Hey everyone! First of all, I'm really sorry the new chapter took so much time. I had tons of work at uni and though I had a lot of ideas for the story, it was impossible to write any chapter. Anyway after I enjoyed a very deserved vacation for Christmas, I hurried to take some of free time and write the new chapter besides to look where to go after this one.
But now forget that. Enjoy the chapter!
How much time had passed? I didn't know nor care. Lara has been sleeping all this time and still was, which pleased me. Everything that happened before had left her so exhausted I didn't hesitate to offer to guard this time. Besides, I had too much to think right now.
While I was cutting a piece of wood, I thought about everything that had happened. Since we stopped in this camp, I tried my best to find a reasonable explanation to justify the storm that affected the aircraft. What happened there wasn't normal... but must have an explanation. Which one? No idea. Everything I thought was related with mystical and impossible things as magic or something like. It sounds weird and incredible but after recalling a strange voice I heard as the storm hit on the aircraft, it seemed logical, at least a little bit. And I must admit I don't believe in this kind of things but it was impossible to not do so right now. Why everything is getting o damn complicated?
'Eric? Lara?!'- suddenly called Roth's voice from the radio.
'We're here.' - I answered quickly and saw that Lara was awake.
'Is Lara with you?'
'Yes, she's resting.' - I replied while pointing Lara to relax.
'What the hell happened?'
'I'm not sure. That storm came out of nowhere and the clouds surrounded the plane. We tried to help the pilot but the hunters killed him.'
'Okay. Eric, listen. I saw the crash from here, so you must be close to my position. Just get back here safe!'
'Alright. We'll go now.' - After that I kept the radio and looked at Lara. - 'How are you?'
'A little better I guess.' - she said giving sigh and sat up. - 'We should go.'
After picking up all our things, we moved. We walked up the mountain thorough the only possible path and came to a wide area with high huts. Lara stepped forward and before we could do anything, a trap was activated under her feet and left her hanging upside down.
'You're okay?!'
'Yes!' - she said as she struggled to free her leg from the trap. Then I noticed movement.
'There! We got them.'- shouted a hunter and saw several of them around plus some located on elevated platforms.
'Shit...' - I muttered as I hurried to get my rifle and fired at the closest enemies. – 'I'll cover you!'
While I attacked the enemies, I listened as Lara struggled with the trap. But then the enemy from the platforms started firing fire arrows besides using rifles and started have serious problems. Then suddenly the enemies that were in the ground began to fall quickly. I looked at Lara and even upside down, she attacked with her pistol and was being pretty accurate. After killing all enemies from the ground, we had a little break.
'Can you release me?' – she asked me and I nodded. I pointed my gun into the trap and shot at the rope to break it. Lara fell as she was on the ground, I hurried to take and drag her to cover before the shots from the enemy could reach us. Immediately I began to shoot but a few seconds later had to stop to reload. As I hurried to find more ammo, I saw Lara with a large coil of thick rope.
'I have an idea.' - I said while she connected the end of the rope to one of her arrows. - 'Cover me.'
'Count with it.' - After reloading my gun, I attacked again and Lara left the cover. I saw as she pointed the arrow to one of the poles that held up one of the huts and fired. After seeing that the arrow was stuck in the wood, she pulled hard and after a few seconds, the post fell; though the hut didn't fall, it leaned violently and the two hunters that were there into the river from below.
'Good job!' - I said while I was still attacking. Using the same strategy, she destroyed all the covers the hunters had on other platforms and after just a few minutes we finished them. – 'It wasn't so bad...'
'Here.' - I turned at the right time as Lara threw me something and as I took it, I saw it was another coil of rope. – 'It will be useful.'
'All right. Now to find a way to keep going.'
After analyzing the place, we climbed the huts to reach the other road from the mountain. Using the rope Lara found, we could create "bridge" to cross a river as well as help to break down a door of wood that was blocked. With the road clear, we crossed a tunnel through the mountain that led right to Roth's position. He turned and saw that he was leaning on a wooden crutch that he created for his injury.
