(You didn't think I would have Bashur and Harvey's backstory be so anticlimactic, did you?)
[Harvey's POV]
"C'mon boys! Let's go!" Bashur's mom yelled. Bashur and I ran down the stairs in his house and outside where the rest of his family was packing up their SUV. Bash invited me to go on a camping trip to Red Creek with him and his family since school had just let out. I was a bit skeptical about going, but my parents were ecstatic that I finally had a friend, so they agreed for me. But the way that Bashur's 12 year old twin brothers, Connor and Travis, described it made it sound pretty fun.
We all piled our stuff into the trunk of the car then piled in and started driving to the campsite. I stared out the window as we drove while Bashur dozed off. Connor and Travis fooled around in the back. We drove of hours. And hours. And hours. "Mrs. Bashur's mom, are almost there?"
She chuckled. "I was wondering when someone would ask that. Just another hour or two Harvey."
The twins groaned simultaneously in the back. "An hour?!" Connor said dramatically. Or at least, I think it was Connor. Seriously, it's impossible to tell those two apart. They both have the same short dirty-blonde hair, the same save blue eyes, the same height, even the same voice for crying out loud! The only thing that can set them apart is their clothes, and even that isn't easy considering that they both wear t-shirts and jeans all the time. By now I have given up on calling them by name.
Finally after an hour of Connor and Travis's complaining, the car finally stopped. Bashur's dad turned around. "Alright boys, quit complaining. We're here." The two adults stepped out of the car, leaving me, Connor, and Travis to wake up Bash.
"Great," Travis mumbled.
"What?" I asked. "We just have to wake him up."
Connor snorted. "Please. You've never been faced with the challenge that is waking up Bahsur."
I rolled my eyes. "It can't be that hard." Well, as it turns out it is that hard. We tried poking him, slapping him, punching him, it seems like the guy would never wake up! Then Travis poured his water bottle on him in desperation. That finally woke him up.
As soon as the water splashed on him, Bash shot up in his seat. "AGH! What the balls?!"
Connor and Travis roared in laughter. I had to suppress a giggle myself. "You look like you jumped in a lake," Connor snickered.
Bash shot him a miffed look. "Connor, I swear one of these days I'm gonna smack you all the way to Jupiter." Stuck his tounge out in response.
I opened the car door and pulled Bash out before he could tackle his laughing brothers. "C'mon Bash. Let's go set up the tent."
It took about an hour and a half to set up the camp (actually, it would've taken longer but we got bored of organizing pretty quickly, so we just kinda threw the stuff in our tents). After that, Bashur's parents told Connor and Travis to take us hiking while they cooked dinner. So naturally, the athletic twins took the unathletic kids on the longest and hardest mountain trail. Okay, we weren't exactly in the biggest mountains in Cali, but Bash and I were still terrible at anything athletic, so it seemed like we were in the Sierra Nevadas. But for the twins, they sprinted up the trail for maybe half an hour straight up the trail with ease. Bashur and I struggled to breath just running a little bit trying to catch up.
When we did finally see them again, they were sitting on a log by a little cave, looking smug. "Finally! I thought that you two would never get here!" Travis exclaimed.
Bashur walked over and punched him in the shoulder. "Shut up."
I walked over to the cave and glance inside while they were talking. It was completely pitch black. "Whatcha looking at Harvey?" Connor asked.
"Just the cave," I replied, trying to make something out of the darkness in the cave. There had to be something in there.
I started to walk towards the entrance, but Connor stopped me by putting a hand on my shoulder. "Woah Harv! I wouldn't go in there if I were you."
I gave him a quizzical look. "Why?"
"The legend of the cave on Red Creek," he said in an eerie voice. "Legend says that a thousand years ago, three boys say an old man sitting by the cave resting. They wanted to play a joke on him, so they tricked the man into going in the cave. As soon as he did, the boys blocked the entrance. They meant to let the man out, but forgot about him for a week."
Travis stopped bickering with Bashur and continued the story. "When they finally did come back for him, there was no body. They went into the cave to get a closer look, but never came out. Ever since then, any hikers who entered that cave were never seen again."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right. Even if the 'legend' was real, wouldn't there have been news stories on it?"
"Oh, there were," Connor said, "but they still don't know what happened to them." He and Travis stood up and started heading up the mountain again. "See you kids at the top. That is, if you can even get there." They sprinted away laughing, leaving Bash and me staring at the cave.
"You don't actually believe them, do you?" I asked him.
