Hello my wonderful readers! I bring you another long chapter! Unfortunately, this adventure is drawing to a close. This is the second to last chapter. But do not fret! Among Thieves is already under way! No idea when it will be ready to start posting, took me a while to be happy enough with this one, and even now I'm still making changes. Anyway, enjoy!
Update: I had the wrong age for Alex when she met Nate. Not sure how I managed that, but I fixed it.
The catacombs were as expected, dark and gloomy. Each room we entered was lined with alcoves carved into the stone walls, a final resting place for hundreds of skeletons whose names had long since been forgotten. The catacombs opened a few times into caverns, usually housing several mercenaries that we had to get around. I was thankful when we finally made it out and continued our trip through the monastery. As we climbed about, Sully's voice came over the walkie-talkie.
"Nate, Alex, you read me?"
"Yeah. Sully, we're just going in circles, here," Nate replied, a little frustration seeping into his tone.
"Well, the girl and I been reading some of the books down here and it looks like there's some kind of secret gallery at the top of the church. Can you get there?"
"Think so. Yeah."
"All right, give us a call if you find anything." Going off this new information, Nate and I made our way to the church. We entered the top part of the church and I spotted a patterned window at the other end. I nudged Nate and pointed.
"That symbol looks familiar," I said, recalling seeing the symbol in Drake's journal.
"That's gotta be it," Nate agreed. We used some wooden platforms to jump across to the window, solving a puzzle along the way to open it and revealing a secret area behind. Inside the secret area were more stained glass windows, each with their own symbol. We went over to the one that had the same symbol. "Well, hello there." He opened the window and we could see a cemetary down below. A mausoleum stood a little way from the church, the symbol perched on its roof. "You gotta be kidding…" Nate grumbled as he noticed two mercenaries standing outside the mausoleum door. "Hey, Sully."
"I'm here," Sully answered.
"Remember Roman and Navarro, and that 'red herring' you sent them on, to get them out of the way?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, they're sitting right on top of the treasure vault."
"Oh, of all the goddamn luck -" Sully groaned.
"Look, we're gonna need a diversion to get them out of there."
"You got it, kid. One diversion, coming right up."
"And Sully -"
"Yeah."
"Once they're gone, meet us in the mausoleum. But come through the catacombs - it's safer that way," Nate instructed.
"Gotcha." Nate returned the walkie-talkie to his belt and we watched as a moment later, Roman and Navarro ran out of the mausoleum, Navarro yelling at his men to find Sully.
"Now we just have to get past all these goons without getting noticed," I said with a heavy sigh, hands on my hips as I surveyed all the mercenaries still on guard.
Of course, getting through the graveyard didn't go as quietly as we had hoped. We were quickly spotted and a firefight ensued, though I did get to have fun with a Dragon Sniper some moron left lying around. Once all the mercenaries were taken care of, we entered the mausoleum where Sully and Elena were waiting.
"Hey," Nate greeted while I smiled and waved at the two. Elena repeated the greeting and Sully laughed.
"I knew you two could do it! So what's next?"
Nate shrugged. "I don't know, I'm figuring it out as I go. This is definitely the right place, though." I surveyed the room. There were niches cut into the stone all around the room, each one having a different symbol below it. I knelt next to the symbol of a snake and examined it a bit closer. It appeared to be able to be turned.
"Nate, these move," I announced. "Is there anything in the journal?" Nate pulled out the journal and flipped a few pages.
"Alex, turn that one once to the right and that one twice to the left," he instructed, pointing to two different symbols. I did as told as he turned another symbol. Once the symbols were turned the right way, we heard a rumble and a secret passageway opened. Nate grinned. "Looks like we're in business." He brushed several bones to the floor, picking up a skull and tossing it to Sully. "Heads up!" Nate climbed into the passageway and Elena and I followed.
"Whaddya make of it?" Sully asked.
"I dunno, could be a dead end," Nate responded, shining his flashlight around.
Elena moved forward. "Wait, it look like there might be a passage this way -" She stopped as she stepped on something, causing the room to creak. "Uh-oh." I turned to Sully as he started to climb through.
