The Mummy's Journey into Egypt: Cairo

In 1290 BC, Imhotep, the high priest of Egypt, had an affair with Anxuna, the Pharaoh's beloved consort. As they were making love, Pharaoh Seti I stumbled upon them. Imhotep and Anxuna joined forces and killed the Pharaoh, but then Anxuna was cornered and killed by the Pharaoh's guards.

To bring his beloved back to life, Imhotep risked everything to steal Anxuna's corpse from her tomb. He then entered Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, where the tombs of generations of Pharaohs and their accumulated treasures lay. There, he took the sacred book that could command death—the Book of the Dead. He placed Anxuna's internal organs in five sacred jars, then used the Book of the Dead's mysterious incantations to summon her soul back from the underworld. The ritual was almost complete when the Pharaoh's guards burst in and interrupted it, forcing Anxuna's soul to return to the underworld.

Imhotep and his monk followers were severely punished by the guards. The monks were mummified alive, while Imhotep was sentenced to the ultimate punishment of being devoured by scarabs. His soul was imprisoned in a coffin, where he would know no rest for all eternity.

The sky was full of swirling yellow sand, and the sun blazed overhead.

The boundless desert stretched like a yellow sea. The noon sun scorched the yellow sand, and even the lizards and venomous snakes that lived there stayed out of the open air at this hour.

Beneath the desert's vast, open sky, a breeze stirred the sand. Hao Shuai appeared out of nowhere on top of a dune.

"Ptooey!"

Hao Shuai spat out mouthfuls of sand, pulled himself out of the dune where he'd been half-buried, and looked at the endless yellow sands all around him. He raised his middle finger and cursed, "Damn