(Updated Since 2-12-2024)

Chapter 8 - Extraction Point

Author's Note

This chapter is inspired by "Call of Duty: Black Ops II", "Hunt: Showdown", the disturbing comic series "Crossed" and the Western horror film "Bone Tomahawk".

5-9-1581

Yamatai - Solarii Fortress

Lara and Samantha walked through the narrow Solarii Fortress underground network with extreme caution, only to be stuck with a nauseous stench when they were crossing a narrow stone bridge. They nearly vomited on the spot when they looked below the bridge - a river of blood filled with rotten human carcasses. The "water" was thick with decomposed organs, puddles of unidentifiable flesh and bones. The surreal gore feast was absolutely nightmarish and stomach-churning. The duo quickly crossed the bridge while dripping water on cloth and wrapping it around their faces as masks.

The path to the exit was an endless descent. Lara and Samantha had lost track of time and direction since every corridor and corner was identical rocky tunnels. There was also constant leakage of toxic and flammable natural gas that the duo had to evade. They eventually reached some kind of twisted prison with a horrific stench equally disgusting as the blood river. Badly decomposed human carcasses, skeletons, faeces, piss, vomit, maggots and flies were all over the place.

Neither Lara nor Samantha dared to speak as it would only make them inhale more miasma. They further witnessed malnourished European prisoners when walking past numerous small cells. These naked "men" had sickening pale and festered skin; infected wounds; deformed bones; sharp fangs and nails; and uncannily ape-like body proportion. They had descended into total madness and were more beast than man. Their behaviour was utterly animalistic and unhinged - cannibalising human remains as food, scratching walls with blooded fingers, screaming and laughing hysterically, mumbling incoherent English or smashing faeces around like toys. Primal urge had completely taken over these poor Englishmen's basic human intelligence:

"Huh? What's that? Fresh meat!", a prisoner pointed at Samantha and drooled excitedly.

"Woman? So delicate... So tender…", a prisoner stared firmly at Lara and masturbated fiercely on the spot.

"Rape… Breed… Rape… Breed…", another prisoner mumbled as he repeatedly slammed his penis into the oesophagus of a rotten decapitated head, all the while constantly changing psychosexual targets between Lara and Samantha.

While Lara had never seen a naked man before due to Uncle Roth's overprotective nature, she was still very "well-educated" in concepts of sexual intercourse from listening to vulgar ballads, tales and jokes. It did not take a genius to instantly realised just how fucked up and disturbing the current situation was. Lara was absolutely disgusted and had enough of these lunatics' malicious intent. She drew her rapier and ready to impale every locked prisoner close to the cage bars for disrespecting her aristocratic and engaged status.

However, rationality stopped her at the last second. These freaks were already locked behind bars and had no way to get out. There was no point in wasting time and stamina to kill them. Lara checked behind and saw Samantha taking off her cloth-mask, vomiting violently on the filthy floor. She also did not need to know any English to fully understand the maniacs' psychotic sexual desire. The onna-musha wiped her mouth clean with her left back hand and mumbled, "If these are what average Englishmen look like, I will never visit England…"

Lara gently patted Samantha on the back, "Come on, sister. No rest for the wicked. We need to get the hell outta here."

Samantha nodded and the duo quickly ventured through the prison, only for Lara to abruptly stop outside a cell. It somehow looked relatively new and clean in comparison to another filth-feast. Inside was a grey-haired tall man in his early 50s, staring emotionlessly at the cell walls. He was very thin due to malnutrition and the naked body showed all the horrific torture that he endured. There was not a section of his skin without scars.

"Something wrong?", Samantha asked in confusion.

Lara ignored the question and looked at the torture man for a few seconds, before uncertainly uttering in English, "Uncle Roth?"

It immediately caught the man's attention and his bloodshot blue eyes wide opened in surprise when seeing Lara.

"Conrad! It's me! It's me, Lara!", the Countess shouted in tears of joy as she extended her right arm between the cell bars to touch the man. He slowly crawled over and weakly grabbed Lara's hand, looking at her with a mixed emotion of shock and happiness but was unable to utter any words.

"Em… Who is he?", Samantha asked from behind.

"Captain Conard Roth - my foster uncle."

Samantha raised her left eyebrow in disbelief, probably sceptical at the poor soul before her being the infamous "Despoiler" that the Jesuits constantly condemned. She sighed and pointed at the rusted cell lock, "Mind I do the honours? You guys may want to cover your ears."

"Much obliged."

