Escape from the Maze
I’
Once inside, Josh was again in awe at the sight before him. There was a glass staircase that led up to a glass platform. The steps were slippery, so he was relieved there were handrails on both sides. They were made of glass also. It took him a while before he reached two enormous “you guess it” glass doors on which there was a warning that read:
“Anyone who enters may not leave this way!”
There are no other doors anywhere inside!
He kept his hand on the rail unable to move. Paralyzed with fear that he really might be trapped here forever, he was unable to go inside.
However, when he heard the voice again say, “Time is running out!” he panicked, pushed the doors open and walked in.
The moment he stepped onto the floor, it began to move and soon he found himself standing in the middle of a huge room on another platform. This one was seven feet in diameter with a seven foot high wall almost all the way around him.
He turned to leave, but the platform started to move trapping him.
Surveying the space, the only thing inside was a basket of huge colorful nuts about the size of a tennis ball directly in front of him.
Outside was a twenty foot space filled with all kinds of food... Fruit and vegetables and more nuts.
Further away there were ten cages. Each one contained a Squir-Coon that looked very hungry.
When they all began to shout, “Let us out!” Josh jumped back and almost fell.
With that, the platform began to move around towards the first cage, the wall lowered until it was three feet high, and there was a four inches button next to it that was lit up.
It only took him a few seconds to realized what he needed to do.
Picking up a nut, he threw it at the light. The first one missed, but the next one hit right in the center which started opening the bars on the cage.
The Squir-Coon squeezed under it and raced out, picked up a delicious looking fruit... one like he had never seen before. It reached for the large fruit that looked like a peach-pear, picked it up with both of its front paws and began to devour it while its long ringed tail swished back and forth with contentment.
Josh stood there watching the furry looking Squir-Coon until he heard the voice saying, “Time is running out” with and added loud sound of nine others yelling “Let us out”.
He began throwing balls at the lights. Each time he hit one, the door began to open and the platform move a little to his right. When he got to the last cage, that’s when he noticed that the first Squir-Coon he had let out was only a few yards from him.
He froze for a moment, then picked up another nut, said a little prayer and threw it at the light.
By the time the cage started to move, the first Squir-Coon was only three feet away.
Josh was never more glad that the wall was made of glass.
Each time it tried to climb up, it slipped back down.
With a sigh of relieve, he stood there watching as another one came closer and closer.
When it reached the first one, it climbed up on it’s shoulder’s.
The third one did the same.
Did they want to hug him to say ‘Thank you for letting us out” or was there something else they wanted to do, “Like blame him for being locked up in the first place?”
Before he had a chance to decide, the platform he was standing on began moving up towards an opening in the ceiling.
The Squir-Coon jumped, but it was too late. Josh was too high for it to reach him.
As soon as the platform was level with the floor above him, Josh heard it lock in place.
Jumping from it, he found himself in another empty room with a screen that had a picture and a note that read:
“Congratulations!”
Now it’s time for you to go for a ride on a Hippo-Dile.
Hop onto its back and ride to the other side of the river.
Please don’t sit down though. It doesn’t like that at all.
Pretend you are surfing a big wave in the ocean but,
“Don’t fall into the water!”
By the time he read the last line he was already heading for the door that was opening on the other side of the room.
As the door closed behind him he found himself standing on a walkway with a railing along the edge in front of him like a pier. Straight ahead there were steps that led down to another walkway.
At the bottom, there was a figure standing in the shadow of the doorway to a small building.
This story will continue next week!