Cadaver Island (7 page)

Stanley stared at him from
his perch on the jewel-encrusted arm of a statue. Razor slid on a
mound of coins and whined when his feet couldn’t find solid ground.
Dr. Stine gasped when he heard loud voices and footsteps in the
corridor behind them. He whirled on his feet and listened to Arabic
voices scream and yell.

“
Hide somewhere, Stanley!
Go into stealth mode, Razor!” he said.

Stanley crawled into the
gaping mouth of a giant statue. Razor blended into his surroundings
and became camouflaged with the hieroglyphs on the wall. Moments
later, several men charged into the room. They wielded swords and
scimitars. They wore black robes and red, cloth masks on their
faces. One of the men placed the blade of a dagger against Dr.
Stine’s throat and pointed toward the exit. He jammed a fist into
his back and forced him to march. Dr. Stine glanced over his
shoulder. He heard Razor whimper and Stanley hoot as the men
abducted him. He hoped the men wouldn’t accuse him of theft and
chop off his hands or kill him. He listened to men order commands
in a language he couldn’t understand. Then he followed the men
toward the Oasis Café, where several camels and horses were waiting
for them. He prayed that Stanley and Razor would find a way to help
Angelique and rescue him from his captors.

***

Angelique listened to large
chunks of stone grind against each other as an enormous block
descended from the ceiling and clogged the doorway to the treasure
chamber. She ran toward the opening and tried to slide under the
block before it reached the floor, but she didn’t arrive in time.
She placed her ear against the stone wall and heard Dr. Stine
calling out to her. She tried to respond, but she realized that the
stone wall was too thick.

A cold gust of wind blew
through her hair. She whirled on her feet and stared at the empty
sarcophagus. Large flames flickered at the tips of tall,
free-standing torches, which were scattered throughout a burial
chamber. Gold coins, sparkling gems, and locked treasure chests
surrounded the base of the sarcophagus. When Angelique peered
around the bulk of a large, stone beam, she found more sarcophagi
in an adjacent room.

Angelique strolled around
the perimeter of the open sarcophagus and noticed a narrow opening
in the eastern wall, which spilled into a cramped stairwell. As she
stepped closer to the stairwell, a beam of sunlight penetrated the
gloom of the inner pyramid and slanted across her face. Moments
before she reached the opening and tried to climb the stairs, she
felt hot breath on the back of her neck. Angelique whirled on her
feet, tripped over a cache of diamonds, and fell flat on her
tailbone.

Red eyes peered forth from
a partially bandaged face. Layers of ancient, white linens dangled
from the shriveled frame of an animated corpse. Locusts and fruit
flies swarmed around the outstretched arms of an ancient zombie.
Charms, amulets, and pieces of papyrus spilled from the inner guts
of the creature and dropped to the floor. A gold coin plopped from
the creature’s abdomen, twirled on the stone tile of the floor, and
stopped spinning. Angelique noticed that the gold coin boasted the
image of The Eye of Horus.

“
Stay away from me! Leave
me alone!” she screamed.

When Angelique turned
around and ran toward the stairwell, three more mummies stood on
the stairs and blocked her path. They lurched slowly down the
stairs while trinkets and bandages separated from the brittle,
dried parchment of their gutted corpses. The moisture of palm oil,
lotions, and preserving fluids dissipated centuries ago. They
groped Angelique, hoping to snare her internal organs to replace
what they’d lost to four Canopic jars. The mummia, or glue which
held their bandages together, lost its potency decades ago and
allowed the linens to dangle freely.

“
No! Someone please help
me!” Angelique screamed. She felt dizzy and nauseous.

The mummies fell upon her.
One of them opened its mouth wide and allowed Angelique to see the
severed, black stump that had once been its tongue. A cloud of
flies and gnats swarmed from within its throat and hovered in the
air. The stench of decay flowed from inside the mummy and clung to
her clothes and skin. She collapsed to the ground and held her
hands in front of her face. Before she succumbed to shock and
passed out, she watched the mummies’ fingers hook into sharp claws
and reach for her parched throat.

