Nicole stopped and looked back the way she’d come. She was beginning to wonder whether this
tunnel would ever end. It had been well
over an hour since she, Brandy and Albert stepped through the north gate of the
hive-like City of the Blind and yet the walls of this passage continued to
unfold from the darkness before them, threatening to go on forever.
Her feet hurt. Her legs were
sore. She could feel the cool air upon
her naked skin, but the sheer exertion of pushing ever forward was adequate to fend
off the chill.
“Tired,” Brandy sighed as she stopped walking and leaned against the wall
of the tunnel. It was the first thing
any of them had said in a while.
Nicole turned and looked forward again, her eyes washing over her
friends. All three of them were still
filthy from entering that awful, mud-filled chamber. The drying, putrid sludge had hardened into a
malodorous crust that covered their flesh and hair. The stench of it still filled her nostrils,
refusing to fade away and let her forget that it was there. She could even taste it on her lips. It was foul.
And it was a constant reminder of what she and her friends had already
endured within this strange labyrinth, this “Temple of the Blind,” as Albert
called it.
And it was not done with them yet.
They had only begun to explore the corridors beyond the city. How much longer would they have to
endure? And what unpleasant things still
remained in store for them?
Brandy pressed her back to the wall and then let herself slide down the
cool stone until she was sitting on the floor and resting her aching feet and
legs in front of her.
Albert had gone several steps farther before stopping. Now he stood silently in the beam of Nicole’s
flashlight, staring into the endless darkness that constantly filled the
passage ahead. She stared at his bare
back, wondering what he was thinking.
There was no lack of troubling things to weigh on his mind. So much had happened in such a short amount
of time. It seemed like days ago that she
stood in the bathroom at Albert and Brandy’s apartment, listening to the
ringing phone that no one wanted to answer.
It seemed almost silly now, after all they’d been through, that those
silent messages had filled them with such dread. They had no way of knowing then that the real
nightmares were waiting for them in the dark corridors of Gilbert House and this
temple.
Was he contemplating the numbing reality of Beverly Bridger’s horrific death? The disturbing memory of that moment was
still vividly fresh in Nicole’s mind, and unlike her, Albert actually saw what became of the poor woman. He had actually seen her body. She was sure that it must weigh even greater
on him. And now that she thought about
it, she remembered that Albert was also the only one who saw the bodies in
Gilbert House…
She did not envy the things his eyes had seen.
Or was it instead the heavy words of the Sentinel Queen that occupied his
thoughts? She had burdened them with a
mysterious task, a quest vital to the very future of humanity, if she could be
believed, and yet she refused to tell them how to get there or even what it was
that they sought. She had mentioned only
a doorway of some sort. However, she’d
had no problem thrusting that whole psychic thing onto Albert and Brandy. Nicole had no idea how she would feel if she were
in their place, but she suspected it would bother her considerably.
Or maybe Albert was merely worrying about Wayne, all alone in some other
ungodly passageway, trying to rescue poor Olivia from that nightmare
forest.
Nicole stared at Albert, her light illuminating his dirty back, tiredly
admiring his build, barely aware of her eyes lingering on his mud-caked buttocks.
“I’ve got to rest for a while,” Brandy said. “My feet are killing me.”
Albert stood where he was for a moment longer, still staring into the
darkness ahead, not speaking. Then,
finally, he slowly turned and faced them.
Nicole looked away from him, embarrassed, and stared back the way they
came. She had become perfectly
comfortable with her own nudity by now, accepting that Albert was her friend
and that it was okay if he saw her naked.
In fact, it was much easier to stand naked in front of him than she
would ever have imagined. But it still
made her feel strange to look at him like that. It felt so wrong. She envied Brandy. As his girlfriend, Brandy had no need to feel
embarrassed by the sight of him unclothed.
But then again, she rather envied Brandy for a lot of reasons…
“I think that’s a good idea,” Albert agreed. He walked back to where Brandy had stopped
and sat down beside her. Immediately, she
seized his left arm and pressed herself against him, resting her head on his
shoulder.
“You’re stinky,” she told him.
“I know.”
Brandy smiled tiredly and closed her eyes.
