** The horror slumbers buried under many meters of rubble and desert sand. Nameless cartouches, desecrated relics, and a sarcophagus containing an ancient riddle. **
"Ancient lands lost in time.
Storms of sand, walls of lime
Surround this mask of de...
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Her body was paralyzed by the sight before her. Arabella stared at the masses of trickling sand grains that suddenly flowed into the passage from all sides. With a stony scrape, sloping openings had revealed themselves, from which vast quantities of desert sand were now advancing into the narrow passage, flooding it at a furious speed. The spiraling shaft revealed itself as an elaborate death trap, now struggling upwards with growing panic.
"What are you waiting for? Run! LET'S GO!" roared Gates, a gush of sand pouring over his head, wiping his sight from her view until he continued to struggle forward. Within moments she could barely see a few feet away, and there was nothing but sand everywhere. A tributary opened up directly in front of Arabella, and the surge sent her staggering back out of reflex. Mr. Thornten immediately grabbed her upper arm to give her support, while at the same time, he was already dragging her backward.
Everything in her screamed for escape. But her body would not quite obey her. It was stiff and heavy from shock. Arabella simply could not believe it. It was like a nightmare or one of those unworldly films in the theatres. But she wasn't sitting in a comfortable armchair, safe from the horrors on the screen - she was in the middle of it!
"Uncle Albert!" shouted Arabella above the suddenly enormous noise level. Although only a few meters separated them, it seemed like an entire infinity to her. The roar of the sand mixed with the screams and moans of the men blended into a booming sound that made barely a word intelligible.
She watched helplessly as her uncle, Mr. Gates, Mr. Kaphiri, and the workers struggled through the growing dunes, trying to somehow protect their faces and eyes with their arms raised. You could see how difficult it was for them to struggle through the rapidly growing mountains from their awkward position at the gate of the chamber. Sand trickling through one's fingers in one hand suddenly weighed tons in its mass and weighed their bodies down, hindering their steps and making them dangerously sluggish. Every further step was a fight for survival.
"Come on; we have to get out of here now!" Mr. Thornten meanwhile ordered the young woman, determinedly pulling her up the corridor, but Arabella resisted the harsh grip.
"My uncle! Uncle Albert!" she cried as tears welled up in her eyes. Her worry made her thoughts spin and roll over and over. Her uncle was much older than her and no longer a strong young man! Arabella feared for his life, perhaps even more than for her own.
One of the workers made it up faster and, in his survival instinct, even pushed at Thornten and Arabella and rushed past them, where he hoped to find safety.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gates and Mr. Kaphiri had also managed to fight their way forward with difficulty, pushing past the two. In this situation, between living and dying, hardly anyone thought of politeness or consideration.
"Please! We have to help him! PLEASE!" Quivering, she pointed at the professor, struggling heavily through the masses of sand. Professor Redcliff groaned with the effort, the sand had already risen to his waist, and he was making almost no progress!
