Episode 17-3: New Season, Old Problems

"Am I gonna die?" I ask, shivering on the floor. My blood begins dripping down my arm, the trickle of it almost soothing if I concentrate on it.

"I'm not sure, I don't know anything about that poison. Your nanobots can clean your blood for you with the new update. Please tell me you got them upgraded."

The one time I decide to leave it for tomorrow. "No, no I didn't." I hear obsessive typing on her end.

"I have the update on my computer. I can send it to you wirelessly, but..."

"But what, Amy?" I don't feel the poison yet. What's it supposed to feel like? Do I go numb? Does it hurt even more? Oh God, I'm terrified!

"I'm gonna need your signal so I can set up a wireless connection from here. Troy, you have to get out in time, or else that poison will end you."

I start to climb back up to my feet. "Oh great, my time limit just got shorter."

"I know you're in a lot of pain, but you gotta hop back to it. Where are you?"

I stagger through the doorway leaving a trail of blood as I go. I shine the flashlight around, this room being just as dark as the last. There's a chair, a table, and a box sitting on top with a red plus sign on it. A medical crate.

"Some room, I don't know what it's supposed to be." I get closer to the box, unhinging its locks and opening up the lid. There are bandages and disinfectants. "I found field dressings."

"Field dressings? You mean like first aid stuff? Doesn't that seem a little suspicious to you?"

I start treating my shoulder, the splash of disinfectant stinging me first, then the bandages wrapping around the gash. "Those creeps thought it would be funny to see me squirm in pain. This is probably here to make sure I go further through this torture hole."

"Were they this sadistic the first time you met 'em?"

"We didn't give them a chance to show us." All finished. As I look around the room, I notice there's no exit. My beam of light falls onto a hole in the wall, and there's something shiny inside. "What next?"

"What?"

"There's no way out of here, all I see is a hole in the wall."

"Big enough for you to squeeze through?"

"No, it looks like it can only fit an arm or something." I get a closer look. The glistening I saw was broken, jagged glass on the bottom of the hole, and on the walls and the top were long carpentry nails. Guess what's pushed all the way to the back: a lever.

"I don't think sadistic is a strong enough word."

"What did you find?"

"A hole with glass and nails in it. There's a lever all the way to the back."

"Oh...God. What are you gonna do?"

"Regret wearing sleeveless tops? Doesn't mean I'm gonna stop though."

"Troy, seriously?"

"There wasn't anything in that last room, and there's nothing in this room either. If I go slow, I can minimize the damage and patch myself up with the medkit again."

A heavy sigh leaves her lips. "Okay, I'll be here for you. Fair warning: if you scream too much I'm logging off."

I peek in one more time, mentally preparing myself for what kind of movement I should make. Going in slow is my best option because once I stick my arm in there, I won't be able to see inside.

"Okay, I'm going for it."

I slip my hand into the hole, immediately feeling the glass on the bottom. It scratches my fingertips up, telling me that my aim is too low. I stop and adjust very carefully, then keep going for it. A nail catches the skin on my forearm, ripping it harshly and making me whimper. I'm going too fast, I have to slow it down.

"Oh, that sounded like it hurt!" she says. I can imagine her worried expression right now, good thing she's not here to see this.

I slow down, my arm engulfed entirely by the hole, my underarm hitting the edge of the concrete, the rough edging scratching at the sensitive area. My fingers feel the base of the lever, and I wonder if I can even reach the damn thing in the first place. I stretch some more, the glass cutting me up from the bottom, and the nails stabbing me on top. I couldn't tell from outside, but the hole gets more narrow the deeper you go.

"Holy hell this hurts!" I scream and whimper and cry and try to think of anything to occupy my mind. I'd happily chop my arm off if it meant I didn't have to feel this anymore.

"Just hang in there," she whimpers, "you can do it."

My fingers crawl up to the stick of the lever. Almost there! I can't pull it. The cuts are starting to feel like fire as the glass stays stuck inside my flesh and the nails continue to stab at me. I yelp quickly, Amy screaming with me. My arm goes further in still, my fingers wrapping around the metal.

"C'mon! C'mon, I've almost got it!" At last, my hand wraps around the lever and I pull it, ramming into the nails as I do. I scream, but it's a victory worth the pain. "I got it!"

"Omigosh, are you okay!?"

"No, not really," I say/yell. I didn't mean to sound rude, excruciating pain just does that to people.

