Chapter 3 - Stranded

Alex's POV

I unlocked the hatch and opened it up. I managed to grab Sam's hand and pull her out.

"Sam! Wake up!" I said hastily shaking her shoulder.

She started coughing up water and spat out what was left of it.

"Sam! Where's Lara?" I said worried.

"She- she's still down the- there somewhere." She coughed.

"Fuck." I muttered and climbed down the hatch.

I fell into the water and went down under. It was ice-cold. I had to go back up for a second to catch my breath.

Okay Alex, there's no time to wait. Just do it, do it for Lara.

I went under again and swam downwards. Luckily she hadn't drifted off far, she was at the bottom of the ladder. I picked her up by her waist with my left arm and swam back up. Sam helped me carry Lara out of the hatch and I followed.

"Lara, Lara! Please wake up, come on!" I exclaimed while giving her CPR.

"Come on Lara, don't leave us. Please…" I said shakily while applying more pressure with each push.

"Lara, I know you can hear me. Please get up!" Sam sobbed while I gave Lara mouth to mouth.

We were running out of time, the ship was starting to sink. She needed to wake up now or we had to leave her behind.

"Lara, no… Please... Oh god… Please wake up Lara." I sobbed.

I gave her mouth to mouth one last time out of desperation.

Lara's POV

I started to cough heavily. There was water coming out of my mouth. Did I almost drown? Alex put my arm around him and helped me up.

"Thank god you're alive." He smiled weakly, supporting me.

I smiled back weakly and leaned on him. I was so tired, I could barely feel my legs. The rain was intense, making it even harder to walk.

"Come on Lara, we've to hurry, the ship is sinking. We're almost there." He said.

"Where are we going?" I asked him under my breath.

"The lifeboat, if we're lucky the others haven't left yet." He answered.

We walked towards the edge of the ship and looked down.

"It's too damn high and I don't see a lifeboat." Alex told us.

"Me neither, let's move on." Sam responded.

"Alex, I think I can walk on my own now." I told him.

"You sure? You were out for quite some time." He said worried.

"It's fine, I can walk." I reassured him.

He nodded and let me go.

"Lara, Sam, Alex! Over here!" I heard Roth shout.

We ran towards him as fast as we could and followed him to the lifeboat.

"Bloody bastard! He left us!" Roth yelled angry.

"Who left us? Who took the boat?" I asked him.

"Dr. Whitman…" He muttered gruffly.

We continued looking for opportunities of getting off the ship. We eventually reached what seemed like the edge of the ship, but it wasn't. The ship had broken into two parts, one higher part and one lower part. We were standing on the higher part.

"We'll have to jump to the other side." Roth told us with a serious tone.

"Are you insane?!" Alex exclaimed.

"We have to." I said. "There's no other way." I added.

"This is nuts." Alex muttered.

Roth walked a few steps back and built up momentum. He then jumped as far as he could and fell into a break-fall roll.

"He fucking made it!" Sam exclaimed out of disbelieve.

The ship was shaking more heavily every second and the distance to the other side was increasing. We had to move fast.

"Sam, go!" I told her.

"NO! Are you crazy? I'll never make it!" She yelled.

"We'll jump together, okay?" I tried to convince her.

"Roth will catch you, you can do it." I added.

We followed Roth's instructions and moved a few steps back to be able to build momentum. We ran and then jumped as far as possible.

Everything slowed down. Roth reached out his hand to catch us. But who was he gonna catch? I managed to land on it with my upper body, but the surface was slippery and at an angle.

Roth caught Sam's hand and tried to pull her up. He looked at me not knowing what to do. I started to slip off. I was still hanging on to it with my hands, but my fingers slowly slid off.

Alex's POV

Shit, she's gonna fall off. Come on Roth, hurry!

Roth pulled Sam up to the platform, but he was too late to save Lara. She fell down into the sea.

"Lara! No!" I yelled.

I took a deep breath and jumped after her without hesitation. I held my breath and closed my eyes. I fell into the rough waves as cleanly as possible, so I could focus on getting to Lara. The drop was quite high and the impact confirmed it.

I thought the sea I went to with Lara was cold. This was twenty times worse. The water was freezing and I felt a cold vibe go through my spine the moment I went under. I swam up to catch my breath, but the waves violently pulled me back under. I tried to look for Lara, but I couldn't see her.

