LARA CROFT AND THE LOST ISLAND =============================== PROLOGUE ---------------- Lara smiled as she read the letter she had just received through the mail. It was from her friend, Chris, saying that they had found something of great interest, and wanted Lara to come and see. Chris told her to meet at the airport, and to bring all the usual gear, including her guns, as it could be dangerous. Lara finished reading it and began to get her equipment ready. A few hours later she was all ready to go and was driving to the airport on her bike. Lara closed the cubicle door and stepped over to wash her hands. She turned on the tap, but then felt the hard barrel of a gun on her back. It was then that she realised the letter wasn't actually from Chris. "Don't try anything, Lara," said a deep, feminine voice. "I have at least fifteen people around the airport, all armed and highly trained." "Who are you?" Lara asked. The woman pushed Lara into the wall, and Lara saw the red-headed, well built woman standing with the silenced pistol aimed at her. "Do you remember a certain, Francis Krysler?" asked the woman, changing the subject. Lara nodded in response. "When you kill the owner of a large corporation, it doesn't just go away. In fact, it is left to someone. Someone close, who can be trusted with the corporation in his or her hands. When you killed Francis, not only did you make me the owner of the Crystal Corporation, but also made me a widow." The woman then raised her pistol, so it was at point blank range, aimed right between Lara's eyes. "I didn't kill Krysler. I couldn't have saved him. It was an accident.." "Accident?" the woman shouted. "How can you say it was an accident!" Lara felt nervous, she could die any second. "But that isn't important," she said, calmed down. "I haven't come to shout. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Michelle Tyford, and I'm giving you a task that will either make the Crystal Corporation even wealthier than it already is, or kill you, and I'm afraid you don't have a choice on the matter. The plane leaves in twenty minutes. I suggest you aren't late." ONE - Arrival ------------------ Lara felt the seaplane skim across the water, and slow, until the engine was stopped. One of Tyford's goons unstrapped Lara's seat-belt and she stood up. "Where are we?" she asked. Then the cockpit door opened, and Tyford entered carrying a shotgun, and a bag full of ammo. "We're just near the Lost Island," she said. Lara looked puzzled. "The Lost Island?" "We researched the disappearing islands in the Atlantic," started Tyford. "It turns out that fifty years ago, an American Fighter Pilot out in the Atlantic fighting in World War II was shot down over an island in the middle of the Atlantic. He found all kinds of strange creatures, and a tomb on the island, created by a lost civilisation that died out because the small island was so isolated, and ran out of resources. He was picked up by the Allies, and lived through the war to write a short journal. We picked it up, and we've been searching for the island a long time. When you killed Krysler, I took over, and five days ago, we finally found it." "So you want me to find out about the animals, and the lost tomb, right?" "Not just that. Inside the tomb are lost treasures, some with supposedly mystical powers." At the thought of that, Lara frowned. "Believe it or not Lara, they are still worth a lot, and it's not only the gold I want. There is a golden shield with jewels on the rim that I am mostly interested in. If you bring me that, and the location of the gold, I'll let you live." She then threw the shotgun and ammo at Lara, and she caught it. Tyford opened the hatch of the plane and threw Lara into a speed boat with one of her thugs inside, readily prepared to ferry her to the island. "Goodbye Lara," she said before slamming the hatch closed. Lara was pushed off the boat, and turned around to see it speeding off back to the plane. She unshouldered her shotgun, put the ammo in her backpack., and began to walk into the dense jungle of the lost island. TWO - The Jungle ------------------------ Lara looked cautiously into the jungle and stepped forward. She held her shotgun tight, and looked at the strange foliage, the leaves were huge, with sharp edges, and in all sorts of strange greens, reds and browns. Lara took her compass out, looked to see it pointing north and was about to close the compass when she saw it staring at her. Through thick bushes she saw a large cumbersome lizard like beast walking out. It was walking slowly on all fours, and had huge yellow eyes, but even though it moved slowly, it certainly looked heavy and strong. It's scales were a bizarre shade of red, and as it got nearer, Lara