¶ I offered him my hand, but he pushed himself up. His eyes did nothing to hide his distrust. He studied my eyes silently. "I don't know where we are, Evan". His eyes twitched, "how do we get out of here"? I scratched the back of my neck, "The man who abducted us woke me up first and told me to find my friends". My answer didn't seem to satisfy his curiosity, "how many of us are there? Why did he wake you up first? Answer me"! I flinched, "I-I don't know". I could see his frustration growing but he let it out with a sigh, "Lead the way, Reeling".
¶ I felt his eyes burned a hole through my back. I wouldn't expect most people to trust me in the situation we're in, but I've know Evan since I was twelve. I hoped for some small amount of trust for all the time we've spent together, but he didn't say a word. We walked back to the elevator in silence, it wasn't until we reached the elevator that he finally spoke, "so how do we use this thing"? I began, "It happened automa-". Before I finished my sentence, the elevator began its climb.
¶ When Evan saw the main room, he marveled at its pristine beauty, "How did you find my room first"? I offered him a small laugh, "I just walked forward". He offered the same small laugh. Without much clue of where else to go, we walked forward to the next room. I hadn't noticed it before, but every step we took made an echo. Much like the last room, once we entered, the room shook and began its descent.
¶ Unlike the last room, beyond the elevator door there wasn't an abandoned laboratory, but a massive wall of water. Evan looked at me with concerned eyes, "Maybe we should skip this room". I shook my head in agreement. We looked around the elevator for some way to go back to the main room, but the elevator was empty. There was no escape. Evan slinked his way to the corner of the room and hid his back away from me. I felt my eyes twitch, "If I wanted you dead why would I put you through all this"? He responded sharply, "You tell me".
¶ I let out a sigh and tried to open the door, before I could, Evan grabbed my arm, "What do you think you're doing?"! I pulled my arm back, "Our only hope is to keep going forward, my guess is the elevator will only start when we find the person beyond this door". He slumped his shoulders, and muttered under his breath, "You would know". I brushed off his snide remark and braced myself for the flood of water that was probably going to drown us.
¶ I pulled the door open and shut my eyes expecting the worst, but nothing happened. I slowly opened my eyes. The massive wall of water stayed suspended. Both Evan and I marveled at the thing that could only be described as magic. "How did you make something so amazing"? Passively, I responded, "I didn't make this". I extended my hand til it slightly hovered over the wall, then I pressed my hand into the wall of water. Evan watched with amazement as my hand emerge completely dry. It very much felt like water, the texture and pressure, all of it felt like water, but my hand was completely dry.
¶ Evan walked into the room before me, so I followed. Juxtaposed to Evan's room, this room looked like was at the bottom of the ocean. Every step I took felt floaty but the boots I wore kept me anchored to the floor. It really felt like we were underwater, but every breath we took felt as natural as breathing air. Evan was jumping through the air playing with the room's weird gravity. The fear in his eyes was replaced with pure excitement.
¶ I looked around the room for some hint as to what to do, but there weren't any containers nor papers on the ground. There was simply a giant cube placed at the lower left corner of the room. On the ground, there was a slight step separating the cube. It was almost as if it was a guiding rail, but there was no way there could be such a generic video game puzzle here, right? I tapped Evan's shoulder and asked, "There's no way the puzzle is to move that cube into place". Evan bobbed his shoulder, "There's no harm in trying".
¶ The cube was about the size of a fridge, so both Evan and I positioned ourselves to push it. "On three", Evan shouted, "One, two, three". To our surprise, the cube moved seamlessly. It required some force but the two of us were easily able to push the cube along the railing. Once we reached the end, the cube made a thud sound as it fell into place. Seconds later, two secret doors fell, the first showed an open room with some sort of giant slingshot that was stuck to the ground, and the second hidden room had a target placed in the center on the back wall.
¶ The first hidden room could easily be reached by climbing on top of the now lowered cube and jumping onto the ledge. I went first. I jumped to grab the ledge of the cube, pulled myself up then jumped from the top of the cube to the hidden room. Evan look up to me, "You don't need me to go up there do you"? I shook my head then looked for something to place into the slingshot. Without a thought, I pulled the slingshot back, and to my surprise, a small yellow ball magically appeared. The slingshot was ready to be fired. I aimed my shot for the target but missed. I missed the shot a few more times before Evan remarked, "Do you need me to go up there and make the shot"?
¶ I took a breath and let go of the sling. It hit the mark perfectly. The wall opposite the entrance began to fall. In the new room, it seemed as if there was a steep incline made from wooden flooring. It looked like a sunken ship. Evan looked at me with wide eyes. I jumped down from my ledge and we investigated the new room. Evan pointed at a small section of the floor that was missing, "Are we supposed to go down there"? I shrugged my shoulders. He continued his sentence, "You should go down there first". Without putting up a fight, I fell through the missing floorboards.
¶ Because the ship was on an incline, when I landed, I slid to the bottom of the hull. After crashing into a barrel, I coughed and tried to regain my footing. I heard Evan shout, "Are you okay"? I shouted back, "Yeah, but don't jump down". He responded with a simple, "okay". I looked around to see what I could find, and to my surprise directly beside me, there was a coffin that looked exactly like Evan's pod. I felt a pit in my stomach. Is this just some elaborate method of torture. Why would he have me go through all this trouble just to find a corpse of my friend? Despite my fears, I slowly raised the coffin. A rush of green liquid floated to the top of the hull and a girl laid in its absence. I immediately recognized her and she recognized me. I felt myself flinch when she jumped to wrap her arms around my neck. "Reeling, what is this place"?