Lady Lara Croft

I wake up form a sound sleep. Amanda is goggling at the view beneath us. I smile and wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I pull out a lip balm from my safety kit and coat my lips with it.

"You are applying a lip balm?" Amanda asks with her eyes wide. The doppelganger looks at me.

"Every lady has to be a little ladylike." I reply. After pulling the curtain separating the cockpit from the seats, I change from my wetsuit into my camouflage beige sleeveless, midriff top, a pair of brown shorts and knee high combat boots. Amanda changes into her trademark grey midriff top and black pants. I grab my backpack and lay it on my forearm. I pull on my parachute backpack and gesture them to do the same. After the three of us are ready, we slide open the door and I jump off.

At first, I go very speedily, but finally I open my parachute and I land on the sand covered ground, not far from the pyramid of Mictlantecuhtli. We walk towards it slowly. Amanda has a bottle of water in her backpack. I feel thirsty, but I try to ignore the burning in my throat. We reach the huge pyramid. The entrance is an archway, cut out from the blocks of sand. I pull out a blue glow stick from my backpack and hold it near the archway. Hieroglyphics are scrawled across it. I crane my neck to read them.

"Enter only if you must. Only with the people you trust. Because if they betray. You are the one who will pay. Mictlantecuhtli, the God of Death, lies in this ancient tomb. If you are ready to face your fate, go ahead. A section of a Sacred Stone, far away from its home. You will find the piece near a beast, in a place where it has grown. Behold. The piece of the Rexorveil lies within." I read aloud.

Amanda snorts from behind. "What?" I ask sharply.

"What the heck is Rexorveil?" Amanda asks, with her hands on her hips.

"I think it means the stone of Resurrection" The doppelganger states quietly.

"Okay. What are we waiting for? Let s go in" I say and turn on my Personal Light Source.

We step quietly down a steaming and stinking sand capped corridor. Turn left. Turn right.
We end up on a scaffolding overlooking a huge sea of gold dust. There is a ledge at the far end on the opposite wall. I crane my neck and see a small gold ring on the ceiling. I snap my grapple gun and put it into belt. Amanda looks at me with confused eyes.

"We are going to go there and from there, we are going to jump onto the platform opposite it." I try to explain by pointing our route out.

"We don t have grapple guns" Amanda says flatly.

"Hold my hand then" I say. Amanda grabs my hand. The doppelganger looks at me and says "I will jump there. After you reach the ledge."

I nod in return. I jump and swing my way towards the ledge with great difficulty. I snap the grapple chord just in time and we both hold on to the ridge. A small crack echoes through the hall and the ledge starts crumbling into bits. My gloved hands are sweaty.

"Lara!" Amanda cries. She glances at me with fear in her eyes. Thats when I realize that her hands a slipping. "Shit, hold on Amanda!" I cry.

Too late.

Amanda s hands slip and she falls into the golden dust. Fortunately, the dust keeps her safe from cracking her skull.

"Lara, this dust is getting sucked in!" Amanda cries from beneath. What? My doppelganger echoes from behind. I push my legs against the wall and jump opposite to it. Quickly, I grab the platform and jump onto the solid floor.

My doppelganger is already there. She is looking downward at Amanda. I look down too. Amanda is sinking into the golden dust. "Crap! What the hell do we do?" I ask my doppelganger. She looks at me incredulously and says "We need to jump too" .

"What? Are you crazy?" I ask skeptically.

"No, but that is the only way into the tomb" She says quietly. I nod and we both jump into the lake of gold. Immediately, we start sinking into the ground. After a few moments, we fall down on the next floor.

"Ouch!" Amanda echoes. Then she gasps. I turn to look at what she is staring. Two lion-size sphinxes are there, jumping towards us. I pull out my guns and shoot one of them. It falls to the ground. My doppelganger kicks it away. Meanwhile, the other one pounces towards me. I dodge it just in time and shoot it a couple of times. I put my handguns into the holsters and pull out my shotgun. Once again, I gun down the sphinx. It falls down. The doppelganger punches it hard and throws it away.

I sigh. "Bloody hell, Look at that" I say, staring at a passageway leading towards a golden chamber. Amanda sighs and leads the way.

We turn to find a huge, almost twenty feet high, pure gold, live Sphinx staring at us. It has a huge, blue gem in between its eyes. In the middle of its paws, is a large coffin. Above that a in a small holder, is the shining blue half of a triangle. I feel my heart thudding loudly. This is it. The first step to the Resurrection Stone. A huge roar echoes in the chamber. I turn to stare at the Sphinx.

"Shit! Lara, we first need to defeat this guard" Amanda says and we both jump out of the way. Its hand hits the ground where we were standing.

"Alright Lara, let s go!" The doppelganger says.

She jumps to the top of the paw and punches it, hard. We watch in silence as the hand turns into soft, brown sand.

"Amanda, lift me up" I order her, dodging the paw of the Sphinx.

"What?" Amanda asks, as she eludes the paw.

" Levitate me up!" I cry once again.

Amanda agrees, she charges her wraith stone and levitates me up. I feel myself flying.

"Alright, throw me towards the blue thing" I cry once again. Amanda pushes the force and I feel myself being hurled towards the Sphinxes forehead. I pull Mjolnir from my back just in time and hit it hard on the gemstone. The whole Sphinx collapses and turns into brown sand. The sand flows through my clothes and goes into my hair.

I gulp in a huge amount of air as the sand level goes up my nose. Hastily, I pull drag myself out of the sand pool and look about. Amanda is shaking out sand from her hair.

The doppelganger is staring at the Rexorveil with great amusement. I go towards the coffin and study the Hieroglyphics on it.

" Here lies the God of Death, Mictlantecuhtli. And above this Coffin is a piece of the Rexorveil. Remove the stone and face prison or leave the stone and face triumph" I read it aloud.

"Okay, I do not want to face prison" Amanda says from behind. I look around and spot a small, open door leading to a stairway. I turn to my doppelganger.

"If this stone is removed, grates will block the door. I need you to hold the grates off until we are on the other side of the door. Will you be able to do that?" I ask her.

She looks at me and nods her head. She goes towards the door and stands in the doorway. I turn towards the stone and touch it. As I do so, it loses its glow.

I pull it quickly from the holder. "Run Amanda!" I cry. We both run towards the door, which my doppelganger is forcing open. We crouch out of the door and she lets go of the grates. I crumple down on the ground.

Amanda grabs her bottle and starts drinking huge gulps of water from it. I put my hand out. She gives the remaining water to me. It's not much, but it is enough to quench my thirst.

I look at the top of the stairway. There is an open door. With a humongous effort, I pull myself off the ground and start climbing the stairs. Amanda and the doppelganger follow reluctantly. We emerge out into the silvery moonlight and for the first time since the visit to Helheim, I feel like smiling. We are one step closer to my mother.

I flop down on the sandy ground and pull out my cell phone to trace the location of my pilot. He is flying over Egypt. I text him and tell him to get us out of this place. Then I light a flare and put it next to me on the ground. Amanda is fanning herself with her hand. I look at my watch.
3:15 a.m.
A few hours later, we are sitting in the helicopter and enjoying cool lemonade. "So are we going to Cambodia today?" The doppelganger asks.

"No way! I have earned some REST!" Amanda says loudly. A small laugh escapes my lips. I turn towards her. "Yes you have, Amanda" I tell her. I pull the Rexorveil out of my backpack. It glints beautifully in the moonlit night.
Mother I say to myself as I stare out into the starry sky I'm going to bring you back