Location: Amazon Rainforest
-July 27th, 2006-
Bugs and other insects fill the humid air with a multitude of sounds. Part of you regrets choosing you explore the Amazon in one of its hottest months, and you question your luck because over the past few days, it hasn't rained nearly the amount it usually does at this time of the year. It's rained enough to leave moisture in the air, though, and create a wet heat that is far worse than the dry heat of any desert you've been in.
Pulling out your water bottle from the side of your travel bag, you open the lid and take several sips. The coolness of the liquid is refreshing in your dry mouth, and you close your eyes for a second to just appreciate it. Once you leave the forest, you're going to chug as much water as you can. You're also going to sleep in a bed and get proper rest for once. A sleeping bag isn't exactly convenient for a good night's sleep.
You put the cap back on your water bottle and slip it away. Might as well keep moving. As long as you didn't go off the path you decided to follow, you should be somewhere in the part of the forest in Ecuador right now. Another day or two of traveling, and you'll be out.
The thought is enough to rejuvenate your energy, and you set off again.
"A German U-Boat?" My eyebrows furrow as I approach the watercraft stranded in the middle of a river in the Amazon Rainforest. "Probably got sent up river during a flood."
I dive into the blue water, a cool sensation surrounding my body as I become fully submerged. I swim against the current, looking for a way onto the boat. 'I could probably scale the rocks and pull myself up onto the ledge' I note while swimming over to the rock wall the boat is stuck in. I find an edge on the wall to grip and reach up with my left hand, pulling myself up. I plant my right foot on part of the rock that isn't slippery, lifting myself the rest of the way out of the water.
I quickly start to climb up, gaining some leverage to stand on, before sliding across the thin edge to where I can jump. 'Here goes nothing' I sigh before jumping off the ledge onto the U-Boat.
I roll when I hit the ground, lessening the impact my body takes. "Now I'm all wet," I mutter, jogging across the top of the boat and over to the bridge of it.
I jump and pull myself on top of it then drop down into the control room for the boat. "Nothing yet," I whisper while turning around and walking down the back corridor.
I step through a vault-shaped opening and walk over to the sealed door. The rusted wheel on the metal door catches my attention and I give it a few tugs, loosening the wheel up, before spinning it and pulling open the door.
I step through the opening and walk over to a hole in the floor in the back of the room. I drop down, glancing around the dark corridor, when a morbid smell fills my nostrils. My nose scrunches up in disgust and I grab my flashlight off my belt and turn it on, the light shining on a decomposed body lying between the open door that splits the corridor. "Disgusting," I scoff and nudge the body, knocking a few coins from its pocket.
I pick one up and examine it, 'weird it's Spanish Gold... I wonder what the Germans were hiding' I frown, tucking the coin in my pocket, before standing up and making my way to the end of the corridor.
I spin the wheel on the sealed door and pull it towards me, opening the heavy door. I shine my flashlight around the dark room, finding that much of it is filled with water. 'Seems I'm swimming' I click my tongue and turn off the flashlight. I place it back on my belt and start to wade part way through the water before swimming the rest of the way over to a ladder.
I climb up the few rungs on the wall, pulling myself into the quarters where everyone on board slept. I saunter further through the U-Boat, when I find a closed curtain in the captain's quarters. The wretched smell of something dead fills my nose again and I sigh, ripping the curtain open to find the captain's dead body.
"That's weird..." I trail off while examining the claw like marks on his body, "no animal could have done this to him, but what did."
My eyes shift from the claw marks to the folded piece of tattered paper on his chest that his hand is covering. I move his hand and take the paper, sitting down on the floor and unfolding it to reveal a map.
A smirk appears on my face and I stand up and place the map on a nearby hutch. "Now what does this lead to," I whisper, reading over the map and glancing over to a larger map of the same thing, but with something written on it.
"UK2642," I mumble, looking at the map on the wall to find hundreds of boxes with letters and numbers on it. My necklace with a pendant of a bird taking flight on it sways in front of my chest as I look at the map, and I tuck it into my shirt. 'UK' I frown and glance over the map until I find the box that contains the two letters at the exact coordinates. 'Hmph seems I found the location of something good' I smirk while pulling out a pen and marking the location on the map I took from the skeleton.
