Game of DIcE

Solving and Traps

Riley sighed, staring at the keyboard with nu,numbers, and letters in front of her as a card with scribbled letters and the instruction of what she was supposed to do was in her hand, barely holding it but was already crumpled by the tight grip she did to ut earlier.

"Sometimes they are words, it could also be in a form of numbers but is not made up of numbers, most of the time characters, a representation of something. What is this?"

"Number but is not a number?" She repeated the most logical part for her with a little irritation in her voice and her brows heavily furrowed, "Who on earth did this? Could there be some sort of a typographical error in here?"

She reread the phrase, but it never gave her enlightenment nor a hint of what the word was about. She sighed, raising her finger as she reluctantly placed it across the keyboard, didn't particularly know what to press, but press anything nonetheless—NUMBERS.

It was just a mere guess, just to try what would happen, and as expected, it was wrong, but what she didn't expect that made her flinch and wince was the sudden sound as if something was opened and triggered by her wrong answer which was blinking with red. When she looked at the side, there was a small gap on the metal wall and it was discharging water, when she looked to the other, it was no different.

She clicked her tongue and read again the hint, repeating and comprehensively thinking of every word and making it make sense but to no avail. "Sometimes words? Could be in a form of numbers but not numbers?"

She tried again, pressing the letters until they formed the word 'PASSWORD' but it only once again blinked in red and the moving of the gap started becoming wider and the discharge of water became faster. The water starting to finally reach her shoes.

She looked around, hoping to find something, she doesn't know what in particular but she still did, from the side to the ceiling then to the floor, and she found nothing. With a defeated sigh, she just stared at the hint and used it as a fan, tapping her shoe on the wet floor which then she realized that it was already on her ankle level.

She tried again, she knew the risk of the gaps being wider and water that might possibly drown her because basically, she was stuck, the door before her was locked and there seemed to be no way that she would open the door unless she was smart enough before she could even drown while the door that she came from earlier was basically had vanished and no way she could pull it back.

She decided to try again, 'SIGN', she was expecting a red blink again on the screen, but it was weirdly turned into yellow, and she was indeed lost of an idea why. She looked at the hint, but there was no indication about the color, but instead found it below the password keyboard, there were three colors there, almost looking like a traffic light—the green color was for the correct answer, red was for the wrong attempt, and the yellow was for a close answer, which seriously gave hope to Riley's losing brain cells upon knowing that her answer was near.

She looked at the card, now that she got another hint from her answer, she could now think of possible multiple answers, however, she tried two more, 'MARK' and 'SIGNAL', they were yellow, however, as much as it gave hope in her heart, it was also fast to dissipate by how wide now the gap on each side of the wall and the overflowing water was scarily filling up the place and now it reached her waist.

"Representation of something..." She muttered to herself while clutching the paper up high, then her now light bag almost on the back of her head to avoid it from being wet. "It's not a sign, but near to it. Could it be..."

She started typing, still a little reluctant because once she got it wrong again, the gap would be in its full space and would completely dump all the water in there which would then drown her. When the letters were all typed and just waiting for it to be entered, she hesitated more, but the water was going now to her chest, so with her lower lip tucked in between her teeth, and closed eyes, she pressed the enter.

She let out a frustrated groan when the same noise she heard earlier which started the gap was heard again, she thought she was wrong again. However, when she opened her eyes and looked ahead, the blinking of green light on her answer 'SYMBOLS' had made her hitched her breath as her eyes darted on the gap that was slowly closing and the water slowly coming into a halt. Then the sound of the lock being unlocked came to her ears and the door slowly opened which then the water subsided inside the room that she was now going in.

Like a deja vu, the door once again closed as soon as she was in, and she couldn't help but grimace but the sound of the lock once again locking her in this bizarre room. The room was more of like a cave, dark, and dimly lit coming from the two torches that were automatically lit when the door was opened. It was deserted, if not for the stones that were everywhere, and another metal door not too far from her, and once again, another groan came out from her throat upon seeing another password screen and keyboard beside it.

She walked towards it, she saw a clock just above the door and couldn't help the frown on her face as she realized that she had already spent three hours inside, and think would spend another day there or worst, more than that. She took the gray paper hanging on the password keyboard, and read another note.

"You are in an escape room, put everything in place, and find the key around and type the password on the side. Good luck!"

"Mind games really are the most tiring." She uttered to herself as she slouched for a moment and put down her bag on the side and stretched her legs and back.

After spending almost five minutes resting, she started looking around, feeling the wall of the cave which was a little damp, she was looking for the possible things that needed to put in 'place' as what the note told her. She felt something rough in her hand, but couldn't see anything there, even if she stroke it slow, she couldn't make up what was scribbled on the wall, but was sure that there was.

