Chapter Text
Xibalba - "Place of Fright"
Cassie woke up groggy. Her head was hurting so much. She struck it against a tree. If that wasn't worse, she had a wound in her stomach, given to her by a spear, a razor-sharp spear. She was bleeding out, quickly, if she didn't move, then she would most certainly die within minutes.
She used all her strength to get up, pushing herself against the tree. She leaned against and clutched the wound on her lower abdomen. It hurt like hell.
"I am not gonna die, not today, not tomorrow, or any day," She said to herself proudly. She then thinks of that song by Skillet, Not Gonna Die.
She chuckles. She begins to move along the trees and bushes. Man, I hate the jungle. She tripped over a log and fell right on her wound, but she got up. She continued to move. She felt herself losing consciousness and was about to pass out, but she found hope when she found a stream of fresh water.
She moves up to it and sits down on her knees before scooping up a handful of water and drinking it. She drinks a few more handfuls before she begins to wash away the blood on her wound with the water.
But, when she looked into the reflection of the water, she saw a lot of blood on her face. It looked like she had killed someone. She wipes the blood off her face before she looks around. Nothing but trees, bushes and vines. The great country of Guatemala.
Cassie used all her strength to get up and walk across the stream of water. She felt the warm water running against her feet. Cassie felt as if she was standing in a jacuzzi. When she reached the other side, she heard something whistle right past her. A spear had been launched and hit a tree next to Cassie. She blinked in surprise and turned. Several of the Mayan tribe people had caught up to her and they were throwing spears at Cassie. Cassie ran as fast as she could, dodging as many spears as she possibly could.
One of the Mayan people had a bow and arrow and they aimed at Cassie's feet. They fired but barely missed. It flew out of sight.
Cassie jumped behind a bush and slid down a small hill. She continued running, not stopping for any reason, not even when she felt the pain in her stomach becoming much more painful.
Eventually, she reached her limit, she fell down another hill and landed hard on her stomach. She already lost a lot of blood, she was already getting ready to pass out. She fought through for a few more moments, before she fell down to her knees.
She looked up and saw the Mayan people standing before her. She thought she was gonna die this time, but then she remembered, she had survived the most severe situations. She walked through Hell and came out on the other side.
One of the Mayan people was about to slash Cassie's throat with an arrow.
He raised his hand, he swung, but Cassie did not feel any kind of pain. She passed out before the Mayan could slash her throat.
The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the three Mayan people running after hearing gunshots. She gave a quick smile as she realized, she had once again survived.
May 2041
Maui, Hawaii
Cassie Drake woke up from a bad dream. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up from her bed. Cassie looked at her clock, it was barely eight o'clock. She had to get to work at nine o'clock. She quickly changed and walked downstairs to her fridge. She pulled out the orange juice and bread from the cabinet. She poured some Cheerios into a small bowl for her two-year-old son, Evan, who was just waking up and being cradled in her husband's hand.
Cassie looked at Derek with a smile. "How's our little prince doing?"
"He wouldn't stop crying," Derek panted, dark circles under his eyes, "I tried to put him down for a nap this morning and he wouldn't go down."
"It is the morning," she reminded him. "It's almost time to go to work."
"Damn," Derek blinked. "I need some coffee."
"You can get some coffee in your system and I'll drive you to work."
Derek laughed. "You... drive me?"
Cassie nodded. "Why not?"
"How many tickets have you gotten this year."
"Irrelevant," she quickly shut down. "Just get some coffee and I'll drop Evan off at daycare."
"Mama," Evan spoke up, "Can I have cereal?"
Cassie smiled and cooed at her child, still in awe that he was able to talk more. "Anything for you, my little prince."
Cassie took Evan and put him in his high chair. Evan used a spoon to eat his Cheerios.
After Cassie finished making toast for her and Derek, they sat at the kitchen table and slowly ate their breakfast in peace. Aside from Evan talking, no words were exchanged between the spouse couple, not even a simple 'hey'. Once they finished their buttered toast and orange juice with extra coffee for Derek, they picked themselves up, and one by one, they showered and got ready for work. They were grateful for the daycare center that opened up that was a five-minute walk from the institution where they worked.
After Cassie drove them to the archaeology institution, Derek walked Evan to the daycare while Cassie clocked the both of them in. When she went to her cubicle, she saw something laid down on her desk.
A paper with a drawing of several vertical lines with dots. From left to right, there were three vertical dots going up beside two verticle lines, a dot, three vertical dots going up against a single line, four dots going up beside two vertical lines, and finally, four dots going up against one vertical line.
Cassie picked up the paper and looked over it. Mayan calendar.
Marcus Cote appeared in her cubicle. "Figure out that little puzzle?"
