As it turns out, Cora's healthy skepticism makes telling her the whole story painfully easy. No lie could be more unbelievable than the truth, after all. Evelyn secretly hoped that she would take the hint and back out while she still could, like the good priest did, but the other woman did not seem interested in turning back.
"Not a very a long one. We just want to see the well for ourselves," Evelyn replies in Spanish. Her pronunciation has greatly improved, but her accent still needs work. She smiles very slightly at Pablo's mention of the place being haunted. "Are you saying that there are ghosts there?"
Pablo shrugs his shoulders, almost defensively.
"I know the jungle well, but there's plenty in it I can't explain yet."
Good that I don't believe that sort of thing then Cora says with an impish grin. Her Spanish is fluent and confident, but it's not a local accent. It's obvious from her manner anyway that she's American.
Garza nods, smiling to reveal a few missing teeth.
"It's almost two days of hiking to get to the Chichén- if we push hard we can make it by late afternoon on the second day. I figure packing for four days will be enough and you'll have plenty of time to take photos or whatever it is you want to do. I'll hire four porters for supplies, since there's four of you. How does that sound?"
Heard there was trouble with bandits, and that another party that went over that way hasn't been heard back from. Cora says Seems like it'll be a bit more challenging then a two day walk?
"The hope is we're in and out fast enough that bandits won't bother us- and keep any weapons out in the open to make us look like less of a target. The longer we spend out there, the more risks we run so we have to be in and out."
Evelyn grimaces, loathing the possibility of getting caught in another shootout. In the jungle, no less.
"Is there anything we should bring that the porters might not be able to supply us with?"
Pablo rattles off some common expedition equipment; you get the impression that this is second nature to him and he's done this quite a lot.
"You'll want to bring food and water for yourself, of course, and some of us should keep rope just in case- the jungle isn't all that flat in some parts and it would help with climbing out. I just bring a pistol and a machete personally- hopefully we won't need the guns, but better to carry it and not need it. The porters will carry tents and a camp stove with fuel, but you'll want a tarp or something just in case- it gets wet out there. It's a tough balance- you carry more, you'll need more water, which will also weigh you down. Try to stick to the essentials."
Cora shrugs. That all sounds fine to me. When will we be ready?
"Thankyou Pablo. Looks like we've got a little more shopping to do, then we will be on our way."
"Good, good. I'll pick you up bright and early tomorrow with the porters and the supplies. There is the matter of my fee as well..."
You bargain a bit with Pablo about the price, but mostly out of courtesy- any of you can easily foot the bill.
Freddy will pack up a flashlight, his .45, a machete, a shotgun, camera(w/ film etc-) and will wear his boots and outfit that he purchased from the outfitter place. Ready to go!
Trusting that the porters will have most of the essentials on hand, Evelyn goes out and purchases an outfit and bag suitable for jungle exploration. She stuffs it full of miscellaneous medical supplies, covering up the small stack of ammunition at the bottom.
"First, do no harm," she remarks dryly as she shoves a box of shotgun shells deep beneath a roll of bandages.
You all pack up your newly acquired gear and turn in for the evening, ready for an early start in the morning. Sleep is a bit difficult for Amadeus, Freddy and Evelyn by this point- the accumulated miles behind you, the things left in your wake and the tasks remaining make restful sleep difficult to reach.
In the pre-dawn hours, while it's still as chilly as Meridá really gets, you have what breakfast you can manage at the hour and pile into one of the yellow pickup trucks that Pablo and his porters drive over to pick you all up. Pablo drives one with room for you and your gear while four Mestizo guys drive the other with the tents and things that they'll be carrying.
The drive out of the city and toward the jungle is fairly quiet- you get the sense that Pablo is a bit nervous. You're soon past the paved city roads and on hard dirt roads out flanked by increasingly heavy jungle growth.
"It's pretty easy to cross the Yucatán.", Pablo says to break the silence. "The roads, where you can find them, are pretty good. Once you're off the roads, though, that's where you need to be a bit more careful. There are still Mayan villages out here in the countryside, still living as we had before the Spanish came. Not so much on de la Vega's lands, of course..."
Here and there you pass other cars, invariably older than the truck you're driving and loaded up with Mayan workers heading into the city for the day's labor. Soon enough, though, you have the road almost completely to yourselves.
"While we're in the jungle, it's quickly in and quickly out alright? We'll keep our voices down and our weapons out and we'll be okay.", Garza says, turning off the main road and onto a muddy side road and then down a narrow path that ends in a rocky ten-foot drop-off.
At the top of the drop-off is a light-green pickup truck, sitting silently with its doors open. Pablo turns off the ignition on your truck and you hear the porters' truck behind you also coming to a stop.
"That's probably the truck from Exposito's expedition. Looks like it's been looted.", Pablo says.
Huh. Cora approaches the truck with her revolver out and looks it over to see if she can detect any signs of violence. That's odd.
Freddy follows behind Cora and looks out over the rocky cliff for signs of people.
The trucks are muddy and have clearly been neglected out here. The ignition has been messed with, electrical chords dangling out from under the steering wheel.
Freddy doesn't see any signs of people nearby. The porters get out of the trucks and start picking up their packs and the tents. Pablo shoulders on his own rucksack and canteen, nervously checking his pistol.
Well this truck won't be moving without a lot of tender loving care by a mechanic. But where did the people go?
Cora finds nothing of interest around the trucks save for layers of shallow boot prints damaged by rain. The lack of other evidence is probably due to looting and weather. Another set of tire tracks shows that there was another truck on location, but the trail has been washed away by the rain since then.
