Planet Expo: Origins [Book One]

Chapter Four

[A.K.A Let's Begin] 

     Lisa playfully shoved James as he laughed; both of them continuing to walk further into the mall after just walking out from the movie theatre since the documentary they watched about Planet Expo for a class project ended. “Get a move on! I’m hungry.” James shook his head at his friend’s actions. “Yeah, yeah, I’m just glad Nate isn’t here, then we would never be able to leave the food court.” Lisa burst out, laughing at James’ comment. “Wow, you don’t hold back against my brother, huh?”

    James shrugged and gave Lisa a playfully, apologetic look while laughing. “Just get your food already.” Lisa made a sound of approval as they went to order the food court order-purchase machine. Placing her order of sushi, rice, and a Japanese orange soda, Lisa then went to put her money into the slot before James stopped her by speaking up, having a smug expression taking over his face. “What about my order? I just want a snack, not that hungry for a whole meal.” Lisa gave him a look, and playfully rolled her eyes. “Nate could never relate to that,” she said as she stepped aside so he could put in his order, he selected the type in option and entered her name. 

    “Jem, what are you doing?” Lisa asked, clearly confused. “Because you’re a snack,” he said while barely being able to hold in his laughter. She smacked him on his arm and deleted what he put and instead pressed the button to finalize her order and pay for it. “Jem, you’re a riot sometimes.” He laughed as she scanned the QR code that gave her proof of her purchase and the table number she picked at the machine so the waiter could drop off the food at the respected table. 

    Walking towards the table that had a “3” in a white bolded design, the duo sat down as she waited for her meal. James patiently waited as he still had leftover soda and snacks from the movie. They began conversing as they waited for Lisa’s food, James sharing his leftover candy and popcorn as they did so; the movie theatre always overdid it with their food and drink proportions. “Yeah, I’m just glad we don’t have to pay the tickets for certain movies since we’re students.” James nodded in agreement and added, “plus discounts on snacks.”

    With a reflective sigh, Lisa looked off to the distance as if recalling a fond memory. “I’m going to miss being a kid. Staying young, no actual worries, no bills, no high-stress situations, or jobs.” James agreed but countered Lisa by saying that it was no real use in already missing her childhood and teen-hood(as if that is the proper term) since they are currently experiencing and living through their teenhood. On that note, her food arrived, and Lisa was able to enjoy and share her meal as they continued conversing on a lighter and more joyful tune.  

    As the hour passed, the duo began to experience the nightlife of the mall; groups of fellow teenagers, young couples, and the occasional family walking in and out of the movie theatre. The duo recognized some faces of the teenagers from school as they walked, window shopped, and went into the arcade. It was at this arcade (the official name being Celestial Gamez as it had a space theme and decor) that James and Lisa had found a very familiar face among the crowd of teenagers and other young adults. It was Lisa who was the first to recognize this particular teen since she befriended this teen long ago and was thrilled about spotting this friend in person. 

    “Hailie!” The girl in question turned around in response to her name; her blonde dyed-dark brown hair gracefully twirled around her tan complexion as she searched for the source of whatever - or rather whoever - called out to her. Upon seeing a smiley and waving Lisa, Hailie was quick to smile and wave just as eagerly back as she took off in Lisa’s direction. As she grew closer, Hailie began to be curious about the boy with the blonde frosted tips in his hair who stood next to Lisa. The boy was definitely not Nate, so Hailie thought it was perhaps the James fellow she met many, many moons ago. 

    “Hailie! It’s been forever since we met each other!” The girls then proceed to what James could best describe as a combination of a graceful and complicated handshake. The girls then engaged in the typical dull ‘catch up’ conversation people usually do when they haven’t physically seen each other in a while, even if they have been texting and staying in contact with each other.

    It was during this conversation that Hailie found out that Lisa’s twin opted to stay home on a Saturday night since he invited some of his friends over. It was also during this conversation that James zoned out, not expecting the new arrival of Hailie. Still, he was happy upon seeing that Lisa was even more excited than he was previously. When Lisa called his name, he snapped out of his little zoning out session. “James, would you mind if we joined Hailie and her group?” 

    James slightly hesitated but agreed. The duo then followed Hailie as she led them to where her friends were. Hailie’s friend group consisted of 3 people thus far; a lovely girl by the name of Rosa, who had rose-red hair and green eyes to match her name. There was also her cousin who liked to look after Hailie since she was deaf; although Hailie did have hearing aids to help, Alex always attempted to join her when she went out. Besides, Alex was Jonathan, and they were still joined at the hip ever since they started dating two years ago. Jonathan, or Jon as many called him, had a fair complexation with what Alex would describe as the most beautiful blue eyes he ever saw. Everyone was quick to say their hellos and greetings to each other before they started to walk away from the arcade, in favor of doing something that could include everyone in an attempt to get better acquitted with Lisa and James and vice versa. 

