Call of the last survivo.., p.17
Call of the Last Survivor, page 17
Mikaleh arrived at the massive collection of clothing and jewelry beside the far wall. The jewelry was inside glass cases that could be opened. The lids swung on a hinge. Back in the days before the Storm, when jewelry stores were still a thing, she had seen many collections like this, but never one so large and impressive. She wondered if maybe—when the fighting between the husks and humans ceased and the world became slightly less crazy again—people would have time to think about decorating themselves with fancy sparkly things again. It made her feel sad to think that this probably wouldn’t happen for a while. At the same time, it seemed like locating the Last Survivor just might be a way to move the world a step in the right direction.
When she was through inspecting the jewels, she moved over to the door set against the far wall. As the squad watched, she tried it with her hand. Sure enough, it was locked tight.
“Okay,” said Mikaleh. “We’ll figure this out. Nobody touch anything yet, but take a careful look around. There has to be a trick to it. Something about the clothing and jewelry is connected to the statues. We’ve just got to figure out what.”
The squad joined Mikaleh beside the costumes.
“What can you do with clothing …” Sam said, rubbing his chin and thinking hard. “You can put it on and you can take it off. In this way, it’s an either/or type of thing. And looking around at these statues, most of them are wearing only one item of jewelry or clothing. Maybe that is also a clue.”
“Maybe we’re supposed to put on the clothing,” Janet said brightly. “I think my neck is too big for a lot of those necklaces, but the earrings would fit me. And then the hats. I’ve always thought that hats were a lot of fun.”
“Us putting on the clothes?” Sam said doubtfully. “Like we have to be better dressed than the statues? Like it’s a contest?”
“I dunno,” said Janet with a shrug. “Maybe. Have you got a better idea?”
Sam did not immediately answer.
Sammy looked closely at a heavy wool coat on the clothing rack.
“Maybe I should find a statue that looks cold and give this to it,” he said.
“It’s possible,” said Sam, looking around the room. “But none of them look very cold to me.”
“Droopy, you’ve been awfully silent,” said Mikaleh. “Have you got any ideas about what the mystery is here?”
Droopy shrugged. “Ehh,” he said. “Husks don’t really wear clothes very much. Some people think we’re wearing hoodies, but that’s really just our skin looking weird. We have pants though, to keep everything PG-13. Even we have a sense of modesty.”
That made Mikaleh smile.
“Can I try taking one of the items of clothing off a statue?” Janet asked. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
“All the statues come alive and attack us,” Sam and Sammy said at exactly the same time.
“Yeah,” Mikaleh said. “That is probably the worst could happen. But we’ve got to roll the dice sometimes. Do either of you have a better idea?”
Sam and Sammy looked at each other. It was clear that they did not.
“Okay, then,” Mikaleh said to Janet. “I’m inclined to think that we should start testing the water. But do me a favor. Try interacting with some of the clothing on these racks first.”
“Ooh, okay!” Janet said. “Maybe I’ll look so fancy that the statues will get jealous and tell us how to open the door.”
Janet walked to a long rack of clothing. She selected a conical hat like a wizard might wear. It was purple and had blue stars sewn into it.
“I can’t resist!” she said. In a single flourish, Janet picked up the wizard’s hat and placed it on her head.
Nothing happened.
“C’mon, you statues,” Janet said. “You are totally jealous now. Come to life and open the door for us!”
The statues did nothing of the sort, staying quite where they always had been on their pedestals.
“You’re all jealous that you’re not a wizard,” Janet tried. “Pew! Pew! I’m totally casting spells.”
The statues remained unmoved.
“Whelp, I don’t know what else to tell you,” Janet said, turning back to the group. “Those are the only ways I can think of to make a statue jealous.”
“Hmm,” said Mikaleh. “Maybe we’re going about this the wrong way. Instead of putting things on ourselves, we should see if the key is taking things off the statues.”
