Chapter 2

Chapter 2 : A Surprise Attack

Ariel had just adapted to her new life as Anna. She had been preparing for her All Girls retreat to France. There was going to be a fancy formal party at the camp leader’s house. They were expected to dress nice. Ariel had been rushed, for the party was to start in about two hours. She quickly tossed on a short green dress and raced out the door. Her mom drove her to the party.
It was almost fancy, except for the fact that they were playing hard rock music. For a while, it was calm. Ariel constantly looked out the window to see if the white van was there. Then, she heard somebody yell her name behind her. Ariel spun around, and saw it was Lily and Sophie! Lily ran over and said,
“Girl, I haven’t seen you in like, ever. How is everything going? Never mind that, I just got my drivers license. I’m so excited!”
The girls talked for a while, when suddenly there was a crash! The doors and windows suddenly broke into pieces! Seven masked men jumped inside and pointed guns at the girls.
There was a sudden rush of fear as everybody jumped to the floor. An adult tried to negotiate with them, but one of the guys fired a gun into the ceiling. It then scared them all. One of the men said,
“ Now we’ll try not to hurt you all, just hand over Lily, Ariel and Sophie.”
Sophie then said sarcastically,
“ It’s Sophia. Can’t anybody get it right….. I mean, I never heard of a Sophie.”
Then Sophie recognized the tuxedos, they were wearing as the same people who tried to kidnap them a week ago! She tried to scuttle away from them. Suddenly, a guy grabbed her, and she kicked and screamed. She was dragged out of the house and into the white van. The three others went for Ariel and Lily. It took two men to take Lily, being of her older age. They were then tossed into the car.
The three girls huddled together and were scared. One guy took off his mask to reveal a youthful boy of about 18. He had long brown, hair and dark eyes. He sat down in front of them, as three others sat close by. A stern looking men took off his mask and said,
“ Now ladies, we don’t want to hurt you girls. Ohh, where are my manners, I’m Mr. Hank Jeffery. This is my son Matthew, Matt for short.”
Ariel chuckled a little, but fell silent. Mr. Jeffery then said,
“Now, we’re looking for a map, and we’ll let you go if you give it to us.”
Lily then asked,
“ What map, who are you guys? The Britain police don’t kidnap girls and wear masks. You don’t even look like one, and for god sake, they don’t use the name Matthew! No offense. It’s just too smart like.”
Matt gave her a mean look. Another guy admonished them,
“ Show us where the map is, Lily!”
Lily had no idea what they were talking about but answered,
“ I don’t have any map if that’s what your wanting. What the devil do you guys want?”
Mr. Jeffery looked at the others and asked,
“ Tell me Lily, do you believe in the City of Gold”
The three girls burst into laughter. Sophie exclaimed,
“ Yeah, I believed in Cities of Gold when I was three! Let me guess, you think the tooth fairy will help you find it. Maybe after that the -”
Ariel gave her a look as to tell her to stop. Mr. Jeffery then told them that the gold is the least of their concerns for something other than gold was their goal. Lily said,
“Ok, I never even heard of a map to this City of Gold. Why do you want us?!”
Mr. Jeffery just said that they wanted a map that they had and they probably won’t hurt them. The car then stopped in front of Lily’s house. Mr. Jeffery asked politely for them to get the map. The girls could tell he was demanding them to do it.
They then hopped out of the car and started searching her house. There were two guards outside the door. Lily tried to grab enough stuff they needed, as Ariel searched for the map. Lily grabbed a pocket knife, a cell phone, and a pack of gum. Meanwhile, Ariel and Sophie were searching through the house for the map. Sophie whined,
“Were soo going to die! I knew I shouldn’t have signed up for that retreat. I shouldn’t have ever gone to flashlight tag that night. This is all Lily’s fault.”
Ariel was getting tired of hearing her whine, and pushed her over. Then a couple of guys went in and forcefully took the girls out. Their hands and feet were tied with rope.
For a while, Ariel and Sophie were in the trunk of the car both sitting on a bunch of boxes. The doors opened and Lily was tossed in too. She sighed,
“ I think they got the wrong person, I would never have some stupid map to an unknown stupid place. This is stupid!”
Sophie complimented her,
“ You sure do like the word stupid. Just think on the positive side. If we get through this alive, we could be on an episode of 20/20 or be on the cover of People Magazine. New found fame!”
The other girls knew that it would never happen. Then they heard voices from the outside say,
“ We found it! It was in some vase that was full of dumb lilacs.”
Lily’s eyes widened and said,
“Not my lilacs!”
Ariel shushed her. They then felt the car moving and in an hour, they knew they were far away. Ariel then noticed something on one of the boxes. The letters NWD in red ink. Ariel knew what they were. A couple weeks earlier, she had saw on the news that an organization called the Nuclear Weapon Distributors (The NWD ) were selling powerful weapons to countries like Iran and North Korea. Why would they want to find a city of gold? It didn’t make sense. The car stopped and the girls were blindfolded.
A couple of minutes later, they found themselves in some warehouse. They were in an enclosed area with a 9 foot wall of boxes surrounded them with only one exit that was blocked. Then Lily used her pocket knife to rip through her bounds. She took off her blindfold. She then helped untie the others. The girls knew that whatever it was, was getting serious. The door on the side opened and Mr. Jeffery entered and yelled,
“ Listen here girls, either you participate or else. Now anybody here speak ancient French?”
Ariel slowly raised her hand and he tossed her the map. The map wasn’t what she expected; all it had was writing on it. No pictures at all. She studied it hard and said slowly,
“Umm…I think it says land under all, lies a treasure beyond all. Shins in the sky but buried under the sands of time.”
It made no sense, but the men quickly snatched it back. The door then closed behind them.
To be continued….