text: [Themes: Alien Visitation, aliens]
  
  > examine the stump
  You have many fond memories of sitting on this stump in the dappled shade and contemplating life.
  
  > Inventory
  You are empty-handed.
  
  > stand
  You push to your feet.
  
  > Go north
  The peeling paint reveals the low quality lumber used to build this house. You've noticed that the house groans and protests more every winter. In many ways, you're amazed it has survived this long. The screen door leans against the house, having pulled free of the rotting door frame several months ago. There is a huge patch of weeds to the northwest that used to be a garden. The back door is to the north, and the path back over the hill leads south.
  
  > pull the weeds
  It's too far away.
  
  > Yes
  Watch the skies!
  
  Useful information about the game is contained in the "hint" menu.
  
  Coming over the crest of the thickly wooded hill, you see the
  decrepit shack that has always been your home. Your long walks through the Appalachian hills usually help clear your mind. You had hoped that the throbbing, insistent pain behind your eyes would go away with this one. You still don't want to admit it, but this pain is exactly how it felt the last two times. You better get your camera. After all, this is why you bought it.
  
  You are on the top of the hill just south of your house, standing ankle deep in autumn leaves. The path you are walking on leads to the south. Your trusty thinking stump is right beside the path here.
  
  > go northwest
  You dread going past what's left of your garden in order to get to your well. The weeds stand tall in the cool fall air, mocking you.
  
  The pain in your head gets much worse, whether from getting a closer look at you garden or from the impending 'visit', you aren't sure. It goes away when you return to the back door.
  
  > examine the weeds
  You and Maybel planted the garden together in the spring, before your headaches started. After the headaches and the visits started, you picked what you could and let the rest go to seed.
  
  > go southeast
  Your house is to the north, and the path is to the south. There's no sense in plundering through the woods until it's absolutely necessary.
  
  > go north
  As you grab the doorknob, the pain in your head gets worse. You rub the bridge of your nose, hoping that will help. It doesn't. You don't have much time now, so you press into the house.
  
  "Is your headache gone?" Maybel turns from the sink to look at you. Soapy water drips from the ends of her fingers as she looks at you carefully, taking in your shaking hands, the wild look in your eyes. Her fingers clench. "When you asked me to move in with you, we made some ground rules. I don't talk about your dad, and you don't act like him. No you-ef-ohs and no skits-o-frenia, right? I've been holdin' up my end. Where the hell is yours?" She swears and turns back to the sink.
  
  Your tiny kitchen barely has room for you and Maybel, let alone
  your small appliances. The living room is to the north, and the back door is south.
  Maybel is washing dishes.
  
  > go to the north
  homey. The plywood floor is mostly covered by a large throw rug. The wood-burning stove casts a cheery glow on the sagging couch and the coffee table overflowing with books. The front door leads north, your bedroom is to the west, and the kitchen is to the south.
  
  > go to the west
  This is the only bedroom in the house. Once you shared it with
  your parents. Then you had it to yourself when your mom moved out and your dad went to the asylum. Now you share it with Maybel. Clothes and the old mattress that you use as a bed mostly cover the dirty plywood floor. There is one meticulously clean spot near the bed, reserved for the camera and the pictures. The living room is back east.
  You see a Polaroid camera, a photo, and a set of grainy pictures
  here.
  
  > get the camera
  Taken.
  
  > examine photo
  This is the one photo that you managed to take the last time this happened. You couldn't take pictures when "it" was overhead because of all of the wild, incomprehensible thoughts they sent screaming through your brain. They let go of your mind only when you were almost unconscious. The ship started moving off over the tree-tops. You managed to get the polaroid up to snap a picture of the receding light through the branches of the trees. It's not enough to convince anyone else, but it might be enough for you. Something to help you believe that you're not as crazy as your father-- if your father really is crazy.
  
  > look at the pictures
  Every time you look at these pictures you think of your father giving the film to you. He was home just to pick up some clothes before the sheriff drove him out to the asylum. He pulled the undeveloped roll out from under the mattress and pressed it into your hand, saying, "Believe. You're my son. They'll come for you too." That was ten years ago. The developed pictures are blurred and grainy, but unmistakably the same thing that has already visited you twice. Judging from the pain in your head, a third visit is on the way.
  
  > Go south
  Maybel is washing dishes.
  
  > give the camera to Maybel
  "Oh, go take yer pictures in the woods," Mabel spits the words at you, "Maybe you can sell 'em to the Nah-shun-el En-choir-er!" She snorts. "Wouldn't that be funny. You makin' money off this. Ha!"
  
  > About yourself
  Assuming you haven't lost your grip on reality, you are Isaiah Knott, a twenty-seven year old man from the Appalachian mountains. You are wearing your comfortable jeans, a thick flannel shirt, and hiking boots.
  
  You have a hellishly bad headache that's threatening to get worse.
  
  > look at the camera
  This is your treasured camera, the thing that will (hopefully) prove your sanity-- at least to yourself. You had to save up for a month before you could buy it.
  