    Strolling along the mall, or as Lisa liked to call it, the entertainment complex, the group stopped in front of a new storefront entitled “Escape Me!” The sign in the darkened windows declared it was a building that held escaped rooms, a game in which the goal is to escape a room within a specific time limit. Lisa knew that to win one of those games, you would need a keen eye to look for the clues and solve the puzzles that would result in escaping the locked room. 

    Lisa and Rosa were interested in actually doing the escape room, but it was James who vocally expressed this desire to check it out to satisfy the group’s curiosity. Chuckling at Jame’s witty comment as they entered the building, the small group took a look around as they wandered into the building in search of a worker or a cashier for assistance. They soon realized how the place had been decorated in somewhat of an eerie style, which gave Lisa an ominous feeling in her stomach, a sense not like any she ever felt before. Perhaps the only other time she felt somewhat similar to what she was feeling now was when she had to speak in front of the whole class for a group project presentation for her history class; now combine that nervous, relentless, anxious feeling with the feeling of vastly overwhelming dread that washed over her. The more she walked around with the group, the more she realized how sketchy the place they entered was. It was then, and only then that she began to regret her interest in this place and began to wish they would leave immediately and find something else to do. 

    There were hardly any people, but Lisa thought that perhaps that was because they were in one of many ‘escape’ rooms. But she did think it odd that there were hardly any passerby-ers such as herself checking out the palace or that there were even fewer workers. Although I suppose they wouldn’t need so many workers during the night close to closing time or perhaps there were severely understaffed. 

    The more she tried to reassure her paranoia, the more panicked Lisa seemed to be. Taking a deep breath, she stood closer to James to seek both comfort and reassurance. After slowly walking around the store, they decided to turn around walk down the hallway that had a sign above the archway of it. The sign read “Easy Peasy Escapes,” which alluded to how the rooms that could be discovered within that hallway were some of the most comfortable rooms people could escape from. As the name further implies, it was designed more so for beginners so that they could get a feel for the game before going to a more advanced level without any previous experience or knowledge about strategy or how to play the game fairly. 

    Now, each room had a different theme, and these themes often got upgraded or changed entirely to be more diverse and to entice even more customers. Stopping in front of the ‘secret tunnel’ room, the electric sign below the room’s name mentioned vague details bout the room itself. 

Secret Tunnel

Availability:  vacant 

Duration: ~30 mins - 45 mins

Description: find the 5 clues and escape the secret tunnel! The badgers can help you sniff out clues once you hit the 20-minute mark!

Fastest time completed: 7 minutes by “Team Winning.”

    “Well, maybe we should do this one. It doesn’t seem that bad,” Hailie said as she looked towards the right of the door, where a tablet lay embedded in the wall for people to sign the waiver and enter a team name digitally. Ironically, Lisa was the last to sign, and once she pressed submit, it brought her to the next page that stated the rules of the game and explained the time limit. After summarizing that page, Hailie pressed the next button. 

Please type in your team name…

Team name:  YFLAP

    “Y-flap?” Lisa inquired as Hailie pressed submit and the countdown until the door automatically opened, began to display on the walled tablet. The girl in question then made a sound as if to say “yup” without actually saying it. “It stands for Your Fabulous Liberation Army Party.” With only 10 seconds left, James thought it fitting to ask the last question before the game started. “So would that make us flappers?” 

    Lisa laughed while Jon looked confused about what James was referring to. It was Rosa who filled him in on a brief definition before the automated computer voice began counting down. 

3...

2...

1….

 Let’s begin!

    The door automatically opened for YFLAP, and they all rushed in, not knowing what to expect. All they knew was that whatever they imagined, despite any expectations or ideas of what might happen as they took part in this game, none it came close to what they were about to face. To what they were CURRENTLY facing as they stood in the dimmed lit room, designed to look like a cave tunnel. Of course, there were objects flown about, and some parts of the wall seemed to be ‘secret compartments.’ But, in the end, the group couldn’t enjoy the detailed scenery around them, nor could they enjoy the excitement of being in this new gaming environment. 

    You may be asking what, or rather more accurately, who would cause such a discrepancy so early within this novel. Well, if I’ll tell you right now, I think Lisa would probably do some unspeakable things in retribution, so to avoid that, I’ll try to recall this event as best with as much detail as I can muster. However, I’m not sure how accurate it would be since we all did our best to forget that day. You might think it was fate, unavoidable, inevitable, bound to happen, inescapable, etc. But to this day, I still don’t know what lead us to the ESCAPE room. 

    I think I teased you enough. Let’s not have this section of the journal drag on forever. So, are you ready to learn about the event that is so traumatic that even Lisa can’t type this section? 

    If you are, go to the next page. Let’s begin.