Nicole lingered for another moment, looking back and forth into the
looming darkness that filled the passage on either side of them, and then she joined
them, sitting down on Brandy’s other side and scooting close to her.
“How much farther?” Brandy asked, not opening her eyes.
Albert did not respond. He merely
shook his head wearily.
“We haven’t even got to the labyrinth yet, have we?”
Albert kissed her head. The
lovely, apple scent of her shampoo was gone.
A deep, vulgar stench clung about her from the crust of stagnant mud
that clung to every surface of her body.
“I don’t think so,” he admitted.
There were no branches in the road, no decisions, no wrong ways. There were not even any turns in the
path. There was nothing here that even
remotely resembled a labyrinth. This was
all merely one single passage.
Immediately after they passed through the north gate, they found a set of
steps leading up a short distance, exactly like those leading away from the
south gate, except that there was only one flight. At the top was a small, oval-shaped room with
two sentinels.
Albert had stopped at the top of the steps and studied these statues for
a moment. They seemed different than the
others, warmer somehow. The one on the
right was reaching toward them with its long left arm, its deformed hand open
and inviting. Its right arm was
stretched out in the other direction, its freakishly long index finger pointing
the way forward. The blank surface where
its face should have been was fixed on them.
There were no eyes or mouth or other features to suggest emotions of any
kind, but it was clearly urging them forward.
The statue on the left was identical, but facing the other way, as if
inviting someone coming from the other direction to venture forward into the
Sentinel Queen’s city. Albert passed
between the statues and turned to view them from the opposite side of the
room. It was eerie to see the same view
from both sides. It was easy to imagine
forgetting which way was out. But of
course, there was nowhere to go but back to the north gate should they get so
turned around.
Brandy had stood between the two sentinels for a moment, looking at
them. She commented that they were
contradicting each other, but Albert knew better. “Don’t forget what the Sentinel Queen said,”
he reminded her. “She was talking about
fourteen women who entered the city from the north gate.”
“Could that be true?” Nicole asked.
She found it very difficult to imagine that humanity somehow migrated
into the world through this very room.
“I don’t know if it is or not,” Albert replied. “But it doesn’t matter. If anyone ever came through here, from
wherever this leads, these guys would have greeted them exactly like they
greeted us just now. It’s a two-way
door, of sorts. A welcome mat that
points both ways.” He stared up at the
statues for a moment, wondering. “If it is
true, if those women were real…we could be standing in a very important
place. It’s like a crossroads in
time. Thousands of years apart, but
seeing it exactly the same way they did…
Even if those women weren’t all the Sentinel Queen said they were, even
if they weren’t carrying the entire human race in their wombs, they might still
be significantly important to our history.”
They said no more about it.
Silently, thoughtfully, the three of them moved on past the room with
the two welcoming sentinels, ready to get started on their long (and likely very
unpleasant) journey into the labyrinth.
But there had been nothing beyond that room but these same four stone
surfaces. The passage had merely stretched
on and on.
The three of them sat together for a while, listening to the eerily empty
silence, thinking about all the things they had seen and done in the hours that
led them to this quiet moment.
“Do you think we’ll ever see him again?” Nicole asked.
Albert and Brandy both lifted their faces and looked at her. It was a question that had troubled them all since
the Sentinel Queen tore Wayne away from them.
It seemed so cruel after all they’d been through. They faced the monster in Gilbert House with
him. They suffered together. They journeyed together into this insane
temple. He became their friend in the
midst of all the horror and wonder. And
then he was simply taken away, as suddenly as Beverly Bridger, if not as
gruesomely.
But they had to let him go. They
had to believe that Olivia might really still be out there. They had to believe that death was not the
only inevitability of this insane adventure.
Brandy wanted to say yes. Of
course they would see him again. He was
big and strong and brave. He would
certainly endure whatever silly trials awaited him in his quest to find
Olivia. But she didn’t know that. Not really.
For all she knew, he was already dead.
After all, what did they really know about the Sentinel Queen? What reason did they have to trust her? For all they knew, she could have lied to
them and led him away simply to shove him into another pit of spikes or feed
him to a pack of hounds.
And even if he did survive, even if he did manage to rescue
Olivia and find his way home, who was to say they would ever cross paths with
him again? Either way, they may never
know what became of him after the Sentinel Queen took him from them.
