Tomb Raider:
The Adventures of Lara Croft
Book 1-Curse of the Scorpion
Chapter 35- Pages… from THE Journal?
"Beware the curse of the scorpion.". Her words echoed in Alex's ears… in fact, every time she said those words they echoed in his ears. Like some sort of omen, calling forth the bad luck each time they were repeated.
"Oh like we didn't already know that one…". Alex stated, "Least you can read something on yours…". He sighed, "Blood soaked through these… well, once upon a time…". He shrugged his shoulders, looking through the ruined pages he'd found under an old backpack. He couldn't place the age of it for the life of him but… "This much blood… there's no way he got out alive.". He frowned, not much liking what that thought might mean concerning themselves and their own odds.
Survival and this place didn't seem to go hand in hand… but… someone had to start the stories didn't they? Or else… why would things be here? If it was just to scare away tourists or trespassers, why all the unexplained events relating to it? Why all the missing people? Why all the deaths? Why did Lara already seemed to know about this place before Alex had mentioned it?
There was no way that it could ALL be a coincidence. No way that it could ALL just be a well planned hoax. Because SHE was here before… maybe not in this particular bit of frustrating ruins… but… SHE WAS HERE. Alex stared over at her for a moment. Why did he take no comfort in knowing that?
Watching her examine more tattered pages and fragments of such… Alex couldn't help but wonder what it was that they were looking for on these old pages. If these poor souls had found something then they surely wouldn't have just sat and died down here so close to the entrance? Would they?
Arching his brow, he frowned and moved on to another set of bones. These were barely anything more than shattered skulls and… "…uhhhh Lara? Some bones are missing on these guys… any thoughts?".
Looking over in his direction, Lara made no motion to go over to his location nor did she offer any hint that she might go over to see what the male tomb raider was talking about. "Well, cannibalism is certainly high up on the list of possibilities.".
"You're kidding right?". Alex moved a few of the bones around, examining them for any indication of teeth marks or any hint of cannibalism being the cause of death.
"Think about it… if you're injured, starving, cold and trapped in a dark underground place with no one to judge your actions and no idea as to whether or not you're even going to make it out of this dreadful place; let alone out alive… would it really seem like such a stretch?". She paused, turning back to gently free a crumpled piece of paper from bone, a once clenched fist. "…at the time.".
With wide, almost traumatized eyes, Alex just shifted his position. "Well I can tell ya one thing… THIS isn't a bite mark.". He motioned to the large hole punched through the corpse's ribcage. It looked more like a sledgehammer to the chest, only there wasn't any object nearby that could have done such damage. Unless it was done AFTER the person was already dead… but why?
More questions and no answers… their sudden finding of the TRUE entrance somehow seemed less thrilling now. What had they really expected to find? Certainly not just old blood stains and bones with pieces of paper scattered about.
"Hell even if these WERE pages from something important… we can't even read most of 'em…". Alex sighed heavily, becoming less optimistic with each ruined page.
Lara shuffled around a few pages. "Useless… pointless… unreadable… Hmmmm…". Her tone chimed as her eyes scanned the page she now held to her face.
"What?". Alex questioned.
"…it's… it claims to be a page from a journal.". She offered, eyes skimming the words frantically translating in her head.
"THE journal? You mean the one mentioned back in that cave?". Getting up Alex walked over to her and looked around at the other pages scattered around her. "What's it say?".
"…parts of it are worn from blood and age… unreadable… but…". She paused, squinting to make out a paragraph that seemed intact.
CRACK!
The page suddenly lit up brightly as Alex held a glowstick behind the thin leaf of paper.
"Thanks.". Lara smiled, continuing her silent translation.
"Better?". Alex smirked teasingly.
"Much.". She nudged him softly, a gentle warning to not take this as an invitation to go back to his cocky self.
"Soooo… it isn't from the journal itself but it does mention it. Whoever was down here, they either found information leading to it… or possibly even saw it for themselves. It doesn't say which. They found various pages from the journal however, but nothing specific.".
"THEY?". Alex questioned.
Shrugging slightly, Lara continued. "It doesn't say who…".
"Of course…".
"Oh, there's a part about the scorpions.". Mumbling incoherently in Arabic, she then continued. "A LOT of scorpions… varying from slightly larger than normal to monstrous in proportion. They do not sleep… they merely patrol and then suddenly vanish. They don't seem to like the desert much. Which seems odd. Though smaller ones have been seen in the sands… or large, depending on what one would considered 'small', the monstrous scorpion tanks weren't encountered in ruins.".
"Well that's good right?". Alex interrupted.
"Depends…".
"On?". He frowned, not sure he wanted to lose this false sense of reassurance.
"How far they actually got.". Her tone hinting that considering the state of everything they'd found in the entrance… was probably not very far.
Alex sighed, "Alright, what else? Anything useful?".
"No really, think about it. The size of those scorpions… the size of their claws. The sheer strength they possessed. Alex they ripped through metal… do you really think flesh and bone would resist much better?". Motioning over to where Alex had found the shattered bones and corpse with the punched in ribcage, "A high impact hit from a claw would definitely be a valid culprit… it would also explain why most of the other bones are either crushed or completely smashed to dust.".
Alex frowned, "Just… keep reading.".
*Aven*