Journey Into The Aftermath |✔

Chapter fifteen: A Wanted Criminal

A violent turn in the sand made me shoot up from my sleep, immediately gripping after the roof framing. I gave him a murderous look as he sported a soft smile.

"We're here."

Shaking my head to deviate from doing something I might regret, I looked out around us and sighed while in awe of the sight. From the sand we were on now, tall, but thin silvery mountains led out into the distance right before us. My gaze followed the tops of the mountains down to something almost as big as the mountains themselves.

The Temple of Salvation.

From as far as we were, I couldn't make out any details other than its massive structure and that it was a rusty orange in color that was faded out by the waves of the intense humidity. We both stepped out of the car, stretching moments after and I had to plop back down because I got seriously lightheaded.

I gathered my machete, my pistol, and all of my other trinkets knowing I would probably need everything I could carry. I felt a bit iffy about Chase picking up my shotgun, but he seemed to be completely unarmed and I had my bow and arrow wrapped around my chest so I let it slide. I saw him transition the double-looped back pack into a single-looped biker bag that he just flung over on shoulder as it now hung at his side. Most back packs nowadays can do that so it was of no surprise to me. However what did was when he pulled out a tan-colored penny board out of the back seat.

"You're not going to skateboard through a temple are you?" I asked mockingly even though I noticed it had no wheels attached to it. He flipped it in his hand and around his arm before it snapped into much smaller chrome 'key chain' version of its larger size. He then held it over his belt buckle and it magnetically attached to it.

"It's fun to imagine."

His low, but soothing voice went surprisingly well with his sparky sarcasm. It keeps me guessing about him, making me think that there is so much more to him beneath the surface. Unlike Noah who was full of energy and was always in your face, Chase seemed far more laid back and would rather not be in the spotlight. Though they both had roughly the same sense of humor, Chase seems like his came from something in his past. I didn't bother inquire when I saw him stroke my laser shotgun like a newborn child.

He loaded the shotgun and flashed a smile as he looked up at me. "You don't mind if...?"

"Keep it," I nodded. "God knows you need it more."

Chuckling, he swung it onto a latch on his vest on the back. "Let's get going"

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" I asked. There was a wall of mountains meters from us and the temple was far behind them all. It was only between the valleys and dips in the mountains themselves could I actually see the temple at all.

That was when he smirked and pulled out two belt harnesses and threw me one. I caught it suddenly and looked straight up at him as he attached his. "Have you never rock climbed before?"

I thought about how I got into the cave with the bear back in Florida. "Somewhat"

"Well don't worry, with your instincts, you'll do fine," He tightened the harness around his waist. "I hope."

"Once again, comforting." I huffed as I applied mine. How these harnesses worked was that they were a complete upper body suit that you have to step into like pants though they didn't have any leggings. Once I got both sides of the upper body section around my shoulders--glad they didn't have sleeves--I zipped up the front and then there was a flap on the front that had the loop for the hook to latch onto for the rope. I pulled that flap over to the left side of the suit and Velcro attached the flap to the front so it would stop waving about.