"Ok, from that I can trust you." she says happily and leads you into the shabby building. Inside there is a surprisingly good looking set of stairs that leads down into a basement of some sort. Following Alice she leads you into an empty chamber. She leads you into it and you hear a door shut behind you. Alice then turns around again and says, "This is the end, i'm going to give you a choice. You can either die quickly and painlessly or i can change your life forever. I'm not a vampire hunter only, i'm a vampire that hunts other vampires in case they break our strict laws. So what'll it be, Death or Undeath?"
> You undeath
"Are you absolutely sure you want this?"
"Yes, I am tired of this earth and i wish to see it from another view. Make me a vampire."
Alice keeps her word and bites you on the neck and drains a bit of your blood. She then bites her own wrist and offers it to you. Without saying a word you take her wrist and drink the blood coming from it. It tastes surreal, it is the most amazing thing that you have ever, or will ever, taste. You can feel power flowing into you from her blood and you keep taking more and more blood from her wound until finally she punches you in the face. You stop taking her blood and look up and she is furious.
"What the hell man!? Are you trying to kill me!?"
"I took too much?"
"Yeah just a little would have done but you almost drained me! Now you have to die."
Before you can manage to ask she breaks your neck and you fall to the floor dead but this is not the end, you do not stay dead for long...
> You arise
You awaken but you don't open your eyes yet, you can hear voices somewhere near you. One you can tell is Alice's and the other you don't recognize but sounds like a man. You listen in on their conversation.

"I just want to know what the hell you were thinking when you turned him!"

"I was thinking about the survival of our race. Plus there's something about him... I can feel it."

"Well while you stake the future of the vampiric race on some guy you met in a club I'll return to Alenia and do REAL work on helping out vampire kind as we know it."

Hearing this disturbs you and you decide to get a better sense of your surroundings...
> You open your eyes Dummy!
You look around and it seems that you have missed the last century. You are surrounded by high tech equipment and electronics. even the polished walls have a high tech feel to them. the voices were coming from the hall connected to your room. Taking a look around you notice that there are no windows and there's no doorknob... at least on your side.

Suddenly you hear a pressurized hiss and all of the electronics sink into the floor. The walls also seem to move back giving you a lot more room than you thought you had. Just then Alice walks in. You walk up to greet her but, for some odd reason, she decided to greet you with a right hook to your temple at full force and with a blinding speed.
> You 'What the hell!?!"
You manage to choke this out right before Alice chokes you out. In fact she chokes you so hard the she "accidentally" snaps your neck and severs your spinal cord too. Death is immediate and painless. She cries a lot but you are soon replaced.

Ok reader, this is the only time you're going to see this so listen up. You died at the hands of your creator but you were caught seriously off guard and it was an accident. I realize that this is highly improbable and i am willing to let you choose retaliate from this page. There will be no more retries so be careful.
> You retaliate (from the dead)
She's either really pissed or she wants you dead. Or both. Either way you're not gonna let some girl kick your ass right? She goes for an uppercut but you manage to somehow block it and hold on to her arm as you do a backflip that you know you couldn't do as a mortal. You land on top of her in a rather compromising situation. Your male brain decides to ponder on this and you hesitate. Alice utilizes this opportunity and she pins you in just a few movements.

"You'll do. Your movements suck but you have potential as a fighter. Pass."

"Wait that was a test?"

"Yeah, the test was to see if you would respond accordingly when someone you recognize attacks you. It was also to see if you were an OK fighter. You can improve on the fighting part so I'll teach you how but you still pass this test. Now on to the next test, there's only two more including the next so don't fuck up otherwise we have to kill you."

"What the fuck Alice? What's this test?"

"How thirsty are you?"

With her mentioning you notice just how thirsty you are. You throat feels like it just gargled sand and you think that you need water... but the thought actually repulses you. Then you think about blood... and the thirst worsens.

"WELL GET USED TO BEING THIRSTY, I'LL SEE YOU IN A WEEK."

Alice then dashes out the door which you realize needs no knob because like the rest of the stuff in this place it's all future-y and goes upwards into the ceiling before crashing down. You try to run after Alice but the door is locked behind her.

You then realize what the test is. One week with no blood whatsoever.
> You panic
You decide to panic like many other people would at this situation. You go insane and start to hear voices in your head. Your world is spinning and if you were still mortal some men in white coats with a funny looking jacket would be trying to find you. You descend so far into madness that Alice is forced to end your life to save your own psychosis.


She's either really pissed or she wants you dead. Or both. Either way you're not gonna let some girl kick your ass right? She goes for an uppercut but you manage to somehow block it and hold on to her arm as you do a backflip that you know you couldn't do as a mortal. You land on top of her in a rather compromising situation. Your male brain decides to ponder on this and you hesitate. Alice utilizes this opportunity and she pins you in just a few movements.

"You'll do. Your movements suck but you have potential as a fighter. Pass."

"Wait that was a test?"

"Yeah, the test was to see if you would respond accordingly when someone you recognize attacks you. It was also to see if you were an OK fighter. You can improve on the fighting part so I'll teach you how but you still pass this test. Now on to the next test, there's only two more including the next so don't fuck up otherwise we have to kill you."

"What the fuck Alice? What's this test?"

"How thirsty are you?"

With her mentioning you notice just how thirsty you are. You throat feels like it just gargled sand and you think that you need water... but the thought actually repulses you. Then you think about blood... and the thirst worsens.

"WELL GET USED TO BEING THIRSTY, I'LL SEE YOU IN A WEEK."

Alice then dashes out the door which you realize needs no knob because like the rest of the stuff in this place it's all future-y and goes upwards into the ceiling before crashing down. You try to run after Alice but the door is locked behind her.

You then realize what the test is. One week with no blood whatsoever.
> You stay Calm
You relax and take a few deep breaths. Panicking will not help you in this situation so you decide to somehow pass the time without knowing it. You ponder how to do this and finally you realize that you should meditate.

You get into a comfortable sitting position on the cold steel floor and you delve into the depths of your mind. You dive right past all of your memories, repressed or otherwise. You keep going and going, sifting through all of your mental baggage until you find the center of your own psyche.

You then enter your mind's very core...
> You what's in it?
Your are now in a bright grass field. As far as the eye can see there is only green grass and bright light. There is a gentle breeze blowing and you feel at peace. The light, although quite bright, is not sunlight and is oddly comforting. You decide to lay down and bask in this peaceful inner world of yours.

Suddenly you hear a shriek of terror... a woman's. You immediately dash into the direction of the scream and you find Alice being chased by a huge monster. It is covered in scales and has vicious looking claws. What do you do?
> You save Her
You decide to forgo danger and you run in to help your creator. You then have a startling realization. This is YOUR dreamworld and you can do whatever the hell you want to in it. So using your imagination you think of the beast exploding into a billion little bits and guess what? you were right. Exactly that happens.

You turn to Alice but at that moment the real world Alice is trying to wake you up. Exiting the dreamworld you wake up and see Alice's eyes staring into yours and, well, lets say you decide to take advantage of the situation. You reach forward and kiss Alice. She is genuinely surprised but she doesn't stop you. when the kiss is over she slaps you.

"What the hell Alice!?"

"First of all you pass the seven days challenge. Second only do that when I give you permission."

You are frustrated and angry but at the same time glad, because she didn't say she didn't like you. Only that she's not ready. Oh and you passed so you congratulate yourself.

"Is there another test I should worry about?"

"Oh, you have only just begun."

At saying this Alice has a terrifying grin and you feel your spine freeze up. Welcome to hell, my friend is all you can think.
> You hell freezes over
 as Alice trains you in combat and instructs you on your vampiric powers. You learn that as a vampire you are entitled to certain abilities that would normally be considered as magic. You can levitate, blend with shadows, you can even dive into a person's mind and drive them insane.

She teaches you all of this by using you as an example.

You might have cared about this if you weren't plagued by thoughts normally plaguing the male mind. She even uses this as an advantage to keep herself out of reach but to make you reach anyways. She makes it seem like she'll accept you as a lover, but then she pushes the bar even higher and higher until one day, you decide to train on an off day from Alice to attempt and beat her in at her own game. You train for quite a while using a technique Alice taught you about slowing time down using your speed and train. Using this technique one hour gets slowed down into about 15 minutes. eventually 6 hours later you deem yourself ready. Tomorrow you finally get your prize.
> You tomorrow
It is exceptionally early when you wake up to wait for Alice. You decide to think about what you learned, not just the combat but the politics and heritage and culture of the vampire race.

Alice told you (between punches) that there are two major warring vampire factions. Basically they are two feuding families that haven't set aside their differences to help stop the end to the vampire race. All they care about is destroying the each-other. Alice then told you in a rare moment that she was once a part of one of the families and that she fell in love with a member of the opposite family. When she and him tried to flee her family caught the both of them and killed her lover. It was then that she left her family and renounced her name. She would say nothing more except that he kind of looked like you but longer hair and broader shoulders and that you're a little taller. She then kicked you in your groin and told you harshly to never let your guard down.

You didn't show it at the time but you froze when you heard this. This must not have happened as long ago as she makes it seem because the description of the guy matches your uncle, Sam, who went missing not long after you were born. All that was left was a note that said "Primavera" and nothing else. You then asked if the name Primavera meant anything to Alice. She avoided the question (with an uppercut). You plan to make her tell you everything if... no, when you kick her ass.
> A noise from your room
It seems that nostalgia helped you wait because you can hear that someone is in your room. Your nose tells you from the all too familiar scent that Alice is in there beating your sheets flatter than paper. You burst from the bathroom and rush Alice who has a surprised and almost comical look on her face. Luckily you manage to land a few good blows before she realizes that you aren't playing around and taking this spar seriously. She tries to do her signature groin kick on you but you prepared for this and but a cup made of metal on the stop this. After you render her kick useless you grab her leg and flip her over, you then pin her arms on her back and put your knee into her back as well. Victory is yours.
> You say "I win!"
You wish you had a camera. The look on her face is priceless. You then state your request and she accepts it. She tells you that she'll tell you every last detail tonight, at dinner, alone... together... (do i really need to reiterate that any more?)

