My vision refused to return. But I refuse to yield, yes my wrist was crying but I must endure.
The ceiling above us definitely had cracks.
Whatever trap was waiting it wasn't a small one. A small amount of dust fell on my face and I coughed thinking I was about to choke.
Is this how I die? Suffocation?
Why? Why? WHY? What did I do to deserve this?
I lived my life respecting everyone and being nice to everyone. Why do all good deeds go unseen. Why do small bad deeds get exaggerated and scrutinised at the very last miniscule detail.
"Your friend looks defeated, so you don't have many choices" one of the girls spoke mockingly.
Toby was in a bind. He was struggling to think of a way for us to escape.
"What happens if we do a trade?" asked Toby.
Toby then put his hand behind his back and pointed at me to move back. He then proceeded to bring out a noise grenade.
"Here, look at this hand grenade."
He presented it very confidently.
Wait a minute, I know that design. He's trying to trick them somehow.
Just what are you up to my friend? Don't you see our journey has ended.
Why bother to gamble when the outcome is the same. We're going to lose, just accept it.
He continued to say "I have two more in my inventory if you don't believe me".
I was wincing but I had to ignore the conversation by averting my attention on rolling away to escape.
One of the girls noticed what I was doing. "Hey stop moving".
The one with the wand replied "There's no point, he's been betrayed".
Betrayed I thought. A word spoken that can leave the mind shackled for hours. That's how I felt.
Although I felt defeated I continued to put distance until I was out of the trap's range.
"If you do anything to him I'll chuck the hand grenade at you and you can kiss your ass goodbye" replied Toby nervously.
Before the college kids can speak Toby made a statement that changed the whole situation.
"You can't harm me immediately, if you make a move I'll throw it. Test me if you dare" he challenged.
"You're bluffing", the girl with the wand replied.
Toby froze for a minute. Was he defeated?
"You got me".
I told you my friend, the gamble won't prevail.
Toby smiled and then proceeded to chuck the grenade at them.
He covered his ears and instinctively I covered mine, seconds later it exploded with a horrific scream.
Moans and groans filled the dungeon corridor.
The horde was coming.
With that distraction Toby ran towards me and helped me get back on my feet. I stumbled a bit but eventually I managed to jog a little.
Toby then brought out an actual hand grenade and chucked it at the ceiling.
It exploded and the ceiling came crashing down. Before the group realised the debris cut the two groups off creating a wall.
The smell of debris was intoxicating. I coughed so much that I thought I died by choking.
Now the college group had to take the detour route.
Groans of the creatures were approaching.
"They've escaped" one girl cried.
"Fight them off, take the other route" the boy responded.
He slashed at one creature and punched where his wound was. The scream of the creature lasted for seconds until it abruptly halted.
That was our cue to leave. We did not hesitate as Toby helped me to reach the staircase that headed to the fourth floor.
As we climbed the steps my vision started to return to me.
"Thanks Toby, I appreciate it" I panted.
He kept quiet until we arrived at the fourth floor.
It was in the shape of a two. So the pattern was simple. Straight, right, straight right, straight, left, straight, left and then a straight would lead to the staircase above.
Saying it first was confusing but it was quite simple.
My vision returned fully as we passed two rights.
Then Toby spoke softly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't have enough time to react and help, if you hate me now I understand".
I noticed that tears were starting to trickle down his eyes. He turned away but the waterfall that he was producing was noticeable.
Who am I to question. We're still kids so there's no reason to feel guilty.
"I'm useless" Toby whispered.
I took a breath and then spoke aloud what came into my mind.
"You are forgiven, because surviving is what matters, if you died, I'll never forgive you".
In truth what I said was partially true. Guilt is essentially gluttony. It will eat and eat until their is nothing left but an empty shell.
A shell that wanted to prove itself but just can't. So what's the best way to get rid of it?
Forgiveness. Because sincerity shows that the guilt was unnecessary in the first place.
My mother taught me that and I'm grateful.
Also I needed Toby to stay focused. By saying I would hate for him to die would only motivate him more to survive.
The relief in his face was a sight to see, but maybe not the red eyes and puffy cheeks.
We stumbled into a spike trap that was already activated. What we saw was not a sight to see.
One of the construction workers and college kids were impaled by spikes.
The white stainless spikes were now sullied with blood.
Most of it had dried but there was small drips of blood that travelled through the spikes and graced the floor.
A fight must have occurred and it lead to a trap being activated which resulted in the two being collateral.
Now that I think about it the surrounding area didn't scream that a battle took place but their were certainly clues.
For instance there was one bullet case next to the wall. There was also a small mark. Was it possible that the boy threw his knife here?
The smell of fire was also faint.
We saw the staircase ahead of us where we heard a small rumble then a small explosion ensued.
The floor shook a little. Damn they're getting closer.
Since I didn't want to experience being in a mind game I was desperate to put as much distance as possible.
"Hurry Toby we don't have time" I said urgently.
With that we wasted no effort into reaching the 3rd floor.
We were immediately confronted with a path of left or right.
"I think it's left" stated Toby.
We rushed and found an empty wall.
"Crap we wasted time, hurry lets go back".
I was about to follow when I realised that on the walls there were strange writings. I looked closer and a screen popped up.
Clue #4
"Come on Rivian we don't have time to spare"
I rushed over to Toby where we rushed at the area where we go left or right. Once we headed to the right I noticed something about the staircase.
A faint glow, it was orange. Fire.
The girl with the wand. The college group was drawing ever closer.
Why couldn't they just give up?
Looking back at this moment I realised that the will to survive was so strong that any principle of common sense didn't apply.
For instance how did the girl use fire, that's meant to be impossible.
But that wasn't on our mind, what we focused on was to live.
We were halted with a small wall ahead of us. To get over it we had to climb the ladder.
"You go first you have an injured wrist" said Toby.
Not complaining with his logic I climbed the ladder immediately. It was difficult with one hand but I tried to be as quick as possible.
Toby stood still. With a shaky breath he took out and held two items from his inventory.
He brought out yet another hand grenade and the consumable knife with only four uses.
I reached the top where I gave Toby the thumbs up to climb. The flickering of fire and yet another explosion shocked the floor.
"Hurry" I hissed at Toby.
Whilst I was heading down on the other side of the wall Toby was climbing up the ladder like a maniac.
Hesitation was irrelevant, in his position slight delay could mean that his short life is over.
"Look they're over their" the boy with the knife shouted.
The college group was running towards the ladder whilst still being chased by the horde.
Their numbers had drastically decreased but their was still around fifteen of them.
Toby managed to climb up the ladder. He rushed to climb down and realised that time wasn't on our side.
His solution. Jump.
Thankfully he didn't break his legs. To afford another injury is to basically ask us to be in debt to the dungeon.
I do not want the dungeon to be a loan shark, I doubt we'll live long enough to repay the debt.
As soon as Toby landed he chucked the hand grenade on the other side. A big boom exploded.
We scurried away. We didn't wait to find out what happened.
Seconds later a firework bang broke the silence of the dungeon once again.
Did Toby assist those creatures to take out one of them? Or did he actually blow up one of them by accident?
A sudden scream then chilled my bones to my very soul
"CURSE YOU CHILDREN WHEN I FIND YOU YOU'LL BE KILLED PAINFULLY".
Curse us. Curse you, if you didn't force us to use the noise grenade then this situation would have played out differently.
The way to the second floor was to basically go around a spiral.
It didn't help that there were bones littered across the floor.
We arrived at the staircase that headed to the second floor.
We were one step closer to escape.
If escape was meaningless then I vow to make it meaningful.