ESCAPE

Chapter Two

"Yeah," I say. "I guess something like that."

Luke points at the basement door. "That's some heavy-duty trap door. Proper thick reinforced metal. That isn't just some simple basement hatch." 

"Okay," I tell him. "So, it's a thick door. So what?"

He shakes his head as if he's given up arguing. "Alright, fine. Let's get to it, then. Bring on the clues."

"Try and contain your excitement," I tell him.

"Andi's right," Bella says. She rubs my shoulder. "Sorry, hun. I know we've been freaking out since we got here. But it's your birthday. Okay, from now on, it's nothing but hardcore puzzle-solving fun. Let's do it."

I smile at her as we go back to searching the room. I just wanted us to have some fun. I spare a quick glance over at Will, hoping that he's able to enjoy the escape room and not get freaked out like everyone else. I don't want to be known as the girl that booked the really crappy escape room.

"I've got something," says Luke. He's pulled out a folder from a cabinet.

"What is it?" Bella asks, going over to him.

Luke flicks through several sheets of paper in the folder. "Looks like flight details. Lots of flights. Here, some of the routes are highlighted." He hands out the sheets as we come closer.

I check one which has a list of flights within the U.S. None of them really look like a specific clue to anything, except that one route is highlighted in a yellow marker.

"What do the highlighted ones mean?" Bella asks.

"I guess those are the clues," I tell her. "Which one is highlighted on your sheet?"

Bella hums as she scans the paper. "I've got: Stockholm Arlanda Airport, to Tripoli International Airport."

I notice the large world map over Bella's shoulder. "Over there. Look."

We go over to the map, where we can see that one line has already been drawn. I trace my finger over the line which stretches from Jamaica to China.

"Oh," Bella quickly says, "we draw the route of the highlighted flights. Right?"

"Yeah, I think so," I say.

She points at the existing line. "What's this mean? Jamaica to China."

"I think it's just an example," I say.

She points her chin at Luke. "Babe, you're from Jamaica, right? Originally?"

Luke looks like he's just smelt something bad. "I was born in Jamaica, yeah. But was raised in London since I was, like, two."

Bella looks over at Chia. "And you're from China, right?"

Chia gives her a deadpan, unimpressed look. "You know I'm Japanese. Racist."

"Here's a pen over here," Will says, holding up a black marker. He looks over the list of flights on his piece of paper. "I've got one here, but there's like six connecting flights."

Luke reaches over and takes the pen from him. "You figure them out while I write Bella's one down. What was it again, babe?"

Bella reads out the airports and they draw a line straight down from Sweden to Libya.

"That's a one," Luke says.

"Okay," Chia says, "you guys work on that and I'll keep looking for other clues."

I nod and lift up my paper to Luke. "Great, we're on a roll already. Mine just has flights in the U.S." I read out the highlighted flight that starts from Sheridan County, Wyoming, stops over in Houston County, Minnesota, and ends in Midland International, Texas.