THE FINALE - 【 ZERO 】 ESCAPE

[vivariummods]

It's been ten days since the so-called "anniversary" on Day 90. Every single trace of a makeshift casino has been cleared out, leaving this suspiciously identical second warehouse empty (and the doors within that lobby locked), and Calhoun has mysteriously stopped dropping by as often as he should have. In the rare times he did drop by, he hemmed and hawed about what was happening and outright avoided answering any questions, shrieking that he's a busy mouse and he shouldn't be harassed by test subjects. Thus, for nine whole days, not a single particular event has occurred. No Calhoun Hours, Ambidex Games, or even a little announcement. It's not until the morning of the tenth day that something finally transpired. A loud siren goes off and the sound of a heavy door being slid open echoes from the second warehouse's lobby. Within seconds, however, both nuances cease and silence returns...

Comments

[detectiveofthewest]

"So... you just kind of showed up later? Sure, then, whatever you remember'd be helpful." There had been quite a few like that in the warehouse, though most were quickly taken away. Whether the same would happen to this group was the question.

[toybombs]

[She perks up when Atsuro makes his offer.]

You would do that? For me?

[Aww, what a sweetheart!

And even if he had some... untoward plan, she's confident she can survive it.]

Should I  sit on your shoulders, too? [At least they'll make a much more ordinary looking pair, given Rio is short as opposed to tall and gangly.]

[not_that_sasuke]

I'll be fine. Take Skye.

[True to his word, he slides into the water, frowning slightly. It's deep, cold, and altogether unpleasant... but not really the worst thing he's encountered so far. He has to tread water a little at the deeper parts, but he makes it across in one piece.]

[detectiveofthewest]

Nah. He looked over in Ellie and Maria's direction, though, just in case. Otherwise it was out of the pool and off to examine the room.

[1st_response_is_anger]

*Maria wasn't about to let anyone carry her across. She wasn't as tall as Heiji but not as short as Sasuke. She kept her jacket above her head while she walked and squished around the platform.*

All I see are posts and gas masks. What else is around here?

[fushuuu]

[Maria may have been an independent lady who didn't need no man, but Kaidou watches to make sure she and Ellie get through the gross water without incident anyway, trying to ignore how his shorts will likely never be pure white again.

[and indeed there are a lot of posts and gas masks. but also...]

...Elevators?

[skyentificmethod]

Ambidex Rooms? ...What are those doing here?

[frowning, she goes closer to examine them, not going inside, though...the betrayer...huh.]

Anything special about those posts and masks?

[detectiveofthewest]

Time to recap for the visually-impaired. "Specifically, there're nine posts numbered one to nine, and they've each got a nail to hang something on. The labels are in text and not numeric, and bracketed, if that matters. There're a bunch of gas masks around the room, each with what looks like a name or word engraved on the back.

ALESSA, CL-9, ROBIN, LEE, CHERYL, JANE, JOHAN, BLUE. And there're three Ambidex rooms here. They're labeled THE BETRAYER, THE ENDURING, and THE INNOCENT.

That's three rooms, eight masks, and nine posts. It seems like the masks should be hung on the posts, but if so, we're missing one. Unless that's part of the puzzle? Either way, I don't see any clue sheets like there usually are."

He thought for a second. "Alessa and Cheryl were the names of people we encountered in some of the experiments earlier. I ran into them in the twelfth round, though since we were split into groups, it would've been different for each group. There was a reference to CL-9 in the theater back in round 7, too, but back then it was a clue based on a simple code. You know, A=1, B-2?"

He wasn't sure how helpful any of that was, though. "Another thing Zero really likes is digital roots. But a lot of the inscriptions have the same root. Alessa, Jane, and Johan would both be 3. Robin, Lee, and Blue are all 4. Plus the digital roots of the numbered posts don't match, either."

Hmm. Hmm.

"...I'm gonna dredge around in the pool and see if there's a ninth gas mask or anything else that might help. It might be that the water's not just gross just to be obnoxious. It might also be to hide somethin'."

