The Elusive Treasure
Chapter Eighteen
Lunch Break
The kids came to a wide spot in the corridor. "Let's stop and sit for a few," suggested Scott. In the dim light of their fluorescent lantern they could see a large, flat rock, almost like a table, or a bench.
"Yeah," agreed Reggie. "We've been pressing on for quite a bit. Might as well grab a bite to eat. Anybody bring something?" she asked.
"Actually we all did," Scott replied. "I packed a large Evian and an MRE for each of you in your packs..."
"MRE? What's an MRE?" asked Roderick.
"A 'meal, ready-to-eat.' A kind of high-tech sack lunch for combat troops. It'll be that brown plastic bag..." The others quickly found the objects to which Scott was referring. "You can open them up with a knife or a pair of scissors, and inside you'll find packages of cooked meat, pasta, or other entrees in plastic pouches. Other separate pouches contain large crackers, cheese, peanut butter, or other condiments according to each meal's menu."
"Hey, this is actually pretty good!" Sammy commented.
"Mine too," agreed Otto.
"I'll trade somebody my cheese for a peanut butter," offered Reggie.
"You can have mine," offered Scott.
While the kids were having their lunch, another entity watched them, hidden in the dark.
"Heh. I like those guys. They really make a good team"
Felipe was thinking on the events of his life as he watched the kids gleefully chattering.
"Heh. That kid they call Twister... it's identical to me! I thought I was looking at my reflection the first time I saw him. Too bad I couldn't communicate with him." sighs "I hope these kids are successful. Or even those other guys I managed to contact in their dream; how were they named? . . . Ah, yeah; the Lopez brothers. I hope any of these teams get to the chest first. If that guy Lars gets it... shudders ... Lorenzo would get really powerful, and he could bring a lot of destruction to this world. Not to mention that Lars' soul, and those of his friends, would be lost forever...Anyway; It's been a really long wait. How long has it been? Man, almost 300 years! But, if they beat Lorenzo to the chest, I will finally be free! I hope I can help them somehow... and protect them from Lorenzo."
sighsMeanwhile, in another tunnel, a second, evil entity watched with a crooked smile on his face as a group of older teens struggled to get past yet another blockage.
"These brats are so slow! I should've picked another crew, but must admit this guy, Lars, has... something. I don't know what; but one thing is for sure. Give him a good haircut and dress him in decent clothes...And he would be my living picture!"
Lorenzo wished the teens could move faster. But he knew that, if he wanted to have another body to help him carry out the chest, he would have to make certain concessions to it.
"Oh, well. I've waited for over 300 years now... I surely can wait for a few more hours. Time isn't important to me, after all."
"I never thought I would see these caves again. They look the same as when we hid the treasure here... but there's something here... another... presence... I wonder..."
Lorenzo looked around for some moments, and then a crooked, cruel smile appeared on his face.
"Yeah... I knew it. That little, no-good rat Felipe is here too. I haven't seen the brat since that fateful day. He has been one of the reasons for my eternal punishment. But if I get my hands on that treasure again... I'll make sure neither of these kids leave the cave alive. That way Felipe will have plenty of company. I must look after him; after all, he was my little brother... muahahahaha!"
Lorenzo noticed that the teens had finally cleared the blockage and were proceeding into the tunnel.
"Good. Lars is really resourceful. It will be interesting having a body again... too bad his soul will have to be jousted out of it. But I don't give a damn for it."
Lorenzo accompanied the teens as they walked.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Get the lead out already!" Izzy roared, tapping his foot impatiently.
He, Iggy, and Riley had just climbed out of the submarine's hatch. The cave was completely dark. If it wasn't for the sub's headlights, it would be pitch black. The trio seemed to be waiting on Oliver.
"We'll be right there!" The redhead's voice was heard. "Just give us a sec!"
"A sec!.?.! Do you know how far Blondie and his flunkies could be by now!.?.!"
"'Blondie?'" Riley asked, raising an eyebrow at the brunet.
"He means Sammy-Sam Dullard." Iggy clarified, turning towards her. He was holding Tesoro in his arms. He petted the ebony cat as Izzy raised his own eyebrow at him.
"'Sammy-Sam?' I swear, you make absolutely zero sense sometimes." He shook his head in mild annoyance.
Iggy stuck his tongue out at him.
"But bro, I don't wanna call him names." He said.
"Hmph!" The older brother crossed his arms. "From now on, you're gonna refer to him as 'Blondie,' 'Idiot,' 'Dork,' and anything else I can think of. Got it?"
"Got it." The smaller brunet replied, sighing as he went back to pampering Tesoro, who mewed slightly.
Izzy turned to the sub again. "Today, Van Rossom! I'm not getting any younger over here!"
