Pendulum 2

"Twenty minutes!" Astherielle screamed out. The four of them had spread around the second floor. They were all trying to figure out how to solve the pendulum puzzle.

"We're not getting anywhere at this rate," Zera muttered, her eyes fleeting from Nayowmi, the zombies inside the prison cells, and the pendulum swinging above.

"Hey, Nayowmi?" Zera called out, a hand on the railing that secured them from falling at the circular platform, and joined Nawyomi helplessly standing there, keeping herself alert in case any of the re-animated dead might be released all of a sudden.

"Yeah?" Nayowmi replied.

"Was there anything odd when you found yourself in here?"

"The fact that I'm here is already odd enough."

"Right," Zera muttered, feeling stupid all of a sudden. "I mean other than that and aside from the zombies. The place in general? Was there anything we might have missed to consider?"

Nayowmi pursed her lips and stared at their surroundings. Everything was odd. Was this a punishment for them? Or was this stage 3?

She was clueless as to what was going on at the moment. Not to mention that she would undoubtedly be sent to the asylum if they failed to solve the puzzle and get out of there.

"There's nothing to note aside from that pendulum and the second floor. When I woke up earlier, it was just this platform and the zombies."

Zera gave her response a thought, her eyes fleeting towards the swinging pendulum. Squinting, she tried to focus on it for a while.

"Seventeen minutes!" Astherielle shouted, alerting all of them of the time. Zera clenched her hand into a fist.

"Is there any clue you could give us to solve this puzzle?"

Zera waited for a translucent screen to appear right before her, just as it had when she was just blurting out her frustration from earlier.

However, she was left to scoff when none came, keeping her temper in check.

'Okay, Zera. You got this. Don't panic. Concentrate.' Zera closed her eyes for a few minutes. Taking a deep breath before she looked up once more.

"Fifteen minutes!"

Letting her surroundings fall away, Zera concentrated on the swinging objects. Her mind was open to all kinds of possibilities to whatever puzzle she would figure out.

It just occurred to her then that she wasn't really great at mind games. Zera was hardly good at anything in general. But from her upbringing, she was used to always finding solutions to a problem.

Unless it was an issue she could not fix, Zera was taught by her father to always be logical. Especially in situations where her life or the lives around her were threatened, she can't join the frenzy of people screaming and being frantic. Else, she would only add to the chaos.

"Twelve minutes!"

Clenching her hands once again, Zera was close to losing hope for finding any pattern. She was calculating what perception she should use to find what they were looking for when, with a gasp, she finally saw something.

"I found it!" Zera exclaimed, not taking her eyes off the red button that wasn't visible in plain sight.

In between the swinging pendulum, Zera had estimated that at every 5th swing, the two balls would slow their pace like in a slow-motion and allowed them to see the red button, which she has yet to figure out what it entailed.

"Where?" Jaspreth asked, his eyes roaming around the ceiling.

"Keep your eyes on the pendulum. At every 5th swing, they actually go slow and reveal a red button."

Following Zera's instructions, her friends each gasped.

"Seven minutes!" Astherielle noted.

"Great job, Z," Jaspreth clapped her on the shoulders. Zera pursed her lips and shook her head at Jaspreth.

"Don't congratulate me yet. We are still stuck inside, and Nayowmi is still down there," Zera turned to her friends.

"Now we need to figure out how to hit that button. Any suggestions?"

"We have guns. But we need someone with a precise aim to hit it, else the bullet will bounce back and hit any of us in return. We can't risk losing any health points." Beatrix answered.

It was agreed by all of them.

"Among the four of us, Jaspreth has a better aim when it comes to shooting," Astherielle stated.

Jaspreth scratched the back of his head. He looked at his friends, a sheepish look on his face.

"I think you're all mistaken here," he pulled Astherielle by his side. "Astrid has the best aim among all of us."

"What? No. I'm just always lucky," Astherielle immediately made a face.

Zera blew out an exasperated sigh. The timer showed that they only had five minutes.

"We don't have time to–" A sound of metal groaning had Zera halting from what she was to say. They all looked down as the zombies from below suddenly went active, all of them growling.

"I'm fine!" Nayowmi shouted with sarcasm. The metal bars of the prison had moved an inched.

Beatrix looked from Astherielle and then at Jaspreth.

"Why don't you two take turns in taking aim? Zera and I will help Nayowmi."

Before the two could say their agreement, Zera fired at one of the chained zombies on the wall. She fired on another.

[Warning! You only have 3 minutes left!]

The system's mechanical voice rang out. Zera fired at another zombie while Beatrix positioned herself on the other side opposite Zera and did the same.

The sound of bullets and the opening of the cells came clashing with the growls from the re-animated dead. They seemed to be too excited to get their hands on Nayowmi.

Muttering a curse as the timer was close to two minutes, Zera saw that not only were the metal bars of the prison rising, the chained zombies were beginning to be released as well.

"Jay! A! You better hurry on that button. I'm going to help Nawyomni from down there!"

"What?!"

Before any of her friends could stop her, Zera placed the gun back on the holster by her hips, her hands closing in on the metal railing as she heaved herself up.

"Wait!" Beatrix called out, but Zera had already landed beside Nayowmi, standing back to back with her as she gave her the gun while she armed herself with her daggers.

"You know this is a stupid idea, right?"

Zera scoffed.

"The game only said to save you. It didn't tell us how we should do it," Zera replied. "But you're right. I'm a bloody idiot."