“Just like I’d suggested in the first place,” Janet said, removing her wizard hat. “Credit where credit is due.”
With that, Janet approached the nearest statue. It wore a brown mink stole around its shoulders like a classic Hollywood actress might have worn to a movie premiere. Janet carefully lifted it off the statue’s shoulders. The squad readied themselves for combat and prepared to draw their weapons. When she had completely lifted the stole from the statue’s shoulders, Janet jumped back and prepared to draw a weapon of her own.
But as it turned out, no combat would be forthcoming.
The statue did nothing. It did not come to life. And it certainly did not attack them. Neither did any other statue in the room.
“Well, that’s no fun,” Janet said. “I was hoping we might get to have a little smashy-smashy, blasty-blasty action.”
“I wouldn’t rule out anything yet,” Mikaleh said. “At least now we know the statues don’t come to life if you disrobe them. But I’m still so curious. There must be a reason they’re here and dressed up like this. It can’t just be random. I think we must be missing something. Let’s explore some more. Why don’t we fan out and look around the rest of the room?”
The squad nodded and began to do exactly that. Each member of the squad set off for a different part of the room, moving between the statues as if in a maze. The squad members searched for anything out of the ordinary, giving each statue they passed a careful inspection, looking for any clue that might enable them to open the door.
Sam was inspecting a statue that was naked except for a bright green Robin Hood hat with a feather, when he saw Droopy a few paces away just leaning against the wall.
“Hey, Droopy!” he called. “That’s not cool. This isn’t the time to rest. You have to help us. We’re all in this together, or have you forgotten?”
“What?” said Droopy. “I haven’t forgotten.”
Yet to Sam’s surprise, he found that Droopy’s voice was coming from an entirely different part of the room.
“Wait …” said Sam, walking toward Droopy. “Maybe I’m seeing things but—”
And then Sam stood stock still. He realized that he had been addressing one of the statues. One of the statues that looked an awful lot like Droopy, down to the droop in the neck.
“Hey, what gives?” asked actual Droopy, arriving alongside Sam a few moments later. “I’m searching as fast as I can. Why are you criticizing me?”
“I thought you were that statue over there!” Sam said. “Or, I mean, I thought that statue was you. Or … Or …”
“I get it,” said Droopy. “I guess it does look a little like me.”
“Hey, everybody,” Sam called. “Come over here and take a look at this.”
The rest of the squad followed Sam’s voice through the maze of statues until they arrived in front of Sam and Droopy. Sam stepped to the side to reveal the statue in question. It was about Droopy’s size and shape. Though it had no features, the likeness was unmistakable.
“Wow,” said Janet. “That does look like Droopy. At least from across the room.”
“And notice something about it,” Mikaleh said. “It’s not wearing anything. It’s the only statue here that’s completely naked.”
The squad walked around the statue, observing it from all sides. Sure enough, it did not seem to have any article of clothing.
“Aha!” said Sam. “This is making sense now. It’s the Last Survivor, and we have to dress him. Well, thank goodness we’ve got his brother here with us. Droopy, tell us, what would your brother like to wear?”
“Uh, I dunno,” said Droopy.
“What?” said Sam. “How can you not know? He’s your brother, after all.”
“Yeah,” said Droopy. “But he was never really into clothes. Most husks aren’t. He generally just wore tight little short pants like the rest of us do.”
“Seriously?” said Sam. “I have a hard time believing that this trap is related to clothing, and your brother didn’t have a favorite outfit.”
Droopy shrugged. “Hey, I’d tell you if he did,” said Droopy.
“Now that we know about this statue, let’s go and have another look at the wall of clothing choices,” said Mikaleh. “Droopy, come along too. Maybe something we see there will jog your memory.”
“I guess it’s possible,” Droopy said. He loped after them as the squad returned to the wardrobe arrayed before them.
The members of the squad began to pick through the clothing items and hold them up to Droopy’s face. Droopy inspected each one hopefully, as if angling for the hat or shirt or wristwatch to jostle his memory. But nothing seemed to come of it. Time after time, Droopy looked an item over, then shook his head no.
