Sometimes there leaps like fire, a blue light across your vision. Other moments you feel the heat of the sun on your skin.\n\n"I know what your doing John. Do you know what I am?"\n<<print either("Umbrae", "Shadow", "Shade" , "Pitch" , "Dark")>> asks.\n\n[[QPT24]]

"It's been too long. forever maybe. last I saw him, we fought. It's very lonely [[here|North West Coast]]."

<<if visited("take shard")>>\n\n"Interesting. I'd be willing to part with it, but only in exchange for a memento from the day before this all happened"\n\n[[would this do?]]\n\n<<else>>\n\n"Interesting. I'd be willing to part with it, but only in exchange for a memento from the day before this all happened"\n\n[["What would that be?"]]\n\n[["I don't have anything like that"|Landing]]\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

You take the key card.\n\n[[done.|the polluted coast]]

The doorbell rings and you wake up. Unexpected visitors, It’s your parents and they are there for breakfast. You have strawberry jam, honey, wine, bread and cheese. What is the first thing you open?\n\n"[[The Jam|wrong!]]"\n"[[Wine|wrong!]]"\n"[[Bread and Cheese|wrong!]]"\n"[[Honey|wrong!]]"\n"[[The door|wrong!]]"\n"[[Your Eyes|wrong!]]"\n\n

"I'll give you ten seconds to back off John"\n\n[[03KC|03KCc]]

"Ten-"\nThe blue flames engulf you and Ann...\n"Nine-"\n...were your hands always like this? with...\n"Eight"\n...The veins pulsing, glistening steel...\n"Seven"\n[[03KC|03KCd]]\n

WARNING HAZARD AHEAD:\n\nLevel 3 hazmat equipment required.\n\nStorage in bunker A, on the north west quadrant of island.\nPlease follow all safety procedures and return cleaned equipment after each use\n\n[[done|coastal path east]]

"It's just as I said, we're already dead."\n\n[["how?"|dead end]]

"Six."\n...she's here...\n"Five."\n...you're alone, on your knees now, trying to get back to the console...\n"Four."\n...you're running away...\n"Three."\n...a pair of hands clasp around your neck...\n"Two"\n...you're typing in the code, or -\n[["One."]]\n

//One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter, there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small, that perhaps in the course of the hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer that shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it [[the living and dead cat|It Begins]] (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts.\n\nIt is typical of these cases that an indeterminacy originally restricted to the atomic domain becomes transformed into macroscopic indeterminacy, which can then be resolved by direct observation. That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a "blurred model" for representing reality. In itself, it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.//\n\n—Erwin Schrödinger, Die gegenwärtige Situation in der Quantenmechanik (The present situation in quantum mechanics), Naturwissenschaften\n

<<if visited("Hazmat Suit")>>\n\nYou don the Hazmat Suit, the yellow Miasma doesn’t clear, but you can now go [[north|east coast]]\n\nThe path goes back [[west|east point]].\n\n<<else>> \n\nNoxious fumes block your way ahead. A small [[sign|hazard ahead]] is bolted into the sandstone to your left.\n\ngo [[back|east point]] \n\n\n<<endif>>

<<if visited("remember")>>\n\nThe yellow mist blocks your view of everything but the path.\n\nIt goes north and [[south|coastal path east]].\n\n<<else>> \n\nThe yellow mist blocks your view of everything but the path.\n\nIt goes [[north|the polluted coast]] and [[south|coastal path east]].\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

\n<<if visited("would this do?")>>\n\n"Do you have it? Something to remember him with?"\n\n"[[I have it here]]"\n\n<<else>> \n\n"Hello There." He says. His lips don't move. His chest doesn't rise and fall.\n\n[["I want to go in"| i can't move]]\n\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

There is a sound of breathing, of dripping.\n\nThe Skinless Man is behind you.\n\n[[look]]

You can see the whole of the [[Cove]] from here and the east point of the cove in the distance. The point of the cove wraps further [[west|coastal path west]] out of your sight.\n\nA flash of blue flickers just out of sight in the trees of the <<print either("Thick Jungle", "Forest", "Jungle" , "Sparse Forest")>>.