  > go to the north
  homey. The plywood floor is mostly covered by a large throw rug. The wood-burning stove casts a cheery glow on the sagging couch and the coffee table overflowing with books. The front door leads north, your bedroom is to the west, and the kitchen is to the south.
  
  > Examine books
  Looking at the books reminds you of meeting Maybel at the library. When you first started dating her you were both reading every trashy thriller and spy novel you could get your hands on, often over the other's shoulder. Recently, though, you've started getting more and more books about UFO's and mental health. Your reading material has slowly diverged until now you have two completely separate piles of books, encamped on opposite ends of the coffee table.
  
  > read the books
  You pick up one of the mental health books and open it. The letters are blurred, and trying to push your eyes into focus aggravates the pain behind your nose. The best thing for your mental health right now is to get you camera and get out to the clearing.
  
  > Go south
  Your tiny kitchen barely has room for you and Maybel, let alone
  your small appliances. The living room is to the north, and the back door is south.
  Maybel is washing dishes.
  
  > Go south
  You are on the top of the hill just south of your house, standing ankle deep in autumn leaves. The path you are walking on leads to the south. Your trusty thinking stump is right beside the path here.
  
  > Go south
  This is the path that most of your walks follow. In general, your walks are more pleasant than this one is turning out to be. The path curves off to the southwest, but you know that if you don't head for the clearing to the southeast, the pain will start making you throw up.
  
  > go to the south-east
  You plunge off of the beaten path through the underbrush. The pain
  in your head pushes you through a blur of brambles and branches. Your body presses on even after your will has given up, as if it were possible to outrun this spike of pain. Droplets of water spattering your face bring you around long enough to realize that you've just splashed through a wide, shallow stream. There isn't one within miles of your house.
  
  sprawled on a grassy clearing that you realize the pain has stopped: you've arrived. The "ship" is already here, hovering about 30 feet up and quietly humming. Amazingly, they aren't clouding your thoughts like they did the last two times. You roll onto your back, bring the polaroid up, and start photographing the ship between labored breaths. The mechanical whine of your Polaroid drowns out the gentle hum of the ship. Picture after picture comes spewing out of the camera's mouth.
  
  The fatigue from running catches up with you, forcing your head
  back into the thick grass. Once your head is relaxed, there isn't much keeping your eyelids open. You find yourself relaxing into darkness. As your conciousness recedes, you start to feel things crawling into your hair, crawling in and you need to lift your head, lift your head up right now and push out of the darkness, get away from the things crawling in your hair, lift your head and
  
  wake up.
  
  You blink your eyes, and see that you're in a hospital ward. Even after getting up, it takes you several moments to realize that this can't possibly be a hospital. There's no bed, no instruments-- no doors, for that matter. There is only blinding whiteness and sterility all around you.
  
  The room is of uniform whiteness, and far too bright. The air
  tastes odd; perhaps it is the lack of any detectable odors that makes it strange.
  
  A deep breath brings in a faint hint of nervous sweat-- your own. At least you can smell something.
  
  > smell yourself
  There is just the faintest hint of nervous sweat about you.
  
  > stand
  You're already standing!
  
  A section of one wall turns to a thick white mist. An alien steps through the mist, which becomes seamless wall again. The alien raises its slender hand, palm toward you.
  
  > hit alien
  You strike at the alien, but your blows are stopped by an invisible force. The alien shakes its head and steps through the wall.
  
  > Hello
  The alien stands and blinks its large eyes for a few seconds. Finally you see its mouth curl into a tiny smile and its head bobs politely.
  
  The alien gestures to its right, and a yellow square slides out of the wall and hovers by its hand.
  
  > look at the square
  If ever there were a perfectly two dimensional object, this would be it. It looks like someone has found a way to apply yellow paint directly onto a square swatch of thin air.
  
  The alien is repeatedly opening and closing its tiny mouth and patiently gesturing with its delicate arms. First it points to the yellow square, then it points to its own mouth, and repeats.
  
  > eat square
  The yellow square doesn't appear appetizing.
  
  The alien is repeatedly opening and closing its tiny mouth and patiently gesturing with its delicate arms. First it points to the yellow square, then it points to its own mouth, and repeats.
  
  > say square
  You should say what you want to say in double quotes, for example, SAY "HELLO".
  
  The alien moves toward you and gently pushes your jaw up and down before retreating again and pointing at the square. It seems the alien wants you to say something. Something about the square, probably.
  
  > talk to the square
  I suppose you can talk to it, but it can't hear you.
  
  The alien is repeatedly opening and closing its tiny mouth and patiently gesturing with its delicate arms. First it points to the yellow square, then it points to its own mouth, and repeats.
  
  > look at shapes
  Which shapes do you mean, the red cube on the left, the yellow sphere in the middle, or the blue pyramid on the right?
  
  > examine cube
  A soft red light effuses from the floating cube.