Level 3

"Get up. Azazel's coming."

Reilly gave her a little slap on the cheek and dragged her away from the campsite. "Listen, Christina. There's a cave about fifty yards down the river. Get into the water so he can't smell you and go into there and whatever you do, stay there. You'll hear some noises and see some fire and that kind of thing, but Azazel's a pushover once you've got him cornered. We'll be at level three in less than an hour. Orion will come and get you when Azazel's dead."

Most of this passed her in a blur, but she obeyed him without question, going down to the river. She passed Orion, who was putting together what looked like a large chain of hand grenades strapped to a gun. His fingers flew over the machinery, and when he saw her watching smiled, his black eye sparkling. "It's not fair, really." he said. "The first time all we had was a sword. Then he actually stood a chance."

Christina smiled back weakly and stepped into the water. It was icy cold, but the insulation of her clothes was significantly more than her dress on the beach had been. The sky was a downy pink flecked with eggshell blue and the clear white of early morning. Fish swam by her and brushed her bare toes, and the pebbles under her feet were smooth and slippery. It was almost enjoyable until she heard Orion holler "what the bloody hell are you doing? Get to the cave!"

A terrific burst of fire lit the sky above the trees, and the groaning sound of bending and breaking trees came from behind her. A single word, dragon, flew into her mind, and she splashed like a madwoman away, her heart pounding. The cave wasn't far, and the mouth extended into the water. She quickly went in and pressed herself against the wall, panting. Water lapped placidly at her toes, the calm rhythm not even broken when an earsplitting roar came from the nearby campsite. Christina clapped her hands over her ears and slid into the water, shivering with terror. A crimson light burned almost merrily against the cavern wall. Shouts came from Reilly and Orion, and after a few moments of gut wrenching suspense, a terrific explosion that shook the ground and caused ripples to appear in the water at her ankles. Then there was silence.

They're dead. she though. They're dead and now I don't know what to do. I'm lost in a maniacal world. And for what she was sure was the first time in her life, she almost wished that her heart would simply stop beating.

The sounds of splashing caused her to look up. Orion pushed aside some of the hanging vines and smiled at her. "Come on out." he said, holding out his hand. There was a long burn on his forearm.

"You're not dead." she said stupidly.

"Not yet." he shrugged. "Don't worry, I've killed Azazel a dozen times. The first few times I had some help from Max and then Adrian, but I've got it down to a science now. Come on, then. No need to be so scared." he patted her shaking shoulders and waded back to the campsite.

Reilly was talking to a man in official looking garments who seemed to be crying and laughing at the same time. Corpses of little white, skeletal looking dogs littered the ground, and also that of a large reptilian looking beast (that was, in actuality, much smaller than Christina has expected).

"...cannot believe that one so young has killed one so great! For that, I shall give you the key to the sky!" The man reached inside his robe and pulled out a piece of paper. "Go two leagues into the woods there, and tell them that Magistrate Anomaly has sent you!"

Reilly bowed and took the slip of paper, pulling a long knife out of a dog's body. Christina gingerly stepped around one. Pathetic in death, they looked more like phantasms than physical beings.

"Come on, then, let's get going." Reilly wiped his blade clean and sheathed it on his back. "Are you alright, Christina?"

"Yeah." she lied, doubting if, after everything that had happened, she would ever be alright again. "Are we almost at level three?"

"Just have to go two leagues into the woods." he muttered. "Have some more water, and food. How's your strength?"

"Not great."

"These pills will help." Orion gave her four small capsules. "They're pretty rare so we reserve them for the Guides. But Max usually says we can give them to new people too."

"Is Max your leader?"

"For the most part, but Alpha does a lot too. And of course Kent and Adrian are second in command, but really they all make everything run together. And then -"

Christina lost track of the names. Some she recognized from Greek or English origin, but didn't know how she knew that.

The sunny shadows cast through the canopies of leaves made speckled designs on her hands, and she held them up in welcome when a pool of sunlight appeared. Reilly and Orion, however, continued to hurry her along, and soon they reached a clearing. A man and two girls were milling around a fence gate. Inside the enclosure was what looked like a large collapsed tent. Brightly colored canvas spilled like a burst grape over the soft green grass.

"Who goes there, peasant?" spat the man, his greasy hair swinging as he ambled closer. "This spot is forbidden to any but the Magistrates and me." he puffed out his chest, and one of the girls giggled, making dewy eyes at Reilly and Orion.

