Hello fine folks :)
Here's another update for this story. The descriptions tend to be pretty gory – you've been warned! Though gore isn't exactly my forte, but I gave it a shot – so do let me know how the descriptions fared :)
Tons of thanks to Nemesis, Jessica 151294 and Ferilium! You really put a smile on my face – and glad to see you liked (read: hated) my evil cliffie (muahahah :D) Also, I see most of you are curious to see who this mysterious lady is – I'll take a while before revealing her identity (still working on her backstory atm). But I'd simply love to hear your guesses! :)
Without any further ado...
Chapter 4: Massacre
Blood and saliva dripped slowly down the creature's mouth, muscles and veins stretched taut over its skinless skeletal body. The beast was as ferocious as before, if not more – and it fed on the late Gisele's body with amazing speed, mirroring its insatiable hunger.
Lara looked towards Kurtis, who was only beginning to recover from the momentary shock. Lips set in a grim line, he silently sent his chirugai forward, a spinning disc of gold, towards the creature's sinewy neck.
To her barely concealed horror, Lara watched it lightly scar the roped sinews of the creature's neck – only managing to distract it from its meal than cause any damage. The Proto let out a growl as it looked up from the gory carcass, sighting two potential targets. After a long gaze, he returned back to ravaging the nurse's remains.
Defeated, the glaive hummed back to the demon hunter, circling about him. Lara's mind quickly rolled over the options available to them. Defenseless, save for her mind and fists, she found the prospect of the two-story drop become more appealing by the second. Yet she was weighed down with only one notion. It will kill the damn idiot –who signed him on anyway?
"Any bright ideas, ace?" asked Lara, tone bitter with sarcasm. Mentally, she was already recalling most of her judo training, in a bid to tackle the beast and find an avenue for escape. Feet set apart with knees bent for balance, Lara's fists loosened only slightly. The Proto's growls were becoming menacing, as if merely annoyed by the adventurer's presence – though its stance was relaxed as the primal sound of it crushing and chewing bones and meat ricocheted off the room.
Kurtis telekinetically operated the bedside drawer to open silently, and beckoned a steel scissor to his outstretched hand. "Scalpel in med-tray, your right," he spoke lowly. Lara identified and retrieved the object within moments.
"Aim for the area below the ear – an all out attack should buy us enough time to run out the door. On count of three," he murmured, barely audible, as Lara nodded in reply. He held up three fingers, and counted them down.
Three – she took in a deep breath, allowing an adrenaline rush to surge through.
Two – the Proto looked up to see the adventurers now taking attacking positions. It fixed its demonic gaze onto them
One – all Lara could hear was the familiar sound of her heart thundering in anticipation of combat. She meant to leave this place, alive and in one piece. With her comrade. She always got what she wanted.
Upon the signal, both the adventurers moved in silently – yet in perfect synchronization. Lara thrust the scalpel at the mutant's neck – pressing it as deep into it as she could muster. A glance at her partner revealed him mirroring the same at the left side of the creature's neck. The chirugai, flashing a brilliant gold, rotated speedily, attempting to decapitate the monster – its blades dripping with blood as it worked like a saw against the Proto's neck.
The Proto growled throughout, before throwing his neck upwards and letting out a painful, penetrating howl. Lara signaled to Kurtis, taking it as their cue to escape, and after nodding an affirmative reply, the duo took off in a sprint in the hallway, leaving the bleeding, enraged demon behind.
The air of the hallway was heavy with the acrid stench of the corpses, blood and impending death. Scrawled all upon the walls was the familiar Monstrum insignia – drawn out of the blood of the many civilians – doctors, nurses and patients. Innocent people who had once opted to dedicate themselves to saving lives, the sick and injured who had many a dream of their own - all butchered heartlessly, reduced to disemboweled carcasses. Many were littered on the floor, bodies twisted and tangled, limbs missing – few with sightless eyes, their faces a frozen mask of sheer horror.
