102 Tripped

Vance curses under his breath as Aston and I hold ours. We all look around the room, waiting for them to pop out and attack at any moment but nothing happens. We all look at each other in silent question but all I can do is shrug.

I'm literally guessing as I go along. It's not like I have a map or some kind of cheat.

Vance sighs in relief and says, "I puckered so hard, my ass hurts." Aston snorts as I roll my eyes. As soon as he lifts his foot, we all hear another click followed by several others.

"Shit..." I say looking over at the sarcophagi. The tops all slid open at the same time like something you'd see in a haunted house. Vance curses as he whisper yells, "What now!?" I look over to the opening before looking back at the waterfall of sand.

I grit my teeth in hesitation before saying, "Jump into the waterfall of sand!" Aston and Vance yell, "What!?" At the same time as I take off running. Aston quickly chases after me as the first mummy-looking thing steps out of the sarcophagus.

Vance practically growls as he says, "Of course! We just escaped a room full of sand, it makes perfect sense to jump into it again! Why aren't we running towards the exit?" Even though he says this, he quickly catches up with us.

The first mummy falls forward and just when I think it's going to hit face first, it catches itself with inhuman speed! As the sand continues to pile up, it becomes harder and harder to run on top of it. I realize I hate loose sand more than I hate fallen leaves.

The mummy's head snaps up with that same inhuman speed as the others all start falling forward like the first one. Instead of standing up, the thing starts crawling at us with that freakish speed!! It takes everything in me not to scream like a little bitch as I struggle to get to the center of the sand waterfall.

The closer we get the deeper it gets! Panic bubbles up my throat as I try to tread through the sand.

I fall but catch myself with my hands. When I look over, I see the damn thing crawling straight at me with its elbows and knees bending in all the wrong ways! I try to stand but the sand causes me to fall again.

This time I just give up on standing and start crawling like them, but I wasn't nearly as fast! When I feel something cold and hard clasp around my ankle, I scream out as I jerked back! I turn and come face to face with the thing as more quickly approach!

It starts to open its mouth, but the mouth just keeps getting bigger and bigger! I kick as hard as I can with my other leg as someone grabs me from behind. Vance yells, "Keep going!" to Aston as he runs while dragging me behind him.

Vance drags me like a doll by the back of my leather jacket, but unfortunately, I can't say shit. He's stronger and faster than me. I'm pretty sure I have sand in all the places the sun don't shine but I don't complain. No, I'm actually really thankful!

As he drags me, I get to watch the mummies all come crawling toward us like a true nightmare. I yell, "Faster! Faster! FASTER VANCE!" They were clawing at my feet, but I keep frantically kicking to keep them off.

Even in a situation like this, Vance pops off, "The last time a woman told me that, it was a lot more enjoyable!" I want to cry as their boney fingers keep grabbing my feet and ankles, but I manage to yell back, "If you don't run faster, you will NEVER hear another woman tell you that!"

When we get to the center, I yell, "JUMP!" Aston jumps first before Vance follows with me in tow! I hold my breath and close my eyes as we start falling yet again. My stomach flips as we flip and spin through the air.

Suddenly, I feel sunlight but before I have a chance to open my eyes, I land in deep water! My lungs are screaming for air once again as I tumble down into the deep water. I reach out, trying to find which way is up but when I see light, I swim towards it.

As soon as I come up out of the water, I take a deep breath. I tread at the surface as I look around in confusion. "Aston!? Vance!?" I call out, looking around but I don't see anyone else. The small waves push me around a little as I continue to look around.

What the hell? Did we get out? I look up and instantly know. The sun was red! This was not the real world. I try to use my magic but little to nothing happens. I curse as I call out again, "VANCE! ASTON!"

I listen closely but don't hear anything in response. Suddenly, something tightens around my ankle! It jerks me under the water, causing me to suck in the water! I look down and see that it's a mummy's arm! Just the hand and arm!!

I try to swim back up while kicking at it, but the thing was freakishly strong and wouldn't let go! I kick and thrash, trying to peel the damn thing off when suddenly, Vance and Aston appear! They work together to rip the damn thing off before helping me to the surface.

I cough over and over as I struggle to breathe with the salty water in my lungs. Aston helps me stay above water as Vance stays down for a bit longer. When Vance comes up, he looks me over and says, "We thought we lost you. Don't worry, I stayed under to make sure that thing kept sinking."

Aston starts swimming backward, pulling me along as Vance says, "We found a raft. It's beaten up but it's better than nothing." For once, I don't say a word. I let Aston pull me through the water like a wet blanket as I focus on breathing.

I'm noticing a growing trend with these two. I'm always being dragged along, but thanks to them, I'm still alive.

When we get to the raft, they both help me up before pulling themselves up. I roll over and spread out like a starfish as I stare up at the red sun in the sky above.

The damn thing almost killed me...

Vance squeezes the water out of his shirt as he says, "What happened to you?" I frown at that before slowly sitting up. I look around and see that we are surrounded by nothing but water. Confused, I turn and ask, "What do you mean?"

Aston and Vance share a look before saying, "We've been looking for you for a while now. Vance heard you calling so we started paddling to you." He lifts up his hands to show what the paddles were, but I quickly realized something happened.

Did I arrive later because of the hand that grabbed me?

I groan and fall back on the raft, closing my eyes as I mumble, "I just got here but something must have happened because of the mummy's hand. Have you two seen any land?" Vance sits on the other end of the raft as he says, "Nope, we've been looking while looking for you."

The raft bobs up and down, rocking me back and forth. I lay there for a while, tired. When I get out of this damn thing, I'm going to make it my mission in life to destroy all of the damn Artifacts.