If a home town tradition forced you to compete
in a series of increasingly deadly challenges involving your darkest fears just to earn
enough money to move away, what would you do? I’m going to break down the mistakes made
by the graduates, what you should do, and how to beat the Death Games in Panic. Anyone who grew up in a rural area will tell
you just how hard it is to finally get away, but the folks in this town take it to a whole
other level. If you’re not smart enough to earn a full
ride or willing to join the military, you’re going to have to earn your ticket out the
old fashioned way: by winning a savage contest of human suffering before a inebriated crowd
of bloodthirsty onlookers. The dusty shithole town of Carp, Texas, isn’t
exactly brimming with opportunity for young adults, and leaving town requires cash, of
which these teenagers currently have none. Fortunately for them, their little town harbors
an annual bout of blood sport that promises a life changing fortune for whoever makes
it out on top. Its winner takes all, and this year’s stakes
are especially high at $50,000. The tournament, known only as Panic, begins
with a trip out to an old abandoned rock pit. For the first challenge, dubbed “The Jump,”
contestants will have to leap from one of three levels into the icy depths of the flooded
quarry. The higher the dive, the more points they’ll
receive. The highest jumping off point even comes with
immunity from a future challenge, provided they don’t splatter their brains on the
jagged edge of the pool. First up to bat is local problem child, Ray. He takes a running start from the lowest level,
narrowly avoiding the rocks on his way down. Up next is Natalie, who opts for the same
approach, followed by the mysterious Dodge who shakes things up by diving from the second
highest point. Finally, it’s Heather’s turn to take the
plunge. She chooses to climb the highest point, aptly
named Devil’s Drop. Despite protests from the crowd, Heather makes
the jump, clearing the bone crushing boulders below and landing herself on the top of the
leaderboard. Nobody ate rock on the first challenge, but
there are still plenty of trials left to thin out the local gene pool. Of the characters that matter, the standings
put Heather at number one with a hundred fifty points and a single-use immunity, followed
by Dodge at one twenty five, and Natalie and Ray tied for third with a hundred points each. If I were desperate enough to get out of town
that I was willing to risk life altering injuries or death, I would be sure to take this seriously
and skip out on all the binge drinking before making the jump. The rules don’t mention anything about what
we can wear, so I’d try and do the challenge with a life vest if I could. Yeah, people will for sure rip on you for
it, but it beats drowning if you fracture your leg or rib cage on a rock. The outer edge of the pond is lined with jagged
rocks. Besides that, there could be tree branches
or broken down quarry equipment hidden below the surface, and depending on how murky or
clear that water is, we might not be able to see these hazards until we’re splattered
on top of them. I would make sure I was the very last person
to jump; it seems like you can easily sign up at the last second. This way we can watch the others to make sure
we have a clear understanding of where it’s safe to land. To maximize our chances of survival, I wouldn’t
jump from anywhere that someone else hadn’t already. In Heather’s case, this would mean she could
still jump from the second highest point as Dodge was able to do it without risking blowing
out his shins. If we just had to get ahead of the competition
and claim that immunity, it’d be nice to know we weren’t falling into certain death. On average, the highest a person can fall
from into water and survive is a hundred eighty six feet. To make sure we’re falling less distance
than that at Devils Drop, all we have to do is calculate the height based on how long
it takes a falling object to reach the bottom. The formula for this is height equals one
half the gravitational constant times fall time squared. If it takes two seconds for a rock to hit
the water, we’d be looking at about a sixty five foot drop, which is well within human
limitations. If it takes longer than 3 seconds, you’d
probably die. Once we know how high it is, we still want
to make sure we aren’t face planting into any solid objects. To do this, I’d take the road flare they
supplied me with and drop it into the water to see if it illuminated any nearby objects. Most if not all modern road flares can remain
lit in water for a short time, although they’ll have to remain upright for maximum effectiveness. I would throw the flare with the flame pointed
up using a sort of spearfishing technique, and then try and jump as close to where it
lands as I possibly could, provided it appears to be safe. If the landing spot is no good, there’s
a pile of flares we could use to test other spots. The next day, Natalie and Heather plan to
help each other as much as possible and then split the winnings should one of them come
out on top. Natalie assembles an overview of the competition,
complete with dossiers on each of their fellow players and a comprehensive list of previous
challenges. According to her research, Ray is the man
to beat, owed to his innate fearlessness and the fact his older brother won a previous
game. As for the tournament itself, the game modes
typically range from labyrinths, break-ins, individual fears, highway crossings, and high
wire routines. Partnering up with someone can be risky as
it opens you up for betrayal, and there’s nothing to guarantee they won’t decide to
just skip town with all the money once it’s all over, but provided you can trust the person
you’re teaming up with, it offers you both a huge advantage in the event of any group
challenges. The safest bet is to secretly shave their
points whenever you can without them realizing it. You can still split the cash if you're a kind
soul. Really, we should be looking for any ways
to sabotage all of our competitors inside and outside the game. We’ll see what opportunities present themselves
in the next challenges. Right now, Ray and Dodge are clearly the top
contenders, we should be looking for a way to sabotage or force them to concede. Ray should be easy. He just has to miss a single game to get thrown
