Chapter Text
Robby couldn't sleep. He had tossed and turned all night, and always found himself laying on his back, facing up at the ceiling. He should be loving it right now with his mom gone and being able to sleep in her bed, but it just reminded him of what he was really going through.
At age fourteen he vowed that he wouldn't lose sleep over Johnny ever again, but that hadn't lasted long. And he really didn't want something like a stupid gi to upset him, but it did. But it was more than the gi, it was everything. Every broken promise, every missed softball practice, every time he was late picking Robby up from school, the drinking, the constant unemployment, just everything .
And now, some other kid was in his shoes? Maybe? Whatever, he didn't care.
But if he didn't, why was he awake at 2:30am thinking about it?
With a sigh Robby heaved himself off the bed and wandered into the living room. Taking his laptop, he sat down at the table and opened it up. Luckily he could tether it to his phone to get on the internet. He hopped from site to site to try and find something to occupy his brain and forget about his dad. But all he could focus on was a way to get back at him, show him that he didn't need him anymore.
But what? What would really piss his dad off? Well, getting a better job than him would definitely be one. Plus it would get him off of selling drugs and probably bring in more money. So that's how Robby found himself looking at employment sites, hunched over his laptop, a blanket draped over his shoulders and a cup of very strong coffee at his side.
After a while of nothing good, he stopped and rubbed his eyes. It was nearly 5am and he needed to get some sleep before school. But then as he was about to close the tab he was on, something caught his eye.
LaRusso Auto - youth apprenticeship role
Robby smirked as he read it. LaRusso, that was it! When he was younger he always remembered his dad telling him about how he lost to Daniel LaRusso twice in the All Valley Championship. And whenever they passed by a billboard or saw a commercial his dad would always yell or throw something. He hated Daniel LaRusso. And that was Robby's way to get his own back.
Even though he forced himself to go back to sleep for a couple of hours, Robby was still very tired. He lost focus in most of his classes and had been counting the seconds until lunch. As soon as the bell rang he raced outside to sit under the big tree which he’d claimed on the first day of school. The only place where he felt he could get some privacy, and because he aimed to make himself a loner and keep away from everyone, people left him alone.
Well, most of them.
As he sat finishing working on his application for LaRusso Auto, Robby felt a kick at one of his feet and he looked up to see Tory looking down at him. He was surprised, he’d been avoiding her all week since that awkward moment on the first day, and had ignored her in any classes that they had shared together. He raised an eyebrow curiously at her, but gave her a small smile.
“It was really fun watching you fall asleep in history class this morning.” She said, a hint of a smirk on her face. “And you’re a tough one to find. Didn’t expect you hiding back here in the darkness, watching everyone.”
Robby just shrugged. “I like privacy as I brood and plan world domination.” Then he frowned as he realised what she’d said. “You’ve been looking for me?”
Tory gave a nonchalant shrug and sat down on the ground too. “Kind of.” Then she sighed. “Brandon saw you the other day. Said you skated past his school. Then I told him we went to school together and he spent the whole evening talking about you. It was really annoying.” She rolled her eyes, but Robby knew she didn’t mean it, his smile growing more. “Then he asked me to check on you.”
“I’m fine.” He replied, feeling happy at the thoughtfulness of the boy. But then as he sat watching Tory, seeing how she kept looking at him and then turning away quickly, he knew what was going on. “That’s not the only reason you’re here though, is it?”
Tory shrugged again, but there was definitely something on her mind. “I’m not judging you, you know.” She said after a moment, turning to look at Robby. “Getting kicked out of your school for fighting.” He shifted uncomfortably, but she carried on talking. “It’s whatever, right? It was probably something dumb and you were defending yourself, right?” And she waited until he nodded slowly before talking again. “So who cares? Plus I don’t think anyone even knows except for me and that Miguel kid. And as long as he doesn’t squeal then you’re good.”
There was a confused look on Robby’s face, but he appreciated all that Tory had to say. “How long have you been wanting to get that off your chest?” He joked and received another eyeroll.
“If you hadn't run off on the first day I would have told you then. But whatever, I’ve said my part now.”