“We could try putting things on the statue at random,” Janet suggested. “Maybe when we hit on the correct one, then something good will happen.”
“I don’t know if I’d want to do that,” Mikaleh said. “Mostly, because of all the time it would take. Look at all these clothes. We’d be here for weeks. And I don’t think we have enough food or water to last that long. There’s got to be something else.”
“Maybe there is some clue we’re not seeing,” said Sam. “There could be some pattern that will show us the way.”
“Do you mean like a fabric pattern?” asked Sammy. “Because there are a lot of them.”
“It could be something to do with fabric,” Sam said.
Mikaleh walked a few paces away from the racks of clothes. She found that when she needed to think, it sometimes helped to walk around. Once she was a few paces away, Mikaleh chanced to look back at her colleagues digging through the racks of clothes.
That was when it struck her.
“Hey,” she said. “These clothes are all similar colors. Looking at them all in one big group like this, you can see it.”
“Really?” said Sammy. “I see plenty of different colors. Like, this hat is blue. This shirt is white. These shoes are green.”
“Yes,” Mikaleh said. “But notice which colors you don’t see.”
To make her point, she reached into her inventory and brought out the golden key with the red handle.
“She’s right,” Janet said. “Nothing here is gold or red. Even the jewelry is all sterling silver. Huh. I never noticed it before.”
“And we know that this key is associated with the Last Survivor,” said Mikaleh. “I’ve got the crazy idea that there might just be one thing here that’s red and gold. And if we can find it, we might be able to solve this puzzle. Start digging through the clothes again, but this time, you’re only looking for red and for gold!”
The squad began their inventory anew. Things moved much more quickly now because they knew what they were looking for. Before long, Sammy emerged from the rack of clothing with an item held high.
“Found it!” he cried.
Everyone looked. Sammy was holding a pair of short pants, just like Droopy wore. The only difference was that these were bright red with gold stitching on the seams.
“If there’s anything else around here that’s red and gold, I didn’t see it,” Sammy said.
“How’re we gonna get it on the statue?” Janet asked.
“It looks like it has Velcro in the back,” Sammy said, flipping the pair of shorts over.
Sure enough, it did.
With Sammy leading the way, the group hustled over to where the statue of the Last Survivor waited near the wall. As everyone else looked on, Sammy helped the statue into its shorts, and Velcroed them up in the back.
“There you go, champ,” Sammy said like he was putting clothes on a baby. “You’re a big boy now.”
No sooner were these words out of his mouth than the statue that looked so much like Droopy began to rotate on its base.
“Ahh!” said Sammy. “I was just kidding! You’ve always been a big boy!”
The statue rotated until it faced the far wall where the door out of the room stood closed and locked. As the squad watched, the door opened by itself.
“Wow!” said Janet. “It actually worked.”
“Yes,” said Mikaleh. “I had a feeling that it would.”
“I hope we’re close to finding the Last Survivor,” said Janet as they walked toward the open doorway. “How much bigger can this place be?”
“It’s already proven itself to be much larger than it looked,” said Mikaleh. “But I have a feeling we must be getting close.”
And with that, the squad passed through the doorway and into the hallway beyond.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
They headed down a torch-lined hallway that looked similar to the ones they had passed before. Very abruptly, Droopy stopped walking. It was as though whatever force powered him had suddenly run out of juice.
The rest of the squad stopped too.
“Droopy, what’s wrong?” Mikaleh asked.
“My brother …” he said. “I can smell him. He’s very close. I think we have nearly arrived at wherever he is being kept.”
They had.
