A/N Hey everybody! This chapter is actually the second last one now as it turned out much longer than I anticipated. The second half of the maze- the last chapter- should be up shortly. I tried and failed to write this in third person. Don't know if it's because I'm a bit out of practise or what, but my third person version sucked, although I'm not even that happy with this one either. So it's in first person, switching back and forth from each character's POV. Hopefully this will allow you to get a real feel for what the maze is like and what they go through on their journey through it and it won't be annoying.

ALEX'S POV

As soon as we left the little room, a huge door shut behind us, locking with a loud clang. Ok. So no going back now. We'd either make it out of the maze alive, or die trying. Cheerful stuff.

I looked sideways, down the line, checking the reactions on my friends' faces. Li, bouncing on the balls of her feet, kept switching from excited to scared and back again. It was quite unnerving. Paulo was relaxed...ish. He had a tiny, nervous twitch but apart from that he could have been going for a stroll in the park. Amber actually looked really peeved, like she couldn't quite believe what we were being forced to do. Hex was, well, Hex. No expression, no movement, nothing. After the other three's odd, at times misplaced, reactions, it was kind of calming to see Hex's poker face.

Amber's voice dragged me from my thoughts.

'Ah... Question. Really quick. Just a little query.' She looked from Hex to Paulo, Li and finally me, then down at her feet. We followed her gaze.

'What?' Li asked.

As one, we lifted our eyes back to Amber's face.

'Does anyone else think the ground is getting hotter?'

There was a two second pause as we digested this new information before we agreed that, yes, the ground was getting hotter and wouldn't it be a great idea to start moving?

And move we did, until about halfway across, when the floor was really starting to get unbearable. Paulo, perhaps going a bit too fast, tripped and fell, his hands automatically shooting out to break his fall.

Big mistake.

Our feet were sweating, even though they had the protection of good quality boots, but Paulo's hands were bare skin. He yelped as his palms came in contact with the floor. Li and Amber, one on either side, grabbed him under the arms and yanked him to his feet, without a break in their stride. Wincing, Paulo kept moving, cradling his hands to his chest. Just a few seconds in contact with the floor and they were red and blistering.

Reaching the end of the first section, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. Water. We dropped down and landed with a splash. Paulo immediately dropped his hands into the water, his face loosing a bit of its pinched look as the cool water washed over his hands. Our relief was momentary though. Lurking in the water was our next challenge.

PAULO'S POV

As I popped my hands under the water, my imagination conjured up a puff of steam. The water was so cool, so refreshing. Waist deep, I kept my hands submerged and swished them around. I was still marvelling at how much better they felt when Amber shrieked.

'Leeches!' She was standing stock still, one hand gripping Hex's shoulder the other hand half under the water. Just visible was the thick, black leech, pulsating slightly as it fed.

'Go!' Alex shouted, stating to wade forward. His words were like a starter's pistol. We bolted forward, Amber still whimpering and shaking her hand. Beside me, Li lost her footing and went under. I stopped, fished about under the water, grabbed the back of her t-shirt and yanked her to the surface again.

'Thanks,' she gasped as we moved forward again, apparently unaware of the leech attached to the side of her neck.

'Anytime,' I answered. I avoided looking down, knowing that I had quite a few of the horrible little bloodsuckers attached to my arm.

The pool seemed so long; it was like we were walking on the spot. But finally we made it. Hex had got there first and had clambered up onto a ledge which obviously overlooked the next section. Alex reached the ledge and was pulled up by Hex. Together they lifted Amber up while I grabbed Li around her hips and pushed her up onto the ledge. Once I'd clambered up, we lay gasping. The leeches were, luckily, already dropping off, but they left red welts everywhere. Amber was ignoring Hex and pulling off the two that remained on her arm. We were so occupied with the leeches that we didn't even realise what our next obstacle was until Alex said, 'Holy crap.'

AMBER'S POV

'Holy crap.'

I finally managed to pull the last leech off, flicked it back into the water with a shudder and looked at Alex. He was staring down into the pit next to our ledge. Hex shuffled forwards and looked as well.

'That's a bit different,' he murmured.

'What?' I asked, not really wanting to find out. Still, curiosity killed the very stupid cat.

'Check it out,' Hex said, sounding way too impressed.

I sidled up next to him and almost fell into the pit. 'What the-?'

A thin- a ridiculously thin- piece of wood stretched across a huge pit. The gaping hole in the floor was deep and wide with black dirt covering its base. As I stared at the dirt, my eyes widened and I gasped.

'Did…did that dirt just move?' I managed to choke out.

By this stage, Paulo and Li had joined us in our horrorfest. We were all staring down at the floor, me still wondering why the dirt was moving. It was Paulo who solved the mystery.

'Amber,' he said slowly. 'I hate to break it to you, but that ain't dirt.'

'What is it then?' I asked, half wanting to know and half wanting to be kept in the dark.

There was a slight pause. 'I think they're scorpions.'

'S-scorpions?' I stammered, on the verge of hyperventilating. Leeches were bad enough, but at least they weren't poisonous.

Li suddenly appeared at my left elbow. 'It's ok,' she soothed, apparently not reading my mind. 'At least they're not leeches.'

I shuddered again, gulped and nodded, forcing my previous thoughts pout of my mind. Starting to calm down, I avoided looking at the pit and said, 'Ok. Who's first?'

Even though Li has the balance of a mountain goat wearing suction pad boots, she was still supremely brave to offer to go first. We didn't know if there was any hidden traps along the plank or what, so I gave her a hug and sat back, anxiously biting my lip.

'Well,' she said, her voice wobbling a bit. 'Here goes nothing.'

