Cassie and Derek were almost out of there, without even using the light to guide them, and then that's when they heard the footsteps of someone else approach them in front and stop just seconds after being heard. Cassie and Derek freeze in place in more time, their eyes adjusting to the darkness so they could see a large shadowy figure in front of them. Cassie and Derek's heads crane up in unison to see the ugliest face in the dark state down at them. Cassie shines the light in the figure's face and she saw a large head with yellow teeth, black eyes, thick eyebrows, and the palest of skin she has ever seen before.
Derek picked up a large rock and struck the large figure in the groin area. The large figure folds over and collapses to his knees in agony. Cassie and Derek then dart for the exit, clawing their way up the hill they rolled down when they spontaneously found their way into this cave. Once they were back on the outside, they gasped for fresh air and made a run for it as fast as they could.
They stopped near a tree about twenty-five meters away from where they fell in and they caught their breaths.
"Man," Cassie croaked as she grabbed her knees and hunched over. "We need to get in shape, Derek."
Derek sat down near a tree and pulled out a canteen from his pocket and took a large gulp before passing it to his friend. "Speak for yourself, but as soon as we get the hell out of here, we are going to do more than just climbing rocks."
Cassie took a drink before tossing the canteen back. "Some birthday if I get caught by a giant guy," she chuckled slightly. "Maybe, it was all supposed to happen."
The bushes were rustling in the direction that they just came from which immediately startled the two. They hightailed it out of their once again. They retraced their steps back to the campgrounds until Cassie had an epiphany. She called out to her friend, "We can't lead him back to the camp!"
"Course," he agreed without even hesitating because they already shared half a brain. "We don't need him sneaking into our tents at night.'
"Actually," she paused, "I was thinking I don't want to get in trouble on my birthday so we have to try and lose him!"
Cassie and Derek sprinted as fast as they could in the opposite direction of the campgrounds but they were both exhausted by the time they slowed to a stop and rested near a bridge over a ravine. Neither one recognized this old rotted wooden bridge. Derek spotted the ropes holding the bridge to be slowly rotting off and if they were to cross without paying proper attention, they then would fall to their deaths. "Great," he complained, "Now we have to cross a bridge that could fall at any second."
Cassie already started crossing the bridge and stopped only to persuade Derek, "Cross or toss."
"That doesn't even make sense but alright."
Cassie was running across the bridge with Derek the following suit. She had gotten too careless with her running and because nobody was perfect, her foot broke a wooden plank she stomped on and she fell through. Derek dived forward and grabbed her before she could fall thousands of feet to her death. He pulled her up with both hands and checked to make sure that she was alright.
"Are you okay?" Derek worried, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Cassie said nonchalantly as if it didn't affect her but deep down, she was terrified for her life. She looked over the ropes on the bridge and slightly gasped at how far she would've fallen had Derek not saved her life. "Thank you."
Then the ugly guy from the cave started chasing after them on the bridge, "Come back here!"
The two teens looked behind them and burst into the sprinting mode, uncaring if they should've slowed down to avoid breaking any more planks. Just as they were fifteen feet from the bridge, the bridge broke in half at the midway point and all three parties went falling. Cassie and Derek grabbed the wooden planks and held on for dear life went the dangling bridge hit the rocky wall. The ugly guy chasing after them did the same thing except on the opposite side. All three parties started climbing up the bridge like ladders.
"Climb up," Derek ordered below Cassie, "These wooden bridges can't support our weight."
"Tell me something I don't know, like what's the square root of seven?" She was being sarcastic. Cassie gripped one more wooden plank above her and she lost her grip and fell. Derek caught her with one hand and swung her over to the rocky wall. She grabs a handhold and starts climbing up the wall like a monkey.
"It's Drake time," she laughs to herself as she climbs up the rock wall with no safety equipment, using nothing but her wits. Derek follows her but unlike her, his climbing skills were still in the beginning phase.
"Come on," she urged. She grabbed a handhold, which abruptly broke but she was able to grab another handhold in time. "If what my Dad says is true, then I should have a habit of breaking things any time now."
"If it runs in the family," Derek began, "Should I be underneath you?"
"That's what she said," she laughed before she lost her grip again, only to regain it. "Nobody saw that."
"I did."
Cassie reached the top and she helped Derek up. She nearly lost her footing slipping on dirty but Derek caught her before she fell on the seat of her pants. "Man, you're just a hero today."
"Only because you're clumsy today."
The two of them laugh at each other's statements before looking on the opposite side of the canyon they just crossed. The ugly man was still there and he flipped off the two before they did the same back at him.
