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Avery's horror show underneath the ground was exposed. Other than the traps that were dormant for trespassers to tread in unwelcome territory, there were remains of bodies that had wronged the pirate in the past. He displayed dismembered jaws, hands, and other limbs suspended as we ducked our heads through the narrow caves. In the limited lighting of the flashlights being used it made the scenery even more eerie. He even had mummies preserved in some kind of wax coating stacked along the carved-out corridors. Knot curiously poked at one of the mummies, feeling the gooey texture that coated the body. He instantly wiped his hand in disgust.

"What the hell is this stuff?" He wondered aloud.

"It doesn't matter, let's keep moving. Sam?" Rafe pressed, not wanting us to wait around. As he took a step forward, Nadine gripped his arm, looking determined.

"I'm going to leave another group of men up ahead," she informed him.

Rafe sighed in agitation. "You want to leave more men behind? By the time we get there there'll be none of them left!"

"We'll use it as a rendezvous point to restock or camp out in case we run into trouble. We're going in here blind, Rafe, and it's better to have a backup just in case," Nadine explained, her tone final.

"That's a waste of resources," he dismissed. He looked back at the rest of us, "let's keep moving!"

As Nadine and Rafe seemed momentarily distracted, Sam took the opportunity to sneak back toward me. He stared straight ahead, trying to not to cause suspicion.

"You know what was coating those bodies there, right?" Sam whispered to me, keeping his eyes forward. I looked up at him as he spoke, "no, look straight ahead, we don't want them to catch us talking."

I obeyed, snapping my head forward toward Rafe and Nadine as they continued to bicker. "Something like tungsten, I believe," I replied.

"And what is significant about tungsten?" He questioned, although by his tone I know he already knew the answer.

"It's combustible."

"Bingo. Now we just need to find a way to light it..." Sam answered. "Okay, I'll distract them, you find something that'll spark it."

Without waiting for me to reply Sam already took a step forward, although Rafe and Nadine were still too deep in their argument to notice. What the hell was I going to find? Shoreline had unloaded footlockers around this part of the cave, but how could I rummage through them unnoticed?

"Dammit, I think we're going the wrong way!" Sam suddenly erupted, feigning annoyance.

I knew this was my cue, but I didn't feel ready. As Rafe and Nadine bounded toward him, questioning and frustrated, I waited until the rest of Shoreline seemed drawn into their heated debate. Some of the men continued to work, but as Sam caused more of a stir, the soldiers stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. I couldn't believe this was working. I crept backward cautiously, making sure no eyes were on me. I knelt beside one of the large footlockers and opened it slowly, gritting my teeth in fearful anticipation. I waited a few moments before sticking my hand inside and blindly searching through, still keeping a watchful eye on Shoreline. My hands wrapped around something cylinder. I pulled out a rod flare.

I hastily groped for the cap and removed it, my hands already trembling as I did this as fast as I could without dropping the damn thing. I dropped the cap to the ground then pushed my fingers into the ignition surface. The flare sparked and illuminated a bright blue light almost immediately. Now this drew the attention of Shoreline.

"What do you think you're doing?" Nadine snapped, now heading angrily in my direction.

I held the flare firmly in my hands, stepping back toward the wall. I heard a sound like a hiss and pop, then suddenly the room was filled with an immense glow coming from behind me. I turned to see the mummies lit up like sparklers. The flare seemed to trigger the entire row lining the wall.

"What the hell?" Rafe questioned aloud.

I didn't waste any time, as they were all distracted by the light show I tossed the flare to the ground and broke out into a sprint. Sam did the same, slipping by the dumbstruck crowd.

"Shit, GET DOWN!" Nadine screamed.

Half of her voice was drowned out by a deafening explosion. Mummy after mummy started to explode, making the cave shake and dust and debris spew from the walls. The force of the explosion caused me to go flying down one of the corridors, and down an incline. I rolled down in the dark, feeling every scrape and bruise forming as I made impact after impact. I landed on the ground eventually, but it was pitch black. My ears still rang from the explosions, and my equilibrium was still off balance from falling. I sat up in the dark, touching the side of my head as it throbbed. I coughed, spitting out dust and mummified ashes (ew) from my mouth. It all happened much faster than I expected, and I wasn't even sure if we had really lost Shoreline. For all I know they could have come tumbling down with me.

