The Management

Chapter 12

"We just finished one!" I shout, walking closer to the screen as it remains still and black. 

Kendall stands next to me. "I figured, the swimsuits were uncalled for unless there's a water related room. And we better figure out where it is. And how to swim." 

"Where's the goddamn map?" Jack says, glaring at Kendall. 

"Elizabeth is watching it," she says. "You still have it, right?"

Elizabeths looks as if she's about to complain, but instead takes the map off of her chair and hands it to Kendall, who gives it to Jack. "Go ahead and find it. We'll follow you."

"Uh, the one with the arrow, I'm guessing? And the cracked lock?" 

"Nice guess, genius. Where is it?" 

"It's on the opposite side of the last one." He stands up and points west. "So this way, I think." 

"You better be right," Elizabeth says, taking the map and guiding the party towards the room. 

"So none of us can swim, right? Does anyone know how, even like theoretically?" I ask.

Kendall furrows her brows and responds. "Well, in the sense of physics you need arm and leg movement and we'll be able to figure that out pretty fast. We better hope we're not racing against each other or anyone else, though." 

There's a plasticky passage that we walk through for what seems like forever. At the end of it, we arrive at a wooden door. As Kendall and I go to open it, her fingers slip on the rusty, damp handle and she uses my hand as traction to open it on top. 

Inside, the floor is covered with grass. It's so perfect that it looks fake, but I can feel the mud sliding under my feet. There's a lake in the middle that has small waves and starts clear but gets increasingly black as you look down into it. It looks real as well, but I can sense the artificial undertone of the bleach burning my nostrils. 

There are wooden cabinets with menus listing things such as Rope 100, Inflated Square 180, Fins 60. Jason opens one cabinet and Elizabeth opens another. 

"Nothing inside this one,"  Jason says, slamming it shut behind him.

"Not this one either," Jasper says. She closes hers too. 

I notice a thinly colored silhouette forming on  the surface of the pool. 

"You guys? Look." 

The rest of us gather together as Eliianci's projection manifests on the water. 

This room is much easier to have some fun in! 

Jack snickers and I elbow him in the side. 

Get your mind out of the gutter, young man. Anyway, welcome to room number  two! I'm sure some of you were wondering why there was swimwear in you rooms. I've decided to provide some basic supplies for your convenience this time? How generous can I get, am I right??

None of us care enough to respond. 

Tough crowd. Let's move along! This is the Rafting Room! At the end of ten minutes, you get two additional minutes to take the raft you'll create and get it across the 91-meter lake. For any remaining American citizens out there who'll use anything but the metric system, it's about the length of a football field. 

One of the cabinets is filled with supplies, like ropes to tug along friends, or planks to build the base of your raft. The other is filled with obstacles that will give you discounts on the supplies. For example, allow the running risk of your air-filed boat contraption...or one of you... being stabbed by a giant metal rod! Or pierced by the tooth of a gigantic metal shark!