ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope
Author's note: Before this gets confusing (and it most probably will, mainly due to it's complicated plot theme), I must say the zero escape games and their characters belong to their creators (do we really need to say this in a site called ? anyways...) Since each chapter will be a repetition of the game from making a different choice, the chapter would be equal until the choice is changed, so for that identical part in the following chapters I'll be making a summary. This is the first chapter so here you won't have to worry about it. Also, this story was written before it was stated there would be a third installment of the series, so there will be inconsistencies with the plot, plus I wont be using Kyle or Luna's model. In here you can consider her the Delta character, even if I won't be using her for the 6 million announcement thingy. Anyway, enjoy!
Edited with the help of a beta reader
I was having a weird nightmare.
An Egyptian queen with pink hair was pursuing me holding a cleaver. As soon as I dodged her, a lion with 2 heads joined her and started launching bombs from his opened jaws at me. Suddenly I realized I was wearing a woman's swimsuit.
And then I woke up. With my head still dizzy, I looked around. Just one glance was enough to realize that, whatever horrible nightmare I was having, it would have been better if I hadn't woken up.
My name is Sigma. I'm your average college student, trying to get my Ph degree. One Christmas day, I was coming back from college when white smoke filled my car. I guess that's when I was abducted because I don't remember anything. It felt as if several days had passed but I couldn't remember anything from then. Maybe my nightmare had something to do with it. I couldn't tell. I got up still dizzy, my head killing me and by body really light. It felt as if I was high or something. Not that I'd know anything about that.
Really.
Anyway. Looking around confirmed my suspicion. I was locked up in a cell-like room. There was a small desk with a couple drawers and a chair, a bed with no sheets and a little place where… Was I supposed to do toilet functions? There was also a sink with a mirror, which suddenly gave me the chills and I stepped away from it. I couldn't tell why.
I stumped with the wall on my back and glancing at it, I looked through the small round window. I could see the outside. It was desert like, but with a red tint to it. Maybe it was due to the sunset. I looked a bit more through it while I played with my fingers on the surface of the glass. Moving my hands or fingers at random had always helped me to ease my nervousness. But that time it didn't help much.
Avoiding eye contact with the shadow in the mirror, I got close to the door. It looked like solid steel with no handle. I pushed and slammed my fists into it, but it was no use. However, I did notice something odd. Both my forearms were half covered starting from the wrist by a weird looking metal device. Closer to the left wrist, it ended in a watch-like machine, whose dial was off. In both sides, it had carved the Greek letter S. A Sigma, how appropriate. I turned my arm and checked it all. There was no opening. I tried forcing it open, but I had as much luck with that than with the door.
"Just what the hell is going on…" I laid my forehead on the metal door, trying to ease a growing headache, and cursed, asking for an explanation.
As if I got heard, the speaker next to the door that I haven't noticed till then gave me a startle. It was a digitalized voice. I couldn't even tell if it was a guy or a girl.
"Welcome to mars station nr 9, prisoner Sigma. Be noticed that, for your crimes, you've been sentence to attend the ultimate survival game. Be honored and thankful, since that attendance is the only thing delaying and maybe cancelling your death. Still, only the wise will be worthy and in 9 minutes, you will not."
"The hell?"
I stared at the speaker for some seconds until I heard a little beeping sound in my left wrist. The Dial was on and showed a countdown. 8:59, 8:58,… and so on. I stared at it for a while, but that only worsened my headache. I recall what the robotic voice had said. Survival. Death. 9 minutes.
I had no idea of what was going on, but I had the feeling I had to get out in order to know and since a countdown never meant anything good, I guessed I only had 9 minutes to do it.
Well, now 8.
7:59
7:58
Stop looking the damn device and think! How do I get out of here?
I looked at the speaker at the right side of the door. Below it there was a grey (like everything in the cell) metallic box with a slot that looked like the ones used in buses time ago, before the electronic public transport cards expire all the transport carton cards. I guessed a card was needed to open the door. I looked across the room. Maybe the card was hidden somewhere.
I checked the time. 6 minutes and a half left. Crap!
I went directly to the drawers at the desk. I sat on the chair to get a better access and inspect on it whatever I might find within the drawers. The first drawer was stuck. No matter how much I tried, so I gave up on it and tried the second. There was a folder with a paper in it. I gave a quick look but there was no card in it. While I did that, my legs gave a weird sound under the desk. It seemed my knee was rubbing onto something odd behind the desk. I looked it up and saw a little card pasted with duck tape. I quickly got and went towards the lock.
"Fuck!"
The slot was too big for it. Whatever that card was for, it wasn't for this. So I just put it in my pocket. On the third and last drawer I found a tech device the size of a book. The screen was off. I tried tapping it with my fingers, but it looked not powered. With a grunt I sat again on the chair. Then the speakers surprised me again.
"5 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."
"Oh fuck!"
I got up with a jump and rechecked the desk; there was nothing else on it. I looked at the toilet thingy, but there was nothing there either. I quickly looked at the bed and as fast as I could check the pillow and mattress, there was nothing.
"4 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."
"I'm trying, damn it!"
I went back to the desk and took the device again. I turned it and saw a little slot, then remembered the tiny card in my pocket and rushed to put it. It seemed to take me ages, even if it were just mere seconds. The sweaty hands didn't help much either.
The screen lightened. It asked for a 4-letter password. The tactile screen had a keypad, but surprisingly, there were Greek letters.
"Great, that helps a lot!" I grunted. I desperately attacked the screen with my fingers trying combinations of letters, but it was no use. I needed a code, a key or something that could help figuring what should I input. Then I saw the folder. I read the paper. Surprisingly, there was only one thing written on it.
Hell
"Could it be?" I imputed the word in the tablet, but it didn't work. Then I realized the H in Greek wasn't really an H. That word couldn't be the password.
"3 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."
I panicked. I didn't know what the message meant. I pulled my messy black hair with both hands and stomped my forehead into the desk in frustration. I stayed like that a full minute. I know because…
"2 minutes till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate room."
… that.
That was it. I was going to die.
