Outside the Box - Chapter 12

12 

“Jake, please tell me those aren’t spiders,” Aspen whimpers below me, still coughing. Her face is pale and she’s shaking - whether from cold, fear, or exhaustion I have no idea. 

“Dr. Barron?” I ignore Aspen, trying to make contact with someone else who could help. But the doctor is absent, her voice silenced by who knows what. 

Thinking quickly, I drop to the floor and begin to rummage through my bag for one of our smaller guns. The spiders approach rapidly, each one gleaming with unnatural light and bloodlust. 

Each one is small and silver, about the size of a coconut not counting the legs - which are long and spindly. The spiders click across the walls and the ground with crazy speed. Each one has a set of sharp pinchers glistening with liquid I can only assume is poison. They seem mechanical, so I reach for one of the shock guns. 

“Jake!” Aspen cries as the spiders get even closer. There are so many of them, I can’t even begin to count. 

“Working on it,” I call back to her. 

I find the gun and immediately point it at the nearest spider. I pull the trigger and a tiny dart flies out, striking the spider directly in the front. It squeals and collapses with a shower of sparks. The other spiders hiss, backing away suspiciously. 

I shoot four more of them before the spiders seem to remember that there’s one of me and a hundred or so of them. 

The approach again, although slower this time. I continue to fire off tiny electrical bursts, but the spiders are growing bolder. Aspen crawls towards her own bag - maybe to help me. One of the spiders races towards her. 

Before I can shoot the spider running at Aspen, another one comes barrelling straight at me and tackles me to the ground. 

I grip its torso with sweaty fingers and the spider manages to escape, but not before returning another attack. It bites at my faces, clicking its pinchers together. I’m barely able to hold it back. 

Just as the spider scurries away and decide to kick it. The spider flies through the air, gears whirring as it spins, until it crashes into the maze wall not far away and dies. 

I fire off a few more rounds but there are still many spiders. 

Aspen throws something at them, still struggling with the spider crawling on her. I shoot it quickly and Aspen nods a thanks. 

Suddenly, a burst of sparks explodes from the middle of the spider swarm, sending them flying everywhere. Most are dead now, thanks to Aspen’s quick thinking and mini-electric bomb. There are still about ten left - and they are angry. 

“Aspen, you need to run,” I tell her as the spiders hiss and creep towards me. “Run through the maze. Only you have to make it.” 

“Quit the heroic act,” Aspen rolls her eyes. “I can handle myself. Don’t die.” 

“Don’t die?” I ask right as the spiders lunge. 

I grab one of them immediately and rip out its legs to use as weapons. The spider dies and I manage to stab two more with the legs, but the new weapons are ripped out of my hands just like the gun. I try to call for Aspen but one of them shoves its leg in my mouth. I bite down, tearing off the leg and killing the spider. 

I’m actually making progress when something stabs my forearm. I gasp in pain and begin throwing off the spiders faster. They hit the wall and die. 

Soon, the area is littered with dead spiders, and Aspen and I are alone once again. 

I wince in pain as my forearm throbs. Aspen looks just as scared and hurt as I am. “Jake, are you…” 

Aspen groans as she falls against the wall, sliding down the smooth surface. Her face is paler than before, her eyes half closed. “Aspen…” I mumble before I’m overcome with dizziness and slide down beside her. 

I can just barely make out a dark splotch on my forearm - the spot that throbs with pain. 

I’ve been bit. I giggle at the thought of being bit. For some reason it seems funny to me, so funny I burst out in laughter. 

Aspen is on the ground beside me, her breathing ragged. 

I am going to die! Again! 

Jake, our tech is failing, a voice tells me in my head. Hearing voices can’t be good, can it? It … venom … spiders… you … Aspen … alone now. … left … right. Counting… on … 

The voice falls silent, and I breathe a sigh of relief. No more silly voices will trouble me. 

Then I fall asleep right next to Aspen. 

A little boy sits on the edge of his tiny bed. Voices are outside, arguing about adult issues. He covers his head with a pillow to avoid hearing the sounds, but they still travel into his ears and brain. 

“I can’t just send him to the slaughter,” a voice is saying. 

The little boy doesn’t know what ‘slaughter’ means, but it doesn’t matter to him. During his tutoring tomorrow he can ask about the mysterious word. Right now, he just wants the voices to stop and his parents to tuck him in. 

“He isn’t good enough and you know protocol. He’s in there right now, you can say goodbye. There’s a chance you might see him again,” another voice says - this one is calmer. 

