Chapter 5 - Oruzhie

Lara's POV

"We're really here. We're on Yamatai." I said still astounded.

"No fucking way." Alex muttered out of disbelieve.

"We have to find the others and tell them." I told him.

"Maybe we can spot them from up here." He suggested.

I agreed and began observing my surroundings. Suddenly we heard a gunshot. I was startled by it and looked towards the sound.

"It came from over there." I pointed towards the sound coming from the forest.

"Let's go."

We reached a camp in the middle of the forest from where we heard the gunshot. I crouched down behind a low stone barrier and placed my hands against it. My heart rate skyrocketed when I heard another gunshot. I put my hands on top of the barrier and steadily peeked over it. I scanned the area and spotted two men each armed with a knife and one man armed with a handgun. There were three blindfolded men lined up on their knees facing away from the man with the gun. Two of them were from the Endurance.

"Why are they doing this?" I whispered hiding behind the barrier again.

"I don't know, but we need to help them." Alex responded.

"Can you hit the guy with the gun from here?" He asked looking me in the eyes.

"You're a better shot with the bow." He added.

"I can't do it, Alex... I can't kill. I'm sorry..." I answered breaking eye-contact.

"I understand. It's okay, I'll go." He told me and peeked around the corner of the barrier.

He took a deep breath and left the cover.

"Alex, wait. Take this with you." I said handing him an arrow from my quiver.

"Thanks." He took the arrow and crouch walked towards the gunman.

Please be careful, Alex.

I equipped my bow and drew an arrow from the quiver just in case he got in trouble.

He approached the gunman from the back and stabbed him in the neck with the arrow.

Oh god...

I looked away and swallowed. I could hear him gargle in his own blood. The sound was unbearable, even from ten meters away.

Alex doesn't seem to mind that he just did that. Is he becoming desensitized to killing? If he goes on like this, what would be the difference between him and them? Damn it Lara, stop thinking like this. He does it to protect us. You gave him the arrow, he used it. These are bad men, Lara. If we don't kill them, they will kill us.

The men armed with knives spotted Alex and yelled things in Russian.

I placed the arrow in place and raised the bow.

They unsheathed their knives and started running towards Alex.

Shit! Okay Lara, you can do this.

I looked through the sights and aimed. I had the closest one to Alex in my sights. I pulled back the string and inhaled sharply. It was difficult to steady my aim, because my heart rate was incredibly fast.

Come on Lara... Focus.

I held my breath. My heart rate slowed down and I waited for the short pause between two heartbeats. Now. I released the string and fired the arrow.

It hit his chest and he dropped to the ground. I drew another arrow and fired it at the other one as quickly as possible, but I missed him by a hair. He swerved and readied his knife.

"Alex, watch out!" I shouted.

The man swung his knife, but Alex was fast enough to dodge and counter him with his arrow. Alex stabbed the arrow through his eye, causing it to explode. Alex cringed as the blood splattered onto his face. The arrow went through his brain, causing him to collapse onto the ground.

I couldn't believe I just killed someone. What was even harder to believe was how easy it was. I almost did it without hesitation. The thoughts scared me so much.

You did it to save Alex. He did the same for you, so you returned the favour. Nothing wrong about that, right? Oh god... What if that man had a family? Maybe he had a kid or...

"Lara, it's clear!" Alex yelled snapping me out of my thoughts.

I threw my bow over my shoulder and walked over to Alex. He wiped the blood off his face, walked towards me and hugged me tightly.

"You okay?" He asked me.

I nodded and pulled him closer.

"I'm sorry you had to do that, Lara."

"It's okay. You're alive, that's all that counts." I told him.

I could feel my eyes water and I started sniffing.

"Are you sure that you're okay?" He asked, but I ignored his question.

"I'm so sorry, Alex..."

"What for?"

"For being mad at you before." I answered and a tear rolled down my cheek.

"It's okay, Lara. You had all the right to be mad at me." He told me and caressed my hair.

"I didn't. You killed him to protect me."

"I did and I'm glad you aren't angry with me anymore." He smiled and wiped away the tear from my cheek.

I smiled back and we released each other.

"Now I've saved you, are we even?" I joked.

"We're square." He chuckled.

