Maze Runner (in Real Life)

Read this post first then read the Translation for this story

We look out from the safety and comfort of our temporary shelter into the dark foreboding morning. The sun hasn’t risen yet but even if it had the walls will cloak anything but overhead light from shining down in. We all hope to make a quick return but secretly know that once we enter the maze we will never find our way back to this secret door in this secret ally. Even with this realization we all nod and head into the unknown. Each of us activate our GPS devices (knowingly in vain). The walls of the maze are all seven stories high and often times the maze is completely covered over so that even the little sliver of occasional sky is obstructed. Zach, the sharp witted one, acts as our leader on this expedition. Since this is our first time into the maze alone, he shares an idea with Andrew and I that just might work. He says, “Let’s always take left turns until we have gone far enough and then we will turn around and always take right turns to make our way back before the time limit expires.”

We leave the confines of our security and race through the twisting convolutions and find that our plan is quickly invalid. We didn’t account for dead ends. Our second left turn is a dead end. We quickly backtrack through the alleyways. The second and third turns are also dead ends. We see doors at the end of each dead where other maze runners must emerge from. We know realize we need to adjust our strategy and so we just start running down the biggest paths we can. I practice etching landmarks into the stone wall of my mind as we corner around every turn. Andrew leads now and continues to find bigger and bigger paths. Looking back over my shoulder every time we depart from our current path I realize that many turns are becoming distractions instead of becoming memories.

The deeper we get into the maze the more we start to see the Maze Dwellers. They are everywhere. We have to dodge continuously to avoid them. The corridors widen again but they also start to turn uphill. A group of young Maze Dwellers decide to give us chase. We can not break free. Because their native habitation is within this bewildering imbroglio, our small team of neophytes are no match as the gallop up the steep inclines. Two Maze Dwellers catch and overtake us. Luckily these Dwellers are not hungry and are simply entertained with the joy of the chase. They nip at our heels taunting us as we run. Then they get bored and peel off to rejoin their original pack.

We continue racing until we find the outer gate and run fast and hard toward it. Our goal today was not to escape the city but rather to explore the maze. Nonetheless, we are here now. What we find outside the tapestry of buildings and pathways is pure death. We run around thousands of mounds of white and brown. Death is everywhere we look. Dead bodies litter the landscape. We climb the hill just outside the outer gate and look in astonishment at what we see. Then Andrew points out that there is a another beast amongst these hills. I get closer and closer to the animal to investigate. Thoughts go through my head that this beast could attack at any time. Finally, I get close enough to feel appeased that this animal is no harm to us amongst the dead.

We look at our tracking devices and realize the deadline is looming. We have to get back into the maze before time is up. We will not leave Rosie alone to fend off the Maze Dwellers without us. Like mice in an experiment we reenter the cement entanglement and race back the way we think we exited and try to retrace our steps. The landmarks we identified as we were extricating ourselves from the behemoth puzzle are simple to find at first because such little time has passed. The deeper within the tangle we run the less sure we are of where to go. Time continues to elapse and navigating the turns is slower now because each turn is also a decision point. We recognize a few more important landmarks which draws us further inward. We see some signs that point to a spot in the maze where we found food the day before but we are not close enough to the food source to use it as a reference point. The more the streets narrow the harder it is to get our bearings or even to see the sky, let alone find the visual cues we need to return to Rosie.

We realize our situation is dire and finally decide to do something crazy. We cajole one of the Maze Dwellers to lead us back. We know we will have to pay a price to make it happen and it might even end up hurting Rosie a little too. At this point it seems that this is our best option. We embark again with a Maze Dweller loping in front of us as our guide. We have no real ability to communicate with it. We just give it a couple of basic cues and send it on it’s way. This Maze Dweller is faster than we are and it appears to have figured out the return path…or so we think. I quickly realize that it is taking us away from our starting point instead of toward it. I quietly whisper to Zach that we are becoming more entangled in this fortress. I realize that the Maze Dweller can not understand us properly so I shout ahead to Andrew that it is taking us the wrong way. I look along the path to find something, anything that I can to protect us with. I find nothing.

The longer we follow the farther we are from our destination. The clock is a ticking timebomb. We have to get back to Rosie before the Maze Dwellers invade the inhabitation. We laugh about needing guidance but then each offer a silent prayer for help. The Maze Dweller leads us to a high point with a blue terrace and declares that it must paid it’s price even though this doesn’t remotely resemble where we need to go. We have no way to pay the sacrificial price and so we try to dismiss it and go another way but it follows and tries again to be the guide for the bigger reward at the end. By a miracle Andrew’s device connects to the satellites and we get a homing beacon. As suspected the Maze Dweller was trying to lead us in the opposite direction. Andrew tells it

that we need to go another way and it reluctantly veers from it’s intended course. We find our path with it in tow until we get close enough that I start recognizing landmarks again. Suddenly we recognize a critical turn that is only a few pathways from our origination and the Maze Dweller has over extended itself in a burst of exuberant pride. This gives us enough distance to split from it’s leering dominion. We take one path as it takes another. I am too far back from my fellow runners and can’t get to them in time to have them diverge back the way we came instead of to the right. By the time I catch them in the divergent path they are already at another dead end and we backtrack to our previous point only to find the Maze Dweller waiting for us. It is going to get it’s pound of flesh no matter what happens. We proceed back to where Rosie is and enter the doorway of our sanctum while it paces outside the door. Rosie finds some scraps from the day before and I throw them to it while Zach slams the door behind. The payment is not enough it is not satiated. Zach finds some real meat and with a little help feeds the Dweller until it is satisfied and wanders off back into the maze.

Rosie is safe and we live to run another day.

(Check out the Maze Runner Translation)