I see a piece of stone wall start moving down into the ground, a secret passage was hidden behind it. I use the remaining medicine to patch up my horrid arm. Patches of fur are missing, and the skin you can see is riddled with cuts and gashes. At the secret wall, there is an indention with a centerpiece at eye level. It looks like some old medallion. I shine the light on it to see the details; a skull with some Bohemian headdress on, and some strange symbols around it. It's wedged in a circle on the wall, and I pry it out using my nail.

"Talk to me, Troy, are you doing all right?"

"The lever opened up the wall. I found a medallion inside, it looks kinda creepy." The floor starts to rumble beneath me. I tense up and look all over the room, searching for the source. Right in front of me, the wall the medallion was on lifts up, a staircase leading up is behind it. "Whoa, a secret wall behind a secret wall."

"Wall-ceptio---! Oh damn, copyright."

I travel upward, shoving the medallion callously into my pocket. There are faint glimmers of sunlight coming through the boarded-up windows, meaning I'm on the ground floor. The room looks like a recreational floor, a pool table most notably takes up most of the space. A beautiful chandelier hangs right above it. "Coolio."

"Who says 'Coolio' anymore? How old are you again?"

"25, that's not old, so shaddup." Another broken T.V. is set up against the wall, and an old arcade system, also broken, is propped up against another.

"I found a hang-out room."

"For the bad guys?"

"I don't know, I doubt it. Just another one of their messed up rooms." The pool table is set up for a break, all the balls are lined up the way they're supposed to be. A pool cue rests on the side of the table, standing up on its own. I grab it and line myself up to the cue ball. "There's a pool table here. If I break and make the 8-Ball, you owe me a drink."

"As if. I saw you at the company party, your total crap at billiards."

"Billiards? Now, who's old?"

"In case you've forgotten, you're on a strict time limit here, remember? Stop messing around with the room."

Ignoring her, I line up my shot and take it. The balls roll everywhere, and as predicted, I didn't sink a single ball. "Meh, it's a dumb game anyway."

Wait, there's a paper underneath the table. I pick it up and run my eyes over it. "Oh I get it, it's a riddle."

"Hm?" She says rather uninterested. "How do you know?"

"I found this paper under the table. Let me read it to you."

I clear my throat."Welcome, agents. The light will shine when you've bested this riddle. Here are your hints.

The family must stick together.

North East has multiples of 3.

Across the stream, your partner awaits.

To the West, the numbers equal the sum of 13.

Across from West, you will find a perfect balance.

South West is colored blue, red, and green. All are part of the bold family."

"That sounds like a lot of hoopla, Troy."

"Of course it's hoopla, they're psychos. So what do you think about it?"

"I have no idea."

"None at all?"

"Well, I think the directions are supposed to be the pockets of the pool table. You just gotta stand at the south side and face north. Do you know where that's at?"

"Using my fancy detective skills, I'll just say the south is where I found the note. That labels the pockets for me at least. What do you think they meant by, 'The family sticks together'?"

"There are no families in pool. There's just a bunch of balls, one side stripes, the other solids." I hear her slam her hands on her desk. "Oh wait, stripes and solids! You have to make sure only solids go with other solids, and same with stripes."

"Good thinking. The North East pocket says it has multiples of three."

"So that means it could be 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15."

"Well, if I have to keep the family together, either 3 and 6 go in, or 9, 12, and 15 go."

"Hm, too many possibilities. Let's skip that one and try another hole."

"Southwest is colored blue, red, and green, all belonging to the bold family."

"I got it! The bold family is the solids, so you have to knock in the solid balls with those colors."

I look at the jumbled mess of the table. "That's 2, 6, and 3. I think we found our first answer." 2 was closest to the southwest pocket, and I have an easy shot lined up. There's no way I could miss this one. I hit the cue ball, knocking the 2 in no problem. I do the same with 6, but for 3, I had to bank shot it. It takes me three tries before it goes in. "Got 'em. What's next?"

"I wrote the hints down while you were missing your shots, and one of them looks easy. It says 'Across the stream, your partner awaits'. I think that means that the colors that went into the southwest should be the same colors that go in the southeast. It should be like that for all pockets."

I look for the blue, red, and green counterparts of solids. "That makes it 10, 14, and 11. Easy." Easier said than done. I wish Clyde was here to lend his expertise on this stupid game. I keep missing it every time. It takes me minutes to make all three balls. "Kay... all done."

