Chapter 8
In the giant escape room, most of the competitors moved back to the floor and were looking for ways out along the walls.
Silas pressed against the head of a hawk, trying to move the block.
Stone had seen Silas grovel to Vesper, but still trying to outdo him in the challenges anyway.
Elon tried to get his fingers into the gap between the wall blocks, where a scorpion's tail curled upward as he tried to move the block.
Caspian was up on a rock near another wall, this one painted with a waterfall, peering closely for a way out. Xena looked like a madwoman, going from one wall to another, trying to sniff a way out.
Iris was still observing the dragon fae painting.
Elon moved down from the scorpion painting and was standing near her, studying another section of the huge fresco.
Caspian was looking around the base of the walls again.
Then Xena followed Caspian all around the whole room as if she didn't believe that Caspian was looking hard enough.
Caspian often puffed out his chest and bared his teeth at the other wolves in his pack, but the moment Xena's amber eyes cut across the clearing toward him, his tail dropped instinctively between his legs.
Lolita and Vesper were both climbing around on the rocks and concrete blocks.
Everyone made small, searching sounds—the scrape of a boot, a single knock against concrete blocks making up the wall, silence after—and none of it added up to progress.
Stone's own landing on each rock or concrete block was louder than he’d liked, the impact carrying in the large room, echoing, like all the other sounds they made.
The rock beneath his feet was smooth where it shouldn't have been, its surface worn to a polish that suggested it had been worn down by fae over the ages, trying to escape this room in the past.
He reached out and pressed his hand against the nearest wall; the concrete gave back nothing—no hollow sound, no give, just cold resistance.
The edge of the rock dug into the arch of his foot through his boot, a small, nagging pressure that made it harder to think.
Then he shifted into his wolf and leaped down from the rock and began to look for another rock to climb that would be higher than the last. He figured that though the others were down below searching for a way out, an exit would probably be higher up, making it more of a challenge.
He kept searching across the forest-painted wall, but couldn't detect any air coming through that would indicate an opening to the outside.
He thought that he might find an opening up here. He glanced down at Rune. She was behind the rocks, looking at the wall down below. He didn’t think she was finding anything. Or else she would signal to him, he thought. But maybe on this challenge, she would leave him behind.
Then he leaped to another rock and surveyed the wall from that direction.
The other fae were scattering about on top of the rocks, looking for clues.
He didn’t see anything. He looked up at the ceiling, about fifteen feet high.
Vents were situated all around the building at about seven feet higher than where he stood now.
Without being able to fae travel, he couldn’t reach them.
He leaped to another rock. Rune was out of sight. He wondered if she had found a way out without telling him. He glanced at the others. They were still trying to figure out if there was anything on the walls, poking at them to see if any of the concrete blocks would move.
He started to leap down to see if he could find Rune, but saw Lolita crawling through a small hole in the concrete wall featuring a river. He smiled. So being small wasn’t a deterrent for her. He was glad she had found a way out.
Then he saw Rune, who was staring where Lolita had disappeared. She laughed. “She made it out. First one too.” Then she began looking for a way out for bigger-sized fae.
“Finding anything?” he asked, searching the wall near where Lolita disappeared.
“No, but we have a huge building to search. We need to separate and see if we can find a way out. We don’t have much time left. Maybe twenty minutes?”
“What if we search around all the walls of the building as fast as we can in opposite directions and see if we can find anything? We’ll meet back here if we have time.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
He nearly ran into her as he rushed off, and she turned and dashed the other way.
Then they both had to carefully check the walls around the rusty metal pipes, rocks, and other debris. It wasn’t easy to search the walls there, but he figured finding an exit wasn’t going to be easy.
Then the other fae climbed down the stones and watched them. He noticed they were heading for the walls to search them like he and Rune were doing. Didn’t anyone have a unique thought in their brain?
He thought he saw light coming from above one of the ladder-like rusty metal pieces. He glanced around to see where Rune was. He had to get her attention, but he didn’t want to forewarn the others. She was on the other side of the building.
He raced across the building to reach her, and everyone else watched him. “I found a way out, I think. There’s a light coming through a crack in the wall. If we can move the stone, we might be able to get out that way.”
“The floor has a loose tile here,” she said, “right where I’m standing. What if it’s a way out?”
He glanced back at the other fae. They headed in their direction. Water started to seep onto the floor.
“If the water is coming from the floor, we don’t want to go down there. Where is the hole?” she asked.
“Straight across from where we are standing. It’s about seven feet high. Let’s go left and right and meet where that rusty metal is, and we’ll climb up it and see if we can get out that way.”
“All right.” She and he ran in opposite directions, heading across the room away from the ladder. When they reached the wall, they began to work their way under the metal scraps and over rocks to reach the place where he had seen the light.
The other fae, in the meantime, were looking for Rune and Stone. A bunch of copycats. He supposed that Lolita had won anyway, so it really didn’t matter. But he wanted Rune and himself to get out first before the others, since he had found what he hoped was a way out.
He finally reached the ladder, climbed up to the hole, and tried to move the cement block. Rune soon joined him.
