Stonebrook High School

Chapter 29

In the morning, the group set off to find the temple, or at least, everyone else except for Jesse. He stayed behind in the cave, waiting for any sort of signal that the temple was found.

Thankfully, it was morning. Had it been nightfall without a fire, Jesse would have gone mad by the lack of interaction and sensory stimulation. During the day, he could just watch the clouds fly by and the leaves flutter in the wind.

As he was watching the grass roll, a strange thought came to Jesse's mind. How did he get service here all the way in the middle of nowhere? There were no power lines from what he could tell.

He pulled out his phone and checked how many bars he had.

It was a full four bars!

Holy crap, he thought. Maybe if the others followed the signal, they could find the temple!

He called Olivia and waited for her to pick up. When she did, Jesse shared his idea and Olivia happily agreed to try, saying the others were also relieved at the idea. It would make searching a lot easier than just splitting up.

Not too long after the call, Jesse heard someone shout, "Hey, there's something over that way!" Another voice, who was probably Olivia since it was female, called out, "What is it?" The first voice, presumably Lukas, shouted back, "It looks like some sort of building!" Olivia yelled, "Alright, I'll go help Jesse over there!"

As soon as that last sentence was said, Jesse grabbed his crutches and pushed himself up, steadying himself. Adjusting them, he moved to the front of the cave and was met by Olivia.

"Nice to see you were ready," she smiled. "Let's go!"

Jesse smiled and nodded, following her.

In the early daylight, he could see the light reflecting off of Luka's leather jacket in the distance and he tried to speed up his pace. Olivia started to briskly walk as well.

"Hey, Lukas!" Jesse looked up and waved at the Ocelot who turned around and waved back. "What can you see from up there?"

"I think it's the temple! It looks really big!"

"Alright!" Then he muttered to himself, "Now to find a way around..."

Eventually, Olivia found a way around and Jesse made it to the other side of the small cliff. Lukas climbed down using the vines and hopped to them when he reached the bottom. The three smiled at each other and Jesse admired the dilapidated building in front of them.

"We made it."

Lukas and Olivia grinned at Jesse and they all high-fived each other.

"Wait a second, where's Axel?" Olivia piped up.

Both Lukas and Jesse blinked in surprise and Lukas's face fell. "He shouldn't be too far off," Jesse pondered, looking around. "You guys should go find him."

"I don't think I should go," Lukas quivered. "Axel doesn't exactly find me as an acquaintance."

The dark-skinned girl bit her lip in worry but Jesse waved it off, nodding for her to go find Axel. He turned back to Lukas who was looking down, rubbing the back of his neck. "Hey, you okay? Axel will come around, don't worry."

"I don't know. I really didn't like how it all went down last night. Maybe I should've left."

"No, we're a team. We're going to stick together no matter what. Axel just isn't used to having others in his circle, especially since he's protective of us and, well, some... conflicts happened between you and me in the past. Just don't let Axel bother you. He'll warm up eventually and soon, we'll all be able to put this in the past."