Chapter 41: Dancing in the Palm of His Hand

*2 Hours Prior*

“What the hell…is this?” says Forest, taking a step toward the light as he attempts to soak in the unbelievable sight before him

To his left and right, giant walls rise into the sky. These walls are smothered with vines and leaves covering the surface from bottom to top.

“Now I see why Code was so obsessed about those markings. This is definitely something…” says Hunter as he and Falcon walk up beside Forest, both equally entranced by the bizarreness.

“Yeah…” says Falcon in agreement.

Hunter steps forward, his eyes and body stunned but also showing an influx of curiosity, “Falcon… go grab that torch and our bags back in the cave… let’s check this place out.”

Falcon nods and returns to grab the torch as Forest says, “Hunter… maybe we shouldn’t. We should go back and tell the others about this first.”

Not making eye contact, Hunter replies, “You’re kidding, right? We might finally get some answers about where we are and who is killing us, and you want to back out now?”

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t explore this place… I’m saying we regroup with the rest and decide our best course of action from there,” suggests Forest in an attempt to reason.

“Sounds to me like you’re just being a coward,” says Hunter, facing Forest. “How do you know this opening will even be here if and when we decide to return? This might be our only chance, and you want to run back to camp with your tail tucked between your legs? I mean, hey, go right ahead. Me and Falcon will return as heroes.”

Now wearing his backpack and clutching the torch, Falcon walks back over and carefully places our backpacks on the ground, “Ready to go?”

Bending over, Forest grabs the strap of his backpack and flings it on, “Either of you get even a whiff of danger, and we back out immediately. Understand?”

Hunter grins as he adjusts his backpack, “Yeah, yeah. Wasn’t that what we were doing already? Anyway, I knew you had it in you.”

Hunter walks ahead and says, “Now let’s go find where this Crow guy is hiding and ambush him.”

Falcon quickly catches up to Hunter as Forest brings up the rear, walking at a slower pace.

This is a mistake, I don’t feel like we should be going in alone. Even worse, it’s not like we cracked some top-secret code. We just had a string of fortunate events occur and ended up here, which is what makes me really uneasy. Because this place wasn’t that hard to find…

Coming to a stop, Forest glances up at the towering walls looming over him.

If my analysis is correct, our being here means we were meant to get to this place at some point. And somebody or something knows that already. They wanted us to find this place.

Glimpsing over his shoulder back toward the cave wall opening that's slowly drifting out of sight, Forest frowns.

Crow. If he’s the one behind this, then we really are just dancing in the palm of his hand.

Hunter looks back and must have noticed Forest’s doubts, “Forest! You better not be second-guessing this!”

“Just give me a minute! You two keep going; I’ll catch up!”

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Hunter shrugs his shoulders and faces forward again as he and Falcon keep walking.

“You’re not going to back out too… are you?” asks Hunter.

“No… no, I’m not. I’m with you,” says Falcon.

The two guys reach a dead end and are forced to turn right. Way back on the path, Forest bites down on his lip and shakes his head as he watches his partners walk out of view.

You idiots… you’re going to get yourselves killed…

Regret swelling within him, Forest glances at the entrance as sweat begins to bead. Closing his eyes, Forest breathes in through my nose and out through his mouth before he runs to catch up with them.

I can't let that happen…

“Falc, you think you can climb up these vines to get on top of the wall?”

Falcon walks over to the wall on his right and tugs on one of the vines, “These vines seem durable enough. I should be able to.”

Taking his backpack off and holding out the torch he was carrying to Hunter, Falcon says, “Give me a minute here, and you better catch me if these vines snap.”

“No sweat, man, I got you.”

“Oh, and also, I expect the largest portion of your next kill for this, I just want to make that clear,” says Falcons as he starts scaling up the vines.

Hunter chuckles and then says, “I’ll think about it.”

“What do you mean?! There’s nothing to think about! You will give me a good ass meal later tonight, man, don’t play with me like that!”

Still chuckling, Hunter shouts, “Don’t lose focus, Falc! You’re almost at the top already!”

“If you would be quiet, I could focus easier!”

“Yeah, whatever, man!”

Thanks to his developed talent to climb things with ease, Falcons quickly ascended to the top of the wall. Peeking his head over, Falcon first examines the top to ensure it’s safe before he lifts himself up and over, rolling onto the top.

“Well? What do you see?!” yells Hunter.

Forest lays there for a few seconds, catching his breath.

“Falc?! You okay?!”

Peering back over the wall, Falcon gives a thumbs up.

Wow, Hunter looks a lot smaller from up here…

“Yeah! All good, just give me a moment!” shouts Falcon, turning to look around.

The top is fairly narrow, enough for only two people to safely walk across side by side without the risk of falling off. The wall stretches for a decent distance before stopping and breaking off into different directions on both ends.

Slowly standing up, Falcon makes sure his footing is stable before glancing over the other side of the wall, where he notices another path parallel to the one they were just on, but on a downward slope.

Woah…

“Falc, what do you see?!”

Walking along the top, more pathways come into view for Falcon as a giant maze emerges. The maze stretches as far as his eyes can see.

“Looks like it’s a maze!”

“A maze?!”

“Yeah, it’s a maze! It goes on forever!”

“Up ahead is a dead end. You have to go either left or right. Beyond that... it is hard to tell right now!”

Caught up with them now, Forest strolls up next to Hunter.

“What’s Falc doing up there?”

“He says we’re in a maze.”

“A maze?”

“Yeah, that’s what he said.”

“This place is just full of surprises…” mutters Forest.

Sliding down some vines on the side of the wall, Falcon slowed himself down toward the bottom before he safely landed on the soles of his feet.

Hunter asks, “You find anything else?”

“Not really, it’s difficult to see. There’s this fog covering a lot up there, shrouding things the further away they are,” says Falcon, walking back over to Forest and Hunter.

Click!

As Falcon’s eyes widened, Hunter and Forest’s gazes dropped to Falcon’s feet. Underneath one foot of his, there's a slight drop off in the ground level.

“Falc… I think you just triggered something,” says Forest, doing his best to keep a steady, calm tone. “It might be a pressure plate, it might be a land mine, it might be nothing. Don’t worry, you’ll be okay. Hunter and I are going to get you out of this.”

Falcon nervously gulps, saliva gathering in his mouth as he fearfully stares at the ground beneath him. His eyes don’t dare look elsewhere, his body refusing to budge even an inch, as the haunting possibility of death lies just a trigger away beneath him.