Countdown

by Natalie Standiford

  They crossed through the grassy plaza, a shortcut to the next trail.

  “This was once a marketplace. Farmers sold their produce here, and during Tikal’s heyday, traders from all over the Mayan world came to sell their goods. Maybe the riven crystal we’re looking for was sold to a priest right here in this marketplace.”

  Dan tried to entertain himself on the long hike by imagining the priests in their temples, wearing fierce animal masks to please the gods, and warlike Mayan kings ruling from their palaces, heavy feathered headdresses weighing on their heads. They didn’t have time to study the ruins closely, but every time they passed a set of ancient stairs, the crumbling wall of a town square, or a tunnel leading to rooms where people lived thousands of years ago, he got a chill. And in this heat, chills of any kind were welcome.

  The clayey mud sucked at his feet. There were a lot of ruins in this jungle. A lot. And when you’re hot, sweaty, and tired, after a while the ruins all start blurring together into one big, stony mess.

  “Atticus, are you sure you picked out the right temple?” Amy asked. Normally, her questioning Att would have bugged Dan, but he caught the same uncertainty on Att’s face that she must have seen.

  “I’m pretty sure,” Atticus admitted. “But there was one key glyph in the book I couldn’t decipher. Unless I misunderstood it, it didn’t fit with the pok-a-tok theme. I was hoping we could get by without it . . . .”

  “Which one? Show it to me,” Amy said.

  She and Atticus were leading the group, following the map to the letter, being very careful to mark their way. Getting lost in this dense jungle would be a disaster. They traveled light and fast, carrying only their backpacks, Olivia’s book, and some water. Dan wished they’d also brought a couple of gallons of soda.

  The trail they hiked was nothing more than a narrow dirt path, overgrown with ferns and vines that they had to hack out of the way. Up ahead was the stone entrance to some kind of ancient house. It had only been partially excavated, but it looked cool and dark inside.

  “We’ll stop there and rest for a minute,” Amy said.

  “You’re going to let us rest? That’s kind of you,” Dan snapped.

  Amy’s eyes flashed at him angrily. “We’ve got to get the crystal and get back before dark, Dan. You know that.”

  “I know,” he said, pushing aside his guilt. They sat down to rest in the shade of the stone entrance.

  “Look, we’re almost there. You’ll feel better after you’ve had a little water and something to eat.”

  After their rest they continued through the jungle, which grew hotter and more humid every minute. About half an hour later, Atticus stopped in front of a mass of vines and branches. “This is it.”

  “This is it?” Dan asked. It looked like a hill. There was no sign of any ancient ruins. Just a lot of tangled-up vines. “Are you sure?”

  Att glanced down at the map and nodded. “I’m pretty sure.” He ripped away some vines until a wooden stela, or threshold, appeared. Jake stepped in to help him clear the doorway. The stela was carved with glyphs Dan couldn’t decipher, but one image was clear: the face of a laughing monkey.

  “That’s it,” Atticus said. “There was a monkey mask right next to the pok-a-tok code. There was still the other glyph I never figured out, but this is a good sign.”

  “Thank goodness,” Amy said. Dan could hear the relief in her voice. “Let’s get that crystal.”

  Jake cleared out the entrance and they crawled into the ruined temple. The ceiling had caved in at some point, so once they crawled through a tunnel-like entrance, they found themselves surrounded by four crumbling walls under open sky.

  “What are we looking for, Atticus?” Dan asked.

  “Any structure that could be an altar, and a piece of stone that looks different from the limestone around it,” Atticus said.

  They each took one wall, clearing away jungle growth until they could see stone. It was hot, hard work, and they had to be careful not to destroy anything. Someday this ruin would be excavated and might hold valuable secrets of the past. But for now it held a key ingredient to the serum antidote.

  “I think I found an altar!” Jake called out at last.

  They all hurried over to look. Atticus ran his hands carefully over the stone. Screaming animal faces were carved into the rock, each one representing a Mayan god.

  “Everybody pore over this wall inch by inch,” Amy said. “We’re looking for a smooth piece of quartz, any size.”

