I removed the map from the wall as slowly as possible, careful not to tear it. It seemed to be made out of a thin hide, and after removing it, I found I couldn’t have ripped it even if I had tried. The map was a grid of sixteen by sixteen squares with hallways surrounding the inner fifteen by fifteen.

The outer grid just had hallways going halfway down. Each grid had anywhere between one and four rooms displayed, and each had a symbol at its center. One symbol had a square with an eye at its center, this symbol was in many of the four-room squares, and it clicked that those must have been the jail rooms I found.

The next symbol I figured out was a circle with a cross through it. I assumed those were a sword and shields and marked the barracks I was currently standing in. The rest of the symbols I couldn’t make heads or tales of, and I couldn’t figure out which barracks I was standing in. From what I could make out, the map had no such “You are Here” marking.

The outside halls had what looked like the outline of a person’s head, but upside down every few hallways. At the center of the map was the same symbol, but it was right-side up. There were other various symbols around the map I couldn’t make heads or tails of, and some only showed up once, while others had multiple. Rolling up the map, I began my exploration again.

After a while of dodging the skeletons, I found my way back to the prison cell blocks. I removed a set of chairs from two rooms and placed them in the center of four hallway intersections around the block with four cell blocks. I would use them as a base for establishing where I was on the map. I then checked the next block and found a set of three cell blocks. There were only three possibilities according to the map. With that, I determined my location on the map over the next hour.

Making my way back to one of the barracks, I barricaded the door with one of the beds and sat down to eat and drink. Sating my hunger, I laid down and drifted off to sleep for the first time in what seemed like a millennium.

I was startled awake by the door to the barracks being banged on. I guess the skeletons had finally found me. Jumping up, I grabbed the bronze sword and metal rod. I went near the door as it was shoved forward a bit. I could see the skeleton on the other side of the door through the crack that had opened up.

I waited for the skeleton to strike the door, then plunged the sword towards its head. The tip caught the side of its eyes socket and went into the skull. The skeleton let out a low-sounding moan and stepped back. The left glowing red eye was now gone.

After a moment, the skeleton began to resume its attacks on the door. I tried to stab the skull again but missed the eye socket each time. On my final attempt, the bed’s legs groaned, then shattered, causing the bed to be pushed forward, and the door’s crack now became a noticeable gap. I swung the metal rod in a high arc onto the skeleton’s arm, shattering the bone and causing it to drop its mace.

This time the skeleton didn’t pause and threw itself at me. Caught off guard, I was pushed backward. I hit the ground hard, the back of my head hitting the stone floor and causing my vision to blur for a moment. Then a fiery pain erupted from my left arm. Looking down, I could see the skeleton was biting into my arm. As the skeleton held my arm in place, its remaining arm began to scratch at my chest, then face.

I Immediately began to swing my free arm along the floor, looking for the sword or metal rod. Not finding anything within reach, I tore my eyes off the one-red-eyed monster and frantically looked around. I stopped on the remains of the bed’s legs and began to try and grasp it. I bucked my entire body, tossing the skeleton into the air for a brief moment and allowing me just enough time to grab ahold of the wooden leg.

I then began to bash the skeleton’s head repeatedly until its remaining red-eye went dark. A moment later, I felt the weight of the bones vanish as they became a white cyclone over my chest. As the tiny white gem bounced off my abdomen, the cuts along my chest and the bite mark on my arm’s pain all rushed back into reality at once, and I began to sob uncontrollably. I don’t know if I was crying from the pain or the relief I was still alive.

Getting up, I went over to the food coffin and rummaged through the skins until I found one with water. Cleaning out my wounds, I tore the bottom of my shirt into strips and used them as bandages. My greatest worry was dying of an infection. Hearing another ‘clank’ in the distance, I grabbed a few more skins of liquid and bags of jerky. Tossing them in my pillowcase, I looked down at my map and began to head towards one of the unknown symbols to figure out what it represented.

A bit later, I found the circle with waving lines coming out of it symbolized a bathroom or bathhouse. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, I relieved myself before exploring a bit more. The bath sections had dried up a long time ago, and I couldn’t figure out how to refill them.

I was able to find a closet with what appeared to be bars of soap and fragrant oils in small glass jugs. Another closet had half-eaten robes within. I wrapped up two of the bars of soap with pieces of the old robes, and those too got tossed into my pillowcase.

Getting close to the outside of the map, I wanted to discover what the symbol with an outline for an upside-down head represented. The first hallway with the symbol had nothing to speak of, no doors on either side, just the pale blue fireballs like those that provided light in the hallways.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Moving down three hallways to the next symbol, I found a door with a dull golden metal around the frame. I was inspecting the metallic door when I heard a creak, and then the floor below me gave way.

I landed hard, immediately feeling an excruciating pain radiating from both my right foot and back area. Trying not to panic, I felt around my foot. A wooden shaft had torn through the bottom of my foot, exiting the top, and was pinning me in place. Using the rod, I pulled myself up a bit and winced as I felt my back become wet. Reaching behind me, I found a large gash from where I fell on my sword. Moving the blade, I removed the remainder of my shirt and tried to lay on it, applying pressure to the wound.

