EATER OF SOULS
Chapter Twenty Seven "It took a couple of hours but the Doctor finally managed to wrap Rose until only her face and hands were visible. He had left enough room in back to cut her out of the wrappings and applied resin in a few key areas so it looked like he'd been using it. Bezrek admired his work when he was finished. "Impressive," he said, looking Rose over. "Thank you. I didn't use very much resin, it's all in wrapping the body that makes the mummy," he said. "So…Rose, comfy? You said you were cold earlier." "I was but this is too much, now I'm overheated," Rose said. "Sorry. It was either this or evisceration," the Doctor said. "I know. Trust me, I'm not complaining," Rose said. As the Doctor put everything away, Bezrek came up beside her. "I'll be glad when you lot get me outta this," she said to him. Bezrek didn't reply. He laid his hand against her linen covered cheek. "I know that you're with him but I can't help but admire your beauty," he said to her. "You would have been elevated to royalty on my planet." "Really? I'm not of royal blood," Rose said to him. "Doesn't matter. The beautiful people are revered on my planet and you are one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen." "I don't feel beautiful, wrapped up like this at the moment," Rose said. "Ah but not even mummy wrappings can diminish your loveliness," Bezrek said. "Cor, listen to him, Doctor. He knows how to charm women," Rose said as the Doctor turned back to her. "Well, I agree. You are lovely," the Doctor said. "However, I have to cover that lovely face with more bandages. Loosely, of course, so you can breathe but this is just a friendly warning." Rose nodded and the Doctor asked Bezrek to go and tell Apophis that they were nearly ready. Bezrek nodded and left while the Doctor held Rose's head and loosely wrapped linen around it, making sure that she had an opening over her nose so she could breathe. By the time he was done, Bezrek had brought Apophis back into the room. "Ah, so you obeyed, good," he said, looking Rose over. "I had no choice. I don't want Rose cut open and her organs strewn all over the floor," the Doctor said to him. "Yes, that would have been a nasty death, however, it would have been less painful since the only pain she would have felt was when her chest and stomach were opened. She would never have felt the organs being removed, whereas this…she will slowly suffocate to death in a dark, airless tomb so I doubt you made the more merciful choice." He came closer to the Doctor and stared at him with his reptilian eyes. "Unless you think you can save her at some point," he said. The Doctor stared back calmly and shrugged. "Stranger things have happened. The universe is unpredictable," he said. "As am I, Doctor. I can be very unpredictable and I suggest you don't try anything you might regret. Now, bring her with you and follow me," Apophis said, pointing to Rose. "Aye, aye, Sargeant Slytherin," the Doctor said, saluting. Bezrek walked beside him while the Doctor picked up Rose. He had wrapped the linen loosely enough that she could bend at the waist and the Doctor hoped that wasn't a dead giveaway that she wasn't confined in the wraps as he followed them. As they left the lab, Apophis's guards fell in behind them, guarding the Doctor. The Doctor looked back at them. "What I wouldn't give to have a flute and a wicker basket at this moment," he said to them. They didn't answer and the Doctor shrugged and turned his head back to Apophis. Bezrek looked back at him and shared a look with the Time Lord before he turned his head back around. The Doctor smirked at Apophis's back as he followed them. They went to the control room and the Doctor stood near Apophis, flanked by guards while one of the reptiles cloaked the ship and slowly lowered it near the pyramid of giza. When they were about 500 feet above it, Apophis ordered the Doctor to come with him and Bezrek and told two guards to keep watch over him. They walked to the transmat beam and in a few seconds they were standing at the base of the great pyramid. The Doctor looked around but apart from them, no one was out in the desert. The temperature was sweltering and the Doctor could hear Rose curse softly. He felt sorry for her, knowing the bandages that had kept her warm inside were now making her sweat uncontrollably. He glanced at the guard to his left and noticed the long dagger in a sheath on a leather belt around his waist. The Doctor made note of it before Apophis ordered everyone to follow him. They walked around to the side and here there was shade. The air was less oppressive and the Doctor could hear a small sigh of relief from Rose. Apophis said something in Egyptian and several of the stones in the pyramid slid back several feet and then parted, making a doorway. Apophis led them all inside and the guards pulled glow sticks out of a leather holder on their belts and turned them on, flooding a dark corridor with weak light. The stones moved back into place and