by Drew Cordell
There were rumors and myths surrounding the Maze, and no one knew its true function or why it had been built in the first place. Some people claimed it guarded ancient treasure, others believed it housed only restless ghosts and horrors. Regardless, sane people didn’t explore the Maze. It had been abandoned and avoided for as long as River’s Port had been around, maybe even longer. Most of the rumors were probably fabricated, but it only took one truth to create a dangerous situation.
As we passed through the threshold, the occasional overhead lights that lit the tunnel behind us faded away and our boats were swallowed by cold darkness. Jasper and Bob flipped on the floodlights on the front of the boats and illuminated the murky water in front of us, stained an inky black with swirls of what looked like putrid oil festering on the surface.
Agatha sat behind the glowing screen of the computer as Bob gently coaxed his boat forward through the initial stretch of the Maze. The threshold brought about an indescribable change in mood. There was lingering dread now, an irrational fear of the worst kind.
“Calibration is still displaying green; we’re synced with the map,” Agatha called over to our boat as we trailed ten feet behind. With the low settings on the motors, communication across boats was easy. She was keeping her voice low, though. We all were, not wanting to disturb unseen residents.
The tunnel widened into box-like sections where additional tunnels stretched in either direction in perfect darkness, forming a cross-junction at each point and allowing seemingly infinite change in direction. It was easy to see how people got lost, but hard to see why people would come here in the first place. Ideally, a smart person venturing through the maze would keep track of each turn they made in the maze. Then, if they decided it was time to come back, they just do the reverse of every turn they made on the way there. A right for every left turn, and a left for every right. It was the simplicity of that method that had me worried. How could anyone get lost in the maze if it was so simple?
“Let’s just hurry through this. It gives me the creeps,” Jennifer said. “It doesn’t even look like a maze. This is a grid.”
Agatha shook her head. “We’re going as fast as we can. The last thing we need is an instrument error. Our map isn’t a complete layout of the entire Maze, and we have no idea where the exits we can see lead to. It’s going to be extremely difficult to re-sync the map if we get lost.” At Agatha’s request, we closed the distance between the boats to only a few feet away.
“Nice and steady. I don’t think we’re in danger here,” Grez said. “This is the emptiest, most lifeless place I have ever been.”
“Do you believe in ghosts?” Jasper asked.
Grez smirked. “Not in the slightest.”
Jasper shrugged and skillfully guided the tugboat around a corner into a new section of the homogeneous tunnel system following behind Bob. “Then you should have nothing to worry about. Being technically minded, the logical portion of my brain tells me there is nothing here but emptiness, but something in the back of my head tells me I should be cautiously fearful. I suppose it’s better to respect the dead here in everything we do.”
“The only ghosts are the robots sitting on the bottom of the River, but even some of the better made ones like myself would eventually succumb to the elements,” Bob said in his deep voice, projecting it behind him so we could hear him better. “At that point, restoration would be impossible.”
“You’re saying if there are robots on the bottom of the river here, then we could restore them and their former personalities?” Violet asked.
Bob nodded. “I for one would be interested in hearing what they have to say, but not so much so that I’m willing to take a sink.”
“Nevertheless, it’s not what we’re here for. From what I gather, there aren’t many men or robots willing to venture through the Maze to salvage old wreckage and there’s probably a reason for that,” Grez said, ending the conversation.
After another five turns, my sense of direction was helplessly lost. Agatha looked confident as she directed Bob through the maneuvers. The rest of us remained quiet so she could work. As we progressed, the tunnels shrank in width, and the ceiling lowered until it was only about ten feet above the surface of the vile water. Aside from the dull hum of the motors, there was nothing but the presence of an eerie, tangible silence that commanded attention. It hung in the air, draping me with physical and mental discomfort. It was that undeniable gut feeling that something was seriously wrong here, that we did not belong here and had disturbed an ancient rest.
