by James Harden
But Jack does.
He has only just been reunited with his sister. He is not prepared to let her go so soon.
“What the hell?” Jack shouts. “Leave her alone!”
The leader draws his sidearm and points it at Jack’s head. “You want to end up like your friend there?”
Jack backs off and shakes his head.
“Then calm the hell down.”
“It’s OK,” Kim says. “I’ll be fine.”
“What are you doing?” I ask. “Why are you taking them?”
“We are taking these two as leverage.”
“Leverage?”
“That’s right. The company is coming. And when they get here...”
He trails off.
“So we need these two,” the leader continues. “They are bargaining chips. Security. Leverage. The good doctor here is a fountain of knowledge about the Oz virus. And Kim is an extremely valuable specimen. We know for a fact these two are high priorities for the company. So that’s why they are coming with us. Any questions?”
We are all silent and I am secretly praying they don’t execute the rest of us.
They got what they came for. What’s stopping them?
What’s their next move?
Suddenly, more infected arrive on the top level of the prison. And I never thought I’d be happy to see a bunch of zombies.
The infected distract the death squad and we are no longer a concern for them.
The death squad retreats to the cafeteria.
And I know they’ll be fine. Kim will be fine. They are armed to the teeth. They can hold the infected at bay.
But we do not have this luxury. We are relatively unarmed. We only have one shotgun. Maybe a few shells. One cowboy style revolver. Our only option is to run. Our only option is the labyrinth.
Kenji waves us forward. “Come on, let’s go. Into the maze. Follow me. Stay close.”
Jack hesitates for a split second. It’s almost as if he’s about to run after the death squad and take them on with his bare hands. I wouldn’t put it past him. That’s just the kind of guy Jack is. He is reckless and stubborn and he wears his heart on his sleeve. But I know that if he goes after his sister right now, he will die. He will be shot in the head. He will be dead before he hits the ground.
I grab him by his shoulders and drag him into the labyrinth. For a split second it’s like his feet are nailed to the floor. He does not want to leave. Not without Kim. “Jack, come on! We are leaving! We have to go!”
“I... I can’t. I can’t let them take her. I can’t.”
“You have to. They’ll kill you if you try anything.”
“No. I can’t leave.”
“They’re not going to kill her,” I say. “She’s their leverage. She’s too valuable. They need her.”
Eventually Jack relents. He stops fighting.
And Kenji leads us into the labyrinth.
Chapter 31
We run. It is the only thing we can do. It is our only choice.
Kenji says we have to move. “Keep moving. Do not stop.”
He tells us to be quiet. As quiet as we can possibly be.
The further we run, the darker it gets. The light from the entrance fades quickly. Kenji retrieves a torch from his pocket and switches it on. Ben does the same with the torch on his shotgun.
The infected are chasing hard. They are gaining on us.
The death squad has moved into the cafeteria, and they’ve probably locked themselves inside the massive walk-in pantry. As a result, they are no longer killing any of the infected. We can’t even hear any gunshots.
This is bad.
“How the hell do you know where we are going?” Jack says to Kenji.
He whispers this question as loud as he dares.
“I’ve studied the maze,” Kenji answers. “We just need to follow this main corridor. If we veer off, we’ll get lost. We’ll become trapped.”
We continue running, staying in the main corridor, ignoring every little side passage.
A few hundred feet in, the corridor is lit up with red emergency lighting.
No need for torches.
Kenji switches his torch off and looks over his shoulder to make sure we are all still together.
Thomas is out in front. Jack and Anna and I are following closely behind. We are all bunched in together. Our breathing is loud and heavy and panicked. Ben is bringing up the rear. Once again, he is struggling. He eventually slows to a jog. And then he stops altogether. He turns, raises his shotgun.
We can hear the infected. Their screams are echoing through the maze, bouncing off the solid concrete walls. Concrete walls that are splattered with blood. In the red glow of the emergency lighting, the blood looks black.
Kenji skids to a stop and then sprints towards Ben.
We all stop, wondering what the hell Kenji is doing. Thomas keeps running.
Kenji grabs Ben’s shotgun, pulls the barrel down. “No,” he whispers. “I told you. It’s too loud.”
Ben gives Kenji a look that says, you’ve got to be kidding me. “Buddy, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but they already know we’re here.”
“If we keep moving, we can lose them. The maze will help. We can use the layout to our advantage. It will confuse them. But if you keep firing that shotgun, they will be able to track us easier. Faster. We need all the time we can get.”
Ben lowers the shotgun completely. “Fine.”
“Come on,” Kenji says. “We need to keep moving.”
Ben continues running. We pick up the pace and catch up with Thomas
“What the hell were you doing back there?” Thomas asks.
“Making sure Ben didn’t fire his weapon,” Kenji says. “Making sure we have room. Making sure we have time.”
“Do we?”
“Not really.”
“Great.”
Eventually we arrive at a fork in the corridor. Again, we come to a stop. Behind us, the entrance to the labyrinth is now a small, bright dot. We can see shapes and shadows running towards us. We can hear those shadows. Howling and screaming. Fortunately, there’s not too many.
