Tick, Tock

Tick, Tock

Tick, Tock

Athlai Ishvara clicked his tongue in annoyance as he debated his chances. He quickly glanced behind him at the dense, green forest he had been wandering through. The life here was thick and its bountiful resources of food and materials were offset by its many forms of savage predators and killer tiny things.

On the other hand, before him was a long, well-lit hallway that stretched into a T intersection perhaps a kilometer away. This new place looked like a hospital. Its white walls were more welcoming than the wilds behind him.

Decisions, decision.

Wait.

What was that sound?

Athlai's heart shifted into high gear as adrenaline rushed into his system. This was the number one item on his top five list of horrific experiences. Dead Silence.

Looking down onto his wrist, he saw his greatest fear come to life yet again.

The clock had stopped.

Giving out a loud and frustrating click, he made his decision.

He walked into the hallway and the world changed. His body tingled as he crossed through the barrier.

The atmosphere immediately shifted from a hot and humid air into a much cooler and dry world.

Quickly, but quietly, Athlai turned around, he gazed with annoyance and regret as he closed the hallway door and sealed off the other side. This would buy him perhaps a few more seconds.

Enough time to hide and live another day.

He wasted no more time as he jogged down the long hallway.

Most doorframes lead to either small empty rooms or a mishmash of office furniture. There was a room with only the wheels of a chair. A room with nothing but empty tissue boxes. A room with three stacked desks covered in plastic wrap.

The main issue was that only three of the thirty rooms had doors. Two of the doors that were intact and neither of them there unlocked.

He could, of course, simply break into a room but that defeated the purpose of finding a room with a door. He needed to be able to close it in order to hide.

Clicking his tongue, Athlai found himself at the intersection. Doing a small jig as he hopped on one foot to the other, he warmed up for two seconds.

He then jerked his head in and out as he checks out the left side. Five rooms with doors. 4 doors on the left and one at the end on the right.

Crouching, in case there was something to attack where his head just was, he did it again to the other side. This time he also felt bones shift and gently crack. He was definitely not a young man anymore. One door down a very long corridor.

The best way was probably the left. There had to be an open room and worst come to worse he could simply break into a room and pray he could barricade himself inside.

BANG!

Twirling around, Athlai's eyes widened as the other door opened and a burst of shimmering of air filtered into the room. There was no longer any forest on the other side but a dark void instead. The door now released a black, tar-like goop that was quickly oozing into the area.

Shit.

The Tar of Hunger.

Moving at a dead run, Athlai found each door locked as he rushed down the hallway. If they were all locked then he would need to gamble on the other door far, far down the other hallway.

The final and separate door on the right opened.

Moving in, he closed the door but clicked his tongue in restrained anger as there was no lock or latch. The door also didn't feel very sturdy and there was an unhelpful open gap on the bottom of the door.

Turning around to find something to help, Athlai found instead another, heavier reinforced door.

It was definitely strange as the new room was sectioned into two pieces. The first small room was long but narrow. It held a wall with three large, floor to ceiling windows into what looked like an infirmary.

Big, white-sheeted beds lay in two rows in a larger room within.

A heavy, metal door separated the two sections and Athlai strode over to what was hopefully his salvation.

The door was an equally huge thing. Floor to ceiling, it had no easy way to open other than a hand imprint recognition panel.

Clicking his tongue, Athlai placed his right hand over the panel and it flashed to life. A green line scanned down from the top to the bottom as it did whatever it was supposed to.

After the scan, two large buttons appeared over the panel as the handprint vanished and two-button took its place. On the top was a green rectangle with a circle and on the bottom was a red rectangle with a square.

Hoping that the color scheme adhered to the universal standard of green means go, he pressed the green button.

With a rumble, the giant door hissed open and the giant door began to sink into the ground. Athlai's heart fluttered in relief as he raced in, hopping over the door as it was barely halfway open.

He absently noted that the door and walls were a full ten centimeters thick. This would offer perfect protection against the tar.

The other side was much the same except for the sterile white color scheme. It was thankfully a matte finish else he would have been horribly annoyed by the shine of everything.

There was another hand scanner and he repeated the process but chose the red square and was rewarded with the door halting as the metal barricade had fully sunk into the floor, leaving only a smooth finish behind.

In a panic, he tried again with a trembling hand and chose the green circle again. He got a angry small beep in return.

The trembling got worse as he saw the goop seep through the first door. The bottom third of the door's edges also had black goop seep in.

The ooze suddenly surged forward. It was feeding on his strong fears and tendrils formed and lifted from the main, yet thin, mass as it stretched up and away. It would both grab and devour while pulling him into the rest of it.

Pressing his hand against the panel in desperation, he could feel the pulse of his hands and the fading of his life as the panel slowly scanned his hand once more. He chose the red square again.

Athlai's heart dropped in relief as the floor panel gave out a loud clunk sound and the thick barricade slowly rose up. This door was seamless and after it had slowly finished closing, no goop made it into the room.

Letting out a stuttered breath, he forced himself to remain calm and relaxed as he stared at the door. He didn't have anything to fight the tar of hunger and rarely found anything useful in his long travels.

The fire was a good start but the tar could easily simply sacrifice parts of its thick body to simply squelch the flames and then what? Everything else was ineffective. Or so the few other survivors told.

Glancing out the windows, the tar of hunger swirled and stretched as it struggled to find an opening to the food within.

Moving to the window, and mostly against his better judgment, Athlai touched the glass and the tar of hunger responded immediately. A tendril of goop lunged forward with the speed of a striking cobra. The now much thicker mass gave it the leverage to smash harmlessly against the glass.

Curious, he pressed his ear against the glass and tapped once. Twice. Thrice.

