Chapter 2:

Maze

On my third day here I decide to walk through the doors curiosity winning out.

The doors had just opened and for a moment I fear that the doors will slam shut behind me trapping me with those screeching things I hear out there.

I walk down the path until I meet a wall. The path splits in two. I look behind me to see the grassy field. I look to my left where it takes a sharp turn right. I look to my right and see a long path that has several paths that branch from it.

Unsure I walk down the path to my left. My heart beating an alarming rhythm in my chest. When I reach the end I'm met with more split passageways. I frown confused. I look around me there is nothing else except concrete walls and floors. They seem a bit weathered but not like it's been around that long either.

I walk a bit more turning down another path only to be met by more. What is the meaning of this. It's like a labyrinth out here I think as I turn down another path only to be met by a solid concrete wall.

No. It's a maze. Frowning I turn back making my way back to the doors. I'm like the mouse trapped in a maze. At the end there's a reward. My freedom most probably.

Sighing I head back to the box. Deciding I can't stay in there forever nor can The little guinea pigs.

I jump down and try to lift one of the crates. Much too heavy. I turn to the small one. Not much hope there since it's filled with food in tins.

I empty one of the crates, loading all the clothes, fabrics and towels on to the concrete block surrounding the box. Once it's empty the weight is much more bearable. I do the same with the other crates. I move the cage to lift it up. It's made from much thinner planks and only has straw and feed in with the animals.

I take a piece of rope that I found in the crates and loop it through the gaps. I step on the cage and lift myself out. Once out I wind the rope around my hands and pull. The angle isn't working.

I let one side of the grid down and pull the rope up that side. It works kinda. Well the guinea pigs got an impromptu lesson on falling. I guess.

Once everything is out I put the stuff back inside the crates. They seem relatively water dense but I don't know when or even if it's gonna rain. And I'll need to find cover since the metal grid of the box isn't much worth against stopping the rain.

I drag all the crates to the forested area. The clearing is much like a Glade with an open grassy clearing in the middle surrounded by dense woods. The woods is a bit more concentrated on one side though. So I head that way hoping the dense foliage will be enough cover.

A few trees in I find a relatively big one with what looks like a space near the top where the branches separate, creating a hollow pit.

Having ditched the crates at the start of the tree line I head back getting out 3 pieces of burlap and another material that kind of looks like a curtain but when a rope is woven in the sewn slit it can be turned into a hammock.

I carry my bundle back to the tree. Looking up I notice a problem. How the hell am I gonna get up there. Dropping my bundle unceremoniously on the leaves surrounding the base of the tree I walk around it looking for footholds and such.

I find none. Sighing I'm about to give up when a neighboring tree catches my attention. It's an old oak tree with thick branches. One of said branches grows quite close to my tree.

I climb the oak tree which has many tiny branches and nubs. I crawl across the branch to my tree and crouch in the hollow center where the tree branches out. Belatedly I realize I left the bundle of cloths at the base of the tree. I almost groan out loud.

Making my way back and getting everything I need, I start spanning the burlap across the branches creating a pseudo roof. In the center I hang the hammock. I lie down. The end nearly touching the tree.

Sighing I get back up, and adjust it a bit higher. There's still a lot of work to do. Through out the day I cut down a few branches with the axe and saw I found in the crate and create a fire pit. I hollow out an old rotting tree. That took a while and I'm not completely done by the time night falls. I realize a little too late that I don't have any fire starters. I rummage through the crates again. Nothing.

I spend a good hour rubbing sticks and stones and what not together all ways and manners. I don't even get a spark.

After that disaster I get a lone blanket and my sweater and climb the oak again. I'm settled in my hammock shivering my ass off, lying in wait for my dreamless sleep to take me. The echoing noise of monsters screeching and stones grinding pulling me to sleep.

…

It's been three weeks now. The box closed up and had probably gone back down after I left it the night I went to sleep.

I tried forcing the metal doors open but it was no use. It was probably never going to come back up again.

I had built a larger cage for the poor guinea pigs. Finish hollowing the old tree out to stash the food and supplies. And now I didn't know what to do.

It was early morning the sun have yet to rise as I wash up in the stream. I get dressed again, this time in an off white tunic and a tight pair of black pants. After I unpacked everything I realized all the clothes given to me is made for exercising. Running to be precise.

It's quite clear what they want from me. And I don't know if I want to do it. So today I decided to just do it. I haven't heard those screeches during the day but you never know.

I glance up at the doors as they slide open with a loud groan. I walk through, turning down the path I went to the first time I entered the maze.

Once I move down another turn I always retrace my steps making sure I remember my way back.

Once the sun is high in the sky and I had probably been walking for 5 hours now I turn back. I retrace my steps and I'm back much quicker than I thought I would.

I'm dead tired by the time I reach my hammock. I stacked branches on one side of the tree creating a makeshift wall, where I kept feeling the icy wind blowing through. It was only that side. Always. Not one night did the wind come from another direction.

Some days it felt like someone was watching me. But I've explored every inch of this place and have found nothing. Not even cracks in the walls.

To be honest the place seems newly made. Of course not made within the last month but definitely not older than a few years. The ivy is creeping along the bottom of the walls and the few cracks as narrow and as they seem are housing weeds.

No definitely not brand spanking new but it's obviously man made. Whoever created this hell hole was not very kind nor artistic. Everything beyond those doors are stone and concrete sometimes I see metal pipes lining the pathways of the maze.

I'll kill them. The people who put me here. I'll kill them.

... TBC