Feroz? she asked herself.
She climbed to her feet as the noise grew. She spun and played her light over every surface of the pit but didn’t see anything except dust and bones.
“Zahra, the wall!”
She stopped and directed her light to the outside wall of the pit. It was pocked with hundreds of fist-sized holes.
Oh, shit.
She knew in an instant how the other man had really died.
Just as her beam passed one of the openings, the first of the man-killer scorpions started pouring free from them. She scrambled back to the base of the landbridge, but knew it would be impossible to climb.
She unraveled her grappling hook. Rabia immediately got the gist of what Zahra was planning, and the woman handed Baahir her flashlight. Zahra gave the folded tip of her hook some slack and held it out to her side, spinning it half a dozen times before launching it skyward.
It fell short by five feet. Zahra’s shoulder ached. It wasn’t letting her get as much behind her toss.
The sea of scorpions was throbbing, growing larger now and starting to advance toward her, looking for space to fill.
Zahra tried again. She spun it faster, then glanced behind her again. This was her last chance. Zahra eyed Rabia and released the nylon cord. The head sailed into the air, right on target.
Rabia caught it!
She shouldered the weight, and together Baahir and Ali secured their hands around the hook and braced themselves, ready to accept Zahra’s weight as well.
Zahra gripped the cord and planted her feet on the curved, half-piped base of the landbridge, and began her ascent. Unfortunately, she didn’t get far.
Her hands slipped, and she fell once more to the floor.
“Zahra!”
On her knees, she looked up, breathing hard. All three of her friends were pointing farther into the cavern.
The incoming scorpion horde was gathering numbers — and speed.
So she ran, trusting Rabia — or anyone above — to look after the grappling hook.
They might just get another chance.
She darted left, avoiding a mass of man-killers.
Zahra leaped over another swarm, barely clearing it with her heels, quickly sidestepping to the right. She jumped, planted a foot on the curved sidewall of the landbridge and vaulted over more of the creatures. She was home free.
…For now. As she moved, Zahra could see more of the scorpions emerging from their underground realm.
How many of these bastards are there?
Zahra could hear the others running along with her. The plan was… well, there was no plan. She needed to come up with one before she made it to the end. Zahra spotted it in the haze up ahead.
She had nothing. She was too tired to think and run.
She tried to catch her breath. Her heart was racing. She was exhausted and dehydrated. She grabbed two handfuls of hair and screamed in frustration. Her cry dwindled down to a drawn-out squeak when she noticed the wall at the end of the pit.
There were no scorpions pouring out. They were only collecting around her here, and there was just enough of a path for her to make it to the opposite wall.
Maybe…
She leaped onto the wall, using the fist-sized holes as hand and footholds. She hoped there weren’t any stragglers — any scorpions waiting for an easy snack.
If any were inside the holes, she didn’t want to give them time to rush forward and stab her. She moved as fast as she dared — falling back to the floor now would mean certain death.
She scaled the wall.
About halfway up, she stopped, hearing something odd.
Something skittered toward her.
It was coming from the hole directly in front of her face. As she listened, she heard more skittering. More sounds of rushing little legs, scrabbling to get out of their dark holes in search of a meal…
“Shit…”
She turned and looked up at her brother. The look on his face told her he had heard it too.
“Zahra — jump!”
She did, aiming for the nylon cord of her grappling hook. It dangled beneath his feet, beckoning her along. As soon as she completed the move, a stream of man-killers came spewing out of the hole where her head had just been. All the holes were now teeming with scorpions.
Zahra caught the line and gripped it as hard as she could. She was immediately yanked skyward by Baahir, Rabia, and Ali. Their combined strength was enough to get her up to the edge.
One by one, they released their hold on the cord and grabbed Zahra. Baahir gripped her jacket near her shoulders, Ali snagged a sleeve, and Rabia reached around and latched onto the back of her belt.
The group, Zahra included, fell onto the landbridge after one final pull.
Zahra didn’t move. She did nothing but lay there, staring at the ceiling and trying to catch her breath.
“I found… Feroz,” she said, huffing hard.
“You did?” Baahir asked, sitting up.
“Yeah,” Zahra replied. She lifted a shaky hand and pointed back into the pit. “He was down there.”
Baahir’s nose wrinkled up in disgust. “What a way to go.”
“Yeah, that’d be pretty awful.”
She sat up, and accepted Rabia and Ali’s offered hands. They slowly helped her up. Rabia didn’t let go until Zahra proved she could support her own weight. She gave the sniper a nod and tested her legs. Like everything else, they were sore and felt like gelatin.
Zahra prodded her lower back and thrust her hips left and right, audibly realigning the vertebrae. She took a deep breath and looked over her team.
“Thank you,” she said, making eye contact with each of them, “all of you.”
Rabia stepped up next to her and placed her hand on Zahra’s shoulder. “You aren’t getting out of this that easy.”
The trio headed for the exit tunnel.
Zahra spun and lifted her arms. “Who said that was easy?”
Everyone shared in a laugh. It felt good to laugh.
Zahra stepped over to her grappling hook and began to reel it in. Something felt off. It feels heavier than usual. With twenty-five feet left, she spied movement. She leaned over the edge and spotted a dozen scorpions making their way up to them via the heavy-duty nylon cord.
“Dammit!” she yelled, vigorously whipping the cord back and forth. Once all the man-killers were knocked free, she quickly pulled in the rest of the rope. Then, she gave herself a moment to catch her breath, and her hands found her knees.
“What was that all about?” It was Baahir.
She unfolded her spine and turned. Everyone was staring at her like she was a crazy person. Apparently, they hadn’t seen what was coming.
“If I didn’t hate bugs before, I definitely do now!”
Chapter 95
Khaliq
The path beyond the archaic laboratory was long and winding, and the walls enclosing it sported the same kneeling figures as the trap room. There must have been tens of thousands of them. Whether it was Anubis himself who had decreed the art be made, or not, it was an impressive sight. Maybe the craftsmen were even members of the Ayad clan? Was this where his bloodline began?
That intrigued Khaliq. Hopefully, there would be answers up ahead.
His flashlight flickered, stopping him in his tracks. Without the aid of artificial light, Khaliq’s mission would be nearly impossible. He waited for the beam to dim again, but it didn’t. Satisfied that it had been nothing more than a blip, Khaliq continued his search.