"Here we go again," I announced as Izzy, Qasim, and I were staring at the ancient city of Hamunaptra. My heart started to beat faster as if my body recognized the anticipation of fear this city has brought upon me and my friends. "Alright, you two stay here, I'll be right back," I said, but when I tried to walk away from the group I felt someone grab my hand to stop me. I turned towards the person and it was Qasim who was squeezing my hand so tightly as if he knew what horrors this city holds. I kneeled down to his eye level and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you, I'll be back before you know it." I proclaimed when Qasim started talking to me in Arabic. Izzy then translated to say, "He said, he's not afraid that he'll be alone, he's afraid that you will die in there." My eyes widened as the words of Qasim resonated through me like a train. I couldn't hide my emotions as a small tear ran down the side of my cheek. I untied my scarf to release my braids and wrapped the scarf around Qasim's small wrist then I proposed a deal with him, "This scarf was my mother's, I want you to make sure you keep this scarf safe until I get back, if you can do that for me, then I promise I'll return safe and sound, deal." I say as I present my hand for him to shake. Izzy translated and when he finished, Qasim took my hand and we shook on it.
I took Qasim's head and placed a kiss on the top of his exposed forehead. I then said to Izzy, "You and Qasim stay here with the plane, if anything happens do not hesitate to leave. I'll be back, hopefully with everyone still alive." I went to give Izzy a hug when he said, "Don't do anything reckless, we both want you back in one piece now." I laughed as I said, "Well I kinda have to give you back your pants, so you'll see me soon." I smiled at Izzy and Qasim as I departed from the group. I trailed down the sand dunes, following the footsteps of the group before me. When I was drawing near the ruins of Hamunaptra, I heard the voice of someone struggling. I crouch down to hide behind a pillar, as I looked over to see who it was, I recognized the thin man. It was Beni. The man responsible for helping Imhotep kill my friends. My anger grew as Beni was dragging a fairly large bag filled with gold. Struggling to place the bag on top of the back of a camel, I took my opportunity to confront him.
I grabbed my gun from the holster taking brisk steps towards Beni as he was admiring a gold jewelry box in his hand, I grabbed him by his shoulder to have him face me and pointed the gun to the temple of his head.
"No please! Don't kill me!" he begged. The rage building inside of me as I face the man who helped kill my friends.
"You're begging for your life now?! Did my friends beg when Imhotep took their lives? HUH?!"
I yelled, pressing the gun into his temple, leaving an impression on his skin.
"Please, I had no choice, he was going to kill me if I didn't help him."
"So you were just trying to save your own skin then. Doesn't make it any better!"
"No no no wait! I can give you anything, please anything."
"It's too late, nothing you can do can bring them back." I released the safety of the gun, loading in a pistol in the revolver, as my finger was softly pressing on the trigger when suddenly, someone grabs the gun from my hand. I looked towards the man to see it was Izzy.
"Izzy, give me back the gun." I said in a threatening tone, all while holding Beni in my grasp with the other, making sure that he didn't leave.
"So this was what you were going to do huh." Izzy asked as if I was in the wrong.
"This was never about your friends, this was about getting revenge." he continued.
"Izzy, if you only knew half of what I've been through, you would understand. But this coward deserves everything that's coming to him. So give me back the gun!" I yelled, but as soon as I said that, Qasim came into view and the emotions that stirred inside me earlier were gone. My anger formed into sorrow and the expression of fear that Qasim gave me as I had Beni's shirt entangled in my grasp, made me realize how this might look.
Beni held out his hand, t calm down the situation as he said, "Look, I know this man might not be the best of people, but that doesn't mean you need to stoop down to his level either." My emotions got the better of me as I recall the fond memories of my departed friends and all the times we have shared together. Laughing, fighting, and even grieving with each other. What came next was something I didn't recognize. Something, vengeful.
"Why shouldn't I? The world took everyone who I loved and cared about and no one seems to care! Well I'm not going to wait to have justice be served, I will have my retribution!"
My hand grasping Beni's throat, as I start choking him.
Izzy then tackles me to the ground and I start kicking him to get him off. All the while Beni starts running back into the tomb.
"He's getting away!" I yelled.
"Stop it Anna! You don't want to do this!" Izzy pleaded, all while trying to hold me back from exacting my revenge.
Izzy and I wrestled on the sand and as I finally kicked Izzy off, I turned to see if Beni was still in sight, but he was gone. I got up and screamed on the top of my lungs in frustration.
