Tomb Raider: The Awakening

Chapter 5: The Bamboo Cage

A bucket of water on her face awakened her. She coughed and spat. Almost instantly, a brutal hand grabbed her hair and yanked her up, making her stand on her feet. She couldn't help the cry of pain that escaped. The world spun around her and she would've vomited if not being used to standing firm and balanced when everything else wasn't. Just a second later, that hand abruptly sat her in a chair and let her go. Then she could open her eyes and look around.

At first she struggled to focus her sight, for everything was dark except for a rusty old lamp flashing on a table beside her. Then things were taking shape, but the panorama was really unflattering.

She was sitting in the middle of a sort of cabin made of wood and bamboo without a floor, this being instead the dirt of the jungle. It had been previously swept, though not very well. Her hands were tied behind her back and her ankles were also tied with a kind of flexible tape, nail-biting in their tightness that they cut her blood circulation. Judging by the feeling of numbness in her hands and feet, it had been a while since she was tied with that.

Then she realized they had completely disarmed her - not that she'd expected otherwise. No weapons, her backpack, belt and holsters gone, and worse, her clothes were untidy, and so her underwear.

Of course, she'd been thoroughly checked. Gross.

By this stage, she should've learned to avoid those kinds of situations. But there she was again, stuck in a mess.

She heard a sharp command in Tamil language and a second bucket of viscous dirt-flavored water fell over her face and chest. She spat that crap again.

"That's enough!" She protested. "I'm already clean!"

A male voice laughed in the dark. Whoever he was, he understood English and, of course, had got the sarcasm. The trails of muddy water running down her body made her look everything but clean.

Now that she could see better, she saw three men, three guerrilla soldiers in the tiny cabin. One stood by the door, gun in hand, looking straight ahead, as if that had nothing to do with him. The other was still holding the bucket, which he dropped on the floor without further ado. And then she saw the third sitting a couple of meters in front of her, in another chair, barely distinguishable. He twirled an object in his hand. It was her passport.

"Miss Croft." He muttered. He opened the passport, glanced at her photo, as if to reassure himself, and closed it again. "Yes, you."

His English was tremendously flawed and heavily accented. Lara frowned and leaned forward to try to better distinguish him, but then, the one who'd held the bucket stepped forward, grabbed her shoulder and shoved her brutally back, forcing her to rest on the chair back. Then, without further ado, he twisted the lamp to aim the light directly into her face. Lara blinked and turned her face away, annoyed.

So you're the bad cop here, huh?

Again she heard the voice of him that sat before her.

"Miss Croft." She saw him pulling something from his pocket, and then a couple of frictions. A tiny flame kindled in the dark. It was a lighter. "You very famous, yes? Not smart. Now you in our hands."

She saw him bring the flame to the passport and began to burn it slowly, setting fire to one end. Lara didn't react visibly, though she felt annoyed. It was amazing how complicated things went if you lost your passport in a hostile and alien country, she could tell very well. Just getting a new one or proving she was who she claimed to be meant endless hours of paperwork and boring conversations.

"Done." Said the wretch, dropping the passport in a bowl that was on the table next to the lamp, with something covered with a cloth. The document ended up burning slowly, twisting and blackening, until reduced to ashes. The smell of burnt plastic and cardboard spread throughout the cabin. "Now you no one."