Instead of fighting back with her intricate vocabulary, Femi retreated back into her hung-over, lazy self and sighed softly. The nightly breeze sighed gently into their shelter and caused the fire to merely shiver slightly. The salty waves of she sea rustled upon the shore in dreamy whispers, and the fire cracked now and then, delivering a sense of calm. Alex pushed himself back onto his bottom and leant back against the tree with his shoulder against it, sinking down comfortably. He crossed one foot over the other and laced his fingers over his stomach, and sat there, watching the warm fire spread. Alex glanced at Femi, just out of curiosity, and found her staring at the fire in a childish sulk. He couldn't help but notice just how attractive she was when she was annoyed or angry. Something about her innocence that fired up and tried to be furious. It never worked.

"It's not the fire's fault, you know" He spoke out, catching her attention "So quit frownin' at it."

Femi snapped her inquisitive, tired eyes onto him "What's not its fault?"

Alex grinned devilishly "That you can't build a fire, or a tent - or anythin', for that matter. You shouldn't be so grumpy about it. You're only a girl, after all."

Femi sat upright like a bolt "I warn you, I am not going to put up with you speaking to me like that. I could build a fire, if I knew how. Just because you spit and burp and fight all the time, it doesn't mean you're stronger or smarter, or faster or better, or any of that silliness."

She sighed sharply and turned her head away. She glared out at the shimmering sea and folded her arms over her chest, still in a sulk. Alex watched her with amused eyes.

"You must think I'm only good at being rescued or crying for help..." She muttered softly "But I'm not. I'm not just a weak, little girl. I wouldn't be here if I were."

Alex's amusement slowly faded from his eyes. His smile vanished completely, and he began watching her thoughtfully. The way her slim, long legs were positioned, or how her damp, straggly hair lay in thin curls by her shoulders, or the way the fire reflected upon her tired face. He watched her, gazing out at the sea in meditation. She really didn't want to be weak. And this time she wasn't even drunk when she was trying to justify that. She was... being truthful. Opening up, without the courage of alcohol backing her up. Alex could see that she was trying her hardest. She had fought through a hell of a lot since her journey began. He just couldn't help firing her up though - was it just is way of getting her attention? Alex suddenly realised what he was doing and tore his eyes away. Jesus, what was he doing?

"Sure... ok then." Alex snickered in sarcasm.

He had to be sarcastic. He didn't care about her. He wasn't interested in her life, or her feelings. She was just... someone he was guiding. Femi looked over at him with her head slightly turned away, and she narrowed her eyes.

"Well..." She began in defence "I... I really couldn't care less what you think, Mr. O'Connell."

Alex nodded sarcastically, refusing to look at her "You keep tellin' yourself that, Lady."

Femi slapped her hand onto the ground impatiently "I don't!"

"Yeah... I can see that." Alex shot back at her, and finally, looking at her, smirked knowingly.

He was right. She was getting so worked up that it was more than obvious that she really did care. Femi rolled her eyes irritably and sneered, more at herself than Alex. She refolded her arms and looked away, shaking her head.

"What you think of me is inconsequential... You're only here because I'm paying you to be." She whispered harshly.

At hearing this, Alex felt something inside of him give a throb of disappointment. He secretly stared across the fire at her for a moment to see if she would look at him. To see if he could recognise any doubt or light-heartedness in her trivial eyes. But no. She wouldn't look over at him. And if Alex was correct, he was more than sure that he could see Femi's own disappointed, sad frown beginning to show. Why was he feeling guilty, now? She was right - he was only there because she was paying him to be. So why didn't he like the way she said it?

Alex soon huffed irritably, and rolled onto his side, so that his back was partially facing Femi, as if to show that he, too, was in a sulk. Femi peered over at him with her expression softening slightly. Had she upset him? Surely not. Alex didn't care what she said or thought. Or did he? Femi slowly looked away, and trailed her eyes across the floor in thought as she brought them back round to finally stare out at the large, silver moon reflecting upon the rippling sea. Time was running out, and it wouldn't be long before the climax of their mission would arrive. Femi had more important things to think about than offending Alex, or him offending her.

This wasn't a chance to socialise; it wasn't a game.

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After having sat up for another hour or so, Femi soon dried off next to the fire and became awfully sleepy again. She snuggled down onto her side, facing the fire, and stared into its flames before drifting into her peaceful sleep. The den in which the four of them were sleeping was still glowing from the small fire that was keeping them all warm, and the gentle, early-morning breeze was rustling in the trees all around them. It was still only 3 in the morning, so they had plenty of time before having to wake up. Unfortunately, a rather disturbing sound from within the forestry area had other plans for them.

