at all! Am I color-blind? I keep searching, looking at each piece individually, hoping one will stand out. But the more I look, the more they all blend together, forming a giant blob of certifiably non-purpleness.
Panicked, I look back at Bridgette, throwing my arms out in defeat. She keeps talking but nods her head slightly to the left, so I focus on that section of the cape, hoping to find a grape in a sea of blueberries. But I can’t, all the colors are too close, so instead, I start flipping up the individual pieces, hoping the winner will have a written clue on the back. As quietly as possible, I run my hand against the grain of the mural, causing an audible ripple of paper. A man sitting not far from my chair perks his head up at the sound, but before he can turn, Bridgette starts fake crying, keeping his gaze ahead.
WHERE IS THIS PURPLE PAPER? I can almost hear Joy teasing me for taking so long—What are you doing up there, killer? C’mon, hurry up! I’m sure she would have found it already. I’m sure Joy wouldn’t be up here floundering like a total dork. I keep turning them over, standing on my tiptoes to reach the top of the cape, when finally—finally!—I see pen scribbles, and I rip the paper so fast I lose my balance, toppling to the floor. Several people turn my way, but I pop up quickly, pocketing the paper and pressing my hands together in prayer. “Sorry I…was just so moved by what you said. Bridgette, you are so brave. Thank you for your kind words today, they mean so much.”
A few people quietly clap in agreement as my friend wipes the surprise of my fall off her face. “Oh, you’re welcome,” she says, voice shaking.
I dash out of the cafeteria, catching my breath as I wait for my accomplice to join me.
“Oh my god, are you okay?” she says once she’s by my side.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I reassure her, taking the paper scrap out. “Um, for the record, this is NOT purple.”
“What are you talking about? It’s indigo!”
“You said I couldn’t miss it! I thought it would be, like, lavender or something!”
“Okay, well, sorry! It stands out to me. But anyway, who cares?!” she exclaims. “Flip it over! What does it say?”
I do as she says and read the awkwardly scrawled letters and numbers:
E33
What. What. WHAT. “Room E33! It’s real?!” I shout, sounding extra loud in the haunted halls.
Bridgette’s green eyes open wide, surprised at my surprise. “Yeah? Why wouldn’t it be real?”
Too many questions. TOO MANY QUESTIONS! “E33—the room where Warrior Nation hides all its deepest, darkest secrets? Where lost missions and failed weaponry get locked away forever? E33—where the bones of the fabled first Warrior lie?” Without realizing, I’ve grabbed on to her shoulders, our noses inches from touching. There may or may not be tiny specks of my spit on her cheek.
“Um.” Bridgette gently pries my fingernails out of her skin. “Okay. Let’s get on the same page here. Room E33 is a real location in HQ, but I don’t know anything about what you just said. Is that a WarNat thing?”
“Yeah! I mean…I guess? I thought it was a Warrior Nation thing.” I take a step back, embarrassed by my sudden fangirl outburst. “I mentioned it before when we were talking about conspiracies….”
She scrunches up her face. “I know, but I didn’t realize why. Room E33 is basically a glorified trash dump.”
Huh? That does not compute at all. This is a fan theory that goes back decades; why would WarNats spend years endlessly dissecting the possibilities of a glorified garbage heap? “But…but…” I stutter, clinging to the last shreds of my dignity. “But it’s not on the HQ map! Believe me, I’ve looked. Isn’t that suspicious? Why purposely leave a garbage room off your map?”
She shrugs yet doesn’t tease me; the nice thing about Bridgette is that she never makes me feel like an idiot. For someone who’s been dragged through the mud, she never stoops to that level. “I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong. But regardless, Matt found something there, so we have to trust his judgment. C’mon.”
Trash heap or not, I may be the first WarNat to ever set foot in Room E33, and something tells me this secret space is going to prove us both wrong.
All the known items in Room E33:
- Magnetic force field able to render a hero’s power worthless