ZERO ESCAPE: Last hope. Ch6
Author's note: This is it, ladies and gentlemen, final chapter. As so, I'm not gonna post a summary and then what's different, but the whole storyline from the begining, seeing this is the correct path that should have been chosen from the begining thanks to past storyline events that warns main character from deviating from this path and ending... as he had ended in previous chapter.
If even so you rather just read what's new, then it should start at the middle of the document more or less...
I'll use Bold writing for stuff he remembers from previous timelines.
And why not, all this universe and characters belong to it's creators.
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.
"If one of us is Zero, we would be giving him too much information about us," objected the white haired girl.
"Oh, man! Will you stop acting so paranoid already, Phi?" I couldn't help a bit of 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 of a bit. My headache worsened for a bit and I felt more like floating than ever.
I suddenly opened my eyes, just to see an image in my head. It was my bracelet and it had the Eta symbol. I blinked and my head felt about to split in half. 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 was about to rub it to check when another painful sensation made me close my eyes again. Another sight appeared in my head.
It was Phi and she said something, "Actually, yeah, you can choose the symbol if u do it carefully."
I shook my head. What the hell was that? I glanced at Phi, but she was not close at all and looking in the opposite direction. Had she just spoken to me?
I looked back at the screen and checked the spinning symbols. For some reason, The Epsilon irritated me, as if I had seen it enough, so I carefully pressed the screen in the Eta, where it stopped. On top of it, I could see a timer 8:52:45 doing the general countdown.
Ok, I had chosen the symbol… and?
I looked around, "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 point 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.
There was something weird about that girl and although just thinking about her made me feel scared, I had all my instincts telling me to follow her. I ran after her, but before I could reach the door, Phi grabbed my arm.
I looked at her with surprise.
"Do you really have an Eta?" she asked
I rechecked the dial. Yeah. I showed it to her. She stared at it for a moment
"Weird, it wasn't that before..." she looked confused.
"Huh? Before, when?" Now I was the one confused.
She stared at me and then, she bite her thumb. She finally shook her head "No, that didn't happen, right?"
I didn't get what she was talking about but she just let me go and turned around "Just don't be reckless, ok?" she said in a low voice
What? I was going to press the issue when Lambda passed next to me and opened the door. I gave a quick glance at Phi and, turning around, I followed Lambda.
I heard the door locking behind me. I looked at it for a couple minutes, but no one was following, so I supposed they would be going through the other door.
Lambda and Mu were looking around so I did the same. It was a restroom. There were benches, shower stalls and toilet stalls on both sides of the room and in front, another door. I opened it and peeked inside. It had machines and weights like a gym. I guess that fit the room's name. At the far end, there was another door, locked. I guessed it was the exit.
I checked that area first. There were 2 treadmills and a couple bicycles. The bench press was loaded with just a long bar, but no discs. Those were ordered on a rack with weights that went from ½ pounds to 20. On the bench, there was a folder with a paper on it. The paper had a diagram drawn. 4 cubes with numbers inside. On the other side of the paper, there was another drawing. There were 4 vertical lines That bifurcated and joined (or not) with their neighbor line until they reached the bottom of the page and on each ending, there was a number there were numbers too on top of the 4 lines and what looked like a handle before the first bifurcation of each 4 first lines. That sounded familiar, I've seen puzzles like those, you have to decide where to move the handle to let the quantity flow to one side or the other so the quantity at the end of the line was correct. For example, if u have one line the bifurcates and has at the top 20 and on each ending 10, u know u must leave the valve looking down so half of each quantity goes to each side. If it was 20 on the left and 0 on the right, you know the valve must look to the left. Easy. But when there are more lines that tangle with each other, it gets more complicated. This one was easy and at the same time not. Easy cause there was only 4 valves. Difficult cause half the numbers were gone, although there were spaces that suggested if a number had 2 digits or whatever. Well, with just a bit of time I was sure to solve it. What I didn't know is what for.
There were other machines there but I notice when checking on them, that the slot where the metal piece that secured the weights was gone in all of them. I wondered if it was important. On the wall, there was a poster with the human anatomy on it. It had letters written in different places, like A on the left arm or F in the ankle. I didn't give it much thought and went back to the shower area. Lambda was checking the toilet stalls while Mu was checking something on the floor. She seemed to be struggling to get something, but there was a metallic fence on the drain.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"There is something behind this, I can't reach!" She explained
I looked at it, but the holes of the fence were too small for a hand to get through, even one small as Mu's. About a foot down I could see the shapes of something round, like shiny marbles.
"There is no way we can reach them without hands…" I thought aloud, the holes seem just big enough for the marbles to pass… hum…
I left her to thought that up and I joined Lambda in the stalls, he seemed to be struggling too.
"What are you doing?"
"Nothing!" he screamed.
I gave a step back. Holy shit, what's with him? I haven't noticed him much till now, but he really seemed a very nervous person. Maybe the pressure of being trapped was too much for him.
"Are you trying to open the toilet?" I tried to sound friendly, but he got defensive.
"Why? I can't?" he sounded defiant.
"Ooook, whatever you want…" I backed off towards Mu and her drain problem.
She was on the shower stalls trying to open them, but no water came from them.
"Weren't you trying to get the marbles?" I asked her, surprised how she had given up already.
"I am!" She assured me "I only have to get water to fill the drain and the marbles should float to the surface. They are shiny, but I bet they are made of plastic."
"Good idea! But…"
"Yeah, there is no water…" she sounded defeated
"And we can't get it from the toilets, Lambda has been trying to open them but…" I added.
"What's that?" she looked at the folder under my arm
"I found it in the other room," I showed her and explained about the puzzle drawing.
"Oh! So maybe if u solve the puzzle we'll know of the combination of valves to make the water flow?" She said like it was obvious.
Damn, Why hadn't I thought of that already. I didn't notice before that the shower stalls were 4. I patted her head and put myself to it. It wasn't easy so it took me a while. Just before I was done, she asked me bored.