"Like a date?" You ask.

"It's not a date, but at least it's not an interrogation."

"Good point."

"Although there is a condition to this 'date'... no questioning until after we eat, then when we come back i'll tell you everything alright?"

You agree and begin to prepare for the dinner ahead... but you have to ask at least one question.

"Alice?"

"Dress casual, bring a coat to blend in, it's November."

"Alright thanks, see yah!"
> You later that night...
A few hours later you're on a rooftop with Alice overlooking the city. Both of you are trying to pick out which human looks tastier. You point out a few easy pickings and Alice picks out a guy who could've been mistaken for a pro bodybuilder. Just your luck. After jumping off the building into a shady the both of you go into hunting mode and begin to stalk your prey from afar. You see that he intends to cut through a nearby park and Alice sees this as well. You both increase the following distance to compensate for the lack of crowds to hide in. Suddenly you see an opportunity to strike, the guy bent down to pick something up off the ground.

You can strike at him now or you can wait and follow him some more.
> You be patient
You sit back and wait for another opportunity to strike but it never comes. The guy turns around and pulls a shotgun out from his coat and fires it in your general direction. You manage to duck behind a tree and as the pellets whiz over your head you see that they're incendiary rounds. That makes it obvious that this guy is a vampire hunter. You pop back up to make a run for his gun but he was expecting this and fired another round in your direction. This one connects and it not only sets you on fire but it also causes massive pain before you finally lose all feeling because all the nerves in your body get burned shut by the flames. You become just another notch in the hunter's weapon.

GAME OVER


A few hours later you're on a rooftop with Alice overlooking the city. Both of you are trying to pick out which human looks tastier. You point out a few easy pickings and Alice picks out a guy who could've been mistaken for a pro bodybuilder. Just your luck. After jumping off the building into a shady the both of you go into hunting mode and begin to stalk your prey from afar. You see that he intends to cut through a nearby park and Alice sees this as well. You both increase the following distance to compensate for the lack of crowds to hide in. Suddenly you see an opportunity to strike, the guy bent down to pick something up off the ground.

You can strike at him now or you can wait and follow him some more.
> You strike
Putting every Olympic runner in history to shame you charge with blinding speed towards the prey while nearly silent. The guy turns around but it is too late, his neck is already snapped by the time he realizes that you are there. Alice runs up behind you and the look on her face is that of surprise. She is obviously impressed with the kill and you offer first bite to her. After she finishes you drain the last bit of blood from the guy and tear his body to pieces and quickly bury them in different corners of the park, all in all about thirty seconds of the date down the drain. Alice smiles at your efficiency and you take her arm and begin to walk through the park like a happy couple. Then you start the questions.

"Alright let's begin, who's Primavera and what does it have to do with me?"

"Primavera is the name of one of the two warring families. The other is Sangre. The Primavera is Italian vampiric nobles and Sangre is Spanish vampiric nobles. The Italian and Spanish vampires have been warring for centuries and even they don't know how it started. Since I am of the Primavera you are technically also part of them. However since I left the family this does not apply anymore."

"What does the name Sam mean to you?"

"Sam was the name of my lover from the Sangre family. He was kind and sweet although his outlook on the world was a little childish. He believed that all people were capable of kindness and good. This eventually led him to his downfall."

"Why me?"

She gives you a confused look and you explain your question.

"Why did you pick me, out of all the other people in that club?"

You reminded me about him. That's why I asked you that question about vampires and humans coexisting, to see if you shared his beliefs.

"Would you like some dessert?"

"Actually that isn't a bad idea..."

You two spend the rest of the night (after dessert) chatting about everything from fighting to music.
> You many years later.... (Epilouge)
Approximately 5 years later

You hear a knock on your door and you open the door. At the door is a man in a fancy looking suit which you assume is Armani. You can see that this is no ordinary man due to his vampiric scent. "Hello," He says "I am a representative of the Primavera family and I would like to..."

At hearing Primavera you shut the door in his face. You and Alice do not want anything to do with either Primavera or Sangre. Your visitor has enough sense to not knock again but not enough to step away out of earshot before he makes a call on his cell phone.

"Boss."

"Yes, what is it?"

"They aren't going to join"

"Oh well, that's okay. Go ahead and kill them."

"My pleasure sir."

The last thing he ever does is hang up his cell phone. And by the time he does that you're already halfway to his throat. He turns around and you are the last thing he sees as you proceed to annihilate him with the years of combat training provided by your mate. You look back at the house and Alice is already there carrying a two large sacks, one of which you know has your name on it. It was time to move again.

Approximately 20 years later...

You and Alice happily spend your time moving all over the world from place to place but you both avoid Europe like the plague, for traveling there would be a death sentence. You both spend the rest of your happy lives traveling the world and helping those in need (when it was profitable). Eventually you are both contacted by Primavera again. They beg and beg and finally after intense negotiations (both on and off the phone) you use your persuasive powers and both you and Alice are accepted into Primavera as it's king and queen. Eventually you and Alice manage to finally end the conflict between the two families and peace is brought to the vampiric world. ALthough there is still bad blood between the families peace is officially declared and both families work to establish a partnership between them.

100 years or so later...

As King of all Vampires you united the two clans under a single banner. You also bring a golden age to the vampire race as vampiric children roam the streets of Illium, the country of Vampires. You keep this region of the world secluded from the rest and rule with an even hand. Alice bore many of your children and went into what is known as the Deep Sleep. A process in which a vampire turns into stone and sleeps for centuries until the time is right to re-enter the world. This time comes to you too and when it does you descend into your family's crypt and lie down with your beloved Alice. As you begin to fall asleep you wonder what the world will be like when you awaken. Only time will tell...


Your are now in a bright grass field. As far as the eye can see there is only green grass and bright light. There is a gentle breeze blowing and you feel at peace. The light, although quite bright, is not sunlight and is oddly comforting. You decide to lay down and bask in this peaceful inner world of yours.

Suddenly you hear a shriek of terror... a woman's. You immediately dash into the direction of the scream and you find Alice being chased by a huge monster. It is covered in scales and has vicious looking claws. What do you do?
> You leave Her to Die
You decide that your life is not worth risking and the beast catches up to Alice and she is slain. The beast then turns toward you and starts to chase you. The beast is re-energized from killing Alice and he catches you faster than anticipated and you are killed quite quickly.

In your dreamworld you died and after your 7 days are up Alice finds you in a comatose state and after a few hundred years of prolonging your life you are killed to be put out of your misery.


You barely managed to choke out a "Hi" before she immediately grabs you and runs out of the club with you, By the time she stops you're quite a ways from the club.

"Oh thank God that we got out of there."
"Uh mind if i say what the fuck just happened?"
"Oh yeah, you must have a strong will buddy, that blonde chick was about to make you her next meal."
"I just don't like blondes all that much, besides what do you mean by next meal, and who the hell are you and why did you drag me out of the club like i was luggage?"
"Alright i guess you at least deserve an explanation"

The girl, who says her name is Alice, tells you that the woman at the bar was a vampire and that she was going to turn you into a blood milkshake. Alice then begins to tell you that she is a vampire hunter and that she was keeping the vampire from eating to weaken her and slay her when the sun rose in a few hours. She mentions that you might have potential as a vampire hunter seeing as how you resisted the bloodsucker but then she asks you to come with her to help her kill the vampire.
Decisions, decisions.
> You try and get away from this crazy broad
Unfortunately she doesn't want anyone to know her secret, while you desperately try to flee from her like a maniac she pulls out a pistol and shoots you. Her aim is quite good so she shoots you in the head. Have fun being dead and not undead.


Welcome to the Insanity Complex.  We hope you enjoy your stay (or not...).

(Remember to save your game frequently.)

Shall we begin?
> You yes! Let's begin!
The sun shining through the small window above you wakes you up. You are lying on the soft bed in what appears to be a small room. You sit up suddenly, shocked by what you see around you. You don't remember how you got here or ever being in this place before. How did you get here?

Next to your bed is a chest of drawers on the left and some shelves on the right. Maybe these could give you a clue.
> You have a closer look at the shelves.

You check the shelves. They are bolted to the wall. You see three pairs of clothing on the top shelf. These are made up of a shirt and a pair of  trousers. One pair is purple, one is pink and one is blue.

You know these aren't your clothes. You look at yourself. You are wearing what appears to be pyjamas. What do you do next?
> You put on the purple clothes.
Right, that's better. Even though it's not your clothing it feels fresher than those pyjamas. You have a look at the bottom shelf. There is a bottle. You read it.

Quitiapine 400mg

MISS TINA OWENS

Take one twice daily.

Right. Now at least you can remember your name. Quitiapine? That's an antipsychotic! Your heart begins to race. You decide not to take it before you figure out what's going on. You put it in your pocket.


The sun shining through the small window above you wakes you up. You are lying on the soft bed in what appears to be a small room. You sit up suddenly, shocked by what you see around you. You don't remember how you got here or ever being in this place before. How did you get here?

Next to your bed is a chest of drawers on the left and some shelves on the right. Maybe these could give you a clue.
> You have a closer look at the chest of drawers.
You have a look a the chest of drawers. It seems old and rickety. It is shoddily bolted to the wall and the floor.

Why is everything bolted down?


The sun shining through the small window above you wakes you up. You are lying on the soft bed in what appears to be a small room. You sit up suddenly, shocked by what you see around you. You don't remember how you got here or ever being in this place before. How did you get here?

Next to your bed is a chest of drawers on the left and some shelves on the right. Maybe these could give you a clue.
> You do Nothing.
You do nothing. Time passes. Nothing happens.


You and your buddy Ben gather your cheap spelunking gear from the corner of his basement where you keep it and hoist it up the narrow steps to his living room.

