The Explorer's Quest

Marco's Warning

When the pilot ran into the cave followed by the enormous brown yeti, Johnny and the others were surprised when a missile was fired at it, sending it to the ground. They looked behind them and saw a small group of CLOVER mercenaries. Among them was Brutus. "Ah! Just the men we were waiting for!" he said. Brutus walked up to Johnny, Grant and Hugo. "I'm so glad we didn't kill you three accidentally. What a shame it would be."

"What do you want?" asked Johnny.

"We need you, Johnny."

"For what?"

"Come this way with me."

Brutus walked to a set of stairs. It was quiet the whole way up, not even the planes could be heard outside. Their steps were echoing off the icy walls surrounding the interior of the cave.

They came to a stop, where they could see a long wooden bridge leading across a huge pit in the ground. The pit was spanned from one end of the cave to the other, and was about fifty feet across the bridge. On the other end of the bridge was the temple.

"You guys found it?" Grant asked. Nobody answered him because the answer was right in front of their eyes.

"Well, can we get going now?" Brutus asked with a sort of impatient tone in his voice.

"Haven't you already been inside?" asked Grant.

"No, we we've been waiting on you three," said a random person whom Grant never identified.

Johnny was confused. "Why haven't you guys entered the temple already? Why were you waiting for us before going inside?"

"We wouldn't want you guys to miss out on the good stuff now, would we?"

"But seriously. Why?"

Brutus let out a long and depressing sigh, then answered, "Because you did all the work for us in India, we want to give you a chance at this. We're not cheaters, we still like to have fun when it comes to treasure hunting. And what would fun be without someone there to share it with?"

The cave went silent, each person wondering something, thinking to themselves.

'Is that really what this guy wants? Fun?' Johnny thought to himself.

Brutus resumed talking after a minute or two. "Now may we please cross that bridge?" He sounded like a whining child begging their parents for something.

"Fine, fine. Let's go," said Johnny.

"Great! You, you, and uh you," he pointed to three mercenaries, "come with us. And Vanessa," Vanessa stepped forward along with the three men Brutus picked out, "you're coming with us as well."

"Oh! What a pleasure it is to see you again, Vanessa!" said Grant.

"Shut up," Johnny commanded, and Grant promptly stepped back and stopped talking. He was acting almost exactly the same way he had acted when they were betrayed by Hans back in 1932.

Brutus motioned his hand towards the temple and said, "After you." He smiled, and there was a gleam in his scar-covered eye that made Johnny feel that there was something more sinister up the man's sleeve.

They began to move across the bridge carefully. There was a creaky noise with each step, and Hugo was sure he would fall through the bridge eventually. There was, unfortunately, nothing to grab onto and hold as they were walking from one end to the other, so they had to rely on pure balance to stay straight on the bridge.

Once Brutus and his large self stepped onto the bridge it swayed partially and threw everyone off balance. Hugo even let out a small yelp as he feared he would fall off the bridge and down into the never-ending pit of darkness below.