The cage door instantly slams shut, shocking Cristina and locking Jeric inside the cage. Then, the wooden door quietly opens by itself….

    Cristina clenches the steel bars in front of her, stunned by Jeric’s judgment. She glares at Jeric who is smiling at her reassuringly. “Are you crazy?!”

    “I’m not crazy,” Jeric retorts.  “I’ve just… made the best decision.”  

    “I can’t believe this is happening. You’re out of your mind.”

    Jeric lifts his right foot off button ‘A’. “Go ahead. Just… go.”

    “No…. NO! I won’t leave you. Why are you such a pain?!”

    “You think I want to risk our lives behind that… steel door?”  Jeric’s face suddenly turns serious. “We won’t stand a chance. It’s obvious! You know we can’t handle surprise attacks.”

    “But—”

    “Listen to me…. Go ahead and see the end of the tunnel. Then go back in here if you want to stay… or… if you’re afraid of being alone out there, okay? Now go.”

    “But—”

    “Just go! I’m forced to stay here for five hours, but at least there’s no monster in here…. Go ahead. And if you believe you have a golden heart, don’t abandon your hero.”

    Cristina exhales audibly, keeps quiet for several seconds, and finally utters her plan. “Okay…. So here’s what I’ll do: I’ll go ahead, scan the place outside, go back in here, report everything to you and then stay here with you for five hours.”

    “Good. But if you want to leave me—”

    “I won’t. I’ll be back. I promise.”

    “Good. Now go.”

    Cristina cautiously dashes through the tunnel, turns right, then left, and finally reaches a blue wooden door, panting and profusely sweating. “This must be it,” Cristina thinks as she grips the warm brass knob.  As soon as she opens the door, blinding sunlight darts onto her, forcing her to shield her eyes with her arm. She steps out into the open and hears the door thump behind her. Shocked, she turns around and frantically turns the knob as she pushes the door with her body. Unfortunately, the door doesn’t budge. She kicks the door repeatedly, almost ruining her gray rubber shoes, but it remains shut and unscratched. “Oh my God! Oh my God! Hey! What’s wrong with this door!? JERIC!”

    Cristina realizes that she’s all on her own now. With her vision already adjusted to the new surroundings, she quickly spots two other doors—a yellow door stands a few meters on the right of the blue door; a red door, on the left. She realizes that she’s actually standing at the foot of a mossy gray concrete wall about thirty meters high and stretching about a hundred meters on both sides. She gazes at the wall’s vastness for almost a minute, woozy and awestruck. She turns around and sees that a vast flat grassy field lies in front of her, so vast that the distant land seems to kiss the cloudless light green sky. Both sides of the field are fenced by thick forests stretching from both ends of the wall, making the whole place looks like an immense rectangular enclosure. On the grass, about two meters from the wall, a bright long red line of paint parallel to the wall exists. Beyond the line, several large red circles are painted on the grass on random areas, and Cristina assumes that more of these circles exist farther ahead.

    The sweltering heat worsens every passing second, forcing Cristina to desperately try opening the other doors. She fails. She hurries back in front of the blue door and repeatedly pounds it with her damp, clenched fists. “My God! I’ll be scorched out here. Hey! Somebody please open this damn door! JERIIIIIC!” Suddenly, a winged beast soars from behind the wall, spirals down, lands several meters in front of Cristina, outstretches its wings, and then blaringly squeals at her. It looks like an oversized eagle with purple wings like that of a bat, spanning four meters from end to end. It has a featherless green tail, wiggling like an annoyed rattlesnake. From head to tail, its body spans a length of seven meters. Staggered, Cristina shakily steps back and leans against the door as she looks at her surprise guest. “Oh my God….”

    The beast looks up the sky and lets out another deafening squeal. In no time, several others appear flying from behind the wall. Their number quickly escalates to several hundred, almost filling up the sky within seconds as they arbitrarily fly about forty meters above the open field like sluggish mosquitoes swarming a grimy, humid room. Warm smiles of her three children suddenly occupy her mind, especially her darling, Pia, as she played with her in their sofa….

    “How old are you, my cute, chubby baby?”  

    “Thweeee!”

    “Yeeees. One… two… THWEEE!”

