Chapter 26
Jessica moved through the ruins of the ancient city for about half a mile, and her thoughts wasn't focused on anything in particular. After about what seemed like a mile's worth of a walk, she stopped and turned back towards the campsite. She froze in her steps as she heard movement behind her in the darkness, turning back around, she called out. "Who's there?"
There was no answer. She turned back around and picked up her pace. The noise behind her matched her speed, and she started to run, but she wasn't quick enough and was tackled from behind. She was forced onto her back. "Who are you?"
Instead of answering her, he smirked and touched her hair. He lifted some of it and smelled it. "I know someone who will pay a pretty price for you, girl." His gruff voice matched his dirty face.
Her eyes widened. She knew her father was in jail and was due to be released soon, but it couldn't be him, could it? The kidnappers had been taken care of too. He moved away and pulled her roughly to her feet.
Jessica lifted her knee and kneed him hard as she could. He let go of her in surprise. "I am not going anywhere with you!" She ran towards the stone wall of the outer part of the city. She made it to the wall and started to climb through the crack before her hair was yank hard. She cried out but kept struggling.
The man pulled her hair again. Placing her hands on the edges of the wall at the crack, she pulled herself forward trying to use her strength to break away, but couldn't and with a final yank, she went back into the man. They both fell to the ground. As the man's arm wrapped around her, she bit down as hard as she could. The warmth of his blood covered her lips.
The man screamed and let go.
She scrambled towards the crack, slipping through to the outer court of the city. Her skirt caught on some brush. She tried to pull it free with her leg, but it wasn't working. As she reached down, a knife came out of nowhere, the blade slicing into her upper right thigh. She stumbled backward with a cry as her skirt tore.
The man approached her with a sinister grin. "You won't get away from me, girl. Stop running."
Before Jessica could move, the sound of horses reached their ears. She took advantage of the distraction and made a run towards the animals. But the man caught her, and a cry for help left her throat. This time her attacker grabbed her and wrapped his arm around her waist and arms and held the knife to her neck.
"You are not going anywhere, princess. Like I said somebody is very interested in you, and even though he might dock some money due to the wound, I can live with that."
"Let me go." The blade scraped her skin.
"I don't think I will. It's been a while since I had a woman's flesh against mine."
Jessica shuddered as his tongue slithered down her neck. A gunshot ran out.
He spun around, pressing Jessica tighter against him. The full moon peeked out from behind the cloud to reveal men on horseback. On the far right, one of the men had a gun ready and was going to shoot again. On the far left, was one who held a torch. He pressed the knife tighter to her throat.
Jessica felt him stiffen, then a cold tone from behind them. "Release her or I will slit your throat."
Jessica swallowed heavily.
"We are both at a standstill, don't you think?"
The warrior moved around them to face them, silently staring.
The man cried out in pain and dropped his knife. His hold on her broke, and she was pulled away by the warrior in front of them and he pushed her gently towards a fallen column. Jessica stumbled toward the column, and she went to sit down upon it but paused as a cold voice that often spoke warmly to her now harden and ice.
"Who sent you after the girl, and what for?"
"She doesn't concern you."
"She is my charge."
Jessica slowly turned and sat down, as she watched the man who attacked her laughed like it was a joke, "Don't make me laugh. Nice try boy."
The warrior turned and walked a few paces away and whistled, out of the shadows came a horse, the horse came to a stop in front of him. He patted the horse's nose fondly for a second and moved the side of the saddle and drew out a sword and it glowed. Jessica's captor stared at the sword in the light and saw the ancient runes and design on the blade.
The man stumbled back disbelief was in his voice, "Impossible, I know for the fact that the protector didn't have children."
"Unfortunately for you, the line is renewed. And you will not be around to tell anyone of it."
The man without thought took a dashing leap to the girl and fallen upon her started to beg for mercy. As she tried to move further up the column and out of his reach, he pulled and grabbed on to her. And his frantic movements had actually without realizing it causing the knife wound to hurt more for the girl, who had bitten her lip to keep the screams at bay. He was pulled off of her and thrown to the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut at the pain.
She opened her eyes after the pain dulled back to an ache. She glanced up to meet Kontar's stare in full force, but she didn't close her eyes as tears fell. She dare not do anything or say a word.
