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Roads to Roam
by
Leah Yegneswaran
Played 1,972 times
View game source
(spoilers!)
Download the
.z8 file
Source Code
"Roads to Roam" by Leah Yegneswaran The crash site is a room. The description of the crash site is "[if unvisited] You wake up in pain. Something is clearly wrong; a bone deep ache is radiating through you, and though you keep your eyes tightly squeezed shut, blinding light dazzles you through your closed eyelids. You duck your head, scrabbling at the tightness across your chest. A seatbelt. You're in a car. You're in a car, in pain, and oh, God, you must have crashed. You open your eyes, snag the door handle with shaking fingers, and tumble out of the vehicle. After taking a few shaky steps away from the wreck, you take a look around. As you spin in a circle, trying to take it all in, you feel really quite dazed. You put your hand up to your head to try to stop the spinning, but can't quite make everything stop whirling. Snow is falling in fat flakes but you can see blood sprayed almost elegantly across the dusting on the slick asphalt; it's more icy slush than proper snow. It hasn't really started sticking yet. The blood is dark and looks almost like oil, but the smell is wrong. You look back at the car--a prim little sedan, or it used to be; the whole right hand side of it is scraped all to hell, the mirror is busted mostly off and dangling, and the windshield is shattered completely. [else if visited] Over the ruined car, you can see the guard rail you must have hit; it's bent and looking rather worse for the wear. Beyond it is a steep drop-off, and your heart thuds as you realize that had the car gone over the edge, you wouldn't be upright and walking about at this very moment. In the other direction-west, you think, going by the sun and your watch, is a tree-covered hillside. You wouldn't be caught dead tramping about that terrain in these shoes on your best day, let alone after a car wreck. But this really isn't your best day. The snow has built up quite a bit; the car is wearing a light shawl in lacy white, and the blood has frozen in a pinkish spatter." Understand "asphalt" as snow. The shoes are scenery. The shoes are fixed in place. The shoes is in the crash site. The description of the shoes is "Your once expensive shoes are going to get trashed. Sigh." Understand "feet" as shoes. The drop-off is scenery. The drop-off is in the crash site. The description of the drop-off is "That's a bit too high for your liking. You take a nervous step back." Understand "drop off", "dropoff" as drop-off. The woods are scenery. The woods are in the crash site. The description of the woods is "Lovely, dark, and deep. Also slightly terrifying." the hand is scenery. The hand is in the crash site. The hand is fixed in place. The description of the hand is "It's a bit banged up, but you're pretty sure it's yours.". the head is scenery. The head is in the crash site. The head is fixed in place. the description of the head is "You try to check out your head wound--you're pretty sure you have one--but trying to peer at your own scalp makes you feel a bit cross-eyed.". Understand "wound", "scalp" as head. The guard rail is scenery. The guard rail is in the crash site. The description of the guard rail is "It's steel, and thank god it kept you on the road." Understand "guard-rail" as guard rail. Understand "guardrail", "rail" as guard rail. The watch is wearable. You are wearing the watch. The description of the watch is "Who watches the Watch...? Men!" The sun is scenery. The sun is fixed in place. The sun is in the crash site. The description of the sun is "Still big, still yellow, still round." The sweater is wearable. You are wearing the sweater. The description of the sweater is "Not warm enough." The forest is scenery. The forest is fixed in place. The forest is in the patch. The snow is scenery. The snow is in the crash site. The description of the snow is "Basically snowy. What more could you expect?". understand "icy slush", "slush" as snow. The blood is scenery. The blood is in the crash site. The description of the blood is "It's dark and creepy. And possibly yours, but you don't feel quite that beat up.". the car is scenery. The car is in the crash site. The car is an enterable openable transparent closed lockable locked container. The car is fixed in place. The description of the car is "It looks like it was a bit on the battered side even before the wreck.". Understand "sedan" as the car. Understand "windshield" as car. The flashlight is in the car. The description of the flashlight is "You have no idea how much battery this thing has, but hey. Safe, sorry, all that." The jacket is in the car. The description of the jacket is "It's not your warmest coat, but it'll do." Understand "Coat" as jacket. The granola bar is in the car. The description of the granola bar is "You never even really liked these things. Too sweet. But you could be stranded for a while." The granola bar can be eaten. the mirror is scenery. The mirror is an object in the crash site. The description of the mirror is "You look into the mirror a little nervously and see your own face staring back at you. You have impressive bruises around your eyes and the bridge of your nose is split and red is oozing down your face." Understand "face", "bruises", "eyes", "nose", "bridge of your nose", "split", "red", "face" as mirror. The tree is scenery. The tree is in the crash site. The description of the tree is "Tall, green, probably not an Ent." Understand "trees" as tree. The hillside is scenery. The hillside is in the crash site. The description of the hillside is "Way too treacherous to climb. And you're not in the mood to break a leg.". Understand "hill side" as hillside. Understand "hill-side" as hillside. Understand "hill" as hillside. Understand "terrain" as hillside. The curve is a room. The crash site is north of the curve. The description of the curve is "It's hard to make out details, but you think you can see some tire tracks." The tire tracks is scenery. the tire tracks is in the curve. the description of the tire tracks is "The car seems to have been going fairly fast, and fishtailing like wild." Understand "tracks" as tire tracks. The road is a room. The road is north of the crash site. The description of the road is "[if unvisited] There seem few options but to head up the road and look for… something. A mile marker, another person or car, a