The Temple of Life Part 4

Some time before the collective arrives Monica walks over to the sleeping Nolan and shakes him awake. “Nolan! We have to go, now!” The man rubs his eyes and yawns. “W-what? Why?” The girl looks around nervously and pushes a backpack on the man and gets up and whispers: “Zou he… I saw him leave just now. We are in trouble… I knew something was wrong. I didn’t follow him because… I had my suspicions…”

Nolan is confused. “M-Monica? Are you positive it’s not just the fever you are having? Maybe you saw a bad dream… maybe he just went to poo or something… You do not mean Zou would be with the bad guys, right?” Monica shakes her head and motions for him to get up: “Seriously? I’m fine and I saw from a distance people meeting with him. Nolan, get up. We have to go to the crypt. Quickly now!”

The two start sneaking towards the now open passageway to the crypts below. The air is almost frigid and once underground they light up torches for light and to stay warm. The hallway is dark and sand is dripping through the ceiling. On the walls there are paintings of the god Osiris and stories of his many feats. Including one where he’s surrounded by not less than 23 naked women. The two walk past the lewd wall paintings with haste and Nolan clears his throat and asks: “Why didn’t we wake the rest up again? Should we go b-back? I mean… they might… they are in danger, Monica.” He stops and the girl looks at him sharply: “Here’s the deal, Nolan. I took a risk with even waking you up. Imagine the collective sees us waking up early? They will kill all of us! If they find them sleeping before we are back I trust they won’t execute them.”

Nolan can’t believe it: “You b-believe? No… no no no! I can’t leave my buddy there all alone! We can’t leave him and Fathi! Monica!” The man swallows his tears and Monica walks to him and takes him by the arm and gives him a cold look. “We have to go. We have to get the artifact. I won’t just stand by as they tie us up and walk out with the loot. I will simply not let that happen. Trust me, the best course of action was to let the rest get captured for the time being. We will be able to save them later. But any attention to us now will just result in our defeat!” Nolan shakes and still can’t fully understand it. Would they really notice if they woke the rest up too? Would it be that big of a risk? Monica doesn’t take much risks, does she? Is egyptology really this important to her?

The two continue deeper and deeper into the forgotten temple. It is massive and the two pass multiple of those crystal lotuses. They are all in small cages so they do not mind them and just walk past. Now deep in the temple Monica turns to Nolan and mutters: “Did you say you were a doctor in this field?” Nolan shrugs and lights the way: “Yup. I did say that.” Monica points at the wall and Nolan stops to look at it as well. There’s hieroglyphs but they seem weird somehow.

“Oh damn. I can’t understand that. Is it a forgotten dialect?” Nolan comments as Monica tries to judge it and sighs: “This is all just… it’s a dream for me. All these discoveries… It's like my childhood dream, now a reality. D-do you feel the same at all? You… dreamed of something like this, right?” Monica looks almost blushing at Nolan who thinks and nods: “I am totally into all this too, but this is all getting a little too exciting for me personally. With the Collectors’ Collective after us and everything. I’m scared, Monica.” The girl looks at him a little worried.

Then the two of them hear a weird flapping sound. Just from where they came from, the angel approaches and sighs in relief as he sees the two: “It’s the baddies! They took over the camp! I just barely escaped! I hate this new age… back in the day I could just fly away, but now there’s those loud stick things that throw rocks really far… Also, why are you looking at the bathroom sign? I’m afraid we don’t have plumbing here.”

Even after escaping bullets and the mercenaries outside he’s still cracking jokes. “Damn… we have to be fast then. Let’s continue. Baya. Could you show us the way? We obviously do not understand these signs.” Monica and Nolan follow the angel as he shows the way through the underground passages. They can’t worry about the fates of others. This discovery is definitely not falling into the collectors’ hands. Or that’s at least what Monica believes. Nolan’s stomach is filled with guilt. He slacks behind and feels sick. He can’t help but think about the fates of his friends. Monica must have a plan. She couldn’t be so selfish, could she?