Time to get this party started! (Sorry in advance for spelling errors I'm not great at proofreading)
It was just hot and humid enough to be unpleasant as I and four other kids crossed over the field towards one of four walls. The tall blonde one lead the way.
In my head I had decided his name was Blondie. He was determined to be the one to explore this particular wall because, unlike the others, this one had an opening directly in the middle that ran all the way to the top.
The other four of us just happened to be closet to him. Some of the first to get out of the box.
Besides me and Blondie, there was the Asian kid with the floofy hair who had spoken up earlier, a scrawny kid with curly blonde hair, and a stocky Latino with dreads. Out of the five of us, I was the second tallest. And the only girl, I was beginning to notice.
"Do you actually have a plan here?" Floofy spoke up.
Blondie spared a breath to glare back at him the faced forward again. "You expect me to have a plan?" He scoffed. "With less than two dozen prepubescent tweens who woke up in a box about fifteen minutes ago without any memories or clue of what's going on?" I noticed he avoid including himself with the two dozen prepubescent tweens.
"So... You don't have a plan?" Floofy summarized.
Blondie let out a sigh and actually stopped, turning to face floofy. "A plan for what?" He gestured his arms widely around him. "What do you want us to do shank? Survive? Start a massive game of tag? Get everyone to sit in a circle and braid grass together as we slowly starve to death?"
"What's a shank?" Floofy made a face.
"You. You are being a shank right now." Blondie pinched the bridge of his nose, gesturing to Floofy in annoyance.
I shared a look with Curly who was standing to my left. This wasn't going smoothly.
I open my mouth to speak, but Curly beats me to it. "I think he's just asking if you have a plan for getting us out of here." I nod in agreement, itching to be free of this new box.
Blondie's exasperation turns toward us. "Well here's a thought dumbass, maybe we should find out what we're trying to escape before we start planning on the escape itself?"
He had a point.
"Alright," Curly backed off calmly. "We were just asking."
He said words weirdly, like his mouth was shaped wrong as a child and didn't fit his words through properly. His R's seemed to come up short a bit, matching his height. And his A's sounded like glorified U's.
Blondie had given us all one last glare, then turned and stalked off again towards the wall.
Floofy gave him a nasty glare as Dreads said from behind us "What's his problem?"
The wall itself was even taller than it had looked from far away. I almost fell over trying to see the top from the base of the wall. It was worn but flat stone, with barely a handhold in sight. The vines that grew part way up the wall were sturdy, and from here seemed to reach up much higher than they had before.
Around me the other four also marveled at the structures height. It was truly impressive. Though maybe this was normal? I didn't really have much to compare it to.
It was the cold breeze that first caught my attention. I looked down, adjusting to the vertigo of the movement.
Beyond the wall stretched a long stone pathway, straight as a ruler. It was shadowed by the tall walls that ran along it. Heavy, murky mist was settled into the air, though the sudden cold breeze was beginning to clear the air.
My feet started forward. Just like climbing out of the box, my body seemed to know what I needed to do to escape before my mind did.
As I passed into the partial shade of the pathway, my footsteps began echoing with an almost unnatural quality. They bounced off the walls far too much. Growing louder before they finally petered out.
It didn't feel natural... This path. Goosebumps prickled down my arms as I walked further in, and I had a feeling it was due to more than the cold breeze that had been steadily picking up.
The sound of echoing footsteps behind me meant the others had begun to follow.
The wall dropped off next to me. As I looked over, I saw another stretching hallway that ran perpendicular to the one I stood in. From here, I could already see more paths stretching off from this one.
Curly stopped next to me, following my gaze. "What is it?"
I shook my head "I don't know." I was surprised at my own voice. It sounded grander than I had thought it to be. Most likely an effect of the wall's echo.
Blondie and dreads walked past us, determined to reach the end of this main pathway. Floofy had only taken a few steps in. His feet seemed rooted to the spot, unmovable.
I looked back to the side path, and after a moments hesitation started down it. Curly watched anxiously for a few beats before following more slowly.
With every branching pathway I passed, I could see more paths branching and twisting away from it in a most feral and manufactured way. The cold wind was much stronger now, whipping my hair in front of my face, trying to blow me back the way I'd come.
My feet slowed to a stop as a realization dawned upon me. "Its a maze."
"What?" Curly called from halfway back down the path.
I shouted back over the wind. "Its a maze! A giant maze! That's how we escape! We need to find the exit at the other end of the maze!"
Someone hollared over the wind. Screaming so loudly his voice cracked. "-ut! Out! Get out!" It was Floofy.
Curly and I realized and the same moment and we both took off down the pathway, wind now at our backs pushing us along. It was terrifying and freeing at the same time. The speed paired with the complete lack of control. I wasn't sure I could stop if I wanted to.
I had nearly caught up with Curly as we burst back into the main pathway, nearly running into the far wall.
Panic set upon us as we looked back towards the entrance. It was closing.
The giant stone walls were pushing themselves together with a deafening grinding of gears and sliding stone.
Floofy stood on the other side back in the clearing. He continued hollering. "Get out of there! Run!"
The thundering echo of feet came from far behind us as Blondie and Dreads began hurtling back down the pathway towards the clearing.
I lurches forward, feet barely able to stay under me as I sprinted for the door. My lungs burned as cold air whipped around me. Faster, go faster it seemed to say. My thin shoes did nothing to keep the pain from jolting up my toes and through my calves. I practically lept through the closing door, skidding across the ground before scrambling up to my feet again to look backwards. Curly followed but a moment later, running into Floofy and almost knocking him over. I peered through the closing doors. They were only a couple feet wide as Blondie and Dreads started sprinting faster. The distance between the two of them was growing steadily.
"Hurry up!" I screamed at them while Floofy and Curly watched in fear.
Blondie threw himself in between the closing doors, chest and shoulders scraping painfully against the stone. Dreads, a couple steps behind him started in after.
I threw my arm in between the closing walls, grabbing Blondie's arm and pulling him out faster with a hard yank. We both toppled to the ground.
I quickly pushed my hair out of my face to see Dreads backing up quickly. It was too tight. He knew he couldn't make it.
The four of us watched in horror as Dreads stumbled back from the wall. Right before the wall closed, I saw a sliver of his face. It was a face of pure fear.
The doors closed. The wind stopped. It was silent.
Blondie stood slowly. "What... The Hell was that?"
Curly shook on his scrawny legs, barely standing up. "That was a bloody maze."
"A what?"
"A maze." I answered for him. "Those paths, they just kept branching off. Twisting away further and further." I tried to describe it with the same horror in my voice as I had felt in the maze. "That's our way out. We have to get through the maze to escape." It was simple enough.
"But..." Curly just had to point out. "The maze just closed itself. And it took him with it. How are we supposed to find the exit to a maze we just lost entrance to?"
We looked to Blondie. His brow was low, but his eyes were alive, nearly glowing.
I'm sure everything will be fine XD Feel free to review and subscribe! I love hearing from you ^-^
