Long Tale Press

CHAPTER 4 - THE GREAT PYRAMID

Upon arriving at the Pyramids, Rita informed them that a larger group of sightseers would join them. She escorted them to the base of the biggest pyramid and led them to the opening made famous, when treasure hunter Abdullah Al Manum blasted through the solid rock in search of treasure in 820 AD.

They had to climb at least four or five levels of very large stones to reach the small opening they were going to climb through.

“If anyone cannot climb up these stairs, let me know and we’ll arrange for you to go through the original exit way—the one Abdullah found on his way out with the stolen treasure,” Rita informed her group. No one responded. Everyone seemed up to the task of climbing the steep rocks.

The kids were at the back of the group and were amongst the last to enter the interior chamber. The smell was not what they expected. “Ugh…” Kym said. “It smells like something died in here.” There was a sudden silence, as everyone stopped and looked at Kym.

“What?” he asked. Just then, he realized the look was because something did indeed die there, many years ago. “Ohh…bad choice of words,” he muttered.

Once they made it down the access ramp into one of the first chambers, Rita began to describe some of the things they were looking at. “This room was where they found the remains of some of Khufu’s high priests. They were reportedly buried alive in here to oversee his transition into the afterlife,” Rita explained. “Everything in here was designed to make the Pharos transition as luxurious as possible. There was enough food to feed a small village. There was gold, jewels, currency. Basically, all the amenities some of us wish for in this life, he was preparing to take into the next one.”

Inside the chamber were empty sarcophaguses where the high priests were found. They were plain and lined up in a single row in a room that bore no special markings. It was obvious that the room was intended for subordinates or servants of the Pharaoh.

After a moment, they continued the tour looking at another room on the same level of the Pyramid. This room was completely different from the first one. It was one of the relieving chambers, lavishly designed with carvings in red on the wall. It gave an impression of how beautiful it must have been when it was new.

“This is the only place inside the Great Pyramid known to contain carvings of any kind. It was probably left by some of the workers who built the pyramids,” Rita informed the group.

Manny noticed the hieroglyphics on the wall and went over to study them. He motioned for his friends to come over to look at a series of carvings on the wall. There was an image of a person lying down between two figures that resembled birds on both sides. “What do you make of this?” Manny asked Denim.

“This guy was obviously important,” Denim replied, pointing.

“These were probably soldiers or guardians for him in the afterlife,” Denim added, pointing to the other unidentified figures on the wall.

“Can you guys make out what these say?” Kira asked. She was referring to what appeared to be a series of text markings underneath the images of the Pharaoh and his soldiers.

“It just talks about the Pharaoh’s burial chamber,” Manny explained, transcribing the text in his limited capacity. “It says the Pharaoh would be protected by soldiers that would stand guard until he crossed over,” he read.

“Soldiers often volunteered to be buried alive with their beloved Pharaohs to stand guard over him,” Rita said, coming up behind them unexpectedly.

“You mean they would stand guard over his mummy until they died?” Kym asked.

“Some of them took poison when they could no longer bear it and some were encased in the walls, standing there until they died. It’s a kind of devotion not seen today,” Rita answered, ominously.

“Thank goodness,” Kira said, disturbed by the news.

“We should move along,” Rita told them, having had to double back to make sure she did not lose the kids.

As they continued the tour, Manny was still curious about some of the symbols on the diagram in the room. “Denim, what did you make of the diagram on the bottom of the message? I couldn’t figure out what it meant.” Manny looked down and noticed that Denim had his usual pocket notebook out and was already scribbling images and notes into it.

“I don’t know either, but it might be a map. Look, this looks like the corridor we came through to get to the room and this looks like the path we’re walking down right now. Maybe it leads to something. Looks like another room down below,” Denim told him.

“Well, these pyramids have been scoured for thousands of years by people trying to find Khufu’s mummy and all of his treasure. I’m sure someone figured out where this map led to,” Manny said.

“But, he’s never been found, right?” Denim asked Manny, who knew more about this patriarch of the seven wonders.

“Well, no, but some think that he may have never even been buried here,” Manny informed him. At the front of the line, Rita continued with the tour.

They came to a point where the corridor split into three different directions. One path directly ahead and the other two were off to the right with one leading to a lower chamber. “Directly ahead of us is the King’s chamber which is the largest of all of the rooms. The path that leads below and to the right separates into the Queen’s chamber and an underground room, mainly used for food storage. After blasting through a wall that had been presumed to be solid, excavators found this chamber, which was very well hidden for many years. Apparently, someone went through great pains to hide that room,” Rita explained.

