The Tower- Chapters 6-10
Chapter 6
1
Like all kids, I started studying for a profession early. The aptitude tests had always shown that I was good in the visual arts, as well as the art of persuasion. So I was placed in training programs for visual communication with an emphasis on advertisement.
It’s hard to know if you were placed into the wrong field when it’s what you’ve been trained for your entire life. I always had other interests, but the training kept me focused.
I remember times that I’d speak with my friends that were training for other professions. Sometimes they’d tell me how much they hated their job path, no matter how good they were at it. I never seemed to have the problem myself. I didn’t hate the path that was laid out in front of me, I just didn’t know if I loved it either.
Maybe it was the particular training program that I was in that kept me interested, maybe it was something else. But while I had friends fighting the system in order to be assigned different fields, I worked hard in mine, honing my skills.
Very few people are assigned to the creative careers early on. Most are later accepted into the programs as they home their skills on their own. Many will study in one field for years, and then move into the creative fields as circumstances force them to, or to have skills if the volatile market ever decides that their particular style is not required. That I was placed in visual communication so early was considered strange. For no matter the technical aspects behind it, it really is a creative career.
It was as I matured, and the technical aspects gave way to straight creativity, that I knew that I loved my job. By the time that secondary paths became required study, I knew that there was nothing else that I would enjoy as much.
2
Sheryl found that the staircase ended in a circular area that formed the intersection of hallways. One hallway spanned the diagonal of the floor. Another intersected the first spanning half of the other diagonal.
From the circular area Sheryl could see four doors. Two were from where the tips of the triangles that were formed by the intersecting hallways were cut off. The other two were on either end of the long hallway along the wall.
Sheryl opened the door directly in front of her. She found herself looking into her next break room. Closing the door again, she decided that she would wait to go in until she had spent a little more time on the floor.
Sheryl examined her other options again. She decided that due to the placement of the doors, and the fact that there wasn’t another hallway, that the long wall had only a single room behind it with two doors rather than two rooms.
Sheryl opened the door on the other stand alone triangle. The smell of coffee wafted out of the room. Taking a few steps in, she recognized the layout of one of her favorite coffeehouses. As the door closed behind her, Sheryl turned and was shocked to see the same street scene projected onto the blank wall, giving the illusion of windows and people walking outside.
She realized that she hadn’t looked for the downward door before going into the room. She hoped that she didn’t miss something important.
Sheryl looked around the room. It was exactly as she had remembered. Along both side walls were various packaged coffees and equipment. Tables filled the middle portion, interspersed with stand alone racks of other products. And along the back wall stood the register and ordering counter. The only thing that didn’t seem proper about the room was the fact that it was completely devoid of people.
Sheryl thought about it for a second more, and then walked back out of the room. She decided that she didn’t want to be completely oblivious of anything that she was supposed to find in the room.
Sheryl decided to check down the short hallway first, and she was glad that she did. She found the door imbedded into the floor, with a note saying that she was looking for a single, well-labeled, button.
Going back to the coffee shop, Sheryl doubted that she would find it in there, but knew that she had to check. She made her way through the room quickly, pulling coffee from the shelves and overturning tables.
Satisfied that the button was not hidden in the room, Sheryl picked up the vouchers that she had scattered and made her way back into the hallway.
Sheryl looked at her available options for doors. She decided on left, and made her way to the door at the end of the hallway.
She heard scuttling as she grasped the cool metal handle. Knowing that something was behind the door, Sheryl pulled one of the guns from her belt.
Gun ready, Sheryl opened the door.
3
The scuttling continued as Sheryl opened the door, but it moved away as well. Sheryl allowed the door to close behind her.
The room appeared to be some sort of obstacle course. The brushed metal theme continued into it, and created an almost monotonous tone throughout. Only the lighting and shadows differentiated the floor from the boxes and obstacles.
The skittering continued out of sight. Sheryl decided that she would have to ignore it until it presented a threat.
Sheryl picked one of the nearby boxes and climbed up onto it. She could see that her thoughts about the room had been correct. The room was roughly triangular, with the other door at the far end of the room. Next to the door, Sheryl could see the button. It was brightly labeled, so that she could make it out even from where she stood.
She could also see that it was enclosed in some type of clear shell so that she couldn’t just walk up and press it. Sheryl looked around. She thought that there must be a better way of getting the button out of the enclosure than breaking it.
Looking back to the door that she came in through, Sheryl found it. Another button was next to the door. She jumped back down from the box that she was on and walked over to it. A simple warning was etched on the button. It informed Sheryl that as soon as she pressed it the locks would change. The door she was standing next to would lock, and the one at the far end would unlock. She could see that there was more as well, but it had been scratched beyond recognition.
Sheryl sighed and pressed the button. As soon as she did, the scuttling sound became louder. She decided to keep ignoring it, and started moving toward the other button.
She was just climbing over one of the first obstacle boxes when she felt a painful shock on her leg. Sheryl kicked and felt her foot impact something. She turned to see what looked like a robotic spider getting back to its feet.
As she watched, Sheryl felt another shock on her other leg. She looked down to see another one of the robot spiders. She decided that she didn’t want to fight them off every time. Pulling out her gun, Sheryl took aim and shot both of them.
She was turning to move on, when she heard a high pitched cry from one of the robots that she had shot. Covering her ears, Sheryl cringed for the duration of the cry. As the noise diminished, another took its place. Where the scuttling had been minor before, it was now the only noise in the room.
Sheryl looked to see hundreds of the robotic spiders coming over the boxes behind her. She aimed and shot at a couple of them, only to have them release the same painful death cry. Others made it to her and started shocking her.
Sheryl decided that she had no choice, she ran. Jumping from box to box as fast as she could, she tried to outrun the spiders. The few that got close, she tried to shoot.
The spiders, however, were faster than Sheryl and more accustomed to the layout of the room. She soon found herself being constantly bombarded by their painful shocks, and the noise of the ones that she managed to shoot only worked to increase her overall level of pain.
Climbing atop one of the boxes, Sheryl unslung her bag, and spun it in an arc flinging aside the spiders that had come within its reach.
She jumped down, and moved toward the far wall again while the spiders worked to right themselves. But she could see them gaining on her again. She ran to the next obstacle wall, the highest one in the room if her memory served right. She could hardly remember, the continuing shocks and noise had left her in a temporary constant state of pain.
She climbed up to the top. Looking down she could see that it was a decent drop, or there was a set of descending boxes off to one side. Looking back, she could see that the spiders would be to the top within a minute. She decided to jump.
Sheryl picked a landing spot and leapt from the top of the boxes. She tucked her legs slightly, trying to cushion her landing. But as soon as she hit the floor she knew that she had made a mistake. Her recently healed leg cracked on impact.
Sheryl howled in pain. She tried to get up, but even her good leg was refusing to support her. She turned over to see the spiders had reached the top of the obstacle, and a few were already starting to make their way down. She knew that they would be on her quickly.
