Chapter 6
The Antidote
A/N: I found this picture, and this is perfect because at one part in this chapter, it's just before night time and they're on this ledge looking at the river... h t t p : w w w . e - o n s o f t w a r e . c o m / P r e s s / P i ct u r e s / A m a z o n . j p g thanks for the tip, elvenrarehunter! I hope this works...
The four crawled, exhausted onto the soft shore. Ben rolled on his back and closed his eyes, as if it would help him catch his breath, and slow his violently beating heart. The other three came after him, panting and dropping to the ground heavily like dead oxen. Ben opened his eyes again moments later after he'd only half begun to calm himself down, to watch the sky. Every cloud was gone from it now, besides small patches of dark smog, and the pink in the vast, jumbled blanket of abstract colors of orange, persisted, ever more defined. The sun was now halfway down to set. With a few brief thoughts, the history professor got to his feet. Riley looked up at Ben, his mouth lazily hanging open to breathe. He was gazing absently up at his protégé, looking as though he wasn't listening much or as if he had just chugged down 5 glasses of beer.
"We're going to find a place to set up camp for the night," Ben said decisively, briskly, as if he was aiming to put everyone in the happiest of moods once again. He bent over and removed the compass from the sack, turning his body inland.
"We can't stay here?" Riley panted, disappointed and whiny sounding.
"Every step is closer," Ben replied curtly, examining the compass in his palm. Riley took a deep breath and stumbled to his feet, glimpsing at his pruny fingertips.
"Lead on," he said, sighing, scratching his neck. Tom and Andy groaned and both dropped their heads simultaneously in the thick sand.
-
"So she looks at me and she says: "If I were to go out with you any longer, I probably would have had to gag myself with a big fat tarantula." "
"That's real original, what'd you say?"
"Well I told her that she'd be better off gagging herself with that tarantula if she was thinking about suicide, than with me."
"That's disgusting, Riley."
"That's why she smacked me and left the very next day, taking every single solitary thing of hers from my apartment. Oh, and then there was Jasmine, told me that she had to go on a business trip one day, and I saw her a week later at a motel with some old fat rich guy that owned an ice cream parlor. And I don't see how that was possible, because you know, an ice cream parlor - come on, let's get real here. How much money can you get out of that? A few dollars? Maybe 20 on a slow day. The guy must have had someone die in the family. Or he was a criminal. You know what, I think he was a criminal. He had that evil look in his eye when I saw him. Or maybe that was because I was looking at Jasmine's che - "
"Sounds like you've been dumped more times than you've put on your pants in the morning." Riley snorted, and stepped over a particularly large rock. "Women," he said, shaking his head.
"Well think about it this way...if you didn't have them, well then..."
"Never had it."
"Haven't you?" Ben mused, glancing back at his virgin partner, who looked behind him at something he could only see to get his friend's eyes off of him. Ben smiled, and looked back ahead.
"So, Jasmine...?"
"Eh, it doesn't matter anyway. It was pretty much the same thing." Riley sighed. "I guess the woman controls the man all the time anyway."
"Since when does the woman control the man?" Ben said, moving the branch of a dead tree out of his way. Riley, Tom, and Andy all held it away from them as they passed.
"I dunno...since like, Adam and Eve."
"Well, she probably told him to tuck in his shirt once because he looked like a dirty slob." Ben cocked an eyebrow, paused, and turned to Riley.
"Adam never had a shirt."
"...Oh right. They were naked." Pause. "Probably some things going on there then...you know...in that tree." Another pause. Ben cringed. They continued walking.
-
They hadn't entered the forest yet, but trees were appearing in the mushy ground more often, and they knew they had to be close. The ground was indeed muddy. It made squishing sounds when the party stepped on it, and bubbles formed in between fallen needles and leaves that were stuck almost permanently in the thing. The whole space below their feet was just an enormous mess, and splattered their shoes and pants. Riley wasn't particularly happy about this, and whined every time there was one of those said squishing sounds and the popping of a mud bubble. He forgot about it after a while. After the conversation stopped and he began to be too tired to move his mouth, and his eyelids became too heavy to keep open and the only things on his body that were moving were his two legs, following Ben by the scent of his strong cologne. His partner stopped unexpectedly, and looked to his left, his breath coming heavy from his nose and his nostrils flaring once in a while as if he were picking up an extremely potent scent. Riley nearly slipped and fell on his backside, knocking into Ben and grabbing firmly to his shoulder. His eyes closed again immediately. The taller man didn't move an inch. He just stood staring to the left, an absent look on his face.
"What?" Riley finally said, his mouth sticking together, when he still smelled Ben's cologne in a big invisible cloud around his head, indicating he hadn't moved. It did subside, though, when he moved to the side of an enormous gorge. A gorge that seemed to be holding onto the Amazon River with its gigantic hands. Riley opened his eyes and looked up at the sky, which was just beginning to blacken. The sun was setting now, and the violent pink surrounded it like a thick layer of strawberry cream. He looked over at Ben, who was staring at the river in a trance, and staggered, exhausted, toward him.
"Are you having one of those moments again?" he asked finally. Ben glanced at his friends, lookedback out over the gorge, and heaved a sigh.
