I watched closely as Rick and Jonathan lifted up the sarcophagus into a standing position. I wasn't nearly as excited to open it as
Evy was, but still, I wondered just what we might find.
"Oh, I've dreamed about this ever since I was a little girl," Evy said excitedly, taking out the key and opening it.
"You dream about dead guys?" Rick asked and I snorted.
"Oh look, his sacred spells have been chiseled off." Evy said, looking down and studying it. "This man must have been condemned not only in this life but in the next."
"Tough break," Rick said.
"Yeah, I'm all tears," Jonathan added as he twisted the key in the lock before he took it out. "Now, let's see who's inside, shall we?" Evy looked as excited as a kid as Christmas as she slipped towards the right, as Jonathan and Rick pulled the lid off, while I slowly walked forward and stood right in front of the sarcophagus.
And then, with on great pull, the lid was off, and the mummy was set free, popping out at me.
I screamed right away, and leaned back, only to fall onto my back. "Oh god." I cried out, my heart pounding.
"You okay old bird?" Jonathan called, as he jogged over and leaned down, offering me his hand.
"Oh...yeah great." I smiled as he pulled me to my feet.
"Oh, my God, I hate it when these things do that," Evy called, looking over the mummy.
"Is he supposed to look like that?" Rick asked, as Jonathan and I got closer for a better look.
"No, I've never seen a mummy look like that before. He's still...he's still- -"
"Juicy," Rick, Jonathan and i muttered at the same time.
"Yes," Evy agreed, "H-he must be more than 3000 years old...and, well, it looks as if he's still...decomposing." Evy explained.
"Hey, look at that," Rick said, pointing to the sarcophagus's lid. "What do you make of this?"
Strange, long scratches were dug into the lid from the inside. "My God, these marks were made with..." Evy began
"Fingernails?" I asked, not even wanting to know if I was right.
"This man was buried alive," Evy concluded. "And he left a message" She added, looking to the symbols that were also scratched onto the lid. "'Death is only the beginning'." She muttered.
We all took a moment, and looked at the mummy, an eerie feeling washing over us all.
V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~V~
"Say, O'Connell, what do you think these babies'll fetch back home?" Henderson asked, shaking a jar as he came towards us as we sat at the fire that night.
"Probably nothing, if your lucky." I called to him, earning me a grin from both Henderson and my brother
"We heard you boys found yourselves a nice, gooey mummy. Well, congratulations!" Burns added, sitting down.
"What's it to you?" Rick asked angrily.
"Well, if you dry that fella out, you might be able to sell him for firewood," Daniels suggested as they all laughed. Rick simply made a face and ignored them.
"Look what I found!" Evy's voice called out as she suddenly approached us.
"You're in her seat," Rick said, turning to Beni, who simply laughed. "Now!" Rick added sharply when he didn't move.
"Yup," Beni muttered, getting up fast and letting Evy sit down.
"Scarab skeletons!" Evy said, holding out her hands and showing them to us. "Flesh eaters. I found them inside our friend's coffin." Both Rick and Jonathan picked one up and studied it as I looked them over in Evy's hands. "They can stay alive for years, feasting on the flesh of a corpse."
"Really?" I asked, amazed. Evy nodded.
"Unfortunately for our friend, he was alive when they started eating him."
"So somebody threw these in with our guy, and then they slowly ate alive?" I asked softly, still looking at the skeletons, shocked.
"Very slowly," Evy said eerily.
"Well, he certainly wasn't a popular fellow when they planted him, was he?" Jonathan commented.
"Well, he probably got a little too frisky with the Pharaoh's daughter," Rick said, causing both myself and Evy to smile.
"Well, according to my readings...our friend suffered the Hom-Dai, the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses...one reserved only for the most evil of blasphemers. Well, in my research, I've never heard of this curse having actually been performed." Evy explained.
"There's always a first for everything." I whispered, paying more attention to the fire then the conversation.
"That bad, huh?" Daniels asked.
"Yes, well they never used it because they feared it so." She explained further. "It's written that if a victim of the Hom-Dai should ever arise...he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt."
"Oh joy." I whispered softly, earning a jab in the ribs from Rick. "Ow." I muttered.
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Sleep was hard to come by that night, as I tossed and turned, thinking about everything that had been happening. The warden dying, what happened to the American's slaves. And of course finding that mummy. But mostly, what was sticking with me was what that man had said. That man in black. That I needed to leave.