Sheryl turned over again and managed to convince her good leg to at least propel her along the floor if it wasn’t going to support her weight. She managed to gain a few more meters that way before the spiders descended upon her. In comparison to the agony of the broken leg, Sheryl almost didn’t notice the shocking of the spiders, almost. It was still immensely painful, just not as noticeable.
Sheryl knew that she had to get out of the reach of the spiders and get a first aid kit before the shock of the pain knocked her out. She looked desperately for a place to escape. Finally, she thought she found it. She spotted a small hole in one nearby wall. She made her way toward it, fighting off the spiders as best she could. As she got closer she saw that there was a small door that she could pull down to block the spiders from coming in. She got as close to the door as she could, and then used her bag to once again brush off the spiders.
Diving into the hole, Sheryl hoped that she was doing the right thing, but she also knew that she didn’t really have a choice. She turned quickly, and shot one of the spiders that almost made it into the hole with her. Forcing herself to ignore its scream, she pulled the door down and shut out the spiders.
4
A few seconds after the door closed a dim light started to diffuse through the room. Sheryl looked around. The room was small and square, only about three meters on a side. She could see another small door on the wall that intersected the one she was beside.
With the terror of the spiders subsiding, the pain was starting to really take hold of Sheryl. She could feel the sweat starting to bead on her face, and she knew that it wasn’t from exertion.
She pulled herself to the opposite corner of the room. Then, sitting in the corner, Sheryl reached around to the back of her neck and turned her microphone to the locator setting.
“Requesting first aid,” she said.
“Request acknowledged,” the familiar female voice replied. “Position verified, first aid drop off in one minute.”
Sheryl knew that the minute would feel like an eternity. She tried to think of ways to distract herself from the pain while she waited. She decided that her best option was to pull down her pants to expose the skin around the broken bone. She used her good leg to force herself up a little on the wall so that she could pull the pants down some.
“Sheryl?”
Sheryl was so focused on the task at hand that she didn’t hear her name being called. She managed to get the pants down enough to allow her to sit down again. She then clenched her teeth as she struggled to expose more skin while the leg was screaming in protest.
“Sheryl?” The second call was louder.
Sheryl started when she realized that Liam was trying to get her attention. “Yeah?” she asked, her voice filled with pain.
“What happened?”
“My leg snapped at the bottom of that jump.”
“Which one?”
“The one that just healed.”
Sheryl heard a noise above her, and looked up to see an access panel open up in the ceiling. A cable then lowered the first aid kit to her. She opened the kit to find it laid out exactly as it had been during her training.
Sheryl dug around in the kit for a moment. When her hands reemerged they held two syringes. One was a milky color, the other a very slight blue. She placed the syringe with the milky contents on top of the contents of the first aid kit.
Sheryl pulled the cap from the syringe that she still held and made sure that there was no air in it. She then made sure that there were no wires from the microphone in the way and inserted the needle into the back of her neck, between the data ports. She felt a sting as she forced the contents of the needle into her body, and then it quickly subsided as the pain blockers went to work.
As soon as the pain from her leg was blocked, Sheryl picked up the other syringe again. She performed the air check a second time, and inserted the thick needle into her leg as close to where she believed the break was as possible. She watched as the skin around the injection turned bright blue.
Sheryl heard Liam gasp as what she was doing appeared on the monitors. “Aren’t people supposed to be unconscious before that injection is made?” he asked in disbelief. “Despite the best advances in bone reconstruction formulas and nanotechnology that is still supposed to be incredibly painful.”
“Yeah, I know,” Sheryl responded. “That why I injected the pain blockers so high. At least most of it will be blocked out, but not all of it.”
Sheryl looked at her leg to see that the blue had moved slightly from the original injection point and was starting to turn green.
“So how long will it take?” Liam asked.
Sheryl realized what he was doing and was immensely grateful. “It depends,” she responded, hoping that he would keep her distracted as the bone reconstruction took place.
“Depends on what?” Liam asked, catching the hint to continue.
“Depends on the severity of the break and it depends on how the edges or the break are. The nanobots can repair jagged edges faster than smooth ones because then they don’t have to create edges for the binding agent to attach to.”
Sheryl was starting to feel the repairs being made. She gritted her teeth against the pain. She wondered briefly how bad it would have been had she not injected herself with the pain blockers.
“How will you know when the repairs are complete?” Liam continued. Sheryl could hear the concern in his voice and she realized that her pain must be evident on the monitors.
Sheryl realized that she was out of breath from the pain when she had a hard time getting enough air to form an immediate reply. “The skin,” she panted. “The skin around the break will turn from green to orange when the repairs are done. And the orange will disappear over a period of days so that doctors can find the break location easily.”
“Good,” Liam said, a comforting tone to his voice.
Sheryl could hear that Liam was struggling to keep her focused on something other than the pain. But she had reached the point where she didn’t care. The pain was too much. She stayed quiet for as long as she could, but eventually she started screaming in pain.
5
Sheryl didn’t know how long she had been in the room. She really didn’t care either.
The searing pain had been reduced to a numbing throb. Sheryl was just coherent enough to realize that she was shivering. She pulled her bag close to where she was and pulled the duster out of it. She did her best to arrange the duster over the exposed skin while not disturbing her leg.
As the pain slowly subsided, Sheryl could remember vaguely hearing a timer announcement during her time in the room. “Liam?” she croaked.
“Yeah?”
Sheryl fought for breath for a moment and then managed to get her question out. “How long have I been in this room?” She took a few gasping breaths. “How much time do I have left?”
“You’ve been in that room for about three-quarters of an hour. The timer now reads just over five hours and forty-five minutes remaining.”
Sheryl looked at the skin on her leg, it was the faintest shade of orange. She knew that she should give the break more time, but she also knew that she didn’t have the luxury. She braced herself against the wall and used her good leg for leverage to push off.
“Are you sure you should be doing that?”
“No, in fact I know that I shouldn’t be doing this. But I have to keep moving.”
Sheryl almost collapsed again as she put weight on the leg, but she managed to catch herself against the wall and keep her feet. Taking another cautious step, she gritted her teeth against the pain and forced herself to move.
“You ok?” Liam asked, concern filling his voice.
“Yeah,” Sheryl grunted. “Just dandy.”
Sheryl made her way back to the door that she had come through. She listened for a moment, but couldn’t hear anything on the other side. She thought about it for a moment, and then knelt down by the door. Pulling the door up a fraction she peeked underneath.
Sheryl could see a couple of the spiders on the other side, but not the masses that had been following her earlier. They hadn’t seemed to notice her opening the door. She peeked at the direction that she would need to take. She still had quite a distance to cover, and she didn’t know how badly the pursuit would resume as she left the room.
Sheryl closed the door again, making sure that she avoided making any noise that would attract the spiders’ attention. Making her way to the other door in the room she repeated the process of opening the door and looking for spiders.
The first thing that she noticed when it came time to choose a path was that it would be significantly easier to get to the button from the second door. There also seemed to be fewer spiders, indicating that they were programmed to patrol the door she went in through more than other exits.
Sheryl watched the routine of the spider patrols for a moment, and then decided on a course of action. Throwing the door open she started another run for the button.
