Testing Grounds (On Dangerous Grounds Book 1)

by G. Allen Wilbanks

  Malcolm shook his head and held up his hands, palms out. “I’m not really feelin’ the love, here. I won’t be holding anyone’s hand.”

  “Works for me,” Annie told him. “I won’t be too bothered when your head rolls off your shoulders. The rest of us will be holding onto each other.”

  Malcolm grimaced, but did not argue further.

  “So, what order do we go in?” asked Sofia. “The sign doesn’t really help. All four figures are the same size and shape. Does that mean it doesn’t matter?”

  “I guess so,” said Leon, stepping up to the edge of the remaining hallway.

  He peered down its length to where it doglegged right and disappeared. The floor was the same smooth stone surface as all the other corridors they had travelled through, but instead of a uniform color, this one had a white and black, checkerboard pattern. Four squares abreast, white, black, white, black, followed by four more, black, white, black, white. The pattern repeated down the full length of the hall.

  Also, on the walls, Leon noticed for the first time that there were brass-colored handrails. The rails ran about waist high on both sides of the passage, and they too continued all the way to where the hall branched to the right. They reminded him uncomfortably of the railing in the San Jose State University parking garage that had brought him here.

  “What about boy, girl, boy, girl?” suggested Sofia. “Since it doesn’t seem to really matter.”

  Leon eyed the handrails, remembering his long slide into darkness. He didn’t completely trust them showing up again in this setting. His first inclination was to place himself in the middle of the group so he did not have to touch them, but he quickly changed his mind.

  “Let’s do the guys on the outside and the girls in the middle,” he countered.

  Sofia looked at him with a puzzled expression. “Why? Do you see something?”

  “No,” Leon admitted. “But do you remember my story about how I got here? I’m a little leery of these rails here and thought it would be better to keep you and Annie away from them.”

  Annie crossed her arms over her chest. “This is more of your macho bullshit, isn’t it?” she accused.

  “I … I suppose it is,” Leon said lamely.

  Annie dropped her arms and smiled brightly at him. “Fine. You want to play hero, go ahead. I’ll say something nice at your funeral.”

  Sofia had no objections either, and Malcolm chose to keep whatever he thought of the proposed arrangement to himself. The four humans lined up with Malcolm on the left next to Sofia, followed by Annie and Leon.

  “What about these bars?” Malcolm asked before they entered. “Are we touching them, or not touching them?”

  “For now, I’m going to ignore them,” Leon told him. “The picture doesn’t indicate one way or the other, so I’m hoping that ultimately it doesn’t matter.”

  “A’ richt. Forward we go, then.”

  They all linked arms and stepped forward, inching along at a pace slow enough to keep the entire group in as straight a line as possible. Leon almost suggested they should run through the tunnel, but he realized that was his own fears prodding him along. He kept that thought to himself. A slow pace was the safest plan. If any dangers reared up in front of them, they might have enough time to react, whereas if they ran like panicked sheep, they would only have time to crash into any sudden obstacles that appeared in their path.

  Leon’s mind flashed back to the image of Hiss’ head toppling from his shoulders and striking the floor. Advancing slowly had not done him much good. But Hiss had also misjudged the challenge by standing too soon in the hallway, and it had been this failure, rather than the speed of his movements beforehand, that had caused his death. Leon swallowed a dry lump in his throat and fought the nervous energy in his body that urged him to sprint. He did not like being a sitting duck in this narrow pond.

  The group moved into the hall, doing their best to keep abreast of one another and watching their feet so that no one ended up stepping too far ahead of the others. They kept each step short and precise, marching together. Left foot. Pause. Right foot. Pause. Each stride carrying them forward in a unified front.

  The next step brought Sofia and Leon into two of the black squares marked on the stone floor. Annie and Malcolm stood on white. Sofia screamed as the square beneath her feet abruptly disappeared, leaving only endless empty space beneath her. She dropped into the void. Jerking her arms together Sofia clung desperately to those on either side of her, trying to catch herself before she could disappear completely through the opening. The weight of her body suddenly plummeting toppled Annie and Malcolm off balance.

