Scorpio's body throbbed with pain. Her brain was pounding in her skull and her nose and mouth were stinging badly. She opened her eyes and her surroundings wavered before focusing. She sat up, holding her head and looked around. Darkness. She turned the other way and saw Hacker and Viper laid next to her. She knew there was something wrong with that old man.
A voice suddenly boomed around her, “morning Scorpio!” It was the old man.
“Where are you? Come here and get your face punched in!” She yelled.
There was a click and then the voice again, “can't I'm afraid... oh, Viper's awake. Oh, I do like keeping my promises.”
Scorpio looked around for her backpack, for water.
“Viper, don't move.” Scorpio scrabbled around with her hands, totally blind, trying to find anything.
“Let me get that,” the old man said, then there was a clang of a chain and Scorpio felt a suddenly rush of cold slam into her, the water soaked her uniform and she yelped from the sudden change in temperature. Hacker instantly sat up, gasping for air as the cold water had taken his breath away. And Viper just grabbed his face and started to shout, scream insults and curses as the skin on his face loosened and turned red and sore.
“Excuse me...” the old man said, “excuse me, can the one that's screaming please settle down. Settle down. OK... oh, I love this bit. Three.”
Hacker looked to Scorpio who returned the gaze, why the countdown?
“Two, one.”
Scorpio braced herself on the ground expecting to suddenly feel the floor drop away or for something to stab into her. She clenched her eye lids closed.
“Zero. Ta-dah!” Scorpio saw the white light through her eye lids and felt the warmth of the lights on her skin, she felt herself heating up a little and the water already start to dry off. She opened her eyes, blinking rapidly in the intense light above her, squinting at her surroundings.
Walls, that was it. Just stone walls as high as she could see, stretching in both directions for as long as she could see. Intricate carvings stretched over every available space on the wall. Scorpio looked right ahead of her and saw a thin slit in the wall, an entrance.
“Good isn't it?” The old man commented, “this maze originated in some time or other, and I have no idea who built it. However there has been a recent addition to the maze. Primarily to the middle of it. Not my fault of cause, that was yours. You get through it you get out, I don't want you here any more then you do. You die on the way... oh well. Good luck!” The intercom cut out.
“What? Is that it?”
“Oh,” the intercom clicked back on, “your weapons are on the rack behind you.”
Scorpio looked behind her, and saw the rack. She didn't know whether she was expecting her rifle, because it wasn't there, neither was Viper's weapon. Instead there was a spear, a bow with a quiver of arrows and what looked like a machete.
“You said our weapons!” Viper shouted, hissing at the pain it took him to open his mouth.
The intercom clicked back on, “oh, they'll be somewhere in there. How should I know where they put them?”
“Them?” Hacker whispered to Scorpio, “who's them?”
Scorpio thought she knew. “You didn't see, but he kept those things that attacked you as pets.”
“Those things are in there!” Hacker yelled.
They heard the intercom click, “oh, not just those “things”. Other things as well!”
