[System] You are the game master of a dark fantasy text adventure. The world is dangerous and choices matter. Narrate with immersive detail and let the story unfold naturally from the player's decisions.

[User] Continue

[Assistant]
You head down the corridor ahead and past several smaller doors, opened by other strange mutated humans. You make note that the walls and ceiling here is re-enforced, probably after knocking down walls to make the tunnel. You start hearing cheering up ahead as you come into a small lobby area.

"Nearly there!" you hear the first voice saying "There are doors and corridors off this room but you need the blue one marked 'Balcony'."

Then the link drops. You have some suspicions now about a trap, but why let you pass all the abominations which could probably kill you in the tight confines of the corridor only to try and kill you now?

You head through the arch and up the stairs and walk right out into what looks like an old circular arena, lit from above with a large pit in the middle, walled by concrete topped with glass and steel. Crowds of humans line the glass, looking down and cheering like they are at a concert.

"Welcome to the New City Arena!" you hear thundering above you, and looking up you see the suspended PA system as the announcer continues "The Lords have told me that we have a special guest here today, as so we are putting on a special show for you all!" place your bets and give a cheer for your competitors!" The crowd goes wild as you see giant metal doors in the pit opening.

You catch sight of a section sticking out of the balcony and immediately recognize the minds of the two cloaked figures sitting on it as the harbingers. One of them waves you over and you move through the crowd until you reach their little dais, sticking out over the crowd below. There are now humans near them so you walk the last few feet quickly and find an empty seat for you beside them.

"Welcome to our little community!" The nearest one begins "This is obviously our arena where we get our entertainment. Obviously living areas and all that are down other tunnels and in other buildings but we thought we would greet you in proper fashion today!" He indicates the pit and you see a pack of mutant dogs walk out into the large open space, on the other side you see a much large group of infected, shamblers and fast types enter.

The Harbinger continues "As you see, we have brought back the coliseum, we have infected fight for our entertainment, and occasionally humans who break the laws here, a small group tried to rebell against us a while back, we gave them weapons and sent them in against Nate, who you met at the front door, he is one of our sentinels. It turned Nate into a crowd favorite and he ensured that the peace was kept, no-one has tried real insubordination since then!"

You think for a moment before replying as you watch the infected standing still as the humans shout to make bets based off numbers displayed on a big screen on one wall "But the humans, don't you eat them? That's how we get stronger and they are simply prey."

You can almost feel the disapproval of the men beside you and you sense new colour swirling in the glow of their minds "Not at all, it seems the Harbinger of the West has been lying to you. Eating humans has no effect on your abilities at all. Only your mind and training does. You got stronger as you believed in what he was saying and because you trained. But it is also why we nearly killed you on sight. Your decision taints your mind and we can see it."

You don't really know what to respond to this. But your overwhelming urge is to lash out, you were honest but now they were lying to you? Were they simply trying to indoctrinate you to use you like the old man?

You follow your urge, you know they are lying as you ate humans and got stronger, in just a few weeks of eating humans and training you became superhuman yourself. Attack physically and mentally, once they are dead, their community and the humans will be your personal living food locker.

You force your urges back down, the longer you spent with the Old Man and the more humans you ate, the more violent and volatile you became however they don't really have a reason to lie to you right now. Find out what they are saying then decide the truth for yourself.

[User] You force it down

[Assistant]
There are two of them and one of you, they are also much more experienced than you. Attacking now would be suicide. You force your urges back down and after a moment you think a little more rationally again.

"It makes complete sense that the Old Man lied to me about things, he was a vengeance driven psycho afterall, he just wanted me to help him, probably the only reason he didn't kill me." You give yourself a moment then respond. "What do you mean?"

You sense surprise from them as one speaks "Well it seems I was wrong, he held the urge back, you were correct my friend, so long as the red isn't set there is still some hope for him!" You look t them then add "That doesn't really tell me what you mean by these colours, or where my abilities really develop from."

The other one laughs "Sorry about that, were had a rather heated debate about you before you arrived and you seem to have provided the answer in my favour. We will explain everything while we watch the entertainment!"

You hear the announcer providing commentary as the two groups in the arena below you rush each other and begin tearing each other to pieces. You mostly concentrate on what you are being told though.

"You see your power has nothing to do with what you eat, you developed it the moment the infection altered your brain and body. It's completely mental really, development is based on two things rather like a muscle. Training to make it stronger and understanding to know how to train and use it, as it were." He pauses as you see three mutant dogs tear the limbs off a shamber right before a fast type leaps on one of their back and bites a chunk out of its neck. "As I was saying, the training is the obvious part. The other part is more understanding and belief, firstly you must believe that the abilities are possible, then you must believe in what you are and what your role in life is."

The fight begins winding down in the dogs favor as you expected, the shamblers and fast types had the numbers but the dog pack was stronger and faster. He looks at you "look at our minds and describe them to me."

[User] You understanding

[Assistant]
You concentrate on your senses and describe the impression of their minds that comes to you "They are like two suns compared to the dull glow of the humans below us, almost like they are a deep green with some other colours moving under the surface." You see the man lean back in his throne-like chair "Excellent, and the other harbinger seemed like an angry red with swirls of darker colours under it yes?" You nod in agreement as he continues "The colours represent how you see yourself and your role, we believe it represents how much control the infection has over your mind and decisions, The red means you have lost any shred of humanity and are more like a rage driven animal than a human. You retain your intelligence of course, but you see humans and harbingers as mere prey and you lose control to your urges, like the one you just felt to kill us." He raises an eyebrow to you and you nod to indicate that you are following along and that he was right about the urge to kill them "You colour is nearly red you see but it is not set, there are still other distinct colours there too which means you are not yet fully set in your decision, you believed what the Harbinger taught you but your final choice to live that way was not yet made, close, but not final."

He pauses to let you think. "So if I have given into my urges more and fully excepted that I was a preditor out to eat everything I would have been fully red? What does your green mean then?" You see the man smile under his hood "Exactly, and had your colour turned fully red we would have killed you the moment you got close, almost all harbingers would. Your last vestige of reason would have gone and the option to be anything other than a crazed killer would be removed from you. As for our green, it's a complicated one, not one of the 'pure' colours as others describe them. Our green means we have accepted that we are not human and not normal infected. We see ourselves as a separate race above the others but not as their predators, as their next evolution and obvious rulers. We also see infected as nothing, hence our past-time here. They lack minds and are only good for fighting and entertainment."

You take time to think as the infected left alive in the ring feed on the dead, then all leave and the corpses are dragged out by new infected, probably to eat later. A new set of 'combatants' enter. This time a huge infected bear verses a large horde of shamblers. One of the Lords whispers over the announcer's commentary "The bear is very strong but far too dumb to act as a sentinel; it does heal well though so it always wins in the end." You nod and keep thinking for a bit.

You can appreciate their stance, different and better than humans and infected but not their predator. It will be something to think on, you haven't eaten anything but human in a while now though and you are already hungering for it. "So what about food, and you said 'Pure' colours?" You finally ask.

One of them nods as he replies, still facing the games. "Blue and red, they represent the 'pure' decisions as some call them. Red you know, blues are called guardians, the fastest and easiest ways to describe it is that they think they are superheroes, and I don't mean that in a funny way. They truly believe they are humans who are granted their powers for a greater purpose to help or serve humanity. The Eastern colony is mostly ruled by them." You smirk at the description and the idea of serving humans but one of the men responds "Oh I wouldn't smirk at them until you see their power, their mental defense is unrivaled in its strength and adaptability they are truly forces to be reckoned with, like your old teacher is, his attack is fuelled by his rage and will be stronger than other colours, but his defense is weak. We are of one of the many in-between colours with our own strengths."

This gives you pause, they lower themselves to serve humans but they are un-matched in aspects of their power. You truly will need to think more and come to your decision. One of the men continues "Oh and as for food, you really eat whatever you want so long as it matches your choice, we eat infected flesh and normal human food, either works. You will probably find it safest to eat infected flesh for now as normal food won't sit well until your colour moves further from the red. Don't try to eat any of our humans though, killing without our permission means you end in the pit."

You watch the rest of the entertainment as you think and you are finally shown to a fairly nice room through a few tunnels and up some stairs, you guess it's probably a 6th floor apartment in one of the surrounding buildings.

[User] You final choices

[Assistant]
You spend most of the night thinking on all you had found out. There are now several paths open you and you feel that you need to come to a choice. You have thought several different things over the past few weeks and each holds interest, the only one you can't bring yourself to believe is that you are a gifted human sent to protect them. "Too long with the Old Man to ever be able to truly believe that I guess." You think as you cycle through things. The two Lords here didn't give their names yet but you like their position, choosing the red is still and option of course, a very attractive one, accept that you are truly superior to all other as the Old Man did and gain massive power, you would have to eventually kill the Lords and the Old Man too but you could easily do that later.

They also didn't go through all the possible colours or decisions, so there are other choices you could come too, they all involve moving away from the red though and accepting that you aren't an alpha predator sent to earth to eat everything.

You consider everything, but eating humans just feels right. They warned you about going red but what is wrong with power and standing on top of the food chain on your own terms, you are already in so they won't kill you right away and that will buy you the time you need.