"Raaaaaargh!" I yelled as hard as I could and suddenly, my headache intensified and an image flashed in my head. It was the round window. I had no idea what that was or meant, but I run towards it and pasted my face on it, trying to look for a signal outside, breathing heavily against the glass. I saw the landscape and then I recalled the first audio message.
"No way I'm in mars… Right?"
"1 minute till cyanide gas exposure, please, evacuate the room."
My hopes shattered. The only hope I had found was of no use. I closed my eyes and laid my forehead against the glass. The cold helped with the headache, but not with the mortal situation. I exhaled slowly, opened my eyes and gave a step back. Then I saw that my breath had made the glass foggy in an area. I blinked.
There was something else.
The foggy area receded until it disappeared, so I exhaled again and I could see it good. It was a Sigma letter that someone had drawn on the glass. Then I realized I had done that with my fingers at the beginning.
And then I knew.
I got the tablet and inputted the letters, Alpha, Delta, Epsilon, Sigma. The screen flashed with a green light.
Of course, ADES. Hades was the Greek hell. It was so obvious I could punch myself. But I had no time for that. In fact, the dial showed a number lower than 10. Furtunately, the device opened like a chocolate box and inside was the card I needed. Or so I hoped.
I dashed towards the door
"5 seconds till cyanide gas exposure. 4... 3…"
I inserted the card, it gave a beeping sound and the door opened. I got out, ending on my knees on the floor. The door closed behind me. I breathed with difficulty while I was kneeling. Then I heard someone clapping his hands in front of me. I looked up and saw some people staring back at me. The one clapping his hands looked amused at me, then he gave some steps towards me and offered his hand.
"About time you got out, man. I almost thought we would end up being just us 8."
Looking at the rest, I counted them. Including him, they were 8. I guess that made 9 people if you counted me, of course. I looked at his hand, not very sure of his real intentions, but it was clear he was in a similar situation, judging for the metal covering his thick forearms. I took his hand and I didn't even need to make an effort to get up. He just flexed his huge biceps and lifted me off the ground as if I weighed nothing. And last time I checked, I weighed about 200 pounds.
However, the man holding my hand was huge. Probably as tall as me but outweighed me by at least 50 pounds. And he was no shy about it. He was wearing a white tank top that fitted his torso like a second skin and some baggy black pants that ended in military green boots. He had clear blue eyes and dark long hair tied in a ponytail at the base of his neck, with some uncombed bangs of hair falling over his face. My eyes went back to his buff arms and then I noticed the symbol on his armband bracelet (lets call it bracelet for short) was an U upside down with the edges turned outwards. An Omega.
I saw him checking his bracelet dial, smirking, "Seems like you'll be the last to join us."
I checked my dial too and saw the countdown was in 0 and then it was off again. Then I looked behind me. I had gotten out from a door that was on the same wall where other 20 doors were. I could guess the rest of the people gathered in front of me had done the very same. Then I noticed. 20 doors and only 9 people outside. Did that mean that 11 people were…?
No way… "What the hell is this? Why are we here?" Nobody replied, "And where is here?"
Again no reply. I was going to press it when a woman with glasses and a labcoat shrugged, showing me both palms, as if saying it couldn't be helped. I saw a triangle on the side of her bracelets. A Delta letter.
"We're the same, we don't know more than you do," she explained.
A short white haired girl dressed in a short skirt and a long coat with no sleeves glared at me. The light reflex shined on her bracelet where I saw a curved line carved. A Phi letter
"Just shut up already! Geez, you piss me off," she spouted at me.
"Hey, what the hell!"
The doctor-looking woman coughed, "Please calm down. I'm sure we'll soon be informed of our situation. There is no need for hostility."
The glasses woman tried to calm down the situation but we all ignored her efforts, except someone wearing a leather motorist suit. He or she (I'll go with a He, due to lack of curves) was still wearing the moto helmet on.
We couldn't tell if he was looking at her but his voice sounded directed to her earlier comment, "Don't bother. Do you think we can be calmed with just that? Have you realized our situation?"
The helmet muffled a bit his voice, but I could tell he wasn't too old. He might even be my age. His bracelet had a straight-line symbol, an Iota letter.
A tall and thin old woman wearing a very elaborated flashy pink hair, lots of makeup, sunglasses and really wide long skirt used her cane to stomp the floor and make us all look at her.
"This is absolutely intolerable! I've never been made to wait in my entire life. I demand an explanation right now!" She barked. Her nose and mouth wrinkled as if she smelled something bad.
"Come on, obasan. If you stress too much, your heart will suffer. That's not good at your age!" a little girl told her while she grinned.
Wait, a kid here too?
"O-obasan? Inpudence! How dare you, little punk…" she trembled in rage, the hands showed next to the metallic bracelets white from grabbing her cane with all the strength she had. Those bracelets showed a circle with a line inside. The Theta letter.
The kid started laughing but both the laughter and the old woman's rage were halteded by a bald man in his thirties, hitting the kid on top of her head.
"Don't be rude to your elders!" he admonished her
"Ouch… big brother… that's mean!" she complained. Rubbing her black hair combed in 2 long braids. She was wearing a Chullo hat, those Peruan's knitted hats that had earflaps and whose long 2 laces matched the length of her braids. She wore also blue overalls and a red t-shirt. She couldn't be more than 10 years old and her bracelets looked huge on her, covering all her forearms, but still not loose enough to take it off sliding her hands. They had an M on them. A Mu letter.
The bald man giving her a speech about being polite and referred by her as her big brother wore a perfectly tailored suit and I just noticed that even when he hit her, his serious face expression didn't change, like a robot. What a creep.
The bracelets are shown under the suit only showed the letter for a moment, when he hit her. It was a B. The Beta letter.
A sad looking blond man was the only one not having spoken a word. Maybe that's what made me notice him, how ironic. He looked lost in thoughts and was staring at the floor with no interest whatsoever. He was wearing a black hoodie with sleeves rolled so his bracelets weren't bothering him. They had a triangle on them, but with the base not completed. A Lambda letter.
I was trapped with this bunch of weirdoes. I glanced around. It was a big room in a thick T-like shape. On my back were the rows of doors. In front of me there were 2 big doors with a different carving on each one. There were no windows to be seen.
Suddenly, everyone's attentions were grabbed by the electronic voice I had heard before in the room. Good, maybe now I'd get some answers.
