We stood and watched to make sure the strangers didn't turn back. They never did. I looted the Undead Masses, but all they had was gold, which made me wonder why they would. I took the gold, and we then gathered our items and continued onward. There wasn't much talking; I think we were all getting exhausted. Church kept falling and getting himself injured anytime there was a threat. Patti needed a rest for her paw. Jay was lost in thought about something, and I was getting pissed off with the maze. We walked straight for a while before we found our first intersection. There were two directions to choose from: left or right.
"Jay, I'm not going to lie, and I feel stupid for asking since we're fully doing this now, but how am I to find anything or get around?" I said.
Jay's head was down in thought, but she looked up as if realizing she wasn't alone. "Oh, sorry. So yeah, you're not really able to navigate the maze."
"What? What about quests and stuff? How the hell are you supposed to do those or anything if you can't navigate?" I asked.
"When you receive a quest, you will receive a guiding stone. The stone will begin to glow if you're on the right path, or dim on the wrong one. It's actually reminiscent of a game we had from my planet, which we called Yes/No. We'd close our eyes and try to find someone, and that person would say yes or no depending on whether we were going the right direction," she said.
"Girl, that's Marco Polo you're describing. What about towns? How do I find those?" I asked.
"I don't know what Mango Pogo is, Max," Jay said. She pointed at the cross-section with a tentacle. "When there's a town nearby, you'll see markings indicating the direction to head. If there's no markings, then that means you choose a direction and just go for it."
Church had pulled the backpack off during this and pulled out a sandwich. He split it with Patti, and the two watched us while they ate. I told Church what Jay had said.
"Wait, we're just lost?" Church asked. I nodded, and he looked at the wall. He was looking for any hints on where to go, but he gave up. "Well, shit, dude. I don't know."
"Yeah, me neither. Which way might take you closer to your house?" I asked. Church shrugged. We shone a flashlight down both lengths of the maze, but they both looked barren with no hints of what was down either. I kept the light pointed right and said, "Well, righty tighty, I suppose."
Church slung the backpack over his shoulder, and as it settled, I heard a muffled noise from it. I didn't think much of it until I heard "Lurrrmurrrr" come from the backpack. Was that... holy shit, I forgot my neighbor's face was in the backpack! I then heard a louder noise. "Leffffasss". I stopped Church and told him to get Joey out. He carefully pinched the skin and held it up. Joey was looking around, and his eyes landed on me.
"Gooooo…. Leeeeeeft….. Hoooouse," the face said.
I got real close to his face and repeated what he said out loud, even mimicking the zombie speak. Church was looking sick, holding his skin, so I grabbed it from him. It was a pretty gross feeling, I won't lie. "Joey, how do you know we should go left?" I asked. He closed his eyes slowly and didn't talk anymore. Church looked to me for an explanation, and I told him what was said as I took a carabiner off the backpack. I hooked Joey onto my belt loop, where he remained dormant. We turned around and went the way he had indicated.
We passed the intersection and shortly after, Church said, "Uh… Jay?" He was looking around as if he would see her. Jay was to his right and looking at him. "How many times have you been a game manual?" Jay's head went back as if surprised by the question. I started to repeat the question when she cut me off.
"I heard him, Max. And tell him I don't know. I only create memories during the current maze, then those are erased before the start of the next," she said.
I told Church what she said, and we walked in silence for a bit. Church then said, "That sucks, Jay. I'll remember you, I promise." Jay watched Church as we walked.
The next hour was nothing special. We'd come to an intersection, Joey would groan out a direction, and we'd head that way. We ran into monsters three more times, all Undead Masses. Church would fall down, I'd hit the jail card to whisk him and Patti away, I'd kill the monsters, and bring them back. I ended up getting to level 5 from all the fighting. The three main stats of health, stamina, and mana always rose by a point, but the rest didn't. I just kept putting all my points into my luck stat. Jay wanted me to put some in vitality to boost my health even more, but I wanted to see how high I could get luck. What would happen if I hit fifty? Apparently, no one has reached thirty in any single stat. My screen now reads the following:
Level 5
Health: 23/23
Stamina: 27/27
Mana: 27/27
Experience: 60/100
Vitality: 8
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 12
Wisdom: 12
Luck: 47
I asked Church what happened when I sent him to jail. He said he'd wake up immediately inside the jail cell and explore more each time. He found the bathroom, a shower, and, more alarming, a framed photo of Jessica signed to me. "To Maximilian, Thanks for Everything, Love Jessica." The last time he came back from jail, he said there was someone in the cell next to us. It was an old man and a woman, a couple, by the looks of it. He tried to talk to them, but said they ignored him when he did.
"They ignored you?" I asked.
"Yeah. The woman got up and walked to the other side of their cell and looked away. The man just raised his newspaper." Church said. "And get this? The newspaper had a picture of that famous zeppelin on it."
"The one that blew up? Hindenburg?"
"I guess? It was weird, dude. You have to come sometime and see if they'll talk to you," he said.
"Man, I'm a talking skeleton, they're not going to talk to me!" I said. Church laughed, and so did I. I noticed Patti was walking better as well, which was nice to see. Jay was looking down again, lost in thought. I walked closer to her and bumped into her side. It was nice knowing she was physical. She let out an annoyed flutter of tentacles.
"What was that for?" she asked.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
She looked back down as she walked. "No, Max. I'm just… questioning a lot of stuff. How long have I been a game manual? Then I thought about how they say I'm a recording of a survivor's consciousness, but am I? Then there's Jessica, who is doing some weird shit. You know her kind are supposed to just passively run the game? It's just too much and nothing makes sense."
I was looking down as well and waited a moment before I replied. "I don't know how anyone is adjusting to this. I'm trying to go with the flow, but it's really hard to adjust. It's a lot of feelings to process, and my brain works things out by stopping to think, but I can't even do that because if I wait around too long, something is sent to kill me. I don't think any of us understands what is going on-"
Church interjected, "I don't!"
"But if it wasn't for you, Jay. I'd be lost." I said.
"Nah, you wouldn't be lost, you have your neighbor guiding you," she replied.
"No, Jay. Not like that." I said.
"Yeah, Jay," Church said, looking around, guessing where she might be. "I can't even see you, but you're pretty fucking cool! Thanks for everything!"
Jay finally looked at me, and her tentacles wiggled. I smiled back and went to bump into her again, but this time I went right through her and fell to the ground. "What the fuck?" I said. "Why didn't it work?"
Jay and Patti were stopped, standing near me, when I heard Church say, "We're here." I looked forward and saw the maze opening up to a small, suburban cul-de-sac of five houses. Church pointed to the middle house, which didn't stand out visually aside from a lime green car parked in the driveway. "Holy shit, my mom is home!" Church began to run towards his house, and I looked to Jay. If she was no longer physical, that meant something was going to happen soon, and she couldn't interfere.