The corridor lay ahead of them, a dark maw that seemed to swallow the light.

Their footsteps echoed on the stone floor, each step ringing with a rhythm that was far too loud for the mournful mood they carried.

The deaths of Stone and the archaeologists appeared to linger in the air like a suffocating fog, their grief dragging them down with every step they took unwillingly.

As they proceeded deeper, the corridor opened up, pulling them in until it led into a hall that was nothing short of breathtaking.

A sea of stone coffins lay before them, arranged in macabre perfection.

Warm orange torchlight from flickering flames skipped across their ornately carved lids, and shadows twisted like bony fingers from the walls.

The air was colder here, with an ancient weight to it that spoke of graves older than empires.

An inscription, cut into the stone above the archway, stopped their hearts:

"Disturb the dead, and silence will be your final gift."

Ethan spoke it aloud, his voice cracking on that final word.

He swallowed hard and muttered under his breath, "Well… that's not ominous at all."

The sarcasm fell flat; grief had hollowed him out. The vibrant man who once filled every shadow with humor now wore a mask of gray sorrow.

Arthur scanned the room with sharp intensity,his gaze swept the coffins, walls, and floor as if searching for secrets not in sight.

A heavy silence surrounded them; his stillness commanded all else to remain motionless.

His gaze fastened onto vague grooves near the floor level,thin lines etched purposely into stone. Traps.

"Sound," Arthur whispered, as if to say anything louder would shatter their fragile safety. "This room reacts to sound.".

There was a flash of fear through the archaeologists as they anxiously glanced at each other.

Ethan was frozen where he was; even his heartbeat was too loud in this tense atmosphere,the commanders tightened their hold on their weapons.

Arthur motioned for quiet,a command everyone understood,all movement was deliberate; all breaths were light and cautious. Their heartbeats thundered in their ears.

They crept along, boots barely grazing the cold stone ground. Silence weighed more heavily than any boulder crushing down upon them,a misstep would be disastrous.

It was like walking through a graveyard where death waited at every footing, to navigate through coffins adorned with carvings of warriors and kings long since deceased.

Some of the lids were open just a little,as if the inhabitants might stir at any moment.

Ethan's eyes darted about him anxiously; he mumbled words initially but did not venture to let his voice be heard beyond a whisper.

His hands trembled involuntarily,he was speechless for once.

Arthur held up a hand to call halt once again and knelt beside a coffin to take a look at something on the ground,a thin slit barely discernible amid the rocks: a firing mechanism cleverly concealed.

"Traps set to fire spikes," Arthur breathed, his lips barely moving. "Activated by sound."

With that dire warning, they moved like ghosts through the evening hall.

The hall stretched out ahead of them, lines of identical coffins running along the walls, each step growing heavier with an unshakeable dread.

Just then.....

A sound disturbed the silence.

One of the younger archaeologists, his nerves frayed by the oppressive quiet, stumbled against a coffin.

Its lid creaked open with a grinding shriek that seemed ominously loud.

The noise sliced through the quiet like a knife.

The ground groaned in protest.

Suddenly, a loud whirring shattered the air.

"Down!" Arthur ordered tersely.

But for two men in the back, it was too late. The ground beneath them opened up cold and unforgiving, as they plummeted away into a screaming abyss of darkness below.

Ahhhhhhh!.

Their screams tore through the air as they dropped into the emptiness, their voices swallowed whole before they'd even had the chance to fade.

Silence resumed its throne in an instant,a silence so profound it felt itself a presence, a living, breathing heaviness that pressed down on them.

The group stood in stunned silence. The sound of comrades' death echoed in their heads, louder even than the thunder.

Ethan's face went as white as chalk. His mouth opened but was speechless,his hands clutched his knees hard, his knuckles strained white.

Arthur's jaw clenched as he absorbed the fresh openings in the floor and coffins being shifted around them.

His voice was cold steel when he spoke again. "No sound. None."

His commanding presence soothed them amidst their grief.

They went on,slower now and quieter,each step like a painful reminder of death just out of sight.

Arthur looked them through that ghostly hallway like a specter himself—sounding each step with caution.

His eyes scanned for any traps hidden in old mechanisms far in stone walls.

He trailed his fingers over a map that provided no guidance here; this ordeal was theirs to undertake alone.

Minutes became hours in that suffocating silence; sweat beads rolled down foreheads and silently struck the ground beneath them.

Every breath was labored and intentional through clenched teeth.

Two additional coffins moved at even the faintest noise of leather on stone.

Each time they stopped,hearts racing,in expectation until tranquility was restored once more and mechanisms took their place.

The hall stretched on forever… until finally! There was a glimmer of light in the farthest distance,a promise of salvation edged in silhouette!

Arthur squinted; salvation is never simple…

The final stretch was lined by two massive rows of coffins larger than all the others,their lids adorned with intricate designs depicting kings in armor battling forth power even in death itself!

Raising a hand for silence, Arthur stooped again to study the floor closely; he noticed a faint groove toward freedom,a trigger line ready to be disturbed.

"The dead guard the way," Arthur Whispered.

His eyes flashed up to the coffins, the lids seeming to hover, ready to burst open at the first sound.

They stared at him, eyes wide with fear, waiting for a command that felt as though it might cut through the stillness in the air.

Arthur's eyes hardened with determination. "Follow me exactly. Step only where I step."

And they walked.

Arthur walked with the slow, careful deliberation of a surgeon, placing each foot as if it were a stepping stone in a chasm.

His men trailed him step for step, their lives balanced in the poise of his careful footsteps.

The final few feet took an eternity,a heartbeat stretched thin.

One wrong step would awaken the dead and silence them forever.

Finally, Arthur reached the other side,his boots crossed into safety as he walked through the doorway.

The others followed, inching their way forward until all of the survivors were in the hallway beyond.

The door creaked closed behind them with a thunderous finality, closing off the hall of coffins from the world once more,a ominous feeling of finality that echoed in their minds.

They waited silently, surrounded like a thick fog.

Ethan leaned back against the wall, breathless and shaking.

His eyes glittered with unshed tears; his lips trembled mutely as he fought against despair.

Arthur moved alone apart from all of them, fingers brushing against a flask hidden in his vest,a small solace amidst chaos.

Stone's laughter still echoed in his mind as wails of fallen comrades burned like fire in his ears.

The hall had demanded silence,yet the same silence had brought forth nothing but death.

The commanders stood backs to the wall, eyes shut tight and jaws clenched.

Each man bore grief differently; yet each of them had the same wound,two more gone from their ranks.

The maze was bleeding them dry.

Arthur's expression was a mask as he forged ahead; yet with each step he moved forwards, an unbearable weight settled deeper in his chest.

The maze was claiming his men one by one, each leaving another scar on his heart.

He turned to them again; his voice was soft but resolute: "We move."

The others rose, grief hugged like an old lover they could not relinquish.

Ahead of them was a dark and unforgiving corridor,the maze stood waiting for them with bated breath.

So they moved forward together, each step falling softly behind them,the silence echoing like a shadow that would not let go.

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