Lara and Kurtis – both operating on basic survival instincts, had no time to even contemplate giving the victims decent burial rites. They knew they would soon join their ranks if they stopped now. Yet sprinting and hopping over the bodies, they halted in mid-run at the sight of two figures, each standing aside the elevator, clad in black and grey striped suits with their backs turned to the duo. Painting the walls. In blood. With spears in place of hands.
"The mutants?" Kurtis murmured, as realization dawned upon him. At that moment, a ferocious growl resounded – the animalistic timbre echoing throughout the hallway. And worse, it seemed too close for comfort.
Lara, frozen in her tracks, managed to peek over shoulder. Within then feet of her, a particularly testy Proto glared back, mouth open in anticipation of fresh meat.
"Run!"
Grabbing his wrist, she pushed Kurtis along the remainder of the hallway, the Proto hot on their heels.
Once the duo got closer to the elevator, the mutants that guarded turned to meet them, fact to face. Upon a cursory glance, Lara deduced these were subjects of extensive genetic experimenting. Horrific creations of Boaz; once human, now deranged, primal and utterly insane.
Before Lara could formulate an attack strategy against them, Kurtis had swiftly sent his glaive and decapitated the mutations before they even had an inkling of what was going on. And as the doors of the elevator hissed open, the Kurtis dived in the nick of time, while Lara grabbed the gunbelt of a slain guard and flipped forwards into the elevator gracefully. Kurtis then telekinetically slamming the doors shut behind them. Safe inside the metal compartment, they paused to catch their breath, and get their thoughts in order.
Panting, Lara looked at her comrade, taking in his harsh breathing and slick, pale complexion, as a terrible stitch in her own abdomen slowly began to subside. Kurtis leaned back against the wall, bandaged chest heaving with exertion, while Lara was almost doubled over in pain – mentally cursing at her Egypt's reminder. 'He'll live,' she thought.
Her worst fears were beginning to materialize, and fast.
Innate instinct and sheer luck drove her back to the wintry heart of the Czech Republic, all the way from Damascus, where she followed up a lead on the Cabal - Precisely in time to witness the terrifying attack of the mutants of the Strahov onto a hospital that supposedly treated Croft's buddy.
Trent had been his present name. Kurtis Trent, previously, Kurtis DeCombel, son of Konstantin Heisstrum DeCombel. Possibly the last living member of the Knights Templar offshoot – the Lux Veritatis. Peachy.
After helping many of the civilians to escape the hospital in time, she climbed the drainpipe to the first floor – after which she used her rock climbing and parkour skills to scale another floor of the building using only windowsills and the patterned walls. The sheer cold cut through her to the bone, almost making her teeth chatter. Her hooded jacket did not block out the blistery cold wind entirely, but was warm enough to allow her muscles movement without getting in the way.
Reaching the second floor, she vaulted over yet sat crouched onto the flat windowsill, watching a bloodied hallway, littered with the bodies of the unfortunate ones who could not escape the Proto. She saw two figures dive into the elevator, slammed the doors shut, with the Proto growling ferociously at being deprived of his targets.
She vaulted over the sill and landed in a swift catlike motion. Standing at her full length, she walked forwards swiftly towards the Proto – taking out a security camera with a slick throw of a small knife. Withdrawing two glowing Periapt Shards from her back pouch, she stood poised with the weapons – body braced for combat, stance carefully easy, small smile tugging the corner of her mouth as she looked up from the hood at the monstrous beast, blissfully unaware of its impending doom.
"Hello ugly, it's showtime."
The Proto, enraged at losing sight of his potential meals, howled and barked at the door of the elevator, occasionally slamming against the steel doors to no avail.
Lara pressed for ground-floor. "Where'n the hell are the Shards, Croft?!" he burst forth once the elevator was in motion.
"I presumed they were destroyed in the explosion," replied Lara, deadpan.
"Great! Now how do you propose are we take down that beast?" asked Trent, cold and seething, as he paced the length of the lift.
