Cassie

The fire I had managed to make using bits of wood and a lock of my hair was strong enough to keep us walm. This place was eerie but really cool. The only picture I had of my family was drying next to the orange flickering flames. Dust particles swarmed the fire like bugs getting too close to an open flame.

Escaping from Redd and his goons took it out of Jamal, he lay sleeping next to the fire. Between the long swim and the fall, I was pretty much done in too. I suggested we took a break before continuing.

The glow of the fire lit up some part of the cave. The light bounced of the remaining structures in the distance. The city was like no other. I had never seen anything like it – ever. As much as I wanted to go exploring. I needed to regain my strength. With no food in my belly, sleep would be the only way of regaining strength I have.

My eye lids became heavy, and I began to fall asleep. I dreamt a dream which was so vivid. It was as though I was channelling mom, she was working hard on her article about the lost gold of Yamashita. Dad took some of his sea stuff and they went searching for it for some dude. Like most treasure hunts, you end up with nothing - but the adventure.

That's when I saw it, Yashimata had claimed he knew where the Garden of Eden was. He spent the gold to find the stone – the one object that could open the gateway to the garden. Many had sought after the stone, albeit they claimed they were searching for the gold.

Thinking back to the days of pirates and their spoils, they hid them so only the ones who were among the honourable would share the wealth. But if you weren't part of that group, but knew of the treasure, you would go off in search – to maybe pick up the trail or try to beat the codes these minor intelligent seafaring scoundrels left in their wake.

Yashimata had gotten word the last known whereabouts of the two keys to the gates were seen in the Philippines. In my dream I could see mom writing:

…somehow they had been found. "Only Man and Woman can open the gate to child" Yashimata said. "Man and Woman and Child become Family. Family become Home. Home become paradise."

Since then, this nightmare hadn't stopped. Dad must've spoken to Uncle Sam, then he began his own search. Why though would later be known. I heard footsteps in my dream, I couldn't see anyone. Then I felt it – the hands of a brute.

I suddenly awoke as Redd Fisher stood next to me with Tankman.

"Well, well…you do get around. Give me the jewel." he said, his fish breath melted my nostrils. I went from remembering my mom, the heroine to facing Redd the villain. I reached into my pocket and took the shiny red jewel out, turning it in the flickering flame. Everyone looked spellbound by it. Well actually they were all wearing black helmets, but I could tell they were intrigued.

"You really are like your grandmother aren't you. In turn your father like she." Redd said smiling. Hearing about my grandmother made me upset. I had heard she'd travelled the world a few times and did some pretty amazing things.

"I knew her you know; Cassandra and I go back a long way."

I kept thinking about Dad and Uncle Sam, did they know about her, did they know what she did? And why does Redd know about her? I had so many questions. The big question I wanted to know more than anything was about these ruby red fragments. I wanted to know more about the stones, what did they have to do with anything? As far as I could tell, we needed Jamal and his sister to connect the maps.

"My girl, the stones are the battery to life. Don't you see that we have been given power – electricity to walk the earth. Some of us have more power than others and in turn helps shape man's mind and ability. Some harness that power and try to reach for the stars." He said pointing up to the rock ceiling.

I looked down at Jamal who hadn't moved at all. I hope he's okay I thought. Redd's preaching was enough to wake the dead, but not Jamal. It was as though he was resting to rejuvenate himself. To become stronger. We needed all the strength we had to escape the grasp of these goons again.

Redd continued. "The stones will be the ultimate power; three points, and the Stone of Eve will be the pattern. Turning a kingdom with no ruler into a Eutopia run by yours truly."

"So, you're turning it into the Stone of Evil." I said smirking. I wish these guys had their helmets off, I wanted to see if the crowd found it funny. At least Tankman gave off a grunt. Although I could never really tell if he was trying to laugh, cough or cry.

The more I thought about the stones the more they didn't make sense to me. I had one from Dr. Alexandra, but we didn't have the others. Redd told me where they're located after I asked. So my next question was how do we get them?

Redd had an answer to everything. "How did Drake circumnavigate the globe so quickly, he was often reported to be in two places at once. So was Christ, so was so many of our great thinkers, inventors and explorers in time. Here is how they can achieve such magic." He spread his arms wide indicating there was something hidden in this great underground city. Something of value more so than the Stone of Eve.

I could sense Matvey's men wondering what this old fool was talking about; I'm sure they didn't really care about any of this, other than the fat pay cheque they'd receive for services rendered. But I cared, what Redd was suggesting that inside this cave was an unprecedented find.

Redd looked down at Jamal.

I reached down to him too. "Hey Jamal, how are you feeling?" I asked tapping him on the side.