“This is what I was talking about. The Egyptians were very protective of their possessions, even after death. They built these secret rooms all over the Pyramids. Who knows which ones they haven’t found yet?” Manny told his friends.

“Oh no, not again!” Kira exclaimed, quietly.

“Not again what?” Manny inquired.

“Every time we go out together, he goes off on one of his excursions,” Kira replied.

Denim had slipped off down the path toward the lower room, while Manny was talking.

“Wait. I’ll go get him,” Kym said.

Kym dashed off after Denim, making sure not to be seen by Rita or the rest of the group. Kira and Manny looked at each other. “I’m going, too,” Manny told her.

“No, don’t! You know we’re not supposed to leave the group,” Kira whispered, always the voice of prudence.

“I’m going!” Manny said back to her. He slipped away after Kym, leaving Kira alone. Kira, heavens, had no intention of being separated from the group, even if she also had to break the rules. She ducked into the passageway and made her way toward the rest of the gang who were at the entrance to the room below.

The inside of the room was plain. It had a bench near the wall on the far side of the room, which was shaped like the interior of a Pyramid. It was dusty and lit only by the makeshift light clearly installed by modern engineers. Denim was already inside the room, looking at some of the markings on the wall. Kym walked in behind him. “Denim, what are you doing? We wondered where you went.”

“I just wanted to take a look, that’s all,” Denim said.

“A look at what?” Kym asked.

“This,” he replied.

At this point, Kym knew where Denim’s head was. Denim had a tendency to reply with one-word answers when he was thinking really hard.

“What are you guys doing?” Manny said, arriving just behind Kym.

“I think he’s thinking again. You know what that means,” Kym said.

“What? Did you find something, Denim?” Manny asked.

“Find what?” Kira asked, arriving last and making the gang complete once again.

“He’s thinking again,” Kym snickered.

“Oh Denim, not again. Every time you go off thinking, we get into more trouble.”

“So, what are you looking at?” Manny asked Denim.

“It might be nothing, but look at this,” Denim said, pointing to a symbol on the wall. “What does this look like to you?” he asked Manny.

“It kinda looks like a bird of some kind. I think this part is supposed to be the tail,” Manny said, pointing to the lower half of the barely visible image.

Denim wiped his forehead to remove the sweat. There was no ventilation in the room, so it was warmer than the rest of the Pyramid. In the attempt to make it easier to make out, he used the sweat on his hand to wipe away some of the dust on the symbol on the wall. “There, now that’s definitely a bird. But what kind?” he asked.

“A vulture,” Manny said, almost before Denim could finish his sentence.

“How do you know?” Kira asked.

“Vultures were sacred creatures to Egyptians back then. You can find symbols of vultures on almost everything in the Pharaoh’s palace.” Manny knew this because of the report he’d researched for his class.

“Did you see the symbol on the entrance?” Denim asked.

“What symbol?”

“There were three of these vultures back to back, with a bowl on their heads. It looked like something used as a centerpiece for a dinner table,” Denim informed him.

“You mean the oil diffuser?” Manny asked recognizing the description.

“Oil diffuser? What’s that?” Kira asked.

“It’s one of the pieces originally found when they discovered the first mummy in here,” Denim said.

“Mummy?” Kira replied. Just the mention of mummies gave her the chills.

“It was an object used in ancient Egyptian culture where they put oil in the bowl on top and heated it with a small candle underneath to release the scent. They used it in the Pharaoh’s chambers all the time. The vulture because it was a sacred bird,” Manny said.

“There are three on the front door exactly like this one,” Denim pointed out.

“So?” Kira queried. “Well, here’s one, the one pointed to the right,” Denim said.

“Look guys, here’s another one.” Unknown to the rest of the gang, Kym had slipped over to the other side of the room and was looking on his own. He’d stumbled upon a group of markings that had a carving with the same type of vulture on it. “I found another one!” Kym said, excited.

Manny went over to confirm what Kym had found and noticed that he did indeed find one of the other Vulture carvings on the wall. “He’s right. This one points left. That means there’s gotta be another one that looks straight forward somewhere around here,” Manny remarked.

“Look around. Let’s see if we can find it. There might be more to this than meets the eye,” Denim said.

“Wouldn’t someone have found what you’re looking for years ago?” Kira suggested.

“What if they didn’t?” Kym said, wide-eyed. “What if we find buried treasure and mummies and…”

Kira didn’t let him finish his sentence. “Well, I’m tired. I’m just gonna sit down while you guys search for your buried treasure.”

There was a small, fairly ordinary looking bench on the side of the room. There were some markings along the edge of the seat, but nothing consequential. It made a perfect place for Kira to rest her legs, while the boys looked around. Kira sat down and the bench moved slightly. It looked like it was allot heavier, she thought. Although it moved when she sat on it, she couldn’t get it to move again when she tried to shake it. Maybe it was just loose? she thought.

