The Great Pyramid of Giza

Jeremiah and Tito have been best friends since they were seven years old. They always wanted to go on an adventure but were never old enough. During their junior year, they constantly talked about buying an apartment together so they can do whatever they want. Now, senior year is here. They are both ready to move out and their parents agreed that if they found a place by the time of graduation, they can be roommates. They look online to see what they can do to get some money. They are running out of time and are frantically searching for a new place.  

They search the Internet for hours and finally come across an interesting article written on the Great Pyramid of Giza. The author talks about how there is an unusually large amount of gold inside. However, it is hidden somewhere. Jeremiah and Tito both look at one another knowing this is a great opportunity to get the money they need. 

Jeremiah says, “it can’t be too hard to find some gold, right?” 

Tito responds, “i don’t know, I’ve never been in the desert before though. Are you sure about this?” 

Jeremiah goes on, “heck yeah I’m sure! Do you know how much money we can get in exchange for this gold!? Tons! Way more than enough to pay for our rent.” 

The very next day, the guys decide to skip school and go on an expedition. Jeremiah and Tito drive two hours to reach the desert. First time being in this kind of environment, they didn’t know what to expect. As they enter the desert, they find out they have no service and the weather is well over 100 degrees. After walking for fifteen minutes, they complain about how hot and sweaty they are. 

“I can’t believe we are really doing this. Why did I agree to do this?” asks Tito. 

“We’re going to find this gold and get out of here in no time” says Jeremiah confidently. 

“Are we even going the right way?”

“Yeah the compass says the Pyramid is East. Let’s keep heading in this direction until we see something.”

They continue to walk in the beaming hot sun. Tito, not really wanting to continue on anymore, is slowly losing confidence in them finding this gold already. 

Tito says, “It feels like we have been walking for days. I’m exhausted already.” 

“Shut up and look Tito!! Do you see that? Those look like horned vipers.” 

“NO WAY! What do we do? We have to turn around! It has to be another way!” 

Jeremiah responds, “shhhhh, they don’t know we’re here. Stay calm Tito, stay calm. We’re not turning around now, we have walked too far.” 

More scared than they’ve ever been, they tip toe past the vipers trying not to make any noise or cause loud vibrations. Tito hears the hissing and sees the snakes slithering around. He starts panicking and Jeremiah attempts to calm him down. Tito screams to the top of his lungs and starts running, and the snakes turn around and go after them! They run for their life and see the Pyramid in the distance. 

Jeremiah yells, “the pyramid is right there! Hurry! Keep going Tito!!!” 

Jeremiah gets there first and opens the door. He continues to yell telling Tito to hurry and that the vipers are right behind him. Jeremiah sticks out his hand for Tito to grab and as soon as Tito gets close enough, Jeremiah drags Tito into the pyramid while slamming the door on the snakes. They are safe, at least for now……….

It’s pitch black and they can’t see anything. As Jeremiah walks around not knowing where he’s going, he accidentally kicks something on the ground and picks it up. 

It is a lamp. As they look around the pyramid, they realize it’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen. They go up a long flight of steps. 

Tito says, “this is the longest flight of steps I’ve ever walked. The gold has to be up here.” 

All of a sudden, they hear a loud roar. 

Jeremiah asks, “what was that?” 

Tito says, “it sounded like an animal. You sure you want to do this Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah responds, “we made it this far, ain’t no going back now. It can’t be that bad. Stop being a punk.” 

They reach the top of the stairs and walk down a long hallway. They see double doors at the end of the hall. 

“You think the roar came from there?” asks Tito. 

Jeremiah replies, “Why are you so scared!? Stop worrying so much, everything is going to be alright.” 

As soon as they open the door, they see a huge glass window with a beautiful view of the desert. 

“See, nothing to worry about Tito” says Jeremiah. 

As they walk toward the window, they hear the loud roar again. They can tell it came from upstairs. 

