Escape

Ward

In some where there is a small room that is filled with totally darkness and silence. "KATA!" An old TV is open up. The light of the television become only light that lights up the room. After a few seconds of snowflakes screen, a children's folk goes on. But with a lot of noise from the broken loudspeaker, the bright rhyme becomes horrible. With the song, a puppet riding a small tricycle goes into the screen. Then it begins to talk.

"Marks, you are a successful reporter. You reports reveal the darkness and become the torch for the world. People consider you as a hero. But is that true? Let's see."

With the same sound of switch, a light on the roof illuminate the man on the chair with its pale light.

When Arthur wakes up, he can see nothing. But he can feel he is tied on a chair. It is strange. Arthur thinks. He can feel the passion to laugh seems left his body. He does not want to laugh now. Where am I? He tried to move his head. In the next moment, the old television opens. Arthur watches the puppet talks about some man called Marks. It seems that it found the wrong man. He thinks. But it's an interesting scene, is it? His face wants to laugh again. No, no. He controls it successfully. After the TV closes, the lights turn on. Arthur stands up; the things that tied him on the chair are disappeared. He finds that he is in a big ware house. He goes close to the television. The television is very old. There is ash on it. He goes to the back of the TV. He sees something silver in the shadow made by the TV. He picks it up from the table that holds the TV. It is a Walkman. It is a silver rectangle that can be hold with his hand. There are some buttons on it that can be used to control it. The front part of it is a position to put tape in. Who will use Walkman in this year? It is 21 century. The maker of the room must be nostalgic. Arthur laughs out happily. He stops laughing soon. He can see there is a tape in the Walkman. Arthur pushes the button with a small triangle on the Walkman. With some small sounds of machine, it begins play the tape. A husky sound goes out from the Walkman. Arthur knows it. It is the sound of the puppet in the TV. "Congratulation! You find this Walkman. But I am sad to tell you, some kind of chemical is injected to your body, and it's killing you. You have to find the way out the room in 40 minutes, or it will kill you. So, good luck! "

If it is telling the truth, why I cannot find any unusual? Arthur feels even better than before. He goes to see the chair that he sat. There is a small syringe under the chair. He pulls up his sleeve and finds a small red point on his skin. It is telling the truth. I am in a really interesting situation. He laughs. Arthur decides to go on and find way to escape. Put everything in his pocket and go on.

He walks pass the TV. There is a passageway made with few connected shipping containers. At the end of the way is a door. Arthur walks into the door.

After Arthur walks into the room, the door close with a loud sound, then the room becomes silent again. Arthur starts looking around the room. The room is much smaller than the warehouse. The ceiling is low, and a lamp tube connects to it with two wires. In the center of the room, is a puppet sitting on a small chair. The puppet is the one in the TV. Its face it totally white with red blush. It's wearing a black suit and a small red bow tie. Its eyes ball is black, and the pupils are red. Arthur will not be scared by this weird puppet unless it jumps to his face and bites his nose. He finds that the puppet is holding a tape. He put the tape into the Walkman and presses the play button.

"Hello, Marks. If you can hear this tape, you did not give up. Then, listen to the game rule."

"You can see a machine that is working."

Arthur looks to a machine near him. It is of the size of a washing machine. On the top of the machine, there is a circle whole with the size of a dish. He can even put his head in it. Some kind of mechanical is working in it. Arthur walks to it. He can see there are two rows of gears that connect closely in it. Although the gears are not turning very fast, it has a strong power that can shred woods or even iron.

Near the top of the machine is a timing clock. The time limit is 5 minute and it is running down. Near it is a gravimeter. The hand of the gravimeter points to zero.

"This machine can shred things and open the door to the next room for you. You need to put things that are heavy enough to it. Once you put over 15 kg. The door of the next room will open. If you think you are clever. You can cut the power down. Then the clock will stop and the machine will never start again."

Arthur is looking around for something that can put into it. He can see an iron cage on the ground.

"The cage is welded to the ground, but in it is an anesthetized Tibetan macaque. The monkey weights 10 kg. Maybe you can put something else into it. For example, the chair under me. Luckily, it exactly weights 5 kg."

Arthur picks up the newspaper on the knees of the puppet. The title of news on the first page is "They are not just your dinner!" Under the title is a photo of a small monkey in a cage with the eyes of despair. The reporter of the news is Marks Howard.

"You make the poachers the most humble job in the world with your pen. You call the people who bought things made of wild animal "the rich executioner". But in your trips in the name of interview, you enjoyed number of dishes made of protected animal. Your wife's wardrobe has more than one fur coats. You saw the animals being killed but did nothing."

"Now, you get the chance to be a true executioner. You can use the animal's life to exchange for your survive. Make you choice Marks."

The voice stops at the point.

Arthur keeps reading the newspaper for a while. The newspaper seems more interesting than getting out of here. He raises his head up from the newspaper. "It would be useful for the girls but not for me. I would put the monkey into the machine if I really need."

"But, do I really need?"

Arthur walks straight to the chair. He seems found the method. But what he does next is a little bit creepy. He puts of the puppet's suit.

"This clothes is so goooooood!"

"It does not fit you, bad puppet. You need to be punished."

He pulls one leg of the naked puppet and walks to the machine. The gears are working in it. He puts the puppet into the teeth of the machine.

With the sound of breaking, the number of the weigh raises to 2.5 kg.

"The total weight of the puppet and the chair is 7.5 kg, exactly half of the needed weight. So delicate." He smiles.

Arthur found something strange from the second he walked into the room. The lamp tube that is hanging from the ceiling is lower than normal.

He steps on the small chair and uses the suit to cover the hot surface of the tube. After the continuous twinkle of the light, the room turns to dark. Of cause, the lamp is, like he guessed, more heavy than usual. He walks straight to the machine in the dark: the noise of the gears makes it easier to navigate in the dark. He puts the lamp into the machine. The countdown goes to zero at the second. The room turns to totally silence. The only thing Arthur can hear is his breath. He does not actually know if the machine is simply powered out, or he completes the game.

But he does not really care about it, he can always find a way. Like he thinks, a door opens, and light comes from the door. With no doubt, he walks to it.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction from the Saw world which is trademarked by James Wan. Jigsaw Killer is a character created and owned by James Wan, and I do not claim any ownership over them or the world of Saw. This was created for a school assignment, not for financial gain, and is not a part of James Wan's canon.

Also part of the design of the room is created by a Chinese novel called Jingson Leyuan by San Tianliangjue.