That was enough for Kontar for he turned to the man who was stumbling to get away, and taking out a pistol, shot him in the knee. A scream tore from his throat as he collapsed. The man started to beg and shout to Jessica for help. "Don't let him kill me, please, lady."
Jessica watched on in horror, her hands covering her mouth. Her cousin adjusted his grip on the hilt of the sword as he went to the man. His stammering pleas abruptly ended as Kontar grabbed the man by the hair and slit his throat. Kontar wiped the blade clean on the man's corpse.
He turned around. "Are you hurt?"
She heard Kontar's voice, but it was the tone she couldn't figure it out. There was no warmth or love she could feel through his words and yet they were not cold or hard either. She forced herself to look away from the dead man and met his gaze. She nodded, a grimace tugging at her lips as she glanced down at her leg.
Kontar walked over to her and pausing not even for a second, pulled up the bottom half of her skirt until he reached her thigh. He saw the wound and looked at it with narrowed eyes. He walked over to his horse, and he pulled something off the saddle and came back. She noticed it was a water canteen. He removed his mask as he poured some water on the injury then tore the veil in two, one half was used as a press and the other to wrap around her leg. She whimpered in pain but managed to speak. "You came."
"Will, you not come with me?" Kontar reached out with his hands to her in a pleading way.
She didn't know how to respond, so she didn't. Kontar narrowed his eyes at Jessica but did not say anything as he lifted her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her head on his shoulder she was carried to his horse. He sat her in the saddle sideways and swung up behind her.
She sat in unease like a knife had twisted into her heart and soul. They made it back to the main camp without any more incidents. He dropped her off behind some pillars before they even reached the battle that was taking place. He turned and went after the runaway horse that belonged to Ardeth.
It was at this moment that she saw Ardeth and Rick fighting. She froze when Ardeth became disarmed, but he pulled his other scimitar, hit O'Connell's gun, and it knocked away.
O'Connell dived and rolled, a stick of dynamite now in his hand. He shoved the fuse into the fire. It ignited. He turned and faced Ardeth, who stood above him, eyes locked.
Jessica blinked. Everything happened so fast in just those few seconds, and she couldn't be sure if she saw what she saw. But as Jessica studied them, she noticed Rick hadn't put out the fuse, and it continued to burn down. Her eyes widen as she looked to Ardeth, who by this point had aimed his weapon at Rick.
He shouted. "Enough! Enough!" We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place or die. You have one day."
Kontar rode forward with Ardeth's horse.
Ardeth swung up on his horse. "Let's go!" They turned and rode out.
Both of the men she loved dearly seemed so close just now but so far away. She felt as if her cousin was a stranger and if she had spoken to Ardeth even now, would he? Ever since the other day, things had gone wrong, and she didn't know why. But she prayed both groups would heed the warning. She walked to the campsite but paused as she heard one of the Americans speak.
"That proves it. Old Seti's fortune's got to be under this sand."
She turned back towards them in anger as she stared at the Americans who stood of to the side from Rick, who she noted had Evelyn in his arms.
"For them to protect it like this, you know there's treasure down there."
She went to retort, and her eyes locked with O'Connell and stilled at the warning look there. She watched as he looked at the surrounding ridges and back at the Americans and her, "These men are a desert, people. They value water, not gold."
Jessica watched as Mr. Burns walked over to O'Connell. "You know, maybe just at night, we could, uh, combine forces, hmm?"
O'Connell turned to look at him and nodded. He took Evelyn and Jessica back to the campsite, along the way, acquiring Jonathan, who passed out cold. Some of the workers were nice enough to carry him back to the campsite, and they dropped him and left just as quickly.
Jessica crawled into her bed and blanket. She removed the bandage around her thigh so the air could get to it before curling up, crying herself to sleep. The following morning found Jessica not wanting to move from her bedroll. When both camps came to live, and people started to walk around picking up debris from the night before. And bodies of the dead were moved to another part of the city and burned. Tents, equipment was taken down and moved to a new spot. By the time early afternoon rolled around.
Jessica was shaking awake, by her brother. Rolling over on her side so that she could see him, she blinked and held up her arm to block out the high sun. "I told Evie to let you sleep, but it's getting later, and if you don't wake up now, you will not be able to sleep tonight."
