The Fourth Man

The Temple

The Temple

They stood in a stunned silence. The effect of the blast had knocked them to the floor, but they ha pushed themselves up again. They had witnessed Quaker, blow up in front of them. Siggy was lost for words, so were the others, but Graham piped up

"This was the work of somebody, it was cleverly planned, it was a trap. Attract our attention, leave the boat in the bottom, then blow it up."

"Who the hell did it then?" Exo asked "So much for 'we're the only ones on the island.'"

"I don't know," admitted Graham "But they want us dead, so we will track them down, and interrogate them for answers."

"Sounds good," said Jellah "But how do we know where to go?"

"I can help there," said Nerpato "It looks like there's a fire over in that direction." Nerpato pointed and sure enough smoke was billowing up from a point in the distance.

The others looked uneasy. "Isn't that the direction of the Temple?" asked Daisy

"Yes," Graham replied "Whoever set that fire knew we would be able to see it, it could be a trap."

"But it's our best chance of finding who did it, everyone leaves trails," argued Jellah

"Yeah, they killed my friend," Exo added.

"Fine, we'll go, but not you kids, go back to camp," Graham ordered.

"Why?" Thomas argued "They just killed our friend, and you need as many people as you can get incase you're outnumbered."

"Ok, whatever," Graham concluded "But stay close, and take a sharp stick each off Jellah and Daisy."

Reluctantly Jellah and Daisy handed over the short and sharp weapons, just to be on the safe side. Graham led the group on further through the forest, the teenagers were amazed at how his sense of direction through the dense greenery was so good.

Eventually the trees thinned out, and suddenly opened up. The fire was straight infront of them, still blazing wildly, and behind it was the Temple.

The stone has faded and parts had been knocked away, but it stood majestically, lost in the midst of the forest. It reached as high as the trees, with just a single entrance, at the top of a short flight of stairs. The inside seemed dark and deserted, but this was a fine building built for purpose when it was used.

"Wow," was all Nerpato could muster

"Amazing isn't it?" Graham grinned "But we didn't find much inside, except from this scripture of Code Eighty-Six."

"What exactly is that?" Jonathan asked

"Well-" Graham's answer was cut off by the figure at the the entrance of the Temple.

He was dressed all in black, tall and thin, with a balaclava obscuring his face. He also had a rifle strung across his neck. As soon as he was spotted by the group he turned and ran into the Temple.

Immediately Jellah pursued, he sprinted up the stairs and exploded forwards into the Temple.

"Jellah wait!" Daisy cried, she bounded up the stairs after him. The others followed at a similar pace.

They reached the entrance where daisy was peering in cautiously.

"Jellah?" she yelled, Graham joined her "Jellah?"

But the name just echoed down the Temple entrance hall, there was no reply.