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7/27/2014

Disclaimer: I do not own The Mummy nor will I ever own it.


~ Chapter 16 – Hamunaptra ~

The sun had reached its highest in the sky; the desert a blistering heat. We had finally stopped at a traveling caravan to get camels and new clothes for Evy and I. The two of us were pulled into a tent by Bedouin women; they chattered and fluttered around us taking me to a separate bathing room than Evy's. One woman came up to me with robes of light blue and white.

"Hello, my name is Belle." I said to the woman. She was an older woman with her grey black hair covered and the lower half of her face covered as well.

"Hello my dear, I am Jamila; head of the women in this tribe. I believe these will suit you just fine. And I have something extra special for you." She nodded to the others to help me, to my own embarrassment, into the bath of jasmine and myrrh. I was not used to someone else bathing me! Yes, the family estate had servants but I had not been doted on like this since I was a child; I was a bit shy about my body. I sighed as I soaked in the warm water, and rubbed the scented oils into my skin as they poured some onto my hair. It ran down my neck and into the water.

"Thank you so much for doing this for me and my friend, Jamila." I said as she walked back into the room.

"Well we can't have you both running around in you nightgowns, now can we?" She chuckled and helped me rise from the bath. She wrapped me in a white cloth and helped me dry off. "I can understand your embarrassment my lady but I have raised five children on my own after my husband died. It is nothing I have not seen before." She said as she rubbed shea butter into my skin and began to help me dress into the robes she had provided. The dress was a bit on the revealing side. It was white and faded into a light sky blue that was open on the sides of my waist; the long skirt of the dress had a slit up the right side to show my leg. It was a beautiful Egyptian cotton dress with a matching blue shawl; with silver charms on it to go around my shoulders; and a pair of tan brown boots for my feet.

"I have something else for you, my lady." She pulled out a silver bracelet with a pyramid, the eye of Horus, and two kings on it. She placed it around my wrist; it felt right to have it there, like it belonged to me. A feeling of familiarity came over me, but soon it turned to confusion and then, longing. She finished off my look with a silver and white face and head scarf lining my eyes with kohl and painting my lips red. She was ushering me to the front of the tent to meet back up with Evy when I stopped her.

"Wait, why have you been calling me 'my lady'? my name is Belle." I asked her in confusion, for the first time taking notice of her use of the term. She looked at me with an unreadable expression.

"And why should I not call you that…?" She said cryptically and led me outside. I waited as Evy walked up to me, wearing a black dress. Unlike mine hers was more fashioned to the younger Bedouin women's clothing.

"You look wonderful Evelyn." I grasped her hands.

"You look beautiful as well, Belle, dear." We thanked the women for their kindness and walked away to meet the men of the group. Before we got too far, Jamila stopped me again and whispered into my ear.

"Beware what lies beneath the sand…" I pulled back in shock. She knew! With a nod she walked away and I hurried to catch up with Evy. When Jon and Rick met us with the five camels, I smiled knowingly as Rick and Evy stared at one another.

We climbed onto our camels and slowly made our way into the desert.

"Never did like camels. Filthy buggers. They smell, they bite, they spit, disgusting." Jonathan ranted on about the camels we had bought. I grimaced lightly as the warden spit at the ground and took another bite of his chicken.

"I think they're adorable." Evy said as she petted the top of her camels head. I personally preferred horses but camels are very smart creatures. Suddenly the warden began singing a vulgar song in Arabic; I turned my attention to the desert ahead. 'So, back to Hamunaptra I go huh? I had hoped to never see that god forsaken place again.'


Day turned into night; night into day; day into night; night into day and into night once more. It was evening and the desert was cold; the warden snored loudly as we continued to trek through the desert. I was awakened by the neigh of a faraway horse. I looked up at the cliffs along with Rick to see men on horses. I became wary, knowing who they were and what their purpose was. The next day, as the sun started rising, we came upon the other group of the Americans and the Egyptologist.

"Good morning, my friend." Beni said as he made his way closer to us with his camel. The Americans rode on top of horses.

"What the hell we doin'?" Daniels asked in confusion.

"Patience, my good barat'm. Patience." Beni said, trying to pacify him.