I pick up the two maps off the hutch and turn to leave, when footsteps start coming towards me. "Shit," I curse and press my back up against the wall, grabbing one of my guns from the holster on my thigh.
I take a quick peek around the corner to see the outline of a man walking towards me, mumbling something to himself. I hold my breath, and when he steps into the room I'm in, I swipe his feet out from under him. He falls to the ground and goes to reach for a weapon, but I step on his hand and aim my gun at his head. "You have three seconds to tell me who the-... Nathan?"
The gun in my hand falls to the ground, clattering on the wooden floor, and I back up in shock. Nate groans while sitting up in the floor and holding his head. "Ow! What the hell? Who even-... [Name]?... Is that really you?"
I cover my mouth to stop the inhuman sound that I was about to let out, and I nod my head at his question. A few tears run down my cheeks and Nate stands up and pulls me into a tight embrace, mumbling incomplete sentences, "What are you- where have you-"
"It's been years," I breathe out while resting my head on his chest, cutting his blubbering off.
"Yes it has. Too many," Nate replies and tightens his hold on me. "What are you doing here?"
"I was just exploring and came across this boat. Of course things like this intrigue me, so I just had to explore it," I giggle, my eyes sparkling in happiness when I remember something."Look what I found."
I pull out the two maps I took and unfold them quickly while my friend looks at me with an intrigued twinkle in his eyes. "I don't know what the map leads to, but it has to be something," I explain while showing him the map.
"The missing page!" Nate exclaims in shock.
"The what now?"
"It's the missing page from my journal. It seems that Drake and the Germans were after the same treasure," Nate explains with a grin.
"Drake? As in Sir Francis Drake? The same Drake you think you're related to?" I ask, and he nods his head.
Nate fiddles with something on his belt and I watch as he brings out a walkie-talkie. "Sully. I found the missing page to the book."
I cross my arms, offended by his statement, and a scowl comes to my face. "You found it?! Nate, you may be a friend of mine but give me credit," I scold him, and his face becomes apologetic.
"Sorry. I meant [Name] found the missing piece of the map."
"Wait, [Name]?! As in [Name] [L/Name]?" Sully asks through the radio.
"The one and only! Hey, Sully!" I call out with a smile.
"[Name], where the hell have you been these past few years?! You haven't contacted us in so long," Sully says before sighing, "anyway, Nate, this better not lead us on another wild goose-chase or-" the line on Sully's end cuts out randomly.
"Or what?" Nate asks into the radio but doesn't receive a response.
"This isn't good," I say, and he nods in agreement.
We quickly leave the captain's quarters, and Nate pushes open the small door, hitting one of the missiles. "Uh oh... that's also probably not good," he says with a gulp.
"Ya think?! Come on, before we both die." I grab his hand and pull him over to the launch port in the wall. I kick it open and we swim out of the boat and back to land.
Nate and I move to pull ourselves out of the water, when two hands extend out towards us. We both look up to be met with an old guy and a guard holding an assault rifle.
"Hello," the old man - whom I recognize - says, and we ignore his and the other guy's hands and pull ourselves out of the water.
"Hey! Get the fuck off me!" I growl as the guy with the assault rifle places his hands on my thighs. He snatches my two pistols from their holsters, but his hands linger a bit longer than I prefer.
"Leave her the fuck alone." Nate goes to yank the guy away from me but the other man, Gabriel, holds him back. He takes Nathan's gun from him while my friend turns his attention to Sully, who's surrounded by men with guns "Friends of yours, Sully?"
"I'm Gabriel Roman," the old guy introduces himself, his English accent prominent when he speaks.
"Yeah, I know who you are, asshole," Nate scoffs and rolls his eyes, moving closer to me and taking a protective stance.
"Manners, young man. This is just business," Gabriel tells my friend before one of the guards pushes him over to Sully. Roman turns his attention towards me and chuckles before saying, "And, Miss [L/Name], I didn't know you were working with Mr. Drake."
"Who I'm working with is none of your damn business." One of the guards hits me with the butt of his gun and I stumble over to Nate and Sully, both stopping me from falling. "Not even ten minutes after running into you two again, and we're already being held at gun point," I grumble while crossing my arms.
"Does it really surprise you?" Sully asks, and I chuckle.
"No. Not really."
"All three of you, hands up," one of the mercenaries demands, and we raise our hands.