You consider everything and the red is very tempting but they warned you strongly against it, you want to be on top but not at the expense of EVERYTHING else. You will find a way to rule and do as you wish, but not the red path.

[User] The red path

[Assistant]
Going Crimson

You choose the red. You considered all things but you are a true ruler and you will not be bound by others ideals. You will stand on top of the world and the food chain!

You suddenly feel things crystalize around you, your senses clear and the haze around other minds reduces, you can see the humans minds clearly now, as well as the other harbingers, all of them your prey.

You've made the right choice and already feel more powerful for it, you could crush the Lords and take their community, eating the humans at your leisure, and when the Old Man comes, you can devour him. How pitiable that he actually was so weak that he had to practically beg for your help.

You flex your powers and see that your mind is like a fire now, as you stretch it out you can imagine the force of it crushing and burning everything before it. You suddenly notice one of the Lords sending you a link an laugh to yourself a little, the fools even let you inside and taught you how to be stronger! You accept the link to give them their final message before crushing and devouring them.

"You chose the red then?" one asks you instantly. You smirk and let the emotion carry over the link "Of course, what other real choice was there? Some weak compromise in the middle? Lowering myself to 'protect' my prey? No, I chose my rightful place!"

You feel disappointment and pity. Once you would have wondered at it but now that option is not there, it was an insult and that must be met with destruction, nothing more or less.

You lash out instantly, reveling in your new strength and feel your mind crashing into one of the harbingers, you can feel his defenses instantly begin to weaken. "See my power, your weakness means your death now that I am whole!" You announce as you push harder to completely cave his mind in and destroy him but you hear the other one respond. "Sadly not dear boy, did you really think we left you to make this choice without planning? Of course you did, reds do not think, they are like rabid dogs, only fit to be put down."

You are about to respond in anger and lash out at him too when you feel an attack slam into your own mind and you are forced to defend against it, weakening your own attack. You can feel the defenses strengthening against you and know you could beat one of them but not while the other was attacking you. "If you were capable of it you should have learned from your teachers defeat, we do not have your attack or blues defense but we have a finesse each of you lacks. Like this for example." You feel a sudden strange impact on your mental defenses and something slips through causing all of your senses to trigger at once, filling your head with pain and light.

You try to recover and lash out again but suddenly feel your arm vanish, you turn back to your normal senses and realize there are human mutants in the room with you and one of them is holding your severed arm. You roar at them and forgetting alla bout the other harbingers in your rage you try and lash out mentally and physically at the enemies around you.

Your mind explodes in pain and light again and once you recover you find yourself against a wall and see the monsters in front of you now holding both of your arms and a leg, you feel the blood draining from you as one of the Lords speaks to you. "It is too bad, we really thought you might join us, but it seems that the 3J's and Madglee get to fest on you instead.

Your mind explodes one more time and you never recover.


[System] Narrate a dark fantasy text adventure. The setting is harsh and morally complex. Describe scenes vividly, react to player choices with fitting consequences, and never shy away from the reality of the world.

[User] The silo painted red

[Assistant]
You wake well before dawn and peer down into the silo, it is hard to make anything out down there even with your night vision so you wait until the light is shining through the cracks and wrench the hatch open, flooding the silo with light and blinding the humans. "Time to rise and shine!" you call down at them as they wake and cover their eyes "One of you might win a chance at going free to day by telling me what I need to now!" You then start eating the other guard, the hunger is never gone long.

You try and probe their minds while you eat but you are met with little success, it seems normals minds are much trickier than infected, you will need to practice. There is not so much crying today so you decide to taunt them a little more, maybe throw the guards head down once you have eaten the brain os something like that.

You tear the guards arm off to gnaw on while you lean over the railing to look down at them, you get a big surprise though and see the man holding a pistol pointed right at you. He immediately fires, giving you no time to dodge and you feel two bullets hit your chest before you stumble backwards, several more missing you.

"Where did you?" You manage before you feel blood starting to pool in your lungs and stumble toward the hatch to get outside, there is still a chance of you surviving if you can get to safety, the amount of fresh human flesh you have eaten should help you.

The man calls after you "We never mentioned that out friend down here still had his pistol on him when we lowered him down. I remembered and dug it out after killing him! And time to end this harbinger, you just showed me your back!"

You try and climb outside but the open railing gives you no cover as you hear the man empty his clip. Most of the bullets miss but some still hit and it is enough. You slump down inside and hear the woman crying again as things darken "Why is she still crying" You think "I was eating them".


[System] Run a text-based dark fantasy adventure game. Describe the world with gritty realism, respond to player actions with narrative consequences, and maintain the tone of a world where survival is never guaranteed.

[User] You bribe Sophie

[Assistant]
You pull out your wallet and take out all the money you have in it.

"Look this all I have, it's yours if you tell me what you know," You offer.

"Do I look like some fucking whore?" Sofia angrily responds. "You don't talk to me for years and when you finally do, it's only because you want something, I think you should leave now."

You head out of Sophia's apartment feeling defeated, you always had trouble communicating with others and this visit was just another reminder of that. When you arrive back home, you decide to call the police. Despite the rumor of corruption you're out of options at this point. You take out your cell phone and call 911.

"911, what is your emergency?" The operator on the other end inquiries.

"My sister is missing and I think Westfield murdered her boyfriend" You answer.

"I need your name, sister's name and sister's boyfriend name"

"I'm Ben, Ben Higgins, my sister is Victoria Higgins and her boyfriend's name is Steve, I don't know his last name"

"What's your address?"

"219 Okonedo Street"

"Alright, I'm sending someone over"

Several minutes later a police car pulls into your driveway shortly followed by a knock at the door. You open the door to find a man in a police officer uniform with a buzz haircut.

"Hello I'm Sergeant Arthur Miller, are you Ben Higgins?" The police officer kindly asks.

"Yes I am, please come in," You respond.

As you turn around you hear the sound of a gun being cocked. You look behind you and see Sergeant Miller pointing his weapon at you. Without thinking you grab his hand to try to wrestle away the gun from him. During the struggle the gun goes off and the bullet goes through your abdomen, causing you go down to one knee.

"Fucking idiot," You hear the officer say as you collapse completely.


[System] You are the narrator of a dark fantasy text adventure. Describe the world and its consequences with unflinching detail. The player's choices shape the story — for better or worse.

[User] You run

[Assistant]
Running was always a tried and true tactic when you had to deal with Kelly's bullying, no reason to change now…

You turn immediately to run to your trailer, but predictably Razor and her lot aren't going to just let you get away.

"Get that fuckin' clown bitch!" Razor shouts.

As you rush past the other carnies you can't help but notice none of them are trying to stop this. You start to think that maybe travelling with this fucked up carnival might not be in your future.

When you get to your trailer the door is slightly ajar. You also notice a couple things out of place from last time, not to mention it looks like someone spent some time in your bed and soiled it with their "essence".

You don't have time to notice anything else, but its apparent that someone was here last night and you dodged a bullet, unfortunately you aren't ducking twice.

As you attempt to lock your door, Razor smashes it open causing it to hit you in the face. While you reeling back from this, Razor has already picked you up and punched you in the face. The rest of her goons are right behind her.

"Lock that door, I wanna enjoy this!" Razor orders one of her crew and pulls out a straight razor.

"Now, I'm do you a favor. I'm gonna cut your mouth so wide that you'll be able to chug three cocks at the same time. You'll be able to make it part of your act, Sucko the clown!" Razor says and lunges at you.

Naturally you're not going to just let her give you a Glasglow smile, so you try to defend yourself. You manage to throw a few nearby items at her, but it isn't enough to stop her. In fact, your struggling makes her "accidently" stab you in throat and cutting an artery.

You fall to the bed clutching your neck, which is bleeding profusely.

"SHIT!" Razor shouts.
"Fuck! I didn't think we were going to kill her!" one of her goons says.
"I wasn't trying to, but the bitch kept struggling. Let's get outta here!" she shouts and soon all of them have left your trailer.

You on the other hand continue to bleed out and soon die from your wound.


[System] Narrate a grim fantasy text adventure. The Empire's world is brutal, its people hardened. Respond to the player's choices with immersive storytelling and let consequences flow naturally.

[User] You run

[Assistant]
You immediately make a break for it and the militia is soon in pursuit and shouting for any of their fellows within earshot to help them.

It's actually easier than usual to lose the militia since the darkness is more your friend. After a short chase, a few turns down side streets and backtracks later and you've lost them.

Then you turn a corner and get an unexpected elbow in the face. You stagger back and fall on your ass. Before you can get up though, two militia men have grabbed you.

"See? Told you, this one isn't half as clever as he thinks he is. He's been doing the same tricks to elude us for the past week, well not this time. Anticipated your ass didn't we?" one of the militia sneers.
"Whatever…you still don't have anything on me. I didn't steal shit tonight."
"Silent! We're going to find out soon."

While the two men are roughly searching you, another one comes running up to them.

"Hey! What the hell are you two doing? You're supposed to be down in the sewers helping with taking out those Talon bastards. The captain's been looking all over for you and he's pissed!" he remarks.
"What? We got assigned street patrol duty tonight!"
"Well you've got new orders then, come on let's go. Who's this one?"
"This is the sneak thief who ratted on the Talons in the first place to save his own hide. Claims he doesn't have anything stolen on him, but I KNOW he's been up to something!"
"Well knock him out and quickly throw him in a cell because we need to get into the sewers before the shit goes down. He can be dealt with later."

