Isis

Chapter One: And It Begins

The sound of a pair of soft footsteps echoed in the dark, empty passageways of Hamunaptra. The faint light of two half-dead flashlights bounced off of the ancient red stone walls, revealing a pathway of sand and loose stones, as well as skeletal remains of rats that had become trapped so far underground. Two muted voices conversed with one another, one a light, sweet voice of a teenage girl, and the other a deeper, more confident young masculine voice.

"Are you sure about this, Alex?" the feminine voice whispered hesitantly.

"Yeah, of course I'm sure," replied the teenage male. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Oh, I have a good long list for that," said the female, grinning in anticipation. "First, and what's definitely happening without a doubt, is that Jonathan will realize we've ditched the tour group, tell your parents, and we'll be put on restriction until we get back to England in two months. Or more likely, they'll just ground us for life."

"Too late to change that," Alex shrugged. "Next?"

"Second, we could bring a mummy to life. And not just any mummy, but one that's supposed to bring about the end of the world or whatever. I mean, your parents did it last time an O'Connell was here."

"Okay, Paige, first of all the last time my parents were here they killed a mummy. It was only the time before that that they raised a mummy."

"Yeah, yeah," Paige sighed, rolling her dark brown eyes.

"Second of all, 'we' could not bring Imhotep back to life. I could. You can't read ancient Egyptian."

"Rub it in my face, why don't you?"

"And third, I couldn't bring him back anyway. The book is locked in a museum, and Imhotep's body is probably burned up by now – or whatever it is that they do in the ancient Egyptian's version of hell."

"You mean you don't know?" gasped Paige, raising a hand to her throat in a sign of disbelief. "I thought you knew everything."

"Shut up, Paige."

"Alex, in my experience, you never know. Anything that can go wrong, will. And anyway," she said, softly punching her companion in the arm. "I was doing the 'first of alls' first. So let me continue."

"Go on."

"Where was I? Oh, right. Third, we could get caught being in the forbidden part of Hamunaptra. This area is banned, and we could get, I don't know, thrown into an Egyptian prison or whatever."

"My family has immunity, since we, you know, saved the world a couple times."

"Well, my family doesn't, and I don't think immunity extends to house guests, no matter how many months I've stayed with you."

"Good point," Alex said, stopped and pointing his flashlight at Paige. "Any other worries?"

"Let's see," said Paige, then she stuck her flashlight in her mouth as she pulled her shoulder-length blonde hair into a high ponytail. She thought for a moment, and then took the flashlight out, pointing it at her tall, blond friend. "Those man-eating beetle things, finding a mummy even if it is still dead, getting lost in this place after our flashlights die and then getting trapped and dying of thirst or those flesh-eating bugs..."

"So you want to go back?"

Paige Woods raised her eyebrows at Alex. "No. Who said anything about turning back?"

Alex rolled his eyes. "Then stop complaining."

"I just want to be able to say 'I told you so'."

After many years had gone by and most of the sand and dangerous debris had been removed, the City of the Dead had become a popular tourist spot, as popular as the Sphinx and the Pyramids. Crowds of people came from as near as Cairo and as far as Australia, Canada and Japan. Hundreds of people a day came to take pictures of the ruins, and the lucky (or rich) few were allowed tours inside the city. Today, however, was considered a rather slow day. There were a mere three tours inside Hamunaptra, the last containing only thirteen people.