Chapter 8B

In her mind, Babs could almost see the trek through Mrs. Thorpe's words as she flipped the pages of the photo album. The grainy sepia images seemed to etch themselves into her consciousness and play like an old movie.

After over two weeks of wandering back and forth across the arid clay-baked desert in the unforgiving winds and cold nights, they found a box canyon containing a city with a carved temple in the end like the one at Petra. Covered with sand and rocks, it was obvious the city had been buried but how was a source of much speculation and debate. Lord Carnarvon ordered the Marines to begin to dig it out because the papyrus describing the city insisted the cursed secret to restoring life to the dead was buried here. Some of the soldiers, annoyed by the large number of cats, began to shoot them for sport when they weren't digging. A week into the discovery, the eight-year-olds Theodora and Penelope couldn't stand it any longer.

"Stop it!" Theodora screamed as she pulled on the soldier's rifle then she kicked him in the knee, and he let go.

Penelope bent over the wounded Desert Cat, crying, and holding her handkerchief over its injury.

The cat meowed painfully as the girl tried to staunch the flow of blood from where a bullet grazed it. "You barbarian! Easy, puss, don't die."

Sergeant Major Lansing, head of the battalion, demanded "What is going on here? Harris?"

"He's killing them. He's killing the cats," Theodora snapped, still holding the man's rifle.

"They're just nuisances. No better than rats, there's no reason for the lassies to get upset."

"No reason?!" Angrily, Theodora raised the rifle to point it at him, "How about I shoot you for no reason?"

Harris chuckled at her threat until she chambered a round and raised it to her shoulder. "Easy, miss. You don't want to hurt someone on accident."

"It's Lady Theodora! And if I shoot, it won't be an accident. I have hunted woodgrouse and rabbits since I was six years old."

"What is going on?" Lord Carnarvon demanded as he strode up. "Theodora, we do not point rifles at people. Give it to me."

Theodora looked about to refuse, but under her grandfather's stern glare, she lowered the barrel and then handed the rifle to Sargent Major Lansing. "He was shooting the Desert Cats, Grandfather, for no reason. He and his fellows have been killing the children of Bastet. I hope they get cursed!" She stomped her foot as she shrieked loud enough it echoed off the canyon walls.

Lansing glanced at Harris and the men behind him, "Is this true? Then I guess you aren't doing enough digging. Get back to the temple. You can work until the moon rises. Or would you rather face a court martial?"

"Sir, no sir." The men saluted him then stomped back toward the temple, grumbling.

Lord Carnarvon knelt next to Penelope, "Let's see the poor beast." He examined the wound. "Well, it's torn his hide and maybe hurt the bones underneath. He'll need stitches and a bit of care."

"I'll take good care of him," Penelope promised as Theodora came back from the corner of a partially collapsed house.

"He was protecting these wee ones. I think their mother was the one I found shot and killed yesterday." She held two kits. "Can I keep them?"

The elderly lord and the soldier glanced at each other with a slight smile. Knowing having the cats to care for would keep the girls out of the way, they agreed. Half an hour later, the large male was stitched and resting comfortably while the kits drank canned milk mixed with water. Her grandfather and the Sargeant Major left to go back to the temple dig.

Theodora looked at one of the papyri rolls from Tutankhamun's tomb.

"What does it say? I still can't read hieroglyphics." Penelope revealed as she held a bowl of water for the cat. "I think I'll call him Sekhmet."

Theodora didn't correct her that Sekhmet was a goddess, not a god. She supposed it didn't matter because there were no such things as gods and goddesses to be offended if a male cat was given the lioness goddess' name. "It says, Prince Bakare dreamed a stone like the sun's fire fell from the sky. Prince Bakare and his horsemen rode to a canyon where the walls sparkled like stars." Theodora paused then asked, "I wonder if that is this canyon? Grandfather says the walls are covered in a strange kind of volcanic glass."

"I've been to Pompeii, and if this is a volcanic valley, where is the mountain?" Penelope rubbed her head, not knowing, then insisted, "Read the rest."

"The sun stone was broken and bled. Dust came from the blood of the sun stone. The dust gave eternal freshness to all that was harvested and life after death to all who ate. The eaters of dust walked and worked under clouds and at night. Never in the sight of Khepri. They turned black around the lips and eyes. They became like ravenous wolves biting everything with blood."

