The Minotaurs of Maze World

by Eddie Patin

  It was so weird. After everything, Riley felt like he was the leader of the Reality Rifters now, and he didn't want to be! But this Jason Leaper was totally inexperienced and almost helpless. The man did show some real fruking gall facing down that wyvern with a spear and rope like he did. But ... he could barely rift.

  Maybe this would just take some time...

  Jason 934 could open the portal to the Wilderlands okay from the permanent rift. That was the easiest thing to do, of course. And he could almost open a rift to the same universe using a focus key from elsewhere. Almost, but not quite...

  Riley had given Jason a focus key to the Market earlier in the week—that blue dragon coin from the Bounty Boards. He wondered if Jason had bothered trying to use it.

  Well, if nothing else, he thought, we can get to the Market with the OCS.

  Hopefully travel to Churn wasn’t affected by Jason 113’s block.

  Damn it, Riley thought with a frown. Everything was going so fruking well. Why the hell did Jason 113 need to be so damned reckless and get himself killed?! Shet—Goran and Artemis didn't have to die either. It was just ... stupid!

  Riley jumped out of the way of a larger, tougher giant zombie with rippling, green muscles and a huge mouth and claws. The extra-strong enemy threw a chunk of asphalt at his character and Riley dodged with ease, already in the scope of the sniper rifle the moment he pulled the weapon up into the screen. He shot the monstrosity right between the eyes once, twice, then switched to his pistol again to deal with the approaching weak enemies. He dodged effortlessly and fought on...

  Maybe Jason 934 won’t be able to get a handle on rifting, Riley thought with a twinge of dread in his heart. The guy just didn't have the right background. This Jason from u934 may never have the right state of mind to figure out the details of rifting like Jason 113 understood. If only we’d never lost Jason 113, the soldier thought with an uncomfortable wave of grief passing through his chest and throat.

  Riley just wanted things to go back to the way they were a week ago...

  He wanted to be back at base on u113, carefree and following Jason 113's orders, killing shet and raking in the gold...

  Something inside Riley's chest felt cold and crushed. He didn't understand it.

  He felt a terrible fear that everything would be different now.

  It felt like starting over.

  Jason 934 had heart alright, but he wasn’t anything at all like 113, or even 47, who was highly competent. But Jason Leaper 934 was nowhere near as ruthless or confident as 113 had been.

  Maybe the good times are over, Riley thought with a another frown. Or maybe not. Maybe the kid just needs some time and practice...

  "Kid," Riley muttered with a chuckle. "He’s older than me."

  Gliath raised his head and looked at the soldier as if with a question mark on the tip of his yawning, pink tongue.

  Riley smirked and petted his friend. "Nothing, buddy..."

  "Alright!" Jason 934 exclaimed, approaching Riley and Gliath, who was in human form. They approached the small, ramshackle kitchen/dining room table. Judging by all of the shet stacked up on it, Riley had no idea when Jason had last used this table for actual eating. Now, they sat down as their new Jason approached with a big, metal pan full of cooked meat and a broad, proud smile on his face. "Here we go! Venison steaks, courtesy of Gliath the hunter!"

  Riley moved his beer slightly aside and fished out a steak with the eating knife Jason had given him. He plopped the glorious, slightly-charred, delicious-smelling cut of venison onto his plate.

  "Looks great, Jason," Riley said with a smile, then picked up his fork and went to work.

  The meat was juicy and hot and full of flavor. Riley cut through and consumed several bites, then took a swig of beer.

  "Look at all this meat!" Jason exclaimed, taking a steak of his own and sitting down. "It’s been a long time since I’ve been hunting. Not since—well, not since I was a teenager, really. My dad was a big hunter, and I used to hunt with him until ... well, until they died. I haven’t been hunting since."

  "Did you hunt some dinosaurs in the Wilderlands?" Riley asked.

