No Escape by Julie Moffett

 

Chapter Forty-Six

 

Lexi Carmichael

 

I knew Slash had a plan, but I was stunned when Tito deliberately stepped into the beam, eliminating him from the game.

Then my screen froze. It seemed to take forever until I could see what was going on again. When I did, both were gone. At first, I’d thought they’d both been eliminated. I’d seen no movement in my camera view. I quickly scrolled the cameras forward, hoping against hope that Slash was somehow still alive. At the edge of the screen, near the platform, I thought I saw a brief movement. I switched to the platform view and realized it was Slash.

How did he get to the platform by himself in the dark?

I didn’t have time to figure it out now. Mia told me she’d heard Tito yell something about leaving a strobe light on the track. I didn’t know what that meant, but she’d also reminded me we had only fifteen minutes to finish, which meant I had to help Slash get that code and worry about the rest later.

I helped him orient himself on the platform and watched as he moved back and forth on the platform in an odd manner. I had no idea what he was doing. After a moment, he stopped and waved his arms.

I hit the mic button. “Slash, is there a problem?”

He bowed, so I interpreted that as a yes. “Do you need something?”

He bowed again.

“Directions?”

He didn’t move, which I took as a no.

“Maybe he needs the other strobe light,” Mia said from her position by the open door. “Tito was yelling that he left it on the track. Maybe his burned out.”

I turned back to the screen and pressed my mic button. “Do you need the other strobe light?”

Slash bowed quickly, confirming Mia’s hunch. Before I could even think of what options we had, Mia shouted at me, “I’ll get it for him.”

“Wait, Mia!” I called out, but she’d already disappeared.

Worried, I flicked the light on for the first section of the room and thought for a moment she wasn’t there. Then I spotted her on her hands and knees, crawling along the path. She approached a sharp left turn and, before I could say anything, swerved following the path. How was she doing that in the dark?

I turned on my mic again. “Mia, you have a curvy stretch ahead of you, so be careful. Slash, Mia’s going to get you the other strobe light. I don’t know if there’s enough time, or exactly how she’s going to get it to you, but we’re going to try.”

I watched Mia flawlessly navigate the curvy stretch on her hands and knees and then another straight patch. “Stop, Mia. You’re approaching the first laser beam. It’s knee high, so you will have to crawl on your belly to go under it. Then the path turns ninety degrees left. You’ll have to remain on your belly as the beam will be just above your head. I’ll tell you when you are clear to resume crawling.”

She waved, so I presumed she understood. I wasn’t sure how she was following the path, but I didn’t care. She was making remarkably good time, which meant she was giving us a fighting chance.

She finally cleared the first laser. “Mia, you’re clear and can resume crawling,” I said.

Mia accelerated, twisting her way down the path toward the second laser. Several paces short of the second beam, she stopped and stood up.

My anxiety spiked. “Mia, what are you doing?”

She held her arms above her head, and I saw she had the strobe light in her hand. Success! She’d found it. Now how would she get it to Slash?

She was facing in the direction of Slash, and a quick glance showed Slash was facing her, probably turning to the sound of her voice. I presumed, or hoped, they were talking to each other. I desperately wished I could hear what they were saying. I flipped back to Mia just in time to see her cock her arm and throw the strobe light toward Slash.

Holy hail Mary!

She’d thrown him the strobe light in complete darkness. It would be a stroke of luck if she threw it in the right direction, let alone if Slash was able to catch or corral it before it rolled off the platform.

I flipped my view over to Slash. To my surprise, he was already facing the disc again. Did he have the strobe light? He acted like he was working on a puzzle moving forward and back again. I had no idea what was going on.

I checked the clock—just under five minutes remained. “Mia, start crawling back here as carefully as you can. There won’t be time for me to guide you and get the code, so you’re on your own. Just stay low and use your hands on the track to guide you.”

I debated whether to tell Slash the time when I saw him start doing jumping jacks on the platform.

He had the code!

My fingers shook as I hit the mic button. “Slash, I see you and I’m counting. The first number is…four. Is that correct?”

He bowed and started jumping again. I scrambled to keep up.

