The Tomb Explorer

2006 Shadowplay Imaging Mummification Story Contest Entrant

Inspired by a drawing by BlackKalima

The time is during the 1910's. The place is Egypt at the Valley of the Kings . Although having been discovered a few decades earlier, there were still regular trips to the area to try and find something new. One such group is currently onsite at a dig at what they believe to be a new tomb. Professor Emetrius Gymball is in charge, and with him are twenty students from his college who are earning extra credit during this trip. One of those students is a woman. She is just as bright as the rest of the students and just as excited to be on this trip as anyone else, maybe even more so as she is truly fascinated by the subject matter at hand. Her name is Sheila. Sheila is about 5 feet 11 inches tall, and weighs around one hundred and forty pounds. She has a fair Caucasian complexion, brown eyes, and reddish-orange hair that she keeps cut short. She would be considered relatively attractive by the standards of the day. And Sheila is very frustrated.

Sheila is here to the consternation of Professor Gymball because her family is a large donator to the school. If not for that he would have never allowed a woman to take his class let alone go on an actual dig. Due to this attitude towards her that everyone else seems to go along with Sheila gets patronized, ignored, given the menial jobs, shoved aside, and just generally rudely treated. Even with all this being thrown at her Sheila still is very happy to be in Egypt as she is in truth quite interested in the ancient Egyptians and their burial practices. She does what she can to help out with the real work at the site and is trying to be a contributing member of the exploration, even if most of what she has to say is usually ignored. It is no great surprise then that when Sheila manages to find a partial inscription that nobody else has seen that she is told to let the real historians do their work and leave them alone.

Sheila does her best with the inscription and believes she has found directions to what she believes is a secret side entrance to a tomb, but when she brings her finding to the Professor he barely manages to even glance at her translation before telling her he has more important things to do than look at the confused scratching of a misinformed woman. Sheila does not give up this time as she usually does and tries to get Professor Gymball to really look at what she has found and translated. She makes enough of a nuisance of herself that the Professor gets mad at her and has two of the local workers lead her away to her tent to get rid of her. As she is almost forcibly carried away she tells Professor Gymball that she is right and she will prove it to him. Unfortunately, the Professor believe that to a degree and for the next two days Sheila is kept very busy doing menial tasks, and when she is not doing that she is being closely watched by one of the other students.

On the night of the third day since her discovery Sheila slips out of her tent and quietly makes her way around the camp to where she has managed to hide a few tools. Due to her threat all of the more modern items such as the electric torches and iron shovels are being closely accounted for and all she could manage to squirrel away was a half used wooden torch, a makeshift stone hammer, a small one hand wood shovel with a bad split in the blade, and an old horse hair brush that couldn't swat a dead fly off a real horses flank. She also has her pad of paper pen and pencil with her to record any text she hopes to find and she did manage to create a new head for the torch by ripping a length of cloth off one of her skirts and soaking it in lamp oil so it would be sure to actually light when she needed it. She was fairly sure it should be able to provide her light for about 3 hours. She quietly gathers her tools and using the moonlight and a carefully shielded flame from her own box of matches follows her translated directions over to an area that remains as of yet undisturbed. By the time she arrives where she believes the entrance to be she has gone around several hills and is standing at the base of a small cliff in the limestone. Lighting her torch Sheila begins to search for her secret entrance. It takes her a little longer than an hour, but she does find a man made opening in the back of a cleft. The shape of the rock itself cleverly hides it. The cleft goes straight back only ten feet and then turns sharply back on itself to the right. Standing at the outside it appears the far end simply ends with the two walls coming together instead of continuing around a bend. In broad day light it would be easily missed and a person would have to be no further away than two feet to realize the cleft took a sharp turn like it does. In the dark with a single torch Sheila actually walked to the very back of the cleft before she saw that it turned and continued on for another six feet where she found the doorway.

Excited with her discovery Sheila chose to enter through the doorway, determined to bring something amazing back with her to show to Professor Gymball. The passage into the rock was only about five feet long and no bigger than the door itself, which was about four feet wide by six feet tall. It continued down a rough-hewn stair that curved back to the left and went deeper into the cliff that is was cut in. At the bottom of the stairs the passage opened up to a good ten feet wide and at least fifteen feet tall and seemed to run as straight as an arrow for as far as Sheila's torch light could show her. She started walking down the corridor looking for markings or adornments of any type. She noted that high up on the walls there were stone protrusions about six and a half feet up which showed soot above them which were spaced out about every twenty or thirty feet on both sides. They did not look to be designed to hold torches though because they were round and solid on the bottom looking like a quarter of a stone baseball stuck in the wall. She reached up and was able to feel the flat top of one of these and found that they were hollow on top and she was pretty sure there was a small hole at the back. Sheila guessed they might have at one time had oil of some sort in them to light the passage but were now dry. After walking down the hall for roughly one hundred feet Sheila came upon her next discovery of this secret passage. On both sides of the hall was a carved indentation in the wall facing each other that resembled the basic outline of a person standing up. They were deep enough and big enough that Sheila was able to comfortably stand completely inside one with room left over all around her. Looking at the space in the wall across from here she realized that it looked like the bottom half of a stone sarcophagus, the back and wall of each one was carved to be flat and smooth. Looking further down the corridor Sheila saw that there were more of these cutouts but they all appeared to be empty. There were two, one on each side, evenly spaced between ten and fifteen feet apart continuing on into the darkness. She continued to walk and began counting what she decided to call the half-sarcophagi. When she got to the eleventh pair of them she made a big discovery.

