Ultimate Escape Room Challenge: Antarctic Base (part 2)

 Indeed, the next cupboard had produced two pairs of down pants, again one black and one pink. This time they seemed quite similar. The pants were in fact more like armless overalls, not only covering the torso but even zipping all the way to a high collar that would end under the chin.

Kirsten soon had hers on, zipping it up from the crotch to her breasts so she could leave the collar open for now. Then she helped Ayana into hers, which did turn out to be a bit different as it had attached feet. Kirsten helped Ayana move her mittened hands through the armholes, then zipped it up. She had difficulty closing the collar over the hood underneath. Ayana needed to stretch her neck as much as she could until Kirsten could finally close the zipper all the way. The combination of the collar and the hood (or balaclava) underneath meant Ayana's neck and head, and even her entire torso, were now held completely immobile. The tight collar around her neck pulled the hood in, causing it to feel tighter over her mouth and make speaking harder.

Kirsten closed the button flap over the zipper, and like before, the green light turned on the moment she was done with Ayana. Apparently the lights did not care that she was not wearing her own clothes fully zipped or with the hood up, but Ayana's needed to be closed completely. This time, however, no code appeared, and for a moment they didn't know what to do next.

Finally Kirsten noticed two ropes hanging from the ceiling, near the entrance door. "Those weren't there before," she exclaimed. Ayana ponderously turned around, trying to see what her friend was looking at. Meanwhile Kirsten was already under one of the ropes, reaching up with her hands and pulling it down. They heard something shift in the wall in front of the hometrainer; the panel had been pulled up! But nothing much changed, as an identical panel was revealed behind it.

"Pull on the other rope!"

Ayana obediently made her way over, careful not to fall with her feet in the down-filled encasements. But pulling the rope was easier said then done, because once underneath it, she could not see it. Unable to change the position of her head within its tight confinement, she blindly groped over her head with her mittened hands. However, the mittens also prevented her from feeling the rope when she touched it. It took several minutes of Kirsten's guidance until she was finally able to clamp the second rope between her mittens and pull it down.

This pulled up the second panel in the wall, and with both panels pulled up, they could see an opening in the wall and behind that something circular. But they were too far away to see it clearly. Meanwhile, the rope was already slipping through Ayana's mittens. The panel was quite heavy, and the thick mittens were ill-suited to holding the rope. Kirsten took her own rope in one hand and moved closer to Ayana. "Hand me your rope," she said, extending her other arm. Once the ropes were pulled down, it was possible for one person to hold them both, with both arms stretched outwards.

With Kirsten holding both panels up, Ayana moved towards the wall. "It's something to do with that hometrainer!" Kirsten suggested. Ayana carefull sat down on it and tried to peddle. It was hard, because with her feet kept slipping off the pedals and she could not look down to place them better. She got a few rotations going, and behind the opening in the wall, she could see a disc rotating along. "There's a disc over there, I think if I cycle fast enough, a code will be visible on it!" she called to Kirsten. "Hurry up!" Kirsten replied, "these are getting heavy!"

Ayana tried to work up some speed on the bike, but again and again her feet slipped off and she lost her momentum. After five minutes of fruitless attempts, Kirsten dropped the panels. "I can't hold these anymore! We need to switch," she said. Ayana, who had worked up quite a sweat inside her gear, climbed off the bike. "But how? I can't hold the ropes with these."

"I'll help," Kirsten offered. She pulled the first rope down, took Ayana's hand and tied the rope around her wrist. Then she took the second rope and pulled Ayana into position until she managed to tie the rope around her other wrist. Having spent some of the rope's length this way, it meant Ayana's arms were now held at 45 degrees to each side, and she was stretched out completely in between them. Between the position of her arms, and the down clothes holding her head and body in position, there was almost nothing Ayana could do at this point.

Kirsten now went to the hometrainer and started peddling. Once the disc rotated fast enough, a code indeed appeared on it. She jumped off the bike and headed straight to the cupboards, unlocking the largest one. "It's down suits now," she called to Ayana, pulling the two suits out of the cupboard. Again, one was pink, the other black.

"Can you untie these ropes first?"

"Actually I think it's better if I help you into your suit first. It has attached feet again, so it will be hard to stay upright, and the ropes will help with that."

