The labyrinth - Part 9

"It seems like you all have found quite a lot of people already. It seems like I was the only person who didn't find a lot of people in here." I comment as I walk up to Emily and Jeon. Emily gives me a sympathetic look while Jeon just seems to shrug. It seems that I was just stating an obvious fact for him.

"We have found quite a lot of people already. It seemed that most people didn't decide to wander far inside the labyrinth. But they were unable to find their way out again. From what they told me the portal opened during rush hour so there might be a lot more people stuck in there." Emily informs me as I start to worry a bit. What would Russel do if he actually found people who needed his help? That guy doesn't know the way out and makes it hard to get out of here. I hope he doesn't make things more difficult then since that would make things more difficult for Emily and Jeon.

"We have another problem. There aren't just a lot of people in here who don't know how to get out. One of the delvers inside there's Russel." I say as I see Jeon look with confusion and Emily get a look of annoyance on her face. "He brought kids inside here on purpose and isn't that fond of listening to people. Well, at least he wasn't too fond of listening to me since he straight up hates me. Which didn't help to convince him to get out of this labyrinth." I say as I try to say the next part not as loud as before. I don't want to risk Vincent hearing me talk bad about his brother. Nor would it be good for the kid hearing that his older brother is in trouble.

"How can one guy have caused such trouble. I thought the only higher-ranking people were me, Emily, and the portal observer? Didn't you tell him to get out because he has to?" Jeon asks as he genuinely thinks that would work. It would work if he said it all right, but if I said it. I said something along those lines but Russel didn't take me seriously which doesn't surprise me. Simply because he's strong, he has the ability to make people listen without issue. People like Russel just respect raw physical strength. So he will probably respect Jeon but I'm sure he won't even respect Emily. Simply because she's a healer. Okay, Russel probably respects people with good abilities too since those people can still be strong. Just not as strong physically as those who do physical damage. Even though healing is seen as a good ability that doesn't mean that he respects Emily. I think it's because healing doesn't do damage.

"Well, Russel is quite the troublemaker. So I get what Azure means. He doesn't listen to people he considers weaker than me. And he also has a habit of not being friendly to anyone who isn't really able to hurt monsters either. So it's best that you would encounter him, Jeon." Emily suggests as she makes clear that she has dealt with him before. Out of everyone here, Jeon is the best equipped to deal with him. However, I'm worried about the fact that they aren't lowering their voices talking about this. Since I don't want Vincent to worry too much about this. I look over there to see if the kids heard. But Vincent seems to be talking to some other kids who were rescued from the labyrinth.

"Okay, please keep your voices down though. Since I do know some things that you two are unaware of. One of the kids that was brought here was his little brother together with some of his friends. I found this out because I found the kid sobbing inside the labyrinth. And the kid Vincent seems to really look up to his big brother. And I rather not traumatise a kid more then he already has been traumatised." I explain as I wonder if I should explain why he brought those kids in here too. I think saying why he brought them here will give them more understanding of the situation. "He claimed that this was better than sitting behind a school desk. Since their abilities got activated already. Which means that these kids are terrified with powers they can't control."

As I look back at the both of them. I can't help but notice how shocked they look at what I just told them. I'm not even close to lying I just repeated what Russel said to me. I think it's absolutely insane too but I didn't think that they would look this shocked. "You can't be serious right? Did he even think about how dangerous that is? He actually thinks kids should be brought inside here on purpose?" Emily asks me as she is trying her best to keep her voice down. It seems pretty hard to do so however since this is quite a weird revelation. As I look back again I see Olive approaching us. Probably in an attempt to get briefed about what we should do.

"So you are two of the others that are exploring this labyrinth. I'm sorry that I went off on my own before. The other people who arrived so early said that this was normal and I believed them. But seeing how one of them claimed that he brought kids here for some sort of field trip, I shouldn't have believed them from the start. But I'm Olive and I'm going to help explore some of the hallways that aren't done yet." Olive says as she awkwardly introduces herself. I don't think she imagined she had to introduce herself to everyone who's helping.

I do think it's awkward having to join a conversation with people you don't know. After you found out that you were part of a group that was causing trouble for those people. Honestly, I think I would be just as awkward as her if I was in her shoes. I would probably have listened to the people who have been doing this longer than me too. I can't blame her for being part of a mess when she was brought into it.

"Yeah, the observer explained it to us already. But just so you know check the rules online next time. They're easily available for everyone to check." Emily responds as she tries to seem reasonable. I can't help but notice that she seems annoyed at what's going on here though. She also looks kind of tired from this mess with Russel. I have a feeling that Russel has caused her some trouble in the past.

"I think the other two are late or forgot that we were going to meet up again. But we shouldn't be wasting more time than necessary. This whole labyrinth is an inconvenience and it's better over sooner rather than later. So we shouldn't be dragging it out too long." Jeon says as he looks kind of annoyed. He probably thought that this delve would've been done by now. But considering all the extra stuff we had to deal with today. I'm just happy that I still found something inside here that I might be able to sell later. At least I hope I'm able to sell it.

