An unexpected reunion.

As the first rays of the sun fell on the makeshift camp, Garett woke up and stretched out, yawning loudly. He looked over to Jill and saw she was still asleep, her long black hair draped all over the place. “Rough night, I guess” he said to himself smiling and got up. Taking a few steps out of the camp, he stretched out again and looked around. Coast clear, it seemed, as he tried to recall which way they needed to got to reach the car.

He looked over his shoulder when he heard soft footsteps and saw Jill walk over, still half asleep, her hair a bit fluffy and wild. “Good morning.” Garett greeted her and she returned the greetings. Garet laughed as he looked at her hair and asked “Slept well?”. Jill felt her hair, pulled her shoulders up and nodded with a smile. Garett walked back to the camp, grabbed some food and drinks and returned to Jill. “Here, let’s get some energy and get moving as quick as possible. I don’t want to stay here longer than needed.” Jill took the supplies Garett offered and nodded in agreement.

When they were done with breakfast, Garett put everything back in his backpack and motioned Jill to leave camp. “Come, time to go.” he said. Garett went ahead and Jill followed closely. They followed a path Garett thought he recognised as the path the hacked and broke out of the foliage as they made their way to the temple and after a ten minute walk, Garett could see the white paintwork on the nose of the Range Rover shining in the rays of the morning sun.

When they got closer, Garett saw the trunk hatch was opened and motioned Jill to get down. They crawled towards the nose of the car and crept past the passenger door towards the back still seeing nobody. Then he heard familiar voices. “Do you think they made it out? They should be here by now if they’d made it, right?” said a male voice. “Maybe. That rope must be Garett’s work. It could be that they set up camp somewhere to get through the night, Charlie. The nights are dark here.” another voice answered.

“Charlie? Jesse? But how…?” Garett thought to himself. He felt Jill’s hand clamp on his shoulder and looked back, looking straight in her questioning eyes. “Wait here.”, he mumbled and slowly crawled towards the back of the car, looking through the side windows. He saw to people laying in the back, looking outside the open rear of the car. He couldn’t believe it, but those were indeed his two friends which he thought he lost back in the temple.

“Jesse? Charlie?” he said out loud. The two guys shot up at his voice and looked at him, then jumped out the car and greeted him excitedly. “Garett!!!!” they yelled in unison and they both hugged him. “So glad you made it out!” Charlie said. Garett laughed and replied “Same here! I almost thought only Jill and I made it out.”, pointing at Jill, who shyly joined the guys. Charlie and Jesse looked at her curiously, making the girl blush and hide behind Garett a bit, before Charlie carefully stepped towards the girl and and said with a soft voice “Hey there. So you are Jill. Nice to meet you. My name is Charlie. I guess I’m kinda your father.” Saying those last few words, he thought about it and smiled widely. “I’m glad I got to see you again!”