out. Heather and Natalie are both good looking
ladies and Ray is a manwhore, so they might be able to use this innate advantage to get
close to him. If he were to, say, ingest a laxative infused
brownie given to him by a potential love interest, that might be all it takes to get him out
of the way for good. Dodge is a little trickier. We don’t know much about him, yet. The next challenge, Walk the Plank, gives
players ninety seconds to walk across a narrow beam connecting two beat up old towers. Everyone starts with a hundred points, losing
a single point for every second it takes for them to make it across. Ray sets the bar high at a record seventeen
seconds. Up next Heather barely makes it to the starting
point before the host starts her time. Without an opportunity to properly psych herself
up, she stalls out halfway through and drops to her hands and knees. Fortunately, Ray’s got her back, using a
little tactical shit talking to keep her mind off the closed casket funeral she’ll receive
if she loses her balance. He even reels her in the last couple feet
for a total time of forty eight seconds. Dodge then climbs up for his turn, but because
he’s not a hot girl, Ray takes the opportunity to try and straight up fucking murder him
by shining a laser pointer in his eyes mid crossing. The dirty trick nearly paid dividends, but
Dodge one hands himself back onto the beam in time to claim a modest fifty five seconds. After making it back to solid ground, Dodge
makes a beeline for Ray to dish out a well deserved beat down, but before things can
get too nasty, the cops roll in to break up the party. It still looks like no one’s cashed in their
chips for good. Unfortunately, the cops showing up means not
everyone was given a chance to cross, so no points are awarded or deducted based on the
results of this challenge. Because of this, the standings remain unchanged. If we were solely focused on making it across
in one piece before the time ran out, then there’s no reason for us to run across like
Ray. A much more stable way to cross would be to
go down on our stomachs and sort of army crawl across while keeping a firm grip on the outer
edges of the beam with our hands. Were I in Heather’s position, this is the
strategy I would have used after nearly losing my balance. For a slight increase in speed over the belly
crawl, we could also walk on our hands and feet with our knees bent. This will keep our center of gravity low,
and in the event we start to lose our balance, we’ll be in a good position to wrap all
four limbs around the beam to cling on for dear life. Of course the fastest and most impressive
way to cross is standing up. Even though the bridge is much wider than
a competition balance beam, this will still require much more balance and concentration
compared to the other strategies. The key here is to keep our knees slightly
bent with our arms out to our side. As for Dodge, once I noticed the laser in
my eyes, I would have immediately called it out to the crowd, especially knowing who it
was coming from. Doing so would likely cause Ray to stop immediately
if not also having the added effect of getting him ejected from the games. After nearly falling to my death, I would
have probably looped my legs around the beam and monkey-crawled to the ledge instead of
trying to stand back up. The following day, Heather finds a poorly
disguised clue from the organizers pointing them towards the setting of the next event. It consists of newspaper clippings referencing
the death of one of last year’s participants, John Davis Hale. Evidently, John was meant to spend the night
alone in a creepy old barn as part of an individual challenge. To add to the fear factor, the hosts filled
the place full of snakes, which were supposedly his greatest fear, except they weren’t. Turns out John had been lying about having
a snake phobia since his freshman year of high school knowing he’d one day be competing
in the Panic games. This galaxy brain move might have put him
in the winner’s circle, but snakes weren’t the only critters he’d be hanging out with
that night. While searching for a cell signal on the rickety
second story, John stumbles upon something he actually was afraid of: bats, a whole fuck
ton of them. In a Panic run, he fell through some flimsy
floorboards and impaled himself on some unfortunately placed farm equipment. Really? Snakes are no problem for you, but bats are
too much? It’d be one thing if it were a bunch of
giant fruit bats–one of those things could stand flat footed and fuck a turkey–but
these little guys can’t do much more than shit on your back porch. Stupid phobias aside, pulling a long con like
that to give yourself a huge advantage is god tier strategy. Props to John for planning four years ahead. He would have pretty much had it in the bag
had he not gone chasing cell signals on the second floor of a dilapidated old barn. If I were terrified of bats, the last thing
I would do is go closer to where they would almost certainly be roosting. Old buildings
like this are breeding grounds for bats; anyone who grew up in the country would be well aware
of this. Fear alone should have kept him firmly planted
on the ground floor. With this place falling apart, I’d certainly
have checked for pitchforks and sharp farming equipment before wandering catwalks. Some time later, Natalie meets with Dodge
to discuss forming an alliance. Somehow she figured out he had already graduated
high school in another town, enrolling in Carp as a super senior to get a chance at
the Panic prize money. She tells him that unless he agrees to partner
up with her and split the winnings fifty/fifty, she’ll expose his secret to the judges and
get him thrown out of the competition. Dodge pushes back on the offer, questioning
why she’d want to join up with him when her best friend Heather is also a contender,
but Natalie feeds him some bullshit about the two of them having girl drama. Either way, she’s got him by the balls,
and Dodge knows it. He agrees to the terms, and as a token of
good faith, Natalie provides him with a map of the next challenge area. Yeah, forging a bond on blackmail is not a
recipe for longer term cooperation. Best case scenario, the person you’re extorting
only plays ball just long enough to get you off their back. Worst case scenario, they actively seek your
destruction to ensure you never talk. If the upcoming challenges are as dangerous
