"Hello Contestants!"

My head was killing me! Throbbing with each beat of my heart. My eyes struggled to open, as if coming out of a hard sleep, and I felt something cold and hard pressed up against my cheek. I realized I was laying facedown on a wooden floor in a place not familiar to me. Slowly pushing myself off the floor, I scanned my surroundings. I was in a brown wood paneled room with no doorway and a lonely speaker sitting in the far upper corner, tucked away.

"Where the heck am I?"

Suddenly, static swarmed out of the speaker with piercing feedback. I practically jumped out of my skin and scurried backwards away from the speaker. It did nothing to stop the throbbing in my head. An animated voice boomed out of the speaker:

"Hello there, Contestant #1. I'm glad to see that you're up and about! Please adjust to your surroundings while we await your competitor."

The microphone on the other end quickly cut off before I could ask a question or two, but it wasn't going to stop me from trying.

"Hey! Who are you and what the hell is this? Where am I??"

Silence answered back.

"Hello?!?! Anyone?!?"

While climbing onto my feet, I drilled the palm of my hand into my right eye, relieving pressure building up. How did I even get here? I tried to recall the moments before waking up, but nothing came to mind. A loud bang vibrated the wall to my right, and then another. I rushed towards the wall and called out. Then I heard it, a masculine voice:

"..ello! Can... hear.. e??"

I spoke loudly back in return.

"Hello! Yes I can hear you! What's going on? Are.. are you ok??"

Before I could get a response back, a familiar screech, microphone feedback, and muffled voice came over the speaker in, what I believed, was a neighboring room. I heard the man speak to the voice, but he received the same silent response. Questions not to be answered. I stepped back from the wall and circled the room, trying to figure a way out, only to have my thoughts interrupted by the speaker once again.

"Contestant #2 has now joined the game! Now.. to begin this mind twisting puzzle, there will be a timer which will be displayed near you at all times. You will have thirty minutes to make your way to the finish line where your prize awaits! If the time runs out however, then it will be game over! The timer will start as soon as you cross the threshold. Please step up and let the game begin! Enjoy and good luck my contestants!"

I stared at the speaker, mouth agape, completely speechless. What kind of gameshow nightmare did I get kidnapped into?? While pondering my current situation, one of the wooden panels directly in front of me slid open to reveal a hallway with the same wooden walled panels and green carpet. A small drone like machine plucked itself from the speaker and projected a thirty minute timer. I tried for a response one more time.

"Hey, I have a question. What kind of game is this? What are the rules?"

That seemed to get their attention.

"I'm glad you asked. The main objective of this game is to.. well, escape! How fun! In regard to the rules, when escaping, there ARE no rules. Only life matters. I hope this helps!"

The microphone switched off once again. I looked back at the hallway waiting for me. I took deep breaths while letting determination overrun my panic of being locked inside a nuthouse with a nut! I have to escape, that was the objective.

"So.. how hard could it be?" I laughed nervously.

I slowly walked toward the doorway and scanned the hall without stepping over. The drone flew beside me, thirty minutes still brightly projected. I didn't notice anything suspicious offhand so, time to take the first step! I walked into the hall and the timer started.

"Your timer has started, Contestant #1. Good luck!"

The energetic host said the point is to escape, so.. lets treat it like an Escape room! I hurriedly dragged my hands along each paneled wall, hoping to find a hole, pressure button, lock, anything but to no avail. This continued the length of the hallway, but I found nothing.

"Why would you open this hallway and not have anything in it?"

I observed the ceiling tiles, the bowl-shaped light in the center. I was about to examine the light one more time when my foot caught the slightest tear in the green carpeted floor. I bent down to look at the rip, slid my fingers underneath and felt a panel out of place. I grabbed a chunk of the carpet and ripped it further until I found, what appeared to be, a loose floor panel. I lifted up on the panel to find a rusted crow bar. It felt cool and heavy in my hands. Onto the next puzzle! Crow bars can be used to hit, pull, so where would I use this?! While circling the hallway, I realized the door to the beginning never closed behind me. I jogged back to the main room with the speaker and began the panel inspection. My eyes glanced over towards the buzzing drone's timer, twenty minutes. I picked up speed, stomped on the floor, looked over each ceiling tile, traced my hands on the wooden wall panels, but was coming up empty. I quickly walked over to the speaker and looked around, then noticed a key had been taped to the back. BINGO! I climbed between the corner of the room to get just high enough to snatch the key from its hiding place. So now, I had a key and a crowbar. I slipped the key into my pocket. I tried the panels one last time, except this time, my hand brushed against a splintered edge on the bottom right corner. I heard banging in the room beside me where the other contestant was trapped. I jammed the edge of the crow bar into the wood and pulled the crowbar to pry the wooden panel, but it didn't budge. I peaked at the wood splintering around the crowbar and suddenly felt the slightest wisp of a air on my face. There was a room! I kicked the crowbar deeper into the wooden panel and pulled with all of my strength until the panel peeled, twisted, and splintered in half. A crawl space, dark, and damp appeared. Well this is great. Nothing like being scared of dark enclosed spaces to ruin a game, but here we go! I slapped my face with both hands, preparing for the journey down the dark tunnel.

