Contractor: Chapter - 33

Scared and along in the dark.

I couldn’t see a thing. No matter how far I walked, which was hard due to the uneven ground and walls everywhere, there was no light to be found. The maze I was trapped in was huge though, I could tell that much. I could also tell that it was actually a maze. The tunnels varied in size but they were a uniform length apart and there were some instances of smooth chiseled stone among the rubble and dirt on the ground. It was a place built to trap something inside, something I assumed I was supposed to kill, and all I knew about it was that it was an “it.” I couldn’t even be sure if it was possible to kill though, whatever it was, I was in a world where beings could live forever and crush you with smoke. I’ve never really been that into math, but it wasn’t hard to calculate the likeness of my survival.

As sure as I was that it was built to contain something, I seemed to be the only thing in the maze. Whatever it was, was old, and as unlikely as it was, it could have been long dead. After wandering aimlessly for what felt like hours I encountered a change in terrain. Of course when I say a change in terrain I mean I tripped over something, slipped in some kind of slimy substance and fell flat on my face. Only after I was thoroughly covered in whatever slime it was that covered the floor did I get proof that I was not alone. A fire sprang to life down the tunnel, it was so bright compared to the darkness that I was blinded for a second. I didn’t have much time to contemplate my situation as the flames snaked across the floor. In fact the only thing I had time to notice was that the walls all around me were black and charred. The air in the maze was so stale I hadn’t even noticed the smell of gasoline until I was a human torch.

Being stabbed through the heart is painful, and really just dying in general is painful. Burning alive as you’re squirming in accelerant and healing fast enough to keep the fire from killing you is beyond any word that can be used to describe any amount of pain. No matter how much I rolled the fire wouldn’t go out, not on me or on the ground. It took me a minute of pure agony to realize that it wasn’t just a pool of gasoline that had been placed there it was a natural build up that ran through the area. By some miracle I managed to control my muscle movements long enough to crawl out of the burning pool. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the strength to move any more than that and a cold black shroud engulfed my mind. While I hadn’t slept at all in what felt like weeks, and death was about as close to sleep as I could get, resurrecting doesn’t give you the same sensation of being refreshed and energized that waking up does.

Coming back from being a bonfire was slow and painful. I could hardly move at first as the muscles in my limbs grew back and it wasn’t until the last few layers of skin returned that I felt whole enough to attempt standing. My clothing had suffered, but somehow the armor had managed to make it through with only a bit of scorching, I suppose it was probably meant to withstand more than just sharp and pointy objects. I felt uncomfortable and exposed, particularly with my now exposed midriff and legs, but the armor covered enough for me to have the smallest sense of security.

When I felt whole enough to attempt walking I went back to examine what I had tripped over now that there was enough light from the fire to see it. It was a rope. I could follow its massive snake like form down the path where I’d come from all the way into the darkness. Interestingly it turned away down a separate corridor just before the gas pool. I was tempted to follow it, and even though I knew I could follow it back to the fire, the fire was the only light source I’d come across so far and I did not want to go back into the dark. Now that I knew there was something out there in the maze and it knew where I was I just needed to find a way to kill it. Since it seemed to think that fire would kill me I felt compelled to return the favor and wait for my chance to throw it into the still burning pool.

My wait was brief, but not in the way I’d hoped it would be. After sitting on the cave floor for what felt like an hour, I was again confronted by a challenge of the maze. The rope, which I was tempted to believe was either a guide to the maze or a bait into a trap, began to move. Again I was tempted to follow it down where it turned away from the gas pool before there was a chance I would lose it, but there seemed to be no end to the rope as it was pulled down the corridor. I was almost glad that I had stayed put, it gave me a chance to see what kind of environments the maze had as the rope rubbed off mud, mold, and other gross looking stuff onto the rock walls. After a while though I noticed that the rope was coming through with a consistent coating of shimmering yellow slime. I knew what it was almost immediately, after all I’d just been covered in it not too long before.

I had no hesitation now, I walked over to the fire and thrust my arms into the flames until I could feel a consistent burn. Being very careful not to let the fire spread too far up my arm I rushed over to the rope and spread the flames across the rough fibers. The slime caught and fire ran down the length of the rope in both directions. I extinguished the fire on my arm in the dirt and waited for it to heal before following the rope deeper into the maze.