The time has come, the time for the big Long Lost Treasure Hunt, and this is about Lincoln and Clyde making the search for something that could be a true history in the making, and with two gals not too far behind, let's see the duo get back in the team tactics as they did. Enjoy reading this guys.
Family of Two.
Chapter 263: Treasure Hunting.
(Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Camping Grounds.)
May 20: Early morning, and everyone else is fast asleep. Except for two campers, Lincoln Loud and Clyde McBride, the duo leave their cabins and are dressed with jackets since it is still chilly, and then the duo look to each other and high five.
"So, how did it go with Richie?" asked Lincoln.
"I managed to sneak by him while he was asleep. Also, he was wearing earmuffs, because last night there was a really annoying bat squeaking around, and I think that bat belongs to one of the Goth kids" replied Clyde. "How did you manage to bypass Jack Cyber?"
"He seemed fully passed out, and I don't think he knows that I'm not there, and i even left a note telling him where we went and that we'll be okay" replied Lincoln, but then he shows concern. "Also, I have had some doubts about this, I mean my mom is not gonna be happy at what we're doing."
Clyde can tell that this is troubling him. "Well, do you wanna give up on this?"
Lincoln then shakes off the feeling of doubt. "No, no way. We found this note, and I wanna see this whole thing through. You with me, buddy? It's okay to back out."
Clyde has a look of determination. "I'm not walking away from something you wanna take arms on, and I am so with you."
"Same." The two boys then see Jordan and Stella walk towards them and they are wearing jackets as well. "We overheard days ago, and we wanna help as well" replied Stella.
Jordan goes over to Lincoln and she kisses his cheek. "I am not gonna let you do this alone, and I don't want you to get into any serious trouble, so consider us with you boys all the way to find this long lost treasure."
Lincoln smiles hearing this. "Awesome. Now, we should get ready for…" They then hear a howling sound, and they look to the west and see at the top of a cliff far from the camp is the silhouette of a wolf howling in the early morning. "And there he is. Alright, time to read the words on the back of the note."
Clyde looks to the back of the note, and they all read what it says.
"You have awoken to the sight of the morning sun, and heard the howl of this Thursday of the week, and now the steps of more than 50 is the pace you must conjure as you trek west from where the howl emitted from. Be wary and good luck."
This confuses some of them, but then Stella looks to where the wolf howled. "I think we need to take 50 steps to the west, from where the wolf was howling, but how the heck do we…"
Then Jordan figures that out. "The hiking trail! The pathway are large rocks, and they range from more than miles away, we can take the path and count how many stones we've stepped on and then we might find the next clue!"
They all smile hearing that/ "Now that sounds like a smart move, let's get going" said Lincoln. They all make their way down the trail, but they don't know that something underground is following them.
(On the hiking trail.)
As they continue to walk far from the camping grounds, they then finish counting and reach the 50th stone step. "So, now what?" asked Stella. "I don't see anything."
They continue to look around, then Clyde looks to the stone their standing on and he kneels down and look closely. "Well, well. What do we have here?" He then grabs the bottle that is under the stone, and they see the note inside.
"Way to go, Clyde" said Lincoln. They watch as Clyde opens the bottle and then they see the next note and what it says.
"Good job, you found the next note. Time to see how far you can go, because the next path you take is a thorn bush away from where you stand and a few steps farther to evade what roars within the caves."
Lincoln figures out this one. "The berry bush on the trail ahead, and then we have to take a path away from the bear cave that is far from the berry bushes. But those caves are empty, only bats thrive there. The bears don't live around those parts."
Clyde thinks about this. "Unless it's talking about the opposite and wants us to go into the caves, chances we might find the next clue in there."
"Well, let's get going" said Stella. They make their way up the hiking trail and the hidden creature remains in the ground and follows them, but it senses something is wrong and continues to follow them.
(Somewhere off the beaten path.)
The four campers have strayed away from the hiking trail, but Clyde left some red arrows on the trees so they know where to go, they arrive to the old and abandoned bear cave. "Well, this is it. Let's go in" said Lincoln. They all make their way inside and they see that there is nothing in there.
Jordan uses her flashlight and they all look around. "Well, no bears, and no bats either. Maybe the bats went into a new cave somewhere far." But she freaks out when she sees a whip spider walk by them and hide inside of a crack on the wall. "Freaky."