"Why would you stop me!? I had him! And you took that away from me! Why!?" I demanded to know. Izzy sat up to wipe the sand off his face and said, "Because, this will not bring your friends back. Believe me when I say this, killing him will only bring you pain and suffering. It will not ease the pain of the loss of your loved ones."
"No. But maybe it's a start." I grabbed my gun from Izzy and started running into the tombs. Izzy dumbfounded, he tried to run after me but stopped in front of the entrance of the tomb. As I gained distance between Izzy and I, I then grabbed a torch from the wall and started tracking down Beni. I look down to see footsteps in the sand and start by following them. That was when I noticing pieces of gold artifacts along the way, realizing that this must be where Beni was taking the gold. Traveling further down in the tomb, the sound of gunshots echoed through the tomb. I tried my best to follow the sound, when all of a sudden the sound of an explosion shook me to my core. My heart started beating faster as I was unaware who or what that explosion was intended for, but I stopped for a moment to take a breath. I leaned against the wall, taking slow and deep breaths, contemplating my decision to go further into the tomb. If only Izzy hadn't stopped me from killing him in the first place, I wouldn't be on this wild goose chase for him. I was frustrated and irritable as I screamed Beni's name. His name echoing throughout the tomb. I then sat on the ground and tears started to over take me, wiping them off in an aggressive manner.
Frustration was overwhelming me, had I not realized the distant screaming of a man. Thinking to myself that it could be Beni, I got up and started running towards the screaming. Recognizing the path that I was taking, it was the same path that I took when those workers got sprayed with acid. As the sound of screaming and gunshots were drawing closer, I drew my gun to be ready to shoot when I saw Beni's face. When something caught my legs and I fell to the ground, dropping the gun further away from me. When I turned to see what caught my feet, it wasn't a person, but rather a corpse with bandages covering his body. It was neither dead nor living, but in fear I kicked the creature in his face, trying to pry the monster off of me. But the creature did not give up and started crawling back to me. In panic I grabbed my dagger from my belt and struck the creature in his skull. If only that was the end of it, but the creature was still persistent. I took my dagger back and crawled my way forward in search of my gun that I had dropped. Frantically searching through the sand, I can hear the monster drawing near, moaning closer into my ear, when I had finally found my gun and I turned to shoot the monster in his face and that seemed to stop him for the time being. I drew a gasp of air as the adrenaline was slowly dropping down. The sound of gun fire stopped but the screaming was still there. I get up to return in my search for Beni, loading another pistol in the chamber.
The scream grows louder, the closer I get into the next corridor. I got him cornered, this was it, I would finally avenge them. Bernard, David, and Isaac, would finally have their justice. As I pointed the gun towards the screaming man, I had soon realized my mistake. The person who I thought I was trailing wasn't Beni, and the gun who I was pointing at now was towards Ardeth, fighting off more of those creatures who I had run into earlier.
I froze in that position, as my endeavors were for not. I was prepared to take Beni's life, but instead my opportunity was taken from me and presented me with someone who was struggling to survive. Ardeth was struggling to get the hoard off of him, and just when things couldn't get worse, a creature with a sword in hand was about to strike the final blow. With only mere seconds from death, I squeezed the trigger, not knowing where it would hit, as I had no practice in shooting a gun, it surprisingly hit the sword that was about to impale Ardeth, knocking it out of the creature's hand. With the creatures now looking at me, I started shooting. One bullet hit one in the head, another hit a shoulder, then the chest, and a leg. Realizing the revolver was empty, put away the gun and drew out Dr. Bey's sword. As the creatures were drawn towards me, I started swinging the sword like it was my dagger, trying to use it as an extension of myself.
With every blow that I would make, I had imagined the creatures as Beni or Imhotep. Placing my rage and frustration towards these monsters instead, in hopes to fill the void. I swing the sword as I cut off their heads and limbs from their bodies, crushing their skulls with my blade. With every swing that I make, images of my friends would conjure in my thoughts. A cry of anguish would escape from my mouth as I killed every creature there was in that corridor. One creature grabbed me by my leg and brought me down, but I overpowered the creature and pinned him to the ground as I brought my sword to repeatedly bash his head into dust, over and over and over again. Each hit became more and more sloppy. When I thought another creature got a hold of me, I started fighting and screaming, managing to cut whatever grabbed a hold of me. It wasn't until I recognized the hands that belonged to Ardeth. He took me away from the creatures that now lay before us and held me as I shouted in frustration, "LET ME GO!"
