CHAPTER FORTY
[40]
song: take my time by skinshape

Just as things began to feel like they might actually work out, just as the newfound group of four were making their way down the bridge and to the docks, an all too familiar voice called out Rafe's name.

Cassie stilled. Everyone did. All turning around at once to find Ward stumbling his way out of the sleeping quarters, putting all his weight onto a wooden cane instead of his leg. "Rafe—" he called out breathlessly. "Rafe, wait."

Rafe clenched his jaw, already fed up with whatever conversation they were to have next.

"Um, what the fuck?" Kiara mutters, then looks to Cassie with wide, panicked eyes. "What the fuck is he doing here?"

Cassie shook her head quickly. "He's— I don't know. Let's just go—"

JJ was in a complete state of shock. Not only because of the fact that Ward was now just standing in front of them, gunshot wound and all, but because he'd just sailed from country to country on the same boat with him and had no idea. "Am I tripping?" JJ looks to Kiara for clarification. "No, seriously. Am I seeing shit?"

Rafe walked his way back up the bridge. "Dad, go inside—"

"Where are you going?" Ward asked, confused, and out of breath.

"Holy shit, is he bleeding?" Kiara exclaimed.

This got Ward's attention, he turned to look at the rest of him behind Rafe. There was a different kind of crazy in his eyes than usual. The kind of crazy that someone looked when they thought they looked fine.

"Sarah, is she—" Ward returns his focus back to Rafe.

Rafe balls up his fists, trying to keep his composure. "Sarah's fine. She got on the plane. We're going to find her."

Ward was shaking his head. "I'm coming with you."

JJ barked out a laugh. "Two Cameron's are enough, thanks."

Ward ignored him, keeping his eyes on his son. "That's my daughter, it's crazy out there."

Rafe nodded along as if he'd heard this spiel a million times. "Yeah, yeah and you can barely walk, Dad. Go back to Guadeloupe, the keys are upstairs."

"You're a bunch of kids, you need—" Ward was desperate. "You can't be out there alone."

Rafe was shaking his head before Ward even got out the second word, a smile on his lips that felt out of place. "We'll manage."

Ward paused, almost begging at this point. "Rafe."

"Dad." Rafe said, sterner. "Go home."

It was odd the way Ward looked to everyone else, as if he was waiting for one of them to say 'no, he can come, it's fine.' But no one did, they all just started at him, still hosting this feeling like they were all too afraid to move in his presence.

He nodded, then looked to Rafe again. "You call me when everyone's safe."

"Yeah, yeah I'll call you." Rafe huffed, turning back around.

Cassie lingered in her spot for a while as everyone else continued on to the dock, waiting for Rafe.

"I mean it, son." Ward called out.

Rafe just sent him a weak wave as he made his way over to Cassie, rolling his eyes in annoyance. She looked at Ward, giving him one last glance as he remained in his spot on the deck, before returning her attention to Rafe.

Kiara and JJ walked a good distance ahead. Not having any interest in making small-talk with the pair behind them, which annoyed Cassie, and was doing exactly the opposite of what she asked of her brother: not to let Rafe split them up again.

As they left the docks, It grew louder the closer they got to the city. More people, more voices. Everyone was going on about their days in such fast paces that immediately Cassie felt she stuck out like a sore thumb. A confused tourist, getting in the way of people trying to make a living selling produce outside of convenience stores.

Cassie at least was dressed appropriately. All of the other tourists wore the same attire. A big bag on their backs, hiking shoes, hats to protect their faces from the hot sun. Rafe looked like he'd just hopped off a yacht. And he had.

She looked down at his shoes, knowing they aren't suitable for the amount of walking coming their way, but not feeling inclined to say anything. He knew what he got himself into. His discomfort was on him.

"Is that the bus?" He speaks up, nodding over to the 'bus' that looked more like something that'd take them through a safari. But people were already loading on, tourists and locals.

"Hey, guys." Cassie raises her voice over the crowd, hoping to reach Kiara and JJ. "Kie—" she yells again.

JJ gave her a thumbs up in response. His way of saying 'yeah, we saw it already.' He didn't even have enough sense to turn around and face her.

She clenched her jaw, stifling down the immense frustration she felt, trying to put herself in their shoes to understand why this was all easier said than done.