Impressed, he moved away and admired the three heavy, reinforced ballistic glass. They were, like the door, a full ten centimeters thick. A good amount to provide protection against the tar of hunger.

Organic material was useless as it could simply eat through it. Inorganic though, like glass and metal was inedible. Though the tar of hunger could also crush and pierce lesser materials.

Thud.

Like it was trying to do now.

The tendrils had formed sharp spear tips and heavy thick wads as the room had over thirty centimeters of ooze inside the room now. The tendrils were then tapping against the windows. The hardy material barely let the sound through and the door was silent.

Athlai nodded as he marveled at the good construction of this place.

Feeling much better, safer than he had in weeks, he moved over to a bed. There were twelve of them and they all had the uniform bulge that had not changed even with the new sounds of the hungry tar outside.

Yet, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Pulling out his thin short sword, the Moonlight Flower, he pulled back the covers as he was ready to strike. To strike a row of pillows.

He felt a little foolish but was reassured by Moonlight Flower's weight. It was a thin sword, the blade was barely two centimeters thick, but ten times a day he could cut almost anything. Be it dense metals or immaterial spirits. There were a few things that it could not cut. The catch was that it would need to recharge under the moonlight for an hour.

The problem was that he had already used half of his cuts and he had not seen moonlight in over three weeks. Not every room gave access to the open skies with a moon in it.

Looking over the other eleven, Athlai sighed as he began to repeat the process again.

Bed eight held item five of the top five most horrific things he would most likely encounter until his end days.

It was a newbie.

Sure it was a voluptuous, nude, and blonde woman. The simple copper pocket watch, that all new travelers started with, was nestled between her large breasts.

All Athlai could see was the balance of his karma. If he smothered her, would it sway it dangerously into the negatives... or positives?

Hmmm...

His musings were cut short as the woman let out a low groan of someone awakening for the first time. Their spirit synching with the physical plane of the Labyrinth was always a sore event.

Hell, nearly nine hundred floors later he could still remember the aches and stiffness of his first awakening. Though rare, he has experienced it a total of three times. Always from near-death experiences.

Her eyes began to flutter open and close. Her eyes stinging from the light of this well-lit room. Soon they would adjust and she would see him.

Shit.

Looking outside, the tar of hunger had already filled the room by a full meter. Or meter-ish if the glass and eyes was a good judge. Thick, black tendrils of ooze spider-webbed the upper parts of the glass. It pulsed with the odd life that was the tar of hunger. That was also a no go.

Shit.

Looking back, the woman's piercing blue eyes were slightly, and getting clearer, focused on him.

Shit.

She screamed.

Athlai winced as the high pitch noise broke the serene calmness that he had just adjusted to. Though he could not blame her. He must have made a strange sight. His black, high collared trench coat covered most of his body except for a dark blue bandanna and thick rectangular sunglasses.

Oh. Right. The sword. Must not forget the sword.

Blushing behind his high collar, Athlai was glad she could not see his embarrassed red face. He sheathed the weapon into its holder behind his waist and raised a gloved finger to his lips. Shhh.

This did not really help her calm down and she let out another shriek. Her shrieking got worse when the tar of hunger pulled out enough momentum to get a fairly dull thud out of the reinforced glass.

Her shrieks intensified as her eyes locked onto the pulsating, writhing form of the black sludge.

The loud screams were enough to wake the others and four other groans barely sounded out. If he wasn't looking for their voices, he would have definitely missed them.

The other four slowly gained full consciousness and the blonde one had finally quieted down as she hugged her sheets to herself.

One by one the others pulled the sheets off their upper bodies and gingerly sat up. Another woman, this one was a brunette. A bald man, a blonde man, and a redhead with orange highlights. All had a healthy figure and he wasn't surprised.

Whatever adventure this labyrinth was, it was one that started everyone on the same page. You started with the same things and only through risks and adventure did you gain more things.

They then began the greeting game. Athlai doubted that they knew much more than their own names. Oh, they had a history, knowledge from a previous life. Though this never included specific things, like the names of people. No family, no friends. No real past. Just a collection of knowledge that would come in handy somehow.

The labyrinth was mysterious this way.

"There are most likely a set of clothes and a small bag with supplies in the nightstand next to you," I spoke finally.

Their conversations all ended immediately as they stared at me. The redhead did as suggested and opened up his drawer to find a set of clothes. They would fit him perfectly and were made of durable material. This would most likely last them long enough until they found a merchant or something.

With this confirmation, everyone quickly rushed to get dressed. The two girls were more skittish but they relented to changing in the open as there was no privacy. They awkwardly managed to keep their sheets wrapped around them as they fiddled with their underwear.

Soon enough they were all dressed and staring at him.

"Before we begin, I want everyone to pull out their clocks. This universal rule from me is free," I instructed.

The others complied and soon had their pocket watches in hand and opened.

"Right now, the time has stopped. This is because reality is currently being warped by this guy," I explained while pointing towards the black goop outside. "How does it warp reality? Well, that's a little complex but in short, its very existence does it."

"This creature is known as the Tar of Hunger. It will eat you alive. The black stuff is a mix of tar and acid. It doesn't work on metals or minerals but it can go through organics like wood or flesh very, very easily."

I had their complete attention now.

"Depending on where you are, different things can emerge from pretty much anywhere. You are not completely defenseless though. You have a tool that helps showcase how safe you, relatively, are," I continue as I showed them my watch. It was neat as it was inscribed into the flesh below my left wrist.

"This is the most important rule I can teach you," I emphasized my statement by making eye contact with each one of them. "The clock... Watch the clock. When it moves, we move, and when it stops we hide."