The Messy Tournament - Chapter 11: The Escape Game

Written by WLG — 2022 — from UMD.net

The last day of the first phase of the tournament was today!
Rachel and I discussed our strategy until late. Our objective was simple, stay in the competition and to do that only two points were necessary.
We had seven points and the third team four. Knowing that the Australian team would be able to score a maximum of four extra points, we only needed one to be at the same score. We were pretty confident!
This morning, each team had been summoned at a different time. The team challenge was surely something similar to the trap house of the first day.
When it was our turn to play, we dressed in our t-shirt and shorts outfits and joined each other at the meeting point in a big warehouse next to the Mansion.
"Welcome, Emma and Rachel! I hope you are doing well!" We were welcomed by Charles, the others were standing next to him.
"This morning's team challenge is an escape game. We have prepared something for you in the warehouse, you will have to play as a team, finish the game together and as fast as possible."
"That sounds great!" reacted Rachel.
"It is! You will see, we have done our best to create the greatest messy escape ever," answered Lila.
"We are not going to spoil you with the surprises we have prepared but, of course, you will certainly not leave this game clean."
Stacy approached us with handcuffs linked together with about two meters of chain.
"Each of you will have a hand attached to this cuff, you will do the game in two separate rooms but will still be linked together."
"You will have 30 minutes to finish the game, in front of you are two doors, as soon as you enter, we will start the countdown. Ready to start?"
"I think so, Rachel and I are extremely motivated!"
"That's great to hear! Please open the doors and enter your rooms."
There was a gap between the two doors to insert the chain, we put the chain inside and entered the game. When we entered, we discovered the place. The room was full of things: boxes, furniture,... and in front of us was another door. Surely the next step of the game.

We heard a voice on a loudspeaker.

"Open the door to progress. Based on our research, the door keys have been hidden in jars locked in these wardrobes on the wall but they are closed thanks to a hydraulic system. There should be a way to open them."
Pipes were connected to the hydraulic locks, preventing us from opening the wardrobes, the only solution was to stop the flow to release the lock.
Both of us started to follow the pipes, the chain between us was preventing us from going too far in the room at the same time. When one was trying to reach the wall opposite to the corridor, the other had to tailgate the metal gate between our rooms.
Our pipes were going to the other room, Rachel showed me hers and I did the same for mine. After a few meters of pipes, both of us finally found a valve.
Rachel was the first to turn it and when she did so, the fluid from my pipe took another direction, opening the wardrobe lock.
"I think we found the solution... But what is that?"
I was looking at the now-opened wardrobe but Rachel's reaction confused me. When I looked back in her direction I saw that the liquid which was flowing in my pipe was now going in another pipe which was just over the gate between our room. This pipe was drilled everywhere and was emptying its content all along the gate.
"The chain is too short... If I have to look in the wardrobe, you will have to be very close to the gate..."
"You mean under this?" Rachel was pointing at the messy liquid which was oozing from the pipe.
"Yeah, I fear..."
"OK, then go fast!"
I moved in the direction of the wardrobe, I was feeling that the chain was reluctantly moving until

