Uncharted Creed

Nate's head was banging, he couldn't remember what was happening or where he was. He could see nothing but small rays of light through the material of a brown bag placed on his head. The bag was ripped off his head and the broad daylight burned into Nate's eyes, "Ugh" Nate groaned. His eyes adjusted and he saw himself in a metallic room. There were windows at one end of the room, with a desk right next to them. In the center of the room, was a strange machine that looked like a metal coffee table, there was a computer attached to this machine. At the other end of the room there were several doors, one must have been an exit, and the other two Nate had no idea where they would lead. A nearer door had a cross on it, it somewhat resembled a crucifix.

"Good morning Mister Drake." Said a sinister man in a menacing tone, he was bald with a greybeard and was dressed in a lab coat and black trousers. "Who the heck are you?" Nate asked still confused as to what was happening. "I am Doctor Vidic, welcome to Abstergo Industries." said the man. "Abstergo, what the hell is this place, a hotel for robots?"

"No Mister Drake we are a pharmaceutical company, we are curre-" Vidic was saying but was cut off by Nate.

"What the hell do you guys want with me? I'm in the antiques business, I don't know anything about medicine."

"Mister Drake if you would let me finish please!" Vidic responded angrily after being interrupted.

"Well sorry Mister cranky pants, I forgot old people get cranky easily." Nate joked while Vidic repressed his anger and continued with his sentence.

"We've been researching genetic memories, you see Mister Drake, in nature animals know what to do because of the memories in their genes. And we've discovered how to use that same ability on humans using this machine here called the animus" Vidic gestured to the machine.

"Oh is that what that thing is, I thought that was some kind of robot coffee table, or should I say oil table." Nate joked again.

"Mister Drake this is not a hotel for robots, robots don't even exist outside of science fiction movies." Vidic snapped getting sick of Nate's quips.

"Really, then you might want to redecorate, give this place more of a human feel, because currently it's like a robot haven."

"Mister Drake!" Vidic glared at Nate. Nate motioned pulling a zip over his month. "We want you to go into the animus so we can see your ancestor's memories."

"What? Why would you want to view my ancestor's memories? What makes you think I have an interesting ancestor? Nate blurted out shocked with this idea.

"Well Mister Drake, we know you are the descendant of the famed explorer Sir Francis Drake, We saw Elena Fishers Uncharted TV special where YOU claimed to be his ancestor." Vidic explained to Nate. "You have wasted enough of my time with your smartass nonsense, so get in animus now!" Vidic Shouted.

Nate became nervous. Nate had told many people he was the descendant of Francis Drake, but that was nothing but a lie. When Nate was living at the orphanage he learned about Sir Francis Drake, he became so obsessed with the man that he decided he was his ancestor. Nate wanted to forget about his family history and so changed his name and even began lying to himself about his ancestry. Deep down Nate knew he wasn't really related, but he hadn't told anyone about that, not since he met Sully. Nate was also confused however to Elena's TV special as he saw her camera fall into the sea, but he couldn't worry about that now.

Nate knew Vidic would kill him as soon as be found out Nate had been bullshitting that story since he was a teenager, but would Vidic kill him anyway if he didn't cooperate. Nate just stood there staring at the ground trying to think of a way out of this.

"Mister Drake, if you don't get in the animus then I will put you in a coma, access your memories and then leave you to die, what will it be?"

This was it, Nate was screwed either way. Get in it or don't, he was going to die. There must be a way out of this Nate thought. Nate was desperately trying to think of a way out of this to no avail.

"Doctor Vidic, you're never going to get the subjects to cooperate if you speak to them like that." said a woman. Nate hadn't noticed her sitting behind the computer of the animus; he was too focused on Vidic. "Damn it Lucy I have been a doctor here at Abstergo for years, I was working on the animus while you were still in diapers, I know what I'm doing." Vidic retaliated.

"Doctor Vidic you need to be more gentle." said Lucy. The woman approached Nate. She had fair skin, blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a calming Aura. "Nathan I know this is scary but if you get in the animus then we won't hurt you.

Nate then thought maybe he could blame the machine for the memory file not showing up. Nate decided that his only choice was to get in the animus.

"Fine I'll get in it." Nate replied calmly.

"Good, see I told you Doctor Vidic, if you're nice people are nice back." Lucy said.

Nate lied down on the animus, a glass screen then went horizontally over his head. The screen said scanning memories. An eternity seemed to pass before Vidic finally spoke.

"This doesn't make sense. None of these memories contain Sir Francis Drake; in fact none of your ancestry is in England."

