Meanwhile, Evelyn, Stefan, Jonathan, and Lexi were nuzzled up to a campfire.
"What do you suppose killed him?" Evelyn asked, wanting to know what truly happened to their companion Gad.
"Did you ever see him eat?" Jonathan asked, assuming if Gad was choking from something that he eat.
That was when Damon and Rick return when they came up over some rocks, and joined the four.
"Well, it seems that our American friends had a little misfortune of their own today." Damon said.
"What do you mean?" Lexi asked.
"Three of their diggers were uh... melted." Rick answered her.
"What?!" Evelyn gasped in shock.
"How did that happen?" Stefan asked.
"Salt acid." Damon answered.
"Pressurized salt acid." Rick corrected him. "Some sort of ancient booby-trap."
"Maybe this place really is cursed." Jonathan assumed about the city of the dead.
His words caused a gust of wind to blow through the camp. The campfire flickers around the group, and they all stare at each other for a moment.
"Oh, for goodness' sake!" Evelyn exclaimed, refusing to believe such words from his brother.
"You don't believe in curses, huh?" Damon asked.
"No, I don't." Evelyn said. "I believe if I can see it, and I can touch it, then it's real. That's what I believe."
"I believe in being prepared." Rick said as he cocks his shot gun.
"Let's see what our friend the warden believed in." Damon said while he opens the Gad's bag. He reaches in, starts scrounging around. And then, he yelps in pain and rips his hand back out of the pouch.
"What happened to you, brother?" Stefan asked.
Damon sighs and doesn't say a word. He reaches back into the pouch and pulls out a liquor bottle. He grins in amusement. "Seems the top has been chipped off. Maybe that's what caused him to go nuts."
"Is that what I think it is?" Jonathan asked as he took a closer look of the bottle. "Glenlivet! 12 years old!"
Damon smiles at the bottle, then turns the pouch inside out and shakes it, nothing but sand is inside it. "Well, he may have been a stinky fellow... but he had a good taste."
Jonathan snatches the bottle and takes a swig while Lexi and Evelyn laugh a bit. That was when Damon and Stefan heard something. It was a barage of gunfire that was coming from the camp below.
O'Connell jumps up and throws the shot gun to Evelyn. "Stay here!"
Damon, Rick, and Stefan quickly take off running through the ruins.
"No, wait, wait!" Evelyn called after them. "Wait for me!"
"Evy, get back here!" Lexi shouted.
Evelyn runs after them just as Jonathan grabs a gun and holds the Glenlivet bottle tight once he was dashing after her.
"Evy!" Jonathan called to her. "Excuse me! But didn't the man just say stay here?"
The whole camp came under siege by a force of Medjai riders who were galloping forward and entered the ruined city uninvited. Firing their rifles, several diggers were killed as they run. Allen Chamberlain was freaking out when he saw them and ran deeply for his life with his umbrella.
"Mr. Henderson! Wake up!" Allen yelled. "WAKE UP!"
Henderson, Daniels, and Burns quickly got out of their tents in a hurry, and take out their guns to fire at the oncoming enemy. Damon, O'Connell, and Stefan race through the ruins and joined the fight. Rather than using their vampire strength, Damon and Stefan had no choice but to blend in and use their pistols to fire at the Medjai. While Rick was firing, Damon slams right into Beni, who is obviously trying to high-tail-it out of there.
"Goin' somewhere?" Damon asked.
"Just looking for, O'Connell." Beni whimpered like a puppy. "I wanted to be with my friend."
"Well c'mon, friend." Damon sighed in ignorance as he drags him back towards the camp.
"Why do you like to fight so much?" Beni cried as he struggles.
"Cause I look good doing it." Rick replied.
Evelyn emerged from behind some rocks and looked around hastily with her shot gun armed. That was when she heard someone coming up from behind her and spins around. A vicious tattooed Mumia Rider races at her. Evelyn was terrified after she quickly backpedals over the rocks once the Medjai Rider raises his sword and was about to strike her.
"AAAAHHHH!" Evelyn screamed, tripping over a rock, but causing her shot gun to fire and blow the rider off his mount. At the same time, the kick blows Evelyn off her feet and into the dune sand.
Ardeth Bay gallops through the camp with his sword in hand. O'Connell runs up on top of some rocks, leaps out and tackles him off his horse. The two men slam to the ground. O'Connell spins up onto one knee and fires, point blank, blowing the sword out of Ardeth Bay's hand. Seeing his once chance to finish him. O'Connell tries to shoot him directly in the face, but that was when a horse rides up between them. A sword swoops down, almost taking O'Connell's head off, but missed him by an inch.
Damon fired his pistol at a Medjai who struck a digger. Then, he leaps up on a rider's horse and blows the Rider off his mount. Jonathan and a group of armed diggers were holding their own near the temple door. That was when four riders were charging right at them. During the chaos, Jonathan took a swig off the Glenlivet and shot a rider near him.
"Let 'em have it, boys!" Jonathan exclaimed.