“Which way?” I ask.
“Left,” Kenji answers. “At the next fork we will need to go right. Always alternate.”
“How many forks?”
“Five.”
“And then what?”
“This corridor, this part of the maze opens up into the central chamber. A massive area. It’s almost like an arena.”
“What’s in the arena?” I ask.
“Warehouses,” Kenji answers. “Training facilities. Training grounds. Bad things. Monsters.”
“Bad things?” Jack says. “Monsters? Maybe we should avoid the arena?”
“No choice,” Kenji says. “We have to go through there. It’s the only way.”
“I knew you were going to say that,” Jack says as he puts his hands on his head, taking deep breaths, trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible. “So basically, we’ve got the infected chasing from one direction, and God knows what, waiting for us in the arena?”
“By the time we reach the arena,” Kenji explains. “All these directional changes should confuse the infected. It should buy us some time.”
I take another look back towards the entrance. The door to the labyrinth begins sliding shut. The bright spot is extinguished, like a weird solar eclipse. We are now locked inside. We are now trapped. We cannot go back. Not that going back was ever an option.
We have to go forward.
Would we survive this?
I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it.
“Follow me,” Kenji says, “Stay close. Stay quiet.”
“So where exactly are we going?” Thomas asks.
“I just told you,” Kenji answers. “We need to get to the arena.”
“And then where? We can’t stay in here. We are so screwed. Where are we going to hide? Where are we going to live?”
Thomas is
still in shock. He is beginning to panic. He is beginning to lose his mind.
“We need to move through the arena,” Kenji says. “And then we need to get to the research labs.”
“What if we’re attacked?” Ben asks.
“If we’re seen, or attacked, we need to run. You fire that shotgun and you’ll have the entire horde on top of us. We are walking into a hornet’s nest here. We need to be quiet. We need to be invisible. And we need to keep moving.”
“This is suicide,” Thomas says. “This is crazy. We’re dead. We’re so dead.”
Kenji pushes Thomas up against the wall. “You need to keep your shit together. The maze will protect us. It confuses the infected. They struggle to move through it. They become trapped. This is how we will survive. By outrunning them. Outsmarting them. Understood?”
Kenji then looks at all of us. He makes sure we’re all on the same page. Once he knows that we understand, that we know to be quiet, that speed and stealth are our only weapons, he begins running. And we have no choice but to trust him and follow him deeper into the labyrinth.
And as we run further into the darkness, I can’t help but admit to myself that I am terrified and afraid of the dark, and I think the worst part is not knowing.
The worst part is the waiting.
Waiting for death. Waiting for the monsters to jump out of the dark and attack you and eat you and possess you.
Once upon a time, I was watching a horror movie with Kenji. Watching movies with Kenji was probably one of my most favorite things to do in the whole world. Before the whole world ended.
Has the whole world ended? Or is it just this one part? I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll ever find out.
Anyway, we were watching this Japanese horror film. I can't remember what it was called. It was about demon possession. It was kind of like ‘The Exorcist’. The movie terrified me. Not the actual demons. But the waiting. The not knowing. The staring into the dark. Walking and running through the dark.
The movie held you in suspense. It held you in a choke hold of suspense and it wouldn't let you go. There were moments in that movie where I just wanted it to be over. I just wanted the monsters to jump out and reveal themselves.
Just get it over and done with.
But they, the ghosts, the demons, the monsters, were patient. Terrifyingly patient. And I couldn't take it. I was watching through my fingers, sunken into the couch, hiding behind Kenji.
And then the monsters and demons finally reveal themselves, and the suspense and the fear is released, like a spring loaded trap.
And the only thing left to do is jump.
Scream.
The only thing left to do is run.
Chapter 32
The main corridor we are running down opens up. We have arrived at the central chamber of the labyrinth. We have arrived at the arena.
And the arena is massive. Like, plains of Africa huge. I can’t see where the arena ends. We are standing at the top of a large and steep set of stairs. From our vantage point we can almost see everything. Almost. The far side of the arena is too dark.
To get to the arena floor we will need to climb down.
Directly below us, are multiple rows of large, long warehouse type structures. It kind of looks like an industrial complex. Or maybe the Warner Bros lot. Either way these buildings look out of place in this labyrinth. They look too artificial, too man made. I know this whole place is manmade, but the labyrinth itself has an ancient feel about it. Like it was made by the pharaohs of Egypt. The modern design of the warehouses is in stark contrast to the rest of the place.
Scattered around the warehouses are light posts. All of the lights are red. Past the warehouses is the vast, open expanse of the arena.
Beyond that is darkness.
I point down to the warehouses. “What’s the deal with the red lights?”
“Red light doesn’t mess with your night vision,” Kenji says.
“Huh?”
“These warehouses, this whole labyrinth is a training facility.”
“Training facility?”
“Just follow me. I’ll show you.”
