"What’s wrong?" Paul said. He ran over to Storell.

Seconds ago, a swooshing noise across the room resulted in small lockers appearing above everyone’s bed chamber. Storell, the first to open hers, had reacted with shock.

"This is my stuff," Storell said. She pulled a pocket sized spiral notebook and pen out of the locker. "Look!" Her trademark heart signature adorned the bottom right corner of the notebook’s cover. She reached into the locker again and pulled out some clothes. "There are at least three sets of clothes in here, a fish hook, some string, some granola bars…" She paused a bit before waving for Earchon Franche to come over.

"Oh, I see," Earchon Franche said as she looked into the locker to see the remaining items. Both girls blushed.

"What is it?" Brady asked.

"No!" both girls yelled out. Storell coughed a bit.

"Oh, uh, I see," Brady said as he backed off.

Earchon Franche stood on her toes and whispered to Storell. "Tampons huh? You’ve already…"

Storell shook her head angrily and put a finger on her mouth to hush Earchon Franche up. She quietly took the box out and shut the locker. "Anyway, everyone should check their own."

Brady and Xecure walked over to their lockers. "Man, this is really messed up," Brady said. "What the hell do you think is going on?"

"I have a lot of theories, but I doubt any of them are correct," Xecure said. He opened his locker and peered inside. "Oh shit, this really is my stuff!"

Brady opened his. "Heh, why the hell would I bring this crap here? Basketball cards? My Chauncey Billups autographed socks? There’s nothing but junk in here. No food. I’m sharing yours, Xec’."

"Dream on," Xecure said as he pulled out a box of Total brand cornflakes, a spare change of clothes, and a Nintendo DS. "Hm, what game is in here? Pokémon Diamond? Sweet."

Storell walked over to Lettiere and Cassidy’s lockers. Lettiere opened hers and several hardcover books fell out. "Oops," she said. She knelt down and started picking them up.

"Quite the bookworm I see," Storell said. She looked over at Cassidy’s. "Nothing but clothes?"

"There’s got to be some food here. I never leave home without a snack or two," Cassidy said. She reached in and pulled out a magnifying glass. "Huh? I’ve never owned one of these," she said.

"Very strange," Storell said. She pulled out her notebook and started jotting down some things.

"What are you writing?" Cassidy asked.

"There has to be a reason why this was in my locker. I think I need to take note of everything that’s happened so far. Like this locker issue. Most of us got stuff that was our own things, but as you just demonstrated, some get something they’ve never had. There’s got to be a reason for it," Storell said.

Cassidy nodded. "I probably have to put this to good use at some point," she said, waving the magnifying glass around.

Storell went over to Paul and walked with him around the room, looking on as the others examined their lockers. Storell grasped Paul’s arm and looked up at him. "What do you think is going on?" she asked.

Paul scratched his chin as he contemplated. "None of this seems real. I mean, okay, I’ll accept the bed thing, but our stuff appearing in lockers? I mean, it’s as if we’re playing some kind of survival game."

Lettiere perked her head up. She hopped in front of the two, carrying a pile of books in her arms. "Survival game eh? What do you think is the purpose of the game?"

"I’d imagine the game is to survive. Maybe to escape this room or something. I mean, it’s not a very large room or anything," Paul said.

"So why do I have these books?" Lettiere said as she picked a random book from her pile and raised it up. "Lord of the Flies." She placed it down and took another book. "Robinson Family Crusoe." She took another book. "Alive."

"Alive?" Storell said.

Lettiere turned it over and read the brief on the back cover. "It’s about that soccer team whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountains. They had to eat the dead to survive."

Storell grimaced. "Our game can’t be like that."

"’Course not, that’s why we have food, or at least, some of us do," Xecure said.

Paul and Storell were near Derrin. He stood up on his tiptoes, his arm fully extended into his locker. He dug in his locker frantically. "Need help?" Paul asked.

Derrin nodded and took his hand out. Paul went over and looked inside. "That thing scrunched up all the way in the back?" he said to Derrin, who nodded again. He reached in and pulled it out.

It was a faded piece of cloth, approximately two by two feet in width and height. Paul lifted it up against the bright lights above and examined it. "It’s a map."

"A map?" Brady said as he walked over and took a look. "Hm, yeah."

"Can you tell where we are?" Storell asked.

"Uh not really," Paul said. He put the map down and handed it over to Derrin. "I mean, it’s probably yours, right?"

Derrin nodded. "From Might & Magic," he said.

"Oh, I love that series!" Xecure said. "Which one?"

"The sixth one," Derrin said, mumbling. He stuffed the map into a small backpack.

Storell looked around and saw Vesuvius standing by his locker. The tall boy reached up and opened his locker. His eyes widened when he peered inside. He quickly looked to his left and right, as if to check if anyone was looking. When his eyes made contact with Storell’s, he quickly shut his locker. Storell turned to face away on instinct, caught in the act. But still, it bothered her that Vesuvius acted so oddly.

She turned to Paul. "Hey, do you know him?" she asked, pointing in Vesuvius’ direction.

"Barely know him, didn’t have any classes with him, that’s for sure. I know he’s part of Drake’s gang though," Paul said. "Why, something bothering you?"

"No, it’s nothing," Storell said. She looked at him again and caught him taking something from his locker. He stuffed it quickly into his pocket, and then shut his locker close. "But we need to find out what he has later."

"Eh, probably weed or something. Maybe he’s hiding it out of instinct," Paul said as he shrugged.

"Hey, so what did you have in your locker?" Storell asked.

