"George Bembridge... in eighteen-sixty...Hmm. 1865 was... was... Oh, for heaven's sake, girl, it wasn't that good of a kiss anyway."
Evelyn , wearing a nightgown, stood in front of a mirror. She gave her head a good shake, letting her hair fall loose over her bare shoulders. Then she turned around, right there was one of the Medjai. It was Hook. He slammed his hand over her mouth and lifts up his hook, ready to strike.
"Where is the map?"
Evelyn's terrified eyes glanced down.
"It's... It's there..."
Hook looked over, saw the map lying next to a flickering candle on a nearby table.
"And the key? Where is the key?"
Evelyn's eyes look confused. She shook her head.
"The key? What key?"
Hook grinned.
"Then I'll find it myself."
He cocked his hook, about to kill her. And that's when the door is kicked open. O'Connell bursted in, gun in each hand.
"Evelyn!"
Hook spun Evelyn around and holds her out in front of him. O'Connell looks at her.
"Friend of yours?"
Evelyn's eyes widen. And that's when the candle on the table flickers. O'Connel spins around just as a window bursts open. A Medjai leans in and fires a gun. Woodchips blast off the wall next to O'Connell's
head and he returns the fire and kills the Medjai which Mumia fell back, firing blindly. A lantern in the room is blasted. Kerosene splashed across the wall that bursted into flames. Evelyn grabbed the candle on the table and jams it back over her shoulder, right into Hook's eye. He screeched in pain and lets her go. O'Connell grabs her and yanks her out of the flaming room. O'Connell pulls Evelyn down the hall, she tries to jerk free.
"The map! The map! I forgot the map!"
He shoves her up against a wall.
"Relax! I'm the map! It's all up here."
He taps his forehead.
"Oh that's comforting."
O'Connell gives her a look, then pulls her forward.
"C'mon, there's still one more of those guys around here somewhere."
Hot melted wax covers Hook's face as he held his sore eye and struggled to the door. Then he noticed the key/box on the floor.
"The key!"
He bends over to pick it up. And that's when the door was kicked open again, it hits him in the ass and knocks him into the fire. Jonathan leans in. Sees nothing but flames.
"EVY?!"
Then he sees the key/box on the floor and picks it up. A hand suddenly snatches the key/box away from him.
"Hey that's mine..."
Hook's backside is now on fire. He lifts his pistol. Jonathan quickly backpedals out the door as Hook opens fire.
O'Connell and Evelyn raced out onto the deck near the horse paddock. People were screaming and shouting, lots of panic. A chunk of the wall is blown off next to Evelyn's head. O'Connell pivots and fires back. It's the another Medjai, on the other side of the paddock. He and O'Connell exchange gunfire. Another lantern bursted into flames. O'Connell shot off the paddock lock. The horses went nuts. O'Connell fires over their heads. They charge forward and crash through the door. The Medjai screamed as the horses stampede over him. flames sweep up the walls and race across the roof. Half the barge is now on fire. O'Connell throws the gunny-sack over his shoulder.
"Can you swim?"
"Well of course I can swim, if the occasion calls for it."
"Trust me."
He picked her up and throws her over the side.
"The occasion calls for it."
Evelyn splashed into the water. O'Connell dives in after her.
Jonathan ran out onto the bow, saw the three Americans, guns in every hand, fanning their pistols, shooting everything in sight. Jonathan just shakes his head.
"Americans."
Hook suddenly stumbles up behind him, now a flaming torch. Jonathan turns around, Hook grabs him by the throat with his flaming arm and pins him to the cabin wall. Jonathan's eyes widened as he saw a hook rising up inside the flames about to strike him. The Americans pivot and open fire. It blowed Hook over the railing. Jonathan turns to the Americans and smiles.
"I say, bloody good show, chaps!"
Then he points his thumb at himself.
"And did I panic?"
He lifts up his other hand, he has the key/box back.
"I think not."
And that's when the horses stampede onto the bow. Jonathan dives over one side, the three Americans dive over the other.
O'Connell, Evelyn, Jonathan and the warden wade out of the water. Evelyn's nightgown clings tight to her body as she wrings it out.
"We've lost everything! All our tools, all the equipment. All my clothes!"