One of the half-sarcophagus' was not empty. Standing in the right side opening was a fully wrapped mummy! Looking further down the corridor she could see that there were more mummies standing in the half-sarcophagi within her limited circle of torchlight. Sheila spent the next thirty minutes examining the first mummy she had found. She believed it to be a male bound up within the bandages. But, there were no markings on the wall or fetishes on the outside of the mummy to be seen that would indicate who was interred in the space. The mummy was too big for Sheila to be able to drag out and back to camp on her own so she chose to keep going deeper into her discovery. As she walked, now counting mummies in their resting places, she noted that they all seemed to be men wrapped up and laid to rest. Although there were differences to the exterior look of the way the bandages were applied, all were in amazingly good shape for how old she thought them to be, and all were very tightly wrapped in what seemed be at least 15 layers of bandages.

Sheila soon came to the end of the corridor to find that it went nowhere. She had counted a total of twenty-nine mummies standing in their half-sarcophagi as if they were sentinels or guardians of the hall, but there were no mummies or sarcophagi at all for the last fifteen feet to the back wall. The final fifteen feet of the passage was mostly filled by a plain stone alter. The later was six feet wide and 3 feet deep and set up on a raised dais that was approximately 6 inches above the floor. There was no more than two feet on either side of the alter and about ten feet between it and the end of the chamber. On the back wall though was the same inscription that Sheila had found which led her to this place, and it was perfectly transcribed with no missing sections at all. In trying to get around the alter to get a better look at the ancient text Sheila brushed her torch against one of the oil lamps up on the wall and to her amazement it actually caught the flame and lit up. She quickly reversed her course and brought her torch up to the lamp on the other side and it too ignited. These two along with her torch gave her enough light to see the inscription clearly and she began to translate it onto the pad of paper she had brought with her. The last line was hidden behind the alter so she stopped and actually read what she had transcribed and found that due to the missing pieces of what she had originally found she had made erroneous assumptions about what the full message had said. She had gotten the directions correct and they had led her to discover this chamber. But, where she assumed it was going to lead the tomb of some king or pharaoh instead she found the message telling her this was one big trap designed to lead tomb robbers astray and capture them for all eternity in the power of Horus as commanded by Pharaoh himself! Sheila was not a superstitious person and did not believe in Horus or any of the ancient Egyptian gods so was not concerned with what the message was telling her. Instead she wanted to see the last line of the inscription so she could translate it and bring it to Professor Gymball as proof that she could be a contributing member of the group.

This is where Sheila made her final mistake. She worked her way around the side of the alter to get behind it, and when she stepped on the stone floor in the middle of the space between the alter and the back wall she felt more than heard the stone sink slightly down and give a click as she set off a trap. Before she could even react she was liberally doused by a large cloud of fine dust that emanated from the ceiling directly above her. It was a large enough amount of dust that it covered her from head to toe, and it happened so fast that it got in her eyes temporarily blinding her and completely putting out her torch as well.

Sheila dropped her torch and stumbled out from behind the alter while trying to get the dust out of her eyes. What she didn't see was the torch just disintegrated when it hit the floor. At the same time the dust had fallen down on her and put out her torch, all the rest of the oil lamps on the walls lit up with their own flames and down at the entrance end of the chamber there was a grinding noise as if a large stone had been shifted. Once Sheila managed to clear her vision she looked down at her self only to find that she was coated from head to toe in a thick layer of dust. She first brushed the dust out of her hair then began to beat her skirt and blouse the get the dust off her clothing. On the first strike of her hand to her clothes they began to disintegrate and fall away until in just a matter of thirty seconds she was standing there completely nude. Not even her boots had survived the destruction. She turned to look at the top of the alter where she had left her other supplies and saw they were all heavily coated in the same dust. When she tried to pick them up they simply fell apart as her clothes had done leaving nothing behind and her with nothing at all.

