The air is quiet on the mountain; whoever is walking about is doing it silently, soldiers sitting in trees with their guns at the ready. Some are on patrol going through the woods, single file, not wanting to make their presence overly obvious. A figure sits on the cliff edge, olive BDU shirt buttoned up most of the way, sleeves rolled up, olive BDU pants, combat boots, a combat knife strapped to his right calf.
Red embers glow brightly as he takes in a drag of his cigar; the glow lightly shows his face, chiselled face, square jaw, his buzzed head is showing that he usually has a full head of dark brown hair. A small amount of stubble on his face, his piercing blue eyes are glowing in the moon light above his head, pulling the cigar out, he lets out a slow breath.
In front of him, the smoke exhaled covers the village before him, a few villagers going about their business. His eyes watch the rotating boar in the middle, a couple of wagons have taken a path to another village that is just over a mile away, taking the cigar between his teeth he rests his left hand onto his knee, letting it sit there comfortably.
He listens as a set of footsteps approach him from behind, they're heavy and with purpose not Croft he sums up right away.
"Commander Vincent Yarinhov," a formal young soldier addresses him; he's looking off into the distance, not down at his boss.
Taking his cigar out he blows the smoke out and continues to watch the villagers below. "What do you have to report?" Yarinhov's voice is deep with an edge to it. Straight to business, he doesn't care about formality most of the time.
"The group you sent for Croft is dead; we've gathered their effects from their bodies. There's been no sign of her since or her partner," he reports and Yarinhov uses the hand holding the cigar to use his index and middle fingers to drum on his chin.
"If she has a fire going, it'll be concealed mostly by rocks, but that is even a risk in itself. She won't draw attention to herself… bring the old man to me," Yarinhov instructs and listens to the young man's footsteps to move away. He runs the tip of his tongue along his top front teeth slowly in thought.
You weren't bright about her Fernando Huites… too focused on the mission. Yes you had a time constraint but you didn't utilize your man power. This is why you were at the bottom of ranks, you were all about the money, now your six feet under and Lara Croft is running about he grins to himself. He takes a slow drag of his cigar as he listens to shuffling feet and solid feet, Yarinhov doesn't turn to see Tahir's father as he is shoved to his knees near him.
"Do you know what I see?" Yarinhov asks as he watches the other villagers continue about their routines, oblivious to the fact that the old man was taken out of his home against his will.
Tahir's father glares at Yarinhov's head, "death," he sneers and this earns a light chuckle from Yarinhov.
Wetting his lips, "I see wasted potential, the land is prosperous, vegetation is bountiful, and you have the means to make it great. But," he takes a breath, "you don't."
Staring at the man who ordered his capture, "what do you want with me?"
Looking up at the moon briefly, Yarinhov studies its glow, "to take in your little village, view it for the last time. Your people, your home, everything you have worked every day of your life to preserve and keep going for years… take a good long look. You sent Croft off to get the Wings of Darkness." Standing up slowly, Yarinhov looks at Tahir's father; he isn't backing down from the larger man, "she has an," he lets his hand flutter in the air, "air about her that allowed you to trust her, doesn't she?"
He waits a few seconds and when he gets so response he smiles, "you saw right through me," Yarinhov takes a long drag of his cigar, watching the older man and gets into his face. Pulling the cigar out he blows the smoke into his face, "in the end, I always get what I want," looking at his soldier, "take him back to his tent.
The older man doesn't struggle, he walks with the soldier as he knows there is no point. He won't get free of his grasp, and alerting his people right now will get them killed.
Yarinhov watches him go and turns back to the village below, placing his cigar back between his teeth he watches the people below grab some of the boar from the stick holding it up. "Your move Croft."
Sunlight is streaming through the small gap that might be just big enough for Lara to go through just above their heads. Squinting at the small amount of light coming through, Lara sits herself up slowly, taking in the fresh air that is filling her lungs and she smiles.