"Are you done yet? If we can't get water that way, we can always kill that dead weight on the toilet and use his blood instead…"
Wait, what?
I looked at her with my brows touching the top of my forehead. She started laughing.
"Hahahahaaaaa, you should have seen your face…"
Creeeeeeeepy joke… damn kid.
I finished and got the combination of valves and we used in the showers, as soon as the last valve was on, water started flowing. Their individual drain was stuck, it seems, as it soon started to overflow and reach the main drain. 5 minutes later, the small spheres were at hand.
"Heh, they are the size of eyeballs…" Mu mentioned
Why would anyone compare anything to that? What's with this creepy kid?
Jeez….
Anyway, they were indeed made of plastic and could be opened. Inside they have some pieces of paper. 5 papers:
A=10
B=15
C=20
D=15
E=5
Run= 30 minutes
Right there, Mu stopped peeking over my shoulder and glanced at where Lambda was in a stall.
"Hey you, why don't you go to the treadmill and start running, Just having to be 30 minutes more is more than enough."
I was impressed at her being so pushy.
"You stupid brat! Why should I do what you say?" Lambda replied with his voice almost trembling.
He had a point. But Mu just looked at the ceiling, as in deep thought, then shrugged and went inside the toilet stall, closing the door behind her. I could hear some noises. Then Lambda's voice.
"Ok, ok, I'll do it!"
He sounded terrified. And when he went out of the stall, he looked so pale that he seemed almost like a dead man. Mu went out after him, smiling innocently.
"What did you tell him?" I asked her astonished.
She looked at me confused
"Huh? Oh ,just the truth. If he's doing nothing why is he even alive? I mean, he's gonna be useless? then go die, old man…"
I couldn't believe such words were coming from someone like her. But she didn't seem like she cared.
"So, what's next?" She asked me as if nothing had just happened.
I shook my head. "I have a little idea on what to do with the new numbers, but first, I want to check if the other side of the paper is useful."
"You mean the number referring to the toilet stalls?" she asked as if it was obvious.
It wasn't obvious, damn it!
"You already figured it out?" I asked surprised
"Well, one side of the paper showed 4 things in that wall," she pointed to the wall where the shower stalls were, "So it's easy to deduce that the other side of the paper refers to 4 things in front of the 4 mentioned on the other side," she pointed at the toilet stalls.
"It… makes sense…"
I went towards the first toilet and checked the place. What the hell!
There is no toilet paper!
Ok, now seriously, there was nothing aside of the toilet and the string on top to flush. Since the toilet was unmovable, maybe it was the string the one I had to use. Maybe flushing the number of times specified in the squares of the paper?
I did so. 4 in the first one…. 6 in the second one… 2 in the third one… And the last one, 8!
Just when I finished, the toilet opened. I heard other noises from the other stalls. A quick peek confirmed it. Now they were all opened.
"Good job, Sigma!" She cheered for me.
I looked at the toilets, attached with cello tape on the inside of the opened sides, there was a metal prong. I immediately knew what was it for. I collected all of them and walked towards the next room over. The water had already stopped flowing on its own, so that what something we didn't need to worry anymore.
Lamda was running on the Treadmill. I checked the timer it had in the panel. It said 16:35. I guess we still have about 14 more minutes to finish the puzzle. Probably with time to spare. I checked the papers again.
A=10
B=15
C=20
D=15
E=5
Run= 30 minutes
And then at the poster on the wall. Yeah, the moment I had seen the ABCD letters in the paper, the poster came to my mind. They had to be connected.
In the poster the A was in the left arm, the B in the chest, the C in the upper leg, the D in the lower leg and the E in the back.
I quickly spotted the machines for biceps, quadriceps, calves and lats. The bench press was the one for chest so the discs will be the ones stating the weight. Yeah, I believed the numbers referred to the weight that should be adjusted. It was the only thing I could think about that made sense. I used the prongs for the weights on each machine and the discs on the bar.
Then everything was ready, except for Lambda, who still needed 5 more minutes to finish. So we waited.
The moment the timer read 30, there was a click coming from the door and we heard an electronic voice from the speakers.
Herakles room unlocked.
"Yay!" Mu jumped from excitement while Lambda just fell to the floor exhausted. I was just eager to get out of there and get away from those 2.
We crossed the door and found a small room with 2 doors. One had the carving of a woman with a cereal plant in her hand. I supposed that was Demeter, goddess of nature. The one on the left was a man holding a hammer and a fire next to him. I could guess he was Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship.
I saw Mu checking her dial and pressing it and from a corner of my eye, I noticed lambda doing the same. I looked at my bracelets; a Delta and an Eta were spinning. The problem was, which one to choose.
Before I could do anything, Lambda grabbed the handle of the right door and entered without a word. I looked at Mu, who sticking her tongue out at me, entered the other room at the left.
I could choose which door to go through but I couldn't decide. Lambda looked unstable and unreliable enough to be needing some checking on him, but at the same time, Mu gave me a very bad feeling. I should be checking on her too. So, what would it be? Lambda or Mu?
My headache got worse, I went to press the dial but I felt a deep pain on my arms when I approached my finger to the Eta symbol. It gave me such a bad feeling that I carefully pressed the other one, Delta. I guess I was to follow Lambda, so I opened the right door.
Fresh air welcomed me as I stepped outside on the grass.
Wait, outside? Grass?
Looking around I could see the huge place where I was. It looked like a garden and the walls and ceiling formed a huge dome of gray metal that reflected the light of a giant focal in the top of the ceiling. Under it, in the middle of the greenhouse was a circular lake and there were a lot of trees here and there. I could also see many different plants.
The only thing out of place was a few metallic boxes not far from the door in front of the one we used to enter. It seemed like a mixture of a ventilation system and an air purification system. Well, if the plants were the ones renovating most of the oxygen in the base, it made sense of it to be there and not in another place, like a storage room or water tank place.
Erm… and why did I think of such a place to be suitable as well?
