Recipe for Adventure Pt. 04

All characters are 18 years old or older.

*****

The dig finally starts and what they find is far more than they ever imagined.

It's been nearly a week now. The digging machines were almost done. I was so eager to finally be at work and the others felt the same. While we had kept ourselves busy it wasn't what we came here for. Tomorrow we could see what secrets the earth has kept all these centuries. I lay in my tent pretending to be asleep. With such a small group it was necessary to hide my perpetual supply of energy. I checked my watch as I called it and saw the countdown until the digger reached the end of its duties. Two more hours, what the hell was I going to do for that long? I fired up the avatar screen and began personalizing it finally. I had chosen a default avatar but since I had time to burn I figured it was something to do.

I chose a female avatar and began building her from scratch. I began with her body type and filled in the details bit by bit. When I finished I had a cute little cat girl wearing a suit jacket and matching skirt. She had the cat ears, round rose colored glasses and even sported a prehensile tail. The last bit was to choose her voice. I settled on a sensual contralto with just a hint of an Irish accent. It fit the bright red hair and green eyes. I checked the countdown and still had over an hour to wait. I closed my eyes and crossed my arms behind my head. Someone walked into the tent and walked over to me without saying a word. I was about to open my eyes when she straddled my waist. I sniffed the air and spoke to my visitor.

"Hello Carol," I said and she gasped.

"You are spooky sometimes you know," she replied as she kissed my lips. "I have something for you."

"Really, I was wondering when you'd stop by," I purred.

"Open your eyes," she said and I looked up at her. "Try not to blink." She said as she squeezed the bottle of eye drops into my right eye. "Okay... now for the left one." She repeated the process and smiled. "Happy Birthday...!"

"I don't get it," I said but she explained what the eye drops did. "So I can use my eyes to access my avatar now, how cool is that!"

"Close your eyes and I'll show you how to use them in a few minutes. Meantime..." she unzipped me and began stroking slowly and leisurely. "MMMM didn't take you long to get hard. I can't wait to taste you after so long."

Carol got off of me and knelt next to my cot. I felt her tongue tease the head of my cock and I shivered. She swirled her tongue slowly as she continued to stroke me off. She kept adjusting the speed and how much of my erection she took between her lips. In a word she was driving me crazy. I was shaking before too long and all I could do was lie there and take it.

"Do you like," Carol asked after giving me a break from her talented tongue.

"Uh huh," I whimpered.

"I'm glad," she said her hand still stroking me. "Keep your eyes closed and let me take control for a while."

I nodded and felt her above me. I could hear her heart tripping in her chest. She had me in hand and guiding me between her pussy lips. I sniffed the air as she sunk down on me. I groaned as she took me to her depths. I bit back a growl that would have alerted anyone nearby what was going on in the tent. That was another problem with such a small community there were so few secrets. Carol was riding me nice and slow now as she began moving. I sniffed the air again trying to isolate that tantalizing scent.

"Did you borrow body spray from Tessa?" I asked as her heartbeat spiked. "Your heart is racing sweetie. Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine but uh... I didn't borrow her body spray." Carol said her lips right by my ear.

"Um Carol..."

"Happy Birthday," Tessa said as she squeezed her pussy muscles around me.

I opened my eyes and saw my cock buried deep in the leggy brunette. She was riding me more urgently now. I could see that she was close to climaxing already. She rammed her hips into me driving my dick as deep as it could go. She was biting her lower lip to keep from screaming. Her face flushed with color as her back arched. Tessa's climax was delightful to see and even better to feel. Carol was watching us intently. I sat up and grabbed Tessa by her hips. I turned us and it took her a few seconds to figure out what I had in mind. I stood up carrying her with me. I took over and began fucking her in slow deep thrusts of my hips into her. She was shaking her head even as her eyes rolled up into her head. Carol stood behind Tessa and whispered in her ear.

"Go with it," she moaned in the other's ear.

"O... Okay... god damn he's huge," Tessa growled softly as I pounded her mercilessly. "He's gonna break me in half."

"He wants you to feel good. Be a good girl and climax for him. He can hold you like that for a very long time. I should know."