"You know," Liam whispers, unsure as to if there is someone outside the rocks, able to listen in, "we could have continued on foot through the night."
Lara moves to sit on her knees as she turns her attention to the Wings of Darkness, taking a deep breath she uses the butt of her handgun to break the lock off. Opening the case and she looks inside. "I know, I've done it before, but with something as dangerous as this… I didn't want to chance being jumped in the night," she lifts the glass container with the snap and seal sides.
Setting it down she gets a better view of it, just like the Wings of Light, these wings look like onyx, detailed feather etchings throughout the wings. "It's hard to believe something so beautiful can cause so much pain," Liam whispers and then he looks at Lara. "Have you decided what you're going to do with it?"
Taking a deep breath, Lara stares at it no… I haven't. And time is up, I need to act now with whatever I'm going to do and get it out of Columbia she purses her lips before wetting them. I don't want to risk another soul getting harmed by them, but at the same time, is that really my decision to make? I made a brash decision the last time to destroy the golden hand of Midas. Is that who I really want to be remembered as? Someone who finds these artifacts and each time they are deemed too dangerous and that I want to keep them out of the wrong hands I destroy it? Yes I wish I could study the two sets of Wings. But not at the expense of harming others.
Closing her eyes briefly, "I'll destroy them, but we take the fragments with us," she looks at Liam who gives a nod. Not for approval, but that he is with her.
Unclasping each of the sides, Lara lifts up the glass the wings are sitting in and stands up, holding it above her head, she feels her muscles tense up as she takes a deep breath and gripping the sides tightly she turns it quickly and throws it down as hard as she can.
Liam and Lara watch as the wings break into seven large chunks, the gloss that was once there looks to have vanished. Feeling hesitant, Lara kneels down and Liam scoots himself closer, he reaches his hand out and Lara wants to grab his hand to tell him not to chance it, but at the same time she knows he'd rather her not risk her life over it.
They both watch as his out stretched fingers shakily reach the first chunk and after a moment of hesitation, Liam picks up the chunk, both of their hearts skip a beat.
Staring at the rock in his hand, Liam looks up at Lara and smiles, "let's get this out of here, shall we?" he suggests and she smiles, letting out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.
Picking up the other six pieces, Lara looks at Liam to watch him pull a water resistant nylon webbed bag. They place the pieces inside the bag, taking out her water bottle; Lara takes a couple mouthfuls before reattaching it to her hip. "Just in case we're expecting an ambush, let's leave the broken wings here," Lara whispers, "When it's clear, I'll squeeze through the gap in the rocks to grab them."
Nodding in agreement, they set the bag down in the corner, looking at the water Lara takes a deep breath before diving in. The cold water chilling her to the bone again, flowing through her hair, making her clothes ripple about as she kicks her feet towards the bottom to find the opening, seeing the light shining through.
Reaching her hands out she guides herself along the passage and glances behind her to see Liam is following behind her, looking ahead again she can feel the force of the waterfall up ahead. Once coming out the waterfall pushes her down towards the bottom, her belly and knees just graze the bottom as she swims under the water and she feels the force help push her out from under. Pushing off the bottom with her boots, she arches her body up and within seconds feels the moist air kiss her face as she takes in her breath.
Gasping, she looks around immediately, hearing no voices, seeing no figures, she swims to the rocks and gets a grip to hoist herself up, the rock feeling warm from being in the sun. Glancing at her watch she sees it is 9:00a.m. "I actually slept in," Lara mumbles to herself and turns herself around to watch Liam break the surface, shaking his head and smiling at Lara as he swims to the same rocks.
"My ankle feels much better, maybe the cold water got the swelling down before it would get any worse," Liam comments and climbs out of the water.
Turning to face the woods, Lara stands up, not letting the fact that she's chilly get to her. Listening to the birds chirping again, watching the leaves in the trees move ever so slightly in the breeze, the feel of the mist from the waterfall on her back, the smell of the plants all around her and the water.
