Chapters 1-3 of Indiana Jones and the Cult of the Dead

Posted by Goodsport from adsl-216-102-199-185.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net on June 06, 2000 at 07:26:48:

Chapter 1 - The Death Dig

Kazakhstan: The Kara-Kum desert

    The hot morning sun beat down; the sweat dripped from the hardworking men, whose shovels pounded into the desert sand. One man clanked against a large metal box, Roger who was standing beside him pushed the digger aside, he whispered to the digger "put this next to the truck, make sure I can tell where it is though."

    "Yes sir" The man whipped the dirt from his face, he lifted the box onto his shoulders and carried the package to the truck moaning and grunting.

    The desert was filled with workers digging, to the side was a half covered underground tomb. There were a row of small tents to the left, one was larger and stood out from the others. It was brown and had several small boxes; a bullwhip was laid to the outside.

    A man raises up from his cot, he moaned at the pain from yesterday he slept in those dirty beat, up trousers and stained safari shirt, and the stitching in his webbing belt was showing signs of wear. But he thought with as much as they had been through it figures. He reached across and pulled his hat off the bar on the side of the cot, and propped it on top of his head, this was his favorite piece of clothing, and it was his "lucky" hat because it had had been through many of his adventures. He pulled a gun belt from his shelf his legs ached at every movement he reached for his gun, it was a Smith & Wesson New Century like most of his items it followed him on many adventures. He clicked open the safety and loaded the bullets into the gun, locked the safety and placed it in his holster. He grabbed his shoulder bag, in it's simplicity it was probably a very important item because it held his items, and his secondary weapon, his Browning HP he checked the chamber and made sure it was loaded. He didn't want to get caught without his weaponry.

    "Dr. Jones… oh your awake" The man spoke with a deep commanding voice, he was probably one of the best partners Indiana had ever had, this one actually knew something about archeology.

    "Yeah I was just getting ready. Hey you can go ahead and start. Go on ahead and open the entrance, Kent."

    Indy heard Kent shout commands across the dig. He knew it wouldn't be the same without him. He was most definitely the best Archeologist Indy had seen in a long time. He could probably stay in his tent and Kent could handle the whole dig.

    But I should probably be there to handle this besides I want to be there to see the opening of the tomb, He thought. Indy rubbed his chin. I should also be prepared, he thought to himself. Indy stuffs three sticks of dynamite into his satchel. "No sense getting caught unprepared." He jabbed four more sticks of dynamite and a box of matches into the bag "Wait maybe I should store these matches somewhere else" he muttered to himself shaking the sleepiness out of his voice. He sticks the matches to his inside jacket pocket.

    Indiana looked across the sand except this dig there was nothing - nothing but miles of sand for most people, except when Indiana looked at it he saw an archeologist's dream, maybe the surface was miles of sand but below it, who knows… gold, jewels, and priceless antiquities. He looked around; the dig was a mess Roger Marshall was directing some of the digging. Indiana looked across at the two jeeps; the sand had blown over nearly covering them. The convoy truck had many gold statues, jewelry, a few arrows, and diamonds laid beside the truck, and would all go to a museum, Indiana was proud of his work, he risked his life to bring rare antiquities to museums. He looked to the side and saw lamps, pick ax's, shovels, saw's, and a few guns and knives for protection. He also saw wooden boxes, crates, and other junk. He walked over to Kent and just smiled.

    "Jeez pull" Kent screamed becoming nervous and annoyed at the workers ignorance "What is so hard" Kent grabs at the pry bars still screaming at the diggers "It's not that hard to open a stone slab door" The workers strained at the opening of the door. Indiana stood there holding his whip smiling.

    Indy stares at Kent. If only Kent could hear himself speaking, he knew he shouldn't have left him with so much responsibility especially since it was his first dig. But he thought he could handle it.

    Indy walked towards the dig. His back ached and his arms were filled with pain. He didn't even want to move.