He didn't move an inch; he lay there peacefully. I took the photo of my family and placed it into my pocket.

Tankman grabbed my shoulder and pulled me up. We weren't going anywhere. He grabbed a hold of Jamal, shaking him.

"Careful, Matvey, you know how dangerous he can be." Redd said pointing his men to walk around the cave littered with broken homes and decorative structures.

Crunching through the silt and wood, we walked towards one of the stone, mud and timber houses. "Jamal look, at this place? Whoever lived here was wealthy." I walked further in, all the while thinking Matvey would tug on my invisible reins. "What is that?" Moving in closer I could see a thick fur coat used by the occupants of the dwelling. I dragged it over and covered Jamal with the albino white coat. He was shivering.

BOOM BOOM

The sound of the explosion rocked the formation of the cave. Redd's men had already begun blasting.

"What are you looking for?" Jamal asked, as I saw him spring to life like a jack-in-a-box ready to surprise its victim. "What are you doing?" looking at parts of the roof forming debris as it sprinkled down on us.

"Ten guesses." I said, thinking we needed to get out of here. Jamal picked himself up and wrapped the coat around me. He could see I was shivering. Tankman took another of the coats and wrapped it around Jamal - pushing me towards more ruins.

I had to admit it, I was thankful that Tankman seemed to look after Jamal.

Looking at the ruins reminded me of a fortress I'd seen in my research on Varangian history. Soldiers lived in the houses and protected the temple. In each city there was supposedly a vault to hide the wealth plundered by their travels.

From what Redd was talking about, what was in this vault would be anyone's guess.

We walked further in and headed towards the temple. It stood tall and acted as a type of beacon. Whatever was down here before may have long gone. I was determined to find something, some shred of evidence that the stone may have been here.

As we walked through the ruins of this once almighty city, the flashlights from the mercenaries shone ahead revealing a dark pathway towards the central church.

To my surprise we weren't alone, at least we weren't the first New Worldian's to see this place.

The World War II Japanese soldier lying in the doorway was holding a piece of parchment.

Tankman forcibly took it out of his hands. The skeletal remains fell into pieces. His yellowish-brown military outfit had been shredded by the family of vermin that lived inside. Fisher held the writings to the light.

It was a map. I glared at it.

It seemed to point towards the church.

"What do you make to this Ms Drake?" He was intrigued as I was. He turned the paper over, and it showed a large door – I guessed it to be the church door. "What do you suppose these symbols are?" The drawings were showing three shields each one with an emblem. I thought it might be some kinda code.

We passed more dead soldiers, but they had little on them other than dried up canteens and old-world Japanese currency. The thought had crossed my mind about taking one on this imperial's made weapons from the dead body. The solider wearing this kind of uniform meant he was of research and exploration. They weren't fighters – they were reconnaissance officers. Looking at the weapons, I knew we needed something to escape our captors.

The blasts were getting closer, they were leading us to some excavation site. I didn't like the idea of being caught again.

As we got closer and pierced through the darkness the buildings were mostly destroyed. Either razed by the soldiers of war or weathered or crumpled by the destruction of time. There was hardly anything left to see apart from the large temple.

We arrived at the large wooden doors.

Pushing them open we walked inside.

"This place doesn't fit – I think it's a Byzantine temple." Redd listened to my words as we looked around the broken-down church. There were writings on the walls mostly random letters and numbers that I couldn't make out. Weird lines pointing to points of letters.

We walked further into the altar area.

Redd Fisher was looking at the same inlets as I was.

The altar had three cut outs, as though there was something missing. Three shields – we needed to find them. Is that what was on the paper? I thought as I saw Redd frantically getting the piece of paper out of his pocket. He compared the paper to the altar – it showed the three emblems.

One had the symbol of a wreath embedded into a country, another an eagle and finally a Lion.

Three Varangian guard shields had to be placed in the altar. But where were they? I thought. Jamal's face lit up; he'd heard of this before. I prayed for Jamal to keep quiet. Redd was smart but he didn't know everything. He was as puzzled as I was.

KKKKRRRRR – AAARRRGGGHHH

The sound of static followed by a scream sounding on Tankman's radio. Tankman spoke Russian to confirm what was happening. Redd drew his weapon and told the guard to watch us as he and Matvey walked away to investigate.

I looked at Jamal, it was obvious he wanted to tell me about these emblems. There wasn't more we could do.

He began to tell a story Elder Izza had told him about an ancient group of warriors that swore to protect the unforgotten treasures of mankind. Known as the protectors. Each one of the lords carried the symbol of their house embedded into the land they protected. The Bear embedded into Europe, the Wreath into America and the Lion into Africa. Supposedly these men were great engineers of their time and forged keys and locks to hamper outsiders with their curiosity when it came to uncovering the protectors' secrets.

