Zero Escape: Chambers of Nightmares

"Alright. We'll meet back here in an hour." With that, Ocellus leaves. Most of us follow her, leaving me with Smolder and Gallus.

"You could have at least made me feel better."

I look at Smolder. "Well, it's not like my opinion would have mattered at that point."

"I know. That's why I'm upset at you. How about making it up to me by going through one of these doors right now?"

Gallus shakes his head. "We can't. 5, 6, and 7 make 18, which is 9. We'd need one of the others, and the only one we could reasonably convince is Cozy Glow."

"Ugh. Fine. Grab Cozy Glow and we can go through door 3 without Gallus."

I look at Gallus. He's making an 8 with his claws behind Smolder's back. Hm... I think I know what to do. "Sure. Just give me a second."

Smolder grunts as Gallus heads over to the part of the infirmary with the drugs. "Just get her and get back!"

I nod and make my way to the door out of the infirmary. I look around for a bit before heading down one of the hallways. I happen across Bramble and Yona.

Bramble notices me first. "Oh, hey Miss Silver."

I put on my sweetest smile. "Hey, Bramble. Could you help us? Gallus says he found something, but we can't reach it. We think your smaller size would help."

"Oh, sure! I'll help-"

Yona sticks her hoof out in front of Bramble while glaring at me. "What you planning?"

... She's suspicious? Of me? There's no way she could know what I'm planning.

Bramble pushes her hoof down. "It's alright, Miss Yona. I trust her."

Yona looks at him, then at me. "... Fine. Yak let deer go. But if you hurt him... I will crush you."

That has to be the scariest I've seen Yona. She wasn't even talking how she normally does. "Don't worry. I don't plan on hurting him."

Bramble walks past me, so I turn around and follow him back to the infirmary. As soon as we're inside, I close the doors.

Beramble backs into me. "What the-"

"Oh, hey." Gallus is standing over Smolder's unconscious body. "Didn't expect you to be back so soon."

"M-Mister Gallus? Why is Miss-"

"Don't ask." I grab him and dart over to door 1. I force his hoof onto the RED, then put my claw on it.

"HELP!"

Gallus reaches past me and puts his claw on the RED before pulling the lever. As soon as the door is open, I rush through, Bramble still tightly in my grasp.

"Guys?" That's Cozy's voice. "What's going on in here?"

"Sorry, but we can't wait forever." With that, Gallus closes the door.

The DEAD is in our line of sight already. I rush over, force Bramble's hoof to it, then drop him. I scan my bracelet in, then Gallus scans his in before pulling the lever.

"HELP!" Bramble is banging on the door we came through. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"Hey, Bramble?" Oh, he's scared of me. "Hey, I'm not going to hurt you. I just wanted to help everyone. We don't know what's going to happen going forward."

"S-stay away."

"Hey, it's okay." I move to pet him. "Just-"

"STAY AWAY!" !!! He moved so fast I didn't even see him.

"Bramble!"

*BANG BANG BANG* "SILVERSTREAM!"

Uh oh. That's Yona.

"I WILL NOT FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS! GET OUT HERE THIS INSTANT!"

Gallus hits his claw on the door. "We can't! The rules don't allow it!"

"GALLUS!"

"See you on the other side!" He takes my claw. "Come on. Let's go."

Wow. I got so distracted by the DEAD and Bramble, I did not realize how tight the area around the door is. Gallus leads me to the end of the wall opposite the door leading in here. It looks like there are a few metal tubes with computers next to them. There are a bunch of boxes everywhere with numbers on the front. There's a door to the side... Wait.

"Where's Bramble?"

"Oh, he's in that middle tube."

"The one with all the padlocks on it?"

"Yup."

I tap on it. "You okay in there?"

"Better than I would be out there!"

... I get the feeling he's upset at me.

Though, now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure why I did this. It wasn't to be with Bramble or Gallus, I know that much. I think I was trying to protect Smolder... Wait, what? What am I thinking? I'm not keeping anyone safe by going through a specific door! It's not like she would have died by going through this door in particular! They all have death traps in them! What the heck was I thinking?

