Mwahaha! Chapter 3! I had a lot of fun writing this one. Heh! Anhoo, I won't drabble on too much, I'll just reply to the many lovely reviews I recieved -
immortalwizardpirateelf-fan: I'm so glad you think that. One of my main worries is misportraying the cannon characters, but I think I pulled the mummy ones off. I like Beth and Jimmy too, and now you mention it, Jimmy does seem a little like Beni. Heehee, you won't think that later. Oh the trouble he'll cause...
candice: I will honey, I am physically incapable of starting a story and not finishing it.
melbo18: Thank you! I've started reading your story, and I am of the same opinion about yours as you are of mine. Yay for Leah and Beth! Forever may Rick's sisters rule! Woop!
blackmagic111090: Isn't that annoying when you forget what you were gonna say? Yeah, Jimmy is a prat. I want to slap him myself, he's such a prat. He's fun to write though, for now. Heehee, more evil innuendos.
Okay, disclaimer: I don't own Rick, Eve, Jonathon, Alex or (sob!) Ardeth. In fact, the only thing in this story so far that I own is Beth and Jimmy, which isn't as cool as owning Ardeth. Sigh!
Anhoo, on with the story.
The train screeched to a swift halt, sending its passengers lurching forward in their seats. It was very obvious that they hadn't reached Cairo yet.
"What's happening?" Beth wondered out loud, not so much panicked as perplexed.
"We appear to have stopped." Ardeth answered as he tentatively gazed out of the carriage window.
"No shit Sherlock!" Beth snapped. (a/n - I don't care if that phrase wasn't around then, I had to put it in.) Ardeth frowned. This woman was so infuriatingly disrespectful towards him.
"I just said that we have stopped."
"I know that, dumbass! I want to know why." Beth gently pushed Ardeth out of the way and slid the window open. She then proceeded to peer out of it until she was leaning half-in, half-out. Ardeth's eyes widened at the rather comfortable view Beth had unwittingly given him, and he scolded himself for the hundredth time that day.
The train had stopped in the middle of the desert. All around there was nothing but the train tracks and sand. Beth couldn't see anything else, certainly nothing worth stopping the train for, until her gaze became fixed on the front of the train - the engine. There was a man on a horse, brandishing a rather large looking gun. He was in front of several other men on horses with large looking guns. Beth swore.
"What is it?" Ardeth demanded as Beth swung herself back inside.
"Hijack!" she replied, barely glancing at him as she ran back to the O'Connell's carriage. Ardeth's hands automatically flew to his swords, which rang as he deftly unsheathed them. This was the last thing he needed.
"My, are we in Cairo already?" Jonathon yawned, having noticed the train stopping.
"Nope, we're not in Cairo Jonathon." said Rick, who in turn had noticed that they were surrounded by endless desert, and not the bustling crowds of Cairo Station. "Something's wrong."
"Maybe something's wrong with the engine." Eve suggested, forever the optimist. The others seemed to accept this idea, until Beth came crashing into the compartment shouting 'Hijack! We're being hijacked!'. This made everyone slightly less optimistic.
Jonathon was the first to panic, as usual. "Well, what do we do? Are we surrounded? Maybe we could get off the train and make a run for it?"
"In the middle of the desert Jonathon?" Beth shouted.
"Well, what do we do?"
"I don't know. I'm thinking, alright? I've never been on the recieving end of a hijack before."
Rick snorted. "No, but you've been on the hijacking end of a hijack before. Remember, you dragged me along and we all ended up being chased by the sixty armed soldiers that were on board."
"Oh, stop bellyaching. You loved every minute of it, and it was fifty nine armed soldiers, actually, and they were only on board to guard that jade buddha that we were after."
Rick laughed and put on his gun holster, checking each gun he carried was fully loaded. "Well, whatever. I'm going to fetch Alex."
While Jonathon sat there spluttering, flustered by both the shock of the hijack and the news that his sister-in-law had once been a hijacker, Eve simply sighed and shook her head, no longer surprised by anything her husband had done. She strapped her rucksack containing all her archeology tools on her back and went with her husband to collect Alex from the next carriage. Jonathon obviously wasn't going to do anything in a hurry, so Beth took it upon herself to roughly grab him by the arm and drag him outside to where the others were, leaving the carriage empty, though there should have been one other left. In the confusion, no one had noticed that Jimmy was gone.
"Get Alex, meet me back here. I'm going to find Ardeth." Beth barked at her brother. He nodded and disappeared through the door. Evy and Jonathon went with him.
"Ardeth!" Beth called. She had no idea where he had gone, or why, and she didn't want to have to go looking incase she bumped into one of those friendly looking hijackers.
"You called?" Ardeth said as he burst through the carriage door opposite to where Rick had gone.
"Jeez!" Beth gasped as she clutched her chest. "You scared me!"
"Sorry. Where are the others?"
"They've gone to get Alex. They'll meet us back here."
"Jimmy too?"
"Yes. Wait...no! Jimmy wasn't there! He's disappeared." Beth screeched.
"With the key!" Ardeth growled. His face darkened with anger, and he stormed back over to the door.
"Wait!" Beth called. She followed him through the door. "Where are you going?"
Ardeth stopped at the steps between the two carriages and climbed them. He heaved himself effortlessly onto the top of the train and stood scanning the horizon. Beth stood next to him and looked in the opposite direction, instantly spotting Jimmy making tracks in the westward direction.
