Author's Notes:
This Chapter 3 will involve the first Death Minigames! Will the pups survive the challenges?
Team R's first Death Minigame was the hardest one to write because I had no idea of what puppies would be on the verge of death, so I'm sorry it took a bit longer than expected. I decided to give a bit of nostalgia to those who have played 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors, the first game of the Zero Escape series.
Also, since Tracker made his debut at "Tracker Joins the Pups!" the day before yesterday, I also have updated the cover of Team M with his face.
[R] WATER [3]
Rocky gave a silent sigh of relief after glaring at the newly opened room in front of him. It was, in a sense, a fairly lit small room filled with pipes of a quite large size. On the one that was beside Zuma was a note that read out "Please restore the water system to this section of the facility." There was also another blast door to the opposite side of where the pups entered. However, the valve to open the door was missing. To the left there was also a glass door of a shower...
"What is a showew doing in hewe?" Wondered Zuma in doubt. He suddenly heard a sudden loud noise coming from the hatch they came from. "What the... It closed!"
While Robo approached the door, he noticed that the valve was locked in place. "We can't open it. The hydraulics have stopped working."
Rocky had a very worried look, but he knew that he had to keep confident for the team. "That means we need to restore the water system, or else we'll be stuck in here..."
Zuma glared at the worried mutt with a short frown, then sighed. "I have a vewy bad feeling about this."
Robo cheered up both of the organic puppies. "Don't worry, pups. We'll get out of this safely. I think..."
"You think? We need to stay confident. We'll get out for sure!" replied Rocky, trying to keep his self-esteem up. "Let's seek a way out!"
Thus, the three dogs started looking around the room again.
Zuma looked inside the shower room. It was clear enough that it was too small for more than one pup to fit, but there was a red suitcase with a circular hole near the handle, which was awaiting the presence of a magnetic key so that the case could be open. He noticed that the door wouldn't go up the ceiling, leaving a small gap at the top. The glass door felt sturdy enough to hold a couple of kicks without breaking.
The robotic dog inspected the console that was next to the door. It couldn't boot up, he guessed because there was no power running on it. However, it was clearly connected to the blast door they came through.
The gray pup was looking at the pipes. While placing an ear on the ones with blue paint on them, he could hear water running like blood going down a stream vessel. The dark red ones gave him a more hissing sound, but it was very faint. It seemed like gas, but it was less than usual.
"This gas condensed into water..." Concluded Rocky. He also noticed that there was a small valve on one of the red pipes, with a small exhaustion pipe connected to it. Just above it was a water pipe that were covered with white crystals that were very cold to the touch. "I see... The water pipes are frozen. That's why the water system has been blocked!"
"Isn't that weiwd? I don't feel cold at all..." Replied Zuma.
"Currently, there are 53ºF." It was fairly warm, but not too comfortably warm. "That ice must be some sort of... Water polymorph."
"What are you talking about, Robo?"
"A polymorph is a substance with the same composition of another, but with a different molecular structure. Just like diamonds and graphite. Have you heard of Ice-9, Rocky?" The metallic dog replied to the mutt, who shook his head. "Kurt Vonnegut wrote about a substance that was essentially ice, but couldn't melt at room temperature. You know water melts at 32ºF, right?"
Both pups nodded, while still looking around the room. "Well, Ice-9 is supposed to have a melting point much higher than that. About 114ºF, to be precise. Maybe that ice over there..."
"Could it be Ice-9?" Questioned Zuma.
The robotic dog made a chuckling sound. "No, fortunately that only exists in fiction. However, there could be water that acts in a similar way like it, so... In a way, it could be ice that doesn't melt at room temperature."
Rocky stopped for a while, glaring at the solid water around the tube. "How can we heat this up, then...? If only we could enter the boiler room or something..."
Zuma the chocolate pup bumped onto a lever that was below a pipe, moving it down. A small indentation below it appeared and a bunch of stones dropped down from it. "Whoa, watch it!"
