By the time they reached the camp near the ruins, all hell had broken loose. They could see the archeological team scampering, some running for their vehicles. A mass of Nicoyan Indians had surrounded one tent. As Michael pulled up, several came toward the Jeep, banishing spears but Michael pulled out his gun and they backed off. He cocked it quickly and fired into the air to get all of their attention.

It was then, that Angie who had been so startled by the commotion, saw a small party, perhaps four people running toward the Tomb. She could see the white palazzo pants and knew who ran with them; "Lucinda!" she yelled at the top of her lungs.

They were carrying something, like a stretcher and quickly disappeared down inside the crevice.

Rollie jumped out of the jeep, the rest of the swarm of the tribe standing still, no longer shoving spears or making noise. Some even smiled at Michael. He began to speak to them, his voice low and calm. He was speaking some sort of Indian dialect for several talked with him. Angie turned to Rollie, an old feeling creeping back into her mind.

"What's he up to? He seems to know these people well. I don't get it!" Angie said, puzzled.

"Well, while he is soothing the savage beasts, let's go have a look down the rabbit hole, shall we?" Rollie asked her, motioning toward the crevice.

"You don't have to ask me twice," she replied as they ran off toward the Tomb. Their curiosity and the need to get to Luce were more important. Michael saw them out of the corner of his eye and smiled.

As they managed the rope ladder, and held the flashlight against the tomb walls, they saw no people. Angie flashed the light toward an opening that they stooped through and then found themselves in a tunnel.

"This is the tunnel that Luce talked about, Ange. We should follow it around and listen out for her voice," Rollie said in a whisper.

With only the one flashlight, they crept through the maze of tunnels, hearing nothing. Finally, they entered a large cavernous room. They could see the wavering light from a torch in the distance and then, nothing.

"Over there! Come on, they went there-" Rollie pointed, grabbing Angie's hand and they ran toward the end of the room where the light had suddenly disappeared. Rollie stepped off jerkily as one foot hit nothing but air and Angie went back on the heels of her feet, bending her knees, straining as she held his hand, and gritted her teeth. She pulled with all her might, his entire weight, as he fought his way back, his balance restored by Angie's sheer adrenaline surge.

"Oh God!" he cried out, holding on to her tightly, "almost over and gone!" They looked into a black, seemingly bottomless hole.

"Help me!" called the voice near their feet. Looking down, the flashlight that had fallen near Angie's feet, was shining on a straining face appearing just above the edge of the pit. That face was very familiar.

"Luce! Hold on!" Angie screamed, as Rollie squatted, grabbing one of Lucinda's wrists as she grimaced

"I can't hold on any- " and her other hand slipped off the edge, small pebbles sent flying below her as Rollie groaned, holding her entire body's weight by one wrist as she screamed. Angie grabbed her flailing other arm and then the two of them pulled her up to safety between them.

"What a stupid, stupid, fool I am!" Luce cried, almost hysterical as she wept, as both Angie and Rollie held on to her.

"Where have all the Indians that were with you?" Rollie asked her, as she wiped her face, sniffling.

"I was duped. They had me help them get back the body of King Balsaque from the archeologist's tent. I believed them, especially that damn Juan Tocha character. He told me that only I could give the King back his mizo- to keep his evilness contained. What a dope! I guess that I have been an easy mark the entire time here!" Lucinda told them, folding her legs up against her chest and hugging them.

"Where's Michael?" Angie asked Rollie, both of them confused by Lucinda's comments. She wasn't making much sense to them.

"Michael? What is he here for?" Lucinda asked, sarcastically.

"He brought us out here. He was concerned about you as well. He actually was starting to sound all right, Luce. He explained everything," Angie told her, smiling as they stood up.

"Are you two crazy? He was stealing relics from the Indians along with Roddy. They tried to kill all of you, the Indian told me that they poisoned the water and killed all of you. He also said that they had killed that woman who was impersonating me. I am glad to see you here alive. They must have been lying about the poisoning."

"Actually, Roddy was poisoned, Luce. And I guess, we all could have been but I found out about the tampering with the bottles before the rest of us had drunk any water," Angie told her, smiling.

