Chapter 8:
The Maze of Insanity
"This is ridiculous..."
Akira wiped the sweat from her forehead and plopped down on a large sand dune. "Can this get any worse? It's really hot, the sun isn't setting, there’s no water left, and we can't see anything but sand dunes!"
"You got the 'really hot' part right," Kodamon answered, sweat pouring down her fur. She and Akira had left the group to see if there was anything ahead.
Akira closed her eyes. "I hope Jun and Patamon had better luck." Since everyone else wanted to rest, she had to drag Jun along. "I wonder what everyone will think when we say that there's nothing ahead but sand dunes..."
"You're right. There isn't."
Akira jumped in surprise. Jun sat behind her at the bottom of the sand dune, writing on a pad. Patamon was curled up on his backpack. "H–hey, when did you two get here?" Akira asked incredulously. Then she noticed the paper. "What’s that?"
"I'm writing down everything that's been happening to us,” he answered. “They might be clues to why we're here."
“Why not use your laptop?”
“It hasn’t been working since we got here.”
Akira sighed. “We’ll have to get back soon and report to everyone,” she mumbled, “and some report they’ll get…”
“Hey! Do you see that?” Kodamon was pointing at something in the distance.
“What is it?” Akira asked. She squinted in the same direction and could make out long, curved shapes. “They look like palm trees,” she said, “But in the middle of the desert?”
Jun popped up beside her. “I bet it’s an oasis! If there’s trees, there’s going to be water and shade!” He got up and started running toward them. “Come on!”
The strange shapes were palm trees! There was a cluster of them, with pale, scruffy green patches of grass. A stream of water flowed into the distance, and an odd-looking building stood a few feet away.
“What is this place?” Akira asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s the best thing that’s happened to us yet!” Kodamon replied.
“We have to tell everyone else about this,” Akira said seriously, “We should have been back a long time ago.” She looked around again. “Jun!”
Jun was looking around the building and was just about to walk through a dark entrance when Akira called. He whipped around. “Y–yeah?”
“Can you and Patamon stay here while we get the others?”
“Sure.” Jun tried to hide a mischievous look.
Akira looked at him sternly. “Stay right here, okay? Don’t start exploring until we come back. I don’t want something to happen and we’d have to go looking for you.”
“Sure.”
After they left, Jun walked over to a tree and sat down. He pulled out his pad and started writing again.
Meanwhile, a tiny black pinprick zoomed through the sky…
Yuka woke with a jolt. She sat up and shook her head. What was that? She couldn’t remember anything. Just then, Akira showed up.
“Hey! Everyone!” Akira shouted excitedly, “We’ve found something!”
“We found an oasis!” Kodamon added, “There’s trees, grass, and a stream!” Everyone looked like all their dreams had come true.
“What are we waiting for?” Mana shouted, “Let’s go!” She ran off, not bothering to ask for directions.
“Hey!” Akira called out, “Wait for us!”
“Typical...” Seita said, shaking his head in annoyance.
Just then, the Black Gear zoomed by, right over their heads.
Yuka looked around wildly. No… She felt that terrible feeling again and shut her eyes. No, not again!
A hand landed on Yuka’s shoulder. She jumped in fright, but it was only Kei. “Yuka, what’s wrong?” Kei looked at her, worried. Yuka looked up frantically, but to her relief, no one else noticed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, “I can’t tell you right now. Everyone will get worried…”
Meanwhile, Jun had stopped writing and was examining a wall of the building.
“This is strange…” he murmured. “This looks like one of the pyramids in Egypt. They’re ruins now, but this–” He ran a finger along one of the edges. “–this looks new.”
He stared at it for another moment, then sighed, leaning on one of the pyramid walls. His eyes flitted toward the dark entrance.
“I wish I could go inside and look around,” he said.
“Why don’t you?” Patamon asked.
“I have to stay outside until everyone gets here,” he replied, “I don’t want everyone to worry.”
Suddenly, a black streak sped past him and plowed through the entrance.
“Whoa! Did you see that?” Jun stared at the entrance, shocked. Then, without thinking, he ran through it.
“Hey! Wait! Didn’t you just say–” Patamon flapped after him into the darkness. They didn’t notice that the entrance disappeared, as if the walls had sucked it up…
“Hello? Anybody here? Jun! Patamon!” The air outside the pyramid was filled with everyone’s calls.
“I don’t believe this…” Akira was exasperated. “I told them to stay here!” She leaned on a wall and folded her arms.
“Do you have any idea where they could have went?” Seita asked.
“I saw the look on Jun’s face when he saw the entrance,” Akira replied, “He might have gotten curious and went in without thinking and–wait a second!” She looked again. “The entrance is gone! It’s like there never was an opening in the first place!”