The boy feels the tug of curiosity, it beckons him to listen in more to the conversation. But it doesn’t feel right. It goes against everything he’s been taught. As the voices grow louder, the boy finds it impossible to ignore them. 

Just as he’s about to get out of bed and tell them to be quiet and maybe ask them where his parents are, the door swings open. 

The bright light from the hallway hurts the boy’s eyes and makes it hard to see. Before his eyes can adjust, the person scoops him up and plants a kiss on his nose. The boy giggles, thinking it’s just another one of their nightly games. But the person soon sets him back down on the bed. 

He scrambles under the covers, tucking them up to his chin excitedly. Sometimes, his parents give him stories and songs before he goes to sleep - and tonight might be one of those nights. 

“Where’s daddy?” the boy asks the figure perched on the edge of his bed. 

“Working, sweetie,” the woman replies - and the boy can see a hint of a sad smile on her face. He begins to think about how much his father and mother work. They seem to work a lot - all work and no play. The boy feels the pang of loneliness he gets on a daily basis. It’s just him, his tutor, and his parents. No one else is allowed to talk to him. 

There is an older girl he meets eyes with occasionally, but she is always whisked away. Her dark hair would be good for hide-and-seek, the boy tells himself. 

“Will you sing me a song or tell me a story?” he asks his mother. 

The woman pats his head gently. “Of course darling. Which would you like?” 

“A song,” the boy decides. “You have a pretty voice, mommy.” 

“Do I?” she says, before clearing her throat. A blissful tune pours from her mouth and the boy smiles to himself. He does not yet realize what the words mean, nor does he care. He likes her voice and the way it moves up and down like the waves of the ocean. 

He doesn’t recall the lyrics, nor does he remember what the song means. He just remembers his mother’s warm voice as she pulls the blanket over his shoulders. 

Something wet lands on his cheek - maybe a tear. The boy does not care, his mind is already entering the deep sleep. The woman sobs silently beside him before the door is opened again. The boy is not yet asleep when another figure enters the room with a large syringe. 

“Goodbye, my child,” his mother whispers, tracing his temple with a lone finger. “May the River of Life take you to the Sea of Possibilities.” 

The words sound familiar like, like the lyrics to a song, but the boy has already gone numb. 

Soon enough, he will not remember his mother or father at all, much less the lyrics to a certain song… 

I jerk awake, panting and sweaty. Aspen screeches beside me, catching her own breath too. “You scared me half to death!” She yells at me. 

“You look pretty alive to me,” I grumble at her. “Unlike my eardrums.” 

Aspen glares at me and I prop myself into a sitting position. My head throbs and my limbs ache, but other than that I feel okay, I guess. “What happened?” 

“What happened? You nearly died!” Aspen shouts at me, and I rub my head. “Sorry, it’s been a long few days…” 

“Days?” 

Aspen sends me a look - she seems scared of how I’ll react. I’m scared of what happened. We can both be scared. 

“There were the spiders,” Aspen begins, “one of them bit you and one bit me, so we both got knocked out. Well I woke up not long after - and nothing was wrong. It killed all of the tech with our trackers and stuff, but I figured you would wake up soon after. And then I saw you…” Aspen’s voice cracks and she stops. “I didn’t know what was happening. You were barely breathing, your skin was pale and sweaty and your eyes were closed. One your arm was a large black spot and I got scared, so I panicked. 

“I dragged you to a dead-end and figured you’d wake up soon enough and be better. Well you didn’t move, and you stopped breathing a few times. I went to try and go back to the storage room on the way in, but just as I left I heard you scream and rushed back here immediately. I haven’t left you out of my sight since,” she says really fast. 

“Days?” I repeat, still looking for an answer. 

“I think two, but I don’t know how long I was out. I ripped out the guts of one of the spiders and wired it into a clock. I’ve barely slept or eaten, I haven’t fed you either. I didn’t want to use to many supplies. Another day and I probably would’ve left you behind. Dr. Barron won’t be happy, but you’re alive…” Aspen’s voice breaks off again and she wraps me in a hug. “I thought I lost you for a while.” 

I’m quiet for a moment, thinking. 

My dream seemed like only five minutes, and it’s been two or more days. Dr. Barron will be livid with us - but it isn’t my fault the spiders were venomous.

I glance down at my arm - which is a big mistake. 

There are two tiny puncture marks from the pinchers, but around it the skin is blackened like it’s dying. The veins around it are sticking out and I force myself to look away before I vomit. I pull down my sleeve and ignore the fact that the venom might still be in my system. 

