The light of the moon lit up the sandy dunes of the desert. There stood andy hills as far as the eye can see, and howling winds whipping up the sand into the night sky.  A single light is in the middle of the darkness. A single orange blur off in the distance in hiding in a rocky cave in the middle of a sandy mountain. In the cave three men, all white, and one with a scar over his right eye.  His name is Alastair Myles, a famed treasure hunter that has discovered several lost artifacts throughout time.  The three men sat in a circle around a fire in silence.

one of the men got up to break the silence. This man was the famous treasure hunter named Alastair Myles.
“We need to head out right as the sun starts to rise.”

“Why?” Said the man closest to Alastair.

“Because Rupert, I know other people are looking for the diamond hand of Aleifr Von Struct, And I also Know that those people are almost as close as us.”

Rupert was a giant, a 40 year old man that was more meat than bone.  For the three years that Alastair had known him he had always wore a red floral hawaiian shirt, and a ridiculously large tan fedora on his head.  He was always the kind of person to act first, and then ask questions later.  He was the total opposite of their other traveling partner, Nestle.  Nestle was a quiet man who’s half the size of Rupert. Alastair had known him only for a few months while he was searching for the diamond hand of Aleifr Von Struct.  He worked as a Historian in the Royal Museum of natural history. His intellect was unmatched when it came came to historical objects, which was the reason Alastair brought him onto his little adventure. 

“He’s right,” said Nestle as he got up and walked around the cave,  “We need to get going as soon as possible, every second we waist in here is another moment that somebody other than us is getting closer to the treasure.”
“Fine.” said Rupert said with a sight sigh.

“We also need to talk about what's going to happen after we get the hand.” 

  “What do you mean?” asked Nestle “I assume we're going to take it into a museum and take all the credit for finding it.”

“That’s not what we had in mind,” said Alastair

    “Then what did you have in mind?”

“I thought once we find it, we would sell it.  In today's market the world's largest diamond is valued at $400 million dollars, and since the hand is two and a half times bigger than that diamond, we would be looking at close to a billion dollars.” 

“Even if I agree to this who would even pay the price for that?”

“A very wealthy collector. probably.”

“Probably, is not good enough. I know that my museum would pay a nice finders fee for the people who discovered it.”

“I know. It’s two perecent of the total items value, but I know that this would be the most expensive item they would ever have, so they would try to cheat us out and pay us half of a percent, which does not work for us. So my question to you is, would you rather be a successful historian that's stuck in a museum examining things people already have? Or be a rich successful historian that finds his own artifacts?”

“Think about it doc,” Rupert chimed in “Know how popular you would be if you were one of the people to find the diamond hand?”
“No?” said Nestle

“Just finding the object alone would make you one of the most famous people of our time. Your museum would most likely give you a pat on the back take the credit from you, but if we find it together and let the whole world know about it, and then sell it to some rich guy. You are guaranteed at least two, maybe three documentaries on us.”  

Several moments passed by while Nestle paced around the cave. Finally after several minutes he stopped and looked at both of the men.

“I don’t like it, but I will go all in with you both, only on the condition that if we sell it. It has to be to someone who will take care of the hand, and will tell the world that we were the ones who found it.”

“Consider it done,” said Alistair as he sat back down by the fire.  “Tomorrow we set out early, and try to find the ruins where this guy died.”

  With that being the last words said the rest of the night, the men put out the fire and all of them finally went to sleep. Time went by extremely fast again, and before any of them knew it the sun started to pour into the cave they were in.  Alastair was the first to get up followed by Nestle. It took the combined effort of both men to wake up Rupert.  By the time the all three men were up and about, the sun was now pouring into the cave. They geared up, putting on their backpacks, black sunglasses, and hats to block out the sun, they then left the cave and marched west into the desert.

The group had been in the desert for twenty one days, seven hours, and thirty eight minutes.  The only things they’ve come across are skeletons, a wrecked airplane, and a torn up faded treasure map that is supposed to lead them to the a ancient ruin where the hand is supposed to be.  The day never seemed to stop. It was a constant battle of thirst, heat, and questioning if they should even go on.

