Ticonderoga

As I lay in bed, staring at the leather of the tent above me while the sun sets outside, It dawns on me that we may have come all the way out here for nothing. I fling my legs over the side of the cot, planting my feet into the dry sand beneath us as I sit up. Isabell had turned her head to look at me, an eyebrow raised with her book tipped away from her. We stare at each other for a moment. I curl my toes in the sand.“Something on your mind?” She chimes, returning her attention to the book. Though, I’m sure she would still listen to me.

“Why are we here?” I lean forward, checking the knee high cuffing of my pant legs. Isabell tilts her head back, and her book forward.

“Do you mean, metaphorically, why are we here? Like the meaning of life.” I shake my head.“You know what I mean.” I turn my gaze to the half open zipper of our tent. “Out here in this desert. What does he think we’re going to find here?” I push myself up off my knees. She doesn’t answer before i’m outside, shielding my eyes from the blinding orange of the sun as it cascades over distant dunes. I put on my sunglasses and take note of our campsite. There were four tents in total. Big green leather ones that were boxes before coming to a point. The camels and McGregor’s new 1913 Turcat-Mury were all lined up on the right side of his tent. He was outside, attempting to light an oil lamp with his cigar. Digging my hands in my pockets, I pad over to him across the sand.

“You really think that’s going to work?” I tilt my head back, and raise my voice so he can hear me. He turns around, prying his focus from his task. He looks from me to the lamp.

“Well… Yes, I suppose. The essence of fire is all the same after all isn’t it?” He chuckles his British accent present in his laughter as well, and shifts his monocle. “Now then. There must me something of…” He glances back to the still dark lamp, putting his cigar in one side of his mouth, and talking to me out of the other. “...Some, grand…” He moves his hand in an arc out in front of his face. “...Importance to finally have you out of your tent. Instead of, shagging it up in there with that… girl.” He spats out the word girl. “Not that, she isn’t a charming young lady, why. If I were your age I too would…” I finally cut him off.

“That enough!” I pull a hand from my pocket, rubbing the stubble of my jaw. “Look. I need some answers. We’ve been at this same camp, just, sitting here. For a week know.” I take my sunglasses off. “And frankly, I’m getting quite sick of it.” McGregor turns his head and eyes, so that he’s looking just past me.

“A week, you say?” I nod. He nods with his whole body back to me. “Right. Well if you’ll follow me into my office…” He turns and starts walking towards his tent. “... I’ll show you exactly what it is we’re doing here!” His voice peaks as he finishes talking. Upon entering his ‘office’, a few things catch my eye. First of all, is a table in the middle. On it, a map of what I assume to be the surrounding area, a diagram of our camp, and a series of red X’s on the map, interconnected by dashed lines. Next, is the Martini Henry mounted on the right side wall. Just opposite that, on the other side of the tent was a tiger pelt.

“If you’ll look at the map here.” He breaks me out of my trance, and I enter deeper into his office. “You’ll see us, right there…” He taps on the diagram of our campsite. “... And all these here, are possible locations, of an ancient treasure!” He looks at me, eyes bright with a grin spread across his face. “Now, I know what you’re thinking! It’s there. And it’s worth more money than you could imagine!” Silence falls over the map. And the X’s. He breaks it. “You signed up for the ‘Adventure of a lifetime’ after all!” He makes an arc above his head with his hands as he says that. In fact, Isabell had signed us up for it.

“Have you been outside? This isn’t an adventure, we’re lost in the middle of the desert, there’s no water or people for miles, and you think there’s something out there? Have you been outside? It’s just sand, there’s nothing out here but us!” I stop to recollect myself. “You’ve got no…” I stop when I see the way he’s looking at me. Unphased by what I had to say.

“It’s underground!” He whispers back. “Under the sand, legend says there’s a temple, forgotten by the world. Hidden, by god himself, for fear of modern men defiling it. With the world on the brink of war, this might be our only chance to find it. This is my life’s work.” He turns his gaze to the map. “We’re close. I can feel it.” A gust of wind plucks open the door to his tent, caressing us with sand for a moment. “So we’re here to find it then! Find it and show the world this, ‘Temple’ in all it’s glory! Hopefully. Which is not to say it’s not there, because it is, I just mean the glory then. It’s there. Or… maybe there…” He points from one X to another. “Either way, we’re here…” He presses a finger against the camp diagram. “So we’ll set out at dawn tomorrow!” He falls silent. “And, do bring your gun would you?” I find myself with my hands in my pockets, considering what he had to say was true. I think of Isabell and I, pretending to look for some ancient and buried temple in the sand. She’d probably love it.

“Fine. Whatever you say man. We’ll help you look for this thing, but once we start to run out of supplies, we’re mounting up and riding out of here. And I’m bringing my gun.” I turn on my bare heels, and walk quickly out of the tent. The camp fire was already dying out, but I could see enough to make it back to my tent. Isabell was laying on her back, one knee in the air, tossing a ball up and catching it. “Welcome back.” She continued to throw the ball. “How’d it go?”

“Fine, as it turns out we’re, apparently looking for some lost temple out here.” She catches the ball and stops. “What?” She doesn’t answer. “Isabell, what?”

“I heard you, Edward. You’re serious?” She sits up to look at me. “That’s what we’re doing here?”

“Yeah. It is.” A slow smirk makes it’s way across her face, and she bites her bottom lip.

“Well, isn’t that an adventure?” I shake my head, plopping myself back on my cot and closing my eyes.

