Her body is shaking, she doesn't know why, her clothing is clinging to her body then she feels a surge come up through her chest, something rising up in her. Propping herself up on her elbows Lara coughs up water, her body trembling as she opens her eyes finally and uses what strength she has to pull herself away from what is making her so cold. Opening her eyes, it looks to be maybe 8:00 a.m. looking over her shoulder she sees she's just come out from the river. Her hair clinging to her back and face, her fingers and elbows digging into the dirt and rock to pull herself out more.
Body physically wrecked, she looks around to find what looks to be Liam pulling Sofia out of the water, "Sof-" Lara coughs and pulls herself to her hands and knees. "Sofia…" she groans and watches Liam place his right ear to her chest, and then tilt her head back to blow air into her. Dread welling up in her chest, Lara crawls over as fast as her body will allow and drops her weapons on the rocks.
Liam places his two hands over her chest and starts pressing down, "1, 2, 3, 4," he counts and continues before giving her another breath. Lara kneels down on the other side of Sofia, taking her left hand in her hands and holds it firmly.
Water shoots out of Sofia's mouth and her chest starts jumping as she partially sits up to continue coughing water out, "Sofia! Thank goodness your alright," Lara smiles, the tightness in her chest relaxing and she looks at Liam. "What happened?"
Sofia is a little stunned to see both Liam and Lara hovering over her, feeling Lara's hand holding her hand and considering Liam is leaning over her, she connects the dots. Liam performed CPR to get the water out of her lungs. Sitting up further, she notes Lara's clothes are soaked and sticking to her body and that Lara is shivering just a bit.
He takes a seat on the rocks, propping his right knee up and letting his left leg rest on the ground, "your friend Jonah showed up, I saw him up at the entrance, he climbed up onto the rocks." Lara helps support Sofia's back, reaching into her pockets to pull out the energy bars, knowing they slept through the rest of the night without eating anything Lara doesn't want to run on adrenaline again. She hands Sofia one and takes one for herself. "Everyone was too focused on you ladies to see him coming and he fired a sniper rifle into the barrels, my bet s that combined with your attack must have made the ground shift to the point of opening up the ground. I lost track of him, saw Mr. Huites fall down but he didn't fall into the hole, I saw you."
Liam looks and gestures to Lara as the ladies take a bite from their energy bars, "the ground came apart under you, I watched you fall in and decided if I was to get your friend out of there I may as well have her go down there too," he watches Sofia nod.
Her memories rushing back to her as she listens and remembers seeing some of the same stuff, "yeah, but I grabbed your arm to try and stop myself from falling in and brought you down with me," she takes another bite, already starting to feel better with the nutrients. Looking up at him with a quizzical look, "why did you save me?"
Smirking, "I promised Lara that I would do what I could at least once to save you or her. I have fulfilled my promise," he extends his hand to the ladies.
Studying him for a moment, Lara gives a small nod and takes his hand to give a firm shake. It was Jonah who stopped Sofia from being killed when she couldn't, but if Liam hadn't pushed her to go through the hole she'd fallen through, Fernando would have more than likely killed Sofia. "Thank you for saving Sofia," her voice firm, she doesn't want to give him the wrong idea. She certainly isn't forgetting about what he did to her before, or the fact that she never tortured him in return.
Nodding in return, he knows he'll more than likely never get anything more, and he doesn't blame her. Knowing what he did to her to get information, he admires her, maybe something more if he puts the job out of his mind. His eyes widen, "wait," it hits him suddenly and he goes into one of his cargo pants pockets to pull out a zip-lock bag with paper inside of it. "I know this doesn't make up for anything, but knowing my boss and knowing you… I didn't show him these."
Unfolding a few sheets of parchment paper he holds one up at a time and Lara's eyes widen in excitement. "Oh my gosh! Where did you get this?" she takes the paper gently though excited to finally have something to work with. Sofia smirks at seeing Lara getting excited again, her eyes lighting up and a new look of hope, one step closer to their goal.