Brain, stop bringing up random stuff and focus on what u need to do right now!
Lambda was checking the door as well, so I joined him.
"What do we need to get out?"
He almost jumped from my question, "I don't know!" he looked at me like he was crazy.
Oh boy, I don't know who is worse, this guy or that kid. Even if she killed me and Delta…
Woah, where did that came from?
I shook my head and just checked the door. The lock had a little box that looked like a card reader.
"So we need a key card to open the door."
"Huh? Oh, Yeah, it seems so…" he looked at the door's lock, nodding.
What the hell have you been checking here? The air system? Ok, buddy, I'm not gonna do all the work here.
I pushed him far away from the door, "Look, I don't really care what kind of attitude problem you have. But you're gonna help me getting out of here. If you expect me to do all the work, forget it!"
"But I have to-" he started complaining and then shut up. I raised a brow and waited, but he remained quiet.
"Riiight, now start looking for the key card over there while I look here," I pointed to the other side of the dome.
His face got all red, "You can't order me around! Why can't I check this part?"
"I have the feeling after I finish checking that part, I'll still find you on this spot. So move it already!" right then, I felt inspired, "Do you want me to go call lil Mu?"
The little color he had in his face disappeared, "No! No need. I'll go!"
Good thing he was too scared to think straight. All doors get closed and can't be opened from inside until you finish the puzzle. I couldn't call for Mu even if I wanted.
And I so didn't want it anyway.
And why is he so scared of her anyway? I mean, apart from the creepy talk, and the creepy brother and the stabbing in the heart…
Ok, what was that again?
Damn it, Sigma! Focus on what you have to do! Look for the key card and get the hell out of here.
There was a wooden cabinet in the nearby I saw there were a plastic fishing rod, an odd-shaped long metallic device, and a folder. There were 2 papers in it. One was a leaflet, very colorful, almost looking like being done by a kid. It said:
Grow your treasure! Plant, water and grow your key ticket to your desired place.
A travel ticket?
No, wait.
Oh… I see, Zero smartass. Key ticket. To get out maybe? That had to mean the keycard to unlock the door. Yep.
The other paper only had some odd inscriptions, like a riddle:
1= Love of Venus
2= Stripped Mars
3= Dotted Mercury
4= Zigzag Jupiter
5= Plains of Earth
Shit, what the hell does this mean? Venus is the roman goddess of Love, ok. Aaaand… Jupiter of Thunder, which might be the reason of the zigzag, but the rest… Maybe the god of war was a stripper? Scattered messenger god? Sightseeing on Earth? Yeah, of course! Earth tourism from outer space!
Riiiight…
I'll check it out later, first let's see what this machine is…
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Wow! It made a loud beeping sound when my hand got close to the tip. Or maybe just my…
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
Right. It was the bracelet. This thing is a metal detector. So… What? Do I have to go treasure hunting or something? Oh! Grow your treasure… hum… I'll carry this… and this too. I bet there are fishes in the lake up there. Oh, Lambda is already there. Good.
I approached the center of the Greenhouse where Lambda was checking the lake. It was round, about 8 feet in diameter, and not very deep.
Surprisingly, there wasn't a fish in sight; instead, there were 5 small balls at the bottom. Looking at them closely I could see they had a circular shape and all of them were yellow with different black marks. They had a little tip with a small hole, which I guessed the hook of the fishing rods were for.
That was easy to understand. Next would be… "Did you found anything there?"
"Only 5 watering cans in a wooden cabinet over there," he replied.
5 "fish", 5 cans… oh! And 5 parts in the riddle. I'm starting to figure out this mess. I handed Lambda the fishing rod, "There! Go fish!"
He looked confused at me. Sigh, I should have known not to make a joke with this freak, "Fish those balls, will you? It's a part of the puzzle to get out."
"What do I need that for then?" he said, smirking. "Only an idiot would do it the hard way when you can just get on your knees, get your arm in the water and UUUGHHGJHAAAACK!"
Holy crap, he had just gotten a finger in the water and I could see his body almost jumping back from the shock!
That Zero bastard! He had the lake electrified to make us do it the hard way! Phew, good thing I didn't think of trying that…
Oh shit, Lambda!
Oh wait… I don't care!
Sigh… yeah… ok… fine…
I rushed to him. He wasn't moving. I checked his pulse and breathing. There was.
He probably had just fainted, but still he scared the hell out of me.
I left him there to rest and went away to check the watering cans.
What? It was something I had to do! I wasn't scared of that water or anything!
Now far away there was the cabinet and the cans. Each colored different. They were purple, indigo, blue, green and yellow. Almost a complete rainbow.
However, the riddle didn't talk about colors, but gods.
Ugh, my head…
I was seeing 2 posters, one with planets, the other showing distances. And colors indicating distances…
Wait, that never happened! Where did I see that from? What's wrong with my head?
And what did that had to do with the god's riddles?
…
Well, Venus is also a planet… and the colors matched with most of the ones in the cans…
By that, I could guess that from Mercury to Venus, colors should be the rainbow from violet to yellow. Maybe?
Ok, I'll follow that. There is no other clue I can follow anyway.
So now the riddle goes like this:
1= Love Indigo
2= Stripped Green
3= Dotted Violet
4= Zigzag Yellow
5= Plain Blue
Hum… still 2/3 of it is unknown. Maybe the 2 tools I have here will tell me the other 2 hints. Let's try that.
I took the fishing rod and approached the electric lake. I wasn't nervous, ok? Just a little apprehensive.
Lambda was still sleeping.
Ok, let's give this a try.
It wasn't easy. The hole in each ball was very small and it wasn't easy to aim an object that moves in the water.
I managed to do it, but it took me so much time that I was afraid the nonary game would have ended already.
I checked the watch.
2:45
Son of a bitch! We're running out of time!
