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The Wolf's Snare	By : JustS Category: +S through Z > Tomb Raider (all) > Tomb Raider (all) Views: 92564 -:- Recommendations : 5 -:- Currently Reading : 9
Disclaimer: I do not own Tomb Raider or Lara Croft. I do not make money from this.

Chapter List
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THIS IS PATH A OF THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER
This is the penultimate chapter, and the final non-smut one. More info at the official AFF forum thread: http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/56394-the-wolfs-snare-feedback-review-replies-notes-and-crazy-ramblings/page-8
Head back to chapter six for an explanation of the A and B path system.
Chapter 15(A) - Rise of the Hunter
Lara made her first kill without incident. Her target was the forward scout taking up the same vantage point that she remembered from her first bandit encounter. Having quietly climbed a tree several metres from her mark she'd managed to find a sturdy position standing on two of its uppermost branches. Lara's upper body was visible above the forest canopy, though she made sure her target wasn't looking in her direction. In the dimming sunlight she nocked an arrow and took aim at the back of his head.
He barely made any noise when struck, though his body made a loud thud as it crashed to the forest floor below. Either the arrowhead through his skull or the force of the fall made quick work of him. Lara quickly but carefully climbed down from her tree and averted her eyes as she wrenched the precious arrow from her fallen foe's punctured cranium. She couldn't bear to search his lifeless and broken body for any useful items and swiftly moved on.
She stalked through the forest, flanking the large camp area and following the ascending ridge line. A second scout was always positioned up here, apparently to keep an eye out on the base about 20 feet below him. Unfortunately for this guy, he was too concerned with watching over the base and not attentive enough to the forest behind him. Silently approaching him from the rear, Lara clocked him hard in the back of the head with the solid butt of her hunting knife. Knocked out cold, he collapsed to the ground dangerously close to the ridge. Though it would be a cleaner kill to let him fall and die while unconscious, Lara didn't want the sound of his heavy body to alert the others to what was going on. She dragged his limp body away from the precipice before she got down on her knees and took him in a sleeper hold. After a painfully long amount of time with her arm wrenched around his neck, she finally felt his body grow completely still. She pushed his fresh corpse off of her, only now realising that he had been carrying an automatic rifle on a shoulder strap. She took its black metal and wooden body in hers hands, briefly studying it in the dimming sunlight. She figured it was Russian in origin, having seen it or something similar used in dozens of action movie gun battles. Lara felt her spirits lifting a little, realising that this acquisition gave her a substantial increase in firepower. She took hold of the handle and fore-grip in the proper manner, looking down the sight to get a feel for the gun. She made a point to test out what she speculated was the safety lever before locking it back in place.
Slinging the strapped weapon over her free shoulder, Lara shuffled close to the edge of the ridge and scoped out the area below. The base was lit up by a camp fire in the centre and two torches held atop crude wooden posts that had been driven into the ground. These light sources were placed fairly evenly throughout but they left plenty of pockets of darkness about the site, particularly between the backs of the shacks and the curving ridge wall. Lara planned to use said shadows to sneak her way around.
She quickly but quietly descended the ridge in the direction that she'd come. However, instead of following it all the way down to the camp's level, she instead got about two thirds of the way there and chose to make the short 6 foot climb down the rock face. Upon reaching the ground she was now completely invisible in an unlit corner of the camp. She crouched down and carefully slunk towards the nearest wooden shack, pressing herself upon its rear wall.
This secluded and dark place should have been comforting for Lara but it instead had the opposite effect on her. The suspense of hiding mere metres from several of the unwitting but dangerous bandits almost overwhelmed her. She knew all too well that one ill-judged move now could easily and swiftly result in her death, or something worse. She took some deep breathes as quietly as she could, trying to calm herself and think about the next best course of action. She proceeded to slowly peek her head around the right corner of the shack, seeing a partial view of the centre of the camp. Two of the bandits were lazing around the central fire, looking into the flames and occasionally muttering to each other. Both equipped in worn and ragged clothes, one was armed with a wooden club and the other with some sort of stone knife, both of which had been crudely constructed. Neither of the pair were currently facing Lara's direction, not that they would have been able to spot her in the darkness.
Her initial impulse was to storm the centre of the camp with her newly acquired automatic rifle, raining hell on everything that moved until there was nothing left that could move. Though it would be the quickest and least messy way to get the deed done, she quickly dismissed the idea. The two men around the camp fire would be easy targets but she wasn't sure where the other three bandits were located. There was a strong chance that while she was blasting the first pair, any one of the other three could come upon her with a weapon. In short, this plan was reckless.
Unless she was going to attempt to stealth kill them all one at a time – which was a feat probably only achievable by the best trained assassins and special forces operatives - she needed a way to get them all together in one spot. She needed some sort of distraction.
