He took the tablet and started deciphering it. "It is a bit hard to decipher it as many of the text seemed to be damage or not clearly visible."
"But still we can solve with the remaining letters and for proper sentances" Sameer said proudly believing in his problem solving skills.
"Alright this text says..."
_rror418
"What does this mean?" Kabir asked tilting his head to the left.
"I think it is an error message." Riya says and draws an 'E' on the ground.
Error418
"It is probably a kind of message a program shows when there is a problem in its functions." She says.
"How do you know about this?" Kabir asks curious about her knowledge.
"Well..." Riya stammered for a bit before answering "I don't know how. I just... know it for some reason..."
"It is probably the memory altering process failing" Aarav said and the three looked at him. "That thing probably got an error in altering or erasing her memories."
The others gave his theory a thought and Sameer realised something "Wait!" He shouted.
"What happened?!" Kabir asked startled by his shouting.
"I get it now!" He exclaimed
Aarav asked him "What did you get?"
Sameer pointed his index finger towards Kabir "That time when Kabir stared lecturing about how the caves are formed and that time I started blabbering about the satues! They are probably because of that error we know that!"
Riya not understanding his point asked "So that means?..."
Kabir clarified for her "Aarav's theory of an error in the memory altering process is correct we still probably have some of our memories still intact deep in out brain. We just need to find a way to remember it."
Aarav said "May be, these other symbols could help us understand the situation better." And started drawing the symbols on the ground.
__† gv01d †hx h0lx.
__ __ †hx x%1†.
___2 __ qxn†x5.
___ 1†$ $1nkulg51†y.
__ __ †hx $†g15$
Kabir noticed the gaps Aarav had left inbetween the letters "Why did you leave so many gaps." He asked
Aarav scratched his head and answered "I honestly don't remember the entire thing as it vanished so quickly."
And Aarav started decoding the symbols and ended up with a bunch of gibberish.
"Okay, leave the puzzle solving to me." Sameer announced "I am an expert in it."
=========
A hour later
=========
"Finaly!" Sameer exclaimed exhausted.
It took so long that Aarav, Kabir and Riya had fallen asleep.
"You finished?" Riya asked and woke up. Aarav and Kabir opened their eyes hearing his voice.
The three looked how much he had decoded.
"There are still many missing words. So it is some what finished."
_ _ _ _ _ a v o i d t h e h o l _
_ h e e x i t
_ e n t e r
_ _ _ _ _ i _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ t h e s t a i r _
Kabir looking at the text asked "What does this mean?"
"I don't know." Sameer said "probably a clue to find a way out."
"Yeah! Right it is missing a lot of words and it does not even Make and sense." Kabir said looking at Aarav.
Aarav noticing Kabir's glance "What!? It is not like I have a perfect memory I am a human as well!" He protested.
"Now what do we do?" Sameer asked.
"First we need to find a way out of this cave." Aarav said.
Kabir sat downnnext the two and said "But before that something is bothering me about this place."
Riya also sat next to them and asked Kabir "What is bothering you?"
Kabir placed hand on his chin in a gesture of thinking and said "Well... it is the vegetation of this place."
Sameer not understanding his question asked "What? This is normal for plants to grow in places of rich nutrition and water."
Kabir agreed with him "Yes, but it also needs abundance of sunlight and there is no way sunlight can enter this cave."
Aarav realised a detail he had missed "Coming to think of it the leaves are bright. That means they must have gotten a bunch of light to shine on them."
Riya tilted her head and asked "I don't get. How did you get to that conclusion?"
Aarav went into an deep explanation of his theory.
"If a leaf if an plant us bright it must have gotten abundance of sunlight, a darker leaf means it must have gotten less sunlight enough for it to survive."
Kabir placing things together realised what Aarav wanted to convey "looking at these plants...."
"Yes!" Aarav exclaimed "They must have gotten abundance of sunlight!"
Sameer not understanding their discussion about plants and sunlight asked "I don't get it. Why does it matter if the plants get sunlight or not we need to find a way out of the cave."
"Wait! I got it!" Riya exclaimed.
Aarav and Kabir smiled and the three looked at Sameer.
Sameer still not understanding asked "What!? What did you get?"
"If the plants get sunlight here..." Aarav said
"There must be a way fir the sunlight to enter!" The three shouted in unison.
Sameer got startled by their enthusiasm.
Aarav excited from his discovery stood and said "Let's find the way the sunlight is coming from! That is..."
As he speaks his legs gave out and he fell on his buttocks.
"Ouch! Ouch! That hurts!" He exclaimed and rubbed buttocks to relive the pain from falling suddenly.
"You probably should stay her." Riya suggested to Aarav.
Sameer said "You should give proper rest to your legs." Slowly pushed himself up to stand.
Aarav seeing Sameer stand up exclaimed "Hey! Thats unfair! How come you can already walk!"
Sameer looked at Aarav, gave smirk and mockingly said "Because I did not act hero to carry a girl while running."
Aarav looked down to the ground regretting his decisions.
He let out a sigh and said "Alright you three can go out and explore the place while I stay and rest in this hut."
"Aright, stay safe Aarav." Riya said and walked out Sameer followed her out and Kabir went out after Sameer.
Before going out Kabir looked at Aarav and said "stay safe, hero."
Hearing that name Aarav got embarrassed.
'May be I should have made Kabir carry Riya.'
He layed flat on the ground looking at ceiling of the hut.
The cone shaped roof made up of straws and pieces of wood.
He gave out another sight and closed his eyes.
He slowly drifted into sleep. When he opened his eyes he saw that he was now in the black void he fell into in his previous dream.
'What! What place is this?!'
He frantically looked around, every direction looked the same, the same black endless void stretch as far as he could see.
He ran into the darkness trying to find light by it was nit possible the darkness was endless there is no light there. It feelt like is running in the same place.
'Where am I ?!'
"Remember..."
Aarav startled by the voice exclaimed "Wow! Who was that?!" He then shouted "Show your self!"
A dark mist, darker than the void formed in frount of him and slowly too took a humanoid form.
The form looked more like a human every second until, the mist turned into an solid form.
Aarav seeing the mist's human form exclaimed "Wait!"
He pointed his index finger towards the mist figure and keept his left hand on his face in shock.
"You... you.. look like me!" Aarav exclaimed.
Yes the figure looked like Aarav but. Taller, more muscular, hair so long it would looked like vines of a tree, if it was green instead of black.
"Remember..." The mist spoke.
"They look..." a kind of static sound and "...betrayal."
Aarav not understanding what the voice is trying to convey asked "Betrayal?... what do yoh mean by that? What betrayal? Who detrayed?"
"They act kind... don't trust that smile... a code disguis... one of us."
"Don't trust them... only trust...."
"Remember be... re... for... betra..."
"Aarav!" Sameer's voice rang out.
"Sameer?" Aarav looked around trying to find the source of his voice.
"Wake up! Aarav!" Sameer shouted trying to wake up Aarav and holded his shoulders and shook it to wake him up.
Aarav opened his eyes and jolted awake. He saw Sameer with Riya and Kabir standing behind Sameer as Sameer shook aarav to wake him up.
"We have found the exist!" Sameer exclaimed and smiled.