  Dan and the others inched over the wall with their fingers, eyes close to the stone, searching for anything that might be the riven crystal. Dan finished his section and sat back, his heart sinking. He hadn’t found anything unusual. “I’ve got nothing,” he said.

  “Me neither,” Jake said with a sigh. “Anyone else?”

  Amy shook her head. “No. Atticus? You’re our last hope.”

  He looked the most discouraged of all. “It isn’t here. I can’t understand it. The riven crystal isn’t here.”

  Dan glanced at Amy, who looked like she might break down in frustration. “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “How can it not be here?” Dan asked. “We followed that map to the letter.”

  “I think this is the wrong temple.” Atticus’s voice shook. “It’s in Tikal somewhere, I’m sure of that. But I must have gone wrong somewhere . . . .”

  “This park has two hundred square miles of ruins,” Amy said. “We need an exact location or we’ll never find the crystal.”

  “I’ll study the book again tonight and figure out where I went wrong. It’s the mysterious glyph, the one I couldn’t decipher. I’m sure that’s what misled me.”

  He looked at his feet, blinking. Dan was afraid he might cry. Atticus was just a little kid, and they relied on him so much. He hated letting anyone down.

  Amy put a reassuring arm around Att’s shoulders. “It’s all right. It must be that mysterious glyph. We’ll figure it out tonight and try again tomorrow.”

  There was nothing else to do. They crawled out of the ruin and started hiking back through the jungle toward the hotel.

  About an hour into the walk back, Dan suddenly had a strange feeling. All this time they’d been alone in the jungle, except for the wild birds and animals — frogs, toads, lizards, snakes . . . Most of the mammals wisely slept during the day. But now the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and he had the strong sense that they were being watched.

  He was following Amy, who was leading them back. He touched her arm to get her attention and put his finger to his lips to signal quiet. She and the others instantly froze.

  They peered through the dense rain forest. Birds whistled and hooted. There was a cracking sound, like a twig or branch breaking.

  Amy’s eyebrows rose in alarm.

  Dan thought he saw something catch the light and glint through the leaves. Or was that his imagination?

  Another crack, and a flash of light as the sun hit the watch on a man’s wrist.

  “They’re here,” Amy whispered.

  Before they could make a move, four large men crashed through the brush, blocking the way forward.

  “Run!” Amy shouted.

  Amy whirled around and ran back down the path with Dan, Jake, and Atticus at her heels, when four more fighters leaped out of the trees.

  “It’s an ambush!” Dan yelled.

  They were trapped. Thugs in front of them, thugs behind them, and all around them nothing but impenetrable jungle. How did they find us? Amy’s muscles tensed and her pulse sped, telling her to run, but there was nowhere to go. She felt like a caged tiger. Two of Pierce’s men rushed forward and grabbed her. She struggled but their hands were pure muscle, gripping her arms so hard they nearly broke her bones.

  Jake was dodging a goon who looked more like a boulder than a man, bald with a big n
ose mashed against his face. Ducking and swerving, he stayed one step ahead of the thug but couldn’t quite lose him. When the fighter finally treed him, Jake jumped up higher, grabbed a branch, and kicked the man in the face — just hard enough to give Jake time to escape.

  A soldier went for Atticus, who flattened himself against the jungle floor and slithered through a narrow opening in the brush, disappearing. Dan ducked and rolled, dodging the soldier who chased him, and dove into the brush after Att. The thugs kicked furiously at the thick vines, ripping them up by the roots like a threshing machine. Go, Dan and Att, go! Amy thought. She squirmed in the iron grip of the men holding her. One of them reached for his gun. In a surge of terror and adrenaline she kicked his hand hard enough to hurt him. The gun flew into the air and disappeared in the green.

  “Get it!” the other thug ordered. The gunman let go of Amy. Now she had one arm free. She punched the other goon in the stomach, followed by a hard judo chop on his arm and another kick to the groin. The blows had no effect. She might as well have been a fly fighting an elephant.