as the previous ones, Dodge might be able to find an opportunity to shut Natalie up
permanently. If I were Natalie, I would have taken a far
gentler approach with him from the get go. We should tell him that we need his strength
to get through more physical challenges, and in return he benefits from our insight into
the Panic games. After all, he’s new to the area, so this
puts him at a major disadvantage as he won’t have any idea what to expect. As previously stated, establishing multiple
secret partnerships is a great way to ensure we get at least something out of these games. The only risk is that they find out about
each other, but since Dodge is somewhat disconnected from the social scene in town, the chances
of that happening are much lower, making him an ideal pigeon. Challenge number three, Fly Like the Crow,
requires players to sneak onto the batshit insane Spurlock’s Farm and steal something
from the house before midnight. Anyone that succeeds will earn fifty points,
and only those with at least a hundred fifty points total can move on to the next round. It sounds simple enough, but this place is
no petting zoo. The owner has littered his spread with a variety
of booby traps designed to deter, detain, and even dismember anyone lacking respect
for basic property rights. The trial kicks off and the contenders go
their separate ways. Heather, Natalie, and Dodge decide to cut
through the corn field to head straight to the farmhouse. Once they’re sufficiently lost, Natalie
suggests they split up, only to reunite with Dodge behind Heather’s back. In accordance with their secret plan, Dodge
heads through the nearby woods where he discovers another player who’s fallen and can’t
get up. Fortunately for this rando, Dodge’s heart
is bigger than his brain. He helps his fellow competitor out of the
strangely shallow pitfall before returning to the task at hand. Nearby another player stumbles upon the Spurlock
family grow op. Unfortunately, while he was smart enough to
bring a metal detector, he was too stupid to realize not all booby traps are made of
metal, stepping on an obvious tripwire and triggering the farm’s alarm system. Almost immediately old man Spurlock comes
out shooting. He gives the intruders a few free ones to
change their minds before leveling his shotgun and hosing down the cornfield. After nearly catching a case of lead poisoning,
Heather uncovers an open padlock connected to a length of chain, tracing it to a steel
hatch buried in the dirt. She quickly climbs in, but before she can
reach the bottom, an unknown entity shuts the lid and locks it behind her. While Spurlock is busy wasting shotgun shells
out in front of his house, Dodge sneaks around to discover the backdoor conveniently unlocked. Despite texts from Natalie warning him the
irate homeowner has gone back inside, Dodge continues to the master bedroom, where he
finds Ray mid caper. Back underground, Heather makes her way through
the a bomb shelter and drug lab before reaching the farmhouse basement. There she finds a ledger containing the names
and current scores of each participant in this year’s Panic games. Confused by what she sees, Heather snaps a
quick photo of her discovery before moving on to the rest of the house. After passing by a ton of valuable shit, including
literal machineguns, Heather liberates an ancient metal cup from its dusty resting place
and makes for the exit. With only minutes to spare, she reunites with
Natalie and Dodge back at the Pontiac. There the teens photograph themselves with
their ill-gotten gains and send off the incriminating photos just in time to claim their fifty points. Yet again, the body count remains a fat zero,
even with Spurlock spraying double aught like he’s Hickock45. Since everyone made out with an equal fifty
points, the rankings haven’t changed, with Heather on top at two hundred, followed by
Dodge at one seventy five, and Natalie and Ray tied at one fifty. This whole challenge is dumb as hell. You could just go straight home and photograph
some random tchotchke from your parents’ basement. No one but Spurlock would even be able to
tell the difference. If Spurlock is concerned about security enough
to put booby traps everywhere, he’ll almost certainly be armed, and regardless of whether
or not he would be justified in pulling the trigger, you’re still dead if he runs a
Mozambique on you. Frankly, if I were Heather, this would be
where I used my immunity. We already have the one hundred fifty points
needed to advance, so why go risking a buckshot lobotomy. Sure, the next challenge could require us
to play Russian Roulette with a 1911 and a six sided dice, but if it gets that bad we
should probably just quit the game altogether. If I just had to go in, I definitely would
not go stumbling through the corn field. Doing so might provide a decent amount of
concealment, but it also obstructs your view of any potential booby traps. Plus, if he’s watching from an elevated
position, he’ll most likely be able to see the stalks of corn parting as we walk through. If anything, I might hug the outer perimeter
of the field so that I could navigate using it as a reference point. It could also serve as an easy way to break
line of sight should we be spotted, although we’d still have to contend with the booby
traps. Bringing a metal detector like this dude was
a good idea, but I would have brought someone else with me to watch out for any traps sitting
off the ground. This way, we could remain hyper focused on
mine sweeping while our partner walked behind us and looked over our shoulder. At least, once he got close to the house,
he should have stowed that shit. Listening to your headphones beeping when
you need to be listening for Spurlock’s movements is a great way to catch buckshot. Being able to see what’s directly in front
of you is obviously of great importance, but flashlights can easily give away our position. Even if a sniper can only see the very end
of our light, it’s guaranteed to be within an arm’s length of the person holding it,
so spamming shots in the immediate vicinity of the light source will likely result in
at least one finding a target. I’d probably wait until my eyes adjusted
to the darkness and go in the old fashioned way. It doesn’t seem to be all that dark out,
even in the forest, and there would be no risk of a light beam compromising our position. That said, a low powered flashlight with a
