The Adventurer & The Librarian

Chapter 14: He Who Must Not Be Named

The three adventurers had gotten separated from the others in all the commotion.  Bonnie, Jonathan and William were all trekking it carefully through the corridors, and shortly after they turned a corner, there was a crash and a rumbling that almost knocked them off their feet.  Bonnie gaped in shock as the floor seemed to move. 

Something was rising from it.

They started backing away as shiny, black creatures emerged from the sand.

"Scarabs?" William yelled.

All three turned and ran away.  Bonnie was yelling at the other two to keep going.  She kept looking behind her as they were being chased by the carnivorous animals.  Eventually she threw her torch at then and started shooting them with her shotgun to try and slow them down.

It wasn't much of a deterrent and there was no time to reload.

"Keep running!"  Bonnie shouted.

They eventually made it to a different area and began running up the stone slab bridge.  William and Jonathan leaked off to a pillar in the middle of the room while Bonnie went for a slight opening in the wall.  William and Jonathan aimed their guns at the horde of bugs passing by while Bonnie hectically struggled to reload her shotgun.

As she leaned against the wall, it opened and she went flying backwards with a yelp.  Next thing she knew, she shot out of a moving door and rolled into sand, breathing heavily.

"Fuck, I thought I was gonna die," she breathed with a growl. 

Bonnie heard pained moaning and she quickly got up to see Mr. Burns standing quite still in the dark room they were both in.

"Mr. Burns?" she asked quickly, finally having the composure to reload her shotgun.  "You okay?"

Another low moan escaped the man and she grabbed him by the shoulder to turn him around.  What she saw was shocking and horrifying.

His eyes were completely gone.  And his tongue has been taken, as well.

"My eyes, my eyes," Mr. Burns pleaded helplessly, though he was hard to understand.

"Holy shit, who did this?" Bonnie asked angrily.

There was a low growl behind her and she narrowed her eyes before turning and aiming her gun at...the mummy.

He Who Must Not Be Named.

Bonnie's eyes went wide as she pulled the trigger, barely penetrating the skin.  This didn't stop the mummy from screaming a bloodthirsty roar and charging her.  Bonnie shot him in the head but only a small chunk of his skull popped off.

"Get out of here, Burns!" Bonnie shouted, but the man could only fall to his knees and try to crawl away.

The mummy swung his arm and knocked Bonnie across the room and into the wall.  She knocked her head pretty hard and was seeing stars as the mummy walked towards her, a disgusting growl forming out of his barely existent throat.

"Jesus, you're...how the hell are you alive?" she asked, not expecting a response from the undead creature.

But she got one anyway.

"Anck-su-namun?" The mummy asked as he stared down at her.

Bonnie couldn't help but laugh.  "Great.  As if a dead guy wasn't asking around, he can't even speak my language," she grumbled, the mummy inching closer and holding out his hand as continued speaking.  Bonnie looked up at the mummy and groaned.  "You didn't have eyes before, where did..." then it dawned on her as she looked past the mummy to Mr. Burns.  "...oh."

"My tongue, he took my tongue," Mr. Burns mumbled loudly, but the words were garbled.

Bonnie gulped and put her attention back on the mummy.  He was attempting to help her up but she shook her head and spat at the man.  "Nu uh, I can get myself up, thank you very much!" she said before smacking his hand away and standing slowly.

This caused the mummy to laugh and back up.

"There you are!" William shouted at the doorway, running in towards her.  "Will you quit playing hide-and-seek?  Let's get the bloody hell out of here!". Bonnie kept staring at the mummy, knowing that shooting him wasn't going to help the situation.  William looked at what she was seeing and backed into the wall with a shocked expression.  "WOA!"

"William!  Bonnie!" Jonathan sounded as he ran in, quickly dropping his torch when he saw the monster.  The other Americans ran in and quickly paused behind Jonathan.

The mummy turned back to William and roared at him.  This started the two for only a moment before Bonnie roared back with the ferocity of a viking before pulling out her revolver and shooting the creature in the forehead.  "Move!"

They ran past the downed mummy, practically squealing like girls.

"Did you see that?!  It was walking!  It was walking!" someone shouted.

"No shit it was walking!" Bonnie screamed.  "It took out your buddy's eyes and tongue, too!"

They kept running and eventually found their way out of the temple...only to run into a bunch of armed Medjai, all guns aimed while Dr. Chamberlain was on his knees in fear.

Bonnie and the others put their hands up as the leader from last night stepped forward, removing his mask.

"I told you to leave or die," he said calmly.  "You refused.  Now you may have killed us all, for you have unleashed a creature that we have feared for more than 3,000 years."

"I shot him," Bonnie said.  "In the head.  He's dead."

"No mortal weapon can kill this creature.  He's not of this world."

Some of the Medjai returned with Mr. Burns.  Daniels and Henderson stayed by him, Daniels looking angrily at the desert assassins.  "You bastards," he spat.

"What did you do to him?" Henderson asked.

"We saved him.  Saved him before the creature could finish his work.  Now leave, all of you, quickly, before he finished you all."  The leader quickly ordered his men to go inside the temple before moving towards Bonnie.  "I must now go on the hunt and try and find a way to kill him."

"How can you be so sure I didn't kill him?" Bonnie asked, not exactly feeling trustworthy of these people.

The leader stopped and looked at Bonnie grimly.  "Know this.  This creature is the bringer of death.  He will never eat, he will never sleep...and he will never stop."

The leader followed his men and Bonnie sighed, looking over at William and the others.  "What do we do now?" Jonathan asked.

Bonnie nodded, knowing exactly what to do.  "We go back to Cairo.  Now."

"What?" William barked.  "We can't just leave!"

"Yes we can!" Bonnie barked.  "Let's get our shit packed up and go!  Now!"