Edward was confused … Cold and confused and scared. He didn't know how long he'd been here, but he'd woken up, alone, in a brightly lit room with metal, ice covered, walls and a large window across from him which lead into a darkened room he couldn't see into. The wall to his left was a giant puzzle board that made no sense to him. He'd spent a good while screaming for help, another good while trying to find a way out, another good while trying to solve the puzzle until he couldn't feel his fingers anymore and he sat down in the middle of the back wall, trying to keep himself warm, but it felt like all the warmth he had had been sucked out of him.
He was going to die in here … And what was even more maddening than the cold …. He didn't know why.
Kristen pulled up in front of what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. Before she could question whether this was where she was supposed to be, she noticed a large green question mark on the door. She cautiously looked around as she got out and approached the door, but there was no sign of anyone around. She found the door unlocked, and it creaked as she opened it into a dark room. She quickly found a light switch to her right, and flipped it on, switching on the old fluorescent lights overhead.
Directly in front of her, she saw a large window looking out on another room lit by fluorescent lights, though she couldn't see anyone there. She thought she caught a glimpse of some kind of puzzle board.
"Hello?" she called out nervously, feeling uncomfortably like someone trapped in a very cliche horror movie. "Is anyone there?"
"Kristen?" Ed asked, his voice shaking from how badly he was shivering. He forced himself to stand up, leaning against the ice covered wall.
"Edward!" Kristen gasped, running forward to the window, her hands pressing against the glass, which was freezing to the touch. He looked awful, his lips tinged with blue from prolonged exposure to the cold. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"C-cold …. I'm … Um …." He moved closer to the window. "I don't know h-how long I've been here … I c-can't get out." He said thankful that she was here but hoped this didn't put her in danger as well. "Call Jim." Edward said. "And then try to h-help m-m-me out of here …" he said looking around the room. "I don't th-think it-it'll be much l-longer before hy-hypothermia starts …" He said. He had to be coming close. He felt simultaneously hungry and nauseous at the same time … He knew that was how it started but he hoped it was merely nausea due to a lack of eating.
Kristen nodded, quickly getting out her phone. The message may have said to come alone, but she didn't see anyone around to make good on that threat. "We'll get you out of here, it'll be okay," she assured him, before Jim picked up the phone. "Jim, I found him," Kristen said rapidly, rattling off the location. "Please get here as quickly as you can."
Jim was shocked when Kristen said she'd found him, but he took down the location. "I'm close to that area, maybe twenty minutes away. Is he okay?" Jim asked.
"He's … in one piece, but showing early signs of hypothermia," she said quietly into the phone, her voice a little shaky. "The room he's in appears to be … refrigerated, and we haven't figured out how to get him out yet."
Jim was silent a moment, assessing the information. "Alright … See if you can find a way to get him out, I'll call for backup and an ambulance." He said ending the call abruptly. There really was no time to waste.
"Kristen." Edward said. "There's a small bag up there, but I can't reach it. Is there anything on your side to release the hook?" He asked pointing to the corner of the window on his left.
Kristen looked up in the direction Edward was pointing, and nodded. "There's a screw up there in the wall," she said, noticing a couple of conveniently placed steps for her to reach it. She quickly climbed them and turned the screw to release the item on the other side. "I take it you've already tried breaking the glass?" she asked, thinking over their options while trying hard not to panic.
The bag hit the floor with a clatter, chipping a bit of ice on the floor. "With what?" He asked as he picked up the bag and pulled out a small silver voice recorder. He looked up at Kristen a moment before he hit play, the voice coming through distorted.
"Hello Edward, I'm sure you're wondering why you're here. The game is simple. There are three ways out of this room. One is in a body bag. One is to solve the puzzle. At 9 o'clock the door beside you will open, at that point, you will be dead.
All your adult life you've been obsessed with winning, being right, being the smartest. Looking at every angle, every detail, but never taking your eyes off the prize.
