Death Raids A Heart

Pt. X

With both David and Jonah's locations a mystery, Lara became challenged when she discovered some soldiers equipped with thermal goggles, providing them now the chance to locate Lara concealed in the darkness. As she fought her way through, the oil refinery were lit up when she finally was contacted by Jonah, only for her to inform him of the enemy now listening on their conversations. With it now made harder to contact her friends, Lara had to weave her way through the jungle towards the oil refinery where she knew Jonah was, yet David's location remained a mystery. 

"David? David, come in, please." Lara begged. 

"He's not gonna answer, Lara," replied Rourke. 

"What?!" 

"He's dead. Now you can add your boyfriend to the list of people you've gotten killed." 

Lara snapped back. "Fuck you, Rourke! You're lying!" 

"Am I? If you want to pick up the body, it's at the refinery." 

"You bastard... I'm coming for you..." 

Upon arrival at the refinery, Lara was immediately ambushed, guns a-blazing as she did her damndest to survive the onslaught until the firepower overwhelmed her to collapse from the tower she was climbing into water below. Resurfacing, fire behind Lara illuminated her as a demoness when a man injured in the fight noticed her and began to panic. As he crawled for his gun, Lara stood on his hand and drew her knife and mercilessly slit his throat as he squirmed while she took his gun and scared Rourke's men who were left to get slaughtered by her. Rage clouded her mind. The chaos she ensued as she swore to get revenge on Rourke if it was the last thing she'd do. 

In the midst of her rampage, she unintentionally shot a helicopter down which caused it to spiral before crashing down, causing a collateral explosion which had enough force to knock her down. As things began to calm, when her rage soothed, Lara laid witness to her doing as she sat on her feet and took deep breaths as she felt slightly overwhelmed when she heard someone approach. One hand came up to cover her mouth as she broke down using her hair to conceal her face until she accepted the embrace of her lover who came to her comfort by hugging her tightly as he shushed her, lulling her into a state of security as they rocked side to side while the New Zealander stood by. 

"Hey, you okay?" David cooed softly. 

Hysterically, Lara exclaimed, "I'm making everything worse!" 

"You're not. Hey. You're not. We can do this, Lara. Together. I need you right now. You're Lara frickin' Croft: archaeologist and super hot badass who can mow through an entire militia without breaking a sweat. I've seen you conquer an island, survive shipwrecks, explosions, crashing planes, the works. You've discovered legendary things in the past dozen months. Just because you did one little thing doesn't mean it's the end of the world - figuratively, I mean - this is just an obstacle we can over come. C'mon, sweetheart. Where to next? We can't stay here." 

"I DON'T KNOW, DAVID!!" 

"What was that clue? Heart of the serpent, something...?" Jonah asked, trying to help her cease hyperventilating. 

" 'The heart of the serpent is in the cup, near the many stone faces.' " 

"And what kind of cup are we talking about? Some kind of chalice?" 

"Maybe a gauntlet or a beaker?" David said sarcastically. 

Lara shook her head and sniffled. "A chalice, that's not very Maya. Wait... It's not Maya. The clue was left by a 17th Century missionary, Andres Lopez, a Jesuit. The Serpent in the Chalice is the symbol of St John. We're looking for a Christian holy site." 

"Oh, please don't say Alexandretta, please don't say Alexandretta..." 

"Like a Church of San Juan," said Jonah. "That's a pretty common name. Could be dozens." 

"Not within trekking distance from Paititi." 

"Come on. The road is this way. We'll get out of here, talk to some people." 

Hesitantly, Lara nodded faintly and walked between Jonah and David, her fingers interlocked with her boyfriend's as they made their way back into town, following the muddy road as the rain began to pour. Removing his jacket, David placed it over Lara's shoulders, to which she nodded his way and gave a light peck on his cheek to show her appreciation as they walked through the jungle when something rustled in the bushes ahead of them. There, a man emerged, armed with an assault rifle and with a wounded leg on account he was leaning on his other one. 

"Halt! You're not going anywhere after what you just did! I'm gonna make you pay, you bitch..." The man bellowed at the trio, at Lara in particular. 

David raised his voice back at the man, his hands raised in sign of surrender which slowly lowered to level with his holstered revolver. "Hey! That's no way to talk to a lady. Apologise, right now." 

"What are you gonna do about it, huh?! I'm going to blow your fucking brains out!" 

Menacingly, the two stared each other down, waiting for the other to make a move to fire their weapons at the other. While Lara and Jonah watched with curiosity, Lara seemed exceptionally confident things would go their way, now that David was in his element, whereas Jonah seemed the most concerned if things went south either way. Regardless, David stared down his opponent as they stood four feet apart. Once they motioned to draw, a gunshot rang out. 

Both Jonah and Lara jumped when a body fell backwards into the mud, blood mixed with the brown texture as the rain trickled on the face of the deceased. Coolly, David spun his revolver and slid it back in its holster before they continued along their way, to which Lara gave her appraisal as all David could do was comfort her and talk words of encouragement to help her aspire to finish the mission and save Paititi and the world, regardless of whose fault it was. 

Hours later, the three survivors found homage back at Kuwaq Yaku, where they resided at Abby's home for the night after cleaning themselves up. Despite the lack of room, there was just enough made for David and Lara to share the couch while Jonah took to sleeping on the floor in the kitchen which connected to the living room, and the living room to Abby's room. In his arms, Lara laid half on David with her head rested on his chest as she focused on his heartbeat to comfort herself that he was still alive and well, knowing that it was he whom she looked to for inspiration to keep pushing forward.