Labyrinth

Thud!

The boy labeled Number 13 awoke in his cell just after the loud noises began. It was a day just like any other, with the exception of the noises of course, inside the dreary cell. He had heard noises like this before, but not this many at once or as loud as these were. These noises were like nothing he’d ever heard before. They were progressively getting louder, like they were getting nearer. He just continued to stare at the blank gray wall of his cell, the inner workings of his mind in confusion, as it usually was. Seeing but not comprehending. Hearing but not understanding.

THUD!

The last noise shook the cell and threw Number 13 from his bed to the floor. He just lay on the floor staring up at the seemingly endless ceiling, completely oblivious to what was happening around him.

THUD!

THUD THUD BOOM!

Shhhnnk. Clank!

At the sound of metal on concrete Number 13’s eyes grew wide as realization struck him like a punch to the face. The cell door had slid open and the collar around his neck had opened on its own and fell to the floor, releasing him from the choke hold it had on his mind. He looked around. Just as before, he was utterly confused. It was at what he saw, or rather what he had never seen before, that had him so confused. His environment was new to him. His clothes were new to him, which consisted of a charcoal gray jumpsuit and matching slippers. Just being alive was new to him. It was as if he had just been born.

He tried to quickly stand up but his legs gave out on him and he fell to the floor, hard. “Ow!” he yelped, which surprised him more than his surroundings. How did he know how to speak he wondered. He lay there for a while thinking.

What’s happening? He thought. How do I know how to speak and think? How do I know that I’m speaking and thinking? Where am I? What am I? Oh God, what the hell am I?!

He decided he was going to try getting up again. Using the wall to steady himself he made his way to the door and stuck his head out. What he saw shocked him the most.

Hundreds of boys, with strange tattoos on their wrists, were running around the hallway outside his cell in utter confusion. It was pure chaos. Screaming, pushing, crying, all of them were going absolutely nuts, and some of them looked like they were enjoying the chaos.

Now getting the hang of using his legs, Number 13 went back to his bed and sat down. He looked down at his own wrist and saw that he too had a tattoo. It was in a language he couldn’t read. He was trying to figure out what it said when a loud voice boomed in his head.

“Try and find the exit if you can! I will try and buy you as much time as I can! No one deserves a life like this! If you make it out, I hope you live your life to the fullest! Oh god, I don’t have much time, I can hear them coming! Run! Run and tell the world what they’re doing! I… oomph…,”

Then another, softer but sinister, voice entered his head.

“Disregard that last bit. Please return to your rooms in a nice, orderly fashion.”

“Hey!” he heard another voice from the hallway. “What happened to the nice voice?” it yelled angrily.

“He has been dealt with.” said the sinister voice. “Now please return to your cel… erm… rooms.”

“Dealt with how?” said the voice from the hall.

“Curious boy,” the sinister voice rather viciously, “The same way you will be dealt with if you don’t do as I say!”

“No way, I’m getting out of here! Who’s with me?”

“I am!”

“M-me too!”

“Same here!”

One by one all the boys in the hall agreed they were going with the voice-from-the-hall.

“Such a waste.” Said the sinister voice to himself, although everyone could hear it.

At that Number 13 noticed a strange whirring sound in his room. Like electricity was being coursed through it. He realized it was coming from the collar that fell off of him and was now resting on the floor.

“AHHHHH!”

“GRRR-AHHH!”

The yells were coming from the hallway. Apparently some of the other boys’ collars hadn’t fallen completely off and were now electrocuting them.

Number 13 jumped up and ran to the door. He looked out in time to see boys crumpled on the ground writhing in pain while some were crashing into others, taking them down with them. Somewhere off in the distance there were similar screams of pain, meaning there was more to this building than just this hallway and wherever the Voices were coming from.

“C’mon everybody, let’s get the hell outta here!” shouted a boy right outside Number 13’s doorway. He realized that this boy was the owner of the defiant voice he heard earlier.

At that, all the boys left alive, which was about 30, rallied around the defiant boy and began searching for the exit.

Number 13 waited around his cell a bit while the others were filing through a door they found.

He took this time to really look around. The walls of his cell were the same color as his jumpsuit. The ceiling was impossibly high and the walls seemed to run up through it, like there was something above it. There were no windows, so the only source of light was that from a tiny light bulb in the middle of the ceiling.

He took a seat on the edge of his bed and sat there thinking for a while. He thought about how he woke up on the floor and how he could have gotten here. What was happening to him and why? Did he have a family somewhere? Why is it he knows so many things but not how he learned them? He sat there for a while longer when it suddenly dawned on him that the loud noises from before had stopped. He got up and ran to empty cell after empty cell trying to find a window but every one of them just had the same matching gray walls. He decided to give up and try to find the other boys.

He went through the door all the other boys had and found another hallway with open cell doors along the walls.

What is this place? he thought, horrified.

He ran to the other end and found a door that didn’t lead to a cell. The room beyond was another hallway but there were no cell doors along the walls. There was just a sharp corner that led to another hallway. And then another sharp corner that led to another hallway. And then two corners that led two different ways. He went right and then saw another two way path. He took a left and realized it was a dead end.

What the hell? He thought. This was a labyrinth he realized. Why would there be a labyrinth in a prison? He thought.

“Hey guys? Where are you?” He called out.

“Over here!” He heard behind him.

He ran down the path and took the only turn that was available to him, a left, and saw a small group of about 3 boys with the defiant boy in the middle.

“Where did everyone else go?” asked Number 13.

“We all split up. Weren’t you with us?”

“I hung back a bit.” He replied.

