Читать книгу Myth - L.A. Mango - Страница 9

I ran through the hallway as fast as my legs could carry me, but my legs were shaking so badly that I had to stop. I heard something closing behind me and turned my head. Behind me, a very large metal shutter quickly closed the entrance of the Unknown and there was a ceiling above it now. I think they closed the entrance so they can easily suck the oxygen out,

“Ugh, focus!” I told myself. Why did I keep forgetting that the time I had was short and limited? I couldn’t waste a single second or else I’d end up suffocating to death.

I continued running down the Unknown as it became a bit darker than before. Further down, I saw three entrances: right, left or straight ahead. I made up my mind and ran to the right. I saw another entrance to the left and ran through it.

Well, this is easy I thought to myself, but where are....

And there it was: My first obstacle.

I slowed to a walk in front of the oval shaped mirror on the wall in front of me between the two entrances: Right and Left.

I approached the mirror, cautiously; though two yards away I could see my reflection. I had a bad feeling about that mirror; this was the Unknown, so anything that looked harmless could be extremely dangerous. I looked around, trying to find something to throw at it. I spotted a good-sized grey rock, big enough to break the mirror. I picked it up and threw it as hard as I could, shattering the mirror to pieces. The loud sound of breaking glass echoed throughout the maze.

I looked at the shattered mirror, happy about the harmless obstacle. I laughed,

“That’s it? No lizards, no cockroaches. I just needed to shatter a mirror?” I said to myself. My voice ricocheted off the walls of the Unknown. Somehow, I was hoping that the leaders might be listening to me; they seemed to have run out of ideas for the obstacles. No sooner had I taken in my surroundings that I began to smell smoke. I turned to the mirror to find that there was smoke spewing from it. Was it possible to make a mirror angry? I braced myself for whatever creature that might materialize from the smoke. I waited and waited but nothing happened yet the smoke just kept pouring out and started to fill up the area around me. Soon enough, my lungs started to fill up with polluted air, making it hard for me to breath. I realized something, I didn’t have to “stop” or “kill” the smoke. The smoke wanted to kill me.

My eyes started to sting as I coughed violently.

My solution: Run.

I tried to wave the smoke away as I ran but it was too thick. Wherever I ran, the smoke did not lighten; it actually became denser by the second.

I ran to the left, the smoke was still there. I ran to the right, the smoke was still there, and possibly, even denser to the point where I had to squint through the smoke. My coughs became more violent and forceful. I had to get out of this situation, but it seemed like the smoke was following me. I was probably half a mile away from the mirror. How could it have drifted behind me that quickly?

My legs were turning into rubber and dizziness overwhelmed my whole body, threatening to make me fall on my knees. But I had to keep going; I only had an hour to complete this nightmare. I had to…

I gave in to my tiredness and fell to my knees. I felt something rising up in my esophagus. I tried to resist the urge, but I couldn’t keep it in. I went to the dead-end corner and threw up everything that was left in my stomach.

I crawled back and wiped my mouth with my sleeve. I tried to get to my feet, but I was too weak. I tried again with all the strength I could muster but fell again after taking only three steps. I had to keep moving. If I couldn’t walk, then I would just have to crawl.

I used both my arms to pull myself forward. I kept crawling until I couldn’t see any more of the thick cloud of smoke that formed around me. It hurt too much to keep my eyes open, so I close them as I crawled. I coughed and spit as I tried to crawl further away from the deadly smoke.

Minutes seemed to stretch into hours as I lost the energy to crawl. The rough ground rose up to meet my face as I finally lost consciousness.

++++++++++

I opened my eyes slowly. I could see clearly now; the thick smoke was gone. I pushed myself up with quivering arms, forcing myself to straighten up as much as I could.

As soon as I regained my balance, I remembered that we only had an hour. I panicked. How long was I unconscious? I looked at my watch and saw that there were only thirty minutes left. I had to keep moving. This time I didn’t run; I jogged instead, fearing that I might fall unconscious again.

I turned to the right and immediately saw my next obstacle; a very odd looking flower in the middle of the hallway. After the mirror incident, I knew that I should be more cautious about attacking my obstacles.

The flower was probably six feet high. A green, sphere-like metal ball with no petals stood on top of it. It looked like a painter’s lame attempt to make it look like a young bud. It had a furry stem and spiked leaves, which looked realistic enough but still a very strange looking flower. I headed towards the flower, forgetting that I was in the most unpredictable and dangerous place.