"Alright already! We're coming out now!" Oliver's voice replied.
Moments later, he climbed out of the sub's hatch, followed by a small group of adult sailors. Like Izzy, Iggy, and Riley, they were all wearing backpacks. They were also armed with a small amount of weapons.
"What's with the goon squad?" The female of the group asked.
"The 'goon squad,' as you so eloquently put it, will serve as our bodyguards." Oliver replied as the sailors lined up and saluted the kids. "After all, we are dealing with two diverse and strong groups. It helps if we have a little muscle on our side, don't you think?"
"I guess..." Riley answered with a shrug.
Izzy, however, smirked evilly. "So these guys will protect us if that dork or Lars' groups pull something, huh?" He snickered as he rubbed his hands. "I like the way you think, Van Rossom."
"Hey, we better get going, bro." Iggy said.
The older brother nodded. "Right." He turned to his teammates. "Alright! Let's move out, gentlemen--"
"Ahem!" The treasure hunter interrupted. Izzy turned to her and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"And ladies. Heh, heh..."
He turned around, pulled a flashlight out of his pocket, turned it on, and started walking into the cave. The others grabbed their own flashlights and lanterns before following.
As Izzy's group entered the cave, Riley tied a sea green bandanna around her forehead, no doubt in homage to her ancestry. She was whistling a tune that sounded like "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest/yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum."
The first several minutes of the trek were uneventful. Suddenly, Riley's attention was caught by Iggy's scream.
Lying across the cave path was a skeleton with a sword in its back, a holster still around its waist.
Riley bent to better examine the grisly sight. Her eyes grew wide as she noticed the small dragon emblem on the holster and sword handle.
"My family's coat of arms," she said softly.
The treasure hunter fished under the neck of her t-shirt, then extracted a thin gold chain. A gold dragon identical to the one on the dead pirate's effects dangled from it. The charm was no more than half an inch long. Riley began to mutter things like "Dead men tell no tales" and a few other pirate phrases.
Without warning, Tesoro wriggled out of Iggy's arms. She gave the same shriek she'd uttered before attacking Izzy. This time, she ran for Riley, who didn't see the attack coming. She gave a soft hiss of pain as the cat's paw scraped across her jaw. Tesoro spat at her before running back to Iggy.
"What was that all about, missy!.?" the treasure hunter snapped at her partner. Riley wiped the blood off her face with the back of her hand.
"I thought that thing only attacked on command," said Izzy.
"Usually," said Riley. "She just freaked out on me."
The group moved on after the girl recomposed herself.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The gang was about halfway through their meal when Sam asked something. "I don't mean anything by this, and please don't take this the wrong way, but, why do we do what we do?"
Otto looked at Sam quizzically. Sam continued, "I mean...the games, the competition, expeditions, trips... I've kind of been meaning to ask this since we were in New Zealand. Don't get me wrong; moving into this town and becoming friends with you, Reggie, and Twister has been, generally speaking, probably the best opportunity I'll ever have."
"Mine as well," offered Roderick.
"Yeah! What he said," added Scott.
Reg was about to answer, but Otto drew a long breath and began, "I guess it has a lot to do with our late birth mother, Danielle. Me and Reg would hear stories about her from Raymundo every so often, and the general impression I always came away with was that she was a special person who did great things. After Dad and Noelani got married, Noelani would tell us more about her. It was like all these different pieces of a puzzle finally coming together, and when it comes together it's like one of those neat pictures hanging in the Louvre. But with us, it sort of runs in the family...our dad being a legendary surfing pioneer and outdoorsman, our mom being a champion surfer and underwater treasure-seeker."
"One of the messages I got from her life was to always strive to be the best you could be," Reg elaborated.
"Yeah," Otto replied. "And it also has a lot to do with where we live. There's a lot of opportunities for activity...surfing, skating, blading, hockey. Always an opportunity to do something cool."
"Ever think of what might happen? Something really cool you'd like to do in the future?" Scott asked.
"One of these days I'm gunna climb the biggest mountain in the whole wide world!" Otto bubbled. "And all of you can come with me. Just be sure to bring your snowboards along though, 'cus that's how we're getting back down the mountain!"
"Heh, That sounds great, Ottoman!" - said Roderick - "I also have a dream. I want to become a famous rally racer like my dad, and race all over the world. I also want to become a mechanical engineer and be a black belt. I want to meet my folks in the Netherlands, and... heh... a lot of things." - he blushed. "Sorry for the over-enthusiasm, guys; it's only that I can't help getting excited about the future. That's something I promised to my parents and to myself when I was in the hospital."