Holding the pink down suit, she came over to where Ayana was still standing helplessly, her arms by now painful because of the strain. "Lift your left leg," Kirsten commanded. Ayana did, but had trouble keeping her equilibrium while standing on one padded foot. Kirsten supported her and helped her slide her feet into the down suit. After a lot of struggling, eventually they managed to get both Ayana's legs all the way into the suit, her feet arriving into another layer of down. After alll this Ayana's arms were burning with pain.

"Now please get these ropes off my arms," she asked.

Kirsten started to untie the rope around Ayana's left wrist. When it came off, Ayana's powerless arm dropped down.

"Let's put it in the suit's sleeve first," Kirsten said, hoisting up the suit. With her head and neck held upright, Ayana hadn't even seen that the suit was in front of her. Like her jacket, it would be zipped at the back. Meanwhile Kirsten was pushing Ayana's arm into the sleeve, then pulling the sleeve over the arm until Ayana's mittened hand arrived into another mitten. Having lost all feeling of what was going on, Ayana didn't even notice that this mitten had no thumb, it was just a closed off end to the sleeve.

"All right, I'll just attach your wrist to the rope again, otherwise I won't be able to hold you upright," Kirsten said.

"No, no, don't..." Ayana protested, but Kirsten didn't listen and Ayana couldn't stop her from lifting up the exhausted and stiffly packed arm and tying the rope around it again. At least now she untied the other arm, for now easing the strain there. It got the same treatment: into the sleeve, then reattached to the rope to keep Ayana upright.

All this pushing and shoving had made Kirsten quite sweaty, after peddling on the hometrainer in her down outfit. With Ayana secured again she took a step back to appraise the rest of her work. Now that both arms were in, Ayana could see the hood that was bunched up in front of her face. She was having second thoughts about this.

"Kirsten, stop, untie me please and let me out."

"Come on Ayana, we need to finish the room. Remember the bottle of champagne that's waiting for us!"

"I know, but..."

Kirsten didn't understand much more of Ayana's protests, as she had pulled the down hood in front of her face and got to work fastening it at the back. This was a fairly complicated process. Like the jacket underneath it had a zip going from top to bottom. But before the zip could be pulled down, the sides of the hood had to be brought close to each other. The hood was a tight fit with the other down hood underneath. To that end, there was a lace threaded through holes on both sides of the hood. By pulling the lace tighter, the hood would be fastened around Ayana's head.

The lace started at the top and Kirsten began pulling the slack out, working her way downwards. Once she got to the base of Ayana's head, Ayana's muffled protests finally stopped. Kirsten wasn't aware that this was due to a leather panel that was worked inside the suit's nylon layers. Fastening the lace pulled the leather panel tightly over Ayana's mouth and chin, pressing the down layers underneath firmly against her face. While Kirsten got down to lacing up Ayana's neck, Ayana was perfectly quiet.

Similar leather contraptions were hidden in the suit around Ayana's neck and torso, so that when the entire down suit was laced up, Ayana's entire body was held rigid and her head held straight up. With her arms still held up Ayana stood silent and motionless. All she could move was her legs, but standing on the soft layers of down, she dared not move those either, fearing to lose her footing and hurting her painful arms even more.

It took Kirsten ten minutes to fully lace up the suit, and now she could pull down the zipper from the top of Ayana's hood to the small of her back. Finally there was a down flap that she buttoned over the zipper. As soon as the last button was closed, the third lamp next to the door turned green.

Kirsten walked around Ayana, looking at her up front. The hood was completely closed in front. It had a dark reflective plastic built in over the eyes, through which Ayana could presumably see out. Under the nose, right over her nostrils, was a valve that allowed her to breathe easily. But of her face there was nothing to see. She was just a featureless, pink down person, standing there perfectly still.

"All right, I'm going to solve the next puzzle," Kirsten said to Ayana, raising her voice to get through the down layers. There was some movement in the ropes holding Ayana's arms in response, and a snorting exhalation of breath. Kirsten assumed that meant Ayana had heard her.