Today we're going to find out if your compulsion to solve everything is your greatest strength ... Or your greatest weakness. Here's the riddle … Do you win or lose?" There was an odd distorted noise in the background of the tape before it cut off. The rewind buttons were removed so it was impossible to rewind it.
Kristen's eyes widened as she listened to the sinister distorted voice in the tape recorder. "This … This is insane," she whispered. It was like something out of those overrated Saw movies Deidre had made her watch. This was not something a real person would have to deal with. And what did the mysterious voice mean by three ways out? He had only listed two … What was the third one?
"What time is it?" Edward asked, going to the puzzle board. If he would be dead by nine, then judging by the temperature of the room which was marked on the wall with a thermostat, his body would completely shut down 20 minutes before that. 8:40 before he'd be unable to help himself 8:50 before he lost consciousness … 9 o'clock before he's dead.
"8:05," Kristen said, looking down at her watch. "There's a puzzle board on my side too .. Do you think we're supposed to solve it together?"
"I c-can't solve mine on my own. So I-I would as-s-sume so." He said. "There's no logic behind this puzzle. There's n-nine panels, one has s-six symbols, they look like b-buttons. One has a l-large red button, with a b-battery next to it, it says do not push. One has s-s-six wires, with f-five lights next to it, only two are lit. One has a l-large battery which can rotate and has a s-switch next to it. There's others too, what does y-yours look like? Panels like mine?"
"Yeah," Kristen said, craning her neck, to see the panel on Edward's side. No doubt the maniac who'd designed this had planned it that way. "Hang on … There's a book here. I think it may be instructions." Though it was so thick that they'd have a hell of a time finding what they needed quickly enough. She reached for the book that was chained to the wall.
"Then you may need to instruct me on how to solve mine. I'll tell you what's on mine, find the instructions and tell me what to do. We'll start with panel one." He said. "Don't bother coming to the window, going back and forth multiple times will take too long, we'll have to work with what we got." Though shortly after he heard something mechanical and a loud thunk. "What was that?" Edward asked.
Kristen stared at the wall straight ahead, thoroughly shaken. "Bars," she said, still processing what had just happened. "Just came down around me. When I grabbed the book." She was now surrounded by a narrow cage of metal framework, keeping her from moving more than a few steps away from the game board and she certainly couldn't get around to the side window to see his board. She took a deep steadying breath. "So I guess knockoff Jigsaw agrees with you. I won't be able to see your puzzle." She flipped open the book, forcing herself to focus on the task at hand, rather than being confined to a very small space. Edward's situation was far more urgent. "First panel," she said. "What is it?"
"Four buttons, Top left is a loopdey loo, top right is a k with a backwards k connected, kind of like an x with a line straight up and down the middle, bottom left is two sideways M's and the bottom right is a space invader pushing a wall." He explained.
Kristen frowned, looking down at the entry in the book for the first panel. "It … looks like there's multiple solutions for each panel." She read out the three solutions listed for the first one. "Is there … anything over there to indicate which one to choose?"
"No. I g-guess you'll have to find the option c-closest to what mine looks like. Is there's pictures? Come on Kristen, follow the instructions!" He said looking around the room a moment, panic starting to set in. Maybe she couldn't help him. But he couldn't let that doubt take hold, she was all he had. "You're smart Kristen, you can do this! Just think of it like one of my riddles! You solve those all the time. Don't panic and focus on what to do."
"Right," Kristen took a deep breath. They would never get out of this if they both panicked, and Edward was in the most peril. She had to stay calm. "Try this one…" She read off the sequence that seemed to correspond best with what he had described.
Edward pressed the buttons in the order she said, but once he hit the second button it froze. He jumped when he heard a quiet noise behind him. The pipe in the corner started to gush water, filling the floor with water until it was just above the sole of his shoes, not yet going into them or high enough to soak through.
