Crash & Burn

I heard the helicopter overhead. Everyone else had left the hole but I wanted to make sure we could get this thing rigged up without any catastrophes happening. Once I hooked it in I put my harness back on and radioed into the helicopter.

"Ready when you are boys." I told them and jumped up onto the sarcophagus holding the rope for dear life as they started to lift me up. It was a quicker ride then me climbing up by myself. I jumped off the sarcophagus as we reached the top of the hole. Nick was on me immediately unstrapping me from my gear, he threw it into the bag I had brought with me. I was baffled, he looked into my eyes as he grabbed my hand literally dragging me from the site as he threw my bags on his shoulder.

"We gotta go. Colonel is yelling orders we have to get out of here before the air strike hits." He explained as we loaded up onto another helicopter. I sat down between Nick and Chris as we took off. I glanced out of the window, Nick's gaze followed mine watching the sarcophagus being towed by the other helicopter, as we watched the sandstorm and convoy on the ground. Vail groaned from beside me.

"We're almost there Vail. Hang in there." I told the guy beside me not to worry too much. He gave me a look and smiled. The ride wasn't long maybe about 15 minutes to get the hell out of there and to the airfield for immediate evacuation.

"So who is it? Did you get a look?" Nick asked me as we jumped out of our ride.

"Why would I tell you that, Nicholas. So you can steal it?" I asked him giving him a half-hearted glare and walking towards Jennifer.

"Hey! Hey! Wait.. wait.. please be careful. This is 5,000 years old." I heard Halsey say as she ran up to the men unclipping the harness and loading it onto the C130 that would take us out of here.

"60 seconds! In the air! Let's go!" Colonel barked orders at the uniformed men.

"Careful, careful!" I yelled at the men too as I followed behind them not crossing the threshold of the plane.

"O'Connell, it seems you're needed with the-- mummy." Colonel told me quickly before he shoved me onto the plane, Nick following with Vail in tow behind him. Halsey was making sure the mummy was clipped in sufficiently as I sat down next to Nick.

"Get us off the ground now! Halsey, take a seat!" Colonel yelled over the wind brewing the sandstorm that was almost on top of us. Sandstorms around here were not unheard of but the timing of it seemed off to me. The plane immediately started rumbling as the gear tracked over the ground, probably reaching up to 80kts before takeoff. And suddenly, the ground wasn't beneath us anymore. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was fine, we were going to get out of here and to the safe comfort of a museum to unload this lovely masterpiece. As we got ourselves settled I wanted to get my laptop and books out to conduct some research before I took a closer look at the sarcophagus. Halsey had fallen asleep fairly quickly, probably tired from her one-night stand with Nick. I rolled my eyes as I got up from my seat and started to get my bag from the overhead where Nick had thrown it.

"Need some help?" He asked me quietly.

"No." I answered quickly as I stood on the seat to reach my bag. I could feel his eyes raking down my body as my shirt rode up my torso a bit.

"Nick. Stop, your girlfriend is sitting right across from us, sleeping." I berated him.

"What?? No, she's not-- I'm not-- No." He stumbled over his words as he tried to get them out. I laughed quietly as I retrieved the Menehptre book, my computer, camera, and cord from my bag.

"Sure..." I said to him as I jumped off the seat to sit back down next to him.

"You're welcome by the way..." He started. I rolled my eyes opening my computer and signing in while I hooked one end of the cord to the computer and the other to my camera. I opened a word document and the pictures I had taken at the tomb.

"Why?" I asked him.

"Because I saved your-- whatever it is." He started. Oh Nick so intelligent, he knew exactly what it was. He just wanted to bother me.

"Nick. You didn't save it, don't even pretend you did. That was safely hidden for 5,000 years before you dropped a hellfire missile on it." I pointed to the sarcophagus.

"And you might have never found it otherwise. Again... You're welcome." He told me. I took my eyes off my computer to look at him fully. There was a hint of sarcasm in his eyes that I could tell he was just trying to get a rise out of me but he was being very cocky about it. I wanted to bring him down a peg.

"Do you have any idea what this is? The significance of it? An Egyptian sarcophagus in a tomb in Mesopotamia?" I asked him. He looked like he was lost. The look in his eye and the words he said to me next confirmed it.

"Why didn't we stay together Elizabeth?" He asked me catching me off guard.

"It would've never worked out between us," I said to him keeping it short.

"I was going to propose." He told me, I scoffed and rolled my eyes. Sure he was. No way in hell that he would've proposed to me. I got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it. But I shoved my feelings down.

"Oh yes, Nick Morton finally able to keep it in his pants? That'll be the day." I told him. He looked at me taken aback by my words, like he didn't know why I left.

"You never gave me a reason why you left." He told me. Oh yes here it was, he wanted closure.

"Well Nick, I didn't think I needed one after the 3rd time you cheated on me. I figured you knew exactly what you were doing and why. You didn't want me, I knew it and so did you. If you loved me you never would have done the things you did. You didn't have to hurt me so much you know? Don't you ever think of anyone but yourself?" I cleared my throat as I got up from my seat and moved over to the sarcophagus. I let the words sink in then started talking again.

"This find. It means something to me. Something bigger than you can imagine, it's my life's pursuit. And you were going to steal it. How much do you think that's worth on the black market?" I asked him. The emotions from when I left him, now fresh in my head. He failed to have an answer. I sighed and started to look at the hieroglyphics on the sarcophagus. I took out my phone and started to record.