"See, your friend owes me money, Mr. Drake. A lot of money. So when he told me that you two were onto something big, 'the find of a lifetime' he called it. Well, I was certainly intrigued," Roman explains with a faint smirk. Nate tilts his head towards Sully and gives him the 'seriously' look. "But he's made grand promises before. Haven't you, Victor?" Gabe walks over to Sully with a frown. "And here we are again. Another fool's errand."
Nate scoffs and looks down at me. "Sheesh, does he always go on like this?"
"He wouldn't be able to get straight to the point if you bribed him with the grandest treasure of all time." I roll my eyes, making Nate chuckle.
"Shut up," one of the mercenaries hits Nathan and me with the butt of the gun.
"Take it easy, Navarro," Gabe says, and I click my tongue and glare at Navarro. Gabe looks away from his partner and back at Nate and me. "So, I'm afraid the time is up. Unless, of course, you found something in there, Mr. Drake. Or maybe you did, Ms. [L/Name]. Something that might compensate for all this trouble."
"He's fooling with you two. They heard everything. Just give 'em the map," Sully tells us, and Nate looks at me. I sigh and reach into my back pocket, taking out the map and holding it up, letting it dangle from my fingers.
"What does a Kriegsmarine map have to do with El Dorado?" Navarro asks while taking the map out of my hands and handing it to Roman.
"El Dorado?" I raise an eyebrow while glancing at Nate. "You owe me some explaining once we're out of here."
"That's if we get out of here," Nate murmurs, and I eye him.
"What? You think this is a coincidence? The Germans were after the same treasure- that map has something to do with it. So, are we square?" Sully asks Gabe.
"For now. But just in case you need a reminder..." Roman says and pulls out his gun, aiming it at me.
"Hey, come on, leave her out of it. She's not even supposed to be apart of this," Sully tells him, and Nate steps in front of me protectively.
"It's fine you two," I say while moving out from behind my friend.
"She doesn't hold any importance to this treasure and I think it's about time I returned the favor from a few years ago," Roman says while cocking the gun.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa- C'mon, Roman, just let her-" Sully starts, when Gabe turns towards him and shoots.
"Sully!!" Nate and I shout as he clutches his chest and falls to the ground.
"You asshole!" I glare at Gabriel, quickly reaching for a daggers I keep strapped in the sheaths on my inner thighs. I'm interrupted when the German U-boat behind us explodes and the force knocks us back. I land beside Nate and we scramble onto our feet, looking at Sully who is face down in the grass.
"We've got to go," Nate says and grabs my hand, pulling me off into the forest.
"Stop them!" Roman exclaims from behind us.
"Down here," I say while letting go of Nate's hand and jumping off ledge. He follows me down and we run along the path, avoiding the gunshots that aim for us. One of Roman's men runs towards us and I duck down and swipe his legs out from under him, making him fall and crack his head open on one of the rock walls. We keep running through the forest path when the gun shots fade away.
"I think we lost them. At least for a bit," Nate pants as we lean against a stone wall of a cliff. He suddenly gets grabbed but spins out of the persons hold. I react quickly and pull out both my daggers, only to stop when I see the back of a blonde woman ready to punch Nate. I cock an eyebrow when she punches him in the face.
"That's for leaving me at the dock," she scowls, and I gasp at the familiar voice.
"ELENA!" I cry out with a smile.
She turns to face me, her eyes going from confused to happy within seconds. "[Name]? Oh, my god, it's been a while," she laughs and we exchange a hug.
Nate rubs his face where he was punched and sends Elena a pissed off look. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Listen, I'm a good enough reporter to follow a couple of no-luck tomb robbers!" she growls, glaring right at him.
My eyes widen when footsteps start heading our way, and I clamp my hand over Elena's mouth to silence her. All of us press our backs against the stone wall as some of Roman's men run past, calling out orders to search for us.
Once they're gone, we push away from the wall, and I uncover Elena's mouth while Nate turns to face her, "It was two tomb robbers, and it's still only two because Sully is dead."
"What?" she asks in shock.
"He's right, and we're going to be next if we don't get out of here," I say while strapping my daggers back on me. Elena looks at me and I sling my arm around her shoulder with a grin. "We are totally hanging out after all of this is over."
