The treasure of death va.., p.10
The Treasure of Death Valley, page 10
"Why, is something wrong?" he asked innocently.
Elizabeth looked at Jessica, who bit her lip and looked away. Something was wrong. Very wrong.
"You're leading us to the next treasure, aren't you?" Elizabeth fumed.
"Was I?" Jessica asked sweetly. She twirled a strand of blond hair around her finger and smiled blandly.
"Don't play innocent with me, twin sister. You know exactly what you were doing."
"Awesome! Way to go!" Bruce cried, holding his right hand up for a high five.
Jessica slapped his hand with a mischievous smile, infuriating Elizabeth all the more. The nerve of those two!
"Let me see if we can still get back on track," Elizabeth said. She grabbed the map and compass from Todd, who looked sheepishly at the ground. Doing some quick calculations, she surmised that if they were to backtrack, they'd never make it to the water supply. She spotted what looked like a stream of some sort winding through the foothills in the direction they were already headed. They needed water—tonight—so they had no choice but to continue.
"Even I'm surprised at your underhanded manipulation, Jessica Wakefield," Elizabeth scolded after she explained that they were now forced to follow Jessica's new plan. She felt her eyes burn with rage at the sight of her sister looking so smug and self-satisfied. She turned her attention to Todd.
"And you! I can't believe what an idiot you are for not being able to read a map—what were you doing during the lessons? Twiddling your thumbs? And how could you be stupid enough to turn over the responsibility to Jessica, of all people? You know how scheming she is!" Elizabeth's whole body shook with anger, and tears of frustration threatened to slide down her cheeks.
"I'm not going to stand here and let you call me an idiot, Elizabeth Wakefield," Todd said, his voice hard and strained. "I was doing you a favor, remember?"
"It's obvious now that your offer to help was inspired by you wanting to pull some knight-in-shining-armor routine and come to my rescue. Unfortunately for the rest of us, you had no idea what you were doing!"
"I'm sick of your thinking you know what's best for everyone, and I know I'm not the only one here who feels that way," Todd yelled, looking around at the others.
"Yeah, Liz. Todd was just trying to help. You were the one who shirked your responsibility," Heather said in Todd's defense.
"Shirked my responsibility? I'm the only responsible person in this group of overgrown children." Elizabeth was so angry and disheartened at this point that she didn't know who deserved the most blame. She stared at each of them.
"Jessica, you're the most deceitful, untrustworthy person ever to walk on this planet. Todd, I can't believe how easily you were manipulated—you're weak and spineless." Elizabeth stopped and took a deep breath. She knew she should end her tirade, but the words seemed to force themselves out of her.
"Bruce, you think you're awesome, but you're just a no-good, egomaniacal buffoon," she continued. "Heather, you're nothing but a spoiled brat who can only be counted on to flirt with any guy in sight. And, Ken, I thought you were the one person here I could count on, but you're turning out to be absolutely worthless!"
Elizabeth felt her face flush with blood. Mindful of everyone's shocked expressions, she couldn't remember ever having felt so much hostility toward so many people at the same time.
"Deceitful," "spineless," "spoiled," "buffoon," "worthless." As the words she'd just hurled at her friends reverberated in her head, Elizabeth was surprised at their viciousness. She'd been angry before, but it wasn't like her to be so nasty. Where did that come from? she wondered.
With a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach, Elizabeth realized the source of her outburst. Deep down, she knew there was some truth to what Heather had said. She'd accepted the trust of the group to navigate that day, and she'd failed to live up to that trust. She could accuse and blame everyone else until she was blue in the face. It didn't change the fact that their current predicament was really her fault. After days of worrying about the rest of the group, she finally had to admit to herself that she was no more dependable than the rest of them.
Feeling the weight of the gold in her pack, Elizabeth wished she hadn't let greed overwhelm common sense that morning—she shouldn't have made her pack so heavy with gold. That's what had made her too tired to navigate. And with a stab of shame she thought of the cans of green beans and corned-beef hash that were now roasting in the hot sun, where she'd left them on the trail earlier in the day.
