Secret of the Labyrinth (The Temple of the Blind #5)

by Brian Harmon

  “We’re going to get sick,” moaned Andrea.

  “Not if we don’t let ourselves get sick,” Wayne replied.

  “I don’t think we have much control over it,” she retorted. In the biting cold and her growing weariness, she was beginning to feel considerably less perky.

  “I know,” he told her. “But being cold doesn’t make us sick. It just weakens the immune system. It makes us more susceptible.”

  “Really?” Andrea asked.

  “Yep.”

  “I didn’t know that.”

  “I think I remember one of my high school teachers telling us that,” Olivia recalled.

  The cold made Wayne’s arm and leg hurt. The cut he’d sustained from the spikes in the fear room did not bother him by comparison, nor did his feet, really, but the zombie bite and the injury he’d sustained from the hound were killing him. He did not think he could get much more miserable than this.

  For a while they walked, the shivering and the chattering slowly fading, their bodies gradually regaining their former semi-warmth. They crossed the room with the forty-two sentinels and entered the passage beyond without pausing to examine any of them.

  As he approached the intersection ahead, he spied the yellow line that ran along the far wall to the right. He reached out and dragged his fingers across it, smearing it.

  “What is it?” Olivia asked.

  “Sidewalk chalk,” Wayne replied. He remembered the Sentinel Queen telling them that the others had left a trail for him to follow and realized that this was what she meant. “Follow the yellow chalk line,” he said, grinning a little. “We’re going to see the wizard.”

  “Guys…” Andrea had turned and was looking back the way they’d come, her flashlight piercing the darkness that pushed in at their backs.

  Wayne turned and added his beam to hers. There was nothing there. “What is it?”

  Andrea shook her head. “I thought I saw something…”

  “I don’t see anything,” said Olivia.

  “I guess…” Andrea shook her head again. For a moment she would have sworn that there was something there, some dark form, short and hunched, darker than the rest of the darkness, but there was nothing there. “I guess not,” she said at last.

  “Come on,” Wayne said. “Let’s hurry. We’ve got their trail now.”

  Andrea lingered for a moment, still not ready to dismiss what she had seen, and then she turned and followed Wayne into the labyrinth, their flashlights chasing the yellow line that would lead them to the others.

  Behind them, in the thickening darkness at their backs, the Keeper watched with interest.

  Chapter 34

  Albert stopped at a merging of three passageways and listened to the eerie silence. There were five choices, discounting the way they came. From where he stood, he could choose to continue straight ahead or he could take either of the passages that branched forty-five degrees to the left and right. Alternatively, he could choose to go forty-five degrees backward, which in this labyrinth could actually be forward. It was impossible to tell which way they might be facing and equally impossible to guess where any path may ultimately take them. But at least he was finally beginning to develop a plan.

  Albert listened to the silence. “Nothing,” he breathed.

  Brandy glanced up at him. “What?”

  “I don’t hear anything,” he replied.

  “What are you listening for?” Nicole asked.

  “Hounds.”

  Brandy’s flashlight beam dropped to the floor, where she searched the stone for any sign of scratches or dropped scales. “Here?”

  “No. Just listening for them.”

  “Why?” asked Nicole.

  “I want to see them.”

  “Maybe the air is getting a little thin down here, Sweetie,” replied Brandy, “but you’ve already seen them. They’re freaky, remember?”

  The corner of Albert’s lip twitched upward into a subtle grin. “I remember,” he assured her. “But I still want to see them.”

  “Why?” pressed Nicole.

  “I don’t know. But I do. It was driving me nuts. I figured it’s because they’ve always driven me nuts. I spent months wondering what they were, how they made that sound. And now I know. But I still want to see the hounds.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Brandy told him.

  “I know. I didn’t get it at first. But the Sentinel Queen said I was psychic.”

  “We don’t know if anything she said is true,” Brandy warned.

  “I know. But if she’s right, then maybe it’s not the hounds I want to see. Maybe it’s the labyrinth’s exit.”

  “I don’t get it,” Nicole said.

  “It’s not logical,” Albert explained. “Curiosity makes sense. I wanted to see the hounds because I didn’t know what they were. But now I know what they are and I still really want to see the hounds. That sounds more like something subconscious to me. If the Sentinel Queen is right, if I am psychic, then maybe I can feel this place somehow. Maybe it’s what she meant when she said we have the ability to pick up the ‘vibrations’ of the temple, or whatever it was. Maybe I can sense the exit. This might be how my mind is relaying it to me.” He shrugged. “On the other hand, maybe I’m not psychic at all, but that doesn’t mean the Sentinel Queen isn’t back in my head, like when she made us leave our cars unlocked last year. Either way, the result is the same. I want to see the hounds. I’m thinking wherever the exit is, there might be hounds. And we can hear the hounds.”

  Brandy and Nicole glanced at each other.

  “Well it’s not like we have anything else to go on,” Nicole decided.

