Chapter 116: Single Digit

Sky’s POV

Halls. Endless halls.

For the past ten hours, I’ve been stuck in a labyrinth, running down these never-ending halls, each identical to the last. The layout couldn’t be memorized, as the hallways varied in length and turn. Some led to dead ends, some only had one available turn, and some were like long corridors with a surplus of available turns.

And some… had shadows lurking in the darkness.

“Shoot, another dead end…” I say as I approach some metal bars blocking off the path.

Turning back around, I try to remember the route I came from.

Approaching a three-way intersection, I take a right and walk down a hall I haven’t tried yet. I also hadn't seen anybody else over the past day, which made me wonder if I was the only one in this maze.

Looking back over my shoulder, I pinpoint the eyes of the shadow monster peeking out from behind the hall I just came from, and he quickly disappeared again.

The shadow monster was scary initially, but I’ve learned a few things about it. For one, it doesn’t attack you if you keep an eye on it. It’ll try to get close before attempting to attack you, and the dimmer the lights get, the closer it is. The lights act sort of like an indicator in that way. Second, it only peeks out from wherever you aren’t looking, often from your blind spot. And third, it doesn’t show itself again for at least two hours once it's seen.

Setting myself down on the ground, I rest my head on the wall and close my eyes.

I haven’t been able to sleep much since we left camp, but with the knowledge I have now, I’ve been able to start taking some short naps. I'm not sure if the naps really help, but my body needs the rest.

Ember’s POV

“And that’s the last of it…” I mumble as I drop the last breadcrumb on the path.

Once I realized this was a maze, I began leaving breadcrumbs on all the paths I’d taken. There's a risk that other people may find these crumbs and start tracking me down, but I’m willing to take that risk to find the exit. I can overpower most of the people left anyway, and I still have some fruit left for fuel to get me through the rest of the time, too.

I check my watch.

39:55:28… 27… 26…

The shadow has only shown up a few times for me, but it hasn’t made any aggressive moves yet. I haven’t seen anyone else either, but I haven’t exactly backtracked my own route to see if someone is following me. I’m sure at least three other people are down here with me. Those people are Sky, Faith, and Code, and I wouldn’t mind working with any of them to find the way out. What worries me is if the other four found their way down here. Forest would be a nice change of pace, too, but Scar and Delta are absolutely out of the question. As for Hunter… he’s a coin toss.

Taking a left, I begin down a more extended corridor where two available right turns are visible in the distance. Slowing to a stop, I go down on a knee and open my backpack. Fumbling my hand around inside for the spare shirt I brought, a question popped into my mind.

Is there even an exit in this place?

With that thought on my mind, I seized the shirt and stretched it out to see if it could be ripped, and luckily, it could be easily torn. Tearing off a tiny bit of fabric, I drop it on the ground when I take a closer right turn, indicating that I took this turn if I ever saw this torn piece of cloth again.

Additionally, whenever a turn leads to a dead end, I place two items to indicate the path ahead is blocked.

As I take the close right turn, I recognize that the hall leads to a three-way intersection, and I take a quick left and drop another piece of fabric on the ground. Approaching another three-way intersection, I peek out to see what’s down both paths. Bars block the hall off to my left, and to my right, the hallway is open. Tearing off another bit of fabric, I take the right turn and drop the fabric to the ground.

Scar’s POV

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What a tedious task. This isn’t even difficult; it’s just annoying. But from my current understanding, there are two ways this can end. This underground maze we were sent to was referred to as ‘the final test’ by the monitor, which implies that there is a way to pass this test. One, we find the exit and escape whatever labyrinth we’re in now, which makes finding the exit to the earlier maze seem pointless. Or two, there is no exit to this maze, and we are stuck here until only one person is alive. Hence the ‘Only One Can Remain’ riddle we solved.

From feeling the texture of the walls earlier, I learned that they aren’t fortified or protected by anything resistant to iris, which means I can plow through as many walls as I want without any repercussions. Rift flow also makes travel a lot easier, which helps me cover a lot more ground.

But frankly, if there’s only one exit in this place, it will take me a while to find it. So… it’s time I start to whittle down the numbers.

