"Sliding down here is more fun every time we do it!" Marcus exclaimed, grinning as if he was two years old.

"It would be even more enjoyable if there wasn't a huge metal beast after us every time we do it," Tyson said.

"Oh, it already came? Man, it's fast!" Marcus said, his eyes widening. "I wish I had such a cool toy!"

"Marcus, that's not a toy but a killing machine. Besides, you would have nowhere to keep something as huge as that," Tyson said rationally.

"A man can dream," Marcus said wistfully.

"Yes, but not now," Tyson said gently. "Remember, you promised to help me solve the mystery."

Tyson wasn't relying too much on his friend's help. However, he hoped that if Marcus was otherwise occupied, he wouldn't distract Tyson from his searches and deductions.

"What, like Sherlock Holmes and Watson?" Marcus asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Sure, why not?" Tyson mumbled, already looking around the place they were in.

"But wait. Who is who? I want to be Sherlock, and you can be Watson," Marcus said.

"Sure. Now, go search that part of the room, and I'll search this one," Tyson said.

"Hm, it does look more like a room than a hole in the ground, doesn't it?" Marcus said after a few moments of silence.

"I think that might be the point," Tyson said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked.

"I am not sure yet. Let's finish looking around before we jump to any conclusions," Tyson said.

Tyson scrutinized the space carefully, concluding that it looked more like a room than a cave. It was clearly manmade as it was impossibly symmetric, and the usage of some sort of tools was evident. Although the walls were made of mud as well as the floor, it was still oddly homey.

If he didn't know any better, Tyson would have assumed that it was someone's vacation house and that the occupant would be back any moment. Still, it didn't have the feel of one's home. It was too impersonal for that.

Yet, in every other aspect, it was a perfect little nest to recharge. The only thing off about it was its location. Why would anyone make a room or apparently rooms under the maze?

"What did you find?" Tyson asked as Marcus's rummaging became louder.

"Some packaged food, although I've never seen anything like it. Also, there are many bottles of water as well as some medicine. You?" Marcus asked.

"Well, there is that soft thing over there that appears to be a bed and some clothing which I am not sure why anyone would need when every time we step through a portal, we get new ones," Tyson said.

It occurred to Tyson that they had forgotten to turn on the telephone's torch, and yet they were able to see everything clearly. The only logical conclusion was that their night vision had started improving, that they were getting used to their plight.

"How long have we been here, wandering through time and space?" Tyson suddenly asked.

"I have no idea. Why?" Marcus asked.

"Well, we seem to be adjusting far better than it is obvious at first glance. We barely even notice when we are speaking a foreign language, and we can see in this darkness as if we had spent all our lives in it," Tyson said.

"Hm, it must be the survival of the fittest and all that," Marcus said proudly.

However, Tyson disagreed. There wasn't anything special about the two of them. He believed that people could get used to any circumstance. That they could survive and even thrive. The question was if he wanted to get used to the chaos that their lives had become.

"Anyway, never mind that. We need to figure this place out," Tyson said, sitting down thoughtfully. Why are there these pockets of safety all around? And how can they be almost everywhere in the physical maze?"

Marcus said nothing but quieted down, which was a sign that he was thinking. It was a relief for Tyson to see that his friend was trying to use his brain for a change.

One thing that had always annoyed Tyson about Marcus was that he was actually a bright guy, however, he got so carried away in playing the role of an idiot in high school that he had lost himself. He allowed his spark to go into a deep slumber from which it rarely awoke as the things that could rouse his curiosity were rare. Thus, his intelligence was often dormant.

"I would have thought it was magic if I didn't know any better," Tyson said, thinking out loud.

"What is it then, if not magic?" Marcus asked, sounding disappointed by Tyson's statement.

"Advanced technology, like extremely advanced," Tyson said thoughtfully.

"Like from the future?" Marcus asked.

That was when it dawned on Tyson that it actually was futuristic technology, something far more advanced than they had ever seen.

"You might be onto something, Marcus. But why would those with such advanced technology make all of this? And how?" Tyson wondered.

"Maybe they were bored," Marcus said disinterestedly.

The spark that Tyson saw igniting in Marcus was stifled before it had the chance to develop, but he was glad that Marcus at least tried to help out. His intermittent strokes of genius were starting to help Tyson, and he needed that. It was difficult to bear the burden of both of their survivals on his back.

"It's too intricate to just be an amusement. There has to be more to it," Tyson said.

"Maybe that chick of yours was right, and this is all just a sick game," Marcus said, yawning.

"She isn't my chick!" Tyson shouted, turning crimson red.

His violent reaction surprised him more than it did Marcus. Thus, he tried to reign in his anger, to focus on the issue at hand. It often happened that some careless comment of Marcus's managed to derail him from the task at hand. However, this time, he couldn't allow that to happen.

He wasn't even sure why Marcus's statement annoyed him that much. Maybe because she was a nice girl and Marcus failed to show her any proper respect, maybe there was a deeper reason. Either way, it didn't matter for the time being.

"Besides, you should stop using the word chick/broad or anything similar. It was never considered as a polite way to address a woman, and who knows where we might end up next," Tyson said.

"How am I supposed to call them then?" Marcus asked, dumbfounded.

"Women," Tyson said.

"Huh, odd. Women," Marcus said with such wonder that it reminded Tyson of a scientist who had discovered a new animal species.

"Anyway, I don't think it's a survival game," Tyson said.

"Why not? We sure do a lot of running around and surviving," Marcus said.

"Yes, but there are just too many things that make no sense," Tyson said, running his fingers through his hair which felt longer than usual. "Why would they give us the clothing to fit in? Why give us any money at all?"

"I don't know. To confuse us?" Marcus said questioningly.

"Maybe, but I think it's more likely that the time maze wasn't designed to hurt anyone," Tyson said.

"Then how do you explain that metal thingy that's always after us? How do you explain all the mazers who allegedly died in here?" Marcus asked.

"I think that the mazers' deaths were accidents," Tyson said happy that Marcus managed to adapt to the information he had shared with him during their stay in Sarajevo without panicking too much.

"Really? How come?" Marcus asked.

"Well, as you noticed, we keep ending up as unwanted guests to important events, and many of those are dangerous. Maybe they don't have enough knowledge about history, and they end up as collateral damage of those events," Tyson said, starting to finally get a picture of what the maze wasn't.

He hoped that once he eliminated all those things that the maze wasn't, he would be left with a plausible explanation of what was happening. Once he had that, he believed that he could figure out a way out.

"Hm, I guess that's true enough," Marcus said. "But what about our metal friend?"

"I think he might be some sort of guardian," Tyson said.

"A guardian? Guarding what?" Marcus asked, unable to follow his friend's logic.

"Well, the original Minotaur was guarding the labyrinth, so maybe this modern version has a similar job," Tyson said with uncertainty.

"Guarding it against what?" Marcus asked, unable to imagine anything that could threaten the elaborate maze.

"I am not sure, but I guess we'll find out soon enough," Tyson said tiredly.

"I can't wait," Marcus said.

After all, he was the one who was always keen to face a new challenge.

"I wouldn't be so eager if I were you," Tyson said.

"Why not?" Marcus asked.

"Because we might not like what we find," Tyson said.

Moments later, their discussion was interrupted by two loud bangs that reverberated through the small space.