Keeping her own gun at the ready, Evelyn inspects the interior of the truck for any signs of there being a struggle, as well as for any clues on the identities of the looters.
There are no signs of a struggle or damage to the car beyond the attempt at hot-wiring it. The interior looks to have been damaged by rain, since the doors were left open.
"We can't waste daylight.", Pablo says "We have to do 18 miles today to be on schedule. Let's go- unless you changed your mind."
Well there was another truck here, so stands to reason that it'd be travelling on a road and not veer off into the trees. Cora shrugs Bandits makes the most sense. Ready to move on from my side.
Freddy goes to check out the ignition, but Pablo seemed anxious to get moving. "Alright, you're the guide, if you think that we should go now, then we go now." The PI puts his pack on, takes a swig from his canteen and starts moving.
Amadeus complains. A lot.
"Who would have looted a truck out here? Bandits? Natives?" He tries to remember how friendly the natives are...
Given how much both Francisco and Pablo have talked about the possibility of bandits around here, that's the most likely scenario.
Pablo leads you onto a narrow trail that Cora and Freddy (with their wilderness experience) conclude is a little too wide to be a game trail- humans likely use this trail infrequently.
With the porters behind you with your gear, you march steadily into the jungle with Pablo setting a brisk pace. The day gets steadily more and more humid as the sun warms the jungle, the trees and vines crowding the path more and more the further from the trucks you get. You hear a variety of birds in the trees and animals scurry off in the underbrush at your passage.
At around noon, you find a stone marker next to the path. It's almost 9 feet tall and intricately carved, though badly weathered by rain and deeply settled in the mud. The carving depicts what look like warriors in cotton armor standing on the backs of their decapitated foes, snakes slithering forth from the open necks of the fallen. The warriors hold a severed head up to toward the top of the marker, with pride.
Cora finds herself growing excited by the marker. That's real tall. she says examining it closely. She'd never seen anything like it before. This is amazing. Hey maybe I should start visiting museums or something. Don't know if it'll compare with seeing it like this though.
Looking at it more closely with her keen eye for valuables , Cora can see that the marker was one point even taller- but something broke off the top. The whole thing might have once shown what the armored figures were offering the heads to.
Hey take a looksee here. Cora points at the top This thing was even taller. Someone took the top off the thing. Must have been important. Heck maybe it is in a museum somewhere. Not a bad way of hauling it off. Too bad about the damage though
"Why only remove the thing they worshipped?" Amadeus asks, then looks around nervously. He's seen far too much to be trusting of missing idols and sacrifice.
Pablo glances back and forth through the jungle.
"Be careful. Be quiet from here one. We don't want to get caught by the Xoxul- er, I mean, bandits- past this point."
Freddy snaps a picture of the stone marker. "It was probably some horrible gaping mouth that they were tired of looking at." the PI says almost to himself before moving on.
After some photos and Amadeus going on about the anthropological and mystical significance of the marker, you follow after Pablo on the trail.
After several hours hiking through the mostly flat and increasingly quiet jungle, several drops of water hit your hats and shoulders... followed by more and more as the skies darken and a storm blows in.
The jungle trembles with falling rain and the trail becomes a muddy rivulet. Your clothes soak up the weirdly cold water and it's difficult to see more than twenty feet ahead of you.
Cora squints up at the clouds That's funny. It was supposed to be clear and sunny for a long time. She says But this is heavy heavy rain. Cold too. the young woman shrugs Hope it passes soon.
You all trudge forward despite the rain, your boots and clothes growing increasingly soggy and muddy.
The trail skirts a shallow slope, but Cora only notices after slipping in the mud due to the poor visibility brought on by the rain. She slides down the slope, smacking into tree trunks and several boulders on the way down. She only stops when she hits another nine foot tall marker at the bottom of the slope.
Finally coming to a stop, Ms. King is relieved to find that she's only gotten a few bruises and cuts from the fall.
The marker is covered in mud and vines, but seems to have more of the top portion that was broken off the previous marker. A wide, frog-like mouth seems to be reaching down with a grasping tongue to devour the offered head. The rest of the body the mouth belonged to has been broken off by vandals or the elements.
Pablo calls down from the path. "Wait there!", he says before carefully picking his way down the muddy slope with the aid of his walking stick. He takes a look at Cora.
"That's a relief, you're a lucky one Señorita. This path meets back with the other a few hundred feet this way..."
Short cut Cora wheezes as she gets her breath back. Worth it.
Despite his nervousness, Pablo cracks a smile at Cora's comment. After a few hundred feet on the lower trail, you rejoin the rest of the expedition and continue carefully hiking the muddy trail.
As it grows darker the cold rain subsides and Pablo indicates that it's time to make camp. The porters start setting up tarps and tents over the wet ground and a very smoky fire is started. Your camp meal certainly isn't the greatest you've ever had, but it's welcome after a long day on the trail. The jungle closes in around you, a dark sea of trees at the edge of the campfire's light.
Freddy and Cora both realize that Pablo’s not around the campfire. Even if he were taking a leak, he’s been away a little longer than he should.
Freddy stands up from the campfire and gives a suspicious look to Cora. "Pablo has been out a while aint he? I don't speak the language, you want to ask one of these folks where he might of disappeared off to?" The PI motions over to the laborers. At the same time though, he picks up his flashlight and .45, suspecting that a trip into the wilderness is imminent.
Cora nods, worried by the disappearance of their guide.
In Spanish she turns to the laborers and asks Hey, have you seen Pablo? He was just here.
The porters look around. One of them, you think his name is Raffe, shrugs.
”Maybe he’s taking a- sorry, maybe he just needed longer than usual. He was looking a little pale today.”