'I'm really glad you moved.' - I said while both approached to him.
'You and me, kid.' - He said giving sigh. We all looked down the mountain where we could see the plane that was destroyed.
'Everything has been so strange...' - muttered Lara who was still shocked and Roth put an arm around her shoulders. - 'One moment they were fine... the next... there was this storm. It came out of nowhere…'
'It's not your fault, Lara.' - Roth tried to calm her but she shook her head.
'I called them here, Roth.'
'Hey, you'll see how we find another way.' - I said trying to cheer her but our conversation was interrupted by the radio.
'Mayday! Mayday! This is co-pilot Jessop of aircraft N177A...'
'Another pilot!' - Lara said and rushed to catch the radio. - 'Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?'
'I got badly hurt when I landed and need urgent aid! Is anyone there?'
'Captain Jessop? Do you read?'
'I've deployed a smoke signal. Please respond.'
'Damn it, he can't hear me. We have to get him.' – said Lara while keeping her radio.
'No.' - said Roth and Lara and I looked at him surprised.
'His signal is there'- said Lara while pointing to the blue smoke that we could see several meters from here.
'We've got our own people to worry about. We'll need to regroup as soon as they find Sam.'
'I can't just leave him out there alone. I need to get to him.' - insisted Lara and every time she looked more determined. She went to leave but Roth took her arm.
'Sometimes you've got to make sacrifices, Lara. You can't save everyone.' - Lara looked into Roth's eyes and turned away from him.
'I know about sacrifices.'
'No, you know about loss. Sacrifice is a choice you make, loss is a choice made for you.'
'I can't choose to let him die, Roth.' - After that she left and Roth gave a sigh of resignation.
'I'll go with her.' – I said as Roth looked at Lara.
'I know. Just... protect her, okay?'
I nodded and walked to where Lara went. She followed the only road possible and since it was cut, she was getting ready to create another "bridge" down.
'Hey.' - I said ad I reached her.
'Won't stay with Roth?' - she said without looking at me.
'I won't leave you alone.'
'I can manage alone. Thank you.'
'Lara...' - after that she looked at me and sighed.
'I'm sorry. Right now I'm nervous and... I can't let the pilot out there alone after what happened.'
'I know. Honestly I'd have acted like you.' - I said looking at the smoke signal and after taking a long breath, I nodded. - 'Let's get that find the man. Okay?'
(Lara's POV)
'Let's go.'
I said and finished making the bridge. Although I was still nervous and focused about the rescue of the poor man, I was really glad Eric was with me. After that discussion with Roth, knowing that Eric supported me and was going to cover my back was a great relief.
Both started moving though rather slowly. Although the smoke signal was relatively close and weren't having too many problems, the road didn't follow the same way; sometimes we had to move down to the ground level and then had to go back up the mountain or jump to some cliffs that were in the middle. And also had to fight several hunters that were watching a few areas, so we were advancing pretty slowly.
After several minutes progressing as we could, we climbed a cliff where there was a small hut on the top. Then the radio turned on.
'Anyone out there? Roth?' – called Reyes.
'I'm here, Reyes. What's your situation?'
'We followed a group of men to some kind of... city. This place is insane, Roth. What the hell are they doing here?'
'I don't know, and I don't think I want to know. Any sign of Sam or Whitman?'
'Nothing yet. Are you with Lara and Eric?'
'Yes… we'll be heading down the mountain soon to meet up with you.'
'Okay, we'll try to get in a bit closer. Keep this channel open.'
'I assume he lied to not worry the others.' – said Eric.
'I feel a little guilt... but I can't abandon the pilot.'
'I know. Look, there's the smoke signal.' - He said as we finished climbing the cliff. The blue smoke was just at the beginning of a path that followed the mountain. To get there we had to only use the rope to create another "bridge". The only thing that bothered me was the strong wind blowing in that moment.
