The Beauty and The Betrayal

5. The threat of the dead

The warden drops an amethyst-scarab into his pouch, then greedily-starts prying away at another. It rips off, he drops it into his pouch, --only he misses, and this scarab quietlyfalls to the sandy floor without the Warden noticing. The amethyst starts to glow. Something inside starts to wiggle as if the amethyst were some sort of strange cocoon.Then it splits open and a real live hideous scarab-beetle scurries out. It races over to the warden's shoe, quickly burrows into the leather and vanishes inside.The Warden's eyes fly open. He starts to scream, drops his knife and frantically starts clawing away at his pant leg,higher and higher until he rips open his shirt revealing alarge, hideous lump burrowing under his skin. It burrows his way up his leg, through his belly until it reaches his head. The warden is heard of no more, As he lays dead in the sand in the hallway of the city of the dead. 

Amerath's P.O.V

Evy cleared the dirt off the top of the sarcophagus, trying to read it better, revealing a single, ominous hieroglyph. Evelyn stares at it while Jonathan impatiently strums his fingers across the lid. Jonathan can't help the urgency in his voice, hoping it's a Pharoh or someone with plenty of loot, " Well? .... Who is it?" Evy stares at the hieroglyph, confused and concerned. 'He that shall not be named." Rick raised his eyebrow in concern, before dusting it off further to find a lock of sorts. "There's some sort of lock here. You say these things are made of granite with a steel interior?" Before Evy could reply, I did, "Quarried granite with a cobalt lining." They looked at me, everyone amazed. "How did you know that?" I rubbed the back of my head, "I um, well I'm not sure." Taking the attention off of me Jonathan spoke up again, " Whoever's in here, sure wasn't getting out."  Rick and Evy nodded in agreement, "No kiddin', without a key, it'll take us a month to crack this thing" As if a light popped in Evy's head she reached for Jonathan's bag.  "A key! That's it! That's what he was talking about. The man on the barge. The one with the hook, he was looking for a key." Evy pulls out the key, although Jonathan tried to protest, she shushed him with a look.  She pulls the Key out, shaped exactly like the lock. Then the echos of Warden's screams reach them.  All four of them turn and take-off running. The Warden was screaming and dancing insanely around the labyrinth, totally freaked from the extreme pain in his head. When we run up the Warden starts RIPPING his own hair out of his head. O'Connell andJonathan grab at the Warden's hands, but he's far too crazed, he shoves them aside, runs full bore down the length of the labyrinth and slams his head straight into a rock wall. TheWarden drops to the ground. Dead as lead. Eyes wide open. No one moves, not a sound is made. Rick looks at them, "That's enough for today. Let's go rest."

That Night as we camped out, I asked Evy to see her hand. On it, there's a small scar in a perfect circle It's the same place that Nefertiti had burned herself with the acid. I asked her about to which she shrugged, "My mom always said it was a birthmark." "Evy do you ever have dreams... or visions of another life? Do you ever dream about Egypt?" "I've dreamt about Egypt but, nothing particular. I always dreamed about visiting. " I nodded to her, deciding that after today I could use a nap.  "I'm glad your dreams are coming true, excuse me I think I'm going to lay down."  The sound of gunfire woke me, as two dozen men galloped through the camps. Several Diggers are killed as they run. The Americans are firing back, they hit several riders. Daniels is shot, but as he spins and falls, he keeps shooting.  Henderson and Burns run to his aid, firing away at the intruders.  Rick races through the ruins and slams right into Beni, who is obviously trying to high-tail-it out of there. "Goin' somewhere Beni?" Beni panics, smiling at Rick, "Just looking for you, O'Connell! I wanted to be with my friend!" As Rick was dragging his back to the camp, A rider came behind him with a Scythe aiming for his head. Without thought I threw my blade at him, embedding it in his side. He fell off his horse, landing on the handle and digging it deeper. I went and withdrew my blade, helping with distracting or disarming the enemy.  The leader gallops through the camp, cutting Diggers down with his scimitar. Rick runs up on top of some rocks, takes a leap and tackles him off his horse. The two men slam to the ground. Rick spins up onto one knee and fires, point blank. Blows the scimitar out of Ardeth Bay's hand. Rick is about to shoot again when a horse rides up between them. A scimitar swoops down, almost takes Ricks head off, but receives a knife in his hand. Rick nods to me and looks for the leader but he is gone. Evy hides behind some rocks, watching the scene, suddenly, she hears something coming up behind her and spins around. A vicious tattooed Rider races at her. Evelyn ducks down, surprised to see me with my trusty Khopesh in my hand, slicing through the rider's hand. "I say, bloody good show." Jonathan shouts, not paying attention to his surroundings. And then several more Mumia leap off the temple and land behind him. Jonathan and the remaining Diggers spin around and suddenly find themselves in hand-to-hand combat. Rick is quickly loading his pistol. He hears something thundering up behind him. He spins around just as the leader on a horse, the man swings his scimitar. Rick instinctively raises his hands to protect his face, the scimitar strikes! I scream loud enough to feel like the world fell from underneath me. When a 'CHING!' rings out, I can hear that the leader had only hit his gun.