The Rubix Tower
My name is Jaden, and you probably don't know what has happened over my life. I'm currently 28 years old and have a degree in animation. I… I hate writing but I can try to tell you a story I remember with a dark sense of vivid emotion. I cannot animate this, I cannot describe it to my animation team, I cannot even tell my mother that the day… no months of trauma and pain and suffering I went through that one fateful day that I went on a district wide field trip, so I will tell the whole world about this. Now I know what you are probably thinking, “Oh here we go with something like a kidnapping or witnessing a murder or you’ve been raped or~” and thats where I would step in and say that you are 100% wrong. I wish I was joking when I said that you’re wrong I’m right but… it's the truth and I CAN handle those situations perfectly since I ain’t a bragger but, I am a very smart person who is not only strong and rashinal do to my weight and mass but I’m a avid chess player who can think of a 100 step plan before doing anything in the matter of an hour.
The story I am about to tell you, is quite not what you'd even dream of. Anyways, it was March 19th of 2019, I was in the 8th grade with my friend BB. We would always sit next to each other everywhere we’ve gone, from school events to birthday parties. We did everything together since the day we were born. I remember getting my mothers permission to go on this picticular district wide field trip because the district thought it would be nice to have fun if everybody in the district could go to The Rubix Tower in New York, New York. As we went from southern Oregon all the way to New York, New York. It was a big trip and very expensive, but non the less me and BB were excited as two teenage girls getting ready to graduate to high school. This was to prove that we can do things mostly independently from our parents. We are more than ready to go here at The Rubix Tower because I heard it's a really good brain teaser when it comes to escape rooms with a “twist”. I never got hold of that twist from people that went there until after I went.
Mind you there are over 3,000 students in my middle school so the whole district is a surprise since there are over 200,000 students going and attending. So me and BB got off the school bus and saw a sea of students crowding the entrance. For a bit of context, we are 5 foot 6 inches tall so an average size for a middle schooler in the district. I looked up at The Rubix Tower and it was pure black with spikes climbing up the tower like Dracula's castle but even worse. I think I even saw some blood and skulls. I looked at BB and said, “This tower is taller than I anticipated B.” “Yeah but you're good at riddles and escape rooms. Plus you’re like a cat, looks chubby but can actually fit in really tiny places,” BB said in confidence. I looked at her then looked forward, making the gesture of “follow me”. I always do that so when it’s time to move through a crowd or I know it's safe, she can follow and she knows this for a fact before we went in. As we neared the front doors, a woman came out and announced to us that the group on this side (divides the whole district in a third and pushes us to the front doors including me and BB) will be inside first then she will come back for the others soon. So we went in and as we entered, the doors shut with a bang and some sort of iron door slid into place so we couldn’t escape. That's when the next thing we knew that something was up to no good but nobody wanted to say anything because we were all terrified. There were couples hugging each other, friends holding hands and there was us standing and looking at this stranger of a woman who looks like in her mid 60's and looks too skinny to shake off.
At the time, I couldn’t shake off a feeling that she was otherworldly, a shapeshifter, an alien but I was too open minded to think straight. BANG BANG BANG “LET US OUT!” We heard from the guys in the back and all of us whipped around to stare at Carson and David banging on the iron wall that once held the front doors with snot and tears down their faces. Their faces turned red as they’re scared to hell and back that we had no clue why except for me. This place is like a spider's web waiting for its precious flies that it calls students, I thought intently, obviously making a note for later. By this point I knew what my objective was, to get out as soon as the escape room starts and live to tell the tale. But how would I escape when I don’t know how this place works yet and how? This place is known to rotate without warning and no windows to escape from. If me and BB are gonna make it out of here alive, we need supplies because I heard that some people have came in and out of this place in the span of years with some sort of scar with them, I thought panicked at the thought of that I might die in here and people forgetting that I was once a person that existed.
All of a sudden, the old lady that works here snaps her fingers to get all of our attention. “You know the normal rules of an escape room? Too bad if ya dont cus I ain’t gonna explain. Here’s a bag and your card that tells you which floor you’re on. Go to your floor and you will live for the first challenge to see another day. Then in the speakers where we will let you know when the games are starting, so get going. Good luck because this is like a giant rubix cube.” the lady said with a cocky tone in her voice as she shot her pistol upwards. We grabbed our respective bags and went to our floors as fast as possible, me shooting past the supply’s closet and up a set of stairs I’ve chosen. Mine was all the top floor, floor 13, which is higher than you will know about a 13 level floor since this place is a lot about shifting walls to never ending staircases and elevators.
As I reached my floor, I looked around when I saw two other people on the same exact floor I was designated to. I recognized them easily, they were my classmates in 3rd period science. I can’t remember their names but I knew they were once in my 3rd period science class where we all were in a group discussing about the frog that I dissected during that class period. When they noticed I stared for an uncomfortably long time, they moved to a part of the room where I couldn’t see them as I got out of my trance. So I looked through my backpack for a quick second to see what I got before the speakers said to start. I got the building's book and information, a butcher's knife completely “normal” to put in a backpack, some canned food of veried fruits, some forks and spoons, lighters, matches, clothes~ my thoughts got interrupted by the speakers. “Please start getting out of the building, if you can~” the announcer laughed through the speaker in a menacing voice.
So, I looked around the room to see the two other people in the room with me as they butt heads with each other to go out into the hallway where I followed in a casual walk behind them to see what it's like up ahead so I can come up with a plan. The next thing I know they ran to the right and screamed as I heard a thud and a sizzling sound around the corner. So I ran up ahead to see if they’re in trouble and I found my answer. They were in lava with a parkour course that is too difficult to jump across. This wasn’t here before, I walked through this hall before we even started and yet this pit of lava is here, but how in the world do these people get lava all the way up here when we’re at cloud level? As questions sped through my mind, I came up with a plan and looked through my backpack for some sort of information or item in my bag.
Then I found it, a rope to swing across the ravine of boiling lava as I looked up and saw a pipe that looked like it was strong enough to hold me and my bags weight. So without hesitation I put on my bag and threw the rope like a lasso to the pipe. It caught onto the pipeline as I gave it a tug the rope to make sure it was tightened. The rope loosened, so I tried again, and again, and again. Finally, the rope tightened and I made sure the pipe did not come loose before swinging across the pipe from one side to the other. After landing on the other side, the pipe and the rope fell into the cavern of lava. Well that was convenient, that's how it broke I mean. I thought I would die over there but no I jokingly thought to myself as I stumbled backwards, making me fall on my buttox somewhat hardly. As I chuckled to myself on the floor, hearing rain outside hitting really hard on the concrete walls of the tower as I can feel the heat radiating from the lava. I got up with my backpack, turned around facing away from the pit and walked with my head facing the ground for a while.
Who knows how long I have walked for but my eyes are dropping over my eyes, my legs almost collapsing, my shoulders aren't there to hold my bag when all of the sudden, I felt a rumbling vibration throughout the halls. I looked up finally to see photographs hung up shaking and even falling off while shattering once hitting the ground from the one place they hung on the monochromatic wall. As this was happening, I looked behind me as best as my now surprised, wide awake eyes could see something terrifying. It was coming, slithering down the hall that reached top to bottom, a giant eastern brown snake, and they are highly venomous. So I spun around and ran as fast as my weakened legs could carry me to the nearest room that I could enter in. without thinking. My mind was racing as I saw the walls bending slightly to a curve to fit the giant snake. Why… what… this is biologically impossible, have a snake THIS big that if caught you get swallowed whole and die painless and fast. How could… what time is it because if this happens again, I will know when it will happen next. I thought, looking for a clock or something to tell the time.
