WE awoke in a bunker following a nuclear war, the five of us, on Thursday evening.

Huddled into a small room and surrounded by objects of various shapes and sizes, our mission was to escape. We had one hour.

Clue HQ is a live escape room that has recently opened at Shaw Ridge Leisure Park, and Team Adver were very kindly invited along to see if we could make it out alive.

The idea is simple enough. You must follow a series of clues which enable you to open the myriad padlocks and secret compartments, which, if done correctly, eventually lead to freedom.

Things got off to a promising start, though our immediate joy at finding the first key within a matter of seconds was somewhat overshadowed by our inability to locate the corresponding padlock.

But once we had found our bearings and read the cryptic clues pinned to the wall, we put our heads together and began to plot our escape.

After much poking around, politics reporter Adver Chris stumbled upon a vital clue that gave us a huge confidence boost. Ah ha!, we thought, we will be out of here in no time at all.

Our only connection to the outside world was a television screen hanging on the wall. Every now and then, if it was obvious we were struggling, a hint would appear pointing us in the right direction.

Needless to say, we did indeed need prompting, but only eight times, which, we were told afterwards, wasn’t half bad.

Working as a team, we managed to follow the clues and our instincts and, one by one, the padlocks fell and the secret doors were prised open.

Adver Stephen used his fox-like cunning to think inventively, while Adver Daniel, the latest addition to the newsroom, deciphered the clues with meticulous logic.

Non-Adver Bryan, our guest for the evening, worked tirelessly to escape from Bunker 38 and was, in the end, the one who eventually broke us free.

It was touch and go towards the end but, without giving anything away, we eventually made it out with just two minutes to spare.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable experience and each of us vowed to return at a later date.

Clue HQ currently has two escape scenarios. As well as Bunker 38 there is an Ancient Egyptian theme entitled The Betrayal of Cluetankhamun.

Both games require a minimum of two players and a maximum of six and last an hour, unless you manage to break out sooner.

The price varies depending on how many people take part. A game involving six players costs £15 per person while one involving two costs £22 each.

For more information and to book a session, log on to www.cluehqswindon.co.uk.