CHAPTER 5

It was pitch black outside; the only indication if any light came from what Altair could make out from the streaming countryscape that blured by him. He fought to balance himself on the small walkway between him and the next car. And there before him, emblazed on the door in mile-high letters was the message:

AGE IS BUT A NUMBER

Altair struggled to wrap his hazed brain around what that could possibly mean, and how it could help him in his next test. He swung open the door and stumbled inside the car. "Naoto!"he cried. He knew she was the only one left that he hadn't faced yet, so it was a safe bet that she was here somewhere.

"Is someone there?" came an oddly distant voice.

"Me, Altair. You okay, Naoto?"

"No," was the frightened response.

By now Altair had been strangely de-sensitized to the drawn-out drama of his own blindness, and he waited in silence for the lights to click on.

He didn't wait long.

The light illuminated Altair's next test. He leaned on the familar chain link fence as he took in the sight before him.

Naoto was sealed inside an enourmous glass box, it was completlely transparent save for four blank black screens on each of the sides. Naoto pounded on the box with her fists, "God, get me out of here!"

Altair was so used to seeing Naoto calm and composed, that her desperation almost seemed out of character; then again, character meant nothing in this life or death situation. Altair cast a look to the cars' corner floor and found what he was looking for. He retreived it and gave Naoto a long stare. "I'm getting you out of here, I just have to figure out how first."

Naoto stared back at him with widened eyes as Altair pressed the play button on the recorder:

"Altair, congradulations on coming thus far, I now present to you what could possibly be your hardest test yet, or it could be the easiest, depending on the reaction of your comrade. Right now you are looking at someone who doesn't even know their own place in this exsistence; or rather choses not to know her place. Everyone's role in society can be determined by a simple number, but Naoto tries with every fiber of her being to deny that very number; she's in limbo, Altair, and it's your job to bring her back.

The device Naoto is locked in is called Pandora's box, around her are four buttons, each will scroll through a random number one through nine. She must push the buttons to draw a number, then it's up to you, Altair to put them in the proper order. Naoto already knows this number very well, and her only hope of survival is to make peace with it once and for all. Let the game begin."

When the message was through playing Naoto's eyes began darting wildy around the corners of the box.

"What do you see?" Altair screamed at her.

"These things are screens. There are numbers scrolling all over them. I can't keep track!"

"Okay, just press one and see what happens."

The box was large enough for Naoto to stand up inside in, she swiveled her head around and reached up and pressed the button on the box's top panel. "It stoped on five," she reported back.

Altair took a step closer to the fence and noticed a numeric keypad there. "I see," he said. He pressed the number five on the keypad, and something horrifying happened,

The top of the box closed in.

It dropped by about a foot, causing Naoto to scream and crouch to avoid it. "Oh, dear god!" she moaned.

Altair now saw the objective of this game: Figure out the combination, or the box will crush her. He had to think carefully about his next choice, he glanced at the digital timer above his head, it read 9:27... he didn't have much time. Altair ran the message through his head again and came up with something. "Naoto, maybe we don't need the numbers on the box, the message said you already know them!"

"How could that be possible!" She shouted back. "They're being provided for a reason, so it's obvious we must use them!"

"Oh, goddamit, Naoto! Stop over thinking everything for once in your fucking life!" Altair's response caused Naoto to pause, but only fora second.

"Altair, whatever this is, it's obviously a test of our meddle, we just have to look inside ourselves to get through this!" Naoto had regained her cool composure and Altair was at an absolute loss as to how she could be so calm when her life was in jepordy.

"The message, Naoto, remember the message!" Altair screamed.

"Forget the message, it's purpose was to confuse and throw us off! Now pay attention, I'm getting another number." Naoto pressed the button in front of her, "Eight!" she said. Altair shook his head and pressed the number eight on the keypad, and the front of the box closed in. "Oh, no!" Naoto cried.

Altair shouted in frustration, "This in getting us nowhere! You've got to listen to me-"

"I am listening to you," Naoto said back, "And I think I-" before she finished her sentence, the train rounded a sharp corner and Naoto lost her balance and was thrown into the left side of the box. She looked to Altair, "Seven." she said. Altair input the forcibly drawn number and the left side of the box closed in.

"Still wrong! What kind of number are we trying to find anyway!"

"There are four buttons, so there mus tbe four numbers to the code..." Naoto mused. She looked beneath her and pressed the button on the botton with her foot "Two." she said.

Altair input the number and the bottom closed in. Naoto was running out of space, and Altair out of time. "We solved a riddle like this before, Naoto, remember that guy who put those strange letters in your locker?"

"I think this is a little different," Naoto said back. She was crouched down in the far corner of the rapidly shrinking box, and there was a note of panic creeping into her voice.

"We've wasted too much time here, there's less than seven minutes left, I have to get to the front car to stop this thing or we die; the time for thinking is over." Altair approached the keypad.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Naoto cried.