I shuddered against the cold of the night and rolled over only to find Evy walking towards her bed, with a large object in her hands.
"What's that?" I called softly, sitting up.
"That's called 'stealing', you know." Rick said, and I turned to see that he too was awake.
"According to you and my brother...it's called borrowing. " Evy called as she rummaged through the bag and found the key.
"I thought the Book of Amun-Ra was made out of gold," I called, pulling my legs up to my chest as I watched her open the key and place it into the lock.
"It is made out of gold. This isn't the Book of Amun-Ra. This is something else," Evy answered, her eyes once again filled with excitement. "I think this may be the Book of the Dead."
"The Book of the Dead?" Rick and I both repeated.
"Are you sure you want to be playing around with this thing?" Rick asked.
"It's just a book. No harm ever came from...reading a book," Evy replied as she opened the book, causing the wind to howl around us.
"That happens a lot around here," Rick muttered, looking edgy, much like myself. "So what's it say?"
"Amun Ra. Amun Dei. It speaks of the night and of the day." She explained, before continuing to read, going further and further along until...
"Nooooooo!" The Egyptologist yelled out as he jumped up and ran over to us. "You must not read from the book!"
"I get the feeling..." I whispered, looking to Rick suddenly feeling ill. "That we just ran into trouble." I gulped, as a loud buzzing sound rose up into the air.
"Huh?" Jonathan called, sitting up fast.
"What is it?" I cried out, looking into the horizon as a large black cloud suddenly appeared, spreading out in all different directions and coming right at us.
"What's happening?" Daniels called out as he and the other Americans join us, guns out. It was then that I saw, Rick too had his weapon at the ready and I knew, I should get out mine as well.
"Insects!" Jonathan yelled suddenly.
"RUN!" Rick screamed, reaching forward and grabbing Evy's hand and pulling her along, as I fallowed, with Jonathan at my side as we headed towards the nearest tunnel, where we dove in and continued to run.
"Well the hell did they come from?" Jonathan cried out as we continued down the passage.
"I ain't waitin' around to find out!" Daniels cried out.
I was so wrapped up in running, rushing forward that I didn't notice that Burns had fallen till i heard his distant cry behind me of; "My glasses! My glasses!"
"Burns!" I yelled out, turning to help him.
"Ellen no!" Jonathan cried out, reaching back and grabbing my hand, pulling me up and ahead of him, giving me a little push to get me going.
Quite suddenly I looked up and realized that we were in a very tight narrow hallway, as Rick lean the way before i slowly slipped past him, looking around. "Where are we?" I asked, turning to Rick.
"I don't..." His sentence was cut off as the ground suddenly started to shake, causing me to loose my balance.
"What the fu...!"
Directly in front of me, right before my eyes, a large mound in the ground started to rise out of the sand. And out of the mound, hundreds, no maybe thousands of scarabs piled out, rushing towards us.
"Scarabs!" Evy cried out.
"RUN!" Rick screamed, as we turned fast and raced away.
"Go, go, go!" Jonathan called as we raced away, Rick behind us, taking a few shots to try and stop them as we entered another chamber that we hadn't been in before, running up a hill in the path.
Quickly Rick and Jonathan jumped over onto another ledge, before i joined them, slamming into it, my legs dangling down..
"Rick...Rick...RICK!" I screamed, scrambling to try and pull myself up, before he reached out and pulled me up onto my feet, as we turned and watched as the scarab rushed up the hill and disappeared.
"That was...eventful!" I gasped, trying to catch my breath.
"Where's Evy?" Jonathan asked suddenly, looking around.
"Evelyn?" Rick called out.
"Evy?" I cried out, as we jumped back over to the main path, rushing over to where we last saw her.
"Evelyn?" Rick called out again.
"Evy!" Jonathan yelled this time, holding the torch up higher to try and see her.
"There! She was standing over there!" I called, pointing to where I had last seen her.
"Hold this." Rick called, tossing me the rifle before he jumped back across the large crack in the ground, landing hard and rolling, before regaining himself and walking back over to the ledge. "Toss it to me." He instructed, as i tossed him the rifle, before he placed it on the ground. "Now jump, Jonathan first." He called, as Jonathan backed up, before running and jumping, landing hard on his feet and nearly falling to the ground.