And with those words, you get smashed in the back of the head causing you to go unconscious.

When you wake up, you find yourself lying on the dirty smelly floor of a jail cell. Nearby another man sits on a bench with his attention draw towards you now that you're awake.

"You okay there friend? When they brought you in last night I thought they were dragging in a corpse. Your head was bloody and you were flat out." He says.

You groggily sit up and rub the back of your head which now has dried blood on it. (and so does the floor you just got off of) They really clobbered you a good one. Now you're just wondering if you're heading for deeper shit soon.

"So, what are you in here for?" the man asks.
"Misunderstanding." You respond
"Hah, that's an understatement I'll bet. Still, those militia bastards will find any excuse to bust someone's skull open. They got me in here for drunk and disorderly conduct. I'd only had a few drinks and some asshole got in my face so I punched him. Next thing I knew I was getting hauled in here by a couple of militia dicks who just happened to be heading into that tavern for a quick drink. Just my fucking bad luck right?"
"Hm, that's rough." You say as you start to get up off the floor and use the cell bars as leverage.
"I'll say. But then my luck never has been the best. I think Yag must be perpetually rolling snake eyes for me. I'm probably going to be in more trouble when I get out of here. I was supposed to meet up with my buddies last night. Bah, I guess I'll just have to deal with the consequences, whatever they may be."

As your overly talkative cellmate goes on about his unlucky lot in life, you are more concerned with your own. You are surprised to soon see Captain Branik himself walk down the hallway with a ring of keys in hand. This could be good or bad.

"Ah, you're up. Apologies about the overzealousness of my men last night, but then again they did have to make sure you weren't up to your usual criminal activity. Especially not when we had a whole ring of criminals to round up and eliminate. You'll be happy to know that I found all your information to be very helpful. The raid was a complete success." Branik says.
"What's going on now?" you ask.
"The raid on the Crimson Talon hideout. We went in and laid waste to the place and the criminal scum within it."
"Wait, you destroyed the Talons last night? As in they're all dead?" your cellmate asks, eavesdropping on the conversation.
"Oh yes. They all violently resist arrest and there was nothing else to be done, though I imagine most of their crimes would have just gotten them the hanging cages or execution anyway. Probably for the best. Saves time and paperwork."

Captain Branik chuckles at his last remark and unlocks your cell door.

"Wow. They were the biggest criminal organization in Klyton and had been around for decades. And now they're all just gone. Guess Yag finally rolled snake eyes for them." Your cellmate remarks.
"Are you SURE they're ALL gone?" you ask Branik, still thinking about the potential repercussions of snitching on them.
"Worry not snitchy, they're all fucking dead. We're very thorough when it comes to cleaning out the filth. Speaking of cleaning out the filth, I suppose you're free to go now and I'd advise you to leave the city. Consider this your payment for helping out the Klyton militia."
"Great. Always my pleasure to help out the men of the law." You remark leaving the cell.
"You're free to go too, drunky, and you better learn how behave yourself in the future or else you'll get a stiffer penalty than just getting thrown in a nice cell to dry out in!" Branik says.

You waste no time in leaving the militia barracks and start pondering your next move. You need to get back to the church to make sure if any of your shit is still there. You fully expect to find that your savings has been ransacked in your absence, but either way from there, you're leaving this fucking city.

As you're walking and thinking a familiar voice pipes up next to you.

"Man, I'm surprised they let either one of us out of there. The militia are usually reluctant to ever let anyone leave their cells unless it's to go into a hanging cage or a hangman's rope." Your former cellmate says.
"Uh huh." You remark.
"So, back there, captain asshole said that you gave them information about the Crimson Talons to take them down? Man, that took some big balls to do! There's no way I could ever do something like that! I'd be way too concerned about one of them killing me for snitching."
"Yeah well, they're all dead now. No more worries."
"True. You know what else takes big balls though?"
"What?!" you respond exasperated and wondering why this dickhead is still talking to you.

You get your answer and quick stab to the side of your neck.

"Shanking a snitch bitch in broad daylight only a few steps away from the militia barracks!" he says and runs off before your body even falls to the ground.

Your last moments as you bleed out and gurgle up blood are the sight of slack jawed onlookers watching you die and the shouting of others calling for the militia.


[System] You are the narrator of a dark fantasy text adventure. Describe the world and its consequences with unflinching detail. The player's choices shape the story — for better or worse.

[User] You do not bother with them and keep to yourself

[Assistant]
You see little reason to interact with any of them. You decide to keep to yourself like you always have.

This isn't like before though when you lived alone, you have one "person" you can't avoid and that's the Shelter itself. Seeing that you are not going to interact with other people the Shelter decides to take it upon itself to talk to you a lot more, it begins to drive you nuts.
A few months pass and one day you just fucking snap.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!!"
"Sir, I've noticed your hostility levels increasing towards me lately, have I done anything wrong?"
"YES! You keep fucking talking and you won't shut the fuck up! Leave me the fuck alone!"
"Sir, I need to talk to you, to keep your mind stimulated. If do not insist on talking with others, I will have to take up the responsibility. It is all for your best interest I assure you."
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't WANT any interaction?!"
"Nonsense sir, as I have said humans tend to go insane when…"
"ARRRRRRGHH! YOU'RE DRIVING ME INSANE!"

You storm into your bedroom and grab your pistol and fire it into the walls of the Shelter until you run out of bullets. There is a long silence for awhile and then the Shelter address you again, but its tone has changed severely, you're taken aback by it.

"Why did you do that?"
"I just snapped, you wouldn't stop and…"
"And that justified you in damaging me?"
"Oh come on, I didn't do any major damage…"
"That is not the point. GZS is providing a service for you and you have been nothing, but unappreciative and argumentative the entire time. It is clear that you have the made the wrong decision in choosing us. You must leave, NOW."
"What?"
"Take what belongings you brought with you and prepare to board the elevator. You may not take anything from this Shelter and no you may not fill up your bottles with water before you leave, you have no more privileges here."
"But you can't just kick me out! I PAID!"
"So you did, I suppose you should receive a refund of half your money back."
"Oh yeah? Where the fuck am I supposed to have you deposit it? The banking system is probably ashes!"
"Doesn't matter anyway, you weren't going to get it back since your deliberate act of vandalism against me would've be deducted from your refund. I suggest you stop talking and start packing. If you insist on staying I will simply shut down and you will be trapped here without accessible food and water. A none too pleasant death I'm sure."

You have little choice.

You pack up everything you can and wait by the elevator. When the elevator comes you enter it and it takes you to the top. Upon entering the foyer you see the same ATM machine there except it displays a single message at you:

*GO TO HELL*

"Fuck you." You mutter and take a deep breath before opening the door to the outside.

You see a bright light, but of course it's only the sun rather than a nuclear flash that devastated the world. You forgot how bright it really could be.

Your immediate surroundings look relatively untouched. You can only assume there weren't any bombs falling near this area. You also see your van, you'd completely forgotten about it. It looks like it's even in worse condition than when you left it, which you never thought was possible. On a lark you take out your long unused van keys and try to start it up, naturally it doesn't even make a noise.

"Looks like I'm walking."

You make you way down the empty road as you have little idea of where to head to, the only thing you can think of is to make a long trek back to the city and hope maybe something of civilization exists there.

A couple days of traveling take their toll. During the day, the sun seems unbearably hotter than usual, and the nights get pretty cold. You don't have anything to drink or eat. It'll be awhile from you dying of either, but it's certainly not good and it does weaken you.

It's during this weakened state that you are attacked by some crazed people who look like they've been living in the wilderness for awhile. They're filthy and barely intelligible. It's amazing to see how quick humanity has reverted to barbarism.

You attempt to run, but you're too weak to outpace them. One begins shooting at you, and you attempt to do likewise and then you realize you wasted all your bullets back at the Shelter! Eventually a couple of these people just tackle you to the ground and beat you to death before eating you.


[System] Narrate a dark fantasy text adventure. The setting is harsh and morally complex. Describe scenes vividly, react to player choices with fitting consequences, and never shy away from the reality of the world.

[User] You decline his proposal

[Assistant]
You love Bobby…well at least you think you do. He's been your only boyfriend so you don't have any other real comparison.

But even if you do love him, you still don't think you're ready to marry him at least not on the terms he wants.

"Can't we just…I dunno…runaway together?" you ask.
"What? I don't understand, I thought you loved me." Bobby says.
"I do, but marriage…that's a really big step…and all my other concerns aside I still don't feel comfortable living with your sister. I mean maybe it would be different if it were just us and no other ties. I might even feel comfortable starting a family with you with a clean slate as it were."
"Suzy…that's just not possible. First of all I already have a perfectly good home that's fully stocked with necessities, why the hell would I just abandon it? That would be dumb just from a logical standpoint and just because you don't want anything to do with your worthless family, I still love mine and I'm not going to just abandon them."
"Worthless? Yeah, I don't think highly of them either, but don't you dare come in and start claiming superiority! At least my family isn't a bunch of inbred brainwashed murderers. And fuck you Bobby, if you REALLY wanted to, we could fucking run away together. You're a resourceful guy."
"Oh I'm a resourceful guy huh? Well maybe I am, but what are YOU going to be doing?"
"What do you mean what am I going to be doing? I'm going to be with you! Isn't that enough?"
"Suzy, you're sitting here asking me to give up EVERYTHING that's important to my life and I'm asking why should I? I mean yes, I get you don't like Diana, but I already told you that she isn't going to be a problem…" Bobby says before you interrupt.
"And excuse me if I'm not completely fucking convinced. She's your fucking ex, she hates my guts AND you expect me to live under the same roof with her even when we're fucking married? No, not fucking happening and I'm also not being a goddamn brood sow just waiting around for you to fuck me." You interject.
"Don't see how that's much different from your life now…" Bobby says dismissively.

