LARA CROFT AND THE LOST ARK ============================ Lara Croft Fiction by Robert Wheeler © February 1997 (version 2.0) PROLOGUE -------------- The wind blew the rough yellow sand into Lara's face, with the back of her hand she rubbed at the lenses of her glasses and kept on digging. As she dug the sun started its descent towards the horizon and very soon Lara was forced to stop, and rest while she lit a small camp fire and her lantern. As she sat there, on that high ridge, in an unnamed part of Egypt, she looked around in the near darkness at the tops of the pyramids in far off Gaza, and wondered at their beauty. With the sun down and the moon rising, the wind dropped and so did the temperature. Wrapping her toned body in a heavy camel hair coat, she picked up her map and went over the location details in her mind, making the quick calculations on distance, altitude and time difference in minutes, to confirm for the hundredth time that she was in the right location of 'The Well of Souls' in the lost city of 'Tanis'. With her mind set to action she shred the cloak like a second skin and stepped up her pace at digging. As the hours of night swepted on towards dawn Lara suddenly heard a dull thud. Quickly she cleared off the top layer of sand and saw for the first time an ornate trap door in what must be the roof of the chamber. Her fingers traced the ancient hieroglyphics as her mind stuggled to translate the strange symbols. "Here lies our greatest teasure, buried for all ........ eternity ....... so that it's power does not bring about the end of this world ......... and ushers .... a new order". "Well I've come too far to turn back now over a little phrase", shouted Lara to the wind that started to blow with an almost God like fury. She placed the large lifing handles under one side, and worked them in sequence to slowly and carefully raise the door. As the seal broke, Lara heard a large pop of the escaping air that knocked her suddenly and unexpectedley off her feet, as she tumbled backwards and stood up in one fluid motion, the sound of ancient gears turning and grinding together assulted her ears, and as she watched the trap door slowing rose of its own accord. ONE - Entering 'The Well of Souls" ------------------------------------ Lara moved over, lantern in hand and peered into the room below the trapdoor. Ornate statues of ancient Egyptian gods lined every wall, and every wall was cover in beautiful, large, gold inlayed hieroglyphics of a strange design that Lara didn't reconise from all her research. As the sun rose and the small village a mile to the north started to wake, Lara worked quickly, she hadn't planed on the digging taking this long, so to avoid being seen and possibly imprisoned for trying to steal national treasures, she quickly decided that she would almost totally close the trapdoor and conduct her research and find the Ark, if it was indeed here and then leave at nightfull. Uncoiling her rope, and with a metal piton she nailed the rope to the underside of the trapdoor, swung in as the trapdoor closed and slowly lowered herself in to the room. Latern in hand she quickly looked for the Ark, and realised that this was an outer ante-chamber and not the inner-chamber where the Ark must be. As she walked around she noted and took stock of everything she saw and read from the strange hieroglyphics , making mental notes for future reference. It was then in that quick survey that she discovered no doors in or out, so no access to the inner-chamber and that there were five Egyptian mummies standing against the farest wall, that weren't in sarcophagi, this in it's self wasn't unusual, but it set Lara on edge, and she always trusted her instincts. She started to search the walls for any secret panels, levers or switches, but after an hour she had failed to locate any. As she sat down to rest and take a break, she looked about the room, and wondered at the way into the inner-chamber, "Why do I think that the inner-chamber is hidden behind the five mummies", she suddenly thought. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, so as she drew her pistols, she carefully walked over to the wall where the mummies stood in a row. Suddenly one of the mummies lunged forward, and caught Lara on the shoulder with it's nails, cloth tore and Lara cried out as she opened fire in a cacophony of sound and movement. As Lara tumbled and leapt across the room the first mummy lay in ruins upon the floor, as the other four sprang to life and started to attack with their hands. Lara leapt left and emptied her first magazines into the second mummy who tried to rush her. As she ejected the spent magazines they closed in upon her. Just as she reloaded, pain shot though her left side as two thousand year old nails dug into her flesh, as she screamed she jammed the pistols into the mummies face and held the tiggers down. Seconds later the headless mummy crumpled to the floor, as his other two companions quickly followed. Lara gave no quarter. As the smoke cleared and the carnage could be seen, bandages, bones, blood & gore covered and soaked the floor and walls, Lara sank down and searched in her backpack for her large medi-kit. Removing it she cleaned and dressed her shoulder and left side wounds, as she bandaged she felt the two broken ribs, as she touched the a cry issued from her lips. Shreding her t-shirt she strapped her body up in tight bandages to stop the broken ribs rubbing or braking the surface of the skin. She slipped the t-shirt back on and calmed down, the pain became bearable, so she decided to continue. As she approached the wall where the mummies had stood, she noticed the strangely different coloured block of stone in the wall, that appeared to have handle like grooves carved into it near the bottom. Squaring herself up, she gripped the block by the handle like grooves and pulled, and pulled, and pulled. The block slid slowly outwards into the room. After Lara had moved the block, she re-filled the lantern and walked around it, and stood peering into the tunnel beyond. TWO - The Ark ----------------- A long corridor went off into the distance, as Lara shone her lantern down the corridor she throught she heard a low humming sound in the distance. She carefully stepped into the corridor, testing the flooring as she went. After about a hundred yards she started to relax and quicken her pace, just as the ground beneath her crumbled away! Lara leapt as the ancient flooring fell into a graping hole. She reached out. Fingers straining to find a grip. She caught the other edge and felt her body swing forward into the wall of the