"Maybe there's a faulty wire in the head rest." Said Lucy

"No there's not! The animus was only checked this morning everything was in perfect order. You dirty little liar!"Said Vidic "You're not related to Drake at all, you just said that to make you're expedition more exciting,"

"What, I'm not related to Sir Francis? Uncle Jimmy lied to me. Well guess you'll have to let me go now." Said Drake trying to sound convincing.

"I don't think so Drake, we've wasted enough time tracking you down and kidnapping so you better give us some information as to finding the pieces of Eden!" Vidic exploded

"Pieces of what? Look I'm sorry for having no information for you, but since you kidnapped me this is kind of karma." Nate explained.

"You listen here you little runt, seeing as you have no relevant ancestors, I'm taking you to the interrogation room, where you wouldn't give answers so we had to kill you."

"Well that's not very fair." said Nate.

"Life isn't fair Drake." Replied Vidic

"Jeez why are you so bitter? Did mommy not let you have ice cream as a kid? Or did you just miss your afternoon nap." Nate joked.

"Shut the hell up! You're coming with me."

Vidic grabbed Nate's arm and pulled him into the corridor. There was no one else around so Nate punched Vidic in the face then slammed his head into the wall to knock him out. Nate then searched the unconscious man for anything useful. "Oh this looks useful." Nate said as he found a keycard labeled all access. Nate also found a set of Fiat car keys "That's it come to Papa" he said. Nate also took his lab coat to give himself a bit of a disguise. Nate didn't have an ID card; he decided not to take one off the old man as he obviously wasn't doctor Vidic. Nate continued down the corridor trying not to draw any attention.

Nate then entered what was clearly the staff lounge, must people were too busy on their phones or laptops to notice Nate, but one guy noticed him. "Ah Crap" Nate thought and turned around to walk away. However the man quickly caught up to him. The man was in his thirties, Caucasian, dark hair average height. The man then grabbed Nate's arm. "Stop right there."The man said Nate followed his instruction; the man would alert the guards otherwise. "Look at you, you're a total mess. Stubble, jeans, you stink. I ought to fire you right now. You look like a homeless ragamuffin, smell like one too. A senior technician should not be dressed in that manner nor should they have such unsightly hygiene. You should know better. I ought to take you to the manager to have your pay deducted what is your name?"

Ah crap Nate thought to himself. His main goal was to not raise anyone's attention to avoid inspection of an ID, but Nate had to think fast or security would take him back to the animus or the torture room. Nate realized he had been staring at the man whose face was beginning to form an angry expression.

"Hello! Earth to moron!" The man screeched after not being met with an answer. Nate had to come up with an answer now, and then a crazy idea popped in his head. "Sorry sir, I'm the new intern." There's no way this man would buy the excuse, Nate was way too old to be an intern. The man called him a senior technician just a few minutes ago, but it was the only excuse Nate could come up with. "Intern? Are you kidding me, you're in your thirties. Interns are around twenty, you're way too old to be an intern."

"Well excuse me for wanting a change in career!" Nate shouted "I was so sick of the accounting industry so I wanted to try pharmaceuticals, but I had no experience so this was all I could get! I have a wife and kids; my life is tough enough with two jobs!" Nate shouted hoping that the man had bought this bogus story.

"Alright mister intern, I'll let you off with a warning, but tomorrow you must be smartly dressed, cleanly shaven, and freshly showered. Get outta here." The man replied. Nate signed with relief after the man bought the story. "But first I wanna know who you're interning under." Oh crap, Nate tried to think of a name, but this guy clearly knew every doctor here. If he gave a clearly bogus name the guy would know he was faking. "Uh, doctor S" Nate stammered. "Doctor Santoro?" the man asked "Yeah him." Nate replied. "Ok I will be sure to have words with him about your appearance and your attitude. Also Doctor Santoro is on the third floor. The Elevator is just on your left down the corridor." The man said and returned to the lounge.

What an ass wipe, Nate thought to himself. But he did give Nate the direction to the elevator. Nate got to the elevator without any trouble. The buttons had an English translation under the Italian, Nate pushed the basement button, though it required a key card to activate, good thing Nate took one off Vidic. As Nate entered the parking lot there were over one hundred cars. "Okay Fiat where are you." Nate said looking for Vidic's car. There was a space marked Warren Vidic. As Nate looked at the car he wasn't too pleased.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" Nate shouted as he looked at the car in the space. It was a bright yellow Fiat Cinquecento Hawaii. "This old bastard is a doctor at a global pharmaceuticals and he drives this piece of crap!" Nate shouted. But he didn't have time to complain; any second Vidic could wake up and have security put the building on lockdown. "How bad can it be?" Nate said trying to reassure himself. Nate got in the car and drove off.