"That's cool, bro," commented Twister as he continued filming. Through the viewfinder of his camera, he now saw an additional image to the five people before him. Was it some sort of infrared anomaly? "Hum. What's that thing? It seems to be standing between Rod and Sam." - thought Twister, looking carefully through his viewfinder
"The Zine's my baby," Reggie started. "Everything I'm about, it's about, and I can see it continuing in some form even if my education takes me to some other line of work. But I've learned a lot about business and journalism as it is..."
"A lot of good points there," commented Twister. "But I think we're kind of special for being as interested as we are in the things we do. And at some point, say when we're thirty or forty or fifty years old, we can tell our kids about the things we did, 'Someone did that. We were the first.'" Twister gasped at the scope of his thought. Quickly, he turned to Scott. "Uh, ..Scott, what's it like?...what's it like to be...older?"
"Good question. But to tell the truth, til this moment I never thought of myself as being 'older'," Scott began his reply. "I mean, I still like to have fun, I still like a lot of the stuff I liked when I was 'younger'. Hm. You get bigger; surfing bigger waves becomes easier; skateboarding's still fun for me. Otto, if you did the 009, think what you'll be able to do with another foot and twenty pounds on your frame. Uh, learning to drive becomes kind of important, and love becomes a possibility. I don't know; it's just the way the big boy upstairs designed us. Life itself is not so much a mystery to be unraveled as it is a journey to be enjoyed, at least that's my philosophy." He smiled at the camera.
Reggie spoke up after digesting some food and a swig of water. "The treasure. If one exists, and if we end up finding it, who would it belong to?"
"A very good question" - said Rod
The guys looked each at one another, slightly puzzled. Eventually Scott found his voice. "The treasure? I'd like to think of it as our treasure, not so much as belonging to us, but I have a hunch that the history of this treasure impacts a lot of people in this town, and more than might actually know something about it."
The presence grinned broadly. Did Scott hear someone giggle?
He banished the thought from his mind. At least for the time being. "The main chamber should be about 900 meters further on, around a bend," Sam reported, "through, or past, something called 'agua luminosa' and another feature called 'escalon'."
Rod seemed to be... somewhat nervous. He looked all over the cave, as if trying to find something.
"What's on your mind, Rod?" asked Scott.
"Oh... nothing, Scott.. It's only that..."
Rod looked around again
"Did you hear that?" said Otto.
"... I thought... no, I'm sure that somebody else is here. Someone... good, but... somehow... sad."
Rod continued looking around, until he fixed his eyes on a wall. But he didn't seem scared; he was rather relieved to see... whatever he had seen.
"Twister" - he asked, his eyes fixed on that wall - "Tell us something more about that legend. Did you say something that this pirate had... a brother?"
"Yeah... or so I heard. Why?" - asked Twister
"Oh... for nothing. It's only that I have just realized that we are going to find the treasure, guys." - said Rod, grinning broadly and winking at the wall.
Unseen by the rest of the kids, Felipe also grinned. So this little kid was actually able to see him? That was neat! Maybe he could also communicate with him, eventually.
The rest of the kids looked at Roderick, intrigued. How come he was so sure about the outcome of their quest?
"Ok. I think we rested enough. Let's get the show on the road, shall we?" - Rod chimed, draping his bag on his back and lightening the cave with his lamp.
"I'm with ya," Reggie beamed.
"Yessss!" grinned Twister.
And off they walked. Twister had been listening to his iPod, and a catchy cadence could be heard from his weatherproof headphones...
"We pillage, we plunder, we rifle and loot Drink up me hearties, yo ho We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot Drink up me hearties, yo ho" He began to whistle with the tune.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-
Oliver, the Lopez brothers, Riley, and Tesoro continued through the maze of passages. The female of the group had been unusually quiet since the incident with the skeleton. She twirled her bo staff with one hand, the other absentmindedly toying with her necklace. The hem of Riley's jeans, as well as her feet, was soaked from walking through puddles in the cave. She barely noticed her feet were beginning to feel clammy.
Despite the confusion caused by the incident, the group traveled along the cave. Izzy had his usual "charming" expression while Iggy was looking around nervously for anymore skeletons. He held Tesoro close to him. Strangely, the cat had calmed down after attacking her master and partner.
Meanwhile, in the back of the group, Oliver and the crew members he brought with him were surveying the structure of the cave. It seemed that the young club president was interested in the various forms of rocks that were found all around. In his mind, he was planning on making a return trip to the cave to study the many life forms that have made their home here. One of the sailors was carrying a video camera. He looked all around himself, making sure to get as many shots of the cave walls as possible, as well as getting footage of the expedition. The others had their weapons at the ready in case they encountered any of the enemy groups.
Soon, they reached a somewhat fork in the road. Two caves laid in front of them. One of them undoubtedly lead to the chamber where the treasure was hidden. The other...who knows?
