“Yeah, go ahead, you can safely go down to the second right at least. Let me know if you can see anything funny down the first right,” said Jack.
“Okay,” said Stephen. “Right behind you, Ben.”
To make his way down this more narrow passage, Ben had to resort to almost crawling. It was only four feet high and he walked with one hand down on the floor.
“You weren’t kidding about the height,” said Stephen.
“Here’s the first right,” Ben paused ahead and waited for Stephen to catch up.
They both shone their lights down the passage — it went about ten feet and stopped abruptly with a black wall.
“Does this one end in a trap?” Stephen called back to Jack.
“Yeah,” Jack yelled back.
“I can’t see anything — you?” Ben asked Stephen.
“Nope. Guess we don’t want to find out, either,” Stephen replied. “We should mark it.”
Ben tried to mark the floor of the passage, but the floor, walls, and ceiling were too dark for the Sharpie to show up. “Hope we don’t have to get out of here in a hurry,” said Ben.
“What time is it, anyway?” Stephen asked.
Ben looked at his watch — “About ten till eleven. Why? You have to take a dump again?”
“Ha, ha,” said Stephen stoically. “When I do, you’ll be the first to know.”
“All these passages and traps and stuff. Would it have killed the guy to put in a bathroom?” asked Ben. “So the next right?”
“Yeah, straight then second right, and third left,” said Stephen.
“We should bring some masking tape or something,” said Ben.
“What for?” asked Stephen.
“We could make little arrows out of tape, since we can’t write on the floors here,” said Ben.
“Doesn’t Jack have duck tape?” pondered Stephen. “I think he does. Let me go find out.”
Stephen backtracked while Ben looked for the right turn. At the door, Jack was still reproducing the map in his notebook. He started putting all the side passages and the trap markers. Jack was busy erasing a line he had drawn out of scale when Stephen walked up.
“Do you think I need to do the whole thing?” Jack asked. “I think I can just draw a stub of a line for the ones that end up with a trap.”
“I think we need the whole thing,” said Stephen. “We want to make arrows out of duck tape to stick to the floor. Do you have it?”
“In my bag,” Jack waved at his backpack.
Stephen was pawing through Jack’s pack when they heard a thump from down the narrow passage.
“Did you hear that?” asked Stephen.
“Yeah,” said Jack as he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled “BEN?”
They froze, Jack by the map and Stephen kneeling at Jack’s pack. They listened intently, but didn’t hear any more sounds.
“C’mon,” said Jack, jumping up and nearly hitting his head on the low ceiling.
“Hold up — take this,” Stephen held out Jack’s pack.
They got to the first intersection and pointed their flashlights down the right turn.
“He kept going when I turned back,” said Stephen. He led Jack further down the hall. They reached the second right turn, the one they had planned to take, but there was still no sign of Ben.
“He would have gone this way,” said Stephen. “We said straight, second right, third left.”
“Wait, third left?” asked Jack he was consulting his drawing of the map.
“Yeah — let me see,” said Stephen. He turned to face the same direction as Jack and they both looked.
“I don’t think this line here is supposed to be a hall,” said Jack, pointing at the first left off the passage they stood in front of. “This line was a different color, and I’m not sure it really intersects.”
“Shit, you’re kidding,” said Stephen. He started to head down the passage to the right.
“Stop, let me do this,” Jack had wriggled off his pack to get out the duck tape. He peeled off a strip and then divided it in two and tore on of those pieces in half. He laid out an arrow on the floor that pointed in the direction they came.
“Okay,” said Jack.
They continued down the hall, nearly crawling under the short ceiling. Jack was starting to feel uncomfortable in this confinement, but ignored it and moved quickly to find his friend. They passed one left turn and Jack stopped at the second.
“I think this is the tunnel we want to take,” said Jack.
“And Ben would have taken the next one,” said Stephen.
“Yup,” said Jack, looking at his map again. “But he wouldn’t have even gotten there according to this.” he said.
“There’s a trap on this hall?” Stephen had begun crawling down towards the third left, but this news brought him to a halt.
“Yeah, check it out,” said Jack. The map showed an “X,” Jack’s version of the Jolly Roger, past the second real left.
“BEN?” Jack yelled.
They waited again to see if there would be a response, but heard nothing.
“Hey Ben!” yelled Stephen.
After a few moments, Stephen asked “So what do we do now? He probably tripped a booby trap or something. What if we get caught too?”
“He wasn’t expecting it, but we are,” said Jack. “Let’s just take it really slow and try to figure it out.”
“Okay,” said Stephen.
On their hands and knees, they crawled nervously down the tight tunnel. Stephen took the lead and leaned down frequently to study the passage from a different angle. When they reached the third left turn without incident, Stephen turned around.
“Shouldn’t we have hit something by now?” Stephen asked.
“According to this we should have,” said Jack. “There should be another one down there also.” Jack pointed his light down the third left.
“I wish Ben hadn’t gone on without that tape.”
“Shit, we should have been marking these intersections?” said Jack.
“Why? We just went straight,” Stephen argued.
“Yeah, but if we get turned around, we’re not going to know what straight was,” said Jack.
“Let’s go back then,” said Stephen. “Last thing we need is for all of us to get lost. We’ll mark them and then look harder for some sign of Ben.”
“Okay,” said Jack. “Oh wait — if he’s trapped behind something, we might be able to still see his light. We should turn off our lights and see.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
When they switched off their lights Jack immediately noticed how loud his heart was beating. He could hear his own breathing, and if he focused, Stephen’s breathing as well. Suddenly they heard a familiar sound, distant and muffled.
“Ben’s watch!” exclaimed Stephen. They both fumbled with their lights and they came on simultaneously.
“Back this way,” said Jack. Shuffling back the way they came, they had to stop frequently to listen for the watch alarm. Jack stopped when they crouched between the second and third left. “It’s getting quieter.” he said.
Stephen pressed his ear to the floor. “I think it’s coming from under here,” Stephen backed up and Jack came forward a bit. Jack put his ear to the floor and confirmed Stephen’s findings. “Hey Ben!” Stephen pounded on the floor with his palm.
“Ben!” Jack added. They pounded for a few seconds and then waited. They could still hear a watch alarm going off, but nothing else. Pounding harder this time, their screams were almost becoming panicked. “Ben! Hey Bey!” they shouted.
Stephen stopped and Jack paused as well.
Muffled they both heard “Ungh,” from below the floor.
“Can you hear us?” Stephen yelled. There was no reply.
Jack felt around for any seam or crack in the floor. He pressed firmly on the floor, walls, and ceiling, looking for the trigger. Stephen followed Jack’s lead and soon they both pressed on every surface.