The fresh mummy looked as if it hadn't completely decayed.
How to describe it... like wet strips of meat still hanging on the body.
The mummy's coffin lid was thrown on the ground, and the inside was covered with countless messy scratches.
Evelyn was very surprised by this.
"These marks..." The woman used her hand to compare; her fingers matched the scratches perfectly. "They were made by fingernails."
She looked at Mori Tsukisa, who was squatting nearby curiously, and explained in detail: "This person must have been buried alive. Look..."
"He even left a message."
Several people followed Evelyn's finger and shifted their gaze to the upper part of the interior. There, the same fingernail scratches were pieced together into a short phrase.
"Death..."
"...is only the beginning."
...The nighttime campfire brought warmth.
The group sat in two rows around it, chatting about today's discoveries.
The American expedition team seemed to have discovered Seti's coffin and treasure chamber. A few people, beaming with joy, were drinking whiskey, their faces flushed red. During their idle talk, they even found time to tease OConnell.
"I heard you guys found a mummy?"
"I guess you could sell it to a vagrant who collects firewood; maybe you'll get a few cents."
Evelyn sat leaning against OConnell. She didn't hate people who liked gold; she just simply disliked these classless Americans.
"Look." The woman spoke in a low voice. Under the crackling firelight, she held out a handful of blue-gray fossils as if presenting a treasure, and even placed a handful into Mori Tsukisa's palm.
"Skeletons of Scarabs, carnivorous insects." Evelyn held up the beetles, rattling them to show off. "I found them in 'Mr. Fresh's' coffin."
"These insects have corpses to eat; they can live for several years."
—However, whether it was Mori Tsukisa, OConnell, or the Americans across the campfire, none could understand Evelyn's passion.
They were just bugs.
"Of course, it's not just that." Evelyn showed the sharp mouthparts and huge curved horns of the beetles to those around her. "I suspect our poor 'Mr. Fresh' was still alive when he was being eaten."
"You mean someone threw these bugs in to let him be'slowly' eaten?"
Evelyn's eyes sparkled as she looked playfully at OConnell. "Very... very slowly."
As they listened, the surroundings became quieter. Jonathan seemed to want to liven up the atmosphere that had grown heavy because of his sister, so he said casually while holding a wine glass, "Then he must not have been very popular."
"Maybe there's a story involving the Pharaoh's daughter?"
"Maybe you've had too much whiskey, Jonathan."
Laughing and getting along with strangers was something Jonathan was born with. But his sister?
She would continue to ruin the atmosphere.
"Actually," Evelyn raised her voice, "this kind of punishment is called Hom-Dai. It is the most vicious curse of Ancient Egypt, used to deal with the most heinous sinners."
Jonathan drained his drink and was about to interject again when he was stopped by Mori Tsukisa.
The girl gave Jonathan a warning look. "Shh... I want to hear Eve speak."
"I've never heard of this curse being executed. Those research reports and historical documents have never recorded it..." Evelyn continued, and the attention of those around her gradually focused on the woman's vivid description.
Mori Tsukisa raised her hand. "Why was it never executed?"
"Because they were afraid of the consequences." Evelyn held up a beetle somewhat eerily. In front of the orange fire were the blue-gray, hideous mouthparts. "The book says that once a sinner of 'Hom-Dai' is resurrected, it will bring endless disaster to Egypt..."
A moment of silence.
"OConnell! Burns!"
Suddenly, a man's panicked roar broke the silence of the night!
Burns was the man wearing round-rimmed glasses in front of the campfire, listening intently to the story. Hearing his friend Henderson's roar, he immediately stood up—and following him, the circle of people in front of the fire also stood up, clicking their bullets into the chambers.
"Get up! Get ready!"
"They're coming again!"
"Henderson? Who's coming?"
Burns called back. Within a few seconds, they heard the continuous thunder of horse hooves!
The Black-Robed Figures appeared again.
Henderson ran back desperately with his gun, followed by a dark, rapidly undulating tide.
Small campfires were crushed by horse hooves, sparks flying everywhere. Black-Robed Figures rode horses, with shiny scimitars hanging from their waists—they charged straight for the group's camp!
Under the moonlight, the bright scimitars shattered the shouts.
