One Exit

Chapter 1

Close your eyes and imagine this…

You have no idea who you are or where you came from. No memories, only general and academic knowledge. No matter how hard you try to remember, still nothing. Even after taking the longest trip to memory lane, again nothing. The part of your brain where memories are kept will forever remain like a blank sheet of paper except one thing, a number. Huddled up against hard, cold, wet rubble walls and concrete flooring. Well that’s what happens to this very unfortunate young boy.

The boy was shaking vigorously. All of a sudden he heard a great rumbling sound as he recoiled as far away from the wall as possible. A bright light shone through the dark and gloomy room. Astounded, he squinted his eyes as they adjusted to the light. After blinking several times figures began appearing. Stood crowded around him were seven boys and four girls, all looking to be around the age of sixteen or seventeen.

“496 A21” He blurted out, clearly stunned by his own actions. “What the hell was THAT?” He snapped at the closest boy to him.

“That may have been your number but you said five numbers and one letter” The boy across from him replied. “That’s very unusual. Why do you think that could have happened?” He said facing another boy “normally it’s only a two digit number.”

 “Give him the talk Alec before he has a heart-attack. Oh and by the way my name is Minho and yours is Ryder. I chose it so yeah you owe me one.” Minho sniggered and put his hand out for Ryder to shake but Ryder just stared at his hand. Just as Ryder was leaving with Alec Minho stopped him. “One more thing” He looked at Ryder with a serious expression on his face “this aint your lucky day”.

This caught Ryder’s attention and reminded him of his original question. “Where am I?” He asked in an irritated voice as he looked towards Minho.

“Looks like he’s a truculent one” Minho said looking towards Alec. Both Alec and Minho sighed while Alec pulled Ryder away from the crowd.

“Get your bloody hands off me you idiot” Ryder retorted.

“Just follow me” Alec said, sighing again, but he dropped his hand from Ryders arm. He looked slightly annoyed as though he’d done the same thing a million times over.

Alec lead Ryder out of the cold, damp room and into an overly large hexagon shaped room with six doors. One on each face of the shape. Four of the doors were open and two of them were closed. In the centre of the room was a circle. In it contained writing in an unfamiliar language to Ryder and symbols that merely held more importance than a simple line to him. There were wide tents set out everywhere in the room, the room being humungous managed to withhold such spacious tents.

“Sh*t!” Ryder exclaimed automatically as he accidently knocked over a pile of cans.He proceeded to follow Alec through an open door. As he looked to the top of the door frame he saw that the number three had been chipped into it.

Alec then stopped and spoke, “Look I know you’re probably scared and I know you’re definitely confused and angry but please just hear me out. Also make sure you pay attention because I’m only saying this once and leave all questions till the end. This place right here is a place created purely by mystery. Everyday a certain amount of doors open. Some of them usually contain food, drink and other supplies needed to survive. Every month in there will be a human in one of the rooms. Most importantly the rooms contain clues and puzzle pieces. In order to get the clue or puzzle piece we have to do the challenges that are set for us. Only then do we get the clue. The clues and puzzle pieces are exactly that. To help us figure a way out of here. At midnight every day the doors will slam shut and everything that was in the room gets pixelated including the room itself. You see every day there will be a new room with new challenges and new clues but behind the same door. We need to find a way out soon or anything could happen. We know that were reaching the end of this now, whatever this is, because every so often strange things happen that have never in the many years of us being ever occurred. Take you for example. Whenever a boy comes they will say a two-digit number and can never say it again or else they will choke. Hence the lack of people. Now you said a mixture of numbers and a letter and so we think and hope that you’re the last to arrive. If not then we’re doomed." He paused and sighed, then took in a long breath and carried on. “Anyway, so yeah we chose names for everyone. There’s been many others who have come over the years and the reason they’re not here is because either they’re dead or they never came in the first place. So in total the names of everyone here are, oh and their in order by the way as in who’s been here the longest and all. But don’t forget that many, many people have died in between. So as I was saying they are: Carlos, Minho, Flynn, Park, Sawyer, Vincent, Mai, Sami, Tiana, Tori, me, Becca and now you.

Ryder stood there as he took in all the information. After about ten minutes of silence he finally spoke. “Ok, first of all I’m not scared because I know this is just a dream and I’ll be waking up pretty soon and second of all… there was no second of all I just felt like saying it.”

Alec chuckled, “Honey, wakey wakey eggs and bakey. Did little Ry have a bad dream last night.” Alec cooed in a strange feminine voice. He then pinched Ryder and walked away.

“Jerk” Ryder mumbled angrily as went to take a look around. He walked out the room and stormed up to the person closest to him getting ready to demand some answers. “What’s your name?” He snapped angrily at the girl standing in front of him.

“Becca” The girl said. Her voice was low and soft. Her voice tinged with a bit of sadness as though she felt sorry for Ryder. Ryder heard the sadness in her voice and couldn’t seem to think of anything to say. Why would this girl feel sorry for me? She doesn’t even know me. He thought to himself.

They both stood there awkwardly, staring at the floor, when a girl from behind broke the silence. “Hey my name is Mai and you’re Ryder, I know cuz I helped pick your name. You must be hungry, come on” She grabbed Ryder and dragged him towards door four. When they were outside the door Mai picked up a plate of god knows what and handed it to him.

“Gee thanks” Ryder mumbled sarcastically. “I’d rather not” He added, giving the plate back to Mai and walked off. He sat outside door two and replayed everything that had just happened in the last hour, trying to figure out what had happened to him, why he was here. Why couldn’t he remember anything? All these thoughts and questions were flying through his head making him angrier and more frustrated by the second. He heard a loud rumble next to him and saw door four close within ten seconds.

He got up and walked over to a Spanish looking boy. “Hi, you must be Ryder. I’m Carlos” He said while giving a friendly smile.

“Where do I sleep?” Ryder retorted, suddenly realising how exhausted he was. Carlos looked disappointed at him for not being friendly back but pointed him towards a large tent. It was around four metres high and six metres in width. Ryder walked over to it and climbed inside to find night clothes, a toothbrush, a can of food and a few other essentials folded and put neatly into a pie at the far end of the tent. After changing and washing up he went to bed.