South America had been nice to Gabriel so far. Great food and nice views, mosquitos always seemed to avoid him much to the dismay of his company. He hadn’t minded being a translator for the guys currently occupying the rest of the seats in the Jeep. As long as he could be aware of when to turn away when their... conversations... came to an end. The first time it happened he recoiled in terror as Hank, the leader and the one in the drivers seat, had put a single large bullet into the local they had been told would know just about where a certain cave would be. The local had cooperated, after Jimmy, currently sitting shotgun, had done some convincing with a car battery. Gabriel didn’t mind any of it. The paycheck was too nice. All their employer had said was to go down to the amazon, ask for a certain guy in a certain bar, he would point them to a guy who knew a guy who heard a thing from another guy who’s ancestors had lived here for years. The legends around this item they were sent after were all very vague and changed every time you heard them. Sometimes they would say whoever possessed this item, think it was an idol this time, would be able to convince anyone of anything. A neat trick for someone in a seat of power in the United States eh? Other times whoever possessed, a necklace this time, could lift much more than a normal human should be able to. Not a gift anyone would want to piss off. Either way, whatever form the item took, whatever gift it gave, their wealthy employer back home wanted it. So they were out to get it, and they knew exactly where maybe it was. Not much to go on other than its in a cave a few miles hike past where the dirt road out of El Vi, on the border of Brazil and Bolivia, ends. Easy. Well not really so they grabbed the fourth occcupant of the Jeep, a very young, very scared, Brazilian boy. His father was nice enough to tell them that he would take the boy out there and would show him the cave and warn him of its perils. That he knew the way and they should just leave him and his family alone. At that point Gabriel had walked the boy out to the Jeep and told him that he would be showing them the way to this cave. He always tried to talk over the sound of the gun but judging by the way the boy was vibrating the seat next to him with his sobs, it would seem he had failed. 

“Aqui para”

”He said stop here” 

Hank slammed on the brakes and as they rolled to a stop he looked back at Gabriel. “I understood that. Translate when we need it. Don’t want to be wasting the only reason you’re here deadweight”

”Aww, I love you too big guy. You always say the nicest things.”

A glare from Hank and a snicker from Jimmy as they got out told Gabriel his playful banter was at least keeping two of the four in a decent mood. That was good enough for him. After all filty percent is pretty good considering a quarter of their company just lost his family because of the remaining quarter. Hank motioned for the boy to lead the way and we all followed. They journeyed in silence for a good hour or two. Gabriel was never good at keeping time. The noises of the jungle and the crunching of their boots were only occompanied by the periodic slap of Jimmy attempting to murder another biting insect. “Does it ever bother you Hank?” Hank barely turned his head towards Jimmy when the question was posed, only curious as to what he was talking about, not necessarily if whatever it was bothered him. “That ole Gabe back there never seems to have ANYTHING biting him. No ticks, no mosquitoes, nothing. I mean look at him! Happy as could be just to be touring this damned forest. Bothers the hell out of me.”

”couldn’t care less.” He trekked on.

Much to Jimmy’s dismay. He fell back a stride or two and walked shoulder to shoulder with Gabriel. “So what’s the secret? How do you do it? Not a single bite. I gotta know ‘cause..” He slapped his hand to his neck then looked at his hand to see a little black and red splotch. “These damn things are going to kill me before I can get paid and we both know we can’t have my share going to either one of you assholes.”

”Don’t know what to tell you man, maybe its got nothing to do with me and everything to do with your diet? Maybe they know you eat like shit so your blood is just ripe with that good stuff. You know so they can grow big and fat too.” Visibly stung by the jab at his weight Jimmy mumbled something Gabriel couldn’t quite make out, but he didn’t care. He laughed Jimmy’s way and gave his should a little push. “You know I’m joking, c’mon don’t be mad I don’t really have anyone else to talk to. You know Hank is no talker and little mans up there is busy leading us to buried treasure.”

”Quiet!” All eyes swiveled to Hank, who appeared to be listening for something. Nobody moved. Then all eyes slowly moved to some brush that had captured Hank’s attention moments before. Gun raised Hank started moving towards the brush. A squirrel burst from the thicket and Hank jumped. That was all Gabriel needed for weeks of ridicule and snide comments. Hank immediately spun to face Gabriel “No! Don’t you dare. Not a word. It could have been..” He trailed off as the boy took the distraction as opportunity and sprinted off. “Fuck.” Hank aimed and shot off a couple of rounds but ultimately succeeded only in punching a hole in a couple of trees. “After him Gabriel. Get him back here.”

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”On it Boss.” Gabriel ran after the boy and in short time had found him. He hadn’t run far, only to what appeared to be a hole in the ground. The boy stared him down, face full of defiance. “Hey now, what’s your plan man? You obviously have one. Wait, shit, you don’t speak English uhh..”

”Of course I speak English. Most of us speak English. For a translator you really are dead weight.” With that he stepped backwards into the hole.

”Wait! Don’t...” The boy had already disappeared. Jimmy and Hank came through the trees behind Gabriel.