I stranded ashore and started coughing. I took quite some water in and it was dying to get out the moment I could feel the sand with my trembling hands.

Fuck, where's Lara?

I looked around me, no sign of her.

"Lara!" I yelled a few times.

The third time I heard her yell back. She sounded in pain.

"Alex! Over here!" She panted.

I faced the direction of her voice and saw her sitting on her side near the water.

"You okay?" I asked her worriedly while jogging towards her. She was crying and trying to pull something out of her waist.

"Alex... It won't get out and it hurts like crazy." She sobbed.

"Let me look at it." I told her while checking out the injury.

"Alex.. I'm going to need you to pull it out." She said shakily. Like she didn't trust me and I was plan B. I didn't think she meant it that way though.

Why would she not trust me? I saved her life once. Hell, I would do it again if I need to.

What are you thinking Alex? You saved her because you wanted to, not because you 'needed' to. Get rid of that ego of yours and help her out.

I looked into her eyes and nodded. She got up to her knees.

"You ready?" I asked her.

She nodded and I swallowed. I put my hand on the piece of rebar and took a deep breath. She did too and we started pulling. It wasn't as easy as I thought and the sound of her crying in pain didn't make it any easier. When we managed to pull it out she let out a scream and fell back onto her right side. She started to feel weak. The wound was bleeding badly, she needed medical attention fast.

"You're gonna be alright. Just hold pressure on the wound." I told her.

I took a piece of gauze and a roll of bandage out of her bag. I placed the gauze on her wound and wrapped the bandage around her waist covering the wound.

When Lara calmed down and was ready to move we moved into the island. The rain was getting heavier, we had to find a shelter to stay the night. We walked through the forest. It was a drag walking through it. It was chuck full of dense bushes and grass, also the ground was muddy and the rain only made it worse.

"Over there! That looks like a good shelter." I pointed towards what looked like a creek in the mountain.

We walked towards it and sat down.

"At least it shields off the rain." I pointed out.

Lara didn't respond and walked towards the stream of water dripping down from the shelter. She folded her hands into a cup and caught some water. She drank from it, giving her the chills.

She came back and sat down.

"We need a fire." She said, rubbing her arms.

I nodded and went looking for twigs. I came back with a few sturdy twigs and stones. Lara took a matchbox out of her handbag and opened it up.

"Shit, last one." She hissed.

I placed the twigs and rocks down forming the base of a campfire. She took the match out and struck it on. She lit up the twigs and blew lightly.

"That should do it." Lara said while warming her hands to the fire.

This place is horrible... I expected an awesome adventure through the beautiful landscapes, but instead we got stranded and separated. At least I still got Lara with me, she makes this expedition ten times less horrible.

Poor Lara, that wound of hers looked pretty bad. I hope she's okay...

After a moment of silence Lara started: "Alex."

"What's wrong?" I asked, snapping out of my thoughts.

"I haven't really thanked you for saving me back there. So... Thank you." She smiled.

"It was nothing, you would've done the same for me, right?" I grinned scratching the back of my

neck.

"Of course." She nodded.

I sighed. "This island sucks, doesn't it?." I remarked.

"Yeah." She responded.

"What islands have you been to before?" I asked her.

"None actually, but I would love to visit Bora Bora."

"Yeah me too, that place looks amazing. You know what, when we get off this island I'll take you there." I smiled.

"I'll hold you on that." She smiled back warmly.

"I think we should rest until the rain clears up." Lara said, lying down on her side.

I agreed and laid down too.

"Good night Lara." I said with my eyes closed.

"Good night Alex." She responded.

Lara's POV

The next morning my stomach woke me up. I was so hungry. I woke up Alex and told him we needed to catch some food.

"And how are we supposed to do that? Tackle a deer and smash his head with a rock?" Alex joked.

I let out a giggle and said: "We'll find something out."

We took our stuff, which wasn't much, but I still considered it stuff and walked down the path.

The path lead to another forest. Yaay. This one was a little nicer. It wasn't raining which was a big plus and the sun was shining. There was a thin river flowing down the hill which produced a relaxing noise.

"Oh god.. A body hanging from a tree. How did he get there?" Alex said.

"Eww gross... He's carrying a bow with him, we could use that." I pointed out.

"I'll get it." Alex said and climbed the tree.

