Page 24 of Playing With My Heart Strings

baylor

Locked In

“Tonight, you’ll all be competing in a team challenge.

” Jarrod walks into the briefing room at the production studio where we’re all waiting for Dusty—who I haven’t been able to get off my mind since last night.

“You’ll be divided into teams of three. The winning team will earn immunity from this week’s elimination.

Only one person from the losing team will be eliminated based on viewer voting, instead of being saved.

If you’re all ready, we’ll head out and meet Dusty there. ”

After a few nods, we gather our belongings and follow Jarrod out to the sleek, black vans waiting for us.

I climb into the front car, and Valerie and Aspen—unfortunately—follow.

Lord help me if I have to be on a team with her. We will definitely not be winning the challenge if that’s the case.

Valerie sits in the front seat, which leaves me and Aspen sitting next to each other in the back.

Lovely.

The drive is silent, however, which half puts me at ease and half makes me more anxious for this team challenge we’re participating in. I’m not quite sure what to expect.

About thirty minutes later, the car pulls to a slow stop in front of a large, dilapidated warehouse-looking building.

“What the fuck are we doing?” Aspen murmurs.

We move to get out of the car, but the driver stops us.

“Ladies, before you go, I was instructed to give you these to put on.” He extends his hand, and in it are three small, black blindfolds.

I give Valerie a sidelong glance as I reluctantly take the blindfold and tie it around my head.

The fabric is opaque, and there’s no chance that I’ll be seeing anything, unlike some blindfolds that give you a bit of leeway and allow you to see through the fabric or shift your eyes downward to see the floor.

When we exit the vehicle, footsteps approach and a hand firmly grasps my arm before a producer identifies themselves. There’s mumbling coming from beside me, through a radio it seems, but the sound is too muffled for me to hear.

We walk for what feels like a long time, moving down long stretches only to take a sharp turn and go straight again.

There are a few sets of stairs that we climb, but thankfully, the producer guiding me warns me about them so I don’t trip over my own feet.

After a few more turns and long hallways, we stop.

Keys jingle next to me, and then I’m walking a few more feet before being sat in a chair.

My heart pounds in my chest as handcuffs bind my wrists behind my back and the metal clicks into place.

Did we get in the wrong vehicle? Did we get kidnapped? Is this some sick joke?

Someone takes off my blindfold, but it doesn’t matter anyway. We’re surrounded by darkness.

They get close enough to my face, though, that I can see it’s Alex and not some random kidnapper.

“Good luck, Baylor,” he says softly, his voice barely a whisper, before his footsteps retreat until a heavy door slams.

“Ladies, today’s team challenge is an escape room.

You’ve been split into teams of three and you’ll have one hour to work together and find your way out,” Jarrod’s voice echoes in the dark room.

“Remember, the winning team will have immunity from the elimination, so work quickly. Best of luck, your time starts now.”

The lights don’t flicker on like I expected they would, so I’m still in total darkness.

“Hello?” I yell out, hoping one of my teammates can hear.

No response.

“Hello!?” I yell a bit louder. “Is anyone there?”

“Baylor?” a voice calls back. Sage, I think.

“Yes! It’s me!”

“Where are you?” she asks, a bit uncertain.

“I’m not sure. It’s completely dark in here, and I’m cuffed,” I respond, hoping that she’s in a better situation.

“Shit. Well, it’s not dark here, but I’m locked in this cage thing.”

“Guys! Are you there?” I immediately recognize Valerie’s voice.

“Valerie!” I yell and footsteps approach.

The door rattles but doesn’t open.

“Dammit,” Valerie curses. “It’s locked. I didn’t think it would be that easy, but I was hopeful. There’s a window in this door, can you see me?”

“No, it’s completely pitch black in here, Val. I didn’t know there was a window in the door. Are there any switches on the wall out there?” I ask, trying to think of how I can get some light in this room.

Her feet shuffle around outside, so I know the door can’t be too far away.

“I’m not seeing anything…” Her voice trails off for a few moments until she yelps.

“You good?”

“Yeah, I just tripped over something. Hold on, there’s a toolbox here.” She grunts, and I assume she’s lifting it to carry it over to my room’s door. “It’s locked, but there’s a padlock with three sets of numbers. Do you see anything that might help, Sage?”

“I’m looking! There’s a bunch of shit in here, oh my God.” She pauses for a few seconds. “There’s a cabinet, a bunch of tools that probably won’t help any…a whole wall of keys that will probably be useful in the future but maybe not for that…”

“Is there anything you can see with numbers?” Valerie asks.

