Chapter 2: No, It's Okay, I Was Going to Die Anyway
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Slowly James made his way through the desolate hallway lined with columns, looking left and right into the darkness beyond the muddy dim light. He followed the corridor, listening for any kind of sound, stopping whenever he heard a noise while getting ready to fend off potential attackers. All too often he was frightened by the echo of his own footsteps and shivering to the bone when he heard the low thumb of the tiles on the floor shifting under his weight. Seconds seemed like minutes and minutes seemed like hours as he moved at a crawling speed.
Finally, a massive two-door gateway came into view, its 20-meter-high arch held up by two giant statues of humans with the heads of jackals. On the two doors, he could roughly make out a man, sitting on a throne holding a crook and flail, most likely a depiction of Osiris the ruler of the underworld. Mesmerized by the sight before him James stood there, rooted to the spot for a solid two minutes. First, the giant corridor that seemed to belong to a palace instead of a grave, now this magnificent gateway that might be ripped straight out of the city walls of some ancient metropolis. Everything here was just too big to be the mere chambers for the dead body of some Egyptian King, this was a palace. How could such a giant structure not have been discovered until now?! It just didn't make any sense to him.
"No matter how revolutionary this is, I cannot eat nor drink scientific discoveries." he reminded the part of him that was getting immeasurably excited about all of this. Immediately the smile that had been creeping onto his face vanished and his shoulders dropped. He still hadn't found a way out and the doors in front of him didn't exactly look light.
"Well, if I don't try it I'll never know."
Clenching his fists and remembering the vigor he had felt when moving the stone slab on his coffin he stepped towards the door. Step by step he neared the towering statues, which he identified as showing Anubis, the god, that presided over the embalming and protection of the dead.
"Maybe it'll just let me through like the wall in the camber."
He leaned his shoulder against one of the massive stone doors and began to push with all the force that he could muster, ramming his feet into the ground, causing the tiles under his feet to start showing cracks. But while there was certainly a lot of noise produced by his efforts the effects on the door were nonexistent.
Defeated James sat down and leaned his back on the door. This gateway was the only thing he found that looked even remotely like an exit and he wasn't ready to enter the darkness lining the hallway, to look for any doors hidden within it. This had to work, it had to! Although he was in a room that wouldn't be out of place in a cathedral he felt that his claustrophobia was kicking in again. His nerves as tense as a spring he jumped back onto his feet and started wandering through the hall, pacing up and down in front of the only thing that stood between him and informing the whole world of this spectacular discovery. Suddenly he stopped, his body reeling with excitement. It was his hands, it had to be them! Back in the grave he only touched the slab with his hands and it disappeared as if it had never been there.
Reaching out his hands, just like he did back then he remembered something: since he woke up he had never thought of checking his physical condition. Unhurriedly he raised his hands until they were brought between him and the strips of light entering through slits between and und the doors as the only source of light. Come to think of it he also never checked his pockets. "Well, body first pockets later." he thought, casting a gaze at his hands that were now well outlined by the light. They were actually pretty skinny. Although James never was on the fuller side, in particular, a job in exploration would not treat someone with a more voluptuous body all that well, he also didn't remember only being skin and bones. Thinking about this he turned his hands to get a better look at them and felt his blood freezing within his veins. Crying out in shock he stumbled back a few steps and fell to the ground.
There wasn't even any skin on his hand they were just bones.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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