Tessa clamped a hand over her mouth as my cock pistoned in and out of her. The muffled scream was music to my ears. I had forgotten that it was my birthday but so far I was really enjoying my present. I kept lifting and dropping Tessa until I was on the verge of my own climax. I asked her where she wanted it and she just nodded mutely that she didn't care. I picked up my speed and with one last thrust I fired my load deep into the reporter. This gave a whole new meaning to embedded reporting. I set Tessa down onto the cot and eased out of her. Carol licked me clean and smiled as I tucked myself in and sat next to the quivering brunette.

"Whose idea was this?" I asked.

"Mine," Carol said. "It's the least I could do."

"Did you bring this up to Felicia?" I asked and they both nodded.

"Yeah, she's been hanging out with the Ranger the last couple of nights."

"Neow," my avatar purred without warning.

"What was that?" Tessa asked.

"My watch," I said touching the flashing button on the side of the wrist device.

The avatar appeared and Carol cried out her eyes going wide. Tessa stared at the holographic figure and made a curious face. The cat girl spread her arms and bright green letters appeared in front of her, mission complete. It was only then that the ever-present sound of the digging machine had fallen silent. I left the tent and saw the machine as it trundled out of the crater it had created. I asked my avatar to scan the area one last time. We should have the clearest shot of the main building that we ever had. It took ten minutes for the signals to be routed to the satellite and take a snap shot of the area. It took another twenty minutes for the data to be routed to my watch. I strode over to the edge of the dig site and peered down. It was hard to see since it was a moonless night and we hadn't set up any flood lights yet. With the machine spewing ground up earth it would have been an issue with any equipment circling the crater.

I walked around the crater and waited for the data to be sent. Carol joined me and Tessa appeared once she had cleaned up and gotten dressed. Her camera man showed up as if on cue and the interview began. Tessa asked me what I was feeling and I just smiled and told her I was eager for dawn so that the real work could begin. My watched chimed and I looked at the image. I zoomed in onto the buried building and my jaw dropped. What the hell?

"Gideon... someone get Gideon... wake his ass up if you have to..."

"Is something wrong," Tessa asked and I explained.

"Not wrong just unexpected," I said. "The roof of the building is unusual, it's gabled."

"So..." she began and Gideon the Egyptologist appeared.

"What's up professor," Gideon said and smiled at Tessa.

"Take a look at this. It's the latest satellite scan."

"Whoa, do you think it has shingles or just a solid stone roof?" Gideon asked.

"Can you explain why you guys are so excited?" Tessa asked.

"Sorry, a gabled roof is unheard of in this region of the world. You might find this in northern Europe but not here and not at the time line. I can't wait to get at this puppy. When do we start?"

"Dawn, I guess you could try and get some sleep... or we could brew some coffee and wait for first light." I suggested and the entire camp was slowly coming awake.

"Professor I have scanned the data and found an anomaly," my avatar chimed in as I walked to the tent that worked as a cafeteria. "Show me."

The avatar zoomed into the north eastern quadrant of the desert. There was a dark speck against the desert floor. It took a minute for the A.I. to focus on the figure. I stopped in my tracks when it became clear to what I was looking at it. I grabbed Carol and told her to get Felicia and bring her to me as soon as she could. Carol raced off as I sought out the soldiers on duty. Tessa and her cameraman shadowed me and saw the intensity on my face. I addressed the sergeant on duty and showed him the figure on the scan. He nodded and alerted the other soldiers just as Felicia showed up with the Ranger in tow.

"What's going on?" Felicia asked and I showed her.

"Is that a sniper rifle?" She asked as she squinted. "Those look like military fatigues and a spotter's scope."

She and the other members of the security force raced to the armory tent. Felicia exited the tent with some kind of rifle in her grasp. My A.I. told me it was a gauss rifle. She took up a position near the dig site and the sergeant acted as her spotter. As I watched she adjusted the scope and lined up her shot. I warned her to try and wing him if she could. She nodded and took in a deep breath and as she let it out she squeezed the trigger. There was no sound from the weapon at first. A second later there was a sound like thunder as the projectile broke the sound barrier. A moment later the sergeant cried out. She had hit him. They piled into a jeep to recover the enemy sniper. They returned ten minutes later and the man was barely alive. The gauss round had literally torn the man's left arm from his body. There was a tourniquet around the stump of his arm to keep him from bleeding out.

