Max – "True leaders don't create followers; they create more leaders." – unknown
Without speaking, I start following the yellow lines. My mind races as I keep thinking back to the first announcement. Experiment? What makes us so special? Is it a coincidence? Is it just because we got the faulty pod? And what experiment?
I shake the thoughts away as I walk ahead of the others.
"Hey Maxie! Is it ok if I call you that?" chirps Bee as she runs to catch up with me.
"No." That's what Jake calls me. Not her.
"Ok, well Max I was just wondering whether we should have some sort of safety precautions?" I whirl round.
"What?"
"Like a… buddy system? So, we can go into pairs and watch each other's backs!" although she annoyed the heck out of me, she did make a fair point.
"Ok, split into pairs, don't leave each other behind and we're not calling them 'buddies.'" I say and continue walking. I hear loud chatter behind me, and I roll my eyes.
"Looks like we're stuck together." Says Harlow as they appear beside me.
"Great." I huff. Could this day get any worse? Still, it's better than what Raven got, he got stuck with Bee. I look down and realise the yellow lines had stopped, right in front of a huge building with abandoned offices in windows.
"Where are we?" I ask Dara. He frowns before muttering;
"My dad's old office building."
"Ok, we need to do a health check before going in." I remember suddenly, we learnt in early on and apparently, it's important or something. But we were also told never to complain, even if we're dying.
"Ok, Nakia and Dara, you're a pair, right? You guys ok?" I say, trying to act calmer than I am. They both nod and I look at Raven and Bee. Raven looks at me and I smirk, he seems as tired of Bee as I am. Still, they both nod.
"Harlow?" they nod sharply, and we wait.
"Please enter." Says the voice. I don't think anyone truly knows how brave you are until you are faced with a scary situation. Still, as I look at each of their faces, a look of grit determination and fear spread across each one. A weird sense of pride fills me as I walk in first. As soon as we had all entered, the doors slam behind us.
The office building was a standard one, boring with desks.
"Please make your way to the roof." Said the voice. We each look at each other, wide eyed and scared. When no one moves, I start walking towards the elevator and press the button going up.
We all pile into the elevator, slightly squished. Bee presses the button say '80' and the elevator jolts upwards. An awkward silence follows. We all stand against the walls, tense and anxious.
"So, what do you all reckon is up there?" Raven says awkwardly, rocking back and forth on his heels.
"Maybe people are gonna give us an award!" chimes Bee. I catch Raven's eyes and we both roll our eyes and grin.
"Unlikely." Adds Nakia briskly. At last, the elevator pings and the doors open. We arrived at another office floor, filled with office cubicles.
"We'll have to use the windows." Says Dara, looking worried. I nod and let him take the lead. We walk fast through the rows of cubicles, finally I spot some windows on the ceiling and look around for a ladder.
"We can stack the chairs on a desk, it should reach." Points out Dara, as he spots me looking confused. Without saying a word, Harlow stands on the desk and heaves a four legged chair onto it. They stand on it, without wavering, and pushes open the window. Barely reaching the outside roof, they grab another chair from me. Carefully they balance it on the other one and step onto it. This time, they easily reach up and pull themselves through it. A few agonising seconds later, their face reappears, strangely a sense of relief fills me.
Next, Bee hoists herself up with the help of Harlow, then Raven and Nakia, then Dara and lastly me. Cold wind hits me, and I look around for any clues. None. It's just a plain roof top, concrete with a ledge.
The window slams shut, and I hear a click, I think it locked.
We stand around in a semi-circle, waiting anxiously.
"Your first test is purely physical. Each stage has five levels. Good luck." Says the voice, making us all jump. At least this test is to my strength, Bee however probably won't be so lucky.
Suddenly, the air seemed to crackle. We all duck instinctively, waiting. Still, nothing. When we all stand up, another loud crackling sound makes us jump. Frowning, I stand in front of the others, my fists up. Then something strange happens, and I mean strange, strange, not even 'hi your now in some crazy ass experiment' strange, more like straight out of a sci fi movie strange.
The area around us, seems to sort of… disintegrate. The air and the roof we're standing on turns into hexagons and disappears, soon we're all standing in a black room. Well, more of a black space, a nothingness sort of thing. It's hard to explain.
Everywhere I looked was black. The sky, the ground. And not as in I can't see anything black, I could see the others perfectly well. Raven and I look at each other and tentatively step forward. Nothing happens. We take another step, still nothing. We keep taking a step until my hands hit something solid. I hit my hands against it, it feels as if it's concrete, a wall perhaps.
"You have two minutes to decide your volunteers for the maze. Please select two." Said the voice. The group looks at each other in bewilderment. We don't have time to worry about what's happening, we only have two minutes, and I don't even want to think what'll happen if we go over the time.
"Ok, so the voice said this test was purely physical, meaning we need to pick our best athletes, right?" says Nakia, thinking logically as always. I frown and nod.
"I guess I should, then." I say, almost reluctantly. I do not want to find out what this maze thing is, still it looks like I have no choice. The others nod seemingly relived.
"I will too, I'm used to running." Says Raven quietly. Again, the others nod.
"Volunteers, please make your way towards the door." Says the voice, making us collectively jump again.
Door? What door? There's only blackness and…
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a small glowing thing. I grab Raven's arm and start walking towards it. As it comes nearer, I realise the white outline is the shape of a door frame. Up close, I realise it's about half the height of a normal door, but a little wider. I raise my eyebrows at Raven and look back at the worried faces of the others.
I reach for the doorknob and open it with a tug. Through it, all is visible is a circle, and in the circle, a slide.
"A slide?" said Raven, even more confused. I shrug and turn to the others;
"Try not to get yourselves killed while we're gone. And if we don't return in, let's say, two days, assume we're dead or not coming back." I say, trying to keep any emotion out of my voice.
