Path of Destruction
Part Eight: Back to Business
Miss Lara Croft stood in the middle of a huge coliseum clutching tightly onto the butts of her holstered pistols ready for battle. Just behind her Samuel Beeman along with Devon prepared themselves as well for the coming onslaught.
For several minutes not one of them moved or even breathed. They stood completely still as if they were frightened rabbits under the watchful eye of a large beast. Such was the wait that they began to wonder if there was actually going to be any sort of attack at all. That was when it came.
Slowly the door across the arena began to open revealing a shadowed figure lurking within. As it stepped forward into the light it was painfully obvious to everyone that they were faced with a legendary Roman gladiator.
He was very large muscular man ever so much more than anyone they had seen thus far and was covered from head to toe with armor. In his right hand he tightly clutched the handle of a morning star while he business end swung loosely by the side of his leg nearly knocking into his kneecap with every step. When he had reached the center of the arena the gladiator came to a stop. After that he simply stood menacingly staring down at his opponents.
As soon as he had set himself in place he was followed by a second man and then a third and a fourth. This continued on until, at last, there were six of them standing motionless in the center of the coliseum gazing down at Lara and her companions. Each wielded a deadly weapon ranging from the morning star that the first man carried to spears and swords.
When they had finally assembled themselves they began to slowly move forward as if they were the Los Angeles Police Department trying to subdue a riot. Croft merely stood poised with her hands on her guns.
This made the Americans more nervous than ever. Not only were they not armed in anyway the person that was seemed to have decided that it was too much of a bother to use her weapons. "Miss Croft, you know you can shoot them anytime," stuttered the archeologist.
The young lady didn't hear a word of it. She was too focused on the advancing bandits to notice anything else. With each step the enemy took she gripped down on the handles of the nine-millimeter pistols around her waist. She could feel a strange heat begin to form over her brow. A single tiny drop of perspiration started to form near the base of her scalp. It rolled deliberately down her face until it reached the end of the explorer's nose. From there it departed from her face falling to the ground where it was immediately observed by the dry dirt. By then the enemy had come nearly half the distance to the three intruders. That was when she finally struck. Like lightning the explorer's weapons were deployed and two shots rang out.
To the surprise of the advancing gladiators one of their own fell to the ground dead as a doornail from some unknown force halting them in their tracks bewildered at the power they had just seen. Their first instinct was to run but they knew they had to overcome whatever evil magic this was for the good of all.
Once again they began to charge moving somewhat faster now. This time Lara did not hesitate. "Stay well back," she warned the two unarmed gentlemen behind her. Then, at full speed, she plunged herself headlong toward her advancing foes. They pulled back their weapons ready to strike but the attacking tomb raider had already taken out a second just before leaping over the heads of the lot of them.
She landed behind them and somersaulted back to her feet before taking out yet another with a volley of bullets. The remaining attackers now stood very still. Not only was this woman capable some sort of evil magic but she was more agile than anyone they had ever seen. It was starting to appear to them that she was a goddess.
On the other side of the arena the Yankees stood very much in shock as well. The odds that anyone could survive a one on six encounter where, at least according to them, were astronomical. And now that they saw that the odds were even they started to feel very confident about themselves. The extreme fear that they had felt before had fled like a mouse in a cat farm and now they were intent on being noble and helping the woman.
Taking advantage of the gladiator's immense focus on the lady Sam and Devon crept forward toward one of the slain men. The Texan, who was undoubtedly the braver of the two bent down and picked up the sword lying nearby. Then, with as much stealth as he could manage and much to the dismay of Lara Croft, who was watching the whole thing, he moved himself right behind one of the enemies and plunged the weapon deep into his back.
The gladiator fell lifelessly to the ground from wound but as he did the other two whirled around to face their new attacker. As they did so one them was cut down swiftly by the young lady 's pistols while the other found himself the victim of a lucky blow from the sword that was still lodged in Devon's hand.
"That was a stupid thing to do," Croft said yelling at Devon, "you could have gotten yourself killed, not to mention me."
The American, rather than dignifying the lady's statement with any sort of response turned his attention to the doors where they had first entered the arena fully intending to walk straight back to the garden where they had first entered. As he approached, however, he sensed that something wasn't quite right. Through the cracks in wood he should have been able to see portions of the path just beyond that they had come up only minutes before.
