CHAPTER EIGHTY-SIX

The Endless Maze, Part 1

As he stood there staring into the Eisenhower Museum’s entrance, Sam was reminded of one of the first rules of heroics. Never idle by the threshold of a haunted zone. It’s always better to jump in quickly.

His original mentor had once clued him on why this rule was a must-follow. “In that brief moment when you’re still outside feeling the fresh air on your back while knowing only a cold darkness lies before you…that’s when fear builds in your chest, your courage drains away, and then godsdammit—you’ve lost your will to fight before the raid even begins, Healing Lad.”

For Sam, it had been a while, but he could still recall the spine-tingling sensation of that moment right before he plunged into Goodwill Asylum solo. Despite knowing how well that mission turned out, it was still impossible for him to fully shake off the feeling of dread that came with staring into the unknown.

“Here we go again,” he whispered.

He might have hung around the Eisenhower Museum’s entrance longer than necessary if Thunder hadn’t been standing at his side.

“Are you scared, lame-brain?” she teased.

“Nope,” he lied, although he’d already learned that being scared didn’t stop him from being brave, too. “Let’s do this.”

The pair of them slipped through the entrance and then found themselves falling into something unexpected.

“Um, wasn’t this supposed to be a museum?” Sam asked dumbfounded.

They landed at the top of a set of wooden steps that led down into dark space while several other wooden staircases—some leading up, others leading down—floated in the air around them. There were floating doors here, too—some of which were open and leading into carpeted hallways with interiors covered in shadows. Between all these floating fixtures were clouds of gray whose foggy tendrils obscured their surroundings so that they could barely see anything past ten feet away.

“Welcome to the Endless Maze, Sam,” Thunder said. “Hope we survive the experience...”

“It’s cold in here,” Sam noticed.

It was cold enough that their breaths came out in wispy vapors.

“And barely any light to see past twenty feet,” Thunder added.

The ghostly glow from the hundreds of will-o’-wisps floating in the air was all they had to light their way as the flashlights they brought with them could barely penetrate the fog’s depths.

“Honestly, I expected something weirder,” Farsight commented.

She and Dr. Hearthstone appeared at the bottom of a wooden staircase northeast of Sam’s and Thunder’s location. While Jackboot was left standing alone on top of a trapdoor that was floating just below them.

“Blimey, this is bizarre,” Jackboot exclaimed. “It’s like I’m inside someone’s muddled brain...”

“It’s a zone twisted and perverted by a powerful horror’s warped mind,” Dr. Hearthstone explained.

“What now?” Sam asked.

“Ideally, we would have a relic like Ariadne’s String guiding us, but our enemies stole that from my raid team earlier,” Dr. Hearthstone answered. “Maybe we can locate their starting point and follow their trail from there?”

“That sounds”—Thunder’s gaze drifted over the strange patchwork of floating scenery around her—“impossible.”

I’ll make them pay...

“Uh, did you guys hear that?” Sam asked.

I’ll kill them all...

It was just a whisper in the wind, but the malice in it caused goosebumps to rise on Sam’s skin.

“That would be the lingering thoughts of the horror that warped this place into a haunted zone,” Dr. Hearthstone explained.

“Rick...” Thunder sighed. “The kid who was bullied in my school...no one even knew he was gifted until he turned...”

“That must have been very traumatic,” Dr. Hearthstone said.

Thunder nodded. “It’s why I chose to be a hero... I never wanted to be in that kind of situation again and not be able to save lives.”

Sam patted Thunder encouragingly on the back before turning his focus on the problem at hand. “Does anyone know how we’re going to move around in here?”

“We don’t need Ariadne’s String.” Farsight pointed a thumb at herself. “You people sit tight and let the seer handle this.”

“Do your powers work in here?” Sam asked. “They, um, failed you last time...”

“The Fates hold no sway in another god’s realm.” Farsight waved a hand in the air. “But their influence extends into haunted zones...even ones formed from all this crazy.”

She pointed to a patch of empty air to the left of Jackboot, and the fog cleared around it to reveal another trapdoor floating just within his reach.

“You go first, Jack,” Farsight instructed.

“And what happens if you’re wrong?” Jackboot asked.

“Then you’ll be lost in the maze and never be heard from again,” she teased.

Jackboot frowned. “You’d make an interesting villain...”

Despite his words, Jackboot didn’t hesitate to leap over to the new trapdoor because he’d been around Farsight long enough to know her powers were the real deal. He pulled open the trapdoor and dove right in—and when they heard him yell, “Bloody Duat!” Jackboot sounded like he was far away.

“Everyone else should go through now... Hurry, I can’t hold this probability in our reality for long,” Farsight explained.

