Jackie: Avery...
Avery: Yes?
Jackie: Keeper's a wreck. She is literally sobbing on the floor...what happened?
Avery: Um...Allegiant, Merlin, The Hobbit (for the hundredth time,) and Supernatural.
Jackie: Ooh. Jeez, she must've wanted that or else she wouldn't have done that! Merlin, gosh, that's a tough break.
Avery: *tearing up* Yeah, I'm going to go cry with her...all of those things scarred me for life...
Jackie: Yeah...I think everyone is going to be with her in a moment...Keeper only owns us OCs.
"I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell..." -Matchbox 20
They were on the docks of Giza, overlooking the Great Pyramids...and waiting for Richard O'Connell to show up as the sailors loaded their belongings into the boat. Jackie was always by Jonathan's side and they were often in the same scheme.
"Do you think he'll show up?" Evy asked, her mind in the clouds rather than in her book as of late.
"Yes, undoubtedly, knowing my luck. He may be a cowboy, but I know the breed. His word is his word."
"You know the breed?" Jackie asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow, though her smile was ever present.
"I didn't realize cowboy was a breed, what breed do you suppose we're apart of, Jackie?" Avery questioned with a smile.
"The Apes."
Evy rolled her eyes and proceeded to ignore them. "Well, personally I think he's filthy, rude, a complete scoundrel-"
"Anyone I know?" They jumped and turned to see the very man they were looking/speaking of, freshly shaven, wearing clean clothes and not looking a thing like what Evy had described nor what they had expected.
"Oh, um, hello." Evy stammered, her eyes wide with surprise.
"Smashing day for the start of an adventure, eh, O'Connell?" Jonathan asked, pulling his attention away from his sister, perhaps unintentionally.
"Yeah, smashing." He halfheartedly agreed, "shaking" Jonathan's hand.
"Mr. O'Connell, can you look me in the eye and guarantee me this isn't some kind of flimflam because if it is I am warning you-"
"You're warning me?" He interrupted Evy. "Lady, let me put it this way: my whole garrison believed in this so much that without orders, they marched halfway across Libya and into Egypt to find that city and when we got there, all we found was sand and blood. Let me get your bags."
"I have absolutely no idea what that had to do with him guaranteeing this isn't fake."
"You and me both." Avery muttered.
Jonathan held his arm out to Jackie. "Come, darling, an adventure awaits us!" And with their arms linked, they boarded the boat.
"Bright and good morning to all." The Warden said as he approached them.
"Oh, no! What are you doing here?" Evy exclaimed, much to Avery's surprise at her show of disgust. Evy didn't seem like the type of person to openly show their dislike.
"Here to protect my investment." He said proudly, though in his clothes and stench, it was rather hard to pay attention.
With exasperated sighs, the women boarded the boat long after he finished climbing on.
It was late; Jackie and Jonathan had disappeared, Evy was reading a book and Avery decided to lay in her bed in the room all the girls shared, feigning sickness. She felt bad for the men—they had to share with the Warden. She did not linger on that thought too long, soon the lull of the waves pulled her into an almost sleep—the twilight zone between when she heard footsteps in the hallway. Too tired to roll her eyes, she assumed it was Jackie and fell completely asleep.
"Would you quit cleaning your glasses and cut the deck, Burns?"
Jackie grinned at the Americans' banter, quite enjoying their little arguments which were treated as duels between the three of them, Burns, Daniels and Henderson. Jonathan was beside her, drinking to his hearts content and, to her surprise, able to hold every last drop.
"O'Connell, sit down, we could use another player." She looked up to see that Rick had entered and she offered him a smile. It didn't matter who played, she would beat them. When she was bored one summer, she decided to teach herself poker and became really good; she was going to win that money and be able to repay Evy for her kindness in purchasing the tickets to travel for them.
"I only gamble with my life, never with money." His proclamation startled her if nothing else; if this was true, then what were they getting themselves into?
