Chapter 11: A Physics Lesson

"Sick, so what's our mini-prize this time?" Paula asked after hearing Ned's usual congratulatory message.

"THERE IS NO MINI-PRIZE FOR TODAY'S CHALLENGE."

"What? No fair how come?"

"WHEN DID I SAY THAT I WOULD BE GIVING OUT MINI-PRIZES AFTER EVERY ROUND?"

"Well it wasn't explicitly stated but like… I don't know. We've received one every round so far after completing the challenges, isn't it implied at this point?"

"WELL TOO BAD, YOU THOUGHT WRONG."

"Wait a minute," Melanie said, "that reminds me, how can we even be sure you are magical and will grant our wish at the end anyways?"

"YOU DON'T, BUT DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO?"

"That's fair."

"TO SILENCE YOUR SPECULATION HOWEVER, I WILL SHOW YOU MY POWERS BY GRANTING YOU A PET DRAGON."

Just as Ned finished his sentence, suddenly a podium popped up in front of us and indeed, a small dragon appeared. A small stuffed dragon that is.

"Lame… that's just a stuffed animal. That's not impressive at…"

"OMG a dragon!"

Paula pushed me out of the way to grab the plushie on the podium.

"Oww…what? That thing's going to impress you? I'm pretty sure you can buy those at the toy store for 20$"

"Shush dipshit, I'm going to call him Enes."

"SEE, I TOLD YOU, I KEEP MY PROMISES. HOWEVER, AS I SAID, YOU CANNOT RECEIVE YOUR WISHES UNTIL YOU COMPLETE ALL OF THE TRIALS."

A mechanical arm then suddenly popped up from the ground and quickly snatched the dragon plushie from Paula's grasp.

"Hey what hell, give that back."

Before she could resnatch it however, the mechanical arm along with the stuffed animal, disappeared back into the ground.

"Enes noooooo"

"5 TRIALS DOWN, 5 MORE TO GO. COME BACK IN 2 DAYS TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT."

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"WHAT THE HELL, WHY ARE YOU GUYS BACK ALREADY?"

2 days had gone by since the last trial and the 4 of us were gathered at our usual spot in the cave to greet Ned again.

"What do you mean? It's been 2 days already."

"WHAT HAPPENED IN THE DAY BETWEEN THE TRIALS?"

"Nothing much to be honest, we didn't get a mini prize so just the usual routine. Paula bullies me, Melanie caught another giant fish, and Fiona sits there blankly observing us."

"Maybe you should just let me keep the dragon next time..." Paula said disgruntled.

"Oh actually, something significant did happen!" Melanie announced.

"…"

"…"

"…"

About 1 minute of silence passed as we waited for Melanie to continue.

"WELL GO ON, WHAT SIGNFICANT THING HAPPENED?"

"I forgot."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Oh wait, I remember now! I caught an even larger swordfish than before!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"We live boring lives," Fiona said finally breaking the silence.

"YES, THAT IS CLEAR NOW."

"Yeah can we get, I don't know, a Frisbee or something for the next mini-prize?" Paula asked.

"OKAY FINE, I WILL PROVIDE A FRISBEE IF YOU COMPLETE THIS NEXT CHALLENGE."

"Sweet."

"THIS NEXT CHALLENGE HOWEVER WILL NOT BE AN EASY ONE. PLEASE PRESS THE BUTTON TO START."

"Pressssss," Melanie said pressing the button on the screen. As she did, the wall in front of us once again split open. Behind it ,we saw a single path through what appeared to be a bunch of mirrors that stretched all the way up to the ceiling.

"Ahhhhh a fashion show," Paula said standing in front of one of the mirrors and doing pose, "I do look pretty hot if I do say so myself, bet you'd do pretty well here too toots."

"You're ugly," Fiona responded back.

"NO YOU NIMRODS, HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK THAT IS WHAT THIS IS."

"Is it a break the mirrors challenge then?" Melanie said going up to one of the mirrors and giving it a swift punch. The mirror however, was quite sturdy as only Melanie's knuckle was bruised in the impact.

"Owwww…."

"NO WHAT? WHY WOULD IT BE THAT?"

"I saw this in a movie."

"THERE'S NEVER BEEN A MOVIE WITH THE PREMISE OF BREAKING MIRRORS. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

"You don't know me."

"ANYWAYS, LET ME EXPLAIN WHAT THE ACTUAL CHALLENGE IS. AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE IS A PATH BETWEEN THE MIRRORS. THIS IS BECAUSE THIS CHALLENGE IS AN OBSTACLE MAZE CHALLENGE. THE FIRST STRETCH OF THE MAZE IS INSIDE THE MIRRORS, BUT THAT'S NOT THE CASE FOR THE WHOLE CHALLENGE AS THERE ARE 3 STRETCHES. REACH THE END OF THE 3RD MAZE DOOR TO COMPLETE THE CHALLENGE."

