"Yup, I make maps." Leo admitted bashfully.
"Isn't it hard?" I asked.
"No, not really."
"What about you Carrie?"
"I'm normal. As in a normal soldier."
"I pretty good at drawing so they chose me to do cartography." Leo explained.
We chatted a bit while waiting for the other teams to come.
"What time is it?" I asked.
"Don't know, in here well, we don't keep track of time." Carrie says.
"What do you mean?"
"It could be a hundred hours for all we know." Leo says as he sat down in our corner. Me and Carrie joined him.
A hundred hours? Oh. 01 00 hours. 1 am.
Carrie sighs. "Three floors in one day? I'm tired."
"We're all beat. Even that guy." Leo nodded towards the older Vaughn brother, Henry. Henry sat down in another corner with his eyes closed sitting next to his brother, Harry.
Harry found my eyes but quickly dropped them and continued to play with his nails.
Finally the last group came in and the doors were closed shut. The elevator began to move upwards.
Leo was right we ran out of energy. Everyone was slumped. My stomach rumbled demanding food but there was none. I rested my head on the cold, hard metal wall of the elevator and closed my eyes. I wonder what's Mary and Dany doing right now. I wonder if they have the courage to watch the Elevator broadcasts watching me running, fighting for my life. What if they see me fail? I locked the thought away. I won't fail. Never.
"Tired?" It's Simon's voice again. We all groaned. I think his voice is taking a toll on all of us.
"Well, sorry to hear that but the next floor will be starting soon." We all groaned louder.
"At least you will enter the 4th floor one by one." This got our attention.
Simon continued "Like the 1st and 2nd floor, you will race on your behalf. I will call out your names one by one in no particular order. Once your name is called step out of the elevator, then I will explain your objectives. I will call the first name in 10 minutes." Then he was gone.
Simon was right at least we get to rest.
As Simon said earlier, he called out one by one. When the first person was called out, it took a long time for Simon to call the next.
"What do you think it is?" Leo whispered.
"Could be anything." Carrie whispered back. When the doors are opened, all we could see is a white room then the door closes.
My heart starts to pump loudly again. More people go into the white room.
"Bree Hartman." Crap. I stood up.
"Good luck Bree." Carrie says. I looked at the both of them and I nodded.
My legs tremble as I walk into the white room. The doors close. It's a small room with four plain white walls. I waited and Simon shows up, well his hologram actually. He looks the same as ever with his suit and his blue bow tie.
"Hello Bree. It's been a long time. You've been doing tremendously well." I have to admit it's kinda nice having Simon around.
"Um, thanks." The room moved so suddenly I staggered right through Simon.
He faced me and said "Here's the mission, I want you to get a bag." I regained my balanced and gave him a nod. A brown satchel appeared in his hands then it quickly dissapeared.
"This floor requires your stealth skills in action. There will be human holographs around this floor. Do not get caught. If you do, you will be disqualified and will not move on to the next floor. This floor is quite simple, the bag is in a room to the right. Retrieve it and come back here without getting noticed. Oh! And we will be monitoring the time taken for you to go back into this room with the bag. The last three people who takes up the most time will not move on, assuming that none of you doesn't get caught. Understand?"
"Yeah."
"Good!" Simon said happily.
"It starts in one minute. Good luck Bree!" And Simon dissapeared.
Don't be nervous. Don't be nervous. Concentrate that's the important thing. Be fast and quiet and don't get caught.
Alright I can do this. I CAN do this.
"5,4.." What if I don't?
"3,2.." No, That's not an option.
The doors open and I quickly found a place to hide.
....
Like in the previous room, this hallway is all white. It looks like I'm in some kind of office? I'm hiding behind a counter top. I take a quick glance from the top of the counter. The hallway has a lot of counters, desks and lockers. I can hide behind those. Suddenly I heard footsteps from behind, getting closer to me. I went over the counter and hide.
I saw a holograph walking through the walls. Weird. If someone walks in front, they could see me. I qiuckly hid behind a desk next to it's drawers. Then I sprinted towards a locker and I hid beside it.
I heard a pair of footsteps. I let the hologram pass the locker, it went straight into the wall. So far, it's okay, the longer I'm here, more holograms will come. So I quicken my pace, hiding silently away from the holograms.
Soon I came to a corner, I peeked to my right and saw a metal door, about 5 metres from where I stand. I have to go there and get the bag. Another pair of footsteps. No, 2 pairs coming from the corner I let them pass through without looking back and like other holograms they went through a wall.
I advanced and went my way to the door until I heard voices from the hallway earlier. I can't go back there. The adrenalin in my system made me panic.THINK THINK!
