A-Maze-d

A man wakes bound in the center of a maze. A deadline is set. Will he be able to escape before time is up?

A-maze-d

*****

I have been outside of the Golden City for quite some time.  Before I called this city my home, I lived in the wastes. I survived on the bare minimum and less at times.  I have struggled.  I have survived.  I have killed.  Yet none of that was able to prepare me for what was to come.

I don’t know what came back first.  My hearing?  The sound of car horns and sirens in the distance.  The silent howl of the wind gusting through some narrow gap somewhere.  My own rasping breathing.  Maybe it was smell.  That sickening coppery smell of blood.  The smell of Old Town.  A sickening mix of embers and decay.  The ever present pain that seared in my head like hot iron killed out all others.  I don’t know if it came first but it sure as hell lasted the longest.

I opened my eyes.  The world was blurred around me as if I were looking through the bottom of a bottle.  I squeezed my eyes shut and fought off the growing nausea.   After a moment I tried again.  The world came into view.  I was in a place that I had never seen before.

The room, or opening rather as there were only walls no roof, was a small one.  It was round with two openings on opposite sides.  One heading towards the distant glow which must be the city.  The other to the hazy cloud which was Old Town.  The walls were aged brick ones, the once red surface now covered with a fair layer of dirt, soot, and grime.  

The cement round was cold on my face.  Pebbles dug into my flesh.  I tried to adjust myself to sit up.  A tension on my wrists stopped me.  I looked down to see two metal clasps wrapped around them.  Though it was dark I could see the rust that covered the surface.  The chain that was taunt about some brace on the ground.  I could see the dark pool that rested around the brace.

My pulse started to rise.  What is this?  What is going on?  I tugged on my restraints hoping that the age would have worn them down but they held fast.  The metal dug into my skin.  The veins in my head throbbed against the ground.  My breath came in ragged gasps.

“Breath,” I whispered to myself.  “Calm down.”  I made myself take deep breaths.  To count to ten.  My pulse settled back down.  I could feel the raging sea within calm some.  Fear will accomplish nothing.  I have to be smart here.  Wherever “here” is.

Then there’s the matter of who brought me here.  My mind was groggy and slow.  I tried to think back to what happened but there was nothing.  No memory of anyone snatching me or no memory of something that would cause such things.  I didn’t make enemies.  I couldn’t afford to.  Here in the Golden City crime wasn’t cheap, and Syndicate wasn’t kind to those who didn’t pay up. ‘

I wouldn’t be a part of that, and I wont be a part of this.  I have to get out of this place.  The chain was short.  Much too short to do much of anything.  I was able to contort it enough to be able to get onto my knees.  The chains were taunt and my palms were jammed onto the ground.  Maybe enough pressure over time would stretch them?

I braced myself and steadily applied pressure to the bindings.  My palms pressed against the concrete.  I could feel the rough surface scratching the skin, but that was better then what would happen if whoever brought me here returned.  I don’t know how long I tried.  My arms shook with effort.  I grimaced as I could feel warm blood wet my hands some.  

I stopped pushing.  Nothing was happening.  I couldn’t see my hands but I knew they were damaged.  How can I get out of this?  Will I die here?  I leaned forward and buried my face in my hand.  

Something fell.  Just under me.  There was a metallic clink as whatever it was fell from my pocket.  I leaned up.  It was the key?  The small object was on the ground shining dimly in the sparse light of the clearing.  Did I snatch it from my captor?  I couldn’t remember.  Or care really.  My freedom lie there on the ground.

It took some contorting to get it.  I nudged it closer to my hands with my foot.  I grabbed it and shoved it into the hole.  With a twist, there was a click.  That and a searing pain that shot up my arm.  The cuff fell away with a small blade sticking out from near the keyhole.  Blood poured from a gash going up and down my arm.  I clamped a hand around it, but the crimson liquid poured on.

I cant panic.  I cant let my pulse raise.  Whatever time I had to get out of here before meant nothing now.  If I didn’t start heading somewhere now I would be bled out within the hour.

I couldn’t worry if the other cuff was rigged the same.  I had to get moving.  I fumbled with the key trying to get it into the second hole.  My shaky hands made slick with blood made it a task.  Finally I had it in and the cuff fell off.  Thankfully without another shank slicing my arm open.  I jumped to my feet and jumped into action right away.

I took off my dirty shirt and ripped off a strip.  It might get it infected but right now that may give me the little bit of time I need to get out of here.  It took some effort to get it tied around my wrist but I got it there.  It got wet with blood instantly.  Its no solution by a mile but it was something.

Two ways, which way should I go?  The glow of the city looked so promising.  Welcoming.  Inviting.  Things he’s never thought of that cesspool before.  Something about it just felt wrong.  He turned his back and walked through the path that led away.  The path that led to darkness.  A corridor went left and right.  Both of those branched off as well.  There was no sense standing there debating.  I moved by instinct.  Left, left, right, strait.  Every time I went down a path two more appeared.  

