The Return of the Med-jai
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with the motion picture The Mummy. That's all you, Universal Studios. And I'm not going to profit off this story, so calm down. There's no reason to sue, and you all make too much money anyway. Vultures.
AN: Thanks to kaytieorndorff, zentry, Ravenclaw Samurai, winged-karma, benzene, Nelle07,YueMichiruNaragisawaMiko, pirate hero, tigerlily124, bringmetheangie, casey21791, Padme4000, gothicluver13, IllinoisRose, Nikki Morgan, and Hakujou Enputi-shigai for all the reviews!
Chapter 6: Retreat
Madeline crept down the cavernous museum hall, clutching her stolen machine gun to her chest. Her stupid high heels were making an annoying clacking sound against the linoleum that echoed throughout the hallway, threatening to give her away.
Fortunately – or perhaps unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it – she doubted anyone was paying attention to her clacking high heels at the moment, because the sound of rapid fire coming from the loading dock was more than enough to drown out her approach.
She increased her pace, racing down the hall, and finally reached the back of the museum, where she found full blown war.
The back storeroom was littered with men in red turbans. They were shooting at two black robed people on the balcony-like hall that Madeline was standing in. Below, Rick and Evie were trying to shoot their way out of the storeroom.
Lock'nah, Mr. Hafez, and Miss Nais were all down there – the latter of which was firing a very powerful machine gun. Madeline was rather impressed. Too bad the woman was on the wrong side.
She ducked behind one of the pillars and took another look at the scene below. There, hollering in ancient Egyptian, was a tall, decayed, surreal looking mummy.
Shit. That was freaking Imhotep.
Madeline raced towards the black robed figures, diving behind the same wide pillar as the one nearest to her. The figure looked up, startled, and Madeline's jaw dropped in shock when she took in the other young woman's face.
"Madeline!" Nasira Bay exclaimed, her expression mirroring the shocked look on Madeline's face. "We were coming to rescue you!"
"Thanks," Madeline replied. She grinned at her friend. "What are you doing here, Nasira? I had no idea…"
"I came with Ardeth," she informed her. "To get the Bracelet and warn you and your family about Meela Nais and Lock'nah… well, you undoubtedly know what I am speaking of."
"Not really," Madeline returned. "But you can fill me in later."
Nasira nodded, smiling happily. "We had best get back to shooting. I will hug you when this is over, yes?"
Madeline shrugged. "If you gotta…"
Then the two of them ducked back around their respective corners of their pillar and opened fire once again.
Madeline shot at the men below, trying her best to take some out. She frowned as she shot, gripping the machine gun tightly, and cussing under her breath. She hated machine guns.
Out of ammo, she ducked back around the corner to reload. Nasira did the same.
"I hate these stupid things!" Madeline announced in aggravation as she loaded her weapon. "I have no control over the freaking bullets! It's so annoying!"
"At least you are doing some damage," Nasira returned, also reloading. Madeline noticed for the first time that Nasira was using Rick's shotgun. "I hate this thing! It requires far too much effort to kill something!"
They paused, staring at one another. Madeline raised her eyebrow. Nasira looked from Madeline, to the machine gun, to the shotgun, and then back at Madeline again.
With lightening speed, the two women switched weapons and finished the loading and cocking process. "Thank you," Madeline said.
"No, thank you."
They began shooting at the men below once more. After several volleys, Rick began racing up the stairs, Evie in tow. Ardeth – the black robed figure behind the other pillar – called to his younger sister, "Now, Nasira! We are retreating!"
"Coming!" Nasira hollered back. "Madeline…"
"Yes, let's go," Madeline cut her off. "Please."
The two of them raced after Ardeth, still shooting at the men below. Rick and Evie were hauling ass up the staircase. As they met up at the top of the steps, she heard her older brother groan.
"Not these guys again!" he exclaimed.
Madeline followed her brother's gaze. Imhotep had lifted the lid off one of his urns and now several mummies of the long dead, original protectors of Hamunaptra had swirled out of dust and into life.
Imhotep roared an order that Madeline was sure translated to "Kill them!"
