The story begins with a business deal. Victor Sullivan is in the office of a mansion discussing a business deal with a man named Thomas Jameson.
Sullivan asks Jameson, “So…tell me more about this little trinket that you want us to acquire?”
Jameson casually answers, “It’s just that. A simple little trinket.”
Sullivan isn’t convinced. He’s seen more than one deal go left because they weren’t given all of the important information. So, he says, “Hey, you and I both know there aint nothin ever simple in this business. If it were simple, hell, you’d do it.”
Jameson says, “True.”
Sullivan says, “So what is it that you’re not telling me? What kind of surprises should we expect?”
Jameson says, “Well, it is in a cave…in the middle of a jungle. There’s nothing atypical about the jungle but the cave..the cave is…an unusual cave.”
Sullivan says, “In what way?”
Jameson says, “For starters, there are traps in the cave.”
Cut to:
INT. Cave – Day
Inside a cave, Nathan Drake and his brother Sam desperately try to escape a section of a maze that is closing in on them. You see, what had happened was, Nathan triggered a booby trap that changes the shape of the maze they wandered into. Some of the walls close in while others open up. Unfortunately, they’re stuck between two walls that are now closing in.
Sam is in the lead when he says, “Hurry up!” They’re nearing the end of the section when they jump and roll to safety.
An out of breath Nathan says, “Booby traps. I hate booby traps.”
Two walls open up, revealing the exit. Sam points towards it and says, “There it is. The exit! Let’s go!” Nathan and Sam run for the exit, turning left or right to avoid the closing walls and stay within the open ones. They turn down the section leading to the exit, but the walls start closing in on them.
Nathan says, “Crap!”
They’re running as fast as they can when Sam says, “It’s gonna be close!”
Nathan says, “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!” They jump through the exit and slide across the ground on the other side, just as the walls jam open, leaving just enough space for them to safely walk through.
Sam says, “Ain’t that about a bitch.”
Cut to:
INT. Mansion Office – Day
Sullivan says, “You mean booby traps? Ahh hell that’s just part of the job. Tell me something I don’t know.”
Cut to:
INT. Cave – Day
As Sam and Nathan walk down a passage, they see a few centipedes with exceptionally long legs. They’re only about four inches long so they’re not concerned at first, but the further they walk the more appears on the floor, walls and ceiling. There are hundreds all over when they finally stop.
Concerned, Sam asks, “You sure this is the right way?”
Nathan equally concerned, “Pretty sure.” He pulls out the map, opens it, points to a spot on the map and says “This is where we’re at now and the trinket is here. If we continue along this passage, it should lead us directly to the trinket. It’s only about 100 meters.”
Sam points at the map and asks, “Why is it so small at the other end of this passage? Does it get more narrow?”
Nathan says, “Narrower? Yeah.”
Sam rolls his eyes and says, “Don’t be a smart ass.” He takes off his backpack and pulls out goggles and a T-shirt.
Nathan asks, “What are you doing?”
Sam says, “Getting something to cover our face with. These things are about to be all over us. In our mouths, our ears, our nose…”
Nathan looks down the passage and says, “It doesn’t look that bad.” But it really does. Sam ignores him and continues to cover himself.
Nathan says, “But if you insist.” He follows Sam’s lead and covers himself too.
As they continue down the passageway, the centipedes become more and more erratic.
Nathan asks, “Why are they acting like that?”
Confused, Sam asks, “Like what?” He flashes his light towards the ground and they scatter. Some run further down the passage but many run back towards them. They run up their legs and back, scaring both Nathan and Sam. They run in circles as they violently swat the centipedes away.
Finally rid of the centipedes, a visibly shaken Sam says, “Damn things.”
Nathan swats away another centipede and says, “They don’t like the- ow!” He swats at the back of his hand and there is a bug bite. Shocked, he says, “It bit me.”
Sam looks at the bite then at Nathan. Then they both look down the passage. Sam asks, “How long did you say this passage was?”
Nathan shakes his head and says, “It’s not that far, but it’s gonna be a rough trip with these flashlights.” Sam sighs in agreement. Nathan continues to say, “We can’t use these. We’re gonna have to turn them off.”
Shocked, Sam asks, “How are we going to know where we’re going if we can’t see anything?”
Nathan says, “We’ll have to feel our way along the sides of the wall.”
Sam says, “You can’t be serious. They’re all over the fucking walls.”
Nathan says, “If we go slowly, they may not even bother us.”
Sam says, “If we go slowly, it’ll take that much longer.”
Nathan asks, “You gotta better idea?”