The gold. It's making us crazy. It was poisoning her mind, making her act totally out of character. Maybe she should take the treasure out of her pack right now. She could leave it there, so that she could focus on what was really important about the trip. Skills, teamwork, cooperation.
Then Elizabeth envisioned giving up the gold. At this point, would it really do any good? Besides, the rest of the group would just fight about how to split up her share. No, I've carried it this far—it would be silly to throw it away now, she rationalized.
Everyone stood around for a minute without saying anything.
Finally, Ken broke the ice. "Well, we're not going to solve anything if we just stand here throwing insults at each other. Let's keep hiking. Why don't you lead, Liz?"
They all looked at their feet as Elizabeth stomped to the front of the group and charged up the path. Jessica could tell that everyone else was just as taken aback by Elizabeth's behavior as she was. That ranting and raving version of Elizabeth Wakefield was a totally different person from her loving, eternally kind sister. Was what I did so wrong? Jessica asked herself.
It was true that she'd been deceitful. But only because Elizabeth had been so unreasonable about sticking to their route. Sometimes you just had to take life by the reins and go for it. That was the code Jessica lived by, and her life was a whole lot more fun than her boring sister's. Elizabeth's idea of adding excitement to her life was ordering her burger rare instead of well-done.
If her twin would just lighten up, she'd realize that they would make it back to Desert Oasis, no problem. And would it really be such a disaster if they didn't arrive at seven on the button? So they might get caught in a little rain. How serious was the storm forecast? Weather people were almost never right.
"Not a cloud in sight," Jessica said out loud. "No wind, either I bet the storm is just a false alarm. This is the desert, after all. It hardly ever rains."
Todd, looking sullen, didn't respond. Glancing up the trail at the others, Jessica saw that no one was talking. Bruce hadn't said a thing when Elizabeth had insulted him, and now it seemed that he was imposing the silent treatment. Even Heather had lost her pep—she'd stopped batting her eyelashes at Ken. What's going on with us? Jessica wondered.
Before she had time to answer her own question, her thoughts were interrupted by a strange noise. It sounded as if a huge freeway were right over the next ridge. Jessica imagined herself sitting behind the wheel of a roomy, air-conditioned sedan with plush, velveteen seats. She'd turn up the stereo, lean back her seat, and head straight toward the ocean.
She stopped her daydream before she got too carried away. It couldn't possibly be a freeway—we're out in the middle of nowhere, she reminded herself. So what was it?
Up ahead Bruce and Elizabeth had stopped in their tracks. They seemed mesmerized by whatever was below them.
Jessica caught up with them and looked down. Cutting a sixty-foot ravine was a furious, rushing river—the water source that Elizabeth had recognized on the map.
"Gee, Liz, is that the 'stream' you saw on the map?" asked Jessica, happy to point out Elizabeth's error.
Todd shook his head. "I guess you're not the expert map reader you thought you were, Liz," Todd said nastily.
"At least I'm not totally incompetent," Elizabeth snapped, glaring at him.
Ken stepped between them. "Hold it, you guys. No matter who was wrong and who was right, we have no choice but to get across this river." Without another word Ken started down the slope. Along the way he grabbed hold of small shrubs to keep him from sliding all the way to the bottom. A few moments later everyone else followed.
When they reached water level, the fury of the river took Jessica's breath away. The roar of the rapids bounced off the canyon walls with a deafening impact. The huge angular boulders that disrupted the river's path spun water into whirlpools, sending chutes of foam, twigs, and small pebbles into the air. "How are we going to get across?" she cried.
"What about using that special arm-linking technique we learned in training? Seems like an emergency river crossing is just what they had in mind when they taught it to us," Todd suggested.
"Good idea," Ken said. Assuming his natural role as quarterback, Ken developed the strategy and laid it out for the rest.
"Since I'm the strongest guy here, I'll lead. Now, we should go guy-girl-guy-girl, so one girl needs to go on the end." He paused, and his eyes met Jessica's. "Jess, you're the strongest girl here, so you can handle the end."
Jessica nodded mutely.
"Todd's stronger than Bruce, so he should go next to you. Elizabeth, you go on the other side of Todd, then Bruce, then Heather will be between me and Bruce."
