Chapter Two
October 30th, 7:46 PM
The Blue Lynx and the Black Bobcat were surrounded by corn. Tall yellow stalks towered over them and crowded out the rest of the world. They had not been in the maze for more than a minute, but already Erin felt disoriented. The old man at the admissions stand was probably not more than twenty yards away, but once the superheroines had made the first turn into the heart of the maze, the distance between them felt more like miles.
"Where's the ticket man?" Margot asked, waving her fingers through the vegetation.
Erin had the same question. The old man said a person would be waiting for them at the entrance. But they were already inside the maze and had yet to see or hear any indication of another human. The path through the corn had thus far been linear-- they could always re-trace their steps and ask the old man, if they had to. But Erin doubted Margot wanted to go through that experience again...
Suddenly, the path opened up, and the girls were standing in a clearing-- a ten-by-ten square walled off by dense thickets of corn. On the side opposite of them there were two openings, their contours visible thanks to a pair of standing electric torches. Between the two openings was a muscular man in a tank-top and a hockey mask. He extended his arm in front of him, turned his hand up, and beckoned with his index finger.
"Come here, ladies..." he said, in a low voice. "If you dare."
Erin smiled and strutted over to the man. The night was silent except for the crunch of her boots on the pebbled path and the sinister puff of the ticket taker's breath. She pulled the two green tickets from her front belt pocket and held them out.
"Hi there," she said. "You looking for these?"
The man abruptly snatched the tickets from Erin's hand and brought them to the eyeholes of his mask. "Hmmmm..." he intoned. "Green tickets, eh? For the special path, huh?"
Erin shrugged. "Yeah, that's just what the guy gave us."
The man pocketed the tickets. "He must like you." Erin watched his mask shift as he gave her the up-and-down. "I think he made the right decision."
Margot couldn't take it any longer. "Decision for what, exactly?" she stammered.
The man twisted the hockey mask to face the Black Bobcat. "Why, for maximum TERROR, of course."
Margot groaned.
The man bent his arm to point his thumb behind his left side. "Path two. That's the one you want."
Erin looked at the dark portal on the right. It appeared to be no different than the one on the left. But it obviously was different. The green tickets, the "special" treatment, the old man making the "right decision": Erin had a feeling that that this was the same route where the three missing girls were directed. This was the route where bad things happened. This was exactly where the Blue Lynx and the Black Bobcat needed to go.
"Thanks," Erin said. She went to move past the man and enter the next part of the maze, but just as she was passing by, his hand shot out, snatching her left bicep.
"One more thing," the man said, giving her arm a noticeably vigorous squeeze. "Do be careful."
Erin looked at him in stunned silence for a second, and then pushed his hand off and grinned. "You too, pal."
The superheroines left the clearing and proceeded through the right entrance. Once again, they were amidst thickets of yellow and green. They rounded the first corner of the new path and were plunged into a darkness broken only by the full moon and the night-time stars.
"God, do people bring their children here?" Margot asked.
Erin chuckled, but she could already feel her heart-rate start to pick up. They were obviously walking into a trap, and though Erin didn't doubt for once her ability to outsmart even a gang of these country bumpkins, not being able to see three feet ahead of her would unquestionably be an obstacle. She pulled her smartphone from one of her belt pockets and held it up like a torchlight. The electronic glow helped, but it failed to dissipate the sense of dread that was slowly growing in the pit of her stomach...
"Which way?" Margot whispered.
The path they had followed had brought them to another lane running perpendicular. Erin looked to the left, and then to the right. Both ways looked dark and impenetrable, as if they each led to the same cold, black abyss.
"Maybe we should split up?" Erin asked.
"No way!" Margot said, raising her voice. "If you think I'm going to--"
"Chill out. It's just a joke."
Margot sighed. "Not funny, Blue Lynx. You know how freaked out I am by these places."
"Sorry, I know," Erin said, flashing her the phone to the left. "Let's go this way."
It was a totally arbitrary decision, but sometimes you had to make those as a superheroine. Erin suspected that it didn't matter, anyway: when the bad guys wanted, they'd come out to play.
The path continued in a straight line for a couple of yards and then twisted to the right. The girls walked side-by-side, casually but carefully, occasionally turning around to make sure they weren't being followed. The night was silent except for the crunch of their footsteps and the chatter of bugs scattered through the cornfield.
Margot paused abruptly. She flicked her head from side-to-side.
"What?" Erin asked. She followed Margot's gaze into each wall of the corn maze, but didn't see a thing.
