Supernatural Games (17 page)

I
settled in to watch the first trial, already in progress. All the contestants were dropped off equidistant from the travel gnome version of Mount Rushmore. Yes, travel gnomes - think pointy hats, hollow eyes, that is how the weathered features of the Cappadocian hills appeared. Once inside, all contestants would search for the statue of Ahura-Mazde, the believed leader of the Zoroastrian tradition. Some scholars believed the Zoroastrians were escaping aliens when they went underground.

The main city was Derinkuyu, approximately eight stories deep and totally self-sustaining. The Zoroastrians built everything from stables, to cellars, to storage facilities, large ventilation shafts, chapels, and mess halls. Archeologists have found oil and wine presses, irrigation systems, wells and elaborate fortifications. Clearly, the inhabitants could live a long time underground. The question is, why would they need to spend a long time underground? For whatever reason, the inhabitants had built one-thousand pound doors that opened and closed with rollers to safeguard their underground homes. Even more telling is, the doors only opened from the inside.

For some unknown reason, the Zoroastrians felt justified in fleeing to their underground cities, a practice going against everything they believed. From cave men to modern man, conventional wisdom considers “caves to be graves,” a caveat the citizens of Derinkuyu opted to ignore. Was it to their peril? History is unclear, since the underground cities flourished for centuries.

I hoped this last challenge was mercifully short, but the chances were slim to none. I watched as the sound of running footsteps announced the arrival of the first contestant. It didn’t take long for the wizard to burst into the nearest room and stumble to a stop. From the looks of the room, he was in a granary or stable. I couldn’t tell, but it looked like there were large bins of grain in vats around the room’s perimeter. In the center of the room were huge presses and rollers. The wizard looked around before he pulled out his notes and studied them. Then he folded up his notes, stuffed them in his pack and paced the exterior of the room. I hadn’t a clue what he was looking for, and from the expression on his face, neither did he.

Just when I was about to give him a hint, anything to get him moving, I heard the sounds of another competitor approaching the room. The noises seemed to spur the wizard to action. He moved over to stand in front of a large door with an enormous chute protruding from above the door. All I could think was, he wasn’t going to pull that chute open. I mean would you? I’d seen contestants flushed and dropped through trap doors. Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t stand anywhere near the thing. Obviously, the wizard was feeling bulletproof, because he walked up to the lever on the side of the chute and pulled it.

Nothing happened for so long, I thought he made the correct choice. Nope, nada. There was a deafening roar, and then the wizard was buried in oats. Yes, oats. He apparently found an honest to God granary, and if he wasn’t careful, he might drown in the grain. He was up to his armpits, and the pile was rising. If I had to guess, I’d say he had only a moment to hit the button and pay the penalty before he paid the ultimate price. He fortunately reached the same conclusion just before his head disappeared from sight. It didn’t take long for the team to free him and sound the all-clear.

I didn’t have long to wait before the lycan loped into view. If I were honest with myself, I’d admit this was more prosaic in nature to the final stages of the first three universes. Every final challenge had ended in or near chapels. I was in the common area of the underground city; a place rife with warehouses, olive oil and wine presses, storage areas, and stables. Watching the first contestant nearly smothered in oats was a far cry from seeing a baptistery flush several contestants.

The lycan was in his wolf form, sniffing his way around the room. When he got to the oat bin he hesitated, and appeared to regard the area thoroughly before he proceeded. I had no way of knowing if he smelled the wizard’s scent. My guess would be yes, but I didn’t know if that was good or bad. I needn’t have worried overly about it because the lycan moved past the oats. He then grabbed the lever of the next bin in his mouth and pulled. It didn’t take long for him to produce a response. The floor under him gave way, and he was whisked away down a chute and disappeared from sight. I watched as the camera panned over to see where he’d gone, but the trap door closed behind him. I was left alone to wonder what became of him.

