Taxa smiles and charges again. They exchange blows once more. Most of Taxa’s blows are dodged, while most of Xiona’s swings are blocked by Taxa. Taxa almost had Xiona trapped in the corner again. Taxa swings her sword with more control than power and doesn’t charge Xiona like she has both times before. Instead, Taxa leaped backwards. Xiona didn’t expect this maneuver and leaped as if she expected Taxa to charge again. This mistake proved to be fatal.
As she raised from rolling away from the non-existent charge, her eyes locked onto the downward motion of Taxa’s blade. The blow splits Xiona’s skull right down the middle and the blade doesn’t stop until it’s just above her neck.
Bebida tugs at Razz, who’s frozen in disbelief, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
Taxa lets out an even louder laugh than before as she lift Xiona’s lifeless body, which is slowly sliding down the shaft of her blade. Xiona’s head is squirting blood.
The sound of an arrow landing next to him awakens Razz from his daze. They hightail it toward the exit as arrows rain down from above, barely missing them. Taxa’s laughter can still be heard as they exit the room.
Chapter Twelve
“Hey, they found Shadow! Or I guess she found them. Just depends on how you look at it.”
“Zarr, what the heck are you talking about?” Remembering that the twins can read hear each other’s thoughts, Tripwire adds, “Oh, you mean your brother’s group right?”
“Yup.”
Explodes expresses in his fiery tone, “Well, we need to worry about us. She chose not to be with us, so as far as I’m concerned, she’s against us. So the bitch best not get in my way!”
They continue their way down another pathway. This one is similar to the main corridor that Hack’s party had already come across.
“I’m not sure if she’s with us or against us. At least, that’s how my brother feels.”
Referring to the link between the twins, Explode yells, “Damn it, can’t you turn it off?” It’s now very apparent that his well-natured moments are short lived.
“No, I can’t and why would I? That would be way too weird.”
“Why? You wanna turn it off because it’s annoying the hell out of me. That’s why!”
Zarr says nothing. They continue walking.
Tripwire states, “Actually, we need to pay better attention to our surroundings so that we don’t activate any more traps”
In the most sarcastic tone he’s used the whole adventure, Explode says, “We? We didn’t step on any traps. You did Mr. Trap Master.”
“Go ahead and rub it in. Even us pros mess up every once in a while.”
Zarr laughs quietly to himself about something his brother said to his party.
Tripwire says, “I feel moisture in the air. We must be close to a large body of water.”
“In a tomb?” Zarr questioned.
“Not normally, but this tomb doesn’t have the normal tomb feel either.”
“Agreed.”
As they exit the tunnel, they find themselves standing in front of a mini lake inside a cavern. Explode asks in a smart alec manner, “So what’s the trap here?”
Tripwire didn’t notice, “Probably huge pits with spiked bottoms because this lake appears fairly shallow.”
Zarr says, “Nope, no bridge.”
Tripwire asks, “What? Bridge where?”
“Nevermind.”
“Turn it off before I do!”
Zarr starts off into the water without acknowledging Explode’s threat. Tripwire and Explode follow.
Tripwire says, “Starting with me. Let’s all try to be careful where we step.”
About a third of the way across, Zarr drops his torch by accident. He bends over to pick it up, “Ouch! What in the world just bit me?”
He lifts his hand out of the water to find a piranha locked onto it. “Ahhhhh!” He tries to shake it off as he runs across the lake.
Tripwire frantically asks. “What happened? What’s going on?”
Explode feels something gnawing at his boot, “Oh shit! There’s something in the water! It’s piranhas, snakes or something!”
They all start to race across the lake. Explode is doing double time as he passes Tripwire and accidentally bumps into Zarr. Zarr falls face first into the water. Explode doesn’t realize this and continues on. Tripwire is so worried about self-preservation that he didn’t notice Zarr submerged under the water as he passed by him.