Upon closer examination the reason for this soon became painfully obvious. Using his newly acquired weapon, the American forced open wooden doors revealing that the passageway was blocked off completely by a giant stone cube that had been placed in front of the door.
"Well I didn't expect to see that," cried Lara from across the arena. Her curiosity peaked once again she wasted little time in making her way toward the obstruction. Upon reaching it she immediately dropped to one knee and set to work on a more intensive assessment of the situation.
What she found did not inspire a lot of confidence about their future. Not only was their escape blocked but the sides of the large block appeared to be fused somehow to the wall around it. On a hunch Croft immediately sprung up and made a run for one of the other doors around the arena. There she found that, like the first one, it was sealed. The same was true for all the other doors around the coliseum. Even the passage where the gladiators entered was now mysteriously blocked.
"So now what," Beeman asked running up to the explorer half in a panic.
"We wait," she replied without so much as an eye blink, "they've got a trick up their sleeve.
"Now that's a good idea," mocked Devon as he approached, "lets starve ourselves to death.
The young lady rolled her back into her head. "Do you actually think they would put us in here just to starve us? They could have done that back in their cell."
No sooner had she said this than the "trick up their sleeves" was revealed. Out of an unseen ledge high above them came a sudden gush of water ejecting its self from the wall with great force as if it were a giant fire hydrant.
It fell to the ground indenting the dirt floor with a thunderous splat. This was followed soon after by another geyser on the opposite side of the arena. A third appeared in the wall between the two just over the ornamented box and a forth on the wall facing it. The sound of each of these splattering in unison onto the dirt below echoed through the whole arena.
"That's not good," remarked the young archeologist hoping to curb to the terror that had suddenly entranced him. "What are we going to do now?"
Croft moved cautiously toward the first of the huge waterfalls crashing into the arena but stopped short before she got too close. She could tell that the force of the falling water while not extraordinarily powerful was still strong enough to do damage to whomever ventured too close. That being the case she immediately swung around to face the archeologist whose fear had been growing steadily ever since the whole adventure had begun. "As I said before," she reiterated, "we wait."
"Wait fer what," interjected the large Texan, "my boots are already wet and I'd prefer to be out of here before the water gets up to my neck."
The explorer breathed a heavy sigh of annoyance at her adversary's negative attitude. She wished now more than ever that she had killed him when she had the chance. "Well too bad for you then," she scorned, "because the only way out of here is to swim out."
Immediately after the words were out of her mouth came a very low groan from behind her. It was Sam. As the other two turned to face him they could see that his face had turned whiter than snow and the expression that he wore transcended all known forms of fear that man has thus far been knowledgeable about. "But I - I can't swim," he confessed sadly.
Lara was not at all surprised by this announcement. Ever since she had woke up in the company of these gentlemen she had forced herself to believe that in the company she was in nothing at all could go right. In keeping with this theory she was sure that it was now time for the other American to say or do the wrong thing. The young lady quickly turned and pointed a long finger in his direction. "Say anything, "she threatened, "and I will rip your lips off."
Devon, who was already annoyed by the announcement of Beeman's lack of aquatic skills, took extreme exception to the young lady's threat not only because someone had the actual gull to threaten him but also because of whom the threat the person was that was threatening him. What made things worse was that he knew that she was his only real chance for escape. That being the case he retaliated in the only way he could think of at the moment, which was to make a very unfriendly comment under his breath comparing the explorer to a lady of the night.
This, in turn, aroused the anger of the young English woman who returned the favor by making a statement questioning the humanity of the man's mother.
After that it is very possible that things would have escalated to the point of someone's demise had Sam not stepped in between them. "Can we get back to my problem," he asked in his best authoritative voice. With the water now nearly around his ankles he was starting to wonder if the other two would even bother to try to help him.
This brought up a host of entirely new arguments most of which had nothing to do with the current situation. As the trio quarreled on endless the water level slowly continued to rise along with Beeman's fears and Devon's bad attitude. Even Croft's usually calm demeanor began to suffer at the hands of the American's banter.
"Alright," she yelled at last, "we're not getting anywhere this way." Seeing that neither of the men would ever figure out what she was thinking on their own she decided to disclose her plans to them in hopes that would, at the very least, be quiet for a few seconds. "Here's what we are going to do," she began, "do you see that thing up there." She quickly stretched out a long finger upward toward the box high above them. "We are going to swim up there and see if we can't get out that way."