12:32 in the day or night, I can’t tell, I thought while noticing the watch on my right wrist. Then I prepared for bed and passed out at the moment I went under the blankets. I woke up with a jump to my morning before remembering I was in this building. I looked at my watch and it was noon perfectly while my stomach made its presents. So I got canned peaches, the can opener, and a spoon to eat some peaches. I packed up everything and went out to look at a hallway with an elevator and a stairwell up and a stairwell down. What is… wait, The Rubix Tower is called that because it's a rotating tower once activated, that's why it's so tall and so few floors, I come to terms that the fact of it could possibly be room changing floors entirely or just a room swap from one side to the other. I couldn't just stand there and be in awe on how clever the name is to the actual purpose of the building but also how outstanding it can make you very disoriented on where you're at or who you should trust since the only people I saw at the time fell into literal lava pit without food to thought behind their kindergarten playfulness and child like competition.
So I went forward just enough that you can see the entirety of my body without a wall, then SLAM! The door slammed shut behind me and I jumped at the sound with a little gasp since I knew that room had one door and no way to enter from another direction so there was nobody in that room. So how did that room close all by itself then if I wasn't even close enough to close to it? I had no idea but I had one goal, to get out as fast and carefully as possible. I started to walk when all of a sudden I heard really loud and heavy footsteps unlike I ever heard before. This was new to me because I knew that I was alone just a seconds ago, so why make its presence known to me now? As it grew louder and louder, I quickly grabbed my butcher's knife to arm myself then tried to hide myself behind a covenant stack of used cardboard boxes but backfired when they fell over and made regrettable noises of cardboard boxes falling over, hitting the ground in an unorganized pattern. Then silence washed over me and the surrounding area as the heavy footsteps stopped. I held my breath for what felt like hours but for a few seconds before the thing making those deep, heavy footsteps came around the corner, revealing a weird creature I cannot describe very well. It looked like a silverback gorilla with a cat head but it looked mechanically unnatural. It had a black and white like monochrome color palette which had some grayish blue lighting where it was highlighted with goggles for eyes. It looked around and then at me dead in the eyes making sure I am its target.
As the moments longed, and I grew tense, that… thing… started to charge directly at me where I quickly moved to the right and flung myself onto the things left arm, holding for my life as it tried to fling me off. Suddenly, I remembered that I had my butcher's knife and saw a weak point on the silverback gorilla cat head thing on the back of the neck. So I climbed up that arm and raised up my knife with strength in toe when I slammed my knife into the weak spot of this gorilla thing. As soon as I did so, it flung me off making slam into the wall with a big thud, knocking the wind out of me. It was glitching and spazzing before exploding as I used my bag as a shield. What was that…? I thought to myself, stunned not knowing what just happened. But I digressed, picked up my backpack and looked around.
Two stairwells, one going up and one going down, and an elevator. So many options to go in a direction with so little time. What should I do~ my thoughts are interrupted when I hear someone coming down the stairs. He looks about 10-12, blondish orange hair, emerald green eyes, cracked lips and a yellow sweater that fits over his entire body. I ain't too sure if he was wearing anything under that sweater but it didn't matter since the sweater covered it and it was dragging on the floor. The green eyed kid looked like to sob to anything and everything. So he gave me a note basically saying that he is lost and cannot get out and blah blah blah~ then he showed me going down the downward staircase only to return going on this exact floor over on the upward staircase. I sensed something was off about this boy. It's not like he does not look friendly or anything like that but just the way he was asking for something that I ain't too sure its the right thing to do in this type of situation. The impulse of something sinister from me is purely unremarkable to do against my better judgement and ruin my mental well being. Feels almost like I need to do something about this young innocent boy who seems like he is in no condition to be here once so ever yet this erdge is forcing my awful thoughts to the driver's seat of my train of thought. Then I came back to reality, with my butcher's knife in hand. No, NO! I only knew about this boy for two minutes now, I cannot bare myself to do this. I think this is… the right thing to do… I thought without thinking if that even makes sense. For a brief second, my vision was blurry and my hearing was blocked. I could not feel anything until I came back into what is now a bloodbath and the decapitated head of an otherworldly creature. But I seemed to be unfazed on what I think I have done or what the creature head is. Green goop spread across the floor, almost at my feet by now. I gagged at the stench it was creating, smelled like a mix of dead ant smell and cow fenover.
It was so overwhelming that I looked around and saw a room to hide in. As I entered, shutting the door behind me as I entered the room, I saw a bunch of people around my age huddled around the floor, on the counters, all up and down the cabinets, pee jugs scattered in between people like it's the way to say to others that that space is this particular persons area to sleep. I revolted at the sight of this and the smell was equally as bad as out there was but with mixed stages of urine. They were all in sleeping bags when they looked at the door, straight at me, with scared looks of concern on their faces. I grew slightly nauseous at the sight of the state this room has been.
CRASH The sound of thunder startled us all making us jump in some way or another. We are near the outside. Even if there ARE windows, we would die on the way down due to the amount of spikes on the sides of this building, I grew a concerned thought. The sea of people both outside and inside the cabinets murmured scaredly amongst themselves like some class spreading rumors badly behind the teachers back, though I cannot hear them speak as they caught on murmuring between one another. Finally, one of them makes an audible groan, a sign that they woke up from a good night's sleep. I knew one person who is a somewhat heavy sleeper, BB, and if you wake her up then you're in some deep waters that no living creature can save you. At least that's what I heard when we first met, reasons why I normally sleep at her house because I know I will be safe. “What’s going on here, why y’all up at this hour of the night?” BB became agitated and tired at the fact she was woken up by everyone’s murmuring. Then one of the dirtier boys stood up, sulluted and said, “Ma’am a stranger came into the room and we’re unannounced who it is yet. We’re solving the solution as we speak if given the chance to throw them out of the room or possibly the death sentence.” I widen my eyes so much out of surprise that not only is my life in danger but these people are trained to fight whoever comes in. “Did they harm us by any chance, Muskrat?” BB said in her commanding voice, which I only heard once before. “No ma’am, they just walked in here all nasty looking and stood their ground with shock and fright,” Muskrat explained, not wanting to further the conversation since he was tired. “Lemme see who this supposed stranger is, walk ‘em over,” BB stated strongly, not surprisingly she stayed turned to her wall without looking away like she didn’t want to make eye contact which is very odd behavior.
So Muskrat turned, looked at me and carefully stepped over people’s heads like it’s no big deal. He stood right in front of me, shorter than I realized from close up, and grabbed my hand gently gesturing me to go in front of my grumpy friend. I stepped over person after person, sometimes accidentally hitting someone or another on the shoulder. Then he made me stand directly in front of the husk of a person I once knew. She turned as she sat up in a morning manner, like getting out of bed in the morning or a long forsaken nap that you’ve been needing. Rubbing her eyes, adjusting to the dimly lit room and her eyes widened when she saw me, her best friend. BB let out an audible gasp and the hushed whispering started again. My best friend started to tear up with emotion of joy and relief that I am in fact alive with all sorts of bruises, small cuts and a giant gash that I didn’t realize was bleeding the whole time. “Oh my… it's really you. I thought you were~” BB tried to gasp her words out, now tears streaming down her face with those rosy cheeks of hers. “Yeah, um… where am I in the building? I mean, what floor so I can make a concrete plan,” I said joyfully to BB. She looked at me for a moment, lost in thought before speaking, “Last time I checked, we’re on the 6th floor. Oh let me tell you before I forget. We cannot under any circumstances take the elevator.” I opened my mouth before stopping, processing what she just said. On the 6th floor, but I’m on the 13th floor. Could it be possible that either they moved up or I moved down without realizing it in our sleep? I thought to myself.
