The P.U.L.L || #Wattys2017

Chapter 24: Maze

To their amazement, they found themselves in a huge hallway. However, no matter where they look, all that they could see was darkness, except for Joshua who could see quite well in the dark. Still, Joshua was quite worried by their current situation and location. All that Joshua could see is a straight path, extending endlessly in front of him.

This must be where the large white ball came from. Joshua said to himself as he looked straight ahead. If that's the case, then we should just follow this pathway and get to the other side. But We should be careful. One false move and another huge ball might come rolling towards us.

"So, what do you think we need to do, Joshua?" Rick asked. "You're the only one who could see quite  well in the dark so I guess we should follow you or something like that."

"Joshua, if you could see quite well in the dark, could you tell me if the floor of this hallway is sloping up?" Emma asked.

"Yup, it is, why?" I answered after double-checking if it really was sloping up.

"As I thought. I think I could remember this place before" Emma answered. "This place is a maze." She simply answered.

"You mean, a life-size maze?!" Rick exclaimed. "How are we supposed to find our way in this dark maze. And to top it all off, judging from the expression your face is wearing,  I'm guessing that you haven't beaten this maze yourself before, have you?" Rick speculated. 

"That's right, I haven't. Apparently, there's a door hidden in this maze and the location of thhat door has been kept secret from everyone, even from Gladiola and I. Not a single worker in this corporation knows what's behind that door." Emma explained. "Everything that I told you was what Mr. Quiller told us. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Quiller also told me that not anyone has seen the location of that door in this maze. Mr. and Mrs. Quiller were the only ones who could solve this maze before since that's where they hide all their secret research."

"So, if no one has ever beaten this maze before, except Mr. and Mrs. Quiller, then that means there are traps set up here." Joshua added. "They must be the only ones who knows about this."

"Speaking of traps, we just fell on one just awhile ago." Emma said, pointing her finger upwards.

"Wait, is that the trapdoor under the bed in Gladiola's room?!" Rick exclaimed. "So, you mean to tell me, that we activated a trap as soon as we fell into this maze and ended up falling on that endless hallway?"

"I think that makes sense." Joshua said. "But to think that the traps on this maze is on that level, we have to be extra cautious since those traps are not laughing matter."

"Yeah, we should be really careful on this one." Rick said. "But I'd say that we survived a lot of disasters already. You know, like drowning in the Atlantic, stopping a huge tsunami, and surviving a thunderstorm with a bunch of tornadoes. We could probably survive this maze, if you ask me." Rick confidently said.

"I don't think so." Emma disagreed. "Do you remember that large white ball that fell on the endless hallway? That ball came from here, you know. If we make one false move, another ball might come rolling down at us and we don't have any means of escape. Not to mention that there must be other traps worse than that one."

"In that case, let's go on top of the maze!" Joshua said. "That's the easiest thing to do."

"Oh I forgot to tell you, but this maze is made up of hallways. There's no top for this maze, just a plain old ceiling." Emma replied.

"Then, we don't have choice but to go through this maze, right?" Rick sighed.

"Yup, but that would be easy to do. All we have to do is watch for other traps like that. But going through this maze might be quite easy." Emma confidently said.

"How?"

"By looking for traps. If there are traps in that part of the maze, that means it leads to the other side, right?" Emma explained. "I remembered Mr. Quiller telling me that there are more traps on the right path while fewer on the wrong paths. So, that must be a clue, right?"

"Oh, okay. So we have to look for traps."

"We should also avoid paths that are sloping up." Emma added. "That path might lead us straight to death by being crushed by a giant white ball."

"Oh, I get it. That's why you asked me if the hallway is sloping up." Joshua said. "Wait?! This hallway is sloping up!" Joshua alarmingly exclaimed.

Joshua was right. The hallway was definitely sloping up. Colors drained from their faces as they imagined a huge ball rolling towards them.

Without hesitating, Joshua told everyone to follow him. He ran straight ahead, looking for another path in the hallway. After quite some time of running, they haven't found a different path, and it was still as pitch-black as ever. The three of them were starting to lose hope when they had found something in the walls.

"What's this?" Joshua asked Emma.

"I don't know. It's probably a trap." Emma suggested.

"Well, no use arguing about it. Just unlock it, Joshua." Rick commented.

Not like we have any more choices left, I guess. Joshua reasoned to himself as he looked at the crack in the wall. The crack doesn't seem out of the ordinary, making a normal person to ignore it. But because of Joshua's eyesight, he could see a faint light being emitted out of the crack. After running for quite some time and finding the crack, Joshua began to think that it's not a coincidence.

"You know, maybe this leads to the door." Joshua concluded. "It won't hurt if we try touching it, right?" 

After saying that, Joshua confidently touched the crack.

To his surprise, a part of the wall as large as a door suddenly gave off and the entire hallway began to blink with red lights.

10 seconds to self destruct...9...8...7... It began counting down.

"There's an electronic that consists of numbers, what do we put?" Emma panicked.

In a flash, Joshua went closer towards the electronic lock and punched in a few numbers, hoping that it would work this time. The red lights began to scare them out of their wits as the countdown began to continue.

...5...4...3

Done! Joshua said to himself as he finished punching a series of numbers on the lock.

Joshua bit his lip and shut his eyes, hoping that the series of numbers that he put will unlock the door. Rick and Emma, on the other hand, crossed their arms in front of their faces, waiting for the door to self-destruct and bracing for the impact.

It seems like the remaining seconds seem to slow down as the three of them waited. To Joshua's suprise, the countdown still has not stopped yet!

Following what Rick and Emma were doing, Joshua braced for the explosion as the countdown continues.

....2...1...