As you walk forward through the void…
you don’t see any change. You only know of your progress from the letters above as you move from under an A to an O. Squinting out into the distance you see no signs of life. And you also don’t see the lump in the ground in front of you. You trip forward, stumbling to regain your balance, and look back at the perpetrator.
Jammed into the floor, there is the glimmer of something bronze shiny back at you. Kneeling down to the sparkling metal, you wrangle it out of the cracked floor. As you inspecting it in your hands, you see there are numbers on it, ones with dashes in between, so perhaps a date? Hidden next to the numbers you find a secret compartment. In fact, you find four compartments, two on either side of the cylinder.
Sticking your fingers into a compartment, you pull out a scroll. It reads:
“…Day 13 - I am no closer to finding an exit. Tomorrow I will try a different approach.”
Beads of sweat form on your brow. How long will you be stuck here? 13 days, longer? The good news, however, is that this means there is someone else down here, and perhaps you could find a way out together.