By Anonymous 

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of teleconferencing with Ardell, Monty-Clause, Tike, Rian, and Anderson; all nicknames to preserve anonymity. I initially learned about the group of incognito explorers when I set out on my own expedition around Linville Falls, North Carolina, with a friend. Arnold, or “Arrie” as his friends call him, whom we met in passing, invited us to join him as he sat for lunch.  

He told us about a group of people who are serious about hunts, adventures, and secret missions to discover the truth about any and everything. Though we didn’t press for more information, Arrie gave me a number to call for more information. What sparked my interest was the idea of a decades-old group operating under the radar, so I called the number a week later. 

Someone named Tike answered. I explained how I got his number and that I would like to interview him for a feature story about his group. “Let me call the others,” is all he said. He was short, to the point, and matter of fact. When he returned to the call, four more people had joined, all with distinct personalities in their voices. Rian was bubbly and long-winded, Ardell was exaggerative and high-pitched; a vocal trait he himself joked about, Monty-Clause sounded fatherly and instructional, and Anderson was fast-talking and a jokester.  

This anonymous group of people wouldn’t go into detail about their journeys and adventures, but they were more than happy to discuss the group. They decided to remain nameless and largely incognito since 2001 for the youngest member and 1968 for the oldest. The group is older than the youngest member, but that’s being generous with the timeframe.  

“Understand something: I remember becoming a part of this crew in 1967 or 8. I was a teenager and things were bad. They were real bad, you know? I left this world. An overdose put me in a coma for almost a year,” said Monty-Clause. “I took too much, tried to walk home or somewhere, and fell into a creek, face down on a rock. When I woke up, they told me my grammaw passed, brother had gotten married, and I had had a birthday. Missed it all.”  

He explained that, during the latter part of the 60s, people were claiming a certain drug he would not name was not actually causing hallucinations but allowing them to travel to other worlds and dimensions, so he decided to try it himself. “That’s when I knew there was something more to this world. That’s when I knew I needed to find others who knew what I knew.”  

Ardell interrupted to express how he and the others secretly meet unnoticed. “We never meet anywhere where there are cameras, people, a chance of being recognized, and never all at once. We never meet at the same place and never at the same time. Calls together, yeah, never in person. We can guard against wiretapping.” 

“We don’t want to rediscover anything. We’re not looking to discredit or prove anything,” said Rian, a 54-year-old woman who claims she has information about how to make contact with life on other planets. “What we want is to use the knowledge already out there, no matter how conspiracy theoryish it is, unpopular, or discredited.” 

The crew of five determined back in 2005 that they would never discount or readily accept any information. It’s an attitude they all share and wish other people the world over would adopt when consuming information. 

“You know, NASA could put out information and everyone would believe it because it’s NASA saying it. Let a high school dropout say it. It’d be laughed at. No one would believe them. It’s happened before,” said Anderson.  

“We’ve known each other, we won’t say how, for a long time,” said Tike. “I enjoy being secretive, but we are definitely not hiding anything.” Before we ended the call, I asked them each to offer a word of advice for those who want to join their crew and engage in missions. There was a lengthy, high-spirited laugh. “People don’t find us, we find you” came from a voice I had not heard on the call before, and almost in unison, they all agreed. Then, it dawned on me that my friend and I should’ve asked Arrie more questions.