Suddenly, a harsh screech echoed through the caverns, splitting the silence. I reached up and covered my ears as the abomination of a noise ripped through the tunnel again, closer this time.
12 DROWN
∆∆∆
“What the hell is that?” Jennifer yelled. My heart pounded in my chest, and my blood ran cold as the shrieking rung out in the tunnel in agonizing waves. It was a horrible, mechanical sound. Like everyone else, we had drawn our weapons and were scanning all sides of the boat. Bob had increased his boat’s speed at Grez’s request, and Agatha was still hunched over the computer shouting out instructions over the harsh screeches. I holstered my weapon and covered my ears with my hands, pressing down hard and trying to block out the noise. Marwin and Mary had the same idea. With so many well-armed people in our group, we wouldn’t make a difference.
“Behind us! What is that?” Christopher yelled, firing his rifle in quick, tight bursts. I turned to see a dark shape lurching toward us along the ceiling of the tunnel. Dark, metallic tendrils of sooty mass shot forward as the behemoth propelled itself with jolty movement. Christopher’s shots connected with its large misshapen body, punching through the outer surface and connecting with something hard underneath. The monster recoiled before screeching again, louder this time.
I had instinctively reached to my side to draw my weapon as the enemy bounded closer, but the creature’s screech caused me to see double as my vision wavered and ears seemed to break. As the creature’s tendrils moved out of the way, I got a good look at it for the first time. The creature-like mass had a large glowing eye in the center and a sludge-like, oil-coated body. Thick droplets of the goop coating the machine fell into the water below as it struggled to move forward under the assault rifle fire.
Giving up its current plan, the horrible machine leapt off the ceiling and dove below the dark water. Everyone was screaming, but it felt like someone had hit a nail into both of my ears. When the gunfire stopped, I couldn’t hear at all and could only hope the damage was temporary.
Christopher pivoted the large floodlight on the front of our boat and sent the powerful beam across the water to try to find the creature, only to notice the beam stopped before it hit the bottom of the black water. It seemed to be gone, and after five minutes of nothing, the group took the opportunity to reload their weapons as Agatha continued to direct Bob, yelling at him despite the fact the robot’s hearing wasn’t damaged like the rest of ours. Cutting up our clothes, we made makeshift earplugs and pushed small balls of fabric in our ears to better protect them from the screeching and booming gunfire in a tight space.
By the look of its vision sensor, the creature was at least partially mechanical, but no one could explain its strange body composition and the way it slithered on the ceiling of the tunnel so effortlessly. Why was it in the Maze in the first place? Perhaps it was built and introduced as some kind of sick game to hunt anyone brave or stupid enough to enter the Maze like we had.
After another twenty minutes of excruciating silence, the ringing in my ears faded away, but the throbbing headache remained. With the exception of Bob, everyone had a headache, and Jennifer and Grez refused to hand out painkillers in case we needed them for something more serious. No one thought we’d destroyed the mechanical creature for good, and everyone was still on edge as Agatha permitted Bob to up our speed by a meager 10%. Even with the speed increase, we still had several miles of winding tunnels to cover b
efore we would be out of the Maze.
“Jasper, have you seen or heard of anything like that before?” Grez asked, sounding surprisingly calm.
Jasper shook his head. “Nothing specific. Ghosts and monsters, but that is neither. It’s a machine, and like all machines, someone put it here. Whether it’s here to hunt and salvage or protect something I don’t know, but I’d like to get as far away from it as we can.”
Grez nodded. “We’re here for one thing and that’s the weapons lab. I don’t want to stay in this damned maze longer than we have to.”
Another shriek rang out in the distance, sounding far away. Even from the distance and with the makeshift earplugs, the noise was horrific.
“Everyone keep your guns up. It might be coming back,” Grez ordered.
My sidearm wasn’t going to make a difference, so I took control of the floodlight on the front of our boat, moving it along the water and scanning the depths, then sweeping it up to scan the length of the tunnel in front of us. With both boats, we had someone watching on all sides so the machine couldn’t ambush us from one of the many four-way splits in the Maze.