The gray mutt heard the rubble sound and gazed at the rocks that fell down the indentation. Upon placing his head onto the very tight ventilation system, Rocky saw traces of sand, which was very strange to the dog's comprehension. Despite that, he had an idea.
"I'll grab two of these!" With two rocks being held inside his mouth, which were actually very disgusting, he carried over the rocks at the fuse cord that seemed to be connected to a flame ring of some sort he found just below one of the gas pipes. "I might be able to light this up..."
Like if he was a prehistoric monkey, he smashed both of the rocks, making a crackling sound. "Come on...!" A slight sparkle quickly appeared and land onto the fuse, causing it to light up. The spark gently moved following the fuse rope until reaching the ring, causing a small flame to appear. "Yes! Now I can heat up the gas again!"
After a short while, the gas that was heated up started making a louder hissing sound. The gas was running fine now. However, a female announcing something quite ominous resonated on each one of the pup's ears.
"Gas current has reached sufficient temperature. Incineration process will begin now according to the protocol."
The screen on the terminal close to the door lit up, showing footage of two particular rooms. The three pups decided to check out what was happening.
The footage was split in two parts, the left one showed what looked like a control room. Inside it, there were two puppies that were laying down on the floor, with their eyes closed. The right one displayed a much darker room, with just a small strip of light. However, there was a Cockapoo pup that was just like the other two pups on display: Laying down the floor, eyes shut.
"Dude, it's Team M!" Reacted Zuma, shaking his paws. "Are they... Dead?"
"No, take a look at Skye." Said Robo while placing one of his mechanical paws to where she is being displayed, or rather, was. "She just woke up."
Soon after, the other two puppies woke up. They could hear what they said on the footage of Chase and Tracker, but not on Skye's side.
"This room is..."
"A trash disposal room. At least that's what it looks like."
"Hold on, a trash disposal room!?" Rocky suddenly got very scared, his pupils shrinking while his eyeballs grew in surprise. "T-that's an incinerator!"
"Then, that means...!" Continued Zuma, but he was interrupted by the female announcer mentioning something from the terminal.
"Incinerator startup... Will now commence. Incineration in... Thirty-two minutes."
"Oh, no! Rocky, what you just did was...!?" Robo was very shocked.
The mutt had a guilty look in his face, looking down. His shabby tail pointing to the floor as well. "I just... Wanted to heat up the gas so I could use it to..." His speech was cut short by a knocking sound, like if a hammer was hitting the pipes. Rocky's ears twitched.
"Oh shit!" Swore the mutt, rushing through were the sounds came from "Oh, no... I can't drain this on time!"
"Calm down, Wocky! What's happening!?" Zuma yelled at the pup with a concerned look.
"A water hammer... I think it's going to start a chain reaction! Everyone, take cover! And stay away from the gas pipes!"
Rocky's first instinct was to head directly towards the shower room, trying to squeeze in Zuma, however, he wouldn't fit even if he was on top of the dog, so he hid below a water pipe that was at the side. Robo just stayed behind the terminal.
As the hammer knocks increased in volume and speed, a bubbling sound was added to the mix of noises. The gas pipes started compressing. And a few seconds later, a bursting sound roared the room, as a piece of a gas pipe flew by, hitting the ceiling and getting smashed into pieces. A huge burst of very hot water came out of the pipe at an amazingly big pressure, causing even more explosions and damaging the water pipes. Despite the ice being now melt, a huge stream of water started pouring on the room, causing it to start filling up.
"Shit! What have you done Wocky!?" Zuma opened his eyes that were firmly shut, and gazed at the glass door, that managed to stay firmly intact. Beneath the glass door, that somehow survived the explosion, was a mutt in a deep, traumatized position, with his green eyes with a despair pretty tiny size. He was panting very hard, shaking, sweating; he couldn't move at all.
"Water... Water... WATER!" Howled the mutt. His eyes started to look wet. "T-the room's filling up... We're gonna drown! WE'RE GOING TO DROWN!" He curled up on the floor, with his fur chickening up in fear.
