Chapter 12: She's Kerosene

The fire lit the wall behind me as Patti took up position guarding Church. I found the jail card in my inventory and tried to use it, but a pop-up appeared saying there were still ten minutes to go before it was available again.

“Fuck! What is it this time, Jay?” I shouted. Before she could answer, I had my Zippo in my hand and struck the ignitor. The explosion of purple revealed my decaying form, and I found my baton stowed away in my jacket. I extended it and backed up towards the fire as my eyes darted around, searching for the attacker. I found three shadows near a tree, a bit up the maze path where we were heading. I could make out two humans, and oddly enough, a bear. Like a grizzly bear, on all fours. I couldn’t make out any more details than that.

Jay walked up next to me and said, “They’re players, Max. Be careful.”

I knew I’d run into other people eventually, but I wasn’t expecting to be attacked. I made a big scene of raising my baton in the air and bringing it down on the ground, collapsing it in on itself. Then I made a broad gesture of putting it back in my jacket. I thought about using the ignitor to switch back, but decided against it for now. I kept the card pop-up with the countdown timer on my screen, just in case we had to get out of this. I waved my arms back and forth and yelled, “Truce! We don’t want to fight!”

There was some silence before a female voice yelled back, “Did we kill your friend? We didn’t mean to, if we did! We were just trying to warn you away from us!”

I looked back at Church. Poor dude was going to get a concussion from all this falling down. I made a note to get him a helmet at some point. The fire nearby was already beginning to fizzle out. I called back, “He’s okay! He’s just unconscious! His class is Sleeper Agent!”

There was a brief moment, and the same woman called back, “That fucking sucks! Sorry!”

“It’s okay! Can we talk instead of fight?” I replied.

Again, there was a pause, longer this time, before the woman who was talking began walking in my direction. Shortly behind her, her comrades followed. As they got closer, I could see them better. The woman was short with dark hair underneath a crooked witch’s cap, and the other human was a tall, pale man who looked fairly normal to me. The bear coming up the rear is what worried me. It was huge, and far more than I could handle. There was still time left on the timer. They all stopped before they got too close, but they were close enough for me to read the names above their heads. The woman’s name was Laura Vale, the man’s was Johan Blomgren, and the bear’s was Isak Blomgren. That’s a pretty bizarre last name for Oklahoma, I thought.

We all just looked at each other for a moment before I broke the silence. “So, hey, I’m Max. The unconscious man back there is Church, and that’s my dog Patti.” Patti answered with a growl. She was pulled back, ready to pounce. Her paw was still sore from the looks of it, but she stayed ready.

The bear, Isak, growled back, but Laura turned and hushed him. She started to walk towards me, and Johan tried to grab her arm, but she shook free. She came within a few steps of me, and I was able to see her better. She stood a full head shorter than me, wearing a jean jacket over a shirt with some red pants. I noticed her witch’s hat also had the anarchy symbol on it.

“I’m Laura. The bear is Isak, the other one is Johan. We’re not from here and are really lost. Sorry again for throwing that at you. We were attacked back that way,” she nodded behind her towards the direction we were heading, “and we couldn’t be sure.” Her voice had a South American accent, but I couldn’t tell where it was from.

Jay got up close to me and said, “I want you to nod and act like you’re thinking. I’ll be quick.” I did as she said. “Don’t forget they all have game manuals of their own, and some of those who won Mze Twenty did so by being scheming snakes. Be careful, Max. This is a survival game that ends once enough people are dead, and some people will try to hurry that process up.”

I finished my “thinking” and said, “It’s okay. We haven’t run into anyone else yet. We’re trying to get to his house. Where are you all headed?”

She was looking me up and down as the bear talked, in a heavy Nordic accent. “You smell like shit.”

I just looked at the bear in shock. I knew it was a player because of the name, but it was still bizarre to hear a talking animal. I also noticed the “Get Into Jail Free” card was now available again, and I visibly relaxed. “Sorry,” I said. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my Zippo. I changed back to my base form as a skeleton and continued, “My race, it’s a… uh… Bone Ranger.” I cringed a bit saying that out loud. “And my class changes into monsters.” I heard a noise from behind and saw Church starting to sit up. Patti kept her position.