"I don't have time for this right now!" Rick thundered. "I still have a little sister to save!"
"Hi, Rick," Madeline put in.
Both Evie and Ardeth looked up at her in shock. "Hey, Maddie," Rick replied. Then he frowned, suddenly realizing what had just happened, and gave her a shocked look of his own. "Maddie?"
"As far as I know," Madeline returned.
Rick stared a brief moment longer and then shrugged. "Guess I can cross that off the to-do list. Run!"
The five of them tore off down the hall, rushing for the exit. Madeline felt the adrenaline turn her stomach, gripping Rick's shotgun to her chest. The mummified warriors were getting closer. She could hear their echoing roars as they followed their five intended victims down the museum hallways.
They burst through the exit doors and raced for Rick's car. Madeline ran as fast as her stupid shoes would allow. From behind her, she could still hear Imhotep's servants and their echoing and unearthly roars. Evie attempted rather stupidly to drag a bench in front of the exit, but Rick quickly put a stop to that notion and yanked her away, informing his wife that "these guys don't use doors."
The five of them kept running across the parking lot, nearing the safety of Rick's car. Rick's very empty car, Madeline noticed. She had just begun to hope that Jonathan and Alex hadn't come along on this rescue mission when she heard Rick exclaim, "Where the hell is Jonathan?"
Madeline glanced around the car, still seeing nobody besides the five of them. Great. Just fantastic. Where the hell was Jonathan, indeed?
That's when a huge, red, double-decker bus swerved around a corner and tore into the parking lot, horn blaring.
"Alex!" Evie cried out, racing for the bus doors.
Madeline blinked. Sure enough, both Jonathan and her nephew were on board the double-decker bus. In fact, Jonathan was behind the wheel of said bus.
She sighed, rubbing her temples. They were as good as dead.
"What's the matter with my car?" Rick demanded.
"Well, I was forced to find alternative means of transportation," Jonathan explained – managing somehow, of course, to not really explain anything at all.
"A double-decker bus?" Rick exploded.
"It was his idea!" Jonathan defended himself, pointing at his nephew.
"Was not!" Alex protested.
Madeline rolled her eyes, and raced off after Ardeth and Nasira, who were already boarding the bus. She leapt up into the vehicle directly behind them. Rick stayed behind a moment to continue yelling at Jonathan before the anxiety over the mummified warriors on their tail kicked in, and he too got on board.
Evie stood at the front of the bus, clutching her son to her, as Jonathan put the vehicle in gear and tore off down the street. Madeline tumbled into a seat as Jonathan made a wild turn. Rolling her eyes at her friend's nonexistent driving abilities, she settled into the seat and started reloading her shotgun.
Rick, leaning in the door, began reloading as well. Ardeth stood near her brother, clutching his Thompson, while Nasira half leaned, half sat in a seat right behind Rick, loading her own machine gun with her remaining bullets.
"No!" Rick suddenly shouted. "Not my car!"
The shout could only mean the mummies had left the museum. Madeline leapt to her feet, clutching her newly loaded shotgun, and ran over to her brother's side. Through the vehicle's rear window, she could see four mummies racing after the huge red bus, leaving behind the crumpled remains of Rick's car.
"Oh, I hate mummies," her brother growled.
"Happy to see me now?" Ardeth asked from behind them.
"Just like old times," Rick returned sarcastically. He looked over at Madeline. "You and me, up top."
Madeline nodded. "After you, big brother."
Rick raced up the steps to the top level of the bus, and Madeline followed. Up top, Rick yanked open the long back window and settled down into the corner farthest from the stairs. Madeline took the other, aiming her shotgun out the back of the bus. "Remind me to never go to Egypt again," her brother announced, pointing his weapon at the street in anticipation of their pursuers. "I'm not robbing any more tombs, and I'm definitely not bringing back any more cursed jewelry!"
"I think it's a little late for that," Madeline informed him.
"Evie can have a dream about a purple rhinoceros eating the pyramids of Giza for all I care," Rick raved on. "I'm staying put in my big, comfy house, right here in London! No more mummies!"