His mom is sitting there the same as when you’d come in, still in her bathrobe, a green terry cloth robe Ben said his dad gave her, that’s how old it is. You head through the room without saying anything since she never responds when you do anyway, not so much as a "hi there" even though you've been her son’s best friend since the two of you dominated the kindergarten playground together. It gives you the creeps to see Ben try to talk to her. He's never tried to do what the rest of us would do if our mothers were walking, breathing vegetables like her. We’d have lost it long ago, taken her by the shoulders, slapped her, told her to fucking snap out of it. But not Ben. He lingers behind you, and you know he is bending down to kiss her on the cheek.

What do you do next?
> You enough is enough with Ben's mom. Someone needs to get through to her. You spin around on one foot, determined to get a reaction, if only for your friend Ben's sake.
"Excuse me, Mrs. Anderson," you say, and you cannot stifle the thought that you sound like that character in The Matrix but know that this is no time for movie references, no matter how apropos.

Ben is suprised by your sudden need to address his mother. He stands there, his hands swinging nervously at his sides, as if he's struggling against the urge to take physical action against you, and you push on.

"Mrs. Anderson," you say again, as the first one didn't succeed in getting her eyes to shift from the TV screen to you. This one doesn't either. You clear your throat. "Mrs. Anderson! Please look at me!" You're practically yelling now, your voice booming over the laugh track.

Slowly, ever so slightly, her head tilts up. Her eyes settle on your chest, then make their way up your chin to your eyes.

"Well. Just who. The fuck. Are you?" she bellows. Her voice sounds gravelly, nicotine-charred. Her blue eyes are the emptiest eyes you've ever seen. Looking into them makes you feel as if you're falling down a mineshaft. The back of your neck goes cold, and you step back, feeling Ben's hand on your shoulder.

"Get the HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE!" she screams. Ben grabs your arm, you both snatch the spelunking gear, and you're out of there.
> You meet up with Rick
You and Ben wait for Rick to pull up in his rusted-out Cavalier. They’ll probably make you drive as usual, seeing as how they're all jealous of your sea-green Chevy Nova. Black vinyl seats, a beautiful, flawless paint job that you applied yourself, a car with curves like Kelly Siegel, you always say; she's a girl who goes to your high school.

Rick pulls up, foul black stuff coming out of his tail pipe. “You guys want to help me with this exhaust problem this weekend?” he asks.
> You oh, yeah. Can't pass up an opportunity to mess around with somebody else's car.
Rick gives you a high-five, and you drop down to take a look at the underbelly of his car. Just like you suspected: The exhaust system is pockmarked worse than your face was before you discovered Stridex pads. The salt they put on the roads at the merest hint of a snowflake here in Southern Illinois wreaks havoc on cheap cars like Rick's. You're in for more than a weekend job helping your buddy, but that's OK. If he wants to sink burger money into a car that ain't worth it, that's no skin off your nose. It'll be good practice for when you go for your automotive tech certification.

Plus, you made Rick happy. He'd never fix his car without your help.
> You drive to the Caves
You pile into your Nova, Ben riding shot-gun and Rick lying down in the back seat. He pretends he's being chauffeured around town, as if he were one of the Cardinals baseball players who live in those brand-new houses out by the golf course. Or Jimmy Connors, who is from Belleville, which everybody likes to point out as if it validates their existence in this cow-town. Rick mimics Ozzie Smith, complaining that his wrists are sore from all the backflips he did in the outfield last night, which is pretty funny considering that Rick is what they call "husky." Nothing so much as a two-step has been performed by that guy since he was six.

Ben fiddles with your radio, but there isn’t anything good on. “When you going to get a decent tape deck in here?” he asks.

“When you start giving me gas money, that’s when,” you tell him, and that shuts him up.

You quickly make it out of town and are curving around cornfields full of giant harvesters. You roll your window down to smell the sweetness, a little like candy corn before you’ve eaten too much to taste anymore.

Suddenly Rick, says, “Did you all hear about the dead body they found out in one of these caves?” You know he likes to exaggerate and make shit up, so you don't bite. “Might be the cave we’re going to,” he says, dragging it out.

You decide to take the bait. “No, Rick, we haven’t heard. Why don’t you tell us?”

“Yeah,” he says, sitting up and putting his elbows on the backs of your seats. “Some guy with his dick cut off.”

“No!”

“Yes, your honor. The man has no dick.”

“Shee-it.” You and Ben laugh, realizing that Rick is quoting “Ghostbusters.” All three of you know every line because your family owns a second-hand VCR that came with just that one movie, and since nobody else's family has a VCR, you've all seen the movie about 50 times.
> You inside the Cave
The cave the three of you enter today is a new one for you, a real beauty, nice and clean-smelling limestone with fingerlike projections of rock, boulders stacked like furniture. You and your friends live for the world of the cave, where nobody is around to mess with you, none of those pansy-ass suits who commute to St. Louis everyday and look down their noses at you. The caves are your world, and in them, you feel like kings.

You shine your flashlight on a few tiny bats clinging to the rocks, wings tucked in like little Draculas sleeping the day off. The three of you crawl through passageways no wider than your shoulders. Pale white plants, like tiny mushrooms, grow along the floor.

“Hey, check this out,” Ben says. He stares into a room full of pure, clear water. Over the water, draped like banners, are hundreds and hundreds of spider webs. You lean in, shining the flashlight on them: spindly white spiders, many carrying egg sacs, which vibrate as if about to burst open.

Rick comes up behind us. “I’m not setting foot in there,” he says.

What do you do?
> You death to the spiders!
You take the walking stick you thought to bring with you and use it to hatchet across the silken webs, destroying the delicate swathe hanging over the water, and hundreds of spiders, along with hundreds of gestating embryos of spiders in their little vibrating egg sacs, plunge into the water and drown.

... But wait a minute. What did these lovely, ghostly white cave spiders ever do to you? It's not like you're a hobbit trying to get past evil monsters with your sword Sting. This isn't that kind of story, and you're just a dude with a stick.

Game over for you, sadist.


The cave the three of you enter today is a new one for you, a real beauty, nice and clean-smelling limestone with fingerlike projections of rock, boulders stacked like furniture. You and your friends live for the world of the cave, where nobody is around to mess with you, none of those pansy-ass suits who commute to St. Louis everyday and look down their noses at you. The caves are your world, and in them, you feel like kings.

You shine your flashlight on a few tiny bats clinging to the rocks, wings tucked in like little Draculas sleeping the day off. The three of you crawl through passageways no wider than your shoulders. Pale white plants, like tiny mushrooms, grow along the floor.

“Hey, check this out,” Ben says. He stares into a room full of pure, clear water. Over the water, draped like banners, are hundreds and hundreds of spider webs. You lean in, shining the flashlight on them: spindly white spiders, many carrying egg sacs, which vibrate as if about to burst open.

Rick comes up behind us. “I’m not setting foot in there,” he says.

What do you do?
> You rick is right. Spiders, ick.
"Just look," Ben says, so you and Rick do. You realize the spiders aren't threatening or disgusting; they're beautiful to watch as they spindle their webs and move slowly around the network of fibers that glow in the pale cave light. You can't help but let out a long, low, appreciative whistle, the echoes reverberating across the cave walls. Once your whistle dies down, the three of you turn around and keep going.

You crawl around nooks, through crannies, some spots wet and muddy, and soon, your jeans are soaked. You can feel water squishing in your boots. There are more ghost spider rooms, and you stare in at them, none of you willing to disturb the drapes of white webs glistening with moisture.
> You head Further into the Cave
A while later, Rick leads you down a passage that keeps getting narrower and narrower. You follow him, your gloves like muddy paws in front of you, Ben’s breathing behind you making you feel like he is sucking up your air. Then your head bumps into Rick’s ass.

“What’s the deal?” you ask.

He's quiet, wriggling around in the dark in front of you.

Then Ben stops in time to avoid bumping into you. “What’s the hold-up?”

“Rick?" you ask. "What do you see?”

Rick laughs. “Nothing. I can’t get my flashlight out in front of me. I think I’m stuck.”

“Like a pig in mud!” you hoot. You all have a good belly-laugh at that one. Ben tries to back out of the tunnel, but it's too narrow for him to turn around. You have to pull Rick free, and then you and Ben back out first, Rick coming after you.

“I think it’s time for lunch,” Rick says, patting his belly.

“That’s just what we need,” you say. “For you to eat more so we can get stuck for good.”

“Hey, you’d get stuck in there, too,” he says, pointing. “Give it a try, Slim Jim.”

You get back down on all fours and try to get through the opening but can’t.

“Okay, Chubs,” you say. “You’re off the hook this time.”

“The meat hook that is,” Ben adds. You and Ben about piss your pants laughing. But Rick ignores you, scratching his head, looking around at the cave walls.

“Which of these other passages did we come down?” he asks.

“That one,” you say, pointing to the one on your right.

“Naw, this one,” Rick says, thumbing at what looks like the wrong passage.

Both of you look at Ben to break the tie, and he shrugs his shoulders.

“There's only one way to settle this,” Rick says, smiling.
> You settle the Disagreement
Rick holds his hands out, one fist on top of a flattened palm. It's the universal sign for Rock, Paper, Scissors.

Who wins?
> You your scissors cuts Rick's paper
You scissors your fingers across Rick's outstretched hand just to emphasize your win. Rick looks pained, and not just from losing at Rock, Paper, Scissors: He really thinks his passageway is the right one to take. He glances at Ben again, and again, Ben shrugs. He's the type of guy who learned a long time ago just to go with the flow, that winning battles against those closest to you always gives you an empty kind of victory.

There's a lot at stake in this moment: your ability to get out of the cave, not to mention the strength of your friendships with these guys. What happens next in part depends on what's happened in the past, how you've been to each other up till this moment. Remember when Rick asked you to help him work on his car exhaust? What did you tell him?
> Yes. It was a win-win situation.
"You know what?" you say. "Rick, if you're sure your way is the correct way, I can go along with that. I'm not a hundred percent sure mine's the right one."

It's a shift in the balance of your relationship. Up till now, you've been the alpha male in the group, usually getting your way in all disagreements because Rick isn't quite as strong as you are, and Ben just wants peace.

"Yeah?" Rick asks, his voice betraying excitement, if a little disorientation, at your gesture of friendship.

