The Revenge of the Mummy, Chapter Forty-Nine

by John Pirillo
Chapter Forty-Nine

This day would be later on called  "The Queens Disaster," as the Queens forces rushed to take the merchant ship, so seemingly harmless. It was a relentless force of the Queens men, the most fierce and highly trained of all her combat troops. They were the creme de la creme and they were fighting mad as they took to the dock and the gangplank, screaming their battle cries as if that alone would destroy the horrors they sought to stop once and for all.

The Inspector started to signal his own men to follow, but Sherlock put a hand on his arm to restrain him. "Wait!"

"Are you daft, Holmes? How can we let those poor soldiers enter combat without us as well?"

Sherlock did not let go.

The first of the Queens forces reached the gangplank and rushed up it, the pounding of their feet causing the solid wood to vibrate and shake violently, tossing some of the men into the waters on the sides. Their cries didn't stop the other men as they continued their charge, their Captain right in the midst of them.

The first soldiers met resistance. A few sailors thrust their heads from hiding places and began randomly firing into the soldiers, killing some of them instantly on the spot. The other soldiers rushed them and bayoneted the ones within range and shot the others.

"See, no problem at all." The Inspector began.

Sherlock s hook his head. "Wait!"

Almost the entire troop of soldiers had reached the maindeck now. A few were tossing lifelines to the fallen soldiers in the water, helping them to the safety of the dock. It looked too good to be true to Watson, who wanted just like the Inspector to rush into battle. He was still very angry at being used by that creature, that  horrible Mummy from the past or wherever.

"Sherlock." He complained.

"Wait!" Sherlock insisted.

"I must..." The Inspector burst out, thinking all was safe.

Sherlock shook his head stopping the Inspector's outburst and pointed to the other ship to the right instead. The Inspector almost choked on what he saw. It was a war ship, one of the older ones that still maintained cannon on its fore and aft. Even as they watched several men rushed to the aft and fore cannons, then swiveled them to point at the merchant ship the same time as other men lit their fuses.

"No!" The Inspector cried out. He broke away from Holmes and screamed at the rushing soldiers. "YOU MUST STOP!"

But too late.

The cannon fired, sending two volleys directly into the merchant ship, where its cargo hold was. The hull was breached at once and somewhere deep within the hold a series of smaller explosions began, then larger ones. The Captain and his men stymied by the lack of opposition had frozen in place at the sound of the explosions, then realizing their danger frantically headed back for the gangplank, just as the main deck splintered, then erupted beneath them, sending men flying into the air, pieces of flesh and bone, broken parts and fire all gushing together like a fountain of living horror.

Watson gripped his weapon fiercely, his anger densely tearing at his emotions, but Sherlock watched as a new contingent of Soldiers ran for the war ship, firing as they ran. The two cannons were silenced, but not before they put the death blow to the merchant ship, which began listing, then angling bow upwards as it sank into the Thames amidst the sound of screaming men, cries of pain, and fire and brimstone.

The Inspector looked at Holmes, tears in his eyes. "Why didn't you warn us?"

"I couldn't." Sherlock said. "Else we would never have found the creature's true hiding place."

"Now Watson, I think it's time for us to engage the enemy." Sherlock shot at him, then ran for the gangplank of the war ship, followed by Watson and the Inspector, who blew his whistle and his own men followed.

They reached the gangplank shortly after the Soldiers did, and joined the melee on the deck as quite literally dozens of armed zombie-like men rushed from the holds to combat them. Several were larger than most and armed with strange devices that when they pressed their triggers fired bursts of energy that exploded the atoms apart of the men charging them.

Sherlock and Watson dropped them first, then ran past them to the cabin they had been guarding.

Watson slipped on the gore as Sherlock threw the cabin door open and accidentally fired his weapon into the cabin, which turned out to be a good thing as the Creature standing inside was preparing to aim its own weapon at them. Watson's bullet struck its barrel and the weapon exploded in the Creature's tentacles, causing its slimy flesh to burst into flames, like it was made of oil.

In moments as Sherlock was picking up Watson, the Creature screamed horribly, its body burning brighter and brighter. It rushed them, screaming in pain and anger.

Sherlock threw him and Watson to the side and the Creature went right on past.

The Inspector who had been working his way towards them, saw the Creature and froze. Constable Evans, conking a zombie-like man on the side of his head with his baton, turned, saw his danger and flung himself against the Inspector, knocking them both free from it.

The Creature struck the port side of the war ship and flew over the side, vanishing in an explosion of sea water and bubbles.

Sherlock and Watson ran to the side, then were joined by the Constable and the Inspector. They watched as the waters continued to boil and glow a brilliant red, then stopped.

All around, the zombie like creatures fell unconscious, dropping by the dozens, even as they were engaging soldiers and constables in battle.

"It's over!" The Inspector sighed. "We've won the battle."

The ship began to vibrate suddenly.

Sherlock grabbed Watson on one side and the Inspector on the other and hurled them and himself over the railing.

The Constable stood there a moment stunned, then dove in after them.

A moment later as the four men vanished beneath the water temporaritly, the entire warship began to glow a brilliant red, then slowly it came apart, its atoms vanquished by terrible forces unknown to man and his inventions.

The constables and soldiers unlucky enough to get off, or dive into the water, were strewn along with the remainder of the ship into billions and billions of flaming particles that seared the docks, causing great fires up and down its length and other ships nearby to explode into flames.

But of Sherlock, the Inspector, the Constable and Watson there was nothing. The waters remained boiling all about where the two ships had been, but of the four men there remained no trace whatsoever.