    “What’s your favorite food, baby?”

    “Hmmmm…. Ice cweeeem!”     

    “Yeeey! Ice cweeeem. Chocolate ice cweeem…. Do you love me, baby?”

    “I love Mommyyyy!”

    Cristina’s attempt to petrify the monster in front of her with her death stare fails as her tears haze her vision. She slumps to the ground, trembling and dispirited to put up a fight….


Meanwhile…

“What happened here?” Vincent asks upon seeing Jeric lying on the floor inside a large cage. “Why are you—”

“Wait,” Joshua says, stopping Vincent and Shaira from moving forward. “Something is not right….”

“Oh. You’re here,” Jeric says. He immediately stands up and looks at the newcomers through the steel bars. “Lucky bastards.”

“Excuse me!?” Shaira says, immediately irked.

“Lucky you. The way I see it, I opened that door for you.”

“What about it?” Joshua asks. “That door….”

“It’s the way outside. A shortcut, actually. As you can see, I paid the price….”

“Are you playing tricks on us?” Vincent asks. “I don’t trust you.”

“I don’t care…. I don’t trust you, either. Cristina is already out there. She said she would come back but she didn’t. She must be in trouble right now. Go find her.”

“Of course, she abandoned you,” Shaira says.

“She can’t do that.”

“Really?”

“I don’t want to argue right now, okay? Just go ahead and help her.” Jeric checks his watch. “She’s alive but I know she’s in trouble.”

“From what, exactly?”

“I don’t know! Just go! What the hell is your problem? You think I’m in here just to play games with you? Someone must be locked up in here to open that damn door. Now use your common sense and get out of here. GO!”

“What about your common sense? I know you can destroy that cage.”

“Isn’t it obvious? I CAN’T!”

“What about the other door?” Joshua asks.

Jeric sighs. “Check it if it’s open. Okay, look…. If you want to stay here, fine. Just don’t ask me stupid questions. And I hate loud mouths, in case you don’t know…. And stupid faces.”

“Okay. We’re moving ahead,” Joshua says, approaching Jeric. Vincent and Shaira follow. “Thanks for opening the door. I think I believe you now.”

“You’d better be telling the truth,” Vincent warns.

Jeric remains silent. He lies back on the floor and closes his eyes.

“Did you kill Moises?” Shaira asks.

Jeric opens his eyes, sits up, and stares blankly at Shaira. “Who?”

“Moises. Don’t pretend you don’t know what happened back there. I just… want to know if you did it or—”

“The ‘switch boy’? That eyesore? Yes. I did. To save everyone. Including you and your… friends. What about it?”

Shaira clenches her teeth and glares at Jeric. “You’re a monster.”

Meanwhile…

Jennifer, Mabel, Kriz and John Paul finally reach the blue wooden door. Upon opening it, they notice a woman standing nearby, intently looking up the sky and oblivious of the things behind her. The sight of the swarming creatures instantly terrifies Mabel and Kriz, forcing them to turn around to go back inside, only to find out that the door cannot be opened anymore. Jennifer quickly recognizes the woman and asks her.

“What’s happening here, Cristina?”

“Whoa!” Cristina yells, startled. “How long have you been here?”

“We’ve just… arrived.”

“If I’d known you were coming, I would have had the chance to go back in there! I’m so stupid! This place is deadly, Jennifer!”

“What? I don’t understand…. What about… the other doors right there—”

“They’re locked. Help me. We don’t have much time!”

“What do you mean?” Jennifer gapes at the flying creatures. “And what are those?”

“Monsters. And they’re here to kill us…. And see those?” Cristina points at some things on the ground. “I turned some of them into stones. But they’re too many and my power is too slow. DO SOMETHING, JENNIFER! STOP THEM!”

“But… they’re not attacking….” Kriz cuts in.

“See this red line?” Cristina points at the red line in front of them. “Step beyond it and those creatures will attack you. I’ve tried it twice. We’re safe in this area, but this line is slowly receding. I don’t know how but it’s moving. Soon enough we’ll be standing beyond it, and that will be it for us.” Cristina’s eyes become teary again. “I’m glad you’re here, Jennifer. I know you can stop them. Do something!”

“I thought you can turn into stone anything that attempts to harm you.”

