Day 28. With Cold Blood
And so, Lara Croft, a woman fulfilling her end of the bargain, has brought the four meteorite stones to the end of this world. The mighty and frozen continent of Antarctica is more bearable in summer, where days are never ending. Nights are an hour long, and such is not the hour of this day. It's still daytime, and Lara is breathing cold, as she walks through thick ice.
There has either been miscommunication between Dr. Willard and his henchmen, or a cold truth is about to be revealed. In Willard's icebreaker, Lara's simply not welcome. So it's a bit of a hustle between the orange jacket Lara and the red jacket henchmen, until Lara manages to steal a lifeboat. She walks by the corpses of the deceased henchmen, and then jumps into the lifeboat. "Not a chance I'll get frozen in Antarctic waters," she thinks.
The yellow lifeboat's motorized, and allows Lara to traverse a cave filled with water without freezing to death. On the other side, the facilities to Dr. Willard's site, belonging to the RX Corporation. Further henchmen ambush Lara, but she's quick to dodge and counter. There's a single cabin on this part of the site, and some dig rigs. She climbs the rigs and finds a cave above, leading to further cabins. All these, heavily guarded, and swiftly swept by Ms. Croft.
She manages to go through the gas installations and enters into a cabin, with a man with his torso split in half, spitting poison with yellow burps. He's pinned to a corner of the cabin, and can't go out from there. "He's been changed, like the South Pacific locals warned me," she thinks. Then she decides best to put the man out of his misery.
She then advances to a final cabin, fully guarded by dogs, and after clearing it picks up a key beside a map with the dig rig specifications. Some backtracking later, Lara activates the rig with the key, and a new path is opened to her. The path leads to the entrance of some mines and another cabin, where Dr. Willard invites Lara in.
He's casually having some lunch, and unaware of the hostility of his henchmen towards Lara. They discuss the zombie guy Lara has come across a few cabins ago, a molecular biologist as curious as Willard. He just doesn't care… All that matters is understanding how to manipulate hox genes. The discussion continues as Lara puts her backpack on the table, with the four artifacts. Below the mines lies the meteorite that is producing all these mutations, and Willard wants to access it. "But you don't have control over it, do you?" she asks, concerned. Of course, the meteorite has left Willard blind, and Lara has faced this over and over again. She draws her guns, but he slams the table and knocks Lara down. Apparently, Willard's stronger than he looks.
A shootout starts, as Willard takes cover from Lara. He takes a lift, with the last breath of his strength, while keeping Lara at a safe distance from him. The lift guides him into the mines. And Lara is above him, but not inside the lift. This gives Willard a head start into the meteorite chamber. Plus, Lara has a labyrinthic challenge ahead. "Oh, no!" Lara complaints. "Not carts! I hate them!"