Zero Escape: Chambers of Nightmares

"Uh, Gallus?" I look over at Cozy Glow. "Why would my number be a reason for her to be suspicious of me?"

"Because it can be very powerful in this situation."

Wait, something feels off. I can't tell what, though.

"Miss Silver?" Bramble is in my grasp. "Could you let me go, please?"

I nuzzle him a bit before letting go. He makes a beeline for Yona, who's looking at me strangely. I look right at... Sandbar. Was I about to call him a murderer? Why? I look at Cozy. She's glaring at Sandbar.

"What's with all the tension?" Ocellus has her eyebrow raised. "It looks like you all just came from a huge brawl or something."

"Whatever it is, we can work it out later." Gallus points at the doors. "We need to work out who's going where."

"Yak avoiding Hippogriff!"

What?

"Keep me away from Sandbar!"

Cozy-

"I'm keeping my distance from Gallus!"

Smolder?

"I don't trust most of you!"

Bramble-

"What did I do?"

"Don't drag me into this!"

"What did Sandbar do?"

They're raising their voices! They're moving close to each other! RAIN SAVE ME!

I watch from behind Rain Kiss. They're all going at each other! Bramble is on Yona, waving his hoof at Sandbar while Yona waves her hoof at Gallus! Cozy is practically in Sandbar's face- No, Ocellus shoved her away and is yelling in her face now! Gallus and Smolder are prodding each other in the chest! This is so scary!

"ENOUGH!" *FWOOOM!*

Woah! I had no idea Rain could do that! And that shut everyone else up.

Rain now has a very black coat, and her hair has turned to flames. Her horn is also glowing brightly. If it weren't for me being behind her, I'd be just as scared as the others look.

"Are you all insane?" Woah. Her voice sounds nothing like it did before. "We're in a life or death situation, and the seven of you are quarreling over petty issues? We can't wait around here! So if you don't mind, I'll be making the decisions here. You got it?"

The seven of them nod. She glances back at me with her white DEMON EYES! PLEASE DON'T BE MAD AT ME! She looks away. Phew.

"Smolder and Gallus make 4, Ocellus and Sandbar make 7, Yona and Bramble make 9... Silver and I are going with Yona and Bramble through door 7, the rest of you are going through door 2. Any objections?"

"Are you-" A burst of flames shut Yona up. "No objections."

"Good." A column of flames erupts from below Rain. Once they vanish, she's back to how she was. "Now let's get going before I lose my temper again. Door 2 first."

Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, Sandbar, and Cozy Glow all sheepishly move past us, scan into the RED of door 2, and go through. All it takes is a glare for Yona and Bramble to scan into the door 7 RED. I scan after them, and Rain scans after me. Rain pulls the lever, and we go through the door. Once through, we find and scan into the DEAD. With all of that done, there's one thing that takes priority.

I wrap my legs around Yona's neck. I feel her pull back slightly. I can't stop shaking. I feel like I'm trying to disarm a bomb right now. Please don't hurt me. Please...

I stop shaking once I feel her wrap her hooves around me. I also didn't realize I was holding my breath.

"I'm sorry, Yona. I don't know what I did that upset you, but I'm sorry anyway. I'll make it up to you somehow. I promise."

"It's alright, Silver. Yona not sure why she was up in arms either. But we're friends. It's not important to avoid these things. It's important to forgive each other when they happen."

I suddenly feel Bramble and Rain hug us as well.

"Miss Silver, Um... I don't know what you did or why you did it, but if you're sorry, then I'll forgive you."

"See? This is all it takes. You don't have to keep your friendships pristine. You just have to repair the damage when it happens."

... Ah! "We should probably focus on getting through here. It'd be bad if the others got mad because we took too long."

"Right. Hugs later."

We break the hug off. The others spread around the rec room to look for clues.

TIME TO SEARCH!

1285.

... Huh? Why did that pop into my head? I look at the number panel... Well, it's worth a shot. I punch the number in.

!!! It opened!

I look around. The others might get suspicious if they realize I opened this myself. I slip in and close the door.

There are a bunch of desks in here. On a few of them are these weird puzzles that look like they involve shapes. One of them has a key with a line attached to it. I think I'll leave that alone for now.

This puzzle. There's a very blocky image and two squares with some lines cut into it... Oh! I know this puzzle! I just have to fit the pieces from the square into the blocky image! Though it's usually just one square. I pick up a piece and fit it in where it looks like it goes.

... Now that I'm putting this together, it kind of looks like Professor Rainbow. Is that a coincidence? Maybe not. Then again, she is a public figure, being both a hero and a Wonderbolt.

I go to the next one. This one looks like some kind of tornado. But it has a base? And a ball inside. I guess it's some kind of trophy. Anyway, it looks like... no, I need a different piece there... there we go.

Three? I have three squares of pieces to work with? Oh, I know this crown! It's the crown of King Grover! Gallus really likes this thing... Uh... Huh. Okay, like that. That looks good. Hold on... alright, now it looks good.

"Silver?"

Er, hehe. They noticed.

"How did hippogriff get in?"

I scratch my ear. "Well, I'm not sure. A few numbers just popped into my head, so I tried them on the number panel and they worked."

They all look at each other and shrug. "Anything we can do to help?"

I shake my head. "Not really. I'm almost done. I just have to finish this puzzle." FOUR SQUARES? Ugh. I remember when they were one square and nothing else. Alright, I put this piece here. This piece there. Rain, please stop hovering over my shoulder.

I watch her as she walks over to the other puzzles. I put my full focus on the puzzle before me once again. This here. This there... Hmm...

"Aren't Tangrams supposed to be a solid color for each piece?"