"Fine, I am up now," responded Jess.
"We need to move you and your things down to the rest of us."
Jessica took in the empty camp everything was gone but her and her belongings. Holding up her hands, Jonathan reached down and pulled her up. He handed her the pillow, shoulder her bags rolled up her bedding, and they moved down the sand hill. She let out a whimper of pain, and he heard.
Turning around he asked, "You alright little sis?"
"It's just a scratch and a bruise from last night is all."
"If, you are sure?"
"I am, I promise," smiled Jessica lightly.
He shrugged his shoulders and continued to move down the dune. Jessica looked after him sadly and wished he had pressed her harder. She dropped her pillow, and pulled up the bottom of her skirt and looked at her upper leg, The cloth and press her cousin made last night was sliding down a little, from she let it lose for the air to get to it.
Jessica saw a little bit of the wound, and it seemed okay to her. It was still bleeding. She removed the strips of cloth and refolded the fabric inside out that her cousin used last night and placed the press back on it than rewrapped it tightly as could. She lowered her skirt and picked up her pillow again, and she moved as quickly as she could after her brother.
Reaching their new campsite, she found her bedroll and dropped the pillow. "Good afternoon sleepy head. Lunch is ready if you want something to eat." Evelyn said.
"Not hungry right now, little thirsty is all."
To prove her point, she went to the water jug and poured a little bit of water, took a sip of it. Went and sat down. Looking up she asked, "How is that American? Who got shot last night."
"He is lucky the bullet didn't go deep O'Connell told me, so it was easy to remove," Evelyn responded.
"That is good news, and I am glad he will be alright. Are we leaving?"At that question, Evie and Jon looked at her like she was crazy. She took those looks as a negative.
"None of us will be going back down into the temple today, just taking it easy. Tomorrow both of the parties will go back to each of our digs."
Jessica stared at her sister like she was crazy, "That is completely crazy, don't you think all of you should heed that warrior's words and advice and does as he says!"
She stood up, and the process knocked over the cup of water she took. Evie stood up ready to respond, and Jessica held up her hand, turned grabbed her bag and walked away. She soon found a nice shady spot if it was possible underneath a pillar and sat, pulled out her journal and started to write the highlight of the last few days and her concerns, and wrote a prayer of protection for everyone in both groups.
By the time she was done writing and reading, she closed her books, packed them and stood, little wave dizziness came over her she held still till it passed and moved back towards the camps she reached the campsites as the last rays of the sunset vanish behind the rocky cliffs in the horizon. Placing her bag down and crawled into bed and dreamed that night. For the first time in years, Jessica imagined she was home in Ireland, and dancing with her grandmama.
The next morning Jessica woke up with a smile on her face, but it slowly turned into a frown as she realized she was still in the desert at the ruins. She wished the secret to it stayed hidden. She got up slowly and winced at a little throbbing on her leg.
Her party was busy talking and gathering supplies that they needed. She took a small part of her head covering that had been given to her and went to the water jug they had and dipped it into the water and lifted her dress and pushed the cloth down and wiped the wound as best as she could. She didn't like the look of it, and it was still bleeding, not as bad as yesterday, but it wasn't good either.
She repressed her cousin cloth into the wound and torn some of her head covering, and glancing up to see what the rest of the group was doing but none was paying attention to her which was good. Jessica wrapped it around her upper thigh and tied it as tight as she could. By the time she was done and went back to her bedding before she could move to sit down.
Jessica felt a tap on her shoulder, turning she saw Evie. Raising her eyebrow as if saying what to her, "Will you come down with us please?"
"You very well know how I feel about this. So why would I?"
"Because I want you with me, and I don't want nothing to happen to you."
"Well sister dearest, nothing will happen to me."
"Jess, there are a lot of men here and"… Evelyn's voice trailed off.
Jessica slowly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, breathing heavy. Here Evie reached out and took her sister's hands and squeezed them.
"I know I was wrong for forcing you to come, and for that I am sorry. But I would like for us to stay together, please."
Jessica looked warily down at the site and bit her lip, all along thinking that something good was not going to come out of this and that they all will regret, in the end. But she turned to her sister and nodded hesitantly.
