The Minotaurs of Maze World

by Eddie Patin

  "We have to kill that alpha minotaur first thing tomorrow, you know," Jason 934 said. "We can't let it get away. It would be disastrous for my world..."

  "Yeah, it would change things, that's for sure. You sure you don't wanna let your government find it?" Riley smirked.

  "No way."

  "Don't worry," the soldier replied. "Gliath can still track it down in the morning. We know where we turned around. He can pick up the scent again, and I can track it to a degree as well. We'll kill it in the morning." Riley stretched, winced, and touched his stomach gingerly. His armor had an open hole there where he'd been gored. "And after we take out the fruker, I definitely want to heal up some more before we take another job."

  "The garage door is installed on Monday morning," Jason said.

  Riley laughed. "I can spend most of Sunday in the Wilderlands and it'd be like camping out there for a week. Don't worry about it. Let's get going."

  With that, they gathered in the garage under the light of the fluorescent lamps—the three of them, at least. Jason 1241 refused to go back to the Market and elected to stay home. Gliath took most of the hides and some of the gear, Riley took some Nothrix junk and the two wyvern eggs, wrapped carefully in bath towels in a duffel bag, and Jason 934 carried the armful of railguns. He left his Rigby back in the safe, but made sure to take his Glock 26, like always.

  They planned to stop by the Bounty Boards first to turn in the hides then split up: Jason heading to the tailor's with the alpha's hide, and Riley and Gliath heading to Dave's to sell everything else.

  When Jason pulled up his OCS, carefully balancing his sheaf of railguns with one hand on his shoulder, he looked up the coordinates for the inside of the Bounty Boards building itself, flexed, and opened a rift to the dark space where Zayden Skinner would be waiting.

  He kept the rift open as briefly as possible. With no garage door, anyone outside could see them. Jason felt just about as nervous as he ever had as the brilliant rift roared in front of them, whirling and spitting bright orange sparks all over the garage like a miter saw cutting through metal.

  Jason followed the others through the portal then released it as soon as they were on the other side.

  Chapter 32

  The strange fingers of the tailor felt like fluttering ribbons over Jason's arms. They wrapped around his wrists like tentacles of gauze and Jason 934 held still, creeped out to his very core. Just like before, Athelos's tent was dark like an enclosed room back on Earth lit by a single candle, but under the strange, pink atmosphere of Churn, everything was harder to see.

  Athelos worked behind Jason, a really weird ethereal creature whose shape and form the man couldn't fully comprehend.

  Jason was shirtless and cold. The Market's ambient temperature was somewhere just north of freezing. He knew that his breath was coming out in steamy puffs even though he couldn't see it.

  When Jason, Riley, and Gliath had arrived at the Bounty Boards, it was just in the nick of time. Moments after they had concluded business with Zayden Skinner—Riley accepting a huge amount of golden tabs from the ebony giant as well as a hearty degree of hazing for not beating his previous haul—another group of hunters arrived after them. The other mercenaries weren't able to sell all of their hides because of the job's capacity. If that other team of planeswalkers—all seemingly human but hard to tell for sure in the darkness—had arrived before the Reality Rifters did, Jason's group wouldn't have been able to sell all six of their hides.

  Riley had spent a moment checking the boards for new jobs, as Jason stood by, still holding the folded-up hide of his alpha minotaur kill. It was a good thing that he was, too, because after the other team was snubbed on a few of their hides, several hunters glared at them but lightened up when they seemingly assumed that the Reality Rifters had been screwed by the cap as well.

  A strange, drifting feeling along Jason's triceps made gooseflesh rise on his skin and he was pulled back into the present moment with the bizarre alien tailor.

  "You will appreciate the jacket I will craft for you, human," Athelos said. Jason wasn't sure if he was hearing the entity's voice with his ears, or in his mind, or both. "I note that you have selected a stronger individual of this species for the project. You are a brave human, Jason Leaper, for contending with this superior beast."

  Jason felt weird and embarrassed; nervous and scared.