***

After a short trek through
the desert, the Arabic men who’d abducted Dr. Stine forced him to
dismount his camel. Once he swung his legs off of the animal’s back
and dropped to the sand, one of the men tied Dr. Stine’s hands
together with a thick piece of rope. His captor pointed toward a
cluster of tents near the open pit of a rock quarry. The tall
statue of an Egyptian pharaoh towered above the quarry. In the
background, the bloated disc of the sun plunged toward the horizon.
The sky boasted the orange and red colors of a sunset. Dr. Stine
gasped when he realized they’d wasted precious time in the
desert.

His captor shoved him
toward the largest tent of the village. To the east, a huge
sandstorm blossomed in the air, reducing visibility. Hot gusts of
wind from the sandstorm caused Dr. Stine’s skin to feel extremely
dry. His dry throat begged for water, but he didn’t see any
canteens nearby. The long, frail fingers of a bony hand peeled the
opening of the tent to the side and beckoned for Dr. Stine and his
captor to enter. A strong, callused hand pushed Dr. Stine toward
the opening, shoved him inside, and knocked him to the dusty floor.
Dr. Stine choked when he inhaled a cloud of dirt.

A tall, white-haired cleric
stood next to a cauldron of boiling fluid, which was positioned
above the hot coals and flames of a campfire. Dr. Stine noticed
flecks of gore and splashes of congealed blood on the cleric’s
long, white robe. The cleric shooed the captor away with his left
hand. He stepped outside to give them some privacy.

“
Hello, traveler!” the
cleric said.

“
Do you speak English?” Dr.
Stine said.

“
Yes, I’m fluent in many
languages,” the cleric said.

“
Why have I been brought to
this place? My friend needs my help and we’re running out of time.
I’m begging you to set me free! We can’t stay in the desert much
longer!”

“
Do you think this is some
sort of a
joke?
You’re a thief. You desecrated the tomb of
my ancestors and tried to rob their graves. As punishment for your
crime, you’ll be forced to join us. Ramses will punish you for
stealing from the crypt when you join us in death!”

“
You’re insane! Ramses died
hundreds of years ago!” Dr. Stine said.

“
You don’t understand, but
you will soon. When the Hale-Bopp comet becomes visible to the
naked eye in the sky tonight, we will separate from our physical
bodies and bond with the comet! It will take us to a golden palace
in the sky, where the great Ramses will welcome us with open arms!”
the cleric said. When he placed a large, wooden spoon into the
cauldron and stirred its contents, Dr. Stine watched dismembered
hands, severed feet, and swollen eyeballs float to the surface.
Then the cleric whistled three times and clapped his
hands.

Two guards entered the tent
with their swords drawn. The cleric yelled “Take him to the pit!”
while he sipped a spoonful of soup from the cauldron. Dr. Stine
grimaced when the guards shoved him through the opening of the tent
and forced him to march toward the edge of the quarry. He glanced
up at the sky and noticed fast-moving bursts of light.

The cleric emerged from the
tent and strolled toward the edge of the pit. He touched Dr. Stine
on the face with his long fingers and smiled. Then he pointed at
the sky, just slightly to the left of a full moon, and grinned. He
said: “The comet has arrived!”

Dr. Stine followed the path
of the cleric’s finger and gasped. In the midst of the meteor
shower, a blazing ball of light appeared in the sky. A long tail
trailed behind the comet as it streaked from north to south.
Throughout the village, a chorus of voices chanted “Ramses!” over
and over again. Dr. Stine watched several of the cult members
approach an altar, drop to their knees, and place the palms of
their hands on the ground while they prayed. Other cult members
held hands, sang aloud, and stepped to the edge of the
pit.

“
It’s time to join Ramses!
We’ll ride the comet to paradise!” the cleric yelled.

