"What?" Tyler snorted as he continued to take pictures.
"Nothing," Sage wiped her eyes and sniffed. "Don't worry about it. Lets just go."
Nat looked at her with concern. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah I'm fine," Sage nodded. "Let's continue."
They walked through the decrepit corridors with unease. No one knew what the pyramid held. Traps were always on the back of Sage's mind. She's heard stories of people dying of fatal traps triggered by them. Her team was her family, she doesn't know what she would do.
Sage's radio echoed, startling the A-Team.
"Hey Sage. You there?" Matt's voice rang through the radio.
She picked up her radio and clicked the button to speak, "Yeah, what's up Matt?"
"Uh," he hesitated. "We got some locals saying there's something dangerous inside the tomb."
Sage looked at her small team before her in fear. "What kind of dangers?"
Matt didn't answer right away. You could hear he was asking in the background noise. "Uh they said there was a terrible curse once anyone enters the pyramid. Something like the death of millions? ...what? The dead coming back to life?"
Memphis and Jackson laughed. "What? Like a mummy?" Memphis mocked as walking like a mummy. "I'm petrified!"
Sage scowled. "Memphis, take this more seriously!"
He scoffed, "For what? These so-called 'curses' don't exist! There is no such thing as the dead coming back to life or horrible curses."
"I get that!" Sage retorted, "But that doesn't mean there is no real life danger! There are traps Memphis! And we don't know where they are! It could kill us! So take your job more seriously!" Memphis glared at Sage before returning to taking pictures.
"Anyone there?" Matt said hesitantly.
"Matt," Sage sighed. "did they said anything else? Did they mention traps? Any real dangers that we can avoid?"
"No. All they keep talking about is the curse..."
Sage rubbed her tired eyes, "They won't talk about anything else?"
"No,"
"Just...tell them we appreciate the concern but we're fine." Sage said tiredly.
"Will do. See you in 3 hours." Matt said. Sage rubbed her eyes viciously to battle the tiredness.
"Ugh, I should've drank another cup of coffee," Sage uttered. She itched the back of her head and said, "Lets continue."
~•~
Sage and her team had gathered photos and small trinkets from the pyramid. Two hours had passed and they hardly cracked the surface of the whole thing.
"Alright guys. We're almost out of time. Let's start heading back." Sage shouted as she started to pack her things. Suddenly, a scream of agony echoed through the halls. Sage immediately dropped her things and ran to her team. She saw Tyler, Nat and Jackson. But no Memphis.
"MEMPHIS! Where are you?" Sage screamed frantically. She raced through hallway after hallway when she saw Memphis on the ground, his leg skewered with a small wooden spike. The rest of the team stumbled behind her.
"Holy sh-" Jackson started but Sage cut him off.
"Tyler get the med-kit. Now!" Sage ordered as she went to Memphis' side. "Memphis, what happened?"
"I heard you call and was walking back when I stepped on a button or something. Then a bunch of these small spikes shot out of the wall. I managed to dodge almost all of them. But one got me in the leg."
Tyler rushed in with a med-kit in hand and gave it to Sage. Sage got out the gauze and rubbing alcohol.
"What do you feel?" Nat asked as she plucked one of the spikes out of the wall.
"It fuckin' hurts! What kind of stupid question is th-ARRGGH!" Memphis screamed in pain as Sage pulled out the spike. She poured rubbing alcohol on it and wrapped it in the gauze.
"I know it hurts!" Nat scoffed. "I'm saying... what do you feel other than the pain?"
Memphis looked at her weirdly. "I-I don't know... my leg feels numb. But it's that tingling numb. Like your leg falling asleep times ten."
"Sage.. let me see the wound..." Nat said slowly as she approached Memphis. Sage carefully unwrapped the leg. She exposed the wound to see it still bleeding. It started to swell and bruise around the entry wound. "Sage..." Nat laid a hand on Sage's shoulder with the other hand covering her mouth. "The spike must've been dipped with venom.."
Sage's eyes widened in terror. "Memphis, we need to get you outta here NOW!" She quickly wrapped up the leg again and pulled him up. "We don't know how long it would take for the venom to start affecting your body, so we need to work quickly." Sage slung Memphis' arm over her shoulder and Tyler did the same to the other arm. "Nat and Jackson, grab our stuff, we're leaving."
The team raced to the exit, twisting and turning through each corner and hallway. Sage and Tyler struggled to carry Memphis since he is very built and muscular. But Sage pushed on. She couldn't let Memphis die. Just having the weight of him actually getting hurt on her watch was heavy enough. Him dying would crush her. What would she say to his family? What would be her excuse?
Thirty minutes later and they were halfway there. "Memphis how are you? Feeling okay?" Sage asked nervously.
"Y-Yeah.. just a major fuckin' headache..." Memphis mumbled.
Sage looked back at Nat with fear. She turned around and stopped walking.
Tyler looked at her weirdly, "Sage what're you doing? We need to hurry...up..." he trailed off when he saw what Sage saw. There was a person at the end of the hallway. It was too dark to see the face and could only see an outline of the person. The person had a very sickly skinny body. So skinny that it seemed like there were only bones. Tyler looked at his watch. "That can't be Matt and the others. We still have time."
"If it's not Matt and them... who could it be?" Nat asked.
No one could answer her before the person started to walk towards them.
"Go the other way." Sage said while trying to turn away. Something about that person made Sage queasy. The feeling at the pit of her stomach screamed run.
"What?" Jackson said, baffled.
"I said. Turn. The. Other. Way!" Sage shouted. Everyone started to run the other way when they heard the urgency of her voice. The mystery person didn't run after them. They kept a steady pace. As if they knew exactly where they were going to go.
YOU ARE READING
My Pharaoh, My Queen
Historical Fiction"The most painful goodbyes are the ones that are never said and never explained." ~•~ Centuries ago, a Pharaoh and his Queen lived a luxurious life. One can say their relationship was truly an example of what it means to love someone dearly. Howev...
