Marcus Brody died. Well, figuratively speaking.

 He could remember the Doctor smiling at him and telling him something about death and judgement, and there was a brief memory of someone attatching wires to his forehead -

 And then this, whatever this was. Marcus felt very alone in the dark. He turned around to try and find his bearings, and then wished he felt very alone.

 Now in front of Marcus stood a large group of people, all looking at him impassively. He cleared his throat nervously, and tried to think of something to say.

 "Erm, hello," he murmured, then grinned weakly.

 "String!" shouted the Doctor, holding one hand out while trying to flip a switch with the other. Indiana handed a large ball of twine to the Doctor, and then noticed Marcus lying in a heap on the floor.

 "What the hell happened to Marcus?" He barked, kneeling by his friend.

 The Doctor shook a hand at him, trying to concentrate on measuring out a piece of string. "Never mind that, he's just talking to the dead. Knife!"

 "Don't enter the temple, I said. You shall disturb the ancient goddess and awaken her from her eternal slumber, I said. But does anyone listen to me? Nooo, I'm just a poor ignorant native who everyone can safely ignore."

 "Stop - complaining - keep - running!" Jock shook his head, then quickly ducked behind a pillar as the pursuing figure shot yet another bolt of lightning towards the pair. It was times like these - well, times a *bit* like these - that he really wished he'd listened to his dad and become a plumber.

 They'd been following the Doctor when the corpse had started chasing after everyone. The Doctor had yelled at the pair to distract the monster before dashing off with the three archeologists in tow. There hadn't really been time to protest. Things were starting to look even worse than extremely bad - not only was the dead nut still bellowing out half-German, half-ancient Egyptian curses at them, but they were rapidly running out of temple to hide in.

 The captain leapt at Clark while his eyes were away, covering the distance between them and knocking him over. The two men struggled briefly before the captain ended the fight with a brutal blow to the head.

 He took the pistol and stood over the body of the downed Clark. "A waste of a good mind," he muttered, aiming the gun. He was stopped by the sound of screaming.

 Whirling around, he was just in time to see the late Cleo Shea kill the last of his men. Surrounded by blackened corpses, the figure smiled coldly as she advanced towards him.

 There was the sound of a collective, wheezing breath, and then the dead spoke. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

 "Ah. Well, apparently - er, I mean, I'm here to judge the dead. Er, you. I believe. No, I mean I am." Marcus decided to stop talking at this point.

 The dead stared at him. "You have not come to judge, but to be judged. Is that not so?"

 Marcus ran his hands through his hair. "No, I don't belie- no. I'm here to judge you, to decide where or not you go on to the next world."

 The dead seemed to weigh him up, with a strange collective glance that seemed to be both one person and a thousand looking at him at once.

 "Then... judge."

 He stood there, shuffling his feet for a bit, as if thinking things over. "Ah. Well, you have - served your masters well, and... well, it's time you all went on. Or over, as the case may be."

 The dead seemed to give a collective sigh. "Then we are free to go?"

 "Well... yes. You are free to go." Marcus gave them an encouraging smile and made little shoo-shoo signs. "Go and enjoy yourselves."

 One by one, without any fuss, the dead began to disappear.

 She also watched them, trying to get some sense of their body language, the way they related to each other. Her ability to read people had been something that she'd - well, not relied on, but had always had there, ready to use. But since she'd left Heaven and started travelling with the Doctor, she'd found the ability less and less usable.

 The Doctor was totally unreadable. Oh yes, he seemed at first to show all the outward signs of anger, but there seemed something slightly unreal about it, as though his emotions were no more than a mask for something else. As for Indiana Jones... well, there only seemed to be one thing on his mind. It didn't seem directed at her (which she refused to feel irked by) but seemed to be something he just *did*, an essential part of his character.

 Oddly enough, she'd got the same sort of feeling - though to a much, much lesser degree - from Brody.

 Perhaps it had something to do with the time period. Maybe in her time, the human race had evolved more than was believed. Or maybe men were just better at hiding things.

 Her train of though was derailed as Marcus sat up suddenly and yelled, "I did it!"

 Slowly, carefully, the pair edged their way around the corner they'd been hiding behind.

 Zeitflur was lying on top of a pile of blackened stones. He appeared to be completely dead.

 Indiana clapped Marcus on the shoulder. "Good job, Mar-"

 The Doctor grabbed the astonished former dead man by the lapels. "You did what?"

 Marcus looked at him in bewilderment. "I told them they could go. You said something about the judgement of the dead, so I judged them. You didn't say to do anything else, Doctor... er... Doctor..."

 The Doctor let Marcus go, and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I don't suppose I did. The problem with making clever plans is that sometimes I'm too clever to tell anyone what they are. Benny, bring the key and let's try to get to the temple before - well, let's just go."

 He spent a minute or so trying not to throw up before beginning to slowly make his way to the temple. Then he looked up.

 The sky was clear. It was the most horrifying thing he'd ever seen.

 As fast as he could, Clark ran in to the pyramid.

 "If you'd judged Sekhmet guilty, there was a chance that the dead would have destroyed her. At the very least, it might have given us some more time." The Doctor shook his head. "As it is, you've probably set her free."

 Bernice stopped and leaned against a wall. "Doctor, what the hell is going on?"

 The Doctor sighed in frustration. "Sekhmet was a prisoner of the Osirians, because she was one of the very few who believed in Sutekh's teachings, that the Osirians should be a much more active part of the universe, and control the destinies of the lesser races. She was sealed in this tomb and the dead were set to guard her. Now that they've gone, Sekhmet is, or will be, set free. And we haven't got time to talk about this any more, so let's go!"

 With that, the Doctor raced on.

 STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT THRILLING CHAPTER

 "Too many Deus Ex Machina"