"That's wrong." He said. "And water's coming into the room. It's stopped but it started when I got it wrong. Again, top left is a loopdey loo. Like a lowercase hand written L." He said. "Find the one with the hand written L in the first button."
"There's three of them." Kristen said. "Wait four."
"Okay, next to it is an X with a line through it." He said.
"Two of them." Kristen said. "What's under that one?"
"A space invader pushing a wall." Edward said.
"There's still two of them. Does it have two legs or three?" She asked.
"Three."
"Okay press the Sideways MM's. Then the space invader, then the loopdey loo, and then the x with the line."
Edward did so and a green light clicked on in the corner of the panel. "Okay that one's solved." He said moving to the next one. He opened the plastic cover on the button and jumped when water started pouring in again. It came up to his ankles and he groaned in pain as the warm water touched his frozen skin.
"What's happening?" Kristen asked.
"Nothing, keep going. Large red button that says do not push." Edward said.
"Is there a case over it?" She asked frantically flipping pages.
"Yes," He said moving his feet in the water. God it hurt so much.
"Just over the button?" She asked.
"Yes."
"Rotate the battery to an upright position."
"It is in an upright position." He said annoyed as he leaned against the wall. He felt like his body was slowly giving out. He wished he knew what time it was but didn't dare distract her.
"Okay hold on." She said flipping pages again. "Okay press the battery in."
He did so and the green light turned on.
They managed to get through six more panels, the water reaching up to his waist from their mistakes. "Kristen. We need to go faster." He said hitting a button on one of the panels by accident and the room filled a little more. "One more panel and you still need to solve your side … I feel like I'm going to pass out." He said, feeling tired but forcing himself to stay awake. "Come on …. One more panel."
"No passing out," Kristen said sharply. "Stay with me. Okay, describe the last panel to me."
"It's two orange plastic strips, they can move either way … There's a switch on the side and three lights on the bottom."
"Are any of the lights on?" She asked looking for the puzzle again.
"Two. One red one orange the other one is off." He said, he stood there waiting for the answer, resting his head on the panel.
"EDWARD!" He jumped, realizing he'd fallen asleep still standing against the board. "I have the answer wake up!" She screamed.
He nodded. "Sorry." He said.
"Slide the right orange one to the left, the third light should come on."
"Done." He said.
"Okay now twist the other one to the right." She said before he did it. "WAIT LEFT … Turn it left." She said as more water came in.
He shooked his head. "Done … Solve yours." He said hearing a clinking from her end. By the sounds of it the bars were raising.
Kristen let out a sigh of relief, feeling as if she were suddenly able to breathe as the bars started to retract. She quickly set about solving her own puzzle board, able to move much more quickly since she could actually see what she was working with.
Within minutes Kristen solved half her board but Edward was up to his chin in burning water, his head still freezing.
"KRISTEN!" Edward heard Jim as he burst into the door, three cops behind him, lights flashing from the entrance of the door, if Edward were fully coherent he'd know it was an ambulance, but he found he couldn't even think anymore.
'You're going to die. You shouldn't have trusted her.' That damn hallucination was back, leaning against the wall, the water clearly not an issue for him.
"Shut up." He said angrily trying to clear his mind. What was going on? Right … Room … Puzzle … Trapped … Tired … He wanted to sleep more than anything, wanted the burning pain to stop. He sputtered as more water came into the room, making him have to try to swim to keep on the surface. "KRISTEN!" He sputtered.
"I've got it!" Kristen shouted, finishing another panel on her board, the squares lighting up. "Just hang in there. I'll get you out…" She looked over at the window.
"Jim," Kristen said quickly, as he ran in. "The puzzle's supposed to unlock the door, but see if you can break him out while I work on it."
Jim already had his gun out and shot at the window, the bullets barely even scratching the surface. He turned to the three that had come with him. "Find some way to break this down, we need to get him or that water out of there." He said before looking at Kristen. "Keep at it, I'm going to try to get to his door." He said leaving the room. Time was of the essence. He got on his radio messaging the situation to Bullock who was on his way there.