Carter, unaware of the situation, awoke with a stifled snort and his eyes flickered open. He assumed that he had just woken up coincidentally, as one does in the night, and so rolled over onto his other side to get comfortable. He settled his hand underneath his cheek as a means of cushioning, and closed his eyes again. That's when he heard the unusual, quick 'crunch' from the other side of the den's wall. His eyes snapped open, now alarmed and wary, and he stared in a fearful concentration at the flickering flames of the fire.

Crunch

Carter knew something was there. He slowly sat himself upright, and made sure to keep as quiet as possible. He looked all around him nervously, but couldn't see anything threatening amongst the beach's scenery. Was it just a bird, perhaps? Or another exotic animal? He had never been to Egypt, so he wasn't sure what to expect.

Exactly.

He wasn't sure what to expect. It could have been any kind of meat-eating creature. He heard they had Scorpions the size of car wheels over there! As Carter contemplated on whether he should wake the others or not, he heard a loud, fast rustling, sounding very much like feet shuffling along the ground. That was all the convincing he needed. Carter crawled onto his knees and leant over to shrug Jonathan awake. He merely snorted a few words in his sleep and slapped Carter's hand away.

"Oi, chap, wake up!" Carter hissed quietly.

Jonathan growled irritably, and simply rolled over to face his back to Carter. Carter rolled his eyes and quickly crawled across the den to Alex's side, and began shaking him instead.

"Oi! Oi, wake up!" He snapped.

Another loud crunch made him jump. He shook Alex even harder until he finally awoke from his deep slumber by whipping out the dagger from his left boot and holding it up to Carter's throat.

"Woah, woah, woah!" He yelled "It's me, Alex, old buddy!"

Alex took in his appearance, and once he confirmed that it really was him, he lowered his dagger. Slipping it back into his boot, he sat up and looked around, running his fingers through his messy blonde hair.

"Is there a reason why you woke me up in the middle of the night, Carter, old buddy?" He sarcastically chuckled.

Crunch

Carter and Alex both looked over in the direction of the noise. Carter looked back to Alex with raised, worried eyebrows, and nodded vigorously.

"Uh... kind of." He uttered.

Alex gave a serious nod "Wake the others. Be quiet 'bout it."

Carter nodded back to him and crawled off to do as he had requested. Alex rose up into a crouch and slowly eased his way towards the back of the den. By the time he had gotten there, Femi was slowly waking up, and Carter was helping her to sit upright. Alex gripped onto the side of the sheet and pulled his dagger out again. The blade twinkled in the firelight. Femi rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around tiredly, and still feeling fairly nauseous. Carter threw a load of sand onto Jonathan's back, and at the same time as Alex pulled back the sheet, Jonathan shot up with a loud yell and sprayed sand everywhere.

Alex jumped in fright, Jonathan kept yelling, Femi screamed from the sand and the sudden perception of what Alex was doing, and Carter fell back onto the hungry fireplace and let out a wale of agony. He rolled off of it and snuffled out his clothes in the sand, leaving the fireplace black and smoking, and the den in darkness. Carter released a sigh of relief and relaxed into the mould of sand beneath him, and looked over at Femi.

"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. Just fine." Carter panted.

He soon realised that her attention wasn't even remotely upon him. Neither was Jonathan's. He sat himself up and followed their focussed gazes to find whatever it was that was captivating them so. He spotted a tall, muscled figure swaying at the back of the den, and scrambled round onto his knees.

Alex narrowed his eyes to try and recognise the face of whoever it was. Their eyes were beginning to adjust to the sudden darkness, but not quick enough. He held his dagger warily out in front of him and waited.

"Who are you?" He asked sternly.

Femi cautiously, and slowly, moved her anxious hand round in front of her brother and pinched the corner of the red bag which he had been sleeping with. Just as she brought it into her lap, and began tucking it under her tight shirt, the figure released a trembling, soft breath, and took a single step forwards. One last step, and he was suddenly towering down towards the ground, right where Alex was. Alex was forced to roll out of the way before the figure crashed down into the sand, and when he looked over his shoulder, he spotted a long, thin spear sticking in his back. The man was completely unfamiliar to any of them, and they had no idea how he came to be on the same beach as them, and especially with a spear in his back! Femi inhaled a horrified gasp and her eyes widened in fear. She gripped her brother tightly and shifted worriedly upon her knees.

"They're here! They're here! They're here!!" She gasped over and over in a panic.

All at once, the sounds of loud battle cries and whistles, camel's groaning, hooves galloping, and ambiguous shouts sounded out from all around the small den. The sheet was suddenly torn away from the large tree and uncovered the four of them from their shelter. Femi screamed in fright, and the four of them hopped around in confused crouches to see all around them. Camels galloped around the beach area before them with riders dressed in beige and white robes on their backs. They were all holding some kind of spear or sword, and in their other hand, held flaming torches which lit their ways.

