Tomb Raider: The Golden Seal

Chapter 16: Bloodstained Sand

Screams and gunfire woke her up. Lara jumped out of bed and took the shotgun from under the bundle of clothes she was using as her pillow, then she decided she couldn't go out in her underwear and hurriedly put on some clothes. She secured the Periapt in her backpack and left the tent.

"What the...?" She exclaimed... and then she saw it. Several Jeeps were arriving, from which men were jumping off and invading the camp, armed with submachine guns, led by... "Gunderson!" Lara cursed a thousand times for not having killed him when she had the chance.

Chaos erupted. The terrified excavators fled to the only place that seemed safe: the stronghold. The Bedouin, who felt war as if it were in their own blood, took up arms with savage cries and rushed to meet the invaders. The result was one group bumping into the other and forming a maze of terrified and angry people, all yelling amidst the fuss.

"Oh, c'mon." Lara muttered, annoyed.

Gunderson's men ran between the tents and surrounded the people, targeting them with their weapons. The Bedouin faced them, but panic was rising.

Lara hid behind a tent, waited until one of the mercenaries passed by, and then she pounced on him and knocked him down. Both rolled down in the sand. After a brief struggle, Lara knocked him out with a punch to the temple.

She stumbled and looked around. The mercenaries had set fire to some of the tents and there were several corpses laying in the sand. Suddenly, someone pushed her towards the floor and threw her down, leaving her breathless. Gunfire rained down around them.

"Have you lost your mind?" Kurtis's voice rang in her ear. "Do you want to become the most beautiful strainer ever?"

The Bedouin's war cries echoed throughout the camp. Lara and Kurtis crawled through the sand and took cover behind a dune. He took the Boran X and adjusted the scope above the barrel. A mercenary went towards them, but Kurtis brought him down with one shoot, then repeated the action twice more on two more mercenaries.

Lara stood.

"Where are you going?"

"Cover me, Kurtis! I'm going to find Putai!" She sprang forward and ran between the tents. Kurtis swore.

The mercenaries rushed towards her, having orders to capture her, but they didn't even touch a single hair of hers. Kurtis, fast and lethal, wiped out one by one from his parapet before they could reach her.

Lara found Putai kneeling behind a Jeep, with pursed lips and gripping her robe, watching the battle. "Lara!" She cried. "Who are these men? What do they want?"

"It's me they want," Lara gasped. "Putai, please, you must leave. Both you and your people. Immediately."

The Bedouin shaman frowned. "My people have never feared an enemy. We'll fight."

"You can't fight them!" Lara kicked up a tuft of sand. "Their weapons are better. This will be a slaughter!"

Then the gunfire stopped. Gunderson gave a curt order from an elevated position on a dune and immediately the mercenaries ceased fire. The Bedouin did the same, waiting for the parley.

Gunderson's booming voice was heard throughout the camp.

"Nomads! Workers! We're not interested in you. We want a woman named Lara Croft. Deliver her to us and you'll have no more deaths to mourn."

"I knew it." Lara muttered quietly.

Putai rose. Black as ebony, she was a beautiful woman, and shone with the pride and dignity of her race. "Come with me, Lara," told to her friend, and walked towards the head of the mercenaries.