"Hmph!" Izzy grunted, crossing his arms as he turned to Riley. "Alright. It's time to see if that cat of yours can really sniff out the treasure."
Turning to the kitten, the treasure hunter commanded, "Tess, go scope this place out," There was a bit of harshness to her tone and Izzy noted she was favoring her scratch.
The kitten disappeared down the tunnel to the right.
"Now what?" Izzy asked.
"We wait," said Riley.
Suddenly. the group heard a high-pitched mewing from inside the tunnel.
Riley's eye glimmered. "Jackpot." she said softly, rubbing her hands together.
"Ladies first," said Izzy, pointing in the direction Tesoro had run.
"Oh thank you so much..." Riley replied sarcastically. She glowered at him as she walked past him and into the right tunnel. The rest of the group followed right behind her.
When they got about ten feet inside, Tesoro scampered back to Iggy.
"Kitty! You came back!" The brunet exclaimed as he scooped the feline into his arms again.
"Ugh! Of course she came back..." Izzy muttered, slapping his forehead.
They continued onward. About twenty to thirty minutes passed before they reached a group of flat rocks. They were arranged in a circle almost like logs at a campfire. Things were pretty silent up to that point until a low growling was heard.
"What's that?" One of the sailors spoke up, looking around.
"There can't be any animals living down here." The leader of the group said.
The growling was heard again.
"Something's d-d-d-d-down here..." Another of the sailors trembled. The other crew members voiced their agreements. Izzy glared at them.
"And you're supposed to be adults? Pfft!"
The growling was heard a third time.
"Is that Tesoro?" Oliver asked.
"Oh for the love of--Cut it out, Iggy!"
Everybody else blinked and turned to boy in question. Tesoro was perched on his shoulder. He was holding his stomach as he bent over.
"I can't help it, bro..." He groaned. "I'm hungry..."
"So am I," the female declared. That said, she sat down on the cave floor and opened her backpack, extracting a brown paper bag. She also removed her sandals, rubbing the places on her feet that were chafed. Riley took a bundle of homemade cookies, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and a juice box out of the paper bag.
"Meow!" Tesoro squeaked indignantly.
"Sorry about forgetting you, girl," Riley apologized, opening a can of tuna.
Izzy slapped his forehead in annoyance.
"Well, at least I still have you and your faithful crew, Van Rossom..."
He turned towards said party members and noticed that they had sat themselves down on the rocks. They grabbed their backpacks and pulled out their own paper bags full of food.
He fell over.
"We don't have time for this!" Izzy roared as he got up and shook his fists. "I'm so close, I can taste it! Now get up and let's get moving, ya bunch of—"
He stopped himself as his own stomach grumbled. He blushed as the rest of the group turned to him.
"On second thought, one little break won't hurt us..." He chuckled sheepishly as he slumped on his own rock and grabbed his backpack.
Both Lopez Brothers reached into their backpacks and pulled out paper bags. Izzy's lunch consisted of two turkey and roast beef sandwiches, a bag of Cheetos, and a bottle of pineapple soda. Iggy's, on the other hand, contained one package of Lunchables pepperoni pizza. The elder brunet sweatdropped as he watched his brother messily prepare his meal.
"I swear, he can't be my brother." He muttered. "He just can't be." He shrugged and chomped into one of his sandwiches.
The break period went by without anyone saying a word to the other. It was silent in the cavern, save for the sounds of chewing, savoring, slurping, and the occasional burp ("Excuse me." Iggy said shyly. "I swear! You're not my brother, you pig!" Izzy shouted). About forty-five minutes passed before everyone finished. Making sure to pack up their waste ("Nobody likes a litterbug!" Iggy cheerfully said. Everyone else groaned), the group cleaned up and was now resting, allowing their bodies to digest.
"Hey, Lopez." Oliver called.
"What is it?" Izzy asked.
"There's something that's been on my mind for awhile."
"Yeah?" The brunet blinked at the genius, who nodded.
"Yes. I've been meaning to ask you this when you hired me." He replied, cleaning his glasses.
"Well? Spit it out."
The redhead glared at him.
"Very well. Here goes." He took a deep breath. "Why exactly do you hate Sam? I mean, you've been rivals with him, at least in the physical sense, for a long time."
Everyone looked at Izzy expectantly.
"You mean you don't know?" He asked, blinking. Everybody shook their heads.
°WHAM!°
"You don't count!" The brunet shouted, hitting Iggy over the head with his kendo stick. Luckily, the younger brother had his helmet to protect him. "You were there that day!"
"But I don't remember what happened..." Iggy moaned dizzily.
"Gee, I wonder why." Riley remarked, generating snickers among the sailors. Izzy rolled his eyes before turning to Oliver, who was still waiting for his answer.
"Alright. It all started two years ago..." He started.