"So Evie, what're going to be looking for, again?" I questioned dumbly, pulling down my mask and flipping off my veil.
"Well, we're looking for a secret compartment which should contain the Book of Amun-Ra." She explained giddily. She looked like a little girl all over again.
"The Book of Amun-Ra..." I repeated thoughtfully. I watched Evie wipe off and adjust a mirror.
"Let there be light~" She grinned cheekily, letting the light hit the mirror and then ricochet to all the other hidden mirrors--instantly lighting up the room.
"Neat Ancient Egyptian trick." Rick complimented while the Warden slid down the rope to join us. Evie blushed at his compliment, but Rick was admiring the room so he didn't notice. He then turned back around and shoved something into my hands, then pushed me towards Evie. Then he began to explore the room we were in. I raised an eyebrow and Evie did too. I looked at what was in my hands to see I'd been given an archaeological toolkit. I instantly handed it to Evie.
"I think Shy Rick was wanting to give this to you." I snickered. I tried to not notice Rick's glare piercing my back. I just turned and smirked at the flustered and pissed man. The Warden suddenly appeared behind me.
"A-ARE THERE ANY BUGS!?" He clung to me, his arms around my body. I tried my very best to not flip him over my shoulder and onto his back in the hopes of somehow breaking his collar bone.
"No, there are no bugs." I reassured the coward.
"O-Oh..thank God." He slowly detached himself from clinging around me and began to explore with us. I'm certain the Warden smells of dead flesh. I gagged.
"Yeah there are no bugs...yet..." I evilly smirked with high hopes that he'll piss himself later. Jonathan soon joined us and gagged.
"What is that stench? It smells worse than dead corpses!" He clutched his mouth and stomach with a gag. I nudged his shoulder and pointed at the warden who was distracted, looking for bugs. Realization filled his eyes. "Oh...that'd explain it..." He slowly nodded in understanding.
"So this...is what they'd call a sah-netjer..." Evie looked around at the dark and depressing room. I had an uneasy feeling about this room, and could've sworn I'd seen, or heard about it, somewhere before. But that's impossible. It was just a weird deja-vu feeling, but I still felt uncomfortable to say the least.
"A...what?" Rick questioned with disgust.
"A preparation room." She explained without looking at anyone. She just looked all around the room with dread, fascination and curiosity filling her eyes.
"A preparation room for what? Exactly?" Rick asked again, very skeptically.
"For entering the afterlife. This is where they made the mummies." I explained, patting his shoulder as his hand moved off his pistol. "This must be at least three thousand years old..." I muttered out, loudly enough for them to hear me. Evie nodded.
"Incredible!" She grinned. Just as I walked under the legs of Anubis, stepping over rocks that had cluttered the floor, I heard a whisper in my ear--almost like a memory flashing back, but not quite. It had said in a deep, masculine voice: 'I will protect my you, my soulmate, no matter what--' and then it cut off. I blinked. That sure was...interesting to say the least. At least I now know that I knew my soulmate in my past or something... "The legs of Anubis...the secret compartment should be hidden somewhere here."
I froze at the sound of voices coming near. Rick and Jonathan pulled out their guns, and quickly rounded the corner, coming gun-to-gun with the Americans and diggers. I rolled my eyes and pulled down my brother's gun as Evie pulled back Rick's gun. "Good God, you scared the bejesus out of us, O'Connell!" one American man cried, lowering his (and his men's) weapons.
"Likewise." Rick raised an eyebrow.
"Hey is that my toolkit?" A digger walked closer to Evie and her new toolkit from Rick. Rick swung his pistol back up and the digger backed up as Evie hugged the toolkit to her chest. "Oh, I guess n-not." The man backed up in fear quite instantly.
"W-Well, uhh, gentlemen, have a nice day. We have a lot of work to be done." Evie smiled 'sweetly'.
"Push off! This is our dig site." The Americans glared.
"We got here first." Rick glared back as everyone raised their guns again.
"This here's our statue, friend." Another American smirked.
"Really? I don't see your name written on it, pal." Rick smirked back when suddenly I noticed one of the diggers looking at me intensely. My eyes widened a bit, so I subconsciously pulled my mask up from my neck and stepped behind my brother who raised his gun to said diggers. They instantly looked away in fear of being shot.
"There's only five of you, and fifteen of us...you're outnumbered, O'Connell." Beni cockily grinned.
"I've had worse." Rick growled back.
"Yeah, me too." Jonathan added. I raised an eyebrow.