She let Dr. Hearthstone carry her in his arms princess-style, and together they jumped down into the trapdoor Jackboot had gone through. Sam and Thunder quickly followed with Sam diving into the trapdoor just as it began to disappear from reality.

“Styx,” he cursed as he tumbled down onto the solid ground with a roll. “I’m always cutting it close.”

“Sam!” Thunder yelled. “Dodge!”

Instinct drove Sam to roll to the right, allowing him to avoid the freakishly long, ghostly hand that would have latched onto his chest.

Sam scrambled back. “Bulwark! Bulwark!”

He raised his arm just in time for Bulwark’s near-invisible aura to wrap around it, helping him to deflect the phantom’s fingers from reaching his throat.

“This guy’s”—Sam whipped out Onus from his belt and launched it forward—“way too aggressive!”

Onus smacked against the side of the phantom’s skull with such force that the horrific apparition was blown away, giving Sam enough breathing room to rise to his feet and take stock of his surroundings.

They were on a square wooden platform with its left and right edges covered in walls plastered with World War II photographs. The front and back sides, however, led to the same foggy void as earlier.

Meanwhile, Sam’s companions were busy dealing with phantoms of their own, leaving him alone with the new arrival that had just stepped out of the void in front of him to reach their platform. It had a face that was a cross between man and wolf while its muscular body was covered in red-brown fur.

“Hound...” Sam breathed. “I hate hounds...”

It’s gamma-level, Chiron reported.

“Interesting...I’m gamma-level now, too,” Sam growled.

The hound let out an angry howl, and although the sound of it reminded Sam of the trauma that forced him to quit the hero’s life before, he didn’t hesitate to charge in with Onus raised high in his right hand.

“The ‘me’ of today”—Sam stepped into range and flung his hammer down at his opponent—“has more heart than the ‘me’ of yesterday!”

The hound raised its muscular arms in front of it to block Sam’s attack, but they were smacked away by Onus’ cylindrical head. This gave Sam a clear path to its chest.

“The ‘me’ of today”—with his left hand, Sam pulled the ax Mr. Moonday had given him to replace the Thorn Ax he'd lost out of its holster and then drove its head deep into the horror’s chest—“is stronger than the ‘me’ of yesterday!”

Sam slammed Onus into the back of the ax’s head and drove it even deeper into the horror’s chest, causing the hound to yelp in pain. He felt no pity for the horror though. Only a fit of burning anger that grew with each second they were face to face.

Leaving the hound no time to recuperate, Sam pulled his ax out of the horror’s chest. Then he proceeded to destroy the hound with blow after blow from the weapons in each of his hands until at last Thunder yelled for him to stop.

“It’s already dead, Sam,” she said.

It was only then that he noticed the mess of broken bones and bloodied fur on the ground before him. The smell of rotten flesh and wet dog wafted up to his nose too.

“I...” Sam breathed.

Are you done dealing with your issues, kid? Chiron asked.

“I…what in Hades did I—”

“You’re being affected by the psychic energies permeating the haunted zone’s atmosphere,” Dr. Hearthstone explained.

“Which in this case would be a whole lot of anger,” Farsight chimed in. “Something you seem to have for that hound, Sam... Care to explain?”

“I...” Sam returned his weapons to their holsters. “No.”

“Our emotions will be heightened in here. So don’t let them get the better of you,” Dr. Hearthstone warned.

Farsight insisted they leave the spoils they earned from the fight behind as it was far more important that they chase after Chimera’s agents. No one disagreed with her. And so, with Farsight opening the path forward once more, the team jumped through another door to arrive on a large circular platform where a battle had recently taken place.

The scent of blood in the air was quite overpowering. The corpses that littered the ground were a mix of white-clad soldiers and hounds even bigger than the one Sam just faced.

Thunder knelt over a soldier’s corpse to inspect it. “These wounds... I don’t think these were made by any of the horrors here...”

“Why do you say that?” Sam asked.

“Look at this...” Thunder pointed a finger at the hole in the soldier’s chest. “This is a stab wound. It’s too deep to have been made by a hound’s claws. It looks more like something a sword would make...”

“Like a large broadsword, you mean?” Jackboot mused out loud.

“Yeah, something like that,” Thunder agreed. “How’d you guess, Jack?”

“Well, I’m staring at one right now,” Jackboot answered.

Hearing the warning in his tone, the others’ gazes left the corpse and snapped toward the other end of the platform where a ghostly figure had just emerged from the fog.

“Is that...” Sam’s eyes widened slightly.

Yes, it’s a revenant,” Farsight finished for him. “And it looks angry...”