Description: Chris and Johnson find themselves trapped with four other people in an escape room and have to survive.
An unknown person dropped from the ceiling of a room.
"I got to look for clues... I gotta look for clues..."
Noticing a board that she could interact with, the woman walked over to the board.
"Okay, ten numbers, four correct answers."
Suddenly, the woman heard a strange noise. As she turned around, she noticed the wall in the back closing in on her.
"Clues... Clues..."
Noticing a scroll left on a table, she opened it to get a message.
Follow the light to greener pastures...
"What greener pastures?"
A lamp was knocked over to point the light at a green book. The woman ran over to get it. As she opened the book, she got another message.
Now at the hour of our death shall we watch another person die...
"What does that mean? Death? Hour? Watch another person die?"
The woman looked around as the walls began to close on her further. She noticed several paintings on the wall. Each painting had a person pointing to another person dying but in different directions.
"Wait, watch another person die. It's hands on a clock! Okay, that's 6, 9, 2, and 8. That's the code!"
The woman made her way through the debris dropped by the walls and entered in the code. Nothing happened.
"What? Why isn't it working? Why isn't it working?!"
The walls seemed to be speeding up as the woman screamed in pain.
THREE DAYS EARLIER...
"Package for Chris Tucker." The mailman said.
Chris made his way to the door.
"I didn't order anything."
"Well, it says it's for you." The mailman said. "See, even the address is like yours."
The mailman left the package in Chris's hands. As he slowly opened it, he noticed a puzzle cube inside. As he opened it, he noticed a secret message.
"You have been invited to take part in Nomis escape rooms. Be the first to escape our most immersive rooms and win $10,000. Be sure to present this card for entry."
On the back of the card showed the address, which thankfully, wasn't far away.
"Okay, thanks, Dad!" Chris said to his dad as he was dropped off at the location.
"Chris?"
Johnson was there, puzzled at Chris's sight.
"Why are you here?"
"I got a puzzle cube telling me to come here."
"Me too," Johnson said. "So weird."
The two then made their way inside the building.
"Hello, are you here for the escape room?" The security guard inside asked.
"Yes. We are." Johnson said.
"Hand over your phones."
"What?"
"We don't want anyone cheating."
The security guard took the two's phones.
"What about our entry cards?" Chris asked.
"Oh yeah, those too."
The two handed over their entry cards.
"Now if you'll please head towards that elevator. Third Floor. Room 2048."
The two headed towards room 2048. Inside, they saw four other people waiting there. Three women and one man.
"So you're here for the escape rooms?" Chris asked.
"Yep." One guy said. "I'm Mike."
"Chris. This is Johnson."
"I can introduce myself," Johnson said annoyingly to Chris.
"Amanda." A woman with long black hair introduced.
"Ashley." Another woman with nerdy glasses added.
"Dani." A Mexican woman stated.
"Nice to meet you all," Mike said.
"So where did you guys come from?" Amanda asked.
"Oh, we're just friends," Chris said.
"Really? Not gay or bisexual or.."
"What the what? We're not-" Johnson said angrily.
"I hate this world," Chris muttered.
"You know, have you ever noticed the increase in furries around here?" Ashley said.
"Yeah, Luci brought them here."
While Peter did bring the furries to his town, he didn't feel comfortable getting the credit, so Luci took over for him.
"Oh man, you bet they act like Pokemon. They help you when you're in trouble, as well as being so adorable!" Dani added.
Mike joined in. "I have a wolf named Chuck as my furry."
"I wonder if it's beastiality if any person would have sex with them."
"I dunno."
Chris grew bored of waiting. "Hey, when does the game start?"
"When the gamemaster gets here and explains us the rules," Amanda said.
The group sat around, waiting, and waiting, and waiting.
"Ok, we've been here for about 20 minutes and nothing's happening," Chris said.
"I'll go talk to the security guard," Johnson said.
As Johnson made his way to the door, the doorknob came off.
"What the hell?"
"What happened?" Chris asked.
"The doorknob came off."
"Off?"
"There's something on the knob where the doorknob was."
"Wait, I think is the escape room!" Amanda said with excitement.
"What should we do?" Ashley asked.
"Look for clues!"
"What are we looking for?"
"Any kind of puzzle or code or..."
The six looked around the area for any clues. Dani looked at the table in the room that they were in.
"Hey, look at these books," Dani said.
Mike came over to Dani and noticed that the books all have an oven, fire, and a steaming pot of water.
"Hey, this could be a clue!"
Chris and Johnson searched for more clues. Johnson picked up a magazine that was strangely not organized like all the other magazines. As he opened it he noticed a multi-tool hidden inside.
