Disclaimer: I own nothing besides my own characters. In no way, shape, or form am I making any profit and this is purely for entertainment purposes.
We push forward as I run into some metal things hanging on a string from the ceiling. I start to worry. What if there was someone in here with us and he or she heard that? What if they know we escaped from whatever entrapment they put us in and were coming to find us and I just alerted them of our location? All of the sudden, we both stop short as there were faint echoes coming from somewhere in the cave. They must have heard us.
I lead Lara through the cave and grab a torch so that we could light up the rest of the way. Immediately after we got it though, we had to pass through a small waterfall that put the torch out. I curse and grab the torch from Lara, hoping it was dry enough to be lit on fire again. Apparently it was because as soon as I stuck in a hanging pot of fire used to light up the place, it caught fire again.
It was only then that I took in my surroundings of this area. There were some wooden planks covering what looked to be the only exit. Right next to that was a red barrel, no doubt filled with some kind of explosive fuel or gas or something like that. Leading up to the planks and red barrel were very thin pieces of cloth hanging off chunks of wood. I hand Lara the torch as I figure out what to do. I climb up on a very unstable wooden structure as Lara tosses the torch back up to me. I use it to light the cloth on fire as I watch the flame ignite it all the way towards the barrel.
Of course, a chain reaction happens and it exploded, causing the wooden planks to obviously be destroyed, making our only path out of this room clear. We quickly clear the area by climbing up on the structure across from where I was just a minute ago. The person probably heard that too, and now definitely knows where we are. There's no way around that fact.
Everything started rumbling as I quickly passed underneath a tiny little area where the rock being hold up by wood was about to crack. I hurry and get through so that Lara could make it before the rock collapsed on top of her. I really don't know how I would make it without her. We've been through every single dangerous situation that you could possibly imagine together.
All of the sudden, I see a crazy looking man jump down behind Lara as I let out a scream. "Let go!" she yells at the top of her lungs. He had a hold of her combat boot and was definitely not giving up easy. I grab onto her arms and start pulling her as hard as I could while she was struggling against the man's crazy strong grip. We finally get her away from him and we sit staring at the rock in shock as we hear him yelling from the other side to come back. Yeah, like we would ever think about doing that.
We put out the torch so that all of the wood in the next tunnel would not catch on fire. We had to squat down in water, and we fell down all of the sudden. It had gotten a lot deeper, and my tip toes did not even touch the bottom. We work on keeping our heads above water as we make our way down the creepy tunnel. "Lara, I'm really scared." I admit as we were practically bobbing along in the water.
"I am too, Ashton, don't worry." she says as we continue to hear the guy pleading for us to come back. We make it to the end and pass through another waterfall, but it didn't really matter since we had already put our torch out. I see more explosives by the exit, and I could only tell it was the exit because I saw daylight coming through. "What kind of contraption is this?" Lara says as she sees the weird looking setup in front of us.
"It looks like some kind of weight." I get more fire from the hanging pot of light and set the wooden poles holding the giant birdcage looking thing that was hanging from the ceiling. I think this made the contraption able to be pushed down. It put a metal thing down that seemed to collect the boxes and barrels. "It looks like we'll be able to make the barrels and boxes rise high enough to get to the ramp, and then we can set them on fire to make an explosion by the exit."
Lara hands me back the torch and climbs up the ramp, making a daring jump from the edge to the weight. It rose up a little bit, but not enough to make it to the other ramp and past the waterfall. Lara beckons me onto the weight as well, so I toss her the torch and she is careful not to drop it as I make the jump as well, landing with my stomach hitting the edge, hard. I can only imagine how that felt for Lara with her injury.
With our weight combined, it was enough to raise the boxes and barrels onto the ramp as they slide down into the water, but only after we set them on fire. Luck seemed to be on our side today since the fire wasn't put out as they dropped down and started to float towards the red barrels, due to the tide. We quickly get down and hide behind a wooden board as everything explodes, and I mean everything. The cave started crumbling and I knew that this was the time that we needed to pick up the pace.
Everything was on fire, and we had to really start rushing through the water, which really wasn't an easy task. We definitely had to start running. This must have been really killing Lara's side to be doing this. We really need to get some first aid for that as soon as possible. We continue running as rocks fall down to block the path that we were heading on. There really was no time to think as the floor underneath us crumbled, and we were forced to slide down and crash through wooden planks and prickly thorns.
Lara and I come out at water, only this time it was very, very shallow, so we were able to run as quick as possible through it. We started running again and the rocks started falling apart. We had no choice but to jump across. I hesitated, but I knew I had to act quickly if I wanted to live. We jump across four platforms and I only made it by grasping with my hands on one of them. It was a very big gap, mind you. When we make it all the way across, it's back to running again.
A rock fell down and left only a little tiny space for us to squeeze through. Lara goes first this time, and I guess I got what was coming when the crazy man grabbed onto my foot this time. I screamed as loud as I could, even though it didn't make any difference. I struggle against him as the rock starts to get lower and lower, and Lara starts pulling at my arms harder than he was pulling at my legs. I kick him in the face last minute and get away from him, but it took everything in me not to puke as he was crushed by rocks.
The rocks started coming in closer as we ran down the hallway. Lara went first and jumped across the gap, barely making it onto the platform. I follow suit as she starts to climb up, and I narrowly miss getting knocked off by a rock more than a few times. I could tell that the exit was getting smaller, so Lara and I hurry even faster than before. She makes it through just fine, but I was worried for myself. Luckily, I squeeze through just before the rock collapsed, letting out a gasp of shock and relief that we both made it out okay.
Lara was waiting for me while looking out at the horizon. It looked like the sun had just risen, making it somewhere around six or seven if I'm not mistaken. My flannel was torn to shreds, so I just shrug it off, leaving me in my tank top. Problem with this tank top was that my boobs were nearly hanging out. That would be quite awkward when I meet up with the rest of the group, but I really doubt that they would care.
We barely make it down the very high up path before Lara has to stop and lean against a tree to catch her breath. This causes both of us to notice a lifeboat washed up on shore with some supplies just scattered around it. There must be other survivors of the crash. I'm really hoping that Riley is one of them. If he's not, well, I don't know what I'll do. Continuing along the path just a little bit more, there was a tree trunk connecting two sides of the cliff that definitely did not look stable.
Nonetheless, we make our way across, with me slipping only once and having to go the rest of the way dangling off the side of it until Lara helped me up on the other side. I breathe deeply, probably scared out of my mind, even though it was already over. In my mind, I knew there was still more things to come, things that I knew I would definitely not like. We continue along the path until it we come across Sam's camera and other supplies such as matches and a radio, and no one responded.
It starts raining as we end up on in a forest where there was an abandoned camp. Lara and I gather supplies to set up a camp fire and use our only match to light it on fire. I was growing hungrier by the second, but I knew it would be a terrible thing to complain about. Lara starts looking at the camera that we found to find footage from our argument from earlier. "Ashton, this is all our fault, isn't it?"
I wanted to make her feel better, but there was really no way around the fact. I lightly nod at the sad thought. I can see light tears flow down her face as she keeps watching the camera to see all the footage that Sam had taken while I slowly drift off to sleep. I know it was probably a bad idea, but running for your life like that can make anybody tired, especially a twenty-one year old girl.
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