Waypoint: Cache Quest Oregon (4 page)

4

B
en took a long sip of his hot chocolate; even though it was summer his body felt so much better having the warmth of the mug in his hands. He was sitting in a corner booth at a restaurant on the coast. His entire body ached, but now that there was excitement about another trip, it somehow wasn’t bothering him as much.

Lacey slid into the booth, “Okay, just got off the phone with your mom, she said I can have you through the weekend.” She shoved a French fry into her mouth then continued to talk. “I think if we leave here today…Oh sorry” she said as she accidentally spit a chunk of fry at Ben.

“Say it don’t spray it!” Ben said jokingly.

“Anyhow, as I was saying, if we leave the coast today, I think we can get to that lake by this evening. We’ll set up camp, and then find the treasure first thing in the morning.” She shoved another fry in her mouth.

“Sweet!” Ben replied. “Ya know what I was wondering?” He took a fry off her plate, “should we have left that clue for the next person?” He asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well if anyone else figured it out, they won’t have a chance.”

Confused by his sincerity she said, “You’re joking right? We don’t want them knowing where to go!” She shook her head, clearly uncomprehending his intentions.

“Isn’t it a little strange that no one else was there though? I can’t be the only person who found the compass.” Ben continued to play with the French fry.

“Ya know, that is weird, but oh well. I mean most parents wouldn’t have read the instructions, and most kids wouldn’t have either…you’re just a freak who likes to follow directions.” She laughed then grabbed the fry from him and chowed it down. “You almost ready?” She grabbed her phone and the GPS unit, then slid out of the booth.

“Okay so you entered the waypoint, let’s make sure they are right.” She handed the GPS unit to Ben as they walked to the car, “Um, do you have 43 degrees 43’32.1” North and 121 degrees 14’43.6” West?”

“Yep, it’s called Paulina Lake; we can double check the map if you want.” Ben replied.

“I’ll drive; you find it on the map. Man, this sucks that you aren’t old enough to drive, I’m getting so tired!” Lacey complained as they climbed into her car.

“I’ll drive.” Ben said.

“Uh huh—no! I don’t need to buy another car on this trip!” She laughed then pulled out of the parking lot.

By the time they reached the self-pay drop box at the campground it was completely dark. Mosquitoes kept landing on Ben as he put the money in the envelope like Lacey told him to. In the headlights it looked as if he was doing some sort of strange dance, kicking up legs, the random throw of an arm, and then the inevitable slap. Lacey laughed then flipped on the high beams just to mess with him a little more.

“Jerk.” He said as he climbed in the car.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Lacey said with a smirk on her face. “What camp site?” He showed her the small map on the brochure from the pay booth. She took a right and looped down a winding road. A few campers were sitting at their campfires, some were roasting marshmallows, and others just huddled up together to stay warm. “We don’t have any wood for a fire.” Lacey said with a concerned tone. “We could go out and look for some.” She suggested. Ben shoved the pamphlet in her face again pointing to a picture of a bear.

“No thanks, I’ll just freeze.” He joked. “Sorry but I’m not goin’ out in the forest for wood with bears around.”

“Wimp.” She laughed then pulled the car into their campsite. They both pulled stuff from the car in a hurry; the mosquitoes were eating them alive. Lacey had picked up a small pop-up tent from a store along the way. Within ten minutes they were inside the tent each cuddled in their sleeping bags trying to get warm.

“Well I’m gonna go to bed.” Lacey said as she started to close her eyes.

“I think I’m laying on a rock.” Ben complained as he wiggled about in his sleeping bag.

“Sucks to be you.” Lacey yawned as she rolled over and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning they awoke to the sound of a barking dog. Ben was all twisted up in his sleeping bag; just his eyes peeked out as Lacey kicked him in the leg to wake him. “Let’s get going.” She said. Immediately Ben started to laugh. “What?” She asked, with irritation.

“You look like a raccoon!” he laughed even harder, “Your makeup is smeared all over, and your hair is all stuck to your head, oh my gosh—you have drool on your cheek!” He sat up in his cocoon and almost choked he was laughing so hard.

“Shut up!” She said, “Do you want a bath in the lake this morning? You’re almost my size but I can still whoop your butt!”

“Oh man, can you please stop talking!” Ben threw his hand over his nose then said, “Your breath reeks!”

“Get up, you little pain in the rear.”

They both ate a protein bar and drank vitamin water as they looked at the GPS unit and the surrounding areas. “What did that thing say again?” Ben asked.

Lacey pulled it from her jeans pocket.
“Congratulations,
blah, blah, blah. Okay,
look for a mountain of black, deep in the glass you’ll find what you lack.”
She looked up at Ben, and then rubbed her eyes again, still self-conscious about her raccoon eyes.

“Check this out.” Ben slid the campground brochure over to her, and then pointed to a picture of a hiking trail, on one side was the lake; on the other side large rocks of obsidian were everywhere.