"Sure," Madeline replied ironically. "I believe that."
"Shut up."
Madeline would have made another sarcastic retort, but suddenly Imhotep's four warriors came running around the street corner and made a beeline for their getaway car.
Both Madeline and her brother aimed and opened fire. They soon found that their guns weren't going to be much help. Rick hit one mummy in the leg, taking out his kneecap. He stumbled, fell, lost part of his calf, and then got right back up, took a running leap, and began gliding along the side of a building.
The other three joined him.
Madeline looked at her brother. "These things run on walls?"
Rick aimed and shot another mummy, missing entirely. "Apparently."
Madeline took aim as well, and fired. The wall-climbing mummy she'd been aiming for lost a hand. It didn't even slow down. "You know, Jonathan's driving this bus," she announced.
"I'm well aware." Rick fired, took out a piece of one mummy's arm, and then swore as it kept going.
"Jonathan's driving," she went on. "And these things run on walls." Madeline aimed the shotgun, pulled the trigger, and obliterated one mummy's foot. He barely broke stride.
"And nothing stops them," she finished. "You know we're screwed, right?"
"Yeah," Rick replied, shooting and missing another one. "That thought had occurred to me."
Suddenly, all four mummies leapt off their respective walls, and went flying towards the bus. "Oh, this is just perfect!" Rick exclaimed.
At least two of them landed on top of the bus. Madeline knew this because they made a big enough impact on the roof that she could see where their landings had dented the metal.
Rick aimed at the ceiling and opened fire. He blew a hole in the roof. Madeline followed suit.
But it didn't seem to make much difference what they did. The mummies jumped around on the rooftop, denting the metal, and managing to dodge whatever Madeline or her brother fired their way.
Then they ran out of bullets and had to reload. Which didn't work out so well.
One gray, rotten mummy hand burst through one of the shotgun holes in the roof, grabbing the metal rooftop and tearing a wide enough hole for the mummy to drop down into.
Rick shoved Madeline back towards the window. She hastened to finish reloading as the mummy grabbed hold of her brother, sending him flying towards the other end of the bus. His gun went flying too, tumbling down through some stupid design flaw, and vanishing for good.
But the time Rick had bought her was enough. Shotgun loaded, Madeline held her ground as the mummy advanced on her. She aimed and fired, hitting it right in the head.
There was a shower of dust as the head exploded. The body struggled towards her, clinging to life, and Madeline fired first at its chest, and then somewhere around its pelvic region. There were two more explosions of dust, and the mummy crumbled to the ground, dead.
Well, more dead, anyway.
Madeline sighed, lowering her gun. Rick looked up from the floor, wincing. She caught his eye and grinned.
"Nice one," Rick smirked, sitting up slowly.
That's when rooftop mummy number two showed up.
On the lower level of the bus, Nasira and her brother held their ground, waiting for the creatures to come to them. Evie and Alex stayed in the back, behind Jonathan, who was still driving down the road like a mad man.
All too soon, Nasira thought bitterly, Imhotep's protectors came down on the bus, leaping off the walls they'd been scaling – yes, they scaled walls – and attacked.
Where the other two mummies went, Nasira had no idea, and she had no time to worry about them. She was far too preoccupied fighting off the two mummies that had decided to make their appearance on the bus's lower level.
One tried to throw itself inside through the open door. Her brother stopped it cold. Ardeth and his Thompson opened fire, the machine gun riddling the mummy's lower half with bullets.
The other mummy came crashing in through one of the windows, landing on top of Nasira.
As the sound of the Thompson echoed throughout the bus, Nasira rolled around on the floor with the second mummy, struggling to wrench her machine gun from its hands. They wrestled, banging into the seats, until Nasira finally got smart and let go of the gun.
The mummy's own strength propelled the machine gun into its face. Momentarily out of commission, the mummy toppled backwards, its grip on the gun loosening. Nasira shoved her assailant off of her, yanked her machine gun from its hands, and struggled to her feet.
The mummy struggled to its feet as well, positioning itself between her and the front of the bus. There was no way to kill it without also killing Evie, Alex, or Jonathan.