"Sully, get out of there!" I yelled.
"Huh?"
"Move!" I ran over and shoved him out of the way just as the door slammed shut.
"Sullivan, are you okay?" Nate called into the walkie-talkie. "Sully?!"
"Yeah, yeah, fine," Sully responded, causing all to heave a sigh of relief. "Alex knocked me on my ass, though."
"Sorry," I apologized. "But you better get back to the library. We're gonna have to find another way outta here."
"Well, there's no way but forward," Nate said. We moved through the passage until we reached a huge chamber filled with criss-crossing pathways.
"What is this place?" Elena wondered.
"A really elaborate way to hide the damn treasure," Nate grumbled, clearly frustrated about having to solve yet another puzzle. I had to agree with him. I was seriously beginning to wonder if we were ever going to find El Dorado.
"Question is, which path do we take," I said, surveying the multiple routes.
"Huh - wait a second…" Nate said, kneeling next to a symbol on the floor. I walked over and noticed a 'V' shaped symbol.
"Is that a Roman numeral?" I asked. Nate didn't answer and pulled out Drake's map. On the top corner were three Roman numerals.
"These have to mean something…" Nate mused. I glanced around and noticed more Roman numerals.
"Maybe if we follow the Roman numerals from the map," I suggested.
Nate shrugged and put away the map. "It's our only lead right now." We started following to Roman numerals.
"I'll stay here and keep a lookout while you two figure out we're going to get across," Elena called. We moved through the chamber, following the Roman numerals. We came to a wheel mechanism.
"This had gotta be good for something," Nate mumbled to himself, reaching out to pull a lever.
"Uh, do you really think pulling that is a good idea?" I inquired.
Nate looked back at me. "What's the worst that could happen?"
I cocked a brow and crossed my arms. "Do you want me to answer that?"
"...Fair point, but do you have any other ideas." I opened my mouth, but couldn't come up with an answer. I shut my mouth and with a sigh, waved in a 'go ahead' motion. He pulled the lever, causing several connecting wheels to start turning.
"Nate, Alex, did you do that?" Elena called. "Things just started moving down here!" We continued following the path until we reached a dead end. Nate stepped out onto a small wooden platform at the edge.
"Hey! We made it!" Nate called, waving excitedly to Elena below us.
"Hey, be careful!" I warned. "That thing doesn't look very safe - NATE!" As I spoke, the platform rocked beneath him, causing him to lose his balance and topple over the side. I leaned over the side. "Nate?!"
"It's all right! I'm okay!" Nate assured me from the platform he had thankfully landed on. I heaved a sigh of relief and climbed down to him.
"Try climbing down next time, idiota," I scolded, though I was relieved to see him unharmed.
Nate grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, not my fault everything around here is falling apart." We continued across a few more platforms and onto a lift. "Whoa… Okay…" We both screamed as the lift suddenly dropped. He turned to me. "You okay?"
I sighed in frustration. "Fine." We both looked up at a barred window on the wall beside us. The bars slid up into the wall. Nate and I shared a look and climbed up to the window and onto the other side.
"See if you can find a way to get this gate open. I'll wait here," Elena said. Movement caught my eye and I turned to look. In the distance I could see something crawling across the wall.
"What the hell?" Nate wondered, seeing the creature too. We shook it off for the time being and continued. We climbed to the next level and into another lift. Like the first one, the second lift dropped, causing us both to scream. We tumbled out of the lift, Nate landing flat on his back with me on top of him. I looked down at him, breathing heavily.
"Ciao (hi)," I said rather lamely.
"Hi," Nate replied, a soft smile on his face. I stared into his baby blue eyes, nearly getting lost in them until Elena cleared her throat. I shook my head and quickly got off Nate.
"You two okay?" Elena asked, a smirk on her face.
"Fine," I answered quickly. I patted Nate's arm as I walked by. "You make a nice landing pad by the way." We crossed a bridge onto another walkway. Suddenly, an explosion went off above us. Through the dust, Eddy appeared.