"I can do this, just crawl, and hopefully it leads to the exit."

Suddenly, the speaker screeched back on.

"Hello my dearest contestant. Please be aware that fifteen minutes are left in the game! Do make your way to the finish line before time runs out or it's GAME OVER."

The menacing sound of "game over" and the deep change in pitch from the speaker sent chills down her spine. All the more reason to get the heck out of here! Once rallied, I got down on all fours and reluctantly climbed into the damp darkness of the crawl space. My knees scraped and hands dragged on sand, dirt, dust, and, random puddles of water. I took slow breaths while continuing down the tunnel until I came across a small sliver of light from a crack in the wall. I peeked through and realized it was the room next door! I banged as hard as I could and called out to the other contestant until I heard him running towards me. He crouched and peered into the crack where I could see his eye.

"Hey! How.. how did you get out?? Help me and we'll get out of this place!"

I felt comfort in just having another human being with me and no longer alone.

"Pull on this piece of the wall here and I'll try to kick it in from my side. Ready?!"

I heard a grunt for my answer as we worked together to knock down the wall between us. The sound of the wood splintering as it was finally ripped from the wall.

"Come on, come on."

I waved him into the crawlspace beside me. As I moved to make room, I realized the drone was floating silently a few feet away, it had followed me. Twelve minutes. Why did the time feel like it was going faster?? I pushed past the drone and started crawling.

"I'm not sure where this leads or if this is even part of .. whatever this game is. Do you know what the heck is going on?"

I heard the man scurrying close behind me.

"I'm just as lost as you are. I remember walking home from work and then.. nothing. Afterwards, I woke up in this place."

"Yea, I don't remember a thing either. The quicker we get out of here, the better."

We crawled a bit further until we came to a mini doorway, small lanterns lit up as we both collected in front of it. The man turned the knob, but the door didn't budge.

"It's locked. It's locked! How are we supposed to get through?"

He began running his hands on the door, attempting to bash the door open. That's when I realized. The key!

"Hey hey, I have a key! I found it in my room. Let's see if it works."

I hurried to the keyhole, slid the key inside, and twisted. The door clicked.

"Got it! Open, open it! Hurry!"

The man turn the knob and burst through the door, only to land in a black and white tiled room. I slumped to the floor feeling mentally and physically exhausted, seeing another puzzle room was not what I wanted to see on the other side of the door.

"Fuck! Now what???"

The man yelled and paced around the room. He jogged to a rod iron gate on the opposite end of the room.

"Look!! There!"

It was a Bright Red lit word, Exit. Relief flooded over me as I pushed myself back up off the floor. It's not over yet. One more puzzle.

"Ten Minutes, Contestants. Ten minutes! Just a bit further, you're almost there!"

I immediately walked the room, observing every tile, every pattern. While I focused, the man walked over to a similar boxed speaker in the corner of the tiled room.

"Hey! Hey, just let us out man. We won't go to the cops. I just gotta get out of here. Please!"

I glanced over at the man, he was begging, bribing, anything he could do to end this nightmare. I was determined. If he wanted a game, let him have his game. I was getting the heck out of here. The speaker static and feedback alerted us to the animated voice returning.

"I'm so sorry, but the only way to leave is through that Exit door. Once you've crossed the finish line, you win! Isn't that exciting?? Good luck!"

The speaker shut off once again and sounds of panic, discouragement, and fear escaped his lips. I needed him to keep it together.

"Hey, come help me. I'm trying to see if there's a pattern, a.. a .. pressure plate. Something!"

It took him a moment to recollect himself, then the man joined me on the floor. We crawled and crawled until our knees ached, but no tiles budged. Nothing loosened, there was no change in pattern. There was nothing to go by. I growled in exasperation.

"This isn't working!"

I started losing hope, until the man scurried to standing and dug in his jacket pocket, pulling out a slip of paper.

"This! This, maybe this can help! I found it in a picture frame in my room. May.. maybe it's a clue?"