After looking around for a few moments, they were unable to find anything remotely like the third, forward facing vulture. In fact, the rest of the room was devoid of any other markings.

“I’m getting the feeling that we’re chasing ducks,” Kym said, botching the cliché like he so often did.

“That’s goose—as in goose chase,” Kira said.

“Oh yes, chasing a goose,” Kym said, gleefully. Kira rolled her eyes.

Denim went over to the original vulture carving on the wall and began to run his finger across it. Manny went over to the other marking Kym found and began to do the same, subconsciously mimicking what Denim was doing. This time, the edges of the carving in the wall began to glow. Denim noticed this and so did Manny. Kira got up from the bench to prod the boys along. “C’mon, you guys. We should get going…”

“Denim.” “Manny.” The boys called each other’s name at exactly the same time.

“The symbol just lit up, did you see …” Manny said. The light on the vulture symbol had gone out and it looked exactly as it did before it lit up. “What just happened?” Manny asked. He wondered for a second if he’d just imagined the whole thing.

“I saw it here, too,” Denim said. “It came on and went off, right as Kira said…” Denim’s brain shifted into high gear. He took three steps back and looked over to where Kira was standing.

“What?” Kira asked looking at Denim who was staring in her direction.

“What did you just do?” Denim asked.

“Nothing. I was just sitting down and I got up to see what was taking you guys so long and…”

Kira stopped in the middle of her sentence because she noticed that Denim was no longer paying attention to her. Denim walked over to the seat and looked at it. He studied the marking on the edge of the seat, but didn’t make anything of them. He looked underneath the seat and noticed that the base of the seat was none other than the forward facing vulture that they were looking for. He took a few steps back. “There it is!” he told the group.

Manny and Kym came over to see what he was referring to. “I’ll be darned,” Manny said, “It IS a vulture.”

Denim studied the symbols to try to make a correlation. He looked up at the ceiling and noticed that it was concave in shape, much like the bowl on the top of the oil diffuser. “Of course!” he exclaimed.

“What?” Manny asked.

“Manny, you go back over there to the other vulture. Kira, stay right here,” Denim directed his friends.

“What do you want me to do?” Kym asked.

“You stay right here and see if anything strange happens,” Denim told Kym.

“Okay now, Manny put your hand on the carving like you had it before. I’ll touch this one just like I did before,” Denim told them. Nothing happened.

“I don’t see anything strange, Denim,” Kym said.

“Just wait,” he said with a smile.

“Okay Kira, sit down on the bench.”

Kira sat down on the bench and as he suspected, the three positions were linked. Both of the symbols on the wall began to glow, as did the eyes of the vulture at the base of the bench Kira was sitting on. After a few seconds, the glow began to get brighter. Suddenly, a slab of stone slid over the entrance door with a heavy thud, sealing them in.

“In case you’re wondering, Denim, now I am seeing something strange,” Kym said a day late and a dollar short.

Taking their hands off the symbols and Kira getting up, did not stop what was at this point, a chain of events designed to occur, when all three elements interacted simultaneously.

The ground began to rumble, but not enough to throw them off balance. They all moved to the center of the room and waited to see what was going to happen next. Suddenly there was silence. The room stopped vibrating and it got eerily quiet. “Okay, what just happened? Did we just get locked in? Kira asked nervously.

“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s finished yet,” Denim said, pointing to the bench Kira was sitting on.

It began to sink slowly into the ground until the seat of the bench was flush with the floor. Just like that, it was silent again. It seemed as if whatever was going to happen had already happened. Denim walked over to where the bench was to see what all of the movement in the room was for.

“Here he goes again,” Kym said, referring to Denim always being the first to go wherever they shouldn’t be going. Manny immediately followed.

“Is this what you expected?” Manny asked Denim.

“I’m not sure what I expected, but something tells me that it’s not finish yet,” Denim replied. Kira and Kym come over to see what they were looking at. The boys knelt down in front of where the bench had been before it sunk into the ground trying to make sense of what just happened.

“Whatever you guys did, nobody’s been able to figure out before. I don’t know how you guys always manage to do that, but how do we get out of here now?” Kira asked.

Just as Kira finished her sentence, a click with a deep and ominous tone was heard. “I don’t like the sound of this,” Kym said.

CHAPTER 5 - THE SECRET CHAMBER

As if on a lever, the floor dropped out from beneath them, turning over 180 degrees. All four of them fell down a steep chute, sliding on their backs.

