A/N: This edited and revised chapter was uploaded on April 15, 2016
Chapter 3: Hamunaptra... Again
One Week Later
Giza Port
A few days later, Jonathan, Evie, and Ruth were walking through the Giza Port, packed and ready for the adventure to Hamunaptra. Thanks to Ruth booking those last minute tickets, they were pretty much all set. The Carnahans carried two large suitcases with them, fairly minimal for the pair of them. Ruth carried a large rucksack full of three extra sets of clothing, a jacket, a thick cloak, an extra pair of boots, a bedroll, a blanket, rope, tools, some medicine and first aid supplies, two canteens of water, plenty of rations, and ink and paper and the photographs of Sophia's letters. She wore her twin swords across her back and her belt with four knives and two 9mm pistols. She still had the two daggers down her boots, the fine dagger in her hair (still underneath a bandana), and the revolver tucked under her belt. She had four extra knives and lots and lots of ammo in her rucksack. Her shotgun was tied to the bottom of her pack.
"Do you really think he's going to show up?" Evie was asking Jonathan about O'Connell. She hadn't seen him at all over the past week. And despite Ruth's reassurances that he was coming, she still had her doubts.
"Yes, undoubtedly, knowing my luck," Jonathan said. "He may be a cowboy, but I know his breed. His word is his word. Same as Ruth."
"Well, personally, I think he's filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel. I don't like him one bit," Evie bit out.
"Anyone I know?" Evie and Jonathan whirled around to see O'Connell standing there, identical looks of amusement on his and Ruth's faces. O'Connell was clean and shaven. He had gotten that haircut and instead of looking like a brute, he now looked like a respectable gentleman. Not that he was, but all the same.
"Oh. Um, hello," Evie breathed. Ruth had to quietly snicker at the look on her best friend's face. It was safe to assume she had been expecting the dirty prisoner and not the groomed man.
"Smashing day for the start of an adventure, eh, O'Connell?" Jonathan cut in. The two men shook hands and O'Connell smiled nervously.
"Smashing," O'Connell replied dryly while reaching into his jacket pocket to make sure his wallet was still there.
"Oh, no, no, I'd never steal from a partner… partner," Jonathan reassured him.
"That reminds me. No hard feelings about the, uh…" O'Connell mimicked a punch.
"Oh, no, no. Happens all the time." Understatement of the year.
"Mr. O'Connell," Evie started, "can you look me in the eye and guarantee this isn't some sort of flimflam? Because if it is, I am warning you-"
"You're warning me?" O'Connell practically scoffed at the woman. "Lady, let me put it this way. Our whole damn garrison believed in this so much that without orders, we marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city. And when we got there, all we found was sand and blood." Evie looked visibly shaken at O'Connell's words. "Let me get your bags." With that, O'Connell picked up the Carnahan's suitcases and boarded the boat, Evie staring at him the entire way.
"Yes, yes, you're right. Filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel. Nothing to like there at all." With that, Jonathan followed O'Connell onto the boat.
"Look, Evie," Ruth started, making her best friend look at her, "I know you don't trust Rick, but trust me. This isn't some kind of trick." Evie looked down.
"I'm sorry, Ruth, I just-"
"I know." Evie hesitated before asking her next question.
"What happened there? When you were at Hamunaptra?" Ruth bit her lip just thinking about the events from three years ago.
"Someday I'll tell you," Ruth promised. Evie nodded, respecting Ruth's decision and realizing that it was bad if Ruth, one of the most open people she knew, wasn't willing to talk about it.
"I still can't believe that's your brother!" Evie cried, effectively changing the subject. Ruth burst out in a hearty laugh. "I mean, you look nothing alike!" It was true. The siblings shared similar personality traits. Both were smart, but while O'Connell was more street-smart, Ruth was more book-smart. However, both siblings came across as kind of rugged since they both carried weapons all the time. They both practically oozed sarcasm and the two had gotten into some funny arguments because of it. However, despite them sharing personality traits, the two looked nothing alike. O'Connell was well over six feet with a strong build. He had brown hair, blue eyes, and tanned skin. Ruth was barely over five feet tall and was rather slim, so much so that she was sometimes mistaken as a young boy. Her hair was thick, straight, and black while her eyes were a warm amber. And while O'Connell was tan, Ruth possessed a true olive skin tone which O'Connell told her she'd inherited from her mother.
