“Must be the tunnel on the right then,” hesurmised, suppressing his feelings. Walking around naked didn’tleave any room to be turned on, not when you were a man in fleshand blood. He almost envied the statues for that advantage.

“I guess so,” Brandy agreed.

Below them there was a violent outburst, arapid clattering arose, as if a great many things were clashingtogether over and over again at high speeds. It sounded eerily likehundreds of blades beating together, as though there were anintense battle raging far below them without a sound but for theswords clanging upon one another.

“We should go,” Albert urged.

Brandy glanced one last time toward thesprawling maze and then followed him into the tunnel, leaving thenoises for the darkness.

Chapter 16

The passage was about eight feet tall byfive feet in width when they entered, but as they walked, theceiling sloped gradually downward and the walls slowly closed,narrowing until they could no longer walk fully upright orside-by-side.

Before the tunnel grew too small, Albertstopped and peered back the way they’d come, a little unnerved bythe claustrophobic position they were finding themselves in.

“Are we going the right way?” Brandy asked,noticing his hesitance.

Albert shook his head. “We have to be,” hereplied. “There was a bird.”

Brandy giggled a little at how absurd thatsounded.

“It was the only clue we had.”

“I know.”

“We have to be going the right way. Do youwant to lead or follow?”

Brandy looked back the way they’d come, andthen up ahead at where they were going. On one hand there was thefear of what may lie ahead, the anxious unknowing, the danger, buton the other hand there was the question of what may be behindthem, the thought that she may be vulnerable. “How narrow do youthink it’ll get?”

“Hard to say. We may have to crawlsoon.”

She took a deep breath and decided: “I’ll gofirst.” It was the thought of being blind on two sides, unable toeither turn around or see past Albert that ultimately decided itfor her. She squeezed past him and pushed forward.

Albert removed the backpack andfollowed.

As the walls closed in around her, forcingher to duck lower and lower, Brandy’s anxiety grew. She was notusually claustrophobic, but she was feeling that suffocatingfeeling now. What if it grew too narrow to fit through? What ifthey became stuck down here, perhaps miles underground, in a placeno one else on earth even knew existed? She did not like thethought of the irony of narrowly surviving that pit of spikes onlyto slowly die of thirst wedged between these walls. She shook awaythe thought, and asked Albert where he thought the other twotunnels led.

“I don’t know. If I had to guess I’d sayprobably down to that maze. That seemed like a good place forgetting rid of trespassers.”

“Do you think every choice we didn’t makewas a trap?”

“I don’t know. Maybe not. Whoever took ourclothes could have gone a different way. Maybe we got the hard roadand he’s taking the easy one.”

“I don’t like not knowing who’s in here withus.”

“I don’t either.”

The ceiling had finally descended too lowfor them to walk and they dropped to their hands and knees. Alberthad to place his backpack on the floor beneath him and drag italong between his hands. This was awkward, but he managed to keepup.

Ahead of them, the tunnel made a sharp rightturn and then continued down the ever-shrinking corridor. It wasabout now, as they made this tight turn, that Albert becamedistracted by the view. He was staying close behind Brandy, notwanting to be left behind, and he found himself staring at herround buttocks and the titillating slit of her vagina that hercrawling posture revealed. Even without a flashlight he could seethat part of her perfectly in the backlight. The muscles of herthighs pumped solidly as she crawled, stretching and contracting ina motion that was incredibly erotic. The sight sent a knot into hisstomach and he forced his eyes back down to the floor. He feltguilty looking at her that way. It was ungentlemanly as all hell,but it was also a damn pleasant distraction from his fear of thislabyrinth.

The walls and ceiling closed in around themuntil they had to give up crawling on hands and knees to continueon their bellies, and Albert’s view of Brandy was thankfullyreplaced by a much less interesting view of his backpack as heshoved it forward ahead of him.

“I see the end of the tunnel,” Brandyreported. They were sweet words to Albert. “Only a littlefarther.”

“Thank God,” Albert sighed. “I’m starting toget claustrophobic.”

“Me too.”

The last few feet were a squeeze, but theymanaged to make it through without getting stuck. The only trulydifficult part was exiting the tunnel itself. The floor of the nextroom was several feet lower than the floor of the tunnel. Brandyslithered from a hole much smaller than the one they entered,inching her way out until she could plant her hands on the coldfloor and ease herself down. It was now that she wished that shehad opted to go second so that Albert could have given her a hand,but she couldn’t change that now.

Albert pushed his backpack through the holeafter her and immediately began to pull himself free.Claustrophobia had begun to get the best of him and he wanted outas quickly as possible.

Brandy grabbed the backpack as she stood andtried to give him a hand, but he was on the floor before she couldget a grip on him. She heard something strike the floor way toohard—his elbow, she thought—but he did not seem to notice. He wasalready studying this newest chamber.

This room was round, its diameter at leastsixty feet. A walkway about ten feet wide circled the room, as diddozens of tunnel entrances identical to the one they just exited.In the center of the room, a steep, spiraling staircase sank downinto the darkness below and at the top of these steps stood a lonesentinel statue. It was standing upright and stiff, with its feettogether, facing the top of the staircase. Its right hand was atits side, but the left was raised toward the steps, its grotesquelylong index finger extended.

“I think it wants us to go down,” saidBrandy. Her eyes fell to the statue’s penis again. There was agrotesque sort of eroticism about a penis that big. It stirredsomething in her gut, something as unpleasant and unavoidable as anicotine craving, and she wondered if it was the sex room again.“Do you think we should?”

“I don’t know,” replied Albert as heclambered to his feet. “So far they seem to be on our side, butwe’ll have a look in all the passages anyway. Just in case.”

“We should mark the tunnel we came inthrough.”

“With what? I left the spray paintbehind.”

Brandy handed Albert the flashlight, andthen removed a tube of lipstick from her purse. She scrawled aglossy X on the wall on each side of the tunnel and then replacedthe tube.

“I’m impressed.”

“I know.”

Albert laughed.

It took him only a moment to check out allof the passages that led away from the stairs. Nothing but smooth,clean stone could be seen in each of them. But he hadn’t reallyexpected to see anything. The statue was pointing down and he had astrong hunch that if they were going to get through this labyrinthalive, they would do well to trust these faceless beings.

He turned and peered down into the darknessbelow, trying to judge how far down it could go, but it wasimpossible.

“So why is it that this guy points the waybut all the others were all mysterious about it?”

Albert shrugged. “Maybe he figures by nowwe’ve earned it.” He handed the flashlight back to her and began tolead the way down the spiraling steps, descending ever farther intothe unknown.

Chapter 17

“God, I need a cigarette,” gasped Brandy.She paused and gazed up at the dizzying spiral of steps above them.It felt like they’d descended at least twenty stories. The stepswere both steep and narrow, demanding careful treading to prevent adeadly fall into the abyss below, and her legs and back ached fromthe effort.