"This is Dr. Elizabeth O'Connell, conducting a preliminary analysis of an Egyptian sarcophagus discovered in Nineveh province in Northern Iraq. The hieroglyphs are... New Kingdom. It appears that the wife of Menehptre died in childbirth leaving a sole heir to the throne, a girl, called Ahamanet. This is odd since I've read about Menehptre--" I walked back over to the book on him flipping to the index.

"There's no mention of Ahamanet anywhere within the book itself. She was erased from history and the Egyptians made sure it remained that way. That must be why she was buried so far away from Egypt... No one was supposed to find her." I finished my recording stowing my phone into my pocket. I looked at the sarcophagus an odd feeling taking over me. I shuddered as I sat back down plopping the computer on my lap and flipping through my book trying to find any mention of a daughter. Excitement and nerves flowed through my body as I typed down exactly everything that had happened today. I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to Nick elbowing and shoving me to wake up. I opened my eyes and saw Vail standing over the sarcophagus with a knife trying to cut the rope off the sarcophagus. He was very white, his complexion, almost completely gone.

"Nick. There's something wrong." I told him slowly as Vail was being questioned by Greenway.

"Corporal Vail, do you hear me talking to you? I said, what are you.." Almost as if by an outside force Vail shoved the knife he had into Greenway's chest. Chris Vail looked at Nick.

"Vail, just..." Nick uttered out trying to get him to stop, but he didn't, he once again stabbed the knife into the Colonel.

"Oh my god." I reached for my gun at my side taking it out and pointing it at Vail. He turned back towards us. His right eye had clouded over like a dog with cataracts.

"O'Connell." I heard Nick say my name slowly and calculated. He didn't want me to shoot his friend and I completely understood but this was not the time, something was taking over Vail's body.

"Vail! Whoa.. Whoa! Vail!" Nick yelled waking up Halsey. She took one look at the situation and barreled off the seat she was in. She stood between Vail and the soldiers who had also jumped up.

"Oh my God. Vail!" She yelled seeing the Colonel on the ground, she looked at me confused at the chaos that had exploded out of nowhere. Nick pushed me behind him continuously yelling at Vail to stop.

"Drop the weapon! Drop it now! NOW!!" The soldiers said behind me. Threatening to shoot him I was right there with them, shoot him and put him out of this... Whatever this was. Everyone was yelling at each other as they took their eyes off the problem at hand. Nick stole a gun from a soldier and pointed it at them.

"Whoa! Nick stop it. They're trying to contain the situation." I told him as I holstered my gun back to my side. He got closer to me, I made a move to grab the gun and disarm it so no more damage would be done. He figured it out and avoided me completely.

"Stop! Do not shoot! This is a pressurized aircraft!" Halsey yelled at us as if we were too dense to realize a hole in this cabin would lead to rapid depressurization.

"Nick." I breathed out trying to get a hold of him. He turned around and started backing us up until we hit the back door to the aircraft.

"Vail. Vail, put the knife down. Vail." He tried to get in touch with his best friend again. Vail started to advance towards me knife in hand. Nick pushed me back just in time right before he shot his friend in the chest. Chris looked at where he shot him and continued forwards slashing at Nick. I grabbed Nick's arm and pulled him back with me. He shot again and this time, Chris fell with one last gasp out of his mouth. A third shot rang out and Nick handed the gun back to the man he stole it from with a simple, "Sorry". I heard a loud thud outside the window and we tilted to the right. I rushed to go see what was going on in the cockpit. I had a bit of training on a C130 but definitely not enough to pilot one.

"What's going on?" I asked. Nick joined me I could feel him behind me.

"Pan-pan-pan. This is November 4-0-9-9. United States C-130 Hercules." My blood ran cold hearing the words come out of their mouths. Oh god, it was an emergency. What else could possibly go wrong? I spun around to be chest-to-chest with Nick.

"What's happening?" I heard Halsey ask behind Nick.

"Take your seat and strap in." One of the pilots said to us.

"Ma'am, now I don't know what's happening. Take your seat!" The pilot yelled at us.

"We lost thrust in both engines. No radar contact. Dropping to 12,000, 280 on the heading." I heard one say. Nick turned me around to face the sky. A black crow hit the windshield blood splattering on the right side and a crack emitted the vision of the copilot.

"What the hell is that?" Nick asked, as I noticed a flock of birds soaring towards us. It was impossible. No way in hell that was possible.

"They're birds!! Go! Go! Go!" I yelled at them and pushed them out of the cockpit. What the hell was happening? I realized there was only one explanation as I was thrown up against the top of the aircraft and down the G forces were extreme being airborne and barreling towards the ground was insanity. We had 0 gravity and Nick made his way towards me as Halsey had everything supposedly together. He wrapped his arm around my waist as we were pummelled into the ground again.

"I'm sorry, you're right, I was unfair to you in our relationship." He told me as we were thrown against the top and sides of the airplane again and again.

"Nick! I don't think now is the best time." I told him as we flew to the other side of the plane. The wind rushing out of my lungs as I hit the cabins sides.

"Parachute! Parachute!" Nick yelled to me. As he maneuvered us over to grab one. He wrapped one around me and clipped it into place. There was another one behind him I moved to grab it and wrap it around him but he stopped me and threw it to Halsey.

"I-- I don't know how to do this!" She yelled out.

"Jenny, you can do this!" I told her as Nick looked me in the eyes. The door flew off the side distracting both of us. Still holding me he reached over to her and grabbed the release of her chute. She flew out of the opening and into the air.

"Elizabeth!! I love you, I never stopped." Nick yelled over the wind and the engines. He pulled me to him and kissed me hard and before I could say anything my chute had been pulled and I was outside the aircraft being pulled away from the crash.