"We really don't look anything alike, do we?" Ruth agreed with a small laugh. Evie laughed as well before abruptly stopping.
"Oh, no, what are you doing here?" she demanded. Ruth frowned in confusion before following her gaze. Evie was addressing the warden Hassan.
"I'm here to protect my investment, thank you very much," he merely said. He was wearing travel clothes and had a pack in his hand. Hassan walked up the gangplank, leaving the two women standing there. Ruth frowned a little. She hadn't counted on Hassan joining them. However, there wasn't really anything they could do about it. So, the two women followed behind him onto the boat.
~)8(~
That night, Ruth was sitting at a table on the deck. She was starting her translation of Sophia's letters. Evie sat across from her reading. However, the brunette noticed that her friend was squirming and unfocused. Strange for Ruth.
"Are you okay?" Evie asked. Ruth merely scowled at what was behind her: camels. "Right. I forgot that you hate camels."
"Ever since I was 10 and almost got trampled by a herd of those things," Ruth confirmed, reminding Evie of what happened to make her hate the normally gentle animals. Ruth tried to focus on her work, but after a few more minutes of squirming, she gave up. "I'm going to find Rick." Evie nodded and Ruth packed up the photographs and paper. Ruth quickly dropped her supplies back in her cabin before venturing out to find Rick and explore the boat. Towards the bow, Ruth found Jonathan sitting at a table with three other men.
"Ruth!" Jonathan called upon seeing her. He waved her over, leaving the woman no choice but to come greet him. As she approached the table, she noticed that the men were playing poker. "Ruth, this is Bernard Burns, Isaac Henderson, and David Daniels. And that's Dr. Allen Chamberlain." Ruth looked around the table at the men. The first three were American. Burns was dark-haired and wore glasses. He actually looked fairly amiable. Henderson was blonde and looked like a typical cowboy. Daniels was dark-haired and seemed to have a permanent smirk on his face. Dr. Chamberlain was sitting apart from them smoking a hookah. He barely spared Ruth a glance.
"Gentlemen," Ruth greeted politely while shaking their hands.
"Would you like to join us, Ruth?" Jonathan offered.
"Not much of a gambler to be honest," Ruth politely declined. The men merely shrugged and nodded.
"So what brings a pretty girl like you out here?" Henderson asked Ruth. The girl mentally rolled her eyes. Not two minutes he'd known her and he was already flirting.
"Call it curiosity and an adventurous spirit." Henderson smirked.
"Well, that's-" Whatever Henderson was about to say next was cut off by Jonathan.
"O'Connell!" Ruth imperceptibly sighed with relief as her brother came over, effectively ending Henderson's current attempt to flirt with Ruth.
"Quit playing with your glasses and cut the deck, would you, Burns?" Daniels was complaining. Burns merely continued cleaning his glasses as he addressed his friend.
"Without my glasses, I can't see the deck to cut it, can I, Dave?"
"O'Connell, sit down, we could use another player," Jonathan said.
"No, I only gamble with my life, never my money," O'Connell replied.
"Never?" Daniels asked with raised eyebrows. "Well, what if I was to bet the two of you $500 we get to Hamunaptra before you?" O'Connell and Ruth glanced at each other.
"You're looking for Hamunaptra?" O'Connell asked.
"Damn straight, we are," Henderson replied.
"And who said we are?"
"He does." All three Americans said this at the same time with matching fingers pointing towards Jonathan. O'Connell and Ruth fixed him with matching unamused looks.
"Well-" Jonathan tried.
"Well, how about it?" Daniels cut in. "Is it a bet?" The O'Connell siblings looked at each other.
"You're on," Ruth said. The Americans smiled.
"What makes you so confident, miss and sir?" Dr. Chamberlain asked, looking up from his hookah pipe and book.
"What makes you?" O'Connell shot back.
"Well, we got us a man who's actually been there," Henderson said with a smirk.
"Oh, what a coincidence, because-" Jonathan stopped talking when he saw Ruth's famous glare.