Rafe saw it all. Her brother's lack of acknowledgment, Cassie pretending it didn't bother her. The way she occupied herself with the sleeves of her big shirt jacket, rolling them up to her elbows to look busy and unbothered. But he didn't say anything.

Cassie felt like she was walking around with a big guard dog. Weaving their way through the crowds of busy people, of small motorbikes making their way through the streets, people wheeling crates of raw meat to the butchery across from them. The whole time, Rafe was on high alert, subtly scanning the crowd like they'd come across Singh at any moment.

Even when someone accidentally shoved into Cassie's shoulder too hard, Rafe fully turned and stared them down as they walked past. 

"It's fine." Cassie muttered.

Rafe didn't feel the same way. "His guys could be anywhere."

"His guys are focused on El Dorado. Not us." Cassie assured him.

They were the last to load onto the bus, a bus so crowded that Cassie wasn't convinced it'd be able to move. She squeezed through the aisle after JJ and Kiara, sending nods of acknowledgment to the people in the seats that they passed.

They found open seats in the back, JJ sat first, then Kiara, then Cassie. And just as she realized she took the last open spot, Kiara spoke up. "There's a seat up at the front next to a pregnant lady and her two kids." She suggests, with little-to-no regret in her voice.

Rafe stood there for a moment, heated eyes remaining on Kiara, then to JJ, before he got out a small, disbelieving laugh, and turned back around.

Cassie's shoulders fell as he made his way back down the aisle, and squeezed his way into one of the seats up front. "Seriously?" Cassie looks at Kiara disappointedly.

"What?" Kiara shrugs it off like she didn't do anything. "There's no room."

Cassie huffed back against the seat as she watched Rafe sit down uncomfortably, pinned up against the other side of the bus when the kids' mom didn't have enough sense to tell them to scoot over and make room. She sent him a pitying frown after he turned and spared her a glance.

Cassie held the bandana around her neck up above her nose and mouth as the bus started moving. Dust and dirt flew up from under the tires, and the open windows didn't do much in preventing it all from getting inside.

The ride was hot, and uncomfortable. She held her pack on her lap, pinned in between a suitcase and Kiara. The road wasn't paved, and she was being jolted back and fourth with every bump.

"Where you kids headed?" A man in front of them had asked, assumedly sat beside his two children.

"The Orinoco. We're meeting our friends." Kiara responded.

He nodded with a friendly smile. "Visiting?"

Kiara nodded back.

"Born and raised here, if you need directions." He responds, then holds his hand out for each of them to shake. "Luis." He says.

They respond with their own names as they shake his hand.

He pats his kids on the head, and introduces them as well. "Maria and Palo." They turn around and look at whoever it was their father introduced them to.

Kiara and Cassie give them polite smiles, while JJ jumps in and tries to get some information from the guy. "We're looking for El Dorado. You heard of it?"

"Of course. Who hasn't?" The man got out a laugh. "What, a... a school project?"

"Yeah." JJ nods. "School project. You know how to find it?"

Luis laughed again. "If I knew how to find it I wouldn't be riding the bus right now, my friend. That I know."

"Do you know where people usually start?" Cassie speaks up.

Luis shrugs, thinking for a moment. He looks down at the leather bus seat that separated them, and drew a line with his finger in the dust that covered it. At the end of the line, he marked an X. "So right here you have Tesoro. Up here, Orinoco." He extended the line in another direction, then circled it. "And they say up here, El Dorado."

"Who says?" Kiara asks.

Luis shrugs. "All the world."

"If all the world says it why hasn't it been found?" She then asks, with an amused shrug.

"Some people say it doesn't exist. Some people say it's hidden, and only one special person can find it." Luis says.

"Right." JJ responds.

Cassie wasn't expecting to find a city of gold out of this conversation. She was expecting to be reunited with the rest of her friends on the way there.

"Some people just say it's maldito." He adds.

"Maldito?" Kiara asks.

"Cursed." Luis says. "Over the years, the people that go up, don't come back."

Kiara stiffened, sending Cassie a nervous, uneasy glance as JJ got out a scoff. "Funny." He muttered.