"The Proto wouldn't be alive had you done a decent job in the first place!" Lara shot back, indignantly.
Sighing in frustration, he paused for a moment, pinched the bridge of his nose, holding up a hand in an almost defensive manner. "I sure as hell killed it with my Shards, Croft. Yet its still back. There must be something more to this."
"Really now, boy-genius? What was your first clue?" Lara mocked coldly.
Trent sent her a chilling glare, before mentally beckoned the chirugai to him, calming down at the sight of his trusted weapon. Lara merely shook her head and took the moment to fasten the recently retrieved gunbelt around her own small waist, immediately drawing the Beretta pistol it held and checking it for ammo.
"We'll get through this. I know it," he said, wiping the cold sweat off his forehead. "First we need to get out of here in once piece, then we can argue all we want."
"Agreed," Lara nodded at the truce.
A single "ding" announced their arrival on the ground-floor – the unfolding scene even worse than the hallway above.
Sheer massacre.
The stale, gray walls of the hospital were now smeared with ancient writings and the mutants' cultish symbols – all from the blood of the innocent civilians that lay sprawled, with limbs and heads missing. There were more dead guards in the area, and the carcasses of dead mutants as well – giving the impression of a brave gunfight.
The reception area was a gory mess – with the cheery, elderly female that always greeted Lara sprawled over the counter in an unceremonious fashion, spread-eagled with practically half her face and torso eaten out off. The blood from her mutilated face dripped down her face to her neck, before pooling at the floor.
Kurtis felt bile rise up in his throat – the pancakes he had relished only moments ago now threatening to come out through his mouth. Lara closed her eyes shut and grimaced, knowing this was one such scenario which would always haunt her for the rest of her life.
Ignoring the wave of nausea, he quietly signaled Lara to stay quiet beside him. Holding up his hands in front of him, he beckoned his supernatural abilities, and with a gust of chi hi sent his mind's eye forward from his body, taking a look around the area for any threats, or survivors.
There were none.
When his mind's eye returned to his body, the force was astoundingly harsh. Knocking him clean off his feet, he slipped and grabbed the back railing reflexively before he hit the ground flat. His vision was blurred with red, as black and white dots danced around his eyes. Lara's voice seemed to come from far away, and all he could register was the sound of blood thundering in his ears, and a sudden, bone-weary exhaustion.
Lara crouched beside her partner, checked for pulse and forehead, finding it racing and slick with sweat respectively. He was clearly far from being fit, having lost countless pints of blood in his ordeal with Boaz. A simple farsee-exercise had him panting as if he'd run a marathon.
After a few moments, Kurtis felt his head clear a bit, limited strength return to his limbs. He held his head with one hand, using the railing as a support to stand with the other. "No more mutants," he growled out.
"Negligible dizziness, my ass," Lara retorted coldly, repeating his own words before looping an around his waist, which he wriggled out of.
"It's still a cute ass," he smirked, as he began walking forwards, albeit slowly.
Lara had an undeniably strong urge to punch him square in the face for that comment. Gritting her teeth, she sent him a glare instead – promising murder. Kurtis in turn, lowered his gaze before muttering "Exit's to the right."
Beretta cocked in front of her, Lara strode forward silently, stepping over the bodies and trying not to slip on the blood. Kurtis followed, faithful chirugai humming about him.
The duo walked in through the fire exit to a passage, with Kurtis picking up a jacket off a slain security guard before wearing it over his bandaged torso. Lara opened the final metal gate, immediately letting in a gust of chilly wind. Wrapping her arms around herself, she and Kurtis both walked out in the ankle deep snow.
Hearing the sirens blare outside, they broke into a slight jog. Though technically not fugitives on the run, both wished to remain hidden should they be asked to explain the paranormal events that had culminated to this point.
Lara jogged toward the direction of her hotel – realizing she needed to give Winston, and another friend a call, and get her gear in order for the single-most dangerous venture of her life.
Done :D
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