”Well? Where’s the kid? How did you lose him?” Hank demanded. Jimmy followed Gabriels gaze to the hole. It was about six feet wide at any given point. Looking down into it was nothing but black. 

“Wait, did that loon jump? What was the idea here? Anywhere is better than here? That’s idiotic. No telling what’s down there. Hank, you got a flare I can toss down?” Hank dropped his pack and dug for a flare. He pulled two and handed one to Jimmy. He lit his and tossed it down the hole. It fell for about four seconds then just disappeared. No fizzle, no splash, no nothing. “Huh.”

”Well, Gabe. I told you to get the boy back here. So go on.”

”No way. You can’t be serious. We have no way to know what’s down there.”

”You got your GPS?”

”Yeah, why?”

”Radio?”

”oh shit.”

Hank almost effortlessly picked the smaller man up by the straps of his backpack and held him over the hole. “Have fun.” Then let him go. Gabriel fell and fell. Much longer than they had seen the flare fall. Then just as quickly as his descent had started he landed on his back. His impact softened by his backpack. He looked around at what looked like a starry sky. Except it seemed to be slowly moving and shifting. Looking left and right he noted there were two ways out of this room. One on either side of him. Then his observations were cut short by the smell of smoke and a strangely intense heat in the middle of his back. The flare! He twisted and rolled out of his backpack that was quickly catching fire. He threw the backpack away from him as best he could and its contents went flying into the dimly lit cave he seemed to be in. From his knees he gathered his slightly burnt GPS and radio and hit the button to call back to the other two that it was safe to jump but only got static. Confused he looked at the radio like it had wronged him. After all it was its only job to maintain a line of communication with the others. How dare it not do that one thing right. Then, as he started to notice it was much less humid here, he flipped on his GPS to see if that could give him anything to work with. The screen came on and showed the most preposterous thing he had seen all day. He was somewhere in the Himalayas. Again he looked at his obviously malfunctioning equipment as if it had hurt him. No way he was in the mountains. He was just somewhere else in the jungles of South America. Maybe whatever the ceiling was made of was magnetic and throwing off his equipment. That’s gotta be it. He looked over his strewn pack and reached for the sat phone. The others had laughed at him when he suggested he get one too. Who’s laughing now. Nobody. He punched in Hank’s number and waited, suddenly getting colder and colder.

Far, far away, still standing over a pitch black hole in the middle of the jungle Hank’s backpack started to ring. He looked over at Jimmy quizzically. Jimmy gave a confused shrug, and Hank shrugged off his pack and pulled out the ringing sat phone. “Hello?” He paused and listened. “No you aren’t in the Himalayas you are somewhere under our feet, you moron.” Pause. “Jimmy. Jump, Gabriel made it fine. Gabriel move the flare.” Jimmy’s eyebrows jumped up.

”You want me to willingly jump into an abyss? I mean dropping a useless translator I get, but c’mon me? I do work here.” Hank gave him a firm push and told him to go or he’d find a creative way to say Jimmy died out here. “Alright alright.” He stepped up to the edge, glanced back at Hank, mumbled something so low only he heard it, and jumped. When he landed the first thing he noticed was the bright red flare resting between his feet. “C’mon Gabe you couldn’t move the flare? It was simple instruction... Woah.” As he looked around the room seemed to surrounded by space, like he was floating far above earth looking out into space, space. Gabriel. Where are we?”

“I tried to tell Hank. The Himalayas. But nooooooo I’m the crazy one. Also grab your jacket. It gets cold quick.” Jimmy looked over at him and couldn’t help but laugh at his slightly burnt jacket.

”Didjya get in a fight with a flare? Looks like it didn’t go so well.”

”Shut up. Something weird is going on here, and I haven’t even seen the kid yet.” He pulled the phone back to his ear and told Hank he was clear to come through. Moments later Hank landed next to the two other men, GPS in hand.

”I watched the screen as I dropped. While I was falling the map went squirrelly and now we are in fact in the Himalayas. That kid knows more about this than he let on. Did you see which way he went? We need more information than we currently have. Which if you haven’t kept up so far Deadweight we ain’t got shit.”

”No. No clue where he went. However I do recommend adding a layer or two because we are in a very cold place on the opposite side of the world from where we were moments ago and I think I am starting to freak out a little bit are you freaking out why aren’t you freaking out I just signed up to translate not do space magic..”

Hank’s hand clapped against the back of Gabriel’s head. “Relax. You’re still breathing ain’t ya?” He pushed an unlit flare into Gabriel’s chest. “Take this and start walking. This may be where we were headed anyway.” Taking the flare, Gabriel twisted the bottom and lit it as he took a few shaky steps towards one of the two openings. Holding the flare above his head to light his way he turned down the hallway on the other side of the passage way he chose, followed closely by Hank and Jimmy. As he came around he frowned as he realized the other passage way would have led him to the same place just on the opposite side. Then looking into the cavern that they had just walked into left the three of them speechless.

”woah.”

”Damn.”

”Umm. Nope. Can’t translate this.”