Disclaimer: I own my characters, everything else belongs to Universal
Part 3
Kelly and Fallon were rushing through the Cairo Prison, Evy and Jonathon, Fallon's cousins, rushing after them. Jonathon had revealed to them a box he "found" in Thebes. But Fallon and Kelly were not convinced. They knew he was lying. They followed the stinky warden of the prison to an outdoor cell.
"I want to see who exactly you stole this box from, Jonathon," Fallon said, completely angry. She had seen that box, three years ago. She remembered her friend had her date it and find out what it was.
"Now, now, stealing is a strong word-" Jonathon began.
"You lied to us," Evy scolded him.
"I lie to everyone. What make you all so special?" Jonathon said.
"I am your sister, she is your cousin, and she is your friend," Evy went on.
"Not very many 19th Dynasty, 3 thousand year old Egyptian puzzle boxes with maps to lost cities make their way around, Jonathon," Fallon said, steaming. She turned to the warden as they stopped at the cell. She brushed off her khaki coat over her Egyptian cotton blouse and sheer, floral scarf. Her hair was coiled perfectly at the back of her head with two chopsticks stabbed into it. She wore a matching khaki skirt down to her shins and too-small Mary Janes, something Kelly kept bothering her about. Her hat sat perfectly atop her head. "Now what is this man in prison for?"
"I can't say for sure. But when I heard you were coming I asked him that myself," the warden said.
"And?" Kelly edged. She was anxious as well. For she remembered the box being shown to Fallon by their friend also.
"He said he was just looking for a good time," the warden finished.
Through the doors from inside the cell, guards thrusted a dirty, shaggy looking man in, following after him and shutting the doors. They whacked him as he was pushed to his knees. His hair was to his shoulders and his shirt was ripped at the shoulders.
"Who are you all?" He asked in an American tone. Fallon let out a small whimper, her jaw dropping. Even Kelly was shocked.
"Oh, just the local preacher spreading the good word," Jonathon began. He pushed his sister towards the cell. "And this is my sister, Evy. And that is my cousin, Fall-"
"Rick!" Fallon and Kelly shrieked. They dropped to their knees and grabbed at the cell bars. Fallon's hat fell off her head.
"You two know him?" Evy asked.
"Fallon? Kelly? Well, isn't this a happy reunion," Rick said, shocked.
"He was my best friend several years back, we all fought together in the French Legion three years ago," Kelly explained.
"Kelly and Fallon in the French Legion? Never thought I'd hear that in my day," Jonathon said. Rick pointed at him. "You know, you look really familiar. Do I know you?"
"No, I've just got one of those faces," Jonathon began lying once more, crouching down behind Kelly and Fallon. Rick's eyes widened and he looked to his two friends.
"Would you mind?" He asked.
They moved their heads out of the way as Rick reached his fist through the bars and punched Jonathon square in the face, knocking him out.
Evy made her move. "Um, excuse me, but we found your puzzle box and we've come to ask you about it."
"No," Rick said.
Evy's face fell. "No..."
"No, you've come to ask me about Hamunaptra," Rick said to her. Kelly and Fallon held their breaths.
"How-how do you know the box pertains to Hamunaptra?" Evy asked, excitedly.
"Because that's where I was when I found it, I was there," Rick replied.
"You were actually at Hamunaptra," Evy clarified.
"Yeah, with these two. Didn't they tell you?" Rick said. Evy looked at Fallon and Kelly slowly standing up.
"No, they didn't," Evy said. She turned back to Rick. "But, you swear you were there."
"Every damn day," Rick said.
"No, that's not what I meant-" Evy asked.
"Yeah, I know, Hamunaptra city of the dead," Rick said, almost mockingly.
"C-could you tell me how to get there?" Evy asked, a glimmer in her eye. Rick gave her a look, as if asking if she was serious. He wasn't the only one, Kelly and Fallon's eyes were wide with disbelief. Evy looked over at the Warden, knelt down to Rick's level and covering the left side of her face with her hat. "I mean, the exact location."
"Do you wanna know?" Rick asked, his voice low. Fallon eyed Kelly nervously.
"Well, yes," Evy said, inching her face closer to the bars.
"Do you really wanna know?" Rick said.
"Yes," Evy repeated. Rick then grabbed her face and kissed her.