"Roddy's dead? Oh great! Wait until this hits Hollywood!" Lucinda commented, rolling her eyes.

"Let's get back up to the surface here, ladies. I think we should find Michael," Rollie said as Angie could feel an undercurrent of worry in his voice.

With the flashlight in hand, they started back toward the Tomb. Lucinda let out a small yelp as she reached into her pocket for the Avatar. It was gone.

"Oh no! It's gone!" she cried out, then feeling the other pocket.

"What?" Angie and Rollie both asked.

"The Mizo, the Avatar! It's not in my pocket!" she said, fumbling crazily again through her pockets again.

"Come on, they probably took if from you, that old legend is pure fiction. They wanted both the skeletal remains and the relic to sell on the black market. I have a feeling that these Indians know how to make a buck!" Rollie told her, holding her arms.

"Yeah," Lucinda replied, knowingly, "they have a great leader, he had an MBA from Harvard."

Angie smirked and shook her head. As they walked toward the Tomb, seeing the light as daylight was breaking, they all smiled. Back to the lodge and then home, they all discussed as they made their way back toward the rope ladder. The ground started to shake as Angie was the first to put her foot in the lower rung of the rope. The sound of a heavy earth moving tractor rattled near them as the whole area in the discovered Tomb began to shake and the walls started to fall.

"HEY!" Rollie shouted, desperately, "We're down here!"

They could see the shovel of the tractor now, over the center of the hole as they stood looking up at it. A few crumbles of earth fell from the shovel scoop, as Angie put her head down, avoiding getting it into her eyes.

"HEY! Michael? What's going on?" shouted Rollie again.

Above them, came a face. It was Juan Tocha and he saluted them, smiling at Lucinda, "You are one tough broad to kill, you know that?" he said, frowning and then nodded to the tractor operator.

"NO!" was Angie's scream as the dirt came flying down in a massive heap. Before Rollie could react, she was buried under six feet of dirt with another load on its way down. Lucinda was screaming and pulling on Rollie's arm as he fought to free himself of her to get to Angie. As the second load poured in, the earth seemed to swallow them up, throwing Lucinda and Rollie back into the tunnel. There were no further sounds from Angie.

"Angie!" Rollie screamed, Lucinda unable to hold him back any longer, as the smell of moldy, wet earth filled their nostrils. They could no longer see daylight as Lucinda held the flashlight and Rollie started digging like a mad man. Lucinda dropped the flashlight, the futileness of Rollie's digging alone made her lunge into the mass of dirt beside him, as she cried out for Angie as well.

"Her foot, here is her foot!" screamed Lucinda as Rollie quickened his pace, his lungs burning from the limited oxygen and effort. They had found her other leg and Rollie reached up, grabbing, feeling for her belt around her hips.

"Hold on sweetie!" he yelled, his breathing now raspy, as Lucinda kept digging, and felt the earth collapse around what she had just dug free.

"Rollie! Hurry! It is giving way!" she screamed at him, seeing his face, the sweat pouring off him as the veins in his neck bulged, his hands grabbing, probing. With a renewed zeal, he pulled hard as Lucinda put her hands up next to his, finding the belt. Together they pulled desperately, once, then twice and still, no budging.

"Oh, help us!" Lucinda shouted out to her maker as Rollie echoed her thoughts, with a final pull, they extracted Angie's body back against them, the earth collapsing, and they fell back into the tunnel.

Lucinda was on her feet as Rollie grabbed Angie's face, wiping off the dirt from her nose and mouth. Lucinda was feeling for a pulse and shaking as she cried out to Rollie.

"I can't find a pulse!"

Seeing her lifeless body below him, he shouted out, "NO!" and pinched her nose off, as he forced air into her lungs, his mouth over hers, once, than twice. Lucinda had straddled her and was compressing her chest, counting off as she told Rollie to breathe into her. They continued for what seemed like five minutes, both already exhausted from digging her out. Unable to continue, Rollie laid down beside her, his lips next to her ear as Lucinda kept compressing.

