I had a sudden flash: Was this another mean practical joke? Were Sari and Uncle Ben hiding, waiting to see what I’d do?
Was this another lame trick of theirs to frighten me?
It could be. Uncle Ben, I knew, could never resist a practical joke. He had laughed like a hyena when Sari told him how she’d hid in the mummy case and scared about ten years off my life.
Were they both hiding in mummy cases now, just waiting for me to stumble by?
My heart thumped in my chest. Despite the heat of the ancient tunnel, I felt cold all over.
No, I decided. This isn’t a practical joke.
Uncle Ben was too serious today, too worried about his stricken workers. Too worried about what we’d told him about Ahmed. He wasn’t in any mood for practical jokes.
I began making my way through the tunnel again. As I jogged, my hand brushed against the beeper at my waist.
Should I push it?
No, I decided.
That would only give Sari a good laugh. She’d be eager to tell everyone how I’d started beeping for help after being in the pyramid for two minutes!
I turned the corner. The tunnel walls seemed to close in on me as the tunnel narrowed.
“Sari? Uncle Ben?”
No echo. Maybe the tunnel was too narrow for an echo.
The floor grew harder, less sandy. In the dim yellow light, I could see that the granite walls were lined with jagged cracks. They looked like dark lightning bolts coming down from the ceiling.
“Hey—where are you guys?” I shouted.
I stopped when the tunnel branched in two directions.
I suddenly realized how scared I was.
Where had they disappeared to? They had to have realized by now that I wasn’t with them.
I stared at the two openings, shining my light first into one tunnel, then the other.
Which one had they entered?
Which one?
My heart pounding, I ran into the tunnel on the left and shouted their names.
No reply.
I backed out quickly, my light darting wildly over the floor, and stepped into the tunnel to the right.
This tunnel was wider and higher. It curved gently to the right.
A maze of tunnels. That’s how Uncle Ben had described the pyramid. Maybe thousands of tunnels, he had told me.
Thousands.
Keep moving, I urged myself.
Keep moving, Gabe.
They’re right up ahead. They’ve got to be!
I took a few steps and then called out to them.
I heard something.
Voices?
I stopped. It was so quiet now. So quiet, I could hear my heart pounding in my chest.
The sound again.
I listened hard, holding my breath.
It was a chattering sound. A soft cluttering. Not a human voice. An insect, maybe. Or a rat.
“Uncle Ben? Sari?”
Silence.
I took a few more steps into the tunnel. Then a few more.
I decided I’d better forget my pride and beep them.
So what if Sari teased me about it?
I was too frightened to care.
If I beeped them, they’d be right there to get me in a few seconds.
But as I reached to my waist for the beeper, I was startled by a loud noise.
The insect chittering became a soft cracking sound.
I stopped to listen, the fear rising up to my throat.
The soft cracking grew louder.
It sounded like someone breaking saltines in two.
Only louder. Louder.
Louder.
Right under my feet.
I turned my eyes to the floor.
I shined the light at my shoes.
It took me so long to realize what was happening.
The ancient tunnel floor was cracking apart beneath me.
The cracking grew louder, seemed to come from all directions, to surround me.
By the time I realized what was happening, it was too late.
I felt as if I were being pulled down, sucked down by a powerful force.
The floor crumbled away beneath me, and I was falling.
Falling down, down, down an endless black hole.
I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
My hands flew up and grabbed—nothing!
I closed my eyes and fell.
Down, down into the swirling blackness.
12
I heard the flashlight clang against the floor.
Then I hit. Hard.
I landed on my side. Pain shot through my body, and I saw red. A flash of bright red that grew brighter and brighter until I had to close my eyes. I think the force of the blow knocked me out for a short while.
When I opened my eyes, everything was a gray-yellow blur. My side ached. My right elbow throbbed with pain.
I tried the elbow. It seemed to move okay.
I sat up. The haze slowly began to lift, like a curtain slowly rising.
Where was I?
A sour smell invaded my nostrils. The smell of decay. Of ancient dust. Of death.
The flashlight had landed beside me on the concrete floor. I followed its beam of light toward the wall.
And gasped.
The light stopped on a hand.
A human hand.
Or was it?
The hand was attached to an arm. The arm hung stiffly from an erect body.
My hand trembling, I grabbed up the flashlight and tried to steady the light on the figure.
It was a mummy, I realized. Standing on its feet near the far wall.
Eyeless, mouthless, the bandaged face seemed to stare back at me, tense and ready, as if waiting for me to make the first move.
13
A mummy?
The light darted over its featureless face. I couldn’t steady my hand. My whole body was shaking.
Frozen in place, not able to move off the hard floor, I gaped at the frightening figure. I suddenly realized I was panting loudly.
Trying to calm myself, I sucked in a deep breath of the putrid air, and held it.
The mummy stared blindly back at me.
It stood stiffly, its arms hanging at its sides.