"Four numbers... I'll try your adress first."
"But if I don't push a button first-"

Altair ignored her and input the first three numbers of her street adress; and three random panels of the box closed in.

"Jesus! Altair stop!" She was pressed completely flat in the box now. "I-c-can't bre-t-he!

It was then that Altair made his decision.

What he was about to do was practically unspeakable and never had he thought it would come to this. "I'm sorry , Naoto," he sighed.

"Wh-what are you d-doing?"

Enough time had been wasted, Naoto was the only thing between him and his survival; and he wasn't going to let her stop him. Altair began randomly pressing numbers on the keypad. The box grew impossibly small and Altair could hear the snaps and sicking crunches as Naoto's body was compacted to the size of a postage stamp. The door to the fence swung open and Altair walked through without even stoping to show any kind of remorse for what he had just done.

Altair wasted no time in crossing the walkway to the next car; he needed to reach that brake. He entered the front car and saw his objective, the control panel behind the conducter's chair, the only problem was, there was someone in the chair. Whoever she was, she looked very relaxed, she sat with her legs crossed and wore a complacent smile on her strangely beautiful face.

Her eyes behind her glasses were narrowed in such a way that Altair was positive she knew something he didn't. Just when he was at a loss, the girl spoke for the first time, "Hello, Altair," she said.

Something fired in Altair's brain; he had heard that before. "You...who are you?"

"I am seven, a subordinate of zero," she said simply. There was a small smirk on her lips that took form during her decloration.

"Seven?" Altair sputterd, "You did all this shit! Didn't you!"

Apparently the girl didn't seem to hear him, "I just love trains, don't you?"

"What?"

"I once palyed a game with a guy on a train. I asked him who would board the car first; the babling man or the man who looked like a potato." the girl stoped and let out a high pitched giggle. "And wouldn't you know it he managed to guess right. And with each little question he answered, he got favor in return...special favors, you could say." There was a real manic glint in her eyes now; she was clearly enjoying this. "I guess you could say that i like playing games with people."

"So what the fuck do you want with me? All my friends are dead because of you, you bitch!"

"Through no fault of their own, it was you who failed them, Altair. And now here's you chance for redemption. I can tell you're already looking past my eyes; you have no clue who I am, but strangely enough, both our lives are in your hands."

"There's no way I'm saving you,bitch." Altair spat.

"But you've already shown that you're unwilling to sacrifice yourself for the sake of another; I see everthing , Altair. So now, I give you a choice. You can pull the brake and stop the train, or you can let it crash, killing the both of us. Will you stop it, letting the person responsible for your misery live another day; or will you let us both ride towards our doom, the choice is yours."

Altair looked to the digital timer- 2:26... "If it's that simple, then why don't you just stop it yourself?"

"Just as I was watching you, Altair, zero sees everything that I do. This is my test as well; I must face the possibility of death to truly understand zero's will."

Altair had the choice in his hands, would he really let the train crash, killing them both? But he couldn't possibly let this bitch live, could he? That's when the idea came to him.

He rushed passed the girl's chair and pulled the trains' red emergency brake. The train screeched and whined and eventually rolled to a stop. There was 00:02 left on the timer.

"Congradulations, you are still alive. Most people are so ungrateful to be alive; but not you; not anymore." the girl said. That statment sent chills up Altair's spine, he got the feeling that wasn't the first time she said that someone. But he was quickly filled with another feeling; hatred.

He wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed. he wanted nothing more than to see this girl suffer.

And to Altair's astonishment, she laughed. "You don't learn do you? This is your second chance at life and you're going to destroy it."

"What the fuck do you mean?"

"You seem to forget that the doors and windows are still electrified, and only I know how to turn them off."

"Someone will find this train eventually," Altair said. "Things like this just don't go missing; people notice."

The girl laughed again, "Idiot, this is a one way special charter. From here it will automatically pilot itself strait to the trainyard, and that's where it will stay for over three months! So you can kill me if you wish, but if you do so, this place becomes your tomb."

Altair stepped away from her at this revelation. Every possible scenario had been thought out, he couldn't win this game. "So what do I do?" he said , defeated.

"Allow me to turn off the current, and then you'll have your freedom."

She rose from her chair and walked passed Altair to the door. "Maybe now you'll learn to appreciate your life, Altair...maybe." She closed the door behind her and left Altair alone in the car. A short while later the train shuddered and went completely silent, the power had been turned off; he was free to go. He opened the door and stepped onto the walkway, from there he jumped to the ground and ran as fast as he could in the direction of town. He needed to be sure someone knew of this.

*END OF SAW 0 PT.1*

-whew! I wonder if this chapter was a little too long, I really didn't feel like breaking it into two seperate parts. Anyway thx for reading (if you bothered) part two is in the works.