"Well, this helps make the search less troubling" said Clyde. "Now, where the heck is the next clue?" He has a flashlight as well, and so does Lincoln and Stella and they begin to look around the cave.
They continue to search the large cave, but when Stella points her flashlight upwards, she sees something. "Got it." They all look up and see the bottle with the note is stuck to the ceiling of the cave. "Now, how the heck do we get that down?"
Jordan then has an idea. "Time for me to whack it out." She has a small rock and looks to the bottle wedged between two rocks above. "Dodge ball don't fail me now." Jordan throws the rock, and it makes one of the rocks shift and the bottle is loose.
Lincoln then grabs it before it falls, and they back up as the two rocks above fall and break and they show iron ore. "Whoa!" Lincoln then opens the bottle and they use their flashlights to see what the note says.
"It was not easy trying to get this thing up there and harder with the bats around as well, but you did well and now the hunt continues. Best take leave, this cave is super creepy and so the next path is based off the rocky slopes of which you must be wary. A wrong path is not a good turn, but the right way is the branch that leads to something next."
It was Jordan who figures this one out. "The pathway above the cave, there is a path that I saw when we were hiking the other day, and this path leads to the top of the mountain from which we're under right now. But the branch thing is something I don't know about."
They don't understand that one either, but they soon take their leave and spot the old hiking trail and they follow the path to the mountain hiking trail.
The creature hiding in the ground continues to follow them, and it stops when it senses something moving, and then continues to follow beneath the earth.
(Up the mountain trail.)
The group then makes it to the top, and they look to the view of the whole place and they can see the camping grounds and Clyde uses his binoculars. "Well, looks like everyone is awake and I can see Jack Cyber talking to Sheryl, and they don't seem happy either."
Lincoln sighs. "We have got to find out where the next clue is, but where is it?" They look around the area and find nothing.
Stella and Jordan check by some rocks and don't see anything, but then Clyde turns around and sees an old tree is near them. "Wait, the branch! That's what it meant!" They all look up and see one of the branches is torn off, and inside of where it should be is the cork of the bottle.
Stella and Jordan drag a rock over, and Stella stands on it and then she grabs the bottle off the severed area of the tree. "Got it." she comes down and she opens the bottle, but then the old tree begins to sway back and forth and falls off the cliff.
"Huh, so the bottle was keeping the weight, oh dear" said Jordan. They then look into the note and read what it says.
"You saw the tree right? Well, that thing has been around for some time and got struck by lightning and pretty much kicked the bucket, but enough of that. The path from which takes you now is down another path, and the way to know is the sound of rumbling as if something is flowing, and the location is said to have been the spawning grounds of many."
Lincoln chuckles at this. "Too easy, the waterfall and the river below. The one we saw last week on the hiking trip, we have to go there."
The group nods and they go to another pathway that leads to where they need to be, but the underground creature remains following them, and something else is also following them.
(Sleeping Dunes Waterfall and Bear Side River.)
The four kids see the waterfall and then they see the river below, the four of them look around and see nothing. "So, what the heck do we do now?" asked Lincoln.
They look around and find nothing, but then something catches Jordan's eyes. "Wait, there it is!" they spot a small chest and they go over and see what it was all about, and this chest is black and has these golden emblems of bears on them.
"Whoa. Now this does look like a historic treasure" said Stella. "Let's see what's inside!"
All of them are excited on what they're gonna find, but they're disappointed at the content. "You're kidding, right?" said Jordan. It's a note, what the heck?!
"We went through all of this, just to find this note instead?!" said Stella.
"This has got to be some kind of prank" said Clyde. He seems upset as the others, but Lincoln is just annoyed by this note.
"Let's see what it says." Lincoln takes the note, he then removes the ribbon and he opens it, and they all come together and read what it has to say.
"Congratulations. You fell right into this malarchy, and now the best option left for you, is to die."
This confuses them. "Wait, what?"
Then a net is launched and Clyde, Stella and Jordan are stuck inside of it. "What the heck?!" Lincoln goes over to help, but someone tackles him and he falls to the ground and has a bruise to his left arm. Lincoln then sees who did this.
Three men, dressed in camouflage gear and they smell like nature. "You finally caught up to the whole bullshit we left behind, looks like the plan really did work" said David. He then has his shotgun.
"They fell for it, went along the path and then here we are" said Joshua as he has a mallet.
Then Zander has a sniper rifle and he removes the rest of the net ammo. "Now it's time to do what we were paid for. To end you're miserable, stupid existence, boy!"
