To Be Shown the Way (a Mummy 1999 fanfiction)

Book

Evelyn waited under her blankets, pinching herself occasionally to keep awake, until she was sure everyone was asleep. With one eye on O'Connell, who was snoring lightly, she carefully tossed the blankets off and got to her feet, walking softly across the campsite.

The Egyptologist had fallen asleep on his back, with the Book of the Dead on his chest, held in the crook of his arm. Sneaking up to him, grateful for the sand beneath her feet, she took hold of the book and slid it out from under his arm. He mumbled but didn't stir, and she carried the book swiftly back to her own camp in triumph.

With another glance at O'Connell to assure herself he was asleep, she set the book down. As she was bending over Jonathan, hunting through his pockets for the key, she was somehow not surprised to hear O'Connell's voice behind her.

"That's called stealing, you know."

"According to you and my brother, it's called borrowing," she retorted, pulling the key out of Jonathan's pocket. Why should she be the only one of their little band with a moral compass? Adventurers took their chances when they could, and she was an adventurer now.

Kneeling before the book, she found the hidden spring to open the key. O'Connell got up from his blankets to lean over her. "I thought the Book of Amun-Ra was made out of gold."

"It is made out of gold," Evelyn said softly. "This isn't the Book of Amun-Ra. This is something else. I think this may be the Book of the Dead."

The key sprang open and she fit it into the lock.

"The Book of the Dead?" O'Connell echoed. "Are you sure you want to be playing around with this thing?"

"It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book."

A wind howled around them as she opened the cover. She could feel O'Connell's body tensing as he looked around. "That happens a lot around here." He leaned over Evelyn, who was already lost in the hieroglyphics. "So, what's it say?"

"Amun Ra, Amun Dei ... It speaks of the night and of the day." Lost in the sound of the ancient language, she kept reading aloud but forgot to translate.

She thought she heard a roaring that seemed to come from deep underground. At the same moment, the voice of the Egyptologist echoed across the campsite. "No! You must not read from the book!"

A wind came from their other side. Somewhere a camel shrieked, and Jonathan sat up groggily. A black cloud blotted out the horizon, coming closer and closer until they could hear the whirring of wings and the chittering of the insects that made up the cloud. For a moment, it seemed as though the flight of bugs formed the shape of a person, swooping down at them.

"Run!" O'Connell shouted, reaching for Evelyn's hand, and they lost no time in doing so.

Everyone made for the shelter of the great tomb, scattering once they got inside. Rick paid little attention to the Americans or their poor diggers, several of whom had gotten caught in the cloud of insects outside and didn't look as though they were going to survive the experience. His concern was Evelyn, and keeping her safe.

As they made their way through the hallways, a sudden shock shook the building, and before them a small mound appeared in the sand, disgorging a nest of scarabs.

They turned and ran, shouting. Rick threw the torch he was carrying at the mass of insects following them, and discharged his shotgun a few times, but nothing slowed them. They ran up a stone incline, leaping off of it onto rock outcroppings that were unconnected. The scarabs couldn't follow them that way.

Rick held his gun, ready to shoot anything he could, but there was no point in picking off the bugs one or two at a time. He and Jonathan were on a rock formation that didn't touch the walls or the incline; Evelyn was on the other side, against a wall.

When the scarabs were gone at last, both of them looked for her and called her name, but she was gone, disappeared as if she had never been there.

Rick lost no time getting to the ledge, but it appeared to be some kind of a trap door. Evelyn was lost inside the building, and there was no way of knowing where the door had led her. Rick and Jonathan exchanged a glance.

"There's got to be a switch or something around here someplace," Jonathan said.

Rick banged on all the walls and struck them with the butt of his gun, but nothing happened.

Before he could hurl himself at the stone and try to batter it down with his bare hands, they heard one of the Americans screaming behind them. "Run, you sons of bitches! Run!"

"Go."

He and Jonathan joined two of the Americans in scrambling down the incline ahead of another mass of scarabs. The bugs caught one of the diggers who had been unfortunately a few steps behind.

Rick had hoped to help, but there was nothing for it. Once the bugs were on him, the man was reduced to nothing but a desiccated corpse in a matter of seconds. Turning, Rick urged the others on, back inside the building they had just run out of. Evelyn must be inside. She had to be. And he would find her, and get her out of here, and they would go back to Cairo and forget that such a place as Hamunaptra had ever existed.