When Droopy began moving again, they traveled just a few more yards down the hall and discovered a tall metal door. It did not appear to be locked. Mikaleh took a deep breath, looked at her squad, and cracked it open. Beyond was a very strange room. It was wide and had a very high ceiling. In the center of the room was a ring of lava, like a moat. In the center of the ring was a large crate, like a shipping container. The container had a door set into the front of it, and the door had a keyhole. Even from across the room, Mikaleh could see that the outline of the keyhole was edged in red and gold. A small bridge led over the moat of lava. To either side of the moat stood two very large blasters. They stood on top of big X’s that had been drawn on the floor. They were absolutely immense, and their glowing eyes seemed to radiate danger.
As Mikaleh looked over the situation, the rest of the squad joined her.
“That’s got to be where the Last Survivor is kept,” said Janet excitedly. “We’ve finally found him.”
“I think you’re right,” Mikaleh said.
“A couple of blasters, huh?” Sammy observed. “They don’t look so tough. I mean, yes they do look tough. But not tougher than us. That’s what I meant to say.”
“Okay,” Mikaleh said. “I’ll lead the way, but everyone be careful. Whoever designed this fortress clearly was fond of putting tricks and puzzles in the rooms. I can see no reason why this final room would be any different.”
Mikaleh pushed the door fully open, and they stepped into the strange large room.
The blasters immediately stood at attention. They looked around at their new guests. Then their eyes squinted angrily.
“Okay, gentlemen,” Mikaleh said loudly. “I’m going to give you one chance—and one chance only—to cooperate. As you can see, my squad and I are armed to the teeth. And, boy oh boy, do we ever know how to use these weapons. This being the case, I really think you ought to—”
“The Last Survivor!” one of the blasters cried. “Why is he with you?”
Both blasters stared wide-eyed at Droopy as he hunched at the back of the group.
“This makes no sense,” said the other blaster. “How can he be out here, when we know he’s in there?”
Mikaleh immediately realized that the blasters had made the same mistake as the troll who had guarded the first door. Her mind raced as she searched for a way to use this to their advantage.
“Waaaait,” said the first blaster. “How do we know that’s really him?”
The second blaster did not immediately respond.
“Is he talking to me?” Mikaleh asked Droopy.
“Could be,” Droopy said. “But blasters also have very little in the way of internal monologue.”
“What does that mean?” Janet asked.
“It means they say things instead of thinking things,” Droopy told her.
“Oh, you mean talking to themselves,” Janet said. “That’s not so weird. I do that all the time!”
Mikaleh stepped forward. “Look, I think both of you need to just go away, clock out, do whatever you do when you go off duty, and get out of here,” she said.
“This still makes no sense,” said the second blaster. “And when I get confused, it just makes me want to blast something.”
“Yes,” said the first blaster. “My motto is always blast things first and ask questions later.”
“Agreed,” said the second one. “There’s no way we’re going to get in trouble if we just blast these guys. We’re blasters. They gave us this job because we do exactly that.”
“Wait,” said Mikaleh. “You guys don’t want to do that.”
“Why?” said both blasters together.
“The moment you guys start shooting, then we’ll start shooting,” said Mikaleh. “And we’re going to win that battle.”
“Yes, but then you lose the war,” said the blaster. “I mean … I’m not trying to be dramatic. It will be a very small war, just confined to this room, but you will lose it.”
“How?” said Mikaleh.
“Don’t you know what these things are that we’re standing on?” said the first blaster.
“X’s drawn in chalk,” Mikaleh answered.
“Right,” said the blaster. “But underneath them are pressure plates. And if either one of us is not standing on our pressure plate, then that little cell with the Last Survivor inside of it gets lowered into the lava forever. It’s all automatic.”
Droopy put his hand to his mouth.
“Will it kill him?” Mikaleh said, as much to Droopy as to the blasters.
“Nobody knows,” said one of the blasters. “But he’ll be trapped down there in the lava forever. Nobody will be able to get him out. As for me, I would probably die of boredom. It’s boring enough in his cell, but at least he has things to read and do in there. But if your whole existence was just sitting around waiting for lava to cool? Omigosh. Snooze Central.”
