Chapter 17 #2
When I opened my eyes again, my hand felt completely empty, and Sadie was gone.
Fuck.
I was on a huge, cement pathway that stretched far out in front of me, as well as behind me. On either side of the path were massive stone walls that towered high above me and blocked out most of the daylight, which left the path I was on heavily shaded.
This wasn’t like any maze I’d ever seen before.
And I was completely alone.
The aliens had actually done it, they’d separated all of us.
Shit.
I needed to find Sadie and Parker. I needed to find Tyler and Claire, too, but I was just in one small hallway of the maze…
And it was fucking massive.
I glanced behind me again and then faced forward. Which direction should I start in? Both possible options looked nearly identical, but I was sure if I chose wrong, it would take me further away from my teammates.
I decided to take the path behind me, and my reasoning was that the aliens were a bunch of assholes, and it would be a very assholish thing to do if they transported me into the maze already facing the wrong direction.
As I turned and started moving down the pathway, I could feel something deep inside my gut.
This direction felt right, somehow.
I hurried down the path and kept an ear out for any sign of the other contestants, while I also kept an eye out for any potential threats.
But so far, there was nothing but calm silence and empty space.
I reached my second dilemma when I followed the path I’d chosen all the way to a section where it split into three possible options.
Shit.
Which way did I go now? Suddenly, this wasn’t just a simple fifty-fifty shot.
I glanced down each possible path and checked to see if I had that same gut feeling from earlier, but nothing seemed to happen.
I guess I’d just have to pick one at random.
I took a step down the left corridor, but I suddenly got a strong feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was the wrong way. I stepped back and then tried the next path, the middle one.
But the same sudden feeling of wrongness appeared in my gut.
Third time’s the charm, I guess.
I stepped back and tried the third path, and this time, I had the feeling this was the right way to go.
Interesting… Was this due to the skill points I’d earned in my ‘senses’ category? Or was this something else entirely?
I jogged down the new pathway, and I tried to move quickly while still remaining cautious. So far, I still hadn’t seen anything unusual, but knowing the aliens’ pattern, I was sure there were more dangers in this maze than I was aware of.
As I followed the gravel path, I realized the straight corridor suddenly veered off to the left and out of sight.
As I got closer to the opening, I stayed low and kept close to the wall.
I didn’t like the idea that something could be just around the corner waiting for me.
I wished the aliens had provided us with weapons.
All I had as an option was gravel, so unless my potential enemies were particularly vulnerable to having a handful of small rocks chucked at them…
I was out of options.
When I poked my head around the corner to make sure the coast was still clear, my eyes were met with a completely empty hallway. But right when I was about to take a step forward, warning bells went off in my head.
Something wasn’t right.
I paused and looked around for any sign of danger, but there was none.
So, why did I have this nagging feeling?
Then I glanced down, and that’s when I saw it.
Directly in front of me was a wire that was strung tightly across the aisle. It was so thin it was nearly invisible, and it was so low to the ground that if I hadn’t been paying attention, I never would’ve seen it.
I backed away several steps and took shelter behind the stone wall again. Then I picked up a handful of rocks and tossed them at the wire before I ducked down.
The moment one of the rocks hit the tripwire, a loud swooshing sound echoed through the corridor, and a moment later, a massive sawblade whizzed past me and embedded itself deep into the wall to my right.
If I’d been standing where I had been before, that blade would’ve taken my head clean off.
I stared at the blade with wide eyes for a moment longer as I processed how quickly I could’ve died right there. Once I’d gotten over my initial shock, I returned my gaze back down to the spot the tripwire had been.
The little wire was broken and loose on the ground now, and it was completely useless.
Thank god.
Even though I knew I couldn’t trigger the trap a second time, I carefully stepped over the loose wire, and as I continued to pick my way down the path, I kept low to the ground and kept my eyes peeled for any more thin threads or hidden traps.
Fortunately, I didn’t see any as I walked.
Up ahead, the corridor made another abrupt turn, and this time it veered off to the right, but when I peeked around the corner, I was met with a dead end.
What the hell?
I quickly checked for traps, and when I didn’t find any, I stepped up to the giant wall that blocked my path.
Had I missed another turn somewhere back there?
No way, the pathway had been almost completely straight, save for a couple turns, and I’d been vigilant. There was no possible way I’d missed a turn somewhere.
Then how had I gotten to this dead end? When I’d chosen this original path, I’d been so confident it was the correct way. I’d felt it in my gut.
Had my gut been wrong?
But even as I thought about turning back, the nagging feeling that this was the correct direction came back.
I was staring at a stone wall, so how the hell was this the correct direction?
But also… if this wasn’t the right way, why bother setting a trap? It felt like a bit of a waste to me.
No… There had to be more to it than that. Something I wasn’t seeing…
I stepped closer to the stone wall, and I could hear the faint sound of… humming? It sounded almost like electricity.
“No way,” I muttered as I carefully held out my hand to touch the wall.
It passed right through the stone.
I pulled back my hand to check it, and it appeared perfectly fine.
This wasn’t an actual wall. This was some sort of holographic projection, similar to my status screen or the timer from the obstacle course. And it was a really great one because the damn thing looked so real.
I stuck my hand through a second time, just to double-check before I fully passed through, and I felt nothing but open air around me.
When I came out on the other side, I found another long stretch of hallway.
Hell, yeah.
Although, now that I knew there were false walls, I needed to be extra vigilant so I didn’t miss anything.
I hurried down the hallway and kept a watchful eye out for more traps, but there weren’t any I could see.
Suddenly, I heard yelling ahead in the distance, and it sounded a lot like Tyler.
Shit.
I picked up the pace and prayed no little traps would escape my notice in my haste to get to my friend.
Then I rounded a sharp corner and had to force myself into a sudden stop.
Directly in front of me was a massive hole, and it’d been placed directly in the center of the hallway. The hole was roughly seven feet in diameter, and it took up most of the aisle and left maybe a foot of space on either side to actually walk on.
I crept closer to the edge and glanced down.
The hole was equally as deep as it was wide, but it wasn’t the depth that concerned me.
Scattered across the base of the hole were metal spikes.
They were all different sizes ranging from a couple inches, to about two feet long.
All of them were pointed upward as they waited to impale their next victim, and all of them looked needle sharp.
Holy shit, that could’ve killed me. I was glad I checked before just blindly turning the corner and carrying on with what I was doing.
I quickly edged around the gaping hole before I picked up the pace again.
There was more yelling, and my heart thudded wildly in my chest as I ran toward the source of the sound. But then I came across another problem. My straight path forked into three again, and I had no idea which one would lead me toward Tyler.
Just then, I heard another scream, but this one sounded more feminine. Was Claire with him? What sort of trouble had they run into? My senses felt like they were in overdrive as I tried to imagine what danger lurked ahead.
I reached the fork, and I needed to take a guess, but based on the direction the screams had come from, I felt like the left path was my best option.
As I sprinted down the corridor, the nagging feeling that I was going the wrong way had returned, but I wasn’t trying to finish the maze at the moment. I was trying to save my friends, so I ignored the feeling and kept sprinting.