“You still think it’s nothing to worry about?” says Tito. 

Jeremiah and Tito hurriedly walk up another flight of steps but this time, they see blood and dead bodies. 

Jeremiah says, “there must have been others who tried to find the gold and whatever animal is up there, killed them. That’s not going to happen to us!” 

Tito responds, “are you kidding Jeremiah! Seriously bro, are we really going to do this? We could die! We have no weapons to fight that beast.” 

Jeremiah says, “you’re right Tito, you’re right. Let’s go back downstairs and see if there are any weapons we could put to good use.” 

As they walk back downstairs, they see an extremely long staff and a broad sword in a glass display case.

“I’ll take the broad sword, you can take the staff” says Jeremiah. 

“Ok, but I feel like we’re going to need more than this. Let’s look around for other things to use” replies Tito. 

They search the whole floor and Tito finds something. 

“Hey Jeremiah! Over here, I got something!”

Jeremiah rushes over and sees that Tito has found two bullet proof vests. 

Tito says, “we may need these.” 

They throw on the bullet proof vests and head upstairs with their weapons. After stepping over multiple dead bodies, they reach the top of the steps and finally approach a huge door. 

“You ready for this?” asks Jeremiah. 

Tito says, “lets do this…on the count of 3, let’s push together. 1…2…3!!!” 

They open the door to find a 600 pound bengal tiger guarding the stacks of gold they are looking for. 

“GRAB THAT SHIELD RIGHT THERE TITO!!!! We must get that gold!!!! We can defeat it if we work together!” 

Tito is mind blown and cannot believe what he is seeing. He is in shock and doesn’t know what to do. 

Jeremiah shakes Tito and says, “wake up, snap out of it! We will not die today, now pick up that shield and defend yourself!” 

Jeremiah charges at the tiger with his broad sword and the tiger tries to knock it out of his hand. The tiger then goes for Tito who is standing completely still and runs him over. Tito put the shield up to defend himself but still gets hit pretty hard. Tito struggles to get up, wheezing as the tiger approaches him slowly. Growly, the tiger gets closer and Tito grabs his staff and pokes the tiger in his right eye. The tiger loses some of its vision and stops attacking. Jeremiah gets on top of the tiger and stabs him. The tiger falls to the ground, whimpering. 

“YEAHHHH TITO!!! We did it! We did it Tito! This is crazy! We just killed a tiger!” exclaims Jeremiah. 

Tito says, “we just risked our lives for this gold. Now let’s pack it all up and get out of here before that beast attacks us again! I don’t think they die that easily.” 

They pack up all of the gold as fast as they can and stash it in their book bags. 

“Alright let’s get out of here, what an adventure that was” says Jeremiah.

Tito stops Jeremiah and says, “WE ARE NEVER DOING THAT EVER AGAIN!”  

“Still a punk huh?” Jeremiah replies laughing as he softly punches Tito’s shoulder.

“Whatever man” says Tito shrugging Jeremiah’s hand off.

The two best friends walk off into the distance with a sense of accomplishment. They know that with the gold, their lives are going to change forever. They will never forget this quest they went on, and it might encourage them to go on more.

The next morning, Tito rushes over to Jeremiah’s house. He shakes Jeremiah out of his sleep and begins to tell him about this crazy dream he just had.

Jeremiah pauses and says, “let me guess, there was a 600 pound tiger and horned vipers.”

Tito stands there in shock. He can’t believe it.

Jeremiah speaks softly as if he’s talking to himself, “maybe this wasn’t a dream, but a vision.”

Tito, visibly still shaken from his dream, says “dang man, I really thought we got all that gold. That was crazy!”

After a few seconds, Jeremiah replies, “Aye Tito………..you up for an adventure?”

The two best friends smile at each other as Jeremiah grabs his gun and sword, and they head out the door.

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I would like to thank my father (Darnell Self) and sister (Milan Self) for helping me with the end of this story. Thanks for reading!