  Gliath sat silently, his tan and severe human face expressionless as his eyes attentively darted back and forth between them. The Krulax ate his own steak just as a human would. There was a time when Gliath would have insisted on raw meat and would have eaten it with his bare hands—human form or not. But in the years since the leopardwere and Riley started traveling together, the soldier had shown him how to fit in with other people. He showed Gliath the benefits of not just acting like a beast all of the time.

  "Yeah, I did," Jason said, shoving a bite of steak into his cheek as he replied. He smiled. "God—that seems like so far away now, even though it was just ... over the course of Sunday and Monday? It’s so weird how I was in there for like two weeks..."

  "Interdimensional travel can be really fruking weird," Riley replied, taking another bite.

  Jason laughed. He was definitely in good spirits now. "Look at this! Three dudes eating deer steak and drinking beer. This is the life!"

  Riley smiled, but his mind was stained with feelings of impatience and disappointment. He missed Jason 113; not only as a friend, but as his leader. Riley couldn't shake the feeling that he was starting a new chapter of ... drifting. "You have no idea, Jason. The planeswalking life is really crazy sometimes. There’s a ton of good shet, too. There’s nothing like the adventure, the glory, the riches and experiences... I could never go back to a normal like back home. My dad is a rail mechanic back in the little town where I grew up. He's retired now, of course, but I could never go back to a boring life like that after seeing what I’ve seen."

  Gliath helped himself to a second steak. Jason seemed surprised to see that the first one was gone from the leopardwere’s plate already.

  "When are we going to the Market?" Jason asked. "It feels like I’ve been practicing for days."

  Riley sensed genuine excitement in the new Jason, but there was also a slight tremble as he asked. Maybe the man wasn’t as gung hoe as he seemed. Jason was scared, but at least he was pushing forward; trying to ignore his fear...

  "As soon as you’re ready," Riley replied. He suddenly felt torn again on whether or not to wait until Jason could rift there with the focus key, or to just use the OCS and the coordinates instead.

  We could just stay here as long as it takes, Riley thought. He and Gliath had a good bit of gold to trade with and Jason had what seemed like a good bit of Earth money now. Jason would probably figure out the other rifting techniques eventually. But, then again, maybe he won't. Riley felt anxious; antsy. He longed to get back into the action; seeing new places and fighting varieties of monsters like in that stupid video game but for real. He wanted to be back in the flow back and forth between new adventures and visiting the Bounty Boards.

  He wanted to go back to feelings of normalcy.

  Back to how things were before Jason 113 died.

  The new Jason felt too casual. It made Riley feel like he needed to take control, and something deep inside the soldier screamed out against it. He didn't want to lead. He didn't want the responsibility. He just wanted to follow an awesome Jason.

  Why couldn't Jason 934 already be awesome?! Both Jasons 113 and 47 were great men. This new guy totally didn't know what he was doing.

  Jason really needed to figure out how to use focus keys and how to rift through third dimensional space. He could use the OCS, sure. He was still being a bit hung up on how the settings worked, but that'd be easy enough to figure out in time. But Jason's ability to use focus keys and to teleport through space was vital for their work.

  The way that Riley had described the ten dimensions to Jason—the same (best) way that Jasons 47 and 113 had described them to him—was very basic stuff. Of course, he came from a world where interdimensional travel was the newest science. It was all over the news and social media and everywhere else. Everyone knew about it and followed the ch
anges as they happened as intently as they followed the new models of their CamComms and pop culture. This backward Earth world didn’t know shet about interdimensional science...

  "What is it?" Jason asked suddenly, looking up at Riley from working his fork and knife. "What's wrong?"

  "What?" Riley said, looking up. He saw Jason's blue eyes looking back at him.

  "What are you thinkin about?" Jason said, good will open and clear on his face, but there was a nervousness in his eyes. "You’re making angry faces at your meat. Did I cook it okay?"

  Riley sighed, putting down his utensils. Gliath took notice and watched them both, chewing slowly.

  "You need to figure out the rifting, Jason," Riley said. "We can go to the Market anytime with the OCS. I don’t think it's blocked. We could also take our portable gate in the garage. But it won’t do us any good if you can’t rift using a focus key or teleport us through third dimensional space."

