Beyond Infinity - Sam Drake

Chapter Fifty One

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand?"

– Jack Sparrow

Standing there, shivering already from the cold made Ava regret not staying back in the plane with Sully. Sam snickered to himself as he watched a grumpy Ava who was beside him, scrunched in her thick purple hoodie and heavy black leather jacket. Occasionally her gloved hands would fly up to her beanie to pull it down further while her knees would slightly buckle.

"You doing...okay there?" Sam teased Ava, her lips turning slightly purple now.

"I-I'm fine." She said lowly, cheeks growing pink. "I just- I'm just not fond of the cold."

"Ohhh, I miss the cold." Sam said with a smile on his face as he stretched out his arms.

Because the cold made Ava grumpy, she rolled her eyes and sighed to herself, slightly jealous that Sam could handle the cooler weather. Long ago, before Ava delivered baby Aurora, she didn't mind the cold. In fact, Ava slightly loved the gloomy sky and the snow that covered everything. But soon after, for no apparent reason, she grew to slightly despise it.

"Well." Sam cleared his throat as his eyes shifted away from Ava to the faraway cathedral. "Rafe's going all out isn't he, huh?"

The three watched as another part of the cathedral explode, black smoke appearing in the sky. "Well, they're all concentrated around the cathedral, so that's good..."

Ava snorted, rolling her eyes once more as she whispered to herself. "Yeah, not for long." Nathan raised his eyebrow as he eyed Ava, curious as to what changed her attitude. Nevertheless, Nathan continued. "Because we are going to have the graveyard all to ourselves."

With a swift motion, Ava grabbed Nathan's two-way radio from his pocket. "Hey, Vicky." Ava spoke slightly venomously, stunning Nathan as he didn't feel her grab the device from him. "Remember when you said that 'the weather was particularly fine this year in Scotland?'"

On the other end of the device, Sully chuckled at Ava's harsh spoken words. "It's not my fault that you can't function in the cold, sweetie."

Nathan, with raised brows, picked the two-way radio from Ava's gloved hand. "Sully."

"Yeah?"

"Listen, we're good to go here." Nathan shuffled forward to get a better look at the plane below them.

"Okay, kid. Happy hunting."

"Last chance to come with." Nathan persuaded the old man.

"Oh, yeah- I don't advice that. Your balls are gonna freeze...a-and they're just gonna fall off." Ava shoved her head beside Nathan's to speak clearly through the device, making Nathan and Sully laugh.

"Yeah, well, unless you can find me an escalator, I think I'll pass." Sully spoke.

"All right, we'll see you in a few." Nathan waved as he and Ava stood at the edge of the cliff so Sully could see them.

"Hey, Nate-"

"Yeah?"

There was a slight pause on Sully's end and it did not go unnoticed by Ava. "Just, uh...ah, just get me back something shiny, will ya?"

"Sully, you do know that's the whole point of this...right?" Ava said with a slight snicker, wrapping her jacket around herself tighter.

Once Ava and Nate were done with speaking to Sully, Sam shuffled towards them. "Well, let's go pay our respects to Captain Avery, huh?" Nathan gave a little nod before Sam could start leading the way.

Jumping down the cliff, Ava almost lost her balance as she couldn't feel her toes. Before Nathan could assist her, she immediately brushed him off with a nod of her head, indicating that she was okay, and continued on her way.

"A Scottish cathedral." Sam spoke, unaware of the scene that occurred behind him. "Strange place to bury your treasure, no?"

"Not really. I mean, by the time Avery would've sailed here, the place was already abandoned." Ava couldn't help but squint her eyes and furrow her brows in thought while she walked through the long brown and purple grass.

"I guess that's true. Plus, with the massive bounty on his head...it'd be a good place to hide."

"Hold on a minute." Ava said from behind Nathan and Sam, trying to keep up with the two Drake brothers. "I'm sorry to ruin the moment for you- but do you two really believe that the treasure is hidden here?"

Instantly, Ava received a glare the moment Sam turned his head to face her. Her hands flew up in defence and smiled nervously. "I-I'm just saying. Just a thought. Forget I ever said that."

"So...what happened between you two and Rafe?" Sam asked, changing the subject was the first reason and the second one was, he needed to feed his curiosity.

"I couldn't deal with him." Nathan spoke truthfully. "And I'm pretty sure he had enough of me." Nate pointed to Ava. "Enough of us, really. We were still coming to grips with your, uh...'death', and with his frustration from not finding the treasure...well, I'm pretty sure he was ready to kill me by the time we bailed."

"Ha. Imagine what'd he'd do to you now." Sam snickered.

"Yeah. Trying not to."

The three stood at the edge as they looked down the slope filled with gravel. "You know the only way to get there is to slide down, right?" Ava exclaimed, in-between Sam and Nathan.

"We've done crazier than this." Nathan poked her with his elbow. "You're not hesitating are you?" Before Nathan could continue teasing Ava, she raised her brow before throwing herself down the gravel slope, immediately sliding down while her butt would occasionally ache from the mini hits received from the rocks.

"Sam, listen." Nate continued their previous conversation. "He's ruthless. I mean even more so than when we teamed up with him."

"Oh, definitely." Ava backed Nate up.

"I mean, I've heard stories."

"Trust me, me too. All the more reason that I don't feel bad about any of this." Sam said.

Ava scrunched her brows as she licked her dry lips. "You know, for a man who just came out of prison- you sure heard a lotta stories. Don't you think?" Sam immediately flared his toothy grin at Ava as he laughed nervously.

As the three walked towards the edge of another rocky cliff, Sam whistled. "It's a long drop, guys."

"Yeah. Need to find another way down." Nate mostly said to himself.

Before the Drake brother's could find a way down, Ava already found a broken tree trunk on the side for them to grapple on.

"Hey, boys-" Once Ava caught their attention, she immediately pointed towards the tree trunk trunk and held her grapple in her other hand.