6
As soon as she left the room Sheryl started counting the seconds until the spiders spotted her. She counted four or five before they started after her again. She decided not to shoot at them unless they swarmed again. She hoped that it was the screaming of the dying ones that had caused the swarm and if that was it she hoped that she could avoid the same problem by just brushing off the ones that got too close.
The theory seemed to work. Sheryl had made it halfway to the button, and still only a few of the spiders were after her. More joined in the pursuit as they spotted her, but the swarm never appeared.
She hit the button still running, and pulled the door open without stopping. She was worried that the spiders might try to follow her out into the hall, but they stopped at the door.
Sheryl breathed a sigh of relief, and headed toward the break room. She decided that she had better eat something to keep the pain and bone repair medications from messing with other parts of her body.
Slumping into the chair in the break room, Sheryl was glad to take a breather off of the clock. She knew that she should save her time in the breaks, but her leg was starting to throb again and she wanted to give it a couple more minutes to heal before she headed to the next floor.
Sheryl stared at the vending unit for a few moments before deciding on what she wanted to eat. Standing again she walked over to grab her meal and then resumed her seat.
Sheryl stared at her food for a moment, set her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands.
“You ok?” Liam asked, wavering into sight across the table.
“I made a mistake,” Sheryl replied without raising her head. “A possibly fatal mistake. The time I spent in there might be needed later. Besides, I should have known not to make that jump.”
“You were in a state of terror. How could you think about anything clearly when your trying to avoid the pain that those things were causing?”
Sheryl shook her head, “I still should have known better.”
Liam sighed, but didn’t push the subject.
Sheryl raised her head and started eating her meal. As soon as she was finished she tossed the tray in the trash and headed to the stairs that would lead her to the next floor.
Chapter 7
1
I met Liam when our paths crossed in secondary studies. Since we were in a small enough district to be allowed to choose our own secondary study programs, I decided on psychology. I figured that since my passing the psych tests had always been by such a narrow margin, I had better learn to recognize the signs that would mean that I had problems.
Liam had started in the psychology programs, and was my intern instructor. The funny thing was that I had also been chosen as an intern instructor in the visual communications program. I was thrilled to be able to teach the skills that I had learned to those who were studying visual communications as their secondary field.
I walked into the room where I was to start teaching the skills that I had learned, and it was Liam whom I saw in the small classroom of people in front of me. For the first couple of minutes I found myself not able to say anything while he just stared at me.
Somehow those circumstances led to us becoming good friends. Even though each of us was teaching the other, we managed to keep our professional and personal lives separate. And since we were both teaching for the first time we both were able to share general concerns over how we were teaching and how it was translating over to the learning portion.
It turned out to be great for each of us.
After that first year, we were both moved into more intensive programs within our fields. Neither one of us taught after that first year, but our friendship continued.
As the time came to leave for college, and final training in our fields, we discovered that we had both been accepted to and planned to attend the same college. We decided that living together would be cheaper than each of us living alone, so we rented a small loft.
We worked well together. We worked off of each other’s energy, and we were able to work together to solve problems. The one problem we couldn’t solve, however, was our separation after college.
Our friendship tried to become something more at one point, but time and circumstances ended that. As the end of the college years approached, we were forced to confront the realities of our professional lives. Since I could work from almost anywhere, I decided to make my home in the small town that I grew up in.
Liam, however, didn’t have such a luxury. He still needed to intern with the state psychology council before he could be certified. It meant that he would spend several years at least in a megalopolis. Not only that, but long hours and constant monitoring of his home life to make sure that he was suited for the profession meant that a relationship would be difficult to maintain at best. Despite the assurances of the council, we knew that they had the effect of straining most incoming relationships to the breaking point.
It was with regret that we left our loft in search of new homes.
Liam finally did find his way back to our hometown and we are still close. But any thoughts that we might ever had had of a long term relationship had dissolved in those intervening years.
2
Sheryl wished that the designers could have stuck with one color scheme for the main hallways for a change. As she exited the stairwell she saw that the hall was now painted an off-white color with wood paneling.
She could see that the hallway went most of the length of the floor once she had turned a couple of corners out of the nook that the stairwell had dropped her in. There were three doors, two on her right and one on her left.
Sheryl could see where another hallway intersected the one that she was in at the end of the hall. She ran to the intersection and saw that another intersection was at the end of the second hall. She made her way to the end again, and saw what she was looking for.
About halfway down the third hall was a hole in the floor, and a gate off to one side. Sheryl made her way to the hole and looked down. She could see the stairs leading down, and a door that opened onto the floor below. If she wanted to she could jump to the floor below from where she was, but considering her recently injured leg she didn’t want to take the chance unless necessary.
Sheryl stood up straight again and rattled the bars on the gate. A small lock kept it in place. What it kept her from was a ledge that would allow her to get to the uppermost step. Sheryl wished that the designers had left more of the gate construction along the open end of the ledge, she would have just climbed along it. But there was a solid wall there, just long enough to prevent her from circumventing the lock or the jump.
Sheryl made her way back to the first hallway, the one where the doors were. She decided to tackle the single door first. Opening it, Sheryl felt her stress level immediately rise.
The color yellow oozed out of the room like a disease. It was another colorblind.
Sheryl grabbed the biggest object within reach and propped the door open with it. She then pulled one of her guns from the holster and took aim at the light panels on the ceiling. She took careful aim; she didn’t want to hit the bulbs contained within the panels.
Sheryl fired several rounds into each of the light boxes. White light streamed into the room from the holes created. Satisfied that she had enough contrast for the time being, she started searching the room.
Sheryl quickly decided that she didn’t want to spend too much time in the aggravating room searching for a key that could be in one of the other rooms. She ransacked the room quickly and stowed vouchers in her bag.
She left the room and made her way back almost to the beginning of the floor. She opened the first door that she had passed in her journey to find the next stairwell.
The door opened into a room with subdued lighting and beeping sounds. Sheryl couldn’t make out what the room held from the doorway, so she took a breath and stepped in.
3
Sheryl was still confused as she walked through the archway. Lights traced back and forth in channels in the walls and ceiling, and the beeping continued from further into the room. She could see that the diffuse lighting continued into the room.
As she entered the main portion of the room she finally understood what the room was. Museum quality replicas were artfully placed about the room, most designed to showcase the progression of the Digital Age.
Most of one wall was taken up with a partial replica of an early computer. Sheryl could see that it had panels that opened to allow people to take a look inside and see how the ancient monstrosities would have worked. Other displays were dedicated to the rise of home computing and the early global integration network called the internet.
Sheryl was glad that she had visited museums with similar exhibits before, or she would have been tempted to study the room in front of her, rather than ransack it.
Sheryl started with the replica wall. She pulled open the hatches and rummaged in the compartments for the key and vouchers.
While she searched, Sheryl allowed her mind to wander. She had always been interested in the early Digital Age. The jumps from computers that filled a room to those that were implanted in a minimally invasive procedure into the brain fascinated her. Compared to the rest of history the advances were almost impossible in their speed.
