The Puzzle
This was the most fascinating puzzle she had ever encountered. Even though she had no idea how to begin, the mystery made her heart beat faster. This is what she’d been waiting for, a chance to prove herself to the headmaster. Once every month or so, the headmaster selected a student to display their skill in front of the school. For some lucky ones, to earn their diploma. Display their skill. In front of the entire school; Glass Eye Inc. College, or, as referred to as the students, G.E.I. Once enrolled, you stay until you graduate. And that’s exactly what she planned to do.
G.E.I is a school for engineers of sorts. Intellectuals if you will. Critical thinking becomes more critical than first implied. A school for people who ask too many questions; those who wish to know. For those who forget to ask themselves if they really want an answer first. Or, to put it simply, an undercover agency looking to exploit government secrets. Key had been waiting her whole life at G.E.I to graduate, not only become part of the company’s greater scheme, but to learn everything the government hides. Even as a kid she dreamt of becoming a spy of sorts. She’d worked very hard to get to where she is now. Now she just has to prove it.
Earlier, Key had been placed in a dimly lit, medium-sized room for testing. Standard testing in regular classes, would be described as such: create an elaborate puzzle, trap, or code, and have a classmate fail at even cracking at it. Then you’d have to solve a puzzle, crack a code, or deactivate a trap of your professor’s choosing. Eyed testing, (The get-watched-by-the-entire-school-not-to-mention-the-headmaster testing) however, only tests your puzzle solving, code cracking, and deactivation skills. Although Eyed testing only tests three skills, they are usually more complex and require more critical thinking skills, not to mention you’ll have to be relaxed and open minded under pressure. Getting into this school takes skill. Key knew this, so she practiced and learned. Repeat.
She had to use all that practice now. Key was about to endure her first challenge.
What baffled her, though, was the fact that she had been set a puzzle first. Typically, the first challenge would be a trap, but Key’s was a puzzle. Had they switched it up to make it more difficult for her? Was this the schools’ staff’s way of acknowledging her talent? She had all 6’s in every class she took, 6 being the highest grade. Had they recognized her hard work by challenging her with a higher difficulty level? Calm down, you won’t graduate today anyways, Key assured herself. Key had a habit of doing that; convincing herself she wouldn’t get what she wanted. That habit somewhat became her drive; a push to drive her to work even harder to earn what she had lived her life training for. How many countless nights building traps to train herself with, also solving puzzles her roommate made for her, she couldn’t say.
Key took a deep breath before examining the puzzle more closely. The timer could start any second now, and she wanted the greatest advantage she could obtain.
A few seconds later, a loud and quite irritating alarm went off, signaling the test had begun.
Key knew she needed to work as fast as she could; the times for these challenges always had a varied time limit. Key knew that if the staff raised the difficulty level, they’d be sure to quicken the time.
What stood before her could only be described as a tall, wide metal plank, reaching from the floor to a good six feet over Key’s head. It was colored with only the most vibrant blue Key had ever seen. The board held many wooden gears, all shaded a wide variety of colors, ranging from the most incredible, gorgeous, glistening oranges to the brightest and boldest of turquoise. All the gears were set in motion, too. Key felt as though she was inside a cartoon clock. Although, she wasn’t about to let the magnificence of the board distract her. She’d read about that somewhere; sometimes color or intricate detail would distract from key components of the puzzle, and that’s definitely not what Key wanted to do.
There has to be a switch or a keypad somewhere on the board, Key thought. She walked up to the colorful puzzle and examined it closer this time. She was now able to see the smaller details of the complex puzzle that didn’t seem too complex now.
She walked (well, more like speed-walked; time was gaining on her) to examine the sides of the board. The left side had all sorts of scribbles and writing of sorts on it-nothing she could make out this second. She strolled to the right side and maybe a foot above her head she spotted the word “way” carved into the beautiful blue board. Huh.
Key saw no reason to examine the back, as it was pushed against the wall. Now would be a good time to visit those scribbles again.
As she examined the carvings more closely, even though she couldn’t hear them, she could feel the murmurs of her peers watching her. The pressure was on now if it wasn’t already.