"Yeah."

"Well, all right." Rick says. "I'm sure mine's the right one. Let's step on it."
> You follow Rick
You crawl around for a long time, hours it seems, and none of the passages you come to look like the one you’d been down before, and then you have to belly-crawl when the passages get narrower. It seems like you’ve got down to some old passages that nobody ever prowled around in, and you feel colder than you've ever felt in a cave. The further you crawl, the more you need your flashlight to see.

Rick checks his watch at one point, and it’s been six hours since you left Ben's house. You don't know if you are going deeper down into the earth or heading back toward the cave mouth. Your internal compass seems to swing around in wild circles, like compasses that go haywire when aliens land nearby. Your chest tightens, you all crawl faster, breathing hard, no one saying anything. When none of you can pretend like you aren’t for sure lost in the cave, you stop. You and Ben don't feel like telling Rick it is all his fault. And you don’t need to.

“Damn it, damn it,” Rick says. “I’m an idiot. I picked the wrong way.”

“Naw, man.” you say. “Could have been my route. We’d be in a different part of the cave, but we’d still be lost.”

“Yeah,” Ben says. “No telling which one was the right one.”

“I got some candy bars in here,” Rick says, as if it's a peace offering, opening his backpack.

“Dude, you’ve been holding out on us,” you say. “Don’t know if it’s because I know I’m trapped here or what, but I’m suddenly hungry. Got any beer in there to wash this down with?”

“Nope,” Rick says. “You know I don’t touch that stuff.”

“Sure would make being stuck in a cave a little easier right about now,” you say. Rick is quiet.

 There are two Hershey's bars. What should you do?
> You eat the Hershey's bars. You'll never get out of the cave if you don't get sustenance.
“Let’s get going,” Ben says once you've polished off the Hershey's. “Mosey on out of here.”

The three of you follow Ben, who seems to get a rush of energy from the candy bar. Those skinny guys are like that, fast little motors in them like a gerbil in a treadmill. You try not to think about the corpse Rick said they found, the one with his dick cut off. You hadn’t bothered to ask him if he made that up. And now you don't want to know. You try not to think about how you don't have any food, that you hadn’t told anybody where you were going, that it is just your car parked in a cornfield to signal that the three of you are down here. In your mind, you try to calculate how far you've walked and crawled, and how far from the opening of the cave you've come. You can't picture it right: just a series of identical rocky rooms. The white spiders seem a long way off now.
> You become Introspective
You keep thinking about this guy they’d brought to your high school once, part of their tough love campaign. They brought in cops and military men to talk to students about the “real world” that you would encounter after graduation. Their speeches were always graphic, which was entertaining as hell, but you got the feeling they were exaggerating just to scare you straight.

The latest guy had been a POW in Korea. He told you they made him eat maggots and kept asking him for information he didn’t even have, not that he would have given it to them if he had, he said. But you had to wonder whether or not he would have cracked. You have a theory that most people cracked, despite what TV and the movies want you to think. Those were the good stories, right? The bad stories probably never saw the light of day. With this guy, the North Koreans thought he was lying and so they jammed metal files under his nails or just beat him up all the time. The worst part, according to him, was being put in the hole, a 5-foot-by-5-foot box where he’d have to crouch for weeks at a time. All he gave them was his name, rank and serial number.

You all decide to take a break, sitting in the pitch black darkness to conserve your headlights, cold and shivering then because the damp has leaked through the top layers of your clothing and down to the skin. You're all quiet. Rick stretches out on the ground to take a nap. After a while, you decide to ask Ben about his dad. “Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Think your dad might have been a POW?”

“Hard to say,” he answers. “Most of my family just say he’s MIA, like he’s just lost in the jungle or something. Like once he finds a map, he’ll be back. But he might have been killed during the war. Or he might be rotting in some moldy old jail cell. I think he’s dead. There’re thousands that are probably dead, their bones in some rice paddy.”

“I can’t imagine,” you say.

“Can’t imagine what?”

“Any of that stuff—dying in war, torture.”

“Me neither.”

“What’s it like, man,” you ask, “to grow up without a dad?”

“You don’t miss what you never had.”

“Yeah, but it’s got to be weird, you know, not ever having a dad. Don’t you think about it all the time? Don’t you miss him?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ben pauses as if he's thinking about how to say something that has been on his mind a long time. “You know Skeeter and those guys up at the VFW hall?” he asks. “Talking about that phantom limb syndrome? They say they feel it tingling where there used to be a leg or arm or even a pinky finger. Like when your hand itches but you can’t find the scratch anywhere. He went MIA when I was like three years old. I can’t miss someone I never even knew. But it’s like he’s supposed to be there, you know?”

You think of your own father, who left your mother and is now shacked up with some chick he used to work with who's half his age, and you feel envious of Ben for not having to deal with a father at all. “Sometimes I wish my dad was MIA,” you say.

Ben suprises you by grabbing your shirt, harder than he’d ever laid a hand on you before. “Don’t say that shit,” he says. “Don’t say shit you don’t mean.”

You shrug off his hand. “How do you know I don’t mean it?”

Ben is quiet a while, like he's trying to calm down.

“You and me,” he finally says, “we’re opposites. I don’t know what it’s like to have a dad who up and leaves. You don’t know what it’s like to grow up wishing you had a dad. I could tell you that I’d rather be in your shoes, but you’d probably tell me the same thing.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” you say. “Do you remember him?”

“Just this one thing,” he says. “I kind of have this shadowy memory of him dressed up as Santa Claus. I think I pulled his beard down, but it could be I just remember it from my mom telling the story. You know how that is. But it seems like I can remember him bouncing me on his knee; that’s how I pulled the beard off. He was bouncing me too hard, and I thought I’d fall off, so I grabbed hold of the closest thing.”

You pick up a dead root and start carving the dirt with it even though you can't see the shapes you're carving.

“You really don’t think he’s ever coming back, do you?”

“Nope.”

“You guys never had a funeral.”

 “My mom thinks he’s coming back. She’s still waiting.”
> A Strange Sound
None of you say anything for a bit, and you hear a little chipping noise, like a squirrel trying to crack into a nut. “You hear that?”

You crawl in the direction of the noise. Then you shine your light on Rick and laugh. “It’s just Rick,” you say. “His teeth are chattering.”

Ben crawls over. Rick’s teeth are going a mile a minute. He touches his face.

“He’s ice-cold,” Ben says. “We got to wake him up. He could go into hypothermia.”

“Shit,” you say, mad that you hadn’t thought of it when Rick stretched out for his nap. “Wake up, Rick!” you yell. You shake him. “Wake the fuck up!”

Rick wakes quickly, looking confused. “Where am I?” he chatters.

You and Ben each grab a shoulder and lift him up. “Man,” Rick says, shaking his head as if he is groggy. “I am trapped in a goddamn cave. I was hoping it was a nightmare. I don’t feel so good, guys. I’m cold. Why’d you wake me up, anyhow?”

“No, Rick,” you say. “You can’t go to sleep. You’ll go to sleep and never wake up, you know what I mean?”

“I wish we’d brought more clothes,” Ben says. “A wool jacket or something. It’s always colder than you think it’s going to be in the caves. Bunch of idiots, that’s what we are.”

“Let’s sit together,” you say, scooting up close to Rick’s side. “Use our body warmth.” Ben does the same on the other side, and soon, Rick’s shivering slows down. But you are aching with cold on the side away from Rick. “Let’s huddle,” you say, motioning for Ben to move around so that you are touching on all sides. It's weird, sitting that close to Rick and Ben, but you don’t care.

“We’re going to have to keep each other awake,” Ben says. “Body temperature drops when you’re sleeping. That’s why Rick fell out like that.”

“Should we keep moving, trying to find our way out?” Rick asks.

“Seems like we’re just getting in deeper,” Ben says. “Maybe we should stay right here.”
> You keep Crawling
You don't like the thought of sitting there waiting for someone to rescue you. “Fuck that,” you say. “I’ll find my own damn way out.” You start crawling, and they follow you.

You crawl until your hands feel bloody. Rick and Ben follow, none of you making a sound.

“I have to rest,” you say when your knees ache and feel you can't go any further.
> You huddle Together
You huddle together, Ben saying, “Remember about keeping warm.” His words come out raspy. He hasn’t had any of his water in a while.

“Sip some water,” you say.

“What if I run out?” Ben says, his voice hoarse. “I need to go as long as I can. I’m not drinking that muddy cave water. Make you sick.”

It's pitch dark now. Your headlamp winks out, and theirs are down to two lights that together aren’t stronger than candlelight, so they turn them out to conserve.
> You try to Keep Warm
You sit in the dark for hours, moments of worried chatter interspersed with quiet. All three of you are shivering so bad, when it's quiet, all you can hear is the chatter of three sets of teeth. You're so cold, you keep imagining yourself surrounded by drifts of snow. You flash back to when you were five and young enough to make snow angels, how you took the garden hoe and set it in the angel's wing to look like a devil's pitchfork.

“This ain’t working no-more!” Ben chatter-yells. His voice sounds uncharacteristically uneven, as if he could break into a sob any minute. “I’m dying of cold!” he yells. “I’m going to die down here, and no one will know!"

“It’s all right,” Rick says. “We’re not going to die.”

You say nothing. Ben is yelling the same way you feel, and you can't conjure any encouragement.

“What the fuck do you know?” Ben says. “This is like my destiny. My mom will have two disappeared people in her life. A husband, then a son. That’s it. Then she’ll have two people to wait for!"

“You know what I heard once, at the VFW?” Rick asks suddenly, sounding oddly calm compared to Ben’s hysteria.

“This is no time for small talk!” Ben yells. “We’re dead men!”

“These guys were lost in the jungle, all right, homeboy?” Rick grabs Ben’s shoulders as if to steady him, and it strikes you how much they sound like one of those dramatic war movies they show on Saturday afternoon TV. Ben is the weak guy who's losing it in the heat of battle; Rick is suddenly the one holding you all together.

You laugh. “You guys are damn entertaining.”

“Shut up,” they both tell you.

