by Project Kyle
“Which would’ve been you,” Alcanore pointed out. “That’s why you took the back. Well done, you have earned some respect, but only some.”
Nerd chuckled. At this point, he was going to take any goodwill he could from Alcanore. He was relieved to know the he at least wasn’t on the warrior’s bad side. But wow, was this big guy taking baby steps in his path to trust.
After shifting his thought pattern, Nerd examined the next door and noticed that there were words on top of it like the last. He scanned them before taking note of the lever on the right-hand side. He waited to decipher the code before taking his next action.
The communicator alerted him that the code had been deciphered, and it read:
Only the strong will survive.
Nerd relayed the message to his crew. Alcanore, Henry, Grunt, and Sophia were thrilled at the news and made it clear that they were eager to fight.
Nerd pulled the lever and the door opened. The crew made their way into the next room. It was massive, about four stories high, with a perimeter of about 600 by 1,000 feet. There were four massive statues of guardians. Nerd recognized them as the race that built the temple and was thankful that they were not fighting them. The statues were over two stories tall. Each of them held a sword that was ten feet long, and they were holding them out towards the center of the room.
In the room’s center was a blue circle painted into the granite floor, and it seemed to be the spot that the designers wanted them to go to next. Nerd usually would’ve proceeded with caution, but the three other doors in the room were blocked off, and they needed to trigger whatever was happening next.
“It is likely that the enemy will come through one of those doors when we step in the center,” Nerd said as he pulled out one of his Rubik’s cubes. “Prepare for the worst!”
Everyone gathered in the circle and drew their weapons. They heard a click as soon as they made contact with the circle. They knew a battle was soon to follow and focused intensely on the three doors far in the distance.
They waited, and waited, and waited, and…nothing. Nothing happened. The crew members became restless and irritated as they realized how foolish they looked just standing around in the circle, waiting to fight something that wasn’t there.
“What’s next, bruh?” Henry asked. “I ain’t standing here forever.”
“I don’t understand,” Nerd responded. “We heard a click when we stood on the circle. This should have activated the next challenge.”
Nerd attempted to rethink his strategy but was interrupted when he heard something moving above them. He slowly looked up and was astonished to see that the statues had lifted their swords and were about to use them on himself and his friends.
“Everyone!” Nerd yelled. “Get off the circle, now!”
The four swords dropped, making a loud crashing sound as soon as they hit. Fortunately, everyone had scattered before they were sliced. Nerd and Tom went to the right; Alcanore and Grunt went to the left; Mr. Howard and Lieutenant Collins went straight ahead; and Henry and Sophia went behind them. They lured the guardians away from each other, and each team took one.
Howard and Collins armed their laser rifles and started firing upon the giant guardian. But to no avail, as its stone armor was too powerful for the rifles to pierce. Henry Smith had the same problem, and he realized his blasters were not going to do any good. Sophia considered firing a few arrows, but after seeing Henry’s lasers do nothing, she realized her arrows were useless against them.
Grunt attempted to find a weak point to wrap himself around, thinking he could crush a part of the guardian with his strength, but he was not able to find one. Alcanore, on the other hand, tried to outwit his nemesis by allowing it to attack him. The guardian lifted his sword to attack and dropped it hard on the ground. Alcanore then ran up the giant villain and made his way to his enemy’s neck. He then drove his weapon into it with all his might. But his spear only took a small chunk off the enemy’s rocklike armor.
Nerd and Tom attempted to use their knowledge to find a weakness within one of the guards, but that got them nowhere at all. Nerd did, however, scan them and was relieved to see that the stone they were made of was not the same as the stone of the door. It was destructible, but they needed something with a little more power to destroy it.
Nerd solved one of his Rubik’s cubes and threw it at the monster. It exploded on its chest, and a good amount of rock was blown out of it. But Nerd realized that they had accomplished nothing, as their enemies’ armor was very thick, and he had only managed to create a giant hole inside of it.
