The Minotaurs of Maze World

by Eddie Patin

  "Whatever, dude. Get the fruk inside..."

  Chapter 17

  Riley stood in Jason 934’s bathroom, washing his hands and face. The water was cold and felt great on his skin. He ran his wet fingers through his dark, scraggly beard, knocking loose the tangles and bits of dirt from Maze World. Then he turned the faucet off.

  The soldier stared at his hard face in the mirror, ignoring the scans of his reflection that his cybernetic eyes did automatically. He stared into his somber brown eyes for a moment and ran his calloused hands through his short crop of dark hair. With one finger, Riley traced along the faint burn scar that ran along one side of his face. He'd been with Jason 113 back when he received that scar. Finally, Riley turned and wiped his hands and face on a hanging coral-colored towel on the wall.

  Holy shet, he thought, Jason is finally starting to get it.

  Riley allowed himself a moment to feel a little twinge of hope that the new Jason—as soft and inexperienced as he was—just might be able to get this rifting stuff down enough to keep the Reality Rifters in business. The new guy's house was almost the same as Jason 113’s house; maybe a little smaller. It would do for a new base...

  "Don’t get your hopes up," Riley told himself in the mirror.

  The kid was impulsive and all over the place. He was taking longer than he should to figure out rifting concepts. Shet—Jason 934 was so obsessed in the moment with scanning the wildlife of the Wilderlands that he didn’t notice three big fruking predators running at him. Maybe Riley would have to just be a little more patient.

  Riley laughed. Ha .... kid. Jason 934 was actually older than Riley himself.

  Time dilation and variances from universe to universe made aging a little unpredictable, but Riley figured he was only about twenty-eight himself—at least according to his dad back on Ebonexus, who was quietly keeping track.

  This Jason was ... in his thirties?

  Jason might have been right about not antagonizing the Nothrix. On Maze World, there would be no Phase Wraiths to dissuade violence between hunters like in the Market, and those bug frukers were outright killers and thieves. They also had numbers—many more than Riley’s meager fruking group of three. Maybe pissing them off and not giving them that kill was the wrong call. But shet—Riley never wanted to lead. He was just hired muscle; he wasn’t supposed to be the leader of the Reality Rifters!

  If only Jason 113 was still around...

  The new Jason didn’t know anything about dimensions—other than what Riley had told him, and that was basic knowledge! Jason 113 was a real physicist—not a college dropout. He built things. He got shet done by changing the worlds around him.

  Jason 934 just played video games.

  Fruk—at least he could shoot...

  Riley shook his head, his heart swimming in doubt and an itchy insecurity that clawed at his insides, then he opened the bathroom door to join the others in the house.

  Gliath was finished cleaning out the gut tub and the rest of the blood and shet in the garage and was now eating some of Jason’s cat food in the kitchen. Riley walked up and scratched his friend behind the ear. Gliath rumbled and let out a low purr, his fork clinking into the can.

  That shet smelled terrible.

  "Good job today, buddy," Riley said. "Everything nice and clean?"

  "Yes, Ranaja," the leopardwere replied in his deep voice. "Three hides are ready for Zayden Skinner."

  "Good boy."

  The soldier walked back into the living room, where Jason sat in his armchair playing with his CamComm. Jason 934 looked up as if waiting to hear what Riley’s wanted...

  Riley sighed.

  "Hey," Jason said, lowering his phone.

  That's right—it was called a phone here. Not a CamComm.

  "Let’s head to the Market," the soldier said. "Turn in the three hides. Then we’ll get some sleep and head back to Maze World early in the morning."

  "Okay," Jason said, standing. "Now?"

  "Yeah."

  As Jason turned, Riley noted the hole in the new guy's armor on one side—the spot where he'd been gored by the she-bitch. He was honestly surprised that Jason wasn’t freaking out over almost being killed. The guy was so shell-shocked over everything new they encountered that Riley half-expected him to drop out of the game when they returned home earlier. Most people gored by a minotaur don’t survive. It was a good thing that Riley had his precious potions—now down to one remaining.