The guards shoved Dr. Stine
toward the pit. He peered over the edge and watched dozens of
spitting cobras and horned vipers swarm across the jagged, stone
floor of the quarry. Dr. Stine screamed when several cult members
jumped into the pit. He listened to bones snap and skulls crack
while cobras and vipers coiled back and lashed out at survivors,
injecting them with venom.

The cleric placed the sharp
blade of a knife against Dr. Stine’s jugular vein. Dr. Stine
glanced at the sky and watched the comet glow in the darkness. More
cult members stepped to the edge of the cliff and dived into the
quarry.

“
Don’t try to resist.
Accept your fate,” the cleric said.

Dr. Stine twisted his
wrists, hoping the rope would loosen enough for him to free his
hands. Men screamed, bones snapped, and vipers hissed as more cult
members committed suicide. When the cleric dragged the edge of the
blade gently across the skin of his throat, Dr. Stine wept softly.
Then he stepped to the edge of the high cliff and prepared to join
Ramses in the afterlife.

***

When Angelique opened her
eyes, she realized that she was strapped to the cold stone of a
rock slab. Someone had fastened her hands and feet to metal loops
with strong lengths of thick rope. She glanced to her left and
noticed a small table. A sharp knife and a metal hook sat next to
Canopic jars. She struggled to move her hands, but she couldn’t
slip free from her bonds. She exhaled a deep sigh and stared at the
ceiling.

A woman dressed in a gold,
silk robe strolled into the room. Black, silky hair flowed from
beneath a jewel-encrusted crown on her head. She strolled toward
the rocky slab where Angelique thrashed like a fish out of water.
When the woman picked up the metal hook and touched its sharp tip,
a bubble of blood formed on her finger and she winced.

“
Who are you? What’re you
going to do to me?” Angelique said.

“
Actually, I should be
asking questions. Just who…
exactly
…are you?”

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about. Please let me go. My friends are looking for me.
We’re trying to get to Cadaver Island and we’re running out of
time!”

“
Stop talking and think!
Concentrate on the
past
. Try to remember a time when you
lived in the colony. Yes, now you remember your name, don’t
you?”

Angelique closed her eyes.
The image of the Oasis Café formed in her mind. She watched people
walk through the streets of the colony. A security officer in a
black uniform stopped visitors at the guard shack. A hand fell on
her shoulder and she turned around. A handsome, dark-haired man
kissed her on the cheek and called her…

“
Kristina? No, my name
isn’t Kristina. My name is Angelique!” she said.

The woman snapped her
fingers three times. Two priests in purple, velvet robes entered
the room. One of the priests stood on the right side of Angelique’s
bed. The other priest approached the table of surgical instruments
and picked up the metal hook.

“
Your name used to be
Kristina. Don’t deny the truth. You can’t ignore the
past!”

“
I don’t know what you’re
talking about! You must be insane!” Angelique said.

“
My name is Sirlonah. I
fell in love with George Harrington. But I could never be with him
because of
you
. I could never be happy and enjoy life
because of
you
. But now you’ve returned, and I’m going to
make you pay for all the
pain
and
agony
you caused!”
Sirlonah said. She pointed at the priests and snapped her
fingers.

“
We’re not going to embalm
her first?” a priest asked.

“
No, let’s go ahead and
remove her organs and place them in jars,” Sirlonah
said.

Angelique screamed when she
glanced at the floor. A huge pile of bandages and linens sat next
to the table. On the other side of the room, she noticed a tilted
slab and a deep basin. On a stone shelf, she noticed jars full of
palm oil and preserving fluids.

“
What’re you doing? Please
stop! Don’t do this!” Angelique begged.

“
Don’t worry, Kristina. The
mummification process isn’t
too
painful!” Sirlonah
said.

One of the priests held
Angelique’s shoulders against the slab while the other priest
talked to himself and grinned. He said: “A human will guard your
liver. A jackal will guard your stomach. A baboon will guard your
lungs. And a falcon will guard your intestines!” Then Angelique
exhaled a high-pitched scream while the priest shoved the tip of
the hook into her left nostril and prepared to remove her
brain.