"Behind you." she muttered, and Ardeth turned to see. He let out a cry of anger and leapt off of the train. Beth watched his robes billow out behind him as he fell, and quickly jumped after him, hoping to God that she wouldn't break anything.
Ardeth dropped from the train and landed hard on his feet. His knees buckled and he unexpectantly fell on his face, filling his stern features with scalding hot sand. Cursing violently in Arabic, he scrambled to his feet and started after Jimmy, who was already far in the distance. Where did he think he was going? That double-crossing American fool was going to pay for his ignorance. Ardeth was going to catch him, and this time he wasn't going to spare his life. This time he was going to slice him from his head to his toes and keep on slicing until his grubby American fingers finally let go of the key. Ardeth was sick to the stomach of doing things Jimmy's way.
Beth had thankfully jumped from the train without significant injury, and was now frantically trying to keep up with Ardeth. He was livid with anger, which was understandable; Beth was annoyed with Jimmy herself. What kind of lowlife would run off into the desert leaving his only friend behind at the mercy of a group of hijackers? What's more, what kind of lowlife would do all that and take the key with him? He was practically serving it up on a platter for anyone who might be after it, the fool! Beth was worried; Jimmy had never been a bad man, nor a particularly dislikable one, but as soon as he laid eyes on that key he had been selfish, irrational and obnoxious. He seemed possessed, and the very thought of what he might do next sent shivers down Beth's spine.
"Get off me! Get off me, Medjai scum!" Jimmy struggled against Ardeth as he pinned him to the ground, but his desk-ridden body was no match for the other's muscular arms. Compared to Jimmy, Ardeth had the strength of ten.
"Where did you think you were going Jimmy? Did you think I was going to let you run off like that with the key?"
Jimmy craned his neck to face Ardeth. His dull grey eyes were alive with hatred, and rather than answering his question, he spat as best he could at the Medjai. Ardeth punched him in return and gave him the mother of all nose bleeds. It is never a good idea to spit in the face of an already pissed-off Medjai.
Ardeth grabbed handfuls of Jimmy's mousy hair and pulled his face close to his. His rage burned behind his sharp, dark eyes. "You know what is at stake, yank." he said quietly. Jimmy flinched at the English slang. "You know that as long as this key remains in existance, the world is at terrible risk of obliteration. You know that there is someone out there willing to kill you for that key you hold so close. And soon you will also know that I am tired of you getting in between me and my duties. Now you will give me the key and avoid a terribly painful death, or I will slice you open and force-feed you your own innards, and then get the key myself."
Jimmy remained silent. His nose was oozing blood onto the sand, which was quickly soaking up the crimson liquid. He resisted the urge to sniff, knowing that you weren't supposed to sniff when you had a nose bleed. Sharp pain went shooting through his head as Ardeth's grip on his scalp tightened - a sign that the Medjai was growing impatient. Ironic thoughts went through his head that only Jimmy would ever know, and a small chuckle caught in his throat. Another bubbled up and escaped, and much to Ardeth's confusion, he burst out laughing. His weak body shook with fits of insane laughter, and he carried on laughing right up until Beth came running up to Ardeth.
"Why's he laughing?" she asked.
"I have no idea." Ardeth grunted. Jimmy had already pissed him off enough today; the insane laughing was the last straw.
"What are you doing?" Beth asked when she saw Ardeth draw his favourite sword. Panic seized her when he didn't answer and simply raised his arm, ready to strike.
"Stop!" she screamed, seizing his arm in attempt to save Jimmy.
Ardeth's eyes regarded Beth with pure contempt. His arm remained poised in the air.
"Why? I have killed men for less, why should he be any different?"
"Because I don't think it's his fault. He might be possessed or something." Beth sighed. Ardeth laughed.
"The key doesn't possess people Beth. Everything Jimmy has done and said has been on his own account."
"Then let him live because I've asked you to, nicely. Let him live for the sake of being humane, and just cut off his hand or something to get the key."
"Excuse me?" Jimmy screeched. "Cut off my hand?"
"It's more than you deserve, you selfish American pig." Ardeth grunted.
"And it's really your own fault for not handing the key over." Beth added. Jimmy sighed. It was time for a compromise.
"Look, don't kill me, or dismember any limbs. Just take me to Nak Tahn and prove to me that there's some kind of threat to the world, and then you can have the key, like we agreed before."
An eternity passed before Ardeth nodded in agreement. He still didn't trust Jimmy, but he could always kill him if he tried anything again. Besides, this way he didn't have to dirty his sword up so soon in the journey. He voiced this thought.
"I still don't trust you Jimmy, but know that I will kill you if you try anything again, no matter how much Beth begs for your life."
"Understood." Jimmy murmered. Ardeth let him get up and he rubbed his sore head.
Beth glanced back at the train. "What about the hijack? The others are still on the train waiting for me. If we go back for them then we could catch the hijackers' attention, and then we'll never get anywhere."
"We just go. Just the three of us." Jimmy replied.
"But the tools, the guns..."
"Leave them. And don't worry about your family; I'm sure your brother can take care of them."
So they all reluctantly trudged off into the desert to find Nak Tahn.
Meanwhile, the O'Connell/Callahan family were waiting nervously in the carriage as the hijackers grew ever closer...
Ahh! What's gonna happen next? Even I don't know! Hee hee, a cliffhanger is always good, unless you're reading it 'coz then it's frustrating. So to save yourself frustration you must review me and when I get enough I will update. Mwahaha!