As the Chilean Changed Daily prepared to jump onto the first panel, she couldn't help but recall something her mother had once told her.
The Chilean Changed Daily took a deep breath before murmuring to herself, "My life is about ups and downs, great joys and great losses."
With determination in her eyes, she proceeded to hop onto the first panel of the spiral course... and then another... and then another. She forced herself to calm, knowing fully well that she needed to be careful which panel she landed on next. From the hole that had once been the twelfth panel, she knew that she would have to risk finding out which of the panels beyond that was made of tempered glass or not. She wasn't sure, but it was something that she just couldn't put off any longer.
"What are you doing?" Pineapple Chunks called out to her. "Hurry up!"
The Chilean Changed Daily quickly whipped her head around at him. "What do you think I'm doing?!"
Pineapple Chunks held his hands up as if to defend himself. "Alright, take it easy."
The Chilean Changed Daily resumed what she was doing and scanned the course for any further glass panels that could drop her down to her doom. It was a little hard to distinguish them from the tempered glass panels, which had a slight foamy green hue to them, but she didn't want to take too big a gamble or anything. The best she could do was just skip the hole that had once been the twelfth panel and hope the one after that wasn't regular glass. She carefully hopped from one panel to another. All the while, Pineapple Chunks and Scheherazade cheered her on as she made progress.
After what felt like an eternity, she finally landed on the eleventh panel, only to be caught off-guard by a grappling hook shooting out of the hole that had once been the twelfth panel and attach itself to the ceiling. She stumbled backwards and landed onto the tenth panel.
"Oh my God!" she yelled.
Pineapple Chunks looked up to see where the grappling hook had attached itself and recognized it immediately.
"Oh my God..." Pineapple Chunks murmured. "It's Victor and Anita! We're saved!"
Scheherazade, who had been reading her friend's lips, proceeded to sign the question, "Victor and Anita? They're here?"
The Chilean Changed Daily grumbled under her breath, "Well, I'd rather it be Lucas instead. He'd be much more useful."
Victor, his companions, the Ghanaian Changed Daily, and Glodesind all climbed up the cable that the grappling hook was attached to and then landed right in the middle of the spiral course.
"Oh my God!" Scheherazade signed. "It can't be... but it is. You came to save us?"
Jeremy flashed a smile and signed back, "We sure did, boss. You have no idea how long it took for us to find you."
"Wait, so then where is Anita? Pineapple Chunks seemed to imply that she was with you."
Jeremy sighed. "It's a long story..."
He proceeded to briefly explain to Scheherazade what had happened to Anita. She understood quite well after listening to Jeremy's detailed story.
"I'm glad to hear she's doing okay," Scheherazade signed. "Now how do we get out of here?"
"I'm glad you asked, boss," Jeremy signed back. "Just follow our lead."
Once Victor and his companions had gathered all the remaining participants together, they decided to escape through the hole that had once been the twelfth panel and just head out from there. The only problem with this plan was that the whole building and the cave system from which it was built around was already so huge and labyrinthine that it could be hard for anyone except the organizers and participants to know where they were or where they could go. Nevertheless, they had Glodesind on hand to show them the way.
"Alright, Glodesind, which way is the way out?" Victor asked her. "Remember, it's a matter of life and death."
Glodesind immediately pointed towards a pathway on her right.
"We have to hurry, Glodesind," Scheherazade signed. "We only have a few minutes before the mooks find us."
"I know," Glodesind signed back. "Just follow my lead, everyone."
With that, Glodesind took a deep breath, and she and her companions began the trek through a dimly lit tunnel, which took minutes if not hours to traverse through. Eventually, they came to a crossroad. One path led towards a curved line of panels with labyrinthine patterns on them, while the other path lead towards a curved line of panels that looked just like the one they were currently on, but with only the top panel rotated to the vertical. On one side of the path on their right, they could see a triangular yellow-orange panel with the words "Caution: Lemurians may be hanging out here" scribbled across the front.
"I have a bad feeling about this," the Ghanaian Changed Daily piped up. "Do you think we might get attacked through here?"
"It wouldn't be the first time," Milou answered wryly. "But at least the mooks won't have a chance to see us out."
Scheherazade then proceeded to sign, "Get ready, people."
They formed a line, and they slowly and carefully began to ascend the orange triangular panel. Glodesind took the lead, and all of them had to move slower than a snail crawling on hot sand. They proceeded for several minutes, following Glodesind's lead.
"Umm..." Pineapple Chunks started signing. "Do you think the Lemurians will mind us going through their roosting spot?"
Scheherazade signed back, "How should I know? I haven't been through here before."
"I guess I'll take your word for it. I just hope we'll be safe."
"Me too, Pineapple Chunks. Me too."
Finally, the orange panel on the right began to incline upwards, and Glodesind and her followers slowly and carefully began to enter a room where 195 Lemurians were sleeping. The moment they passed through, there was a low rumbling sound that filled the room. One by one, each of them froze in fear.
"What was that?" Jeremy asked in alarm.
"Yeah, what was that?" Victor chimed in.
"This is where all the eliminated participants are being kept," Glodesind signed. "All 196 of them, in fact, including myself."
Tamara raised an eyebrow at the number. "Wait, really?"
Glodesind nodded in response.
Tamara tilted her head at this. "How did you escape?"
"It's a long story, but let's just say I had a little help from my friends. Anyway, I think it's time we helped them escape."
Clearence pumped his fist way up into the air. "Hell yeah! Let's do this!"