"You okay, Silver?"

"Yeah, I'm just facing some internal conflict."

"Eh, that's fair. You can argue with yourself inside your head while we work out the puzzles."

TIME TO SEARCH!

Well, the puzzle here is rather obvious. Er, hold on. It looks like a small panel slid open on the computer next to the tube Bramble is in. I look in the panel.

"Find something?"

"Yeah, a key." I hold it up. "It has a weird symbol on it."

"We should probably keep an eye out for that symbol. Otherwise, let's get to the puzzle."

I nod and make my way to one of the boxes. There are numbers and symbols on the front.

[+}(-]{x)
721
<><

Um... Hmm... I wish I had a notepad or something. "Hey, Gallus? Is there anything to write on?"

"Uh, I think there are a notepad and pen next to one of the tubes."

"Thanks." I look at the tubes again. Sure enough, the left one has a notepad and a pen next to it. I pick them up and head back to the box.

"Any idea what those symbols mean?"

I tap the pen to my beak. "Well, three of the symbols are mathematical, but I'm sure you knew that already. The other symbols appear to be paired brackets." I draw the brackets on the notepad. "I think that means the math symbols between each pair of brackets mean something." I draw the symbols in between the brackets they're between on the box.

+-
{x+}

"But the question is how this relates to the numbers on the box."

"Ah, that's what I was missing."

"Really?" I hand him the pen. "Can you show me what I'm missing?"

He takes the pen. "You see the lock on the box, right?"

"Yeah, it's like the ones on those padlocks. The twisty dial."

He chuckles. I can't blame him. "It's called a combination lock. You turn it one way to one number, then the other way to the next number, then repeat until it unlocks. If you mess up, you just spin it a bunch to reset it, then try again."

"So what's the combination?"

He holds up the paper he was writing on. "This."

[7+2-1]=8
(7-2x1)=5
{7x2+1}=15

"So, judging by the arrows below the numbers..." He puts his claw on the dial. "... first, we turn it this way to 8..." He turns it counterclockwise to 8. "... then we go this way..." He turns it clockwise to 5. "... and we finish going this way..." He turns it counterclockwise again until he gets to 15. "... and now..." He lifts the lid like it wasn't ever locked. "... presto."

I look in the box. There's another key inside, this one significantly less detailed than the other one. "Hey, do you think that fancy key from earlier is the key to the door out?"

"Maybe, but it will probably do something to Bramble if we use it before letting him out." He hands me the notepad and pen. "You probably need this more than me. I can crunch the numbers in my head."

I'm confused. He's... not the best academically. Oh, that's a big word. Academically.

"It's because Grandpa Gruff had me working at a store so I wasn't doing nothing with my life. I learned a lot about numbers there. About the only thing I learned in Griffonstone, too."

I take the pen and notepad. "So, when we meet with the others again..."

"I'll handle the talking. I have something in mind to talk them down."

I nod. I really hope he gets through to them. I don't want to know what Yona will do to me if he can't.

I take the key that was in the box and move back to the tube Bramble is in. I try it on a couple of padlocks before one of them unlocks.

"How about saving that for when we have all of the keys." He already has another key. I didn't think I took that long finding this lock. He sets it down on the table beside me. "Just leave that key in the lock so we don't try to use it on another one."

I drop the lock on the ground. Well, back to the boxes. I read the front of the next one. The only thing different from the first box is the numbers themselves. 823. I write down the equations again.

[8+2-3]=7
(8-2x3)=18
{8x2+3}=19

I turn the dial counterclockwise to 7, clockwise to 18, then a tiny bit back to 19.

"So how many do you have?"

"I got... one." He's dangling three keys in my face. How did he even work that fast? "You know what? You unlock the boxes. I'll just... figure out which key goes where."

He shrugs and hands me the keys he has. "Suit yourself."