I took the paper from him and observed the drawings. It appeared to be a chicken-scratched version of a hopscotch board. The speaker, or assuming its the speaker, stood to the right of Box 1, the number in the middle of a black tile. I walked over to the speaker, took a step to the left, and glanced up at the electronic box to make sure I was in the right spot. I looked at the paper again and noticed another Box 1 to the far left, middle black square.

"Hey, I think we have to do this together! Stand on the middle black box. According to this paper, we'll be jumping over the white ones in order."

The man understood and stepped onto the black square. A sudden clink sound announced the beginning of the hopscotch game. I reviewed our next squares, next numbers we needed to step on to continue the game. It was a mirror!

"Two hops to your left. Two hops to my right."

We looked like frogs hopping from lily pad to lily pad. Children pretending the floor is lava. As we got closer to the end of our tiled dance, the speaker announced our host once more.

"Great teamwork" That is the key and will be the key to win. Oh, and you have less than five minutes left."

I tried to stay focus, tried not to panic. We only had a few more jumps left. We were almost there! I glanced at the droned clock and saw 2 minutes left. Hurry, hurry! The word screamed in my mind as I continued to shout out directions to my unfortunate game partner while I mirrored him.

"There it is! Last square!"

We jumped together onto the final tile in the hopscotch board and we heard another clink of a tile as it dislodged from the wall in front of us and collapsed onto the floor. The tile shattered, broken pieces scurrying across the floor.

"We're done, go, go, go!!"

I ran to the now exposed hole in the wall, broken tile crunching beneath my feet. A key hung on a copper hook, ready and waiting. I snatched it, just in time for the drone timer to start screaming. The timer was 0:00! I handed the man the key and he shoved it into the keyhole of the iron gate. The key clicked into the lock but wouldn't turn.

"Are you kidding me?!?!"

The man yelled as he turned the key, but to no avail. The iron gate did not unlock. It was then our host joined us for the final time.

"Hello Contestant #1 and #2, your time has run out, unfortunately. The game is now over."

My heart started pounding in my chest. No, no this wasn't over. I jerked my attention back to the iron gate and touched the bars, pushed on each one. It was then I heard a roar from a distance.

"Thank you for playing!"

The animated voice exclaimed before the speaker shut off.

"Come on, come on! Open, damn you!"

I screamed as I ripped on the iron bars. I didn't want to see the owner of that roar. I looked up to the top of the iron gate, and nestled in the corner of the gate, sat a cherub, it's legs crossed and hand out. I hit the man beside me, my mind working a thousand miles a minute.

"Lift me up! Quick!"

The man nodded and interlaced his fingers for me to step. He lifted me up to the angel and there, nestled in the palm of it's hand, a keyhole.

"I need the key! The keyhole is in the hand!"

He lowered me down, grabbed the key, and hoisted me back up to the Cherub.

"Hurry! Get this gate unlocked!"

The man hollered at me as I slipped the key in the keyhole and turned. Once the hand clicked, the gate shifted. The man lowered me in time to hear a growl from the other end of the room. A leopard, tiger, not sure what kind of big cat had crawled from the crawlspace and was eyeing us for dinner. I darted to the iron gate, shoved it open, and sprinted with all my strength towards the exit. I heard the man behind me, yelling to run faster as the big cat gained on us. But before we could reach the exit, the floor collapsed, leaving a wide gap between us and the door. The cat had caught up to the man, his scream echoing loudly off the walls of the cavernous hallway, then silence. I ran back towards the cat to get a running start, trying not to see the feline ripping into it's victim, then bolted with everything I had, gaining the speed I needed to jump over the now gaping hole in the floor. The cat, aware of it's second meal, was right on my feet, I felt its breath on my neck. I leapt, soaring through the air, right when the cats paw swiped, nails slicing my back. It felt like slow motion before I finally landed on the other side, grabbing the wall or anything else I could to stabilize me. I jerked back to look at my pursuer, but the cat had turned away, walking towards the lifeless body of my fellow contestant.

"I'm so sorry."

My words came out strained and tired. I turned towards the white Spotless door with the Word "EXIT".

"This better be the damn exit this time."

I turned the knob and stood in the open doorway. I took one step in before the speaker within crackled to life and the lights illuminated.

"Congratulations, Contestant #1! You have moved on to Round 2!"

I stood frozen, staring at a new colorful room.

"Wa.. wait, what?"

Before I could collect my thoughts, the buzzing drone flew up beside me and, with the bright obnoxious red numbers, the timer reset.