I checked the balls. They were encapsulated in plastic to insulate them from the water and electricity, but it wasn't difficult to take it off to see them better. They were marbled sized and the marks were different in each one. One had black lines, like a Zebra, others had dots, a zigzag, a heart and the last one had no marks. It was Plain…
Oh! Lines, dots, zigzag, heart, and plain. Heart and love were similar and lines and stripes too!
Ok, that took care of the second part. Now I had the… seeds? And I knew what to water each with. Left was…
I looked at the metal detector.
Knowing where to plant them?
I put myself to it and looked with the detector each part of the ground.
The first reaction was not far away. It made 3 beeps. Hum, 3… maybe that was the number meaning. Next place beeping twice confirmed my theory. I found the three other places and placed each seed, watering them with the can according to each one.
After finishing and waiting for a full minute, I heard a ding and rushed towards the lake. The bottom was draining the water and once the lake was empty, I could see something I wasn't aware before. It was a transparent card lying in the bottom of the lake and covered in insulated plastic.
I quickly took it and carried it towards the exit. After a bit of struggling with my nails, the cover came off and I was able to read it. The familiar electronic sound felt really good to my nervous mind, almost as if it relaxed me.
Demeter door, unlocked.
I went back to the empty lake and moved Lambda. After a bit of shaking, he opened his eyes and quickly jumped to his feet. I quickly explained to him what had happened but that didn't calm him down at all.
I had to push him out of the room towards a similar hall to the one after the Heracles room. There were 2 doors as expected and our dials showed spinning symbols again. Z and A. Zeta and Alfa, which one?
I took a deep breath, expecting some kind of inspiration.
"Go Sigma! Stop that Lambdabastard!"
Wow, wait, what was that? Who had said that? Omega? When? I haven't seen him since we separated before the first door! And even so I was sure he had said that.
Oh god, my head is going to kill me. Ok, I wanted some inspiration or signal, this will do for now.
In the meanwhile, Lambda had decided and placed his hand on the right doorknob. So he had chosen the A, Apollo's door. It showed a carving of that god in the metal plate of the door, while Zeus was in the other one. Normally I would have chosen the other door and get away from him at last. But after what I had received, I made up my mind.
I pressed my dial, Apollo's room, here we go.
I heard some voices greeting him, but I didn't care. He was in the way, so I pushed him, to his surprise, and closed the door after me.
After hearing the locking mechanism, he looked at me furiously, but I ignored him. Right now I needed to keep an eye on him, and in that locked room he wouldn't be able to do as he wanted.
Omega and Theta were in the room already. We started to talk and soon exchanged information on the previous rooms and puzzles. Then, looking around we saw that we were in a hospital room, or an infirmary, I wasn't sure.
Well, we'd have to search this room. Good thing Omega was here. Lambda is just an idiot and... Theta would probably spend the whole time sitting in any of the chairs that were in the room.
Surprisingly, she wasn't lazing around; instead she was checking the room, same as Omega. I was glad for the change of attitude in the old bag.
Then I paused, staring at her.
Why did I think she wouldn't help? I could have sworn she would be doing nothing as if I had seen her before lazing around.
But we haven't met before this room. Right?
There was something odd with me, but I had no time to think about it. I had a job to do. I joined them in the search. We didn't have time to sit around.
I looked at the dial on my bracelet. 2:12
Oh well.
The first thing that I noticed was how colorless the room was. Furniture, instruments, walls, floor, and ceiling were all white. That helped to see the only thing with color, apart from the black screens. Those were 4 mannequins sitting on 4 benches next to some beds. But they weren't ordinary beds. There were no mattresses, just a plain surface with some screens on the side. There was a fifth bed and on the 5th bench, there was a medical file. I kept it with me as I kept looking.
Omega was trying to open a locker but wouldn't budge. In any case, it didn't look like it was going to be useful so he stopped and moved on to somewhere else. I checked the counter next to it. It had some cupboards with medicine bottles of different sizes with colored stuff inside. Next to it was a scale, which appeared to be glued to the counter. Or so it seemed when I tried to move it. On one of the scale plates was a scalpel and on the other side a white colored pen, and a needle with a roll of string. Next to it was a little weight, but there was no indication of how much it weighed.
I was still checking it when Omega snatched the file I was holding, "Let me see that…"
I was going to object, but I guessed it was my fault. I cold have checked it before and I left it like that. I saw Omega frowning and glancing at the mannequins, which Theta was checking with her hands while Lambda joined her. I looked at them. They were wearing no clothes and their only difference was the hair on the heads. One was blond, one brunette, one ginger and the last one bald.
Omega gave me the files back, "You do this. I'm not playing doctor with these, they're creepy."
I rolled eyes, "Thanks a lot…" Then proceeded to read the files, "Clinic History:
6:30 Patient George arrived, 2 anesthetic doses given, ready for transplant.
6:45 Donor Patrick arrived, 3 anesthetic doses given, ready for transplant.
6:50 Getting Patrick's left Kidney, 2 0- blood bags placing, closing the opening.
6:55 Opening right side of Patrick lumbar area and placing the kidney, 4 AB+ blood bags used, closing the opening.
7:00 Patient Adam arrived, 3 anesthetic doses given, ready for surgery.
7:05 opening left side of Adam's abdomen, retrieving appendix, 3 0+ blood bags used, closing the opening.
7:10 Patient Gilbert arrived, highly contagious, 1 vaccine dose injecting.
Warning: One try only."
I looked at Omega and he grinned, "Told you, playing doctor."
"One try only huh… if we do it wrong we won't be getting out… what hope is there left in this kind of game…" Theta said, sad.
Both Omega and I looked at Theta confused. She looked defeated, sitting in the only empty chair as if one of the 4 mannequins was a dead sibling or something.
"We have to open that door, we must!" Lambda surprised us with the conviction in his voice.
Omega grinned and patted his back, "No worries man, we'll get this door open and we'll get out in no time!"
However, I noticed Lambda had been glancing at the entrance all this time and not the exit. For some reason, I felt as if he didn't want the exit opened, but the one that could let him go back to the garden.