"Inside of the cave network behind the waterfall, I was sent in with two others, but the other two had zero interest so they told me to go about my business. They were meat heads," he rolls his eyes, "I found some statues, and inscriptions on these rock pillars. So I grafted them and put them away in the hopes Mr. Huites wouldn't find out. Thankfully the meatheads didn't question me when I said it lead to a pit and offered for one of them to jump down and find out where it leads," he smirks to himself, "that got the barrel of a rifle in the back of my head, but it was worth it."
Examining the writing on every page, it takes Lara fifteen minutes to decipher what it all means. "According to the writing you got, the followers of King Midas had troubles with his dying. They didn't want to give up the power of his golden hand, they wanted to keep up with the riches for their city and to keep the peace with their alliances. But once it was removed from their King, it proved to be too much, so they kept it in a secret place. That however didn't stop people from wanting to take the hand, it had been relocated a couple of times, but the last bit I got from what you got down," she looks over at the great mountain. The rushing waterfall and looks through the trees to the base. "Is that the chamber where it is hidden is beneath everything… which means it is sitting very close to where the volcano is."
The three of them stand up; Lara takes a sip of her water bottle and looks at Sofia, "You're staying behind."
Sofia balks, "excuse me? I am not staying behind-"
"I cannot risk that bastard killing you a second time," Lara looks her in the eye, but Sofia takes her hand.
"These woods, this is my backyard, this is my terrain, where I feel at home and I know you want to protect me. I can handle myself, I saw you take out Trinity's men when you first were on the mountain, and I know you can handle yourself. Please," Sofia reaches up and touches Lara's face to caress her cheek. "Do not burden yourself with undertaking this challenge on your own."
Lara studies her eyes, her features; she admits to herself she has missed this kind of touch. Seeing the determination in her eyes, the devotion to her, Lara feels her walls crumbling. Deep down she wants to tell her to stay away so she won't have to witness Sofia's life in the enemies hands again, but there's also no way of stopping her.
Closing her eyes briefly, "okay… but first I need to use the bathroom." Liam gives her a funny look, "I haven't gone in several hours thank you very much."
"On that note," Liam smiles and starts walking backwards into the woods, "I'm headed back to my camp, just gotta hope they believe my mostly true story. Take care ladies," he turns and starts to run through the woods.
Cutting slowly into the last piece of fine juicy T Bone steak, fork pinning it down before lifting the hot piece to his mouth and chewing on it. A satisfied smile on his face, Fernando Huites sits at his desk in his private tent enjoying the juicy, tender, hot meat as he the last of its taste in his mouth.
Taking a handkerchief he dabs his lips clean before pulling his chair back to swivel it to his own personal map of the cave system and the surrounding area. Finger tips tracing along the already searched areas, they've been there for more than a few days and every area is accounted for, picking up a steel pen and placing the butt end to his lips he thinks carefully.
"Either someone hasn't been honest with me… or the location of the hand is sealed off. Hidden which poses an opportunity," he taps the butt end of the pen to his chin in thought. "Blow up the mountain… hmmm I'll lose a lot of men… and I could also risk burying it more," he turns to look at the waterfall and scrutinizes it. "If you weren't a ticking time bomb I'd take my time with this, but because you are a ticking time bomb I will have to make some drastic decisions."
A man comes hurrying into his tent, "sir, we have the machine up and working that scans the rocks," he says and Fernando swivels in his chair, setting the pen down and grabbing a black leather jacket.
"How wide of a frequency can you set it to?" Fernando asks and the man gestures to outside, both walk outside to the center of camp where a slender man in black BDU's is kneeling in front of the machine of interest.
"How much range can we get out of this?" Fernando asks and the young man looks up at him.
Pushing his glasses up his nose, "I was able to boost its range to 30 feet," he answers and Fernando looks at the waterfall.
"You've got one hour," Fernando instructs, the young man looks stunned and stands up to argue, "That volcano is going off today more than likely. This means you spend one hour trying to find the location of the hand and then we start blowing up parts of the mountain, that is all I will give you."
The young man picks up the device and runs off to the cave behind the waterfall, Fernando looks around at the determined faces and then hears a scuffle coming from a tent nearby and walks over to investigate. He sees Liam shoving a guy off of him, "what happened with you?" Fernando asks and Liam looks up at him and straightens himself out.