"Hey, bule! Last man alive gets the gold! You lose," Eddy chortled. "Kill them all."
"This just keeps getting better and better," Nate gumbled. We dove for cover and pulled out our pistols. We took out Eddy's men, including a couple with rocket launchers. We continued taking out Eddy's men as we moved on. We finally entered a large circular room with no exit in sight.
"There's nothing here," Elena said shining a torch around.
Nate let out a huff of frustration. "This is getting so old." We looked around and Nate moved over to one side.
"Nate...?" I questioned, following him. He knelt next to a corpse. I moved for a closer look at the corpse. Nate ran a hand over the crest on the corpse's metal collar.
"It's Drake," Nate announced quietly. I put a hand to my mouth in shock. "He never found it. He just… died here." He took off the ring from around his neck and I placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. Elena stood off to the side, watching the two of us silently. I gazed sadly at the corpse of the man we had spent so many years trying to find. "So much for 'greatness'. Wasted his life… for nothing." He dropped the ring in front of Drake's corpse. I gave his shoulder a light squeeze. I turned my head as I heard shouting and gunshots in the distance.
"You ready to get moving?" I asked gently.
Nate nodded, getting to his feet and gazing forlornly at Drake's corpse. "Yeah… More than ever."
"There's gotta be a way outta here," Elena insisted. The three of us looked around for a couple minutes until Nate spotted something.
"It looks like there's some kind of machinery up there." I followed his gaze and sure enough.
"If I'm not mistaken, that looks like a ladder," I added, pointing.
Elena smacked Nate's arm. "Think you can give me a boost?" Nate nodded and moved into position, cupping his hands. She stepped into his hands and he slowly lifted her up.
"Oh, you're heavier than you look," Nate groaned. I closed my eyes briefly. He was lucky he didn't say that to me. "Can you reach it?" Elena jumped and caught the bottom of the ladder, pulling herself up.
"Looks like an old hoist or something!" She called. "There's a rope - I'll try to lower it down to you! Oh, I see a tunnel - we can get out this way!" A rumbling noise shook the room. Nate and I saw Eddy and an armed guard backed into the room.
"Hello, boys," Nate said as he and I pointed our guns at them. Eddy and his guard jumped and spun around. "Easy, Eddy, easy." We heard something growling outside.
"What the heck is going on out there?" I demanded.
"Didn't you see them?!" Eddy asked, clearly terrified of whatever was making the noise.
"Oh no… Oh God, no…" Eddy's guard whimpered.
"We're trapped!"
"What is that?" Nate inquired as the growling continued, getting louder.
"We're dead! We're all dead!" Eddy cried in despair. A creature that reminded me of Gollum from Lord of the Rings suddenly jumped Eddy's guard, dragging him down into a pit. "No!" Eddy ran after his guard, firing blindly into the dark.
"Eddy, get back here," Nate ordered as he and I backed into the middle of the room, our guns at the ready. Two more creatures climbed out of the pit. "Oh crap." Eddy came back and the three of us stood back to back.
"Drake, if we don't make it out of here, I just want you to know - I hate your guts."
"Yeah, likewise pal. Now let's do this." We began to fire at the Gollum creatures. Their bodies started to pile up, but more continued to stream from the pit. I ran around the room, dodging swipes from the creatures as I fired.
"What the hell is going on down there?!" Elena demanded.
"Just get that rope down here! Fast!" Nate yelled, firing a couple rounds into another creature.
"Damn! It's totally rusted - it won't move!"
"Elena?!"
"It's stuck!"
"That's right, you ugly konyok!" Eddy shouted, killing another creature as he stood dangerously close to the edge of the pit. "Don't mess with Eddy Raja!" Suddenly, a clawed hand reach out and grabbed his shirt and tried to pull him into the pit.
"Eddy!" I shouted, killing off another Gollum wannabe.