Moving through the room, Sheryl was reminded of how humanity got to where it was.
Sheryl took one last look at the room as she stood in the door, shoving the vouchers into her bag. She wanted to make sure that she hadn’t missed anything.
Satisfied with her search, Sheryl opened the door to the hallway. She hadn’t realized how dark the room was until the bright light of the hallway nearly blinded her.
Leaving the dim lighting and beeps of the computer exhibit, Sheryl headed toward the last door on the floor.
Opening it her senses were immediately assaulted. Bright colors were everywhere, and the noise that flooded into the hallway was just a notch below deafening.
Sheryl squeezed past some people shaped robots and into the room proper.
Sheryl managed to get a brief glimpse of the room and realized that she was in one of the few entertainment holdouts from the twentieth century, a casino. Fem-bots wearing little more than enticing gauzes and carrying trays of drinks weaved in and out of the throngs of other bots meant to simulate partiers and gamblers.
Sheryl moved about the room. Dealers called out games as she passed, but she knew that she had to find the key before she could worry about collecting the vouchers that the dealers were peddling.
As she came to a darker portion of the room she saw what she was looking for. At one of the blackjack tables a desperate player had managed to convince the dealer to let him set the key in as part of his bet.
Sheryl grabbed one of the nearest fem-bots and exchanged a few vouchers for playing chips. She then moved over to the table and watched as the dealer handily won the key. As the losing robot pleaded with the dealer to give it back, Sheryl got a good look at it. The key was ornate, just like the gate in the hall.
As the dejected robot abandoned its seat, Sheryl slid into the empty spot. Sliding a few chips into the square in front of her she waited for her hand to be dealt.
Sheryl knew that the dealer would be programmed to not give up the key easily. So she waited and played. Every time she won she left half of her winnings as a bet in addition to her original bet. Soon she had developed a decent sized pile of chips as a bet.
She eyed the key, and then the dealer, who gave her a nervous glance in response. She knew that she had now accumulated enough to get the key if she demanded it. It was now time to wait for the right opportunity.
She didn’t have to wait long. Only two winning hands later Sheryl was dealt a blackjack. The dealer started to count out the chips, but Sheryl interrupted with a request for the key. The dealer stalled for a moment, consulting with an invisible office, and then handed it over.
Sheryl carefully scooped her winnings off of the table and walked to the nearest cash-out booth.
Vouchers in hand, Sheryl made her way back into the hall.
As she slid the key into the lock she had the slightest fear that it would not turn. But as the tumblers slid in the frame she knew that she was on her way.
Bounding down the stairs she stopped at the door to the next level. A simple sign told her of the challenge to descending further from that floor. Opening the door a wave of heat engulfed her.
Chapter 8
1
I remember when I met my husband. One of my assignments as an advertising apprentice was to develop a campaign for a local restaurant chain. It was on a visit to one of the restaurants that I met him.
He was finishing up his own apprenticeship. Trained as a chef, the owner of the chain was about to move him to a new location that was opening.
At first I thought that he was annoying, all he could talk about was food, and of course his own training. Then he asked me to dinner one night. I almost said no. I worried that I would be bored the entire evening. But curiosity got the better of me, and I said yes.
I’ve never once regretted that decision.
I found that the singular lines of conversation were due to an order from his boss. Since the advertising campaign was to center around the new location for a restaurant, and since the staff of the new location was as important as the location itself he had been ordered to talk about only his training and the different styles of food that he had been trained in. Once he was free of working hours I found him to have depths of knowledge and imagination that I would never have imagined from earlier conversations.
It was only a matter of time after that. Somehow in the months that followed I knew that I had met my soul mate. We were married less than a year after we first met.
2
Immediately after the wave of heat hit her, the wave of humidity followed. The combination was enough to make Sheryl’s eyes water.
As she became able to focus on the room in front of her Sheryl noticed that the room didn’t make sense. The heat she could understand, given the apparent theme of the room, but the humidity was what was confusing her. Given the abundance of sand, Sheryl could only assume that the room was meant to simulate a desert. But she couldn’t recall ever having heard about a humid desert.
Moving forward a few steps Sheryl finally realized that she was standing on some sort of plateau. She couldn’t see a ladder or other steps to get off of it, so she sat on the edge and dropped to the floor below.
As she stood at floor level, Sheryl realized that the sand was formed in ways to emulate dunes. She hoped that the door was under something a bit smaller than one of the dunes. She knew that sand was notoriously hard to deal with.
Looking toward the center of the room again, Sheryl noticed an odd shape covered in sand that she hadn’t been able to notice from above. Slightly circular in nature, or at least appearing that way through the sand, it rose from the sandy floor about two feet.
Sheryl moved toward it, fighting the sand with every step. As she approached she could see that it was indeed some sort of pedestal, and she could see writing on the sides where the sand wasn’t obstructing it. She could also spot deep grooves in the side that sand had collected in.
After what felt like an eternity of trudging through sand, Sheryl finally reached the pedestal. She quickly brushed the sand from the top, hoping to see the words that this was the door to the next level. She didn’t even care about collecting vouchers if it meant that she could get out of the sand.
Despite Sheryl’s fervent wishes to the contrary, no words were present on the top of the pedestal. Sheryl brushed sand from the sides hoping that there was a clue on one of faces of the octagon.
As she rounded the back face of the pedestal Sheryl felt a small impression in the side. The angle was weird, and she had had to dig out sand in order to reach it, it was so low. She curled her fingers under the lip of the impression, hoping that there wasn’t a trap involved. As her fingers felt the back side of the cut out, she could make out the shape of a small button.
Taking a deep breath, Sheryl pushed down on the button.
For a brief second, Sheryl wondered if anything was going to happen. Then the top of the pedestal flipped up on an invisible hinge. Still hunched over in the sand, Sheryl hoped once again that the way down had been revealed.
Standing up again, Sheryl wasn’t entirely disappointed. The lid hadn’t revealed a staircase, but the contents were interesting nonetheless. Pulled taught against a tube protruding from the base of the pedestal was what appeared to be a pull handle. Sheryl stood next to the pedestal and tried to pull up on it, but found that the handle was too firmly pulled down. Trying for a different grip on it, Sheryl climbed into the enclosure.
Planting her feet firmly against the sides of the enclosure, Sheryl pulled up again on the handle. As she stood there, pulling on the handle, Sheryl worried that she wasn’t strong enough to move it. She moved about the enclosure some, hoping for a better position to brace herself in. Finally, just as she was about to give up, she felt the slightest movement in the line.
Sheryl braced herself again, and gave the handle another pull. She felt it move another tiny bit. She could feel the muscles in her arms start to ache. Gritting her teeth Sheryl pulled once more time.
A loud snap was heard as the handle finally moved freely. As she sailed backward into the side of the enclosure Sheryl was glad that the handle had been set down within the pedestal rather than near the top.
Sheryl was still trying to recover her balance as the snapping sounds continued from around the room. The lights dimmed considerably from the brightness of the desert, and a rusty red glow seemed to be the prominent lighting of the room. She finally managed to turn around and look at the room around her.