  Jason swallowed. "I’m working on it, Riley. I—"

  "You’ll see when we get to the Bounty Boards. When we take a job, we’ll buy a focus key to get the universe we need. You’ve gotta be able to use it. And if we get into trouble out there, you’ve got to be able to get us out of there."

  Riley realized that he was glaring and took a deep breath. He picked up his knife and fork and started to cut another piece of meat.

  Jason stared, shocked. He ran his fingers through his short hair and watched his steak.

  "I can do it, Riley," he said finally. "I can feel it almost happening. All of it—except for when I’m trying to use the OCS through Jason 113’s block; then there’s nothing—but I can feel that it’s almost like I’m lifting something, and I know that I’ll get stronger! I just—"

  "You need more time," Riley said.

  "Yeah," Jason replied, shaking his head. "I’ll get it. I won’t let you guys down." He glanced over at Gliath, then met Riley’s gaze again. "I’ll keep trying..."

  Chapter 7

  In the light of his old desk lamp of his computer and crafting room, Jason sat hunched over his latest creation on the little table. The smell of melted solder wire was fresh and metallic in Jason's nose, and his old soldering iron was still smoking. Thin tendrils of burnt tin wafted up into the spinning ceiling fan. The bag from the electronics store was nearby, and all of the plastic and cardboard wrappings of some of the components Jason had purchased were scattered on the carpet behind his chair.

  Jason flicked the switch to turn on his new device's motor and he heard the diminutive whine of it turn on, started by the AAA battery he'd connected with wires through the side. The infinity crystal he used (he had more than one) was fully enclosed, and Jason didn’t see any sort of blue glowing, so he couldn’t tell whether his contraption was working or not. The first version of this new device was a bit clunky; it had to hold the motor, the charging battery, the crystal itself, and everything connecting it all together and regulating the energy. Still, it wasn’t bad...

  Opening a desk drawer, Jason pulled out a random USB cable and plugged the big end into his new creation. The quick-charge external battery he’d used for surplus storage in the device was long dead, so after a few minutes of charging, it would be obvious whether or not his idea was a success. He'd know soon enough whether or not it was working...

  "What are you doing?" Riley asked suddenly from behind him.

  Jason jumped, dropping the micro-USB end of the cable onto his desk. He turned and saw the soldier leaning against the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. Riley smiled slightly when Jason looked at him.

  "Oh ... uh ... building something," Jason replied. "Don't worry—I'll get back to rifting in a little bit. You can come in if you want."

  Riley nodded, scratched his beard, then walked up behind Jason’s chair, peering down at the smallish device surrounded by loose parts and tools.

  "Something involving your CamComm?" Riley asked.

  "Um yeah. My phone. You remember when you showed me the charging boots that Jason 113 made for you? That gave me an idea, and I picked up these parts at the store in Denver when we were there so that I could make this."

  "To charge your ... phone?" Riley asked. "How’s it work?"

  "Well," Jason replied with an excited smile. "I suppose the piezoelectric quality in the crystal—its ability to keep creating electricity—is indefinite, right? At least until the crystal breaks maybe..."

  "Right..."

  "So I hooked up a motor to keep whacking the crystal over and over again," Jason replied, rolling his chair to the side so that Riley could get a better view. "There’s an old external phone battery in there too to hold the power it generates—as much as it can, anyway—and then the motor keeps going, powered by the battery, and I can also plug my phone or a tablet or something in through this USB port," Jason said, pointing. "If this infinity crystal really makes more energy than it needs to run the motor and actually build up a surplus, then this device could keep going forever—as long as the parts hold out."

  Riley smiled and patted Jason’s shoulder. "That’s why they’re called infinity crystals. Good job. Does it work?"

  "Well, I don’t know yet," Jason replied. "I guess it’s been long enough. Let’s see..."

  Jason picked up his phone from where it was sitting nearby on the desk. Hopefully the external battery hooked up in the device had enough of a charge now. It depended on how much power the crystal could generate...

