The Secrets Of The Old Tomb

9th Chapter: Back on the Old Tomb

We could not fight Jonathan and Luke and had their chip, the thing that turned them into something they would not do, out of their temples. They were too strong against Jarv and me, especially me because I was not still physically strong. Jarv was extremely close to removing Luke’s chip when he had the chance to lock one of Luke’s arms behind Luke’s back while the other was weak and wounded by the spear. But because of me, Jarv had to save me when Jonathan was about to throw a gigantic rock on my head after he punched me strenuously on the right side of my head – almost hitting where the chip was planted – which blurred my sight for about two minutes.

I never got such a powerful hit from him before. With only that, even knowing he wasn’t on himself, the feeling I had was even worse than a breakup. It was heartbreaking to see my beloved boyfriend having no second thoughts about hurting and killing me, the only woman who shined his life when it was in its utmost misery and lost in the dark. If I would have seen him again, maybe I’d have forgotten he was my boyfriend. But I did understand the whole situation happening to all of us – he was not in himself. He was in another’s control. Someone more powerful than us. I knew it.

The only way we got away was when our deadly fight, more to say the three men’s deadly brawl as I was no use to Jarv, gradually moved outside the cave. Jarv was smart enough to intentionally lead them to the desert, grab handfuls of dust and spray it on their eyes. As much as it’s easy to hear or sound, it was not. It did take almost an hour just to lead them there as Jonathan and Luke weren’t just aiming for Jarv and me. The two best friends were also on their best to kill each other, and watching them reminded me of how cruel this was. My rage began to rise.

I wanted to help Jarv how he could separate the two without him further hurting them whenever the best friends faced each other, yet every time it happened, it was either they targeted Jarv or one of them targeted me because I kept on screaming my words in an attempt to help Jarv. And every time one of them came closer to kill me, Jarv rescued me while there was a death on his tail.

After Jarv managed to slow down our enemies’ movement by unclearing their sights for quite a while using the sand, we chose to run away instead of holding on to that determination to remove the chips on their temple. The first factor was that I was weak. Jarv was more dead set on protecting me than helping Jarv and Luke get their sanity back. Second, it was two against one. If I was in my shape and could fight, then we’d pushed the fight – yet I wasn’t. In case we both chose to go and have those two chips, there’d be a higher chance of having Jarv killed than succeeding. Third, we could get the chip out of their head, but it would require getting both of them unconscious. And it was impossible to make them unconscious. Jarv didn’t want to fully use his strength on this. He thought it might be a cause of our friend’s death. Plus, they just couldn’t lose their consciousness. Something else was responsible for having their brain so alive and body so strong. I knew it was the chip. What else would it be?

We rapidly ran and took the direction where the desert and winterland met. Jarv and I have been on both sides of the two environments separately, so we both knew the risk and danger that awaited both. Hence, the reason why we kept our pace in between hell and winter. And also, this was the only kind of air we could breathe and survive.

And, now, it had been approximately 17 hours already since we encountered Luke and Jonathan in our cave. I needed that cave for my recovery, but, oh well, I guessed that this place didn’t want me alive.

Up until now, Jarv and I were figuring out who kidn*pped us and brought us here. There were a lot of things we still could not understand, such as the sudden changes of season, the day and night cycle and the sun and moon issues, and many more. And questions too far to answer by only our confused and blood-boiled heads, like why would this person or people – whoever vexing put us all here – want me and my friends to kill each other? Why were animals brought to this greatly inhumane activity? What was the purpose of this abominable suspicious blood sport situation? Fun? Game? A test?

Our suspicion was a scientist, or some sort of doctor, was involved. It was the first one to be obvious – the idea came from inserting the chips and stitching them. Who was good at the intelligently-weird experiment, stitching and everything about bodies? We reckon scientists and doctors.

But who in this world would want a chip in people’s heads and kill one another? Only psychopaths would ever think of that, so we added that to our suspicious people list. It was hard to add more people with positive motives who could do this cruelty. What have my friends and I done wrong to get into this a hundred per cent life-threatening place? All we wanted was to explore the old tomb!