Mana, meanwhile, wasn’t paying attention to any of this – she was busy staying in the shade. She was stretching out under a tree when she saw Yuka staring at a wall.
“Yuka, what are you doing?” she asked.
“It’s not right…”
“What’s not right?” Mana asked her softly.
Yuka pointed to the wall in front of her. “This spot. It’s strange. It looks and feels wrong. Something should be here, but it’s not.” A shiver went through her. She didn’t know it, but it was exactly where the pyramid’s entrance used to be.
Mana stared at the wall. “I don’t see anything weird. Maybe it’s your imagination–” She noticed a black, foggy circle under Yuka’s feet. “Look out!”
Yuka looked down, eyes wide. Mana tried to push her away when the blackness turned into a large hole, and they all fell in.
Akira looked away from the walls long enough to see them disappear under the ground. She didn’t have time to be surprised, since another large black hole had just appeared under her and the others…
Meanwhile, Jun and Patamon wandered deeper into the pyramid. The black streak had disappeared, and the two found themselves in a darkened hallway, with elaborate carvings on the walls.
“I wonder what that black streak was,” Jun murmured, walking with one hand running along the wall.
“Who knows?” Patamon answered, “I wonder if everyone’s looking for us now.”
Jun shrugged. “I think it'll be all right. All we have to do is just retrace our steps, and we'll make it back out in no time, right?”
Patamon frowned. “I don't know...”
“We should be able to get back,” Jun answered calmly. He looked behind them, staring back down the hallway. The other end seemed to be shrouded in impenetrable darkness, with no sign of an opening whatsoever. He swallowed, and felt slightly uneasy. “We should.”
He turned his attention away from the hallway and instead focused on the carvings on the walls.
“Weird...” he murmured, “I was expecting hieroglyphs, or cuneiform, or some other ancient writing, but...” He turned to Patamon. “Patamon, what is this?”
Patamon hovered closer to the wall, squinting his eyes. “I think... it is some kind of ancient writing. It looks similar to the writing I've seen being used.”
Jun looked back at him in surprise. “Digimon have a writing system?”
Patamon nodded. “Yeah. Digicodes. But there aren't a lot of Digimon who know how to read them.”
“Do you?”
“Not really,” Patamon answered sheepishly, “I can recognize some symbols, but not enough to really read.”
Jun smiled. “That's the same with me and Japanese. I know some words, but can't really speak it. I know some characters, but can't really read or write.”
He turned his attention to the wall again, gazing at the symbols. Many of them looked very old, as if they had been carved eons ago. The carved marks were smooth and worn down.
However, one set of carvings looked different. Three lines of code, spaced and aligned neatly, unlike the other markings that were carved in random places. They looked to be newly-carved.
“That looks like normal Digicode!” Patamon remarked.
“Can you read it?” Jun asked.
“Not enough of it,” Patamon answered. “Sorry.”
“That's okay.” Jun looked at the symbols carefully for a few moments. Then, a strange expression crossed his face.
“Wait a minute...” he said softly, “I think I've seen these before...” He thought and thought, trying to remember where he had seen the mysterious symbols, but he came up with nothing.
He sighed, and stared at the symbols in frustration.
“Jun...” Patamon spoke up.
“Just a minute.” Jun reached into his backpack and pulled out a digital camera. “It might not work,” he said, “but let me see if I can get a picture of these things. Just in case.” He pushed the power button, half expecting nothing to happen.
The camera came to life, immediately powering up.
Jun blinked, his mouth falling open in surprise. “It worked!” He took several pictures of the carved symbols, then turned the camera off. He was about to put it away when he glanced at his laptop, lying in his bag. His brow furrowed in thought.
“I wonder...” He pulled out the laptop and opened it up. He pushed the power button, and the laptop immediately turned on.
Jun laughed. “Perfect!” He turned to Patamon. “All of my electronic stuff works in here!” He looked around at their surroundings. “This place is amazing!”
Patamon looked around nervously. “Jun, it’s been a long time now,” he said, “Shouldn't we go look for the others?”
Jun blinked, then nodded. “I guess so.” He snapped his laptop shut and packed it up.
“Do you remember the way back?” Patamon asked.
“Hopefully...” Jun answered faintly. He took a few steps, looking around for a way out, and ended up face-to-face with an unmarked door. He looked up at Patamon questioningly, and shrugged.
He touched the doorknob and was about to turn it when an alarm sounded. Small, gear-shaped Digimon appeared.
Patamon gasped. “Hagurumon!” he yelled, springing into the air.
“Air Shot!”
