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...