Chapter Eight

The Ruby

"Herrison!" Sam got to his knees. He scanned the floor to check for potential raised tiles, then scuttled to Herrison, sticking to the center line of the chess table. If his interpretation of the hieroglyphs was correct, he should be safe.

He reached Herrison and turned him over, trying to keep his entire body on the safe path. Blood dripped down his pants. Deep gashed marred both his legs, right above the knees.

"What the hell were you thinking, running through a booby trapped room?" Okay, that's not what he wanted to say. "Are you okay?" There, that's what he actually meant. "No!" He raised his hand to stop the others from stepping on the chess table. "Stick to the line we're on."

Herrison moaned and Sam helped him sit up.

Jerry knelt next to them and put his hands above and below Herrison's wound, analyzing it. "This is not good. The cut is deep." He looked at Sam with wide eyes. "He has to go."

"Go? Wait, what do you mean go?" Herrison looked from one to the other.

"I mean..." Jerry swallowed. "Our first aid supplies are not enough. You need stitches and a sterile environment."

"Out of the question." Herrison made to stand, but his legs wouldn't hold him. He screamed in pain. "I can't leave you kids alone."

Sam's pulse drummed in his temple. He knew that, but Jerry was right. If they didn't get Herrison out of there, losing both his legs would be the better turn out. Everything got infected in the jungle. He rubbed his own bleeding shoulder. The wound stung, but he ignored it.

"You don't have a choice." Jerry's voice shook even if he tried to keep a stern, professional tone.

"Listen to Jerry, man," Jimmy said, putting his hand on Herrison's shoulder. "There's a good chance you'll die. We'll be fine. We'll get the ruby and be right behind you."

Sam had no idea if Jimmy was really that confident or he was just trying to get Herrison out of there.

"But I... you'll..." Herrison looked desperately from one to the other. Sweat dripped down the sides of his face. "I can wait another day."

"Another day can make all the difference." Jerry searched the supply rucksack for bandages. "I'll clear this up best I can, but you should go immediately." He took out disinfectant, then took Herrison's pulse and let out a low whistle. "Sorry, but this is going to really hurt. Your adrenaline rush is over."

"My what?" Herrison started yelling all of a sudden as if someone was torturing him.

Jimmy and Jerry picked him up and led him off the chess table.

Sam followed them to safety, trying to come up with a solution. Herrison couldn't walk. Both his legs were useless. He needed at least two people to go with him, people able to carry him. And that narrowed down the options dramatically. "Professor, you and Carlos should get Herrison out of here. Take the mule with you. We'll catch up after we're done here." At least his voice didn't come out trembling.

The professor stared at him with an incredulous expression. "And who might read the symbols for you?"

"I'll take care of that." Sam tried not to sound sarcastic, but wasn't sure he'd managed it. They had a better chance at surviving without the professor misinterpreting stuff.

"Have it your way." He shrugged way too easily and helped Carlos lift Herrison.

"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine," Tom said, patting Herrison's shoulder. He didn't seem to feel it. His face was screwed up in pain, his eyes shut tightly. He moaned once Carlos and the professor led him out of the room.

Sam watched them go, his stomach twisting uncomfortably. Jerry, Jimmy, Kyle and Tom looked back to him as though expecting enlightenment.

"You guys do think sending the professor with Herrison was a good idea, right?" he asked nervously.

"That old dude almost got us killed," Tom said. "I'm glad to see the back of him. Let's get this over with." He walked to the other side of the room and punched in the prominent stone block on the side of the door. It shot open, revealing another dark room.

The group stopped in the threshold and waved the flashlights around, but all seemed to be safe. They strode inside and took a few steps before the door behind them closed. After a few more minutes of cautious walking, Sam hit a wall.

"This is odd." He pressed the stone blocks searching for a hidden door, but nothing moved under his touch.

"I hate closed spaces," Jerry mumbled.

"If only we'd find the right switch..." Jimmy said, as he and Tom frisked the walls.

Before Jerry mentioned it, Sam hadn't minded the dark and the narrow hallway, but he now felt as if he were trapped in a box and it was a very uncomfortable feeling. Before he could think what else they could try, the room rumbled and the floor disappeared from under Sam's feet. He waved his arms, his fingers trying to grip something to stop his fall. There was nothing there. He plunged downward and hit the hard floor below. Someone landed on his back, knocking all air out of him.

