Since writing the last chapter, I have played more Uncharted…still haven't finished it…but on chapter 20 or something…the chapter begins with you riding a horse at speed…my brother told me this was near the end and I was like huh…that seems really short…

Elena's lack of concern was amusing when Nate turned up at her hotel door after the whole cruise ship escapade…yeah, we're going to save Sully tomorrow at dawn…you might have been washed up by the ocean and been in countless gun fights but man up and sleep it off for two hours…to make it even worse you can't sleep in the bed but you can have the couch…lol

I can smell the end of this story…but just like when I smell a cat crap in the garden on a hot summer day, I have no idea where the smell is coming from…it's just around…and rather strong…and bad

That pretty much sums up my views on the matter of this story ending…

In the last chapter Nate tricked Phil, Elena went to look for Nate, Chloe and Miguel found some dragon teeth, and the detective dude found a suspicious looking turd…

Chapter 35

Tariq, the Turkish detective, held the muddy brown object in front of him.

He had postponed his plans of heading straight for the centre clearing so he could investigate the skeleton his people had found earlier.

Since he had been clued in to the strange story about dragon jawbones, teeth and Spartoi, the detective had decided that finding and acquiring a potential jawbone could only be a good thing.

As long as the jawbone was kept out of Phil's hands, they would be alright.

There was something bugging the detective though.

The others had been going on about teeth. It was the teeth that were actually sown into the ground and gave rise to the Spartoi that everyone was so afraid of.

If this was a jawbone, it definitely didn't have anything that resembled teeth on it. However, there was a series of grooves along one edge of the old bone. Tariq wasn't a detective for nothing and figured that the teeth had been here but were now somewhere else.

It was vital that he got his hands on them before Phil could. He would put a stop to this criminal mastermind. It was his job. He had also grown fairly fond of the foreigners and it would be sad to see them killed over something like this.

Tariq ordered his men to search the area for the teeth. Well, having the jawbone was something at least.

He was just about to pack the item away when all of a sudden; twenty hideously sharp teeth erupted from the bone. Tariq dropped the thing on impulse and stared at it for a few seconds.

Nothing happened.

In the distance a flock of birds took flight.

Some of other policemen looked at the sky and murmured amongst themselves. They weren't exactly happy to be here. Not long ago, they had found a group of their own men who were very obviously dead. The apparent aggression and violence used against the bodies made no sense to the policemen who were still fairly dubious about the Spartoi's existence.

A junior policeman, who had seen the whole thing, squeaked. Tariq's immediate response was to do the same thing but since he was the leader around here managed to suppress it.

He supposed it was safe to call off the search for the teeth.

…

Chloe looked at Miguel.

Miguel looked at Chloe.

'If we survive this, you can make fun of me all you like,' Miguel said, dropping the empty box of teeth.

Chloe stared at the ground before them.

A tree root had tripped Miguel up. Again.

The lid of the box had tipped away and the teeth hit the grassy earth without a sound.

Chloe had watched all of this as if it were a slow motion film. It made for an incredibly painful viewing. You knew the teeth were going to hit the ground and you knew there was nothing you could do to stop them. It all came down to just waiting for the whole world to end.

Chloe knew she shouldn't have trusted Miguel with the teeth. What kind of idiot entrusted Miguel with anything?

This wasn't the time to deliberate over the meaning of Miguel's life, which was apparently just to make everything difficult.

Chloe fully intended to kill the man when they got out of this.

If they got out of this.

The teeth disappeared from view, sinking into the mud as if pulled by an invisible force.

The ground began to tremble.

This was all that Chloe needed to tell her to get the bloody hell out of there. She grabbed Miguel and began to run.

They were only a couple yards away when an explosion announced the arrival of the first Spartoi.

The two heroes ran, neither one of them believing for a second that they would survive.

…

Nate let himself be carried by Phil's men. His arms were draped around two people's shoulders and his feet dangled almost uselessly in between.

He wasn't sure how long he could keep this up. At some point Phil was going to figure out that he was being deceived. Nate just needed enough time for a Spartoi to turn up. That's all he needed. Just one bloody Spartoi.

