Chapter 8: 7 || Alice’s Way Home

Words: 3133

(Unedited)

 “Do you remember the way?” The elevator man asked Nikolas who shook his head. “Last time Francis led us to the middle, and I have a bad memory.”

“Should we split up again?” Ji-Yoo asked.

“I’ll go with Li Yan and him.” Li Bao pointed to Li Yan and the elevator man. Naturally, that meant Hailey would go too.

Ji-Yoo nodded and they split off into two groups to enter the hedge maze. The maze this time was a little more bearable than the mirror maze was, maybe because of how disorientating it was compared to how serene this one felt.

“No map?” Li Bao asked, looking towards them. They both shook their heads. While their group took the first left, Ji-Yoo’s group had turned right. So, now they were both going on opposite sides of the maze to hopefully cover it all by tonight. Afterall, they’ve only found 3 parts of the key out of who knew how many.

“We have 3 pieces, and each piece came from a limb. Maybe we only need one more?” Li Yan asked.

“Maybe, but I feel that it isn’t that simple.” The elevator man said. Li Yan nodded, he felt that it was more complicated than what he had suggested too.

“If we think about body parts, what if we also had to find a torso and head?” Li Bao added on. “Also, there are many places in this park. We’ve gotten lucky so far, but it isn’t guaranteed that there is a body part on every attraction.”

“This world isn’t infinite. All the attractions here should have something on it and we’ve already been to the Ferris Wheel, Mirror Maze, and the game stalls.” The elevator man said. “Although this is supposed to be easy, it feels more like a medium difficulty.”

“Maybe one of the managers will come.” Li Bao said. “Managers?” Hailey asked. “There are 3 main managers that run IER. They usually all go around and inspect places, especially if a problem occurs. I’m sure that there is something wrong with this world in particular.” Li Bao explained. “If so, a manager should appear at some point. Actually, they probably should have arrived already, so maybe there isn’t an issue?”

“Maybe.” The elevator man said. The pathway they were on then met a fork in the road. There were two directions, left or right. Li Bao and the elevator man looked at each other for a bit before nodding. “Hailey and I will go this way.” Li Bao said pointing to the left. The elevator man led Li Yan to the other direction while giving her a thumbs up.

“Why did we need to split up?” Li Yan asked as they walked away. “Haven’t you noticed something wrong with Hailey?” The elevator man stated. “Li Bao is just going to go lure the snake out.”

“She could have got her in the mirror maze?” Li Yan asked. “She didn’t know how to find the keys yet nor did she have any hints. She was probably waiting until she found that out.”

“I thought she was also a newbie?” Li Yan asked. The elevator man sneered. “She could always be lying.”

Li Yan nodded and they walked down the pathway in silence, sometimes turning into dead ends. “So what is your name?” Li Yan asked. “Or at least something to call you?”

“Lars.” The man named Lars nodded. “I don’t usually tell my name to everyone, but if possible you wouldn’t be a bad addition to my team.”

“I don’t plan to team up.”

Lars smiled. “That’s what you say before you experience harder rooms. Sometimes having no team is equal to seeking death.”

They continued to walk in silence with Lars marking the dirt path with big symbols to indicate which ways they’ve been. Luckily, this time they didn’t get erased or switched out, so navigating the maze wasn’t a big issue.

“Another split? Which way?” Li Yan asked. Although he was never that talkative in normal times, he seemed to be more active towards people quieter than him.

“Let’s just go left.” Lars said and continued to walk ahead of him. Suddenly, a familiar horrible stench wafted towards Li Yan’s nose and Lars held his arm out to stop Li Yan from walking.

“Not here.” The path led to a dead end, but at the dead end was Adonis. His body was tied up on one of the lanterns meant for lighting up the hedge maze. The lantern had a small support pole that emerged from the hedge and hung a lantern, but instead of a lantern it was Adonis’s body. He had seemed to be killed in a different way than Yona, instead of a chainsaw it seemed to be a bat or another hard weapon that was slammed into his head and body multiple times. He looked almost as if he was a piñata, except instead of dropping candies, it was blood and guts flowing from his body. The scene was awful and the stench was even more.

“Well, I guess we can’t save him either.” Lars looked unaffected, but his eyes held a slight disgust. Though Adonis wasn’t the most pleasant person, no one wanted to see such a scene, so they both turned and walked back to where they were before and went the other direction.

As they were walking, they suddenly heard some rustling in the bushes of the hedge maze and they both turned towards the sound. They waited in silence waiting to see what would happen but they heard nothing but silence.

Lars went forward towards the wall of the hedge maze and lightly moved some of the leaves. Li Yan felt his heart rate accelerate a bit, but he was also curious as to what was in the walls.

“Hello!?” Ruining the atmosphere of anxiety, Ji-Yoo’s loud voice came from the hedges. “Is that you guys? I was trying to see if I could walk through the hedges.”

Lars sighed. “It’s us.”

“Well good news!” Ji-Yoo’s face suddenly emerged from the bushes. “We can get through!”

