Mummies Don't Drink Blood

"Mummies don't drink blood, vampires drink blood." Ann was still skeptical.

"Who says it can't be both?" Tony asked, leaning on the hood while Doug and Ann sat in the Ford, parked in front of a printer's shop.

Ann considered it, "That's a much bigger ball of yarn."

"Or at least sharing characteristics of both," Tony compromised.

"General, what do you know about this?" Doug asked into the radio.

Back in 1970, General Kirk was paging through a dog-eared paperback on the subject. "It's believed the ancient Egyptians thought the bracelet had recuperative abilities, possibly even the power to restore life. It was found on one of Arthur Honeywell's digs in 1888 and disappeared while on loan in the U.S. The bracelet itself didn't seem unusual to anyone, but since the disappearance a lot of different theories emerged. Did you see any evidence of a cult?"

"Jim said something about a cult bringing a mummy to life. There were six dead men in black robes."

"Those may have been the descendants of Prince Ahmose's priests."

Doug sighed, "We're low on gas and running out of places to look, can you go back to earlier this evening and review whatever happened at the boathouse on the screen? Find just what happened?"

"It still won't maintain an image," Kirk answered. "We're trying, but we're not even seeing you right now. We're going to restart the system, we'll try to maintain radio synchronization."

"Stay and search, or go back to 1970, wait until we can see what happened then come back and try again?" Doug wondered.

"I want to keep looking," Tony answered, impatiently tapping his fingers.

Ann wasn't convinced, "I appreciate your enthusiasm but what are we going to do, just wait for the mummy to come to us?"

She turned to Doug for his response; he silently raised a finger and pointed behind her. Ann cautiously looked over her shoulder and recoiled seeing an unnaturally skinny figure shambling on the other side of the street. It was unclothed, save for a handful of rotting bandages, an outline that did not reveal a nose or ears (or other soft tissue), and the glimmer of a bracelet barely clinging on its left arm. She was at a loss for words.

"What do we do, rush him?" Tony asked.

Doug drew the .32 and leveled it at the mummy. It already looked ventilated enough; a few more holes might not make much difference. While it looked weak, he knew looks could be deceiving.

"Jerry! Isn't that viewscreen working yet?" General Kirk was becoming impatient. Why couldn't Jim have just grabbed that blasted bracelet and ran?

"I'm sorry, General." Jerry was scrambling for results. "Okay, now let's restart it." He flipped a few switches, The Time Tunnel began to hum and the viewscreen slowly flickered to life like a finicky television, showing an empty city street in the early 20th century. "November 1st, 1912," Jerry announced proudly, adding "3:44am."

Kirk smiled in satisfaction and turned his attention to Ray, "Now, see if you can locate Tony, Doug, and Ann. Hopefully they're still together."

Ann held her hand to her face and screamed as the mummy approached, she remained in place as it slowly lumbered closer, screaming with all her might. Almost within reaching distance, Tony and Doug sprang from the shadows; Tony ran in and with a jump kick sent the mummy to the ground, while Doug fired seven rounds into its upper chest. Tony dove for the left arm trying to pry the bracelet off. The thing was surprisingly agile and pulled its left out of reach, hissing at them through short, triangular teeth as it rose back to its feet.

Tony attempted a judo chop to the neck but was blocked by the creature, who in turn grabbed him by the back of his the neck and held him to the ground. Desperate for a weapon, Doug pulled a broken broom handle from a trashcan and swung at the creature, causing it to topple off balance and allowing Tony to scramble free, using his body to trip the mummy. Fallen, Doug pinned it down with the handle against its chest as it thrashed wildly, Tony grabbed hold of the bracelet and wrenched it off the hand, breaking off its thumb in the process. The mummy continued thrashing. Unsure what else to do now, Doug put all his weight into the handle until he heard a crisp, crunching noise and dropped forward with a sudden stop as the piece of wood passed through the mummy's chest and hit the concrete below.

"His head!" Ann shouted, "Go for his head!"

Tony ran over to the mummy's side and like a football kicker, swung his leg forward with all his might. Ann recoiled in shock as the cranium bounced away putting an end to the struggle. Exhausted, Doug bent over and gently picked the bracelet off the ground. They quietly got into the car and after taking a moment to regain their composures, drove off.

Hours later, a yawning printer starting his day spotted something in the morning light as he was preparing to open his shop, the headless corpse of Prince Ahmose laying in the gutter.

"Grave robbery, is nothing sacred to these little hooligans?"