Chapter 11: Sand and Blood
The trio got to work brushing off the rocks, sand and dust from the sarcophagus. "Well, who is it?" Jonathan asked excitedly.
Bonnie stared at the hieroglyphics on the dead person's coffin, not even trying to understand what it said.
"He That Shall Not Be Named," William said as he read the inscription.
Bonnie, hating how right she probably was, gave a slightly worried glance to Jonathan before she blew away some sand in a dip to reveal the image of a scarab with wings and a halo. The pattern surrounding it was that of an eight pointed star. "This looks like some sort of lock," she said.
"Well, whoever's in here sure wasn't getting out," Jonathan added.
"Yeah, no kidding. It'd take us a month to crack into this thing without a key."
"A key?" William asked in confusion before his eyes lit up. "A key! A key!" He rushed to his satchel. "Now that's what he was talking about!"
"Who was talking about what?" Bonnie asked as she watched William search in his bag.
"The man...the man on the barge! The one with the hook!" William popped back up with the puzzle box, opening it to Bonnie's shock. "He was looking for a key."
"Hey, that's mine!" Jonathan complained.
"Technically, it's mine, but..." Bonnie said before William placed it over the lock.
It fit perfectly.
William smiled at Bonnie, who was surprised that the puzzle box he found was the key for opening the sarcophagus. "I'll be damned," she thought.
The sound of screaming drew their attention and Bonnie took out her gun as she ran toward the opening to the hallway. When she ran out, Hassad was screaming and grasping his head, then he ran down the hallway until he crashed into a wall and fell on his back. Her eyes widened in shock at the scene, and she paced down the hallway to where the warden was. Jonathan and William followed her, and they stood around the man.
"Is he alright?" William asked quietly as Bonnie checked for a pulse.
Bonnie pressed two fingers to his neck and gulped a little when she felt no pulse, then she looked up at William and Jonathan. "Uh...no. He's dead."
"What?" both men asked in disbelief.
"Are you sure?" Jonathan asked.
Bonnie nodded, her eyes still wide as she stood up. This was all too familiar. "Mmhmm..."
Jonathan looked down at the man while William examined the body. "Oh my God..." the librarian mouthed. "What do you think happened to make him act like that?"
With a look of astonishment, Bonnie blew out a deep breath and ran a hand over her head. "I have no idea. What's weird is..." she paused, not even wanting to think about what happened to some of the men from her unit the last time she was in Hamunaptra. A few of them had died with no known cause of death but they'd screamed in agony until their last breath. One of them she'd been...quite close to.
"What?" William asked quietly.
Bonnie cleared her throat and shook her head. "Nothing. Let's, uh...get him outta here."
"Get him out of here? How are we-"
Without another word, Bonnie bent down and lifted the fat dead man over her shoulder. William and Jonathan gaped at her, obviously in awe of her raw strength. She shuffled down the corridor in silence despite the strain of carrying something so heavy. Eventually they found their way out through a door and Bonnie dropped the corpse to the sand once they were out. She grabbed his bag and tossed it to Jonathan before going to find a suitable burial place. Once she found it, she went back to her stuff, grabbed a shovel and began digging in the sand, sweat beading off her brow as she did.
William and Jonathan joined her in digging, not saying a word. Once the hole was dug, they brought Hassad's dead body over, tossed him in, said a few words in remembrance and covered up the grave. At that point, the sun was about to set and Bonnie told the two men to get a fire going at their camp site, shotgun in hand. She wanted to make sure the other group was okay.
When she reached the other Americans and asked if they had any issues that day, she wasn't too surprised to find that three of their diggers had met unfortunate fates.
That wasn't good.
After a few conversations, Bonnie made her way back to William and Jonathan, who had finished setting up camp and had a fire going.
"What do you suppose killed him?" William asked Jonathan.
"Did you ever see him eat?" Jonathan replied.
"Seems that our American friends had a little misfortune of their own today," Bonnie spoke as she kneeled next to William, setting her shotgun down. "Three of their diggers were, uh, melted."
"What?" William asked in shock.
"How?" Jonathan questioned.
