text: [Themes: Humor, humor, teenage protagonist]
  
  > Go downward
  You brace your legs against the sides of the vent and descend in a controlled slide.
  
  A cool, damp road beneath the mountain. Only a couple of the lights here work, and their dim yellow glow reflects off the slick concrete walls. Tons of rocks block the road to the southwest. To the northeast, you can see blue and red lights flashing in the darkness. There's an open exhaust vent in the wall here, leading UP.
  
  > go to the northeast
  A police car has skidded and crashed into the side of the tunnel here, its lights filling the surrounding blackness with harsh flashes of red and blue. You can see the dimly-lit tunnel continuing to the southwest. Northeast and further in is nothing but pitch darkness.
  
  > look in Car
  In the police car are some fragments of eggshell and a body.
  
  > take the eggshell
  You pick them off of his clothing. There's a big clump of them near his feet, too. You've got almost the whole shell, now. Good for you, Bonnie! Helping Mother in the kitchen really paid off!
  
  > examine the body
  Even Officer Wilcox didn't deserve to die like this! The one consolation is that his brain appears to have been pulled out through his ear before the car hit the wall, so at least he didn't
  suffer.
  
  > go southwest
  A cool, damp road beneath the mountain. Only a couple of the lights here work, and their dim yellow glow reflects off the slick concrete walls. Tons of rocks block the road to the southwest. To the northeast, you can see blue and red lights flashing in the darkness. There's an open exhaust vent in the wall here, leading UP.
  
  > go upwards
  You scrabble back up the dark exhaust vent.
  
  This circular room is ultramodern, like something from twenty years in the future. The sleek, smart-looking furniture is a symphony in avocado, orange, and mustard-yellow. There are exits set into the wooden paneling to the southwest and northwest, and another exit past a small entry foyer to the east. A spiral staircase leads up, and a gaping exhaust vent leads down.
  
  Renee Finch is plopped in a comfortable-looking easy chair, leafing through a leather-bound book.
  
  > go to the east
  A long arched hallway of frosted glass running east and west. The light of sunset tinges the serene blue of the carpet with orange and gold. The room is lined with displays, each featuring another brilliant MinSystems invention--two especially impressive ones are the weapons display and the transportation display. Heavy glass doors lead into the main MinSystems offices to the east, while a cozy foyer at the other end of the hall leads to the Minskys' private home.
  
  You can see a paper target here.
  
  > go to the east
  You open the doors a crack. An oozing tentacle shoots towards you! You quickly slam the door and throw the emergency lock. Your brief glimpses of the offices were enough to tell you they're totally overrun with Brain Guzzlers--you're not getting out that way!
  
  > examine Cannon
  A sleek, futuristic gun with three brass barrels. It's bulky and looks powerful, but it's light enough to hold in one hand. There's a dial you can turn on the side under a display. Currently the display is showing an image of a hand with the index and middle fingers extended, like a sideways peace sign.
  
  > examine the display
  Which do you mean, the weapons display or the transportation display?
  
  > turn the dial
  You turn the dial until you hear a click. Now the display shows a hand curled into a fist.
  
  > turn the dial
  You turn the dial until you hear a click. Now the display shows a hand with the palm and all five fingers lying flat.
  
  > turn the dial
  You turn the dial until you hear a click. Now the display shows a hand with the index and middle fingers extended.
  
  > Go west
  This circular room is ultramodern, like something from twenty years in the future. The sleek, smart-looking furniture is a symphony in avocado, orange, and mustard-yellow. There are exits set into the wooden paneling to the southwest and northwest, and another exit past a small entry foyer to the east. A spiral staircase leads up, and a gaping exhaust vent leads down.
  
  Renee Finch is plopped in a comfortable-looking easy chair, leafing through a leather-bound book.
  
  > talk to Renee
  [Picture number 11 here.]
  
  "Hey, Bonnie." Renee smiles tiredly. "That was a heck of a thing. Now what are we supposed to do?"
  
  1) "We need to rescue more people!"
  2) "We need to destroy those things!"
  3) "It doesn't matter. We're safe now."
  
  > 1
  ["We need to rescue more people!"]
  
  "Yeah, no kidding." Renee bites her lip. "Dad was at that festival. At least Mom was out of town--gosh, you don't think this is happening in other places, too, do you? It was just so...I was...I was at the diner, like always. I was in the middle of making hamburgers for crying out loud!"
  
  She wipes a smudge of dirt off of her cheek. "That diner was--I lived there. I worked there every--every day. And now it's just--it didn't even take them two minutes to tear that place up. Like it was nothing."
  
  1) "That must have hurt. I know how much you loved that place."
  2) "Shouldn't you be happy? I thought you hated working there."
  
  > 1
  ["That must have hurt. I know how much you loved that
  place."]
  
