Escape from the Maze
I’
At first it was dark inside and Zoe held Josh’s hand really tight. Once the door closed gently behind them, colorful lights came on.
They were all around them like the ones on a Christmas tree.
Hanging on the wall were two jumpsuits with lights on them, two hoods with plastic to see out of and one very large net.
“How big are these Butter-Bee’s?” they said in unison.
Each of them grabbed a suit and dressed as quickly as they could when they saw another door start to open.
Josh picked up the net and they raced as quickly as possible towards the door.
Once outside, the door slammed shut, startling them.
It took a moment to acclimate themselves with their surroundings.
The room was huge to say the least. Covering the lenth of the far wall was a screened in area which they concluded was the habitat.
Inside of it there were lots of trees, a field of flowers and a beautiful fountain with a creamy substance flowing down into a saucer.
To their left was an opening that looked a lot like the entrance to a cave and on the right was a pond of clear water surrounded by trees.
Looking around, they did not see a single Butter-Bee in sight.
"Where do you suppose they are hiding?" Josh questioned.
While waiting for one of them to attack, it soon became apparent that they were either afraid or just not interested in making an effort to say hello.
Zoe grew tired of wondering where they were, so she held out her hand and yelled out, "I see one. It's
so beautiful. Look at those gorgeous colorful wings and those stripes on its backside".
Going along with her pretending to see a Butter-Bee, " Josh added, "And look at those huge eyes and antennas. They must be really good at hearing us."
It didn't take very long before several of them came out of the cave.
As Zoe continued to hold out her hand, one landed on her palm. Smiling and continuing to praise it, she walked slowly towards the habitat.
Josh opened the gate and when she was almost inside... it began to look scared and flew away leaving behind... butter all over her hand.
"Yuck!"
She looked around for something to wipe it off, but alas there were no hand towels, paper towels or even a napkin in sight, so onto her pant leg it went.
"I think we know what we needed the net for!" Josh concluded.
"Yes," Zoe nodded , then told him to get it ready.
Slowly they walked back out to the middle of the room.
“Look, “ she called out. There’s another one and it’s even more gorgeous then the last one.
It didn’t take long before it came over and landed on Zoe’s outstretched hand.
She paused for a moment and then quickly covered it with her other hand to trap it and then just stood there with a strange look on here face as she stared at it..
“What’s wrong?” Josh finally asked.
“Do you see a light switch anywhere?” she whispered.
Though he didn’t understand why, he started looking around.
“On the wall by the door.”
“Turn it off,” she whispered again.
Without even asking why, Josh walked across the room, looked back at Zoe who still had her hands clasped around the Butter-Bee.
When she nodded her head, he flicked the switch off.
It took only a few second for him to see why.
Dozen’s of fluorescent wings were fluttering all around the room.
Zoe let go of the one she was holding and let it fly away, then walked over to Josh, took his hand and lead him through the gate into the habitat.
“Have you ever seen anything so awesome?” she said loudly.
“No, I haven’t,” Josh replied as he dropped the net and held out his hand.
They said everything they could think of to express how incredible the Butter-Bee's were.
With each compliment they moved closer and closer to the doorway.
When the last one came inside the habitat, they hurried back through the gate, closed it and hugged.
Though they would have liked to continue to hold each other, that very frustrating voice came over a loudspeaker.
“Time is running out,” it said just as the door by the light switch began to open.
“We’d better hurry,” Josh said, though he wished the moment would not have ended so quickly.
The room was dark until after the door closed behind them. Once again the small room was filled with colorful lights.
They removed their protective clothing and waited for the door on the other side to open, but nothing happened.
“Look! There's another door on this wall! Which one are we supposed to take?” Zoe asked.
“I was going to ask you the same thing, because I have know idea.”
Zoe put her hand on the knob closest to her.
“Do you want to start back at the beginning?” the voice on the loud speaker asked.
“No!” they answered in unison, then Josh walked over to the second door and, “Which room do you want to go to?” the voice asked.
“The next room that leads to the exit!” Josh answered loudly.
All it did was repeat, “Which room do you want to go to?”
When Zoe turned around to keep Josh from seeing how frightened she was becoming, she found a third door.
After tapping Josh on the shoulder, she reached for the handle.
“Which room do you want to go to?” the voice asked yet again.
“We’re trapped,” Zoe cried out.
“Maybe we should try and go back the way we came?” Josh said and reached for the handle before Zoe could say anything to stop him.
“Josh, no!” she yelled again, but it was to late.
He grabbed her hand and opened the door.
Instead of going back to the room of the Butter-Bee, they were in another empty room with a screen that had a picture and a note that read:
Welcome!
You are about to meet the Pel-Mingo.
They don’t have any fish in their lake.
You will need to find some for them.
Only then can you cross over to the exit.
Hope you’re good at fishing!
The door opened and they raced through into a land filled with the Pel-Mingo's, ponds, hills and boulders that went all the way up a high mountain.
"I wish I had brought that net with us. It would have come in handy in catching fish," Josh said.
All Zoe could do was to nod that she agreed.
This story will continue next week!