Chapter 117: Pink Fog

Sky’s POV

Instinctually squinting my eyes and shielding my face, I desperately pranced back as Hazel barrelled toward me. But as I stumbled back, I couldn’t find a rhythm for my footing, and Hazel already had the first step on me. There was no chance I could get away or retrieve the wooden sword from my bag in time, so I could only watch and wait as Hazel held the sword behind her head from only an arm’s length away.

However, when I thought she would strike me down, she yelled something instead.

“Duck!”

And I listened. Ducking down into a ball, I covered the back of my head as Hazel bellowed out a roar and swung her blade through the air. A slight breeze brushed the back of my neck from the follow-through of the swing, and Hazel puffed beside me.

“Sky, you can stand up now. It’s gone.”

Rising to my feet, I asked, “What’s gone?”

“The shadow… it was about to attack you,” answered Hazel.

Thinking back, I realized I had slept just over two hours, which meant the shadow could start following me again. I hadn’t checked my back since I woke up.

How careless of me…

“Di- did you kill it?” I then asked.

“No… I doubt it. It vanished as I attacked it. My sword passed right through its body.”

Processing that information, my adrenaline began to calm back down.

“Thanks, Hazel… for saving me,” I softly spoke, internally irritated at myself for being so ignorant and weak that I needed her protection. Especially since… I couldn’t protect her before.

“No problem, it was about time I returned the favor anyway.”

Turning toward Hazel to question her statement, I was forced to take a good look at her for the first time in a few days. I immediately noticed a bunch of new bruises and scrapes along her body, especially on her forearms, elbows, and knees.

Seeing her, my facial expression must’ve changed more than I realized because Hazel looked at her arms and legs before matching my gaze again and saying, “Don’t worry. It’s not your fault.”

Feeling tears in my eyes, I quickly wipe them away, “Of course it’s my fault, Hazel! I left you there with that- that monster! You only got these because I-”

“Because I wasn’t strong enough to stand up for myself,” interrupted Hazel, cutting me off.

Sniffling, I vent the other thoughts now clouding my mind without acknowledging what Hazel had just said, “As if you owed me a favor! Hazel… I left you behind to die! How could you possibly feel the need to owe me anything?! And now you have all these bruises and-”

My sentence this time wasn’t cut off by words… but by a hug. A warm, comforting hug. Resting my head on her shoulder, I sniffled again and blurted out, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Hazel said before slowly pulling herself away. “Sky… look at me.”

Wiping up my face with my sleeve, I match her gaze, and she smiles, “It’s okay… I’m okay. You don’t need to apologize.”

Listening to her words, I nod a few times and take a deep breath, trying to compose myself.

After having a light chuckle to myself toward the end of this breakdown, I say, “I keep telling myself I’m not going to cry anymore, but here we are.”

“Sky… I never got to thank you for taking the lead out there,” said Hazel, recapturing my focus.

“So thank you. From both of us,” she continued, a sullen look in her eyes after adding the last bit.

So Violet didn’t make it after all…

“Go on… you can ask,” said Hazel, and we locked eyes again. “Your eyes are telling me that you have questions. Go ahead.”

“Okay... but only because you said I could…” I begin, and she nods again as reassurance.

“How are you alive?”

“I was knocked out after you left. I later woke up in a room with Zeris. We talked briefly, and I asked why he spared me, not Violet. He said it was because he saw potential in me; that was the reason. He then blabbered about how he was saving us or something… I don’t know. I was pretty out of it, to be honest. After that, he offered to train me, and I spent the past day or two practicing weapons training. It was actually really fun. There was this whole visual program… it was like a game.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I slightly shake my head, “So… just so I understand everything. You woke up in this room with Zeris, and he told you that he isn’t as evil as we think, and then he trained you to become a better fighter?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“Then how did you end up here?”

“After some training, Zeris brought me here and told me I still needed to prove myself. He once mentioned that I had potential, but if I can’t hack it in here after some training, I won’t last long in the real world. At least… that’s what he said,” said Hazel.

“And where exactly is ‘here’?” I ask, continuing to smother Hazel with questions.

“We’re underground in a labyrinth, but you already assumed that much. I was not informed of the maze’s layout, but Zeris did give me a rundown of what to expect. There are at least two floors, each with a maze connecting to the last. We’re currently on the first floor, and after finding our way out of this maze… we advance to the second floor. This formula repeats for however many floors there are. That said, the first floor has the most difficult maze and the least threatening monsters. The next floor has a slightly easier maze, but the monsters are more dangerous. I bet that trend continues for floors three, four, and onward. If you solve the maze on the highest floor, you’ll find yourself above ground. Make it there, and you’ve passed ‘the final test.’”

