Trapped
Chapter 1
Drowned by a Dream
It's been two weeks now.
Jemy's hurt bad, she fell on her foot funny and can't walk any more.
And sometimes Matt seems like... hes about to snap, like he doesn't care anymore... like suicide is his only option. But Matt is strong, He'll try and stay sane for as long as he can.
We can't remember anything. Entering this maze has wiped all of our memories accept our names and purpose of being her.
We're here to play... We have to play. Stopping will only get us killed. It'll make their hunt short.
"There." Matt Pointed. "The next Haven." We followed his finger towards a wooden door. Every door had a key within five feet of it. It was our job to find it and get in before they got here. "Autumn, lean Jemy up against the wall and help me look." I did as I was told. The keys were easy to find, they were always near the door, we suspect previous players did that so nobody would have to search long, and get caught.
"Here it is." I said picking it up. It was wedged slightly under a rock, but very noticeable. Matt took it from me and put it in the lock while I went back for Jemy. It took Matt a moment to get the door opened. "I guess no one has made it this far in a while."
"Were lucky we've even made it this far." Jemy plainly stated. She was lifted in the air and carried off by Matt in to the Haven, I followed closely behind, making sure to put the key back so that any other poor souls trapped here could find it. The room light up, when I had closed the door making the cave like room visible in all corners. In the middle of the room was a stone table with a chest on top of it. Beside it lay a note.
To make it to a safe Haven means fresh supplies like food, fuel, and weapons. Each trunk had some kind of number combination, pattern, or word to open it, the notes beside them were hints given to help figure them out. If the chest wasn't opened within a certain time period it was assumed you died of starvation or a wound of some kind, if not those, the player was unable to to solve to puzzle. This led to the door being opened, and any danger lurking outside could enter.
Matt carried Jemy over and leaned her up against the cold stone. "Whats it say?" Her voice came out as barely a whisper. I pulled out the water bottle which now had very little in it and gave it to Jemy. She gratefully accepted it, drinking the last few drops, while Matt began reading our hint.
"Its a pattern combo guys." He picked up the chest and put it down on the ground then sat down with a heavy thump. I lowered my aching bones to the ground as well. The lock pattern was a 3x3 box, each row contained a shape of some kind. "Find a shape in a pattern." Matt read aloud.
"Meaning what?" Jemy demanded. I could see Matt's left eye start to twitch. As patient and nice Jemy could be she could sometimes be quite annoying.
"In means," Matt began. I could hear the frustration in his voice. "exactly what it says. Somewhere in this pattern of shapes, is a shape." Jemy folder her arms across her chest, clearly annoyed with Matt. I picked up the chest and put it on my lap. It was heavy, that was good. The pattern in one row was square, circle, square, the second was opposite, and the last was the same as the first. "He must not thought we could have made it this far." The two both gave me a confused look.
"How so?" Matt asked. I pointed towards the box.
"This is way to easy. Only two options. Make a diamond with circles or and X with squares." Matt lifted the chest from my lap and pushed in the diamond shape. Nothing happened. he punched in the X. It was silent for only a moment when we heard a familiar click, telling us it had unlocked.
Inside was a new bottle of water, a first aid kit, matches, a few biscuits, bottle of lotion, A Knife, Rope, A learner's book to traps, a few nails, a candle and bobby pin.
"The heck?" Matt lifted the learner's book to traps. "Autumn I'm thinking it was easy for a reason." I nodded back towards him.
"Whats this?" We turned to Jemy, who lifted and envelope from the bottom of the chest. she opened it carefully and pulled out a single slip of paper. "That was just the trial run my friends." She began to read.
"The real test is only now beginning.
From here every Haven will be harder to gain access too.
Each Haven will have a chest of supplies for your next challenge, and a special weapon of my choosing.
Trust me my precious players, sacrifices will be made."
The air was heavy, and the silence was strong. Why? Why did it have to be me or Matt or Jemy? What did we do to deserve this?
Matt lost it, he screamed my exact thoughts, he let his emotions run wild. Neither me or Jemy even tried to stop him. He needed to do this, he was holding back for two weeks for both of us. We cried, We screamed, but Matt always helped us. The best thing we could do to help him was let him scream and cry. I turned towards Jemy, noticing a single tear running down her cheek. she still had some left. Mine were gone. I used them up every time we were almost caught, every time a puzzle almost killed us or we nearly made it out of a trap in time. For long stressful nights at a time I cried and rocked myself to sleep. Now all I could do was replay the words in my head, from every angle possible. The bones in my body hurt so bad it felt like they were going to snap any minute, and that, was only the trial.