A camel suddenly came groaning out from the forest where the now dead man had come from. Before any of them knew it, the "dead" man in their shelter sprung to life with a loud, high-pitched yell, wagging his tongue fluently, and he ran back to meet the camel and leapt up onto the humped back of it. What was worse, after he had pulled the dagger from the sticky hole in the back of his robes, he charged his camel straight towards the four of them!

"Move!" Alex yelled.

They all leapt to their feet and scattered out from their destroyed shelter to escape the danger approaching. Unfortunately, they were only sent running out into the open where more was waiting for them. Femi and Carter clung to each other securely as they began dodging and weaving through the number of camels that were gurgling around them. Alex jumped from side to side and tried not to show any weakness other than not wanting to get trampled, whilst Jonathan spun and skipped and dived like the dear madman that he was. Femi ran forwards with her brother, and suddenly had to fall back into the ground as a camel came striding across their path. Not only was the sand constantly shifting beneath their active feet, but there were so many of these riders around, that they just didn't know where to run to! Carter pulled her up again and they circled on the spot, watching the attackers ride around them, as if playing with them, like a cat before it tore a mouse to pieces.

"Carter..." She muttered nervously.

Carter pulled Femi behind him and placed his hands on her sides protectively. She clung to his shoulders and kept whipping her head from left to right to keep an eye on all of the riders. They were now whistling and jeering in amusement.

Alex looked over and saw them trapped there. He clenched his fists and began making his way towards them. He wasn't going to let them hurt her.

"Femi!" He shouted worriedly.

Femi looked over at him and called his name in return. She knew he was coming for them. But just as he was approaching, a spear came soaring down towards him, out of nowhere, and mercilessly stabbed into his shoulder, and pierced through the flesh upon the top of his bone. He cried out in pain and fell down onto one knee, and Femi, Carter and Jonathan looked over in alarm.

"Alex!" Femi screamed in worry, and stared fearfully at the long spear-tip sticking through the flesh upon is shoulder.

A rider galloped past and barbarically tore the spear out of Alex's shoulder without a single care. Alex cried out again, and fell down onto his other knee in weakness.

"Stop it!" Femi screamed.

She tried to run towards him with Carter, but their attackers lowered their weapons towards them, and stopped them from escaping. All of the riders brought their camels to a stop, and just stared darkly at their prisoners. They were surrounded. The beach was still, once again, but this time, with a heavy atmosphere. A burning atmosphere...

Jonathan, who had just that second fallen straight over, climbed up once again and brushed his front down. He looked up to find the sharp tip of a spear pointing at his throat, and with a shocked gasp, he threw his hands up, and beamed nervously.

"I surrender. Always had. Love the robes, by the way; what are they, cotton?" He muttered.

One rider nearest to Alex shouted out to another in their mother tongue. Alex and the others couldn't make any sense of it - even Femi, who had studied Egyptian almost all her life. Femi and the others looked back and forth from the two conversers until, finally, they came to a decision.

"What are they talking about?" Carter whispered over his shoulder to Femi.

Femi shook her head and released a nervous breath through her lips, agape. The man near to Alex nudged his camel in the side and trotted towards him. He stopped beside him, and looked down in a snobbish curiosity. Alex glared up at him whilst clutching his bleeding shoulder.

"Dahk'met farh khan." Alex panted in the only Egyptian language he knew.

The rider didn't answer with words. Instead, he spun his sword round and whacked the bronze hilt of it around the back of Alex's head. Alex's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell down into the sand on his front with a moaned sigh.

"No!" Femi gasped.

The man stared down upon Alex's unconscious body for a moment. He then looked over at the others surrounding Femi and Carter, and nodded. The riders began closing in on the two of them and they tried to back away. But, being in the center of the circle, made it clearly impossible.

"Come on, boys" Carter called out "Let's not be so aggressive now!"

One of the men suddenly swung the blunt end of their spear out and knocked it into the side of his head. He made a strange humming sound, and then dropped to his knees, unconscious.

"Carter!" Femi gasped.

She, too, felt an interruption of sharp, aching pain hit the back of her head. Her vision became blurry, and her stability unbalanced, and the last thing she heard before joining her brother and Alex in a dark sleep, was Jonathan shouting something about his 'religion'...

What was going to happen to them?

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I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you who have supported this story with your encouraging reviews. This has been my first fanfic post upon this site, but it has seemed to become quite successful and popular amongst a few of the readers here. Well, to all of you who have reviewed, I thank you deeply, and to those who have read, I thank you simply for sparing your time and hope that you're able to lose yourself if not just for a single moment; everyone deserves to escape reality once in a while.