Hey everybody!
Well, a few things to say. First, how about some shameless promotion? I've written a story with a new member of our NT fan-fic family, ILoveNationalTreasure. It's called 'What Just Happened?', and we'd really appreciate it if you'd check it out, please.
And National Treasure is not mine. Yeah, you know that already, so…
CHAPTER 16!! D
-OoOoOoO-
Kathleen
I fell hard on my side, and I was afraid I'd broken my arm because of how I landed on the stone table. I didn't even hear Nicole shouting out my name before the door in the ceiling closed. The stone table was already tilting in every direction, and I was too close to the edge for comfort. I felt myself sliding rolling closer and closer to the edge, and panic rose in my chest.
"RILEY!" I didn't even really know I was screaming. "HELP!"
'Oh god, I'm going to fall off the edge, I'm going to die.'
As I slid closer still to the edge, two strong hands clamped on my wrists, halting my fall for a moment. Their grip was much too strong to be Riley's, and I looked up into the icy blue eyes of Mitch Wilkinson.
"Hang on."
"Okay." My voice was a little calmer, and I tried to swing my legs up onto the stone, without success. He pulled me up the rest of the way, and it seemed he'd hardly made any effort at all. "Thank you." I breathed. Mitch just stared at me, shrugging indifferently. I slowly crawled on all fours to the center of the table, and looked up to see Riley staring at me, his eyes still wide.
"I'm fine." I said loudly, not sure who I was trying to reassure. He gave a small nod and seemed to snap out of his trance. The table finally settled into a somewhat flat position, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Mitch shone his flashlight down into the dark oblivion below.
"Nothing." He sighed. "Just a big old black hole."
I swayed on my feet, staring at the design on the stone death trap, waiting for Abigail's excited proclamation.
"Ben, look, it's a ladder!" She paused, looking it over. "Or… what's left of a ladder."
"Toss me the light." Ben held out his hands and effortlessly caught the flashlight Abigail had thrown to him. "Riley, move to that corner -"
Riley was already moving, and the table tipped slightly, causing me to let out a short shriek.
"No, wait!" Ben cried. "You move to that corner as I move to this corner." Ben indicated where he was moving.
"OK." Riley breathed.
"One step at a time." I thought Ben sounded like some kind of instructor of some sort, trying to talk in a soothing voice. "Good. If we can raise this corner, I think I'll reach it."
Mitch stepped forward without warning.
"Whoa, hey!" I shouted, trying to stay steady on my feet.
"Stop! Red light!"
"You're not helping!"
Mitch glared at Riley and Abigail, then turned back to Ben. "I can get up there just as easy as you can."
Ben inched forward, trying to balance out the tilting Mitch's movements had caused. "Just stop."
"Seriously, just let Ben go." I knew the plea would do nothing, but I figured it was worth a shot.
"Hey, it's four against one here. I ain't going last, and if I'm not going last, I might as well go first."
Try as I might, I couldn't make sense of that logic. So I just stared at Ben and Mitch while they moved towards each other and Abigail and Riley repositioned themselves.
"Look!" Ben shouted, but Mitch grabbed him by the shirt in a threatening manner.
"What's it gonna be?"
Ben also grabbed Mitch by the shirt, and they stood there for several seconds, staring icily at each other and the black hole below until Ben gave up.
"We'll do this your way." They switched positions and released each other. "Abigail, Riley, the three of us will move together on the count of 3. Kathleen, just stay where you are."
I nodded slowly, watching as Ben counted up to 3 and the table lifted on the corner where Mitch stood, and then everyone ran forward, nearly running right into me in the middle. Mitch climbed up the ladder, ignoring Riley as he shouted out questions about what was happening.
"I've been doing the math here…" Abigail's voice was quiet.
"I know." Ben's voice had a similar tone, and we all stared at each other.
"Some one stays behind." I said slowly.
"Just promise you'll come back for me." Riley's gaze focused on me intently. "I can do the math too."
"No, I'll stay." Ben sighed. "You go, Riley. For Kathleen." He inclined his head in my direction.
"No, Ben…" Riley attempted to argue, but Ben would have none of it.
"Kathleen, you go next."
I nodded slowly, wondering if I could even make it up the ladder, considering my severe lack of arm strength. I sighed, contemplating this as I walked forward to the corner and grabbed onto the last rung of the ladder firmly. I turned and gave the rest of them a nod, and soon the solid table disappeared from beneath my feet, my grasp on the ladder being the only thing standing between me and my death. I shuddered slightly at the thought and started climbing ever so slowly.
My arms burned as I used every ounce of strength in my muscles to keep climbing. In one moment my hand almost missed the rung above me, setting my heart pounding in my chest.
'Don't look down, don't look down, look anywhere except down.'
Somehow, however, I made it up to the top where Mitch was standing, looking rather nonchalant. Down below, Abigail was getting ready for her turn and Ben and Riley were still arguing about who'd be the last one standing.
"Boys!" I shouted down at them, smiling. "That won't be necessary. There's a gold idol up here that we can use when the last person is getting ready to go."
"Oh." Riley replied, looking a little sheepish.
Soon enough, Abigail was on the ladder, and there was a fatal cracking sound in the wood.
"What are you doing?" Riley demanded.
"Nothing!"
Abigail had managed to actually get up on the ledge by herself this time, and was preparing the idol to roll it down. I heard Riley scream below and watched him jump across the gap onto the rope ladder.
