The Maze Test

F

FishWolf

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Original poster
Click here for plot.

All voices were hushed as the screen buzzed and flickered to life. It cast a pale glow that reflected off of the ten pairs of eyes in the underground room. There was the crackle of static before a fuzzy image focused on the screen. A man in a white uniform looked out from the screen. "Greetings. You have been brought down here because you have been accepted to start the test. If you pass, you can enter the dome. If you fail, you will never leave this place again. The rules are simple. Make it to the other end of the maze. There is a map in the center of the maze. It will help you on your journey. I wish you the best of luck." The screen flickered and died, casting the room in half-darkness. Voices started up again. "What kind of test is this?" One man shouted, but before he could get an answer the heavy metal doors at the other end of the room opened by themselves, making a squealing grinding sound as whatever mechanical device moved them. Beyond the doors was a dark metal corridor, half-lit every few yards or so by a dim lightbulb.The group quieted, and a few desperate people darted into the darkness. Then the rest began to move. As soon as the entire group was in the maze, the doors began to close behind them. They were sealed into the maze. A loudspeaker above the door buzzed to life, and the same voice as the man's on the screen spoke.

"Let The Maze Test begin."
 
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Will fidgeted nervously. He didn't like the look of the long, dark corridors, and he thought he saw a dark stain of something red on one of the smooth metal walls. He looked away quickly. But he had entered for a reason. He wanted to live in the dome, the promised place with no corruption, no pollution, and the best of all, real trees. No more oxygen masks! He had heard of trees whenever he was a child, but never saw one. They used to grow everywhere, but they were chopped down to make room for the towering cities that he was used to living in. He looked up at the loudspeaker, his eyes hard with determination. He was going to make it to the other end of the maze.

Or die trying.
 
Tamara knew that this won't be possible to go through alone. People might start killing each other over resources. She walked discreetly, trying to blend with her surroundings in her oversized black jacket. She had stuffed useful tools in it quite skillfully. She was pretty talented at pick pocketing and got extra tools from a number of airheads.

She nearly bumped into a boy whose tense frame didn't budge. She walked a little past him and checked his face. A kid lost in a dark world, what in the world is he thinking, joining this and freezing in fear...

"You're gonna wanna move if you don't want people to run over you." She told him.
 
Will was broken from his train of thought by a voice. He looked over and saw a woman approaching him. He relaxed a bit. He wasn't the only one that had to take the test. He ran his hand through his black hair. "Sorry, I tend to freeze up when stressed." He hoped that wouldn't be a problem when he entered the maze. Will glanced back at the speaker. "I was hoping that the test would be on paper or something, not....well, this." He gestured towards the dark corridors. Will prided himself of his wit, and his life on the streets had made his body strong and nimble, but he still was more brains than brawn. He could hold his own in a fight for a while, but he usually preferred to prevent the fights in the first place. A maze is a test of skill, but obviously there was something else that the man on the loudspeaker had not mentioned.
 
Tamara leaned a little to look at his face, meet his eyes with her blue grey ones. Then she straightened up and smiled, shaking back stray strands of her platinum blond hair. "You look like a smart kid. I think we all need our wits about, but I'm not the most intelligent. Come with?" She offered. She felt he'd make a fine companion, he didn't look weak and although he seems pretty scared, he seemed to have an air of intelligence. She remembered her brother.

"Whether or not you say yes, I'm taking you." she said dismissively, taking his hand which felt pretty cold. "You're sure to die if you-"

There was a scream. Some yelling and the sound of strong impact followed. The ground shook a little. Not wasting time, she ran, dragging him along until they got a little farther from everyone.
 
Will could only stumble along as the woman dragged him along. She was surprisingly strong, probably stronger than he was. He had heard a loud scream, then a boom, almost as if something heavy collided with another with surprising force. The woman dragged him to another corridor, where they stopped. Will felt a surge of panic at leaving the seemingly safe place behind, but it was too late. They had entered the maze. He only had seconds to gather his wits before he looked up. There in front of him lay the source of the sound, and there was a harsh grating sound as the walls moved back into their original spot. He froze at what he saw.
 
Number Five surveyed the group coldly through one of the many hidden cameras built around every corner. He sat in a chair in a brightly lit room, watching one of the screens. At his fingers lay a massive board of switches and controls, each switch used to activate a trap at the flick of a finger. One of the participants had gotten nervous and had darted out into the maze, only to be met with the maze walls. The trap was a fairly simple one; outrun the closing walls. Many people had fallen prey to this trap either because they took too long to realize what was happening or just because they weren't fast enough. He sighed when the person's final scream was cut off with the reverberating sound of metal upon metal. He pressed a button next to the switch, and the walls moved back to their original spot. He wasn't a bad guy, but why did he feel so guilty? Guilty of what? Feeling no sympathy, no emotion towards the test subject whose life has just ended?

