The zombies are coming and you have 60 minutes to escape – Happy Halloween!
That’s the premise for The Infected one of the two new escape room games that are proving a huge success in the centre of Spalding, and it’s fantastic, challenging fun.
Rush Hour Escape Rooms is the brainchild of Brett Harman and Hannah Stinson.
The pair loved the games where you have to solve puzzles to escape within an hour so much they’ve created their own in the Red Lion Quarter.
Family and friends have done a fantastic job turning former office space into two ingenious and wonderful looking rooms.
Brett gave up his teaching job to take on this challenge while Hannah has also gone part-time in her role as a nurse to help out.
“It’s been hectic so far,” said Brett. “The feedback has been excellent.”
The rooms include Save the World, the superhero themed game for up to five players that’s aimed at those of all ages.
And then there’s ‘The Infected’, the game six Spalding Voice staff were led quite literally blindfolded into.
Once inside the room the news reports tell you that outside the hospital where you were visiting a sick person, the population has been infected and become zombies.
The clock then starts ticking down and you have 60 minutes to escape before the zombies break down the door to get at your juicy, fresh blood.
From the moment you arrive it’s fantastic fun as you work as a team to crack the codes and solve the puzzles that ultimately unlock the safes, cupboards and doors you need to make your escape.
Not only is it just a brilliant thing to do with family and friends, but it’s also a great team building event.
The Voice’s team included those that had and hadn’t done such games before.
For those more experienced with escape rooms, there’s some really ingenious twists of the kind the more experienced players had not seen before.
“We tried to make the games as original as possible,” Brett confirms afterwards.
He is also on hand with helpful clues if you’re really struggling.
Beforehand a couple of our group expressed the game might be a bit too scary for them, but bar the odd scream from a surprise, they were fine.
And how did we do? Well fantastically in fact. Everyone chipped in brilliantly as we escaped in a time of 42 minutes 11 seconds, at the time the third fastest team so far.
Brett and dad Russ who helps out looked a tad shocked at that while explaining around 70 per cent of people so far had completed The Infected.
They’re hoping the Spalding Rush Hour Escape Rooms is just the start.
“If this goes to plan we will expand,” added Brett. “We’ve lived in Spalding all our lives and it’s so exciting bringing something like this to the town.”
