A New Kind of Science / Holtzbert

Asylum Pt. 3

Every member of the group was escorted down the asylum hall and out a hidden door with their hands tied behind their backs. They made it to the room the actors wanted them to be in and were forced to kneel. Everyone could hear Stephanie crying and Brian tried to help her calm down, but he was epically failing and Holtzmann couldn't help but wish she and Erin had never done this.

"Alright. Listen, cupcakes." The man whose voice they recognized as the fake doctor's spoke. "You're going to spend the next ten to fifteen minutes searching our asylum hospital for certain items. You will-" He paused. "STOP CRYING!" The man broke and yelled at Steph, who sniffled and felt Freya's comforting elbow beside her. Doctor Freakshow continued. "You will search for any hidden item in here that can be used for any type of cooking. The patients will untie your hands now and when you hear the door close, you may take off your bags." He laughed like the Joker from 'Batman' and they heard his footsteps head around them. After feeling their hands set free, a few seconds went by and they heard one last chuckle from the actors before the door was opened and then closed.

Stephanie was the first one to rip her bag off her head as well as ridding Brian of his just to slap him in the face when they stood. "I can't believe you made me do this!" Her tears were no longer falling, but her eyes were still red and Brian apologized.

"Hey, guys. Can we focus, please?" Erin asked after helping Jill stand up. "Great job thinking of that riddle back there, Mr..."

"Greg." Dan's father spoke.

"Mr. Greg."

"No, no. Just Greg."

"Oh." Gilbert blushed, thinking to herself, 'duh!'

"And thanks. I'm an English professor and I put up riddles every morning just to see if any of my students can ever get them right. I've seen that one online before."

"Really? You're an English professor? Where?" Erin asked, quite interested as a former professor herself.

"NYU." Greg replied.

"Nice. I was a Physics professor at Columbia." She nodded.

"Impressive." He nodded as well and Jillian felt a sense of pride in being the one dating her.

"So, uh...we only have fifteen minutes to find as many objects as we can in here, so why don't we, uh...cut the chit chat?" Danny asked, embarrassed at his geeky father.

"Right." Erin responded before everyone began to search the fake infirmary for any item that could be used in a kitchen.

Their fifteen minutes was finally up and the head doctor walked into the room with several other actors in scrubs behind him. They were all the same actors from the asylum cells but they had just changed their costumes and Holtzmann began to think to herself how silly it was that they put so much effort into this sort of thing. She set her thoughts aside as she listened to another speech from the Joker wanna-be.

"Time is up!" He held a baseball bat over his shoulder now as if he would use it as a weapon. They all knew he couldn't and wouldn't, but this game was to play mind tricks...and Steph was a clear example of that. "I hope you found them all. Or else you will have some trouble getting through some of your future clues." He chuckled and effortlessly jumped onto one of the hospital beds like a monkey. His coworkers looked through all of the found items and a few of them taunted the team members. Erin and Jillian continued to make eye contact from opposite sides of the room. "What's that?" The man said before jumping down from the hospital bed and picking up one of Holtzmann's items. "Is this a reflex hammer? And you put it with kitchen supplies?"

"Well, I was thinking it could be used as a meat tenderizer." The blonde took the tool from him and mimed hitting a steak before chuckling at herself. When she saw that he wasn't amused, she set it back down on the table in front of her and listened to him lecture her about being a smart alec. She attempted not to roll her eyes and at one point, she looked over his shoulder at Erin standing behind him.