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“Oh hell yeah!” Kai ran up to Damon, full of beans, “Dude, look at this!” Damon grabbed his hand so he could read the words.
MR CUDDLER TOKEN
MR CUDDLER GUARANTEED
“Looks useless,” He muttered, annoyed that he hadn’t managed to also find a cool prize in the escape room, “I bet if you take it that speaker guy shocks us to death."
That mysterious voice hadn't appeared again ever since they'd all gone down the elevator and found that trial room, but it still made for a decent threat. In a corner of his mind, Damon almost expected the speaker to crackle to life again, as if the last two weeks of silence were some grand test.
“Dude, no way!” Kai took it to his chest, cherishing it, then his offense was broken by a small grin, "Heh, just look," He displayed his hand to Damon's face, "Notice anything different?"
He wagged his fingers. Damon baulked. Where the hell-- he'd-- "You took it off?!" Kai stuck out his tongue, "You can take it off?! Why did nobody tell me!" He was still wearing that shock-collar and this idiot had somehow figured it out!!
"This is why you shouldn't sleep in." Damon made a strangled noise of pain, "Jett was at the dining hall table doing it all for everyone this morning. I swear we forgot someone..."
Cassidy was playing at full volume until 6am! What was I supposed to do?!
"Ugh..." He was beginning to regret exploring the delta space with this guy. Unlike the alpha, beta and gamma spaces they'd all broken into, the delta one consisted of just four doors. Each one a small, enclosed room. An escape room. If the door was closed behind someone inside, they'd be forced to do the puzzles to escape.
The whole gimmick was that these escape rooms had no food or water sources, and the puzzles could take upwards of six hours. It seemed excessive.
“Alright, let's find the exit!” Kai was pretty cheerful, but it had only been one minute since Toshiko tripped on the wire holding the door open. Soon, Kai would break. He would break and Damon would be stuck with his complaining.
He had to leave. Quickly.
SLAM.
Damon tried busting down the door with full strength, but it held steady, “Hm.”
“You’re meant to solve the puzzle, yeah?”
“What?” Damon said, turning around.
“It’s an escape room.”
“...” Damon had no time for this shit.
“...?” Kai gasped, “Oh my gosh, you’ve never done one before?!” Damon’s eyelid twitched. He had no time for this shit, “Me neither! Oh my god, let’s solve the puzzle!”
...
...
...
Both of them lay collapsed on the floor. The ‘ask a hint!’ phone in Damon’s hand had only the dial tone this entire time. He hung it up from the floor, dejected and exhausted.
“I don’t know Latin…” Kai groaned from the floor.
“It’s Greek letters,” Damon pointed to the chart on the wall, “See, you’ve got alpha, beta, gamma…”
“This is soo confusing!” Kai gripped his head and rolled around on the floor, “We’ve tried every equation!”
“No it’s easy,” Damon contended, sweat dripping down his brow, “You just need to find the deeper meaning.” The puzzle supposedly had to do with the layout of the tree room. Supposedly.
Kai shot up from the floor with a gasp, “What if, okay, hear me out–”
Damon grunted, messing around with the scrabble-like letter pieces.
“What if we have to spell a word?’
Damon scoffed, “There’s no way it would be so easy.”
B - A - O
[BAO ACCEPTED. PLEASE ENJOY YOUR MEAL.]
The section underneath the puzzle opened up with a fizz of cold air.
“Holy shit, we can finally escape!” Kai ran up to the contraption, but Damon held out his hand.
“Wait,” Laid in the contraption were two perfectly delectable and delicious bao buns. Damon regarded them with tension. He thought there wasn’t supposed to be food in here, “Is this part of the puzzle…?”
“Y’know, I’ve been kinda hungry…”
“...” Damon narrowed his eyes.
Four minutes later, the bao buns were eaten. They were delicious and nutritious.
“Okay, now we need to get out of here,” Damon said, standing up.
“What about that way?” Kai pointed to the large chute the bao buns had come out of. It looked reflective and lit-up. He could probably crawl through it. Actually, they were probably meant to do that.
Damon shrugged, “Sure.”
Five minutes of crawling later, Damon reached an intersection which opened up into a dark tunnel, man-sized. He crawled out and Kai came from behind him, “Huh.”
“...” They both stood in the dark tunnel.
From behind them, something slipped and fell to the ground. The chute shut behind them.
“Uh–?!”
Damon turned on his trinket, “What was that?”
“Wait– Damon– is this supposed to happen–!?”
Damon moved his trinket around the dark space, just enough for it to outline a bao bun collapsed on the floor. He moved it upwards, pieces of meat and sauce sliding up the side of the chute until it hit the metal crease where the doors closed.
He couldn’t get a grip on the door, it looked like it was automatic.
“...” Was… the bao bun keeping the door open? He suddenly had a bad feeling.
“I get the vibe we’re not supposed to– Woah!” The floor had started moving.
“Watch your step,” Damon said. Kai looked down to see a… parfait??? Just… travelling down the dark creepy tunnel.
Kai shivered.
“Ah, I know where we might be,” Damon put a hand to his chin. Kai nervously saw that they were moving sideways away from the tunnel they’d started in, “We should follow this down.”
“In the direction it’s going?”
“Yeah,” And then Damon went down the dark creepy tunnel like it was no big deal. Kai frowned and followed him.
Eventually, they came across more plates of food. Tuna. Porridge. Salami slices. Being careful not to step on anything, Damon carefully picked his way past. Kai felt like he was slowly surfing on a dining hall table from hell, “We’re getting closer to the end.”
Oh.
Kai could see it. There was a white door that all of the food was moving towards, “This escape room is crazy.”
“This is the fridge.”
“...” Kai froze, “What.”
“It’s a self-producing fri–”
“No I know that, why is it so massive?” Kai looked behind him into the dark creepy tunnel. The sequential plates of dishes faded into the black.
“It’s an industrial one,” Damon stated nonchalantly. They reached the white door, which was more like a white indent in the wall.
The meals slid through a perpetually open food slot at the bottom, providing an endless rotation of dishes that most self-producing fridges provided. Except those fridges didn’t feature dishes that drifted into the fucking darkness through giant tunnels, obviously.
Kai fiddled with his rings, frowning at the plates of food, “At least we know how food gets here, I guess…”
“Hmm…” Damon splayed his hand out over the door, “...Someone removed the door handles.” He pushed against it. It was rock solid.
Kai went over to check it out as well, but aside from the small food slot at the bottom– way too small for a human to fit through– the door was completely blocked by the heavy fridge on the other side, “Shit… we’re trapped!”
“Well, we could also try and get one of the others to…” Damon’s brow twitched, thinking.
“What, help us get out?” Kai frowned, “I could… try something?”
Jett went to open the fridge. He went to grab a carton of milk.
Then the plate of pasta began talking.
Kai’s voice, “Hey, dude–”
“WHAT THE FUCK!!!!” Jett slammed the fridge shut with full force, “IT’S HAUNTED! MARK! I SWEAR IT’S HAUNTED–”
On the other side of the wall, Damon slowly facepalmed. Kai shrugged. If they leaned on the wall, their feet could rest on the side and not get moved around with the other plates of food, “I tried!”
Damon sighed, “Let me do it.”
Ingrid opened the fridge, “Jett, honey, there’s nothing in here.” She gestured to the contents of the fridge, particularly the coke bottle Cassidy had shoved in there for later, “See?”
“Do not be afraid,” Said the bottle of coke.
“YIPES!” She stumbled back from the fridge, “IS THAT A VOICE RECORDER OR SOMETHING?!” Jett fell to his knees. From behind him, Wolfgang dropped six dishes.
“It’s me, Damon. Don’t be afraid.”
“Yeah, well done doing that,” Kai muttered from the other side of the wall. Damon hissed at him to be quiet.
“Damon!” Ingrid looked around for someone else in the kitchen to explain this. Her eyes met Desmond, “Isn’t he stuck in the beta space?!” Oh, thank god. Toshiko actually told someone.
Desmond blinked three times, “Wait, why are you looking at me? I don’t recall amy pathway to the... back of the fridge?” He stepped forward to the fridge tentatively, as if calming a great beast, “...Where are you?”
