Escape

Chapter 6

Rinco
We woke up and found out that another month had passed. We did not regret using that time as we were well rested, and hopefully could get past this floor today, hopefully even further. If we could have this rest every time we fight a battle, I would have been very confident we would made it out of this obstacle maze. However, I knew that these luxuries were hard to come by. But we cannot lose hope, not now.
I spent some of the time during breakfast thinking about how it would be if all of the twelve Questers were together. It would have been easier to defeat the soldiers, of course. It would also be very confusing and chaotic. Especially with Emmiera to have more people to make fun of. I think we were better off as two subgroups. For now.
After preparing what we needed taking what we could from the shelves of food, we set off, leaving the comfort of the room.
Surprisingly, no obstacle met us on the way to the staircase to go down. We were very grateful for that. We would have an easy way down then.
As we all know, there was never an easy way out. What we discovered was that there was no staircase. In place of the start of the staircase was a riddle on a cobblestone, carved with intricate drawings all over it.
Great. So we had to solve this.
Riddles, they suck. However, this one was so easy I solved it right away
Pull once correctly you will kill, it said, and I knew what it was.
"Gun." I replied and the floor opened up and sucked us in.
We ended up on the third floor and boy, we were relieved! We thought that we were going to go somewhere else.
Suddenly, the walls started getting closer and closer to us. The ceiling got lower. I eyes widened in shock. What was happening? Then everything stopped and two doors appeared on either side of us.
"Out now!" Ernest cried and we opened the door in front of us. Or at least we tried to. The door could not budge no matter how hard we pushed and there was no lock we could pick. This meant that we were getting the wrong door. Bummer, but there was still the other side.
So we tried the other side and we got the same result. The truth hit all of us like a twenty pound sledgehammer. We were trapped in.
"There must be a way out." Vanessa said.
I did not reply. It seemed unreasonable that whoever created this place will keep us in here. I thought the whole point was to escape and save our friends? How were we going to do that now? This was some kind of test. I looked up at the too low ceiling and thought hard. There were metal bars connecting the two doors.
There were metal bars connecting the two doors.
Of course! However, I could not be sure. Some things are just too confusing.
I told Ernest to open the back door, which he did reluctantly. I could tell all of them were waiting to die in this place. But we could not give up just yet. While he was pushing the back door (he could not open it) I pushed the front door. And I fell forward and I also heard a thump from the other side. We had opened the doors.
Eryn
We trained and I was getting fitter everyday. I took notes on the strange happenings, hoping I could find an answer.
What I found was very disturbing. We were really living in twisted realities.
Simulations, they were not actually simulations.
They were real.
The first few were not real of course, just to test the system.
But when I saw Rinco. That, was real. They changed the appearances of them using some technology. We were immortal when in the simulations, but not Rinco and the rest of the masked alliances. That meant....
I killed one of Rinco's friends.
I was a killer.
Eryn Keyan Naylor, a killer.
If only we were aware during the simulations, we would have known. These months I have been researching during my free times. We created traps, riddles, a whole obstacle maze.
One thing I knew.
Rinco was in it.
Rinco
The problem was, which way to go? We asked the others to keep the doors open while we went to explore. Turns out, it did not matter which way we went, because both were the same. We chose to go by the front, as it seemed more logical. The five of us went out of the door.
Every time, I liked Jonathan even more. The way he spoke, the way he made us happy by telling jokes. He was the one who kept me going. I wondered what was wrong with me.
This time, he held my hand as we first stepped out of the claustrophobic room. He smiled at me and my heart soared. He smiled at me!
I chided myself for being stupid and pushed the topic to the back of my head. Our main priority right now was to find a safe place to rest and get through whatever might be waiting for us.
I was prepared to die, just like Kin. This place was dangerous. I think this whole thing was rigged.
And it was.