Treasure Hunting 101

Chapter XXII

Sam

Music: Silvery Wings Again from Salamander 2

When my team arrives at the park that's on the same street as my house, the other team is nowhere to be seen, nor is there any sign that they were ever here to begin with. There's not even any trace of Dr. Scientist.

"Hello? Mia? Mackenzie? Dr. Scientist? Any of you guys here?" Elle calls out. No response. Not like any of us were expecting any.

"Well, where the hell are they?" Luke asks, looking around the playground.

"I don't know, Luke, but I know that's where you can go," Avery smirks in reply. Her sentence isn't worded very well, but I'm still able to figure out what she means by that. And it's funny as shit (I would've said hell but that'd be a bit too punny).

"Where?"

"To Hell."

Luke's silent for a moment. When he speaks again, he simply says, "Well, I'm already there, Avery." Heath and I snicker to each other about their exchange. Even when there's cause for concern for our friends, their irritation with each other never ceases to amuse.

With no other options, we walk to one of the sets of playground equipment (of the two sets, it's clearly meant for even littler kids than the other one, and it has baby swings by it instead of regular swings), find places to sit on it, and wait. And wait. And wait. Five minutes turn into ten. Still no sign of the other team. I text all four of them (we don't have Dr. Scientist's number) asking where they are, and I don't get any replies. It's a little past 7 PM at this point in time, and the sun is about a third of the way through setting.

Avery tries to call Shanna on her phone. "Come on, pick up..." she mutters while the phone is ringing. Shanna's voicemail message picks up, so Avery leaves a message saying, "Hi, Shanna, it's Avery. We've arrived at the park and are wondering where you are. Please call or text back and meet up with us as soon as you can." She then hangs up, her face clouded with worry.

"You think something bad happened to them?" Brea asks.

"Hard to say. Hopefully not," Heath answers. I think back to when we ran into those men who claimed they killed the other team earlier on in the mission and shudder. It would not be good if they actually got into serious trouble this time around.

"I mean, we're in our hometown, so surely nothing could happen here... right?" Elle asks hopefully.

Skylar rolls her eyes at Elle. "Elle, you know as well as the rest of us do that with us, anything could happen." Elle goes back to looking at the ground.

"Maybe they took off to claim the treasure for themselves," Luke smirks.

"That's also doubtful," Brea says. "They wouldn't be able to do that without the artifacts that we have."

"Then where the hell are they?" I ask, throwing my hands up in the air.

"I could answer that question for you."

Elle

Music: Run! Run! Run! from Gokujou Parodius

I'm sure you've figured out by now that getting called out to by a complete stranger who likely has ill intentions is nothing new for us. It's something we should expect to encounter.

Still doesn't make it any less terrifying.

As I usually do when this happens, I reach for Sam and squeeze his arm tightly. While I know he doesn't care if I do, I try to be mindful of how hard I squeeze so I don't hurt him. All of our heads turn in the direction of the man's voice as soon as we hear him. He's walking towards us from the sidewalk on Sam's street.

And he's dressed similarly to the bounty hunters we've run into so far: Camo jacket, brown shirt, brown hat, and khakis.

"I can take you to where your friends are, if you'll just come with me," the man offers. He seems friendly in both his tone and body language, and most people wouldn't suspect him of any wrongdoings.

We're not most people, though. And we're certainly not gonna believe that crap.

We've already started to get up and walk away from the man when Luke tells him, "Yeah... we're gonna have to say no to that." Then he takes off, running around the handball and tennis courts. This focuses the man's attention on him, allowing us to make a quick getaway. Our escape route is through a trail by the park that leads directly to the elementary and middle schools right by the neighborhood. On the way there, I briefly spot Luke weaving around the man, then shoving him into the trees to buy us some time before he catches up with us.

While we're running, Avery tries once again to call somebody on the other team--this time, Mackenzie--on her phone. Goes straight to voicemail. "Damn it... why won't they answer?!" she shouts angrily.

"Probably because somebody else has ahold of them and they can't answer?" Heath replies, like the answer should've been obvious (which it should've been, and I think Avery realizes that).

There's no sounds of footsteps, even distant ones, from behind us, but that doesn't stop us from running. That happens when we reach the back side of our middle school's building, where there's a small garage used for storage of various cleaning supplies. Sam and Heath keep watch of the other end of the trail, and for a few seconds, it looks like we're safe.

But guess who also happened to be in the garage, hiding in the darkness so we couldn't see them? Three more bounty hunters. Brea, Skylar, Avery, and I are the first to notice them, and we dash on out of there before the other guys even realize what's happening. They barely notice the bounty hunters in time to escape from them and rejoin us girls.

This time, as we're fleeing our pursuers, the bounty hunters are right on our tail, and they're gaining on us. "What do you want with us?! Just leave us alone!" I cry out. A few of us are starting to slow down from fatigue and exhaustion. As a soccer player, I'm able to push onward for a little longer than the rest of my friends, but even I find myself losing momentum and having trouble catching my breath once we make it to the small grassy field right next to the middle school.

Then we make the one mistake that completely screws us over. In an attempt to lose our pursuers, we run back into the trees separating this field from the trail. It ends up backfiring on us, as we find ourselves running right into three MORE bounty hunters.

And with them is Mia, Mackenzie, Sean, and Shanna.

Music: Game Over from Super Mario 64

The other bounty hunters chasing us fully catch up to us, leaving us surrounded and defenseless. Yes, we have strength in numbers on our side, but none of the guys are armed, and even if they were, they wouldn't have enough time to do anything before getting overwhelmed. That familiar sick feeling in my stomach returns.

"Now we have you all," the woman in the group that was already here sneers.

The members of our team put our arms up in the air as if we're being told to drop any weapons we have. Mia's team is sitting on the floor, so there wouldn't be a point to them doing that.

"Well... that didn't go as I had hoped," Sam mutters.

"Oh, ya think?" Mia snarls, glaring at us.

"Don't look at us like that. Clearly, you weren't any better," Brea sighs, shaking her head.

"Touche," Mia says.

So much for what should've been a smooth, happy ending.