Danger Door

The room is dark, the door they entered through is locked behind them. Their minds still stuck on the previous room's nightmare. The current room’s walls are black, plain, and ominous. Three doors are on the opposite side of the room. One of the three is an exit, freedom. The other two doors are certain death.

“Sam’s dead, Mark’s dead, Tori’s dead. Everyone else is fucking dead! We are all going to die,” says Tonya.

“They can’t kill us all. I don't think they’re allowed to. One of us has to live,” says Clark.

“I know for damn sure I ain't dying in this hell. Just got to pick the right one.”

“Did you see what happened to Tori? She was there one second an then exploded the next. This game is so unfair. How do we know that even one of us will make it out?” asks Tonya.

The clock above the middle door counts down from ten minutes. Just as this death maize started with 10 and now is down to three.

Magnus says, “The middle one is the obvious choice. It is the middle ground.” The middle door is a plain tan-colored wooden door with a round gold door knob.

“But maybe it is as simple as choosing the right door,” says Tonya. The door on the right is painted white and has a large red heart in the center with black letters inside with the word ‘LOVE’. Tonya continues “Love. Maybe it is telling us that love is the answer and that we should always choose love,” she says urgently.

‘You may have a point. All this death and we have to end up choosing love. That is pretty cheesy and spot on,” says Magnus.

Clark disagrees but doesn’t voice his opinion. He agrees that it’s cheesy and that we should always choose love but he disagrees that this is the correct choice to make. “The one on the left is calling me,” he says. The door on the left is painted black, the same black as the walls of the room. There is a large yellow triangle painted inside with the word ‘Danger’. Both Tonya and Magnus look at Clark like he’s crazy.

“Why the hell would we go towards that ‘danger’ door?” asks Tonya.

“I don't know, opposites attract or something,” Clark says blandly.

“Danger seems like more death. This maize hasn’t bullshitted us this entire time. Why would it start now? All the challenges have been very literal.” says Magnus.

“Because that’d be ironic and that maize has been ironic in its literalness this entire time,” says Clark.

One minute left.

“I’m going to the danger door,” Clark continues.

“You’re crazy,” says Tonya. “Come with us to ‘Love’.”

“Woah, I never said I’m going to love!” exclaims Magnus

The timer counts down the seconds to 10, 9, 8… Clark goes inside the danger door and closes it behind him. He enters another room. It is completely dark in the room except for a bright red exit sign. Clark walks ten feet across the room to the exit. He pushes open the door and daylight streams into his eyes, momentarily blinding him.

Once in the daylight, the door behind him slams shut. In front of Clark lies New York City. Mid-day Manhattan. There is a small stand holding a typed-out note. The note is in the form of a business card. It reads “Congrats. You won. $10,000 has been transferred into your account,” relief and joy overflow Clark. He made it out of the death maize and is rewarded with 10g’s for doing so. But the joyous feelings quickly change to dread as he knows this means his friends Tonya and Magnius are surely dead.

Clark walks the streets of Manhattan and he’s not sure how to feel. He is alive which is great but he’s not sure why. Why did he make it out and not the others? He flicks the business card in his hands as he walks in deep thought. He flicks the card too hard and it falls out of his hands onto the concrete floor.

The backside of the card faces up. The side he didn’t look at. Clark finds it strange that there is also text on the backside of this business card. He could let it be and continue his walk down the street and forget about the card forever but curiosity takes control of Clark. He feels that he must look at the backside of the business card. He picks it up and it reads “On to level two. You are a wanted man with a $10,00 reward on your head. Survive 24 hours and win $100,000.”

Clark looks up and sees there are billboards now throughout the city with his name and a wanted sign, panic sets in. There are screams from the sidewalk behind him. Loud screams. Close screams. Clark turns around and is face to face with an SUV going 35 mph directly at him.

***

“Dude! That was brutal!” exclaims Magnus. He sits in a cushioned chair next to Clark. They are now Unplugged. “Dude that car fucked you up!” Clark’s heart is still beating fast. He feels his chest and his legs to make sure he is actually alive.  It all seemed so real. Clark in the Death Maize Game had been himself but also separated from himself into some sort of character. A bolder and more confident version of himself. He had forgotten about reality and had become part of the game. The third member of the friend group speaks up “Good call with the danger door, Clark. I should known love being the answer was BS.”

“Troy, what was it like being the chick?”

“You know, it felt weird at first. Having boobs was awesome though!”

Magnus shakes Clark “You alright man? Come back to us.” he says with a smile.

Clarks rubs his eyes while he sits back in his own cushioned chair “I never get used to how surreal it feels. I can never get used to that feeling of dying while being PluggedIn.”

“You’ll be alright dude. Nothing some pizza can’t fix,” says Troy. Clark stands up and the blood rushes to his head in an instant his vision shifts to the front of the SUV. He shakes his head to shake loose the cobwebs. “What happened to you guys when you went through the doors?”

“I just fell for like 5 seconds and then woke up,” says Magnus

“I got shot in the face! Some guy was on the other side with a mask. I gotta admit I screamed pretty loud. Scared me good.”