Andrew Bailey & The Eternal Maze

Chapter - 4

Beyond the door led us to a world beyond imagination. It was something rather unbelievable. There were structures literally everywhere. Whether it's doors, staircases and walls, they were all over the place, and mostly made out of metal and stone. I gasped at the marvel of it. A "game" may have been a good fit after all, the place did not look like it was made by a human being. If I had to really describe it, it was similar to a castle's interior, just many times bigger. I could not even see the ceiling above. Staircases were everywhere, sometimes leading to dead ends, even places that we couldn't see in the dark. 

"What on earth is this? This place is built almost according to a kid's fantasy." Michelle blurted out.

"I have to agree with her, this seems almost like a complete unorthodox maze."
Emma said while looking in awe.

"Well before you stare at the scenery, focus on what supplies we have on hand. Andrew do you have your knif- "

Before letting Quinn finished her sentence, I flashed my combat knife I had with me.

"Good, you still remember what I taught you."

"Haha, how could I ever forget Quinn, it was literally drilled into us."

As I checked my bag, it contained quite a few things, food and water supplies like Pierrot said, probably a week's worth. And the random item I had was what seemed like a kodachi. A small sharp blade which was approximately a few centimeters longer than my combat knife.

As I was about to ask what the others had for their random item. Alice was holding a book with an annoyed face.

"Alice don't tell me, the random item you had in your bag is a book?"

"Not just a book Andrew, look at the title."

I took the book and what was on the title was something that was kind of annoying. It was "Surviving the game for dummies."

I glared at it, I couldn't tell if this was a gag gift or actual intel.

The rest of our group had pretty decent items, Michelle had a torchlight, Emma had a baton which was very suited for her and Quinn, well was gauntlets. I don't think I need to say how dangerous giving Quinn those combined with combat knives. She would make a fearsome opponent but there probably wasn't anyone as reliable in this situation as her.

As I started to read the book belonging to Alice, some part of the book did not exactly make sense but I got the general gist of it. Aside from the part that seems rather illogical right now, the main parts of the book consist of :

1) This game generally is literally a survival game. Reaching the "end" is the destination.

2) Food and water can be found be searching the maze, be sure to stock up when possible.

3) There were so called safe zones and safe spots in certain areas, apparently safe zones were areas that are generally safe but there wasn't always a guarantee unlike a safe spot. A safe spot is like a secured room, it can only be used at certain times of the day and can only be opened and locked by the one using the safe spot.

"Well I guess we have to search for a way out don't we. Shall we begin?" said Quinn.

"But where do we start? This place is huge! I don't even know whether the structures here are stable."

"How about starting with the lower area. Either Quinn or I will lead the way for safety reasons."

"Hmm Andrew, when did you become so manly." Quinn shot me a snicker.

"Quit teasing me Quinn, protect our fronts alright? I'll cover the back."

"This feels just like yesterday doesn't it haha."

I agreed with her, it felt like just yesterday we were in our squad trying to keep each other alive. While I was reminiscing, Alice gripped my back hard and encouraged us to start moving.

"Ugh, I had no idea there were so many rivals for Andrew. That dense bone head." Alice muttered to herself.

"Did you say something Alice?"

"Nothing at all, just watch our backs Andrew."

"Got it."

As we were walking around exploring the area, it was mostly the same sight, stones and metal doors. No matter how far we walked, the exit or end was not in sight. I was starting to wonder if we had to go through one of those doors to get somewhere else. As the group was getting tired, I caught a small whoosh sound coming straight behind us. I turned back and saw an arrow coming for us.

"GET DOWN!" I grabbed as many as I could and hit the floor. As I turned to see the perpetrator's face, Quinn was already running towards the direction where the arrow was shot. There wasn't any time to get distracted, I felt blood-lust in two different directions aside from the archer. I told the group that those who weren't able to fight was to immediately head behind me.

The first person shooting off blood-lust came out of the shadows of the building, he was a buff looking man wielding a mean looking spear. He charged at me, probably preparing to thrust his spear as soon as he gets into range. I grabbed my dagger and prepared to intercept. I was at a big disadvantage. A spear man's range is very large, not to mention the people behind me that I had to protect. I had to take a gamble, one false move and I would move on to the next world. The spearman would definitely thrust his spear in the middle, that's where I would aim.

The spearman did exactly as predicted, I ducked as low as possible and with my knife I pressed up against the spear, leaving the spearman defenseless. I drew my kodachi and stabbed him and he went down.

It was a slight moment. I unintentionally felt relieved that one of the enemies were down, that was when I let my guard down. The second attacker had been watching my every move. He found that exact moment to attack, he was already in the swinging motion of a huge hammer. Evading was impossible, I screwed up.

As I closed my eyes and prepared myself for the worse, the worse did not happen. As I opened my eyes, Quinn was there. Few feet ahead were the men with the hammer, laying down there unconscious.

"Are you alright Andrew? You shouldn't have let your guard down in a fight."

"Haha, sorry Quinn. But you should not have run off by yourself either. You aren't working solo anymore."

Quinn sighed and told me that it was instincts. It's a hard habit to kick off apparently.

As I turned to Alice, Michelle and Emma to see if they were fine, they looked shocked honestly. Civilians who never seen combat will never forget this scene. Emma seemed like she already had mentally prepared herself but this probably was her first time seeing someone die in front of her. Michelle and Alice were not as prepared. They both look like they were trying to hold it in. I held both of them in my arms and they started weeping. I told them it was going to be alright.

