Second World



"Let me go up there and hold the lever," Winson proposed. "After you two get to the other side, I will do the wall running following my original idea."

Jack gave the matter a thought, he then said, "No. Remember what that crazy woman said? Two people will make this journey easier. I don't think we are meant to leave behind one person here. There must be something that can be used after one of us get to that other platform. I will hold the lever. You two cross over and see if there is anything there you can use to help me."

"Okay," the two replied.

Jack headed back and pulled the lever again. This time, he held the lever in place.

Stefan turned to Winson.

"What?" Winson asked.

"You are confident with your parkour skill, right? You should go first. In case that bridge cannot support your weight, you can still acrobatic your way out of there."

"Dude, if that happens, I don't think any acrobatics will help," Winson said.

Stefan stood his ground. He showed no intention of going first.

"Hey, have you guys gone across already?" Jack called from above. "Tell me when you have! I don't want to accidentally release this lever when you people are still on the bridge."

"Crossing now!" Winson yelled. He gave Stefan an annoyed glance before he jumped to the risen platform.

Winson landed loudly on the platform. He froze for a second, fearing the platform would fall. It didn't. He sighed with relief. He looked back at Stefan and uttered, "It's solid."

Winson then ran and jumped to the next platform.

"I'm going next! Don't let go of the lever!" Stefan warned Jack.

"Just hurry your ass up!" Jack yelled back.

Stefan jumped forward. Unlike Winson, he didn't stop. He continued running and jumped to the next platform. He only felt safe afterward.

Winson scoffed at him. "This platform is the same as the rest. There is no support underneath. Any of them can fall. There is no guarantee."

"Hey! Have you guys crossed over?" Jack called.

"We have crossed!" Stefan yelled.

The bridge platform fell back and Jack reappeared on the ledge. "You guys see anything over there?" He asked.

"Does this look like a switch?" Winson asked. He had been searching around after Stefan arrived. There was a short wall on one side of this platform which was not seen when they were still on the other side. One small part of the wall was slanted, creating a recess at the bottom and a protrusion at the top. Sort of like a giant switch.

"Have you tried pushing it?" Stefan asked back.

So, Winson did. It was a switch. Stefan pushed the protrusion part and the whole thing was now flat with the wall. They heard a rumble and the bridge platform rose back.

"Maybe you should…," Stefan wanted to tell Winson to keep pressing the switch in case the mechanism was the same as the lever above, but Jack had already jumped down to the bridge.

Jack walked over casually before jumping to their side. "Great job, partners!" He praised.

"You are one risk-loving mother*cker," Stefan said.

"Huh?" Jack didn't understand Stefan's words.

"Let's go, I'm afraid we waste too much time here," Winson said. There was a very narrow path forward where they had to walk in balance to get to the next platform.

"The old man is on fire," Jack said. "Let's go!"

They met a few more incidents where one person had to stay behind to activate something to help the others proceed, before the ones who had crossed over activated something on the other side to let the first person cross.

"Shit! How far away is this place? How long has it been?" Winson asked.

"Almost eight minutes…," Jack replied.

"… We might not make it," Stefan said.

"We will!" Jack encouraged.

"AAHHH…!!!"

Jack turned back the instant he heard Stefan's yell. They had been jumping over a series of floating pillars to get to the next platform. Stefan lost his concentration and slipped at the last pillar before the platform.

Jack dropped to the ground in reflex. Half of his body was out of the platform with one hand grabbing the edge and the other hand stretching out. His stretched-out hand was just in time to catch Stefan's falling hand.

Stefan's weight almost caused Jack to get pulled and follow him into the abyss, but Winson acted fast and grabbed Jack's feet, stopping him from sliding out of the platform.

Using his super strength, Jack lifted Stefan using one hand.

Stefan was panting after he was back in safety. "Go!" He said. 

When Jack and Winson didn't move. Stefan said again. "You two go! I'm just slowing you down. I will be safe here. I will just wait until the time runs out."

Jack nodded. He looked at Winson whose expression also agreed this was for the best. The two then went ahead.

Stefan looked at the two as they ran and jumped over obstacles. The two were indeed faster when he was not with them. He shook his head and felt sorry for his uselessness.

After another minute of acrobatic running, they finally lay eyes on Kerry. She was strapped in a chair atop a floating platform. There was a huge digital timer above her. It was just a bit over one minute left.

The platform she was on was red. Another platform was within jumping distance from her platform. That one was colored green. Those two platforms were the only two with colors. Both Jack and Winson didn't need to discuss to understand what those colors meant.

The only path to reach the red platform where Kerry was on was via a line of floating pillars similar to the ones Stefan almost fell from just now. It should be child play for them to cross over, but they knew the last obstacle wouldn't be that simple.

Not far from the line of pillars was a bridge. The end of this bridge was void and it was too far away from the red platform. They couldn't use this bridge to jump to Kerry. Beyond this bridge was a row of what looked very much like unmanned machine guns.