Chương 32: The Heat Wave.

I stood there on the edge of the platform, across the direction of the ladder, so as it rotated I could grab it in time. The timer came to an end. 00: 00 INCREASING TWO DEGREES IN EACH VENTS. CURRENT TEMPERATURE: TWENTY FIVE DEGREES. TIME REMAINING FOR TEMPERATURE INCREMENT: 00: 02: 00 A human can usually sustain the temperature of forty five to fifty degree at highest, before they die from a heat stroke.

Considering this chamber, the heat would circulate quickly among the metal, that means I only have six minutes at most to shut all of them. But would that be enough? Only one way to find out. I jumped on the floor, it was rotating at a high pace. Somehow I was able to maintain my balance by putting all of my weight on my knees. As I got steady, I saw that the ladder was already away from my reach and that I had just passed it.

My body reacted on its own and jumped again directly towards the ladder and grabbed the ends with both of my hands. I could have waited for another rotation and then could have climbed the ladder, but I knew very well that I was fighting against time. And when your fight is against time, you make every second count. I started to climb further, quickly. Skipping a few steps, but suddenly the bar beneath my feet broke from the ladder and fell down on the floor.

"Careful." Aeris shouted.

"I am alright." At that moment I realised something very important, this lab was constructed eight hundred years ago, that meant the chamber was also a part of it. Metal generally doesn't last that long, it gets rusted as time passes by, yet somehow this chamber was holding on its own, despite all of those years passing by. It was still able to maintain this shape. One wrong step could kill me.

I don't know if it will be able to handle my weight, but if we have to survive, then I have to climb it and close all the vents within the next five minutes. Or else we all would die. I climbed up carefully and was on the upper platform which was hanging by the support of the wall. The height was about twenty feet. Across me was that catwalk that Aeris had spotted from the marking. It was exactly like the 'Z' type structure from the marking. I frowned at the distance, to locate where the button was.

It was attached to a wall at the end of the catwalk. Somewhere in the back of my mind I had doubts about those markings. Were they wrong or were they leading me to a trap? But we weren't left with any other option, the time was ticking down and all of our lives were at stake. I came closer to the catwalk, there was no support attached to it. Just a thin zig zagged path that was leading to the button, I took a deep breath and took the first step on it. A voice reached my ears, it came underneath my feet.

A metallic squeak. As I walked further, extending both of my arms sideways, to balance my weight on the structure. I felt it stumbled beneath my feet, felt like it was about to fall off any second. But I kept walking carefully, balancing my weight.

"Just a little further, you've covered half of it." Aeris shouted. I had covered half of it without it falling, only a few metres were left. But, I was unaware that the catwalk was broken in between. About six feet of path was broken and missing, leaving a huge gap between them. Just when I thought I was nailing it. My luck had to run out. Now I had to leap over this gap and reach to the other side. And If I fall, I could get severely injured or worse die.

That rotating floor is there to make things worse if I fall. Even with my advanced recovery skill, I still won't be able to heal for a long time and till then we'd all be toasted and burnt to crisp. I had to make it to the other side somehow.

"Why did you stop, Nova?" Eli said"It's broken."

"What!" Aeris shouted. Before she could take any further action, I instantly extended my hands towards her.

"No, stay there."

"Make sure you have the next marking solved."

"But—""I've got this." She got quiet after that, her eyes were still watching me. Despite I said to not worry, she was standing right there in the position to rush. It was clear she was worried about me more than anything else. From the distance I saw her mouth muttering something to Eli, I couldn't hear it. But I understood it immediately when I saw her stepping down from the platform and rushing towards the ladder.

"Aeris, No." I shouted. She started climbing the ladder.

"Shut up, why don't you understand, you are not the only one who has to take these stupid risks all the time and put your life in danger for us."

"Do you think we are not capable of handling ourselves, if you think that, then you're wrong." She stepped up on the upper platform.

"Let me be perfectly clear, I won't let you do this alone." She paused.

"Do you understand!" Her words left me speechless, here I thought that by not involving them, I was protecting her. But she was doing the same when I was facing danger myself.

"Aeris, I —" The words barely left my mouth and the catwalk bent slightly underneath my feet, it made me lose my balance.

"No!" She screamed. This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. My legs slid behind and made me fall down, somehow I was able to grab the end of that catwalk, and was hanging barely on it.

"Nova!"

"I'm okay… I'm okay."

"Just hang on, I am coming." A flicker. The display appeared in front of me. 00: 00 INCREASING TWO DEGREES IN EACH VENTS. CURRENT TEMPERATURE: THIRTY FIVE DEGREES. TIME REMAINING FOR TEMPERATURE INCREMENT: 00: 02: 00 Two minutes ended, we were in the last phase, I could already feel the heat on my skin. One thing was clear, the Log didn't care if I were in danger and appeared with its warning. I felt the catwalk loosening up further.

I understood, if I hung there further even just a few seconds and waited for Aeris to rescue I would fall. It was not able to withstand further weight and hanging there was the worst position I could be in. I slid my hands gradually along its surface. Aeris was about to walk on the catwalk.

"Stop there, Aeris. I know you want to help and I was wrong, I do need your help. But not with this, you can't waste time to come and save me. I need you to go to the other location where the buttons are. We only have two minutes left and we have to close all the vents by then." I pulled myself up on the catwalk.

"So find the other buttons with me. I know you can do this, and I am counting on you." I turned my back towards her, and stepped back just a little bit so I could run and jump to the other side of the catwalk, without thinking anything. There was no time left to be careful anymore. I reached the other side and rushed to press the button. As I pressed it, my eyes looked up, and one of the vents got closed. I shared a look with Aeris.

