Pretty quickly into our walk, I noticed the walls were beginning to narrow. Whereas it was originally wide enough for my house with the front and back yard included, it was now maybe twenty yards wide. It wasn't cramped, but the walls were noticeably closer. They stood tall and metallic, in their autumn-rust color. At one point, Church even picked off a fleck of metal from the wall that turned to dust in his fingers. It was fairly well lit, all things considered, but I still had Church use the flashlight he had brought. We all just kept walking quietly, with me in the front, baton in hand.
Church finally broke the silence and asked, "Is Maximillian your full first name?"
I kept my eyes forward. "What? No. My name is Max."
"But that letter you got from Jessica called you Maximillian?" Church said.
"Look, the name on my birth certificate says Max, not Maximillian. I was named after a movie character, not some French revolutionary. I really don't know why she called me that." I said. I tried not to sound annoyed with Church; he seemed like a good guy, but the whole Jessica thing was really weirding me out. I asked, "What are you named after? Church is a pretty unusual name."
I looked over my shoulder, and Church was getting a little shy. "My dad would say it was because of Winston Churchill, but my mom says it's a family name. It's pretty weird either way, huh?" he said.
"Nah, it's a cool name, dude," I said. I didn't look back, but I knew he was smiling behind me. He was a good person. "Hey, to me it looks like your name is floating above your head, that's how I knew it. Is mine like that?"
Church answered with a thud, hitting the ground unconscious. I looked at him, and it took a second for it to register what was happening. That's when a lump of skin crashed into me, knocking me back. I managed to keep my footing this time, and it didn't do any damage at least. The dropped flashlight from Church pointed in the direction we were walking, and two lumpy masses rolled through the light. They were bits and pieces of human parts that had been formed into a yoga ball size, and they were moving quickly. One zipped at me and I dodged rather easily, with my rotted wings making movement quicker.
"Jay, what the hell are these things?" I yelled as I dodged another. I counted three of them. Patti was standing in front of the unconscious Church, barking at a mass that was rolling near them.
"They're Undead Mass, leftovers from the Angel Zombie creations," Jay said in an even tone. One of the monsters began spinning in place like they were Sonic the Hedgehog, kicking up a mess of dust before zipping towards my legs. I leaped up with a surprising height, at least forty feet, which was way too high for me to safely fall from. As I plummeted down, my wings began fluttering, causing me to glide slowly. I looked down and counted the masses. I saw three by my count. One was making a circle around the spot where I would land, but the other two were targeting Church and Patti. They were both beginning to spin in place before they both zipped at the unconscious man. Patti kept her ground and was hit by two loud thuds.
"No!" I yelled. I began flailing my limbs, trying anything to go down faster.
Jay seemed to understand what I was doing and called up to me, "Use your screen to cancel skills!"
My eyes focused on my screen overlay, and I saw on the right side the list of my skills. Only one was highlighted. It was Glide. I clicked it and fell the last ten feet. It hurt, causing a couple of points of damage, and I thought I heard a snap, but my adrenaline was in full force now. The circling mass that was waiting for me was beginning to speed up in place now.
"Fuck that!" I yelled as I ran up to it. I gripped both hands on my baton and swung down hard. The baton cleaved right through the skin mass, revealing a writhing mess of muscle. I then swung my leg back and kicked at one of the halves. It flew through the air along with my right leg, which had snapped off below the knee. I watched my appendage soar as I fell to the side. I heard dirt being kicked up again as the last two masses began to speed up in place, this time directed towards me.
I scrambled on my back and began crawling away as fast as I could. I looked at my screen again and saw my spells list, looking for the one called Wailing. I couldn't remember what that spell exactly did, but I clicked it just as the last two masses sped at me. Nothing happened. I opened my mouth to yell right before impact, except I didn't yell. I mean, I did, but this was louder than anything that has ever come from my mouth before. It was so loud, I could see dust and blades of grass move away from me with the force of the sound I was making. The two undead masses froze for a second before exploding in a shower of gore.
I just sat in the downpour of blood and guts and skin and bone. There seemed to be a comical amount of viscera for something not that big. I looked around to see if there were any other monsters, but none were to be seen. I called out to Jay, "Is that all of them?" I then heard a whimper, and panic set in. It was Patti. I tried to stand and fell over again. My missing leg was growing back thanks to my skill, but only the shin had reformed.
Jay appeared next to me. "Use your ignitor to switch back for now." I fumbled around and found the Zippo. I struck it, and this time the transformation was quicker. I was back to being a skeleton and had both legs. I stood up and ran to Patti. Church was beginning to wake up, which was a good sign that it was now safe. I kneeled down to my dog, and she looked up at me, one paw slightly lifted off the ground. She was hurt.
"Were we attacked?" Church said as he sat up. His face had a cut from some rock he must have landed on when he passed out. His eyes fixed on Patti, and he added, "Shit, is she okay? Did I hurt her when I fell?" He looked genuinely worried. I shook my head no.
"She was defending you," I said. Church began to look down, realization setting in.
"I'm a fucking weight on you, man. I'm going to get you killed." He looked up, and his eyes were red. "I'm really sorry, Patti."
Jay came up and knelt down next to us. I looked at her and said, "Jay, does she heal like I do? Like one point of health a minute or whatever?" She just shook her head and tentacles at me.
"Only those participating in Maze Twenty heal like that. I'm sorry, Max," she said.
"I don't like this, Jay. I need to keep her safe." I looked at Church. "And I need to keep you safe as well. Hand me some bandages," I said while holding out my hand. Church handed me some wrappings while we all sat silently as I wrapped Patti's paw. After I finished, she tried to put her weight on that leg, but I could tell it was still hurting.
Church came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Look, Max, I really appreciate you for everything. I'd be dead twice now if it wasn't for you, and honestly, I'm still not convinced I'm actually not dead, but that's besides the point. I think I just want you to leave me behind, okay?" I was about to say something to him, but he continued. "I know, dude, but I don't want y'all getting hurt over me. If you really want, maybe we can look for somewhere safe, and I'll try to ride this out while hiding. I just can't keep waking up to seeing people being hurt. Maybe we can find a bank vault or, like a jail, just any secure place will work. We just can't keep doing this."
I thought about that and started to say, "We can try to find someplace, but so far we've just been walking in a straight line. We may never be able to find a place for you. Shit, I didn't even know where a jail was before this happened and..." I trailed off there at the end. I opened up my inventory and swiped around until I found it and clicked on it, making a card materialize before me.
Church leaned forward to examine the item and asked, "Is that a Monopoly card?" He looked closer, reading aloud the text, "Get Into Jail Free? Is that a typo?" Jay stood up from examining Patti and gave me an approving nod.
I grabbed the card out of the air and flicked it. "No, I don't think it's a typo at all. I think it's a fucking cheat code!"