In this escape game, you play as Marie. You were captured during an investigation, and now you're tied to a chair in a pit in a hut in Nowhere, Essex. One of your captors says "all she can do now is wait till noon." It's nine o'clock now. You have three hours to escape.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the work.
SPOILERS AHEAD. Reading a walkthrough prematurely can sometimes diminish one's enjoyment of a work of interactive fiction. Please make an honest effort to play the work before reading this walkthrough.
The game comes with its own walkthrough, which is perfectly good, but that's never stoppped me from writing my own version.
Pit
Because time is an issue in this game, I won't have you examining everything like I normally would. Still, time isn't quite so tight that you can't experiment a little to see what works and what doesn't.
> tip chair. pull chair. tip chair.
> untie me. take rope. step on end.
> x nail. tie rope to nail. climb rope.
Wooden Room
> turn key. open wardrobe.(find a woman's body)
> x body. take paper.
The game does a switcheroo: the paper becomes a "pink note" in your inventory.
> read note.(You learn about a key hidden under the floorboards for a hidden door.)
> look behind body. take sack. open sack.
> open box. take chisel.
> step on floorboards.(found a slightly raised one)
> pry floorboard with chisel.(Hole revealed; chisel breaks.)
> look in hole. take silver key. take chisel.
CAUTION: Even if you unlock and open the hidden door, you can't leave until you find the door by examining the walls.
> x walls. x door. unlock door with silver key.
> open door. s.
Yard
> x sign. x insignia. open gate.(locked; no handle even)
> open green door.(locked)
Note: The stone wall must be referred to as just "wall".
> x wall. chisel mortar. take green key.
> unlock green door with green key.
> open green door. w.
Shed
> open drawer. x body.
> search body. take paper and keycard.
> read yellow note.(A pickaxe and crowbar are missing.)
> x lockup. put keycard in slot.(find a spade)
> take spade. e.
Yard
> dig bush. pull bush. take notepad.
> read notepad.(You learn that the woman was Sarah Lyle, the man was a hired gardener, "S1" is you, your phone is at a dropoff point by the dorms.)
> x shiny. take pickaxe.
> break wall with pickaxe.
> climb wall.(using the pickaxe as a foothold)
You're now on top of the wall. You see a pool of water below on the other side.
> enter pool.
Roadside
> put sack on fence. climb fence.
Forest Entrance
> s. w.
Dormitory Clearing
> x van. read white note.(Someone's sleeping in the basement. Key for van in the usual place.)
> s.
Dark Forest (2)
> take crowbar. x matchbook.
> e.
Dark Forest (3)
> x rocks. search rocks.(You need light.)
> light match.(You take a vehicle key.)
> w. n.
Dormitory Clearing
> unlock van with vehicle key.
> x crate. pry crate with crowbar.
> take phone.(Cecil will meet you in the roadside clearing.)
> e. e.
Forest Road
> x car.(It's Cecil's!)
> enter car.
*** You have won ***
Extras
Characters
Two men — one brown-haired, one blond — captured you. They briefly monitor you from the top of the pit before leaving.
Some cleaners can be seen inside the dormitory through the windows.
Cecil is your husband. Surprisingly, he comes to your rescue even though you didn't tell him what you were up to.
Found dead:
Sarah Lyle, from the dorm cleaning crew, planned to help you escape. You find her body in the wooden room's wardrobe.
A gardener, hired to weed the the dorm clearing, was killed when he saw and heard too much. You find his body in the shed's drawer.
Mentioned
Farr is the organisation that employs the people that mean you harm.
Playtesting by Christopher Merriner, Kenneth Pedersen, Geth Rees, Jess X and John Ziegler.
This game was created for Spring Thing 2023.
Endings
You have died
if you never put the cigarette end out. It starts a fire and you succumb to the smoke before you can escape from the hut.
if you don't escape before noon. You hear a rapidly-approaching rumble followed by a fatal amount of heat and light. Was it a bomb?
You have won
when you enter Cecil's car and escape from Farr North.
Inventory
Items are listed in the order acquired (or seen) in this walkthrough.
a rope. You're tied to the chair with the rope.
Move or pull the chair (away from the wall), then tip the chair. This loosens the rope, so now untie the rope.
Tie the rope to the rusty nail in the wall.
Climb the rope to escape the pit. Unfortunately, the rope snaps and falls back into the pit.
a pink note. It's the paper held by the body in the wardrobe in the wooden room.
Take the paper then read the note to learn about the hidden key and door. (The paper and note appear to be coded as different objects.)
a sack. It's behind the body in the wardrobe.
Take the sack and open it: a box falls out.
Later, at roadside, put the sack on the electrified fence. Now you can climb the fence. You cannot take the sack back.
a chisel. It's inside the box that's inside the sack.
In the wooden room, step on the floorboards to find the raised floorboard, then pry the floorboard with the chisel. Unfortunately, the chisel breaks. Take the chisel half.
In the yard, examine the wall to find the loose mortar. Chisel the mortar to find the green key. The chisel falls apart completely.
a silver key. It's in the hole revealed when you pry up the raised floorboard with the chisel.
The silver key unlocks the hidden door in the south wall of the wooden room. Examine the walls to find the door.
a green-painted key. Find it in the yard by chiseling the loose mortar of the stone wall with the chisel.
The green key unlocks the green door of the shed.
a yellow note. Find it by searching the body in the shed's long drawer.
Read the yellow note to learn that a pickaxe and crowbar are missing.
a keycard. Find it by searching the body in the shed's long drawer.
In the shed, put the keycard in the slot of the lockbox to unlock and open the lockbox.
a spade. It's inside the shed's lockbox. To open the lockbox, put the keycard in its slot.
In the yard, dig the bush with the spade, then pull the bush to find a notepad and a shiny something, which on further examination is a pickaxe.
a notepad. It's hidden underneath the yard's bush; see spade.
Read the notepad to learn more about the dead bodies, that Farr refers to you as "S1", and that your phone is at a dropoff point by the dormitory.
a pickaxe. It's hidden underneath the yard's bush; see spade.
In the yard, try to break the wall with the pickaxe. The pickaxe gets stuck in the wall, but now you can climb the wall, using the pickaxe as a foothold.
a white note. It's taped to the van in the dormitory clearing.
You need not take the white note, but read it to learn that the key for the van is in the "usual place".
a crowbar. It's in the dark forest south from the dormitory clearing.
In the dormitory clearing, pry the crate (that's inside the van) with the crowbar.
a match. You acquire it when you first pick up the crowbar.
In the forest where there's a pile of rocks, try to searching the rocks, then light the match to acquire the vehicle key.
a vehicle key. It's amongst the pile of rocks in the dark forest that's south then east from the dormitory clearing. Search the rocks then light the match to acquire the key.
This key unlocks the van's back door.
your phone. It's in the crate in the back of the van. Unlock the van with the vehicle key. Pry the crate open with the crowbar.
Take the phone to learn that Cecil intends to wait for you with his car at the roadside clearing.
Honorable mention:
your watch. Every half hour, you automatically check your watch, but there's no actual watch object in the game.
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