Kathlyn Trent, Marcus Burton 01 - Valley of the Shadow (24 page)

"It's a footbridge," Marcus said quickly. "Go."

She did as she was told, but on either side of her, the pit dropped off into nothingness. Had she not been so frightened about what was going on around her, the drop off would have made her extremely uncomfortable. The bridge itself was only a couple of feet across, not particularly wide. As they ran, Marcus flashed the light down into the void but he couldn't see the bottom. He had no idea how far down it went, but one thing was certain; if one of them fell off, it would be a very bad thing.

They were half way across the bridge when it began to shake with the resonance of the rumbling. Marcus increased his pace, pushing Kathlyn and practically pulling Juliana behind him. The bridge itself was beginning to collapse and he could feel it fragmenting beneath his feet. He had no idea how much further they had to run before they reached anything solid, so it was best to sprint until they could sprint no more. His adrenalin was pumping by the time a small, crude doorway came into view and he practically tossed his wife through it. Juliana followed, gasping for breath, and Lynn took one great leap to reach safety as the bridge collapsed completely.

They wanted to rest, needed to rest, but the rumbling was growing worse. It was difficult to retain their balance. Marcus pushed Kathlyn onward and they raced through the cramped corridor, fighting the dust and instability. The shaft was relatively short and Kathlyn burst through a narrow doorway, only to come to a dizzying halt. She waved her arms to keep her balance and Marcus reached out to pull her back.  Panic throbbed in her chest as she took a look at what was below. She was standing on the edge of a cliff.

A great pool of black water churned several dozen feet beneath her. Her toes were hanging over the edge and Marcus pulled her away, holding her against his chest gratefully and feeling the rapid beating of her heart. But there was no time to express their thanks as the corridor behind them was starting to fragment. On the other side of the cavern, perhaps twenty feet across, was a small opening with holes gouged out beneath it that looked as if it might have supported a bridge at one time.

"What in the hell is this?" Kathlyn said above the roar.

Marcus peered at the rolling water. "Maybe it's an underground tributary of the Nile, or some natural artesian well. I've never heard of anything like this under the bone-dry Valley of the Kings."

"Whatever it is, we need to get across it," Kathlyn said.

Marcus was in full agreement. "Maybe we can crawl around it somehow. There's got to be a way."

Frantically, they perused the chamber, trying to find the best possible way to cross. It was a natural cavern with great chunks of rock projecting from the roof and walls. Kathlyn dropped her pack and removed the second grappling hook and rope. Getting a good grip on it, she swung it around like a lasso and hurled it up to a projection on the ceiling, about twelve feet above them and shaped like a disjointed 'L'. There was enough of a ledge for the grappling hook to grab on to and Marcus pulled it taut.

"I'll go first," he said. "If it can support my weight, then I know it will support the rest of you."

The rumbling under their feet was nearly knocking them over. It wasn’t merely in the ground, but in their heads as the echoes rattled off the walls and painfully thumped their eardrums. Pieces of rock were beginning to tumble from the ceiling, plunging into the roiling, murky waters below.

"Go, Marcus," Kathlyn chanted. "This cavern is going to collapse on us."

He got tight hold of the rope and took a harrying whirl across the quaking pit. He almost lost his footing on the other side but managed to hold tight. Tying a rock to the end of the rope, he threw it back across and Lynn caught it.

"Okay, Dr. Trent," Lynn untied the rock from the rope. "Your turn."

She was so much better at swinging than Marcus was. It was like watching a well choreographed dance. Quickly, both Lynn and Juliana sailed over the churning waters, but they were forced to leave the rope behind when they couldn't disengage it from the rocky protrusion. Racing through yet another twisting, quaking shaft, they came to another fork.

"Which way?" Lynn asked.

"Left," Marcus was already moving. "I think we're skirting the valley this way."

The rumbling seemed to weaken. Although they were still running, they were exhausted and their pace had slowed. Kathlyn was in the lead, every sense she had reaching out to anticipate what dangers might lie ahead. Turning a sharp corner, she ran straight into what she thought was the world’s largest cobweb.

