The Minotaurs of Maze World

by Eddie Patin

  "Now!" Jason shouted. He immediately emptied his lungs and focusing his front sight on the monster’s neck. The monster looked down at him as he squeezed the trigger...

  His rifle boomed and recoiled heavily into Jason, its report slapping his eardrums painfully—he didn’t know how many more shots like this he could take without hearing protection! Jason saw the impact throw blood and fur as he hit the alpha minotaur exactly where he was aiming!

  An instant later, the other Jason fired from nearby. Jason 934 heard the thwap of the bullet hitting home on the monster’s neck on the other side, bursting the muscle and flesh there with a massive deluge of blood.

  Two hits!

  The beast reeled.

  "Yes!" the second Jason exclaimed.

  Jason 934 cycled his bolt and took aim again. He expected the creature to fall, but after a momentary swoon, it glared and fumed at him instead. Then the raging alpha charged down the hill!

  "Oh shit!" Jason cried, feeling a rush of panic and adrenaline flush through him, making his joints buzz with weakness.

  The monster hurtled down at him snarling with a sound that made all of Jason’s body-hair stand on end. It was a vision of oncoming death; a comet of wild, black fury and thickly-corded muscles with pumping, powerful limbs and a broad head topped with a massive, deadly rack of horns. Its dark eyes blazed with rage...

  Jason aimed at the neck—between the alpha’s furious, bestial face and the knots of muscles around one shoulder—and fired. Dread flooded into Jason as the monster rushed in to destroy him, and he half-expected to hear a click, suddenly overwhelmed with a cold fear that he had short-stroked the bolt again...

  His rifle boomed, and he saw the impact shred more meat.

  Flecks of blood and flesh and fur sprayed up into the air. Jason cycled the bolt as fast and hard as he could, abandoning his boulder and running to the other Jason's position. He figured—at least on a subconscious level—that maybe he could dodge the monster to the side enough to have another few seconds if its massive momentum kept it charging on past him...

  Jason forced his body to move, swimming through an icy ocean of pure fear and dread that tried to hold him still...

  There was another boom, and as the alpha minotaur shook the hillside rushing past, barely missing Jason—it felt like dodging a speeding bus—he felt hot blood splatter all over his face and neck.

  The alpha minotaur crashed into the slope like a plummeting black airplane of muscle and fur, immediately cutting a swath through dirt and snow as its momentum pulled it down the hill. Snow and gravel and rocks flew everywhere!

  A few adrenaline-filled seconds later, the brute slowed to a stop, dead.

  Jason stared at it. He realized that he was on the ground, holding his rifle in a white-knuckle grip.

  He took a deep breath and the sensations of the world started flowing back into him. Jason's heart was pounding and he had a bit of tunnel-vision—everything was dark and pulsating around the edges...

  "Whoo!" the second Jason hollered from his rock, emerging and thrusting his rifle into the air as if he’d stepped out of the movie Red Dawn.

  Wolverines! Jason 934 thought, then laughed and felt the stacks and stacks of fear falling off of him.

  They’d done it! They survived and killed the alpha!

  He did it without Riley and Gliath too—just Jason! Well, three Jasons, he thought with a broad grin. Looking down at the black monster, crashed into the hill with a path through the dirt behind it like a downed aircraft, Jason felt a tremendous sense of relief wash over him.

  There was suddenly some crashing and snapping branches from up the hill and Jason looked back to see his third self emerging from the trees, face grim and rifle ready.

  He gestured Jason #3 to come down and climbed shakily to his feet.

  Jason #2 came running up, panting and grinning from ear to ear.

  "We did it," Jason 934 said, looking from the huge, bloody black body up to second Jason.

  The other man smiled and clapped Jason 934 on the shoulder, just like Riley did some times. Then he walked around to the front of the dead minotaur—down the hill from the body—took aim, and shot it through one eye with a tremendous boom.

  Second Jason cycled his bolt then looked up. "Just making sure."

  A few seconds later, Jason #3 caught up to them from up the hill.