Balls of compressed air slammed into the Hagurumon, and it didn’t take long for all of them to drop.
Afterward, Jun looked at the door again.
“What’s so important in here that made those things attack us?” He turned the doorknob, and the door opened easily.
The door opened to reveal a small room, with a table in the middle, illuminated by a dim light. Jun wandered over to the table and stared at the top.
“Weird…” he murmured, “This looks…”
“…just like a maze!” Kei gaped at the walls surrounding everyone. The holes in the ground had landed everyone into the bottom of the pyramid, and while Jun and Patamon were exploring the top, everyone else was looking for them and for a way out.
Mana was getting impatient. “What’ll we do? We have to get out of here now and find Jun and Patamon!” Seita was about to make a smart remark, when Akira caught him.
“No, don’t even start! The last thing we need is for you to start another argument.”
Seita scowled at her. “Oh, so you’re saying I start all the arguments, huh? Is that it?”
Akira shook her head and laughed a little. “You see? You’re starting one right now!”
“You’re starting it too, by doing that!”
Akira looked at him, exasperated. “I wish you could fix that annoying attitude of yours! Do you always have to get mad at everything?”
“Do you always have to care? And what attitude? I thought it was you that had it!”
“Hey! Hey!” Kodamon and Gazimon jumped between them.
“This is ridiculous,” Gazimon said, “Fighting will get us nowhere!”
“We’re wasting time standing here talking!” Kodamon added, “And Mana’s right. We do need to get out of here and find Jun and Patamon.”
Akira shot a withering glance at Seita. “Okay. Any ideas?” Kei and Yuka were busily whispering to each other. Then, Yuka spoke up.
“Umm… we have an idea!” The others looked at her expectantly, and she continued. “Well, there’s three openings in front of us, so if we split up four at a time, we’ll have a better chance of getting out, since any of the pathways could be the right one!”
Akira smiled brightly. “That’s the best idea anyone’s come up with today!”
“Okay!” Kei exclaimed, heading toward one of the openings and pulling Yuka’s hand. “Let’s go, Yuka!”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Akira and Seita said in unison. Then they noticed that they said the same thing and glared.
Akira pulled her glance from Seita to the girls and replied, “You two aren’t going anywhere by yourselves. Kei, you’ll stay with me.” Kei folded her arms and pouted.
Akira sighed, then turned to Yuka. “Yuka, I’m sure that Seita feels the same way, and you should go with him.” She glanced at Seita. “Is that okay?”
Seita shrugged. “That’s fine. Anything to get away from you!”
Akira glared and looked away. “You make me sick!”
“Same here!” Seita took Yuka by the hand, and they walked through the opening in the middle.
“Moron…” Akira muttered under her breath.
Tian spoke up. “So, I guess I’m going with Mana, right?”
Akira nodded, a scowl on her face.
Tian smiled, and then her group disappeared through the pathway to the left.
Jun was examining the miniature maze, which was exactly like the labyrinth everyone else was lost in. He found a small switch on the side, turned it on, and looked at the controls in the maze sections.
Patamon was wary of it. “I don’t think you should be messing with that.”
“Why? I don’t think anything will happen–oops!” Jun’s hand banged over three pathways. The interference caused the right pathway to twist in all directions.
Patamon gasped, but Jun wasn’t concerned. “Don’t worry about it! This is probably just a toy or something…” He started pressing buttons on the pathways, including one with a musical note and one with a laser beam.
Meanwhile, Akira, Kei and the others had just entered the right pathway. Akira was about to look for the path to take next when she looked straight ahead. “What the…?”
Kei looked around as well. “Huh? Aaah! No way!”
The path ahead was twisted so much and led to impossible directions including up the walls, up in the air, and even upside down!
“What do we do now…?”
Tian and Mana had run into a dead end, with a keyboard in a corner and musical notes painted on the wall in front of them. Tian looked behind her to see another wall cover the opposite direction. “What are we supposed to do now? We can’t go back!”
Salamon looked at the wall thoughtfully. “Maybe, since it has to do with sound…”
Mana smiled. “That’s it!” She went to the keyboard and played a few bars.
The result was disastrous. Harsh, discordant sounds came from the keyboard, and made the room shake violently. She realized this and stopped, staring at the keyboard in disbelief. “That wasn’t how it was supposed to sound!”
“Maybe you should have played the notes on the wall instead?” Tian said in a shaky voice. The soundquake had knocked her and everyone else off their feet.
“…Right,” Mana said, laughing hastily. She did so, and the wall disappeared. She smiled. “There!”