"Wouldn't want to miss it; you're practically my sister," she smiles, and we fist-bump.
"I'm glad you two want to catch up and all, but please tell us you have a gun, Elena. Roman took ours," Nate says hurriedly while looking past the wall every now and then, checking for mercenaries.
"Of course. But I only have one extra," she says, and Nate frowns.
"It's fine, Nate. I have a camp at the top of this cliff actually, and my bag and weapons should still be up there," I reassure him, and he looks up the wall.
"I'll boost you up," he says while crouching down and placing his hands on his knee.
I step onto his hand and he tosses me into the air. I grab onto one of the ridges on the wall and scale the rest of the way up until I'm at the top. I stand up and jog over to my camp and grab my backpack, bow and quiver of arrows, and my two spare pistols I keep around. Once I have everything strapped on me, I run over to the edge of the cliff.
"I'll catch you," Nate tells me, and I jump down, landing in his arms.
"Thanks, Nate," I smile, and he blushes while setting me on my feet.
"No problem."
"Now, come on," I say, cocking both of my pistols and running out from behind the wall. I shoot one of the mercenaries in the head and slide into cover behind a knocked over stone pillar.
Nathan and Elena crouch down beside me, and I peek out over our cover to see three men run into the collapsing stone room.
"Nate," I whisper, sending a look to him.
He nods, and I peek to the side and shoot the mercenary on the left side of the room twice. Nate takes out the one on our right, and I take out the last man, standing in a hallway.
"Come on," I say while running out from behind cover. I pick up some ammo off the mercenaries, when I find an AK-47 on one of them. "Nate, here." I toss him the gun.
"What about you?" he asks, and I smirk.
"I'll get one from the next guy we kill."
"He always seems to be getting shot at, but you too?" Elena asks me, and I glance over my shoulder at her while running down the stone corridor.
"It's pretty common to get shot out in our line of work, especially if you're partnering with Nathan," I tell her before facing ahead again. "Plus, they're shooting at you too."
I lead my friends down the corridor to the right and over to a stone wall with ledges on it. We scale the wall, and I peek my head up just as a bullet whizzes past me and hits the wall behind me. I duck back down and secure myself on the wall with one arm, using my other arm with the gun to blindly shoot. I miss my first two shots, but the sound of a guy groaning tells me the third bullet hit its mark. I peek back over the wall to see the mercenary dead, before pulling myself onto the floor above.
"Up here!" I shout while taking his AK-47 and strapping it beside my bow.
"Don't let them get past!" two mercenaries announce from the stairs we need to go down. Elena stays pressed up against a nearby wall while Nate and I roll to cover behind two pillars.
"It's nice to be with you again," I call over to him while peeking out and shooting at one of the mercenaries, killing him with a few shots.
"Too bad we're getting shot at," he laughs and shoots at the other man, before looking at me. "You know, once this is all over we should see a movie and catch up or something."
"Is the Nathan Drake asking me on a date?"
My friend smiles sheepishly and kills the other man before walking over to me and hoisting me onto my feet. "Maybe I am," he smirks while walking backwards with his arms outstretched in the 'so what' motion, making me laugh.
"Are we going to get out of here?" Elena ask while coming out from behind the wall, looking between Nate and me in amusement.
"Yeah, let's go," Nate tells her, and we start running down the stairs, when a bullet whizzes past us.
I shoot at a mercenary kneeling on the ground, one of my bullets hitting his chest and the other his head. I quickly reload my gun before jumping across the stone beams over a long drop below.
"Stay close to us," Nate tells Elena while killing another mercenary that runs onto one of the beams. We collect more ammo and make it to the other side that the mercenaries came through.
"What the hell is this place anyway?" Elena asks while Nate and I run side by side through the temple-like structure.
"Long story; tell you later," Nate says as we run into a dark room with areas to hide behind.
I climb up on one of the broken pillars in the dark and pull out my bow and a few arrows, surveying the area around me. 'One... two... three' I pull out three arrows for each mercenary I see.
I quickly shoot each arrow at the head of the mercenaries before placing my bow away and running up the stairs. "Nice shots," Nate compliments me when I join him and Elena behind a knocked over pillar.
"Thanks," I chuckle as we leave our cover.
