GAMBLE: Rule of Cards

SECRET HOLE

“So, what was it like?” Paul asked Denton who was storytelling about what they saw inside the infirmary of the game hall. Paul was astonished to hear that from Sandra and Denton and he wishes to see it as well. “I was just excited to hear that message from you and that, I want to experience it myself as well... but I guess, I might not see it. Can you continue telling the story?”

“Just so you know, that room is soundproof and whatever sound you make, the people outside cannot hear what you are doing,” he replied. “And yeah, we ran out of time so we are unable to see what’s in there. I was too close to seeing whatever it has on the upper side of that way... and I plan to see whatever it has on the upper side... but I cannot think of anything for us to be able to do another exploration in that room.” Denton paused to think about what to tell more. “I actually am thinking of ways to get inside that room again but this time, I will let Paul and Jannah see it, too. So, you can actually see what’s in there. I trust the both of you and I know that you will do a great job in exploring that.”

Paul raised his eyebrows. “But, how can we do that if I do not have enough reason to go there?” Paul asked back. He looked at Denton who just looked at him. “Do not tell me...”

“Make your own reason, dude. Get a wound or accidentally make a wound, but intentionally,” Denton replied as he looked for something that can wound up someone. He removed the mantle of his bed and saw a sharp edge on the bed. “Here, dude. Just get a little wound from this. Be sure to do give it an antiseptic after before doing your job. It might cause you infection. But... this is not the only thing to do. You can still do a lot of things to create just a little wound. I am not saying that you must really do this,” Denton was about to think something else when Paul suddenly placed his palm on the sharp edge and slowly wounded himself using that. The blood immediately flowed. “Well, yeah, you already did that.”

“This s**t hurts,” Paul muttered as he tried to stop the bleeding but stopped himself from doing so, scared to erase the evidence on his hand. He stood up and asked Jannah to come with him, to talk to the guards. “Hey, can I get a little favor? As you can see, my hands are bleeding right now. I hit this with the edgy corner of the bed. It might lead to infections if not cure or cleaned. I asked her to come with me, so I’ll have someone to clean my wound,” Paul told the guard. The guard was doubtful, not until Paul started on raising his voice. “Can you just, at least, bring us to the infirmary? My hand is hurting already. I think I am going to die.”

Jannah looked at Paul who was overthinking. “Follow me towards the infirmary,” the guard muttered as they started on walking out the arena. Denton and Sandra looked at them going outside, praying that they will do good and that, they will not be noticed of doing some weird stuff. The guard walked them towards the infirmary and as soon as they closed the door, Jannah grabbed a piece of cloth and an antiseptic. Since they are running out of time, Jannah just went all-in on pouring the antiseptic on Paul’s hand. Paul was in pain, of course, but he has no choice but to endure the pain. “Be sure to be quick.”

They all looked at the door where the guard talked to them. Fortunately, the door was still closed and the said guard cannot hear what they are doing. “Be quick,” Jannah muttered as she started on removing the cabinet that was covering the hole. As Denton said, they saw a hole which the cabinet was covering. Paul went inside the hole and looked for the ladder and he saw it as soon as he went inside it. “Do not take so long. Just make sure to explore everything inside that way. Denton said that we should just take a look at it and not do something else without his permission.”

“I know, I know. He’s the leader, of course,” Paul replied before he started on going up the stairs. Since the stairs have ten platforms and the space is too narrow, like Denton said, it was really hard to go up the stairs to see what is even in there. Paul strive hard until he reached the uppermost stair and looked for the next way, which is a lot longer. He also saw more holes on the way and he realized that what he was going in was actually a ventilator, a way that was made for proper air ventilator, which he thinks is weird because it was on the bottom and was covered. He started on crawling inside the ventilator with so much care to make sure that nobody can hear him but him. “Let us see what is in here,” he muttered to himself as he slowly crawled on the narrow way. “There are a lot of ventilators here and I guess it is because there is a lot of rooms in this place.”

He crawled more until he finally reached the first ventilator, which is also the one nearest him. “There’s nothing special here, it was just the room of the guards,” Paul muttered. Since the guards are on their job, no one is in there and no one will notice, so he just went pass on it. “There is actually nothing here. It is the room of the guards. Why would they put a secret hole in here?”

Paul heard three knocks from where he went in and thought of Jannah who was waiting for him outside. “The guards are asking what we are doing here and you must come down within five minutes or he will come inside without oue permission,” Jannah muttered. Paul went hysterical as he started on crawling back to where he went in, since it will take him a long time to crawl down. He started on going down on the stairs and finally went outside of the secret hole. “Go to the bed and sit down already. I will do the covering of the hole.”

Paul immediately acted on Jannah’s command, while he let Jannah move the cabinet to cover the hole. He wiped sweat as he saw Jannah moving the cabinet. “Come here already,” Paul commanded Jannah who just finished lifting the cabinet to cover the hole. Jannah went in front of him and acted like he was still giving Paul a hanful of bandage. “Be sure to not make it look obvious.”

The door opened and there entered the guard who looked at them for few seconds before talking. “Your time has already halted. We need you to go back to the arena for the delivery of lunchboxes will now commence.”

Jannah and Paul went outside of the infirmary like nothing happened. They completely followed the guard who was not even a bit of doubtful about the two. Paul and Jannah immediately went to Denton and Sandra who were talking to each other. “Yo,” Paul muttered, which got the two’s attention. “We just came back. I actually want to know more but the guard told us that the lunch time will commence a little later.”

Denton nodded. “It is okay, Paul.” Paul, who was standing, sat on the ground, securing that no one was listening to what the four of them are talking about. “Now, can you tell us about what you saw in there? I was not able to peek at it, so I hope you did.”

“The topmost part of that way was a ventilator, which is used for proper and better air ventilation. However, what weird is that it was connected to the hole that you did. There must really be something up there, since air ventilator passageways are commonly open outside and not to somewhere that was covered or somewhere that air can be trapped,” Paul explained. “Plus, one thing is that there are holes accross the way. I saw the first room where the hole was located and base from the room, it was just a normal room of, I think, two guards. I was not able to check the other rooms where there are holes in it, since we ran out of time when the guard said that we are taking too long. I do not think that we can make use of that room of the guards but there must really be something about them adding a secret hole as a passageway out there.”

Denton placed his hand under his chin as he nodded. “I actually think something is odd the more I think about that. Let’s all survive this game today and find out what is up about that secret hole.”