She left it there for a moment, putting a stone just below the weird thing so she would be reminded of that since she was sure that it would be needed there. She then continued wandering around, looking from up and down, left to right, her eyes restless. She found another thing, something like a sculptured crystal stone, she didn't really know what that was or what shape it was making at first, but upon finding more of them which she still had no idea what for but she gathered three of them on her hand, it looked like puzzle pieces that she had to put together.

She also saw something glistening on the other side of the cave which then she found a metal, it seemed to be a locker and not just a simple locker but a locker with a combination lock.

"This escape room wouldn't really want me to get out of this place." She again complained under her breath, She looked around, hands on her waist, "I have to be careful now. There were traps here for sure."

She looked around more, she was done looking at the walls and now her target was to find things from above and below. When she looked up, there were holes, five of them aligned in a vertical line, and when she looked down, there was the same number of stones just across each other. She didn't know what those were for, so she didn't put her mind into it yet, but rather her eyes found the paper dangling just above her head, but it was not reachable enough with her height.

She walked toward her bag where the spear was, however, her foot caught by one of the stone which made her stumbled down the ground with a thud and a groan escaped her lips, but what shocked her was the sudden movement on the ground and the unexpected eruption of a sharp thing from the hole above and the hole that was apparently hidden by the stone which clashed together.

She unknowingly swallowed the lump in her throat, if she was not aware, and just kicked the stone out of nowhere, she would end becoming a barbecue that was not properly stuck in its stick, and just imagining that scenario, it was making her wince in pain. She stood up, now very careful of what would she step on. She carefully took the spear from its rest and walked below the paper on the ceiling and started hitting it until hopefully, it falls, but that didn't work, instead, she placed the spear higher and circled the thread that was holding the paper and pulled it like it was some sort of a fruit that she was trying to pluck.

Luckily, it fell, and it was kind of heavy especially that it fell right on Riley's forehead, she picked it up on the ground while massaging her forehead, she saw a note there, well not a note, but two words.

PASSWORD: CLOCK

Her eyes grew wide together with how wide her lips stretch in delight, she fumbled next to the door and started typing the word CLOCK on the keyboard. She waited for it expectantly to turn green, however, much into her fear and disappointment, it blinked red, and the next thing she knew, she was crouching, holding her head with a whimper as the same as those that erupted from the holes suddenly appeared on her side which if she was not quick enough, her head would be stabbed. Awful.

"What's wrong? I spelled it right!" She said with frustration, "Did I deem it wrong?"

She looked again at the words, the word CLOCK was written in green, and it was right, an invisible bright light came above her head as she thought of it. Maybe the password was not for this password but for the combination lock she saw earlier.

"But it requires numbers," She whispered, then the word CLOCK once again glared at her, which urged her to look at the real clock, and that's when she realized that some of the numbers in the clock were in color green.

Her grin became wider, she felt like she was in some sort of an older century where few things were just starting to be discovered, and she could feel how the inventors feel whenever they found out something. The combination lock finally opened with the password 12369, the numbers that were in green color.

The locker revealed the last piece of the crystal that she had and something which seemed to be a box where she would place those crystals as it had the outline of which crystal piece to put on a certain place. When everything was settled, it glowed, and it turned much into like a flashlight. She didn't know what it was for a while, not until she decided to travel the light all around the cave until it landed on the top of the stone that she put earlier, she focused the light on the scribbled parts on the cave, and there she saw clearly what it was. A word.

ESCAPE

Her smile grew wider as she once again walked towards the password keyboard next to the door, she punched the letters, then it turned green. She was right. But the door was still locked.

She still needed the key, but there were no other things more around that could be put in their places except for the stones that were hiding the holes. She contemplated for a while, not sure if she should move the stones and risk her flesh from being stab by the sharp traps that would surge once she took the stones. She tapped her shoe on the ground for a while, thinking of a possible way, then her eyes traveled down the resting spear.

She picked it up, crouched down not too far from the stone, and tested her spear if those were reachable enough. She couldn't risk her flesh being torn, and this was her idea which truthfully wasn't that bad. Like she was in some sort of a billiard game, she angled her spear on the first stone, pushing and pulling the spear lightly until she pushed it once hard which the stone uncovered the hole and like what she expected, the flash eruption of the sharp trap came out. She did the same to the next, and the next until she reached the last one. With last one hard push, the stone flew and the sharp trap made a clanging noise, but aside from that, the key flew to the ground.

She heaved a relieved sigh, immediately taking out the key and the spear as she walked to the door. She looked at the clock, she had already spent seven hours inside, time flew fast when she was thinking. She took her bag and slid the key on the keyhole, as it opened, she was near on spitting our curse with fire from her mouth upon seeing what's inside.

"Seemed like an endless escape room."