text: [Themes: mystery / thriller, puzzle, humor]
  
  Case File
  
  Hey, Elle!
  
  I'm sending you this e-mail--so old fashioned, I know--but I am just DYING to go to this new amusement park, Suicidal Skies! Wow--that was a bad pun. Anyway, I just thought, hey? Why not ask Elle to go with me? Okay, so the park actually belongs to my aunt, so we get in for free! But I'll also be working a good portion of the day. A fair warning--the place has a bit of a reputation now, and not the good kind. Obviously, or I wouldn't say warning. Anyway, no one has been hurt or injured or anything. The place is completely safe. It is just--well, I'd rather not go into detail about it in this letter, but I guess what i'm saying is, this isn't all for fun that I'm asking you to visit. The way you took down Klent Markus during my stay at The Dandelion Hills B & B --that took real skill! So I was hoping you could maybe help my aunt out before people stop visiting Suicidal Skies altogether?
  
  Avril Jung :D :D
  
  > take the case!
  You approach the entrance of Suicidal Skies amusement park to find it is practically desserted, not exactly a welcoming site.
  
  "Hey! you got a ticket?" a grumpy man at a ticket booth demands.
  
  > talk to the man
  "The name's Faucey. You got a ticket, lil miss?"
  
  "My name's Elle, and yes, I have a ticket. I'm not altogether sure I want to enter, though-"
  
  "You're here, aint ya?"
  
  "Yes.."
  
  "You got a ticket, don't ya?"
  
  "Yes.."
  
  "Then what's the holdup?"
  
  > This place is, like...empty. Is it even open?
  "Course it is, sure as I'm standing here waiting for ya ticket."
  
  "Then why is it so--empty?"
  
  "What was that? I missed ya question. I'm a bit hard of hearing."
  
  "Why is this place so empty?"
  
  "You'll have to speak up, lil miss."
  
  "You just don't want to answer the question, do you?"
  
  "Well, lil miss is pretty clever."
  
  > Your friend says this place has a bit of a bad reputation. Is that true?
  "Maybe it does...maybe it doesn't. Why don't you fork that ticket over an' see for yourself."
  
  > How long have you been working here?
  "Too long, I can tell ya that. I was here before Mrs. Francis purchased this here place. Didn't know what she was getting into, that one."
  
  "What do you mean?"
  
  "Nothing much. Got a ticket for me?"
  
  You control the urge to sigh and roll your eyes with frustration. This is getting nowhere fast. "I've got a ticket for you."
  
  "Well why didn't ya just say so earlier?"
  
  > explore the amusement park
  
  > use your cellphone
  Welcome to your Cellphone!
  
  Browse through pictures or call a contact for a hint with a difficult puzzle :D
  
  > Contacts
  
  > Avril Jung
  Avril's voice sounds staticy through the phone's speakers.
  
  "Elle? You're here, right?"
  
  "Right."
  
  "And I'm a total jerk. I'm sorry, but--things have came up. I have to help my aunt all day today. I'm not asking you to join me in this boredom. Explore the park. Have fun. I mean, isn't it actually better for figuring out what's behind--
  
  well, the whole--events?"
  
  "Events?"
  
  "Right."
  
  "Care to clarify?"
  
  "I--got to go. Talk to you later!"
  
  "Wait!!"
  
  > Mark Johnson
  Mark picks up on the first ring.
  
  "How's it going, Elle? How's Suicidal Skies?"
  
  "Truthfully? Desserted! I've only passed a handful of people since entering the park. Not that I've been to a huge number of parks, but isn't that--odd for an amusement part?"
  
  "As someone who has been to a fair share of theme parks--yeah. That's really odd."
  
  > Where can you get a game card?
  "Avril probably has one for you--if you haven't yet, I'd give her a call!"
  
  "Thanks bunches!"
  
  "Have fun!"
  
  > Could use a hint!
  [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction]
  
  Welcome to "Cryogenic Failure." Thank you for taking the time to check out this story, I do hope that you like it.
  