"Yeah… I missed this," Lara whispers to herself and turns to look at Liam who is sitting next to her now, he places his hands behind him on the rock he is sitting on.
"No internet, no traffic, no buildings reaching for the sky… it's peaceful," Liam adds as he looks up at the sky, enjoying the natural beauty of nature.
Taking in a deep breath, Lara stands up and looks down at the line up of rocks that grow narrow the further they go away from the pool of water they just swam out of. "Let's-" Lara is cut off by a bullet whizzing past her head. There was no mistakening that sound, that chilling feel that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end, the goose bumps rising on your spine and arms like hearing a mosquito or bees next to your ear.
Turning her head to face the direction it came from, Lara unholsters her handgun, pointing it ahead and biting her bottom lip, there is too much cover for her foes, as she cannot see where they're hiding.
Liam stands up and whips his gun out as well, surveying their surroundings, "show yourselves you cowards!" he shouts as he walks till he is back to back with Lara. Their eyes skimming the branches, bushes, leaves, every rustle in the foliage, straining their eyes to see what their foes don't want them to see. "Do you really want to go down this road?" he asks.
One by one, a hand or a foot or a gun comes out from the leaves, both watch as men come out from all around them. Cocking her gun, Lara watches the first one who came into her line of sight lifts his gun, she fires, nailing him in the forehead; this opens the flood gates again the men start to open fire as Liam and Lara start shooting.
Shifting to kneel, Lara shoots another man in the shoulder, knocking him off balance as the dirt to her left foot explodes thanks to it, she turns to her left and shoots another in the chest. However a bullet catches her in her right bicep, she winces, but turns to her right to shoot the man in the knee cap making him cry out and collapse.
Rolling onto the ground to her left she spins to take cover behind a tree, mentally counting the bullets she has used and then watches as Liam shoots an oncoming mercenary in the chest twice before he falls down at his feet. Liam drops his gun and pulls his knife out as two other men come at him with their own knives out, turning to her right she is met with a rifle, she grabs the underside of the nozzle and shoves it up in time for the bullets to go off past her left ear.
She tries to yank the gun from his grasp but fails, so she swings her right elbow at his neck; he evades and pulls the gun from her grasp to swipe the butt of the gun across her face knocking her onto her right side and out of cover.
Meanwhile Liam dodged a knife coming down at him and kicks the other guy in the stomach, but when that soldier grabs his foot he jumps and spins to use the back of his steel toe boot on the back of the other guys head making him fall to his knees. Once Liam lands on his hands on the ground, he turns himself to flip back onto his feet and go for a round house, but the guy evades as the other starts to stand up just as Lara lands on the ground behind him.
Thinking fast, Liam whips his knife at the guy whose been standing and catches him in the thigh, the other stands up for Liam to grab the wrist with the knife and wrench it back. He punches the guy in the throat, making him start to choke due to a broken adams apple before Liam flips him onto his back.
Lara watches the guy step out from the bushes as her head starts to throb from the hit, she looks around to see her gun had been knocked from her hand in the fall and a thick branch at his feet. Distract! Grabbing up at some dirt, she throws it into his face, but he just closes his eyes and shakes his head making it so he didn't see her stand up to charge at him with the branch, she swings it up and catches him in the jaw.
Turning to the guy who he had knifed, the man charges at him, slamming his shoulder into his abdomen and lifting Liam off his feet before throwing him into the large rocks behind him. The rocks spiking pain throughout his body and his head having gone off of one, he groans as his mind tries to grasp what is going on as the man lifts himself off and grabs the collar of his shirt and drags him to a deep enough spot between the rocks to push his head under.
Looking over her shoulder Lara sees that Liam is struggling under a man who has pinned him down on top of rocks, he is larger than the one she is dealing with and the ones she had shot in the knee and shoulder are starting to come for her. Returning her attention to the man in front of her, she takes one step back to swing the branch up at the underside of his jaw, making him slam the back of his head into the tree behind him. She brings the branch high above her head as he falls to his knees before her and slams it down onto his head.
