Chapter 11: Entity of Peru Pt 3
I don't own anything. Resident Evil belongs to Capcom and Tomb Raider belongs to Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, and I think Square Enix. The only thing I own is the changes made to the stories of the Tomb Raider games/comics and Resident Evil games/comics/CG movies, the Government branch S.P.E.L.L., the person that has taken over Kathrine Warren's life, and Rose Warren. This story also will be bloody, violent, and have cursing. It's rated T for Teen.
Country: Peru, State: Chillón Valley, City: Paraíso, Place: Archaeological Site, Area: Excavation Caverns, Month: November, Day: Thursday 26th, Year: 1998, Time: 10:23 PST…
Kat and Lara ran, nearly tripping a few times. They didn't know how to fight this thing. They vaulted over an old collapsed pillar then kept running as it crawled along the floor like a crocodile. The two didn't slow down, kicking up dust and sand as they ran down the tunnel. They vaulted over yet another collapsed crumbled pillar scrapping their palms as they did so but didn't care. It was silent enough that they could hardly hear it over their own panicked breaths. They didn't want to waste time turning to look if it was still there.
The entity pulled itself over the first pillar making a raspy, breathy, roar sound, like a sick horse or tiger. Lara and Kat jumped from the ledge and swung on the same rope at the same time, cracking heads together as they swung. They let go of the rope as it swung over the other platform.
The two turned panting to see the entity glide over the second pillar and pushed off the ledge with its hands, sinking gouged holds into the granite. The feat alone had made Kat and Lara freeze. Then the entity was flying through the air at them. With cries of shock, Kat and Lara ducked to the ground, tumbling in either direction.
When Kat and Lara looked to the creature, it phased through the wall behind them, vanishing from their sight and all sound from it was gone. Kat hung her head, trying to catch her breath, from the running and jumping. Lara let her head fall back as she panted. That was a narrow escape, but if it could go through walls, why did it? They were right there, why did it leave?
"Makes you wish it was Himiko." Kat tried to joke. "At least she was stationary."
Lara dropped her head snorting. "Yeah, but we had to deal with her storm powers." She reminded. "But I'd take on Himiko again over that thing. What was it anyway?"
"I don't know." Kat told her lifting her head as they both stood, looking to the wall it had vanished through. "Even kid me didn't know." She looked back over at Lara, "Why did it leave?"
Lara looked around them. "That's more than a little terrifying." She was reluctant to walk over to the wall. "Not sure why it left." She muttered softly as if she was thinking out loud.
Kat nodded. "Yeah. Just like the last mission I had with Luella. It's both exiting and terrifying to not know something." She said as they moved to climb down to salve a puzzle.
"So that's how you two met? A mission?" Lara asked, neither she nor Sam had a chance to ask.
"Yeah. She was my partner. She works for the German branch." Kat grinned. "She made the first move really."
"How many dates have you two had?" Lara asked but they stopped abruptly as they saw what was on the floor.
Blood was slowly dripping down the wall and creating a pool on the floor that was slowly spreading outward. The pale tan stone was now red and shiny in the light of their newly struck flares. On the ground at the edge of the pool, was Kent. His head was separated from his shoulders. His torso was ripped open. The ribs sticking up out of the nearly empty cavity of his torso, looked like a Venus Fly Trap. His legs bent wrong and twisted around, just as his arms were with bones jabbing out of the skin at the point of the breaks. He looked like a child had a tantrum and threw down the Marionette he was playing with.
Lara looked away for few moments. This was worse than the two trips to Yamatai. It was worse than any horror movie or TV show. She looked back, she had never seen a body in such a bad state.
Kat however, almost felt like she had seen bodies like this in the Tyrant and the Birkin monster, but they had been mobile and trying to kill Leon, Claire, and her. Kent was dead and he would not be getting back up. She had seen a lot more death and bodies then Lara, but this…it was something else. The thing that did this was pure rage and it unleashed it on poor Kent. She swallowed and looked to Lara.
"We need to find Amanda and then get back up to the surface." Kat said.
Lara nodded as she looked away from the body again. "God…" She breathed. "That…it looks like it hurt."