  "Holy shit, it’s actually dead! You guys killed it!" he exclaimed, panting and bending over to catch his breath. "We’ve gotta get out of here. That’s a lot of shots. They’ll be coming..." He pointed with a shaky finger to the neighborhood further down the hill and across the path. Jason could see the flashing colors of blue and red lights. He knew that there were cops down there already.

  Jason 934 suddenly felt a stab of envy, or resentment, as if Jason #3 didn’t have nearly enough appreciation for how difficult what they'd just accomplished was. He and the second Jason had been through a lot already, and this guy had just tagged along for the last part.

  Still, they needed him.

  It felt weird and awkward feeling that sense of resentment, but when Jason 934 looked over at second Jason and met the man’s gaze, he forgot all about it. Jason #2 was carrying those terrible deaths with him in his eyes. He wondered if second Jason was seeing the mangled, gory bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Hines on repeat in his mind, just like he was...

  "Okay," Jason 934 said, his smile dropping away. "Let’s get this thing back to the garage."

  He reached into his shirt to grab the focus key around his neck then stared down at the massive body. He envisioned a rift opening under it, appearing under the ceiling of his garage, letting the massive body drop down through it. He hadn’t yet been able to open horizontal rifts—much to Riley’s annoyance—but it would sure be useful if he could figure that out now. There was no way that he—even three of him—could push this thousand-pound monster through a vertical portal.

  Jason felt the flex coming on, then he realized what was wrong. Hardly able to consciously comprehend what he suddenly understood, Jason realized that he had been trying to orient the portals, when he should have actually been orienting himself. He could go through any point in space-time; anywhere in the omniverse. He needed to move himself—not the portal...

  With a new confidence that came out of nowhere, Jason flexed the rifting part of him, staring down at the huge, bloody body sunken into the dirt and snow. There was a fluttering sound, then a snap, and the massive body was suddenly swallowed up the instant the portal flattened out, horizontally under the beast like a big manhole of swirling orange brilliance. It was like a whirlpool, throwing sparks up that spiraled into the air. The body—as big as it was—just sucked right through under its own weight, disappearing almost instantly!

  "Whoa!" one of the other Jasons exclaimed over the rift’s roar.

  As soon as the orange fire and sparks appeared, the huge body just plummeted into the other universe.

  Jason 934 approached the spinning, horizontal whirlpool of fiery orange light, afraid to fall over the weird edge that didn’t quite seem solid between the dirt and snow and the swirling edge of extradimensional madness. When he was a foot away from its wild, sparking edge, he looked inside and saw his garage floor from above. The alpha minotaur’s body was sprawled out on the concrete—along with chunks of ice and snow and dirt—slowly creating a puddle of blood around it. One massive, black leg was caught on the ring of Riley's portable gate. One broad, claws hand was propped up on the hood of Jason’s car.

  "Cool!" Jason exclaimed, then he looked down the hill at the growing authority down there. He glanced up at the other Jasons. "Let’s go!"

  The three of them took turns jumping in, awkwardly landing on the huge, thick body and making way for the next.

  As soon as all three of them stood in the garage around the alpha’s corpse, looking up at the blue sky through the whirling orange rift just below the ceiling, Jason 934 released his hold on the portal and it crumpled into itself and out of
existence with a pop.

  All was quiet.

  Jason’s ears were ringing. He felt like tiny needles were painfully twirling around in his eardrums.

  "God damn," he said finally. "Do you guys’ ears hurt like mine?"

  "Yep," second Jason replied, staring down at the body.

  "Yeah," third Jason said, looking up and around at the garage. "We’ve probably taken a bit of hearing damage from all of this shooting."

  "Think the Wilderlands will heal that?" second Jason asked glumly.

  "Probably," Jason 934 replied. "It regenerated the joint damage in our right knees. It can probably heal eardrums." He sighed and looked out at the street past his parked car and through the open garage. He’d have to replace that door asap. "Speaking of which, let’s get this body to the Wilderlands so that Gliath can skin it. I wonder how Riley’s doing..."

  The third Jason scoffed, drawing confused looks from Jason 934 and his second self.

  "So you’re just gonna take my minotaur?" Jason #3 asked, scowling.