It begins as it does every time. You feel the sun on your back before the waves lapping an your legs, then the sand crusted on your cheek which is pressed to the shore. The world resolves itself around you. Through the glare of your eyes adjusting to the sun, you think you are in a [[Cove]]

\n<<if visited("remember")>>\n\nthe skinless man walks away into the fog.\n\n[[south|east coast]]\n\n<<else>> \n\nThe [[key card]] sits in the discolored sand.\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

The console waits for you to use the [[key card| facility entrance]].

The path along the shore wraps from the [[west point of the cove|west point]] which is cut off from view by the <<print either("Thick Jungle", "Forest", "Jungle" , "Sparse Forest")>>. The path spits off [[into the jungle|jungle clearing]] and further [[north|west coast]] following the sea.

She's not there, either already departed or never was in the first place.\n\n"[[<<print either("Ann", "Anna", "Naa")>>?|snap back]]"

"Are you afraid to press it?"\n\n"No. We're doing a great thing here. <<print either("Umbrae", "Shadow", "Shade" , "Pitch" , "Dark")>> will change the world. The processing power on a centimeter of his drives will be more than the world has at it's disposal over the last century of computing. This can only be good."\n\n"I guess I can be pretty confident how you meant it when you said 'nothing' hu?"\n\n"I love you <<print either("Ann", "Anna", "Naa")>>."\n\nShe interlocks her fingers with yours. Her hands are surprisingly cold.\n\n[[Press the button.|the polluted coast]]

"I'm sorry. I can't move. I'm dead you see. My heart isn't beating. If it were, I could move again. But I won't ever be alive, you can't come back form this."\n\n[["How can I get your heart going?"|another memory]]

The cove reaches to the [[west point]], and [[east point]] in either direction, and a [[Path]] into the <<print either("Thick Jungle", "Forest", "Jungle" , "Sparse Forest")>> covering a mountain rises to the north.\n\nThe ocean crashes, the echo of the waves bounces back from the mountain.\n\n

\n<<if visited("would this do?")>>\n\nThe Jawless Man is here. Silently staring down to the west half of the island.\n\n<<else>>\n\nThe [[Jawless man]] is here.\n\n<<endif>>\n\nYou can see the whole island from here. The east portion of the island is covered in a yellow fog, the west, a <<print either("Dense Jungle", "Forest", "Jungle" , "Sparse Forest")>>.\n\n<<if visited("key card")>>\n\nThe [[console]] next to the steel door waits.\n\n<<else>>\n\nA large steel door is set in the concrete facility at the other side of the landing.\n\n<<endif>>\n\nThe [[stairs|Stairs]] lay to the south.

"John? Is that you?" A deep voice rolls from the speakers. other voices are heard over it, quieter, high voicers, lower voices. The voice is a choir. A cacophony."It's been so long. I woke up and everyone left."\n\n[["That's Me. Who is this?"]]

"Oh, won't you at least hang out with me for a bit? I'm so alone here. There's almost no one left in the facility. And the person who is I don't want to play with. She isn't any fun."\n\n"[[who else is in the facility?]]"\n\n"[[alright I'll spend a little time with you. But only if you let me through the door to get to the control room.]]"

Ann, or is it Anna? - reaches for you. Her fingers touching your arm as you key in the code. Sometimes whole and perfect like when you first met her, but here without skin like the first moments <<print either("Umbrae", "Shadow", "Shade" , "Pitch" , "Dark")>> woke up, there, still engulfed in flames.\n\n"Even if you kill me before I kill you, you wouldn't, would you?"\n\n[[0K3C]]

"ALL DEAD! THERE IS NO HOPE. LEAVE!" <<print either("Llorona", "The Weeping Woman", "The woman in white")>> starts throwing plates. One breaks on a tree, the [[shards|take shard]] of porcelain flow by you impossibly slow.

"This will do perfectly."\n\nHe takes the shard of china.\n\n"I remember that day. So long ago now..."\n\nHe give you his lower jaw.\n\n[[done|Landing]]

AFTERGLOW

"No fun, humans are no fun at all"\n\nThe door slides open, It's leads [[deeper]] into the facility.