#poolparty

[vivariummods]

[ Sadly for Heiji, all he finds is disappointment in the pool of water. Disappointment and that he will be covered in the disgusting water of trash and god knows what else... At least you tried. ]

[detectiveofthewest]

No one likes you Zero

[elliexir]

[ Ellie absolutely needed someone to carry her through the mess that is the gross seaweed and trash filled pool, since she did not know how to swim at all... So when she gets out, she just kind of stands there trying to shake off all this filth and whatnot, instead of actually listening to Heiji's tl;dr or anything else... ]

Ugh, gross...

[ Well, that takes up some time but anyway... ]

But uh, do you guys often find rooms like these? The most we got was the Greenhouse and like two rooms we kiiiind of broke into. [ Not kind of, they totally broke into... ] Because that one dude totally just jumped in to look for something without even thinking twice.

[ Referring to Heiji like dude, no... no...... ]

[elliexir]

That was completely hard to wrap her head around. Like, the memory loss, yeah, that was understandable, but for this time skip... What was this, some kind of weird comic book world?

But h-hahaha... Zero saying stuff about them... She just looked off to the side, rubbing her nose. "Yeah, and what did he exactly say about us?"

[elliexir]

Hey! I learned how to count, I just think maybe you need to recheck how many fingers you got up.

[elliexir]

BP?

[ There is confusion in her voice. What the hell is BP? Is that like... HP? Health points? ]

[elliexir]

[ And that's what makes her pause, that last line about "the others"... ]

... You think Rio's here too?

[detectiveofthewest]

"I dunno, somethin' about how we had stuff you didn't. Though as far as I can tell, what we had that you didn't was a lot more annoyin' traps to get out of. Plus, you guys had chickens and a goat? We never got any of that stuff. Had to sleep on the floor for weeks."

He supposed they had more experience in the warehouse than Ellie's group did, but... that wasn't really a positive...

[babel_hacker]

[He's quiet for a moment.]

... I don't know. Anyone else in that room with us as we get flooded in? Probably in the same state as us. As for Rio... I don't know if she's here or if she actually escaped.

If she's here, that'd mean things didn't go as planned for her.

[Cue seeing Rio in a moment later, after this convo...]

[babel_hacker]

Sure, I don't mind.

[Whenever Rio get onto his shoulders, Atsuro would take a moment to get used to her weight before he carry her across to join everyone else.

Fortunately, he gets there in time to hear Heiji's recap and explanation.]

[detectiveofthewest]

"It's Heiji," he said, climbing out of the water.

"Also, pretty much. There's one room where we had to shovel medical waste to get out. Plus there was the snails, the --" Wait. Probably not a good time to bring up the arm.

"...Anyhow, a lot of times the puzzles are trapped."

[blind_badass]

Oh yes. Mood altering gasses, dolls that spat fire and knives...Zero is nothing if not thorough in his delight at our misfortune. Although he did give us a piano eventually. Also, certain numbers of people managed to steal couches and bring them back to where we slept.

*He would kiss Heiji for being so kind to take him across but...gross trash water.* It seems a bit strange to have the Ambidex rooms right where the puzzle is, but if this seems like the end of the line, maybe we'll find an answer.

[blind_badass]

You...don't have it? There's no number on your bracelet telling you how much BP you have? *Well, color him confused.*

[blind_badass]

I see Zero was gracious enough to give me a bracelet that I can listen to my BP but couldn't be bothered to do anything else. Random to a point.

[1st_response_is_anger]

"If you're talking about how we all originally started here, we all woke up together with broken bracelets on our wrists and we were all cut and bruised. There were weapons everywhere, so I don't know if we were fighting each other and then passed out and lost our memories? I don't really know."

[1st_response_is_anger]

*She made a fist and waved it.* Now I got five. At least we made it out in one piece somehow.

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji considered this for a moment. "Did you have a sense of whether the wounds were defensive or not? 'Cause that'd be a good way to tell if you were defending yourselves against someone else. Either way, it's not beyond Zero to have knocked you guys all out at once. And taken your memories while he was at it."