Chapter 3 Beat The Clock

• The voice vanished as suddenly as it had come, leaving a thick silence behind. No one moved. The announcement about a traitor had changed everything.
• Niko stood frozen, staring at the blinking red light in the ceiling corner. Surveillance. Of course. They were being watched.
• “We need to think clearly,” he said, his voice low but steady. “If we turn on each other now, we’ll be doing exactly what it wants.”
• “That voice,” Zara muttered, arms crossed. “Did it sound…human to you?”
• Theo was pacing, hands running through his hair. “I don’t care if it was human, robot, or Satan himself I just want to know what happens when the first game starts.”
• A soft click echoed from the far wall.
• All heads turned as a section of the wooden paneling slid aside, revealing a narrow hallway glowing with flickering lights. A metal sign hung above the passageway:
• Room One: TIME’S UP
• Elijah stepped forward instinctively, muscles tensed. “I’m going first.”
• “No,” Marcus said, his voice calm. “We go in together. We don’t know what’s waiting.”
• “You sound awfully confident,” Zara said, eyes narrowing.
• He smiled thinly. “I’m trained for emergencies. Staying calm is part of the job.”
• “You’re a paramedic, not a hostage negotiator,” Ivy muttered from the back.
• Liana stepped forward, placing a hand lightly on Niko’s shoulder. “If this is a game, we need strategy. No panic. No splitting up. We observe everything.”
• They entered the hallway together, the air turning colder with every step. The walls were lined with antique clocks each one ticking, each one out of sync.
• At the end of the hall was a metal door with an old-fashioned keypad. On the wall beside it, a screen lit up.
• GAME ONE: BEAT THE CLOCK.
• You have 15 minutes to unlock the door using the code hidden in this room.
• A countdown started: 15:00… 14:59… 14:58…
• No one moved for a heartbeat.
• Then chaos.
• Caleb ripped open drawers. Ivy began pulling books off a shelf. Elijah punched the wall in frustration.
• “There must be a pattern,” Theo said, eyes scanning the ticking clocks. “The times they’re all different for a reason!”
• Niko darted to a far corner where a small puzzle box sat beneath a shattered clock.
• “I found something!”
• The box had Roman numerals and rotating sides. Liana rushed to help him. “Each clock shows a different time. What if they’re hints?”
• Niko nodded. “And this box could hold the code.”
• Behind them, Marcus moved quietly, watching , not the puzzle, but everyone’s hands.
• He saw which fingers trembled, who hesitated, who worked together. He wasn’t here to solve puzzles. He was here to report. To manipulate.
• Zara, meanwhile, was watching him. Her gut didn’t trust calm people in chaos.
• “Elijah,” she called. “How many clocks are showing 3:33?”
• He glanced up. “Three.”
• Liana twisted the box. III-III-III.
• A click.
• The box opened, revealing a slip of paper. Five numbers.
• Niko grabbed it and read the digits aloud. “Nine… Four… Two… One… Zero.”
• Theo typed the code into the keypad. The display flashed red, then..
• Beep beep!
• The door unlocked.
• A moment of relief passed through them. One room down. They were still alive.
• But as they stepped through the threshold, the voice returned:
• “Well done. You worked fast… But not fast enough.”
• “All must solve to survive. One of you failed.”
• Behind them, a shrill sound SCREEEECH and the door slammed shut.
• Theo’s face turned white. “Wait where’s Ivy?”
• They turned back.
• She wasn’t there.
• She had stayed behind. Silent. Observing. Too quiet.
• Now… gone.
• Zara’s eyes were wide with horror. “She didn’t cross the door in time.”
• Liana shook her head. “But we solved it.”
• “The system didn’t care,” Niko said grimly. “It wanted all of us to act. Not just a few.”
• A chilling thought crossed his mind: this wasn’t about solving puzzles. It was about learning how people crack under pressure.
• And somewhere in this shrinking group… the real game was just beginning.