Medallion of sight 7
If anyone is still reading this, thank you so much, I am incredibly sorry for the long wait between chapters. I have the rest of the week off and intend to finish this story before the week is over. Wish me luck! (Let me know if it's not as good as the last chapters I'm slightly worried I may have lost my touch at writing)
Previously:
When the village finally appeared in the distance Sully felt like screaming. This must be the abandoned town that Salim was talking about. Nathan must be nearly in the clear. Running towards it with a sudden burst of energy seemed to take the last out of Nate and his mumbled "Please don't let that have been a mirage, oh shit, it's a ghost town" was the last Nate said before falling down the dune and rolling to a stop at the bottom.
Stumbling to his feet Drake ran towards the gate to the town and Sully marvelled at the sudden burst of strength. He tripped as he reached it leaning his full weight on it to catch himself. The gate didn't so much as budge. "Not getting through there" murmured Drake "gotta find another way" Pushing himself off from the gate he started skirting round the edge of the town, making his way towards a half ruined building. "Let's try through here". Sully watched as Nate climbed up some unsteady beams over the wall of the building and then dropped, lacking his normal grace onto the roof of a building bellow. Very quickly, a crack formed around Drake and before Nate could react or Sully could get the unheard warning out of his mouth. The ceiling cracked and Drake fell through to land with a jarring thud on the sandy floor below.
He coughed weakly, pushing himself to his feet "Didn't need that". Making his way out of the building. He stopped in the doorway shielding his eyes from the light with his hands. "Oh thank god, a well" He ran over to it, vaulting over the side and catching himself on the edge, dropping the entire way to the bottom in one fall. But instead of landing in water, he fell to his knees in sand. "Damn it, Damn it its dry" The despair in his voice made Sully reach out to and clasp the younger man's shoulder. Before he could reach him Nathan was back on his feet and stumbling through a small gap in the wall of the bottom of the well. Making it though the gap he fell to his knees in a small puddle of water, "Here we go", scooping the water quickly into his mouth. He swallowed a couple of mouthfuls before spitting and gagging. "Ah shit, it's undrinkable"
"Ok, don't give up" "Atta boy Nate, you don't give up now, you make it out of this" Sully said, fully used to not being heard by Drake now. He watched Nate get to his feet, run one hand through his hair and make his way over to the walls of the well. Sully floated up beside Nate as he climbed up and wondered to himself when Salim would turn up. He could tell from the way his protégé was still unsteady on his feet and not as fast as climbing that the younger man was nowhere near healthy and needed to rest before he dropped.
"There's gotta be something useful here" Nate's voice caused Sully to focus on him again. Nathan was moving towards a closed door, shoulder barging it once the door gave way entirely falling to the floor beneath Nate. Looking around the fallen form of the younger man Sully saw the soldiers first. Calling out a warning to the Nate, Sully panicked a little when Drake didn't react at all. Only by sheer luck did he turn his head, just in time to see one of Marlowe's men drop a flask full of water, and reach for his gun.
"Oh Shit" scrambling to his feet and diving to cover behind a decrepit pillar, just as the soldier called out "It's Drake!" "Okay need a gun". Peaking around the pillar Nate almost lost his head as the man who had been holding the water advanced and fired at shotgun at Nate. Grabbing the man that had called out as he approached, Nate pulled him down behind he cover and choked the life out of him, grabbing his shotgun and jumping into the fray.
Sully found himself watching through his fingers as Nate fought through a seemingly never ending of wave of Marlowe's men. Once the last man was dropped, he lowered his hands and breathed a sigh of relief. The noise of the gunfight must have been what attracted the attention of Salim and his men, they would turn up in a minute and get Nate out of here. He floated behind Nate as he stepped through a doorway and stopped at the edge of a sudden drop off. A sudden burst of gunfire caused Nate to drop and cover his head, but Sully could see the man was aiming at a support pillar. If the lurch Sully felt when Nate dropped was anything to go by then Nate much have felt like the world was falling away. The platform he was on crashed to the ground and for one terrible moment Sully was sure Nate had been buried under the rubble. Salim hadn't mentioned digging Nate out of Rubble. Movement to his left caught his eye and a sigh of relief left Sully as he saw Drake dragging himself over to cover.
Rolling to one side he drew a pistol that Sully hadn't even seen him pick up and nailed the man in the head. "Damn it, I'm trapped down here". Sully looked around and noticed what Nate had already apparently spotted. There was no way for Nate to climb out. Sully found his thoughts turning again to Salim. Surely this would be where Salim turned up with a rope. Another burst of gunfire and a crash brought his attention back to Nate again. Who had just shot another pillar and caused the platform on the other side of the drop to fall down. "Ha it worked". Sully smiled to himself and felt a swell of pride at Nate having figured a way out of the situation on his own.
