The Man With The Hat
Nick Jones,as quick as the speed of light, reached for his bullwhip, whipped Sparranca's hand which wrapped around it, and pulled. The pistol fell into the river. Sparranca held his hand in pain as he ran away back into the jungle. Batipo watched all of this in shock,wonder, and amazement. Nick slowly coiled his whip and put it back onto his belt. He chuckled. This was no new experience. He had been in danger, God, who knows how many times. Oh, well. At least he had the scars to prove it.
Nick looked up to a ridge. There! A glimpse of stone. He smiled.
"That's it," Nick said.
Nick pointed the glimpse of stone to Batipo.
"Señor, nobody has come out of that place alive. Please," Batipo pleaded with worry etched on his face.
"Geez. Everything will be alright. God and Jesus will protect us silly. I'm a firm Christian. So don't worry. This is where Morrestal cashed in though," Nick said as he stared with caution at the stone.
"A friend of yours?" Asked Batipo.
Nick nodded.
Nick and Batipo slowly walked up to the glimpse of stone which turned out to be a huge temple. Then, Nick held out his hand. Batipo looked at Nick with a confused look on his face.
"Something doesn't feel right. Hand me that branch," Nick pointed to a small branch in the brush.
Batipo handed it to Nick. The two men knelt down in front of a ten foot long and one cm wide grass line. It looked normal, but something about it didn't set good scores at all with Nick. Using the branch, Nick slowly pushed the leave line. Then, instantly, five foot tall spikes launched up from the area that was on the opposite side of the grass line. Batipo blinked in surprise. Nick was impressed. It was a gruesome but effective security system.
"Señor. Nobody has ever come out of that temple alive. Please. I beg of you," Batipo said again to Nick as he took out a torch from the ground and lit it with his father's old cigarette lighter. Nick frowned. He was never a fan of smoking. But, his father and grandfather were extremely heavy smokers.
Nick and Batipo walked into the temple. Definitely not paradise, if you think in that kind of way, if you know what I mean. There were cobwebs everywhere. The stone floor and walls had lots of cracks and rotted leafs. Batipo stopped suddenly.
"S...s...s...señor," he said.
Nick looked on his back to see ten tarantulas. He just rolled his eyes. What is so frightening about spiders? He used his whip to wipe them off his back. Batipo looked on his shoulder to see a tiny baby tarantula. He gasped. Nick looked at him and twirled his right index finger. Batipo slowly turned around. There were ten thousand tiny baby tarantulas on Batipo's back. Nick turned to look around and then wiped the tarantulas off Batipo. Well, looks like somebody's the baby spider mother. Nick thought with amusement. Batipo was shaking like a scared scooby doo. They continued on through the hall which lead to a tiny shaft of light.
ANOTHER TRAP Nick thought.
" Stop," Nick commanded.
He held up his right hand and pointed to the light shaft.
"Don't step into the light," he said.
That's strange. There's no way that the sun's rays could've reached this deep of an area, Nick thought. Batipo moved next to the light shaft and Nick on the other. Nick slowly put his hand in the light and put it back down. He did the right thing to do. For then ten large colossal spikes launched from the wall and stooped next to Batipo. Batipo screamed. Not because that the spikes startled him, but because there was an impaled body on the spikes. The corpse was dressed in khakis. Half of the body was rotted flesh and the other half was foul stinking and rotting bone. The head slowly turned towards Nicky as if it were a zombi, even though there was no such thing. Dried black deep red blood was everywhere on the corpse .A tital wave of sadness overcame Nick as he realized who the person was.
"Morrestal," Nick said.
God, nobody deserves to die like this. Nick thought as he took one last look at his old friend. You should have stayed home,bud.
They continued down the hall to a deep pit. Nick smiled. Well, this is just my day. Okay old bullwhip. Let's see what you can do again. Nick lashed out to a beam on the top of the ceiling and swung on to the other side of the pit. His feet landed onto the ground and Nick threw the whip handle to Batipo. Batipo caught it and swung. But, what is there a good adventure story without danger? Now where would all of the fun in that be? As Batipo's feet touched the ground, the edge collapsed. Batipo screamed as he started to fall. Nick grabbed Batipo's shirt collar and pulled him to safety as he grabbed the handle. Batipo knelt down and kissed the ground. Hmmm. Scaredy cat. You should go to the army my friend. Nick thought to himself.
He put the handle into a tangle of vines. If they needed to make a quick getaway, they would need to swing across that pit again. It was just wise to leave it there. They rounded a corner and found themselves in the temple sanctuary. They stopped and gazed in wonder at the object thirty feet away from them. For on a four step staircase was a table. On the table was a plate and on that plate was a pedestral one inch high. And on that pedestral was an idol the size of a human skull.