Robby just nodded and then rubbed at his tired eyes, leaning back more against the tree. “Thanks.” He muttered, and there seemed to be some sort of understanding between them now. Reaching for his backpack he took out his lunch, but then stopped as Tory still sat with him. “You already ate?” It had only been about ten minutes and presumably she had been looking for him.
“Oh.” She replied, cheeks turning red as she looked away. “I forgot to go shopping yesterday and we only had enough for Brandon’s lunch.” It wasn’t exactly a lie, it's just that they didn’t have enough money to even go shopping.
“...right.” The obvious solution would be to buy lunch at school, or something before she got to school. But then Robby then realised that maybe the two of them were more alike than they thought. So he unwrapped his sandwich and handed over half to her. “Here. It’s turkey. And mayo.”
Tory hesitated, she had her pride, and she didn’t take handouts from anyone. But, she was so damn hungry. She didn’t have breakfast either, making sure Brandon and her mom ate. And this was just one sandwich, it wasn’t a big deal, so she took it from him quickly. “Thanks.” She took a bite and then glared over at him. “Needs more mayo.”
Robby laughed and then nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He pulled out a bag of chips too and they sat and ate together.
“So, late night? Seriously, I thought you were going to start snoring.” Tory laughed.
Robby rolled his eyes, but shrugged. “I couldn’t sleep. But it’s fine, not the first time I’ve slept through a history class.” Biting his lip, he looked over at her. He was planning to keep this job to himself, especially so he could keep his money secret from people like Trey and Cruz. But Tory was different, she seemed trustworthy. And two heads were better than one right? So Robby took his phone and showed Tory the job application. “You any good at writing this kind of stuff?”
Tory tilted her head to the side as she read through the basics. “Not really. I work at the movie theater and I just kinda turned up and asked if they had any jobs, and they must have been desperate.” Then she looked back at him. “Should be easy enough. Just hype up the parts they want to hear. Reliability, wanting to learn new things, you know the bullshit.”
He nodded in agreement and changed a few more things before he was happy with what he’d got. “Well, here goes nothing I guess.” And he pressed submit.
“You know, when we said we’d take Miguel on a tour of the Valley, I didn’t think it would be like this.”
Demetri stood, hands on his hips as he looked over at Eli, who was sat in the driver's seat of a blue, beat up, pickup truck.
Eli just shrugged but grinned. “Why not?”
“‘ Why not?’ It’s your grandpa’s truck. And we’re fifteen!”
Miguel stood off to the side, his bike at his side as he watched the argument take place with an amused, yet confused look on his face. “Can you actually drive?”
“Yep.” Eli replied as he climbed out the truck. “My grandpa taught me when I was thirteen. We were nearly late for my bar mitzvah, remember that?”
Demetri couldn’t help the smile on his face. “Your mom was so mad.” But then he shook his head. “That’s not the point. We are not riding around in this hunk of junk and getting arrested.”
“Its not a hunk of junk.” Eli frowned and protectively patted the side of the truck. “Look I’m sorry that Caleb,” he turned to Miguel “my brother, took his car to college with him. But this is fine. It runs great, and ,” he moved and lifted up the sheet he had covering the back, revealing some weird looking machinery. His grin grew more as he saw Demetri’s eyes light up. “Come on dude, you know you want to.”
“What is that?” Miguel asked as he walked forward to take a better look. He reached out to place a hand on it and held the cold metal under his palm. A part of it almost looked like some kind of drill.
“Eli and I had an idea for a science project. So we bought some things to help us out. I didn’t even know they were here.”
“Got here yesterday, I got it delivered to grandpa’s house because I knew he wouldn’t say anything.” Eli was practically bouncing now as he looked back to Demetri. “Come on D. No better time than now.”
Demetri sighed and looked from Eli to Miguel and back. “Okay fine. But, we show Miguel around first then we go over to the quarry later. And we have curfews too, so don’t forget those.”
Eli waved a hand. “I won’t. Come on, get in.” He took Miguel’s bike and placed it in the back too, before covering it all back up and climbing into the driver’s seat.
Miguel was still confused and Demetri gave him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry about all this.”
“Oh, no no. It’s cool. I’m really excited to see what you guys have got planned. At the quarry?” It definitely sounded interesting.
“Yeah, it’s a long story, but I want to take some samples of some rocks.” Then Demetri frowned. “I know it sounds lame, but trust me. This is a very interesting project we have in mind.”