Apophis turned to Bezrek. "Lead them to the crypt room. The guards will assist you," Apophis said. "I will wait here. Be warned, Doctor, I can teleport to your location in a heartbeat so don't try anything stupid." "Got ya," the Doctor said. One of the guards nudged him in the back with his staff and the Doctor sighed angrily while Bezrek led them down the corridor. The corridor was narrow on all sides and the air was musty and dusty. The Doctor activated his bypass system while he followed Bezrek down the corridor. "You know that at the end of this, we'll have to climb a ladder to the next level," the Doctor said to Bezrek. "I'll have to put Rose over my shoulder while I climb up." "No need. We have an antigravity platform that will take us up. Ladders are for humans," Bezrek said. "Good, I didn't like the sound of being slung over your shoulder," Rose said in a muffled voice. They reached the end of the corridor. Above them was a dark shaft that led upwards to the next corridor. Bezrek had everyone get in close before he bent down and moved the sand at their feet till he found the silver disc of the antigravity platform. He found the up and down buttons and pushed the up button. There was a lurch as the platform came up out of the sand that had hidden it and they glided upwards through the shaft. Off to their left side was a very crude wooden ladder, the rungs lashed to two wooden poles with rawhide ropes. The Doctor stared at the ladder and gave silent thanks that he wouldn't have to climb it with Rose over his shoulder. When the platform reached the next level, the corridor was off to their left. It sloped upwards to the burial chamber. Everyone struggled to keep their footing as they walked up the narrow, slanted corridor. The light sticks barely lit the corridor and it was hard to tell what was in front of them since the light barely extended five feet all around them. The added weight of Rose's body put pressure on his legs as he climbed upward and they were beginning to ache. He hoped whatever Bezrek had in mind, it would happen soon. Finally, after a half hour of climbing, the corridor leveled out and they walked up to a heavy stone door. The door had carvings of Egyptian priests on them with hieroglyphic writing down the side. The doors had stone handles and there was a heavy rope tying them closed with a small clay seal that signified the doors had been sealed shut and hadn't been opened. Bezrek broke the seal and untied the rope while everyone waited. He put the rope aside and with a grunt swung open the heavy stone doors. "What's going on?" Rose asked the Doctor. "We're going into ASDA for a few things," the Doctor said. "P'eh, I wish," Rose said while the Doctor chuckled. "Bezrek's opening the door to the burial chamber," the Doctor said. Once the doors were opened, Bezrek told all of them to enter. They entered the stone room and the Doctor looked around. The walls were undecorated and the only thing in the room was a rectangular stone sarcophagus. On the back of the wall was a small round hole. The hole was part of a shaft that led up the rest of the pyramid to another hole near the top of the pyramid. This allowed a bit of air to come into the room so it wasn't as musty smelling as the corridors but it still smelled old. Bezrek ordered the guards to lift the top off the sarcophagus. The guards walked over and got on either side of it, grunting as they tried to lift the heavy stone lid up and off the sarcophagus. While they were doing that, Bezrek took one of the guard's daggers and to the Doctor's amazement, he began cutting the linen off of Rose's body. "Much appreciated but isn't it a bit early to do this?" the Doctor muttered to him as he nodded his head to the guards. "They are still in the room." "No worries, they're with me," Bezrek said. The Doctor nodded and smiled when he was finally able to put Rose on her feet once Bezrek cut the linen off her feet and legs. He worked his way up and the guards stood and watched while the Doctor unraveled the linen off her head, exposing her face. Rose made a face when she smelled the stale air. "Ugh, they need some air freshener in this place," she said. The Doctor took the knife from Bezrek and carefully cut the rest of the linen off her head. Rose breathed a sigh of relief when she was finally able to move her sweat slicked hair back away from her face. She looked around at the crypt and then at the open sarcophagus as the guards came towards them. "Wait, if the guards are with you, why did you make them go through the trouble of opening the crypt," Rose said. The Doctor got a warning flag when the guards suddenly came up behind them. He then noticed Bezrek's smirk. "Because, my love, it's still going to be occupied, but not by you," Bezrek said. Before they could react to that, the guards rammed their staffs into Rose and the Doctor's heads. The last thing the Doctor heard before he lost consciousness was Bezrek's joyful laugh.
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