The Walkthrough – Chapter 3
Cassie awoke with a bump as she was thrown on to the ground on the alien planet. She looked more closely at her captors. She had not noticed before that they were wearing armour and watched as their armour was removed to reveal ordinary men, some no older than her.
She tried to get up, but she suddenly felt dizzy and slide back to the floor again. She felt the back of her head and winched as she found the bump that had formed.
"Now, that's gonna leave a mark," she said turning her attention to her surroundings. They had just dumped her in the middle of the village with apparently no intention of watching her. It was a quaint little village and had an Anglo-Saxon feel to it. The wooden huts had thatched roofs and there were open fires with various sweet smelling delicacies simmering away in pots suspended above. The village was on a mountainside with a forest further up and had a beautiful view on the valley below. If Cassie hadn't just been kidnapped, she would have enjoyed the view, but as it was, she needed to escape.
She tried to get up again, and almost fell over, but managed to steady herself. She looked at what her hand had caught and saw a woman there. Cassie instantly removed her hand from the woman's shoulder, but her legs still could not support her weight. The woman grabbed Cassie and gently placed her on the ground.
"I would be careful, you may have a concussion," she gently said.
"I have to get out of here," Cassie said.
"I wouldn't bother trying to escape. The gate has gone up again, so you're friends cannot come," the woman informed Cassie.
"If I cannot escape, why the rope?" Cassie asked looking at the length of rope in the woman's hand.
"To stop you trying."
"I can hardly stand let alone walk, and if there's no way out, why bind my feet and hands?" Cassie pressed.
"Good point," the woman said smiling and putting the4 rope down.
"I am Kara,' she introduced herself and held her hand out.
"Cassie," she said coldly, taking Kara's outstretched hand.
"Nice to meet you Cassie," she said pleasantly. Kara got up and walked over to an older man who had been watching them. Kara whispered something to him and he did not seem to like what she had just said. He ordered a group of soldiers o surround Cassie. Cassie couldn't help but feel not only intimidated but scared by the tall, imposing men surrounding her. Two of them stepped back to allow the leader in. Cassie looked at him. He had a sort of Goa'uld look to him, but she couldn't tell from here. She did not want to appear intimidated so, after taking several deep breaths, she slowly rose to her feet.
"Who are you?" Cassie said bluntly.
"I am Phineas," he announced. "You are Cassie of the Tauri."
"That's right. And they are gonna kick your ass for taking me," she said defiantly.
He laughed sending a chill down Cassie's spine. "I very much doubt that little girl."
"Why do you keep me hostage?" Cassie demanded.
"You mistake our intention. You are not a hostage. You were brought here to be cured," he said.
"Cured?" Cassie said quizzically. "And what, exactly, is wrong with me?" she said getting increasingly angry.
"You are possessed," he simply said. Cassie couldn't believe that he had just called her possessed.
"If you think I'm 'possessed', you really don't want to see me pissed off," she said trying to play on the situation.
"That is why you need to be cured." Her plan had failed. 'Now what?' Cassie thought to herself.
"Take her to see the Minotaur!" he commanded and two soldiers picked Cassie up.
"NO! Let me go!" Cassie screamed kicking and squirming trying to release herself from their grip, but they had tight a hold of her.
They marched her further up the mountainside through the dense forest. They had to bind her hands as she kept grabbing onto branches in an attempt to escape. Kara was walking behind her.
"Kara, please help me," Cassie pleaded with her.
"You are possessed," Kara said.
"I AM NOT POSSESSSED!" Cassie maintained. Kara shook her head and walked off and joined Phineas up front.
"Do not fear, Cassie of the Tauri," a young lad about the same age as her whispered to her.
"What?" she said quietly trying to get him to repeat what he had said. But he would not dare speak up again and remained silent the rest of the way.
After a while they left the forest and the soldier dropped Cassie to the ground. The soldiers surrounded her again while that young lad untied the ropes from her hands.
Cassie stood up and looked around. They had brought her to a huge hole in the ground. It must have been 10 meters in diameter with vegetation growing around its rim desperately reaching for the sunlight. Cassie leaned over a little to see how far down it went. She could barely see the bottom, which was not a good thing. She looked at the people around her. They all looked like they were waiting for her to do something.
"What?" Phineas motioned for her to go down the dark hole.
"Oh, I don't think so," Cassie said backing away from the hole. But she couldn't back off far as she bumped into one of the soldiers.
"I am sorry to have to do this," and he nodded to the soldier who pushed Cassie and she lost her footing and fell down the hole.
She fell a considerable distance – screaming the whole way – until she came to an abrupt stop as she hit the ground. Luckily there was a soft landing of a huge pile of grasses and ferns that broke her fall and saved her from injury.
"Ow," she said quietly with her face down in the grasses. She rolled over and looked up at where she had just fallen down. The hole looked much smaller now. It was too high up to jump up and the vent leading up to the surface was completely smooth, so climbing out was not an option.
She watched as everyone left her alone and as she straightened herself out and pulled the individual blades of grass out of her hair, a stone fell on her head. She looked up to see that young lad at the surface.
"Get me out of here!" Cassie shouted up to him.
"I can not. I am sorry," he apologised.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"My name is Landon."
"Landon, what do you want?" Cassie said frustrated.
"There is a way out. Just follow your heart and you will find your way out," he told her. Cassie looked down the tunnel. It was lit by torches spread evenly along the whole tunnel. Her heart was telling her that she was not going to go down there.
