Caleb wasn’t just watching Kayleigh run.
He was living it.
He felt the iron on his tongue.
He felt the burn deep in his lungs.
He felt the ache in her knees.
He felt the breath of the minotaur on the nape of her neck.
He heard her voice.
He saw with her eyes.
He tried to cry out, but couldn’t make himself heard:
RUN.
The minotaur closed behind Kayleigh fast. She quick-equipped a bandage and hastily wrapped it around her left arm. It stemmed the bleeding, then faded into nothing.
Glad to get the red off me. she thought. Gotta keep moving. Gotta escape.
She made a break for it, beelining straight down the corridor.
The walls shook as the beast rumbled through the labyrinth. Its vast bulk caused it to bounce off of the walls and ceiling like the world’s heaviest pinball.
Kayleigh rounded a corner, then peeked behind her. She saw no sign of life in the minotaur’s beady eyes. Its long horns, blunted by years of war, scraped against the ceiling. They were stained with a brownish tinge that Kayleigh assumed was blood. Its body was muscular and human, and it wore a ripped and stringy pair of jeans to at least cover its modesty. The human legs resolved into a pair of thick hooves that too were stained with ancient blood.
The creature was sliced and scarred all over. These were the marks of a clumsy beast, as if it was constantly getting into fights that it just barely won. Or as if it was so dangerous, it couldn’t help but accidentally hurt itself.
Who the hell is giving that thing a run for its money? Kayleigh thought. There must have been more experiments. More like Dave. More like Caleb.
Her heart seized up for a beat as she considered the fact that Caleb was now a victim.
God knows what the government will do to them both when they find out what Belker and this god awful village has done to them.
She strategized as she ventured further into the labyrinth. Maybe we can hide them. I just hope we won’t have to. God knows what the world looks like now that those spores have been released.
She turned another corner.
Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. Right. Right.
A sequence that only made sense to her.
There, on that final right before she started the pattern all over again, just as she turned the corner, so nondescript she almost missed it, a door.
SAVE ROOM
She exhaled in relief, pumping her fist into the sky. “Haha! Thank fuck for that.”
The door yielded easily and silently, greased as if maintenance had just fixed it. She entered the room and turned back to see the minotaur hot on her heels.
It roared when it saw her. She slammed shut the door, her hands roaming around to find a lock.
No lock. Shit.
She backed away from the door and hoped that the minotaur was too stupid to know how to operate it.
Hopefully it’s a safe room as well as a Save Room. Then the game won’t let the minotaur in.
She focused on the door. She imagined it blasting off its hinges. She imagined herself exploding in a mess of meat and organs as the minotaur gored her.
The minotaur breathed heavily outside the room. Fast, but slowing. Growling quietly.
Is it getting frustrated?
Kayleigh realized her options were very limited. She could save, at least, but would that help if the minotaur simply camped outside and waited for her to open the door?
She imagined living the rest of her life in a torturous Groundhog Day, doomed to either starve to death in a cold room with only a typewriter for company, or to get ruined by the bloodthirsty minotaur behind the door.
Stuck.
Kayleigh withdrew from the door and sat behind the typewriter. She quick-equipped the ink ribbon then gingerly placed it into the typewriter. Her eyes glazed over as she saved her game, and then she was back in the room.
The minotaur fell silent.
Had it retreated back into the maze? Or was it simply biding its time?
When Kayleigh was a child…
Caleb suddenly realized the enormity of what he was experiencing.
I can read her thoughts.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Well, not read. But listen to them.
I wonder if she ever thinks of me.
It worked just like a streaming show. Caleb could see, he could hear, but he couldn’t dictate.
I’m just a witness to her life.
Kayleigh retreated into her memories. She raced through woods, not unlike the forest they had recently been abducted from.
“Kayleigh!” a man’s voice, worn harsh by drink or tobacco, rattled through the trees. He was far away, but he was loud.
Kayleigh gritted her teeth and powered through the tangle of woodland, ignoring the vines and thorns that dug into her arms.
She limped, slowing as her heart raced out of control and her lungs burnt in her chest. She passed behind a huge oak and leant against it. She slowly crouched to the ground.
The sound of a dog barking echoed through the wood now, followed by that dehydrated cry: “Kayleigh!”
The scattered thrum of four legs rustling leaves grew louder. Kayleigh closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She reached into her pocket to produce a ratty cooked sausage.
The dog rounded the corner, nose first, spotting her instantly. With its nose pointed to the sky, it barked three times in signal.
“Shh!” whispered Kayleigh, putting her index finger to her lips and holding the sausage out.
The dog looked back and forth, as if to say I probably shouldn’t. Then it grabbed the sausage, nodded in appreciation and tottered off in the opposite direction.
It started to bark the signal again, and Kayleigh realized the dog was covering for her.
“Good boy…” she said, then staggered back to her feet and continued deeper into the woods.
Back in the Save Room, Kayleigh ran through her now-empty inventory. No sausages here.
Come on, Kayleigh. Think. There’s always something.
She sat back in her chair, eyes roaming for something… anything she could use as a weapon. Or to barter with.