“Remove the food on the bottom shelf.” Damon felt the sound of plates being shifted, beyond the buzz of the conveyor belt, and he knelt down. Kai crossed over him to kneel down on the other side, “Be careful,” He told him.
“Obviously!” They knelt down to see Ingrid’s surprised face on the other side of the food slot. The brightness of the fridge made her look like an angel, making him squint his eyes. Damon could hear the buzz of the conveyor belt beneath his ear.
“Oh my gosh!!” She stumbled back, falling to her butt, “You’re– you’re really in there!!!” God, the brightness burned.
“Hi Ingrid!” Kai waved a hand, “Uh, there’s like a massive industrial fridge back here–”
Desmond blinked in shock from beyond Ingrid, “How did you get there?”
“We escaped the escape room,” Damon supplied. The other students looked between themselves, not quite sure how to take that information, “Look, we need you to move the fridge. There’s a maintainance door it’s blocking.”
Ingrid knelt down again, catching their eyes, “Alrighty, move out of the way please!”
Desmond stumbled back as Ingrid began pulling back the refrigerator, “Hey, at least turn off the power, first!” Wolfgang entered the kitchen with a broom.
“Miss Grimwall, I don’t think that’s–” The fridge socket pinged from the wall as the fridge was shoved to the side, “--appropriate…”
Ingrid wiped her hands with a smile, “There!” Only for her expression to fall, "You two said there's a door?"
"Yeah?"
Now that the fridge was clear, Damon and Kai could clearly see the looks on their faces.
"Uh..." Desmond pointed at it, turning to Wolfgang, "That's..." His finger dropped, as his eyes flickered over Damon and Kai's position, "That's no door. Do we have something for walls?"
"I... yes," Wolfgang tightened his tie, "Quite. We will have you out, so sit tight." That did not sound convincing. At all.
From beside him, Damon could literally feel the anxiety radiating from Kai. The wall thudded hard above their head. Ingrid's voice came clearer.
"Yipes, that's brick.” Not a door. That was strange… fridges usually had doors behind them, that led into a closet-sized belt and printer. The ones that didn’t were the old-fashioned ones that didn’t print food. Damon hadn’t thought they could explore behind there at all, not while they were still getting shocked. And honestly, he hadn’t even wanted to.
But the fact that somebody had bricked this place off...
Kai immediately went to push on the door again, as if it would do something. Damon eyed the food chute that entered the lowest shelf of the fridge-- the only exit. It was way too narrow for the size of a human head.
"Right," Ingrid surveyed the wall, "I'd fetch a sledgehammer for this. Do you folks mind waiting a few hours? Makin' it will take some time." Like a balm, her steady voice cut over the rising tension over the rest of the group.
“Oh! Yes, precisely,” Wolfgang straightened up right away, “I’ll call a meeting.”
“That’s right-- we don’t have to worry about getting shocked anymore!” Kai leaned against the wall, dropping down to an eventual crouch with a sigh of relief, “Man, we’d be so screwed without Ingrid…!”
Until now, scape progress had been stifled due to people getting shocked whenever they messed with something. That had been enough for them to stay within bounds for the first few days, but then Jean started to mess with the shutter doors. After Jett joined him, it turned into some sort of manly competition to see who could handle getting shocked more. Damon was entirely convinced the only reason it kept going was because they both lost brain cells from the idiotic activity. But from observing those two, everyone realised the shocks lasted only a few seconds, and people started coming up with workarounds.
It mostly consisted of finding heavy objects around the academy and ramming them against the shutter doors. Grace had tried and failed to climb the tree. Regardless, progress was made and they’d broken into some spaces, looking for an exit.
Then, two days ago, Ulysses joined the mad duo. Together, they figured out the trinket detected it’s movement and proximity to things like blocked doors and cameras-- in other words, what triggered the shock. Naturally, trying to break other trinkets with brute force would trigger the shock as well.
Damon hadn’t expected this all to start going into motion so soon, but…
“Kai, how did Jett take off those trinkets anyway?”
“I…” Kai tilted his head, “Okay, so, I don’t know actually. Some magnet-looking thing? He had it hooked up to a battery and kinda waved it over the top. It unlatched, he said ‘don’t move or you’ll get shocked rhehehe’, fucking terrifying, then he cut some wires? It looked complicated…” He caught Damon’s displeased expression, “Hey, don’t give me that! It’s your fault for not going to the dining hall, we all thought you were coming!”
Damon was sick of this place. Of all the days to skip breakfast...
Meanwhile, conversation had ended for a while on the other end of the wall. Damon peeked out again, but nobody was in the kitchen anymore.
The conveyor belt buzzed beneath them.
“…A few hours huh…” Kai muttered. Damon decided to stay strong. Freedom was quite literally in his sights. A sigh from his side, “The food in there’s gonna go bad if they just leave the fridge unattached like that.”
Damon didn’t respond. He shut his eyes.
“They’d just make this food-slot-thing bigger, right? Tear it down a little,” Kai hugged his knees, “It probably won’t take that long to do.”
“...”
“I mean--”
Damon stood up all at once, “I’m going to explore this area more.”
“Huh?!” Kai looked up at him like he’d said the worst thing possible, “Just wait for them to get back!”
“They’re just updating everyone else on the situation, nothing changes for us,” Damon gazed off into the darkness where delicious treats emerged in a single-file lane. Then, in a much quieter voice, “There’s definitely another way out.”
“Uhh, wasn’t the way to the delta space closed though?” Kai jumped up as Damon made his way back down the conveyer belt, “Dude, don’t leave me here!” The debater clicked his tongue, turning back.
“Then just wait. Once the wall’s open, we’ll be exploring this all anyway,” He walked off in the direction of darkness again, voice echoing down, “I’m just getting a head start.”
Kai squawked, “That’s-- that’s so unhygenic!”
“So it’s better for one person to explore this instead of sixteen, isn’t it?” Kai groaned and put his head in his hands, “Just stay there.”
Relief came to greet him the further he got away from Kai. The blond flicked on the trinket. Then he just kept following the belt, back the way they’d entered. He knew this definitely had to lead somewhere, and it was about time for him to find an escape route of his own.
…
…
…
After about half a minute, he could hear footsteps following. Great.
“Damon...” Did he have to whine? “There’s literally no proof there’s another exit!”
“There is. All the food in here has to come from somewhere.”
For all his grumbling, Kai was still following him. Maybe he was just weak to boredom.
A few minutes later, and they finally reached the chute they’d dropped out of. It was set in the wall like a window, part of the track clearly designed to carry bao buns to the location. It was still shut tight, no matter what they tried, so they continued on. Damon kept his trinket out like a torch– not like it provided much light.
The only way they hadn’t managed to step and destroy various plates of food was the sides of the conveyer belt, which allowed them to step normally by balancing on the side. Otherwise, they truly would have smashed through next week’s meals and desserts.
Travelling down it also meant coming across a lot of different meal varieties. Kai had taken a sweet drink, the sugar had clearly done something to him, and then he’d stopped them like three times to decide if he wanted to take something else.
“This is crazy,” He also hadn’t stopped talking. Kai had literally not stopped talking, “They should make sushi trains like this,” The place would swiftly go out of business due to breaking food safety laws, “Is it just me, or is it getting colder?”
Damon’s breath was also beginning to get frosty. He could almost see it in the dim glow of the trinket lights, “We must be reaching the freezer.”
“There’s gotta be a way it all stays cool, yeah?”
“Obviously,” They kept walking, down the long stretch of conveyer belt. All throughout it, the food continued in a straight line. It was like seeing pasta plates march off to war. Just how large was this academy?
Then, eventually, they came across a fork in the creepy tunnel. So far, the conveyer belt moving away from the kitchen was right next to the one moving towards it. Upon reaching the fork, each split off into their own hallways.
They stayed on the path they’d been going down. The wall Damon was using for occasional balance was becoming slippery and icy.
Then there was a yelp from behind him. The belt picked up all of a sudden, Damon’s foot slipped from the side onto the track, stumbling a little, but thankfully didn’t demolish any food along the way.
He breathed out. That was close.
The conveyer belt had graduated to a brisk walking pace. Still pretty slow, just enough to trip him. Even Kai hadn’t fallen. However, he didn’t get a chance to get back on the side of the conveyer belt.