"Kristen …" Edward said his arms and his legs so numb he could barely keep on the surface. "If I d-don't make it out-"
"Don't say that," Kristen insisted, a shrill edge of panic shaking her voice, as she stubbornly continued working the puzzle as fast as she could. "We'll get you out. I promise."
Edward felt the water shake and looked over to see them trying to break the window down. 'They're cheating …' The hallucination said shaking his head. 'Failing … But cheating.'
He gasped as more water started coming in bringing him closer to the ceiling. He only had two feet left before it filled fully. "Stop getting them wrong Kristen!" He said choking as he slipped under the water. When he came back up he felt like the air was even colder than before.
"I'm not!" Kristen said, trying to keep calm, but her eyes teared up as she entered in the next sequence as quickly as she could. Since she could actually see what she was doing, she'd been getting the panels to light up without error, but it didn't seem to be making a difference. "I don't know why the water's still coming in."
Edward's hands touched the ceiling as the water started coming in continuously, his wet hands sticking to the frozen metal before he peeled them off again. He had a foot left.
Jim came back into the room. "It's no good, you have to solve the puzzle." He said feeling useless in this as he came up to the puzzle board. There had to be a way.
Water was starting to pour out of the bottom two holes in the window that was near the top but not enough to make a difference. He wouldn't have much more air.
"There's just two more panels," Kristen said, her hands shaking so hard that she dropped the book. "Damn it," she hissed, bending down to snatch the book back up, flipping frantically back to find her place and enter the sequence into the second to last panel.
Edward was practically laying in the water, barely able to keep his face above the water. He had maybe a minute left before it filled fully.
"Come on!" Edward said panicking.
"Almost there!" Kristen said, punching in the final sequence on the puzzle board, the last panel lighting up … But still she heard the water coming in. "Wait, no," she hissed. She'd finished the puzzle … What else did she have to do? Looking down to the side, she saw three levers. One was blue, one red, one yellow.
"There's three levers!" she shouted. "Red, blue, and yellow! Which one do I pull?" She flipped frantically through the book, looking for anything about the levers, but it seemed to only deal with the puzzle boards.
"Pick one." Jim said watching as Ed was about to run out of room.
'Which one?' The hallucination asked. 'Tic tac tic tac.' He said standing on the floor under the water, tapping his watch.
"BLUE!" Edward yelled before he had no more room and the water reached the top. He started struggling as he slowly sank down, unable to breath and having nowhere to go. His lungs burned, and his head spun. His vision blurred, and the edges turned black.
He was going to die, and what scared him the most was the thought of Kristen raising his son alone … That he wouldn't be able to be with them.
'If she even bothers raising him.' The hallucination said into his ear as he struggled. 'He'll be alone … You trusted her and she failed, what makes you think you can trust her with him?' The black around the edges of his vision got larger and larger, his body struggling and flailing in the water, as if that would help him, until he fell unconscious, his body sinking towards the floor.
Kristen grabbed the blue lever and pulled. She heard a click as the door unlatched. Turning to the window, she saw Edward had already sunk halfway to the floor, his body unmoving and unresponsive. "Edward!" Kristen shouted, banging on the glass before running to open the door. Please, she couldn't lose him like this …
Jim was out the door as well, as the current from the door knocked the three he'd brought for backup out of the hall. Jim pushed through the current the water was creating, holding onto the nooks in the wall to bring him closer to the door to Edward's prison. He got in as the water fully drained from the room and Edward lay unconscious and unbreathing on the floor.
"I NEED PARAMEDICS IN HERE NOW!" He yelled, pressing down at his chest and trying to get him to breathe.
"No…" Kristen choked out in a sob, tears running down her face. She knelt down on the other side of Edward, trying to stay out of Jim's way, and took his hand, which felt freezing to the touch. "Come on, Edward," she whispered desperately. She hadn't been fast enough, hadn't been smart enough … But she'd been so close. He had to make it. He just had to.