The one she's shot in the shoulder cocks his gun next to her, "think you can move fast enough to avoid a bullet?" he asks and she listens to Liam thrashing about in the water. His lungs burning for air, begging for air and instead water is starting to get taken in. Fear is taking hold. He's trying to punch at the man's face, kicking his legs about, grabbing for his eyes but only managing to splash the water about.
Deciding not to answer she ducks and swings the butt of the branch up and hears the gun go off just before slamming the branch into his under arm. Looking at the knocked out soldier on the ground before her she yanks his rifle off of him, and spins around to shoot the man three times in the chest before the one she'd shot in the knee comes jumping up and over the rocks and gets three in the chest as well. His body falling onto the rocks he'd just tried to jump over.
That's when she sees it, that Liam has stopped struggling, oh no… not you she feels her heart swell up in fear at the sight of his limp body under the mercenary holding him down. She stands up just as the mercenary looks over his shoulder at her. He turns around quickly, pulling out the knife that Liam had used on him earlier from the back of his belt; she lifts her gun and shoots him in the head making the knife clatter to the ground.
Slinging the gun over her head as she runs over to the soldier who drowned him, she grabs his tactical vest and lifts him just enough to pull his body off of Liam. Her hands frantic as she jumps to the other side of the rocks so she can move her hands under Liam's arm pits and lift him out of the water, digging her heels into the grassy dirt as she heaves his body out of the water and onto the even ground.
Her heart is racing as she quickly moves around to see his eyes are closed and mouth is open, she kneels onto the right side of his body and places her ear over his heart to listen. Feeling only the cold, soaked shirt under her ear she moves to his head and tilts his head up, pinches his nose closed before sealing her lips over his mouth and blowing into him.
Pulling away quickly she places her hands folded over his chest and starts pressing down don't you go on me now Liam, we still have to get out of here she presses down ten times before going back to pinching his nose and blowing into his mouth. "Come on Liam! Breath!" Lara commands of him, watching his head roll back and forth each time she presses onto his chest, she watches his eyes anxiously, hoping that they'll shoot open. "Breath!" she yells and after another ten compressions she moves back to his head, breathing into him again.
She can feel her adrenaline starting to fade, "please don't do this to me Liam, you can't go… please come back to me," she says, her heart sinking as she continues to stare at his face. Closing her eyes, her body shakes as she clenches her hands and she screams as she brings her fist down onto his chest hard, and again, and again and water shoots out of his mouth.
Lara jumps as Liam start coughing up more water and she places her left hand under his under back to help him roll onto his left side, retching up the water from inside of his lungs. When he finally calms down enough he lies on his back again and looks up at Lara, his eyes teary and a little red, "L-Lara?" his voice horse as he looks up at him bleary eyed.
Letting out a breath, she nods as she puts her hand onto her lap, "welcome back," Lara smiles and he blinks up at her.
Sitting up slowly, he rubs at his eyes with his index and thumb, "shit…" he uses his left hand to touch his chest, "I think you may have bruised me," he pulls his fingers away to wink at her and she rolls her eyes. Moving to stand up, he reaches up to grab her left bicep, she looks down at him obviously irritated, "thank you, really," he looks her in the eye to see her anger diminishing, "seriously, thank you."
Nodding, "I'm glad to have you back," Lara says with a soft smile, and watches his eyes travel to her arm to see the blood that has been trickling out.
"Let's get you bandaged up before we do anything more," Liam suggests and reaches behind him to his pouch on the back of his belt that has some first aid supplies.
She stays kneeling as he moves onto his own knees and taking his own water bottle he pours some of it over the blood to see the bullet hole properly. Lara watches him, "I forgot it had happened honestly, when your thinking about survival you put your pain on the back burner and focus on the impending threat."
He smiles at her words, "that is true," he pulls out a long roll of gauze, "it went straight through, lucky as that would have been a pain to takeout… a pain for you more than me," he explains as he wraps it around her arm. Seeing no blood he keeps wrapping it until it is finished and tapes it down.
