The Uncharted Tomb

Chapter Thirteen - Gateway of the God

The engine roared as the Jeep galloped it's way along the highway. Following closely behind it were five junk sedans. They seemed to be having trouble keeping up with the Jeep ahead of them. Several passenger windows went down from some of the sedans and red-hooded men started firing their assault rifles at the Jeep.

"Nate punch it!" Lara screamed ducking for cover as the back window went out.
"I am punching it!" Nate kept his head as low as he could without losing visibility of the road.
"How did we even get in this position?" Lara asked cocking one of her pistols.
"I don't know if its bad karma or good luck, but let's try not to lose whatever it is!" Nathan explained.

One of the sedans roared ahead of the other four and the armed passenger started shooting at the Jeep's tires.
"Hey!" Nathan began while looking through his side view at the assailant, "Pop that guy before we end up one wheel short!"
"I'm on it!"
Lara turned around and aimed at the shooter. But quickly retreated back into the Jeep as a hail of gunfire came in her direction. Several bullets smashed along her door. A few of them narrowly missed her head when she ducked inside.
"This is ridiculous!" Lara exclaimed. "Where did all these men come from?"
"I'm pretty sure they work for whoever that freak was that killed Hassan." Nathan suggested. "But right now, we need to dodge these a**holes before we get to Babylon."
"Do you know where you're going?"
"Yeah don't worry about that! Just keep shooting the pricks behind us!"

Lara turned toward the sedans behind them and started firing out the back window of the Jeep. A few of the bullets slammed into the lead sedan's windshield. A few more carefully placed shots pierced through the windshield and the driver. Lara could see movement in the car and the sedan careened left slamming into the nearest allied vehicle. Both of them ran off the road into a ditch. The lead car flipped and the armed passenger was crushed in between both sedans.

"Great shooting!" Nathan burst out a loud chuckle. "Two down three to go!"

All three of the other vehicles sped up to the Jeep. Lara realized she was out of ammo and started reloading her gun. But Nate saw that one of the cars had caught up to them. The passengers in both the front and the back seats were preparing to fire. Nathan quickly looked around in the Jeep and saw, Lara's other pistol holstered on her waist belt. He quickly yanked it out of her holster.
"Hey!" Lara fumed. "What are you..."
Nathan clicked off the safety of the gun and began firing at the car across from them. The front passenger was struck in the chest and arm and the back passenger ducked underneath the cover of the car door. Nathan kept firing hoping one of the bullets would pierce through the door and take him out. He managed to get the passenger on the far side but he couldn't tell if the closer passenger was hit. In just a few more seconds, Nathan had cleared the magazine.

"Sh*t."

The back passenger sat up and trained his rifle on Nathan. Seeing that there was another car behind them, Nathan quickly grabbed hold of the Jeep's gearshift and hovered his foot over the brake pedal.

"Hold on!"

Nathan threw the car in reverse and both of them ducked as the back passenger had already started firing on the Jeep. Multiple bullets shanked the side of the Jeep as well as the front left tire. As the Jeep kept going in reverse the car behind it didn't react fast enough to escape slamming into the back of the Jeep. The windshield of the car behind them burst open and those in the car were left groggy after the impact. Nathan looked over to Lara.

"Did you reload that other pistol yet?" Nathan asked.

Lara turned around and fired at the car they had slammed into. There was no return fire. Lara returned to face forward and looked over at Nathan sternly.

"I guess that answers my question."

Nathan shifted the Jeep back into the drive and took off. The two remaining cars had blocked off the rest of the road. One armed red-hood came out of the car on the left while two red-hoods came out and positioned themselves on the right.