Damn.
The mummy advanced on her. Nasira backed away, carefully moving to the left as she did so. The mummy mirrored her actions exactly. Once the mummy was standing between her and the right front windows, where her friends would be out of range, Nasira opened fire.
The mummy let loose a horrible howl as Nasira filled it full of bullets. She kept a tight grip on her weapon, doing her best to move it up and down so that she could destroy more of the mummy's body. She didn't let up until her bullets were spent.
Now a sad jumble of arms and legs, the mummy before her disintegrated into a pile of dust and limbs on the floor of the bus. Nasira sighed in relief. Turning to her brother, she saw that he too had disposed of his opponent and was now leaning beside the stairwell, breathing heavily.
She nodded in Ardeth's direction. "Out of breath, brother?" she teased. "You're getting old."
"Not so old," he returned, smirking at her. "Care to test me and see?"
Nasira laughed. "I will," she informed him. "Another time. Not now. Definitely not now. Too close to unconsciousness right now."
He laughed too. Then he stepped further into the bus, examining his now worthless machine gun. "We are out of bullets," he observed.
"Yes," Nasira said. "And hopefully out of mummies as well."
She had spoken too soon. Suddenly there was a loud, earth-shattering roar, and the mummy Ardeth had supposedly taken care off flew into the room, literally only half the man it was, dragging itself along using its upper body strength and the handrails around the ceiling. Evelyn screamed. Alex hid his face in his mother's stomach. Nasira let loose a short, surprised shriek of her own and reached for her sword.
A sharp cry escaped her brother's lips as the legless mummy threw him into the windows. He bounced off, landing on one of the bench seats. Sword drawn and swinging, Nasira charged the mummy's torso in a rage.
There was a sharp, searing sound as the mummy released a set of retractable claws and swung back. Nasira barely dodged the mummy's fingernails in time, almost earning herself three long scars to go with the new tattoo on her cheek. She swung at the mummy's torso once again from her new, lower position, but only managed to knock loose some of the bottom ribs. The mummy turned the tables, charging her instead, blocking each blow of her sword with its long claws.
Ardeth appeared from behind the mummy, clutching his own sword. The blade nearly struck at the neck, almost cleaving the head from the mummy's shoulders, but the undead warrior proved too quick. The mummy swung, hanging from the handrails by one arm, and caught Ardeth's sword in hand, wrestling it from Ardeth's grip. Then it flung the sword off into the corner, nearly slicing Nasira in the face. She ducked, and the sword passed harmlessly over her head.
The mummy suddenly let go of the handrails, launching itself at Ardeth. Its strong, powerful hands closed tightly around her brother's neck. Nasira ran to Ardeth's aid, sword in hand.
She swore the mummy had eyes in the back of its head. Without even turning around, the mummy reached behind its back and caught her sword halfway through its deadly journey to the mummy's neck. Then it snatched the blade right out of her hands and threw her sword across the bus just as it had Ardeth's. Moments later, it tossed Ardeth as well.
Her brother landed on top of her. The two of them sprawled to the floor. Then the mummy went after Evie and Alex.
Evelyn shrieked again. Nasira shoved her brother off of her and chased after the mummy, throwing herself on its back and wrapping her arms tightly around its neck. The mummy began jerking around wildly, trying to throw her off.
Ardeth appeared in front of the mummy, throwing punches. The mummy ducked each swing, still trying to shake Nasira loose. "This is ridiculous!" Nasira bellowed as she hung on for dear life. "It is only half a mummy! We are being beaten by a torso! Ow!"
One of Ardeth's punches hit her in the face by accident, and she let go of the mummy's neck, crumbling to the floor. "Nasira!" her brother cried out desperately. The desperate cry quickly turned to one of pain as the mummy flung him into a wall.
Then three powerful shotgun blasts exploded right above Nasira's head. Each blast hit the mummy in just the right spots, and suddenly their opponent was dust.
Nasira and Ardeth, both piled on the floor, looked up in surprise. Evelyn was standing at the front of the bus, hiding her son behind her, and gripping Rick's shotgun.
