Journey to the Lost City: An Expedition into the Unknown

The Lost City legend was the stuff of travel lore, the kind of yarn that armchair travellers and amateur adventurers whisper around campfires. Hidden somewhere in a distant, inhospitable jungle, the city’s unique dwellings blended into the landscape so well that they could never be seen from above; beneath its terra-cotta roofs and doorways was a stash of precious objects and a living repository of lost civilisations known only to those intrepid enough to find it. Since the legend came into being, generations of explorers had failed to recover it. They either couldn’t get there, or couldn’t do it. They perished in the surrounding wilderness or died on their way in, and their stories became cautionary tales for would-be discoverers. The Lost City offered the promise of ultimate discovery. The archaeologist Jonathan ‘Jon’ Hartley had devoted his life to this legend, and his cluttered university office was a testament to his many expeditions — maps, artefacts, photographs that spoke of lost cultures and exotic places. But, despite all his work, somehow the Lost City had always managed to stay just out of his reach. On a cold, rainy afternoon, Jon received a battered package with no return address. Inside was an old, weathered journal and a letter from his erstwhile mentor, Dr Edward Thorne, writing from a long-ago expedition deep into the sss, cut short by an incurable and deadly illness. The last pages were rambling scraps about an incredible but elusive place, the so-called Lost City. From the cryptic final words, Jon discerned that it was somewhere deep in the thick of the jungle. The letter was even more tantalising. Thorne had drawn a map and attached it by hand, along with the admonition: The Lost City is not just a bounty of booty but a bastion of terrorJon, just be b****y careful! And don’t trust a soul.