Each turn we took sent raw fear churning through my nerves as I expected to see the monster waiting to pounce. Something moved underwater laterally, a dark shadow that was gone as fast as it had flickered past the beam of the light. I frantically swept the beam again, looking for whatever I had just seen, but there was nothing. I turned back to say something and felt something slippery wrap around my chest and squeeze, pressing the air out of my lungs before I could scream. The tentacle whipped me into the air and over the side of the boat, plunging me deep into the dark, cold water. The water rushed into my mouth and through my nose, sending a painful shot to my brain. I tried to scream, tried to pry from the cruel grasp as I was pulled down into the depths, but it was too strong. I opened my stinging eyes, trying to see, but couldn’t make anything out in the darkness, even as the floodlight from above swept around looking for me. The light faded away as I was pulled deeper into the abyss.
My lungs were starting to ache as the appendage squeezed tighter. My body was going to break, or I was going to have to breathe in the water and die. Without my armor on, I had no protection from the crushing squeeze of the powerful limb. If I could escape, I might be able to swim to the surface and get help from the others.
There was no noise, just blackened silence as I passed through layers of colder water. Pressure on my ears pushed painfully and sent sharp aches through my head. I reached an arm up, but there was nothing to grab, nothing that could save me. A bright thought burst through my head, giving me one last hope. My knife. I reached for it blindly with frantic fingers. Get away or die. I gripped my knife and drew it from the sheath. The tentacle was squeezing tighter and tighter, the crushing pain becoming unbearable.
The adrenaline pulsing through my veins was giving me a shot at life. I twisted my body and felt something in my chest crack and pop with a spike of concentrated agony. Maybe a bone, maybe my lungs. I didn’t know, but I couldn’t stop now. With the help of the adrenaline, I fought through the pain. My free hand gripped the slimy appendage, holding it as steady as possible while I used the other to try to saw through the oily mass with my knife.
I was going to have to breathe soon, and I was horrified to find strong metal beneath the coating of sludge. The serrated teeth of my blade couldn’t chew through; it was too tough. Blinding, red phosphorous light erupted my blurred vision, igniting dense particles of gunk lazily drifting through the depths of the disgusting water. I squeezed my eyes shut against the light. High-pitched buzzes whizzed past my head, followed by dull, flat thuds. Something screeched underwater—a mind numbing cacophony that ripped through my skull. Even though my body was forcing me to, I couldn’t inhale the salt water with the crushing force of the limb coiled around my chest. The very thing that was killing me was keeping me from drowning—for now at least. There was more screeching, but it was growing distant as everything seemed to fade to nothing. Suddenly, the force constricting me vanished, and my body was free to breathe. I heard a splash overhead, inhaled the acrid water, and faded to black.
Someone or something turned me onto my side, and the water began flushing out of my lungs in aching bouts. I coughed and choked on it, but between the horrible outrush of water there were precious breaths of life, enough air to sustain me and keep me conscious but not enough for my brain to send the signal that I wasn’t dying. I didn’t fight the coughing; I just pulled in as much air as possible and tried to make out my surroundings as I emptied an impossible amount of water from my body. Black spots still dotted my vision from the blinding flare, but I was lying on my side inside one of the boats. Someone was trying to say something to me, but their voice was drowned out by cracks of gunfire and the spray of saltwater from around the boat.
Marwin was patting my back, his words coming more clearly now. “You’re going to be okay!” He was soaking wet and draped in a heavy oil-stained blanket, probably taken from one of the storage containers on Jasper’s boat. The pieces made sense, and I understood he was the one who had saved me.
I couldn’t talk yet, so I kept focusing on breathing, on just staying alive. My lungs stung, and I had a bitter, coppery taste in my mouth. It tasted like bile and acid. I was shivering, the cold draining what little strength I had left from my body.