Why is it standing there like that? I wondered, taking another deep breath.
The ancient Egyptians didn’t leave their mummies standing at attention.
Realizing that it wasn’t moving forward to attack me, I began to feel a little calmer.
“Easy, Gabe. Easy,” I said aloud, trying to steady the flashlight I gripped so tightly in my hand.
I coughed. The air was so foul. So old.
Groaning from the pain in my side, I climbed to my feet and began rapidly shining the light back and forth beyond the silent, faceless mummy.
I was in an enormous, high-ceilinged chamber. Much bigger than the chamber Uncle Ben’s workers had been digging in.
And much more cluttered.
“Wow.” I uttered a low cry as the pale light of the flashlight revealed an amazing scene. Dark, bandaged figures hovered all around me.
The vast chamber was crammed with mummies!
In the unsteady light, their shadows seemed to reach toward me.
Shuddering, I took a step back. I moved the light slowly over the strange, hideous scene.
The light burned through the shadows, revealing bandaged arms, torsos, legs, covered faces.
There were so many of them.
There were mummies leaning against the wall. Mummies lying on stone slabs, arms crossed over their chests. Mummies leaning at odd angles, crouched low or standing tall, their arms straight out in front of them like Frankenstein monsters.
Against one wall stood a row of mummy cases, their lids propped open. I turned, following the arc of my light. I realized that my fall had dropped me into the center of the room.
Behind me, I could make out an amazing array of equipment. Strange, pronglike tools I had neve
r seen before. Tall stacks of cloth. Gigantic clay pots and jars.
Easy, Gabe. Easy.
Whoa. Breathe slowly.
I took a few reluctant steps closer, trying to hold the flashlight steady.
A few more steps.
I walked up to one of the tall stacks of cloth. Linen, most likely. The material used for making mummies.
Gathering my courage, I examined some of the tools. Not touching anything. Just staring at them in the wavering light of the flashlight.
Mummy-making tools. Ancient mummy-making tools.
I stepped away. Turned back toward the crowd of unmoving figures.
My light traveled across the room and came to rest on a dark square area on the floor. Curious, I moved closer, stepping around twin mummies, lying on their backs, their arms crossed over their chests.
Whoa. Easy, Gabe.
My sneakers scraped noisily along the floor as I made my way hesitantly across the vast chamber.
The dark square on the floor was nearly the size of a swimming pool. I bent down at its edge to examine it more closely.
The surface was soft and sticky. Like tar.
Was this an ancient tar pit? Was this tar used in the making of the mummies that hovered so menacingly around the room?
I had a sudden chill that froze me to the spot.
How could this tar pit be soft after four thousand years?
Why was everything in this chamber—the tools, the mummies, the linen—preserved so well?
And why were these mummies—at least two dozen of them—left out like this, scattered about the room in such strange positions?
I realized that I had made an incredible discovery here. By falling through the floor, I had found a hidden chamber, a chamber where mummies had been made. I had found all of the tools and all of the materials used to make mummies four thousand years ago.
Once again, the sour smell invaded my nose. I held my breath to keep myself from gagging. It was the smell of four-thousand-year-old bodies, I realized. A smell that had been bottled up in this ancient, hidden chamber—until now.
Staring at the twisted, shadowy figures gazing back at me in faceless horror, I reached for the beeper.
Uncle Ben, you must come quickly, I thought.
I don’t want to be alone down here any longer.
You must come here now!
I pulled the beeper off my belt and brought it up close to the light.
All I had to do, I realized, was push the button, and Uncle Ben and Sari would come running.
Gripping the small square tightly in my hand, I moved my hand to the button—and cried out in alarm.
The beeper was ruined. Wrecked. Smashed.
The button wouldn’t even push.
I must have landed on it when I fell.
It was useless.
I was all alone down here.
Alone with the ancient mummies, staring facelessly, silently, at me through the deep, dark shadows.
14
All alone.
I stared in horror at the worthless beeper.
The flashlight trembled in my hand.
Suddenly, everything seemed to move in on me. The walls. The ceiling. The darkness.
The mummies.
“Huh?”
I stumbled back a step. Then another.
I realized I was gripping the flashlight so tightly, my hand hurt.
The light played over the faceless figures.
They weren’t moving.
Of course they weren’t moving.
I took another step back. The sour odor seemed to grow stronger, thicker. I held my breath, but the smell was in my nostrils, in my mouth. I could taste it, taste the decay, taste the four-thousand-year-old aroma of death.
I tossed the worthless beeper on the floor and took another step back, keeping my eyes on the hovering mummies.
What was I going to do?
The smell was making me sick. I had to get out of there, had to call Uncle Ben.
Another step back.
“Help!”
I tried to shout, but my voice sounded weak, muffled by the heavy, foul air.
“Help! Can anybody hear me?” A little louder.
Tucking the flashlight under my arm, I cupped my hands around my mouth to form a megaphone. “Can anybody hear me?” I screamed.
