Escape Room 4

The escape room was Jackie's idea. 'You love puzzles, don't you Grace? Let's do an escape room for your birthday!' I mean, Sudoku and crosswords were more the types of puzzles I was actually into, but sure, why wouldn't I want to try it? From what I've seen about escape rooms, they're just warehouses split up like office cubicles with drama school students fake crying about fake apocalypses or zombie virus outbreaks. What I really wanted for my twenty-first birthday was a night on the town, not a day of playing pretend in some disused parking lot converted into - let's face it - a life-size doll house.

Before I could object, she handed me an envelope of tickets. She'd booked out the whole place, so we'd get every room to ourselves and we could take all the time we needed. Well, that was pretty thoughtful considering there were six of us. She must have spent a small fortune. Dave and Lee offered to bring the drinks, James was on snacks, and Hailey was our designated driver. She was way more excited than me, showing up outside the flat an hour early, just as I'd gotten out of the shower. I didn't bother rushing, no matter how restless she got, so I let her play on my computer while she waited.

She drove around town, rounding everyone up, and we arrived at the place at eleven in the morning. It was exactly as I imagined - a prefab on an industrial estate next to a dual carriageway.

We went into the rather clinical-looking reception area. For a moment, I worried we'd stumbled into a dentist's office instead. It was all very chic, not really what I'd expect from a space used for kids parties. The desk was deserted, the only indication of life a still steaming mug of coffee, the monitor overhead tuned into a news station but muted, and a blinking security camera pointed directly at us. James left his backpack on a chair and headed off to find a toilet while the rest of us waited for someone to meet us.

A woman dressed in all black stepped through the 'Staff Only' door and looked between us for a few seconds.

"Hi, you must be the birthday party? Is this all of you, or-?"

We each gestured with our thumbs to the corridor on the left. "There's one more, he's just nipped to the loo."

"Alrighty then. You have your tickets?" I handed them over as she sat in the chair behind the desk. "And you must be the young woman of the hour?" She smiled briefly, checking the book-in on her computer. "That's all fine. Right, we'll just wait for your friend to come back and I'll take you through." She took a set of keys off the wall behind her and stood. They were each of different styles, probably to reflect the design of each room. "Can I offer anyone a drink? We have tea, coffee, cans of pop..."

Dave and Lee nervously checked the packs of beer and cider at their sides, suddenly uncertain whether they would be allowed in with them.

She smirked. "Seems a bit early for it, but yes, those are allowed."

James came back and we followed her through the double doors ahead of us. She took us to the first room on the left, labelled 'Room 1.'

Hailey cast her gaze about the other doors along the corridor. "Can we not do them in any order we like?"

The lady froze, craning her neck to look her dead in the eyes. "We have a set order for parties like yours..." She turned the key with a 'ker-chunk' and grinned again. "You have forty minutes per room as soon as the door shuts behind you. If there's an emergency, hit the alarm on the right of the door - only in an emergency." She pointed her hand and furrowed her brow intensely, as if giving a safety talk about explosives. We looked between ourselves. "Find the key to the next room to continue, and the timer will be reset... Good luck." She opened the door, and waited for us to filter in, shutting and locking it creepily behind us.

"Well, that was... Something." James gulped. "You sure about this place, Jackie?"

"It came highly recommended online." She shrugged, turning to face me. "Come on, it'll be fun. Let's get started, we're on the clock!"

Room one was a pretty standard nuclear bunker-type deal. A great map of the world on the wall, beds, shelves of rations, a radio, and a safe under a desk. I checked that first - it needed a five-digit combination, so I couldn't exactly cheese it.

Dave sat on the table in the middle of the room, helping himself to beer and crisps, while leaving us to do all the work. James took every tin off the shelf, checked the label and put it back exactly as he'd found it. Lee tried to peel the map off the wall, looking for a hidden message or something like that. Hailey checked the radio, finding it was missing a battery, and so frantically searched everywhere for one. Jackie grabbed a bag of cookies from James' supply and started pulling the sheets and pillows off the beds. My eye was caught by the clocks on the wall. They were supposed to represent different time zones, or at least that's what I thought at first. Then I checked the time on my phone and realised that the times for Tokyo and London were incorrect.