Her mind raced as she considered all of her gear, trying to string together a scenario that would result in the bandits' attentions being diverted away from her current position. Try as she might, no feasible ideas were coming to her. Right now, she wished she had somehow trained some of the wolves to implement a tactical hit and run job.
She tried to think about useful items that might be in the base, then she struck upon the idea of using the open fires to her advantage. The camp fire was a no-go, what with it being in the middle of the base and minded by two bandits. She slid along the shack's back wall and carefully looked around its other corner. The two post-mounted torches stood either said of the entrance to the middle shack, still out in the open but less central than the main fire. With the two bandits' backs to the area, Lara liked the odds of her being able to quietly slink out to the nearest torch. However, should she remove one of the torches one of said men might notice that one-third of the base's light sources was moving away by itself. She then hit on the idea of lighting a different object from the torch's flames. She reached to her back, taking hold of three arrows and pulling them from her quiver. The long wooden shafts of the bow ammunition seemed perfect for the task at hand.
Lara took a deep breath and clutched the three arrows tightly in her grip. Keeping crouched down, she then proceeded to round the left corner of the shack and move towards the nearest torch. Her body was quivering thanks to a new rush of adrenaline, which was making the simple act of silently sneaking harder than it ought to be. She looked to her right as she made it to the far corner of the shack, relieved that the two men around the camp fire still had their backs to her position. She took the four or five necessary steps out into the open, now fully lit up by the multiple light sources of the base. Keeping the rest of her body low and still, she reached up and held the rear ends of the arrows in the torch's flames. The few seconds it took for their ends to catch fire were some of longest, most pulse-pounding Lara had ever experienced. Finally, she carefully retracted her arm and slowly turned and began to slink back the way she came. She made it back behind the shack's side and then its rear wall, now completely out of sight once again.
Comparatively large flames were now dancing upon the ends of the arrows, illuminating both Lara and this once shadowy nook of the camp. Praying that the shack was as flammable as it looked, she held the fiery tips to the right lower corner of the crude wooden structure. At first it didn't look like it wanted to catch, with its roughly hewn planks only showing signs of light scorching. However, after a few seconds of persistence a flame finally formed on its surface. The brunette turned and took her mini torches to the other corner of the building, doing the same. She then stood and reached up to the roofing. Seemingly made from a weave of dried grass, the edge of it quickly lit up. Finally, Lara poked the three arrows all the way through gaps in the shack's wall, hoping that whatever was inside was highly flammable.
With her plan now in motion, Lara crept away from the scene of the crime. Keeping low to the ground, she swiftly and silently circled around the back of the shacks, hoping that none of the bandits happened to be lurking here in the shadows. She made it to the rear of the opposite building, giving her a perfect view of both the two bandits around the camp fire and the flaming hut. Evidence of smoke was now apparent from the back of said building, though you had to really be paying attention to the dimly lit structure to notice it. Lara could only watch from her hiding place, hoping that it would go up in a dramatic a way as possible.
The smoke and the flames gradually grew. One plus side to the agonisingly slow process was that it might be so subtle that the bandits wouldn't notice the fire until it was large and out of control, making for a far more effective distraction. Due perhaps to the pre-existing illumination and burning smells from the camp fire and torches, the men did not notice the blaze until it had engulfed half of the small building. It was almost comedic, watching the two around the camp fire sitting obliviously while orange flames and billowing black smoke poured from the structure mere metres beside them.
Finally, one of the two noticed the disturbance out of the corner of his eye. He notified his buddy with a surprised curse word and both quickly got to their feet and faced the blazing building. Lara slipped her right hand down to the handle of the rifle at her side, resting her index finger on the trigger. One of the two men shouted out for Helmsley as they stood panicked and inert watching the billowing blaze. Their leader emerged from the shack that Lara was crouched behind and shouted an expletive across the camp.
'How the fuck did this happen?!' He then screamed.
He proceeded to storm across small clearing toward the two men. A third gang member followed him out, this one armed with a bow and arrows. Helmsley listened to the first pair's bewildered response than began shouting insults and orders at them.
Lara realised that this was it. They were all out in the open, standing next to each other. Her left hand swiftly unlatched the safety and then held the fore-grip of her rifle. She started to run down the side of the shack towards the centre of the camp, raising up the weapon as she went. With her approached unnoticed, she stopped just clear of the structure in order to get an open shot of her targets. In a flash, she looked down the rifle's sights, pointing it right in the middle of the four men, and pulled the trigger. The weapon's thunderous noise and violent kickback momentarily threw her off but she quickly lowered her aim a little, squeezing the trigger again and firmly holding it down.