After both men have passed him, Zarr raises out of the water grasping for air and with about a dozen piranhas locked onto various body parts. The splashing and panicking of Explode and Tripwire drowns his screams out.
Zarr starts to run again with these flesh-eaters dangling off him, until he trips over an elevated ridge that barely avoids breaking the lake’s surface. This sends him into the water again. He fights and kicks to gain his footing again as these razor tooth fish continue to rip at his flesh.
Once Explode and Tripwire make it to dry land, they shake, swing, bat and do everything they can to get the watery leeches off themselves. Finally, once all the fish are removed, they realize that Zarr is not with them.
Explode show’s concern in his voice, “Zarr? Little buddy?”
They both survey the lake from the dry land for any sign of him.
“Zarr, stop fucking playing!”
Tripwire notices several feet outward, Zarr’s body floating facedown, moving several feet away, with a few jerky movements. He points it out to Explode. Immediately, Explode starts to head back out into the water.
“He’s dead, Explode.”
“No. He’s moving!”
“No....that’s the fish...eating him. He can’t breathe in the water facedown like that.”
Explode stops in place. Reality has set in. He turns and screams, “Fuck you, Foymama! I’m coming for your ass!” He then heads off toward the new exit, stomping on the flopping fish removed from their clothing and bodies. Tripwire decides it’s probably best for him to remain quiet and just follows him, keeping a good distance.
Chapter Thirteen
After a long walk, Bebida and Razz find themselves in a small room that’s only about 20 square feet. Once again, a cement block falls down and blocks their exit.
“Damn it. Razz this is becoming very bothersome.”
“I still can’t believe that she’s dead.”
“Well believe it, 'cause she is and there’s nothing we can do about it. We need to worry about our own survival.”
“Are you really that cold-blooded?”
“You have to be to survive places like this. Or have you forgotten about the fact that there are probably things in here that want us dead too?”
“No, you’re right, and I have thought about that. Speaking of that, I have a bad feeling about this room too.”
They both turn their attention to the center of the room, where there’s a stand that has a cube shaped puzzle box resting on top of it. There’s an inscription on the side of the stand.
Bebida looks around seeing no visible exits. “It appears that the box must either be our way out or our death trap activator.” The only exit other than the one they came through, which is now blocked, is a door on the opposite side of the room. This one is sealed.
He reads the inscription, “Fix the cube before the cube is filled. What is that supposed to mean?”
Razz had assumed that this was going to be in some old ancient dialect, “You can read that?”
“Um yeah. It’s in plain English.”
“What? Let me see this.” Razz inspected the words. “No, it’s in Romanian.”
“I’m looking at it right now, and it’s English.”
“Something is definitely not right with this tomb. It’s translating the words in each of our native tongues.”
“Weird.”
“Very weird.”
“So do you know how to solve this puzzle so that we can open the door
?”
“It’s identical to what you American’s called the Rubik’s Cube but instead of colors, it has symbols.”
Bebida inspects the cube without touching it. “You’re right, it is. So can you solve it?”
“Can a Romanian woman cook?” Razz asked with a confident smile.
“I don’t know, never met one.”
Razz is still smiling, “Just watch.” He lifts the cube off the stand. Two brick size holes open on all four walls. Water rapidly flows from them.
“So that’s the trap huh? If you don’t solve it fast enough, you drown. Well, you better hurry up then.”
“Well Bebida, you could always do it yourself.” Razz then taunted him like he was handing him it to solve.
“Shit! Stop playing!”
Razz was already at work on it. “Calm down, this is a piece of cake. I’m almost done and the water isn’t even to our knees yet.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I solved one of those before and I know it might seem like you’re almost done when you’re not.”
The water is a little past their knees when all of a sudden Razz starts flipping out and screaming. “They’re in the water! Get them off! Get them off!”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Demanded Bebida as he frantically looks around in the water. “I don’t see anything! What are you talking about?”
“Somebody help him. Somebody! Explode, come back! Ahhhhhh!”
