City Of Sand

by Richard Smith

  Once again, Ben could not believe his eyes. The water in the chamber was coming back up, charging toward the ceiling like a liquid elevator. Ben thought about the flooding chamber like the sinking of a ship – a sinking ship that carried his friends.

  “We need the divers!” Ben shouted to the engineer.

  The engineer backed up a few steps as his eyes went wide and his face paled to chalk. “Oh no!” he said as he listened to the voice coming from the communications trailer.

  “What – what?” Ben asked as he grabbed the man’s arm. “What the hell is going on?”

  The engineer looked at Ben with total panic washing over his bearded face. “The main head just broke through,” he said, looking into Ben’s questioning face and wondering why the big man didn’t understand. “It broke through into a 120 foot deep sea – the chamber is completely filled with water and the water is rising into the shaft; It’ll be like an oil well coming in, we’re about to have a major blow out!”

  Before Ben could respond, he heard the ominous rumble beneath him and saw the sand shift around his boots.

  “Blow out!” someone yelled as the six foot wide plume of dirty water shot skyward. The high pressure water cannon let loose a geyser that quickly rose to over one hundred feet into the air. The water came back down in torrents and knocked everyone standing off their feet.

  Ben and the engineer had almost reached the trailer when hundreds of gallons of water dropped down on top of them. The trailers were rocking from the impact of the falling water, their thin roofs not designed for tons of cascading water from the sky.

  The dry sand quickly turned to deep sandy mud. The valleys and ditches surrounding the trailers filled up with a deadly concoction resembling quick sand. There was no let up from the constant down pour of thousands of gallons of falling water.

  Ben had almost made it to the trailer when he was bowled over by a tidal wave from the sky. He managed to roll under one of the trailers to briefly escape the torrent of cascading water. The trailer was on a slight rise, so most of the water was running around him. Then he heard the noise of multiple objects falling on the trailer’s roof. He assumed that the high-pressure geyser must be carrying rocks and debris up with it. As he lay in the sand in relative safety, he looked at several of the falling objects that fell to the ground around the trailer. His mind spun in disbelief as he watched. Slithering away as quick as they hit the ground, the angry and traumatized rattlesnakes were looking for any slice of dry land for refuge. One very large snake looked at the dry sand under the trailer and flicked out its tongue. Then it looked straight at Ben.

  TWENTY – FIVE

  The last water rapid in the cave was like a carnival chute, which took the group clinging to the coffin down, down, down, and finally pushed them out in choppy water into daylight. The Sarcophagus spun in tight circles as it drifted down a shallow river.

  Cody looked at Valerie, her dark hair hung like wet moss across her shoulders and her face. His eyes were trying to adjust to the sunlight; “You all right?”

  Valerie looked at Cody as she squinted her tired eyes. She wasn’t sure what she was. Her mind seemed to be drifting with the Sarcophagus. She had just been through the adventure of a lifetime and truly an adventure that she really didn’t believe she’d live through. The experience had left her drained and tired to the bone, but she also had a feeling of exhilaration. She figured that she was definitely through the hard part. “I’m fine,” she said, smiling at Cody and holding a little tighter to the edge of the ancient casket, “Right now, I’m just going with the flow.”

  As the Egyptian life boat finally seemed to stabilize and float in one direction, Cody looked around to check on the others. Everyone was wet, bruised and exhausted, but still clung to their little piece of the Sarcophagus. Then he noticed a vacancy on the left side of the open lid. The wrapped mummy was missing. Cody looked to see if the ancient Egyptian body might be drifting in the current somewhere in front of them. “We’ve lost our friend,” Cody said as he looked at Valerie.

  Valerie could see that one side of the Sarcophagus was empty. “He must have fallen out when we went down that last set of falls,” she said.

  “It climbed out,” a weak voice said from the forward left side of the casket.

  They all turned to Bill Walton. The skinny man’s face was pale but his vibrant eyes seemed to be locked open.

  The flowing river had become little more than a wide stream now and Cody could feel his boots touching the rocky bottom. “I’m sure you thought you saw the mummy move, Bill, but the rapids surely slung him out.”