Ugh. At least I won't have to worry about taxes if we get married. Not that I should be thinking about marriage or taxes right now. I take one key and stick it in one of the locks, then try the next lock until one of them unlocks, then repeat the process with the next key... Given that this is an exam room, shouldn't the puzzle have something to do with anatomy? I guess it would be awkward if it's a pony anatomy doll and only non-ponies in the room, and the solution would be obvious if they left a book on pony anatomy in here. At least we don't have to cut each other open.

"Here's the rest."

"Faajajajaja! I just got the third lock open!"

He stares at me, then smiles. "What was that sound?"

I roll my eyes and grab the rest of the keys. For the rest of these, I just try each key on a lock until it opens.

"Did you count how many keys and padlocks there are?"

"Did you, captain math?" Seriously, the speed he worked at shouldn't be physically possible.

"Yeah. We're one key short."

"Maybe we need to use the symbol key." How did he... you know what, never mind. He's good with numbers. I don't need to worry about it.

"Maybe. But it would be odd that locking him in there would give us a key to release him."

"Yeah yeah." I unlock all but two of the locks. Sure enough, I've got one key left. I try it on the first one. No dice. I try it on the second one... Huh? "Wait. This key doesn't fit either of these locks."

"Really?" He takes the key from me and... does exactly what I did. "Hmm... We unlocked all the boxes."

"We?"

"Well, you got one of them."

I can't roll my eyes hard enough... Eh? "Hey, did we ever try that door?"

Gallus shakes his head. I head over to the door. It's heavy and metal, like all solid doors and effective weapons. Not my taste in music, though. It doesn't look like there's a handle on the door. Hmm... There's a panel near the door. I look at it. It looks very simple to operate, but it's covered by a glass case. There's a latch on it with a padlock.

"Hey, Gallus. I think we need that key over here."

He brings the key over and puts it in the padlock. It opens right up. I open the case and press a button.

*Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

Yes! The door is open! I step inside... A chill runs down my spine.

"Silver? You okay?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine." There are two panels on the left and right sides of the room, two masks dangling from the ceiling by tubes, and a box below the masks. "I think we need whatever's in that box."

Gallus pushes past me and walks up to the box. "There's no dial or inscription."

I walk up behind him. He's right. It's like the other boxes, but without the puzzle parts on it. He opens the lid.

*Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

!!! The door is closing!

"Wait!" Gallus let me go! "You'll hurt yourself if you try to stop it!"

*Ding* "Dispensing carbon dioxide."

... Oh, crap! I put one of the masks on. Gallus is standing right next to me.

"We're not given much room with these on."

I look at him. "What do you mean?"

He tugs at the tube. "We can probably move three feet from each other while wearing these. It could be worse, I guess."

"Yeah. We could be suffocating." I look at one of the panels. It looks like there are instructions on it. "We should probably read that."

Gallus looks where I'm pointing and follows me when I move. I read the instructions out loud.

"Press the button on this panel at the same time as the button on the opposite panel.
"Failure to press both buttons within fifteen second of each other will replace the oxygen with Emoja 16.
"Failure to press either button within fifteen minutes of the door closing will replace the oxygen with Emoja 16.
"The room will ventilate when both buttons are pressed. Keep the masks on until the room is fully ventilated.
"The room will ventilate if the button outside the room is pressed.
"The door will open once the room is venitlated."

I tilt my head. "Well, that sounds simple enough."

"It sounds simple, until you remember one small thing." He tugs at the tubes connected to our masks. "We can't go more than three feet apart from each other, and the panels are on opposite sides of the rooms."

I look at the other panel. It looks like a mirror image of the one we're next to. Right down to... "Maybe we should read those instructions before doing anything."

Gallus looks at the other panel, then nods. We head over before I read out the instructions.

"When one button is pressed, a wall will rise from the floor. It will be fully raised after 5 seconds.
"Your tubes give three feet of clearance. There is no way to extend this range.
"If the wall is raised and two creatures are on opposite sides of the wall, the wall will be high enough to force both creatures against the wall.
"Removing the keys from the box will do nothing. Their weight will not help you, though. Trust me, I tried."

