28. Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“Is there a planet on the control panel?”
The younger sheriff leaned against Breining’s side. “Are we sure it’s a planet?”
“Kinda looks like a cell to me,” said the firefighter.
“Like a prison cell?” asked Merri. “I mean, we are trapped, I guess.”
The firefighter shook his head. “No, not a prison cell. A cell. Cells are the building blocks of life. But viruses hijack cells to reproduce. That has to be the connection.”
“One of the slots on the control panel is labeled ‘Virus’.”
“There are five other slots on this thing. Even if they’re connected, it doesn’t help us figure out which door to use next.” The paramedic’s expression clouded. She was right. We had information, but no idea how to apply it.
“Let’s open more lockers,” Merri said, her slim fingers tracing over the symbol on the card. “Maybe we’ll get more clues.”
“We don’t have time for more riddles,” Breining said, his lips snarling. “We need to get out of here and beat the others.”
“Breining, this is an escape room. Everything is a riddle.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I think Merri’s on to something. Whatever it is, we’ve got to figure it out to make progress.”
“Okay, locker two’s passcode should be 0101,” the paramedic called out.
When the locker whirred open, I gave into the impulse to tug Merri into a side hug with a grin. “You’re a genius.”
“Teamwork,” she said. “Makes the dream work.”
I snorted. “Cheezy.”
She giggled and we blazed through several more lockers.
She might call it teamwork, but Merri’d solved the riddle.
She was brilliant and beautiful. A fact I’d known, but the fresh evidence cemented the need inside me.
My gaze trailed after her as she buzzed between the lockers and the laptop until a body blocked my view.
I leaned to the side, only for the body to shift with me.
Annoyed, I looked up to catch Breining’s smirk.
“Being a little obvious, Landon.”
Heat burned up my neck. “Just following along, my friend.”
“Good thing I’m in here and not Coach.”
“No idea what you’re talking about.”
Another locker whirred open. The firefighter held up a card, similar to the cell card, but with a different symbol. “Any ideas about this one?”
Merri took the card from him, tracing over the symbol just as she had the cell a few moments ago. “Is it a constellation? A star map? What is it called when there are a bunch of stars linked together?”
“Let’s open the next locker.” Her attention returned to the control board. “I think more cards will tell us what to do.”
We burned through the rest of the lockers and ended up with eleven cards for five slots on the control panel.
“Is there a card reader on either of the doors?” The paramedic asked, her voice laced with uncertainty.
“No card reader.”
The sheriff held up the card from the last locker. “The last one is a skull and crossbones.”
Merri reached for my hand, lacing her fingers through mine, the warmth of her skin sending a jolt of electricity through me. “Aren’t you so curious?” she asked. “Doesn’t it make you want to solve puzzles all night?”
It made me want to do something all night, but I wasn’t sure solving puzzles was it. Unless there was a naked version? We could invent a naked version, surely.
I was good with naked.
She tugged me back over to the control panel on the desk.
“Should we try each of the keycards, see what happens?”
“What if they’re booby-trapped?”
“If the cell one is supposed to be a virus, it should probably go in that slot, yeah? So it makes sense that the others go in specific slots, too.”
“There aren’t eleven slots on the panel.” Merri scanned the board.
“The control board is a simulation system for a bio-weapons system,” the paramedic said.
“It’s designed to mimic a real-life bio-weapons lab.
” She tightened the ponytail at the back of her head.
“You need three things for a bio-weapon. You need the bio—the virus. You need delivery—” she pointed to the slot on the control panel labeled “Delivery”, “and you need a target.” She pointed to a slot labeled “Target”.
“We match the cards up with the labels, then?”
Merri held up the cell card and the star map. “I think these are the virus and delivery. What do you guys think?”
“Agree,” I said. “And the skull and crossbones is the target.”
The sheriff flicked the edge of a card. “Okay, so we’re thinking entering these three cards is going to open one of those doors?”
“That or let the zombies in.”
Breining snorted.
“Doesn’t hurt to try,” I said, standing with Merri over the desk.
The moans sounded outside, louder than before.
The banging on the doors seemed to reverberate through the room.
“They sure don’t like us around the control panel.
They get louder every time we all gather up around the desk. Okay, here goes.”
“But what if it blows up?” The firefighter asked with a cringe.
Breining let out a low curse. “Then you won’t be eaten by zombies.”
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“Then we hope Zacha and ET’s teams are failing harder than us.” I tossed a grin around the room. “Here goes!”
I slid the cards into the slots.