Sheryl watched in awe and horror and the floor plates first rattled from the sudden lack of support, and then fell away in a carefully choreographed collapse.
3
Sheryl reached behind her and grabbed the still turned up lid of the pedestal. The enclosure surrounding the tube that the handle had been in was not in any way shallow, but the room was shaking with such force that she was worried about falling out.
The floor had fallen away in roughly triangular segments. Huge hinges had drawn them toward the walls rather than the new floor, but some chunks had fallen free, creating ramps and dangerous places below.
The room below where the floor had previously been was shaped like an upside down cone. Various levels had been created in a step fashion down the sides of the cone, and the sand from the desert was being funneled down to the bottom and was disappearing from the room.
“Thank goodness for that,” Sheryl muttered to herself as she watched vast quantities of the sand disappear.
As the room finally stopped shaking, Sheryl took a good look at the new situation. The pedestal enclosure was supported by two cross beams that formed an X over the room below. The beams were just wide enough to walk on.
Carefully, Sheryl climbed out of the enclosure and stepped onto the beam nearest her. It looked thin, but it seemed to support her weight. Turning back to the enclosure, she forced the lid closed again and then climbed atop the pedestal.
From the slightly better vantage point atop the pedestal Sheryl could see that one of the cross beams had a ladder down to the cone within easy reach. She climbed back down to the beam and made her way toward the wall.
As soon as Sheryl climbed onto the ladder, she knew that it wasn’t as safe as it looked. It had been a part of the floor earlier, and sand still filled the grooves. She struggled to keep her footing as the sand shifted beneath her toes. Stepping out onto the top ledge of the cone, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Looking out into the room Sheryl saw that the cone was much more complex than she could initially make out from the pedestal. Each ledge hung out over the one below it by several feet, and doors and passages were hidden within the recesses. In the back of her mind Sheryl wondered if she was still considered to be on the same floor as the desert or if she had descended.
“Liam?”
“Yes?” he replied, fading into view in the darkness.
“I need to know what floor I’m on. Am I still on the desert floor, or did I change levels when I descended this ladder?”
Liam glanced over to where he would see a progress chart. It was slightly disconcerting to Sheryl, she knew that he was a hologram, but he and her other friends appeared to always be gazing into the distance when they tried to help her.
“It appears that this is considered the same level as the desert,” Liam finally said. “The desert was just a false front. This is the real level.”
Sheryl sighed. “Wish that they could have done without the theatrics. It looks strange enough without the sand cascading over the edges.”
“You forget what you’re talking about, honey,” Liam said, gently reminding her that she was on a game show.
Sheryl sighed again, and started looking for a way down to the next ledge. She spotted a door on the far side of the current ledge. She made her way toward it.
“So that’s why my tower looked so tall,” Sheryl said as she walked.
“What was that?” Liam asked.
Sheryl paused and looked around the room. “In any normal building this would be high enough to be considered three floors, if not four. But as it is a single challenge here it only counts as one. So all of that extra height, along with other higher than standard challenges, make the towers taller than the twenty-four stories that they are supposed to be.”
Liam only nodded in his response.
Sheryl reached the door, and pulled it open. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw a set of stairs leading down. A dim light filtered up from the bottom, telling her that it would indeed lead her to the next ledge.
Sheryl bounded down the stairs, and encountered a grate at the bottom. She turned to go back up, but found that the door had shut and locked itself. Standing at the grate Sheryl looked out on the current level. She could see doors ringing it, but getting to them from behind the grate would be the problem.
Sheryl felt the walls of the tiny space that she was trapped in. The light coming through the grate wasn’t much and she couldn’t actually see the area for more than a foot or two from the grate.
She was about to give up and try fighting the grate itself when she felt a small recess with her foot. Sheryl dropped to her knees, and felt the area with her hands. She found that one of the bricks had been pushed from the wall to create a hole.
Sheryl pulled another brick free and managed to get her arm inside of the hole. She felt for a wall on the other side, but couldn’t reach one.
Sheryl pulled more bricks from the wall, eventually creating a hole just big enough for her to squeeze through. As she stood on the other side she found that the darkness enveloped her.
Sheryl reached out with her hands, and felt brick walls on three sides. Deciding to try the one open direction before looking for more hidden passages, she headed away from the center of the room. Keeping her arms out and slightly ahead of her, Sheryl soon encountered a wall on the fourth side.
Sheryl stood at the juncture of walls for a moment, trying to determine the best place to start looking for another place to go through the walls. She decided, and started back toward where she had come in.
Without warning the floor dropped out from beneath her.
4
As Sheryl landed on a soft surface she realized that the drop had been carefully planned. She felt the pillows beneath her, grateful for their presence. She was just preparing to stand back up and determine the status of her new situation when the room around her moved again.
Sheryl fell back onto the pillows as the surface that she had been on started to slip. A slight breeze through her hair told her that she was moving again. As the speed increased she realized that she was on some sort of cart. She felt around for something to grab hold of as the cart continued to move. Finding no handles, Sheryl grabbed the edge of the cart and held on.
The cart moved in a tightening spiral around the room. Sheryl could feel the descent as well, but she didn’t think that the slope was too bad. She breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the movement of the cart slow slightly. Easing her grip on the sides Sheryl started to try and determine where the cart was going to deposit her.
Sheryl felt herself flying as the cart came to a sudden stop underneath her. For a second she regretted her decision to ease the grip on the sides, and then she realized that she had been thrown with enough force that if she had still been holding tight she might have injured herself.
Sheryl slid down a short chute, and then suddenly reemerged back into the dim light of the room proper. A short drop of several feet, and Sheryl finally came to a stop on top of a stack of mattresses.
“Ow,” Sheryl muttered, pushing herself from the mattresses and checking for injuries. Once she had determined that it was only the rough landing that caused pain and not something actually injured she looked around. “This room keeps getting weirder and weirder,” she said as she looked up into the cone. “At least I’m out of that dark passage.”
Sheryl was about to look for the best way to get back to the ledge areas when she heard a sound. She paused and listened. “Sand!”
Sheryl pushed the top two mattresses aside and saw that sand was indeed pooling around the base of the bottommost mattress. Sheryl tried to throw aside the last mattress, but found that it was anchored. The best that she was able to do was lift up on the sides. As soon as she lifted, Sheryl noticed that the sand around the sides of the mattress moved faster. Sheryl held up the sides until she could comfortably reach under the mattress. She could just make out the feeling of a grate with the tips of her fingers, and she felt that in several places the grate was being blocked.
Sheryl grabbed onto the closest blockage of the grate and pulled. When she looked in her hand she saw that she had pulled free a wad of vouchers that had been hidden in the sand. Sheryl threw the vouchers onto the mattress and reached into the sand again.
As the vouchers were pulled free of the grate Sheryl noticed a marked increase in the rate of sand flow. She felt her duster pull slightly, and took a second to reposition herself in the flowing sand. Within a few moments of pulling the first vouchers free she was able to maneuver herself slightly underneath the mattress, better able to grab the items that were being carried within the sand.