"I've got him!" Nate said. I covered him as he ran over to the struggling Indonesian. "Eddy! Hold on!" Nate grabbed Eddy's hand and attempted to pull him up. He shot one of the creatures in the face, but the second creature bit Eddy's neck, causing the man to scream as they tumbled into the pit. Nate backed away towards me. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me…"
"Elena, hurry up!" I shouted.
"Hold on, guys!" Nate and I kept shooting, having to dart to opposite sides of the room to avoid the creatures.
"Any time now!" I yelled, shooting a creature in the head. I rolled out of the way as another creature took a swipe at me. I came up in a crouch and shot the creature.
"Alex! Look out!" I turned at Nate's shout just in time to be tackled to the ground by one of the creatures, sending my gun skittering across the floor. "Alex!" I tried to hold the creature back, but it was difficult as it struggled and clawed to get at me. It sunk its claws into my thigh just as I kicked it away, causing me to cry out in pain as its claws racked down my leg. Ignoring the pain, I scrambled to my gun, spinning around to fire just as the creature jumped at me. A gunshot rang out and the creature dropped, but I hadn't fired. Nate lowered his gun and rushed over to me, glancing at my bloody leg in concern. "Alex -"
"I'm fine," I quickly assured him, though my leg felt like it was on fire. "Help me up." Nate put my right arm around his neck and his left arm around my waist. I let out a groan of pain as he lifted me to my feet.
"Elena!" Nate yelled, shooting another creature.
"I got it! It's moving!" Elena shouted. "Grab the rope!" Nate helped me limp towards the rope, making me climb first before following. "I'll swing you over - hold on!" We landed safely on the upper level just as the creatures began to swarm towards us. "Oh my -"
"Go!" Nate helped to me feet again and the three of us ran, occasionally shooting behind us. We ran into a room and Nate slammed the door behind us.
"What the hell were those things?!" Elena demanded, gun still pointed at the door.
"I don't know. I don't know," Nate replied. He turned to us. "Are you okay?"
Elena nodded. "Yeah."
"Fine," I replied through gritted teeth, trying my best to ignore the pain in my leg. I leaned against the railing across from the door, using it to take the weight from my now throbbing leg. Nate ignored my reply and walked over.
"I need to look at that," he said, gesturing to my leg.
"I'll be fine," I assured him with a dismissive wave. "We need to figure out how to get out of here." But Nate wasn't taking no for an answer. He gave me a deadpanned look before scooping me up, earning him an uncharacteristic squeak of surprise, and depositing me on a table in the middle of the room. I glared at him. "Nate!" He ignored me and proceeded to take a closer look at my wound. The creature had left four long gashes down my leg. Thankfully, they weren't deep, but they were painful and still bleeding slightly.
"Oh, Alex!" Elena gasped, finally seeing my wound.
"I've had a lot worse," I said nonchalantly.
"Don't remind me," Nate mumbled, not looking up from his inspection.
"Oh come on, we got out ok."
Nate glanced up at me with a cocked eyebrow. "You were in the hospital for a week with a knife wound, Alex. You would have been in longer if you hadn't checked yourself out."
Elena stared at me with wide eyes. "You checked yourself out?"
"I hate hospitals," I defended. I let out a yelp when Nate prodded at my wound experimentally.
"I'm going to have to clean and bandage it," he told me. "There's no telling where those things have been." He pulled out the small first-aid kit from the pack on his belt and selected the needed supplies. My knuckles turned white as I gripped the edge of the table against the pain as Nate cleaned the wound.
"Guess we're going to have to turn our "days without injury" sign back to zero," I joked.
"How long did we manage to make it this time?"
"About a week I think."
He put some antiseptic on the wound then wrapped my leg. "That ought to do it, at least until we get out of here."
"Thanks," I said, sliding off the table. I winced as I put weight on my injured leg, but waved Nate away when he tried to help. "Let's see if we can find anything useful in here." Here, appeared to be some kind of control room. Nate moved over to the large window while Elena examined some old papers on the table. I followed Nate and saw a rusted u-boat in the water below.
"Guess that explains the u-boat in the Amazon," I commented.