By now, my eyes had become used to the low light, allowing me to see around the small space I was trapped within. There were a couple more wooden poles with sharp ends pointing up. My body had just missed such a pole and grimaced at the thought I would have been dead if I had fallen on it.

In one of the corners of the pit, I could see what looked like a body in rags. Checking above, I could see I was in a square cavity with smooth stone sides. Craning my neck around, I found a door behind me with no handle. The door was made out of metallic bands holding wooden planks together.

If I were to survive this, I would need to be able to move first. Grabbing the bronze sword, I began to hack at the pole above my foot. Each strike’s vibration caused me pain as I kept swinging away. Around the twentieth hack of my sword, the pole gave way. There was now only a few inches of the rod above my foot’s wound. Removing some jerky, I bit down on several pieces and tried to pull my foot off the wooden stake. With a muffled cry, I stopped trying. There was no way I would get the leverage to raise my foot.

I began to sob as I pushed the sword under my foot and began to use the weapon like a saw. I slowly moved the blade back and forth at the base of the pole for what seemed like an eternity. All the while cursing every god I could remember from legend. After a certain amount of progress, I would stop and try to pull on the pole above my leg with my good hand. Finally, it cracked and came off at the base after several attempts.

I tore my pants off, removed one of the soap bars and a skin of water. I then began to clean around the wound. Each time I touched the pole, it would cause a sharp pain to radiate up my leg. Removing the bandage from my arm to clean the wound again, I was surprised to find no bite mark left on the skin once the blood was cleaned off.

I used the pole close by that could have been the end of me to pull myself up. Putting all my weight on the good leg, I began to feel around my back where the gash should have been, only to find the gash was now a shallow cut. Cleaning my back of my blood, I began to ponder how two such wounds could heal so fast.

Was it the new body? Or perhaps something to do with the new laws of this universe? If I could remove the rest of the wooden pole, would the wound heal enough before I lost too much blood? Not wanting to find out just yet, I wrapped my shredded pants around my foot’s wound as tightly as I could.

Wanting to find anything I could to help me out of this situation, I hobbled over to the other corner where my fellow trap victim rested, leaning against the wall the whole way to keep pressure off of my bad foot. Getting closer, I could see what looked to be the remains of a small child, but the body was wider, almost twice as wide as I was. This was either a malformed child or maybe a new species altogether. I sat down next to the corpse with a slight whimper and began searching through it.

I found a small pouch around the corpse’s waste. Some of the bones turned to dust as I yanked on the belt to get to the clasp. I also spotted a large stone hammer with an intricate design to the corpse’s side that I couldn’t budge or pick up. My hand felt a bit funny when I touched the handle, and I couldn’t tell if the hammer weighed a ton or had just fused with the floor. With its size, I hope it had merged with the floor, or my new body was far weaker than I realized.

Finding nothing else, I pulled the pouch or small bag with the belt onto my lap and flipped the lid. Immediately seeing the same black void as the stone food boxes had. Slowly I stuck my hand within the bag and began pulling items out.

The small bag held a small brown book with a white gem like those the skeletons dropped at its center. Next, I pulled out what I would describe as biscuits or travel rations; there were six of those. The last two items were a small blade and black rod. Getting an idea, I ran the blade along the rod, and sparks flew out. It was a fire starter set.

Opening the book, I immediately got a headache as symbols, runes, and letters began to float off the pages. As they passed into me, the ethereal objects seemed to be putting knowledge directly into my brain. I could only keep the book open for a few moments before I had to shut it before vomiting onto the corpse.

“I’m so sorry,” I said to the pile of bones and stomach acid. A moment later, I burst out into laughter at the entire scene.

Getting up, I hobbled over to the door and began to beat on the wood with my fist, then the sword’s pommel. However, much to my dismay, it was pretty damn solid. Slumping down with my back to the door, I had some jerky and fruit juice and then drifted off to sleep.

I awoke feeling like complete shit. My forehead was sweating profusely, and my foot was now a shade of sickly green and brown.

Figuring my foot was infected by who knows what from what was on the pole. I had to get the remainder of the rod out, and hopefully, whatever accelerated healing helped out. Removing my torn pants legs from around the shaft, I was astonished to find the wooden shaft moved with almost ease. Not waiting, I pushed on it from the top, and the wooden pole and parts of my foot came out the other side. Vomiting again, I removed the last water skin from my pillowcase and tried to clean out the now two and a half centimeter hole through my foot. With no other cloth left, I cut strips off the pillowcase and tied them around the wound.

Laying back onto the stone floor, I waited to see if the healing would beat the infection, but I felt my strength leave me as I dozed off again. I was pulled from slumber into blackness with another text box displayed in front of me.

[ Death Notification ]

You have died from an infection.

Please remember to wash properly.