Chapter 4: Inside the Maze
The heavy door slammed closed behind him. A hum echoed through the darkness and large halogen lamps came on, attached to the ceiling. Jack felt dwarfed. The ceiling towered above, allowing the light to diffuse through the entire gigantic chamber he now stood in.
Jack was in-between two tall stone walls, forming a stone corridor in front of him. About ten paces ahead, it turned sharply to the right.
"Don't dally, Jack." Howard's voice boomed around. "You only have 44 minutes left."
Jack thought of Kate, somewhere at the end of the maze, and began sprinting forward. Halfway to the turn a blast of cold air came from no where and shocked Jack, sending him off balance. He hit the stone wall hard.
Howard laughed over the speakers. "Watch for those little surprises, Jack. They're everywhere."
Jack slowly got to his feet massaging his shoulder. Carefully, he walked forward. The cold air blasted him again, but he was ready. He walked through it to the end of the hallway. Following the turn, he continued down the corridor.
After another two turns along the same hallway, Jack came to a fork in the path. One led to the right, the other to the left. He paused, trying to look down each pathway.
"Tick, tock, tick, tock, Jack. You'd better hurry." Howard was amused.
"You can't do this!" Jack yelled the ceiling. "You have to let us go!"
There was no answer. Exasperated, Jack took a deep breath and ran to the left. He took a turn and was faced with a dead end. Suddenly a cloud of spears flew at him, launching from niches in the wall. He dove to the side, narrowly avoiding the spikes which shattered against the wall behind him. Jack rolled onto his side and crawled back the way he'd come. Once he turned the corner, he stood up and sprinted down the other way.
For a long while, Jack wandered around aimlessly, not knowing exactly where he was going. After one turn, he came to a long section of hallway. He sprinted forward.
Without warning, the floor gave way. A section of the stone collapsed beneath his feet. Jack fell, but clawed outward, catching a piece of intact floor outside of the hole. His chest slammed into the floor as his feet dangled above a bottomless pit, concealed by the fake floor. Struggling, he pulled himself back up and out of the hole. Just as he laid back to rest, the stone beneath him began to crack. Without time to stand, he began rolling away from the cracking floor. The stone behind him began to fracture and pieces of stone fell off into the chasm below. Jack rolled faster, trying to stay ahead of the splintering floor. Large chunks of rock fell off, inches behind Jack. The blackness of the bottomless pit threatened to swallow him whole. With great speed, Jack slammed into a wall at the end of the corridor. His breath left him and a sharp pain shot through his shoulder; something had cracked. Wincing in pain, he rolled back over and looked back down the long corridor. The entire floor to that section of hallway had fallen into the pit, stopping just short of where Jack lay. Jack stood. Off to his left, the maze continued. Without the ability to go back, Jack continued forward.
A few turns later, the maze led into a large room. The room was filled with a thick white fog and Jack could not see even a few feet in front of him. Thee fog completely blanketed the room.
Something hard hit Jack in the back, sending him stumbling forward. Seconds later, another object hit his legs, toppling him to the ground. Jack quickly hopped to his feet, only to be pelted with more projectiles. They assailed him from all directions, smashing into his back, legs, chest, and head. After on particularly hard shot to the face, Jack felt a trickle of blood flow down his cheek. Another slammed into his injured shoulder. The pain flooded Jack's consciousness, sending him to his knees. His breathing was ragged as he crawled onward, trying to find a way out of the room. The projectiles continued to slam him from all sides, unpredictable and indefensible. One hit him in the side causing pain to shoot through his abdomen. Blackness hung at the corners of his vision and unconsciousness threatened to overtake him. And the clock was still ticking.
The first thing he felt was pain. His head throbbed, his lungs hurt, and his chest felt tight as he tried to take a deep breath. Slowly, he opened his eyes. He was in some sort of a control room, surrounded by diagrams, computers, monitors, and at one end, a large glass window.
Sawyer rolled over and bumped into Locke. The older man was still knocked out. Sawyer's stiff neck screamed at him as he raised his head to look around. On the other side of Locke, Sayid was laying completely still. Kate was no where to be found. There was a man standing over a large bank of computers facing the window. Every couple of seconds, he would hit a few buttons or flip a few switches and chuckle. That must be the funny man who likes games. Sawyer watched the man for a long while; he seemed to be glued to the window. Silently, Sawyer sat up and strained to see over the computer bank. From the little he could see, the window was a balcony view of an extremely large room. Sawyer rolled over onto him stomach and rose to his knees. I'm sick of this. Getting to his feet, he turned to face Howard's back. His shoes made a slight sound on the stone floor, but Howard was to enthralled with whatever he was watching to hear him. Sawyer was completely up, but his hands were still bound behind his back. He pulled at the binds, but they were heavy and tight. He couldn't get them off.
Sawyer took steps forward, approaching Howard from behind. He almost reached the man undetected, but his image glinted off of the window. Howard spun quickly.