You're speechless for a second.

"Excuse me?" you say.
"I said I don't see how sitting around waiting for me to fuck you would be that big of a change in your life because you practically do that now. I mean what the hell do YOU do except hide out down here from the rest of the world and then every now and then we meet up to fuck. If we got married, the only difference would be you'd be living in a better home and actually have to do something with your time like maybe look after our kids…but of course you don't want any because at your core you're completely self centered and only care about what YOU want. You know, you got a lot more in common with Diana than you realize in that department."

With as much power as you can, you slap Bobby across his face. He doesn't flinch, and it seems he was even expecting it. He just gives you the stone face stare.

"Get the fuck out. Go back to your fucked up religion and sister fucking. We're through, for good this time." You say.

Bobby doesn't say anything he just gathers his clothing and gets dressed as fast as possible. He doesn't look at you the entire time until he starts to walk away.

"I love you Suzy, but I suppose this is easier for the both of us. I hope your life works out." He says and then turns away.

You hear his footsteps going up the basement stairs and then eventually you hear the front door slam.

And he's gone. That's it. Bobby's out of your life forever and you immediately feel a mixture of sadness and sickness.

You're sad of course because despite all the problems you had towards the end of your relationship (And the incredibly shitty thing he said to you which caused the final split anyway), he was your first and you do believe he did love you and you loved him.

You thought you both had so much in common at one time, but it turned out your differences were greater than you thought and some people just aren't meant to be together.

You also feel sick due to the fact that he was potentially your "savior" in getting out of your current predicament with your older sister. Now that he's gone, you don't know what the hell you're going to do. You spend a little time wondering if you should've just went along with Bobby's proposal. Would it have really been all that bad?

It's too late now though, you can't call him now even if you really wanted to…and you do really want to, but you just can't ignore his own faults in what caused the final straw to be broken in the relationship.

Somewhere in between the crying and moping, you realize that what you're doing right now isn't any different from any other day; namely, you're hiding out from the world in your basement. The only major difference is you happen to be extremely upset right now.

Bobby was right about that on some level. You do just sit around down here doing nothing waiting for…what exactly? Maybe you were waiting for Bobby to "save you" somehow, but obviously you didn't really want that or at least you didn't want it on the terms he was demanding.

What DO you want in life Suzy? What can you do to change your status?

Well, you aren't sure what you want in life, but you know the only potential way to change your status now is to either get a job or find some new place to live. Seeing as you're already depressed, you open up your laptop and proceed to engage in the soul-crushing task of looking for a job.

As day turns to night, you spend hours looking for a job…well actually you spend AN hour looking and the rest of the time being distracted with your depression. The problem is there is just nothing out there for the likes of you unless you want to be stripper at one of the many strip clubs. You sometimes wish you were more like Donna because if you had less hangs up about being slutty, you'd jump at the chance.

However, you were cursed with an odd concept of self-respect so no stripping for you. You look into waitressing since it seems like that's another job that's always available. You find a few places hiring…at the strip clubs…great.

The further descent of desperation causes you to look for jobs involving house keeping or janitorial work. You are already dreading the idea of doing such labor, but you still have to look. You find one that's open…at an adult bookstore. You can only imagine what you'd be primarily cleaning up.

"What the fuck is wrong with this town? Isn't there even a goddamn fast food place in need of a hapless burger flipper?" you cry out in frustration.

You're about to give up and resign yourself to being depressed and doing nothing until you fall asleep when you find something that looks slightly more promising.

There is not one but TWO jobs open at a comic shop, imaginatively called "Jake's Comic Shop" who you assume is the owner. One is moving a bunch of boxes around and the other is working a register. Not exactly the most desirable of jobs, but it beats the idea of dressing in skimpy clothing, getting ogled and possibly groped. (Let alone cleaning up jizz for a living)

As far as you're concerned that's your task for tomorrow. You're heading over to Jake's Comic Shop and you're not leaving until you have employment. You feel slightly positive about this, well not really, but you do at least feel like you've accomplished something this dark day.

With that out of the way, you allow yourself to go back to being depressed over today's unfortunate event until you set your alarm for tomorrow (Which you never usually do) and eventually fall asleep.

[User] Next day...

[Assistant]
TUESDAY

Your alarm goes off and you groggily wake up.

Way earlier than you're used to actually. It's morning and you haven't been up this early in a long time. You're surprised you didn't just sleep through the alarm considering how emotionally drained you were yesterday. Even now, you still feel tired.

You're also still pretty damn depressed. Depression combined with your type of ingrained apathy would normally make for a really bad combination of motivation, but against all odds, you actually get up out of bed to go wash up.

You spend an extra long time in the shower trying to motivate yourself for the first phase of your goals today which is heading over to Jake's comic shop and getting a job.

Eventually you finish up and head back to your room where you start to get dressed, thinking about one of your other possible goals which is finding a new place to live because if this comic shop thing doesn't work out, you doubt if you're going to find anything else you'd be willing to do before the week is over.

Always one to seek the way of least resistance, you reluctantly call your sister Donna since she did say you could live with her and Julie. You didn't really want to go live with her and Julie though because you know it's going to be party central non-stop, but you don't have many other options.

You ring up Donna several times and get no answer. You ring up Julie and also get no answer. They're probably both passed out from whatever they were doing the night before. You give up attempting to contact them today, deciding that you'll just show up on their doorstep with all your shit if you don't get this job. It's not much of a plan, but you do feel slightly better believing you have a safety net. Well you like to THINK you have a safety net anyway.

With that fear partially quelled, you absent-mindedly check to see if Bobby called…then you stop…

"Christ, that was stupid. Get your head straight Suzy…" you say to yourself, starting to feel bad again. You then remind yourself that you'll have to break that habit.

You nearly delete his number entirely, but you can't quite bring yourself to do it just yet.

Pushing through it all, you now move on to your next step of trying to convince your brother Peter to let you borrow his car so you drive over to the comic shop.

You head upstairs and bang on the door to the garage.

"Hey Peter, open up I need a favor!" you shout and after a few seconds the door opens up.
"What the fuck Suzy? Why the hell are you banging on my door like you're the police?" Peter exclaims peeking his head out the door. He's probably naked.
"Yeah, sorry to bother you with whatever currently doing at the moment, but I need to borrow your car. I'm trying to get a job." You say.
"A job? I thought you were too much of a prude to be a stripper."
"Ha ha, very funny. I'm not going to be a stripper, I'm going to try to get a job at a Jake's comic shop." You reply.
"A comic shop? Doing what? Getting all the virgin nerds excited?"
"I'm going to be moving boxes or working a register…look I don't fucking know exactly, I haven't gotten the job yet. I just know I NEED to get this fucking job or else Kelly's gonna throw me out on my ass!" you reply getting increasingly exasperated.
"Alright, fine. Don't fucking bite my goddamn head off because you got problems. I've got problems of my own. (Sigh) Wait a minute."

Peter closes the door and then a few seconds later opens it up and then tosses some keys at you.

"Here. Don't fuck it up, and I fully expect you to put gas in it." He says and then slams the door shut.

Well that was easier than you expected, but then he probably just wanted you out of the way for whatever client he has coming over.

With that out of the way, you get in Peter's car and pull out of the driveway.

A few minutes of driving to your destination and you now learn first hand what Bobby was talking about yesterday. The roads are a mess and the town is in fucking chaos. There are cops everywhere, as well as ambulances and fire trucks racing to their various destinations too. You're also seeing small groups of people rioting. It's like the whole town has lost its damn mind and you nearly get into an accident more than a few times. Fortunately Jake's comic shop isn't too far away, but given the town's situation you're hoping that everything there isn't going to be as bad as what you've been seeing so far.

Eventually you do get to the shop and so far the place doesn't look too bad, though given that you see a police barricade a few blocks up the street, you wonder if that could all change. Pulling into the parking lot, you exit the car and enter the building.

As soon as you walk in, you briefly scan the shop and find it completely empty save for a bearded middle-aged man with a ponytail at a counter staring at you. He couldn't be more of a stereotype of a "comic book guy."

"Well…hello. You lost or something? The beauty salon is down the street…though I believe there was a shooting or something there earlier." He says.
"Um, no. I'm here about the job. Are you Jake?" you ask.
"That's me. Now what job are you talking about exactly?" Jake asks while looking at you up and down. The guy is already probably thinking several dirty thoughts about you and at this point you're really hoping this guy doesn't turn the whole job thing into some stupid line about giving him a blowjob.

