But I didn’t get a chance to find out what scared him. Alex screamed behind me, and Will took my hand, turning us both around to find out what was wrong.
“Hey!” he yelled. “That’s mine! Give her back!”
Huh? I inched closer to him, holding on to his arm. What was happening?
Alex’s squeals kept filling the corridor, but they started to fade, echoing from down the hall. My mouth fell open.
Did they take her? Where did she go?
Oh, my God.
“Shit, let’s go,” Will said, a laugh following.
He pulled me onto his back, and I hooked my arms around his neck, while he held me under my knees, and we ran back the way we came, going after Alex.
The actors—since they were allowed to touch us—must’ve grabbed her and carried her off.
Will bolted down the tunnel, and someone nipped at my back, growling and clawing. I cried out, squealing as I scrunched up my shoulders and hugged Will tightly. “Hurry,” I gasped. “They’re going to take me, too!”
He ran unbelievably well with someone on his back, and my heart raced a mile a minute, about to beat out of my che
st in the excitement. He turned corners, listening for Alex’s screams, and the muscles in my arms and legs burned as I tried to hold onto him.
Alex’s cries sounded closer, and then I heard her.
She was laughing. “Will?” she shouted. “Oh, my God. He threw me over his shoulder like I was a feather. I thought I was going to get eaten.”
We stopped and Will let me down. I kept hold of his arm as he bent over, maybe to help her up to wherever the actor had dropped her, but we barely had time to collect ourselves before growls and loud motors filled the air and we were swarmed by what felt like ten chainsaw murderers. They came at us, nipping at our legs with their bladeless chainsaws, and we all stumbled, scurried, and veered in any direction we could to get away.
“Winter, where are you?” I heard Will shout from farther away than I thought he was.
But then, all of a sudden, he was there, grabbing my hand and pulling me away.
I breathed a sigh of relief. He walked fast, dragging me as the air blowers shot at my legs, and I laughed as the hay sack tunics the slasher killers wore brushed my arms as we passed, telling me just how close I was to getting caught. Chills spread across my body, and my pulse went wild, unable to contain the frenzy of danger and the intoxication in my head it created. I was high from it.
We turned right and then right again, and as the noise fell away and no one came at us anymore, he slowed his walk, pulling me around walls and passageways in the maze.
I panted, still holding his hand but bringing my free one up to his mask and feeling it. “That’s you, right?”
Just making sure.
I still laughed a little but relaxed when I felt the hard plastic skull with grooves.
“This is so much fun,” I told him.
Silence filled the corridor now, except for the sound effects of wind howling, a heart beating, and clocks chiming drifting out of the speakers, his hand tightening around mine as we walked. I didn’t mind. He wasn’t doing it because I couldn’t see. He probably did it, so I wouldn’t get stolen like Alex.
Alex.
I turned my head left and right, listening for her footsteps.
“Where’s Alex?” I asked.
She was with us, wasn’t she? He only grabbed me for a quick escape.
But just then, I stepped in something wet, my foot sloshing in something on the ground.
“Oh, yuck.” I stepped away, inching into him to get away from whatever the pool was on the ground. Smelled like vodka. Someone must’ve spilled their drink.