Chapter 10, Trapped.

"Kurtis…stop." Lara begged him when he turned into an alley.

They had been running for five minutes now and reached a less wealthy area of Rome. The blood loss Lara had suffered from the glass in her arm was starting to take its toll. She leaned against the wall behind her and took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes, she heard Kurtis pacing towards her.

"I'm sorry Lara, we should have stopped sooner." He said.

She shakes her head; there was no need for Kurtis to feel guilty about this.

"No, don't worry Kurtis. We have to keep moving, but I need to get this glass out of my arm, could you just yank it out really fast please."

He looked at her startled. "Are you sure, it will only increase the bleeding."

Lara knelt down and pulled something from her boot. A small knife came in sight and she took off her jacket. She used the knife to cut some fabric from her jacket and then tossed what remained on the ground, handing the fabric to Kurtis.

"Here, now pull the glass out and use the fabric to tie around the wound…tightly."

He nodded at her, placing his hand on her shoulder. Carefully he wrapped his other hand around the piece of glass. He swallowed deeply, eyes locked on Lara. Lara looked back, and then he yanked the glass out, immediately forcing a cry of pain from the tomb raider. Blood poured down her arm. Kurtis wiped some of it away with the fabric and wrapped it around her arm.

"Right, this is going to hurt again, Lara." He said.

She nodded, and he immediately pulled at the fabric, tying it firmly around her arm. The increasing pain in her arm made Lara grind her teeth together, but she did not give into the pain, she refused to. With deep short breaths she recovered from the pain, her head bent down, and eyes staring at the cold wet ground of the alley.

She caught something moving in the corner of her eye. Her head jerked up, eyes meeting a person standing at the other side of the alley. Lara felt her eyes widen, it was Gunderson. How had he managed to find them that quick? She cursed inwardly, her entire body protested against movement, she was exhausted but if they would want to get out of this alive they had to start running again.

"Kurtis, run!" she said and jerked away from the wall.

Kurtis looked over his shoulder and saw Gunderson stood at the other side of the alley, holding a gun at them. A gunshot sounded and Kurtis instinctively dove for cover, the bullet missed him by a few inches. He scrambled back on his feet and ran after Lara to see her turn right just in time. Another gunshot sounded as he turned around the corner, the bullet missing him once again.

The streets they ran through were not too crowded, but there were people around. While it's hard not to draw any attention to you when you're running, the fact that they were being shot at might put innocent people in danger and they didn't want that on their conscience. They crossed the street and turned into another alley, a quick peek over her shoulder told Lara that Gunderson was close behind.

"He's getting closer." Lara yelled at Kurtis.

"I know, take a left at the end of the alley."

Lara nodded and did as Kurtis suggested. She cursed as they reached another open street. Almost bumping into someone she quickly jumped aside. Lara was exhausted and wished they could take another moment to rest again. She had no idea how she managed to keep this going, they had to shake off Gunderson fast.

Lara looked around for a good place to continue their escape. Her eyes caught sight of something that looked like an abandoned factory. There was a road next to it that lead to the back of the factory. Lara poked Kurtis and pointed at the factory, he offered her a nod, showing he understood her intensions. They sped across the street, glass of a car mirror next to Kurtis broke in pieces, and Kurtis stumbled a bit, shielding his face from the glass. That was another bullet that missed him, Gunderson was a lousy shot.

Kurtis was glad to have reached the road next to the factory; he just prayed that it wouldn't lead them to a dead end. That would really mean trouble. He hated the fact that he hadn't brought his Chirugai and he had used the last few bullets of the gun he had taken from Gunderson on Karel. The knife Lara had with her wouldn't help them either, even though it was going to be two against one, Gunderson was the one with the gun, sadly. Kurtis risked another peek over his shoulder while they reached the back area of factory. Gunderson had already reached the front of the factory, this was not good.

Wham.

Kurtis suddenly bumped into Lara, he hadn't noticed she stopped walking while he had been looking over his shoulder at Gunderson. The Lux Veritartis looked in front of him to see why Lara suddenly had stopped running. He saw a way out for them to run through, but that way out was blocked by three of Gunderson's men.

"Bugger." Lara said frustrated.

Turning around they found Gunderson standing in the way, his gun aimed at them, mirroring the actions of his men. There was no way out for them, they were trapped and Gunderson was the one holding the gun.

"Shit." Kurtis said, sharing his frustration with Lara.

Gunderson pulled a wicked smiled. "Oh, how unfortunate, you two seem to be trapped." He said.

A nod went out to the three men behind them. One of the men walked to Kurtis, he was told to put his hands up in the air and step away from Lara. Gunderson started searching the American for weapons; he will find an unloaded gun. His thoughts were interrupted by a small yelp of pain from Lara. When Kurtis looked up to her he saw the two other men had grabbed her arms, each on one side. However, one of them held a grip around her broken wrist, which must be really painful. Lara's moment of pain had not gone unnoticed by Gunderson either; he chuckled and stepped away from Kurtis, advancing towards Lara. Through the wrapped fingers of the goon it was clearly visible her wrist was swollen and bruised.

"Heh, looks like you got yourself hurt…Croft."

"Thank your pointy eared boss for that." Lara sneered back at him.

As a warning, Gunderson pointed his gun at her head.

"Watch it, Croft." He said. "The camera, where is it?"

Lara sighed, there was no use in concealing it from him unless she wanted to be in more pain then she already was.

"Right front pocket." She said, reluctantly.

He reached inside the pocket and removed the camera. Gunderson surprised them when instead of destroying the camera, like Karel tried to do, he placed it in the inside pocket of his jacket.

"You're not going to destroy it?" Kurtis wondered.

Gunderson looked at him, the corners of his mouth moved up. "No, Master Karel changed his mind; he wants to find the weapon."

Lara's eyes widened as she realized the reason behind this. "He wants to be sure the weapon is destroyed so he doesn't risk problems in the future." Lara said, understanding the decision of the Nephilim, but not liking it.

"And as Master Karel is in need of your expertise, you are lucky to live long enough to see it happen." Gunderson said, turning to Kurtis. "You unfortunately, won't."

Kurtis swallowed deeply. "Great, I should have chosen a different profession." He muttered to himself.

"Wait!" Lara yelled.

Why, she had no idea. But she knew she had to stall time. Lara couldn't just let Gunderson kill Kurtis. Perhaps they could think of a way to escape. Though with four armed men it was not going to be easy.

"You will need Kurtis too; he's the last of the Lux Veritartis."

Gunderson turned to her. "I see that more as a reason to kill him, not let him live." He stated.

"Well it is a Lux Veritartis weapon we are looking for, isn't it?"

Gunderson shrugged, he took a few paces closer to Lara and moved his gun under her chin, slightly tilting her head upwards. His eyes narrowed, he studied her closely.

"Are you sure you are not just trying to buy some time in an attempt to form another one of your idiot escape plans…hmm, Lara?"

"Now why would I do that, you are the boys with the guns."

He kept looking at her to try and find out if she was bluffing. It seemed he had made his choice while he removed the gun from her chin, but moving his head forward, inches from hers.

"I'll take my chances with just you, sorry sweets." He said with a really evil smile

He turned to Kurtis and raised his gun.

"No!"

Lara cried out, but found there was nothing she could do to stop him. She felt tears watering in her eyes as the gunshot sounded.