Uncle Sam would find this kinda cool. I thought.

"Wait, aren't these the same symbols we saw on the monument outside?" I thought how we needed to hurry back to the large centre piece in the middle of the market square. I remembered seeing the three symbols on the long concrete structure. On the west was the Wreath, on the South the Lion and the East the Bear.

The sounds of violence were getting closer. We weren't alone in this cave. I thought maybe the soldiers had risen from the dead and their skeletal remains were attacking Redd Fisher and his merry men and women.

"Halt, who are you people?" The leader of the group pointed at us. Matvey's soldiers were no match for the forged weapons of the dwellers. Before they could even aim their guns – the arrows from the bows glided into the necks of the mercenaries.

Staring into the man's bearskin warriors garb made me feel a little unsure of who was behind the mask. I was thankful they made an effort to speak English as the rest of the tribe swarmed around us. Pointing their spears at our throats.

"We're not here to hurt you, we're trying to go home." I said, thinking whether these people had dispatched Redd and Matvey.

"Home?" The scariest of the dudes was not understanding what we were saying exactly. "You want to go home?"

It took some explaining but we finally managed to persuade them to put their weapons down and allow us to talk. We followed them to the back of the cave area and outside into the sun. By the looks of the settlement on the Island they'd been here a long time.

"How long have you lived here?" I asked, wanting to know more about the civilization that seemed to be lost in time. They were able to survive for hundreds of years, living on the land on this almost unhabitable island in the Baltic Sea.

We felt safe and they took us to their meeting hall. I was ravenous and so was Jamal as they filled our bellies with cooked vegetables. Some were sweet, some were bitter. But boy I could have eaten anything. I was so hungry.

A young woman approached us as I finished the last of my soup. A native but she spoke very good English.

"Why have you brought them to us?" She said, explaining about Fisher's monster mash. The look in her eyes was of fear. I tried to tell her that those men were after them, moreover after Jamal, he was the key to the lock they had.

"You are Lion?" She said looking Jamal over. I knew he didn't feel threatened. It looked like this woman could explain who he might be.

"And where is the Bear?" She added.

Listening to her explain about Jamal and his sister opened my eyes to the wonders of the world that most never dreamt even existed. She went on to say what they can do and how valuable they are. The three houses protected the artifacts.

Beer – Bear,

Lieeu - Lion,

Tuin – Garden.

Realising the wreath emblem was the symbol of the garden. The Garden of Eden.

By now Red Fisher would have been close to where they were, assuming he was still alive - the sounds of the blasts were quiet. It seemed they may have found what they needed. Kelyia, took us into a room she said many did not see. It was where they kept the spoils of exploration. They had so many items that looked valuable. They were protecting artifacts too.

"We have not been able to find the three shields," she said walking us past the items they'd found in the city.

She showed us an artist's depiction of the shields: The Bear looked strong embedded into the silver wall of steel. The markings were done with expert craftmanship, as were the flowers. Each leaf, petal, stem crafted to perfection. The only shield they didn't seem to have an image of was the Lion.

She spoke about how her people have been searching for the shields - it had brought them to this island where they new all three would be.

I thought we had to find them.

They spoke about how long they've been searching for answers. I wasn't sure whether to feel excited, scared or troubled. A lot of all three mostly. Putting the shields in to place would help these people. They knew the dangers that lay ahead. Antiquated weaponry seemed to be strong against the mettle of guerrillas and deadly and accurate guns.

But finding the shields was going to require stealth. We had to be like ghosts, like assassins – taking each one of those soldiers out – hoping that they didn't raise the alarm to get the rest of the bad guys swarming around.

"Our ancestors believe, these keys are to The Gate. A gate to another world." Kelyia said un-scrolling the parchment of what they believed the story to be. Listening to the words matched what Redd was saying about these trinkets.

"The gods wanted happiness, there was too much violence in their worlds. They hoped to make something better for everyone. A new race, a new world. A new beginning. So, our god began making a new, forming the skies, the land and finally The Dwellers, united by love and overwhelmed by paradise. They would never leave." Kelyia concluded her story.

We set about working on a plan to get past Fisher's men and hopefully find the last shield.

I couldn't help thinking about Dad, Mom, Uncle Sully, I needed to know they were safe and I couldn't wait to tell them about this adventure. Seeing Dad, I knew he'd be okay. I had a feeling this wasn't his first rodeo and if I made it out of here alive, I was going to confront him about it.

We set off.