  “No … no, Mr. Larson,” Bill stuttered, “I saw him place his right hand on the side of the coffin and pull himself out, just before we went over the last rapid.”

  “Okay, Bill,” Cody said, trying to appease the little guy for now, “Let’s just get to shore.” Everyone was now standing in the waist deep water. “We’ll talk about the disappearance of the mummy when we get a minute to catch our breath.”

  They pulled the Sarcophagus onto the sandy bank of the stream and tried to find a comfortable spot for Alex Bell. He seemed much better, but he was still very weak. The late day sun was bearing down on them relentlessly and the temperature at the stream was well over one hundred degrees. Things will cool down soon, Cody thought. He knew that the temperature of the hot desert air would drop substantially once the sun dipped to the west.

  “The stream is drying up,” Mark Stone said as he pointed at the moving water. They all watched in astonishment. The water that had been rushing down the stream bed suddenly slowed, and finally stood still, ebbing across the rocky bed in ankle deep pools.

  “The chamber’s been drained out,” Cody said, “all of the water is gone.”

  Steam started to rise from what was left of the standing water as the desert heat began to evaporate what water was left.

  “Canteens, everyone!” Cody shouted; “We need to save as much water as we can!”

  By the time the six had collected as much of the standing water as they could, the moisture remaining in the stream bed dried up totally. Like watching a time-laps video, everyone was stunned by how fast it had all happened – a raging river became a dried up ghost in a matter of minutes.

  “We need to try and find shelter,” Valerie said as the steam began to rise from her wet clothes.

  “Look around you,” Cody responded, “that might be a mighty tall request.”

  The stream bed was in a narrow gorge that appeared to be surrounded by high sand dunes. There were no rocky out-croppings to climb under or sheltering vegetation. The landscape was as barren as the surface of the moon.

  “We just stay here and sleep on the ground?” Valerie asked, as she looked at the others.

  “They are out looking for us, Valerie,” Cody said as he sat down next to the Sarcophagus.

  He pulled his knees up to his chest and relaxed. “They’ll find us soon,” he added, “Let’s all just sit and chill for a while.”

  What else could they do? The rest of the group thought. They now seemed resigned to spending the night in the open desert. Everyone looked around and sat wherever they thought they could find a little comfort.

  Valerie was still standing, looking for the perfect spot to settle.

  Cody smiled as he patted the empty side of the Sarcophagus where the mummy had been. “You might get a good night’s sleep in here.”

  Valerie was about to issue a scolding response when they all heard the approaching helicopter.

  TWENTY – SIX

  Ben and the rest of the crew at the site had survived the torrent of falling water and the raining rattlesnakes. The huge gusher didn’t last long and shut itself down after approximately ten minutes of vigorous eruption.

  The state engineers had been able to spot the break- through at the east end of the chamber with ground penetrating radar and high resolution ultra sound. Then with the help of satellite imagery, they were able to track the Sarcophagus as it
broke out of the narrow end of the chamber and watch as it traveled down the torrent of escaping water.

  Ben had been with the helicopter crew when the CHP chopper landed in the sand by the creek bed. Another helicopter had come in right behind the first and, between the two, they managed to depart with everyone on board, just as the sun began to drop in the west.

  From his seat in the helicopter, Ben looked at Cody, then to Valerie. “So, I guess you two have got some kind of story to tell?”

  Cody nodded with a sly smile, “a story?” he said, looking at Valerie, “yeah you might say that, but I’m not sure if you’re ready for it.”

  “That’s okay,” Ben responded, “because I know that you’d be making most of it up anyway.”

  “Maybe I’ll write a book one day about this whole adventure and I’ll give you a signed copy.”

  “As long as I’m the main hero,” Ben replied with a big smile.

  Cody watched Valerie as she stared out the side window of the helicopter.

  “You want to be in my book, Valerie?” Cody asked, his smile drifting away.