Ayana tried to make it clear that she did not want to remain tied up like this, and that she wanted out of this thick, restrictive clothing. But Kirsten was already turning away and moving out of her field of vision. Ayana had no idea how long she stood there, unable to do anything about her situation. She tried to shout a few times but the pressure on her mouth formed an airtight seal, and all she achieved was that she got out of breath. When she tried to move at all she was quickly reminded that she could only hurt her arms more. And so she remained motionless and waited for Kirsten to return.

"The fourth lamp has switched on," Kirsten said, pointing at the exit door. "I think I found all my items, and there are no further clues, but I think the last lamp will turn green once I'm dressed. I'll untie your arms first." Ayana could give no response. Once untied, her arms dropped limply to her sides, her face remained completely hidden. She just watched while Kirsten pulled up the hood of her black down jacket and fastened the zip over her mouth, then zipped the down pants up all the way to the tight collar.

"Hmf! This is tight!" Kirsten complained as the collar around her neck pulled in the jacket underneath. Ayana, who could barely move a limb, didn't feel too compassionate. She motioned with her arm to urge Kirsten on, she was sweating to death and wanted out of these clothes as soon as possible.

Kirsten then put on a down suit that looked similar to Ayana's, but there were key differences. The suit, like her down pants, didn't have attached feet. Instead she had a pair of black Moonboots, which she pulled over the suit's legs. These were thick, but at least they would be easier to walk on than Ayana's double padded feet. The suit also didn't have a mittens, a stark contrast to Ayana whose hands were packed in the jacket's attached mittens and the suit's thumbless mittens.

Like Ayana's though, the suit had a completely closed hood, with a dark visor and a valve for breathing. It also zipped down the back. Kirsten had to push the zipper down from the hood towards her back, then reach from the bottom until she found it to pull it all the way down. Doing up the button flap over the zipper on her back was even harder, but once the last button was closed, the fifth lamp turned green and the large doors slowly opened. "We got there!" Kirsten exclaimed happily, but the sound coming out of her hood was muffled and Ayana could barely hear her through her own hoods.

Kirsten quickly moved towards the door. Ayana, unstable on her padded feet, was careful not to stumble while she tried to follow. Then they stopped in amazement when they saw what was beyond the door...

Ultimate Escape Room Challenge: Antarctic Base (part 1)

The Ultimate Escape Room Challenge 

NEW Escape Room in Town!

Tailored to experienced escape room enthousiasts who are looking for that extra challenge, our escape room ‘Antarctic Base’ offers an unseen level of detail and tests you have seen nowhere else! Can you escape the base in Antarctica’s harsh conditions?

Duration: 2 hours

Only available for 2-player teams

Special temporary promotion: Escape within the time limit and receive a free Magnum bottle of champagne!

For Kirsten and Ayana, upon seeing the ad, the only question was “How soon can we get there?” The two friends loved escape rooms and had finished every room in the wide area. This challenge was exactly what they were looking for. And while the escape room was pricey, with a game length of two hours, it had reason to be so. In addition, they had to enter their clothing measurements while booking, which suggested an unusual attention to detail and a truely immersive experience. And of course, the girls had no doubt that they would also end up with the large champagne bottle to celebrate their escape afterwards!

---

Two days later, on Friday evening, they arrived at the new escape room. As required, they were half an hour earlier than their start time in the room. They were welcomed by Lara, a pretty dark-haired girl with glasses. 

“So have you done a lot of escape rooms?” Lara asked conversationally.

“Oh yes, and we always manage to escape!” Ayana proudly said.

“We’re here for that bottle of champagne!” Kirsten grinned.

“I love your confidence! I’m sure our room will offer challenges you haven’t encountered yet! But for creative problem solvers like yourselves we’ll make sure to keep the bottle cold!”

After the small talk, Lara directed the girls to the toilets first, then told them to change. “In the changing room, you’ll find an outfit in your size. Also there will be a diaper. I know it’s a bit weird, but two hours can be quite a long time, especially with the stress of the escape room. It would be a real shame if you had to abort early and miss your bottle of champagne for it.”

“For that bottle I’ll wear anything,” Ayana joked.

“Besides, with your bladder, it’s a reasonable precaution anyway,” Kirsten laughed.

Ten minutes later both girls had changed. In their form-fitting, black woolen catsuits and balaclavas, they looked like a pair of burglars. Assuming burglars wore a large diaper package that clearly contrasted with the tightness of the rest of their clothes, of course. The catsuits had attached gloves and feet, so the only uncovered part of their skin was the opening of the balaclava around their nose and eyes.