"Hey, I think I found some sort of screwdriver in here," Johnson said.
"Great, let's look for screws that need unscrewing."
Looking at the magazine Johnson was holding, Ashley put the pieces together.
"What are you doing?" Chris asked.
"It says Fahrenheit 451. That's the code."
"But where do we enter the code?"
Ashley went over to the doorknob Chris has broken earlier to noticed a key panel.
"Perfect."
She entered the code. Nothing happened at first.
"Wait, is it getting hot in here?" Mike asked.
The group looked behind them and noticed the wall behind them turning red.
"Oh shit. What do we do?" Chris said.
Dani looked up and noticed posters advertising bottled water along with another poster advertising for coasters. She went over to the table in the room and noticed a cup holder on the table. She pressed it down with her hands. The poster advertising for coasters opened up.
"Holy shit, this could be our way out!" Mike said. "Dani, you're a genius!"
The group gathered around the table Dani was at and pressed down on all the cup holders. The poster opened up fully, allowing everyone to escape.
The group made it to the next room, inside a cabin. A large fireball erupted in the room where the group was.
"Talk about immersive," Amanda said.
"What the fuck? That was real!" Ashley argued. "You know what? I give up!"
Ashley noticed security cameras placed all around the cabin.
"Hey! I give up! I surrender!"
Chris and Johnson noticed the door locked with two locks. The bottom lock needed a key and the top lock needing a word.
"I found a key!" Mike said.
"Okay, come here and unlock this lock," Chris said. "Johnson and I will look for clues."
While Ashley was being tended to by Dani, Johnson and Chris looked around the cabin for anything they could use.
"Wait, look over here," Johnson said.
Eight reindeer skulls were labeled Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blixen.
"Rudolph is missing. Try Rudolph!"
Mike entered Rudolph into the word lock. It snapped open.
"Yes!"
"See? It's going to be perfectly fine." Dani said.
Ashley nodded and followed the others outside.
The next room looked like the woods with a frozen lake.
"Holy shit, are we outside?" Mike asked.
Chris looked at the thermometer. 30 degrees Fahrenheit.
"Okay, everybody stays off the ice," Ashley said.
"Look for clues too," Amanda added.
The group searched for clues.
"Hey guys, I found a locked door!" Dani said. "We need a key!"
The group looked for clues more.
"A fishing rod!" Chris said. "Guys, I found a fishing rod!"
The group made their way to Chris, or so they thought.
*CRACK* *SPLASH*
"Oh my god! Ashley!" Amanda screamed.
Ashley fell through the ice in the lake. Everyone ran to the cracked hole in the lake. Ashley did not resurface.
"Where is she?"
"I can't see her! The current must've taken her away."
"I'm gonna jump in!" Chris said.
"No! The current's too strong!"
The group heard bubbly screams. They ran over to find a nerdy-looking woman screaming for help. They tried to break the ice with all their might, but the ice was too thick. They could only watch Ashley drown.
"Holy shit, what just happened?" Dani said.
"Oh fuck, this game is real," Amanda said.
The rest just stared there in shock. No words were said.
"What do we do now?" Chris said.
"Search for more clues." Johnson could only suggest.
The group stared at the cracked hole in the ice one more time before carrying on.
"Guys, I found something," Mike said.
"What is it?"
"A magnet for our fishing rod."
Mike attached the magnet to the fishing rod the group had.
"Where do we cast the line?" Dani asked.
The group looked at the hole where Ashley fell through. They cast the fishing line into the hole.
"So now what?" Johnson asked.
"We wait," Dani said.
"I can't believe we're doing this in the spot where Ashley drowned," Chris added.
"Wait, I got something!"
"Reel it in!"
Mike pulled out a block of ice with the key in the center.
"That must be our way out!" Dani said. "How do we get the key?"
"Body heat?" Chris suggested.
"That'll take too long," Johnson said. "We need a way to make it melt fast. Does anyone have a lighter?"
"I do," Amanda said.
The group huddled around the ice block, melting the weakest spots they could find with the lighter.
"This is taking too long," Chris said.
By now the ice block was already melted halfway. Chris took the ice block and smashed it against a rock.
"Yes!"
A rumbling sound shook everyone.
"Run!" Ashley screamed.
The ice cracked behind the group as they made their way to the door.
"Is everyone okay?" Mike gasped.
"Yeah, just the clothes on our backs," Chris grunted.
"At least it isn't cold in here," Dani said.
Suddenly, the lights turned on. What looked like a bar appeared to the group.
"What do we do now?"
