'Pile them up, nice and high, that's it...
'Prepare the fuse, and fetch the matches...'
Some, however, refused to give up so easily. Nothing was ever truly forgotten. Anything could be found if you looked hard enough. There were always traces left throughout history, a trail to follow to your goal, footprints in the sand.
'Strike it, and let the flame burn...'
Not even talk of terrible myths and dreadful curses was enough to deter the most resolute, or perhaps foolhardy, explorers. After all, the threat of gods ruining your life only worked if you had a life worth ruining.
For history professor and part-time adventurer Harold Cartwright, there was nothing left to lose. Everything that the world could take from him had already been stripped away. He did not fear the gods; he challenged them.
'Now... Light it up!'
Harold had recruited a small band of greedy and foolish Egyptian youngsters to accompany him on this expedition to where he believed the Forgotten Tomb was hidden. One of these poor, unfortunate souls had been tasked with blowing a hole in the side of the mountain, creating an entrance. Having been unable to locate the front door, Harold had decided to make his own way in.
He had placed stacks of dynamite against the rocks, with a single fuse ready and certainly able to detonate them when lit. What little money he had left had been spent on this expedition. For Harold, everything depended on it.
He watched, from a safe distance of course, as the Egyptian man who was being paid to put himself in danger held the lit match in his trembling hand. Harold whipped off his hat and lightly fanned himself, uselessly trying to fight back against the suffocating heat.
He watched with bated breath, knowing that any minute it was about to get a whole lot hotter.
But then, as the match was moved closer to the fuse, the strangest thing happened. Out of nowhere, a mighty gust of wind blew through the valley, extinguishing the flame mere moments before it could explode the mountainside.
The hireling turned to Harold, with fear in his eyes, desperate for guidance.
'Again,' Harold said firmly. He knew that a similar breeze could not inexplicably scupper his plans for a second time.
Well, he thought he knew...
Once again, at the last minute, the flame died.
'Again, again, again...' said Harold, with increasing desperation, as every single match in the entire box was extinguished one by one by a seemingly supernatural wind.
Harold marched over to the hireling in charge of the explosives, but the man hurried off into the distance at a considerable speed. When Harold looked around, he saw that the other recruited locals had fled, seemingly believing that the curses of the Forgotten Tomb were coming true. It certainly seemed as though higher powers were preventing its discovery, warning off the unwelcome travellers.
Now all alone in the middle of nowhere, he dropped to his knees and began to cry. He had come so close, having battled his way through ancient myths and desolate landscapes and irritating customs, and yet had been thwarted by the wind of all things. Perhaps, he considered, everyone he had ever known had been right to call him a failure, a walking disaster, a fool.
Harold took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Wiping the tears away, he wondered whether he might be able to use his spectacles to magnify the harsh sunlight and direct it onto the fuse. He had always hoped that his short sightedness might benefit him one day--but no, it seemed there was no way of doing it.
Harold then spent the rest of the day feeling sorry for himself, and he had almost given up hope entirely. It was only as he searched through his rucksack, hoping to find a few drops of water remaining in his flask, that he found his set of tent pegs. He wondered if that just might work, whether they could be enough to start a fire and ignite his dreams. With nothing else to lose, Harold thought it was worth a try.
Had he really been reduced to this, he wondered? Rubbing sticks together like a savage? He bemoaned his dreadful luck and how nothing ever went to plan. But then, for the first time ever, it did.
Sparks burst forth from between the two writhing sticks, erupting into a magnificent and glorious fire that burned stronger and brighter than the setting sun.
The flames lit up the fuse. Harold was delighted and jumped for joy, and it was only when he realised that he was about to be blown to smithereens did the smile fall away from his face. He ran for his life.
The explosives did their job and detonated with tremendous force, destroying a good chunk of the mountainside. Harold was knocked off his feet as he fled in the opposite direction, landing in the dirt. He covered his head, shielding himself as rocks and debris from the blast rained down.
Calmness and silence returned to the secluded corner of the Egyptian wasteland. Harold clambered to his feet and gazed in awe at the newly created hole in the mountainside. He caught a glimpse of what looked like something shiny in the darkness, and he allowed himself the biggest smile.
He had found it, finally; he had found the Forgotten Tomb.
Slipping through the crack in the rock, Harold found himself in what appeared to be the burial chamber. He had managed to create a narrow path that took him straight to the diamonds and jewels and treasures of the ancient world, lost for centuries, shrouded in myths and secrecy. Just one of these, Harold knew, would change his life.
Harold brushed the cobwebs aside, wiped dust from the sparkling jewels that had gone untouched for so long. Yes, there was no doubt about that. The place was so clearly undisturbed. He revealed in the knowledge that he had been the first man to stand in this chamber and look upon these treasures for centuries. But regardless of the priceless artefacts surrounding him, it was the sarcophagus in the centre of the chamber that demanded his attention. Overwhelmed by its beauty and magnificence, and by what it meant to him and his life, tears filled his eyes.
He had waited for this moment his whole life. He had shown everyone who ever doubted him that he was not sad or pathetic or mad.
He was definitely not mad.
That was what Harold told himself, repeatedly, despite what happened next. A ringing sound filled the air. Not expecting to hear such a noise in the Forgotten Tomb--which had not been disturbed in any way for thousands of years--it took Harold a few moments to realise that it was the ringing of a telephonethat he could hear.