I managed to access it.
When I was close enough to see what was in it, I had a look at Rachel who was standing below the deluge of mess falling from the pipe. I however had no time to lose. In front of me were four jars full of messy mixtures. They were looking like kitchen slop mixed with the messier substance we could have used during the last days including mud, paint or grease...
Over the jars, there was the following message "Found two words in these jars."
I was not able to use my cuffed hand, so I used the other one to dive into these disgusting jars. I had to plunge my arm up to the shoulder, these jars were extremely deep. I was unlucky with the first one but the two next ones had a small pod inside.
I pulled the chain a bit to tell Rachel my job there was finished. She closed the valve to stop the messy shower on her side, letting me see she was now covered in a messy slimy oil from head to toe.
"I hope you got your key!"
"In fact, I had to find pods in these jars, they were containing two words: ARE and DOORS."
"Not very useful... But I think it's your time to try the shower. Could you activate my valve?"
I went back to Rachel's valve and activated it. Exactly as it happened in my room before, her wardrobe opened and a rain of messy oil was now on my side of the bars.
"Enjoy your shower, Emma!"
Rachel rushed to her wardrobe pulling me under the oily liquid.
This oil was cold and immediately soaked my clothes which became nearly transparent. I tried to keep my face down to prevent covering it too much. The oil was running in my neck and back. The flow was continuous, my long hair was already saturated with this oil, clinging on each side of my face and trickling the messy liquid.
The tension on the chain stopped, I supposed Rachel managed to get her words too. I went back to the valve to stop the oil rain.
"What are your words?"
"I think we have been fooled..."
"Why?"
"My words are THE and OPEN..."
"You mean..."
"Yes... THE DOORS ARE OPEN. These doors have never been closed, we didn't even try to open them!"
"Damn, we have lost precious time! Let's move to the second room!"
Still cuffed together, we opened the doors and discovered a room where the floor was covered with mud from the mud lake up to our knees. Contrary to the first room, this one was mostly empty of furniture. On my side, an empty barrel was fixed on the wall, on Rachel's side, a mechanical pump was on the floor.
On the loudspeaker, the voice told us "Fill the tank with mud to free you".
"That should not be as easy as we think... But let's try to start this pump..."
Rachel pressed the button and the pump started. The liquid mud was pumped through a pipe and brought into the ceiling however we discovered that two pieces of the pipe were missing. Rachel stopped the pump.
"The missing pipes must be somewhere in the mud, we have to find them!"
We both went on hands and knees and started to do big circles in the mud with our hands. The fact that we were still attached was preventing us from going wherever we wanted.
"I've got mine!" said Rachel "Hurry up Emma!"
I was trying to do my best to find this pipe. Rachel was surely impatient waiting for me, while I was focusing on my search, she asked me "Emma, do you remember the trebuchet challenge?"
"Yes, why?"
"I think you are over a beacon!"
"What?"
In these words, she vigorously pulled the chain between us, dragging my arm in her direction. I was absolutely not prepared for this and the slippery floor prevented me from stabilizing. I slipped flat on my stomach under the mud.
I resurfaced, covered and spitting mud.
"Very funny Rachel, do you remember that we have to go as fast as..."
I stopped my sentence, my feet just touched something in the mud: the pipe!
"I got mine too!"
"You're welcome, it was a pleasure to help!" joked Rachel.
Rachel restarted the pump and both of us put our pipe piece where there were missing pieces.
"There are some holes in these pieces!" said Rachel.
"Of course, you really thought you would leave this room untouched by mud?"
The flow was intense, the tank was filled fast. Of course, a good quantity of mud was overflowing directly on us. Knowing we had to keep the pipe in position with our two hands, we had no chance to avoid a messy mud shower.
The tank was finally full and a key appeared. This one was to open the cuffs. I opened mine and looking at Rachel I said "I don't know if you deserve it!"
"Come on, I had the mud shower too!
I looked at her while pouting.
"OK, OK, I see..."
She kneeled in the mud and submerged herself. Now covered with a fresh coating of mud, she asked me "We are quits?"
I gave her the key as proof we were.
We moved to the third room.
We were finally in the same room. This one was very dark and we were not able to see anything. The loudspeaker spoke again: "The one with the best aim goes right, and the other goes left."
Rachel looked at me "I'm definitely bad at aiming, I will go left."
Without letting me answer, she followed some small lights on the floor to the left, then I did the same on the right.
I arrived at a seat which looked like a canon. On the front, a pipe was clearly visible. Multiple other pipes were connected to it. As I didn't have anything else to do, I sat down.
After a minute, the light went on in the room. It required a few seconds for my eyes to adapt but even after that, I wasn't sure about what I saw.
On the opposite side of the room, about ten meters from me, Rachel was tied to a big wheel.

The loudspeaker war heard again: "Touch thirty targets to escape."
Some numeric targets were visible on the wheel, around Rachel. She had one over the head, one below each arm and one between her legs just below her crotch.
The Canon where I was sitting began to make a pumping noise, and then the nozzle in the front started to flow a continuous jet of paint. The paint was often changing colour thanks to the several pipes which were connected to it, I immediately understood what I had to do, Rachel was in the middle of my aim.
One of the targets was switched on, I used the handle to guide the flow on it while trying to avoid Rachel as much as I could. This was a success, I was managing to touch all the aims one after the other without painting my partner.
After the fifth target, something happened. The wheel started to rotate.
"Damn! What is happening now?"
"I think we arrived at the second level, I will try to avoid you as much as I can!"
Only a few seconds after this sentence, I wrongly guided the hose and drew a red line which crossed Rachel from head to crotch.
"You said?" reacted Rachel while spitting some paint.
"I'm sorry, we still have 17 targets to touch!".
Suddenly a countdown appeared on the wall, we only had 2 minutes to complete this game, the 60 minutes of the game were close to ending!
"Don't avoid me, Emma, I can handle it!"
I immediately changed the way I was trying to touch the targets. Without avoiding Rachel, I was going much faster. On her side, Rachel was becoming a modern art painting, covered from head to toe in multiple colours.
Our new technique was good but not enough, I still had four targets to touch when the countdown arrived at zero.
The lights were switched off and the paint canon stopped.
All the lights were switched on again and we heard the loudspeaker again: "Unfortunately, you haven't finished the game on time, you will have to open the final door manually. Girls, the manual lock for the door is just below the wheel in the rain collector."
I walked in the direction of the wheel, Rachel was standing next to it, free from the locks which were keeping her on the wheel. She was next to a hole in the floor where all the paint from the game had been running.
"You should go down there, you're already painted!" I said to Rachel.
"No way, I have done my part of the job, it's your turn."
"Fine... I will go!"
Below us was a pool of multiple colours, each new colour which has been used for the game was lying there.
I slowly entered the collector, trying to avoid submersion.
"I feel a valve in the bottom but it's stuck, I can't do it with my feet..."
Rachel answered with a laugh "It seems you will have no other choice, enjoy your colourful bath!"
She was right, I had to use both hands to activate it and, to do so, I would need to go under. I took a deep breath and plunged into the paint pool to activate the valve. It was not complicated to do with my hands, my submersion didn't have to be longer.
I resurfaced, covered in multiple colours which were turning into a dark green when I tried to remove as much as I could from my face and hair.
"At least, the door is open now!"
We went out, and all the staff of the Mansion was there.
"Hi UK team. Unfortunately, you haven't finished on time. However, it doesn't mean you have lost. Don't worry, it is very hard to finish this challenge. The number of targets you have touched will determine your score in case of a draw.
We will not give you any clue about the other team's result, everything will be announced today with the final result.
Be prepared, this afternoon will be the last challenge! "