The Mystery Eight

Chapter Eight: Brain over Brawn

The first group was Nissa, Alexis, and Devin. The second was Jarvis, Tara, and Damien.

"Some stupid shit always has to happen." Devin mumbled under his breath,

"So now what? We lost the other half of the group." Alexis stated

"We keep moving forward, that's all we can do. Hopefully we all meet up again, or whatever remains of us." Nissa said as she lead the way, and the other two followed.

On the other side

"Great, I'm stuck here with a stupid bitch who will shut down and let someone die, what could go wrong" Jarvis said in a snarky way.

Tara looked down, she felt bad for what happened back there, and didn't mean to shut down. She felt determined to make it up in some way, no matter what.

Damien started walking away, in the only direction that was available to them, Jarvis followed him and Tara procrastinated before walking, staying further back intentionally.

They proceeded up the hall, and came into room that had a platform, which someone had to stand on. A rope was going through a hole, which connected to the other half of the room, similar to the last one they were previously in. There was glass splitting the rooms, and each had the same platform. Not too long after, the door opened on the other side across from Damien, Tara and Jarvis. Walked through was the other half of the group.

Nissa's eyes lit up with excitement seeing the others as she walked through the door. The moment her eyes fixed on Tara, the anger within in her grew like a forest fire. Her jaw tightened, and she gave her a dirty look. The doors shut in both rooms, locking them in.

"In this task, a person from each 'team' will have to step onto the platform, and lock their arms and legs up. Once each person is locked in, you will begin. Each team will have to pull the rope to save the person that has been selected on their side. As you pull, a saw blade will lower from the ceiling above, and split the opposite teams selected member in half. If you don't end one of their lives before the timer ends, they both will die." The voice echoed in both rooms.

Devin looked down and took a deep breath, "To make this easier, I guess I'll just volunte-"

"No. I'm sorry Alexis but it's going to be between you and I. He's a male, and he has a better chance of holding up the strength on our side compared to the two men over there. It's the most logical thing we can do."

"I-I understand." She gulped.

"How do you guys want to go about this? Maybe you could rock, paper, scissor it out? I don't know how else you can do it without this turning into an argument." Devin injected his opinion.

"Whatever, that works." Nissa put her hand out ready, and Alexis did so too.

"Okay, you guys can do best out of three, you guys go at your own speed and I'll just watch."

They started, and Nissa lost the first one

'It's okay, only one, I still have a chance to make this up.' Nissa thought.

The second round went and Nissa lost it again.
The next one started and Alexis lost, along with the next.

"Okay, this is the final one, whoever loses this, goes up. Best of luck to both of you." Devin spoke.

On the other side with Damien's group

"So who is going up?" Damien asked.

"It's not me, so I don't care. I already told ya asses what was what before we got here." Jarvis said, and cracked his knuckles.

"I'll go up." Tara said quietly. "I deserve to be put in the position I put Daniel in. This is to make up for what I did, and if I live, I'll continue to make it up to him." Tara stepped up and Damien helped tie her in.

"If it helps your conscience at all, I understand why you shutdown." Damien said to her as he was tying her legs up,

"What do you mean?" She looked at him, confused by what he said.

"Everyone acts like they could have made the brave decision if they were the ones in your position, but I didn't see any of them offering to step up and do it. All I'm saying is it's different when you're the one up there."

He finished up and was tying up her last arm

"Thank you." She said quietly, and Damien finished up her final arm. He looked around the room and saw something that stuck out to him and he got an idea.

Tara's legs and arms were spread out because of how the restraints were set up, And she was tied up like an X. Tara looked up, and across from her was Alexis. Both Devin and Nissa were tying her up.

"I'm sorry that it's you who has to go up" Nissa said. Alexis looked away as her arm was tied up by her.

Devin was on her last arm, "Nissa, come here."

She went over to him, and he whispered to her,
"Go down by the rope, and be ready to pull it right when we start, giving us the upper hand on them."

Nissa stepped down, and got ready to pull, and right when Devin finished tying her up, she yanked the rope, and fell forward.

"What the?" She stood up and looked over, seeing Damien had already wrapped his end of the rope through a hook that was in wall, giving him leverage. Damien timed it so right when Nissa pulled, it would make her fall forward letting go, allowing him to pull freely with no one on the other end to stop him. He pulled the rope, and it slipped out of Nissa's finger tips.

"NO!" Nissa screamed, thinking all hope was lost. The blade lowered from the ceiling, and was spinning at high speeds above Alexis' head, ready to cut into her skull, like a knife through butter.

Just before it went all the way through, Devin jumped and his foot stopped the rope, catching Damien off guard. Devin grabbed it and pressed his feet on the wall and pushed off, pulling Damien towards the wall, evening out the tug-o-war again.

"That was too close." Devin sighed, but kept a tight grip and was stilll pulling back.

Nissa got up and started helping him, Damien's grip wasn't enough to resist the force they had. He was slowly sliding into the wall between them, and the blade began to lower over Tara's head.

'Think, think! what can I do' Damien's thought.

As he slid closer and closer, he looked around trying to find something to assist him.

In one corner was Jarvis, with his arms crossed just watching everything happen with no care at all. His eyes soon came across another hook in the ground close to the wall where the rope went through.

'Well, that's my only chance, or she's going to die no matter what.'

Damien risked it, and went towards the wall, causing Nissa and Devin fall back releasing the rope. He then pulled the rope through the hook in the ground, then the other hook in the wall. Devin and Nissa quickly grabbed the rope and were being dragged across the ground. Damien had the upper hand now, he pulled and used all of the might he had in him, until he fell forward; A bloodcurdling scream bounced off the walls behind him.