Everybody else, including the horses, was getting out on the far shore O'Connell spotted Beni running up to the Americans.
"O'Connell! Hey! O'Connell! It looks to me like I've
got all the horses!"
"Hey Beni! Looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!"
Beni looks up at the stars, then angrily kicks the sand cursing.
"Maddy? MADYLINN!!!!!!!" Evelyn screams.
She ran back into the water and looked frantically over the water to the barge and the other side of the river. Tears welled up in her eyes as she called for her cousin over and over again.
"Madylinn", she whined.
O'Connell walked up to her and embraced her from behind.
The flaming barge drifts off, slowly sinking...
Unknown POV
I heard someone screaming a name and I looked to that direction. There I saw a woman in a nightgown. She reminded me of someone else. As a picture of that beautiful girl from earlier flashed into my mind, I frantically looked to the other riverside. But she was nowhere to be found. Then I heard a glass shattering from the flaming barge and I got a bad feeling. I swam up to the barge and jumped over the railing. My running feet brought me to her flaming room. She herself laid on the ground unconscious. I raced up to her and listened for heartbeat before scooping her up and taking her outside. I jumped over the railing into the water with her on my arms.
"Ardeth?" someone called for me.
"Why did you save her?"
"I couldn't watch her die."
Once we got on dry land, I gently laid her down and pressed my lips to hers to blow some air into her lungs.
"Come on, open your eyes for me!"
She coughed and inhaled very deep. I smiled relieved. She smiled back and whispered a 'Thank you' before she drifted back to unconsciousness. I heard someone crying and saw that woman who was screaming earlier. They came our way and the others pulled me away. I struggled against their grips, not wanting to leave the girl alone.
"Oh my gosh! Maddy!"
The woman ran up to the girl that, I assumed, was Maddy. She lifted her upper body and hugged her.
"Evelyn?" Maddy whispered.
"Madylinn", a man came up.
Madylinn smiled.
"Jonathan."
"Here let me take her."
The second man in the group walked to her side and scooped her up in his arms.
"There's a little 'city' not far away."
He turns and I watched as he lead the group to that city.
No ones POV
"I only want five! Five! I only want five, not a whole bloody herd! Ohh can you believe this cheek?"
"Just pay the man."
Jonathan forks over some cash. The Trader hands them the reins of four ugly old camels.
"Oh, for heaven's sake. I can't believe the price of these fleabags. Yes happy. Very good."
You probably could've got 'em for free. All you had to do was give him your sister."
"Yes, awfully tempting, wasn't it?"
"Awfully."
And that's when Madylinn andEvelyn stepped out of a trading tent. They've changed into gorgeous, tightly fitted, oriental dresses. Madylinn's dress was a bra-like top and a very long skirt, both colored in different shades of pink and with golden patterns.
"Then again..."
O'Connell, Evelyn, a still weak Madylinn, Jonathan and the warden were on camels in the middle of the frying pan; the endless, sunbaked Sahara.
"Never did like camels. Filthy buggers. They smell, they bite, they spit. Disgusting ."
The warden savagely attacks a chicken wing with his vile green teeth. Flies buzz around his head. He sucks at his guns, then spits out some gristle. O'Connell watches him.
"Yeah, disgusting."
Madylinn agreed with a look of the warden. Meanwhile Evelyn was having the time of her life on top of her camel.
"Well I think they're cute."
The moon shone down at the five lone camel rider's trekking across the vast wasteland. Jonathan is sound asleep, his head bobbing comically to the
rhythm of his camel. On the camel next to him, the warden snores loudly. Up in front of them, Evelyn slowly starts to slide off her saddle. O'Connell reaches over and stops her, then gently pushes her back up onto her saddle, never waking her. For a long moment, his eyes watch Evelyn, and then he
looks up at a distant ridge where Ardeth Bay and a group of Medjai riders are pacing them.
"Hey what's the matter?" Madylinn asked.
O'Connell nods to the distant ridge.
"There on the ridge. They were there too went I ran out of Hamunaptra."
Madylinn didn't knew that the leader of the Medjai group was following her with his eyes.
The dawning sun hasn't yet crested the distant horizon as Jonathan and the warden ride alongside a giant sand dune.
