Lara glanced round desperately for an escape route. She didn't have a key to the back door, and even if she were able to force it, she was certain they'd be zombies out there. She could try jumping from one of the back windows, but they were high up off the ground and her body was much too weak now. She was always of a very tiny build and kept her body in perfect condition to dance, and after nearly a month living hand to mouth, she weighed very little and her muscles were wasting away. So, even if the fall didn't kill her, if she hurt her ankle upon landing, she'd no longer be able to run as fast as she had to and she would almost certainly be torn to shreds by hoards of zombies.
Bang
Lara wasn't usually one for screaming, finding it usually caused her more danger than what she was actually screaming about, but the sudden shot took her so much by surprise that she couldn't help but let out a tiny scream. At first, she assumed the men were shooting out the lock on the door to get to her, but when she was able to level her breathing, she caught snippets of what they were saying, which told her otherwise.
"Shit! He's fucking dead, dude!"
"When I get my hands on the bastard who did it-"
"We've got to get the hell out of here!"
"What about the little bitch inside?"
"Screw her, I'm getting out of here."
Lara listened closely to their exchange, and was able to deduce that someone had shot one of the men... She released a breath in utter relief as they decided to leave and hurried away, back into the city. But as soon as one threat vanished, another arose. One of the men outside was shot, but zombies didn't shoot, which meant there was someone else outside too. Someone else with their own agenda and motivations, someone else, who, as far as Lara knew, offered as much, if not more, of a threat as the men. And he'd obviously taken them out for a reason. Maybe the shooter wanted her dead. Yes, that was it, he wanted to kill her. She was about to die. After all this, she was going to die. She felt paranoia sweep over her once more, getting the better of her and allowing her mind to race wildly through the horrendous possibilities as it created more and more elaborate ways she was going to be murdered.
The bang that suddenly sounded as a body collided with the door, splintering it further, only confirmed her fears. This was it. Perhaps the assailant would be kind and just shoot her, killing her quickly and relatively painlessly. Although, Lara doubted he'd gone through all this to get to her, just to let her die quickly. He probably wanted to hurt her, rape her, and then kill her slowly. Images of her own agony flashed across her mind, each little sequence in which she was tortured played over and over on high-speed, in vivid, gruesome colour.
Lara froze at the slightly muffled sound of a voice, right behind the door.
"I don't know who you are, but whoever was after you just now, they're gone. You're okay."
It was a male voice... But, it didn't sound threatening... In fact, it sounded quite young, no older than twenty. His voice was gentle, and reassuring, and almost friendly. And... Maybe the reason he'd got rid of those men wasn't so he could hurt her himself, but maybe to save her.
Deciding to be brave, for once in her recent life, she responded softly, although just audibly to the man on the other side of the door, "Thank you..." Her voice trembled with fear and she stumbled a bit over the words, but she managed to speak them. Maybe, even if he did want to hurt her, she could appease him by being nice. At least then he might only rape her and torture her before letting her go, alive.
But no sooner had the words left her lips, there was an almighty crash from the near by window. Lara's head spun towards the source of the sound faster than she'd ever moved before. She leapt back as she saw the the glass shatter in, scattering across the wooden floor in sharp shards. Her arms instantly slipped around her midriff in a totally unconscious movement. The moment she realised what she was doing, protecting something she was trying her very best to deny the existence of, her arms slipped away with a shudder of disgust for herself.
As the hole in the glass became larger, Lara became more and more terrified. With complete fear gripping every fibre of her body, she ran from the front room, away from the destruction, into the room that lead directly off from the first room. Glancing around desperately, she knew she didn't have long before he was inside, and in blind panic she slid her little frame into one of the least inventive hiding places in the whole house; under the small dinning table.
No sooner was she under there did she hear feet touch down in the front room, the glass under his shoes crunching and breaking into even finer shards. Lara heard gunshots from inside the house, fired out. She couldn't tell if he was taking out people or the undead. Four shots, each fired precisely and individually, not in a wild hail of panicked bullets, as most of her shots were.
She saw his footsteps approaching the table and as he neared her, she finally got a good look at the man. Seeing him confirmed her suspicions regarding his age; Lara quickly placed him in his late teens. He was reasonably tall too, significantly higher than her own five foot four. His dark hair, that had been allowed to grow out round his face, stood out in stark contrast to his reasonably pale features. Lara flinched at the sight of the eye patch, and though good manners taught by her sweet parents, she stared at him, wondering what had happened.
He lay his gun down right next to her, and she wondered, just for a second, if she reached out and grabbed it, if she had the nerve to threaten him. But that thought was curtailed when she saw his hand resting on a large sword.
The ballet dancer sat perfectly still, unmoving, drawing in the shallowest of breathes. She was horribly aware that if he stepped round the other side of the table, he would be able to see her clearly, her hiding place no longer safe. She prayed he'd move on to another room without finding her, although she really doubted the likelihood of that. Her whole body began to tremble slightly with fear and, in utter panic, she realised she'd left her bag in the basement with her weapon. If he wanted to hurt her, she would be virtually powerless to defend herself.