The girls giggled as they looked at each other. “Hey, fatass,” Ayana said, slapping Kirsten’s bottom.

“All right,” Lara announced when the merriment had subsided. “Now that you’re dressed, we’re ready to begin. One more thing before we get started. I heard the room will be free the rest of the evening. So in case you don’t escape in two hours, I’ll give you the choice to end the game as is usual, or to continue trying.”

“Well the point is kind of moot isn’t it?” Kirsten laughed confidently.

“But of course we would like to keep trying… in the unlikely event we’re not out yet,” Ayana added.

“Okay, excellent. I just need to ask you to sign these forms then, confirming that we’re not holding you against your will. The law is, sadly but understandably, rather strict in these things,” Lara smiled.

With the forms signed, Lara started to explain the premise of the escape room.

“You are part of a research group on Antarctica. After a night shift you just woke up to find everyone gone, and there are signs of a struggle. It appears all the others in the base were abducted by a terrorist group. The reason is clear: they are here for your scientific test results, which, if they fall into their hands, could wreak havoc on the world. You quickly look for the hidden safe where they are stashed, and find the safe still there, undiscovered. But this means it’s only a matter of time before the terrorists return. You grab the test results, but the station’s defense mechanisms have activated so it won’t be easy to get out. Furthermore, you will need to find the necessary outerwear to survive on Antarctica. Your mission is to escape the base using a snowscooter, after you have found and put on all the necessary pieces of clothing. Then drive over to the next base, where you will be safe from attacks.”

“Wow! Cool!” Ayana exclaimed.

“Any further questions?”

Kirsten shook her head. “Nope. Let’s go!”

Lara opened the door to the room, from which cool air could be felt.

"Well, I hope we find our first piece of clothing soon," Ayana commented as they stood in the "Antarctic base". "It's pretty damn cold here!"

"Let's get going," Kirsten replied, as a large clock had indeed started counting down from two hours.

The practiced girls split up immediately, scouring the room for clues. Ayana immediately turned left, where there was a lab section with bottles full of colored fluids. Meanwhile Kirsten walked around the rest of the room. Straight ahead was a hometrainer. She sat down on it and started peddling; from somewhere ahead, behind a wall, came a whirring sound. When she investigated the wall, she noticed a panel that somehow should be able to slide out, but she couldn't figure out how. After a while she gave up and scanned the rest of the room. Also on the back wall, next to the part with the panels and the hometrainer, was a large door with five red lights next to it. She supposed this was the exit of the room, and they would need to turn the lights green.

On the right-hand wall was a section with large cupboards, each padlocked and requiring either a key or a numerical code to open. Right next to one of the cupboards was a long cylinder with water, and a key on the bottom. Clearly they needed to access this key somehow, but again it was not clear to her how. From the bottom of the cylinder, a hose led into the nearest locked cupboard however, so she suspected they needed to open that cupboard before they could solve the cylinder problem. Right next to the cylinder was a switch labeled "IN" and "OUT". It was currently in the OUT position. Kirsten flicked it back and forth a couple of times, but nothing happened.

While Kirsten had been going over the rest of the room, Ayana was busy adding one colored fluid to another. Kirsten didn't pay too much attention to what she did. The girls knew it was more efficient to split up, rather than trying to solve the same puzzel, and trusted each other. Sure enough, Ayana soon exclaimed: "Got it! 2375!" Kirsten rushed over to the cupboards, knowing already which one required a four-digit number. And indeed the combination worked, and she opened the cupboard, revealing two down jackets, one pink and one black.

"Pink's for me!" Ayana exclaimed as soon as she saw the jackets. Kirsten grinned. Ayana's love for the bright color was legendary. Admittedly, it did go well with her dark skin. Without further comment, she grabbed the black jacket. It was a fairly thick, down-filled jacket with a hood, in a pull over the head style. She quickly did just that. The zip went from her breasts to her nose. She closed it until halfway, leaving the hood down. As she turned to Ayana however, her friend didn't seem to have made much progress with her own jacket.

"What's the matter?" she asked, eager to get on.