We walked over to the hostages and untied them.

The hostage that wasn't from the Endurance was Russian. He ran away as soon as we untied him.

"You're welcome!" Alex yelled after him. "Douche…" He added quietly.

"Thanks for saving us! You were just in time." The brown haired guy said.

"Thank you! You really saved my ass back there." The blonde guy said.

"Do you know if anyone else from the Endurance made it to this island?" I asked them.

"No, I'm sorry. But the chances are really low."

"Damn it..." Alex blurted and walked over to the gunman's corpse. He took his gun and searched the body for ammunition. He found one spare ammo clip.

I hope they're alright. Roth must be worried sick about me. I must find them.

Alex ejected the magazine from the gun and counted the bullets inside the clip. "Just my luck." He muttered and loaded the magazine back into the magazine well. He shoved the spare clip into his back pocket.

"Where are you guys heading?" I asked them.

"Back to the beach, hoping to find an escape. You want to come with?"

"No it's fine. We have to find the others first. We can't leave without them." I told him.

"Then we'll help finding them. That's the least we could do in return."

"Thank you." I smiled.

"By the way, I'm Rick and my friend here is George." He told me and held out his hand.

Rick had brown hair and blue eyes. He looked thirty-something and taller than me. He wore the blue Endurance uniform and had a yellow watch on his left wrist.

George had blonde hair and green eyes. He was twenty-something and was about the same length as Alex. He wore the same as Rick.

"I'm Lara, Lara Croft." I responded and shook his hand.

"I know who you are. In fact, the whole crew knows you." He chuckled.

"Or, what's left of it..." He added with a more serious expression on his face.

"Anyway, we're happy to help you and are at your disposal, miss Croft." He smiled politely.

I smiled back and we all left the camp.

~ A couple hours later ~

"I hope they're still alive." George said out of the blue.

"They are, trust me." I responded.

"How do you know for sure, miss Croft? We've been looking for a quite some time already and we've still found nothing." He replied.

"I just know."

"Well that's helpful." He remarked sarcastically.

I ignored what he said and focused my mind on other things.

We were walking on a narrow path along the cliffside, looking for survivors. The cliff was really high, causing George to feel nauseous. Rick told him that he shouldn't look down, but that barely helped him. I was in my own world of thoughts, locking everything else out.

Still no trace of the others. Did they even make it? Are we looking for people that may not be alive anymore? It's been almost three days since we got stranded and still no sign of Roth or Sam...

"Hey, are you okay?" Alex asked me.

"What? Oh... Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, trying to take in what was happening around me and took a deep breath.

"Are you feeling alright? You look tired." He told me.

"I'm good." I replied bluntly.

He nodded and focused on what was ahead.

"Hey, what's that?" Alex said suddenly, pointing towards a yellow and black bag on the ground near a pool of water.

"That's Sam's bag!" I exclaimed and ran towards it.

I searched the various pockets of the bag, but found nothing that told us where she was heading. I did find a walkie-talkie and her camera.

I put the camera down on the ground and held the walkie-talkie close to my ear.

I pressed and held the talk-button and said: "Can anyone hear me? I'm Lara Croft from the Endurance, please respond!"

"Damn it..." I mumbled and released the button.

I attached the walkie-talkie to the back of my cargo pants and picked up the camera. I flipped the screen open and pressed the power button.

It was still functional; It turned on showing the Nikon logo. I searched through the gallery and found a recently taken picture. It was Sam who was pointing towards a path leading into the forest. She was standing on the exact place where she left her bag.

"What did you find?" Alex asked me.

"I found out where Sam went." I replied, pointing towards the path into the forest.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

I was so relieved that they were still alive and that they made it to Yamatai. Now we only have to find them.

I followed Alex, who was just as determined to find them as I was. The others, not so much.

The sun was setting. We were walking into an abandoned Japanese village. Most structures and buildings were decayed. Only a few in the distance were still intact.

"It will be dark soon." Rick pointed out.

"We should find somewhere to lay low for a while." George suggested.

"Not until we've found them." I told George.

"Miss Croft, with all due respect, but we've been looking for them the entire day. We should rest." He replied.

I stopped walking and George turned around facing me.

"I never asked you to come with us, if you want to leave, be my guest." I said slightly agitated.