Lara and Samantha both pulled out another thick cloth to wrap their heads like earmuffs. The former covered Uncle Roth's ears with her hands while the latter ignited the slow match of her Ferrum Praevaricator and blasted the lock clean. The thunderous gunshot still temporarily disoriented the trio. After regaining their senses, the duo took off their primitive cloth-earmuffs. Lara proceeded to open the gate and pulled Uncle Roth out of the cell, only for him to flop on the ground like a sandbag.

"Jesus Christ… What did they do to you?", Lara mumbled in English as she worriedly checked the scars on Uncle Roth's body. She then took her gourd bottle to gently feed him water, "Drink slowly… slowly… They are all yours…"

"Em… Lara… We might have a problem…"

"What is it?"

"I severely underestimated the echo of the gunshot in confined space… We have probably attracted the attention of every Solarii cultist in the area. We need to move, NOW.", Samantha explained as she slinged the Ferrum Praevaricator on her back and switched to the uchigatana, "You get him and watch my back. I will lead the way."

Lara nodded and lifted Uncle Roth up in the human crutch method, "Hang in there, we are getting you out."

The trio moved slowly in the Solarii Fortress underground network and constantly had to evade Cultist search parties along the way. There were multiple occasions where Lara had to muffle Uncle Roth's mouth to prevent his cough and hiss of pain from being heard by the enemies. They encountered an empty cultist lounge and found Uncle Roth some clean clothes - a brown tunic, a pair of grey pants and black boots. The middle aged man finally regained his basic human dignity from awkward nudity. The trio then had walked like eternity and there were still no ascending paths.

"By this descending rate, we are going straight to Hades.", Samantha complained.

Lara was about to agree when she saw a crude arsenal ahead. She pointed at it and elaborated, "See that armoury? Maybe I can go 'ask' for some directions, as well as get ourselves some more stealthy weapons like bows and arrows ."

"Alright then, I will take care of Roth. Watch yourself up there. Try not to draw any more attention."

"I will be right back.", Lara assured and patted Samantha on shoulder, before drawing her rapier and entering the arsenal. The room was filled with crude hand cannons, worn-out matchlock muskets, crates of hand grenades and powder kegs. It had a few entrances for faster weapon transportation to different Solarii Fortress sections. The ever hooded Mathias sat in the middle with his back on Lara, concentrating all his attention in cleaning a wheellock musket.

Lara silently approached from behind and placed her rapier on Mathias's neck artery with deadly precision. She hissed, "You are a dead man unless you answer my question. Where is the exit-"

"Do you know what we did to feisty women like you?", he calmly smiled.

"Father, there are still no words from the search parties-", 4 cultists entered the arsenal to report but were shocked by the scene, "Oh shit!"

Lara immediately grabbed Mathias by the shoulder and took him as hostage. She tightened her rapier's grip and threatened, "No one moves or this bastard DIES!"

"Please! Don't hurt him! Let him go!", all cultists immediately put their hands up and begged Lara to release their false prophet.

"We domesticated them by gouging their eyes and cutting all the limbs, then we breed them like sow.", Maithas plainly explained his earlier uncanny question as a matter of fact, totally unconcerned with the sharp blade on her neck.

"I said shut the fuck up!", Lara shouted as she slowly pulled Maithas back, keeping more distance from the cultists. She saw an oil lamp on a table beside her with the corner of her right eye and immediately came up with the most insane plan in her life.

"Hum… I like your Surrey accent. Perhaps you should be my living doll.", Maithas sickeningly suggested with a flirtatious tone, clearly enjoying Lara's full contact presence behind him.

Lara finally had enough of his sexually perverted mind games and shouted at the cultists, "Tell me where the nearest exit to the river is or I will kill this fucker!"

"Keep descending down from the entrance behind you! Turn left, left, right and you will find a cave stream to the river outside."

"Any guards over there?"

"None! Because the place is cursed with death!", a cultist continued, "Ya got your answers, now honour your words and release our prophet!"

"Ok.", Lara released her hold on Maithas and pushed him forward. The cultist sighed with relief, only to see Lara thrusting her rapier into the back of their beloved prophet's skull in the next second, with the blade penetrating out from the right eye socket. The false prophet's lifeless body fell kneeling on the floor and stunned every cultist in the room. Lara wasted no time pulling out her rapier by kicking away the corpse, spilling blood and brain fluid on the ground. She then threw the nearby oil lamp at the stash of hand grenade crates and caused a small fire, before running out of the arsenal by the original route.

"Murderer-", just as the cultists regained their sense, the fuses of hand grenades fully ignited and burned out, causing a massive chain-explosion alongside nearby piles of powder kegs. Yet, it not only obliterated the cultists but also destroyed a huge section of walls, causing severe natural gas leakage. When it contacted the flames of explosion, it caused an even greater and non-stop over the top chain-eruption. The entire underground shook violently like an earthquake with walls cracking and rocks falling like rainstorm.

