From Bad to Worse

Philippa couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it. Ardeth had told nothing but lies and ridiculous tales since the moment he started speaking, and a man who wore such outlandish robes and decorated his face with such strange tattoos could only be interested in scamming them for a profit. He was no different from the circus people and street performers who used trickery and fancy costumes to empty the pockets of hard-working Americans. Or at least that was what her papa had always claimed, before he ran off with the opera singer, and Philippa was willing to believe him after the nonsense Ardeth had tried to feed them.

"Excuse me, but did you just say an army of the dead?" said Philippa. "How dumb do you think we are, mister?"

Ardeth remained as stony-faced as ever. "You do not understand what is at stake here. Where are you keeping the Book of Amun-Ra?"

"What's the use?" said Philippa. "We haven't got the key."

"What do you mean, you haven't got the key?" Ardeth's voice, so steady and serious a moment ago, began to grow impatient. "Where is it?"

"Our pal in the red hat has got it," said Rick. "You want the key, go after him."

"I already told you, there is an army of the dead swarming the port, preventing our success. In order to defeat it, we must open the Book of Amun-Ra."

"Why don't you end this little charade of yours already?" said Jonathan. "Bad enough that you barge in here and start spouting off poppycock about curses and so on, but really now, this is getting preposterous!"

Ardeth said something in Arabic and his two companions drew their weapons, identical scowls on their dark faces. Rick immediately drew his gun in response. "I have tried my best to reason with you," said Ardeth, switching back to English. "But there is no longer time for reason. We must act now."

"Why don't we all go down to the port?" Philippa said quickly. "That way we avoid any fighting or stealing, and everyone's happy. Now that we know where Beni is, I want to go after him."

"How could you possibly aid us?" said Ardeth.

"I can get the key from Beni, the man in the red hat. He and I have got kind of an... understanding with each other."

An awkward silence ensued. Evelyn was the first to break it. "Well, I'd rather get out and do something than stay cooped up in here taking threats from a stranger. Jonathan, why don't you go start the car?"

"It is dangerous out there," Ardeth warned.

"I think we can handle a few imaginary dead guys," said Rick.

"Do we have an agreement, then?" said Evelyn. Her eyes flicked nervously to Ardeth's henchmen, who still had their weapons drawn, but her voice remained steady. "We'll all go down to the port to fetch the key and I'll look after the Book of Amun-Ra. Just as a precaution, you understand."

"Then I will travel with you," said Ardeth. "Also as a precaution."

"Wonderful," said Philippa. "Let's hit the road already."

Perhaps Ardeth's urgency had infected her, or maybe her own guilt was making her restless, but Philippa was impatient to get to the port and find Beni. He thought he was so clever, using her repeatedly for his own selfish ends, but she would show him that he couldn't always win. That she wasn't as dumb and naive as he thought. Ardeth's henchmen disappeared into the shadows while the rest of them piled into Jonathan's car and Philippa found herself squashed between Rick and Ardeth in the backseat. It occurred to her that she was hungry, but it was too late to fix that, and she winced when Rick's elbow jabbed into her ribs as Jonathan stepped on the gas and drove into Cairo's dusty streets.

She wondered what she would say to Beni when she saw him. If she saw him again. Perhaps he was headed down the Nile already, headed back to that spooky lost city, though she couldn't imagine why Beni of all people would return to Hamunaptra. Maybe it was another one of Ardeth's lies. She glanced to her left, where Ardeth was sitting stiffly and cringing each time Jonathan hit a bump or turned a corner too fast.

"Haven't you ridden in a car before?" Philippa asked him.

"This is my first ride," said Ardeth, keeping his nervous eyes fixed upon the road. "I hope it will be my last."

Philippa started to laugh, but quickly fell silent when she remembered that Ardeth was a liar and a con artist who had attacked them not once, but twice. He and his people probably hated foreigners, which explained the attacks on the boat and their camp, and when they failed to drive the foreigners away they resorted to trickery in order to—

"Great bloody Scott," Jonathan murmured, slowing the car to a stop. "What in the..."

"Holy shit," said Rick.

Philippa sat up straighter and gasped when she saw the chaos that overran the port. It looked like a riot had broken out. People ran shrieking across the roads, waving their arms in distress, and the distinctive crack of gunfire filled the air. Ardeth muttered something in Arabic, his expression dark as he watched a man sprint just a few feet away from Jonathan's car. A second figure tackled the running man and pinned him to the ground, then took a large bite out of his neck and began chewing vigorously.

"Oh, my God!" Evelyn cried. "Do something!"

Philippa watched in horror as Rick took out his gun and shot the person, or creature, or whatever it was that was having a gruesome meal. It let out a sickening moan as the bullet found its mark, right in the head, and collapsed on top of the bleeding man.

"What just happened?" Philippa said weakly. "What's going on?"

"The living dead," Ardeth replied. "They are flesh eaters, like the scarab beetles of Hamunaptra."

The monster, now completely motionless, resembled a corpse that had been decomposing underground for years, perhaps decades or even centuries. Its thin, grey flesh was literally hanging off its bones and only a few stringy locks of hair remained on its rotted scalp. Philippa choked down the bile that had risen to her throat and looked away, unable to bear such a grisly sight.