stepped back, and raised her shotgun, aiming at it. She saw it's huge deadly eyes glaring back at her. It balanced back on it's hind legs, and jumped like a spring. Lara fired a glancing shot, it hit the lizard beast on the side of the head. She jumped sideways to dodge the creature as it fell, and shot again. The shot hit it's leg, and it was injured. It turned ro! und to face Lara, growled loudly, and turned away, hobbling into the jungle. Lara decided not to pursue it, it couldn't do her any more harm. Instead, she slung her shotgun over her shoulder, and carried on walking. Lara soon reached a clearing, and saw the horrific sight of a mutilated body. It looked half eaten, as there was still a lot of flesh still on the body. The really odd thing about it though, was that it didn't look human, or like any other known creature. It was about three feet tall, covered in black hair, and had thin, long limbs with long fingernails. It looked like a strange sub-human, but also had canine qualities. Lara stepped into the clearing to see a small dog like creature hiding in the bushes, a few metres away. She aimed her shotgun, but realised it wasn't necessary. The dog only wanted it's food and wasn't going to attack Lara, instead, Lara edged carefully around the clearing and walked past it. When she had gone she could just see it beginning to nibble on the meat. Lara carried on through the jungle, and after a while came to a fast flowing river. Lara had to cross it, and it was going to be a problem, she knew there was no other way but to swim as hard as she possibly could. She took a few steps back for a good run up, sprinted, and dived in. The water was cold and murky, but it didn't bother Lara one bit, she just swam as hard and fast as she could. She lifted her head above the water for a second to see how close she was to the edge, and then when she saw she still had a little way to go, swam a front crawl as fast as she could to the edge, before lifting herself out on the river bank. Lara shook some of the water from her wet clothes, and walked around the corner into a patch of trees. Lara parted some leaves out of the way to reveal a valley, where a once golden pyramid was, now standing an earthen brown colour. Lara smiled. There was Tyford's tomb. THREE - The Undiscovered Tomb -------------------------------------------- Lara climbed down the wall of rocks and stepped out into the vast, rocky, barren valley. Few plants survived, and most that did were dying. She drew her shotgun, and was glad she had when she saw a Raptor running towards her. She realised there were dinosaurs on the island as well as other, unknown creatures, but knew she had no time to think of that, and had to act fast. She fired a few times, but the Raptor was getting too close, and there was another further away, starting to run towards her. Lara kept on firing and jumping back, trying to avoid it, but she couldn't. It leapt on her and dug it's claws into the side of her left leg, making a painful gash. Lara screamed in pain, and raised her shotgun at point blank range at the Raptor's head. It cried as it flew backwards with the impact, dead. Lara was just in time to shoot down the other Raptor, this one dying a lot quicker and easier. Lara looked around the valley. Over by the rocks was a clump of fairly healthy looking plants. Lara limped over to them, and began to make a natural dressing on her wound - she had no medi-kits with her. About ten minutes later, Lara had bandaged her leg with leaves, vines and tree sap. She got up, and walked towards the tomb. Lara pulled the ancient lever outside the tomb, and the doors opened with a low, rumbling sound. She stepped into the tomb, and held her shotgun tightly. On the walls Lara could see some strange inscriptions. Not so much like hieroglyphics, they were more like neat, organised cave paintings. They showed pictures of great beasts and dinosaurs destroying villages, and as Lara continued walking, they gradually started to show how many people died at the time, and were going to die because of the beasts, hunger, and disease, all mainly due to the isolation of the island. Just like Tyford had said. It also said that they were putting all of the last remnants of their civilisation in the tomb, to keep them safe from beasts who would destroy them, and from people full of greed after their riches. Lara also gathered that the treasures and riches was supposed to be cursed by the spirits of the dead, to scare people away, and that they had once supposedly possessed mystical powers, which would curse any person using them for the wrong purposes. Lara wasn't sure she believed all of that, but after her ordeal with Cain's Chalice, she was certainly more open