Ugh. Rain. I put the piece I'm holding into place. "Yeah. It's also supposed to be a different color. I think Zero wanted to specifically design these."

She's hovering over me again. "Looks familiar, right?"

I put another piece in and look at the puzzle. "Yeah. It kind of looks like the Crusader's cutie marks."

"But none of them have that specific design."

I put the last piece in place. "Yeah. It's kind of strange. If they wanted to represent the Crusaders, why not use their typical symbol? The one they sometimes have on their stuff?"

"That's a good question. If you did this right." Rain walks over to the key. I watch as she pulls it from its spot... Nothing happened.

Was I holding my breath? I'm not anymore.

"Let's go." I follow Rain out the door and to the exit to the room. She uses the key and we go through.

It's a hallway with doors lining the sides. It goes a good way down. I look at one of the doors as we pass it... I should stay with the group. We head down the stairs.

This is a bit of an open room... Yelling? Someone is yelling.

"Cozy Glow?"

Cozy? Where? Oh, in front of the infirmary. "Hey, you okay, Cozy? You look down."

She looks at me. "You might want to leave them alone right now. They're having some... conflict."

Rain is growling. I can't see her, but she's the only one that would growl at that. "Those four. Why do they have to keep fighting like this." She barges into the infirmary. "What are you... GALLUS! WHERE'S YOUR LEG?"

!!! I rush in. Sure enough, Gallus' leg is mostly missing, with a bunch of bandages on what's left of it.

"Smolder shoved him into a death trap! He's lucky to have lived through it!"

I dart over to him and take his claw in mine. "Gallus! Gallus, are you alright?"

He lets out a weak laugh. "Yeah, I'm just missing a leg and a lot of blood. That's all."

"Gallus. Please don't die."

"That's not gonna happen. I'm just gonna say that."

He puts his claw on my cheek. I put my claw on his. He's so cold.

...

His claw slowly drifts off of my cheek.

...

"And if you think he didn't deserve it, then you deserve to die too."

... Smolder... "SMOLDER!"

I immediately strike her in the stomach and keep hitting her hard enough to knock her, bit by bit, into a wall. As soon as she's against the wall, I spin her around and pin her arms to her back, putting my full weight into it.

"Ghh. When did you get so strong?"

"Really? Is forgiveness not an option for you? You had to take it so far?"

"You don't know what he did! Don't make me the bad guy here!"

"I don't have to. You're doing a good enough job of that yourself."

"You don't really think anything you say or do can get to me, do you?"

I open my beak to respond when I realize something. I don't have her pinned to a wall. I have her pinned to door 5. I look at the RED. "Oh, I think there is something."

"What? I have thick scales!"

"Sandbar! Ocellus! Can you help me with something?"

I watch them share a look, then head over to us.

"And what are they gonna do?"

*Beep Beep*

"Huh? What did they just do?"

I force Smolder's claw to the RED. "Your scales are thick. Your insides probably aren't as tough."

"... OH FUCK!"

"If I pull this lever and force you through alone, you won't be able to deactivate your bracelet."

"FUCK! FUCK!"

"We wait for time to run out, then get your bracelet and get ourselves out of here."

"I'M SORRY!"

I smirk. "What was that?"

"I'M SORRY! PLEASE! PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! I'LL BEHAVE! I PROMISE!"

I giggle. "Sorry, I'm having some trouble hearing you. What was that?"

"PLEASE! PLEASE STOP!"

I press into her body a bit.

"NO! PLEASE NO! STOP!"

I put my claw on the lever.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

I pull the lever.

And I pull Smolder away from the door.

We watch the door open and close.

I giggle. "I was just messing around." Not a complete lie. I wanted to scare her straight. I hope it sticks.

"Fuck! HOLY FUCK SILVER!" She pulls away from me. "Do you have ANY idea how FUCKING scary that was?"

"Yeah. I do. His name was the Storm King. I barely got away."

"W-wow."

I look at the others. They're all looking at me with wide eyes and slack jaws. Except for Gallus, who's just lying there.

Ocellus blinks a couple of times. "I'm more shocked that you managed to overpower her than anything."

I shrug. "My family is pseudo-royalty, and my dad was in the navy. I pretty much had to learn how to hold my own."

Cozy rubs her leg. "I think that's a bit more than holding your own."

I go back to Gallus' side. I look at his bracelet. "The fact that's still on means he's alive, right?"

"Yeah, but he's lost a lot of blood."

I look at Ocellus as she looks around the room. She flies behind a counter in the room.

"Does anyone know what Gallus' blood type is?"

The rest of us look at each other.

Ocellus sighs. "Nevermind. I asked on a chance." She pulls some kind of machine out from behind the counter. There are a lot of tubes and a container of red liquid. "Although using this would be taking a chance anyway."

Bramble taps the machine. "What is this?"

"It's a blood transfusion machine. It's used to keep patients from bleeding to death. But it requires the right blood type. Otherwise, it can cause other medical problems."

I look at a note on the machine. "What's type O?"

Ocellus glares at me. "An error while writing. Please don't change the subject."

She heard typo. "So this machine is loaded with writing errors?"

Now she gets it. "Oh! That's a blood type. And the only one that can be added to any... body..."

I smile. "So this machine will help him, right?"

Ocellus looks at the note I read. "Yeah. It'll work. Type O can be added to any other blood type without issue. I just need to hook this up, then we wait for him to wake up."

*DING DING*

We all look up. It's only just now the second hour?

"Let's look around while we wait for him." Rain. "Even if he can't physically help through any of the doors, it'll be better to have him awake to help with any puzzles."

I clench Gallus' claw. "I'd like to stay at his side. It'll make me feel better."

They all nod in understanding.

"Then we'll meet back here at the third-hour chime."

"Right."