The Wilder-ness

Chapter Fifteen

Underwater. It's dark down here. Light softly wavers as it filters down from above. I'm below the waves but I'm still breathing, not drowning. Surrounded by bubbles, there's no one else here. I'm all alone.

Floating below the surface, I watch the flickering lights from the bottom of this sea. There's not much else I can do except lie here.

Turning into an upright position, I float slightly before gently planting my feet onto the sandy floor.

There's nothing down here. It's empty. There's not much to see in the dark. I know I should get out of the water so I push off the floor and kick to the surface.

I'm at the beach. My toes curl into the sand. There's water in front of me leading to the rest of the sea, but I can only see a part of it. The rest is behind the white wall of mist. Wind causes it to swirl and my hair blows in front of my face like in animes. In reality, I sadly would probably be eating my hair.

What am I doing here?

"You are here to learn the truth."

I gasp and look around. "Who are you?" I try to ask, but no sound comes out. Instead, I think the question.

Who are you?

"That is irrelevant to the matter."

What is the matter? What truth am I supposed to learn?

There is a chuckle before they continue speaking. "You sure ask a lot of questions. But that's alright. I'm here to answer them.

"Now, I'm sure you remember that I said I would answer your question as to why you are here in this maze. Well, this is all actually a test. Those who survive will move on to the next test. What they don't tell you is that there is a time limit and you're running out of time."

I take a moment to let that all sink in.

Why are they doing this? And why are you telling me this?

"Well..." The voice hesitates. "I can't tell you why they do this, but that doesn't mean I agree with them. That's why I can only talk to you now, through your dreams."

How much time do we have left?

"I'm sorry. I don't know the answer to that. But you should hurry. You'll know when your time is near the end."

Okay. Thanks for letting me know. I'll pass on the information.

"Good. I wish you the best of luck."

Suddenly, something pushes me from behind. The water is no longer there and I fall off a cliff.