  Jake appeared behind the thug, grabbed a handful of hair, and yanked. Enraged, the man let go of Amy for a split second to turn on Jake. Amy slipped away, and Jake ducked under the fighter’s flying fist, managing to escape. “The boys!” Amy said to Jake. She dove into the jungle after Atticus and Dan. Jake followed. Vines and branches scratched her face as she crawled through the brush. She emerged in a clearing and stood. Dan and Atticus jumped out of a hollow tree they’d been hiding in.

  “Amy, look up!” Dan shouted, pointing toward the treetops. Perched in a sturdy kapok branch was a wooden platform with a zip line attached to it. Amy didn’t know where the zip line led to, and she didn’t care. Anyplace was better than this.

  “Get up there any way you can!” she told the others. A rickety wooden staircase led to the platform. She grabbed Atticus and pushed him up the stairs, clambering after him. The stairs were too narrow for the muscular men. One of them tried the first step, and it crashed under his weight. Dan and Jake dodged the goons, climbing up the tree that led to the platform and hauling themselves over the top.

  Amy grabbed a zip line harness, helped Atticus inside, and gave him a shove. She followed in another harness, with Dan and Jake sliding in close behind her. They whizzed through the jungle, over the fern-covered ruins, past wildly colored birds and flowers, landing on a platform a hundred yards away, where another zip line awaited them.

  The soldiers had somehow managed to climb the tree and were zipping down the lines after them without harnesses. They slid along the wire with their hands, wearing only their gloves. They’re relentless, Amy thought, trying not to be overwhelmed by despair.

  The four of them zipped to another platform. Suddenly, about twenty feet from the next platform, Atticus stopped dead. “My harness is stuck!” he shouted.

  Amy couldn’t stop — she slid right into him. Dan crashed into her, and the weight of them unstuck Att’s harness. They zipped the final leg to the next platform. Jake tumbled on after them. Out of breath, Amy glanced back. The thugs were zooming straight toward them, a hundred feet away, then fifty, twenty. . . .

  Up ahead, there was no zip line. Only a suspension bridge made of rope and planks, spanning a deep, dry gorge.

  “The goons are right behind us,” Dan shouted. “Go!”

  Amy stepped tentatively on the bridge, testing its strength. It swayed under her weight. Dan stepped on, causing the bridge to ripple. She looked down. Big mistake. The bottom of the gorge was far, far below, with nothing to land on but rocks.

  “Amy, go!” Dan urged her. “They’re coming!” She took a breath, then another step. One foot at a time . . .

  She started across the bridge, trying to ignore the waves of nausea and dizziness that washed over her. “Eyes up!” Jake instructed. Amy listened, keeping her eyes on the other side of the gorge. She’d made it halfway across, the boys right behind her. The bridge made a sudden huge ripple, swinging over the chasm. The goons had arrived. She gripped the rope sides tighter.

  “Hurry!” Dan said. “This thing could snap under the weight of those guys.”

  Another big ripple as the thugs piled on. Amy’s foot slid out from under her. She landed on her backside on a plank of the bridge, then slipped sideways, her legs dangling over the gorge.

  “Amy!” Jake cried.

  Her hands caught the rope that ran along the side of the bridge. She dangled over the gorge for a split second before Jake pulled her to safety. She knelt on the bridge, catching her breath, before climbing to her feet and hurrying the rest of the way over the gorge.

  They’d all made it safely across the bridge. They ran along a jungle path, only to find themselves at another zip line, this one running over a rushing river.

  “I remember the map! This line should lead to the zip line center,” Dan cried.

  “Good.” The zip line center would be crowded with tourists and patrolled by armed park guards. If they could get to the center, they might be safe from Pierce’s men, at least for a little while. “Let’s go,” Amy said.

  Jake lifted Atticus into a harness and sent him soaring like a bird over the rushing water. Jake followed to make sure he’d be okay on the other side. They zoomed across the river and disappeared into the trees on their way to the zip line center. Amy glanced back. No sign of the men who’d been chasing them yet. But they were sure to appear any moment. She pushed Dan in front of her. “Go. Now!”

