Chapter 5 #2
The opening they’d come through had shut, and unlike the other side, no hole existed with a mechanism for her to unlatch. It didn’t stop her from running her hands on the smooth stone before she huffed, “I can’t figure out how to open it. What are we supposed to do?”
“Explore?”
She pursed her lips at him. “Why aren’t you more worried? Were you expecting this?”
“Nope.”
“You knew there were traps,” she accused.
“Didn’t know so much as suspected. Someone went through a lot of trouble to create this place. And if it does indeed have this object I’m looking for, it stands to reason they’d have placed safeguards.”
“And how are we supposed to spot these traps?” She pointed to the floor. “I can’t even see where I triggered the blade.” A blade that now hung motionless. He glanced to the ceiling, where a section of it had moved to let it swing free.
“We’ll need to move carefully.”
“You move carefully. I’m staying right here,” she huffed, crossing her arms.
“That sounds like a great plan.” She couldn’t accidentally cause trouble if she didn’t touch anything.
She remained planted in place as he crouched to eye the floor.
Seeing nothing, he placed his hand upon it.
Unlike the walls, it didn’t glow, but up close, he could see faint striations in the stone.
A glance behind and he could see where she’d stepped, a convergence of lines.
A clue as to where to put his feet. He moved cautiously and paused before the next bundle of markings.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Testing a theory,” he murmured before lightly pressing the spot. He barely had time to fling himself backwards, as the floor suddenly dropped, revealing a deep chasm.
“Holy crap on a cracker,” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?”
“Seeing as how I didn’t fall, yeah,” was his sarcastic reply.
The gap, while wide, was jumpable. He leaped to the other side, carefully so as to not accidentally land on something he shouldn’t. A good thing he’d shown caution, as his toes were a mere half-inch from the next set of lines, which formed a knot.
He skirted them and the next before coming across a thick band of them. Once more, he hesitated. He eyed the floor, the ceiling, and finally the walls. This section was darker, as he’d not touched the walls since he’d left Rebecca’s side, and that initial glow was fading.
A light brush of his fingers brought light, but also a grinding sound.
“The tunnel is closing in,” Rebecca yelled as she backed slowly from the moving stone.
“Quick, get to me.” He headed in her direction.
“I can’t jump across the hole. It’s too wide,” she stated, standing by the edge of it.
“Fuck.” He sprinted as the wall kept coming, heading for Rebecca.
He dodged the marks on the floor and leaped over the chasm with only two paces between them and the moving stone.
He slung an arm around her waist, took one step back, and then launched them back over the hole.
A bit too forcefully. His foot partially hit the next trigger, and he flung them forward away from the holes in the wall, which suddenly shot metal darts.
He stumbled but kept his feet, dragging her along.
They had to keep moving because the wall didn’t stop at the rift but kept coming.
Rebecca said nothing as she clung to him.
His grip around her remained tight as he sprinted, over a knot of lines then past. He then had to slow, needing to carefully watch where he put his feet.
Not careful enough. He once more hit the edge of some markings, and the wall closing in moved faster.
In good news, he could see the end of the tunnel. In the bad? He saw no way out, just a smooth wall. No hole. Nothing.
Still, there was nowhere else to go. Surely whoever built this place had a way of getting past.
They reached the dead end, and Scorpio set Rebecca down. To dispel the gloom, as the moving wall blocked the glow behind them, he put a hand on the close wall, and, to his surprise, symbols lit.
“Are those the same markings as the outside arch?” Rebecca murmured, peering at them with curiosity.
“Yeah.” But what did it mean? He glanced over his shoulder and saw the stone wall coming at them fast. He estimated they had less than a minute to figure out the puzzle.
“Try pressing yours.”
He slapped at the symbol Scorpio. Nothing. He tapped them all as the tunnel shortened. Nothing he did had an effect.
“Might be they have to be done in a certain order,” Rebecca stated with a frown.
He tried again. Capricorn first, then Aquarius and Pisces. He did all twelve in order to no avail. The wall was mere paces away and not slowing down.
“It didn’t work.” His frustration emerged in those huffed words. To think he’d die so ignobly, crushed by stone.
“You did it by calendar month, but aren’t they related to the solstices?
” she murmured. She began tapping them, starting with Aries.
“Aries is the start of the spring equinox.” She then did them all as Scorpio watched the advancing wall and wondered if getting crushed would hurt or if they’d die before the pain had a chance to register.
Click.
The door opened just in time for them to tumble through. Thud. The moving stone came to rest in the spot they’d been standing in.
“That was close,” he exclaimed. Close, but they’d survived.
And that called for a celebration.