Did Not Survive

When my sister told me there was a place downtown where you can solve puzzles and other mysteries for a time limit, I could not get it off my mind. I googled it and found MysterEscape, located in Lanang. It is called an "escape room," a live adventure game where players are locked in a room and have to find clues and solve puzzles before the time runs out to escape, usually within 60 minutes. Apparently businesses like these have been popping up since 2006 and it's only in 2015 that it's reached Davao.

Being a fan of this genre from movies, to series (Sherlock, Survivor), books and games, I really wanted to go. The problem was my sister thought it was too expensive. The other people I could do something like this with would be my college friends, and our reunion plan last January was cancelled so this would be a great quick bonding activity. I posted about it on our fb group and one of my classmates already heard about the place and wanted to go for months. So she set our meeting immediately on the coming Saturday (Feb 18).

There were 3 rooms at the site: Girl in the Mirror (for horror fans), The Survival Game, and Redrum: a (murder) Mystery. I would have chosen to play Redrum, but when we arrived at about 5 in the afternoon, the Survival Game was the one immediately available. So we had no choice.

The Survival Game's story goes like this: we were kidnapped by an unknown group and sent to a locked room where we have to find our way out before the hour is finished. We kind of started great. Ten minutes in we were already finished with the first two steps. But the third clue consumed a lot of our time and by the fourth clue I felt like we were going nowhere and needed new ideas. Too bad because the last few puzzles would have been easier. In the end we didn't make it alive with two locks still unopened, so we just took our picture before our kidnappers finally get rid of us. :)

Clockwise from top left: moi, Eds, Annie, Eds' husband Francis and their son Red.

P.S. 34 yesterday yeehaw!