SHAMBLER

The shambling mound whipped out a vine. It wrapped around Chinatsu’s ankle and started to drag him back towards the pond.

Miyabi grabbed his arms and pulled in the opposite direction.

“OW OW OW! Stooop! You’re gonna rip me apart!”

She let go, and Chinatsu flew into the pond with a splash. Underwater, he could hear the muffled sounds of shouting, followed by more splashing. Then he felt the vine around his ankle release, and he was pulled to the surface once more.

Chinatsu coughed and gasped for air.

“Are you okay!? Did you swallow any water!?” Peony propped Chinatsu up with their shoulder.

He looked back to see Miyabi standing in the water, slashing at the shambling mound with the sword. Peony led Chinatsu away from the pond and set him on the ground.

“Miyabi! Get out of the water!” Peony urged.

“Got it!” Miyabi said, backing out of the water.

Miyabi retreated to Chinatsu and Peony’s side, sword out en garde. The shambler slowly emerged from the water in pursuit.

Its form was a solid, dripping mass made out of mud and algae. It was covered in grasses, dead leaves, and writhing vines. As it stepped onto the shore, the mud of its body shifted and dripped.

“Chinatsu, what is this thing, and how do we beat it?” Miyabi asked.

“I think it’s a Shambler! They’re usually animated by some kind of magic,” he explained. “Peony, your holy magic–can it show you if something is cursed at all?”

“Yes! I can detect and cleanse curses!”

“Then tell me, is that thing cursed?” he said, pointing to the Shambler.

Peony closed their eyes and held out a hand as if trying to feel for something.

“It’s faint, but I can sense a curse at its center,” the Elf confirmed.

“Alright! Then we’ll hack it to pieces and find the source of that curse!” Chinatsu commanded.

Miyabi and Peony nodded and charged at the Shambler.

Peony swung their silver staff at its legs. The blunt force of the staff managed to knock the mud out of place. It wasn’t perfect, but it would work.

Miyabi’s sword, on the other hand, sliced through the Shambler with stunning efficiency. Her swordsmanship was still clumsy, but she could hack and slash at it, destroying chunks of it at a time.

Chinatsu was getting fired up. He reached into his pocket for the knife, pulled it out, and clicked up the blade.

He looked at the massive Shambler. Then, at the tiny blade. Then, back at the Shambler.

This isn’t going to work!! What the hell am I thinking!?

Chinatsu hurried over to a tree and started breaking off a branch. One that was thick enough to use as blunt force against the Shambler. He couldn’t break it off with his hands, so he grabbed on and dangled, hoping it would snap off.

Miyabi and Peony were out there fighting for all of their lives. Chinatsu couldn’t just stand by and watch. He started wriggling and twisting, pulling on the branch as hard as he could until…

SNAP!!

He fell on his ass, but the stick was acquired!!

A vine whipped out at Peony and wrapped around their ankle, yanking them down to the ground.

Chinatsu whacked the vine with the stick. It did nothing.

“Idiot!! Did you think that was going to work!?” Miyabi yelled, cutting the vine with her sword. “Just stay out of the way!!”

Chinatsu helped Peony to their feet. He knew Miyabi was right, but he couldn’t stand feeling useless.

He whacked at the legs of the shambler with the stick. It wasn’t super effective, but he was still able to chip away at it bit by bit.

SNAP!!

The stick broke!!

Whatever. Chinatsu could still try with the shorter stick. He pulled his arm back to hit it once more, and when it came down, the stick and his hand got swallowed by the mud.

Chinatsu tried frantically to pull himself free. He didn’t notice the vines creeping up to his feet.

“AAAGHH!!”

Vines entwined all around Chinatsu. They pulled him into the mud. The more he struggled, the more they constricted him and held him tight like a snake devouring its prey.

“Chinatsu!”