Sam was thoroughly unimpressed. "That's it," he asked, "that's the whole plan. From what I've read about you I would have thought you would just something up."
Now it was Lara's turn not to be impressed. "So help me," she said glaring evilly at the archeologist, " if you start with that 'not a real archeologist' rubbish again I will leave you here to die."
The prospect was more than enough to frighten the poor lad into submission. The water had now reached a point nearly around his waist and the prospect of it getting any higher frightened him more than he had thought possible. "Now then," continued the young lady, "Once the water gets high enough just start kicking and moving your arms in and out."
"And you won't drown as fast," joked the Texan sarcastically.
Suddenly, Lara wished she were back in the watery tunnel soaking wet and blind as a bat. At least then she was alone and not having to put up with the ever-bothersome Yankee twins. She could have, of course, killed them both and had considered the matter several times but somehow, merely being annoying wasn't enough of an excuse to act. On the other had, there were more than enough reasons to cap Devon but for fear of upsetting the other she forced herself to refrain for the time being.
Instead, she spend the next several minutes attempting to explain the finer points of swimming to the archeologist while at the same time trying to ignore the other. By the time the whole affair had come to a point close to something resembling being straightened out they were all treading water waiting for a chance to reach the ornate box just above them.
Unfortunately, that was when a very disturbing revelation took hold of all three of them. As the water crept upward the torches, one by one, began to extinguish leaving them in less and less light until, at last they found themselves enveloped by utter darkness.
It did not take long either for the more water that flooded into the arena the faster it came in. It was a great relief to all three of them when they were finally able to at least see over the ledge into the small room. The prospect, however, was not encouraging. Behind a small lounge chair a large block towered down over the three. It was very much like those that they had encountered before that obstructed their escape and that were now responsible for holding in the water that they were now immersed in. Immediately Croft heaved herself up into the room followed by Beeman, who wanted to get out of the water as quickly as possible, and Devon, who wanted to keep an eye on the other two.
Surprisingly, the furnishings inside while luxurious were still very modest considering the persons who supposedly occupied it. There were only three pieces of furniture in the whole place. Directly in front of them was a lounge chair, beside that there was a normal chair, and on the other side of the room sat a small table.
But Croft, in her usual curious fashion, ignored all of this in favor of exploring mysteries of the protruding block in front of her. It didn't take her long to discover something strange. The edges of the block were not sealed like others they had seen before. "Sam," she called, "what do you make of this,"
The young man stepped off of the ledge and moved to join his colleague. "Do you think we can move it," he asked after a short examination. Croft nodded in the affirmative. At the same time she motioned for Devon to join them and lend a hand. He shrugged reluctantly at the prospect but out of a sense of hope of escape he obeyed the lady's gestures and joined them.
When they were fully assembled the three of them placed there shoulders on the stone object and proceeded to push with all of their might. Slowly, it started to give way, moving backward ever so slightly until it was nearly flush with the wall. All of a sudden there was an ease in the task as if something had been pushing against the block from the other side and abruptly released its hold causing the block to be moved very much easier than before.
Unfortunately, this was not the best thing that could have happened for at that very moment Croft, Beeman, and Devon had thrust themselves as hard as they could onto the block. Suddenly, there was a loud click as the block moved backward. It did so with such force that all three of them went flying forward so hard that they fell over each other resulting in Lara being on the ground sandwiched between the Americans.
This, along with the insuring struggle to get back up resulted in a fiasco the likes of which ESPN would have paid millions to broadcast. To begin with Devon, who was on top of the pile, thought that he would be clever and disarm his arch rival as he pushed himself back to his feet. The young lady, however, had anticipated such an asinine maneuver and, even though her back was to him managed to kick the miscreant where it hurt the most causing him to stumble backward over the lounge chair and onto the ledge. Even more embarrassing is the fact that he would have ended up in the water again had his leg not found its self wedged tightly in the leg of the chair.
The young archeologist, by that time, had become very uncomfortable underneath Miss Croft and reconciled the situation by summarily pushing her off to one side. Normally such an action would have been met by verbal tongue lashing from the young lady yet this time she refrained from any sort of comment at all because of what she saw across the room.
Why she had not noticed before now she could not say nor did she even bother to stop and consider the matter. Her curiosity would not allow it. On the table on the far side of the room was a rather large rolled up piece of parchment. Like a gnat to a lit flame she fluttered over the archeologist, who was still lying on the floor, toward the new discovery.
