Jimmy rushed to Alice, grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the hole that would lead them to safety. Alice didn't make a move. She seemed paralyzed with fear. Then, out of the blue, she screamed and pushed past Jimmy.
Caught with one foot in the air, Jimmy tumbled to the floor. He rose on his hands to see Alice disappearing down the stairs. The door closed in her wake. Jimmy stared back at the incoming boulder, jumped to his feet and ran towards the trapdoor, praying it would open up under him. It didn't.
He ran to the dead end and turned around, hoping the boulder would stop before it reached him. It slowed down, but it wasn't going to stop, and its speed was enough to crush him. It rolled closer and closer and Jimmy's blood rushed through him so fast, it made him dizzy.
The trapdoor sprung open and Kyle climbed out. He thrust himself against the boulder, steadying his feet on the floor, trying to stop it. Jimmy stared at him for a second and hurried to help. He put his back against it and pushed as hard as he could. The boulder continued rolling towards the wall, pushing them along, but much slower. Finally, after a few exhausting seconds, it stopped.
Kyle turned around and leaned his back against it, wiping the sweat off his forehead. "That was a close one. We almost stopped it over the trapdoor."
Jimmy gave a shaky laugh. "That was the least of my worries. Thanks for saving my butt."
Kyle pushed himself to his feet and turned to the boulder. "You think we can climb it?"
Jimmy studied it as well. It was jagged enough to provide grips. They just had to be careful not to send it rolling in the other direction. Jimmy put on foot on the wall and pushed himself upwards. He grabbed on to the boulder and scurried over it. There was hardly any space between it and the ceiling, but he managed to squeeze through. He dropped on the other side and leaned against it, weary of other traps.
The boulder moved the slightest bit as Kyle climbed over it and slid down next to him.
"Jimmy, Kyle? Are you okay?" Sam asked from the other side of the boulder, sounding severely annoyed.
"Yeah, we're fine," Jimmy called back. "You should climb over so we can move on."
The boulder trembled a little and Jessie landed between him and Kyle. She wrapped her arms around their necks and gave them both a short hug.
"I'm going next," Alice said. "Get your hands off me, Sam!"
The rock started shaking severely. Jessie, Jimmy and Kyle stepped away from it.
"You, blond kid, give me a boost."
Billy mumbled something unintelligible and the boulder continued to move back and forth.
"Alice, get off," Kyle said, his voice strangely strained.
Jimmy looked towards him, but once Alice screamed, turned back to the boulder. Billy cursed and the boulder moved forward. Kyle pushed against it. He stopped it, but also skidded back a few slabs. One of them sunk into the floor. A shower of spears rained from the ceiling.
"Oh crap!" Kyle stuck his back against the wall.
Jessie grabbed Jimmy's arm and ran further down the corridor, trying to avoid the sharp tips. Jimmy freed his arm and evaded three spears. Another fell and scratched his shoulder, throwing him off balance. Jessie lunged at him and sent them both tumbling into a place where no more spears rained from the skies. They rolled on the floor, and Jessie stopped on top of him. She rose on her hands.
He raised and planted a short kiss on her lips. "Thanks."
Jessie blushed and got off him just as Kyle came barging in the room.
"Are you two okay?"
"We're fine." Jimmy stood, too. "Is everyone else alright?"
"Yeah. They ducked back through the trap door until the ceiling ran out of spears. I'm going to go steady that boulder so they can climb over it faster." Kyle rushed out.
"You're bleeding," Jessie said in a voice barely louder than a whisper. She moved to him, took a cotton pad out of her backpack and dabbed his scratch.
Jimmy grinned and planted another kiss on her lips, this time a bit longer. Jessie pulled back, laughing.
"Not the time, hotstuff."
God, he loved it when she called him hotstuff.
"No..."
They both turned to the entrance to see Alice standing there, her hands over her mouth. Her gaze shot from Jimmy to Jessie and she scowled.
"You lying cheat!"
"Alice, we broke up," Jimmy said calmly. He didn't feel calm and he hated hurting Alice, but maybe it was for the best. "I told you this once, I told you a million times. I'm sorry, but that's how it is."
"Oh, no!" She waved her hand at him. "You're just confused because—"
"If you're gonna say I hit my head one more time... And even if I did, I hit my head, not my heart."
Alice's scowl deepened and her face turned red. She opened up her mouth to argue, but was interrupted by Sam who stomped inside the room.
"Shut up already, Alice, I've had it with your bitching. He broke up with you, he's with Jessie now, end of story. This is not the time for you, or anyone else to have a fit." Sam put his hands on his hips.
"I don't have to listen to you," Alice told him through gritted teeth.