Zuma was going to open the door, but Rocky wouldn't let him. "DON'T YOU DARE TO OPEN THE DOOR! I don't want to get w-wet...!"
The chocolate Labrador then looked at the shower room, and noticed how it seemed to magically stay dry despite the rest of the area begin filling up with water. "H-hey, listen up Wocky! Stay in thewe! We'we going to twy to open the hatch doow! I pwomise you won't get wet!"
He didn't reply. Rocky was still curled up in fear, crying. Then he simply said. "Help me..."
The brown puppy looked at the robotic dog, surprised he was still live and running. "Awen't you scawed of watew?"
Robo shook his head. "I am only afraid to getting rusty. My outer shell is made in a way so I'm waterproof." Zuma merely giggled to that statement. "Anyway, let's find a way out!"
By that time, the water was already reaching their foot paws.
"Wait, the doow needed watew to open, wight?" Asked Zuma to the robot.
"Yes, it needs a supply of water. But fortunately, I think the terminal and the door are connected to an auxiliary supply of water, now that I look at it."
"So doing this was pointless?"
"Not really, remember the ice? It was blocking the water from that stream. Melting it caused the water that comes this way flowing again."
"Wight..." Sighed Zuma, feeling defeated. However, he noticed something red floating at the water, that was slowly rising. "Hey, what's this?"
He grabbed it up with his mouth. It was a red key! Both Zuma and Robo looked at each other, while thinking where could it be used. After both nodding simultaneously, they glared at the mutt, that had stopped crying, but had a very desperate look. He was still very tense due to the room flooding up.
"Rocky. It's me, Robo... We need your help..." Mentioned Robo, being caring to the shocked dog.
"I'm not getting out of here." A childish, shocked Rocky replied to his request.
"We don't need you out! Can you open the suitcase on the showew woom and look at what's inside? Please?" Zuma jumped, as he tossed the red key towards the gap from the glass door, so that it passed over it and fell inside the shower cabinet.
He didn't budge at all. Robo tried to be careful choosing his words in order to cheer him up. "I know you don't like water, but right now we need your help in order to get rid of this situation. We need your courage. We need you to move and open that suitcase so we can escape!"
Rocky shed out some more tears, before getting up. "I... I can do this..." He was still shaking quite a lot, very afraid, he quickly picked the key and used it to unlock the suitcase. He was still dried up, although this wasn't the same for the other pups. The water has already reached their knees by that point.
He placed the red key after many shaking tries into the rectangular slot. He quickly twisted it, and the spring within the lock caused the lid of the suitcase to open. It wasn't full to his eyes. Six keycards, three blue with the numbers 1, 2 and 3, and three red with 6, 7, and 8 emblazoned on them. There was also a strange card reader device with a manual on its back. The mutt took the handbook out of the card reader, reading its contents.
DIGITAL ROOT READER MANUAL
The Digital Root Reader (DRR) contains a hidden compartment that can be unlocked when the digital root matches the number displayed on the screen.
Only a 3-digit number will be able to unlock the device.
Compute a digital root with the following steps:
1. Add all the digits that make up the number in question.
2. Repeat step 1 with the resulting number until you get a single-digit number.
EX-1. The digital root of 789 would be:
7+8+9 = 24
2+4 = [6]
Therefore, the digital root of 789 is [6].
EX-2. The digital root of 7799 would be:
7+7+9+9 = 32
3+2 = [5]
Therefore, the digital root of 7799 is [5].
Quirks:
a. The digital root of a single-digit number is itself.
b. 0 and 9 are digital root identities: If you add them to any number, they will not alter their digital number. (1+2+3 = 6; 1+2+3+9 = 15, 1+5 = 6; 1+2+3+0 = 6)
c. Any number whose digital root is 3, 6 or 9 is divisible by 3.
The instructions seemed clear to the mutt, but he wasn't still calm enough to think. He stood there for a couple of seconds, until he heard a mechanical voice: "Rocky!", to which he turned around to where it came from.
"What's wwong?" asked the Labrador. "Did you find anything, Wocky?"