"I'll go first," I say when I see Raven start misting up. He nods and I carefully sit in the opening of the slide. I shuffle forwards a bit and let Raven sit directly behind me. I take a deep breath before forcing myself forwards and into the darkness…
I hold in a shriek as the slide twists and turns unexpectedly, I can't see a thing in there.
Finally, the slide draws to a stop and I feel my outstretched feet hit something hard.
"Oof." Mutters Raven as his back slams into me.
"How did you manage that?" I say smirking in the darkness, he had managed to fully turn himself round somehow.
I feel for a door handle in the darkness, to my relief I find it quickly and shove open the door. Light fills my eyes and I'm momentarily blinded.
I scuttle out and look around, we're somewhere inside, the walls white and brick and all I can see is large concreate walls in different twisting patterns. As Raven gets clumsily to his feet, I realise there's two ways in, each archway with a door and a note attached.
I walk towards the left door, the note read;
'dear volunteers,
You have two doors, each with a different path, one that leads to death, the other to possible life. All you have to do Is answer the riddles;
In this door, I am not alive, but I grow; I don't have lungs, but I need air; I don't have a mouth, but water kills me. What am I?'
I re read the riddle over and over again. Annoyed, I go and look at the second riddle;
'only one colour, but not one size, stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies. Present in the sun, but not in rain, doing no harm and feeling no pain. What am I?
Both seem equally as confusing. 'water kills me'. What does water kill? I gasp as soon as I realise;
"Fire!" I yell, Raven grins and I can't help but grin too.
"So, it's got to be the other one, right?" he says and starts walking towards it. I stop him and read the second riddle again.
"Not necessarily, what's this?" I say, frowning.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" he says, annoying me.
"Yeah? What's the answer then?" I say and fold my arms.
"A shadow." Feeling stupid, I read the riddle again and realise he's right. Dammit.
"How'd you know so much about riddles?" I say and raise an eyebrow.
"I used to read them in spare time at the junkyard." He says, going red.
I push open the second door, and grudgingly walk through. As soon as Raven walks through, the door slams behind us. I look up and the walls reach the ceiling.
I walk forwards, fists ready and go left. I stop dead when I see what's there, lasers. Just in time, Raven stops too. He peers over my shoulder as the walls are too narrow for us to stand side by side.
"Great. Here, toss this, see what happens." He mutters and hands me a small pebble. Not even caring where he got it, I chuck it directly onto a laser and it blows apart.
"Ok. New plan, we'll just have to dodge them." He says.
"No shit." I mutter. The lines of lasers where so tight, I have trouble getting onto my stomach. Gradually, I force myself forwards, the laser just millimetres away from my face. Finally, I pass the first laser. The next one lay directly on the ground, meaning somehow, I have to stand up. I manage to tuck my legs in, my feet barely missing the laser. Shaking slightly, I manage to twist my foot and sit up, thankfully the laser above me was higher than my head. Slowly, I get into a crouch and lift on leg over the laser, then the other. Finally, I get myself across and wait for Raven. Him being taller, found it much more difficult. He manages to get into a crouch, his boots slightly singed. We both squeeze under the next one and finally we reach the last laser. Three lasers lie on top of each other, barely a few inches gap between each one. There's no way I can get through this gracefully.
The top one, too high to climb over, the bottom too low to the ground to slide under. There was only one option. Feeling nauseous, I duck my head under the second laser, I curve slightly and mange to poke me head through to the other side. Feeling unsteady, I gradually take one foot through. So far, so good. Then, the next foot, barely missing the laser, squeaks through.
Raven, about to do the same, jumps. A loud cracking sound echoes. I look in horror as the ground behind the lasers starts to split in half. The gaping hole approaches faster.
"Just jump and roll!" I bellow, without thinking he dives headfirst between the lasers, he lands with a roll and grabs me, turns and sprints.
We don't stop sprinting until we realise the sound had stopped. We both double over, panting and shaking slightly.
"That, was close." He gasps. I nod and catch my breath. We continue walking, until we spot a gaping hole in the middle of the floor. I look round but there's no more turns to go through.
"The holes too wide." Raven points out, I sigh and stop attempting to step on the miniscule sides.
"Now what? Do you think we chose the wrong door?" I huff, feeling exhausted. He frowns and crouches down near the hole,
"There's a ladder." He says and I immediately feel stupid for not seeing it. Without speaking, I swing one leg over onto the first rung and start climbing down. The air reeks of rotten eggs and it's so dark I can barely see. Still, I keep climbing. I hear a shout above as Raven's foot miss one of the steps and kicks me straight on the nose.
"Ow!" I shout, followed by a number of swear words.
"Sorry!" he yells, and I keep climbing. My nose kills and blood sprouts viciously from it. It must be broken. It's a while before I finally find the floor, well it's not really a floor. Lights in the underground tunnel illuminate Raven's disgusted face when he spots the running water, about waist high, below.
"Guess we gotta go through that?" he says, nose wrinkling in disgust. I nod and wipe the blood with my sleeve. I drop down and icy water freezes my insides. I gasp before slowly wading through. I spot our shadows on the wall, I remember the riddle and realise we're safe.
The narrow tunnel seems to get colder as we go through, making Raven's face turn blue.
"ARGH!" he yells, then sinks below the surface, thrashing. I roll my eyes and wait until he comes back up, he must be joking. I wait some more. My anxiety grows when he still doesn't rise.
I start thrashing through the water, searching for any sign of him.
"SH-!" I feel a cold hand clamp around my wrist, I go to shake it off but realise with a sinking feeling who's it is. I yank hard at the hand at Raven's terrified face bobs above the water, gasping for air.