"Remember our bet, O'Connell. First one to the city, 500 cash bucks." Henderson said to rick before turning to Beni. "A hundred of them bucks are yours if you help us win that bet."

"Oh, my pleasure. Hey O'Connell! Nice camel." Beni said, taunting Rick, who continued to ignore him, and looking out at the vast desert before us.

"Get ready for it." O'Connell said.

"For what?" Evy asked.

"We're about to be shown the way." We all looked out towards the desert to see the sun rise over the horizon, suddenly in a mirage-like image the City of the Dead appeared; getting different reactions from everyone.

"Will ya look at that?"

"Can you believe it?"

"Hamunaptra."

"Here we go again."

'You can say that again.' I think with dread as the city becomes compete and like a gun going off we all shoot off towards the city with a yell.I spurred my camel into a run as well, right behind Evy. I looked back to see Rick toss Beni off his camel, and laugh as Evy and Rick speed off into the city first, wining the bet.

We set up camp on the far side of the city. I helped Evy and Jon clean some of the ancient Egyptian mirrors that we would use for light when we went underground. Evy was explaining things to the group as we set up.

"That's a statue of Anubis. Its legs go deep underground. According to Bembridge scholars, that's where we'll find a secret compartment containing the golden Book of Amun-Ra. Ah Jonathan, you're meant to catch the sun with that." Evelyn said as Jon turned it the wrong way. I watched as Rick walked up to Evy with a small tool kit. I shook my head with a smile; this was getting interesting.

"So, uh, what are these old mirrors for?"

"Ancient mirrors. It's an ancient Egyptian trick. You'll see." Evy answered him.

"Uh, here, this is for, uh, you." He handed her the tool kit. "Go ahead. It's something I borrowed off our American brethren. I thought you might like it—you might need it for when you're, uh—uh, yeah." He made a digging motion and walked away glaring at the warden as he walked by. "What are you lookin' at?"

I came up to Evy and bumped shoulders with her smiling. "Someone likes you." I teased as she looked at the tools in her hand she rolled her eyes at me and looked up at Rick with a gentle smile. We made our way to the hole we had dug early, heading underground.

"Hey! Look for bugs. I hate bugs." The warden said as we slowly one by one made our way down the rope going under the sand and earth to stand in a darkened room.

"Do you realize that we're standing inside a room no one has entered in over 3,000 years?" Evy said handing torches to Rick and me to light.

"Whoa! What is that god-awful stench?" I pointed up at the warden who was coming down the rope. "Oh." Evy walked over to an ancient mirror and brushed the cobwebs off of it and turned it to reflect the light from our mirrors up outside.

"And then there was… light."

"Hey, that is a neat trick."

"Oh, my God. It's a sah-netjer." I said looking around the room.

"Huh?" O'Connell asked confused.

"A preparation room." I replied.

"Preparation for what?" He asked again not knowing what I was talking about.

"For entering the afterlife." Evy said in a spooky voice.

"Mummies, my good son. This is where they made the mummies." Jon said carrying my torch as Rick carried the other. We were slowly making our way down the hallways and corridors of the city when we heard loud skittering sounds.

"What was that?" Jonathan asked as it faded away.

"Sounds like bugs." Rick said

"What?"

"He said bugs." Evy said answering the warden's question.

"What do you mean, bugs? I hate bugs."

I giggle lightly at their treatment of the smelly man. Although I couldn't blame him; something about this place unsettled me. We wandered a bit more until we came upon an open chamber where the god Anubis's legs shown deep in the ground.

"The legs of Anubis." Evy whispered. "The secret compartment should be hidden somewhere inside here." Suddenly there was a roar and a moaning sound like faint whispers on the wind. We spun around and looked around the room but found nothing. It was getting closer; Rick backed us up against the wall with guns cocked and ready. As one with a yell we all jumped out in front of the surprised group of Americans and Beni all holding guns at one another.

"You scared the bejesus out of us, O'Connell." Henderson said as we all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"Likewise." He replied uncocking his gun.

"Hey, that's my tool kit." Burns said with a step forward.

"I don't think so." Rick says as they all go back on the defensive side with guns raised.

