The Mummy: The Tomb Robbers' Secret

Escape

Roma was dreaming.

It had been a long, hard day and was only made worse when Rick told her he was leaving. It made no difference that she knew the reason was a good one.

"Don't worry," he told her, "I'll be back soon and with enough dynamite to blow that tomb to kingdom come."

"Good," she said and started wandering towards the tomb when she thought she heard screams coming from the pavilion. Inside it should have been quiet but she thought she heard the words "help me help me help me" distinctly coming from the mummy's coffin. She came closer, put her ear next to it, but heard nothing.

Evie was still trapped.

"Come out, Evie, come out," she said, "We're waiting for you." And then came a rustling noise from the bandages inside the coffin. A gentle wind began to blow through the pavilion, dust, and bits of decayed linen flying through the air. And then the coffin seemed to move.

Roma woke up and ran, barefoot, through the burning sand to the pavilion. Nothing, nothing was happening, no rustling, no breeze blowing dust through the air. She stood over the coffin, crying, "Evie, tell me, how can I free you?" Then, with a heavy heart, she headed back to her tent.

Evie felt the pain as the blade, pierced a heart that she was relieved to find not hers. As she felt the blade, she felt herself sucked down into a vortex. A thick black silence enveloped her, and she could feel something pulling at her, ripping her from the remains of the husk of the body that had held her captive.

A brilliant light illuminated the darkness and she felt herself being propelled towards it. A beautiful female goddess, resplendent in a white pleated linen robe and an ostrich feather headdress stood before her. "It's not your time," a voice said in a language she should not be able to understand but did, "You don't belong here, it's time you returned to the land of the living."

A great blast of air propelled her into the light, and she found herself struggling to escape a space far too small for her. Dry linen, centuries-old enveloped her and she fought it, ripping it away, tearing ancient bandages that had wrapped a body long ago that was not hers.

"Help," she cried out, "Someone help me," but no one answered—could anyone hear her? Did anyone know or care she was suffocating? After an interminably long time, she thought she could hear footsteps running toward her though she had no idea where she was.

"Evie!" she heard a female voice scream, "Evie, oh Ardeth help me, help me free her."

Someone was cutting the bandages from first her head, then ripping them away from her body. The space that had confined her had been small, inhibiting her ability to breathe air into lungs that had been deprived of oxygen. She inhaled and felt the air fill her lungs, coughing as the remnants of rotted linen and dust irritated her lungs.

Her unseeing eyes could perceive nothing, and she realized her head was wrapped in bandages that someone was pulling from her head. The light that was hitting her eyes was unbearably bright after the long darkness and she tried to cover them with hands that were almost unable to fulfill the function.

 "Who are you?" Evie's mouth and tongue were having trouble forming words. She wondered desperately if anyone could hear or understand her. "Where am I? I was in the palace of the Pharaoh and..." her voice trailed off, she was no longer certain of who she was or where she was. Something told her these people, these voices should be familiar, but her memory was failing her although in her mind there was a tiny kernel that said, "Yes, you are free, you are no longer a captive."

'We've got to get her to a hospital, Ardeth" Roma said,  "Although I do not know how I could explain this. They might think her mad, though she's no less mad than I am. I just wish I could know that she's all right."