AN: Hi all! This one took a little time to write because this section in the movie is so quick, and I had to watch it again in order to get the events and some of the lines right. I hope it was worth the wait, especially after I had been posting every day for the past week. Enjoy!
The wind became stronger and stronger as it blew through the city, and it carried something dire with it. Fallon stood up from her spot by the fallen column slowly. The wind whistled through the crumbling city from the empty desert, sounding like a boiling tea kettle on the stove. She could hear a low humming growing louder and louder. It almost sounded like-
She sprinted back to her camp where Evy and Rick were sitting surrounding a large black book, and Kelly, Jonathon, and Adam were just awakening from a disturbed slumber. From the entrance of the city they could see a strange black cloud against the navy blue of the night sky sprinkled with stars. Everyone stared at it, even the Americans who had been woken up by Chamberlain's outcry.
Fallon looked down to Evy and Rick, and the book Evy had resting on her cot. She felt her stomach twist in her gut. "Evy, what is that?"
Evy stumbled for words, unsure if she should focus on the black cloud or her cousin. "It's-it's just a book, I-"
The humming became louder, and the cloud came closer to them. A sense of danger filled Fallon's heart, and with the distinct fluttering of wings, she cried out, "LOCUSTS!"
They began swarmed over the walls of Hamunaptra and everyone darted away from where they stood towards the crypts. Locusts horded around frightened diggers who weren't able to run fast enough, and Fallon didn't stay long enough outside to see what happened to them. All she could hear was the buzzing of the insects and the screams of everyone trying to get away.
Once safely inside the crypts where the locusts couldn't get to them, Rick quickly fashioned several torches and quickly led the group deeper underground, taking no chances. The corridors echoed with their panting from running and the shock and disbelief of what they just experienced.
"What the hell just happened?!" Kelly cried, following Rick deeper into the crypts.
"Hell if I know!" Rick shouted.
"Evy, what was the book you were reading?!" Fallon grabbed Evy's shoulder. They had left it behind. It was no wonder, Fallon saw that it was huge. The black tablet pages had large pristine hieroglyphs carved chiseled into it, the binding lined in gold. She had never seen anything like it, and thinking about it sent a shiver down her spine. She realized she was still holding her mother's diary in her hand. She wished she had grabbed her knapsack, but at the sight of the locusts time was of the essence.
The ground shook and sand fell from the ceiling. They immediately stopped when they saw a sand dune begin to rise from the ground right in front of them. Neither of them had ever seen anything like it, with the exception of ant hills. But this one was much larger.
"What the-?" Adam said.
It burst with glimmering black beetles, hundreds of them chittering and scattering about. Fallon and Kelly screamed, stumbling backwards, frightened by the sight of so many bugs.
"Scarabs! Run!" Evy cried. They all turned and sprinted back the way they came.
Rick had stopped to throw his torch at them and fire a couple of shots from his rifle, until he decided that it was futile and continued to run from them.
They turned a corner and came into an open room, a staircase formed into a bridge over a deep chasm, open ledges on both sides which gave them the opportunity to jump. Having been closest to Evy, Fallon and her cousin jumped over the gap onto the ledge, putting their backs to the wall. The others jumped to the one on the left and watched the mass of chirping flesh-eaters scuttle across the bridge into the connecting corridor.
Fallon and Evy had barely enough time to sigh with relief until the wall they pushed their backs to fell open and they stumbled through with cries.
"Fallon!" Kelly screamed as her friend fell through the trap door.
The chirping echoed out as the last of the scarabs crossed the bridge.
"Evelyn?" Rick called. "Fallon!"
"Evy!" Jonathon cried.
Fallon and Evy tripped into a dark room, little to no light shining through.
"Trap door!" Fallon gasped. She pushed on the wall they came through to try to get it to open again, but her weak body could hardly get it to budge. That's when she realized that she was no longer holding the diary. She patted her body out of instinct, but after the quick realization that she had no pockets, her heart pounded out of her chest knowing that she had no idea where it was. She must have dropped it, or perhaps it flew out of her hand when she and Evy fell through the trap door. The ground was too dark for her to see anything.
"Evy?" Fallon called, panicked.
"Wait, there's someone here," Evy said. Fallon stopped shaking long enough to hear gurgled moaning come from around a corner. They peered over and saw a man, his back towards them. He wore brown pants, a white shirt, and suspenders. Fallon could recognize the short cropped brown hair.
"Mr. Burns, thank goodness," Evy said, recognizing him as well.
"Bernard," Fallon sighed with relief. She started to make her way over to him. "Thank God you're here. We've lost everyone. We fell through a trap door and...are you alright?"
With a touch on the shoulder, he spun around, his face in agony. That's when Fallon saw that his eyes had been gauged clean out with nothing but bleeding gaping holes. His mouth hung open, and Fallon saw enough to know that his tongue had been ripped out as well. She and Evy screamed. Evy backed away, but Fallon froze where she stood, staring in horror at what had happened to her friend.
Fallon turned again at Evy's second rattling scream and saw something that she knew she would never unsee. The rotting mummy from the sarcophagus was standing there. Alive. Walking. And blinking with Bernard's eyes in his eye-sockets. She had almost completely stopped breathing at the sight. The wrenching gut feeling in her stomach was even stronger now. In the back of her mind she knew that this was what she had been fearing all along, she just never knew it. The dreams...had given her every clue, but she could never figure out what they meant. This was it.
Evy backed away from it as it growled, deep enough for Fallon to think that it was a wolf. Oh how Fallon wished it was a wolf right now. Bernard started falling forward, catching Fallon off guard, but she caught him under the arms. She was hardly able to hold him up. She tried to focus on both him and Evy, who was being cornered by the mummy.