"Salt acid. Pressurized salt acid. Some kind of ancient booby trap," Bonnie replied softly, looking around for any signs of danger.
"Maybe this place really is cursed," Jonathan said as he tossed something into the fire. At that moment, a strong breeze blew by, almost making the fire go out.
Jonathan and Bonnie looked at each other with concerned expressions and William scoffed. "Oh for goodness' sake, you too," he said.
Bonnie grabbed a stick and started poking the wod in the fire. "You don't believe in curses, huh?" Bonnie asked.
"No, I don't. I believe if I can see it and I can touch it, then it's real. That's what I believe."
O'Connell grabbed her shotgun to double check that it was loaded. "I believe in being prepared."
Jonathan then reached for Hassad's bag. "Let's see what our friend the warden believed in," he spoke as he went rifling though the satchel.
Bonnie gripped the shotgun tightly, sensing something was about to happen but was interrupted by Jonathan crying out and pulling his hand out of the bag. The woman tensed and straightened as William asked what the bloody hell happened.
"A broken bottle," Jonathan mentioned as he reached back into the bag. William groaned and shook his head as Jonathan pulled out some alcohol. "Glenlivet. Twelve years old!" He chuckled and took the cork out. "Well, he may have been a stinky fellow, but he had good taste!"
As Jonathan took a drink, Bonnie could hear the horses whinnying by the others and she looked over her shoulder. She then handed the shotgun to William. "Take this. We've got trouble," she said before grabbing her revolvers and running toward the sounds.
As Bonnie ran faster, the sound of desert warriors ululating, horses running, guns firing and people screaming definitely was cause for Bonnie to start shooting. She got behind a pillar, seeing enemies everywhere and tents on fire. It was complete chaos. She shot a few off their horses before reloading, then she continued shooting. Diggers were dropping like flies but so were some desert warriors. Bullets were flying everywhere, people were running and the sounds of people dying from swords or bullets didn't do much to deter Bonnie's attention, but Jonathan screaming her name as he was chased by a man on a horse was enough to direct her focus.
Bonnie jumped from where she was standing, tackling the man off his horse. They collided into a tent and she was quick to get up, but so was he, scimitar in hand. His scarf had fallen to reveal a rugged man with tattoos on his cheekbones. Bonnie shot the sword out of his hands but another rider drawing up on her flank caused her to turn and shoot the rider. As she jerked back around, the tattooed man hit her gun out of her hands with his other sword.
He made another swipe but she turned and did a half assed cartwheel, grabbing a stick of dynamite as she rolled. The fuse lit from the fire nearby and she stood, holding the dynamite out with a steady hand. Her eyes were defiant and she was ready to blow the bastard to kingdom come. The tattooed man hesitated, his sword still up as he looked at Bonnie. He was obviously weighing his options when William came up behind, aiming the shotgun at the intruder's head.
"Get the hell away from her," William demanded, his expression fierce.
William's determination definitely made her lady bits do a jump of excitement. "Well, shit," she thought to herself.
The tattooed man grumbled before lowering his sword. "Enough!" he yelled to his men. "We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place or die," he warned before someone brought his horse to him. "You have one day."
He saddled up, said something in Arabic to his brethren and they all charged off. Bonnie took the fuse out of the stick and tossed it before looking at William. "Thanks," she said as he approached her, looking her over.
"Are you alright?" he asked softly, a look of worry on his face.
"Yeah," she breathed heavily. "You?"
"I'm fine," he mentioned with a smirk, looking her face over as he grasped her chin. "You're sure you're alright?"
Bonnie raised a brow as she caught his eye, her heart beating faster. She was pretty sure that wasn't just from the fight that had occurred.
"See?" Mr. Daniels blurted out, his other comrades around him. "That proves it. Old Seti's Fortune's gotta be under this sand."
"For them to protect it like this, you just know there's treasure down there," Mr. Henderson added.
"No," Bonnie said, looking into the distance where the desert warriors had fled. "These men are a desert people. They value water, not gold."
Mr. Burns, with half his face covered in shaving cream, walked over to them both. "You know, uh, maybe just at night, we could, uh, combine forces, hmm?"
Bonnie and William looked at the man before looking at each other. "Agreed," they both said.