The Trials

Trial 2: The Maze

It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust to the lighting of the new room. It's much darker than the last one. I keep my hand on the wall to make sure I know where in the room I am. The five and I walk until we are on the opposite side of the room from the door. For a few minutes more and more people walk in the room. "Welcome, to the maze." The wall behind us disappears. Behind the wall are several stone walls that create several entrances to a maze. Above each entrance has names of about six people. Apart from one, one entrance says, "The five." All of the people in the room are moving to the entrance with their name.
Finally, when all of the kids in the room are done moving the speaker comes on once again, "You and your team will have sixty minutes to solve the maze. After the time is up, the walls of the maze will disappear. If you are still in the room at that time, you will be eliminated. You may begin."
Not sure what is going on no one makes a move towards the maze. After what seems like a while, I make the first move towards the entrance. Might as well get this over with, I think.
Ava follows me from behind and soon enough the rest follow. After a few feet, my foot hits something across the floor. I bend down and pick up an envelope. Inside I find a note and a flashlight. "For your travels. Good luck!" Signed by Michael's father.
I turn on the flashlight. We walk for a while constantly taking left and right turns. Not getting anywhere or coming across anything new. We soon start to lose hope. "This must be some kind of unclear test. Something we have to figure out. We're just walking in circles," Jackson says while turning in circles looking for something; anything. Jackson walks up to me and takes the flashlight. Jackson Screams in frustration and chucks the flashlight against the wall.
"Stop! We need that," yells Ava. Mae goes to comfort Jackson while Ava retrieves the flashlight. How can we get out of a maze in an hour with a flashlight. When the maze seems to have no end?
"Guys I've found something," says Ava. I walk toward her.
"Five minutes left!" says the speaker.
"We better solve this soon," Leah says.
Ava pulls a key out of the flashlight that broke. "It's a key?" She says. Leah starts to run her hand against the wall. I pick up on what she looking for and soon all five of us are running our hands across the walls, looking for a place that the key will fit.
"One minute!" the speaker says. We all start to run, looking desperately for the key slot.
Mae's foot catches mine, sending her straight to the ground. Immediately I go to help her up, but then she looks up at me with a smile and says, "I've found it!" Ava hands me the key and I insert the key into the slot on the ground. I twist the key. We all step back unsure of what's going to happen. Part of the floor lifts sending us to a staircase.
As we all enter we hear the speaker, "Time is up."
We walk down the stairs to find ten others in the room. The room has several televisions showing the room we were just in. About five groups stand in the room that no longer has the wall. "You all are eliminated." About twenty five kids are taken through a door.
After all the dramatics are over, I finally have a chance to soak in the looks of the room. Many large descending staircases like the one we entered through descend from the ceiling.
Form one of the stair cases Michael's father appears with Michael standing behind him. "It is time you know," he says. A door appears. We walk through the door without being told; becoming use to the odd environment we are now all in.