The ride was bumpy and they were tossed back and forth, as they slid down what seemed like an endless trip to the bottom. The kids yelled all the way down, not sure of what to expect at the end of the bumpy ride.

Along the way, the chute forked into a left and right side. Denim, who was first, instinctively leaned to the right and went down the right side of the split. Manny who was left-handed, instinctively rolled to the left and slid down the left side of the chute, narrowly missing the divider that separated the two tunnels. Right behind them were Kira and Kym who both followed Denim down the right side.

At the bottom, Denim was the first to reach the end. He fell the remaining three feet onto the dirt floor beneath. Kira and Kym followed, each landing on their backside. The floor was made of loose dirt, as if the architect of this trap door meant for its user to land without being injured. Being the first to land on it, Denim was thankful for that.

The kids got up and dusted themselves off, trying to make heads or tails of what just happened. “Where are we?” Kym asked.

“That was some ride! We could have been killed! My shirt is ruined!” Kira said annoyed that her clothes were dirty.

“But we’re still alive. Fortune favors the foolish,” Kym replied, repeating a phrase his grandfather used to tell him.

“This is incredible,” Denim said. He looked around the dark room, not paying attention to the other two.

“What is? What do you see?” Kym asked.

Denim had taken out his pocket flashlight he had attached to his key ring. It was fragged to a little denim strap cut from his favorite pair of jeans that Motley saw fit to shred. He wrapped it around a key ring and carried it around with his hotel key and a flashlight attached.

“Look at the markings over here!” Denim said, referring to a pedestal against the wall he’d found. He was barely able to make out the markings because of how small his pen light was.

A bright light suddenly illuminated over Denim’s shoulder startling him. Kym turned on another one of his inventions. “It’s my Xenon light,” Kym said. “It’s a super high intensity discharge I made when I …”

“Hold it over here; I want to have a look at this.” Denim cut him off preoccupied with the markings on the tablet. Kym moved the light over to the tablet, which had Egyptian words this time and not hieroglyphics. “They meant for someone to read this.” Denim said. “It’s in an ancient form of Egyptian I’ve never seen before.”

“Where’s Manny?” Kira interrupted.

“What?” Denim replied, not even looking up from the pedestal.

“Where’s Manny? He didn’t come down the chute with us. I think he went down the other side.” This caught Denim’s attention. Even the most intriguing mystery wasn’t as important as his best friend was. He turned and shined his light on the exit of the chute where they’d slid down. Kym put his super bright light in the same spot, upstaging Denim’s tiny light. Denim just looked at him and looked back at the opening in the wall. “Manny!” Denim shouted.

The others followed suit and started calling for their missing friend.

“Manny,”“Manny,” Kira and Kym also called out respectively, but there was no answer. Wherever Manny was, the walls were too thick to hear through. After repeating the call several times with no answer, Denim tried to think of a plan to get them out of their predicament.

“Okay, let’s see. There were two chutes. It’s reasonable to assume that Manny must have gone down the other one. It must have ended in an adjacent room similar to this one,” Denim said, thinking aloud. “Look around for a door, or another way out of here. I don’t think we can climb back up those,” he said, referring to the steep chutes.

Kira and Manny walked around to the left side of the room, which they could barely see. Besides Kym’s light, there was no real light source, just an ambient light that glowed a dim bluish grey.

Denim walked to the right side of the room and began to feel the wall for seams of any kind. There must be a way the workers who built this room got out after completing it, he thought to himself. He came across exactly what he was looking for. It was a seam about seven feet high in the wall to the left side of the pedestal. As he ran his hand along the seam, it was evident that it was a doorway of some type that had not been opened for a long time, if ever. “Guys I think I found something,” He informed his friends. Kira came over to see what Denim was referring to. “It feels like a doorway, but I can’t find a handle or anything to open it with,” he told them.

“What if the handle is on the other side? What if this is the inside of some burial chamber, or something that was meant to check in but not check out?” Kira suggested, nervously. She was beginning to let her worrisome ways get the better of her.

Denim was used to it and just shrugged it off. “I don’t think that’s the case,” he said calmly.

“Why not?” Kira asked.

“Because of this.” Denim went back to the pedestal and looked at the tablet lying on top. “Why put a tablet that required you to stand over here to read, if all they were doing was putting mummies in here? It doesn’t make sense. This has to be the outer chamber to a room on the other side of that wall. That’s probably where Manny is right now.”

Meanwhile, Kym thought he saw something in the wall, as he felt along it much like Denim had. Kym took his light and attached it to a modified baseball cap he’d pulled from his bag. It had a clip designed to hold his light in place. He put the cap on and focused the light on what he thought he found embedded in the wall.