“They were lost,” Rich says, continuing his story. “And it was cold. You think of jungles as hot, but those jungles in Nam can fuck with you. These guys were all wet from the swamps. Soaking wet like we are. And they were lost. They were supposed to meet a supply team but got lost. You know what they did to stay warm?”

Neither Ben nor you answer. You’d heard that story at the VFW, too.

Rick says it anyway: “They pissed on each other. It’s 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Body temperature. That would be great right now, wouldn’t it? A shower of about 98.6 degrees?”

You still don’t say anything.

“Look, brothers,” Rick says, “we’ve been pissing in the dirt, wasting that bit of body heat, and I’m not going to do it again. I’ll piss myself if I have to, but I’d rather not waste half of it in my jeans. I’d rather use it to keep you shits from dying on me. Capiche?"

You stand up. “Fine,” you say. “Which one of you wants it first?”

“Give it to Ben,” Rick says. “Sounds like he’s about to go into a coma.”

You stand over Ben, and he holds his hands out. If it weren’t dark, you'd know for sure that they're already blue. If you get out of here, you think, will you be able to see color again?

Any time one of you has to go, you use it to save each other’s life.
> Another Strange Noise
You think you hear a sound, a tapping sound. "Hey, do you guys hear that, or am I hallucinating?"

They listen, and there it is: tap, tap, tap. It's coming from above you. The three of you pick up your headlamps and start tapping back.

You see the flashlight beam of your rescuers bounce off the cave walls before you know for sure you're saved. The sound of other people’s voices is like music, some sweet old country song that makes you cry every time you hear it. They told you you've been down there for three days, but it feels like three lifetimes. You were down deep. It takes hours and hours to crawl out.

At the mouth of the cave, a TV news crew is set up, Channel 11 from St. Louis. And there is Ben’s mom, standing over by your Nova, waiting for him. She's the one who called your parents, the police, even the news station when the police wouldn't take your disappearance seriously. She is still wearing that ratty old robe, but Ben doesn't care. He hugs her so hard, it picks her up off the ground, and that’s the clip they show on TV that night, a real homecoming for everyone to see.


You crawl around for a long time, hours it seems, and none of the passages you come to look like the one you’d been down before, and then you have to belly-crawl when the passages get narrower. It seems like you’ve got down to some old passages that nobody ever prowled around in, and you feel colder than you've ever felt in a cave. The further you crawl, the more you need your flashlight to see.

Rick checks his watch at one point, and it’s been six hours since you left Ben's house. You don't know if you are going deeper down into the earth or heading back toward the cave mouth. Your internal compass seems to swing around in wild circles, like compasses that go haywire when aliens land nearby. Your chest tightens, you all crawl faster, breathing hard, no one saying anything. When none of you can pretend like you aren’t for sure lost in the cave, you stop. You and Ben don't feel like telling Rick it is all his fault. And you don’t need to.

“Damn it, damn it,” Rick says. “I’m an idiot. I picked the wrong way.”

“Naw, man.” you say. “Could have been my route. We’d be in a different part of the cave, but we’d still be lost.”

“Yeah,” Ben says. “No telling which one was the right one.”

“I got some candy bars in here,” Rick says, as if it's a peace offering, opening his backpack.

“Dude, you’ve been holding out on us,” you say. “Don’t know if it’s because I know I’m trapped here or what, but I’m suddenly hungry. Got any beer in there to wash this down with?”

“Nope,” Rick says. “You know I don’t touch that stuff.”

“Sure would make being stuck in a cave a little easier right about now,” you say. Rick is quiet.

 There are two Hershey's bars. What should you do?
> You ration the Hershey's bars. You don't know when you're getting out of this cave.
You take one of the three candy bars, break it into three equal pieces, and hand Ben and Rick their allotments. You and Ben eat yours quickly, but Rick eats his slowly, as if savoring the taste. Then, it hits you: Rick just really likes the taste of food. You remember how he will order a soda at the McDonald's drive-through and ask for ketchup packets there even though you're headed to Arby's for a roast beef sandwich, all because Rick likes the taste of the McDonald's ketchup better. To you, there's no difference.

You turn on your headlamp and lead the way, feeling a rush of energy from your little bit of candy bar.
> You become Introspective
As you crawl through the passageway, the light from your headlamp bouncing off the walls, you keep thinking about this guy they’d brought to your high school once, part of their tough love campaign. They brought in cops and military men to talk to students about the “real world” that you would encounter after graduation. Their speeches were always graphic, which was entertaining as hell, but you got the feeling they were exaggerating just to scare you straight.

The latest guy had been a POW in Korea. He told you they made him eat maggots and kept asking him for information he didn’t even have, not that he would have given it to them if he had, he said. But you had to wonder whether or not he would have cracked. You have a theory that most people cracked, despite what TV and the movies want you to think. Those were the good stories, right? The bad stories probably never saw the light of day. With this guy, the North Koreans thought he was lying and so they jammed metal files under his nails or just beat him up all the time. The worst part, according to him, was being put in the hole, a 5-foot-by-5-foot box where he’d have to crouch for weeks at a time. All he gave them was his name, rank and serial number.

You all decide to take a break, sitting in the pitch black darkness to conserve your headlights, cold and shivering then because the damp has leaked through the top layers of your clothing and down to the skin. You're all quiet. Rick stretches out on the ground to take a nap. After a while, you decide to ask Ben about his dad. “Ben?”

“Yeah?”

“Think your dad might have been a POW?”

“Hard to say,” he answers. “Most of my family just say he’s MIA, like he’s just lost in the jungle or something. Like once he finds a map, he’ll be back. But he might have been killed during the war. Or he might be rotting in some moldy old jail cell. I think he’s dead. There’re thousands that are probably dead, their bones in some rice paddy.”

“I can’t imagine,” you say.

“Can’t imagine what?”

“Any of that stuff—dying in war, torture.”

“Me neither.”

“What’s it like, man,” you ask, “to grow up without a dad?”

“You don’t miss what you never had.”

“Yeah, but it’s got to be weird, you know, not ever having a dad. Don’t you think about it all the time? Don’t you miss him?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Ben pauses as if he's thinking about how to say something that has been on his mind a long time. “You know Skeeter and those guys up at the VFW hall?” he asks. “Talking about that phantom limb syndrome? They say they feel it tingling where there used to be a leg or arm or even a pinky finger. Like when your hand itches but you can’t find the scratch anywhere. He went MIA when I was like three years old. I can’t miss someone I never even knew. But it’s like he’s supposed to be there, you know?”

You think of your own father, who left your mother and is now shacked up with some chick he used to work with who's half his age, and you feel envious of Ben for not having to deal with a father at all. “Sometimes I wish my dad was MIA,” you say.

Ben suprises you by grabbing your shirt, harder than he’d ever laid a hand on you before. “Don’t say that shit,” he says. “Don’t say shit you don’t mean.”

You shrug off his hand. “How do you know I don’t mean it?”

Ben is quiet a while, like he's trying to calm down.

“You and me,” he finally says, “we’re opposites. I don’t know what it’s like to have a dad who up and leaves. You don’t know what it’s like to grow up wishing you had a dad. I could tell you that I’d rather be in your shoes, but you’d probably tell me the same thing.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” you say. “Do you remember him?”

“Just this one thing,” he says. “I kind of have this shadowy memory of him dressed up as Santa Claus. I think I pulled his beard down, but it could be I just remember it from my mom telling the story. You know how that is. But it seems like I can remember him bouncing me on his knee; that’s how I pulled the beard off. He was bouncing me too hard, and I thought I’d fall off, so I grabbed hold of the closest thing.”

You pick up a dead root and start carving the dirt with it even though you can't see the shapes you're carving.

“You really don’t think he’s ever coming back, do you?”

“Nope.”

“You guys never had a funeral.”

 “My mom thinks he’s coming back. She’s still waiting.”
> The Cold Gets to You
None of you say anything for a bit, and you hear a little chipping noise, like a squirrel trying to crack into a nut. “You hear that?”

You crawl in the direction of the noise. Then you shine your light on Rick and laugh. “It’s just Rick,” you say. “His teeth are chattering.”

Ben crawls over. Rick’s teeth are going a mile a minute. He touches his face.

“He’s ice-cold,” Ben says. “We got to wake him up. He could go into hypothermia.”

“Shit,” you say, mad that you hadn’t thought of it when Rick stretched out for his nap. “Wake up, Rick!” you yell. You shake him. “Wake the fuck up!”

Rick wakes quickly, looking confused. “Where am I?” he chatters.

You and Ben each grab a shoulder and lift him up. “Man,” Rick says, shaking his head as if he is groggy. “I am trapped in a goddamn cave. I was hoping it was a nightmare. I don’t feel so good, guys. I’m cold. Why’d you wake me up, anyhow?”

“No, Rick,” you say. “You can’t go to sleep. You’ll go to sleep and never wake up, you know what I mean?”

“I wish we’d brought more clothes,” Ben says. “A wool jacket or something. It’s always colder than you think it’s going to be in the caves. Bunch of idiots, that’s what we are.”

“Let’s sit together,” you say, scooting up close to Rick’s side. “Use our body warmth.” Ben does the same on the other side, and soon, Rick’s shivering slows down. But you are aching with cold on the side away from Rick. “Let’s huddle,” you say, motioning for Ben to move around so that you are touching on all sides. It's weird, sitting that close to Rick and Ben, but you don’t care.

“We’re going to have to keep each other awake,” Ben says. “Body temperature drops when you’re sleeping. That’s why Rick fell out like that.”

You eat the second candy bar in an attempt to warm yourselves up.
> You find a Way to Tough This Out
“Maybe we should sing,” Rick says. “Might take our minds off the cold.”

“Maybe we should cook you up and feast off your excess fat,” you say.

“Let’s try the singing,” Ben says.

“Shit,” you say. “Singing sissies. Like that’s going to help.”