"Alright now Ellen. You can make it."
"I hardly made it the first time!" I screamed angrily.
"We'll catch you." Jonathan promised, as they stood close to the edge.
"Come on Ellen...you can do it."
"Oh...dammit." I groaned, backing up against the wall. "If I fall and die..." I warned, looking at my brother.
"You wont." He promised, his arms outstretched. "Ready? One, two..."
I ran forward fast and leapt up into the air before coming down hard on the floor and falling into both Rick and Jonathan's arms.
"There see, that wasn't so hard was it?" Rick asked as they both helped me up.
"Oh yeah, real fun." I groaned as Rick picked up the rifle and headed over to the door, before banging on it a few times.
"Dammit!" Rick yelled, slamming the rifle against the stone. "Trap door. There's gotta be a switch or something around here someplace..."
"RUN YOU SONS OF BITCHES!"
Turning we watched as Henderson and Daniel's appear, with their slaves behind them, running like made.
"Go!" Rick yelled, reaching over and grabbing my hand as we jumped down onto the path and started running back the way we came. For a moment, i looked back and saw a few of the slaves fall behind, before getting eaten by the scarabs.
"Oh God!" I cried out, hurrying along as we went down another corridor, Jonathan and the American's ahead of us. "Evy!" I cried out, coming to a dead stop, Rick slamming into me.
"There you are!" He yelled, letting go of me and charging towards her. "Quit playing hide-and-seek and lets' get out of here!" He yelled as I rushed forward to join them. But as soon as I entered it's line of sight I stopped dead and looked to my right.
"RICK!" I screamed, as he turned and faced what myself and Evy were both looking at.
"Whoa!"
"Evy?" Jonathan called, as he rushed into the room. As he skidded to a halt, he cried out at the sight of the mummy, dropping his torch as Daniel's and Henderson appeared behind him.
It was then that the mummy suddenly opened it's massive jaws and roared at my brother, causing me to jump back and right into
Daniel's arms, just as Rick roared back, and shot him multiple time before grabbing Evy.
"Move!" He yelled, as Jonathan came forward and grabbed my hand before we started running as well.
"Yeah, right!" Daniels yelled, pushing me forward as we started running again.
"Did you see that? It was walking!" Jonathan cried out as he ran behind us.
"Come on!" Rick yelled, as we all turned a corner into a larger room, myself somehow now in the lead, only to stop dead.
Greeting us were rifles pointed right at us, and the ever elusive men in black. And with them, on his hands and knees was the Egyptologist, clutching the book in his hands.
"Ellen!" Rick cried out, rushing forward and grabbing my arm, pushing me behind him protectively. But I was too wrapped up in looking up at the man in black who was looking down at me as he slowly pulled his scarf back. I knew him right away.
"I told you to leave or die. You refused. Now you have killed us all..." He said looking at us all, but stopped when he looked at me. "For you have unleased a creature we have feared for more then 3,000 years."
"Relax." Rick called, stepping in front of me blocking the man's view of me. "I got him."
"No mortal weapon can kill this creature! He's not of this world." The man said angrily, glaring at Rick, his accent thick as he spoke. Suddenly, he turned and two more men in black pulled Burns forward, as he moaned before they dropped him.
"You bastard!" Daniels cried out.
"What did you do to him?" Henderson demanded.
"Saved him. Saved him before the creature could finish his work." The man replied as I watching him, peeking over Rick's shoulder. Quite suddenly he caught sight of me, and held my gaze as he spoke. "Leave, all of you, quickly, before he finishes you all."
"Thank you for helping Burns." I said suddenly, sliding out to Rick's right.
"Ellen." He snapped, pushing me back behind him, as I looked up at the man who seemed a little shocked that I had spoken.
"Yallah. Nimishi." He said and the men lowered their guns. "We must now go on the hunt and try to find a way to kill him." He explained, as he walked past Rick and myself.
"I already told you." Rick snapped, causing the man to stop right beside me. "I got him." Rick finished, as i slowly stepped back and pressed myself against Rick.
"Know this." He said angrily, stepping towards us both. "This creature is the bringer of death. He will never eat, never sleep, and he will never stop." He gave me one last look before turning away. And then he was gone.
"I say we pack up." Daniels suggested.
"I'm with you." Rick agreed.