'Sam! SAM!', her head rung. Over and over, every moment for a month, she'd felt nothing but fear and sickening guilt, and it was worse when her eyes were closed, so she forced them open. Lara lay in a heap, splayed across the splintered remnants of a wooden door. Her vision was blurry and motes of distortion slid through what little focus she had. 'Seeing stars', she realized bitterly. She hadn't seen real stars since the sky had opened up and seemingly swallowed the Earth two weeks ago. That was when she'd begun making her way home, to Sam. She'd been gone two weeks even before that.
With a restrained hiss she lifted herself off of her back and into a sitting position, one hand on her head as if to steady it. She knew she was bleeding from a dozen new wounds, but she couldn't feel them just yet, not really. She had to move, anyway. That explosion would no doubt draw dozens of the sodding things the trap had been meant for.
She hadn't expected the improvised explosive rigged to the flat door when she had gone looking for a place to rest, and to hide. Groping her way across the ground, and eventually to her feet, she crossed the threshold. Judging by the grimy streak of torn carpet leading to shattered glass at the balcony, the defense mechanism had done them no good. Her stomach felt like a pit. She had to hope Sam was alive, that she'd been able to save herself when these people couldn't do the same. It was the only thing that kept air in Lara's lungs.
She limped to the balcony to peek over it and plan her escape. It was too dark to see anything further than the sidewalk below, and she dared not shine her light, it would act like a beacon.
Instead she found herself preparing for the inevitable. It began with examining her newest wounds. A cursory scan told her the deepest was the bleeding gash in her right calf. She quickly ripped the bottom half of the sleeve from her trousers and pressed it to her leg just below the wound. She began soaking it in her blood, squeezing gently at the sides of the wound to coax more onto the fabric. Only once she'd created a wet trail from the open door to the balcony, with the soaking cloth in the room's center did she actually dress and cover the wound.
With her leg wrapped and doused in alcohol, more in hopes of concealing the scent of her blood than preventing infection, she readied the fire axe she'd looted from another building, and waited around the corner for hell to come to her.
It didn't take long. The first of the things, shaped like a man, but stretched too long, and moving like a jungle cat, slunk through the doorway with its featureless face lowered near the floor, scenting for her. It had a twisted, elongated neck that snapped to the side when she took her first step forward. The axe came down at the top of its shoulders with a tactile crunch.
After the silence she'd been waiting in, it felt thunderously loud. She held her breath as she listened. The clattering of spidery limbs would fill the hallway any second, she was sure. When it didn't, she felt a chill.They were smart, she knew, and they were hunting her. She spat, spitefully. She'd been hunted before. They were between her and Sam, and that meant she was hunting them, as well. Once she'd checked the hallway, Lara grabbed her pack and crept out from the blasted room, senses primed.
'Just a little further', she told herself, praying her legs wouldn't give out beneath her. It had taken her much longer to cross London than she'd hoped, and every step broke her heart just a little more. It was so much worse than she'd expected. How could anyone survive here? Especially alone. Lara had left Sam alone.
Left. Right. One foot. In front. Of the other. She was bleeding badly, she knew. It didn't matter anymore; she could see their building now. Her axe was dragging behind her, she could barely carry it. Its head was dull, and the wood splintered, she'd needed to drive nails into it just to keep the head in place. She wish she had some nails for her own head. 'Sam! SAM!', it rang. She winced and pushed her thoughts aside. 'Almost there.'
She moved inside, the doors had been torn open, and there was no electricity to power the magnetic lock, anyway. Stifling a cough, she held her ribs and leaned to one side while she forced her axe up and onto her shoulder. 'Almost there.' She knew how much danger she would be inside the stair well, but she didn't care. 'Sam.'
Lara was moving like a wounded predator, something to be feared, on edge, ready to lash out, in distress. Her heart was thundering and she could hear it in her head. She hadn't come so far to falter at the finish line.
Bodies littered the steps. Shattered windows let in pale light, and wove uncomfortably thin and dark shapes out of the bent railings in the stairwell. Her eyes were at a disadvantage, so her ears picked up what slack they could. Picking her pace over the scattered bodies she was so afraid that she might recognize one that she almost closed her eyes. It was only because she didn't that she noticed one of the shadows had moved.
Lara went dead silent and took her axe in both hands, waiting. Several seconds passed before she thought she heard something moving, it was far enough above her she had no chance to see what it was, but it was aware of her, she was sure.
She advanced up the steps, on the hunt, no longer trying to hide. She even hoped the sound of her approach could make it feel fear. She'd killed enough of them that they must know her by now. She'd kill another, and she'd do it gladly. If those things had taken Sam she'd never stop hunting them, not until she lost the strength to stand.
Above her, she could hear it skitter to one of the doors, she wasn't sure what floor it was on, so she tried to force her weakened legs to carry her up the steps before the spring pulled it closed and she lost the trail.
Her knees were stiff and swollen, and her right calf was barely obeying her, it didn't matter, she moved forward and let her momentum carry her, gripping what remained of the railing and scrambling up the steps, she caught sight of the door just as it clicked shut. It was her door. Hers and Sams. That did it. She burst into a full fledged run, tore open the door and lifted her axe, face twisted into a snarl.