Something was moving in the dark towards them. Something big. White?
“What’s that?”
“What?” A great stalactite, made of ice, gradually rolled past between them into the dark. Trinket light flickered off of it, and then it was gone, “...Huh.”
“That…” Damon blinked, “That couldn’t have been formed in a few days–”
“Oh, dude, duck,” Kai’s voice cut through and Damon crouched just in time, various icicles cutting the air above them. Aren’t these too big? “Hey, we should stop walking.”
“Yeah.” They allowed the conveyer belt to do the job instead, and more giant icicles brisked past. Damon was starting to feel like he was playing the icicles in the dark version of that one VR game Eva was obsessed with. His breath fogged. Kai resumed speaking to complain.
“It’s cold.”
“I know,” He couldn’t look behind him, considering he had to keep the trinket light in front of him to see what was coming. He glanced back as a particularly large stalactite rolled past again.
“Don’t step on that– ah.” Kai’s foot ended up on a swiss roll.
“Oops.”
“Whatever,” Damon ducked down under another stalagmite, “They’re getting lower.” It was annoying. Actually, it would be easier to just crouch.
After a moment, Kai slipped off the side of the conveyer belt and joined him down there.
It was colder, but also getting brighter. Some light from the ceiling was beginning to shine down upon them, cutting the darkness with splits of bright-blue light.
The contrast of total darkness and total brightness was also annoying. Damon pulled the hood up on his jacket. He could intermittently see Kai squinting across from him. Then his mouth opened.
“That’s a hoodie?!”
“We have more pressing concerns Kai.”
“I always thought that was a fancy robe thingy or something…”
The lights became all blue-white bright, and the darkness was chased away.
Then Damon was crouched down on a slow-moving conveyer belt with Kai Monteago, ice cream dishes surrounding him, crystal icicles above him and brutal coldness. The mirrors on both walls reflected an infinite ice cream domain. Kai’s teeth chattered.
“Where the fuck are we, the North Pole?!” Damon raised an eyebrow at the mirrors.
“It’s an Industrial Freezer,” He was shivering, “This one is just… big.” And fancy?
“This is way too much for sixteen people– oh, shit.” Kai stared at something coming up ahead.
“What?” Damon couldn’t see it from this angle. Too many icicles in the way.
One word. “Chute.”
“...Oh.”
“Do we go back?” Kai almost stood up, before clearly remembering the large amount of razor sharp icicles above them which could come crashing down all at once. It didn’t help that those were still getting lower, “Shit, dude–”
“...We can fit in there,” Damon said under his breath. It wasn’t that big, but...
“And then what, genius?! What if the next one’s smaller?!”
“You need to calm down, we have time to decide,” Damon went to crouch on the side of the conveyer belt instead, but slipped down due to ice, “Uh.” He couldn’t get a solid grip on the side. The plates clanged at his feet, which Kai caught just in time, placing them on top of the others. Another icicle swung overhead.
“Dude, we don’t have time–!”
“Okay, okay, clear a space then,” The two of them quickly stacked all the plates in front and behind them, clearing a track so they could lie down, “It’s big enough for us, we’ll be fine.”
“Dude, your head–” Kai pulled it down before Damon hit it on the roof of the chute, and suddenly darkness shuttled around them. Damon stilled in Kai’s arms.
“...”
“...”
The chute continued to hum, the conveyer belt continuing into the darkness, now just smaller than ever before.
It had been a mistake to let Kai follow, “Fuck, we’re like those cave divers, Damon we are fucking dead–”
“Stop panicking,” Damon said from Kai’s chest, “And move.”
“Where to, genius?” Damon only grumbled in response. Slowly, Kai released his head, “There’s zero– OW!” A thunk.
Damon sighed. “Lie down on the belt already.”
“You’re on the belt–!” He could hear the sound of Kai’s hair sliding against the top of the chute, “At least this way, I can feel that we’re moving–” Damon grabbed his jacket, “Hey–!”
Kai landed on Damon’s stomach. He froze up. Unbeknownst to him in the darkness, Damon rolled his eyes, “Calm down.”
“No,” Kai came up close to his face so he could gesture a finger in it, “No, no! You are WAY to chill and calm about this! Dude, we’re stuck in an industrial machine! One that just tried to kill us with a bunch of giant stalactites–”
“Icicles–”
“Whatever! And now, what, you think we can just chill here and be safe and sound!?” Kai grumbled into his chest, “We are LITERALLY like those cave divers, idiot!” His voice echoed around them in the small space, to add to the effect.
“I told you to stay behind,” Damon cut through before Kai could argue again, “And those divers are exploring natural cave systems. This is completely different. Industrial fridges are man-made machines,” Kai made a sound like a dying baby goose.
“Oh my god, this isn’t a debate, Damon! I’m submitting a complaint!”
Damon scoffed, “Yes it was.” He’d had to do a ton of research into industrial appliances for the debate about people getting trapped and dying inside these goddamn things, “I’ve debated this before, I even went to the production facility as a kid. They have a fake fridge for children to play on,” A huff of air, and Kai tensed up, “It’s all completely safe. Right now? You look like a guy who’s freaking out about going down the slide at the McDonalds playhouse.”
Kai snapped.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY THAT EARLIER?!”
“You’re the one freaking out about it,” Damon shifted his legs, and Kai moved his weight so he wouldn’t get squished down the side, “Besides, isn’t going there like a family event kind of thing?”
“Hell no it’s not–”
“You know, like fridge expo?”
“Dude, you’re saying all this stuff I’ve LITERALLY never heard of before,” Damon’s nose scrunched in offense, “Ugh. Just tell me,” Kai pinched his brow like he wasn’t the annoying one, “Where does this go?”
“Okay well, first it goes through the food section– stop pinching me, the food comes out on a separate track–” Kai grumbled and stopped, “Then it goes through the dishwasher– Ow!”
“We are so fucking dead!”
“We’re not,” Damon slapped his pinch away, “Listen to me. This track we’re on right now is for completed food that’s not too old to throw away. We’re in the storage area. So it will go back to the start and begin again– until we go back to the fridge– but it’s going to take the long way around.”
Kais breath stuttered, “...That’s why there’s a chute…”
“Yep.”
“Storage area.”
“Yup,” A pause, “‘There’s layers.”
“Don’t. Don’t. Don’t. Just don’t.”
Damon rolled his eyes again, “Okay?”
Kai slowly face-planted into Damon’s chest, “...How long until we get to the end…?”
“Hmm…” Damon crossed his arms on top of Kai’s head, “One hour, probably…?”
“WHAT?!”
Damon blinked at him steadily, “And what? We’ll live. Just be patient.”
“Damon, we have to lie in this position?!”
“No, you can move all the plates down and lie down there–” Damon paused as he used his trinket to assess the food situation above his head, “--Oh. Actually, this stuff is taking up the whole chute…” If he messed with the pile, food would spill for certain.
Kai groaned and face-planted into his chest again.
“You could check below me?”
“Damon, I did the same thing.”
“Oh.”
The two of them lay there in silence on the conveyer belt for a while, hearing the buzzing sound as it went by.
“...”
“...”
...
Damon woke up with a start. Then he frowned.
“What.”
Panic surged around Kai, so thick he could feel it, “You– you passed out dude!!”
“Napping,” Damon corrected. He yawned, “--’Ve got like, twenty minutes left.” Probably.
“But-- what if you’re asleep when we finally reach the exit?!” What?
“You’ll know it’s the exit, it’ll literally open up and it’ll be loud as hell.” Another surge of panic.
“What do you mean it’s loud?”
“There’s a generator.” Kai made a noise like a goat being abducted by aliens, “Calm down already, we’re literally constantly moving and are on the way out.”
“Damon, listen, I hate this.” Yeah, he really did.
“Not my problem,” Damon pressed his eyes shut, “Just go to sleep.”
“Dude, you sleep if you want, but I’m just not doing that in the middle of a giant freaking machine–” Kai paused in his speech, blinking owlishly at the snores beginning to escape Damon, “--What. What the hell?! You’re falling aslee–?!”
“We’re here,” Damon tapped Kai’s forehead. The influencer’s face scrunched up. Then he opened his eyes.