Sam points the flashlight towards the center of the passage and sees thousands of centipedes scrambling over one another to get away from the light.
Conceding, Sam says, “This is gonna suck.”
Nathan says, “We’ll be fine. Trust me.”
Cut to:
INT. Mansion Office – Day
Jameson doubts Sullivan’s confidence and asks, “Are you sure? It’s rumored that there are strange animals living in those caves.”
Sullivan confidently says, “All we need is a flame thrower. Most animals will either run or burn when they see fire. Gets rid of them either way.”
Cut to:
INT. Cave – Day
Sam and Nathan slowly feel their way along the side of the passage. The centipedes crawl over their hands, back, neck and even through their hair.
Sam says, “We really should’ve brought that flame thrower.”
Nathan says, “Then we would’ve set the whole damn cave on fire.”
Sam says, “No, you would’ve set the whole damn cave on fire. I know how to use it. You’re the one who could never aim that thing.”
Defensively, Nathan says, “Aiming was never the issue.”
Sam says, “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Soyun Lee’s house burned down.”
They’re nearing the end of the hallway when a brightly colorful one crawls over Sam’s goggles. Sam calmly freaks out and whispers, “Shit.”
Concerned, Nathan says, “What is it?”
Sam whispers, “A colorful one just crawled over me.”
Nathan asks, “How colorful?”
Sam says, “Black body, yellow feet, red head.”
Nathan says, “Crap. Well, maybe there’s just one.”
Sam says, “Says the man who has two crawling on his back right now.”
Nathan says, “Well, get ’em off.”
Sam says, “Fuck that.”
Nathan says “Sam!”
Sam says, “Nope. Besides they’re eating the smaller ones from off your back.”
Nathan says, “Ew.”
Sam says, “Well, it’s better to be the plate than the meal.”
Nathan says, “I hate you.”
Cut to:
INT. Mansion Office – Day
Skeptical, Jameson says, ”But you can’t always use brute force as a solution.”
Sullivan says, ”I agree. The plan should be based on the situation. If a situation calls for brute force, we have a plan for it. If a situation calls for finesse and flair, we have a plan for that too. Either way, my point is- “
Jameson finishes his sentence and says, ”You have a plan.”
Sullivan says, ”Always.”
Cut to:
INT. Cave – Day
Nearing the end of the passage, it becomes so narrow that their backs are touching the other side. There is also a light beaming through and they are covered with erratic centipedes.
Sam asks, “How much further?”
Nathan says, “Just a few more steps. I can see light.”
Sam says, “Well that explains why they’re acting so crazy. Thought it might be one of the big ones tryna take em out.”
Nathan says, “Don’t even joke about that.” He sticks his hand through the mesh of centipedes into the light and they quickly leave his hand. As he slowly moves along, more of his body enters the light and more centipedes run off of him and back down the passage until finally, he is free from all centipedes. He slowly emerges from the passage into a room that has been carved out of the rock. Sam slowly emerges from the passage behind him.
Sam says, “That…” breathing deeply, “…was insane! Why are there so many?
Nathan says, “They’re guardians.”
Sam says, “So what! It’s too damn many!” Swatting away one last centipede from his arm he continues, “Remind me to come back later so I can drown these fuckers in bug spray.” He doesn’t notice that it completely dissipates before it hits the ground.
Seemingly unbothered by their previous predicament, Nathan looks around the room and says, “Sam…look.” The room is shaped like a triangle and they’re standing at the center of the base of the triangle. The walls, floor and ceiling are all covered with carvings of square tablets. At the center of each square is a dot and there’s a soft, but bright light emanating from each dot.
Nathan looks closely at one of the dots says, “That’s so weird. Where’s the light coming from?” He covers the dot with his finger and the light pierces through his flesh, exits through the other side of his finger and is not dimmed by his flesh.
Shocked, Nathan pulls his hand away from the light and says, “Did you see that? That was wild.” He doesn’t notice that his finger is still glowing, but Sam does.
Sam asks, “Uh…Nathan?”
Nathan says, “Yeah?” But his finger has already turned back to normal.
So instead, Sam says, “Never mind. I don’t like this. Let’s keep moving.”
As they walk towards the end of the room, the tocapus’ become more detailed. They either have a single circle, square, star or diamond but they all have a light coming from the center. At the end of the room, the tocapus’ have a combination of all four shapes with a dot in the center but no light.
Sam asks, “Why don’t any of these have a light in the middle?”
