Indiana Jones and the Golden Fleece

Greece -1932

There it was. The Tomb of Hercules. Indiana Jones stepped on to the stone slab separating him from the remains of one of the most famous heroes of all time. He took a crowbar from his pouch and with the help of a few locals named Darius and Midas they dragged the stone block off of the opening to the grave.

The tomb was pitch black, so they couldn't see the bottom. Darius handed Indy his torch while Midas slowly unsheathed a six inch long Bowie knife behind his back. Indy snapped his whip to a tree branch above the opening to the tomb, and started sliding down into the hole, his assistants following him. Darius was right above Indy, but Midas had failed to follow them.

"Midas?!" He shouted up.

"I'll be just one moment my friend!" Midas yelled back. He stuck the Knife above the whip so Indy and Darius could see what he was about to do. Indy dropped the torch, revealing the 30 foot drop and two giant Minotaur statues. "I cannot allow you deface the tomb of Hercules. It is a sacred place for my people. No one may live after viewing his remains." He swung the knife down, slicing the whip.

"Oh damn..." Indy muttered, seconds before he started to free fall into darkness.

Around ten feet down Indy slammed into the giant Minotaur's head. Darius kept on falling, and landed with a sickening crunch. Indy's whip was draped over his stomach, hanging down on either side. He stumbled around for his revolver, trying to keep his balance on the statue. The pistol was on the floor of the tomb next to Darius' motionless body. Midas was slowly shoving the stone slab back over the entrance of the grave, his grinning head pointing down at them.

The Minotaur statue that Indy was on started to tip over. He lunged for the whip, and with extreme precision snapped the whip up at Midas' head, attaching it to his neck.

"Ackgh" Midas gurgled as his face started to turn a variety of colors.

The Minotaur sculpture must have weighed a couple of tons, because Indy stayed hanging on to the whip while the statue crashed to the floor.

Midas made a few last gasping breaths and finally fell limp.

"Serves you right!" Indy yelled up the corpse. "At least we have oxygen. Hey Darius! You okay?" He certainly didn't look okay.

"Mmph" Darius mumbled, shifting around. "I can't feel my legs."

"Well they're probably broken" Indy strained, his arm muscles cramping. "Hey, I'm gonna fall to my death if you don't help me out here! What's in that back corner? Maybe there's a ledge I can swing to."

Darius crawled over to the corner of the room while holding the torch, wincing in pain.

The light from the flame revealed a gigantic bronze sculpture of Zeus and Alcmene holding a baby Hercules.

Indy swung on the whip, jumped and landed on Hercules' bronze head. He slid down to the floor of the tomb.

"I don't see any sign of a coffin or mausoleum. Come on, let's get out of here." Darius whined.

"We're not leaving until we find something." Indy ordered. He noticed a small crack where he had landed on the bronze Hercules' forehead. Indy grabbed a chunk of the Minotaur statue and chucked it at the six foot long baby. The top half of the baby exploded in a cloud of dust, revealing what looked like a stone coffin inside.

"Yes!" Indy cheered. He sprinted over to the remains of the bronze baby and cracked off the rest with other rock chunks. "I can't believe I found it before René…"

"René?"

"René Belloq, my rival."

Indy slowly heaved the top of the coffin. On the inside was nothing but dust and a vase. The pottery portrayed Hercules and Jason holding up the Golden Fleece in triumph.

"No…" Indy exhaled. He snatched the vase and walked over to Darius.

"Now how the hell are we gonna get out of here?" Indy grunted in frustration.

"I think you should've climbed back up to the top and gotten more rope."

The whip was still attached to Midas' neck.

"We've got to push the Minotaur statue over towards the center so we can reach the whip" Indy suggested.

"Sure, but I can't stand up. You're on your own, Dr. Jones."

"Right… That's how it always is…"

Indy reluctantly went over to the statue and began to push. Surprisingly, he was able to move the statue with ease. Indy was suspecting something much heavier, so he fell flat on his face the second the statue slid away from his hands. Dusting off his pants, he walked over to Darius and helped him up. With Indy pushing his feet, Darius was able to get to the top of the statue. Indy followed with the vase and they began to ascend the whip up into the welcoming daylight.

Once again, Indiana Jones left a tomb empty-handed and disappointed.