"Life or Death Comprehension Quiz," The sheet of paper read.
"Statement 1: The word "onomatopoeia" is an adjective.
Statement 2: The square route of 100 is 35.
Statement 3: World War II began in 1901.
Statement 4: Hydrogen has an atomic mass of 1.
Statement 5: 12 x 9 / 2 + 7 – 45 14
Statement 6: The word "adamant" means unforgiving.
Statement 7: Mixing baking soda and vinegar is a physical reaction.
Statement 8: "I" before "C" except after "E".
Statement 9: The first president to live in the White House was George Washington.
Statement 10: Dmitri Mendeleev created the first chemical."
Jenna was clueless on every one.
Ben sighed, the thrill of the future kill sucked out of him. This was really dull. He would rather be watching snails race. Or perhaps when he came home – Oh yes! – He could watch his video collections of the flatlines he had caused. He never taped them during the actual flatline; that would be too suspicious, but it was easy enough to film it after hours during a playback. Up and down, up down, down, down, down… beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep…
But there was no was no time for the beep now. Jigsaw said this time he had to flick the power off once The Girl figured out which switch was the correct one, hopefully resulting in her flipping the wrong switch in the darkness. He peered through a small peephole, gazing through to The Girl behind. She was rolled up in a ball, rocking back and fourth, the paper crunched in her hand. He brow was damped with sweat, and, from what little he could smell from behind the peephole, her bodily functions had activated at inopportune moments. Faintly, he was reminded of his days peeping in the Girl's Locker Room.
Jenna had decided long ago to go with number 5. The operations were somewhat basic, and from what little math she could do without a writing utensil, it sounded close enough. She was rocking back and fourth because she wasn't 100 sure of the answer. She sat like that for another minute, her mind drifting away to whatever plane of thought it drifted to, and abruptly returned, wanting to be free of the terrible fear. It was time. Jenna reached for the fuse box tentatively.
"Live or die," Jenna's memory echoed a voice saying, "Make your choice."
Ben saw The Girl stand, almost ready to flip her chosen switch. "Beep," He whispered lovingly, and flipped the light switch.
Darkness embraced Jenna suddenly, and for a moment she thought she was dead, she had chosen the wrong switch, died, and this was the afterlife: eternal darkness. Then her senses dispelled that thought almost immediately; she still felt the cold temperature, her hand hovering in midair, her sandals on the concrete. She attempted to steady herself, reaching in the general direction switch number 5 was in before the lights went off. She decided to flip the first switch she touched; she no longer wanted to be in this horrible hell. Part of her wanted the end to come soon, as nothing could be worse then the anxiety of knowing that if you made a mistake, the slightest mistake, you would die.
And with that thought she flipped the switch.
The light that had disappeared before returned instantly, the illumination bathing the room in an eerie quality. The door had opened as well.
Looking at the fuse box, the fourth switch had mistakenly been flipped instead of the fifth. Whatever the answer was, number 4 was correct. The fates, it seemed, had sided with her to bring her thus far.
"I, I did it," She proclaimed as tears of joy escaped her almost instantly.
A faint feeling reminded her that she had not won yet, 'she had won the battle but not the war' as they say, but that whisper of thought was silenced as she looked at the next room.
It was a straightforward hallway, no visible traps, roughly ten yards long with a door at the end. "EXIT" had been spray painted on the door.
Overjoyed, Jenna sprinted to the exit door.
"Damn," Ben signed as he witnessed The Girl's success. He headed through his door as his counterpart had moments before, and found another note.
"Benjamin," The note read, "This is your last chance. At the end of this hallway is a switch. Flipping the switch will activate a micro stun gun hidden in The Girl's pocket, resulting in her death. On the other hand, in The Girl's hallway, on other side of the room, is the exit door. Opening it, as promised, will activate the device in your mouth and result in your death. If you manage to kill The Girl, your exit door is adjacent to the switch. Both you and The Girl must run the same distance, and the first to cross the "finish line" is the victor, while second place is dead last."
Adrenaline flowing, Ben sprinted to the switch.
Jigsaw leaned forward in his chair, gleefully watching the last few moments of the game play out.