As the last bit of sand finally trickled through the grate Sheryl looked on top of the mattress and saw exactly how many vouchers she had retrieved. She decided upon the first look that her eyes were deceiving her, so she stood up on the curved floor for a better look. When she saw that her eyes were indeed correctly reporting the number of vouchers she nearly collapsed again. The vouchers from the sand pile alone more than doubled the amount of vouchers that she was carrying. Sheryl quickly shoved the lot into one of her bags, and then turned to look at the different view in the room.
She noticed that she could see the doors that ringed the room from the different angle. She saw that what looked like solid colored doors from above actually had information painted onto their fronts. She blinked a bit at the illusion that had been created from above, and then tried to make out the various tidbits of information posted on the doors.
After a few seconds Sheryl realized what the clues posted at the entrance to the desert had meant. She had been instructed only to find the door, but she could count at least twenty doors ringing the room. She knew that she would waste valuable time searching through each and every one. Convinced that the answers lay in the information that was printed on each door, Sheryl studied them closely.
She soon noticed that each door had an arrow underneath whatever other information was on the door. The arrows seemed to converge by pointing at roughly three doors in the center of the central tier of doors. Combined with the other information on the doors, Sheryl thought that she understood what she needed to do in order to proceed.
Heading for the closer of the two doors on her tier, Sheryl hoped that her guess was correct.
5
“Ow,” Sheryl said as she bumped her head on the ceiling in the dark. She gingerly raised her hand and felt the solid surface above her head. Once she had determined that she could no longer continue upward she felt for a ledge with one of her feet. Finding it, she climbed off of the ladder and proceeded in the only direction that was open to her.
Opening the door at the end of the short passage Sheryl saw that she had managed to make her way up to the next tier. But she knew that she still was two tiers below where she wanted to be. Sheryl looked at her new set of options.
Except for the two doors that she had expected, Sheryl saw that all of the doors indicated either a ladder or stairwell that would take her up. She had to go up two floors more to be where she wanted to be.
With a sigh Sheryl picked a door. She hoped that it would take her up to the proper level, but with nearly ten options on that level she knew that it was more a matter of luck that she pick one that would take her where she wanted to go more than anything.
Determined not to hit her head again, Sheryl picked a door with a stair symbol rather than one with a ladder depicted. Racing up the stairs she thought that she might have lucked out when she started climbing what felt like a second tier’s worth of stairs. But where she though another landing should have been she only found more stairs. With a sigh, Sheryl proceeded to the next door.
As expected, Sheryl found herself one level above the doors that seemed to be the way out. For a moment she contemplated just jumping off the edge to get to where she wanted to be, but once again remembered that it was risky considering her recent break.
Sheryl glanced about the tier some. Immediately she decided that she would ignore any ascending only doors. She knew that she had to keep moving if she wanted to escape the tower. With roughly a third of the doors eliminated, Sheryl tried to line up the doors with those on the lower level. Cursing inwardly, Sheryl realized that none lined up closely enough to rule out any of the other doors.
With no good options, Sheryl picked a door at random. She found herself descending a ladder, and quickly realized that she was descending past the tier that she wanted. As her feet touched the floor Sheryl rant to where she could make out the outline of a door.
Looking at her new options, Sheryl thought that she could see a door that lined up fairly closely with the tier above. Taking her chances she ran toward the door and up the stairs within. With a sigh of relief Sheryl found herself on the tier that she wanted.
Sheryl approached the doors, but saw that there was no way to tell which door was the correct door. She studied each for a moment, but quickly gave up.
“Any thoughts Liam?” Sheryl asked, hoping that her friends had noticed something that she had not.
Liam didn’t even bother to activate his holo in the dim light. “Sorry sweetie. I got nothing.”
Sheryl sighed. She studied the doors for a moment more, and then headed for the middle one. She took a few cautious steps into the passage, but found that she had to let go of the door before she could determine what the passage held in store for her. Almost as soon as the door clicked closed behind her, Sheryl found herself once again sliding through some sort of chute.
“Not this again,” she muttered under her breath. She had no more than uttered the words before she once again found herself deposited upon the mattress at the bottom of the room.
Sheryl quickly stood up, and tried to recall the exact route that she had used to get to the doors. She didn’t want to waste time trying another route. She ran to the door that she had used to climb out of the bottom of the cone, and began the process again.
As soon as Sheryl reached the three doors again she headed for the one on the left. She decided that since the chute had veered a particular way, it was better to try that direction.
Sheryl wasn’t disappointed as the door clicked closed behind her. As soon as the lock had engaged a bright light flooded the small room, and as soon as her vision had cleared from the sudden blinding she could make out a staircase along the far wall that went deeper than any other that she had encountered on that level.
“About time,” Sheryl muttered as she started the descent.
Chapter 9
1
The early years of our marriage were predictably trying. We both wanted a family, but we were responsible enough to know that we didn’t have the means at the time to support much more than ourselves.
We both worked long hours, and even though we both knew we were right for each other we wondered how our marriage would survive when we barely had the time to see each other before collapsing into the realm of dreams.
At the same time that we were worried about our personal lives, our professional lives were expanding in ways that we couldn’t have imagined. The restaurant that my husband had been moved to became an almost overnight sensation. Seating was difficult to find and often reservations were made months in advance. Often I would see John pouring over planned menu items, trying to determine the best combination of items.
My own career was on a steep climb. My bosses credited me with the popularity of the new restaurant, even though I always claimed that it was the food. And as the restaurant moved from heavy advertisement to a more traditional moderate advertisement rate combined with word of mouth I was moved to other assignments. I was teamed with some of the best advertising professionals in the field while my skills were still being put to the test.
We were both on extraordinary paths, but for a brief time it looked like the paths might diverge.
2
The splash of cold water from the sink felt amazingly refreshing. Sheryl sighed as she pressed the warm towel to her face. She knew that she should have checked out the rest of the floor before going into the break room, but she also knew that she needed to get over the anxiety that the previous floor had caused. She saw that a shower unit and sonic dryer had been installed in one corner of the break room. She thought it odd, but she also knew that such commodities were not all that uncommon.
She ran her fingers over her hair, and grimaced at the feel of the sand embedded into the strands. For a moment she thought about undoing the bun and at least getting the sand out, and then she decided not to waste the time. The precious break time might be needed later. She glanced longingly at the shower, and then decided to get moving.
Sheryl stood and stared at the vending unit for a moment before deciding on a protein drink. She knew that she wasn’t hungry, but she also knew that she needed to keep her energy up. Finishing the drink in only a few swallows, she threw the can into the garbage and headed back out into the hallway.
Sheryl welcomed the brightness of the lights against the brushed steel of the walls. It helped her to overcome the surreal feeling that had overtaken her on the previous level. She turned to her right and inspected the door that would lead her to the next level.
The door stated that there were two parts to descending. The first was that she had to find a password in the room labeled one. That password then had to be entered into a terminal in the second room.
