99
I’m back in that room, and the number has changed. But how am I back here? Did that trap knock me out and someone dragged me back? I feel my forehead but can’t feel any bumps or bruises. I stand up and check the rest of my body, nothing, no injures. Shaking my head I go back to the door, and slowly open it, peering out. Nobody there, no one waiting for me to stop me or anything. I begin to go out, but stop, heading back to my bed I pull my mattress off and grab one of the supporting wood planks, bring it with me. “And they said playing d&d would never be useful in real life always bring a wooden pole for traps,” I mutter to myself. I go out, heading to the place I remember nearly tripping. Walking slowly and watching the floor, I notice it’s very smooth, except when I get there, there’s a slight gap, nearly invisible where part of the floor is raised. Taking a few steps back, I toss my wooden plank on it, and hear the ‘click’ of the mechanism, and see something swing down from the ceiling.
“What the fuck!” I see a large blade attached to a pendulum, nearly reaching the ground. “How the fuck did I survive that. That’s deadly as hell!” Approaching the blade carefully I check the edge against my finger, very sharp. “Holy fuck, I didn’t survive that.” The number above the door had changed. Gone down by 1. “I’m in some kind of fucking death maze? How? This doesn’t make sense, if I died, how did I come back, is that number my lives?” I sit on the ground, trying to calm down and keep my breathing steady, “Okay, somehow I’m stuck in a maze, and as far as I can tell I have 99 lives left, maybe 100 if I get to keep going at 0.”
Taking a few minutes to catch my breath, I walk up to the pressure plate, bending over to grab my handy wooden plank, I press it down against the pressure plate again and wait. Nothing changes, pressing my back against the wall, and slowly inch my way past the large blade. Keeping a better eye on the ground as I go further down the hall, I make it to the door I saw earlier. Expecting a trap, I check the ground near it and see nothing, so I carefully grab the handle and turn it, ready to jump away at any sign of danger. Nothing happens for a moment, so I push the door open and hear a click suddenly after it’s only partially open. I jump backward in a panic dropping my plank, which turns out to be a good instinct as the floor I was just standing on quickly falls on a seamless hinge leaving a 5-foot gap in front of the door. Crawling forward I look down and the bottom is dark. I hear a distant clattering as I think my plank hits the bottom. “Yeah, if I fall in, that is definite death”
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“I don’t think I can jump across that, but if I quickly open the door and head through, I might be able to make it through next time, as long as I’m fast.”
Turning around, I head back, past the still hanging blade, and down the hallway, I take a quick detour back towards the room I started and check the number, still at 99. Grabbing another 2x4 from my bed frame, I head back out and take the left path. Occasionally bumping the ground in front of me with my plank as I walk, I again see no signs of a pressure plate, my eyes trained on the ground. Unfortunately, I’m too focused and don’t have time to react to the slight glint I see before a snapping sound happens, I ran into a tripwire, somewhere near my chest height. Immediately jumping back I’m not fast enough to avoid as holes appear in the wall, and suddenly darts shoot out, a few hitting me in the side. “Fuck!” I look at my arm with a few darts in it, and one in my leg, I try to lift my arm to get a better look, but it feels sluggish, “Shit, are these drugged? Goddamnit.” quickly pulling them out with my other hand, I try to get up, and stumble, feeling light-headed. “Whoever the hell put me in this, I’m going to kill them.” I hope they’re listening as I fall to the ground and my vision fades to black nothingness again.
Darkness, I try to move but can’t feel my body, I try to look around, but I can’t move my eyes, what is this, some kind of loading screen? Maybe I’m in some sort of simulation. It would make sense that I don’t die if that’s what it is. I’m there, back in the room, back in bed.