Lacey read the text aloud, “along the eastern edge of Paulina Lake are the remains of volcanic activity from over one hundred years ago. The ‘black mountain’ as the locals call it, is one of the largest obsidian flows in the country.” She looked up at Ben. “Dude…we’re there!” They both got up and headed toward the hiking trail.

As soon as they rounded the first corner on the hiking trail they could see the obsidian flow, it was amazing next to the bright blue water of the lake. Ben continued to check the GPS unit, they were headed in the right direction, just a quarter mile more and they would be rich! He smiled eagerly, and then jogged past Lacey.

They approached the hillside cautiously, they weren’t sure if anyone was around and didn’t feel like explaining anything to anyone, and so they tried to look as normal as possible. “Okay the GPS unit says we need to go fifteen more feet, north—east.” Ben said as he faced the black glass, he then pivoted his body so he was facing the direction the arrow indicated on the unit.

They both began to climb, the obsidian was slippery with the morning dew covering it, and almost every piece had sharp edges, just waiting to slice into them. They arrived at the exact location the unit showed and looked around, they couldn’t see anything. Ben looked at Lacey with a frustrated expression, and then kicked a piece of volcanic glass by his foot. “Ouch!” he yelped, not realizing he had kicked it that hard. He lifted his foot to examine his shoe, thinking maybe he had broken a toe. As they both looked at his shoe Lacey noticed something. Some of the pieces of obsidian had little tubular holes in them, from when the lava had cooled and air bubbles had escaped. Inside the rock under Ben’s other foot there was a small piece of paper rolled up and slipped into one of the holes. They would have totally missed it, thinking they should look for a container again.

She and Ben lifted the rock to expose the hole and hopefully slide the paper out without ruining it. Lacey opened her Leatherman pocketknife that she kept on her key chain, and then exposed the tweezers. “This is exactly why I got these things; I knew they would come in handy.” She said with pride as she maneuvered the tweezers into the hole, “Just like ‘Operation.'”

“I thought you got those to pluck your eyebrows.” Ben joked.

Lacey looked up at him to say shut up, but suddenly her face looked shocked and afraid, “Ben!” She yelled, but it was too late. A scratchy hand covered Ben’s mouth, and just before he was blindfolded he saw a thick stick being swung at the back of Lacey’s head. He cringed when he heard her body collapse onto the sharp rocks.

5

L
acey awoke to the pounding of loud music; she was blindfolded and gagged as well as totally disoriented. Her head throbbed and her neck ached. She remembered seeing the man standing behind Ben, but after that she couldn’t recall anything. Analyzing her current situation, she came to the conclusion that things hadn’t gone well. It felt as though her legs were tied to the chair she was sitting in and her hands were tied behind her back, she wiggled her wrists, this was gonna be tough.

“Hey” she heard Ben whisper. She moved her head back to figure out where his voice was coming from, immediately she knew as they bumped heads. “You okay?” Ben whispered. She could barely hear him over the obnoxious music.

“Yeah” she mumbled, although it sounded more like she was humming.

“I think I can get us out of this.” He said, “Can you reach my hands?” He felt her fumble for his hands; he stretched his arms so that she might be able to get a grip on the rope that was keeping him captive. They were sitting back to back on two chairs. Ben had been contemplating how they would escape since they brought them to this cave. He was assuming it was a cave anyway, they hadn’t tied his blindfold on tightly enough and he could see just enough out the bottom to know they were on a dirt floor. “Hey let’s try rubbing the backs of our heads together to get these blindfolds to come off.” he suggested. They pushed the backs of their heads together and started moving them around; they could feel the knots of the blindfolds rubbing against one another, then suddenly Ben’s dropped down to his neck. As his fell it grabbed onto Lacey’s and pulled hers slightly off, one eye was exposed, and the blindfold rested diagonally across her face.

He felt Lacey trying to manipulate the rope once again; he wiggled his hands to try to loosen the knot even more. Suddenly he felt the rope slide off. Lacey looked around the room; it appeared to be a cave of some sort. It must be close to the obsidian flow, as she noticed a large amount of the black glass poking out through the walls. Ben untied his feet, cautiously looked around, then worked on the rope around his waist, as soon as he was free he went to Lacey’s aid. He first worked the knots on her feet loose, just as he was moving up to untie her hands he heard a noise. He turned quickly to see shadows emerging from the cavern that forked off the other side of the cave. “Shoot!” He said. “Hang on.” He ran into the shadow of the far wall, Lacey was sitting half tied looking around the room trying to see where the threat was coming from, with one eye it was a bit of a challenge. The room was very dark with a single lantern glowing on a card table in the center of the room. She turned enough to see where Ben was hiding and decided she should distract whoever was coming so she stood up, both chairs were still attached to her waist; her hands were still bound behind her.

“Hey!” A deep voice called behind her. She turned quickly; with the chairs swinging from side to side making her balance a little shaky, and her one eye exposed, she looked like a drunken pirate with a hunchback. There were two men making their way toward her, she was surprised to hear them laughing now. They pointed at her and made some sort of rude comment, then continued to come closer. They seemed so distracted by how funny she looked that they didn’t even realize Ben was gone.

