The Great Escape

I just fought my way up a wind tunnel, scrambled through a ventilation duct, clambered across 40 yards of rope netting, rolled under a fence, and burrowed through a mass of grapefruit-sized plastic spheres. Now I’m facing two doors. One leads to freedom. The other to a room with something nasty in it, possibly involving torture.

I’ve got a full sweat going, my pulse is hammering, and the countdown on my wrist-mounted navigation unit tells me I’m running out of time. Minutes ago, a pictogram flashed up at me on a video monitor. Now I have to match it to one of a dozen symbols on a column between the two doors. Pick the correct one and I’m free. Mess up and I’m toast. I make my choice. Bzzzt. The door to my right swings open to reveal a large chair bristling with wires and leather straps.

Until this moment, I thought I had mastered La Fuga.

Video game? Not quite. Wired.com’s The Great Escape tells all.