"I have one more thing for you," he said. He temporarily disappeared from the hole and then something came flying down the vent. Cassie jumped out of the way and looked at what had landed. It was a loaf of bread and some sort of meat. She returned to where she could see the surface and Landon had returned.
"Do not fear, Cassie of the Tauri," he said.
"Thank you Landon," Cassie thanked him.
"You will find your way out. Remember, follow your heart," and with that he left.
Cassie continued to stare at the surface for a while. After running through every possible escape route in her mind, she decided that the vent was not a way out. She collected her food Landon had given her and set off down the tunnel.
She started to regurgitate all her knowledge on the Minotaur. Daniel had her typing up notes on the Minotaur a few months ago, but she never thought it would come in useful. If she remembered rightly, Minos, ruler on Crete, prayed to the god Poseidon to send him a snow-white bull, a sign of approval for his reign. Upon receiving the bull, Minos did not sacrifice it, but kept it instead. Poseidon, royally pissed off, mad Minos' wife, Pasipha, fall in love with the bull. She then had a child. The monster was called the Minotaur. The creature had a head and tail of a bull on the body of a man. It caused such terror and destruction on Crete that Minos ordered a gigantic, intricate labyrinth from which escape would be impossible to be built. The Minotaur was captured and locked in the labyrinth. Every year for nine years, seven youths and maidens were locked in the labyrinth for the Minotaur to feast upon. Cassie thought a bit harder. There was something about Theseus that she read that was linked to the Minotaur, but she couldn't remember. Something about string, but she couldn't remember what exactly.
Suddenly the tunnel opened out into a large cave very well lit, there were four other tunnels, not including the one she had just left.
"D'oh!" she said looking around at all the tunnel entrances. They all looked the same.
There was only one way to solve this: systematically search all the tunnels. Just then, she remembered the stuff about Theseus. To find his way out of the labyrinth, he had a ball of string and followed that back. She looked at the ground and found a sharp angular rock lying on the ground. She picked it up and started to scratch the walls around the entrance to the tunnel she just came from. When she was satisfied that she could clearly see the marks, she put the stone in her pocket, never know when it may come in handy. She looked at all the other tunnels. None of them really appealed to her, but the one directly in front of her seemed to be the best choice. She picked up a torch from the wall and took a deep breath before entering.
This tunnel was considerably wetter than the last. The walls of the tunnel were made from granite with the mica shining in the torchlight. The walls were virtually smooth like they had been carefully dug out but now had been left to degrade slowly to leave a slightly rough surface. As she was walking she noticed some engravings on the wall. She ran her fingers over the text and she instantly recognised.
"It's Goa'uld," she said to herself. It had been hastily scratched into the walls. It read, "Beware of the Devil."
"Well, ain't that comforting," she said sarcastically. She stared at the text for a while. This text represented everything she hated. She took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself down. She put her hand in her pocket. She grabbed the stone out of her pocket and vigorously scratched out the text. She scratched so hard that she made her knuckles bleed. Finally she calmed down and her knuckles started to really hurt. She dropped the stone on the floor. She wiped the tears that had flowed down her cheeks.
She backed away from the wall, her breathing returned to normal, and she continued down the tunnel. She must have walked at least half a mile further down the tunnel when she came across a skeleton. She carefully approached the skeleton, not like she was worried it was alive or anything, it was just… well yeah, something may be still alive. She held the torch out so she could examine the skeleton more closely. It was covered in a wrap, but you could still see the skeleton curled up. She knelt down beside it and she could see a symbiotes skeleton wrapped round the spine. She looked at the necklaces and amulets that were on the floor around it. She recognised some of the hieroglyphics on it. She found out the skeleton was of the former Egyptian god Bes, the dwarf god. Cassie laughed. He really was a dwarf two, no more than 4"3 tall with stumpy little legs. He had a ribbon hand device still wrapped round his hand. She carefully removed it. "Something for Sam." She also removed the amulets and necklaces. "Something for Daniel," she said.
She stood up straight again and walked off from the skeleton. She didn't feel angry anymore, she vented most of her immediate anger from the scratching earlier. She trotted off down the tunnel. The tunnel twisted and turned round, until she no longer knew which way she was going. The tunnel had become smaller as well and the torches had become more sporadic in their distribution so it also became much darker. Something about the place made her nervous. Before she was fine and was casually wandering round the tunnels, but this was different somehow. A lot scarier.
She froze. She heard a sound from behind her. It was close, too close for comfort. She remained still listening carefully to which direction it was heading. She heard what sounded like feet scuffling the floor, and it was closer than before. It was coming for her. She started to walk down the tunnel, slowly at first, carefully placing her feet so they made as little sound as possible. She put the torch down, realising it could be easily followed. She heard heavy breathing from behind her. She spun around it see a shadow of a figure following her in the light. She panicked. She sprinted but she couldn't see where she was going without the torch. She fell down a ditch, twisting her ankle, in pain she tried to walk, but found it very hard and she was very slow. The creature was catching up with her. She grabbed a torch from the wall, desperately hoping to hold whatever it was off. It made a growling sound, the seemed to shake the whole tunnel. Cassie, started to hobble backwards, her breathing heavy, her sight never leaving where the creature was going to appear from. She fell over a bump in the path, and as she landed, the torch flew out of her hand, and out of reach. She stretched to reach the torch, but she could not reach it. She felt a presence standing over her. She cowered and curled up into a ball and the creature leaned over her.
"AAHHH!"