The Adventurer & The Librarian

Chapter 8: Hamunaptra

As Bonnie continued to list the benefits of having a camel instead of a horse in the desert, like the fact that camels could go up to fifteen days without water, Jonathan warmed up to the idea of having such a creature.  Gad Hassad was munching on some fruit and singing in Arabic, much to people's chagrin.  The party engaged in some conversation with one another, mostly because Jonathan was the most social of the bunch.  Normally William was just as social, especially while drunk, but today he was content just to hear the conversation going on.

They rarely had to stop for anything and William could tell they were making great progress in their journey as the day went on, so by night time, William and the two other men were exhausted.  Bonnie, however, was alert as ever.  They agreed to stop for half the night, concurring to leave way before dawn, and set up their tents.  Bonnie agreed to take first watch. 

The night was uneventful, thankfully, so when William woke to take the second watch, Bonnie was all too eager to get some rest.  She didn't seem that worried but William had extra clips to the pistol Bonnie gave him just in case. 

After a few hours in, William figured they could get going so he went to raise Bonnie from her slumber.  He walked up to her tent and cleared his throat.  "Miss O'Connell?  It's time to get up," he said, hopefully loud enough for her to hear.

A small rustling was heard from the tent and Bonnie came out, looking bright eyed and bushy tailed.  "Alright," she said, stuffing her revolver in her side holster.

The other two were slower to wake up but William and Bonnie helped disassemble camp quickly.  They were soon back on their journey and the sun was just starting to rise when they saw the Americans and their group in the distance.

"Oh lovely," William said sarcastically.

"Relax," Bonnie said as they began approaching the other group.  "Just be prepared to race."

"Good morning, my friend," Beni called out to Bonnie.

Bonnie gave Beni a barely genuine smile and a head nod.  Obviously there was some history between the two.  Bonnie didn't seem fond of the Hungarian so he obviously did something bad.

"What the hell we doin'?" Daniels asked impatiently as they all lined up.

"Patience, my good barátom.  Patience," Beni assured.

"Remember our bet, O'Connell," the blonde American, known as Mr. Henderson said.  "First one to the city, five hundred cash bucks."

"A hundred of them bucks is yours if you help win that bet," Daniels said to Beni.

"Oh, my pleasure," Beni replied, making William roll his eyes.

"You're not going to take that kind of cheek, are you, Miss O'Connell?" William asked with a smirk.

Bonnie chuckled.  "Hell no," she answered.

"Hey, O'Connell," Beni smiled.  "Nice camel."

Bonnie only responded with a mischievous grin and scratched her camel on the head.  "Get ready for it," she said to her group.

"For what?" William asked.

"We're about to be shown the way."  William gazed on, the distance shimmering almost like water as the sun began rising from the horizon.  Was it a mirage, perhaps?  Soon the appearance of an enclosed city began to form and people gasped in shock.  The sun got higher and soon the way was shown to Hamunaptra.  "Here we go again," she said, sounding very unexcited.

Beni smacked his camel with a stick and so did Bonnie.  Soon the others were off, Beni taking the lead.  William followed close behind, the horses obviously being hindered by the sand.  He couldn't help but laugh hysterically at Beni trying to knock Bonnie off her camel with his stick.

"This will not end well for that man!" he laughed.

"No kidding!" Jonathan cackled.

Sure enough, Beni was thrown from his camel and William laughed as he ran by Beni.  "Serves you right!" he yelled before catching up to Bonnie.

"Oh, you're going to beat me to Hamunaptra now, are you?" Bonnie asked with a devious smirk.

William shrugged his shoulders as he smiled at her.  "Maybe."

Bonnie giggled before urging her camel to go faster.  William did the same, and both of them were charging fast side by side.  He kept staring at the ruined city before him in awe, feeling grateful that he had been given a chance to see the once great City of the Dead.  His camel suddenly got a burst of energy and he rode ahead of Bonnie, closing in on the entrance.

"Woohoo!  Go, Will!  Go!" he could hear his brother Jonathan shouting with encouragement.

They got past the entrance and into the vast area, William breathing heavily as he slowed his camel down.  "That was brilliant!" he yelled happily, making Bonnie laugh.

"Yes, that should knock down the other cowboys a peg or two," Jonathan exclaimed as he came in a whopping third, followed by Hassad and the other group.

Bonnie leaned over and dismounted her camel, patting his head.  "You did good, boy," she said before kissing the camel's cheek and slipping him a treat.

The rest of the treasure hunters, cowboys, Egyptologists and diggers joined up and William watched happily as Bonnie collected the wager from the very disgruntled American men.

"I can't believe we got beat by a damn bookworm!" Daniels yelled as he coughed up his money.

"Don't forget a woman, a warden and a scholar," Bonnie added with a smirk.  Hassad cackled with laughter as Bonnie walked over to William and handed him the money.  He was surprised, but then he realized he had, in fact, won the bet.  As he put the money in his wallet,  Bonnie glanced at the rest of the American's group.  "You know, I don't think I got all your names and occupations."

"I'm Isaac Henderson," the blonde American said.  "Treasure hunter, same as these two," he explained, pointing to Daniels.  "This here is David Daniels, and this guy," he said, pointing to the other dark haired American.  "Is Bernard Burns.  And then we got Dr. Allen Chamberlain, our Egyptologist."

Bonnie nodded to the man in the fez whom she'd seen on the boat.  He merely looked down at her from his camel.  The American ex-soldier sighed and tilted her head, squinting her eyes as she looked at Henderson.  "Well, pleasure to meet you all.  Pretty sure I don't need to tell you to stay away from our dig site."

The men held up their hands with a nod and Bonnie walked back to her group, William discreetly pointing at a statue in the distance.  "We should dig there," he whispered.

Bonnie studied William for a moment before glancing at the statue.  "Why that one?"

"Just trust me."

Bonnie smirked and she looked the man in the eye.  "I'm starting to," she said before walking to her camel.

That was probably the nicest thing she'd ever said to him.