Spiral
by Justin Morgan (2012)
Genres: Horror
Surreal


action: %
response: [ Hint: important commands are THINK and REMEMBER ]

And then you hear something. The low, steady rumbling of a train. As your eyelids slowly peel back, you feel like you're swimming up to the surface of a deep, black ocean. For a while, the disorientation is overwhelming, and you can't think about anything. But once you start thinking, you can't stop.

It's dark, and the only artificial light is flickering, but it doesn't take much light for you to know that you're in trouble. Most of your body is numb. Directly opposite you is a man, plastered with fear, gagged. His arms are tied to his sides, his legs bound together in three different places. The numbness gives way to pain, as though needles are shooting out of all your blood vessels and you start to feel more than just your pounding heart: the tight ropes digging into you, the rigid metal floor, the stale air, the gag over your mouth.
action: About yourself
response: You can see your legs stretched out in front of you, tied together at the ankles, shins and thighs with thick ropes that really seem to bite into your skin. Just looking at it makes you shuffle in discomfort, but it doesn't make it any better. In the dark light you can't tell if you're wearing blue jeans or black ones - you think black - but either way they're very dusty. You look down at your similarly hue-ambiguous sweater, which is also marked by tight ropes around your upper and lower arms. Your mouth is covered by a patch that is stuck right over your lips: you can only make muffled, incoherent groaning noises.
action: Look around
response: You look around again. The carriage is small and is practically empty. On the floor in front of you is a sea of dead wasps - there's not a live one to be found. You look over at your only living companion, tied up and leaning against the wall opposite you. Your eyes meet, and you try to convey sympathy, and you try to read sympathy from his, but that wouldn't do either of you any good even if you could
hide the fear. The light flickers off for a second, sending you temporarily into darkness.
action: You examine the wasps
response: Disgustingly, there are about a hundred dead things on the floor - concentrated in the centre of the carriage - bobbing up and down with the train's movement in a grotesque dance. They're bigger than wasps, and they're red, with menacing needles for stinging. It's a good thing they're all dead.
action: You examine man
response: You look over at your only companion. He's looking as battered as you feel, with disheveled black hair, a grimy face and crumpled clothes, dusty and discoloured. He's not agitated, or nervous, but you can just about see a forlorn, almost despairing expression if you catch his eyes at the right moment. Something about him is familiar, but you're damned if you know what it is.

[ To switch perspective, use the BE command. ]
action: About yourself
response: Your legs are tied together at the ankles, shins and thighs with thick ropes that really seem to bite into your skin. In the dark light you can't tell if you're wearing blue jeans or black ones - you think black - but either way they're very dusty. Further ropes bind your upper and lower arms, and you can feel your dry skin and lips where the gag is stuck over them.

Panic is setting in. Breathing getting heavy, blood pumping faster and faster. Thoughts and possibilities, each more frightening than the last, are starting to bombard you, and frankly, you'd rather die and be free of it forever. Each dread is coming at you, like a spectre from the air that wants to wrap its cold hands around your brain and banish you to a place of endless torment.
action: You think
response: For a moment, everything is blank. Tabula rasa. You could be anyone - a terrorist, a psychopath, a drug addict, a prostitute, a mugger. But then memories flood in all at once, as if you'd asked to borrow a lighter and got your house set on fire instead. You're Helen Wright. You can picture the faces of your mum and dad and your older sister Mary in your house in London; you can see the bright white walls of that house - everything white and pristine, like a hospital; you can see yourself playing with dolls at the foot of your bed; you can see yourself telling Mary to leave you alone; you see the park, you're on the swings, you're down the slide, you're on your own, playing with the playground grass; you're at school, you're scribbling in your book, you're the last one out of the classroom, and the first one in. You're eight years old, and the memories are still coming...
action: You think
response: Faster and faster, your memories are coming back, and you can't keep up with them. Then, suddenly, they stop. The last one is just an ordinary day on the London Underground and you're going to lectures. How did you get from there to here? That can't be the end - that can't have been the last thing that happened. Unless perhaps some random madman came along, beat you up and locked you in here. But who would want to kidnap you? There's nothing special about you - far from it.
action: You remember
response: There aren't any particular memories going through your head at the moment. [ You can REMEMBER things. If you see something in bold
print in the description of a memory, then you can use the remember command with that too. ]
action: You think
response: You know who you are now: Helen Wright, just another horrible person. Your memories have come back, though apparently not all of them.