Soon enough she found herself back inside the chamber. She moved to a wall that was farthest away from the sarcophagus. She watched as her brother and Rick moved said coffin into an upright position.
During this time her sister was speaking, and she had to stare at her in disbelief at the words coming out of her mouth."Oh, I've dreamt about this since I was a little girl."
"You dream about dead guys?" asked Rick.
Evie didn't respond to the question for she exclaimed.
"Oh, look, his divine spells have been chiseled off. This man must have been condemned not only in this life but in the afterlife."
Jessica could see that her brother and the American were both excited just as much as her sister but both were able to hide it better. She tuned out what they were saying. She heard the turning of the key in the lock and the lid cracks open with a hiss.
Then the grunting of both men as they both pulled on the lid and ever so slowly it starts to give away. Than instance, it pops open, and they all screamed. Which brought Jessica out of her little world, looking up she saw the most hideous, rotten corpse imaginable it was the first one she ever saw, didn't like it and covered her face with her hands and started to cry and not wanting to look at the thing in its coffin.
Only hearing her sister's voice, "Oh, my God, I hate it when these things do that."
"Is he supposed to look like that?" O'Connell asked.
Jessica at this point still had her eyes covered but was now peeking through her fingers. To see what was happening, her heart hammering in her chest and a frown on her face at the casual use of the Lord's name which to her was wrong to do.
"No, I've never seen a mummy look like this. He's, he's still…" Here Evelyn trailed off not knowing how to describe it.
Jonathan and Rick both responded with the word, "Juicy."
"Yes. He must be more than three thousand years old and, and, well it looks as if he's still decomposing."
"Hey, look at that," O' Connell points at the inside of the coffin lid.
Turning around Evelyn kneels by the lid and placed her fingers where the marks were and realized they were fingernail scratches. Evie looked up and whispered, "Oh my, he was buried alive."
As Evie and the others looked back up at the mummy, all but Jessica she now knew for sure that the thing inside the coffin was the creature itself.
Jessica realized she wasn't the only one who shivered and her sister leans in closer to the lid and reads the message that was left in hieratics and reading it out loud for the group, "It says: 'Death is only the beginning."
Rick looks around and says, "Where's my gun?"
"What are you going to do? Shoot him?" asked Jonathan.
Rick responds, "If he decides to wake up, yes!"
It was a short time after that she was allowed to exit, and later Rick and her brother did soon follow by Evie. Jessica was already started to doze off when the American's came over to their camp site. Jessica listens to a little bit of the conversation before sleep came to her.
She heard Henderson say, "Say, O'Connell, what do you think these babies'll fetch back home?"
And another one spoke right after, "We hear you gentlemen found yourselves a nice, gooey mummy. Congratulations."
Followed by the third member of the group, "If you dry that fella out, you might be able to sell him for firewood."
It was at this moment she heard her sister voice, "Look what I found."She heard Rick say, "You're in her seat."
She then heard a weak laugh, then the sharp tone of Ricks, "Now."
"Scarab skeletons, flesh eaters. I found them inside our friend's coffin..."
That was all she heard before sleep finally claimed her, the next thing she knew she awoke with the Egyptologist screaming, "No! You must not read from the book!"
Sitting up she looked to her right and saw her sister and Rick sitting there with a black book. A feeling of heaviness settled in her stomach. Her brother also sits up and says, "Huh?"
Everyone woke up and stood her family stood together near the book, and she slowly picked herself up feeling sick in doing so and stood with very little weight on her right leg as she could for it hurt.
And what seemed like a black thunderstorm wall that came towards them, until it went into the light was a wall of Locusts that was swirling into the camp, and it starts to cover people. Rick grabbed Evelyn's hand, and Jonathan reached for Jessica tugged her along behind her, tears sprung her eyes at the tight hold her brother had on her wrist which she tried to remove from but also from the burning sensation in her leg. Everyone was running and heading towards the temple.
They raced down the labyrinth, in the temple, as Jonathan exclaimed, "Did you see that!? Grasshoppers! Billions of grasshoppers!"
As they continue to run Jessica finally manages to pull her wrist out of her brother's hold and manages to stumble backward and fall.
