The Benefits of Running

“Well? Now what do we do?” Harry asked.

I was doing math in my head. “Hope.”

Ms. Chapman didn't care much for my declaration. “Hope? How is that a plan of action?” She's very excitable.

“I'm just hoping they don't know their way around the building like we do.” I gestured towards the stairwell in front of us. “Central America also goes above us. Come on!” I led the way up the stairs which, thankfully, were clear, as was the exhibit area on the third and a half floor. I glanced back down the stairs, past the rest of my group, to see the gun men heading for the steps. They weren't running but they were following us at a solid pace. Excellent!

The group waited for me at the first turn. Ms. Chapman didn't share my excitement over the fact that we were being followed. “Nice of you to trap us up here rather than down there,” she grumbled.

“I can see you don't understand.” I checked behind me. They were just coming up the steps. “If they're up here, then they're not downstairs.” I started running.

I knew it was a gamble but it did appear to be our best option. How smart were these revived gun men?  How tightly was Set directing them? How aware of the building's layout was Set? It appeared that the gun men had been directed into this position to encircle us but had reacted to chase us. They weren't running but could walk at a good clip, speed walking perhaps. We could outdistance them until we tired.

Then there was the layout of this area. The three hallways branched out from the junction as well as the two stairwells providing access to this upper level of Central America. While there was a reasonably sized exhibit area up here, the two stairwells were only a dozen or so feet apart on the third floor. With a bit of quickness on our part, we could take the long way around upstairs and return to the third floor proper no longer caged in.

This is what happened. We spilled down the other staircase, quickly checked our surroundings, saw the mummy emerge from Africa, and we headed into Central America.