AN: Hey everybody, thanks for reading! I have another announcement that I am going to make. I put it on my profile earlier, but I am also going to put it here. There will be a short tie over fanfic that takes place between Medjai's Fate and Heart of the Medjai. The title is currently under development, and if you have any ideas please leave a comment on Medjai's Fate or send me a private message. The summary blurb for the fanfic is on my profile page if you want an idea of what it's about :) Enjoy this chapter!
None of them had thought to bring any water on this journey. Fallon seemed to be the only one who was thinking about it. Everyone else trekked towards the City of the Dead, with the mission being the only thing on their minds. Not that Fallon wasn't thinking about the severity of the situation, but she was also extremely thirsty. She didn't want to say anything, she didn't want to sound like she was complaining. So she tried to think of something else. What else was there to think about that didn't make her stomach churn with worry or fear?
She wondered what would happen when she got to Hamunaptra. Save Evy, that was the main plan. Kill Imhotep, that was the other main plan. Find the Golden Book of Amun-Ra, that needed to happen before they did the other two. Golden Book, Evy, Imhotep; that was the order. The last two could possibly be interchangeable depending on the situation. Evy wasn't the only one who could read Ancient Egyptian. That's what Fallon was for, that and finding the Book. She only hoped that she wouldn't run into Imhotep herself. He wanted her to, but as far as he knew she was dead or nowhere to be found at least. What would he do with her if he managed to capture her? Kill her? Use her in his master plan to try and take over the world? He needed her to find the Book of Amun-Ra, which would garner him all the power in the world, but thankfully things were looking out so that they would be able to find it before he did. Unless they ran into any problems.
When they stepped foot into Hamunaptra they noticed that there were still camels there from when they had left several days ago in a rush, they must have belonged to some of the diggers that the Americans had brought with them; all of which were dead.
Everyone picked up their pace and rushed into the city. Maybe it was because they were so close to the end of this nightmare. The sooner they could get it done, the better.
Fallon knew all of their hearts were beating out of their chests in anticipation, fear, and even anxiety. As they hurried into the catacombs, Fallon felt the urge to turn back and leave. It wasn't that she didn't want to save her cousin, it was that the danger was going off in her head like an alarm.
They quickly made torches and started down a corridor.
"Now would be a good time, Fallon, to be this Oracle thing and tell us where the statue of Horus is," Rick said to her. He may as well have added No pressure to the end of that sentence.
Fallon inhaled sharply, unsure of how this even worked. She felt a warm hand on her back, and when she turned she saw that it was Ardeth giving her a reassuring look. He had said earlier this morning at the medical ward that her visions are at least touch based. But what could she touch to give her the answers as to where the statue of Horus was?
Kelly watched her friend eagerly as she stepped forward towards a wall covered in hieroglyphs. Fallon reached out her hand and grazed the wall with her fingertips hesitantly. When nothing seemed to happen, she laid her hand flat against the wall. She let out a sigh of relief.
"We go this way, we might have to dig," Fallon finally said.
"Did you have a vision?" Ardeth asked, stepping forward hopefully.
"No, but the hieroglyphs on the wall mention Horus, and they're all pointing that way," Fallon said. Kelly could see the disappointment in Ardeth's eyes; and she'll admit that she felt disappointed too. But if Fallon didn't see anything then she didn't see anything. Maybe the vision didn't come simply because all that really needed to be seen were just the freaking hieroglyphs on the wall.
They followed the hieroglyphs on the walls and were led to a dead end. The passage was caved in, but it didn't look like it was impossibly to dig out.
"All of the hieroglyphs point through here. We'll have to dig through here. I don't know of any other passages that could go around," Fallon stated.
"Let's get started then," Rick said.
Ardeth, Rick, and Kelly began to remove the rocks that blocked the passage way. Fallon and Jonathon couldn't find much room to fit in so Jonathon stood behind them watching them work and Fallon sat on the ground to rest. She studied the hieroglyphs on the walls in the meantime. After some time, Kelly broke away from the collapsed wall and joined Fallon the ground.
"We'll get through soon," Kelly told her. Fallon nodded. The one time she had to rest and she already felt her eyelids begin to droop.
Kelly saw this and reached into her gun holster and handed Fallon the hand gun.
Fallon raised an eyebrow.
"Take it," Kelly said.
Fallon slowly took the gun from Kelly. It was heavy in her hand, and she was unsure what Kelly exactly wanted her to do with it.
"Learn how to use it in the meantime. You're gonna need it for self-defense," Kelly told her.
"I can use a sword just fine," Fallon chuckled.
"Swords are not going to be much use here if you want to keep your distance," Kelly told her. Fallon flinched. "Come on, Fallon, you never shot a single bullet while we were in the French Legion. And your aim during practice was...horrifying, let's face it. Just do this for me and learn how to use it." Kelly stood up to go back to help remove rocks from the collapsed passageway. "Don't shoot anything though, we don't want Imhotep to know we're here quite yet."
Fallon looked at the gun in her hands. It was a six-shooter, fully loaded. At least she would have five tries to shoot something before she could actually hit something. Out of curiosity, she laid her other hand on top of the gun. In a flash that rendered her breathless she saw an altar with Evy lying on it, with decaying mummies surrounding it, praying and moaning, a gunshot piercing the air.
Fallon gasped and dropped the gun onto the ground. She didn't even notice Ardeth standing next to her. She wiped her hands on her pants, as if doing so would wipe the vision away as if she never had it.
"Is everything alright?" He asked.
Fallon nodded, wiping sweat off her brow with the sleeve of her shirt. "Yes, yes, I'm fine. I just..."