"And you snore!"
"I do not snore!"
"All night you snored!"
"I have never snored!"
Up in front of them, O'Connell looks at Evelyn.
"We're almost there."
"Are you sure?"
O'Connell looks down at the ground.
"Pretty sure."
The others look down and see dozens of skeletons sticking out of the ground, bleached and eaten away. Some of the skeletons look like they're trying to crawl up out of the desert floor.
"What in bloody hell is this?"
The warden shivers in fear.
"Other seekers of Hamunaptra."
The American Expedition rides out from behind the far end of the dune. The Americans are accompanied by two dozen native diggers and an Arab Egyptologist. Beni rides lead on a camel, the rest ride horses.
"Good morning, my friend!"
O'Connell just nods. The two parties come to a stop a hundred feet apart. O'Connell turns and stares out across the endless horizon, Beni does likewise. The Americans look puzzled.
"Well, what the hell we doin'?" Daniels asked.
"Patience, my good sahib, patience."
Henderson looks over at O'Connell.
"Remember our bet, O'Connell. First one to the city, five hundred cash bucks. A hundred of the bucks is yours if you help us win that bet", he directed the part to Beni.
"Oh my pleasure. Hey O'Connell. Nice camel."
He looks to Madylinn.
"And a nice toy too."
Madylinn grimaced.
O'Connell and Beni just stare out at the flat nothingness. Evelyn and Jonathan share a look. And then, the sun starts to rise in the distance, breaking the flat horizon.
"Get ready for it."
Evelyn can feel the suspense and the majesty of the moment.
"For what?" Madylinn asked.
"We're about to be shown the way."
Far off to the right, a huge shape begins to rise with the sun; a volcano. O'Connell and Beni watch it, expressionless.
"Will ya look at that."
"Can you believe it?
"Hamunaptra."
"Here we go again."
Daniels , Henderson and Burns share a look.
"HEYA!" the three of them yelled in unison.
The Americans take off, racing towards the rising volcano.
"SEE YA THERE, O'CONNELL!" Daniels yelled.
Madylinn, Evelyn and Jonathan give O'Connell anxious, sarcastic looks.
"Ah, begging your pardon, but shouldn't we be going?"
"After all, you rode us night and day to win that bet", Madylinn shot.
O'Connell didn't say a word, staring hard. Beni watches the Americans and spits into the sand.
"Fools."
And then suddenly, the volcano shifts across the horizon, passing across the sun as it goes. It's a mirage. The Americans crash their horses to a stop and race the other way, after the volcano. Evelyn and Jonathan smile, amazed. The volcano shifts again, floating across the watery horizon. The Americans crash to a stop again and chase after the volcano. All three of them confused and CURSING. O'Connell and Beni just stared, waiting. The volcano shifts again. And the Americans crash to a stop again. Burns is thrown from his horse. Henderson angrily rips his hat off and chucks it to the ground. Daniels just curses as they give up the chase. The volcano comes to a stop on the far left of the horizon. The Americans are on the far right, nothing moves. And then O'Connell grins, so does Beni. They share a look. And then swat their camels and race away. Everybody else hauls-ass after them. O'Connell and Beni are neck-and-neck. And then Madylinn comes galloping up, hair flying in the wind. Beni takes out his camel whip and starts whipping O'Connell, trying to knock him off his camel. On the third try O'Connell grabs the whip and jerks Beni off his camel. Beni slams to the ground and tumbles. Madylinn and O'Connell race across the desert. Madylinn has never felt so alive. She laughs. O'Connell grins. Beni stumbles to his feet, then quickly dances out of the way as Evelyn, Jonathan and all the other riders stampede past him. Madylinn beats O'Connell to the stone ramp, racing hard.
"Madylinn! Slow down!"
Madylinn ignores him as she raced up the ramp towards the gate.
"SLOW DOWN, MADYLINN! SLOW DOWN! THERE'S A REALLY BIG..."
Madylinn goes ass-over-teacups through the air and crash lands in a sand dune. She sits up, stunned, sandy hair in her eyes. O'Connell stops at the edge of the ramp next to her camel.
"Never mind."
The Americans ride up and look in wonder at the ruins inside the volcano. O'Connell gives them a big, shit-eating grin.