Lara rushed to Samantha's position and saw her already lifted Uncle Roth up in fireman's carry position. She moved swiftly towards Lara and exclaimed in absolute horror, "Sounds like the entire structure is collapsing! What the fuck happened back there?"

"Long story! Just follow my lead!"

The trio immediately sprinted according to the direction given by the cultist earlier while carefully avoiding explosions, fragments, sinkholes, falling boulders and collapsing ceilings. Out of blind vengeance, 2 cultists dared to stand in the way of Lara and were instantly chest burst by her dual large calibre wheellock pistols.

The trio eventually reached the cave stream, only to find it being a section of the exact blood river that they previously observed from the bridge. The gore feast of decomposing carcasses, swarms of flies, floating organs and blood made the thick "water" stench like the worst sewer that a human could ever bear. Lara and Samantha instantly vomited. Meanwhile, Uncle Roth only frowned and very weakly gave a thumbs up to encourage the duo.

"Not very helpful…", Lara sarcastically responded.

"I'd rather eat shirako dry than jump in this shit-", Samantha's rant was cut short when an explosion blast wave sent the trio right into the river of blood and gore, forcing them face first into the lower-waist deep "water".

"FUCK!", Lara and Samantha both simultaneously shouted as they got back up and vomited whatever organic fluid that got into their month. They not only smelled like diarrhoea but also tasted exactly like shit. Even worse, the environment was in total darkness and they could not see anything.

"Great… that explosion just collapsed the underground network and blocked any light source.", Samantha complained as she ignited a torch with flint and steel. The lower-waist deep "water" luckily did not drench all her equipment.

"Yea… but this cave structure is somehow still intact.", Lara took out her torch and lit it up with Samantha's flame, "Wait… where is Uncle Roth?"

Lara searched around nervously and shouted in English, "Uncle Roth! Where are you?"

"Right… behind… you…", a familiar Yorkshire weakly spoke proximity from behind.

Lara jumped from surprise, turned around and saw Uncle Roth struggling to walk. She immediately caught Uncle Roth up in the human crutch method, "Here, I got you."

"Thank you… I… I…"

"We can talk later. Come on, let's get outta here.", Lara then switched back to Ecclesiastical Latin and addressed Samantha, "According to the cultist, this place is undefended due to being 'cursed with death'. I fear that something more wicked is here."

"Then we kill everything that moves."

"Sounds like a plan."

Lara reloaded her dual wheellock pistols - one in the left thigh holster and one ready in right hand. She held Uncle Roth up in the human crutch method with her left hand, entrusting the torch illumination and target spotting role to him. Samantha reloaded her Ferrum Praevaricator and ignited the slow match. She gripped the musket in right hand and rested its wooden handguard on the left forearm while the hand held the lit torch. The onna-musha humorously named it the "Samantha Torch Technique" as she just became the world pioneer of dark environment tactical shooting.

The weak movement of the torch flame indicated that the potential entrance was quite distance ahead and the trio followed the direction cautiously. The bloody journey was absolutely fucked up and disgusting. Yet, Lara and Samantha could feel no fear for their righteous hearts were filled with the Holy Spirit. If God was with them, who could be against them? Samantha also quietly cited the Apostles' Creed as prayer to further strengthen her faith,

"Credo in Deum Patrem omnipoténtem, Creatórem cæli et terræ, et in Iesum Christum, Fílium eius únicum, Dóminum nostrum, qui concéptus est de Spíritu Sancto, natus ex María Vírgine, passus sub Póntio Piláto, crucifíxus, mórtuus, et sepúltus; descéndit ad ínferos; tértia die resurréxit a mórtuis; ascéndit ad cælos, sedet ad déxteram Dei Patris omnipoténtis; inde ventúrus est iudicáre vivos et mórtuos. Credo in Spíritum Sanctum, sanctam Ecclésiam cathólicam, sanctórum communiónem, remissiónem peccatórum, carnis resurrectiónem, vitam ætérnam. Amen."

The trio eventually saw a weak light source at the far opposite side, implying that the exit was just right ahead. Yet, the additional natural illumination also showed their current blood pool was like a circular arena.

"Success so clearly in view... or is it merely a trick of the light?", Samantha mumbled rhetorically as she walked in front.

"What a strange déjà vu… Something tells me that we aren't going to leave without a fight."