He climbed up the other side and stopped at the top. Eyes falling to a little red dot flickering on his chest, before diving for cover just in time to avoid a sniper's bullet. "Ah shit, this is getting ridiculous". Sully agreed watching with bated breath as Nathan tried to get shots off at the sniper whilst trying not to get his head blown off. The show down lasted several minutes before the sniper ran out of ammo and lobbed a grenade at Drake. "Watch out!" called Sully scrambling to push Nate away from the grenade and flying right through him. Without flinching, Nate reached down and grabbed the grenade, hurling it back at the sniper. Before ducking down behind the wall to avoid the wave of heat and the concussion blast from the grenade as it exploded next to the sniper. Peaking his head over the wall to check it was clear before moving out of cover and making his way on.
"Okay" muttered Drake, moving through a narrow alleyway and then out into the open again. "Hopefully that's the last of them" As soon as he said that the wall next to him exploded from a fired RPG and Sully was once again worried that Nate was buried under rubble. He breathed in relief as he saw Drake dive for cover again, terror on his face as he saw an armoured car with a mounted gun on the back. "Come on Salim", murmured Sully "Anytime you want to swoop in and save my kid, he's in no shape for this right now" Sully felt his protective anger surge forwards as he saw how outnumbered Nate was and found himself amazed at the stamina his protégé had. He now knew that Nate hadn't had a proper night's sleep since he had been with Sully in Yemen and hadn't eaten since before he and Elena had fought to get on the plane. No wonder he collapsed when we got to the camp after the city of Ubar was buried.
Nate had his back against half a wall and was blind firing over the top and a small group on Marlowe's men. One fell as a bullet his leg and another stumbled but remained standing as a bullet hit his shoulder. Both became buried under the rubble as stray bullets from Drake's gun took at one of the pillars supporting the armoured car. The idea seemed to hit Sully at the exact same moment as it hit Nate and several grenades later the car was finally taken down. Leaving Nate with only a couple of henchmen to mop up before moving on.
Sully followed as he headed towards a gate on the far side of the square. Not even bothering to try and open it with his own waning strength and moving straight to an RPG dropped by one of Marlowe's goons. "Time to take out that gate" he murmured, and Sully had to move closer to hear his soft voice. The gate blew open and Nate moved further into the town. There was still no sign of any water or any food. Climbing a ladder to get to the next part of the town neither of them were prepared for the man to grab Drake and pull him off the ladder. Both Nate and his attacker fell through the air for several metres before falling onto the sand below. Whether it was luck or skill Sully didn't know but during the fall Nate had shifted higher than his attacker and his fall was mostly broken by the man beneath him. Who didn't move as Nate pushed off the floor and slid behind another wall as bullets whizzed through the air once more.
As he peered over the wall several red dots swam over his eyes and he ducked behind cover again. "Snipers? Now?" the incredulousness in Drake's voice matched the horror in Sully's expression as Nate slid down the wall to sit on his knees. "Ah, there's just too many of them" He ducked lower as small slivers of the wall flew past him as the bullets started to destroy the wall. "This is it, this is it" "No kid this isn't it!" Cried Sully " You make it back, you make it to me kid! Where's that annoyingly optimistic gangly kid that I picked up in Cartagena?" He dropped down besides Nate trying to shield him from the bullets, wondering if the medallion would let him interfere one last time. Nate had definitely not heard him however as the only response was a whispered "I can't do this".
"NO!" roared Sully. And as if his prayers were answered Salim and his men chose that moment to gallop into the square taking out all the enemy gunmen as they entered . Salim advanced on Drake and it took a couple of minutes of silence for Nate to even realise that he wasn't going to die. "What the hell is that?" he asked. Nate turned as if unsure what to expect as he turned around. He was faced with a hostile looking Salim on a horse. Gun in his left hand.
"English?" Sully almost laughed out loud at Nate's confused expression and with relief that Nate was finally going to get out of this desert. "What?" There was a pause where Sully could see Salim start to lose his temper and Nate start to wrap his head around what was happening. "English? I speak English" It was at this point that Salim raised his gun.
"No, no no no don't shoot me" Nate holstered his own gun and raised his hands "Please don't shoot me"
There was a long pause in which no one moved and then Salim spoke Arabic and waved an arm to his men. Drake watched with confused eyes as Salim rode away and for a moment Sully thought that Salim intended to just leave him there. But one of Salim's men rode over to him and hauled him onto the horse behind him. The man in front of him pulled on the reins and Sully was pulled along at tremendous speed following them.