The water was already half a foot deep.
The other fae were wading through it back to where they saw him and Rune on the ladder.
“Is that it?” she asked.
“Yeah, but I can’t move the block.”
She worked her way around him and tried to move the block herself, but she couldn’t budge it. “Together?”
They both tried to pull it at the same time, but they needed a crowbar.
“I saw something that might help us. I’ll be right back.”
He kept trying to move the block on his own. He saw that the other fae were nearly to the ladder he was on. Where was Rune? She wouldn’t make it in time before the others did.
The water was at a foot now. Vesper had reached the rusty ladder contraption.
Then Stone saw Rune with the crowbar, wading through the water to get to him. She tossed the crowbar to Stone so he could remove the block.
He pried at the block with the crowbar and loosened it. When he pulled the block free, Vesper knocked him off the ladder, and Stone fell into the water. It was two feet deep now.
Rune was standing in the water and came to his aid as the other fae were climbing the ladder to get out. She waded through the water, took his hand, and moved him to one of the rocks. “Climb,” she whispered.
“We were up there. We didn’t see anything.”
“The water will carry us to the ceiling. We’ll remove the tiles.” She looked up at Vesper. He was trying to move something that still blocked the exit. “Another block?” She was climbing the rocks next to Rune that rose the highest toward the ceiling.
“Yeah, you could still see the light beyond, but there was something else blocking the exit.”
The water was at four feet now, while Vesper frantically tried to move whatever was blocking the hole Stone had started.
The water rose to six feet.
“Hurry up, Vesper,” Pari said. “We’re all going to be swimming soon.”
Rune and Stone moved to the top of the stone. And then they waited for the water to reach them.
“I hope you’re right about this,” Stone said.
“Well, Lolita got out first, so she’s the winner. But we want to finish the challenge in any event.”
The water was up to their ankles, then their knees, and they floated off the rock. When they reached the ceiling, they began pounding on it. The other wolves were swimming in the water now too.
Stone pushed out a ceiling tile and climbed into the ceiling. He grabbed Rune’s hand and pulled her out of the water, and they used the struts to walk on until they could finally get out of the building.
They could hear the others trying to break out ceiling tiles to climb into the ceiling.
At least the water wasn’t rising into the ceiling.
Rune and Stone kept moving until they could reach a grate.
Rune kicked at it. Then Stone finished kicking until they knocked it out.
To their surprise, they found a staircase waiting just for them.
Rune took Stone’s hand, and they ran down it and found themselves outside.
Lolita ran to hug them. “You made it.”
“But you made it first.” Rune hugged her back. “Good job.”
“Yeah, we’re proud of you. The others will be shocked to learn you were the first one out.”
Then the others started coming out of the open grate and heading down the stairs.
They were as soaking wet as Rune and Stone.
“The game has ended, and the winner is Lolita,” the Game Master said.
Rune and Stone cheered her.
Vesper said, “No way.”
“Yep, she beat us all,” Rune said, proud of her.
“You may return to your rooms and shower and dress in something dry,” the Game Master said.
“That was a stupid contest,” Vesper said.
Yeah, if he didn’t win it, he didn’t like it. Which meant he didn’t like any of the challenges so far.
“Do you think we could have made it out through the floor?” Stone asked Rune.
“Maybe. I think there were possibly several ways out. If we had moved the floor tile sooner, before the water started filling the building, we might have been able to get out through there. But once the water began filling up, it would have run down into the sub-basement or whatever it was, and we might not have made it.”
“We need to lose a challenge on purpose because everyone is following us, and then we can let them lose too,” Stone said.
Rune smiled. “Except for the tug-of-war contest and the escape room contest that Lolita won, no one else has won any of the other challenges.”
He liked that Rune and he had unique perspectives on how to solve challenges, mainly because they were used to dealing with them on their own in their respective glens.
The other wolves had grown up in packs, and for the most part, older wolves had taken care of them.
He couldn’t help but admire Rune’s no-nonsense traits. She never gave up or got flustered.
After they dressed and went to eat dinner, Lolita had a special feast, and even a sponsor had taken her on. She was so excited, she had to tell Rune and Stone first. But then they all separated, and Stone and Rune ate at their own tables, not wanting anyone to believe they were teaming up.
Pari approached Stone at his table. “Can I sit here?”
“If you want. It’s a free table.”
“I’m surprised you’re not sitting with Rune.”
“She likes being a lone wolf.” He ate some of his chicken.
“We want you to team up with us.”
“With whom?” Not that Stone had any intention of it, but he was curious about who he was supposed to team up with.
“Vesper and the rest of us. You have good instincts.”
“And Rune?”
“No. As you said, she likes being a lone wolf.”
“So do I.”
“So you don’t want to join the rest of us?”
“No.”
“You’ll regret it.” Then Pari took her plate and moved over to where Vesper and a couple of other guys were sitting. She shook her head at her teammates.
They gave Stone irritated looks, all but Vesper, who smiled, like he thought Stone would get his comeuppance by not joining them.