I put my telescope up to my eye and instead of seeing further away I see a paper map instead. The map shows a basic layout of the hodgepodge of a place I am in. The right of the map shows a maze of steel walkways suspended over lava that leads to the left of the map that shows an open square room with a device in the centre, mechanical in nature, that shoots beams of white hot energy at the wall below it that widen the further they go, one at a time periodically.

Putting down the telescope and storing it in my belt, I look around me, finding I am in the bottom right corner of the area standing on a walkway and not alone. Standing next to me is a girl and I know that she is my partner. She is wearing a bright red suit and a featureless gold mask, looking at me, I notice that I am wearing the same. In front of us is a group of teenagers looking lost.

The group is being tested and we are the rule enforcers. We have our own set of rules separate to the group and we are not allowed to help or talk to them. First they have to make it through the maze of slowly heating up walkways, myself and my partner are unaffected by the heat contrary to the group.

I can freely alter the pathways into any configuration I want, I could even make it impossible for them to complete the maze. But it seems impossible for me to make it too simple or give a direct path to the end.

I try to talk to them to give them the correct path but my vocal cords have been cut and every time I move to physically guide them, a small unnoticeable drill connected to my collar slowly pushes itself forward into the base of my neck.

Since I can't overtly help them I instead path my way to the end of the walkway on the grounds that I am just going to set up the next area. This doesn't set off any warnings for me and I ‘accidently’ help the group to the end. I have no idea what my partner thinks or feels about this but they are following as well, similarly as silent as me.

The end of the metal walkways and solid ground is separated by a bridge held up with cables. The moment one of the group stepped on the bridge something clicked and two blowtorches set up against the cables were turned on full blast. If they take too long the cables will be snapped and if they try to tamper with the blowtorches the bridge will be dropped via small explosives hidden in the cables.

Everyone gets across safely and I herd the group to board an unassuming black mini bus. Already inside the bus is a driver, dressed exactly like me and my partner except in white with a light blue mask.

As we come up to the machine, which I now recognize as a jet engine repurposed into a sort of shredder/wood chipper, he asks the group for two Doves. The group picks two people from themselves to be the Doves, and as we pass the front of the machine the back doors of the bus open.

Me and my partner grabbed the two people that were picked as doves and threw them out the back of the bus with no difficulty, it seemed we were unnaturally strong and resilient. The two Doves get pulled into the machine and their bodies get turned into mulch.

The machine after completely shredding the bodies starts to menacingly glow before it lets out a beam, similar to what I had seen on the map. I can see now from this angle that the beam digs into the ground at almost a forty five degree angle downwards. The tunnel made from the machine gets too dark to see down it not far in.

After passing the threshold to the outside of the place we were in the minibus dissolves, the driver with it, and is reset back to the start but the group don't know this. The outside leads into a forest path, compacted dirt from hundreds of footfalls lead the way forward.

From inside the hollow of one of the trees I pull out a clipboard, documents on this group and dozens of others are logged in it and I score the group on how well they did. All the other groups failed, I am not sure if this one will fail also. The group read the logs from over my shoulder and get angry at me.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

One of the group members tries to punch me but to no effect and as punishment I grab his hand and crush it in my grasp. He falls over in pain whimpering on the ground.

From the trees two people dressed exactly like me and my partner except in green with a red mask step out and examine the person whose hand is crushed. Since they are incapable of continuing, one of the two enforcers pulls out a captive bolt and shoots it right into the skull of the person on the ground before leaving with no fanfare and barely any sound.

The rest of the group make no moves as this happens and a few seconds after.

The end of the path opens up in an open area with an ideal day, sky shining brightly and a scattering of clouds. Trees wall the area with only a single gap to the side near the far end of the opening that leads onto a bridge. A single tree like all the others stands in the centre of the clearing, logs of other trees surround it randomly.

The group go up to the gap in the trees and looking past the bridge see a village in the distance, smoke escaping from chimneys proving the existence of people living there. They are confused if they are allowed to go free, looking back at me and my partner unsurely.

Just as they try to cross the bridge a car from the local police drives across, blocking the bridge with their car before exiting. The group runs to them asking for help but they instead threaten to shoot if they get any closer.

The group back off from the exit and one tries to take their chances with the forest but before they get past the first tree another police officer steps out in front of them from a secret path that leads into this clearing.

More and more officers step out from the forest surrounding the group. Taking a closer look at the officers reveals their face is fake, like a porcelain mask. After they all enter the clearing they set fire to the boundary of it and slowly advance towards the group.

From the thicket, two rats made of wood and with leaves instead of fur run out, trying to avoid the fire and not be cooked alive. They run to me since they are mine. I pull a flask out from a pocket inside my suit and pour the water that sloshes inside it onto the rats to keep them cool.

Looking up from the little happy rats I see that the group have been backed up, one tripping over the logs that litter the dirt onto their back, unable to get up from fear I presume. One by one the group is culled until only a few are left, the ones that didn't give up or succumb to fear, one still trying to slip through a gap in the officers and another trying to grapple them down.

They are left alive after all the others are dead. The corpses are handcuffed and dragged back to the police car, stacked in the back seat and fitting more than they should be able to in that small space.

The two survivors are dragged by me and my partner back towards the machine and down the tunnel that it has made. Even though the tunnel is pitch black I can still dimly see. Further down the tunnel, even though the beam widens the further it goes, the walls, floor, and roof contract, getting narrower the further in.

Once the tunnel gets to only a head taller than me the dirt and rock transitions to flesh and bone. Even further in the walls start pulsing and beating like a heart and once I start having to bend my neck, totems periodically start appearing inside the walls.

Once we reach this point me and my partner push the two remaining from the group in front of us and block them from going back the way we came and getting out. They reluctantly keep going forward, the totems starting to shoot arrows fashioned from bones and skin.

Once they reach the point where they are crawling on their stomachs the tunnel suddenly contracts on them, from the floor to the roof squeezing down on them and making it impossible for them to move a limb more than a few centimeters.

The pockets that they are trapped in start slowly filling up with blood that drips from the walls until the blood covers their mouths before stopping. They will be stuck like that until they suffocate or starve, whichever comes first.

After seeing this happen me and my partner turn and start climbing back up out of the tunnel to test a new group. Passing the point where the dirt and rock start transitioning I see that the flesh and bone has receded further down, the transition now begins at almost exactly my height.