Why was he so focused in that damn place?
"Hey!" Omega halted my thoughts, "We only have one chance, don't fuck it up," he said in a serious tone.
"Heh, Thanks for the pep talk… Ok, first we have to follow the instructions, George arrived the first so he must-"
"Who's George?" Omega interrupted me.
Damn, good question. If we chose the incorrect mannequin, we're fucked. We looked at them carefully as to guess who was who, but there was nothing that could identify them.
"What the fuck? There is no way out? Is this it?" he looked angry and defeated.
"Don't lose hope, there is time left!" I tried to reassure him, but I was trying to do it to myself as well.
"It's useless." A voice said behind me. I turned to see Theta still sitting in the chair, spinning her cane in her hands. "How much time left? 30 minutes, 40?" she asked me, without even looking at my face.
She could have checked herself… or maybe not, being half blind and stuff. I checked my dial. It said 00:52 and so I told her. She shook her head and sighed, "No, that won't do. It won't be enough. This is even worse than last time…"
Why did I have the feeling she wasn't talking about the previous room?
"Hey, cheer up, grandma! We're not dead yet!" Omega said and I nodded. Well, at least, he was looking not as defeated as before but I still noticed his anxiety.
Ok think, there must be something in this room. A hint to identify these dolls…
I looked again at the places I checked before. Again, I ended at the scale. The scalpel there and the stitching were easy to understand, given the instructions in the medical files. Below the counter, I saw the cupboards with medicine bottles. I almost ditched them until something caught my attention. It was a 0+ symbol. I grabbed the transparent plastic bottle of red pills and checked the label: 0+ blood.
"Omega, didn't you check these bottles?"
"Yeah," he replied, "but I'm sure they didn't have a name like George or Adam on them."
I looked at the files again, then at the bottles. I looked through them till I found the labels mentioned on the files. Soon I had 3 bottles of red pills (labels: 0-, 0+ and AB+ Blood), one of the yellow pills (label: Anesthetic) and 1 of blue pills (label: Vaccine).
My head seemed to press my brain in that very moment and I had to grab my temples for a bit. When I opened my eyes again, the scale was right in front of me. I shook my head and checked the scale intently, "Maybe…"
"You all right, dude?" asked Omega.
I didn't answer and instead, took out the exact doses of the pills and positioned them all in one side of the scale, then the little weight on the other side. The moment they stopped moving, a click sound was heard on the locker that seemed useless before and I opened it without a problem. Onega checked the insides after patting my back, all smiles.
Fuck, that hurt. I don't want that kind of physical praise. If it was a woman, though…
Then I looked at old bag Theta and felt a shiver down my spine.
Ok, better no praise at all from anyone! Honest!
"Good! Here are some identity cards. There is no picture but the cards are colored." He showed me three cards.
"Only three? I asked confused.
"It's ok, once we identify the first three, the other one is the one left."
Right… Dunno what's wrong with my head, seriously.
"Patrick is red, Adam is black and Gilbert is yellow. Then, George has to be the baldy!" he announced.
I wasted no time, grabbed the bald mannequin and positioned it face down on the first bed starting on the left. On the next bed, I positioned the red hair one. Then I took the scalpel and cut the left low backside of Baldy. It was made of leather so it was a bit hard. A bit apprehensive, I inserted my hand and grabbed a small object. Out with it, it looked like a plastic kidney toy, but it had some weight on it. I placed it into the right side of the Red's lower back after using the string to close the first opening and cutting the second mannequin. I closed the second opening as well.
I took a large breath. Damn, I felt like I was a real surgeon, but it wasn't the lives of the 4 mannequins what worried me at the time. I got the black haired mannequin and I positioned it next to Red in the next bed, facing up. Following that, I used the scalpel on his belly, cutting the leather on his left side and checking the inside with my hand and took a cucumber shaped toy that felt like lead and left it on the counter. Then I closed the opening before looking at the blonde mannequin. I lifted it. It was just putting him on the bed and it would be over… Just like that?
I looked at the files again. There was no surgery. He arrived and was only administered a vaccine due to a virus or whatever.
I frowned. That seemed too easy. Besides, there were two beds left.
"Why are there two beds?" I asked aloud.
Theta and Lambda weren't looking at me. Omega just shrugged, "Does it matter?"
"As far as we've seen this far, nothing is left to chance in here. If there is one bed more than what is needed, then it might mean something!"
"We only have 10 minutes left Sigma! Just place it in whatever bed and finish it!"
I almost pouted, "But if I chose the wrong bed… wait… the wrong bed… Oh… Those bastards…" I understood now.
I checked the files: patient Gilbert arrived, highly contagious…
I grinned and put the last mannequin in the last bed, avoiding the one next to Black.
We then heard an electronic voice.
Apollo's room unlocked!
"Yes!" I threw my arms up in a victory, while I dodged the 'friendly' praise pat in the back that was coming my way.
"How did you know it was the other bed?" he asked all smiles.
"If the patient was contagious, I wouldn't put it in a bed next to the others," I explained.
"Good one!"
"Now let's get out of here!" I said. I wasn't even going to wait for them. I just wanted to get out. But suddenly, I heard it again.
"Go Sigma! Stop that Lambdabastard!"
"Huh?"
I turned to look at Omega, but he wasn't looking at me. Then he did and raised a brow, "What?"
"What did you just said?" I asked him.
He raised a brow, "I haven't said a word."
"But you've told me to stop… Lambda…" then I looked around.
Lambda was gone.
"Fuck! I was so glad to finish the puzzle room I didn't realize!" I exclaimed.
I started running, but Omega grabbed my arm, "What's going on, man?"
"Let go of me, we must stop Lambda!" I tried to get away but he wasn't letting me go.
"Why? What is he going to do?" Theta asked, "I noticed him going back, but I don't understand."
"That's because he-"
I blinked. Why was it again? I have no idea why, I just knew Lambda couldn't go on his own. If he did, something bad was going to happen, but what?