"Evy!" Fallon cried, worried and unsure of what to do.
The mummy turned his see-through, rotting body to glance at Fallon but stopped and said, "Metu neter Wedjet," in a low grumbling growl. Fallon furrowed her brow.
"What?" She whispered.
"Fallon, please, help!" Evy cried. The mummy turned back to Evy, eyeing her now.
"Anck-Su-Namun?" It asked.
That was when a hand clamped down on Fallon's mouth, something wrenched Bernard from her arms, and another arm wrapped around her waist and carried her off into a dark corridor, swiftly and quietly.
Fallon kicked behind her and flailed her arms to get whoever was carrying her off to let go. She tried screaming, but they were muffled through the hand. She remembered the other night, when she had a run in the Medjai behind the column. The hand as though it was the same size. And she had an inkling in the back of her mind that she knew who was carrying her away from Evy.
They finally came out of the city, torches being held by tattooed men in black with severe faces. She could feel the cold night air rush against her as they left the crypts. Finally the arm let her go, and she fell to the ground. She snapped her head up, and sure enough there was the Medjai from the night before, his eyes cold and looking as serious as the men around her. She saw them dragging Bernard past her and she sprang to her feet to go after him but the man blocked her path, holding his arm out to stop her.
"Let me through, he's my friend!" Fallon shrieked.
"Do not worry about him," he said to her. She could hear the cold bite in his tone. It was different from the other times he had spoken to her.
"What do you mean?! Look at him, he needs help!" She protested. "And what about my cousin! You left her there with that-that thing!"
"Do you not have any understanding of what has just happened?!" He raised his voice. She felt the blood rush to her face. "You all have awakened the creature! Now you have killed us all!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Fallon spat, pushing herself away from him. She wondered if this was the same man she had spoken to only 24 hours earlier. He had the same face, same dark goatee, black shoulder-length curls, and cross-chest ammunition belt. His harsh tone and cold eyes were the only things different.
Another Medjai came forward, leading roughly by the arm the American's Egyptologist, Dr. Chamberlain, who shrank and cowered with fear at the sight of these men. He clutched in his arms the black book that Fallon had seen Evy with, and his organ jar.
"Dr. Chamberlain...is that the-" Fallon started.
"The Black Book of the Dead," the Medjai stated. "From which someone read the incantations to bring the Creature back from the Underworld."
Fallon could hardly believe what he had just said.
"And speaking of books," he said, reaching into his robes. He pulled out a familiar leather book. "You dropped this."
Fallon's eyes widened. She snatched it from his hands, furious. "Don't you dare touch this again! You have no right to after everything you've done!"
"I believe there is a misunderstanding-" he began to say.
"Misunderstanding! You've obviously read it a thousand times and you had to have been there when it happened! Why don't you tell me what happened to my parents here 10 years ago?!" Tears pooled in her eyes. She whacked him in the arm with the journal, and she could feel everyone around her wince. "The nerve!"
She hardly heard the cries and screams from the crypts behind her until the Medjai grabbed her and pulled her back towards him, an arm around her shoulders and neck. She clutched it and pulled at it to try to get it off, but he was too strong. He pulled out his Thompson gun from his belt and brandished it in front of the both of them, aiming it towards Dr. Chamberlain.
Her heart calmed when she saw Evy, safe, and Rick and the crew with the Americans running from inside the city. The black-clad men all raised their guns and aimed at Fallon's friends. At the sight of the Medjai everyone froze and put their hands up.
"Get the hell away from her, you son of a bitch!" Adam hissed, pushing through everyone and pointing his pistol at him. Kelly grabbed hold of his arm.
"Don't, Adam!" Kelly warned. When she looked at Fallon, she had the same rage in her eyes.
"I told you to leave or die," Fallon's captor said. "You refused. Now you may have killed us all. For you have unleashed a creature that we have feared for more than 3,000 years."
"Relax, I got him," Rick replied.
The Medjai scoffed. "No mortal weapon can kill this creature. He's not of this world."
That's when he stepped aside and let his men drag forth Burns who still moaned with terror. Fallon squirmed and he finally let her go. When the Medjai dropped Burns to the ground, Fallon flew to his side in the sand with his American friends and cradled his weak, limp body in hers and Henderson's arms.
Henderson shook his head in disbelief. "You sick bastards!"
"What did you do to him?" Daniels demanded.
"We saved him," the Medjai stepped forward purposely. "Saved him before the Creature could finish his work."
Fallon glared up at him. Though he was innocent in that accusation, she knew deep down of his other crimes.
"Now leave, all of you, quickly, before he finishes you all," he ordered. He turned his head to his men. "Allah, Imsheb." They all withdrew their guns and moved towards the crypts. "I must now go on the hunt and try and find a way to kill him," he said as he brushed past Rick.
"I already told you, I got him," Rick repeated.
The Medjai stopped, and Fallon felt her head spin as he turned back to Rick. "Know this. This Creature is the bringer of death. He will never eat, he will never sleep...he will never stop." He glanced at Fallon and gave her a nod before disappearing back into the underground of the city. Fallon could only purse her lips in order to prevent her from screaming and running after her with the sole purpose of killing him.
Everyone wasted no time. They ran back to their camps and grabbed the most essential materials, packed them on the backs of their horses and camels, and fled the city as quickly as was humanly possible. While they were riding back through the desert, Fallon couldn't help but glance back at the city, thinking about the Medjai, and clutching her mother's diary tightly to her chest.
AN: Thank you for reading! There is some Ancient Egyptian in this chapter that I had the Mummy say to Fallon, but I'm not going to reveal what he said just yet ;D It will be brought up again in a couple of chapters. Please tell me what you think in the comments, and please favorite and follow!