“How much farther?” demanded Grez from other boat.
A woman answered, probably Agatha. “Several more miles of this maze. We can’t rush this or we’re going to get lost. It’s going to take as long as it takes. That thing hunting us isn’t making this go any faster.”
“Mary, where is she?” I demanded, trying to move and look around my surroundings. My chest ached as I twisted my body, propping up on soaked hands and looking around.
Mary quickly moved to help me, wrapping an arm around me. “I’m right here, Jake.” Her eyes were wide and frantic.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think about getting pulled in,” I said, staying low on the boat and away from the walls. “Is it gone?”
“It’s gone. Don’t apologize.”
Jennifer was next to me a moment later, pulling off my soaking hoodie and shirt to examine my chest. Her fingers felt like gentle buttons of warmth as she lightly pressed on painful patches of skin. “You’re going to have some serious bruising, but I think you’ll be fine otherwise. Other than soreness, let me know if you think anything else is wrong. I’ll check up on you from time to time. Let’s get you warm.”
Mary covered me with a blanket, and I pulled it closer to my body, pulling off the rest of my clothes and waiting until my temperature had stabilized before putting on a pair of spares from Gerald and my heavy winter coat.
“Thanks for jumping in to save me, Marwin.”
He waved a hand dismissively. “Are you kidding? You would have done the same for me in a heartbeat.”
The water had grown progressively colder as we progressed through the maze, but the toxicology tests showed the water was free from harmful contaminants despite the lack of the algae responsible for breaking down radiation and warming the water farther upstream. Without that exothermic algae, the tunnels were now down to a cold 30 degrees.
The others were all watching around the boat, and those who could had tethered themselves to chairs and benches with belts or cords, anything to protect them from the same fate as me. Somehow, they managed to drive off the mechanical monster and saved my life in the process, but it was clear by the looks on their faces that they didn’t believe they had destroyed it for good.
Minutes passed by, then hours, then days. The thing hunting us was seemingly gone, which wasn’t as comforting as it should have been.
After yet another close brush with death, I didn’t go anywhere near the edges of the boats without tying myself to something inside it. Mary was staying close to me, and aside from the random arguments that surfaced between Grez and his crew periodically, there was nothing but the sound of the boats
’ motors churning away at hot, lifeless water. At a tight junction where the boats were close together, Violet jumped back over to our boat, taking a seat next to me and placing a hand on a sheathed knife. “Did you try cutting it?” she asked.
I gave her a confused look, trying to understand the context. She made a sawing motion, drawing her hand across her chest before squirming around.
“Yeah, I tried to cut it,” I responded, understanding her question. “The exterior is sludge-like, but it’s solid metal inside.”
Violet shrugged. “Hmm. Well, it seems like it gave up on following us. For now.”
“Do you know how much farther it is to the lab?” Mary asked.
She smiled absently and brushed some hair out of her eyes. “You haven’t heard my father bickering with Agatha and Gerald for the past few days? Still not sure. Neither one of them seem to be giving a straight answer.”
“That I can agree with,” Mary said.
“I can’t believe we’re still in the Maze,” Jasper grumbled, continuing to steer the ship with Gerald’s guidance and the continual map data it fed.
“I’m surprised it’s this expansive. I can’t even imagine trying to navigate it without a map,” Marwin said.
Jasper laughed. “You seem to be under the impression that we’re certain our map is valid. There hasn’t been anything on the fishing lines since we arrived in this Godforsaken maze, and if we lower the lines any farther into the water, they’re going to catch on old wreckage and garbage.”
“You’re not so certain? It would seem like you of all people would trust in technology,” Marwin said.
“I trust in my technology and Bob’s—for the most part. I like to understand how things work before I put my trust in them. The curse of an inquisitive mind, I suppose,” he said, coaxing the boat around yet another corner, following the other boat’s lead. The navigators were cycling off and taking turns to avoid even a single mistake that could doom us all.