While Sheila stood there lost in thought and gaping in wonder at her predicament, she felt something gently brushing around her right ankle. Too stunned at first to really look and see what was going on she just tried to kick it away, but when she lifted her foot up off the floor her whole foot and ankle was suddenly grabbed in a soft but firm grip. Surprised she put her foot back down and looked to see what had just gabber her. What she saw scared her badly. Her foot and lower leg were wrapped in bandages up to her calf muscle! She screamed out loud as she watched another bandage reach out and wrap around her left leg just below her knee and begin to wind up her leg. At the same time she felt something wrap around her right bicep and when she looked there was yet another bandage there beginning to encircle her upper arm. Sheila quickly began to grab the bandages and try to tear them off her limbs. But what happened is the loose end that was not actually wrapped around her arm or leg just tore free from the rest of the bandage leaving behind what was already covering her flesh. Even as she was doing this more bandages were reaching out and starting to encircle her on various other parts of her body. Sheila looked up and saw that the bandages reaching for her were actually coming from the mummies standing guard in the hall. She quickly figured out that they all must be tomb robbers who had been caught down here and had been mummified alive by these bandages, just as they were now trying to do to her!

Sheila managed to tear free a few more bandage from her body, but they were now becoming too numerous to stop them all so she started to run down the length of the hall past all the mummies towards the only exit available. By this point she already had one foot fully bound in a layer of bandages, her left knee was partially wrapped, her right upper arm was half covered, she now had a three inch tall swath of bandages on her right thigh, and her abdomen now sported a couple of turns of cloth as well. As she ran the bandages continued to try to wrap her flesh in their firm embrace but due to her motion some of the bandages missed. A number of others managed to make contact with her but were unable to make a full loop before she was out of their grasp as well. The rest of them though were able to get a good grip on her and some of those even managed to get a wrap or three around her before they were torn loose. Unfortunately for Sheila this meant that even though the bandages were not able to continue to continuously wrap her as they wanted to, they were still managing to cover her slowly but surely. This also meant that as the bandages continued to build up on her limbs her progress was being slowed as her legs were slowly stiffening under the continual onslaught from the bandages. Eventually she did get to the end of the hall where she had come in at, only to find her way blocked by a huge stone block that filled the entire hall!

By this time Sheila had been wrapped in bandages over eighty-five percent of her body. Both of her legs, her entire torso, her entire left arm down to her wrist, her right upper arm and both shoulders had disappeared under a covering of tightly wrapped bandages. Even her crotch had been tightly bound. A small analytical corner of her mind that had not gone and freaked out noted that at least she was no longer naked and that the bandages were tightly supporting her breasts so they were no longer bouncing around loosely as she ran. But this little corner was ignored by the rest of her mind that was screaming incoherently at what was going on.

So far her neck and head, left hand, and most of her right arm and entire right hand had not been touched, but Sheila was certain that if she didn't get out of here somehow that was not going to last very long. Looking behind her the hallway appeared to be completely filled there were so many writhing bandages trying to reach her. She looked again at the stone blocking her way out and noticed there were several rows of protruding knobs carved into the face of the rock, in frustration she began beating on it and screaming out loud although she was certain that nobody would ever hear her cries for help. By accident she hit one of the knobs and it sank under her blow and was left flush with the stone! Sheila began pushing the buttons randomly as fast as she could praying that she would hit upon the right one to open the stone. As she swung her left arm back to strike the next button she felt several bandages grab her at once around her left wrist, neck, left hand, right bicep, right wrist and forearm, left knee, and right thigh. All of these bandages actually pulled on her throwing her off balance and she fell backwards in surprise watching as her left hand was rendered into a useless appendage by being completely wrapped up. Even as she fell yet more bandages were reaching towards her to further add to her eventual entombment. Once she hit the floor her right arm and hand were very quickly wrapped up just like her left had been treated leaving her unable to grasp anything at all with her hands. Sheila tried to struggle and tear at the bandages but now it nearly impossible to stop them and her head quickly followed suit with just her eyes remaining uncovered.

Sheila was now covered in one complete, tight layer of bandages from head to toes with only her eyes remaining visible. There were numerous bandages reaching out from the other mummies that had a hold of her at this point and Sheila assumed that she would continue to be wrapped until she was completely bound like the rest of the mummies. But what happened next surprised her yet again. Instead of continuing to wrap her in another layer, the bandages that had a hold of her began to pull her back down the length of the hall towards the alter. She continued to try and fight the bandages but she was now restricted in her movements as the bandages had tightly wrapped her joints which limited her movement considerably, even her screams for help were largely quieted by the bandages that had covered her mouth. She was quickly dragged all the way to the alter and then she felt herself being lifted up and found herself laid on top of the alter with her legs and arms being firmly held down at the corners by several loops of bandages around her wrists and ankles. Next she heard a quiet grinding noise underneath her. After a couple of seconds she saw a thin necklace with a small charm on it float up into her view. The loop of the necklace looked like it would only just fit around her neck. It then drifted down and she felt its tight grip as it clasped itself around her neck. A new bandage quickly wound around her neck and upper chest sealing the necklace inside the wrappings. A second larger charm came into view briefly before floating down in between and just below her bound breasts, and that too was soon covered with more bandages.