Some spit got in Lars face and he scrunched up his features and walked smoothly behind Li Yan while wiping his face. Ji-Yoo, Soren, and Nikolas emerged from the bushes.

“Good to see you guys! Where is Li Bao and that other girl?” Ji-Yoo asked, looking around for them. “They went separately.” Lars answered as he started to walk off, Li Yan following him behind.

“Wait for me!” Ji-Yoo was excited to see new people and happily followed them.

~~~

“Li Bao, I’m scared.” Hailey whined, rubbing her face on her arm. “I know.” Li Bao smiled looking at her. Hailey just whimpered and huddled herself in her embrace. They both walked awkwardly in silence, awkward because of how Hailey was leaning on Li Bao, making their walk wonky.

“Can you let go a little?” Li Bao asked, stiffly smiling. “Do you hate me?” Hailey asked, looking up towards Li Bao. Her big eyes started to water slightly as she looked up at her.

“You don’t have to fake it anymore.” Li Bao sneered, pushing Hailey off. She finally reached her limit of acting with Hailey. “I know you’re Rev. I don’t even know how you managed to get a guide assigned to you when you’ve obviously played more games than me.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hailey looked genuinely nervous, and maybe if Li Bao hadn’t known Rev as well as she did she would believe her.

“I don’t know what your purpose is for disguising yourself and following me, but whatever it is I want you to stop.”

Rev sighed. “You’re too smart BaoBao…I just wanna hang out with you.” The petite girl with light colored hair suddenly transformed to a girl taller than Li Bao with long dark hair, contrasting her previous look. “You always reject me when I ask you to team, but you asked your cousin who you haven’t even seen in years. I’m jealous.”

Li Bao sighed and relaxed a bit. She was originally quite on guard against Rev, but hearing her reasoning she relaxed a bit. She gave her a light flick on the head, but she had to reach up a bit to get there making the process a bit silly in the eyes of others.

“It’s just because I can’t leave the team I currently have, I’m sorry.” Rev tightened her lips in a straight line. “I know.” She sighed and hugged Li Bao. “But I still wish we could be together.”

“Just follow me around like you’ve always done. We can just do it that way. We don’t need a team to be a team.” Li Bao smiled at her. “I think you’ve made the others think you were some kind of fake newbie scammer.”

“Well, I sort of was.” Rev laughed. “When did you find out?”

“I found out after we started night 2. You did that thing where you scrunch up your nose when you see old men.” Li Bao added. “Before that I honestly thought you were a fake newbie, I was about to pit you.”

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Rev frowned. “I can’t believe you’d do that to me, you should make it up to me.” Rev looked upset, but her eyes held a hint of mischief.

“Whatever. Let’s just fi-”

“Run!” Rev interrupted Li Bao and pulled her while sprinting ahead. “Wha-” Li Bao looked behind them and saw a big white robot rabbit with razor sharp teeth chasing them. The rabbit was painted pure white with red eyes, but the ears were damaged and the body had many patches of fake fur pulled out showing the original materials. It make quite the gruesome sight.

“No sound?” Li Bao frowned as she ran with Rev. “I don’t know either!”

The rabbit was an animatronic made of metal, it should naturally make a sound but it was absolutely silent. Making it more scary and dangerous than if it did make sound. Unless you were looking, it could easily come up and bite your head off.

“Dead end!” Rev shouted, her hand tightening its hold on Li Bao’s. The rabbit slowly got closer, and Rev pulled Li Bao behind her. “Rev!” Li Bao shouted and grabbed Rev’s arm with her free hand. “Come! Quick!”

Li Bao kept yanking Rev’s arm, but Rev seemed frozen in place. “Li Bao. It can’t see, stop moving. It senses motion!”

Li Bao immediately stopped moving, but the rabbit was still heading their way. It was as if it knew the layout of the maze and that there was a dead end where they stood.

“Bushes! Get in the leaves!” Rev pulled Li Bao into the bushes while peaking out at the rabbit. The rabbit heard the noise and started rushing ahead. It got faster and its mouth opened wider.

Rev and Li Bao stood absolutely still and held their breath in the bushes. The rabbit stopped moving once it reached the edge and looked around. If they didn’t know it was a robot, they would have thought it was sniffing the air. It shoved its paws around the area, but after finding nothing it turned and jumped away.

“Rev.” Li Bao whispered. “We can go through the bushes to the other pathways.” Rev nodded and followed Li Bao through the leaves, eventually reaching another side of the maze. “We need to find the others and tell them.” Li Bao said, to which Rev nodded. But before they could walk too far, Li Bao looked back at Rev.

“You should change back to your original appearance or they might get suspicious of you.” Rev sighed. “I didn’t know you were into those types of girls Li Bao. I can dye my hair but I can’t get shorter.”

“Shut up!” Li Bao smacked her, and Rev just smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek before pulling out a small pocket mirror.

“Is that an item?” Li Bao asked. Rev nodded. “I got it a few games ago, but I didn’t know what to use it for. It changes your appearance for however long you need.”

“Repercussions?” Li Bao frowned, slightly concerned. The better the prop was usually the more repercussions appeared. “If blood gets on me then the disguise stops working.” Rev sighed. “It also doesn’t work on NPCS.”

Li Bao’s features became slightly better knowing that Rev wasn’t in danger. “Okay, let’s go to find the others then?” Rev nodded and they began walking through the hedge maze once again. This time, one walked looking in front while the other looked behind.

