Seventeen

The Golden City

"Riley, you first!" shouted Ben.

Riley made a run for it and jumped, just making it to the ladder.

The platform gave a great lurch right as Ben jumped - he just made it too.

"Did you see that? Did you see that?!" cried Riley, hauling himself up onto the ledge.

"I saw it," Alex smiled. "You were great back there!" She threw her arms around him and they shared another kiss.

"So, forward then?" interrupted Mitch.

The others scowled but followed onward.


"I hope Mom and Dad are okay," said Alex.

"Yeah, me too," agreed Ben.

Up ahead, they filed through a narrow doorway. Beside the doorway there were a couple of torches. Ben used one of their flares to light them.

Once the room was somewhat illuminated, they found that they were standing in a wide cavern housing various waterfalls and streams.

"It's a dead end," called Abigail. "There's no way out. There's no forward!" she had to shout over the rushing water.

"It's not forward, it's down," said Ben. "Look under the water!"

"Gold!" cried Alex, shining her flashlight at their feet. Indeed, gold glimmered beneath the water's surface. This was a good sign.

"All this water has to go out somewhere, otherwise it would be filled up," Ben explained. An old wheel resembling that of a ship's wheel sat in the centre of the cavern. "Help me turn this wheel."

The five of them all grabbed one of the wheel's handles and started walking in a clockwise circle. The old wheel creaked and turned with their effort. Small dams slid down and cut off the water flow to reveal-

"Another doorway," said Riley, his voice dripping with fake enthusiasm.

The others were already rushing through the doorway to see what lay beyond.

"Oh my," cried Alex as they entered another wider cavern.

That's when they saw it: Cibola, the Lost City of Gold.

Golden structures rose in and out of the rocks all around them, the gold causing the cavern to glow, as though from within.

They had found it.

Alex gripped her brother's arm. "It's beautiful."

"It sure is," he agreed with a nod.

"Ben! Alex!"

Relief swarmed them when they caught sight of Patrick and Emily on the other side of the cavern.

"Mom, Dad!"

"WE FOUND IT!" Ben threw up his arms and cheered.

"Thomas was right!" shouted Patrick.

"No, you were right!" Ben shouted back.

Patrick and Emily cautiously made their way across the cavern towards the others while everyone began exploring the fascinating lost city.

Alex snorted with laughter watching Riley trying to shove a large gold brick into his backpack. "What are you doing? Are you really going to carry that home with you?"

"Al, we're gonna be rich!" He managed to slide the block into his bag before he was cut off by a rumbling and popping sound. "What's that?"

Suddenly, both were showered in water when the wall nearby burst, and the city began flood.

"Everyone back together!" cried Ben, trying to gather the group. The way they had come was already flooded, so they scrambled to find another way out.

A nearby tunnel proved potential, but they didn't have much time for other options.

"Another wheel!" cried Ben, this one with two long wooden handles. "Someone help me!"

Mitch joined him and the two worked to turn the wheel. A large slab of rock ahead of them slid open with the movement of the mechanism.

"It slopes down, it's a drainage tunnel!" Patrick informed them. "But it fills with water when you open the door."

"We need to find something to stick under it to keep it open," cried Abigail, already searching around.

"No!" cried Patrick. "If it stays open, this tunnel will stay flooded. We've got to get to the other side and close the door."

"Patrick, Emily, go!" urged Riley, and the two went to duck under the rock.

But before they could, the rock slammed shut. Ben strained against the wheel when Mitch let go, narrowly missing getting hit by the other handle.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Alex.

"Mitch! We've got to be on the other side of that door!" yelled Riley.

"No one leaves unless I say so," Mitch stated.

"Really, you're going to do this now?" cried Alex.

"That door clearly isn't gonna stay open by itself," continued Mitch. He turned to Ben. "We both know what has to happen here, Ben."

Ben's jaw tightened. "One of us has to stay behind and keep the door open."

"I vote Mitch," said Riley.

"Agreed," said Alex.

"This isn't a democracy-" Mitch swung at Ben, knocking him back.

"Hey!" Riley dove at him, but Mitch punched him too.

"Riley - hey!" Alex was wrenched from Riley's side by Mitch. He held her with a knife to her throat.

"Alex!"

"Al!"

"Alexandra!"

"STOP! I'll stay, okay, I'll stay!" yelled Ben. "Look, see? I'm staying." He moved back towards the wheel.

"Okay, I'll tell you all how this is gonna go," said Mitch. "You and me hold the door open. If any of you try to leave before me I drop the door and we start this all over again."

"You smug, selfish-" Alex squirmed in his grasp.

"Oh no, not again," said Riley.

"But you try any funny business and I guarantee you people are gonna get hurt," Mitch threatened.

"We won't, you have my word," said Ben. "Now give me yours. We're talking about my sister's life here." He nodded to the knife. "And all our lives. I'll stay."

"Very well." Mitch let Alex go, shoving her away.

"No Ben!" she cried, splashing over to her brother. "There's got to be a way, there's got to be something we can use to hold the door open with-"

"There's not," Ben cut in. Brother and sister exchanged a devastated look.

"Abigail. You make my parents and sister leave, you make them leave," Ben requested. The blonde just nodded sadly.

"No - no, I'm not leaving you!" Alex gripped his jacket tightly.

"Al, please."

"No-"

"Al."

She was defeated. "I love you, Big Brother."

"I love you too, Little Sis." The siblings wrapped each other up in a tight embrace.

"Proud to be a Gates."

"Proud to be a Gates." Ben kissed the top of her head.

When Abigail tried to pull Alex away, she cried and gripped Ben's jacket.

Crying now herself, Abigail was met with resistance by the others as well before she even spoke. "Come on, please, let's go-"

"We're not leaving him!"

"No Ben, we're not leaving without you!" cried his mother.

"Patrick, Emily - please. He's trying to save our lives," cried Abigail desperately.

Ben and Mitch turned the wheel once again, opening the door. The current was strong, so whether they liked it or not, they were pushed under and to the other side without Ben.

"No-" Alex gave a strangled cry as she was pushed under by the current. When she broke the surface again, she was on the other side. "Ben! No-"

One by one, everyone managed to slide beneath the rock and to the safety of the other side.

Alex had both hands pressed into the now-sealed wall, head bent low, crying softly. No one spoke. No one had anything to say.

Then, suddenly, the wall moved again and out popped –

Haha, cause in the movie Riley's like, "Why couldn't a girl see me do that?" but here, one does ;) Oh Riley!

Wow, that tunnel scene is so intense and stressful! Great suspense!

Thank you so much for reading this chapter and I hope you enjoyed it! :)