  Brandy shrugged. “Fine. Let’s find some more hounds, then.”

  Albert listened again to the silence, but there were no hounds to be heard here, so he selected a path at random and kept walking.

  After about twenty yards, they found themselves back in the reservoir system.

  “Those fucking squid things better not spray me again!” Brandy snapped.

  As if reacting to her threat, something splashed into the water nearby.

  “I hate those things.”

  “Come on,” Albert urged. “You can walk behind me.”

  The three of them moved deeper into the chamber, Albert’s chalk still pressed to the wall. Ahead of them, shrouded in the darkness, things slithered from their path and fled into the water.

  Albert paused at the next opening in the wall and listened for the sound of agitated hounds, but the labyrinth was silent. Even if this new instinct could be trusted, he realized it could be hours before they came across another area where the hounds were active, and even then there was no guarantee that they would find the correct chamber. There must be miles of intersecting passages down here.

  They moved on and Albert listened at the next opening and then the next. Still he heard nothing. Then, as they moved toward the fourth passage beyond where they entered the chamber, a sound did rise from the silence, but it was not the droning of the hounds. It was the splashing of the mysterious aquatic creatures. Several of them suddenly threw themselves into the water somewhere on the other side of the chamber.

  He glanced back at Brandy and Nicole and saw that their eyes were wide with fright. Something had spooked the creatures over there. And they knew of only one thing down here besides the three of them…

  “Maybe they’re fighting with each other,” Albert suggested.

  But another splash touched their ears, followed quickly by a second and a moment later by a third. Something was moving over there, something that was spooking the squid things and causing them to hurl themselves into the water.

  And it was moving toward them.

  “Oh god…” whimpered Brandy.

  “Come on,” Albert urged. He turned and hurried to the next opening. As soon as the chamber was behind them, all three of them broke into a run.

  Chapter 35

  Wayne paused at an intersection and examined
the yellow line. It disappeared down the left side of one passageway and then returned along the right. Apparently the others had found a dead end down there.

  “Are we okay?” Andrea asked.

  “Yeah,” he assured them, although he honestly did not know. The line was on the left side of the tunnel previously. If Albert had kept the line on that side of the wall the whole time he was walking, then he could remain reasonably confident about which direction they were traveling. That meant that as long as Albert’s yellow line was on his left, he was moving toward them, and if that line was on his right, he was moving away from them. But if Albert’s left hand had grown tired, they very well could wind up going in the wrong direction and perhaps end up traveling in circles.

  Olivia turned and looked back the way they’d come. She did not like it down here at all. She was getting a bad feeling from these walls. Something wasn’t right down here. Perhaps it was the walls themselves, so close and threatening, like the cage of some man-eating beast.

  They walked past the dead-end path and followed the single yellow line to a set of crossroads, and then into another passage.

  Wayne had at last discovered how he could catch up with the others. They were in a giant maze. For hours they’d probably been going in circles. Ordinarily, it would have been impossible. They could wander for weeks and never necessarily cross paths. But here was the path they had traveled, and by marking both sides of the tunnels they’d backtracked, Albert, Brandy and Nicole had saved them the trouble of repeating their mistakes. They could see dead ends before they began. This would shorten the distance between them greatly.

  But even so, how many hours had it been since Albert, Brandy and Nicole passed through this tunnel? How long since this yellow line was drawn? Even with these advantages, how long would they be chasing chalk lines in the dark?

  It didn’t matter, he supposed. He was determined to follow the line for as long as it took. He only hoped that they remained safe until he reached them.

  Chapter 36

  Whatever spooked the creatures back in the reservoir had either failed to keep up with them or had not bothered to follow them.

  Or it chose not to reveal itself.

  Albert turned randomly at each intersection without bothering to pause and listen for the roar of the hounds. He hoped that they could lose themselves back into the labyrinth, but if the thing behind them possessed any kind of advanced sense of smell, the effort would be pointless. Any mere dog could follow their scent trail. Unless they were running from a person, there was literally nowhere to hide. And all any human being would have to do was follow the blue chalk line.

  Was it the Caggo they heard spooking the reservoir creatures? Or was it something else. It was unlikely that it was a hound, but not entirely impossible. For all they knew, the other side of that particular chamber could have been a part of their territory. They would have to have access to the water system somewhere. They were living creatures.

  Could the blind man have been creeping around over there, perhaps checking in on them for his mother? Or perhaps it had been the Sentinel Queen herself. Or maybe it had been the Keeper.

  Or it was always possible that there could be something else lurking around down here, something that they had no way of knowing about.

  If it was the Caggo they heard back there, why didn’t it come after them? Could it not swim? Was there no way across that room?

  Or was it merely playing with them?

  Albert turned down another path and ventured deeper into the labyrinth. All he could do was keep moving and hope they found the exit before something nasty found them.

  Behind him, Brandy and Nicole remained as close as possible, their flashlights gliding across every surface and frequently darting into the blackness at their backs.