Nathan looks closely at one of the tocapus’ and says, “These are different. More detailed. I think they mean something.” He reaches into his back pocket and pulls out his journal. He flips through the pages until he finds a drawing matching one of the tocapus’.
(insert picture of first tocapus)
He looks over all of the tocapus’ until he finds one that matches. touches the matching tocapus: this one. This one means something.
sam: what’s it mean?
nathan flips through his journal. Something about a passage or road that leads to…light?
sam: we’re already surrounded by light. we don’t need anymore. he looks over tablets on the other side and sees another tocapus’ matching the one in the journal. hey, isn’t this the same tablet? he touches the tablet and they all shift around to switch places.
sam: whoa. what’s happening? sam and nathan back away from the moving pieces.
nathan: i don’t know. a few pieces light up as they pass one another
sam points at the wall: did you see that?
nathan: yeah. as they pass one another they light up then disappear, leaving an opening through the wall.
sam walks up to the opening and looks thru: hey there’s a door on the other side.
nathan: there is?! he goes to the openign and sees the door. Maybe we can pull some of these rocks loose.
when he puts he hand thru the wall the tablets shift again. He jerks his hand back. Damn that almost got me. rubs his hand.
The tablets reset and the opening closes
sam: damn.
nathan: let’s think this thru. he looks at his journal and points to a tocapus on the wall. i found this piece in from the journal.
sam: yeah and i found another one just like it. he reaches out to touch it.
nathan quickly grabs his hand and pulls it away: don’t, that might be the trigger.
sam: wait. did you touch a tablet the first time around?
nathan: yeah, but it’s called a tocapus.
sam: octopus…whatever. so i touched one and you touched one. i think you’re right. let me see if i can find that octopus.
nathan: tocapus.
sam: whatever. he looks over the wall till he finds a matching tocapus. found one.
nathan looks over the wall and finds another one: i’ve got one over here.
sam: you ready to try again?
nathan: um…i don’t know if it’s right?
sam: but it matches the picture.
nathan doubts: ehh….
sam: can we agree that it’s not wrong?
nathan: yeah…
sam touches his tocapus then walks over to nathan and touches nathan’s tocapus too and just like before several tocapus’ shift places, sliding over and behind one another until a group of them light up and disappear leaving a small opening in the wall.
sam: i can see the door on the other side.
nathan: last time i tried to pull the rocks loose and it nearly took my hand off.
sam: don’t do that again
nathan annoyed: i’m not
sam: just making sure we’re on the same page. what does your journal say?
nathan: that’s the only picture that’s in journal
sam: let’s take a close look at these tobagus’.
nathan: tocapus’!
sam: whatever, just don’t touch anything
nathan and sam look over all the tocapus’ and discover there are 7 different designs. they draw each one of them out and intently look for a solution.
(insert pictures of all other tocapus’ random order)
all of the tocapus’ have a variety of geometrical shapes.
sam points to one of the drawings: this one has a diamond inside a square inside a circle, other one has…1, 2, 3, 4 different shapes on it…i think?
nathan: that pointy diamond is weird. is it a shape or is it an extension of the other shapes.
sam: no, it’s a shape look. the pointy diamond is all by itself on this one.
nathan: i count 5 shapes, but these two both have 4 and these other two both have 3. i’m not sure…are we supposed to touch both of them.
sam: no no no. my gut is telling me that this is either a way thru or a way dead. if we touch the wrong one…let’s not touch the wrong one. where’s that first one? let me see that one again. he looks over the first one and compares it to the drawings with 4 shapes.
sam: see look at this. he leans over to show nathan.
(insert pictures of the first tocapus and the two tocapus’ with 4 shapes)
sam: the first one is triangle, then circles, then a square and then whatever, but if you look at these two with the 4 shapes; this one has the square first, then the circle, then another square or diamond, then a pointy diamond. it doesn’t match at all. but this one has the circles first, then the square and everything else falls in line. i think this first one is meant to represent the order of how to…you know…a push the button order ya know.
nathan: you may be on to something cause look at the designs of the 2 with the three shapes.
(insert pictures of the first tocapus and the two tocapus’ with 3 shapes)
this one starts with the circle then falls in line with the first tocapus, but this one has it switched. this one is wrong.
sam: let’s lay them all out. i want to make sure we do this in the right order. They lay out all the drawings in the correct order.
(insert pictures 5 tocapus’ in the correct order)
nathan: this looks right to me
sam: yeah that looks good.
nathan points to the two odd pictures: ok so we’re not gonna press these two right?
(insert pictures of the wrong tocapus’)
sam: yeah. that’s right. you ready?
nathan: let’s do this