  She turned and looked at Cody with a blank face. “We left the Sarcophagus,” she said, “We’ve got to go back and recover it. It needs to be preserved.”

  “I’m sure that the Secretary of State can arrange for that to happen,” Cody responded, “I’ll bet that the state has its trucks on the way right now to pick it up.”

  “You’re probably right,” Valerie responded in a tired voice, “but I’ll call Mr. Carson in the morning to be sure.”

  Cody wanted desperately for Valerie to be her old self again, but she seemed to be in an eternal funk. “Have you got a special place in mind to display your newest artifact – the Sarcophagus?” Cody asked, trying his best to re-engage her get her mind off what had just happened to them, “It’s got to be a prized piece to the museum.”

  “Because of the questions concerning its origin, we’ll have to sequester it to the archives, with the other questionable items,” Valerie said, “but we also need to recover the contents,” she added quietly as she once again looked out the window.

  “The contents?” Ben asked, looking at Cody and losing his smile.

  “There’s a mummy somewhere down there looking for its home,” Cody replied with a grin as he looked into Ben’s questioning eyes, “don’t worry, it will all be explained in my book.”

  “Cody, when we get back to Los Angeles, I’d like you and Ben to meet with me at the museum as soon as you both can,” Valerie said, turning back to the two men sitting next to her in the helicopter. “I want us to go back over our experiences and try to get all of the pieces to this crazy puzzle to somehow fit together. I’m still not sure exactly what happened to us in that chamber, but I’d like to see us try to come up with some logical answers.”

  “I think logic flew out the window when we first encountered that Egyptian birdman,” Cody said, “either we dreamed what happened or it happened, and I’m having a hard time with either option. I think we mostly experienced illusions and maybe even a few hallucinations.”

  “The earthquake was real,” Ben said.

  “No doubt about that,” Cody acknowledged, “but I’m not so sure about everything else.”

  “Will you guys meet me at the museum next week? I really want to have a long, sit-down discussion about all of this.”

  Ben’s tried face produced a tired smile, “Will you have coffee and doughnuts, Ms. Case?”

  Valerie smiled for the first time since boarding the chopper. “I’ll have pretzels and beer if you’ll be there.”

  “The pretzels won’t be necessary,” Ben answered with a chuckle.

  “Valerie, if you want to have a special meeting about our adventure, then Ben and I will be there, but don’t expect a ton of insight or answers about what happened to us.”

  “I’m not expecting answers, Cody,” Valerie responded, “I guess I’m expecting a little piece of mind, you know, by hashing things out I’d hope to clear my brain of a few spider webs.”

  Both men nodded their understanding.

  “I guess a little group therapy might be good,” Cody finally said. “Just give us a date and time.”

  Valerie’s face brightened with the old smile that Cody loved. “I’ll check my calendar and let you know.”

  “We’re on final approach, ladies and gentlemen,” one of the crewmen said, “make sure you’re securely buckled in.”

  The setting sun slowly became part of the Pacific Ocean as Valerie tried to get a glimpse of the ground. She could only see her own ghostly reflection in the helicopter’s dark window. She watched the strobe lights on the bottom of the fuselage bounce red and green light off a perpetual layer of fog as the aircraft neared the ground. She wondered about the history and origin of the Sarcophagus but more than anything she wondered about the history and origin of the mummy. Was it born in Egypt, and if so, when did it first arrive in North America – was it from royalty and what dynasty? These were all questions that Valerie sought answers to, but she knew the final answers would have to wait until another day. Her head rested against the cool glass and she closed her eyes. By the time the chopper touched down, Valerie Case was sound asleep.

  The Death Valley Mummy would eventually become famous, but right now it sheltered itself in a mound of warm sand. It had dug out its own grave, but would only reside there a few days. Its goal was to go back to its home, to the Sarcophagus. Very soon, the ancient shrouded Egyptian would be on a long trek west. It knew where to find its ancestor’s remains and eventually its own ornate casket. It knew where to find the Museum of History in Los Angeles, and it knew where to find the lady – the curator. It knew exactly where to find Valerie Case.

  THE END