| THE ADVENTURES OF THE O'CONNELL FAMILY Page 55 |
| "You mean...Nephthys was here... she's back!?" Nefertiri asked dumbfounded. "Why, what's the problem...we killed her, and the man." Nefret said. "No, you see," was Nefertiri's grave reply, "Five years ago, we killed her too." Desiree ([email protected]) July 4, 2002 "All right, everybody got it? We're gonna go in, scope the situation, and on Osiris's signal, we're attacking. Let's just hope Jonathan's got the Golden Book, or this could be a long night. Ok, Ardeth?" Rick attempted to get Ardeth's attention. "Yes, Rick?" Ardeth's concentration had been slipping back to Nefret- he hoped she was ok. "Don't worry, Nefret can take care of herself, and she's got Evie with her. She'll be fine. What we need to worry about is Bonnie, ahem, Nephthys." "Yes, yes, you are right. Let us concentrate on the immediate situation. The first thing we must do is free Seti and Nefertiri. They must be escape at once. Gabrielle will meet us at the outside pillars and take them to safety. Now, how are we to free Evelyn and Nefret?" "I don't know, but whatever we do, we've gotta do it soon. Let's go- now, no talking. Osiris, on your signal we move out." "Ok, let's go." Osiris slinked out in front of Rick and Ardeth, but the two were soon to follow. They snuck up to the entrance to the room, and looked in to see their surroundings. "Look!! It's Seti! But, where is Nefertiri?" Osiris looked around wildly. "Where's Evie?" "Where's Nefret? What do we do now?" Ardeth was worried. "We must get Seti. He looks ill. Let us go." Osiris started into the room, where there were seemingly no guards. "Why aren't there any guards? Where are they? This isn't looking good." Rick looked around, paranoid and worried. The three men finally reached Seti, who looked extremely battered and weary. "Seti? Sir, are you ok? We must get you out of here. Can you stand?" Osiris was attending to the pharaoh while Ardeth and Rick looked around for any sign of danger. "Rick? We need to get these shackles off of him." Rick looked down and saw the pharaoh�s hands cuffed to the wall. "Ardeth- let me borrow your sword." The pharaoh looked up, alarmed. "Ah, sir, don't worry. I'm an excellent shot. Most of the time." The last sentence was mumbled and incomprehensible to the surrounding men. While Rick was setting up for the blow to the chain, Osiris attempted to side-track him from the sword coming down between his wrists. "Where is Nefertiri? Why is she not chained here with you?" Just at that moment, Rick swung the sword down, and Seti's hands sprang apart. Rick nodded his head with a cocky smile, and returned Ardeth's sword. Seti looked very relieved to still have his hands, and he turned to answer Osiris's question, "She left about an hour ago because we had heard a noise in the chamber down the hall. Nefertiri went to see what was happening, and she has not yet returned. I hope she has gone, but I doubt it. She unchained herself days ago, and I have been trying to convince her to leave, but she wouldn't do it. She said that she wouldn't leave me here to die." Seti had a pained look on his face. "Do not worry, we'll get her out of here. But first, we need to get you out of here. Can you walk? There is a person waiting for you at the outside pillars. She will take you to a doctor, and there you will recover your strength. We will follow soon after with Nefertiri." Osiris attempted to help the pharaoh up. "I think I can walk, but I cannot leave Nefertiri! She is the only daughter I have, I cannot leave her!" Seti just managed to get up. "Sir, what help do you think you could give her here? She will rest better knowing that you are safe. Osiris, will you help the pharaoh to meet Gabrielle? I'm going after the girls. Ardeth, you come with me. Osiris, once you've delivered Seti to Gabrielle, come back and help us. Ok, let's go." The men started out in their separate ways. Rick stopped and turned around; he felt like an idiot for not asking before. "Seti? Which way is the room, and why aren't there any guards?" "Well, the room is that way," Seti pointed in the opposite direction of the entrance, "And the guards left this room not long before Nefertiri left. They must have gotten some new prisoners, because it was awfully careless of them to leave us unguarded." At that, Seti laughed and Osiris nodded to Rick as they turned away to meet Gabrielle; Seti was limping uncontrollably. "Awfully," Rick didn't like this. Those new prisoners were undoubtedly Evie and Nefret. While Rick was still in thought, Ardeth started towards the other room, "Rick? Let's go! There is no time to waste!" Rick jolted out of his transfixed stage, and jogged after Ardeth to catch up. The two were just coming around the corner when they smacked right into three women. "Evie!" "Rick!" and at the same time, "Nefret!" "Ardeth!" The couples all looked at each other in relief and started hugging, but they were all soon distracted by a heart-wrenching scream that tore out of the princess, Nefertiri. They all looked up just in time to see an ax heading straight towards Nefertiri. Rick grabbed the princess's arm to pull her out of the way, but the ax nipped his shoulder as it went by. Ardeth drew his sword just as a dozen or more guards came stampeding towards the group. Evie, Nefret, and Nefertiri were slower to react. Evie grabbed a spear from the wall, Nefret pulled a sword from a statue's sheath, and Nefertiri grabbed her specialty, knives, from another statue's waist. "Rick!!!" Evie jumped in front of her husband just as the man tried to stab him on the ground. Evie worked the spear around the sword and quickly stabbed the man in the chest. The man dropped his sword and staggered |