I do not own Tomb Raider or Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Chapter 1: The tomb
Deep in the desert of Egypt a long line of camels trampled through the shifting sands. Their riders were all thickly covered in linen, and there faces were completely covered to protect themselves from the airborne sand. At the front was a woman, with dark brown hair showing form under the veil and dark sunglasses, was examining a passage of script on a near mint piece of papyrus paper. She was reading a riddle, which spoke of a place in the middle of the desert, growing closer by the second.
The woman surveyed the area around her. After being in the desert for two hours they must be close. There had not been any defining landform in sight for hours; there was nothing but bare sand for miles. Suddenly there was a beeping sound coming form her pocket. Jumping off her camel she pulled out a GPS device form her pocket.
'We're close," she said to the others behind her, before taking off her cloak with a great sigh of relief. She never really liked wearing it, yet it was necessary to protect her form the sun. It just wasn't her style, being too heavy to move easily in it. She revealed a dark sleeved crew neck top, dark green shorts and high black boots. She also had two guns held in holsters on her belt. After what she's encountered, she never leaves home unprepared.
The man behind her looked suspicious, they seemed more nervous than when she met up with then in Cairo. They stayed in the shadow and where kind of twitchy when they moved into the light, fully covered up. However, her employer was the same, she never liked the man. One day he just sent her an email, talking about this find of his. She had never met up with him in person, which is never a good sign. Yet this papyrus was too good to dismiss.
The riddle spoke of a place that was close to life and immortality but farthest from all shadow. After many failures in finding this place, she knew that she must be there now. Back at home, her and her friend Zip spent days mapping out all possible locations via GPS. It was just her luck that all of them came up as a failure. This was her last chance. She believed that this place was close to the Nile as that was classed as the bringer of life, and near the pharaoh's tombs as they signified immortality. Yet the only place that was far form any shadows was the desert as it was a big expanse of nothing.
Reaching into her saddle she pulled out a par of binoculars and removed the compass from her belt. Looking north she could just see the Great pyramid of Giza, after stepping back five paces it disappeared altogether. She looked to the East until a very large rock formation came into view. She began to mark where these places disappeared.
"Farthest from all shadow," she muttered a piece of the riddle to herself, whilst marking West and South in the same manner.
"There,"
she pointed to the place where they all crossed. "The entrance is
there, lets get digging." She paused for a moment. The markers she
put down where in the shape of a crucifix. This was supposed to be an
Egyptian tomb, not Christian, the papyrus itself predated the
start of Christianity. The men also seemed cautious but eventually
they began digging in the spot. Almost instantly one on the veiled
men hit something hard. After brushing away the sand, a perfectly
flat piece of limestone rock, intricately engraved with hieroglyphs
was exposed. Further excavation of sand showed a clean-cut edge along
the stone.
This definitely was not like any other Egyptian chamber she had uncovered, and she could tell that just by the entrance. She pulled a crowbar out of her saddlebag and shifted the rock, leaving it big enough for a person to fit through.
This has to be it,she thought as she threw a flare into the hole. It didn't go very far down. Looking back at the other men she said,
"Right chaps, lets get going." She unhooked a backpack from the saddle and put it on. She grabbed the edge of the hole and dropped down into the hole, followed by the other men. After landing with a thud, she began to look at the engravings on the wall.
"It's a grave," she said to herself.
"Are you sure Lara?" said a voice from the headpiece on her ear. "He said that it would be the greatest finds since the pyramids, but it is too far away from the river to be a pharaoh." Her friend Alistair was still at Lara's mansion helping with research. Him and Zip stayed there to help her if she needed any extra information; the library in the mansion was extremely extensive.
Lara replied, "No you're right, it's not a pharaoh." Which made it even more unusual. Who would go to such lengths to create a tomb of such great quality, for someone who is not royalty? She walked down the corridor from the entrance. Both sides of the wall were covered with scenes depicting severe bloodshed and violence that Lara could not figure out.
There was only one chamber; there were no elaborate statues of gifts for the afterlife, just a sarcophagus at the other end of the room. The walls were the same as those of the corridor.
The sarcophagus itself was wooden, yet it had the most beautiful engraving depicting the decreased. It was if a very young girl, she couldn't have been older than her twenties. Lara's eyes were drawn downwards; hieroglyphs on the side of the coffin were depicting a supernatural death. This place was getting more and more peculiar.
There was an inscription above the sarcophagus that read.
Here lies the warrior against darkness,
She who fought against the undead
The Chosen One, killed in battle,
But forever fighting.
"What's that supposed to mean?" said someone else at the other end of the headphone. "Who the heck is the chosen one?"
Lara glanced back at the wall. "I don't know Zip, it doesn't make any sense. It says that the chosen one is a woman that is cursed with the strength of a demon, born to fight the undead." There was more but it was unclear.
One if the men behind her shouted What'sthat? Pointing toward the coffin. It was a spearhead, over half a metre long, placed on the sarcophagus' hands. This artefact was much older than the body and the tomb itself.
"Look at this," she said to Zip and Alistair. "This is much older than the rest, South African Tribal, I'd say."
"Yes, but what is it doing here?" mentioned Alistair.
Prying it from the coffin she took a closer look. There was nothing special about it. It was extremely plain. However, she suddenly heard the faintest CLICK.
"OH, BUGGER!" she thought … booby traps.
Hastily she turned around only to find herself surrounded by the men.
"I think that you should give that to us," said one of the men.
"And if I don't?"
"He," said the man as her pointed to the one on his left, "will kill you." They were all unveiled now, and they seemed extremely pale. Behind them was a very narrow gap in the wall, about shoulder height. Lara grinned; she could faintly hear the cogs activating a trap.
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK
"What are you grinning about?" said the leader and she gestured to the gap. The Clicks were getting slower until BAM! Ducking in the nick of time a steel blade shot through the room with great force. All but the leader was decapitated on the spot. He had just noticed in time.
The men turned into dust, awestruck Lara made her way to the door and into the corridor, hotly pursued by the man. Scrambling out the entrance she positioned herself, guns pointing toward the entrance.
Her mind was racing, who were those men, what did they want with the spearhead, how the heck did they turn into dust. This is exactly why she does not trust mysterious rich businessmen.
The man emerged from the entrance, fully veiled, and Lara opened fire, but it did not seem to slow him down. Out of sheer panic she ran towards him and kicked him to the floor. This seemed to stop him for a bit, so she tore off the veil to interrogate him.
"What do you…" her scream was cut off as the man suddenly caught fire and screamed for his life as he turned into dust.
Panting she fell to her knees,
"What on earth was that?" Screamed Zip.
"I don't have a clue. Do we have enough footage of the tomb?"
"I think so."
"Right then, could you both try and find out as much as you can about that girl, the spearhead and those men who attacked me?"
"RIGHT!" said both of them.
Lara walked up to the entrance and pushed the back over the entrance. She would inform the media as soon as possible, bit it was not safe to show the location just yet. They would have to go on the footage for now.
She went up to her camel and put her cloak and veil on again. She climbed up onto one of the camels and led the rest with her as she headed northwest, toward the nearest civilisation.
