“What do you suggest?” he asked Malcolm. “The rest of us appear to be out of ideas, so any thoughts are welcome.”
“I think we should throw another bug at the wall and see what happens. Even if it doesn’t get us out of here, it might be worth a laugh.”
“That isn’t at all helpful,” Leon muttered.
Everyone jumped, and a small scream burst from Annie as the middle wall fell behind them.
“What the fuck?!” shouted Annie in startled annoyance.
Shoo stood beside the trigger line, waving one small hand back and forth over the black strip. She ignored the others’ complaints and continued her experiment as the wall began to climb. Despite her repeated attempts to elicit a reaction from the sensor, the stone block inched relentlessly upward. As it melted flush with the rock above them, they all heard the by now familiar click of the reset mechanism. Shoo paused in her waving for a moment. The stone wall remained in place. One more time, she passed her hand over the sensor and the wall crashed to the floor.
“Ah,” she said, but did not elaborate.
Shoo repeated the process four more times as the others watched. Nobody interrupted or questioned her while she experimented. They all knew she was not the type of personality to be playing games with no reason, so they waited patiently until she was ready to reveal to them the results of her examinations. After several minutes, she at last she faced the others.
“I, the way through, know. I think. The wall, while moving up, will not fall. The wall, only when recessed above, stationary, will fall. Each of us, twenty-four seconds, have, under the wall, to go. We, quick, must be. We, too slow, are, then we die.”
“Who goes first?” asked Malcolm, pointing at the yellow vest soaking in a puddle of gore. “Last theory didn’t work out so well for him.”
Shoo touched the sensor and the wall fell into place. A few seconds later it rose from the ground. Shoo looked toward Hiss, gesturing with a large hand that he should go under the rising stone. Hiss looked less than pleased with the command, but he hesitated no more than a heartbeat or two before ducking his head and bolting through the lethal opening. He made it safely through, and to everyone’s additional surprise, as he passed the second black line of the middle pair, the wall did not fall back to the floor. Instead, there was a resounding crash from the far end of the room, closer to the exit door.
All heads turned to see the third wall had fallen into place between the last pair of black lines. The barricade directly in front of them continued its ponderous climb unaffected.
Although it appeared that the massive stone gate would not drop again while it was moving upward, and it would probably be safe for the remaining members of the group to pass under all at once, they stuck to their original plan. One at a time, they dropped the wall then slipped underneath as it climbed. Shoo followed after Hiss, now confident that she could traverse the space safely, with Malcolm, Sofia, Annie, and Leon coming afterwards in half-minute intervals.
Each time someone passed the second black line, the third wall in the room snapped closed. Unlike the previous two obstacles, this one slid from right to left rather than dropping from the ceiling. Everything else seemed to function the same.
Shoo again took the lead in investigating the workings of the third trap. Trying to make sense of the mechanism’s trigger, she touched the sensor line while the wall was open, closed, moving and still. Several minutes ticked by and she made no discernable progress. It appeared that this wall snapped shut at any and all contacts with the sensor. There did not seem to be a pattern or flaw that they could exploit.
In addition, there was no way to fool the sensor with multiple triggers. If Shoo touched the sensor while the wall was closed, it remained in place, refusing to budge until she moved her hand away from the black line. She checked this function of the wall several times, including one experiment in which she held her hand in place on the sensor for over five minutes before finally giving up. The wall remained stubbornly closed the entire time. The instant she moved her hand away, the heavy slab moved back into its recess on the right.
At last, Shoo stepped away, admitting defeat and creating an opportunity for anyone who might have an idea to jump in and try. No one moved to take advantage of the opening.
“There’s a way out,” Leon said, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. “We know we weren’t brought here just to leave us trapped in a box to die.”
“Are you sure about that?” asked Annie. “Because I don’t think we really know anything of the kind.”
“We discovered a way out of the wilderness, and I have to believe there’s a way out of this. You’re the one that found the pattern to get us through the desert, so what about now? Any ideas? I don’t care how stupid they might sound, we have to keep trying until we figure out what works.”
“Okay. How’s this for a stupid thought: after we went through the second trap, we triggered this one. Maybe the secret to getting past this one has something to do with the last one.”
Leon stared at Annie as though a burning bush had suddenly begun talking to him. His mind began to race.
“Your mouth is open,” Annie told him. Then added for good measure, “Perv.”
Leon clapped his mouth shut, realizing it actually had dropped open. Without a word, he jogged back to the middle of the room. He stopped when he reached the second wall, turned to face the others, and shouted, “I’m going to trigger it from here. When it starts to open, try touching your sensor.”
The third wall closed as Leon brushed a hand over the black line in front of him. He removed his hand and spun to observe what happened next. Shoo moved back to her post next to the final pair of sensor lines. “When it starts to open, touch your sensor,” he repeated.
The final wall glided sideways and Shoo touched the sensor strip. The rock impediment clapped shut once again. Three more times it started to open and three more times, at Shoo’s touch, it crashed closed.
“Okay,” Leon yelled out. “Let it open all the way this time.”