"Gentlemen, we got us a wager," O'Connell said. "Good evening. Jonathan." O'Connell squeezed his shoulder hard as a warning and Ruth shot him one last glower before the siblings turned and walked off. Ruth went back into her cabin, hoping to finally get some work done on the letters. Ruth barely noticed as Evie entered the cabin and began getting ready for bed. She didn't really notice that Evie seemed strangely flustered either. Ruth eventually became so engrossed in reading and translating the letters that she didn't notice there was an intruder in the cabin until Evie shrieked. Immediately Ruth drew one of her guns and whirled around, cocking it. Ruth momentarily froze upon seeing the man. He was garbed in black robes, but that's not what caught her attention. The man had a hook for a hand. He had pushed Evie up against the wall and was holding his hook against her cheek threateningly.
"Release her," Ruth demanded after shaking off her shock. The man merely turned to her.
"Where is the key?" He seemed completely unperturbed by the gun pointing at him.
"The key, the key… What key?" Evie asked. Ruth furrowed her eyes in confusion. Neither woman had any idea what the hook-man was talking about.
"Ruth! Evelyn!" O'Connell suddenly burst through the door, two of his guns drawn. The hook-man immediately moved away. O'Connell and Ruth began to shoot at him, but another man burst through the cabin window. Ruth quickly shot him. O'Connell dragged Evie from the room, still shooting. It was only then they realized a candle had fallen, setting the room on fire. Ruth quickly grabbed her still packed rucksack and her work. Ruth looked up briefly to shoot an incoming bandit. Ruth quickly threw everything of Evie's she could see in her suitcase and grabbed it. Ruth shot one more incoming bandit before running from the room.
"Wait! The map! Ruth, where's the map?!" Evie cried as she saw Ruth coming from the room.
"Relax. We're the map," O'Connell assured her. He pointed to his head. "It's all up here."
"Oh, that's comforting." Ruth quickly placed her work inside a large folder.
"Thank God for plastic," she muttered. If those men were all over the ship, there was no way they were making it out of this unless they jumped. She wasn't going to have her work ruined because a group of bandits decided to raid their boat. Ruth shouldered her pack and thrust Evie's suitcase into her hands. "Rick, get her out of here." Ruth then took out another one of her guns and ran off.
The entire ship was under attack and everyone was panicking. Well… The Americans looked like they were having fun, actually. Passengers and crew members everywhere began jumping over the side and into the water. More bandits appeared and began setting the boat on fire. Horses were neighing and escaping from their stalls. It was pure chaos. Ruth managed to take down a few more bandits before she was knocked to the ground and practically dragged overboard. It was only once she was in the water did she realize a horse had run into her. The poor creature began panicking in the water. Seeing that there was no way to get back on the boat, Ruth began to help the poor thing across the Nile. It took some time because the horse was struggling, but they eventually made it. Only a minute later, O'Connell appeared on the riverbank with Evie, Jonathan, and Hassan.
"We've lost everything!" Evie cried. "All of our tools, all the equipment. All my clothes." Ruth frowned.
"I gave you your suitcase," she said. Evie suddenly scowled at O'Connell. Ruth inferred that something must've happened between when she'd left them and now. Ruth opened her mouth to comfort Evie when an eerily familiar voice cut her off.
"O'Connell!" It was Beni. "Hey! O'Connell! It looks to me like I've got all the horses!" Well, except for the one Ruth had rescued.
"Hey, Beni! It looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!" O'Connell yelled back. Ruth saw Beni kick the water in utter frustration as he realized that he was, in fact, on the wrong side of the Nile.
"I cannot believe that little weasel survived," Ruth practically growled. O'Connell nodded in agreement before turning to her.
"Are you okay? I know how you feel about rivers, especially this one." Ruth nodded. When she was 15, she had nearly drowned in this river. Ever since then, she'd had a strong aversion to it. In all honesty, she'd been too focused on not getting shot or not catching on fire that it hadn't truly mattered that this was the Nile.
"I'm okay," Ruth assured her brother. "Well, we've got the horse here, but we're going to need some more or some camels if we want to get to Hamunaptra. Not to mention we have to replenish the supplies we lost." O'Connell nodded and the five soon began trekking towards the nearest town.