Carefully and expertly two of the dwellers stealth'ed their way around a couple of Redd's goons. They waited and listened.

"This place is a shit hole." A Russian said kicking stones and pulling rubble out of the way. "There's nothing here but dirt – lots of dirt."

He didn't appear happy.

ERGH

The last sound he ever made as I watched the armour piercing arrow glide through the sky from the dweller's bow. I made a note for him to remind me how to shoot like that. He nodded as his partner took out the next one.

Redd's team had the advantage, they were now covered in the latest high-tech military gear. Night-vision googles, bulletproof vests. They looked like a team of ultra scary mercenaries. Weapons the size of them by their sides. Knives, pistols you name it they had it on 'em.

"Over there," one of the goons shouted as he spotted us walking near some rubble. The next moment we were covered in light from the flashlights attached to their weapons. The beams bounced in the dust.

"Boss, it's Demetri, I have them."

KKKKRRRRRRR

"Boss, can you hear me?"

The sound of the radio was nothing but static. I stood waiting to know who was going to make the next move. "Hey get off me." I said as the soldier grabbed my arm and pulled me towards them. "Let me go."

Two more arrows flew at the soldiers as they fell to my feet. I looked in the distance and could see Jamal and a couple of the archers watching. I ran over to them and pulled them to the spot we were before.

Then all hell broke loose. It was as though someone had struck a match and let off a powder keg. All it needed was some kinda dramatic music in the background – you know like that Henry Jackman composer.

"Cass, d'ya think we should run?" Jamal pointed over to the lights flickering from the large structure ahead. I walked towards the North and pushed the monument in the centre of the plaza. It slowly moved and uncovered a way down.

An explosion caught us off guard.

"Oh shit, woah." I grabbed Jamal as we fell into the hole.

Coughing and spluttering I looked up. How many more holes am I going to fall down. I thought checking if Jamal was okay. The darkened room had a glint of light as the torches burning on the walls next to the three doors showed the image of each shield.

"Three doors – each with a symbol above them." I said anxiously. "This is it Jamal."

Were these some kind of trial rooms. I thought back to the games I played and remember the heroine finding three artifacts in three rooms. Each room represented the artifact to find. I wasn't liking the idea of a Lion room.

I decided to leave that room till last.

Opening the door to the Bear room revealed as much as I expected. The broken areas of the room were evidence that someone had picked the place clean. There was nothing here left to salvage or claim as some kind of treasure that we'd find. If the shield was still here, then it could be anywhere in the room.

I began walking around the small dungeon like room. On the back wall was the altar. On the left wall were three metal worthless shields. On the right wall almost the same, but two of them were on the floor. On the floor looked like spots of blood.

"Cass, is it here?" Jamal asked as worried about the room as I did as he watched me looking at the ceiling. I was right to be worried, the eight-inch spikes made up the ceiling of death. A Japanese Imperial soldier had been impaled by them. If we weren't standing near the altar, it would come down on us. "We'd be as dead as this guy."

Where was the mechanism? I thought.

This was it – getting the ceiling down was the key – but how?

We walked around the room, towards the walls where the other shields were, each one more worthless than the last. There had to be a switch or something to pull the ceiling down.

I walked over to the concrete altar and looked at the rusted shield rack. It wasn't too hard to workout the shield used to be on it. I walked over to the rack and looked at the square it was standing on. There appeared to be a small outline around where the rack was sitting.

I looked at the two missing shields on the wall. Walking over to the remaining one I removed it.

CLUNK

"Cass lookout!" Jamal shouted as I ducked down. The spikes came closer to the ground. They were still a few inches from touching me, but I thought I probably won't do that again. I carefully reached up and placed the shield on the wall.

The ceiling started to move back up.

"OK, do we need to put these shields back on the wall." I said picking up one of the ones on the floor and carefully placing it on the wall. The ceiling went up once again. I placed the other and the ceiling went up again locking it into place.

"How do we get the ceiling down without it killing us?" Jamal asked, looking at the only way we could move the ceiling. We needed to know what happened when all the shields were removed. Judging by the distance of each removal we would be dead if we removed three shields.

I saw a large piece of wood that I needed Jamal's help with. We balanced it carefully and knocked off the first shield. Nothing happened. Looking at each other surprised - we knocked off the next shield.

CRUNCH

The ceiling came down and the spikes reached the floor, breaking the wood. Whatever happened to the soldier led to his death. There seemed to be some pattern to removing the shields without the whole ceiling coming down at once. The ceiling began to rise again and rested at the same point it reached when we walked in.