Typical. When you needed a mythical creature to appear it never did. Only when you didn't want the thing to appear did it actually do so.

The fog was definitely thicker though, which was a good thing. They must be getting close.

Nate squeezed his eyes shut and exhaled slowly. It was something he did often when he thought of his hand. He had been allowed to wrap it in some gauze but that didn't stop the pain, which was beginning to take its toll. Nate knew he was in no condition to do any sort of heroic last boss battle fight. And if this all came down to one, he was going to be in serious trouble.

Phil raised a hand. The band stopped moving.

Nate wanted to gulp. Had he been found out? He was hoping for more time than this.

'Did anyone hear anything?' Phil asked.

The mercenaries paused and listened hard.

'Nope.'

'Nada.'

'I think I heard something that sounded like twenty Spartoi chasing two people.'

Phil nodded, 'That's what I thought.'

Nate was too tired to even begin to comprehend their reasoning behind this conclusion. He had heard the sound too but he couldn't tell what it was. Hopefully, it was a Spartoi. In reality and knowing what his luck was like, it was probably something unhelpful.

Phil shrugged, 'Let's keep moving, it doesn't seem to be headed this way.'

Nate grunted at the discomfort caused by his two bearers moving again.

Phil seemed so preoccupied with finding the final jawbone and teeth that he was forgetting to use his limited common sense. The fog was thick, they were near a Spartoi. A sensible man would retreat.

It was probably in Nate's favour that Phil wasn't such a man.

…

Elena growled.

Sully looked at her. The path had been continuously getting narrower until the jeep had actually got wedged between two tree trunks.

Not to be outdone by this, Elena had revved the engine for a good five minutes before accepting defeat. The three men in the car didn't dare say anything to Elena during this time. There was something about the thunderous look about her person that dissuaded them from saying anything logical.

Without so much as a word, Elena threw open the car door, slammed it shut and then kicked one of the tyres with enough pent up rage to actually cause her more harm than the car.

Sully thought it was time to intervene.

He got out of the jeep and approached Elena who was rubbing her ankle.

'Hey, Elena, you know everything is going to be alright, right?' he began.

Elena shot him a look and Sully immediately shifted into reverse, 'Uh, what I mean to say is that we should stay calm. Think about that anger you have and bottle it up-.'

Ted frowned from the car and stuck his head out the open window, 'I don't think that's what you're meant to say.'

Sully held up a hand, 'Let me finish, bottle up your anger, and then when we get to Phil you can unleash it on him 'cause he damned well deserves it.'

'Hear, hear,' Barry cheered.

Elena was quiet for a moment and then sighed. She dropped onto a rock and rubbed her face with a hand. When she removed it, her expression, thankfully, was a lot more composed.

'You're right. I know I should control myself. But it's kind of hard. Nate's been captured by Phil. He's probably hurt. We're getting closer and closer to a Spartoi. Chloe and Miguel are missing. I miss my son. I want to hold him and tell him we're never going to leave him again. Wait, I actually want my kid to have parents. Nate better not be dead. If he is well I'm gonna-.'

Sully could see that Elena was slipping back to anger mode and quickly changed the subject.

'Uh, do you guys hear something?' he asked.

Elena stopped talking and listened. There was something. Faint, but definitely there. A sort of rumbling.

'What is that?' Ted wondered.

Barry frowned as if mulling over something very serious.

'It sounds like twenty Spartoi chasing two people.'

Everyone turned to look at him.

'Sorry, what?' Sully asked, not quite expecting this much detail.

'How did he even get to that conclusion?' Elena muttered.

The sound was getting louder. The sky a little darker.

Over the deep bass of the rumble, there was distinct high pitch overtone which could have been attributed to a female scream.

Ted quickly exited the car with Barry.

'I don't think it's a good idea to stay here,' he said, 'whatever the hell that sound is, it's heading this way.'

Elena agreed and just as they all decided to hurry down the path that hopefully led to Nate and Phil, two people burst through the tree line.

