GET BACK TO THE FURTURE: ANCIENT EGYPT

Prince, Fleana, Katrina, and Marion find themselves stranded in Ancient Egypt, where they meet a famous pharaoh

I. PRINCE

Getting arrested and brought before the pharaoh for execution was not my idea of fun when I thought of time travel, but here we were, hands and ankles in shackles, our time machine confiscated and taken to God knows where, and the pharaoh himself standing among his prophets in animal heads before a golden dais which held an egg.

The pharaoh didn’t look much older than we were, maybe four physical years, which in other words was fourteen. I bet it must’ve been weird for all these much older men to be following a kid, but they treated it like it was all normal.

The pharaoh stretched his arms before the egg. “Finally, a blessing from Ra. He has fated us with this power fetched out of the orange sea.” He looked smugly at the four of us. “Behold peasants, the greatest sight you will ever see. The blessing of Ra of a perfect man.”

The egg cracked open, and the contents weren’t pretty. Out came a grown man around ten feet tall and sucking feet like a toddler.

“Aw, look.” Fleana cooed. “He hates his own foot. Cute.”

The pharaoh and just about everyone else not from modern times loss the color of their faces.

“Infidel!” The pharaoh roared. “Do you disrespect the blessing of Ra?! Swear your allegiance to him now before your execution!”

“I eat pansies!” Fleana antagonized.

“You did not just say that.”

“I absolutely did. What are you going to do about it?”

“I am going to kill you!”

“Join the club.”

“Send them to the execution chamber!”

Well, the execution chamber wasn’t very impressive. It was just a single room with creepy Egyptian pictures staring at us. The door was sealed off with a slab of stone and there was no other way out, but there were no deadly cobras, no vat of super hot oil, and no big, scary men with axes or anything.

Fleana kicked a little piece of stone. “What was the Egyptian’s idea of execution? Death by boredom?”

“Why did you antagonize them?” Susan said over my itablet, which I’m glad the Egyptians didn’t search me for.

“Because now we’re out of those shackles.”

“Well, now we’re stuck in this chamber.” Marion pointed out. “What now ditz?”

“Hey, first of all, I don’t know why you’re all angry with me. It’s Prince’s fault we’re stuck in this mess in the first place. Second of all, before calling me a ditz, Katrina here could blow down the door.”

“And what, sis?” Susan asked. “You gonna blow down the entire Egyptian empire?”

“That’ll look good in the history books.” Caroline sarcastically said.

“Yeah, I have a theory on that.” I spoke up. “We mucked around a lot in the prehistoric era, the very basis of history, yet nothing changed. I’ve been thinking. What if we’re running on the predestination paradox?”

“English, boy.” My dad echoed.

“Aurora. I think Prince means that what had already happened will happen regardless.” Cloud explained.

“In a nutshell.” I agreed.

“Well, then win-win.” Fleana said. “Kat start blowing stuff up.”

“Well, we have another problem.” Katrina flicked her fingers and tiny, harmless static leapt from her fingertips. “Out of ammo.”

“What?!” Well, how long will it take to reload?”

“Six…seven hours. I haven’t eaten so it might take longer.”

“Well, that’s just great!”

“You know, we could try escaping through that thing.” I pointed to the big jackal head jutting out of the wall. His maw wasn’t too big, but big enough for a couple of kids to crawl through.

“I’d rather you wait the six hours.” Cloud stated. “It’s bad enough for you guys to stay in that godforsaken chamber without suffocat--”

“Help! I’m stuck!” Fleana had already attempted it.

“Honey! Oh, God. Get her out of there.”

Marion and I grabbed each leg and yanked her loose.

“Are you done making a donkey out of yourself?” Susan asked her.

“Hey, there are two things I did as a kid.” Fleana held up two fingers. “Play and crawl through holes, and--”

A big clank echoed in the chamber. A bead of sweat trailed down my back.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked.

The walls jutted spikes and began closing in on us.

“Oh, yeah.” Marion assured. “These guys are playing it by the book. What’s the plan?”

Katrina rubbed her chin and looked at the walls. “I thought the whole spiked wall thing was a myth, and�"Fleana get off of that!”

Fleana had seated herself on one of the spikes and was riding it like a horse. “Don’t you know how to have fun?”

“I know that it’s not a ride.” Katrina turned toward me. “Any ideas, Spikes?”

I sat quietly.

“Spikes!”

“What? I don’t know, Tropical!” I exhaled.

“Oh, now you don’t know!”

“I don’t have all the answers Kat!”

“Well, that’s just great. Now we’re gonna die.” Marion snarled.

