Chapter 2-3

Ryder and the others laid silent after the woman turned into nothing but a corpse laying down on wet ground. William pacing along with Larah; Evelyn laying her hand below the vines while she looks outside; the boy sobbing quietly and the choking man trying to talk to William; Ryder however, sat on a rock beside Evelyn with his hands clenched and head lowered.

Evelyn let out her breath and said, "… How are we supposed to know where to go?"

Ryder peeked his head up while still clenching, "I don't know…" he said in a low tone, "This must be the last crossroad, and like everything in the last, it is the hardest part."

"Three ways… all wide and large," said Evelyn slowly.

"And the bugs… they seem to be more frequent around here, especially with the lights." Ryder stands up beside Evelyn and joins her looking outside.

Evelyn looks away from the vines and to the back of her, seeing Larah and William argue as they decide how to get to the exit; and Sine trying to get between them, "If they don't stop fighting, we are surely going to die," said Evelyn coldly.

After examining the walls and the wet ground, Ryder looks back at the others with Evelyn; staring for a minute until he decided to walk towards them, hearing their bickering and their sniggering at one another.

"And what happens if all of them happen to be a dead end?! What then?! Are we just going to stand there and let those disgusting bugs suck the life out of me?!" shouted Larah.

"That will not happen!" argued William, "If we go in to each way, we can find the way out of here and get out together; we don't need to consider staying here, because if the bugs don't kill us, the emptiness in our bellies will!"

"I would rather starve here than going out there only to get my body sucked by mosquitos!"

"That's no-," William tried to argue again, but something grabbed him by the shoulder, making him stop in his words. Ryder laid his hand on William's shoulder, urging him to stop. After both Larah and William went silent, Ryder began to speak, "We need to calm down."

"Oh! Great!" shouted Larah, "Calm down, well why didn't I think of that?! Calming down, calming down; How in the damn am I supposed to calm down after that!"

"If you shout one more time, I'm going to throw you out for the bugs to eat!" shouted Sine, not realizing what he did.

After a few minutes of them arguing, Ryder rubs his eyes with his hand as he lowers his head in annoyance of the two. As he does so, William walks beside him and touches his shoulder to get his attention, "So, the plan that we were talking about was doing a process of elimination with the crossroad," asks William, "But seeing what happened to the girl well... let's just say we're having second thoughts."

Ryder takes a glance at William before looking away to contemplate, taking a few glances back at the hole of the crevice; thinking of the possibilities and potential plans to move forward or to die in either the crevice or outside with the black bugs. After a moment, he circles his eyes back to William as he speaks.

"Well, we know that the right pathway is either a dead end or it leads back to the previous crossroads." He moves alongside William towards the hole of the crevice, prompting Evelyn to make room for them, "The walls are massive but there are more fogs appearing after that woman… died. Which means that whoever is in charge of the maze… are watching."

"And they are making more difficult, either when someone dies or when we search a whole pathway of the crossroad," said Evelyn.

"Do you think that Mr. Deville are watching our moves?" asks Ryder to both William and Evelyn.

"He has to; I mean he is the host of this whole thing, but what kind of sick freak keep this part of the description out?!" said William as he grips out a vine.

"Someone who is giving away billions of dollars to the winners," said Evelyn instantly.

"Whether he is watching or not, we need to do something now; or else he would decide to light up the lights all together," said Ryder.

"I will go and try to calm Sine and Larah down; after that I will tell them the plan." William backs away from the hole and turns around to walk towards the two arguing, but before he does so, "Let's hope no one gets hurt."

"… I will be outside," said Evelyn, "I'll be scouting in case the bugs are near or the lights are buzzing." Evelyn climbs up and through the hole, standing upright outside on the wet ground before walking away.

Left behind at the hole, Ryder stood silently as he contemplates and touches his nails; wondering if everything will end alright or end up losing all of their blood. He stood still for a few minutes, steadying his heart to try and ignore the bad possibilities but he knew he couldn't help it. As he was about to join William and the others, a faint sobbing noise stopped him after he pulled his arm from rest. He moves his eye to the left end of the room, where the little boy that he saw ⁠— Channe ⁠— sobbing on the ground while he hugs his knees and legs. A soft flow ran through Ryder's heart, making him walk up to him.

"Hello," said Ryder softly to Channe as he peeks a little to look at Ryder, but then hurriedly buries his head on his knees.

Ryder tries to reach out his hand to him, but he backs up silently as he sits. After retracting his hand away from him, he wanted to leave him alone. But then he remembered. The bunny plush toy hanging from his waist was Channe's, a toy he unknowingly left behind while he ran for his life. Ryder quickly untied the toy from his waist and then reaches it out to Channe to give to him. Channe peeks out again, but his head now was upright and showed his face. He slowly reaches out to the toy, then grabbing it from Ryder's hand before he hugs it tightly. Ryder donned a smile from his joy with the toy, seeing that there was nothing anymore to do, he stands up. But then as he turns around, his hand is pulled back; Ryder looks and it was Channe grabbing his hand.

"… I know how to find the correct path," said Channe as he pulls back his hand.

"Really? How?" Ryder sits back down on his one knee.

"… the fog… the fog needs to go away," said Channe quietly to Ryder.

"W-what do you mean?"