Meanwhile, Seita and Yuka were faced with a wall of buttons. Seita was pacing around, ready to explode from frustration, and Gazimon looked at him, too wary to speak. Yuka and Lopmon were staring at the buttons and whispering to each other.
“We can’t go back the way we came,” Yuka murmured, “So the only way we can get out is to press one of these buttons!”
“Ok!” Lopmon jumped up to the buttons on the wall. “Let’s try it! Button number one!” She pushed the first button she saw.
Hundreds of heavy balls appeared out of nowhere and rolled across the floor.
“Nope! Wrong one!” Yuka looked at the wall, purposely ignoring the shouts and exhausted breathing behind her. “Button number two!” She pushed the next button.
The balls disappeared, and were replaced by hundreds of ninja stars that flew through the air. Again, Yuka and Lopmon ignored the commotion behind them.
“Uh-uh. Don’t think so!” Lopmon hovered again. “Button number three!” She moved her hand close to the next button.
“NO!” Seita and Gazimon stared at Lopmon in fear. But it was too late.
Laser beams shot across the room.
Yuka stared at the wall again, still ignoring all the bumping and screaming. “There’s just one button left. This should be it. Button number four!” She pushed the last button.
Everything stopped. And the wall disappeared.
“Okay!” Yuka looked back at her exhausted brother and his Digimon and smiled. “Problem solved!”
“Akira… I’m sick… I’m hurting all over, my feet are dying, and being upside down is giving me a headache!” Kei moaned.
Akira wasn’t feeling any better. “I know, but we have to keep going. This may be the only way out.”
Suddenly, the maze lurched.
“What was that?” Akira stared at the floor. “Something just happened… but I don’t know what!” She saw Kei about to take another step. “I don’t think you should–” she began, but it was too late. Kei put her foot down, and they all went down. As if they fell from the ceiling.
“Jun… can you stop and listen to me?” Patamon asked quietly. Jun sighed and did what he said, but his hand banged over the right path again, this time causing a trap door to appear at the end.
“What is it?”
“I think it’s time you stopped looking around and started worrying about your friends!” Patamon said gently. “Did you realize that we’ve been here a long time, and that maybe they’ve been looking for us all this time? Did you stop and think that maybe they’re in trouble?”
Jun’s shocked expression told him that he hadn’t thought of that. He swallowed. “I-I’m sorry,” he stammered, “I always get this way when I’ve stumbled onto something interesting. I can’t leave something alone and always have to investigate.”
“I understand,” Patamon replied, “Just don’t do something like this again, promise?”
Jun smiled. “Promise!” He turned back to the maze to turn it off when an energy beam came out of nowhere and stopped him.
“I do not recommend that you do that…” a robotic voice said, hidden in the darkness.
Akira fell down hard, cracking her head against the floor. Or was it the ceiling? The last thing she remembered before blacking out was hearing a shout and a bump under her. Some time later, she opened her eyes… and looked directly into Seita’s! She gasped and moved away as fast as she could.
“What’d you do that for?” Seita snapped. He sat up and rubbed his head furiously. “Ow! Gee, did you have to hit that hard?” Akira looked at him nervously and noticed his face had an odd pink shade.
“Akira, you okay? Your face is all red!” Akira looked up to see Tian, Mana, Kei, and Yuka standing over her with funny looks on their faces. Akira looked down and nodded.
“What happened?” she asked. No one had time to explain, since a giant trapdoor had formed under everyone…
Jun backed away from the voice. “W-who’s that? Who are you?” He saw something stir where the voice came from, and a large Digimon appeared.
“Andromon!” Patamon exclaimed, “He’s good! He’ll show us how to get out of here and where everyone else is!
“I am the guardian of this pyramid,” Andromon replied in a monotone, “You are intruders. I must destroy intruders…” His chest glowed and fired dozens of missiles.
Jun and Patamon tried to get out of the way, but the missiles went everywhere, blasting everything in sight, except for the maze. Suddenly, one missile exploded right behind Jun, hurling him into the air. He hit one of the walls and banged his head.
“No!” Patamon turned and saw him collapse. Then, Jun’s Digivice started glowing a bright, brilliant orange. Patamon did the same, and began to change shape.
“Patamon, evolve to… Angemon!”
“Heaven’s Knuckle!”
Jun got up, and was conscious long enough to see Angemon fire his attack at Andromon, and see a strange black object shoot out of Andromon’s back. Then, his head whirling painfully, Jun collapsed back on the hard stone floor and everything went black…
He awoke to a crowd of familiar voices. He groaned and opened his eyes to see everyone looking over him.
“Hey, are you okay?” Akira asked, “Patamon told us everything.”
“I’m… okay,” he replied, struggling to sit up.
