The Maze

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

After walking a little more, they found a smaller clearing which had a little pond and some rocks in it, and decided to make camp. In this particular clearing, there weren’t any menacing giant dogs or dead people, so it seemed quite cozy.

Still, Kura couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being watched… but she didn’t want to worry Phoenix with that. She decided to keep it to herself.

She used the water from the pond to clean off her sword. It looked good as new – the bronze blade shone and the silver hilt looked bold and menacing. During that time, Phoenix was pacing back and forth, obviously thinking pretty hard. His expression was frustrated, and sweat dripped from his face.

“Calm down,” Kura said, starting to get worried. “What’s wrong, Phoenix?” He stopped pacing and took off his shoes. He sat rolled up his pant legs and sat next to Kura at the pond and dipped his feet into the pond.

He sighed and put his head in his hands.

“There is probably no way out,” Phoenix said quietly, almost no feeling in his voice. A shred of worry showed through the plainness, and Kura knew he was really trying not to show her his true feelings. He lifted his head and looked at Kura sadly.

Kura sighed, taking a smile bite of the bread she had. Looking into Phoenix’s eyes was painful, because they stared back with so much longing for home, a safe place, anywhere but here.

Handing Phoenix a piece of bread, Kura said, “We’ll find a way. I know it.” Even though she wasn’t completely sure and was probably even more clueless about the situation than he was.

“We just fought a… well, a hound creature,” she started again. “And we defeated it. That just proves that we have the skill to, you know, survive and find the way out, right?” Her pep talks weren’t the most supportive, but at least she felt slightly confident about the words she was saying.

Phoenix sighed again. “Sure, Kura,” he replied. “But… we still have no idea where the exit is. We’re going completely by chance, which isn’t the brightest thing to do.” Kura bit her lip. It was true – they had absolutely no clue where they were heading – just exploring.

Not knowing what to say, Kura looked at her clean sword fondly, admiring its shine and glow. Phoenix apparently thought it was beautiful too, and smiled when he saw it.

“You really cleaned that sword up nicely,” he said. “Poor boy though. It’s too bad we couldn’t save him.” The thought of the lifeless, bloody body almost brought Kura to tears – she’d saved herself and Phoenix, but they weren’t fast enough to save the poor boy’s soul.

“Yeah,” Kura replied. “I wish we had time to save him. But maybe, on our way to find the exit, we’ll run into another kid in this awful maze. Maybe if they’re nice, we could add them to our little group or something.” Phoenix just looked at her.

“’Little Group’?” he repeated, trying to hide a smile. Kura just nudged him a little, stood up, and went to crawl into their tent.

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The days in the maze seemed to pass quicker than in the real world. In a matter of hours, the light was dimming and the air got only a little cooler – but not cool enough to refresh Kura and Phoenix.

Since they only had one sleeping bag and Phoenix complained that he was sort of cold, Kura slept without a blanket or pillow in the tent next to Phoenix. He fell asleep extremely quickly, while she laid there quietly, not moving for at least an hour or two.

Her pulse raced as she kept reminding herself not to let her guard down. They still weren’t entirely safe, even though they were inside an extremely small tent. She kept thinking that at any moment, something could come out of nowhere and attack then while they were vulnerable, and the thought kept her awake.

At ‘dawn’, or when the light started to shine through the darkness, Kura heard the noise of racing footsteps. She jolted out of her tired daze, and she raised her head to try to figure out where the sound was coming from.

The sound became just a bit louder every second, but she could tell it wasn’t another hound. She shook Phoenix out of his sleep. He didn’t seem pleased, but he definitely knew it was urgent. Neither of them said a word – they just listened.

Soon, the footsteps lead to the small pond several meters away from their tent. Kura peeked her head out of the front of the tent – she saw what looked like a sixteen-year-old boy, with short blond hair and a white shirt and jeans. He was holding a sword and a long silver rectangle – he seemed desperate for a drink.

But she still didn’t know if she could trust him.

She jumped out of their tent, followed by Phoenix. She charged with her sword and Phoenix with his dagger, but when Phoenix let out a small shout, the boy turned around and jabbed him in his chest with the silver rectangle. Phoenix immediately fell to the ground as the boy turned to Kura, as if to say, “are you really going to attack me?”

She stopped in her tracks and helped Phoenix up, who was moaning and groaning.

“Geez, man!” he complained. “First I’m forced to wake up to fight something that I have no idea what it is, but then I come out and get jabbed in the chest by some maniac!” He rubbed his chest gently, adding an “ow” or a “thanks a lot” a couple times.

The boy sighed. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just… didn’t know who you guys were, so…” He eyed the long silver rectangle in his hand, and clicked a button at the top. Immediately, a glowing blue hologram lit up beside it.

The image was a bird’s eye view of what seemed like a small world. Suddenly, Kura realized that it was a map of the maze. She approached the boy and stared into the map – on it was a shining red dot around the left hand quarter of the maze. She knew that the dot represented where they were.

“What’s that little blue dot on the far right-hand top corner?” Phoenix asked the boy.

“That’s the exit,” he replied sadly. Kura’s spirits seemed to drop into the ground and below the hard earth.

“I’m Devin, by the way,” the boy said. Phoenix nodded at the boy, but didn’t seem very excited. Kura on the other hand, smiled and held out her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Devin. I’m Kura and this is Phoenix,” she replied kindly as he shook her hand. Phoenix still didn’t look thrilled to meet him.

The three of them continued to look at the map as more light shone onto them. After a while, Phoenix went back into the tent and rolled up the sleeping bags. Afterwards, he broke down the tent and got their stuff together.

Meanwhile, Kura and Devin were getting to know each other.

“So you’re from the far east side of town,” Kura said.

Devin nodded. “I live with my father and my two sisters, Marilyn and Josie. They’re both younger than me. My mother died when I was seven, after the birth of Josie.” Kura immediately felt the conversation get a bit awkward, and decided to help Phoenix gather supplies.

At one point, Devin got up and put the map in his pocket. “I should get going. Nice meeting you,” he said. Kura spun around and gave him a look of sadness.

He just stared right back in confusion. “What?”

“Where are you going?” Kura asked.

“I’m going to find the way out,” he replied.

“By yourself?”

“I guess so.”

“Don’t you want someone with you?”

“Possibly.”

“Then come with us.”

“Fine.”

It was settled – Devin was an official part of the group.