  Malcolm reacted to the sudden pull by catching at the railing beside him with his left hand. Feeling Annie stepping away from him, Leon reared back to keep her from moving any closer to the gap Sofia now dangled over.

  Sofia slid into the opening to her hips before the others were able to arrest her fall. When Leon, who did not see the hole open, realized what was happening, he grasped the railing with his right hand and pulled Annie closer towards him. Together, the remaining three still on their feet were able to lever Sofia out of the opening in the floor and swing her forward to the next white space in the pattern. When she was safe and had solid ground under her again, the group took a moment to catch their collective breath and assess what had happened.

  “I think we’re supposed to use the rails,” Malcolm said, grunting out a nervous laugh.

  “Yeah, I kind of noticed that, too.” Leon still grasped the railing on his side, his knuckles turning white as he waited, half expecting another section of floor to disappear out from under one of them. “The hand holding makes more sense, now.”

  Annie nodded her agreement. “I wasn’t planning on letting go,” she assured the others.

  “I can only guess that more of that is going to happen,” Leon told the group. “So, hang on tight and watch your neighbors. If someone else falls, we don’t want it to surprise us like that last one. That was way too close.”

  Murmured assent met Leon’s comments. “Are we ready to move?” he asked when everyone appeared to have gotten past their initial fright.

  The rest of the group shuffled forward to stand even with Sofia in the next row of squares. Before they could take another step, the black space under Malcolm blinked out of existence. Unprepared for another drop so quickly, Sofia and Malcolm were only loosely linked at the time and the big man’s arm jerked roughly away from hers. He fell, swinging by his left hand which still grasped the handrail and crashing into the wall as he disappeared into the new hole.

  Malcolm hung by one hand for a long moment, dangling over empty space and gazing down at the dark depths below his feet. He threw up his right hand, trying to get both hands on the metal rail that was currently the only thing preventing his plunge into an early grave. His flailing grab missed, and he again hung precariously by one arm.

  Releasing his own railing, Leon dashed to the opposite side of the hallway to the edge of the opening. He held out his right hand toward Malcolm. “Give me your hand. I’ll help pull you out.”

  Malcolm stared up at the offered hand, then shot a suspicious glance at Leon.

  “Really?” Leon shouted. “That’s your attitude? Give me your hand or fall. Your choice.”

  Malcolm didn’t hesitate further. He reached up and grasped at Leon. Leon caught him by the wrist and pulled with every bit of strength he had. The man was heavy. With Leon’s assistance, Malcolm hoisted himself up far enough to throw a foot over the edge of the hole and lever himself the rest of the way onto solid ground.

  As soon as Malcolm was safely out of the gap, Leon jumped back to his position at the right of the procession.

  “Link up again,” he ordered. “Quick! We don’t know when that’s going to happen again.”

  Everyone reformed their line and joined arms. They stood unmoving for several long seconds, trying to calm themselves and mentally prepare to continue forward. After a quick che
ck to be sure everyone was ready, Leon gave the word to move on.

  They stepped to the next row of squares and tensed, ready to catch whoever might fall next. Nothing happened. They moved forward again and waited. Again nothing. Two more steps, and the world disappeared out from under Annie.

  Because the group was expecting the floor to open again, and because Annie weighed little in comparison to the others holding onto her, she was quickly lifted free of the trap and deposited on the next white square in front of her.

  “Stop,” called Leon. “Nobody move for a second. Annie just fell into a black space. Malcolm’s was also black. Sofia, what color square did you fall into.”

  “Black,” Sofia responded.

  He nodded to himself, half expecting the answer. “It isn’t a guarantee, but it does look like there’s a pattern to this. It might just be black squares that are the danger. What if we stick to white spaces for a while? At least, let’s try them until one opens up. What do you think?”

