The Museum of the Sarcophagi
The gates closed with a crank, as the ambiance of the warm night sky set into the
hand-carved designs of various tombstones and relics. It was my 3rd ever shift at the museum in
Cairo, and the night sky was nothing short of spectacular. My friend and fellow guard Pablo was
sleeping on the bunk in the security room. The room was filled with glaring monitors on every
wall, it felt as though no one could take a step in the museum that we could not see. Compared to
the number of monitors, the room itself was matchbox sized. The whole room was a dark gray
color, there was only one entrance, a small bunk bed on the edge wall, the wall of monitors of
course, and a small red fire extinguisher that glistened from the blue light of the monitors. As I
walked around the room, I thought of waking up Pablo to take my shift. However, after looking
at his calm and relaxed expression, it would be better not to wake him. Suddenly, a loud crash
echoed in the nearby exhibit. It was common to hear strange noises in the museum, but this was
especially loud, so I figured I’d have to check it out. Even with the security cameras overlooking
every inch of the museum, I could not find the cause of this loud noise. I grabbed an automatic
pistol and began to head out of the room. As I looked back at Pablo, his calm, sleepy expression
still had not changed and he was dead asleep as if the loud noises could not reach his ears. The
noises were as if mummies had been awoken and shuffled around. As I approached the noises, I
realized it was the room of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. With my pistol in one hand and a flashlight in
the other, I turned the corner and was astonished to see the tomb, ancient relics, and weapons all
gone. “Oh shoot”, I gasped. I scanned the room in a cold sweat and realized it must have been a
robbery. I sounded the alarm and stood to hear any noises, but the alarms suppressed any noises
that could be heard. I turned around and nearly fell backward as a large humanoid figure holding
Chattaraj Volkov 2
a spear and shield was standing at the door frame. I can't remember much of what happened next
but I remember firing the entire magazine at the figure. It stood tall the entire time, unfazed by
the steel bullets entering its rotting body. As I pointed the flashlight at the figure, my body began
to tremble in fear as it revealed a revived Pharaoh Tutankhamun. There was no escape through
that doorway, the only exit was covered up. As I stood there, thinking about what to do, my
sweat froze and dripped down my back, it was as if I’d just been shot. My hands began trembling
like a seizure was in effect. The Pharaoh was now only 15 feet away. It was as if something
supernatural overtook my body. I reloaded my pistol, and jumped onto a display case as if I was
a ninja. I grabbed one of the hanging ropes for artifacts and ran on the wall in circles until I
reached the very top. But as the top was reached, I realized I had to break the glass ceiling to
escape. As I fired bullets into the ceiling and broke the glass, I leaped for my life. It felt as if I
could be fired upon by arrows at any second. I landed on the roof and scanned around, there was
no sign of life around me. As I peered over the sunroof, an arrow grazed my skull, tearing out
half my hair. Shock filled my body as I suddenly realized that Pablo was left in the security room
alone. When my eyes glazed upon the security room CCTV on my phone, my heart dropped and
the blood in my arms stopped moving. My dear friend Pablo had been brutally stabbed. I
dropped my phone and lay on the roof in despair. My vision began to turn green, shaking from
panic. Thoughts about my wife filled my frightful mind. “How the human species would face an
extreme challenge if these humanoid mummies came back to life,” I thought worryingly. I got
up, my vision cleared as if I’d just taken a drug to calm down, and I searched around. My eyes
locked upon a tombstone, gleaming in the moonlight, which was now moving, cracking, as a
large figure emerged from it. I looked around. I slowly began to realize that all the tombstones
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were now vanishing, and figures were appearing. I darted my eyes behind me, and there he was.
Pharaoh Tutankhamun and 3 other unidentifiable mummies, all armed, charging at me from the
other side of the roof. The sense of fear filled my body and I began to feel adrenaline pumping in
my veins. I had to think quickly. I went back to the roof I had leapt out of, and cut the rope I had
used to leave the room. The artifact on the rope was a crook and flail. I immediately ran to the
edge of the building and used all the power in my body to throw the rope and crook to the border
wall, which was about 15 feet away from the roof. I needed to swing across from the roof to the
border wall in order to escape the museum and notify the authorities. “Here we go,” I muttered to
myself, as I plunged into the darkness.