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19

Taylor's pov

"Thank you for coming to meet with us.  Can you, uh, introduce yourself to the camera?" Sam asked, almost in a bashful way.

Chris, the historian Sam and Colby met up with, introduced himself to the camera per Sam's request before beginning the big long speech about the history of the land and yada yada yada.

I'm not such a huge fan on history so much as exploring, but they needed to do it so they would have some knowledge on certain things in Cerro Gordo.  But I wasn't going to complain because I got to sit next to Colby, which put me out of the camera frame.  I didn't really mind as much because Sam and Colby didn't officially introduce me yet, I was just the strange girl invading a boys' trip.

It also didn't help that Colby slid his hand onto my thigh, making circles with his thumb occasionally.  I could feel my heart flutter, but I didn't dare look over at him.  Not with Jake waiting for me to acknowledge it from where he sat across the table.  Corey was actually somewhat interested in what Chris had to say, asking questions more often than Sam.

"Woah," Colby smiled at whatever the historian just said, and I looked over at him, "That much silver?"

"Yeah," Chris confirmed.

"Wow," Colby repeated, leaning back in his seat.  Sam handed him the camera, and wordlessly they switched seats so that Colby was now on my left, not my right.  I could feel the skin crawling where his hand had been, and I rubbed my hands up and down my thighs a couple times in an attempt to rid the feeling.

They continued their conversation like nothing happened, and I looked at all the different posters on the walls, all from the eighteen and nineteen hundreds.

A lot of the writing was faded on most of them, but I read what I could.  I zoned out again, losing myself in the short paragraphs left on the papers.

"Well," Colby looked over at Sam, snapping me back, "Here we go,"

"It was nice meeting all of you," Chris stated, standing up and shaking everyone's hands, mine being last.  

I put my mask back on with one hand, shaking the historian's with the other.  It wasn't until we were walking back out to the car that I realized I didn't speak a word to him, besides telling him my name.

"Let's go to Cerro Gordo!" Sam shouted excitedly, climbing into the passenger seat.

We drove for another twenty minutes, Sam and Colby taking turns talking to the camera while the three children in the backseat played on our phones.

But something Colby said had me leaning forward in my seat, "So the sun is about to go down under those mountains, and when that happens, it's bad. That means we don't have any light and Cerro Gordo is at the top of those mountains,"

"He said it's extremely dangerous if we don't go up before sundown." Sam said, referring to the call we had with Brent.

"So we're gonna die?" I asked, glancing back and forth between Sam and Colby.

Colby turned his head slightly, not taking his eyes off the road, "We're running low on time. But yeah, we're just gonna have to pray that I don't die on these hills," He crossed his fingers.

Everyone except for Jake had something to say about that statement, all at the same time, "You don't die?" We said, and Corey started laughing as Samuel continued his statement, "You have all of our lives in danger too, buddy.  Oh god," Sam changed the subject, pointing the camera down at his phone that we were using for directions.

"It's forty minutes to Cerro Gordo, meaning we're getting there at eight thirty.  We might not make it."

"He said we can't go at night, man," Jake said, popping mini pretzels in his mouth as he spoke, "Are we gonna risk our lives?"