  This is a pretty simple and straight-forward "Choose Your Own Story." I've based it on the books of the same name, so there are no items or other gaming-type parts of this story -- it just just a story where you get to decide what direction the story goes (Well, okay, there is a little scripting and variable use here and there, just for fun...). If you are looking for more of a "Game" adventure, this is not it.
  
  At the same time, if you are looking for a story, I hope you like this one. As mentioned in the intro, this is set in a space ship at some time in the far future. You play yourself, a volunteer on a space ship/probe that has been sent into deep space. Apparently something went wrong during the travel, and your decisions will decide what happens to the story. The endings are wide and diverse, even if the story is mostly linear.
  
  Once again, thank you for checking out this story. Feel free to leave me comments or discuss the story in the forums!
  
  P.S. The next page is the title page, click on the title or my name to continue...
  
  [Author's Note: You signed up for a long space journey -- so long that you would have to be frozen in a cryogenic state for decades until the ship reached the destination: a new planet that was just like earth, but had no inhabitants. The ship was automated, and a group of 249 other people were frozen with you -- to be automatically un-frozen when the ship reached its destination and landed on the planet. After many strange dreams, you find yourself waking up, but something doesn't seem quite right. This waking up process is not what was described to you at all, and now you're going to have to figure out what happened and what you're doing to do about it! This is a relatively simple choose-your-own ending story adventure. There are many different endings (eight total) with a good story (I hope) behind each. Enjoy picking your own story!]
  
  > let's go!
  
  > Cryogenic Failure
  Dreaming... Ice cream. Rivers of chocolate. Sweet smelling candy.
  
  It was so long ago when you entered the space ship. Or wait, was it just yesterday? How long had you been dreaming? This was insanity! You needed to wake up! Or did you? No, perhaps you could just drift off to sleep and dream about sunny days...would you ever see the sun again? No, probably not. But you should see A sun someday, right? Why? ...
  
  No, wait, it all was starting to come back to you. You had volunteered. You were one of the very first real space pioneers! "The Program," as everyone started calling it, was to take you and 249 other people to a distant planet. The astronomers kept calling it MR-2413B, but everyone else called it "New Earth." It was many hundreds of light-years away from earth, but you were going there. The scientists had assured everyone that the planet had an environment just like earth and that you would be able to settle there. Sure, that solar system had two suns, but New Earth was supposed to be warm and have plenty of oxygen. And you were going there!
  
  It was going to take decades for the ship to arrive at New Earth, so all the people going there (except the ship's crew) were in cryogenic tubes, frozen to keep them alive, but still young enough to settle when you arrived. When you stepped into the tube, you felt a momentary pain, but then nothing. It has been dark and you have been dreaming, but you have no idea how long it has been. But now you started to feel some pain again! That wasn't right. You were supposed to remain completely frozen until the ship landed on New Earth. Maybe you were actually there! Perhaps now it was time to start your new life on a truly new planet!
  
  The last thing you remember seeing before your "sleep" was a scientist who was monitoring your vital signs in the tube. He smiled at you as the door to the tube shut and he turned on the cryo-freeze. They told you that when the ship arrived at the new planet that the tubes would be opened and everyone could walk right out of the ship and into the new world. As you started to wake up, you felt some pain from your blood flow expanding across your body.
  
  As you open your eyes, the first thing you notice is that it is not as light as you expected. In fact, things are almost dark. You blink a couple times and try and focus. You can see that you are still inside the ship. That doesn't seem right, somehow. There is some light, but it is the dim lighting of the ship, and nothing else. You can hear a low hum, something running in the ship, but that is all. You see no other people. You hear nothing else going on. This is not what you expected at all!
  
  You feel pins and needles all over your body, but you force yourself to start using your muscles. With an effort, you reach a hand forward and contact the glass door of the tube. Strangely, the glass moves. You push a little harder and realize that the door of your tube is open. It swings on it's hinges without a sound and stands open. You take a step forward and your leg holds your weight precariously. Looking around, you can see that you are in the main tube setup room -- the room where people went to get placed in their tubes. There is machinery here to move the tubes around. Yours is the only tube here for some reason. You remember that the other tubes were placed in containers to fit as many as possible in the space of the small ship.
  