"This jacket, it's kind of weird. I think it zips on the back..." Ayana said uncertainly.

"Well put it on then, I'll zip it."

The jacket was indeed quite odd, having attached mittens, and a hood that was actually more like a balaclava, leaving only an opening around the eyes and nose. Still, Ayana put it on and Kirsten closed the zip, which started at the top of the hood and ran along Ayana's back to the bottom of the coat. Despite the jacket's bulk, it turned out to be a tight fit, because it was so thickly filled. Kirsten also closed the buttons that held the flap over the zipper.

"What now?" Ayana asked, her voice sounding oddly muffled behind the thick down layer over her mouth.

"I don't know... there are also some straps here at the bottom of your jacket, maybe we need to do something with those." Indeed there were two short straps dangling at the back of the jacket, one on each side of the zipper. Kirsten immediately saw they could be connected, but what now? She turned Ayana around and saw another, slightly longer strap hanging on the front.

"Hold on, I think I got it," she said, threading the strap from the front through an opening formed by the two connected straps at the back. She saw there were buttons at the end of the front strap, and matching holes at the start of the front buckle. She just needed to thread the front buckled through the back ones, then bring it back to the front and close the buttons. However, the strap seemed too short for that.

"Hold still," Kirsten said, while she started pulling the back and front of Ayana's jacket down as far as she could. Ayana felt the tension in her hood as Kirsten pulled at the bottom. Finally Kirsten tried to connect the straps again, and now she was almost able to close it. She braced against her friend's stomach, yanked as hard as she could and finally managed to close the straps. The result was that the strap dug deep into Ayana's diaper. From the strap between her legs to the thick hood's pressure around her head, she felt like her whole torso was now squeezed tightly in the jacket.

It worked, however. As soon as the straps were closed properly, the first green light next to the back door popped up, and a 3-digit code appeared underneath. This was for the cupboard next to the water cylinder. Kirsten opened it, finding a short hook and a gas mask that was strapped to the wall. The gas mask had two hoses attached to it, one leading into the back wall of the cupboard, the other into the side wall, then reappearing as the hose leading to the bottom of the water cylinder.

Kirsten experimentally placed her head into the mask and breathed out. Some bubbles appeared in the cylinder, and the key briefly floated up slightly, before dropping down again. "Okay, I think I understand. One of us needs to put the gas mask on and breathe in it. The other must be near the cylinder, and we need to coordinate: whenever we put it on IN, the mask will get access to fresh air from the tube to the back, so the wearer needs to breathe in. Then we put in on OUT, and the other person breathes out so the bubbles will let the key move up a bit. If we repeat this fast enough, eventually we will get the key to the top, so we can fish it out with the hook."

"I guess I'll have to do the breathing then," Ayana said, not sounding too happy about it. "I can't do much fishing with these." She held up her thickly mittened hands.

Soon Kirsten was strapping Ayana's head into the gasmask. She had to stand right in front of the cupboard. The rubber gasmask was large and stretchy enough that it could be pulled over her down-hooded head, but it greatly increased the pressure on her head. Several straps at the back needed to be tightened to hold it in place. As Kirsten fastened such a strap at the bottom of the mask, Ayana found that it pressed hard on the part of her hood covering her mouth, and she was unable to talk, or even get any air through her mouth. All she could do was breathe through her nose into the mask, which was not very pleasant. While Kirsten was tightening the straps, she felt like she was running out of air. Indeed, the switch was still in the OUT position, so she was only using the remaining air in the hoses, and quickly running out of oxygen.

Kirsten had finished securing the mask, however, and went over to the water cylinder. "Ready?" she asked, unaware of Ayana's discomfort. Ayana, desperate for fresh air by now, could only nod as best as she could. "In!" Kirsten said, and flipped the switch. Greedily Ayana sucked in the air - and nearly retched! While the air coming from the IN cylinder certainly held fresh oxygen, it also contained hydrogen sulfide - that distinct smell of rotten eggs! Desperately Ayana clawed at the mask to get it off, but with her mittened hands she could do nothing. "Out!" Kirsten said, misinterpreting her signal. Ayana tried to breathe out as best as she could, and Kirsten started dictating a rhythm. Ayana could do nothing but follow along and hope the damn key would be high enough to be fished out soon. Unfortunately for her, it was a slow process, and it took several minutes until finally Kirsten could try to grab the key.