"Sam?" I muttered into the darkness. There was no response. For a brief moment of panic, I thought I'd lost him. "Sam?" I called again, this time more desperately. I heard something move a few yards over to my left.

"Dani?" I heard a hushed voice respond back. The sound of little stones rolling against the ground as Sam crawled over toward me slowly. I felt his hand press against my midriff, feeling for me in the dark.

"Thank God," I sighed, placing my hand over his.

"Hang on," Sam said. A sudden light came on, shining directly on me. I squinted my eyes from the sudden brightness, realizing that Sam still had Rafe's cellphone.

I reached up my hand blindly for his face. I felt so relieved and grateful at this moment that we were able to escape, that for a brief pause in time I actually felt a tinge of happiness. In spontaneity, I leaned in to kiss him on his lips, but missed and got him on the neck instead. My hand finally found his face, cupping his cheek.

"I don't think this is the time or the place to give me a hickey."

I couldn't help but laugh as I pulled away from his neck. Sam adjusted the light on the phone so it illuminated both of our faces. He smiled lovingly at me as my thumb stroked his rough cheek, and his arms wrapped around me. I felt like I could melt right at this very moment, just staring at him in Avery's booby trapped path underneath the lost city of Libertalia. It sounds silly once I thought about it, but I didn't care.

"I …" He mumbled, "you have every right not to forgive me. I should have told you the truth about the prison, and Nate. And now I might never get a chance to tell him…"

"Hey," I attempted to comfort him. "I should've went into more detail about Rafe and I's relationship, I'm sorry." Another rumble shook us from our sentimental moment. "You're right, this isn't the best place for this."

"Yeah, we should start trying to find a way out of here," Sam agreed, standing up then helping me up.

Sam and I wandered around the cave with nothing but the small light from the cellphone to guide us. Every once and a while we'd hear explosions, shaking the entire cave and bringing us to a standstill. Shoreline was gaining on us, but we could only tread so fast and carefully. Sam had some clues from Rafe saved on the cell to point the safe way through, but a lot of it was up to Sam's intuition (which luckily he seemed to have a lot of).

Some light from the outside shown through small cracks on the upper side of the cave, but I still didn't feel close enough to escaping Avery's maze. Sam checked Rafe's phone before lowering it, his gaze lingering on me. It looked like he wanted to talk to me about something, but was hesitant to. I admit I was still upset about his lie even though my affection for him remained, but being standoffish now would get us nowhere. He was still unsure to freely speak to me, but perhaps he summed up the courage.

"When Rafe first found us before we got separated from Nate… he said a name when he lashed out at you…" Sam started awkwardly.

I took a deep breath, knowing this would surface sooner or later. "Holden."

"Right," Sam scratched the back of his head nervously, trying to think of the right words to say next. I decided to just spit it out so he didn't have to tiptoe his way around the topic.

"Holden was our son," I replied, my voice somewhat hollow but stronger than I perceived.

Sam's eyebrows rose in surprise, but he said nothing. I took another shuddering breath, feeling like I was forcefully pulling out stitches from a still healing wound.

"We lost him in a construction accident when he was a toddler," I continued on, "losing Holden was what really drove the final wedge into Rafe and I's marriage. I couldn't handle it and Rafe's way of coping was going after this," I glanced around the cave, insinuating Avery's treasure. "I was so young and stupid then, there was so many ways we could've sorted our grief out, but I chose to run away and make enemies with the Adler family." I shook my head at my grave mistake. Running off with my cousin seemed like a good idea at the time, but not now since Simmons was able to step into the picture. "I was nineteen and terrified, and now look at us," I kicked a stone and watched it idly, "owing a shark who wants me dead with an army and my angry and morally ambiguous husband after me."

Sam wiped his mouth with his hand, astonished. "Jesus Christ, Danielle. I had no idea, I'm so sorry-"

"You don't have to apologize," I interrupted, feeling my gut twist uncomfortably from receiving pity. "It happened a decade ago. Look, Rafe and Nadine are probably on their way right now, we should get moving again.

Sam stared at me sadly, still unmoving. I had to avert my eyes from him, the intensity was far too much for me. I suppressed a sob, trying to hide my face from him but he could already tell. I felt his hand gently caress my back; his other hand gripped my wrist gently. I tried so hard to fight to hide the truth but now it all came out like a dam bursting. I had cried in front of Sam before, but the reason had been a secret. I turned into Sam letting myself be held by him. I cried into his chest as he embraced me. I admit, letting all my pent-up emotions felt good, I felt like a great weight had been lifted off my soul. It felt natural to be vulnerable in front of Sam, something I had been afraid of before.

