Chapter 18 #2
“We need to head back that way,” I said as I pointed in the direction we’d come from. “Then I’m pretty sure we need to take the center path in the fork.”
“How do you know that?” Parker’s voice was filled with awe, and she sounded more curious than skeptical.
“I’m not entirely sure,” I admitted. “I’ve just had this gut feeling, but it’s led me this far, so I feel like I should continue to trust it.”
“That’s good enough for me,” Tyler immediately cut in. “Lead the way.”
We edged around the pit before we fell into step next to each other again.
I really hoped Sadie and Claire were okay. I’d been worried about them ever since I found the first trap in here, but now that I knew there were also massive viscerids?
I just hoped I found the two girls before the creatures did.
We reached the fork in the road, and I chose the middle path, which seemed to feel right. We slowly moved forward as we scanned for traps or stalking creatures, and it was certainly nice to have extra sets of watchful eyes to look for danger as well.
We reached another fork and chose the left path, but we hadn’t gone very far when Parker suddenly stopped us.
“Did you guys hear that?” she asked as she held up a hand to make us pause. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, and there was a little frown on her face.
She glanced around intently as if she were listening for something, and I was immediately on high alert. Had a viscerid snuck up on us without my notice? I glanced around and listened for any little sound as well, but there was nothing.
“What did you hear?” I asked in a confused tone, and I glanced at Tyler to see if he knew what she was talking about, but he merely shrugged.
“I could’ve sworn I heard someone crying,” Parker sighed after a long moment, before she dropped her hand again. “But I guess I was just hearing things.”
“You heard someone crying?” My own eyebrows cinched together.
“I thought so,” Parker replied with a little shrug. “But I am pretty tense right now. My brain probably made it up. Let’s keep going.”
We continued to move down the corridor, but I quickly held up a hand to make us stop.
“Wait,” I hissed. “I think I hear it, too.”
I paused to listen, and sure enough, the sound of a woman crying reached my ears, and it sounded like it originated from just past our stone wall.
“Oh, my god,” Tyler breathed. “That sounds like Claire.”
Tyler rushed over to the wall with an eager, yet worried expression on his face.
“Claire!” he yelled. “Claire, can you hear me?”
The crying abruptly stopped, and Claire’s timid voice replaced it.
“T-Tyler?” she called back in a hoarse voice. “Tyler, i-is that you?”
“It’s me, baby,” he called back. “I’m here. Where are you? How do we get to you?”
“I-I don’t know,” Claire stammered, and she sounded dangerously close to crying again. “I w-was just walking, and then suddenly I found a clearing, but when I entered it, the walls behind me moved and made my only opening disappear. I’m s-stuck in here.”
“It’s alright,” Tyler soothed. “I’ll get you out.”
I knew the maze had false walls, but now it had moving ones, too?
“Let’s see if we can circle around the clearing she mentioned,” I said. “Maybe we can trigger the walls to open again.”
Parker and Tyler readily agreed, and we continued along the path, but I let my hand trail firmly against the wall as we moved in case I could feel an opening that was blocked by a holographic image.
When we turned a corner, I could see an opening along the wall just ahead of us, and as we got closer, I could see Claire. She was seated on the ground with her back to us as she stared up at the towering wall.
“Oh, my god, Claire!” Tyler yelled as he rushed forward through the opening.
Claire quickly got up when she heard Tyler call her name, and when she turned to find her match, a fresh new wave of tears rolled down her face in thick droplets.
Parker and I remained outside the opening to allow them some privacy.
“How did you get through the wall?” Claire asked after she’d finally calmed down.
“What are you talking about?” Tyler asked. “I just walked through the opening.”
“What opening?” Claire frowned as she stared hard at us through the gap.
Tyler turned around to see what she was talking about, and his entire face fell.
“Liam, are you still there?” he called out.
From my perspective, it looked like he was staring right at me, yet he acted as if he couldn’t see us at all.
“Yeah, Parker and I are right here,” I called back as I exchanged a confused glance with the auburn-haired woman at my side. “We’re staring directly at you.”
“How? Claire and I are completely surrounded by walls,” Tyler replied as he glanced around.
It took me a moment to fully understand what was going on, but then it clicked.