"Nate, Alex, c'mere. Look at this," Elena called. We walked over to the blonde. On the table was a picture of El Dorado and a sketch of a building.
"So they found it… They must've broken into the vault and cleared it out," Nate said.
"Yeah, but what's the monastery got to do with it?"
Nate shook his head in confusion. "I don't know… It doesn't make any sense. If that's where the statue is now… Oh man, we were right on top of it," he said in frustration. Elena walked over to an old rusted lift.
"I bet this'll take us to the surface." She jiggled the bars experimentally. Nate pressed the button to call the lift, but nothing happened.
"Guess the Nazis didn't pay their electric bill," Nate joked.
"Cheapskates," I huffed. I limped over to a map with a layout of the building. "You know, I bet if we can make it to the generator room, we could get the power back on. We just gotta find a way out of here first." Elena walked over and grabbed a box sitting on the table.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Nate asked. Elena ignored him and walked towards the window. "What are you doing?" She threw the box through the window, shattering the glass.
"Found a way out," Elena stated, brushing glass away from the windowsill.
Nate smiled, impressed. "Nice work."
"Let's go," I urged and went to climb out the window. Unfortunately, my leg didn't want to work with me and I stumbled back with a hiss of pain.
"Whoa, hold on," Nate protested, catching me before I fell. "You can barely walk let alone make that jump."
"I'm not letting you go out there alone," I argued.
"Alex, I don't like this any more than you do, but I can't risk you getting hurt any more than you already are."
I glared at him. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."
"Alex, please, just stay here," Nate pleaded softly. I wanted to argue more, but something in his expression made me falter. His gaze was a mixture of concern and something else I couldn't put my finger on.
"Fine," I grumbled. "But you'd better be right back, you hear?"
Nate gave me a relieved smile. "Loud and clear." He placed a quick peck on my cheek. "Stay safe." With that, he climbed out the window. I watched as he climbed out of sight then limped back over to the table and sat down to wait. I reached up to the rings around my neck, slowly turning them in my fingers absentmindedly.
"So, do those have a story behind them too?" Elena asked.
I blinked and turned to the blonde. "Huh?" Elena nodded her head towards the rings I was playing with. "Oh. Sort of, not as fascinating as Nate's though." Elena plopped down next to me, gazing at me expectantly. I huffed lightly in amusement. "They belonged to my parents. My parents are the reason for my love of history. My mom was an Italian archeologist and my dad was an American archeologist/historian. They used to bring me to all of their digs." I looked down at the two simple silver bands, running my thumb over the thinner of the two. "After my mom died, my dad threw himself into his work. He never had time for me anymore, spending all his time with the artifacts found at his various dig sites.. Left to my own devices, I went on little digs of my own. Every once in a while, I would find something my dad deemed worth his time. Eventually he died of a broken heart."
"I'm sorry," Elena said softly, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder.
I shrugged. "It was a long time ago. I got passed between several foster families, but none of them understood me, so I ran away. I met Nate when I was 14 and we've been together ever since."
Elena smiled warmly. "Aww, teenage romance. Not many people stay together that long."
"We're not actually together," I told her, smiling awkwardly.
Elena blinked in surprise. "Wait really?" I nodded, ignoring the painful twinge in my heart. "Huh, I thought for sure you two were dating."
I chuckled lightly and rubbed the back of my neck. "Yeah, I suppose we do give off that vibe don't we?" The blonde was quiet for a moment, studying me.
"You wish you were though, don't you?" I let out a short, quiet puff of air out of my nose. She was perceptive.
"I did once," I admitted, one corner of my lips lifted in a melancholy smile, my heart giving another painful twinge. "But I gave up on that a long time ago."
"Alex," Elena said in a tone one would use when scolding a child. "I saw the look on your face at the customs house. I could tell you didn't like me being that close to Nate." I didn't reply, deciding that the wrapping on my leg was much more interesting. "You love him." It wasn't a question.
"You're rather perceptive, you know that?" I told her, giving a sidelong glance.
Elena shrugged. "Not really, you're not exactly subtle about it."