While she did this, the switch remained in the OUT position, and again Ayana was quickly running out of air. Luckily once Kirsten had caught the key, she flipped the switch to IN again, letting her suck in full breathes of the foul air. Kirsten went to the cupboard that required the key and unlocked it. Meanwhile Ayana desperately - but of course still unsuccesfully - tried to free her head from the contraption.

"Here, let me help you," Kirsten finally said, when she noticed her friend's wild struggle. She started undoing the straps of the gas mask.

"Booaaak," Ayana exclaimed, as soon as she got out of the mask.

"What?"

"The smell! It was horrible!"

"That bad really? Let me..." Kirsten sniffed the inside of the mask. "Oh, yuck! You had to breathe that? Sorry, I had no idea!"

"Ah, it was terrible. I'll need a lot of champagne to wash that away! Let's go on, what did we get?"

"Down pants this time!"

Ella and Lisbeth (part 2)

--- part 1: https://kuomu.blogspot.com/2014/02/ella-and-lisbeth.html ---

(Ella)

I arrived at Lisbeth's place at ten in the morning on Sunday, two days after the night we went out with Tamara and Paula. I had called her the day before, to hear if she was feeling okay. She had assured me that she was completely fine, and not feeling ill at all. We had arranged to go for a walk today. But I was not going to take any chances with Lisbeth's health.

"Hi Ella," Lisbeth opened the door. She was wearing comfortable clothes, sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt.

"Hello Lisbeth," I said as I came in, carrying the large sports bag.

"What's that?" Lisbeth asked.

"That's a little suprise, you'll see it in a moment. How are you feeling?"

"I'm really fine, I told you yesterday, I was really just under the weather for a day."

"Hm," I said, sounding sceptical. "We should still be careful about your health."

"You, um, you think I need to wear the two jackets again?"

"Oh, definitely. And a few other things, just to be sure."

"Other things? What do you mean?"

"Well," I said as I bent forward and started unzipping the bag, "after we arranged to go for a walk today, I called Paula and Tamara and explained that we should make sure you dress warm enough. I asked them if they happened to have any leftover clothes in the category: as warm as possible. And then I went around to pick everything up. First of all," I brightly announced as she straightened up, holding a black garment, "are these snowpants, provided by Paula. Putting these on over your jogging pants should keep your legs warm enough."

"But... you really shouldn't have..."

"I know, but I did. So come on, try them on."

Not sure what to say, Lisbeth just accepted the snowpants and put them on.

"Next, we have this beautiful pair of white Moonboots, which Tamara gave me."

"But... seriously, Ella... it's not even winter yet. Those will look ridiculous in the current weather."

"Maybe, but you also got ill when it wasn't even winter yet. Warm feet are essential to staying warm entirely. Besides, I think they look cool."

"I really wasn't that ill..."

"Lisbeth, I understand that you feel ashamed to wear warm clothes. I'm here to help you over that. Downplaying your illness won't convince me. So just put them on, or we're not going anywhere."

Lisbeth sighed but she started putting on the Moonboots. Meanwhile I grabbed Lisbeth's black down jacket from the wardrobe. When Lisbeth had finished putting on the boots, I handed her the jacket. Without comment, she put it on and zipped it up.

"Now, before you put on your red jacket, we have a little something from me." I handed Lisbeth a pair of very thick mittens. They were black and filled with a material similar to down, with a waterproof outer layer. I helped Lisbeth pull them on so the cuffs came over the sleeves of her black down jacket.

"Now then..."

Lisbeth looked up in surprise when she heard the tearing sound of duct tape. I took her arm and started wrapping the tape around her wrist, over the down jacket's sleeve and the mitten. "What are you doing?" Lisbeth exclaimed.

"Basically the same as your trick with the hood's drawstrings," I replied. "Just a little bit more effective." I calmly kept wrapping duct tape around Lisbeth's wrist. "Other hand," I ordered when I was finished.

"But... no... then... I won't..." Lisbeth stammered, refusing to give me her other arm.

"Yes, then you won't be able to take off the mittens, or anything else really. That's the point. Now come on."

