Chapter 3.

Nathan Drake skirted around a large crack in the floor, closely followed by his companions Victor Sullivan, Chloe Frazer, and Charlie Cutter.

"You know something?" said Drake. "I don't think this floor's secure."

"You don't say" replied Sully. "Why else do you think it's creaking more than my bones on a Sunday morning?"

"Yeah, but I mean 'insecure' as in 'give way completely and drop us all to our deaths' insecure, not loose floorboards."

"Nate, you might want to come and look at this" called Chloe.

While Nathan and Sully had been talking, Chloe had taken the initiative, and put her eye to the crack they had just avoided. Drake did the same and stood up hastily.

"What's wrong?" enquired Sullivan.

"Watch where you tread" suggested Nate.

Sully joined Drake and Chloe by the crack in the floor, putting his own eye to it.

"Shit!" he exclaimed. "That's gotta be fifteen, twenty metres at least! We'd never survive a drop like that!"

And with that, the floor collapsed.

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Joel awoke with a start, a loud crash sounding from nearby.

"Shit."

"What was that?" mumbled Ellie, still half-asleep.

"I don't know" said Joel, instantly alert. "But it ain't gonna be good."

The pair scooped up their backpacks and shook their hair and clothes vigorously to expel the dirt and grime that had accrued after sleeping on the rotting, wooden floor of the chateau. Still wearing their blood-stained, dirt-encrusted clothes, they exited the room they'd slept in and continued cautiously through the chateau that they had no way of knowing they were in, twenty-five years earlier than the time period they'd been in previously. Before they'd approached the mysterious, glimmering portal.

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Cutter stood stock-still for a few seconds, blinking slowly in shock, before rushing forwards and peering down through the gaping hole in the floor.

The others had fallen down into a large room resembling a grand hall with a patterned, decorated floor that was twenty metres below Cutter's level. Starting in one corner of the room was the beginning of a wooden staircase that ringed the room from top to bottom, with a small balcony each time the stairs reached a new level, as well as doors mostly inaccessible from collapsed foundations that would have been used to enter each floor. Over time, large amounts of the staircase had crumbled down to form a rotting pile of debris. Atop the pile was the flat circle of wood that had collapsed beneath the trio, and the three of them lay battered on top of it, dazed but alive, after the platform had ricocheted from several balconies, slowing their descent by enough to avoid death.

"You alright down there?" called down Cutter with a jovial wave.

"Never better" replied Chloe casually, as if this were a regular occurence.

Drake and Sully were much less amiable as they clambered down the debris, grumbling and groaning as they did so.

"What do we do now?" asked Charlie.

"Well" began Drake as he brushed himself off. "The stairs are pretty destroyed, but I think we can get back up there if we're careful."

"Nate, you gotta be kidding me" complained Sully. "Can you see the state of that staircase? One wrong step and it's over."

"Are you having me on?" asked Cutter. "This is a walk in the park for you lot!"

"Come on Sully" said Drake as he and Chloe started to make their way up the fragile wooden staircase. Sully shook his head.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm gonna regret this?"

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Cutter proceeded along the corridor, taking care to bypass any other cracks in order to avoid plummeting down to meet his friends. Or his maker. The further he advanced down the increasingly dark hallway, the more isolated he felt. The scuffling and the grunts of his friends faded away to be replaced with merely the creaking of the floorboards beneath his feet, and the quickening pace of his breath.

Panic steadily began to engulf him and consume his senses, brought on by either his extreme claustrophobia or sheer terror. He stopped briefly, putting his back to the wall and taking deep breaths to calm himself.

"Come on come on come on come on you're gonna be fine you're gonna be fine fine fine."

Too late he realised that he had no weapons but his fists. All it would take would be a raptor coming across him and he'd be finished.

"I'm not gonna be fine. Shit shit shit shit shit, oh Christ Almighty, I'm dead."

Cutter eventually managed to get his breathing under control.

And then he saw the raptor shadow.

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"So who's going first?" asked Chloe, rubbing her hands together briskly.

The trio were almost at the top now, high enough for a fall to be fatal, and they were now faced with a four-metre jump across a gaping hole in one of the balconies.

"Guys, look" pointed Sully. "Even if we make it across here, the highest point we can get to is up there. There's no way to get to the door we need."

Nate shrugged. "The walls are pretty destroyed. We can just climb the rest of the way up after that."

"Sorry kid, but not all of us are Spider-Man."

"Look, we'll figure it out, okay? Let's just cross this gap. Ladies first?"

"Who says chivalry is dead?" grinned Chloe, lining herself up.

She sprinted the few metres available to her and propelled herself forwards. The edge of the platform smashed painfully into her body but she clung to the edge and hauled herself up.

"Child's play. What are you two waiting for?" she scoffed.

"On three?" said Drake.

"Nobody I'd rather fall to my death with, kid."

On the count of three, the two men leapt for the balcony. Sullivan landed in the same position as Chloe had, but Nate pushed off awkwardly and only just managed to clutch the edge with his fingertips. Chloe hauled Sully to safety as Nate clambered up.

"That was close, huh?"

CRACK.

The plank of wood underneath Drake's foot snapped and plunged his ankle through the hole; this coincided with the foundations of the entire staircase splintering beneath them.

"Run!" yelled Chloe, tearing up the next flight of stairs as the balcony began to tilt and collapse. Sullivan shot after her at the speed of a man twenty years younger and Nathan followed suit after wrenching his foot free.

The balcony tore away from the wall and its free-hanging weight started dragging the stairs down with it. Drake found the stairway disappearing beneath him. He jumped for the next balcony, pulling himself up and sprinting for the next set of stairs. After dozens of close shaves, the group arrived at the highest part of the staircase that was still intact.

"Looks like we'll have to climb from here" noted Chloe.

The trio found handholds, (Sully with some reluctance), and began scaling the wall, a monumental heap of destruction left in their wake.

"Just a normal Tuesday morning, huh?" said Sully.

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Cutter froze as the shadow grew larger and larger against the wall.

A raptor was just around the corner.

Its sharp claws were cast prominently onto the wall and Cutter had to try and suppress a wave of terror.

Looking around frantically, he spotted a door and ducked inside of it as quietly as he could. He shut the door swiftly behind him and put his ear to it to listen for any movements. Padding footsteps could be heard right outside the door before they began to recede gradually into the distance. Cutter breathed out heavily in relief.

And sucked it straight back in when he noticed the barrel of a rifle pointed at his head.

Its wielder was a fierce-looking teenage girl.

"Get on the fucking ground" she demanded. "Now."