CLASH--Round 1--The Hallway

Maddie stared down the hallway. She’s selected one quickly, without thinking, the usual. Did she pick the right one? She didn’t know. Was there a right one? She doubted it.

Their numbers had dwindled quickly. Just between the front gate and the foyer they’d been cut by half, some literally cut in half. Maddie wiped her arm against her side reflexively, again trying to wipe the now gone blood from her flesh. She’d been standing too close to one, but then, she’d been standing too close to them all, whether she’d gotten blood on herself or not. She’d never seen anything like this before. She’d known this was going to be dangerous, but to know and to truly KNOW, were two different things. If it weren’t for the fact that she doubted she’d survive a trip backward, she’d leave. But she figured if she was going to die, at least she’d die trying. That was something they could put on her headstone, “Not ‘died a coward,’” she said to herself. She was feeling oddly reticent. She took a deep breath, then started to step forward, down the hallway.

“Mind if I join you?”

Maddie nearly jumped out of her shoes and was visibly shaken.

“My apologies,” a small, gaunt man spoke. His accent was thick as was his odor. She thought she detected stale sweat and was sure she detected alcohol. “I simply thought this looked to be the safest route, if there were such a thing.”

He smiled warmly, putting her at ease with him, if it was possible to be at ease with anyone or anything in this place. But then, it seemed the people were the only things that hadn’t tried to kill her. She was feeling more herself and began to show it. “Your clothes are awfully rumpled.”

He looked down and frowned. Tugging at his shirt to smooth it some.

“I meant our clothes are awfully rumpled…see? Mine are too.“ She stumbled over her rudeness. She didn’t mean to be rude. Sometimes her mouth was as rash as the rest of her. Searching for a subject change, “Is that an Irish accent I hear?”

A scream came from one of the other hallways. Maddie jumped. Her new partner seemed to be unflapped by it.

“Scottish.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. I like a good Irish liquor.”

“As do I,” he replied with a smile, ignoring her slight.

“This place isn’t exactly what I was expecting. Then again, I also wasn’t expecting such a large crowd, though I suppose it’s a good thing so many turned up. But those poor people outside…”

“Yes. But let us focus on these poor people inside,” he said. “Both us and the Plumpockets. We could all use a bit of focusing on.”

“Yes, of course.” She was embarrassed and felt she wasn’t saying the right things. She wasn’t sure what those right things were, but she was sure she wasn’t saying them.

“How about instead of us stepping straight into the hallway, we inspect it first.”

“Of course. That’s what I was about to do,” she lied. As usual, she’d been about to rush headlong into something, make a rash decision, as her mum frequently told her. Perhaps her mum was right in this case. “My name’s Maddie.”

“Victor.”

“Oh, like the town drun—“ She stopped short…not sure if she was addressing the man she was referring to, but in either case, not wanting to offend her new friend, she continued, trying to cover herself, “the town dromedary? Have you seen him? He’s a beautiful camel. I love camels, don’t you? They’re so tall…” She looked down at him, at least a half a head shorter than herself. Why couldn’t she just say the right thing? Her mother was right, in her case, it was best that she be seen and not heard.

Victor, probably regretting his choice of this hallway by now, ignored her. “I don’t see anything, but we know there are traps there somewhere. There have to be triggers. Look. Can you see anything from here?”

There was another shriek from another hallway. These were really going to wear on her nerves, but Maddie searched their hallway systematically, including the ceiling and floor, trying her best to focus. Her brother, who played cards, unbeknownst to their parents, had taught her that everyone has a “tell.” Perhaps this hall did too. It had to. She just had to recognize it. Finally, she thought she spotted something. Pointing excitedly, “Look! It’s a tell!”

“A tell?”

“Yes, I know very well what it is. I’m just surprised that you do. Now I do believe I see a slight crack in the wall just there and there. Perhaps a hidden door.”

Maddie was quite proud of herself, but decided to heed her mother’s advice and ‘keep her mouth shut for once.’ Hoping to prove herself more useful, she grabbed a parasol from the stand just inside the foyer and began tapping it in front of them like a blind person, intermittently waving it up and down in front of them to trip any traps before the one they’ve spotted.

“Excellent idea.” Victor takes a parasol as well. Before they get to the trap, he holds her back, “Let me try this part first.” She was more than willing to allow him to be the gentleman in this case, though normally she’d be offended that a man should think she couldn’t take care of herself. However, in this hallway, she probably couldn’t.

He tapped the ground tentatively in front of each of them. Nothing happened. But when he moved to wave the parasol, the trap door on the wall quickly popped open and flames shot out, startling them both, though Maddie showed herself to be much the worse for wear. Victor, on the other hand, seemed more annoyed that his parasol had just caught fire, never mind that he, himself, was nearly flambéed.

Maddie admired his coolness as he waved a flaming umbrella in an attempt to extinguish it before it was completely consumed. She began coughing at the smoke then suddenly ducked at a blood-curdling scream that seemed to even set Victor’s nerves on end. She quietly chided herself for being so scared that her breath caught in her throat.

“That was a nasty one,” he said, “apparently they needed a parasol.”