I examined the flower carefully; it had weird markings on its stem, like some kind of language written on it. I tried to touch the smooth spot of the stem with no markings on it. Bad idea. I could somehow put my finger through the stem, but as soon as I did, I couldn’t get my finger out.

“Aah!” I screamed in shock. I pulled my finger as hard as I could and, eventually, I extricated myself. I fell back but stood up immediately, facing the plant. The plant was no longer a plant. The sphere-like green ball exposed small holes the size of a marble ball. Spikes started to crack through its stem, stretching the markings to reveal metal instead of the green epidermis.

I took one step back, trying not to take my eyes off the plant or whatever it was. All of a sudden, it started to spin around itself like a drill, turning faster and faster. I couldn’t understand what in the world it was doing until the spikes started to shoot out of it like bullets.

I quickly ran back to the nearest corner. I felt a sharp pain cross my back as I ran. I turned around the corner and sat near the edge of the wall, panting. As soon as I rested my back against the walls of the Unknown, I yelped. I ran my hands across my back and I could feel the spikes pricking my fingers. I also felt something wet oozing down my spine, and I was sure it was blood.

As I tried to pick out a couple of spikes, something made a sudden clanging sound as it slid across the floor: a dagger. I looked up, trying to find the source, but whoever it was, was nowhere in sight.

I picked it up and examined it. There was nothing unusual about it. In fact, it might actually help me complete my obstacle course. I breathed in and stood up slowly, still near the edge of the wall. The sound of the wind whooshing from the spinning plant seemed to halt. I held onto my dagger tightly. I quickly turned the corner and charged at the creature, feeling a little braver than I did a minute ago.

Before the plant could react to my sudden confidence, I jumped and stabbed its spherical head. I had forgotten about the sharp leaves, which were the creature’s second weapon. It fretted and scratched my face with them. I let go of my dagger -which was in the creature’s face now- and fell on my back. Who knew you could stab a metal sphere so easily? I raised my hand and touched my face. I could feel three scratches across my cheek, but thankfully I was not bleeding a lot. I backed away as I watched the creature wilt onto the floor and melt into nothing, leaving my dagger behind.

I picked up my dagger and glared at where the creature was,

“Serves you right for trying to bite my finger off…” I cleaned the dagger on my shirt. If my mom saw me wiping a dagger on my shirt, a dagger, she would kill me. My mother really hated us handling sharp objects.

I moved on along the passage, I looked at my watch (thankfully, the guards didn’t seem to mind that I had one). Twenty minutes left. I needed to move faster. I ran along the hallway, taking some routes to the right and others to the left. I needed to have a strategy, before I ran into-

I suddenly slammed into someone – or something – and stumbled back. I touched my mouth and saw blood, nothing too serious. A girl in front of me looked alarmed and ready; she was holding a dagger like mine. I recognized the girl. Ember Mayze. I looked at her, confused.

“Ember?”

She looked at me and rubbed her neck. I noticed a patch of burnt skin on the back of her neck. It must’ve been her obstacle that did this.

“Iris?” she said. “I was being chased by a bunch of goblins and now I bump into you?” Her eyes suddenly turned wide. She looked at me carefully. “You’re not a siren are you?” She poked my shoulder, but I swatted it away.

“Nope. I’m the real deal,” I said, as I picked my dagger up from the ground. I froze as I bent down to reach for it.

“What?” Ember said, worry crossing her face.

“Didn’t you just say that there were a pack of goblins chasing you?” I asked her as I straightened up.

“Yeah, why?” she asked, a little skeptical.

“Because that means that there are a pack of goblins still coming this way at this very moment,” I said, looking down the hallway where Ember came through.

Ember looked at me a little scared, “But I thought I lost them.”

I shook my head, “One tip: In order to pass an obstacle you need to face and defeat it.” Ember looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

“So, you’re telling me that I need to go back there so they can stop following me?” she said, hoping that I might say no.

I nodded, “They’ll keep following you until you kill them. Trust me; the school and my mother taught me this.”

Ember looked apprehensively down the hallway she had just run through. She hesitated and then nodded at me. “Good luck, Iris.”

“Good luck to you, too,” I said hopefully. “See you on the other side.”

Ember smiled. She ran back towards the sound of angry goblins. I turned around to face the corridor in front of me and ran. I took several sharp turns on my way. I sometimes ran into dead ends and had to turn back and take others.