The next few moments was an almost surreal haze for Lara. Her body was flooded with adrenaline, making her sight seem sharper and more detailed, and giving her movements more finesse. The deafening, repeating gunfire stung her hearing while her arms and right shoulder took the brunt of the kickback. She let out prolonged roar as she launched the deadly stream of bullets, her voice unleashing all of her fear, aggression and horror. She watched and heard the sickening impacts as the four men's fleshy bodies were riddled and downed within seconds. She angled her barrel towards them as they crumpled to the dirt, continuing to wildly unload into them.
Her weapon abruptly ceased operating, having run through its clip. She quickly released and then squeezed its trigger one more time, just in case it had something left to give, but nothing happened. The bloodied and ravaged bodies lay completely silent and still. Besides the various fires, there was nothing in the camp still moving. Lara stood stiff and motionless, her muscles trembling, her ears ringing and her throat raw from her battle cry. The ordeal was over.
Her intense hunting and survival instincts suddenly fell away, allowing the weight and realisation of the moment hit her all at once. She limply fell to her knees as both relief and horror washed over her in equal measures. It was a horrendous thing that she'd just done, but she'd had to do it. Somehow, she almost felt bad for doing it so well, taking those men's lives with such a ruthless efficiency that they didn't even have a chance to fight back. She took some kind of comfort from the fact that she had killed them somewhat quickly and painlessly.
Lara was suddenly brought out of her ambivalent malaise, sensing that something was wrong. Hearing something approaching from her left, she turned her head to see. Another of the bandits was slowly and cautiously walking towards her, an arrow nocked in his drawn bow and pointed directly at her. Throughout the moment and the aftermath of her violent shoot-out, she had forgotten that there should have been five men, not four, in the base. It appeared that she had been premature in deeming her mission a success.
Lara, surprised but lacking the wherewithal to react, simply stared at the male figure as he approached. He closed to less than a metre of her, pointing the tip of his arrow down at her head.
'You... did all of this?' He said, referencing the pile of bodies and the blazing building that lay before her. His tone was demanding, but the quiver in his voice and his wide-eyed expression suggested a deep shock and fearfulness.
Lara didn't respond at first. She kept staring at him with her fatigued and almost haunted eyes. After what she had just been through, she didn't even seem to be afraid of this new predicament.
'Well, did you?!' The man shouted, anxiously raising his voice.
'Your group left me no choice.' Lara eventually replied, her tone cold and seemingly lacking any remorse.
Now it was his turn to be silent. His aim with the bow wavered as he likely tried to decide what he should do. He was probably debating whether to try to take her prisoner or simply kill her. On the one hand, this attractive woman could be his companion and sex object, but on the other, she may be too dangerous and wild to even try to apprehend.
Lara was attempting to figure out the best way she could reach for either her handgun or her knife when she spotted a smallish figure in the shadows of the forest. Suddenly, the low-lying dark grey body dashed into the light of the camp, bolting towards the man. It was her pack's alpha male.
The bandit spotted the incoming wolf and quickly began to turn his body to take a shot at him with his bow. Swiftly realising what he was doing, Lara jumped to her feet and threw herself against the man. Shoulder checking him from behind, his arrow limply misfired into the nearby ground as he went sprawling belly first onto the grass. Still barrelling towards the downed human, Alpha pounced and clamped his teeth around the bandit's left arm. The man cried out in agony and fear as the large wolf viciously tugged and wrenched at his limb. Realising that he was likely about to meet a grisly end and there was probably nothing she could do to stop Alpha's assault, she reached into her left pocket for her handgun. Quickly and coldly she stepped up to the struggling human, pointed the weapon at the back of his head, released the safety and pulled the trigger. Lara looked away just as the gun made its powerful and painfully loud discharge. The man immediately ceased his writhing and screaming.
Lara stayed frozen in place for a few seconds, hearing the gunshot echoing through the camp then out across the forest. At no point did she looked down at the aftermath; she knew very well what she would see and what she had just done. Instead, she turned away, re-engaged the safety on her handgun and proceeded to stare at the silver device for a moment. With all seven of the remaining bandits now dead, she hoped that she never had to use this weapon ever again.
Alpha, having seemingly realised that the man was no longer a threat, released the limp arm from his jaws. He visibly relaxed, despite the fresh crimson upon his teeth, and calmly began to wander towards Lara.
'Alpha... let's get out of here.' Lara told him, an exhaustion and grimness plaguing her voice.
If she was being prudent, she would have stayed to scavenge any potential supplies and equipment from the burning camp site. Right now, she just wanted to get far, far away from here. She would return to the den, letting Jennifer know that she was safe and that her mission had been accomplished. Maybe tomorrow she would return here to see if there was anything not burned to a crisp that was worth salvaging.
She pocketed her handgun and slowly began to walk back towards the forest, back towards her home. Alpha trotted along after her, as they left the lifeless, blazing bandit camp behind.
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The Wolf's Snare