salute [james conrad] 1

Chapter 10

"It's called the hollow earth theory" Brooks says, panting for breath as he steps over tree roots and large rocks. 

Charlotte swaps her hand through the air with a frown, trying to kill one of the infinite mosquitoes in the humid jungle. Bugs buzz in her ear, making her shiver with disgust. Shaking her head, she continues down the inclined hill. 

Her neck is damp with sweat, as is her entire hair.  

She wipes off the sweat on her forehead, and then puts her hand back on the trigger of the gun, staying alert to any possible threat or danger. 

"And what does this have to do with that?" Charlotte questions, not bothering to look back to him, but rather focusing on not tripping. 

"Because I wrote a paper" Brooks answers, walking behind both her, holding his gun close to his chest and staring nervously around. "substantiating what most people think is a crackpot idea. That there are these massive underground spaces, isolated from the surface world " He finishes, motioning to his surroundings. 

"Well, it is a crackpot idea" Charlotte mumbles under her breath, moving  tree branch out of her way.

"Passageways" San pitches in behind Brookes, stepping over a gigantic tree root  "Randa believed this island may be one of those" She finishes, looking around her, amazed by the nature of this place. 

Charlotte turns her head around to look at San, eyeing her briefly, before turning to look forward again, looking out for any dangers. 

She walks alongside James, who is also leading the line of people. 

"They might hold Ancient species, like what we just saw" Brookes finishes, motioning behind him. 

 The jungle finally ends, making Charlotte sigh a breath of relief, but that quickly stops when they see a valley of tall plants emerging just a meters away from them. 

Charlotte stops, her smile fading, and sighs, clearly desperate to get to open land, she shakes her head in frustration. 

"You gotta be kidding me" She mumbles under her breath. 

Besides her, James smiles slightly at her irritated figure. 

She shakes her head, and pulling out a large knife from her belt, she steps forward, cutting the large weeds to make a path for the others. 

James trails behind her, trying to understand how it is that he got here. 

"I thought he was out of his mind. Randa." Brooks continues, oblivious to the fact that Charlotte is not listening, and neither is James. 

He steps steps into the valley behind the others, tripping over some of the random rocks in the way. 

Charlotte grunts in stress, each time cutting the weeds with more force.

The rest of the team walk slowly behind them,  

"This is Silvko. Do you read?! Anybody out there!? We're headed north to the exile location" Silvko asks into his radio, clearly frantic and desperate, while trying to look over the tall weeds. 

"They're not going to hear you. They're probably dead" Charlotte tells him. 

"What? They can't be dead. There has to be someone. And until we find them, I am not stopping" Silvko answers, started to get irritated at Charlotte's attitude. 

Charlotte swears under her breath, trying to calm herself down. 

She takes another step forward, only to be tripped by a root, making her fall into the damp ground.