Chapter 14 #3
The darts were small, but they shot out at such force, I wasn’t entirely sure they wouldn’t knock us off balance or cause us to fall. Not to mention, I had no idea what was inside them. It could be poison, or something that knocked us out and left us helpless.
It wasn’t worth the risk.
I studied the platform and tried to come up with a solution.
All of the dart clusters had shot from the left side, and they’d all been shot at the exact same height. We wouldn’t be able to dodge around them, but perhaps we could go under and avoid them entirely…
Across from us, Tyler and Claire had just reached the dart obstacle, and Clarisse was at the final pendulum. Kyle was still in the same position as he watched me intently and waited to see what solution I came up with.
“Okay,” I said as I turned back to the girls. “I think I might have a plan. Hang back, and if it works, I’ll give the signal, and you can move forward the same way I did.”
“Alright,” Parker agreed. “Good luck.”
“Be careful,” Sadie added.
I smiled at both of them before I turned back to the obstacle.
Here goes nothing…
I got low to the ground, and the darts shot out low enough that I practically had to army crawl, but as I put my weight onto the platform, I heard the darts fly past me, just above my head.
So far, so good.
I continued to crawl and worm my way across the platform, and everywhere I touched, I triggered a whole new set of darts.
But none of them touched me.
I had to stay low, so my progress wasn’t as quick as I wanted it to be, but at least I was alive.
I was especially tense when I reached the last stretch of platform, because the hair tie hadn’t reached this far. At that point, all of the darts had shot out at the same height, but I wouldn’t put it past the aliens to throw a curve ball and make the final dart clusters shoot lower.
Fortunately, the height remained consistent, and I was able to make it safely across. Once I’d reached the other platform, I quickly got to my feet and signaled for Sadie to go next.
“Keep as low to the ground as possible!” I yelled across the course through cupped hands.
Sadie gave me a thumbs up to show she’d heard before she got down onto her stomach and began to crawl across the platform.
I watched intently, but the darts never changed their height of projection, and Sadie kept low like I instructed.
The other contestants followed my lead as they all got onto their bellies and scooted across the platforms, and by the time Sadie got to me, they were almost all safely across. Even Clarisse had caught up to where we were at.
The last contestant to cross was Parker, and she did exactly as I had done and crossed without issue, though I remained tense until both women were on the platform next to me.
Time for the next obstacle.
This one was a bit different from the last two. It was still a long platform connecting the one we were on to the next, but this time, there was a long, stone wall that stretched out along the left side.
The entire wall looked like it was made entirely of individual, square, stone-colored bricks, except I didn’t see any sort of mortar in between them. So, what the heck was holding this wall together?
Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound, and the wall began to move. It wasn’t exactly the entire wall, but some of the stone bricks began to slide until they jutted out and blocked certain parts of the path.
The stones that moved were completely random, some were individual squares while others moved out as a cluster. After a couple seconds, the stones stopped moving for a moment and just stayed in place.
Then they moved again, and the stones that had been blocking our path retreated back into the wall.
What had just happened?
As I watched, the low rumbling started again, and a whole new set of stones moved out to block our path.
Was this like the pendulums, where we’d have to time our progress across the platform? I wasn’t sure how that would work because, even though the stones seemed to move at specific intervals of time, the movement seemed completely random.
How could we plan for that?
I watched the stones a little longer, but my observations only confirmed that their movement didn’t have any specific pattern.
“We might have to do this one in pairs,” I said. “I don’t think it’ll be safe to try it alone. Sadie, you and I can go first, then I’ll come back for you, Parker.”
They both nodded, and Sadie positioned herself directly behind me.
“What do I do?” she asked.
“We need to move together as quickly as we can while the bricks are inside the wall, then when they begin to move, we need to position ourselves in the gaps between them to avoid being shoved off the platform.”
“O-Okay,” Sadie said weakly.
“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “I won’t let you fall.”
We waited until the stones moved back into place, and then we both ran forward as fast as we could.
We didn’t get very far before the rumbling began.
The stones moved slowly, so we were able to see which ones were coming before they actually reached us, and Sadie and I quickly broke apart to duck into gaps.