“Oh, thank goodness!” Mana shouted, knocking him over and giving him a big hug. “You don’t know how much trouble all of us went through trying to look for you!”
“Aahh! I’m–sorry–I’m sorry! I won’t–do it–again!” Jun replied frantically, smothered by her hug. She released him and smiled.
“Did you see what happened?” she asked him.
“Huh? What happened?”
“With Patamon, silly! There was this beautiful angel blasting a robot and knocking it out. Then it turned into Patamon! I never knew he had such an incredible evolved form!”
Jun smiled and looked at Patamon. “Yeah, Patamon. I caught a glimpse of you before I fainted. You were really cool! Thanks for saving me from that android!” He turned to everyone else. “How did you all get here?”
“We were stuck in a great big maze!” Kei exclaimed, “And it kept doing crazy things to us, like making us walk up the walls and upside down and dropping us through a trap door and landing us here!”
“And we went through all that trying to look for you!” Akira said, exasperated, “What were you doing in here? I told you to stay outside!”
“I’m sorry. Really! I saw a weird black disc fly through the opening, and I followed it–”
Akira blinked. A weird black disc?
“And I saw a lot of strange wall carvings, and that.” Jun pointed to the small maze. “I started playing around with it, but Patamon kept telling me no…”
Seita examined the maze. “These things look like all the stuff that happened when we were trapped in the maze!” He whirled around at Jun. “So it’s your fault!”
Jun shot back, “I already said I was sorry! I know it’s all my fault!” Seita was about to reply, but Akira shot him a dangerous look. She turned toward Jun.
“It’s okay. Next time, think before you act, okay?” She smiled. Jun returned it.
Meanwhile, Patamon was flitting around Andromon, trying to wake him up, and was relieved when he did.
“W–what happened?” Andromon sat up, his limbs creaking.
Patamon looked puzzled. “You don’t remember anything?” Andromon shook his head. Patamon shrugged and continued, “Well, you were acting weird, and I had to evolve and beat you up until I got rid of the black thing that was controlling you. I’m sorry if I hurt you!” Andromon assured him that he was okay, then saw the kids.
“Hello. May I help all of you?”
Akira looked at everyone else, then walked to him. “Yeah! Do you know how to get out of here? We were looking around this pyramid and we got lost!”
“You got lost?” Andromon asked, “Well, that’s understandable. This place is designed to confuse everyone except me! This pyramid holds the power core for this region of the Digital World. If anything were to happen to it, the results would be disastrous, so the pyramid was built with all kinds of things to confuse intruders.”
“Like the maze?” Jun asked, “And the carvings?” Andromon nodded.
“Well, could you help us get out?” Seita asked.
Andromon nodded again, and walked to an empty wall. He put his hand on it, and it shimmered and disappeared. He walked into a small room with a window and console on one side. On the other side, there was a large circular space, containing a massive ice-blue stone. Bright blue waves of energy radiated from it.
“The only way out is through the control room,” Andromon said, “Usually, I’m forbidden to let anyone in, but since Patamon helped me, I’ll help you!” He pushed a button on the console and a door slid out, revealing the outside. “You have my permission to pass!” Everyone cheered and started running out, but Jun stayed behind.
“Thanks,” he said.
“No problem,” Andromon answered, “And if there’s anything you need, I’ll be here to help!” Jun nodded, and started toward the doorway, waving.
The opening revealed a completely different landscape than the burning desert they had left behind. In its place was a beautiful green field with a brook and flowers, and towering blue mountains in the distance.
“Oh! This place is beautiful!” Mana gasped.
Akira looked back at the pyramid. It was gone, and whatever was behind it was now just a shimmer. What a strange world this is, she thought. A cool breeze blew, ruffling her hair, and she remembered her dream. I wish I knew what all of this means…
Kei was sitting near the stream when she noticed Yuka standing there, worried like before. Kei walked over to her. “Yuka? Can you tell me now?”
Yuka looked at her, as if waking from a trance. “Tell you what?”
“Whatever it was that scared you before everything happened. Remember?”
Yuka looked down. “Oh… that. Well…” She struggled with herself. “It’s a bad feeling I get. Like something horrible’s going to happen. I don’t know why, but it scares me every time I think about it.” She looked at Kei seriously. “Promise me, that you won’t tell anyone I told you this. Not even Seita or Akira. If they knew…”
Kei nodded. “I promise.” Then, she felt it. A tiny pinprick of… something. Fear? Anxiety? She wasn’t sure what it was, but it made her nervous. She looked behind her, but saw nothing. She swallowed.
“Yuka? You know that feeling you were talking about? I think I’m starting to feel it too.”