Ultimate Escape Room Challenge: Antarctic Base (part 3)

 Antarctica.

Baffled, the two unrecognizable girls stood in the open door and looked out over a wide, frozen landscape. Snow and ice as far as they could see, sparkling in the sun that was peeking through a semi-clouded sky.

They turned towards each other, looking at their faceless friend. "How is this possible?" Kirsten asked. Ayana's layers were too tight over her mouth to allow her to talk. She raised her thumbless hand towards the visor in her hood. "Oh!" Kirsten understood. "VR glasses?"

Ayana's movement was way too restricted for her to nod, she just lowered her arm again and turned to move forward. Right in front of the door stood a snow scooter with a sidecar. Kirsten walked towards it and touched it. It was real. Next to the steering wheel was a big red button, which she pushed. A screen lit up with the text:

In order to start the scooter:

Enter unlocking code

Secure the passenger

Protect the driver

"We need another code," Kirsten told Ayana. She slowly turned around. "Oh. I guess that's quite obvious then," she added when she noticed an arrow-shaped sign that said 'code'. It pointed at a ramp along the side of the building they had left. She tried to walk up the ramp in the direction of the sign, but as soon as she placed a booted foot on the ramp, it slid away. With nothing to hold on to, she was unable to advance even one step onto the ramp. She tried again on her knees, but got no further as her thick clothing allowed slipped off the surface right away.

"Come and help me," she said impatiently at Ayana, who was looking on in silence, her face unreadable within the hoods and the visor over her eyes. Ayana shuffled closer, unable to voice the fact that it was hard enough for her to stay upright with her feet being in two layers of soft down, and that she also couldn't bend her body in the stiff suit. Kirsten, somewhat unaware of just how limited Ayana's movements were, told Ayana to lie down at the base of the ramp so she could push her up.

Ayana tried to oblige her, carefully bending one knee, then the other to get down. While she tried to place herself at the foot of the ramp, she suddenly slipped and fell, her body hitting the slope at an angle, then sliding down so she ended up lying sideways at the foot of the ramp. Between her useless hands in the thumbless mittens, her feet unable to gain traction, the stiffness of her body, the overall padding and the limited sight, she was truely helpless. She felt like a turtle landed on its back.

Kirsten now tried to turn Ayana in the desired position, pushing her upper body on the ramp. It was difficult work on the slippery surface, and Ayana didn't seem to be cooperating. Finally, she managed it, and used Ayana's body to get higher. She ended up with her Moonboots on Ayana's shoulders, from where she could reach the top of the ramp and wanted to pull herself up... when Ayana's feet slipped away and the two girls slid down in a heap to the bottom of the ramp again.

It had almost worked though, and Kirsten dutifully tried again, pushing Ayana partway up the slope and climbing over her. This time Ayana slipped down even earlier, and again they again ended up lying at the bottom with Kirsten on top of Ayana. Kirsten didn't move for a while. Doing any kind of work in this clothing was hot and exhausting, and she felt too tired to try again. Eventually, she had caught her breath and felt ready to try again. But pushing Ayana up was even harder than before.

It took three more attempts before an exhausted Kirsten reached the top of the ramp and just lay there panting and sweating in her heavy outfit. "Twenty minutes remaining," Lara's voice suddenly came from a speaker system. Jogged into action, Kirsten got to her knees and read the code that was displayed at the top of the ramp. She then slid down, went to the snow scooter and entered the code. On the screen a green checkmark appeared next to 'Enter unlocking code'. Kirsten heard a click and saw that one of two boxes next to the wall had opened.

Inside the box she found a thick pink sleeping bag and six straps. "Secure the passenger," she muttered to herself, understanding the purpose. She took the bag and went to the sidecar of the snow scooter. Ayana followed her.

Kirsten opened the sleeping bag, and placed it in the sidecar. "Step inside," she told Ayana. Ayana just stood there, moving her arms a bit. Whether it meant she didn't want to, or was unable to, or something else wasn't clear. "Come on now, we have almost no time left. Don't make us lose now Ayana," Kirsten said in an annoyed tone. Ayana got close the car, tried to hold on to it with her thumbless mitten and lifted a leg to get in the car. With some help from Kirsten they managed to have Ayana step in the sleeping bag inside the sidecar.

"Okay, sit down now." With Ayana half in the sleeping bag, Kirsten guided her to a sitting position. Her feet went into a small space at the front of the car. Once seated, her feet just fit into this space and her back was pushed against the backrest. "Arms in now." Kirsten helped her arms inside the sleeping bag, then pulled it up further and started zipping it up. The bag had a thick hood which she pulled over Ayana's other hoods. Doing up the zip was difficult, with the layers underneath the sleeping bag was a tight fit. Finally Ayana was completely inside. The sleeping bag's hood left just a small opening around the eyes and nose, so that only the dark visor and the breathing valve were uncovered.

Kirsten quickly fetched the six straps. At each side of the car were six metal rings. She clicked each end of the straps into these rings, and expectantly looked at the screen, but nothing happened. How could this be? She tapped the words 'Secure the passenger', knowing of course that this wouldn't help. To her surprise, something did change now: the word 'Secure' was underlined.

She went back to the straps. They were really loose in fact. She took the bottom strap, which was located just beneath Ayana's knees, and unbuckled one end. Maybe...? She threaded the unbuckled end through the ring, then pulled it back towards the ring where it was attached, doubling down the strap. She had to pull hard, pressing Ayana's legs against the bottom of the car, and just managed to reach the end and buckle it on the first ring again.