Miguel smiled and then nodded. “I get it. And I want to help, in any way I can.”
Demetri grinned and was about to thank Miguel, until Eli honked the truck’s horn and it made them both jump. “Ugh, we’re coming. Keep your cool man.”
“I call shotgun.” Miguel called out and climbed straight in to sit in the middle.
“There is no shotgun! It’s a truck.” Demetri sighed again but just got in to save any more arguments.
They spent the whole day showing Miguel the best, and sometimes worst, parts that San Fernando Valley had to offer. They hit up the mall where both Demetri and Eli rushed straight to the comic book store to get the new X-Men issue that had just came out, and Miguel bought a couple of Superman issues. Then grabbed burgers for lunch and saw the rest of the town and went down to the beach.
Then as the evening drew closer the three boys drove up towards the quarry. Miguel was honestly shocked at the fact they hadn’t been pulled over for being kids, but Eli was doing everything he could to appear confident (something Miguel didn’t know he could do) and more older. And somehow the sunglasses he was wearing were helping too? That just made Miguel very paranoid about the competence of the cops around here.
Once they arrived at the quarry, Eli parked up and they started to collect all the equipment they would need.
“Maybe bringing a trolley or something with wheels would have helped.” Demetri quipped as he lifted a heavy generator up and Eli glared over at him.
“I did think about that, just couldn’t get it all in. But there’s three of us and we’re all strong, we can lift it right?”
There was a pause as the three of them all looked at each other. It was fairly obvious that Miguel was the strongest out of them, and even that was a stretch. So Demetri huffed and grabbed a bag of tools and took off.
And that’s when Miguel took a good look around the area. There really wasn’t much other than rock, the cliffs of the Valley standing tall all around them. So he assumed they would just be working on the rock face next to where they had parked. But then Demetri was walking ahead along the large fence that was keeping them out of the worksite.
“Um…” Miguel was now totally unsure of their objective and turned to Eli, but he was too engrossed in their equipment.
“We might have to make two journeys.” He turned to Miguel and handed him the weird looking drill part and another generator. “Can you take those to Demetri and come back?” And without waiting for an answer, he turned back to try and figure out if they really needed to take everything with them.
Miguel dashed off to catch up with Demetri who had stopped about 100 feet away from the car and was knelt down in the dirt. “I’m sure it’s around here somewhere.” He was muttering to himself. After a moment he clicked his tongue and reached for part of the fence which he pulled back, barely giving them enough room to get through. “Perfect.” He started pushing everything through and taking all of Miguel’s stuff as well.
After another trip to the truck, they finally got everything the other side of the fence and rolled through themselves. To their right was the entrance to the quarry and Miguel could hear the rumble of some large vehicles and feel the ground move as a drill started up. However the boy continued off to the left and towards a path that led up a cliff. Miguel frowned but picked up his things and followed closely.
The path was long and steep and around halfway up Demetri paused to catch his breath and turned around. “Eli, are you sure about this?”
“Yes. Trust me.” He replied as he took the lead “This was your idea from the start. You said you wanted to figure out what they’re actually doing here. And we didn’t go through all that trouble of cutting the fence and making lists of stuff we need and breaking our backs to get money to buy all this equipment.”
“It's high.” Miguel muttered as he looked over the edge.
“Yeah, don't do that.” Demetri pulled him away. “Never look down.”
They continued to walk on, eventually coming to the top. Below them was a large, wide quarry and in the middle sat a giant hole.
“They say a meteor hit here like thousands of years ago, but we don't know how accurate that is.” Demetri explained to Miguel as they walked close to a new fence that surrounded the perimeter of the work space. “You can't get down there, it's heavily guarded.”
“Why does a quarry need to be so guarded?” Miguel asked.
“Illegal stuff probably.” Eli replied. “But we’re going to figure it out.”
The boys hurried along and soon enough they were at the rock face and Demetri quickly looked around. “Okay, I'll get to work.”
“And I'll keep watch.” Eli chipped in, crossing his arms over his chest as he slowly looked around the area.
“Keep watch?” Miguel frowned. “Are we actually allowed to be here?”
There was a pause as Eli and Demetri looked at each other.
