Naylor: X is for Extreme
"Will it open?" Alex asked, referring to the locked door at the end of the long, narrow hallway. We were now all crowded together in some kind of metal corridor, even more poorly lit than the dirt tunnel that we entered it from.
"It's not budging," Jared sighed defeatedly as he turned around and leaned against the stubborn metal door with a loud thunk.
"Great," I muttered under my breath. "A dead end."
"Quit being such a pessimist," Josh whacked me on the back of the head. "Every one of these traps has some way to make it out alive. Some of the escape routes are just harder to find."
I silently rubbed the back of my head, pondering that last remark. That could be useful information. So at least now I knew I had somewhat of a chance of making it out of here alive...
Suddenly, the open doorway on the other side of the corridor quickly slid shut, eliminating our only way out. The doorway was now being blocked by a large metal door with seemingly no means of opening it.
"Oh, no..." Michael said in a meek voice as he turned around the face the newly locked door. "I forgot, this is a trap that shuts you in!"
"Don't forget important things like that!" I shouted at him. Seriously, he couldn't remember that until after we were most likely doomed?
"Stupid..." Skyler stared daggers at Michael from where she was leaning against the wall, causing him to shrink back.
Bright lights in the corridor's ceiling then suddenly flickered to life, making it much easier to see. Then we heard a distant whirring noise that seemed to come from all around us, sounding somewhat similar to the noise an old computer would make when starting itself up.
"Something's coming!" Alexis shouted suddenly, diving to the ground. "Everyone get down!" Not wanting to know what would happen if I didn't, I ducked to the floor, along with everyone else.
While I was pressed against the ground, I heard this faint buzzing noise that seemed to pass by where I was on the ground and slowly move to the end of the corridor. What on earth was that?
From where she was on the floor, Skyler pulled out a smoke bomb (where she was keeping it, the world may never know...) and suddenly threw it to the end of the corridor, producing a large cloud of smoke and dust. The particles in the air allowed us all to see something new in the room. There at the end of the hallway, about three feet from the floor, was a small, red, horizontal beam of light.
"What's that?" I asked to anyone who was listening.
"It's a laser," Josh said, looking up from the floor. "It'll cut your body clean in half if you touch it." Yikes. Good thing there was a pretty big distance between the laser and the floor.
Then a second beam suddenly appeared a couple feet below the first. "Round 2 is coming!" Jared shouted as the lasers started coming back the way they came. We had to duck even lower this time due to second laser.
"Round 3 is coming!" Jared shouted after a few seconds.
"What's Round 3, again?" Alex called as she started to get up from the floor.
"It's an X-er," Jared said meekly as we all turned to look, and saw two more lasers form in between the previous two. This time, the lasers formed a giant X.
"How're we supposed to avoid that?" I shouted as I started to get up from the floor.
"Everyone just do what you can," Alexis called as the laser started to sweep back across the corridor. Jared was the first to encounter it, but he was able to jump over it before pouding on the metal door at the end of the corridor. "Let us outta here!" he shouted as he slammed his fists against the metal. Alex was next, and she ducked underneath it. Skyler leapt over it, performing a backflip in the air. Pfft. Show-off. Josh jumped over it without doing anything fancy. I was next. Bracing myself, I leapt as high as I could, and made it over the laser, crashing down hard against the floor. Michael was behind me, and he threw himself to the floor, whimpering. Ryan was right behind him.
That's when I heard a loud, gurgling scream.
I started to get up from the floor to see what happened, but Josh quickly grabbed my head and put his hands over my eyes.
"Don't look!" he cried as he hugged my head against his chest, nearly suffocating me. "You don't want to see that," Josh said, his voice shaking. He sounded slightly nauseous. For that reason alone I decided to trust his judgement.
"The door opened!" Jared cried as we all flooded out of the cramped little room and back out to the dirt tunnel.
As soon as we were out, I heard Michael making heaving noises as he was crouched over on the ground, and a sickening splatter accompanied it. Ugh. I may not have seen that, but I definitely didn't need to hear it. But if what happened in the corridor was enough to make a guy puke, than Michael must've seen something pretty gruesome.
"Ryan got a little too close to the laser," Josh said, walking up next to me. "And right in front of Michael, too."
"So the victim this time was Ryan," Alex said, shaking her head to herself. So now we were down to seven. Our numbers were dwindling.
"There was no helping it," Jared scoffed. "What with his build and all. That guy needs to go on a diet."
"Anyway, I'm just glad that you're okay," Josh said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Although, even if you get completely cut into pieces, you'll still pull yourself back together after a while," he grinned widely, causing me to gulp audibly, like in those old cartoons.