"Oh that seems simple enough, wait did you say "obstacle" maze?"

"THAT IS RIGHT, WHILE YOU ARE TRAVERSING THE MAZES, A NUMBER OF ANNOYING OBSTACLES WILL BE IN YOUR WAY."

"What? What does that even mean?"

"STEP INSIDE TO FIND OUT."

As he told me that, I took a single step into the maze.

"Okay? Nothing really interesting happe… owwwww"

Suddenly above me, random plastic ping pong balls began to fall down and hit my head.

"THEY'RE NOT HUGE OBSTACLES, BUT THEY WILL BE MILDLY ANNOYING"

"Well that sucks…" I said stepping out of the maze again, "wait Melanie, you still have your backpack don't you? Let me use it for cover."

"What! Nooooooo," Melanie said taking her backpack off her back and holding it away from me.

"You can take cover in front of me as I hold it up."

"Mmm… okay. But my books better not get damaged you hear!" Melanie said glaring at me and slowly handing me the backpack.

"They're ping pong balls, how bad could it be?"

"Oh, and toots is an android so she doesn't feel pain. She can just hover her arms over my head to protect me," Paula said looking over at Fiona.

"Fine…"

"BY THE WAY, YOU HAVE A TIMER OF 10 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS CHALLENGE."

"When does that start?"

"WHEN SOMEONE FIRST ENTERS THE MAZE, THE TIMER WILL BEGIN. WHICH WAS ABOUT 30 SECONDS AGO WHEN XAVIER WENT IN. SO NOW YOU HAVE 9 MINUTES 30 SECONDS."

"What? How's that fai…"

"Hurry dipshit!" Paula said giving me a slap, "no time to waste."

"Sigh… whatever."

And with that, I grabbed Melanie's backpack and hovered it over both of our heads as the 4 of us entered the maze.

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"You sure you know where you're going Melanie?" I asked. We had been jogging for about 2 minutes as this point as ping pong balls continued to rain down on us.

"You must trust a survival extraordinaire's instincts dear assistant!"

"It feels like we've been going in circles, and how do you even determine which way to go when there's a crossroad? Shouldn't we split up in those situations?"

"Shh shhh trust Xavier trust."

We had encountered about 3 crossroads at this point and had decided to all take the same path instead of splitting up to cover all possibilities. Each time, Melanie just pointed at a direction and that was the way we went.

"I trust her," Paula said.

"Based on what?"

"Based on the fact that I'm lazy."

"What? I don't know… I feel like we've been here before, are you sure?"

"I trust her," Fiona said nodding in agreement.

"Based on what?"

"Also lazy."

"Is that so…"

"YOU HAVE 7 MINUTES REMAINING TO COMPLETE THE MAZES."

"Okay we've definitely been here before…" I said as we rounded a corner. In front of us ,lay another crossroads in the path.

"Go right!" Melanie said pointing that direction, "my instincts tell me to do so."

"Okay I'm not taking any chances, I'm pretty sure survival instincts only activate in the wild. I say we split up. Me and Melanie will go right while Fiona and Paula take the left. Just shout at each other when you find the exit."

"Found the exit!"

"What?"

Not paying attention to my surroundings, I did not notice that Fiona and Paula had gone a ways down the direction Melanie had pointed at. As Melanie and I caught up, we did indeed see what appeared to be the end of the maze where we saw a door.

"How the hell?"

"See told you!" Melanie said with a grin, "survival extraordinaires are never wrong which is why you're the assistant dear Xavier."

"I suppose so."

"6 MINUTES 30 SECONDS REMAIN."

"Hurry dipshit, let's get going."

As we went through the door, we entered another room where the second "Maze" was set up. However, instead of a true maze, we just saw a wall at the other end of the room with 5 doors.

"Oh I've seen these in game shows, I'm guessing only one of the doors will actually get us through and the other doors will be locked or have a wall behind it."

"Actually, this one doesn't even have a handle," Melanie said walking up to one of the doors, "if you look closely, you'll see that it's just a well drawn graffiti handle."

"What?" I said walking up to the door Melanie was at, "well I'll be damned."

"No time to be amused dipshit!" Paula who had apparently opened up one of the other doors said, "we've got to make haste."

Quickly, the 4 of us sprinted through the opened door. We arrived at the next room with another wall at the end and this time, 4 doors.

"Huh, well this isn't too bad, it's just probability right? And there's 4 of us, so let's just each try one of the doors," I said as I walked to the left most door. I turned the knob to open the door. As I did however… to my disappointment behind that door happened to be… another door.

"5 MINUTES REMAINING."

"No time to waste Xavier! It's the 3rd door obviously," Melanie said yelling at me.

"How can you be sure?"

"Survival extraordinaire."