"I fell through the hole in the cave, after the big bang went off," Liam answers truthfully and Fernando walks up to him so he's just a foot away from him, looking down at him.
"What of the girls?" Fernando asks cooly and Liam glares at the other guy near him who was just questioning him about the same thing.
Looking back at Mr. Huites, "I don't know where they are, I was knocked out in the tumble, woke up in the river alone! I just woke up like 30 minutes ago," Liam answers and Mr. Huites stands closer to him, bearing down on him.
"You didn't follow any tracks to hunt the girls down?" Fernando asks in a deeper, colder tone.
Staring up at him, "I'm no tracker, and these girls know the wilds, they know how to watch where they step," Liam answers and feels a small urge to step back, but holds his ground. His boss is almost in his face now, and he cannot tell if he is buying his story or not. Watching his eyes dart back and forth, almost as though he's watching his prey and waiting for it to make a move.
"He's lying!" the same guy from earlier accuses and Liam doesn't turn to look at him, neither does Fernando.
"It doesn't matter too much if he is," Fernando says without taking his eyes off of Liam for a second. "What matters is if he has lied to me before, I can't have dishonesty on a mission. You and I have worked together more than once and not once before have you lied to me, otherwise I wouldn't have my trinkets. So… what would cause you to lie to me now?"
Liam stares at him, feeling a chill run up his spine, making sure not to falter in his stance, "what will it take for you to believe me Mr. Huites?"
Without warning Fernando gives Liam a harsh shove into a bunch of crates, knocking them down in the process but Liam keeps himself from falling over. "What aren't you telling me?" he shoves him again and this time Liam falls into the pile of crates, "was it your torture session with Lara Croft? Did it soften you?"
Standing up quickly to get shoved back down, feeling himself getting angry as it is his only option now, "I was knocked out when her friends came to get her! Until we had her friend there was no more information I could extract from her! I have not gone soft!" He stands up and finally shoves Mr. Huites away from him. "Why did you not kill her friend before the big bang? Why did you not kill her when Lara refused to give you anything?" he demands in return and to his surprise Mr. Huites punches him in the jaw.
Stumbling and losing his stability he crashes into a desk and knocking the contents over, looking up at Mr. Huites he stands up as fast as he can while his boss moves in on him quickly. Grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "Why did you go soft on Lara? Hours have gone by and you show up now? How did you fall into the hole and how did her friend get her restraints cut in the first place anyways?"
Mr. Huites face just an inch away from Liam's, his knuckles white from gripping his shirt so tightly. Liam stares at him hard, not flinching, "I'm not the one who searched her for her weapons! I thought she was contained and didn't think I'd need to make sure her hands would stay tied! Maybe she had a piece of glass in the back of her pants or in her shirt, I didn't set her free! One of your guys must be incompetent!" Liam moves in just a bit closer so his nose is pressing against Mr. Huites, his face red from forcing himself to be angry at the accusations.
"The ground was giving away! I saw you fall on your ass! The woman started to fall in and held onto me, bringing me into the hole with her! Give me a fucking break!" Liam almost shouts in his face and Mr. Huites takes a moment, staring at him, he takes a few deep breaths to calm himself and let's go of Liam's shirt.
Panting can be heard and everyone turns to look at the young man who'd gone into the mountain a little while ago, "I found it! I found the hidden room with the hand in it!"
Fingers gliding on rough rock, abdomen, hips, chest, back and butt pressed between the rock walls of the entrance she found. Not much of an entrance, the mountain having mostly closed it making the gap in the rocks quite the squeeze with Sofia moving along just behind her. She was going to try and find another way in but Lara convinced her that there was more than likely one way in and one way out, if there was another way in Fernando was going to find that.
The air is stale the further she squeezes herself in, finding small landings where the space finally opens up a bit before going back to going through another crevice. Bending her knees and using her hands to help guide herself through the narrow passages, she finally comes to a larger opening but it's primarily a ledge to walk along on the right, a gap on the left that is five feet in width or more in certain areas.
