Drifters

Great Pyramid of Giza

Razan closed his eyes as the blue glow covered him, then opened them to darkness.

Not complete darkness. A strip that ran through the center of the ceiling glowed, shining soft white light down on the room they were in. The entire thing was made of smooth, tan stone, with ancient carvings along the walls.

Razan decided this was acceptable, and he wouldn't panic. The corridors leading off on either side of the room looked a bit narrow, but that just made the light seem a tiny bit brighter. Also acceptable.

"Smells… old," Peter said, scuffing the floor with a boot. A fine layer of dust moved.

"These carvings are beautiful," Sophie said, staring at the walls.

"Yes, yes, it's fascinating," Marie said, handing out lights. "Samurai?"

Razan pulled the list of directions they'd decided on out of a pocket. Clearing his throat, he read, "Left, left, right, left, right, right, right, left, left, right, left, right, right, left, left, left." He nodded, and put it back into his pocket.

Marie and Peter gave him unamused looks.

"Wasn't the fourth right supposed to be a left?" Sophie asked.

"Seriously?" Peter asked. Razan wasn't sure if he was disbelieving or impressed.

Marie thought it over. "That was the one we changed due to snakes."

"Oh, of course," Sophie said, and turned left.

Razan followed, with Marie and Peter after him.

The first corridor's floor was made of marked pressure plates that released poisoned darts. The safe places to step were marked with a specific Ancient Egyptian letter, and the main difficulty was figuring out which letter was the safe one.

Thankfully, their group had a thief who was very good at dodging darts. She squeaked and yelped, hopping onto each stone in turn before quickly jumping back as darts shot out of the walls at her. It was quite dramatic, but Razan didn't dare say anything in case they decided he should do the testing next.

Suddenly she stopped, standing on a stone two rows in. "Found it!" She lifted her feet, checking the letter. "It's the feather!"

"Well done," Marie said. "Come back, let Razan go first."

Razan bowed, tucking his hands into his sleeves. He waited for Sophie to be back on safe ground before stepping to the stone she'd been on.

In what felt like a past life, he'd been trained to walk silently across a creaky wooden floor. This wasn't quite the same thing, but it involved many of the same skills.

He found the next safe stone and hopped to it, then immediately saw the next and jumped over. Marie was right behind him, then Peter, with Sophie at the end. The stones weren't next to each other, but they weren't far enough apart jumping was difficult.

There were fifteen safe stones total, and then he was across the threshold of the next room. Razan moved out of Peter's way, hoping all the trials in this place would be this easy.

Peter ran through the corridor as the walls closed in. They weren't moving particularly quickly, but the corridor was long, and a slight incline made things more difficult.

For once, he wished their weekly five-hour walks included running.

He reached the end, sliding into a room that had been marked as a snake trap room. Razan was second, slipping around the corner to press himself against a wall. Then came Marie, with Sophie on her heels.

As soon as they were through, the corridor snapped shut. Peter looked at it warily, then at the locked door opposite them.

"All the carvings here are of snakes," Sophie said nervously.

"Well, it is a snake room," Peter told her, glancing at the ceiling. There was a big wooden door set into the stone, with a hinge on the side closest to them.

Marie was also looking at it. "Sophie, if you stood on someone's shoulders, could you keep that door closed?"

Sophie frowned, calculating. "I could reach it. But I don't want to."

"I'd recommend against it, Captain," Razan said with a bow. "If there's a spring inside, or if the snakes are simply too heavy, she might be pushed off."

"I don't mind snakes," Peter said. "These aren't venomous, so I'm not scared to hold them off."

"Right, Peter can hold them off," Sophie agreed.

Marie nodded. "Very well, cowboy; you and I will deal with the snakes while Razan and Sophie figure out the door."

"One more problem," Razan said, holding his paper out with another bow. "We're supposed to go right in this room. There is only one door."

Peter looked around. There was one clearly-marked doorway, but to the right of it was a door-sized slab of stone.

"What was to the left?" Marie asked.

Sophie closed her eyes in concentration. "The ceiling comes down. It has spikes."

"To the right, the floor is moving," Razan added, glancing at the paper.

Marie frowned at the door. "Well, I don't see how that changes things. Sophie, Razan, figure out the door. We'll hold the snakes off."

They all agreed, and ran for the other side of the room. There was a thunk from the ceiling. With impressive grace, the door fell open and a dozen two-foot-long snakes rolled out behind them.

The tan and black things looked real. Peter suddenly doubted if Juan had been wrong when he'd said they were like the hawks.

Marie pulled out her cutlass and stabbed one that had latched onto her boot. There was a snap, and its head came off to show metal and wires, along with a bright pink blood-like liquid. Peter pulled around his crossbow and shot the grappling hook bolt at a snake. Its head was crushed, letting pink blood spill out as it rolled over, dead. He snatched another snake off the ground and twisted its head, wondering how easy these things were to break. He felt more than heard something inside it crack, and it went limp.