Suddenly, the ground began to shake. Everyone held onto what they could tightly. As the shaking slowed down to a stop, everyone searched for clues.
"Look, this door up there," Johnson said.
What looked like to be the exit of the room had its doorknob missing.
"Great, look for a doorknob!" Chris said.
"Hey, what about this?" Amanda said.
The group gathered around the pool table. All of the balls on the table were there, except one.
"The eight ball is missing," Dani said.
"I'll go look over by the pool cues," Mike said.
Mike made his way to the pool cues.
*CRACK*
Chris quickly stopped Mike. A piece of floor in the room cracked and sunk into oblivion.
"Holy shit!" Dani shouted.
"Oh god, that was so close!" Mike gasped.
"Everybody, off the floor!" Johnson shouted.
Everyone grabbed and hung onto the railings. Amanda noticed a ledge where she could climb onto.
"What are you doing?" Dani said.
"An experiment!" Amanda shouted back.
Amanda made her way to the roof of the bar room. She noticed a safe with a keypad.
"There's a safe up there that needs a 4 digit code."
Chris noticed on the other side of the barroom was a sliding puzzle.
"Chris, what the hell are you doing?" Mike said.
Chris made his way across the room. The sliding puzzle was too high.
"I need a boost!" Chris said.
Johnson made his way to Chris and boosted him up. As Chris was solving the sliding puzzle, another piece of the floor cracked open.
"Hurry, Chris!" Amanda shouted.
"I got it!" Chris said, putting the last piece in.
Nothing happened.
"What now?" Amanda said.
Johnson got a good look at what Chris arranged.
"The picture that Chris did, they all aligned with the same color."
"The top one, that's green," Mike said.
The group looked at the pool table. There were two green balls, one was striped and the other was solid.
"The top is full green, the first digit is 6!" Dani said.
Amanda entered 6.
"The second top is yellow but it's striped. 9!" Mike added.
Chris looked at the bottom two of the puzzle.
"Okay, the third is fully red and the fourth is fully black. That's 3 and 8!"
"6938!" Johnson repeated.
Amanda entered the code. The 8 ball rolled out.
"Yes!" Everyone cheered.
By now, half of the floor was gone. Everyone scurried their way to the door.
"Amanda, hurry!" Johnson shouted.
As Amanda got herself down, the floor beneath her caved. Amanda quickly grabbed onto the ledge before pulling herself up.
"The gap's too wide to jump," Amanda said.
"Stay on the sides!" Chris shouted.
Amanda first tossed the doorknob to the group before making her way to the others.
"Come on!" Dani shouted.
The room started to tilt.
"No..." Amanda said. "Go, leave me."
"Wh-what?" Dani said.
"You'll die if I try and catch up to you. Just go."
The group didn't have enough time as they continued without Amanda. Sure enough, after the group escaped, the room flipped over. Amanda was sent falling.
The group stared at the door to the room Amanda sacrificed herself for a long time.
"We could've made it out alive," Dani said.
"I know, but Amanda did the right thing for us," Mike said.
"Right thing?!" Dani snapped. "Amanda is dead!"
"I know, but Mike is right, would you even be here right now if it weren't for Amanda?" Johnson said.
Dani silently nodded. The four continued onward to the next room.
"Are we in a hospital?" Chris said.
The hospital beds connected to several IVs strung around them. Chris noticed something familiar in one of the hospital beds.
"This is mine..."
"Mine too..." Johnson added.
"They made this game for us..." Mike concluded.
Chris noticed a hospital file for everyone, including himself and Johnson in the center of the room.
"Amanda was a police officer of her unit that suffered an IED blast to which she was the only survivor. She was rescued and brought to a hospital."
Johnson looked at the file more.
"Ashley's house was gassed that killed her family. She was found unconscious and in critical condition."
The two turned to Mike and Dani.
Mike told his story. "I was a construction worker. Along with my brother who was an architect, we earned good money. But then, an accident happened that killed our crew. I awoke later in a hospital. The doctors said that I was brought here by someone who wanted to remain anonymous."
Dani soon followed. "I was on a plane with my mom leaving Vietnam. As we were about to reach home, the plane just crashed. I was left hanging upside down for a week. As I was about to die, I saw someone reaching for my hand. I awoke here a few hours later."
Johnson and Chris looked at each other. Johnson slowly nodded.
"I was in a cafe shop when a group of people came in armed. They forced everyone to huddle together. Little did we know we were about to get gunned. I heard screaming, children holding each other. Chaos. The police couldn't help because phones were jammed and the shooters were using suppressors."