So… there could be dozens of mazes? And what’s this guy's obsession with mazes anyway?

“And that’s the last of what I know. I’m positive Zeris excluded some fascinating details I’ll surely learn about later, but not much can be done there. I took the chute down here a few hours ago but haven’t made much progress regarding the maze,” concluded Hazel.

“Other than myself… Ember, Faith, and Code have been down here for about half a day. I know I’ve walked around a lot, but I don’t have much to show for it either…” I start, bringing a hand to my chin.

Now that I think about it… what if they all moved on from the bottom floor already? What if we’re the last ones here…?

Buzz!

What now?

As I bring my vibrating wrist in front of my chest, I stare down at my watch and notice the number on the people app has decreased from ‘10’ to ‘9’.

“What’s that Sky?” asks Hazel, who does not have a watch.

“It’s a watch we got from opening the crates. It tracks our vitals, has a timer, and displays information about us. Before… there was a number ‘10’, and we didn’t exactly understand its' purpose. We just assumed it was the number of people still alive, but that number just dropped to ‘9’... which… if we were right before… means exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Okay, is there any other information this watch can tell us? Like who it was or when it happened?”

“No… sadly not. But… I guess now we can confirm that we were right. Tell me, do you know if Ace is still alive?”

“Yeah, he is. I haven’t seen Ace, but Zeris mentioned him once. It almost seemed like an accident because he mentioned the name ‘Alex’ first before correcting himself and saying ‘Ace’ the second time.”

“Alex? Why would he call Ace ‘Alex’?” I ask.

“Ace and Alex sound similar… maybe Zeris knows someone named Alex and got the names mixed up; I didn’t get too much into it.”

“Hm, alright. Well, getting back on track, there are nine people left now,” I take a deep breath and begin counting on my fingers. “You and I are two, and we’re obviously both still alive. So between Ace, Ember, Faith, Hunter… Forest, Scar, Delta… and Code… one of those eight are now dead.”

“It can’t be Scar… he’s too careful. Ember and Code don’t seem like the type to die alone either,” says Hazel, and I quickly rub my lips together and click my tongue.

“Honestly, Hazel… I would rather not talk about this. It’s out of our control, and thinking about which one of my friends just died is not exactly something I’m comfortable with right now…”

“Okay, I understand. Let’s switch topics then because we need a plan of action. We’re going to pass this test… together,” says Hazel with a small smile.

“Right,” I say, a weak smile finally reemerging. “Well, let’s start with everything that happened since I returned to camp… and... Hazel... I'm glad you're here.”

Forest’s POV

That shadow keeps popping up every so often. I wish things hadn’t started out the way they did because I can’t remember any of the turns I took when trying to escape. But at least for now, I’ve lost whatever that shadow was again.

Sitting against one of the walls with my eyes closed, I try to catch my breath.

I’m so exhausted that my body is practically forcing me to rest...

After catching my breath, I slowly open my eyes again. That’s when I see something stranger. A pink fog slowly inched toward me from the end of the hallway. And as this fog approached me, it didn’t take long for me to wearily figure out that this fog… was poisonous. The air quickly grew thick, and the back of my throat began to burn as I inhaled some of it.

Hightailing it down the hall, I arrived at a four-way intersection and looked to my left to see that the same pink fog was blocking off that path. Continuing straight, I passed another left turn that portrayed the same appearance as the last, so I took the next right.

The fog is not only mobile, but it’s blocking specific paths! If I had decided to wait a little longer, that fog just now would’ve blocked off the straight path as well. Just how long has this fog been in the maze!

Taking another right and then left, I noticed more fog down one of the available halls that would probably wrap me back to the same spot I was just in.

I see, so this fog isn’t random at all. It’s purposely blocking off certain hallways and areas…

Holding that thought, I decided to start directing my turns in the opposite direction of where the fog was coming from. And as I hurried deeper into the maze, I could only wonder what the fog was leading me toward.

***

A layer of poisonous, pink fog has been released along the perimeter of floor one. This fog will slowly devour everything in its path as it scours down the halls to the maze's center, where the only exit to floor one can be found.

Time remaining for the sector six participants: 36:04:50… 49… 48…

As the participants of sector six slowly get sucked toward the maze's center, who will be the first to escape floor one and move on?

And who will be left behind?