"Look… Bubbles…", Uncle Roth weakly pointed at the "water" and warned. The battle sisters immediately aimed their guns in the direction, seeing bubbles and "water" trails swiftly approaching. Then, the creature underneath emerged and revealed to be a gargantuan crocodile with strange black crystal spikes on its hide. It lunged forward with its maw wide open and ready to devour the trio in one missive bite, only to have its mouth blasted by Samantha's Ferrum Praevaricator and Lara's wheellock pistol. The thunderous gunshot echoed the entire cave system as vast grey smoke exhausted from the hot barrels. The wild beast fell forward and the trio barely dodged. It then submerged again almost instantly and completely vanished from plain sight.

"Is it dead?", Samantha asked uncertainly.

"No, probably just licking its wounds…"

"Size… not match… water level…", Uncle Roth weakly commented and the duo immediately understood what he was implying. The blood water was only lower-waist deep but it could somehow completely conceal the submersion of a 1.8 m tall deinosuchus. The creature must have some kind of underwater teleportation or second dimension camouflage.

"We… should… run…", Uncle Roth suggested again as he pointed at the bubbles and approaching "water" trails behind him. Without uttering another word, the trio immediately rushed towards the exit as fast as possible. Samantha slinged the Ferrum Praevaricator on her back while Lara re-holstered her wheelock pistol. There was no point in fighting the great beast without sufficient firepower.

"Lara… dodges right… Your friend… left", Uncle Roth glanced back and warned.

Lara followed the instruction and alerted Samantha as well. The trio thus evaded just in time as the great beast charged out of the "water" with a savagely deep growl. Its huge jaw barely missed the trio but its black crystal spikes deeply scratched Samantha's right shoulder pauldron and particularly into Lara's breastplate, before submerged underneath the "water" again. Their impact of weight and momentum were so strong which knocked wind out of the trio, sent them flying and fell on all fours underneath the blood river.

The disoriented trio quickly got back up. They were completely soaked in blood while vomiting "water" out of their throat. The torches were quenched and the trio struggled to compose themselves under the dim cave light. Lara wheezed in agony as her chest and lungs felt like tearing apart whenever she tried to breathe or speak. Her chest was lightly cut but the rib cage was definitely fractured. Uncle Roth was essentially shielded by Lara and suffered no injuries with the great beast. He only choked on the "water" and coughed violently. Meanwhile, Samantha's right arm was dislocated and went completely numb, having to hold it with her left hand as support. Yet, she was the first to recover and rallied the trio.

"Come on ladies, we are almost there", Samantha said as she pointed at the exit. It was actually only 25 meters away and the trio proceeded to rush for it despite all suffering from severe pain. Yet, this was especially torturous for Lara. She could literally feel every broken rib and bone fragments pressing against her lungs when breathing. The chest wound and bleeding also intensified with each step forward.

"Spikes… energy…", Uncle Roth glanced back and warned again. The statement completely confused the battle sisters. They looked back and saw the gargantuan deinosuchus emerging from the blood river again. Its black crystal spikes suddenly charged with electricity like a Tesla coil. They then launched like mortars and landed around the trio like thunderbolts.

"What the bloody hell is that?!", Samantha was stunned as a carcass struck by the energy crystal was instantly roasted. The blood-water within 1 metre radius was also electrocuted to boiling temperature. Lara could not scream or even take a deep breath due to gut-wrenching chest pain. She only stared at the eldritch energy attack in absolute silent horror while running with bleeding chest and lungs.

The trio barely dodged countless thunderbolts and finally reached outside the exit - a cave stream entrance directly connected to the clean natural river outside. Unfortunately, multiple bad news struck simultaneously. Firstly, it was already midnight and the bright moonlight indicated that they were far beyond their last possible rendezvous time. Secondly, they were completely lost despite getting out of the Solarii Fortress. Thirdly, the cave exit was huge enough for the gargantuan deinosuchus to come through and the trio could already hear its charging footsteps from behind. Lastly, both Lara and Uncle Roth could barely walk due to injuries. It essentially crippled the trio's movement speed.

"The woods… Crocodiles are slow… on land…", Uncle Roth arduously advised.

The trio thus immediately waded through the stream towards the riverside. The clear water washed away the excessive blood and rotten stink, except those already soaked in clothes. They then rushed deep into the woods as fast and as far as humanly possible. Lara kept running until her lungs finally collapsed. She let go of her crutch on Uncle Roth and fell unconscious on the grass ground on all fours due to extreme respiratory distress, sheer exhaustion and blood loss. Before meeting abyssal darkness, there was the cold moonlight and the peaceful sound of silence...

Author's Note

- "Samantha Torch Technique" is a parody reference to real life "Harries Flashlight Technique".

- Lara and Uncle Roth communicated in English.