The Hollow Game.

Chapter Seven

Damn, is it dark in here. Binks frowned as he felt another arrow notched into the wall in front of him. He had managed to squeeze into the tunnel next to his original one but the arrows, those stupid arrows, were already carved into the walls. He didn’t remember being in this stretch of tunnel but those were his arrows next to Ace’s desired hearts and skulls.

He blinked, fumbling around for his knife before clumsily adding to the collection. He swore as he tripped on the uneven ground, his hands balling into fists as he fought to regain his balance. Pain threaded through his left and he belatedly remembered that he still had the knife out. Oh, that’s going to be nasty later, he thought, feeling liquid running down his fingers. As the floor in the cavern had been sinking, Binks had the displeasure of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had tripped on the loose rocks and had sent his pocket knife flying only to have the hilt crushed by a particularly sharp piece of the ceiling. The blade had survived but that made handling it awkward, not to mention dangerous. He briefly mourned the lost as he carefully unfolded his hand and let the blade clatter to the ground.

Binks couldn’t see the damage, couldn’t even see ahead of himself, but could feel the tacky wetness as it ran down his palm. It was bad, he knew that much. And no amount of medical treatment would stop death if he remained in these tunnels with an open wound. Infection would take him faster than dehydration would.

A snap, loud and fast, sounded like a gunshot and rattled the ground. He gritted his teeth, steading himself as the ground shook and dislodged a cloud of dust and rocks. I’ve got to get outta here before I’m buried here! Stooping to feel for the knife, he ripped the bottom of his shirt with his other hand and once the blade was safely back in his pocket, loosely tied the fabric around the wound. It would do until he got out and then he would properly clean it. Another cloud of dust rained on him and seconds later he was running through the tunnel, looking for another section.

After all, he didn’t remember being in this section yet obviously he had been, so it only made sense that there was a split off somewhere. Minutes passed by before he let a triumph smirk cross his face. A small hole, noticeable only if one had their hands pressed forcibly onto the walls.

The new section of tunnel was just as uneven as the last and the ceiling fell in chunks rather than in peebles and clouds of dust. Binks coughed, eyes watering as he tried figuring out where the next section was. It was sort of like a maze yet whereas in a maze there were different paths to choose from, he only felt two. Not a maze, then, he thought grimly.

He paused at one of the cross sections. Eyes narrowed, he listened as multiple light thumps drifted from the one on the right. Binks bit his lip, took a deep breath than braced himself as he crept down the tunnel. He reached into his pocket for the knife, fingering it as the thumping became louder, more symmetrical.

Footsteps. He strained his ears until the slightest of murmures reached him. And voices. Three, possibly four people and none of them are Ace or Lila, that much I’m sure. He crept closer, careful to avoid the loose pieces of flooring and the larger chunks of rock.

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” A gravelly voiced woman asked. Binks thought she sounded like she had caught a bad cold then decided to smoke the virus away. “Of course I’m sure, my dear,” a higher pitched man said. A dreamy sigh echoed strangely though the tunnel making him raise an eyebrow. “You two are so lucky!” Another girl crooned. Lucky?!

“To be chosen together,” the girl sighed again. “So romantic!” She has issues, he thought, creeping closer. If she thinks playing a violent, suicidal game is romantic. I can think of easier, safer dates to go on. The ground shifted under his feet and he froze.

Holding his breath, Binks inched forward until the ground was once more stable and the voices, definitely three of them, were clearer. “Shh,” the man hissed while the gravelly woman harrumphed loudly. “Show yourself,” she commanded. “We know you’re there.” Well, I don’t want to disappoint now do I?

He chuckled as he stepped forward, moving partially behind one of the ceiling chunks just in case. He felt rather than heard them jump backwards-- surprised that he either came out or that someone was actually present, he figured.

“You lost?” Binks raised an eyebrow at that before scowling. Was he lost? Binks didn’t know whether to hit him or turn around. Instead he let loose a low growl of laughter, one he knew for a fact made people uneasy. “We’re in a suicidal maze and you’re askin’ me if I’m lost?” He snickered, imagining their wary faces which brought a genuine smirk to his face.

“He has a point,” the high pitched, baby voice girl said. “I’m Kitty,” she burbled. “And the lovebirds are JD and Sally.” Binks raised an eyebrow as the girl continued rambling about how they met and where they had come from. Kind of like a refrigerator, he thought. Constantly going but easily ignorable. The other two didn’t seem to mind Kitty’s constant stream of chatter but within minutes Binks was regretting his previous assumption. Kitty wasn’t as easily ignorable as he had thought, especially once she decided to latch onto his hand and began swinging it back and forth. Then she was moved up from annoying and tolerable to annoying and disliked. Binks congratulated himself on not shoving her away. A feat his very annoying and very much disliked therapist would be proud of. Maybe he could actually quit, then.

“Look, have any of you heard a girl laughing? Maybe another one complaining after her? I need to find them.” The insistent chatter seized as the guy, Jerry or something, grunted. “Nope, just is,” he said. “Perhaps they’re lurking somewhere below us,” the woman-- Sandra?-- added. “Oh, like a cave?! That reminds me of when I was little and my family had just moved from…” Binks tuned her out again, not willing or caring to hear her backstory. “They’re not dead,” he informed the gravelly woman bluntly. For a few seconds the tunnel was silent and he relished in the peace. Then it was over as Kitty pulled him along once more, her ever present chatter so different from Ace’s outlandish and dangerous ideas.