"You boys owe me five hundred dollars."
Under the guidance of the Egyptologist, the Diggers are busy hauling rock and dirt out of the Temple doorway. The three Anericans are playing poker. Beni smokes a hookah and swats flies. Dozens of stray camels roam the decrepit city; dusty backpacks and old saddlebags still slung over their humps.
"Where'd all these camels come from?"
"They belong to the dead. They will wait years for their masters to return before leaving", Beni answered.
O'Connell, Evelyn, Madylinn, Jonathan and the warden are working next to a narrow crevice, which weaves it's way through the ruins. O'Connell ties a rope around a pillar and throws the rest of the coils into the crevice, about to rappel down. Jonathan
bends over to have a look, his ass hits something, he yelps and backs away. It's the decrepit face of Anubis.
"That thing gives me the creeps", Jonathan mumbled.
"Be nice. That thing saved my life", O'Connell said.
Evelyn and Madylinn are positioning ancient mirrors along the crevice.
"That 'thing' gets me excited", Evelyn stated.
The things that get you excited", O'Connell said sarcastically.
"That's a statue of Anubis. It's legs go deep underground. According to Bembridge Scholars, inside the statue of Anubis was a secret compartment, perhaps containing the Book of the Living", Madylinn said, "Jonathan, you're meant to catch the sun with that.
"So, uh, what are these old mirrors for?"
"Ancient mirrors. It's an ancient Egyptian trick. You'll see."
"Uh, here, this is for, uh, you. Go ahead. It's something I borrowed off our American brethren. I thought you might like it... you might need it for when you're, uh... uh, yeah."
O'Connell gave the two women each a tool kit. He turns around and saw the warden staring.
"What are you lookin' at?"
"Hey! Look for bugs. I hate bugs."
O'Connell shrugs, then rappels down into the crevice.
O'Connell waved a torch as Jonathan, Madylinn, Evelyn and the warden dropped down next to him. Evelyn peered into the spooky darkness.
"Do you realize, we are standing inside a room that no one has entered in over four thousand years."
"Three thousands", Madylinn corrected her cousin.
"Who cares? I don't see no treasure."
"You're welcome to my share of the spider webs."
"Whoo! What is that god-awful stench. It stinks to high heaven in here."
Evelyn just rolls her eyes.
"Cretins."
Jonathan sniffed the foul air, then he looked at the warden and realized where the smell was coming from. He stopped sniffing. Evelyn brushed cobwebs away from a metal disk on the wall, then repositioned it on it's pedestal, aiming it at a ray of light shining in from the outer mirrors.
"And then there was... light.
The ray of light hits the disk and quickly shot around the room from one disk to another until the whole chamber was lit up. Light rays shot off down the passageways. It's the embalmer's chamber.
"Hey, that is a neat trick."
"Oh my god, It's a sah-netjer?" Madylinn exclaimed excitedly.
"Huh?"
"A preparation room."
"Preparation for what?"
"For entering the afterlife."
O'Connell quickly drew his gun. Jonathan gently nudged him.
"Mummies, my good son. This is where they made the mummies."
Madylinn headed down a narrow passageway. The others followed.
Madylinn, O'Connell , Evelyn and Jonathan crouched as they made their way through a narrow, cobweb infested labyrinth. The short, squat warden could stand straight up. Then they hear something and freeze. It sounded like somebody is clawing inside the walls. They shared looks.
"What the... What was that?"
"Sounds like... bugs."
"He said bugs."
"What do you mean, bugs? I hate bugs."
Then they slowly moved forward, getting darker and darker as they go. The strange sound getting louder and louder, then it stopped. The women held their breaths. Jonathan licked his lips. O'Connell cocked his pistol. The warden farted.
The others glared at him. They slowly crept out of the labyrinth and up to the foot of an enormous half-buried statue, the lower half of Anubis.
"The legs of Anubis. The secret compartment should be hidden somewhere inside here."
Then they heard the sound again, coming closer now, from the other side of the statue. O'Connell pulled the women behind him. The sound got closer. O'Connell raises his gun and leaps out. Three horrible sweaty faces lunge at him. O'Connell reacts, but doesn't pull the trigger because it was just the Americans, their guns were up, cocked and aimed.
