Author's Note: My first real Uncharted story, set between Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The Ghost Idol in this story is entirely fictional and created by me, if it is like any real idol that is purely coincidental.
Planting his back against one of the interior walls of the catacomb depths they were currently searching, treasure hunter and thrill-seeker Nathan Drake paused to catch his breath. Having just descended from several ledges and running across a bridge that was falling left him short of breath and caked in sweat. His white long-sleeved shirt was stained from the dirt and water he'd been submerged in so far, and he certainly wasn't pleasant to look at at that very moment.
Fortunately, right behind him, and as equally unappealing to look at, Victor Sullivan, Nate's closest friend and former mentor, came into view. It had taken Sully a bit longer to descend down the ledges, which was understandable, given his age was pushing into higher numbers, evident not only by his slower movements but also by his gray hair. Still, though, rebellious and persistent on keeping his 'bad-boy' personality, or what was left of it, alive, he had the local female bartenders swooning over him, which he never failed to tell Nate about.
Sully had informed Nate that he needed assistance in Ecuador retrieving a long lost idol that was important to him, but he gave Nate no further details. Reluctant to leave the luxury of his home, having been on a venture just like this only two weeks prior, Nate packed his bags and the two were in Ecuador soon after. Meeting up with a local tour guide named Alejandro Rico, an American-born man in his late '20s that returned to South America to discover more about his heritage. Alejandro had helped Nate and Sully to the catacombs they were now in, but refused to accompany them when he got wind of what they were seeking.
When Nate questioned Sully about the idol they were seeking, Sully finally gave up that it was supposedly non-existent and called the 'Ghost Idol' due to not only never being found, but also due to the actual look of the idol, that which represented a haunting skull that wasn't human. Sully didn't lack confidence that the idol didn't exist, though, having received reports that two of his former friends were in the exact same catacombs looking for it, but they hadn't been heard from in two weeks.
As to how that actually confirmed the idol's existence, Nate had yet to ask.
Of course they had more pressing matters at hand, the catacombs definitely weren't in their best shape. In addition to housing who knows how many corpses, the interiors were falling apart and Nate wasn't even sure which way they came in.
Sully wiped the sweat from his forehead. There was only one path that led through a narrow hallway decorated with tribal designs. The whole place had a forbidden feel to it, not to mention the pictures of men dying in various ways didn't fail to give off a foreboding sense of an unwelcoming nature.
Moving through the narrow hallway, Nate glanced at the tribal designs. What were they, exactly? Most depicted men injuring or otherwise killing others, but some of the designs seemed to be writing in a language he had never seen before. Maybe it was some lost, local language that the creators of the catacombs invented. Hell if he knew.
As Sully reached a fork in the narrow hallway, Nate moved up beside him. Both paths forked off into darkness, and there was no way to see what lay beyond them. Luckily, Nate had come prepared for such an occasion – flipping on his flashlight, he pointed it down each possible path they could take. They both went in opposing directions and then turned forward in a symmetrical style.
"What do ya think, kid?" Sully asked, contemplating either direction.
"Here, you start down that one. I'll go down this one. I'll throw you my flashlight after I see what's down this path, and you tell me what's down yours. If they're the same it won't matter, anyways." Nate responded, moving down the path closest to him, Sully doing the same on the opposite path.
As soon as Nate reached the corner he illuminated the path in front of him, but his light revealed little, the length of the hallway continued past how much his flashlight could reveal, the light not able to reveal what was further down the hallway.
"Alright, Sully. Here!" Nate shouted, turning his body and throwing the flashlight to his older friend.
Sully caught it and took a few steps forward, trying to gaze onto what path there was, but as soon as he did so the narrow ground beneath him began rumbling and crumbling, breaking on itself, causing Sullivan to slip and fall. Desperate, he turned and lurched backwards, trying to grab the edge of the remaining hallway floor.
"Nate!"
It took a moment, but Nate quickly appeared, extending a hand down to his friend and helping him up from the ledge. Neither of them had expected the floor to give out, but, with the decaying innermost area of the catacombs, they should have at least figured it was a possibility.
"You alright, Sully?" Nate asked.
"Yeah..banged my damn knee against a piece of the floor, though..ouch, damn!" He said, touching the fresh cut on his leg, blood seeping through the wound already, staining his tan pants a deep red, contrasting with the dirt and grime that already coated them. Nate picked up his flashlight and turned it on, sighing.