I gritted my teeth, I couldn't promise that but it's the only thing I could say at the moment. I need the resolve to protect them. But could I? If Quinn wasn't there, I would have been done for.

While I was comforting them, Quinn was dragging the archer and the hammer user aside to question them.

"Get up. You have no right to be unconscious right now." Quinn told the archer user.

The archer just laid there, Quinn kicked him hard and whispered into his ear, "If you do not get up right now, the next time you feel pain, it won't be a kick but from a blade. Ready? 3 , 2 .. " Before finishing her countdown, the archer got up immediately.

"Y-yyyyes? Whhhat can I do for youu-uu?" the archer said while stuttering. I wonder what did Quinn do to him, he seemed really afraid of Quinn.

Quinn took a knife out and placed it onto his throat.

"What do you think? You attacked us out of the blue, you tell us what was your motive."

The archer gulped down saliva and looked to the ground.

"We weren't proud of what we done, the three of us were here for months. We only wanted to survive that's all."

"How? By assaulting people?"

"You don't get it don't you. This place isn't a place where your morality works. It's survival of the fittest. You have to treat this like game or you will never survive or forgive yourself."

"A game? Why does this word keep coming up?" I asked the archer.

"You could call this the first level. It's where the new comers come out with fresh supplies and those who couldn't survive further on. The only way to get food on this floor is exactly why we attacked you."

"Player killing. That's why you said you had to treat this like a game. You take their food rations and left your victims to die."

"Exactly, it's not like we wanted to do this. Our group initially had over twenty people, all of us were not about to let that psychopath get his way. We tried to search for a way out but beyond this area, lies monsters ahead. MONSTERS I TELL YOU! And I - "

Before the archer could finish his sentence, something strange happened to him. His eyes rolled up and mouth was foaming. The same was happening to the other guy.

"What the heck is going on?"

"Andrew, they were likely poisoned. A time delayed poison, they may not have even realized they were poisoned."

"The hunters got hunted apparently. Truly a survival game." Emma said while examining the body.

"From now on, be careful of what you ingest. Sadly, since they were poisoned, all food and water supplies from the bodies are too dangerous. Just pick out items that they had on them." Quinn suggested.

After taking their weapons, besides food rations, all they had left was something like a diary and writing materials apparently. The diary wasn't day to day but almost like a dying will. The pages left were as follows:

After being stuck for few months, the group was just down to ten people. It is absolutely impossible to get out of here. We have traveled to few stages of the game and I am completely sure this place is not our original world. There are things here that could not possibly exist. Each door could lead you into a different nightmare, each time we tried finding the exit, something bad happened. I didn't think I can take this for much longer. Till one day a woman calling herself Snow appeared.

She seemed like a nice and talented person, she informed us her group was wiped out and she seemed like she needed companions. It did not take long before we welcomed her into our group, she was something that we all wanted. She somehow managed to seem happy. As the days went by, our food stock went down, the only way to find food was to jump right back into the nightmare to find food. Snow then offered us an alternate way to get food, that was when things went really wrong.

Snow told us that on the first level of the game where everyone starts, there would be newbies in the game who would bring in fresh supplies like we all had in the beginning. The moment she said that, we all felt a sort of relief that we wouldn't need to go back into the nightmare just to scour for food.

We knew it was wrong so half us were arguing how it isn't right to do so and the other half was saying how their survival was more important than other people's safety. Eventually fear and greed gave way, majority of the group wanted to go along with snow's plan. I thought it was horrid and reckless however I had no choice but to follow the group's decision. She gave us specific instructions and we hid in the shadows, spying on potential places on where the newbies would start from. From there we marked the ones who just started and once they seem they let their guard down, we would strike. It worked initially, the group would have this happy vibe after every successful "heist", we would injure them but never kill them. I felt so guilty. Taking their supplies was like giving them a death sentence. How could they be so happy? I had to act so one day after a heist, I told the group how it was making us less and less human and how each time we did this, a small part of us would die inside. Even if trying the other areas was dangerous, we should have taken a risk instead of stealing from others which would practically kill them.

Just when I was about to convince them, Snow showed her true colors. She changed into a whole different person, she told us we had no choice but to continue. She had a special poison with her that we ingested when she served us food the first night we met and every night since, she would give us the antidote as well so we never noticed. We were trapped and completely at her mercy. The antidotes we were given were only temporal, if we wanted to get a permanent antidote for the poison, she wanted us to get a specific random item from a newbie's bag. A purple diamond. Once we had that, we would be free from her control.

We were reluctant and angry at first but we did not have much of a choice. We just had to get the diamond. Snow introduced us two people who worked under her. A bow user and a hammer user. She wanted us under surveillance so we couldn't try anything funny. Those two were insane, when we were trying to spy on our marks, they just went off crazily into a fight and killed them without mercy. Their insane fights dragged us in multiple times. We even had multiple deaths because of them.

With five of us left, three went off, being tired and sick of listening to snow and her goons. It was not long till I saw their dead bodies near our headquarters. With two left, Myself and Jacob. We were mentally and physically exhausted. We did not want to die but being a part of this was wrong on so many levels, we helped kill so many people. We both begged each other to live on, we only had each other left. How could Snow do such a cruel thing, just for a damn rock. Please someone help me. Help us.

And if you are reading this, it would mean I have passed on. I can't say I'm not afraid of death but this perhaps is better than taking lives over and over. This is a horrid place where betraying each other is norm and it's hellish environment. I pray for your safety in this hellhole.