  Jason 934 blinked and stared in surprise. "What uh ... what do you mean?" he asked.

  Jason #3 shook his head then reached up into his collar. He grabbed his own focus key from around his neck. "That’s fine—I don’t care anyway. I never wanted to keep hunting or go back for the Nothrix. You keep it." He frowned.

  Jason 934 stood gaping, not understanding. He exchanged confused glances with second Jason, then opened his mouth to ask what the hell was third Jason’s problem. Before he could speak, there was a flutter and a snap, and a vertical rift opened behind the guy. The portal roared in Jason’s ears and it felt weird, because it wasn’t his own.

  The third Jason stepped through without another word into what looked like the exact same garage, then the portal collapsed with a pop, and he was gone.

  "What just happened?" second Jason asked.

  "I ... uh ... I don’t really know," Jason 934 replied. "Wouldn’t his focus key have just brought him back here?"

  The two Jasons stood and stared at the spot where Jason #3 had rifted away.

  "Unless..." Jason #2 pondered, "We’re not ... um ... the same? Or ... didn’t we keep going back to that same spot in time on Earth? Universe 934?" He put rifle onto the hood of the car then pulled up his OCS, looking at the screen. "We’re in universe 934 now."

  "Of course we are," the Jason 934 replied, slinging his own Rigby over one shoulder. "I used my necklace focus key to get us here."

  "But so did that third Jason!" number two said. "Where did he go?" He suddenly pulled his own focus key necklace out from under his shirt and armor. "Where will mine go?"

  "Riley said that time travel was weird shit."

  "Weird shet," Jason #2 corrected, playing with his OCS. "Scan me."

  "What?"

  "Scan me. With your OCS. Like you did with the dinosaurs."

  Jason 934 pulled up his OCS, unlocked the screen, and navigated to the scan function. He aimed the OCS’s laser at second Jason, pressed the button to scan him, and watched the readout.

  Homo sapiens, 100% match. Universe unknown.

  Shit.

  "So scan me already!" second Jason said.

  "I did."

  "What’s it say?"

  "Well," Jason 934 replied with a sigh. "You’re 100% human, but ... it says universe unknown..."

  Chapter 28

  "Universe unknown?!" second Jason asked, running a hand through his short hair. Jason 934 instantly recognized the stress pouring off of him.

  "Hang on—relax," Jason 934 replied. "There’s got to be a logical explanation for—"

  "How can I not be from Earth; not from universe 934?!" Jason #2’s eyes darted wildly around the garage. He pulled up his OCS and skimmed through the screen with one finger. "This is universe 934! But ... I’m not from—?"

  Both Jasons paused as a dark grey car rolled down the street past the front of the house. The garage door was fully open and they were visible to the world—mostly. The huge, dead minotaur was pretty-well hidden from casual sight, being sprawled out on the concrete in front of the car, but if someone walked up, they’d see it for sure.

  Jason 934 scanned the alpha minotaur.

  Unknown. Lore: Minotaur, 98% match. Universe unknown.

  "Universe unknown..." Jason said. It should have said that the alpha was from u312. "What the hell?"

  "Oh my God!" Jason's second self cried, eyes wide. He was halfway to hyperventilating. "I’m not from here! This isn’t my house! I’m not from universe 934!" He wheeled on Jason. "You did this to me, when you went back in time! When you ran into me there, and changed things, you—"

  "Holy shit!" Jason 934 exclaimed. "It’s almost like I ... made another universe? Or took a different path sideways in one of the ... uh ... temporal dimensions? Riley said something about using probability space or whatever to hop into alternate universes for emergencies or if we needed to relocate. It was an emergency!"

  "But that doesn’t make any sense! You went back to u934. And then we did it again when we met the third us!"

  "You set the same bookmark with the time coordinates, too," Jason 934 said, staring down at the body. "You just didn’t get the chance to go back yourself yet. The same thing would have happened ... I think." He looked back out at the street and heard voices from up the road. "We’ll figure this out, dude, but first, help me cover up this minotaur."