red beam could come in handy while navigating some of the darker areas. This would give us enough illumination to
spot trip wires and the red light would allow us to preserve our natural night vision. Another thing worth considering is the presence
of the other players. Even if we go in solo, some rando on the other
side of the property could trigger the alarm and bring the hammer down on all of us. I’d do my best to stay as far away from
anyone not on my team as possible, and I sure as hell wouldn’t be helping anyone that
got themselves trapped. This operation is only as covert as the loudest
participant, and leaving someone down and out means one less person to trigger the alarm,
as well as one less person to go on to the next round. Coordinating with another player or players
could be useful as long as we could think of a way to communicate without shouting at
each other. Using text messages like Natalies does is
a great idea, provided no one has their ringer on. We could also use wireless earbuds and start
a call with everyone on our team, this way we could communicate our status and any updates
on Spurlock in real time. Speaking of Spurlock, once he comes out shooting,
we should immediately seek some hard cover and wait there until we can pinpoint his location. The good thing about him popping off like
that is that we’ll be able to keep track of where he is and roughly where he’s looking. Dodge was smart to take advantage of this
and run around the back, although he apparently wasn’t smart enough to swipe the handful
of items sitting on the shelf right next to the back door. Heather stumbling upon a secret passage like
that was total godsend and I would have absolutely taken advantage of it, but I would have made
sure to take that padlock in there with me in case Spurlock or another player saw me
go inside. Once trapped underground, there’s nowhere
to go but forward. We’re just lucky it was a doomsday bunker
and not a dungeon for people caught wandering around the property. I would grab the first small item I could
find and stick it in my pocket. This way if we’re spotted and have to make
a quick getaway, we don’t have to worry about grabbing anything on our way out. Once I saw that M60, I’d 100% be taking
it with me. Not that I would sell it, but fully automatic
M60’s go for upwards of 70-80 grand these days, a lot more than the prize money. As for the ledger on the desk containing the
player information, we’d be better off just taking the whole thing with us as there could
be more valuable information on some of the other pages. On the other side of the equation, if I were
Spurlock, I wouldn’t have come outside with nothing but a pump action shotgun, especially
when fully automatic weapons are readily available. Country punks and burglars are going to be
familiar enough with firearms to not be completely paralyzed with fear at the sound of a shotgun
blast. A ten round burst from something beltfed,
on the other hand, well that might just do the trick. Getting away from the theatrics, I wouldn’t
have gone outside at all. For all we know, the intruders are as well
armed as we are. While we’re tearing up the corn field with
random pot shots they could be setting up to earhole us from off to the side. We’d be far better off posting up in a defensible
position with our firearm and waiting for them to funnel inside. Also, what’s the point of setting up dozens
of complicated booby traps if you’re just going to leave the back door unlocked? For the fourth challenge, The Curse of Graybill’s
House, contestants must remain inside the local haunted mansion until the organizers
come back to get them. Sabotage is highly encouraged in this round,
and players can lose points if photographic evidence gets out of them being scared shitless. There’s also a fifty point bonus for anyone
who solves the riddles “in the blood.” The teens head inside and go their separate
ways. Playing to their strengths, Heather, Natalie,
and Dodge all get to work solving the riddles while Ray focuses on terrorizing the other
competitors. After a while, Natalie pulls Heather into
a derelict pantry to confront her over a bunch of teenaged bullshit. Seizing the opportunity to mess with their
heads, a couple other players latch and lock the pantry door with a rusty old padlock. Down in the basement, Ray and Tyler stumble
upon an rundown gas generator, which this fuck nut sees as a great opportunity to charge
his dead phone. The sudden surge of power through the damaged
wiring almost immediately sparks a massive electrical fire, with the resulting blaze
exposing the class junkie’s final resting place. At the same time, Dodge is rooting around
in an old electrical panel to find the last clue just as it becomes live. The resulting electric shock knocks him on
his ass, but fortunately for him, the same player he saved from the pit on Spurlock Far
is there to return the favor. Back in the pantry, smoke begins pouring in
from under the door. Natalie and Heather can hear the other kids
shouting fire, but no one can hear them as they plead for help. Outside, the remaining teens lay Dodge out
on the lawn. A quick headcount reveals Natalie and Heather
to be missing, prompting Ray to run back inside the burning building to attempt a rescue. Despite the four alarm fire and Dodge being
out cold, only now does someone think to dial 911. Heather is able to boost Natalie through the
window over the pantry door, but once on the other side, she can’t figure out how to
remove the padlock preventing her friend’s escape. While Natalie goes for help, Heather tries
climbing up the ruined book shelf to reach the window, only to wind up flat on her back
when it inevitably tips over. In a last-ditch effort to save her own life,
Heather picks up a stray plank of wood and smashes her way out of the room, narrowly
escaping the raging inferno. Since everyone left the house early, no one
received any points for the main challenge; however, Dodge did technically solve the riddle
before blacking out, so he gets a fifty point push to the top of the leaderboard. The current standings have Dodge in the lead
with two twenty five, Heather in second at two hundred, and Natalie and Ray still tied
at one fifty. This challenge is simple. We just need to sit tight until someone comes
to get us. Exploring the house or wandering around to
