The Marked Man

You are walking down the street on your way to work. People of all types are bustling past you, yet they all somehow look the same. You look up at the row of skyscrapers that line the street, each one a carbon copy of the last. At the bottom of each is a small store, the same template in a different color. You stop at one with a denim-colored sign, [[Elias's Bodega.-> Bodega]]

You walk in and see Elias behind the counter in his usual spot. You grab a newspaper and head up to the counter to pay. "That's quite a bright coat you've got on today." "Yeah, I was hoping it would fade more when I washed it. I'll have to hang it out for a bit tomorrow." It's close to time for work. Do you [[take your paper and leave->Work]] or [[stay and chat with Elias?->Chat]]

You make it to your floor of the office just in time for your day to start, waving hello to your boss on your way in. Do you [[take your coat and newspaper right up to your desk->Desk1]] or [[head to the breakroom for coffee first->Breakroom]]?

You ask Elias if he's heard anything interesting lately. "I've been hearing that the police are on a search for marks this week. They gave me signs that I need to hang up on lunch today." "I'll have to keep a look out then. Thanks for the paper!" You head on your way to [[work->Work]]

You sit down at your cubicle and stare at the four walls that surround your work station. You wonder what kind of shit this work day is going to throw at you. Do you [[dive right into your work->desk2]] or do you [[put your headphones in and begin your work->coffee]]

A few of your coworkers are already in the breakroom. George has the cuff of his sleeve rolled up, showing something to his buddy from downstairs. "Yeah, she saw it and kicked me out" You peer over, and sure enough, on his wrist next to the marks for his three grown children, there is a tiny new mark. You put some sugar in your coffee and [[head back to your desk->Desk1]].

As you begin your work you start listening to the background noise that is occuring all around the outside of your cubicle. You hear two of your co workers talking about the new secretary that they speculate their boss only hired for her "outstanding personality". As you hear the gossip start to stop you notice a shadow over your shoulder that fills you with a great deal of dread. You [[turn around->boss]] to see that your suspicions were true it was in fact, your boss.

You put in your headphones and start scrolling through your song list. There are thousands of songs on your phone, but you still only listen to the same five albums on repeat. In the midst of your musical indulgence, an intern steps into your cubicle to hand you a parcel with your name on it. You do not notice him as you are lost in the music. Accidentally, the intern knocks over your coffee onto your nice clean shirt, dousing your sleves in blisteringly hot coffee. you let out a shocked yelp, and begin [[removing your shirt->intern]] frantically to get the hot coffee off of you.

In your franticness to get your shirt off you forget about the mark that you have been concealing on you left forearm. You do not know if the intern saw this in the frantic flailing of your arms but the mark was exposed. The intern leaves your work space apologizing profusly and dreading the stern email he is sure to recieve for his accident. You dry your arms off and pull out a fresh shirt that you have in your cubicle desk drawer. [[You return to your work->desk3]]

You sit at your desk until 5:00pm when you decide to pack up your bag and head home, but just as your about to leave for home your friend Alan texts you asking if you would like to come over and have dinner with him. Do you you [[head straight home->home]], or do you [[head to your friend Alan's house for dinner->alan]]?

Your boss looks at you and asks if you would be willing to run a few errands for him during your lunch break today, and for doing so he offers to move your vacation time to next week. You graciously accept and [[go back to your work->desk3]]

You stumble through the door after your long day. You walk into the kitchen and have yourself a beer before you go to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. You shower and go to [[sleep->morning]].

You arrive at Alan's small townhouse fairly quickly. Alan invites you in and is in the middle of cooking the dinner. He invites you to take your shoes off and watch some tv. You use the bathroom to change out of your work shirt into a t shirt. You don't have to worry about covering up your mark with an old friend like Alan. Once you leave the bathroom you head into the kitchen to grab a beer from the fridge. As you are sitting down at the tv you hear a loud banging at the door. You [[get up->door]] to see who it is that's at the door

You look out the peephole in the door to see who it is, and you see thay they are two police officers wearing riot gear. do you [[open the door->police]] or do you [[run out the back door->backyard]]

You open the door and see two police officers standing in front of you in riot gear. The look down at the mark on your forearm and look at each other. The one on the right raises his firearm and before you could blink, he fires his gun at your head. You died

You sprint out of Alan's house through the back door. You run out into the back yard and head for the forest behind the house. You duck down and hide as you see your friend Alan talking with the police officers. You don't know what he says to them, but after a little while they leave Alan's house. Alan then calls you in for dinner which you finish quickly and [[leave->home]]in case the cops come back.