“Bye, bye Miss American Pie…” Ben starts, and he and Rick sing without you. You give in when they get to the Elvis songs. They remind me of the part of your dad you can tolerate, maybe even like, the guy who sings at the top of his lungs when he's happy. You sing every song you know the words to, every damn song you learned in elementary school, every Christmas song, every church song, even the alphabet song. You sing every part of the Bohemian Rhapsody and Van Halen songs both pre- and post-David Lee Roth. You sing for hours and hours, pausing to take a breath or talk or relieve yourselves when you have to.

Or maybe days go by. You're beginning to realize there isn’t any time in a cave. You break the last candy bar in half first and then into thirds, saving half for later, painfully aware of how little food it is. You're cold, a cold that seems to get into your bones, turn your blood to tiny frozen rivers. It becomes hard to sing through the chattering of your teeth.

“This ain’t working no-more!” Ben chatter-yells. His voice sounds uncharacteristically uneven, as if he could break into a sob any minute. “I’m dying of cold!” he yells. “I’m going to die down here, and no one will know!"

“It’s all right,” Rick says. “We’re not going to die.”

You say nothing. Ben is yelling the same way you feel, and you can't conjure any encouragement.

“What the fuck do you know?” Ben says. “This is like my destiny. My mom will have two disappeared people in her life. A husband, then a son. That’s it. Then she’ll have two people to wait for!"


You scissors your fingers across Rick's outstretched hand just to emphasize your win. Rick looks pained, and not just from losing at Rock, Paper, Scissors: He really thinks his passageway is the right one to take. He glances at Ben again, and again, Ben shrugs. He's the type of guy who learned a long time ago just to go with the flow, that winning battles against those closest to you always gives you an empty kind of victory.

There's a lot at stake in this moment: your ability to get out of the cave, not to mention the strength of your friendships with these guys. What happens next in part depends on what's happened in the past, how you've been to each other up till this moment. Remember when Rick asked you to help him work on his car exhaust? What did you tell him?
> No. You rather play Super Mario Bros.
There's a reason you're the alpha male in this group, after all. You know you're right about the passageway. Rick's one of those guys who always has music or some other distracting noise playing in his head, so he never notices details, like the way the stone in the passageway you came down has long yellow veins running through it. The other passages all look blue instead. You explain this to Rick and Ben, and they can't argue with your logic. The three of you split a cache of candy bars that you thought to bring along, and then you crawl and crawl, several times resisting Rick's insistence that you've chosen wrong and should head back down the other way. It takes a couple hours, but the three of you crawl to safety.

The sun is setting when you exit the mouth of the cave. You can see it glinting off the St. Louis Arch on the other side of the Mississippi.

Rick is uncharacteristically quiet as you head back to Ben's house. He seems distant, less like his jokester self. As you let him out at his junker, you nod your head in the direction of it. "Hey, maybe I can swing by and give you a little help with your exhaust system tomorrow after all," you say.

Rick stares off, at his car sitting there at the curb in front of Ben's house. "Nah, that's OK," he says. "I'll manage."

The three of you part ways, and you head home. As you round the cornfields this time, you see in your mind's eye a long cord stretching out between you and Rick, and you see that cord snap, the two of you drifting apart in space.


You scissors your fingers across Rick's outstretched hand just to emphasize your win. Rick looks pained, and not just from losing at Rock, Paper, Scissors: He really thinks his passageway is the right one to take. He glances at Ben again, and again, Ben shrugs. He's the type of guy who learned a long time ago just to go with the flow, that winning battles against those closest to you always gives you an empty kind of victory.

There's a lot at stake in this moment: your ability to get out of the cave, not to mention the strength of your friendships with these guys. What happens next in part depends on what's happened in the past, how you've been to each other up till this moment. Remember when Rick asked you to help him work on his car exhaust? What did you tell him?
> You said no at the time, but you're going to lie because you think it might give you a better outcome.
"You know what?" you say. "I'm sure mine's the right one, and just to prove it to you, we're not going to take it."

"Wait. Did you just say we're not going to take it?" Ben asks.

"That's right. Not. As in ain't. Gonna. Take it."

"Sweet!" yells Rick. "That means, I win! Let's go, boys." He picks up his gear and heads down the passageway.


You and Ben wait for Rick to pull up in his rusted-out Cavalier. They’ll probably make you drive as usual, seeing as how they're all jealous of your sea-green Chevy Nova. Black vinyl seats, a beautiful, flawless paint job that you applied yourself, a car with curves like Kelly Siegel, you always say; she's a girl who goes to your high school.

Rick pulls up, foul black stuff coming out of his tail pipe. “You guys want to help me with this exhaust problem this weekend?” he asks.
> No way. Rick's had enough of your free labor.
Why spend the weekend flat on your back under Rick's hunk of junk when you could be at home, sitting on that new lounge chair you just got for your room, finishing your quest to rescue the princess? You're so close; you can feel it. Just another hour or so, and victory is yours.


You and your buddy Ben gather your cheap spelunking gear from the corner of his basement where you keep it and hoist it up the narrow steps to his living room.

His mom is sitting there the same as when you’d come in, still in her bathrobe, a green terry cloth robe Ben said his dad gave her, that’s how old it is. You head through the room without saying anything since she never responds when you do anyway, not so much as a "hi there" even though you've been her son’s best friend since the two of you dominated the kindergarten playground together. It gives you the creeps to see Ben try to talk to her. He's never tried to do what the rest of us would do if our mothers were walking, breathing vegetables like her. We’d have lost it long ago, taken her by the shoulders, slapped her, told her to fucking snap out of it. But not Ben. He lingers behind you, and you know he is bending down to kiss her on the cheek.

What do you do next?
> You this family stuff isn't your business. Pause and wait for Ben.
“Bye Mom,” you hear him say as the screen door closes behind you. He might get a nod from her but that’s it, a nod without looking up, her eyes spaceylike from her pills, watching TV with the sound all the way down, as usual.

You wait on the porch under the oversized black POW/MIA flag, which rolls in crazy arcs from the October wind. One of these days you'll get around to telling Ben he should take the flag down. It's a dark omen and makes the whole house look like somebody just died when in reality, Ben’s father went MIA more than twenty years ago.


You open your eyes and see the sun out of the open window. You watch it for a second trying to feel its heat on your body but after a moment you give up. Its winter and its perpetually cold here anyway. You get up and wander over to take in the view, you've been staying in this room for a while now. Your not sure exactly how long but it feels like around 5 months, long enough to become used to it at least.

You lean out through the window and take in the sights, There are still some skyscrapers to the east looking in good condition, the stadium to the North isn't doing so well though, the roof has caved in and taken a small part of the wall down with it. Looking around you get a sense of general decay, between the points of interest are just fields of broken buildings and rubble. You know the couple of decades since the infection couldn't have done it alone so you decided it was the military. They had actually held out for years with relatively few casualties before it became airborne, after that it was chaos for a time until a 'vaccine' was found and sent world wide in an attempt to end the spread of the infection.

You take one last look around then head for the door. You picked this room since it not only had a working lock on the door but actually had glass in the window, seemed like a nice touch of normality. Sadly the food has run out and you've scavenged the entire surrounding area until nothing is left, you have to move on. At least now you have a destination. Just last week you had found a decrepit old survivor mumbling to themselves in a fever and learned that somewhere to the far east past the skyscrapers there is a thriving colony, THOUSANDS of people actually living and forming a good community. The dying old man didn't have much of value but at least you got enough food to keep you full until now.
> Down the Stairs
You head down the stairs to check on your trap. Its a simple pitfall at the base of the stairs but it's sometimes good enough to catch a wild animal or two. Sadly no such luck today. Seems like the dead have finally managed to make the city free from even rats now.

You start heading for the door when you hear a small sound outside, just a piece of wood being disturbed but your senses are attuned to listening for these things. Your now stuck, there is a back door but you don't keep it or the alleyways back there clear so just about anything could have moved in, however your pretty sure there is something out the front doors.
> The Front Door
You sling your pack over your shoulder and take out your metal baseball bat before edging slowly closer to the door, you need to know what's out there. It could just be a shambler who is about as dangeous as a child unless they are in a large pack. Then again it could be one of the other types. The Fast types are tricky to handle if not too smart. The mutant types, animals who got directly infected, are very dangerous. The Crazies, humans who got the vaccine too late or were bitten after getting it, they retain some semblance of intelligence but only that of a stupid  flesh craved psychopath. Then theres the 'Heralds' or 'Harbingers', Nicknamed as the 'Harbingers of the apocalypse', they look nearly completely human but the infection somehow bonded with them making them stronger and faster than normal humans while retaining all of their intelligence, of course they still feed on living and partly decayed flesh, you avoid them at all costs.

Once you get close you very slowly open the door a crack and peek out. Nothing immediately visible, your going to have to open it and look properly.
> You outside
You slowly open the door until its wide enough for you to fit through the gap, you have your bat ready and slip out into the sun. You carefully look around as you creep into the street, still nothing...

'CRACK'

You hear the noise from behind you and whirl around to see something stepping out of a pile of rubbish very close to the door you just came out of.

You panic for a moment and consider just running away as fast as you can... when you see it more clearly.

It wasn't hiding to ambush you, it's just a shambler. The slowest and least dangerous of all the undead. It was probably lying in that heap for days and only moved because of you walking nearby. You walk up to it and even take the time to do a little impression of a pro-hitter before a single clean strike caves its skull right in and it crumples into a heap on the ground. You briefly reminisce about when the outbreak first happened and it would take several hits to the head to stop them, but now you're a lot stronger and faster than an average human and sport a physique that would have belonged to a professional athlete... if there were any left alive in this messed up world.

You wipe your bat clean then begin walking East to the cross-roads a couple hundred yards away, your kill-count on shamblers must be over a hundred by now but you lost count somewhere in the fifties.

You now face the choice of which way to go.

You intend to reach the far east side of the city and investigate if the survivors are real  however the skyscraper district was the most inhabited before the plague hit, which means it still is, only with less welcoming residents. To the North you could head up to the area around the stadium, some people tried to make a stand there and thinned out the undead but there isn't much in the way of food there since they were overwhelmed leaving the area stripped clean. South could probably take you along the highway to the suburbs which has a mixed chance of food and dangerous monsters.

