[DISCONTINUED UFN] BENEATH SANDS OF BLOOD ⟶ THE MUMMY 1999/2017

𝐢𝐢 ⟶ 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐡𝐚𝐧. . .

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"Oh come now. Hamunaptra is surely a myth, Evie. It certainly couldn't be real."

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HAMUNAPTRA, 1923

The sound of gunfire remained a constant sound. 

Hoofbeats drummed into the desert sand by horses steadily grew louder as more and more men poured into the millennia-old temple, leaping over broken statues and the low wall that once stood proudly at the perimeter of the worship site. What had once been a holy place was now one of warfare.

"Run, Beni, run!"

Rick O'Connell found himself bolting through the sand, each footfall kicking up grains of sand that found their way into his pants, his shoes, his socks. Not enough at first to irritate, but it would hurt like hell later on. But he didn't have time to stop and shake his shoes out when he was running for his life.

"Get inside! Get inside!"

His shoulder slammed into a stone slab engraved with hieroglyphs that had just been slammed shut, a second before he reached it. He swore at the man behind the door, but his head whipped around to face the enemy again. "Beni--"

Then he was bolting across the sand again, gunshots shattering the three-thousand-or-so year old stone behind him. If he survived today, he was going to kill Beni for shutting him out. 

No time to think about that now!

Another leap cleared him from tripping over another body. Friend or foe, he didn't care and he couldn't stop to check for injured. Otherwise he'd be a lot worse off, which would totally suck. He flung himself around a pillar in a wide running arc, stumbling and almost falling. Luck let him regain his footing on the constantly moving desert floor, but the next second had him skidding back to a stop. 

Sonuvab-!

A whirl informed him that he was now closed in on two sides, which left him only two other directions to go. Or rather one, as the left led straight to a large stone wall and that would pretty much be him offering himself up with no way out. So - no go there.

A quick twist of the direction he was facing on his heel, and then he was sprinting again, chest heaving as he pushed himself faster, faster, faster - he flung himself over a ruined section of the wall, and boy was he glad these boots had such good support or his ankle would have twisted. Hard.

He slipped through two pillars, a distinct thud heard on the stone below before it was quickly drowned back out. Perhaps he could escape, this looked more promising than --

Another dead end? Really?

The adventurer let out a sigh, but he promptly turned right back to face the men lining up to murder him. Well, at least there were worse ways to go. Now if these men could just make it quick, that would be great. Rick squeezed his eyes shut as both groups of cloaked and armed men raised their guns, the sound of each being cocked ringing through the ruined temple. Ready. . . He wondered what heaven would be like, if he got in.