As Church rubbed his head, he said, “We got to get me a helmet or something…” He trailed off as he saw the new people. He stood up and just looked at them.

I turned back to Laura and said, “He passes out when we get attacked.”

Laura replied, “Yeah, I remember Sleeper Agent. Did he miss the selections at the beginning?”

I nodded and was about to reply when Johan said in a thick accent, “He’s going to die and probably get you killed too.”

Laura gave Johan a nasty look, but I answered, “He needed help. So I’m helping.”

Johan and Isak began talking in a foreign language, and it sounded heated. Between every few words, the bear would growl. Church had come to stand next to me, and Patti stood between us both. Finally, Church asked Laura, “What are they saying?”

The bear, Isak, let out a loud growl and said, “You Americans only know .8 languages! Learn another language, you animal!”

Church pointed at the bear and yelled, “Hey! You’re the animal here, Pooh Bear!” The bear growled, which caused Patti to growl. I was surprised Church hadn’t fallen to the ground yet. I nudged Church and shook my head at him, telling him to cool it. Laura appeared to be doing the same, but she was speaking in Spanish. I caught a few words here or there; she was saying something about focusing.

She turned back to face me, and her eyes went wide. She threw her jacket open and pulled a pint of alcohol out that had a rag stuffed into it. She cocked her arm back, the rag lit on its own, and she threw it behind us. Church and I ducked, and we both turned to see it go far before hitting something that squealed loudly like a pig. It was an Undead Mass off in the distance. It rolled a bit before coming to a stop, now fully engulfed. We looked back at Laura, and I blurted out, “What is your class?”

She smiled and closed her jacket before reopening it. There was a new bottle on the inside, already with a rag in the tip. She closed it again and said, “I chose a Hexarchist. I make spells with Molotov cocktails.”

That’s bad ass, I thought.

“Thanks,” she replied.

Shit, did I say that out loud? I coughed and said, “Where are you all heading?”

“Tulsa,” she replied. Johan made a noise, and Laura hushed him. She continued, “We got a quest right when the maze started, and we need to go there. Do you know what direction it is?”

I forgot there were quests. I wondered what theirs was, but I didn’t want to keep them here any longer. Laura seemed cool, but Johan and Isak worried me. “Yeah, it’s to the north,” I said. “But it’s pretty far from here. Maybe a three-hour drive? But by foot, walking in this thing? I have no idea.”

“Space and distance are altered in the maze. Didn’t your game manual tell you that?” said Johan. “I don’t know who yours is, but Milky says-” Johan was cut off by Isak nipping at Johan’s arm. The man yelled and reeled back. The bear growled, and Johan got quiet. What did they not want us to know?

The bear approached Laura’s side, keeping an eye on me. “Let’s go. We’ll find another way.”

Laura looked at the bear and then back to me. She reached into her jacket and pulled out a bottle. She whispered some words to it, and the rag turned green. She handed it to me and said, “This is to apologize for earlier. You’ll have to light it manually yourself, but this one will explode in acid. I think it’s my most powerful cocktail.” I took it and thanked her. The group headed off in the direction of my house, and once we couldn’t see them anymore, I started to get worried.

“She seemed nice, but those dudes were assholes,” said Church.

“Yeah. They’re heading towards my house, and I hope they stay out of it.” I said.

Jay was nearby again and said, “They’ll never find your house. You most likely won't ever again either. The maze shifts when you’re in it.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “Are you saying I can’t go back home?” I was furious at the thought.

“Most likely not,” Jay said. “But there’s a bigger problem, Max. Did you hear what that one man said? They have a game manual named Milky, and that’s bad.”

“What? Why?” I asked.

“Milky is a well-known survivor who became an infamous game manual. He’s dangerous, Max. Next time we see them, it probably won’t go well.”