    Just as Indy reached the opening of the structure Kent and the diggers had the door open. Kent was filled with eagerness; he lit a torch and began to run forward into the dark mist. An arm reached forward stopping him dead in his tracks, he froze.

    "That would be a bad career decision Mr. Philbin" He smiled at Kent "Maybe I should lead."

    He takes the torch from a half-surprised Kent. He looked at Indy like he had just seen a ghost. Only in a way Kent had. Indy turns around to see what had so scared him; the torch lit the end of the hall when before it didn't. Indy saw a rotted corpse only it had a necklace of cut-off fingers except it looked as though they were still fresh, yet this cave has not been opened for millions of years. Indy only grumbled he had seen things like this before except the necklace of fresh fingers, half of the diggers ran screaming in terror, Kent was still frozen, his stomach was churning, Indy then noticed something else about the corpse it's ribs had been bashed in…

    "My God," the words mumbled out of Kent mouth.

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Chapter 2 - Deeper into the Heart of Death

    Kent only kept mumbling and shaking, he was frightened to death, sweat poured from his brow. But Indy was still able to keep himself under control as if he sees this sort of thing all the time. He clutched his bullwhip prepared.

    Indy proceeded through the long chamber; his watchful eyes surveyed everything. What was probably the oddest thing about this Tomb was that there were tons of the same corpses chained to the walls with the same necklace and all had their ribs bashed in. They discovered this as they kept walking each time seeing the same horrifying scene. It looked as though the prisoners of death were still being tortured, with their mouths gaping open and their heads nailed to the wall. Indy's guess was that this might have happened while they were still alive, but he could only guess and it wasn't an educated one either.

    Kent was cringing as he walked through the Tomb, seeing death right in the face. He hated dead bodies, but he had to study them when trying to become an archeologist. But they horrified him, he could picture it in his mind… one of the bodies coming alive and eating him or something, Kent had a very vivid imagination and he knew it. But he didn't have any control over it.

    "This is creepy, we should get out of here it's too dangerous here. Please let us leave Indiana. We will die in here I have a gut feeling" Kent said looking around at the skeletons seeing their horrifying facial expressions and the rotting old crusty bones crumbling and smelling of a horrible stench.

    "No we will be ok, these are not zombies, you should probably stop watching those horror movies, there as hoaky as hell anyway" Indy kept walking leading the diggers, and Kent Philbin.

    Indy froze he saw a change in the floor pattern when once it was just sand, now it was stone, and the walls no longer had the corpses chained to the them. Indy also took note that the skeletons were gone. He also saw tiny holes in the walls, which he guessed to contain poison tipped darts… or at least darts of some sort, he knew it was a trap at least.

    "What is wrong let's go on" Kent was braver now that the corpses were no longer there. He started to walk on through Temple.

    Indiana jerked Kent to the wall "Look at the floor" Indiana pointed his finger at Kent as he spoke, he then motioned it down to the stone paneling

    "I see it" Kent spoke hoarsely.

    "Notice the patterns" Indy motioned to the floor, showing Kent's carelessness, he showed the floor pattern, and then motioned his finger back up toward the tiny holes.

    "What's so special about it" Kent said surprised at what was happening, to him there was nothing there but floor and walls. There wasn't anything that could possibly be of danger to him, or at least what he could see.

    Indy decided to let Kent prove himself wrong "Here take this torch and merely tap the floor, I've already dealed with these kinds of traps".

    "Traps" Kent said bewildered, but he did as he was told he tapped the floor with the bottom of the torch. A dart shot from the wall and struck the torch. "It was a trap" Kent felt ignorant as he looked at Indy, Indy merely smiled drly as he stared at Kent, knowing that he had proved him wrong.

    "Step where I step" Indiana was using his normal commanding voice. He pulled a piece of chalk from his shoulder bag. With each step Indy made he marked the stone on which he stepped with the chalk so as not to trip the traps, and also giving guidelines as to where the others were to step.

