Stop! Go!

"Stop! Go!"

Recommended listening: Doom 64: Even Simpler

I ran through the maze. Nothing but a seemingly endless hallway, one door after another. There was a speaker and a traffic light on each side of the doors. When the speakers announced "Go!” you were supposed to run, and reach the next door before the voice told you to stop.

This process used to be in set timed intervals, but now the timing was unpredictable. Sometimes there were hours between the changes, and other times there where mere seconds. The path never diverged, never more than one door, and the doors behind you seemed to close forever.

I briefly considered staying behind, to see what might happen if I stayed when the door ahead of me shut, but I thought the risk was too great.

I can remember almost nothing but running through this maze. I had passing thoughts of hunger, and sleep, but these vices no longer seemed to apply. I felt as if I had been running for an eternity.

I was not alone. There were once many who ran alongside me. We were young, and joyful. We raced each other, expecting some kind of reward at the end.

As the cycles passed, more and more runners were trapped behind the doors, never to be seen again.

And now there was only me, and a girl. She appeared younger than me, and somehow older at the same time. She had been running the maze longer than I, once far ahead of the rest of us. But now her strength seemed to fade, and I had taken the lead.

We never spoke to one another. Not enough time. Had to keep running.

"Stop!"

In the midst of my thoughts, I had almost missed the closing of the door ahead of me. A near fatal mistake. One was not supposed to think, this was a distraction.

I dived through the entrance just as the door made its descent. The girl was trapped outside behind me. She began to collapse into hysterics, slamming her fists against the door, shouting "No! NO! PLEASE GOD, NO!"

I could not see beyond the metal door, but I heard every sound.

Her cries were soon interrupted by several thunderous bellowing roars. Then I heard her blood curdling screams as her body was rapidly torn apart and finally the snapping and crunching of flesh and bone.

Tears began streaming down my face. I thought those who had the doors closed behind them were simply taken out of the maze, perhaps trained as to do better next time. There would be no next time for them.

Now I was alone.

I had no idea what kind of ungodly horrors resided between me and the closed door, but I had no intention of staying to find out.

"Go!"

I ran as fast as I could, hiding behind the safety of the next closing door. And then another. And another. The pace seemed to be increasing in speed.

These doors were like guillotines. They slammed into the ground with enough force to kill a man, and now that the evil nature of this maze had been illuminated, I now suspect many had.

"Stop!" "Go!" ..."Stop!"

I had almost missed a door due to the urge to vomit overcoming me. My entire body trembled, and the shaking of my limbs became increasingly hard to control.

"Go!"

The change was now coming almost too fast for me to acknowledge. The door ahead was so close, I thought I could jump to safety, and so I made another desperate dive. Perhaps there was yet an end to this horror, an exit.

I managed to dive under the door, but at a terrible cost:

On its way down, the door had severed my left leg.

The overwhelming pain began to rapidly drain my energy. This was the end. I knew that now I would die in this hellish maze, alone, either from loss of blood, or by whatever was following behind....

I could hear them. One of them was sniffing my disembodied leg. The creature picked it up and devoured it. The rest of my body would soon meet the same fate.

This final moment seemed to go on for hours. With the last of my energy, I screamed in pain, an animalistic gesture made in the hopes that maybe someone, my parents, a friend, or even God might come to my aid.

No one did.

I was beginning to pass out. The combination of such terror and pain was accelerating my demise. I prayed that Death would come to deliver me, take me away from this nightmare before-

"Stop!"