'Chloe? Miguel?' Sully shouted.

It was indeed Chloe and Miguel but Chloe didn't look like she wanted to slow down but then, unsurprisingly, Miguel tripped over.

She slowed and panted, taking in deep breaths of air and her surroundings.

'Oh, hullo,' she said when she saw the others.

'Is that it?' Barry asked. 'What the hell is going on? Why are there twenty Spartoi chasing you?'

Ted looked nervously at the source of the sound. It was still a little distance away but the ground was beginning to shake a little under the footfalls of twenty pairs of inhuman legs.

Even Miguel saw the weirdness in Barry's comment and stared at him.

'How did you know how many Spartoi there were?' he asked.

Barry was about to speak when Ted hurriedly ushered them down the path.

'I'm sure this can wait, we need to run,' he said just as the first Spartoi crashed through the nearby branches.

Leaves and twigs showered the group.

They did not need to be told twice about the running.

…

Tariq stared as the ground below got smaller and smaller.

The helicopter's ascent was meant to allow for a greater visual representation of the island.

He would head to the central clearing first and see what he could find there.

It was probable, by now, that Phil had moved on from there but there may be a clue as to where he was heading next.

As a precaution, Tariq had ordered his men to stay put. There was no need for them to expose themselves to Spartoi when it wasn't necessary. It was better if he scouted ahead first using the helicopter.

By now, the majority of Phil's men who were not with the villain himself had been caught. This was one problem taken care of. Interrogations of the captives had revealed that there were about fifteen men with Phil including Nathan Drake.

The jawbone and teeth had been separated and packed up neatly beside the detective. From what little he had heard Tariq knew that destroying the jawbone would destroy the teeth. This was a very promising thing.

The very idea of dragon jawbones and teeth was an abomination. For one person to wield that much power was just plain wrong. The detective had been more than happy to destroy them. However the jawbone seemed to be a little more resistant to the idea and had so far withstood a fair few attempts on its existence mounted by the police.

It seemed that nothing short of a massive boulder falling on it would do any damage and so Tariq had decided to take it with him just in case an opportunity like that arose.

The detective was happily imagining what his dinner that evening would be when the helicopter suddenly jerked.

Tariq swore and shouted at the pilot who apologised profusely.

'Sir, I'm sorry but I think you should see this.'

The pilot pointed out of the window and down to the forest below.

The tops of trees were shaking wildly from side to side. Something was moving at pace through the forest. Something…large.

Both the pilot and the detective gaped when they saw the culprits rampage through a clearing.

Many, many Spartoi were charging through the greenery. Through a pair of binoculars, Tariq could just make out a blur as a group of people ran back into the cover of the forest.

He was pretty sure it was the foreigners. Damn. What had they gotten themselves into?

Once again, Tariq postponed his plans and ordered the pilot to try and get as close as he could to the heroes.

He had to save them.

Somehow.

…

Nate knew that Phil was finally cottoning on to his plan.

It was surprising that they had even got this far without Phil getting even a little bit suspicious. Well, maybe not that surprising considering what Phil was like.

Visibility was at an all-time low and if it wasn't for his injuries, Nate might have actually slipped away unnoticed.

Phil stopped the group again.

From out of nowhere, Phil had produced an all-terrain Segway for his own personal use. It even had half a leg stuck on it so Phil could just rest his stump on it. He had been holding his crutch like a jousting spear.

It had all the makings of a humorous internet video.

Nate didn't like the Segway. If things got sticky with a Spartoi, Phil could easily get away. Nate had been hoping that Phil, due to his disability, would be easy pickings for the Spartoi. It seemed that this wasn't going to be so.

'If I didn't know any better,' Phil began, 'I would think you were leading us into a trap.'

Nate really wanted to shout 'you don't say' but instead opted to stay quiet.

Hopefully this Spartoi would just appear already.

Phil murmured something to the large second in command, who took out his gun. It was all rather ominous.

Nate liked his hands. They did things. They were…handy. He was pretty sure he was going to need both to live. He could just about get by with one. There wasn't even a point trying if he didn't have any.