"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the ultimate survival game. The nonary game!"
Before I could wonder why that game's name seemed to run a bit of chill down my spine, I heard a yelping sound from the woman in the long dress. The makeup didn't hide the fact she was scared. She knew something.
But I couldn't question her since the voice didn't wait.
"You can refer to me as Zero the second, or simply Zero, the gamemaster of the nonary game. The reason you're here is simple. Punishment for your horrible crimes."
That made most of us to shout back at the voice, but it ignored us.
"Don't try to deny your guilt. However, you've got a chance to escape with your life. Right now, you're inside of a locked compound that has only one exit. That exit connects with the ship that can bring you home. You must search for that exit. That won't be enough, though. You'll need the blessings of the gods so you get out in one piece. Without enough blessings, your bracelets won't get off and will explode if you try getting out with them on or remove by force or damage. A wrong door will have the same effect. However, that doesn't mean you can take your time. All the air inside the compound will be gone in exactly 9 hours. I'll be eagerly waiting to know who survives…"
We all started talking at the same time. Most of us with indignity, especially the old woman. We were confused and with a reason. What crimes? What game?
"This is stupid, I'm not playing by that zerojerk's rules."
"This is unacceptable! I demand to be released immediately!"
"Will be true that these things have bombs?"
The big guy approached the white-haired girl, "Hey you."
"I have a name, you know?"
"Which is…?"
"I'm not telling my name a suspicious guy I just met."
"Whatever."
"We should introduce ourselves. It's difficult to talk if we don't know our names," the glasses woman said to us. I pondered if that was a safe thing to do.
The white haired girl objected to that, "If one of us is Zero, we would be giving him too much information about us."
"Oh, man! Will you stop acting so paranoid already, Phi?" I couldn't help snapping at her. I mean, why was she so hostile with people she just met?
She opened her eyes wide, "How did you…?"
But the hulk patted my back, "Good idea dude! We can call each other by the Greek letter in our metallic stuff… Whatever they are called."
"Bracelets?" I suggested.
"Ok, that. I'll be Omega then and by that, I mean to be your END if you get on my bad side, you hear me, baldy?" he poked the suit guy on his chest. I hadn't even realized till now that they had been having an argument earlier.
Great, he's the violent type. Sigh... I revised the bracelet's symbols again until I had memorized them. One thing I've always been proud of was my memory. And it surely helped in exams.
I looked at Phi. For some reason, it felt as if I had known her before, but at the same time, I was sure I hadn't met her before I was abducted. When I called her name before, I mean, what we were being called now, it felt too natural. Was it possible for her real name to be Phi, same as I was Sigma? And how the hell did I know that at that time?
It made as much sense as the feeling that I was having of forgetting something important. I hated feelings like that and they irritated me to no end.
"So? What is this about?" I asked, "A survival game?"
"Do-don't ask me! How should I know?" replied Lambda. It was the first time I heard him talk. He sure was a nervous guy.
"Blessing of the gods? Interesting! I'll kick their blessing out of them!" threatened Omega with a sneer.
"How can you take it so slightly? This is too dangerous!" Delta looked about to cry but her glasses reflected the light somehow and hide her expression. Then she glanced towards the dial on her bracelet.
"Everyone! Look at your dial!"
I did as she said. The dial was on and showed several things. I stared at it and my vision became a bit blurry, like dozing off a bit. My headache worsened for a bit and I felt more like floating than ever.
I rubbed my eyelids until a little hand grabbed my shirt and pulled a bit. It was Mu. She smiled at me and I smiled back.
"Have you chosen already, Mr. Sigma?" she asked
"Chosen what?"
"On your dial you have to select a door, see?" she showed me her dial. It showed a greek symbol, Eta. I looked at the rest. All of them were looking at me, waiting. When had they decided to go along with this? Even the old lady had stopped complaining. Checking my bracelet dial, there were 2 symbols rotating, an eta and an epsilon. The dial had no buttons so I rubbed the screen to see if it worked and it appeared it did. The symbol stopped at the Epsilon. On top of it, I could see a timer 8:52:45 doing the general countdown.
"So…. What about the symbol we chose?"
"Isn't it obvious?" replied the old lady, "It's the choice of the door. That-" she used the cane to pint at the left door, "represents a drawing of the god Hermes, I suppose you can notice the wings and the caduceus. And that other one is the god of strength, Heracles," she pointed to the other one.
"Don't be a smartass now, you had to touch the engravings to notice that," complained the shy Lambda, although he didn't dare to make eye contact with her while saying so, and he even jumped a bit when she stomped her cane on the ground. I could almost hear a snarl from her.
"Let me tell you, young man, that my eyesight is not what it used to be, if it wasn't for my sunglasses, I couldn't even open my eyes!"
"Why is that so?" I asked, but she just shook her head, not willing to say anything else.
"So the ones with Eta (H) will be going through the Heracles door and the ones with an Epsilon through the Hermes door," stated Beta, stern as always.
"Aw, big brother, you have the door wrong!" complaint Mu, after checking Beta's bracelet.
"I see. Then behave till we get together again. You know what you have to do."
"Of course!" she smiled, and without waiting, got close to the right door. The door opened and she entered. The door closed behind her.
"Hey! Wait for the rest! Don't go alone!" I shouted running after her, but the door didn't open for me.
"Who else have the Eta?" asked Beta aloud.
Nobody replied, but Lambda, with his head down, approached the door and it opened for him. It hadn't closed yet when I walked after him. Then a hand grabbed my arm, stopping me before I could enter. It was Phi.
I looked at her with surprise.
"Do you really have an Eta?" she asked
I rechecked the dial. No, I didn't.
She checked it too and sighed, shaking her head, "You idiot. You're gonna lose an arm acting like that."
Then I remembered what Zero had said about entering a door that wasn't for us. I made a face and thanked her, but she just ignored me and went to the other door. It opened for her as well as for the rest of us. I was the last one entering and I gave one last glance to the other door, hoping Mu would be all right just with antisocial Lambda. A little kid enduring such a game…
After the door closed behind me, I could watch the room we were into. It looked very modern, almost futuristic. On one side there were lots of screens and dials and another door. At the other side, there were some lockers and a bench. In front was another door that had a locking device next to it. I assumed that was the exit. The device didn't have any slide holes for any card, just a little screen that had "locked" on it in red.