"It's…this…" Kat shook her head. "Let's just focus.
Lara forced back down the bile in her throat and nodded before they got to work on the puzzle. It was simple. Just move the large bronze ball to the dividend pressure plate. The only difficulty the two had was how heavy it was. It was hollow with bands curving around the sphere giving it the look of a round Fabergé egg. Not only was it heavy but they could only use one hand to push and guide it. They did not want to put down their flairs, plunging themselves into darkness.
Once the ball was in place, the plate sunk in, and a wall opened. Kat and Lara climbed up to a platform and there behind a gate was Amanda. She looked like she was going to start crying.
"Lara! Kat!" Amanda gasped seeing them dusty and sweaty but uninjured. "Jason's dead! Everybody's dead!" She yelped shaking as she looked around her.
"There's something…I don't, I don't know what it was. I only saw—" Lara started until Amanda looked to her right and screamed.
"Nooo!" Amanda yelled then ran from the gate and to the left of the hallway.
Another one of the crew ran screaming past as the entity appeared again, chasing after Amanda and the crewmember. Kat and Lara grabbed the bars and tried to push or pull it open or to the side. Suddenly they heard the crewmember's screams turn into pain filled shrieks, heard bones snapping and that same sound of flesh ripping and the blood and other things splashing to the walls and floor.
Lara looked to the left and saw a spear sticking out of the wall.
"There!" She pointed it out to Kat and took off running.
Whatever the Inca made their weapons out of in this area of Peru, it was strong stuff. It was able to hold up Lara as she leapt and grabbed hold. With her momentum, she was able to start swinging herself around in a circle, building up speed. On the second rotation, Lara let go and flew at the rope. She grasped it and swung on it back and forth as she got ready to leap from it.
Kat took a running leap and gripped hold of the spear. She didn't have the gymnastics training that Lara did, so she pulled herself up onto the spear and crouched low on it with one hand on the wall to keep her balance.
Lara threw her legs forward on the last swing, letting go of the rope and she was again flying. As she hit the ground in a modified crouch, with one leg out to the side to balance herself and one hand down to form a tripod pose. She looked back to see Kat struggling to jump from the spear.
Kat nearly missed the rope and hissed out a yelp of pain as her hands slid down the rope a foot. She felt a burning sensation but tightened her grip on the rope despite the pain and the reflex to let go to stop the burn. With her palms and fingers burning, she gritted her teeth and continued to swing to build momentum. Once she was high enough, she let go and hit the ground with a bone-jarring landing, she hissed as she held her hands to her chest. Her fingertips brushed her locket, and something clicked. A necklace came to mind. The image of Amanda in black, controlling the entity, with hair that was close to white. That necklace was part of it all. It was in a wall and when removed, the place floods.
"Kat?"
"Gotta keep moving! Get to Amanda! I remembered what starts the flood!" Kat said as she started running.
"What?!" Lara asked as she ran alongside Kat. "What do you mean? What dose Amanda have to do with this?" She asked as they vaulted over some fallen rocks.
"She takes something from a wall, and it starts a flood. An amulet, I think. Over time, it can allow the user to control that entity." Kat explained as they came to another pit of spikes and took turns, jumping to the pole extending down from the ceiling. Climbing up, hand over hand; she continued to explain, "Lara, in the future, she has control over it."
They both dropped from the pole on the other side and ran into the room from the hallway.
"Amanda!" Lara called out seeing the woman next to a wall of carvings.
Glowing in the center of it was a blackish gray stone. Amanda turned around to face them, pulling her fingers away from the stone. Lara turned around to the way they came in, looking for the entity.
"Amanda, don't touch that stone." Kat told her. "It's dangerous."
"But I think it can open this door." Amanda said sounding so innocent. She sounded like Sam when they first went to Yamatai.
"Kat's got great instincts, Amanda. Are you sure you're reading the inscriptions correctly?" Lara asked uncertain about the entity's location.
Amanda looked back at them. "We don't have time to worry about being correct! That thing is coming! Do either of you have a better idea?"
"That door might be trapped." Lara told her looking to the lighter blonde.