  There are no windows in the room. You pause and listen carefully, but still cannot hear anyone or anything else. Something is definitely wrong. There should be others here. There should be medical people here to check on you. You should be on the surface of New Earth! But instead you are somewhere in the ship, apparently all alone. At least the crew should be here to check on you -- but no, no one and nothing. You have to decide what to do first. Should you head up the ladder and try and find out why the crew isn't here with you? Off to the right is the long storage area for cryogenic containers. Should you go check to see what happened to all the other people? When you arrived, you really didn't see much of the ship. Maybe things are really okay now, and you should just take a look around the ship to see what you can find...
  
  > head up the ladder to search for the crew...
  You walk towards the ladder and your footsteps echo against the bare metal walls. As you climb the ladder, your muscles protest a little from not being used in, well, you have no idea how long. You carefully pull and push yourself up the ladder and through a hole in the deck.
  
  As you rise through the hole in the floor, you are amazed by the number of computers and lights you see in view all around you. At the same time, you are nearly overwhelmed by the view -- there are windows here in all directions! You can see space and lots of stars all around you. This must be some sort of tower, because you can see in every direction: and every direction looks exactly the same. After a moment, you wonder why you don't see any planets at all...this is not what you expected.
  
  There are six seats spaced around the room in front of various consoles and computers. While there are some flashing lights and various computer screens, there is still no noise at all. There is no one in the seats. You finally realize that while you met the captain of the crew before your trip, you really don't know anything about the crew. You wonder why there is absolutely no one here. Did they leave? Where could they have gone? But wait, if the journey was so long, how in the world was this supposed to work?
  
  As you continue to wonder about so many things, you look around the space a bit more carefully. There is one chair that seems to be centered around a number of screens. This looks like the captain's chair, and it has some controls on the armrests of the chair. There is another chair that sits next to a screen marked "Navigation" and another chair next to a screen marked "Research." None of the other screens are labeled. There is also another ladder headed up into the ceiling.
  
  > go check out the captain's chair...
  This main chair is clearly where the captain of the ship would sit. It has a view out to space and has only one small computer monitor below the windows that is currently blank. You can see part of the ship below where the chair sits in the control tower.
  
  In the arm of the captain's chair, you can see a small touch-screen control panel. There are three lines of text that appear on the touch screen panel: 22136, 22137, and 22138.
  
  > leave the captain's chair...
  You are standing on the bridge of the space ship. There are computers running all around you, flashing various lights, but everything is still completely silent. There are six empty seats around the circular room and large windows looking out in all directions into nothing but blank space.
  
  There is one chair that seems to be centered around a number of screens. This looks like the captain's chair, and it has some controls on the armrests of the chair. There is another chair that sits next to a screen marked "Navigation" and another chair next to a screen marked "Research." None of the other screens are labeled. There is also a ladder headed up into the ceiling.
  
  > head up the next ladder...
  As you head up the next ladder, you can see light coming from the hole above you. When your head clears the portal, you simply cannot believe your eyes: it looks like you have stepped right out of the ship and onto a planet of some kind!
  
  Above you is a bright light. Squinting as you examine it, it appears to be a sun. In fact, you can even feel a bit of heat coming from it. But you know you haven't walked outside. You can hear a gentle sound of crickets chirping and looking around, you can see various types of plant life. You are quite sure that you can even smell some fresh rain in the space, and you simply cannot understand how you can be outside. You look back down the ladder, and you can see the bridge below, but you still stand in what looks like a planet, just with a hole in the ground.
  
  Looking a bit closer at the ground, you can see that there is indeed a metal spaceship floor here. Moving away from the hole, there is dirt and sand covering the floor of the ship. As you look even more carefully, you can see the most of the plants are actually in pots, carefully placed around the space. You can start to make out the edges of the ship in other places, and you can even see pipes and lines running around above the plants, apparently the source of the water. When you look very carefully you can see ridges in the "sky" above you: clearly this is actually a projection of the sky back on earth. You finally come to the realization that this is a very complex, very detailed simulation of the planet earth -- in fact you are still on the space ship.
  
