Linus was still in his head, lost somewhere between fear and disbelief, when he felt it, a gentle nudge against his back.
At first he thought it was just someone passing by in the panic. Another person rushing into nowhere. But when he turned around…he froze.
It was a girl.
She wasn't panicking. Wasn't shouting. Just…standing there looking, looking at him like the only still point in a room that was tearing itself apart.
Her face wasn't perfect, just real. Soft features, calm eyes that looked like they were already figuring everything out. She didn't look scared, more like she was aware. The kind of person who saw details the rest of us missed.
Her long dark hair shifted slightly in the air, brushing her shoulders. She looked like she belonged anywhere but here.
Then she spoke, her voice calm, cutting clean through the chaos. "Did you notice it too?" He blinked.
Was she talking to him?
And the way she looked at him, like he was supposed to have an answer. He opened his mouth, tried to say something, and instead produced one of those wheezy, dying-engine laughs that made him question his entire existence.
Her eyebrows drew together slightly. "…You good?" she asked. He nodded way too fast. "Yeah. Yeah, just…surprised, that's all."
She studied him for a moment, then gave a small nod and looked away, toward the chaos unfolding around them. Meanwhile Linus was in a dilemma. Why is she talking to me? I looked like a walking bad decision, and sweaty. Definitely not talk-to–this–guy material.
Before he could dig himself into mental quicksand, she spoke again.
"Everyone understood what that voice said," she murmured. "Even people who don't speak English… reacted." Her eyes flickered towards him. "You noticed that too, right?"
Linus cleared his throat. "Yeah. I did."
"I thought it was just me." She nodded slowly, filling that away like a clue."
The voice returned.
Louder. Deeper. Like it came from everywhere – the walls, the floor, maybe even inside their skulls.
"It is time," it said. "Your first trial begins now."
The entire room froze. No one reached. Even the ones who'd been screaming a minute ago went silent, like the sound itself had been ripped away.
Then came the noise.
A low mechanical rumble. The floor vibrated under their feet, the kind that crawls through the floor and into your bones. Linus turned towards it, and the far wall began to split, metal sliding apart in a single, flawless motion, revealing a hallway.
It stretched endlessly – long, metallic, lit by a line of cold white lights that flickered to life one by one. The glow disappeared into black at the far end, like it was swallowing its own light.
Cold air rushed out from the hallway, carrying a faint scent of iron.
No doors. No turns. Just a straight, perfect corridor.
"Reach the end of the hallway to complete your first trial," the voice said.
Another pause. Long. Deliberate.
"There will be… challenges ahead."
At first no one moved. All eyes were turned towards the now split wall showing the long endless corridor.
A few people stumbled back, clutching each other. Someone screamed. Another started praying, words tumbling over each other in a dozen languages.
"Ah hell nahh, what the h*ll just happened?" someone said out loud. No one answered.
A man collapsed to his knees, rocking back and forth, whispering to himself in a foreign language. He was breaking.
"Ok… maybe this is not a prank after all, and they said the trials begin now? The h*ll does that mean." "I don't know man, for all I know, you could be part of all this." The man pointed accusingly at the guy. "Did they drop you at birth, how can I be part if I am standing here with you." He shot back. They start arguing, and it spreads like wildfire through the crowd. All fueled by fear and unease.
"I KNEW IT! This is punishment! I KNEW I shouldn't have messed with that Guys wife!"
Someone else, dead serious, muttered under their breath, "This is a simulation. None of this is real. Were in someone's messed up experiment."
"ENOUGH!" a man's voice cuts through the chaos. Silence, as everyone's head turns to see who it was.
A tall muscular man is standing in front of the split wall, arms crossed, wearing a military uniform. His face was solid, like someone who has seen too many things but nothing like this.
"Arguing among ourselves is pointless. Right now we should focus on our next move and how we are going to find a way out of this place… alive." He says in an authoritative tone. "And how do you suggest we do that?" someone from the back says. "Maybe… that leads to an exit" a woman points at the split wall, at the endless looking corridor.
"Yeah, Yeah. Maybe she is right, maybe it leads to an exit." The people murmur among themselves, fear making them cling to any sign of hope.
"Its obviously a trap, there is no telling what's in there!" The tall man says.
Linus stares at the quarrel, wiping sweat off his forehead without thinking, but then he noticed someone else doing the same. Shirts tugged at collars. Forehead glistened. Someone muttered, " Its hot… was it always this hot."
No. It wasn't.
The temperature kept rising. Quickly. Like the air itself was thickening, turning heavy and hostile.
Then came the sound. A deep, mechanical grind from the walls itself. Metal shifting. Vents sliding open, thin slits near the ceiling, hissing out waves of heat. The air shimmered. It was no longer a room, it was an oven.
Panic rose.
"What the h*ll is this?!" someone yelled.
"They're baking us!"
" It's a trap, WE GOTTA GO NOW!"
The lights overhead turned red. No warning. Just a wash of red that made everything look like blood.
That's when the floor started vibrating – subtle at first, then stronger. Something was moving.
The walls.
They weren't just heating the room, the walls were closing in.
People turned to the only place that hadn't changed – the hallway. Still wide open, still endless, still unknown. But suddenly it wasn't a choice anymore, it was the only way out.
Someone screamed, "RUN!" and then everyone did.
A flood of bodies surged forward. No more planning. No more questions. Just pure, blind survival.
They ran towards the hallway like it was air, like it was life. Some pushed, some fell, some didn't get up.
The girl beside Linus wasted no time, as she took off sprinting.
Linus also ran.
Into the unknown. Into whatever came next.