"Then we'll just leave you here. How's that? So you can either shut up and tag along or find your own way out."
Alice opened her mouth to argue, but Tina placed her hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Drop it, Alice. We need to do this now."
"This isn't over!" Alice snarled, but seemed to accept Tina's logical argument because she threw Jimmy and Jessie one ugly look then headed to the back of the group.
"Now that the high school drama is over, let's see where we can go from here," Tom said, looking around the small, empty, square room.
"What do you mean?" Jessie asked. "We can go outside and follow that corridor."
"No can do," Sam mumbled, walking past them, towards the opposite wall. "It's a dead end. And this is a hall leading to this room."
Jimmy joined Sam in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at the huge, rectangular room. The left and right walls were filled with long, sharp, metal spines. Other than that, there was an arch on the other side of a room, but it lead into a solid wall.
"This has to be it," Jerry said in a resigned voice. "There's no other way we can go."
"That arch thing has to be a doorway," Sam said, though there was a trace of hesitance in his voice. "Let's get it over with."
As soon as Sam took the first step inside, a rumble filled the room and the giant spikes started moving towards the center. Sam rushed to the other side. Everyone followed. As soon as the last of them stepped inside, the door leading to the hall closed.
Sam reached the wall and rammed his shoulder against it. Jimmy made his way forward to help, but Sam had already pulled back. He pressed the combination of bricks that formed the crude sun, but nothing happened. The spines were moving purposefully towards them.
"Go back. Try the combination on the other door," Sam said, sticking his ear against the wall and knocking on it.
Jimmy looked back. The spines had come so close that they had to rush one by one between them. Jimmy grabbed Sam's arm and dragged him towards the door. Tom reached it first and pressed the brick combination. The door opened, but they didn't all have time to get out. Jimmy moved sideways and could feel the spines pressing on his back. They seemed to move faster if anything.
Kyle stopped running, grabbed on to one spine from each wall and pushed them back. For a second they stopped moving and the others got out. Jimmy and Sam ran past him, to safety.
As soon as he was out of the spine room, Jimmy pivoted towards the door. There was no way Kyle could get out without being crushed in the process.
Kay ran past Jimmy, back in the room, towards Kyle. She stopped in front of him, grabbed on to two spines and pushed back too. Jimmy rushed after her.
"Kay, what are you doing? Run!" Kyle hardly managed to say. His voice was strained, and the closer he got, Jimmy noticed that so were his muscles.
"No, don't let go," Kay said, her voice just as strained.
Kyle heaved and the walls parted an inch. "Not when I'm trying to save your life." His face became redder with each word. "Go!"
Kay screamed when Jimmy wrapped his hand around her arm and pulled her back. She struggled to break loose, but he tugged harder and the two of them crashed through the door. It closed behind them.
"No!" Jerry screamed jumping over Jimmy and Kay and reactivating the door.
"Can't be," Sam said, his voice shaky.
Jerry slapped Sam's shoulder and pointed towards the room. "There's a trap door open."
Jimmy passed Kay to Jessie and scrambled to his feet. Jerry was right. There was an opening in the middle of the floor. Jimmy's eyes flew to the spikes on the walls. One of them was bent as if broken, and now that he looked around carefully, Kyle was definitely not impaled on either of the walls.
"Kay, he's alive," he called over his shoulder.
Kay scrambled to her feet and came in the doorway. Her blue eyes widened for a second, then she frowned and ran across the room. The walls trembled again and the spines started moving back, but Kay had long jumped in the trapdoor.
"Come on!" Sam ordered and they all followed him.
Jimmy jumped after Sam, but realized only too late that he would land on top of him. They both tumbled to the ground. Tom landed on Jimmy's back and after him, the rest of the group. Sam yelped at the bottom.
Jimmy rose on his hands, trying to diminish the pressure on Sam's back and looked up. Kyle and Kay were standing a few steps away from them, Kyle's arms wrapped around Kay, both of them grinning.
Jerry crawled out of the pile, pushed Kay aside and hugged Kyle. "I can't believe you did that!"
"Whoa, Jerry, slow down." Kyle stepped back. "My back is a bit sore." He turned around to reveal the rips in his t-shirt and the scratches on his back. "It wasn't easy falling between those things."
Jerry bit his lip. "We may have our differences, but... You're a superhero. I'm just sorry I didn't realize earlier."
"That's okay, Jer'." Kyle gave him a pat on the back and Jerry swayed on his feet.
"Great. Now you're taking advantage," he mumbled.
