David Presley - Rise of the Undead 1943

Pilch lowers his rifle in disgust, “That was my kill!”

Yusif looks back, spins his scimitar and drops it back into its sheath, “Not today.”

Lewis and Smith look over the beastly statues when a desert wind blows into the room, causing the torches to flicker.

Smith glances to the entrance, “Pretty sinister if you ask me.”

Lewis nods and touches some prayer beads around his neck. He starts to say a prayer in a strange language.

“What the hell you on about now?” Smith asks.

Lewis finishes the prayer with a graceful flick of his wrist and a bow. He looks up to Smith, “It’s an ancient Coptic prayer I learned from a local. It should help.”

“Help?”

“Sure, got us through Kasserine, didn’t it?”

“Asshole, we lost most of the unit, might have been your damn ‘ancient prayer’ ya’ know?”

The wind picks up outside, howling and causing dust and sand to blow into the room. Gunshots echo from the hallway, and both men look toward the tunnel.

Smith looks down the hallway, “We should go help.”

Lewis shakes his head, “Sarge said to stay here.”

“You can stay and do some more chants,” Smith says and not waiting for an answer, moves through the open door and down the tunnel.

Lewis looks around the room, his eyes landing on the statue. He locks eyes with it and they seem to gleam in the torchlight. Lewis shakes his head and follows after Smith leaving the room empty. As he passes the threshold, there’s a metallic click from under the floor.

The group stands at the “T” intersection spread out with weapons pointed into the darkness in both directions. The bodies of Harris, Margrave, and the two other Americans have been wrapped in ponchos. The men are uneasy, on edge. All eyes are on the bodies of the dead Germans and Radcliff. Oddball sits with his head in his hands, rocking back and forth, “Sonofabitch sonofabitch sonofabitch sonofabitch.”

Pilch lights up a smoke and sticks it in Oddball’s mouth, “Easy buddy, it’s all over.”

Johnson kicks one of the Germans with his boot, “Why’d they come at us like that?” he spits into the dirt.

“And what the fuck were those screams,” Clint asks.

Matty looks at Radcliff, “This guy ain’t even German; he’s British.”

“Traitor?” Pilch asks.

“He probably just lost his fucking mind down here,” Oddball says.

“We should get the hell out of here,” Johnson says.

Oddball eyes Harris’ mutilated corpse, “Guess you’re in command now, Sarge.”

Johnson laughs, “Yeah, right.”

“C’mon Sarge, whaddya say? Let’s get out of here,” Oddball pleads.

Monte shakes his head, “In case you guys missed it, there’s still a German unit down here somewhere.”

Oddball’s voice goes up several octaves, “But we just lost four guys and…”

The men are startled by the sounds of boots echoing behind them. They look up to see Lewis and Smith running down the hallway toward them.

“Sarge!” Smith calls, “The door leading out of here. It ain’t there no more.”

“What?”

“It closed!” Lewis yells.

Pilch looks at Yusif, “God-damn-it, this rag-head led us right into a German trap!”

As Monte steps toward Lewis and Smith, a thick rock door slides down from above, Monte falls back narrowly missing being crushed. He looks up to see they are cut off from Smith and Lewis.

“What the hell?” he says standing up.

Yusif bends down to inspect the door. It fits perfectly in a groove, like the hallway was never there.

Oddball stands up, frantic, “We gotta get the hell out of here!”

Monte looks at the door, “Who’s got those breaching charges?”

“Lewis,” Matty reports quietly.

The floor rumbles. Dirt falls from the ceiling. All eyes look up. Metal on metal grinds beneath them. Monte leans down to the door to listen to the growing rumble.

Yusif joins him, “It sounds like… water.”

Smith and Lewis stand on the other side of the door pushing on the heavy stone block. They hear the rumble.

“I don’t like this. I really, really don’t,” Smith says looking around scared.

Water starts filling the hallway, rising up from the floor.

“Holy shit!” Lewis cries out.

Smith starts to run for the other end of the hallway, “Come on!”

Lewis follows splashing through the quickly rising water.

Yusif looks Monte in the eyes, worried. Monte leans close to him a talks in a whispered voice so that the rest of the men can’t hear, “What do you think?”

Yusif glances at the wall, “There is an aquifer in this area.”

“Damn.”

“You have engineers?”

Monte nods, “Three days back.”

Yusif rubs his jaw thinking, “There may be another way out.”

Monte nods, “Yeah, let’s keep this quiet; I don’t want the men to panic.”

Yusif nods in agreement.

“I got an idea,” Matty says pulling out two grenades as Monte stands.

“Put ’em away,” Monte orders him.

“We’ll blow it open,” Matty says hopefully.

Monte shakes his head, “No, we’ll have to find another way out.”

Johnson steps forward, “No disrespect, ‘Sergeant’… but what the hell are you talking about?”

“Oh, man. That’s it. We’re gonna die,” Oddball says panicked.

Pilch steps up to Monte, “Come on, Monte; we gotta blow the door.”

“That’s Sergeant.”

Johnson spits on the floor, “Shit, you ain’t even got dirt on those stripes.”

Monte snaps his head to look at Johnson, “You watch your fucking mouth.”

“Or what?”

The Americans break into a shouting argument. Pilch and Matty have to restrain Johnson to stop a fight.

Yusif steps between the men and Monte, “This is getting us nowhere!” The men stop squabbling and look to Yusif, “The tunnel behind us is flooding!”

Monte glares at Yusif who shrugs.

Johnson leans down to the door and listens, “He’s right.”

Pilch leans back against the wall, “Oh man.”

“What about Lewis and Smith?” Clint asks.

All eyes turn to the door.

Lewis and Smith make it to the outer temple door. Lewis starts to beat on it with his fists.

“Get it open! Get it open!” Smith cries.

The water is now up to their waists.

“You have any grenades?” Smith asks.

Lewis takes off his pack, “Better, breaching charges.”

Smith nods as Lewis starts fumbling in his pack. From deep under the water, a screech of metal reverberates.

Smith looks around nervous, “What was that?”

The water extinguishes the torches, and they’re in darkness. Lewis flinches as something brushes against his leg.

“Something’s in here,” Lewis tells Smith turning on his flashlight.

The water churns near Smith as he fumbles for his rifle. A hand breaks the water behind him and grasps his head. He screams as he fights to knock it off. Lewis watches in horror as Smith is jerked below and disappears.

Johnson is face to face with Monte, “We can’t just leave ’em behind!”

“Just blow the door! We can swim for it!” Matty says.

Oddball nods enthusiastically, “Yeah, we can swim.”

“Everyone calm down!” Monte orders.

“Clinty, you can swim? Right? Pilch?” Oddball continues.

“Oddball, shut up,” Monte tells him.

“Johnson, you can swim?”

“Shut up! Who knows how much water is behind there? What if it’s some kind of underground river? You want to drown us?”

Johnson shakes his head, “This ain’t no place for a Christian man.”

Pilch looks around, “Hey, where’d the A-rabs go?”

Yusif and Camir have disappeared.