'What makes you say that?' Nate asked, watching the man with gun warily.

'Well, we've been walking around for a while now and there isn't anything here. You haven't even told us where you're leading us,' Phil said, 'As far as I can see, you've just led us to the place where the Spartoi was most likely to be.'

There was a moment's silence where the meaning of what had just been said sunk into the speaker.

Phil's brow furrowed, 'Hey-.'

Whatever Phil had been going to say was lost in the piercing scream that echoed through the forest.

Phil's jousting stick drooped a little, 'What was that?'

Nate wasn't expecting this. He was kind of hoping for the inhuman roar that meant a Spartoi was around.

This kind of sounded like…a Miguel scream. Although that would be ridiculous. What would he be doing here?

And why would he be screaming?

Forgotten but now remembered the rumbling from before intensified.

Nate was acutely aware how the two men who had been holding him were now a lot less concerned with keeping their captive and more about what this disembodied scream was all about.

Before the sound could actually reach them a roar sounded to their left.

Phil's men scattered as two towering legs crashed through the undergrowth. Nate was dropped to the ground as his captors fled.

Finally. A breakthrough he could work with.

Wincing as he got to his feet, Nate tried to see through the fog. A scream told him that the Spartoi wasn't too far away. Nate half stumbled, half ran, as far as he could the way they had been travelling. Any direction was a good direction as long as it led away from the Spartoi.

It seemed that Phil was thinking the same thing and was motoring down the path without looking back.

Nate didn't have a chance of keeping up with him and soon Phil was swallowed up by the mist.

As he got further away from the Spartoi, Nate noticed that the rumbling from before was getting louder. It sounded muffled in the fog. Nate slowed and leant against a tree, gasping for breath.

The short run had totally wiped him out, but he didn't have a choice. He would have to keep going.

He couldn't think of anything worse than the Spartoi catching up to him.

Nate could tell that the rumbling was getting louder and that the path he was following was leading to the source. There was nothing to be done. He would have to take his chances. Whatever was down the path was probably better than a Spartoi.

Probably.

Nate only took a few steps before another sound made itself apparent.

It was a high pitched whine. The kind produced by a motor.

Phil's Segway.

A few seconds later the man himself appeared, motoring down the path full speed; back the way he had come. From the distance that separated them, Nate could see the whites of his eyes. The man was terrified.

What had he seen?

Phil passed Nate without even noticing him, or maybe he did but just didn't acknowledge him. He did look pretty spaced out.

Nate felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. This wasn't going to be good.

He was just deciding to turn back and follow Phil when shadowy figures appeared through the fog.

Six of them.

They were heading towards Nate with intent, as was the rumbling. Both ground and trees were visually shaking.

Someone ploughed into him. Broken ribs protested and Nate saw black spots cloud his vision. Not good. He fell flat on his back with his attacker. When his vision cleared he frowned. Surely his mind was playing tricks on him?

'Elena?'

…

Elena didn't really know what was happening. One minute she was running full pelt. Next, she had tackled someone to the ground and was, now, rather embarrassingly lying on top of said someone. If she wasn't being chased by twenty Spartoi she would have never lived this down.

'Elena?'

The familiar voice pulled her back to the here and now.

'Nate?'

A thousand questions came to mind but when she saw his bruised face and bloodied shirt, she couldn't bring herself to say anything, which was probably a good thing since this wasn't the time for intense emotions.

Before the touching reunion could progress both Elena and Nate were hauled upright by Sully and Ted.

'This is nice, really, but we need to go,' Ted said breathlessly.

'Since we've found you I guess we can shake things up a bit,' Sully said and wheeled the group round so they were literally travelling at a right angle to their original path.

They ran as a unit. If one of fell behind the others helped. More often than not it was Nate, who hadn't let on to the others how hurt he was. It wasn't that he was trying not to worry the others; it was more that there hadn't been anytime.

The fog thinned a little, which hopefully meant that the Spartoi had gotten lost or better yet, were killing each other since there weren't any humans around.

Elena ran, legs pumping, heart racing. She could see light heading towards them through the thick branches. They were coming to a clearing.