The intercom buzzed, and he pressed the button next to the speaker. "This is Number Five. What do you need?"
 
Tamara quickly grabbed Will to make him turn away, holding a hand over his eyes for a moment before making him face her. "Look at me, look at me. Okay? Let's go. Eyes on me."

She held his hand, motherly instincts or something probably took over but she normally won't touch people. Never mind that at her height, it wasn't easy to seem unafraid. She wanted nothing more but to be safe. She regretted going for the maze and it was making her feel sick to the stomach. She fought hard to keep her last meal in, she slaved hard for that.
 
Will had froze up at the sight of the mangled remains, only managing to get a glimpse before being turned away by the woman. They walked back to the place with the loudspeaker, Will was silent the entire way. Then the loudspeaker crackled back to life.

"What you have just witnessed was one of the maze's many traps activating. You will have to be both quick physically and mentally to escape these traps. I suggest you start trying to solve the maze. You have 48 hours."
 
"Come on." Tamara pulled Will on, ignoring the announcement. She didn't have to be told to survive. She's been living alone, scavenging, hunting. surviving. This maze may have extra traps, but to her, it's simply a bad day.

She pulled down her hood, swiping her forehead on her sleeve. "Tamara, by the way. Or Tammy. Got a name?"

She was looking everywhere. She spoke to him to keep him focused on her voice while she felt her surroundings.
 
Will relaxed slightly. He knew that the image would forever be imprinted on his memory, but it would be worth living in the dome. "My name is Will. I guess we should get going." He looked around. "I don't trust some of these people. Should we wait for the rest to go, or should we go ahead?" Will gulped and looked ahead into the corridor that branched out to their right.
 
Tamara walked briskly. She half dragged Will along, her pace unhurried but fast. "Number is both advantage and disadvantage. They're currently...uh."

She glanced at the remaining people. A few started to move and the others were in shock.

"Well, I guess it's you and me, kid. Will, right?"
 
"Yeah. I guess." Will said. "Which way are we going? He looked up at the ceiling. It was pretty low, and the stone walls seemed to join with it almost seamlessly. How did the government make such a monstrosity? The maze seemed to me made from one whole piece of stone, but that would be impossible, because a stone that size would have to rival the size of a small city.
 
"I simply want to steer clear of the others." she let him go when they were out of earshot of the others. She touched the wall, looking around. "There are hints, somewhere. What do you think?"
 
Will shrugged. "The man on the loudspeaker said that there's a map somewhere in the center of the maze. I don't want to go back to that....carnage back there, so I guess we can take a left and try to find our way to the middle of the maze. We'll have to be quick." Will almost laughed at that. Judging by that woman's strength, she would probably outrun him by a mile.
 
"Map, right." Tamara wasn't about to tell Will that she was bad at those things. She was all about just doing what she thinks she should anyway. "I don't know about you, Will, but I can't tell the difference between these darn walls."
 
Will looked around. "Well, I'm pretty good at mazes. I guess we'll go left. If we follow the left side of the wall we should eventually reach the middle. Let's hope we don't run into any traps along the way." Will turned and began to jog down the long corridor, where he turned and kept going. He turned once more to see an odd depression in the floor. He hoped it wasn't another trap, and kept going cautiously, until suddenly he heard an odd grating sound. He took a step back, and the ground in front of him shuddered, and started to move downwards. There was a whooshing sound, and suddenly water started to pour into the depression. Will realized that only a segment of the corridor was lowering, and that in order to get across the water you would either have to swim or jump to the other side. Will stood there uncertainly. Suddenly a buzzing sound started, and the water suddenly sparked.

They're electrocuting the water! Will thought, and he realized that they would have to jump across.
 
Will had gone while explaining, not even letting Tamara catch up while she examined the surroundings, trying to make out any distinguishing features. There was no possible way to know how to go through without seeing a map or having known the place or something. She followed him, watching the ground and feeling the strange change-

Then it moved. The moment Tamara looked up to Will, he was ankle deep in water. Using barely half a thought, she dashed, grabbed him by the waist harshly and jumped with all her might, managing to throw him onto the other side. She fell, dangerously skidding to a halt at the edge.
 
Will landed on his shoulder, and quickly scrambled to get up. He gave Tamara a grateful thank-you-for-saving-my-life look, and then watched anxiously as the floor stopped lowering. The water was still for a moment before slowly draining away. The floor rose back up into it's original place, and it looked as if nothing had happened. "Are you okay?"
 
Tamara shook all over as she collected herself into an upright position. She mentally recalled the appropriate number of limbs and what her body is supposed to be like. Her hands had a few wounds. She stood up.

"Yeah."