(2014) Dead End

by Jack Parker

  "And they wouldn't kill you for it?" Lari asked; knowing that Salacia wasn't a known member of the Neves. She frowned at Lari's question, though she still looked like a crazed woman.

  "No, the Neves, protectors of the Seven, are linked to my family," she stated. "They would find Ash's father as a traitor; but me, they would find as a protector."

  "And?" Lari questioned.

  "They have never allowed women to be apart of the Neves, but with that priceless treasure you hold," she said motioning to Ash. "I could take control of the entire organization."

  "So you are doing this for you." Ash stated; still seeing no apparent reason why he should give her the box, and he let her know with his expression.

  "Not just me, because you see, I wasn't the one who was in charge of this mission. But won't you tell them who was, General Nick?" she said, staring directly in Dom's direction.

  Dom was currently applying pressure to the wound he had received while saving Lari's life, and luckily for him, it had only grazed his arm. Three sets of eyes were now focused on him and he felt himself pale slightly as he swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat. "It was never my idea."

  "No, of course not, you just arranged everything," Salacia added with a smirk. She was obviously happy with her choice of words.

  "My God, what she's saying is true," Dara whispered in disbelief. She had just begun to trust him again until Salacia said those words she feared to hear.

  "No, Dara, I told you why I did it! They would have killed everyone I loved!" Dom defended; surprise and dread flickered in Ash and Lari's eyes as they kept their distance from him.

  "Who?!" Dara yelled. She had first thought it was the Dark Soldiers of whom he spoke of but now she wasn't so sure.

  "My father and uncle," he breathed. "They found out about the Neves from John, and about the treasure. I watched them murder my own sister," Dom explained, eyes pained. "I vowed that they would never take the lives of my friends. So don't you see? I did it to save your lives!"

  "You could have told us!" Ash said, no longer capable of keeping his cool. "All this time you lied to me, to Lari, to Dara. Were you ever planning on telling us?! We trusted you!"

  "Once everything had been resolved!" Dom shot back in response. Lying to his first friend in this world hadn't been easy, especially with all those years they spent practically spilling their guts to each other.

  Their voices grew loud, so loud that a few rocks loosened from above them and fell to the floor, narrowly missing the heads of Salacia's Dark Soldiers.

  Lari pushed herself into the middle of the shouting duo and kindly asked them to stop without raising her voice any louder than need be.

  "You two need to put this off until later because now is not the time," she began, giving both of them warning looks before focusing on Ash who still held the box. "We need to come to a solution about whatever is in that box before it's too late."

  Ash held the box before him, propped up by one hand while the other began to unveil the box's contents.

  No one expected to see what they saw as Ash pulled out the contents of the box. He passed the empty container to Lari as he threw the treasure around in his hands; ignoring the cringing form of Salacia.

  "This, this crystal, is what the Neves have protected for centuries?" Ash asked incredulously while holding the seemingly polished rose quartz crystal up.

  "Please, don't do that," Salacia said as Ash continued to play with the large pink-tinted crystal.

  Ash stopped if only to make Salacia end her pleading and put it back in the gold plated box that had safeguarded it.

  "If you were to mishandle the crystal, the unthinkable could happen!" Salacia scolded his naïveté. "It could create an explosion that could wipe out nearly half of the world!"

  "She's right," Dom added. "That crystal is protected because of what it could do to the world."

  "I'm still not talking to you!" Ash snapped, causing the cave to rumble again.

  "Ash, please," Lari tried to calm him again but it seemed that he didn't even hear her.

  "I never thought that I could be betrayed by my best friend! But then, I never thought that I could be betrayed by my own father either!"

  "Ash!" Lari began but was too late to stop him.

  The walls themselves trembled and the ceiling collapsed down on them. Every remaining person dove for some sort of cover from the falling stones but the friends never noticed as the three soldiers that were left had already escaped through the entrance that now became their only exit.

  Salacia had tried to grab the box that Lari now held, but both were thrown into a wall as more of the ceiling came crashing down around them.

  The others had fled into the hallway, grabbing what they could on their way to where the cave-in seemed to pause at.

  The rumbling finally ceased and left the friends coughing and gasping for air that was not tainted by dust.

  The smoke-like dust died away within minutes and everyone was able to concentrate on the subject at hand.

  "Is everyone alright?" Ash called out to the darkness. The sun had died away not too long ago and the torches were buried along with the rest of the room during the cave in.

  "I'm fine," came the unmistakable sound of Dara's voice.

  "Fine," Dom followed, placing the duffle bag he had remembered to grab on his hurt shoulder, wincing before placing it on the opposite one.

  Ash waited for the calming sound of Lari's voice to answer his question but all remained silent.

  "Where's Lari?"