"Go." I said. The chamber started to radiate more heat between them, I started feeling that heat on my skin. My head started dripping sweat in front of my eyes. Hand covered with sweat underneath my jacket. I opened my jacket, tied it on my waist and wiped the sweat off my face, the heat was getting worse each second.

"Eli tell me where the next button is." I shouted. He pointed his finger above me.

"It's up over there." I followed his finger's direction, I understood which symbol he was talking about, I noted all the symbols before coming up. The direction he was pointing at, it was towards the upper platform that was shaped just like the symbol I saw on the pillar. It was the shape of a club, which we used to see and play in the card games, back on earth. But the only thing was there was no ladder to reach over there.

If I were to reach the other side, then I had to find a way to go there, find a way to climb up. The only way I was able to think was to use something as a ladder and make the way over there, but I couldn't see anything near me and if I were to find it. That would take a huge amount of time. I had no time to think, I saw the pipelines attached to the wall and in front of it was a cage frame structure that sealed the pipelines behind it.

This will have to do, there is no other choice, I have to climb over this and reach to the other side somehow, before the timer ends. I grabbed the frame structure and put my fingers inside it, the tip of my toe was inside the frame structure, it felt warm on my fingers. I didn't waste time and started climbing gradually towards the upper platform.

As I reached the halfway point, I saw there was a gap between the frame structure and the club shaped platform, the frame wasn't reaching to the other side, it ended short.

"Oh crap!"

"Guess I have to find a way around it." There was no other choice but to reroute the way to that platform. I quickly climbed up to the platform and ran towards the club shaped platform, as I reached closer I saw there was yet another gap in between them, this time it was even longer than before. Oh great, I just knew something like this was going to happen. But, I think I could make it, I just need to time my jump at the right moment, like I did before. Who am I kidding, I can't do that.

I looked below me, I was up above almost thirty feet higher than ground level. The gap between both platforms was large, I kept convincing myself but I knew, I couldn't jump that far. A flicker The display appeared. 00: 00 INCREASING TWO DEGREES IN EACH VENTS. CURRENT TEMPERATURE: TWENTY SEVEN DEGREES. TIME REMAINING FOR TEMPERATURE INCREMENT: 00: 02: 00 Wait, twenty seven but a moment ago it was thirty five.

Each vent should increase two degrees for every two minutes of interval, that means every one of these vents should produce nine degrees each. I closed one of the vents, the chamber should have been thirty six degrees but it dropped to twenty seven. Wait, that must mean Aeris had pressed one button. I knew she would manage it somehow. She is trying her best as she could, I can't just stand here and get cold feet now, she bought us few extra minutes. I have to make it to that side, there has to be another way.

Think Nova, what can you use to get to the other side? My eyes looked around desperately trying to find something that could help me reach there, but I couldn't find anything that was long enough to bridge the gap between both platforms. Then I saw something. Despite it being in front of me all this time, my mind never thought of using it, maybe because it was too much of a risk. The chain hanging from the ceiling. It was the only way that I could make it across. I took a deep breath.

You can do this, just have to grab it and swing it to the other side. I wiped my sweaty hands over my clothes and prepared myself. A sigh of breath exhaled out of my mouth, my heart was pounding harder. I ran and jumped, I extended my hands towards the chain, I was in the air above thirty feet and felt my body weighing me down. Every microsecond I was in the air, it felt like the chain was somehow getting further away from my grasp. But somehow I grabbed it.

My hands slipped, it loosened the grip, but I managed to grab it tightly and swing across the platform with that forward momentum and jumped again. My hands grabbed the edge of the platform, arms started feeling sore, I grunted with the pain but somehow. Somehow… I managed to pull up on the platform, I walked over and pressed the button. The vent closed, now there were only two left. I was certain Aeris was onto to the second one I looked below at Aeris.

"Aeris do you need any help?" I said out loud.

"No I am fine, don't worry I got this." she said.

"Goo… ood." I started to feel dehydrated, the heat started to feel unbearable.

"Tell me the other one, Eli." It should probably be the last one since Aeris is onto the other one.

"Eli!" He didn't respond.

"Eli! Tell her." Aeris shouted from the other end of the chamber.

"Say something, damn it. Why are you so quiet?" Then suddenly he shouted, "I am sorry""I am sorry, Nova. But I can't help you. Because I don't understand this one."

"What do you mean you don't understand?"

"I am sorry Aeris. But I really don't understand it. I tried my best to find it, but this one doesn't exist here."

"What that can't be true." Everything we did so far, every effort we took was shattered in that single moment. I looked at him and his head was facing down with disappointment. Like he had given up. But, I ran every symbol in my mind once again. There was no way of knowing which symbol Aeris had gone after, even if I asked both of them, they wouldn't be able to explain the geometric shape because they don't know what they are called.

Wait, I think there is still a way, I remembered every marking on each pillar, if he could just tell me which pillar he was talking about, maybe I would be able to solve it.

"Eli, could you tell me which pillar you don't understand." He nodded and put a finger on the surface.

"This one." He said. It took me a second to know what the marking was on that particular pillar. Then I remembered the markings on that pillar he pointed had circles connecting to each other by a line. At first I had no idea what that shape meant 'o-o-o'. But I understood immediately. It was the chain. The answer should've been simple, symbol 'o-o-o' had to mean chain. Except it wasn't. Chains hung everywhere from the ceiling, across the chamber. It was nearly impossible to find the button among these chains.

Too many possibilities but no way of knowing the exact location. A metallic sound came to my ears, like a slow groan, my eyes stopped. It landed on that. The hanging chain chandelier.