Chapter Sixteen

Alison and Samantha attacked the spider without a second thought, without giving it time to react, easily killing it.

The girl approached the 8 students and spoke to them.

-Why were they running, that wasn't so hard.

-This one has a paralytic if they touch you, tell them to end the test, some only cold water, which diminishes you because of the cold, besides there are hundreds of those things and a huge one.

-Okay, and as you know which one has the paralytic, I ask Samantha.

-They move more than the others.

Alison looked at them all and asked.

-How about we join you?

-We're sorry, but we can't accept it. We are from the same school and we don't trust others, we don't know them, and we prefer to finish the test together.

Samantha, was upset by the way they rejected Alison's proposal, but she understood that they were right, everyone wanted to be in the top and many would use traps to get there.

We saw them leave, we took another path.

As we walked, I could see that Alison, appearing, was regretting that she had not had Liz with us, she would have been very helpful.

The maze was too big, and too quiet. We could see the marks of the spider's legs on the walls.

-There's something I can't explain, how we ended up together, being such a big maze," said Samantha.

-The more we went up, the smaller it got, the more the first few floors were left and little by little we got smaller, which caused us to meet up," said Alison.

-Did she tell you about the first two floors," I asked.

-No," answered Alison.

I had to answer honestly.

-It was hard for me, I was nervous, and I earned these wounds.

They both looked at me.

-Well, don't feel bad about it, at least you made it," Samantha said.

..... ..... ..... .......

I don't know how much time we spent on that floor, but I knew it would take forever to get there.

In the middle of one of the paths we found spider legs on the floor.

Alison and Samantha were getting ready to fight.

Another group of students was fighting the spiders, this time there were five of them.

They were quite fast, finishing off the spiders in a matter of seconds, but some of them had the paralytic and started throwing it everywhere.

Three of them were hit by this liquid.

Before they were all defeated, Alison threw herself to their aid, and with five quick, precise movements she finished off the last spiders.

We saw one of those affected by the liquid lose mobility.

-He's dying," said one of the remaining spiders, who had blond hair, short with some black spots, seemed to be dying, purple eyes, and something sturdy.

-He's not, he's just sleepy. He'll be fine, when he recovers.

-How do you know that? -You see his pulse is low and he's not moving.

-Calm down, do you think your school would do something like this to kill its students?

-Well, I don't think so.

-You have to leave them there, in a while a medical team will come for it.

-We're not going with you, we're not friends.

-It doesn't matter if we are or not, there are a lot of spiders and few people you can't do anything with," said Alison.

-It's not your business, look for your school, don't include us in your group.

I intervene in the discussion.

-My classmates want your help, they don't need anyone else, they're both strong, but you're stupid and scared, you think they'll stab you in the back and score points, if they did they would have done it already.

-Luan, calm down, let's go, let's not argue with them," Samantha said.

As one of them was leaving, he spoke to us. He was shorter than the previous one, even thinner and with black eyes and long wavy hair, like a girl's, and brown eyes.

-Wait, we will go with you, my name is Esteban, and my partner Andres, we will be behind you.

When he said that, his other partner began to speak and they both followed us with some distance.

Alison and Samantha were a little upset but would continue if you looked back.

On the way we encountered more spider parts.

Alison and Samantha were cautious of any spider attacks.

Suddenly we saw some nurses carrying the wounded on stretchers, the first time we'd seen this in so far as the test was concerned. They ignored us and followed their own.

-My name is Alison.

-What's going on," I answered.

-The way they were taking the students, I think you should think about leaving.

-What? Why?

-These students were from a school that is on a higher level than ours, so they have a lot of merit in getting here. The best thing would be for you to give up and quit.

I looked at Samantha and felt that she was thinking the same way as Alison.

-Why are you doing this?

-Some students died in the last tests, they were taken to the upper floors thanks to their classmates, but when they got there, they did not have the level to be in that place and they perished because of this, besides you are very hurt," she added.

I lowered my face and squeezed my hands.

-I'm not leaving, I'm going on.

The other two supported me and said

-Please give the boy a chance, he's here for a reason. The weakest stayed on the second floors.

Neither Samantha nor Alison responded, they just kept walking silently, worried that this would happen to me, I wondered what school these students were from, but I was not able to tell them anything. And I was regretting that I had stayed.

I was at a crossroads, I had put myself in an uncomfortable position, and I began to doubt whether I was right or wrong, my classmates were right. I shouldn't be here.

As I thought, small scratches could be heard in the corridors of the maze, which was getting wider and wider, and for good reason.

Dozens of spiders of different sizes were watching us, something that seemed to be their nest. Some of them were apparently destroyed by those who had already climbed up, since the stairs were only a few meters away.

We all grabbed our swords, and started destroying one by one the ones that were in our way.

But, we did not know that the ones that attacked us were the ones that spat cold water. And those containing the paralytic attacked us unawares.

