Chapter 9

Perry felt his every joint and muscle ache. Each step sent a particularly intense tinge of pain through his left leg and butt. He ignored it. Fear, at that moment, became the ultimate motivator. A man once cut off his arm to break free from some cave, and he didn’t even have the insane amount of adrenaline that coursed through Perry’s veins.

The minotaur roared like the dumb animal it was. That’s what Perry kept telling himself. It’s just a dumb fucking animal. He heard the minotaur’s hooves hit the ground, the snort of its nostrils, the woosh of air from the movement of the axe. It all signalled that the minotaur had broken into a charge. Perry jumped to the side, much like the way Charlize Theron didn’t in Prometheus and hit the floor, close to the bonfire. He felt the gust of wind from the near-miss and then heard the sound of a crash.

Flames dominated Perry’s vision and he rolled himself to his side. It was so hot. The flames were half a meter away. Once more he shook off the pain and pushed against the ground. As he got up, he moved towards the flame, even though he really didn’t want to. It felt like a furnace, or maybe a sauna hotter than any he’d experienced before. He wasn’t sweating but given his lack of hydration that was probably a bad sign.

He outstretched his hand holding one of his spears, keeping the rest of his body as far from the flame as possible. He inched his feet forward until the tip of the spear was engulfed in the flame. Perry looked at the minotaur, it waited at the periphery, unwilling to get too close to the heat. It was scared of the fire like a dumb fucking animal, Perry said to himself.

The tip of the spear caught fire and Perry backed himself away from the bonfire. But not so far the minotaur could get him. Perry knew he couldn’t stay there for long, the heat was already taking its toll. He could get heatstroke, then die of dehydration. He locked eyes with the minotaur, seeing it for the first time without panicking. It was injured, it’s leg and it’s back. It’s breathing heavier than he remembered. It lost a lot of blood, which meant it’s breathing would become more and more ineffective. Despite those two things, however, it still had an unwavering determination in its eyes. It seemed to have one purpose, to kill Perry and his companions. Well, actually that might be two purposes.

Perry began moving again, as fast as he could muster, in limping strides. He went through the door and back to the maze. He ran along the wall retracing the path they took. The minotaur sprinted after him, so fast it smashed into the wall on the opposite side after coming through the door. It stumbled back up and shook its head in frustration.

Perry waited at the next corner, making sure the minotaur would follow him. It charged at him and so he continued running. The minotaur was faster, by far, but it didn’t seem to handle corners well. Each time it would stumble because of its injured leg, giving Perry time to widen the gap between them.

He followed the arrows when they appeared until he got to a large closed wooden door. The locked door. Perry stopped and turned around. He looked past the flame of the torch he held before him, to see the red eyes of the minotaur coming quickly. This is it. The minotaur was already moving at full speed. All he needed to was throw his torch on the ground and wait. He jumped to the side. Crash!

The minotaur almost got him. But, it didn’t. Above Perry, the minotaur’s limbs and body moved erratically in a panic. He pulled himself forward, staying low, not even lifting his abdomen from the floor. When he finally felt he was clear, he stood up to look at his success. The minotaur’s horns had pierced into the wooden door, and there the horns remained. The animal was stuck.

It could have easily just backed out of the predicament it was in, if it lowered its head, but that wasn’t something it could figure out. It was trying to stand tall or move forward, and neither action worked. All its movements just dug deeper into the wood.

Perry grabbed his last spear out of his pants. He could see it clear as day, a throbbing artery on the monster’s neck. All it would take is one piercing blow then he could just let the animal bleed to death. He narrowed his concentration on that one spot and swiftly sprinted forward, carrying his momentum into his spear as he lunged it forward. And a miss. The spear collided at a bad angle, and instead of piercing the skin, it just broke apart into large splinters. The sudden force of the impact pushed back Perry’s upper body, but his lower body kept going. He hit the ground sliding on his back, coming to an abrupt stop directly below the minotaur’s neck.