"We were sent from Magistrate Anomaly." Reilly waved the piece of paper in the man's face. "This is his permit."

The man took the parchment and held it up to the light, scrutinizing it until his abnormally long nose touched the surface. "Very well." he said at last. "This looks official - though I don't doubt if you just killed the man and took his permit." he stalked off to the gate and waved off one of the girls who was swinging her legs on top of it. "Right this way, young gentleman and miss."

Inside the paddock, the man began to shift about the large amounts of fabric until he found what he was looking for - a large basket, big enough for at least four, that had been buried under the many folds.

"It's a hot air balloon!" she exclaimed in surprise. Ten pairs of eyes turned and stared at her, warning in four of them and surprise in six.

"You've seen one of them before, eh, miss?" the man said suspiciously, starting towards her. Christina looked at Reilly and Orion for help, and Orion calmly went up behind the man and smacked him on the head with his gun. The man gave a little whimper and fell senseless to the ground.

The two girls started to scream. "Oh, shut up." Orion dragged the limp form of the man outside the fence. "He'll be fine next time we come around. You" he pointed to one of the hyperventilating girls "put in the oil."

Muttering and sulking, the girl pushed around the canvas and began to fill the ring on the top of the basket with thick, foul smelling fuel. Reilly and Orion shifted and heaved the balloon until it began to slowly swell. For what felt like a long time they watched and waited, drinking a little and eating.

"Ok." Reilly said at last "let's get it."

The three of them sat comfortably in the large basket, and Christina's heart began to bounce as slowly they began to rise. Orion cut loose the sandbags and they went significantly faster. "Where exactly are we going?" she asked Reilly as he skimmed the top of a tree with his fingertips.

"Level three."

"It's in the sky?"

"It's complicated. You get there from the air but it's not really in the sky. Just wait, we'll get there in a few seconds."

He was exaggerating. Only moments later a pale pink bird flew by, and squawked tantalizingly. Orion deftly caught it by it's tail feathers and forced it onto the ground. "What are you -" began Christina, but then the bird choked, spluttered, and - amazingly - spoke. "You can get to level three through the cloud of my hue." it wailed miserably. "Take some of my plumes and good luck to you!" It disappeared.

"Ok..." began Christina, but Orion shook his head. "That's just how it always is. Here." he handed her a pink feather that the bird had left. "Let's go."

 Orion and Reilly each grasped one of her hands and went to the far left of the balloon, which began to sway dangerously. "On the count of three, we have to jump." Orion told her. "See that pink cloud? Land on it. One -"

"What?" she gaped. "Clouds can't hold us!"

"Two, three!" the boys leapt, dragging her with them. They plummeted like rocks towards earth, Christina screaming and the boys' eyes focused in concentration. Then everything turned very wet and cold. Christina saw large quantities of pink mist billowing around her, but her fall was broken. She was drifting lazily down through the cloud, still holding tight to her pink feather and the hands of the Guides. Then, without warning, the loud ringing from the inn filled her head and she felt herself thrown backwards like in a terrible gale. Something hit her hard and then the pink was gone. She was sitting on a large step that seemed to be covered with a kind of thin carpet. She looked around - somehow she was inside a room where luminous symbols, including the odd one that had been inscribed on the rock wall and she now realized had been on the side of the hot air balloon basket, beamed with bright fluorescent colors, cutting through the heavy darkness of the room.

Reilly and Orion were already busy touching some kind of pattern in the symbols. There seemed to be a riddle on the wall about how to open a door, but the boys had clearly memorized the pattern already.

"Ok, the others are only a little way away." Reilly pressed his hand on one last inscription and a door frame appeared in bright blue ribbons of light in the deep purple walls. They two went forward and pushed on it together. It slid away and they went through, followed by Christina.

The room on the other side was an absolutely massive room that was completely white. It probably would have looked even bigger except for the large amount of people who were in it. Christina's eyes drank in many things at once, but her first conclusion was that these must be the others. Not only were there definitely more men than women, but they clearly recognized Orion and Reilly. They were greeted with shouts and hugs from several of those nearest to the door, and had their hair ruffled and shoulders slapped.

Her second thought was that this was a kind of military camp. The people were wearing similar clothes to her thick, padded suit, and most of the men also had heavy boots, guns, short hair and smokes. She hung back against the door, wondering what she should do.

"There she is." a man with more muscles than Reilly and Orion combined strode towards her and stuck out his hand. "Charlie Maximoff."

"Christina Corentine."