"You scared the be jesus out of us, O'Connell", Henderson said.
"Likewise."
But nobody lowered their guns. Daniels grinned.
"Have a nice day, gentlemen. We have a lot of work to be getting along with."
"Push off. This is our dig site."
"We got here first."
"This here's our statue, friend."
"I don't see your name written on it,... pal."
And that's when Beni, five Diggers and the Egyptologist stepped out of the shadows, all holding guns aimed at O'Connell.
"Ten to one, O'Connell, your odds are not so great."
"I've had worse."
Jonathan clenches a tiny derringer.
"Yeah, me too."
O'Connell gave him a sideways glance. Beni cocked his gun, grinning, he wanted it to happen. The tension thickened. Then Evelyn gently took O'Connell's gun hand and pulled it down.
"Oh, look, for goodness' sake, let's be nice, children. If we're going to play together, we must learn to share. There are other places to dig."
Madylinn pulled O'Connell away. Evelyn, Jonathan and the warden followed. Beni and the Americans slowly lowered their guns, laughing. The Egyptologist excitedly began translating the hieroglyphs.
O'Vonnel and Jonathan were using sledge-hammers against the ceiling. Evelyn was gently chipping away with a tiny chisel.
"According to these hieroglyphs, we're underneath the statue. We should come upright between his legs."
"When those damn dirty Yanks go to sleep..."
-he looks at O'Connell-
"No offense."
"None taken."
"We'll dig our way up and steal that book right out from under them."
"And you're sure we can find this secret compartment?"
"Oh yes, if those beastly Americans haven't beaten us to it. No offense."
"None taken."
Jonathan looks around.
"Where'd our smelly friend got to?"
The Warden crawled into a dark chamber and lighted a torch. A mural wall came alive. Embedded into it were dozens of black amethyst scarabs; glittering images of the sacred beetles.
"Hey. What have we here? Blue gold."
Awestruck, the Warden pulled out a pocket knife and started prying away at one of the precious bugs.
"This will fetch a mighty fine price."
Beni and the Americans hovered around the Egyptologist, who's found the secret compartment inside Anubis. The Egyptologist brushed sand away from the seam.
"Let's get us some treasure."
Henderson stepped forward and grabbed the seam, the Egyptologist quickly stopped him.
"Careful! Seti was no fool. I think perhaps we should let the diggers open it, hmm?"
Henderson saw the intense look in the Egyptologist's eyes.
"I think we should listen to the good doctor, Henderson."
"Yeah, sure."
He looked back at the native Diggers.
"We'll let them open it."
The Egyptologist nodded, then yelled in Egyptian at the Diggers.
"Zee-eda."
The Diggers hesitated, filled with fear. Daniels pulled out his gun and aimed it at three of the Diggers. The three Diggers hesitantly stepped forward with crowbars and stuck them into the seams. The other Diggers backed away, scared. Beni and the Americans exchanged looks, and then they back away as well.
"Let me get this straight. They ripped out your guts and stuffed them in jars."
"They'd take out your heart as well. You know how they took out your brains?" Evelyn asked.
"I don't think we need to know this", Jonathan said.
"They'd take a sharp, red-hot poker, stick it up your nose, scramble things about a bit and then rip it all out through your nostrils", Madylinn explained before her cousin could do it.
"OWCH! That's gotta hurt", O'Connell said with his eyes on Madylinn and touching his nose.
"It's called mummification. You'll be dead when they do this."
"Still..."
"Yeah, that'd bring you back to life."
"You two are worse than a couple of schoolboys", Madylinn mumbled.
"If I don't make it out of here, don't put me down for mummification", O'Connell demanded with a bit of a disgusted look on his face.
"Likewise", Jonathan agreed.
And that's when a huge chunk of the roof suddenly gave out. O'Connell grabbed Madylinn and jerked her clear. Evelyn and Jonathan dove for the far wall. A massive stone casement dropped out of the ceiling and crashed to the floor. Dust flies filled the room.
"Oh my god. It's a... It's a sarcophagus. Buried at the base of Anubis. He must have been someone of great importance. ... Or he did something very naughty."
"Something tells me that it is the second", Madylinn mumbled.
