PROJECT SPARTA

CHAPTER 39

This is my battle to win. To win, we must think outside the box, literally. My memory can crack the routes of this maze.

He began analyzing its facade, in the hopes he could map it out in his head. He was only able to get a glance at three sides of the six-sided cube, though. He ascended the staircase and entered the Box. The Box was pitch black other than the dimly lighted alleyways. Their suits gave off a certain amount of light – enough light to be spotted from a distance. Different colored arrows appeared on the alleyways.

"Spartans, please follow your colored arrows to arrive at your starting gates," Anni spoke through their helmets.

The Spartans followed their paths and they began to disseminate to each corners of the box. Xander was fortunate, for his arrows led him to an area that he had already processed. Xander closed his eyes and mentally drew a blueprint of the alleyways before him. His mind worked a mile a minute, until his deep concentration broke by Anni's countdown.

"Spartans, fight in 3, 2, 1...." Although his heart jumped at the sound and adrenaline was already coursing through his veins, Xander stayed calm. He proceeded through the alleyways at a cautious pace, while trying to stay close to the region he knew. Xander heard gunfire and the sizzle of the sparks of impact. It sounded like dying fireworks. Then Xander spotted a Spartan ahead of him, falling over with no charge left in his suit. Having only been two minutes in, the first announcement was made.

Tobias has been eliminated, eight Spartans remain

Xander watched as Tobias' limp body slid under a magnetic pulse to the wall where it stuck, motionless.

Why are the tagged Spartans forced against the wall?

Xander decided his move. He knew that if he sat on his position for too long, he would soon be surrounded and be a sitting duck, so he began running light on his feet careful to make no noise. He saw a streak of Orange out of the corner of his eye. It was Seamus, sprinting to his right in the adjacent corridor. He knew he couldn't catch him without exposure, but he knew his route would lead back to the intersection he had already cleared.

Seamus... Always a lose cannon. A ballistics expert who did not have the gift of tact.

Xander posted to a sectional support that offered good coverage from someone walking down the hall - where he knew Seamus would be any second. He heard a plopping footstep ten feet behind his cover. At the sound, he popped out from the support pillar and fired three rounds off straight into his chest. Seamus didn't know what had hit him.

When the capsules collided with his chest, his suit blew its electrical charge. Sparks flew as if a welder was torching him. The sparks dissipated after a moment and Seamus's suit went black. He fell with a thud, as his suit paralyzed his body.

Seamus has been eliminated, seven Spartans remain.

Seamus's body was also magnetized to the Box wall. Again Xander was perplexed as so why the tagged Spartans were stuck against the wall. And then something unexpected began to happen that answered his questions. Xander's weight nudged him down the long alley way. The nudge became a pull and soon he noticed the floor beneath his feet began to angle downward. It wasn't until the gravity had fully shifted and Xander started sliding down the alleyway when he realized what was happening.

The Box is turning!

Xander remembered the two cranes attached to the cube. He had to stop himself or he would be dead by the time he reached the next turn in the maze. He landed hard on a support pillar that had now become the only floor at the moment. The air was taken out of his lungs by the impact. He looked up at the hall he had just paced on and realized that it had become a vertical shaft. Seamus's body was still stuck against the same wall, rotating overhead now.