"Ok. Perhaps I was mistaken." He slowly backed away and the guns were slowly lowered once more.

"Well. Have a nice day, gentlemen. We have a lot of work to be getting along with." Evy said trying to calm things down a bit.

"Push off! This is our dig site." The British Egyptologist said, snotty like.

"We got here first." She sneered back at him. I shook my head this was not going to end well. The guns were back up again.

"This here's our statue, friend." Daniels said, with his gun pointed at O'Connell.

"I don't see your name written on it… pal." I noticed Evy kick some small stones down a crack in the ground, and she looked over at me with a nod.

"Yes, well, there's only five of you… and 15 of me. Your odds are not so great, O'Connell." Beni boasted.

"I've had worse."

"Yeah, me too." We all looked toward Jonathan, who gave an 'I have' look, before Evy walked in between the groups.

"Oh, look, for goodness' sake, let's be nice, children. If we're going to play together, we must learn to share." She said, pushing their guns down. "There are other places to dig." She added, placing a hand on Ricks arm as he un-cocked his gun. We made our way from the site leaving back to the room we were in before.


"According to these hieroglyphics, we're underneath the statue. We should come up right between his legs." Evy said while picking at the ceiling with a small dirt shovel.

"And when those damn Yanks go to sleep- No offense—

Jon said to Rick. "None taken"

"We'll dig our way up and steal that book right out from under them."

"Are you sure we can find this secret compartment?" Rick asked, taking a pickaxe to the ceiling.

"Oh, yes, if those beastly Americans haven't beaten us to it. No offense."

"None taken"

"Where'd our smelly little friend get to?" Jon asked me, handing me the sledge hammer.

"Don't ask me, I'm actually glad he's out of the room. The air is a lot fresher now."

Not too long after, we stopped for a break with Jon playing a mock game of golf and Evy and I started to explain the mummification process to Rick.

"So let me get this straight. They ripped out your guts and stuffed them in jars." O'Connell says with a slightly disgusted and weirded-out face.

"They'd take out your heart as well. Oh and you know how they took out your brains?"

"Evy, I don't think we need to know this." Jon pointed out, hitting another rock.

"But it's fascinating!" I replied.

"They'd take a sharp, red-hot poker, stick it up your nose, scramble things about a bit and then rip it all out through your nostrils."

"Ow that's gotta hurt."

"It's called mummification. You'll be dead when they do this." I giggled at Rick's expression.

"For the record, if I don't make it out of here alive, don't put me down for mummification."

"Likewise" Jon put forth, aiming one more rock at the ceiling, hitting ceiling with the pickaxe, causing something large to crash down right in front of Evy, Rick, and I. As the dust cleared we looked at the object in the center of the room.

"Oh, my God. It's a—it's a sarcophagus. Buried at the base of Anubis. He must have been someone of great importance. Or he did something very naughty." Evy exclaimed picking up a brush to brush the sand off the cartouche. I began to feel a cold chill go down my spine. Something wasn't right.

"Well, who is it?" We were all eager to know. Well some of us.

"'He That Shall Not Be Named.'" I read out slowly. Something was most definitely wrong. Rick blew away the sand from a star shaped lock with a scarab in the middle.

"This looks like some sort of lock."

"Well, whoever's in here sure wasn't getting out."

"Yeah, no kidding."

"But, why would you need to lock a sarcophagus?" I whispered quietly.

"It'd take us a month to crack into this thing without a key."

"A key? A key! A key! Now that's what he was talking about!"

"Who?"

"The man on the barge; the one with the hook he was looking for a key." Evy said, pulling out the puzzle box from her bag. My eyes widen 'a key…'

"Hey, that's mine." Jon complained, as she opened it and put it in the marking on the coffin. The pieces fit together perfectly, like a puzzle. Suddenly there was loud screaming down the hall outside the chamber. We ran out of the room to see the warden holding his head and, screaming, he ran past us and straight into a wall, head first, then falling to the ground. He became quiet and still. All we could do was stare in shock. Something is not right here at all.


Word Count: 2,693

Wow this was long. Well I hope you enjoyed it. Please review until next time…

DovieDM-1991-Promised Wings signing out!