“...Huh?” He’d left drool on his jacket.
“Told you,” Damon pointed at the giant generator they were coming up to. The area looked like that place in the airport where you find your bag, it was all opened up to a room now. Far brighter, too, “Now, get off me.”
Kai sighed, getting off the Damon Train, “Today has been so freaking trippy, man…” Damon slid off the conveyor belt after him, and then they both had a moment where they felt like they were moving when they were in fact not moving.
Nausea hit like a truck.
“Wait, Damon… let’s wait a sec…”
Now fully recovered, it was obvious what this area of the industrial fridge was.
“This is the entrance,” Damon said, walking over to the door across from the generator. Kai looked high above him. Compared to the rest of the school, these lights looked real modern. All bright blue-white light.
Of course the door out was locked.
“Can I see?” Kai walked up, giving it a rattle.
“It needs a card key,” Damon pointed to the reader at the side. A card key that they didn’t have.
Leaving Kai for a moment, he set his gaze across the room, taking in the sight of the end of the industrial fridge. It wasn’t really much, the conveyor belt had just entered this massive room, swung around the edge a bit, and re-entered the other chute.
Right down the centre, there was a small white ledger with a button on it. Obviously, that was the control panel. Just press the button, hologram pops up, pick your dishes, viola– better not touch that for now.
Then some bolted pipes and electric wiring crossed the floor to the generator. That was all behind the control panel. Beyond that, was the door they were at. The room was white, cold and clinical… probably because of the whole food safety thing.
“Uh, any other way out?”
“Nope,” Damon rattled the door again. Still locked. He decided to pace around the room in search of the card key.
“Ooh! Wait,” Kai slapped his forehead. Damon spun around, “Hang on. I totally forgot,” Kai pressed his Mr Cuddler Token to the card reader.
...
No response.
Damon watched him, hands in his pockets. Then: “Do you have thoughts?” Kai went pink.
“Look, if it was part of the escape room–”
“Kai, this is obviously not part of the escape room–”
“Okay! But if it was–”
“I’m not talking to you about this anymore,” Damon directed himself to the control panel, switching on the hologram to control the food. It was pretty bare-bones, but it still let him click around, “...Huh,” That was unexpected, “There’s two fridges on here.”
Kai’s voice came from behind, “I don’t think the academy had another fridge,” It didn’t. There was only one kitchen, “Maybe it’s in the epsilion space or something?”
“I don’t think that’s a room,” It seemed more like an elevator for the upper floors, not that they’d managed to reach that point, “And even if it was there, why are they sending food to it?” He clicked into it.
The menu options splayed out, all the different dishes the industrial fridge could send to it’s location. Damon scrolled.
Kai whistled, “Fancy.”
...Okay, whoever this fridge was for clearly ate like a billionaire. He’d never seen stuff this fancy in the academy before. “...You’ve been inside Wenona’s room, haven’t you?”
“No I—”
“Yes you have,” The incident where he’d lost his ring and torn up half the school was fresh in everyone’s mind, “Don’t act dumb. Did she have a fridge?” He doubted it, but he had to cover all of his bases.
“No!” Kai waved his hand as if to erase Damon’s memory, “Anyway, you’re totally forgetting someone way more suspicious!” He pointed directly up, to the ceiling. Which, come to think of it, had no security cameras, “Speaker guy.”
Damon pulled a face.
“It’s totally possible!” Kai gestured at the hologram, “He has to eat!”
“Everything we’ve learnt about this place screams artificial,” Damon flicked a finger against his trinket, “Even these things run based on an algorithm, and they can be broken. It’s not like someone is watching us and making the decisions,” His eyes raked over the hologram once more, “...And it’s weird, right? The way his voice just cut out. He made it seem like we were meant to actually do something in that trial room.”
They’d even all stood on their podiums at some point. Then just kind of stared at each other and hoped that something would happen. It was awkward.
“Yeah, but his last words were all random philosophy!” Kai hugged himself, “Saying stuff like tree of illusion… whatever-whatever—”
“Tree of ignorance.”
“—Whatever! It’s probably all part of his plan, leaving us like this, right?”
Truth was often boring and simple, “I think we’ll find his voice is artificial, like everything else here. Because if it malfunctioned-- cut out by accident, and it wasn’t fixed,” Damon raked over the plates again. He didn’t like how algorithm for this fridge was pulling only western food, “...But we need to check.”
“Uh.”
“Not right now,” Damon closed the hologram, “I’m just saying it’s an option. If he is real, going straight towards him would be pretty stupid.”
“Right.”
Their priority was escape. Uncovering who was behind this, while Damon certainly wanted to know, it didn’t seem like a prerequisite. In like 2 or 3 hours Ingrid would start sledgehammering walls down. If that didn’t get them out of here, he didn’t know what would.
Lost in thought, the blond’s eyes began to gravitate back towards the chute they’d left earlier. He stared at it for a second too long. The conveyer belt hummed. Kai shuddered.
“Damon? Damon,” Kai walked up to him, grabbing his shoulder, “I don’t care what you say, I am not getting back inside that thing.”
“Huh? No, I’m just looking at it.”
Kai watched him carefully, as if he’d dive in as soon as he took his eyes off him.
Damon turned back to the door. The locked door that they couldn’t exit, “...” His finger went to his chin, “...How strong are you?”
Kai snickered for a moment before he realised that Damon was stone cold serious, “Uh… what, we’re busting down the door? Don’t you wanna like… look around the room for clues?”
“...” Damon kept staring at the door, “I don’t think we’re supposed to be here.”
“Yeah, fair enough,” Kai rolled his shoulder, “Alright, let’s try then.”
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
SLAM
Damon groaned, “This door is not normal.” It had to be made out of extremely strong material. It was not budging one inch.
Kai had his head in his hands. Various food items were scattered around them, tried and failed ways of breaking the card reader on the door.
Even spilling lemonade on the reader had done nothing. Metal cutlery down the sides? Get real. There was no lock to pick, whatever security system this was, it worked.
Damon didn’t even bother looking around again, “Tch…”
The generator thrummed behind them, “Okay, new idea,” Damon turned to Kai pointing a finger at it. Then he pointed to the card reader on the door, connecting them, “We zap the door.”
“...” Damon’s mouth twisted. His mind went back to the extension cables and light bulbs in the underground storage closets. Then to the rubber gloves in the pharmacy, “That might be possible if we had actual supplies.” No way in hell was he pouring lemonade onto that thing.
Then Damon was reminded of Eva’s attitude about the generator in the underground, soon after he woke up, “I think Eva could do it.” She, at the very least, wouldn’t blink at working with a giant generator.
In fact, the more he thought about it, the more it was obvious that they needed more hands for this.
Damon sighed.
Whatever. He’d done what he could.
“Let’s go back,” He walked off.
“You’re… you’re telling me we have to go back inside the friedge?!”
“Yep.” He’d held off on telling Kai this, in order to avoid witnessing his dramatics.
Kai collapsed to his knees.
Damon turned to him from across the room, “Come on.”
Kai ran a hand through his hair, his expression going into the nth circle of hell. He held his hand there, closing his eyes. Then, “We’re not cuddling.”
Damon raised an eyebrow.
“Okay?”
Kai nodded firmly to himself, getting up, “How do we get back out?”
“We need to head that way,” Damon pointed to the conveyer belt. It came out of the chute they’d left earlier on the far side of the wall, and swung around like an airport luggage area.
Then it reentered another chute. One they hadn’t gone down yet.
“Down there.” Damon pointed at it, “It should take us back to the fridge at Eden’s Garden Academy.”
“Uh… when you were mentioning the dishwasher and where the food comes out earlier…”
“Yeah, we’re gonna have to deal with that,” Damon nodded, “This was the area blocked off to kids because it was too dangerous to enter.”
Kai froze.
“It was restricted for older teenagers instead.”
Kai looked at Damon.
Damon looked at Kai.
“So, you can enter and survive?”
“….Well,” A sigh, “I can provide some context. Ulysses and I were having a discussion about these fridges last night. It’s all fresh in my mind.”
“Just… please explain what’s gonna happen when we go in there… Before everything happens. Please.”