"I heard something..." Margot whispered. She was still scanning the foliage, her eyes squinting against the dark.
"Probably just a gopher," Erin said. She crouched down and held her phone close to the ground. "But... I don't know." In spite of the night-time chill, a bead of sweat had formed on her brow. She wasn't scared-- she was the Blue Lynx, dammit-- but she could no longer deny the nervous energy that had begun to course through her limbs.
She turned to Margot, who remained bent over, her eyes fixed on the unknowable things just beyond the first rows of corn.
"Let's keep moving," she said. "We can..."
It happened in a second: two pairs of gloved hands shooting out of the plant wall, slamming down on Margot's back, and yanking her off her feet. Margot screamed as she flew into the corn; Erin had barely taken a step before the stalks closed up again, leaving the Blue Lynx alone on the path.
"Black Bobcat!" Erin said. She jumped forward and pushed aside the corn, desperately trying to move through the thick vegetation. She could hear the sounds of leaves rustling, of people struggling, of Margot's cries being muffled. Erin cried out-- she had to save Margot!-- but she didn't make it a more than a foot into the thicket when she felt hands clamp down on her shoulders. Suddenly, she was pulled away from the corn, her back crashing against a hard body. She instinctively brought her elbow back, and felt it stop ineffectually against a solid abdomen. A hand slithered around her waist, and Erin winced as it snatched her wrist and pulled it hard against her side. She tried to twist free, only to feel another hand pressing against her chest. She could sense a cold cloth in this hand, its wetness sharp against her bare skin, and knew even before it traveled up her neck and met her lips what was happening... the familiar odors now invading her nostrils... crowding our her senses... the sweet, sickly smell of...
"No!" she bellowed, slamming the heel of her boot into her assailant's foot. The man holding her moaned and released her wrist, allowing Erin to spin around and drive her knee into his groin. The man stepped back, dropped the chloroform rag, and moved his hands to his lower body. He was big, at least as big as the hockey-mask man from earlier, only this guy was dressed in a tattered suit jacket and pants, with a green-painted face and mussed hair. A zombie? Frankenstein's monster? It didn't matter to Erin, who brought her fist behind her back to prepare a punch.
"Nice try, freak," she said. But when she tried to push her fist forward, it was instead dragged up, down, and bent against the small of her back. Erin gulped, and then cried out as this new attacker put pressure on her wrist and forearm. It felt like whoever was behind her was trying to break her arm in two, and she had to drop to one knee in order to endure the pain. She squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, trying to force back the agonized howl that desperately wanted out.
Suddenly, a crunching sound in front of her. She looked up to the see the zombie-man grabbing the chloroform rag from the pebbles and standing up straight. Seconds later, she too was back on her feet, jerked from the ground by rough hands that darted underneath her armpits and enlaced themselves behind her neck, placing her in a tight headlock. She felt the man on her back pushing her towards the zombie, who was still moving gingerly but now, with the rag securely in his hand, ready for a second round.
Erin had to give these guys credit-- they were much tougher than anyone she'd imagine facing in a corn maze. But she was done playing around. She let loose a mighty "HIYAH" and, in a single powerful motion, both threw her head back into the second goon's chin, and kicked her legs up into the first goon's chest. Instantly, the headlock loosened, and Erin dropped to the path, landing hard on her butt. The sting in her rear did not prevent her from leaping back to her feet and rotating in a circle, delivering a flurry of roundhouse kicks to the already dazed, weakened men. Soon, they had both crumpled, leaving only the Blue Lynx standing, her fists balled, her hair tangled, her chest heaving.
Erin exhaled and brought her hand to her head. The chloroform had gotten inside her, had left her feeling loopy. It was adrenaline alone that had allowed her to fight back. She looked down at the two thugs, and was surprised at how large they were. The zombie's muscles were clearly visible even inside his tattered suit jacket, and the other man, dressed like a vampire in a pressed shirt and dark cape, was a little thinner but no less muscled. They didn't seem like your average Halloween festival volunteers-- they had more in common with the mercenaries Brent Hammerson employed. Just what exactly was going on here, at Randy's?
And then she remembered in a flash: Margot!
"Black Bobcat!" she cried, dashing once more to the corn wall and pushing aside some stalks. "Can you hear me?"
She cried out her superheroine partner's name, again and again. But there was no response. Margot was gone-- the Black Bobcat had disappeared. And the Blue Lynx, weakened by chloroform and the two-man ambush, trying to lower her heart rate, was alone.
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