'I don't like that wind.' - I said a little nervous while preparing the arrow and the rope.
'I know. Let's try to move as fast as possible.'
After connecting the rope to the other side of the road, both hurried to climb there. I was right behind Eric and both tried to move as quickly as possible. The wind was strong and was shaking the rope every time. I looked forward and saw that Eric had reached the ground.
'C'mon!' - He said as he offered me his hand so I could take it as I had a chance. Then I noticed a crack and looked back. The pole that held the rope was about to give in because of the wind and I hurried to keep climbing. Just as I was coming and going to reach my arm to Eric, the pole fell besides me.
'Lara!' - Shouted Eric after failing to catch me and I fell into the void. Though the panic came over me, I reacted quickly and took my axe. I quickly hit it hard into the rock wall and relief came to both of us as we saw it worked. I used the little strength I had left to climb the wall and as I was close, Eric helped me get on the ground. - 'You're okay?'
'Fortunately, yes.' - I said trying to catch my breath. - 'You see Captain Jessop?'
'No. Perhaps he followed the road to try to find help.'
After I recovered from the shock from before, both moved slowly thorough the road in the middle of the mountain and increasingly became narrow and deep. We called for the pilot several times but didn't get response nor found any sign of him.
'Where is he?' - I asked worried.
'No idea. I doubt that he found any help but perhaps he looked for a safe place.'
'Hey guys.' – said Alex's voice from the radio.
'Alex. Is everything good?'
'Yes. Hey, Roth told us about the plane. Don't worry, there's got to be another way off this rock, right?'
'Let's hope so. Sure we'll find a way.' - said Eric trying cheer us and probably himself.
'Any sign about of Sam?' - I asked to Alex.
'We've tracked her to some old Japanese palace.'
'I don't like the sound of that.' - I said worried.
'Hey, don't worry, she's probably just... sightseeing.'
'You wish...' – muttered Eric with a sigh and trying to not smile at Alex's lie.
'You're a terrible liar, Alex.' - I said with a smile. – 'You have to be careful in there. Good luck.'
After that I kept the radio and we moved forward. Despite the small good moment, I noticed Eric was very serious.
'Are you okay?'
'What Alex said about the ancient Japanese palace... I don't like it.'
'I also feel the same.'- Then he stopped and looked at me very nervous.
'Lara, when I left you and Sam at that camp, I met some hunters. As I spied them, they mentioned something about a ritual and kidnap all the women they could find. Now I'm sure they took Sam for that.' – as he talked, I got more worried.
'Okay... okay... for now let's focus first on finding Captain Jessop soon and then let's go to that palace as fast as possible.'
He nodded and walked through the rest of the way. We walked inside a cave in the mountains and found a small cam.
'The fire was lit not long ago.' - said Eric after examining the fire that was still burning. – 'Sure the man was here.'
'He shouldn't be far away.'
Since the cave was dark, both lit our torches and moved carefully along the road that followed. More than once we stumbled into rubble because of how dark was but that didn't keep my attention to certain details or decorative figures I noticed were in a few walls. Then we entered to a larger space where some outside light came from a few holes from the roof and my eyes widened. The old villagers had used the small cave as a religious space and there was a great oriental figure where there were some offerings besides other decorations on the walls that were around.
'These ruins pre-date the Kofun period.' - I said watching as I watched the sculpture closely.
'Here next there's a waterfall.' - said Eric. Both got closer to the water and saw that the road kept going there. Water fell thorough the wall and there were more decorative drawings around.
'A pilgrimage...' - I muttered. –'A queen… Himiko?'
'Wait.' – Eric suddenly stopped and looked surprised at me.- 'Himiko… that's the Queen that Sam mentioned tons of times. Are you saying were in Yamatai?'
'I'm not sure. But when I was with Whitman, we discovered several drawings and signs that showed they worshiped the same queen.'