Theta was resting on the bench, although I guessed it couldn't be helped due to her age. On the other hand, Iota could. Instead, he was leaning on the wall. With his helmet on, I couldn't know where was he looking at, or even if he has his eyes opened at all, maybe the lazy bastard was taking a nap.
Well, I wasn't helping either, so I went towards the dial table where Beta and Delta were looking for hints. There was also a screen with a keypad below it but it wasn't on. Both looked busy so I didn't want to interrupt them. I decided to go to the next room over. After I closed the door behind me I became speechless. The wall in front of me was made of glass, and a very thick one I should add. It showed the outside. It looked like a red desert at night. There were no clouds in the sky and all the stars could be seen. I had to admit it really looked like Mars, but… that wasn't possible, right?
Phi was staring at a couple screens on the left side. They had keypads with them, but the screens were off. She was checking plugs and cables but she didn't found them. Maybe they were engaged from the wall or maybe they used batteries. On the right, Omega was staring at a console with several switches aligned in a grid of 3x3. Maybe switching them would help with the screens. I got closer to Omega and when I was about to tell him that, he started trying it on his own. But glancing towards Phi, I could tell he wasn't lucky. There was probably a hint or a user's manual around. If only I could find it…
Defeated, I went back to the first room and walked towards the bench next to the exit. I suppose I shouldn't call it just a bench since it looked more like a sofa. I left myself fall on it, and to my surprise, the fall seemed slower than I thought. I felt tired but I wasn't sure that was the reason. Mars (yeah, as if that could be true) has less gravity. Seeing things slower wouldn't be weird there. Right?
A sound coming from Theta distracted me from my thoughts. A grunt. The impact on the sofa by my butt made the other end where Theta was seated, to bounce. Although she was bothered enough to grunt, she didn't say anything else. I looked up towards the ceiling and closed my eyes for a second.
Or maybe more than a second. I might have dozed off for a while, cause some shouting startled me. Phi was talking with Iota quite loudly. I didn't pay much attention and didn't want to get involved in a fight, so I leaned in the sofa, trying to pass unchecked, sliding down and moving some cushions. A little sound brought my attention to my left side, where a cushion had moved. There was a little piece of paper. Looking at it, I saw a Sudoku puzzle almost done. There was only one number left in all the 9 main squares (meaning there were 9 numbers left to finish it), so it was as good as done.
A bit disappointing, really. I hoped that could alleviate boredom at the very least. Then, something felt different. As if it was important somehow. I couldn't tell why, but I got really excited. Also irritated since it seemed I became hyper for no reason.
"You, come with me!" I turned my head towards Phi, who seemed to have finished with Iota. She was glaring at me.
"What?"
"Come with me!" she insisted, grabbing me by the short sleeve and pulling me up from the sofa.
"Hey! What's your deal?" I complained while she guided me towards the second room, "And I have a name, you know?"
"I know… Sigma… your name is Sigma, right? I mean your real name."
Wait… "How the hell do you know that? Are you an esper?"
She frowned. "What's an esper?"
"…" I lifted a brow, but she was looking at me curious. I shrugged, "Nevermind. What do you need me for?" I gently pushed her hand off my arm.
"I need you to connect these switches," she pointed to the side where the grid of switches were.
"Me? Why me?"
"I don't know why, ok? I just know you can make them work."
"You just know… Same as with my name?" my eyes narrowed as I examined her confused face.
"Well…"
"Heh, that's not suspicious at all. Besides, Omega already tried them and they didn't work."
"That I did," he said from a spot on the wall next to the door, where he was leaning on. Both Phi and I jumped when he made us notice his presence in the room.
"Hey! Since when were you here?" I asked him
"I never left the room. But hey, don't mind me. It's more interesting watching you two argue than trying to fix those fuckers," he shrugged and pointed to the grid of switchers.
"Anyway, just do it, Sigma!" she pressed me.
"If you ask it that nicely…" I sighed
I turned my back to her and looked at the switches. They were 9 lined in 3 columns of 3, in a grid of 3x3 on the wall, with no indication or label on them. Did I have to just try and see? I opened 2 and waited but nothing. Maybe they just were broken, but there was no opening to change them. Nor we had any spare. I tightened my fists. How did Phi expect me to…
Then I noticed something in my left fist. Opening it, I saw the Sudoku paper. As I was looking at it, I could see the grid of switchers from the corner of the eye. A grid of 3x3…
Then it clicked. It seemed ridiculous, but could they be related? The numbers not input in each space could be the hint I was looking for. The up corner on the left needed a 5 to be completed. I checked the upper left switch. Instinctively, I opened it and closed it 5 times. My excitement grew as I went on with the other switches, following the Sudoku numbers.
After I finished with the most down right switcher, I heard a click and glanced at Phi, who arced her brows. Then Omega noticed the screen on the left of the room.
"Hey, you did it, dude! This bastard is on!"
"Yeah!" I cheered
"Not bad," Phi said with a half smile. Meh, the ice queen didn't even bother to give me a little hug of praise.
Yeah, a hug of praise, haven't you heard of those? Same as with kiss of agreement and cuddle of greetings.
What? I'm not inventing them!
At least not on purpose.
Anyway, the screen was on and from the excited voices we could hear from the other room, their screen should be on too.
In any case, we checked the screen and instantly, disappointment rose in our faces.
"A password?" complaint Omega
"9 digits no less," I added
"Well, let's try anyway," Phi suggested, starting to try random numbers.
I mentioned that it was possible the password wasn't only numerical, since the keypad had letters too. But she just ignored me. Omega and I looked to each other and shrugged. He went back to check her efforts, but I soon bored of it. From what had happened before, I had the feeling chance wouldn't help us solve any of the quests in the room.
I went back to the next room over. Beta and Delta were focused on their screen. They weren't doing anything, so I approached them, fearing another password, but it was none of the sorts. The screen was divided in two sections, the above part had 5 icons that looked like antennas with numbers below them. They were distributed in a 5 element formation like the dots of the 5 face of a dice, 4 in the corners and one in the center. However, they weren't numbered 12345, but 86420.
