[DISCONTINUED] The Elevator

Chapter 2 - Part 3 of 3

"I'm okay," Logan says, who was the closest to the blue lantern, "but there was a first aid kit back in the elevator and I'm guessing it wasn't a usual one. We need to keep moving and get you both help."

Another couple of screams ring out over the maze. Then more and more long continuous cries for help.

We all start to run.

Our shoes hit the dirt firmly, and our lanterns flash up and down the floors and walls. Gravel stones flick up to hit my shins as I run at the back of the group.

Soon my chest begins burning and I'm getting tired. We run for so long but I can't do anything but keep up. The humidity has gotten to me now, and my nose is beading with sweat. I wipe it against the side of my sleeve.

"Have you seen anyone else!?" I shout as we come up to two different paths again, then following Logan who turns right.

"Some athletic girl with really long hair," the mohawk boy puffs between words.

Logan intervenes. "She passed us with another girl, but we lost them ages ago."

Then we run into a dead end, and as we stop to turn around, an ear-piercing deafening cry rattles the corridors. It stops us short, we all freeze in place. It's the type of scream that impales your lungs and heart, different to the others we heard before. And soon it's instantly cut short mid scream until all that's left is the empty dark noise of silence running like a chill breeze over the arena.

I glance over at Astrid, and her hands are glued over her mouth.

"Woah," the mohawk boy breathes, the cry has rattled him. I can hear in his voice.

"Do you – " Ethan whispers, "do you think that they're okay?"

"Whoever it was being played to us through the speakers didn't exactly say what would happen if we didn't survive a level." Logan looks at all of us and we all look back at him with horror planted on our faces.

"Woah, Sloane!"

We turn from him to Sloane at once, and horrifically we see her bites have swollen at least three times the size since we stopped. They aren't just on her arms either, some on her face.

"Oh gosh." She almost shrieks, patting her face and turning her arms over to see the enlarged wounds. "Is it bad? It's bad isn't it?"

"Guys, I don't think those are ordinary bites," Ethan informs us, "we need to get you guys some help."

The mohawk boy worriedly looks from Sloane to his own bites then to the rest of us. An urgent tone escapes his throat. "Then let's get back to that elevator, now!"

1:30, 1:29.

Just more than a minute left.

We turn from the dead end and hurtle back down the other direction to the other path at the intersection. I only see one last right turn up at the end of the corridor. The elevator must be there. It has to be. We won't have enough time to go back and continue searching.

I see Sloane slowing down, she tilts her sweat-stricken neck back, gasping for air. The stings are getting bigger, worsening in colour. I can see it as I run.

I lend her my arm, and take some of her weight to help her along. The mohawk boy joins me on her other side. I can see a bite on his neck enlarging.

"Guys I don't feel good." Sloane says with a strangled voice. "Everything is spinning."

"We're nearly there!" Calls Astrid from near the front.

"Yes," I add, "everything will be – ah!"

A sheer whoosh, comes from my left. Suddenly an intense searing pain shoots into the side of my thigh. It's quick and sharp, but when I look down, I feel faint.