"Geez," Sofia blinks at her voice having suddenly echoed, "geez," she whispers and watches Lara put her back to the rock wall and using her hands moves along smoothly. "All of this for a hand that turns things to gold?"
Biting her bottom lip as she continues along and keeps her eyes ahead, keeping her flashlight in the path, "yeah sadly, gold can buy people a lot, when you can turn anything into gold and use it to buy and sell… Fernando Huites could become more dangerous than Trinity." Hating the idea of that happening, she glances back to see Sofia looking quite worried about this idea. "We'll get to it before him, don't worry."
"What do we do with it then?" Sofia asks and Lara pauses in her walking and purses her lips.
Before it was an adventure to find it and study how it works, to find a myth, a legend and now it's turned into finding the artifact before the bad guys again. What if I get to it before Fernando and then he shows up… and the volcano is erupting… he has Sofia she shakes her head to rid herself of those thoughts. 'I'll handle it when I get there.'
"First let's find it and see what the situation is from there," Lara finally answers and continues along. After a couple more minutes the space opens up more and more, the ground then shudders and both ladies grab the wall behind them. Watching debris and dust drift down in front of their eyes.
Sofia pulls at the collar of her shirt, "it's getting warm," she comments and Lara then sees it.
A platform sits below, surrounded by emptiness, no walkway, no ladder and no rope. Just a round hunk of rock on its own, the surrounding walls hidden by the darkness, no way to tell if there's a path, tunnel or anything. On the rock looks to be a smaller rock in square shape, but they're too far to see anything more.
"Isn't this lacking something?" Sofia asks and Lara nods.
"The bad guys? A hand? The ground shaking violently to make us fall to our doom?" Lara looks back at Sofia to see a smirk on her face. The ground starts to tremble more and they both hold to the wall behind them again, when it stops Lara gets herself as close as she can to the platform of rock and pushes off from the rock behind her.
Landing easily and pulling out her flashlight to look around some more, looking up she sees several large pointy rocks above their heads. Glancing to the walls beyond she listens to Sofia land just behind her and she picks up on a couple of crevices in the wall that she could possibly squeeze through, and two passages, over six feet apart. Lara and Sofia can feel the heat raising steadily, her hands growing sweaty, but Lara isn't sure if it's the heat causing that or her feeling anxious.
Looking down at the rock piece in the middle, Lara examines it to see there is an inscription on it. Faintly in the distance she can hear footsteps echoing in the distance, her fingers hovering over the inscription. "The Golden hand of Midas, here lies the last resting place for what was considered too powerful a weapon after our beloved King Midas passed." Giving it a puzzled look, Lara glances around with her flashlight and sees on the other side of the rock where it was to be sitting is a large crack in the rock going to the edge.
"We've got a problem," Lara says and hears the scraping and scuffing sound of boots near her. Without hesitating Lara whips out her bow and arrow to aim at one of the tunnel holes and so does Sofia, aiming at the other hole, "don't come any closer!" Sofia warns ahead of Lara.
"My, my Lara… you beat me to it, but you don't have any options for getting out of here without being shot," Fernando says in the darkness, Lara moves her flashlight accordingly and manages to illuminate part of his face in the tunnel. "If you agree to hand over the hand of Midas, I shall promise to not shoot either of you."
Scoffing, pulling the arrow nice and tight, "if you shoot us when we turn around to escape, you risk us falling into the depths and forever losing the Hand of Midas," Lara informs him and hears him give a chuckle that sends shivers up her spine. The hairs on the back of her neck standing on end, she opens her mouth to make a statement but the ground shakes at their feet.
When it finally stops Fernando barks out a laugh, "my dear, this volcano is going to blow very soon, if we keep at this chatter than we're all dead. If you take off I'll shoot you down and risk losing it, you want to come away from this alive don't you?"
Lara feels a drip of sweat slip down between her breasts, beaded sweat in her hairline and sliding down her neck, she looks at Sofia. There is no way she'll be honest and tell him they don't have it.