“Isabell, remind me why you made us do this again?” I heard her get off her cot, and I feel her walk over to mine.

“He was hiring, and this is what we do.” She slides her left knee over me, then straddles my waist with her thighs. As I open my eyes, I move a hand to her cheek, and the other to her thigh.

“We’re heading out there to help him look for it in the morning.” Isabell tilts her head into my hand, closing her eyes as she plants her hands just below my chest. She blushes. “What?” She opens her eyes before dipping her head, and bringing her lips to mine.

I’m standing about fifty feet from McGregor, the weight of my Colt Model 1911 pulling on my left shoulder from it’s holster next to my torso with the sun high above our heads. All of us were out here. Getting pounded by heat and sand from all sides.

“Edward! Come here and look at this my boy!” McGregor beckons me over, he was looking at something in the sand. I glance over to Isabell, wondering what she’s staring at before trudging my way over to the man.

“What is it?” I peer over my sunglasses at him.

“See this here?” He made a circling motion with his arm around a spot on the sand. “This right here, is solid evidence of something being under here. You see how it’s a different color than the sand around it?” He places his hand on his hip.

“No. I don’t.” I look over my shoulder, in the direction of our camp before fishing my pocket watch from my jeans and checking the time. It was nearly twelve thirty. “We’ve been out here for six hours now. What makes you think it’s here?” McGregor holds a hand up to me as he drinks from his canteen. Putting the cap on it, he swallows and exhales.

“Years of research my boy.” He abruptly turns around, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s keep looking then, shall we?” I run a hand through my hair. He really wasn’t going to stop. A moment later, I hear another one of McGregor’s hirees start shouting.

“Sandstorm!” I scan the horizon, looking for the wall of brown dust. Then it hits us. I close my eyes as the dusts plunges out all the sound around me except for the deafening waves of sand washing against me, pulled in by wind. I jerk my scarf over my mouth and nose, then sling it around my head. I do my best to tie it, but the stinging of the waves on my bare arms and hands restrain me from making any real knot. A gust of wind crashes against me, staggering me to my hands and knees. My scarf is torn from me by the current of sand. I keep my eyes shut tight, staying right where I am, not daring to move, hoping the others will do the same. I pray to god Isabell stays put. I can faintly hear the sand impacting something hard somewhere in front of me. If I keep that sound right where it is, I’ll be fine.Then, just as soon as it came, it stopped. Keeping my eyes closed I stand up and take off my sunglasses. I rub as much sand from my eyes as I can before opening them. I see the 1913 Turcat-Mery. It’s got about a foot and a half of sand in it.“Is everyone alright!” I yell out, putting my sunglasses back on and taking a few steps towards the automobile. Nothing comes back.

“Hello!” I start to look around, turning this way and that, looking for someone else from our party. That’s when I notice something. At the bottom of a small indention in the sand, just in front of McGregor’s automobile, the sand seemed to unnaturally flatten out. I take a few steps, crouching down next to a front tire.

“Edward!” I hear Isabell, who was now behind me. I stand up and whirl around, grabbing her shoulders. She seems to tense up for a moment, then relax. “You’re okay!” I pull her into my chest as McGregor and the others appear on top of a dune behind her. “Ah, there you are! We were beginning to worry about you!” McGregor. “I thought you’d be by the car. Though to be entirely honest, I wasn’t sure where exactly it was.” The men behind him exchange glances. “Never the matter. We’ve been reunited! Shall we continue where we left off?” After a moment, I let Isabell go. She stays close by me from here on out.

“I. Think I found something.” McGregor and the others were next to the car. “Here, look.” I lead him over to where the sand flattened out. He looks at the ground for a moment. “Quite strange.” He crouches down. Then presses an ear against the ground. He taps on it a few times, then wipes the sand away. McGregor stops moving for, almost a minute. Isabell looks at me. “Get the pickaxes from the car!” I look back at the men behind me.

“Well.” The one on the right says. “Pickaxes ain’t use for shovelin’ sand.” He gets into the trunk. I think his name was Robert.

I check my watch again. It was four o’clock by the time we’d broken a hole into the structure beneath the sand. I was the first one going down. Isabell after me, then McGregor after her. The others would stay with the Turcat-Mery, the rope tied to it, then fed into the hole.

“I’m ready.” The rope was around my waist, with my feet dangling into the darkness below me. Slowly, I creep forward, more and more into the hold.

“We’ve got you.” Robert was one of the four holding the rope. I take a deep breath, then let my whole torso into the hole, letting go of the outside ground. As I plunged into darkness below me, I began to wonder if the rope would be long enough.

“Do you see anything?” I look up to see McGregor, leaning into the shrinking hole above me.

“No!” I yell back, my voice carrying through the chamber around me. My foot finally makes contact with the ground, the hole a good hundred feet above me. I climb out of the rope, setting down the oil lamp I’d been given. I pull the book of matches from my pocket, using one to light the lamp. I turn the dial to set the flame. Light enough to see, not burning to much to run out quickly. Right away I notice the only sand in the chamber is from the hole we created. It was also much colder in here than the desert. The stone seemed to be khaki, with some places being dyed or maybe, painted blue or gold. A few spots here and there, might actually even be gold. I’d have to look as I got closer. Isabell places a hand on my shoulder. “Lets go then.” She points down the corridor i’d, somehow, failed to notice. The walls seemed to reach to the sandy surface, the lamp light wouldn’t reach that far. With a deep breath, and one last look over my shoulder, we set off into the endless darkness before us.