The image of the event flashed into Chris's mind.
"I was lying there, bleeding out, looking at the dead children and babies in front of me. As the shooters were getting away. Gunshots rang out as the shooters were killed. Next thing I knew, I was brought here."
"I was out on a boat ride with 5 other people. We were having the time of our lives. Then a rogue wave hit us and took us to a deserted island with no source of food. As our supplies began to run out, some of us were going crazy. Some killed each other for food. Others swam to what they saw as a boat. A day after they left, I was saved by a rescue crew."
"So were sole survivors of our disasters," Dani said. "But why us?"
"They want to see who survives out of all of us," Chris said. "I bet they're betting on a game or something."
Suddenly, a small ringing noise was heard. The four turned to a small TV turned on. A clip from the Simpsons played.
"Hello everybody!" A doctor said.
"Hi, Dr. Nick!" The audience said.
"The Simpsons?" Mike said. "I use to watch that shit all the time when I was a kid."
"Do you have heart problems but can't afford those pesky forty thousand dollars ones? Well I, Dr. Nick, can offer that same treatment for $129.95! Heart surgery, cardiac arrest, arrhythmia, even the basic of heart attack I can solve!"
Suddenly, Dr. Nick's voice changed to a distorted one.
"You have five minutes."
The screen then shifted to a timer.
"These guys are watching us, they know what kind of moves we're making!" Johnson shouted.
Chris grabbed a crutch and smashed one of the cameras.
"What are you doing?" Johnson said.
"I'm not going to play anymore!" Chris shouted back.
The group ignored him and tried to solve the puzzle themselves.
"The TV said something about a heart right?" Dani said. "Something in the hospital that involves a heart!"
The group searched around the room.
"Guys, over here!" Mike shouted.
The group gathered around a defibrillator.
"What do we do with this?"
"I think it has to do with heart rate!" Mike said. "Johnson, take your shirt off!"
"Wh-what?"
"Do it!"
Johnson quickly took his shirt off. Mike quickly connected him to the electrodes on the ECG.
"What now?" Johnson said.
"We need a high heart rate. The defibrillator will do it!"
"But getting shocked by a defibrillator is like getting kicked in the chest by a horse!"
"We need a way out!" Mike shouted. "Just think, look at the clock."
There were only 3 minutes left.
"We're about to get who knows what in three minutes!"
It didn't take long for Dani to find out what. She noticed a gas tank filled with carbon monoxide.
"Oh my god, they're going to gas us."
"Just do it. For us and you." Mike convinced.
"Okay..." Johnson said.
Mike placed the defibrillator onto Johnson's chest. After one zap, he was unresponsive. The heart rate confirmed his fate.
"No..." Mike whimpered.
"You... You..." Dani said.
"I was just..."
Dani didn't have time to argue. Mike quickly connected the electrodes to himself and took deep breaths. With 30 seconds left on the clock, he dropped his heart rate down to 50. The x-ray machine opened, revealing the way out.
"Chris, let's go!"
Chris adamantly refused as he smashed more cameras. By now, the timer hit zero, gas started to leak into the room. Dani was forced to leave Chris behind as the door to the next room started to close.
Now as the only two people left in the game, Dani and Mike were left gasping for air.
"Chris and Johnson..." Dani whimpered.
"I didn't mean to kill Johnson," Mike said with his hands up.
"What do we do now?"
"Look for clues."
The two noticed a hatch. They opened it to find absolutely nothing.
"What's this on my hands?" Mike said.
Everything became fuzzy to Dani, like looking without any form of eye protection underwater. Everything became swirly as Dani tried to crawl away to a wall. Seeing a cupboard, she shifted her body towards it. Opening the cupboard revealed to be a needle filled with a strange orangy substance.
"Give me that thing!" Mike shouted.
Dani was grabbed by Mike as she fought against him for the needle. She shoved Mike away into the wall as she crawled for the needle, Mike pinned her down and reached for the antidote himself. Dani retaliated by kicking him between the legs. Mike screamed in pain as Dani shoved him down and repeatedly stomped on his face. She reached for the antidote and injected herself in the leg. Everything returned to normal. Mike was dead on the floor, with his face smashed in. Dani continued, going into the hole they opened for the hatch.
As Dani landed, she found herself in a study room.
"I gotta look for clues... I gotta look for clues..."
Noticing a board on the other side of the room, she made her way over to it.
"Okay, ten numbers, four correct answers."
"Okay, everything's clear in there. It's safe to come in now."
A man and a woman walked into the room wearing gas masks.
"Okay, there are two dead people in here. Both male. I wonder what they were doing smashing those cameras." The woman asked.
