Die Jagd

I barely noticed the thundering in my chest as I raced through the maze. The thought of being torn apart by angry dogs was the kind of encouragement I needed to ignore the burning in my lungs. I don’t know how long I had been running, it felt like ages, but I could feel my legs starting to get heavier the deeper I traveled into the maze.

Coming up to a fork in the road I took a sharp left turn that was a bit too forced. Tripping over a combination of flattened cornstalks and my own feet, I tumbled to the ground. The force of my somewhat ‘graceful’ roll was enough to rip my jeans and my knees as well as kick some dirt towards the cornstalks, sending sparks showering over me with a sudden zap. I was unfortunately reminded about what would happen if I tried to take any short cuts or break the unwritten rules.

“Sonofabitch..!” I hissed through gritted teeth as a sharp pain stung my knees. Looking at the new-found road rash I tried to push as much dirt out of it as I could which only made it start to sting.

I took a moment to catch my breath and adjust my glasses. I couldn’t hear anything through the pounding in my ears and I hadn’t been devoured in the short few seconds of me sitting on the ground, so I figured I was safe for now. With a grunt I pushed myself off the ground. My sore knees and strained muscles ached in protest, but the feeling quickly subsided once I continued down the path.

Like any great outdoor survival enthusiast would do, my first plan of action was to determine where North was by looking up at the stars. However, my astrology skills were not exactly up to par, in fact I didn’t know much about that topic. It wasn’t my best plan, but it was better than nothing. I zipped my jacket up and wished to the stars that Danni was here, she was usually able to come up with a plan when I was rendered clueless. Just her presence would have been enough to suffice the empty space around me. With each passing minute the corn maze seemed to get more complex and the feeling of loneliness grew stronger and stronger. Dying alone in a field was starting to become more and more realistic.

Loneliness was replaced with a feeling of alarm when I heard the snap of cornstalk come from a few rows away from me just on the other side of the wall. I spun around and froze, listening for any hint of movement. After a few moments I slowly started to back away, taking my time to silently place my steps. Another snap and some footsteps sounded from behind the other side of the wall, this time they were closer.

“Danni…” I whispered but stopped myself from blurting it out loud. What if it was one of the dogs picking my trail up or one of those psychotic kidnappers trying to hunt me down? If it was the later, I didn’t want to find out.

I turned back around and rounded a corner slowly to check if there was an opening where the mysterious being would be able to jump out and grab me. Danni and I have seen enough horror movies to know that is exactly what would happen. Thankfully there was not, but down the path was a sight for sore eyes. At the end of the last stretch the moonlight outlined an exit for me.

Thank God! I thought to myself as I started to quickly jog towards the exit. I had started to think that there was no possible way out of this forsaken maze.

Out of nowhere I was yanked to the ground. My victory was short lived as something hard snapped around my foot, anchoring it to the ground while the rest of me slammed into the dirt. I let out a sharp whimper, biting my lip to stifle a yelp as I rolled over on my back. Someone had created a metal trap, except the jaws were dull and set to a specific opening. The pain was nothing compared to what it would have been if this had been the real deal. I’d have had to call myself ‘Penny Pegleg’ and take on the life of a pirate if that had been the situation.

Reaching down, I tried to pull the jaws apart to free my leg. Right away I could tell this trap was in no way meant to cripple or chop a foot off, just to delay and cause minimal enough pain to make this experience even more delightful than it already was. No matter how hard I pulled, the jaws were not going to budge at all.

“Fuck!” I growled as I struggled with finding the release pin on the bottom. Someone had jammed it into the socket.

A noise back into the corn maze, footsteps, reminded me of my previous scare and I stood up in the blink of an eye. I wasn’t about to waste any more time fiddling with this thing. Either my foot was going to be ripped off or this trap was coming with me.

Grabbing the chain, I gave it a good hard yank and pulled the nail out of the soft ground. To say the trap clamped on my leg made it difficult to run was a big understatement. Sneaking around was not an option with the chain rattling and the trap gears clanking together. I might as well have been carrying a fog horn with me.

I hobbled as fast as I could towards the exit, which turned out to be not quite what I imagined. Instead was a much shorter version of the hell I had just navigated through. The corn was chopped down to about three-foot-high and only the length of a football field. I couldn’t quite figure out what the point of this was, but I wasn’t going to question it right now. It was certain it was going to be a lot easier getting through this than the previous maze.

Being able to hurry through this, I tried to step lightly and carefully so I didn’t disturb the invisible electric wall of death surrounding the corn. It didn’t take long for me to get almost half way through the ‘mini maze’. I did need to stop and rest for a moment, the dull clamp on my leg was starting to rub my skin raw. Even with the adrenalin rushing through my veins, it was becoming a painful nuisance.

Aside from the physical discomfort, a nagging feeling at the nape of my neck caused me to glance around my surroundings. Something just wasn’t right, not that the entire situation wasn’t right to begin with, but there was something else causing me to push myself to get out. I felt like there were eyes watching me though my struggle. My suspicion was confirmed as my eyes stopped on the exit I had come out of just minutes before.

My heart jumped in my throat as there stood a tall figure, as still as a statue and dressed in dark clothing. He seemed to be a moving shadow as he made his way through the shortened maze towards my direction. Stunned for a few seconds, I couldn’t feel my limbs, as if the sight of another being in the maze was shocking after having been alone for what seemed like hours. Adrenalin eventually settled in over the shock and I turned to put some distance between us.

As a sudden decision I dove to the ground and took a left, crawling away from the immediate path that lead me out of the maze. Speed was not an option given my current situation, so I had to improvise to the best of my abilities, which wasn’t much. If I couldn’t run from them I might as well try to hide. The options that I had were pretty pathetic, but I had to use what I got.

The path I chose was a one-track road, with a few zig-zag turns, that lead to a direct dead end. I bit my lip as my limbs started to prick with fear and my body became numb and shaky. If I hadn’t felt fear before, I certainly felt it now. I was trapped and royally screwed. If that stranger was a blood thirsty criminal, he was going to have my head. Crawling as quietly as I could, I pulled my hood up around me and laid as still as I could on my side. The moonlight cast a shadow on the wall I was hiding nearest, which gave me only a slight advantage.

Fuck! I wanted to scream in frustration as I bit my hoodie to stifle any noise.

The footsteps came louder as they started to wander closer and closer to my vicinity. With each step my heart seemed to start to beat faster until I could feel my blood rushing in my ears. I tensed my body up as tight as I could to get myself to stop shivering for fear the rattling chain would give away my position.

Everything locked up inside of me as a dark shadow appeared over the wall. Whoever was looking for me, was just inches away, only a short wall separating us. Images flooded into my brain of what might happen in the next few moments as I waited with dread for a hand to reach over, or a gunshot, to be impaled, anything.

But the footsteps continued down the path, walking at a steady pace and only faltering for a few moments as the figure made their way through the maze.

I took a quiet gasp of breath when everything was silent once again. I was holding my breath a lot longer than I thought. A wave of emotions overcame me as I tried to calm my racing heart and steady my shaking hands. Pulling myself into a ball as if trying to literally pull myself together, I let a few tears fall down my face and sobbed quietly into the sleeve of my jacket. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or still fearful of what might lay ahead.