Cassie looked at him. "Yeah, it's Mayan. And If I translate the date, then it translates to today's date."
"Exactly. I came in here to remind ya about something."
"What's that?"
Marcus looked at her. "Our trip to Guatemala."
"What?" Cassie licked her lips. "Oh, I remember now."
Marcus clicked his tongue. "I don't know; it sounds like you didn't."
"I remember; we're heading to Cobán."
"To do... what?"
"Search for evidence of the Mayan underworld, Xibalba."
"Yeah." Marcus tilted his head. "You know, Cassie, you kinda look tired. If you want, I can always tell Decker that-"
Cassie interrupted him and said, "Nah, I'm fine. I am tired; Evan keeps packing a few punches but overall, I'm good."
"You don't sound good to me. After all, sleep is very important to the human body."
"What makes you think I'm sleepy?" She felt for the circles around her eyes. "If you're referring to the bags under my eyes, it's eyeliner; thought I'd mix things up with my appearance."
The only appearance that would perfect you would be your head split open. Marcus smiled. "Well, we're all trying to find ourselves in this world. Anyway, Decker wanted to remind you to meet us in the conference room in thirty minutes."
Cassie rubbed her eyes. "Duly noted."
After Cassie yawned, she set her things up before she checked on Derek in his cubicle. It turns out that he fell asleep at his desk so she decided to leave him be.
Cassie made it into the conference room, sat down in her chair, and yawned once more. Her co-worker, Gil, sat next to her in a rotating leather chair and tapped Cassie on the shoulder. "Better stay awake; you're not in school anymore."
"Yeah, because falling asleep in class was such a custom back in the olden days." Cassie rested her chin in her hand as her supervisor, Henry Decker, walked into the room with several more archaeologists sitting at the conference table.
"Gentlemen, glad to see you all up and about." Henry Decker was a 51-year-old black man with unkempt brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, a face framed by thick glasses, and an unbuttoned shirt with loose khakis. "Where is Derek?"
"Fell asleep on the job," Marcus answered and looked to see Cassie scowling at him, which made him smile in pleasure.
"How unprofessional of him." He tugged on his collar. "Nevertheless, I will inform him of our plans later. Right now, we need to get started." He looked across the table. "How many of you are familiar with Xibalba or do I need to run a refresher course?"
"We're all aware of it," Gil assured. "That's why we're going to Guatemala this week, right?"
"Yes. It pleases me to say that I managed to get an excavation crew out there. They're not natives but they will work with us. And I'm pretty sure they're going to like working with us. If I'm correct, the contractor has a history with Cassie Drake."
Cassie's eyes perked up. "Who?"
"Simon Vincent?"
Cassie's eyes widened. I heard he became a contractor but seriously, what are the odds of him working with ME of all cases? "Eh, we knew each other." Enough to lose our virginities to the other. "What made him decide to work with us?"
"The excavation of a historical site connected to Mayan myths. He said that it would give his team experience to allow for more possibilities and jobs for his employees. He's trying to expand his crew to get them more attention and more opportunities. It's a win-win for both of us, he said. So I'm taking advantage of this opportunity."
"What do we get out of this excavation?" Marcus asked. "Fortune, bragging rights, fame?"
"More recognition." Decker sighs. "In case you hadn't noticed, this institution's reputation is slowly dwindling because Cassie Drake of all people is on the team and it's no secret that a majority of the artifacts and lost cities she finds are often destroyed." He looked at the girl. "Even something as small as a china cup we were digging for in Bhudan somehow ended up destroyed by yours truly, Cassie Drake."
"That wasn't my fault," Cassie denied, "that china cup was slippery from the start."
"And what about that little fiasco in Thailand? What the hell were you doing with that statue?"
"Trying to rescue it."
"You had one job, Drake, help the excavation crew pull the statue out of the water and you let it sink."
"A curse of mine, I guess. I'm sorry."
Marcus raised his hand. "Sir, wouldn't it be better if Cassie didn't come on this trip with us? I think it would be a huge risk if we brought her to Guatemala with us considering her track record."
Decker chuckles. "Trust me, if it were up to me, I would forbid Cassie Drake from going anywhere near an artifact. But out of all of us, she has the most experience with this treasure-hunting trove. If we can get her to get us inside Xibalba, and then not touch anything, we should be good. It'll be our first step in restoring our reputation; we can start getting more job offerings to us, and more countries to explore. Revenue can go up for all of us."
Cassie's eyelids dropped over her eyes. "I'll try not to wreck anything."
"Good, and once we discover Xibalba, we can announce our discovery to the world and get back on track."
Cassie's eyes lifted up briefly but not enough. "What, you know where Xibalba is, where is it?"
Decker laced his hands behind his back. "You are all dismissed."