  “Fine,” said Annie, and Sofia echoed her agreement. Malcolm grunted, but Leon chose to take that as assent.

  “If you aren’t on a white square now, get on one.”

  The group shifted until they all had white flooring underneath them. Malcolm and Annie were one row ahead of Sofia and Leon.

  “Sofia, you and me are going to move forward. Then Malcolm and Annie will go. We’ll leapfrog the lines two people at a time so there are always two of us braced in case somebody falls. Ready?”

  “Ready,” Sofia told him.

  Arms tightly joined with those beside them, Leon and Sofia jumped over the black squares directly in front of them and landed on the next white spaces available. The black stone square beneath Leon winked into nothingness as he passed over it.

  “Yes!” he shouted in triumph. “Okay, Malcolm, you and Annie go ahead.

  The four skipped along through the tunnel, two people moving at a time. As they went, random spaces opened beneath them, but always in squares designated by black. There were no more mishaps as they safely avoided each of these now predictable pitfalls. As a group, they reached the bend in the hallway, seeing for the first time what Shoo and Hiss had found at the end of their passage.

  Beyond the turn, only a few feet of hall remained before an opening led them into a small solarium. Grass grew like carpet from edge to edge and broad-leafed vines clung to the walls. Bright shafts of sunlight shone down from somewhere high above, and Leon could see dust motes and larger particles illuminated clearly as they danced in the air through the bright rays of light.

  “We did it,” breathed Annie, softly beside him.

  “Don’t stop yet,” Leon warned. “Remember Hiss. We’re still in the hallway.”

  The sobering warning brought everyone’s focus back to the task at hand. There were four more rows of black and white squares before they were safely into the next room. They continued their two-by-two hopscotch tactic and two more openings formed beneath their feet. After maneuvering over those final obstacles, they stepped onto the welcoming lawn into the sunlight.

  They were through.

  CHAPTER 16

  The solarium surrounded them; its eight walls arranged into a symmetrical octagonal shape. The space was not large, perhaps a little less than twenty feet across at any point, but the walls towered above them by several stories. The leafy vines covered the walls top to bottom except for a few open patches that revealed the same polished white stone they had seen so much of in the past several hours. At the top of the turret-shaped tower Leon saw open access to the sky. A round, white sun hung directly above them, shining warmly down on the gathered travelers.

  Shoo stood at the center of the grass floor, where she had been since completing her own trial, waiting patiently for the others to arrive. The opening she originally entered through had already closed, covered now by stone and vines like it had never existed. The hallway behind Leon disappeared similarly behind them after all four humans entered the lush green space.

  “And then there were five,” said Sofia. Leon and Annie nodded in solemn agreement with the statement. “How did you know none of the white squares would open up?” she asked Leon.

  “I didn’t. It was a guess. So far, everything we’ve gone through has been horrible, but there is always a pattern to it. The tests haven’t been random. I hoped that would stay true, and I guess I got lucky.”

  “That’s not luck,” Sofia told him. “That’s being smart. Thank you for getting us through that hallway in one piece.”

  Annie glanced around the solarium, her eyes trailing over the octagonal perimeter and following the walls up to the opening above. “I don’t see a door. How do we get out of here?”

  “Is this another test?” asked Leon, turning in a complete circle to confirm Annie’s observations for himself.

  “Everything else has been a test in this fucked up place. Why not this?”

  “I don’t get it,” Leon continued. “We don’t usually get two challenges one right after the other like this. We should be in some kind of transitional hallway, moving toward the next test.”

  Annie kicked at a clump of grass with the toe of her shoe. The sod was soft and tore away easily, revealing sandy soil underneath. “Doesn’t change the fact we need to figure out a way to get out of here.”

  Leon craned his neck to peer up at the sky and the sun shining overhead. “The only opening I see is up there. Maybe we have to climb the walls and escape over the sides.”