I listened, desperate for a reply.
Silence.
Where were Sari and Uncle Ben? Why couldn’t they hear me? Why weren’t they looking for me?
“Help! Somebody—please help!”
I screamed as loud as I could, tilting my head up to the hole in the ceiling, the hole I had fallen through.
“Can’t anybody hear me?” I shrieked.
I could feel the panic grip my chest, freeze my legs.
The panic swept over me, wave after paralyzing wave.
“Help me! Somebody—please!”
I took another step back.
And something crunched under my sneaker.
I uttered a high-pitched yelp and stumbled forward.
Whatever it was slithered away.
I exhaled loudly, a long sigh of relief.
And then I felt something brush against my ankle.
I cried out, and the flashlight dropped from under my arm. It clattered noisily to the floor.
The light went out.
Again, something scraped silently against me.
Something hard.
I heard soft, scrabbling sounds down on the floor. Something snapped at my ankle.
I kicked hard, but hit only air.
“Ohh, help!”
There were creatures down there. A lot of them.
But what were they?
Again, something slapped at my ankle, and I kicked wildly.
Frantically, I bent down, grabbing for the flashlight in the darkness.
And touched something hard and warm.
“Ohh, no!”
I jerked my hand up with a startled cry.
In the darkness, groping for the flashlight, I had the feeling that the entire floor had come to life. The floor was moving in waves, rolling and tossing, seething beneath me.
Finally, I found the flashlight. I grabbed it up in my trembling hand, climbed to my feet, and struggled to turn it back on.
As I stepped backward, something slid against my leg.
It felt hard. And prickly.
I heard clicking sounds. Snapping. Creatures bumping into each other.
Panting loudly, my chest heaving, my entire body gripped with terror, I jumped up, tried to dance away as I fiddled with the flashlight.
Something crunched loudly beneath my sneaker. I danced away, hopping over something that scuttled through my legs.
Finally, the light flickered on.
My heart thudding, I lowered the yellow beam of light to the floor.
And saw the scrabbling, snapping creatures.
Scorpions!
I had stumbled into a disgusting nest of them.
“Ohh—help!”
I didn’t recognize my tiny, frightened voice as I cried out. I didn’t even realize I had cried out.
The light darted over the slithering creatures, their tails raised as if ready to attack, their claws snapping silently as they moved. Crawling over each other. Slithering past my ankles.
“Somebody—help!”
I leapt backwards as a pair of claws grabbed at the leg of my jeans—into another of the creatures whose tail snapped against the back of my sneaker.
Struggling to escape from the poisonous creatures, I tripped.
“No! Please—no!”
I couldn’t save myself.
I started to fall.
My hands shot out, but there was nothing to grab on to.
I was going to plunge right into the middle of them.
“Nooooo!”
I uttered a frantic cry as I toppled forward.
And felt two hands grab me by the shoulders from behind.
15
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A mummy! I thought.
My entire body convulsed with fear.
The scorpions snapped and scrabbled at my feet.
The strong hands gripped my shoulders, pulled me hard.
The ancient, bandaged hands.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think.
Finally, I managed to spin around.
“Sari!” I cried.
She gave me one more tug. We both stumbled backwards, claws snapping up at us.
“Sari—how—?”
We moved together now, making our way toward the center of the vast chamber.
Safe. Safe from the disgusting nest of snapping scorpions.
“Saved your life,” she whispered. “Yuck. Those are gross!”
“Tell me about it,” I said weakly. I could still feel the hideous creatures sliding along my ankles, still feel them slithering between my legs, crunching under my sneakers.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget that crunching sound.
“What are you doing down here?” Sari cried impatiently, as if scolding a child. “Daddy and I have been looking everywhere for you.”
I pulled her even farther from the scorpions, into the center of the chamber. “How did you get down here?” I cried, struggling to calm my breathing, struggling to stop the pounding in my chest.
She pointed with her flashlight to a tunnel in the corner that I hadn’t seen. “I was searching for you. Daddy and I got separated. Do you believe it? He stopped to talk to a worker, and I didn’t realize it. By the time I turned back, he was gone. Then I saw the light moving around in here. I thought it was Daddy.”
“You got lost, too?” I asked, wiping beads of cold sweat off my forehead with the back of my hand.
“I’m not lost. You’re lost,” she insisted. “How could you do that, Gabe? Daddy and I were totally freaked.”
“Why didn’t you wait up for me?” I demanded angrily. “I called to you. You just disappeared.”
“We didn’t hear you,” she replied, shaking her head. I was really glad to see her. But I hated the way she was looking at me, like I was some kind of hopeless idiot. “I guess we got involved in our argument. We thought you were right behind us. Then when we turned around, you were gone.” She sighed and shook her head. “What a day!”
“What a day?” I cried shrilly. “What a day?”
“Gabe, why did you do that?” she demanded. “You know we were supposed to stay close together.”