  "Thanks, I guess," he said, his voice sounding strangely one-dimensional in response to the bizarre creature's layered words. "Uh ... this was a tougher one for sure. I killed it myself."

  "Yes. I can see his final moments," the tailor replied. "A very interesting exchange of ambition—his struggle against your own. His last thoughts were of desperation, just as yours were when he died. Your hearts truly collided, and the stronger will prevailed..."

  Jason gasped. Athelos's fingers suddenly running along his left arm like snake tongues made him shiver.

  This thing could read his mind?!

  "What do you mean his last thoughts?" Jason asked. "What was it ... uh ... he ... thinking?"

  Athelos sighed as it measured Jason's shoulders. The entity's strange fingers felt so weird on his skin. The man shuddered and tried to think of the awesome jacket that he'd get out of this. It's gonna be worth it, he thought. Gonna be worth it...

  "The minotaur named Nargog was focused on survival," Athelos said. "He was confused and experiencing what you may understand as sorrow."

  Nargog?! Jason thought with a shock. Sorrow? The alpha had a name?!

  But ... it was supposed to be feral; a wild animal!

  "Hello in there...?" Riley suddenly called out from the tent's entrance. "Can we come in? Jason, you decent?" The soldier laughed.

  Athelos backed off as if pushed away on a sudden wind. "I am finished obtaining your measurements, Jason Leaper," it said. Then its voice emanated as if from stereo speakers: "You may enter, Riley Wyatt and Gliath Voidheart the Deathhand!"

  Jason reached over to the table that he was vaguely aware was next to him but couldn't find his piled-up shirt in the darkness.

  "Damn it," he said, feeling around.

  Riley and Gliath stepped inside. "You having fun in here, Jason?" the soldier asked. It sounded like he was smirking.

  "Just finishing up I guess," Jason replied, searching for his shirt hopelessly. He wanted to pull his flashlight out of his belt, but he realized that he had unclasped that as well before pulling his Merc armor down off of his upper body.

  He saw the soldier approach in the pink, shadowy light, then felt Riley hand his shirt to him, clumped up in one hand.

  "Here ya go, buddy..."

  "Thanks," Jason replied, then fumbled around with the garment, feeling for the tag in the back of his collar. He put his shirt back on then started pulling his armor back up over his belly. He slipped his arms into the sleeves, then pulled the rest up. It was a lot like a full-body wetsuit; a jumpsuit with a zipper going up the front. It would be a real pain to go number two with, but thankfully, Jason hadn't needed to deal with that yet.

  "What do we owe you for the custom work, Athelos?" Riley asked. Jason heard the clinking of the little, rectangular pieces of gold that Skinner paid with at the Bounty Boards.

  "Riley Wyatt, I will profit from the remainder of this exceptional hide that I do not use for Jason Leaper's jacket. Let us agree on a mere four ounces."

  "Alright," Riley replied, handing the gold over in the dim light. Jason saw the glint on one piece as it reflected the pink sky peeking through the tent opening from outside. "How long?"

  "One week from now," Athelos replied like a breeze of cold wind full of white ash.

  They left the tailor's tent and Jason was glad for the fresh air, even if it was the pink, desolate air of the Tabula Rasa world of Churn. People in Merc armor and all varieties of dress mixed in among countless weird creatures of all shapes and sizes around him. Planeswalkers roamed the streets, passing and stepping around Jason, Riley, and Gliath as they looked around th
e Market.

  "Come on," Riley said, leading them away.

  "Where are we going?" Jason asked.

  "To a spot where Jason 113 used to have us rendezvous to rift out of here."

  "Oh."

  Riley led them through the streets while Gliath brought up the rear. Walking among creatures from all over the omniverse was as bizarre as ever. On more than a few occasions, the sight of something that didn't make sense, or being passed by something that rubbed Jason the wrong way on a primal level, filled Jason with fear. He was pretty sure that humans were never meant to see some of these things. His brain hurt observing the weirder ones, and he felt whispers of madness when he saw some of the outlandish travelers conversing as they passed, their voices feeling super-funky in his ears. Once, a deep, unearthly conversation he heard a snippet of made his blood vibrate. Weird, yes, but that's how Jason felt it: his blood vibrating...