  He plugged his phone into the micro end of the cable, waited, then felt a rush of elation when his phone let out a bloop-bleep and showed the ‘charging’ indicator. It worked! And Jason knew that if he decided to turn the device off, as long as the battery inside held enough power to start the motor again, he could flip that switch and start it up again without the help of an external source of power.

  Free energy, he thought with a big grin.

  "Does that mean it works?" Riley asked.

  "Yeah!" Jason exclaimed. "This thing can charge my phone!"

  "Good," the soldier replied, disinterested. Jason supposed that such tech was nothing new to him. "Good job. So hey—I was going to ask you about moving Gliath and I to somewhere in the house other than the couch. We’ve been here for almost a week. Back at the other base, we had the other small bedroom—assuming that this house is the same as the last one. Does this house have three bedrooms?"

  "Um ... yeah, it does," Jason replied, putting his phone down on to the desk next to the infinity charger. Yes ... infinity charger, he thought. That's what he'd call it. "There’s the room that used to be my parents’, my room, and also this one."

  Riley cocked his head. "You mean ... you don’t sleep in the big room?"

  Jason stood with a sigh.

  "No," he replied. "I sleep in my room. It’s always been my room. Come on, I’ll show you."

  Jason led Riley out of the computer/crafting room, across the hall, then opened his own room’s door. He’d grown up in that smaller room, and when his parents died, he never bothered to change anything. Sure, over the years, he’d replaced furniture here and there. He bought a bigger bed and put a TV on the wall, but this bedroom was still his. It didn’t feel right to do it any other way. He couldn't imagine living in his parents' bedroom; it seemed wrong somehow.

  Now, looking into the smaller room with Riley behind him looking over his shoulder, Jason felt a twinge of embarrassment and didn’t really understand why. His room didn’t look bad. It didn’t look like a child’s room. It was his. He was thirty-three, and the room matched him ... maybe except for some posters on the wall.

  "This bedroom was where Gliath and I slept in Jason 113's house," Riley said. "That Jason stayed in the master bedroom."

  "Well, I guess you guys can take the master one here," Jason said, taking a few steps down the hall and opening the door to his parents’ old room. It might have been months since he’d opened that door last and the room seemed oddly quiet and undisturbed. Light filtered in through the shades and the air tasted like d
ust. "Besides—there’s two of you and only one of me."

  Riley smirked, but his face showed some discomfort.

  "I dunno, Jason. How long’s it been since your parents died? Jason 113 went through the same thing, you know—his parents died in a crash too, but he wasn’t injured like you were. Of course—he was also older than you. By like twenty years, maybe. It feels like you should be in the big room. It's your house..."

  "It’s been about fifteen years," Jason said, then he suddenly felt staggered by the weight of it. That was a long time. Good God, was he getting older! "It’s okay," he said, touching Riley’s shoulder. "I like my room. You guys take my folks’ room—it’s okay."

  "How’d your parents die?" Riley said, surprising him.

  Jason felt a small knot of sadness rise up in his throat. He leaned against the wall of the hall, and looked past Riley’s face at a framed photo on the wall of him as a teenager with Mom and Dad hiking up Quandary Peak near Breckenridge, Colorado. He remembered that when they made it to the top—there were so many people doing the same thing—the weather rolled in like nothing he'd ever seen, throwing lightning bolts down into the loose shale mountaintop. Everyone had run and scrabbled down to the tree line, including him and his folks.

  "It was a plane crash," Jason said. "We were heading to Alaska to spend Christmas with one of my dad’s hunting friends. My dad was flying the plane and something went wrong with the controls—I still don’t know what it was—and my dad was turned around talking to me when an alarm went off and he lost control." Jason realized that he had been staring at his dad’s smiling face in the photo while talking, so shook his head. His memory was still extremely fresh from when he jumped into that parallel universe from the wyvern's cave where his parents were older and still alive. Jason felt a wet despair rising up in his chest and grunted, pushing it down. "We ... um ... went down in British Columbia. Mom and Dad were killed on impact, and my leg was really messed up. Some loggers found us and pulled us out of the wreckage, but ... it was too late."