Hello again! Welcome back! Here's Chapter Five!

Five: Trust Issues

"That was the most humiliating moment of my life!" Fridge declared as the group dragged themselves, now dripping wet, from the small lake. The only good thing to come out of this seemed to be that they had lost the bikers, as Vera had said.

Bethany collapsed onto the bank, while Spencer was panicking about having swallowed some water.

"G-guys," Martha managed to choke out. "T-they got me..."

The other three froze when they saw the bloody bullet wound in her chest. And just like that, she disappeared.

"Wait-"

"Oh no, Martha!"

"Did she die? Is she dead!?"

In answer to this, a chiming noise sounded from above, like had happened after Bethany had been eaten by the hippo, and Martha fell from the sky - landing on Fridge.

"Ow! Get off me!"

"Sorry!"

"Martha! You're alive! Are you okay?!" cried Bethany.

"Uh, yeah, I-I think so..." The redhead was obviously pretty shaken, and understandably.

Spencer reached out and gently took her wrist. "That's what I thought," he sighed.

"What?"

"Those tattoos, they're our life count. Bethany got eaten by the hippo, so she only has two lives, and now Martha got shot, so she's down to two as well."

The girls looked at their wrists to find only two black lines now instead of three.

"W-well what happens if we lose all three?" Martha asked shakily, as though she dreaded the answer.

"Well usually that would mean game over..."

"Game over?"

"Wait, like over over? Are you saying we can actually die here?!" cried Fridge.

"I don't know..."

"You don't know?! I thought you were Mr. Video Game Genius!"

"Well I've never been stuck in one okay! But yes, I think that's possible."

There was a quiet moment between them as the group absorbed this.

"W-well, we'd better find the missing piece then," Martha said determinedly.

"Hey wait, where's Vera?" Bethany asked. It was then that the others noticed too - they were back down to four.

"You don't think they - killed her, do you?"

"She said they wouldn't hurt her..."

They jumped a little when they heard the sound of another motor bike.

"Oh no, not this again..."

They prepared themselves for another chase, but quickly realized that they were quite safe. A bike pulled up to the edge of the lake, driven by Vera herself.

"Oh good. I hoped I would find you all here." She dismounted and left the bike at the water's edge. "Everyone alright? No one hurt?"

"N-no..."

"Good. Onward then." She waved them on.

"Hey, you were amazing back there," Spencer told her.

"Oh, thank you."

"You really know how to - kick some ass!" He chuckled awkwardly.

She chuckled a little herself at this. "Thanks."

They trudged on, Vera once again in the lead. The four avatars were still pretty shaken from the near-death experience with the motorbikes.

"Look, despite what I might say, and despite our falling out, I am a big fan of your work," Vera told Spencer who was walking behind her. "His work. Sorry, I'm still not used to the whole you-lot-being-stuck-in-other-people's-bodies thing."

"Yeah, trust me, we're not either. And you are? A big fan of my - I mean Bravestone's - work?"

"Yeah. Always have been. Archaeologist to archaeologist, doctor to doctor." She smiled a little. Then her face fell. "I just can't afford another mistrust."

"So, trust issues huh?"

"You could say that. I was betrayed by my - work partner." She paused briefly before saying 'work partner', as though in consideration.

He nodded. "Van Pelt?"

Now she turned sharply to face him. "How did you-"

"Nigel told us."

"Oh. Of course he did." How much did he tell you?

"You were a part of the expedition? The one that brought him here?"

"I was. Let me guess, Nigel told you all about that too? You know, it's kind of funny, I never really believed in magic or curses. Not until I met Russel. For such a serious guy, he wholeheartedly believed in all that stuff. Magical amulets, ancient relics imbued with great power, cursed jewels... And now look at me, right at the centre of it all."

Spencer nodded. "You know, you actually kind of remind me of Lara Croft, a video game character. She's an archaeologist-adventurer too, and deals with some magical and cursed artifacts. She's English too."

"Hmm, sounds interesting."

"Yeah, she's pretty cool. It's a fun game."

"Oh, my, God," Bethany suddenly cried, stopping in the middle of the path.

The others stopped as well, looking at her in concern. "What?"

"I can't believe I didn't realize it before! I'd know that look anywhere: you just went through a break up!"

Now all eyes were back to Vera who appeared startled. She looked as though she was about to protest but then gave up. She kept walking. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Oh come on, talking about it helps I promise! I've been through this many times before, I would know!" Bethany hurried ahead of the others to walk at Vera's side.

Vera still appeared hesitant. "I really don't-"

"I'm here to support you, in this difficult time, woman to woman," Bethany assured her. "Now come on girl, spill it."

"I-I don't know where to start-"

"That's what I'm here for!" Then she hollered over her shoulder, "Martha! Come join us! We're having a girl talk!"

Hesitantly almost, Martha awkwardly shuffled over. "Don't think I'll be much help but, I'm here."

"Okay," Bethany said, turning back to address Vera. "We're your support squad. First thing's first: who did the breaking up? You or him?"

"Uh, me... I guess... Not officially, but it's obvious. We had a disagreement, and both went our separate ways..." To finish, she shrugged.

"OMG this is literally what I just went through with Noah! I know exactly what you're going through right now!"

"I'm quite over it really," the blonde insisted.

"Well I'm here to talk to if you need it. Lucinda, she's like, my best friend, is always there to talk to whenever I have boy issues."

"Thanks, Bethany."

"Well no wonder you've got some trust issues! First your work partner, then your boyfriend! Double the sting!"

"Yeah..." Vera only nodded.

They continued on.

"Careful," Spencer called as they climbed up some rocks to continue following the path. "Wouldn't want anyone to twist an ankle. I did that at camp once - not fun."

"You don't get out much, do you," Vera said.

"Y-you can tell?"

She chuckled. "Only a little."

"Yeah, I guess. Before this, the most dangerous thing I'd ever done was write Fridge's paper for him."

She raised her eyebrows. "You need to live a little mate."

Suddenly, the drums started again from overhead, though sounding more distant this time.

"You hear that?" said Vera. Everyone turned their gazes up to the sky. "Legend has it those drums are the heartbeat of the jungle."

Yay, more about Vera! And I saw the movie again and went back and updated the first chapter with some of the dialogue :) Like I said in the updated chapter, I like to go from the actual dialogue from the movie, also adding in some of my own, but I'm going from memory so it's not perfectly accurate! Anyways, please re-read chapter one if you're interested in seeing the changes, thanks again!