Chapter 21

In a few hours, almost everyone was asleep and I took that as an opportunity I might not get again. I climbed out of my tent and crept passed Rick and Jonathan, and was careful not to wake any of the American's.

I found the American, who by this time I had found out he was a professor. He was asleep in the same spot he had been when he was trying to open the book. I slowly crept up and managed to pry it from his hands without waking him.

I was about to walk back to the camp site when I heard something behind me, almost like a long dress rubbing against something. "Erica?" I whispered knowing she was the only girl at the city, besides me. I didn't get a response, so I decided to ignore it before the professor had a chance to wake up.

I walked back to the fire as quickly as possible without waking anyone up. I put the book down on a log and fished the key from Jonathan's pockets. "That's called stealing you know." Rick said, opening one eye.

"According to you and my brother, it's called borrowing." I replied.

I fit the key in the lock and clicked it open. Rick got up and sat down next to me. I began reading the inscriptions, after I finished reading one section an eerie breeze blew by us.

"No! You must not read from the book!" the professor yelled.

I looked up and by this time, mostly everyone was up and out of their tents. I was about to say something when I heard the flapping of wings in the distance. Before I knew it, locusts were swarming into the city.

Rick grabbed a gun from his belt and we started running along with Jonathan and Erica. We made it all the way to the chamber, we jumped down and ran down one of the tunnels.

I could see where the tunnel split into even more tunnels, and we soon were running down one of them.

Suddenly Rick, who was in front of me stopped. I slowed down as well and noticed what he was seeing. A pile of sand was rising from the ground, I wasn't sure what it was until small black bugs broke through the surface.

"Scarabs!" I yelled and we ran the opposite direction.

We ran until we got to a bridge with platforms on either sides. We each jumped onto a platform to escape the bugs, and it worked they ran right passed us and we were safe. At least, this is what I thought.

I leaned against the wall of my platform, and noticed too late that it was a trap door. The wall opened, making me fall through it. I landed in a dark room with only a couple of torches lit. I was about to find my way out through the tunnels, when I noticed a figure watching me.

I turned and held back a scream, the figure was a mummy. It took a step towards me, and I backed up only to find the wall…I was trapped. I was about to yell for help when I noticed another figure, a woman step out from the mummy.

"I came to the city to find the book…but it looks like you did all of that for me." she said in ancient Egyptian.

When I saw who the figure was, I had to restrain myself from lashing out at her. "Anksunamun." I stated.

The woman smiled coldly "Say goodbye to your friends, Nefertiti." she replied, and she walked out into one of the tunnels.

Just after she left, Rick and Erica ran into the tunnel "There you are, come on!" Rick yelled.

I just continued staring at the mummy who I now knew who it was. Rick noticed and turned to find the mummy slowly approaching us. "Whoa!" he yelled and sent a bullet flying at the mummy's chest. The mummy fell back from the unexpected blast, and we ran.

We got passed three tunnels before I finally slowed down "Wait, where's Jonathan?" I managed.

"He was right behind us…" Erica replied noticing my cousin was missing.

"Oh no, Anksunamun." I stated as I heard Jonathan yell out my name.

I grabbed the nearest tridents off of a statue and ran towards his voice. Rick and Erica followed, but I was on adrenaline and was running much faster than them. I ran until I found Jonathan with the book of the dead pressed up against the wall.

He dropped the book as Anksunamun slashed her trident against his chest. I ran over and interlocked my blade with Anksunamun's before she had the chance to stab my cousin. "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" I said as I pushed her back.

"Evie!" Jonathan breathed.

"Get back." I told him "I'll be just fine."

Rick and Erica ran into the room and helped Jonathan. Anksunamun recovered from my surprise appearance and had turned to face me. "Nefertiti." she challenged.

"Anksunamun." I answered, twirling my weapons to except the fight.

"Good." she stated in Egyptian.

She swung at my chest, but I blocked with my left trident. Anksunamun didn't waste any time, she swung at my head with her right hand while blocking a strike to her side with her left. I ducked down from the blow to the head and had to use both of my weapons to intersect Anksunamun's.