4 days later.

Nate was back in his apartment. Once he got out of Italy Abstergo had lost his trail. He was still unsure as to how these guys tracked him. Then he remembered what Vidic had said about Elena's Uncharted TV special. Nate than rang up Elena to arrange a meeting. "Elena Fisher may I ask who's calling?"Elena said "Hey Elena it's me." Nate said "Nate, what do you want, we both agreed it wouldn't work out, remember?" Elena asked confused. "Look I need to see you Elena." "Nate, you're just going through a phase, it's for the best if we don't see each other." "Elena, it's not about that. I need to talk to you about business. When's a good time to meet you up?" "Look Nate, I'm flying to the Galapagos Islands for my next episode of Uncharted TV tomorrow morning, I'll be gone for a month at least, a couple months tops." "Are you sure there's not a time you're free before your flight? This is really important." Nate asked desperately. Elena sighed, "I guess I'm free tonight at 6pm, is that ok?" Nate had agreed to meet Sully at 6 to catch up, but that could wait, Sully would understand. "Yeah that's fine, thanks Elena, you then." "Bye Nate."

Nate Arrived at Elena's door, he checked his watch, 5:55. He was five minutes early. Nate knocked. Elena opened the door and let him in. "Okay Nate what is this urgent business that couldn't wait?" Elena said precise and to the point. "Elena, I was kidnapped last week by a company called Abstergo." Nate said "What! Why?" Elena said with concern. "They sell medicine, are they just abducting random streetwalkers for product testing?" "No Elena, they had this machine called the animus, it lets someone live their ancestors memories." Nate explained. "So you want me to do a story on Abstergo's evil ethics?" Elena asked. "No, they kidnapped me because they wanted to view Sir Francis Drake's memories." Nate replied slightly angry. "Why are you telling me this?" Elena asked still confused. "I'm telling you this, because they told me, they heard of my ancestry on your TV show." Nate said

"Oh boy, Nate I can explain." "You said that you all of your footage was on the camera. The one that fell into the ocean! Why didn't you tell me you had some spare footage?" Nate shouted angrily. "Look Nate, I had to buy a boat, excavation gear, a wetsuit a permit, a lot of stuff that cost a lot of money. I was in a lot of debt. I needed to make sure that I broke even at least". Elena said started to get angry. "Why didn't you tell me you had spare footage though? You said that you'd just have to run another story. That I wouldn't have to worry about anything I didn't want airing."Nate shouted. "At the time that was true, but after having a spring clean up, I found out that I made a copy of the tape, it was very minimal to say the least. I couldn't cut anything out. And by then you were gone stealing another treasure with another floozy! So sorry if I didn't tell you, but you didn't care anyway!" Elena shouted now angry. "I got kidnapped because of you! And of course I cared, but we both agreed it wouldn't work!"Nate retaliated. "Sorry you got kidnapped, but that wasn't my fault! This is why we wouldn't work Nate! You get angry over the stupidest things. Just get out!"

Nate felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He walked out of there as fast as he could. When he first entered Elena showed she still had feelings for him by her reaction to his kidnapping. But now she just seemed to hate him. Nate then texted Sully again, seeing if he could still meet for drinks. Sully replied immediately, Nate checked his watch, 6:10. Hopefully Sully could cheer him up.

As Nate walked into the bar, he saw Sully sitting in a booth. "Hey kid." "Hey" Nate replied coldly. "So what's the reason you delayed me twenty minutes for drinks?" Sully asked. "Elena." Nate said clearly in a bad mood, a look of distaste was in sully's face. "Elena? Nate, how many times have I got to tell you, getting back with your exes never works out, that's why they're exes" Sully said disappointed. "No sully it wasn't like that," Nate said. "Sure it wasn't, anyway where the hell you been for the past week? I went in the store to get us some beer and when I came out you were gone. I thought you were playing a prank or something." "Actually Sully, I was kidnapped." Nate told Sully the whole story, everything up to the past five minutes. "Wow kid these Abstergo bastards are Goddamn Psycho. You're lucky the machine had a faulty wire, they could've found out all sorts of secrets from Sir Francis. Anyway about this Elena business, you're better off without her, that chick is way too stubborn. And it clearly didn't work." Sully explained. "But she seemed really concerned about my kidnapping." Nate said. "Look, how about we have a round of tequila slammers, on me." "Sure Sully."

Fin -