The paramedics came in, and Jim immediately moved out of the way. They took over, trying to get him to breath as they started other tests on him as well.
"Heart beat is faint." He said. "We're going to lose him if we don't get him breathing." The man performing CPR on him didn't even break the pattern as he compressed Edward's chest over and over again. A few moments later Edward's entire body seemed to spasm, water coming out of his mouth as he coughed. They turned him onto his side so that he didn't choke. "We need to get him out of the cold." He said to the other paramedic there.
Kristen nodded, relief washing over her. She knew Edward wasn't out of the woods yet, but at least he was breathing. She got out of the way so that the paramedics could move him. "Thank you," she said, looking up at Jim gratefully. "I'll go to the hospital with him, and keep you posted." No doubt when Edward was safe and conscious, Jim would want to ask him a few questions to try to identify the bastard who had done this.
"Holy shit, what the hell." Jim looked up at Bullock who appeared in the doorway but moved out of the way when two people brought a stretcher in. "Who the hell would target Ed?" He asked, wondering what the man did to piss someone off. Most likely annoyed the wrong person at worst ….
"Not now Harv. We'll worry about that once Ed's safe." Jim said as they lifted Ed painfully into the plastic stretcher.
Edward looked like he was barely conscious but he looked at Kristen. "You did it …" He said weakly.
Kristen took Edward's hand in hers, relieved to see him at least somewhat awake. "I should have been faster," she said quietly. But at least it looked like he was going to be okay.
Edward looked like he wanted to respond but was unable to stay awake and passed out once again. They removed him from the room, carrying him out on the plastic stretcher and brought him outside. It was cool out, but definitely much warmer than that freezer was.
Kristen followed the paramedics out, determined to stay with Edward, to be there the next time he woke up.
They quickly set about removing his clothing as another paramedic pulled an actual stretcher from the ambulance and brought some blankets over. They removed his wet clothing, and wrapped blankets around him.
Back in the room, Jim was looking around and spotted the soaking wet tape recorder. He handed it to Bullock who put it in an evidence bag.
"Hey Jim." Harvey said moving to the middle of the room. He picked up a metal key that was on the floor and held it up.
"A key?" Jim asked taking the key. He closed the door, the locks falling into place.
"HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Harvey asked, not wanting to be next in the puzzle. Jim shoved the key into the lock and twisted, the door clicking open.
"He had a key the entire time …" Jim said. "Why couldn't he see it? It was right in the middle of the floor."
Harvey shook his head, staring dumbfounded at the key. "I don't know … Ed's usually detail-oriented to a fault. How could he not have noticed that?"
"Kristen said he was hypothermic by the time she got there. Maybe he wasn't thinking clearly?" Jim asked putting the key in another evidence bag. "We'll have to ask him when he's better." He said as the forensics team came into the room. They left through the hall door as Ed was being lifted into the ambulance. "Did you notice he was wearing a GCPD jacket?" He asked Harvey. "He doesn't have access to those anymore … How did he get it?"
Harvey frowned darkly. "You don't think the perp could have had one, do you? I mean, yeah Ed can be an irritating pain in the ass, but … who could he have pissed off enough to go after him when he'd already been fired?"
"Maybe they didn't do anything to him before because he worked for the GCPD." Jim said. "He was our best forensics officer … It would have, and did, hurt us to lose him."
"Maybe," Harvey said, shaking his head. "I mean if he annoyed even me with my saintly patience," he said, a slight note of sarcasm in his voice. "I guess he could have pissed off someone else enough to do this … And right now it sounds like the best lead we've got. I mean, his ex and her charming boyfriend may have enough of a grudge, but … I'd say this level of planning and creativity is beyond them."
"Yeah they didn't look like the most intelligent bunch." He said shaking his head.
(A/N - Yes, we ripped off keep talking an nobody explodes. So sue me. We felt it fit. lol. - please leave a review!)