Next Sheila felt the bandages around her mouth and chin begin to move and she felt them move off from her lips. She opened her mouth to let out a good loud scream and several bandages suddenly leapt forward and began packing her mouth tight. In only a couple of seconds there was so much cloth in her mouth that she felt like she couldn't even move her tongue. The bandages that had tricked her into opening her mouth then moved back in place once again tightly sealing her lips shut and forcing her jaws closed. Only this time her mouth was tightly packed and the best noise she could now produce was a very quiet mewling in the back of her throat. The next thing Sheila felt made her try to struggle fiercely to break free from the grasp of the bandages holding her on the alter, but they were holding her too tight and she could not break free. The bandages covering her crotch and anus began to move and uncover those orifices. Once uncovered Sheila felt the bandages begin to invade and stuff her nether regions without mercy. She tried with all her might to clench her anus closed, but eventually the bandages began to fill her rear deeply and fully while her uterus was being treated in the same manner. Yet another charm floated up into view as the bandages were attacking her. This one looked like it was made out of solid ivory and was about two inches thick by six inches long. This charm moved down between her legs and although she struggled as hard as she could it soon joined the bandages that were packed inside her vagina and was held in place by the final five yards of cloth to enter her there. The bandages filled her until they were so tightly packed in that she felt hugely bloated underneath her tight layer of wrappings. The original bandages that had covered her crotch and anus then moved back into place to hold her newly packed orifices closed.

Now the expected second layer of bandaging began to wrap Sheila in their firm tight grip from all sides at once so it only took a couple of minutes before the second layer was completely finished. And then a third layer was wrapped about her body. And a fourth and fifth layer were added, yet her eyes continued to remain uncovered. All while she was still held in a spread-eagle position. Once five layers had wrapped her body the restraints holding Sheila's wrists and ankles were released. By now though Sheila could hardly move she was so tightly wrapped up in her five layers of bandages. When she tried to get up she inadvertently brought her legs together which produced a very uncomfortable sensation from the bandages that were tightly packed inside her. Unfortunately for her when her legs came together is when the bandages again began to wrap her up in a sixth layer. This time they started at her ankles quickly binding them together and wrapping down to the tips of her toes then working upwards from where they had caught her ankles. The bandages wrapped her all the way up to her armpits before they stopped, pinning her legs together and ensuring that she would not be able to get off the alter on her own. Sheila still had some fight left in her so she tried to resist the inevitable pinning down of her arms across her chest. But the bandages, seeming to sense the end, grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms down crossing them at the wrists between her heavily bandages breasts and then quickly trapping them in place with yet more bandages being wrapped around her torso. As her arms were pulled down into place two more charms floated up and were placed on her chest above her breasts and were secured underneath the palms of her hands as they were bound in place. Once her arms were completely pinned down the bandages continued to wind around her neck and up her head to complete the sixth layer of wrapping, but this time the final wraps tightly covered her eyes as well completely sealing her inside her mummiform.

Sheila was now completely helpless as the bandages continued to add layer after layer of bindings to her body. As the layers were added more charms, numbering twenty in all, were included in different areas and securely held in place by the bandages. All told fourteen more layers were added bringing the total count up to twenty layers of bandages. Long before the last layer was applied Sheila was completely and totally immobilized inside her wrappings, not even able to twitch a single toe or finger or even wiggle her head in the slightest. Once the final layer was wrapped in place Sheila's completed mummiform was lifted up off the alter and began to float feet first down the hall. Inside her bandages she was so tightly held that Sheila was not certain what was happening other than an odd sensation of movement that was different that the rocking sensation she had felt while the wrapping was continuing. When she reached the first empty half-sarcophagus available she was turned into a standing position and placed facing outwards as if looking at the mummy across the hall. Sheila could tell that she had been placed in a standing position and realized that she was now the thirtieth mummy interred and the first female to be entombed among the other twenty-nine grave robbers here.

Now she is the tomb's newest resident, fated to stand here for all eternity and wait for the next person foolish enough to be tempted by Pharaoh's trap. And she too will assist in their almost certain capture whether she wants to or not. Too bad Sheila will never be able to tell the Professor about her amazing discovery or warn him to stay away. Perhaps, if she is really lucky, then the next person entombed here will be Professor Emetrius Gymball himself and Sheila will, in a way, be able to pay him back for how he treated her.

Or maybe not.

 

02.05.06