By then the snakes had slithered around Peter and Marie, and one bit into Sophie's ankle. She shrieked, kicked it against the door until it dislodged, then climbed straight up the wall. She stopped when her head hit the ceiling and hung there, staring down in terror.

Peter was about to ask how she was doing that when a snake bit into his heel. He stomped on it, then stomped on another that was getting close. Marie took three out with her cutlass, leaving four snakes hissing around them.

"I believe we need a live snake," Razan said quickly. "There's a hole here; the carvings indicate a snake is the key."

Marie glanced at Peter. "I ain't touching them, cowboy."

He nodded. "Just keep the rest off me…" With a lunge, he grabbed the closest snake behind the head and hopped over another towards Razan.

The samurai pointed to a hole halfway up the wall, kicking at a snake that was getting too close. Peter shoved his angry snake into the hole, pushing until it was all the way in.

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Nothing happened.

Peter was wondering if he'd put it in the wrong way around when there was a thunk. The door was pulled back and up into the next corridor. A faint grinding sound filled the room, and he looked down to see the stones that made the floor of the corridor were slowly moving side to side.

"Are all the snakes dead?" Sophie asked, still clinging to what looked like a flat wall.

"Yes," Marie answered, putting her cutlass away.

"Can you get down?" Peter asked. He stepped back, looking up at her, wondering if she needed someone to catch her.

Marie answered before Sophie could. "She got up there by herself, what makes you think she can't get back down?" Without waiting for a reply, she stepped into the corridor and strolled away.

Razan followed, hopping a bit to keep balance. Peter sighed, taking another step back as Sophie slipped down to the open doorway, then dropped to the floor in a crouch.

She stood, giving Peter a flat look. "Peter. If I need help, I'll ask for it. Trust me. Don't treat me like a child."

Slowly, he nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

"Thank you." She turned, stepped into the corridor, and promptly fell over.

"The floor is moving faster," Marie called over her shoulder, still in the exact center of the corridor.

Adjusting his hat, Peter stepped onto the first moving block.

Marie stepped into the next room, smiling. The moving floor hadn't quite felt like walking on a ship, but it was the closest thing she'd been on in a while. It made her briefly homesick.

Then she turned and watched the children under her care.

Razan wasn't doing too bad. He was jumping from one block to the next, spending more time in the air than with his feet on a block. He made it to solid ground and sagged a bit, pretending to not pant.

Sophie was holding on to the wall, letting herself be yanked away and shoved against it as she moved from block to block. Marie almost wanted to suggest she climb along the ceiling instead.

Last of all, poor Peter was stumbling forward like a drunk man, holding the fringe of his poncho like the floor might catch and eat it.

"Landlubbers," Marie said under her breath, then turned to the samurai. "What's this room?"

He checked his list. "As soon as we enter, it… will fill with a poisonous gas."

She frowned. So far, the rooms hadn't sealed until they were all inside. Meaning, if someone stayed in the corridor, the gas trap probably wouldn't activate.

"Razan, work on the door," she ordered, stepping back into the corridor.

With sure steps, she grabbed Sophie and shoved her out, then caught Peter and threw him after her. Peter stumbled, but caught his balance. They ran to the door to the right and started discussing the puzzle there.

It took three seconds, but the corridor's exit began to slowly close. Marie stood on the last block, rocking back and forth as it moved, watching as a stone door slowly slid out of the wall.

The exit apparently had stone buttons or something which had to be pushed in the correct pattern. Sophie and Razan got into an argument about what the pattern was as Peter pushed things semi-randomly, him being the only one tall enough to reach the top button.

"You've got about twenty seconds," Marie called, getting ready to slip through the closing door.

"It's cat, feather, snake, beetle, cross," Sophie insisted.

Razan pointed to something. "No, it's cat, feather, beetle, owl, beetle!"

"Neither of those worked," Peter told them.

Sophie scanned the room. "Cat, feather… owl, cross, snake?"

"Cat, feather, cross, snake, owl," Razan tried.

Peter tried both. "Nope."

Twenty seconds had passed, and Marie hopped into the room.

The door behind her slammed shut, and with a click white gas started coming through holes near the floor. They all froze for half a second, then Razan pushed himself against the wall.

"Cat, feather, owl, snake, beetle!" he yelled.

"Wait," Sophie said, grabbing Peter's arm. "Cross, cat, owl, snake, beetle!"

"No, cat and feather are the first two, I can feel it," Peter told her.

Marie glanced around the ceiling and found what she suspected were spots where the rostari were watching from. She moved closer to one and lowered her voice. "You know, it would be amazing if I walked over and got the correct combination on the first try."

There was no response, no signal, and the white gas continued to fill the room.