Picking up the parchment from the table Croft began the study the foreign characters. They seemed to be written in approximately the same dialect as the spoken language they had encountered not too long before. Having the words marked out on paper, however, seemed make things easier to comprehend. Even so, it was more than obvious that deciphering the document would take some time.
As she skimmed over the letters in an attempt to interpret at least a small portion of the parchment she felt a strange rumbling rolling upward from her stomach. It traveled swiftly through her esophagus like bullet train through a tunnel and exited through her mouth in the form a small belch.
Immediately her demeanor switched back to her upper class background. Suddenly she was embarrassed beyond belief by the gaseous expulsion. It didn't matter that she thousands of miles away from anything or anyone that would care, it was the principal of the thing. Her hand at once flew over her mouth along with a loud gasp. Hastily, she scanned the room ready to apologize to the two men behind her.
Fortunately, The Americans hadn't noticed a thing. They were, instead, busing themselves in an almost futile attempt to unwrap Devon's leg from the chair. Indeed, for the last several minutes they had been contorting not only themselves but the chair as well. It was by far it was the most ridiculous sight that the explorer had seen in quiet a long time and had it not been that tiny belch she would have truly been laughing her head off.
As it was, she was far too concerned with breach of the social contract and determined that the reason for it was her lack of proper nutrition. That being the case, she reached into her backpack and removed the last vestiges of food that she possessed, a stick of beef jerky.
She leaned back against the wall to witness the remainder of the American's attempt to free Devon's leg. As soon as she took the first bite, however, the Yankees stopped what they were doing. Something far more important than the Texan's trapped appendage had caught their eye. Both of them stared with horrified eyes into the blue liquid just below them.
"What's wrong," asked the young lady.
Beeman turned a fearful eye toward the explorer. "Have a look for your self," he said distraughtly.
Lara took a second bite of jerky and moved to the edge of the water. Below her were a huge number of large white fishes swimming back and forth through the water. Instantaneously she knew what they were dealing but to be sure she spit the chunk of beef she had been chewing on into the liquid. As soon as it submerged beneath the surface the fishes turned and swarmed toward it attacking as if they were a Nazi wolf pack.
"Perfect," Croft stated uneasily, "barracuda."
To be Continued...
Part Eight: Back to Business
Miss Lara Croft stood in the middle of a huge coliseum clutching tightly onto the butts of her holstered pistols ready for battle. Just behind her Samuel Beeman along with Devon prepared themselves as well for the coming onslaught.
For several minutes not one of them moved or even breathed. They stood completely still as if they were frightened rabbits under the watchful eye of a large beast. Such was the wait that they began to wonder if there was actually going to be any sort of attack at all. That was when it came.
Slowly the door across the arena began to open revealing a shadowed figure lurking within. As it stepped forward into the light it was painfully obvious to everyone that they were faced with a legendary Roman gladiator.
He was very large muscular man ever so much more than anyone they had seen thus far and was covered from head to toe with armor. In his right hand he tightly clutched the handle of a morning star while he business end swung loosely by the side of his leg nearly knocking into his kneecap with every step. When he had reached the center of the arena the gladiator came to a stop. After that he simply stood menacingly staring down at his opponents.
As soon as he had set himself in place he was followed by a second man and then a third and a fourth. This continued on until, at last, there were six of them standing motionless in the center of the coliseum gazing down at Lara and her companions. Each wielded a deadly weapon ranging from the morning star that the first man carried to spears and swords.
When they had finally assembled themselves they began to slowly move forward as if they were the Los Angeles Police Department trying to subdue a riot. Croft merely stood poised with her hands on her guns.
This made the Americans more nervous than ever. Not only were they not armed in anyway the person that was seemed to have decided that it was too much of a bother to use her weapons. "Miss Croft, you know you can shoot them anytime," stuttered the archeologist.
The young lady didn't hear a word of it. She was too focused on the advancing bandits to notice anything else. With each step the enemy took she gripped down on the handles of the nine-millimeter pistols around her waist. She could feel a strange heat begin to form over her brow. A single tiny drop of perspiration started to form near the base of her scalp. It rolled deliberately down her face until it reached the end of the explorer's nose. From there it departed from her face falling to the ground where it was immediately observed by the dry dirt. By then the enemy had come nearly half the distance to the three intruders. That was when she finally struck. Like lightning the explorer's weapons were deployed and two shots rang out.