“Well, it’s quite simple. This chute will take us to the food quality checker. If we pass the food quality check, we will move on safely. If we fail it, we will proceed to the dish separator and then the incinerator–”
“WHAT!” Kai interrupted.
“--But it’s designed to label humans as “good quality food” as a safety mechanism so we’ll be perfectly fine,” After all, the industrial fridge was a perfect machine, “Needless to say, humans aren’t designed to be put through the machine, so I’ll pretend you are a plate of food. This is how it works: every dish in the industrial fridge sits on a plate. After going through the food quality checker, being determined as not fit for consumption, the dish separator would isolate all the dirty dishes while throwing you, Kai, in the incinerator. These dirty dishes would then go down a loop-like chute, a bit like a freeway, and enter the dishwasher. In this dishwasher the dishes are all stacked vertically, and are all designed with the similar size and shapes in mind for maximum efficiency. Needless to say, the dishwashing liquid comes from the food storage area on the floor above which connects to the industrial fridge below. Obtaining and sourcing each ingredient has its own complexities which I won’t delve into here, just know that the food goes where it is supposed to go and that’s that,” Kai didn’t say anything. It felt like information about industrial fridges was being beamed into his mind, “After the dishes are cleaned, they would then run parallel to the food maker. Let us roll back for a moment. Say that you, Kai, have been incinerated and your plate has been separated from you. That means there’s now a free space on the belt perfect for a new dish. The food quality checker, which you entered into first, has already recorded which food has been incinerated. This information has been shared to the computer, connected to the control panel of course, which determines which new food should be made. This would replace incinerated food with a nutritional equivalent– all 3d printed obviously– baked to perfection in a step-by-step process. Connected to the food quality checker, is the food maker– a long mechanical contraption which, indeed, makes the food. Kai. Say you are a piece of cheese. The food maker would draw from its cheese supply in the food storage floor and you would be printed in grid-like manner to create a perfect slice. Now, let’s say two pieces of bread are formed in much the same way, and you are assembled into a flavourful cheese sandwich. Obviously then toasted, seasoned, add a small dipping sauce or selection, perhaps a little garnish, some sesame seeds– and you are now a delectable cheese toastie for a person to eat. Now, let’s return to the clean dishes that have become sparkling due to the dishwasher. The track running the clean dishes and the track carrying the cheese toastie-- you, Kai-- would combine together using the dish connector. Frankly, the function is obvious, it puts the cheese toastie on a plate. This would then run down the next chute. This would then take this cheese toastie into the second food quality checker. This is much the same as the first one, and indeed, if you are determined to not be edible, you can bet you are going back to that first food quality checker. You would then eventually be incinerated. But let us continue and say you are indeed a delectable, edible cheese toastie. You would pass the food quality test and then enter into the third and final food quality checker. This part of the machine does much the same as the other food quality checkers, and you may wonder why there are so many, but all industrial fridges need at least three in accordance with the Occupational Food and Safety laws established in 1982. This was something I didn’t know about until this last night thanks to Ulysses, but the actual contents of the event are quite dry so I won’t get into it here. Now, obviously, you would be eventually heading for the incinerator if you failed this final food quality check. But let’s say that you pass. This means you are now headed for the food analyser. The food analyser is a contraption within the machine that will measure the nutrients and ingredients of this cheese toastie, slapping a label on it which is to avoid any allergy issues. This is a paid subscription service, if you don’t pay for it, it’ll just come out with generic words like ‘tasty!’ and ‘yummy!’. As Ulysses was telling me, it’s apparently quite infuriating to deal with when companies do not pay for the full subscription, but I always thought that poor signage meant the food was homemade. As it turns out, my mother cannot make croutons and has been lying to my father and I for years. As you should know, croutons are a simple recipe, and I make them perfectly golden brown every time. However when my mother attempts this, for some reason they are always burned and start to disintegrate immediately. This naturally isn’t an obstacle to my father, however my mother fears the carcinogens. This is something you need to know if you ever meet her, don’t bring up the topic of cancer. As a researcher, she has opinions and I swear her entire job is arguing with people, but I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree so whatever. Anyway, all of this information, including the type of food it is, then gets sent back to the computer. The computer then makes a new product you can observe from the control panel and it will then officially count as a new plate of food. But that isn’t the end, because of course any 3d printer can make a cheese toastie. The hard part is getting that into people’s fridges, which the industrial fridge excels at. After the cheese toastie goes through the food analyser and is sufficiently labelled, it then enters into the food picker. The food picker takes the data from the control panel and sends specific dishes to specific fridges. Fundamentally, an industrial fridge is a hive-mind fridge, it is connected to multiple fridges in a set location and rotates food out automatically for freshness and variety. So when a company installs an industrial fridge on their premises, they are obviously making various tracks running behind walls and under floorboards that connect to various fridges around the compound. Just like the one we found earlier that leads into Eden’s Garden Academy: it’s exactly like that, just imagine multiple of them. As we discovered earlier, the control panel hologram signified one more additional fridge: which could potentially belong to the speaker guy. I believe it is probably just a general staffroom fridge. But that is just a hypothesis. Right now, I’m just communicating the facts. Just so you know, if you visited the production facility they could explain this in far more detail, I am only scratching the surface. But I digress: it’s time to use another example. Let’s say that you’re correct, and the speaker guy is an actual person that has a fridge. Let’s say that he desires a cheese toastie and he has this listed as one of his favourite items in the control panel. The food picker will determine that this cheese toastie will then go down the track that goes to the speaker guy’s fridge. This would be very similar to that long track we needed to walk down earlier. Now I can hear you wondering, why is part of that track as cold as a freezer? Well, to be honest, it’s there to help stop ice cream from melting on the way to any fridges. It does have the effect of cooling down hot dishes, but to be frank, it is easy to put a hot dish in the microwave and difficult to re-freeze ice cream. Hence why part of the track is extremely cold. And now, you may ask: why is only part of the track ice-cold? To answer that, the industrial fridge is massive but it does unfortunately have a limited size. Technically, by entering the freezer, you entered the industrial fridge’s domain. More on the freezer later, I’m not done with this topic. But let us continue. Say that the speaker guy hates cheese toasties and he has it listed as one of his rejected items on the control panel. Well, the food picker may then decide that this cheese toastie will instead be en route to the fridge at Eden’s Garden’s Academy. I’m sure you remember the journey from there, but I would like to clarify on a few points I’m sure you had rampant confusion about by using our cheese toastie example. Say nobody in Eden’s Garden Academy decides to take the cheese toastie in the precious few seconds it is rotating inside the kitchen appliance known as the “commercial fridge”. You, the cheese toastie, will then go back all the way you came, back through the freezer again– now into the storage area. I viscerally understand this is the chute you are not fond of, Kai, and you’re actually not the only one. Ulysses told me he would never enter one of these in a thousand years, but as I was explaining to him this morning, it is perfectly safe. Let me describe the layering process. Upon entering into the chute, it may feel like nothing has changed, but there is in fact a hyper-quick detection process which determines the ideal temperature of the food which has entered using lasers invisible to the naked eye. This will then determine your pathway down the storage area. I personally like to picture it as intestines, but judging from your expression that is not something you want to picture. Alright, let us picture it as a slinky, though in reality, it is more rectangular in nature. Let’s say you put one half of a slinky in a freezer, and the other in boiling oil. That is the food storage area. The deeper you go down the layers, as determined by the detection process, the hotter the temperature becomes. Of course, some soups and other dishes are best kept at a rolling boil for as long as possible. On the other hand, many ice creams and sweet treats are best kept at freezing temperatures. Now, I see you looking at me with a considerable amount of fear. Obviously, there are safety mechanisms in place for humans, making it perfectly safe. Upon detecting a human, you would be placed in a modest 17 degree Celsius environment. In the early days– and this would be something you would find out if you were talking to Ulysses this morning– this used to be 37 degrees due to our natural core temperature. However, this caused many people to die of heatstroke within the confines of the machine if they ever became trapped inside. Thankfully due to these many deaths, laws were passed and now it is perfectly safe. After multiple hours, you would then exit out of the storage area, into the entrance of the industrial fridge and where we are standing right now.”
Damon cleared his throat, “Any questions?”
Kai looked completely overwhelmed.