"Never?" Daniels asked, "What if I was to bet you $500 that we get to Hamunaptra before you?"
This also startled her. She didn't know that they knew she was, who? She looked around, then locked eyes with a sheepish Jonathan.
"You're looking for Hamunaptra?"
"That's right."
"And who says we are?" He asked, though she knew that he already knew the answer.
"He does." The Americans quipped in unison. "How 'bout it? Is it a bet?"
"Alright, you're on."
Jackie smiled; this could get interesting, not that it wasn't already. "What makes you so confident, Sir?" A rather snobby rich guy said who was acting as a historian type of guy for the American group. She already decided that she didn't like him.
"What makes you?" Point one for O'Connell.
"We got us a man who's actually been there." Jackie blinked in surprise, then looked to Rick. His jaw tightened, he must've known the man. She'll ask about him later.
"Oh, what a coincidence, because O'Connell-" Jackie slammed her heel upon his foot and smiled at the men. He let out a cry of pain but covered it up with a cough. "Whose play is it?"
"Gentlemen, we've got us a wager, good evening Jonathan, Jackie."
Evy had returned to the room, knocking gently upon the door, "Avery, may I come in?" When the girl didn't respond, she assumed that she was asleep and opened the door to find that she was not there at all. With a shrug, the Englishwoman changed into her nightdress and began reading, er, trying to read and not think about O'Connell when she dropped her book.
She bent down to pick it up and looked in the mirror again to see a man with a hook holding Avery, the hook pressed firmly against her throat and his other hand covering her mouth, her eyes screaming with fear what her mouth could not.
"The key," The man said. "Where is the key?"
"Key? What key? I don't have a key," She stammered, unsure about what he could do to her and her friend.
"Evelyn, Avery!" O'Connell burst into the room, firing guns at those who held her captive. Evy took his moment of confusion to jab a candlestick into his eye. Avery ran into the hall while O'Connell virtually dragged Evy out who was saying something about a map, though he reassured her that he was the map.
Jonathan and Jackie ran to the cabin after hearing gunshots. Avery and the others weren't there, but Jonathan did just set a man on fire. "The box!" Jackie cried. "Grab the box!" And so he did and they, too, ran away.
Avery and Evy ducked behind a wall, waiting for Rick to load his gun so that they could make a break without getting hurt.
"Can you swim?" He yelled over a fire that the strangers had started.
"Of course I can swim if the occasion calls for it!" Evy cried.
Rick picked her up and tossed her over the side, then looked to Avery, "It calls for it." She shoved him aside and jumped off the boat, followed by Rick and the Warden and just barely missed by Jonathan and Jackie who were watching as the Americans were enjoying themselves by shooting whatever they thought was bad.
"Americans." Jonathan grumbled. The man with a hook, the one who Jonathan had accidentally set on fire and who was still on fire ran in front of them, attempting to get the box when Henderson shot him.
Jackie nodded her thanks while Jonathan exclaimed proudly, "I say, bloody good show chaps. And did I panic? I think not!" A burst of flames made Jackie drag him off the boat and into the water where they were promptly pulled out by Rick and Avery.
Choking and stumbling away from the wreck, Evy was spouting sonnets about losing everything while the girls were just happy to be alive. Avery looked into one of the rare plots of vegetation, a creeping feeling that someone was watching her as she gazed into the only possible hiding place only to lock eyes with something. She froze, rooted to the ground, fear etching across her face.
"You alright Avery?" Jackie asked.
The eyes looked at her expectantly and she had no doubt that whoever the eyes belonged to could hear her. "Everything's fine, just a little frightened is all, nothing to worry about."
"Whatever."
When she looked back, the eyes were gone.
"Hey, O'Connell!" A rather dingy man called from the other side of the Nile. "Looks to me like I got all the horses!"
"Hey, Beni! Looks to me like you're on the wrong side of the river!"
If she wasn't so scared, she would have laughed.