try and solve the riddles only opens us up for jump scares from the other players. If I were far enough down on the leaderboard
to need the boost from the riddle, I might instead resort to scaring the other players
to bring them down to my level. Doing so would just be a matter of finding
a dark corner in a high traffic area and jumping out at anyone who comes by with our phone
cameras on. The best way to be the only ones left to claim
the points would be to stage a small fire in a trash can or sink with enough smoke to
get everyone out of the house before us. As much as it might seem counter intuitive,
given three heads are often better than one, if I had to solve the riddles, I’d go at
it by myself. After all, only one person can claim the bonus. There’s not really a right way to complete
this challenge, but there’s sure as hell a wrong way, and that’s fucking around with
the god damned electrical equipment. Who in the hell would look at this antique
and think, “oh, yeah, I can probably charge my phone with that.” He’s just lucky he wasn’t the one to get
electrocuted before the fire broke out, otherwise he’d have probably wound up a crispy critter
like the dead junkie. Speaking of electrocution, if I were Dodge,
I wouldn’t have gone digging around in that old outlet with my bare hands like that, especially
given we’d seen the lights flickering even before that dumb ass flipped on the generator. It’s not like we have to worry about paying
for the damages in this dump. Just pick up something heavy and smash the
shit out of it. He’s just lucky someone was there to drag
him out before the fire could reach him. Although my heartless ass probably would have
been left to fry as payback for leaving him stuck in the hole back at Spurlock’s. The current in a wall socket is more than
sufficient to stop a human heart, so once Dodge had been safely removed from the building,
we should have immediately checked his vital signs. If he has a pulse and is breathing, great,
just put him on his side in the recovery position and wait for help to arrive. Otherwise, we’ll need to start chest compressions
and rescue breaths. While we’re doing this, someone needs to
be on the phone with 911 to get help on the way, especially once we realize some of us
are missing. As for Natalie, once on the other side of
the door, I would have looked for something I could use to pry the padlock hasp from where
it was connected to the wall. We could also just try throwing ourselves
at the thing. Even as small as Natalie is, if we took a
running start and threw our shoulder into the part of the door closest to the lock,
we might be able to bust it loose. After all, it’s not like we’re working
against an actual deadbolt here. With the smoke getting thicker and thicker
all around her and her efforts to smash the door open being ineffective, Natalie’s decision
to leave and get help was probably the better one. In Heather’s position, using the bookshelf
was the right idea, but instead of trying to climb on the weakest parts of it, I would
have tipped it on its side in front of the door. Doing so would offer us about a three foot
boost towards freedom, and coupled with the “oh, shit, I’m going to die,” energy,
that should be all we need to make it through. Phone camera footage shows the contestants
being driven out to an old rail bridge for the fifth event and elimination round, Blind
Man’s Bluff. One at a time, each player will be placed
at the far end of the bridge blindfolded. Points are awarded based on how long it takes
them to make it back to the van on the other side, but they only get twenty minutes total
before they’re disqualified. Before the time starts, each player can choose
to answer up to five questions about the other competitors in exchange for a helping hand
from the organizers. Ray is the first one to make it back, having
answered all five questions to earn as much help as possible. Dodge, on the other hand, decides to keep
his mouth shut, and is nearly allowed to walk off the edge for heading in the wrong direction. Upon realizing his mistake, he pulls some
loose change from his pocket and uses the sound of it hitting the planks to guide himself
back on track. Despite the others attempting to rat their
way to victory, in the end only Dodge, Natalie, Ray, and a random expendable girl named Shawna,
make it back in time to stay in the game. Unfortunately, Heather was forced to miss
out on this event due to some serious trouble at home. Despite having immunity left over from The
Jump, she failed to invoke it in time to earn a pass, costing her, her shot at the prize
money and a ticket out of this town. Later the next night, she receives a text
from an unknown number: “The game isn’t done with you yet.” Not going to lie, I’m pretty disappointed
nobodys died yet. I feel like a Roman peasant after Julias Caesar
gave the peace sign so some gladiator could live to fight another day. This is another one where the vagueness of
the rules can work to our advantage. They said we can answer up to five questions
to get a helping hand in returning to the vehicle, but they didn’t say anything about
our answers being accurate or even remotely truthful. Unless our hosts are a couple human lie detectors,
how exactly are they going to know, especially when they’re supposed to be secrets? This is only a decent strategy if we value
friendship over cash. The problem with lying is that it does us
no good. Handing out your BFF’s weak spot increases
their chances of getting knocked out of the game, and our chance of winning. Let’s be honest, with that cash prize you’re
leaving town, so it’s not like they’ll be your BFF for much longer anyways. That said, this challenge really doesn’t
seem all that difficult, or dangerous, at least not compared to the previous ones. First off, we find out later that Ray selected
the yellow blindfold because lighter colors tend to be easier to see through. The fact that we were allowed to pick our
own blindfolds is a huge flaw we can take advantage of. But even if we were all forced to wear identical
vantablack bandanas over our eyes, we’d still most likely be able to see some percentage
of the vans headlights the way they’re pointed directly at us. Speaking of the van, they take us straight
away from it and tell us to find our way back. Gee, I wonder where it could be. Unless they made us play a round of dizzy