I was deciding if I should follow the lycan’s progress or wait for another competitor when a member of the fae team ran into the room. Unlike the prior two competitors, he didn’t pull out any notes, just stood there and sniffed the air. Then he walked past the grain bins and made his way to the olive press. He walked around it several times before he headed down a narrow tunnel to his left. I couldn’t help myself, and followed the fae’s progress as he bent double and nearly crawled along the deserted passageway. This place would make an ant feel claustrophobic. He finally squirmed his way through a narrow opening into a room approximately ten feet by ten feet. In the center of the room was a circular trough appearing to be six to eight inches deep. In the center of the circle was a central axle with a cross piece affixed to its center.

There was a huge stone wheel leaning against the center upright piece. I didn’t have a clue, but it looked like the fae did. He moved over to the stone wheel, pushed it upright and pulled it until it was in line with the cross piece. He studied the cross piece and the wooden brace that appeared to hold it in place. Whatever he saw, he seemed to be pleased, because he moved over and removed a pin until the brace slid down the center pole, then replaced the pin once he slid the crosspiece through the wheel into place. Then he stepped back and pushed the wheel until it had made a complete circle. Next, he stood there and waited until a click announced that a trap door under the trough had glided open. He didn’t hesitate before he ran over and disappeared from view.

He was either onto something or dumb as a stump. I waited and listened for cursing, screaming, crying; anything to indicate how he was doing. I didn’t hear a sound, so I sent the camera off to follow him. The recorder disappeared from view, and then the next thing I saw the video was recording in a storage area. It was filled with large vessels lining the walls and the floor. My guess is the fae had landed in a large storage area. I glanced around the room, and saw the chute the wizard took. There was a pile of oats in the far corner. Well at least two of our contestants had survived the first challenge, or so I thought, before I saw the blood and noticed the small holes set in the walls along the narrow tunnel. It didn’t take me long to find the wizard. He looked like he had locked horns or quills with a porcupine. I wasn’t sure if it was blood loss or shock, but the wizard was down for the count. I called in the alert and sirens wailed as everyone waited for the wizard to be evacuated.

I didn’t see any sign of the lycan, which led me to believe he headed in a different direction. I changed course and headed in the opposite direction of the wizard. Damn, it didn’t take me long to find the nearly deep-fried lycan. He was also down for the count inside a partially opened door. I called it in and stepped around him and into the next room. That’s when I put two and two together. When he opened the door, he had triggered a trap. There were small holes in the ceiling that dropped boiling oil on him. Ouch! He would live, but he might not grow any fur in that area again. Damn, the design team was getting more cutthroat the nearer we came to completing the final challenge.

The all-clear had just been announced when the sound of running feet heralded the arrival of the vampire. I didn’t wait long before he sprinted into sight. He went right to the area where the fae had disappeared from view. He pulled the chute door, and like the fae, slid from sight. I decided to track his progress. The vamp had landed in the same area as the fae, and like the fae, found the trap door under the wheel. I guess it was time to see where the two had gone. I scanned the monitors until I caught sight of the fae and the vampire. The fae had a good ten-minute lead on the vamp until the fae, in his haste, stepped on a manhole cover size lid. The lid flipped, throwing the fae down a vertical chute and into a steep sided pit. The pit looked like an empty well. It was narrow and probably twenty feet deep. The fae looked pissed but not hurt. He now had a decision. It would likely take him half an hour or more to climb out, or he could take the time penalty.

While he was deciding, I scanned the monitors for any sight of the vamp or demon. The demon had unfortunately made the same decision as the lycan with the same results. He was done for the games, and the demons would have to send in another competitor. The vampire was inching along near the spot where the fae had triggered the trap. The vampire had wisely decided to fly. He had changed into a bat, and hovered well above the traps set into the floor of the cavern.

The vampire had a big lead, and proceeded with caution. He was in a space with small and narrow tunnels. My guess is the ceiling was only five feet high. There were side tunnels, diverging at irregular intervals. I had no idea where he was or what he was looking for. Finally, he came into an open area that formed a small grotto. He changed back to his human form and pulled out his notes. There was an underground spring bubbling up in the center of the room. The area was ringed by rocks and small boulders surrounding the spring.

