Curtain Call (The Jewel Project #7)

33. The Hopeless Search

Raindrops slid down the side of Sam's face, mixing with the sweat and grime already on it. Maybe it was a sign, but they'd come to the jungle during a drizzle and it had turned into full-blown tropical rain. It hadn't stopped since.

He wiped his brow, forcing himself to ignore the discomfort and focus on the matter at hand. This time, it had taken them merely two days to reach the shrine. Two days of marching and very little talking. It was still hard to compute that it had been only forty-eight hours since they'd said goodbye to their children. His face still throbbed from the beaten he'd gotten.

Everything had spiraled out of control, and even if they'd moved with impressive speed, it was hard for his mind to catch up and process everything.

Maybe I don't even need to process it. The thought wasn't foreign. It reminded him of their first adventure, when he did his very best to cope by shutting everything away. And as the years went by, he'd become steadily more desensitized. There was never any need to go back there. And he'd managed not to for ten years. He'd even told Skye that what was in the past should stay there. If he didn't get to process it, then he wouldn't have to dwell on it, let it break him.

If you don't see it, it means it didn't happen. Even if he knew it did. Was that why he was still denying what happened to Kyle? Because he didn't see it? Even now, as he analyzed the entrance to the shrine, a part of him was sure they'd find Kyle in there, right where they'd left him.

"The surroundings seem clear," Tom said, coming up next to him. "It's obvious that someone was here, but now they're gone. The jungle ate up almost any sign of it. What about that hellhole?"

Sam stood from his crouch and stretched. "The entrance to the hellhole seems intact, but I don't think we should go in." His gaze moved further, towards the exit they'd taken from the chess room. It was completely caved in and the vegetation had covered the trail of the tunnel.

"I don't think we should go in either," Jerry said, joining them. "If the chute is blocked off and the tunnel collapsed, we'd have nowhere to go. And I'm not sure Jimmy could hold up the ceiling long enough for us to escape."

Sam hummed because he'd considered that. He'd also considered that, even if the chute hadn't collapsed, he really didn't want to go back into those tunnels filled with water and traps.

"Here's the thing. I don't think there's any reason for the initial tunnels we followed to have collapsed. But we're not going back in. So let's try looking for the air vents instead." He glanced over his shoulder and was relieved to see Jimmy, Jessie and Angie approaching them as well.

"There was a pretty large group here," Jimmy said. "I think they were trying to dig up the exit we used, but they seem to have given up fairly quickly."

"It wouldn't help them much either," Sam mumbled. He wished he could take out his map, but it was raining so much, he'd surely damage it. "I think we should head on east."

They all agreed and started a silent trek in the direction Sam deemed to be the correct one. The truth was, Sam didn't feel like talking either. It was maybe the urgency, what they'd had to do, or being back here, but something seemed to be draining the very life out of him. It felt like a sort of ending and he didn't want to go there, to turn paranoid and lose grasp of what really mattered. Getting back to their kids, to Christine, Sarah and Kay.

It felt strangely empty without Kay and Kyle, as if a core part of them was missing. But Sam truly believed leaving Kay behind had been the best choice.

On they went, through the rain, until they found the first stone perturbance on the jungle floor. It took Tom and Jimmy a few moments to lift the stone lid and Sam spent his time analyzing the drawings on it until Jimmy lowered Tom into the abys and he returned with news that, indeed, it seemed to be the tunnel they'd been following.