"I need to get the wings," Lara reminds him and Liam nods, he stands up with her and takes out his only other energy bar, opens it and takes a bite as she moves around the rocks that are around the falls. Moving around the bush, vines and branches that are obscuring her vision, she focuses on how deep she and Liam were and works out an approximate target and pushes into the foliage out of his view.
Pulling a cluster of vines out of the way that have grown into the rock, she grunts as she rips them out and finds the gap in the rocks, it is a tight fit, but she knows she has had worse. Looking down she finds a thick root to a nearby tree sticking up out of the ground and steps on that to get higher, just enough to reach the gap, her fingers feeling around the smooth edges for a spot to pull up from and finally anchor themselves into grooves.
Lifting herself up and using the tree behind her to push herself up higher she moves her right hand into the hole, reaching in to find another chunk of rock to grip and pull herself in, the gap is very tight with the rocks pressing in on her tiny form. Cold, damp rock as her arm slides in, she feels her shoulder and left ear getting pressed in. Using the toe of her boots to push herself in more, she finds herself wiggling, moving like a worm to get herself in deeper. She can see the end of the passageway, the light bouncing off the walls, "maybe I should have gone in under the falls," she mutters and feels her right hand come out to find open space.
Continuing to wiggle she plants her hand and then her arm onto the rock wall, looking down she sees the bag with the shattered wings. "Yeah, I'm swimming," she says to herself as she pushes with her right arm to have the upper half of her body come out and finally she falls onto her hands, doing a temporary hand stand before rolling onto her feet.
Kneeling down she picks up the bag and dives into the water, Liam sitting on the rocks, finishing off his energy bar looks at the waterfall in time to watch Lara's head pop up, he looks at her confused. "You didn't use the back door?"
Shaking her head as she gets out, taking and seat next to him she wrings out her hair, "no, way too tight," she says and sets the bag onto his lap. Taking out her last energy bar she watches him stare at the bag before turning his attention to her. "We're splitting up," she watches him open his mouth to protest, she holds up her left hand as she takes a bite, he closes his mouth and watches her, waiting for her to continue. "You wait in the woods here for say… 45 minutes with the bag. Then you go around the other way, in the direction the villagers were headed for refuge. We have no way of communicating with the pilot or anyone else, so we hope that the village they went to have a radio or phone or something, I will go back to see Tahir and tell him the wings are no more."
He purses his lips, "I don't like us splitting up… what if the leader catches you?" he watches her take another bite and then remove her water bottle from her hip.
Swallowing, and grateful for the boost, "if he catches me, he doesn't get the wings and right now they cannot stay where they were hidden," she takes another bite and points at the surrounding area. "They were waiting out here for us, they know it is in this area, they'll find it if I leave it here. I know… it should be safe now that it is broken, but at the same time I feel like I don't know enough about it… what if there is a possibility that they can put it back together? What if the Wings of Light can mend it and if it can destroy the Wings of Light? There's too many possibilities that I need to take into account and I don't know what other artifacts they have that can be possibly used with either of them," Lara takes another bite.
Liam goes silent, staring at the ground at his feet and he sighs, "Your right…" he looks at her, "I'll wait and give you 45 minutes before taking off for the other village."
Closing her eyes, Lara takes her last bite before taking a couple of mouthfuls of her water before reattaching it to her hip. Looking down the path of rocks from where they came from, she glances at the bodies around them and walks over to the one that she knocked out. Feeling around his vest she finds additional ammo clips for the assault rifle, she puts them into her thigh pants pockets before turning to look at Liam who is standing at the rocks, she can see it on his face that he still doesn't like the idea of her going off on her own. "Stick to the plan," she says firmly and starts down the path of the rocks.
To Be Continued…
What do you think? What are you predicting will happen next? What is Yarinhov going to do? What did you like and dislike from this chapter? I again had that song playing in the background as I wrote the action scene.