Speaking of it, the day ultimately came – a new hope to find the old tomb. Because at the end of between this winter and hell was a wide river that divided both winterland and desert from the green forest. The beauty of seeing how the winter still reaches a couple of green trees that were nearest to the edge side, where the river flows, and also the weird attraction of observing how the edge side of the desert turned slightly green with a few leafless trees and how it blended with the river fascinated me but it would never take away the fury to whoever throws us here.

We did our ultimate care crossing the river without falling into it because we both suspected deadly fishes or any freshwater animals might attack us.

The good thing was that there was a slightly thick layer of ice on the top of the river between winter and the forest, and that was what we used to get to another place. That partial feeling we had that we were at least somehow safe from the threat of the environment came to us, knowing that the danger we only had to take in mind in this forest was the mind-controlled enemies. Unlike winter, which had a cold and lifeless threat and desert having the most scorching threat and thirst.

By choice, actually, it was my own choice, Jarv and I began to explore the forest and tried to find the old tomb or the road where Jarv’s dad’s bus was parked rather than finding a place or another cave we could stay into. I suggested it right away the moment we were out of winter and hell. At first, Jarv didn’t approve of it, but I enlightened him that, even though a safe place wasn’t the priority, we could possibly still encounter one while we looked for that old tomb. He knew that I was merely thinking something greater for good than a thing that myself, or two of us, only could benefit.

Unfortunately, after searching for hours with great safety and silence, we never found a road or any sign of it or a tomb. But, as we searched, Jarv realized too that this forest was identical to the forest when we came to the old tomb. So, we both figured that if we kept our hopes high and proceeded to find the old tomb, maybe we would figure out our way out.

We knew that it was still dangerous for both of us to wander around while we were two of our other mind-controlled friends’ targets, yet we had no choice but to take the risk and then gave up when we had the power not to. And, even until now, we did not find any cave.

“Mol,” Jarv called from behind me. I was holding this branch in my two hands, ready for anyone or anything who might attack us. I was leading the way this time, and I was a lookout in our front while Jarv was the lookout on our back. The soon I heard his voice calling me, I heard his footsteps die out. So I turned to face him and saw that he was bending over with his hands on both knees, supporting his body. I sensed he was breathing heavily as there was a delay in his voice to voice out the reason he called my name. “I really do understand your decision to look for the tomb, but we can’t also starve ourselves.”

Then Jarv looked up at me. There I caught with my two very own eyes his face and I could tell he was exhausted and ravenous. His eyes were about to fall to the ground and he was panting with his mouth open, desiring that food. I didn’t know what to say next, so Jarv continued, assuming that he took my silence as my stupefaction to what he said.

“Remember, we just don’t need to feed our spirit. Yet, we also need to feed our bodies. How can we fight if we’re both this weak? Fragile? Easy to kill? You clearly know what we’re dealing with here, Mol.”

Indeed, I knew.

And, admitting my wrong, my best friend was right.

Finding that tomb or any sign of it was utmostly necessary, but we had to think of ourselves too. Jarv and I needed physical help to fight and save the others – if, in any instance, we came across one of our friends. We needed that strength to defend ourselves.

But there was no source of food, other than animals where we had to sacrifice all our strength before we could kill one. And we couldn’t kill one. No fruits of any kind could be seen around the forest. It seemed as though, whoever brought us here, plucked all the trees that bear edible fruits. However, how could that be possible?

Why I was even bothered? Merely seeing that unbelievable desert sitting beside the cold winter made me think nothing in place was ever impossible. I remember thinking while in that forest, “If I were to see a snake with two tails walking like a human being, I wouldn’t be surprised.” But, you know what, Until now, I still wonder what that would be like.

Anyway, hunting for aggressive animals took really a lot of time and strength. If we only had that spear from Luke, then we could’ve lessened the hardship of hunting a perfect animal. Worse luck, it wasn’t in our possession. So, we had to use the remaining poor strength he had to have a nice dinner – nicer than what Jarv was preparing back in that cave. Even now, I still thought of not eating it.

Whilst we stalked or hunted an animal, some instances turned the other way around: we nearly became the prey and the wild animals were the predators. We understood that they never became a new threat to us, because, from the start, we knew that all animals attack any sign of life to death as they craved flesh – just as we were when we had the chips on our temples.