I still had the Sudoku paper in the hand but I couldn't tell how would that help. Looking below that part of the screen, in the second window were some commands waiting. And 5 squares with empty spaces inside and the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 next to each of them
Please, apply the complementary digital root rule and move the antennas the degrees needed for planet's position.
"What on earth…?" I asked aloud
"Complementary digital root," answered Delta. With her glasses on, serious face and her labcoat, she looked like a teacher about to give a lesson, "I guess you know what a digital root is, correct?"
"Hum… of course, but I bet you'll look cool if you also explain it."
Yeah, I have no idea what she was talking about.
"Ok, the digital root is the sum of the digits of a number over 10 until there is only a single number. So the digital root of 23 is 2+3=5, the digital root of 85 is 8+5=13, then 1+3=4. Only numbers between 1 to 9 can be a digital root."
I nodded. It was an easy math thingy. No biggie.
She followed the lesson; "The complementary digital root rule is applied to a single number by getting the number that adding to it, gives a 9. So, that would make 8 into a 1, 7 into a 2 and so on."
"So the numbers of those antennas…"
"Would really be 13579, as stated below," she finished.
I looked at the screen, "That makes sense with the numbers below, but I wonder why those numbers. I wonder what happened with antenna and 8…"
"Maybe they are in the empty spaces in between," she suggested.
"Huh?" she had lost me there.
"Just look at the icons above like this. Don't they look like making a 5 dot image?"
I nodded, still not getting it.
"Then imagine it wasn't a 5 dot image, but a 9. Wouldn't that make the empty spaces into the antennas not named?"
I agreed and nodded again. But I still didn't know how that could help… us…
9 antennas… 9 numbers… The paper!
I quickly checked the paper, in this case, just the 5 numbers that were not written in the corners and the center squares, 59634.
Feeling excitement again, I typed the numbers in the respective space and pressed intro.
Error. Planet not aligned. Please, select another angle.
"Shit, I was so sure of that answer…"
"Have you forgotten already what 's written in the request?" Beta scolded me, in a sneering tone.
Fuck you too, buddy.
But anyway, let's check the question again... hum… complementary digital root rule… ooooooh…
I quickly replaced the numbers by those which 59634 complemented a 9, 40365 and pressed intro.
Mercury aligned
Saturn aligned
Venus aligned
Jupiter aligned
Earth aligned
"Good work Sigma!" Delta praised me, but still no hug, meh. Also… another disturbing thing…
"Earth aligned? Damn…"
"But that shouldn't be true…" commented Delta, taking out her glasses and rubbing the glass with the coat clothe.
I was wondering what she meant, when the screen flashed and changed, leaving just one word.
ALIGNMENT
I smiled. A word of 9 letters. Nice. I knew exactly where to type it.
I went back to the second room and, ignoring Omega and Phi, sat on the chair and typed that word into the password space. After clicking intro, the screen changed and it was replaced by:
Hermes' room unlocked.
"Well done, Sigma!" finally Phi smiled broadly, if only for a moment.
"You're the man, dude!" exclaimed Omega, grabbing me by the neck in an armlock that for him should look like friendly, but with those huge arms, it almost choked me. After a whole minute messing with my hair, I was free to go.
We three reunited with the other 4 and after some praises from Delta (the other three didn't bother to even smile, not that I could see Iota's mouth anyway), we decided to get out and continue our quest for freedom.
We all got out of the Hermes room and ended in a hall. At the end of it, there were 2 doors. Theta quickly got so close she was almost touching the metal plaques with the images that would give the room their name. On my dial, 2 symbols were already spinning and there was something else that brought my attention. 2 things, actually. First, there were 4 little empty slots in the base of the dial and before the Hermes room all were off, now one was emitting a green light. I could guess that was the "blessings of the gods" we needed to disable the bracelets. There were only 3 dots left, making me to assume that there were 3 rooms left to complete before we could escape.
I grinned at the thought. It hadn't been so difficult to get out of the first room.
Then my smile vanished when I noticed the second interesting thing from my dial. In a corner where the numbers doing the countdown till 9 hours had passed, it showed 5:42.
My head started to spin, making everything else around me foggy. Had we really stayed in that room more than 3 hours? At that pace, we won't escape in time!
"Sigma!"
"Whah! Don't startle me like that!" I glared at Phi, who was glaring back at me.
"Don't doze off like that, then. I'm asking you what room you had chosen."
I glanced at the dial, the countdown numbers had moved to a side to leave space for the spinning symbols.
Wait.
Wasn't the countdown at 5:42? Why the hell it now said 5:37?
"I think my dial might be wrong…" I started to explain her but she just urged me to chose a door already. I made a face and pressed the dial, "It's not as if we could CHOSE where to go, right?"
"Actually…" but she didn't finish the sentence, as both stared at the screen of my dial until it landed in the Delta symbol.
"Delta, huh…" I looked at the doors. One had a fat guy drinking and the other one was a guy with a hammer and a fire behind him or something.
Phi noticed me looking at the doors and decided to make it easier, "Dionysus and Hephaestus. Gods of wine and craftsmanship."
"So I go through the Dionysus door… who with?" I asked the rest. I looked at Delta but she smiled, apologetic.
"Sorry, but ironically, I didn't get a Delta," she said, close to the right door. Beta went there too.
I walked towards the left door where everyone else was waiting, "You all guys have a Delta?"
Theta got her dial almost touching her sunglasses, "I'm not sure what's written here… what does it say?"
"It's a Delta too, grandma," Omega checked it for her
"Hey, watch your mouth, you punk!" she growled at him threatening with her cane.
"Uhhh… the granny is about to cane me, see how much I tremble. Or not. I'm not sure you can see me with the eyesight from hell you have, ha ha ha!" he mocked her.
"Come on, let's be friendly, we don't need to fight against each other…" I tried to calm everyone, but Iota decided to talk. His voice sounded deep behind his helmet and I could almost notice a bit of anger.
"Friendly? Hah! As if I could trust any of you. Who knows who of you will end being Zero!"
"Who of us? Wait, you mean…"
"That Zero is one of us. That makes sense," Phi agreed in a calm serious tone.