She was afraid he would probe her about the visions again. For once could she be left alone about being an oracle?
"Would you like to learn?" Ardeth asked, eyeing the six-shooter on the ground in front of Fallon.
Fallon couldn't help but smile. What did she have to lose? "I suppose so."
He bent down and picked up the gun while she stood up. He handed her the gun.
"When you actually shoot, you want to turn off the safety. But stand with your feet shoulder width apart," Ardeth began.
Fallon followed what he said.
"Take the gun in both of your hands and take aim. Hold it between your gaze," Ardeth said. He had placed himself behind her, so close she could almost feel him. He placed his hands on her shoulders, and she tensed up more than she already was. "Relax your shoulders, and take a breath in. When you release it, that's when you shoot."
"Doesn't sound too hard," Fallon speculated.
"It's harder than it looks. You'll get better at aiming over time and the more you practice. It would be more helpful to actually fire it, but Kelly is right, it would attract too much attention," Ardeth replied. He seemed hesitant to remove his hands from her shoulders, but she could sense that he thought she seemed uncomfortable. Going against her gut feeling, she turned her head and her eyes met his. He really was very close to her, his face just inches from hers.
And then the corridor rang with Jonathon's screams.
Everyone rushed over to Jonathon who was screaming and holding out his arm, smacking at it.
"What?! What is it?!" Rick exclaimed.
"Arm! Arm!" Jonathon could only scream.
Rick finally grabbed Jonathon's shoulder and tugged the button down shirt off of it. Revealed was a large moving lump headed up his shoulder and towards his neck.
"Whoa!" Rick gasped.
"It's a scarab!" Fallon shrieked.
"Do something, do something!" Jonathon continued to scream.
Rick grabbed out a knife. "Hold him," he said to Ardeth, who briskly ran behind Jonathon and wrapped his arms around his shoulders. Rick readied his knife against Jonathon's skin.
"Not that, not that!" Jonathon begged.
Fallon turned her eyes away in terror as Rick dug the knife into Jonathon's shoulder and pried the scarab beetle out of his shoulder, Jonathon shrieking in pain.
The scarab flew to the ground, Fallon and Kelly stepping out of the way. It began to scuttle towards them again, but was met with a bullet from Rick's gun. A ringing filled everyone's ears. Ardeth said something in muffled tones, but she could see his lips form the name 'Imhotep'. She could barely hear Rick tell everyone to go through the rocky passage they had dug out of the corridor, but she understood when Kelly and Ardeth nudged her towards the wall.
Once they were through the passageway, Fallon ripped off part of her sleeves to form a quick makeshift bandage and sling for Jonathon. The passage grew more cramped and Fallon prayed for it to end. When they finally found that the passage opened into a room, they piled out. It was too dark for anyone to see anything, except for a small sliver of light coming from the slit in the high ceiling revealed. From what Fallon could tell, they were in a very large room, she just didn't know how big.
Rick could make out one of the ancient mirrors that he remembered Evy showing him when they first came to Hamunaptra. It was slanted down away from the sliver of silvery blue light, and with a shot of his gun, the mirror spun and when it finally rested, the light ricocheted and caught on the rest of mirrors strategically placed throughout the room. The room glowed with golden light reflecting off of the most impressive sight that laid before the group.
Their jaws dropped at the sight of golden treasures filling the vast pit in front of their eyes. Glittering gold and jewels twinkled in the light. The underground treasure chamber, the wealth of Egypt.
A set of stairs were before them and without even thinking, they all descended them, not even daring take their eyes off of the treasures.
"Do you see...?" Jonathon muttered.
"Yeah," Rick said, cautiously looking around as they took the last step off of the stairs.
"Can you believe...?" Jonathon breathed.
"Yeah," Rick nodded. There was a path leading through the riches that they all slowly walked through.
"Could we just...?" Jonathon sighed.
"No," Kelly, Rick, and Fallon said at the same time.
Fallon desperately wanted to reach out and touch the head of a golden Anubis statue, but she didn't dare; as if touching it would kill her right then and there. Never in her work had she ever seen such vast riches in one place.
They heard a crumbling crash come from behind them and they all spun around. Dusty mummies were clawing their way from the ground, groaning and gurgling.
"Who the hell are these guys?" Rick asked.
"Priests...Imhotep's priests," Ardeth replied in shock.
"Alright then," Rick said. They opened fire.
Jonathon grabbed two guns from Rick's holsters and began to shoot. More were climbing through the ground and making their way towards them. Fallon was caught so off guard that all of the shooting around her made her retreat a few steps back behind everyone else. But when she saw that everyone was shooting at the mummies except herself, she refused to be the one holding back and not helping defeat their enemy. She still had the six-shooter in her hands, and she quickly took aim.
Bang!
The bullet hit the sand behind the mummy she was aiming at.
Bang!
It hit a golden statue next to it.
Bang!
It grazed the crumbling rib-cage.
Ardeth grabbed her elbow, dragging her back away from the mummies.
"Come on! Let's go!" Rick shouted.
They all turned and ran through the treasure chamber, making their way up another set of stairs. Fallon managed another glimpse behind her as she ran, and more and more mummies had appeared, coming straight for them. They were slow, but they were certainly catching up.
They ran through another passageway, less cramped than the last. When they made it into another room, the statue of Horus stood before them like a sigh of relief.
AN: Thanks for waiting so long for this chapter. For some reason it just wasn't coming out, and I also had quite a bit going on. There will be two chapters left until the end of this fanfiction and then I will start on the small sequel and Tiger's Eye.
Please Follow, Favorite, and Review! I would like to hear all your thoughts on how I can improve!