Then Muskrat spoke in a stern voice to BB, “Ma’am, we need to sleep. It seems that you two are long friends but sleep needs to be in order. I will get her a bag if needed and/or requested.” BB looked at him, agitated and said directly at me, “Do you need a sleeping bag?” I nodded since I know for a fact that I don’t have one of my own. Musket saluted, walked to a cabinet and grabbed a spare sleep. Tossing it over to me and catching it. I found a spot in the corner of the room where it's facing the door and it’s right next to Muskrat’s sleeping bag, sorta. Muskrat’s sleeping bag is right on the counter on the opposite side of BB.
I put my bag right next to my sleeping bag and got comfortable. I couldn’t sleep, so I grabbed my flashlight and my book of information and started to read about the building's construction, planning and thought behind it. It was very interesting to say the very least seeing how the person behind it is a master genius who no one has seen or heard of before. As soon as I was close to the end of the book, I reached a short chapter about the creatures of this building. Finally, answers to my questions about the creatures in this place I thought to myself. So I read ahead and found some really intriguing creatures. For instance, the gorilla cat thing is called The Guards Thumpers and can only hear or feel it's intruders or escapees. It’s made out of mechanical and flesh from the victims who died here but only 100 are known currently. Then there was The Shapeshifter Wanderer who only comes out when a very large group appears in the building at once and takes the form of the common age of said group. My group is from the ages of 10-18 years old so that little boy I killed was it. Then a noise started me out of nowhere.
It was Muskrat turning over and staring at me, wondering what the hell was going on with my flashlight. “What are you doing?” Muskrat said curiously. “Being awake,” I smartly replied. Muskrat chuckled as quietly as possible, making me wonder what was so funny. He said, “You know it's the first good joke I heard in months right?” I looked at him confused then he looked at me weirdly. “Why are you giving me that look?” Muskrat is now growing curious. “Sorry, it’s just you said that you heard a good joke in months, it threw me off a bit,” I said apologetically. Muskrat pulled out something, a notebook, with tally marks and showed me how many they are, there were 4 tally marks. I know it's not a lot but the thing he said after was unnerving. “This is how long we have been here, 4 months. It's June right now and we are still here.” he explained concerly. I looked at him concernedly, really panicking now. I got my own notebook to see if anything is in mine but thankfully there isn’t. So to think things over, I packed my things and went to bed, perterfied of what will happen next.
I was shaken awake as Muskrat was yelling at me to wake up. My eyes opened, startled, as I jolted awake without a warning. Muskrat jumped back as I looked around, it seemed like everyone around me was almost done packing things up as I sat in my sleeping bag. Muskrat seemed relieved I woke up, then went straight for his bag. It seemed that everybody is following BB’s lead on an exploration of somesorts. So I got out of bed and packed the sleeping bag with the few items I had laying a stray in the backpack to mimic everybody else. When I finished packing up and got my bag onto my shoulders, BB spoke in a commanding voice, “Alright, rascals, misfits and soldiers. I need to say a few things before we head on out to gather resources and get out of here. Number one is that, as most of you may know, there is a new member to the team who I think is a likely candidate for escaping this tower once and for all, my friend Jaden. She is very intelligent, brave and very funny so she is a great person to have on our team so we all can leave this forsaken gravestone that is called a tower.” Everybody turned to my direction and waved hello with somewhat smiles and nervous looks on their faces. “Secondly,” everybody turned back to BB, “we don’t know how far up or down we have gone during the week that we slept for so there could be a possibility that we’re all the way up on level 13.” BB said in a slightly concerned voice. I’ve been knocked out for a week? I wonder how accurate that information really is BB, I concernedly thought as I looked at my phone to see the date. May 13th, 9:45 a.m. but Muskrat said it was June so it must have been off by a month or so. I thought happily yet keeping in mind that we’ve been in here for well over a month and still not dehydrated or starved yet. I looked up at everybody staring at me again with surprise at what I have, my phone. Then BB said, “Let’s go team, everybody got their ropes around their waist?” Everybody nodded confirming that they have the rope around their waist. “Jaden doesn’t need one since she can find our group and that she may know more than we ever know,” BB stated, looking at me to make sure I will be fine. I nodded to confirm that I didn't need the rope.
We exited the room cautiously, looking around to make sure that the coast is clear and safe to go. One by one, we left the safety of what they called “home” to get some materials and supplies for future survival. I went up to the front with BB willingly so I can be by her side so we cannot get separated. “So… how did you all meet?” I asked BB quietly. BB didn’t look at me and said, “Most of them came to me like how you did, barging right in the front door. But if you’re talking about Muskrat,” Muskrat hurried on the opposite side of BB, “I was doing something irresponsible and almost died falling into a pit of metallic spears. Then he grabbed me and saved my life. I could never thank him enough for saving my life.” I looked in the direction of BB, surprised that she almost died herself.
As we were walking in silence, we spotted an elevator with a note on the door. ATTENTION: THIS ELEVATOR IS UNDER REPAIR! We stopped. Murmurs are among the small group as BB gestured for me to do something. I went to the elevator door and examined the note and the elevator in general. Finally, I pressed the button to see what would happen. The doors opened normally, but something was off. The elevator itself wasn’t there at all, it was going down at a normal elevator speed that you would see in movies or in TV shows. BB came up and pushed me aside, knocking me over which is very unjust behavior from an old friend of mine. She looked down at the slowly descending elevator. For a brief moment, there was silence. Then she was pushed by Muskrat down the elevator with the majority of the group going down with her. I was shocked that Muskrat, the person that saved my best friend, pushed not only her to her death but the majority of people down the elevator shaft. I heard the unforgiving splatting of which someone fell to their death. At that point I was filled with horrible thoughts and hatred of this Muskrat character that I jumped up, ran up to him, looked down at the elevator shaft one last time and pushed him in. Suddenly, the elevator doors closed as he hit the small piles of bodys, maybe breaking a few bones at the kindest but it’s highly unlikely.
I turned to the little people that were left when that traitor started to push people into the shaft. Slowly turning my heavy breathing into a slow sigh, I looked away from the little huddle of people and started to walk in a direction all distraught and in despair from what I’ve witnessed. I was thinking a million miles per millisecond to comprehend what just happened. I couldn’t just live on knowing that I saw more than ten people die in an elevator shaft and let life happen. I got blood on my hands and I am the one put into guilt for that situation. How was I supposed to react after those events happened? Was this life now, just a loop of never ending nightmares and regret of choices? I couldn’t think of anything yet I could think of everything. My mind was more than shattered, I was then a husk of a person, a shell of someone who had a perfect life and now it was soon interrupted by the sudden death of my best friend.
As I was walking, thinking things over, I jumped at the sound of one of the surviving people, trying to get my attention. I snapped back to reality as I whipped around to the person who was trying to get my attention. She is a latino with a teal-ish shirt on, which looked good on her, as she spoke, “What do we do now? We have nowhere to go and our leader is, well, dead.” She looked at me, teary eyed. I looked back, took in a thought, and blurted out, “We will learn from this experience and follow my lead. I know all of you don’t know me as well as my friend but we can make a plan, the first step is right in front of you. It’s to take the stairs down, we need to go down. Down is the exit and we need to go to the front doors of this building.” As soon as I was done giving that little speech plan thing, the group of six soon nodded in agreement then started to cheer for my plan. So we started to find the nearest stairwell.
