Chapter Fifteen

A/N: Sorry about that last cliffhanger, but it was already my longest chapter yet. Besides, a little suspense is good 😜 also, I can't believe I have 500 reads!! Thank you guys so much!! Also, quick shoutout to @meganxroberts for going through and voting on all of my chapters! Thank you!

****************

"What do we do?" I whispered to Grant. We were in the cave with the orb, about to pick it up and leave, but we'd just heard someone come into the cave behind us and chances were they're not friendly.

"Just stay quiet and listen for a minute. Maybe they'll say something to give me some clue who they are."

After a few tense seconds, we heard voices coming from the same area as the noise. Unfortunately for me, they were in another language and I couldn't understand a word.

We sat listening, and all I had to go on were Grant's expressions, which didn't give me many clues about what the voices were saying. I made a silent pact with myself to start learning some languages once we got back to the Quinjet.

After a minute, they stopped.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Ward.

"They're here for the orb. They haven't seen us or our camp yet."

"Well, what are we going to do? We can't just let them take it."

"No, we can't. We might just have to grab it and fright our way out of here," said Grant grimly.

I didn't like that plan. It sounded dangerous with a high chance of dying. We had no idea what numbers or firepower we might be up against.

I glanced around the cave. Sitting next to us was a rock about the same size as the orb. I quickly and quietly dug through my gear bag and thankfully, since I never cleaned it out, I had everything I needed.

"I have a better plan," I said to Ward, pulling out some old candy wrappers and unscrewing the light bulb from the camera.

"What?" he asked. He gave a long-suffering sigh when he saw the old candy wrappers, but didn't say anything.

"I'm going to MacGyver another orb and then you and I are going to run while whoever's coming looks is distracted."

I quickly secured the blue candy wrappers around the bulb, then grabbed the rock and covered it in white candy wrappers. I put the bulb back in the camera and put a hair tie around the button that turned on the flash.

"Ok Ward, make sure we don't have any unexpected company while I switch things around, ok?"

The look on Grant's face clearly said I think you're crazy, but he pointed his gun down the tunnel anyway. I appreciated that.

I quickly stuck the camera on a ledge at the back of the cave, angling it so that the now-blue bulb shone out. I grabbed the orb and put the rock in it's place, then hurried back to Ward's side.

It looked like crap, but it might serve as just enough of a distraction for Ward and I to escape.

Grant gave my setup one look and started shaking his head, but before he had time to actually voice his disapproval, four men came into sight.

The second they had all passed our hiding spot, Grant and I ran. We weren't as fast as we could've been because we were trying to be quiet, and that almost got us killed. It's not like my little setup was going to fool them for long, so we should've been running as fast as humanly possible to get as far away as possible before the guys turned around. But like I said, we didn't.

I heard a voice behind me yell "Hey!" and then the click of the safety coming off. I poured on the speed and I heard Grant do the same, just a few steps behind me.

I searched for cover, but there wasn't any. We were fish in a barrel until we got out of this cave.

BANG!

I heard the first gunshot and a second later the stalactite next to me exploded.

BANG!

I could see the light at the end of the tunnel ahead. We were almost there.

BANG!

I felt my heart stop as I heard Grant cry out from behind me. He was still running, but he'd definitely been hit.

BANG!

We cleared the cave entrance and dove to the side, getting out of the line of fire. The gunshots continued, and I was sure the men would be out of the cave any minute, but at least we had a brief break in the danger.

"Are you ok?" I asked frantically, turning to Grant.

"Fine," he grimaced. He was obviously lying, but we had to keep moving. We stumbled around he hill, trying to put as mischief distance as possible between us and our pursuers.

Slowly but surely, we made our way to our campsite and packed up to leave.

"Looks like we made it back before they found anything," I said. Our campsite was practically untouched.

"Good. Let's get out of here," Grant growled. I could tell it was an effort for him to talk normally, and I was getting seriously worried, but I was afraid that if I mentioned it he would only have a harder time keeping it together.

I grabbed almost all the gear, keeping Grant from carrying anything heavy, and then we ran for the town. As we were leaving we heard the sound of voices coming closer, but if they ever made it to our old campsite we didn't know. We were already gone.

****************

We came stumbling back into the lobby with all our gear, staggering for our room. Thankfully it was late enough that the lobby was deserted, so we didn't have to worry about being seen. Although, I don't think either of us had the energy to worry about being seen anyway.