I collect my arrows from the mercenaries bodies before grabbing the ammo off them as well. We run up another set of steps, when a mercenary at the top throws a grenade at us.
"No!" Elena shouts, and my eyes widen. I quickly pick up the explosive and throw it back at the man just in time. The bomb lands beside him and goes off, killing him and knocking some of the stone off the wall. The dust settles from the explosion, and Elena looks at us. "You both don't seem to lead dull lives."
"You get used to it, but keep your head down," Nate tells her as we continue along the way, heading into an area with shin-deep water.
"There's a ladder," I point out while jogging over to it. I grab the first rung and make my way up, when I hear someone get smacked from beneath me. I glance down with a raised eyebrow to see Nathan rubbing his arm and Elena looking at him with an eye twitch. A chuckle falls from my lips when I realize why she smacked him. "Thanks, Elena!"
"No problem," she responds before scolding Nate for staring at my ass and how it wasn't appropriate.
'Oh, Nate...' I shake my head, and he climbs up the ladder next and stands beside me while I stare at him in amusement.
"Hey! Don't act like I'm the only one who's ever done it," he raises his hands defensively while I shake my head, laughing slightly.
"Oh no, I know. You, Sam, Harry, and Rafe are just a few names that I can think of that always seemed to want me to go ahead when it wasn't dangerous, and believe me- I know why," I tell him, and his face falls.
Elena reaches the top of the ladder a few seconds later, and I lead the two into the next room. "They're over here!" one of Roman's men shouts, and we start getting shot at.
I slide into cover behind a stone block, and Elena takes cover beside me while Nate goes behind a brazier. Him and I start to exchange fire with two mercenaries, and Elena keeps her head down, so she doesn't get shot.
We kill the two men, and I tap Elena's shoulder. "Come on, they're dead," I state, and Nate leads us through the path to a landing that looks over the ground below us. Mercenaries saunter around below us, and I pull out my bow in annoyance. "I had a gut feeling I should've brought my sniper rifle, and I didn't listen to it."
Nate shoots his pistol at one of the men, and I line up my arrow with the head of the other. I take into account how fast he's running and in which direction before firing the arrow. The shot lands directly in his head at the same time as Nate's bullet kills the other guy.
"Back this way!" Nate calls out, and we run down a collapsed pillar, onto the floor the dead mercenaries are on.
I collect my arrow and some more ammo before we move to run down the stairs. Gunshots start going off, and I move out of the way of a bullet. "Dammit," I curse while pulling out my pistols and peeking over the stone half-wall I'm behind.
Elena crouches down beside me, pulling out her own pistol. We nod to each other and shoot at the two mercenaries a few meters ahead of us, while Nate kills the ones on a set of broken stairs further back, a rope dangling down from the steps.
"You've got a pretty good shot. You been practicing?" I compliment the woman beside me after all the mercenaries are dead.
"Thanks, and no," Elena laughs slightly, and Nate joins us before we run over to the set of broken stairs. I grab onto the rope and plant my feet on the stone wall, climbing up to the stairs. Nate and Elena follow me up, and we run up some stairs and back outside.
"Over here!" more of Roman's men shout, and I dodge a bullet that was heading for my chest.
Nate takes cover behind the pillar that I'm behind while Elena goes to another pillar. "You have," I glance at Nate before shooting two of the mercenaries, "a lot of explaining to do."
"I know," Nate sighs and takes out two more mercenaries while Elena takes out the last.
"Over here!" my blonde friend says while running ahead of us to a red truck covered in leaves. We move the leaves off her truck. and she looks at us. "You two always been this popular?"
"Well, I do seem to attract the scum of the earth," Nate responds, and I chuckle.
"I just have a lot of enemies. I didn't want you to know that though," I tell her, and Nate shakes his head with a slight grin.
"[Name], you still remember what the map said, right?" he asks me, and I nod while climbing into the bed of the truck.
"Yeah! UK2642," I recite, and he looks back at me while trying to start up the truck.
"Good, don't forget that."
"I won't," I say while showing him the map from his journal that I wrote the coordinates down on.
"What is it?" Elena asks from beside Nate, and I hand her the map.
"It's Kriegsmarine coordinates," I tell her when Nate groans.
"I think I know where the Spanish took El Dorado," he states while hitting the steering wheel since the truck won't start.