"Not bad, that name." he smiled at her and put his hand lightly on her back. "Come on, then, introduction time." he guided her through the crowd. The men stood up as she passed and nodded in greeting, closing in behind her. She supposed there was a kind of routine for this and they were waiting for someone to give the word.

"Max!" Charlie shouted. "She's here!"

Four men were in the corner of the room, bending over some sort of chart. At Charlie's shout they looked up and turned around. The oldest, a man with twinkling blue eyes and frown lines that didn't match approached her and held out his hand, much like Charlie. "Maximilian Riley." he told her in a thick accent, then gestured behind him. "This is Adrian Caster, Remus Alpha and Romulus Kent." The men all acknowledged her.

"Christina Corentine." Charlie announced, and she gave a small smile and nodded. "Age?" Max shot at her. "Seventeen." she answered. He nodded thoughtfully, making her feel awkward as if she had revealed that she had x-ray vision. Charlie patted her shoulder and went to stand next to Adrian Caster. Max took over and stood by her side, then bellowed "Attention!" through the room. The crowd stood military style, then when he said "at ease" looked even more military style. The exception were three women at the end of the line.

Max turned to Christina. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but I'll begin by telling you everyone's name. This is Christina Corentine" he addressed the crowd "and she is seventeen years old. From left to right" he pointed at the long line of people in turn "Victor Cameron, Jett Turner, Kyle Beckham, Stanton Shade, Wayde Cage, Reagan Quinn, Asher Elliot, Axel Damon, Orsino Pines, Malcolm O'Connell, D'Angelo Valentino, Miles Ilium" and here he came to the girls "Scarlet McCoy, Rebecca Caine and Giulia Ryker. You have, of course, met our Guides Orion Rochester and Reilly Derrik, and one of our heads Charlie Maximoff. I don't expect you to remember all of their names" he turned back to Christina, who had only gotten as far Kyle Beckham before forgetting the first one's name "but know that you can go to any of them for anything. You will be staying with Scarlet, Rebecca and Giulia. They will fill in any questions that you have, provided that they know the answers. If you have any medical needs, Jett Turner is our doctor. Now, for the rules." he raised his voice a little and began to pace back and forth. "There are no secrets here. If you know something that you think will be valuable to our cause, tell someone. Preferably tell a Captain: me, Caster, Alpha, Kent, or Maximoff. Any observations or thoughts can be told to another who will then carry it to one of us if deemed valuable. Food is rationed out three times a day. Taking more will result in punishment. Sexual intercourse is forbidden. Wandering off is forbidden without permission from one of the Captains. You will do your work well and quickly, and you will work with us as a team. You will not take anyone else's possessions without permission. You will not touch a weapon that you aren't authorized to use unless you're in the heat of battle. If you find a box, you will inform a Captain of your find." he gestured to the men behind him, then turned back to a dazed Christina and laid a firm hand on her shoulder, bending down to look her in the eye. "Use your intuition. There isn't a person here whose instincts have truly led them wrong. Remember not to touch weird things, and if you find someone who's not in the group, don't talk to them unless it's necessary. Keep an eye and an ear out for anything more out of the ordinary than usual. Lunch is in an hour."

Everyone began to disperse and go back to whatever they had been doing. Christina looked around blankly and shifted her feet awkwardly. She supposed that this is what it was like to start a new school or something. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"Hey." the woman with dark brown hair whose name, she recalled, was Scarlet McCoy, smiled at her. It was a pale smile, the kind that implied there wasn't much to smile about around here.

"Hi." she smiled back, wondering how her own lips looked.

"Come on over here." Scarlet walked off. "We girls get a whole corner of this room to ourselves. Privacy is a luxury around here, but for most of our purposes we use this." she pointed to a small stall-like structure made up of jackets. "The guys gave us those to use. You can go to the bathroom in there and all that stuff. They even have maxi pads in some of the boxes." she rolled her eyes. "You should have seen the look on Orion's face when he found them. They're useful, though."

"How do you wash, you might ask?" A girl with the most beautiful black skin and a buzz cut came out from inside the coats. "You don't have to. None of us do. We should all look like crap and be covered in dirt, but we're not. We get cut sometimes, but nothing ever scars. The only things that are permanent are what we came in with - tattoos mostly for the guys, and sometimes scars that they didn't get here. Hair doesn't grow either. Which is nice, because shaving would be hell without any cream."

"It doesn't make any sense, I know." said the third girl, who had short, light blonde hair and soft grey eyes. She looked to be the youngest of the three. "You must have a lot of questions. Anything in particular you want to ask?"

