Olympus Drive Book 3: According to Plan

Chapter 44

Anna

"So, we're going through here?" we're standing at the top of a wall, looking down at a maze.

"Yes, I'm going to guide you the entire way," Dara says, through the walkie-talkie, "Once you're past the labyrinth, then you can enter Tartarus."

"And we think this is a good idea because-----?" Hugh is still with us, because we've promised he can have a shot at Thyme's mother when we're done.

"Isn't there a time limit to this one?" Thyme asks, very casually moving to push Hugh off of the wall and back down the embankment we struggled up for the better part of an hour.

"Stop it," I grab his arm.

"What---?" Hugh says, dodging away from both of us.

"Sorry, he loves pushing people off of things," I say, apologetically.

"Knocking my brothers over is fun! It's good for them! If he is my brother I have to knock him over at least once," Thyme pleads.

"You can do that later," I say.

"No! He can't," Hugh says.

"You can kiss me afterward if that's your thing but my thing is I have to knock you over," Thyme says, reasonably.

"No! That is not my thing and I do not want to be knocked off of something."

"Oh, I'm not asking for permission I'm telling you it's gonna happen to you at some point if we are in fact related," Thyme says, helpfully.

"Okay listen up," Dara says, "You have five minutes to make it through the labyrinth, ten rights, four lefts, three more rights, five lefts, a right, and you're through. Do you think you can do it?"

The labyrinth is easily the size of three football stadiums.

"Sure," Thyme says, not at all confidently.

"What—ah—what happens if we don't?" Hugh asks.

"Monsters are set loose to feed upon you," Dara says, "How big is it?"

"Kinda big—look don't worry about it; we'll handle it," Thyme says.

"It's huge—we'll never run through that in five minutes—not even knowing what turn to take," I say, shaking my head.

"Well, I can't get deader, right?" Hugh asks.

"Exactly, we'll be fine," Thyme says.

"Okay, describe to me if there's a change---Hector could have altered it since this map was made," Dara says.

"Oh lovely—not a problem okay," Thyme says, glancing at us both, "Get ready---we'll go on four."

"Why four?" Hugh of course.

"One, two, three------four, run now," Thyme and I both take off as quickly as we can, he doesn't grab my arm but he does keep glancing my way. I'm keeping up but barely he's much fitter than I am now. I hope he memorized those turns.

"Third right is wrong," we hit a wall and spin around.

"Shit----if he's swapped it then take two lefts----,"

"One two---it's  a curve now we're back going right---," Thyme does grab both of our arms as we nearly split around a curve.

"Shit---shit, go back now three rights now another left you need to run—,"

"We are!" Hugh pants, he's fit as well, but this is sprinting under less than ideal conditions.

"You only have two more minutes!!"