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My eyes widen as I take in all the different puzzles. “This is so cool.”
“You do realize we are locked in this room,” Derek says, staring at the door.
“Yes, that’s what makes it fun.”
“Welcome, escape artists. You have one hour to solve the puzzles. Your time starts now.” There is a dinging noise and then a panel lights up with numbers counting down.
“See,” I say to Derek. “We only have an hour. You can do this for an hour, right?”
He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Okay, an hour. I can do this, but where do we start?” He crosses to a chest with a combination lock on it. “It would take forever to just try random combinations.”
“No, we have to find a clue as to how to start.” I begin opening drawers and flipping pages in books. “Come on, help me look.”
“What are we looking for though?”
“I don’t know. Keys? Clues? Combination numbers?”
He sighs. “Looking for something without knowing what you’re looking for sounds a little insane to me.”
“But it’s what makes it fun.”
He harumphs as he opens a few drawers and then moves to the large map on the wall. “Hey, there are some numbers circled on this map.”
I hurry over and study the map. “I bet these are a combination to one of the locks. Come on, pick a lock and try them.”
He looks at me as if I’ve lost my mind. “Do you even know how many combinations that could still be?”
“Well, it’s not going to solve itself,” I say as I hurry to a chest. The numbers don’t work on that lock, so I move to the next one and then the next. I’m trying not to get frustrated when the lock clicks open. “See? It just takes patience.” Inside that chest is a key and I pull it out and scan the room for a lock it might work on. There are a few padlocks and I manage to choose the correct one the first time. Inside that chest is a piece of paper with writing, but some of the letters are missing. I scan the paper and realize there are three letters missing. “Hey, which numbers correspond to the letters F, I, and P?”
He thinks for a minute and then rattles them off. “Six, Nine, and Sixteen.”
“Okay, so start trying six, nine, one, six on the combination locks.”
Derek finally looks as if he’s getting into this as he hurries around and tries the combination. “It worked,” he yells as a lock pops open.
We continue going back and forth, finding clues and opening locks until a buzzer sounds and a recorded message plays through the room. “You have failed. Please exit the room.”
I’m disappointed that we failed, but I’m ready to get back to the office and put my foot up. The Tylenol has begun to wear off and the throbbing has intensified.
“I wonder how close we were?” Derek says as he grabs the door handle. From this side, it’s just a metal bar he should be able to push down and then push the door open, but it seems to be kicking his butt. He tries again and even throws his shoulder into it. “Uh, Katie, the door isn’t opening.”
“What?” I hurry over, sure that he’s just doing something wrong, but when I push down on the bar, it doesn’t open either.
“Are we stuck in here?” he asks, and I can hear the panic coloring his voice.
“Surely not. Maybe Joe is in the bathroom or just didn’t realize our time was up. I’m sure the door will open soon.” I’m sure of no such thing, but I don’t need a repeat of the elevator incident. I don’t have a notebook he can doodle in with me this time. Or food. Or water. Or access to a bathroom. Oh crap. Even though I went before we started, now that I know I can’t go again, I suddenly have the urge to. “Since it appears we have time, let’s see if we can finish the puzzle.” Maybe a distraction will get his mind off the fact that it is entirely possible Joe forgot we were in here.
“Okay,” he says, but I can tell he is worried.
We finish finding clues and trying locks, but the fun has left the room. My ankle is aching and I’m thirsty, so I find a spot on the floor where I can lean up against something, and I lower myself down.
“Are you okay?” he asks, sitting beside me.
“Yeah, my ankle is just telling me it's a little angry from all the standing today.”
“We should have done this tomorrow,” he says. “That would have saved your ankle and kept us from getting left here. I think it’s pretty obvious he forgot about us and left.”
“You might be right.” I sigh. “At least he said the boss would be coming in at six.” I check my watch. “That’s only another few hours. I guess I should have consulted the eight ball for this decision. Then we could have at least blamed it.”
