Pilot - Discovery of the Tapes

Lara and Indy uncover a forgotten security archive inside a ruined facility and awaken secrets that were never meant to resurface.

The jungle swallowed the path long ago. Thick vines curled over rusted rails, and ferns burst through cracked concrete as Lara and Indy pushed deeper into the abandoned facility. Every few minutes, the distant call of something large echoed through the trees. Not close. Not far enough.

They kept moving.

The building they approached was half collapsed, its roof sagging like tired bones. A faded sign clung to the wall, letters barely visible beneath moss. Indy brushed the surface with his glove.

“Operations Sublevel,” he read. “Or it used to be.”

Lara scanned the overgrowth. “Looks untouched for decades.” She stepped under the broken doorway, boot crunching over shattered glass. “Let’s see if it still remembers anything.”

Inside, darkness hung thick and stale. Shafts of sunlight pierced the roof in narrow beams, illuminating swirling dust. Old desks sat overturned, cabinets rusted shut, and paper lay scattered across the floor like fallen leaves. A faint metallic smell lingered, the scent of machines left to rot.

Indy’s flashlight swept across a row of lockers. Most were empty.

One wasn’t.

He tugged its door open. A stack of black VHS tapes lay inside, each labeled with smudged white ink. “Lara,” he said, holding one up. “These survived.”

She turned the tape in her hands. “Security logs. Look at the dates. These are from the final weeks before the evacuation.”

A low groan rumbled outside. Something heavy shifted in the trees. Indy snapped his head toward the sound.

“We play them here?” he whispered.

“We play them now,” she said, already dragging a portable generator from her pack.

Minutes later, the old monitor flickered to life. Static rolled across the screen. The room filled with a soft electric hum.

Lara slid the first tape into the deck.

The image warped.

The recording began.