~~~

“Ji-Yoo. Never pick a path again.” Soren’s face was quite unsightly now after meeting a dead-end at Ji-Yoo’s suggestion 10 times. “From now on let him do it.” He pointed to Lars.

Ji-Yoo just pouted and walked aside to let Lars go to the front. With Lars leading, their adventure was much less infuriating and they found a lot less dead-ends. They eventually made it to a clearing that was bigger than the passageways, most likely the middle of the maze.

“I-Is that blood?” Nikolas pointed towards a suspicious puddle of blood in the middle of the clearing.

“It’s probably from your friend. We found his body earlier.” Lars said, casually walking up to the puddle of blood and looking around. “I see no arm though.”

Li Yan looked towards the wall of the hedge maze where there was a bit of blood separate from the puzzle. The blood was on the leaves so it was a bit harder to spot if you weren’t looking closely. He walked towards the sides of the hedge maze where the bloody leaves were and dug around in them until he eventually found the arm. “I found it.” He held up the arm with little to no psychological issues. He’s slowly becoming more numb to the feeling of seeing limbs severed and dead bodies.

He looked at the open wound on the arm, and was a bit hesitant to dig in it. Although he could touch and see them without blinking, it was different to dig into it. He handed the severed arm to Lars to dig in.

“...I’ll look.” Lars began digging in the arm and frowned a bit. “I don’t see anything.”

“Is it possible Adonis found it?” Li Yan asked. “It could be on his body.”

Lars nodded and they all decided to try to find Adonis’s body again. “I’ll try to remember the way back.” Li Yan led them while Lars stood in the back constantly digging in the arm to find the key piece.

“Stop.” Lars said, feeling that something was following them. He turned and sure enough there was a huge mechanical white rabbit inching their way towards them. “Run!” Lars said, throwing the arm in his system space while running past them.

“Why isn’t it making any noise?” Ji-Yoo complained as he ran, spitting a bit on Lars’ back. “Can you just shut up?” Lars, who felt the saliva, grimaced as he ran faster.

Li Yan, as the natural slowest, soon fell behind them, and the rabbit was inching closer. While he could barely outrun the mouse, he also could not outrun the hopping rabbit who was naturally faster.

He felt a chill go up his neck as the cold mechanical body got closer and closer to him. He looked back and almost got his head bitten off. Luckily, he ducked in time and rolled to the side. Since the passageways weren’t too spacious, he ran right into the hedges. After entering the hedges, almost as if in a safezone, the rabbit stopped chasing him and went towards the others. It seemed that the rabbit couldn’t enter the hedges.

“Get in the hedge!” Li Yan yelled towards the others. Lars was the first one to react and sped into the leaves, following Ji-Yoo and Soren. Nikolas was last, but he luckily made it just in time for the rabbit to pass by his head.

Everyone was slightly out of breath, but only Li Yan was heavily gasping and sweating. The rabbit seemed to be staring dead at them as it watched them hide in the hedge. It eventually got tired of waiting, and hopped out of sight. Just to be safe, Li Yan and the others started walking through the hedges instead of the main pathway.

Though, it seemed as if the game could tell this would be a way to cheat, and the hedges that were once comfortable to stay in began to wrap around and trap them. Thus, making them all evacuate onto the pathway out in the open.

“Looks like we can’t stay in the hedges for long.” Lars said as he plucked off a thorn that got in his arm.

“Did you find the key piece?” Li Yan asked. Lars shook his head. “It’s on Adonis, the bear thing, or it’s really too far in this arm.”

“Let’s find Adonis first, and then try to open the arm more?” Li Yan naturally left the bear option to last.

Lars nodded and they began to backtrack again, but this time they had a team to look behind and a team to look forward in case the rabbit came back.

They soon found the place with the body, and Nikolas seemed to be shocked once again seeing Adonis dead. Although he knew he died from what Lars said, he still couldn’t fully believe it until he saw it himself. Though, something in him seemed to change to where he now felt more regretful than sad. Afterall, Adonis had connections that he didn’t. Though, the scene was really too bad looking, so he decided to wait a far bit away from the others.

Lars volunteered to look through the body, and he luckily managed to find a piece of the key that was planted in his palm that was clenched. The piece of the key was stuck straight in his skin with small vines around it, so Lars had to put in some effort to get it out. Once he got it out a piece of paper fell out, and Li Yan picked it up to read it.

“Since you wanted it so bad, you can have it.” Li Yan read the note aloud and the others all looked at each other.

“Well we found the key I suppose.” Lars said nonchalantly as he took out the arm from his storage space to give to Li Yan. “You can keep all the limbs on you in case we need them.” Li Yan nodded and took it from him while giving him the key piece.

“Now, let’s find the others and get out of here.” Lars said and motioned them to follow him back.

~~~