Jack Canyon and The Curse of The Spider Queen | CHAPTER EIGHT

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It was still dark as the canoes reached the bank and everyone
unloaded from them. Adriana and Jacarei were anxious to get
to the lost city of the Spider Queen, which Baxter had named
Araneae City. Kelmo stayed behind Sophia and Jack to keep
them from running away. The other men were working out the
path by cutting vines or trees or brush.

"Show me the drawing," Adriana ordered Jack as she walked
near him.

Jack opened the journal, but was not on the right page. He
flipped forward to a page with lines and blocks going
vertical and horizontal and some connected.

Adriana took a long look at the page, feeling that something
was familiar about the layout. She narrowed her eyes for a
moment. "I've seen this place before." She handed the
journal to Jacarei. "Take a look."

Jacarei took the diary and turned it to the side and upside
down as she tried to remember where it was. "This is the
lost city?"

"That's Baxter thought," Jack told her.

Jacarei flipped to the next page, which was a lot of
hieroglyphics. "What's this?" She flipped to the next
page, which was blank. "It's the last page in the journal."

"It is some form of Inca language," Jack explained. "Though
there are some variations. I think it could be what Inca
would have looked like had the Incas lived on a few more
centuries."

"Why is it so different?" Adriana asked.

"Well, lots of different things can change a language," Jack
stated. "Region is a major factor. I mean, take into
account the British and the Aussies, its the same language,
but different dialects and words all together."

"Why couldn't this Baxter guy just tell us where this place
is?" Jacarei questioned.

"That would be too easy," Sophia finally spoke up. She was
too tired to engage in a full conversation.

"Well, we've come across this place once before," Adriana
repeated. "That funny looking design there is something I
remember." She showed the layout to Kelmo, who got overly
excited. He was unable to speak, since he never learned how.
He simply pointed into one direction. "That way?"

Kel nodded at Adriana excitedly.

"Then that way we'll go," Adriana said. She led the way with
Jacarei, Sophia, and Jack right behind her. "You know, Kelmo
never was able to speak. He's not the smartest, but he has a
memory like no other. He'll lead the way."

"He's a regular bloodhound," Jack muttered where only Sophia
could hear him.

They pushed through some brush and into an open field where
the weeds and vines were knee high.

"Great," Sophia said sarcastically. "I foresee chiggers in
places I dare not scratch in public."

"Could I scratch those places?" Jack asked with a hopeful
tone. He received another warning glare from her.

Everyone fanned out and began searching the area finding
stone ruins beneath the vines and weeds and brush.

Jack stopped in the center of the ruins as he looked at the
journal.

"What's this?" Jacarei asked looking at a stone head with a
ring in its mouth. She looked to her leader and a few men as
they came closer to look at it.

Jack and Sophia were still followed around by Kelmo who kept
a close eye on them.

Kelmo grunted and grabbed another stone head near them. He
pulled at the ring which caused the head to lower and trigger
a trap. They fell through a trap door and down a system of
chutes.

Jacarei and Adriana turned as they heard the others scream.
They looked to the other men who began searching the area for
the trio. Jacarei pulled on the head near them which dropped
them down into a trap door and into a system of chutes.

Once they stopped at the bottom of the last slide, Jack
looked around to see Sophia and Kelmo along with a few other
Brazilian gunmen with them. He didn't like that at all.

In another chamber, Adriana and Jacarei were lost with the
remaining men of their gang.

Jack looked out at a dark chasm with long bridges spanning
across the entire chamber. "What is this place?" He asked
as he stepped out onto one of the bridges.

Sophia jerked him back just as a large rotating blade lowered
into position where he was standing. "Now we're even."

"Thanks," Jack replied and looked back out at the place. He
noticed the bridges were moving like conveyor belts. There
were some that went left and right that led to others that
moved forward. "This can't be good."

Adriana ordered her men to lead the way across the maze of
conveyor belts, which received no hesitating from them. The
first few men died horribly from the bladed weapons that were
along the conveyor belt.

Jacarei noted large rotating blades, maces, spinning wheels
with spikes, and swinging blades. "I'm guessing we need to
go through that?"

