Day Five - Hedged In Part Five

Today I've reached an even more startling revelation: technology SUCKS. I don't have the space in my device to record videos. So here''s what we're going to do. I'll post the segments here for anyone who wants to read them for the month of April, but the videos will no longer be available.

Hey guys! Grace Nask here with Day Five of the April Challenge. Today we have some of chapter 5 of Hedged In, a novelette for teens and above. If you're just coming in, Olivia, our main character, and her partner Jacob enter the perilous Maze. Already they faced a hoard of wasps; what will happen next? Thanks for reading!

Chapter Five: Binomial

They say that losing one sense strengthens all the others. The blind will get great hearing, the deaf a better sense of smell, etc, etc. I don’t think that applies to the voluntary mute; but either way, I was the first to hear the growl as Jacob and I moved along The Maze.

I tugged on his sleeve, forcing him to a stop. “Another trap?” Jacob groaned. From the way he winced whenever his hands brushed against something, the memory of our last encounter with The Maze remained vivid.

I forced myself to shrug in a carefree manner even as my body tensed. I scanned our immediate area for the source of the sound. Open on the North, with billowing sand creating the path. Hedges to the East after the narrow intersection a few minutes ago. Another hedge blocking the West, as it had been for the last ten minutes. And behind me to the South--

If I could’ve screamed, I would’ve, but nothing came out when I opened my mouth. A massive dog stood where we crossed seconds ago. Standing on all fours, the black-furred beast came up to my waist; I didn’t want to know how tall it stood on its hind legs. Claws as long as my fingers spiked out of its paws, and it stared out with giant, yellow eyes. On one flank, someone had stabbed the beast with a dagger, and droplets of blood still dripped from beside the hilt of the blade. The beast opened its large snout, showing off two sets of jagged teeth. Then the growl changed to a howl. “Ar-ar-arooooah!”

Jacob whipped around at the sound with a gasp. My mind whirled back to the story. “Bigger than that brown bear...and twice as aggressive.”

This was the dog that forced Evan to shoot his flare four years ago.

I practically had to punch Jacob in the shoulder to get his attention off the creature before us. He opened his mouth with a glare, but I was up and signaling. I curled my fingertips into a claw and ran it down my arm. mimed a boxer’s stance, then pointed to the beast, which growled for emphasis.

Thankfully, Jacob understood. “That’s how that guy got his scars? Well, then.”

I nodded and slid a finger across my throat. We’re dead.

But Jacob didn’t seem as concerned as I would’ve liked. He instead looked...thoughtful. Not for the first time, I wondered what I’d gotten myself into agreeing to be the partner of a random kid a day before The Maze began.

“I’m gonna try talking to him,” Jacob announced. “He seems friendly enough, but I’m sure the big fella would be a lot happier without that dagger in his side.”

I choked on my own saliva at the absurdity of the statement. We stood in The Maze, filled with traps of all sorts, and I tell my somewhat sane partner that the beast scarred a Maze Veteran for life, and he wanted to talk to it? Why don’t we bring tea to a lion’s den while we’re at it!

Suppressing the urge to shake him until he saw reason, I pointed to the open expanse of sand in front of us. We could walk away from the whole thing. Not that I thought it would be that simple, but it couldn’t hurt to try.

Jacob shook his head. “He’s hurt; I just can’t leave him here. Besides, it wouldn’t be any fun for the people watching us if we bypassed those traps.” He waved a hand, dismissing the matter. “I used to live on a farm; I dealt with frightened, injured animals all the time.”

Jacob didn’t quite meet my gaze when he said it, and a part of me was glad. I wasn’t sure if I could open up family histories right now in the middle of The Maze with a massive beast alongside us.

Besides, I had more important things to do, such as deal with my animal extremist of a partner. I wanted to shake Jacob, to tell him that the wasps had been synthesized to kill and that this dog was probably more of the same. But he couldn’t see that, only the dagger in its side, his eyes deep in lost thoughts. Jacob endangered himself, and me, and our chances at winning The Maze all in one shot. Who knows how far other teams have gotten by mid-afternoon on the first day? Losing could not be an option for me. Not now.

Using a finger gun, I fired into the sky, then shook my head. I’m not shooting up a flare for you.

The minute the words were out, a part of me regretted them. But the rest just wanted to know why my parents had to die.

In the two days I’d known him, I’d seen many sides of Jacob: joyful, angry, tense, relieved, and fearful, sometimes all rolled into one and sloshing together. But now I saw the Jacob that had attacked Evan without regret, that spit blood into the ground, then rose and lunged. I saw the Jacob that could hate.

He didn’t answer me, just reached into the survival pack and pulled out the small ration of meat we’d been given. Jacob left the pack in the sand by my feet but didn’t look back at me. The beast, which had been growling in the corner during the whole exchange, now stopped the noise and perked his ears. I almost smiled; he looked like a little puppy about to be given a treat. Almost.

Jacob crouched onto the sand, angling his head and body in a way that didn’t face the...dog...head on. With one hand, he held out the meat as he murmured in soothing tones, urging it to trust him and take the free food.

The dog didn’t move, but its ears remained perked. At this point, I might’ve been frustrated, but Jacob smiled instead. He advanced three steps and three steps only, stopping when the dog began to growl again. There he dropped the meat and, still crouching, stepped back at an angle. Away from me.

The dog hesitated, but Jacob waited. And I, for reasons foreign to me, held my breath as well. Jacob’s plan worked. By some insane reality--or maybe just the hunger of the dog--it worked. The dog, tense in a crouch of its own, stalked forward and snatched up the meat. As it chewed, Jacob pounced. Quick as a bullet, he reached the dog’s side and withdrew the dagger.

The dog dropped its meat and whipped its head around in a single second. Before my thoughts could process, I had the survival pack in my hand. What I planned to do with it, whether I would’ve thrown it at the dog and saved Jacob’s life or ran for it--not even I can say.

As it was, I didn’t have to worry. The dog unleashed a series of barks as Jacob scrambled backward, but then turned back to its meat and wolfed it down. Jacob brushed his pants off, shaking, but couldn’t rid himself of the dog’s blood on his hands. I gave him his survival pack, and he took it, but neither of us spoke to the other.

We took a few steps forward and smacked face first into some sort of invisible force field. It pulsed red, then turned invisible again. I tried to exchange a glance with Jacob, but it was clear he wasn’t done giving me the silent treatment. With an inward sigh, I punched him in the shoulder (mildly...kind of) to get his attention, pointed to him, and raised my hand. Jacob looked at his own hands coated in the dog’s blood, groaned, looked at me, saw I was serious, and placed one against the forcefield. It pulsed green, then dissolved, and we walked right through.

A safehouse loomed into view after another quarter mile of trap-free walking. Seeing the sun flicker and fade at the horizon, we agreed to spend the night there. Jacob remained tense and wouldn’t talk to me beyond what was necessary.

Three other partnerships resided there for the night, but the space could’ve held fifty people. In the end, we spread into the four corners of the space, as far away from the others as we could get. You weren’t supposed to kill people inside The Maze, but everyone heard.

When I noticed one woman in her twenties had medical papers, though, I couldn’t resist. Using hand signals, I explained my situation with Jacob as best I could, and she agreed to lend me the backs of them and the pen she’d had on her to sign them. My olive branches in hand, I walked over to the bed Jacob had claimed as his own and sat on the edge of it. We need to talk.