“No…oh, wait! Yes! It’s kind of hard to see, but it looks like there’s a sequence of numbers on the wall. Three rows of nine numbers each. But there’s nothing in the very middle and nothing on the bottom right. It looks like a puzzle. We might have to do some math,” she explains.

“Oh, lovely. I’m not great at puzzles as it is, but throw in math and I’m hopeless,” Valerie mutters, which makes me chuckle a little. From what I know about them, escape rooms are just one big puzzle. But then again, not all of them include math.

“We’ll be fine. You have us to help you, and we just have to be faster than the other team,” I point out.

To be fair, with Aspen on their team, I have little faith they’ll be able to get out before us.

“Can you read out the numbers, Sage? The wall is dusty enough that I should be able to write on it,” Valerie calls out. With the way we’re all able to talk to each other, we must not be too far apart at least. That gives me some hope.

“Okay, the first row of numbers is five, nine, six, two, four, eight, three, one, seven.” Sage recites the numbers, and Valerie lets her know when she’s ready for the next row.

“Okay, the middle row has four, seven, two, six, eight, and nine… And the last row has three, one, eight, six, seven, nine.”

I’m the only one who can’t see the numbers, so I’m trying to mentally picture the puzzle in my head.

Three rows with nine numbers in each. But the middle set is missing and the bottom right is also missing.

“What the fuck kind of puzzle is this?” Sage whines, and it breaks me out of my focus for a second.

“I don’t know. It’s confusing to me,” Valerie sighs. “But we need to figure it out.”

“Maybe we need to add the numbers up?” Sage suggests.

I’m still trying to think, but that’s worth a try.

“Five plus four is nine, not three, so I don’t know if that’s what we need to do,” Valerie says after a minute of silence.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Some of the middle digits add to double digit numbers,” Sage replies with a disheartened tone.

Three rows of nine. Each column has three numbers.

What am I missing here?

“Maybe just try random number combinations. One has to work eventually,” Sage jokes, but her voice comes out flat.

Valerie laughs. “If that wouldn’t take us thirty minutes, I’d go for it.”

“Wait! Can you read the numbers again? Just the first row.” I have an idea of what it is, but I need it confirmed.

“Yeah. Five, nine, six, two, four, eight, three, one, seven.”

Five, nine, six, two, four, eight, three, one, seven .

Wait. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

“Sudoku!” I exclaim.

“Sudo-what?” I can tell Sage is confused.

“It’s a sudoku puzzle. Or, part of one at least. Each row has to have numbers one through nine. And usually each column would, too, but they made it easy on us.”

“Wait, Baylor, you’re a genius!” Valerie cheers.

It only takes us a few minutes to come up with the missing numbers. Five, one, and three in the middle column, and two, four, and five, in the bottom right.

“Okay, now we just have to figure out what the combination is. Do we know how much time has gone by?” I ask, silently hoping that one of the producers is listening and will give us a time warning.

“No, but it probably took us longer than it should have, so we need to move fast. Five is repeated, which makes me think that’s one of the numbers used. Now we just have to find the other two. Maybe just try five, one, three to see,” Sage suggests.

Valerie fumbles with the padlock, the dials clicking into place. “Nope, that’s not it.”

“Maybe add the numbers up? Five plus one plus three is nine and two plus four plus five is eleven. Nine, one, one?” I throw out a wild guess with a laugh.

If we don’t make it out of here, they might have to call nine-one-one for us.

The answer is probably so clear, though, and we’re just not seeing it.

“That didn’t work either,” Valerie’s voice is as dejected as I feel. To be honest, I don’t want any of us to go home, so we need to figure this out. “Wait, guys. There’s something written on the toolbox. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.”

“What does it say?” I ask before Sage can.

“It just says ‘area.’”

“Guys, there are also some symbols on the wall here. A dash and two plus signs on top of a plus sign, dash, and a plus sign.” Sage interrupts us.

“Interesting…” This was too much math for a reality dating show. “What were the six numbers again?”

“Five, one, three, and two, four, five.”

“Okay, wait what if we matched the minus signs together and the plus signs together?” I do it mentally in my head. Five and four were the minus signs and one, three, two, and five had plus signs.

Five minus four is one… the box said “area.”

Then it hits me. The padlock needs a code to unlock it, and the box says area. “It’s an area code! Add the numbers up, and it’s an area code.”