"Afraid so," Adriana stated. She stepped out onto the
conveyor belt and ducked under a swinging blade. She jumped
over a rolling mace, and then between two spinning wheels of
spikes.

Jacarei tried to control her breathing before following.
Once she was calmer, she stepped out onto the conveyor belt
and followed her friend.

"After you," Sophia said to Jack, who was still sizing up the
situation.

"Coming with us?" Jack asked Kelmo, who wasn't phased
by the massive devices of torture. He stepped onto the
conveyor belt made of some kind of animal skin and began
moving forward in the maze.

Kelmo followed close behind Jack, who was looking for an
escape route. They dodged a spinning blade and a set of
swinging maces.

Jack stumbled and almost fell forward as the conveyor
continued rolling forward. He spotted the end which dropped
off into the chasm. He turned and punched Kel, who didn't
budge. Instead, Jack was the one who fell over. He rolled
off the edge and grabbed onto a support column. He was only
feet away from the edge of the conveyor that led to doom.

Kel kept pace with the conveyor as he stayed where Jack was.
He reached for Jack, who pulled the mammoth down. With the
momentum, Jack pulled himself onto the conveyor and moved
onto the next one.

As he looked forward, Jack spotted the other half of the gang
on the far side of the chamber. He rolled under a spinning
wheel of spikes. Before he could reach the end of the
smaller conveyor, a big arm reached around him and picked him
up.

It was Kelmo.

Sophia had somehow gotten left behind in the struggle and
separated from Jack.

Jack squirmed as the big man squeezed the breath out of him.
How on earth did this man survive? With the heels of his
boots, Jack kicked Kel's stomach and fell onto the conveyor
with a loud thud. He reached the end sooner than he thought.
Reacting quickly, he rolled forward and onto the next
conveyor belt that led toward the exit.

Kel jumped across and continued his chase of Jack.

Across the chamber, Sophia, Adriana, and Jacarei were busy
avoiding deadly devices themselves. They were too busy to
take notice or Jack's battle.

Two men grabbed Jack, who twisted and forced them into a
wheel of spikes.

Jack ducked under a device that he didn't really see what it
was. As if the booby traps were not enough, Kel was still
hot on his trail. Half way through the chamber, Jack noticed
a lot of Adriana's men were gone and it was not even his
fault. Before he could make his leap to the next conveyor,
Kel grabbed him.

The large man had Jack in a hold that did not allow him to
move. He cut off Jack's airway. As Jack quick fighting
back, he dropped the archaeologist onto the conveyor.

Jack lay motionless and in pain. He continued laying there
and staring up at the large man. Then Jack noticed the duo
of swinging blades. He covered his head with his arms as the
two blades sliced into the giant man.

The blades cut Kelmo vertically in half. The front half
slide off the the left as the back half fell to the right.

Blood covered the conveyor where Kel stood.

Jack was on his feet in no time and moved forward through the
maze of devices and conveyor belts. It was amazing that
something like this lie below the city. He looked around for
Sophia and anyone else who had survived. Then he reached the
end of the maze. He stood at the doorway and watched the
remaining few trek toward him.

Sophia was the first to reach the beaten and bruised
archaeologist. She moved as if she was going to embrace him,
even allowing him to open his arms to her, but she punched
his shoulder. "Damn! You beat me."

Jack's mouth was wide open after she hit him. He grasped the
bruised shoulder and turned to her.

Adriana and Jacarei arrived too with the only three men left
of the gang.

"This better be worth me losing my entire gang," Adriana
warned Jack Canyon.

"You'll be able to buy yourself a dozen gangs," Jack assured her. "Trust me."

"I'm trusting you," she stated. "If you're wrong, I will kill you myself."

"Gotcha," Jack replied. "Come on. I think we need to go this way."

"You're the leader of this expedition," Jacarei told him. "Lead the way."

Jack nodded and turned around to lead them down a corridor that was lit by torches. He kept close to Sophia, who continuously tried to stay away from him. They entered a small chamber that locked down on them immediately. "Shit!"

The stone doors closed and were impenetrable.

"Well, it could be worse," Jacarei said, just before the ceiling started to lower.

"It just got worse," Sophia told the petite Brazilian woman.