Pursuit of Immortality

Chapter 2

When I started to feel a slight chill in the air, I knew that it must be night by now. Heavy footsteps alerted me to an oncoming presence. I looked back and blushed a bit when I saw Zack with a smirk on his face and a knowing look. I've been in here for hours reading about the preparations for the next pharaoh after Tut was to die but nothing yet about how his precious wife was feeling.

"You coming out yet? We are having rice and ramen." His voice held little preference for the food available. I gathered up my materials and stood, my legs a little shaky from not using them all day.

"Sounds nice. Though I hope there is some water. I'm a little parched." He came over and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, his legs moving both of us towards the exit.

"I wonder why? You were in here for going on ten hours just reading. Some of us came to check up on you in shifts but I figured that you'd like something to put into that little stomach." I looked up at him, my mouth agape as he escorted me out. As soon as the others saw me, the campfire's light lit up their eyes.

"Woah, Sena, from this angle, you look like Ankhesenamun come to life!" Mary was the one to speak. Something inside of me was ecstatic that she noticed this but another part was still searching for something. An answer to why I did. My parents look nothing like me and though both have black hair, they don't have the same features I do.

Strange dreams about Tut.

An empty feeling when I think about him.

A sorrowful feeling at not having children; though I'm only 19 and single and really do not want the pain of childbirth.

I kept these hidden from everyone, yet when someone says I look like Ankhesenamun, I feel like I am her. That is why I got into this field of work. To find out who I am and what is wrong with me.

"Yeah, you're right Mary. She does," Orlando agreed. The others nodded their heads as Zach went to sit between the other two males. I sat next to Mary, my arms a bit cold yet nice and warm thanks to the blaze they managed to get going. How they haven't burned the desert, I have no idea. If there ever was a way to burn the desert, they would find it.

"I don't think I look like her. I look like my family." They dismissed my words with grunts and sighs. I was handed a warm cup of ramen noodles and a water bottle. I took a drink to get my throat working, then began to eat, my stomach thanking the others for getting me out of there when they did.

"So we have all tomorrow, then we get to leave." Ken seemed happy to leave, a reason to get back to his studies in a normal bed.

"So you say Ken, but I think Sena here is dreading the moment she gets in the car." I couldn't argue with Orlando. I was dreading the moment the sun was to rise above the silky sand and signal the day we were leaving. We would be back, but in a few years after our classes are almost done. That is why everyone blows it off as nothing for now since we were all sent here to get to know our surroundings.

"Okay, so who wants the last ramen cup?" Mary asked everyone as she took the paper off the top. The guys looked between one another as if it were a competition to have the last one but Mary looked to me, who was still eating her first cup and looking to not be finishing it any time this millennium. I was hungry, but not for food. I wanted back in the tomb.

"How about you Sena? These guys have had about four cups each so far and you have only had one." I set my cup down carefully in the sand and shook my head, putting my hands across my chest to warm my arms.

"Why don't you eat it Mary. You have only had two right?" The guys glared daggers because their stomach's capacity was not where near their limits. Mary smiled and dug her fork into the cup, the noodles like newborn snakes as she took them out of their little foam home and sent them to the acidic pits of her stomach.

"Good idea Sena. Thanks." The guys groaned and dismissed themselves to their big tents. Orlando had a tent to himself and Zack and Ken are sharing one. As they disappeared into their tents, I looked over at Mary and watched her yawn before taking another giant worthy bite.

"Perhaps you should sleep too Mary. It is tomorrow that everyone has to get ready for since you guys did nothing but eat and rest today," I said with a bit of urgency in my voice. I could practically hear the ancient voices in my ears as I read their words in stone.

"What about yourself? Will you get sleep at all tonight?" I gave her the best sympathetic look I could that spoke volumes to her. She would be sleeping alone tonight.