exhausted! Shall we stop for the night?”
“Sure.” replied Mayson. They made camp again, but the next morning, they woke up with
knives to their throats.
“Hello, hello!” chuckled Eilka “What a lovely reunion.”
“What do you want?” said Mayson in a muffled voice. “ If I see you in the fossil mine, I’ll kill
you both!” he threatened.
“Let us go!” screamed Scarlette.
“Just this time! But remember!” Eilka finished, and the Akas removed their knives pushing the
two explorers to the ground.
When they were gone, Scarlette hesitated, “We can’t risk it anymore.”
“This is what we came here to do. Do you want to give up now?” asked Mayson.
“Not really. This is dangerous, though!” begrudged Scarlette.
After many more hours of trudging through the desert, Mayson exclaimed, “We’re here!”
They got into the mine and began digging, finding fossils everywhere. Suddenly, two Akas
grabbed them, and held back their arms, so they couldn’t escape.
“I guess you two were just too dimwitted to listen. Kill him1” Eilka ordered, pointing at
Mayson. “I want the woman.”
“Wait!” cried Scarlette. “We’ll find the fossils and give them to you! ”
Eilka turned to his men. Quietly, Scarlette picked up a stone and raised it over her head.
Wham! It crashed on Eilka’s head and he slumped to the ground. The Akas’ gaze slowly turned
towards Scarlette.
Mayson hissed quietly, “Run!”
They ran as fast as they could, but the Akas were gaining on them. At that point, nobody
knew Eilka was dying. Suddenly, the Akas stopped and fell to the ground clutching their chests,
like they had just been stabbed. It was as though they shared a body with Eilka. As he died, the
Akas flopped down dead to the ground.
“They’re all dead!” exclaimed Scarlette astonished.
“What?? I don’t understand, but let’s hurry! Our plane should be here soon. Let’s head back to
the main trail,” replied Mayson. They walked silently, wondering how this had just happened.
“Hello there. How was the trek, did you find any fossils?” questioned the scruffy pilot.
“No, not this time. But that’s okay, we gained an experience that we will never forget,”
answered Mayson. As they got on the plane, Scarlette could not enjoy the thought she would
be home soon because too many thoughts raced through her head, too many questions without
answers. “This is all my fault!” she thought. Eilka and the Akas were a threat, but she hadn’t
meant to kill them all!
“This is all my fault!” she whispered.
“No, it isn’t.” Mayson reassured her. “You didn’t know that would happen. You’d never do that,
even to enemies.”
“I… I guess you’re right,” mumbled Scarlette.
Neither of them spoke for the rest of the flight, the silence remaining unbroken.
“Here we are, it’s jus’ a short car ride from ‘ere.” wheezed the pilot. A few minutes later, they
were pulling up to the driveway where Amy was waiting by the steps happy to see them back
safe. She had no idea how close they came to never returning home.