~)8(~
It was two days later when the five found themselves ready to truly begin their journey for Hamunaptra. They'd arrived in a town late in the night and had spent the last day resting and replenishing their supplies. The next day, Ruth was getting the horse, which she had named Nile, ready for the journey through the desert. O'Connell and Jonathan were haggling for some camels and Hassan was nowhere to be seen. Ruth tied her pack to Nile's saddle before placing some of her weapons in his saddle bags. She kept her swords and belt on, though. She soon finished and led Nile over to where O'Connell and Jonathan were. They had finally managed to snag four camels. It was only then Ruth realized her best friend was finally ready. Evie had gone off in search of some clothing this morning. She was wearing a brand new black gown with a matching hood and veil. She looked stunning… as usual. Ruth had to smirk at the expression on her brother's face. Rick was staring at Evie like she was a whole new person. It was much like how Evie had stared at him when she saw him for the first time at the Giza Port. It was painfully obvious how smitten the two were with each other. Soon, everything was loaded onto the camels and Hassan was found. They were traveling by mid-morning.
The journey was extremely long and lasted through the night. Ruth rode in the back of their single file line while O'Connell rode in the front. Most of the journey was silent, the only noise being either Hassan's singing or Evie and Ruth's quiet chatter. However, night eventually fell and Evie, Jonathan, and Hassan fell asleep, leaving the O'Connell siblings to keep watch as they continued through the desert. O'Connell had put on his headdress and Ruth had pulled on her cloak. The two were silent as they tried to listen for anything besides Hassan's ghastly snoring. At one point, his snoring got so bad that it woke up Jonathan. The man merely smacked the warden before falling right back asleep. Ruth looked forward to see that Evie had fallen asleep on O'Connell's shoulder. Ruth smiled a little as Rick gently straightened her, taking care not to wake the woman. A few minutes later, Ruth heard the neighing of a horse. And it wasn't Nile. She looked around until she found the source.
"Rick." He followed his sister's gaze. Once again, at the top of a nearby ridge sat about a dozen riders in black. And once again, they were watching them. O'Connell and Ruth exchanged a wary look, but said nothing and merely continued riding. Soon, it was dawn. Right as the sky began to lighten, the little band of five arrived at Hamunaptra's location. Beni, the Americans, Dr. Chamberlain, and their diggers were already there.
"Good morning, my friends," Beni greeted in his slimy little voice.
"Piss off," Ruth immediately spat at him. If he thought they would immediately be past what happened three years ago he was wrong.
"Oh, but Two, my friend, I-" Ruth rolled her eyes and drew her gun.
"Shut up, Beni. I don't care. Just give me one reason I shouldn't shoot you right here," Ruth said.
"Ruth," O'Connell sighed. She hesitated, but eventually holstered her gun.
"Man, what the hell are we doing?" Daniels then asked.
"Patience, my good barat'm, patience," Beni said placating him.
"Remember our bet, O'Connell, Ruth. First one to the city, 500 cash bucks," Henderson reminded them.
"A hundred of them bucks is yours if you help us win that bet," Daniels told Beni.
"Oh, my pleasure," he replied. "Hey, O'Connell. Nice camel." Beni flashed O'Connell a nasty smile, but the man merely patted his camel on the head.
"Get ready for it," O'Connell said.
"For what?" Evie asked, confused.
"We're about to be shown the way," Ruth said. Everyone turned their attention to the horizon where the sun was starting to become visible. Everyone but O'Connell, Beni, and Ruth gave gasps of amazement. As the sun ascended over the horizon, the air in the distance seemed to shimmer, like a mirage. And from that shimmer, where the desert looked empty of anything other than sand, appeared a cluster of Ancient Egyptian structures.
"Would you look at that…?" Henderson breathed.
"Can you believe it?" Daniels then said.
"Hamunaptra," Burns said in realization.
"Here we go again," O'Connell sighed. After a few seconds, Hamunaptra became fully visible, and the race began. O'Connell and Beni took off, Evie and Ruth not far behind, and the Americans not far behind them. At one point, Beni began hitting O'Connell with his riding-crop-like stick, but O'Connell retaliated by grabbing Beni's clothing and tugging him off of his camel and letting him drop onto the ground. Nile leaped over the Hungarian man, but still stepped on his hand.
"Sorry, didn't see you there!" Ruth couldn't help but call over her shoulder. Her brother laughed aloud at that and Ruth let a little smirk grow on her face.
"Serves you right," Evie said as she passed him. Ruth laughed at her best friend's comment. Soon, Evie caught up with the O'Connells, even passing them. Ruth and Jonathan cheered for Evie as she ran ahead on her camel, soon passing into the lost city of Hamunaptra.
Hey all! Here is the revised and edited version of chapter 3. I hope you all like it!
Cheerio!