“Well… It's not against the law, but it's not advised.” Demetri said as he turned to the equipment “We need to be quick and quiet.”
Miguel was dumbfounded by how easily Demetri knew what he was doing with all of it. And with Eli getting generators set up and trying to create some sort of power source, they were a perfect team. “Anything I can do to help?” He asked, wanting to be useful in any way he could.
“Ah, sorry Miguel, we haven’t actually explained what we’re doing have we?” Demetri called over his shoulder and then after placing a pair of goggles over his eyes he turned around to face his friend. “We’ve been working on this idea for a while.”
Eli nodded along as he put on his own pair of goggles and passed one to Miguel. “They’re hiding something up here, we know it. My dad says that this place has been all fenced up since the ‘80’s and no one knows what they’re actually doing. It’s so suspicious.”
“Exactly!” Demetri cut back in. “So Eli and I want to take some cuttings of this rock and analyse it.” He placed a hand on the wall. “There’s something weird about it all. And we’ve been wanting to find out since we were like eleven. But this is the first chance we’ve had to actually afford to buy all this stuff.”
It was actually really interesting and Miguel was also intrigued now. “What do you think they could be hiding?”
Eli grinned at him as he stood back. “I don’t know, maybe a new mineral or something that’s worth more than gold. Or maybe they hid drugs in the wall. Hell, it could even be aliens.” He shrugged and turned to look at the giant hole below them. “Whatever it is though, we want to be the first to find out.”
They worked together for a while, time not even a worry for them as they focused on their work. There were a lot of pieces of rock and stone coming off as Demetri chipped away, but neither he or Eli were satisfied.
Demetri stood over a tub of loose rubble and groaned. “Nothing.” He took some of it into his gloved hand and poked through it, finding nothing of interest for him. No sign of minerals or elements, or anything. It was just dirt and stone. “Nothing.” He repeated, his shoulders slumping.
“It’s fine.” Eli said as he moved away from the rock face. “Look, why don’t we move a little further in?” He pointed down closer to where the quarry entrance was and to another gate that kept them out of the work area. “Maybe we’ll find something the closer we get to the source.”
There was a long sigh from Demetri, but he nodded. “We can only try.”
They grabbed their stuff and pushed on, but suddenly Demetri stopped as he looked down at their supplies. “We’re out of water. I think we’re still going to need some.”
“I can go.” Miguel volunteered. He hadn’t really been much help other than holding or passing objects to the boys as they worked. So he was dying to be of more use and also just a chance to stretch his legs. “Have we got any in the car?”
“No, no.” Eli shook his head. “We’re all out. But…” And he took a moment to think to himself as he looked around, trying to gauge where they were. “Follow the path back down to the car, but take a left instead of a right and you should eventually come across a lake.”
Miguel, although wary that he wasn’t going to be able to find his way, nodded and grabbed a couple of bottles before heading off, in a fast walk. He was sure the water wasn’t that urgent.
Placing his goggles back on his face, Demetri turned to Eli. “Time to get out the big guns. We need our evidence, and we’re going to get it.” And he bent down to pick up the big drill. “I’m going in.”
Taking a deep breath, in through her nose and out through her mouth, Sam closed her eyes.
What a week.
The breakup was unfortunate, but she’d very quickly realised she was much better off without Kyler, and they were never going to last anyway. However it was just the fact that she was seeing him at school every single day. And as much as a jerk he was, he was a popular jerk, and anything that was going to come out his mouth, people were going to believe.
It didn’t take long for some to notice that he had a black eye and for the rumors to start. Sam wanted to shake the hand of the guy that gave it to him. But according to Kyler it was some drunk guy that tried to mug him and he stopped him with his “badass karate moves”. Yeah he knew shit about karate, Sam knew that better than anyone, however everyone believed him and it made him out to be some sort of hero. And right now, he was untouchable.
Normally that wouldn’t bother her, she would keep her head down and stay out of everyone’s business. But there was something about the way that Kyler kept looking at her. She’d rejected him, hurt his pride and also physically hurt him. And he was clearly not happy about that. Sam had noticed how he’d kept whispering to his friends whenever she walked by, and the rest of the school had realised they’d broken up by now, so even more rumors had started, and ugh… high school was hard.