Confidently, Marie walked to the door, moved Peter aside, and pushed in five stones at random. Cat, feather, snake, cross, owl. There was a click, and the door began sliding open.

Sophie stepped back, looking around the room. "Where was it? How did you know?"

Marie smirked, stepping into a corridor that was darker than the rest. "Simple, child, I know everything."

"It was a lucky guess," Peter decided, adjusting his poncho before following her.

"No," Razan said, smiling faintly. "I don't know how, but I am quite certain luck had nothing to do with it."

"Shush," Marie ordered, stepping down onto a tripwire. She looked down, instinctively moving back, and an axe dropped from the ceiling, embedding itself in the floor right in front of her boot. "Right. Sophie. You go first."

"Captain, a question," Peter said hesitantly.

Marie glanced at him, an eyebrow raised.

"How many axes do you think there are for each tripwire?" He held up his crossbow with its grappling hook bolt, shrugging.

Proud of how he was thinking, Marie kicked the tripwire again. Nothing happened. She smiled at him, stepping to the wall. "Go ahead, cowboy, this corridor is yours."

Every three seconds, the stairs rotated until their edges lined up, turning the steep staircase into a steep ramp. And then three seconds would pass, and the ramp would flip back into a staircase.

Sophie was having so much fun timing her jumps. There was a faint tick just before the stone steps rotated, but she didn't need it. There was something in her soul that told her when to jump.

"Next time, we're avoiding this section," Marie stated.

The grumbling agreement from the men made Sophie giggle as she reached the top of the stairs. There was a small platform, and then a sharp drop. At the bottom was a pit full of snakes.

The snakes sensed Sophie looking at them and twitched into movement. They hissed and rattled, wriggling around in a way that made her skin crawl.

Peter was the first to land on the platform next to her, quickly followed by Razan then Marie. The older woman looked tired, but more annoyed than anything. She looked over the edge and sighed.

"I thought this was supposed to be a pit full of spikes," she complained.

"Well the words are similar," Sophie said. "Maybe we read it wrong."

"Spike and snake are similar in English?" Razan asked.

"Aye, not in French or Spanish, though," Marie answered. "Or Dutch. Or any other language I know of. Regardless. There's a lever over there we're supposed to pull to get a bridge of some sort. Cowboy, shoot."

Peter stepped up to the edge, judging the angle. The platform across from them was slightly lower than the one they were on, and the lever was between two doors in the far wall. He adjusted the grappling hook, aimed, and fired.

It missed. Not by much. It hit above the lever and slightly to the left. Everyone agreed it was a good first attempt, and Peter started pulling the thin rope back towards him. That process took two minutes, and then another minute as he got everything into place. Finally, he aimed and shot again.

The hook hit the lever and bounced off. Everyone agreed he almost had it, and Peter started pulling the rope back again.

Sophie wondered if it was possible to be bailed for taking forever in one of these rooms.

Marie looked thoughtfully at Sophie. "Thief, do you think you could jump this?"

"Well, I… don't think it's impossible, but if I miss…" She glanced nervously down at the snakes. "I don't mind waiting. I'm sure Peter will get it next time."

"Not worth the risk," Marie said, nodding.

Razan gave Sophie a bland smile. "I thought you were brave."

She glared at him. His smile turned into a smirk, a challenge.

"Fine," she snapped, stomping to the back of the platform. "It isn't stupid to be afraid of snakes."

"Apologies, but on the moon you said you weren't afraid of anything," he pointed out.

She crouched, getting into position, still glaring. "Get out of my way."

He bowed, shuffling backwards. Marie and Peter also stepped back, leaving the edge open. Sophie took a deep breath and let it out slowly, calculating the distance.

She moved. Five steps to the edge, then she was over open space. This wasn't like Antarctica; there was nothing to stop her or slow her down as she arced towards the lower platform. This wasn't like the climbing room; the ground would be completely solid when she landed, and her bones would give long before the stone floor did.

Closing her eyes, she tucked her limbs in just before hitting the platform. She landed in a roll, letting the momentum take her, not fighting because she'd lose.

After a few painful seconds, she bumped gently against a door and stopped, feeling like a tomato that had been kicked down a flight of stairs.

"Ow," she decided, then pushed herself into a sitting position. The lever was within arm's reach.

She pulled it.

With a loud grinding sound, a stone bridge extended from the higher platform. Marie stepped on, riding it down to the platform Sophie was on. Peter and Razan waited for it to stop before crossing.

Once they were all over, Razan offered a hand to help Sophie back to her feet.

"I hate you," she grumbled, accepting.

In reply, he just smiled and bowed.

"Anything hurt, thief?" Marie asked, watching them with a faint frown.

"Bruised, but that's all," Sophie said, carefully stretching to make sure nothing was dislocated.

Marie patted her shoulder. "Well done. Samurai, which door next?"