"Really?" I questioned mockingly. He playfully glared back with a look that clearly stated, 'let me have this'. I rolled my eyes with a smirk.
"Oh, for goodness sake, let's all be nice, children. If we are to play together, then we are to share. There are other places to dig." Evie put her hands on her hips in a mother fashion. I cocked an eyebrow, wondering what she was up to. She then began pulling us with her in the opposite direction of the Americans, so we all followed until we ended up in another room. "According to these hieroglyphics we're right underneath the statue's legs. We should be able to dig right here." She smirked victoriously as the men began to work on breaking the roof above us.
I had an uneasy feeling.
"When those damn Yanks go to sleep--" Jonathan froze and quickly added: '--no offence." To Rick.
"None taken." Rick smirked.
"We'll dig our way up, and steal that book right from under them." Jonathan finished.
"Are you sure we can find this 'secret compartment'?" Rick asked confusedly. Evie nodded.
"Oh, yes! If those beastly Americans haven't beaten us to it, first--no offence." She quickly added as well.
"None taken." Rick rolled his eyes with a small smile.
"Hey, where'd our smelly friend go?" Jonathan suddenly stopped attacking the roof above us and looked around as Evie and I sat down. I pulled down my face mask and tried brushing off sand from my gloves.
"No clue." Rick replied as he admired Evie as he worked. About ten minutes passed and the men took a break near us. Evie decided it was a great time to explain the process of mummification to the one, Rick O'Connell. Unfortunately, Jonathan and I had to hear this as well. Jonathan decided to try ignoring the conversation by playing 'gold' with his pickaxe and some small stones. Rick and Evie were sitting on a stone bench and I was in front of but a few feet away with my hands in my ears. I took the gloves off so sand didn't get in my ears those.
As they muffledly talked, I paced back and forth, trying to not succumb to my need for sleep. I watched Jonathan expertly line up a shot, so I stopped pacing and watched as he hit the stone and let it bounce from wall to floor and ceiling. The moment it hit the ceiling, a giant crash was heard and stones fell from the roof in a split second I found my instincts made me jump out of the way and rolled to the side. I quickly looked back up to notice that where I was standing was a giant sarcophagus that had also narrowly missed falling on Rick and Evie. Startled, we all jumped up and looked at a surprised Jonathan who almost crushed us all.
"This person must have been someone of great importance." Evie studied the sarcophagus closely, while I followed my instinct and backed up, pulling my gloves back over my hands.
"Well...who is it?" Rick questioned, going to her side while Jonathan and I attempted to force the other to be our human-meat shield. Evie blew and brushed dust off and finally read out:
" 'He Who Shall Not Be Named'. " She finished.
"There's our answer. Let's leave it shut, shall we?" I attempted, but the two didn't listen to me and an agreeing Jonathan. Rick instead, blew some dust away and noticed a little design on it.
"Hey this looks kind of like a lock." Rick raised his eyebrows in shock.
"Well, who ever's in there, sure wasn't getting out.." I mumbled.
"Yeah, no kidding. It'd take us a month to crack into this thing without a key." Rick nodded with a look of impatience.
"A key!" Evie's face lit up with excitement. "That's what that man was talking about!" Evie explained. I 'oh'ed'. Evie pulled out the strange box and placed it on the lock of the sarcophagus. It fit perfectly. But we all froze when an inhuman scream came from down a nearby hall. The Warden gunned it out from down the hall, scratching all over his body and lunging himself into a sharp rock on the wall. Blood trickled from his face and his whole body went limp--he killed himself. I paled. Evie threw up in a corner of the room.
~~~~~~~~~
When we all regained our ability to move, we buried his body just outside of the dig site and went to our little camp as night fell. I was too surprised to sleep, but I could feel my tiredness taking over my body. I listened to their conversation. "What do you suppose could've killed him..?" Evie asked.
"Did you ever see him eat?" Jonathan thought for a moment.
"Well--seems our American friends had a little misfortune of their own. They had opened up a sarcophagus that was booby-trapped and three of their diggers melted." Rick grimanced and I paled again. I tossed off my mask, gloves and veil, placing them to the side of my bag that I had a borrowed pistol in for protection. Yeah, it was one of Rick's.
"What? How!?" Evie cried shocked. For some reason...she never could stand the death of another. Rick spoke as he glanced all around us quite paranoidly. I couldn't blame him.
"Pressurized salt acid." Rick answered.