"Yeah." Christina sat down. "Does anyone really know what this place is or why we're here?"

"No." Giulia and Scarlet said automatically. Rebecca ran a hand through her light hair and sat down opposite Christina. "I wish we could give you a different answer. But every idea that's thrown around seems as unlikely as the last. If any of us could remember where we were beforehand -"

"But no one knows anything." Giulia licked her lips. "I mean, there are some obvious clues about who we were at one point or another. Jett has medical training, of course. Most of the guys here are pretty sure that they were soldiers, and Max seems a natural commander. Orsino can sing really well, but I don't know if he did that professionally or anything. D'Angelo can box, he's a natural at hand to hand. Orion says took out twelve of the dogs on his own when they got to Azazel."

"So who came in right before me?"

"Miles. He's over there" Giulia pointed at a man with a ragged scarf around his neck who was polishing his gun. With ammo slung like chains around his body, he looked every inch a soldier.

"And everyone has jobs?"

"Technically yes, but we don't really. The main job is figuring out how to leave this room, really."

"You can't leave?"

"Nope. It's like a big game in here. You can only go places you've already gone unless we figure out something or other. When I came, we were all the way back by the inn in level two. When the candle went out someone would start talking, and then someone came in with a sword and took us to jail. We had to break out of there, Orion and Reilly and I. Next time they tried being quiet, and it worked. This whole thing is a learning process."

"You know" Rebecca murmured "sometimes I think that we all died and this is like, the next life or something. It's the only logical explanation."

"Aliens." said Giulia helpfully.

"You'd think we'd know, though." Scarlet rubbed her head. "After all, it should be proved in the next life that there's no religion, right? But some of the guys here still think there's a chance at Heaven and Hell."

"Maybe that's what Hell is." Rebecca continued. "Maybe it's not knowing why you're there."

"We're good people, though." Giulia sighed. "I don't think God would have done this to us."

"Who knows the mind of God?" Scarlet snorted.

"He's merciful." Giulia insisted.

"To those who fear him in ever generation." Christina muttered. They all looked at her.

"Yeah." Giulia nodded. "You got it. There's a lot more to this than meets the eye. We just have to take a step back and consider it from different points of view."

"So this is all you know?" Christina tried to bring the conversation back to the situation she found herself in. "We're blazing a trail through unknown places and we don't know why? Why don't we just settle down in the town or something?"

"Wanderlust." Giulia answered. "You know, that feeling that you have to get out. I get it all the time. We've been in this room for a week, ever since Orion and Reilly went to get you. I've had it almost the entire duration; the feeling that I have something I have to do, and forward is the only way out. You'll experience it too once the shock has subsided."

"It's almost like we're trapped in a time loop." Rebecca commented. Christina could tell that they had discussed these theories many times before, but were eager to share them with the new girl. "Or everyone else is, but we aren't. Maybe it's something...you know, the place where we all come out. Maybe something happens to us there."

"You mean besides starvation and dying of terror?" snapped Giulia, and they were all quiet for a minute. Ghastly memories of the beach and the emptiness it made inside of her caused goosebumps to creep up Christina's arm.

"It's all that explains the regeneration and why no one recognizes the Guides." Rebecca continued at last. "Why they always say the same thing and the same thing always happens. Everyone else is trapped in a time loop but they don't realize it."

"It's almost like..." Scarlet sighed. "But that's just more improbable theories."

"We've got plenty of those to go around." Giulia lay back on the floor. "Sometimes I'm tempted to believe in magic."

"That would imply that wherever you came from magic wasn't a thing." Rebecca closed her eyes. "Mental note for later."

"How did Max become the leader?" Christina asked.

"He was the first to come." Scarlet answered. "Or at least, the first of our group. He camped in the, you know." she hesitate. "Lighthouse. For days, before Charlie and Adrian showed up. Most of us showed up in groups of two or three, really. All on different sides of the ocean so we didn't realize we were with other people until we reached the shore. Anyway, Charlie and Adrian found Max, and they decided that they had to move on, but before they did Kent and Alpha showed up. We're pretty sure that they're related - cousins, maybe, or even brothers. They wanted to wait for more people but there weren't any supplies so they went down into the hole and started forging the path. Kent would go back every few days to see if there were more people. They found a screen that showed the lighthouse in a box -"

"Those are boxes full of supplies that sometimes show up. They're made of black wood and are usually hidden in corners." Rebecca interrupted.