One of the guardians took a swing at Henry Smith. Henry activated his left grappling hook and pulled himself up to the ceiling in the nick of time. He was up there, out of reach of his enemies, but his friends were still trapped down there, and he knew he needed to do something.
The guardian was distracted by Sophia and was about to make a move on her. Henry aimed his rocket launcher at his enemy’s neck, hoping that something would happen to turn things in their favor. He pressed the launch button with his foot, hoped for the best, and watched as the rocket flew towards its target. The rocket made contact, and the stone around the monster’s neck disintegrated.
There were robotic parts underneath that moved the neck around, revealing that the creatures were androids. Grunt took note of this instantly and darted towards the enemy Henry and Sophia were fighting. He slithered his way up and wrapped himself around the android’s neck. He crushed it with his strength, and everyone was thrilled to see their enemy had fallen to the ground.
The guardian’s body soon stopped moving.
Henry fired his last rocket at the guardian attacking Alcanore. He made contact again, and the guardian’s armor exploded around its neck.
Alcanore waited for the guardian to attack and repeated the process of running up its own sword. He ran up his enemy’s arm, over its shoulder, and thrashed his sword against the robotic neck. Again, the android’s head fell to the ground, and it was no longer a threat to them.
Two more guardians remained, and Henry realized they were still in a predicament, since he was out of rockets.
“Sorry, guys!” Henry said as he lowered himself to the ground. “That’s all I got.”
Nerd realized that his Rubik’s cube could indeed destroy the neck of the guardian they were facing. There was only one problem: he was down to his last one, and there were two guardians still left.
“Save it!” Sophia yelled as she ran up to them to join the battle. “I can handle this!”
The guardian attacked her, and like Alcanore had done before her, ran up her attacker’s sword, but this time she waited. she stood perched on her enemy’s shoulder, placed an arrow in her bow and shot it at the other guardian. The guardian realized it was attacked and turned to see Sophia on the other guardian’s shoulder. He lifted his blade in a slanted formation and swung it at her. Sophia leapt off just before she was hit, and the blade made contact with the other guard’s neck. Its stone armor disintegrated, and Howard and Collins refocused their fire on the weakened guardian. Its neck exploded, and like the others, it fell to the ground.
There was only one guardian left, and Nerd wasted no time. He threw his last Rubik’s cube at the guardian’s neck, and after it exploded, Howard and Collins immediately opened fire yet again. The final guardian fell, and the crew were no longer threatened by the temple’s defenses.
The eight survivors stood in complete shock at what they had just accomplished. True, they had depleted their heavy artillery to defeat them, but it was a glorious victory nonetheless.
Nerd heard sounds coming from the right, left, and behind him. The doors were opening, but he wasn’t completely sure which one to take. He noticed that there were words on top of all three of them. He scanned them, hoping that he could get a clear idea of where to head next.
Surprisingly, things conveniently took a turn in their favor. The door in the back clearly said:
Tower of
Legends.
While the other two checked out the left and right wing, Nerd breathed a sigh of relief upon realizing there would not be another challenge in this room.
“This way!” he said to his crew.
All eight left the room and made their way to the Tower of Legends. They were now in another hallway that led to a fourth door. It was relatively thin and cramped, but it didn’t look like there were any nasty surprises waiting for them this time. The only thing they noticed was a box-shaped hole cut into the structure’s granite walls. There was a breeze flowing through it, meaning that it was some sort of ancient air vent that the tribe had invented. This was not surprising, considering that this race’s ingenuity was advanced.
Nerd scanned what was written above the door yet again, and his device was able to decipher it.
Maze
“Well!” Nerd said. “As long as we take it slow and keep an eye out for any traps, we should be golden.”
“Knowing the way things have gone for us,” Sophia predicted, “it will be flooded with things that want to kill us… but given what we just accomplished, I’m sure we can handle it.”