"The idol!" Ben shouted. "Hurry!" His voice had risen, straining to sound calm.
The three of us who'd reached the top rolled the golden idol over to the ledge and rolled it down just as the platform started falling. Ben made it with just seconds to spare, and everyone was visibly relieved.
"You alright?" Mitch asked as Ben and Riley reached the rest of us. Riley pulled me into his arms, his entire body still shaking.
"It's OK, we're fine." I tried to get him to relax.
"Y-Yeah." He stammered quietly. "I know."
I released him, giving him a reassuring smile. Then I looked up at the earthen ceiling, wondering what had happened to Nicole after the trap door had shut behind us.
-OoOoO-
Nicole
"KATHLEEN!" I stared angrily at the trapdoor that blocked my view of what was happening below.
'I never get to do any of the fun stuff.'
I looked back at Patrick and Emily, sighing. "Looks like we're going to be moving some stones." I motioned down the blocked passage, knowing that was our only hope of getting out of there. Emily nodded slowly, looking very upset. I paused. "Ben's going to be fine, Emily, don't worry."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Trust me." I smiled. "I know he will."
She sighed to herself, brushing her eyes with the back of her hand. Patrick was already at work moving stones from the passageway. I moved to join him when I felt Emily's hand on my arm.
"Can I have a word with you?"
"Uh… OK?"
"I'm sorry about what happened with Mitch, but he said if I didn't…" Her eyes fell to the floor. "You and Patrick…"
"It's OK, they didn't do anything. I forgive you for that." I started to walk away again.
"There's something else." She said, her tone changing.
'Uh-oh.'
"Are you having trouble with Ben?"
"What gave it away?" I asked sarcastically. Sarcasm was good. It was better than anything else, anyways.
"It's because of Abigail, isn't it?"
I sighed. "I think so."
She patted my arm. "I'm sorry. Benjamin's never been good with women. I suppose he was looking for…" She stopped searching for the right word.
"A distraction?" I guessed. "I've sort of figured that out already. To be honest, I think I was too."
She raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well my boyfriend Drew broke up with me right before we got here."
And it was true. We were always an on-again-off-again couple, worse than anyone you could think of. I wasn't sure why, but we could never stay together, but we could never to stay apart from each other either. I sighed at the thought.
I pulled my arm back from her hand, going to help Patrick with the stones. The tunnel fell oddly silent as Patrick and I worked rhythmically to take out the stones while Emily stayed back, looking around at all the relics strewn about the cavern. I liked the silence; it was better than playing twenty questions with Emily.
Finally, after a good five minutes of working and a stubbed toe or two, there was a space large enough for a few people to squeeze through. I hopped up first, wiggling my way through easily.
"Go ahead, it's clear!" I shouted back to Patrick and Emily, and there was a muffled response. I briefly considered going on without them, but decided against it, knowing Emily would probably have some sort of panic attack if I disappeared. So I decided to sit down and pout about how I wasn't with the fun people. I'd rather be hanging off the edge of the giant stone table than be waiting for Ben's old parents to crawl through a tunnel.
After what felt like ages, they made it through unscathed and we continued our journey until we reached the rope that we were supposed to swing across.
"Shine your light over there." Patrick instructed, and he tossed his electric lantern across the ravine while I grabbed the rope in both hands.
"Wait!" Emily cried out. "Be careful!"
"I'll be fine, Emily."
In truth, I wasn't so sure. But I decided to be daring, and grabbed firmly onto the rope and ran forward, setting the rope swinging. I managed to jump off and the rope, but I fell onto my back and let out a little shout.
"Ow!"
"Nicole, are you OK?!" Emily sounded frantic. She was starting to remind me of my grandma, always worrying about every little thing that happened to me.
"I'm fine." I reassured her, pulling myself to my feet.
'That's probably gonna leave a bruise later, though.'
I stepped aside, making room for Patrick and Emily to land.
"Go ahead, it's clear!"
Though I normally would've been more interested in watching two old people swing across a ravine and start kissing, I decided to go on a little farther, exploring down the tunnel just a little farther. And there waited something I hadn't expected: A big stone door with a bunch of holes in it… And several arm-less skeletons. I screamed, jumping back away from the bodies. Of course, this sent Patrick and Emily running frantically to find me as I backed away from the dead people.
"Are you OK, dear?
"What happened?"
I pointed wordlessly at the dead bodies, and Patrick and Emily gasped. Patrick went over to inspect the stone door, Emily to inspect the skeletons. I winced as she yanked one of the broken arms off somebody, asking his pardon as she did so. So apparently we weren't the first people to get this far…
The room smelled bad, probably because of the dead people. I sighed, sitting down on a rock on the other end of the room from Ben's parents. I closed my eyes, wishing I could sleep; the backseat of a Jeep is not a very comfortable place to sleep, especially when your hands are tied together and the driver of said Jeep is blaring country music all night.
Several sickening crunches came from the other side of the room, announcing the crush of some dead guy's arm bone. Finally I heard Patrick speak.
"That's it."
I opened my eyes to see Emily staring at Patrick nervously as he stuck his arm through the hole in the door. I was waiting for him to pull a Ben and start screaming, but all I heard was a small clunk and the door opened, water pouring in and soaking the room. I stood up, quickly passing them and hurrying through the door.
And like in a dream, I stepped through the hallway into the light of a gleaming golden city.
Cibola.
-OoOoOoO-
What'd you think? I'd love some feedback, guys!
-AP