I dragged myself up from the ground. Some Havens had wood for fires in them, and we were lucky to have one. I gather a few pieces making a pile and went for the matches. It took me a few minutes but by the time I had finished Matt had calmed down. He sat at the other side of the stone table with red puffy eyes.
I started a warm fire near Jemy, and after gathering extra firewood I took out the first aid kit. Looking through it I found some bandages, rubbing alcohol, wipes, and pain killers. I took a pill out and handed it Jemy along with the water, then began bandaging her foot. "Sorry." I looked up at her dirt stained face.
"For what?" she looked down at me, then towards the foot I was bandaging. "Oh, dont worry its not your fault, it could have happened to any of us." I gave her a reassuring smile then finished the bandaging. By now Matt had joined us, and started handing out biscuits.
"Autumn?" Jemy had begun speaking again.
"Yeah?"
"Can you pass me the book?" I nodded, and reached over the rope and knife for it. She started talking again once she held it in her hands. "If we're to mad about everything we can't think." She looked at me and Matt. "We have to keep our brains active, keep them going, train them to see every possibility if we are angry or upset it's hard to do that. To him we are entertainment, he plans to use us for as long as he can," Matt's eyes became dark and dead to me when Jemy said that. "but eventually if we can manage to make him bored or uninterested in anyway we can get out." This time they light up slightly. "My plan is no one likes a winner." Matt finally looked up. I could see some faint sign of hope in his eyes.
"What are you getting at?" He asked. Jemy smiled.
"No one likes watching a winner all the time, because you know they'll win again and again, and it starts to get boring."
"I think I get it." Jemy's plan was starting to take root, sorta.
"Good. So I suggest we play his game, obviously its going to be hard, and I don't know what he'll send at us, but won't it be worth it if there's a way out?" Matt and I shook our heads in silent agreement. "I suggest we sleep, seeing that we don't have to leave anytime soon. We can make a plan in the morning." Jemy was smart and I was glad we had her, she completed our team. Matt was our strength and speed, Jemy our brains and motivation, and I was the responsible "helper" I guess you could say, my job was to, obviously help open the chests, and any simple medical work I was good at. I was also the one that woke everyone up in the morning, I guess you could say i'm the most organized as well.
"Jemy, you realize there's a good chance we will die, right?" Matt was looking depressed again.
"You know the saying 'If I cant see you, you can't see me'?" He shook his head. "Do you think we'll ever be able to kill one of them?" he shook his head no. "Well then, If we can't kill them, they can't kill us." He smiled faintly.
I took my backpack off, and helped Jemy with hers. Inside we had a few things from previous chests, and a couple blankets. I took out the watch we had gotten from one of them. "10:30." I announced. Matt nodded, and rolled up like a hot dog in his blanket, Jemy too tried her best to get comfortable.
Tonight I felt a slight sense of relief, but I was scared of what was to come, I was scared of loosing my friends or my life, I was scared of tomorrow.
We took a left turn following a narrow hall until we entered a large room giving us three paths to choose from. "Which way?" Jemy wondered.
"Left feels lucky today." Matt suggested. She shook her head.
"What if there's something down that path?"
"Will it matter? Either way we're going to run into something sooner or late, it doesn't matter what path you take." Jemy looked down to the ground and kicked a rock.
"I guess you're right." Seemed Matt was now the one motivating us.
"Lets go then."Matt suggested before going ahead, while I helped Jemy.
"Is your foot getting any better?" I asked. She smiled at me.
"With you medical knowledge I'll, probably, be running in two or three days. Its not as swollen anymore, and I can walk on it better now." I was happy that I was able to do something. The problems that appeared before us, were always challenging and sometimes I felt like I was useless in allot of things.
We finally caught up with Matt and he was just staring up at a wall. It was another puzzle. Three pictures. We were at a dead end and our choices were go back to choose another path and risk getting caught, or play a game.
"I think we have to push one in." Matt stated.
"So which one?" I asked. Jemy let go of me and carefully wandered over. One picture was of rocks another fire, and the other water.
"Lets see," Matt started. "Is whatever we're going to push going to happen? or what? Like if I push water there's a possibility we could all drown?" Jemy tilted her head and studied the pictures.
"Looks like it." He shook his head.
"How is that even possible wouldn't it all just go down the hall?"
"It might trigger a door of some kind locking us in here." Matt sighed and looked at his options.
"We're definitely not pressing fire. So that leaves rock. If water could possibly trigger a secret door couldn't rock open a way out of here?"