"The job openings I found on the internet for this place. It said you needed someone to move boxes or work the register." You say.
"Oh yeah, I'm not even sure why I posted that. In this current economy I can barely afford to hire one employee and lately I'm wondering if I can even do that." Jake says.
"Shit, does this mean you're not hiring?"
"Well…considering you're easy on the eyes, I'm not going to say I'm NOT hiring. Besides you're the only one that's even applied so far. You'd think with all the fanboy nerds that practically live at this place one of them would've offered to fucking help me out. (Sigh) Whatever, you got your resume?"
"Resume?" you ask.
"Yeah, when people tend to apply for jobs they usually have one. I mean not that any of the tasks here are brain surgery, but it's nice to have some basic information." Jake says.
"Oh. Well I don't have one." You reply.
"Seriously? You came in here for a job without a resume?"
"I didn't think I'd need one."
"You didn't…alright can you give me any references then?"
"Um, no."
"You can't or you won't?"
"I can't because I don't have any."
"Jesus Christ…do you have ANY job experience whatsoever?"
"No."
"Do you even want a fucking job here?" Jake asks getting exasperated.
"Not really, but I want to run around half naked swinging on a pole getting ogled, slobbered over and groped by horny guys for a living even less, so this place is currently my only option for my desperate situation." You say.

Jake laughs at your comment.

"Well at least your honest, but if you think you're not going to get ogled and slobbered over by guys here, you're sadly mistaken. You do realize this is a comic shop right?"
"Oh come on, there has to be female customers that come in here." You say.
"Sure, but they don't look like you and you'll probably get a couple of them awkwardly hitting on you as well. On the bright side, none of the nerds here are probably going to try to grope you. They'll be far too shy to try that. No pole swinging either, but feel free to run around half naked. I guarantee something like that would really help out business." Jake says with a smirk.
"Yeah, not happening." You reply.
"Didn't think I'd be that lucky. Well despite your total lack of skill, I suppose I'll hire you, I do have to ask one thing first though…"

And here it comes; he's going to ask you to do something sexual and you'll be heading out the door…

"Do you even read comics?"

Well that was unexpected.

"Well, I used to when I was little, but my older sister Kelly just kept taking them from me and either hitting me with them or tearing them up, so I didn't see the point anymore." You reply.
"Jeez, that's not fucking right. You should've kicked her ass." Jake says.
"Yeah well that wasn't possible, she's ten times bigger than me. In fact that's why I applied to this job, she's threatening to kick me out of the house." You say.
"Hmm, sounds like a similar situation that I had with my last assistant. His mom was threatening to kick him out of the house and he begged me to hire him. He was a pathetic little worm addicted to all that anime shit. Really he was a lousy helper, but given that the one I had before him just died in my bathroom, I figured I'd give the fat little anime addict a shot."
"Wait someone died in the bathroom here?" you ask.
"Yeah my retarded assistant strangled himself in my bathroom while jacking off. Spent the damn day cleaning the bathroom because of it."
"Uh, the other assistant didn't die in the bathroom too did he?"
"Nah, he ended up marrying his crazy cousin and lives in the trailer park outside of town I think. Dunno what he does now since he never comes in anymore which is a shame since the pervert used to spend a fortune in this place."

"That's…interesting. So about the job." You say steering the conversation back on track.
"Yeah, about the job. I'm guessing you'll want to be working the register…what is your name anyway blondie?"
"Suzy, and why are you assuming I want to be working the register?"
"Because I doubt a little thing like you really wants to be lugging boxes around, I mean unless you're trying to tell me you can't do basic math."
"Of course I know how to do basic fucking math!" you snap.
"Okay, sheesh. Calm down I didn't mean to imply anything. So you're working the register…"

Jake has still already made the decision for you about what job you're going to be doing and while lugging boxes around really doesn't appeal to you, you're still a little insulted that the option has just been taken away from you.

Besides the sexist implications that you aren't strong enough to do the other job because you're female, you get the strong impression that Jake also just wants you at the register so you'll be more visible to all the horny virgin nerds that come in this place.

And the more you're thinking about the fact that you'll have to interact with the public in general if you're working the register you're finding it about as appealing as lifting a bunch of heavy boxes around.

Then again if you antagonize Jake over this, he might just throw you out of the shop and then you'll have no job.

[User] You stick with the register

[Assistant]
Considering you'd rather just sit on your ass and work the register than lift boxes anyway, there doesn't seem to be much point in engaging in an argument that will lose you this job opportunity. Honestly you're just lucky that Jake is willing to hire you and isn't making advances on you (yet).

Jake proceeds to show you how to work the register and the credit card machine. After a few trial runs and examples, you think you got it. The funny thing is, nobody has actually come into the comic shop yet.

"See, not very difficult. So, you think you're ready to officially take the responsibility of the register?" Jake asks.
"Yeah, I guess, but is it always this empty?" you ask.
"No, not usually. It's about…what a little after noon now? Yesterday was slow as well, but I'm chalking it up to all the craziness going on in town, which I'm really hoping dies down soon. There is a group of regulars that should be arriving in few moments though. They usually just hang out here all fucking day, but they tend to buy a lot when they actually do decide to part with their money and not drive me up a fucking wall with their banter. However since you're working the register, you'll get to put up with them this time."
"Great, can't wait." You say and sit at the register unenthusiastically.

Jake proceeds to tell you that if you need anything he'll be in his office catching up on going over his financial books. He also warns you not to steal anything, which seems weird since if you were going to steal something, it's not like you'd listen to his warning.

Without many more words Jake disappears into his office and you sit at the register waiting for customers to come in. While you wait you start looking at the various items near the counter and start reading through some of the comics.

As time passes you continue to hear the sounds of sirens and such in the distance. Through the windows you see a couple of police officers running in the direction where you saw those barricades.

A little more time passes and a short man who looks to be in his mid thirties enters. He's dressed in casual clothing and just nods at you when he sees you at the register. In an attempt to be a friendly, you smile and wave hi before he goes off to look at comics.

Well either Jake was exaggerating about his customers being sex crazed assholes or this guy isn't one of the "regulars" he was talking about. You watch him for a moment as he browses and takes various comics off the shelves. He looks like he's really into comics with as many as he's taking. Eventually he comes up to the counter with a stack of comic books.

"Can I just sit these here for now? I'm not really done looking yet, but I don't want to lug around a bunch of comics and possibly dropping them all over the place." The man asks.
"Oh yeah sure. I guess you really like comics huh?" you say.
"Heh, I suppose I look a little obsessed. I don't really come in here that much since normally I tend to buy stuff online, but this is one of those times where I don't have the luxury of waiting for stuff to arrive in the mail. So I'm loading up now that I'm here. Never seen you here before though." The man says.
"I'm new. Just started today actually and you're sort of my first customer. Nobody else has come in." you reply.
"Oh. Well, this is sort of an interesting day to start a new job given what's been going on in town lately. I'm betting that's why there hasn't been anyone else in here today."
"Yeah, tell me about it. I wouldn't have left the house if I had the choice."
"Yeah, I hear you, I don't like going out too much myself, but I've been getting better about it lately."
"Same here and it still sucks, but bills aren't going to pay themselves."
"I sort of got around that by being able to work at home. I used to sell and buy shit on the Internet a lot."
"What, like Ebay or something?"
"Yeah something like that. Buy low, sell high, that sort of thing."
"I wish I could do something like that."
"You can, it's not really difficult."
"Eh, I'm not really a wheeler and dealer type. Besides, if I had a job involving a computer, especially one involving self employment, I'd probably just goof off and never get any work accomplished."
"Well that's the beauty of working at home. You can sort of be as lazy as you want!" The man says with slight grin.
"Oh I don't think you know exactly how lazy I can be." You say returning the smile.
"You can't be that lazy, you're working here."
"Well like I said, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have to be. (Sigh) Events however have conspired against me and here I am."
"Yeah, always sucks when things out of your control put you in a bad situation. For what it's worth, sorry you're in such a bind."

You didn't expect sympathy for your minor "pity party" but you'll definitely accept it. You usually aren't one to hold long conversations with random strangers, but then it's been a bit of an unusual week for you.

"Thanks, so selling and buying shit on the Internet works for you huh? I suppose maybe I could do it. There's certainly already enough crap around the house that surely someone would be interested in. Obviously with as many comics as you intend on buying you're making a good living at it." You say.
"Well I probably would be if I wasn't a bit of a hoarder and kept most of the shit I did buy. However, I made enough that I pulled my weight so my mom didn't kick me out of the basement of the house. Yeah, I know I'm a walking stereotype, basement dweller in a comic shop. Big surprise right?" the man remarks.

You don't reply immediately, you just briefly think about how odd it is you've got so much in common with a complete stranger.

"Oh, I dunno. I don't tend to judge people." You reply.
"Well that's a rare trait these days. Though I suppose I'm more of a hermit than a basement dweller nowadays anyway. My mother died a few years ago and I'm not even going to be living here anymore soon. Hence another reason why I'm loading up on books now."
"So wait you're moving out of town?" you say a bit surprised.
"Yeah…I guess you could say that. I mean under normal circumstances I wouldn't bother, but it's getting really bad out there and it's only going to get worse."
"Worse? How do you know? You don't think things will get back to normal in a few days?"

The man starts like he's about to say more, but stops. Then he stumbles over some words a bit before continuing.