    Then once Indiana got a few feet away the diggers and Kent started to make their stepping on top of Indy's markings. It was like a game of following the leader.

    Eventually Indiana stopped he examined the area before him. There was a shaft of light coming from the ceiling.

    "Don't they have any originality" Indiana whispered to himself.

    "What did you say Indiana" Kent was puzzled by Indy stopping there was nothing there. Now Kent was finally becoming an archeologist he realized what was going on "A trap" Kent whispered to himself finally. It was a trap but only this time Indiana was the one who was wrong.

    Indy just ignored him he shot his hand into the light and just as quickly jerked it back. Nothing happened, he did it again, and yet again nothing happened. He didn't want to get caught the way his OLE buddy Satipo did. He shifted his boot, snapping one of the vines, which were covered, on the floor. At that time almost simultaneously Kent lunged forward knocking Indiana to the floor they sprawled through the floor at that time spikes shot through the walls.

    "What the hell" Indy shouted. He looked back at the spikes shocked.

* * * * *

Outside in the desert

    Roger was pacing back and forth, looking frantically around, "Where in the hell were they." Something went wrong, but Roger kept his distance from the cave. "They should be back by now." After the first few of the diggers came running out screaming bloody murder, he knew something was wrong, he continued his pacing.

* * * * *

Back in the Cave

    "The vine. You see they're protruding from the wall, they were carved and placed in that somehow the vine was rigged for when it snapped it would trigger those spikes to jut from the wall and as you see they wanted you to die because they left you seven of them." Kent was gasping for breath he nearly killed himself and he knew it, he looked over at the old rusty spikes, with the sharpened tips, awaiting their victims, but thanks to Kent they didn't get their prey.

    "Hmmm come on lets go" Indiana kept walking through long tomb watching everywhere he went and everything he did. He knew that whoever these people are they didn't want him to leave. "This is where they probably held the rituals."

    "Excuse me." Kent said.

    "Well you see this is probably a Tomb for an ancient cult. Don't worry it was wiped out long ago. You see these darker… uh 'Evil' cults held rituals worshipping their gods. You see many times they would… uh remember those corpses we saw out front, well they were probably human sacrifices, well in fact I know they are. There are probably hundreds of tombs buried under the sand here, this was probably just where they worshipped their god or where they placed those that they, killed mercilessly or sacrificed. Because this has been set up different than any other uh ritual site" Indy was having trouble explaining this to Kent because he didn't quite understand it all either. "We should probably do some more research over this but I'm pretty sure that's right, but really I'm basing this on pure speculation and past experiences. Do you remember the Thugee they had human sacrifices that they did for their god the Shiva?" Indiana spoke in whispers now because they were now approaching a large room…

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Chapter 3 - Opening of a Shimmer of Death

    Indiana led Kent and the remaining ten diggers into the room. They saw seven coffins, all made of stone, they looked across the room and found there was another room, and only a large stone slab door blocked it. They examined the coffins they had strange markings on them. Indiana lifted the top of the coffin off one of the larger ones. He saw bones wrapped in red cloth with a large headpiece made of human skulls and bull tusks. But the whole thing was lined with wet blood.

    "Strange" Indy kept his normal solid face.

    "What is it Indy." He came to see what Indy was looking at. "Yes it is strange hmmm. What do you think Dr. Jones" Kent said cringing, even though he was able to calm himself, this was worse than the skeltons outside he thought to himself, he couldn't bare the site of this. "And why is the blood still wet?"

    "I don't know. Here lets just open the door I don't think we should meddle with this right now." Indiana signaled for two diggers to open the door.

