Secrets Of The Circle

Chapter 17- Started From The Bottom

It was six in the morning when the loud sounds of a horn woke us all from our sleep. It sounded like a trumpet and whoever was playing it was just being a nuisance. We were all not surprised to know that it was our guide, professor Ludwig. He quickly began ordering us to start preparing and organizing ourselves properly since we were going to have a long day today. He immediately left us as he returned back to his tent. Minutes later we were all done organizing ourselves as he ordered us to. Professor Ludwig stood in the middle of us with with ten duffel bags and and about twenty backpacks beside him. He later arranged us into ten groups and I was lucky enough to share the same group with Rex, Taylor and Owen. Karl on the other hand shared the same group with the twins and Mark. Each group was asked to select its leader or guide. Both Rex and Owen were selected by Taylor and I to be the leader of our group, but in the end Rex was chosen. I noticed Owen wasn't happy about the idea of Rex being our leader, but he has to deal with it somehow and find a way to get over it. Professor Ludwig began a long boring speech by telling us how much we were going to have fun if we played along with a game of treasure hunt. Everyone began murmuring at the mention of treasure hunt, but he later silenced us and continued his speech. He continued by telling us how he and his crew had hidden ten flags of different colours on the out sketches of "stapi" and that it was up to each group to go out there, find it and retrieve it. He announced that the first group to return it's flag would be crowned the winner of the game.

"And how are we gonna find this so called treasure?", Riya asked.

"Maybe by walking around in circles and circles ", Marcus said jokingly as we all giggled anxiously.

"Or maybe not ",professor Ludwig said with a vigorous tone that silenced us all at that very moment. He talked for about twenty minutes of "blah, blah, blah" before passing to each group two duffel bags and four backpacks to each group memeber. He also handed a map and a compass to to the guide of each group, and since Rex was the leader of our group, he was also given one of those. One of the duffel bags consisted of tools such as mattocks, two pickaxes, a long sick rope, four iron-shod sticks, four axes, a hammer, a dozen of wedges, spikes and some long knotted cords. All this made a big package whilst the other bag stored medecinal products such as a piece of tape of unbleached linene, lints, bandages, splints for fracture, aspirins and compressers, all rather terrifying objects as well as a set of bottles of medical alcohol, liquid acetate of lead, ether, vinegar and violet ink. Finally, we were given all the tools and chemicals necessary for our long trip of treasure hunting. Each backpack contained soft drinks, cheese, biscuits, bars of chocolates, both apple and lemon jam, butter and cans of orange squash. There was no water at all except for the cans of orange squash and soft drinks. Professor ludwig handed a flask to each group and told us water was also another mission we had look for.

"Break a leg ",he said to us all before returning back to his tent.

This man is impossible.

A few minutes later, we all gathered our stuffs together and departured together splitting up and moving in our various directions as we began our day of a game of treasure hunting.

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We continued walking for so many hours yet we never came to an end. Rex was the one leading us through the entire journey since he had both the map and compass with him. Taylor walked beside him whilst Owen and I walked side by side beside each other. We stopped whenever Rex stopped and moved whenever he did. The sun was scorching so hot on us that Taylor was nagging the entire time, but was a good thing I brought along a hat to help shade myself from the unbearable heat of the sun. Three hours of tiring traveling brought us only to the base of a mountain. It was five thousand feet high and its peak could not be seen, it was hidden beneath the clouds, and this was the first mountain we've seen so far on our journey. Taylor seemed to be marveled by its height and roughness.