As the water raged beside them, Ken, Heather, Bruce, Elizabeth, Todd, and Jessica lined up one by one and locked arms. But as they headed for the river, seeing Heather cower next to Ken was more than Jessica could tolerate. I should be next to my boyfriend during this life-threatening ordeal, not Heather, she thought.
Up to her knees now in water, Jessica broke out of her lock with Todd and rushed to the front of the line, forcing herself between Ken and Heather.
"Jessica, you're messing up the balance!" Ken yelled as Heather screamed.
"We may not survive this, and I want to spend my last moments at your side," Jessica said, gripping him tighter.
"Bruce, Heather, try to switch places," Ken shouted, his voice barely audible over the noise of the rapids and Heather's cries.
"I can't let go!" Heather yelled. She seemed paralyzed with fear and wouldn't let go of either Bruce or Jessica.
"OK, Jessica. You just better hang on to Heather with all your strength," commanded Ken. They'd gotten up to their waists, but the riverbed seemed to have leveled off. They started moving again toward the opposite shore. Jessica gripped Heather tightly as the water pushed against her body.
After a minute Jessica noticed that Heather was not returning her grip.
"Heather, hold on to me!" she yelled out.
"I'm scared!" came Heather's weak reply.
The water tugged and pulled. Then Jessica felt Heather tremble violently and realized she'd started to panic. Just as she was about to alert Bruce, Jessica felt Heather's arms go limp and start to slip from her grasp. She tried to hold her tighter, but Heather's arm was wet and slippery. Before she could do anything to stop her, Heather slipped through her fingers.
"Help me!" Heather screamed, her voice hysterical.
Jessica instinctively grabbed for Bruce as the rapids whisked Heather away.
Chapter 9
"Ken, stop! Heather's gone down the river!" Jessica shouted at the top of her lungs. "What do we do?"
Ken turned to see Heather's blond head bobbing and bouncing in the white foam.
"We can't do anything for her until we get to land!" Ken hollered, tugging harder to speed their crossing. He tried not to think about Heather floating downstream. Considering the strength of the current swirling around his legs, her chances didn't look good.
The shore was only about ten yards away now, but it took all of Ken's strength to keep the group moving through the rapids. The slick rocks in the riverbed were treacherous—he kept slipping, getting more and more of his backpack wet.
All of a sudden Ken heard Elizabeth scream.
"It's OK, I just tripped. I'm OK," Elizabeth called out when the others stopped to see what had happened.
"Could you try not to scream like that?" Todd yelled. "We're tense enough!"
"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it."
"Be careful, everyone. Move quickly, but be careful," urged Ken. "We're almost there."
Finally, Ken passed the worst of the rapids. With his footing more sure, he used his upper-body strength to pull Jessica, Bruce, Elizabeth, and Todd to dry land. "Now we've got to rescue Heather!"
"Let's go," Elizabeth agreed.
Without stopping to catch their breath, they dropped their packs and raced down the riverbank. Grabbing branches and loose sticks along the way, they scrambled through the brush, jumping over mud and rocks. Suddenly Ken spotted Heather's blond head in the water.
"Heather!" Elizabeth screamed, waving her arms.
"Help me!" Heather wailed. She was holding on to a large log near the shore.
"Hold on, we'll get you out!" Ken yelled.
Jessica offered the few sticks she'd managed to scrounge.
"We can't pull her out with these," he spit out as he tossed them aside. "You've helped enough," he said sarcastically.
Jessica stepped back, silenced.
"Hold on to me—let's form a chain," Ken ordered, climbing out toward the log. Bruce wrapped his arms around Ken's waist, and Todd anchored them.
"Grab hold of my hand!" Ken screamed, reaching his arm out.
Heather clutched the log. "I can't let go," she screamed. "The river is pulling me away!"
Looking down, Ken saw Heather's legs whipping out under the log.
"Guys, give me some more slack—I have to grab Heather's arm!" he told them. Elizabeth grabbed Todd around the waist to steady him in the mud, and Todd and Bruce inched forward. Ken reached down and locked his fingers onto Heather's biceps. "Gotcha!" he cried. "Now, on my count, we'll pull you out of there. Ready?"