"Ehhhh whatever…" I said walking over to the 3rd door from the left. As I opened the door however, I was met by a stone wall in my face.

"Ha, you were wrong Melanie! Guess your survival extraordinaire instincts aren't always right."

"No no not that 3rd door, the door on the 3rd layer," Melanie said walking back to the original door I had opened. As I walked back to that spot, she opened the 2nd door and then subsequently the 3rd door behind that one. Behind the 3rd door was the next room.

"See, instincts are always right."

As we arrived at the next room, this time we were met with only 3 doors. However, 2 of the doors like a merry-go-round, were mechanically switching places with each other. Besides the 2 moving doors was a single door that stood motionless.

"Okay Melanie, which one is it this time?"

"Uhhh…" she looked at the 3 doors, "honestly I'm not sure."

"Alright, I'm just going to try the one that's not moving then. That one at least looks the easiest to open for trial and error," I said walking up to the non-moving door.

"Wait no dipshit I've seen this before, I don't think that's a…"

"Here I go!"

As I opened the door however, I was met with a swift headbutt by a goat from the other side. The impact knocked me backwards onto the ground as the goat then simply used its horns to close the door back on me.

"What! Who put that there?"

"Well dipshit, if you had any IQ, you would know that this is the famous Monty Hall problem. If you choose to not switch the door, there's a 2/3 probability it's a goat."

As she said that, Paula walked up to the position of one of the doors that was getting switched around. Quickly, she opened it and jumped inside.

"Wait for the switch and jump through the door!"

"Okay… you're going to have to explain this one."

The three of us timed the rotation of the opened door before all 3 of us jumped through.

"I knew it!" Paula said, "if you choose one of the switching door, there's a 2/3 probability of there being a car behind the door. And look what we have here."

In front of us was a small 4 passenger car that lay on top of a concrete path. Surrounding the path was a field of tall grass.

"This must be the last maze."

"Okay, there are a million things that need to be explained. Also, how is this last part even a maze?"

"3 MINUTES REMAIN,"

"No time for questions, I'm driving!" Paula said hurrying us along.

"Oh no, there's no way I'm trusting you to drive. I'd rather trust Melan… Melanie?"

It appeared that Melanie had used up her stamina again and had fainted onto the ground.

"I'll drive," Fiona said blankly.

"Fair enough," I said carrying Melanie onto the backseat of the car, "Canadians are safe people right?"

"Yes,"

I buckled mine and Melanie's seatbelts as Paula went to sit in the shotgun seat.

"Ready?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah, we're ready, just make sure to… ahhhhhhhhhhh,"

The car suddenly jolted forward as Fiona had pressed her full force down on the acceleration.

"Car go brrrrrrrrrrrrrr."

"Whooooooooooo let's go toots. This is what I'm talking about," Paula yelled from the front seat, "just like running from the cops."

"Watch outttttt!" I shouted. In front of us, the path suddenly shifted to a curve as a rock appeared.

"Car go whiiiiiiirrrrllll," Fiona said softly as she swerved the car off the road onto the tall grass, but just enough to avoid the rock in our way.

"I thought you said you were a safe driver!"

"Open roads in Canada."

"Watch out watch out!"

In front of us this time, a wooden ramp appeared that lifted off ground. Underneath lay a field of tall grass.

"Okay, just swerve onto the tall grass here, I'm pretty sure it's not safe to…"

"Car go vrooooooooooom,"

Before I knew it, we were air born about 5 feet off the ground before landing onto another wooden ramp on the other side.

"You need to calm down dipshit! Fiona's got this."

"I got this."

"30 SECONDS REMAIN."

"We're not going to make it!"

"Oh yes we will!" Paula screamed, "I see the door in front of us! As long as one of us enters the door of the last maze, then we all win!"

"What? When did Ned specify that?"

"I DIDN'T SPECIFY THAT BUT THAT IS ACTUALLY THE RULE."

"Okay dipshit are you ready?"

"Ready for what?"

"10 SECONDS REMAINING."

"No time to explain!" Paula said. Suddenly she turned around from the front seat and unfastened my seatbelt.

"Hey what the, what are you… that's not saf…"

"Fiona stopppppppp nowwwwwwwww!"

Following her command, right before we crashed into the wall, Fiona suddenly hit the breaks as hard as she could. It was at that moment that I learned an important concept of physics. Mass while in motion and not attached to anything, has a significant amount force. Force that does not stop because the environment around it is accelerating negatively. In fact, such an action would cause the mass to spring forward way past its environment. Like the body of an average college student that gets shot forward out a car window when his environment, i.e. a car, suddenly stops. A college student's body who did not have his seatbelt on at the time. And as the image of the wooden door in front of me came closer and closer to my face, I really did regret not paying more attention to my physics classes.

"CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE COMPLETELY TRIAL 6."