"Why don't you answer that yourself?"
The two turned to find Chris alive and well. He smacked the man in the face with a piece of the hospital equipment. The woman reached for her gun, but Chris knocked it out of her hands. He then knocked her in the leg, placing her on the ground. He then picked up the gun the woman dropped.
"No... wait!" The woman said.
"We were just doing our job!" The man pleaded.
"Suck it," Chris stated.
*BLAM* *BLAM*
Chris collected everything he could from the two bodies and made his way over to Johnson.
Dani awoke later to find herself being tended to by a strange man.
"Well, you survived. My money was on Chris. But thanks to you, it was wasted."
"You're... insane..." Dani wheezed. "Who are you?"
"I am the gamemaster and not insane, Dani. Just betting. You see, everything in this world nowadays has gone too soft. We at Nomis decided that making immersion was our best tactic."
"Immersion!" Dani said, standing up. "It's a death room! Torture porn!"
"No, it's a contest. You see, we pick people. This week, it was sole survivors, last week was office employees, and the week before were elementary school students."
"So I won... does that mean I get the money and go home?"
The gamemaster approached her like a cartoon villain.
"No." He whispered.
He quickly wrapped his garrote around Dani. Dani fought back by kicking the gamemaster in the knee. It didn't faze him.
"Just die..." The gamemaster taunted.
Suddenly, a loud beeping sound rang. The gamemaster paused to look at his phone. The six players marked as eliminated were now reduced to three.
"What the?"
Chris appeared from behind and shot the gamemaster in the back. As the gamemaster fell over, he quickly helped Dani up.
"You okay?" He said.
"Y-yeah," Dani said.
Chris noticed the gamemaster gone, as he followed to where he believed he fled to, he was attacked from behind by the gamemaster.
"You think you can kill me with a gunshot? Fat chance."
The gamemaster grabbed the gun off of him and pointed it at Chris. Dani jumped in and placed a plastic shopping bag over his head. As the gamemaster suffocated, Chris picked up the gun he dropped and shot him in the head. He helped Dani up as he gave another shot in the head to keep him down.
"Let's go..." Chris said.
Dani silently nodded as the two made their way to the exit. Before leaving, Chris picked up the gamemaster's phone.
"How did you two survive?" Lazuli asked with amazement.
"I managed to find an oxygen mask when I was smashing those cameras," Chris said. "I came back for Dani when I heard her screams."
"But what about Johnson?"
"Oh, he's fine too. But the doctors said that due to this electric shock, he could be in a coma for a few weeks." Dani added.
"That's horrible."
"Yeah, and the thing about the police..."
Dani and Chris held hands to each other as Johnson's condition began to stabilize.
"Dani Ramos and Chris Tucker?"
Sergeant Yates was standing there for the two.
"Come with us."
Dani and Chris arrived at the scene of the crime. Everything, the rooms, the bodies, everything Nomis set up was gone.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Dani said.
"Everything was right there!" Chris said. "The waiting room! The fireball!"
"Well, we couldn't find anything," Yates stated. "We soon have to vacant the premises."
Dani was left sobbing over the events. Chris comforted her as he and Dani were escorted out.
"So now what?" Lazuli said.
"I've been collecting everything that Nomis has done," Dani said.
Dani then showed newspaper articles about Mike, Amanda, and Ashley's fates.
"Mike was labeled as being killed when being robbed in his house. Ashley drowned and Amanda dropped herself from too great a height."
"But isn't that what they were killed for?" Lazuli asked.
"Their deaths are labeled as accidents or first-degree murder by another party," Chris said.
"But you are the survivors." Lazuli said. "You gotta let this go."
"No, I got help in finding their base of operations," Chris said. "I had a friend of mine's checking on the phone I found at the scene of the crime."
Chris hired Grey, or Hacker Newton into getting access to the gamemaster's phone.
"Okay, I got it," Grey said.
"Bingo," Chris said, reading it.
Chris took out the phone and showed it to Lazuli. The phone number sent to the gamemaster by Nimos was traced to some coordinates in Manhattan.
"I checked the location, and it's in some abandoned building hiding in plain sight," Dani said.
"We could get revenge," Chris added.
"I got plane tickets. We leave in two weeks."
"On one condition!" Lazuli said. "I go with you."
Chris and Dani stared at each other.
Somewhere in an unknown location, an employee at Nomis approached a computer screen. It showed a shadowy figure speaking in a robotic voice.
"Simon, they're ready for us, we prepared an escape room for them."
"PERFECT. LET'S PLAY AGAIN."