Chapter Three
We heard gunfire and knew that they hadn't left quite yet. Ardeth and I exchanged glances and I pulled Alex closer to me and we ran out the door in time to see the cars driving away and the sound of more gunfire.
We quickly spotted Rick and Jonathan and ran over to them, Alex running up ahead. "Dad! Dad!"
"Are you alright?" He asked, picking up his son.
"Yeah."
"Yeah? Okay." He looked over at me as he put Alex back down. "You?"
I nodded.
"O'Connell." Ardeth greeted.
I sighed and rolled my eyes as Rick, being Rick, pinned Ardeth to the post. "What are you doing here? No, scratch that. I don't care." He let him go. "Who are those guys?" Where are they taking my wife?"
Ardeth placed his hands on Rick's shoulders. "My friend, I'm not sure." He let go, and pulled out a photograph. "But wherever this man is, your wife will surely be."
Alex grabbed it and we all looked at him. "Hey, I know him." He said. "He's the curator. He works at the British Museum."
"Are you sure?"
"Believe him. He spends more time there than at home." He led Alex towards the car. Ardeth touched my shoulder and we and Jonathan ran after them.
"You're here, the bad guys are here, Evy's been kidnapped. Let me guess." Rick said. I had a bad feeling about the answer.
"Yes, they once again removed the creature from his grave."
I groaned a bit. "I was afraid you'd say that." I sighed.
"I don't mean to point fingers," Jonathan started. "But isn't it your job to make sure that doesn't happen?"
I rolled my eyes at my cousin and jabbed him in the ribs with my elbow, and ignored the look he gave me.
"That woman who was with him, she knows things that no living person could possibly know." He looked at Rick. "She knew exactly where the creature was buried." He looked straight ahead. "We were hoping that she would lead us to the bracelet. She obviously did. And now they have it." By now, we had reached the car.
"I wouldn't get too nervous just yet." Alex said, and I narrowed my eyes. What had that kid done now?
"Alex, what did you do?"
He held up his arm and pulled his sleeve up. My eyes widened. When had he done that? Ardeth touched it with his hands.
"Is that gold?" Jonathan asked, and I hit him in his head, not paying any attention to whatever look that he may have given me.
"When I stuck it on, I saw the pyramids at Giza." Alex said. "Then whoosh! Straight across the desert to Karnak."
"By putting this on, you have started a chain reaction that could bring the next apocalypse." Ardeth said, looking right at him. And Alex gasped.
Rick did not look amused. He pointed at Ardeth. "You, lighten up." Then at Alex. "You, big trouble." Then at Jonathan and me. "You two, get in the car." He opened Alex's door and steered him in. We all got in, Jonathan behind Ardeth, me behind Rick and Alex in the middle.
"I am sorry if I alarmed your son, but you must understand, now that the bracelet is on his wrist, we only have seven days before the Scorpion King awakens." Ardeth said.
"We? What we?" Rick looked flabbergasted.
"If he is not killed, he will raise the army of Anubis."
"I take it that's not a good thing." Jonathan leaned forward.
"Oh, he'll wipe out the world." Rick said.
"Obviously." I shook my head. This wasn't good at all.
"The old wipe out the world ploy." He sat back, an unhappy look.
"Whomever can kill the Scorpion King can send his army back to the Underworld or use it to destroy mankind and rule the Earth." Ardeth said.
"No wonder why they dug up Imhotep." I muttered. "They think he's the only one could take out the Scorpion king?" I asked.
"That is their plan." Ardeth nodded.
"Wonderful."
We finally reached the museum, and of course, it had to be storming.
"Alex." Rick turned back to look at him. "I've got a big job for you. Stay here and protect the car."
"I can do that." Jonathan spoke up.
"Protect the car?" My nephew didn't look amused. "Just because I'm a kid doesn't mean I'm stupid."
Rick ruffled his hair. "I know."
"Dad!"
"If you see anyone come out screaming, it's just me." Jonathan muttered.
"Maybe you should just stay here and watch him." Rick looked at him.
"Yes, now you're talking."
Rick shook his head. "Come on Aaliyah."
I nodded, getting out and shut the door. Now, my father may have taught me how to use a sword, daggers and the basic defense moves, my brother taught me how to shoot a gun. I prefer archery or a crossbow, but I will use a gun if necessary.
Rick opened up the trunk which he had several guns shoved into. "You want the shotgun?" Rick asked Ardeth, as he handed over the crossbow to me.
"No, I prefer the Thompson." He said, and the started to get the stuff together, while I made sure I had everything for the crossbow.
"If I were to say to you, I'm a stranger traveling from the east, seeking that which is lost…" Ardeth suddenly stated.
I knew that line all too well, I heard it a lot growing up, which meant, apparently, Ardeth had noticed the mark that was on Rick's wrist.
"Then I would reply that I am a stranger traveling from the west. It is I whom you seek." Rick said. "How…"
"Then it is true." Ardeth lifted up my brother's arm. "You have the sacred mark."
"What? That?" He shook his head. "No, that got slapped on me in an orphanage in Cairo."
"That mark means you're a protector of man, a warrior for God, a Medjai."
