A-O Bomb Squad 3: The Lost City

The Entrance to Heaven or Hell?

A/N: Warning! Extreme foul language later in the chapter. Feel free to read or scroll, but you have been warned!

Joe's POV

We're getting close to the Lost City. I can feel it. The number of zombies we've encountered since we got here has dropped dramatically. According to the map, the hotel was just a few miles away from the entrance to the city. Apparently, it's underground, yet again according to the map. Coco and I have had to sit behind Boss Man to help him navigate. Every once in a while we have to pull over because one of us is holding it wrong. It's usually me, but I don't care. I hated geography anyway.

Unfortunately, the map fails to mention exactly where the entrance is. It only gives a large area, and the entire area is completely filled with skyscrapers. We've guessed that the entrance is an elevator, so we've had to walk into every single building, and try out every single elevator. And so far only six have worked, but none have had a basement. We're down to the last building, and I'm starting to think this "Julio" kid was a nut job.

"How much longer?" whined Kissmy. "I have to take a whiz."

"A mad whiz," chuckled Charles.

"Don't know. Could take seconds, minutes, days, weeks..." I said before getting cut off.

"I think we get it Joe," said Buzz Kill monotonously. "Charles, Kissmy, just go pee over there," she ordered pointing in the opposite direction.

 "Wait, we don't have to pee together, do we? Cause I'm twelve and-"

"Just go pee!" everyone shouted in unison. We all shook our heads and continued searching.

We cleared the entire room and found nothing. So we just stood around planning our next move. "Okay," Charles clapped her hands, "there's only one option left. There's a secret passage hidden in here."

I snorted, "Please, I'm the only who comes up with crazy schemes that are right, and that sounds ridiculous."

"I don't know, Joe," Coco joined in. "It's the one crazy thing we haven't encountered yet. I say it's possible."

"So do I," the others agreed. I'd never been called out wrong in front of everyone before, and I didn't like it. But since I couldn't come up with anything better at the time, I decided to go along with it.

"Fine," I agreed sourly.

"Alright, so this is how it's gonna go down. Boss Man and Loud Speaker are gonna search the wall on the right. Coco and Buzz Kill are gonna search the floor on the same side. Kissmy and I will search the wall on the opposite side, while Mad Dog and Fire Muffin search the floor. Charles and Joe will search the far wall, and Smarty will search the floor behind them," Mamasita ordered. Suddenly everyone started listening to her. This naturally pissed me off because I'm not always cool with Coco being in charge. I wasn't about to let her walk all over me too.

"Wait just a minute!" I shouted. Everyone turned and looked back. "I'm leader! I say how it goes!"

"Joe, I'm still leader until little Joe/Sylvan is born," Coco reminded.

"Well I'm taking charge back now!" I snapped.

"Hey!" Mamasita yelled. "You can't yell at my little sister like that, you blimp!"

"Who are you calling blimp?! I'm pregnant and I'm still skinnier than you!" I don't know what came over me, but I was suddenly filled with rage and decided to let it out.

"You, bitch!" she retorted.

"Slut!"

"Empty-headed decision maker!"

"Oversized cow!"

"Ass wipe!"

"Clit-licker!"

"Shit-headed lesbo!"

"Skull fucker!"

"You cum-guzzling thunder cunt!" she ended.

I finally stopped yelling and waddled over to get my baby powder. I filled my hand and walked back over to her. I whipped my hand back to slap her, but as my arm swung forward, she caught my wrist and wouldn't let it go. She stared into my eyes with the look my mom used to give me when I was in trouble. Finally I sighed and let my arm go limp. I looked Mamasita in the eyes and said, "I respect you." She smiled and dropped my hand.

I turned back to the others, who were still wide-eyed from witnessing the fight. I yelled, "What y'all staring at? Go to your stations!" Then everyone scrambled around to their posts. We searched the entire room top to bottom, side to side, and still didn't find anything. I stood before the group, "See, this just goes to show: Joe's way or no WAAAAAAAAAY!" I leaned against the wall and somehow fell through it. I looked up and seen I'd fallen through a weak part of the wall. Mad Dog and Smarty Pants ran to my side. They both seemed to say the same things over and over. I ignored them and told them I was fine.

The rest of the Bomb Squad joined us on the other side of the wall. Boss Man and Kissmy flicked on flashlights and looked around. Turns out I was just short of falling down a flight of stairs. After Coco made sure the baby and I were okay, we headed down the stairs. A few flights of stairs later, we found the ground floor and began to search around. It was a small room with an elevator on the other side. We all approached the elevator. We pressed the only button available, down. Once the elevator dinged we were about to step inside, but a voice clearly rang out, "There's no point."

We all looked at each other, but the voice hadn't come from any of us. Boss Man and Kissmy shined their lights around to find a kid a year or so older than Kissmy standing on the other side. He hadn't been there before. Smarty whispered, "Joe, I don't know how pissed you are at me, but get behind us." I listened because I wanted to protect our baby as much as he did. "Who are you?" Smarty asked.

"Clearly you know me if you're here," he replied. No one answered him. Obviously we didn't know who he was, but he seemed to know us. "I know who you all are though." Yep, another point for Joe.

"Tell us now," Boss Man demanded. Everyone but me raised their weapons at him since I was in the back.

"Look, I'm telling you, you know me," he repeated.

"The only way we'd know you is if you were-"

"The journal kid?" He cut Boss Man off.

We all stared at him. "You're Julio?" Coco asked.

"'Julio?' So we're dealing with a mexican?" Mamasita asked. She looked at him, "¿Julio, cómo llegaste aquí? (How did you get here?)"

"Ah, I see you know Spanish. Mi abuela me trajo hasta aquí. (My grandmother brought me here.)"

"¿Que es tu abuela? (Who is your grandmother?)" Coco asked.

"Anita Martinez." We all immediately got defensive. "I see you've met her."

"Alright talk, kid," Coco ordered.

"Well I can gather that you've read the journal entries, so this is what's not in there. My grandma wanted to keep me and my parents safe, but I'm the only one who lasted the trip here. Since she thought all of us were dead, she left me for dead. By accident of course. But I already had all the details to the Lost City memorized, so I got here on my own, under the radar. I left the journal at the school, because I remembered her saying something about a girl," he gestured to Coco and continued, "so I left it there for you to find. And then I waited here for you. The zombies won't attack me either because my grandma zombie-proofed me and my parents with some kind of shot. I think that's it."

"Then what about the whole, 'There's no point,' thing?"

"The city was gone before I got here. There are no survivors down there, just a city of zombies."

"You're lying!" I shouted as I stepped forward.

"Look, if you wanna go down there and see for yourself, go ahead."

"Oh, we're going down there alright." I grabbed his shirt, "And you're coming with us."