Liam had discovered an ancient chamber deep within the pyramid that his team of archeologist was tasked with exploring. Today was the final day of the expedition, and they had only scratched the surface of uncovering the secrets held deep within the stone walls and winding corridors.

Liam had been separated from the rest of the team, his curiosity led him to follow a dusty corridor within the maze of age ways and sealed off chambers. He’d been walking for an hour, before turning to look behind him and seeing nothing but darkness. His lantern illuminated the stone walls around him, but the distant corridor was bathed in inky black darkness. He was lost.

Liam entered a chamber that was littered with cobwebs and dust, setting his lantern down on the stone floor. He grabbed his backpack and rummaged through his kit for his radio. He tried turning it one, but of course, the batteries had died. He had no way of communicating with his team, and he had to have been deeper than any of the others had explored into the belly of the pyramid.

Suddenly, the harsh sound of stone scraping against stone filled the room, and Liam’s attention was drawn to the only entrance, where a large stone door had sealed his only route of escape. He ran up to the door, feeling the stone and pushing against it, but it was futile, he was no where near strong enough to push it open himself, in fact, it would probably take a team of at least 5 people to even get the massive block of stone to budge even one inch.

Liam sighed, his breath quickening as he inhaled the stale air. The halogen glow of the his lantern cast long beams of light against him and the other object in the room. He could just barely make out the silhouette of a sarcophagus.

He approached, apprehensive but curious, and ran his hand across the chiseled stone. An eruption of dust filled the air as he did so, causing him to cough and choke before backing away and bumping into a stone altar.

Liam yelped, his petrified scream echoing off the stone walls. He turned to realize he had merely bumped into a table. It was adorned with multiple tools and vases, and many rolls of ancient bandages. It struck Liam that this must have been a chamber where the ancient civilization performed mummification.

Sweat dripped down Liam’s face as he took onto the temperature of the room. It was much warmer than the corridor he had entered from. Liam unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, using it to wipe the sweat from his forehead.

In a swift burst of light, the room was suddenly aglow with torch light. Ancient pillars adorned with torches burst into flames and cast the room in a flickering amber glow.

Liam’s heart raced, spooked by the sudden introduction of fire light. He looked around the room, thinking on of his colleagues had found him and decided to play a cruel joke, but all he found in his panicked search of the room was nothing but stillness.

The sarcophagus in the center of the chamber slid open, revealing a pitch black and empty interior. Liam gulped, frightened yet fascinated by the seemingly magical opening of the ancient stone lid.

He approached cautiously, trying to peer inside. But the torch light was unable to illuminate its interior. Before he could react, Liam was assaulted by a burst of cotton bandages that erupted from the sarcophagus.

He cried for help, but the bandages snatched his limbs and began wrapping around his arms and legs. His clothing was magically torn off of his flesh, falling to the ground in heaps of ripped fabric. Naked and exploded, the cotton bandaged mummified him, twisting and wrapping around his arms before folding them across his chest, mummy-style.

“H-help! Someone! Please!!” Liam begged as the bandaged continued to wrap around him. His pleas for help were interrupted by the bandages wrapping around his mouth and jaw, and finally mummifying his head. Liam’s line of sight was cut off by the bandages as they wrapped around his head, layer after layer removing any of his identifying features.

To his surprise, the bandages were soft and plush, adding a sense of comfort to his perilous predicament. They coiled around him, wrapping to the soft contours of his body. Liam squirmed and struggled, but the bandages were relentless. They had him wrapped under so many layers of soft cotton that he was unrecognizable.

“Hrrmmpphhh!!!”

“Grmmmphhh!””

“Hnghh-mmphhhhh!!”

Liam’s grunts and moans were silenced by the thick stone walls of the chamber. Any hope of rescue was dampened by the impenetrable rock walls. The bandages began pulling his mummified body into the sarcophagus, which was lined with plush fabric and warmly invited Liam to rest on. He squirmed and fought with all his strength, trying to desperately to break free, but it was useless. He was bound and wrapped securely, and once he was completely inside, the lid of the sarcophagus slid closed, sealing Liam inside complete darkness.

Even if his colleagues had managed to find the room he was in, and even if they were able to get though the heavy stone door, the thick walls of the sarcophagus completely hid his moaning and grunting. The mummification chamber grew completely still and quiet once the sarcophagus had sealed itself shut. Leaving no indication that a poor archeologist was helplessly mummified within.

After a few moments, the stone floor beneath the sarcophagus began to lower, deep below the mummification chamber was a hidden resting place for multiple sarcophagi, where many doomed explorers were left to struggle in their bonds for eternity, freed from the sands of time and cursed to spend eternity has helpless mummies. Liam’s sarcophagus was laid amongst the others, his grunts and struggles deafened by the ancient stone. Unbeknownst to him, he had ed an army of struggling mummies, each sealed within their own sarcophagus with no hope of rescue.