Enter the Game
Duke and Peony had followed the instructions of the mysterious piece of paper, finding their way to the local roller-skating arena. The entire drive there, they had seen no sign of life and the streets were covered in a layer of water. The amount of water on the streets indicated a flood had occurred, but cars and other loose objects showed no signs of being disturbed by such natural disaster. As Duke pulled into the parking lot of the rink, the two saw other people gathered in a circle in the lot. There were three guys and a girl and they all looked about the same age as the Duke and Peony. As soon as they had jumped out of the car, one of the guys, who was tall and lanky called out to them, “Hey, do y’all know what the hell is going on? I just found some creepy-ass note in my lap after I woke up in my classroom.”
“I fell asleep in my class too,” Duke began, “but we didn’t get the note until after we checked out our houses.” He and Peony began to make their way over to the group of four.
Peony decided they should probably get to know each other, seeing as they were all the only people any of them had seen recently. “Hi, I’m Peony and this is my boyfriend, Duke. What are your names? Are you guys from around here?”
The tall, lanky boy decided to introduce himself first. “Name’s Gary, and this,” he gestured to the smaller girl next to him, “is Izzy. The two of us have been best buds since kindergarten.” Izzy simply nodded along as Gary introduced the both of them. Izzy had yet to say anything herself and was very focused on having a staring contest with the ground instead of looking at any of the
others. She's probably shy, Peony thought to herself.
“Name's Paxton. Knucklehead and I over here were in detention when water suddenly started to come in through the bottom of the classroom door. Once I opened the door, I found a note on the other side of it,” said another guy, this one stocky and of average height. He was gesturing towards the last guy of the group, who was just as stocky as the first, but a bit taller. Omar was heard mumbling that he was the one who had actually opened the door and found the note, but Paxton elbowed him in the side before he could finish.
~~~~~~~
With introductions out of the way, the group of six made their way into the roller-skating rink to find various puzzles and activities spread out on the actual rink of the building. All the screens around the place instructed the teens to complete a total of nine activities before they could move on. Omar immediately chimed in that there was no reason for them to listen to some stupid screen. They didn't even know who was behind all this. Maybe they were in some weird mental experiment. Everyone seemed to be nodding along with Omar's concerns, agreeing that they should try to look for other people before blindly following random instructions. But when they went to leave, the doors were locked with a long bar with nine key holes threaded through the door handles.
Omar and Paxton took to the front to try to forcibly shove the doors open but the efforts were futile. Just as the two boys were about to ram into the door again, loud sirens came from the speakers in the building. The only way to exit is to do as I say. Once you have completed nine activities, you will be able to leave the premises.
With the announcement from a mysterious voice, the teens paired off together, Duke with Gary, Omar with Peony, and Paxton with Izzy.
~~~~~~~
Omar and Peony had completed two activities and were now onto their last. In this activity, the two had to wear heart monitors attached to a locked box. An index card taped to the box told them they would have to raise their heart rates over 120 to get the box to unlock. Peony immediately suggested they run laps around the rink to get their rates up, but Omar said he could probably get his heart rate up simply by thinking about how angry Paxton makes him. As interesting as it sounded, Peony suggested it'd be faster if he ran. While running, Omar explained a bit about the tension between him and Paxton.
According to Omar, the two had always been at each other's throats and he didn't even know why anymore. Sometimes he just wished it could stop. They were constantly in detention because of petty fights that he didn't even put his heart into. By that time, the two had run several laps around the rink, both of their heart rates reaching over 120. As they arrived back at the box, they heard the audible clicks of the two locks on the box, revealing the small key inside.
With their third activity complete, the two made their way to the front of the building.
~~~~~~
“I mean, I don’t even know why we fight. I think it’s just natural at this point. I’m bored? Go annoy Omar. I’m sad? Go annoy Omar. I’m angry? Go annoy Omar. It’s almost like a comfort thing for me. He’s just always there and it’s fun to get on his nerves.” Izzy was silently watching Paxton’s face as he went on. They had already solved two puzzles and had finally moved onto their last one. This last puzzle was a simple wooden puzzle. The various wooden pieces had to be placed within the shape on the top of a box to unlock it and retrieve the key inside.
“Have you ever told him that?” Izzy asked, peering curiously up at Paxton. He looked a bit shocked and then contemplative as he actually thought about it.
“No, actually. I figured he always thought we were joking around. I never would’ve thought that I’m legit messing with him.”
“You should probably tell him then. Otherwise, your friendship will slip away.”
~~~~~~
The three groups had each solved three activities and returned to the main screen in the lobby of the skating rink. The screen flashed several times before new words scrawled across the screen.
Congratulations! You’ve passed the first stage.
Now to the next page!
Look out the door and get ready to walk.
Follow the wolf pup who doesn’t talk.
Looking outside the door, the group saw a small wolf pup waiting outside. Gary was the first to take a step forward. “Might as well. We’ve got nothing better to do.” With Gary in the front, the ragtag group of teens began to follow the little wolf.
Author's Note
For this story, I continued from where we left off with Duke and Peony and introduced some more characters. I have yet to really bring in inspiration from another story besides the myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha told by Ovid.
However, the little pup at the end is a character from another flood story that will be further elaborated on in the next installment. The inspiration for this little pup comes from a Hindu myth about the first man and a little fish that he found and fed. This story is called Matsya Nyaya, which can be translated into English as the Law of the Fishes. I'll go a bit more in-depth about this story in my next author's note, as I don't get fully into the part that is inspired by this myth.
Paxton and Omar are characters that are going to play into my inspiration from a Buddhist flood myth. My inspiration from this tale from the jatakas is kind of loose, as I wanted to make their story fit with the other characters. The name of the Buddhist flood myth is Samudda-vāṇija Jātaka, which describes a group of carpenters that leave their village because they continuously ripped off the village people. These carpenters make their way to a seemingly abandoned island, but there is a singular man on the island that tells them the rules. The carpenters and their families get drunk and break the rules and anger the spirits of the island. One spirit comes to warn them of the flood and another, more malicious spirit came afterward to tell them the first was lying. One leader believed the first and the other believed the second. The first group builds a ship to survive the flood while the other group parties away. The flood comes and only those that followed the wise man survived the flood while the rest were caught up in its chaos.
Bibliography
Ovid's Metamorphoses: Deucalion and Pyrrha
Matsya Nyanya ('The Law of the Fishes') A Hindu flood myth
Samudda-vāṇija Jātaka A Buddhist flood myth