Andrew Bailey & The Eternal Maze

Chapter - 6

"She's what Michelle? Spit it out already!"

"She's going to be fine, but I'm not!"

I heaved a sigh of relief. I thought that the worst had happened, honestly I'm glad.

"Wait if she was fine, why did you pause for so long! You know I nearly had a heart attack because of your little stunt!"

"But I was so worried for you! Since the start with the body in the room and next you and Quinn protecting us from those player killers followed by the separation of our group and now this? I will have you know that I have been trying to keep it together but seeing Emma like this..."

"But Emma is fine, right? Please tell me she's alright."

"The baboon's tail did hit her however it isn't a life threatening. Just a flesh wound. If she heals up, there won't be a problem."

"If it was just a flesh wound, why did she faint?"

"Well this is just an opinion on my part but because of her mental exhaustion with the addition to the sudden shock of the wound, she had reached her limit and well, you know the rest. So now what Andrew?"

"Honestly Michelle, I haven't the slightest clue. Do we continue on finding a way out of here or rest up till Emma gets better, one false move and it's game over literally."

As we were discussing what was the safest way off the island, Emma's body started to well, float...We stared in disbelief, something supernatural was happening. As I was approaching her, her eyes opened up, it was shining blue and she begun to speak.

"Hello strange beings, I believe through this vessel, I am speaking your language fluently, you should have no problem communicating with me. Do you understand me?"

"Yes we do.. What did you do to Emma?" I answered the voice.

"Fear not strange beings, I mean no harm to you or this vessel. I will leave as soon as I finish speaking to you. However, I am rather impressed, normally I would only possess bodies with souls who had left the host vessel however not a single one of you had left their bodies. You see, I do not have a physical vessel, to speak to you strange beings, I would have to communicate by borrowing a vessel."

"Are you trying to say you normally possess dead bodies to speak? However, Emma isn't dead! What exactly are you?"

"Strange being, since all of you have your souls intact, I had no choice but to borrow a vessel that soul isn't currently using. In your terms, it would be the sleeping soul. And you can call me the spirit of this island. I have no name like many of you strange beings had asked in the past."

"So spirit of the island, what exactly do you want from us?"

"Strange being, I would like to tell you about the island. Like many before you, every single strange being wanted the answer on being able to leave the island. To exit this island, simply find the two treasures of the island and bring it to the highest peak."

"Two treasures? Where do we find them?"

"Yes, deep in the forest, where the residents of the island sleep in the light, one of the treasures lay beside it's king. Be warned, the treasure will only appear in the peak of darkness. While the second treasure lay in the caves of old. Only the one who passes the tests of the island may obtain the treasure."

"Did you just say RESIDENTS? With a S? That dark looking baboon wasn't alone?" My jaw dropped to the ground, one was dangerous enough, if there are groups of those, this may be bad.

"I understand not what these baboons you speak of, however there are indeed residents of the island in the jungles. With this, I shall leave this vessel and pray you will succeed unlike the countless others."

"Hold on, did you just say countless others?"

Before the spirit could answer my question, it left the body like it said it would. Emma's floating body went back down to the floor. Michelle ran towards Emma, shaking her body repeatedly. As Emma opened her eyes, she was greeted by Michelle's shaking.

"S-Ssstoopp Shaaaking Meeeee."

"Your back Emma! Oh thank goodness your back!" Michelle hugged tightly.

"What do you mean back? Ouch why does my back hurt? Not to mention my whole body is aching."

"Well Emma, it's a long story."
We explained everything that happened when Emma was passed out. As I was about to apologize that I couldn't protect her properly.

"Andrew, Michelle, I am so sorry for dragging you guys back. Thank you for protecting me."

"No, I should be the one who's sorry. I wasn't strong enough to protect you. If I were, you wouldn't had been attacked."

"Okay you two enough apologies, all shall be forgiven." Michelle did a small karate chop and chopped our heads. After the chop, we burst out laughing, it was silly how we both wanted to apologize.

After we rested and ate our dinner, we had to discuss how we were going to proceed to get the two treasures. It was currently night time, if what the spirit said was correct, we would have to get the treasure during the night.

"Should we try getting the cave treasure first? It may be easier than going for the forest treasure." Emma suggested.

"That's fine with us however are you alright to go Emma? If you are still in pain, I could try going into the caves alone, Michelle would accompany you. Just in case."

"No way, there is no way I'm going to allow you to risk your life, going into those caves and I just sit here. My pride would not allow it."

"But.."

"No buts, I'm coming along. If I'm a burden, just leave me there."

"You know we can't do that Emma." I sighed at her stubbornness.
"However, the first sign of danger, both of you run. That's the condition."

As we headed into the cave, it was getting darker and darker. As I lead the way, I couldn't see what was ahead anymore. The exact moment I was going to ask Michelle for her torchlight. I stepped onto something. It made a clunk sound, followed by the sound of gears moving. Oh crap, I thought. Please don't be a trap, please don't be trap. I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers. The next thing I knew, it was bright. I opened my eyes and flames were along the walls. I guessed it was a contraption when people entered, the lights would turn on. All of our hearts were pounding.

"Emma, Michelle, if there are such contraptions, it could be used for traps too. Be careful of what you touch."

The exact moment I said that, Michelle was leaning against the wall. The wall made a sound, it went clunk. I turned my head towards Michelle.

"Michelle, what did you do?"
"Erm, I was tired and leaned against the wall, maybe?"

A few moments later, there was a heavy thud sound, followed by a rolling sound. With each passing moment, the sound was coming closer and closer.

"I don't know if that's the thing that we think it is but we don't have time to wait and find out. RUN!"

As we ran for it, we saw it. The cliché boulder trap, coming right for us at high speeds. This was really bad. The exit was being blocked the boulder and we had no idea what was ahead. If a dead end was ahead, it would be a literal bad end for us.

The part where you see a trap being sprung in those cartoons is only funny when you are not the one who sprung it, trust me. As we were losing strength, there was an exit up ahead. It was the exit we were hoping for. When we reached it, it was a sort of dead end and an exit at the same time. What did I mean? It certainly was an exit; the only problem was there wasn't any pathway left. At the bottom of where we were standing were probably rapids.
It was either get squished by giant boulder or jump and take our chances with the rapids below.
We looked at each other frantically, the boulder was coming closer and closer.

"We have to jump, we have no choice."

"Jump!? I can't swim! Those rapids look intensely fast as well!" Michelle protested.

"We got no choice, it's time to jump! The boulder is coming! When we land down there, grab onto me."

"But I-"

Before Michelle could protest anymore, Emma grabbed her and jumped off straight away. As I followed them down there, I could hear the screams of Michelle going ahhhhhhhhhhh.

As I landed in the water we a great splash, the rapids were incredibly strong. They were dragging all of us somewhere at an incredible pace, As I tried swimming towards them, I realized both of them went under. Emma probably could not handle staying afloat with Michelle with her. This was incredibly bad. The navy trained us in many different ways, especially in water but this was the first time I was going to try to save people in rapids. I held my breath, prepared myself for the worse and went under. I found them both, not moving, not struggling. I began swimming towards them, trying to reach both of them.

I just had to save them.