Olivia Green: Envy's Child [COMPLETED]

Chapter 33: Tin Can

"This," Zac begins shakily. "Is fucking insane."

Towering, the sandstone walls glare down at us like furious God's, accusing and punishing us. Surprisingly, the blue sky greets my eyes, causing me to blink vigorously as my pupils adjust. I'm not sure what I was expecting, yet it certainly wasn't this. Call me ignorant, yet for some reason I wasn't expecting just walls. Perhaps a tricky puzzle or a Minotaur offering me a cup of tea, however certainly not this. The floor consists of dust-covered stone slabs, nothing interesting or mildly different, just repetitive and boring.

"What the fuck?" he mutters, rubbing his forehead. "What the actual fuck?"

"We should get moving," I say. "Use the most of the daylight before it's out."

"Olivia," Zac says flabbergasted. "We almost fucking died!"

"Yes, I know. We will die if we don't go now."

"Fucking hell," he murmurs as he readjusts his luggage and cape, putting his hammer in his grip. "Brent, you good?"

"I think I might have shit myself."

"Great, let's go then," I say taking off, staring at the walls for clues or signs. 

The boys mutter beneath their breaths, but follow me, keeping close and staying alert; that was their mistake last time. We continue down the path until we make it to a split. I look at the two of them for guidance yet they look equally, if not more frightened than before. I sigh and slap my forehead, turning around to face them, only for the path we came from closed off by a wall. I pale. "It's changing."

"We noticed ten minutes ago," Brent says with a fake smirk, trying to disguise his nerves. "Your footfalls are pretty damn heavy."

I sigh and shake my head, "Not helping idiot."

"Okay, so which way should we go?" Zac questions.

"Left."

"Right."

I release a huff and glare at Brent before reiterating, "Right."

"Fine," he throws up his hands. "Why bring us here if you're not going to listen to us?"

"It's a fucking direction, stop making it out to be some big thing when it isn't. I think we should continuously chose right so if we need to backtrack we can. If the maze doesn't change again that is."

The boys look at each other before nodding.

"That is actually kind of smart," says the son of Greed sheepishly. "I just thought wing it."

"I brought a marker to well... mark," Zac says. "Numerically you know? So this is corridor 'one'."

"We do know what numerically means," Brent clarifies, beginning to walk down the right corridor as I turn to Zac.

"Did you bring extra pens? I could-"

"Where's Brent?"

I look to the right corridor and freeze; he's nowhere in sight. I grab onto Zac's hand to make sure I don't lose him before tentatively calling out, "Brent?!"

Nothing.

My heart hammers in my chest as I take a step in Amber's direction. When nothing happens, I taken another, each time Zac following my exact same footsteps. I bravely take two more and sigh, "Where the hell has he-"

The floor beneath us slants suddenly, causing us to slip and slide. I hastily take a hold of Zac as we fell off of the trap door and onto another slanting slab, hugging the son of Wrath as I let out a cry. Like a slide, we fall off yet another ledge and onto another one, this one slanting the opposite way causing us to fall further. Zac bangs his nose and releases a roar of pain, yanking his arm from my grip to nurse it as we free fall, landing onto the dirt bellow. 

I look around still horizontal, my gaze blurred and dizzy. I flop my head back, closing my eyes in a short rest, only for it to he disturbed by Zac, shaking me and pulling me close to his side, dragging me across the floor in a matter of seconds. I snap my eyes open and go to give him a mouthful, only he slaps his bloody hand over my mouth in a sorry attempt to shut me up. The coppery taste fills my mouth, an ill feeling rolling my stomach.

However his hand points at a... hedge? I look up to see a ceiling from where we come from, with occasional slants and shoots dropping to the ground. Now I realize, we're in an entirely different part of the maze; it's not just an average labyrinth, it has multiple layers. I hold my breath as I look closer into the hedge opposite me, to see a large, muscled silhouette of a horned, inhumane creature. My stomach drops as it audibly sniffs and growls, weapons in hand before stomping off somewhere else. 

I go to move, yet he only tightens his grip on me more, before nodding to around the hedge corner. I realize we're in a three way intersection, so I peep around the corner to where he indicated to see three burly figures in tattered clothing, strapping a certain brunette to a log. I look around to try and find my short sword, only it's in line of sight to where those people are.

"No," he whispers. "We follow."

I close my eyes and think about it. If we follow them, we may be able to find more resources and understand our situation further. Rushing into a scenario now may give us a surprise attack, however I'm also sure it'll create noise for the Minotaur to find us. They begin to walk away so I quietly grab my fallen items and so does Zac. We step carefully on the ground, making sure we keep vision of at least one of them at all times.

At some point, after following them for ten minutes they duck underneath a thin, metallic wire which seamlessly blends in with the surroundings. To make it worst, a tripwire is positioned a couple of metres away from this. I dread to think how many other traps are integrated into this shit hole, however a part of me doubts it is the doing of the bullheaded freak we just had a glance of.

Zac finds more difficulty with this, mainly because of him being a demon-sized tin can. It wasn't the most wisest decision wearing a full suit of armour on a 'quest' like this, especially where it entails us walking for most of the time. If not falling. We trail them for another ten minutes before we halt, they look around; we have to sidestep around a corner before they continue through a disguised area.

They move a portion of the hedge which had been chopped down to the side, perfectly fitting the slot in between two corners. Now I look at it more closely, these hedges are different; they're more curved than the ones we have been passing. I look up the ceiling to see it is a large circle, now I am noticing this, we are nearly central- so that place is the middle.

"We have to get in there," I murmur. 

"Yeah," Zac nods. "