  "I can't believe we missed the necromancer job," Riley was saying. "I'd love to loot a wizard's place. That magic shet is the best. So fruking cool. I'd love to pick up a magical weapon of some kind, or more potions, of something that could let me fly..."

  "There will be more jobs on magical worlds, Ranaja," Gliath replied in his low voice, drawing Jason's wildly meandering attention back to their group.

  "I need to find some more damned potions," the soldier said. "I still feel really stupid for needing to use them."

  Jason spoke up. "I don't think you could have avoided using that one on me," he said.

  "Sure I could have, Jason. It was fruking stupid of me to have the new guy on point. I'm not a much of a leader, I guess."

  "Well," Jason replied. "We're still here..."

  Riley looked back and smirked. "That we are, my friend. So there are two other jobs going on right now at the Bounty Boards: one involving collecting some harpy feathers—kinda tough without being able to fly or having a ship—and another involving gathering a single gorgon's head. We can probably do the latter one pretty easy, as long as you don't look at it and get turned to stone..."

  Jason laughed. "Riley, we still have to kill the minotaur on my world! Also, the garage door is being installed day after tomorrow. And didn't you want to go back to the Wilderlands for a while to heal?"

  Riley scoffed then laughed. "Yeah, you're right. There'll be more jobs..."

  "There are always more jobs," Gliath said.

  They walked on silently for several steps.

  Jason noticed that Riley was still carrying the duffel bag with the wyvern eggs. There was also a new rifle on his back that he hadn't noticed until then. It was shaped like some sort of assault rifle, but it didn't look like a slug gun from Earth. Probably another Gauss rifle, Jason thought. Riley had left the last one sitting in the sand of Maze World. Jason wondered how often they'd have to buy new gear.

  "You didn't sell the wyvern eggs?" Jason asked.

  "Nope," Riley replied. "Not yet. Skinner didn't want em and Dave couldn't afford them. We'll sell em eventually."

  "How long until they ... uh ... hatch?"

  Riley looked back with a smirk and shrugged. "Don't know. They probably won't hatch at your house if that's what you're thinking. "

  Probably, Jason thought with a chill. "Great," he muttered.

  Finally, Riley led them through an alley that placed them in an open space in between the big, black pyramid wall and the nearest rows of tents. There were no weird creatures passing through; only blowing drifts of fine sand under the strange, pink atmosphere.

  "Here we are," Riley said.

  "What's this place?" Jason asked. "Have we been here before?"

  "Uh ... maybe?" Riley replied. "This is an old rendezvous point for the Reality Rifters. Let's go home."

  Jason looked at Riley. He wasn't sure if he'd heard the soldier refer to his parents' house as 'home' yet up until that point. He would have expected a jolt of discomfort at that; yet another reminder of Jason's life changing and galloping off into strange, new directions. Into the unknown! But instead, Jason felt oddly connected to the man. They'd both bled together and fought together. They'd saved each other from death. Jason felt a warmth bordering on a new sense of familiarity at the idea of them all going home together.

  His house was now the Reality Rifters' base.

  Jason smiled to himself and pulled up his OCS. He bookmarked the spot where they were standing—the rendezvous point—then put the OCS back down. He didn't need it to rift home. Instead, Jason pulled the focus key necklace out from his shirt and let his hand wrap around the broken blank that was permanently tied to his garage.

  He flexed and opened a rift to universe 934 without much trouble. If Jason thought of rifting with a focus key as a heavy weight that was hard to move, then it was definitely becoming easier to lift. The brilliant orange light illuminated the entire open area of the rendezvous point. Jason saw a few strange creatures passing by the nearest alleyway pause to look at the blazing disturbance with long, snake-like eyestalks.

  Looking back to the rift, Jason found that the roar of the portal and the sputtering sparks being thrown all over actually comforted him...

  "It'll have to be next weekend," Ben said on the phone to Jason. "I'm just slammed all week, but I'd love to get a beer with you."