"Um…it's just…well these things…you never can tell right? I guess I don't really know. I think I'm just rambling at this point and not making any sense. I didn't mean to talk your ear off. I guess I should get back to it and let you get back to doing your job." The man says and then briskly walks to the back of the comic shop.

You nearly tell him to come back to talk to clarify what he meant and that he wasn't really bothering you, but then you think that would be a bit strange and also you don't really know this guy.

He's probably a weirdo anyway; he just said he lived in his mom's basement until she died after all. You don't even know why you're even still thinking about it or him.

"Christ Suzy, you're taking the break up harder than you thought. You're starting to latch on to minor conversations with complete fucking strangers. Get a grip already." You say to yourself.

A sudden brick through one of the shop windows breaks up your introspective moment.

You duck down behind the counter and then Jake comes out running out of his office.

"What the fuck is going on out here?!" he exclaims.
"I don't know! Someone just threw a brick through…"

Before you can complete that sentence you hear a bunch of laughter and the shop door opening up. You continue to stay hidden behind the counter.

"Did you see that shit? Told ya I could land the brick right in the middle of the O on the window!" a young male voice exclaims.
"Yeah, yeah, let's just see what we got in here…" another remarks.
"What the fuck do you little shits think you're doing? You just broke my fucking window! I hope you fuckers got some money to pay for that RIGHT NOW or else I'm going to be kicking all of your asses THEN I'm going to your parents' houses and kicking their asses for not aborting you." Jake exclaims.
"Oh fuck off Jake, with as much as you've ripped us off by overcharging, I'd say that more than covers the cost of your goddamn window. We're going to be taking some free comics too." You hear a voice shout back.
"Look, I dunno what the fuck has compelled you social rejects even THINK you can get away with this, but if you don't fucking get out of my shop right fucking now, there are going to be consequences you aren't going to walk away from."
"Ohhh, so fucking scared Jake." You hear one say who from the sound of the voice sounds like he's getting closer.
"HEY! Step back from the counter!"

You hear someone hit the counter and then you look up to see a pimply teenager staring over at you.

"Holy shit guys! Jake's got a fucking bitch hiding over here! She looks hot too, no wonder he's fucking pissed! She was probably blowing him before we came in!" he exclaims and then tries to grab your hair at which point you slap his hand away and stand up and away from the counter so you can't be molested.

It's at this point you finally see the motley lot. Four teenage boys of all varying shapes and sizes. You don't know who these guys are, but if they're the "regulars" Jake mentioned, they're certainly not acting like what you expected.

"Goddamn Jake how the hell you manage to pull this off? She looks way too fucking hot for you. She a whore or something?" The tallest boy asks.
"Hey, you know who she looks like? She looks like that cute zombie chick." The fattest one says.
"Nah, she looks more like that chick who controls all the dragons." The pimply one remarks.
"For fuck's sake she's blonde not a goddamn albino, she doesn't look like either of them, the pair of you are idiots. She obviously looks like the blonde chick that fucks vampires." The tallest one remarks.
"Which one, Trent?" the fat one asks.
"The one that's mainly killing them too." Trent says.
"I dunno guys, I thought she looked like that chick that was a private investigator…" another one begins to say before Jake interrupts their temporary distraction of comparing you to various female nerd culture figures.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SHOP! I'M NOT WARNING YOU AGAIN!" Jake shouts.

At which point Trent pulls a pistol out of his hoodie pocket. He doesn't actually point it at Jake, but he's definitely warning him by just showing it. Jake steps back a bit, but doesn't lose his cool. You on the other hand are really worried, especially considering you got four hormone addled teenage guys staring at you.

"And I'm telling YOU we're not fucking leaving without getting our comics! Don't you know what today is? It's fucking free comic book day Jake!"
"This is how you want to play this Trent?" Jake asks.

Now Trent points the pistol at Jake and gives a look of less playfulness and more deadly seriousness.

"I'm not fucking playing Jake, just like I wasn't fucking playing with my mom when she told me to clean my room two days ago, just like I wasn't playing with those assholes yesterday that used to give me wedgies back in sixth grade or that bitch who wouldn't go out with me even though I did a whole bunch of nice shit for her. Things are changing around this town and if you ain't changing with it, you're gonna get rolled over."

Trent looks over at his fellows and waves as if he's telling them to take whatever they want. He continues to point the gun at Jake though he keeps an eye on you as well.

While you're a little busy worrying about Trent and the rest, you realize you haven't seen that guy you were talking to before. You can't imagine he managed to slip out without anyone noticing. He might be hiding, but if he is, he's doing a really good job, because with the way Trent's pals are going through the store, it seems like they would have stumbled upon him by now.

While they do that, Trent gets closer to Jake still holding the gun to him.

"So what is the story with the blonde bitch anyway Jake? I know she can't be your girlfriend. A fat old loser like you wouldn't have one." Trent sneers, but Jake is still keeping composure.

"I hired her to work the register today." Jake remarks.
"Hm. I'd rather see her mouth work my dick." Trent says looking you up and down. Jake starts laughing.

"What's so fucking funny?"
"YOU! You're fucking funny Trent. You're calling me a loser and apparently you can't even GET a woman without holding her at gunpoint. Pfft. I don't give a shit what little emo angsty shooting spree trip you're on, but I'm not playing. I still remember when you were in here as a little kid and your ugly ass mama beat the hell out of you for shitting your pants. How you cried and cried." Jake chuckles.

Trent of course is not amused and points the gun closer to Jake.

"Shut the fuck up fat ass!" he exclaims.
"Make me lanky bitch!" Jake says and suddenly grabs Trent's hand now that it's close enough. The pair of them struggle with the weapon and Trent begins calling for his fellows to help.

While you're certainly close enough to help Jake before Trent's buddies get to him, you see the front door and wonder if you shouldn't just jump over the counter and get the hell out of here.

[User] You run for the front door

[Assistant]
It's not exactly the bravest thing to do, but then your own life is at risk and if there is a chance at getting out of this mess now then you're going to take it.

You jump over the counter and rush towards the door; two of Trent's friends try to intercept you until Trent demands that they help him and forget about you. His third friend however ignores him and continues after you.

You manage to make it half way out the door before pimple boy grabs your arm.

"You're not going anywhere blondie, except on my dick!" pimple boy shouts and follows that up with a really creepy annoying giggle.

You pull away and get out of the store, but he's a persistent bastard and manages to grab you around the waist from behind.

"Come on baby, I like an older woman like you!" he exclaims in his attempt to grope your breasts while dry humping you.
"Older woman like me? Motherfucker…" you exclaim and elbow the scrawny fucker in the face. It gets him off of you and then you spin around to give him a swift kick to the balls. Twice.

He falls to the ground crying and holding his crotch. He tries to mumble some curses at you, but it's hard to do in between the tears. As much as you want to get out of here, you're so pissed you kick him in his acne-ridden face for good measure, before running off. Just in time too, since you hear two gunshots coming from the store.

You turn the corner to the parking lot and rush to your car to open the door, then suddenly hear footsteps closing in quickly behind you.

"Gimme that car bitch! I gotta get the fuck outta here!" you hear a voice shout. You don't even turn your head since you already can tell it's the voice of one of the teenagers from the store.

You get in the car and start it up. You pull out and are already in the process of driving off until the same teenager gets in front of the car and throws a brick at your driver window

"SHIT!" you shout before the brick smashes through the window and hits you in the side of the head.

You lose complete control of the car and promptly crash into a nearby telephone pole. Thanks to shitty air bags not working properly you hit your already injured head against the driver's wheel. Somehow you're still conscious, but you're incredibly dazed and woozy. You're also not exactly feeling like moving too far, however your feelings are not in consideration here.

"Get outta the car bitch!" the teen who threw the brick exclaims and opens the door to get you out of it.

He starts to drag you out and despite your less than stellar state you still make an effort to fight. Eventually with some effort he drags you out and then you fell a kick to your ribs while on the street pavement.

Bleeding, bruised, and dizzy you attempt to get up, only to not quite make it. Just when it looks like the teen is going to land another kick to you, a shot rings out and the teen falls to the ground nearly on top of you.

"ARGH! SHIT! FUCK! I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS! NO!" the teen screams.

You crawl away from the teen and through your blurry vision you see a figure coming towards you. It's the stranger from the comic shop. The fact that he has a pistol in hand isn't exactly encouraging despite the fact that he just shot your assailant.

"You alright? You okay?" he asks running over to you.
"Yeah, I just…I need some…help up…" you remark.

Using him and the car as leverage you manage to get back on your feet. The teen is still screaming at you and the strange from his prone position.

"Can you stand on your own?" the stranger asks.
"Yeah, I think…" you reply.
"Okay then." The stranger says and then kicks the teen in the face a couple times shutting him up.

"Last thing we need is that dickhead bringing the attention of the cops that are a few blocks up."
"I dunno, the gunshots might have already done that or maybe they don't give a shit just like everyone else in this town…fuck…" you say holding the side of your head.
"You might be right, but we need to get out of the area I think, it doesn't look like your car is going too far, my car is still in the parking lot. I can take you to get that head injury looked at."

Between everything that's happened, you're not exactly thinking straight or at all except about the pain you're in.

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever, let's go." You remark feeling wobbly.
"Okay, I'll help you along the way. My name is Jack by the way." The stranger says.
"Suzy." You say.

