text: [Themes: Horror, scatological, occult, ghost, horror, strong profanity, monster girl, violence, America, relationships]
  
  > look around
  The inside of the video store looks like it was slapped together in a weekend by enslaved, tool-wielding howler monkeys and routinely cleaned by an anosmic with all the enthusiasm of a man who lost a bet. Rotting floorboards create a random topography that would put the landshifts and valleys of the legendary Umar Hills to shame. Faded posters cover much of the surface area of the walls, and a few of them have begun peeling or been stricken with graffiti.
  
  All the available movies have been shoved into racks labeled with one of four categories: Action, Drama, Fantasy and Horror. Alphabetical order isn't implemented in any of them either, so trying to find a specific movie is often futile. It's usually best just to look along the racks and hope something good catches your eye.
  Gibs, Pang, Criswell, and the clerk are here.
  
  "So..." says Gibs, as he scans the movies half-heartedly, "You and Audrey are on the rocks again, eh, Duffy? What happened this time, did she get you enrolled into MIT?"
  
  > examine the action
  It's constructed from a cheap wood board, and sags quite a bit due to the number of movies placed within it.
  
  Inside the action rack is a movie from action rack.
  
  Pang clears his throat and holds up a copy of Blade. "I have
  found the movie for us all tonight," he states, with an annoying authority. "It has electronica and vampires, as all classics should."
  
  "Blade?" screeches Criswell. He's another one of my
  roommates. "They merged techno music and goths for that one. No chance. No way. And if you pick out one that merges country music with the French art film or opera with a Pixar kiddie flick I will drop trou and take a crap on the TV while it's playing."
  
  Criswell's only half joking, as he's demonstrated his willingness to do that before. When his favorite CFL football team lost in the finals last year he was so pissed off at the TV for depicting it that he grabbed a chair from the kitchen, got up and plopped a steaming load on top of the set. Worse, it was two weeks before anyone cleaned it up. We had a veritable bumper crop of flies around the house that year.
  
  > take the action movie
  I grab a movie from the rack. And behold! It's The Lord of the
  Rings. Why on earth the dip behind the counter would deign to
  keep it in this rack is beyond my comprehension. But it
  doesn't matter. I don't really possess the discipline to go get something else.
  
  "OK, I'm set," says Criswell. "Truman Show. Jim Carrey is the
  funniest man alive. This'll be a gem. Hey, Duffy, you
  bringin' that chick you hang around with over tonight? Well, thank me later, man, 'cos she'll be all out of giggles by the time you pull off your pants. For once, anyway."
  
  Barnaby idly toys with a movie and then puts it back on the shelf. "There were some real hotties at that Bead Store, the other day," he says to me. "Cute, but not so cute that they would have nothing to do with you, I mean."
  
  > look at the video
  The clerk at Academy Videos is famous through New Haz for being one of its most smug and sarcastic citizens. He will always criticize a customer's movie choice unless it's one of the ten or fifteen films that he thinks are classic. He is wearing a hypercolor shirt like all employees in the chain, as well as a pair of dirty sweatpants.
  
  "Yo, fruit loops," says the clerk to the lot of us, "I'm shutting this store down to go get a full body massage from the Taiwanese Parlor down the street. Pronto. Get your movies and get out."
  
  "Full-body?" asks Barnaby. "That means they give you a hand job, right?" The clerk perks up and nods gleefully. "Hey, I've always wondered..." Barnaby decides exactly how he wants to phrase it. "Is it customary to let them know when you're about to come? Like, a warning? Or do you not have to do that because they are professionals?"
  
  Nobody says anything for a few moments. I shrug. "I guess it depends on whether you're a sprayer or a lumper," I say.
  
  > check your inventory
  I am carrying my glasses (being worn) and the DVD case. Inside the DVD case is the Lord of the Rings DVD.
  
  "Anyway, I wasn't kidding around. Get your movies and get lost," repeats the clerk. The clerk continues to get ready for his little excursion. He places his armament upon the counter.
  
  "Yeah, yeah! I'm thinkin', I'm thinkin'..." says Criswell. I'm all set, but it looks like we'll have to wait for him or Pang now.
  
  > look at the horror
  The horror rack used to be pretty good, but it's fallen into anarchy just like all the other racks. Criswell once accidentally rented Beaches from this rack and failed to note it was a chick
  flick. He's the only guy in the city that thinks the best horror flick of all-time doesn't feature Bruce Campbell or Bill Chepil or whoever, but rather Bette Midler.
  