“Let’s go,” I tell Aspen, struggling to get to my feet. “We have a deadline.” 

Aspen raises her eyebrows but says nothing. She grabs both of the bags, and when I try to protest she rolls her eyes. “Got a plan, genius? Because Dr. Barron can’t lead us anymore.” 

I pause, still leaning against the wall in a last attempt to gain my balance. My feet become steady, although my head is still a bit wobbly. But Aspen raises a good point - how will we know where to go? 

“We could split up, mark our way…” Aspen begins but I shake my head. 

“I’ve seen too many horror movies end that way.” 

“What’s a movie?” 

“Never mind,” I sigh. “Dr. Barron gave a few instructions right as I passed out.”

“And you remember them?” Aspen places a hand on her hip. “Our best bet is to just guess and hope we make it there eventually.” 

“Dr. Barron said to hurry…” 

“Dr. Barron isn’t here anymore, Jake,” Aspen says. “We are alone, in a maze that wants us dead. No one can help us anymore. You’re weak from the venom - for some reason I am not. Neither of us has any idea which way to go…”

Aspen continues to list off everything negative about our situation. Meanwhile, I’m beginning to remember what happened in the dream I had - which maybe isn’t the best time … until I’m not sure it was a dream at all. 

If my dream was actually a memory, it means that everything that happened would have actually occurred. And now the song is coming back to me, just bits of the lyrics. 

“We might know where to go,” I interrupt. “Aspen, when I was asleep, I dreamt of what I think was a real experience for me. And I remembered that my mother - my real one - always used to sing me a song when I was younger. I never really paid attention, but she sang it so much I remember the lyrics. And I think that the lyrics are the answer to the maze!” 

“That’s great!” Aspen cries. “What are the lyrics?” 

“I don’t know exactly, but I think they’ll come back to me as we go,” I explain as we begin to walk. 

At first, my legs feel weak by they begin to grow stronger until I’m able to match Aspen’s pace. We start slowly but end up moving faster than before. As we walk, the song lyrics begin to return to me in meaning - though not in exact words. 

We make the turns as I predict, meeting little resistance. The traps are becoming harder - and less have glitched. But Aspen and I make it through.

I shoot a weird humanoid creature with no face before it can gouge out our eyes. 

Aspen claims to smell something weird and throws a pebble in front of us, setting of a jet of poisonous gas. It dissipates moments later letting us pass through. 

We pass over a large chasm, and jumping across and barley making it. When we turn back it seems to be only a crack in the ground. Aspen tells me that some of the traps are fake - meant to mess with people’s minds. 

I nearly get impaled by a spear - until Aspen yanks me out of the way. At first I think she’s protecting me more than I’m protecting her, but I save her from several flying knives with one of the bags and pull her back before she gets burnt to a crisp by flames. 

The deeper we get the colder it becomes until I can see my breath crystalize in front of me. It happened a few times in the city that we got snow, so I know to quickly get warm clothes on as the air becomes frigid. But apparently Aspen hasn’t ever really been cold before, so she is amazed by the phenomenon. 

“This is cold?” she asks, a big smile on her face. As she exhales a puff of air forms in front of her and I have to take a few minutes to explain that she isn’t part dragon. “This is so cool! I wish it was cold outside too.” 

“It gets old after a while,” I sigh as we trudge along after pulling on warmer clothing. “Your fingers get numb and your teeth chatter sometimes. I have a feeling it’ll only get colder.” 

But my theory is wrong, actually. The maze stays at a similar temperature for quite a bit. The only traps we face are an avalanche, which we manage to run past, and a shark that swims through the air. Aspen shoots it without hesitation. 

The further we go the louder my stomach growls until Aspen convinces me to stop and rest. She says that with the venom I’ll probably be weaker for a bit but it doesn’t bother her too much. We eat some of our food - now growing limited. We need to find the end of the maze soon - and hopefully we will if my song is correct. 

We can’t tell whether it’s night but Aspen says we walked more than what is necessary especially in my “weakened” condition. She insists we stop for the night (or day) and I agree with her. 

Aspen starts a small fire like the one we had before. She lays out our stuff and hands me an extra piece of clothing to use as a blanket. 

We on opposite sides of the fire. Aspen says nothing will attack us and neither of us need to keep watch. There are no stars to look at, none to wish on or anything. My mind isn’t tired and I can’t fall asleep. 

I listen to Aspen’s soft breathing and lie awake, hands tucked under my head. 

I must doze off because what seems like moments later I hear the scream.