minded about superstition and legends. When Lara reached then end of the inscriptions, she carried on down the tunnel. She knew it was going to be dangerous if the civilisation had said they wanted to keep the treasures away from people, and so Lara expected a trap or two. She came to a very basic trap to start with, a plate on the floor that would activate a bed of spikes coming from the ceiling. She could even see the holes where they would come out from. She carefully stepped over the plate, and continued down the tunnel. Lara carried on walking for quite a while, and knew she had made a mistake when she felt a plate crumble beneath her weight. She fell to find it wasn't a long drop after all, and that she was safe. She thought it was strange, surely it was supposed to kill her, there must have been something else. She saw it, a huge square block falling from above. It was coming down fast, and if she didn't react fast enough, she would be crushed. Lara jumped with all her strength, and pulled herself up, just in time to see the block hit the ground with a mighty thud. She got up, and was glad she had made it in time. As if that wasn't enough, Lara turned the corner to see a strange grey skinned bipedal creature skulking in the corridors. She drew her shotgun, and got ready to fire. Lara walked a few steps forward and the creature came into the light. It hissed at Lara, saliva dripping from sharp fangs, and blood stained claws preparing to attack. It charged at her, and she fired, knocking it back. Green blood spurted out, but it didn't seem to be particularly bothered by the wound, and even though it was a good shot, hadn't seemed to have done a lot of damage. It ran at her again, and Lara continued firing. This thing obviously wouldn't die. Lara jumped back, and accidentally put her foot on a piece of out-breaking stone. A secret trapdoor beneath her feet opened up, and she fell just at the right time, any more seconds and the monster would have been upon her. Lara put her shotgun away as she fell, and then splashed into some water. She swam underwater for a short while looking around , before coming up for air. Above her, Lara could see the creature giving up, and turning away. "Another close one," Lara thought. She was in a large cave, naturally created with stalagmites and stalactites, filled with water. On the edge of the pool, Lara could make out a ledge on which obviously led to another place, and it looked very ornate and decorated. Lara was sure she had found the treasure room. She swam to the ledge, got out, and walked down a gold shining tunnel. Sure enough, when she turned the corner, in front of her was a huge treasure room. There were crowns, strange jewels, golden pieces, huge rings, bracelets, but most of all, up on a stand was the shield Tyford had talked about, the shield Lara had to retrieve. Lara looked around for an exit, saw a door with a lever, and took the shield down and onto her back. Lara walked over to the door, and pulled the lever. The door slid open and a long flight of stone steps was revealed. After a tiring, and long walk, Lara reached the top, and walked down a short tunnel into the daylight into the jungle. She walked a short way through the jungle, and reached the beach to see Tyford with a boat and the same sea-plane. Tyford walked over, and snatched the shield from Lara. She examined it, and smiled, looking impressed. "Good work, Lara. As I said, I won't kill you, just as long as you tell me the location of the other treasures. Well?" "Just through the jungle and through the doorway to the tomb and down the steps," she said pointing. Lara knew they weren't going to kill her, but still wasn't sure what they actually were going to do. Tyford smiled. "I trust you are telling the truth, as if I find you have been lying, I shall find you, and crush you like a bug," she said coldly as her henchmen took Lara's shotgun. "Just use the boat, and get the hell out of here. My contacts will pick it up, wherever you leave it." "Why aren't you going to kill me?" Lara inquired. Tyford simply replied by saying, "I might need you again," and with that, Lara walked down the beach, got on board the boat and disappeared, leaving Tyford to finish looting the tomb. EPILOGUE --------------- Lara told her friends about her experience, and a few months later, she received a phone call from Sean, telling her he had heard that Tyford's plane had mysteriously crashed. Lara remembered what the inscriptions had said about using the treasures for "wrong purposes." Still, she didn't know if Tyford was dead, but knew she had probably got what she deserved for mistreating the treasures. But of course Lara didn't believe in that, or at least she thought she didn't.....