She needed some peace of mind. So after dinner she snuck out through her window and headed up to her favorite place in the Valley. This was the highest point you could actually climb too, and at this time in the evening there was normally no one around, so she could be at peace with her thoughts.
Breathing in through her nose and out through her mouth. Eyes closed. Letting the nice, cool evening breeze wash over her.
It was going to be okay. She was going to have a great sophomore year, the junior, then senior. Go to prom with some cute boy, graduate with a 4.0 GPA and then head off to college to do… something, and Kyler could suck it.
Yep, everything was going to be alrig-
“BRRRRRRR”
Sam cracked one eye open as the loud noise cut through the mantra going through her mind.
“What the hell?”
The beauty about being up so high, is that you couldn’t hear anything that they were doing down in the quarry. So why was she hearing a drill like it was right next to her? Was someone up here as well?
She got up and scrambled right to the edge, careful with her steps so she didn’t fall. What even was that? Sam couldn’t see anything directly below her and she frowned, frantically looking for the source of the noise.
There! Two figures, surrounded by tools and trying to hack away at the wall. They were a little further down to her left, but she could see them. What were they doing?
But that didn’t matter, not her problem right? But the more she watched them, the more she was intrigued. Were they like digging for gold or something? Well whatever they were doing, it was illegal. Security would show up soon and the police and they would be arrested and that would be that.
However, Sam still moved closer, slowly and quietly, making no sound. It was like she was drawn in, trying to work out the best way to stop them. That was stupid, she wasn’t some sort of crime fighting teenager. But there was still this growing urge to stop them. That was until she was right above them and could see them better, and one of them lifted their head so she could see their face. Then sighed loudly. Seriously?
Finding the least steep part of the cliff, Sam very carefully slid down and landed almost smoothly, only stumbling a little as she stood upright. Then she raced over to the two figures.
“Demetri, what the hell are you doing?”
The boy lifted his head at the sound of his name and turned to see someone running towards them. “Oh, hey Sam.”
Eli looked up from where he was crouched over a bucket of gravel and just nodded, barely making eye contact.
“What are you doing? The whole Valley can probably hear you. You’re going to get caught.” Sam placed her hands on her hips and as she scolded them.
“It’s fine.” Demetri waved a hand dismissively and picked the drill back up. “We know what we’re doing. And when we need to leave.”
Still Sam stayed where she was, glaring at them. “But what are you doing? You haven’t answered me.”
“It’s none of your business LaRusso.” Eli snapped back. “Just let us work.” Making Sam scoff in response.
“Don’t talk to me like that.” Sam huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “And yeah okay, I’ll let you continue on your highly illegal mining operation, sure.”
But while they carried on bickering back and forth, neither of them were focused on what Demetri had planned next. He had checked the time and decided he had one last chance at finding anything good. Eli had somehow come up with the goods, and they were only to use it as a last resort. And that time was now.
“You might want to stand back.” He announced as he held up a little box with a few buttons and a switch on that had many wires attached to the front of it, the other end of the wires were attached to the rock wall with little pads. Demetri started to take several steps away from the wall.
Sam was totally bewildered but Eli immediately realised what was happening and tapped her quickly on the arm as he moved away. “Seriously LaRusso, you got to move.”
She did as she was told, but still was confused. Until both Demetri and Eli took cover in a nearby ditch, behind some sort of rubble bunker. Sam raced after them and ducked down too and watched as Demetri fiddled with the little box, flicking the switch and then his thumb hovered over a big red button. “Are those explosives?”
“Just a few small ones.” Demetri replied as he kept his attention on the wall.
“I made them.” Eli grinned, clearly excited to see if they would work.
“Are you two insane?” Sam practically yelled which made them both shush at her. “Is this even going to work?”
Demetri just shrugged, his thumb moving down. “Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
Miguel sighed as he came to stop, bent over with his hands on his knees, panting heavily. He'd made two mistakes when he set off in search of water. He'd forgotten his inhaler back in the car and he really needed it right now, and he really should have left some sort of trail as he came through the woods, because he was totally lost right now.
All that surrounded him were trees, as far as the eye could see. And of course, he had no signal to call either Demetri or Eli to tell them that he was lost. Man his mom was going to kill him, either lost or if he missed his curfew. Plus he had school tomorrow and his first karate lesson at his sensei’s new dojo, and he definitely didn’t want to miss that.