We climb down the extremely steep set of stairs. Some steps are so large and so steep, we literally have to get down on our hands and knees and climb down. We eventually make it to the ground floor of the arena, and from down here, the warehouses look a lot bigger.
They tower over us.
We quickly make our way to the nearest warehouse. The building has massive sliding doors, like an airplane hangar. We would never be able to open these by hand. Luckily, we didn’t have to. Off to the side there is a small doorway. Kenji forces it open as quietly as possible and leads us inside.
Kenji leads us through the warehouse. Inside are mountainous piles of sandbags and bullet casings. There also appears to be quite a lot of standalone walls. Some of these walls are arranged into squares, so that they form separate rooms. Others are just scattered about the warehouse randomly.
We climb a steel grated set of stairs and move into a small room on the second floor, at the rear of the warehouse. We can see out the window of this small room to the rest of the arena. I can’t help but wonder what’s out there, waiting for us in the darkness.
Kenji moves up to the window. “As I said earlier, the labyrinth can protect us. It confuses the infected. We are safe for the moment. But we can’t dwell in any one place for too long. If we stay in one place for too long, they’ll find us. So catch your breath. We’re moving out soon.”
Ben is doubled over. Anna moves over to him to make sure he’s all right.
Ben pushes her away. “I’m fine.”
“So what the hell are these warehouses doing in this place?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Jack says. “They’re giving me the creeps. I feel like we’re about to stumble across Frankenstein’s lab or something.”
“The warehouses are training facilities,” Kenji repeats. “For the Special Forces soldiers. For the death squad. Those walls down there, they’re all moveable and adjustable. This allows the soldiers to create different layouts and different simulations. They can even mimic the designs of real world buildings.”
“Why would they need to do that?” I ask.
“For practice,” Kenji says.
“So this whole labyrinth is a training facility for Special Forces soldiers?” Jack says.
“I think so,” Kenji answers. “At least, that’s what I think it was originally.”
“Originally?”
“I’m not sure. But maybe this whole place was designed to house the infected. So the soldiers could train and prepare to fight against a new kind of threat. A new kind of enemy.”
“You really think so?” I ask.
He shrugs his shoulders. “Maybe.”
“So how the hell do we get out of here?” Anna asks.
“As far as I can tell, the labyrinth is like a massive hexagon. The outer areas are designed to confuse and trap. But there are express lanes into this central arena.”
“Like the corridor we just ran down?” I say.
“Exactly. This central arena contains the warehouses, a few other training facilities and the catacombs. The exit and entry points are the military prison, the civilian prison and the research labs.”
“That’s great and everything, but where the hell are all the infected?” Thomas asks. “How do we know we’re safe right now?”
“We’re not safe,” Kenji says. “But at the moment, the infected are all trapped in the western corner of the labyrinth.”
“So we are safe?” Thomas says.
“No. They will eventually find us. So we need to keep moving. From here we have to get down to the catacombs. The exit point we need to reach is the research lab.”
“How far have you been?” Anna asks.
“I’ve been to the end. To the civilian prison. To the research labs. We can make it. If we’re quick. If we’re quiet. We can make it.”
“So you’ve b
eaten the labyrinth,” Anna says. “You solved it? You found a way out?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, you’ve actually been to the end,” Thomas says. “You actually found a way out, and you came back?”
Kenji nods.
“You are crazy.”
“What’s at the civilian prison?” Ben asks.
“Nothing. It was empty.”
I get the feeling that empty didn’t actually mean empty. Kind of like how dead doesn’t really mean dead anymore.
“What about at the research labs?” I ask.
“Not sure,” Kenji answers. “It looks like a regular lab. I didn’t get a chance to explore it very far. It’s too big. Multiple areas. Multiple levels.”
This sounded promising.
“Wait, I thought the research lab was cut off?” I ask. “I thought it was contaminated with the airborne strain of the Oz virus?”
“I guess it’s possible,” Kenji says. “It’s a huge facility. We’ll need to be careful. Hopefully the contaminated areas are contained and quarantined.”
“So if we make it to the research lab,” Jack says. “We should at least have a chance of survival. We should have a chance of getting out of this hell hole and finding Maria.”
“Yeah. It’s really our only option. We can’t stay in here. It’s too dangerous.”
Jack moves over to the window, scratching his head. “So how do we get there?” he asks. “We’re going to have to cross this arena, right?”
“Sounds risky,” Ben says. “We’ll be out in the open.”
“No,” Kenji answers. “We can’t cross the arena. We have to go down.”
“Down?”
“To the catacombs.”
“Catacombs?” Jack says. “That does not sound good.”
“It’s the only way. We can’t cross the arena. It’s way too exposed. There are too many things waiting to ambush.”
I know Kenji has learnt this the hard way.
“We have to go down,” he continues. “Into the catacombs. It’s the only way.”
“So where are the infected now?” Thomas asks. “How do we know we're not going to run right into them?”
“We don’t know. So we have to be careful. The infected are scattered right throughout the labyrinth. But like I said, most of them, the main hordes, are situated in the western corner. They are trapped.”