Heather nodded weakly.
"OK. One, two, three!" Feeling Bruce's arms wrapped tightly around his waist, Ken pulled with all his might. He heaved Heather upward, falling back against Bruce and Todd onto the shore. Heather collapsed onto the mud and gravel riverbank. Between sobs of gratitude and exhaustion, she asked if they'd rescued her pack and gear.
"We were too busy making sure you were still alive to worry about your stuff, Heather," Ken said.
"But it had everything—my clothes, my TV . . . my gold! All my gold is gone!" she said, weeping into her hands. Then she looked up. "Jessica Wakefield, you owe me. This is all your fault I bet you planned it all along."
Jessica gasped. "How dare you accuse me—you sniveling crybaby."
"Maybe you didn't plan it, Jess, but you sure can take the credit for putting Heather's life in danger," Ken said, his tone harsh.
"What are you talking about? Heather was the one who didn't hold on. Her wrists turned to noodles and she slithered out of our grasp, right, Bruce?"
"Nice try, Wakefield. The least you can do is stand up and accept the blame," Heather said.
"Actually, Heather, Jessica's right," Bruce admitted. "I was holding on to you as hard as I could, but you let go."
"But. . . I—" she sputtered. "Well, I never," she said finally, crossing her arms in front of her.
"However it happened, if Jessica hadn't gone and broken up the chain right in the middle of the river, Heather wouldn't have panicked, and everything would be fine," Ken stated, giving Jessica a meaningful glare.
"I don't think it should be a criminal offense to want to be next to my boyfriend in times of danger," Jessica said hotly.
"That is so childish, Jessica," Heather sneered. Ken looked at his girlfriend, who was pouting and sulking. Heather's right. You're being totally childish, he wanted to say.
"If you really loved me, Ken, you wouldn't let her talk to me like this," Jessica said plaintively.
"Maybe I agree with her," Ken retorted.
Jessica stared at Ken, her mouth gaping open. "I will never forgive you for this, Ken Matthews!" Jessica raged, and she stormed off downstream. After a moment Elizabeth followed her.
"Sure, go after your stupid sister," Todd said, shaking his head.
"What is with those Wakefield women that makes them think they're better than everybody?" Ken asked as he watched the two blond heads disappear down the riverbank. I really thought Jessica and I had something special, he thought. But she's turning out to be more trouble than she's worth.
"Let's head back up to where we left our packs. Heather, you need some help walking?" Ken offered.
"Oh, yes," Heather said gratefully, throwing her arms around his shoulders.
As they turned away from the rushing river, something blue caught Todd's eye. "Hold up!" he said, jogging toward the water's edge. "Hey, Heather! Here's your sleeping bag." The sleeping bag had come loose from Heather's backpack and gotten tangled in a pile of twigs next to the shore. It was sopping wet, but it seemed to be intact. Todd leaned out over the water and grabbed it. "I've got it!" he shouted to the others.
"Oh, terrific," Heather said flatly. "Now I can sleep in a wet bag that'll probably freeze into a giant ice cube in the middle of the night." She took what was left of her gear from Todd with barely disguised disdain.
"It'll dry," Todd answered. "We'll keep it by the fire tonight. In the meantime we'll figure out a way to keep you warm tonight."
Heather raised her eyebrows and smiled. "Promises, promises," she said.
Todd blushed as the four headed upstream. He walked behind Heather and Ken as they struggled their way up the jagged riverbank. Waist-high shrubs grabbed at Todd's shirt and poked his shins.
"I guess this is as good a place as any to set up camp," Todd said when they finally got back to their packs. ' "What do you say we get a fire going, Bruce?"
"Sure, Wilkins. You've come to the expert," Bruce joked. While Ken helped Heather dry off and find some fresh clothes, Bruce and Todd started on the fire.
The only wood they found was small chips and sticks that had been thrown from the river and dried in the sun. They gathered a large pile, but there weren't enough dried leaves to get any piece of wood to spark.
"How about all that paper in those dumb journals? I know I'm not going to fill mine from cover to cover," Bruce suggested.