Deciding on the North as the safest choice for now you go that way.
> You heading North
You jog a couple of blocks North before finding a large blockade of crashed rusted cars, you know the area fairly well and slip into a side alley to bypass it, cutting North again through the first intersecting alley.

You quickly make it out onto a main road again when you realize something is moving pretty close by to the east, you carefully edge up to a car and climb it to get a clear view. There's one of the wandering hordes that frequent the area working its way down the road. They look like mostly shamblers, but you never know.

The other directions look clear leaving you the choice of heading into another ally North, heading down the road West and trying to loop around on a different road or fighting your way through the mob to the east, looks like 6 of them spread out on the road.
> You north, back into the alleyways
You're already heading North so why not continue and see what the old stadium district has to offer? The alleyways always have a chance of hiding a lurking undead but at least you're not out in the open and visible to anyone who wants to look.

You easily slip through several alleyways before hearing a noise behind a closed door. Listening closely you hear some mumbling. mumbling can be very good or very bad. It means it isn't a full undead, so you've either located a survivor or a crazy, theres always a small chance its a harbinger but you highly doubt one would be hiding out in a dingy alley in this area.

Of course you could just bypass it and not take the risk, keeping nice and quiet you can easily slip past and maybe even make the stadium district by nightfall. Then again finding an actual survivor is never to be passed up.
> You take it Slow and Careful as you Open the Door
You carefully test the door and almost have it open enough to slip inside when the hinges squeak, this also causes the mumbling to suddenly stop. Well its took late to go back so you quickly open the door the rest of the way and duck in, moving quickly to the side incase of gunshots.

Nothing happens and you aren't hearing movement so whatever was in here is now hiding. You edge forward and take in you surroundings. A dingy small damp room with equipment caged all along the far wall and piles of trash and random looking objects strewn everywhere. Some sort of access room for the air-con of the building behind it you think to yourself as you ready your bat.

You decide that the careful friendly approach might work best since you can't see anyone in the room "Is someone there?" you softly call out. Theres silence for a few moments before you hear a quiet chuckle from the pile of trah nearest your left side.

"Thats just great, its a crazy after all." you think to yourself. You ready your bat and carefully walk forward until your just past the pile when they jump out at you, bursting into a loud gleeful cackle as they swing their pipe at your head. Luckily this is just what you were counting on and as they jump you spin  and land a solid blow to their ribs, sending them crashing to the floor.

You move to check if they were really a crazy or just a traumatized survivor but you see dried blood around their mouth and they are still trying to get up to attack with shattered ribs so either way they just need to be put down.

You're kind and finish it quickly and cleanly before checking the room and body, packing some food for later and heading back out. "Only a crazy but hey, I have more food in my pack now than I did before so I count a win." you think to yourself as you head further North.
> You night in the Northern Alleys
You travel until dusk is well underway before trying to locate a good place to rest, the ground is dangerous as the monster types are more active during the dark hours this close to the city centre but its difficult to find secure high up rooms since they are usually magnets for the walkers and crazies.

Theres a nice building up ahead though, maybe an old hotel. You can se the fire escape is still standing and could use it to get into an upper room or you could see about the basement and lock yourself into a secure area there since basements usually have nice heavy doors and solid walls.
> You hotel basement for the Night
The basement is closer and a solid door should hold off anything that comes by, you can always rely on the stupidity of shamblers so even if they follow you, they can't tell the difference between a door and a wall if you keep quiet.

You force the lock on the entrance door and head down a short flight of stairs and through another door at the bottom  to find yourself in a small square room with the buildings power and heating equipment in it. nothing is working so you wont have to worry about the noise at least.

You close both doors then use the two wooden pallets you find to lightly barricade the inner door. looking around you find the rest of the room completely empty so lay down your sheet and begin to rest for the night.

Its not too long before you hear the howling some distance off and reach for your bat. Howling means mutant types and most likely dogs, your really don't want to fight a dog pack again. Last time you did that nearly nearly left you ripped into pieces and eaten.

You hold your breath but when the howl is heard again its much closer, close enough to be on your scent. You swear and jump to your feet, you can make a mad dash outside and try and get somewhere up high where they can't follow or you hope they pass you by/the doors hold out.
> You run for higher ground
You grab your things and wrench the flimsy barricade away from the door before sprinting outside, the howling is loud enough now that you're certain they are after you. Seeing a lumbering mass of teeth and muscle turn into the alleyway from the South just confirms your fears as you sprint up the fire escape, pulling the bottom section up after you. You know that the virus has made the dogs stronger faster and much much more dangerous than they were before so you keep sprinting up the fire escape only pausing briefly to see what is coming after you.

Its hard to see in the dark but theres defiantly 3 or 4 smaller shadows following the larger one and they are moving at speed now towards the building. You resume sprinting until you close to the roof which you find is a single ladder to the top. You scramble up then lean over the edge to see what is going on below.

You see a lot of movement punctuated by barks and yelps when you think you make out one of the dogs leaping off a dumpster onto the fire escape, it creaks lower under its weight allowing more to jump on and within seconds its on the ground with the dogs surging up after you.

You stand and ready your bat. You assume the big one is the alpha and wont be able to jump high enough to reach you due to all the muscle it carries, you think it must weigh as much a a small car. The smaller ones however could probably get up to you if they were persistent so you going to have to fend them off.

You glance round the rest of the roof and see no movement so prepare for the attack.

The first dog to reach the top it pretty lithe compared to the others meaning it still looks like a Doberman on steroids and makes a jump at you, scrabbling at the ladder to try and get purchase. its head lines up nicely at your waist height and you meet it with a solid blow to the skull crashing it down onto its companions as they arrive. They ignore it and all start jumping at you keeping you fully occupied taking swings at them as they start to get purchase on the roof but not landing any more definitive hits.

Your starting to get concerned when you hear glass smashing and see several windows are being broken out by undead inside. the dogs quickly loose interest in you in favor of the easier option of readily available food and launch into an all out attack on the shamblers trying to get out towards the noise.

You take the opportunity to rest and watch the fight unfold. The Shamblers are clearly just trying to reach the source of the noise while the dogs are actively attacking and trying to rip them apart. The shamblers only seem to fight back after an attack is aimed at them specifically, ignoring the others being taken down.

The mutants do easily the most damage at first, tearing several undead completely apart before they get too frenzied and start lashing out in all directions. One leaps in through the window and you hear lots of barking and growling before finally growing quiet and a shambler missing its left arm drags itself through the window. "One got itself overwhelmed" you think to yourself. You see another getting its rear leg bitten into by a shambler on the ground and hear the snap of the bone breaking before it pulled it away but it stays up and fighting until the huge muscled mutant and last smaller one tore the last of the shamblers apart.

You watch the three surviving dogs feast on the shamblers before heading back down the fire escape and disappearing South again out of the alleyway.

You finally relax and rest until first light when you head down into the alley again and start off North, you've got to be within a few hours of the stadium district now.
> You into the stadium district
You can tell by the changing architecture that you are nearing the stadium, just a few hours walking at most before you'll reach it. You aren’t too confident about finding food and supplies there but between the holdouts and the military trying to keep the stadium safe, as a refuge you think there shouldn’t be many dead up here. They do wander, though but you get the odd impression that they never wander too far from where they died, circling endlessly for months before their flesh gives up and they become prey for the others.

As you get closer you begin to see the signs of battle everywhere, buildings collapsed, old craters, and burnt out cars. They had lasted a really long time in that stadium. You never went too close yourself but you occasionally saw the lights and the signs from tall buildings or when you were scavenging nearby.

Over-confidence had been their end, just as you had predicted. Their regimented daily armored patrols, scavenging squads and clearance teams had, over the years, given way to weekly lightly armed excursions and missed guard duties. Their initial efforts probably cleared 95% of the infected in the area so they rarely if ever spotted one.

You heard from a few survivors you ran into right after what had happened.

“The patrols were just for show and guards rarely bothered to turn up to their shifts by the end. One patrol team went out to do a mix of scavenging and clearing but they were all young had no idea what the early days were like. They went right inside some store on the outskirts of their territory without even checking for infected. A couple got bit when they found a shambler in a locked office. One turned right away and took two more down because they weren’t ready to kill their friends. The two survivors finished the rest off and headed back to the stadium with their tails between their legs and covered with gore. Of course they immediately brought back all the old rules and regulations about ensuring the guard was always there and sending out veterans with the new kids but it was too late, one of the survivors had ingested some splattered blood during the fight and turned a few days later, sadly into a fast bugger. Went on a rampage biting everyone it saw. The people panicked and ran for the roof but it had been neglected for years and a strut failed, bringing the entire thing down, including part of the wall. Between the panic, the dead and the spreading infected inside it was all over and the survivors scattered and ran. No idea where they came from but a large number of dead swarmed them, as if they had been hiding and waiting all that time just to appear at the worst moment. Most probably died in the first few days to the infected or mutants.”

You keep going as far as you can but the alleys become tighter and clogged with debris, you can keep to the alleys and clamber through them carefully to keep a low profile or you can head out to the main streets and move quickly.
> You keep to the Alleys and move carefully
Keep to the alleys and clamber through them carefully to keep a low profile

You don’t want to risk getting fully exposed right now and decide to risk the alley ways. You make difficult progress at first and have to slow your pace a lot. The alleys are half blocked with trash and even the occasional human remains. Finally you start to find entire alleys blocked by rubble from collapsed buildings and have to climb over it all. It’s not as if you find this level of exercise difficult or anything but the more you climb and clamber over rubble and trash, the more chance of you stumbling right into infected.

Unfortunately this is exactly what happens as you climb over a rubble pile a few minutes later. you just reach the top of the pile which is roughly level with the first floor of the buildings either side when a shambler lurches out from the building to the side and tries to grab you.

You manage to shove it away and avoid its bite but now you aren’t in the best position.
> You bash it with a bat then continue, it's just one shambler afterall
Bash its head in then continue, one shambler won’t even slow you down.