The soldiers body slid off the spikes and crashed to the floor. We carefully walked back into the danger zone and placed the shield back on the wall. Leaving the other one off. I looked at the piece of paper the soldier had in his hand. It was the code for the shields, I was sure of it.

It appeared like a zig-zag pattern.

"I've seen this before." I said remembering seeing the writings in the church. This is the pattern for the B. "B, must be Bear." Turning the paper over I could see the pattern for the next room. W.

I looked at how the soldier attempted to remove the shields in this room. He had made a mistake for some reason.

"If this is the pattern, why did he get it wrong?" Jamal asked.

"Maybe he wasn't quick enough." I began to feel nervous. What I was suggesting was a sure way to be killed. But if we didn't remove the shields, we wouldn't know if the real treasure was here. I began mapping out how we were going to accomplish this.

I positioned Jamal in the middle of the room. Each one of his lines was easy to get to. But he needed to pick up the pace on the last one. If either of us was too slow we'd be as dead as the soldier next to us.

"Are you ready Jamal?"

"Not really,"

"Yeah me too. LET'S GO!" I shouted as we began to run in each direction taking the shields off one by one.

1 – 6 – 2 – 5 – 3

Removing the last shield, I shouted to lay on the ground. The spikes sat inches away from our heads. As the ceiling began to climb it reached the top and the room began to rumble. The rack on the altar began to shake and dropped down. After a few seconds it rose and showed the gold shimmering shield.

We walked over to get it but the alter started to rise above into the ceiling with the shield rising high above us. This concrete wall extended right to the ceiling and beyond. We heard a loud click as though something had been put in place.

If my geography was right, I had a feeling we were directly below the temple. Had the shield locked into the main altar? I thought. I smiled at Jamal.

"1 down 2 to go."

My words were of excitement as we walked to the next room.

The Wreath room was yet again much of the same. Memorising the pattern on the wall in the temple and matching against the paper, this one was about turning stone slabs, but still the same death trap ceiling. Once again, the altar rose and clicked into place.

"Isn't this cool Jamal?" I said keeping that level of excitement. But I didn't remember seeing anything about the Lion room. There was nothing on the paper and as hard as I could the memory of the church walls showed nothing to me.

We had to go back.

"Redd's men will be on their way here." Jamal sounded worried. The noise was a way of sounding an alarm we were here. This next room was going to use all my powers of intelligence. We would have to work this one out on our own.

We arrived at the Lion door. The torches burned at a million degrees next to me as I could feel the heat. They lit up the entrance as I opened the door to the large room. The door creaked open.

"Where's the rack?" I said aloud looking around the room. It had been ripped off the altar. I prayed that we could put in place.

Looking around the room I tried to see how we could make this one move. But I wasn't even sure where to even start looking. Looking over to the far wall I could see what used to be a handle, but it was broken. If we were ever going to pull it down – we needed something big 'n heavy.

We heard voices as we scurried behind some stone structures, Jamal was taller than me, so I pulled him down towards me. Three big brutes walked in each one took off their helmet so they could see a bit clearer in the room.

If it wasn't for some slight differences, I'd say they were all from the same womb.

"Maybe we can use them to pull the handle down." As soon as the words came out, I knew this was a bad idea. And so did Jamal as he tried to see what I was envisaging.

I thought about the rodeo, a contest between man and beast much like now. Most contents are about beating the other player. Atypical contestants each thinking they're better than the other. To win is a great achievement, to win by more than the win is the greatest achievement.

Back to the rodeo, this would be me against these three brutes. I needed them to go around me.

I told Jamal the plan once again.

…

"Cass, that sounds like a really bad idea."

It was funny because I was thinking the exact same thing, but we were never gonna get out of here if I didn't try something. Uncle Sam told me to use everything around me in the room: "The obstacles in life are immaterial – go through 'em" he quoted. Ok so I wasn't going to charge through a brute but maybe I can turn the spiritual into the physical.

I looked at Jamal – "OK, let's do this."

I thought about my family. Taking out the picture which had now dried. I wanted to tell them everything that had happened. Everything about this adventure. And now this was the last shield to put into place. Whatever was going to happen after this was anyone's guess.

Jamal looked at the picture. He got scared and started to back away.

"Jamal what is it?"

"That m…m…man he was in the helicopter." Jamal pointed at Uncle Sam. "He took my sister."

I dropped the photo on the ground and looked at the brutes. What was going on, I thought. I needed some answers as much as Jamal did. But if we didn't put this shield in place. It would be for nothing.

I took a deep breath and charged towards the brutes.

Thank you for reading this chapter. We'll return to Jamal and Cassie later and see how they manage to get the shield into place. In the next chapter we'll regroup with Nathan and learn about what connects the vaults.