Immediately, Jonathan and the Diggers open fire at the four incoming riders. He didn't notice that Beni came from behind and snatched the Glenlivet from Jonathan's hand. When he stopped drinking, he heard someone thundering up behind him. It was Ardeth Bay, who had just mounted his horse again. This caused Beni to spit out the Glenlivet liquid right into Jonathan's face and ran away. The four diggers saw him and ran away in fear.
Jonathan runs desperatly for his life when Ardeth Bay was chasing him on his horse and called out suddenly. "O'CONNELL!"
Before Ardeth Bay was about to strike Jonathan, Rick jumps and knocks Ardeth off his horse once again. Ardeth took his sword, and struck Rick's gun off his hands. Disarmed, Rick dives and rolls to a campfire, and suddenly comes up with a stick of dynamite in his hand. He shoves the fuse into the fire and ignites it in front of Ardeth Bay, towering above him. The two men lock eyes while the fuse continues to burn down.
"Enough!" Ardeth yelled to his warriors and then in Arabic. "We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place or die." he turns away and mounts back on his horse again. "You have one day!"
Ardeth Ray gallops off with the remaining Medjai Riders, and vanish into the night. Rick, Stefan, Damon, Lexi, Jonathan, Henderson, Daniels, Burns, Allen, Beni, and the rest of the diggers watch them leave.
"Who the hell were those guys?" Damon asked.
"I don't know, but whoever they were, they didn't seem to friendly to me." Stefan replied.
Rick then turns to the burning fuse, and blows it out. He turns around, and finds Evelyn staggering up, and looked very shaken. He gently takes her and holds her close.
"Are you alright?" Rick asked her with genuine concern.
Evelyn looks up into his strong eyes. It's the first time he's shown genuine concern for her, and liked it. He's also holding her a little too close, but she kinda liked it also.
"Yes, I'm fine." Evelyn replied softly while shaken from all this.
"You sure?" Rick asked again.
"Thank you." Evelyn smiled a bit.
Beni crawls out from under some pillars as Henderson, Burns, and Daniels look around.
"See! That proves it. Old Seti's fortune's gotta be under this sand." Burns stated about the treasure that was left in the ruined city. "
"For them to protect it like this, you just know there's treasure down there." Henderson said, agreeing to his friend's point.
Lexi looks up into the surrounding ridges, unsatisfied and said. "These men were desert people. They value water, not gold.
Burns walks over to her and said. "You know, maybe just at night, we could uh... combine forces."
"Would I ever?" Lexi grinned.
Evelyn looks at O'Connell, suddenly very worried. "Where's Jonathan?"
During the long night, Jonathan had been fast asleep while O'Connell and Evelyn were laughing, both half-in-the-bag themselves, and the bottle of Glenlivet was almost gone. O'Connell offers the bottle to Evelyn, but she waves it away, slurring badly to herself. Then, Rick decided to teach her the skills of fighting against superior foes.
"Hey, tough stuff, try a right hook." Rick taught her the moves on how to fight. "Ball up your fist and put it... put it up like that. Hit it right here.
"Okay." Evelyn nodded drunkly. "Mean it!"
She tries to punch him with her locked fist, but trips until Rick grabs her as she laughs again from all the drinking she had. Rick drags her back to the campfire and sits with her.
"Okay, its time for another drink." Rick decided.
"Unlike my brother, sir, I know when to say no." Evelyn said drunkly as she grabbed the bottle of Glenlivet and took a big gulp of it.
"Uh-uh, and unlike your brother, miss, you I just don't get." Rick said with a half-smile. "You're a whole new brew."
"I know." Evelyn nodded with a drunken laughter. "You're wondering, what's a place like me doing in a girl like this?
"Yeah, something like that." Rick pretended to agree.
"Egypt is in my blood." Evelyn explained about her life. "You see my... my father was a very, very famous explorer. And he loved Egypt so much, he married my mother, who was an Egyptian and quite an adventurer herself."
"Okay, I get your father, I get your mother and uh..." Rick paused for a moment and pointed at Jonathan. "I get him, but..." He stared at her for a bit and asked her one stupid question. "What are you doing here?"
Still drunk from all drinking, Evelyn was heavily insulted and waves her arms as she continued to speak stagger to her feet. "Look, I may not be an explorer or an adventurer, or a treasure seeker, or a gunfighter, Mister O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am."
"And what is that?" Rick asked, sounding embarrassed by this.
Evelyn plops back down beside him, really drunk, but gives him a huge grin and proudly lifts her head high until she replies her exact answer. "I... am a librarian!" She leans in, very close to his face, looks him in the eyes. "And I am going to kiss you, Mister O'Connell."
"No you're not." Rick declined.
"I'm not?" Evelyn asked.
"Not unless you call me Rick." Rick said.
"Why would I say that?" Evelyn asked him.
"Because that's my name." Rick corrected.
Evelyn gives him a goofy smile and slowly forward to kiss him. That was when her eyes slowly close, and then she passes out, slumping into his arms. O'Connell just looks down at her, and doesn't say anything.