Alastair thought “Time is not on our side, we will only be able to last out here only a couple more days”.  They kept marching and marching, none of the men even noticed but the day had gone by in a flash, and the sun was starting to set. 

Alistair stared at the Nestle and said “We have to keep going,” Nestle gave him a crooked look.  “according to the map, the ruins are in only three miles away.” Alastair pointed to the west towards a lot of sandy mountains.  “any problems?”.  Nestle and Rupert looked at each other and they both shrugged.

“No problems with that.” Rupert said

The three continued their hike through the desert, Alastair just started to notice how rugged all of them started to look.  All of them had bags under their eyes, tore up cloths, and dirt all over them.  He thought that all of them have come a long way from the boring old lives they’ve had before. Alastair could feel the blisters on his feet, and the soreness all over his body getting worse by the second, but the thought of them being so close is giving him enough hope to push on.

Time kept passing by with the moon getting higher and higher overhead, but they all knew they were getting closer and closer to their goal, but eventually they found something. They found what appeared to a massive brown structure, pyramid like but entirely covered by sand, except for the top. 

“I swear to god, if this isn't someone is going to die.” said Rupert as he plopped down on to the ground.
“At least it’s something” said Nestle as he started to climb up the sandy pyramid.  He got to the very top and thoroughly examined the rock.  “Good or bad news first!?” he yelled from the top
“Good” said Alaistair.
“Bad.” said Rupert.
“Good” Alastair replied.

Rupert looked at Alastair and shook his head side to side. Alastair shrugged back what?

“Bad, because you always leave the best news for last.” said Rupert.

Alistair nodded his head and then Nestle began to speak
“The stones are several hundred years old, and weigh maybe a ton each, and digging through this would take maybe...five days.”

“Oh god never mind! give me the good news.” said Rupert
“The good news?” asked Alastair.

“The good news is that there's actually a block that's been cracked in half that someone can push aside, and then lower someone into the ruins.” He then nudged at the rocks and said “I have a rare condition that prevents me from moving heavy objects….So get to it boys.”

Alastair and Rupert climbed up to the top of the pyramid and started to push the cracked rocks away from each other. Several seconds had passed and the boulders had not moved an inch, but both of the men pushed with all of their might and were able to get the boulders to move a couple inches apart. From there they pushed them away one at a time until there was a large opening.

Rupert set up some ropes and each of the them clipped it in their belt.

“Shall we?” asked Rupert

“let's.” replied Alastair

Each of them repelled down several dozen feet until they reached the floor of the pyramid like structure. The pyramid must of been enormous, because it looked liked the the size of several football fields. It was just one floor made of stone and around the outskirts we're several pedestals, with things on them.

Nestle walked up to a pedestal where laid a golden sphere about the size of an apple.

“This looks very promising” he says with a slight smile.

“Remember, we're here for the hand.”  Alastair said out in a corner of the room

“I came to become rich, so I'm happy!” said Rupert while lifting up a golden knife off a pedestal.

“just leave room for the claw” said Alastair looking around the room. Minutes passed by, then hours. No could seem to keep track of time in the ruined pyramid. “I don't see it.” said Alastair

there was only one empty pedestal, and that one had what seemed like a letter on it. Alastair called the Rupert and Nestle to him and picked up the note. It was a piece of parchment which was obviously placed there by people recently.

It read “Dear mr. or mrs., I regret to inform you that the diamond claw of German face McGee, has been taken by me and my fellow compatriots. Sorry to disappoint other adventures such as ourselves, but stuff happens, so good day. -M.J”

“Well that's new.” said Nestle.

“Yeah… so why did they leave everything else?” asked Rupert.

“The claw is worth a ginormous bounty on its own, they didn't need anything else.” replied Alastair.

“So what do we do now?” asked Rupert again.

Alastair put down the parchment and looked around the large room. He started to pace around for a second and then replied “We grab what we can, and then we get out of this stupid desert”.