Yet, what choice did we have on our hands? The only way for a source of food in this forest was by killing those animals. It has been almost two hours already since we began to hunt. My weapon or device used to hunt was still this branch with a naturally pointed end. The only challenge about this branch, aside from how to execute its usage perfectly, was bringing it with me. It was inches bigger than my forearm and, for that, I couldn’t have a tight grip on it.

Jarv, however, tried his best to imitate Luke’s spear. That spear was quite interesting, as Jarv and I knew that the pointed tip wasn’t a stone or metal. Jarv’s spear was made of slightly pointed rock, attached to the first end of his perfect stick he luckily found using the bark of the basswood trees. It wasn’t as deadly as Luke’s spear, but we were confident that we could hurt and kill an animal using this.

“Jarv! Look!” I exclaimed silently to Jarv, wanting his attention right away. I was pointing my finger at the walking moose with my arm stretched on my side. I had to call Jarv because he was looking for another way.

It was the first time that we had seen a moose again.

“I hope we can get it this time,” Jarv fixed his ogled eyes on the animal, moving slowly to take my place and lead the hunt. I let him be, as I knew his father trained him when he was a kid.

But I made a very great mistake.

An unthinkable, but forgivable mistake.

The moment Jarv took my place to get a closer and good sight of that undeniably aggressive moose, I automatically and silently backed my steps away. For lesser suspicion or any attention to the moose’s perspective, I had to lower my back, causing me a million needle pains, and delayed my movements, which I executed perfectly while keeping my eyes on the target. Of course, I wanted to see how Jarv would’ve taken that wild animal. There was nothing in me to desire to kill this animal. I was just eager to learn from a friend for survival. Yet, again, it wasn’t always the case with me.

Because, out of the blue, Jarv and I heard something that clicked within our range. It was the same sound that a light switch made whenever it was being turned off or on. Only the difference was that it was louder which caught the moose’s curiosity. I doubted it was the only dangerous animal here that heard the unforeseen noise, now pointing its head left to right as it began to stroll. I was dreading by the time Jarv looked at me and around us to investigate.

I did the same thing, too, too stupid to not realize sooner that it was I who made the fortuitous sound. It was only the moment I came to notice when Jarv, while holding his spear in his right hand and while his left one was crumbled into a fist with only the forefinger straight up in front of his nose, shushing me without making any sound, looked down on my feet. I had seen his eyes grow bigger before, however, that moment was the biggest one he ever made. And I did sense some trembling on his body, too, although there was no physical contact between us, and I was perplexed by it.

It was late when I realised that I unconsciously stepped on a mine bomb. My whole body was convulsing, thinking it was the end of me. Any second I move a muscle on my leg, I’d be flying in pieces midair. I felt my heart racing and my eyes began to produce salty water around them. The fear of losing my life without seeing my sister in her sanity again totally broke me. There was no hope of saving me here this time. I never felt anything else now, not even the excruciating pain all over my body or my heart sprinting or the uncontrollable shakes of my body, but fear solely. Far from me, nonetheless, Jarv’s face was a mix of emotions: sorrow, dread, pain, stupefaction and anger. He didn’t know what to do.

We’d been staring at each other for quite a moment now, and, none of us two voiced out a single word, knowing there were animals around us that hear and could kill us both. While we exchanged looks, we knew what’d happen next, then I gestured Jarv to leave now as quietly as possible while the moose hadn’t found us yet. Tears started to pour down my cheeks when a moment later I opened my mouth to say a few last words without my actual voice, “Take care of her, please.”

During those minutes that passed while I kept still my leg and foot and while waiting for Jarv to go, I was trying to accept that that was my end and was readying myself for the massive blow. Then, I breathed heavily and deeply, relaxing myself while closing my eyes. Jarv was still in sight when I opened my eyes, wanting to see at least him for one last time. He was closer to me now.

“No, I won’t leave you here, Mol,” there was a sniff after he talked bravely with his normal voice. And tears, too. It was discernible in his eyes that he was committed to what he just said, but I fear that, if we were to die together right at that exact moment, who’s going to help the others? My dear sister?

“Don’t be a fool!” I sneered, partly annoyed, still muting my voice, unlike Jarv. The river on my face went on rapidly. Then, I added, “And shush! Please, just go!”