After looking more closely at the side for a while longer, a lightbulb shone brightly inside that open mind Key had.
The board was fairly wide, almost taking up the entirety of the wall it was placed against. Though she somewhat struggled with it and it wasn’t her favorite thing to do, she thought maybe she could wall jump up the side to get a better view of the marks on the left.
Jumping fiercely and quickly, left and right, she found herself as high as she could go. She glanced back at the carved side of the board and could clearly see the word “other” when she tilted her head at an angle. She then connected the two words to create a familiar phrase, “other way.” Other way? What’s that supposed to mean? If only words could express the rush of excitement and the thrill of the mystery that flowed through her veins.
She dropped back down and stepped back to take in the puzzle as a whole once more. Suddenly, something in her head clicked and she put it all together: the gears. The gears were rotating counter-clockwise, so maybe she had to get them to rotate the “other way.” The question remained; how?
The simplest thing she could think of would be to manually take them out and get them to turn the other way, so she thought about trying that. Sometimes it’s good not to overlook the obvious answer, because, on occasion, it might be the right answer.
Although, it’s always best to consider other options as well. Key took a deep breath to calm her nerves (not that she had a lot) and took a look at some alterative options. If there was a keypad somewhere she could type in maybe the digital number of the colors, if she could figure it out, but that seemed a bit too complicated. Still, she had the technology that could do it. She could also find a weak or hollow spot in the wall where there could be a secret compartment holding something useful, if not essential.
Key turned in to her thoughts and began knocking on various locations on the wall that could possibly be hollow. She began on the left wall where she wall-jumped once more and began knocking on the side, descending as she went. Nothing seemed hollow. She turned to jump up the other side in which she did the same thing. Still nothing.
As Key stood back on the floor and began losing a bit of hope, she turned to face the front side of the plank with the gears. Of the various gears, (there were 16) one of them oddly stood out to Key. It was painted with the same paint the others were, as they were all recently painted and had the same bitter aroma. This gear in particular was shaded a brilliant shade of red, though it had a different texture than the others, not to mention this gear was half the size of Key. No, this gear felt plastic, as the others were wooden.
What if… Key began experimenting with her thought before she finished it. She needed something big; something that could stop the gears from rotating altogether. Luckily, during eyed testing, you are allowed to carry a bag of no more than ten items to assist you with your puzzle solving. Fortunately, Key filled her jet-black drawstring bag to the maximum limit of items, one of them being a Rubik’s Cube just big enough to jam one of the smaller gears.
She pranced sideways so she was facing the second smallest set of gears she could find. The first gear was a dark, ugly shade of green, and was smaller than the second one. The second one, however, was a pleasurable shade of periwinkle. Just to her luck, the Rubik’s Cube fit perfectly in-between the toothed wheels, ending the entirety of the gears’ rotation.
Now with the entire board motionless, Key strolled back to the plastic gear in hopes she’d find a compartment in between one of this gears teeth. Sure enough, on the right side of the gear, there was a small rectangular door, almost impossible to notice.
Because the gear was stopped the way it was, the gear’s tooth got in the way of the door just the slightest bit. Thankfully, Key was able to open the door easily as the door opened from the bottom, the hinges at the top.
Inside the compartment, Key found a keypad that, when she tested it, only allowed three number characters. She also took note that when she opened the door, the numbers already set were -360.
The keypad was set up as your standard keypad, also giving different symbol characters such as hyphens. Key wasn’t sure why or how, but she knew exactly what to do.
Naturally, Key entered 360 as to change the direction of rotation for the gears. Her confidence quickly transitioned to excitement as she pulled the Rubik’s Cube out from the gear teeth once more. She found the gears turning clockwise instead of counter-clockwise.
Something better happen and it better be good, Key thought hopefully. To her surprise, she was greeted with a loud bang! sort of noise. Suddenly, the metal blue board split in half and opened the way an automatic door at Target would, except much louder. The board was much thicker than what Key had first thought, and she could feel the vibration of the opening door beneath her feet.
Did I complete the puzzle? Key asked herself, curious. What a silly question, she told herself.
Doors often and most times lead to separate rooms. That’s what happened in this situation, where the door lead to a separate room.