"That or crush us all." I had a bad feeling about rock.
"But at the moment it's all we got." he suggested. I was just about to protest when a high pitched screech echoed down the hall.
"Forget it!" Jemy yelled "press rock!" Matt did as he was told. A loud rumbling sound shook the room. "Matt?" Jemy looked at him. "MATT!" She screamed. I looked up to see the roof collapsing.
"MATT! JEMY!" I screamed. The roof was collapsing. I was prepared, I was ready to run in for them, I knew I could do it. Behind me I could hear them getting closer, the screams were awful and I knew now there was no turning back.
I woke up heart beating fast, heavy breath, and beads of sweat across my face. I checked the clock. "7:28" I whispered to myself. Steadying my breath I took a few moments to calm myself before unwrapping myself from my blanket and gently waking up Jemy, and Matt. Jemy was a light sleeper so she was easy awake, Matt on the other hand had to be beat a couple times with a pillow. We only had one, so seeing how Jemy was the one in most pain we decided she need to be comfiest. When Matt finally woke up, I split up a biscuit between us all.
"I swear Autumn, Without you, we would be dead." I smiled at Jemy
"Literally." Matt add with his mouth full. We shared a little laugh. Being scared all the time is like being dead. Its painful. "So about out that plan." he didn't say anymore, but rather stared at Jemy until she gave him an answer.
"What plan?"
"The plan we were going to talk about today."
"Well we have to come up with something first." That shut Matt up. Thinking obviously wasn't his strong suit. I picked up the learner's book for traps, and started flipping through the pages.
"We should pick one." I blurted out. "Something that can be easlly set up in a quick amount of time." Matt snatched the book from me and began looking through.
"You're smart." I kinda sat there stunned for a minute. Wasn't really expecting that. "How about this one?" He showed a page to me and Jemy.
"Hey it lists most of what we have." Jemy pointed out. "But do we have enough rope to weave a net?" she asked doubtfully. Pouting like a little kid who just got told by his mom, "No more cookies." he began flipping pages again.
"Just had to burst the bubble didn't you?"
"Wasn't aware there was such a thing." She didn't look up at him when she responded, but I did see her sneak a smile. I was glad she was enjoying herself.
Her and Matt argued over the rest of it when they finally picked one, simply tying a rope, burying it in sand then pull it and trip what ever trouble came by. It wasn't the best plan, and we didn't exactly have the time or equipment to weave nets so it would have to do.
Jemy sighed loudly. "We ready to head out?" It was like my heart skipped a beat, I knew inside and out what those words meant. The possibility of death, or the possibility of a Haven. Even if we found one, there was no guarantee we would get in on time. I was scared. I didnt want to leave. But staying here meant we would run out of food and eventually have to leave anyways, we all knew it. Matt silently and slowly lifted himself from the ground.
"We're going to have to run the minute we leave, You feeling up to it autumn?" I stared at the ground for a minute before also standing up.
"If it means staying alive, yeah." He nodded and walked over to Jemy.
"I'll carry you. You're not yet healed enough to run, and I am not letting you even walk by yourself until you are completely healed." She gave him a weak smile before he helped her up. "We're going to have to piggyback it." He lowered himself with his back to her so she could get on.
Once everybody was ready, and I had packed everything we needed, we headed our long not-so-awaited journey to the exit across the room. I lifted the metal handle, but hesitated before pushing open the door open. I really didn't want to leave our Haven, but I did anyways.
Quickly getting out ahead of Matt and Jemy I scanned the area. "Safe." Matt rushed out with Jemy and I followed Closely behind them.
We ran at an even pace going fast enough we could keep a wide margin between us and the demons, and so that we wouldn't tire ourselves out to quickly. Matt zigzagged, taking random turns, sometimes when we hit a fork in the road we had to stop, careful of choosing a path.
"I hate mazes." Jemy grumbled to herself. We began to slow down until we were at a walking pace, and then stopped for a break. Matt stood straight and tall, while Jemy slowly unhooked her self. We had been going for about three hours. The first week of this was bad, your lungs burned, and you felt like you were going to pass out any minute, but now it was as if it was a normal part in my life. To us, it was easy. We could do it.
Matt took out the water bottle from my backpack and took a small sip before handing it to me. Once I had taken my fair share he put it back. "Hey! what about me?"Jemy reached out her arms, to show she wanted some, Matt however chose not to notice.
"What about you?" He asked her casually.
"Jerk,"she mumbled. "I want some water too, I'm thirsty as well." He gave her a funny look.
"I didn't realize all the running I did with you on my back was so tiring." He said sarcastically.
