Crystal Canyon and the Secret Caves part two

After the second whip crack, Gilson jumped. He landed squarely on one of the coffins, creating a noise roughly the equivalent of a small explosion.

The voices above us grew louder, so without delay we each opened a sarcophagus and lay next to a mummy. I heard someone say something like, “Yejuabah alaina ip t’huk mand leka?

“No, no,” another voice returned.

The other man sounded unconvinced. His objections were answered by short, sharp replies. To my horror the whip cracked again followed by a loud cry of pain.

It grew silent again, so I fell out on to the floor. I gasped, “It’s stifling in there!” But Gilson didn’t answer. “Gilson?” I whispered.

When he didn’t reply I began to go through each sarcophagi, mummy by mummy. When I opened the last one, Gilson’s binoculars fell out. Carefully, I pulled the mummy out to see if Gilson was somehow behind it.

I saw nothing, just a small piece of metal that looked like some kind of platinum. “Thulium…” I whispered, “…for the afterlife.” As if Gilson or anyone could hear it. Suddenly I began to feel very alone.

I pocketed the rare metal that supposedly has extra-dimensional capabilities. “Sorry, I know this was meant to stay here.” Feeling like some kind of medieval grave robber, I un-wrapped the poor ancient man with terrible teeth. He was around seven feet tall.

Quietly, I lay one heavy coffin on top of the other, climbed it and threw the treated linen cloth over the hanging support beam. Unfortunately, The entry tunnel seemed even darker. My flashlight shone on the entrance hole, where we had just come in.

Our footprints were all over the place, but the entryway somehow had been closed. I pushed on the boulder that covered where our footprints started. It was impossible; the rock was perhaps a few tons.

Laughter echoed throughout the chamber. Then, a deep voice with a German accent, “What were you expecting a welcome party? How did you find us and what are you doing here?”

A man with a linen kilt and no shirt appeared like a hallucination out of nowhere. He inspected me. “So is that what they wear in the future? I will have to inform the fuhrer. He is planning on visiting and wants every detail.”

I tried to stall. The opening where the man had just come from was getting wider and light poured out of it. “What does the fuhrer have to do with you?”

A crooked smile curled his lips. He began to pace. “He is Set you know, Evil Day by name. He is Cain, murderer of his brother. He is darkness. He is night. He is the lord of the blood red battle.”

The man glared into my face, his bloodshot eyes hating me. “The future King of the Universe he is.”

“You can be wrong about people you know,” I whimpered. “You seem very important. What is your name, by the way?”

“You may have known me as General Freidrich friend of the Desert Fox. I improved the design of the Panzer while in the battle for Africa.” He began to act vain glorious. “They were so hot inside, so I blew out a hole for air conditioning.”

Another man with a kilt entered the room. “General, what should I do with the body?”

“Not right now, Eugene. I am right in the middle of talking with this lovely young lady. Why don’t you just throw him outside? No one knows who he is.”

“Yes, sir,” Eugene said and he clicked his heels.