The Beige Room

Chapter 11

As soon as the door to the next trap opened, an unanticipated cold breeze wafted in their direction. Yuno stared at the door in horror. They all knew the next trap was not going to be fun. The group advanced towards the door wanting nothing more but to just get this trap over with. Archer was still holding his hand whimpering in pain. He had pulled off one of his scarves and wrapped it tightly around his injury even though it did very little to ease the pain. Everybody's clothes except Archer's were still sopping wet. The group proceeded to the door carefully and entered the room. Once the last person had managed to hobble into the cold room a huge metal door slammed shut. The room was covered in ice with with dull white lights on the ceiling giving the room an eerie glow.

They were locked in a freezer. The walls of the room were lined with shelves of frozen meat. The water from the previous trap was already cold but with the freezer added on top of it everyone was shivering already, except for Archer who was still letting out slight whimpers from his hand. Nala let out a small shriek grabbing the back of her head. Osiris walked over to her and saw that it had started bleeding again. He asked Archer to lend him a scarf so he could wrap it around Nala's head. Yuno just stared at Nala with contempt, still angry at her. At this point Kalum had wandered deeper into the freezer where no one could see him. Greyson began whimpering.

"It's so cold in here!" He said

"Yeah we know that!" Archer replied.

"Shut up! You don't understand my pain you are not covered in icy water."

At this Nala slapped Greyson right in the face. "Stop complaining we are all cold!" She said. Greyson started crying silently to himself. "Why me? Why was I the one chosen to complete these horrific tasks?" He whimpered. Everyone was silent. Osiris just stared at him angrily pondering about how selfish Greyson was. Until his train of thought was interrupted by Kalum.

"Guys come here!" He yelled. Everyone began scrambling to the center of the room where Kalum was. He was looking at a round platform with a large piece of raw, bloody, and tender meat. Around the piece of meat were six metal handcuffs of varying sizes.

All of a sudden the intercom blared to life.

~Glad to see that you survived the last challenge. You all must be very cold. Here are your instructions. in front of you there should be a large piece of meat with handcuffs surrounding it. When you place the handcuffs around your wrist it will inject a special vaccine into your blood. After this announcement is over a dangerous gas will filter itself throughout the room. If you do not have the handcuffs on it will kill you. The meat is also very important. Somewhere in the center of the meat lies a key. This key is the only way you will be able to get out of this freezer. Since you have handcuffs on you must tear through the meat with your teeth to get to the key. Be quick before you all freeze. You will have thirty seconds to apply the handcuffs before the gas is released, Good luck~

Everyone raced to the closest set of handcuffs, desperate to survive the next challenge. Kalum got to the first set, and everyone quickly found handcuffs of their own, but not before Greyson shoved Osiris out of the way of the handcuffs closest to him. Archer winced when the cold metal of the handcuffs touched his mangled hand. Yuno let out a squeak when the needle pierced into her flesh. The others, not wanting to show weakness, remained silent while the needles injected the antidote. An audible hiss came from a small hole in one of the pipes that ran across the walls. Greyson began to complain. " Geez, Archer, you could have saved us faster back there! My suit was completely ruined thanks to you!"

"Well, I apologise. I was a bit preoccupied with the fact that my hand was about to be mutilated by the steel clamp of death!", Archer retorted, his face red with anger.

Osiris interrupted the tension with the sound of ripping sinew and muscle from his attempt to rip open the meat. "I think we have more pressing matters on our hands right now, guys. We don't know how long this antidote will last, so we need to get the key as quickly as we can!"

This effectively shut them up. Soon the only sound in the room was that of tearing flesh as they all tore through the meat. Yuno tore through the flesh with her fingernails and teeth, spattering blood on the cold white table and her face.

"Umm, Yuno?", Osiris questioned

"Yeah?"

"How are you getting through the meat so quickly?"

"Well, um, there are a lot of certificates for 'best fighter' in my briefcase. Maybe I was trained?"

"Oh," said Osiris, slightly creeped out that Yuno, the sweet and adorable one, would tear through raw meat with such efficiency. It almost looked like she enjoyed it. He resumed searching for the key, still slightly unsettled.

"Found it!" cried Yuno triumphantly. She raced over towards the door, trying and failing to insert the key into the lock. "It doesn't fit!" She said mournfully.

"Maybe there are other keys in the meat," observed Archer, who was having difficulty tearing through the meat, he couldn't keep it still enough to rip through it with his teeth. Yuno walked back to the table with the meat. Once pristine and white, the table was now dripping with blood from the meat. Greyson was in the corner, emptying the remains of his stomach.

"Greyson! Come and help us here!", called Archer.

"Ugh, I can't tear through that disgusting meat! It's just so..." he said, shuddering.

"I can kind of relate to that,", agreed Nala.

"So can I, but we don't have time to be disgusted with this. We need to find the right key before we freeze to death!", exclaimed Osiris. Everybody begrudgingly trudged back to the meat and started to rip into it with renewed vigor. Everybody sat in silence, the only sound in the freezing room was that of tearing flesh, fat, and ligaments.

"I found another one!", Nala yelled triumphantly.

"Try it!", said Archer. Nala tried to insert the key in the lock, but again, the key did not fit.

"Maybe all of these keys don't fit. I wouldn't put it past the creator of these traps to make it impossible to get out," said Osiris.

"I saw some bones in this meat, maybe we could pick the lock on the door with the small ones," added Archer. He turned toward the meat, reaching in to find any small bones that could be used to pick locks. After a couple of minutes, they had found several possible candidates that could pick the lock. Archer gathered the bones in his hand and walked to the door. He shoved one of the bones in the bottom portion, then took a slender bone and began wiggling it in the top section until one by one, the pins in the lock clicked into place. Archer turned the knob, and the door swung noiselessly open. Warmth flooded into the room. Everybody ran out of the freezer and into the hallway.