“If there is no hope for you to live, why else live, too? Besides what’s around here wouldn’t let me or everyone out there survive, so might as well die with you now,” Jarv’s voice was quivering and his face was starting to get red in hurt, although no one was hurting him. His bawling eyes were fixed on mine. Seeing him this hopelessly was not something I could take. And there was nothing left for me to say except the same words I just told him. And when he got no response from me, he said in his hushed voice, “At least you wouldn’t be alone.”

I didn’t really have an idea what to say as my mind wasn’t really focusing on his words, but I caught Jarv’s words. It was not and it would never be a perfect time for me to comprehend anything at all because the dread was controlling every part of me. It almost won on blocking out my senses after it succeeded in making my whole body a statue.

While staring at Jarv with nothing else to say and not knowing what to do as I absolutely wouldn’t approve of what he wanted to happen, I kept my stare on Jarv, still with the flowing river. A moment later, my tears stopped running and my eyes grew larger as I caught the aggressive moose’s figure from behind him, only ten or so steps away. It finally found us and its glare scared me even more. The moose was already running before I warned Jarv about it. Out of survival reflex, I had forgotten that I was stepping on a mine bomb and then moved both of my legs to run. However, before I took a full step, something else happened that somehow saved both of us instantly.

The ground beneath us immediately opened the soon my foot lost contact with the mine bomb, dropping us both beneath the earth. It only lasted a second before everything went dark. Extremely dark.

Next, we hit a solid pane that I assumed to be the ground beneath the earth. We couldn’t see anything but Jarv and I knew that we were close to each other by just hearing each other’s shrieks and moans of pain. Now, I felt all the results from all the tortures that I got above. Even so, I managed to get up on both of my feet. I wasn’t sure what or how’s Jarv doing so I asked.

“Are you okay?”

“Alive,” he replied. The voice came from beside my head and that was how I knew that Jarv was on his feet.

Before I made a step or any movement from my feet, I felt the ground elevating at a normal pace which caused me to almost lose my balance. I immediately panicked and raised a question, “What is happening now?”

“I don’t know, but I don’t like this,” Jarv came.

And after five seconds of moving upward, it gradually began to spin. That was another weirdest experience I never thought I’d imagine while in there. In order for me to stay on top of the whirling ground, I tried to grope something around me to hold onto. I even got Jarv’s shoulder and ankle, but in the end, I was poking my fingers hard on the ground. I was feeling dizzier.

“Mol, where is your hand?! Hold on to my hands! Come on, hold on to my hands!” screamed Jarv as the ground went on spinning faster and faster, but I couldn’t move my hands off this ground. If I did, I’d be thrown out.

“I can’t!” I replied, yelling because of the thundering sound this ground made as it spun. But a short time after, I felt Jarv’s hand on top of mine.

Yet it didn’t work. Jarv and I flew in the dark air as if were some kind of debris on a spinning fan. We hit the solid ground again and I wished it wouldn’t lift us up, spin and throw us again. The side of my cheeks felt like there was blood running, although, upon searching for a wound using my fingertips, there was none. Anyway, it did still hurt as it was the first one to reach and hit the earth. I laid on my back, thinking the ground would move again if I stood up.

After a couple of seconds, I heard Jarv groaning in the distance. I wanted to stand up and help him, but we were both blind under here. There was nothing here but a pitch-wide black!

“Jarv! Where are you?!” I called out, trying to stand. My voice was hoarse, almost like I was dying. But I pressed on, anyway. For my sister and everyone out there. With each step I took forward, I waved my hands in front of me as caution if something was blocking my way. I heard him groan again yet he never responded to my call, so I repeated, “Jarv?”

Something touched my fingertips and palms, or rather, my hands came into contact with something. As I investigated it further using my hands, I’d say reached the wall. However, something truly unexpected occurred after.

Several lamps started to light on their own one after another. They were placed on the wall, inches above my head. It revealed this spacious square room and so many doorways on each side, where the lamps continued to be lit. I searched for any sign of Jarv, and after not a long time, I found him lying on his side on the side part of one of the doorways. It seemed that he hit his abdomen on the corner or the doorway when we were splashed out. And, now, he seemed unconscious.