"That's enough Anna! They're dead!" shouted Ardeth.
Still struggling for me to be released from his grasp, I looked at the piles of corpses in front of me, each being dismembered or turned to nothing. My breathing grew rapid and soon I started to cry. Ardeth held me as I cried into his arm. He held my head closer to him and he said, "You saved me, Anna. Thank you."
Tears still running down my face, I went to hug Ardeth so tightly, that he groaned in pain from the wounds that he had taken from the fight.
I never intended to find Ardeth. I was preparing myself to kill Beni and exact my revenge, that I had lost sight of who I was here for in the first place. Izzy was right, this endeavor to kill Beni had only brought me nothing but pain. I was willing to let Rick, Jonathan, Evelyn and Ardeth die because I was blinded by hatred and vengeance. "I'm sorry."
"Why are you sorry? You saved me from those creatures." Ardeth said in a low voice.
"Because... I wasn't trying to find you. I was looking for Beni, so that I could kill him. Then I ran into you and I had forgotten who I was here for." I had cried out.
Ardeth hugged me tighter and said, "Maybe fate brought us together for a reason."
"There's no such thing as fate." I argued.
"No? Maybe it was. I was meant to find you in that tent, only for you to save me in return. If we hadn't met, I would certainly be dead."
"If that was the case, then maybe I shouldn't have left Silver City. Maybe my friends would still be alive." I proclaimed. Ardeth was silent for a moment, but then had me turn to face him as he said something that I would never forget, "Anna, if you and I have never met, then I wouldn't know what to do with myself. I would rather die, then have lived without knowing you."
Ardeth's hand caressing my cheek as I continued to cry. I had never heard of someone expressing those feelings to me, of someone saying they would die for me. The tears couldn't stop as I held those feelings to heart.
Ardeth then tries to stand up, as he winces in pain, I get up to help carry him.
"We need to get out of here so that I can get you fixed up." I said.
Ardeth chuckled and smiled as he said, "So I finally get to experience your handiwork then."
I smiled at his remark and said, "Don't be laughing, I'm still going to bill you for my services."
"It will be worth every pound then," he replied.
We made our way back towards the entrance of the tomb, luckily for us, we just followed my footprints to get back. The bright light from the sun blinded us as we emerged from the tomb to be greeted by Izzy and Qasim riding a black horse.
"Is anyone hurt?" Izzy asked.
"I need to take a look at Ardeth's wounds."
Ardeth was stunned to see that Izzy had no pants on as he asked, "Where are your pants?"
Izzy looked down and then said, "Oh well, Anna's dress got, um ruined so I gave my pants to her." Ardeth looked down at my bottom half, realizing that I was wearing pants. "It's a long story Ardeth."
We went to sit Ardeth against a pillar as I unraveled the ties that held up his shirt to reveal his bare chest and abdomen. Upon inspection I noticed bruising to the Left side of his abdomen. "How's the pain?" I say as I go to press my fingers against the bruising.
Ardeth winced in pain and said, "Not bad, but it's tender."
"We're going to need to put ice on it when we get back, in the meantime, no more walking for you without assistance." I looked down on his Right arm and noticed dry blood on his hand. I grabbed his hand to reveal his palm where a cut from his ring finger to his thumb was open. A wound placed by me, during the struggle from earlier I must have cut him without realizing.
"Was this from me?" I had asked. Ardeth's expression looked sentimental as he continued to say,
"It's nothing Anna, just a scratch." Brushing the wound with my fingers, I went to one of the camels residing in the area and ripped a cloth from one of its satchels. I returned to Ardeth and said, "I'm sorry, when we get back I'll place stitches on it." As I wrapped his hand with the cloth and tied it around his hand. "There that should hold until we get back..." I was interrupted by Ardeth, who grabbed my chin and drew me closer to his face, when suddenly the earth started shaking. He released me and we both stared at each other as I asked, "Is this an Earthquake?"
"No, it's something else," he announced. Qasim ran back to me with Izzy following behind as the sand beneath their feet were sinking down to the earth. That's when Ardeth screamed, "Quick, get to higher ground!" I grabbed Qasim to help him on top of a horse as Izzy climbed on top to ride with him. Then helped Ardeth mount the black horse and I climbed after as I kicked the horse to pick up speed. The shaking growing more aggressive, we picked up our speed to catch up to Izzy and Qasim. We climbed to the top of the sand dunes where the plane was, as we made it to the top of the sand dune, we looked back and witnessed the City of the Dead sinking into the desert.