Lost

Chapter 13

"Ava...Ava...Ava?" The words drifted into my ears.

"Hmmph?" I mumbled, unable to make sense of my surroundings. It made no difference wether my eyes were open or closed. It was completely dark.

"There you are!" It was Irene's voice and I flinched as a cool hand touched my forehead.

"Where is she? Is everyone here? No broken bones?" Kit-Kat spoke up. I could hear her feeling around in the darkness.

"Uuuuuugh..." I heard Jewel groan somewhere to my left.

"Alex!" Kate called.

"Here!" I flinched again as Alex shouted right behind my head.

"Isaac!"

"Here!"

"Nadia!"

"Here!"

"Reed!"

Everyone fell silent.

"I...uh..." Kate whispered, her voice bouncing around in the darkness.

A sniffle echoed from Jewel's direction.

"Irene!" Kate called, her voice quieter than before.

"...here."

Kate made sure everyone was safe with no broken bones before going silent.

"Um..." I sat up, feeling the back of my head where I had hit it. I winced, pain shooting through it, "I...uh..."

'Think Ava! Think! It's your responsibility to keep everyone safe! It's your fault we're down here anyway! You picked that stupid poppy!'

I pulled three matches from my pocket. I didn't have much time. There was a matchbook too and I struck up a flame.

I felt a wave of satisfaction at seeing that simple match light up, but I didn't have much time before it burnt out. There had to be a way out of there! I walked forward, raising the tiny flame high, letting my instinct guide me further away from everyone. They just stared at me, shock written on their faces. The flame was burning low by the time I found it. The room. I only saw it for a second before my precious match started burning my fingers and had to be snuffed out. I hurriedly lit the second match, running toward the pile of lost stuff that I saw, hoping against hope that there would be something there to help me before I was drowned in darkness. The lost things rattled loudly as I hunted through them. Metal clashed on metal and random things clattered down in a huge heap. The I saw it.

The match burnt out and I lit the last one, moving fast but not so fast that the match would be snuffed out. It was there! An old fashioned lantern painted a chipped and peeling army green. A little oil still sat, feeding the wick. Hurriedly, I opened the top and lit the lantern seconds before the match burnt out. A few seconds too late and I would have wasted away in the darkness forever. I held the rusting lantern high and walked back to my friends.

"This way!" I called, a small, genuine smile finding its way onto my face.

Everyone picked themselves up, bruised and scraped, and followed me back to the strange room. I hadn't had time to look at it too closely but once we got there, everyone gasped. The walls and ceiling were covered in old black and white photos. The pile of lost stuff was all army supplies. Guns. Flags. Uniforms. Ammo. Canned food. I recognized old American camouflage uniforms. Also, I recognized many others. German uniforms. Japanese uniforms. United kingdoms and many more that I couldn't name. I slowly walked up to the pictures pasted all over the walls. There were ones I recognized, like the famous one of American soldiers erecting their flag on a battlefield. But most of them I didn't recognize. There were pictures of soldiers leaving their family's, kissing their wives or girlfriends one last time. There were pictures of thousands of soldiers marching out to defend their countries. There were pictures of POW camps. Pictures of bombs. Pictures of death. Pictures of cruelty. Pictures of Hitler.

I blinked.

This was all from World War II.

I suddenly realized just how many people were involved in this war. And how many were lost. And how many died. And I wondered why there weren't many more lost people here. It was 2016 if I remembered correctly. People were starving in Africa. People from many other countries were lost. But why were only Americans here? Why weren't thousands of people here? Why just us? I didn't voice this to the others though. It was just one more thing for me to mull over.

"Look what I found!" Will shouted, his voice bouncing around the underground room. He waved a piece of yellowed paper in the air.

"Can I...read it?" I asked timidly stepping forward.

"Sure!" Will shoved the paper in my hands and I unfolded it and held the lantern close to read it. It was a map, it's edges worn with age. Around the border were words written in Amelia Earhart's handwriting. I peered at them, trying to read it in the dancing light.

'Look for the key to show you the way
Follow the key to find the key
You must hurry without delay
When you find it you will see
But if you are too slow
The doors will close'

I read aloud as everyone crowded around.

"Are you sure you...read that right?" Asked Isaac.

"See for yourself." I shoved the map at him and began repeating the clue in my head. It wasn't very smooth poetry, but Earhart must have thought it up on the spot.

"Wait. Where's the key?" Asked Drew, hanging over Isaac's shoulder.

"That's what the clue says. We need to find the key. And open doors or...something." I wasn't really listening, still thinking.

"No. I mean the key on the map. There's the compass rose, but no key. You know, the thing that helps you find things on a map." Drew tapped the thick old paper, dislodging a cloud of dust.

"...oh." I peered over Isaac's other shoulder, this time paying attention to the actual map.

It was a map of the island. The boats surrounded it, mashed together in a huge wall. The compass rose graced the bottom left hand corner. The key should have been drawn in the bottom right corner. But there was a painfully obvious blank space. There were symbols on the map. But no key to tell us what they were.

'Look for the key to show you the way
Follow the key to find the key'

I read, my forehead scrunching up in confusion. Slowly, I took the map from Isaac and smoothed it out on the stone floor. If we couldn't figure this out soon, we would perish at the jaws of a monster. Or suffocate underground. Neither options were exactly preferred.