"El Dorado?" Elena questions while looking between us.
"The problem is- so do the assholes who killed Sully," I tell her while Nate continues growing frustrated with the truck.
"If the Spanish found the treasure, they had to've moved it there, to that island. And Drake followed them," he explains to her while pointing at the island on the map.
"Well, what are we waiting for? I'll get the story, and you get... whatever it is you two are after," Elena says with a smile while hitting both of us with the map.
I chuckle and Nate finally gets the truck to start. "Hey, this isn't going to be a vacation, you know?" he reminds her, and she nods.
"I can take care of myself. Besides you owe me one for leaving me at that dock," she tells him.
"Dick move, Nate," I scold him while refilling my guns's magazines with ammo.
"You would've done it, too, [Name]," he looks at me in the rear view mirror.
"You don't know that."
"Oh believe me. I do."
~
"We're on the trail of the lost treasure of El Dorado, and it's brought us here- to this tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean," Elena states while recording the ocean with her camera from the plane.
"Let's get a closer look," Nate says, and I poke my head up by the controls.
"And hope we're the first ones here," I add on.
"Will we discover the ruins of a forgotten colony and a fortune in Spanish gold? Or does the island have darker secrets in store for us?" Elena asks ominously while turning the camera towards herself. She turns it off and places it on her lap before looking at us. "That should keep 'em from changing the channel."
I chuckle when an explosion occurs, making the plane shake. The force of the explosion causes me to stumble forward, and Nate grabs me and stops me from falling.
"What the hell was that?" Elena questions nervously.
"Anti-aircraft fire," I mutter as our plane, technically Sully's plane, gets shot at.
"This is so uncool!" Nate shouts, and Elena pulls out her camera and films the burning jet.
"Put the fucking camera away!" Nate and I shout, stressing out about the situation.
"We need to bail out," he tells us, letting me go. I stumble to the back of the plane, looking for emergency evacuation items.
"I found three parachutes! Here!" I toss them each one. "Let's just hope they still work."
"Guess we'll find out in a few seconds," Nate says, and I look at Elena who has her parachute pack on.
"Go, Elena, get out of here," I tell her, and she nods before going over to the door of the plane her camera in hand.
"See you on the ground," she says unsurely before jumping out.
"[Name], you need to go to," Nate tells me, his blue eyes filling with worry.
"I'm not leaving without you, Nathan. We got into this mess together, we're getting out of it together," I respond while putting on my own parachute.
"Then we need to get out of here now," he says while getting out of the pilot's seat and putting on his own parachute. He looks at me and takes my left hand with his right one. "You ready, [Name]?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," I murmur before he pulls me towards the exit and jumps out.
We start falling through the sky and he lets go of my hand so we can both pull the cord on our packs. Our parachutes shoot out, and my eyes widen when I spot a hole in the fabric of Nate's parachute.
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" he shouts, falling down faster and landing in a tree.
I direct my parachute down to the area he landed in, my feet hitting the grassy ground. I take the pack of my back, tossing it to the side before jogging over to the tree my friend is dangling in. A snicker escapes my mouth at his misfortune, and he scowls slightly.
"You seem to be in quite the predicament," I smirk while placing my hands on my hips.
"Oh, ha ha," he laughs sarcastically while undoing his parachute straps and falling to the ground.
"So... we're in the middle of nowhere," I say while looking around our surroundings.
"And there's strangers trying to kill us; we left the map on the burning plane; Elena's missing, most likely dead. Just great. What a great start, we're off to," Nate grumbles to himself.
We run over to a moss-covered stone ledge and jump up, pulling ourselves up it before running over to a gate. Nate goes to shoot the lock, but I stop him and pull out a lockpick and tension wrench.
He sends me a weird look, and I chuckle, "Getting captured teaches you some things." I pick the padlock until it opens. I take it off and toss it to the side before pushing the rusted loose gates open.
We run through the open gates and make our way to the left. "So how has life been treating you over these past six years?" I ask while jumping off a ledge onto the dirt below.
"The usual. Search for treasure, get shot at, don't find half the shit I was looking for," Nate says, and I smile.
"I made some big scores, so I'm very well set. Hell, I could easily retire by now, but that would be boring."
"Must be nice, but when did you stop helping Rafe? You and him were extremely close?" he asks while we wade through the pond of water, over to some rocks.