"That took you a while."

"What're you, keeping track of the time? Next answer."

She groans at my comment. "Going back to that northeast riddle, it says it has multiples of three. We already sunk number 3 and 6, so North East has to have 9, 12, and 15."

"Good job, Amy. I never knew you were this good at deciphering riddles."

"Most people like to assume I'm just a pretty face with a bubbly attitude. I'm smart, I promise."

There are fewer balls on the table, making it easier for me, but there's still this troublesome poison. My shoulder is aching, and my eyes feel heavy. I can barely set myself up with the right form to shoot anymore. Much time passes, and I keep feeling progressively worse, but I manage to clear the North East pocket.

"Troy? Are you doing okay? You're grunting a lot."

"Feelin' woozy. Vision blurry..." I remember the rule of counter-part colors, and with a little luck, it doesn't take me long to sink in numbers 1, 4, and 7 into North West. Now there's not much on the table; only 5, 8, 13, and the cue ball. "West and East, Amy. What's the answer?"

"Um, West has a sum of 13, but the hints say so does East."

"C'mon Amy, you can do this. But please, do hurry will you?"

She sounds frantic on her side. "I-umm...not sure. Let's see here, 5 and 8 equal thirteen. Try putting those in the East. No, put them in the West pocket. Wait, I'm not too sure about this. 13 is already thirteen, does that make it a sum? There's no 0 ball to add to it unless they're talking about the cue ball. Does the cue ball equal 0, or does it not have a value at all?"

"Calm down, you're second-guessing yourself too much. Let's just say the cue ball has no value, therefore 13 plus the cue ball doesn't make sense. West will have 5 and 8. Deal?"

After some heavy breathing from her, she answers back. "Deal."

It's easy to sink in the 5 and 8 ball, and doubly so for the 13 and cue ball. For a moment nothing happens, but then I can hear the clicking and clanking of gears moving around the house. The arcade that sits in the corner slowly starts moving sideways on its own, revealing a hole in the wall that it was covering up. "That was the answer, Amy. You did it."

"Oh thank goodness, that last one really had me going there."

I step through the hole, quickly familiarizing myself with the new room I just entered. It's not new at all, it's the living room that I started off in. "I'm back where I started, Amy. Now what?" I stumble slightly, the poison pushing me around easily.

"Are you serious!? Wait, you picked up something, yes?"

I remember the medallion we found etched into the wall, and the front door that had a strangely familiar-looking circle shape in the middle of it. "You're right, I think I'm almost outta here." I head to the door while taking out the medallion from my pocket. Quickly I feed it into the slot and hear a satisfying click. The door breaks open on its own, and I finish pushing it out of the way. I breathe fresh air and feel warm sunlight hit my skin as I crawl out of the house.

"Troy! I've got your signal! I'm sending your nanobots the update right now!"

I sprawl on the grass, not even feeling well enough to stand up anymore. I feel sleepy, and this grass isn't helping me stay awake. Faintly I can still hear Amy's voice chanting something, but I'm not paying attention to what she's saying.

"Forty percent.... fifty-five percent... seventy percent. C'mon Troy, stay awake! Don't fall asleep, that's bad !"

Yep, she's still talking. I wonder what the afterlife is like. Is there an afterlife? Oh God, what am I going to tell Clyde when he finds out I died? He's probably going to be very mad at me. What's that tickling sensation I'm feeling under my skin. It feels like vibrating. Am I getting a massage?

"Is it working? Troy, are you awake? Don't fall asleep, get up! Tell me the nanobots are working!"

"Amy? You're still there?" My stomach stopped turning inside out while simultaneously setting itself on fire. "I'm feeling better. I think I got the update."

"Oh thank goodness. I- oh hello, ma'am! I didn't see you standing there. No ma'am, not a real person, I'm just watching my favorite soap. You can hear me through the walls? That loud? Yes, ma'am, I'm aware of the importance of watching our monitors, won't happen again."

"Amy?"

It takes her a few seconds to respond. "Sorry, Adams caught me screaming at my computer. You're lucky I came up with that so quick, or else we both would've been in trouble."

"Thanks, I owe you one."

"You owe me ten considering your bad streak with Adams lately. By the way, I got your coordinates, so what's next on your agenda?"

I lay still on the grass, still letting its comfort wrap around me like a blanket. It almost makes me want to take a nap. "Just tell me where I am, and you're all done."