"I guess this place really is cursed.." Jonathan sighed, poking the fire with a stick as I leaned back and felt my eyes closing. A gust of wind suddenly blew at us, startling me awake as the fire roared up a little before it softened down. Jonathan had frozen in fear and put the stick down as Rick quickly snapped to attention, looking all around us in fear with his hand on a pistol.
"OH! For goodness sake you three!" Evie glared motherly as we all jumped at the sound of her loud voice.
"You don't believe in curses?" Rick raised an eyebrow.
"Of course not! If I can see and touch it, then I believe it. But only if it's real." Evie huffed, crossing her arms.
"I believe in being prepared." Rick loaded a shotgun. I rolled my eyes.
"And I believe in getting some rest for the morning." I glared as they nodded in agreement.
"Well, while we're at it, let's see what our friend, The Warden, believe in." Jonathan began rummaging through the Warden's backpack like a dog, hungry for grog. "Well, well, well...what have we here?" I heard Jonathan ask to no one in particular.
"What? What is it?" Evie raised an eyebrow.
"A bottle of Glenlivet!" Jonathan cheered. "He may have been a stinky fellow, but he certainly had good taste." Jonathan winked. I rolled my eyes and leaned back again before hearing gunshots and horse's hooves in the distance with shouting and panicked voices. I shot my head up and we all looked in the direction of the American's camp.
"Oh, what the bloody hell are those dammed Americans doing now?--No offence." I quickly calmed down and added when I looked at Rick.
"None taken." He shrugged with a smirk, grabbing his gun and standing up. "Jonathan, with me. Girls, stay here."
"What!?" Evie cried as if that was the most ridiculous thing he's ever said.
"Maybe I should just--" Jonathan tried covering for himself.
"JONATHAN!" Rick yelled.
"Right-o. Yes, yes! Coming, coming!" Jonathan shot up from his seat and dropped the bottle of grog (alcohol), grabbing a pistol and running after Rick. Evie and I made eye contact.
"Let's just wait here for them to get back--" I smiled, but she stood up with a scoff.
"As if." She grabbed the pistol I had borrowed, then my arm and pulled me up. She put the pistol in my hands and then dragged me with her, chasing after Rick and Jonathan.
"EVIE! What did they just say!?" I cried as I didn't want to be dragged into another danger-zone thanks to her clumsiness. Once we came to the American's camp, we already lost sight of Jonathan and Rick in the crowd of Medjai warriors, fighting the Americans from the backs of horses. Evie continued running to Rick, pulling me with her. I noticed a Medjai coming straight for us like targets, so I quickly holstered my pistol and pushed Evie to the side with me just as his scimitar slashed at us. I quickly sat up and Evie gasped in shock. I looked at her confused, only to notice he had slashed my right shoulder.
"Oh, just great." I saw the Medjai turn around to face us once again. I stood up and Evie fearfully joined me. "This was a gift!" I snarled as he charged back. I quickly ran and slid across the sand, scraping my knees as I ducked under his swipe. I quickly jumped back up in a flash and lunged at the man on the horse, knocking him down and rolling away from him. We both stood up as the moon left from behind the clouds. He seemed to freeze and glare at my markings for a moment as I tried to think of a way out of this mess without somehow shooting a friend or ally of my soulmate--or my soulmate in general.
"Back down now, and you will not have to face the possibility of hurting your soulmate." The Medjai glared from behind his mask. He was cloaked fully in black. I had Evie right behind me as I attempted to protect her.
"As lovely an option as that is, I don't want my friends to be hurt either." I glared back, gritting my teeth. I noticed Rick and Jonathan approaching us as they dodged and fought against Medjai.
"Then we will stop the attack for the night, as long as you all leave this place in the morning. Stay another night, and we will be back to finish what we began. We will not even spare our soulmate." He raised his hand and all fighting stopped. Rick and Jonathan were close enough to hear everything. The man's brown eyes continued to look into my blue eyes as we stared each other down, he waited for my answer as all the Medjai faced us.
"We will leave as soon as--" I agreed, wanting to leave this place. And if my supposed soulmate said to, then we will. But Evie interrupted me.
"Never. Leave and come back tomorrow--you will be met with brute force." She replied strongly. I deadpanned and facepalmed, wishing the sand would swallow me whole and just kill me already.
"So be it." The Medjai whistled for his horse who returned loyally. He remounted and I wished he could take me away from this sickening place--but alas, he rode off, just as he pulled down his mask and called out for his men to do the same. I same the exact same tattoos that I had, on his cheeks. I blinked dumbly as the Medjai rode off.
I was so fucked.