X-raying a Mummy

Monday Morning, June 9

Mort, Ebony, Juan, and Sledge arrived at the Penn museum to meet the Curator Doctor Imelda Hyde.

Dr Imelda Hyde

She had been curator for five years. The previous curator was a Dr Joan Wilder, but she had died a few years ago.

Mort managed to impress Imelda, both with his faux charm and his faux qualifications on mummy wrapping techniques. He wanted to check out the mummies held by the museum to see how they were wrapped to compare them with other mummies of similar age. Dr Hyde agreed to let him have a close view of the exhibits. It turned out that they had six mummies, with only four on display.

Mort examined the four on display and managed to secrete a sample of each of their wrappings. Then Dr Hyde took the group to the museum storage rooms where the other two mummies were. Both these mummies were in their stone sarcophagi.

Again, Mort managed to take a little sample of the wrappings of the first one of them, but when they raised the lid of the second sarcophagus, a 3500 year-old mummy named Ahmenra, Dr Hyde gasped in surprise.

The inner casket, made of wood, had been disturbed, and was askew, and the mummy itself was in the foetal position (not lying in state, like they usual do)

"This is very strange," exclaimed the good doctor. "There's absolutely no way a three-thousand year old desiccated corpse can do that. If you tried to move the limbs, they'd just snap. I can't explain it!"

"We must check it out. I'll get it X-rayed to see if there is any bone damage."

Dr Hyde phoned the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and she managed to get a time slot for the CAT scan, that very afternoon.

Monday Afternoon, June 9

Dr Hyde, Mort, Vince, Ebony, Juan, and four museum assistants took the mummy (in wooden casket) to the university hospital. They wheeled Ahmenra into the radiography lab. Here, they ran into the first hurdle. It was still in the foetal position, so wouldn't fit into the CAT machine "body tunnel".

They did manage to scan the head itself. The radiographer scratched his head and reported that there was soft tissue within. Very strange.

Mummy Ahmenra

"Well, the skull cavity was empty, when we did this five years ago," said Dr Hyde.

She went off with the chief radiographer, to fetch another X-ray machine, so they could do the rest of the mummy.

Just after she had left, there was a loud CRACK, like the bang of a firearm. One of the legs of the mummy had suddenly straightened. It had moved so fast, no-one had seen it move.

Ebony rushed off to get Dr Hyde.

There was another CRACK. The other leg had straightened, again with lightning speed. Vince had watched the desiccated corpse the whole time. It had happened between blinks.

The party, the museum staff, and the radiographers backed away. Mort got out his spray can and lighter ready. Dr Hyde and Ebony arrived back. She was totally dumb-founded and kept muttering that a desiccated mummy just can't do that.

Juan observed wryly that they could fit it through the CAT scan now.

Just then, another CRACK, and an arm had straightened.
Then another CRACK. Everyone was looking at the mummy this time. No-one saw the arm move. It happened between blinks; or everyone blinked at the same instant.

Mort didn't wait a heartbeat. He squirted his spray can and ignited it, sending gouts of lighter-fluid flame onto the mummy's face and up its nostril, into the skull cavity.

There was a mighty roar which shook the entire Xray lab, and the creature sat up, head aflame, then stood up. The radiographers fled, with the museum staff too. Juan was too slow, and it punched him; a mighty blow which threw him across the room, and he crunched into the wall, all but unconscious.

Vince and Sledge whipped out their guns (glock 9mm and .357 magnum) and opened up. They both landed good shots. The mummy took off and bounded out of the room. Roaring.

Suspecting that the creature would head back to the Penn museum, the party took off, leaving behind the badly injured Juan to be fixed (after all, he was right inside the hospital). They took Mort's hearse.

They got back to the museum's storage room. Ahmenra's stone sarcophagus was still there, as left. They poured petrol into it.

Then the room started to fill with fog. They lit the petrol and left quickly, only to run into a skeletal dog out there. Sledge shot it to bits.

Hearing the noise of gunfire, one of the museum security guards arrived. A superstitious chap, it didn't take long to explain to him what was going on. He suggested to turn the aircon onto "full" to suck out the fog. So they did this, and it worked.

Monday Sunset 8:28 pm, June 9

It was now after dark, so Ebony contacted Mina, and asked if she could take the sarcophagus, and dispose of it. She gave instructions to take it to a warehouse

With the help from security guards, and forklifts, they took the two-ton stone sarcophagus to the loading bay.

While this was in progress, Juan stole a flat-bed truck and backed it into the loading bay. They loaded up the sarcophagus, and took it to Mina's warehouse.

Here, it was filled with dynamite, craned onto a boat, and floated it out into the Delaware river. Then detonated.