His humor suddenly struck her as hysterically funny. She’d gone from having difficulty walking from fear to now practically rolling on the ground in a fit of laughter. She couldn’t explain it, but that was probably the funniest thing she’d ever heard! She continued to laugh until tears were coming down her cheeks, then her laughs seemed to be a choked combination of humor and sobs. She didn’t know what was wrong with her, but she seemed to be losing control of herself.

“This isn’t the time.”

She could only nod, unsure if she was laughing or crying at this point.

“I apologize.”

She looked up wanting to ask him what he was apologizing for then the sting on her cheek let her know. And with that, she was ready to focus again, angry, but no longer either laughing or crying. She went back to searching the walls and taking cautious steps forward, stepping over still burning pieces of the umbrella cover. Step by step, the slowly closed the distance to the end of the hall.

Then suddenly, a thunderous sound erupted and they were now standing between two giant walls that seem to have come crashing down, blocking them in.

“Well, this can’t be good,” Maddie observed.

“Dare say, I agree.”

Just then the walls, covered by ornate artistry, began to close in on them. This time the shriek was from Maddie.

“DO SOMETHING!”

Victor rummaged around in his pocket and pulled out a metal wedge. He jammed it slightly under the wall behind them and then kicked it in place, causing a great groan to emerge as the wall slowed to a halt. One problem solved, the wall in front of them continued to approach.

“Quick! Grab another one!” Maddie yelled at him.

“I only have the one.”

In a panic, Maddie’s mind began to study the wall’s beautiful designs. She’s pleased that she’d die with such craftsmanship pressing her into a lovely, decorated pancake. She wondered where these ideas came from, but decided to go with them as it’s her last moments on earth and she’d prefer to spend them in a stupor than screaming her fool head off like a woman. Then something clicked…not on the wall, but in her head.

“The pattern,” she cried excitedly, “it’s a code or a key of some sort! It has to be how we turn it off!”

She rushed to the wall before Victor could stop her. Reaching for her too late he called out, “Wait.” Then he realized that it must be safe…enough, since she was now studying the wall up close and slowly taking steps back as it encroached upon their limited space. She began pressing parts of the wall. Nothing. She tried again. Still nothing. She repeated the same touches, but in a different order each time, then suddenly the wall stopped. Just as quickly as they appeared, both walls disappeared back into the ceiling.

“How did you know what to press?”

“It was easy once I noticed the tarnished areas. They’d been pressed before and not by someone’s entire body. It only made sense. What was that thing you had?”

Victor picked up his wedge. “Just one of my inventions.”

“What does it do?”

“Didn’t you see? It stops walls from crushing us.” He began tapping and waving his charred parasol again.

She stood and studied the walls as he slowly approached from behind. She didn’t want to make the same mistake. They’d missed a tell and might not be so lucky next time. When he reached her, he also stood still and studied.

“See anything?”

“No,” she was disappointed. Partly because she wanted to be the hero again, but mostly because she couldn’t take the constant wondering what was next. Her mouth was dry, her throat hurt, her legs felt like they would give way at any moment and, most oddly, she was again, not very talkative, though at least she could talk.

“This place certainly makes you feel alive.” Victor took a deep breath of the air still slightly acrid with parasol bits.

She didn’t feel alive one bit. Maddie just wanted to go home. Yes, there was the high from being the one to save them, but she also knew that it was just as likely that she could be the one to get either or both of them killed. Thankfully there probably wasn’t a trigger that was set off simply by saying stupid things. She wiped her eyes and continued to search.

“Still nothing. There has to be something.” Her voice cracked.

“Don’t you worry. We’ll find it.”

“But I don’t want to find it like we found the last one.”

“Nonsense. That was nothing a bit of genius like yourself couldn’t handle.”

She smiled. He was nice. She wondered if that smell on his breath was celebratory drinking or something more serious. No, now was the time to focus…

Victor took a tentative step forward, “Looks like we’ll have to use these to forge ahead. But maybe we found everything.”

They were only half way down the hall. That was doubtful. Then they heard from around the corner at the end, “Exterminate…exterminate…exterminate…” A robot of brass and copper appeared and was heading right for them with a gun pointing right between them, then it began waving it back and forth between them and continued its mantra, “Exterminate…exterminate…”

Quickly Victor pulled something else from his pocket and wound it up. He then threw it on the floor and pointed, saying, “Exterminate.” What he’d thrown on the ground seemed to be a little metal cockroach which began to scurry toward the robot.

“Exterminate…” the robot repeated, then fired at the cockroach, blowing it to bits. It stopped to reload and Victor went behind it and quickly pulled at wires and sprockets and made a mess of the whole thing before it knew when happened.

Maddie smiled. “That was close. Are you an inventor?”

“Of sorts.” He pulled more parts from the robot and began sliding, tossing, and rolling them down the hallway, one by one. A trap door opened, swallowing a spring and sharpened metal stakes appeared from the floor and impaled a sprocket on the ceiling. The two continued to use their parasols, but felt at greater ease as they finally made it to the end of the hall.

A cold relief flooded Maddie and she felt a great affection for her partner and hero. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, “I couldn’t have done this without you. You know that, right?”

“Yes. But I might be able to say the same.” He peeked his head around the corner and then looked up the stairs after, of course, first checking everything with his burned umbrella. “Shall we?”

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