Frustated,I placed my hand on the wall and I noticed that the walls aren't too far apart. I extended my leg to the other side of the wall and it reached! Bingo! Thank God I'm tall enough. The voices came closer until I heard their footsteps. I quickly place both my hands and feet to the walls and started to climb up. The holograms veered right. My heart started to get 'excited' again. Beads of seat rolled down my back and my face. I quited my panting and closed my eyes. Soon their voices dissapear.
I went down smoothly, landing on my toes and fingers and made my way to the door. I twist the knob and checked inside making sure no one was there. I catiously went inside and found the bag on a pedestal. The room is grey and dull and quite spacious. I ran to the bag and took it. I heard a voice outside.
"Shit." I whispered. I'm out in the open and there's no place to hide. The hologram outside is talking to someone and taking his time. I frantically searched for a place to hide, jumping for one wall to another until I saw some kind of closet. I went in and crouched down. I left the bag outside on the pedestal.
The door has a slit so I have a good view outside. The hologram went in humming a tune. It looked around the room. It's patroling. My heart is hammering wildly at my chest. Don't look inside the closet! It came closer and closer. Please, Please.
After a few seconds he slipped out of the room. I quickly rammed out of the closet, slid the bag under my arms and went to the door. I carefully opened it, no one was there, so I sprinted to the corner. I peeked and there was two holograms, one sitting on a counter and one standing in front, chatting. I hid over the nearest desk quietly not to alarm them.
They keep chatting and chatting and keep hiding from one object to the next without them noticing me. Another hologram came in from the other direction walking towards the other end. I hid under a desk, praying it won't find me. It passed by and went to the two holograms, joining their conversation and it seems they aren't stopping.
I can't go through with them there. I need to distract them somehow. The clock is ticking and I can't afford to be at the bottom three.
Okay, breathe, look around you, what do you have? What can you do? I noticed a plant beside my desk. There's a counter in front of me and the locker from earlier nearby.
I whisked up a plan.
I tipped over the plant and the pot smashed into a million pieces and that got their attention. I quickly hid behind the counter as the three of them went to investigate the plant, with their backs behind me, I went over the counter and sprinted quietly beside the locker. I continued my pace, hiding behind objects from the holograms until I was close enough to the elevator and sprinted into it.
....
I was unable to stop panting. Relief washed over me. I found the other participants sitting down looking at me. I wanted to put the bag down but it was gone, dissapeared into thin air.
"Bree Hartman," I looked above the doors.
"Time : 13 minutes and 2 seconds." The monitor changed and showed the scoreboard, I ranked 13th place.
I'm far away at the bottom. That's good.
I sat down with my back against a wall, alone, trying to rest and calm down my trembling body. Someone passed me a bottle of water, "Thanks," I breathed out and took a quick swig of it. The guy crouched down and meets my eyes.
It was Harry Vaughn, the younger brother. He has brunette hair and stormy grey eyes. "No problem," he said giving me a smile. "You did good." He complimented.
"Thanks, what number did you get ranked?"
"12, my stealthiness isn't the best." He smiled.
"Harry Vaughn" he extended his hand to me and I took it.
"Bree."
"Mind if I sit next to you?"
"Sure, not at all." I replied. I don't know what his plan is but I've got to keep my guard up.
"I'm impressed with you," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because, not many civvies get to past the 4th floor."
"We're not sure if I'm confirmed to go to the next floor." I pointed at the scoreboards. I looked at it and realized that our time taken isn't that much of a difference. Most of them took 12 minutes, while the highest is 11 minutes.
"Even so, 13 minutes and 2 seconds ain't bad." He looked at the scoreboards. I took another swig of the bottle.
"Tired?" He asked still looking at the scoreboards.
"Definitely." He laughed quietly, suddenly the doors opened and Henry Vaughn came in.
Harry stood quickly and went to him, they talked quietly. Everyone is curious about his results.
"Henry Vaughn, time taken : 10 minutes and 55 seconds." Henry ranked 1st which pushed me down to the 14th place.
"Yes!" He yelled and hugged his brother. Henry pulled Harry away. Henry caught my eye and smiled at me.
I decided to take a nap and woke up when Simon's voice appeared.
"It appears that three participants had got caught and we have decided that the remaining participants will move on up to the next floor." My mouth dropped open, shocked by the revealation. Leo and Carrie got through withput going through all this? A pair of new doors open. It's an elevator and the 4 people who didn't go through the floor was in there already.
I went in and found Carrie and Leo smirking at me. "You lucky sons of-" I started but Leo cut me off.
"Hey, life isn't fair." he grinned