Bash gave a nervous laugh in response. "N-no! Of course not! That would be stupid!" He glanced anxiously at the cave again and I rolled my eyes.
"C'mon, they're just trying to scare us."
Bash lowered his voice to a whisper. "But what if it's real?"
"Bash, you're so gullible. I'll prove it's not real." I took his wrist and started dragging him inside the cave. He struggled to get out of my grasp.
"No no no no no! I'm not dying today!"
I yanked him deeper into the cave. "Bash, you're not gonna die." I walked to the back of the cave and put his hand on the wall. "See? We're fine."
I let go if his wrist and he relaxed a bit. "Hey. Yeah. What do you know? Can we go back now."
I smirked. "Sure Bash. If it really still freaks you out that much." We walked back through the darkness towards the entrance. But instead of light we were only met with a rocky wall.
"There's no way out!" Bash cried dramatically. "We're stuck! We're gonna die!I knew I shouldn't have let you drag me in here!" He pounded on the walls, screaming for someone to help. I ended up wandering back to the other end of the cave. "Harvey!" Bash yelled. "What are you doing?!"
I didn't answer him. I just had a feeling that there was something important down here. I felt around the wall until I found a loose stone and pulled it out. The rest of the wall crumbled to the ground, revealing a staircase going deeper into the ground with torches lighting the way.
"Woah!" Bashur had joined. "I wonder where it leads."
I shrug. "I guess I'll find out."
I started walking down the stairs, but Bash stopped me. "Are you crazy?! This is the part in every movie where the person goes down and is killed by some boobytrap!"
I glanced at him and pulled myself away. "You overreact too much." Then I headed down the stairs.
"Fine!" Bashur called down. "You walk down to your death. I'll just stay here and, you know, live."
When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I was met with a long hallway. I grabbed a torch and then heard a pant next to me. "Decided to join the cool kids club Bash?" I asked.
He smiled next to me. "Yeah. I thought that you might need my brains or brawn."
"Yeah, whatever Bash."
"Well, what are we waiting for? The hallway is there, so let's go!" He mearly took one step forward and then fire shot out from the walls. Bashur yipped and pulled his foot back. "Why didn't I listen to my own advice? Looking before you do something in the creepy old temple place is, like, the number one rule in movies!"
I looked down the hall. Little silver spikes dotted the ceiling, virtually invisible if you didn't have really keen eyes. Little holes also lined the wall where the fire came out, and the floor looked like it was about to give way. If we touched the floor, we risked getting killed by those things, and probably even more hidden ones. But if we didn't do anything, we would die just sitting here. So that left only one option. "Bashur, have you ever taken a leap of faith?"
His face turned panicked. "No. And I'm not quite sure I want to."
"Well, you're going to anyways." I grabbed his wrist again and started sprinting down the hall, Bash sprinting right beside me.
He looked back and screamed. "Dude! There are a lot of deadly things happening behind us!"
"Exactly, so shut up and keep running!"
We sprinted for probably five minutes straight at least. I have no clue how I could still breath after a while. How long is the freaking hall?! Well, my question was answered two seconds later. I could see the end! The floor collapsed in front of it suddenly, making a gap into oblivion. It was too far apart to jump and make it. With the floor collapsing behind us, we were pretty much at a dead end. Literally.
"Uh… dude? What do we do?" Bash screamed.
"Bash…" Ten feet until the end. Now or never. "JUMP!"
Both of our feet lifted off the ground and we hurtled towards the edge. But we were still too far. We wouldn't make it on. I closed my eyes and waited to plunge into the cavern below. But nothing happened.
"Jeez Harvey!" Bash called. "Help a guy out! I can't just hang here forever!"
I opened my eyes and saw that Bashur had grabbed onto a ledge five feet from the top of where we were supposed to be. I thankfully was still clutching onto his wrist. I smiled. "Bash, I'm glad you joined the cool kids club."
He rolled his eyes. "Thank you, thank you. Now quit doing nothing and help get us up."
I found a place in the rocks that I could grab on to, then we both pulled ourselves up. Bash immediately flopped down on the ground and started breathing heavily. "I wasn't planning to "Indiana Jones" it up today, but hey, it's more exciting that hiking."
I chuckled at his comment. "Well, it doesn't look it's over yet Bash."
He groaned. "Great! Just what I needed today, more death!" I pulled him off the ground and we walked into the next room.
(Dun dun DUUUUUUUUN! What will happen to Harvey and Bashur? Find out next time, on Dragon Ball Z :P. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Also, I will give you a cookie if you know who Connor and Travis are. If you're a PJO fan, you should know.)
