Escape Room Rumble - Ch. 1 (October 2024)

            The building looked a little creepy stuck between two bustling stores. Yor Forger wasn’t sure at first if this was the right address, but Loid confirmed it was.

            “65 Tiller Street. This is the one.”

            The only sign was barely visible on the window of the door. It advertised “MASTER ESCAPE ROOMS! 5 GIANT ROOMS OF ESCAPE ROOM MADNESS! THE BEST ESCAPE ROOMS IN OSTANIA!1!”

            “Five rooms? That’s a lot of puzzles. It really must be the best in Ostania.”

            Loid sighed. “It’s obviously false advertising, like how every coffee shop has a sign that says world’s best coffee.”

            Yor did often wonder about those coffee shop signs, but was too embarrassed to admit she didn’t realize they were bluffing. She simply nodded in agreement.

            Loid led the way through the main door. The lobby was quite bare, with the exception of a lone clerk at the far end reading a magazine. He was young and didn’t look like he wanted to be there.

            “We’re here for the 10 o’clock slot,” Loid said.

            The young man turned a page before looking up and muttering something. He pressed a button that buzzed loudly and a large steel door opened to the side of him. Without looking up at the couple, he said, “Time limit is 3 hours. If you need help you both have to shout it at the same time. If there is an emergency, please shout “emergency” as loud as possible and someone will come to assist you. Please no running. Some mazes require you to find objects to carry or manipulate. If something impossible to reach by normal means then it most likely is not part of the game. Every answer to every puzzle is made to be at a reasonable height and distance. We will warn you if you are touching something that really shouldn’t be touched. The current best time is 1 hour and 48 minutes.”

            “Wow,” Yor said. “Do you think we can beat that time, Loid?”

            “We’ll see,” he replied, nonchalantly.

            Yor knew that if anyone could beat that hi-score it would be him. She held his arm tighter in an effort to cheer him on. She nodded. “I think we can.”

            The clerk droned on. “Timer starts once you walk through. The door will close behind you and there is no going back unless there is an emergency or unless time runs out. If you actually make it through all five rooms, the exit will take you through the back, and I will meet you there. Have fun.”

            Yor felt a little apprehensive as they approached the wide doorway. There was darkness beyond it, and nothing came to light as they drew closer. When they stepped through, they couldn’t make out anything in the room.

            “I didn’t know it would be this scary…” she murmured, tightening her grip on Loid’s arm.

 The door closed with a thunk behind them. Yor yelped and her stomach started to feel queasy. The fright of standing there in the darkness didn’t sit well with her…given the fact that they had just had a big dinner filled with ramen, followed up by ice cream for dessert. Yor’s stomach was filled to the brim, but she made sure to act prim and proper about it, trying not to draw any attention to the fact that she felt like she had gained ten pounds after their dinner.

It was a good thing she had her teal dress on. At least wearing a dress sort of hid the bloat, but even so, her waistline was tight. She wore stockings with high heels, and even her legs felt a little swollen. That tended to happen when she drank alcohol, and alcohol tended to…not sit well with her. She hadn’t wanted to ruin this date so it took everything in her to not drink too much during dinner.

Let’s hope we finish this soon…, she thought.

After taking a couple steps into the darkness, the lights finally turned on. The clerk said, “Time starts…now! Good luck!”

The room was made to look like an ancient temple. The decorations looked quite realistic to her, with stone wallpaper, six stone columns standing horizontally across the floor, and sand scattered around for an added effect. Yor said, “Looks Egyptian.”

Loid scratched his chin. “Kind of a haphazard mix between Mesopotamian and Egyptian.”

 On the far end of the room on the wall were symbols of what looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics – six of them in a random arrangement.

Yor’s stomach gurgled…the fright from before really started moving things around.

“What was that?” Loid asked, concerned.

Yor laughed a little too loud. “Just some spooky sound effect I guess.” Then she turned away and grimaced at the pain in her stomach.

Ohhhh. We have to finish this quick!

While Loid stood there thinking, Yor went up to the symbols and started pressing them. She said aloud, “I suppose we have to push them in a certain order. Well, this one looks like it goes first so…”

She pressed the symbols in order as they appeared from left to right. She stood back expecting the door to open, but instead the room lit up bright red and a booming voice said, “MWAHAHAHA! Pitiful mortals fail to solve the Pharaoh’s Riddle! Two more wrong answers, and you will be sent to the Netherworld!”

Yor had yelped and panicked, heart pounding.

“Hang on, Yor, don’t press anything. I’ve got it.”

“Already?’

Loid nodded. He walked up to the wall and pressed the last symbol first, then the second, the fourth, the third, and then the first.

Without fanfare, the door opened.

“How did you know already?” Yor asked, amazed.

Loid jerked a thumb at one of the pillars. “Each pillar has one of the symbols on it. The pillars give a clue as to the order of the symbols from left to right. If that were wrong, my next guess would have been right to left but the norm is typically left to right.”

Yor sighed. She wished she could see these things as easily as he could.

Her stomach certainly didn’t let up. It rumbled and she clutched it in a vain effort to quiet it down.

“Something the matter?” Loid asked.

“Nothing.” She motioned to the open doorway. “After you.”

Loid looked into the next room and smiled. “Ah. This feels homey.” He immediately became drawn into solving the next puzzle, and Yor was thankful for that because before leaving the ancient temple she bent over a little bit and let go of a long droning fart that would have been barely audible unless Loid stood right next to her. It dragged on for a good ten seconds – a typical rumbling fart she suffered whenever she ate heavily.

“Whew…” she murmured, feeling a thousand pounds lighter. She fanned the smell behind her, making sure it wouldn’t follow her into the next room.

Hopefully that was the worst of it.

Hopefully…