The camp doctor was ready to treat him and try and keep him alive long enough to find out who sent him and why. The camp was abuzz with activity and talk about the man and suggestions on why he was out there watching us. I waited for the doctor to treat our guest and prayed he survived. I was responsible for everyone's safety and this was a glitch I wasn't prepared to deal with. I knew I could rely on Felicia and the rest of the security force but I was still troubled that something like this had happened. I learned from the doctor that the man would survive and that he belonged to a strange desert cult known as the Followers of the Worm. One of the soldiers told me the cult had been around since before the time of the Prophet and may even predate the time of Noah and the Great Flood. When I asked when the last time they had been active was I was told it had been nearly thirty years.

"He has the tattoo on his right wrist," the soldier said. "...the sign of the Burrower."

I thanked the soldier and walked over to the area above the anomaly that the satellite had picked up. I used my avatar to get me close to the spot. I squatted down and ran my fingers through the earth and found it much different than most of the desert floor in this area. The soil was loose and lightly packed. I let out a loud whistle and called out for Chicago our resident geologist. She walked over and asked me what I needed. I asked her about the soil and what she thought about it. She knelt down and just as I had done ran a bit of the dirt between thumb and forefinger. She cried out and fell back onto her ass. I looked down and there crawling out of the earth was a glowing white worm. It was about six inches long and an inch thick. The bioluminescence it gave off was enough to make it easy to see in the dark. Chicago sent for Xion who was our biologist to examine the critter.

"I've never heard of anything like this. I'm not an entomologist but I think we should take it and dissect it."

"You think the cult is connected to this little guy?" I asked.

"Well, it might be like the cicada and are dormant for decades. Maybe this is the time for them to come out and reproduce?" Xion offered up his hypothesis.

While Xion and I exchanged ideas about the cult and the worms Chicago went to the lab tent and returned with two specimen jars and a pair of tongs. Xion unscrewed the lid of one of the jars and plucked the worm up with his bare hands for a better look. He held it up near his face and peered at the worm's physiology. The worm wasn't content being held and bit Xion deep enough to draw quite a bit of blood. The biologist tossed the worm into the jar before slamming the lid on.

"Look," Chicago gasped as she pointed to the spot where Xion's blood had fallen.

A swarm of the glowing worms erupted from the soil and focused on the area where the blood had fallen. Xion stood up as we all backed away from the feeding frenzy. They were like glowing piranha as they fought for the blood. Had the worms somehow adapted to some sort of blood sacrifice performed by the cult members over the centuries? It made a sick kind of sense. I had the mental image of a goat or cow being staked to this spot and having its throat slit. I shook off the visual and called the captain over now that he was awake. I showed him the worms and asked what he wanted to do.

"I will contact my superiors," he said. "If they hold some kind of threat we may have to destroy them. I will set a guard to keep everyone away until I receive a reply. Thank you for bringing this to my attention." He turned and began barking order in Arabic to his troops.

There were four guards around the perimeter of the worm bed. I shuddered and then went to have an early breakfast with my team. The sun was rising by the time we were finishing our meal. Finally, we could get some work done. We began prepping the rim of the dig sight with two rope ladders. I sent four students into the hole. Two had already been on digs while the other two had not. This would be a great learning experience for the novices. The first task was to sink pegs and string twine to set up a grid pattern so that we could track any artifacts we found. Once the grid was created the work began. We worked four hour shifts while two members kept a watch on those below. There was no telling that the digging machines hadn't woken up the worms in the first place. I didn't want them migrating to our location without some kind of warning. The thought of students being overwhelmed by a tide of the hideous blood suckers filled me dread.