You wake up in the morning to several calls from your boss as well as three voicemails from him. You play the voicemails and hear your boss squeaking into the microphone asking about the police officers that are looking for you because of some kind of mark that you have on your forerm. You turn your phone off and start [[thinking->decision]] about what you should do.

After weighing your options for a while you come down to two main plans of action. Do you [[stay at your home->stay]] or do you [[go away->Go Away]] and hope they forget about you?

You decide to stay at your home to wait for this all to blow over. After a few days of staying inside, you hear a knock at your door followed by a loud bang. You run to your door to see what it is and it turns out to be the two police officers in riot gear from Alan's house. They see you and immediatly open fire killing you . You died

You go to the state park outside of the city and head to the front desk to rent a cabin. Thankfully they don't ask the usual questions about marks or ask you to take off your shirt. Usually you can't even book a hotel room alone. You grab a park map and [[head to your cabin->Cabin]].

You realize that you can basically go anywhere now that you're on the run, so you think about where you want to go. Do you [[fly to Paris->Paris]] to start over far away, or do you head out to a state park nearby and [[hide out in the forest->forest]]?

You pack up and head to the airport. You notice that there are now more wanted posters up with the mark that looks like yours. Do you [[go through airport security->security]] or do you play it safe and [[head out to the woods->forest]]?

You almost make it through security when you are pulled aside for an extra security check. This can mean nothing but trouble. The security agent asks you to remove your shirt and shoes for the check. As soon as you do, he spots the mark on your arm. The agent calls someone on his radio and three guards run into the room and grab you by the arms. They drag you outside and murder you.

Your cabin is off to the side of the park near a string of identical buildings. A community fire pit is in the middle of the row. Down the hill behind the cabin you can see one of the park's many lakes. The road continues to several more communities like this one. Do you [[unpack and settle in->Unpack]] or [[start exploring the park->Explore]]?

You'll be hiding out here for a while, so you might as well get used to it. You unpack the few things you grabbed from home and sit down to rest. Around dinner time, you hear voices outside and [[head out to the fire pit->Night1]].

It'll probably be useful to learn your way around the park. You look at your map and try to decide what to do first. Do you [[head down to the lake->Lake]], [[walk on some of the trails->Walk]], or [[visit the community room at the front of the park->CommRoom1]]?

As the sun sets you approach the campfire. There are two other people sitting around the fire cooking their meals. You ask if you could sit down with them and cook your hot dogs, they very happily accept your request. One of them is a young man in his late 20s who is covered in tattoos from head to toe. This throws you off for a bit to see so many marks on one man. The girl sitting next to him is in her late teens to eraly 20s and has very few marks on her at all. You [[ask their names->names]]

As you walk around the park you come across the lake in the middle of the park. You look at it's crystal blue water and decide to go for a swim. After the swim you feel nice and refreshed and [[head back to the fire pit->Night1]] to make some dinner.

As you walk around the park you start to look at all of the beautiful things around you. You feel refeshed and revitalized after this walk. You [[head back to the fire pit by your cabin->Night1]] to relax for the rest of the day.

You walk into a small community center for the park. It has a small store, pool and ping pong tables, and various board and video games. You go up to the clerk to buy some hot dogs to cook for dinner and rent a pool table set for an hour. You waste some time practicing your break until you notice a young guy sitting in the corner watching you. He's wearing a tank top and has numerous visible tattoos. He doesn't look like the kind of guy you want to be friends with, but you don't want to get on his bad side. Do you [[say hi to him->CommRoom2]] or [[ignore him->CommRoom2]]?