hole. "Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!, she screamed in pain as her body hit the wall, and her already broken ribs cried in protest. The pain started to dull her senses, she could feel herself starting to blackout. She shook her head and gritted her teeth, "Not a good place to die", she told herself as she pulled herself from the hole. More cautious now, her senses sharpened to the limit she walked forward, testing her every step, leaving nothing to chance. As the light from the lantern flickered upon the walls of the corridor, she noticed the strange pictograms, she stopped and took a closer look, "These aren't Egyptian, details too fine, outlines too sharp", she thought to herself. As she looked the outlines didn't make much sense, too many pictograms almost on top of one another. She picked the largest concentaration of pictures, closed her eyes and starting from the middle started to work her way out, by tracing the outlines with her fingers, "An island in a wide ocean, sinking, some people escape, travel here, to Egypt, using their greater knowledge they become Pharoahs & Deities of Egypt, they conquer and build the Great Pyramids, but they start to die out and slowly all knowledge of them passes from memory, but why is this story carved here, in this place", Lara wondered. As Lara opened her eyes, she noticed that the pictograms still didn't make sense by looking at them, she filed her experience into the back of her mind as she continued with the task ahead, traveling on she soon saw light ahead of her. As she approached the light she put down her lantern and drew her pistols. She quickly and quietly moved to the large open doorway, where the light was coming from. She peeked around the corner into the chamber. What she saw amazed her, a large chamber with the golden Ark as it's center piece on a large dais, the walls contained more strange writings and symbols and tunnels led off into many directions, like catacombs. It was then she noticed all the small holes in all the walls of the chamber and the strange pattern of coloured tiles on the floor. "This is the great prize, so the chamber is filled with deadly traps, of course, time for action", Lara told herself. She backed up down the corridor a bit and hit the doorway to the chamber at a run. She dove left as the first hail of poisoned darts flew from the walls. Tumbling in a perfect roll to her feet she dived into the nearest connecting corridor. The air was filled with the swish of the darts though the air like angry bees. As Lara rose she noticed the disgusting smell of rotten meat, around her stood a long corridor carved out of a strange red brick and organic like tubes stuck out of the walls and near these there appeared to be fragments of large yellow egg shells, but before she could ponder this puzzle longer, from the other end of the corridor a figure approached. Lara raised her pistols as the red eyes of the mummy caught the light. It lumbered towards her as she opened fire. As the smoke cleared and the twin pistols clicked empty, the mummy still came! As Lara struggled to reload it reached for her neck. She dropped to the floor losing her pistols. As it lunged again she gracefully rolled backwards and as her feet rolled over her head and she got her hands beneath her, she pushed herself with all her might backwards into the large chamber! Tumbling though the air she pulled her shotgun as her feet landed on top of the Ark as the mummy rushed forward and the darts started to fly. She pulled the tigger and the mummy's left arm parted company with it's body, seconds later so did it's right arm followed by it's head. As the darts started to hit her, Lara jumped up into a tunnel type shaft above the Ark, which was used to transport the Ark safely to ceramonial events the pictograms had told her. As she climbed she started to feel light headed and dizzy. She reached the top of the shaft and opened the concealed trapdoor and pulled herself up. She collapsed as a darkness fell before her. "Lara?, Lara?, Give her the adrenaline injection, no, the 1 in 1,000 units." As Lara heard the familar voice she opened her eyes, "Sean, how'd you find me?", she asked her old friend and adventurer. "We", Sean indicated the rest of Lara's team on this journey, "Came looking for you, you were gone too long, we found you about ten minutes ago, gave you some drugs to combat the poison and here we are", he smiled as he helped her to her feet. She stumbled as she spoke, "Right no time to lose, the Ark's in the room below this tunnel, get the lifting gear, I'm going to go down and hook it up then we'll pull it up and get it on the truck, ok?", everybody nodded as Sean said, "You heard the Lady, let's do it". As the lifting gear was set up Lara absailed down and dodging the darts as best she could quickly hooked up the Ark. As she climbed out and the Ark was slowly raised, she wondered at the strange carvings and realised that the people who built the 'Well of Souls' was using the Ark not to conquer armies but as an infinite power source for something, what she didn't know. As she stood there the Ark was raised into the morning sunlight after many centuries and it looked like it did the day it was made she thought to herself. Quickly it was boxed up and put aboard the truck for return to England, as Lara boarded and the truck drove towards Cario, Lara realised that she must come back to this place soon, to discover what secrets it still held. EPILOGUE ------------- As Sean and the team put the Ark in crate crowded hallway of Lara's family mansion and started to unpack it, Lara called from the converted ballroom, "Don't worry Sean, guys, that can wait", she approached them, "Here is the fee with a bonus for all the work you put in", she smiled as she handed out the plain brown envelopes. There were mumurs of agreement and thanks as the men filled from the mansion, Sean stopped as he reached the door, "That was close, I hope you know that", he said, "Of course I do", she repiled, "I'll just be more careful in future". As Sean left and she closed and bolted the door behind him, she picked up the crowbar from a nearby crate, and opened the box containing the Ark. As she moved the bits of broken wood out of the way, she stood back and admired the Ark on display in the alcove to the right of the main doors, just as the phone rang. As she answered the phone call and started to plan her trip to hunt down 'Big Foot' in the Himamlayas, the Ark started to hum, very quietly, but continously, and as Lara packed the Ark stayed there in that hallway, where it still is today. © February 1997 Robert Wheeler