"Sniper! Sniper dead ahead!"
Despite the mortal peril that Nate was still in Sully didn't find that he was worried. Not until the rider fell of Nate's horse. Leaving Drake in control of the horse and separated from the others. He watched as Nate shifted into the saddle and the horse took of through the streets of the ghost town. After several moments of galloping alone Nate burst out of a side street and met up with Salim and the other men again. "Hurry, stay close American" called Salim and Nate's horse reared as the others rode past. "This was through here" Nate kicked his horse into motion again and narrowly avoided being taken out by crashing car. They gallop towards the gate that Drake had been unable to open when he first reached the town.
"RPG! RPG!" called Salim riding in through an archway. The man riding behind him put down the assailant with a good shot and Nate leaned up out of his saddle with one hand to grab the fallen weapon. "I got it!" Salim looked back over one shoulder and yelled "We must get through the gates" Nodding his head Nate fired the RPG at the gates and the blew to pieces. Several moments later the horses all sped out the gap created by the blast and off into the desert.
Sully was pulled along with Drake at tremendous speed and found himself enjoying the ride. Nate was now safe, he had survived a plane crash into the desert! Damn kid was going to give him a goddamn heart attack one of these days. Maybe that's why Nate never told him what he did when they were separated, he was afraid of sully dropping dead on the spot. Deciding that he would think on this later he focused his attention on his charge. Drake was galloping along with Salim and his men, he was in the centre of the group and from what Sully could tell this was to make Salim and his men feel more secure. He found himself unable to fault Salim for this. Nate was still an unknown to these men, they could even have lumped him in with Marlowe's men and killed him in the village. He made a mental note to thank Salim again when he was back from his little trip.
Before long the sun was starting to set, and Sully could finally make out Salim's camp in the distance. The riders all stopped at the edge of the camp and were met by people who took the reins of the horses. Nate dismounted with the same lack of grace as earlier and almost fell on his face. Salim moved over and supported Nate under his arm and guided him over to sit by a fire. He spoke in Arabic to one of his men and the man nodded before hurrying off. Sully wondered where the man was going. He reappeared before long with a cup containing tea and handed it to Nate before he and Salim both left him alone.
Sully watched Nate sip the tea and stare at the fire for an indeterminable amount of time. Once more he found that he couldn't read the younger man. He could see by the set of his shoulders that he was tired, but his eyes were almost blank. Before Sully had time to dwell on it too much Salim returned to stand by Drake, cup in one hand, teapot in the other. "You are far from home American". Nate looked up and Salim refilled Nate's cup, Sully didn't think Nate even realised that he thanked Salim in Arabic.
"You do not belong out here" continued Salim "Any of you"
Nate finally looked up at Salim "You spared me. Why not just kill me along with the others?" Sull looked at Salim with interest. He was wondering why Nate had been spared too. After a long moment Salim replied, "That would have been impolite".
Both men smirked before Salim spoke again "You were in distress" Sully snorted that was a complete understatement! Nate had been convinced that he was literally seconds from death. Distress pfffff.
"Even an enemy must be fed and sheltered. Are you my enemy American?"
"Drake?"
Salim seemed confused "Hm?"
"My name, it's Drake" Nate held out his hand and Salim regarded it for a long time before finally shaking it. "Salim, I am sheikh of this tribe"
"Well I don't mean to be forward, Salim, but I need a horse. I don't have anything to offer in return-" Salim cut Nate off before he could continue. "You plan to attack the English caravan alone?"
"You know about them?" "My scouts have been tracking them for two days" He paused a moment before taking a seat need near Drake "Why are you here? Why do the English cross the Rub' al Khali?"
"They're looking for the lost city of Ubar"
The surprise and horror on Sully's face made he realise just how much danger the world was in before Nate saved it.
"Iram of the pillars" murmured Salim. Voice equally reverent and afraid. Nate spoke up at this point and Sully was pleased to hear emotion in his voice again, fear and determination. "They've taken my friend hostage. He's the only one who knows the way. Once they find Iram he'll be worthless to them. They'll kill him"
Sully zoned out of the conversation for a moment and focused on Nate. Even after he nearly died at, sea, in the desert, from Marlowe's men, he was still trying to save Sully. He had definitely done something right raising that kid.
"Tomorrow they enter the canyons – We'll take them there. But for tonight rest. We leave at dawn"
He left Nate alone then, the younger man staring into the fire. Sully followed his gaze and glanced at the fire, he wasn't looking at it for more than a second before a white flash filled his vision and he knew no more.