Cube Zero: The Newly Imprisoned

Chapter 3: A Trust Easily Lost

"Sure, and it's only because I want to stay alive." Melody said.
"Now, boys. You should look out for those traps. Some of them might have sensors that detect body heat. That may be why Nightshade mistook that room for a safe one." Sparky warned.
"There has to be another method." Blake said. "There is." Hunter suddenly said from the crawlspace behind Sparky.
"What?" Sparky said, turning around to look at him in the open crawlspace. "Ah, how did you get up there without me noticing?"
Hunter then looked at Sparky, and flatly said, "Because I'm like a ninja."
Sparky then mumbled incomprehensibly for a bit out of disbelief, and Hunter came down from the crawlspace. Blake looked on in confusion as Hunter paced around in thought. "Perhaps this is something that can be deciphered?" Hunter quietly mumbled. "Blimey! What's ailing you, boy?" Sparky asked.

Hunter thought around for a bit more, and lifted his head and looked at Sparky–his countenance looking like as if an epiphany came to mind.
"That's it! I think I know another way to find out whether a room is rigged or not!" He said, and Sparky flatly replied, "Describe this method."
"There are these...letters in the doorway," Hunter said, continuing to pace around. "It seems like...they are involved in some sort of code. Something that we have to figure out."

"Sounds complicated." Blake said, leaning against a wall and sliding to the floor.
"It is," Hunter replied. "It took me a while to decipher the reasoning behind it, and how this code works."
"Are you sure that it's accurate to how these rooms can be detected?" Sparky asked.
"Yes." Hunter replied.

Melody then looked at Blake, only to see–from the look on his face–that he was extremely anxious, and she walked over to him. He was badly shaking, and soon enough, he curled up with his face buried in his knees and broke down in tears.
Melody then recognized the need to calm Blake down, and crouched near him.
"Shh... It's okay." She whispered to him, stroking his hair. He looked at her–though in great reluctance–with tears streaming from his eyes.
"You alright?" Melody asked gently. It took Blake a while to get a grip on his emotions, and Melody got a quick glimpse of the name on Blake's shirt. After some difficulty in getting the name right, she managed to ask, "Bartok?"
Silence then filled the room. It was only brief, as Blake whined wordlessly soon after, which provoked even Sparky's curiosity.

"Bartok..." Melody said.
"I'm scared..." Blake uttered.
"Don't be. It'll be alright." She gently said. "Maybe I should–" Hunter said, walking forward a bit–being interrupted by Sparky when she lifted her arm in front of him to prevent him from interfering in the ordeal.
"It would be best not to. I believe she has it taken care of." Sparky said.

Soon after, and not far from the group's location, two Inuit Dragons–an elderly, pale tabby silver male who facially resembled actor Richard McMillan, and a young, ginger-coloured female who looks like she could be a relative of Amber Robson–entered a room that was dark blue in colour, with the male asking in a deep hoarse voice, "Say, how do you know my son's in here?"
Their uniforms–which only consisted of the shirt because of their dragonian physiology–read "Bartok" for the male and "Bernadette" for the female. Bernadette then looked at Bartok in response to his question, and replied with a Slavic accent, "Simple. I had some sort of dream, and I saw him."
"Seems doubtful." Bartok thought, looking around for a bit before he laid down. "But I still remember. He was barely two years old when I first found myself here."

"And confirm this," Bernadette said, standing on her hind legs and looking at Bartok. "Did your human self fall to a razorwire trap?"
"Indeed," Bartok sighed. "It was a rather dumb mistake that cost me my human life."
A door then opened behind the two, and the person inside the crawlspace was Hunter, and they looked at him in confusion–as they had never seen him before in their lives.
"Who the hell are you?" Bernadette asked in annoyance.
"Is that information important?" Hunter instantly–and sternly–replied. In a dissatisfied tone, Bartok whispered to Bernadette, "Do you really have to ask that question when he doesn't even know who he is?"
Before Bernadette could make a verbal comeback, Bartok–in frustration–whacked her in the back of the head with his wing. This only resulted in Bernadette growling aggressively at Bartok, and Hunter knew–from Bernadette's behavior–that she and Bartok didn't exactly get along.
"Calm yourselves down!" Hunter said to the two, entering the room with the door closing behind him.