As soon as the door to our room closed I turned to Grant.

"Are you ok? And answer for real this time," I said worriedly. He was holding his right side and when he moved his hand I could see blood seeping through his t-shirt.

"I'm fine. It just nicked me."

"Ok, well, we need to check it out and get it bandaged," I said, pulling him towards the bathroom.

Grant grudgingly followed, trying to play it cool, but so couldn't imagine that the wound didn't hurt like hell.

"Sit," I ordered, pointing to the edge of the tub. I pulled out a washcloth and got it wet.

"Are you going to order me to take my shirt off next?" Grant asked. I could hear the smirk in his voice, so I just rolled my eyes.

He started taking his shirt off, but stopped halfway, grimacing in pain.

He cursed under his breath.

"Are you ok?" I asked, rush in over to help.

"Fine," he mumbled.

"You know, I think that was karma," I said as I set his shirt in the tub. It was heavy with blood and I was trying my best not to let him see how shaken I was by it.

"For what?" he asked.

"For trying to make me uncomfortable when we took your shirt off."

He laughed but stopped halfway through, reaching for his side. Once he moved his hand I started cleaning the cut with a washcloth. He was right, the bullet hadn't stuck in the wound, but it still looked pretty deep.

"Hopefully the hotel doesn't mind the blood on their washcloth," I mumbled, making Grant smile.

Once the wound was clean I wrapped it, then sat next to Grant on the tub ledge. My hands were shaking like crazy.

"A little nervous?" asked Grant, gesturing to my hands.

I laughed. "More of an adrenaline dump, I think. How are you feeling?"

"Me? I'm fine. I'm tough."

I rolled my eyes. "Grant, that was a nasty wound. There's no way you're perfectly, magically fine."

He took a deep breath. "Alright, fine. It hurts like hell. But whining or paying attention to it isn't going to help."

We sat in silence for a minute, both of us needing the time to calm down.

"That's one," I said suddenly, not looking at Grant.

"One what?"

"Near-death experience. You said you'd never had any near-death experiences, I said you were jinxing us, and I was right. That's one. I'm just glad I was there for your first," I said, finally looking him in the face. It was his turn to feel uncomfortable.

He stuttered for a minute as I stood up, gave him a smile, and walked out of the room. It felt good to leave him speechless.

After a minute, Grant joined me in the living room.

"You realize we need to check out as soon as possible, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," I sighed. Honestly, I didn't want to go. I thought I was going to hate this freezing cold trip, but aside from the near-death experience, this trip had been a lot of fun. Although, it would probably be less fun if those guys tracked us to our hotel room.

"Our Quinjet is touching down in an hour. We need to pack."

"Fine," I huffed, standing up and tracking down everything I'd brought with me. Once we were done, we headed down to the lobby on high alert.

After double and triple checking that those guys weren't in the lobby, we walked to the front desk to check out. I still had the orb in my coat pocket. If worse came to worst, I didn't want to worry about my bag being lost or taken with the orb still inside.

Thankfully, I didn't have to worry. We made it to the Quinjet without a hitch. I assumed those guys were still searching the hills for us.

I set my bag down in the Quinjet, then headed to the cockpit. Grant was talking to the dude in charge of the airfield, then we were going to take off. I reached into my pocket (the one not holding the orb) and pulled out the surprise I'd been saving for our return to the Quinjet. I pinned it to the dash.

"Ok Slater we're ready to go," he said, sliding into the pilot's chair, "We just need to -what is that?"

He pointed to the new addition to the dash, the close-up picture of the mountain goat from our hike. I had made sure to have it blown up and printed before we left.

"It's a decoration," I answered. I was ready to defend the picture, but Grant just sighed and started the takeoff procedure. I guess he knew by now that I was not going to give up on the little things like this.

"Alright, just another six hours and we'll be back at HQ," said Grant.

"Great. I'll take the controls. You take a nap," I relied.

"What? No. I'm flying, and I don't need a nap."

"Grant. You got shot. We almost died! We haven't slept all night, and you're hurt. Rest. Let your wound heal and rest. I can fly a Quinjet. I passed the same class you did."

He looked like he wanted to argue, but his eyelids were already drooping.

"Fine," he said, "But wake me up if something starts happening!"

"It's a deal," I said, switching the controls to my side. I dimmed the cabin lights and watched the dark waves beneath us as Grant finally drifted off to sleep.