“The second number is eight.” I paused, but he didn’t confirm with a bow, nor did he continue, so I assumed I was wrong. “Seven?”

He bowed and started jumping again. In seconds I had the three-digit code—476. Slash sat down, so I knew that it was. Now, all we needed was Mia. I dreaded even looking to see where she was. My stomach dropped when the clock indicated we only had forty-five seconds left.

I tried to climb down from the chair, but it was awkward to squeeze around the controller console that I couldn’t figure out how to raise. I didn’t have time to figure it out. Somehow, I managed to squish past. I hopped off the steps and staggered toward the door to the blackout room, my back and legs stiff from sitting for so long.

“Mia!” I shouted into the darkness.

“What?” she said, crawling into view and coming to a stand.

“You did it!” I reached out and grabbed her hand, yanking her toward me. “Holy crap, you did it all on your own.”

“Did you get the code?”

“I did. We did. Come on, we’ve got to get that code keyed in now.”

“My knees are all scraped up from crawling,” she moaned, looking down at her legs. “Vittoria is going to kill me. I’ll ruin all her wedding pictures with my ugly knees.”

“Haven’t you heard of Photoshop? Besides, she’ll love you for saving her honeymoon.” I punched in the code. After a moment, the red light above the door turned green, just as the clock ticked down to zero.

I pulled Mia out of the room, holding up her arm with the bracelet like she’d just won a prize fight.

I briefly saw the gamemaster’s shocked face before we were completely mobbed by our teammates. There was so much shouting and screeching, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to hear properly for at least the next seven years.

Tito lifted me off my feet, squeezing me so hard I couldn’t breathe. He finally set me down, and I looked around. “Where’s Slash? How did you do it? What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later,” I said. “He’s still inside. Someone has to go tell him we won.”

“I’ll do it,” Tito said and disappeared into the control room.

Brando approached me, his expression one of complete disbelief. He held out the golden disc. “I’m truly at a loss for words, Ms. Carmichael. You and your team have exceeded my expectations in every way.”

I grinned. “Thanks, but I had the easy job. These guys did all the hard work.” I spread out my arm to encompass the team, including Slash and Tito, who walked into the room slapping each other on the back. “Especially the youngest member of our group, Mia. If it weren’t for her quick thinking and courage, we wouldn’t have made it in time. I think she deserves to be presented the golden disc. Great job, Mia. How did you manage to navigate in the dark?”

“I had some extra time standing there in the doorway, so I started playing around. I discovered I could feel the path cables in the floor. They were barely raised but made of a different material. I wondered if I could follow the path by crawling and feeling the cables and staying between them. I wasn’t sure, but when we needed the other strobe light, I figured I would try it, and it worked.”

“How did you know where to throw the strobe light once you’d found it?” I asked.

“Slash told me to throw it. He said to turn it on just before I threw it because it’d help him estimate its location so he could catch it. He was worried I wouldn’t throw it hard enough, so he told me to throw it as absolutely hard as I could. So, I did, and I guess he caught it, or at least got it. Then he shouted at me to head back to you as fast as I could.”

“You’re amazing, Mia. We owe this win to you.”

The teenager bounced up and down on her feet, beaming happily. “Thanks. You guys make me feel like a million bucks. Hey, did I get that one right?”

“You did.” I grinned. “At last, Mia, you got one right.”

We laughed, and Slash gave her a kiss on the cheek after Brando handed her the disc. We clapped and filed out, chatting happily while heading back to the dining room for lunch.

As we walked along, Brando asked Slash for his thoughts on the escape room. “Tell Mr. Zachetti to lose the lasers,” Slash said. “It’s plenty hard as it is.”

“I respectfully disagree,” Brando said. “It clearly wasn’t hard enough. I’m truly astonished at your capability and resourcefulness. What is it about you people that makes you so special?”

“It was the teenager who came through in the clutch,” I said, grinning. “Or Slash’s parents, who refined our game plan.”

“Or the big Swiss guy who took one for the team,” Tito added over my shoulder.

“How did the other team do?” Slash asked. “Did they successfully complete the challenge?”

“Why don’t you ask them for yourself?” Brando replied.