  "Okay," Jason replied. "Still busy with too much work?"

  "Oh yeah. You know it. More clients. Too many, really. I need more time. I still need your help with the artwork and stuff, man..."

  "Maybe," Jason replied, holding the phone with his shoulder as he separated his gold. The little golden tabs made a very satisfying clink against each other. "I was actually wanting to talk to you about some business stuff. Not the graphic art stuff, but something interesting."

  "Interesting, huh? What?"

  "Oh, um ... I have this business idea. I don't want to go into it over the phone, but I wanna run this idea by you to see what you think..."

  "A business idea, huh?" Ben replied, full of sarcasm. Jason was immediately hurt but he couldn't blame Ben for not taking him seriously. "From you? My interest is piqued, my friend. Definitely piqued."

  "Yeah," Jason replied, not sure if Ben was screwing with him or not. Well, his last remaining friend from his old life would have to take him seriously when he saw what Jason had to show him. "So ... this next weekend you mean? After the week?"

  "Yep. I'm out of town right now, and I've got stuff lined up for all the rest of the week when I get back. Let's get together Friday night or something."

  "Okay."

  "Hey, man, Jason ... you doing okay? I haven't heard from you in a little while..."

  "Yeah," Jason replied. "I'm great."

  "That's great, man. Good talking to you."

  "You too, Ben. Bye. I'll call you closer to Friday."

  "Okay. See ya."

  Jason's phone made the disconnect sound and he put it down on his dresser.

  He reached up into the top of his closet and put his old, worn-out hiking boot back up on the shelf. The gold inside clinked as he did. Jason hadn't worn those old boots in many years and likely never would again. But for some reason, he tended to keep the majority of his old shoes whenever he bought new ones.

  "Well, at least you'll be useful now," he said to the old boots.

  That was the last of the gold—at least the gold he wanted to keep hidden away and not immediately exchange for cash. As soon as the three of them had returned from the Market, Riley split up the gold. The soldier mentioned that they used to have different shares, but since they were basically starting over, he suggested that they split things evenly.

  Jason couldn't argue. He definitely needed Riley and Gliath happy with him to continue with this new job.

  Riley had given Jason enough gold to translate into more money than he'd ever had at any time in his life—with the exception of his long-gone inheritance from his mom and dad—and Jason had sat on his bed and just played with the gold pieces for a while. He'd decided to cash out about five grand worth of it and
hide the rest in certain caches around his house.

  The boot was the last one.

  He'd convert the gold into cash as soon as he could get back to Denver. It would be sometime after Monday.

  When they returned from the Market, chatting and full of mirth after concluding Jason's first real bounty, they'd found Jason 1241 passed out on the couch with four empty beer bottles on the coffee table. That was all of the beer in the fridge. They'd have to get more. Riley had wanted to wake Jason 1241 to complain and give him some shit about it, but Jason 934 had insisted that they just let him sleep until morning.

  It had been a very hard day for Jason's second self...

  Now, it was about ten at night.

  Jason wandered into the kitchen where his little white cat, Zelda, jumped up onto the counter to greet him. She meowed in her high voice. Zelda was such a petite cat.

  "Hi, girl," Jason said, smiling. "Let's see if Gliath hasn't eaten all of your food..."

  Jason found a can of cat food, opened it, and fed her. In the last two days, he'd felt positively floored whenever he found himself back in mundane life. Driving his car. Taking a shower. Making a phone call. Now feeding Zelda. There was a strange tinge of madness to it all after hopping around to different worlds with different colored skies and creatures from his childhood movie memories or out of his DnD Monster Manual or even weirder things...

  He was probably just feeling overwhelmed.

  This planeswalking stuff would take some getting used to. Jason knew that already had hearing damage and would have to figure out a way to mitigate that in the future. On the bright side, Jason's bad right knee—which had plagued him for the last fifteen years—was now fully healed.

  Jason felt truly awake for the first time in a long time.

  He felt like he really had to give it all some thought. He needed to process it all.