I got up and she locked her weapons onto mine, pushing me up against the wall she had pinned Jonathan against. "O'Connell!" I heard one of the American's yell as he ran into the tunnel along with the professor.

They stopped when they noticed the fight going on, "Who…" one of them began but stopped.

"You have remembered the old ways." Anksunamun taunted.

I was angry now, I wanted her to go back to the Underworld where she belongs. Just then a bright light appeared in the middle of us, and a wall of water gushed out at her. She wasn't expecting that so she fell back, surprised.

"That's a little something new!" I yelled back in Egyptian.

Anksunamun's face turned red with anger, and if look's could kill; the sky would open up and send voltage to my face. And well, that's similar to what happened.

Anksunamun looked at me with hatred filling her sky blue eyes, and thunder filled the sky above the underground chamber. Anksunamun slashed unexpectedly at me, I didn't have time to react so her blade cut my arm.

When her blade touched my skin though, I could see a bright light and I felt electricity course through my body. I backed up a few steps, the pain didn't last long so I was soon fighting again. I slashed and blocked with new found energy forming from my anger.

I hadn't noticed it, but the light I had made earlier had returned. It was duller this time but water poured from it, circling Anksunamun and I. I willed the walls of water to close in on us.

Anksunamun realized what was happening and soon a huge crash echoed across the walls as a wall of water clashed into a wall of lightning. I commanded the water to spin around us, trapping Anksunamun in a watery doom.

The lightning died down and the water disappeared soon after. I came out dry as usual, but Anksunamun fell to the ground soaking wet and panting.

"And that, was for what you put me and my family through." I said in between breaths.

I was about to take a step forward when the figure of Imhotep appeared from the shadows. He was formed more than he had been minutes ago, patches of skin had been restored now.

"That's him, that's the bastard that killed the other one of us that opened that damn chest!" One of the American's said in a country accent.

Imhotep smiled coldly at me "We will meet again, princess Nefertiti." he taunted.

He took a step towards the recovering figure of Anksunamun. "Stop!" Erica yelled out in Egyptian.

I looked over to see Erica had found a bow and arrow somewhere in the tunnels, and she was pointing it right at Imhotep.

"And you Mutbenret, will meet your match." and with that, he put his hand on Anksunamun's shoulder.

Erica shot the arrow, but it was pointless Imhotep and Anksunamun dissolved into sand that blew out through the underground chambers. Erica tossed the empty bow off to the side "You just had to read from the book?" she yelled.

"I didn't know it would bring him back!" I replied.

Erica rolled her eyes and the American with the country accent spoke up "What about us, were the ones he's gonna come after and suck dry!"

"What did you do?" Rick asked annoyed.

"We opened a cursed chest, but we didn't realize a mummy would come back to life and chase us down!" he yelled in my direction.

I rolled my eyes and was about to yell back when we heard footsteps coming towards us. We raised our weapons as the Med-jai entered the chamber we were standing in.

They were not showing any signs that they were going to fight us, so we lowered our weapons. "We told you to leave or die, you refused. And now you have released the creature that may kill us all." the one with the markings, the leader, said.

"And now we must go on the hunt to find a way to kill him." he continued.

"You mean you don't know how to kill him?" I asked.

"No, the woman who was with him. We have been suspecting her to try and raise him, now we have been proven right. But this woman she knows things, things that no living person could possibly know." the Med-jai answered.

"Gee, I wonder why." Erica muttered sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes and walked over to Jonathan. I checked his injuries, it wasn't bad but it was bleeding.

I hadn't really worried about the curious eyes following me. I placed my hand on his chest and a blue light manifested as clear water appeared around my hand. It swirled in the air for a moment before flowing to my hand, where it slowly dissolved.

I removed my hand, and his cut was healed "And that, is the benefit of having me for a cousin." I said smiling and helped Jonathan to his feet.

I walked over to Rick and he held me in his arms, the fight had really worn me out so I rested my head on his chest.

The Med-jai was looking at us curiously "Who…are you people?"