"… The correct path is straight; the other ways lead to more rooms and ends," said Channe, "The fog prevents you from seeing the straight way, and it brings the bugs when you go through the wrong one,"

Ryder puts his hand on Channe's knees, "Thank you for telling me, Channe, we will get out here safely." He stands up and turns away from Channe.

"… Only… Here, "said Channe quietly as Ryder leaves, but he just shrugs it off before reaching to the three.

Ryder reports what he learned to William and the others, calling Evelyn in from the outside to talk about the plan, "So we need to somehow make the fog disappear?" asks William.

"How do we do that exactly?!" argued Sine, "And how in the damn does a kid know about that? We might as well be grasping at rotten sticks!"

"Apparently the kid knows more than he looks!" shouted Larah.

"Calm down you two!" shouted William, "So, we need to do something about the fogs; how are we going to achieve that?"

An awkward silence befell on them, with each trying to think of how they can move the fog away without alerting the bugs to them. After a minute, the silence is carried away as Evelyn began to speak, "The vines — we can make something out of the vines, a big leaf fan of some sorts to make the fog go away."

"Oh great! I assume to know how to make a fan out of only vines and weeds huh?!" said Sine annoyingly.

"It was only a suggestion," said Evelyn as she glares at Sine, "You are welcome to suggest a dumb one."

"What did you s- "

"Okay!" shouted Ryder, interrupting Sine, "So, we need to get all the vines and weed we can get; and pull out some roots to tie it all together."

"Okay, then we will do that," said William, "After that we will fan the fogs away until we see the straight path to the exit. Does everyone agree?"

Ryder and Evelyn agreed, even Channe who signaled William with a nod of agreement. But Larah and Sine waited in silence for a bit, being hesitant of the plan, but they answered anyway, "Well, anything is better than starving down here," said Sine.

"… Fine, the prize money after this better be real," said Larah.

After their meeting, all of them tries to gather all the vine, weeds, and roots they can; they even went back up to where Ryder and Evelyn rolled from. After an hour, they gathered all of their collected goods in the crevice, with only Evelyn and Ryder tying them all up to make fans. William and the others waited outside at the middle of the crossroads, scouting for any incoming bugs or buzzing of the lights. After Ryder and Evelyn finished making the fans, they grabbed them all up and brought them outside to the crossroad — three big fans for them to use.

"Sine, Larah; grab one for you two to use," ordered William, "I will grab one of these too and we will start fanning to one pathway then to another."

The three of them grabs one of the fans to use, gripping it firmly as they position themselves in front of the left pathway. And without delay, they start fanning the fog as fast as they can. At first there was no noticeable change, but after a few minutes of fanning and sweat, the fog began to disperse away. But the left path was not the correct one. As William looks out to see the end of the path, it only led to more pathways and roads, so they move on to the next one. They position themselves again, then fanning as hard as they can. It took longer to make them disperse than the previous one, with Ryder taking Larah's place. They fan the fog for a few more minutes, until it finally disperses. A relief came over the three's faces as they saw that the path was straight.

"Yes! There it is!" Ryder quickly puts down his fan as they prepare to run to the path. Then something changed.

A buzz started to sound aloud; they frantically move their heads searching for the bugs, looking at the previous path they have fan and the path the dead woman took, but the bugs were nowhere to be found. The buzzing as usual, became louder as they wait; Ryder quickly called everyone to run to the path, but as he starts to step onto its ground. He stopped. His eyes gaped. At the far distance, the bugs crashed onto the wall and started to fly towards them.

"Oh no…" said William sadly.

"No…No…. No No No! Hurry run to the last path now!" Ryder hurryingly turns around and snaps all of them out of their daze.

Grabbing William's arm and calling Evelyn to grab Larah and Channe. All of them runs as fast as they can into the last fog path, and as Channe predicted; the lights suddenly went up so bright. They continued to run despite the painful light shining above their heads; the fog now subsided and they saw a straight path: at the far end lay a large gate, partially open enough for them to enter. It was the way out. Their legs now stone, their breath stale; they kept running still for the gate while the bugs now flew through the crossroads following them. They were now so close. But then, Channe tripped on a rock. He fell onto the wet ground along with his toy, his mind blurry; disoriented as he tries to get up and grab his bunny. Ryder looked behind to see the bugs, but instead he saw Channe; he stopped and turned around, about to go and help him, but… he was so close to the end. He hesitated, looking back and forth to the exit and Channe; and the bugs buzzing almost made his ear deaf. With one step backwards, he was sorry. But luckily, despite the incoming bugs almost at their tale; William was there. He helps Channe up and gave him his toy.

"Come on kid, run!" William pushes Channe to run with him.

Ryder went back to running with him, but Channe was behind, with William following suit. Evelyn, Larah, and Sine, reached the exit; finally breathing their sighs of relief. But not for the ones who were still running. At their dismay, the gate began to close. As William and Channe catches up with Ryder, all of them saw; making them push their lungs to the limit. Their legs about fall off, and their heads drowning in sweat; they kept running. The bugs so close to their heads, with one biting Ryder's neck, making him scream in pain as he slaps the bug away; but he still kept running. The gate now close to shut; the bugs now at their very tails. With one last desperate try, all of them jump as hard as they can towards the gate. With Channe being the first to enter, and then Ryder, but before he landed; something happened. A scream echoed in his left ear, a familiar voice. And as he landed and the door laid shut. He turns around at the gate only to see splattered blood coming out of it. And he hoped that what he thought, was a lie.

"W… William?"