Rendezvous: A Lost Chapter of Sam Drake

Chapter 21: Those Who Stray From the Path

The three of us had made it to the other manor. Shoreline barricaded the front door, so we needed to find another way around. Shoreliners left a bunch of muddy footprints all over the place, so we decided to just follow them to see where they ended up. We ended up in a room that looked like a fancy hotel lobby or a nice ballroom. There were statues in various corners of the room. Nate found another door that shoreline barricaded. The three of us tried to push the door open, but that seemed to be some sort of bait. Shoreliners began to shoot at us from inside the ballroom. It was an ambush involving heavy duty guns. These guys meant business. Elena and I took turns shooting from behind a pillar. Nate focused on getting the snipers and the heavily armed men with the more devastating weapons. 

After getting through the shoreliners we all went back to the door. We rammed into it and finally pushed it open. A skeleton was sitting on a couch right in front of the door. The skeleton had a letter in its hand. Elena picked it up and it basically explained how Avery and Tew had turned on each other. It also said that Avery had all of the riches put on his ship for departure from the island. We entered another big room. This one looked more like an office of sorts. I began snooping around and I saw something flicker from the floor. The sun had reflected off of something sitting further in the corner. I walked over to it and knelt down beside it. It was a zippo lighter with a star and 76 written on the lid. It was Sam's. I had given him this lighter many years ago with a leather jacket that went with his motorcycle. I smiled reminiscing those fond memories. "Nate... Sam's lighter is in here. I bet he dropped it on purpose to tell us he was here." Nate nodded "or... Sam noticed something we haven't yet" he said looking around the area. Nate started picking random items up in hopes of it being some sort of switch. Elena looked under the desk for some secret button. The globe caught my attention in this area. I noticed a bloody fingerprint on the globe. It was right where Libertalia should be. I pushed it and a staircase began to descend below us. "How'd you do that?" Nate said moving towards the stairs. "Bloody fingerprint where Libertalia would be... so I just pushed it and..voila" Nate smiled "Well done" he said nodding at me. 

As we moved down the stairs, it took us into some sort of panic cave Avery built for emergencies. Nate led the way with his flashlight, but it began to cut out. The battery flickered and it was pitch black. I was terrified of the dark, so I grabbed Elena's hand. She held mine back while Nate shook his flashlight back on. We continued walking through the cave and we came upon a puzzle. There were platforms that we had to step on to reach the other side, but one wrong step and an explosive would go off, killing all of us. There was a trail of footprints, so we followed them, and we safely made it across. Nate's flashlight finally died for good. Elena took matches out of her pockets and lit three torches for us. Nate found a hole in the celling, so we went up to the next floor. Nate boosted me and then Elena. We both pulled Nate up and continued through the dark cave. As we made our way into the depths of the cave, there were a countless number of skeletons hanging from the ceiling. There was a sign behind them, and I read it "The hands who stole from me.." Elena shook her head "geez.." Nate nodded "Avery's not even pretending to be sane at this point." We found a tunnel that looked promising. Nat went first and there were mummies which were wired with explosives. There was no way to avoid the explosions. Once a person entered a certain radius, they detonated. "Avery really didn't want any trespassers down here..." I said cautiously stepping forward. "Yeah just watch your step" Nate said proceeding. "My step? You're the one that set it off" I laughed. Nate gave me an annoyed frown "Fine. then watch my step." I laughed and we continued on. We finally caught up with shoreline in the tunnels. The explosives made it really hard to sneak up on them. They could hear us from a mile away with these things. The tunnel was full of shoreliners, but we made it through them the best we could.

Nate came upon a skeleton that had a note in its hand and a key by its side. He picked up both and read the note. It was from Thomas Tew, and it said that Tew and his men were trying to cut Avery off from his escape with the four-hundred-million-dollar treasure that belonged to Libertalia. The key was a master key that opened up the depths of the tunnels. The back of the letter also had some sort of cheat for a puzzle on the back. I'm sure we'd need it later. Below the cheat sheet, it said "Death to those who stray from the path." Through the many twists and turns of the tunnel the mummy explosives became more and more condensed. "This guy had some serious trust issues" Elena said trying to avoid the explosives. "Yeah, no kidding" I said following right behind Nate. The explosives were going off one after another at this point making the tunnel fill with smoke. We finally made it to the puzzle on the back of Tew's letter. We followed the path that it told us to, and we made it out safely. The tunnel led into a large opening with more bodies hanging from the ceiling. There was a large door that was locked, but Nate pulled out the key that fit it. "Keyhole...key" Nate said turning the key in the lock. The door opened, but the three of us were pulled into a rope trap. We were all on top of each other, which was really awkward. I was also in the middle, so I was sandwiched between Elena and Nate. We noticed the skeleton hanging just in front of us had a sword with him. We began swinging to try and reach him. Nate was closest so he reached his arm out and tried to get it. Explosives began to go off down the tunnel, so we were on a time crunch. Nate finally got the sword after a couple tries. The explosives were getting so close that I was beginning to sweat. Nate began slicing the rope, but the blade was dull. The explosives were getting dangerously close. "Nate!! I'm gonna need you to hurry up, bud." He sliced faster and finally freed us. We fell to the floor and ran out the door. The explosives followed us beyond that room, so we kept running. The power from the last one launched us over the edge. Nate covered Elena and I from the debris that began to fall from above. Elena winked at me and then laid there pretending to be dead. "Just like old times huh, lana?" Nate laughed and looked at Elena who was unresponssive. "Elena?" He rolled over to her and shook her. "No..No.. Elena! C'mon C'mon, please!" Elena mumbled and said "My hero" with a mischievous grin. "Oh, no you didn't just do that..." He said looking down at her. Elena and I laugh. "No. That's not funny!" Nate said moving away from her. Elena and I only laughed harder. "Oh, you have done much worse, Nate" Elena said sitting up. "God, you gave me a goddamned heart attack." Nate said pissed off. Nate and Elena laugh, and they share a small kiss. I smiled seeing them happy again. An explosion pulled them out of the moment, and we all stood to our feet. "That's gotta be Sam" I said moving first and then beginning to jog. 

