nice,” I mutter to myself, mostly so I don’t feel so fucking guilty for just leaving because, let’s just face it, I’m going to walk away.
A light blinks to life on the wall.
It’s red and is right over the girl, like it’s drawing attention to her. I decide that it’s enough of a beacon that someone must be coming to get her and I get my ass moving. I pull the remains of my sneakers off and throw them aside, wincing a little at the cold concrete on my bare feet as I break back into a jog. As I look out at the other walls as I jog, I see other little blinking red lights and my heart finally sinks back out of my throat. It must be normal, something that happens when a student has been taken out of the running, and at a quick count from where I am, there’s at least ten people out. I can only see a small section of the walls from where I am, so hopefully there aren’t many people left here for me to come up against.
The screaming also quietens down a little the deeper into the maze I get, less frequent now, which proves there’s less people here being tortured. I have to duck behind one of the corners to avoid a trio of students. One of them was a girl holding a palm full of fire while one of the guys was holding out a forcefield and the other’s eyes glowed. They all look battered and bruised, but they’re alive and working together, so obviously they’re my pick for making it to the center and winning the passing grade.
The guy with the glowing eyes glanced down in my direction but didn’t comment on seeing me or noticing anything out of the ordinary, so either he couldn’t see me, or he has no interest in feeding me to the pond bitch like that dickhead Martinez.
Fucking Martinez.
I’m going to punch him in the face the second I get out of this maze.
When the trio is gone, I get back up from my crouch, every inch of my body screaming in protest, and then I keep working my way through the maze slowly, doubling back after each dead end. It’s frustrating and slow going, especially now that I’m on bare feet, and a few times I come across an unconscious student or a mysterious pool of blood that has my stomach dropping.
The real terror starts when I find another room, this time with a huge body of water, and I start to panic that I’ve found the infamous pond because I’m not sure I can fight a sea creature right now.
There’s only one way for me to go though, and it’s the doorway cut out of the other side.
There’s no fucking way I’m swimming across, even if I hadn’t been warned, because the water stinks and I don’t want to puke my way across right now. There are rocks and boulders to one side that I could scale my way across but my jelly arms hate that option, so I walk around the water’s edge for a second, like I can make a sturdy bridge appear with nothing but my desperation.
No such luck.
Rock climbing it is. The small stones bite into my feet and the larger boulders move a little under my body weight, which is both insulting and unsettling. I scramble to the highest point and then take a second to breathe and attempt to get some strength back in my arms. I know now how much those training sessions have done for me because even me of six months ago would’ve been wrapped up in the vines.
From this vantage point, I can actually see how close I am to the center and, fuck me, it’s close. I memorize the path, and thank God that I climbed this stupid thing because there’s three rooms I can avoid if I do this right.
I can’t see Gabe but there is a freaking massive snow leopard in one of the rooms fighting against… okay, it’s so gross I don’t want to say it, but there’s a plague of rats in one of the rooms and I suddenly understand all of the screaming because no. No, I would rather face the quiet and absent pond bitch than a million diseased and disgusting rats, thanks.
My skin crawls like I might just pass out and die, so I decide it’s time to get the hell out of