  Riley felt stupid and more than a bit out of his depth. He was used to taking orders—not giving them. He should have been the one in the middle of the canyon; not Jason. It would have made a lot more sense for Jason to be positioned by the wall, shooting from a quartering perspective instead of from head-on. He would have been much more likely to hit the neck with his powerful slug gun if it was aimed more from the side. Riley could shoot faster and more accurately; he should have taken the point position. He would have been able to dodge the beast with his enhanced reflexes.

  Instead, he almost got Jason 934 killed.

  They almost lost another Jason.

  What they really needed to do over there was take things slower. With their weaponry, the best place to approach the beasts from was from down on the canyon floors. Hunting from the ridge would be difficult with the minotaurs’ defensive capabilities. But they needed to hunt more slowly. One bad charge could result in disaster—it almost did. At the same time, they really needed to hurry if they were going to get at least ten hides to Skinner! Riley felt an overwhelming need to impress the manager of the Bounty Boards. He had to earn back the reputation that the Reality Rifters had before so that they could do exclusives and get the good jobs.

  Riley had to get things back to the way they were before. He really didn’t want to totally start over like this...

  Fruk—he and Gliath would have been stuck on Maze World if Jason had died. He would have needed Rush’s help to get them back to the Market, or, he could have tried to use the Nothrix’s portable gate...

  "Hey," Jason said, clapping Riley’s shoulder with a smile. "You okay?"

  "Sure," Riley replied. "Let’s go."

  The three of them met in the garage and Gliath took the large, folded stack of minotaur hides. Riley noticed that Jason was carrying that black cane of his—he had it hooked onto his forearm as he pulled up the OCS to rift to Churn.

  "Should I use the coordinates that I bookmarked inside the Bounty Boards?" Jason asked, turning on the OCS’s display and swiping around on the screen.

  "Yeah," the soldier replied. "Why are you taking your cane?"

  Jason found the coordinates and stared at the OCS for a moment, then shrugged and looked back at Riley. "I dunno. I don’t need it anymore, but ... it just feels right, you know? Also, I’ve always considered it a self-defense weapon. It’s basically a club that I can keep out in plain sight. I think I’ll still keep carrying it with me on my morning walks even though my leg’s better now."

  "Well don’t use it as a weapon in the Market," Riley said.

  Looking down to the OCS again, Jason seemed to have a thought and glanced back at Riley as if to ask why not? But instead of speaking up, he looked down again as a rift opened with a loud sound, filling the garage with violent, orange light and the roar of the swirling sparks. Riley couldn’t shake the impulse to ask and make sure that Jason was using the right coordinates—he still couldn’t believe that the guy had lost one of their kills—but he didn’t say anything. Jason was looking at the OCS intently as the rift smoothed out. Was he making sure that they were going to the right place?

  The new guy had superimposed his rift right in the middle of their portable gate's ring—a gate within a gate—and Riley had no idea why he kept doing that. Jason could have opened that rift anywhere.

  This Jason was a little weird...

  "Looks good," the new guy shouted over the roar of the rift, looking up at Riley.

  "Okay, let’s go."

  Riley led the way through the spinn
ing, sparking gateway, stepping into the dim pink hue of the Market and surrounded by the massive, ancient walls of the Bounty Boards. With his enhanced vision, Riley could see through the murk with ease and lowered his rifle once he was certain that they were in the right place.

  Jason followed. Gliath stepped through last, his sleek and muscled arms encumbered by the folded hides, pitch black in the pink haze. His Krulax friend’s eyes flashed brightly in the soldier’s night vision.

  "Riley Wyatt," Zayden Skinner’s deep voice rang out from nearby. The huge man walked over with the faintest of grins on his chiseled, ebony face. The multicolored flames that made Skinner’s hair flared and danced in Riley’s vision. "Is that all you have? Three hides?"

  Riley felt his skin grow hot. He didn’t understand why he was embarrassed, which only made him feel stupid...

  "Just a quick stop, Skinner," Riley replied, forcing a smirk. "Better to sell em now than wait until tomorrow, I reckon."