  "It should have hurt. It was scary as heck, that's for sure. But I--I--this is horrible, but part of me sort of enjoyed it. I won't ever have to stand over that stupid grill again. I won't just have to stand there and take it when kids from school show up. There's a million little things that--I might be dead tomorrow, but at least I know those things are over, y'know?" She swallows.
  "It's sick, but I just feel free now."
  
  1) "What happened wasn't your fault."
  2) (hug Renee)
  
  > 2
  [(hug Renee)]
  
  Renee seems surprised, but after a moment, she hugs you back. "Thanks, Bonnie. I don't know why I'm worrying about a stupid building when my parents could be... could be dead."
  
  1) "They're probably somewhere safe right now, just as worried about you."
  2) "Your parents have been through so much! They're tough as nails." 3) "I guess any of us might get some bad news about our families when this is over, but there isn't much to be done about it right now."
  
  > 3
  ["I guess any of us might get some bad news about our families
  when this is over, but there isn't much to be done about it right now."]
  
  "I guess," Renee says. "Can we talk about something else now?"
  
  1) "What's that you're reading? Does the professor have an eye for good science fiction?"
  2) "Okay, I should go!"
  
  > 1
  ["What's that you're reading? Does the professor have an eye for
  good science fiction?"]
  
  "Somehow, science fiction doesn't seem so fun anymore. Not right now, at least." Renee holds up the book. "Period literature--Ye Goodwyfe's Bodice Overfloweth."
  
  1) "What's that you're reading? Does the professor have an eye for good science fiction?"
  2) "Okay, I should go!"
  
  > 2
  ["Okay, I should go!"]
  
  "See ya!"
  
  This circular room is ultramodern, like something from twenty years in the future. The sleek, smart-looking furniture is a symphony in avocado, orange, and mustard-yellow. There are exits set into the wooden paneling to the southwest and northwest, and another exit past a small entry foyer to the east. A spiral staircase leads up, and a gaping exhaust vent leads down.
  
  Renee Finch is plopped in a comfortable-looking easy chair, leafing through a leather-bound book.
  
  > examine the garden
  Water-filled tubes cover the south wall of the kitchen. Lush fruit-bearing plants of every description practically drip from them, green and bursting with life. It doesn't look like there's any ripe fruit ready to pick at the moment.
  
  > examine the checklist
  A neat little copy of the checklist on the blackboard, which you can use to keep track of the BUBU components you still need to give to the Professor. It reads:
  
  Micro-Mini Computer
  Brain Guzzler DNA Sample
  Purified Fructonium
  20,000-Ton Impenetrable Steel Chassis
  Spork
  
  > take the plant
  (That's just part of the set.)
  
  > Go northeast
  This circular room is ultramodern, like something from twenty years in the future. The sleek, smart-looking furniture is a symphony in avocado, orange, and mustard-yellow. There are exits set into the wooden paneling to the southwest and northwest, and another exit past a small entry foyer to the east. A spiral staircase leads up, and a gaping exhaust vent leads down.
  
  Renee Finch is plopped in a comfortable-looking easy chair, leafing through a leather-bound book.
  
  > go upwards
  A dome covers the roof of the laboratory, converting this top floor into a vast circular workspace with a view of the surrounding mountains  beneath the oranges and pinks of an evening sky. In the center of the room is some sort of half-completed machine. Near it is a cluttered desk, with a blackboard looming over it.
  
  Professor Barrabas Rudolph Minsky is up to his elbows in the machine, tinkering away.
  
  On the cluttered desk is an enormous coffee mug.
  
  > talk tothe prof .
  [Picture number 10 here.]
  
  "Ah, greetings again, my young chum."
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "These eggshells have got to be chock full of Deanna!"
  7) "Got your spork, Professor!"
  8) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 6
  ["These eggshells have got to be chock full of Deanna!"]
  
  "That's 'DNA', but thank you, young chum! These are just what I was looking for."
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "Got your spork, Professor!"
  7) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 6
  ["Got your spork, Professor!"]
  
  "Perfect!" The professor tosses the spork carelessly into the BUBU's inner workings.
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 2
  ["A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one
  of those?"]
  
  "If it helps, the perforation doesn't have to be neat. You can even do the job yourself if necessary. But the membrane must be quite large." The professor holds out his hands. "Imagine this, but much, much larger. At least the size of a wall, or the side of a house."
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 3
  ["Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"]
  
  "Why, use one of mine! You may not believe this, Miss Noodleman, but my latest design packs almost a full bit of processing power into an iron-plastic shell no heavier than twelve ordinary bowling balls! Sadly, I used the only working prototype as a brain for my revolutionary Wife of Tomorrow, and goodness knows where she is since the attack--off eating bon-bons, I expect."
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 4
  ["Where can I find fructonium?"]
  
  "Why, that's the atomic element which makes up fruit! Of course, we would need it in highly purified form, broken down to its most basic elemental state--difficult for all but the most talented botanical chemists. Good luck!"
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 5
  ["Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis
  back here?"]
  