The ugly man turned his back to the two and he used his earpiece. "533301 to Leader, I have failed to obtain the Tatter. I repeat, 533301 has failed to obtain the Tatter. I lost it to two young kids." He was then asked if he acquired visual contact with the cultists in the cave. "Negative but I will go back for a recon. What about the two kids?" He answered. "Understood."
Cassie and Derek walked back to the camp with Cassie reading off the piece of paper in her hand. She noted the colors matched the colors that were in the journal. Red, Blue, yellow, green. "Same symbols, what could these possibly mean?"
Derek took a look and said aloud what he observed. "Three symbols of the three primes. Red is mercury, blue is salt, and yellow is sulfur."
She looks up at him with wonder. She always knew that his love for archaeology was on par with her but instead of her focusing on myths, he started with pseudoscience. While Cassie was a big fan of the supernatural (kinda), he was more into things that are superhuman or super in some way. So alchemy was right up his alley. "Look at you, putting on your big-boy panties." She handed him the piece of the paper so he could examine them further. "If these symbols are mercury, salt, and sulfur, then what is the fourth symbol."
He takes the piece of paper and examines it himself. He brings the piece of paper up to his face like he was near-sighted and exerted his mind to look through his memories for whatever category this symbol could fit into. "Sorry, Cass. Nothing in my mind can recognize this symbol."
"A star with a big ring around it. You sure you've got nothing on it?"
"I'm more than sure," he promised. "But I can study this more once we get back home to Hawaii."
"If you say so."
They spent about an hour walking home and while they were walking, they were chatting with each other.
"I know it seems kinda awkward but I can't handle quiet for too long," Cassie said. "I require a conversation for whatever reason to prevent myself from going crazy."
Derek nodded in understanding, "I feel ya, Cass."
She smirked, "Just like you felt me up in the cave?"
Derek's eyes widened and the blushing heated up his cheeks. He stuttered on what he was doing, trying to explain himself but Cassie laughed at him.
"Don't worry, D-Man, you're my friend and I was getting hysterical." She pats him on the back, "Get your erection in your pants." Derek subconsciously covered his crotch area with the paper. "It's nothing, you just owe me one birthday present."
He holds up the paper, "Shouldn't this be counted as your birthday present?"
"I found it and stole it from a gang of graverobbers." She suddenly remembered. "You remember Rick?"
Rick was the name of a graverobber that they encountered one year ago exactly. The two were racing and they came across Rick digging up an ancient tablet of Polynesian origin and after a brief confrontation, he handed it over to them for free, saying it was an honor to meet the daughter of his idol. To both of them, Ricky was something of an idol to them because he was the very first treasure hunter (sort to speak) that they came across and he handed them a tablet that gave them something to look forward to solving.
"How could I forget?"
"I was just thinking of him. It's been far too long since we went on an adventure and here we are, in Honduras on my birthday and we're sneaking away from our parents to look for a lost city or something else hopefully. You know, the more adventures we go on, the more it will benefit us when we go to college."
"What college were you thinking?"
"Whatever the best college is for archaeology."
"So the University of Hawaii in Maui? It was declared the best school for archaeologists just last year."
"Looks like I'm going there. I should have a backup plan just in case."
"I already have my backup plans just in case." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out two papers that have been folded and unfolded one to read. "University of Chicago, New York University, Boston University, Oxford, and UCL."
She legit could not believe that he already had a backup plan; she barely had any plans for when she got out of high school. Sure she wanted to be an archaeologist against her parents' wishes (to hell with them) but she had no grand plan. Just go to school, study to be an archaeologist and search for lost cities. She would've searched for El Dorado, Shambhala, Iram of the Pillars, and Libertalia but her parents stole that honor from her so she had to think bigger.
When they arrived back, it turns out their parents woke up ahead of schedule and deduced that Cassie and Derek ran off into the jungle. Derek was scolded by his mother because she wears the pants in family (due to being former military) while Cassie was lectured on what is dangerous out there in the real world and she even theorized that this 'what's good and bad' lecture speech was a subtle attempt to get her not to become an archaeologist.
Like hell I'm going to be a history teacher.
Derek was giving a few soft slaps on his wrists while Cassie was left embarrassed. The good thing was just them and their parents. Like a girl in trouble, she was standing in the corner of the camp and Derek came over to comfort her.
"Sorry, you got in trouble with your parents." Cassie acknowledged to Derek by saying:
"It was nothing. If anything, I loved the rebellion. And sides." She pulls out the paper from her back pocket, which she hid from her parents, deeming that since she found it, it is hers by right. "The ends justify the means."