Paul looked at her. He hesitated for a moment before finally speaking. "I haven’t checked yet," he said.

"You haven’t? Why not?" Storell asked.

"Uh, I don’t know, it’s kind of creepy. I almost don’t want to know what sort of stuff I’ve conjured, so to speak."

"Oh come on, you’re not a pervert. I’m sure it’ll be fine. I mean, let me guess it, you’ll probably have some clothes, maybe your football helmet, maybe you’ll have this year’s yearbook. You were on the yearbook team, right? And I hope you have food too."

Paul sighed. "Okay, let’s go find out," he said. The two walked over to his locker.

He placed his hand on the locker door, and held it there. Storell placed her hand over his. "It’ll be okay," she said. Paul nodded back, took a deep breath, and then opened the locker.

"Huh?" Paul said. He peered into the locker. "Storell, it’s empty," he said as he trembled.

"Empty?" Storell said with surprise. She looked inside to confirm. Sure enough, the locker was empty.

The others except Vesuvius gathered around. "It’s a quirk of the game. You’re the unlucky one," Lettiere said.

"Will you stop with this game shit? This isn’t funny," Paul said angrily. He shut the locker door and walked off. "This isn’t a game, this is some kind of bullshit that Bennett thought of. It’s all his damn fault that we’re in this room."

Brady ran over to him. "Paul man, get a hold of yourself! Getting mad ain’t gonna help the situation, man!"

Paul shook him off. "This is your fault! You’re why Storell and I are here! We wouldn’t even be here if you hadn’t text’ed me to come!"

"Dude come on, you can’t blame me for that!" Brady said defensively. Paul turned his back to him and continued to walk away from the group. "All right fine, be that way! Not like you can get out."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Paul said as he continued walking straight, heading towards the wall. Then he stopped suddenly.

Storell looked at the wall that Paul headed towards. A door stood in front of them.

Paul couldn’t even react verbally. He fell down backwards, still staring up at the door.

"A door!" Earchon Franche cried out. Everyone except Vesuvius walked over to the door.

But when they got closer, they realized there was a problem. There was no handle on the door. No apparent way to open it.

Brady approached the door and touched it. It was real. He traced his fingers along the crack of the door. "This is definitely something that opens," he said. "But it doesn’t push open."

"Can you pull on it?" Cassidy asked.

"I don’t see how," Brady said.

Paul stood back up. He looked over at Storell. "Hey, look at that over there, next to the door," he said, pointing. Storell looked. There was some kind of panel with a strange symbol on it. Paul approached the door and looked down at the panel. "What do you guys think this is?" he said.

"Maybe it’s the key to opening the door?" Storell said as she got up and took a closer look at the panel. She noticed a sequence of braille-like dots displayed prominently below a button on the panel. "What do you think this is?" she said.

"What?" Paul said.

"It looks like some kind of code?" Storell said.

"Perhaps it is alien language. Maybe it is their word for ‘Exit’." Xecure said.

Storell counted the dots. There were nine of them, lined up in three rows and three columns. That couldn’t have been a word, could it? Such a simple pattern had to have some more abstract meaning. She lifted her hand up to scratch her head and it was then that she noticed something disturbing on her left wrist.

The exact same symbol, three rows and three columns of black dots, was tattooed there on her wrist. Storell backed away from the panel and turned towards Paul. "I understand now! Don’t press the button!" she shouted.

"What now?" Paul said to her. His hand had already touched the panel before Storell could finish. The panel glowed brightly as he backed off. "Whoa."

A loud hissing noise pierced the room as the door slid upwards. "Guys, the door is opening!" Paul screamed ecstatically.

"But…" Storell said. She had been certain that the number pattern on her wrist corresponded to the panel. Perhaps everyone else had the same pattern? She ran over to Xecure and grabbed his left wrist.

"What is it, Sto’? Oh, this? Yeah, I noticed it earlier," Xecure said.

Storell trembled. The pattern on Xecure’s wrist was different. There were only four dots, arranged diagonally, on his wrist. "No, what could this mean?" Storell thought silently.

Everyone else cheered. Lettiere reached over and hugged Derrin against his will. Brady hooted as loud as he could. "You the man, Paul!" he shouted.

The door finally opened all the way, revealing a grassy forest outside.

"Well, we’re certainly not in Room 208," Paul said as he peered out. He took one step towards the exit then froze.

"Paul?" Storell asked. Then she looked at Paul’s hands.

Paul’s hands had suddenly expanded, like as if he had been found in the ocean, all bloated from the water. They kept expanding. Paul turned around. "What the—" he said. Before he could complete his sentence, his entire body started inflating. His arms and legs bloated like balloons filled to the brim with helium. A cracking noise festered from Paul’s body as his skin stretched to accommodate the bloating. Storell tried to look away but her eyes were fixated on his face which grew to the size of a large watermelon. Paul had an incredibly painful look on his distorted face. His eyeballs, bulging out of their sockets, oozed slime.

Everyone stared at him. Everyone stood there silently, unable to say a word as Paul continued to expand. His clothes were now ripping apart at the seams like the Hulk’s would when he transformed.

"Paul!" Storell screamed in horror as she heard a loud pop noise, followed by a huge splatter of blood and guts everywhere. Paul’s remains painted the wall, ground, and all over some of the kids near him. His clothes lay in a bloody clump a few feet from the exit.

Several of the girls screamed. Xecure fainted from the sight, and Brady just stood there, unable to speak.

Storell dropped to her knees and cried.

…