Part Fifteen

Nigel slowly opened his eyes, he had tried to delay waking from his dream as long as he could. Nigel could still see it clearly in his mind, Sydney and their children, two girls and one boy playing on the beach while he shot video. A wife and children, now that was his idea of a perfect life. Now if he could just convince Syd that they could have it all, a long life together, children, excitement, relic hunts. He crawled out of his sleeping bag and stood up stretching out the stiffness in his back and legs, Maybe he was asking too much, wanting that kind of future with Syd, but one could always hope and as long as there was hope........

Sydney jerked awake. "Nigel" her voice anxious.

Nigel quickly turned around and knelt by Sydney seeing the momentary fear in her eyes . "I’m right here Syd." He didn’t know what concerned him more, the tone of her voice when she called his name or the fear that crossed her face. "Are you okay?"

"I’m fine" Sydney replied as she unzipped her sleeping bag. "Just a bad dream, nothing for you to worry about." She smiled at him, hoping he would buy it. That her fear was nothing more than what she had said a bad dream.

Pushing his thoughts of domestic bliss out his mind Nigel’s only concern was for Sydney. He knew there was more to it than just a bad dream, but he could tell that Sydney was not ready to talk about it. Maybe when all this was over she would tell him about it.

Within twenty minutes everyone else had awoken and the camp was now busy with breakfast preparations and cleanup. Sydney saw an opportunity to get Nigel alone for a couple of minutes and told him what she had seen during the night. Both knew what lay ahead that day, if the map was right they would find the legendary mine before nightfall.

Nigel didn’t know what was worse, something unexpected happening out of the blue or knowing that something was going to happen before hand. He hoped the day would be like the others, but he had a ominous feeling that something bad was going to happen, something very bad. He felt Sydney place her hand on his arm, and as he looked at her Nigel had a terrible feeling he was never going to see her again.

Sydney saw the emotion in his eyes and wished she could erase it. She moved closer and lowered her voice to a whisper. "We will get through this. I just want you to be careful and to remember one thing, that I love you."

"I love you too Syd. I just have a bad feeling about today. I don’t know what I would do if anything ever happened to you." before Nigel could say anymore Amy called to them that breakfast was ready.

Sydney let go of his arm. "You watch my back, and I’ll watch yours, and I promise you we will get through this and everything will be okay." She saw him nod as she said a silent prayer for it to be true.

Go to Part Sixteen.


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