  "The professor chuckles paternally. "Well, of course I wouldn't expect a mere girl to be able to lift so many thousands of tons. No, no, I've got a suitable chassis prepared, as a matter of fact--all I need from you is a nice design to use as a pattern. Something creative and pretty, anything you want, with one caveat--the BUBU will be vulnerable during the warm-up process, so in order to avoid suspicion, it must look exactly like a genuine Brain Guzzler spaceship.
  Shouldn't be hard for a teen-ager like yourself, with your science fiction and your high schools and what not."
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Gosh, professor, how am I supposed to get a 20,000-ton chassis back here?"
  6) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 6
  ["I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"]
  
  "I appreciate that, young lady."
  
  A dome covers the roof of the laboratory, converting this top floor into a vast circular workspace with a view of the surrounding mountains  beneath the oranges and pinks of an evening sky. In the center of the room is some sort of half-completed machine. Near it is a cluttered desk, with a blackboard looming over it.
  
  Professor Barrabas Rudolph Minsky is up to his elbows in the machine, tinkering away.
  
  On the cluttered desk is an enormous coffee mug.
  
  > talk to Renee
  [Picture number 11 here.]
  
  "Hey there."
  
  1) "What's that you're reading? Does the professor have an eye for good science fiction?"
  2) "Renee, you're good with space things, right? Could you design a spaceship that would fool the Brain Guzzlers?"
  3) "Okay, I should go!"
  
  > 2
  ["Renee, you're good with space things, right? Could you design a spaceship that would fool the Brain Guzzlers?"]
  
  "Well, they're basically just balls of gelatin that move towards food sources, so, yeah, probably. Here, try something like this." Renee rips a page out of the book and doodles a slick looking spaceship on it. It's perfect!
  
  1) "What's that you're reading? Does the professor have an eye for good science fiction?"
  2) "Okay, I should go!"
  
  > 2
  ["Okay, I should go!"]
  
  "See ya!"
  
  This circular room is ultramodern, like something from twenty years in the future. The sleek, smart-looking furniture is a symphony in avocado, orange, and mustard-yellow. There are exits set into the wooden paneling to the southwest and northwest, and another exit past a small entry foyer to the east. A spiral staircase leads up, and a gaping exhaust vent leads down.
  
  Renee Finch is plopped in a comfortable-looking easy chair, leafing through a leather-bound book.
  
  > go upwards
  A dome covers the roof of the laboratory, converting this top floor into a vast circular workspace with a view of the surrounding mountains  beneath the oranges and pinks of an evening sky. In the center of the room is some sort of half-completed machine. Near it is a cluttered desk, with a blackboard looming over it.
  
  Professor Barrabas Rudolph Minsky is up to his elbows in the machine, tinkering away.
  
  On the cluttered desk is an enormous coffee mug.
  
  > talk tothe prof .
  [Picture number 10 here.]
  
  "Ah, greetings again, my young chum."
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "Professor, Renee drew this ship design..."
  6) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 5
  ["Professor, Renee drew this ship design..."]
  
  "That's just what we need!" the professor says. "Those slimy fiends will never see it coming, now!"
  
  1) "I have a question about the Brain Guzzlers."
  2) "A 'perforated silver membrane'? Where am I supposed to find one of those?"
  3) "Where can I find a micro-mini computer?"
  4) "Where can I find fructonium?"
  5) "I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"
  
  > 5
  ["I guess I won't bother you any more right now!"]
  
  "I appreciate that, young lady."
  
  A dome covers the roof of the laboratory, converting this top floor into a vast circular workspace with a view of the surrounding mountains  beneath the oranges and pinks of an evening sky. In the center of the room is some sort of half-completed machine. Near it is a cluttered desk, with a blackboard looming over it.
  
  Professor Barrabas Rudolph Minsky is up to his elbows in the machine, tinkering away.
  
  On the cluttered desk is an enormous coffee mug.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a telepod (open but empty)
  a RPS cannon
  a checklist
  a Depth Charge Deluxe
  a game pamphlet
  a Canyonville High yearbook
  a collapsible hula hoop
  a skirt-and-sweater combo (being worn)
  
  > examine the rocks
  They're big and heavy, and oh boy, are there ever a lot of them.
  
  > Inventory
  You are carrying:
  a telepod (open but empty)
  a RPS cannon
  a checklist
  a Depth Charge Deluxe
  a game pamphlet
  a Canyonville High yearbook
  a collapsible hula hoop
  a skirt-and-sweater combo (being worn)
  
  > turn the dial
  You turn the dial until you hear a click. Now the display shows a hand curled into a fist.
  
  > turn the dial
  You turn the dial until you hear a click. Now the display shows a hand with the palm and all five fingers lying flat.
  
  > shoot the the rocks
  BA-THOOOM!
  
  The RPS cannon emits a powerful lance of pure anti-rock, blasting the rockslide into vapor. For a moment, you think it didn't fully clear the hole. Then you breathe in the cool, fresh desert air and realize that night has fallen. The open road before you leads into darkness. What could be out there? Can Canyonville still be saved?