کتاب مردگان

Chapter three

The Book of the Dead

The sun was at her back, the wind was in her hair. Evelyn wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. She loved the desert. And the idea of Hamunaptra was exciting! She and Jonathan were near the temple now. Their horses were very tired.

Then, they saw a man outside the temple.

“Oh no,” said Evelyn.

The man said, “Can I help you down from that horse?”

“O’Connell!”

“That’s me!”

“What are you doing here?”

She wanted to be angry with O’Connell, but he looked cleaner now. And maybe he could help them.

“He’s here for the gold,” said Jonathan.

O’Connell smiled. “Oh, I only want to have a good time,” he said. And he looked into Evelyn’s eyes.

More people arrived outside the temple. There were three Americans and a lot of Egyptian diggers. With them was Beni.

“You came back,” O’Connell said to Beni.

Beni laughed. “You, too.”

Outside the temple there were a lot of thin horses.

One of the Americans, Daniels, asked, “Where did these horses come from?”

“They’re waiting,” said Beni. “Sometimes people find Hamunaptra, but they all die. Their horses wait for them, but then they die, too.”

Beni, the Americans, and their diggers looked for a way down under the desert to the gold. Jonathan walked around the houses, but then, he found the top of the statue of Anubis. Most of the statue was under the desert.

He, Evelyn, and O’Connell started to dig down and down into the desert. They found a dark room under the ground, and they got in through a wall.

“We’re the first people in this room for more than 3,000 years,” said Evelyn. For her, this was wonderful.

“It’s dark and cold down here,” said O’Connell. He wasn’t very excited.

“Where’s the gold,” said Jonathan.

“You boys don’t understand,” thought Evelyn. “We find the wonderful world of the Pharaohs and I’m with – them!”

Then, they lit a candle in the room.

“Oh my God,” said Evelyn. “It’s a Sah-Netjer.”

“It’s a what,” asked O’Connell.

“The priests made mummies in this room,” Jonathan told him.

“The dead went to the afterlife from here,” said Evelyn.

O’Connell didn’t like that. He took out his gun. They walked through the dark from room to room. Some of the rooms were very small. Sometimes their candle almost went out and left them in the dark.

Then, they heard something. Evelyn looked at O’Connell.

O’Connell had his gun in front of him, and he walked slowly in the dark. He saw the bottom of the statue of Anubis, under the ground. Then, he heard something again, from the back of the statue. It came closer. And CLOSER.

Three people came at him. The Americans! They had guns in their hands.

“We want to look here,” said Burns, one of the Americans.

He looked around him. He wore thick glasses.

“No, we want to look here,” said O’Connell.

“This is our statue, friend,” said Daniels.

“I don’t see your name on it, friend,” said O’Connell.

More guns came out now. The diggers and Beni all had guns, too.

“We have ten guns and you have one,” said the Hungarian, not very nicely. “It doesn’t look very good for you.”

“It looked bad for me before in this city,” said O’Connell. “But here I am again!”

“Er – Here I am, too,” said Jonathan.

His face was white, but he had a small gun in his hand.

Beni’s eyes were wild. He wanted to kill O’Connell. Evelyn put her hand over O’Connell’s gun.

“Let’s be nice children,” she said. “And play nicely.”

She pulled O’Connell away, and Jonathan followed. The Americans and Beni laughed.

“We can dig in other places,” Evelyn told O’Connell.

Evelyn walked down under the statue of Anubis, and Jonathan and O’Connell followed. Evelyn wanted to dig under the statue, before the Americans got into the statue from above.

They stood under the statue, and Jonathan and O’Connell started to dig into it. Above them, the Americans and their diggers started to dig into the top of the statue.

Then, they heard horses and guns.

“Stay here,” shouted O’Connell.

He got his gun and ran up to the Americans. Evelyn and Jonathan followed him. O’Connell saw Beni, the Americans, and the diggers shooting. Around them were Ardeth Bay and the Med-Jai, with their guns. O’Connell ran to Beni and started shooting at the Med-Jai.