Both moved forward to reach the outside and my eyes widened again. The path lead to an ancient Japanese palace or temple and couldn't help but admire the building despite the strong wind that was blowing in that moment.
'Incredible…'
'Lara, someone' there.'- said Eric pointing at the steps of the entrance. Both approached and it was the pilot.
'Captain Jessop?' - I called him. Both rushed to cross the bridge and saw the man lying on the stairs. Then I noticed Eric's hand stopping me and noticed the captain was seriously wounded. By the looks of his wounds and the blood, he had been brutally attacked. The captain raised his arm weakly and tried to call for help but only heard a moan. - 'Oh my god…'
Then we noticed and moved from one of the balconies of the temple threw various objects at us. Then they were both barrels of gunpowder.
'Run!' - He shouted Eric and both ran to where we had come at the right omentum in a hunter threw an incendiary one of the barrels arrow. The bridge exploded instantly and threw us both to the ground. By fall I took a good hit on the shoulder and I could not help but complain. - 'Lara ... are you okay?'
'Yes ...' - I said as I rose enough to catch my shoulder.
'To be simply pair of child, you've caused me a great deal of trouble.' - We heard a familiar voice and both looked at the temple. Mathias was at the entrance of the temple and all his hunters were aiming their arrows at us. - 'But you're just as naïve and predictable. Kill them!'
Suddenly I noticed movement behind me and when I turned, a hunter hit my head.
(Eric's POV)
Ugh... I don't know how I'm conscious after receiving that blow on the head... but I take that damn hunter, I'm going to...
'The Oni, they're here!' - Suddenly warned one of the hunters and from his voice I could tell he was scared.
'The guardians are here!'
I used the little strength I had left to make an effort to open my eyes. With blurred vision I saw the hunters running and a huge mace hitting the floor.
'I need help here!' - Cried the first hunter but I couldn't take it anymore and my eyes closed. My head hurt a lot and I felt dizzy. - 'Come on get up! Pull! Pull!'
What the hell was going on? Besides the cries, I heard some strange growls and sinister voices speaking in… Japanese? I opened my eyes slightly to see how one of the hunters fell a few feet from me and was finished with a sharp weapon. Although I wanted to react about what was happening, my dizziness was stronger and lost consciousness.
. . .
Huh... what happened? And why the smell was so damn disgusting? It smelled like dirt, putrefaction and... blood? I opened my eyes and instantly felt arcades. I didn't know where the hell was, I just know I was in a room full of corpses and remains of decomposing bodies and blood. I noticed that my hands were tied behind my back and was lying next to one of piles full of corpses. I hurried to pull away and looked around. God…. What the hell is going on here? Then I saw Lara hanging from the ceiling and got up as I could.
'Lara. Lara!'- I called her as I got up as I could. She shifted slightly and gasped when she saw the place.
'Eric?!'
'I'm down here.'
'What the hell is…'
'We'll talk about it later. Do you think you can free yourself?'- I asked while trying to free myself from my bonds. Her hands were tied to a hook that was on the roof.
'I think so...' - she muttered as I saw began as she sway back and forth.
I kept struggling and taking advantage the rope wasn't very strong, I could free my hands. About Lara, I saw how after she swayed several times, she had managed to support her feet on the ceiling and pushed her hand to break the ropes with the hook. Finally she succeeded but after that she received a hard blow against the ground.
'Lara!' - I rushed to approach to her and when I reached her, I saw she had fallen in front of Captain Jessop's body.
'What's going on here?' - She muttered clearly shocked by the scene that had ahead. Then we heard very loud footsteps coming here and took Lara.
'Come on. We gotta get out of here.' - Then through some small windows that were on each side of the entrance, we saw a large shadow pacing to one said and the other. I don't know what or who it was but it was pretty big. - 'What the hell is that?