No obstacles until now. Better not get my hopes up. I kept running until I eventually had to stop. I was panting heavily; I had been running for so long. The Unknown seemed endless. The sweat stung my wound. I swiped the back of my hand along my forehead. I got a little bit of blood on my hand, but it didn’t matter. Nothing seemed to matter when you were most likely going to face your death any minute. This place had no boundaries.

Not wanting to rest for long, I started to walk, but as I did I saw an object, more like an animal, down the passageway. I heard a neigh, like a horse, but I wasn’t sure, not in a place like this. I walked slowly towards the source of the sound and I was right; it was a horse.

It was a white stallion and probably the most beautiful horse I have ever seen. The horse seemed scared when it saw me; it kicked its front legs up.

“Whoa there, boy; it’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” I told it gently as I raised my hands up in front of me just in case if it kicked my face. The horse calmed down, I started to examine it and saw a sword swinging from its neck.

I felt that it was safe to ride this horse since it looked very calm. It stood still, like it was waiting for me to respond. I climbed up on its back and I sat on it as I tried to remember where I was supposed to hold on since I never had any interest in horses.

“How do I ride it?” I thought. My mother read these kinds of books about horses. I knew about the gear and all but didn’t know how to hold on if I didn’t have any of it. The animal jerked backwards a bit. I started to fall down so I grabbed the horse’s mane. I knew where to hold on to it.

No wasting time. I quickly pulled the horse’s mane. The horse galloped lightly along the hallway. I tried not to lose balance and focused on the way ahead. I saw a turn on the right. I unconsciously pulled the horse’s mane to the right; it jerked to where I wanted it to go, and I smiled. I didn’t realize that a horse could be slow if I wanted it to be. I saw a turn to the left, and I jerked the horse’s mane to the left but this time it didn’t respond so I ignored the turn. I saw a route to the right; I did the same thing, but still no response.

I suddenly panicked; the horse started to gallop at an incredible speed. Fear took over my mind and all I wanted now was for the horse to stop.

“Wait! Stop!” But it still wouldn’t stop no matter how much I pulled.

But then the horse did suddenly stop on its own will; it neighed and kicked its front legs up in the air. I gasped in surprise and tried to hold on to something, but I fell off the horse and landed on the back of my head.

I rubbed my head. I felt a huge bump and I knew that it would cause a serious bruise. I didn’t think about it for long though because I saw something unusual happening. The horse slowly turned black, like a bottle of ink being spilled on paper. This didn’t seem like a good a sign. The horse started to kick the ground; dust started to fly around the horse, which was about to charge at me!

The horse galloped towards me. I dodged to the right. I have to kill it, but with what? I checked for the dagger I had put in my pocket after my last battle, but I couldn’t seem to find it. I remembered the sword hanging from the horse’s neck. I needed to get to the sword.

The horse turned facing me three yards away from where I stood. I stared at the sword hanging from its neck. I charged, and so did the horse. When there was no space between us, I grabbed the belt holding the sword and stabbed the horse in its neck. The horse started to kick itself off the ground with its hind and front legs. I slowly approached it and removed the sword. When I ripped out the sword, the horse immediately slumped onto the ground motionless.

I cleaned the sword, and kept moving, leaving a pool of blood behind me. I strode along the hallway, and glanced at my watch. Ten minutes left. I sighed, and started running. When was this going to end?

As I ran straight ahead, I heard someone running in another direction. I stopped, waiting for whatever approached. As the sound got closer, I heard someone panting; it was a human.

I ran towards the sound of the stomping feet; a girl stopped in the middle of the hallway, eyes wide and alarmed. The girl had her brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. A rush of relief flowed through my body when I saw her, but to my horror, a huge reptile-like creature with three heads charged towards her: Hydra. The girl had a rock in her hand and threw it at the monster, but that didn’t help.

Lexus Keats stood in front of the hydra in terror.

++++++++++

The hydra raised its claws.

“Lexus!” I yelled, hoping she’d listen to my warning. Of course, Lexus turned her head, a little shocked to see me. I never should have yelled. The hydra swiped its large claw at Lexus as she fell back on the ground, motionless.

“NO!” I yelled.

I charged at the hydra with the sword in hand, ready to stab it for what it did to my friend. The hydra noticed and shoved me back with its claw. I fell hard on the ground; the sword fell with a clang and slid across the floor. Great, I thought. Lexus was still on the ground as the hydra raised its claws to slash her again.