bat on the far end of the bridge, navigating back to the starting point should be a cinch,
regardless of whether or not we can see the lights. Unless he was just trying to fuck with them,
I’m not quite sure how the hell Dodge got so turned around. His little coin trick was dramatic and all,
but once he realized he was at a dead end, there’s only one other possible direction
in which to travel. I’m sure Daredevil would approve of him
using echolocation to find the planks in front of him, but he was doing just fine before
all that, so what the hell changed? Another aspect of this challenge we can exploit
is the fact it takes place on a rail bridge. They even play the recording of a train to
drive this point across. If we’re worried about walking diagonally
off the side of the bridge, all we have to do is sidestep over to one of the rails and
follow it the whole way back. While doing this, we’d want to keep all
our weight on our back foot as we walked so we could test the path ahead to make sure
there was actually something in front of us. We could even straddle the rail with our gait
so we’d feel it every step of the way. This approach would also keep us from falling
in between the railroad ties if we miss a step. Yeah it’s gonna bang up the gooch, but it
beats a shallow dive. Kicking off the individual challenges, Shawna
enters a tagged-up old trailer to find a lottery ball dispenser full of unmarked tablets. According to the shitty poem on the table,
She’ll earn thirty points for every time she spins the wheel, and she only needs three
to advance to the next challenge. This is where the secrets divulged during
Blind Man’s Bluff come into play. It turns out drug abuse is a huge problem
in Shawna’s family, and the thought of taking even just one is more than she can bear. Despite the MC claiming they’re all just
sugar pills, Shawna turns her back on the challenge, and her chances at moving on. Drug addiction is certainly terrifying, but
popping three random pills on a single occasion is probably not going to do it. That said, they could be anything from Tylenol
to Klonopin. Technically, the instructions only said she
had to spin the wheel three times; they didn’t expressly state we need to actually take what
comes out. Our half baked MC probably won’t let us
off the hook that easily. We could try and sneak them under our tongue
like Bubblebass, but given Shawna’s well-established aversion to drug use, this would likely be
anticipated and they would almost certainly check to make sure we had actually swallowed
them. If that’s the case, I would just pull the
trigger once we’re in the clear and hork them all back up. The rules only imply we have to take the pills;
they don’t say anything about us having to trip bear balls for eleven hours. Besides, there’s no way they’ll dissolve
in the thirty seconds it’ll take us to show complete, and if we suddenly feel our bad
thoughts turning into good ones, we can just call an ambulance afterwards. Over at the town morgue, Ray gears up for
his own personal hell: climbing into one of the cramped cadaver cabinets for a little
sleep over. For every hour he spends inside, he’ll earn
ten points, meaning he’ll need to spend the entire night cooped up in order to advance
to the next round. Ray tells the MC not to let him out no matter
what he says. After getting himself properly psyched up,
he gives the greenlight to shut the drawer, and then almost immediately begins screaming
to be let back out. But the host honors the agreement. At first glance, this challenge seems to be
on the safer side of what we’ve seen so far, but try telling that to someone with
claustrophobia. To Ray, this is as close as he could possibly
get to hell without dying, and the thought of death doesn’t seem to bother him all
that much. Irrational fears aside, this is actually a
lot more dangerous than it looks. The corpse coolers at morgues can be set below
freezing temperatures, which means he’ll need a lot more than a blanket to keep from
entering hypothermia, especially dressed like he’s heading to Watershed. A cold weather sleeping bag would probably
keep him warm enough to last through the night, but being confined in a narrow sleeve of fabric
would probably only add to the sense of confinement. The only way to manage claustrophobia without
supps would be to shut our eyes, do some deep breathing, and go to sleep. Easier said than done, I know, but once we’re
locked inside, that’s basically our only option. Dodge’s challenge takes him to the local
fairgrounds. His MC leads him over to the Tumbleweed Maze
where he’ll have an hour to find a certain key. He’ll lose a point for every minute it takes
him to complete the task. On the other side of the maze is a sign pointing
to an old Church. Dodge enters to find countless keys littering
the floor and hanging from the ceiling. Suddenly, he hears what sounds like his sister’s
voice screaming for help from under a wooden hatch locked with a padlock. In a panic, Dodge tries some of the nearby
keys before resorting to brute force, tearing the hatch open to find it’s nothing but
a tape recorder, along with the winning key. This seems like less of a challenge and more
of a fucked up prank. The maze at the start is meant for small children,
so it couldn’t be all that cerebral. We could make use of the hand on wall technique,
which guarantees eventual success in a maze, but that probably won’t be necessary here. Once we made it inside the church, my first
thought would be to pile up all the keys beside the lock and try each one, discarding the
losers in a separate heap until we found the winner. I would also make sure to thoroughly inspect
the entire room as the hatch in the middle of the floor could be a red herring. The second we hear what sounds like our family
member trapped under the floor, it’s game over. I wouldn’t have wasted even a second with
the keys. If I couldn’t muscle the hatch open like
Dodge does, I’d go back to my car and grab a tire iron or anything I could use to augment
my striking power. I’d also try to call home to make sure whoever
grabbed our sister didn’t also hurt our mom. Of course doing this would have likely exposed
the situation for the farce it was. Natalie’s challenge brings her out to the
Motor Lodge, arriving at the same time as Heather. All they have to do is watch through the video
played on the monitor, which happens to be all the juicy gossip Natalie shared about