"Watch out! Evelyn! Go back! Take Mori Tsukisa back into the tomb!" The man shouted while waving his hand backward. He held two revolvers in his hands, 'bang bang bang' shooting down several men on horseback, then pulled another from the holster on his calf and threw it to Jonathan.
Fighting mounted enemies in an open area is very dangerous; it's the same logic as not facing a cavalry charge on a plain. OConnell wanted Evelyn to take Mori Tsukisa and hide back in the underground tomb; at least... the horses couldn't get in.
But Evelyn wasn't that obedient.
"Go back, Mori Tsukisa, go back into the tomb!" Evelyn repeated like a parrot, then bent over and quietly followed her brother.
The campsite was now in chaos. Panicked workers ran around like headless flies, only to have their lives easily harvested by the scimitars of the men on horseback.
Gunshots exploded in her ears. Evelyn picked up a long-barreled shotgun, feeling bullets flying from different directions, 'whoosh whoosh whoosh' passing through bodies and falling into the sand.
Da... da... da.
"Oh... no!"
A Black-Robed Figure rode a horse, the lower half of his face completely covered by a black and blue-green veil.
After seeing Evelyn, he'shing' drew his scimitar!
"Let me think... Brave Eve! You can do it... first pull the... bolt... no! How do I... oh, it's here..."
Fiddling with the shotgun in her hands, the woman didn't notice the figure getting closer. With the sound of horse hooves, the scimitar could almost cut off her head directly... "Don't move! Don't come over! I'm going to shoot!"
The woman couldn't pull the trigger for the life of her. In the hands of someone who didn't know how to use a gun, this iron rod was not as useful as a knife.
"Don't move!"
The scimitar was held high... then quickly swung down!
Bang!
A bullet pierced through the brain.
The man looked behind Evelyn in disbelief, fell off his horse with a thud, struggled for a few seconds, and then lay face down on the sand, motionless.
The chaotic battle continued.
"Mori Tsukisa?" Evelyn dropped her gun and turned her head in shock—Nagini stood not far away, holding a gun, and the girl beside her, holding a black cat, was waving at her with a grin.
"Sister, did I scare you?" The girl pulled Evelyn up. "Don't worry, Nagini is very accurate."
"Why does your maid know how to use a gun?" Evelyn pulled Mori Tsukisa worriedly to a place where she thought Nagini couldn't hear, felt the girl's waist, then her back, and slapped her hard twice!
"I told you not to come out!"
"OConnell also told you not to come out." The girl held Evelyn's arm and pointed to the group of people on horseback. "Did you notice?"
"Notice... what?"
"Guns."
—Indeed, besides the scimitars at their waists, if you looked closely, there were guns hidden in the bags behind them and under their feet.
Why... didn't they use them?
This question was soon answered.
Twenty or thirty local workers, plus five or six hired Americans and a scholar of Ancient Egyptian history—this combination could not withstand the desert people on horseback.
And the other side had clearly reached the breaking point.
The leading man held a scimitar, gradually leading his followers to surround these outsiders in a circle—OConnell stood at the very front of the crowd, clutching a grenade in his palm, his left hand's muzzle pointing at the vast number of black robes.
"Enough!" The black-haired man had a long nose, with dark characters tattooed under both eyes. He called to his subordinates behind him who wanted to draw their guns and shoot, telling them to calm down.
"You cannot fight us in the desert." He glared at OConnell and Henderson. "Leave this place! Go back to where you belong!"
"I don't want to sacrifice my people to fight those behind you."
"But if you don't listen and continue to stay here..."
"Everyone will die."
"I'll give you one day to leave!"
"Just one day."
The stiff tone was barely understandable to those present. After the brief speech, the man stepped back twice and nimbly grabbed the reins to mount his horse. "Yallah! Nimshi!"
The black tide quickly disappeared behind the ruins of the site.
"He's saying 'Everyone, let's go.'" Evelyn rubbed her wrist; the fall she just took was quite painful.
"Thanks for the translation, miss. We're in trouble now." OConnell sighed and turned to Henderson. "I think we'd better listen and behave."
Mr. Henderson spat, wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.
"There must be a massive amount of gold here! Otherwise, these locals wouldn't risk lives to stop us."
"This just proves we're going in the right direction, OConnell."
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