So there we were about to be crushed into sand, and forever lost in time. But we got lucky. Maybe Ra decided to give us a break or something, but the walls just stopped. My friends however mad they were huddled with me, and as the last remaining source of light that was my itablet finally went dead, we fell asleep.

II. FLEANA

“Get up!” A voice said.

Fresh light made my eyes burn, but I could still see who was talking. It was that jerk, pharaoh.

I yawned. “Morning.” I cracked open an eyelid. “It is morning, right?”

The pharaoh narrowed his eyes into slits. “Defiant one. You were supposed to be crushed by the walls as hot oil spilled from the jackal’s mouth to boil your flesh!”

“Sorry, must’ve missed that.” Katrina’s self control was even worse than mine in the morning.

“Oil?” One of his guards asked. “I thought you meant voile.”

The pharaoh directed his anger at his guard. “What is voile?”

“A soft fabric. I stuff some into the jackal.”

“You think maybe that had something to do with us being alive?” Prince asked.

The pharaoh made a slashing gesture across his throat to the other guards, and two of them dragged the one who stuffed the jackal with voile in the hall. I heard a sickening thud and the two came back with their chests stained red.

“You’ll have to excuse my guards.” The pharaoh told us almost kindly. “They are woefully incompetent at execution, but fear not. I have something special for you in mind.”

“You’re gonna have us build pyramids as your slaves, aren’t you?” I crossed my arms.

The pharaoh looked offended. “My slaves do not build pyramids. I hire people to do that. The way those people live. Do you honestly believe I would reward you just because you do a little hard work? No, what I have in mind is far worse.”

“So, you’re gonna chuck us in the Mile in sacks?” Marion summed up.

The pharaoh had dragged us out to this huge river a few ways away from the palace. I noticed a few people weaving baskets by the river, but at once they stopped and bowed at the sight of the pharaoh. I sensed pity from them, but that wasn’t going to help us now.

“Yes, peasant.” The pharaoh had his guards jab us in the backs. “Any last words?”

“Yes.” Katrina looked the pharaoh in the eye. “Do you miss him?”

“What?”

“Your father, the last pharaoh. Do. You. Miss. Him?”

The pharaoh didn’t look smug now. His forehead beaded with sweat, and it wasn’t from the heat.

“Lord!” One of his guards shouted. “Don’t believe these infidels!”

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“I know you do.” I said, putting sympathy in my voice. “It must be hard to rule so young. We understand you lord. We had been sent from Ra like the perfect man.”

I focused my gaze on Prince’s hoping he would catch on.

“Yeah, um,” He thought. “you see the perfect man is still young, and-and we’re here to help usher in a new age of wealth and prosperity throughout the land. The empire would live on in history forever, and you, my liege, would be the most famous of all…uh, Ra, didn’t give me your name.”

“T-Twotangaten.”

This bluff might be easier to pull off than I thought.

III. KATRINA

“Eat.” Twotangaten gestured with his cane at the table loaded with food. Except some of the food was not something you wanted to eat. I spotted moldy bread and fruit that had been out in the sun way too long. I had to wonder how the Egyptians stayed in power for so long. I also wondered if it was the reason King Two was walking around with a cane like an old man.

It didn’t matter. I attacked everything but the bread, ignoring the usual looks I get when I eat.

“I’ve never seen a woman with such an appetite.” Twotangaten scooped his food out of my grasp.

“You should see my family.” I said after swallowing. Still raised with manners. “Twotangamun--”

“Twotangaten.” He corrected.

“Not anymore. From this day forward you will be known as Twotangamun. You will reestablish the rule of Amun and be rid of Aten whom your father had established over the land.”

Twotangamun scratched his chin. “Yes, yes. I see. I had pondered over this before with my advisor Hy. He told me I should not abandon the ways of my father.”

“You’re going to do it.” Fleana fed the perfect man her moldy bread. I could start to see why he wasn’t mentioned in the history books.

“Well, since you yourselves had been sent by Ra…”

“And the god needs a sacrifice, say, that contraption you took from his servants.” Prince interjected.

“Very well. I should present it to you by morning break. Until then you may sleep in my best of chambers. If you’ll excuse me, I have a worship of a god to establish.” He rose uncomfortably. “If my health would allow it.”

“I can’t stand lying to him.” Fleana spread out over her nice bed.

“How did we lie?” Marion pointed out. “We basically told his future. In return, he becomes a legendary pharaoh, and we get dinner, a nice place to sleep, and a ticket home.”

“It’s win-win.” Prince summed up.

“I am amazed you guys are still alive.” Aurora said over the itablet.