When the barrier was fully open, Leon touched his own sensor once again. The wall closed. He turned to watch but kept his hand in place on the black line. He counted out the seconds in his head and, when he reached thirteen, he saw a space open on the left side of the wall. The opening grew as the wall slid aside, even though Leon’s hand remained firmly on the trigger line.
“Shoo, try to close it!” he yelled.
The alien waved her hand across the sensor, but the barrier did not react. It continued on its path to the right. She touched the sensor multiple times as the stone moved flush with the right-side wall and stopped moving. Hesitantly, one more time, she tapped two small fingers against the black line.
Nothing happened.
“I’ll keep holding it back here,” Leon told them. “Everyone else, go through. When you’re all safe, I’ll do the same thing I did with the first wall.”
The group hesitated, perhaps debating leaving Leon so far behind. Before they could talk themselves out of it, or someone decided to offer to take his place, Leon shouted, “Go!”
Shoo, not surprisingly, tapped Hiss with one large hand and gestured forward. Hiss did not hesitate this time. He hunched his shoulders as though expecting a blow to the head and darted toward the end of the room. The deadly trap did not react to his passing. Less than thirty seconds later, everyone was safely past the final hurdle.
Leon moved his hand off the black stripe and removed another of the apple-like fruits from his pack. He set it on the floor in front of the sensor. Behind him, he heard the third wall close. He stood, slung the pack over his shoulder and walked calmly toward the last barrier. He was in no rush this time. He watched the third wall shift and slide open as he walked toward it and, by the time he reached the last pair of sensor lines, the space was fully open in front of him.
Making certain that nothing had changed, he waved his hand over the final sensor a few times before stepping across the threshold.
/>
They were through. They had gotten past the entire room. Leon wished he could celebrate the accomplishment, but the cost of getting this far had been high. One by one, it seemed that the Apex were picking off the members of their group. Who knew how many more would die before they were done? Who knew how many more challenges they would have to face before they were finally allowed to go home?
The survivors huddled around the white door at the end of the massive hall. The only reward they would receive for passing this test was the opportunity to move on to the next one, so they took a moment to savor the pyrrhic victory. Shoo finally gave a silent signal and Hiss grasped the handle of the door. The handle turned easily in his hand and he pushed the door open.
Ready or not, thought Leon. Here we go again.
CHAPTER 14
Subtle differences marked the hallway around them from the previous halls they had passed through. Leon observed the same featureless white walls, floor, and ceiling as before, but this passage was much narrower. The ceiling rose only about eight feet from the floor, and the span from wall to wall stretched no more than four feet across. This hallway also covered much less distance than the other passageways they had used. It traversed twenty feet before ending and, instead of a wall with another door, Leon saw an opening where the narrow walkway emerged into another room.
The door behind them had already faded into nonexistence, so forward was the only direction available to the group. They shuffled toward the beckoning space before them.
The new room was also smaller than most they had been in so far. It appeared to be a perfect box, 20 feet across and equally as tall. Instead of the seemingly omnipresent white coloring, the surfaces here were all a pale violet color, a pleasant deviation in Leon’s estimation. Despite the color change, the same non-directional lighting sources seemed to be in play. There was plenty of illumination to see, but Leon could not find a lamp or lightbulb anywhere in the room.
At the far end, centered at the base of the wall, was a dark maroon colored door. It was the only distinguishing feature in the lavender space.
“Hey, Idaho. Hand me one of those fruits,” said Annie, holding out one hand.
“Those are supposed to be for when we get hungry,” Leon complained. “If we keep throwing them around to check for traps, we’re going to run out.”
“You want to be the guinea pig instead?”
Leon fished out a fist-sized chunk of hard cheese and handed it to her. “Here. I don’t like cheese much anyway.”
Annie gave him a pained look and rolled her eyes. She faced the red door, cocked her left arm back, and hurled the cheese at the far wall. It struck a few inches to the left of the door and broke apart into several smaller pieces before pattering down on the floor. There was no reaction in the room from either the motion of the cheese sailing through the air, or its ignominious landing. Annie peered suspiciously at the floor, then up at the ceiling.
“Okay,” she said. “I guess it’s safe.”
Only slightly more confident than when they had first arrived, the six survivors moved out of the shelter of the narrow hallway. As small as the room was, they reached the new door quickly, although now that they stood next to it, Leon was not so certain it actually was a door. The red rectangle was flush with the wall and there was a narrow seam that ran around its full perimeter that suggested it was blocking an exit of some type, but there was no indication as to how to open it. Leon searched, but could not find a handle or hinges visible anywhere on its surface.
The only decoration to the smooth, glossy blockade was a black circle about half the size of Leon’s palm placed at the door’s midpoint. A narrow groove traced the entire circumference of the circle.
Leon sighed. He was about to do something that might get him killed, but he did not see any other alternative.
“Everyone take a step back. If this is a bad idea, no one else needs to get caught up in the blowback.”
“What are you doing, Leon?” asked Sofia, although she took his advice and moved a pace away from him.
