Disclaimer: Of the characters I can claim only very few of them as my own - namely Rebecca. I do not make any claim on the characters featuring in "The Mummy".
Chapter 6 - Mistakes of the Past
It was almost morning in the desert. Well, to be more precise, Rebecca thought, it was morning as it was after midnight, but as the sun had not quite risen yet it didn't feel like morning. No one else was awake. The camp was still, with the silence of the desert - a warm, peaceful tranquillity. Rebecca knelt on the floor, carefully brushing her long, blonde hair. Once all the knots were out she gathered it all and began to plait it, slender fingers working carefully, twisting each strand, smoothing each into place. Once done, she fastened it at the bottom, and stood up, brushing the sand from her knees.
The sun would be rising soon, and she felt a need to see it do so away from the camp. She walked away, shod feet making no noise on the sand, leaving only faint tracks behind her. The desert seemed to sing to her, the silence of reality broken by noises she could hear in her mind - faint laughter, speech, the sound of animals, of children, of labour. She stretched, welcoming the heat of the day after the chill of the night, and looked around thoughtfully. Her map suggested that they were near Hamunaptra, were practically next to it. So, where was it? She was beginning to think that it was little more than the myth most people took it to be.
The sun rose, and with it rose something else. Rebecca stared, in awed silence, as the light of the sun revealed before her a great city. "Hamunaptra" she whispered softly. She stood, lost in thought, until sounds from behind her suggested that the camp was beginning to wake up. Finally, she turned, and made her way back.
That evening the darkness of the camp in Hamunaptra was broken only by occasional flickering fires. Rebecca sat at one, ignoring the men sat around her, staring into the flames and thinking about the day. While her father had organised the diggers to break into one of the main entrances, Rebecca had slowly faded into the background. It was a talent she had - being unnoticeable within a crowd of people. Once she was sure she would not be missed, she had left, slipping away through the partially ruined city and, finding a small fissure in the ground, had slipped through and into the tunnels beneath the ground. She had no fear - complete solitude never disturbed her, and neither did the darkness lit only by her wavering torch. The city itself seemed to welcome her. She could hear, more clearly now, the sounds of voices, echoing through her mind, although she knew not what they were saying. She'd returned to the surface only at nightfall, her mind dancing with images from her exploration. They appeared before her as she stared into the flames.
The silence of the city was broken suddenly. The camp dissolved into screaming confusion as masked men on horses charged through the camp, killing everyone in their path. Rebecca scrambled to her feet, and for the first time in years looked for her father. She finally saw him emerging from his tent, rifle in his hands. He levelled it, and began shooting, calmly and methodically, killing each black rider he aimed at. Rebecca ran towards him, hoping for safety. Before she could reach him, two masked riders headed towards him from opposite directions. He shot one, but they were both moving so fast that the other reached him before he could re-aim. A sword flashed in the firelight and then her father crumpled to the ground.
Rebecca stopped, staring at her dying father, while all around her people screamed, and fell, and died. The sounds seemed to echo through her head.
"You bastard". She turned towards the sound of the cry, only to see her uncle leap towards the man, unseating him from his horse and bearing him to the ground. As they landed they both rolled apart and came to their feet. Her uncle had gained a sword from somewhere, and he leapt towards the man, attacking him fiercely. Still Rebecca stood, ignored by all around her. She was only one, fragile girl, not a threat to the Med-jai, not a concern to the diggers who tried to flee and were cut down in their tracks.
Ardeth Bay fought the man who had attacked him. He was, for a foreigner, good with a sword, but not a match for the leader of the Med-jai. They danced back and forth, Ardeth managing several times to cut the man, who was just good enough to avoid Ardeth's blade, turning a fatal blow into a merely painful one. Ardeth's heart was grim as he tried to kill the man. This was not what he wanted. They had to die, that was true, but they could at least expect the mercy of a quick death. Finally the man stumbled, and Ardeth lashed out, killing the man with one quick stroke across the throat.
Rebecca's paralysis broke as she saw her uncle die. She screamed, and leapt forwards towards the man, clawing at his face, ripping away the cloth that covered the lower half.
Ardeth spun as he heard a noise, and someone leapt towards him, attacking him. He felt a momentary pain in his face, and lashed out with his sword, trying to drive his attacker away so that he could gain the distance necessary to kill whoever it was.
Rebecca felt a burning pain slash down her arm and screamed, stumbling away and falling against a broken stone wall.
Ardeth stopped as he heard the sound of a female scream, and for a moment he just stared at the young girl who was cowering against a wall. Her terrified, dark blue eyes captured him, momentarily knocking his breath away. He had never seen eyes of such a colour. The world faded into silence for a second, and then Ardeth came to himself. He hesitated for a moment longer, then raised his sword. She had been to Hamunaptra, she knew the way. She had to die. It would be better for her - what kind of a life would she have, having seen her family die. Before he could advance another step, the girl bolted, running away through the ruins. He chased after her, joined by all his men, who had finished their grim work.
However, despite hunting for six days, and venturing into the bowels of Hamunaptra itself, they never found the girl. Her eyes had haunted Ardeth over the years, he woke from nightmares where they stared at him and pleaded. He questioned, almost daily, whether what he was doing was right, when it forced him to kill women, or children. He questioned it once again, when he had been asked, (by Evelyn, or O'Connell, or Jonathon, he couldn't remember) if what he did justified the killing of the innocent. His answer was, then as always, yes.