بازگشت مومیایی فصل 09

Return of the Mummy - Chapter 9

My hands flailed wildly as I fell.

I reached out frantically for something to grab on to.

It all happened too fast to cry out.

I landed hard on my back. Pain shot out through my arms and legs. The darkness swirled around me.

My breath was knocked right out of me. I saw bright flashes of red, then everything went black again. I struggled to breathe, but couldn’t suck in any air.

I had that horrible heavy feeling in my chest, like when a basketball hits you in the stomach.

Finally, I sat up, struggling to see in the total darkness. I heard a soft, shuffling sound. Something scraping over the hard dirt floor.

“Hey—can anyone hear me?” My voice came out a hoarse whisper.

Now my back ached, but I was starting to breathe normally.

“Hey—I’m down here!” I called, a little louder.

No reply.

Didn’t they miss me? Weren’t they looking for me?

I was leaning back on my hands, starting to feel better. My right hand started to itch.

I reached to scratch it and brushed something away.

And realized my legs were itching, too. And felt something crawling on my left wrist.

I shook my hand hard. “What’s going on here?” I whispered to myself.

My entire body tingled. I felt soft pinpricks up my arms and legs.

Shaking both arms, I jumped to my feet. And banged my helmet against a low ledge.

The light flickered on.

I gasped when I saw the crawling creatures in the narrow beam of light.

Spiders. Hundreds of bulby, white spiders, thick on the chamber floor.

They scuttled across the floor, climbing over each other. As I jerked my head up and the light swept up with it, I saw that the stone walls were covered with them, too. The white spiders made the wall appear to move, as if it were alive.

Spiders hung on invisible threads from the chamber ceiling. They seemed to bob and float in midair.

I shook one off the back of my hand.

And with a gasp, realized why my legs itched. Spiders were crawling all over them. Up over my arms. Down my back.

“Help—somebody! Please!” I managed to cry out.

I felt a spider drop on to the top of my head.

I brushed it away with a frantic slap. “Somebody—help me!” I screamed. “Can anyone hear me?” And then I saw something scarier. Much scarier. A snake slid down from above me, lowering itself rapidly toward my face.