A Week Away

Chapter 7

Cameron's P.O.V.

If I wasn't in hell then I didn't know where I was. I'd never believed in afterlife or an underworld, but the place I was in made me feel dead and seemed very much like what I imagined hell to be. The walls were made of large concrete blocks, painted over with a red that had long since passed it's due date. The paint peeled and the flakes sat in piles on the black tar ground, as if the wall were bleeding over it. The stench of the room was as if someone had died over and over again in the same place. The only thing different to hell would be the temperature - my breath came out in little frosty clouds in front of me.

I wasn't able to look anywhere beside the wall in front of me. My head throbbed way too much for me to be able to see everything clearly, let alone move it. My arms had been roped together behind my back, but for the hour I had been awake and staring at the wall, I hadn't even tried to get out of them.

This wasn't particularly a situation I would expect or prepare myself to be in. It was shocking and terrifying, not so unexpectedly, but the fear I held was one I had contained in an attempt to keep my head clear and lessen the pain.

How long had it been? I had absolutely no clue, and I don't think I wanted to. I guessed from the lack of stubble on my face that it had been a few hours a most.

Realization hit me as the thought of Lizzie popped into my head. Had anyone noticed I was gone? Would anyone be out looking for me? Surely wasn't too far away from our campsite, considering whoever put me in here must have had to drag or carry my body through the rough terrain that surrounded the camp. Either way, I just needed to hope that somebody would have noticed I was gone and come searching for me. I also needed to hope that whoever took me wouldn't take anyone else. Maybe if they didn't come looking for me they would be able to get out of that place before anyone else got hurt.

I attempted to move, managing to stand up, even though my head nearly burst doing it. I looked around once, noticing that there was a door in the corner, propped open with a sack of sand. The view of a dimly lit corridor with puddles on the ground was visible on the outside of it. Why would they leave it open if they tied me up in the first place? And do I dare exit the room I was in, in hopes of maybe finding a way out?

I guess the answer was yes seeing as my feet started carrying themselves to the door, the view of the corridor becoming clearer and clearer. I reached it and peered out, noticing there was a fork at the end of the corridor. The next question was, was I willing to get myself lost to find a way out? Yes, yes I was.

My shoes squelched as I walked down the hall, the puddles much deeper than I thought. The muddy water splashed up the sides of my trousers with each step I took. The temperature down here seemed to be getting colder and colder, and the breath I exhaled was nearly opaque in its frostiness.

I paused for a second at the fork, looking left and right for the most promising way out. Both corridors were the exact same, and looked as if they were endless. Right - I would turn right. I walked only a few steps before I stopped, hearing a noise that was eerily similar to that of footsteps. My body froze up, and my fear wasn't suppressed much longer. I turned around and looked down the left side of the fork, seeing a large, shadowed figure taking steps towards me. I didn't wait to see which one it was. I turned and ran, soaking the ends of my pants as I went.

My breathing was heavy and my legs were starting to ache but I kept running down the endless corridor. A door. I spotted a door. I ran up to it, hearing, but not seeing, the figure behind me catching up quick. I jiggled the handle and it swung open. Running inside, I closed it behind me, pulling the chain across it.

Examining the room I was in wasn't a pleasant thing to do. A bed lay in the corner covered in what appeared to be blood. An open vent sat above it. A large bookcase sat off to the left of the door. Bingo. I ran up behind it, starting to push with all my might until I successfully managed to slide it across the door, blocking it from sight and from, hopefully, being opened. The footsteps sounded closer now, and quite loud, in fact. I just hoped that whoever it was would keep on running.

I didn't sit around to wait and find out. Clambering onto the bed I reached for the vent and pulled myself up into it, starting to craw. The creaks the vent made as my weight continued down it were nerve-wracking, making me think the metal would break any second. My knees began to get sore and I felt bruises start to find there way onto them and the palms of my hand. I kept going, not looking back when I heard a large crash come from behind me, which I assumed to be the fall of the bookcase as the door was forced open.

I took a left turn and kept going until an open end came into sight. The end opened up into a large room which looking eerily like a cafeteria, but the tables had been overturned and pushed up to the side walls, and some were stacked on top of each other to create walls within it. The chairs had also been stacked in a way to resemble walls as well, and it took me a few seconds to figure out what I had stumbled across.

A maze.