"Hey, I found something!" I climbed up onto the desk, and referring to the world map behind me, I spun the hands of the two clocks to the right times. They each chimed, and one of them slid down, revealing a small compartment with a battery inside. Hailey, Lee, James and Jackie cheered. I threw it to Hailey, who put it into the radio. She tuned in to the only station she could find - what sounded a bit like a shopping list. 'Peaches, beans, soup, pineapple rings, corn,' and then it repeated. James checked the tins again, pulling them down off the shelf and laying them on the table in order. There were no obvious instructions or clues on them, so we figured we needed to find a tin opener.

After practically pulling apart a bookcase, the beds, and taking everything off the shelves, we found a five-digit code in an 'apocalypse survival guide' under the section detailing rationing. I punched the code into the safe, to find the tin opener inside. In each tin was a weight to keep anyone from guessing them based off mass alone, and one or two tickets to cities around the world. We checked on the map, noting the letters beside each city. They spelled out 'plant pot,' so we checked the shrubbery in the corner. Lifting the plant out, we found a key in the pot, which fit in the door to the next room, and just like that, we were done.

A little too easy in my opinion, although I supposed it was really a place for kids. But before I headed out with everyone, I went to put the plant back in the pot and saw something shiny poking out of a hole in the wall. It was a tiny capsule - one of those they'd put on pet collars containing the owner's details in case they got lost. Twisting it open, there was a six-digit code inside. I made a note of it, letting the others know and keeping the capsule in my back pocket as we carried on next door.

Room two was laboratory-themed. Again, it was the same difficulty of puzzles as the other room, though some of them were a bit more physical. Stuff like filling three flasks to make up a particular number, viewing petri dishes under microscopes to find tiny letters to make up words that led to tools or keys, and we were out pretty quick. All the while, the cameras watched us closely, and the alarm remained untouched. They were all fairly basic puzzles. Sure, it was fun hanging out with my friends, though it was all too simple. Yes, I know I didn't do as much puzzling as Jackie insisted I did, but you didn't exactly need a master's degree to figure any of them out. I craved something more complex, something to actually make me think. Before I left, I had a quick look around to see if I could find any other capsules. I beamed when I found it - proud of my own investigation skills. It was in the bottom of the cabinet containing the petri dishes, and again, it was another six-digit code. I collected it and followed after the others.

Room three was, I guess, space station themed? Obviously the TV sci-fi interpretation of space stations, not the messy, crowded, exposed piping and wiring space stations actually over our heads. There was a game on the console which Dave jumped on immediately, since he much preferred his virtual gaming to practical puzzles. He flew the videogame ship to the coordinates we found on the upside-down star map. Dave shot at some asteroids while the rest of us completed the various other puzzles and codes around the room. We had loads of time left, and Dave was truly enthralled in his new game, so we helped ourselves to a bit of lunch before trying the final key in the door. He complained that one of the buttons to shoot on the console was a little stiff, so I twisted it off, and like that, I found another capsule. There were two doors out of the room. We had managed to find a key to get out, and we opened the door into the corridor that led back to the entrance. The other door asked for a code...

The timer had stopped, so apparently we could leave if we wanted to. But we'd only been there about two hours. I was still hoping for something else, more of a challenge, so I tapped the codes from all three capsules into the other door, and it opened. Jackie, Hailey and Lee complained about needing the loo. They headed off down the corridor as the rest of us went into the new room.

We probably should have waited, but we figured the next room's timer would have started already, so we walked in without them. The door sealed shut behind us. Typical. The inside was a little different to the others. It was much smaller, and what I imagined was submarine-themed. The décor was vastly different - actually metal surfaces, proper buttons and levers, not cheap plastic and flat-pack furniture type stuff like the other rooms. The screen ahead showed a spinning logo.

Dave sat in the chair, sure it would be another video game. He pressed a key on the keyboard, and the screen changed to a image of the Earth.

"These graphics are amazing!" He beamed, taking a minute just obsessing over the quality of the 'game.'

There were no instructions around the console itself, so James and I turned about the room for a manual or clipboard or something.

"What's this button do?" Dave pressed the red button in the middle of the keyboard. A crosshair flashed onto the screen, then a few seconds later, a timer for three minutes started counting down on the right-hand side. When it reached zero, the image changed. The site where he had targeted was replaced by a huge cloud, with shockwaves echoing around it. "Nice! Shame that countdown takes so long..." He moved the crosshair and pressed the button again, striking a second time.

I found a thick binder under the console with at least five hundred pages inside. It appeared to be an instruction manual for the game. I skimmed through the first few parts. "Type in, 'RMAS.'" I instructed, and he did. "Apparently that's another one of your weapons." He tried it out. They were smaller, and only took thirty seconds to hit. "And... 'PLT.'" He did, and it looked more like a laser.