She stood up, put her hand to the wall and started to walk around the room.
What are you looking for? thought Caleb. A secret passage?
She stared up at the roof. Her eyes widened with a sudden brainwave. She slowly lined herself up with the chair and pressed action until she lumbered atop it. Reaching up to the ceiling, she was just able to brush a finger against the white tiles…
The tile wobbled. Two of its corners came loose, while two remained wedged inside the ceiling. Kayleigh hopped off the chair, dragged the heavy table in place then clambered from one to the other. She reached up to remove the loose tile.
Something shiny glinted in the darkness. She grasped at it, and pulled a silvery rat out by the tail. It looked calm and asleep, at peace in death. She stroked its soft, shimmering fur.
The minotaur knocked on the door. Gentler this time.
I know what to do. she thought.
Kayleigh hopped to the floor, it looked easier to go down than up, and headed to the door.
Cradling the rat in one hand, she wrapped the other hand around the door handle, took a sharp intake of breath and opened it.
Holding the rat by its tail like an errant piece of spaghetti, she offered it to the minotaur.
“Here.” she said, in the soft tone of voice she reserved only for members of the animal kingdom.
The minotaur huffed once, expelling vile air almost directly down Kayleigh’s throat. She spluttered, and in the movement the minotaur slurped the rat up in one gulp.
The monster stared down the barrel of Kayleigh’s soul with beady black eyes. It nodded once, then rampaged back the way it came.
“Seriously?”
Left in the wake of the rampaging minotaur, Kayleigh cried. She held herself up and staggered down the hallway, remembering what happened after she had escaped the dog.
“You are family, Kayleigh!” cried the voice. “You can’t outrun your own father!”
It had taken him hours, but he had finally caught up to Kayleigh’s hiding spot. She had sprinted deep into the woods, and climbed all the way up the nearest tree.
Yeah, I remember agility too. Caleb thought as she recalled skilfully ascending the tree by its many tiny branches. She kept an eye out for the limbs that were thicker at the base; those were the ones that could hold her weight.
Caleb noticed how Kayleigh’s fingers and knees clicked together as she climbed.
How many times did you break those bones as a kid?
A thicket of rich green leaves covered the top of the tree in a natural roof that sheltered Kayleigh from the worst of the wind and rain. Despite her relative safety, and the thickness of the tree itself, it still lurched in the oncoming storm. She wrapped her arms and legs as close to the base of the tree as she could, and began look-out duties.
And there he was. Kayleigh’s father was scrawny but strong, a farmer’s build in a time of famine. He had tucked a massive bowie knife in his torn denim jeans, and he held out the dog’s collar on a thick leather rope.
Looks too big for the dog…
Kayleigh reached into the front pouch of her dungarees. Her knife was small and blunt, it had been relegated to chopping carrots at this advanced stage in its career. Still, it would pierce the jugular if it had to, and that outcome was becoming increasingly likely.
What are you running from Kayleigh? I figured you didn’t have the most supportive family, but this is something else…
“C’mon, girl. Let’s go home. It’s late. It’s raining. It’s only going to get colder and windier. Quit yer whining and come with us.”
Kayleigh’s father perched under the tree and lit a cigarette. He inhaled it in moments, letting the wind carry the ash away with the dead leaves. He rubbed his eyes hard and scratched his stubbled chin.
“Just like yer mother, god rest her soul.” he mumbled, then flicked the butt to the floor. He stomped on the smoking leaves and whistled three times.
20 seconds later, the dog emerged from the underbrush.
“Had a fun adventure?” The dog wagged its tail, tongue lolling out of its head. “You stupid mutt. Well, I hope you had fun chasin’ squirrels when you shoulda been looking for your sister.”
The dog whined.
Kayleigh’s dad kicked it lightly. “Ahh, ya know I don’t mean it.”
He looked around a few more times. “Well, I guess little missy doesn’t want to be found tonight. We’ll lock the doors and let her suffer the night out here. She’ll be back when she smells the morning bacon.”
Kayleigh shifted her weight on her perch, her behind had gone dead. Pins and needles washed through her lower half. The branch holding her shook.
Her dad looked up and grinned through brown and broken teeth. “Gotcha.”
The knife still in her hand, she leapt from the tree like an assassin.
Back in the labyrinth, there were no more turns left to make. Just one corridor and a single door.
Kayleigh opened the door and was surprised to feel the fresh air. She turned back to see the stave church in all its gothic and rustic glory.
She let out a peal of triumphant laughter. But she was alone.
“Caleb? Oliver? Dave?”
She peered out into the horizon. Civilisation was close. Some kind of city lay ahead. Skyscrapers smoked and fire raged beyond the long tarmac highway. People screamed.
This is ridiculous. Like a new area of a platform game.
As Kayleigh tentatively took a few steps towards the city, looking all around and back for any of her teammates, the signal grew weak. Caleb’s perspective drew back, from 1st person to 3rd person to isometric to a bird’s eye view, until he was back in the surveillance room.
At least one of us made it… he thought. Now what about the rest?