I kept moving though.  I could feel the blood rolling down my hand again.  I could hear it occasionally drip onto the stone ground.  I kept walking.  The sound of the city kept getting quieter.  I don’t know if that was just my imagination or what.  The roar of a thousand voices and chime of a siren dulled until they were just a moan on the wind.  A persistent thump sounded in my skull.  My blood forcing its way through my veins.  My feet slamming into the ground.  

I turned a corner and froze.  I was in a circular room with a brace in the middle of the floor.  A chain with cuffs and a small pool of blood was there as well.  Strait ahead the glow of the city was there.  Like the sun on the horizon.  

“No… I couldn’t have gone in a circle.”  But I did.  The evidence was there before me.  How much time did I just waste.  Ten minutes?  Thirty?  There was no way to tell.  I could feel my pulse rise as panic set in.  I cant waste any more.  I have to keep on moving.  I have to get free of this place.  I turned left and started walking again.

This time I got a blood soaked hand and marked the wall.  A crimson trail of crumbs always on the right.  I just walked.  I don’t know which way I went. I just wandered.  If I saw a blood trail I turned another direction.  It felt like hours.  My head started to throb.  My vision would blur every now and then.  I knew I was slowly bleeding out.  Slowly dying.

Would I ever escape from this place?  Ever see the light of day again?  Ever see my apartment on Main street?  I kept walking.  Kept hoping.  Yet I dreaded that darkness that lingered in the back of my mind.  That this would be the place that I would die.  Where even in death I will be doomed to wander this labyrinth.  

My feet drug the ground sending waves of pebbles cascading in front of me.  I swayed falling against the wall more than once.  Depending on its support more and more often.  It felt like every fork now had blood on the walls.  Blood on the ground.  Blood everywhere.  My breath came in ragged gasps.  

I didn’t notice turning onto a path that was free of a crimson streak.  Didn’t notice walking the ten yards to the end of it or turning to the right at the time.  When I looked up I saw a metal gate at the end of a path.  It led out into what looked to be a street.  No cars drove on it and no people walked by, but it was there.  Just a little bit farther away.  

I hurried as best as I could.  My feet shuffled faster than they had since I started.  I pushed myself forward weakly with a hand on the wall.  The world trembled around me as I did so but I didn’t care.  Soon help would be on the way.  Soon I would be saved.

I lunged forward the last bit and grabbed onto the metal door.  It clanked loudly.  But it didn’t budge.  I shook it some but it didn’t move.  There was no handle for it.  Nothing blocking.  There was nothing but a small keyhole about halfway down to the right of it.

Someone clapped on the other side.  A slow, loud clap.  A man came into view.  He was stocky, short.  He wore a fine suit with a little hanky in its pocket.  Pure white.  He wore glasses that reflected in a way that looked like he had two white discs for eyes.

“Good job.  Good show.  I must say I am impressed with how far you made it.  No one has ever even found this gate before,” said the man.  He had a slow, proper way of speaking.

“You have to let me out of here.  I don’t have much longer before I bleed out.”

“No, I’d say you only have a few second left.  Maybe a minute…”

I shook the gate.  “Come on!  Please.  Just open the gate and let me go.  I go through your maze.”

The man nodded his head.  “Yes, you did.  But Im afraid I cant let you out.

“Yes you can!!!  You opened it.  Im sure you’re the one who put me in here.  Now get me out.  Please.”  It was so demeaning to beg after everything but the world was dimming and swaying.  I could feel my life slipping away.

“You misunderstand me.  I really can’t let you out.  I left the key in there with you.”

“What are you talking about?  I have no key.”  I turned out all of my pockets for him to see.

He shook his head slowly.  “You did though.”

The cuffs.  The key.  Sitting back in the middle of the maze.  However far away that was.  “No…”

“I was hoping you would be the first survivor.  It’s a shame really.  Almost was rooting for you chap…”  The man stepped away from the gate.  The shadows of the empty street enveloped him.  

I have to get back to the middle.  I let go of the bar and spun about.  I hobbled down the path as quick as I could.  My head screamed.  My vision blurred, but I kept moving.  Every wall had blood on it.  Every path led to the same place.  Tears started flowing from my eyes.  I was so close.  So close….

My legs gave out.  I collapsed into a heap on the ground.  I tried to push myself back up but my limbs didn’t move.  I just lay there.  My blood finished spilling out onto the ground.  Darkness came and wrapped its cold arms around me.  Then there was nothing…  Nothing but the slow thump, thump, thump of my stopping heart.  Then even that faded into silence.

Author's Note

This is something I wrote a while ago. Figured Id post it and edit it according to suggestions. I like some things about it. How does first person work? Sound okay? Consistent voice?

Reviews

[Alucard6336]

A detailed work. First person works, as my novels have adhered to that. However, there is no right or wrong way to write. This is amazing no matter how you slice it. I felt like I was there with the character. Cheers mate! :)

[John Elridge Medlin]

Thanks so much! This was a fun one to write. It was my first time playing with first person. I may write some more in the first person.