"Haha! Look!" He decided to write his name over the landmass he aimed at, and then giggled, drawing a particularly... rudimentary depiction of his anatomy.

"What are you, twelve?" James shook his head, taking a swig of his beer.

"You want a go?" Dave offered James the console.

He sat down, testing each of the weapons and erasing Dave's work. "Is there no reset on this thing? I want to try something."

"Let me check." I skimmed further through the manual. It all looked strangely official, with pages of various colours and in several languages. Some had pretty convincing stamps or seals on them as well. I was surprised I couldn't even find a developer name.

"Ha, watch, I'm gonna bomb Dave's house." He tried one of the other codes from the book, and a six-minute timer appeared on the screen.

"Not cool, all my stuff is there." Dave grabbed another beer and handed me a cider.

As I cut through the manual, my heart skipped faster, and a cold washed over me that I couldn't explain. I got to the eighth chapter, shakily set my drink down on the side, and looked back at the screen.

"Guys..." I began, barely able to catch my breath. "I don't think it's a game..."

"Huh?"

"What do you mean? Of course it's a game." James shook his head with a snicker, sure I was joking.

I wasn't. Or at least I hoped I was. "Look at all this - military seals, redacted clauses, and these codes, they're acronyms." I showed them the page. RMAS was 'Remote Military Air Strike,' PLT was 'Precise Laser Targeting.'

"I'm telling you, it's all make-believe. It's pretty sophisticated, sure, but how does it make sense? I mean, come on, a specialised military warfare system in the back of an escape room centre?"

"James... What code did you type in?"

He bit his lip, the edges of his mouth flickering. "ICBM?"

I pointed to the code. 'Intercontinental Ballistic Missile.'

"Yeah, but... It's a game..." He hurried his gaze between me and Dave. "D, tell her it's just a game..."

"I..." Dave gulped. "I don't know."

I tried to snap him out of it. "Whether it is or it isn't, do you really want to risk it? You sent that thing to land on Dave's street, which it might well do in less than four minutes." I watched the counter ticking down.

"How do we stop it?"

I pulled James's chair away and stood in front of the console myself, referring to the manual on my right. I started punching in command codes, working my way through every wall, every identification key, anything and everything that popped up keeping us from communicating with the missile. Of course it would have security to get around in reality - to make sure no one interfered with the guiding system.

My heart thudded noisily in my ears, cold sweat crept over my fingers, red lights blared and the counter ticked down. Dave and James stood against the wall behind me, still struggling to believe any of it. I did my best to shut everything else out. There was nothing but me, the screen, the keyboard, and the manual... And then there was the sound. The room trembled as something shot by overhead. More alarms sounded, yet I kept working.

Finally, I broke through to something, a command bar requesting a new set of coordinates. Using the image of the Earth behind for reference, I planted the landing site in the middle of a desert. The countdown reached zero... I caught my breath, slumping into the available seat.

We'd had enough. The door opened. We left in silence, edging down the corridor back to the entrance. Jackie, Hailey and Lee met us there, asking us about the room.

"It was... Just a video game." Dave sighed, heading out to the car. James followed, and the others after. I looked around for the lady, my eye drifting up to the monitor where the news was still broadcasting. My heart stopped. The headline made me sick to my stomach.

'Mystery military attack on rural region. Hundreds dead, thousands injured.' And the helicopter footage displayed showed several huge craters over areas of farmland, as well as laser lines scorched into the earth, crossing over homes and towns. Buildings were still burning. Ambulances and fire engines flooded to the scene.

As I stared at it, the woman approached from my left side, sipping away at a fresh cup of coffee. "So, are you all done then?" She saw the screen. "Ooh, that's made a right mess."

"What..." I gasped. "What was in room four?"

"Oh." She clicked her tongue. "Yeah, we don't know. The room was locked when we moved in to the building - needed some sort of code to get in. Sorry, I should have mentioned that one wasn't part of the experience." She gestured with her mug. "You know, it's the old owners that inspired our themes for the rooms. This building used to be on a military base - they tore it down and auctioned it off after the Cold War. Room four came as part of the deal. It's probably just the air conditioning unit or something. Anyway, happy birthday and thanks for coming. Please remember to leave a review on our website!"

She went off back behind the desk, leaving me standing in the entrance, my legs threatening to buckle beneath me.