They stared at her for a moment. Nasira tried desperately to catch her breath. Her brother groaned, dragging himself into a seat. Nasira followed suit, and then returned her stare to Evie, gesturing at the gun.
"Where in Allah's name did that come from?"
Mummy number two dropped down quite unexpectedly through the hole in the roof, landing right on Madeline. She cried out in both pain and surprise as the tall, broad, undead monster crashed down on top of her, knocking her to the ground. Her gun fell from her hands, and the mummy kicked it, sending it toppling down the stairs.
"Oh, crap," she spat, watching her gun disappear into the lower level.
Rick let loose a loud battle cry, launching himself at the new mummy. The mummy whirled around as Rick came rushing towards it, and smacked him in the face. Rick hit the ground.
Madeline leapt to her feet and kicked the mummy in the stomach. The mummy grabbed her calf and yanked, hard. Suddenly she was flat on her back, lying on the floor.
Great, she thought sarcastically. This is just pathetic.
The mummy grabbed her hair, and Madeline considered just cutting the damn stuff off – a consideration that she'd been having periodically throughout the night. Rick pulled himself off the ground and tackled the mummy again. The two of them collided with the far window, and Madeline went with them, dragged along by her hair.
Cussing, she grabbed hold of the mummy's arm and snapped it off violently at the elbow. The mummy let loose a howl of pain as its arm came loose. Madeline pried the undead fingers from her hair and hurled the limb out the open back window.
Rick and the mummy were rolling around the floor now. Madeline crawled up behind Rick's opponent and grabbed it by the neck, trying desperately to wrestle the thing off her brother.
The three of them struggled on the floor for a while. After several moments of thrashing about, the mummy finally managed to shake Madeline loose and send her flying backwards into the wall by the stairs. Then it grabbed Rick by the neck.
Rick smashed two fingers into the mummy's eye sockets. The sight of the gray goop on his fingers when he pulled them back was enough to make Madeline gag. Rick used the time the move had bought him to struggle to his feet, mummy still clamped on to his throat. Then, Rick caught sight of something over the mummy's shoulder and his eyes went wide.
"Not good!" he shouted.
"What?" Madeline demanded, getting to her feet as well.
Rick didn't respond. He stumbled backwards just enough to stand beside his sister, and then kicked Madeline behind her knees.
She let out a startled shriek, and then toppled down the stairs exactly like her shotgun had just moments before.
Squeaking and cussing as she rolled down the steps, Madeline counted the bruises forming as she fell, determined to pay her stupid oaf of an older brother back for each one. She landed hard on the floor of the lower level, out of breath and sore. "What the hell is wrong with you?" she shouted up the stairs, still lying on her back.
That's when the bus hit something. Not the whole bus, Madeline mused, because the madman at the wheel – aka, Jonathan – kept right on going. But there was no denying the horrible crunching and splintering of metal hitting concrete as Jonathan drove under a bridge that was too low to clear a double-decker. As Madeline gaped up the stairs, she saw the top half of the bus get smashed right off, metal crumpling and seats collapsing. Debris tumbled down the staircase, and Madeline threw her arms over her head, shielding her face from the scrap metal falling her way.
Once she was sure there were no more falling debris, she lowered her arms and squinted up the stairs. The top level was gone. All that remained was a jumbled mess of crinkled metal and broken chairs.
Madeline's stomach twisted itself into one very complex knot. "Rick?" she called up the stairs, disguising her worry with a joke – one that she hoped wasn't about to be proven massively inappropriate. "You still alive up there?"
A reply came in the form of a grunt that was unmistakably her older brother. "Yeah," he called back gruffly. "I'm good."
She heard him banging around the top level and breathed a sigh of relief. "The mummy's dead now, right?" she asked.
"Oh, yeah," Rick replied. "He's dead all right. I mean, well… deader."
Shaking her head, Madeline hauled herself off the ground and took in the scene on the lower level of the bus. Two abandoned machine guns and two lost swords lay forgotten on the floor. Glass littered the ground under one broken window. Evie was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily, her son held against her. Jonathan, still at the wheel, slowed down and parked. Even from her distance, Madeline could tell his shoulders were hunched and tensed with terror.
