The P.U.L.L || #Wattys2017

Chapter 23: Loop

Joshua, Rick, and Emma, stared in amazement as they stared at the hallway in front of them. The light that has just turned on illuminated the white hallway that seems to extend at a great distance. The hallway seemed to be air-conditioned since the three of them shivered in coldness.

"Let's go! We have to get those clues as fast as we can!"

"Wait! Something tells me that there's something in this hallway." Emma suddenly exclaimed. "It seems like I've been here before, but I don't know when. In any case, we have to be cautious. This hallway just doesn't feel right."

"Thanks for informing us in advance." Joshua smiled in relief. "Well, I guess we cannot run on this hallway."

"Okay, let's go!" Rick agreed.

The three of them walked casually as they observed the surroundings around them. Joshua and Rick didn't know what to be cautious about, still, they still believed what Emma had told them.

We didn't know what's going to happen, so being cautious might be the best course of action. Rick said to himself.

"Wait! Guys, stop walking." Joshua said out of the blue. "Are those, by any chance, the things we need to be cautious about?" He said, pointing at something on the floor.

"What? There's nothing there, Joshua." Rick commented.

"No, look closely." Emma interrupted him.

 A very thin string could be seen three inches from the floor.

"I-is that a trap?!" Rick exclaimed.

"Um, I think so. Anyway, I guess we should avoid it and continue." Emma said. "We should focus too, Rick. We can't let Joshua do all the trap-spotting for us."

The three of them continued walking as they looked around for more traps. Unexpectedly, the hallway seemed to extend as far as the eye could see, making them worry a little bit. They had been walking for quite sometime now and the only trap that they always see is the piece of thin string.

After walking for the same distance, they saw the piece of string once again.

"Guys, I think we're walking in circles." Joshua suddenly commented. "I know that we see the path in a straight line, but I think, we're really walking on circles."

"Really?!" Rick exclaimed in disbelief. "So that means, we were just wasting our time here in this place!"

"Yeah, I think so." Emma agreed. "But that would be quite inaccurate, Joshua. I think rather than going in circles, we're going on loops."

"Wait?! You don't mean, once we walked to the end of the room, we get teleported back to the start or something like that." Joshua responded.

"I think that's what's happening, otherwise, you can't explain why this hallway looks straight." Emma told him. "But anyway, we should get out of this loop as soon as we can. We don't know what might be happening to  us if we stay here."

"So, you mean, the only possible explanation for this stuff is a pair of portals with one at the start and one at the end." Rick confirmed. "So portals really do exist?!"

"Why are you reacting like that?" Emma asked him. "It's not a good time to be celebrating, you know."

"Besides, we weren't even aware that they existed just a few minutes ago. Although the portals that Emma concluded with still have a possibility to be false, but for now, we have to take some course of action establishing the fact that portals do exist, or we won't be able to get out of here" Joshua agreed to her.

"So, what do we do?" Rick asked.

"We only got one choice, I think we should activate the trap." Joshua suggested.