Sadie found a spot in the wall where she had to turn to the side and stand as straight as possible, while I found a spot where I had to crouch and tuck my chin down into my chest.
It wasn’t the most comfortable position, but at least neither of us had been shoved off the platform.
The stones moved around us, but we’d fit ourselves perfectly into the empty spaces, so neither of us were affected. The stones remained around us for a few seconds before they slowly retreated back into the wall.
As the stones began their retreat, something shiny near my feet caught my eye.
No way.
I carefully reached out and picked up the small, metal piece.
How had it remained on the platform with all the moving stones? And what were the odds it appeared specifically on my chosen obstacle course?
As soon as we had enough space, I pocketed the metal piece, and even though my bodysuit was skin-tight, there wasn’t any sort of bulge or impression to show it was in my pocket.
Strange, but I didn’t have any time to dwell on it because the stones had fully shifted out of the way, and it was time for Sadie and I to begin our run again.
A few seconds later, the rumbling began.
Sadie was able to find a spot immediately, but I had to dive forward for mine. I landed on my belly as a long row of stones shifted out, directly above me. Unfortunately, I’d landed at an awkward angle, so when the stones to my left shifted out, they shoved my legs out with them.
Directly toward the edge of the platform.
Shit.
My heart raced as I tried to quickly wiggle forward, further onto the platform, but I didn’t have much space. The stones stopped, and my feet were left dangling over the edge of the platform, but enough of my body was balanced on it that I didn’t fall.
When the stones began to slide back into the wall, I quickly squirmed the rest of the way onto the platform and breathed a sigh of relief.
That had been way too close.
As soon as I was clear, I got to my feet, and Sadie and I sprinted the rest of the way to the end.
I reached the platform with Sadie just a few feet behind me when the wall began to rumble again. I turned to see Sadie in a race against the wall as several stone blocks moved to block her path, with no space of gaps in sight.
Shit.
Sadie was almost to the platform when the stones reached her, and I quickly leaned forward and grabbed her hands. Just in time, too, because the stones pushed her off the platform as they stopped and locked into place.
Sadie screamed as she dangled off the edge of the platform, and I gripped her hands tightly as I tried to pull her up. For one brief and terrifying moment, I began to teeter forward, and I worried we’d both go over the edge, but I was able to steady myself and hoist her the rest of the way up.
“Oh, my God,” Sadie panted once I got her onto the platform. Her hair was especially wild now, and she had an equally wild look in her eyes.
“Are you alright?” I asked as I gave her a quick once-over for injuries.
“I’m fine,” she said once she was able to calm down a bit more. “Except for the part where I was scared out of my mind.”
I chuckled at her commentary, but I was mostly just relieved she was alright and still able to joke about it.
“Will you be okay here alone?” I asked. “I need to go get Parker.”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Sadie replied as she swept her hair out of her face. “Go get her, but please be careful.”
“Always,” I said with a grin.
I waited for the stones to retreat into the wall again, and I began my journey back to Parker. Fortunately, the journey back was significantly faster and easier than the first journey. It probably helped that I only needed to worry about my own safety.
“Is Sadie alright?” Parker asked me once I’d reached her. “I heard her scream, but I couldn’t see you.”
“She’s alright,” I replied. “We had a close call, but we made it.”
Parker nodded with a relieved expression on her face.
“Alright,” I continued. “We’ll do this the same way. When the stones go into the wall, we run, and when they begin to move outward, find a gap in between them. They move slowly, but they’re strong, so don’t get shoved by any of them.”
“Got it,” Parker said with another nod, and she stood directly behind me.
As soon as the stones began to retreat, Parker and I started forward as quickly as we could.
We got slightly further than Sadie and I had when the rumbling began, and Parker quickly tucked herself down into a crouch to avoid the moving stones, while I had to stand at an awkward angle with my legs spread apart and my torso slightly tilted to the side.
The stones remained in place for a few seconds before they moved back again, and Parker and I continued.
This time, when the wall rumbled, only a few stones jutted out. Parker and I dodged them with ease, and I thought we were in the clear, but a split second later, another, deeper rumbling sounded.