To the surprise of the advancing gladiators one of their own fell to the ground dead as a doornail from some unknown force halting them in their tracks bewildered at the power they had just seen. Their first instinct was to run but they knew they had to overcome whatever evil magic this was for the good of all.
Once again they began to charge moving somewhat faster now. This time Lara did not hesitate. "Stay well back," she warned the two unarmed gentlemen behind her. Then, at full speed, she plunged herself headlong toward her advancing foes. They pulled back their weapons ready to strike but the attacking tomb raider had already taken out a second just before leaping over the heads of the lot of them.
She landed behind them and somersaulted back to her feet before taking out yet another with a volley of bullets. The remaining attackers now stood very still. Not only was this woman capable some sort of evil magic but she was more agile than anyone they had ever seen. It was starting to appear to them that she was a goddess.
On the other side of the arena the Yankees stood very much in shock as well. The odds that anyone could survive a one on six encounter where, at least according to them, were astronomical. And now that they saw that the odds were even they started to feel very confident about themselves. The extreme fear that they had felt before had fled like a mouse in a cat farm and now they were intent on being noble and helping the woman.
Taking advantage of the gladiator's immense focus on the lady Sam and Devon crept forward toward one of the slain men. The Texan, who was undoubtedly the braver of the two bent down and picked up the sword lying nearby. Then, with as much stealth as he could manage and much to the dismay of Lara Croft, who was watching the whole thing, he moved himself right behind one of the enemies and plunged the weapon deep into his back.
The gladiator fell lifelessly to the ground from wound but as he did the other two whirled around to face their new attacker. As they did so one them was cut down swiftly by the young lady 's pistols while the other found himself the victim of a lucky blow from the sword that was still lodged in Devon's hand.
"That was a stupid thing to do," Croft said yelling at Devon, "you could have gotten yourself killed, not to mention me."
The American, rather than dignifying the lady's statement with any sort of response turned his attention to the doors where they had first entered the arena fully intending to walk straight back to the garden where they had first entered. As he approached, however, he sensed that something wasn't quite right. Through the cracks in wood he should have been able to see portions of the path just beyond that they had come up only minutes before.
Upon closer examination the reason for this soon became painfully obvious. Using his newly acquired weapon, the American forced open wooden doors revealing that the passageway was blocked off completely by a giant stone cube that had been placed in front of the door.
"Well I didn't expect to see that," cried Lara from across the arena. Her curiosity peaked once again she wasted little time in making her way toward the obstruction. Upon reaching it she immediately dropped to one knee and set to work on a more intensive assessment of the situation.
What she found did not inspire a lot of confidence about their future. Not only was their escape blocked but the sides of the large block appeared to be fused somehow to the wall around it. On a hunch Croft immediately sprung up and made a run for one of the other doors around the arena. There she found that, like the first one, it was sealed. The same was true for all the other doors around the coliseum. Even the passage where the gladiators entered was now mysteriously blocked.
"So now what," Beeman asked running up to the explorer half in a panic.
"We wait," she replied without so much as an eye blink, "they've got a trick up their sleeve.
"Now that's a good idea," mocked Devon as he approached, "lets starve ourselves to death.
The young lady rolled her back into her head. "Do you actually think they would put us in here just to starve us? They could have done that back in their cell."
No sooner had she said this than the "trick up their sleeves" was revealed. Out of an unseen ledge high above them came a sudden gush of water ejecting its self from the wall with great force as if it were a giant fire hydrant.
It fell to the ground indenting the dirt floor with a thunderous splat. This was followed soon after by another geyser on the opposite side of the arena. A third appeared in the wall between the two just over the ornamented box and a forth on the wall facing it. The sound of each of these splattering in unison onto the dirt below echoed through the whole arena.
"That's not good," remarked the young archeologist hoping to curb to the terror that had suddenly entranced him. "What are we going to do now?"
Croft moved cautiously toward the first of the huge waterfalls crashing into the arena but stopped short before she got too close. She could tell that the force of the falling water while not extraordinarily powerful was still strong enough to do damage to whomever ventured too close. That being the case she immediately swung around to face the archeologist whose fear had been growing steadily ever since the whole adventure had begun. "As I said before," she reiterated, "we wait."
"Wait fer what," interjected the large Texan, "my boots are already wet and I'd prefer to be out of here before the water gets up to my neck."