'I don't know but I think it's coming here.' - Lara whispered nervously
I watched as she was headed toward a hole in the wall that was leading into a narrow tunnel and I followed her closely. Just when we entered, the thing or whatever it was entered inside. Lara and I leaned on the wall and watched nervously as a huge figure entered the room heavily while he dragged a great mace. Then he stopped and looked at our direction. Both didn't even dare to make any movement and even stopped breathing but felt a great relief when he kept walking inside. After seeing he disappeared into the room, both moved as quietly as we could through the tunnel. It was full of rests of corpses, skulls and dirt and was pretty awful walk thorough there. Just as we reached the end, the blood and mud that there was on the ground made us stumble and fell down thorough a sort of ramp.
'God, this is disgusting.' - I muttered after seeing how dirty I got. I don't even want to know how I smell right now.
'We have to get out of here. The wind is getting worse.'
Both moved thorough the only possible way and couldn't help but look at the remains of skeletons that were on the ground in piles or attached to poles with arrows or spears stuck. Also there were ancient flags, shields...
'Looks like there was a war here.'
'And they literally killed everyone.' - Then we come down the road and saw that to keep going, we had to make a little jump to the other side but it was blocked by a barricade made of wood and wire. - 'The road is blocked and can't see another way out.'
'I think I have an idea.' - I said getting closer to one of the corpses that was an old soldier who had an old shotgun. I took the gun and examined it.
'You think it works?'
'I hope so. It is quite dirty but has no damage and it still has ammo.' - I said after examining the gun and the ammo. Then I pointed to the barricade and fired. The gun worked perfectly and the barricade was destroyed instantly but then we heard screams.
'Over here! They're here somewhere… I heard something below.' - said a hunter.
'The guardians will kill them. Let's get fuck out of here before they find us!'
'They're looking for us...' - said Lar as we moved carefully.
'Yes, but with those guardians or whatever that are walking around, I don't think they'll worry about us.'
At the end of the road, we didn't found a way out but a small window where we could jump to the other side. After reaching solid ground, we entered to a room with a very bad smell, full of old corpses and flies flying around.
'I hate the tombs.' - Lara muttered tried to shoo the flies.
'Well, I'm afraid we're going to find many like this one.' - I said looking around. We were in a room where there was an ancient oriental figure guarded by two heavily armed figures. Before them was a large tomb with some drawings on the stone.
'A Sun Queen and her stormguard…' - she said approaching to the tomb and examined the drawings. - 'Himiko! The first Sun Queen!'
'Wait, are you telling Himiko is really here?'
'Yes... my God, this island is really Yamatai.' - muttered Lara in amazement. Then she pushed a cover from tomb and coughed as she received a wave of dust. Both looked to the corpse from was inside. - 'And she's really here...'
'Definitely she didn't aged very well.' - I joked. - 'Then we really reached Yamatai... and this island is a nest of problems. No offence, Lara.'
'Don't worry. I also think the same. '- she said while watching the drawings on the walls and light her torch. - 'It's still incredible we're really here...'
'See anything interesting?'
'Yes but I'm not sure what it is.' - she said approaching her torch to the wall to watch better. – 'This looks like some kind of fire ritual… A sacrificial ritual… Horrible. But why were the women burnt like that?'
'I don't know but I don't have a good feeling about this.' - I said uneasily. In my mind all the pieces slowly began to fit and I didn't like the result I was seeing. Lara walked over to another wall and kept watching the drawings.
'A journey, a pilgrimage to... is that this monastery?' - I didn't know what to answer but she walked to another wall to follow the drawings. I was just lost in thought. - 'Pouring water? But why?'
'The drawings end on that wall.' - I said pointing to a wall which showed an illuminated figure.
'There she is. Queen.' - She said but then frowned and returned to the wall from before. - 'Wait… It's not pouring water, it's transferring power. This is an ascension ritual! It's how she chooses her successor!'