“I… just…” He gripped his temples, “Let’s…” A sniff, “Let’s… just get this over with…”
Damon was covered in custard. From next to him, Kai sneezed out a shot of red jello.
“God…” Every step, he stepped in cake. The chocolate sauce had somehow gotten inside his shoes, dripping off the bottom of his pants like a fountain. Half a pie was in Damon’s hair.
“It was fine until you tripped and fell,” Damon repeated, as if he was trying to convince himself. Kai had just about had enough, “It was fine.”
“This shirt is ruined.” It was a miracle all his rings were still in place.
“How do you think I feel,” Damon said flatly, “At least I’m wearing one of the copies.”
“I’m not!”
“Oh.” Damon didn’t have much to say to that. They continued walking down the long creepy tunnel, which was filled with sushi rapidly becoming dessert flavour.
They reached the door at the end of it. It looked exactly as it had before. Part of Damon was hoping to see Ingrid standing there with a crumbled wall, sledgehammer in hand. It was hard to keep track of time in here.
Kai collapsed in front of it, leaning on the wall, “Well that was a waste of time.”
Damon went up to it and paused. Then he peeked into the small food chute at the bottom, “They put the fridge back over it?”
“Huh?” Kai yawned, “...That’s good. I don’t know how many dishes we destroyed.”
“….” He thought someone like Diana might raise more of a fuss over putting the fridge back. Oh well, “It’s just a bit weird,” He leaned on the door, which creaked, “I—” He put a hand on the door again. It made a noise, “...Huh?”
“Oh, they fixed it?” Kai scrambled up.
“…” It was very slight, but he could push the door open. There was a fridge on the other side blocking the exit, however.
Damon swallowed, “…Kai, did you see the entrance to the beta space on the way down here? The bao bun one.”
“Uhh…” Kai fidgeted, “...I’ve kinda just been following you?”
“Right,” The custard incident had reigned hell on his peripheral vision, as he could now clearly see, “We’re at the wrong fridge.”
“Fuck.”
“But it might open.”
“Don’t even joke about that, I seriously need to pee.” Kai put his hands to the door, and Damon on the other side. Together, they pushed.
“Grr-!”
…!
!
A sliver of light appeared through the crack in the door.
“Holy shit!”
“Keep going!” They kept pushing with all their strength. The door behind the fridge slowly wedged open, shifting the fridge on the other side forward bit by bit. They kept pushing, and as the crack in the door became larger, they could reach their hands through and push the fridge itself.
…!
…
The fridge shifted across the floor.
Carefully, Damon peeked out from behind it.
The room was dark and still. He narrowed his eyes, but couldn’t catch any movement at all. Kai gasped from under him, “That’s it!” And then he was stumbling out.
“Kai–”
The influencer sprinted over to the… hideously fancy ensuite bathroom? “Yes!” He shut the door. A few seconds later, he heard the sound of a shower running.
“...” Running a hand through his hair, and dislodging a particularly large piece of pie, Damon instantly saw another door, across the room.
“Damn it.” Useless. This one needed a card key as well. Of course it did. Next to the door was a light switch.
They couldn’t find a card key earlier… but maybe here…
Tentatively, Damon bought up a hand to flick on the light.
Weak red erupted from the ceiling in curtains, lining an ornate rug on the floor. On the wall were various animal heads. A bull, a rhino.. Across from him was a giant wooden desk.
The light flickered, barely giving enough to light the space. Shadows crawled at the edges.
An incredibly elegant… office.
“...” A familiar smiling mask was on the wall right above the desk.
Damon immediately wanted to leave. He went quiet, but he couldn’t hear anything. It didn’t sound like anybody could be outside.
But someone had clearly been here.
He walked over to the desk. He bought a finger to the surface, feeling the layer of dust over it.
What happened?
He turned to the fridge, brow furrowing. Is all that food is for one person?
He was expecting a staff kitchen or something. This seemed like a strange decision. It was like having a mega fridge in your office instead of a mini fridge. Maybe this person ate meals at their desk. Probably some sort of workaholic.
Damon carefully eyed the space, seeing what else he could discern. All the framed paintings were blacked out, but on second glance, they seemed like modern-aged screens. There was a small shelf by the wall.
On it were strange objects. What was the term… cow tools? Every single thing on here looked like a conversation piece, if one wanted to talk nonsense. Damon picked up the most familiar thing, a fancy moon-shaped stone, only to see that the inside was hollow. Then he picked up the rest, one by one. All fake. Just like his room.
Props.
Damon nodded to himself. Okay. He was spotting a central theme here…
Next was an old-fashioned coat rack by the door. There were no coats on it. A mirror leaning nearby displayed Damon’s custardy mess. The general room kind of smelled… old. And used. Heavily used. It seemed like an office at first glance, but maybe it was more of an everything-room?
Damon brisked back a nearby curtain, unexpectedly finding a door with no lock behind it. He opened it at once.
“…”
...A closet. There were multiple outfits, all deliberately tattered. They were all the same clothes… no, these were costumes. He wouldn’t be caught dead walking down the street in that. This all reminded him of his dorm room a little too much for his tastes.
After closing the book on that, Damon searched behind the rest of the curtains, but that closet had been the only thing hidden.
He kept his eyes open for any sort of card key, but the space wasn’t exactly cluttered. There were shelves behind the desk as well-- to the side, but these ones were empty. Despite seeming pretty convenient? It was almost as if someone had cleared them. He went to get back up, but spotted something between the gap of the shelf and the wall.
“Huh.”
It felt heavy and cool in his hand. An expensive pen. He clicked it open and shut, then unscrewed it a little.
Yes, indeed this was a real pen.
Okay. Were there also sticky notes?
Damon searched the desk drawers, which were entirely empty. Definitely cleared. Whoever owned this room had clearly packed up their stuff and left. He’d never admit it out loud, but Kai’s take on their current situation was starting to sound like a genuine possibility.
...Up until now, he’d kind of hopefully assumed the speaker guy was like the Cara thing. Something artificial, part of that puzzle. An unnervingly real set piece, put together like the rest of Eden’s Garden Academy. Something that that they had to solve… that seemed like the general idea. Like needing to solve a murder, or find the numbers for a code, or clear an escape room…
Except, some of these props were the real thing. The stock of drugs in the pharmacy, for instance. He’d gotten somewhat used to it, over these past two weeks, but this place was so strangely designed. Clearly the alpha space was there so they could solve that code-- Eva had written out and explained the solution to him while they sat on the counters. But then what were the drugs for? A distraction?
...Was he thinking about this too hard?
It just didn’t really fit together. Being able to watch what the security cameras could see was just a bit creepy, a strange sort of prize. Eva maintained her hold over what she’d won, but she was still dealing with shit because of it. Damon maintained that she should give it up. The Ultimate Liar knowing where everyone was at all times just put people on edge.
But maybe that was the point?
Damon put a hand to his chin, eyes resting on a speck of dirt on the desk. It just seemed strange. Some problems in here were designed to make them work together, while others seemed placed deliberately to drive them apart. This had to be some sort of underground psychological experiment.
Why else would they be here? He flicked the speck of dirt on the desk.
A bright hologram popped up in front of his face. Damon stumbled back, blinking a little. Oh. That had been a button. Okay. Wow. Bright.
He squinted at the login page.
“Damn...” The password… The blond looked around but, as expected, there was no convenient sticky note with a hint to the password in the vicinity.
Clicking his tongue, he smashed the enter key.
This logged him in. His eyebrows jumped.
Damon immediately clicked around, trying to go on the internet.
No internet.
“...” His eyes closed. He didn’t know what he was expecting…
This computer… it seemed completely wiped. Damon bounced through Desktop, Downloads, Music, Pictures… no, there was nothing there.
Nothing, except a singular application. A red apple icon, named ‘Project: Eden’s Garden.’
“…” Clearly left on purpose.
Damon clicked on it anyway. Maybe it would actually provide some answers. He would literally take anything at this point.
…
The program loaded.
Oh, a streaming service. One with only 6 channels? That seemed a bit specific.
An uneasy feeling crawled over Damon as he read the thumbnails. After a slight pause, he clicked the first one, labelled ‘Class 1’.