"Real funny Matt." He took the water bottle out and passed it to her. She quickly took a small sip and then handed it back.
"Lets get back at it. I'll carry Jemy this time Matt. You need to rest a bit." He didn't say anything but rather took the knife we received from our chest and tucked it into his belt. I knelt down so Jemy could get on. Once she had managed to hug her legs around me with a death grip we started off again. Jemy was a lot lighter than I expected her to be. I suspect from the lack of food… It was depressing how easy it was to run with her on my back. Matt lead us around corners, and down long halls.
He decided to take a left. How familiar. We followed a narrow hallway, until we entered a large room giving us three paths to choose from. No, no, no, no ,no. This shouldn't be happening. I recalled my dream, specifically the part when Matt decided to go left.
"Which way?"Jemy Wondered.
"Left feels lucky today." Matt suggested. I backed away remembering what happened next.
"Maybe not guys. There could be something dangerous down that path." Jemy moved a bit, letting me know she was rolling her eyes at me.
"Will it matter?" She asked unhooking herself from me, I barely even noticed. "Were gonna run into something sooner or later anyways. It doesn't matter where we go." I looked down towards her feet and watched her kick the rock. There it goes.
"No it doesn't matter, I just have a feeling that that path is more dangerous than the other path."
"Second guessing can get us killed Autumn, I hope you realize that." came Jemy's lifeless reply.
"OF course I do, but I really need you guys to trust me on this, lets just take the other path." If I told them it was because I had dreamed what would happen if we went left they would just tell me the maze finally got to me, that I snapped, and they wouldn't trust me anymore.
"Okay, you two need to agree on a path were going to take because the longer we wait here the closer they get." Matt's sudden reply startled me and I jumped a little.
"Were going left." Jemy told him.
"What no! Guys please trust me on this, lets not go that way, we would have better luck going down the other path."
"And how would you know that?" Jemy looked me up and down. "Look Autumn your tired, you've been taking care of us, and waking us up every morning, just relax and let me and Matt take the lead every once in a while."
"No guys," I was cut off.
"We all agree then? Lets go" Said Matt before running off ahead of us. I liked how he scouted ahead, but I already knew what he would find. "Matt wait!" I yelled after him but he was to fast and already ways ahead. I turned to Jemy helping her up onto my back. All I had to do is make sure rock isn't chosen, make it a fifty fifty percent chance
"Is your foot feeling any better?" She smiled an all too familiar smile.
"With you medical knowledge I'll, probably, be running in two or three days. Its not as swollen anymore, and I can walk on it better now." and repeated an all too familiar phrase. We caught up with Matt and saw the pictures on the wall.
"I think we have to push one in." Matt said. I checked the symbols a second time making sure they weren't the same options. No luck.
Jemy let go of me and carefully wandered over. "So lets push one." Amazing how much the Future can change just by me not saying one sentence.
"Lets see," Matt started. "Is whatever we're going to push gonna happen? or what? Like If I push water there's a possibility we could all drown?" Jemy nodded.
"Looks like it." He shook his head.
"How is that even possible wouldn't it all just go down the hall?"
"It might trigger a door of some kind locking us in here." Matt sighed and looked at his options.
"We're definitely not pressing fire. So that leaves rock. If water could possibly trigger a secret door couldn't rock open a way out of here?"
"Were definitely not pressing rock!" I shouted. Matt gave me a startled look then looked at Jemy .
"Ummm, okay. That leaves water then right? Wait is there even a right answer?" He looked over the options again, but was interrupted by a high pitched screech that echoed down the hall. We all turned in unison. "uh oh."
"Think guys, cause it's too late to go back unless you want to end everything right then and there!" Matt shouted at us. I searched my head for answers,while looking around for anything that could help. Another scream. It sounded like the last cry of an innocent child being murdered, as if its soul was being ripped from its body and shredded into a thousand pieces.
"Up there!" Jemy shouted before Matt could press rock. Matt and I both looked up to see a vent in the ceiling. "We could fit through that right?"
"How do we get up there?" I asked.
"Scale the walls?" Suggested Matt. She shook her head at his answer.
"We push water." Matt looked shocked and was about to protest when another scream stained the air, closer this time. He didn't think twice about pushing it then. Jemy was right, it triggered a door that locked the water in. When the far wall collapsed letting ice cold water hit our legs, Jemy grabbed the knife from Matt's belt.
Within seconds the room was full. I prayed Jemy was right. She carried mine and Matt's faith and trust in her on her shoulders. If she was wrong that was the end.