Hollywood Scream Play Read Free Page B

staring at me.
    The roar of engines breaks our gal pal moment. By the way the sound echoes through the tomb, I can tell it’s a large fleet.
    “Jack, what’s going on outside?”
    “You’ve got company. I’m opening the satellite feed into your right contact lens, so that you can see for yourself,” Jack tells me.
    What I see doesn’t make me happy. The motorcade has stopped just outside the entrance of the tomb, kicking up a cloud of fine desert silt. By the time it drifts away, several rebels, dusted from head to toe in shimmering dirt, have already sprung to the ground. They are crouching warily beside their vehicles, listening intently for any wayward sounds.
    Finally, one motions the all-clear. Squinting through the sights of their Uzis, the rebels fan out in all directions.
    Two of the men head to the front of the tomb. One of them, the taller of the two, runs his hands along the face of the front wall. The other, short and with a hook in his nose, angrily smacks the wall with the butt of this rifle.
    Yeah, good luck with that, buddy.
    Frustrated, Shorty shoots his rifle, then ducks as bullets ricochet off the wall and one of the two large columns. Tall Guy literally slams into the other column to avoid a stray.
    The column topples over onto the tomb. The building shakes as the wall caves in, exposing an antechamber.
    Now they are one thin wall away from me.
    “Where the hell am I supposed to hide?” I mutter frantically. “It’s not like l can climb back up the damn rabbit hole that put me here!”
    “Jump into the sarcophagus!” Jack commands me.
    “What? Are you crazy?”
    But he’s right. It’s the only place to hide.
    I run to it and jump in—
    Beside Bilqis.
    In order to fit, I’ve got to hug her, John and Yoko-style.
    Before taking the position, I shift the lid so that it looks as if it’s closed. In fact, it’s angled in such a way that I can peek out through a slim crack. If I’m lucky, they won’t bother to lift it up.
    Two men are now standing there in the doorway, haloed in the hazy sunlight. They look around. The emptiness of the room disappoints them, I’m sure. Tall Dude seems afraid to step inside, but Shorty circles the sarcophagus. His slow, steady footsteps echo off the high arched walls of the ancient tomb.
    He leans against the sarcophagus and lights a cigarette, as if he has all the time in the world.
    My mind warns me not to breathe, not to move, not to make a sound.
    Finally, he shrugs and starts out.
    He’s just reached the threshold when I sneeze.
    His head whips in my direction. His eyes turn toward the sarcophagus.
    I am so screwed.
    He starts over, but Tall Dude, whose eyes are open wide with fear, grabs his arm. When Shorty shakes it off, the other pleads with him, in Arabic. I don’t know what they’re saying, but whatever it is won’t buy me much time.
    “Donna, there’s something funny about the sarcophagus’ dimensions,” Jack mutters. “The surveillance feed on you is reading a spatial anomaly.”
    “What the hell are you talking about?” I whisper back.
    “I’m trying to tell you that it’s reading much deeper than it should, considering the mass of the sarcophagus’ base. My guess is that it has a false bottom.”
    “Why, pray tell?”
    “If you remember, those preparing the royals for the afterlife were sometimes buried alive with them. A false bottom would have allowed the survivors to escape somehow. If so, there’s got to be some sort of lever to open it. Start searching for it! I’m already on my way to you.”
    “Are you crazy? Stay put! One of us has to get out of here alive.” For my children’s sake, if for no other reason. We both know it. This is not the way I want them to learn that Jack—the only father they’ve ever known—has no legal rights to protect them from Carl, their biological father—
    And the man who deserted all of us.
    If Jack is right and there is a lever, I’d better find it quickly because Shorty seems to