Kyle and Jimmy cursed in unison, Jerry gasped and Tom groaned and rolled off Sam's back.

"That was completely uncalled for." Tom turned on his flashlight and rubbed his back with his free hand. "Thanks for breaking my fall."

"No problem," Sam said, his voice wheezy. He took in a huge breath, trying to get his heart to calm down.

Except for scattered rocks, this new room was also empty; at least at first sight. As soon as everyone shone their light around, something glistened in a corner. Sam scanned the floor with his flashlight, but there was nothing there, not even stone blocks like above. Which probably meant there were no traps there.

Hoping his reasoning wouldn't lead to his death, he hurried to the corner of the room to check out the shiny thing, but froze as soon as he realized what it was. "No way!"

A reddish stone the size of a tennis ball rested on a stone altar in the far corner of the room. This couldn't be the ruby! Not here, in this desolate place. Sam stepped closer to the altar – there were symbols on it that seemed to indicate the stone was in the right place. But what about the ceremonial chamber, the sculptures, the riches?

"Would you look at the size of it," Jimmy whispered.

Sam had no idea why he expected the ruby to be bigger. It was huge for a jewel. He checked the ceiling and the adjoining walls for any sign of a trap, but it seemed safe. He reached out his hand and touched the ruby. Nothing happened. He snatched it and jumped back, expecting something to happen.

"That was anti-climactic," Tom said bluntly.

"No kidding." Sam turned the ruby over in his hand and stared at it. He had no idea what he expected to see on it.

He shrugged and passed it to Tom who in turn analyzed it and passed it on. After everyone got a good look at it, Kyle gave it back to Tom who shoved it in one of his many pockets.

"Great, now that's over with, let's get out of here." Jerry looked around.

Easier said than done. For what felt like hours, they pressed every brick on the walls in every possible combination. Nothing budged. Everything was the same dull, black stone. The more time past, the smaller the room seemed to Sam. It felt as if the walls were coming down on him. He stared upward, but the ceiling was too high to hold a solution for their escape. Even if they had a grappling hook or something, there was nothing they could grab on to. He dropped on the floor and leaned his back against the wall, trying to fight the feeling of despair sneaking through his veins. They weren't going to die. Right? He felt the need to hear someone say that out loud. Darn it, he should've told Christine how he felt about her. Now, if he died, she'd never know.

"Oh, man! Is there no way out of here?" Jimmy asked. He'd taken a screw driver out and was polishing the edges of the bricks. He and Jerry were the only ones still on their feet, but Jerry paced.

"I knew it! I knew we should've said goodbye to our parents properly. Why didn't I listen to my instinct? Why didn't we turn back the moment we found out this was no study camp?"

Sam grabbed Jerry's ankle as he paced by him. "Knock it off, you're not helping."

"Not helping?" Jerry let out a hysterical laugh. "Do you think anything we do would help now?" He put his hands on his head. "I can't believe we've done this to our parents. They've now lost all their children at once. Mom is going to be devastated."

Sam felt like punching him in the face. He was right, of course he was, but Sam didn't want to hear all that now. They weren't dead yet and he didn't plan on being dead any time soon. If the ruby was there, this couldn't be a trap with no way out. There were no bones around so who ever had placed the jewel there had made it out. All they had to do was find out how.

"Will you stop whining? At least you have someone who's gonna mourn for you," Jimmy snapped.

Jimmy's statement pulled Sam out of his reasoning and knocked reality back into him. Hard. Jerry and Kyle stared at him too, Kyle frowning and Jerry with wide eyes.

"What do you mean?" Jerry asked, though from his tone, Sam could tell that Jerry, just like him and probably Kyle, knew exactly what Jimmy meant.

"Jimmy, don't," Tom said, though his voice lacked all conviction.

"Why not?" Jimmy asked annoyed. "If we're gonna die here, at least these guys should be sorry."

"We are sorry, we're dying, too," Sam answered.

Tom took his sunglasses off just so that Sam could see him rolling his eyes. That and maybe the exasperated look in them.

"So, um..." Jerry swallowed. "You two don't have a family?"