You decide it's time to [[head back to the fire pit by your cabin->Night1]] to start cooking your dinner.

The man says tha his name is Marvin and that the girl sitting next to him is his little sister Ethel. Marvin tells you that he had to leave the city because of all of the marks that he ended up gathering. They weren't able to secure a home let alone a job so they moved out to the state park where people don't seem to mind seeing someone with so many marks. Ethel decided to leave with her brother so that he would have someone to keep him company out in the middle of nowhere. You spend most of the night talking to the two of them before you [[head back to your cabin->morning2]] and go to sleep.

You awake in the morning feeling well rested. You leave the cabin to go and see if Marvin and Ethel are awake yet. As you walk outside you notice a heavy silence outside that wasn't there before. There was no rustling leaves, no birds chirping, just dead silence. You walk over to Marvin and Ethels' cabin to find it completely devoid of life. They are nowhere to be found. Do you [[yell out their names->yell]] trying to find them or do you [[leave the cabin->leave]] without saying a word?

You yell out their names hoping to hear some response but to no avail. You yell louder and louder hoping to hear something at all. Eventually you do hear something that sounds like footsteps from outside. You go outside to check to see if it is Marvin and Ethel. You never see who it is. You don't see it coming. You don't feel anything when it happens. All you wanted to do was live a peaceful life, but now you... You died

You quickly leave the cabin and rush back to your own in hopes to avoid the same fate as Marvin and Ethel. You enter your cabin to the sound of drawers being turned out and pantries being ransacked. Do you grab the [[Splitting Maul->axe]] just outside the door or do you head to the fireplace to grab the [[rifle->rifle]] that sits on it.

You grab the axe and proceed cautiously into the cabin. You hear the drawers of your bedroom being turned out. You creep around the outside of the bedroom to peer inside. You see a police officer in riot gear rummaging through your drawers. It doesn't look like he is looking for anything other than how to make a mess. You [[approach him from behind->thwack]] winding the axe up for a swing.

As you move toward the fireplace you hear the sounds of footsteps coming towards you. You make a mad dash for the rifle over the fireplace. You make it to the rifle just as the burglar comes into view. You notice that its one of the police officers from before in the riot gear. You [[aim the rifle at him->aim]].

He pauses as he looks at you. He doesn't know why he has been ordered to kill you. All he knows is that that mark on your arm is dangerous to the people in charge. For all he knows it could be just something completely trivial. Either way the officer doesn't question it and he raises his gun. You pull the trigger and close your eayes to brace yourself for the kickback of the gun. But there is no kick, no loud bang. You look at the rifle and realize that there is no ammo loaded into it. The officer chuckles as he puts three bullets in your chest. You Died

The axe comes down hard on the officer splitting his head in two down the middle. His body crumped to the floor with a loud thud. You are now covered in blood and the axe is now a glistening red. You feel like you are about to be sick, and then you actually do get sick. As you a vomiting your brains out you hear the sound of fast moving foot steps coming towards you. Do you [[run away->run]] or do you [[stay and fight->fight]]?

You flee as fast as you can. You put as much distance between that cabin. You change your name and travel to some far off place to start a new life away from all of the horrors that have been haunting you. You have escaped for now... You Win.

You conceal yourself behind the door with the axe in hand. As the other officer enters the room you hear him yell out the other officer's name,"Willhelm?!" He turns int othe room you are in to see the mangled corpse of his fellow officer. He doesn't notice you hiding behind the door to the entry of the room. Do you [[sneak out the door->sneak]] and run away or do you [[attack the officer->attack]]?

You sneak out of the cabin undetected and run away as far and fast as you can. You never stop running. You are always moving. You have to be. They will always be looking for you no matter where you are, they will be looking for you. You escape...for now. You Win!

You slam the ax down onto the officer's shoulder blade shattering his collar bone and caving in his ribs. He collapses to the floor on top of the other officer you killed. You drop the ax in horror of what you have just done. You look down onto your arm and see two new marks forming the shape of tear marks. One tear for each of the lives you just took. You have escaped but how will you live with what you have done? You Win.