"Sense, how so?" I asked her. But she just bit her thumbnail, lost in thought. It was Beta who answered.
"The room puzzle was automatic. So were the announcement and the bracelet functions."
"But that doesn't prove it's one of us, I mean…"
"Don't be naïve, Sigma. If you trust people that easily, you'll soon find yourself dead," stated Iota. "In fact," he added, "You're the most suspicious one!"
"The hell I am!"
What the hell, man? Now I prefer this bastard quiet and asocial.
"Hum! How stupid. Young people nowadays think they know everything! In my times…" Theta started complaining but we ignored her.
"We are losing time," Beta announced, opening the Hephaestus door and getting inside, followed by Delta. Then I heard a lock after they closed the door. I hadn't noticed before that the entrance door stayed locked until you solved the puzzle, just like the exit one.
I checked my bracelet dial. It said 5:16. Fuck, Creepybeta was right. We're running out of time!
"We can discuss things later on. Right now we must go on. We have about 5 hours left!" I rushed the rest. No one replied, but we all went through the Dionysus door. I heard the click behind me after the door closed. We were locked inside, at least until we could find our way out.
Looking around, I noticed that if we had gotten a bit stressed out due to suspicion (as we all were), this would be the best place to relax.
If we had the time.
Which we didn't.
Crap…
The room looked like a pastime place. It had a billiard, darts, a table with chairs and a deck of cards and a big console attached to a TV. It looked like some kind of videogame. There was also a CD player to play music.
In front of me, on the opposite wall, was the exit door. It had the same locked little box but with a small round thing attached that looked like the visor of a microscope. Iota and Phi were checking it and I joined them.
"Looks like a retinal scanner," Phi stated, oddly hesitant.
"Do we need then someone to open it?" I asked
"Probably," she replied, "But I doubt any of our eyes can do it."
I looked at Iota to see what his opinion was on the matter. But of course he was being his usual proactive self by leaning on the wall with his arms crossed.
Whatever, asshole.
Theta was seated on the card table and was shuffling cards. But she was just doing that. I wonder if she could really see the card numbers. Omega was checking the music system, but he didn't seem to know how did it work.
I was thinking of helping him, but instead, decided to check another place for hints.
Or maybe later, let's see what his problem is.
I approached him. "Hey Omega, what's wrong?"
"This thing is stuck!" he complaint.
I looked over his muscular shoulder. The CD player was really weird. It looked modern from far away, but up close it looked like one of those old disc players. But the arm that gets each disk was stuck. I leaned into it, closer and saw something around the base of the arm that didn't let it move. I managed to snatch it. It was a piece of grey cloth. It had something written.
Omega took it from my hand before I could watch it, "Hey!"
But he ignored me, and then glanced at the dartboard. I looked at the cloth and saw a dart drawing on it and some numbers: 3x3x3
"The dartboard?" I asked, "Does that means making a 3 in the dartboard?"
"Only once? I wonder if…"
Without waiting for him to finish, I quickly dashed towards the dartboard. No time, no ceremony. Then, an electronic warning from the dartboard:
BEEP, player too close
I looked down, there was a semicircle going around on the floor, like those in a basketball field, but with the dartboard as the basket. I guess it was to avoid cheating.
Or was it really?
I took the three darts that were sticking to the dartboard. Maybe the first 3 meant throwing it 3 times. Looking at it, it seemed like a normal dartboard with the 20 numbers and the concentrically circles for doubles and triples. Without stepping away, I just took a dart and inserted it in the number 3, but again it beeped.
BEEP, player too close
"What the hell you doing playing darts?" Phi glared at me from the exit door
"Chill, girl. We found a clue," Omega informed her. She got closer and checked the cloth. We told her our thoughts about it.
"And that's why we thought of hitting the three 3 times."
"Hum… I wonder…" She bit her thumbnail again and got deep in thought.
However, we didn't have much time to waste. I stepped out of the semicircle, pointed and threw the dart.
Fuck, it missed.
I tried with the other 2 and nothing. The last one even went out of the dartboard.
"Oh boy, you're bad!" Omega laughed, "Let me try."
He took the darts and managed to hit the 3 once. He was still no good. I look at the rest. Iota was still on the wall, ignoring us. Phi was silently deep in thought and I didn't even bother with Theta. Her eyesight wasn't gonna help with her accuracy, to say the least.
We kept on trying. At some point, Phi snapped out of it and tried too, but she was even worse.
I don't know how much we played, but finally, Phi managed to hit a 3 three times in a row.
We waited, but nothing happened.
"As I thought, it wasn't that…" Phi commented.
"What wasn't?" I asked.
"The way you interpreted it. It wasn't three times a 3," she pointed out.
"Maybe it's 3 times a double 3 (a 9) or 3 times a triple 3?" suggested Omega.
"Or hit 3, 9 and 27 one after the other?" I added.
"Those are the only combinations that I can think off," Phi agreed with us. "I'll try hitting 9 three times."
"I'll try hitting 3 times 27, the triple 3," said Omega, which left me hitting 3,9 and 27.
I checked the time. Oh shit, 4:34. Have we really wasted an hour already?
We started the new strategy and each one tried our shots at the dartboard. It was complicated. Not only was it difficult, but also very time-consuming.
It didn't help when Theta yawned, "Why are you taking so long, kids?"
I could answer her in so many ways... All of them rude.
Then, Iota approached us and without a word, he took the darts from Phi (it was her turn) and without neither effort nor one miss, hit the 9 three times. We waited for a signal, but nothing happened. Then, he hit a 3, then a 9 and then a 27 but still nothing, finally he aimed for a triple 3 three times. That time it needed more than one chance to hit three in a row, but he finally managed to do it, to our astonishment. There was no time to congratulate him, not that he seemed interested, as he went back to his wall as if noting was happening.
And it was. The lower face of the device holding the dartboard opened as if it had a little gate and some tubes fell from it, landing on the floor.
Phi noticed they were connected, having the sides with marks that seemed to join and I did so, joining the parts until I had a 5 feet wooden billiard stick.
"Are they suggesting us to play billiards?" I asked.
"No shit, Sherlock," Omega said.
"There is a problem, though. Look," Phi pointed to the billiard table.