As soon as Ben saw his chance he emerged from the shadows, grabbed the propane lantern on the card table, then as quietly and as hard as possible he slammed it into one of the kidnapper’s heads. The man turned with his hand on the back of his head, and saw Ben behind him, suddenly Ben whipped his right leg through the air while spinning on his left foot. He connected with the man’s left ear, the man dropped with incredible force.

Just as his assailant dropped, the other man grabbed Ben’s arm. Ben used a self-defense tactic and grabbed the man’s wrist, pulling the man towards himself then just at the right time Ben raised his knee and slammed it into the man’s crotch. The man lost his grip and crumpled over in pain. Ben took one step back and as the man’s head was at waist level, staring at the floor, Ben took his right foot and kicked him in the face as hard as he could. The man fell next to his partner, both left unconscious by a nine year old boy.

Lacey screamed though her gag and jumped up and down, one eye was still covered, but she saw every second of Ben’s attack, she was amazed. Ben ran over and untied her hands and waist, the chairs fell to the floor with a crash, unfortunately the sound was loud enough to rouse the first man, he lifted his head in a bit of shock trying to figure out where he was and what had just happened. Lacey grabbed Ben’s arm and they both ran as fast as they could down a tunnel that they assumed led to the outside. They were nearing the end of the tunnel, and could see a slight light shining through some sort of opening; when they got closer they realized the light they were seeing was shining through what they thought was a large piece of obsidian blocking their exit.

They heard the footsteps behind them, the man was moving sluggishly, but he was coming up on them and would reach them within a minute. Ben went over and tried to push on the obsidian, it didn’t move but he realized it wasn’t obsidian at all; it was a tinted piece of Plexiglas. The kidnappers must have been using this to block the entrance of their cave so that from far off it would appear to just be part of the lava flow. Ben looked at Lacey, she still had the blindfold, it was hanging around her neck now, he yanked it from her neck, and then wrapped it around his right hand. “Step back” he ordered her. Lacey stepped to the side of tunnel. Ben took one step back, he inhaled deeply and then with a force unimaginable, he punched the Plexiglas. It exploded upon contact, shards flew everywhere.

“Oh my gosh!” Lacey said in disbelief. Ben took his foot and cleared some of the larger pieces that were still connected then climbed through the opening. Lacey followed him, still in disbelief at what she had just witnessed.

They saw the lake in front of them, down a steep incline of obsidian, they started to move as quickly as they could down the slope. As they approached the half-way point, they heard the man coming through the opening. Lacey looked to her right, the rock that had the paper in it was still there, it was only ten feet away, she ran over to get it. Ben realized what she was doing and saw the man coming closer to her. He looked down grabbed a palm size piece of volcanic glass, took his pitching stance, and then nailed the man in the forehead. He fell instantly, he wasn’t unconscious, but was extremely bewildered.

“Nailed it!” Ben yelled in a high pitched voice as he snapped his fingers.

“Yeah, you picked the wrong kid to mess with!” Lacey yelled at the man as she lifted the rock and then rolled it down the hill. Ben was chasing after the obsidian hoping to catch it before it went across the trail and into the water, luckily just as it impacted with the last stone before the trail it broke in half.

“No way!” Ben yelled as he ran up to the broken glass. He saw that the paper was only being held in the tube by a thin piece of glass, so he took his foot and stomped on it just as Lacey came down the hill. Ben grabbed the paper and shoved it in his pocket, he saw that the man was coming down the hill even faster, and then he noticed a fishing boat coming around the bend in the lake. “Hey! Help!” He screamed waving his hands toward the boat. The fisherman stopped and looked at them, he noticed a large man running behind them then the boy and woman jumped into the water and began swimming towards his boat. He slowly eased the boat toward them.

“You guys okay?” he asked.

“No- those guys were trying to kill us!” Lacey wailed. The fisherman pulled them into the boat, just as the man made it to the trail. The boat pulled around, Lacey and Ben were facing their attacker, they both lifted their hands and waved mischievously. “Wow, thank you so much!” Lacey said to the fisherman. He brought them back to the marina and showed them where the Ranger’s office was so they could report the two men.

“That was crazy.” Ben said.

“Insane” Lacey agreed “I’m gonna have to start calling you Red” Lacey teased.

“Why?” Ben asked clearly overwhelmed by the last hour.

“Dude, you just whooped those guys, I’m gonna tell your mom that those karate lessons are paying off!” She nudged his arm. “You’re a red belt Ben; get it, ‘Red’?”

“Oh I thought you were talking about blood.” Ben said as he motioned to his hand. Just then Lacey looked at him and noticed that his hand was dripping with blood. She reached for it and saw that a huge piece of Plexiglas was lodged in his wrist. “Oh it’s no big deal.” Ben said, he then looked at the piece of glass, looked back up at Lacey and passed out.