Okay, now I’m angry. I stood up and rushed towards Lexus and jumped in front of her, arms outstretched. Something like hot iron slashed my thigh. I fell hard on my side. I grabbed my leg, gasping for breath. The pain was incredible, but I was still hoping that the hydra’s attention was diverted away from Lexus and onto me instead, but it was so determined to kill its main opponent. Lexus started to gain consciousness, squeezing her eyes repeatedly though her eyes were still closed. The monster turned away from me to Lexus. One of the heads opened its mouth, pointing at Lexus. I stared in horror as I saw the flames forming in its mouth. I stood up ignoring the stinging pain in my right thigh, and ran towards her, limping. Lexus sat up straight, rubbing blood from her neck; she was still trying to regain use of her senses.

I came to her in time. I grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the hydra, which was now blowing fire in our direction. I felt something hot touch my ankle. I let go of Lexus and grabbed my foot, trying to ease the pain. Lexus lost balance and fell on me. I fell on my face with Lexus right on top of me. I yelped when I felt the prick of the sharp thorns that were left behind from my battle with the flower, press into my back. At that moment, I noticed my sword on the ground near me.

I pushed Lexus off me. I crawled towards my sword only inches away and grabbed it. I stood up facing the creature.

“Hey!” I yelled, trying to get away from Lexus’s motionless body so that the hydra wouldn’t notice her. The monster charged at me and stepped in the spot where I had just stood; I spun around and dodged the incoming claw.

I tried to remember what we learned at school about the hydra’s weakest point. It was behind its ear. I tried to get behind the monster. After several attempts, I suddenly heard distant loud angry voices approaching from behind. It sounded like an angry mob was out to get revenge. At the end of the very long hallway, I could make out figures approaching us; the noise was getting louder and closer. I squinted to get a better view of all the figures: Goblins, and they seemed to be furious.

I had forgotten about the hydra but quickly noticed that one of the heads that bellowed fire was turned in my direction. I dodged to the left next to Lexus, who was still motionless on the ground. The mob was getting closer and closer. I looked down at Lexus then at the hydra, as it screeched at its new opponent. The hydra was my obstacle now and I couldn’t turn back. I felt a tinge of regret at what I knew I had to do.

“I’m sorry Lexus. I’m really, really sorry,” I said as close to her as possible. I stood up and ran into the hallway behind me. The hydra made a demonic, thunderous roar and came after me in a second. I kept running down the hallway, trying to get the hydra as far away from Lexus as possible. I just hoped that the goblins wouldn’t notice a motionless girl – maybe dead as far as I knew – lying on the ground in the middle of their way. If Lexus was really dead, then I was determined to go back there for her and take her body back to her mother. I couldn’t stand leaving her in this place, this nightmare.

I stopped and turned around to face the creature again. I stuck to my previous plan to run behind the hydra and try to get to its ear. I finally got the chance to stand near its tail. I did the craziest thing I could ever do. I jumped on the hydra’s back and climbed up. I used its scaly skin to support my hands and legs on my way up to its ear.

I was a foot away from the hydra’s ear when its middle head suddenly turned around to face me. Its mouth started to form what I expected to be fire, yet there was no fire leaving its mouth. It was smoke. The cloud of smoke rushed out of its mouth as it blew directly towards my face. Awful memories started to enter my mind. My eyes started to burn and I felt really dizzy from the large inhalation of that foul smell. I fell off the hydra’s back and landed onto the ground, feeling a sharp pain in my back. Poison, I thought, that was what the hydra’s middle head blew and that was also why it had such an awful smell.

I rolled over and tried to cough the poisonous smoke out of my system, but it stung my lungs when I did. I lay down on the Unknown’s floor, feeling very horrible. The school taught us that the hydra’s poisonous smoke was dangerous only if it was kept in the lungs for too long. The hydra approached me. This was it. This was the end of me.

I closed my eyes as the creature closed in at me. But instead of the sound of blowing fire, I heard a loud screech erupting from it. I opened my eyes and saw Lexus on its back stabbing it multiple times behind the ears.

The hydra melted into nothing, just as the plant did, and the ground absorbed it. I closed my eyes as soon as I saw Lexus hop off of what was left of the monster. She was alive and okay and that was what mattered most to me.

She ran to me, and knelt down beside me. She tried to open my eyelids with her finger.

“Iris?” she called to me in a whisper. I opened my eyes slowly as she helped me sit up. I placed my hand over my chest, the stinging pain still overwhelming my lungs.