I grabbed Lisbeth's other arm. Lisbeth didn't really resist. Soon her other wrist was also wrapped in black duct tape, trapping her hands in the thick mittens.

"Okay, let's get you properly wrapped up again, so we can get going."

I pulled up Lisbeth's hood, zipped the jacket to the top and started pulling the hood's drawstrings tighter.

"Not too tight," Lisbeth protested, but I ignored that. I made sure only Lisbeth's nose and eyes were showing. Then I knotted the drawstrings, and, like before, took them around Lisbeth's neck and tied them again at the back. I proceeded to take Lisbeth's bright red down jacket, helped her into it, zipped it and tightened the hood as well.

"Now you're ready to go!"

(Lisbeth)

I couldn't believe Ella had once again dressed me up completely in warm clothes. I had secretly both hoped for it and been afraid of it, and I had not dared to make any suggestion in that direction, claiming I was perfectly healthy again. But Ella pushed through and here I was, trussed up as if braving a snowstorm.

I was really nervous walking down the street like this. But once we got out of town and there were fewer people around, I calmed down a bit and started to enjoy the situation. I literally couldn't change it anyway. As we walked on, I steadily got warmer inside my packing. I could feal the sweat dripping on my face. Finally I asked Ella if she could take off my hoods for a bit, because I was warm.

"Hm, okay, for a little while then," she said. She opened the zip of the red coat a bit and pulled down the hood. I waited for her to unknot the black hood's drawstrings, but nothing more happened.

"The other one too," I said.

"No, we mustn't let you cool down too much," Ella said decisively.

I wasn't sure I was better off like this. Now I was still in the tightly tied black down hood, with the red standing behind my head, looking even more odd.

Then we passed a group of young girls, and as my luck would have it, they asked us for directions. Ella was happy to help them, while I tried not to look at any of them directly. When the girls were ready to move on, Ella said, still clearly audible for them: "That's long enough, let's put your second hood up again." While she did so, I was sure I heard some snickering from the girls.

After another hour, we reached a town where we would stop for lunch. I asked Ella to take off my hoods outside the cafe.

"No, exposing you to the cold air would be a really bad idea now."

"It's really not that cold," I tried, but she was already going in so I had no choice but to follow her.

We took a seat and Ella took off her coat. I waited impatiently for her to help me out, but she just started looking at the menu.

"Ella... my coats please."

"Oh right, I forgot you can't get out on your own. One moment."

She stood up, and unzipped my red jacket and helped me out of it. Meanwhile a waitress approached.

"All set up for a winter, huh," she commented, smiling. "Can I get you anything to drink?" Ella order a coke and I quickly followed suit.

After taking off my red jacket, Ella finally got around to undoing the black jacket's drawstring and taking off my remaining hoods. "What about these?" I asked, holding up my duct taped mittens.

Ella shrugged, "I won't be able to get that tape off here, it would be too much work anyway. I'm sure you'll be able to use your fork still, and if you need help cutting I'll do it."

I thought it was pretty stupid I had to eat with the mittens on, but I saw no way around it. When the waitress came back, I hid my hands under the table so she wouldn't notice the tape.

In the end, I did manage to eat a salad while wearing the mittens. Once we finished, Ella of course showed no mercy wrapping me up as before, well within view of several people in the cafe. Then I had to wait while she put on her own coat until we could finally leave and continue our walk.

The whole ordeal was repeated as we made another stop for a drink in the afternoon, but for the most part, I still enjoyed the day. It was nice to be wrapped up warm with Ella taking care of me. 

Finally we arrived back home, where Ella helped me out of my red down jacket, then started cutting off the tape. I was still in my black down hood, but I didn't ask her to take it off first. I was rather looking forward to getting the use of my hands back.

"By the way, Lisbeth," Ella said casually, "From nown on, I expect you to be dressed like this whenever you go outside."

"What, with tape around my wrists?" I joked halfheartedly.

"No, but wearing everything else that you wore today," Ella said quite seriously. "I don't want you to get ill again and I'll help you overcome your misplaced shame about being dressed warm. So I'll be checking your clothes whenever I see you, and I'll tell the other girls to do the same."

I swallowed. On the one hand, this was what I wanted... but all the time? The thought was exciting and frightening at the same time. "Okay, Ella," I heard myself say.