Fiction logo

The Leveling of Humanity Ch 9: Splitting the Party

Chase and his friends face a new challenge and struggle to stay together, one thing they do know, they should never split the party!

By J. JamesPublished about a year ago 6 min read
Like

Chase came last into the new room and took a moment to examine what he was looking at in the room. The whole group paused at the doorway and looked at Chase.

"Any ideas on this one?" Emily asked him as he stepped forward to see. The room followed the same square convention as the other rooms, but instead of a floor, there was a sheer drop to a floor about fifty feet down. The walls looked slick and smooth, going down to a stone floor. At the bottom of the area was a handful of several large, rough logs but nothing else of note. There was no path leading to the other door platforms and no way to climb down to the logs below. Chase considered for a moment before shaking his head. There was no quick way to reach the three exit doors in this room. He looked around for anything else noteworthy, but the only thing different was the ceiling. It had eight metal grates but no obvious way to access them.

"I don't understand this one," Chase said while looking to see if there was some way to climb down where they were. Then, without warning or preamble, the door they'd walked through slammed shut. All eight grates began gushing water from the ceiling, filling the room below them and causing the logs inside the area to start swirling and moving around.

Quest started: Survive

The system's simple, terrifying statement popped up in front of all of them. Gary quickly rushed to the door that had slammed shut,

"It's locked," He announced while returning to the group. "What do we do, Chase?" The group collectively looked to Chase for direction, and he nodded in response.

"Right, we use the logs as the water rises and get to the door. We'll aim for that little landing in front of the door on the right. It should be pretty easy, I think." Everyone agreed and waited as the water continued steadily rising. It was an easy plan, but it felt almost too easy. As the minutes passed, Chase grew increasingly concerned about the rising water rate. Something was wrong with his simple plan, but he couldn't tell what was alarming him. He closed his eyes, thinking as the others talked quietly around him. Emily noticed his concentration, and while maintaining her quiet conversation with Sofie, she kept a vigilant eye on Chase and his apprehensive expression. Finally, his eyes snapped open as realization dawned on him that they wouldn't have time to exit if they waited until the water had risen to their current level because the doors pulled in and not out.

"We have to go now!" He announced while launching himself off the edge, aimed at the log closest to them, "Before the water rises too high! We'll miss the door!" His words ended as he hit the cold waters. The water was gushing in so fiercely that he nearly lost his grip on the log as it turned when he reached for it. His fingers gripped the wet bark, and he steadied himself while turning to see where the others were. As Sofie landed` near the floating log, there was a loud splash. Then, a mere moment later, the others joined them in the water. As Chase wrapped his arm around the large log for a better grip, it suddenly spun itself sideways, nearly knocking him into another log. He heard a scream but could not get his bearings before finding himself under the deluge from one of the grates. He was immediately several feet under the water but swam up quickly, gasping for air before finding himself under a second grate. When he came up the second time, he treaded for a moment, then positioned himself to climb onto the closest log. He got on it and looked around. Matthew and Gary were on one log, which had gotten lodged between two other logs near the left door. Sofie was on a log by herself but near the right door. Emily was still in the water but clinging to Sofie's log. The water was quickly rising, and they only had about five to ten feet to go before they could start climbing onto the small landings to open the doors. Chase began to panic at being separated and looked between both groups. Just as he prepared to jump from his log towards the girls, water hit him with ferocity from another grate. Unprepared to be submerged, he felt himself take in two deep lungfuls of water. It only took him a moment to breach the surface again, but he was coughing up water before he could make heads or tails of where he was at in the room. He heard shouting but couldn't make out what was being said to him. The impact caught him off guard as one of the logs hit him violently. Stunned by the sudden impact, Chase was pulled violently under the water, and his head throbbed from getting hit. Then as he was swept away in the current, he found himself under yet another grate. By sheer power of will, he forced himself to the surface and found himself just a few feet away from Gary, who was reaching out to him.

"Right here, I got you!" Matthew held onto Gary, who pitched on the log to grab onto Chase. Chase felt weak, water-logged, and was still coughing up the water quite heavily. Before he'd recovered, Matthew was hoisting Chase up to Gary, who was standing on the landing, a mere foot or two above the water level. Chase twisted and looked across to the door on the right to see the girls standing together, looking at them. He gave them both a thumbs up before helping Matthew up and opening the door on the left.

"Thank you," Chase said while watching the girls across the way. Emily looked concerned and tried shouting, but Chase couldn't hear her over the roar of the water. He shook his head, gestured to his ear, then pointed to the door and indicated she should shut it. She nodded, waved goodbye, and closed the door after stepping through it. Matthew and Gary had already crossed the threshold as the water came up to the landing. Chase stepped through and pulled the door closed, water splashing around his feet as the door closed firmly. He slumped to the floor and resumed his coughing. Gary looked at Chase in evident concern as he continued heaving for a moment clearing water from his lungs.

"You okay?" Matthew asked while patting Chase on the back to help him clear the water out easier. Chase nodded.

"Yeah," He said while pushing up to his feet again, "We split the party, which is never good to do."

"We didn't have a choice. Let's take time and see if we can figure out a way to find them later. We can't go back, but maybe we can find them going forward." Gary said reassuringly. Matthew walked forward to look into the room, returning a moment later to say in a hushed tone,

"We have a problem. Little green men are in this room, and they all have knives." Gary and Chase exchanged looks, then said in unison,

"Goblins."

AdventureSci FiSeries
Like

About the Creator

J. James

Passionate regarding writing and sharing ideas. I am self-taught and willing to help others improve their imagination and ideas. Breathing life into my characters and sharing life experiences by showing rather than telling.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.