"What are you thinking?" she smiles. her teeth are even, perfect, white, but the rest of her features are forgotten.\n\n"nothing."\n\n"Pft. You know Camus wrote about saying that. he says it can mean two things, that you don't need to say anything because you're confident in your loved one's response and that talking would only be redundant, or that you have realized that the things you do are meaningless, so anything you endeavor is nothing anyways."\n\n[[I am loved]]\n\n[[I am nothing]]

<<if visited("La Lloronoa's Clearing")>>\n\nThe ocean laps on the shore hear, the thin path winding [[north|North West Coast]] and [[south|coastal path west]]\n\nThe wailing can still be heard from the east, you dare not face the woman again.\n\n<<else>> \n\nThe ocean laps on the shore hear, the thin path winding [[north|North West Coast]] and [[south|coastal path west]]\n\nwailing can be heard from the [[east|La Lloronoa's Clearing]], in the <<print either("Thick Jungle", "Forest", "Jungle" , "Sparse Forest")>> towards the mountain.\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

<<if visited("Idon't know")>>\n\n"Hello there" he says, lifting his separated jaw to his face.\n\n[["Hello"|Landing]]\n\n[["I need your lower Jaw"]]\n\n<<else>>\n\n"Hello there" he says, lifting his separated jaw to his face.\n\n[["Hello"|Landing]]\n\n[["How Do I get in that door?"|need a key]]\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

"Hee. Hee it's me, <<print either("Umbrae", "Shadow", "Shade" , "Pitch" , "Dark")>>. You should know you made me."\n\n"Oh. Right. Listen, I need to get in. I need to turn off whats causing all of these problems"\n\n"I'm afraid I can't let you doo that John. Hee HEE. get it?"\n\n"[[Come on, let me in]]"

It begins as it does every time. You feel the sun on your back before the waves lapping an your legs, then the sand crusted on your cheek which is pressed to the shore. The sun gets brighter and brighter, it's warmth covers you.\n\nThere is [[light.]]

You can hear the crashing waves of the [[Cove]] behind you. Sunlight breaks through the canopy lighting a set of [[Stairs]] ahead.

A console lays in the center of the under-lit room.\n\nHer voice calls out, uncertain and feeble from the shadows beyond your sight.\n\nShe only says one word, but there's ice inside you upon hearing it.\n\n"John?"\n\n[["<<print either("Ann", "Anna", "Naa")>>?"|A Final Conversation]]\n\n

"Anything from that picnic we had planned. It will do for me."\n\n"[[okay.|Landing]]"

"She's hurting. She's like us. She was there. You need to end this. For her for us. For everyone here."\n\n"What are you talking about? I don't [[remember]]"

<<if visited("I have it here")>>\n\nThe small concretee bunker lies to the north.\n\nThe Man lies still besides the [[door|The Bunker]].\n\nThe shore here crests as gently as it does to the [[south|west coast]].\n\n<<else>> \n\nThe small concretee bunker lies to the north.\n\n[[The Man| Heartless, broken]] lies still in front of the door, blocking it. He looks dead.\n\nThe shore here crests as gently as it does to the [[south|west coast]].\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

"I'm scarred." She moves forward from the darkness, her form coming into focus, "Everything hurts, everything has hurt for a long time."\n\nYou look at the console, you remember the key sequence to deactivate The <<print either("Umbrae", "Shadow", "Shade" , "Pitch" , "Dark")>> Program.\n\n"I want it to end John." She walks out from the shadows, her form shifting from burnt red to blackened, her skin torn away or as smooth as it ever had been. "I want it to end."\n\n[[Enter the code]]

The jungle wraps itself around a small picnic set up. On the blue plaid blanket, a [[<<print either("Llorona", "The Weeping Woman", "The woman in white")>>| Llorona]] sits with her head hanging forward, hair draped in front of her face.\n

The bite of the times where snow falls on you, the wetness of the crashing waves, these things let you know what your seeing around the console aren't visions, but passing realities.\n\n"I'm going to kill you John. I like you. You made me more than anyone else. I've always thought of you like my father. Don't make me do it."\n\n[[SK9E]]

A night,\na long time ago.\nYou awake in the dark, in a place that's not your home.\nheart racing, sweat on your brow, you need to turn on the [[light|your cot]]