Ugh, my head… is going to split open!
Many different voices echoed in my head.
"Mu… you… killed Delta."
"We only had time to tell him hi before he excused to get something he had forgotten in the Garden."
"The air system is in the garden, not in the storeroom as she thought."
"But I was too late… They probably mutated the virus already"
"A way to turn Celerity into the most dreadful bioweapon the world had ever seen. Initially, it transferred itself by air, so the moment it turned into a weapon, it would infect anyone. Everyone."
"There is a group of people, who provided most of the funds of the project. I doubt you've heard of them. They are called… Free the Soul. I believe they hacked into my research data diary and accessed the last entry, where I posted my latest discovery about Celerity and how it can be turned into a mass destruction weapon. Now they know how to mutate the virus into that."
I felt as if I was being strangled and took several deep breaths. Omega and Theta looked at me almost scared. It seemed that all that I had somehow remembered, I had spoken it out loud at them.
Remembered… funny way to say so. How can I remember something that had never happened?
"Lambda is the one releasing the virus? SON OF A BITCH!" Omega suddenly snapped and rushed to the entrance of the room towards the garden.
I just looked at him leave, stunned. He knew something as well! Was everyone here involved?
That was answered by the only remaining person in the room apart from me, "I see… Free the soul. Then, Brother and the Myrmidons are behind this, as we suspected…" Theta said.
I looked at her and then I saw her face distorting by surprise "No!"
She ran towards the exit, way faster than what I would have given credit to her.
I stayed there for a moment. What should I do? Omega shouldn't have a problem with Lambda, he was twice his weight.
And Theta's expression… I had to make sure.
I decided to get out and see for myself.
The scene outside the door was more chaotic than I had expected.
Iota was on the floor. His helmet was off. As I suspected he was a young man, probably around my age. But he had an open wound on the side of his head bleeding. He wasn't unconscious, though, but it seemed the blow had left him disoriented for a while. His helmet was broken next to him and what had wounded him was a toolbox in the hands of a suit-dressed man.
Beta.
A shiver run down my spine as I looked at him. My blood froze as I saw his twisted smile for the first time.
Next to them, Phi was being pinned to the ground by Mu, who was pressing a screwdriver on her neck.
And close to me was the old lady, looking furious. If she could really see the scene well, I mean.
"Oh, Sigma-san. Good that you decided to join us," Mu greeted me.
Then, she looked at her brother- Wait. Her… brother…
Oh… I'm such an idiot.
I pointed at him, "You're him, their leader. The bastard behind all this. Zero! Or should I call you, Brother?"
He seemed surprised by my statement. Yeah, you try and deny it. After all this, you bald bastard.
"Odd that you had that information. Oh well, I guess you're right and wrong." he said and laughed loudly. "Mu, stun her," he ordered the crazy looking kid.
"Well, he got part of it right, huh?" Mu smirked, "I have no idea how do you know so much. But that won't matter anymore. Now you should worry about her," she nodded towards Phi, then pressed a specific point behind her neck and Phi screamed.
"Bitch!"
I gave a step at her but, Mu threatened Phi's neck again with the screwdriver, "All I did was just hitting a nerve to paralyze her, but I can do something more permanent," she stated coldly.
"The old bag next, Mu," ordered Beta.
"Come here granny. Or the girl gets a forced tracheotomy!" Mu threatened Theta.
I couldn't move. I had no idea how to solve this mess. Theta walked slowly, holding onto her cane.
Then a lot of things happened at the same time. Iota had recovered enough to hold one of Beta's ankles and throw him to the ground, but the most surprising thing was when Theta gave a quick and gracious spinning kick at Mu, sending her flying.
How could an old half blind woman do something like that? It was impossible!
I had no time to question her as she followed after Beta who was getting up. The fight was quick and after hearing a cracking sound when a kick landed on Beta's right side, Beta was on the floor again, holding onto his side.
Holy shit, had Theta just broken Beta's ribs from a kick?
"Who the hell are you?" I managed to tell her.
She didn't answer, but Phi started talking instead, "Isn't it obvious she was faking being old? On top of that. Are you going to help me or what?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry"
I went to her and checked her neck. There was something weird there. It was like a muscle next to her spine, in the base of the neck, had swollen to the size of a ping-pong ball.
"I have no idea how to help you…" I admitted.
"Please, allow me," Theta said, kneeling next to us. She touched the ball on Phi and started pressing on it from different angles until it deflated, "Her nerves were pinned, but she'll get better in a moment."
"For the time being, we can tie these two" announced Iota, who I had missed for a bit, getting out of a room I haven't noticed before. He had some cables which were used to tie Beta and Mu's arms and legs. Mu was unconscious, but Beta wasn't. He glared at us.
"Now we can get some answers at last!" I glared back at him.
"Not really necessary. It's clear now, except for one thing. Who Is Zero." Theta stated.
Iota and I looked at her confused, "What do you mean? Isn't it obvious these bastards orchestrated everything?"
"They indeed wanted to create and spread the virus from here," admitted Theta.
Phi poked my arm "I'm not sure I'm following, but they didn't need to create the nonary game to get the virus. They could have done it at any time if they were behind all this," she added.
"Then none of the three is Zero?" I asked, surprised.
"Of course not, are you an idiot?'" Omega said, coming into the room, dragging an unconscious Lambda with him. After letting him fall next to the other two, Iota proceeded to tie him as well. He showed us a little white ball.
It wasn't actually a ball. Looking at it closely, it was a tooth, a plastic fake tooth.
"I can guess this thing I took from the bastard was the means to mutate Celery and turn it into the deadly virus we feared," Omega nodded at it.
"Celery… It's the name of the virus Delta said!" I exclaimed.
"When did Delta say it?" Phi asked.
"Well… that is-"
"Then she must be Zero!" concluded Iota in a rush.