Ardeth sat on one side of the bus, catching his breath. Across from him sat his sister, doing the same.
Madeline limped away from the bus door. Alex disentangled himself from his mother and launched himself at his aunt. Wincing, Madeline caught her nephew as he wrapped her up in a very aggressive hug. "Aunt Maddie!" he exclaimed. "You're back!"
She nodded, hugging him back and patting him on the head. "Yep. I'm back," she said, slowly removing herself from the very sweet but incredibly painful hug. "Sorry kiddo, but Aunt Maddie's kind of sore."
He grinned up at her. "It's all right!" he chirped, letting go.
She smiled at him, ruffling his hair. "Aunt Maddie!" he protested, ducking out of the way and running for cover behind his mom.
Madeline walked stiffly over to the seat beside Nasira and plopped down, exhausted. "You ok?" she asked.
Nasira nodded. "Excellent," she returned. "Yourself?"
Madeline smirked. "Fantastic."
The sound of Rick's heavy boots pounding on the stairs echoed through the lower level as he returned from the decimated bus top. He stopped at the foot of the stairs, taking in the exhausted and breathless people filling the bus seats.
"Whoa," he murmured. "You break anything falling down those stairs, Maddie?"
"No," she returned. "And what do you mean falling? You kicked me!"
"Saved your ass," he retorted. Then he turned his attention to Ardeth. "You all right?"
Ardeth mustered up a smirk for Madeline's older brother. "This was my first bus ride," he replied breathlessly.
Rick smirked back, amused. "Nasira?" he asked.
"Same," she replied.
Rick smirked at her too, and then crossed the bus to where his wife was beckoning him. "What would I do without you?" Evie asked seductively as her husband fell into her open arms.
"Are all librarians this much trouble?" Rick returned, leaning in for a kiss. The two of them were soon caught up in an unbreakable and nauseating lip-lock.
"Oh please," Alex muttered, heading for the opposite end of the bus. "Get a room."
His parents continued kissing as though he hadn't spoken. Rolling her eyes, Madeline looked away from her brother and his wife, leaning back in her seat.
Mistake. Her eyes met Ardeth's.
For a moment, all Madeline could do was stare at him. It seemed the feeling was mutual, because Ardeth stared back. His dark eyes bored into hers, and Madeline found herself unable to look away.
Four years. It had been four years, and nothing had changed. She wasn't sure whether she ought to be glad or bitterly disappointed. One look from him was still enough to tie her stomach up in knots… and her tongue too, for that matter.
He looked very much the same as he had the last time she'd seen him. A little older, perhaps. Weary. And not nearly as kind.
Madeline wondered briefly if he'd ever be kind to her again.
Despite feeling Nasira's eyes boring into the side of her head, Madeline could not bring herself to either look away or speak. Finally, after several long moments of staring, Ardeth broke the silence.
"Madeline," he murmured, inclining his head in greeting.
She copied his head incline, trying to force a smile. "Ardeth," she replied quietly.
They stared at one another some more. Madeline searched her brain desperately for something to say. "Hi," she tried finally.
His lips didn't even twitch, which hurt. "Hello," he returned.
Again, that awful silence. Again, that compulsive staring. Madeline began to wonder if she was doomed to spend the rest of her life sitting on this bus and staring silently at Ardeth Bay.
"Usually, in most civilized conversations, the next step is for one person to ask the other, 'How are you?'" Nasira announced suddenly, breaking the stillness.
At the very least, her comment stopped the staring. Both Madeline and Ardeth turned to the youngest Bay and glared at her. Wearing a soft but teasing smile, Nasira held up her hands in surrender. "What?" she asked innocently. "I was only trying to help."
But before either of the three could say anything else, there was frightened shriek from the back of the bus. Madeline's head snapped up in horror and she jumped involuntarily to her feet. Rick pushed past her in a panic, bellowing his son's name, and ran to the exit, leaping from the bus and tearing off down the street.
The men from the museum had followed them. And now, they had Alex.