There's a sudden clanging noise, and the room flashes momentarily red. Your heart rate goes up. Something's happening. The red light keeps flashing in a regular cycle, and two small vents opens on the wall, just little circular holes. There's the sound of rushing air, and you fear what might come out of those dark tubes. You feel a certain warmth in the air as it hits you, and a vile, acrid smell. It's certainly not the ventilation. Then the flashing light suddenly stops, the vent covers slide back into place, and the train rumbles on along as though nothing happened at all.
action: You be the the man
response: Carriage (as Ross)
When you look around again, the most striking thing is the floor: dozens of dead insects are scattered around it, and you can't see a single living one. What does that mean? That you've been here for ages? Or is there a fly trap? You try not to dwell on it, and look around the whole carriage. It's not big, and it doesn't take long to realise that there's nothing else here, except the other captive and the flickering light. The shadows are deep, oppressive. The noise of the train's movement is a dull but constant clanking. The air is stale.

You try to think about what happened. But nothing is coming. Literally, nothing. And who is that over there?

Since it doesn't seem like anything is happening, you wonder if it might be OK to get some sleep.
action: You remember
response: Who are you? The question bounces around in your mind for a moment, with no answer forthcoming. But then it's as though someone opens a tap, and things start trickling back. Your name is Ross. You can see your flat in London, your mum and dad, arguing, doors slamming, crumpled pieces of paper on the floor. There's your brother, hitting and kicking you, and you trying to fight back. You can see yourself, six or seven years old, looking at a large rash, going to the hospital. But then the memories stop, and you feel drained. For God's sake, why is this so hard to remember? It's there, and it's coming back, but it's just so much effort to get it.

As your mind begins to wake up, thoughts and possibilities start whirling around, bombarding and confusing you. Your limbs feel so stiff, but are slowly getting better.
action: About you
response: It really is as bad as it feels. Your arms are bound to your sides with one rope that crosses your chest and one over the stomach, and both are hurting like hell as they dig into your skin through your shirt. You wouldn't rate your chances of being able to wriggle free, and you don't think you could even move anywhere: three more ropes are bound tightly around your ankles, shins and thighs. The worst thing, though, is the thick tape covering your mouth. If it ever does come off, it'll probably rip off your lips with it.
action: You examine her
response: She looks frightened, of course. Her eyes are wide and she's looking around everywhere, presumably trying to see a way out. There's something familiar about her, but you don't know what it is.
She's quite tall. Very, very pale. Shoulder-length brown hair. You get the impression that it's only as tangled as it is because of the situation - knocked out, gagged, tied up and thrown into this place. You flinch just thinking about it. You hope this isn't your fault. You don't know why it would be.

You're feeling quite sleepy.
action: Sleep
response: You're not getting anywhere by being awake, so you don't think it will matter to try getting some sleep. It's hardly comfortable, but it isn't noisy - in fact it's far quieter than London. You push yourself over onto your side and shut your eyes.
action: You wake
response: The beast hisses. Something rips through you, wrenching out your soul, which floats through the vacuum of space to become part of the machine. There's the Earth, with a whirlwind of nature being sucked into one end of the machine, and there's a big tube running along the top of it, until it gets to the beast at the other end. The beast snarls. It wants more, and then more still, and then more and more, and the machine has to go faster and faster. It has your soul now too. You're being pulled in towards the machine, and you don't want to go there, you don't want to! The beast roars.

Platform (as Ross)
You're on a ledge jutting out from the machine, a metal platform. You get a real sense of the enormity of the machine from this perspective, as it stretches as far as you can see in both directions. The Earth and the beast themselves are just out of sight.

There's an unusual archway in the east wall, which is doing something to the light so that you can't see through it.

You're not going to sell yourself to the machine. You've got to get your soul back.
action: You examine the ledge
response: Platform (as Ross)
You're on a ledge jutting out from the machine, a metal platform. You get a real sense of the enormity of the machine from this perspective, as it stretches as far as you can see in both directions. The Earth and the beast themselves are just out of sight.

There's an unusual archway in the east wall, which is doing something to the light so that you can't see through it.
action: You look at the archway
response: The archway in the east wall is an unusual shape, and is distorting the light so much that you can't see through it. The edges are very clearly defined though, so that the whole thing looks a bit like a sticker.
action: You examine the machine
response: It's a monstrosity, groaning and clanking and humming as it tears away all the beauty from the Earth. The machine gets ever faster, to satisfy the growing hunger of the beast.
action: Peel sticker
response: You feel around the edges of the arch, then peel it away, removing the way to the east. You now have a sickle.
action: You examine sickle
response: A dependable worker's tool. You got it by removing an arch from the wall.
action: You describe your surroundings
response: Platform (as Ross)
You're on a ledge jutting out from the machine, a metal platform. You get a real sense of the enormity of the machine from this perspective, as it stretches as far as you can see in both directions. The Earth and the beast themselves are just out of sight.
action: You go to the east
response: You bang your fist against the closed wall of the machine. It feels somehow delicate, as though it could easily be cut open.
action: You put the sickle on the wall
response: Dropped.
action: You look at the east wall
response: The closed wall of the machine. It looks somehow spongy, as though you could easily cut into it.
action: You take the sickle
response: You expropriate the sickle.
action: You cut the wall
response: [ You should specify a compass direction. ]
action: You cut east
response: You plunge the sickle into the wall, and it cuts itself into the shape of an arch, leading east.
action: You look east
response: The archway in the east wall is an unusual shape, and is distorting the light so much that you can't see through it. The edges are very clearly defined though, so that the whole thing looks a bit like a sticker.
action: You go to the east
response: Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a single stake, standing upright, and just beyond it is a gap in the floor, so that you can see through to the void of space below. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.

