Vol 11: Chapter 6-3.
They looked to each other for a moment then everyone did the same thing. They rushed into the dirigible. O’Connell yelled. “Izzy, take off! Take off!”
The black dude was enjoying a bottle of brandy when he heard the yell. He turned his head to where O’Connell was pointing. The bottle dropped to the deck and he yelled in reply. “I knew I would be in bad luck following you. I knew it…” He unsheathed the sword on his waist and cut off the rope tying the dirigible. Everyone else had gotten up to the deck by this time. They stared as the sandstorm was coming closer and closer why the dirigible moved ever so slowly.
“F*ck.” O’Connell was panicking. He grabbed Izzy. “Why the heck did you change from piloting airplanes to a dirigible?”
Izzy yelled back at him. “Heck, like I am listening to you and drive a plane into the enemies again. If you don’t let go of me, we are all going to have our asses kicked.”
As the sandstorm got closer, it was shaping into something.
The scene felt so familiar, especially for O’Connell and Evelyn. “Imhotep!”
As expected. The sandstorm formed a bald head. It opened its mouth like it was laughing and bit at the dirigible in mid air. Izzy suddenly pulled a chain by the controls. Two pillars of fire burst out from the back and pushed the dirigible forward, dodging the bite from the bald head. The head followed closely in equal speed to the dirigible.
The two had flown for quite some distance when a canyon appeared in front of them. The bottom of the canyon was a river. Zheng yelled. “Izzy, drive the dirigible into the canyon! Hurry!”
Izzy did so without hesitation. To be honest, he didn’t even have the time to think and just followed what others said. He focused his attention on the winding path of the canyon.
The bald head also entered along with endless sand that filled the sky. It looked like the desert flooded into the canyon. The head was moving faster and slowly closed the gap between it and the dirigible.
“No. He didn’t become faster. We slowed down!” Evelyn immediately yelled.
Izzy yelled back helplessly. “Do you think my fuel is endless? The acceleration can only last a little while. Grab onto something!” The dirigible made a turn and almost threw everyone off it.
The bald head was shrinking in size. When it almost reached the dirigible, its size was at the same height of the dirigible. By the time the others looked behind, the head melted into the river along with its sand.
They paused for a moment then cheered. Nothing was as exciting as escaping from death. The excitement overcame the fact that the dirigible was flying in a slant. Izzy was shouting as the dirigible was going downward.
“Uh. Everyone grab onto something!” Izzy finally yelled.
O’Connell held Evelyn in his arms tightly and yelled back. “F*ck. Can you say something new?”
Izzy thought for a moment and added. “The dirigible is going to crash!”
Fortunately, they had already flown out of the canyon and crashed into a green forest. The dirigible hit a huge tree. The thick layers of branches and leaves buffered the impact from the crash. However, they still looked horrible after being thrown to the ground.
“I knew it. I knew it. There’s nothing good coming with you!” Izzy massaged his head.
The others also massaged where the crash got them. Evelyn was the only one intact. O’Connell held onto her the whole time and took the impact from the fall. She got up and looked around.
“This should be the Oasis of Ahm Shere. God. There’s really such a huge forest in the desert. That’s unbelievable. It was said that the army of Anubis resided in this forest. Even the Scorpion King’s pyramid was built around here.” Evelyn laughed as she looked around with a pair of gleaming eyes. It looked like she couldn’t wait any longer.
Zheng smiled bitterly. He remembered Evelyn wasn’t so obsessed with pyramids in the movie. Though, her son was kidnapped during the second movie and only had seven days left. She wouldn’t have any time to care about pyramids.
Zheng got up and asked the others. “That was Imhotep? Didn’t he get killed by us? And the Medjais are excavating his pyramid. How did he revive?”
Ardeth’s face looked terrible. He blew a whistle then a little hawk flew over and landed on his arm.
“The hawk has been following us just in case something happens so I can get in contact with my tribe. Let me ask what’s happening in Hamunaptra. Hope it isn’t something big.” Ardeth wrote on a little piece of paper then inserted it into a bottle tied to the hawk’s feet. He raised his arm up and the hawk flew away.
After it was gone, everyone looked at Zheng. He muttered. “I am not afraid of fighting Imhotep. But he can’t be killed. If that was really Imhotep, we will need the Book of Amun-Ra to kill him. There’s no way to deal with him until we dig out the book. Let’s go find the pyramid in the forest first. Imhotep should lose his powers inside the pyramid.”
They didn’t understand why he said that with such certainty. Everyone organized their weapons and bags. Izzy said. “God, the dirigible is unusable now. Look, the gasbag is broken. This is not a hot air balloon. How are we going to find gas in this forest?”
O’Connell faked a laugh. “Izzy, men shouldn’t complain about everything. We trust that you will find a way. Haha, yes. You will find a way to make the dirigible take off again.” He grabbed Evelyn and ran ahead.
The others also ran behind O’Connell, leaving Izzy by the dirigible. Poor man had to take care of this half destroyed dirigible alone.
On a desert, Imhotep opened his eyes and laughed. “Didn’t kill them but they are just in front of me. I will take their lives the next time I see them. I heard what they said. No more Book of Amun-Ra. Haha.”
Imhotep walked in front. A beautiful woman, an old man in black robe, a muscular black man, and a group of cavalry followed behind him toward the canyon beyond the temple.