I was surprised how quick he was able to climb up there. He struggled a bit at the beginning, but managed.

"Got it!" He yelled. "Oh shi-"

The tree branch he was holding on to broke off, causing him and the body to fall down onto the ground.

"Oh god Alex! Are you alright?" I asked him crouching beside him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." He panted and stood up from the ground.

He brushed off the dirt of his shoulders and leaned against the tree.

"Is it usable?" He asked pointing towards the bow on the corpse.

I took the bow and the quiver from the body as fast as possible, trying not to touch the corpse and backed away from it.

"Gross..." I muttered.

I threw the quiver around my shoulder and pulled the string of the bow back to test it.

"It should do the job." I said, lowering the bow and pointing at a deer I spotted in the distance earlier.

I walked past Alex and slowly moved towards the deer.

"Can you-" Alex said.

"Shhh." I cut him off and placed my index finger on my lips.

"Can you make that shot from here?" He whispered.

I nodded, placed the arrow in position and aimed the bow at the deer. I pulled back the string, inhaled sharply and held my breath to steady my aim. I waited for the short pause between my heartbeat and released the string.

The arrow whizzed through the air and got stuck in the deer's head. The poor animal dropped to the ground.

"Bull's- deer's eye!" Alex yelled happily.

I giggled at Alex's reaction and holstered the bow by carrying it like a sling bag.

We stood by the deer for a second, not knowing what to do.

"Errr... I never- umm.. do you want to do it?" Alex asked me, raising his eyebrows.

"I don't know if.." I sighed. "Sure."

I took an arrow from the quiver and sat down on my knees.

I sat there looking at the deer unsure if I could handle it. I then took a deep breath and jammed the head of the arrow inside the the deer. I sliced it open and blood spat out of the animal onto me. I felt like I had to puke and backed away from the deer.

"I'm sorry, I can't do it..." I told Alex, covering my mouth, looking away from the deer.

"It's okay, you did a great job, I'll finish it. Just head back to the camp, I'll come to you when I got it." He told me and took my covered in blood arrow. I started walking back when he called my name.

"Yeah?" I said, facing him.

"Nice shot by the way." He smiled.

I smiled back, turned around and continued walking.

I was sitting by the campfire when he came back ten minutes later with a chunk of meat.

"How did it go?" I asked him.

"Pretty good. I puked in the bushes afterwards, which wasn't exactly nice." He chuckled.

"You got it, that's what counts." I laughed.

He smiled and jammed the arrow into the chunk of meat. He held it above the fire, cooking it. He handed it to me when it was ready to eat and I took a bite.

"So... How does it taste?" He asked.

"Better than nothing." I said and passed it to him.

He smiled and took a bite too.

"Next time we'll fish." He pointed out dryly.

I laughed and we continued eating.

Alex's POV

Lara removed the bandage and checked her wound on her side, letting out short groans each time she touched it.

"How's your wound?" I asked her trying to break the silence.

She looked up and didn't respond. Instead she looked behind me and squint her eyes a little. There was a man walking up to us. Was he from the Endurance? He reached behind his back and unsheathed a machete.

"Wow wow, easy." I told him turning around and holding my hands in front of me.

"Give me the girl." He demanded.

"I'm sorry but I can't do that."

"Do you want me to take her from you after I cut off your limbs?" He threatened.

"Come on man. No need for violence here. We stranded on this island a day ago. We're sorry if we disturbed you." I told him.

"I ain't got time for this." He said impatiently and swung his machete at me.

Out of my reflex I quickly scrambled away, dodging it in time and got back on my feet. He grabbed Lara and pulled her onto her feet violently, stretching her wound. She moaned in pain and inhaled sharply when he placed the knife by her throat.

"Alex, the bow!" She yelled.

I took the bow and an arrow from the ground and aimed it at him.

"Either you let me have her alive and well or you can have her back after I cut off her head. Your choice." He said seriously.

"You don't need to do this." I told him.

"Drop the bow." He demanded.

"Alex, I'm scared." Lara sobbed.

"You're gonna be fine. Just go with him." I told her and dropped the bow on the ground

"No Alex, please don't leave me!" She cried.

"I'm sorry Lara..." I apologized with a shaky voice.

"Good choice." The man said, taking her with him and disappeared into the forest.

I'm so sorry Lara... I'll get you back, I promise.

~ End of chapter ~