Beyond Infinity - Sam Drake

Chapter Thirty Seven

One year later

"Hey, Sammy? Can you check on Aurora please?" Ava groaned as little Aurora started to cry in the other room, disturbing her peaceful slumber.

"Yes, dear." Ava smiled as she caught on to Sam's humorous tone as she laid on her belly, her left arm swinging at the edge of the bed.

But as she turned to lay on her back, her heart started to thump madly- sweat started to coat her skin and drench her clothes as the heat of the sun beamed right on her. The whole get up seemed familiar, it was humid and the smell was so familiar, it bothered Ava that she couldn't put her finger on it immediately.

"What the hell." Ava whispered to herself. "Sam?" Opening her eyes, Ava immediately panicked and fell off the bed, immediately scrambling to her feet.

The stinky and grimy prison clothes she once wore in Panama was glued back onto her and as her bulged eyes darted everything that surrounded her, she was back in Panama prison too.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, this can't be real." Ava cried out as she searched for any sign of Sam, Nate and Nora.

"Nora?" She called out as she started to run instinctively, a sudden feeling that someone was following her.

"Goddamn it- Nate!" Ava jumped onto the roof before landing onto her knees painfully, but that didn't stop her as the fear within her grew by the minute, as if it'll take over her soon.

"Sully!" Ava screamed as loud as she could when suddenly she could hear footsteps following her faster and thunderously.

Ava crawled up the ledge with all her might, her eyes darted everywhere around her as she tried to figure out why the rushing of footsteps that chased her stopped. As she continue to pant loudly and heavily, she heard a little step behind her and immediately whipped behind her to see Sam standing there.

"Sam? Oh my god, Sammy!" At the sight of him, she immediately relaxed and chuckled in relief. But Sam's eyes focused on her lower abdomen silently and when Ava felt a warm sticky feeling growing to stick on her dirty white shirt, she looked down only to see blood taking over.

Her trembling hand lifted up her shirt only to witness three bullet holes gushing out blood and before she could mutter anything, her panicked eyes flew to Sam only to see a whiff of him pushing her at the edge of the ledge.

Ava lost her balance and began to fall and all her eyes could see was Sam above her with a crooked smile on his thin lips. She couldn't scream, or even panic - she was only falling and that was the only thing she could do as her body was paralyzed.

Before slamming onto the floor, Ava jerked up from the coach, heavily panting.

"What-the-fuck." Ava clutched her chest as she sat up on the sofa, trying to stabilize her heart and catch her breath.

She shut her eyes tightly and rested her forehead between her palms. "It's just a stupid nightmare Ava Black, it's just a stupid nightmare- a nightmare, yeah...yeah, a nightmare." As Ava mumbled reassuring words to herself, Nathan groaned loudly as he began to wake up.

Ava's eyes traveled to Nathan on the floor with a confused expression. "No offense but...why're you here? Shouldn't you be at home? And why are you on the floor?"

Nathan rubbed his temples as he groaned, "that hurt my feelings by the way, but I think we went drinking last night."

Ava's eyes scanned the table only to find a few bottles of empty alcohol and a splattered deck of cards. A cigar was smashed into the ashtray and suddenly she remembered that Sully joined them in their little party the other night.

Sighing and shutting her eyes before turning to a dazed Nate, Ava took notice that it was not only her head that was pounding, but her stomach too. "Hey, uh, you got food back at your place...right?"

Ava tapped her fingers on Nathan's kitchen counter irritatingly as Nathan watched her dully, the tapping noises started to echo in his head making it pound madly, but he had no energy to tell her off, so he simply took a sip of his coffee.

Ava spent a year doing absolutely nothing. Majority of her time was spent at home watching movies and tv shows when Nora was at work. She spent a year doing 'ordinary' little jobs, like serving at the bar and she definitely despised it.

Boredom literally killed Ava but it wasn't only that- with so much free time, Ava couldn't shift her mind away from Aurora and Sam. So, Ava found a new hobby- drinking.

But Ava tried her best to stay away from that option as it only made her feel worse the next day and for the rest of the week.

As Nathan's eyes shifted to Ava once more, by the look on her face that she had on for months, he knew that Ava was brewing something in her head. "C'mon- just spit it out. What's on your mind?"

Ava's eyes traveled slowly up to Nathan and the man watched as her honey orbs sparked up, slightly astonishing him at how fast they went from dull to alive in a snap.

"Nate, now I know for sure what I have in mind...you have it on your mind too."

"What? What're you talking about?" Nathan was slightly frightened as a smirk grew on Ava's face, leaning forward on the table.

"Dude, I know you have it on your mind too, I can see it on your face." Ava suddenly jumped to her feet and pulled a book from his kitchen drawer that he was hiding. Slamming the book on the table, Nathan was impressed how Ava found the book so quickly.

"We've been bored for too long- I think we need a break. I think we need a new adventure, I know you want this Nate." As Ava spoke, Nathan couldn't help but picture her as Sam. At that moment, she resembled Sam quite a lot and Nathan knew it was only because of their shared optimism.

"Now..." Ava grabbed him by the shoulders and stared into his eyes. "Now, say it with me so I know we're thinking the same thing."

Ava and Nathan went silent as they searched each other's eyes in curiosity. Apparently to Nate, he wasn't the only one thinking of hitting off to a new destination to explore and to have an adventure. It wasn't only him who was digging through an ancient myth.

"One- two...three!"

"El Dorado." As the two blurted out in unison, Ava chuckled in delight as she patted his shoulders rather harshly.

"See? I'm right." Ava smirked. "Nate, we got everything we need for this- nothing's holding us back!"

"What about- what about Sully and Nora?"

"Dude, obviously they're coming along- just like the old days."

Nathan grimaced at the sudden memories of Baghdad and Ava seemed to read his mind. "Okay, just the four of us without Rafe."

"Nora's definitely going to tag along on this." Ava continued excitedly. "It'll be good for her lil' show."

"Also, Sully's plane will be handy again." Nathan sparked up too as he got up from his seat, beginning to pace around Ava in excitement.

"So whaddya say Nate?"

"El-goddamn-Dorado."