Mike put his stuff down, took off his clothes and ran left, towards the river. The river was not too big, so Mike had no problem walking through the river. The river covered up to Mike's chest at most.
On the other side of the river was a forest. In the dark forest full of tall trees with thick trunks, some part of the roots had come above the ground and the faint sounds of leaves rustling was breaking the silence once in a while.
Mike entered the forest. With his first step, a loud crackling sound of dry leaves crushing echoed throughout the forest. Ignoring the sound, Mike moved on ahead.
He was too used to this sound to notice it since he had been crushing leaves with his every step. He looked around, in search of anything edible.
After about 5 minutes, he was deep inside the forest. Running around desperately, he searched for food. He climbed trees to widen his range of vision but could find nothing.
"Was this forest always this empty?" He thought as he looked around. When what seemed like an hour passed, he saw beams of strong light shooting up towards the sky from a certain point.
"Woah! A labyrinth. I've never seen one before. Rom bro never allowed me to go near those beams. I gotta check it out." He ran towards the light, excited to know what exactly is a labyrinth.
The more he ran towards the light, the more he realised that the source of light was farther away than he anticipated. At the first glance of the rays, it seemed an hour away but even after 2 hours, he was nowhere near the light. His stomach began grumbling.
A few hours later, he did hunt a bear and ate his full. But, he was nowhere near satisfied. The labyrinth was finally getting nearer. He could some progress. This was motivating enough for him to sprint a few miles more.
The scenery of the forest hadn't changed one bit. Finally, when the sun dived into the horizon, Mike saw something far in front of him on the ground.
It was like a cave. When he reached about 100 metres away from the cave, he noticed that the cave was a cube-shaped stone with a smooth surface and sharp edges. The stone was as long as Mike's height.
The entrance of the small cave was pitch black. No light came out of it. The sunset was about to be over. At first glance, Mike was shocked.
Mike thought, "What is this thing? I thought it was something dramatic. Leave dramatic, it is just a boring piece of stone carved by some expert. There must be something more to it."
If it had not been suspicious, Mike would have lost his soul. But, his urge to adventure led him straight to the entrance. With a burst of enthusiasm, he entered the cave, hoping to teleport or get transferred somewhere.
Things were clear once he entered the cave. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he was sure that it was nothing sort of portal. It was just a plain box of stone. Unfortunately, he was true.
"Shit! Knew it."
"Knew what?"
A voice came from outside. Mike clenched his fists and raised them to the level of his chest. He kicked a pebble and shouted, "Who is it?!" He swallowed his spit and focused his eyes outside. But the light of the sun was almost out.
He could only see the figure of a person with a narrow waist and long, wavy hair. The figure entered the cave and said, "Never been to labyrinths, have you? I'll make it short for you. You'll die."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Yeah, I didn't. So what?"
"So, tell me now. What's your name?"
"That's better. I'm Jane."
"What's better?"
"Forget it. Are you sure you wanna stay here? You did hear my warning, didn't you?"
"Warning? I've been getting 'em since birth."
"You're sure good at bragging. All of it will come out at once."
A plate fell in front of them, closing the entrance. Jane said, "It's about time."
"For what?"
"See it for yourself. And don't annoy me with any more questions."
The floor began cracking. A surge of panic rushed through Mike's body. He was about to react but knew better. The floor crumbled at once. He gasped.
They began falling. He looked up. The ceiling, too, had crumbled, resulting in debris just above their head. He had enough time to push the debris away and say, "Woah, it's awesome. So fun!"
"You say this is fun? You're a funny one. Don't you care about your life?"
"As if that'll kill me. Are you scared now?"
Mike was about to laugh but Jane replied, "Who do you take me for? I was just testing you."
"Yeah yeah, so true." He said.
A second later, Mike looked down. The ground was visible. He quickly clenched his fist and punched down. His fist crashed on the ground, cracking the smooth stone tile. He was pushed half a meter up.
Then, he landed on his legs. "Jane! Are you safe?" He looked around. She was behind him.
She said with an annoyed face, "How barbaric! Can't you land more quietly?"
Suddenly, the darkness went away like it was never there in the first place. Mike looked around. The fire was lit on the thick sticks hung on the wall by metal stands.
"Jane, mind filling me in about what's going on?"
"Why should I?"
Mike glared at her and said with a furrow, "What's with that attitude of yours? I guess being kind is not sensible for you. Fine." Mike turned his back towards her and walked away without a word.
"Where're you going? Do you think you can last a second in here without me?"
"Of course I can! And with a peace of mind!" Mike shouted from afar.
Jane clenched her fists and took a step towards Mike. Sounds of rumbling echoed in the dark cave. Some of the fires went out.
She followed him. The fires behind them went out as they went forward, making the area behind them darker. "Do you even know where are you going?"
"Why do you care, 'Miss World'?"
"Because fires behind you are going out and since you won't walk back, I won't be able to get anywhere else. Besides, I've got my own reasons to be here."
"Whatever."
"Nice ass there." A deep and slow voice like that of a drunkard came from behind.
Mike turned his head behind as he said with a faint laugh, "I didn't know you were into that kinda stuff."
Behind him, she was fighting against a zombie. She had a sword on her right hand and a shield on her left. She wore an armour covering her entire body except for her eyes and nose.
"Idiot! It's a zombie." She said quickly and sliced its torso into 2 halves. The lower half jumped on the upper half and cells began growing, joining the body slowly.
She didn't take a breath and sliced the zombie into about 50 pieces. Mike rubbed his eyes in disbelief. It was a real zombie. The ones he had only heard of in the stories told by his grandfather.