On Saturday, W celebrated his birthday with a bunch of friends from school. The celebration was held at Room Escape Adventures, a zombie escape room that was portrayed in Big Bang Theory. There were ten boys and two adults (myself and Ben, L’s dad), plus two actors, in the room.
The idea is that we were locked in a room with clues scattered throughout, ultimately leading to a key that would let us out. At the same time, there was a zombie chained to a cabinet in the room, and the chain would lengthen every 5 minutes, with an ultimate escape deadline of 60 minutes. If you got touched by the zombie, you had to move to the side of the room and couldn’t participate except by talking. The remaining actor was a kind of silent witness who took notes (summarizing our individual performances and activities for the debriefing afterward) as well as pointed out clues that maybe we should concentrate on.
At first, the boys scattered throughout the room in disarray, finding clues. Ben and I initially tried to stand aside and let the boys do the work, but it was simply too hard to stand aside — especially with the zombie crawling around, sometimes slowly, sometimes very quickly. It was hilarous to see groups of boys trapped in a corner as the zombie stared at them from only a few feet away, or we’d all run en-masse around the room as the zombie started chasing people.
The room got very hot with all the people running around, and we all worked up a sweat. We didn’t get out in time, so we were all “eaten.”
The zombie was great, and we all thanked the actor and shook his hand. I think his name was Shervin. He really made it exciting.
In the debrief afterward, our individual strengths were pointed out, though I don’t remember mine. All the boys loved it, and I’m sure many will return.
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W was altar server at Easter Vigil Mass yesterday. Three hours.
Happy Easter.