Liquid Mercury

Crash & Burn

I heard the helicopter overhead. Everyone else had left the hole but I wanted to make sure we could get this thing rigged up without any catastrophes happening. Once I hooked it in I put my harness back on and radioed into the helicopter.

"Ready when you are boys." I told them and jumped up onto the sarcophagus holding the rope for dear life as they started to lift me up. It was a quicker ride then me climbing up by myself. I jumped off the sarcophagus as we reached the top of the hole. Nick was on me immediately unstrapping me from my gear, he threw it into the bag I had brought with me. I was baffled, he looked into my eyes as he grabbed my hand literally dragging me from the site as he threw my bags on his shoulder.

"We gotta go. Colonel is yelling orders we have to get out of here before the air strike hits." He explained as we loaded up onto another helicopter. I sat down between Nick and Chris as we took off. I glanced out of the window, Nick's gaze followed mine watching the sarcophagus being towed by the other helicopter, as we watched the sandstorm and convoy on the ground. Vail groaned from beside me.

"We're almost there Vail. Hang in there." I told the guy beside me not to worry too much. He gave me a look and smiled. The ride wasn't long maybe about 15 minutes to get the hell out of there and to the airfield for immediate evacuation.

"So who is it? Did you get a look?" Nick asked me as we jumped out of our ride.

"Why would I tell you that, Nicholas. So you can steal it?" I asked him giving him a half-hearted glare and walking towards Jennifer.

"Hey! Hey! Wait.. wait.. please be careful. This is 5,000 years old." I heard Halsey say as she ran up to the men unclipping the harness and loading it onto the C130 that would take us out of here.

"60 seconds! In the air! Let's go!" Colonel barked orders at the uniformed men.

"Careful, careful!" I yelled at the men too as I followed behind them not crossing the threshold of the plane.

"O'Connell, it seems you're needed with the-- mummy." Colonel told me quickly before he shoved me onto the plane, Nick following with Vail in tow behind him. Halsey was making sure the mummy was clipped in sufficiently as I sat down next to Nick.

"Get us off the ground now! Halsey, take a seat!" Colonel yelled over the wind brewing the sandstorm that was almost on top of us. Sandstorms around here were not unheard of but the timing of it seemed off to me. The plane immediately started rumbling as the gear tracked over the ground, probably reaching up to 80kts before takeoff. And suddenly, the ground wasn't beneath us anymore. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was fine, we were going to get out of here and to the safe comfort of a museum to unload this lovely masterpiece. As we got ourselves settled I wanted to get my laptop and books out to conduct some research before I took a closer look at the sarcophagus. Halsey had fallen asleep fairly quickly, probably tired from her one-night stand with Nick. I rolled my eyes as I got up from my seat and started to get my bag from the overhead where Nick had thrown it.

"Need some help?" He asked me quietly.

"No." I answered quickly as I stood on the seat to reach my bag. I could feel his eyes raking down my body as my shirt rode up my torso a bit.

"Nick. Stop, your girlfriend is sitting right across from us, sleeping." I berated him.

"What?? No, she's not-- I'm not-- No." He stumbled over his words as he tried to get them out. I laughed quietly as I retrieved the Menehptre book, my computer, camera, and cord from my bag.

"Sure..." I said to him as I jumped off the seat to sit back down next to him.

"You're welcome by the way..." He started. I rolled my eyes opening my computer and signing in while I hooked one end of the cord to the computer and the other to my camera. I opened a word document and the pictures I had taken at the tomb.