But it was an ancient flaxen net, placed there as if it had been meant to catch something. Kathlyn struggled with it, tripping over the moldy, dusty clutter and falling to her knees. Marcus helped pull it off her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She sneezed furiously. "Phew, what dust!" she reached up her hand and he pulled her to her feet.  She was about to thank him when an odd, rustling sound suddenly filled the corridor.  Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of an undulating golden tide heading in their direction. It took her less than a second to determine what it was.

"Not again,” she moaned. “Scorpions!”

They took off back the way they had come. The horrible rush was right behind them, an odd scuttling noise filling the corridor and creating more horror than perhaps the rumbling had. It was incredibly eerie to know that hundreds of stingers were chasing after them, and this time, there were no bulldozers to jump on top of.  When they reached the fork, they took the path to the right and kept running.

"That net must have triggered them," Marcus said as they fled down a small grade and took a sharp turn to the right. "Another ancient booby trap."

"I'm just not going to touch anything anymore," Kathlyn panted. "This entire network is booby trapped."

The scuttling sounds of the bugs could be heard from all sides. It was difficult to know if the scorpions were in back of them or in front of them. All they knew was that they had to keep running or die.

Suddenly, the bottom dropped out of the floor. It was a very steep shaft, like Stairwell B in Ay's tomb, only there were no stairs. It was like a giant slide at an amusement park and Kathlyn went down hard on her hip. Marcus tried to stop and grab her at the same time, but she slipped away from him and hurled down the smooth stone. He wasn't about to let her go down without him, so he plunged down after her. Juliana and Lynn followed.

It was a nauseating ride. The shaft was narrow and slick, so oddly designed that it was as if a madman had concocted it as some sort of demented funhouse treat. Kathlyn might have thought it was all great fun had she not been so terrified. She had no idea where it might end and considering the trip they had already had in this place, she didn’t want to imagine what she might find.

The shaft twisted and rolled and Kathlyn could tell she was gaining momentum. When it finally spit her out, she went face-first into a massive pile of sand.

Marcus landed on top of her. She thought she literally might suffocate as he struggled to get off her and finally pull her up.  She came up spitting and gasping, but Marcus was hit from behind by first Juliana and then Lynn. They all went down again like a line of dominos.  It was a struggle to regain their balance in the marsh of heavy sand.

“Christ,” Marcus breathed. “What is this place?”

It was, literally, a sand pit in a long, narrow room with a low ceiling. They were up to their thighs in grit, which seemed to have a bad habit of swallowing them up every time they took a step. It was like quicksand. At the other end of the chamber was part of an opening that invited them forward.

“Come on,” Marcus shoved her forward. “Let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t like this one bit.”

Kathlyn had to agree. It made her nervous that there wasn’t something obviously hazardous about the pit. But just as she took a couple of laborious steps, a few scorpions sailed down the ancient slide and Lynn, in the rear, howled.

“Get moving!” he shouted, using his hands to dump huge quantities of sand on the bugs to bury them. “They’ll all be coming down in a minute!”

Kathlyn had never exerted herself so much in her life. Every breath was a struggle, every step a supreme effort. There was no traction and no real sense that they were getting anywhere, but they had to slug through it. Lynn battled a few more scorpions, but there didn’t seem to be any more shooting out of the slide. When they were about half way through the pit, Kathlyn thought she felt something wet against her legs.

“Does this sand feel damp to you?” she asked Marcus.

He had jeans on. After a moment’s hesitation, he nodded. “Yes. I think my pants are getting wet.”

Kathlyn was horrified by the realization rolling through her brain. “It’s another damn booby trap.”

Lynn was waving his arms, trying to gain traction. “How in the hell did we trigger this one?”

“Who knows,” Marcus grunted. “By our weight, by something we rolled over on that damn slide, who the hell knows?  But if this pit fills with water, we’ll never make it through the opening. The sand will block it up.”