  Both Jasons frantically scanned around the garage for a moment. Their eyes landed on the same spot at the same time and they both went for a tarp that was folded up on a shelf. As they pulled it down and unfurled it, each holding a side and covering up the body, Jason 934 laughed. It was so weird how they thought the same and had nearly the same reactions. But when he looked up at the other Jason, he saw that his second wasn’t amused. His second self was pale and sallow and his eyes were wide and trembling. He must be terrified, Jason thought.

  "So..." second Jason finally said, leaning up against the car. He flexed a hand in front of him, saw that it was shaking, then put it down to grasp the edge of the trunk. "I don’t understand this, but I guess somehow ... by going back, you interrupted whatever was supposed to happen, and we—maybe the whole universe where I was—ended up ... I dunno ... shunted off to another alternate reality?"

  "Another universe," Jason replied. "A parallel universe. Unknown. Not in my OCS."

  "So I’m not from universe 934."

  "I don’t know. Maybe you were, but you’re not anymore?"

  "And that means that Mr. and Mrs. Hines..." Jason #2 trailed off, trying to hide that he was choking up. "And that poor family..."

  "They’re probably fine here," Jason 934 said. It was weird. He had a hard time wrapping his head around it, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about these things happening in parallel realities. "The same thing happened with the third Jason. He’s from an alternate Earth too. And I guess that means that this minotaur," Jason said, looking down at the mass under the tarp, "is from his world." They stood quietly for a moment, then Jason added, "That’s why that Jason was pissed off I guess..."

  "So that also means," second Jason continued cautiously, "that the minotaur that killed Mr. and Mrs. Hines and that family is still there in my world, probably fighting a bunch of cops now, or running through the neighborhood killing more innocent people..."

  Jason 934 looked down. Shame stabbed deeply into his heart.

  What a mess he'd made of things.

  Just then, a lightbulb went off in his head—an icy-cold, crystal-clear idea that filled his guts with freezing water and made his heart feel like a hole...

  "Oh my God," Jason 934 said. "That means that the first alpha minotaur ... is still here! It's still where I lost it in the mountains!"

  Second Jason looked over at him in revolted shock.

  "This planeswalking stuff is too much," he said. "Look at what we did with just a few rifts—all the damage we caused in three worlds just like that." He snapped his fingers.

  Jason 934 st
ared at the haggard other version of himself, then both Jasons were suddenly drawn to another approaching vehicle. They watched the street as a police car slowly pulled up, slowing down out front with its windows down. There were two cops sitting inside. The black and white squad car came to a stop as it intersected Jason’s driveway, subtly blocking in Jason's Ford Escort in the garage. The policeman in the passenger seat had a dark moustache and sunglasses on.

  It was the same pair of officers from before!

  "Hey you guys!" the man called out.

  A flush of panic swept through Jason 934, but he realized that his pulled-in car and the tarp together were probably hiding the huge minotaur body from sight. He tried to squish his fear. Hopefully the cops wouldn’t get out to talk to them.

  "Yeah?" Jason 934 called back.

  "Can you come here, sir, so we can ask you some questions please?"

  Both Jasons exchanged worried glances then Jason 934 walked around his parked car and stepped out into the sunshine onto his driveway. He realized with a chill both of those cops chasing him with guns drawn back in the second Jason’s world.

  The policeman looked him over. Jason felt the man’s gaze behind the mirrored glasses pass over his dirty jacket, armor, down to his boots, then back up to his face. He saw the cop wondering about him in his facial expression. Then it was as if the man just wrote it off and opened his mouth to speak. "Have you guys seen a big bull running through here? Maybe an hour ago? Really big bull. Caused a lot of damage..."

  Jason looked north on Kestrel Drive, seeing the first few damaged cars that he’d seen already the first time he'd run through. There were emergency vehicles in the street up ahead with flashing, spinning lights.

  "No, I just got home," Jason replied, crossing his arms. "Is that what’s going on up the street?"

  "Call 911 if you see a huge animal in the neighborhood, okay? It's probably a bull. A black one—horns and all. It’s extremely dangerous. Stay away if you see it and call 911—got it?"

  "Okay, officers, will do!" Jason tried to smile, but only made a weird face instead.