  He approached one of the walls and reached out to touch the vines clinging to the flat surface. He touched a leaf lightly and jumped back.

  “What the fuck was that?” asked Malcolm, standing off to one side. “It bite you?”

  “No, but I don’t trust anything around here anymore. I didn’t want it to try to grab me when I touched it.”

  The vine hadn’t moved at Leon’s initial prodding, so he tapped another leaf. The vegetation remained innocuously dormant. With more confidence, he grasped two of the thicker vines in one hand and gently pulled at them. They clung to the wall despite his attempts to drag them away. Next, Leon placed a foot on the wall, gathered up a fistful of the loose creepers in both of his hands and attempted to lift himself off the ground. The vines tore away from the wall with a rustling sound, exposing a bare patch of white stone underneath and dropping Leon unceremoniously onto his back in the grass.

  Leon chuffed awkwardly as the impact with the ground expelled the air forcefully from his lungs.

  “Good for a laugh, but not much else,” Malcolm told him as Leon fought to take in another breath.

  Sofia offered Leon a hand, which he accepted, and she helped him stagger back to his feet.

  “Climbing the ivy doesn’t work,” Leon wheezed, still struggling to ease his labored breathing. “If we’re supposed to go over the top of these walls, I don’t know how to get there.”

  “Maybe there’s something underneath the plants,” Sofia suggested. “A ladder, or a row of pegs leading up to the top? Maybe there’s a clue on one of the walls that we have to find.”

  “It’s a place to start,” Annie said, getting behind the idea.

  “Thanks, Annie. Why don’t we give it a look? If we don’t find anything, all we’ve lost is a little bit of time. Everyone pick a wall,” Sofia directed, gesturing generically at their surroundings. “Check under the vines and see what we find.”

  The group spread out, each member selecting a different wall to examine. They pulled at vines and ran their hands over the smooth stone, searching for clues to a way out of the green room. Even Shoo and Malcolm participated, helping the search go more quickly.

  “Hey, guys,” said Annie after a few moments of rustling through her chosen patch of greenery. “You might want to take a look at this.”

  “You found a clue?” asked Sofia.

  “You could call it that. Come over here.”

  The others gathered behind Annie, who held her hand in the vines like a magician about to pu
ll a velvet curtain for a dramatic reveal. When she was certain she had everyone’s undivided attention, she smiled and tore a patch of the ivy aside. The plants parted from their perch with a snapping noise as their clinging tendrils ripped free.

  Behind the vines stood a white door.

  “Could it be that easy?” asked Sofia. She had also become more suspicious of anything that appeared too simple during her experiences over the past several hours.

  “It may not have been intended to be difficult,” Leon mused. “The door may have been supposed to be visible the whole time, but the plants grew over it too quickly.”

  “Or we’re all going to catch on fire when we open it,” Annie added.

  “That, too,” Leon agreed. He forced a smile, pretending Annie’s comment had been nothing more than a joke.

  Leon and Sofia helped Annie tear away the vines still clinging to the door, revealing the portal in its entirety. It looked like every other exit they had encountered, and without an obvious reason to leave it alone, the group decided to open it. The handle turned easily, and the door swung outward to reveal another immaculate lawn on the other side.

  This second lawn was not enclosed in a room but was only a small part of a vast field of green grass that spread out to the horizon in all directions. The grass was manicured and groomed, closer to the green expanse of a tended golf course than the flowing stalks of the prairie path they had traversed before. There was also no obvious path for the five survivors to follow. But then, they did not need one this time. There was nowhere they had to go.

  The next challenge waited directly in front of them, only a few feet from the doorway where they stood.

  Erected in a row, a few feet of space between each one, ten, identical, white doors balanced upright in the grass. The doors stood with no obvious form of support, yet somehow, they conveyed the illusion of rigid stability. The only decorations on the smooth, clean surfaces were a brass-colored handle on the left edge and a yellow metal plate about the size of an open hand affixed to the upper right corner.