“Found it!” yelled one of the guys from the end of the hallway. As we ran down the monotone hall to where he was, sometimes almost tripping occasionally over our own excitement, I got a gut feeling that things were going to go really south real fast. So I stopped the group and everyone looked at me. I whispered, “That voice shouldn’t be there right now, it should be with Muskrat down the elevator shaft since that’s Muskrat's voice.” Everyone grew concerned as we backed away to another part of the floor. We continued the search of the stairwell down before we felt a familiar rumble, the giant snake is back. I panicked because I knew I had a close call once before. Everybody saw the worry on my face freaking out at the sudden rumbling and started to panic as a result. It got closer and closer for each passing moment that we stood there, in shock of fear and panic. Then I yanked the closest arm as I yelped that everybody needs to follow me. I ran, gripping my arm and got in the nearest room. Sadly, losing four of our members from the snake swallowed them whole but we managed to shut the door tight after a bit of battling with some of the scales of the snake making their way between the door and the hinges that were bigger than my hand at the time.
Fatigued, we gasped for air after a long, antagonistic day. I knew it was just a day because we left the room at 10 am and now it's 10 am the next morning. I counted the heads of who was left in our dwindling group. One, two, plus me equals just us three. Nothing ever is good when there are just the three of us left knowing from last time, lava was involved, I thought in a depressive manner. I tossed my sleeping bag on the floor in the farthest corner to the room then turned to face them. “Set your stuff up, we are sleeping here for the time being,” I demanded. They looked at each other and nodded. The room was only being lit up by the incoming light from the crack under the door so we turned on a flashlight and set it up on the counter since there was no lightswitch. We ate some canned fruit I had left over, told some stories, and went to bed.
In the next week, we scavenged for some cans of fruit, some vegetables, and a lighter with a log wagon, went down some stairs and taunted some Guard Thumpers that were around. We were having fun while on our toes, making sure to be in a one way room which means only one door since we learned the hard way that small Guard Thumpers can go into a room with more than one door or have a door made out of glass. We were just walking when I noticed that there was a door I recognised, the supply closet. I knew that the entrance was near since I clearly remember passing through this area with the greyish blue supply closet. This is where I shot straight for the stairs at the beginning of all this… weirdness I got myself into, I remembered thoughtfully, Finally we can leave this god forsaken hell hole that the government kept up for. I was so relieved that the fact of the pain and suffering of not only losing a lot of people to this tower driven me here but I couldn’t think about that now, only the fact that I was literally there at the entrance of the building itself and I get to be one of the few people to say that survived The Rubix Tower.
The two people saw my thoughtful yet happy expression as meaning that I knew where we were in the building, the first floor. As my overwhelming joy and happiness came to a point of control, I finally gasped out like an over excited child, “Come on guys we’re close I know it!” I gestured my hand to let them know to follow me and ran the same exact path I remembered taking and… the door wasn’t in the lobby as I remembered correctly. I was confused, shocked out of my wits and in disbelief that the door isn’t there. I started to have a mini panic attack, shaking like the world is having an earthquake but it only affects me. They noticed with slight concern washing over them.
As they tried to calm me down, a plan came into mind in a title wave of thoughts; Hug the right wall, stay to the outside wall as much as possible, there is an exit. I snapped out of the panicking trance as I stopped in mid step where I was walking towards a hallway. The guys looked at me, in confusion as they watched me turn at them and clearly can't remember anything in the last three seconds. I didn’t know what was happening with this tower but… I knew what to do in order to escape. I looked at the hallway, then looked at the people who helped me the entire time in this awful tower. Looking back through my journey in this death trap, for a while I called ‘Home’, that even though I had some troubling times with death and the loss of my best friend, they have been there for everything that I went through, I couldn’t imagine how I would survive without them. This was an experience that changed my life as I guided them, excitedly running the whole time, to the exit of the stick of hell we’ve been through. I saw the door, the glass door with the sunlight beaming happily through to our victory out of The Rubix Tower so I stopped for the guys to catch up.
As I was waiting for them to catch up, I looked to my right to be greeted by a Guard Thumper that charged at me, pinning me into the wall. Then came the smell of iron hitting my nostrils like a gorilla punching multiple times into your face. I looked down to only see my left thigh had in fact cut onto a sharp object just out of view of the ranch and my right shoulder blade cut open by the once clean metal that the Thumper pushed me into. The pain was sharp and deliberate with an impactful stinging sensation before going completely numb. I can feel a growing headache that is swelling from the back of my head so I got my left arm and felt the back of my head only to return with slight blood on the hand, gasping at the sight to try to get air into my now suffocated lungs. As I was doing this, the Thumper held me there in place while chuckling to themself. The tears falling from my eyes showed I have completely given up on the situation as all hope leaves my mind, thinking of all the good times that I had with friends and family as now the scent of iron persecuted into my thought process. It was horrible from that slow, painful moment when one of the guys came up quietly and killed the Guard Thumper on the one spot it was vulnerable at. It backed away from my injured body and turned into dust like normal.
The blonde guy knew I wasn’t okay but several injuries on my right shoulder and my left thigh leg. Bleeding out, I grabbed my bag from my left and bandaged myself up without the guys help at all but they helped me up to continue walking for the rest of the way to the exit. I could feel the exit for this terrible place is getting closer and closer as we take every precaution and every step. Closer and Closer with each step felt more like victory to get out of here. Happier and happier with each moment that we get closer to freedom. Relieved and overcome with joy that we get to see our family’s again. As I soon began to stand on my own, we saw it, the door to our victory. The day we stood in front of this glass door was blinging with sunlight but it felt like an eternity since we saw sunlight from some sort of source. We all looked at each other, took a deep breath in and out, and opened the doors. The blinding light blinded us for a second before looking over the few hundred students that are out here, outside the door. When our eyes adjusted, some looked at us weirdly before running off to tell an adult that three new people had escaped The Rubix Tower. I was stunned for a second before the small group I’ve been in parted ways, leaving me alone to stand amongst the crowd. I pushed and shoved through the crowd of students to only hear a shriek of terror. I wiped around only to see this woman pointing upwards in full on panic mode. So I looked up before this giant spider woman that looked like the old woman we saw earlier jumped down and then darkness as I drifted away into the empty void that surrounded me.
I woke up only to be in the hospital, with bandages all over me and a cast covering most of my head but not over my eyes. I looked around to see a normal hospital room accompanied with a TV and a bookshelf which I found really cute and welcoming. As my eyes adjusted to the room's lighting, a doctor came in with my mother, sobbing. I couldn’t hear what was happening but I can tell it's not good at all. The doctor was telling my mom something, probably something to comfort her sobbing fit, and gestured his hand at me. My mom looked at me and saw that my eyes were open, maybe telling my mom that I am indeed awake and fully aware of what just be folded upon me. She looked like she stopped crying as she looked at me in confusion. Then the doctor looked at me with a surprised look. What is happening? Why can’t I speak? Where am I? How did I get here exactly? I tried to speak out if it wasn’t the bandages over my mouth. Out of sheer panic, I tried to scream but it failed miserably as my jaw was tightly shut and my vocal cords weren't cooperating on my behalf. They saw what I was trying to do and came at me obviously saying stuff that I can’t hear for the bandages and the ringing in my ears are overwhelming to not ignore. I tried to motion my hands that my ears were ringing and I couldn't hear. They looked at my gestures and looked confused. So they put some charcoal on my bandage hands so that I could draw or write what I was trying to say. I cannot hear, ears ringing and it's too loud is what I try to draw and write.
After all of that, I graduated high school and college with a degree in animation and business. Life went as normal as I can get with those memories affecting me everytime I try to forget them. I couldn’t let go the experience of that stupid tower I’ve been in and I could never forget the blood I have on my hands. So many of my friends were lost that day, that month, that whole year even though so many people died who had their lifes planned had pass on because of that stupid tower. I even can’t let go of the grudge I held all these years for Muskrat, that dirty liar to my best friend, I even called her a sister of mine. It’s saddening to think that over 10,000 students went into that tower yet only 500 came out. That’s around 9,500 students reportedly either dead or missing in that thing and what's worse is I know what happened to some of them. Hell, I would have been one of them to do with those Thumpers if those two dudes weren’t there at all because of either lack of breath or bleeding to death. Anyways, I need to go, my secretary found some interesting news regarding the tower and the press about my part on that unforgettable day. I will keep you Joseph updated with stories from my schooling and tell taleing of my childhood, which one of those days you know. Signing off...