Denim and Kira looked over the tablet and concluded there must be a secret to the inscription. “I think these words here have something to do with that door,” Denim told her.

“You think you should read it?” Kira asked, worried about another booby-trap.

“It could be the only way we get out of here and find Manny,” he replied.

On the back wall, Kym’s light illuminated what looked like a hand. It was encased in the wall and covered by solidified dirt. Upon further inspection, he saw that it was attached to a mummified figure encased in the wall. Kym looked up and quietly gasped, as if he were afraid that a noise would wake the mummy. His eyes widened, as he focused the light upwards, revealing a mummified face. It was nothing short of menacing. Kym tried to speak but had trouble getting the words out of his mouth.

“De…Den…D…,” he muttered.

Denim and Kira did not hear him because he was muttering too quietly.

Meanwhile, Denim began to sound out the words he saw written on the pedestal. “Equiis, par…partos, Num…Numye…” Denim struggled with the words because of the low light. The writing had also been worn down over the years and was not clear. Although he knew a little about hieroglyphics and even less about ancient Egyptian dialect, he had enough knowledge to make out some of the words and piece together the meaning of the sentence. “Equiis partos, I think could translate to ‘keep safe’. Numye Santos… Numye was an ancient word for mummies,” he noted.

“Mummies?” Kira asked, even more frightened than before now.

Just as Denim finished that part of the translation, Kym shined his headlight on the mummy’s face in time to see it open its eyes. This time, Kym had no trouble getting the words out of his mouth. He stepped backwards and fell down, but immediately got up and ran over to Denim to give him the news. When he began to speak, he spoke very quickly as he always did when he was scared. “Denim, come quickly. I saw a mummy in the wall. First, I saw his hand and then I looked up and saw his face. He was so ugly that I couldn’t look at his face any more and then there was another one next to him, and then he opened his eyes and looked at me and I saw his face and…” Kym managed to say all this in one breath before Denim stopped him.

“Hold on, speedy. What did you see?” Denim asked, trying to calm Kym down.

Kym grabbed his hand and took him over to what he’d found. He shined the light on the mummy’s face but the eyes were not only closed—they looked like there was no way that they’d ever been opened. “I swear, they were just opened and they were looking at me,” Kym said in disbelief.

“Wow,” Denim said in awe at what he saw. “These are sentries,” he noted.

“Centuries?” Kira said, hiding behind Denim. He never seemed to show any fear and he made her feel safe.

“Not centuries; sentries, guards that were used in ancient Egypt to protect the most sacred and important of the Pharaohs treasures. I wonder what they’re doing here.” Denim asked.

“I’d rather not find out, if you please. Something tells me you’re not just going to leave this one alone, are you?” Kira tried to beg Denim in her own way.

Denim didn’t hear her plea because he was so absorbed in what he’d just found. He grabbed Kym’s head and turned the headlight onto the adjacent wall noticing that there were two more mummified soldiers encased in the wall. He turned completely around and noticed that there was also another one on the wall behind them, making a total of five in the room.

“I swear first they were there and then you started reading that book and then the eyes opened and then…” Kym’s words sparked something in Denim’s head and he darted back over to the pedestal to read the writings again. “Equiis partos numye santos...” As Denim suspected, the tablet writing was somehow connected to the mummies. The first mummy opened his eyes and started moving his fingers.

“Denim!” Kym shouted, “He’s moving!”

The hand of the mummy slowly broke free from its encasement in the solidified wall.

“Denim, why didn’t he stop moving like before when you stopped reading?” Kym asked moving away from the mummy.

“Uh, I’m not sure. Maybe I shouldn’t have finished the sentence?”

The second mummy also opened his eyes and began to move. Soon, all five of the mummies were breaking free from their wall encasements. The first mummy finally got both feet out and very slowly started to walk toward the kids, who had unknowingly backed themselves into a corner. The mummy was almost upon them, as Denim tried to think of a way out of their predicament.

“If anybody has a suggestion, now would be a really great time for it,” He told his friends. Kym eyed several torches mounted on the wall, which were probably used for light a long time ago. Though they had no fire on them, he noticed that the poles that they were mounted on were three feet long and made of a thick piece of metal. Just as the mummy came upon their position, Kym darted over to the first one he saw.

“Where is he going?” Kira asked. She didn’t see what he was going to do. She just saw the mummy who’d raised his hand about to strike. As the mummy’s hand came downward toward them, Kira grabbed Denim around the shoulders and they both crouched down just in time. The mummy’s hand struck the wall just above where their heads had been. The force from the blow smashed a piece of the wall, sending dust and rocks onto the floor.

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