The three of us went there and checked the billiard. It had the 6 holes like normal, but the hollow from where the balls get out was sealed shut.
"Are we supposed to play without balls?" Omega asked Phi. "Maybe a girl could…" he added smirking.
"Idiot!" she replied him, annoyed.
"Maybe we can find the, hum, balls somewhere else," I suggested.
"Why, don't you have the balls to play?" laughed Omega
Oh dear god…
"I'm surrounded by morons," claimed Phi, lifting his arms in the air and getting away from us.
In any case, there weren't many places left for the balls to hide. Phi went towards Theta to check on the table and chairs and Omega and I went towards the TV screen and the game system attached to it.
Immediately we saw something off. The screen didn't light on. The game didn't seem to work either. Then Omega started hitting the screen.
"Hey! What are you doing?"
"Trust me, my Tv does the same thing all the time," He said, giving it another shove. I grabbed his arm.
"What if we have to fix it for us to get the balls and hitting it just breaks it and we become stuck in this room?"
He smiled and flexed his biceps under my hand ,"Hey, if u wanted to feel my arms, you just had to ask."
I'm seriously killing this braindead before we get out.
He got his arm away just in time for the outside part of the screen to fall on the floor, revealing the billiard balls inside. There were no circuits inside, it was just decoration.
I looked at him and he grinned.
Fine.
Ok, we had the balls, the stick, and the pool table. And no idea about what to do next.
I left the prizes on the pool table and went towards where phi and Theta were. She was ordering the cards on the table. On a closer look, I could see the cards had some lines drawn on them.
"It's a puzzle," she explained without glancing at me. I didn't say anything and left her to do it. Instead, I turned to her companion.
"Why didn't you tell us sooner we had a puzzle here to make?" I asked Theta, but she just grunted.
"I bet the grandma mole didn't see the lines," joked Omega.
"Shut it, punk!" She barked.
"Seriously, I wonder what the hell Zero was thinking when he abducted you," he wondered out loud.
"Well, what was he thinking when he abducted the rest? And why?" I asked him.
He stared at me confused, "The hell I know? I'm not a psychic!"
"Then what were you doing before you were abducted? What is the last thing you remember?" Phi asked him without looking at him.
But he frowned, "That's… personal," and he looked down.
What? I wouldn't have any trouble just saying I was coming home from college before I was abducted. Was Iota right and everyone was more suspicious that I thought? Was I too naïve? But he finally answered.
"Fine, It was about a job offer… but It's not as if I wasn't able to do anything else… I mean…" His white cheeks turned red. Was he getting embarrassed about it? I guess you can't judge a book by its cover. Well, that doesn't make him a bad guy. Or a good one.
Oh well, Iota would suspect the Pope, it seems.
Eventually, Phi finished ordering the cards and we saw the message. It was a drawing of the balls aligned in a particular way in the starting position.
I rearranged the balls as the drawing said and finally took the white ball and the stick.
"Then, what now?" I asked, but they just stared at me silently.
"Why don't you guess it again? You figured it out before suspiciously easy, why not again?" Iota said.
I blinked. I looked at him, then at the others, but they weren't looking at me in the face.
Wait a second…
"Are you saying that my luck makes me suspicious? How about you, being in a death place and looking as calm as to not do a thing?" I accused him.
"We shouldn't fight each other," Phi advised us, "Time is running short."
But she still didn't look at me to the face. Damn.
I positioned the white ball in place and with all the anger I could build, I gave it a big hit.
Crack!
Maybe I hit it too strong, cause 3 balls broke.
I swore.
"You must be stronger than you look, or these balls are made of shit," Omega commented.
"I wouldn't worry," Phi told us, "Look at the opened balls"
Opened? We looked and it seems they didn't realy break, but had something inside. 3 small pieces with indentations that looked like they would fit together. Phi joined them and when she finished, she had a golf sized white ball, with a little hole on one side covered by a circular blue glass.
"It looks like an eye-"
Wait a sec…
Immediately we all looked at the door-locking device.
"Let's try this," Phi proposed.
She put the "eye" in front of the scanner and after a couple seconds we heard a buzz and the display screen in the locking device changed to a green "unlocked".
Dionysus room unlocked
"We did it!" I exclaimed.
However, the rest weren't as happy as I was. Or at least, they didn't show it. Iota exited the room without a word. Theta did the same but grunting some complaints about us taking too much time and her hips giving her problems to walk. I expected that, however, Phi stopped next to me before getting out.
"You're quite good at this kind of stuff. Have you ever done this before?"
"What? How would I have done this before?"
"Well, it's just that… I feel like you had already, I mean…" but she bite her thumbnail and continued her path without finishing explaining.
Omega followed her and same as she had done, he spoke, "She's right, you're good at this."
Not you too…
"But I'm glad you are. If not, we could be stuck in that room forever," He smiled and continued his way out.
Huh. Well, look at that.
Oh well, it's not as if I cared what the rest think of me. I didn't even know them. Checking the dial, I grew impatient: 2:54. We had to hurry up.
I followed them into a wide hallway and then through another door. We ended in a corridor with 2 doors. Before I could check them out, I noticed Phi was looking back. There was another door not far away from the door we had gotten from. Maybe it was the exit of one of the other rooms the rest had been checking. Were we supposed to meet here together for this new choice of doors?
However, if that was the case, they were late. Lambda, Mu, Delta and Beta. What had happened to them? Were they ok? Were they trapped in a room trying to solve some puzzle? I couldn't tell.
"Sigma!" Phi startled me all of a sudden
"Hey, why are you shouting at me all of a sudden?"
The rest were looking at me, with an odd expression. Phi looked at me worried.
"Do you have any kind of sleeping or hearing problem?" She asked me.
"Huh?"
"Nevermind," She sighed, "Just chose a door already."
"Aren't we waiting for the rest to solve their puzzle room and join us first?"
"We did. But we already discussed to continue and if they follow afterwards, then great. Weren't you listening?" Omega looked at me as if I was the weird one.
When had we been waiting? We had just arrived here!
"We have less than 2 hours. We can't wait any longer!" Phi insisted me.
Less than-?
But my train of thought was interrupted for a second.