Taking out the map model, I lay it on the ground and allow it to activate, and the terrain around me begins to take shape.

So this is what the map model was truly meant for… with it, I can see which paths are blocked off from four to five turns ahead of me.

Flipping to beacon two, a green light took shape at the model's center as the model began adjusting to the beacon's movements. These movements were in real-time, meaning whoever possessed beacon two was on the move. Changing the model to display a more horizontal point of view, Scar rotated and inspected the terrain around the beacon and noticed his two beacons giving off a faint aura in the distance, but there was no blue light to be seen, only a tiny blue emblem with the number three on it along the edge of the map.

I’m pretty close to beacon two… but it seems beacon three is pretty far away. I can only see the general direction it's’ in, but there’s no telling how far away they are until I get close enough to see them.

Switching to beacon three, a blue light appeared as the model readjusted. This beacon was stationary, and no other beacons or colored auras were visible on the map model. On this display, all the other beacons were scrunched up next to one another toward the bottom left corner of the map model, with shades of red, green, and yellow overlapping one another as the green emblem kept adjusting with each movement.

Maybe beacons two and three vanished before because we were positioned at vastly different heights and terrains? I’m positive now that I’m underground... that's probably why the map model couldn’t process the beacons below when I was still above ground.

Picking the map model back up, Scar activates rift flow as he seeks out his first target.

Sky’s POV

Forced awake by nothing other than my inner alarm clock, I immediately check my watch. I am relieved to see just over two hours have passed since I fell asleep. Standing up, I continued down the path I had yet to check out, and only a left turn was available at the end of the hall. Taking a left, I am forced to make a relatively quick decision between taking another left or continuing straight.

Deciding to continue straight, I am then forced to take a right. Rubbing my eyes from sleepiness as I round the sharp corner, I look up to see what’s next. Suddenly, I’m forced to a stop, a flurry of emotions overwhelming my consciousness as I blink twice, ensuring I’m not just seeing things.

Ahead of me, a person was walking with their back to me. Standing there, I couldn’t believe who I was looking at. That warm-toned blonde and brown blend of hair… it can’t be.

“Ha- Hazel? Is that you?” I gasped, the air sapped out of my lungs from the shock.

At the sound of my voice, the girl stopped and turned around, and I knew for sure then that it was my friend. Those hazel-colored eyes, there was no mistake it was her. It was Hazel.

“Sky?” uttered Hazel, taking a small step toward me.

I smiled out of relief to see she was alive, but then everything that happened harshly returned to me, and the smile was wiped off my face.

I left them to die. How selfish of me to smile…

The two of us stood there for a long time, looking at each other for what felt like an hour before a terrifying realization seeped into my consciousness.

And how did Hazel even get here? She never knew about the maze… it’s only possible if Zeris brought her here! Could she be…

Before I could finish that thought, Hazel seized a sword from her backpack and began running toward me, a look of fearlessness in her eyes.

Code’s POV

Something isn’t right. After all this time, I think I should have found some kind of clue, but I got nothing. Nearly half our time has been spent, and progress is yet to be made.

Taking a left turn, I walk down a new hall and notice a breadcrumb under one of the ceiling lights.

Hmm, I assumed too soon.

Hunter’s POV

Damn, this sucks. It feels like I’m just going in circles! Everything looks the same, smells the same, and I swear I walked down this hall thirty minutes ago!

Checking my watch to see how much time has passed, the timer reads 36:48:35…34… 33…

Frustrated, I complained aloud, “Damn, it’s only been an hour since I last checked?!”

Turning off my watch, I pick up the pace.

Screw it, I’m finding Forest, and we’re getting the hell outta here. The faster I travel, the faster I’ll find him!

A loud buzz goes off on my watch as I swing a left and right shortly after.

“What the...?” I mumble as I quickly stop and turn on my watch again.

The timer was still ticking as usual, and my vitals weren’t in danger, which I was most worried about after feeling the buzz. But as I transferred my gaze to the bottom right corner, I realized something just as alarming had transpired.

The number that used to read ‘10’ on the People app.. now displays the number ‘9’, which can only mean…

Somebody just died…!