Chapter Thirty-nine:

Once inside, Dan was looking around, willing to understand how to navigate through this maze that he had learned to greatly dislike. "Trayaurus do you have anything we could use to leave a trail?"

He patted his pockets and checked. He found a marker. "Will this work?" he asked. "It's all I got."

Dan nodded. "Yes, that should work. We'll just have to make some arrows to point which way we had gone."

Trayaurus nodded and started to work on it.

As the two traveled through the maze, the paths seemed all too familiar and looping.

But then the temperature started to change.

Dan found himself wiping sweat off his brow. "Wow. Is it getting warm in here?"

Trayaurus nodded. "Yes. It is. I can feel it."

Dan stopped and slowly looked past his friend. "Uh Trayaurus...do you hear bubbling?"

He stopped then nodded. "Yeah."

Sure enough, red hot lava came creeping out from around the corner behind them.

Dan stepped back. "Lava?! Oh man. W-we have to find Alex."

He nodded. "And much faster now." he agreed.

Dan glanced up at the walls of the maze and quickly dug into his pockets. "I have some dirt blocks. Don't know how I got them but maybe we could use them."

"We can try." Trayaurus agreed. "Perhaps use it to stall the lava or something?"

"Yeah." Dan agreed. Walking away from the lava that was slowly approaching. "Not sure if we could climb up on top the walls..."

He glanced up. "It doesn't look like it..."

"Then we better save them. Here." Dan then threw a couple blocks to him.

He caught them and put them in his pockets.

They continue down the path with the steady heat following not far behind.

Soon there was nothing in front of them but a gap and a floating block.

Trayaurus stepped towards it before realizing it what it was for. "Um... Dan?"

Dan went up beside him and looked down.

There was no solid floor.

Instead he saw a pit filled with Zombies stumbling around.

Dan stared down at the pit, slightly confused. "What is this? Why would..." He stopped talking as he noticed the lava growing closer. "Oh...great."

"What do we do? This isn't the maze anymore!" Trayaurus asked him.

"I'm thinking!" Dan replied, glancing around. "Umm...maybe it's some kind of parkour we need to complete?" He suggested, unsure. "Maybe we can use the dirt blocks?"

"Maybe." he shrugged.

Dan reached out his arm over the pit and waved it around to see if anything was there.

Nothing.

The zombies looked up at him and groaned at him.

Dan quickly jumped back and pulled out the blocks. There wasn't much. "I'm not sure how is going to work. How is your parkour?" He asked.

"Worse than yours."

"I was worried you're going to say that." Dan then started to place some blocks to the side wall. Each stuck to the side like glue which made Dan appreciate even more the strange laws of physics in Minecraft.

"Um. Should we be going down there towards the zombies?"

"We could..." Dan replied. "But do we really want to jump in there from here? Wouldn't that really hurt?"

Trayaurus sighed. "Yes, it would. And I meant we should NOT go down there! That's where this parkour is leading."

"Oh. Right." Dan rubbed his head trying to think of something else.

But he couldn't seem to concentrate.

Feeling that his exhaustion had caught up to him and everything else as well.

He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep pushing on like this.

Although.

They didn't have much of a choice.

"...What do you suggest Trayaurus?"

"The lava shouldn't be able to burn through these dirt blocks or overflow it. We can cut it off from us and look for another way." He offered.

Dan nodded. "Alright. Let's do that." He took back the dirt blocks that were on the wall and started to build a small barricade.

Trayaurus helped him finish it. "There. That's out of the way. Now we just have to find Alex and hopefully not run into more lava."

"Yeah but we still have a pit full of zombies in the way." Dan said, pointing towards the living dead.

"True...Do you have any water buckets?" he asked. "We could put out the lava maybe... But we don't know if we're going the right way either..."

Dan stopped checking his inventory. " Well I couldn't find a bucket. Just a sword and extra armor."

Trayaurus hummed. "I'm not sure what we should do n-"

A bark startled him. "Dan! Trayaurus!" Fin's voice called out from the pit.

Trayaurus glanced down and saw Fin and Grim, who was tearing the zombies to shreds.

Dan looked over and smiled when he saw Grim. "Grim! Fin!" He exclaimed. "Come on Trayaurus. We have to get down there."

He nodded. He carefully started to make his way down.

Fin waited as Grim finished the zombies off.

Dan eagerly followed his friend down into the now empty pit. "Fin, Grim, I'm glad to see you guys. How did you got into here?"

"I know all the twist and turns in this place. Did you find Alex?"

"No. We haven't. " He replied. "Can you help us find her?" Dan asked Fin.

He nodded. "Of course!" he agreed. "But the maze is upstairs." he explained.

Dan glanced back up. "Alright. I hope you can find a way around the lava."

"Wait, lava?! There's not supposed to be lava!" Fin replied.

"Well...there is but me and Trayaurus blocked it."

"Hm... I know a back way but I'm not sure where Alex is located in here... Assuming that's why you're here."

Dan nodded. "Yeah. You might not know this but Denton told us that he poisoned Alex and put her in the maze..."

"What?! H-he poisoned her?! Oh dear... Um... We need to find her!" He exclaimed.

"Grim can track her scent. That should help." Trayaurus replied.

Dan agreed and called Grim over. "Come here, boy. We need your help to find Alex."

Grim ran over and barked. He started sniffing the around and started trying to lead them.

Dan closely followed behind Grim. He was hoping this would work.