The southern drawl of a heartbroken gentleman finding his solace in trackers and alcohol echoed tortuously through the head of a blindfolded young woman, sitting in the back of a taxicab, recovering from an equally boozy destiny the night before. The girl's distaste for songs about pick'em up trucks and moonshine could only be matched by her hatred of long car rides on broken roads. 

Such road trips had given her trouble since she was little by bestowing the lovely feeling of nausea to creep into the pit of her stomach, as if just a hangover wasn't bad enough. It honestly felt like the driver was [i]trying[/i] to hit every pothole and crack in the road, and the whole not being able to see thing wasn't helping. If one were to ask this particular young lady, blindfolds should be kept exclusively for bedroom use. 

The flight, on the other hand, to...well, where ever she ended up was smooth enough to let her get a few more hours of sleep in. However, every waking moment after that had been full of nothing but strange smells, loud noises, and gosling motions. All in all, this trip so far had been hell in a hand basket. A big, ugly, yellow hand basket. 

Finally, the car cruised to a stop and the music, if you can call it that, ceased. As she let out a sweet sigh of relief, the blindfolded female felt the cool rush of fresh air waft over her, for the first time in what felt like hours, as the driver opened her door. Outstretching her arms, the disoriented passenger managed to find her way out the car safely before a hand on her should guided her into a building with an alarming loud, metal door. With a loud clank, the door closed, and the girl's vision burned from the cheap artificial lighting.

Before her stood a rather eccentric looking man who greeted her with a warm smile. The young female tried her best to curve her red painted lips and return the gesture. Examining the room made her feel as if she had stepped into an old TV sitcom. Her inspection was momentarily interrupted by the sound of a door clicking, and it was then that she noticed her country loving driver had vanished without a word. 

"Why, hello, there! You must be Noel!" The sound of a voice broke the girl from her thoughts and she nodded, trying to retain her strained smile. Why on earth did she agree to this? She called off of work with a fake illness to try something high tech and exciting, yet this place looked rather outdated and just plain disappointing. Ultimately, however, she decided it didn't really matter anyway. A day off of work is a day off of work. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you! Several of the other winners have already arrived. Come this way and you can meet them. We also have snacks and coffee that you are welcome to." 

Noel liked the sound of that. Coffee would be the perfect 'pick me up.'Following Doc Brown's long lost cousin, Noel entered the back room with three other "winners," two of which had mouth fulls of the probably poisoned, but delicious, cookies. 

"Make yourself at home," he encouraged on his way out, closing and locking the door behind him.

Scanning the crowd, Noel pursed her lips and lifted her hand, giving everyone a small awkward wave before pouring herself a cup of coffee and seating herself in a chair at the table in center of the room.