“Earlier, I came across a false wall,” I explained. “It looked like a solid wall, but I was able to pass right through it. I wonder if this is the same thing, but we can only see the wall on one side, like a one-way mirror type situation.”
“I guess that’s a strong possibility,” Tyler agreed as he helped steady the mousy-haired woman at his side. Then he slowly moved closer to our wall. “What exactly do I do?”
“If it really is a false wall, all you have to do is feel around,” I instructed. “When you reach the holograph part, your hand should just pass right through it.”
Tyler kept Claire close beside him as he carefully ran his hand along the length of the wall, and when he reached the gap Parker and I were watching from, his hand passed through.
“Holy shit,” Tyler muttered as he waved his hand around in the open space. “This is trippy. How the hell did you figure out some of the walls were fake?”
He carefully led Claire through the hidden gap, and both of their faces twisted into relief when they saw Parker and I again.
“Honestly? By pure chance.” I shrugged.
“Of course you did,” Tyler chuckled as he shook his head in disbelief.
I was relieved we were able to find Claire, but I was still really worried about Sadie. She was alone somewhere out there with deadly traps and dangerous viscerids. And Kyle.
We needed to find her, and fast.
“Come on,” I said as I continued down the path. “We still need to find Sadie.”
The others quickly followed after me as we resumed our journey down the long corridor. We kept moving until we came to another dead end, except this time it looked very different.
Instead of blank stone, there was a massive grid of painted stone squares embedded in the wall. But the painting made no sense. The colors were all jumbled around, and there didn’t seem to be any obvious pattern to them.
Then I noticed one of the blocks in the bottom right corner was missing as well.
“What is this?” I muttered as I gazed at the chaotic painting and tried to decipher its meaning.
I was confused because the path we took to get here had felt right. I stretched my hand out to feel along the wall and tested it to see if perhaps it was another false wall.
But my hand met solid stone at every point.
I took a step back to study the strange mural again. Perhaps there was some sort of hidden message inside the picture? One that would lead us toward the correct path, or even just give us a clue as to what we were supposed to do next.
But nothing really jumped out at me.
“Wait,” Tyler suddenly said in an excited voice. “I think I know what this is.”
“You do?” I couldn’t help the surprise that colored my voice as I turned to face my companion.
“I’m pretty sure,” he said with a confident nod. “I see this sort of thing in video games all the time. I think it’s supposed to be a puzzle.”
“Some puzzle,” I muttered as I turned back to stare at the individual blocks. “It’s missing a piece.”
I gestured to the bottom, right corner where there was an obvious gap in the stone.
“The empty spot is supposed to be there,” Tyler explained. “The pieces slide, and that’s how you get them to move around. Of course, I’ve never seen one with this many pieces before…”
Tyler stepped forward, and I quickly moved out of his way and watched in fascination as he worked.
He studied the mural for a long moment before he carefully pressed his hand to the bottom right piece and slid it into the empty space next to it with ease. Then he kept going.
We all watched in awe as he slid pieces around the wall and connected lines and splashes of color together, and before I knew it, a picture began to form. Tyler kept working at the puzzle, and the picture slowly grew larger with each new piece he slid into the correct place.
It wasn’t until the image was nearly complete that I realized the mural wasn’t of one picture at all, but actually several smaller images that worked together to create one.
The first image was of a man and a woman standing next to each other, and the woman held a small bundle in her hands that looked like it might be a baby.
In the next image, it showed the same two people, except this time a young boy was with them.
The boy had sandy-colored hair and smiley eyes, and he looked so happy and carefree.
In the next image, the couple was gone, and a young man was there instead. The man had sandy-colored hair and smiley eyes, and I knew it was the young boy from the previous image, all grown up.
The next scene showed the same man standing hand in hand with a beautiful young woman, and then the very next picture depicted the same couple wearing a tuxedo and wedding gown at an altar.
The images continued in that same pattern. The young couple in a cute little house, the young couple with a newborn, the young couple surrounded by small children…
It showed almost every stage a person could go through, including that same couple, old and wrinkled, surrounded by their grown children and young grandchildren.
Finally, Tyler slid the very last block into place. There was a sharp click as a block slowly moved out into the empty space in the corner, and the picture was complete.