"Y-yeah... I think... I think so... But I can't..." Answered the mutt in a depressed way, mumbling the last word, impossible for the others to hear.
"I don't want to be wude, but you'we taking it a bit too slow... We can't stand on the floow anymowe!"
He didn't continue speaking, just turning around again. He bit his lip so hard, it felt a bit painful. He tried to concentrate on what he was doing. Not remembering what happened in the past. Not remembering what occurred that traumatic day... Forgetting what transpired back then...
"Rocky, it's bath time!"
A voice kept echoing his head, making him shook it in despair. "No... No, I don't want to remember that!" He felt so scared, he couldn't handle himself. He couldn't control his inner muscles anymore, while a short, yellowish colored liquid squirted from the thing between his back paws. It was very faint, but hot. And a bit smelly.
The other pups saw it as a small speckle of shiny light, but when they noticed the smell, they both reacted in different ways. Zuma made a gagging face, while Robo whimpered, trying to guess that whatever Rocky had on its head, it had to be horrible.
"D-damn you..." mumbled the poor mutt. He tried to buckle up his fear, closing his eyes and pressing the power button of the device. A long beep echoed the shower room, and a number [5] was displayed on the screen. "Five... A digital root of five..." thought Rocky, deeply staring at the cards.
1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8. What number could he make whose digital number was [5]?
He gave out a long breath, trying to relax and concentrate on the problem he had on his paws. It was no question that he had an intelligence well above the average, but he had especial trouble at concentrating at something. He turned at the door. About a quarter of the room in front of him was already filled with water. Panicked, he turned back at the suitcase.
"Come on, Rocky!" cheered Robo, while being in front of the panel aside the hatch door, which read:
16G RAM SYSTEM 18382718240 BASIC BYTES FREE.
READY TO LAUNCH EXTERNAL PROGRAM
"We're counting on you!" added the robot.
"Thanks..." That was just enough to calm him down a little bit, just enough to make him concentrate. "Now then..."
How would he make a number whose digital numbers was [5]? His brain started making simple sum calculations, but after a while then he thought of the quirks.
Rocky tried to use the number 9's properties in his favor and use it as a wildcard in order to make a number with a digital root of [5]. However, the smallest number he could make with a 9 was 59. (5+9 = 14; 1+4 = [5]), which was way larger than the largest number he could sum: 6+7+8 = 21.
While tracing back a few steps, something clicked on his head. 14 was already a number with a digital root of [5]! He then made a few calculations, trying to figure out what numbers could result in 14 after summing digits, and figured that there were only 6 numbers that fulfilled the conditions.
137, 173, 317, 371, 713 and 731. No matter how hard he tried thinking the twenty combinations: Those were the only ones that had a digital root of [5].
One by one, he grabbed the respective two blue cards and one red card, and sliding them through the card reader.
{1}, {7}, {3} ...
A short beep could be heard, and the hidden compartment slid out of the device, revealing an USB stick with a "Commander 64 DOS" label on it.
"I've got something!" yelled Rocky, while turning around. He noticed that the water seemed to be filling up the room at an even faster rate, panicking when he noticed that the water level was covering already a bit more than half of the room.
It wouldn't take too long before the water was high enough to reach the shower room.
"Is that a USB pen drive?" asked the robotic dog. "Quick, don't hesitate about it, pass it over here!"
The mutt gulped, without swallowing what he was holding in his mouth, and jumped as to throw the stick over the gap between the door and the ceiling. "Catch it!"
Robo grabbed the Universal Serial Bus drive with his metallic fangs, and rushed to the terminal.
"Good job, Wocky! You did gweat!" Congratulated the Labrador while standing on the glass door of the shower room. The mutt did nothing but blush a little, looking away. After plugging the stick onto the USB slot, his non-organic right paw pressed the power button twice. The screen faded to black, then back to a splash screen, reading out "Commander 64 DOS 2.3.24", followed by a login screen.
"Oh, no. I need to crack the password to log in." Said Robo with a short sigh sound, noticing he wouldn't be able to do any more operations because the water was already covering the terminal. "Well, let's try and brute force it."
