Exit Exam

Killian woke up naked next to the entrance hatch of the maze. He knew the hatch would be sealed but tried to open it anyway. You never know until you try, he thought. Maybe one time it will be unlocked.
The walls, floor and ceiling of the corridor that marked the beginning of the maze were covered with the same silver metallic material that lined his cell. Harsh white light glared from slits along the ceiling.
The layout of the maze was different every time he was sent there. This time the corridor went straight for about sixty yards then turned left. He rounded the corner and collided with the alien coming from another branch of corridor.

As best as he could guess it had been several months since Killian had been abducted.
He had been in the latrine of a combat outpost in Afghanistan when everything had faded to black and he lost consciousness. Killian had awakened naked in a metal lined windowless cell ten feet square and seven feet high. A thin mattress was in the middle of the floor and in one corner was a hole in the floor obviously meant for body waste. A sealed hatch was in one wall.
Food was delivered through a small wall panel that had slid open to reveal a compartment with a bowl full of what looked like grey porridge and a spoon. The second time the panel had opened it was empty. After a moment’s thought Kilian returned the empty bowl and spoon to the compartment. The panel shut then reopened a few seconds later with a full bowl and spoon.
The lighting in the cell stayed on all the time but it dimmed at irregular intervals. Sometimes it was for a few minutes, sometimes for hours or what seemed like days. He guessed he was being fed three times a day so used that to judge the passage of time.
Killian never saw his captors. When he was moved to and from the maze from his cell he was rendered unconscious first.
The first time Killian had woken outside the cell he had been in a straight corridor about a hundred yards long. He had tried to open the hatch next to him but it was sealed. He walked down the corridor to the other hatch which opened to reveal a chamber. Inside was a table covered with food. He saw trays of sliced ham, roasted chicken and other meats as well as an assortment of fruit and vegetables both raw and cooked. The aroma had Killian salivating after days of the bland porridge.
He hesitated for a moment then tried a piece of ham. If they wanted me dead, I’d already be dead, Killian thought. The ham was a little salty but otherwise tasted like it should. He tore into the chicken, devouring half the bird and licking his fingers when done. He drank almost half a pitcher of water while eating salad by the handful since he had not been provided with utensils. Satiated, he sat on the floor. His skin began to tingle all over and he passed out.
Killian woke up back in his cell with a bowl containing a half dozen apples and oranges. He ate the fruit to supplement the porridge ration. Not long after he had finished off the fruit and put the bowl in the food compartment his skin tingled and he passed out to awaken at the start of the maze.
Once again he tried the hatch next to him to no avail. This time the corridor branched off in three directions. Killian followed one branch to a dead end and retraced his steps back. The second corridor he took led him to the exit hatch and the food chamber. Like a lab rat being rewarded for completing a task, he thought. Again Killian gorged on the feast laid out for him and stunned unconscious when he was full. Again he woke up in his cell with a bowl of fruit.
The cycle continued several times. Each time something new was added to the maze Killian had to traverse.
At first the mazes were simply longer and more complex. Killian had no way to mark which branches he had already tried so he became better at keeping a mental map of his routes in his head. He realized quickly when he was in a maze he had been in before and raced to the exit hatch.
Then his captors added obstacles. It started with walls across the corridors that Killian had to climb over. The first time he encountered a stretch of floor that was red instead of the usual silver he didn’t think anything of it until he stepped on it. He felt sharp pain all over his body then passed out. He regained consciousness back at the beginning of the maze. After making his way back he took a running start and jumped over the red floor. Sometimes traversing the maze he had to cross the red floor areas by swinging across on cables or rings suspended from the ceiling. Sometimes there were patches of normal floor within areas of red floor that had to be used like stepping stones.
The obstacles became more complicated with the addition of controls to be manipulated. There might be a set of switches that had to be thrown in the correct random sequence before a wall section would lower. Another time it might be some knobs below an oscilloscope display that had to be adjusted to show a flat line before a safe path would appear through a section of red floor that was too large to jump across.
Killian didn’t think his captors were willing to let him get killed until the floaters. They were saucer shaped machines around six feet in diameter with several nozzles spaced around the edge. Killian was almost burned when the first floater he encountered shot a jet of flame from the nozzle facing him. The floaters were nearly silent and Killian had been surprised more than once by them. The floaters could be outrun if he had a stretch of corridor without obstacles. He was also able to run up to them, roll under and sprint away when they blocked his path.
But as he went through more mazes there were more obstacles and more floaters. Killian had been nearly cornered by a pair of floaters when he fell from a wall obstacle.
The last few times through the maze had been simple variations of the same features so Killian was expecting something new. But the alien was not what he was expecting. The creature was the first other living thing Killian had seen since his capture. It was humanoid but definitely not human. Killian was reminded of the grey aliens he had seen in movies and television except this specimen was about seven or eight feet tall. The dark grey alien was skinny and long limbed with three digits on each hand and foot. Like Killian the alien was naked and he noticed no apparent genitals.
Without thinking Killian shifted his weight onto the balls of his feet and balled his fists. He and the alien eyed each other for a few seconds then the alien sprinted away further into the maze. Killian followed but could not keep up with the alien’s long loping gait. He chose a different corridor than the alien when the maze branched.
Despite the alien’s advantage in speed Killian negotiated the maze quicker and reached the final stretch of corridor first with the alien not far behind. He saw two hatches at the far end instead of one. Each was labelled with a simple pictogram. The hatch on the left bore the image of a human much like a public men’s restroom. The other hatch had a similar styled image with the longer limbs and larger elongated head of the alien.
As Killian ran down the corridor the alien passed him in a full sprint. The alien entered the right hatch and shut it. Killian tried to open the alien’s hatch but it was sealed. He turned to the door on the left and entered the feast chamber.
Killian pondered the alien as he waited in his cell for the next iteration of the maze. It seemed to be a captive like him forced to go through the maze. Was it a member of his captors’ species or something else? Either way the alien wasn’t hostile, at least not yet.