On the contrary, Li, I thought as she took her first step onto the plank. Here goes everything.

We watched with a mixture of awe and fear as Li nimbly crossed the plank. Halfway across, she was still going strong, without so much as a hint of being unbalanced. Stupidly, I voiced my observation out loud.

'Nothing tricky. Touch wood,' I added, tapping the top of Hex's head. He didn't look amused and opened his mouth, no doubt to say some demeaning back, when Li tumbled off the plank. Before any of us had a chance to cry out, she twisted her body and somehow managed to grab a hold of the beam with one hand and then grip it with her other hand as well.

'Li?' Paulo called. 'You ok?'

'Fine,' she answered, sounding breathless and shaken. 'Hex's head obviously isn't wooden. This section of the beam is round.'

I blinked. 'What? Did you say round?' Before she could answer, I scoffed. 'How did you not notice that?'

'I wasn't focusing on the shape of the beam,' she replied hotly. 'It looked the same.'

'Hang on, hang on.' I still couldn't quite believe that she hadn't noticed the shape. 'Let me get this-'

Paulo cut me off with a sharp, 'Chill, Amber.'

Meanwhile, Li was swinging back and forth on the beam. 'It's ok,' she called. 'It'll actually be easier this way. Walk along the squared bit and then drop down and use your arms for this part.' She then proceeded to demonstrate how easy this was, making quick progress along the remainder of the beam and climbing out onto a ledge on the far side of the pit.

Paulo had been scrutinising the beam. 'I'll go next, if you want.'

We didn't answer and he took that as a yes, climbing onto the beam. Although he wasn't half as graceful and coordinated as Li, he did alright, with only a few really dicey moments before he reached the ledge and pulled himself up next to Li. Alex had started across when Paulo reached the round part and he quickly joined Li and Paulo.

'Right,' I said to Hex. 'Who's going next?'

He raised his eyebrows at me, tapped me on the head and answered, 'You.'

'Great,' I muttered. 'Thanks.'

The normal section of the beam passed by quickly and easily. I held my arms out straight and focused on staying balanced and moving with slow, measured, careful steps. So focused on keeping my balance, I completely missed the start of the rounded part.

'Gah!' I yelled as my feet slipped off the beam and I tumbled off the side. Everything started to go in slow motion. I heard my name being shouted and I could see my hands twisting through the air, trying to grab hold of the beam. Closing my eyes, I flung my hand up, pleading with some force to let me find and hold onto the beam.

Three of my fingers caught the bar and they were almost ripped out of their sockets. I howled with pain, then clenched my teeth and tried to ignore the burning sensation. God, it hurt.

'Come on, Amber,' I hissed to myself. 'Paulo did this, without whingeing, and his hands are a hundred times worse than your fingers are now. Come on.'

Somehow, I made it along that last section of beam. Every bit was absolute agony to top it all off, I ended up with piles of splinters in my hands. Halfway along the rounded part, I stopped for a quick breather, only have my legs gently kicked by someone behind me.

'Hurry up, slow poke,' Hex said. 'You're holding up the traffic.'

'Give me a minute.' My words sounded a bit slurred and my eyelids fluttered shut out for a split second before I came to with a, 'Woah!' What was wrong with me? Dangling from my arms above a scorpion pit with one of my best friends waiting patiently behind me was not the best place to have a quick cat nap. Come on, Amber. Pull yourself together.

The rest of the beam was a blur and before I knew it I was being pulled up onto the ledge by Paulo. As he and Alex turned their attention to helping Hex up, I crawled as far away as I could and lay on my back, my eyes feeling heavy. Before they could shut, Li came and sat by my side.

'Amber?' she said.

'What?' I mumbled.

'Do you want me to get the splinters out of your hand?'

I winced, thought about it, then nodded. Who knew what other fun-stuffed challenges the maze had left for us and I'd need the full use of my hands. The memory of the three almost useless fingers on my right hand flicked into my mind, but I pushed it away.

Li borrowed the tweezers from Alex's kit and patiently picked all the bits of wood from my hands, ignoring my yelps. Once she was done, I sat up, feeling groggy and faced my friends. They were staring at something over my shoulder and I didn't want to turn around.

HEX'S POV

Ok. The hot plates had been kind of clever. The leeches, unexpected. The scorpion pit was a nice touch. But this? Maybe they'd run out of ideas. Maybe they'd repeated the hot plate stunt. But I was doubted both very highly.

'You think this part is as empty as they make out?' Li said hesitantly.

I shrugged. 'Maybe. Only one way to find out.'

There was a collective groan as I said this. We were all tired, fed-up, scared and, in Amber and Paulo's cases, in pain. Our situation was far from ideal and I was severely ticked off, but what could we do apart from keep moving forward and hope for the best? A big fat lot of nothing.

'What if there are hidden obstacles?' Alex asked as we took one, two, three hesitant steps forward.

Four, five, six. 'Then we deal with them as they come.' Paulo still looked calm and collected, moving with a confident stride that we couldn't muster. 'Maybe this is empty. I mean, they can't-' He stopped talking, stopped moving and stood stock still.

'Paulo?' Li quavered. She went to take a step forward but stopped when Paulo backed towards us.

'This isn't empty,' he said, his gaze falling, like Amber's had when we first started the stupid maze, to the floor. More hot plates?

Amber gasped. 'What happened to your leg?!'

Looking at the mentioned limb, I couldn't help wincing. There was a long, deep cut stretching horizontally across Paulo's leg, mid-calf.

'There's razor wires strung across the room. We fall into them, we end up like butter that's been cut with a hot knife.'