Lincoln and the others are surprised. More folks who want him out of the picture. This angers Jordan, and she struggles to break free. "Hey! Leave him alone!" But Stella has a swiss army knife, and she begins to cut the net.
Zander then goes over and he grabs Lincoln by his leg. "No! No, let me go!" He then punches him in the back of the head, and then he grabs Lincoln by his hair and throws him towards his friends.
The three men then pull out some bowie knives and walk towards the group. "Alright, so we were hired to hunt down this kid, and I didn't think it seemed special" said David. "But when the boss gave the pay, it meant this is something special and sorry, kid. But we gotta end you now."
"The same goes with your friends there" replied Joshua. "They saw the whole thing, and so we gots to get rid of all of ya, and a good thing there's this waterfall too."
Zander then steps onto Lincoln's foot and he points the knife at his head. "Any last words, filthy white-haired child?"
Jordan then remembers what she has. "Yeah, I have one…" She pulls out the flare gun. "Time for some backup." She points it up and it shoots, they watch as the flare blows up into the air and it makes a blue eagle symbol that is glowing yellow and then green and then red.
"What the hell was that?" said Joshua.
"Stupid kid." David kicks Jordan and this angers Lincoln, he then leg sweeps Zander and then he grabs the bowie knife and frees them. He nearly gets stabbed by David and Joshua, but he dodges and he grabs the knife and he strikes it onto the right leg of David and he falls to the ground.
Joshua then kicks Lincoln on his knee and this makes him go down to the ground. But then Clyde grabs onto the man at the back of the head, and then Stella has a tree branch and she hits the man in the gut. But he overpowers them and knocks them away. "Stupid kids!"
"Hold it!" they all see that Zander has Jordan by her neck, and a machete. "One wrong move, and she dies! Now, get over here kid so we can end you!"
Lincoln didn't like this. All this time, they were being led into a trap for Lincoln to die, and now his friends are caught into this mix. Lincoln sheds some tears, and he slowly walks towards the man. Jordan tries to speak, but she can't.
Clyde and Stella try to go and help, but then Joshua and David grab them and pin them down, and they pull out some guns and point it to their heads.
Lincoln then feels the ground shake, and then the sound of something in the air catches their attention and they see what looks like a Warthog fighter. "What the heck is that thing doing here?" asked David. They don't notice the ground underneath Zander begin to shake.
Lincoln sees this and he recalls what his mom said. "Reinforcements."
The ground busts open and a Zerg Roach emerges and it bites hard onto the right leg of Zander, the man panics and he let's go of Jordan and she falls into the river. "No!" Lincoln jumps into the water and swims after her.
Zander tries to fight off the Roach, but its mouth begins to form acid and he screams in pain. Then the warthog comes down and transforms into a robot and this shocks David and Joshua. It grabs both men and throws them away and they both hit the trees hard and fall to the ground in pain.
The Roach then continues to bite onto Zander's leg, and then it does one final bite and the man's leg is ripped off. Zander stumbles and he falls into the river.
They spot Lincoln grab Jordan, and they see the waterfall is getting close, they try to swim away, but Zander is underwater and grabs them both and they fall down the water fall.
"Hold on!" Jack Cyber transforms into a jet and he flies off and then swoops down to grab them, and he manages to get Lincoln and Jordan to land onto his back, and Zander falls to the bottom of the waterfall and he's gone.
The jet then lands at the top of the waterfall and the duo get off and they begin to cough out the water. Jordan then hugs Lincoln and he returns the embrace. Clyde and Stella sigh in relief from this, then they see David and Joshua begin to slowly limp away.
"Not so fast!" Jack Cyber transforms into a sentry gun and he opens fire and the legs of Joshua are torn to shreds, while the Roach spews out its acid and David's right arm is burnt off and he falls to the ground and screams in pain.
Everyone sighs in relief, and they hear the sounds of sirens from a dropship coming. Lincoln and Jordan continue to hug each other, and cry. The trouble, that was close and it nearly went bad.
Jack Cyber looks down to the waterfall and he scans the area and sees no sign of the man. "Well, this is gonna be bad."
Day 4 to the 6 day stay at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Camping Grounds.
A/N: Now you all didn't see that coming, or did you? But the trouble is far from over folks, so stay tuned for the next chapter. Leave a review and tell me what you all think.
Date made: 4/22/21.