Rising Shards

It turned out that a much lighter, much more organized void trip meant the class was dropped into a challenge room instead of our normal area. Challenge rooms varied from the pointless (tie your shoes really fast to leave) to the complicated (solve algebra to leave) but they generally were a nice breather from fighting void monsters. Usually I was by myself in one or in a group of around three for them, so having the full class there was strange. Also strange was dropping the full class in a challenge room that was the size of a normal one, making me feel imprisoned right away.

“Cool, our first trip back into the void after everything is to get locked in a tiny box room with no way out.” I said. “Cool. Great. Terrific.”

The room had a table in it, and bare, yellowish walls. The flooring consisted of black and white tiles like a retro kitchen. There was a small green rug in the corner that looked like it had an unpleasant texture.

“It’s like one of those mystery room things, whatever they’re called, this is easy peasy.” Kalei said. “Except probably if you’re being a baby.”

Oka conjured another blade of grass and snapped it at Kalei’s wrist. Kalei dodged it this time, so Oka recovered mid-motion and whipped it against Kalei’s knees.

“Ow,” Kalei said. “And it’s escape rooms I’m thinking of.”

“Can we just get to the escaping part, then?” I asked. “I don’t see any clue to leave so I’m guessing they’re gonna make us do math.”

Ko Matora whistled. “Man, it’d be great if there was some kind of private area here,” Ko said. “Know what I mean, Lillia?”

Lillia looked flustered. “We should really formulate some kind of plan.”

“You wanna be leader again?” Kalei asked. “Everyone cool with Lillia doing leader stuff?”

“She did figure out the whole nightmare pod thing pretty dang quick.” Iris said, taking another drink of water.

“Alright, Lillia, have at it.” Maia said, sitting down cross legged and getting on her phone. She flinched after a few seconds and triple checked to make sure her tail was still hidden.

“Well, the first step to any challenge room is to figure out what the challenge is,” Lillia said. “And since there are no obvious objective markers…” She looked around the room while the rest of us mostly just stood there. Amara searched as well, while KJ started setting up her camera. Kalei gave a quick scan of the table and sat down on it, setting her paper bag of pet food next to her. Oka and I stood near her but didn’t sit, as we’d all learned the hard way what happened when we all sat down on something at once before checking.

“It’d be cool if 09 was here,” Kalei said, swinging her legs.

“She’s got that other thing, remember?” Oka said. “Wait, Caya told you about that, right?”

Kalei nodded. “Yeah, but still,” She said. “She could do that like scan-y bloop bloop thing and see the whole place and show us a way out.”

“Bloop bloop thing.” Oka said.

“You know! That sound it makes.” Kalei said.

“It doesn’t make a sound.”

“It totally does! When she scans people and says their embarrassing posts it makes a…bloop—why is everyone looking at me?”

A thunking sound interrupted her. We turned to see Iris holding something heavy looking that she was smashing against the wall. Neither the thing she held nor the wall gave way even a little bit, but she kept trying.

“Iris, quit hitting that…what is that, a typewriter?” Oka asked.

Iris shrugged.

“Where did you get that?” I asked.

Iris shrugged again.

“Well, quit hitting that against the wall.” Oka said. “It’s loud and it’s giving me a headache.”

“Blunt actions win the day in my experience,” Iris said. “Me and Maia got out of one of these challenge rooms that way once.”

“Two, actually.” Maia said.

“But this isn’t like a puzzle challenge, we just have to learn things about each other.”

Iris and Maia pondered the idea for a moment, then Iris went back to hitting the door with the typewriter. After another hit, Iris accidentally dropped it in front of her, and it bounced off the wall before sliding our way. I grabbed it and put it under the table, not wanting Oka to have a headache.

“Can you make sure Iris doesn’t get that again?” I asked to Kalei.”

“Sure,” Kalei said. “Anyone want to do the pet food challenge while we wait for Lillia?”

Kalei received some light murmurs as answers. With Iris not smashing the wall anymore, attention turned to KJ as she filmed everyone.

“Dude, quit filming us.” Kalei said, throwing a tiny treat at KJ. It plunked against her head, but she didn’t react. “Trying to get an actual fun challenge going instead of this.”

“Why?” KJ asked. “Don’t you want to have your final moments documented? I may be the last key to get this vital information to your mourning families—”

“Alright, shut up.” Kalei said.

“I don’t like new KJ,” I said, immediately panicking over the thought of Stella receiving probably grainy black and white footage of us all slowly dying.

“Zeta, if we suffocate and die in here, I just want you to know, I love you and I don’t blame you if this goes bad.” Oka said.

“Dude what the hell, that totally sounds like you’re passive-aggressively blaming her.” Kalei said.

“No, no! I know Zeta worries so I want her to know.” Oka patted my arm. “It’s not your fault, my starlight boo.”

Getting called ‘starlight boo’ by my dear girlfriend was like having hot tea with a sore throat and I made a noise best described as a horrible, delighted grunt in response.

“Barf, ‘starlight boo’?” Kalei said after a less delighted grunt. “I thought I told you guys to not be annoying about your whole thing.”

“Shut up, it’s super cute and I immediately love it!” I said. “I don’t blame you either if we suffocate and die here, my…I need more time to come up with a nickname remotely as cute as starlight boo.”

“Maybe one less vomit inducing.” Kalei said.