  Skinner shrugged and pulled a large leather pouch from thin air above one broad, black hand. Riley strode over to the old stone table that Skinner led them to. Jason and Gliath followed. The soldier gestured for Gliath to put the skins on the table, and he did.

  "Maze World," Skinner said. "Putting your new Jason through the most dangerous option, I see? He is to be forged in the fire of combat...?"

  Riley glanced back to Jason and saw him watching Zayden Skinner with awe. Jason 934’s eyes flashed over to Riley with a glance of uncertainty just for a moment.

  "Well, we’ve been there before," Riley replied. "We know the world already."

  The huge man unfolded the topmost hide, quickly examining it, then rapidly checked the others. Then he counted out many small, rectangular tabs of gold from his satchel and sealed them into a plastic bag.

  "Here you are, Riley Wyatt," Skinner said, handing Riley payment. "Do you intend to bring more?"

  " I’m planning on getting as many as last time," Riley replied with a smirk. "You’ll give us the necromancer job after that, right, Skinner?"

  The dark man frowned and Riley detected Skinner's glowing eyes darting over to Jason 934 for a moment. "Forged in the fire, indeed, Riley Wyatt." Then his statuesque face lost all expression. "If you seek seven more, you’d better hurry, human. There are now sixteen hides remaining to be filled before this job’s cap."

  Shet.

  Riley frowned. So if Rush and Tommy had four, then there were potentially twelve left for the taking. Surely the Nothrix had some kills too, and that was just on Maze World...

  The soldier looked up to see Skinner watching him, his ebony, stony face wearing the barest expression of amusement. Riley felt a flush of hot embarrassment again. Skinner could read his mind. That bastard must have been so entertained by Riley’s frantic need to impress him.

  With that, Skinner turned and bellowed out a deep laugh as he walked away.

  "Come on," Riley said to Jason and Gliath. "Let’s see if there are any more healing potions on the market. I don’t like having just one left."

  "What did he give you for payment?" Jason asked, looking at the plastic bag in Riley’s hand. "Is that gold?"

  "Yeah," Riley replied. He paused to count it. Thirty, like he'd anticipated. Ten each. "Thirty ounces of gold. Ten for each hide."

  Jason stared at the bag, letting his mouth drop open. He was awestruck for a moment.

  "Thirty ounces?!" he exclaimed. "That’s like ... depending on where we go ... like ... thirty to forty thousand dollars! Holy shit!"

  Riley didn’t understand the ‘dollars’ of Jason’s world yet, but Jason seemed extremely impressed by the value of their payment.

  "Yeah, not bad for a day’s work, eh?"

  "Oh my God!" Jason replied. "Is all monster hunting like this?!"

  "Great risk brings great reward and all that," Riley replied, clapping a hand on Jason’s shoulder. The new guy was suddenly star-struck and grinning from ear to ear. "Normally there are more expenses involved to offset the revenue, but ... uh ... we have you."

  Jason was giddy as Riley led them down the stairs into the streets of the market. As they wound their way through the crowds of mercenaries and planeswalkers and other bizarre creatures from incomprehensible universes, Jason seemed a lot more grounded this time. Still, Riley made sure that he led the way and that Gliath brought up the rear. After several minutes of walking and checking stores looking for healing potions—without success—Jason’s mental stability started to decline. The soldier watched the new guy’s unease growing. Jason started gasping at the sights of weird shet that Riley avoided looking at by habit, and stark horror was growing in his blue eyes...

  They’d checked four stores without any luck then Riley checked with Dave just in case. His friend didn’t have any. He never had any magic shet for the most part.

  Riley was tempted to stop by and see Athelos the tailor—at least to be friendly and let the entity know that they were on the hunt for its desired hides—but Jason was clearly starting to freak the fruk out and the soldier wanted to get them home before the guy had a breakdown.

  He’ll get used to it, Riley thought. Eventually.

  Riley did, after all...

  Leading the three of them to the outskirts of the Market near the walls, Riley searched for a clear spot to rift home.

  "Are you okay?" Riley asked Jason when he stopped them in a large, empty area behind the tents. Two spider people passed by and Jason’s eyes were large and blank with terror.