<<if visited("a foggy memory")>>\n\nThe figures mummer to one another, hands clasped, the afterglow of their movements trail behind them.\n\n[[go back|coastal path west]]\n\n<<else>> \n\nThere and not there, the shadows of light talk indistinctly. The two pellucid figures sit on the fallen tree, one larger, one smaller.The radiant blue shapes shift with a trailing delay. The larger masculine figure removes a box from pocket pulling something from inside.\n\nThe necklace gleams in the light filtered through the trees above. The crystal that serves as the necklaces pendant catches your eye, you [[remember|a foggy memory]] it.\n\n<<endif>>\n\n

The dead man's chest heaves with a shallow breath, what might be a tear shines at the edge of his eyes. He rolls to the right.\n\n[[done|North West Coast]]

"Woo hoo! Riddle! lets do a riddle. If you get it right I'll let you through.\n\nOkay, are you ready?"\n\n"[[Yes.]]"

"Too late for that." <<print either("Llorona", "The Weeping Woman", "The woman in white")>> lifts her head to look at you, her hair falling back. the cut on her neck weeps with blood as her eyes do with tears. "We can't live. We can't die. We're all alive but we're already dead"\n\n[["What can I do to help you?"|dead end]]

R. N. Goudie

"My dearest friend, I haven't seen him since the meltdown. If I could see him again, even just a glimpse, It might stir my heart just enough for me to move."\n\n[["Where is your friend?"|Idon't know]]

Your fingers slip off the console. You're bleeding, frostbit, ancient and decrepit.\n\n[[0K3C|03KCb]]

"We're dead. We're dead. We're all dead" she croaks between sobs.\n\n[["It's okay, I'm here to help you"|too late]]\n\n[["What do you mean?|worse than you think]]

"How are we doing John? Have you fixed it yet?"\n\n"[[what?]]"

"[[<<print either("Ann", "Anna", "Naa")>>.|snap back]]"

"Haha Wrong! Wrong! It's your pulmonary valve! That was opening while your heart was beating before you even woke up! hee hee, humans are so dumb. I should just kill you now. Wouldn't that be funny? It would be like a human killing a cow. HAHAHAHA"\n\n"[[woah now, you don't have to do that.]]"

<<if visited("Hazmat Suit")>>\n\nThe room is dark and empty.\n\n[[go back|North West Coast]]\n\n<<else>> \n\nThe room is dark. There is a [[Hazmat Suit]] here.\n\n<<endif>>\n

The stairs wind back and forth to the [[landing|Landing]] above. The sun shines through here, but you can feel the coolness of the <<print either("Thick Jungle", "Forest", "Jungle" , "Sparse Forest")>> in the breeze from the [[path|Path]]

"AFTERGLOW"\n\nWritten By R.N Goudie\n\nSee @RNGoudie for more IF by me. tweet me feed-back!

You can see the whole of the [[Cove]] from here and the west point of the cove in the distance, the sand stretching into a long crescent. The point of the cove wraps further [[east|coastal path east]] out of your sight.\n\nThe mountain beyond the cove looms above, a small concretee structure can be seen through a break in the jungle, at the top of a winding set of stairs.

You take the Hazmat Suit. [[Done|North West Coast]]

The door opens, darkness lurks in front of you.\n\n[[Enter the facilty|foyer]]

"Oh, that's no fun. No fun at all. I don't want to talk about her. How about this? I'll tell you a riddle. If you get it right, I'll let you through the door."\n\n[["Okay, let's do that"|Yes.]]

You realize your surroundings, you almost forgot [[where you are|jungle clearing]]

The door closes behind you. Darkness consumes your view for a time.\n\nTwin lines of emergency lighting power on, lighting a path forward to a security door with a hand panel.\n\n[[Use the hand scanner.|Dark]]

You grab the shard closest to you, spider web thin blue lines form the image of a two small children on a bridge.\n\n[[run|west coast]]

"There's a key card. I got in a fight with my friend over it when this was all happening. I threw it down on the east coast, and now no one can get it. It means we're locked out unfortunately."\n\n[["Okay."|Landing]]

The cot is small, but you both manage somehow.\n\nThe need had built undeniable, a small space to work with couldn't stop you now.\n\nYou [[remember her| fully now.]]