Inaudible shouts made me pull away from the safety of Sam's chest. We both stared out into the darkness. Stomping of combat boots started to echo throughout the cave, followed by beams of light shining from a distance.

"They caught up to us, we gotta go!" Sam informed me hastily.

He gripped my hand and led me with nothing but the light of Rafe's phone. I hoped that where we fell wasn't enclosed without a way out. As we ran through Avery's cave we saw a beam of sunlight from up ahead. As Sam led me, we ran right into a soldier from Shoreline. Stunned, we all swayed, unable to react straightaway. As Sam gained his bearings he punched the solider, ripping the pistol from his hands. I followed Sam, still dazed and disoriented from the dark.

"I see them up ahead!" Someone yelled from behind us.

"Keep running, Dani! There's a way out up ahead!" Sam called behind me.

We exited the mouth of the cave. I nearly stumbled from being blinded by the sun, even though I still ran forward. I let go of Sam's hand by mistake, but the sound of gunshots behind me kept my pace fast. It was then I realized we had reached a beach with dozens of crashed ships everywhere. I watched Sam jump into the sand, heading toward one of the ships for cover. I did the same, still hearing the soldiers trampling behind us. The two of us leaped onto one of the ships; it creaked unpleasantly under our feet. Shoreline continued to spill out of Avery's cave, brining every piece of artillery I could think of. They rained down bullets in our direction as we struggled to climb toward the crow's nest of the ship. The two of us took cover behind the wood of the ship. Sam would shoot back with the stolen pistol, but against all of them it did nothing.

"Keep your head down!" Sam told me.

"We're pinned down here, Sam! We can't stay here!" I replied, covering my head.

A sniper's bullet, followed by rapid fire from another gun pierced the planks of wood by us. We ducked by instinct

"We don't really have a choice!" Sam shot his pistol over cover again.

I wish I had a weapon so I could help, but the two of us against this many soldiers with one semi-automatic pistol wouldn't do the job. I could do nothing but sit beside Sam, making sure no one was trying to sneak up on us or throw grenades. My ears heard someone in the distance shouting, and for a moment I could swear they were screaming Sam's name. I crawled over toward the edge of the crow's nest, cautiously peeking out to see if there was someone really shouting Sam's name. My eyes widened in surprise.

"I see Nate and his wife!" I pointed in the distance at the couple fighting their way over to us.

"Are you serious?" Sam exclaimed in disbelief.

I was so relieved to see Nate alive. Nate and his wife had really helped diminish the forces of Shoreline. Quiet fell over the beach as the remaining Shoreline soldiers had either been killed or ran off. Sam wiped his sweaty brow with his arm, finally able to catch his breath.

"Hey, you're a sight for sore eyes," Sam greeted Nate and his wife.

"Thank God you're alive!" I exclaimed to Nate.

"Yeah, how 'bout we get off this damn beach, huh?" Nate replied.

"Absolutely," Sam kicked down a rope ladder for them to climb.

"You find my lighter?" Sam asked as Nate climbed up.

Right then an RPG missile struck by us, sending all of us crashing down into the deck below. The three of us groaned as we sat up. Elena jumped down and moved up and was already shooting. Another RPG round struck by us, making all of us stumble to our knees again.

"We gotta take out that RPG!" Nate's wife stated.

"I don't have a gun," I said.

"Here," Nate handed me his pistol as he gripped an ARX-160.

We shot at him as we alternated to taking cover and firing. Eventually the bastard with the RPG was taken out. We moved up off the ship, still encountering an insane amount of Shoreline soldiers. As we made our way up to another deck, some of the soldiers jumped out at us. One of them grabbed my wrist, forcing me to point my gun down. I gave him a low side kick in the shin, then a front kick at his hip to pry him off. I went for him then, not even wanting to use the pistol now. I punched him in the throat, the chest, then struck him with the pistol at his jaw.

"Another RPG!" I heard Sam shout from behind me.

From the giant ship, across from us there was another bastard shooting missiles at us. The ship we were on was already torn in half and unstable, not to mention we were still fighting soldiers who seemed to be popping around corners. Two RPG rounds knocked Nate and I over. The explosions hammered in my eardrums as I gained my footing.