“I lied. It takes me one whole minute to activate my power. But you can stop them.”

“I can, but… I can’t kill them. And… those hit with my power will just move after three minutes. Besides, where should we go?”

“Can I check your watches?” Kriz asks.

“Why?” asks John Paul.

“To know which way to go.” Using the rank data from the watches, Kriz concludes and tells the group that the direction toward the castle is straight ahead.

“But that’s too far,” Mabel complains.

“There’s no other way. We have to run,” Kriz says.

“That’s impossible,” John Paul says.

“Then we need to fight… as we run….”

The line is now less than a meter away from the wall, and everyone is practically leaning against the wall, their hearts pounding like crazy.

“Okay. I’ll fight,” John Paul says. Immediately, lots of glowing green ropes shoot up the sky and strangle a beast in midair. John Paul controls his weapon and tightly constricts his struggling victim until its bones shatter and its blood squirts out of its ruptured skin, like water squeezed out of a sponge. “One down….” Then, the ropes loosen their hold, dropping the dead beast until it splatters onto the ground. “Here’s another!”

Jennifer’s and Cristina’s jaws drop in amazement, their gaze swimming between the prey and the half-naked predator.

“Wow. That was cool! And terrifying….” Jennifer breathily says. “I’ve never thought you could do that….”

“We’ve seen it several times already,” Kriz says. “But he can’t run away. See those ropes wrapping his feet?”

“Oh. That’s….”

“And he can’t attack those behind him….” Mabel adds.

“It’s amazing, but it’s too slow. We’re running out of time,” Cristina says. She looks at Kriz and asks her. “What about you? What can you do?”

“My body heals itself very fast, and I can heal wounds. I’m sorry, I can’t attack those things.”

“What about you?” Cristina asks Mabel.

“I can attack them if there’s water around. I’m sorry,” Mabel replies.

“Oh, God. This is not good….” Cristina looks at the red line and starts to panic again.

“Please don’t say that,” Mabel says, terror coating her every word. “I don’t want to die—”

“We badly need that arrogant Jeric right here. That stupid guy!”

“But what about those red circles right there?” Mabel asks Cristina. “Maybe… maybe… it’s—”

“I don’t know,” Cristina says.

“I’ll check it out,” John Paul says. He deactivates his power and looks at the red circles. “The nearest one is just about ten meters away…. I’ll check it.”

“Are you insane?!” Jennifer objects. “Those could be traps!”

“You have a better idea?”

“But… it’s—”

“I’ll give it a try. I’ll run back if that circle means nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“No. But those circles must be something. Maybe they are portals to somewhere safe.”

“Or somewhere more deadly. And your arm is not yet—”

“I’ll be okay.”

Jennifer exhales hard. “I don’t feel good about this….”

“Cover me, okay? Be careful not to shoot me.” As soon as John Paul steps out of the line, ten beasts dive toward him from different directions. Jennifer shoots them with a barrage of red light orbs and manages to hit five, freezing them in midair. The remaining beasts continue diving like homing missiles, but as soon as John Paul steps inside the circle, the attacking beasts change direction, soar, and rejoin their swarming allies.

“They back off! Yeeees!” John Paul joyfully shouts at the rest of the group. “Come on! Run!”

“So this is how it goes,” Cristina mumbles.

“This is doable,” Kriz says. “We just keep hopping until we reach the end.”

“Guys, come on! This circle is big enough for all of us!” John Paul yells.

“He’s right,” Kriz thinks. “The diameter of that circle is about three meters. Now it’s clear to me what this place is all about….”

    As soon as everyone enters the circle, the blue door swings open, exposing Vincent, Joshua and Shaira. Spotting the newcomers, John Paul immediately shouts at them at the top of his voice. “RUN! GET INSIDE THIS CIRCLE NOW!”

    The three quickly sense the danger, bolt toward the group, and finally step into the circle, panting and terrified.

    “I’m so glad you’re safe!” Kriz tightly hugs Shaira, almost teary eyed. “I’m so happy to see you again, guys!”

    “I’m glad to see you, too,” Shaira says.

    “What’s happening?” Joshua asks.

    “Listen very carefully,” Kriz says. “I’ll explain everything….”