"Do you really need an answer to that question?" Jimmy asked, and Sam wished he would go back to the happy-go-lucky Jimmy he thought he knew. Right now, he looked nothing like Jerry. Sam had never seen so much pain and resent on Jerry's face.

"How come this never came up in conversation before?" Jerry asked, his eyes darting from Jimmy to Tom and back.

"Oh, this would've been the perfect conversation starter," Tom said, his hands clasped together, feigning enthusiasm. "Hi, we're Tom and Jimmy. We're orphans. Do you think your parents could actually be our parents since we're identical and stuff?"

"So you two actually think..." Sam started.

"Of course we thought about it." It was Jimmy's turn to roll his eyes. "Don't tell me you didn't."

"Of course we did." Jerry bit his lip. "But we thought you had a family."

"Well, we don't. And you'd better hope we're not brothers," Jimmy said, his tone vicious.

Sam frowned. "Why not?" He stopped himself before he asked the childish question 'Don't you like us?"

Tom seemed to have guessed what he was thinking, however. "Don't get us wrong, we like you guys and everything. There's no one else in the world I'd rather go on a wild adventure that might lead to our deaths with. But we noticed certain things."

"Like your clothes," Jimmy said before Sam could ask. "They're expensive as shit. Especially yours." He nodded toward Kyle. "Which means you come from a rich family. So, if your parents were our parents and they can afford designer clothes, why did they give us away? They'd have absolutely no excuse."

Jimmy was completely right. Which left room to the only possible explanation.

"Our parents would never do something like that," Jerry said quietly.

"Yeah, right." Kyle huffed and everyone turned to him. "Don't look at me like that, you know I'm right."

Jimmy frowned. "What do you mean?"

"As soon as he was born," Kyle nodded toward Jerry, "our parents sent me away. I was raised by my uncle and grandmother. I only met my brothers last year when I was duped into coming home for college."

The conversation was going downhill very fast. If they were really going to die, this was the last thing Sam wanted to think about before he did. "Okay, yes, stupid move on their part. I'm not even going to pretend to understand or defend them. But it's not the same thing. You knew we existed, you knew you had a family."

"Yes, thank God for that." Kyle didn't even try to hide his sarcasm. Sam must've looked devastated because Kyle sighed. "Look kid, it's not like I don't appreciate what I have, but I spent my entire life with other people. And what have I done since coming home? I've only caused fights between Mom and Dad, between you and Jerry. And it's obvious that you were all better off without me."

Jimmy let out a low whistle. "O-kay, I suddenly feel a lot better about myself."

"Yeah, good point," Tom mumbled. "I guess it could be a lot worse."

Sam turned to Jerry, his fist clenched, trying to keep in the sudden anger that had grabbed hold of him. He didn't want to die angry either, but it was a hell of a lot better than sad.

"Sure, this is all my fault!" Jerry said kicking the nearest wall. With an almighty rumble, the adjoining walls shook and began moving towards the center of the room.

"Guess what? This is all your fault!" Sam said annoyed, gazing around the room, for an escape or a trigger that might send the walls back. There was nothing.

Trying to hold back the panic building up inside him, Sam did the only thing he could think of. He perched his shoulder against one of the moving walls and shoved as hard as he could. Tom, Jimmy and Jerry joined him. Kyle stood with his back against the other moving wall, letting it move him forward.

"A little help here," Jimmy said between gritted teeth, his face red from all the pushing. "Or are you so stupidly miserable that you rather we all died?"

Kyle stared at him for a second then grinned. "Stupidly miserable. I like the sound of that. Sorry to disappoint you, but, no, I don't plan on dying today. Move out of the way."

Jimmy and Tom stepped back immediately. Sam didn't get to move before Kyle launched himself at the wall and rammed full-force into it. The wall didn't stop, but smashed where Kyle hit it.

Sam shook away the shock and followed the others through the newly formed hole. Kyle rolled off the rubble which had been a wall mere seconds ago and got to his feet, holding his left hand over his right shoulder, his face screwed up in pain.

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Herrison lives. Ah, the disappointment. And the professor has no regard for child safety at all. Come to think about it, no one here does. Oh well, they'll have to work it out on their own.

So, how do you feel about Tom and Jimmy now? Do you think they're brothers? And if yes, wtf happened?

Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote and comment!