I’ll see them soon, he thought, already bracing himself for the long haul. I promised.

Ace stared at everyone blankly. She could feel her smile, too big and fake, starting to crack and slip. This Game is just as much physical endurance as it is mental. Yet even keeping that in mind she had slipped. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was the faint outline of thick wires.

Her hands trembled, fingers numb, as the feeling of warm, wet clothes coated them. She glanced down, honestly expecting to see tacky red blood fading to brown but instead just seeing her clean hands. Water, her mind supplied. Not blood, water. “Does anyone know if there are any underwater rivers or ponds?” At the various head shakes she gave herself a few more seconds to mourn. The clothing, wet and cold, sticking to rapidly cooling flesh and strung up against damp walls like morbid trophies. Heat pooled in her chest, bubbling and frothing before settling into tapered steel. Determination welled up in its place as she stood up and marched back into the tunnel.

She wouldn’t let those people be forgotten just like that.

Ace stared ahead as the light dimmed and the tunnel became darker and darker. She knew that Lottie and the others were following her, curious about why they were heading back into the labyrinth since they had successfully escaped it.

Eyes narrowed, she marched forward, hands placed on the walls, silently counting her steps. She would be damned if she couldn’t find her way back a second time. After all, how am I going to win the Game if I die here? The walls slowly lost the warm, dry texture and gained the tell tale dampness. “What are you doing?” Lottie asked. She could hear the exasperation under the other girl’s panting and wondered absently if she would be just as annoyed if she found out about Ace’s favorite hobby. The thought of the taller girl’s pinched expression brought a brief grin to her lips. That was something to see for sure. “Um, maybe we should head back?” One of the boys said. Ace frowned, brows furrowed together before smoothing out moments later. Not the blonde, she figured, remembering his bored, albeit concerned, look. The curly haired man hadn’t struck her so much as a worrier then as a grumbler. That left the man with dreadlocks. She was honestly surprised-- would have put him as a laid back, go with the flow type of guy. Someone who would have been itching at the thought of adventure but then again she had been in the dark for a while, maybe that affected her skills more than she thought.

“Nah,” she dismissed, fingers searching for the thick wires. “Besides, I remember the way back just fine.” A huff rippled through them before a low groan and short shout followed. Ace clenched onto the wire, feeling it biting into her palms but gritting her teeth against the pinpricks of pain welling up from them. She pulled back, digging in her heels and putting all her weight into loosening the wire.

The seconds felt like centuries until the wire suddenly slackened. Ace yelped as she fell onto her bottom but grinned triumphantly. “What are you doing?” The woman asked as Lottie hissed to leave it alone. The feral grin on her lips turned grim as she told the others how her and Lottie had gotten separated briefly. Before she had managed to find Lottie again, she had heard someone weakly moaning from down here and had went to investigate, thinking it was Binks.

When she had gotten there, it wasn’t Binks but another contestant, and he had barely been able to move due to the floor giving way under him.

“There were wires strung up against the walls,” she informed them. The man had been too far away and must have triggered a trap because the next thing she knew the floor was disappearing and the man was going down with it, only stopping when a single, sharp snap had sounded.

Ace had tried to find a way down to him safely but had been unable to. And when she had called to him, he hadn’t answered at all. The terror and anger and sorrow were high when she had found Lottie two tunnels over and then they had stumbled into the lightened tunnel. “Do you think there are other, er, bodies, down there?” Dreadlocks asked. A deeper voice scoffed, “There could be bodies all over this place.” Ace winced at that but nodded nevertheless. The man was entirely right: there could be bodies all over the tunnels, these were just the ones they knew about.

She inched forward, careful to keep a hold on the wire, and slowly tugged at it until she thought it was almost to her. She shimmied onto her stomach, ignoring the others’ calls, and reached for the body. With the others there, Ace felt fairly confident that if she started to slip then they would catch her. Farther, farther; her hand touched the end of the wire and her eyes widened at the empty tip. “Help me pull this up,” she demanded, already yanking it backwards. Someone grasped her waist and another pair of hands grabbed onto the wire and together the three pulled on it until the empty wire laid at their feet.

Roaring rushed through her ears as she carefully backed away, blinking. “He was here,” she mumbled. “I know the wire wasn’t like this, he was tangled in it.”

“Maybe he escaped,” Lottie said hopefully. No one said anything against her but it was left unsaid that nobody believed her. “We should head back,” the dreadlock guy added gently. Ace stared dumbly at the floor then over to where she knew the man had fallen through. Someone, probably Lottie, helped her to her feet and guided her towards the tunnel entrance. She heard the low hum of voices but couldn’t pick anything out; could feel the ground shifting and cracking underfoot but didn’t care. Someone had died for this twisted game. Probably more than most died for this twisted game and now it was her turn to play it. I’ll win the Game, she silently vowed. And then I’ll end this Game.