They would be trapped. Summoning yet another burst of adrenalin, they shoved, swam, and pulled their way to the opposite side of the sand pit. By this time, the water was filling up and the opening was about half blocked. Kathlyn slithered through it and Marcus pulled Juliana ahead of him so she could squeeze through. He shoved Lynn through next.  By the time it was his turn, the opening was too small for him to reasonably pass through. Kathlyn reached for him, determined to pull him to safety, but he shook his head.

“It’s too small,” he said. “Go, Kathlyn. Keep running; get the hell out of here. I’ll get out somehow.”

There was pain in his eyes, so much so that Kathlyn started weeping. He couldn’t get out without their help and he knew it. But considering the danger they were in, it was self-sacrifice at its best.

“No,” she practically shouted at him. “We’re all in this together, Marcus. You come through now!”

The aperture was dwindling. Juliana was digging at it furiously, fighting the water and the sand. Lynn reached through and grabbed one of Marcus’ arms.

“You’re not going out like this, damn it,” he snapped. “Come on, Marcus, fight!”

He wasn’t giving up if that’s what they were suggesting. But the longer they stayed, the more likelihood of something happening to all of them. Marcus just wanted Kathlyn safe. He realized, however, that they weren’t going to leave him no matter what. Pawing at the sand and water, he leapt through the hole.

It was like shoving a cork into a bottle. Kathlyn and Lynn pulled on him as Juliana scooped furiously at the wet sand.  Marcus twisted, strained, grunted with the exertion. His big chest came through, and then his waist.  Once his hips passed, the rest of him came through freely and he tumbled onto his wife. She held him as if afraid he was going to slip away again.

“I’m okay,” he murmured. “It’s all right, sweetheart, stop crying.”

She struggled to obey. Then she slugged him in the arm. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, you big ape. How dare you give up!”

He pursed his lips. “Sweetheart, I wasn’t. It was just that… oh, hell, it doesn’t matter now. Come on, we’ve got to keep going.”

Kathlyn was emotionally spent, but there was no more time for her tears. Wiping her eyes hurriedly, she struggled to her knees and pawed a path over the sand and into what was apparently the next corridor. Marcus held her hand and took the lead this time, cautiously moving down the passageway and clutching Kathlyn’s banged-up Maglight. Through all of their adventure, he hadn’t lost it. Juliana and Lynn followed behind, exhausted, wet and dirty.

The passageway took a turn and headed at an up angle of about ten or twelve degrees. It was steep and dry, and they slipped on the sandy floor. At the top, they came to an abrupt dead end.

But Marcus wouldn’t accept it. Corridors just didn’t end into walls. The Maglight was made of heavy steel and he took the end of it to the wall, pounding and pounding until a piece of plaster chipped away, and then another and still another.  He grunted with every blow, throwing all of his considerable strength into it. He was sick of the maze and knew, instinctively, that there had to be a way out of this hell and this was it. Lynn began to help him, using his bare hands to dig away at the loosened plaster. Kathlyn and Juliana sat back against the wall of the passage and wait.

Marcus pounded for what they thought might have been hours. It was difficult to tell. Time passed so slowly, yet somehow it flew. It was an odd sensation in the lightless tunnel.  Finally, Marcus let out a hiss.  A small hole in the wall now let cool, dusty air pour through.

“Oh, thank God,” Kathlyn breathed. She’d never been so glad about anything in her life.

“Amen,” Lynn said softly.

Marcus pounded the small hole into one large enough for him to slip through. He moved through it first, followed by Kathlyn, Juliana and Lynn. They had come out into a dark antechamber with a wide entryway leading into a large sarcophagus chamber. Marcus shined the light up on the walls, revealing old paintings of the goddess Nut and her brother Geb, and the Book of the Dead. The pictures were colorless yet alive. They had emerged into someone’s tomb.

“Recognize this?” Marcus asked Lynn.