"Who's Khepri?"

"Ra's giant beetle that carried the sun across the sky in the day." Answering, then unrolling the papyri more, Theodora paused in confusion before she started the next section. "They could not die as men died, because as men, they had died."

"What does that mean?" Penelope demanded, "That makes no sense at all."

Unable to puzzle it out, Theodora kept translating, "The keepers of the children of Bastet escaped. Bastet healed and protected all who were threatened by the dust eaters.

Pharaoh King Menkaure overcame Prince Bakare and all who followed him. The dead were cursed and shall be ever cursed for consuming the sun stone's blood and spreading its dust. Pharaoh King Menkaure decreed, seasons will pass, and none shall remember Prince Bakare's name nor his followers. The curse will be broken."

Shifting the papyri, Theodora rolled and unrolled more, stopping at a gold painted cartouche again. "Pharaoh King Menkaure decreed all will be prepared for death so they will not wake again in this world. The gate of the underworld shall be crossed by all. Organs must be removed, weighed, and stored. Bodies must be salted with natron until no water remains in their flesh. Limbs must be wrapped and bound. If this cannot be done before the fourth day, the body must be burned until it is ash so the souls of the dead cannot dwell in this world." Theodora finished then shuddered. "The last line says, The children of Bastet shall be left to guard the cursed city."

Whispering, Penelope asked, "Do you think this place is really cursed?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Theodora snapped. "It says the curse will be broken. It's just a story written to keep looters and tomb robbers away." She insisted with more confidence than she felt. Sitting down, she held her kittens in her lap. "Curses don't exist."

Pouring herself some more tea, picked out a few hairs, then sipped more, Babs asked, "What happened then?"

"The next morning, they reached the antechambers of the temple. All were shocked to see it filled with baskets of Doum Dates and onions, dried meat and fish, even loaves of bread. Piles of fine linens were folded on benches. Everything was covered in fine black dust. Everyone peered in at the torchlit discovery. Penelope started sneezing violently, so I followed her back outside." Mrs. Thorpe shook her head as she remembered, "Penelope always had problems with mold making her cough after she had pleurisy as a babe." She rubbed Wolfman's ears as she poured more tea and cream in her cup.

"After they washed the food and linens, they discovered that everything was perfectly preserved after almost five thousand years. The only thing spoiled in the whole temple was a vessel marked honey. Harris, the soldier I stopped from shooting Sekhmet, ate one of the dates in jest. He seemed unharmed the next day, so then everyone wanted to try them. Sekhmet scratched Penelope to keep her from eating one and knocked mine from my hand, so we didn't eat them. We didn't eat anything the cats wouldn't eat. Sargeant Major Lansing was the only one who believed us when we said something was wrong with the food from the temple. People started acting weirdly, calmer... They worked slower almost like they were in a trance. Soon many were coughing and feverish. When Harris died and came back, he bit Lansing. They shot Harris up and burned his body. It made everyone realize why the city well was filled with bones and ash. My grandfather refused to let anyone leave because he was afraid of carrying the disease to the world as had happened with the Spanish Flu. Lansing's wound festered with purple mucus but then one night, Sekhmet and another cat tore off the bandages and licked the wound clean, and he got better. The cats began attacking and hissing at the sick people, anyone who had eaten the temple food and had a cough." She petted the giant cat on the arm of her chair, looking out the window at the gray sky for a long time.

Babs looked out the window too and noticed for the first time, there were bars on the first-floor windows. It sounded so horrible and she couldn't imagine only being so young and facing all that.

Mrs. Thorpe's voice was haunted when she spoke again, "My grandfather was one of the last to get sick. His little dog Susie refused to leave him or let any of the cats near him. Lansing woke us up in the middle of the night and carried my grandfather out to one of the trucks. He was covered in blood and muttering about everyone else being dead and coming back. He said he had to stop them from escaping and told me to drive my grandfather straight to the fort in Cairo for medical treatment."

"You could drive when you were eight?" Babs blurted out in surprise before sneezing twice.