Rick lead them to a little village where the girls were instantly swept into a tent where they were dressed in the traditional clothing of Egyptian women. Jackie wasn't into it as much as Avery or Evy, so the second she paid for her clothing, she went to help Jonathan buy camels as the strange Englishman never made anything simple.
"Five, I only want five camels, not the whole bloody caravan!" He exclaimed.
"Is it just me, or is Jonathan having a hard time counting?" She whispered to Rick.
"No," He said after a moment's hesitation. "He's just looking to get you to ride with him." Her face became red in a deep blush. "You know, we probably could have gotten them for free, if we had just given him your sister." He took a camel or two and lead it.
"Or Avery, awfully tempting isn't it?"
"Hey!" Avery exclaimed as she and Evy came up to them. Rick had all eyes on Evelyn while Jonathan and Jackie rolled their eyes (as if love wasn't in the air.) Though, if it was, it was not hitting Avery—no. She would not be stuck with the Warden, darn you for thinking that—but she just shrugged it off and accepted Rick's help as she climbed onto her camel.
It wasn't hard once you got the hang of it, but unfortunately, Jackie and Jonathan couldn't seem to get the hang of it.
"Come now, darling, if you don't throw us off, I'll give you a carrot." Jonathan said to the beast whilst he tried to maintain his balance while Jackie clung to his back for her life.
"How do you know they eat carrots?" She asked warily, eyeing the ground as though it would purposely make the camel trip and fall.
"They don't!" Evy called. "Just relax, they can smell fear!"
Needless to say, it was hours before they got the hang of the camel and by that time, the sun had past beneath the horizon and the desert's temperatures dropped extremely. Avery offered to stay awake to make sure no one fell off as they rode and Rick was leading them, which made it mandatory for him to stay awake.
In the distance, something caught her eye. It moved, but it was like a cat in a bag, fighting to get out. She squinted, trying to get a better look, and found that it wasn't a single living thing, it was a bunch of horses with men on them. "O'Connell, do you-"
"Uh huh."
"Are they-"
"Don't know. Let's hope not." He eyed her carefully and then added. "You can get some sleep now, I have a feeling you're going to need it."
"But, I don't-"
"Sleep, now."
She rolled her eyes and much to her surprise, fell asleep nearly instantly—she should start listening to O'Connell more often.
"Avery, come on, sleeping beauty, rise and shine!"
Said girl blinked awake and gazed into the dim morning light of an Egyptian dawn. Down a little ways, she could see a bunch of horses and a camel approaching. "Are we there yet?" She asked through a yawn.
"Not quite yet," Rick said. "We gotta be patient. We're about to be shown the way."
The usual banter between the Americans and Beni and her own group ensued, but Avery was not yet awake enough to pay attention until a race between the two began and her camel decided (without her discretion, mind you,) that it would partake in the little adventure as well.
"Holy Lord in Heaven-" She managed to mutter before the camel galloped, not nearly as fast Evy or Rick, but fast enough to scare her to death.
"Go Avery! You can do it!"
"The only doing I'm going to be is-" She was cut off when her camel gave a strange shriek and made it third in the little contest.
Wearily, as she staggered off the camel, she commented, "I am never getting on the back of one of those things again."
"At least he didn't spit on you." Jonathan muttered while Jackie snickered. He had been a true gentlemen and took the camel missile when it had been intended for her. "Though I agree, darling, if I can help it no camel shall see me on its humped back again!"
Avery rolled her eyes and looked around; Evy was already deciphering everything and Rick (to no one's surprise) was tailing her everywhere. Well, everywhere except when he slipped away to steal a thing of tools from the unsuspecting Americans. She smiled at the thought, then frowned. She felt like she was being watched and goosebumps rose upon her flesh.
"Kind of spooky, huh?" Jackie asked, nudging her from her thoughts. "I feel like I'm walking through ghosts whenever I get close to some ancient artifact."
Avery nodded, though she felt as though it was much less supernatural.