And it was coming from inside the sarcophagus
Harold took hold of the lid, lifted it off and let it fall to the floor of the chamber with a crash that echoed around the ancient halls. Inside the sarcophagus was a mummified body, which Harold had been expecting, and something else that he had not.
It was a telephone, that was for sure, but it didn't seem to be connected to anything. Not that Harold had been expecting wires or anything of the sort in an Egyptian tomb, but neither had he expected to find a telephone. Now that he had, he at least expected it to adhere to common sense. Telephones needed electricity, but this one seemed somehow... mobile.
Harold prised the phone out of the grasp of the mummified fingers and looked at it. The ringing continued.
He studied the object, wiping thousands of years' worth of dust off the screen. The words Unknown Number flashed up--that was about right. Who would be phoning a corpse? And how would a mobile phone have existed in Ancient Egypt to be buried with a dead man? Harold didn't know the answers, but he was going to find out.
He pressed a green button on the telephone, which seemed to do the trick, and held the contraption to his ear. 'H-hello?'
A booming voice assaulted his ear, so he moved the telephone further away.
'How did you get this number?' Harold could barely hear the reply through the static. It was a very bad line. 'What? I'm sorry?' He listened intently to find out the identity of the caller. He didn't understand...
'Doctor who?'
~~~
ARCHAEOLOGIST ADMITTED TO PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTION stated the newspaper headline. Romana barely gave it a moment's consideration as she flicked through the pages to pass the time. She set the paper down beside her on the park bench, and squinted up at the midday sun. It shone down on her and she bathed in its warm glow. Romana found herself smiling at the unexpected beauty of planet Earth.
'This is perfect,' she said to herself, seconds before a tennis ball hit her square in the face. Rubbing her sore nose, she looked up.
'Sorry, Romana!' The Doctor called from across the park. He smiled apologetically.
Romana picked up the tennis ball from the grass at her feet. Swinging back, she threw the ball out towards the Doctor. It wasn't a bad throw, but nonetheless it didn't reach him.
Instead, the ball was caught in mid-air by a scruffy, brown-haired dog. His teeth snapped around the tennis ball, and he carried it over to the Doctor. Setting it down at the man's feet, the dog barked excitedly, his tongue hanging out of his mouth.
'Good boy, K-9!' grinned the Doctor, as he patted the dog on the head.
Watching this from afar, Romana allowed herself a smile. A few days ago, she would never have imagined that K-9 would spontaneously transform into a real, proper dog. It had certainly taken her and the Doctor by surprise when K-9 had seemed to explode with white light inside the TARDIS, becoming a far more traditional dog that he was ever manufactured to be.
Romana put the newspaper under her arm and made her way over to the Doctor and K-9. As she watched the man and dog playing happily, she almost couldn't believe her eyes: the two of them were actually getting on and having a great time together. Never in a million years did she think that would happen.
'You're not at all concerned about this?' she asked, indicating the living, breathing, barking version of their old metal dog.
The Doctor laughed. 'Of course not, Romana. Don't you remember how K-9 used to behave? Always showing off and correcting me and making me look stupid?'
Romana nodded.
'Well, look at him now.' The Doctor picked up the tennis ball and pretended to throw it across the park. When K-9 hurried off in pursuit of nothing at all, the Doctor exploded with laughter.
'You're enjoying this far too much,' smirked Romana. 'We have to find out why he changed like this. It can't just be an accident.'
The Doctor shrugged. 'Stranger things have happened.'
Romana couldn't argue with that. If the Doctor wasn't worried, she decided, then she shouldn't be either. She was having too nice a day to waste it fretting about a dog.
K-9 trotted back over to the two of them, his tail between his legs. He whimpered at the sight of the ball, still in his master's hand. K-9 rolled over, and the Doctor started tickling him.
Romana found her gaze wandering around the rest of the park as the man played with his best friend. She smiled as she saw a young, happy couple sat together, eating from a picnic basket. Elsewhere, a man was teaching his son how to kick a football, and a mother nursed her baby in the shade.
She was enjoying watching people indulging in simple pleasures, and almost found herself longing to join in, when something else caught her eyes. Hanging from the branch of a tree, standing out against the beauty of nature, was a clunky piece of machinery: a security camera.
Romana looked closer, and knew that the lens was looking at her, too. 'Preposterous,' she muttered under her breath.
'What's wrong?' asked the Doctor casually, as he rubbed K-9's belly.
'Look at this.' Romana tapped the Doctor on the shoulder and demanded his attention. But when the two of them turned back to the tree, the security camera was gone.
Confused, Romana said, 'But I thought I saw...' Beneath the tree, a shadow stirred. Something was there, and then it was gone.
'Romana?' asked the Doctor. 'What did you see?'
'Nothing, I suppose.' She shook her head, dismissing it. A trick of the light, it must have been. 'But I could've sworn...'
The Doctor put his arm round her. 'Whatever it was, it's gone now.'
'Yes,' said Romana, 'but gone where?'
Seemingly uninterested, the Doctor plucked the newspaper from under Romana's arm and flicked through it, reading every page in an instant. 'Slow news day,' he said to himself. But something must have caught his eye, as he rapidly turned the pages in search of something.
K-9 yapped at his feet, desperate for attention, and Romana scratched the dog behind the ears.
'Look at this,' the Doctor said, as Romana peered over his shoulder at the newspaper. 'A new art gallery has opened up today, just around the corner. Fancy a look?'
Romana nodded. 'Of course.' She put her arm through the Doctor's, as they turned to walk out of the park.
~~~