  Chapter 37

  Wayne lingered long enough to boost Olivia and Andrea up into the next section of the passage and then hurriedly lifted himself out of harm’s way. To his nearly overwhelming dread, Albert’s yellow line had crossed right over a passage with all the expected markings of the hounds. After his agonizing earlier encounter with one of the beasts, this was the last place he wanted to take unnecessary risks, but he couldn’t afford to lose the trail. If he wandered off the path, there was no guarantee that he’d ever be able to find the chalk line again.

  What was Albert thinking? Clearly, he still didn’t know how nasty the hounds really were.

  But then again, he supposed it could be possible that the only way to find the exit was to cross these areas, in which case, constantly turning back at the sight of sunken passageways would never yield a path to wherever it was they were trying to go.

  Though he hadn’t known him for long, this seemed to Wayne like something Albert would think of.

  But he still wasn’t happy about it.

  What would he do if he came to an area where the others had crossed, the yellow chalk line leading off into the darkness on the other side, but with a voracious, blade-covered hound sniffing eagerly at the scent of trespassers? He would be unable to follow. He’d have to find another way around, which would mean leaving the path and probably getting lost for hours, if not forever.

  He supposed there was nothing to do but worry about that if and when it happened. Until then, there was no point in concerning himself about such things. He would only succeed in making himself more nervous about being here.

  But not thinking about the hounds was virtually impossible. The constant, screaming pain in his leg was a far too vivid and constant reminder.

  Chapter 38

  Nicole felt nearly sick at the thought of something horrible stalking them in these dark corridors. Hot acid churned in her empty stomach at the thought of a bloodthirsty monster leaping out at them and murdering them one by one. It was not even remotely an irrational fear. Something was in here with them, and she had no idea how they were supposed to protect themselves. They were unarmed, helpless and far too deep beneath the earth for their screams to ever be heard.

  She searched desperately for something else to think about, something to distract herself from these awful thoughts.

  What she found was Josh Larsh.

  Josh had been her first boyfriend and her high school sweetheart up until the end of their senior year. There was no big drama, no cheating or lying or backstabbing. They merely grew up and began to drift apart. For almost four years they had dated, ever since the summer before her freshman year, and for most of those four years, she was absolutely certain that she was in love with him.

  At first, breaking up with him had seemed like the right thing to do. They were both growing up. They had begun to go their own ways in life. They both had changed, as people so often did. The world did not end that day. Life went on. But Josh had been more than an impetuous relationship. He was four years of her life and her first of so many things. He was her first kiss. And two years later, he was the first man she gave herself to, the first to ever see her naked, the first to make her feel not just like a pretty girl, but like a beautiful woman. He was the first to whisper, “I love you,” in her ear. Her first valentine. Her first love. She loved him back then, so much, and still did.

  But by the time she realized that she still wanted to spend her life with him, he had already moved on. And he left her behind. He left her all alone.

  She did not hate him. She did not resent him for moving on without her. She still talked to him occasionally, in fact. He still lived in Briar Hills. He attended school right here, studying biology. He was also a manager at Blockbuster Video.

  He was also married now.

  It broke her heart each time she saw him.

  And she was terrified of being hurt like that again. This was the real reason she chose the men in her life the way she did. She intentionally kept company with guys she knew she’d never want to marry. It held the crushing loneliness at bay while preventing her from falling into the kind of love that once shattered her poor heart while she waited for the next
Josh to come along, knowing all the while that there might never be one.

  And then Albert came along. Albert reminded her a lot of Josh, really. He had the same charming nature, even the same friendly grin. And she could see early on that he loved Brandy with all his heart. And Brandy looked at him the way she remembered looking at Josh.

  But there was so much more to Albert than there had ever been to Josh. There was this place. When they sat her down that night and first told her the story of how they really got together, about Albert’s box and Brandy’s key and the incredible journey they shared, Nicole realized that Brandy had found much more than her prince charming. She found her whole fairy tale. She found the sort of thing Nicole had always fantasized about.

  That was precisely the reason she was here tonight, to live the adventure of a lifetime, the way Brandy once did, for just a glimpse of a perfect romance story.

  But it wasn’t really very romantic. It was cold and terrifying and unforgiving. It wasn’t at all like she’d imagined.

  And there was no prince to sweep her off her feet.

  All she had was Earl.

  She had never loved Earl. She felt nothing for Earl but mild physical attraction. When she came to stay with Albert and Brandy two nights ago, the tears in her eyes were never for him. Those tears were for herself, for how low she had sunk. She was still mourning the happiness she’d lost when she and Josh went their separate ways.

  The only reason she ever chose Earl was because she needed someone as impossible for her to fall in love with as Albert was perfect for Brandy.

  And that was something she could never tell anyone.

  Ahead of her, Albert and Brandy abruptly stopped, tearing her out of her thoughts.

  “What is it?”

  For a moment, neither of them answered. They looked at each other curiously, contemplating the feeling that had passed through them.