Alandrios' Stone Ch. 01

Lincoln's POV

Sixteen hours. Sixteen long excruciating hours to meet up with a fellow "treasure hunter" to find a stone or gem that probably doesn't exist, but since I was running low on cash I practically had no choice and it had been a while since I'd been on a good expedition.

I didn't know much about my partner aside from the fact that this was their first time actually hunting for treasure. I guess it was better than someone who did everything by the book, afraid to do a little extra digging or hiking.

The plane finally landed alongside the beautiful city in Madagascar that shone brightly as the sun set upon it.

Once I got off the plane and paid the pilot, I saw another plane land in the same spot mine took off from.

I saw a woman with long dirty blonde hair and blue eyes that shone brightly all the way from where I was standing. She was about 5'9" with a fairly athletic build and had on a red shirt and blue jean shorts, she had a red beady neckless on that complimented her shirt.

She had grabbed two large duffle bags from out of the plane a after a few minutes of her talking to the pilot he took off.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Bell?" The blonde asked, her Australian accent was enchanting and her enthusiasm was infectious.

"Yes, I'm Lincoln Bell." I said as I shook her hand.

"Chloe. Chloe Johnson" She said shaking my hand dropping her heavy duffle bag full of luggage.

"You need a hand with that?" I asked her while she pulled out a rubber band to tie her long hair into a ponytail.

"Sure thanks, I've already booked a hotel so we can get a good night of sleep before we start exploring" She explained as we walked towards a blue building with a few windows on each side.

We went into the two bed room and Chloe started unpacking the bag she carried, and pulled out three different pairs of spare clothes, a canteen, black hiking boots, and a military knife.

"Good to know you came prepared." I said, feeling better that she kinda knew what to bring.

"Thanks, could you hand me the other bag? I wanna tell you about some stuff that'll help you understand what we're looking for." She said.

I didn't know anything about what we were looking for or who was or is looking for it.

She unzipped the duffle bag and pulled out a map, a bunch of books about survival, and a book about a guy named "Alandrios".

She couldn't help but take notice that all I had with me was a backpack that was even heavy or that big.

"Did you come prepared?" She asked with a smirk.

"Actually, I was hoping you could give me a little background info on this guy and his treasure." I asked hoping she'd tell me at least a little bit about the expedition.

She sat down on the bed next to mine and opened the giant book, Chloe was clearly fascinated with the guy and everything about him, including his treasure.

Apparently, Alandrios stole a gem (allegedly worth over 200 million dollars now) from his friends and hid it somewhere in Madagascar along the Eastern side of the island in the rainforest somewhere.

Once she was done with her very detailed explanation, I looked out the window as the sky enveloped into a purple blue-ish mesh of color as the people below set up lights around their homes and marketplaces.

"Beautiful ain't it?" Chloe said behind me, snapping me out of my trance. "We'd better get some sleep, I gotta rent a 4x4 for tomorrow and we'll get moving" She said taking off her shoes and socks as she climbed into the bed.

She was an attractive woman with childlike excitement for the trip, I couldn't deny that fact that she would make this hunt one of the best. Even if the gem wasn't worth as much as the book said or it wasn't even there.

"Goodnight, Miss Johnson"

"Goodnight, Mr Bell" She said drifting off into unconsciousness.

Chloe's POV

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I was awoken by the bright rising sun in the window of the hotel room. I hopped out of bed and took a mango, another pair of clothes out of my bag, and put them in the backpack. I walked out of the room slowly trying not to wake, Mr Bell. I walked through the busy streets hoping I could find a suitable 4x4 that could at least get us to the rainforest.

After about an hour of getting the rental sorted out, I went back to the hotel room and saw Mr. Bell, ready to go.

"So, did you get the rental?"

"Yup we're ready to go." I couldn't help myself from grinning.

Once we got to the rental, I explained how long the drive would be and a slight chance of rain.

"So what do you have in your backpack?" I asked.

"Uh I got that map you had, that canteen, a stick of dynamite, that book about Alandrios, and some flares."

As much as I wanted to worry about why he had a stick of dynamite, I noticed he had two peaches and some salted chocolate in the pocket of the backpack, that he didn't tell me about for some reason.

After about ten minutes of driving in silence, I decided to get to know my partner.

"So how old are you?"

"I'm 26, you?"

"20, how long have you been doing this?"

"About 7 years, this is your first expedition right?"

"Yeah, I've been studying this guy since I was 14 and now I finally can."

I was about to tell Lincoln more until I heard three loud gunshots coming from the rainforest.

"What the hell is that?" Lincoln asked pointing towards a small white light coming towards us. I slammed my foot on the pedal and drove straight towards the rainforest. I heard four more gunshots that sounded a lot closer this time.

Overtop the loud engine, I heard a giant crack and a thunderous boom that probably blocked the sounds of gunfire.

I started losing control of the car as it veered off in the mud, causing us to crash into the side of a tree. The moment I felt the hard thud of tree bark hitting my head, I jumped out of the car seat hitting the muddy ground.

"Holy shit! Are you okay?" Lincoln shouted, with clear panic in his voice. I felt the side of my head, right above my ear. It felt like touching a wet sponge and my vision was a little blurry, but I could still hear gunshots and multiple footsteps coming toward us.

Lincoln outstretched his hand, grabbed me and we ran as fast as we could through high water and mud. I didn't know who or what was chasing us and I hoped they'd slow down.

We kept running until we got to a ravine and Lincoln sat me down. He handed me the canteen and I drank about half of it. It started raining before we could get settled.

"Alright Chloe, stay here I'm gonna try to figure out who's after us." He said climbing over top a fallen tree and jumping down. I couldn't keep my eyes open, so I pretty much let my body take control and I fell asleep.