There didn’t appear to be anything else in the room, and the vampire took his time circling the entire spring. While he pondered his next move, I scanned the other monitors to check the progress of the other competitors. The lycan and demon where only now returning to the original entryway. The wizard and fae were nearing the stone well, so for now, the vampire had a good twenty-minute lead on the competition. He finally seemed to have decided on a course of action, because he walked to the edge of the spring and waded in.

Well, I can honestly say I hadn’t seen that coming. The water didn’t appear to be too deep, as far as I could tell. He waded around until the water was almost to his shoulders and then dove underwater. I saw his shadow but nothing more. The light was too low in the cavern for the monitors to pick up much. I saw air bubbles, so knew he was still breathing. Then his head broke the surface of the water, and he waded to shore. He had something in his hand, but I couldn’t tell what it was. I only knew he didn’t have it when he went into the water.

He shook the water off himself and then walked the perimeter of the cavern until he disappeared from view. I waited and then saw him reappear on the monitor below the grotto. He was coming down a flight of stairs that was dug into the floor of the cave. He was now in a larger room with two doors leading from it. There didn’t appear to be anything else in the room. The vampire walked up to each door and looked them over carefully. Still, he wisely touched nothing and again consulted his notes. While he studied his instructions, I checked on the others’ progress. The fae had made it to the spring and was scouting it out. No one else was close.

The vampire had stowed his notes and walked up to the left door. He tried the handle, but it didn’t open. Then he took whatever he’d picked up in the spring and pushed it into a slot in the door. That’s when all hell broke loose. A small slit in the door opened, and a white powder puffed from the opening into the vampire’s eyes. He was stepping and fetching so fast it looked like his ass was on fire and his hair was catching. Finally, he must have passed out, because he staggered and slipped to his knees before he fell face first to the ground. I sure hoped he was unconscious and not dead. His lack of movement would be noted by his suit, and a team would be dispatched to check on him.

It didn’t take the crew long to respond. They carted the vampire off. He was apparently still alive, which was a good thing. I didn’t want any loss of life at these games. I did a quick check of the monitors to make certain no one was cheating and everyone had stopped while the injured man was removed. It looked like everyone was playing by the rules. I noticed Tokem and Corbin patrolling their areas, so far so good. The siren blared to announce the resumption of the games, and I went to see where all the competitors were.

That is when I heard our first competitor. The wizard was the nearest participant, and the fae wasn’t far behind. The wizard moved through the tunnels and inched toward the cavern. The fae was wisely trying to figure out how to traverse the room with its booby traps. He couldn’t fly like the vampire and wizard. The wizard was now in the cavern, walking the room and circling the spring. He must have come to the same conclusion as the vampire, because he too waded into the water and dove under. I followed his air bubbles, so knew he was still alive. Then the water churned and swirled, forming a whirlpool in the center of the spring. Call me crazy, but this didn’t look good for the wizard. Sure enough, a second later, a geyser of water erupted from the spring and ejected the wizard from the water. He landed in a heap six feet or more from the water and didn’t move.

Damn, the design team had upped their game for this last challenge. Again, the sirens wailed, and the rescue team rushed in and removed the wizard. At least they knew where they were going. They were quick, and again the all clear signal blared. I checked the monitors and noticed the fae crossing the room and making his way through the tunnels. The demon and replacements were bringing up the rear.

The fae moved carefully, cautiously, and painstakingly slow through the maze of tunnels. Finally, he made it to the cavern and the spring of many surprises. I was started to wonder about the health benefits of spring water. The fae sat for a time with his notes before he too approached the water. He waded out until the water was up to his waist and then floated on his stomach. Kicking enough to stay afloat, he moved back and forth across the spring. The monitors were not clear enough for me to tell if he could see much in the water. Then he stopped and got his feet back underneath him. He was standing in the water, inhaling mouthfuls of air. Then he dove under and disappeared from sight.