Nerd pulled the lever, and the eight crew members made their way out, not paying any attention to the two glowing green eyes that were stalking them from the air vent behind.
Chapter 19 The stalker within
The away team pushed forward through the twists and turns of the maze and were thrilled to find that nothing had tried to kill them just yet. Navigating was difficult, and Nerd couldn’t help that much, considering he was so bad at directions. But they kept navigating through it nonetheless, hoping that things would stay as peaceful as they were.
They came to an opening that looked like a small doorway inside the maze’s wall. It was pitch black inside, and Nerd did not feel safe entering it. So, he ordered his crew to stand back as he passed by it to make sure it wasn’t a trap.
He felt a draft as he walked by the entrance and realized it was part of the air vents that were scattered around the maze and building. Perhaps some sort of maintenance entrance? He wasn’t sure, but at least it seemed harmless, and that was good news.
“Come on, guys,” he said to his crew. “It’s just a maintenance room.”
Alcanore wasted no time. He strutted by and was safely across. Sophia followed right behind, and Grunt behind her. Tom and Mr. Howard soon followed, making Henry and Joe the last two. Henry walked by safely, but as he passed the entrance, he saw the image of a man wearing a black hooded trench coat, the same man that Sophia had nearly defeated outside.
Henry knew something was wrong, so he turned quickly to face Lieutenant Collins.
“Wait!” he said as he lifted his hand in front of him, urging Collins to stop, but it was too late. Collins was already making his way across the entrance. A green fear bomb dropped right into Collins’ hands, a granite door slammed down over the doorway to the entrance, and before Collins knew what hit him, the bomb exploded, vaporizing him.
The explosion nearly engulfed Henry, who was only a few feet in front of Lieutenant Collins when the bomb exploded. He was driven ten feet back, to where the other crew were standing, and suffered several burns on his face and hands. Fortunately, he did not suffer any permanent damage.
Nerd’s emotions had finally surfaced. He angrily ran to the room where Experiment-1 had killed his crew member. He began pounding the granite door with all his might.
“Coward!” he yelled. “You’re terrified of your own prey. That’s why you hide before you take your victims.”
“Easy, human!” Alcanore yelled. “Don’t encourage him to fight us; it will only make things worse.”
“This isn’t about strategy anymore, this is about life! These are human beings he is snuffing out. He has no right to take them as he pleases!”
Nerd began panting in frustration. He wasn’t fond of Collins, but he didn’t deserve to die; none of the people on this planet deserved to die. Still, although he had snapped at Alcanore, he knew he was right. The more Experiment-1 was challenged, the more danger his crew members would be in. He was not going to scare the killer away, nor would he be able to reason with him. All he could do was get his crew to the top of the temple tower before it was too late.
Nerd looked at Mr. Howard, who was shaken over what had just happened. He had watched both his crew members and friends die in front of him, and this caused Nerd’s heart to ache. But he didn’t have time to comfort the last member of the galactic squad. He knew Mr. Howard would be next, as Experiment-1 was blatantly going for the people he was least attached to first, in an attempt to weaken Nerd before he made a big move. This gave Nerd and advantage, knowing who his next victim would be.
“He’s obviously in the building here with us,” Nerd said to the other six. “We must keep our guard up at all times. The moment we let our guard down…that is when he will make his next move.”
“Agreed,” Henry replied. “I’m not one to let a little action bother me…but this, this is real. Still, I am a little surprised that he is able to navigate through the temple so easily. It’s like he has been here before. Also, he was wearing his black trench coat and mask again. Didn’t Sophia destroy that when she attacked him?”
“She did. But remember, all this started a year ago when he lured in the galactic crew. It is likely that he has had time to rig this place since he first got here and supply himself with whatever he needs. I’m sure he considered the possibility that his clothes and mask would be destroyed in combat. As twisted as Experiment-1 is, he is not dumb.”