The next time through Killian and the alien ignored each other and navigated the maze separately. This time the alien didn’t reach the final stretch until Killian was opening his hatch. He grinned and waved at the alien before passing through his exit.
Killian and the alien continued to go separately through the maze until Killian came across the alien in an unusually tall section of corridor.
The alien was in front of a wall across the corridor that looked to be about twenty feet high. Even with its arms stretched the alien could not reach the top of the wall when it jumped. If the taller alien couldn’t get over the wall, there was no way Killian could.
He approached the alien, put his back to the wall and interlocked his hands to form a step. The alien looked at Killian for a few seconds with its head tilted. Then it mimicked Killian’s pose and made a combination of clicking and chirping noises.
“You’re probably right, Slim,” Killian said. “I don’t know if you’re strong enough to pull me up.”
The alien wouldn’t understand what he said any more than he understood the alien’s speech but it still felt good to be talking to someone else.
Killian placed his hands on the alien’s shoulders as he put a foot into the alien’s hands. The alien stood and lifted Killian up while he pushed off from the alien’s shoulders. He reached up and managed to grab the top of the wall.
He scrambled up and stretched along the length of the wall. Bracing himself with one arm on the other side of the wall Killian reached down with the other towards the alien who jumped up and grabbed Killian’s hand. With a loud grunt he pulled up and swung his arm so the alien could grab the top of the wall alongside him.
The two dropped to the floor on the other side of the wall with Killian hanging down from the wall first and executing a parachute landing fall as he hit the floor to avoid injury.
The alien trotted at a slower pace that allowed Killian to keep up with it as they finished the maze together.
Killian and the alien had to work together to get through the next mazes. There would be switches placed high on the corridor walls that only the alien could reach or knobs placed in recesses in the wall the only Killian with his smaller hands could grasp and turn.
The last time the pair negotiated the maze together, they encountered a floater. Killian noticed that this floater was faster than the ones he had encountered before. He guessed that it was set for the alien’s greater speed. The floater nearly caught up to them at every obstacle as they worked through the maze.
Killian was surprised the alien stayed with him. The alien could probably outrun the floater much the way he could outrun the slower ones he had encountered before. But the alien chose to slow down and stay with Killian.
The pair rounded a corner and saw the exit hatches about five hundred yards away at the end of the corridor. The floater was about fifty yards behind them.
Killian grabbed the alien’s shoulder to stop him. “Sorry, Slim. I don’t think we can both make it out of here.”
He aimed a sudden kick at the alien’s knee and was rewarded with a loud snap. The alien collapsed to the floor with a squawk.
Killian sprinted down the corridor. He heard the whoosh of the floater’s flaming nozzles and the alien’s high pitched squeal. A quick glance back showed the floater circling around the alien bathing it in flames.
He looked back once more after opening his exit hatch. The floater had finished with the alien and was halfway down the corridor. Killian passed through the hatch and shut it.