"Do you think we'll ever find Ian? We're running out of time. They've probably left and moved on by now."
"Don't discourage yourself, Ben. We'll find them. Trust me."
"No, I trust you, Ri." Ben put an arm around his friend's shoulders. There was a long pause where both of them listened. Listened to the sounds around them. Birds, the wind, everything. It was so peaceful, so unlike Washington D.C., which was for the most part loud and disruptive.
"It's been what, 3 days?"
"Something like that, yeah," Riley said vaguely, still not fully there. Ben continued staring out at the river, a blank, determined expression on his face.
"We're so close. I can taste it. I can taste it, Ri. That is...as long as they haven't moved."
"They haven't moved, Ben. You know...one time you said something. I never forgot it. You know what it was?"
"What?"
"Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight."
"Actually Ben Franklin said that."
"Close enough, you know what I mean?" Riley pat Ben on the back, who smiled.
"He also said this: "To be proud of virtue, is to poison oneself with the antidote." Think about that." Ben took his arm off of Riley and knelt down next to the sack, while his friend stood there, deep in thought trying to figure out the puzzling quote. He looked at his sons, who were asleep on each other on the one patch of dry dirt there was in the area. He took out one of the blankets and threw it over them both, then looked at Riley.
"Ri. Come on, let's sleep here." Ben took one last look at the river, and took another blanket out of the sack, and laid it out on the ground carefully and meticulously. Riley descended to the ground after Ben had and the two lay there, looking up at the stars, now beginning to peek out of the falling darkness.
"Ya know what, Ben? I think I love you."
"Know what, Riley? I think you're insane. Or tired. Maybe both." Ben shook his head. "Go to sleep, Riley." The younger of the two closed his eyes, nodded, and went off to sleep. But Ben didn't sleep a wink that night. He did close his eyes for a small amount of time, and only opened them because of a loud sound. It was of a branch. A particularly large branch, splitting into two. Riley snorted, already asleep, at the disturbance. The sky was completely dark now, only a bit of the moon showing, and the stars dully twinkling around it. Ben ignored it, and closed his eyes once more.
"Let go of me!" They flashed open again. He knew that voice. Knew it all too well.
"Abigail!" He cried. Riley was still asleep, as were the twins, but he himself was now wide awake. He jumped to his feet, and ran to the side of the gorge. At the very bottom, he spotted one light, indicating that Ian was alone. And he had a smaller figure with him, who was thrashing about violently. Abigail. Ben was sure he couldn't get down there in time. But he still had to try. For her sake. He looked around fast, and saw two things: Ian had paused; he couldn't keep walking with the damsel fighting against him like that, and a clearing in the trees bordering the drop to the river. When he found that, he immediately looked back to where Ian was struggling with his wife, and watched as she thrust her elbow behind her, and ran away, while Ian bent over letting go a slight gagging noise. The blonde haired man turned his head up and watched to see where she was going, but seemed too paralyzed to move, but he had to: he couldn't let her go. This was Ben's chance. He ran to the clearing, and looked down. It was a path. A long indent that ended below, on the banks of the river. Because of the constant rain, however, the path looked like it had been flooded. It was sloppy. Muddy. Messy. Much unlike the dry patch of ground where the twins were sleeping. It wasn't raining now, though even the area around Ben's shoes was still very squishy. He hesitated, then sat down on the cold ground, and closed his eyes. He had to do it. It was uncomfortable and messy, but he had to do it. And he did. He pushed off of a large root next to him and he was sailing down towards the river. But it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Rocks nipped at his backside, mud splattered his face and hair, and gave his pants and white shirt a light coating. Twigs grabbed at his clothing, ripping and tearing it, and once they took care of that, they ripped at his skin, digging scratches into it, or turning it a raw looking red. He finally got to the bottom, and fell forward onto his stomach, determinedly keeping his head above the ground to spare his hair and face. He got to his feet and wiped droplets of dirt from his cheeks with the parts of his sleeves that weren't covered in the stuff, and looked around again. He didn't spot Ian though; only a mess of footprints up ahead, which he decided to follow. They led further down the banks, and as he walked, it began to get too swampy to walk too quickly in. If that wasn't enough, the prints had abruptly stopped after a few feet. Ben did the same, puzzled. Where had those two gone? They couldn't have disappeared into thin air. Although it was very dark. He could have been overlooking a cave or crevice or some hiding spot that they could have been easily concealing themselves with. He looked down at his feet. Mud was up to his shins now. Dark, almost black mud, most likely silt from the roaring Amazon. It was quiet again. His heart was slowing down, as well as his breathing. He kept his senses peaked for a while, but let the river's sounds sweep him away and let himself go. He sighed after a while, when he didn't hear any talking or yelling, gave up, turned himself around, and forced his feet to walk back the way he came.
-
"Uh, Ben...Ben - the Gates are open." Ben awoke to Riley's sarcastic voice, the man standing over his aching body. The mud had baked into his clothes and they were dry and stiff on his legs and chest. He pulled his eyelids open with a plethora of effort, and stared up at the sun, his best friend, and Tom and Andy.
