Anticat

Instructions Additional Info: Due to the lava boiling our sharks a few adjustments have been made.

"And are they going to tell us what those adjustments are?" I really wanted to strangle the cat that made the instructions, then again, I want to strangle them all.

"I get it!" said Lilly suddenly surprising us, "They are all based on games. Tag in the tunnels, sharks and minnows us being the minnows of course, and now floor is lava."

"Tag in the tunnels?" I looked at her.

"Oh you probably moved fast enough, if you didn't there were flesh eating ants." Lilly added.

I shivered, that sounded horrible, ants were hard to fight. Why did she look so happy about it?

"What about that killing game then." Asked Noah glaring at her.

"Oh that, I'm thinking it was some version of last man standing." She hummed a tune to herself.

She had a solid point though, a small piece of the child in me, was totally having some fun. Maybe I should hum? Nah I'm working, that's unprofessional. 

"Why does this feel like we are in some messed up game show murder party that was made into an entertainment series?" asked Noah.

"Because we are." I sarcastically replied, "We are the cats' entertainment, duh." I made a mocking voice, "In today's episode we have several measly can openers getting overwhelmed by an overlarge tuna before playing with kid toys. Watch now for all the Hiss-terical action as they run like mice in a maze, and remember to buy some mice crispies cereal, only on CatsFromSpace Network, all rights reserved."

Noah snickered and Kyle raised an eyebrow.

"I like you, you make things more entertaining." Lilly stated.

"Uh thanks," I replied trying to think of what else to say to build teamwork capabilities, but a roaring noise caught my attention. "Hey guys, any idea what that is?"

"It sounds like water?" Kyle looked up. "Are they going to try to drown us again? Is it because cats hate water?"

"I really hope not, I only managed to get dry like five minutes ago." Lilly huffed.

The rumbling grew louder, then the walls opened in several metal squares and liquid poured out of the shaft openings and onto the floor. The place began to slowly fill until we were all barely keeping our heads out of it.

The smell was unmistakable.

"Gasoline." Noah snarled, "They really do just want to kill us all don't they."

The circle below us glowed brighter again and began to move upward, it formed a cylinder shape as it moved toward the first set of bars.

"Everyone hold on!" Kyle yelled.

The pillar didn't have any handholds and turns out it is rather hard to stay on a pillar as it moves out of a pool. Lilly managed to hold her position and Noah and Kyle were gripping each other's hand to stay on.

My hands began to slide as I crouched trying to maintain something resembling a hand hold. Good thing it wasn't deeper or we all would have been pushed off by the displacement of the liquid. I scrambled with my hands for a second and then we were up in the air. The pillar stopped just within jumping distance of the first bar.

Instructions: Test officially begins now, please rise to new heights

"Oh gee thanks so helpful." I grumbled. "I guess we need to climb our way back to the surface?"

I looked over the edge of the pillar. The gasoline mixture was still slowly filling up the room. It wasn't rising extremely fast, but it was going up faster than I'd have liked. Plus, who knows if it might explode on us at some point.

A light near the edge sparked and a glowing ember fell down toward the gasoline. Of course, why would I expect anything different, the game was lava.

"Get down!" Noah yelled and we all braced against the pillar. KA-Boom! The whole place shook for a moment then went still. Sparks flew lightly down around us and I carefully stepped away from one as it got too close for comfort.

"Move!" Kyle yelped as he grabbed Noah and held him up to the first monkey bar.

Noah started to climb followed by Kyle who reached down to give me a hand. I grabbed it and let him pull me to stand on the first one.

I slipped by him and continued after Noah.

"Lilly come on, give me your hand." I heard Kyle yell and glanced back at them.

Lilly was staring at the rising sea of flames with a contemplative look.

"Yeah okay." She reached up and took Kyle's hand and began to climb up as well.

Kyle took the last spot in the group making me want to roll my eyes. Such a goody goody, he was totally going to get himself killed one day.

I climbed up through the weave of monkey bars careful to avoid the barbed wire. The annoying stuff was getting harder and harder to avoid but completely random. Like a cat had whacked a yarn ball around to decide where to place it.

I frowned at the thought, maybe the cat had just knocked around a yarn ball. Then been like, its purr-fect! I frowned again, yep that seemed oddly possible, the layout matched up way too well.

I reached a hand up and carefully pulled myself through an opening in the barbed wire and onto another bar. It was like being at the climbing gym, sort of. Just with easier handholds and slick hands, and can't forget the lovely heater below us that was slowing roasting us alive as it continued to rise.

I reached a slide and looked at it. What exactly had been the plan for this? Knives were sticking out of it at all angles and it wound upward about twenty feet. Weird, just weird.

I stuck a shoe onto the first blade making sure it didn't cut into the rubbed tread and started making my way upward. I grabbed the side of the slide with my hands and inched up. This was actually easy. I started to move faster, this would be a good area to gain more distance between myself and those flames.

I caught up with Noah who was at the top of the slide. He was looking down where Kyle and Lilly had just reached the bottom of it. The fire was keeping roughly even with our pace. The sparking inferno had just claimed the top of the first monkey bar we had been on at the beginning.

"Welcome to the top." Noah smiled. "Well, top of the first fifty feet. I guess we can only call this like what, a fourth of the way?"

"Yeah, something like that." I replied stepping on another blade which bent under my weight.

I looked down at it in surprise as it creaked when none of the others had budged an inch. I grimaced, I had over looked a small detail.

The metal on this specific knife was rusted. The blade creaked again as I tried to shift and move my weight back to another foothold with my other foot. But the metal finally failed to hold and snapped in two with a clank.