Corridors of a Labyrinth

Birthday Songs

-2 months later-

It's been two months since all the chaos happened. Damn, they wanna get outta the labyrinth so badly. But they learned some things. They had five years to get out of this thing, and they'd already used about two and a quarter months of it. Whoever found the secret exit would hop into a mega-speed ultra-shot bullet train, or the MSUSB Train, another one of the government's crazy inventions, and go back to their hometown; in their case, Chicago, Winnipeg or, in Ella's situation, London, England. If you missed the cutoff, you would be taken by CCIA agents and be put in a gym, where you would spend five years training. You would be thrust back into the labyrinth, the exit the same, but with a 3-year limit. If you made it, you went home on an MSUSB Train. If not, the agents would shoot you with an Evader.

But now wasn't the time for that. Today was May 29th, or Harper's birthday. Celebrations were in order for this day. Oh. And it's Mindy's birthday as well. It's 2% coincidental, 8% funny and 90% meant to be. Harper woke up in the morning and checked out his phone. It was 6 in the morning; he didn't exactly pay much attention to it. He had eyes locked on the date. Thursday, May 29th. His birthday. Harper sat up and blinked. Yes. It was May 29th. He was still without a shirt after the creature attack, and everybody teased him about it. All Mindy was able to find was her shorts; she was still shirtless as well. She was respected for her "courage." Weird.

Harper stood up and silently whispered "Happy Birthday" to himself. But, it wasn't exactly silent, but more of a soft speak. It woke up Mindy.

"W-why am I hearing Happy Birthday? I-is it M-may tw-twenty ninth y-yet?"

"Actually, it is, babe."

"Oh...okay. Uno momento, gracias."

"Sure."

Mindy readjusted herself so that she could actually get up. Then she did.

"Well, buon giorno, mi amica. Oggi è mi compleanno. E tu compleanno."

"W-whaaaaa?"

Mindy stared at Harper in utter confusion.

"Sorry, babe. Don't speak Gibberish. Also don't come from Giberia. Also not wearing a shirt..."

"Ok, stop there. I was speaking Italian. Italian for 'Good morning, my friend. Today is my birthday. And your birthday.'"

"Oh. Well, you're the one who took Italian! I took Spanish, French and German all in one year! Hola. Bonjour. Guten tag. I'm a quadrilingual madman!"

"Well, you're not a madMAN, you're a madWOMAN. And it might be hexilingual. You took British slang and Australian slang."

"True, love. Tea must be gettin' to my buggin' head. So sorry. Now let's toss that frown in the rubbish bin and get some petrol in our tanks. G'day, mate! Nice to see you in the Land Down Under! Now, mate, let's hop on a crazy one of our marsupials and get the hell outta this Vegemite-infested wasteland."

"Nice work."

"Well, I know my stuff. I took classes!"

"True, true."

"Either way, happy birthday, babe. 13 years old today!"

"Yes, and I have a song for you. It has nothing to do with the occasion, but I'm in the mood to sing. Where's my acoustic?"

And with that, the ceiling opened, and out came an acoustic guitar.

"Hm. That's a nice touch."

"Yes, but it made lots of noise. Look."

Harper looked around and saw Darren, Sharon, Campbell and Ella standing in a circle around Harper and Mindy.

"Come on, guvnah. Sing!", said Ella in her sweet British accent.