Lara Croft: Origins

Chapter V: Alone

Chapter V

The waves battered me.  They pulled back for a second before hammering me like a nail into unconsciousness.

I gasped desperately for oxygen.

I ran out. The waves took full control of every movement my body made. I had no control.

• • • • •

I came to my bearings ashore. The ship was off in the distance of the sea, in two halves, the deck's lights flickering on and off before finally there was no proof that there was ever a boat there.

I sat up for the second time this night. Hopefully, there wasn't going to be any more sinking of ships this night too. Behind me there was a cliff. To my left, only shoreline and to my right, a higher ledge with a slope down to the beach from another angle. I might have been able to climb the cliff, because Jonas, Josh, Roth,  Reyes and Dr. Whitman were up there. But... but no Sam.

I immediately became worried and almost began to panic. Had she sunk with the ship? Was she still out there? Had she swum to a different part of the island? Wait, I was on an island. What if this was Yamatai? No. No it couldn't be. So the island was real! I was just about to turn to scale the ledge up with the others who were obviously looking for me and other survivors when someone came out of the corner of my eye and through me back into unconsciousness.

• • • • •

What had happened? Not a good day for me and being awake.

     The first thing I noticed was that everything was upside down. I blinked away nausea and took in my surroundings for the second time. I was hanging from a ceiling in a cavern and there were... there were bodies everywhere. I didn't want to believe they were there and that this was real, but they were there and they were real. They were on the floor of the cavern I was strung up in but there were other bodies hanging from the same ceiling I was hung from. The only source of light was a flame on a post-like torch. Below me was a stalagmite that if God forbid my rope broke would impale me no problem.

I swayed side to side toward another body so I could hold onto it and have some control. I swung and despite the horrors in the cave I was reminded of the swing set my dad pushed me on when I was little. It was a simple swing set; blue, I think I remember it being. He was always busy, but the times he'd put everything aside were the ones I appreciated. I missed him, obviously. But the pain was dull like a bruise, where as before it was sharp like a cut.

After swinging a few seconds I finally numbed the body, launching it into motion. What I hadn't noticed was that it was in front of a second torch. It swung into the torch, caught fire and swung back to me. I let out a whimper.

The hanging, flaming body hit me and lit the rope surrounding my body on fire. I was on my way to becoming a kabob. The rope lessened my burns but didn't stop the flame from licking at my body, sending my pain receptors on fire. Literally.

     "AAAHHHHHOOOOWW", my scream started as an outright yell but softened into a sob. My cries of pain did little to sooth my pain, but I couldn't help it. The rope lessened its grip on me so I swung back and forth with my head propelling my body away just as the rope burnt up and let me fall 15 feet down onto the the rocky cave floor. I saw the stalagmite inch it's way toward me in as usual, slow motion, and for the first time in a very, very long I felt truly and deeply scared for my life. I thought, this is it, Lara, this is it for you. I fell and if it wasn't for my swinging I'd have been dead. Brutally dead. My body landed with enough force to knock the air out of me; leaving me gasping for air. I couldn't breathe. I wanted to cry but then I looked to my left, where inches away was the stalagmite that almost killed me and I didn't start to cry. I started laughing in joy, so happy to be alive I was. You can call me crazy, after all I was a 19 year old girl on a mythical island in a cave by myself laughing my lungs off and yet I almost died seconds ago. If that wasn't crazy, then I have no clue what is.

• • • • •

I was covered in burns mostly around my lower torso and legs. They were visible but not significant. Still painful.

I stood up. Taking in my surroundings a second time but this time right side up. Stalagmites. Bodies. Torches. Bones. Blood. I turned and emptied my insides on a wall. Not the most graceful thing I've ever done. What the hell had happened here? I was scared. Not like I was just now of dying; it was more deep than that. People die everyday and that's normal. What's really not normal is the way I almost died and what was going on now with that I was seeing.

I had to get out of this place. I had to find Sam, and I had to expose this island.