We climbed some more cliffs and made our way over to a ship graveyard... it's a site to see. We moved forward and ran into a multitude of shoreliners. It took quite a while to get through them all. We probably spent an hour just shooting through this large group of them. I looked up and saw Sam. My heart skipped a beat just like the first time I saw him. Nate and Elena stayed put while I decided to help Sam. He was pinned down by shoreline and was in need of some help. I began shooting with the most accuracy I've ever had in my life. It's crazy what love does to you, huh? We finally got them all and Sam came up to me. "Hey.." he said looking deeply into my eyes. He looked ashamed, embarrassed even. "Hey.." I said back to him. I ran up and hugged him. I couldn't take it. "ow!" he laughed and held me close. "I missed you, too." He said kissing my head. "I'm glad you're ok." I nodded "Yeah, same here... now I can't beat your ass myself. But that's a talk for later.." Sam chuckled a little and nodded. We regrouped with Nate and Elena. Nate was still being icy with Sam, which I understand. An RPG hit the building we were standing on and we fell to ground level. More shorliners...I know...I'm just as sick of them as you are. 

We finally made it out with a few issues, but nothing too serious. We met up with Sully and he greeted us with hugs. Sam walked up to Nate. They had a little small talk and finally Sam broke the tension. "Listen...about the Alcazar thing, I-..." Nate cut him off "hey, just...save it for later, okay?" Nate turned his back to Sam and faced Sully. "Which way?" Sully pointed "On the beach. Other side of this town." Nate nodded and we followed Sully to the direction of the plane. Sam stopped us and pleaded with the group to go towards the treasure, since we have the lead again. No one liked the idea, but I kept quiet. I did want to see the treasure, but this whole experience has been enough. It was time to tap out. Sam surrendered his hands and we followed Sully. The situation wasn't sitting right with me. Sam had that look in his eyes. He was gonna go back, I know it. He has to see it through. He was oddly calm and not like a usual calm. Like a calm before a hurricane. It's a sense of impending doom. 

We found an old pirate sky lift. Nathan jumped down to the wooden platform below, since there were no controls. The rest of us climbed on and Nate was able to latch his rope to the bottom of the lift to pull us across. Elena and Sully jumped to the other side. I waited for Sam to pull Nathan up. When Nathan climbed up, a side of the sky lift broke and hung vertically. Sam and Nathan were able to grab on to the wood of the lift, but I missed it. Sam caught my hand in the nick of time. He pulled my hand up to the wood plank the boys were holding onto. Nathan was able to jump to Elena and Sully, but the other side broke. Sam and I swung back to where we were, and we jumped. Sam pulled me up and helped me to my feet. "You ok?" He said pulling me to his chest. "Jesus, you almost died." I laughed "yeah...thank God for you, huh?" He smiled and let me go. Nate moved to the edge. "Come on, guys. Just jump, I'll catch you." He held his hand out. I went to the edge, but I noticed Sam was hesitant. I waited for him to speak. "C'mon, let's go." Nate said getting impatient. Sam looked up at the mountain where Avery's ship is supposed to be. Avery's ship is said to have the treasure on it. "No.. don't you think about it, Sam." Sam shook his head and sighed. "Skylar, jump.." I shook my head and held up my left hand with my engagement ring. "You jump, I jump. I'm not leaving here without you. If you're going, then I'm going." Nate interrupted us "neither of you are going. Don't be stupid. Now jump across." Sam shook his head "I'm sorry I got you into this. All of you." Sam said looking at our disjoined group. "I need to know you're safe, Skylar. Please just jump." He said looking back at me. "I'm not going. What do you not understand about you jump, I jump?" Sam shook his head and sighed. He looked back at the others. "I've gotta see this through, Nathan." Sam jogged off and I gave Nathan an apologetic look. I followed behind him. "If you do this, I'm not coming after you!" Nate yelled to us. Sam shook his head and continued on.