"Yeah, well, apparently I'm too subtle for Nate," I mumbled. "I'm nothing more than a friend to him and that's okay. I'd rather keep him as a friend then lose him because I decided to tell him of my feelings for him."
"I don't know, Alex. I may not have known either of you for very long, but the way he acts around you, I don't think he see you as just a friend." I gazed at the blonde, wondering what she saw that I didn't. Before I could think on it further, I was distracted by the lights coming on.
"I guess he made it," I said, smiling. I jumped when I heard the lock on the door being turned.
"I thought Nate said those things couldn't get through the door," Elena said worriedly. I quickly jumped off the table, being careful to keep my weight off my injured leg and drew my pistol. I checked the magazine and cursed quietly. I only had a few rounds left.. "What do we do?" Elena's voice trembled, giving away how scared she was.
"I -" I stopped. For once, I didn't have any clue as to what to do. I was used to being the one to come up with plans or find a way out of trouble. Here, we were trapped, we had nowhere to go. Elena stared at me, her fear evident in her eyes as she looked at me for instructions. I stared back and sadly shook my head. The wheel stopped turning and the door swung open, revealing several mercenaries, Navarro, and Roman. I aimed my pistol at the group, Elena following suit. The mercenaries shouted and aimed their guns at us, but Roman held up a hand.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Roman said in his usual calm manner. "I'm surprised Drake left you two here alone."
I glared at Roman. "We're perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves, I would've thought the sea of dead mercenaries we've left behind would've told you that."
Roman sneered. "Yes, you and your partner have certainly been quite the nuisance. Even Sullivan has proved to be troublesome. Quite frankly, I'm getting tired of it." Roman glanced at Navarro and Navarro signaled to his men, who aimed their guns at us again. Elena and I instinctively took a step back. "Now, seeing as you're outnumbered and outgunned, I suggest you surrender quietly." I adjusted my grip on my gun, weighing my options. "I wouldn't try," Roman warned. "You won't last very long against my men, especially not with that injury." I glanced down at my wrapped leg, noticing briefly that blood had started to seep through the wrappings. I looked sideways at Elena, who looked scared but determined, glancing at me to see what to do. Though I hated to admit it, Roman was right, we wouldn't survive a gunfight, even if I had more ammo and my knife wouldn't be of much use either. Our only hope of survival was to surrender and hope Nate came to the rescue. I slowly lowered my gun and placed it on the table, Elena following my example. Navarro walked forward and grabbed my arm. I glared as Roman smiled smugly. "Good choice."
"It's Drake!" One of the mercenaries announced, pointing to another control room next to us.
"Send some men over," Roman ordered. The mercenary nodded and ran spoke into his radio. "Let's say hello." I stumbled a bit as Navarro dragged me to the window, one of his men following with Elena. On the other side was Nate looking rather pissed. Roman turned on a nearby microphone. "Can you hear me in there?" I saw Nate's mouth move, but was unable to hear what he said. He looked absolutely pissed. "Oh, no microphone on your end? What a shame." While Navarro was distracted, I broke free of his grasp and grabbed the microphone.
"Nate! Get outta there before -" Navarro grabbed a fistfull of my hair and yanked me back, ramming his fist into my side, causing me to cry out and double over in pain.
"Alex!" Elena shouted in concern, struggling against her own captor.
Roman sighed, annoyed at the interruption. "Navarro, if you can't maintain control over a small girl…"
"It won't happen again," Navarro assured, pulling out his gun and cocking it. "Trust me." He pulled me back up and held the gun to my head. I glared at the mercenary, but remained still.
"I'm sorry for the interruption," Roman apologized. "I just wanted to uh, thank you for leading us to El Dorado." He held up the map he had gotten from Nate. "Oh, I hope you don't mind if we borrow Miss King and Miss Fisher a little while longer. Just to discourage you and your partner from trying anything creative. So long Nate, It's been fun." Roman walked off. Navarro smiled smugly and saluted Nate. They were lucky looks couldn't kill, because they would've been six feet under with the daggers Nate was sending them.