He took a deep breath and tried to focus. Eli had said to take the left path from the car, which he had done, but he never said anything after that, just to follow the path. But after about ten minutes the path had disappeared and all that was left was dirt, twigs and leaves that crunched beneath his feet. Maybe he needed to take another left somewhere back near the start? He wasn’t sure, but the path was now getting too closed in to keep following, so maybe it was best to turn back.
But then there was something, catching his ear as he turned around. A rustling sound, movement, in the trees beyond. Was it a person? “Hello?” He said out loud. No answer. Maybe just an animal. Oh god, there weren’t bears in these woods, were there? The noise got louder and sounded closer, making Miguel start to panic. He ran off in the opposite direction, losing sight of the path. He kept running until he broke through a clearing and what he saw made him come to a skidding halt.
There was the lake he had been looking for. But what else he saw made him gasp at the sight.
A waterfall, flowing steadily into the lake. It was a beautiful sight. Miguel smiled and took a few steps forward as he caught his breath again. He wondered if anyone else knew this was up here. It seemed like a very peaceful place. He walked forward ready to collect the water he needed, but then he noticed that he wasn’t alone. There was someone else here.
Over the other side of the lake, near to the waterfall, was a girl. She seemed somewhat familiar to Miguel and he got as close to the water as he could, squinting hard. It was Tory, the new girl he’d met on the first day. They shared a couple of classes together, but they’d never really spoken before. But what was she doing out here?
She’d placed a bag onto the ground and looked like she was taking her shoes off. Maybe she was going for a swim? Then she started to take her clothes off and Miguel quickly turned away. Maybe he should leave. But still he was kind of curious and there wasn’t any noise from behind him. So covering his eyes with his hand slightly, he turned back around to see Tory climbing up the path next to her to a higher point and then gracefully diving into the water below.
“Wow.” Miguel said under his breath, a small smile on his face. She hadn’t resurfaced yet, so he decided that it would just be best to collect the water and then try and find his way back without disturbing her. He took one of the bottles and crouched down to fill it up, making sure it was full. But then he paused as he looked out over the water again. Tory still hadn’t come up for air. How long had it been? A minute or two? And she was still underneath.
“Tory?” He called out, voice panicked. “Tory?” There was no response. “Shit.” Miguel quickly threw his jacket off and began to slip out of his shoes at the same time as he tried to take off his shirt. “I’m coming Tory!”
“It’s really weird to hear you say my name.”
“Huh?” Miguel stumbled as he turned around, but unable to see anything as he got caught up in his shirt. The voice had come from the side of him and he tried to turn in that direction. Had she already climbed out and he missed it?
Tory sighed and walked over to him, helping him out of his dilemma.
“Oh. Thanks.” He replied as he pulled his shirt back down and pulled his shoes back on. Then he looked up at Tory. “What did you say?”
She rolled her eyes and then started to walk away, over to her stuff. “I said, it’s really weird to hear you say my name.”
“Well, we do know each other.”
“Do we?” Tory said over her shoulder, eyebrow raised. She stopped at her bag and took out a towel to start drying herself off.
“Uh, yeah.” Miguel said, frowning as he followed her. “We go to school together.”
She just shrugged in response and continued to dry off. “What were you going to do anyway? Dive in after me?” And when he nodded she gave a little laugh. “Sure.” Then she stopped, frowning at him. “What are you even doing here? Were you stalking me?”
Miguel’s eyes widened and he shook his head, throwing his hands up “No. No, not at all.” He waved around the bottle in his hand. “I was just getting some water.”
Tory raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the lake. “I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”
“Oh no, it’s not to drink. It’s for a… science project? My friends are back there, waiting for me.” It wasn’t a convincing answer, but Miguel was sure she would buy it.
“... Right.” Tory replied, frowning again. “Whatever you say.” She dried her hair off now but was still watching Miguel from the corner of her eye. “You done?”
“Oh. Right.” Miguel quickly bent down and picked up the other bottle before filling it and nodding at her. “Done.”
Tory nodded, but still he hung around, not really seeming in a rush to leave. “I’ll see you around?” She prompted, wishing he’d go so she could go back to swimming. “I’m sure your friends are still waiting.”