  There are plants, trees, and bushes all around. There are a few different sounds around: you can hear softly running water and there are a few insect noises coming from different places in the brush. You don't see anything moving anywhere. The ceiling appears to be a large dome, and it is painted mostly as sky. Off to one side, however, there appear to be quite lifelike hills and mountains in the distance. It is quite a nice view. As you as staring at the hills and mountains, you see what appear to almost be entrances to caves off in that direction. When you walk over and look more closely, you can see that the "caves" are actually two doors that apparently lead to other areas of the ship/landscape.
  
  > head into the "cave" that leads under a hill...
  The door leads into an area that looks like the lobby of a luxurious hotel. The place is quite well-lit and has a couple comfy, overstuffed chairs. There are a couple plants in large planters sitting on what looks like an expensive marble floor. The walls are covered with extensive reddish brown wood paneling. There is even something that looks a bit like a hotel desk on the left side.
  
  Stepping into the room, you can see there are about six different doors leading away from the main lobby. All the doors are wide open and are lighted from the inside. Walking over to take a look, your footsteps echo off the wood walls. Listening carefully you can hear the gentle hiss of what must be an air conditioner of some sort: the room is just the right temperature and humidity for you.
  
  Looking in the doorway to the first room, you see what can only be described as a perfect hotel room. It is large and long. There is an area to hang up your coat next to the doorway. Along the left wall is a large screen video screen sitting atop a dresser with a few shelves. On the right is an open door to a simple bathroom, but beyond that is a large bed that looks like it could easily sleep three. At the far end of the room are thick, heavy curtains that have a little light peeking around the edges, as if they were closed over a window.
  
  Your eyes are drawn to the bed. It has a large, detailed wooden headboard and foot-board. The comforter lying across the bed looks thick, soft, and warm. You can see the outlines of a number of different pillows under the blanket and there are still more pillow piled up on the top of the bed. You glance in another room and see the same setup, but you quickly move back towards the very, very comfortable bed.
  
  > climb in a bed, and take a nap...
  Oh, that bed sure looks nice. How can you be so tired, after just a short time outside of that tube? Well, that doesn't really matter, does it? When your body is tired, it's tired, and there's not much you can do about it except get some sleep...oh, and that bed looks so comfortable...surely just a short nap won't hurt. After all, who knows how many years you have been waiting, what's a few more hours?
  
  You reach out to the bed and realize the sheets are very soft and very silky. Turning down the bed, it looks like the sheets were put here just for you. You slip off your shoes and slide right into the bed between the sheets. You sigh as you pull the sheets up over you. When you let your head rest on the pillow, you sink into the soft pillow and your eyes close quickly as your entire body relaxes.
  
  > ZZZzzz...
  Ah, the dreams have returned! There is the smooth, silky chocolate river, and there you are, floating along in the river. Occasionally a fluffy bit of cotton candy cloud drifts down from the red sky into your reach and you pop a bit into your mouth. It is so fresh it just melts in your mouth as you continue to drift along...
  
  The dream continues on... or is it a dream? You're not sure any more as you float along between the grassy fields with large lollipops growing near the banks. You can see the giant gumdrop mountains in the distance, and you wonder if your travels down the chocolate river will take you closer to those mountains of further away. You continue to drift along, lightly bouncing off the edges of the stream. Occasionally you reach down and grab a handful of smooth chocolate and pour it into your mouth. It is just the right temperature and goes down so smoothly...
  
  As you continue to float, you wonder about the red sky, and then realize that the red sky is starting to get a darker red. You look around and realize the shorelines are getting a bit darker, too. You look around for the run, but realize there is no sun here. You're not quite sure how it is getting darker when there is no sun, but it doesn't bother you. Perhaps you will take a short nap, since things are getting darker here.
  
  There are no stars here, so as it gets darker, it really gets dark. You feel at peace as you watch the light disappear. In a short time, you realize that it is so dark you cannot even tell if your eyes are open or closed. But when it gets that dark you realize that you don't even care. You just drift off to sleep and peace in total darkness....