The corridor was pitch black, but so far as she could see, empty. It was too late to avoid casting a silhouette, so she pulled the electric torch from her pack and shone it into the blackness, eyes narrowed. Steadily she advanced past the shattered doors on each side of the hall. New strength filled her arm and she let the axe swing back and forth at her side menacingly. It was a warning, the bladed tail of a rattlesnake. 'Come close, and I'll kill you.'
She shone her torch through each door as she approached, occasionally lifting her axe and giving the door frame a sturdy knock. There were bodies here, as well. Bodies of people and those things alike. None of these rooms were theirs, none of these bodies could be Sam's.
While she was peering through one frame, a sudden 'thunk!' came from her periphery. She turned in an instant to face the source and was greeted by… An arrow shaft sticking from the wall?
Behind her a rapid spurt of footsteps, coming close. She was too slow, she knew she was too slow, too injured. She tried to turn, raising her axe to the defense, but it was too heavy in her hand. A flash of red streaked through the cone of her torchlight and the hooked nose of a climbing axe came down on her. Her climbing axe. Understanding overtook her in an instant.
Sam. Alive. Surviving, and fending off what she thought was an armed raider. Of course she'd have seemed that way with her axe and her predatory prowl. She smiled, earnestly smiled, even as the spiked nose bit into the flash above her collar bone. It drove the breath from her lungs and she dropped her weapon, legs failing beneath her. Lara fell with her back to the wall, staring up in combined shock and elation, but her scarred lips curled at the corners, despite the pain.
'Sam…', she mouthed breathlessly as the torch rolled from her hand. Sam was alive. Lara was sorry it had come to this, she knew this would hurt Sam when she realized what she'd done. Despite the circumstances, she felt her heart swell with pride.
Sam huddled around the corner, knocking Lara's bow as quietly as she could manage. Another raider had come, and this one seemed further gone than most. They moved like they were possessed. She'd never been so afraid of anyone before, the way they banged their axe on the walls just to let her know they were coming, that she was next. It left her weak and panting for breath, heart trying to beat its way out of her chest. She had to be quiet, she had one chance at this.
She looked out into the hallway and waited until she knew the person hunting them had aimed their flashlight into the apartment beside her hiding place. She couldn't see her assailant but she didn't need to, she loosed her arrow into the wall, just like Lara had told her she had done on Yamatai. It worked.
Step two, she gripped Lara's old climbing axe and mentally prepared herself for what she was about to do. Sam ran forward, and her hunter turned to face her, in the darkness the flashlight was blinding and she struck down with the axe blindly. She felt flesh, and the effect was immediate, the sound of heavy metal hitting the carpeted floor, and her enemy slumped backwards against the wall into the darkness with a gasp.
She pulled the axe out of the wound she'd made and stepped back as the flashlight rolled toward her feet. She could hear an unhealthy gurgling noise. She was unsure whether she should pick the flashlight up, she could use it, but she didn't want to see what she'd done. 'Maybe I should end their suffering? Can I even do that?', she wondered. Her guts knotted themselves in protest.
Against her better judgement, Sam crouched down slowly, and gripped the flashlight by the handle. The hunter's legs were shuffling, and she could hear them catching their breath. It occurred to her that her assailant was a woman.
The light revealed hiking boots, torn up cargo pants, and scarred, muscular female legs. 'No.' She quickly raised the light to see her attacker's face. 'No, no. No. No. NO!' Lara was smiling bravely up at her. Sam dropped the climbing axe, and lunged for her dearest friend in complete horror at what she'd done.
"Lara!", she choked, and she began to gush her thoughts through an instantly tightening throat. "I'm so sorry! I didn't think…", she lost her words, she choked back a cry and tried again. "I thought you were gone", she admitted and buried her face into Lara's uninjured shoulder. She winced when she felt it move, sure that Lara would push her away like she always had. There was so much blood.
"I'm so sorry", she repeated and tried to pull away. Lara's arm stopped her. It slide across her back and tethered them together.
"Sam", she rasped with what air she'd managed to find. Her undamaged arm pulled itself back over Sam's shoulder so that Lara could feel her face. Her fingers lingered on the wetness on Sam's cheeks and the way she shook.
"I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry…", Sam continued to repeat desperately.
Lara's voice came from across the small, dark gap between them and hushed her, "Shhh…", she cooed somehow finding enough silk to edge her voice with that Sam stopped. Sam felt fingers stroking her dirty hair while more whispers came to calm her. Just as Lara had done in the past, before Yamatai, to soothe her when something was wrong.
"It's okay", she promised. "It's okay, I forgive you. I'm proud of you." Sam shook in response but knelt in closer, and embraced her wounded, blood smeared friend. No space between them, no reservations or hesitation.
"I didn't think you would come back", Sam repeated into Lara's neck. She felt Lara tighten her embrace and place a tender kiss on the corner of her jaw, as though nothing in the world were wrong.
"I made a promise", Lara repeated with purpose. Despite it all, Sam laughed for just a short moment, laughed right into Lara. Unmistakably laughed, she knew Lara could tell the difference, feel the difference.
"Do… Do you have any medical supplies?", Lara asked finally. Sam wiped her eyes and kissed Lara's forehead.