Sheryl blinked a couple of times, and then reread the information. She felt like there should be something more, but nothing presented itself. With a sigh, she resigned herself to the challenges of the floor. She knew that the task was harder than the information made it appear, but she had no idea of the actual challenges that awaited her.
She checked the portion of the hall that she was in one more time to make sure that she hadn’t missed anything. The only door in the section was the one to the break room. Other than that she could only see the doors from the previous level and the one to the next level.
Sheryl knew that the doors she was looking for were in the perpendicular portion of the hallways for the floor. She headed down the hallway and inspected the doors that were presented to her. On her right she saw the door labeled one, the other door was raised several feet above the floor. A set of stairs led to the second door and she saw that it had the number two painted in bright blue upon it.
Sighing, she turned back to face the first door. Opening it, she could see that data terminals ringed the room. Letting go of the door she proceeded a few steps into the room. The door clicked lightly shut behind her, but she didn’t hear the sound of a lock.
Approaching the first terminal, Sheryl could see that it was powered on, but that there was not a user logged in. Across the top of the view screen was a login name and password. She shook her head and entered the data.
As soon as the login had processed a message appeared across the screen. Scanning it, Sheryl saw that the rest of the terminals in the room would also have to be logged into. Some would open voucher locations upon login, others would do nothing. One of the terminals would have the required password in a similar document that would present itself upon login.
With a sigh, she set out to login to the various terminals. Much like a few of the rooms before, she didn’t even stop to see what each login accomplished. If the password wasn’t present she had decided to just keep moving and deal with any vouchers on the way out.
She had logged into about three quarters of the available terminals when the password presented itself. She quickly committed the four digit code to memory and turned to leave the room, picking up vouchers along the way.
3
Excerpt from History of a Media Icon: Understanding The Tower
Set and layout designs for The Tower have always been the subject of much speculation. Some claim that in order to keep a contestant engaged in the game there must be the greatest possible variation in the challenges. Others claim that the varied designs are as much for the audience as the contestant.
Even within the realms of possibilities for any single contestant there is an almost infinite possibility of room designs. Factors beyond the training of the contestant vary as much as which rooms have seen better feedback to the sponsorship of any given contestant. Even such minute details as placement of a new product within the show can influence how the rooms are developed.
Some critics of the show have argued that product placement, and the rooms that are sometimes created to cater to a single product detract from the overall appeal of the show. However, many sponsoring companies have conducted studies of their own which claim that product placement actually adds to the appeal of the show.
Whether or not the placement of products themselves add or detract to the appeal of The Tower, many in the viewing audience don’t seem to care. Original rooms, designed to cater to specific products, garner as much, if not more, attention as rooms designed to be regular challenges.
4
A wash of humidity engulfed Sheryl as she pulled open the door to the second room. She blinked at the sudden onslaught of wetness and then peered into the room.
She understood the reason for the stairs into and out of the room as soon as she saw the challenge within. Water lapped at the walls and stairs on the other side of the door. Along the wall next to the door she noticed a few hooks. Two were empty, the third held a mesh bag that contained a couple of items.
Sheryl felt the room pressurize slightly as the door closed behind her. She removed her duster and hung it on the nearest hook. She then pulled free the bag and looked inside. She saw that it contained a small tube with a set of instructions and a set of swimming goggles. She slid the strap of the bag over her wrist and tightened the cord so that it wouldn’t slip off while she was underwater.
She pulled the tube from the bag and inspected the instructions that were attached. The tube itself was about the size of a lip balm tube, with a molded section for her lips in the middle. The tube identified itself as a new underwater breathing unit. She saw that it was supposed to convert water to breathable oxygen. With a quick prayer that it worked correctly she pulled the instructions from the tube.
She then pulled the goggles from the bag. She pressed the bridge of the goggles over the bridge of her nose and then slid her fingers over the rims, forming the goggles to the shape of her face. She felt a tingle as the rims of the goggles bonded to her skin to seal out the water.
She took the steps into the water, shivering slightly as the water touched her skin. She noticed that the floor seemed to be recessed below the level of the hallway. Though she had only a few steps to climb to get into the room she had further to descend into the water. She saw that there were still steps to descend while only her head was above the water.
Placing the breathing unit between her lips, she plunged herself under the surface of the water. She held her place for a moment near the stairs, making sure that the breathing unit and the goggles worked correctly. Once she was comfortable with how the goggles and breather were working she moved away from the stairs and looked at the layout of the underwater room.
The room was as barren under the surface of the water as it had been above. For a few moments she felt fear as she thought that she would have to search for a way to access the panel that she needed to enter the passcode into. Then she noticed a small dark hole almost on the floor against one wall.
Reorienting herself, she kicked toward the hole. As she approached she saw that it wasn’t merely a recess to hide the panel, but a tunnel to another location. Grabbing onto the upper edge, she thrust herself downward so that she could combat her buoyancy while she tried to get into the tunnel.
She kicked through the darkness of the tunnel. For a moment she worried that the panel that she was looking for was hidden in a dark recess, then she found herself on the other side.
She decided that she wanted a breath of air that didn’t come from the breathing unit. Kicking for the surface she found that the entire room was filled with water. A memory of the room re-pressurizing after the door closed clicked in her mind. Looking up, she looked for any place where there might have been breathable air.
Instead of air, Sheryl saw that the ceiling was plastered with vouchers. She almost let the breather slip from between her lips as she realized that there were easily as many on the ceiling as she already had collected. Checking that the mesh bag was still strapped to her arm, she started frantically pulling vouchers from above her head.
She had covered about half of the ceiling when she remembered what she had to do. Quickly, she looked for the panel that she needed to enter the code into. She spotted it against the wall, diagonally across from the tunnel that she had come through to access the room.
Sheryl turned and kicked off from the ceiling. As she approached the panel she saw that there was a bar that she could hold onto while she input the code. She slid her arm around the bar, fighting her own buoyancy, and powered on the panel.
As soon as the panel lit up, she could see that it only contained a number pad and the blank space for the code. The cursor blinked at her from within the blank space, and the words input passcode glared in red from the top of the screen.
She touched the numbers on the pad, and watched as they appeared in the input field. As she confirmed her entry, another message appeared.
Entry of this code will seal the inter-room tunnel. Tunnel will seal approximately one minute from the confirmation of this code. Do you wish to proceed?
The number entry pad was then replaced by yes and no buttons.
Sheryl looked at the ceiling, and then back at the panel. She knew that there were still vouchers covering most of the ceiling, but she also knew that she would be wasting valuable minutes if she continued trying to collect them before leaving the room.
Cringing, she pressed the yes option. The screen switched to show a confirmation and a countdown until the tunnel would be sealed off. Pushing off from the bar, she swam toward the tunnel. She tried not to think about the vouchers that still lined the ceiling.
5
Sheryl gasped slightly as she tried to get back to breathing normal atmosphere as she removed the breather from between her lips. She sat, dripping, upon the steps for a moment before deciding that it was time to leave the room.
