The Maze

The Maze [part 6]

[7]

A bright light flowed out from the box covering our feet. At the bottom of it there was a pool of water. In the water there were squiggly letters "You have won the gift of Death" it read and I crinkled my face up in confusion.

"Death?" said Billy who stood over me. I put my hand into the water and sloshed it around. "As a team you have the power to get rid of a whole team"

Ricky laughed and held his hands up to the sky. "Thank you, I vote team 6" he said.

"Let's think about this" Said Billy. He stood up and looked around.

"What?" said Naomi "What is it?"

"I thought I heard ..." Billy went down without warning. His face went pure white as he closed his eyes and fell to the dusty ground beneath. His head flopped to the side as he took his last breath. Naomi screamed as we saw a silver arrow stick out of his back covered with fresh red blood. It trickled from the wound and travelled across the floor to our feet and we all quickly moved back. I was too shocked to speak, move or even breathe. Before we could gather our thoughts a group of people surrounded us in the middle of the maze, weapons at the ready.

"Never mind team 3" Said a girl in a white vest. She had the number 10 painted underneath the number 29. She lunged forward with her sword and without thinking I screamed into the air "Team 10".

I shut my eyes as a blinding light threw itself across us. It was stabbing at my eyes from underneath my eyelids so I covered them with my hands. The girl's sword hadn't reached me so I guessed she was dead. The light had retreated back into the box and I slowly, carefully peeled my eyes open to see. Nothing. Nothing? Where were the dead team 10? My breath was quick and I had started to wheeze a little. I clutched my chest to make my heart slow down, but it wouldn't. A thick dirty fog had covered us and I couldn't see anything. I stumbled over something and slipped onto the ground. My hands were drenched with something thick and black. No it wasn't black, it was red. I had accidently put my hands in a puddle of blood from Billy's back. I saw his face in the fog, he looked like a ghost. My hands had his blood on them, I wretched on the floor. I crawled over to him and wiped my hands on his jacket, I nearly started to cry as I dragged myself back away from him. My eyes were burning and I couldn't open them for long at one time. I was on my knees and stumbling around aimlessly.

"Grace" someone coughed. I tried to speak but my voice box wouldn't respond and instead let out a muffled choking noise. I looked down at the stony ground as I came across something shining in the only light the fog would let through. I reached out for it and pulled it close to me, it was a sword. I then looked at it in disgust; it was the girl in the white vest's sword. It would be foolish to leave it here for another team to grab as passing by, so I held it tight and stood with my back facing Billy. My legs were shaking uncontrollably but I found the strength to run. I didn't stop, I kept running and running. I leapt out of the fog and onto the muddy floor. I rolled over and lay on my back for several seconds before pushing myself up. There was a wall in front of me, a wall of black smog with dirt floating around the sides. I looked at it in amazement and held my hands up to it.

"Amazing" I shot round and saw a boy sitting crossed legged on the floor. I immediately swung my sword round and out in front of me poised for an attack. "Don't worry, I won't kill you"

"What? Why not?" He had no weapons with him so he was completely unarmed and vulnerable. He gave me a short smile and rose to his feet. He was quite tall and had the arms of a 24 year old body builder. He could crush me right here, right now. But I still had the sword in my hands and I felt I could stab him right here, right now.

"Why shouldn't I kill you" I said.

"cuz, I'm already dead" he said and I gasped as a light shone straight through him making him almost invisible. I lowered the sword and starred into his black hollow eyes.