"Yes, my grandfather taught me while we were looking for the lost city. Lansing had tied wooden blocks to the pedals for me. He gave us a map and said not to stop except to put petrol in the truck. One of the dead soldiers grabbed Penelope and bit her arm before Sekhmet attacked him." She closed her eyes. "He looked ghastly. Lansing shot him in the face then cut off his head. He... he told me if my grandfather succumbed that I would have to do the same. I told him the papyri said the bodies had to be burned to ash or packed in salt like the mummies were made. He said he would do it then decapitated another as he yelled at us to flee. The last time I saw him was in the rearview mirror. He had set one of the trucks on fire and was shooting the zombies while the children of Bastet attacked them."

Babs blew her nose and pulled her mask back down before asking, "How long did it take to get to Cairo?"

"Almost five days and nights... We only stopped when I couldn't stay awake. Sekhmet and the kittens licked Penelope's bite, so it never got infected. I taught her to drive but she could only do it in the day because of her eyes. Then we met some Bedouin men, one guided us to the fort but it was too late. My grandfather died before morning and his little dog did too. Penelope and I cut off grandfather's head and packed his body in natron salt. Everyone always assumed the Egyptians did it. When we went back to school, Penelope and I started the Society of Cat Ladies. I had always hoped this time would never come but someone found Prince Pharaoh Bakare's city and the spore dust. I guess they put it in the food without properly testing it. The greedy fools killed us all to make money on food that never spoiled but everything comes at a cost."

Babs thought about Lionel's article and asked, "There is this Navy blog, the guy claimed the Pharaoh's Yeast came from outer space. It tells people not to eat any food preserved with it and to get a cat. He even knew the prince's name."

"He's not wrong. The ancient Egyptians believed meteorites were pieces of the sun's celestial path. I am glad my boys listened to me," Mrs. Thorpe hummed happily.

"What do you mean?" Babs was confused. "Lionel T. is your relative?"

"He's my great-grandson, but you have probably heard me call him Lenny. His fraternal twin is Leo, but they are only half-brothers because my granddaughter was a promiscuous, cat-hating tart. I raised them in the summers when their mother was too busy chasing the next man in her life, and sometimes all year around." She stood and pulled a picture off another shelf. Holding it out, Babs gaped at the two men. They were gorgeous, one looked like a body builder with bulky muscles, and the other like a triathlete with a leaner, toner build. She never would have known they were brothers, let alone twins, if she wasn't told.

"They know what to do to keep the Navy safe and if Lenny is blogging about it then his commanding officers listened to him. Before the phones went out, he called because the ship doctors wanted to know what I knew." Putting the picture back, Theodora clicked her tongue as she looked out the window. "They haven't wandered off yet... I am afraid you will be stuck here all night. We need to find a place for you to sleep where the cats haven't been. Then tomorrow, you and I need to get supplies and pack the RV."

"Where are we going?" Babs asked in bewilderment.

"Why, to Kitsap Naval Station in Washington, of course. That's where my boys are stationed. We need to go there so I can tell the Navy doctors everything I know about Prince Pharaoh Bakare's cursed fungus."

^..^

Sleeping on a cot in the closet-sized basement room that held the deep cycle batteries and inverter for the solar panels, was not a comfortable night, but Babs dreaded going out into the rest of the house. For most of the night, one or more of the cats scratched at the door or meowed, keeping Babs from sleeping peacefully, not that she would have slept peacefully knowing the majority of Baltimore's and possibly the country's population had been turned into fungus zombies.

"Babette poppet, wake up! Coffee is on," Mrs. Thorpe called down the stairs in a freakishly cheerful voice.

Groaning, Babs rolled over on the tiny cot. She was grateful that the cats couldn't get in as another clawed at the door and mewed plaintively. Standing, she rolled up the sleeping bag and stuffed it inside its carry sack hoping to keep one thing free of cat hair. She put the pillow inside a plastic bag then put on her clothes and mask. She prayed fervently that the undead Upper Fells Point dwellers had gone back to Patterson Park so she could escape back to her library. She really didn't want to go on a road trip across the country in the winter with Mrs. Thorpe. It wasn't that she disliked the centenarian, she found her fascinating, even if she was a bit senile. It was because she was violently allergic to the elderly woman's clowder of cats, which Babs now knew they would have no choice but to take with them.

"Cats... Why did it have to be cats? Why couldn't orchids or turtles or even spiders be the thing to save everyone from the zombie apocalypse?" Babs muttered has she tied her shoes.