“Yeah.” Was all Miguel said as he turned around and looked at the masses of trees that he’d come running through. “Um… I don’t remember how to get back.”
She sighed heavily. Why did she always get stuck with the idiots? “Here.” She grabbed his arm and turned him so he was now facing to the right of where they had been standing. “There’s a dirt path down there, can you see it? Just follow that until you hit a crossroad, then go to your right and you’ll get to the entrance of the quarry.”
Miguel wasn’t convinced, but it was worth a shot. “Thanks. Uh, have fun?”
Tory nodded and turned her back on him now, ready to dive back into the water. And Miguel turned to walk away down the path that she had shown him.
“BOOM!”
Both of them flinched at the loud sound and turned to the direction they thought it had come from.
“What the hell?” Miguel exclaimed. What the hell were they doing back there?
“Is that your friends?” Tory asked as she now started to dry herself off fully and get changed. “They’re so going to get busted.”
“I think so.” The explosion had been loud, but hopefully the whole Valley hadn’t heard it. But the problem was, the workers and security down in the quarry probably had. Miguel needed to get back over there to make sure Demetri and Eli were okay. He cursed under his breath and started to head down the path quickly.
It didn’t take Tory long to catch up with him, she was clearly faster than him. “This way.” She said and led him back to the start of the quarry.
Once Miguel saw Eli’s truck, he knew where he was. Now it was his turn to lead as he lifted up the fence for them to both crawl under and they raced up the cliff.
As soon as they got to the top, they saw Demetri and Eli along with someone else, peaking out over a mound of rocks, looking over at the rockface. There was a very obvious dent in it, and it seemed to have caused a small landslide too as rubble fell down the side of the cliff. The wall that was left behind had a sort of weird translucent sheen to it now.
“What happened?” Miguel asked as he placed his hand on Demetri’s shoulder. “Are you guys okay?”
“That was crazy!” Demetri yelled over the ringing that was still in his ears.
“ You are crazy.” Sam snapped back and climbed out of the ditch, turning to look at the two new arrivals.
Miguel turned around as soon as he heard Sam talk and his cheeks turned a little red. “Oh… hi Sam.” He’d taken a shine to the pretty girl he sat next to in homeroom. She had been exceptionally kind to him since he’d moved here. Sam just smiled politely back at him.
Eli stood up next, shaking his head to try and clear it. “Damn D, that was awesome. Oh, hey Miguel.” He grinned as he turned around, but then he frowned. “Who’s the girl?”
Before Miguel could answer, Sam piped up. “Her name is Lucy and we have English class together.”
Tory snorted and shook her head. “My name is Tory and we have Chemistry together. Good talk.” Sam’s cheeks burned bright red and she turned away.
Demetri shook himself off now and ignored the conversations around him as he approached the wall. It was different now, something had definitely changed as part of the wall fell away. He lifted his hand up slowly and placed it against the rock, and as soon as he did, a bright blue light flared beneath his hand, making him close his eyes and turn away. “There’s something here! There’s something in the wall!”
But as soon as he called out, an alarm started ringing loudly and they heard voices from far down in the quarry.
“We need to get out of here.” Tory said, turning now to leave.
“No, no. You guys need to see this!”
And they had. The others had noticed the bright light and were making their way to the wall. The blue light was still there, not as bright but pulsing under Demetri’s hand.
Eli held his hand out, hesitant, but then pressed against the wall. A strong black light burned through the wall and he squinted his eyes. “What is it?”
“I don't know.” Demetri replied. “But there is definitely something there.”
Miguel was next, a red light flashing as he touched the wall. And Sam's light was pink.
The alarm was still going, almost seeming louder and the voices were getting closer. Tory wanted to run. Wanted to put herself first and totally ditch the rest of them, she couldn't afford to get into trouble. But there was a curiosity, itching at her brain. With a little sigh, she ran to the wall to press her hand on it and receive a bright yellow light in response.
For a moment nothing happened, but then Demetri moved away and reached down for some tools. “Quick, dig it out. Look!” He was frantic and the others were confused. But Eli grabbed tools too and started to work.
Tory still didn’t understand and moved away from the wall, the yellow light getting dimmer. But as she did she noticed it. They were right, there was something in the wall. It was small, almost like it would fit in her hand, but what was it? And was it worth anything? It could be the answer to some of her problems. So she too, grabbed a hammer and started to smash into the wall.