The design of the application made it seem like a movie would play when he clicked. Instead, a list of names crawled down. Damon didn’t recognise any of them, but they all were labelled as students of Eden’s Garden Academy. He clicked on the first name.
A pop-up window appeared, and a movie started playing. The most boring movie on earth, showing an entirely empty room, all the furniture cleared. Damon’s cursor went over the file. A livestream. He was unable to tell how long it had been going on for. He could change the quality, turn the sound on and off, but that was that.
He closed it, and opened the next student’s.
The next window— an empty lecture theatre, rows of empty chairs. Despite the indoor space, there was a massive cherry blossom tree in the heart of it. A tree very similar in size and shape to the red-leaved tree of ignorance, as if it were made by the same creator. He hovered over the video: also a livestream.
“…"
Damon clicked out of the tab entirely, went to Class 2. List of student names. All students of Eden’s Garden Academy, supposedly. He clicked the first one.
A boy was sleeping in his room, a pixellated head peeking out from underneath the covers. Damon watched him for a few moments, surprised to see a new face. The room was peculiar as well, it was almost similar to their dorms… except it was filled to the brim with fishing equipment. Not that he could see the entire thing, as it was pretty zoomed in.
This one was a livestream as well.
Pushing past the dark feeling rising in his gut, Damon clicked on Class 3.
A familiar list of names popped up. He knew all of these students.
“…”
Out of curiosity, he clicked on his own name.
Someone was standing behind him.
He flinched and spun around, only to see no-one there. Just a blinking security camera he had missed, situated in the corner of the room. Zoomed close enough to record a back up of his head.
It was… not good.
Seeing the back of his own head was disturbing to say the least, so Damon winced and clicked on one more student name.
Ingrid. She was making that sledgehammer. Damon’s jaw clenched. They had to get out of here.
He clicked on more camera feeds, Classes 4 through 6, encountering the same sort of scenes. Empty halls. Students walking into rooms. Hugging. Staring aimlessly at the ceiling. Empty rooms. Eating together. Playing games. Empty rooms. The tree of ignorance. Corpses.
He clicked shut the feed, but the scene had already burnt into his brain.
That was… five or six students...
The floor began to tip sideways, and he had to look away from the screen for a moment. Just to gather himself. This room was so dark, he halfway expected someone to be staring at him from around the corner.
But nobody was there, just the sound of him breathing. His heart felt like it was bursting with something rotten, and he had to sit there. Just focus on breathing. Breathing.
Breathing, and wondering how 96 people went missing without anyone finding them.
Honestly? Kai initially thought there was no saving his clothes from it’s chocolate and jam destruction. But as it turns out, this shower was one of the ones that had a drying function. After a bit of work, yes it was kind of stained, but at least clean and dry.
Are you kidding me? No internet?
Now he was busying himself with trying to explore the computer (which had the easiest password, by the way, it only took him ten minutes) while Damon got rid of his custard-ness.
Apparently, all that guy had done while Kai was showering was ‘making sure to close the fridge’.
Ugh, it’s so obvious he found something!
Whatever… now, where was he?
Kai bought up the terminal and tried running a few command prompts.
God, of course this had to be a Wac… From behind him, Damon exited the ensuite, looking remarkably normal, “What are you doing.”
“I’m–”
“Of course. Yes, of course...” Damon and Kai froze. A voice was coming from behind the card-key door. A very familiar voice.
The voice he’d heard from the speaker.
Not thinking, Kai tugged Damon, scrambling to hide under the desk.
Beeping a mechanical chime, the door slid open.
Footsteps.
Then…
A voice. Far too close for comfort.
A woman sniffed the air, “Someone’s been here.”
“Nonsense!” Speaker guy swung in, setting his heavy mug of tea on the desk above Damon’s head with a ‘thunk!’, “I’m sure everyone has been good while I’ve been away..” His finger trailed the desk, bringing up a glob of applesauce, “...”
He man observed the streaks of chocolate that led into the bathroom, and the toilet in a simply unmentionable state. The bottom of his lovely pristine walk-in shower was covered in pie and cake crumbs, still slightly soggy, “...”
“Tozu.” Her voice bought him outside of the bathroom. Then ‘Tozu’ stared at all the little grubby fingerprints covering the fridge door, as if someone had shoved their whole body against it, “...Good lord, Mara! Vroomba has been at it again!”
“You don’t think it’s the students, sir…?”
“Preposterous!”
‘Mara’ nodded, compartmentalizing it away for later.
Under the desk, Kai’s eyes were wide. Damon couldn’t move, not even if he wanted to. Something primal kept him frozen.
“Vroomba!” Tozu pressed a button on the desk Damon hadn’t noticed, making his voice an announcement, “Come to the office this instant! –Good lord, right before the company meeting? I have never seen anything like this in all my days–”
“Boss.”
“--Something as nefarious as this?! On company time, no less–” He went to sit down.
“Tozu!”
Tozu spun around, “What could possibly be the matter– oh,” Indeed, even the desk chair was covered in cake and cookie crumbs, as if someone had bathed in custard itself, “Well, this is rather peculiar…” He pulled the chair away from the desk, and Kai went still next to Damon.
Doom overtook Damon, as Tozu’s feet stepped closer to the desk.
That’s it… this is all over.
“Boss!” The office door slid open. It revealed a rather pathetic man, who was bearing the mask of a beetle– not that Damon nor Kai could see it.
“I believe I asked you the past seventeen times to knock?! You’ve had multiple days to practice!”
“Sir yes sir!”
“Vroomba, why have you been feasting in my office?! Do I not provide you with your daily sustenance!?” Mara picked up the office chair, displaying the messy remains to a shocked Vroomba.
“T-that wasn’t me, sir!!”
“You bug-faced liar! All the various times you stole from the company fridge, ergo my personal one– say otherwise!”
“That was only a few– sir– no– wait– that wasn’t me! Why would I make more mess if I’m the janitor?!”
“Within your question is the answer! You clearly expected my holiday to end later, did you not?” Tozu cackled, “Mara and I saw the Balkans, it was quite delightful… nothing as horrid as your wretched treachery. Your ploy is quite obvious to anyone with a brain!” Tozu pressed a big red button on his desk, “Mara, take him away! I’ve had quite enough of this!”
Mara cocked her gun, walking towards Vroomba.
“Boss, boss! I’ll clean it, I swear!”
“Absolutely not!” Tozu casted off the office chair to the side, “Mara, provide me another chair once you’re done. The meeting is about to begin.”
“Wait-wait-no!!”
All that was left of Vroomba were his screams as he was sent out of the room. The door slid shut.
Damon and Kai’s eyes met in the dark.
Though they couldn’t move– couldn’t say anything– at that moment, there was a shared understanding.
If they screwed up here…
...They would be next.
His new office chair provided, Tozu sat down at his wonderfully ornate desk. Mara wiped down the desktop as he put on a pair of reading glasses over his mask and tapped at the tablet he’d taken from his jacket like a boomer.
Still under the (thankfully, massive) desk, Damon shifted away from his swinging foot.
Next to him, Kai was as quiet as a mouse.
“Sir, it’s time.”
“Indeed it is.” Tozu took off the glasses, sliding them off to the side. He clicked a finger, and Mara stood behind him, holding her gun at the ready. The room became encased in a blue-green glow, the light of the desk hologram turning on.
After a few clicks of the mouse, and Tozu clearing his throat, there were… voices.
Strange… unusual ones.
Damon strained his ears, but it turns out he didn’t need to, as Tozu turned up the volume to 100%. In the corner of the room, he could see a reflection bouncing off one of the paintings. It looked like...
A… zoom call?
There were 6 screens open in the zoom call. Each of them hosted a man with a creepy-looking animal skeleton head. Including Tozu’s very own, of course. Every one also included a woman in a mask behind them, holding a gun.
“Welcome one, welcome all, to this meeting of the minds!” Tozu declared.
“...”
There was a cough.
Mara subtly indicated towards Tozu, and he unmuted himself. At least thanks to his mask, nobody had been able to tell that he was talking.
“--I’m aware this is our first meeting over call, so we’ll begin with introductions. My name is Bozu,” The bull-skulled man was introducing himself, “Standing behind me is my assistant Zara,”
“Vara?” One of the other hosts interrupted, “Excuse me, but I think you are quite mistaken!“
“How so?” Bozu’s voice had a sharp edge, “Please enlighten me.”