Sully got to his feet, and, along with Nate, continued down Nate's side of the slender hallway. There was nothing to see in the hallway but more tribal drawings on the wall. Were they literal? Metaphorical? Nate contemplated their possible meaning, or what exactly they revealed, until they came to the end of the hallway.
The hallway cut off very abruptly, coming to an edge that led to a very long drop into a deep, black abyss. Sully and Nate observed it, but there wasn't much to see. The room in front of them was large, but empty.
"Shit...now what?" Sully questioned. Nate tapped him on the shoulder, pointing to a series of small ledges on the wall that wrapped around to a rope, before ending on a small platform that had a lever built into it.
"There's no way I can do that...this one's up to you, kid."
"With pleasure." Nate retorted in a half-joking, half-sarcastic manner.
Only his hands could grip the ledge wrapping around the walls, leaving his feet dangling toward the abyss that was taunting him from below, just daring him to make a mistake and end up spending forever as a broken body in the endless abyss. Nate moved flawlessly from one ledge to another, showcasing what all his experience treasure hunting had amounted to, namely, extreme upper-body strength, precision jumping, and most of all, parkour-style movement that was impressive and quick.
Eventually, Nate came to the rope. He leapt from the ledge he was hanging on, and gripped the rope, using his feet to run along the wall and quickly let go of the rope once it reached the maximum distance it would pull to. SNAP! Just as the rope hit the point where it would go no further, the rope snapped and Nate was sent falling forward with much less momentum than he'd hoped.
He managed to land one hand on the edge of the platform with the lever, but it was hardly ideal. He quickly got both hands on the ledge and pulled himself up as fast as he could, trying to distance himself from the taunting abyss below. Once he was safe on the platform he fell onto his back, exhaling deeply from his near-death experience.
"Nate! You okay?" Sully called from the other side of the large room.
"Never better, old pal. And you?" Nate retorted in his trademark sarcastic style.
"Smartass.." Sully said under his breath at the young Nate treating death like a familiar territory with his constant sarcastic comebacks.
Nate got up and observed the platform he was on. The lever was old, made out of wood, and looked like it had never been pulled before. The platform itself was small, square in shape, and had no hand-railing. Good thing it wasn't tilting or wobbly, otherwise Nate would easily fall. Reaching forward, he placed a hand on the lever, and gave Sully a thumbs-up, signaling that he was pulling it.
"Here we go!" He shouted, yanking the lever back. Suddenly, a large plank the same width but much longer extended from the bottom of the platform Nate was on. It moved straight ahead to the center of the room, then stopped.
"Whoa!" Nate exclaimed.
"Neat, but not done yet!" Sully replied, as the platform began extending another section, this time in the direction of Sully.
It stopped right at Sully's feet, forming a large L shape and allowing Sully access to Nate's position, access which he would not refuse. Sully hurried down the rickety platform plank and nodded to Nate. Nate moved to meet up with Sully in the center of the room.
"Well...any ideas?" Sully asked, glancing around the room. It was strangely illuminated with torches, and they could see fine. How long had the fires been burning? Why were they even here?
"There's another lever on the wall. Shoot it." Sully said, pointing to the far side of the room which they couldn't reach.
Nate pulled his pistol from its holster and aimed. Closing one eye, he lined up the shot with the iron sights of his pistol...steadied his hand...and fired.
BAM!
The shot rang out and echoed into the depths of the abyss, but he was dead-on, the lever switching into the opposite position. Suddenly, part of the wall next to the lever rose up, revealing a secret room, and several rings descended from the roof, forming an arch that Nate and Sully could climb to access the secret room.
Nate moved forward, but Sully placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Wait, Nate. This seems a little too...easy. That's just one room. What if it's a trap?" He asked, expressing concern.
"Well then, I guess-"
Suddenly, both of them were interrupted as a small and slender pillar, with an idol resting on top of it, extended up from the ground in the secret room. The idol was unlike anything either of them had ever seen in their lives, it was a bright blue, and was in the form of a skull, but it wasn't human at all. It had a haunting white aura around it, and gave off a very haunting vibe.
"Whoa..." Nate said, in shock that such a thing even existed.
"There it is...Nate, I've got to have it!" Sully shouted, jumping up and grabbing the rings, climbing quickly towards it.
"Sully, wait! I think you're right, it's too easy, stop!" Nate shouted after his friend, but he'd never seen Sully so determined before in his life to get something. What was going on?
Just as Sully jumped into the room with the idol, the door that had revealed the room slammed back down shut, sealing Sully inside and leaving Nate alone. The torches died, and the platform beneath his feet began withdrawing back into the pillar he started on.