rest stop. Anything. You trudge forwards, your head ducked down against the wind. You're absolutely freezing, and your light sweater is doing nothing to keep the bitter wind out. You're not wearing gloves or a hat or anything; you always get too warm when you drive, and all your warm things are in the back seat. Stupid of you to leave the door locked--though, you don't remember locking the door behind you when you fled the wreckage. Must have been automatic, or an accident. [else if visited] The black road winds like a stretch of silk ribbon in either direction. You would stop and admire the ragged beauty of the wild storm, the sleek road, the imposing woods, but you are starting to get cold in that way where you lose sensation in your fingers, your nose, your chin." The patch is a room. The patch is north of the road. The description of the patch is "[if unvisited] You nearly slip on a patch of black ice, and it's lucky you catch yourself before you crack your skull open. As it is, you freeze because your path is blocked by a huge felled log. You glance to the east. No more guard rail, but the drop-off is still a suicidal plunge. To the left you see just more forest, but what looks like a thin trail has been smashed through the underlevel of brush. If you could get out from under the snow and wind, for just a bit, maybe you could think of something. [Else if visited] You see something caught one one of the branches of the giant log, and realize it looks familiar. That's because it's actually yours--you'd know that hideous green backpack anywhere. Your mom got it for you and you've held onto it for no good reason." Understand "bag", "pack" as backpack. Instead of taking backpack: say "It's tangled pretty good in the branches.". Understand "brush" as forest. The description of the forest is "Forboding." The wind is scenery. The description of the wind is "It's invisible, smartass." Understand "light" as flashlight. The ice is scenery in the patch. The ice is fixed in place. The description of the ice is "It's dark and sleek.". The log is scenery. The log is in the patch. The log is fixed in place. The description of the log is "It's huge and scary; it looks like it could teeter towards you at any moment." Understand "felled log" as log. The backpack is scenery. the backpack is an openable closed container in the patch. A scarf is in the backpack. gloves are in the backpack. Your keys are in the backpack. Your keys unlock the car. after wearing the gloves: say "You put them on. Toasty." after wearing the scarf: say "You wrap the wool tightly around your throat and feel better already. But you were so sure you left it in the car." After taking keys: say "You snatch up the keys with cold fingers and they jangle as your hands shake. You're heading right back to that car and putting the heat on. Or at the very least, grabbing your cell phone out of the dash board." the granola bar is edible. the scarf is wearable. the gloves is wearable. the jacket is wearable. after wearing jacket: say "Much better." Understand "coat" as jacket. The dashboard is in the car. The dashboard is scenery. The dashboard is fixed in place. The dashboard is an openable closed container. Understand "glove box" as dashboard. Understand "dash board" as dashboard. Understand "glovebox" as dashboard. after entering car: say "You open the glove box but your cell phone is missing. You blink, panicked and confused. This is so strange. Something feels very much not ok. Maybe you hit your head harder than you thought. You try to put the key in the ignition, to listen to the radio or get some heat on, but the slot is jammed or something. The key jams in the ignition. At this point, you have no way to contact anyone, no way to even listen to the weather forcast. You've heard that people lost in the wilderness should stay with their vehicles, but you're pretty sure you're going to turn into an icicle if you stay out here. And who says you're in the wild, anyways? You could be right near a town, or at the very least, a farm. How strange that you can't remember where you were going. Or coming back from. Your head hurts. You scrub your face with your hands. You're going to walk back to the log, see where that path goes. You're starting to feel fatigued, even though your aches have all but faded. You feel like you're running on steam--the granola bar helped, but you would kill for a little water, or better, a Coke or something. Something with a little buzz to it. Sugar. Caffeine. Something. You can feel yourself starting to fade. If you don't start walking now, you'll be trapped…wherever you are…come nightfall." the radio is scenery. the radio is in the car. the radio is fixed in place. the description of the radio is "The radio hunches like a dead beetle, shiny and just as useless. Crud." the flashlight can be switched on. the path is a room. the path is west of the patch. the description of the path is "The path is wild and seems as if it was hacked desperately. Ichor drips in crimson icicles from several branches. It's getting darker." The ichor is scenery. the ichor is in the path. The ichor is fixed in place. The description of the ichor is "Sharp enough to cut." Understand "icicles" as ichor. Understand "Branches" as ichor. the clearing is a room. The clearing is west of the path. the description of the clearing is "[if flashlight is switched on] There is a figure lying in the clearing. [else if flashlight is switched off] You can't see a damn thing." After switching on the flashlight: say "You fumble with the flashlight, trying to coax the dying battery into producing even a tentative flicker of light. An arc of dim yellow pools at your feet, and you LOOK around, slowly.". The figure is in the clearing. the figure is scenery. the figure is fixed in place. the description of the figure is "The fingers are blue, as are the lips. The face is streaked with blood and the eyelashes have frosted with white crystals. The figure has no jacket, no scarf, no gloves. It takes you a moment to recognize yourself. How clouded your judgement must have been, after the crash, to crawl from the wreckage and feel warm, to leave your bag and your coat and crawl into the woods to die, curled like a leaf on a bed of pine. You look at the familiar, unfamiliar face and you reach out to shut the unseeing eyes--but your fingers are nearly see-through. You are fading. You feel cold. You feel nothing. You feel... The snow continues to fall. * * * end."