-Jaden Chase Signing Off-
-Joseph Signing Off-
The story I am about to tell you, is quite not what you'd even dream of. Anyways, it was March 19th of 2019, I was in the 8th grade with my friend BB. We would always sit next to each other everywhere we’ve gone, from school events to birthday parties. We did everything together since the day we were born. I remember getting my mothers permission to go on this picticular district wide field trip because the district thought it would be nice to have fun if everybody in the district could go to The Rubix Tower in New York, New York. As we went from southern Oregon all the way to New York, New York. It was a big trip and very expensive, but non the less me and BB were excited as two teenage girls getting ready to graduate to high school. This was to prove that we can do things mostly independently from our parents. We are more than ready to go here at The Rubix Tower because I heard it's a really good brain teaser when it comes to escape rooms with a “twist”. I never got hold of that twist from people that went there until after I went.
Mind you there are over 3,000 students in my middle school so the whole district is a surprise since there are over 200,000 students going and attending. So me and BB got off the school bus and saw a sea of students crowding the entrance. For a bit of context, we are 5 foot 6 inches tall so an average size for a middle schooler in the district. I looked up at The Rubix Tower and it was pure black with spikes climbing up the tower like Dracula's castle but even worse. I think I even saw some blood and skulls. I looked at BB and said, “This tower is taller than I anticipated B.” “Yeah but you're good at riddles and escape rooms. Plus you’re like a cat, looks chubby but can actually fit in really tiny places,” BB said in confidence. I looked at her then looked forward, making the gesture of “follow me”. I always do that so when it’s time to move through a crowd or I know it's safe, she can follow and she knows this for a fact before we went in. As we neared the front doors, a woman came out and announced to us that the group on this side (divides the whole district in a third and pushes us to the front doors including me and BB) will be inside first then she will come back for the others soon. So we went in and as we entered, the doors shut with a bang and some sort of iron door slid into place so we couldn’t escape. That's when the next thing we knew that something was up to no good but nobody wanted to say anything because we were all terrified. There were couples hugging each other, friends holding hands and there was us standing and looking at this stranger of a woman who looks like in her mid 60's and looks too skinny to shake off.
At the time, I couldn’t shake off a feeling that she was otherworldly, a shapeshifter, an alien but I was too open minded to think straight. BANG BANG BANG “LET US OUT!” We heard from the guys in the back and all of us whipped around to stare at Carson and David banging on the iron wall that once held the front doors with snot and tears down their faces. Their faces turned red as they’re scared to hell and back that we had no clue why except for me. This place is like a spider's web waiting for its precious flies that it calls students, I thought intently, obviously making a note for later. By this point I knew what my objective was, to get out as soon as the escape room starts and live to tell the tale. But how would I escape when I don’t know how this place works yet and how? This place is known to rotate without warning and no windows to escape from. If me and BB are gonna make it out of here alive, we need supplies because I heard that some people have came in and out of this place in the span of years with some sort of scar with them, I thought panicked at the thought of that I might die in here and people forgetting that I was once a person that existed.
All of a sudden, the old lady that works here snaps her fingers to get all of our attention. “You know the normal rules of an escape room? Too bad if ya dont cus I ain’t gonna explain. Here’s a bag and your card that tells you which floor you’re on. Go to your floor and you will live for the first challenge to see another day. Then in the speakers where we will let you know when the games are starting, so get going. Good luck because this is like a giant rubix cube.” the lady said with a cocky tone in her voice as she shot her pistol upwards. We grabbed our respective bags and went to our floors as fast as possible, me shooting past the supply’s closet and up a set of stairs I’ve chosen. Mine was all the top floor, floor 13, which is higher than you will know about a 13 level floor since this place is a lot about shifting walls to never ending staircases and elevators.
As I reached my floor, I looked around when I saw two other people on the same exact floor I was designated to. I recognized them easily, they were my classmates in 3rd period science. I can’t remember their names but I knew they were once in my 3rd period science class where we all were in a group discussing about the frog that I dissected during that class period. When they noticed I stared for an uncomfortably long time, they moved to a part of the room where I couldn’t see them as I got out of my trance. So I looked through my backpack for a quick second to see what I got before the speakers said to start. I got the building's book and information, a butcher's knife completely “normal” to put in a backpack, some canned food of veried fruits, some forks and spoons, lighters, matches, clothes~ my thoughts got interrupted by the speakers. “Please start getting out of the building, if you can~” the announcer laughed through the speaker in a menacing voice.
So, I looked around the room to see the two other people in the room with me as they butt heads with each other to go out into the hallway where I followed in a casual walk behind them to see what it's like up ahead so I can come up with a plan. The next thing I know they ran to the right and screamed as I heard a thud and a sizzling sound around the corner. So I ran up ahead to see if they’re in trouble and I found my answer. They were in lava with a parkour course that is too difficult to jump across. This wasn’t here before, I walked through this hall before we even started and yet this pit of lava is here, but how in the world do these people get lava all the way up here when we’re at cloud level? As questions sped through my mind, I came up with a plan and looked through my backpack for some sort of information or item in my bag.
Then I found it, a rope to swing across the ravine of boiling lava as I looked up and saw a pipe that looked like it was strong enough to hold me and my bags weight. So without hesitation I put on my bag and threw the rope like a lasso to the pipe. It caught onto the pipeline as I gave it a tug the rope to make sure it was tightened. The rope loosened, so I tried again, and again, and again. Finally, the rope tightened and I made sure the pipe did not come loose before swinging across the pipe from one side to the other. After landing on the other side, the pipe and the rope fell into the cavern of lava. Well that was convenient, that's how it broke I mean. I thought I would die over there but no I jokingly thought to myself as I stumbled backwards, making me fall on my buttox somewhat hardly. As I chuckled to myself on the floor, hearing rain outside hitting really hard on the concrete walls of the tower as I can feel the heat radiating from the lava. I got up with my backpack, turned around facing away from the pit and walked with my head facing the ground for a while.
Who knows how long I have walked for but my eyes are dropping over my eyes, my legs almost collapsing, my shoulders aren't there to hold my bag when all of the sudden, I felt a rumbling vibration throughout the halls. I looked up finally to see photographs hung up shaking and even falling off while shattering once hitting the ground from the one place they hung on the monochromatic wall. As this was happening, I looked behind me as best as my now surprised, wide awake eyes could see something terrifying. It was coming, slithering down the hall that reached top to bottom, a giant eastern brown snake, and they are highly venomous. So I spun around and ran as fast as my weakened legs could carry me to the nearest room that I could enter in. without thinking. My mind was racing as I saw the walls bending slightly to a curve to fit the giant snake. Why… what… this is biologically impossible, have a snake THIS big that if caught you get swallowed whole and die painless and fast. How could… what time is it because if this happens again, I will know when it will happen next. I thought, looking for a clock or something to tell the time.
12:32 in the day or night, I can’t tell, I thought while noticing the watch on my right wrist. Then I prepared for bed and passed out at the moment I went under the blankets. I woke up with a jump to my morning before remembering I was in this building. I looked at my watch and it was noon perfectly while my stomach made its presents. So I got canned peaches, the can opener, and a spoon to eat some peaches. I packed up everything and went out to look at a hallway with an elevator and a stairwell up and a stairwell down. What is… wait, The Rubix Tower is called that because it's a rotating tower once activated, that's why it's so tall and so few floors, I come to terms that the fact of it could possibly be room changing floors entirely or just a room swap from one side to the other. I couldn't just stand there and be in awe on how clever the name is to the actual purpose of the building but also how outstanding it can make you very disoriented on where you're at or who you should trust since the only people I saw at the time fell into literal lava pit without food to thought behind their kindergarten playfulness and child like competition.