*
Sam dragged his feet on the grimy stone floor. He was tired, but preferred to move forward. After the spine room, they hadn't encountered any other trap. Maybe the Mayans hadn't expected anyone to get past that one. It was a miracle they did. If Kyle hadn't been as strong as he was, they would've all died there.
"How much longer d'you reckon?" Tom whispered on his right.
"You think we'll get another boulder trap out there?" Angie asked.
Tom groaned. "If we come up in the same corridor, I'm going to kill myself."
"Tom, you shouldn't say things like that!" Jerry said alarmed.
Sam ignored them and started up the stairs. They were very narrow and chipped, so their existence was a trap of its own. "Climb carefully," he called over his shoulder. If he broke his neck falling down stairs, he'd come back as a ghost just to laugh at himself.
He found the activation brick for the trapdoor quickly and opened it. The smell that came from above almost made him tumble down the stairs. He held his breath and clambered up inside a huge room. His eyes watered. It smelled like rotten meat, bad eggs and sulfur.
Sam opened his mouth and breathed in. The smell settled on his tongue, turning his stomach inside out. He had to get used to the air in there. Trying to distract himself, he looked around. The room was huge in all its three dimensions. It was as high as the entrance hall and looked more like a stone hangar.
"Ugh, what died in here?" Tom asked, pinching his nose.
"I think I'm going to throw up," Angie said.
"Sam, look!" Tom pointed across the room.
Sam squinted to the other side and his mouth fell open. Statues lined the back wall, each representing a Mayan deity. In the middle stood the statue of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered snake god. He was portrayed as a coiling, jade snake, with its mouth – which was totally off proportions – open wide. And inside his huge mouth stood...
"The ruby," Sam whispered. It was huge compared to the fake – more the size of a large grapefruit, only it was cut like a diamond. He'd never seen a jewel that big.
"I can't believe we found it," Jerry murmured on his other side.
"It's beautiful," Kay and Jessie said at once.
Sam scrutinized the room, wondering if there were any traps. They had no way of knowing. There wasn't any visible trigger anywhere. He hated having to make this decision, but he saw no way out of it.
"Let's go. Watch your step."
The group rushed across the room. For a wild moment Sam thought they'd done it, that there were no more traps and they'll just get the ruby and get out. Then the next slab he stepped on sank into the ground. As did the ones around him. And every other on a 3 foot radius.
"Holy shit!" Jimmy said.
Sam whipped around to see that the entire floor was sinking and a milky white liquid was sipping through tiny holes behind them, heightening the putrid smell in the room. The floor started to tilt. Holy shit was an understatement.
Jerry ran forward, his feet slipping on the stone tiles and managed to grab on to the edge of the initial floor and hoist himself up. Christine also grabbed on to the edge and scrambled up, then hurried to help Tina do the same.
Sam looked from left to right. The rest of them were too far from the edges to attempt something like that. The milky liquid had started to pool at the bottom of the forming pit, riding up towards them at a dangerous pace.
They all rushed as high up as possible, doing their best to climb the slippery rock. Jerry fumbled in his survival kit and pulled out a roll of rope.
"Christine, give me yours, too!" he called out.
Christine immediately pulled out the rope and handed it to Jerry while Tina busied herself tying it to Jerry's rope and her own. Sam watched them working, wondering if the three of them would actually be able to pull anyone out. They should pull Kyle out first.
"Come on, go!" Kyle pushed Alice and Kay towards the rope Jerry had thrown in.
"Wouldn't it be faster to get you out?" Sam asked, doing his best to keep his balance and not topple over and slide into what he was sure was hot, deadly and corrosive.
"Not really," Kyle mumbled watching Jerry, Christine and Tina pulling Alice out.
Sam fleetingly wondered why everyone was so keen on saving Alice first, but he got his answer once Kay used the rope to get to the edge of the pit and grabbed the edges all by herself. Angie and Jessie scrambled as high as possible, waiting for the next lowering of the rope.
He had no idea why he wasn't panicking, shouting, worrying about the outcome. Maybe because he realized that all those would be useless, or maybe this was the straw that broke the camel's back and he couldn't find enough emotion inside him anymore. Or maybe it was that lucidity you get before you die and he'd already come to terms with his fate.
"Go on, kid." Kyle nudged him higher up, watching the rescue attempt like a crouching tiger, as if he expected something to go wrong.
And it did. Of course it did. Nothing ever came easy for them. The knot Tina had made gave in and Angie went plunging towards the soup.
"I got this!"
Tom threw himself on his stomach and caught her hand before the soles of her boots hit the liquid. Jimmy grabbed on to his ankle to prevent him from slipping lower. Billy grabbed on to Jimmy.
"Lower all the ropes separately!" Kay called.