She repeated this with the second strap, over Ayana's thighs, then with the third strap. Here the rings were located right where the floor and backrest of the sidecar met, so pulling this strap tight fixated Ayana's hips in place. This was the hardest one to fasten. "You know," Ayana grunted as she pulled, "I really have the hardest part here." Next were the straps over her belly, her shoulders and her mouth. With all six fastened tightly, a second green checkmark appeared on the screen and the last box clicked open.

While Kirsten ran towards it, Ayana was now sitting in the car absolutely unable to move at all. The layers she wore had already heavily restricted her movement, especially the down suit that had been laced at the back and contained leather straps. Sitting down made everything even tighter. But then there was the sleeping bag as well, and now also the straps that absolutely welded her in place. Even her head was absolutely immobile, and with the strap and the layers over her mouth keeping her absolutely silent, there was nothing to but breathe and look straight ahead.

Kirsten, meanwhile, was not thrilled about what she found in the last box and which was clearly intended to 'Protect the driver'. Soaked in sweat as she was, she really had no need of another heavy down layer, but that was exactly what she saw. Despite her misgivings, she wasted no time, knowing that with minutes on the clock, it was do or die, she pushed her arms into the sleeves of the long black down coat. Unfortunately, but at this point not unexpectedly, these ended in heavily down-filled mittens. With her hands in these mittens, she struggled to connect the zipper of the coat, but eventually she managed.

With the hood up and the zipper fully closed from below her knees to over her mouth, the coat really wasn't that different from the sleeping bag she had put Ayana in. It left the same opening around her visor and breathing valve. The only differences were the Moonboots sticking out the bottom and the fact that she still had some use of her arms.

Which she would need to put on the last item: a crash helmet that had to fit over her hoods. It consisted of two halves, with hinges at the front and a system to click closed at the back. After putting it in place, she pushed and pushed, to get the two halves to connect at the back. She had to push it in the front as well, and when she thought she really couldn't couldn't get it any further she gave the sides one last push with all her strength - and the helmet clicked closed.

The helmet had foam inside, and her head was padded enough by her hoods that the helmet didn't directly hurt. But it was as if her head was caught in a vice, and she felt the pressure on all sides. Not least of it on her mouth, which was now sealed off as tightly and effectively as Ayana's.

Just wishing for it all to be over as soon as possible, she stumbled back towards the snow scooter. She sat down in its seat. In front of the seat were two oval depressions, which exactly fitted the shape of her Moonboots. She put her feet in these, then fastened her seatbelts, which ran over her shoulders, across her belly and over her thighs. After some stumbling with her mittened hands, she managed to click them closed, and the third green checkmark appeared on the screen.

'Press Start button to power on," the screen said.

She pushed her mitten against the big red button. The seatbelts immediately tightened, and although she didn't notice it, the top of the depressions in which her boots were placed closed, trapping her feet inside. On the screen she read:

Hold steering wheel with both hands.

Push it backwards to accelerate, towards you to break, sideways to steer.

Reach the next base to escape.

She did as instructed, stretching her arms forward to grab the wheel with both hands. Here wrists rested on U-shaped armrests between her strapped-in torso and the steering wheel. She pushed against the wheel. Immediately several things happened: the whole scooter started vibrating, she appeared to move forwards (at least that's what the VR-glasses showed her), and most alarmingly, the armrests closed around her wrists, locking her arms in place.

Panicking, she struggled to get out, but between the seatbelts and her arms and feet being held in place, there wasn't much she could do. 'Reach the next base to escape' she read again. But where was it? She pushed against the wheel, driving the scooter across the white landscape. Despite all else, this VR experience was quite something. When she drove up and down the hills, the scooter tilted with the movement. It was incredibly realistic.

But where was this other base she needed to reach? Suddenly she saw something in the left corner and turned the scooter towards it. It was distant, but it looked like another snow scooter?

The two vehicles rapidly approached one another, and when they got closer, Kirsten saw two men and... a gun. Now she remembered the background story of the escape room Lara had told - what seemed like ages ago - these were the bandits! She banked hard, causing the scooter to tilt, and tried to speed away. She could see the other scooter in her rearview mirror. Her maneuver meant they had gotten a lot closer. Desperately she pushed the wheel as far as it could go, accelerating as fast as possible.

With the adrenalin of the chase, she would have been sweating in normal clothes by now. As it was, she was soaked in sweat, but the situation was so tense and realistic she didn't even notice it right now. Her entire focus was on driving the vehicle and staying out of reach of the bandits.

Just then, Lara's voice came over the speaker system. "Hey girls, I'm sad to say the time is up and you haven't quite made it in two hours. You guys were really close though, you just needed to reach the other base. As I said, I'll let you finish the room. I have to go now, but once you reach the base all the straps will loosen automatically. You'll find your clothes in the changing room, just let the door fall into the lock when you leave. Thanks for playing, and enjoy the rest of the experience! Bye!"

Ayana tried to shout as loud as she could - she wanted out now! But no sound escaped from the motionless pink sleeping bag, strictly bound in place with the straps. Kirsten had only heard half the message, but she too wanted to end this. The chase felt so real to her, she was actually scared of the bandits. The frantic steering was exhausting her arms, and the incredible heat caused by being wrapped up in layers of down clothes didn't help. The bandits were steadily gaining, and then there was a shot. The snow scooter lurched, and slipped, and she lost control over it as they crashed into the flank of a hill.

Desperately, she pulled on the steering wheel to back up, pushed it forward again - but nothing happened. The scooter was stuck, its tip buried into the snow. The bandits approached slowly now. Once they saw the scooter wouldn't move anymore, they turned around and drove off again.

Kirsten too tried to shout at the top of her lungs now, hoping Lara hadn't left yet. But even if that was the case, Kirsten could make no more noise than Ayana could, and was stuck just as effectively.

It was going to be a long night in 'Antarctica'...