  A grime-encrusted area denizen slams his hand on the door and the clerk reluctantly lets him in. The thing shambles his way into the video store. He leaves muddy streaks upon the entrance door, drawing the further ire of the clerk.
  
  "Hey, what the hell is the matter with you, cracky?" I suppose that I disagree that the new denizen is a crackhead (he meanders more in his movement than he shakes, I mean). But I don't say anything. The clerk points a stern finger at him from across the counter. "Can't you read? We're closed! Get out of here!"
  
  > examine the crackhead
  This creature is covered in a thick grit. He (it?) is draped in a musty flannel and shambles about with an unwholesome gait. His forearms are unnaturally long and jaundiced, and his there are several patches of mosiaced-over scabs and seeping wounds covering his face and neck.
  
  The area denizen grabs at the clerk's neck! He gets two hands round the clerk's esophagus, and begins choking the life right out of him!
  
  The clerk gurgles in pain! I hear a guttural moaning sound coming from the attacker. The violence causes Pang and Criswell to hide in the back of the store.
  
  "Hey!" says Barnaby, "Knock it off! Let him go!"
  
  > look at the armament
  I should first say something about the city of New Haz and explain why a video clerk would be packing heat.
  
  Culturally, New Haz is kind of a stinking dump. It's been described as everything from a holding cell for miscreants and scuzzballs, to a bleak planned community gone horribly and violently wrong, to a slightly Utopian New Haven, Connecticut. I like it so much I live thirty-five minutes away, and believe me when I say that I would not work here if the Fort had a mall. Truthfully, it used to be a lot worse before some kid brought to justice 80% of the city's Most Wanted Criminals a while back. But it's nevertheless rather rough, and you're legally required to possess a firearm to enter the west side.
  
  This gun uses nail magazines, and fires them off slowly and messily, one at a time. Nice accuracy, but it has no spray or automatic settings. It's on the small side, as small as the manufacturer could go without embracing the "ladies choice" designation.
  
  This weapon has 7 shots remaining.
  
  The grimy denizen throttles the clerk!
  
  The clerk slumps to the floor, disappearing behind the register counter.
  
  "Christ, Duffy, get the goddamn gun!" screams Barnaby. The guy (creature, whatever it is) is between the gun and Barnaby. It emits a throaty snarl and slowly shambles toward him. Barnaby gives the door a couple solid kicks and opens it.
  
  > get the armament
  I casually lift the gun from the counter without the clerk really noticing.
  
  Barnaby takes a swing at the filthy mound. He connects to its sternum (a solid blow) but the guy / creature is not stunned, not driven back, not nearly phased by it at all.
  
  "Shoot the damn thing, Duffy!" yells Barnaby. "Now,
  goddammit!"
  
  > shoot zombie
  [Specify which gun to shoot with.]
  
  > shoot the zombie with the armament
  I shoot the creature!
  
  The creature collapses and falls to the ground.
  
  > search zombie
  The creature is empty.
  
  > look at the clerk
  The clerk at Academy Videos is famous through New Haz for being one of its most smug and sarcastic citizens. He will always criticize a customer's movie choice unless it's one of the ten or fifteen films that he thinks are classic. He is wearing a hypercolor shirt like all employees in the chain, as well as a pair of dirty sweatpants.
  
  He  is currently knocked out.
  
  > examine the zombie
  This creature is covered in a thick grit. He (it?) is draped in a musty flannel that hasn't been in fashion since Gygax was happily married to his first wife. His forearms are unnaturally long and jaundiced, and his there are several patches of mosiaced-over scabs and seeping wounds covering his face and neck.
  
  It  is currently knocked out.
  
  > talk to Barnaby
  [ Use "TALK TO CHARACTER" to talk to a particular character in the game. ]
  
  I can't think of anything to say right now.
  
  > read the poster
  The drama rack should, in theory, contain a bunch of films that are shown on TNN, but it instead contains a hodgepodge of differently genred flicks. Criswell once took the DVD that Gibs shot a couple years ago where he was apologizing to his girlfriend for getting into a threesome at this one guy Avandre's bachelor party and put it in this rack. That was some serious drama. But I think Gibs rented and destroyed it when he found out.
  
  I can't do that with the posters.
  
  > examine the posters
  wall. That's really the only one of note. There are some other ones that I can't make out, and by 'make out,' I mean 'they were filmed in the sixties so I have no idea what their deal is.'