"Drive!" Ardeth urged Jonathan. "We must stop your friend before something worse than the living dead wakes up!"

"There's something worse than this?" Rick said skeptically.

"Drive!" Ardeth repeated. "Hurry!"

Jonathan stepped on the gas and headed for the river, swerving to avoid the frantic people who ran for their lives, trying to avoid the walking corpses that sprouted from the ground at random. Rick shot at least a dozen more of the creatures and several more ended up beneath the wheels of the car. Philippa realized she had been clinging to Rick's arm and took comfort in his presence, desperate to believe that nothing would happen to her as long as Rick was nearby. She wished she could have bonded with him in less drastic circumstances.

They drew closer to the docks, where the largest number of corpses swarmed, and Rick shot two creatures that shuffled dangerously close to the car. "Where's Beni at?" Philippa wondered out loud.

"Probably on that barge over there," said Jonathan. He took one hand off the steering wheel and pointed to the barge, the same one they had traveled on earlier. Philippa squinted in the bright sunlight and saw Beni standing on the deck, unmistakable in his red fez, but he soon scampered out of her sight.

"Now what do we do?" Evelyn groaned. "The boat is sailing away!"

"We can either swim or get eaten," said Rick. He reloaded his gun and shot another corpse. "Anyone got any better ideas?"

"I have a rowboat," said Ardeth. "We will have to run down to the river. Once we are on the water, the creatures will not follow us."

Philippa noticed that the corpses avoided the river, as if afraid their rotting flesh and bones would melt if they hit the water. "How far is the rowboat?" she asked.

"Not far, if we hurry," said Ardeth. "Follow me!"

The time for doubt and skepticism had vanished long ago. Before setting eyes on the living dead, Philippa would have scoffed at the idea of following a madman into his rowboat, but she had seen horrors that would haunt her dreams at night. She leaped out of the car and sprinted after Ardeth, closely followed by Rick, Jonathan, and Evelyn, who carried the gold book in her arms. The rowboat was situated a safe distance from the docks, though they couldn't escape the endless racket of screams and gunshots, and Philippa was the first one to reach the safety of its wooden sanctuary. She scrambled into the boat, not caring that her stocking tore when it caught on the wood, and waited with wide eyes as her companions jumped in after her.

"Ardeth, watch out!" Evelyn cried.

Ardeth, who had stayed behind to push the boat into the river, drew his blade as a couple of corpses approached him from behind, groaning incoherently through their rotting, misshapen mouths. One of them grabbed Ardeth and tried to bite his ear, but Ardeth hacked it apart just in time and kicked it aside. Rick shot the second corpse, halting it before it could take another step.

"Disgusting buggers, they are," Jonathan remarked as he stared at the bodies. "And I thought the warden was bad."

Ardeth stood at the edge of the river, gazing into the boat with a strange expression on his face. "Aren't you getting in?" said Philippa.

Instead Ardeth pulled up the sleeve of his robe, revealing deep fingernail marks on his forearm. "I've been scratched."

"So?"

"I will become one of the living dead within the hour. You must go on without me!" Before any of them could protest, Ardeth gave the boat a hard push into the water. "Get the Book of the Dead at all costs!"

Rick's face was grim as he grabbed an oar and started to row. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to believe in all this curse stuff."

All four of them—including Jonathan, though he tried to make excuses about weak arms and poor health—paddled down the river in pursuit of the barge that grew further away by the minute. Philippa's arms were burning by the time they caught up to the barge and she felt ready to collapse into the river when a flash of red caught her eye.

"Beni!" Philippa called out. "Hey, Beni!"

They weren't close enough to climb aboard the barge yet, but they were definitely close enough to converse with the passengers and Philippa shouted Beni's name a third time. Beni rushed up to the edge of the deck and leaned over the railing, his mouth falling open in surprise when he saw her. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"What the hell are you doing here, Beni?" said Rick. "What's the deal, huh?"

"I am being paid a lot of money to go back to Hamunaptra," Beni said smugly. "It is a very good deal, if you ask me."

"Where's that key you stole from me?" said Philippa.

"What key?"

"You know what key. The one that opens the book you also stole."

Beni smirked and didn't reply.

"Maybe I can refresh his memory," said Rick. He pulled out his gun and aimed the barrel at Beni's head. "Mind tossing that key down here?"

"I don't have it, I swear!" Beni whimpered, gazing down at Rick with big, terrified eyes. "She has got it."

"Who's this she?" said Evelyn.

"Beni?"

A new voice entered the conversation, a female voice that sent prickles up Philippa's spine. "Beni, who are you talking to?"

"Nobody!" said Beni, still whimpering.

"You're talking to someone. Who's out there?"

A woman soon appeared next to Beni, her heeled boots clacking on the wooden deck as she approached the railing. "Visitors?" she said, peering out at the rowboat. "It can't be those meddling Med-Jai. I've kept them busy for quite a while."

"Excuse me," said Evelyn, addressing the woman. "But are you the one responsible for those... those corpses that are running loose?"

The woman's calm, cold expression changed when she noticed Evelyn, and her eyes burned with recognition. "Nefertiri."

Evelyn looked dazed as she stared back at the stranger. "I think she knows me."