'Himiko?' - I said and shook my head. There was too much to take in. - 'Wait, Lara. So in that case…'
'There! Take them!' - both turned and saw hunters coming through the holes that were in the wall.
'Shit... get ready!' - I warned Lara and she took her bow while I took my axe.
Both began to defend ourselves and eliminate one by one all the hunters we faced but they kept coming every time. Two hunters came dangerously towards me and while I dodged their attacks, I was on the grave of Himiko with no way to scape. I ducked to avoid the machete from the first enemy and after that and killed him with my axe; then I rolled to one side to avoid the attack of his companion but he moved fast and run at me. He went to hit me with his weapon but grabbed his arms and we started wrestled. Then saw Lara fighting against two hunters and noticed that she was struggling.
I made a last effort and pushed the hunter to hit him with the axe. My weapon hit his neck, causing a horrific wound that caused him to bleed profusely besides killing him instantly, but I ignored all that and focused on the other enemies.
'Lara, get down!' – pointed her. She did and quickly threw my axe into one of the enemies. My weapon flew at full speed on where Lara was and it hit on the hunter's chest. His companion, surprised by the attack, got distracted and Lara took the opportunity to kill him.
'Thanks for the help.'
'You're welcome. Better we get out of here... but how?' – said as I picked my axe from the enemy and looked around.
'What the hell is going on down there?' - said suddenly a hunter and I got ready to attack but didn't see anyone. It looks like they close but in another place. Suddenly Lara and I jumped when we heard an inhuman roar.
'Than? What the hell was that?'
'I think it is the same thing we saw before with the mace. And I don't think it's a good idea to meet him... We have to leave this place as soon as possible.'- said nervous.
'I have an idea. Follow me.'
I followed her to one side of the tomb and she prepared an arrow with rope. Then she shot to some kind of metal bell that hanging from the ceiling. She told me to help her to pull and after doing so, the bell swung and went to hit against some large wooden gates that were locked. The impact opened them and we hurried to keep going. As we moved forward in a semi-demolished passage, we listened more hunters.
'Hey! I found a way out down here!'
'But the survivors... we gotta find them.'
'The Guardians can have them. I'm getting the hell out of here now!'
'Goddamn it... okay... okay wait! Help us open the gate.'
'Shit... shit... they're here!'
'Hey, hey! What's going on? Come back! Don't leave us, you coward! Come back!'
I didn't know what was going on I didn't care for them. Finally we reached a small room with a camp that created long time ago and though we had no intention of stopping there, we allowed ourselves to rest a little bit.
'I don't understand what is going here.' – said Lara as she leaned against the wall.
'Me neither. I just know that the hunters were after us and those things called Guardians are hanging around the palace, monastery or whatever is this place. And for our own good, it's better we don't meet them.'
'We have to get out of here.'
'I agree with that.' - Then in the remains of the camp I noticed something. - 'Look.'
'Have you found something?'
'The person or persons who made this camp forgot this bow.' - I said while examining it. Although it was ancient, it was a little longer than the ones we had stronger.
'Looking at it, I'd say it's much better than the bows we have.'
'Yes. And better you take it.'
'Sure? You've found it first'
'Yes. But also found the shotgun and since you're better with the bow than me, you should take it.' - After offering the weapon again, she sighed and picked it up.
'Okay.' - she said while leaving the other bow and equipped herself with the new one. - 'Now let's get out of here.'
'It seems that's the only way forward. '- I said destroying a barricade that blocked the road and saw a bridge that went outside and also noticed the strong wind. - 'I have a feeling this is not going to be easy. Ready?'
'Let's go.'
And here ends the chapter. Though I wanted to write more, the chapter was getting too long and decided to stop here. Besides that, much more things will happen after this moment so in the new episode I'll have more space and time to get things ready. Now, in the next week I'll be pretty busy with work so I don't think I can't write too much but after having so many good ideas to keep going, I promise it won't take too much time.
So... remember to post reviews and share you opinions with me (if you want of course). See you soon!