    The diggers pried the door open. As it was opening smoke shot from the door, and melted the digger's hands. Then all of a sudden the door blew open, crumbling when it hit ground, the smoke engulfed the diggers, as their bodies melted away they screamed in pain, they rubbed their arms and were able to feel their own bones. The mist encircled the room clouding the top circling around as If it was alive like a ghost. The remaining diggers Screamed in horror at the newly made corpses. Indiana was able to see through the mist past into the room, he saw a beautiful statue of gold With Eyes of rubies a necklace of silver and a dagger held in all six of it's hands made of emeralds. There were golden jewels scattered all over the floor. The room shimmered of gold and diamonds. But Indiana was running out of time, and the mist was slowly beginning to surface. Nearly everything that the mist touched rotted and decayed the dead diggers bodies rotted as though they lay there for one thousand years. Quickly, Indy shouted for them to turn around and leave.

    "Hurry lets get out of here move, GO, GO" Indiana shouted as he and Kent ran from the room. The other diggers were at Indy's heels and also so was the mist. The mist flowed from the room into the tunnel like a flood. They ran as fast as they could never stopping their breath heaving, and their chests pounded. Sweat poured from their forehead and their skin turned white as they thought of the dangerous mist flowing behind them. Indiana's face began to turn red then from red to white as he realized he was running from death.

    They kept running barely escaping the mist, One of the diggers lost balance and his arm was nearly burnt off from the power of the mist, yet he was still able to keep running something inside him helped him in his escape.

    Kent ran through some cobwebs, they blocked his eyesight to where he couldn't tell where he was going. He kept running trying to get the sticky mess from his face, he couldn't do it his legs began to shake because he couldn't tell where he was going in such a dangerous place. He tripped over a rock and flew four or five inches and sprawled over the ground. He screamed in terror because at this moment for the first time in Kent's life he knew that he was about to die…

    "Holy Smokes" Kent spat out as he screamed. He lay their with his hands waving in the air, his skin pale white his eyes wide with fear.

    The other diggers ran across Kent's body, without stopping to help. He screamed for help as the diggers ran across his body, trampling his bones, they crushed his ribs and breaking his nose, arms, legs, and foot. Kent rolled over and ripped the cobwebs from his eyes finally able to see again, he began to get up he looked in front of him the diggers were way ahead, he then looked behind him and saw the mist it was like an animal hunting for his prey. He started to scream the mist shot through his body rotting his flesh and turning his bones brown, spilling his intestines; his eyes fell out of his sockets then immediately melted, he felt the cold rot, he smelt himself slowly oozing, his stench was horrifying. Kent, Indiana Jones's best partner had died, died because he tripped over a rock. Now he would never see those he cherished dearly, never to see his mother nor father, they would just be sent a yellow piece of paper, and given a false reason for his death… they would never know the truth, and everyone else would forget him except those he loved.

    Indiana ran he was just barely able to see his partner die. He ran through the traps the spikes jutted from the walls just barely missing Indiana.

    One of the diggers was just behind Indiana the spike shot from the wall it just barely struck him, it ran across his stomach, spilling some of his intestines. He stumbled back, his body stumbling, he was able to mumble, but that just came out as blurs. Suddenly something fell into his cupped hands it was sticky his eyesight was blurry, he was dizzy and he felt sick, The digger blinked his eyes and looked down at his hands. He now was realizing what it was, he was holding his own stomach, he shuddered, and threw his hands in the air he bent over and threw up, all that came out was blood he realized this was his last second to be alive. He then turned over and lay dead. The mist swept across his body and demolished what was left of him.

    Indiana ran across the hallway, He could hear screams and screeches behind him. The darts shot across his body the whole place was caving in, bits and pieces of rock were falling on his body he saw another digger run ahead of him. Blood spattered on his jacket as he saw the digger fall across the floor dead. Indiana got a second wind and ran ahead and looked back all the others behind him had died. He pulled a stick of dynamite from his satchel and lighted it and threw it behind him, the ceiling caved in but the mist did not stop it merely shattered the cave-in wall barrier. He shouted although he knew it did not matter. Like Kent he now thought he too was going to die.

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Kent, we are anxiously awaiting your Chapter 3! :)

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