“I’m thirty-seven,” said Maggie, looking pissed off at having to answer. “My birthday was last June.”
“Okay,” said Leo, “so altogether that’s—” His eyes rolled upward as he did the math in his head. “—two-hundred-and-twenty-five, right?”
Cheryl shrugged. “Don’t ask me. You want me to type it in?”
John nodded. “Yes, type it in Cheryl. There’s a good girl.”
Cheryl moved a finger towards the tablet’s touchscreen. Below the question was a little box, and when she tapped it a number pad popped up. She entered their answer: 2-2-5.
The car alarm stopped.
Maggie sighed. “Oh, thank you, thank you!”
The car alarm restarted.
A red X flashed on the tablet before the screen reset and presented the same question about age. Everyone groaned — Maggie loudest of all. Alfie looked at Leo accusingly. “Did we do the math right?”
Leo didn’t take offence, and quickly took everyone’s ages again. He arrived at the same answer. “I’m sure it’s two-hundred-and-twenty-five,” he said. “Maybe Cher put the wrong number in.”
“I didn’t!” She had snapped at him a little for she was already annoyed at having been called a ‘good girl’ by John.
“Just try it again, please,” asked John, but it sounded like an order. Perhaps they hadn’t truly left work behind.
She tapped in the code a second time.
The alarm stopped.
The screen flashed a red X and the alarm resumed.
Everyone gave a second groan.
“This is rigged,” said Alfie, shaking his head in disgust.
“No, wait!” said Happy. “It’s because of Cheryl.”
“Hey! I’m just putting in the number you guys are telling me to.”
Happy shook his head. “No, no, I mean you’re not supposed to be here. The answer would have been pre-programmed, probably before we arrived. There’s only meant to be six of us. We smuggled you in.”
John clicked his fingers at Happy. “You’re right! I had to give everybody’s details when I first booked this thing. It didn’t include Cheryl.”
“Thanks for reminding me.”
“Okay,” said Leo, “so Two-hundred-and-twenty-five minus twenty-three is… two-hundred-and-two, right?”
Cheryl wasted no time. She tapped in the new answer.
2-0-2
A red X flashed up on screen. The alarm continued.
“Okay, I’m done,” said Maggie. “I quit. Get me out of here. This is horrible.”
“Someone’s lying,” said Leo. “That’s the only thing it can be. Someone isn’t telling the truth.”
They all looked at Maggie.
“Hey,” she said with a growl. “I told the truth. I’m thirty-seven.”
Alfie smirked. “Come on, Mag. We’re all friends here. I think you left thirty-seven in the rearview a while back. Just admit it, you’ve had work done, right?”
“How dare you!”
“It’s me,” said John, staring at the ground. “I lied. I’m forty-nine.”
Maggie gawped at him. “You’re kidding me? You’re almost fifty?”
“You look good for your age,” said Cheryl, and it was true. John still had thick brown hair with only a hint of grey at the temples. He was also slim with a thick set of shoulders. He could probably pass for forty on a good day.
Maggie glared at Cheryl, then turned to John. “You’re such a liar. Jesus Christ, John!”
His embarrassment turned to defensiveness. “Give me a break, Mag. Nobody likes getting old.”
“The older we get,” said Happy, “the less to look forward to and the more to regret.”
Maggie folded her arms and grunted. “Fine, whatever, just put the right answer in and stop that alarm before I murder someone.”
They added the numbers together again and this time Cheryl entered: 2-0-7.
The car’s alarm cut out.
The screen flashed with a green tick.
Silence.
Maggie removed her hands from her ears. “Oh, thank God!”
Leo was grinning. “We did it, guys. Nice!”
Cheryl looked at the clock. Just over eighty minutes left. Could they still do this? The fiasco over John’s age might have already lost them time they couldn’t afford. She really wanted to win.
Deposit on a flat. Deposit on a flat. You can do this.
A loud thud made everyone look up. The daylight above them disappeared as a sheet of metal slid across the entrance shaft. There was a loud clunk as it slotted into place.
John stared upwards. “What the hell was that? What is this?”
“Um, it’s an escape room, boss,” said Leo, “and I think we just finished part one.”
“The plot does thicken,” said Happy.
Cheryl wondered if what she was feeling was claustrophobia. With the daylight overhead, she hadn’t felt quite so trapped. Even with the ladder gone, she’d still felt comforted by the sight of the sky. With it gone, she suddenly felt… buried. Movement caught her eye, and she turned back to the digital clock on the wall. The numbers were changing.
“What now?” said John, folding his arms and tapping his foot. All this was worrying him too — it was evident in his voice and body language. He was masking it with anger. “The clock is changing? Why?”
Leo shrugged. “Maybe we won more time.”
“Or lost it,” said Alfie.
“Just chill out, brethren.” Monty was smirking. “You lot are a bunch of pussies.”
The numbers settled, but on a far higher number than before. Happy stood in front of the display and read out the new figure. “One-hundred-and-sixty-seven-hours-and-fifty-eight seconds. What does that mean?”
Leo’s eyes rolled in his head as he once again performed mental arithmetic. “It means the timer will end in… exactly one week. One-hundred-and-sixty-eight hours and counting.”
Cheryl was impressed, even if the implications horrified her. “How d’you work that out so fast?”
He shrugged, blushing slightly. “Not that hard, really. The timer will end in exactly one week.”
John was outraged. “Are they trying to suggest we’ll be stuck down here for seven days? Not funny. They said a ninety minute maximum. I’ll have their hides if it’s a moment longer.”
Monty grabbed John by the shoulder and rocked him. “Relax, boss. It’s just to scare us, innit? Atmosphere and that. We ain’t trapped. Course we ain’t trapped.”
Cheryl was breathing deeply, in-out-in-out-in-out. “Really?” she said. “Because it feels a lot like we’re trapped. What do we do?”
Leo nudged her and smiled. She welcomed his playful touch, and it calmed her slightly. So did the relaxed tone of his voice. As tense as everyone was getting, Leo maintained his faith that all was fun and games. He pulled off his jacket and tossed it aside. “We’re only stuck here as long it take us to escape, right? So let’s escape. Onto the next round, am I right?”
Everyone looked at Leo, but it was unclear whether anyone agreed with his sentiments.