Nightshift 49: The Labyrinth

[loyal_soldier]

[From here]

"Oh bloody hell, not another one." Another room that looked not only useless, but confusing. He didn't even have a clue where this was. "We should--" he was cut off by the sound of the suddenly much larger door closing with a rather final sounding 'click' behind them. "...Keep going, apparently. There has to be another way out of this

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[doneinthree]

[to here]

Whatever Kirk had been expecting for their next unpredictable room jump, it was not... well. "What is this?" He pointed his flashlight around their new location, but the light barely penetrated a few feet into the strange haze that surrounded them. Not that there was much to see, apparently: grey, featureless stone walls in any direction, except for the large door right behind them. Closed, as if it had a mind of its own, like all the other doors they'd encountered tonight.

"Okay, this isn't the Institute or Doyleton." Impulsively, Kirk reached out to try to exit the same way, but... there didn't seem to be any way to get it open. No handle. No doorknob. He glared silently at the damn thing, trying to decide if a bruised shoulder was worth trying to ram open a door of this size.

First the man-frog-shark, now this? Somewhere out there, someone had to be laughing at him.

[rischiarare]

Roxas felt almost like they were getting punished for hopping from room to room so quickly. When this door snapped shut, it was with a rather final thud. From the looks of it, there wasn't any way to get it back open - pushing on it didn't even shutter the thing in its frame.

So they were being forced to stay in this room. Great.

If one could... accurately call it a room. The walls reached so high that their connection to the ceiling was barely visible from the glow of the flashlights, and they were all solid gray stone. The stone walls themselves weren't all that kept visibility to a minimum; the room seemed hazy, like it was filled with fog.

So options were limited. Well.

"Might as well start walking," the Nobody suggested, already taking off on his own. He kept one gloved hand solidly on the wall to his right, dragging his fingertips along the uneven, beaten stones.

Where was Luxord when you needed him? He was probably good at mazes.

[sewenteen_sir]

Chekov turned around after following Captain Kirk through the storage doorway. Kirk's decision had gone against Chekov's recommendation, but it wasn't as though the recently promoted captain hadn't gone against dozens of recommendations and regulations before. And he'd come out of it a captain, so honestly the decision was probably sound

[doneinthree]

Kirk tore himself away from his staring contest with the door to follow the two teens, letting Roxas take point. It wasn't until Chekov made his comment that Kirk realized why Roxas was walking with his hand on the wall: the surefire way to navigate your way out of a maze was to keep sticking to one wall until the exit. It was a technique he'd picked up not in Russia or Starfleet, but as a young man growing up in a state which loved its corn mazes. He'd never thought this knowledge would have any practical use outside of Iowa, but... then again, Kirk could see how Landel's Institute could get boring enough to warrant the time and effort to carve a maze out of stone.

Assuming this was the Institute. For a certainty, they were still under Landel's sadistic jurisdiction, but if the head doctor was keeping a labyrinth somewhere in his hospital, it wasn't on any of Chekov's maps. And then there was the silence. For hours, no matter where he was, the falling rain had lurked in the background, but here... nothing. Less than nothing. If

[rischiarare]

At least the walls didn't have thorns this time. It made this particular maze a lot easier than the last he'd been in. Though he wanted to give Chekov a questioning gaze behind him, he was actually afraid he might somehow forget which direction he was going in; the place had turn after turn, and if he lifted his fingers for one moment and turned around...

No thanks. Getting lost in a cold, stone maze was one of the many things Roxas would be happy to announce he had not done.

"What's Russia?" he asked, still trying to gauge the distance in which he was able to see through the fog - three feet, maybe. It kept him from hitting his nose on any perpendicular walls, at least. Again that night he was wondering where Luxord was when you needed him: he'd be a great ally to have in Wonderland, since the Nobody had a gift for time and places that didn't make sense. They hadn't gotten lost in the rose garden because of that.

This is so dumb, he was thinking after a time, where the fog hadn't let up and the rough texture of the wall hadn't

[sewenteen_sir]

Chekov, even after traversing the maze for what felt like hours, was still going strong. Marathon training had done something for him, at least--his stamina while under duress was excellent. Bringing up the rear had also afforded him the opportunity to sketch as they moved forward. A partial map of the area would be useful at the very least, though part of him hoped they never had to return here. The fog and the scratches in the wall were only the tip of the glacier as far as this whole maze was concerned.

"A crazed man bent on driwing eweryone in ze building insene, sir," Chekov offered, checking over his shoulder again. "Zough where he keeps his maze... perheps underground." Though if his influence reached as far as Doyleton, it was anyone's guess where they were. If they were underground, they were many many stories underground

[doneinthree]

For his part, Kirk actually was feeling all the wasted time and walking and teleporting piling on top of him, but like hell if he'd ever let his body accept something as normal as exhaustion. There's always an exit, he'd said earlier, and the last thing this place was going to do was make him a liar. His flashlight barely penetrated the seemingly constant haze ahead, but still Kirk didn't let his hand drop as they continued pushing through the winding passages of the maze.

Underground? It was definitely a possibility. "At this point, nothing would surprise me." At least this was better than trudging through miles of freezing tundra and getting chased by horrifying eldritch creatures. Maybe. There was still time for that to happen, but if a hulking monster was planning to jump them on the next turn, it was being frighteningly quiet about it

[sewenteen_sir]

A door. After hours of searching, finally they had been rewarded with a way out of the foggy, desolate, endless maze--with all of their limbs in tact. Apparently Landel was happy enough watching them struggle through the maze, since they hadn't encountered another multiplying animal or worse. Face breaking into a relieved smile, he followed the Captain and Roxas towards the door. Nothing could have been any worse than this maze. At least the next place they were transported to might have a readily accessible door. Captain Kirk pushed open the door leading out of the maze, Roxas followed, Chekov right behind him