So I went forward just enough that you can see the entirety of my body without a wall, then SLAM! The door slammed shut behind me and I jumped at the sound with a little gasp since I knew that room had one door and no way to enter from another direction so there was nobody in that room. So how did that room close all by itself then if I wasn't even close enough to close to it? I had no idea but I had one goal, to get out as fast and carefully as possible. I started to walk when all of a sudden I heard really loud and heavy footsteps unlike I ever heard before. This was new to me because I knew that I was alone just a seconds ago, so why make its presence known to me now? As it grew louder and louder, I quickly grabbed my butcher's knife to arm myself then tried to hide myself behind a covenant stack of used cardboard boxes but backfired when they fell over and made regrettable noises of cardboard boxes falling over, hitting the ground in an unorganized pattern. Then silence washed over me and the surrounding area as the heavy footsteps stopped. I held my breath for what felt like hours but for a few seconds before the thing making those deep, heavy footsteps came around the corner, revealing a weird creature I cannot describe very well. It looked like a silverback gorilla with a cat head but it looked mechanically unnatural. It had a black and white like monochrome color palette which had some grayish blue lighting where it was highlighted with goggles for eyes. It looked around and then at me dead in the eyes making sure I am its target.
As the moments longed, and I grew tense, that… thing… started to charge directly at me where I quickly moved to the right and flung myself onto the things left arm, holding for my life as it tried to fling me off. Suddenly, I remembered that I had my butcher's knife and saw a weak point on the silverback gorilla cat head thing on the back of the neck. So I climbed up that arm and raised up my knife with strength in toe when I slammed my knife into the weak spot of this gorilla thing. As soon as I did so, it flung me off making slam into the wall with a big thud, knocking the wind out of me. It was glitching and spazzing before exploding as I used my bag as a shield. What was that…? I thought to myself, stunned not knowing what just happened. But I digressed, picked up my backpack and looked around.
Two stairwells, one going up and one going down, and an elevator. So many options to go in a direction with so little time. What should I do~ my thoughts are interrupted when I hear someone coming down the stairs. He looks about 10-12, blondish orange hair, emerald green eyes, cracked lips and a yellow sweater that fits over his entire body. I ain't too sure if he was wearing anything under that sweater but it didn't matter since the sweater covered it and it was dragging on the floor. The green eyed kid looked like to sob to anything and everything. So he gave me a note basically saying that he is lost and cannot get out and blah blah blah~ then he showed me going down the downward staircase only to return going on this exact floor over on the upward staircase. I sensed something was off about this boy. It's not like he does not look friendly or anything like that but just the way he was asking for something that I ain't too sure its the right thing to do in this type of situation. The impulse of something sinister from me is purely unremarkable to do against my better judgement and ruin my mental well being. Feels almost like I need to do something about this young innocent boy who seems like he is in no condition to be here once so ever yet this erdge is forcing my awful thoughts to the driver's seat of my train of thought. Then I came back to reality, with my butcher's knife in hand. No, NO! I only knew about this boy for two minutes now, I cannot bare myself to do this. I think this is… the right thing to do… I thought without thinking if that even makes sense. For a brief second, my vision was blurry and my hearing was blocked. I could not feel anything until I came back into what is now a bloodbath and the decapitated head of an otherworldly creature. But I seemed to be unfazed on what I think I have done or what the creature head is. Green goop spread across the floor, almost at my feet by now. I gagged at the stench it was creating, smelled like a mix of dead ant smell and cow fenover.
It was so overwhelming that I looked around and saw a room to hide in. As I entered, shutting the door behind me as I entered the room, I saw a bunch of people around my age huddled around the floor, on the counters, all up and down the cabinets, pee jugs scattered in between people like it's the way to say to others that that space is this particular persons area to sleep. I revolted at the sight of this and the smell was equally as bad as out there was but with mixed stages of urine. They were all in sleeping bags when they looked at the door, straight at me, with scared looks of concern on their faces. I grew slightly nauseous at the sight of the state this room has been.
CRASH The sound of thunder startled us all making us jump in some way or another. We are near the outside. Even if there ARE windows, we would die on the way down due to the amount of spikes on the sides of this building, I grew a concerned thought. The sea of people both outside and inside the cabinets murmured scaredly amongst themselves like some class spreading rumors badly behind the teachers back, though I cannot hear them speak as they caught on murmuring between one another. Finally, one of them makes an audible groan, a sign that they woke up from a good night's sleep. I knew one person who is a somewhat heavy sleeper, BB, and if you wake her up then you're in some deep waters that no living creature can save you. At least that's what I heard when we first met, reasons why I normally sleep at her house because I know I will be safe. “What’s going on here, why y’all up at this hour of the night?” BB became agitated and tired at the fact she was woken up by everyone’s murmuring. Then one of the dirtier boys stood up, sulluted and said, “Ma’am a stranger came into the room and we’re unannounced who it is yet. We’re solving the solution as we speak if given the chance to throw them out of the room or possibly the death sentence.” I widen my eyes so much out of surprise that not only is my life in danger but these people are trained to fight whoever comes in. “Did they harm us by any chance, Muskrat?” BB said in her commanding voice, which I only heard once before. “No ma’am, they just walked in here all nasty looking and stood their ground with shock and fright,” Muskrat explained, not wanting to further the conversation since he was tired. “Lemme see who this supposed stranger is, walk ‘em over,” BB stated strongly, not surprisingly she stayed turned to her wall without looking away like she didn’t want to make eye contact which is very odd behavior.
So Muskrat turned, looked at me and carefully stepped over people’s heads like it’s no big deal. He stood right in front of me, shorter than I realized from close up, and grabbed my hand gently gesturing me to go in front of my grumpy friend. I stepped over person after person, sometimes accidentally hitting someone or another on the shoulder. Then he made me stand directly in front of the husk of a person I once knew. She turned as she sat up in a morning manner, like getting out of bed in the morning or a long forsaken nap that you’ve been needing. Rubbing her eyes, adjusting to the dimly lit room and her eyes widened when she saw me, her best friend. BB let out an audible gasp and the hushed whispering started again. My best friend started to tear up with emotion of joy and relief that I am in fact alive with all sorts of bruises, small cuts and a giant gash that I didn’t realize was bleeding the whole time. “Oh my… it's really you. I thought you were~” BB tried to gasp her words out, now tears streaming down her face with those rosy cheeks of hers. “Yeah, um… where am I in the building? I mean, what floor so I can make a concrete plan,” I said joyfully to BB. She looked at me for a moment, lost in thought before speaking, “Last time I checked, we’re on the 6th floor. Oh let me tell you before I forget. We cannot under any circumstances take the elevator.” I opened my mouth before stopping, processing what she just said. On the 6th floor, but I’m on the 13th floor. Could it be possible that either they moved up or I moved down without realizing it in our sleep? I thought to myself.
Then Muskrat spoke in a stern voice to BB, “Ma’am, we need to sleep. It seems that you two are long friends but sleep needs to be in order. I will get her a bag if needed and/or requested.” BB looked at him, agitated and said directly at me, “Do you need a sleeping bag?” I nodded since I know for a fact that I don’t have one of my own. Musket saluted, walked to a cabinet and grabbed a spare sleep. Tossing it over to me and catching it. I found a spot in the corner of the room where it's facing the door and it’s right next to Muskrat’s sleeping bag, sorta. Muskrat’s sleeping bag is right on the counter on the opposite side of BB.