Letting go, Rick said, "Then get me the hell outta hear!"
"Rick!" Kelly shouted with disbelief. "Gosh, keep it in your pants!" The men started to beat him. Then they began removing him from the cell.
"Kelly! Fallon! Get me outta here!" Rick shouted over the shouting of guards taking him away.
"W-where are they taking him?!" Fallon asked.
"To be hung," the warden said. "Apparently he had a very good time."
"I'll settle this, you two. Start packing your things, we're going to Hamunaptra tomorrow," Evy said, following quickly behind the warden to the gallows.
Fallon grabbed her hat from the ground and dusted it off.
"You do realize she's going to kill us for not telling her that we were at Hamunaptra, right?" Kelly said as they started walking back to the main gates of the prison.
"Of course. But then again if we did tell her we wouldn't have been able to see Rick again," Fallon said. Kelly nodded.
"I wonder what he did to get locked up," Kelly said.
"It doesn't matter now. Evy will bail Rick out and we'll go back to Hamunaptra," Fallon said.
"You seem a little ambiguous about it," Kelly noticed.
"Just…memories," Fallon said, pushing the door open. "I need to stop by the library to get some books on Hamunaptra. You can come if you like."
They walked the streets of Cairo. Yes, Kelly remembered Hamunaptra clearly now that she had seen Rick again. She remembered just as they were escaping she saw the figures on the cliff behind them, watching their every move. She didn't have the heart to tell Fallon, for fear of scaring her. She wondered if those people were still there in that area. Then she thought of someone else.
"Hey, when is your brother coming back?" Kelly asked, lightening her mood.
"He's coming back tonight. I know you'll be glad to see him," Fallon said. "Do you want me to invite Adam to come along with us to Hamunaptra? I'm sure he'd be thrilled to see the new sights."
"Yes, please," Kelly shouted. She removed her hat and ruffled her still cropped bob. She had kept to her word about pulling off a flapper girl after the battle. Kelly often urged Fallon to go out to a bar with her in their best dresses and reddest lipstick to have a drink or meet a guy, even though Kelly never really went for guys, she preferred to keep her eyes set on Adam, Fallon's handsome brother.
Normally Fallon would be excited out of her mind about going to a lost city in the country she studied for several years at Oxford, but not this place. All she could think about were the dead corpses of men around her. She tried not to think of that though. She thought about the hieroglyphs and the treasure room that Jonathon would be so hyped up about, and the other ancient artifacts she would find there that she would give to local museums. It was a happier sight to see in her mind which made her as giddy as a school girl when she thought about it more and more.
At the Cairo Museum library Fallon put a hand to her forehead at the sight of all of the books in unorganized stacks on the ground and on the now upright shelves of the bookcases. Evy had made a giant mess, somehow miraculously knocking all of the bookcases down like dominos. Fallon needed some books, several, anything she could find on Hamunaptra and she knew that it would take ages to try to find all that she needed.
She went ahead and started to look at the spines of the books that were in stacks on the tables and desks. Kelly shook her head.
"Listen, I know you work here and pretty much eat, sleep, breathe here too, but we are not spending all afternoon in here for you to look for a couple of books," Kelly stated.
"I know, I just need to see what I can excavate really quickly. This is ridiculous," Fallon said, pulling a book about Pharaoh Seti I from a stack.
Moving to another stack, Fallon's fingers grazed the spines of the books as she read the titles, pulling out another one about lost cities of history and checking the table of contents for Hamunaptra. Adding it to her pile, she searched another stack. Her fingers stopped on a book. She hesitated before she took it out from underneath some heavier books. It was thin with a worn cover and the pages were yellowed and crisp. The simple title Medjai was what puzzled Fallon the most. She had never heard of such a thing. In all of her studies she had never come across the term. Opening the book there was only a small table of contents.
"Ah, Miss Carnahan, and Miss Braddock," they heard a voice. They looked and saw Terrance Bay, the curator of the museum walking towards them from his office.
"Mr. Bay, about earlier-" Fallon started, sticking the book she was holding on top of her pile in her arm.
"Now, Miss Carnahan, there's nothing to explain," Mr. Bay said to her.
"We've been to Hamunaptra," Fallon finished. Kelly pinched the bridge of her nose, waiting for the shit storm that she knew he would rain down on her.