Rick cocked his gun. "Sorry. You got the wrong guy." He turned to walk into the museum. Ardeth looked at me, but I shrugged.
"He never gave me a straight answer when I asked him about it." I shook my head. We then went to follow him.
I followed Rick and Ardeth in the museum as the thunder rumbled. We all jumped slightly once the mummies in an exhibit started coming to life.
We followed the sounds of chanting and came upon a large room where we could see the men in red cloaks forming a circle around what I assumed to be Imhotep on their knees, bowing up and down, and I spotted Evy on a table near a fire. I nudged my brother and gestured towards her with my head.
I watched confused, as a young woman and Imhotep conversed.
"You know." Rick said. "A couple years ago, this would've seemed really strange to me." He patted Ardeth's shoulder and left us.
My eyes widened as they carried Evy over to a fire, but Rick ran over and caught her in time and Ardeth started shooting at them so Rick could get her away. We both ducked once fire started being returned.
Whenever I found the chance, I shot at a few of them with the crossbow, taking a couple down. I turned my head once I saw Evy and Rick come back up the stairs. Ardeth and I rejoined them in time to see Imhotep making a chant and bowing on ashes or whatever it was.
"Oh brother." I muttered, knowing that that's would be those mummy priests or warriors of Imhotep's.
"Time to go." I said.
"Oh no. Not these guys again." Rick said, and with that, we ran back through the museum and out the door. And Evy turned back to drag a bench in front of the door. What the hell was she doing?
"Honey, what you doing?" Rick asked, going back for her. "These guys don't use doors."
"Where the hell's Jonathan?" Rick yelled, as we ran back. Then he pulled up….. in a double decker bus, of all things.
"What's the matter with my car?" Rick asked him as Evy and I ran onto the bus, followed by Ardeth no questions asked.
"I was forced to find an alternative means of transportation." Jonathan said.
"A double-decker bus?!"
"It was his idea!" Jonathan blamed Alex as we ran on board, Evy hugging Alex.
"Was not!"
"Was too!"
"Jonathan!" I yelled to him, to make it stop.
"Just go!" Rick yelled.
"It was too!"
"Was not!"
"Both of you shut up!" I sighed, grabbing ahold of on the railings at Jonathan took off.
"No, no! Not my car!" Rick yelled as I turned back to see that a couple of the mummies had crushed his car. "Oh I hate mummies." He grumbled, and I had to agree with him.
"Glad to see me now?" Ardeth asked Rick, as I stood in the middle of the bus, getting my crossbow set back up.
"Just like old times, huh?" Was Rick's response as he climbed up the latter to the second deck. One of the mummies swung into the bus, only to be met with the Thompson that Ardeth had fired off, I looked back to see Evy still holding Alex out of danger.
One mummy knocked the gun out of Ardeth's hand, and then started swinging on the rails like a monkey bar, as he was missing the lower half of his body. I managed to knock it down via crossbow. But it was still fighting against Ardeth.
"Turn, turn, turn!" Evy ordered Jonathan, who did just that. And we all crashed sideways. The mummy slashed Ardeth's arm again. My crossbow didn't do anything to help, and I ran out of the stuff for the bow, it was now useless, but then Rick's shotgun fell onto the bus, and Evy managed to grab it and shot the mummy's head off and blew it out of the bus.
"Look out!" Alex called out to Jonathan.
"Jonathan!" I called out and he made a sharp turn, and we were headed straight for a low overhead bridge. We had to brace ourselves for the impact, but thankfully, he managed to go right through it. "I freaking hate Jonathan's driving." I muttered, taking a seat next to Ardeth. Reminded me of the time that he drove us straight through Imhotep's slaves back in Egypt.
I looked at him, knowing that he had been scratched. "You okay?" I asked, and he nodded as Rick jumped back down to the main part.
I got some cloth out of my bag to patch him up once again.
"You alright?" Rick asked as Jonathan made the bus come to a stop and as I finished up Ardeth's arm.
"This was my first bus ride." He gave him a slight smile.
I patted his shoulder. "Okay, I'm done."
He nodded, putting an arm around me and I let my forehead rest on his shoulder for a moment, we all needed to rest for a minute.
That is, until we heard Alex. "Let me go!"
"Alex!"
Before we even knew what was going on or had time to react, Rick ran after the car. The rest of us had just jumped out of our seats and out of the bus.
Rick continued to go after him, but the bridge start rising. He came back to us, defeated. I still couldn't believe that my nephew was gone. Ardeth took my hand and we went over to my brother and Evy.
"Please, do not fear for your son, my friends." He said. "They cannot hurt him, for he wears the bracelet of Anubis."
"Alex is wearing the bracelet?" Evy asked.
"When he put it on, he said he saw the pyramids at Giza, the temple at Karnak." Rick said.
"And when they reach Karnak, the bracelet will show him the next step of the journey." Ardeth said.
"Well, if we don't get to Karnak before them, we won't have any idea where to look for him next." Evy said.
"Alex is a smart kid." I told Evy, as I felt Ardeth's arm around me. I leaned into his embrace. "He's got both yours and Rick's genes, he'll be fine."
"Seems to me, we need a magic carpet." Rick said. I was afraid to ask.