The explorer breathed a heavy sigh of annoyance at her adversary's negative attitude. She wished now more than ever that she had killed him when she had the chance. "Well too bad for you then," she scorned, "because the only way out of here is to swim out."
Immediately after the words were out of her mouth came a very low groan from behind her. It was Sam. As the other two turned to face him they could see that his face had turned whiter than snow and the expression that he wore transcended all known forms of fear that man has thus far been knowledgeable about. "But I - I can't swim," he confessed sadly.
Lara was not at all surprised by this announcement. Ever since she had woke up in the company of these gentlemen she had forced herself to believe that in the company she was in nothing at all could go right. In keeping with this theory she was sure that it was now time for the other American to say or do the wrong thing. The young lady quickly turned and pointed a long finger in his direction. "Say anything, "she threatened, "and I will rip your lips off."
Devon, who was already annoyed by the announcement of Beeman's lack of aquatic skills, took extreme exception to the young lady's threat not only because someone had the actual gull to threaten him but also because of whom the threat the person was that was threatening him. What made things worse was that he knew that she was his only real chance for escape. That being the case he retaliated in the only way he could think of at the moment, which was to make a very unfriendly comment under his breath comparing the explorer to a lady of the night.
This, in turn, aroused the anger of the young English woman who returned the favor by making a statement questioning the humanity of the man's mother.
After that it is very possible that things would have escalated to the point of someone's demise had Sam not stepped in between them. "Can we get back to my problem," he asked in his best authoritative voice. With the water now nearly around his ankles he was starting to wonder if the other two would even bother to try to help him.
This brought up a host of entirely new arguments most of which had nothing to do with the current situation. As the trio quarreled on endless the water level slowly continued to rise along with Beeman's fears and Devon's bad attitude. Even Croft's usually calm demeanor began to suffer at the hands of the American's banter.
"Alright," she yelled at last, "we're not getting anywhere this way." Seeing that neither of the men would ever figure out what she was thinking on their own she decided to disclose her plans to them in hopes that would, at the very least, be quiet for a few seconds. "Here's what we are going to do," she began, "do you see that thing up there." She quickly stretched out a long finger upward toward the box high above them. "We are going to swim up there and see if we can't get out that way."
Sam was thoroughly unimpressed. "That's it," he asked, "that's the whole plan. From what I've read about you I would have thought you would just something up."
Now it was Lara's turn not to be impressed. "So help me," she said glaring evilly at the archeologist, " if you start with that 'not a real archeologist' rubbish again I will leave you here to die."
The prospect was more than enough to frighten the poor lad into submission. The water had now reached a point nearly around his waist and the prospect of it getting any higher frightened him more than he had thought possible. "Now then," continued the young lady, "Once the water gets high enough just start kicking and moving your arms in and out."
"And you won't drown as fast," joked the Texan sarcastically.
Suddenly, Lara wished she were back in the watery tunnel soaking wet and blind as a bat. At least then she was alone and not having to put up with the ever-bothersome Yankee twins. She could have, of course, killed them both and had considered the matter several times but somehow, merely being annoying wasn't enough of an excuse to act. On the other had, there were more than enough reasons to cap Devon but for fear of upsetting the other she forced herself to refrain for the time being.
Instead, she spend the next several minutes attempting to explain the finer points of swimming to the archeologist while at the same time trying to ignore the other. By the time the whole affair had come to a point close to something resembling being straightened out they were all treading water waiting for a chance to reach the ornate box just above them.
Unfortunately, that was when a very disturbing revelation took hold of all three of them. As the water crept upward the torches, one by one, began to extinguish leaving them in less and less light until, at last they found themselves enveloped by utter darkness.
It did not take long either for the more water that flooded into the arena the faster it came in. It was a great relief to all three of them when they were finally able to at least see over the ledge into the small room. The prospect, however, was not encouraging. Behind a small lounge chair a large block towered down over the three. It was very much like those that they had encountered before that obstructed their escape and that were now responsible for holding in the water that they were now immersed in. Immediately Croft heaved herself up into the room followed by Beeman, who wanted to get out of the water as quickly as possible, and Devon, who wanted to keep an eye on the other two.
Surprisingly, the furnishings inside while luxurious were still very modest considering the persons who supposedly occupied it. There were only three pieces of furniture in the whole place. Directly in front of them was a lounge chair, beside that there was a normal chair, and on the other side of the room sat a small table.