"-and when someone showed up Kent would go back and get them. They couldn't get back out of the hole but he would wait for them down there, and then go find the others. We never move on while the Guides are missing. We're a team, and we can't make them find us in unfamiliar territory. Anyway, more people started coming, but recently it's trickled down to two or three. The last four -you, Miles, D'Angelo and Asher - all came by yourself."

"Has anyone died here?" the questions blurted out before she could stop it. It had been plaguing her, but everything was so improbable - the dragon, the wild dogs, the hot air balloon, and most of all the Beach - that it seemed a wonder so many people had survived.

There was an uncomfortable silence before Rebecca responded "well, yes. Three people."

"The ocean where we all show up, that got two of them. Kent saw it on the screens while he waited." Giulia said sadly. "Orion saw the other on. Azazel got him. It was when Reilly showed up and was training with Orion. And they still hadn't worked out all the kinks yet, and they only had small guns from earlier this level, in the other room, and, well...there were too many dogs for them all to take out along with Azazel. They lost track of him. Don't talk about this stuff, though. Kent doesn't do Guiding anymore - they need him here, anyway." she said hurriedly. "He's a Captain. And besides, Orion's got it under control. Once they got bigger guns it was all a lot easier."

Christina imagined sitting at the bottom of the lighthouse pit, watching people you were waiting for die with no way to help them - drowning, eaten, burned, any of the horrors on that sandy beach. She looked over to the Captains, and picked out Kent next to who someone who definitely looked like his older brother - Alpha, she recalled. Then she looked at Orion and imagined bringing someone safely that far just to lose them to the dragon.

"But three out of twenty two, that's not bad." Scarlet said quietly. "Twenty three, counting you. We're doing well for what we've been given."

"Almost makes you think we were chosen to come here because we could survive." Rebecca said idly.

"This obviously isn't an accident." Giulia agreed. "Something put us here. I'm still pulling for aliens." she got up. "Come on, Christina. You've got a cool name, by the way. We've all got cool names. Either our parents rocked or someone made them up for us when they sent us here."

Christina got up. "Where are we going?"

"To look around. We have to try and figure out a way out of this, right? Also, look for anything that might hold clothes. We came here in white for the heat of the beach and volcano, and then got this stuff for the outdoors of level two. There's got to be something different for this one."

"What do I look for?"

"Anything that might clue us on how to leave here. It seems like a complete dead end, but if we were waiting for something to happen it would have happened already. Stuff always happens fast here. If we've been here a week (at least I think it's a week, there aren't any clocks here or anything) then we've got to trigger something before something else gets triggered, if that makes any sense." she led Christina over to one of the walls. The rock seemed to be like polished, milky rock that was more man-made than natural. She ran a hand over it, and was surprised to find it almost vibrating, as though it was electric.

"It's not real rock, we're pretty sure." Giulia also put her hand up to it. "And Max suggested that this room is more of a calm before the storm. Maybe something happens to us in here that's necessary and that's why it's so hard to get out."

"And there aren't any symbols or carvings or anything?" Christina asked, remembering the previous room.

"Nothing. We've been over every inch. There's a pretty common consensus that it's something we have to do ourselves, we're just not sure what it is. And we have to be very careful, because a wrong move might kill us. No pressure."

"Appease the gods, I say." Scarlet said sarcastically as she came up behind them. "Flagellate ourselves."

"Well, I'll go get my cup for libations." Giulia responded. "It's good to have someone new here, Christina. A fresh mind might bring something up."

"Shouldn't we focus on what got us out of the other rooms safely?" Christina ran her hand along the wall. "Shelter on the-place where we came. Silence in the inn, symbols in the room before."

"So if it begins with s, it will get us out." Giulia said dryly. "Well, Scarlet, I'm afraid it's up to you then."

"Or Stanton." she retorted.

"Fat lot of help a deaf-mute will be." Giulia muttered.

"He's deaf?" Christina asked in surprise, craning her neck to try and find Stanton, though she could not remember what he looked like.

"Over there." Scarlet pointed to a short, blonde man. "And yeah, dumb too. But I tell you what, Kent says he got to shore quicker than anyone else, and held out against the lighthouse for the longest too. So I bet he'll be useful for something."

"I bet we all will at some point." Giulia sighed and looked around the great room. "I just can't think what we're supposed to do to get out of here."

"That's why we have the Captains. They'll think of something." Scarlet looked over to the five men talking soberly in the far corner. "They always do."