She pressed the release button on the side of the goggles, and once again felt a tingle as the forces that had held them to her face released. She held the goggles in the same hand as the breather. For a moment she thought about leaving them and the mesh bag, then she thought better of it. She knew that the equipment would be considered high grade gear outside of the tower. She shoved the breather and goggles back into the mesh bag and stuffed the lot into one of her main bags. She then grabbed her duster and threw it over one arm.
She welcomed the dryness of the hallway as she exited the room. For a brief moment she considered heading to the door and descending to the next level. Then she thought better of it and headed toward the break room.
She tossed the bags and her duster onto one of the chairs as she entered the room. She stripped the rest of her clothing as she entered the private room on the way to the shower. She put the wet clothing into the clothes dryer section of the sonic dryer that was located in the room.
Sheryl leaned against the side of the shower as the hot water washed over her. She hadn’t realized how exhausted she was. She allowed herself to slide down against the wall and sat on the floor of the shower. Pulling the ties from her hair she allowed it to cascade over her shoulders.
After a few minutes she forced herself to stand back up and leave the warmth of the shower. She stepped into the sonic dryer and within seconds was completely dry. She retrieved the dried clothing and reassembled herself.
Stepping back into the main portion of the break room Sheryl pulled her hair back up into a bun. She eyed the vending unit, and then decided that she had better continue moving. She retrieved her duster and bags from the chair and headed toward the door to the next level.
Chapter 10
1
Everything changed in our marriage when I found out that I was pregnant. Somehow, the government controlled pregnancy prevention device had failed. My doctors scrambled to get an emergency application for a pregnancy approved.
As the doctors scrambled, my husband and I realized that we needed to reorganize our priorities. We had long since become stable enough financially to support a family, but we had become so used to the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we had forgotten our goals to have a family.
We were frantic, and for a time we wondered how people managed to have children before government mandated controls of pregnancy came into existence. But looking back… it was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for anything.
2
The ladder deposited Sheryl facing the outer wall of the tower. As she turned around to face the next floor she groaned aloud. Mirrors rose from the floor to a couple of feet above her head.
Sheryl looked to her left and saw that a single pane of thick glass allowed her to see the door to the next level. She looked up, hoping to be able to grab the top of the glass and pull herself over. What she saw was that the mirrors and glass nearby the entrance and exit were significantly higher than elsewhere in the room. Cursing, she headed into the maze.
Only a few twists and turns from the door, Sheryl realized that she was disoriented. She thought that she knew the way back, but wasn’t positive that she could do it if necessary. She cursed aloud.
“Liam?” she asked once she had her frustration vented.
“Yes?” he replied as he wavered into focus.
Sheryl blinked a few times as the reflecting hologram caused even more confusion. “First, turn off the holo,” she said. “It’s distracting with all of these mirrors.”
The holo disappeared.
“Now, please tell me my timer status and how long I’ve been on this floor.”
“You’ve got four hours and fifteen minutes remaining on your timer right now. You have been on the fifteenth floor for about five minutes so far.”
Sheryl scowled. She then pulled the guns from her belt. Turning them in her hands she held the barrel and smashed the butt against the nearest mirror. As the shards of glass fell to the floor she could see that there were vouchers hidden in the space behind. She quickly scooped the vouchers into a bag and rethought her plan of attack for the level.
3
Excerpt from History of a Media Icon: Understanding The Tower
Wanton destruction is frowned upon in normal society. Those with a tendency for destruction are counseled out of the trait or are forced into drugged or other monitored lifestyles. In The Tower, however, wanton destruction can benefit a contestant in ways that are unimaginable. That is… if they can bring themselves to destroy things.
Within the training and run of the contestants it is understood that destruction is not only allowed, but in some cases encouraged. Vouchers and other forms of advancing the game lie within doing things that would not be allowed outside of the setting of the game. However, at no point in any training regimen is there a point that focuses explicitly on overcoming the social standards against destruction. The willingness to destroy is left entirely up to each individual contestant.
4
Sheryl looked at the options for where she next needed to go. Deciding on a direction she decided to test another part of her new plan of attack. Holding the gun with both hands she held the barrel up to one of the mirrors. As she angled the gun slightly she found that she could etch the glass slightly. She locked the information in the back of her mind in case she needed it.
She then set out in a new direction that she hoped would lead her to the door. As she moved she counted the mirrors, and she smashed every third one with the butt of her gun. She was careful to smash only on her left hand side so that if she had to backtrack any she would have an easier time of knowing where she should stop and look for the shattered breadcrumbs of her trail.
Only a few twists and turns later Sheryl was immensely happy with the decision to smash mirrors along the way. She could easily find her way when she got lost, and by smashing mirrors even on return trips she could easily determine which directions she had already investigated.
She was also pleased with the payout. She knew that it was taking away the precious seconds to gather the vouchers that she was finding, but she also knew that she had to grab them while she could.
As the dead ends gave way to only paths that worked, Sheryl found herself more than two-thirds of the way through the room. It was then that smashing a mirror revealed a large, orange, button. Stopping, she could only stare at the button before her.
“Liam?”
“Yes?”
“What were my timer extension colors again?”
There was a slight pause as Liam consulted some notes that he had made. “Purple, blue and green are the colors I have noted as your timer extensions.”
“Janice, Bria? Did either of you catch a clue as to what this may do? I don’t recall anything other than getting to the door being the challenge to this level.”
Sheryl nodded as the answers came back negative. “So this does something else then…” she muttered. She thought about it for another couple of seconds, and then pressed the button.
She cringed as she expected something to make the maze harder.
“Portal open,” the familiar feminine voice said.
Sheryl blinked, waited another few seconds, and then proceeded to continue toward the door. As she moved she wondered what portal had been opened.
5
Sheryl felt like she could have leapt for joy. She could see that she was running out of options to reach the door. She was near one wall, but was heading in the direction of the door. She knew that if she could keep up the pace she would be able to reach the door in a matter of minutes.
She followed through a series of twists and turns, but soon realized that she had run into a dead end. She was about to backtrack when she noticed something odd about one of the mirrors. She stopped to examine it.
“What are you doing?” she heard Bria ask.
“There’s something odd about this mirror.”
“What?”
“I don’t exactly know yet.”
Sheryl tuned out further questions as she inspected the mirror. She thought that the reflection looked off, then she realized that the mirror was slightly transparent. She was seeing a hidden section of room behind the mirror.
Sheryl stood and turned slightly as she smashed the butt of her gun against the mirror. The shards made a slightly different sound as they hit the floor. She then used the gun to clear as much of the hanging glass as possible so that she didn’t get any on herself as she moved into the area behind the mirror.
As she got a good look at the small space, she realized that she was against a corner of the building. She could see the back side of that section of the maze and the solid walls that made up her tower. On the floor was a single circular hatch, bright red letters on it told her that she had found a shortcut to the twelfth floor.
Sheryl only had to consider it for a moment before pulling open the hatch.
“Don’t you want to descend normally and collect more vouchers?” Janice asked as she slid her feet onto the ladder that had been revealed.
“No, I need time more than money right now. I’m not going to waste this opportunity to catch up on lost time.”
Sheryl climbed into the darkness and hurried through the shortcut passage.