“Oh, not again,” said Beni. “Do you like fighting?”

“No, but I look good when I do,” said O’Connell.

And he shot a Med-Jai soldier.

Evelyn had a gun in her hand for the first time. She shot at the Med-Jai, too.

“Stop,” shouted Ardeth Bay. The Med-Jai stopped shooting. Everybody stopped shooting. It was quiet.

“LEAVE THIS PLACE,” said the head of the Med-Jai. “LEAVE THIS PLACE OR DIE!”

Ardeth Bay left, and the other Med-Jai soldiers followed him.

“There’s gold here,” said Daniels, when it was quiet again. “Those soldiers were here for the gold.”

“No,” said O’Connell. “They’re desert people. Water is important to them, not gold. But there’s something more important than water or gold down here.”

O’Connell, Jonathan, and Evelyn went back down to the bottom of the statue. The Americans and their diggers started to dig again at the top. They got into the statue and the diggers found a big box.

There was Egyptian writing on the box. Beni read it.

“Don’t open this,” he told the other men. The Americans laughed. “Seti the First wasn’t stupid,” said Beni. “The diggers can open the box. I’m out of here.”

Beni knew Egypt. He understood the country’s language and its gods. He was afraid and he ran.

“Open the box,” Burns said to the diggers.

The diggers were afraid, but they opened the box. Then, they screamed. Scarabs ran out of the box. The scarabs ran into the diggers’ feet, up their legs, up and up and into their brains. Then, the scarabs ate their brains. The diggers stopped screaming.

The Americans were afraid but they took the gold from the box. Beni came back into the room.

“What did that writing on the box say,” asked Henderson.

“It said,’ Open this and you die.’”

At the bottom of the statue, Jonathan was asleep. Evelyn and O’Connell stopped digging and sat on the floor in the dark. They were very tired. O’Connell lit a fire and looked into Evelyn’s eyes. Evelyn put her face close to his.

“I’m going to kiss you, Mr. O’Connell,” she said.

“No, you’re not,” said O’Connell.

“I’m not?”

“OK. You can. But call me ‘Rick,’ not ‘Mr. O’Connell.’” Evelyn smiled and put her face closer to his.

“Rick,” she said and closed her eyes. “Rick.”

And then, she was asleep.

O’Connell smiled. “That was nice, ma’am,” he said.

The next morning, they got into the top of the statue of Anubis. Inside, there was a coffin.

“Look,” Evelyn said to Jonathan. “There’s no writing on this coffin, so the dead man in here isn’t going to the afterlife. He’s staying in this world. He did something very, very bad.”

Jonathan took out the key and put it in the coffin. The coffin half-opened. O’Connell pulled the coffin open and a 3,000-year-old mummy stood up.

O’Connell, Evelyn, and Jonathan screamed. Then, the mummy fell back in its coffin. Imhotep wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t of this world. He was undead.

He wanted life–

Above them, the Americans looked in the box. They wanted gold, but they found only a book. Henderson took it out.

“It’s an old black book,” he said.

“Be careful with that,” said Beni. “It’s the Book of the Dead?’

“I don’t want a book,” shouted Daniels.

He was angry and he kicked the box. The box broke and a smaller gold box fell out.

“That’s better,” said Daniels.

And he took the box with Anck-su-namun’s heart in it.

That evening, Evelyn, Jonathan, and O’Connell walked up to the top of the statue again. They sat around a fire with the Americans. Beni was asleep – with the Book of the Dead next to him.

Evelyn tried not to take it, but it was impossible. She had to look at it. She took it and opened it. The second person in 3,000 years with the Book of the Dead in her hands… It was exciting! “Do you think that’s a good idea,” asked O’Connell.

“Oh,” said Evelyn. “People read books all the time!” She looked at O’Connell. Her face said, “I work in a museum. I know about books. And you don’t!”

Evelyn began to read to O’Connell from the book:

“Ahm kum Ra – Ahm hum Dei –”

Below them, Imhotep moved. The words from the Book of the Dead started him on his way back to life. The scarabs started to fly again.