"What's the point anyway?" asked Iota
"Excuse me?" Phi, Omega and even Theta stared at him.
However I couldn't care less. I was looking at my dial in shock. What was happening to me? I was sure I had checked the time after we escaped last room and it said almost 3 hours!
I checked it again: 1:58
Maybe the stress was too much to handle. Or maybe there was something wrong with my head. I looked at the symbols spinning. Alfa and Zeta. I guess it didn't matter which one to chose.
"Chose already, boy! I'll die of old age at this pace!" complaint Theta.
"Will we really have the chance to get out and become older?" wondered Iota.
Omega shook his head, "Pessimism aside, chose already Sigma."
God, why are they so impatient…
Then I looked at the countdown again.
1:51
No way!
"Sigma!" Phi shoved my shoulder and I touched the screen. It stopped in the Zeta.
I looked at the doors. One had a bearded guy with a thunderbolt in his hand. The other had an almost naked young guy with a sun behind him.
"We'll go through the Apollo door then," said Omega, "Come on, granny."
"Hey! Wait up, punk, I'll teach you how to-" But theta's complaints were silenced after the door closed behind her.
"Those two never seem to agree. I wonder if they will be all right…" I pondered aloud.
"Why don't you worry about your own situation?" Phi advised me.
I nodded and followed her and Iota inside the god of thunder's, Zeus', room.
This time, I ignored the lock of the door after closing and directly inspected the room. Or was going to, but then there was a electronic voice on the speakers
Magnetic field generator offline, please, connect again in order to unlock door.
"Magnetic field?" I asked
"It makes sense. Mars hasn't a magnetic field like Earth. If we're in a Mars base, it's obvious we need a magnetic field to protect against the sunwind," Phi explained.
"Don't tell me you're buying it, that we're on Mars." I objected with some doubts.
She didn't reply to that, though, "Let's just search this place and connect the field so we can leave."
I nodded. I didn't even bother to look at Iota. I was fed up with the annoying bastard. Looking around, we could see that the walls were metallic and full of dials, buttons, displays and screens, though most of them off. The room was quite big, without windows and divided into 2 sections by a glass wall. The other section didn't seem to have a door to enter to but I could see through the glass a metallic machine the size of a truck and the shape of an octopus, with huge wires acting like tentacles and a secondary machine, that looked like a cylinder with narrow wires.
Next to the glass wall was a diagram with wires, levers and numbers. On top of it it had the label: Power on. Another part that picked my interest was a little flashcard. I put it in my pocket, you never know in which puzzle it might be needed afterwards. Then I joined Phi, who had found 2 things. A display with colored diodes and dials and a keyboard to do something with it and a screen with the label magnetic field generator control label on it.
"That's what we need to operate."
"Bad news, they are all switched off, the power is not working," she replied.
"On my side they were too, but there was also a display with wires that seemed to connect the power," I signaled to it
"You should have tried to activate it as soon as u saw it. I'm always telling you don't need my permission to- huh?"
"What are you talking ab-" I got as frozen as she had. We were looking at the power wires display.
Iota was there. He had ripped some of the wires from it and it's sparky endpoints pointed towards him self.
"You idiot! If you break the puzzles we'll get stuck here!" Phi finally reacted
"It doesn't matter. Nothing matters… Even if we get out, everyone will die… I've just seen it," He replied
His voice had a monotonous tone that sent a shiver down my spine. I had a feeling I knew what was he on about, "Hey, Iota… be careful with that…"
Then, Phi realized what I meant. I noticed she about to dash, but before she could give a step. Iota screamed, "If I'm going to suffer and die, I prefer to die here and now!"
And he threw the wires towards his chest. Sparks, another scream and a disgusting stench filled the space before us. When I could open my eyes, Phi was already checking the system, being careful with the cut wires and Iota was on the floor, a suspicious smoke getting from his neck. I gave some steps and kneeled down before his body.
I touched his neck with my finger and a little spark made my hand to jerk away. Cursing, I tried searching for his pulse again, but just as I had thought… I shook my head.
Why? Why had he committed suicide? It made no sense!
Phi let herself fall on the floor, "It's no use, the system is short-circuited," she stated, defeated.
"Then, the field generator control?"
"We can't operate it without energy. It's over," she replied
"It's not over yet!"
"Just look at your dial!" She barked at me.
I did so and froze. 00:04.
"What is going on? We've been searching this room just about 35 minutes tops!"
She narrowed her eyes, confused, "And I've been almost an hour trying to fix Iota's mess."
"No way… what's going on here? Why I don't feel the time pass normal?" I was starting to get scared. It was almost difficult to breathe.
She narrowed her eyes even more and rubbed her head, "What are… you saying… don't talk… so slow…"
*cough* "What are you talking about?" *cough*
Then she collapsed. I couldn't stop coughing, the air was starting to feel empty. It was like trying to fill my lungs without having anything to fill them with.
Why?
The answer came from the corner of my eye. I could see the dial with the countdown. It said 00:00
Game over.
So the game had finished and whoever not in the shuttle on his way to Earth was trapped in a base whose windows got opened and the air leaving the base.
It made sense.
No. Actually, it didn't. Nothing made sense.
Why were we here?
Where was here really?
Why us?
Why me?
Who was Zero?
Why did I have to die for a stupid game?
What was the purpose of this game?
Why did I knew Phi and where from?
Why had Iota killed himself?
If only I had done something earlier…
If only I had chosen another option…
The darkness engulfed me and I started floating into the nothingness.
END (Game Over)
Author's note: Not really the end of the story, but of THIS storyline (there will be more storylines/timelines, or chapter, as the main character makes a different choice... well, people who had played the games will know what I mean.
Also, I was going to use those long lines to difference scenes, but since the main character is always narrating things, it's a story that doesn't makes pauses from scene to scene. He mention the crossing doors, the description of the new room, etc. If it's confusing like this, please, do tell me in a comment or something and I'll try changing it. What I have used the lines for was to point out important points in the story, where if it was in game format, you would be able to make a choice there. For those I used a double line. Those points will be used for the starting point of following chapters, so you can use them for reference (I'll make a summary anyway, so it won't be really necessary to go to a previous chapter to know what happened so far, but only a summary of event needed for understanding said chapter).