Sam’s eyes widened as she watched on. This was totally weird, but it felt like they needed to do this, regardless of what would happen next.
The five of them continued to break through the wall until it fully shattered, and they pushed through the rubble. Miguel found one first, picking the item up and laying it flat in his hand. It was like a disc covered in dirt and dust but with a circle of red in the middle. The red was almost like some sort of crystal, and he wondered if it was valuable. As he looked at it closer, he could have sworn he saw something flash in the middle of it. It looked like a creature. Was it some sort of fossil?
Soon they all had one in their hands, and all inspected them. Red, Pink, Black, Yellow, Blue. What did it mean?
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
They all jumped at the voice, turning around to see a crowd of people rushing towards them.
“Run!” Miguel shouted.
They all took off, running the fastest they probably had their entire lives. The three boys grabbed what equipment they could and headed straight to the car, holding the fence open for the girls to pass through. They climbed into the truck and Eli took off, tyres screeching loudly.
Miguel fished his inhaler from out of his bag and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. But then he frowned and looked at Demetri who was clutching his blue disc tightly as he stared wide eyed out the windscreen. “Wait, where did the girls go?”
Demetri slowly turned to him and took a moment to register what he said. “I don’t know.” They both looked out of the window and tried to locate them. “There!” Demetri shouted as he saw them and Eli, with a heavy sigh, turned to catch up with them.
Sam and Tory were running quite far away so Eli stepped on the gas. But then a loud noise caught his attention and he looked through his review mirror. “Shit. It’s the cops.” And he turned the truck in the opposite direction to get further away from them.
“They’re heading for the railway tracks. We can catch up.” Demetri instructed and then his eyes widened even more as Miguel unbuckled his seatbelt. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Trust me. Get one of them in there with you guys. I’ll help the other into the back.” He replied and opened the door so he could climb out and into the back of the truck, trying not to step on any equipment.
Sam was losing speed, trying her hardest to catch up with Tory but she was just finding it too hard, she was never going to make it. A pair of headlights cast across the back of her body and she pushed herself on, but then a horn honking made her turn and look over her shoulder to see a beat up pickup truck heading her way, with Eli Moskowitz driving it? Wow, she’d seen everything today. She slowed down and let it catch up to her. The door swung open and Demetri reached out with his hand, she grabbed it and he pulled her up and into the truck. “Thanks.” She sighed as she rolled across his lap and landed hard between him and Eli.
“Where did the other girl go?” Eli asked as he looked out for her.
“Down on the tracks.” Sam replied, pointing to the left where they could make out a figure still running.
Eli floored it and got down near the tracks, bouncing along so he could catch up with Tory, honking the horn again so she’d hear them.
“Careful, in case a train comes.” Demetri said and turned to look behind them. “Shit, the cops are catching up. Come on.” Then he stuck his head out the window. “Miguel, grab her quick!”
Miguel nodded and leant over the side of the truck as they got close. “Tory!” He yelled and she turned to see him, but kept running. “Tory, take my hand.” He could see her hesitate and he wasn’t sure why, but still he kept his hand out for her. “It’s okay. Take my hand.”
She nearly tripped on her feet, but in the end nodded and turned to grab Miguel’s hand. He pulled and she climbed up, both of them rolling to the floor as she finally got in.
“Great, now let’s go home.” Demetri said as he made sure Miguel and Tory were both still with them and Eli quickly moved onto the tracks to cut across. But he had been too busy watching behind them and Eli had been too busy focusing on outrunning the police, neither had noticed the train heading towards them on the left.
“Eli!” Demetri yelled and Sam gasped loudly as the train sounded its horn loudly as it gained on them. “Eli quick!”
Miguel and Tory heard the yelling and then the horn and popped up to see the train practically on top of them.
“We’re gonna make it.” Eli shouted, pressing his foot down hard on the accelerator. But the truck couldn’t gain enough traction or speed to get across the rails and it had slowed down.
There was so much noise. The train’s horn, the cop’s sirens, Sam’s screams, the beating of each of their hearts in their ears.
Then they felt the crunching impact of the train.
Then everything went silent. And black.