She had noticed that Nate hadn't been keeping up. She was tuned into these things whether she wanted to be or not. He also was limping, his face etched with pain.

Elena was worried but as they made it into the clearing and weak sunlight, relief flooded her system.

The tell-tale whup-whup of helicopter blades was the most reassuring sound she had heard for a long time.

Tariq was waving at with an arm to hurry them along.

They were saved.

…

Phil was intensely aware of the quiet. The fog lingered but wasn't as strong as before.

He had escaped the Spartoi…for now.

Stopping the Segway, Phil waited. For what, he didn't know.

He needed to make a plan. Drake had lied to him. One of his blasted friends probably had the jawbone and teeth already.

They were probably laughing at him right now.

Phil's ears pricked, he could hear something.

It sounded like a helicopter.

Phil smiled and headed towards it.

…

Nate had almost collapsed when he reached the helicopter. Tariq had to pull him up bodily into the helicopter and into a seat.

Elena looked at him with concerned eyes. She sat opposite him as the others piled in.

His eyes were closed, his breathing laboured. She noticed his hand. Blood dripped onto the metal floor.

He was hurt but alive. Elena was grateful for this alone more than anything else.

Nate opened his eyes and nudged her foot with his.

'You alright?' he asked, noticing the expression on Elena's face.

'I'm fine but what about you? Is that a bullet hole?' Elena was trying hard to keep the hysteria out of her voice. He was asking if she was ok?

'Yeah, it is. But it's fine. Just a flesh wound,' Nate assured her hurriedly.

Elena folded her arms and looked at him. It was the kind of look that told Nate she wasn't ever going to believe him or let him off the hook.

Barry, who was sitting next to Nate, peered over.

'Eurgh, I can see right through it,' he said with a mix of disgust and awe.

Elena scowled.

The helicopter began to ascend in a controlled manner. Chloe sat on the edge seat and looked out over the trees. Wind buffeted the craft but Chloe could make out an almost solid block of grey smog coming towards them.

'Uh guys,' she said.

Ted and Sully looked over.

'What the crap?' Sully grumbled while Ted got the pilot's attention.

The helicopter sped up just as a figure broke into the clearing.

'Is that a Segway?' Tariq asked, completely flummoxed by the new arrival.

'Yeah and Phil's riding it,' Nate said tiredly.

Chloe frowned, 'What's that he's holding?'

'It looks like one of those things. Y'know, medieval times, you ride on a horse with a big pointy stick,' Sully said.

'I think you mean a jousting lance,' Barry said and looked over, 'Yep, definitely a jousting lance.'

'Can you stop being idiots? Is that such an unreasonable request?' Chloe muttered.

'Uh oh,' Miguel, who had so far been quiet, said.

'What is it now?' Chloe said, not expecting a sensible answer.

'Phil's Segway is heading for a rocky ramp,' Miguel said.

Everyone was silent.

'This thing doesn't have doors, does it?' Chloe asked Tariq.

'No, it doesn't. It's a troop transport,' the detective replied and then frowned, 'can someone tell me what is this 'rocky ramp' you speak of?'

'Well,' Barry, the film-director said, 'it's a device that when used correctly will send the user flying over or into their target, defying all rules of gravity and physics.'

'I see,' Tariq said and motioned for the pilot to speed up even more.

Phil sped up and flew through the air as the Segway left the handily placed arrangement of rocks.

He missed. But not by much.

The heroes quickly looked out the other side of the helicopter to see Phil land gracefully on the other side of the clearing.

'That was close,' Sully said, sitting back in his seat.

Nate wasn't so sure, 'Um, you never did tell me what was chasing you before, but I've got the horrible feeling its heading this way.'

Six heads swivelled towards the roiling mass of fog that was at the clearing. It was impossible to even see the ground any more.

Without warning a massive hand grabbed the lip of the helicopter's floor and gripped. Instantly the aircraft tilted to one side. Warning lights and sirens illuminated the control panel. The pilot wrestled with the controls.

