Assassin

Lost in the maze

Once we had safely evaded the chaos, the strangers released their hold on me and I started to move on my own accord. I was wary of them – they were complete strangers and were supposedly helping me out of the compound and into the unknown.

But that wouldn't be a worry for a while, we still had the maze to conquer.

"Left," the ominous voice from the device crackled once again. Whoever was speaking, they were guiding us through the hallways until we reached a dead end. I frowned up at the wall in front of us, blocking our escape.

The rest of the group stepped towards it and I opened my mouth to question what they were doing when they threw something at the wall and then dropped to the ground. "Cover your ears," one of them yelled, his own hands clamped either side of his head.

I wasn't quite quick enough and a thunderous explosion ripped through my eardrums. The floor beneath my feet shook and I collapsed against a wall to my left, my eyes watering from the pain shooting through my head. I squeezed my eyes closed and clamped my palms over my ears as they started to ring, the explosion still echoing through the compound. When the sound finally died down, I dared to open my eyes a fraction to see the wall had crumbled to rubble and the concrete flooring beneath my feet was cracked and broken away.

"Hurry up, let's go."

Shouts echoed from down the hallways and the group of strangers started forwards, eager to get as far away as possible before a swarm of armed officials came to find out what had caused the explosion. I followed them quickly, scrambling over the pile of rubble and struggling to move through the thick cloud of smoke. When it cleared, the maze's walls came into view.

The compound was located thousands of feet below ground and was surrounded by an enormous, complex system of channels and tunnels made of concrete and reinforced steel. It was almost impenetrable and nobody had ever been able to escape the maze alive.

"What now?" I asked the strangers, looking left - where there was a split in the pathway - and then right.

None of them answered, however, the voice in the device spoke up. "The officials will be taking the most direct route out so you guys want to avoid them at all costs. You want to go left and start heading as far from them as you can get."

They started to move and I trailed behind, the voice in the mysterious device guiding us at each split in the pathway. We walked mostly in silence, the boy with the device in the lead, followed by the girls and then me and then the other boy. This order didn't change as we scrambled through tunnels and climbed ladders.

My mind was reeling with questions; however, I stayed quiet. The voices of the other people in the maze echoed through the halls, no matter how far we walked, meaning if we spoke, they'd hear us too. So, we moved in silence, the only sound being our heavy boots hitting the floor and the all-knowing voice from the device guiding us through the halls.

I had no idea how long we'd walked for, minutes, hours, days. Every inch of the maze looked the same and stretched for miles and miles in every direction. I was completely lost, with no idea how to get back to the compound. With the number of splits in the pathway, I was completely disorientated.

"Stop," the boy leading the way ordered, his voice merely a whisper but it echoed through the room. We all came to a halt, listening as we heard what he heard. Footsteps. They echoed through the halls, louder than we wanted them to be. It meant they were close, but we had no idea which direction they were coming from.

Rather than dare to move or speak, we remained frozen, hoping that they would start to move away from us rather than head directly for us.

Our prayers weren't answered as a group of men suddenly rounded the corner, coming face to face with the five of us.