When I remember my father I remember the words, a venatus et timor mortis, a game of death and fear. The Latin words were above the entrance to the maze. I come from a family of puzzle makers, we made everything from the first rubics cube, to 3D puzzles. We did in all, but it was my father who made the labyrinth. He was twenty three when he was approached by the government to create a training program for an elite group of soldiers known as centurions. These were the meanest of the mean and were created to replace the navy seals. My father spent twelve years making the maze; he died almost immediately afterwards. I was only four years old when he dies and remember little about him.

My story begins eleven years later on a snowy day in Idewiled, California. I was building a game, in which you had to move a board that had a ball attached to a string on it. The ball moved along a track that has complex twist and turns. I was sanding it when my Mom came in and tossed a letter on my work table. She left and I dropped my tools. I opened the letter and read, "Joseph A. Dent, the federal government requires your assistance in a matter of national preservation. Please report to 13506 Plan Dr. On September thirteenth. You will be payed handsomely for your assistance." There was no signature and no return address. So, the next morning I drove down the hill from my house and to the address, more out of curiosity than genuine interest. I went inside and was greeted by a receptionist pointing down a hall. Puzzled, I walked down the indicated hall and found myself in front of the door to an office. I knocked and a voice shouted from inside. I opened the door and saw a man sitting behind a large oak desk.

"I am the director of sciences for the centurions." I shook his hand and he continued. "Your father designed a training maze for us and we need your help with it. You see, it was designed to be extremely difficult and mildly dangerous. Lately however, men have been coming out with out libs and some don't come out at all. We need you to fix the programming."

"Alright, but what's in it for me." I said, "We are willing to pay you handsomely from our maintenance fund, your father did a good job and we haven't had to do much maintenance. Which means if you succeed then you will receive half a million dollars. Here are the blueprint for the maze." He slid several blue rolls of paper across the table. "Follow me and I will show you the maze." We walked out and he led me to the elevator and we descended several stories. We stepped out into some kind of prepping area, guns lined the walls and a and lockers filled the other side of the room. I sat on a bench and opened the plans on my knees. I took several long moments examining the plans. I turned to the as yet un named man who had led me here and spoke, "Ok I found the processor which I can use to reprogram the maze, but when my dad built this place he did it from the inside out. Which means I will have to go in the maze to fix it. I would greatly appreciate it if you would turn off the maze and let me get about my work." The man bit his lip then spoke. "Look kid you haven't been the first person we asked to fix this, every one of them told us the same thing, and we told them all that the maze can't be turned off. It has it's own power source and those who tried discovered that the circuits to turn off the maze are in the same spot as the ones to reprogram it." I sat silently for a few moments processing this then I stood and walked briskly to the door. "Sorry chap you don't have the right guy." "Wait we will double your pay if you succeed." These were the words I had been waiting for. "Alright I will be back in a few hours." "Good, good" said the man.

It took half an hour for the man to tell me all he could about the maze and outfit me with a small handgun, which was the only gun in the armory I could simultaneously lift and run with. The last thing I put on was a head set; I wasn't strong in electrical engineering. So I called my friend Tyler and plugged my phone into the headset. She picked up on the third ring and I quickly explained the situation and patched her through to a camera mounted on my shoulder, I also sent her the mazes original blueprints. Finally I was ready and walked down the short hallway to the mazes entrance. Above the arc that led into it read the words " a venatus et timor mortis" I spoke these words into my head set and Tyler quickly responded.

"It's Latin for 'a game of death and fear.' Wow, that's kinda scary." Responded Tyler. I stepped into the maze and saw there were three paths. "Which way?'' "Middle" I followed her directions for the next few minutes, when I suddenly came into a large chamber. A gray gas began to leak through the floor. I began to run back the way I had come, but there was no hallway just a solid wall. Turning, I saw I was trapped in this room which was rapidly filling with gas. Spots began to flash before my eyes and I started to stumble. Then I was fine, as quickly as the flash of weakness had come it dissipated. There was now only one way out of the chamber and I walked quickly through it as I came around the next corner, as per Tyler's instructions, there was a man with a gun stand in the corridor. His military garb suggested he was one on the people training here. I called out and he turned, his face was like that of a demon; horns grew out of his head and fangs jutted out of his mouth. He raised his rifle and shot me twice in the chest. I felt the bullets hit, but there was no stream of blood, no pain. I looked down at my chest and there were no holes, looking back up at the man I realized he was gone to. Tyler's voice in my ear shook me from my trance. "Are you ok, why did you stop." "I think that gas in the other room was a hallucinogen." "Why what did you see?" "Nothing... nothing." I said these words more to assure myself than Tyler. I continued on and after a few more turns, a blade sprung out of the wall. I jumped to the side and managed to escape with nothing but a deep cut on my right arm. I stood panting when I heard a deep growl, I had heard mountain lions enough to recognize their growls and I ran. I saw one come around a corner after me and I sprinted. Left and right didn't matter anymore just run. All of a sudden I ran straight into a wall. I looked up and I looked like any other hallway. I rubbed my eyes and the hall was gone; I was in a dead end. The mountain lion came around the corner and pounced on my chest. I just had time to scream before it was gone. I was beginning to catch on when I saw a child run past. This time I was ready, I don't know what kind of sycophant my father was, but I was catching on to it. I decided to follow the kid, I came around the corner and pulled my pistol. I pulled the trigger and a round flew into the kids back. He fell and I flipped him over, instead of the demonic fear gas induced face I expected, he looked like any other seven year old. I shrugged thinking I had defeated one of my fears. I continued on, after about five minutes I came across another kid and fired twice but missed. I followed him around a corner, a fist slammed into my gut and I keeled over. When I stood I saw the kid disappeared around a corner. I stood and ran after him gun drawn. I entered another large chamber this one had a large computer bank in the middle of the room. Forgetting the child, I ran up to the computer bank and plugged in a flash drive, giving Tyler remote access. "Alright you can turn the maze off for good or you can try and reprogram it." said Tyler "How do I reprogram it?" She lead me through several steps when all of a sudden an unfamiliar voice came from behind me? I turned the was a hologram of an unfamiliar man stood in front of me.

"Hello Joseph my name is Eric I am your Dad." I cycled though shock, fear, and finally anger. "You are a mad man." "You aren't surprised I am here." "I had my suspicions, you uploaded your consciousness into the computer." "Yes and I did it all to see you. I was going to die so I put myself into the computer. Now I have seen you and all I ever wanted is done, but you have a choice now. I don't need to be reprogramed, but from here you can kill me, ending me once and for all. But, before you do, there is something you need to know. The children you saw in the maze they weren't hallucinations, they were the soldiers. The centurion program is training people to be elite soldiers from birth. Now you have to choose me or the centurions, who do you want to save." I pressed the button and my father's mind was gone forever. It took a long time but eventually I got the other child to come back with me. Together we came out of the "game of death and fear." We got half way out when we heard it, everything came out. Without programming every obstacle came out to play. I had guessed this would happen and I bent over and covered the child's body with my own, as bullets ripped holes in my back.