I shook my head, trying to get a grasp of the truth. But I was still unable to discern it, "Impossible. Delta is…" I couldn't say it aloud. I looked at Beta instead. He was smirking.
"That bitch had been useful in creating the means for our plans, but she wanted to ruin it and she knew too much. It was an easy choice," he admitted.
"You bastard!" Iota kicked him.
"That's enough!" Phi stopped him. She was still in control on herself, as usual, "Still if she's not Zero, then…"
We looked at Theta. She probably noticed it due to our silence. She smiled, "Yeah, that seems easy to conclude, especially since I lied to all of you from the beginning. But it was for a different reason. I'm not Zero."
"Then-" I was going to ask, but she wasn't finished.
"I finally recognized your voice. You did a good job modifying it, Aoi. You changed your appearance a lot as well, although since I couldn't even see it from the beginning, it didn't matter to me."
Theta was speaking, but the voice had changed… to one belonging to a man!
To our surprise, Omega replied, laughing, "Look who's talking! And Akane told me not to register any of you more than necessary. She said the risk was necessary for the plan to succeed, but it seems it went well as he was able to do the jumps," Omega was looking at me, smiling.
"What the hell are you talking-"
But Iota interrupted me, staring at Omega, "Santa? But you look so changed. No, wait, you mean you and Akane are behind this? Again? Where is she?"
"Alice's agency was looking for us and, at least, one of us needed to go out and have things done. I had a whole year and a lot of money to get as different as I could from the appearance I had," Omega explained him.
I didn't understand anything. Was Omega Zero? Who was Akane? And Alice? Phi next to me looked confused as well. But she was staring at me, frowning, "You knew something, right? Was I the only one who didn't? Or maybe… I'm not sure I think there is stuff I should know. I can feel it but-"
Omega explained, "It seems your ability to jump isn't as developed as his. Besides, his memory was essential for the plan."
Ability? Plan? I was going to ask, but the pain in my head started once again.
"For the plan to succeed, we need you and Phi to awaken your power to jump from different timelines and remember as much as you can, in order to follow the right path, stop the virus and save our doomed future."
I snapped out of it, shaking my head, "I remember now… an old woman… But it never happened!" I exclaimed
"And now it won't anymore. Thanks to you two," said another voice behind us.
We all turned around at the now opened Poseidon door. A brown haired young woman around my age entered the hall, next to a pink haired girl and an exotic looking woman with revealing clothes.
"Kanny!" Iota exclaimed, approaching her.
"At last, Jumpy. You found me," she smiled sweetly.
"Jumpei? What are you-"
But the surprised pink haired girl was immediately interrupted by Theta, "Clover? Is that really you?"
"Light? Oh, I was so worried!" She ran and hugged her/him, then they separated for a moment, "What are you wearing? You look like a clown!"
"Clover…" Iota or Jumpei as they were calling him looked a bit astonished to the pair, "And that's Snake? No way!"
Theta smiled apologetically, "Sorry, Jumpei. But this was a covert operation. I couldn't reveal myself to anyone. It wasn't easy to guess your voice with that helmet on. And only realized after you had taken it off."
Theta, or Light, as he was being called by… Clover, was it? Anyway, he pulled his hair to reveal it was a wig and he also took off some plastic features from his face. He was a man a bit older than me and his eyes were closed.
"I couldn't take it out until that bastard hit me before," Jumpei explained, pointing at Beta.
Oh, so it wasn't on purpose he was hiding his face.
"I can't believe you ended up using that, Light. I had it prepared as some sort of joke, you know?" the exotic woman looked a bit startled.
Theta/Snake/Light seemed to recognize the voice, "Oh! Alice too. What happened? You two disappeared 2 days before the operation was going to start! Did the Myrmidons kidnap you?"
Alice looked at Akane, "Actually, it was Akane who did. Although her explanation still gives me a headache when I try to grasp it."
Like the headache that I was having, oh god!
A lot of images flooded my mind. Different stories, in a different place, with different people; well, not all different. Alice, Clover, even Lambda were there!
I couldn't help throwing up when it finished. I managed to regain my breath and stood up, looking at Akane. She was looking back at me as if she knew what had just happened.
"All of it… is real?" I managed to ask her.
She nodded, "Those facts won't change. In their respective timelines, they will happen. But at last, a timeline with the ending we were looking for has happened. From now on, the alternative timelines will have a fair chance to get good endings as well," she then turned to look serious at Beta. He glared back at her in a way, that if he could kill her with it, she would be lying dead in the floor, "You've lost, Brother," she stated.
"That guy is the leader of Free the soul?" Alice asked, suddenly enraged.
Then from the memories I had found, another face grabbed my attention, on the floor and unconscious.
"That is… Left. Right? Dio?" I was getting confused again.
"Most likely a clone. Dio will probably be born after this one died here in this mission," Akane explained. She surely had done her homework regarding the future.
I was managing to understand more and more of the information I gathered from other timelines and there was something that intrigued me more that anything.
"I don't recall anything I did-will do, as an older me, Dr. Klim. Shouldn't his consciousness be here instead of my younger mind? Or is it that he forgot all his memories after he went to the moon the first time?"
Akane smiled, "Again, who's the person behind the armor? It should be the old you in that body. But think about it. This timeline is different from any others, the disaster was averted. The future will be different and we won't need to recreate it as in the other timeline where the virus got out. Therefore, no AB project will be needed, nor anyone to come back in time. Your actions here changed the mind inside the body."
That made little sense, "Then, how's that I remember those things that now will never happen in the AB project?"
"In the future possible timeline, your old self made a jump back in time to your body but the travel damaged his memory to the point of not knowing after his abduction. What do we get from that? A Sigma with the same knowledge as the young one's mind. What does that make him? A normal man or a man whose mind has come from the future but forgotten about such future? Weren't you in a state where you could be both? In that moment, you became a Schrodinger's cat. The ability to travel to other timelines was awoken by that fact in your young mind, or maybe it was just there from your old mind? Could well be both. Only the ending of your quest will give the answer. Will creating a similar future again be needed and thus, finding an old man with memory loss in a young body? Or would the future be a new and bright one and the mind in that young one will be his own, but with an awakened power, thus being able to access information from other timelines in other times and spaces?" she smiled as she finished.