“We were just discussing what we make of this situation.” Said Defiant-boy. “By the way, what cell number are you?” asked Defiant-boy.

“Umm…” said Number 13, taken aback by the question. In all the confusion he hadn’t had time to even notice there was a number on his door.

“He was number 13. I saw him looking out his door before we left.” said a tall boy with black hair and equally black eyes.

“Okay.” said Defiant-boy. “13 it is. I’m 3, this is 10,” he said pointing to the tall boy who just spoke, “and this is 9.” He said pointing a thumb at the other boy.

13 hadn’t really taken a look at him before, but now that he had, he was kind of scared. 9 was a tall guy with huge muscles and jet black hair. His eyes were piercing blue that seemed to see right through 13 and into his soul. 9 just nodded and crossed his arms.

“Alright,” said 3, “now that we’re all acquainted, let’s try and find our way outta here.”

Through the course of an hour they had succeeded in getting themselves lost deep in the labyrinth and find another group of boys. They split up again when they came to the next two way path, and then searched for another hour before taking a break.

They had been resting for about 10 minutes before the loud noises started up again. They were quiet at first, but grew in intensity until it sounded like the noises were on top of them.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Do you think the Bad-Voice is trying to bomb us or something?” 3 asked the group.

“No,” said 13, “I heard these before. I think it’s coming from outs…”

He didn’t have a chance to finish his sentence because at that moment it seemed the world was being torn apart. The walls exploded and ceiling fell in on them. 13 was hit in the head with a support beam and blacked out.

He came to a few minutes later from 9 and 3 shaking him awake. He looked around at the mess that used to be the labyrinth hallway and noticed 10 trapped under some rubble. His eyes were wide open but something was different about them. They were staring off into nothingness. 13 realized what was wrong with him and noticed a tear was sliding down his cheek. He looked away. That was the first dead body he could remember seeing.

“There’s nothing we can do for him,” said 9.

“C’mon 9, we gotta get him up so we can get out of here.”

13 felt a pair of hands yank him up and set him on his feet. 3 took one of 13’s arms and threw it over his shoulders while 9 did the same with his other arm. They helped him step through the man sized hole in the wall and into the other passage. 13 noticed straight ahead of him there were similar holes in the walls and beyond there was a light.

“That must be the way out.” 13 said groggily.

“It is now.” said 9 with a smile on his face.

All three of them laughed in excitement, despite their sadness for 10, as they made their way to the “exit”. They stopped laughing when they approached the hole and saw what was outside.

They were standing in a beautiful green meadow with mist all around them. About 300 yards from where they stood was a small patch of trees. On the left of the trees was a beach going down into a misty river, and on the right a tall stone tower could be seen in the distance surrounded by more trees and outlined against the glowing horizon. On the opposite side of the river was a tall, dark gray, cliff wall and beyond that was a blue mountain range against a purple sky. The setting sun was big and bright but the temperature outside was a comfortable degree. All this beauty wasn’t what stopped their laughter, it was the scene taking place before them that had done it.

There, in front of them, was an alien looking ship rolling through the mist, almost rising out of the river, towards the bank. It was huge. It was oval in shape and had small circles dotting the outside of it, like portholes. It was colored silvery purple and had purple sails coming off the sides in the back. It beached itself on the shoreline and steam came out of the “portholes”. A thin section traveling the length of the ship came loose and extended onto the beach.

The three boys sat staring at the ship in silence. All of the sudden they heard a voice cry out.

“Kill the white ones!” the voice yelled out. It was a raspy voice but it also sounded like it was underwater almost. The language used was a strange, almost alien tongue, but the boys understood it perfectly.

From there it was utter chaos.

From over by the tree line the boys saw movement out of the corner of their eyes. They almost couldn’t believe what they saw. Huge hulking green creatures with leather armor were running out from the tree line towards the ship. They had huge broadswords and axes strapped to their backs. Their hair was long and braided into dread locks, and they had huge horns on top of their foreheads. Then, from out of the ship, came some equally strange looking beings.

Their bodies were all white and shining and they had big flowing blue capes hanging off their shoulders. Their basic build was like a full grown man’s, but their legs looked more like a dog’s. As soon as they saw the exited the ship they took up running towards the green men. They ran faster than the boys’ eyes could keep up with.

As the two “armies” collided, the boys, reluctantly, took the opportunity to sneak away while the two groups were distracted. They may have been new to the world but they knew danger when they saw it. 13 let go of the other two boys and took to running to the tree line with 3 and 9 at his sides. They were halfway there when one of the green men in the back turned around and saw them. He didn’t waste a second to run after them.

13 tried to run as fast as he could, but he was still groggy from the bump on his head. He stumbled and fell just as the green man was upon him. He tried to roll away but the green man trapped him on his back. Looking up at the snarling green man he said, “I’ve only been alive an hour or two, please don’t kill me.”

“Kill you?” asked the green man, the corners of his twisted mouth tuning up in a smile. “Why would I do that when it’s much more fun to eat you alive?”

As the green man finished speaking he made a move to grab 13 but suddenly stopped and winced just as a silvery white sword seemed to grow out of his chest. Screaming, the green man looked down at the shining steel and clawed stupidly at the sword, as if it were just a really scary looking bug he could easily flick away. Then the sword lifted and, as easily as a hot knife through butter, cut the green man in two, leaving the white man who killed him standing in 13’s line of vision.

Soaked with greenish blue blood, 13 rolled over and vomited in the blue blood stained grass. The last thing he saw before losing consciousness was 3 and 9 walking over to where he was laying.