I put my bag right next to my sleeping bag and got comfortable. I couldn’t sleep, so I grabbed my flashlight and my book of information and started to read about the building's construction, planning and thought behind it. It was very interesting to say the very least seeing how the person behind it is a master genius who no one has seen or heard of before. As soon as I was close to the end of the book, I reached a short chapter about the creatures of this building. Finally, answers to my questions about the creatures in this place I thought to myself. So I read ahead and found some really intriguing creatures. For instance, the gorilla cat thing is called The Guards Thumpers and can only hear or feel it's intruders or escapees. It’s made out of mechanical and flesh from the victims who died here but only 100 are known currently. Then there was The Shapeshifter Wanderer who only comes out when a very large group appears in the building at once and takes the form of the common age of said group. My group is from the ages of 10-18 years old so that little boy I killed was it. Then a noise started me out of nowhere.
It was Muskrat turning over and staring at me, wondering what the hell was going on with my flashlight. “What are you doing?” Muskrat said curiously. “Being awake,” I smartly replied. Muskrat chuckled as quietly as possible, making me wonder what was so funny. He said, “You know it's the first good joke I heard in months right?” I looked at him confused then he looked at me weirdly. “Why are you giving me that look?” Muskrat is now growing curious. “Sorry, it’s just you said that you heard a good joke in months, it threw me off a bit,” I said apologetically. Muskrat pulled out something, a notebook, with tally marks and showed me how many they are, there were 4 tally marks. I know it's not a lot but the thing he said after was unnerving. “This is how long we have been here, 4 months. It's June right now and we are still here.” he explained concerly. I looked at him concernedly, really panicking now. I got my own notebook to see if anything is in mine but thankfully there isn’t. So to think things over, I packed my things and went to bed, perterfied of what will happen next.
I was shaken awake as Muskrat was yelling at me to wake up. My eyes opened, startled, as I jolted awake without a warning. Muskrat jumped back as I looked around, it seemed like everyone around me was almost done packing things up as I sat in my sleeping bag. Muskrat seemed relieved I woke up, then went straight for his bag. It seemed that everybody is following BB’s lead on an exploration of somesorts. So I got out of bed and packed the sleeping bag with the few items I had laying a stray in the backpack to mimic everybody else. When I finished packing up and got my bag onto my shoulders, BB spoke in a commanding voice, “Alright, rascals, misfits and soldiers. I need to say a few things before we head on out to gather resources and get out of here. Number one is that, as most of you may know, there is a new member to the team who I think is a likely candidate for escaping this tower once and for all, my friend Jaden. She is very intelligent, brave and very funny so she is a great person to have on our team so we all can leave this forsaken gravestone that is called a tower.” Everybody turned to my direction and waved hello with somewhat smiles and nervous looks on their faces. “Secondly,” everybody turned back to BB, “we don’t know how far up or down we have gone during the week that we slept for so there could be a possibility that we’re all the way up on level 13.” BB said in a slightly concerned voice. I’ve been knocked out for a week? I wonder how accurate that information really is BB, I concernedly thought as I looked at my phone to see the date. May 13th, 9:45 a.m. but Muskrat said it was June so it must have been off by a month or so. I thought happily yet keeping in mind that we’ve been in here for well over a month and still not dehydrated or starved yet. I looked up at everybody staring at me again with surprise at what I have, my phone. Then BB said, “Let’s go team, everybody got their ropes around their waist?” Everybody nodded confirming that they have the rope around their waist. “Jaden doesn’t need one since she can find our group and that she may know more than we ever know,” BB stated, looking at me to make sure I will be fine. I nodded to confirm that I didn't need the rope.
We exited the room cautiously, looking around to make sure that the coast is clear and safe to go. One by one, we left the safety of what they called “home” to get some materials and supplies for future survival. I went up to the front with BB willingly so I can be by her side so we cannot get separated. “So… how did you all meet?” I asked BB quietly. BB didn’t look at me and said, “Most of them came to me like how you did, barging right in the front door. But if you’re talking about Muskrat,” Muskrat hurried on the opposite side of BB, “I was doing something irresponsible and almost died falling into a pit of metallic spears. Then he grabbed me and saved my life. I could never thank him enough for saving my life.” I looked in the direction of BB, surprised that she almost died herself.
As we were walking in silence, we spotted an elevator with a note on the door. ATTENTION: THIS ELEVATOR IS UNDER REPAIR! We stopped. Murmurs are among the small group as BB gestured for me to do something. I went to the elevator door and examined the note and the elevator in general. Finally, I pressed the button to see what would happen. The doors opened normally, but something was off. The elevator itself wasn’t there at all, it was going down at a normal elevator speed that you would see in movies or in TV shows. BB came up and pushed me aside, knocking me over which is very unjust behavior from an old friend of mine. She looked down at the slowly descending elevator. For a brief moment, there was silence. Then she was pushed by Muskrat down the elevator with the majority of the group going down with her. I was shocked that Muskrat, the person that saved my best friend, pushed not only her to her death but the majority of people down the elevator shaft. I heard the unforgiving splatting of which someone fell to their death. At that point I was filled with horrible thoughts and hatred of this Muskrat character that I jumped up, ran up to him, looked down at the elevator shaft one last time and pushed him in. Suddenly, the elevator doors closed as he hit the small piles of bodys, maybe breaking a few bones at the kindest but it’s highly unlikely.
I turned to the little people that were left when that traitor started to push people into the shaft. Slowly turning my heavy breathing into a slow sigh, I looked away from the little huddle of people and started to walk in a direction all distraught and in despair from what I’ve witnessed. I was thinking a million miles per millisecond to comprehend what just happened. I couldn’t just live on knowing that I saw more than ten people die in an elevator shaft and let life happen. I got blood on my hands and I am the one put into guilt for that situation. How was I supposed to react after those events happened? Was this life now, just a loop of never ending nightmares and regret of choices? I couldn’t think of anything yet I could think of everything. My mind was more than shattered, I was then a husk of a person, a shell of someone who had a perfect life and now it was soon interrupted by the sudden death of my best friend.
As I was walking, thinking things over, I jumped at the sound of one of the surviving people, trying to get my attention. I snapped back to reality as I whipped around to the person who was trying to get my attention. She is a latino with a teal-ish shirt on, which looked good on her, as she spoke, “What do we do now? We have nowhere to go and our leader is, well, dead.” She looked at me, teary eyed. I looked back, took in a thought, and blurted out, “We will learn from this experience and follow my lead. I know all of you don’t know me as well as my friend but we can make a plan, the first step is right in front of you. It’s to take the stairs down, we need to go down. Down is the exit and we need to go to the front doors of this building.” As soon as I was done giving that little speech plan thing, the group of six soon nodded in agreement then started to cheer for my plan. So we started to find the nearest stairwell.
“Found it!” yelled one of the guys from the end of the hallway. As we ran down the monotone hall to where he was, sometimes almost tripping occasionally over our own excitement, I got a gut feeling that things were going to go really south real fast. So I stopped the group and everyone looked at me. I whispered, “That voice shouldn’t be there right now, it should be with Muskrat down the elevator shaft since that’s Muskrat's voice.” Everyone grew concerned as we backed away to another part of the floor. We continued the search of the stairwell down before we felt a familiar rumble, the giant snake is back. I panicked because I knew I had a close call once before. Everybody saw the worry on my face freaking out at the sudden rumbling and started to panic as a result. It got closer and closer for each passing moment that we stood there, in shock of fear and panic. Then I yanked the closest arm as I yelped that everybody needs to follow me. I ran, gripping my arm and got in the nearest room. Sadly, losing four of our members from the snake swallowed them whole but we managed to shut the door tight after a bit of battling with some of the scales of the snake making their way between the door and the hinges that were bigger than my hand at the time.
