He waited patiently as everyone in front of him made made their way through. As Aria went through, he could finally see what the fuss was all about. You had to do what was almost a ballet dance move before jumping several times. Not quite catching just yet, he paid close attention as Daisy imitated Aria’s steps. It looked like they had to twist and turn in a rather weird pattern to get past the few feet in front of them. It was ridiculous enough that for half a second he wondered if it was a prank by Kate.
Regardless, he took a deep breath and set off after Daisy, doing his best to stay on track with her feet, hoping he didn’t look as ridiculous as he felt.
After a good ten feet of that, the pattern finally returned to normal.
“Was that what you mentioned?” asked Harry, the moment they were clear of it.
“Yup, a little trick the builders of this maze came up with to prevent any Carpathians from crossing through,” said Kate.
“Of course, they could never do that whole ballet situation,” said Ryan. "Not with those feet."
“Precisely,” said Kate, “now come on, the rest of this is easy. You guys just need to somehow memorize that whole dance routine there in the center. Cause uhh, well, I can't go into too much detail cause we'd be here all day, but if you hit the wrong spot at the wrong time, a long pole is going to shoot right across...and...well you guys get the picture.”
"Crystal clear," nodded Harry, grimly, very impressed by the feat of engineering that was this tunnel. The newer ones were certainly packed with some insane features for things built out of salvaged parts.
“Well,” began Daisy, “one of us better know this by tomorrow.”
“We’ll figure that out on the way back,” said Aria, “I assume we're still not quite halfway.”
"No, that's still a little ways away. That's where you guys need to turn, but of course before we go that way today, we'll be continuing onwards towards Ryan's end of things. I think then we'd be all but done here," said Kate.
On that note, they started to move again. It wasn’t long before they were coming out of a hallway, one that predictably looked exactly like the one they had just left. The aliens definitely had gone all out on making sure everything was as identical as possible. On one hand, it could be argued, they simply wanted things to be as boring and sparse as possible, but it also had the effect of making sure that it was very difficult to try and remember a route if you didn't have a very good memory.
The rest of the tunnel passed by smoothly. Kate showed them the place that would lead off to the library, before they quickly jogged all the way towards section X. That part of the tunnel was a lot longer and the traps along the way were simpler. Kate explained that cause of the tunnels length they'd been a bit more forgiving with the traps and used other measures to prevent discovery by the Carpathians.
Soon they found themselves at the library, where they'd go their separate ways. They'd decided it was a lot safer than walking all the way back to The Hub. Mr. Summers' warning was still fresh in their minds.
“Alright then, I think we’re done, we should get back” said Aria, as Kate made her way towards her section. “There should be something happening soon to discuss our exact path beyond the door and then how to get out the door but for now, I think our part here is done.”
Ryan gave them all a nod, “I’ll be going then.” With that he turned to take the tunnel in the direction of X.
The trio exchanged one last look before they took off back towards their hall. It was slow going, them only having run through the places to step in a couple of times. Harry's photographic memory was proving very useful however because despite their slow speed, they got through completely unscathed.
At the hall, they stopped for a few whispered goodbyes and the two siblings were soon making their way into their quarters.
"Good Night, Aria," said Harry, and was about to make his way towards the room, when their mother appeared from her room.
"Ahh, you two finally got back," she said. "Come on, I've got something you guys are going to be very excited to see."
Harry exchanged a look with Aria. The two of them made their way towards their mother who presented them with two devices. One of them was a long, sleek metallic rod, with what looked like a button on the end. The other one was a regular electronic map, very similar to the one that the aliens had given them for directions to the incinerator.
"The map is the final charted path from the door to the outer wall," said Mrs. Kane, speaking quickly, as if she wanted to get it all out as quickly as possible. "You'll be leaving tomorrow.
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