The Trapped

1-3- Anthills (In-game)

The walls in the room began clicking. But no door opened. Instead, the floor began sinking downwards. The walls began creeping upwards, and the ceiling became more and more distant, until the walls suddenly dipped out and expanded, into a humongous room covered in... anthills?

This keeps getting weirder and weirder. I grabbed my new best friend, Craig.

"We stick together, okay?" I asked, cowering behind his shoulder.

"...Right," he reluctantly said.

The floors themselves were blank; simply cement. But in the center of the crawling ants was a globe, and a single index card, turned face down. Was it safe, I wondered, to investigate?

I carefully treaded forward, lightly pushing Craig in front of me, hoping that there was nothing underneath the tiles that could come out to attack. In a situation like this, anything could be dangerous. In fact, this room itself could be a hallucination. We could already be drugged up. I found that more likely than an entire room covered in... anthills.

"What do you see in front of us?" I asked Craig.

"There's a whole lot of ants, and a..." Craig tilted his head forward and squinted. "A card on a table, and right next to it- Ain't that a globe?"

I peered out from behind him. In front of us was indeed a single antique globe, and another entire wall of crawling ants behind glass. "Yes. I see it too. Ok, ok." I was shaking. "So we're either both hallucinating the same thing, or there is indeed a giant anthill surrounding this entire room, and a single globe, right in front of us, with an index card. Right." I was struggling to comprehend this.

Craig began walking ahead without needing to be guided, more curious than anything. I shook. "Craig! Please be careful," I said. Damn it, why was I such a coward.

"I think the floor's safe," he said. "If they wanted to kill us right off the bat, they woulda done it already."

"Fair point," I said, still shivering. "But still, watch your step, please."

Craig sighed. "You really are a yellowbelly, aren'tcha?" He asked.

"Yellowbelly?" I asked.

"A coward," he said.

"No..." I said dejectedly. "In fact," my hands began to shake uncontrollably. "H-h-how about I take a look at that index card?"

We were close enough that the card was in reaching distance. I outstretched my hand, and hoped that I could reach it. I snatched it up, closing my eyes, letting out a whimper in fear.

Craig sighed, gently taking it out of my hand. "'There used to be billions of ants on this anthill. But the core's been cracked open; and now time won't stay still.' What's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know," I replied. "Maybe it's some sort of hint on how to get out of here."

"Wait, there's more!" He exclaimed, turning the card to the back. Due to his excitement and contagious positivity, I now had the guts to look at the card, and realized it was written in beautiful, albeit difficult to read, calligraphy. I was surprised Craig was having such an easy time reading it.

"Forget the prize, and water will rise; look with antennas, not with the eyes." Craig finished, putting the card back on the table containing the globe.

I looked over at the thousands of ants crawling behind the glass. Each ant was bright red and quite large, about the size of my pinky, and unlike any I had seen before. The heebie-jeebies crawled through my skin. "Eugh," I whispered.

Craig seemed not to notice, too intent on the card. In all fairness, our lives were riding on it. "So, what I'm thinking is you're right. This must be a hint," Craig said.

"If it is, it's not a very good one. I have no idea what it means!"

I heard a rumbling underneath the floor, as did Craig. Each of us jumped backwards.

Suddenly, the floor tile in front of us began to rise. Out of the floor appeared a glass case, with a single ornate katana placed in an upright position.