“Explode? What are you talking about? You’re not making any sense.” Suddenly it dawns on him. “He must be talking about something going on with his brother. Snap out of it man! The water is chest high man! Damn it, you gotta snap out of it.” He’s shaking him as furiously as he can in the chest level water.
As suddenly as he started yelling, Razz stops. He drops the cube, which starts to sink to the bottom.
Bebida screams, “What are you doing?”
In an almost whisper, Razz squeaks out, “Silence...nothing but silence.”
“What?” Was all Bebida said before he dove into the water to retrieve the puzzle box. He searches the floor. He finds it and swims back to the surface. No longer able to stand and have the water not over his head, he swims and tries to remember how to solve the puzzle at the same time.
He thinks to himself as he stays afloat, “C’mon Mike, you can do this. Think!” Running out of breathing space, as the water is nearing the ceiling, he takes one last deep breath and dives down by the pillar. He works on it there. He fumbles the cube but regains control and turns a few more parts.
“Yes! About damn time.” He thought as he reached out to place it on the pillar. Once in place he turns it to the right and both exits open slowly. Water flows outward. In a few seconds, that felt like hours, the room is empty of water.
Bebida, lying on the room’s floor, is drenching wet and short of breath. He tries to stand but can’t. He decided to crawl out of the room just in case the door decided to shut. Once out and into the hallway, he sits up and turns around to see Razz’s lifeless body sprawled out on the floor.
Bebida stands up and heads down the hallway opposite the room. After a few steps he stops and turns back and looks at Razz one last time. “I can’t say I feel for you 'cause I have a real bad feeling you might just be the lucky one of us two.” He turns and heads down the latest tunnel until he hears an unrecognizable voice. He wields his knife. “I’m ready for you this time, motherfuckers.” Then he creeps down the corridor, ready to strike.
Chapter Fourteen
“So how’s the arm holding up?” asked Gladiator.
“Fine. It’s just fine” answered Rugged as the two walk side by side. Hack’s in the lead along with the prisoner walking in between.
“I don’t understand why we are still holding him hostage. We’ve already found the tomb.”
Hack agrees.
Rugged answers, “Because we can’t just let him go. What if they know a way to seal us in here?”
“Highly unlikely.”
“But I’m not willing to take that chance.”
Gladiator nods in agreement.
Hack ponders out loud. “I wonder how everyone else is doing?”
“Probably just as good as we are. Maybe a scrape or two but nothing too serious probably.”
Rugged adds, “Yeah, as long as they didn’t set off any traps.”
Hack continues to ponder out loud, “I wonder what Shadow’s up to?”
Rugged smugly says, “Probably already got the stone and high-tailed it out of here. It’s not like she would stop and tell anyone or be able to.”
“What do you mean by ‘able’ to?”
“She works for the Katsuya Company right? The Japanese Mob? And now that I think about it, I think my son Archan told me that they cut out the tongues of their secret operatives so that they can’t talk.”
“That’s absurd. That makes no sense at all. Why would they do that?”
“So she could never talk about the Mafia to the police.”
Gladiator asks, “Well, couldn’t she just write it down?”
Rugged realizes that his theory is flawed but instead of admitting it he says, “Then why do you think that she doesn’t talk?”
“Maybe she does. Just not to us.”
Again frustrated, Rugged decides to keep his mouth shut.
Hack laughs, “Rugged speechless? These walls do seem to have magical powers.”
Rugged quickly changes the subject, “Haven’t we pretty much been walking down one long hallway?”
“Pretty much. But this peaceful walk sure beats the hell out of dodging swinging axes.”
Gladiator adds, “Well, at least the scenery changes a little.” He referred to the stone statues of knights. “First we had hieroglyphics, then the clay pots, followed by stone animals and now knights.”
Hack adds, “Yeah, it’s kinda like walking through a museum.”
“Yeah, a really creepy one.”
