The Anubis Plague полностью

“The plague?” Rabia asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

Khaliq shook his head. “No. He hoped to cure death itself. Whatever this is — the hellstone — he thought he could use it to become immortal. He thought it would turn him into a god.” He looked away from the group. “I looked up to him as a child, but now… now, I see him for what he truly was.” He looked at Zahra. “A broken man with nothing to live for.”

“The Damned… the people here,” Zahra said, “who were they?”

Real-life tears fell down Khaliq’s dirty face. Zahra didn’t think the man was capable of emotions on that side of the spectrum. He seemed genuinely hurt, broken. He placed a hand on his chest. “They were me. When Anubis ran out of test subjects — the bodies upstairs — he turned his sights on his most loyal disciples.”

“The Scales of Anubis,” Ali said, unapologetic. “They followed him until it cost them their own lives.” He jabbed a finger at Khaliq. “After all these years, how many people have shared the same fate as a result of blindly following you?”

Khaliq turned away, facing the throne. “Many.”

He ruffled through his front pants pocket and pulled out something small and cylindrical. He faced Zahra and the others and held the object up. “Which is why I intend to right my wrongs with this. I will cleanse the world of everything here.”

Zahra took a few steps back.

Khaliq was holding a remote detonator.

The cave was still. No one breathed. Zahra waited for Khaliq to blast them all into oblivion, which was still the better option. It was either that or dying horrifically at the hands of the Damned. Everyone lifted their hands simultaneously as if Khaliq were pointing a gun at them. He was, in reality. He was holding a very big gun.

“Easy there,” Zahra said, keeping her words smooth and soft. “There are other ways to handle this.”

Khaliq’s face portrayed an array of emotions and expressions: anger, guilt, excitement, shock, awe. There was no stopping him. He, honestly, seemed to believe that this was the only way he could fix everything. There was no redemption on the horizon for Khaliq. His fate had been sealed with every death caused by his disjointed moral compass.

And now, he was willing to kill everyone — Zahra, Baahir, Rabia, Ali, and himself — in an attempt to set things right.

Zahra clutched her brother’s shirt, not intending to leave his side again. After all this, she would make sure Baahir was coming home… alive.

She slowly backpedaled away from Khaliq, palms up. “Easy, cousin.”

His tear-streaked face fell, and his eyes closed.

Then he turned back toward Anubis.

“Khaliq, no!”

Everyone took off running as the earth shook.

A fireball ignited at the base of the Anubis statue, throwing the fleeing group to the courtyard floor. The concussive blast made Zahra sick to her stomach, but it was the impact with the ground as she rolled over that made her want to die.

Khaliq had used enough explosives to remove the lower half of the hundred-foot-tall monument. Anubis’ throne had simply ceased to exist.

As did Khaliq. The stepped platform was reduced to chunks of igneous rock, and the first few rows of kneeling corpses had been wiped away.

Zahra came to a stop, dust and debris falling around her head. She held her arms over her face, protecting it, and waited for it to end.

Finally, she tested her scrapes and cuts, bones, and body. Everything seemed to be in working order. Exhausted, and bruised to the core, but working.

“Everyone okay?” Zahra asked, barely able to hear herself speak. Her ears rang, and her head pounded. The best way to describe the way she felt was hungover.

Rabia sat up and gave Zahra a half-hearted wave.

Zahra moved in slow motion, and stood on wobbly legs. Baahir got to his feet, and the siblings held on to one another for support. Rabia helped Ali up, and the team regrouped.

Crack!

No longer was Zahra solely focused on their wellbeing. The noise sent a chill down her spine, and her concern shifted to that of the structural integrity of the cavern itself. She craned her head up and watched as an enormous crack spread its way skyward, further decimating the ten-story-tall Anubis carving. Chunks broke off and fell like car-sized bombs.

A piece the size of a single-family home came free from Anubis’ chest. Zahra dragged her awestruck brother back, Rabia and Ali followed closely behind.

When the boulder hit the cavern floor, it flattened what remained of the stepped platform, bursting through what Zahra now saw was just a thin layer of rock. A wave of intense heat immediately washed over Zahra, stinging her eyes. The others had the same reaction and shielded their faces with their hands.

She looked back and saw that the Damned had completely surrounded the courtyard.