text: Kate woke up on a bed that was not her own. Her soft bed was gone, replaced by a hard slab of fabric, sitting gently on a sturdy metal frame. She swiftly opened her eyes and was quickie sitting up. As if on queue with her awakening, bright lights shot on, bathing the room is clean white light. Once her eyes adjusted, Kate looked around and was able to get a better understanding of the room she found herself in. The room was small, the walls and floors were made of solid panels, each seemed to be the exact same size and shape, all but one was a stark white. Across the room from the bed was a single black panel at the center of the wall. Kate’s eyes were still adjusting to the light as she stood herself up from the bed. She looked down and noticed her normal clothes were gone, replaced with a simple gray jumpsuit. “Hello?!” She shouted, her brain was running on overdrive trying to figure out where she was and how she got here. A monotone robotic male voice echoed across the room. “Subject is awake. Please confirm.” The voice seemed to be without a source, as if there were a thousand invisible speakers all echoing in perfect unison. Kate looked around, the adrenaline from being woken up was quickly fading as the fear of what was going on began to take hold. “Wha.. What is going on? Who are you? Where am I?” She stuttered through her words, unsure which question she really wanted answered, worried the answer might be alot worse than whatever her mind might think of. The voice returned. “Confirmation accepted.” The voice paused. An eternity of silence passed in a heartbeat. “Make progress, or termination will be permanent.” Kate yelled out, “What does that mean?” The voice was annoyingly silent, that seemed to be all the answers she was going to get. Kate looked around, and noticed the black panel had changed. At the top, a timer had appeared and was counting down. 3 minutes were left. Underneath, there was a message; ***What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?*** Kate stared at the board confused as to why she was being asked a simple brain teaser. She thanked herself that she knew the answer, and unable to think of another way to answer, Kate spoke out the solution to the riddle. “The answer is man.” The timer stopped, and the message disappeared. A moment later, the loud voice returned. “Progress has been made.” Kate was unsure of what exactly *progress* meant, but making it seemed like a good thing, as the timer began to tick upwards until it hit 13 minutes, before it began to count down again. Then, another message appeared. ***LOCATE WHERE THE PATTERN REPEATS*** Kate looked at the message, then around the room for any sort of pattern she could find. The walls and ceiling remained unchanged, however when she looked down she noticed the floor had changed. It was no longer the same solid white, now a variety of black shapes scattered across the floor. She scanned the room, but couldn’t find any sight of a pattern. She spoke to herself “Okay, ‘Locate where the pattern repeats.’ Just gotta find it.’ How hard could it be?” Kate wasn’t sure if it was the nerves or the riddle, but she was just thankful that she had something else to focus her mind on. She quickly began to scan the ground, looking for any sign of a pattern, and where it might repeat. The clock had ticked down to 2 minutes, and Kate was still scanning the floor, but she couldn't find any sign of a pattern. Her mind was racing, and she began to panic. “There is no pattern! This doesn't make sense!” She yelled out, a small part of her brain was desperately hoping that maybe she had found the answer, but the voice was silent. Kate stared at the message, and suddenly she noticed something odd about the letters. She ran over, but before she could analyze them, she remembered the clock, and realized it had 5 seconds left. Kate froze, she tried to look at the letters but the pressure of the timer was too much, she couldn’t focus enough to find a pattern. The final seconds ticked away. The clock hit zero and the message disappeared. The ominous voice returned. “Time has expired, commencing termination.” The hard white light of the room was quickly replaced with a dim red. Smoke began to seep out from the floor. The room was quickly flooded with toxic gas. Kate tried to hold her breath, but eventually her body betrayed her, she took a deep breath in, she felt her body quickly begin to fail, until she completely collapsed. There was a flash of white, then suddenly Kate was once again standing in the center of the room. She took a deep breath, confused as to what just happened to her. “Make progress, or termination will be permanent.” Kate quickly realized she was somehow right back where she started. She looked at the clock, and saw it begin to count down from 5 minutes, with the same message as before. ***What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon, and three legs at night?*** “Okay, so as long as I make progress, I somehow end up back where I started.” Kate said to herself. She didn’t understand the how or the why, but at least there were rules she could follow. “The answer is man” This time the voice did not return, the message simply disappeared, and the clock began to tick upwards. This time settling at 14 minutes. “And it would seem that time gets added every time I solve a puzzle. Got it.” Kate was beginning to feel slightly more confident, as the next riddle appeared. ***LOCATE WHERE THE PATTERN REPEATS*** This time Kate ignored the shapes on the ground, and went right to the letters. At the bottom of each of the letters, there were small shapes. Under the L was a square, the O had a circle, the C had a triangle. Square, circle, triangle. This pattern repeated under each letter across the whole riddle. She made a point to note every spot where the pattern repeated itself, and nervously spoke out her answer. “The pattern repeats every 3 letters.” The message vanished, the clock stopped, then the voice returned. “Progress has been made.” 10 minutes were added to the clock. This was how it continued, puzzles and riddles continued, sometimes entire rooms would open up, but each one had the same black panel, with a clock and riddle. If Kate could solve the puzzle, she could move on, and every time she solved a new one, the robotic voice indicated progress had been made. The once ominous voice began to take on a more calming presence to Kate, as each time it echoed, she knew she was now safe to fail a puzzle. Each failure led to a death of some type, but each time Kate woke up back at the start.