They continue down the path. Unnoticed to them, two of the statues that they passed have come to life and are approaching fast from behind. One statue follows about thirty feet behind the first one.
Gladiator is pulling up the rear with Rugged, “Well, at least when we find some treasure, we’ll have a straight shot out of here.”
Hack looks back to acknowledge him but to his dismay he notices the closest statue which is directly behind Rugged and Gladiator. “Look out!”
Both men turn at the same time, notice and try to avoid the halberd coming down from above the attacking statue’s head. Gladiator was successful. Again, Rugged wasn’t so lucky. The weapon swipes his already injured arm, this time a little higher up, right above his bicep.
“Damn it!” Rugged yelled as he hits the floor.
The villager, who also hit the floor in panic, is frozen once again with fear, this time out of harm’s way by tripping over Hack’s foot.
The statue lifts its halberd above its head again, readying to deliver a deathblow to the downed Rugged. Gladiator snatches the weapon out its hand. He hoists the stone knight above his head in a wrestling style press. Instead of dropping it, he runs with it toward the closest wall. The knight’s head shatters like a piñata. As the now motionless body hits the floor, the cavity reveals things usually not welcomed as treats. Hundreds of black dung beetles crawl out of its neck. This sight immediately serves as a motivating reason to get off their butts for Rugged and the villager.
Rugged, looking down at the beetles escaping in all directions, says “Yeah, that was pretty sick.”
Gladiator throws up both hands in a victorious manner. He yells, “Whoa!” He stops yelling and his eyes open wide as if he’s seen a ghost.
Suddenly the tip of the spear that the second statue was carrying extrudes from his chest. Blood forms a crimson circle in the center of his chest. It starts to drip down his shirt. The big man collapses dead with his eyes still wide open and the spear inside him.
&nbs
p; Rugged, who is now standing, pulls out his machete, swings it at the neck of the now unarmed and exposed stone knight. “Die you bastard!” The swing decapitates the stone monster. It follows suit of its companion and collapses to the ground. Once the body has come to a full rest, fist size rats run from the exposed neck.
Hack exclaims, “What the hell is going on here?”
The rodents scamper away into the same cracks along the walls that the bugs did.
“I don’t know, but let’s get out of here before any more of these statues come to life.” Rugged and party look around nervously as they are still amidst rows of statues.
“Agreed!”
Rugged puts his weapon away, grabs the villager by the arm with his good arm. They hastily head down the corridor.
Chapter Fifteen
Explode and Tripwire continue to walk down corridor after corridor with no sign of a room, and with no conversation. That is, until Tripwire notices light shining through a crack in a wall. “You see that?” He points at the crack.
Explode was in deep thought about something, “Huh? What?”
Tripwire reiterates. “That crack. There’s light coming from behind those rocks. Maybe it’s a hidden room.”
“About damn time we find some treasure. Shit! I thought this place was supposed to be loaded with treasure.”
“It’s probably all in one room deep in this tomb. If he is as greedy as we’ve been told, then he would want to keep a close eye on it.”
“Shit, aren’t we deep enough already? We’ve been walking for hours.”
“Certainly feels that way. Well, let’s check it out.”
They both head over and inspect the crack.
“You’re right. There is something back there. And I think I hear voices or sounds, something. You hear it?”
Tripwire leans forward with his ear to the wall, “Yes, I hear something too.”
“How you figure we get in?”
“There should be a switch of some sort close by.”
As Explode searches for the switch, “I hope the damn king is in here. You think you seen me mad before.”
Tripwire winces at the thought, “Scary.”
“You don’t know the half.”
“I found it!” Tripwire adds in a cautious tone, “Well, at least I think I did. Who knows with this place? Let’s just be ready for anything when I press this.”
Explode nods in agreement. Tripwire puts his hand back in between a pair of rocks on the wall. The crack grows as the wall separates, revealing a well-lit room. Also, something that is hard to believe inside this tomb.