Fatigued, we gasped for air after a long, antagonistic day. I knew it was just a day because we left the room at 10 am and now it's 10 am the next morning. I counted the heads of who was left in our dwindling group. One, two, plus me equals just us three. Nothing ever is good when there are just the three of us left knowing from last time, lava was involved, I thought in a depressive manner. I tossed my sleeping bag on the floor in the farthest corner to the room then turned to face them. “Set your stuff up, we are sleeping here for the time being,” I demanded. They looked at each other and nodded. The room was only being lit up by the incoming light from the crack under the door so we turned on a flashlight and set it up on the counter since there was no lightswitch. We ate some canned fruit I had left over, told some stories, and went to bed.
In the next week, we scavenged for some cans of fruit, some vegetables, and a lighter with a log wagon, went down some stairs and taunted some Guard Thumpers that were around. We were having fun while on our toes, making sure to be in a one way room which means only one door since we learned the hard way that small Guard Thumpers can go into a room with more than one door or have a door made out of glass. We were just walking when I noticed that there was a door I recognised, the supply closet. I knew that the entrance was near since I clearly remember passing through this area with the greyish blue supply closet. This is where I shot straight for the stairs at the beginning of all this… weirdness I got myself into, I remembered thoughtfully, Finally we can leave this god forsaken hell hole that the government kept up for. I was so relieved that the fact of the pain and suffering of not only losing a lot of people to this tower driven me here but I couldn’t think about that now, only the fact that I was literally there at the entrance of the building itself and I get to be one of the few people to say that survived The Rubix Tower.
The two people saw my thoughtful yet happy expression as meaning that I knew where we were in the building, the first floor. As my overwhelming joy and happiness came to a point of control, I finally gasped out like an over excited child, “Come on guys we’re close I know it!” I gestured my hand to let them know to follow me and ran the same exact path I remembered taking and… the door wasn’t in the lobby as I remembered correctly. I was confused, shocked out of my wits and in disbelief that the door isn’t there. I started to have a mini panic attack, shaking like the world is having an earthquake but it only affects me. They noticed with slight concern washing over them.
As they tried to calm me down, a plan came into mind in a title wave of thoughts; Hug the right wall, stay to the outside wall as much as possible, there is an exit. I snapped out of the panicking trance as I stopped in mid step where I was walking towards a hallway. The guys looked at me, in confusion as they watched me turn at them and clearly can't remember anything in the last three seconds. I didn’t know what was happening with this tower but… I knew what to do in order to escape. I looked at the hallway, then looked at the people who helped me the entire time in this awful tower. Looking back through my journey in this death trap, for a while I called ‘Home’, that even though I had some troubling times with death and the loss of my best friend, they have been there for everything that I went through, I couldn’t imagine how I would survive without them. This was an experience that changed my life as I guided them, excitedly running the whole time, to the exit of the stick of hell we’ve been through. I saw the door, the glass door with the sunlight beaming happily through to our victory out of The Rubix Tower so I stopped for the guys to catch up.
As I was waiting for them to catch up, I looked to my right to be greeted by a Guard Thumper that charged at me, pinning me into the wall. Then came the smell of iron hitting my nostrils like a gorilla punching multiple times into your face. I looked down to only see my left thigh had in fact cut onto a sharp object just out of view of the ranch and my right shoulder blade cut open by the once clean metal that the Thumper pushed me into. The pain was sharp and deliberate with an impactful stinging sensation before going completely numb. I can feel a growing headache that is swelling from the back of my head so I got my left arm and felt the back of my head only to return with slight blood on the hand, gasping at the sight to try to get air into my now suffocated lungs. As I was doing this, the Thumper held me there in place while chuckling to themself. The tears falling from my eyes showed I have completely given up on the situation as all hope leaves my mind, thinking of all the good times that I had with friends and family as now the scent of iron persecuted into my thought process. It was horrible from that slow, painful moment when one of the guys came up quietly and killed the Guard Thumper on the one spot it was vulnerable at. It backed away from my injured body and turned into dust like normal.
The blonde guy knew I wasn’t okay but several injuries on my right shoulder and my left thigh leg. Bleeding out, I grabbed my bag from my left and bandaged myself up without the guys help at all but they helped me up to continue walking for the rest of the way to the exit. I could feel the exit for this terrible place is getting closer and closer as we take every precaution and every step. Closer and Closer with each step felt more like victory to get out of here. Happier and happier with each moment that we get closer to freedom. Relieved and overcome with joy that we get to see our family’s again. As I soon began to stand on my own, we saw it, the door to our victory. The day we stood in front of this glass door was blinging with sunlight but it felt like an eternity since we saw sunlight from some sort of source. We all looked at each other, took a deep breath in and out, and opened the doors. The blinding light blinded us for a second before looking over the few hundred students that are out here, outside the door. When our eyes adjusted, some looked at us weirdly before running off to tell an adult that three new people had escaped The Rubix Tower. I was stunned for a second before the small group I’ve been in parted ways, leaving me alone to stand amongst the crowd. I pushed and shoved through the crowd of students to only hear a shriek of terror. I wiped around only to see this woman pointing upwards in full on panic mode. So I looked up before this giant spider woman that looked like the old woman we saw earlier jumped down and then darkness as I drifted away into the empty void that surrounded me.
I woke up only to be in the hospital, with bandages all over me and a cast covering most of my head but not over my eyes. I looked around to see a normal hospital room accompanied with a TV and a bookshelf which I found really cute and welcoming. As my eyes adjusted to the room's lighting, a doctor came in with my mother, sobbing. I couldn’t hear what was happening but I can tell it's not good at all. The doctor was telling my mom something, probably something to comfort her sobbing fit, and gestured his hand at me. My mom looked at me and saw that my eyes were open, maybe telling my mom that I am indeed awake and fully aware of what just be folded upon me. She looked like she stopped crying as she looked at me in confusion. Then the doctor looked at me with a surprised look. What is happening? Why can’t I speak? Where am I? How did I get here exactly? I tried to speak out if it wasn’t the bandages over my mouth. Out of sheer panic, I tried to scream but it failed miserably as my jaw was tightly shut and my vocal cords weren't cooperating on my behalf. They saw what I was trying to do and came at me obviously saying stuff that I can’t hear for the bandages and the ringing in my ears are overwhelming to not ignore. I tried to motion my hands that my ears were ringing and I couldn't hear. They looked at my gestures and looked confused. So they put some charcoal on my bandage hands so that I could draw or write what I was trying to say. I cannot hear, ears ringing and it's too loud is what I try to draw and write.
After all of that, I graduated high school and college with a degree in animation and business. Life went as normal as I can get with those memories affecting me everytime I try to forget them. I couldn’t let go the experience of that stupid tower I’ve been in and I could never forget the blood I have on my hands. So many of my friends were lost that day, that month, that whole year even though so many people died who had their lifes planned had pass on because of that stupid tower. I even can’t let go of the grudge I held all these years for Muskrat, that dirty liar to my best friend, I even called her a sister of mine. It’s saddening to think that over 10,000 students went into that tower yet only 500 came out. That’s around 9,500 students reportedly either dead or missing in that thing and what's worse is I know what happened to some of them. Hell, I would have been one of them to do with those Thumpers if those two dudes weren’t there at all because of either lack of breath or bleeding to death. Anyways, I need to go, my secretary found some interesting news regarding the tower and the press about my part on that unforgettable day. I will keep you Joseph updated with stories from my schooling and tell taleing of my childhood, which one of those days you know. Signing off...
-Jaden Chase Signing Off-
-Joseph Signing Off-