 Dr. Adam Pierce, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, intercepts a visual transmission from Firewalker, a mobile robot sent by a volcanic research project on Mount Avalon near Bend, Oregon. Firewalker is broadcasting from inside a volcanic cave, where Pierce glimpses the dead body of the chief seismologist, Phil Erickson. He also sees a shadow moving in the cave, an impossibility due to the extremely high temperatures. The figure in the cave then destroys Firewalker's camera, ending the transmission.