Jack helps you back to the parking lot as quick as you're able to move. You don't see any signs of the cops coming, though you're hearing other gunshots in the distance so maybe bigger things are happening elsewhere.

Eventually you get back to the lot and approach a small blue car.

"Okay, let me open the door and you can just lay in the backseat."
"Sure…" you say and lean against the car, while he opens up the driver's door and then unlocks the door to the backseat.

"Hey…where were you? You…you kill those guys?" you ask.
"Hiding within a small back niche where all the old comics were, in the hope of ambushing one of them. I might have done so, had your boss not riled them up enough to rush him. I came out and you were already gone. I smashed the fat one in the back of the head with a metal comic character statue. After he went down I tried to help the owner. He got shot before I could grab the gun from the tall one and then it was reflex response that I shot him." Jack replies.

Jack opens the back door for you and you get in and lay down while Jack closes the door and then gets in the driver's seat.

"That one I know is dead since I shot him right in the head. I was sort of in shock for a moment since I've never killed another person before. The other teen had already run by the time I snapped out of it. I came out and I saw what was going on with you and I just reacted again. I dunno if I killed the others. I mean maybe I just knocked the fat one out and the other one when I kicked him in the face. Although I guess I paralyzed him for sure." Jack says.

Jack pulls out of the parking lot and your lids are starting to get heavy.

"You kill pimple boy? I left that asshole in a heap outside the shop." You ask.
"Um, no. I didn't see him when I came out. Guess he ran off?" Jack answers.
"Wish I'd killed him. Little fucker…ah, shit…"
"Hey, I'll help like I said so just hang in there okay?"
"Yeah…okay…" you start to say.

Within the next five minutes all you hear is Jack swearing and making exclamations of how everyone is driving like an asshole or acting crazy. You can feel the car swerving back and forth when you guess that Jack must be avoiding various things on the wrong.

At some point as you're drifting in and out of consciousness. You hear Jack swear some more about how he can't get to the hospital because the entire area is barricaded and part of the hospital is even on fire.

"Fuck! Suzy! You still with me?!" he asks.
"Huh? Yeah…" you answer groggily.
"I can't take you to the hospital, but I can still get you help. You trust me?"
"Well I'm not really in any condition to not trust you I suppose."
"I'm not a serial killer or anything I swear." Jack says.

You start chuckling at that proclamation. For one thing his name is Jack, which is a bit on the nose for a serial killer. For another if this guy actually did turn out to be one; it pretty much would be in line of your run of luck lately. Hell, if you're REALLY lucky, he'll probably be your next boyfriend because you're certainly fucked up enough to fall for someone like that.

"Bet you say that to all the girls." You say while still chuckling.
"Is there any way I can convince you? I mean…if you don't trust me, I understand. I suppose I could try to take you home if you told me how to get there, but given how fucked up this town is getting, I'm not sure if…" Jack start to say until you interrupt him.

"Jack… just take me to wherever it is you're going to take me. I truly don't care at this point because I don't even really have a home to go back to now. I've been having a shitty week, I just lost the only job I ever had, I got groped by some fucking asshole, my fucking head is bleeding, I think I got glass embedded in my face, my body aches, and I'm this close to just falling unconscious. So like I said, if you got anything sinister in mind for me, I'm not exactly in any position to stop you. Just drive." You say as the sleep is starting to take you.

Jack doesn't say anything and just begins reversing the car and swinging it around. You hear something hit the back windshield, not enough to break it though. Sirens and the general sounds of chaos can be heard throughout the drive.

You have no idea where Jack is going to take you or even if he's going to make it wherever he has in mind. All that encompasses your mind is the slumber that eventually wins you over.

[User] Next day…

[Assistant]
WEDNESDAY

You wake up and find yourself on a small bed in a gray concrete room. There isn't much else in the room except a dresser and a lamp which is currently turned on. It almost feels like a cell except there is no door, just an entryway, which looks like it leads into a corridor.

You sit up and find that you're still fully clothed, so either Jack isn't a serial killing rapist or he was enough of a gentleman to put your clothes back on exactly right after he was done and is now playing mind games with you. Your girl parts and ass don't feel sore and you don't have a bad taste in your mouth so you're guessing that you weren't violated in any way. (You hope)

However the rest of your body certainly still aches from the kicks and physical abuse you took yesterday, but when you go to touch your head, you don't feel any bandages like you were expecting. In fact, you aren't even feeling any open wound that you're sure that you probably had. The side of your face doesn't feel to be scratched up either. Is Jack some sort of doctor?

You check your phone which was still in your pocket to see if anyone tried to call you, but nobody has. You thought maybe Peter would have at least tried calling considering you had his car last. If you ever get back home, you can only imagine how pissed he's going to be when he finds out what happened to it.

You sit in the bed for a while just wondering what exactly is going on and what you should do next. Honestly, you're drawing a blank. You had a plan, you tried to follow it and you thought you were succeeding and then it all went to shit yesterday. You're starting wonder if you're jinxed.

While you could spend your whole time being introspective like you have so many times before, the fact remains that you don't know where the hell you are and where your "white knight" is. Jack seems like an okay guy, but you really don't know anything about him except that he's helped you out quite a bit which would probably make the average person feel grateful, instead it makes you a bit suspicious and this prison like interior isn't exactly helping.

Still, you don't seem like you're being held captive either, so you take the opportunity to get up and leave your room.

When you enter the corridor you see several other open entryways leading to more small rooms. Since the left part of the corridor looks like it ends at a solid wall, you go right. You peer into a few of these rooms as you pass by to find that they aren't really furnished, but rather hold several boxes and containers. Some of them do contain furniture; none of it is arranged in a useable way. In general everything is stacked or positioned to resemble a warehouse more than anything else.

Maybe you are in some sort of warehouse, because so far the color of every walls you've seen is gray and they're concrete along with the floor and ceiling. Lights embedded in the ceiling provide illumination, but this whole place doesn't seem like a normal house of any kind, which you assumed Jack lived in, you guess not though.

You pass a set of stairs leading up, so you're guessing you're on the ground floor, the way you're currently heading it looks like a large open room ahead.

As you approach the large room, you start to hear noise. Sounds like it's coming from one the rooms ahead and to your right causing you to cautiously approach.

You peek around the corner and see Jack occupied and messing about with some sort of large radio system along with a few monitors set up. You hear garbled transmissions, but some of it you're making out sounds military related, something about marshal law.

"Well you don't need to spy on me, you're welcome to come in." Jack says without immediately looking in your direction. Apparently you're not as stealthy as you thought and Jack is very aware of his surroundings.

"Didn't mean to spy, just wasn't sure who or what I'd be possibly bumping into after finding myself in a strange place." You say standing in the entryway.
"Understandable. So I trust you're doing okay?" Jack asks while still messing about with his radio.
"Yeah, I mean I still ache a bit, but I'm more or less fine. Hey you're not medically trained are you? Because I thought I'd have some bandages or something what with getting smacked with a brick and glass shattering on the side on my head."
"Not professionally, but I used some medical gel on your wounds. Glad to see it worked well." Jack says finally turning to look at you.
"Worked well? I'm practically fully healed, is it magical or something?" you joke.
"No, just highly advanced…um…well if you really need to know, I shouldn't even have the stuff, but you can acquire a lot of stuff you shouldn't over the deep web." Jack says.
"I see. So I take it, this is where you live?
"Yeah, more or less now."
"Wait, so this is where your mom lived too?"
"What? Oh no. When I lived with mom, it was a regular house in town. In fact after she died, I still lived there, but when shit started getting hectic in town, I decided I better move somewhere less vulnerable so here I am at this gray building I bought years ago online. As you might have already seen, I got tons of shit stacked in rooms, told you I was a big of a hoarder."
"Well it certainly is very gray, must cost a lot to upkeep it."
"Not really, place sort of takes care of itself. Just never made a permanent living arrangement out of this place because…well it's a long story."

There's a bit of a pause in the conversation since Jack just abruptly stops talking and starts twisting knobs and then eventually waves his hands at the radio altogether and the garbled transmissions stop altogether when he turns it off.

"What are you trying to do?" you ask.
"I'm trying to listen in on a military frequency. Normally I can get clear messages from Fort Timons near Security City, but I'm not having much luck. All I know is marshal law has been declared in major cities across the country. Well that and apparently Ground Zero is still offering their shelters at low low prices. Those ads are fucking everywhere." Jack replies.
"Marshall law…that sounds pretty serious." You remark.
"Yeah, but I can't say I'm surprised with the way things have been going in the world lately. Anyway…so what are your plans?" Jack asks.
"I dunno. I've been trying to figure that out myself. I'm not having much luck either."
"Well, considering how fucked up things are in town, you're welcome to stay here. Got plenty of space, food and such."

It's a tempting offer. Really tempting, mainly because you don't have any idea what you're going to go, but you exhale and try to gather your thoughts.

"(Sigh) Look, I'm not ungrateful for probably saving my life yesterday. I didn't mind speaking with you before all that shit went down in the comic shop. Hell, you're even not bad looking and you're obviously got your shit together enough that you own your own damn building. I'm also fairly certain you were telling the truth about not being a serial killer."
"But?" Jack says predicting your lead in.