  * * *

  Lari's eyes snapped open to warm, and pure light. Her flawless face was at least a foot away from a fallen torch but she was grateful that she was able to see her surroundings clear enough.

  She moved to stand and found that there was a weight on her legs that held her on the ground. The box was underneath her and was digging into her stomach as she turned to see what the weight was.

  Salacia lay at her feet; out cold. Lari didn't know whether she was dead or simply unconscious but she could feel her legs tingling and knew that they were slowly going numb.

  Lari decided to take the chance of moving her legs out from under Salacia's form and only prayed that it would not wake her up.

  She moved her right leg first, pulling it slowly toward her and out from under Salacia. Once her right was clear, she started with the left. The left seemed to hold the most weight so Lari had to yank her leg out or be there all night trying to get it out slowly.

  The sudden move had been her mistake.

  * * *

  "Lari!" Ash called; hoping she could hear him through all of the rubble and debris. "Lari!"

  "Ash, your voice got her in this mess and if she is still alive she will find a way out. She's a smart girl," Dara said; now visible to him once his sky colored eyes had adjusted to the darkness.

  "We need to dig her out," Ash stated then started to pull down rocks of every shape of size from the top of the pile. Dom and Dara exchanged a worried glance before pitching in; heaving rocks left and right.

  * * *

  Lari could barely make out her name being called but knew that she couldn't have been hallucinating when the calling of her name was followed by the distinct sound of rocks being thrown about.

  "Ash?" she whispered to herself then once she gained enough confidence, she screamed his name. "Ash!!"

  "Nobody can hear you. No one can help you now," Salacia said from behind her in one of those horror movie voices. Lari spun to face her and noticed that Salacia held the torch out before her, ready to use it if need be. "Now give me the box."

  There was a considerable amount of room left for the two women to walk around in. Lari found herself walking backwards, holding the box in a defending manor across her chest.

  "I can kill you and take it pry it from your dead fingers or you can give it to me and live to see another day." Salacia's threat seemed to affect Lari, for she reluctantly held out the box to Salacia.

  "T
ake it."

  * * *

  Ash stopped throwing the rocks around and paused to listen. The others continued with their work.

  "Shhh. Stop for a minute."

  The two dropped the rocks at their feet and paused; looking to Ash for an explanation as to why he had stopped them.

  His name was faintly heard threw the large pile of stone and hope was rekindled in their hearts as the last thoughts of despair seemed to float away.

  All three began a chant of 'Lari' as they dug threw the rocks all the faster.

  * * *

  "I said take it," she repeated; holding it out to Salacia.

  She seemed hesitant at first to take it, but greed is often accompanied by lust.

  Salacia took a step toward the redhead and held out her hand for the box. Lari also took a step closer and once the box was in Salacia's reach, Lari kicked her square in the stomach with the sole of her boot, sending her reeling backward and crashing, spine first, into the wall behind her.

  Salacia lay in a heap on the floor, racked in pain that seemed to flow through her back in waves. Before she had the chance to react to the foul play, the ceiling shook once more, sending the last bit of unstable rock fell to the ground; threatening to bury both Lari and Salacia alive.

  * * *

  There was a loud rumble followed by piercing screams. They knew that one belonged to Lari, which meant the other belonged to Salacia.

  "Lari!!" Ash dug through the pile of rocks faster; ignoring the cuts and scraps he received while doing so.

  Dom was doing practically the same and Dara, surprisingly, hadn't complained once as she broke two nails and still continued on.

  They dug deeper and Ash's heart filled with dread when he reached a limp hand.

  Pulling her out fully, Lari was covered with nicks and scrapes and was still clutching the box in her other hand. Dom took the box and placed it gently in the duffle bag.

  Ash supported Lari's lolling head in his lap as Dom felt for a pulse.

  "She's alive." The two words were enough to bring Ash's mind out of the dread he had been feeling.

  "Lari?" he called softly while rubbing a hand along her pale cheek. "Lari, open your eyes."

  She shifted slightly and her eyes twitched as if she were trying to obey Ash's command.

  "Open your eyes, love." Her eyes twitched again until finally they finally fluttered open.

  "Ow," was her first word as she placed a shaky hand on her pounding head.

  The cave trembled once more, filling all four with urgency to get out.

  Ash didn't even attempt to help Lari stand, knowing she was too weak to begin with, so he simple picked up her light form bridal style and sprinted for the exit of the cave with Dom and Dara right on his tail.

  As they raced to the exit, they had to constantly dodge falling rocks, boulders and anything else that was once attached to the ceiling of the cave. Competing with time was never something Ash was good at, but when others lives were in danger, time meant nothing to him.