"Wha'ja say?"
"Gates are open, Ben." Tom and Andy giggled.
"Wha ? Oh." Ben zipped up his fly, too tired to care, or be embarrassed at all. He sat up on the blanket he had been sprawled our on just seconds before, ran a hand through his hair, and rubbed his eyes.
"What happened to you?" Riley asked, squatting down next to his friend.
"I saw Abigail." Gasps from Tom and Andy.
"What?" Riley said excitedly.
"She was at the bottom of the gorge. I went down there, but by the time I got there...the two of them both had gone - she and Ian. I spent the rest of the night climbing back up."
"Why didn't you wake me up, Ben? We could have done it together!" Riley said anxiously, thumping Ben's chest.
"No use. I didn't even get down there in time." Ben sighed.
"Well, we need to find a doctor or something."
"Nah, I'm fine." He stood, holding onto Riley's shoulder for support. He stood up as well.
"We still makin' our way on foot or have you developed a highly intelligent new mode of transportation?"
"Wait, Shh..." Ben pressed a hand on Riley's chest. He looked down at the hand on him, and then followed the direction of Ben's gaze.
"Dad, what is that?" Tom whispered. There was a low rumbling sound coming from through the trees. Ben shook his head. He moved closer to the sound, as it got louder and louder. He stepped back after a few seconds.
"Get down!" He yelled, and brought Tom, Andy, and Riley close to him, just as a bright red Jeep emerged from the thin woods. The woman inside had on a black hat, with a string of shark teeth around the rim. It was much like a cowboy hat, with an indent on the top. The brim covered her forehead and left part of her face in a thick shadow. She had sandy blonde hair, and shockingly red lipstick matched her car, and coated her smiling lips. She stepped out, and her white shirt with the straps hanging off of the shoulders, instead on the sides of her arms, and her blue jeans were revealed. Two pointed black boots poked out from under them.
"Hey," she said, looking at the strange group of people, interested. Riley became aware of the looks of the group, and of the possibility he had extreme BO, and pulled away from his friend's arm. The woman was clearly Australian, and she was still smiling. She pushed her hat up, so her glowing green eyes were visible, blew a bubble with a chunk of bubble gum, and draped her arm over the door of her car, her weight on one foot.
"I'm Liz, who're you? You guys look like you need some clothes and some..." she took a whiff of the air, "Necessities. Hop in, I'll take you to my camp. I've got a helicopter back there too if you need it."
A/N: Liz. This was unintentional, actually. You were begging me to use your name. WHEN ALREADY - I had picked out her name to be Liz. Didn't tell you this piece of information. Anyway, I hope all you peeps liked the chapter...as I said, I've been busy and stuff and was writing today (Jan. 31st) in Technology, study hall, English, and pretty much any other time I got a chance during school, to finish it. AND - I finished my homework during study hall so I could get home, type and finish the rest of the chapter, and frame my National Treasure poster! Anyway, stay with me. Hopefully the other updates won't be as slow. I'm working on Keep Going too, if anyone who's reading that one is wondering. And now here are some review replies! I'd like some more too if you wouldn't mind-)
Inform me of any errors in the story..because I didn't really edit much because I wanted to hurry up and post it. It's been a while since I posted anything.
Tell me in your review if you want to see the Amazon pic!REVIEW REPLIES FOR CHAPTER 5:
MercuryGray: Hahaha Merc. Thanks for reading, as usual! Still keeping up with your story as always!
DragonTamer: Thank you! I love these compliments! LOL! Action/Adventure is evil to write lol. It's hard writin it on here because people don't read them as much because they're usually not good. I'm glad you like this though! Thanks for readin!
Liz: lolol "HE SAID THE WORD F!" LOL. Yeah I hope she sets it up too. haha springy. Thaaaank you, Liz.
Lia-L-Leonardson: hahaha! I have fans! I'll read your HP fic! I'm always glad to read stuff that reviewers write cuz they were nice enough to read mine. I think everyone should do that. Riley is GREAT. lol he's one of the best characters. I love Ben so much and hes fun to write...but Riley's so awesome and so spontaneous and it's great. hahaha! Thank you so much!
Melissa Brandybuck: Read all of the NT stories in the category except for Heart Bound in Chains, and none of them have Ian taking hostages...but uh..thanks for reading, then.
elvenrarehunter: Yay! I like your review a lot! lol these things really make me happy. You have no idea how much they do! My review for yours was kind of dumb. lol. But, I will keep reading yours! lol thanks so much. Oh yes...and add me to your author alert if you don't mind. lol!
Scifi Kane: Hahaha It's funny how you always take breaks from studying to review! It makes me feel special! One thing that may be good about me hating what I write is this: I read an interview with JK Rowling and she said that it's good to not like what you write because it gives you room to improve, and want to improve. That's all I ever do is ever want to improve what I write. I'm planning on rewriting one of my Harry Potter fics (Golden Bell) - only the first few chapters, because I hate it. And see, JKR doesn't like what she writes at all, but she's like...amazing. So I guess that's a good sign. Oh, and the cliffie...I couldn't resist, I love them. -)