Instead of answering, Leon tapped one fingertip against the black circle. He winced and prepared himself for a negative reaction from the door against his intrusion, but nothing happened. The red barrier offered no response. He tapped it a second time, still afraid he might detonate a hidden explosive or something equally horrific, and again the door remained quietly in place.
Next, he slipped his fingertips into the groove etched in the door and gripped the black circle by its edges. Perhaps this disk functioned as a doorknob or locking mechanism of some type. With no other useful ideas to try, it was at least worth the attempt to move it. He twisted his hand and, to his pleasant surprise, the circle turned freely in his grasp. He turned it a full rotation clockwise, then reversed the direction. Although the circle moved easily, it did not appear to affect the door in any manner. There was no sound of a latch moving aside or any indication that the circle was anything more than decoration.
“Try pulling the door open,” Sofia suggested from behind him. She had inched closer after Leon’s initial taps had not resulted in anything catastrophic.
Leon turned the circle one more full rotation counterclockwise, then pulled. The door did not move, but the circle did. A foot-long, black cylinder slid effortlessly out of the door, leaving a perfectly circular hole behind. As Leon held the cylinder up to examine it more closely, the door collapsed.
Like a sheet of tempered glass pushed beyond its ability to remain intact, the door shattered into thousands of uniform little pieces and spilled forward onto the floor around Leon’s and Sofia’s feet. Leon flicked a foot at the mound of tiny blocks heaped over his shoes causing them to skitter across the floor and bounce off the walls before finally sliding to a stop.
Annie reached down to pick up one of the pieces. It was rectangular in shape and about half the length of her thumb.
“That’s one down, lad,” said Malcolm, kicking away several blocks that had come to rest against his right boot. “But how about that one, now?”
Leon glanced into the space the collapse of the red door had revealed. Instead of a new passage behind the barricade, there was an identically shaped door situated directly behind the first. This barrier also had a black circle inset into its center, but rather than the first door’s deep red coloration, this second structure was a vibrant shade of orange.
“I don’t know,” Leon admitted. “But it has another circle. I guess we pull that one out, too.”
“Leon,” warned Sofia. There was a note of panic in her voice. “The blocks.”
Leon looked around the room and found that the mass of blocks scattered about the floor had begun to vibrate. He did not feel anything under his feet, so he did not think they were reacting to any motion or disturbance in the floor. They appeared to be moving on their own.
Shoo was the first to retreat into the hallway from which they had entered, her self-preservation instinct kicking in as soon as she noticed the unexpected motion. Hiss, Malcolm, and Annie darted in behind her.
“Run!” shouted Sofia, but Leon did not need the prodding. They both bolted into the shelter of the hallway, hoping to avoid whatever mischief the blocks were about to perform.
As they all huddled in the hall, watching the blocks’ movements grow more agitated, Leon realized he was still holding the cylinder he had removed from the door in his right hand. The cylinder hummed against his palm. Startled by the sudden activity, he hurled the object toward the center of the room.
When the black tube hit the floor, the component bricks slid across the ground toward it like metal filings drawn toward a large magnet. Every stray block in the room gathered to the black centerpiece and heaped up over the top of it, forming a quivering mound of red fragments. One moment the scene looked like a teeming anthill of red particles, and the next, the door reformed in the center of the room in a complete reverse of its earlier collapse.
Once more fully solid, all movement around the door
ceased. The black cylinder had returned to its position in the middle of the structure, surrounded by the circular groove. The group did not reemerge from the hallway for several minutes. They stared at the red door, waiting to see if it would violently come to life and initiate a new assault against them. It did not move. It remained in place, as inanimate as when they had first spotted it. Only when they were convinced that no more unpleasant surprises awaited them did the group reemerge into the lavender room.
Shoo and Malcolm hung back in the hallway as the rest of the group cautiously approached the red door. The two of them appeared to have the same survival plan: let someone else take the risk of getting killed while they stayed put to see what happened.
Leon circled the door, noting that the cylinder ran the entire width of the barrier and created a black circle on both sides. Presumably, it could be pulled out from either side, not that he was eager to try that trick again anytime soon. Sofia tapped lightly at the door with a finger, then more forcefully knocked on its surface with the knuckles of one fist. The rapping echoed hollowly about the room, but that was the only result.
“Move,” said Annie, giving both Leon and Sofia a gentle shove to get them away from the red door. When they were far enough back, she placed both palms on one flat surface and pushed. The door did not budge despite its seemingly precarious balance on its bottom edge.
Leon joined her and together they pushed at the barrier. It should have toppled like a giant domino, but instead the door held firmly in place.
“Bizarre,” said Sofia. “But then again, what in this place isn’t?”
“Yup. It’s a real shit show,” agreed Annie.
Leon wandered over to the orange door still blocking their exit. “Should we try the next one? Maybe it will do the same thing.”
“Uh, that theory hasn’t really worked out too hot for us in the past,” said Annie. “What if it catches fire, or blows up?”
Testing Grounds (On Dangerous Grounds Book 1) Page 19
