Episode 8

"Matthew and Genessee, welcome to my game of luck."

Matthew struggled to get off the cold floor, his neck sore from resting on a rusty pipe.  A girl with large eyes and bright pink hair sat closely to him.  She was trembling like a stranded cat in a storm.

"If you haven't already noticed, luck isn't currently on Capri's side."

Matt watched as a brunette woman threw herself against her glass chamber.  A perfect rectangle prison that was slowly filling up with water.

"The key to the locked door is in the tank.  In order to free her, you must turn the correct wheels placed against the walls. Fail to do so, and she will either drown or..."

The menacing voice didn't continue but snickered as if he was enjoying every minute of this.

"I'd guess you have about five minutes before Capri is completely submerged.  Good luck."

"What?" Matthew rubbed his temples, "Argh... What..."
"Snap out of it," the pink haired girl, Genessee, nudged him, "We have to do something!"
"What even is all this? What in the literal hell..."
"I... don't know, but we're going to run out of time," she pleaded.
She scurried over to the wall with several wheels to choose from.  Her hands reached and retracted from each one, unable to make a decision.
"Hurry!" the girl in the tank screamed.  The water was up to her knees.
Matthew tried looking for a clue or hints or patterns, but at this point and with their time limit it was near impossible.  He still wasn't positive he was even awake and this was all a really messed up dream.
"Uh..." Genessee hesitantly grabbed one of the wheels, "I... guess..."
She turned it but not with much gusto.  As it screeched they both cringed and waited for something to happen.
"Hey... It slowed down!" Capri shouted, pounding on the glass in excitement, "Keep going!"
Genessee beamed and searched for the next one.  Matt went to another wall full of wheels and started to turn one, this time must faster.  The more wheels they can knock out in their time frame the better!
Capri got deathly quiet.  For a second, Matt thought they'd succeeded again, but her squeal made his heart sink.
"LEECHES!"
Dark slugs poured out of one of the tubes linking into Capri's glass tank.  She flailed and shrieked.
"Fudge..." Matthew groaned, "Hey, you pick! I pick the wrong ones I guess..."
What else was hiding in these pipes waiting to be unleashed...?
Genessee nodded, turning another wheel at random.  Now Capri was sobbing and gagging.  Another pipe spewed blood into her tank.
"Make it stop!" Capri begged.
The water was to her hips.  Matthew cursed and wrenched another wheel, and another, two at a time.  One wheel seemed to work, slowing the water stream significantly.  Capri was pressed against the walls trying to evade the leeches floating in her now off-pink water.  However, one of the wheels released something big...
A snake's head peeked out from the tube and glided it's long brown scaly body through.  The tubes had to be quite large to let something that massive slither through... the entrance at least the size for a child's head to fit.
That seemed to rattle Capri to her end.  She swayed for a moment and then lost consciousness.  The splash she made froze Genessee and Matt, still hard at work, and they looked at each other with horrified eyes.