You sling your bat out of your belt loop and dispatch the shambler with a brutal efficiency, no time for playing around right now. You quickly wipe your bat off on its shirt and continue climbing down the rubble pile on the other side.

“Got to pick up the pace a little.” You think to yourself as you climb the next rubble pile, trying to be more prepared of surprises. You are however getting the impression that the rubble is too regular to be an accident. “Must have been the holdouts trying to block the infected and funnel them” you decide as you continue.

It’s only a short time later when climbing a particularly steep pile that the fast type makes an appearance. Normally you can outpace a single one, but halfway up the rubble it comes leaping down at you from above and manages to latch onto your arm before your punches knock it free and you finish it with several good blows with the bat.

“Gorram thing ripped my arm open!” you complain to the air, and indeed you now have an obvious bite wound to the flesh of your left arm which needs binding up.

You pause there to bandage it quickly with strips of cloth. It’s not nearly the worst wound you’ve had and so long as you keep eating enough you heal fast. After a brief pause you continue without further incident until you climb the last rubble pile and see the Stadium ahead of you.
> You approaching the stadium
“Now what?” you mumble to yourself as you look around. The streets behind you are either completely clear or blocked entirely by rubble. “Probably the hold outs work.” you think. The area in front has barricades and ditches leading up the stadium seemingly to prevent groups or vehicles from getting close.

“Guess forward is the best option if I want to get inside that ruin, all the buildings around here are rubble so not much else around.” You decide that your only choices are to try and get inside the stadium or bypass it North, either way you're going to have to cross some barricades so you might as well take a closer look

Scout out the stadium carefully
> You scout the area out
You begin slowly approaching the stadium, checking every ditch and barricade before crossing them, just incase there are any more surprises lurking there. You make relatively quick progress and are halfway through the blockades when you hear something ahead.

You quickly pause and hunker down, taking your time to look ahead to try and locate source of the noise. If your hearing wasn’t so good and you weren’t being so careful you know you would have missed it entirely.

There doesn’t seem to be anything close by and the area right in front of the stadium doors is flat and cleared so nothing there. You are about to put the noise up to your own paranoia when you catch a glimpse of movement on a balcony over the door. There’s a man lying on it, watching you through a rifle scope.

“Gorramit, this place isn’t deserted and now they have me scoped before I can find out what’s happening.” You mumble to yourself. The man with the gun however has clearly realized he was spotted and stands up, along with 2 others to call out to you.

“We know you spotted us so you may as well come out now. Move slowly into the open area in front of the stadium and show us that you aren’t an infected and there will be no problems.”

You’ve been through this drill before, you show you aren’t an infected and they lower the guns. You get inside with the survivors.
> You might as well go along with it again since they haven't fired yet and your currently goal is to find survivors after all.
You know the drill so you may as well go along with it and get inside with the survivors to scout it out at least.

You carefully finish getting through the barricades as they assure you that there are no infected ahead and reach the open ground below them. “Right, drop the weapon and show us your skin!” They call down. You lay the bat and your pack down and even start undoing your shirt before remembering that you have a large bite wound on your arm that really isn’t going to go over well with the men holding the guns. You have little choice left now and finish taking off the shirt revealing your skin and the rough bandage on your left arm to the men above.

Quite predictably you hear the guns being cocked above you. “What’s the bandage for friend?” You hear called down in a distinctly unfriendly tone.
> You can lie about it and just say it was a cut. You arenÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t showing any other signs to make them suspicious after all
You lie about it and claim you cut it climbing the debris in the alleyways, no point in telling them about the infected biting you. “When I was climbing through the alleyways back there I lost my footing and injured it on some old broken pipe. So I bound it up, as you can see I can still talk normally and show no symptoms! I’ve taken the vaccine after all!”

They quietly confer and lower their guns slightly, so far so good. “Alright, the rest of your skins clear and the right color and you can talk normally. The vaccine doesn’t always protect from direct exposure so can’t be too careful. Just show the wound then we can let you inside.”

You pause and try and think of a way out of showing it but there isn’t much option here. You slip your shirt back on and roll the sleeve up before taking the bandage off. You try and think quickly about what to say if they challenge your story but you are suddenly stopped short.

You hear the loud crack at the same moment as you feel your clavicle disintegrate as if hit by a professional boxer, unfortunately you feel the damage continuing inside, finding when you try to breath, blood comes out of your mouth instead.

You collapse back and vaguely hear the man arguing before everything turns black.

“He lied; it’s a bite, look at it!”

“He has no symptoms you idiot, he’s probably immune and was just wor…”


You know the drill so you may as well go along with it and get inside with the survivors to scout it out at least.

You carefully finish getting through the barricades as they assure you that there are no infected ahead and reach the open ground below them. “Right, drop the weapon and show us your skin!” They call down. You lay the bat and your pack down and even start undoing your shirt before remembering that you have a large bite wound on your arm that really isn’t going to go over well with the men holding the guns. You have little choice left now and finish taking off the shirt revealing your skin and the rough bandage on your left arm to the men above.

Quite predictably you hear the guns being cocked above you. “What’s the bandage for friend?” You hear called down in a distinctly unfriendly tone.
> You own up but point out that you have taken the vaccine and bites donÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t affect you.
No Point in lying about it now.

You call up to them carefully, preparing to run if needed.

“Firstly I’ve had the vaccine and had bites before with no affect. It’s a bite wound, from a fast bugger back in the alleyways. I’m not hiding anything!”

You see one of the men react and take aim at you, you’re about to dodge when the one who is clearly in charge swats his gun to the side and the shot misses you by a few feet. “Put that gun down you idiot, what the hell you think you’re doing?” he shouts

“He’s been bit! He admitted it!” the man replies clearly panicked.

“And he has no symptoms, he also has been bitten before and no reaction so obviously the vaccine works for him. Are you mentally challenged or something?”

He turns back to you. “Sorry about that, he’s just a little panicky at the moment even if he knows full well the vaccine protects some people from all exposure, even bites. We are letting you in, but be warned; you’re being quarantined until we can be sure.”

You collect your things and head inside. “So the vaccine protects some people from bites as well as the airborne strain but others get infected by it regardless. Good to know.” You think as you head inside and find more guns pointed your way.

“Seems your skin is the right color, you can still bleed and still talk but you’ve been bitten. It’s a few days in our quarantine for you my friend.” One of them says to you.

You quickly find yourself in a locked room in some basement area where you stay undisturbed until you judge its night time, a lamp on the outside wall giving some light through the door’s window. A soldier finally arrives to take a look at the wound. “Don’t worry mate, I’m a military doctor so I’m just here to take a look at that bite of yours.” He says as you let him take the bandage off and put a fresh proper one on it. “There, got it wrapped up properly now, I thought you said you just got it in the alleyway, it looks at least a couple of days of healing there?”

You think quickly. “Oh I got it in the alleys, just not today, I’ve been clambering around in there for days now, I had no idea anyone was left here so I’ve been slowly making my way as I scavenge.”

You watch his face and it seems he buys it. “Yeh, after the collapse almost everyone died or fled. Some of us are back now and making a new start. Well back in a day or two to make sure you haven’t gone crazy on us or anything. Longest I ever heard before a man turned was 3 days, and he just became a crazy so if you’re still you when you see me next I’ll get you outa here.”

You’re left a tray of food as the door is once more locked. And a few more hours pass with no noise outside the door.
> You time to break out of here, youÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢re stronger than most and a few good charges will bust the door wide open.
There’s no way you’re staying locked up in here, not when you’re close to a perfect food source that will last you months, you’re hungers back again stronger than ever for some reason too. Time to act on it!

You get yourself prepared and listen at the door but hear nothing there; you back off and charge the door with your shoulder. You feel it crack but it’s not open yet. You back off and try again, this time smashing through as the bolts give way.

You’re just about to congratulate yourself on your own strength when the shouting catches your attention. Guards are coming down the stairs just 20 feet to your right. Seems smashing a door open makes a lot of noise.

You sprint at them and catch them off guard near the base of the steps, they clearly didn’t expect your speed or strength as you punch one in the chest, feeling his ribs crack.

The others react better, trying to raise their guns. You move quickly and swat one to the side, punching the guy in the throat before spinning on the last guard. You can see in his eyes that he just simply want prepared to fight anything as fast or strong as you as he fires and misses right before you kill him too.

You quickly ensure they are all dead and are about to leave when your hunger gets the better of you and you take a moment to grab one of the men’s knives to hack a chunk of flesh off which you eat ravenously.

As soon as you have eaten and your hunger subsides your senses return somewhat. “What am I doing? I can’t waste time eating here when more guards will be coming.” You think. You glance around but the tunnel is blocked off at the other end and the only way is up the stairs. You can also already hear a lot of guards up there shouting and cocking weapons for you.

“Bloody hungers gotten me killed, guess that bite did have some affect after all.”

You back off, trying to think of a plan when the new guards arrive. At least a dozen with guns, all ready to fire and pointed your way. Once they see what’s happened they simple swear and some look like they are about to fire when one man steps a little forward and raises a hand.

“HOLD!” he looks behind to ensure the men obey before turning back to you. “SO you smashed through a solid door, killed three armed guards and ate some of their flesh, all while not acting crazy. Welcome to our holdout harbinger.”

The men all start swearing and some are clearly getting itchy trigger fingers despite the hold order.

You finally reply. “Well this isn’t exactly how I wanted to be found out but getting bitten earlier today seemed to send my hunger into overdrive. But yes I am indeed a harbinger, I usually only get to tell people before they die rather than before I do but I guess I had a good run and ate my fair share of people” you end with a bit of a grin, awaiting the bullets.

“Oh you won’t die so easily.” The Capt. Replies. You are about to question him when he gives the order to shoot your knees and elbows. It seems like every man there was just waiting for the chance and you feel you limbs practically disintegrate from all the shots.

“Bind the wounds and retrain him, we have experiments to conduct.” You hear as you lose consciousness.

You survive the experiments for several weeks due to your advanced healing and innate strength before your mind and body finally give out to the torture, it seems they found out little of use, but many of them defiantly felt better as they tortured you.