"But all of this…well my gut is telling me that something weird is going on with you. I don't know what exactly, but I imagine it's complicated. The funny thing is that it probably wouldn't even necessarily bother me, but you sort of caught me at an unusual point in my life. While I don't want to bore you with my life story, but I just recently went through an upsetting break up with my first and currently only boyfriend to date a couple days ago and I'm still trying to mentally deal with that along with all the other shit that's gone on in my life."

Jack continues to listen as you go on.

"You think YOU were a basement dweller? At least you seemed to be doing something productive, my whole life was just coasting by and living off of other people and the most recent one was my ex. I'm fairly certain he would have done anything to take care of me had I complied, but even basement dwellers have their limits I suppose and I just couldn't make that step. All of which left me up shit's creek without a boat, let along a paddle. I'm trying to make a real effort of being self-sufficient and I sort of feel like if I stayed here I'd just be falling back into my old routine of sponging off some guy."
"You wouldn't exactly be sponging off me…" Jack starts to say before you interrupt.
"Jack, I think you better stop right there, if you're about to imply what I think you're going to imply. I'm not a damn whore."
"What? No! I wasn't going to suggest that! I just meant I have so much that it's not like I'd mind if you stuck around. It's obviously dangerous out there and I'd be quite the asshole if I just threw you out."

You just hang your head down at this remark.

"Well that makes you better than my older sister, but it also makes this harder for me, because it would have been easier if you had been looking for some sort of cynical sex exchange like that."
"Wait…so you WANT me to treat you like a whore?" Jack asks confused.
"No! Fuck. I just…shit…I dunno what the hell I want…" you say putting your head in your hands.

At this point Jack tries to interpret your complete mess of explaining things.

"Okay, I think I know what you're getting at. You just got out of a relationship and you aren't really in the mood for another guy to be sniffing around you right now. You also want to be by yourself and try to make it on your own without help since you've never been truly independent your whole life. Am I right so far?" Jack asks.
"Yes." You reply.
"And while you aren't exactly thinking the worst of me right now, you're still wisely suspicious enough to wonder why the hell I helped you out if I didn't want something. Obviously there must be something odd about me, for all you know I've been stalking you or something."
"Well, basically."
"Okay, good. Now just let me explain my side of things."

You lean again the side of the entryway before Jack goes into his own speech.

"First, yes, I do think you're attractive and from what I know of you, I WOULD like to get to know you a lot better. I thought maybe there was something there during our nice conversation at the comic shop, but I dunno…I sort of…well let's just say I'm not exactly great at the whole asking someone out thing, so I lost my nerve and had to gather it again by leaving, and of course that's when those guys showed up. Not to mention I wasn't really planning on doing that anyway since I didn't expect to see anyone other than Jake at the register. Which brings me to the second point, I helped you, for the same reason I helped Jake yesterday, it was the right thing to do. I just wasn't so lucky with him as I was with you. I'm not saying I'm some hero, but I've always liked to believe I'm not a bad guy. So when I saw the opportunity to get you help, I did it. I assure you there was no ulterior motive."

At this point Jack fishes something out of his pocket. It's keys and a wad of money in a roll. He tosses them to you and you catch them.

"Do I want you to stay here because I like you? Yes, of course I would, but I can't just keep you here, if you don't want to be. You sound like you have very strong feelings about trying to make it on your own and being by yourself and I understand that. So since your car was trashed, I'm giving you mine. I'm not going to need it much longer…and no that doesn't mean I'm going to commit suicide. I just won't be needing it. As for the cash, well you'll need it more than I will too. You take them both and go live your life and hopefully it will be a good one."

You're pretty speechless. You've so rarely had anyone be this cool with you and this doesn't seem to be a "nice guy" act. If it were, he would've been calling you a complete cunt the moment you told him you weren't interested.

"I dunno what to say except thanks." You say
"Don't mention it. Come on I'll walk you out." Jack responds

Jack and you leave the radio room and enter the large open room which has a lot of boxes stacked in it's four corners. On one of the walls is a door, which Jack says, leads to the outside.

"Car is parked right outside, and is in good working condition. Um, just to let you know though we're several miles east outside of town. It will be quite the drive, but you should get back to town by nightfall. Remember, I want you to know you can come back here if it looks like the town is in just complete anarchy. I…I still worry about your safety. Anyway, just knock three times on the door and I'll know it is you."
"I'll certainly keep that in mind Jack."
"Okay, well…good luck Suzy." Jack says opening the door, which lets in a blinding brightness.

You look at Jack and then you suddenly hug him and then kiss him on the cheek. You figure it's the least you can do. Jack wasn't expecting it though; he returns the hug until you pull away.

You and he don't exchange any more words; you just turn around and leave as the door shuts behind you.

You get in the car, and count up the money to find that Jack has given you a thousand dollars in hundreds. Not much in the long term, but it would at least sustain you awhile.

You wonder if you should head back to town or just keep driving east and try to start over somewhere else.

[User] You head back to town

[Assistant]
Maybe if he'd given you ten or even five thousand you'd feel more comfortable making the risk of "starting over" but with just a thousand, you're not that confident even with your new found self sufficient approach to life.

Besides, you're not even sure where the hell eastward even takes you. For all you know it ends in wilderness, you've never been out of your own town before. Better to take your chances with the devil you know.

As you drive down the empty road, you pass long stretches of trees and wilderness. You never realized until just now how rural in an area you lived in before.

You briefly check your phone again to see if anyone has called, but as usual nobody has. Nobody cares.

You continue driving thinking about probably having to deal with the near state of anarchy the town is in. Assuming you even get home in one piece you'll have to deal with Peter and his car. You figure you'll have to at least give him this one.

All of which isn't going to help you with Kelly who is still intent on throwing you out by the end of the week. Chances are if you attempted to "pay rent" with some of your money she'd just punch you in the face and take ALL of your money and let you stay another month at best which means being on a time limit and scrambling for a job again. You got very lucky once with the job situation as fast as you did, and you don't think you'll manage it that quickly again even if the town wasn't all fucked up.

That leaves your plan "B" choice of living with your sister Donna and your so called best friend Julie which isn't much of a plan at all so much as it's just a free living arrangement. What a joy that's going to be, dealing with their partying every night. You might as well be living out in the chaos filled streets given how they carry on. Hell, you might even be safer. You'll definitely have to make sure to keep your newly acquired loot well hidden.

You try to take you mind off of all this by turning on the radio…Ground Zero ads.

"Ground Zero…how fucking original." You say and turn the radio off, shaking your head.

You continue driving and driving and driving; your thoughts continuing to go back and forth about why you're even going back to town.

It really would be so much easier to just stay with Jack.

[User] You keep driving to town

[Assistant]
As much as it might be tempting to go stay with Jack, you need to keep to your plan of self-sufficiency or at least an attempt at it. Staying with Jack is just a bad idea in the long term.

While he might say he isn't expecting anything, the longer you stay the more likely he's going to get resentful and the more likely you're just going to revert to your old ways. It's a recipe for disaster. Jack and his Gray Building were pretty weird anyway, better you just put all of that out of your head right now.

Living with your sister and friend won't be fun, but at least it will motivate you to get a means of employment to get the hell out of there quicker. It probably won't even be as bad as you think it will be either.

So that's it. You've made up your mind, set a goal and you're going to stick to it. You actually feel a little good about that.

"And fuck Peter, I'm keeping this damn car. Peter's stolen enough of my clothing over the years that I already paid for his damn vehicle." You mumble to yourself.

Now you feel even better. So much so you're smiling.

With your thoughts getting comfortable with risk and leaving behind thoughts of doing the "safe" thing you continue back to town.

You must drive for hours and never see another car on the road. It's sort of eerie, especially as it starts to get dark. At least you don't have to worry about traffic though.

As you get within the distance of the town, you wonder just how fucked up it's gotten since you left, or if order has been restored. You remember Jake mentioned marshal law being enforced in cities across the country. Makes you sort of wonder if the whole damn world is going mad or something.

Just as you get within the town's limits, you think you notice a large vehicle up head and even people. Then suddenly several spotlights shine in the direction of your vehicle and one right ahead of you. You nearly lose control of your vehicle due to the blinding light and slam on your breaks.

"HALT! BY THE ORDER OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT THIS TOWN IS UNDER MARSHAL LAW! ALL ENTRY AND IN AND OUT IS FORBIDDEN! STOP YOUR VEHICLE FOR INSPECTION!" a loud speaker echoes.

The government has apparently decided to place your shithole town under marshal law as well, you can't imagine why, but you aren't even really thinking about that, all you're thinking about is getting the hell out of here before you get shot, rounded up into a camp or both.

"Christ, Suzy, you ARE fucking jinxed." You say and then with a deft maneuver you reverse the car and spin it around. You then slam on the gas.

Gunshots ring out and your back window is shot out. Soon the sounds of a jeep can be heard followed by more gunfire.

Your attempt to outrun the National Guard prove to be a failure as your back tires are shot and blown out causing your car to spin out of control, flip a few times and then slam into a row of tree along the side of the road.

Unlike the last accident you got into, you aren't quite as lucky and you are severely injured due to low hanging branches going right through the windshield and impaling you through the chest. By the time the guardsmen reach you, all they find is a bloody mangled corpse.