

The professor seemed disgusted by the rock when moments ago, he was ecstatically touching it. Helena opened her mouth to ask him what was going on, but he interrupted her.

“This rock needs to go now. I won’t have it anywhere near me or my collection anymore. It’s infected. Leave now, please.” He bellowed.

Only Sign From Her Father

Helena felt offended as she rushed out of the university and back home. He called her beautiful rock infected; what did he really mean?

She sat in her chair in her living room and caressed the rock. It was the only sign she’d ever received from her father; she wouldn’t throw it away after learning what it was.

Obsessed

Over the next few days, Helena grew obsessed with the artifact she had uncovered where her father had disappeared. She didn’t go out for anything, including her job.

She just sat by and caressed it in her chair. But then she heard a banging on her door. It was the police. She answered politely, and they told her they knew everything and they’d come to seize the rock.

Denial

Helena couldn’t believe their audacity and told them that she didn’t have it anymore. Seeing through her ruse, they pleaded with her to just hand it over for disposal.

After telling them to get lost, the cops angrily left. But Helena didn’t know that they would return with backup. Things would unfortunately not end her way.

Firefighters

Firefighters arrived an hour later with a way to reach her home. She started screaming when she heard them bust open her door. They said they had special permission from the CDC. What was going on?

They took her out of the home and asked her to hand it over one last time, but she resisted, thinking that she was defending her father in her own strange way. But they did the unthinkable.

Burning It Down

They asked one final time, but she said she hid it where they would never find it. With great reluctance, the firemen walked back to their vehicle before returning with jerry cans.

They started dousing her foundations with gasoline and abruptly sparked the liquid with a match. Helena watched as her entire home was set ablaze in an instant. Why did they do this?

Infected

Helena broke down in front of her smoldering home. She begged for an explanation before they told her that the rock was a serious threat to the ecosystem.

They explained that it was infected with an unidentified bacteria that could have been anything. She could have had ancient deadly bacteria lying dormant in the rock.

In order to protect the privacy of those depicted, some names, locations, and identifying characteristics have been changed and are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual events, places, or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.