Sawyer kicked out, catching Howard in the leg. The man stumbled but did not fall. Howard sprang forward and grabbed Sawyer by the shoulders, stopping him from moving. Sawyer reacted quickly, head butting Howard hard and sending him back. A cut started bleeding from Howard's eyebrow. Sawyer continued to approach. He struck out again with his leg, trying to sweep Howard's legs from under him. But the other man caught Sawyer's attack and jammed an electric stun gun into his leg. Electric current flowed through Sawyer's leg and ran through the rest of his body. The stun gun paralyzed Sawyer, weakening him. He fell to the floor hard. He rolled over and tried to get back up. Howard hit him with another electric blast, sending him back to the floor. Sawyer's head hit the floor hard, knocking him unconscious.
Howard's face was stern. He didn't like interruptions. He turned around and looked back at out the window. Howard smiled. It was okay, Jack was still in the foggy room. And that was Howard's favorite.
Jack's vision blurred as the attack continued. His body was bruised and battered all over, pain arching up and down his entire frame. He was about to give up, to stop trying, when an image of Kate popped into his head. It was an unexpected thought. He saw her smiling, laughing at one of his jokes. Her entire face glowed as she laughed. It was an odd feeling that came to him. He knew now he couldn't fail. A well of increased adrenaline sprang through him, dampening the pain and giving him energy to move on. Crawling in a prone position, he continued forward. After a few minutes, he reached the wall. Scratching along the side of the wall, he moved at its base, searching for an opening. It took a long while, and many more pelting hits, but he found it. Crawling into the hallway and out of the line of fire, Jack slumped over and rested. A door of stone closed behind him, closing off the room. Jack was glad to be past it.
"Don't linger too long, Jack. Your time is running low." Howard's voice boomed loudly. Jack looked up and slowly stood. His entire body felt like it was on fire and his shoulder pulsated with pain.
He limped down the hallway, taking random turns when he came to another fork; he didn't have time to think. Jack charged headlong to the left and came to a hallway without a floor. A bottomless pit stretched downward from the floor's edge. Across the way, a platform where the floor continued could be seen. A small rope connected the floor where Jack was to the other side.
"This is impossible. I can't, I can't do this." Jack's breathing was ragged. But I have to. His thoughts left no room for failure. Getting onto his knees, Jack grabbed the rope and pulled himself off the ledge. He balanced on the rope, pulling himself slowly. He reached the other side without incident, but the effort left him even more drained. Jack got to his feet and continued on.
He turned a corner and ahead, about ten steps forward, he saw Kate. She was bound and gagged, but looked unhurt. She was sitting up. Her eyes grew wide when she saw him.
"Kate," Jack rushed forward and went to help her up. Suddenly, she disappeared and in her place was a fiery blaze, spewing straight for Jack. He leapt backward, narrowly missing the flame. Just as he hit the ground, a hail of wooden spikes shot out from all directions. Jack rolled and kicked off the ground, launching himself down the hallway. He hit the ground and curled into a ball, somersaulting away from even more spears.
But he wasn't quick enough. A sharp pain shot through his leg and a stream of blood began running from a spot in his thigh. Jack stopped his roll and found the spear still lodged in his leg. With a grunt, he yanked it out. The blood poured faster after he removed it, staining his pants and running down his leg. Jack undid his belt and wrapped it around his leg, using it as a makeshift tourniquet to stem the flow. Limping, he returned to the spot where he had seen Kate. He wasn't surprised to find nothing there.
"Nice trick of smoke and mirrors, eh Jack?" Howard laughed. "You're not there yet. But you are close."
Jack limped on, the pain growing worse. The tunnels and dead ends seemed everywhere. He continued to wander, trying to avoid more pitfalls and traps. Jack wasn't sure he could take many more surprises.
"One minute remaining." A mechanical voice announced as the lights above began flashing red.
"Hurry up, Jack. You don't have much time."
Jack limped faster. He turned left and right, flying down corridors blindly. At least once, he swore he was going in a circle, but he kept going on anyway. There wasn't anything else he could do.
At thirty seconds, the mechanical voice began a second-by-second countdown.
Jack turned a corner and tripped, slamming hard into the ground. Without wasting time to recover, he pushed himself up and continued forward. A left, then a right, then another left. Frantically, Jack raced through the pathways, desperate for any sign he was making positive progress.
He turned a corner and there she was. Sitting up bound and gagged exactly as she was before, was Kate. Wary of another trick, Jack approached slowly.
The timer ran down to five.
Jack realized that time was almost out. He ran forward, sprinting headlong toward the woman he so desperately wanted to save. The hallway he ran in seemed to go on forever. Diving headfirst, he strained to reach her.
The timer ran out.
Jack slammed hard into a clear Plexiglas barrier. His entire body crunched and erupted in a new wave of pain. He clattered onto the floor. Pushing past the pain, he clawed at the barrier, watching as Kate struggled against her binds. Jack hit the clear wall hard, slamming it with his fist. Kate watched as Jack tried in vain to break down the barrier.
"Sorry, Jack. Time's run out." Howard almost seemed disappointed.
A trapdoor opened beneath Kate and she tumbled through. A column of white light rose up out of the pit as everything else went dark.
"You lose."
A clear gas filled the chamber, hissing as it entered. As Jack breathed it in, a strange calm came over him. The pain in his shoulder lessened and his fatigue deepened. A warmth washed over him. With little resistance after the tiring course, Jack closed his eyes and went to sleep.