C.N. April 2014: Digital Distration Part 26

“Yami?! Tea!?” Joey bellowed, scanning the beach for signs of his friends. He and Ombre had headed that way the moment that they had been dropped off.

The bad guys had been rather thorough in splitting them up. Tea, Ombre and Tristan hadn’t been on the guest list but those who had had been set at different points on the map. Yami had been on this beach, he had been dropped off at the Temple Point while Kari’s start point had been Waterfall Point. They were at completely different ends of the game map.

Which was probably why Kari and Tristan weren’t here yet. At least that was what he hoped as he searched the beach for clues as to where his friends had vanished to.

Ombre was on edge as they headed towards the caves that Yami had mentioned to Kari. She half wished that Yami hadn’t insisted that she and Kari split up. It had been logical, that didn’t mean she had to like it. Especially when there was no sign of the Pharaoh or her light.

“Yami!” Joey bellowed again, making Ombre grimace, wishing he wasn’t giving their location away to any bad guys that might have been in the area. “Tea!”

There was no reply but Ombre didn’t need one as they entered the cave. There were footprints in the sandy floor that led in, but there none leading back out. “Joey.” She murmured, pointing them out.

The teen nodded, worried now for his friends as he followed Ombre warily into the cave system. They followed the footprints further in, until they reached a large empty cavern. As Ombre noted the increase in the number of footprints around, Joey searched around for clues.

“There was a fight here.” Ombre said, scanning the floor and noting the scuff marks where it looked like people had been knocked backwards or sent flying.

“Ombre.” Joey’s tense tone made the spirit of the Orb frown as she joined him over to one side of the cavern, where it looked like someone had hit the floor, hard. “Look.” He said as he scooped something out from under a rock.

She took it from him, scowling at she recognised the wand in his hand. The gold stemmed focus could only belong to Yugi or Yami. It wasn’t hard to guess that it had fallen from Yami’s pocket, or out of his hand at some point, probably when the bad guys had jumped them.

“Crap.” Ombre breathed, scanning their surroundings again. There was another exit to the cavern, one that headed further into the cave system that apparently ran underneath the island. The footprints led in that direction, there were several pairs of almost identical treads, alongside a much different set of prints that staggered as they headed into the tunnel at the back.

Where the prints looked like their owner had staggered, Ombre found Tea’s phone pressed into the sandy floor.

“Guess we know which way they went.” Joey grimaced as she scooped the phone up.

“I don’t think we’ve ever run into bad guys with uniforms before. At least not ones that even included shoes.” Ombre snorted, trying not to be worried that there was only one pair of unusual shoes amongst the footprints, suggesting that they had carried Yami. There was no way that he would have allowed that if he had been conscious, meaning that they had knocked him out somehow.

“First time for everything.” Joey snorted, “Shall we?” He gestured into the tunnel.

Ombre hesitated, glancing back towards the entrance. “Kari and Tristan are heading this way...” She pulled Kari’s phone out of her pocket, having borrowed it from her light. “No signal.”

“I’m going on.” Joey informed her, “If you want to go back and phone Kari, you can catch up but...”

“I’ve got a better idea.” Ombre shook her head, snatching a pen out of her bag and a piece of paper and leaving a note for her lighter half and her chaperone and leaving it by the entrance before following Joey. The teen, who was racing further into the cave system, was miles ahead of her when he let out a frustrated curse.

Ombre barely noticed the fact the floor went from a sandy surface to a solid stone as she caught up to him. The tunnel split into three, heading off in different directions and there weren’t any signs of which way the goons had taken their friends.

Joey swore and kicked the wall, only to start swearing harder and lean against the wall so he could cradle his foot.

“I swear if you break your toes, I’ll have no sympathy.” Ombre grouched at him, trying to see if she could work out which way they had gone. She had hoped to see a trail of sand or something that could guide them. Unfortunately there was sand leading down all three corridors, but not enough to leave foot prints.

They were about ready to pick one at random when Joey spotted something glinting on the floor just inside one of the tunnels. He bent down to pick it up and grinned slightly. “Remind me to tell Tea she’s awesome.”

“Why?” Ombre asked, coming over to look at what he was holding. “Oh you had better look after that carefully.”

Joey nodded and pocketed the earring. Kari had commented on the fact Tea had had her ears pierced during the school year, telling the teen that her earrings looked really pretty. Tea had apparently dropped one of them to give her friends a clue as to which way they were heading.