Nerd could sense his crew’s anxiety rise after he had spoken. The fact that the killer was manipulating the temple was very disturbing to them. They felt like lab rats trapped in a maze—a maze rigged by a madman who wouldn’t hesitate to kill—but they had been prepared for the possibility that he would make his way into the temple as well. So, they moved on, hoping they wouldn’t have any more visits from the Lord of Sorrow.
The surviving seven had reached the end of the maze and were grateful to see that the next door simply had a lever to open it. This time the sign above translated to:
Speed
Nerd opened the door, desperately hoping that no nasty surprises awaited them on the other side.
They were relieved when the door opened into a long hallway, revealing no traps or life-threatening contraptions. The hallway went on for about 100 yards. Two doors could be seen at the end of it, and it looked like it would be an easy stroll to the next room. All seven members ran inside, and as soon as they did, the door closed behind them. The ceiling began to lower, and Nerd realized he should’ve practiced what he preached when he told his crew to stay alert at all times.
“Quick, everyone!” he yelled. “Run to the end of the hallway. The ceiling isn’t lowering over there!”
All seven crew members ran as fast as they could through the long, narrow corridor. Henry was the first to arrive at the safe point, followed by Nerd, followed by Sophia, followed by Alcanore, followed by Grunt, followed by Mr. Howard. Tom, on the other hand, lost his footing and fell only a few feet from the exit. The ceiling was only six feet from crushing him, and Nerd acted fast. He ran back inside the hallway and picked up his friend, crouching, as the ceiling was now only five feet from the bottom. He threw Tom ahead of him before he had to get on the floor to crawl. Tom fell to safety, but Nerd only had his hands out, and the ceiling was only a foot and a half on top of him.
Alcanore pushed everyone out of the way, grabbed both of Nerd’s hands, and with all his strength he pulled him out right before the ceiling could crush him.
Nerd was badly scraped up, but amazingly he had survived the ordeal.
“Thank you, my friend,” Nerd said to Alcanore. “There was no way I would have survived that.”
“Don’t thank me,” Alcanore responded. “You went out of your way to save Tom; it would have been dishonorable for a Renex warrior to have stood by and done nothing.”
Nerd breathed
a sigh of relief. Alcanore’s attitude towards him was continuing to soften, even if he didn’t want to admit it. And moving forward, Nerd wanted the big man to have his back, rather than looking for an excuse to stab it.
Nerd refocused and examined the room they were now in. There were now two doorways in front of them: one that went straight ahead and another that veered off to the left. Nerd scanned the words above both doors and noticed that the tower would be straight ahead.
The other room spelled out:
Temptation
Nerd did not know what to expect from this, but it sounded hostile, and he wanted no part in it. Mr. Howard, on the other hand, did not know about the translation, and he caught sight of Captain Baker and Joe Collins, who were waving to him from the middle of the room.
“Captain!” he shouted out. “Mr. Collins. You’re both alive!”
Mr. Howard ran into the room, which got Nerd’s attention. He was about to call out to Mr. Howard and urge him to stop, but Nerd hesitated when he saw Amelia, standing there by herself. She was calling out to him, begging him to come into the room.
“This isn’t right,” Nerd said. “Amelia has been dead for over a year.” Nerd turned to the others. “Do any of you see a little girl in there with blonde pigtails?”
“No,” Sophia said. “I see my parents…and they’re apologizing to me, asking me to come home.”
“That’s impossible!” Tom said. “I see my crew, General Rice, and everyone that monster slaughtered.”
“And I see a large golden statue of me!” Henry added. “It’s got huge muscles, and he’s locked in a front double bicep pose… It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen!”
“The room spelled out ‘temptation,’” Nerd said. “It’s showing us whatever our heart desires!” Nerd focused his attention on Mr. Howard, who had almost reached the source of the hallucinations that the crew were experiencing. “No, Mr. Howard! It’s an Obian crystal. They drive a person into seeing whatever their heart desires. You’re walking into a trap; turn back now!”