Heather during the bridge crossing, such as working with Dodge behind her back and being
the one to lock her inside the bunker during the raid on Spurlock’s Farm. Adding insult to injury, the following day
Natalie is disqualified from the games during a meeting with the organizers. Evidently, someone ratted her out for not
actually going into Spurlock’s house and stealing something, instead passing off the
item Dodge stole for her as her own handy work. Because of this development, and her unused
immunity, Heather is allowed back into the running alongside Ray and Dodge. Currently, Dodge is guaranteed a spot in the
finals as he holds the most points. The outcome of Heather’s individual challenge
will determine whether she or Ray will be going up against him. Heather’s challenge is an escape room set
up in the old roller rink. She’ll have thirty minutes to crack all
the codes, losing a point for every minute it takes her to find her way out. The host starts her time, triggering the release
of hundreds of rats all around her. Before she can get to work on the challenges,
however, she gets a call claiming her little sister, Lily, has gone missing. Without hesitation, she bails on the challenge
and races home to find a crudely drawn treasure map leading straight to the tiger cage. Heather arrives at the shady zoo to find her
little sister trapped inside the enclosure. Thinking quickly, she grabs a bag of tiger
treats from a fridge in the office and heads into the pen. Just as the big cat comes closing in for a
Happy Meal, Heather starts lobbing steaks all over the place, distracting the beast
long enough for her sibling to make a clean getaway. Though she ultimately made the right decision
in rescuing her little sister, it’s not enough to appease the Panic Gods. With Heather out of the competition, it’s
down to Dodge and Ray in the final round. Well, that escalated quickly. Clearly, bailing on the escape room to try
and find our little sister was the right move, but once we realized where she was, there’s
no reason for us to go it alone. We should have immediately called the police
and told them to meet us at the tiger cage with a small box to put the pieces in. I’m only half kidding. Realistically, going up against a tiger without
at least a magnum hunting rifle is basically certain death. I’m not saying we should sit on our asses
while the proper authorities handle it, but we’ll want some backup on the way in case
one or both of us winds up horizontal. That said, we might be able to avoid confrontation
with the big cat altogether if we can frighten it enough to keep it hunkered down. Making lots of loud, unnatural noises could
do the trick, so I’d look for a portable stereo we could use to blast Hammer Smashed
Face by Cannibal Corpse on repeat until the tiger becomes suicidal. It may sound ridiculous, but in 2011, a Norwegian
boy allegedly scared off a menacing pack of wolves by playing a Creed song on his phone. Ultimately, we don’t have a lot of time
to waste making the tiger a playlist, but we could at least grab some pots and pans
for the other children to bang together while we play gladiator. As soon as I reached the scene, I’d be screaming
at the top of my lungs to add to the noise factor. I’d also keep my flashlight pointed directly
at the tiger’s face to obstruct its vision. Suppression via sensory overload might be
enough to let Lily back up to the gate. By the way, the only reason she’s even survived
this long is because she kept facing forward. Outdoor workers in India wear masks on the
backs of their heads for just this reason. Maintaining eye contact with the tiger won’t
guarantee it will leave you alone, but turning your back on it will almost certainly trigger
it to attack. We need to make sure that Lily understands
this. The next problem is getting her out of the
cage. This tiger has likely spent its entire life
in captivity, meaning it’s probably accustomed to people coming in to feed it. The sound of the gate opening would be like
ringing the dinner bell here, which is the exact opposite of what we want. There’s no way around it, and making use
of the available treat bags to lure it away is probably what made all the difference. That said, I would have loaded up with as
many as I could carry. The last thing we need is to run out of steaks
while Lily’s on the home stretch. Also, what kind of throw is that? This isn’t horse shoes; our sister is going
to fucking die! We need to wind up and throw this hunk of
flesh overhand like we just pulled the pin. I’d also make sure to ball the steak up
tightly to try and reduce the drag. If we can force the tiger to turn around to
retrieve its snack, that buys Lily an even longer greenlight. As soon as it gobbles up one piece, we should
immediately throw another. They can always put him on a diet later. Once Lily’s free, by all means hug it out,
but we really need to make sure the gate is locked. After all, the tiger slamming into it could
cause it to rebound and open enough space for it to slip by. If that happens before we’re out of sight,
it’ll be our last trip to the zoo. For the final challenge, known as The Joust,
the last two contenders must face off in a game of chicken. Each player starts at opposite ends of a single-lane
dirt road one half mile from where they’ll ultimately meet. Whoever swerves loses, that is unless neither
of them swerves, in which case they’ll both be dead. But before the games can begin, some dirty
dealings lead to a few changes in the program. Dodge decides the quick cash is no longer
worth potentially throwing his life away and backs out of the contest, but the town’s
corrupt sheriff offer’s to secretly race on his behalf. It turns out the shady lawman put a large
bet on Dodge to win it all, and can’t afford to let it go the other way. Knowing this, Ray takes the opportunity to
get a little payback against the sheriff for nearly murdering his older brother, planting
a improvised explosive device under Dodge’s car set to explode during the event. His plan is to just sit the game out and wait
for the fireworks, but he doesn’t count on the sheriff having such a long list of
enemies. Heather also has a bone to pick with the cop. Having found out it was he that set up her
little sister to almost get chewed on, she steals Ray’s pickup and heads out to the
track to settle this personally. The drivers take their mark, and The Joust