She simply didn’t know.
“I think we will,” Albert said after a moment.
Brandy and Nicole both looked up at him, their eyes hopeful.
“Everything that’s happened down here…
It’s so far beyond ordinary. It
has to mean something, right? It can’t
all just be cruel chance. Whatever the
reason for us all being down here, I’m sure he’s as much a part of it as we
are.”
“You really think so?” Brandy asked.
“I do.”
“Is that your psychic sense telling you that?” Nicole wondered.
Albert smiled. “I have no
idea. Maybe.” It was still so weird to imagine that he was
actually psychic. He was still getting
over the shock of such a profound idea.
He certainly didn’t know how to use it.
“I just feel like we’ll see him again sometime.”
Brandy squeezed his arm a little tighter and rested her head against his
shoulder again.
“I hope so,” said Nicole. She
watched them for a moment, her two closest friends in the world, then lowered
her eyes to her flashlight and wondered what Wayne was doing at that very
moment.
It was embarrassing to think about, but she’d actually been nurturing a
little bit of a crush for Wayne. After
all, he had appeared out of nowhere, seemingly for no other reason than to keep
them safe as they wandered blindly into the dangerous hallways of Gilbert
House. It was not so very unlike the way
Brandy and Albert were brought together.
And she couldn’t help but feel a small pang of jealousy whenever she thought
about Brandy’s amazing story of how she fell in love with the man of her
dreams. She’d give anything to have made
such a powerful connection with someone half as wonderful as Albert.
All she’d had was Earl…
Of course, Wayne hadn’t really been quite as impressive as
Albert. He was handsome, sure, and
brave. He was bigger than
Albert. Stronger. But it was clear that he didn’t have nearly
the patience or the even-temperedness that Albert possessed. The anger he displayed toward Beverly certainly
didn’t win her affection, even if she was sympathetic of the emotions
beneath his temper.
Wayne also hadn’t seemed to be as keenly intelligent as Albert, either,
but that had since proven to be a gross misperception. Wayne may not have been the impressive mystery-solver
that Albert was, but he was definitely very smart.
He was full of surprises. Just
like Albert…
But Wayne wasn’t bravely charging into that terrifying forest to rescue
Nicole. He was doing it for Olivia.
She looked again at Albert, who was tiredly staring past her into the
darkness that led back to the City of the Blind and the mysterious Sentinel
Queen. She considered asking him if he
really thought they could do this, if he really believed they had what it took
to survive down here. She considered
asking him how they expected to navigate a labyrinth this size when they didn’t
even know what they were looking for.
She considered asking him how long he thought they could continue to
keep away from the hounds. But she
didn’t get to ask him anything. The
tired thoughtfulness on his face suddenly vanished. He sat up and aimed his flashlight into the
darkness where he’d been staring.
Startled, Brandy and Nicole both swung their flashlights in the same
direction.
There was nothing there.
“What is it?” asked Brandy. There
was an unmistakable edge to her voice.
Albert continued to stare into the darkness, his expression puzzled. Finally, after a moment, he shook his
head. “Nothing, I guess. Imagining things.”
“I’m sorry, Sweetie,” Brandy retorted nervously, still searching the
empty tunnel for whatever compelled him to shine his light toward it, “but you’re
not the most imaginative person I know.”
Albert glanced at her, amused.
“Maybe.” Again his eyes returned
to the empty passageway. “But there’s
nothing there.”
But something did seem to be there a moment ago, some indefinite
shape in the darkness, something that was gone now.
“Maybe it was that blind guy,” Nicole suggested. “The Sentinel Queen’s son. Maybe he was checking up on us.”
“Maybe,” Albert agreed. Although
the last time they saw the man with no eyes, he didn’t seem to be in the best
condition for stalking.
Nicole hugged herself tightly and shivered as a sudden chill gripped
her. She wished this place had
lights. It was unnerving to see nothing
but darkness at the end of these tunnels for so very long.
“We’ll rest a little longer,” Albert decided. “Then we’ll move on.”
Brandy squeezed his arm again and nuzzled a little closer.
Nicole rested her head on Brandy’s shoulder and stared back into the
darkness, watching.