Ok, now my head is hurting for real and I doubt the 'jumps' have anything to do this time. I took a deep breath, "That doesn't answer my question, how do I have my ability awakened if the future me never did the jump nor I underwent the AB project process?"
"That was the tricky thing in this plan," She smiled as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, "We can't destroy the cause and effect law, but there could be a little loophole in it."
We all were silent at that point. She went on, "If old Sigma came back and forgot, his ability to enter the 4th dimension remained. Or, since he never needed to go back in time in this timeline, he awoke this ability in you while trying to go back in time from another timeline. He was inside with his powers or he awoke your powers while trying to get inside and got rejected afterward? I'm an esper myself and my powers awoke by chance at one point in my life. What were the chances of that happening earlier? Afterwards? Could be another me from another timeline that already had powers that by trying to get in contact with me, awoke mines? We'll never know. In any case, your mind and consciousness can dive in the 4th dimension. That means it can access the information of other timelines, like me. Your younger mind of 22 just received that information as your powers awoke. However, you were needed to make several jumps in order to follow he correct path and recall the information gained in each jump in order to do things right. Trial and error."
That clarified some stuff, but… "I'm still confused about one thing. You say in this timeline, the future me won't need to travel back. So in this timeline…"
"You won't need to create the project, nor create a clone, nor travel to the moon. And of course, neither will Alice, Phi or Clover. Alice and Clover were unfrozen about 25 minutes ago when Aoi gave me the signal and canceled the nonary game," she said as she looked at the beefy Aoi.
He shrugged, "We already had the info we needed to stop the virus, so there was no need to continue."
I looked at my wristbands. They were switched off.
Oh! That didn't explain… "Wait a second! If the old me didn't take my body to the mars simulation test facility, then how did I get here in the first place?"
Akane nodded, "That's an excellent question. Aoi?"
Aoi looked at me, "Akane knew what would happen and what could happen in her insights of other timelines. At least apart from what happened inside the test facility
Akane continued on behalf of Aoi, "I knew the virus would be released in this place but we didn't know how or who was responsible. Or where did it come from. There is a timeline where we just blow the entire complex and the virus got released somewhere else days afterward. It didn't work. We never knew how was it created. They only needed a sample of Celerity, which accelerates the speed of thought to double to simulate mars gravity, making things to seem slower. Dr. Mamba developed the drug and it was to be tested here for the first time. She came here after she had destroyed what she believed was all the Celerity created. But Free the Soul had another sample. They were prepared to mutate a common flu virus mixed with Celerity and create the opposite effect and doubling it to create a deadly plague."
"Akane saw that the only way to stop it all was inside the complex. I didn't expect to see that Snake had infiltrated, though," Aoi added.
Light smirked, "You were too gentleman-wise to check a woman's body that thoroughly. In any case, should the plan orchestrated by Alice failed, as it did when they disappeared, we had to proceed with a backup plan."
"And since we have now the 2 bastards in charge, we can stop an alternate release of the virus," stated Alice.
I started rambling, trying to figure out the last pieces of this mess, "I get why I was here and how, but what about Phi? She passed almost through the same as me in the future, yet she didn't recall much."
"We needed her in order to resonate with you and to make you react when meeting her. Your first meeting with her in here was the starting reaction point. The moment where you started to receive information from other timelines, am I wrong?"
"Yeah, you called me by my name," Phi recalled, "In any case, my memory isn't as good as yours it seems," She told me, a bit annoyed at her role, "And the rest?" She asked Aoi.
"Anyone found trying to enter the facility on that day was gassed and abducted to play the game. Those three were here in order to release the virus for sure. Although I never expected to find the big boss," Aoi looked at Beta with disgust.
"The Dr., I mean Delta, came to retrieve the original virus. It didn't work too well…" I commented. She had been the only certain death, in all timelines. Talk about a doomed destiny.
Jumpei seemed a bit annoyed, like Phi, "I was an easy one. I was enticed with, you want to see Akane, go and participate in the mars simulation test."
I put my hand on his shoulder, recalling what could have happened in the future, in the Moon, "Heh, you would have done the same again in the future, if the plan hadn't worked."
He looked at me, dead serious, "I would have done it again and again if the chance existed to find her. To find you," he finished, looking at Akane.
She looked down, "I… Everything I did was because… as I foresaw the disaster to come, I felt the responsibility to avoid it. Billions were at stake. How could I put my happiness before that? I understood well that sacrifices had to be done…"
I looked at her surprised. This Akane was different from the old twisted woman with no regrets from the future. Whatever that happened that would detach her from her humanity, it had nothing to do with this girl.
"But you won't need it anymore," stated Jumpei, "Now your happiness can be first. And mine too."
"Is that ok…?" she looked sad.
"Ah! Shut up already! Do you think I've been traveling this long just to scold you?" he hugged her.
She was about to cry, "I-"
"Look, just promise me never to escape me again." he asked her
She giggled, "Don't worry. From now on, there will be Zero escape."
END (Line E)
Author's note: Finally, we got the True end. I'm really glad to have finished posting it before the real third game comes out at the end of the month. I hope you enjoyed the ride and if you believe there are poor explanations at the end or plotholes and stuff... then there probably are there. Sorry! ^_^U
Also, I'll probably need to move this story to the real third game section instead of the VLR one.
And finally a little bit of trivia. I created the character Delta without really knowing about the character Diana in the third game (I started this story last year), had I known, I would have made her red haired. The D usage it's because she's a Doctor. It is a coincidence that the character that should be in her place would have had here the same codename. Also, why I used Omega, O, for Santa being his real name Aoi... it's really silly but he once said he hated love among other things and Love in japanese is "Ai", I think. Take the "Love" from his name and what's left?