"And taking it will trigger a flood. We can't risk it." Kat said. "I have my sat phone. I can call my bosses and they'll send back up that can deal with this thing. All we have to do is hunker down and hide."
"We're trapped!" Amanda yelled. "Hunker down and hide? That thing can go through walls! We're not safe anywhere down here! And I seriously doubt whatever job you've got that they can get here to help. They'd just add to the dead list." Her eyes widened at seeing the entity behind Kat and Lara. "Ah! Oh, god!" She squeaked as she turned and started trying to pull the black stone from its place in the wall.
Lara and Kat spun around to see the entity's tall form spill around the corner slowly, as if toying with them.
"Chooossseee…eeeeerrrr…"
Kat's eyes widened as her blood chilled. "W-what?"
"Chooossssee…eeerrr…" It rumbled again deeply and gravely, its voice seemed to shake the walls, making dust fall.
Kat felt her body start shaking. She finally understood how Jill felt when Nemesis was after her and kept saying 'Stars'. But then Kat's gaze hardened as she pulled her axe. Her shoulders rolled, as she felt her body settle into a fighting stance that she hadn't learned from Yamatai, Raccoon, or S.P.E.L.L. training. This felt natural, instinctual. Her mind cleared and focused on one single point, kill this thing before it gets to anyone she cares about. She is ready to send it back to wherever it came from. Her flare gripped in one hand in a reverse grip, like a knife. Her axe in front of her flipped so she could flick it upward to impel the creature through the jaw.
"What are you? Why do you call me that?" Kat asked darkly, the accent came back and was noticeable to anyone close enough to hear.
Lara looked to Kat and felt like she was looking at a different person. Kat's body looked like she was on alert, on the balls of her feet, ready to run, dodge, or attack. Her eyes, that normally held the warmth of a lake in the summer, were now cold as the tundra in winter. Her muscles were tensing and untensing. Then there was her voice. That accent wasn't American. It wasn't anything Lara had heard before from Kat. In fact, she hadn't heard it before at all. Then there was Kat's lips. They were pulled back into a small smirk, as if she were an adrenaline junkie looking over the cliff for a bungee jump. She was going to attack and was looking forward to it.
"Kat?" Lara asked worriedly.
"Chooosss…eeerrr…"
The entity rushed at Kat and Lara. Kat let out a yell that was almost like a battle cry and ran at it, flare, and axe ready. Lara reached out a hand, but she was too late to stop her, her eyes were wide in horror, as she watched her friend rush the creature.
"KAT!" Lara yelled.
Just then Amanda yanked the stone from the wall with a yell. The entity vanished as it phased through Kat, who swung her axe up with a roar. But it was gone. Kat panted as she blinked a few times, looking for the creature. She was a little confused. She'd just been standing with Lara, now she was six feet away from her. She turned around to look at Lara and saw a wide mix of emotions on her face. They both then looked to Amanda who now held the stone with a relieved smile.
"Kat…what—"
Before Lara could continue the whole cavern shook. Dust fell from the ceiling with loose rocks. Lara and Kat looked to an open door then to Amanda.
"Run!" They yelled.
Amanda didn't need telling twice as the three took off for the exit. As fast as Amanda was, she was not built like Lara or Kat, she was slower then Kat and Lara who have been training in running and sprinting. With the shaking of the whole area, it was hard to run and balance. Dust and rocks were falling form the celling, forcing everyone to keep an arm over their heard to protect it from the falling rocks. Just as Kat and Lara were in the threshold of the exit, Amanda tripped on a falling rock and fell right onto her face in the loose soil and rocks with a yelp of pain. Kat and Lara turned around to see larger rocks falling down and around the blonde.
"Amanda!" Lara yelled moving to rush forward.
Kat looked up and grabbed Lara. "Look out!"
Lara shrugged Kat off and got in the way of the quickly descending gate. Lara just barely caught the gate and hissed, groaning as she struggled to lift it, fighting against gravity's heavy pull and the mechanism that was forcing it down. Kat stared at Lara in awe. It was one thing to have seen someone's feats of strength playing a game, it was another to witness it. Lara was strong. Almost unnaturally so.
