Escape Games

Chapter Eight

     Mac woke up he didn't know how many hours later to Bear in his face, making funny warbling noises.  He booped her nose and propped himself on his elbow to rub her back for a moment before pushing himself all the way up to a sitting position.  He rubbed the sides of her neck a few times before standing up. Jorik was still sleeping, so Mac left him be for the moment and walked over to where the large coffee pot sat. He didn't necessarily need the coffee to wake himself up better, but he liked a cup in the morning to help keep relaxed. He liked the taste, too.
There were actually two coffee pots on the counter, one for classic ground coffee and one for the newer coffee pods. He checked the expiration dates on the coffee and found it was still good. He picked one of the flavored pods and filled the pot's water basin before putting the pod in. He found a mug and turned the pot on. The sound and smell must have woken Jorik, because Mac heard him huff and the dog walked over to say good morning.
"Hey," Mac said. Jorik looked at him as he ruffled the fur on Bear's back.
"Hi," he responded. He sniffed the air and looked at the coffee pot.
"You like vanilla caramel coffee?" He asked.
"I have a sweet tooth," Mac said as he pulled his steaming mug from the pot. "Do you want some?"
"I guess I'll take some," the elven said. "Since you already have the pot on."  Mac picked another pod and put it in the pot. 
     "Do you like milk or cream in your coffee?"  He asked as the pot finished brewing.  The elven shook his head.
     "Not usually," he answered.  Mac brought both mugs over, handing one to Jorik before sitting down with his. 
     "Thanks," Jorik said, taking a sip.  A tiny smile pulled at the corners of his mouth for a moment.  Mac nodded.
"No problem," he said, taking a sip himself. "I thought it might be nice to have a tiny bit of 'normal' in this place before we work more on getting out." Jorik gave a small nod.
"It helps a little," he said, taking a bigger drink of his coffee. "But what would really help would be if I had something to draw on." Mac looked around the room.
"Maybe you could doodle on some napkins or something," he spotted some next to the coffee and grabbed a bunch.
"I might have a pen you could borrow," he handed the napkin stack to Jorik and began digging through his backpack. He pulled out a four-colored pen from one of the small pockets on the inside and offered it to the elven.  Jorik took it but still finished his coffee before unfolding one of the napkins. 
     "Once you feel like you're a little calmer, we'll get going," Mac told him.  Jorik huffed. 
     "I don't think I'll ever be fully calm until we're actually out of here," he said, beginning to scribble. 
     "To be honest," Mac said, still sipping his coffee.  "I don't think I will either, but anything that helps is a good thing."  Jorik looked at him.
"And I thought you were the calm one of the two of us," he said. Mac shook his head.
"I tend not to show my fear or worry on the outside," he said. "But I freak out internally. I sometimes have to remind myself to talk out my stress once in a while." Jorik huffed and looked down at his doodles.
"I probably need to get a bit better at that, admittedly," he said.  Mac took another sip of his coffee. 
     "If your drawing helps you, keep doing it," he said.  "But talking does the job, too."  Jorik sighed and continued to doodle for a moment. 
     "How do your legs feel after sleeping?"  Mac asked.
"Better," the elven asked after a second. "I feel like I might be able to walk on the bruised one if I have help."
"Does the other foot feel like it's fusing?" Mac asked. Jorik moved the foot around a bit."
"It feels like it's starting to," was the answer.
"That's good!" Mac said, both excited and relieved. "It may be a slower process, since the flesh isn't quite the same, but it fusing at all is progress."  Jorik gave a small nod. 
     "I'm just happy we were able to find something," he said.  "It's better than hobbling around with a stump."  Mac smiled. 
     "Once it fully fuses, you should be able to walk by yourself again," he said.  "Just don't get overeager.  We don't want to risk damaging the fusion point to the extent that it stopped connecting to the rest of the limb.  You may not be able to reattach it if that happens, since it's not exactly the same flesh and skin make up." 
     "I'm aware of that possibility," Jorik said.  "My concern is possible joint issues later on if the parts don't a hundred percent work together." 
     "It's a valid point," Mac replied.  "But we'll have to wait and see.  Hopefully it all works well, but we can figure something out later on if it doesn't."  He sipped his coffee a few more times.
"Hopefully," Jorik said. Mac nodded, finishing his coffee. Bear began making her warbling noises again. Jorik looked over his drawing at her.
"What's she fussing for?" He asked. The dog continued making a ruckus.
"Bear," Mac told her after a moment. "If you need to potty, just potty. I'm not gonna get mad at you." The dog looked at him and let out a long whine.
"I mean, it's not like we can take her outside easily right now," Jorik said. Bear looked at the elven, giving a short half-bark before warbling again. 
     "Bear," Mac told her again.  "Just go potty behind a chair or something.  I promise neither of us will care."  The dog tilted her head and gave a long, low whine before doing as Mac suggested.  She came back out a couple moments later, looking much more comfortable.  Mac rolled his eyes and ruffled the fur on the sides of her neck. 
     "You're too good of a dog sometimes, you know that?"  He told her.  Jorik reached over and scratched the fur at the base of her tail. 
     "You taught her too well," he said. 
     "She picked it up too well," Mac replied, smiling. He spotted the corners of Jorik's mouth pull up slightly as well. It lifted his own spirits a bit seeing the elven seemingly calmer. 
     "Think you're ready to get going?"  He asked.  Jorik sighed but nodded. 
     "As ready as I'll ever be," he gave a short huff, but folded his napkin and began looking around for his red backpack, which had been dropped behind the sofa when Bear had walked in.  Mac handed the pack to Jorik and the napkins and pen went inside. 
     "Let me refill your water bottle before we leave," Mac said.  "Once we leave this area, we don't know when we'll find more."  Jorik handed him the blue bottle, and walked to the water cooler and topped off both bottles.  Then he checked the refrigerator and cabinets to see if he could find any additional food they could bring with them.  He found a couple bags of dried fruits, a package of beef jerky, and two tins of caffeinated chocolate wedges.  He offered a wedge to Jorik. 
     "These are amazing little treats to carry around for extra energy," Mac said as the elven took a cautious nibble.  "I almost always have Bear carry a couple tins when we go on missions.  In fact, these are the same brand I usually buy.  I'm starting to think the supplies we've been finding are just the scattered contents of Bear's backpack laid out for us to find." 
     "It's possible," Jorik said.  "Maybe whoever put us here ran out of budget once the maze was all built, so they just stole what you and the dog had and threw it around for us to come across later."  Hearing a small joke from him made Mac feel a bit cheeky himself. 
     "Or maybe they're just a lazy bastard," he said, grinning mischievously.  "Didn't feel like buying new stuff to put around, so they just reused what we already had.  Maybe they even planned it that way."  He gave a short laugh, then handed Jorik his water bottle back. 
     "Let's get going," he said as the backpack was zipped back up.  "We don't want to waste too much time."  He took Jorik's upper arm and gently pulled him up.  He still favored his bandaged foot, but he was definitely much more stable on his other leg.  Mac put the elven's arm over his shoulders and moved slowly towards the door.  Bear again picked up the red backpack as Mac now carried his own on his back again. 
     "Let's check the room across the hall before we move any further," Mac suggested. 
     "Fine by me," Jorik said.  "Maybe we'll find something useful."  Mac nodded and the group slowly moved across the hall.