Technological Transformations

Chapter 33- This is Halloween: Part 4

Thankfully, it didn't take us much longer to make our way out of the maze itself. The path we were trudging down ended up leading to its own exit back into society after not much farther- with the artificial fog and low lighting of the exit area itself, it was hard to really tell until we got much closer.

"Oh my god, finally!" Hailey shouted as we stumbled out into the open, the both of us collapsing onto the soft grass below. "I thought we'd be trapped in there forever!" The clearing we found ourselves in was similar to where we had entered, with a few different sets of people standing around the large opening talking amongst themselves.

"Oh hey!" We hear a guy call out, the light crunching of grass beneath his feet signaling his approach. I looked up at him as he rushed over- he was one of the guys helping Marcus set up this whole thing. "Hey, yo I'm sorry about all of that!" He apologizes- neither of us quite understanding why.

"Huh?" I questioned, the nervous boy running his hands through his dark hair. "What do you mean?"

"Well, so like, a bunch of us were apart of the whole experience shit for the maze, right? Like, acting as characters to chase you or making sounds, prop work, stuff like that. And uh, well Ethan and I spotted the two of you and decided to mess with you guys on your journey." He explains, cautiously laughing to himself. "We were the ones that were moving those walls on ya."

"How'd that work?" Hailey asks the boy.

"Oh, well those walls were set up there for whoever came across them so we could spook them. We actually had specific areas all around the maze, designated "scare zones" as Hayden called them. For some of them, those closed-off pathways, like the one you two found yourselves in, would be used by us to move between the maze itself. In certain "scare zones", like the wall-trap you came across, there were platforms set up on the tops of the stationary walls which allowed Ethan and I to move across the path with you. Then it was just a matter of manually moving the walls from our access above them, which was pretty easy since they were on a little rail system, kinda like how sliding barn doors woke y'know?" He explains, "The main issue was the noise, but moving the walls themselves was pretty smooth and quiet on their own, we just had to be careful and take it slowly. Which, worked out anyways, since we wanted the changes to come off as almost imperceptible to you. We also work this whole get up-" he continues, gesturing down to his black pants and long-sleeved tee. "-Well, I took off some of it off already, but we had this whole black outfit to help blend in, like ninjas or some shit. Plus, all the fog we had helped to hide us even more."

"Ah, yeah that about adds up." I comment, shaking my head at myself. To think I had actually allowed myself to get actually all worked up in there- it was silly looking back on it.

"Yeeeaaah, to be honest, we didn't expect you to go and break through the wall like that!" He exclaims, "It was just supposed to freak you out a bit, then one wall would've disappeared to funnel you towards where we had this werewolf guy waiting- and, well, you get the idea. We didn't even realize what you had done at first- admittedly, we probably went a liiiittle overboard on the fog, cause even we couldn't tell you were gone till later."

"Unfortunately for you, Chelsea here's a real psychopath." Hailey playfully chides, giggling to herself as she lays back on the ground.

"Yeah, no kidding!" He enthusiastically agrees, "You'd do great in a real horror movie." He adds with a laugh, "Buuut yeah, cause of all that you two kinda ended up in a closed area of the maze, didn't intend for anyone to go that way since it was such a direct path out. Must've made the whole thing kinda boring for ya, huh? We didn't have any props or scares set up on that path."

"Yeah well, we weren't too concerned with all of that." I assure him, "By then, I just wanted to get out of the whole thing."

"Geez, I'm sorry it all turned out that way." He apologizes again, "Was supposed to be fun y'know, and now we kinda ruined the whole thing for both of you."