Kat then looked to Amanda who was moving to pull herself up. But her shoe was caught in the rocks. That wasn't their only problem. The water was flooding in and rising. It wasn't a steady flood either. It was rising fast. Kat looked scared. She didn't know what to do at first. She moved to go under the gate when Lara started losing her grip. Kat grabbed the gate to help her.
"No!" Lara shook her head. "Help her!"
Kat looked to see Amanda stand up above the water which was at her neck. She took a deep breath and ducked under the surface to work at the rocks trapping her foot. The water then flowed above Kat and Lara, making them both take deep breaths. They opened their eyes, blinking at the burn.
Kat could see Amanda struggling. Amanda looked at them with wide eyes. Kat looked to Lara then nodded and let go. She ducked under the gate, then swam toward Amanda only to look up as the ceiling started to collapse. She was pushed back by Amanda, just enough that only one rock hit Kat. The rest hit and piled over Amanda, blocking her from Kat and Lara's view.
Lara let a small noise escape her as she struggled with the gate. Kat swam back out holding her head dazedly. Just as Kat's legs were out from under the gate, Lara lost her grip, the gate slammed down, locking into place.
Kat and Lara turned to the gate and gripped the bars. Shaking it. The internal structure collapsed more and more, blocking all view they had of Amanda's location. Lara tried to pull the gate up, but she felt her lungs starting to burn. Even though she wanted to stay and get the gate open, she would drown if they didn't find air. Reaching out she grabbed Kat by the back of her shirt and pulled her to the exit. She felt Kat try to stop her but then she too turned and started to swim to the exit.
Swimming toward the light, Kat could feel her lungs trying to spasm and force her to open her mouth to gulp air. She kept swallowing the air in her mouth as a way to fight the spasms. She and Lara had never had to swim this far before, the current of the flooding water was pushing them along quickly but not fast enough. They were getting close, and it began to brighten around them. Her vision started to turn gray around the edges.
Country: Peru, State: Chillón Valley, City: Paraíso, Place: Archaeological Site, Area: Excavation Above ground, Month: November, Day: Thursday 26th, Year: 1998, Time: 10:46 PST…
Luella saw the water and rushed to the edge. "Sam? Have we heard anything over the radio?" She asked worriedly looking into the clear water that filled the area like a giant bathtub.
Sam shook her head as rushed over to the edge. "I haven't heard anything." She looked to Anaya. "Have you?"
"No. I haven't." Anaya said looking to the water.
"Okay, I'm going down there. Keep Sherry and Rose here." Luella said as she shrugged her thin light shirt off, reviling the red colored tattoos on her upper arms and shoulders. She then dove into the water as Sam pulled Sherry and Rose back from the edge.
Luella swam through the water. It always felt refreshing to be in water. As if it's a good friend. It always had been. She could see clearly and swam with a grace of an aquatic acrobat. She then saw Lara and Kat, both were struggling to swim, they were losing air quickly, and slowing their assent, as they grew weak.
Luella swam over quickly. She then wrapped her arms around their waists and kicked the three of them quickly to the surface. She could go as fast as she wanted, they weren't deep enough to worry about the bends. As soon as the surface was broken, Lara and Kat gasped on the fresh air. They coughed a few times as some water had gone up their noses and had just started to force its way into their lungs.
"Lu?" Kat coughed looking to her girlfriend.
"Hey, Kat." Luella smiled, not out of breath at all, as she grabbed the sides of Kat's face and touched her forehead to her's. "Don't scare me like that."
Kat sighed. "Thank you for the help."
"Let's get out of the water. Your girls are worried. Everyone is." Luella said looking from Kat to Lara. "Are you both okay?"
Lara lowered her head as they all swam to the new shore thanks to the flood. As soon as they were on solid ground, Sherry and Rose ran over and hugged Kat tightly. Kat hugged them both just as tightly, getting them wet from her soaked form. "I'm ok." She kissed the top of their heads as she rubbed their backs.
"What happened? Where's everyone else?" Sam asked.
"Gone." Lara inhaled as she closed her eyes. "Everyone's dead."
So! The next two after these side stories are, Book 3: Chooser of the Slain and Book 4: The Code is Veronica. These were just for filling in stuff between games. Enjoy!