Kyle nudged Sam further up until he was able to grab on to a rope, took his hand and grabbed Billy with the other. The human chain made sure Angie wasn't going anywhere. Unfortunately, the soup was edging up towards them and Sam had no way of climbing with just one hand.
Tom pulled Angie closer to him. "Climb over us."
Angie's eyes widened, but she seemed to realize it was the only solution. She wrapped her arms around Tom's neck and hoisted herself higher, coming nose-to-nose with him. He let go of her hand and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"I love you."
Angie blinked in surprise. "And you decide now's the perfect time to tell me."
Tom grinned. "Of course. In case we don't make it."
Angie let out a laugh, hugged Tom then scrambled on top of him, over Jimmy, Billy who gave her a huge grin, Kyle and finally reached Sam. She beamed at him as if he'd had some part in Tom's confession, then scrambled up the rope.
Jimmy pulled Tom's ankle as he used his hands to scramble up and, somehow, after a couple of difficult contortionist movements, a lot of swearing and the rancid smell of the soup reaching unbearable heights, they all managed to climb over the edge.
"Do you think the liquid will pour out until it floods the whole room?" Jerry asked quietly.
"I'm not about to find out," Sam said and turned towards the statue of Quetzalcoatl. He had no idea if it was the smell, the adrenaline rush or everything that had happened to them lately, but his brain was fogy. Maybe there were more traps, maybe they were still in mortal danger, but he didn't care, couldn't care anymore.
He walked to the statue and reached out his hand, but just as he was about the grab the ruby, a slab sunk under his feet and he fell forward, grabbing on to the jaw of Quetzalcoatl for support. It didn't stop his fall; the jade jaw seemed to come off. It only fell about a foot then stopped abruptly. The ruby rolled and landed on Sam's head. Loud rumbling filled the room and the wall behind the statue started moving forward.
Sam rolled on the floor, taking in the rest of the room. All the walls moved forward towards the formed pool in the middle. Sam scanned the floor desperately but couldn't remember where the trap door they had come through was.
The others surrounded him, all of them looking around. Sam considered punching Quetzalcoatl's jaw back up, but he wasn't sure if that or the slab had triggered the trap. There was a slight flutter of relief as he saw a potential way out. On the opposite wall, a portion the size of a door was not at level with the rest of the wall.
"This way!" he called rushing around the pool. If that didn't work, they'd be thrown in the corrosive soup soon.
He reached the wall and pressed the bricks forming the sun. The entrance revealed itself and Sam slipped through it, into a completely dark room. The others poured out after him. Sam looked back and noticed the door had reached the edge of the pool. And then, it closed. The rumbling stopped too, once the walls stopped moving.
For a few seconds, no one said anything then the whole group let out a collective sigh.
"Is it over?" Tina asked in a trembling voice.
"There is the matter of getting out." Jerry still sounded worried.
Sam's eyes widened. Was it just his imagination or were they in the entrance hall again? It was much bigger, but that could easily be explained seeing as the other room squeezed to pool-proportions.
"Where do you think we are?" Billy asked.
Sam didn't answer, in case he was wrong. He walked to the wall which was supposed to be the door. He reached his hand and placed it in the middle. It took him a second to get the courage to press it. It went in. It definitely went in. He let out a cry of joy.
"Sam, what's up?" The question came in chorus of voices.
"Who wants to see sunlight?" He pointed the flashlight at the sunken brick. "This is the exit."
A general outburst of happy calls filled the entrance hall and filled Sam up. He rapidly pressed all the bricks and the door started rising, filling the room with light. He couldn't remember ever feeling this happy in his life. Christine ran at him and hugged him. He hugged her back, unaware what he was doing. And she was replaced by the rest of the group as everyone hugged everyone else. Then, the sight of Harry running towards them put him in motion.
They met halfway down the stairs and hugged.
"What took you guys so long? I thought you were dead." Harry laughed, tears streaming down his face.
"Did you get backup?" Sam asked. Not that he cared. He was so happy he was alive, out and had the ruby that he could have spent the rest of his days in the jungle.
"Yeah. They came already. The helicopters landed on top of Snitch Gravel's old base."
Sam looked into the distance, but couldn't spot anything. He couldn't believe that all they had to do was pack and walk for a few hours. The sun was still up,though fading fast. That evening, they could be home.
🌴🌴🌴
AN: Well, this is it. One chapter left and it's all over. But will they make it home or will everyone die in a freak helicopter accident? Do I still have something devious up my sleeve or am I really tying it up nicely?
Wait and see!
I hoped you enjoyed their little adventure and would like to join them on another :)
Thank you for making it this far!