Page 122 of The Commons

Levon gulps, horror-struck. “I’ll die.”

“Yes.”

“Now, jump!” Pesh orders.

She screams.

“Levon. Runnnn!” Pesh commands.

I hear sprinting and panting and doors slamming, then complete silence.

One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Then Levon speaks, “Okay, I’m safe. But I can still hear the gunshots.”

“Don’t worry about that. You’re safe for now. But in the next 10 minutes, the ground will cave in and explode. You can’t escape unless Shantavia turns on the water knob before the time elapses.”

“Where is that?” I ask, worried.

Pesh paces, hands on his face. “It’s nothing.” His expression appears bleak.

I look at him, eyes wide, perplexed. “What do you mean nothing, there must be something. What’s that thing you said at the start?”

“The Zariki Obstruct is a death sentence!”

“Pesh, my sister is about to die, freakin’ tell me what it is! What is The Zariki Obstruct?”

“The Zariki Obstruct is… oh my God.” Pesh turns to me, eyes aflame. “The Zariki Obstruct is where the six tests from The Commons come from. The tests are nothing compared to The Zariki Obstruct. The tests are man made. The Zariki Obstruct is real life. There was a reason that Patron De Londe and Satri DeVichi chose this island to build The Commons. It’s because this island is the REAL test.”

“What do you mean? How is this island The Test?” My chest tightens, panic flashing through me.

“The Zariki Obstruct is the only way to get to the switch room that can turn off what Patron De Londe has activated to kill Levon. To get to that room, you must fight robots that mirror yourself, be submerged in a river of Conzamine, escape a volcanic eruption and much more. You may see real people that The Seventh Zone has exiled or drowned, and you will face diamond-like environments a hundred times worse than the Common Test—just to get to an invisible door like the ones you’ve seen. And that is when you will reach the switch room. This is the room that controls every test and powers all technology that The Commons creates. This is the room that has the knob that can stop Levon from being blown up.”

“That’s impossible!” I exclaim. “I don’t understand. If what you’re saying is true, that’s literally death.”

“Exactly!”

“What did Doctor Val mean when she said she’d stop the students?” I ask.

“The students right now are taking virtual tests where their answers are affecting reality. So if Doctor Val stops them, you’ll be able to face the test head on without interference.”

“Oh my God, so the tests I took, if I killed someone there, that could have been real?”

“It could have been, but you didn’t in the Meaning Test.”

“How is this even possible?” My mind shudders.

“The Commons developed Commonda’s natural dangers with efficient and automatic parametric architecture in order to obstruct the way to the switch room that can save anyone. There’s no telling which of the obstacles in The Zariki Obstruct is real and which are fake. It’s all merged in nature, plus The Commons technology.”

Levon interrupts us over the intercom, screaming, “Shantavia! You don’t have to do this! It’s better if I’m the only one who dies. We can say our goodbyes in the next few minutes. You can’t run into that for me, it’s death!”

I take a deep breath, lost in a thousand thoughts. “And this is the only way to save my sister?”

“The only way.” He shows me the map.

I take it and look at the way to get past The Zariki Obstruct and to the switch room. “And if I overcome The Zariki Obstruct and get to the switch room, what then? How do I know which switch is the water knob?”

“You don’t. But it’s one of the blue ones, that’s all I know. You have to go with your instincts.”