Cassie matched Kiara's gaze for a moment, both of them knowingly sharing the same unsure feeling. She looked over to Rafe, who was asleep now, though not comfortably. She'd been so confused at his worry, at his persistence of making sure she wouldn't be here. But maybe he was right. Maybe they were all in way over their heads with this one.

The bus stopped three times in the one hour span. With it, passengers got off and got on. On the second stop, the seat beside Cassie was cleared, and she looked to JJ and Kiara for some sort of 'permission'.

They both shrugged it off, like they never cared in the first place, before Cassie stood to go and wake up Rafe. He squinted his eyes open, the sun shining directly in his face.

"Hey," she spoke softly. "We're uh— we're game planning back here."

Rafe leaned up from his seat, stretching out his back muscles and neck from an uncomfortably positioned nap, as he turned to look to the back row.

Cassie followed his gaze to Kiara and JJ, who exchanged hushed laughter. She felt a tinge of embarrassment at her friends' behavior, but wasn't sure what else she'd expect.

Rafe clenched his jaw, then stood from his seat as Cassie stepped out of the way to let him pass. She sent the pregnant woman he sat beside a kind smile on behalf of Rafe's lack of 'excuse me's' exchanged.

Sitting back down with Rafe, JJ began to fill them in. "We're about ten minutes from our stop. I say when we get there we find a central meeting place and split up."

"It's a small town" Cassie responds with a shrug. "They couldn't have gotten too far. We were only a few hours behind them."

Rafe leans back and thinks for a moment. "They know you guys are coming, right?" He asks. JJ gives him a look, and with that, Rafe chose to speak to Cassie directly. "They know you're on your way?"

Cassie hesitated, then shook her head. "We haven't been able to reach anyone."

Rafe was slightly taken aback. "So they could be miles down the Orinoco by now?"

Cassie knew fully well that things weren't looking up. And she, nor JJ or Kiara were used to having someone there who picked out the flaws in their plans. Her shoulders fell, and she looked to her brother for something that would ease her newfound anxiety.

"We kind of have a habit of things just falling into place for us so—" He shrugged as he spoke to Rafe, and leaned back into his seat. "—the unoptomistic act isn't helping."

"Right." Rafe mutters sarcastically, as he leans back into his seat too.

"Pessimistic." Cassie whispers to JJ beside her.

"Huh?" He says.

"Unoptomistic isn't a word." She says.

JJ didn't say anything, but Rafe got out a small scoff as he overheard her whispers. And a tense silence overcame the four as they unhappily continued the rest of the bus ride to the center of Tres Rocas.

The bus came to a slow halt at its final stop. Right outside a concrete building painted a faded color of orange, where locals sat outside and waited to load on.

Out the other side were more buildings, old, with cracks in the cement and overgrown with vines. But the busy town people kept what looked like a once beloved city still running.

"This place makes The Cut look like the Taj Mahal." JJ says, looking around.

Cassie started gathering her things. "Rafe and I can take the left, you guys go right? We can meet back here in an hour-ish?"

JJ seemed suddenly distracted, his eyes glued onto the road past everyone's heads. "Uh, no need."

Everyone followed his gaze, confused. Until they realized the validity in his shocked expression, as Pope and Cleo came sprinting down the street and towards the bus.

"You've gotta be kidding me." JJ adds. "We haven't even been here two minutes!" He laughs, then looks at Rafe pointedly. "What'd I say?"

Rafe gave Cassie a look that read as 'I'm really trying to hold my tongue here.'

JJ climbs over everyone to lean out the side of the bus. "Cómo estás, amigos?" He yells excitedly, holding out his hands to high five Pope and Cleo as they ran up on the bus.

"What the hell?!" Pope got out breathlessly.

"We gotta go!" Cleo yelled, as they approached the bus.

"What?" JJ spoke, confusedly.

"We gotta run!" Cleo waved them on.

Their panic quickly rubbed off on the rest of the group, everyone going to gather their things, all while trying to look and see what it was they were running from.

"Already?!" Kiara yells back. "We just got here!"

Everyone clamored off the bus at once, Cassie's breathing quickening as it adjusted to the sudden change of pace. "What's going on?" She asked frantically as she hopped down from the bus.

