Chapter 3: Escape

Leo was surrounded by mirrors. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all invisible, replaced by endlessly replicating images of Leo himself at various angles.

Leo squeezed his eyes shut. His surroundings were overwhelming him.

wow, what a boring thing to say. show, don’t tell, and also, stop invading his head.

Please do not interject, [lowercase].

Leo was scared, Leo was confused, Leo was lost. He knew he was supposed to escape, but he just wanted to curl up and hide. He knew he should listen to the Old Man, but he just wanted to dissapear.

The endless. mind boggling mirrors made hiding impossible. They made dissapearing a worthless endeavor. There was no escaping his fate.

Leo slowly opened his eyes. He began to carefully look at the room around him. He could just barely make out the walls of the room. It was a rectangle about 6 paces in length and 4 in width. No door was visible.

Leo walked up to one of the walls. He put his hand on the mirror, feeling for a crevasse or a seam, anything that might signify a way to exit this torture chamber. No luck. He circled the room, running his hand along the glass. Nothing.

The room had no exit.

Bree was surrounded by honeycombs. All but the floor—which was made of wood— was comprised of oozing yellow hexagons.

Some of the cells were full of dripping, sticky honey, and others were filled to the brim with squirming masses of bees.

On one wall, there was a set of honeycombs that appeared to be solid—cells that appeared to have keyholes in them.

Bree figured out her Challenge fairly quickly. She walked over to the nearest honeycomb and thrust her hand into the thick liquid. She began to feel around for a key, or really anything solid, and found nothing.

Just as the little girl was about to remove her hand, the appendage brushed up against something. Something cold, something—

Something that grabs her hand with a talonlike grip. Something that begins to fiercely pull at Bree’s arm in an attempt to pull her through the hole.

Malcom was surrounded by bus seats. Empty, dirty bus seats. He could hear the bumps and bangs of the road beneath him, and through the windows he could see nighttime scenery scrolling by.

This is supposed to be a Cell? He thought.

He walked up towards the front, to the door. This should be moderately easy to escape. By the door, the bus’s control panel displayed a set of buttons for interacting with the vehicle’s computer. Malcom pressed the “Emergency Stop” button, causing the bus to slow to a stop. Malcom stepped over to the door and tried to push it open. It didn’t budge. He pushed again. It did nothing.

Upon closer examination, Malcom realized that the door was actually a screen. A very large screen. He glanced over at the windshield, showing a view of the headlit road up ahead. It was also a screen.

Each window on the bus was, in fact, a screen.