A few seconds later the unearthly hand ripped away from the metal with a screech and disappeared into the fog. The pilot managed to right the helicopter and didn't even bother about orders. The helicopter rose recklessly but quickly until the whole island was visible.

'I'm pretty sure that just gave me a heart attack,' Sully muttered, clutching his chest.

'Yeah, we were being chased by twenty Spartoi,' Miguel said conversationally.

Nate looked at them all, 'Uh, so how did that come about?'

Chloe shot Miguel a look, 'Yes, Miguel, tell everyone. How did this come about?'

'Well, Chloe and I found the box of dragon teeth and then I fell over and they all got planted.'

'Why do I not find that surprising?' Sully muttered.

There was a moment where everyone decided to relate what had happened to each other.

The main conclusions were this. Both the jawbone and teeth were in the heroes' possession. There were also twenty Spartoi running rampant on the island. Phil was still around but his men captured or dead.

Tariq the policeman had something to say.

'I think I know how to deal with the Spartoi,' he said.

'A nuke?' Sully suggested.

'We just leave them here and get the hell off this island,' Barry added.

'No. If I throw the jawbone down to them, maybe they will fight over it and kill each other. From what Mr Drake has told me about these Spartoi, they are very simple minded.'

'He's not the only one,' Chloe said snidely at Miguel. She wasn't going to let him forget this one.

'I think this might work,' Nate said, 'it did for Cadmus and Jason in the past.'

Nate looked down over the island and focussed on the clearing they had just left. It wasn't even visible because of the fog. He wondered how Phil was going to survive down there.

Tariq ordered the pilot to lower the craft. The pilot hesitated until Tariq sighed and took the controls of him.

'When we are close enough to a Spartoi, throw the jawbone to one of them,' the detective said and pointed to a rucksack shoved under one of the seats.

Nate took it out, held it in his good hand and stared at it for a moment. This was root of all their problems. A stupid turd-like fossil.

It all started with Chloe digging the first one up in Uganda. From then on Nate had barely been able to keep up with the adventure himself. New allies, new villains, mythical creatures, countless gunfights, an improvised landing of a plane in the rainforest, an ice cream truck, a hovercraft, jeeps, helicopters, rocky ramps, caves and fried chicken.

It wasn't very believable and that wasn't even the end of it. This adventure had caught up with him over half a year. More planes, one that belonged to a singing teenager and another that belonged to an ambassador. Kebab had been thrown. His son had been born. His son had been kidnapped. His son had been saved.

Nate grunted. Too much had happened over the past few days.

Now here he was, shot in the hand and damned ready to finish this bloody thing off.

Tariq levelled the helicopter off in the middle of the fog. He didn't dare go any further. The Spartoi were surprisingly good at jumping.

The others looked to Nate. It was time.

Time to end this adventure once and for all.

A Spartoi reared its head, taking a moment from its fight with another of the beings. It stared at him with its pitiless red eyes.

Taking aim, Nate lifted the jawbone.

He threw it with all his might.

This could either have been two short chapters or one fairly longish one…I just want this to be over so I made a long one…

For some reason in this chapter Elena seems to be really hormonal…it seems that I can't write any female character being angry without them sounding like this lol

Chloe also seems to be a bit catty…but Miguel deserved it lol

I don't know why but it seems to me that only an evil person would have a Segway…or if you're white and nerdy…if nobody gets the reference just ignore that last part lol

I introduced twenty Spartoi without thinking about how to get rid of them…before there was a handy cliff thing that led into water…great…

Come to think of it…Phil had a Spartoi with him too…it's what got him out of prison…great…I forgot about that one…

The ending is slowly taking shape…slowly…

Despite what I said in the previous chapter…this can't go on much longer…I see one more chapter…so this is the penultimate one…officially…I think…hmmm

Since this is the end…if you happen to see gaping plot holes…please tell me lol…I tend to forget what's happened so far…I'll try and wrap them up

I've also realised that the little synopsis mentions Sully chasing a woman and failing…that has not happened…oh well…let us all forget this

Thanks for reading, reviewing and all the other stuff you do