"We'll take our chances!" Sofia says firmly and Lara lets her arrow fly, it just misses Fernando's head, as does Sofia at a mercenary she was watching but hers gets the guy in the knee. He falls and grabs his knee screaming, falling to his uninjured leg and pulling his handgun up to shoot at Sofia, but she pulls out another arrow just as a cylinder object is tossed at them.
The grenade lands in the crevice of the crack in the rock they're standing on and Lara gasps, "To the ledge!" she orders and both ladies run, the ground starts to tremble again just as the grenade goes off. The force of the explosion combined with the trembling mountain, cause the platform to crack in half and the pointed rocks above to start falling. The first chunk falling where they were standing and making the platform crumble, both of the ladies jump as fast as they can and reach.
Lara's right hand grasping the slippery ledge due to the debris and she looks behind to use her left hand to catch Sofia's right hand. Looking over her shoulder Lara watches the whole platform plummet, and then she looks up at the ledge.
"Oh no…" the place quakes again and she feels her hand sliding off with the dirt, "no, no, no!" she watches as a chunk of the rock breaks off including what her hand is on. She watches the ledge fade from her view, she doesn't let go of Sofia's hand as they fall and their bodies hit rock in the dark, tumble and finally stop with a thud.
A glowing red can be seen at the other side of the rock where they're sitting, Lara grips Sofia's hand tightly, her heart rate picking up in fear and feeling nervous. "Sofia?" Lara says and hears a small groan, "Sofia?" Lara turns and pulls out her flashlight, feeling her shirt sticking to her back and abdomen. More sweat dripping between her breasts and feeling a little grossed out by it all, and fearful knowing that if she's feeling this much heat then they're very close to where the lava is.
She uses the flashlight to finally view Sofia and see a cut on her forehead; blood going into her hairline and her eyes are closed. "Sofia!" Lara bites her bottom lip as more rock chunks land near them, one landing just next to her and she watches as ropes come dropping down the wall near her.
Her eyes darting back and forth, Lara adrenaline fueling her as she acts quickly, moving to the edge she looks below to see the lava, but it is several feet below and looks like it is just sitting. She clenches her jaw and looks up into the darkness to see flashlights looking down and what looks to be some of Fernando's men starting to descend.
Taking a deep breath Lara looks back at Sofia and her eyes land on it, the Golden hand of Midas sitting on the other side of the pointy rock that landed next to Sofia. Looking around with her flashlight again, Lara looks for any crevices, anything she can use to climb and sees some rock maybe I can use my ice pick to climb this thing. Looking down at the lava again she watches it closely and feels the rock tremble again, every time it is getting worse.
Looking back up Lara sees that a couple of men are still scaling down the wall, she hurries to Sofia and parts her lips, using her water bottle she pours some water into her mouth and onto her cut to see it better. Sofia stirs a little and looks up at Lara with darkened, blurred vision. She coughs and groans, "Where are we?" she asks and holds the side of her head as it starts pounding.
"Sofia, we're in trouble, and you're going to have to trust me, I have the hand here," she glances at it, unsure of actually touching it currently, "the lava is below us but it doesn't look to be rising yet. Please trust me in what I'm doing to be the right decision," Sofia looks at her confused and disoriented.
Taking a sip of her water, Lara looks at the Golden hand of Midas and reaches down to her pants, pulling as hard as her slippery with sweat fingers can she yanks off a pocket. She drops the pocket onto it and watches it turn to gold, as it happens she grabs the part that is already gold and is relieved that her hand doesn't get the affect. Holding it up in the air, the red glows of the lava below with its own natural golden colour giving it a brilliant look.
"L-Lara…?" Sofia looks at her confused as the first couple of men land on the rock about seven feet away from her. Lara looks at them determinedly, holding out the hand and watching their eyes go wide, it takes her a moment in the dark but the third man to land on the rock is Liam, Fernando is one of the first.
"You want this?" Lara asks in a firm, questioning tone and looks Fernando in the eye, watching to see how badly he wants it, the ground shaking beneath their feet. "Do you?"
Cliff hanger! I know, you hate it. Sadly I feel the end of this story is coming soon. It might be the next chapter or the one after. Please let me know your thoughts, what did you enjoy? What did you dislike? I hope your enjoying what has been going on.