The first day of work revealed no items of interest but we were all thrilled to be at work. That night I was called to the medical tent to speak with the man that Felicia had shot. He had started asking for the infidel that had spotted his hiding position. That would be me. I was the infidel in question. He was still weak from his injury but eager to talk. Tessa and her cameraman arrived and only then did the man begin to speak. He glared at me and cursed me and my whore of a female companion. I guessed he had learned that it was me that discovered him and pointed him out to Felicia. I just shrugged and let him continue to rant. He told me that everyone here was doomed. He claimed that the Burrower Beneath would consume us all. I translated for Tessa who didn't understand a word of Arabic. The cultist raved about the worm god and its perpetual hunger. About how he would rise and take revenge for those loyal to him. I bent down and turned his right wrist over so I could see the tattoo. I recognized the design from a passage from the Mal Contentis.

"You know this sign," the man asked seeing my reaction to his tattoo.

"I've seen it in a book," I told him.

"Then you know what you face. You are doomed you will perish in the belly of the worm!"

The man fell silent and I turned to leave when Tessa stared at the man and covered her mouth. I turned back and only then did I realize the cultist was dead. I reached down and closed his eyes. We left and I shook my head. As far as I was concerned he was just another fanatic. I told the guard out front of the tent that the cultist was dead. He left his post to inform the captain. I returned to my tent and using my watch built the work schedule for tomorrow. I decided the arrangement of one experienced and one novice student was working out well. I left security to the experts mainly Felicia and the captain. Tessa and her cameraman were in their tent editing today's footage while I walked around the camp wondering if this was such a good idea.

I reached the dig site and looked down. We were so close and not one of the students had approached me about wanting to leave. I decided to hold a meeting and inform them of everything to make sure they wanted to stay. I called the impromptu meeting and had everyone assemble in the cafeteria tent. Once everyone was present I told them everything that had transpired. Xion told us what he had learned about the worms. We had already made a great discovery even if the things had to be destroyed. They were too terrible to chance them spreading beyond the desert. After the discussion everyone was still on board trusting to Felicia and the others to safeguard them. The rest of the night went without incidence and I look forward to the dawn. The next two days went like clockwork. Everyone worked their shifts and the work went slow but steady. I lost track of how many times I had thanked Terry for what I called his miraculous digging machines. The composition of the soil had changed and Gideon was thrilled to no end. He told us that there were signs of some sort of volcanic activity. Xion was still analyzing the worms and finding them an intriguing adaption to desert survival. He told us that their ability to detect the presence of blood bordered on the preternatural. They possessed a jaw that was divided into three biting edges that were capable of piercing leather as easily as they did flesh.

"Amazing," Xion said for the umpteenth time.

"Do you have a new pet?" I asked as I checked up on him.

"Oh no, I admire them but if they were to reach a civilized area they would decimate the population. I hate to say it, but I agree with the military about burning the little bastards."

"Well, on the bright side we don't have anything to do with that part of the dig area." I told him and he was grateful.

The dig team sat down together and discussed the few odd artifacts that we had discovered so far. The obsidian arrow point showed signs of fairly advanced craftsmanship. The other items showed a skill and quality that was surprising for artifacts that were at least six thousand years old. We estimated we should reach the level of the roof of the temple in the next day or two at most. I returned to my tent and did my six hours of down time whether I liked it or not. I hated having to pretend to sleep and lose valuable time but there was no way around it. I meditated and drifted in that timeless place where dreams come from. I was drawn back by the sound of a cough. I opened my eyes and sat up. One of the soldiers was standing near the entrance to my tent.

"Can I help you," I asked in Arabic.

"Why did you come here?" he asked looking at me with a strange expression.

"I don't understand. Do you mean Egypt or this spot specifically?"

"This place, why did you come here?" he asked and frowned. "This place is unholy. This place is for the worms not for men."

"I found a treasure map," I said and his eyes widened in surprise. "I know it's silly to be digging for treasure but that's what the scroll said."

"You found the Scroll of Osiris," he blurted out. "You will perish if you seek the image of the sun god."

"You seem to know more about this than I do. What sort of image are we talking about?"

"The legend says that the statue can heal immortals if they suffer dire wounds. It is said that this image was used to revive Osiris from the dead. It was fashioned by Isis after her husband was murdered and butchered by Set. It is guarded by shapeless demons of the dark. Set brought it here to keep it from Isis."