Pope struggled to catch his breath, then almost choked on it when he saw Rafe get off the bus behind her. "What the—" He looks around at everyone for hours. "I don't even— I don't even have time to question whether or not I'm pissed right now 'cause Singh's guys are after us."

"Okay, okay—" JJ tried to think quickly. "Why don't we just... hijack the bus?!"

Rafe stepped back from the group, trying to get a better idea of what was coming their way, looking around the streets.

"This bus?!" Kiara replies. "The one that goes ten miles an hour?!"

"I'm just spitballing here, Kiara!" JJ replies.

Rafe quickly retracted his footsteps, already waving the group on before getting words out. "They're right there, they're coming! Go— go—" He spoke frantically, glancing behind him every other word as he pushed everyone along.

"Shit." Cassie said sharply. "Hide, just hide!"

There were hands on her back, urging her along, everyone tripping over their own feet as they all rushed to hide at once.

"Fruit stands!" Kiara shouts. "Just duck!"

Cassie followed everyone through a tent and behind the crates of fresh fruit. A series of 'sorry, excuse me's' leaving her lips as she shoved past the grocery shoppers to hunker down.

Through the spaces between the crates, everyone went still, all watching a black jeep come to a quick halt. And with it, two of Singh's men. Angry, and with guns.

Cassie felt Rafe tense beside her, his eyes darting around his surroundings as if he was trying to estimate their next move.

JJ held a finger to his mouth, signaling everyone to keep quiet as one of Singh's men quickly approach Luis from earlier. He was stepping off the bus with his kids when they grabbed onto his shirt collar and yelled at him. Cassie didn't know Spanish, but it didn't take a genius to understand they were asking where everyone had gone.

Cassie held her breath, too afraid to move, as she watched them bombard Luis, who just held his hands up defensively and shook his head no.

The men started to cause chaos throughout the street. A few screams here and there when people realized they were carrying guns. They charged through the tents and scanned each section for them.

Rafe glanced at Cassie, he didn't even have to say it, but she knew he meant 'what did I tell you?'

"Alright, let's go." One of the men, with an Australian accent, called out. "Let's check down the alley."

Still, no one had moved. Not until the men had ran back to the jeep and sped off with a loud screech of the tires. It wasn't until Cleo pulled Cassie back up by the strap of her backpack, that she realized the coast was clear. "Welcome to South America." Cleo said.

"Okay— now that—" Pope took an intentionally deep breath, before sticking a finger out at Rafe. "What the hell is he doing here?"

"You know, I'm starting to wonder the same thing." JJ responds with a happy shrug.

"Okay, give it up." Cassie says annoyedly.

"You wouldn't even be here without me." Rafe responds, then shrugs with a scoff. "You think I want to be doing this right now?"

"By all means, go home!" JJ flails his arm out and gestures in the other direction. "We've got it from here."

"Yeah?" Rafe nods, cocky. "Yeah, you got a map to uh—" he digs into his pocket. "To El Telsoro?"

Cassie looks at the folded up map he now held up. "Where'd you find that?" She asked.

"Got it off the guy behind me on the bus." Rafe responded.

"It's a map, okay? We could've grabbed one at a gift shop." Kiara says, unimpressed.

Rafe nodded, agreeing, but still cocky. "Okay, and could you get a river boat at a gift shop? Because I bought one off of that guy, too."

Kiara didn't even try to hide the fact that she was impressed. Getting out a quiet 'oh' as she turned to JJ and Pope for the same reaction.

"You bought a boat?" Cassie asked, surprised.

Rafe didn't respond, shoving the map back into his pocket. He spoke directly to Pope. "I'm not here for you. Or whatever the fuck you guys are looking for, alright?" He spoke pointedly. "I'm here for Cassie."

JJ physically cringed. "Oh, I hate this."

Pope looked more pissed than JJ had. And Cassie was afraid that at any point, he'd spring forward and throw a punch. But then Cleo spoke up, after taking a second to process things. "I held a knife to your neck." She spoke, curiously.

Rafe shifted her focus to Cleo, confused. "What?"

"We need to go." Cassie says, though she would've been totally fine with sitting and basking at Rafe standing his ground. "We have a lot of ground to make up."

"Wait, wait—" JJ said, then looked to Pope. "John B and Sarah?"