“Well, we’re totally awesome.” I quipped.

“Or just incredibly lucky.” My mother derided.

“Come on, Storm. You can’t tell me it wasn’t slick when they scammed--” Matthew started screaming in pain. “Ow! Ow! Dad. I get it. Not funny.”

“Get some sleep, honey.” Cloud told Fleana. “If what will happen will happen, there’s nothing to worry about. Tomorrow morning I expect you to leave this land of sand, embalming, and pagan worship and come right home.”

I was never a heavy sleeper, especially after grandpa had gotten a hold of me twice, but I was capable of ignoring people running by my door. So when a bunch of hurried footsteps touched my ears like a soft wave lapping on a beach, I ignored it. Then the whispers of people became a wind rustling leaves. I blocked it out. Then the whispers turned into hurried talking.

“Alright already!” I pried my eyelids open. “I’m awake now. What’s all the fuss about?”

My friends lifted their heads and slid out of bed, and we left the bed chamber to check out the commotion. We followed the crowd down the hall to an extravagant door, which had to be Twotangamun’s room.

“Nineteen years.” An old man muttered.

“Much too young.” A woman said.

“Who would rule now?” A man said.

“Pardon us.” I said.

The crowd parted for the “servants of Ra”. When we reached the room, I saw something that I couldn’t believe. Twotangamun lying in a sarcophagus, emaciated, being fitted with an iconic golden headpiece that would be discovered thousands of years later.

“May he be judged righteous Osiris.” Said a man dressed in robes. Then his eyes blared. “It must be the hand of Ra that struck him down. The worship of Aten should have never been disturbed! Killers! Followers of the snake! They led the pharaoh to his death, and plunged this land into chaos!”

“I knew they couldn’t be trusted!” A familiar looking guard proclaimed.

Uh-oh, I thought.

It happened to be our displeasure to be within the advisor’s sight.

“Seize the king slayers!” He hissed.

IV. MARION

I guess our plan B actually turned into our plan A, which was to blow down the entire Egyptian empire because they came after us with everything they got. Too bad their technology was inferior to our blasts. Worse, though, is that we had a finite amount of energy and we didn’t know where the time machine was or if we would need a storm to power it again, which I doubt we could find this time.

“No.” Fleana said after each door she kicked down. She did this about four or five times.

“Darn it! Where did they put it?!” I shouted in frustration.

“Let’s just stop and think--” Prince dodged a spear.

“Screw that!” Katrina told him. “Let’s run and think.”

“Fine whatever. Now where would a pharaoh keep valuables he took from other people?”

“I’m guessing here.” I said.

We arrived in a spacious room decorated in gold and full of camels. Our time machine stood in the center covered in hay and seed with the camels eating out of it.

“No, no, no!” Prince charged at the camels. “It is not a feeder!”

He managed to chase off the animals and began looking at the engine. He didn’t have long. The Egyptians were right on our tail. Fleana blew the fodder out of the car and we plunged into our seats.

“Spikes, hurry!” Fleana lifted out of her seat.

“Put them to death!” A guard shouted.

Prince hopped in the driver’s seat. “We don’t have enough energy to get home--'

“Don’t care.” I told him. “Anywhere is better than here.”

“You won’t escape magicians!” A guard heaved his spear.

Time seemed to slow down, though whether from the time machine starting up or just plain fear, I couldn’t tell. Just as the spear touched my nose, we lurched forward in time.

Saying the landing could’ve gone better is an understatement. Apparently, a car made time machine doesn’t always mean it would stay on the ground. We pelted it pretty hard. Car parts scattered. The wheels on the front flew in different directions, the engine popped off, and unfortunately, the car didn’t have airbags so Katrina’s face had a rather passionate kiss with the front seat.

She massaged her neck which had a few bruises. “Where are we now?”

“Well,” Prince couldn’t get to his feet. “let’s hope we run into Merlin, because we’re in Medieval Engrand.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like we’ll be going anywhere soon.” I noted the shattered pieces.

“Which means we’ll be a little late for dinner.” Fleana recognized.

“Who cares?” Kat’s eyes looked dilated. “I might need a doctor.”

“Well, this is not the place to be gettin’ hurt.” Prince stated. “Medieval Engrand is not well known for its healthcare. Your better off getting treated in Ancient Egypt.”

Katrina slumped in her seat. Fleana jumped over her seat and started jostling her.

“Come on, Kat.” She said. “This is no time for sleep. You got a grade A concussion and maybe some neck injuries. Come on.”

“'Kaaay.” She slurred.

“Styx.” I swore.

Author's Note

Think of the historical references