But Croft, in her usual curious fashion, ignored all of this in favor of exploring mysteries of the protruding block in front of her. It didn't take her long to discover something strange. The edges of the block were not sealed like others they had seen before. "Sam," she called, "what do you make of this,"
The young man stepped off of the ledge and moved to join his colleague. "Do you think we can move it," he asked after a short examination. Croft nodded in the affirmative. At the same time she motioned for Devon to join them and lend a hand. He shrugged reluctantly at the prospect but out of a sense of hope of escape he obeyed the lady's gestures and joined them.
When they were fully assembled the three of them placed there shoulders on the stone object and proceeded to push with all of their might. Slowly, it started to give way, moving backward ever so slightly until it was nearly flush with the wall. All of a sudden there was an ease in the task as if something had been pushing against the block from the other side and abruptly released its hold causing the block to be moved very much easier than before.
Unfortunately, this was not the best thing that could have happened for at that very moment Croft, Beeman, and Devon had thrust themselves as hard as they could onto the block. Suddenly, there was a loud click as the block moved backward. It did so with such force that all three of them went flying forward so hard that they fell over each other resulting in Lara being on the ground sandwiched between the Americans.
This, along with the insuring struggle to get back up resulted in a fiasco the likes of which ESPN would have paid millions to broadcast. To begin with Devon, who was on top of the pile, thought that he would be clever and disarm his arch rival as he pushed himself back to his feet. The young lady, however, had anticipated such an asinine maneuver and, even though her back was to him managed to kick the miscreant where it hurt the most causing him to stumble backward over the lounge chair and onto the ledge. Even more embarrassing is the fact that he would have ended up in the water again had his leg not found its self wedged tightly in the leg of the chair.
The young archeologist, by that time, had become very uncomfortable underneath Miss Croft and reconciled the situation by summarily pushing her off to one side. Normally such an action would have been met by verbal tongue lashing from the young lady yet this time she refrained from any sort of comment at all because of what she saw across the room.
Why she had not noticed before now she could not say nor did she even bother to stop and consider the matter. Her curiosity would not allow it. On the table on the far side of the room was a rather large rolled up piece of parchment. Like a gnat to a lit flame she fluttered over the archeologist, who was still lying on the floor, toward the new discovery.
Picking up the parchment from the table Croft began the study the foreign characters. They seemed to be written in approximately the same dialect as the spoken language they had encountered not too long before. Having the words marked out on paper, however, seemed make things easier to comprehend. Even so, it was more than obvious that deciphering the document would take some time.
As she skimmed over the letters in an attempt to interpret at least a small portion of the parchment she felt a strange rumbling rolling upward from her stomach. It traveled swiftly through her esophagus like bullet train through a tunnel and exited through her mouth in the form a small belch.
Immediately her demeanor switched back to her upper class background. Suddenly she was embarrassed beyond belief by the gaseous expulsion. It didn't matter that she thousands of miles away from anything or anyone that would care, it was the principal of the thing. Her hand at once flew over her mouth along with a loud gasp. Hastily, she scanned the room ready to apologize to the two men behind her.
Fortunately, The Americans hadn't noticed a thing. They were, instead, busing themselves in an almost futile attempt to unwrap Devon's leg from the chair. Indeed, for the last several minutes they had been contorting not only themselves but the chair as well. It was by far it was the most ridiculous sight that the explorer had seen in quiet a long time and had it not been that tiny belch she would have truly been laughing her head off.
As it was, she was far too concerned with breach of the social contract and determined that the reason for it was her lack of proper nutrition. That being the case, she reached into her backpack and removed the last vestiges of food that she possessed, a stick of beef jerky.
She leaned back against the wall to witness the remainder of the American's attempt to free Devon's leg. As soon as she took the first bite, however, the Yankees stopped what they were doing. Something far more important than the Texan's trapped appendage had caught their eye. Both of them stared with horrified eyes into the blue liquid just below them.
"What's wrong," asked the young lady.
Beeman turned a fearful eye toward the explorer. "Have a look for your self," he said distraughtly.
Lara took a second bite of jerky and moved to the edge of the water. Below her were a huge number of large white fishes swimming back and forth through the water. Instantaneously she knew what they were dealing but to be sure she spit the chunk of beef she had been chewing on into the liquid. As soon as it submerged beneath the surface the fishes turned and swarmed toward it attacking as if they were a Nazi wolf pack.
"Perfect," Croft stated uneasily, "barracuda."
To be Continued...