"Motherfucker…" I moaned in annoyance, casting the man across the ship with a nasty glare.

We shot at them, and eventually had to use that grappling hook Nate and Sam carry around to swing across since the ship we were standing on wasn't going to last much longer. It was pure chaos; I'm still surprised none of us were killed. But I did thoroughly enjoy beating the RPG holder's face in. Once again we were out gunned and had to run for it. We hopped onto another boat and ran inside for cover. Another explosion sent a canon rolling backwards, and Nate and I tumbling back.

"Nate!" Elena cried.

"I'm good, keep running!"

Nate and I jumped over the canon, but another missile made the deck collapse, and sent the two of us sliding into the water. Nate and I swam up toward the surface, but the ship was rapidly sinking and filling up with water.

"We gotta get out of here," Nate said breathlessly.

I took a deep breath and dove under, tugging on Nate's pant leg to follow me. There was an opening at the bottom of the ship, leading into another corridor. We swan into it and surfaced again. Our heads and arms met the top of the ship as the water continued filling.

"Shit!" I gasped, sucking in another deep breath as were swallowed under again. Nate tried to push the top, but it wasn't budging at all.

One more opening thankfully led us out of the ship. I gasped for air as we surfaced again, but we didn't get a break. Shoreline was waiting on the shore for us. Nate and I whipped out our water-logged pistols and tried to shoot and swim at the same time. When we reached the shore, trucks pulled up and unloaded more soldiers. Luckily there were supply caches all along the beach, so we were able to throw grenades to get rid of most of them. But a turret from one of the trucks pinned us down again.

"Nate, look!" I pointed at an RPG, discarded on the sand a few feet in front of us.

I got down low and reached for it. Bullets from the truck kicked up sand all around me, but I kept trying to grab the RPG. Nate covered me, shooting a rifle at the truck. My fingers entangled around the weapon and pulled it back toward me. Nate shook off the sandy weapon, loaded it, then shot two rounds at the truck until it finally exploded. The truck rolled into a brick building nearby, clearing a path for us. Before we could celebrate, another armored truck pulled up behind us and this one meant business. As we climbed up the truck came crashing through the building, making Nate and I fall on the hood of the truck, then be propelled off of it onto one of the stone streets on the outskirts of Libertalia.

"Shit, we gotta move!" I pulled Nate to his feet then we both went running for it.

The truck left a total path of destruction behind it as Nate and I found ways to climb higher above ground. We climbed on top of a large pillar to evade the trucks bullets.

"Hey, it can't get us up here, right?" Nate chuckled slightly. Right as he finished his sentence the truck rammed into the pillar, making it come falling down into the next street over. "Why, why, why?" Nate cried as we fell.

The goddamned truck still drove after us, nearly running us over. We ran into a dead end, but suddenly the truck got stuck and the windshield got blown out with fire. I ducked my head, staring at it, awestruck.

"Sully?" Nate questioned, staring up the cliff at a figure standing above.

"How ya doin', kids?" Sully greeted.

"Sully!" I yelled in excitement. Finally, something was going in our favor.

The truck still fired from its turret, making Nate and I have to scramble for cover. Sully tossed down his RPG and Nate was able to put the beast to rest. I stupid truck finally blew up. I bent down, grasping my knees as I panted.

"For God and Liberty, asshole! Uh… that sounded better in my head," Nate sighed.

I laughed, unable to control myself. I was just relieved we had made it this far alive. Sully helped us up on the cliff. I hugged him in thanks, knowing we'd both be dead if not for him.

"Good to see you kids."

"Right in the nick of time," Nate chuckled.

"Yeah, well, I got a little antsy not hearing from you three," Sully replied.

"We gotta find Sam and Elena still."

"Hey!" As if on cue Nate's wife came running up to him from around a corner. "Are you okay?" She asked, hugging Nate. "We heard those explosions and we thought…"

"That was all this guy, "Nate looked gratefully at Sully.

"You saved his ass again?" Nate's wife asked, smiling.

"Naturally," Sully responded.

"Oh, uh Elena, this is Danielle, she got swept up with us on this whole thing. She saved both of our assess plenty of times. Dani, this is my wife Elena." Nate introduced.

"Hi, nice to meet you," I said to Elena, shaking her hand.