"Oh Angie, love- don't do this- please baby, breathe!" he shouted at her. He once again forced air into her, feeling her lips grow colder. He remembered the little girl playing with him, teasing him into a kiss when she was sixteen. He remembered her kissing him in the park after Loubar, while he was confused and unsure of himself with her. He remembered kissing her then in her apartment, after declaring that he loved her. He remembered kissing her in Avila, in the shower, the first time, he had made love to her. His lips surrounded hers, his air to her, his life to her.

Suddenly, he heard Lucinda through the recalled slow motion of his memories as she called out his name, "Rollie, stop now!"

He cried out, his anguish complete, raw as he raised his mouth up away from her, his tears flowing freely.

"Rollie, no! Hey, look! She's breathing, oh God, thank you!" Lucinda said, her voice resounding now in his ears as he looked down, seeing Angie's lips pinking up, her cheeks reddening. She was coughing and wheezing as Rollie, in a frantic move, pulled her up, and was slapping her on the back in an effort to help her bring up the inhaled dirt from her lungs. She threw up then, dirt ingested as well and he held her as she gagged and struggled for breath.

"Rollie…" she said, her voice breaking up and strained with wheezing, "Oh my chest! It hurts so bad!"

Lucinda looked around, biting her lip. Rollie felt her ribs and as he pressed close to where Lucinda had been compressing, Angie cried out in pain. He could feel the crackling sound of her rib cage.

"You have some broken ribs, I think, Ange. Don't move too much, love. We can do something about that," Rollie told her as Lucinda started to cry.

"I'm so sorry! This is all my fault. If I hadn't come out here, you two would be safe back at the lodge. I broke your ribs, Angie. It's my fault!"

"Luce, you saved her life, come on. We need you thinking clearly. You have been down here more than we have. Maybe there is another way out? Think!" Rollie asked her, trying to soothe her as well as give her something to do.

Angie, still wheezing and gasping at times, watched her, and smiled; "Luce, it's okay, really!"

Rollie had taken off his jacket. He pulled his shirt off and began to rip it from the tail up to the collar. Once done, he gently took off Angie's jacket and lifted up her shirt. He wrapped the strip of shirt around her ribs, under her bra as a brace, tying it tightly as she gasped with the sharp intake of breath suddenly.

"It has to be tight, Ange," he warned her, knowing she was in constant pain. She nodded as Rollie stood and then tried to help her up. She grimaced as she stood, coughing and gasping slightly. The brace did help with the support as she breathed out then.

"Okay, let's go back down and take the first tunnel to the right. I think that relic room was that way," Lucinda said, taking the point as Rollie nodded and helped Angie along. She was covered from head to toe with moist dirt. Rollie had put his jacket over his bare chest, shivering slightly. The tunnels were cold and dank. As Lucinda rounded a corner, she let out a squeal, "Here it is!"

The room was empty. Several torches remained lit as they stood looking at the room. A few broken clay pots were all that remained of the relic room. The drugs had been removed as well. With that disappointment behind them, they followed her as she went further down the tunnel deeper into the cavern. There had to be another way out, she knew it.

They entered the great hall, as Lucinda called it, again. Making sure that they did not get near the pit, they searched for another way out. The Indians had disappeared somewhere from this cavern and quickly, leaving Lucinda dangling from the pit. As Angie sat down on a rather flat stalagmite, Rollie and Lucinda searched. She was thinking about Michael. Could he have deceived her yet again? Was the whole talk with him in their room when he confessed his need for the relic and his love for Mira still a ploy to get them out here? She suddenly thought that it would be the most convenient way to dispose of all of them. To bury them in the earth and leave. He and that Indian could have set the whole thing up. She shook her head. She didn't feel that he had totally betrayed them. But then, Michael had always been hard to perceive, to feel things from.

Rollie was sweating profusely and Angie realized, watching him that he had not taken his medication for sometime. Likely, he was relapsing again. They had to get out of this place. She stood up, stiffly, taking short little breaths as she looked at the place again in detail. Seeing the torch high up near the top of the cavern ceiling, she thought that it had to be up there for a reason.

"Hey, any way up there to that?" she asked, pointed to the torch above them.

"Smart girl, why didn't I think of that?" Rollie said, grinning as he took off, climbing a small, rocky ledge and disappearing for a moment. Lucinda was not far behind him. Angie was suddenly alone in the cavern, calling for both of them with no response…