The Maze

ZANE

We trailed behind the men, meeting the liar at the entrance to my steel labyrinth, just outside the warehouse. The walls were a daunting fifteen feet high and slick, making them impossible to scale.

The men glanced at the maze, then back at us, their faces a mix of confusion and fear.

“What the hell is this for?” the spitter asked, his hands being bandaged.

“This is our playground,” I explained. “We’ll chase you down in there. You get a two-minute head start, then it’s game on.”

“But we have no weapons!”

“Your body is your weapon. Hopefully, you know how to fight because that’s all you’ve got to save you now. We, on the other hand, have whatever we want—and trust me, we love a good hunt.”

“How big is this thing?” one of the other guys asked, craning his neck to look at the towering walls casting long shadows.

“The maze covers three acres. I have men on top to ensure you don’t try to escape, but the walls are slick steel and can’t be climbed. Once we’re inside, this door closes and the only way out is in a body bag.”

My guys pushed the three men through the entrance. “I’d start running if I were you. This might be your last chance to breathe.”

As they sprinted down the main path and disappeared around a corner, my men and I turned to select our weapons.

I chose three knives, sliding them into a sleeve attached to my belt, while Conner picked a crossbow and a couple of knives.

Noah selected a small handgun and a knife. I chuckled at his choice. “Planning to end them quickly?”

“Nope, man, you know me better than that. The gun is just to slow them down. A shot to the arm, leg, hip, or shoulder, then the real fun begins.”

I glanced up at my men taking their positions atop the maze. They nodded, and I let out a sharp whistle. Six of us strolled down the main path, following the footprints of our guests.

“You know, it’s funny how we cheat at this game,” Conner said, looking at the three sets of footprints on the ground.

We all laughed, and when we reached the first junction, we noticed one of the guys had veered left while the other two had gone right. “So, who’s the first to split off?”

Noah grinned. “I got this one. Don’t know which one he is, but he’s not the one you wounded.”

He pointed to droplets of blood on the ground. “See, the blood from his hands goes that way.”

“Have fun, man. See you when we’re done.”

Noah nodded and took off after his target with another one of my men. The rest of us continued on, hunting for the other two. They were smart and had stuck together.

We followed their footprints deep into the maze until we heard them talking around the next corner. I signaled for silence, and we all pressed our backs against the wall to listen.

“I’m going to kill Zane when I see him. He put a knife through both my hands.”

“How are you going to do that? We don’t have any weapons; they took them all.”

“No, they didn’t find this one. I had it taped to the bottom of my foot. My trusty hunting knife—I always carry it.”

We heard the sound of tape being ripped, and I couldn’t help but smile. The cocky bastard had some guts.

“Boss, you know we won’t make it out of here alive, right?”

Bingo, we’d found the culprit.

“We’ll take them down with us if we have to. We might not get out, but neither will they. Besides, when we didn’t come home last night, Danny took over all the planning to take him out.”

“There’s no way they can get in here; this place is tighter than a naval base.”

“If he can get that girl from him, then he can finish the mission. I sent a photo of her to him last night, when I got a glimpse of her before she disappeared.”

My blood boiled at their casual talk about my love. Conner touched my shoulder, and I took a deep breath, forcing myself to keep listening.

“She works at his club, so all he has to do is stick to the plan, kidnap her, and then he’ll come to them to get her back.”

A gunshot echoed from the other side of the maze, followed by a high-pitched scream.

“See, man, they have their weapons, and we have nothing. Now my son will really never know me.”

“You had a chance to run. You just had to lie, even though you knew they’d check us. All you had to do was hit him and take off with the car.”

“I tried, man; he didn’t even flinch. Then he hit me with an iron fist and knocked me on my ass.”

“You were always a weak punch. We need to keep moving—they’ll find us quickly from our tracks and the blood from my hands.”

I signaled to my men. We stepped out from around the corner. “Too late for that, boys. Your luck just ran out.”

“I see it didn’t take you long to find us,” said the guy with the bandaged hands.

“With your blood trail, not really.”

He lunged at me, trying to slice me with his knife. It grazed my arm, and I pulled out one of my knives. I lunged back, slashing open his side.

He stumbled back for a moment, then lunged at me again. I got him on his upper arm. This time he dropped his knife, and we traded blows with our fists.

Each punch he threw seemed to hurt him more than it hurt me, but I kept hitting him in the stomach, side, chest, and back. He landed a few blows on me, but nothing serious.

He fell to the ground when I nailed him in the face. “So, boss, what’s it going to be? Tell me exactly what Danny is planning, or do I have to find out myself?”

“That woman of yours will be your undoing, man. I have eyes everywhere. That’s all I’m going to say.”

I grabbed another blade, slicing through his throat. He crumpled to the ground. My attention shifted to the other guy, who’d been watching the whole time. “You gonna spill?”

“I don’t know every little thing, but I can give you the gist. Danny was his right-hand man. He had a snapshot of a waitress from your place.

“He was supposed to kick things off if he didn’t come back last night. They planned to snatch her, take her to their hideout. Then they were gonna take you and your crew down.

“That’s all I know, I swear.”

He was shaking, eyes darting between his dead boss and the blood on my hands. I pointed back the way we came. “Go on, follow the tracks.”

“You’re letting me go? Thanks.”

He bolted, and I gave Conner a nod. He raised his crossbow and let loose a perfect shot. It pierced the runner’s back, killing him on the spot.

“Shay’s gotta stay put until we sort this out. Got it?”

“Sure thing, boss. We’ll dig up everything we can on this, then we’ll move in and wipe that group off the map.”

We made our way out of the labyrinth. Noah was already there, blood on his hands.

“Have a good time?” I asked him.

“Sure did. Snapped his neck after I shot him in the leg. So your two are history?”

“Yeah, slit one’s throat, and Conner took the other guy down with his bow after he thought he’d won us over. Shay’s gotta stay put. They’ve got a plan, and she’s in their crosshairs.”

“She can keep busy here until we sort it out. There’s plenty for her to do, she’ll be okay.”

My guys cleaned up the maze while I did a walk-through of the warehouse to make sure everything was running smoothly. Once I was happy with the state of things, I headed back to the house.