"They probably forgot about it. Which isn't impossible if you are just going through the motions. But uhm, Olive you should get a rope if you are going to help us. Then go through one of the hallways where the ones who missed the meetup are. Let them know they missed the meeting and what's going on here." Emily informs as she kind of tells Olive what to do. Which is a very unusual sight to see coming from Emily. I have a sense that neither of them really like each other. I assume it's because Olive just believed the others. And because of how Emily reacted Olive isn't too fond of her. Olive has caused Emily some more worries but I don't blame Olive either. Both sides have valid reasons to be mad or annoyed at each other.

"I'm going back inside the labyrinth again. In my pathway, there are probably quite a lot of people still there. And I'm still trying to be very thorough too since if I encounter a ring I will have to remember the location instead of writing a sign to it." I say as I get ready to get back inside the labyrinth. At that point, I notice that Emily's ability is no longer copied. However, I'm not going to copy it again since I don't want to overdo it yet. I also think that I will be able to gain some points just from doing my job well. At least I hope I will get some points for that.

It does seem like I'm not the only one deciding to do so, however. It seems all the other available delvers are doing the exact same thing. I'm not eager to get back to the repetitive things I do to get through there. At least it keeps me busy and I'm helping people who come past it. It also keeps my mind pretty distracted which causes me to overthink less. I walk back towards the labyrinth but once inside, I start to run. I just run towards the rope again so I can finish this all. It again takes me about fifteen minutes to get back there. And I'm glad to see that it hasn't moved yet.

It doesn't take me five minutes to fall back into the routine. Go inside one hallway. Scrape the weird moss that I don't even know if it's actually any good on the wall. Write an arrow in charcoal to the way you came so people find their way back. Go into another hallway and repeat till I'm at a dead end. I don't remember how many times I turned left or right. It doesn't help when the walls aren't straight anymore either.

In no way would these walls be considered straight. It's a bendy hallway in the way you have to walk through it. But also the wall itself going on isn't straight. I'm surprised that it's standing up still. However, this is a long hallway without any other hallways to go into. Which forces me to write some more arrows on the walls sometimes. Since people might think they are going the wrong way because of the lack of them maybe. And I rather waste some charcoal instead of letting people get lost.

However, once this long path without any other hallways ends. The walls turn back to normal too and I finally start finding regular civilians. Not other stubborn delvers who were just following Russel's lead but regular people. And most of them are adults too. If there are kids then they're already paired up with an adult which makes my job very easy. I inform them to just keep on walking. Not to worry that they walked in a straight line for so long since the hallways are quite long. The adults also seem to be better listeners than the other people I encountered here already. Just walking back towards the start of the labyrinth. And subsequently to the portal. However, there's one thing that does make me worry is the number going up again. Someone found the second to last ring which gives the rest of us less time to get out of here. It also means I should stop collecting and just start running to find people. I keep writing arrows on the walls though since they make my job easier.

Find and collect: The five rings of light

4/5 rings found

I'm really hoping that the last ring is hidden behind some elaborate puzzle or something. A puzzle that not everyone is able to solve. That way we might be able to get everyone out of here. But considering the luck we are having today. I doubt that will be the case. I don't like the thought of people not knowing what happened to their loved ones because they accidentally entered a portal. Unable to know what actually happened to them because some delvers were unable to retrieve them. All because of an asshole like Russel who decided to take certain things into his own hands. I seriously hope that Jeon has already caught up to him since I think that he would listen to him. And Jeon did seem mad with what I had told him about Russel. It would also be good if Russel decided it on his own but I doubt that would happen. But that would leave Russel's pawns so to say. Since they did follow his plan without questioning it at all. Maybe they did question it, I don't know. I wasn't there, all I know is that they went in.

I just really dislike where all this is going at the moment. But I can't really do a lot to help in situations like these. I think the people that went in with Russel won't listen to me either. Or at least, I doubt that they would listen to someone like me. The only thing I can do, I'm already doing. I finally cleared another long hallway as I got further to where Russel went. I still spot people here so it seems like he hasn't been sending people back either. I just hope that this hallway connects to another one. So that he had the chance to be sent back already.

However in all this uncertainty. There's one thing that I'm certain of. That being that I'm sick and tired of this labyrinth. This is a serious encouragement to not do any labyrinth portals any time soon. I'm tired of doing the same things over and over again.

The labyrinth - Part 9

Complete

You got an character card:

Name: Emily Hawkins

Ability: Healing

Class: Healer

Date of birth: 05/26/1997

Age: 26 years old

Nationality: American

Hair style: Short black bob

Eye colour: Brown eyes

Likes: Heavy bass, Mythology, Frogs

Dislikes: Weapons, Dolls, Blood