The Maze

Chapter 16

Arieth's pov

Bodies.

So many bodies lined the walls before us. Harry grabs my arm and pulls me backward. We were both thinking the same thing, but neither could tear our eyes from the dead.

I whip around and take Harry's hand as we sprint back the way we came, but something was wrong. I couldn't feel the air rushing from the entrance.

I stuck out my hand just in time to feel it collide with a stone wall. All light had vanished except for the flickering, yellow light imbedded in the stone above us.

"No. No, no, no, no!" I yelled at the wall. My adrenaline rush faded away to pure panic, giving life to the pain in my leg once again.

"Where's the exit!" I could hear Harry frantically sliding his palms across the corroded stone.

"We're trapped." I whispered. My little feather of hope had been viciously burned in the hell fire that was Dr. Edmonson's eyes.

We were officially this year's contestants of The Maze.

Harry had come to the same conclusion I had. A defeated sigh escaped him and he turned my way. I could vaguely make out his eyes in the yellow light as we stood there sadly gazing at each other.

"The only way out, is through." I said casting a haunting glance down the corridor.

"Are you ready?" I whispered, a soft echo bounced back to my ears as if asking me.

Are you ready Arieth?

To die?

"Can you stand?" Harry interrupted my thoughts.

"Ya, I think so," I responded. He gently slipped his hand under my arms and helped me stand. We each took a breath and prepared ourselves to walk past the bodies.

Each step was hell. Keeping our eyes down, neither of us said a word as we shuffled as fast as my crippled leg would let us.

The smell finally hit my nose. Years of decay and rot that was never swept away by the breeze. As we neared the middle of the line the smell got stronger and I risked a glance.

Hanging by a pair of chains was the remains of a woman. Her face was sunken in with ragged holes in her cheeks accompanied by mold that was able to grow in this damp, dark, place.

Looking to my left my heart instantly dropped.

I remember him.

Opposite her was the corpse of a little boy, no more than 9. His body was hanging from two metal spikes sticking through his chest. He looked so pitiful and sad.

They usually didn't take contestants so young, but his family was confident he could do it. They paid big bucks to have him entered.

Poor boy.

I averted my eyes and kept moving. We walked a couple more minutes when Harry spoke up.

"Do you hear that?"

I stopped and listened. The squeak of rats, the drip of water running along the walls, the shuffle of our feet, and... a slight scraping from the walls.

"What is that?" I asked, but I knew we both didn't have a clue.

"Let's keep going and get past them." I said looking back at the ground. But what was an unnoticeable scrape before was now a audible drag of stone on stone.

The chains holding the bodies up on the wall started rattling against the stone.

"Harry..." I said urgently.

"The walls are closing in!" He shouted. He grabbed me and ran. I ran on the tops of my feet to keep up, no pain in my leg could keep me here another second.

Before I knew it we had lost three feet on each side of us and the rotten meat smell became unbearable.

Choking on the odor I pushed myself to go faster, to get out of this mass grave only put here to torture us.

Dust rose up around me and got in my eyes. I pulled my hand from his to wipe it away so I could see where to run. But as soon as I let go of Harry's hand we lost each other.

The dust became so thick you would think you were in the desert among the sand dunes. I stuck my hands out  blindly and hoped I would catch a piece of his shirt or something.

I covered my mouth with my sleeve and my eyes with the other hand. I couldn't call out to him or I would be eating dust for the next month.

Swallowing the pain and panic, I ran forward into the dust.

******************************
castiass_2