"I left a few months after you did. He was way too obsessed with that treasure and it really pissed me off when he started pushing me away. He's practically lusting for it and I wasn't going to sit around and be ignored or yelled at all the time," I explain while we climb onto the rocks. We make it to the landing up top, and I shake my head. "I know you never liked him, Nate. You thought he was a rich asshole, which he is, but he was only ever trying to get people to see him for someone who didn't only inherit his parents wealth and business. The problem is- he took it too far."
Nate's gaze burns into me, and I sigh before running along the path and down a grassy hill to where a stream flows. He joins me, and we run through the water, climbing some rocks before looking around.
"Over here," I say while taking a running jump. I grab the edge of a another rock and pull myself up, Nate following after me. We walk across a fallen down tree branch that connects to another rocky landing, when we start getting shot at. "Oh, For fucks sake..."
"How many guys does Roman have?" Nate asks while we duck into cover and shoot at three of the mercenaries.
"Who even knows." I aim at one of the men and land a headshot before quickly dodging a bullet from one of the other men.
We take out the last two guys and walk across another knocked over tree to where the mercenaries bodies are. We collect the leftover ammo from them, and I climb up the vine on the rock wall first.
Someone shoots at me and I dive for cover, peeking out to the side and shooting the mercenary in the chest twice. "You got grazed," Nate says while joining me. He rubs his thumb over the graze on my forehead, and I smile reassuringly.
"I'm fine, Nate. I've had worse," I whisper, and we move forward, Nathan taking out two more of the mercenaries.
We jog down the grassy path and over to a small ledge, jumping onto it and pulling ourselves up to the landing where we see smoke filling the sky from where the plane crashed. "There's more mercenaries," I whisper while pulling out both of my daggers. "Cover me, Nate."
I jump down to the ground with a few mercenaries patrolling around, quickly pressing my back up against the wall one of the men are walking towards. Once he's close enough, I cover his mouth and slit his throat. I pull his body behind the wall and look up at Nate who nods his head in the direction of the next mercenary.
I quietly walk up behind him and slit his throat, dragging him behind a small half-wall. One more mercenary leaning on an archway pillar catches my attention, and I grab a rock and toss it to my left. He pushes off the stone pillar and slowly starts to walk towards where I threw the rock, when I attack. I tackle him to the ground and push his gun away from him before stabbing one of my knives through his throat.
"I see her!" a mercenary coming from the forest shouts, and multiple gun shots come at me.
I roll to cover and put my daggers away, pulling out both of my pistols. Nate joins my side, and we work together and kill the three men that were coming from the forest. We start getting shot at from above and a grenade is thrown down at us. Nate grabs it and tosses it back at them, killing the ones on the high ground.
Three more men run and jump onto the stone arches before landing on the ground and shooting at us. I shoot two of them in the head with my pistols, and Nate kills the last one with two body shots. "Anymore?" I ask while looking around.
"I think we're good," Nate says, and we climb up the pillars of one of the broken arches. We jump onto the landing and a few shots come through the gate we need to go through.
"Hold on," I tell Nate while grabbing a grenade off the wooden box beside me. I pull the pin and throw it through the hole in the wall.
"Grenade!" some of the mercenaries shout, when the explosion goes off.
I nod to Nate and he kicks the gate in and immediately shoots one of the mercenaries in the head. "The others seem to have died from the explosion," I smirk while shooting a guy who was going to drop down from the ledge.
"They're over here!" two voices shout, and I groan and take cover behind a wall.
Nate kills the two mercenaries that were running for us while I reload my guns. A man on the other side of the wall throws a grenade, and I toss it back at him, causing it to hit him and explode.
We run under the archway in the wall and take cover behind some stones when more mercenaries start firing at us. A guy with a shotgun starts charging us and I blindly fire, smirking when I hear him groan, a signal that my bullets made contact. Nate and I peek out from behind the wall and take the last three men down with our pistols before collecting ammo from their bodies.
"So what's the chance that Elena is still alive?" Nate asks me and I hum.
"Well she can handle herself, but not against this many mercenaries. Let's just hope they didn't find her," I say while climbing up a wall and grabbing a silver ring with a pattern on it.
