Niteblade – March 2009

There had been someone with him when he’d woken. A tall, emaciated man with slick black hair, nervous eyes and a tendency to run his tongue over his lips several times a minute. He’d said his name was Mr. Lankford and that Guzman had left them in the maze for sport.

“Simeon! Show yourself and this will be quick and painless.”

The voice was closer now; maybe two rows over. Simeon rubbed the red welts around his wrists and looked at the hedge to his left. Could he go through the outer wall?

He ducked and forced his way into the green shrubs, pushing leaves and branches aside, and ignoring the scratches on his arms and legs. His first priority was to get out, preferably not by the normal exit. He’d rather die a debtor than play Guzman’s twisted game.

After several feet of foliage, Simeon made a final push and encountered a wall of concrete. He swore, slammed his palm against the wall and turned to lean against it. This was the outside edge of the maze, and the only exit was somewhere along this border. Guzman would be waiting there, expecting to greet only one of the two men.

Or so Mr. Lankford had said. And if it was true, Lankford had been given a decided advantage, with both a knife and a gun in his possession. Simeon had nothing but the presence of mind to run.

He raised his head and inspected the top of the concrete wall. Through the gap between the hedge wall and concrete he could see the immobile blue sky above. Maybe he could go up and short-circuit the game entirely.

“I am not a patient man, boy. How about we get this over with so I can have my freedom?”

With the brick wall supporting his back, Simeon found the center of a tree and began to climb to the top of the wall. He found that the branches could support him with ease, and the wall allowed him to climb quickly.

At the top of the wall, Simeon looked first into the maze below. It looked to be about the size of six football fields aligned two-by-three. There was no sign of Lankford, so Simeon turned to assess how to descend from the wall.

On the other side was another hedge. And another maze the size of six football fields. Simeon could see a man lying on his back in the center of this maze, and another man awake, waiting for the game to begin.

Simeon looked back to the wall he stood on and followed it with his eyes. About 30 feet up, it met three other brick walls bordering two other mazes.

He looked farther and saw a landscape of walls and mazes so far in the distance that a haze started to obscure his view. There were other men on other walls.

At the end of this landscape, Simeon thought he could make out the large aluminum and steel walls of a giant storage shed. That would make the immobile clouds above him a painted ceiling.

Simeon looked back to the intersection of walls before him and saw a rifle he’d overlooked only a moment before. He walked over to the rifle and picked it up, feeling the familiar weight of the Remington 700 in his hands.

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