  Dan jumped into the harness and slid across the double wire that connected the platform to the other side of the river. At that moment a new thug appeared on the far shore — another one of Pierce’s men, coming at them from the other side. The thugs had called for reinforcements. Jake and Atticus had zipped by right before he got there. He spoke into a two-way radio, nodding as if he’d just been told where to go and what to do. Brandishing a machete, he climbed up to a platform in a tree next to the zip line. Then he started hacking at one of the two zip line wires.

  Dan was headed straight for him.

  Amy’s heart jumped to her throat. Dan was halfway across when the top wire that held him snapped.

  “Dan!” Amy screamed.

  The wire dropped in front of Dan. His harness halted with a jerk and the lower wire drooped low over the river. He dangled above the water rushing over the rocks below, supported by only one wire now, the other in his way, keeping him from sliding forward.

  Amy heard thudding footsteps behind her. She turned quickly. The rickety suspension bridge had slowed down the fighters who’d been chasing them — the men were so big they had to cross it carefully, or their weight might break it or sway it so much it would throw them off. But they had finally made it over the bridge and were running toward her down the jungle path.

  They’d be on top of her in a matter of minutes.

  Across the river, the saboteur hacked at the second wire. Once it broke, the pulleys holding the harness would slide off the wire and Dan would tumble into the river to his death.

  “DAN!” she screamed again.

  Dan twisted in the harness, looking for Amy. When he found her, they locked eyes. She could read his thoughts, and they were terrible.

  This is it, he telegraphed to her. Good-bye.

  No! Her body jolted with terror, a lightning bolt to the brain.

  Without thinking, she jumped into her harness. She’d zip over to Dan, catch him, glide him to safety. . . .

  She’d nearly leaped over the water when she caught herself. It wouldn’t work. She’d reach Dan halfway over the river, and they’d both be stuck. Half the zip line had been cut. Across the river, the strongman was chopping, chopping, chopping. The second wire weakened, sagging even more.

  Dan’s body dropped closer to the rushing water, the harness holding him like a noose.

  Every nerve, every fiber in Amy’s body strained over
that river toward her brother. Her brain was on fire, rat-a-tatting, save him save him how how how?

  She scanned the ground for a life preserver, a float, something she could toss him that might break his fall, but there was nothing. The wire thinned. Dan’s body dropped lower. He closed his eyes, his face a mask of terror.

  The wire was hair-thin. It was about to break.

  Behind her, the thugs were only yards away.

  As if in a nightmare, Amy saw what was about to happen. She saw Dan’s body fall into the river. She saw his head bash against the rocks, spattering them with blood as his limp, lifeless body washed downstream. . . .

  If only he could climb back to her, back on the wire. But he wasn’t strong enough to do that, and anyway, the thugs would be waiting for him there on her side of the river. Or if he could cling to the wire as it broke, and slide down slowly toward the river. But he’d have to be superstrong to do that, at least as strong as Pierce’s men, maybe stronger.

  A howl of anguish ripped from her body. He was her brother, and she couldn’t help him! She was powerless, powerless, power . . .

  Power.

  In a flash an answer appeared to her. She had all the power she needed. Right there in her backpack.

  The serum.

  If she were superstrong, she could slide out to him, keep him from falling, ease him down the wire to the edge of the river. . . .

  If she were superstrong, and if she acted fast.

  The wire sagged lower. In ten seconds, maybe five, it would break. Dan struggled in the harness, trying to claw his way back along the wire toward her, but he wasn’t strong enough. He was as helpless as a trapped animal.

  Her little brother. Her Dan.

  Save Dan, save Dan, save Dan. . . . The words were a drumbeat in her mind. She couldn’t think of anything else, couldn’t think past that one idea.

  She ripped open her pack and found the flask. She tore off the top and drank it down.

  There was an agonizing instant when nothing happened, and then power like golden light surged through her veins, energizing her limbs, her hands, her brain. She felt strong, yet light. As if she could leap across the chasm, fifty yards, a hundred. No — she tried to put a brake on her speeding mind; she could jump far, very far, maybe thirty feet, but not that far, not yet. . . .