Pope shrugged, defeated. "Got separated."

"Great." JJ huffed out.

They decided to take the back alleys instead of walking along the natural flow of traffic, not knowing who had eyes on them.

Pope and JJ bickered about who had the better plan. Pope, who suggested that they should just hang back in town, to be ready and on the look out to stop Singh before they got to John B. And JJ, who countered that and suggested that they needed to be there when it all went down.

"We made it this far already." JJ had said.

Pope shook his head frustratedly. "But who knows where they are. They could be deep in the jungle by now and they need a middle man to stall Singh."

"Or, they need a middle man to help them kill Singh." JJ retorted.

"We are not killing anyone." Pope says, rubbing his eyes.

Cassie looked over to Kiara and Cleo, walking along in their own clump, exchanging conversation that Cassie couldn't overhear as she walked with Rafe. They kept it quiet, and she was desperate to join in and get the details Kiara was most definitely sharing on JJ's behalf. But she didn't want to leave Rafe on his own.

He glanced at her for a moment, then put his hand out to hold her back from walking on. She glanced ahead as everyone continued, who hadn't noticed that the pair behind them had stopped. But as she turned to Rafe, she spoke. "What's wrong?" She asked.

He hesitated, then got closer so that he could speak quietly. He then reached around his back, and pulled out something enclosed in a towel from his waistband.

"Put this in your bag." He says, glancing up again to ensure no one was watching.

Cassie, confused, started to take her bag off her shoulders. "What? What is it?" She asks, as she takes it from him.

"Do you know how to use a gun?" He spoke pointedly, almost stern.

Cassie shook her head quickly, taken aback. "Rafe, what—" she says, unwrapping the towel and revealing the small black hand gun.

He quickly wraps it back up for her, and places it into her bag. "I'm serious, Cassie. In case things get messy— if we get separated. You have no idea what's gonna happen out there."

She spoke quieter now than she did before "Yeah, but I'm not gonna shoot anyone?"

Rafe zipped her bag back up, then started walking along again like nothing had happened. "You don't know that."

Cassie was pretty sure she did, but knew arguing with him was pointless. "Why did you have it in the first place?!" She asks, as they began to catch up with everyone else.

"Because someone needed to think ahead here." He spoke. "What if those guys found us back there? Huh? They would've killed us all. Grabbed us one by one and shot us."

"Okay," Cassie scoffed uncomfortably. "That's theatrical."

"Are you forgetting what happened at Singh's? Or at Mr. Sunn's house?" Rafe asked, looking at her as they continued walking.

It was clear Rafe had been more bothered by all of that than Cassie had initially thought. "No, but—"

"They—" Rafe starts, then gestures ahead at the group. "They haven't dealt with these guys. We have. So we need to be smart. If not for our sake, than theirs."

Cassie had a habit of pretending everything was fine. Perhaps to ease the anxious side of her brain and keep her going. But Rafe didn't let that slide. "Yeah, alright." Cassie nodded in agreement. "I got it." But the newfound heaviness of the gun in her bag carried more weight than she was ready for.

They'd ended up out of the town after a few miles of walking, onto a dirt road and walking along the tree-line. A bus had even stopped for them at one point and offered a ride to their next destination, but they shrugged it off and told the driver they were headed to a hiking trail.

Off a short walk through the woods, they landed right off the river on a small wooden dock. Roped to it, a big motor boat with a blanketed roof to shield from the sun. Ropes, fishing nets, chains and anchors all hung from the roof and swayed in the wind.

It was silent as everyone came out from the woods to view their new ride. It'd fit them all, surely, but it wasn't going to be a comfortable ride. It was rusty, and some of the seats were just turned over buckets with towels on them.

"Oh." JJ got out a laugh. "We're really getting the five-star experience, here."

Kiara scratched the back of her neck. "It smells better than the bus?"

JJ winced. "Does it?"

Cassie looks to her left as Rafe moved to shuffle through some palm leaves, bent over as he moved around some rocks. "What are you—"

He grabbed a spare key from the third rock he lifted up, then stood again. "Guy said we have about a full tank of gas. Which should be enough to get us up El Tesoro."

"What are we waiting for, then?" Cleo says, then moves to be the first onto the boat. "We gotta move."