I smiled at her. “Looks like you’re tougher than I thought you were,” I said.

Lexus shrugged.

“That was brave what you did back there,” she said with a small smile. I felt disbelief surging through my body. Lexus was actually talking about someone other than herself.

I shook my head.

“I thought it was just desperation…” I responded. Lexus looked at me.

“Well you thought wrong…” she said matter-of-factly. I smiled briefly when I remembered that our time in the Unknown was running out. I looked at my watch. Two minutes.

I stiffened. Lexus noticed my sudden response, “What’s wrong?” I showed her my watch, revealing that there were only a couple of minutes left.

“Shoot…” she said slowly. I quickly got up. We both ran off to the nearest entrance with Lexus hot on my heels.

++++++++++

We ran as fast as we could. Right, left, left and straight ahead. We ran to where our gut took us. I looked at my watch as we ran.

One minute…

As we took the last turn, the hallway became brighter. There was no time to lose. Lexus and I ran towards the end of the hallway and turned towards the one that seemed to be brighter than the other.

Twenty seconds…

We turned to the entrance on the right; the source of light seemed to be coming from that entrance.

Ten seconds… We ran as fast as we could towards the entrance and out into the open.

The metal shutters were about to close. I managed to quickly run out of the Unknown but Lexus was still in there. The metal shutters were just a few feet away from closing. I crouched down on the floor.

“Lexus!” I yelled out. The metal shutters were only inches from closing. Lexus’s head popped out with her upper body, but the metal shutters were about to crush her back, leaving her lower body inside the Unknown. Lexus shrieked as she started to panic. I was pulling her out by the arms. She suddenly started to scream in pain as the metal shutters grazed her back. A boy came over from the bleachers and helped me. We pulled her as hard as we could until she finally started to budge. Lexus finally and fully came out of the Unknown as the metal shutters closed down on the ground rather than her body.

I turned around, squinting from the light. Lexus was next to me, her back against the shutters panting with a pained look on her face. We made it. We made it through.

A guard shot a glare at the boy who helped me. The boy – Jack Ruce – noticed and quickly strode back towards the benches.

Claps and whistles erupted from the six Accepted on the benches.

I saw the huge screen behind the stadium. It turned on and was divided into ten squares. It had every Undecided’s name that entered the Unknown in this round in each square.

Dex Gossamer: REJECTED.

Chills ran down my spine when I saw his name. I had small flashback of the sound of the gun that erupted from the guard’s gun, aimed at Dex Gossamer’s head. He tried to run away when he had the chance and failed horribly.

Lexus Keats: DRAGON SECTOR.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise, but not too surprised. Lexus crossed her arms and scoweled. She hated the Dragon sector, but she couldn’t say anything otherwise she would be Rejected.

Dallas Sawyer: DRAGON SECTOR.

Dallas tried to put a smile on his face, but he had difficulty forming it because he was panting too much.

Emma Ryan: MERMAID SECTOR.

The girl smiled. At least she was satisfied.

Mason Westfield: PHOENIX SECTOR.

Mason didn’t seem to notice which sector the leaders chose for him; he was too busy wheezing from exhaustion. He looked dazed and pale.

Ember Mayze: REJECTED.

Sam Mayze, on the benches, shook his head. His sister must have died in the Unknown. I had flashbacks of Ember running at me. I told her that there was no other way but to face her obstacle course. I told her that we would meet here. My stomach felt sour and acidic from the bile forming inside it.

Winter Odette: DRAGON SECTOR.

Winter, unlike her sister, shrugged. Summer started to jump like a maniac, congratulating and hugging her sister. I didn’t know if the Unknown made her go crazy or if it was just her personality.

Summer Odette: PEGASUS SECTOR.

Summer clapped her hands while jumping up and down. She bowed to the crowd in a display of showsmanship. She was a very weird girl.

Iris Abernorth: PHOENIX SECTOR.

I stared at my sector, not knowing what to feel about it. I didn’t really think about which sector I wanted to be in before all this. The Phoenix Sector was actually the sector for the selfless, but personalities didn’t really matter. What really mattered was whether or not you were tough or brave enough to protect the island and also which weapon you were good at using. The personality thing surfaced because it seemed that every sector had certain characteristics within it.

I turned around to see Isaac’s reaction. Wait, where was Isaac? My stomach flipped in fear. No. Please no. His name appeared in big letters on the screen.

Isaac Abernorth: REJECTED.