With a short bark, the tip of their paws became into five-fingered small hands, something that made Zuma gag a little. However, the chocolate dog blinked in surprise when he saw that the fingers moved in such a fast rate that his vision couldn't keep track of their fingers.
"I'm writing an algorithm that will try all the possible combinations with a pattern." Explained Robo. "It will take a while, but I'm certain it will be able to crack the password."
It was going to take him five minutes or so, a time quite enough for the other two pups to talk about Rocky.
"Can I ask you something, Wocky?" Zuma was holding his paws against the door in an attempt to communicate that he was by Rocky's side. "Is thewe a weason why you awe afwaid of watew?"
He took a few seconds to respond. "I just don't want to remember something that happened. It's horrible."
"If we make it thwough hewe, you'll pwomise you'll tell us about it?" Asked the persistent Zuma.
Rocky looked down, very sad. But he knew that if he talked it out later, maybe they could help him overcome his fears. "Alright. I promise."
"And I pwomise I'll get you out of hewe, dude."
"Deal." Rocky sounded a little more confident and calmed down than before. "But please, try to do it before I get way too wet.
The Labrador snickered for a couple of seconds before he was interrupted by Robo. "I'll try!" He gasped for some air and dived down to the terminal with the robot.
"Open the hatch doow, will you?" Asked the Labrador, with bubbles of air going up to the surface.
"There's a problem, Zuma. The hatch door will automatically open once it detects the room is full of water."
"Shit!" Cursed the Labrador. Hearing that was definitely not what he expected. Zuma kept yelling for a bit, with the sounds being muted from the surface. "Fuck that Y! Rocky will... Rocky will...!" He looked at Rocky for an instant, and approached him, getting to the surface and take an exasperating breath.
"Zuma? What's going on!?" Wondered the mutt in panic. He was starting to cry a bit again.
That was when an idea came from the Labrador's head. He thought of it for a second, but it was just more than enough to conclude that there wasn't any other way to take Rocky out of the room.
"I'm sowwy, Wocky... But the hatch doow won't unlock until the woom is full of watew..." Stated Zuma as he got further and further from the door. "I'm weally sowwy fow this!"
By taking impulse from the wall, he smashed his body against the glass door, causing it to sturdily vibrate.
"ARGH!" Yelled the mutt in pain. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING ZUMA!?" He noticed that the water was starting to slowly crack after the second bump, and continuous water jets started squirting through. "ZUMA! ZUMA STOP!" plead the dog in the shower room. "YOU'RE... YOU'RE GONNA KILL ME IF YOU BREAK THE DOOR!"
"Sowwy, Wocky. But it's the only way of pwotecting you." Zuma gave one last impulse, and smashed through the glass door, or at least what became millions of shards of the door.
"NOOO!" yelled the mutt in complete despair. The following second felt like a thousand seconds to him. The water completely engulfed himself, as the fragments that were travelling at some quite speed scratched his now soaked fur, cutting through some lacerations. The water started dying in red as the dog felt like he was going to die, not of the blood loss, but of fear.
His vision started to blur and fade out, but beneath all that darkness, and the reddened water, he saw a shadowy, brown colored figure, embracing his body.
But that was all what he last saw before passing out.
Was he dead? Would he make his way out? Would they make his way out...?
Those were the last questions he made on his mind before completely turning unconscious.
STATUS
(According to Team R's perspective)
Team M:
Marshall (ALIVE), Skye (ALIVE), Tracker (ALIVE)
Team R:
Rocky (DANGER), Zuma (RISKY), Robo (RISKY)
Team C:
Chase (?), Rubble (?), Everest (?)
Author's closing notes:
Sorry, but in this fic you won't be able to make any choices. But "maybe" in the future, I'll let you choose. Just... Maybe.
I'm also sorry to say that this will be the last chapter to be added as fast as I can. Since classes start very soon, I won't be able to update them as fast as when I started this. You could expect a weekly update; that's what I'll try to achieve.