The River

Next day.

"I will kill Kurnawan next time I see him.

"I don't understand it. Why would he betray us? Doesn't he have to share the gold with Clement too?"

Bobby clenched his fist, held it up, grumbling as we trudged on in the jungle.

"It's simple. Kurnawan intended to kill them off too.

"But there is another culprit, Huang Bao Kun. He knows the addition of Clement's team will lead to this. The fewer of us surviving, the more gold for him."

I tapped the side of my forehead as I replied.

What happens is more than what you see.

After a night of thinking, the chess moves being played out were much clearer to me now.

The only thing that I couldn't put my finger on was my Shifu's intended move for me.

Shifu didn't want to be involved with Huang Bao Kun, so he had let me be his proxy.

In this way, he could deliver his promise and at the same time get me into tomb raiding.

But what's his end goal?

Kill Amy Lee and the rest, keeping the gold for us?

Or work with Amy Lee and take our share of it?

After what we've been through together, I shudder to think about the first option.

I will not let it happen, I thought to myself silently.

"Up ahead, a few hundred more meters there should be a village," Amy Lee pointed in front of her as she said.

"Great, maybe we can have some proper meal now." Bobby's eyes brightened up at the prospect of proper food.

Up till now, all we had were cookies and instant noodles.

…

When we reached the village, it was a Dayak longhouse.

The longhouse was about two hundred meters long.

It was made of wood and elevated above the ground on stilts, typical of houses found in Southeast Asia.

This was to prevent insects and flooding that might occur.

Living in the longhouse was the whole village; all the different family units were housed inside.

There were common areas for cooking and socialization.

Villagers would have their daily life concentrated in the long corridor.

When the kids saw us approaching, they ran inside the longhouse.

After a while, a few adults appeared.

We went up and greeted them.

"Who are you and why are you here?"

An old man in traditional Dayak dressing asked and continued smoking his pipe.

Beside him were two fit middle-aged men, looking sternly at us.

I presumed the old man was the village head.

"We are here on an expedition. We hope to take a rest here, have a good meal before moving on," I took out the documents for oil exploration and passed them to the old man.

He looked at them, smirked and said, "Hmph, you are wasting your time. There's no oil around here; many have tried and left empty-handed. You can stay and rest, but not in the longhouse."

We thanked the village head and set up our tent by the side of the longhouse.

Some villagers then came and treated us to some Manok Lulun.

It's a famous dish that is chicken cooked with lemongrass, ginger flower, or other local greenery.

In exchange, we offered them our cookies and instant noodles.

All the villagers had peeped out of their windows, curious about what we were up to.

I waved at them and scanned the demographic.

Most were kids and women.

I thought to myself, most of the young men must have gone to the city for work.

"Is there any river around here?" I asked one of the women bringing us food.

"Yes, you can go straight in this direction." She pointed northwards, with the Gunung Niut mountain in the backdrop.

"I can bring you there." Her daughter exclaimed excitedly.

"Hi, what's your name? We would be glad if you could help," I said and took out a bar of chocolate and offered it to her.

She looked at her mum, waiting for her approval.

Her mother nodded; she jumped up and down, happy to help us.

"My name is Ally," she said as she took the chocolate.

We then prepared for a short trek to the river.

The river was not too far away.

Around a kilometer away.

"There is the river. When it's too hot, we would fish and have fun in the river."

Ally walked right by the riverbank, showing us their favorite spot for fishing and swimming.

She pointed at the river, turned around, and looked at us.

The river was around twenty meters wide; the water looked calm with leaves and some logs floating around.

We took out our map, and we were right at the spot of the 'X' where the treasure should be.

But there was nothing that is of interest around.

We searched around.

Nothing. 

I looked at the river; there was something familiar about it.

Where had I seen it before?

Then it struck me.

Before we left Singapore, I had had a dream about a river.

And with it.

A crocodile!

"Ally, stay away from the river." She was near the water, I quickly walked towards her while focusing my attention on the river.

A floating log drifted near Ally.

Then it happened.

Some bubbles appeared in the water and a huge splash of water came towards us.

I quickly pulled Ally towards me.

The crocodile missed her by an inch.

I carried Ally and ran.

"Bang!"

Amy Lee fired her pistol at the crocodile.

The bullet hit but didn't do much.

Its thick skin absorbed much of the impact from the shot.

The crocodile continued to chase behind me.

"Firecracker Tan, catch," I 'threw' Ally to Firecracker Tan, so that the crocodile could only get me.

"Damn you!" Bobby came rushing towards the crocodile with a stick.

The crocodile turned its head and snapped at Bobby.

Fortunately, Bobby jumped out of the way in time.

With my attention on Bobby, I tripped and fell at the worst time possible.

"Get away!" Amy Lee lost her cool and fired rapidly.

Bobby kept hitting the crocodile with his stick.

Sea Snake Fang had no clear sight to fire.

I tried to get up but felt intense pain in my ankle.

Then I could only see the crocodile's mouth, opened wide, coming right at me.