  "I ... uh ... yeah," he said, nodding vigorously. "I’ll be fine. Ready to go home?"

  "Yeah. Try to use the focus key instead of the OCS."

  Jason blanched then closed his eyes, obviously trying to clear his head. He took several deep breaths.

  "Okay."

  Reaching for the blank to u934 that he kept under his shirt, Jason stared at an open area, focusing intensely. Riley stepped back and watched. The soldier felt a variance in the air—the same phase shift and slight electrical anomaly that he normally detected with his scanners before a rift opened—and he was sure that the fluttering sound would emerge, heralding the light, but ... nothing happened. Jason’s eyes were open and darting back and forth around them. The new guy was nervously watching the other planeswalkers and entities around them in the nearby streets.

  Jason was too distracted. Shet. This wasn’t going to work.

  "Come on, Jason," Riley said, crossing his arms. "You opened the way to the Market. You can do this. Bring us back."

  Jason stopped his focus and dropped his hands with a dramatic sigh. "I’m sorry, Riley! I ... I’m trying. I can almost feel it. I’m just ... too distracted or something—I dunno..."

  Riley felt a flash of anger. Jason would need to open rifts to get them out of danger. How distracting would that be? The soldier frowned without realizing it and looked down at the ground. When he looked up again, Jason was staring at him as if waiting for him to make the next move.

  Shet.

  This sucked.

  Riley didn’t want to lead. Why couldn’t this Jason be more like the others? More ... of a leader?

  "Just use the fruking OCS I guess," Riley muttered.

  Jason looked at him as if suddenly wounded then shook the expression off of his face, determined. He pulled up his OCS, looked up the coordinates to home, and opened a loud and brilliant rift to the garage just fine.

  They stepped through.

  That night, Riley’s mind tumbled with worry as he sat on the couch. He’d topped off the bolts of his Gauss rifle magazines and made sure that Gliath’s railgun was similarly ready. Now, the soldier was sitting and nursing a cold beer while slowly stroking the thick, black fur of his friend. Gliath was lazing on a cushion on Riley's left in his 'primal' form of a big, black leopard.

  Once they'd returned to universe 934, Jason’s frazzled state from taking in the weird sights of the Market quickly melted away and the new guy had spent quite a while excitedly going on and on about how much ‘money’ th
ey earned from those three minotaurs.

  Jason 934 never stopped to consider that they’d have another ten ounces if he hadn’t fruking lost their first kill to some random universe...

  Riley should have been more careful. He shouldn’t have just assumed that Jason knew what he was doing with the OCS—he should have checked the coordinates himself. Riley didn’t know very much about how to use the OCS, but he understood the basics of the coordinates at least. If Jason had the fifth or sixth dimensions selected and sent the dead minotaur to a parallel world and some other Jason’s garage, would Riley have even noticed beforehand?

  The soldier groaned and shook his head.

  Maybe I should just call it, he thought. Stop the mission. Jason needed more time. Riley should be more patient and let the guy play around with the OCS and rifting for a week or so before trying anything serious—maybe a month. Fruk—they had plenty of meat for Gliath and they could go to the Wilderlands anytime. Jason could do that at least.

  Jason 934 was roaming around the kitchen and living room with a beer in one hand, manically talking to himself.

  "You know, I don’t think I’ve made this much working in even a whole year before! And we made that in just one day? That’s amazing!"

  So excited, Riley thought, looking up at Jason 934 as he appeared, turned around, then paced back to the kitchen again. But the new guy could get them all killed if they were in a tight spot and he couldn’t open a rift with his focus keys at will. Chances were pretty good that they could take their time and be more careful hunting more minotaurs and they wouldn’t need Jason’s abilities in an emergency, but still...

  "Wouldn't get seven more that way," Riley said to himself. Not if they take their time. Jason was ranting to himself in the kitchen and didn’t notice the soldier’s words.

  Riley groaned again, feeling his heart torn in half. His mind and his desires warred over two very different paths: one, his need to get back into Skinner’s good graces and back into the life he loved; and two, taking his time and being smarter with this hunt.