Miyabi tried to rush over, but with every chunk cut off of the Shambler, vines shot out like tendrils as if it were trying to reach out and put itself back together. She was stuck, constantly hacking away at it, and all she or Chinatsu could do was watch each other struggle.

Chinatsu felt the air being squeezed out of him. He held his breath as his face was being pressed and pulled into the muddy Shambler’s body. Chinatsu cursed his lack of strength, his bad luck, and his inability to protect this body of Miyabi’s.

Everything was going black. Sound was muffled.

Then the vines released.

He fell backward and took in a gasp of air. When he wiped the mud off his face, he found himself looking into the amber brown eyes of a woman he’d never seen before.

“Good! You’re alive!” she smiled.

Sunkissed skin and curly black hair tucked neatly under a scarf. She seemed to glow and radiate warmth. An angel?

The woman set Chinatsu down on the grass and rushed back into the fray with a large cooking knife. She hacked at vines that were shooting out at the others.

A man had also joined the fray. He was armed with an old bolt-action rifle that had a bayonet on the end of it. He was slashing at the shambler with the bayonet.

Two complete strangers helping them in this place, and here was Chinatsu. Useless…

“Hey! Does that thing shoot!?” Miyabi shouted at the man.

“Who knows? It has one round in the chamber from when I picked it up, and I didn’t find any more!” the man replied.

“Then let’s hope it does!” Miyabi shouted. “Make it count! Aim for the center!”

The man readied the rifle and pointed it at the Shambler.

“Everyone out of the way!” he ordered.

Miyabi, Peony, and the new woman dashed away from the Shambler when the man took the shot.

The rifle cracked a thunderous boom as the sound of the gunshot echoed off the walls of the maze.

Mud exploded from the Shambler as the bullet exited on the other side. By some small miracle, something small and shiny was pushed out of it, and the shambler went down.

“Peony! Do it now!” Chinatsu urged.

“Right!” Peony nodded and readied their staff to cleanse the curse from the object.

A mumbled prayer. A blast of bright light. Just like the night Peony had saved them from the Wraith, the light engulfed the area and dissipated.

The object fell to the ground near Chinatsu. He reached for it.

“A ring?”

It was a small gold band with something engraved on the inside that he recognized as English.

“What does this say?” he said, handing it to Miyabi.

“Seriously? You need to pay more attention in class,” she said, taking the ring and inspecting the engraving. “Forever With You…A wedding ring?”

Likely belonged to some poor soul dragged into this labyrinth.

“That’s so sad,” Chinatsu said.

“People who die in this place while holding on to regret in their hearts become Wraiths. If the owner had directed all of it onto this ring before discarding it in the pond,” Peony said, taking the ring and holding it up to the sunlight. “Strong negative feelings can give birth to curses.”

The trio looked at the ring. Who did this belong to? What was their life like? Did they die in this place? These questions made Chinatsu’s heart feel especially heavy.

“Ahem.”

Chinatsu, Miyabi, and Peony looked at the strange new man.

He wasn’t Japanese, but he was wearing the kinds of clothes people wore in Chinatsu and Miyabi’s world–jeans, a t-shirt under a printed button-up, sneakers. On his head was a dirty, old military helmet that was likely as old as the rifle.

He pulled a pack of cigarettes out of the breast pocket of his shirt and lit one with a plastic lighter.

“Honestly, I only ran into this mess because I saw her running and thought she was getting away from danger,” the man said, pointing to the strange woman who had joined in fighting the Shambler.

“Sorry, sorry! I heard someone was in danger, so I felt compelled to help,” the woman laughed.

She was clearly not from the same world as the man, judging by her clothing. She wore a dress with an apron that looked straight out of an Oktoberfest postcard. She had a leather belt with pouches, which seemed to also have a black and tan animal pelt of some kind dangling from the back.

“Still, I didn’t expect to see kids in a place like this,” the man said, looking at the two teenagers.

He took a long drag from his cigarette.

“So, any one of yous wanna explain what the hell’s going on here?” he demanded in a thick accent.