"I'm sorry miss, I just…"

A bullet cut him off and went clean through his head. His lifeless body fell onto the ground and his blood engulfed my face as I froze, completely in shock. I looked down at the body. Half his face was missing and blood was flowing out of the gaping hole in his head, forming a velvet colored pool on the cobblestone path.

I could hear faded voices shout:

"Sniper, get down!"

"Where did it come from?"

"100 metres North East!"

"Croft, get the fuck down!"

I got pulled onto the ground by Rick and he dragged me into cover.

"Keep your head down, okay?" Rick demanded.

I stared in front of me and nodded slightly.

"Good girl." He panted and peeked around the corner of the low wall we were hiding behind.

A bullet whizzed past him and took a part of the wall away. He flinched and kept his head down.

"Alex, take point! We're gonna flank this asshole." He yelled.

"Err… Can't we just sit this one out? Like, how many bullets could he possibly have?" Alex chuckled nervously.

Another bullet whizzed through the air and chipped away a part of the wall Alex was hiding behind. Alex leaned back against the wall to make him a smaller target.

"Probably enough to take down a building. Now think of something, we're sitting ducks here!" Rick yelled.

Alex took off his glasses and moved it around. He tried to get a visual of where the sniper was positioned, using the reflection in his glasses.

I slowly came back to my senses and realized we we're in a tight situation.

Alex spotted the sun reflecting in the scope of the sniper and peeked over his shoulder.

"Got him! Third building from the left, top floor." He informed us.

"Okay, I'll take point, cover me." Rick said.

Alex turned off the safety, cocked his gun and pulled back the hammer.

"Ready when you are." He told Rick.

"Cover fire!" Rick yelled and ran on the right flank.

Alex popped up from his cover and fired his gun at the sniper. When he heard the click, indicating his gun was empty, he duck back down behind the low wall. He ejected the magazine, replaced the empty clip with a full one and reloaded the gun. I was surprised that Alex knew his way around a gun. He didn't seem like the type that knows how to use a weapon.

I carefully peeked over the wall and saw the sniper backing away from the window he was positioned.

"He's moving!" I yelled.

Alex stood up and vaulted over the wall. He sprinted along the left flank. I followed and stuck close to him.

We reached the building the sniper was stationed in. We went around the back and caught up with Rick. We stacked up at the backdoor. I drew an arrow from my quiver and readied my bow.

"Breach it." Rick told Alex.

Alex positioned himself in front of the door and kicked it open. The sniper shot Alex in his shoulder the moment the door was off its hinges, causing him to fall onto the ground. I shot the sniper in the head quickly after.

"Alex! Are you okay?" I crouched down beside him and put my bow aside.

"It's nothing." He wheezed and started coughing.

Rick walked over to the sniper's body and took his guns.

"Mosin-Nagant. Fucking Ruskies..." He muttered while inspecting the rifle. He carried the rifle over his shoulder and checked the sniper's pistol. It was the same pistol Alex got. According to Rick it was a M1911. Rick took a closer look at the body and his eyes widened.

"Son of a bitch! It was the Russian from the camp!" Rick exclaimed furiously.

"You mean the hostage that ran away?" I asked.

"Yep, that's him." He sighed and gave the body a kick.

"Motherfucker..." Alex coughed.

"Alex's wound is bleeding bad. He needs something to cover it up with." I told Rick.

Rick crouched down beside the sniper and ripped his sleeve off and handed it to me. I wrapped the sleeve around his arm, covering the wound. The 'bandage' colored red after I applied it.

"So Alex, where did you learn to use a handgun?" I asked him.

He chuckled and began: "I used to go to a shooting range with a friend of mine. He taught me everything I needed to know about a gun."

"Sounds fun."

I tightened the bandage causing him to groan.

"It was." He grinned and rubbed his arm.

"This should do for now." I told Alex.

"Thanks Lara." He smiled and got up on his feet.

Rick pulled the arrow out of the sniper's head and handed it to me.

"Keep it." I said disgusted.

"We should stay the night here. Maybe go back and bury George." Rick suggested, fumbling with the bloodied arrow.

"Sure thing." Alex agreed.

I nodded and we went inside.

~ End of chapter ~