I look at the box. We head back over to it and peek inside. There are two keys. "Well, I would try throwing them, but that note said they won't help."

Gallus chucks them at one of the buttons. They uselessly plinked off. "It was worth a shot."

I look at the panels, then at the tubes connected to our masks. "I have an idea."

"What is it?"

"I'll hold my breath, then we hit the buttons at the same time. Once that happens, we run towards each other and you hand me back the mask I'm wearing."

"And how can I talk you out of this?"

"Get ready." I take a deep breath.

"Silver, wait!"

I slip the mask off of my head and run over to the button.

"Damn it, Silver!"

I smash it and run towards Gallus. He hands me the mask back and I slip it back on.

"That was one hell of a move you just pulled."

"Yeah. I didn't think you'd be fast enough."

The wall comes up between us.

*Ding* "Please wait five minutes for the room to ventilate. Oxygen dispensing normally."

"Normally? That means it worked, right?"

"Yeah. It does."

I let out a sigh and slide down the wall onto my rump. I guess that means no one died this time... this... time?

"Gallus, what's wrong with me?"

"That depends on what you're referring to."

"Ever since the first chime, I've been feeling... off. As if I went through something horrible. As if I saw everyone else die in front of me." I look at the floor in front of me. "As if I had to stop Smolder from entering this room at all costs."

"And here I was questioning if it was real."

"What?"

"The Morphogenetic Field. A phenomenon where specific creatures send and receive information regardless of where they are in time and space."

"Time?"

"Let's say you went through things without interfering. All of a sudden, someone dies. That information enters the Morphogenetic Field and goes to the past, creating a new timeline where you do interfere and save that someone."

I hold my stomach. "So that feeling from earlier. Where I felt like I was killed."

"You probably were. In a different timeline where you sent the information backward through time. Unless we're immortals with anterograde amnesia, constantly forced to live out the same day over and over."

... "Could you help me understand something else?"

"Let me guess. You want to know when I got so smart, right?"

"Yeah. Because, now that I think about it, you weren't particularly good with math in the past. So you weren't good with it before coming to school."

"Well, maybe I faked it."

"Gallus, I'm serious."

"Heh. Sorry. Memories and knowledge are two different things. So if someone has amnesia and forget about a year of their life, they still know what they learned during that year. This is because memories and knowledge are stored in different parts of the brain."

"So when something specifically targets our memories, they don't affect our knowledge."

"At the same time, that knowledge can be passed through the Morphogenetic Field. So when you go through rooms you went through in other timelines, you'd already know what to do."

I chuckle. "That sounds good... Wait, do you think Smolder is able to use the Morphogenetic Field?"

"That would explain how she was acting in door 7. She's not that weird. She probably just wanted to get through it. Rain is probably the same way. You saw how she was treating Smolder that whole time, right?"

"Yeah. I did. This all feels so surreal, but it explains why I've been acting the way I have."

We sit in silence. Does he know how I feel about him? Should I tell him, knowing he could know from here on out without me knowing how? Do I just let it slide, knowing he could slip away from me at any moment? Why is this the one thing I have trouble being impulsive on?

*Ding* "Room ventilated." *Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr*

I look at the door. It's wide open. I take off my mask and take a deep breath.

Gallus puts his claw on my shoulder. I guess the wall went down. "We're in the clear."

I get up and head out of the room... Oh, wait. "You have the keys, right?"

"Yeah. I've got it." He heads over to the metal tube Bramble is still in. He removes the last two padlocks, causing the base of the tube to slide out. I look inside... Uh oh.

I place my claw on Bramble's neck... "He has a pulse. He's just asleep."

"That might be a good thing. He probably would freak out at us again if he was awake." Gallus picks up the fancy key. "We'll let him catch up to us."

I nod. We head to the exit door. Gallus puts the key into the hole and unlocks it. The door swings ope-

*KSSSHHHHHHHHHH*

GAH! Some kind of gas... sudden... uh...

So... sleepy...

*DING DING...*