  The outside of the cave didn't look any better than the inside did. The sun had been blocked out by a dark cloud that seemed to spread across the sky; tainting everything in its path black.

  The air seemed moist and yet a snow-like substance fell from the sky and coated the dirt floor a muted gray.

  They didn't delay in the slightest to make it back to the motorboat but an explosion-like sound and fire falling from the darkened sky made Dara pause.

  "What's happening?" she asked; stopping the group before they could continue on.

  "The volcano's about to erupt!" Dom explained then tried to grab her hand to keep her moving but she only pulled it out of his grasp.

  "What volcano?!" Fear flickered it her blue-gray eyes.

  "That one!" He pointed to the mountain that was spewing the fire into the air and letting gravity take over for it to fall back down to earth; causing small fires in every direction. They felt the heat on their faces as Dom dragged Dara along behind him.

  Dara finally began to move again; dodging around falling trees and the roaring fireballs while trying to keep up with Ash and Dom.

  As the group came to the shore, they arrived at a barren beach. The boat was not anchored where they had left it and Ash's heart filled with dread.

  "What are we going to do?! The boat is gone!" Ash yelled in dismay.

  "Ash, this isn't the right beach, were on the wrong side," Dom calmed him if only for a minute before the unmistakable smell of smoke filled their senses. "If we stay close to the shore as we search for the boat we should just be out of reach of the fire," he explained; leading the group closer to the glistening water.

  The practically ran the distance, no matter how much harder it was to run in the dampened sand that seemed to be everywhere.

  When they finally did reach the boat, they were breathless, save for an injured Lari. She was placed first in the boat, followed by Dara and then Ash and Dom who had pushed it back into the water before starting the engine.

  They were nearly a mile out before Dom stopped the boat to look back at the island that had once held a great treasure.

  The fire was made of yellows, reds, oranges, and hints of blue. The trees that seemed to devour the island were the raging the fires' fuel and the gusts of ice cold wind kept it burning.

  "So what's our next destination?" Lari murmured; half conscious and half asleep.

  Ash smiled down at her and gave her the reply she had been waiting weeks for. "Home."

  Dom fired up the engine once again and drove it in the direction of the rising full moon. It was their light in the darkness of the night and it was the light that had led them this far.

  * * *

  December 25, 2005

  Christmas Day

  It had been forty-six days since their near two-week-long journey had finally come to an end.

  The first few days at home sweet home the four did nothing but catch up on their much needed sleep. Hours and hours of rarely moving a muscle in their cotton and foam stuffed beds was a comfort. After all the hours and days of sleeping on the ground or beds that resembled the ground in all ways but the dirt and grass had been tiresome.

  All four were now gathered around an eight foot Christmas tree in the family room in Ash's newly remodeled house.

  The smell of pine was overwhelming as Ash, Lari, Dom, and Dara began to open the many presents that were once underneath the tree's boughs.

  "This one is from me to you two," Dom said to Ash and Lari as he handed them a thin package that was a perfect square being two feet by two feet. "I figured since you two are getting married next fall this could remind you of all the perils you faced and how your likes of each other grew to love and-"

  "I think they get the picture," Dara intervened once she was tired of hearing his speech.

  Ash's curiosity got the best of him and he found himself ripping the red and green wrapping paper to shreds within minutes. When the present was finally revealed to him, a fake smile became plastered to his face.

  "Oh, look at this, honey," Ash began; flipping the present around so she could view it as well. "He framed the map for us."

  Seeing the map in its entirety behind the thin glass plating of an aged and golden frame sent Lari into hysterics of laughter.

  "I knew that both of you would like it." Dom nearly fell into the same fit of laughter that Lari was in, but managed to bite his tongue. The look on Ash's face had been priceless.

  "Where are you going to put it?" Dara asked Ash, who was now laughing with Lari.

  "Somewhere far, far away," Ash said, but the look that Lari gave him made him change his mind. "Um, in the study?"

  The question was directed toward Lari who was still unable to speak and barely able to breath.

  "The study it is then."

  Dom glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner of the room and read the time.

  "I think that I have overstayed my welcome," he announced. Ash and Lari turned to see the
time also and frowned. "The night is no longer young and I have places to be in the early morning."

  Dom kissed Lari softly on the cheek and waved to both her and Ash as he headed to the door.

  "Wait!" Dara called to him while springing to her feet from her spot on the couch. "It's after midnight and Ty will be wondering where I am."

  Dom and Dara waved their goodbyes before leaving the house. Ash and Lari sat in silence for what seemed like five minutes; only the sounds of the giant clock ticking and Smokey the cat purring in Lari's lap were heard.

  She was staring intently at the framed map that was lying on the glass table before her. "Do you…Do you think that the Neves will ever find out that we have the map and the crystal?"