Alison acted immediately, destroying them as a series of swiftly combined movements. But there were too many of them.

To make matters worse, one of the two students who were with us received some of the paralytic, which hurt us even more because we had to keep an eye on it. Besides that, I wasn't doing anything at that time, I was just in the way.

Bad luck fell on us at the time. Almost finishing with all those spiders, some strange scratches could be seen in one of the entrances to this area, called our attention.

Huge legs of our size were coming out of there. Until a huge spider of 3 meters, with a red shell, looked at us.

This was something shocking, it seemed to be waiting for us to move.

-Please leave," Alison said to her wounded partner.

He immediately did so, knowing there was nothing to be done for him.

And we regrouped.

-Samantha, come with me in front of that spider, stranger and Luan, you'll be behind us and finish off the little ones as we try to get to the stairs.

-I don't understand how anyone could get up there with this thing here.

-He wasn't here, and that's what seriously hurt the other students we saw in the hallway when we got here," Alison said.

-How can you know that, we didn't even see it for you to claim.

-Do you think these little things would do that to some students?

-No," answered Esteban.

The spider was watching us as we continued talking. And all of a sudden it jumped out at us.

Alison and Samantha held their swords and protected us.

Stephen jumped towards her, in an unnatural way, as if he were a wild animal taking out two eyes.

We were perplexed, he hadn't shown anything out of the ordinary, but he did something spectacular.

I approached him. To congratulate him, but his hands were shaking.

-Don't think.. what I did.... was... because I had a good level. I just hate spiders ... I've kept their weird substances from touching me and in the middle of this I had this urge ... I want to abandon this test.

While he was talking the little ones were trying to attack us. Samantha finished with them in a matter of seconds.

-What's wrong with you, you have to do it again, we can finish that one if we fight together.

-He can't. He's afraid of spiders and he's been holding out all this time.

-What, it's a game right?

-It's not," I answered.

We were looking at the bigger one trying to assimilate his wound.

Alison was just watching her, trying to attack her, but she was hesitant to do so.

In a matter of seconds, she moved, as fast as Stephen did, and headed toward us.

And she attacked him the same way he had done. The girl got in the way, with her sword but it broke and was pierced in the arm when she tried to deflect one of the legs.

Her button turned red immediately, as a warning of danger, and the spider backed off, knocking him out.

Alison was silent as she watched the scene, she couldn't believe what had happened to our partner, in a matter of seconds out of combat. She walked out and tried to move her arm a lot.

A simple test could put anyone's life at risk.

Esteban avoided looking at the spider, so there were only two of us left.

I ran to Alison.

-React, hey what's wrong with you, weren't you the strongest freshman, or was it all a lie?

-Luan, stop talking nonsense, that spider is very strong, it destroyed Samantha's sword, I don't know what to do.

-It must have some weak point," I said.

-Do you feel good about doing something you learned from Snaider?

-.... I think so.

-We'll both attack her in time, me on the left and you on the right, and we'll take out her four missing eyes and you'll finish her off.

I didn't expect him to trust me that way, we didn't have the same level, even the school grades showed the big gap between us. But he trusted me to do something so dangerous.

-Let's do it," I said.

We both walked in front of her and ran towards her.

Alison was on the side where all four eyes were still, but exposed to a blow..... I understood that she had taken the bait, forcing me to do it.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. The spider moved its legs against Alison, launching attacks on her, left and right, the sword that she had was slowly being damaged.

I was on top of her with a sword determined to finish her off. I tried to react, but my poor visibility must have focused only on Alison.

But it was too late. With a dry movement I removed her last eyes and jumped to her appendix to finish her off.

CLICK,CLICK.

I stuck my back into her abdomen and some sparks started coming out of her.

And almost instinctively with one of her legs I threw myself against a wall, with tremendous force.

-Luan, are you all right?" asked Alison as she came to my side.

-I don't know.

He sat down next to me, for a few seconds.

-As you can see, the legs are metal, I can't destroy them like the little ones, and even though you hit him, he keeps moving, maybe I can finish him off by hitting his appendix.

Something dizzy was watching the final scene.

Alison attacked the spider from behind, pierced it and started sparking little sparks of electricity continuously. Then she walked over to Stephen who was in show and tried to calm him down, he hugged him and still was not recovering.

Almost immediately a medical team appeared and came for us.

Together with him we left the room, not knowing how they would qualify what we had done.

As we came out of the labyrinth we started looking for our school and one of us heard a familiar voice.

-Luan Olivera and Alison Fernandez.

It was Sara the manipulation and history teacher.

-Hey, hello- -I answered.

-Come with me.

-Where to?" answered Alison.

-There are many students injured in this test, they will be delayed in attending to them.

-My brother sent you," Alison asked.

-She answered, and headed to one of the exits from that place.

-Let's go," replied the teacher.