“You see, this is my assistant Vara,” The wolf-skulled man gestured to the lady in a tiger mask behind him, “And you may call me Nozu.”
Another host nodded, “Good, well, I’m glad that’s sorted—”
“Not so fast,” Bozu’s voice was on the brink of ire, “I haven’t finished my introduction yet. And would you mind opening your ears? I said her name was Zara, not Vara—“
“Jara?” Another host interrupted, this time with the skeleton of a bird as a mask, “I, Lozu, reject this statement. You see, that is the name of my lovely assistant—“
“Your lovely assistant?” Bozu looked like he was about to flip the table, “Lozu, you will not treat my assistant like this! Apologise at once!”
Lozu shook his head, crossing his arms, “It’s not my fault you’re so slow on the uptake, Bozu,” He gave a dry laugh, “You’ve really got to learn the names of your superiors.”
“Um, excuse me,” A nervous hand wavered as it rose, “I-I’m Wozu, um, I thought we were all in upper management?” He had a rhinoceros skull mask.
“HA!” The man in the t-rex skull mask who had been silent until now was the culprit, “Of course Wozu thinks we’re all on his level! The great Dozu contests this!”
“U-um—“
“Will you all stop fighting?” Tozu interrupted, “It’s unbecoming of such superfluous hosts as yourselves.”
“Tozu–?!” A sniff, “I don’t recognise that name…”
“What?! I’ve been working here for the past twenty years!” Tozu leant forward, “How rude!”
“Ahem, sorry— did this guy just call the rest of us redundant?” Wozu interrupted, his soft voice gaining a pitched edge, “Hahaha… tell me he didn’t just say that?!” He was gripping his rhinoceros mask.
“Dara, kill the rhino for me,” Dozu gestured at the screen. The girl with a leopard mask next to him nodded. Then all of the Mara-equivalents cocked their guns at the same time.
“S-stop joking about that!” Wozu sunk down into his chair again, “You can't kill me!”
“You know they have bad hearing,” Bozu chastised, “There’s no need to get Zara riled up like that. Calm down, dear, please.”
“Don’t listen to him Vara,” Nozu stared at the camera, unmoving, “Keep your gun loaded. Keep them on edge, I’m enjoying this change of social scenery.”
“Hara,” Lozu interrupted, “Fetch me a cup of coffee, please?” The cheetah masked girl behind Wozu nodded and walked off.
“S-stop controlling her! You have your own assistant!” Wozu, now Hara-less, was starting to freak out.
“Dara,” Dozu’s fingers were laced, leaning onto the desk in front of him, “Move in. Wozu is unprotected.”
“Stop it!”
“Mara,” Tozu’s voice was dark, “Stay alert. Be prepared for combat at any moment.” Behind him, Mara stood menacingly.
“Tch!” Bozu’s fingers tapped on his desk, “So we’re not doing introductions after all?” He sighed, “Dozu, your great arrogance is showing.”
The t-rex skulled man crossed his feet on the desk, “Oh, I fail to see the problem,” Hara walked in with a cup of coffee, “Thank you.”
Lozu almost stumbled out of the chair, “That— that’s my coffee!!”
“Oh, is it?” Dozu delicately added a straw, “Jara, could you be a dear and deliver it to him? My apologies, Lozu.” Jara, who was standing behind Lozu, walked away.
Lozu coughed into his fist, seemingly embarrassed to be upstaged, “I-It’s alright, it’s only coffee…”
“Nonsense!”
“Bozu! Help!” Wozu was typing at a rapid pace, the clacks of his keyboard overtaking the zoom call, “I-I see her on the cameras! Dara! Dara’s coming to kill me!”
Dozu sighed, “Can someone mute him for me?”
“It’s the little microphone icon at the bottom of the call,” Nozu helpfully explained, “When you click it, it should turn red.”
Dozu muted himself.
“Charming,” Bozu straightened up in his chair, “Dara, would you mind fetching Lozu’s coffee? Jara should be in the lobby.” Dara, who was already aiming a gun at Wozu’s head, nodded and walked away.
Wozu cried, “T-thank you! Bozu!”
“Zara, set your sights on Tozu. He is acting suspicious.”
“Ridiculous, I have not said a word!” Tozu leaned a hand on his mask, muttering ‘you fools!’ at a volume the call could not hear him. Then, “Mara, shoot to kill any unfortunate interruptions.”
“Zara, no need to set your sights on Tozu. I am feeling rather peckish…”
“Ooh, thank you!” Dara had returned with Lozu’s coffee. The bird-masked man took a sip, then held it towards Dara, “Actually, it’s rather cold. Would you mind reheating it for me?”
“—on’t listen to him Dara!” Dozu had finally figured out how to unmute himself, “This is an interloper! Come back to me at once!” Dara began running.
“Zara,” Bozu pointed at the camera, “Reheat Lozu’s coffee for me.” Zara nodded and moved towards Lozu’s location.
“Actually,” Lozu interrupted, “Vara, you may reheat this coffee for me, for I do not trust Bozu.” Vara, who was standing behind Nozu nodded, moving to Lozu’s side.
“Mara,” Tozu interrupted, “Poison Lozu’s coffee for me.” Vara took a small container out of her pocket and tipped it into the coffee.
Bozu slammed a fist on the table, “Zara! Do not heed these words! Obtain that coffee!”
10 minutes later Bozu was dead.
After the awkward end of that zoom call, Tozu spent a stupid amount of time checking his emails.
Damon’s legs were beginning to go numb.
“I’ve got terrible news. We’ve been assigned to organize a replacement for Bozu, given that none of the others volunteered,” Tozu stroked the chin of his mask, sitting back in his chair, “We both have six more weeks of leave, and I for one do not want to leave New Zealand waiting,” Then his voice took on a strange tone, “...Mara, how are the backups doing?”
Mara tapped on a hologram she was supposedly wearing, “...Oh.”
“Oh?”
“Alive and active, sir.”
“...” Tozu went very still, “...Repeat that?”
“Both left cryogenesis two weeks ago. From there, it looks as though the usual programming was activated…”
“What?! What order were they given, exactly?”
“The… replacement order, sir.” Tozu stood up all at once.
“For who? Me?!”
“...Indeed.”
“Mara! I’m alive and kicking, aren’t I?! You too– no, this simply must be a mistake!” He ran his hands over his mask, “They have protocols in place for long service leave–”
“Yes sir, we took every precaution before we left.”
“Then how does this even happen?!”
“Perhaps the clones were awakened accidentally.”
“...”
Tozu sat down in the chair, in a slump, “Well, where are they now? Bozu needs a replacement, and for the love of god, it’s not my responsibility!”
“It… might have to be, sir.”
Damon felt dread trickle down his back. Next to him, Kai had stopped breathing.
Mara put a hologram on the wall behind Tozu, prompting him to spin around.
“Sir… it appears something has gone wrong. Both replacements have escaped… and they’re off the map entirely.”
An offended gasp, “My clones?! Missing?!”
“I’m afraid so.” Mara’s tone was ever unbothered.
“And the state of the game?!”
“An absent host and enforcer do not bode well for the killing game, Tozu. Zero percent of the students are dead. None of the students have murdered. And there have been no class trials.”
Tozu slammed the desk with a fist.
The dead bodies slammed into chilling understanding. Oh god. He met Kai’s eyes under the Tozu’s desk, where they were hidden. This was supposed to be a killing game?
A slam on the desk with the other hand. Tozu was breathing harshly, “Bring that Vroomba here at once! I will get to the bottom of this…” He stood up out of his chair, marching towards his ensuite bathroom. He opened the door, then slammed it shut again, “Bring them here immediately, there’s work that needs to be done!” He stalked over to the door, shrugging a dilapidated coat on from the coat hanger, “...There will be words with me, after…”
“Understood,” Mara tapped a few things on her hologram, then took out her gun and followed him out the door.
It slid shut.
“...”
“...”
It was silent.
Damon counted to thirty in his head. At twenty-seven, Kai breathed at his side, “Fuck.”
No reaction from the room.
“...”
The two of them scrambled out from under the desk and made a break for the fridge.