begins, but before they can potentially collide, the local tiger bounds onto the track, prompting
Heather to slam on the brakes and the sheriff to swerve out of the way, rolling his borrowed
vehicle before coming to a stop. For some reason, Heather decides to climb
out of Ray’s pickup and confront the four hundred pound jungle cat face to face. Before it mauls her to death, the bomb on
Dodge’s car explodes, scaring it off into the night. Battered and bruised, the sheriff attempts
to flee the scene, only to be intercepted by the tiger. Whether a Beretta Model 92FS is suitable for
stopping dangerous game, we may never know, as the sheriff’s own wife suddenly appears
from nowhere and pops him in the chest with a BAR Mark II for being such a piece of shit. Chicken is somewhat of a Catch 22. If both of us swerve we both lose, but if
neither of us swerve, we’re both likely headed to the emergency room if not the morgue. In modern vehicles with modern safety equipment,
about forty three miles per hour is the upper limit of a head on collision where someone
is likely to survive. Any faster than that and it’s not looking
good for either of us. Fortunately, the curves on both sides of the
road will keep our top speeds on the lower end, but I wouldn’t count on either of these
shit boxes to protect me from a white tail, much less another vehicle. That said, which rig we’re driving could
make all the difference. In a head-on collision, the driver of the
vehicle with significantly greater mass will almost always sustain less damage overall. This is because it’s not the speed that
kills you; it’s the stopping. The larger vehicle has more inertia, and will
likely continue its forward motion post impact, while the smaller vehicle doesn't. In fact, swerving suddenly in the pickup might
actually be more dangerous than taking the head on as we would be much more likely to
roll it and crush the cab. Of course, it also helps that it doesn’t
have a literal timebomb attached to it. Honestly, this challenge just comes down to
knowing your opponent, and how much they value their life compared to the money. If I’m Heather, I’m plowing straight. I know the cop is probably going to swerve
since he has a steady job and doesn’t want to kill a teen or get caught in the crash. The tiger jumping out in the middle of the
road changes everything. The best thing for either of us in that situation
would be to just slam on the brakes, and stay in the fucking truck. Seriously, were it not for the bomb, I can’t
imagine that ending well for Heather. Going back to the bomb, if Ray was serious
about smoking the sheriff, he should have gone with remote detonation instead of a fuse. Had his vehicle not shown up to the starting
point as was his plan, the race would have been called off, meaning the sheriff could
potentially part with the vehicle prior to the explosion. If I were Ray, I would have rigged the IED
up to a burner phone and triggered it the moment I knew he was at the starting point. Looking at this from the other side, were
I in the sheriff’s position of depending on Dodge to win, I would just pull some sneaky
shit that forced Ray to forfeit. We’re literally the highest ranking law
enforcement officer in the area; we could just plant drugs on him during a bogus traffic
stop and have him thrown in jail during the night of The Joust. Even if the charges don’t stick, Dodge wins
by default, we get our winnings, AND we don’t have to risk our lives playing some dumb ass
game. Once I was forced to flee the scene, I would
have already had my gun drawn and ready to fire. Afterall, we’re covered in blood and there’s
a fucking tiger walking around. 9x19 Parabellum is hardly what I’d call
a stopping cartridge when it comes to big game, but simply shooting at the creature
might be enough to drive it away, regardless of whether you actually hit it. What the sheriff couldn’t have possibly
been prepared for is his wife getting the drop on him with the .30-06. Not only was she probably the last person
on Earth he expected this from, she also pretty much had him dead to rights. If I were her, I’d obliterate the serial
number on that rifle and ditch it in a large body of water as soon as possible. That said, shooting the sheriff before he
could kill or scare away the tiger was a clutch move, and it might even put us in the clear. There won’t be much left to autopsy once
the big cat’s through with his body, and the coroner may very well just chalk it up
as an animal attack. Some time later, the dust has settled from
the tumultuous ending of this year’s Panic. Heather checks her emails to find a message
telling her to check her bag. Inside she finds a hollowed out book containing
the game’s $50,000.00 pot, along with a note from the judges proclaiming her the winner. That night as she’s driving along a deserted
stretch of highway, a mysterious pickup comes flying up behind her. As the vehicle passes by, a man in the bed
heaves a scarecrow onto her windshield. In its mouth is the sheriff’s badge. Much like winning the lottery increases one’s
chances of being murdered by someone they know, winning a huge pot from a local tournament
and then hanging around a town full of sore losers is bound to be bad for our health. I would use that money to cut all ties and
get as far away from Carp, Texas, as I possibly could, as soon as I possibly could. This is not unlike the Invisible Man situation,
except instead of fleeing from a psychotic billionaire playboy wearing active camouflage,
we’re fleeing a bunch of jaded broke ass country boys wearing Mossy Oak. In the end, despite the unbridled stupidity
of all those involved, only the sheriff died in connection with the games. However, paying closer attention to what was
and wasn’t clearly stated in the rules and knowing what the organizers would be able
to enforce would have also made a huge difference, as we could have exploited the many oversights
present throughout the tournament to get a leg up on the competition. Think you could have taken home the money
on your own? Let me know how you’d do it in the comments. Leave a like to help a small town girl with
no opportunities, and subscribe to learn how to survive other dumb situations people get
themselves in. I think the Death Games from Panic were BEATEN. Thanks for watching, and remember, if you
aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying.