"Likewise, thanks for keeping him out of trouble."

"How are you doing?" Sully asked.

"Good, good. There some close calls but um, he covered me," Elena glanced over at the corner.

Sam emerged from cover, seeming uncomfortable to be confronting his brother again. I jogged over to him, happy to see him alive. I embraced him, so thankful that he was okay.

"Thank God you're safe," I said, burying myself into his chest.

He pulled away and cupped my cheeks to get my attention and inspect to see if I had any injuries. "You doing okay? Are you hurt?"

I shook my head gently, "no."

Sam let go of me with a smile. His eyes flitted over to Nate, Sully and Elena. "Hey." He greeted somewhat sheepishly.

"Hey," Nate replied. "How's that?" Nate asked, cocking his head toward Sam's bullet-wounded arm. I noticed it was now wrapped up.

"Oh, bullet grazed my shoulder, you?" Sam responded with a light chuckle.

"Cliffside grazed my face," Nate replied, pointing to his forehead. "So how'd you two lose Rafe?"

"We led his crew right into one of Avery's traps."

I nodded in affirmation.

"Smart."

After a short pause Sam took a step forward. "Hey, about the whole Alcázar thing…" he started

"We can talk about this later," Nate said.

"I owe you an explanation about Rafe, too," I added, looking over at Nate.

"It's okay, once we get to safety we can discuss everything," Nate replied. "Which way?" He asked Sully.

"On the beach," Sully pointed, "on the side of this town."

"I hope all that ruckus didn't attract any attention," Elena added.

The three of them started to move and I did too until I heard Sam clear his throat. I stopped and turned to him curiously. Nate, Elena and Sully stopped to hear him out.

"Whoa, whoa whoa, sorry, what are we doing?" He asked.

"What do you think we're doing? We're getting the hell off this rock," Sully answered.

"Right we could do that, or we could head in that direction which is a shortcut," Sam pointed to the right.

"A shortcut to what?"

"Avery's treasure," Sam answered.

"Oh, wow," Sully scoffed.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I stared at Sam like he was crazy. We just got away from them!

"I mean, Rafe's got to go all the way around and we can just-" Sam explained.

"Hey, screw Rafe," Sully interrupted.

"Hey, Victor with all due respect-" Sam started, trying to keep his voice even.

"You just don't know when to quit."

"Look, we're all here for the same reason," Sam interjected.

"We didn't come after the treasure, we came after you," Elena pointed out.

"And I appreciate that, I do, but we're good. And we've got the lead for now. We can do this," Sam glanced around but no one seemed to agree with him. "Dani, you need this treasure to stop Simmons, right?"

I looked down at the muddy ground, feeling bad at how eager and desperate he seemed. "Simmons is here I'm sure of it, he doesn't need me to find the treasure anymore." I wasn't sure of this, but I was tired of this island. Sam was disappointed in my answer.

"Nathan, look around. Avery scuttled every last ship on this island, you know why?" Sam asked.

"Because he was hell bent on keeping his treasure," Elena answered.

"Exactly."

"-no matter the cost to the others around him," Elena added.

Sam sighed. "Because he didn't want anyone to follow him. Because he was leaving! Look at this-" Sam pulled out a piece of folded paper from his pocket (I didn't even know he had that). "Okay, I found his map of the island. That's his ship right under that mountain, that's where our treasure is! And that's exactly where Rafe is headed right now as we stand around arguing like idiots!"

"What if he'd already left the island and his ship sunk out there somewhere in the middle of the ocean?" Sully interjected, starting to get annoyed.

"Then we found out where it got sunk." Sam replied.

"Oh boy," Sully dismissed, waving his hand.

I crossed my arms and shut my eyes, listening to Sam practically beg to keep going. If Simmons was really on this island, then I wanted to get the hell off of it. Let Rafe pave the way for him and I would have to deal with that ugly mess later. I'd rather be headed home and prolong the moment to when Simmons finally catches up to me. But seeing Sam's clear obsession slightly scared me and made me sad. Nate handed the map back to Sam, letting him down easily. Sam reluctantly agreed, raising his hands like he was going to surrender.

"Victor, where's that plane?" Sam asked, his tone quiet.

"Right this way," Sully started ahead, walking around him.

"Sam… I'm so sorry," I began, my voice meek. But Sam had already followed Sully down the cliff and didn't hear me, or he chose not to listen.