Nate joins me at the top of the wall and we jump across to a stone landing. I jump from that landing and grab onto part of a broken wall, pulling myself up onto the next landing. Nate follows me as we jump landing to landing, when we reach the stone ledge above the gate. We drop down and run down a grassy hill, dropping down into the grass again.
"There's more guys... unbelievable," Nate shakes his head and we shoot them before they have a chance to react.
We kill the first three mercenaries without getting shot at when three more start running at us. The one with the AK starts firing like crazy and I press my back up against a pillar to avoid the bullets. I hear the guy start to reload and I peek out and shoot him in the head.
Nate kills the last two of the mercenaries and we stand up and start making our way through the path to where a waterfall pours into a lake that flows into another waterfall. "There's no way we can make that jump," Nate sighs and we look around.
"Over here," I tell him while walking over to my right and jumping onto a boulder. I jump from there and grab onto a stone ledge, planting my feet firmly on the rock wall, so I won't slip.
Nate stays a jump behind me at all times so the rocks don't crumble under our weight. "Just like old times," I laugh while sliding across the ledge and jumping to another one.
Nate chuckles and nods his head in agreement, "You're definitely right."
I jump onto a small ledge that starts to crumble when I grab it. I quickly jump off it and land on a stone landing, Nate landing beside me a few seconds later. "Up here," I say while scaling the rocks and sliding across.
I reach towards the boulder in the middle of the water by the water fall, before pushing off the rock. I land on the boulder and stand up, running and jumping to the next one. Nate continues to follow me and when we jump onto the broken stone bridge, we start getting shot at again.
Nate and I kill two mercenaries, before jumping onto some boulders in the water that head back to the waterfall. I jump again and grab the stone ledge on the wall where the waterfall pours down, quickly but carefully climbing around the wall. I jump onto another boulder and Nate starts taking the path on the wall when the stone ledges start to crumble.
"Nate!" I cry out and he jumps for the rock I'm on. I lay down on my stomach and grip the edge with one hand while holding out the other. Nate's hand catches mine and he dangles over the rushing water. "I got you," I tell him while pulling him up to the edge of the rocks.
He pulls himself up the rest of the way and I fall backwards on the ground. "That... was close," he pants while helping me up.
"Someone's gained some weight," I poke his abs and he chuckles. "Most of it muscle it seems," I add on and we jump onto another boulder, before jumping onto the other part of the broken bridge.
We look around the bridge for another way to go when I spot a rock landing on the waterfall below us. We exchange looks before jumping on it. "Woah!" we both shout as the rock starts to crumble below us.
The two of us run onto another stone landing as ours falls, and I jump onto the stone ledge of a broken pillar immediately after. The sound of car tires screeching joins the sound of rushing water and gun shots appear again.
I jump and grab the ledge of the next pillar so Nate can take the one I'm on, before poking my head above it. I spot a truck with a mercenary and an explosive barrel in it and I shoot the barrel. It explodes, killing the mercenary and causing the truck to fall off the broken bridge and land between the pillar I'm on and the stone landing we need to go to.
I pull myself up onto the top of the pillar and drop down onto the truck, making my way to the stone pillar. I scale the side of it and pull myself up, giving Nate a hand as he reaches the landing I'm on.
"That was convenient," he chuckles and we look back just in time to see the truck get loose and the pillars we were originally on, fall down the waterfall.
"Very convenient, indeed," I agree before we make our way up the small waterfalls.
Two mercenaries shoot at us from a larger waterfall and we shoot them off it, into the water. "This way," Nate says and we run through the water to a path on our right.
We make our way up to a stone wall, jumping and pulling ourselves up to the path above. I run ahead when I spot something shiny in a small drop below us. I go down and pick up a silver Inca vessel, placing it in my bag with the other treasure I found.
"You coming?" Nate asks with a smile while holding out his hand for me. I take it and he pulls me off the ground and onto the path we're continuing on.
"Here's a vine," I say while grabbing it and climbing up the stone wall to another vine. I climb the rest of the way up and stare at the tail end of our crashed plane, stuck in the trees.
"Oh, man..." Nate trails off and we look to it right to find the other half of the plane with three mercenaries below it and one climbing down a rope out of it.
"Dammit," I whisper and we look at each other with a deep frown.
A/N
These chapters are going to be very long by the way, so just a heads up.
~Michaela