An archway leads west.
action: You examine the machinery
response: Cogs are turning, machines whirring, lights flashing and pistons hammering, in service to the beast.
action: You examine the stairs
response: A long, metal staircase.
action: You examine the hole
response: The archway in the west wall is an unusual shape, and is distorting the light so much that you can't see through it. The edges are very clearly defined though, so that the whole thing looks a bit like a sticker.
action: You get the pole
response: You give the stake an experimental wobble, and it looks like it would come free, but you think it would make more sense to complete the pair, rather than remove it completely.
action: You go east
response: Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.

A small crystal is here - a part of your soul ready to be taken back.
action: You get it
response: This part of you is encased in crystal, and you snatch it up from the floor, wondering where the other pieces might be. They're probably in the clutches of the machine already.
action: You examine the cogs
response: You walk up close to one of the machines. A face stares back at you, anguished and pale, frozen in the act of screaming. You step back.
action: You examine the east wall
response: (the patch on the wall)
There's a wall to the east, but some of the cogs and other machines cut right through it, so maybe there is another area on the other side. What's more, there's a rectangular patch on the wall where a door might once have been.
action: Go east
response: There's a wall to the east, but some of the cogs and other machines cut right through it, so maybe there is another area on the other side. What's more, there's a rectangular patch on the wall where a door might once have been.
action: You go west
response: Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a single stake, standing upright, and just beyond it is a gap in the floor, so that you can see through to the void of space below. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.

An archway leads west.
action: Peel
response: What do you want to peel?
action: Sticker
response: You feel around the edges of the arch, then peel it away, removing the way to the west. You now have a sickle.
action: Go east
response: Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.
action: Go east
response: Machine Room: East (as Ross)
It's a continuation of the machine room, with more of the squeaking, pulsing mechanisms and gizmos. A trapdoor in the floor leads into darkness via a ladder. Emanating from it is a symphony of slicing, cutting and crashing sounds, and there's a machine up here that's buzzing and shaking in time with it.

An archway leads west.
action: You look at the gizmos
response: Cogs are turning, machines whirring, lights flashing and pistons hammering, in service to the beast.
action: You examine the Machine
response: The machine is buzzing, whirring and even shaking. No wires are visible, but there's a raised bit of the floor connecting the machine to the hole in the floor. You imagine this machine is controlling the slicing you can hear.
action: 1
response: Ok.
action: Go downwards
response: You look down the hole. The ladder just vanishes into blackness, but you can hear the sounds of slicing blades and other destructive machinery. Now, now. Let's hold on for... just a moment longer.
action: You examine the north wall
response: There are just more machines that way.
action: You turn the Machine off
response: There are no visible controls on the machine. You'll have to take a more physical approach.
action: You examine the ladder
response: There's a trapdoor in the floor with a ladder that leads down into darkness. The music of slashing, grinding and cutting is emanating from it. There's a raised part of the floor connecting the hole to a particularly loud machine here in the room, which you assume is in control of the slicing action.
action: You look at the west
response: You've cut an archway through the wall there, so you can go to the rest of the machine room.
action: You go east
response: You fall through the hole, and drop into space outside the machine. You can't scream, and you can't breathe.
action: You look around
response: You bolt awake. Still in the train carriage, trundling along. You manage to push yourself back into a sitting position.

Carriage (as Ross)
The metal carriage is a deep grey with shadowy corners, and the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling is on the blink, so that every so often you're sent into total darkness. Your only company is the girl opposite you and a sea of dead wasps. You don't know where you're going or how you got here.

There's that clanking sound again. As before, a red light fills the room every second, and little vents open on the walls. There's the sound of rushing air, a horrid smell, and then they shut.
action: You examine the vents
response: You can just about see the outline of the circular covers of those tubes. You have no idea what they're for, but the way that red light comes on and the way the air gets so foul when they're open suggests that they're not your friends.
action: Sleep
response: You're not getting anywhere by being awake, so you don't think it will matter to try getting some sleep. It's hardly comfortable, but it isn't noisy - in fact it's far quieter than London. You push yourself over onto your side and shut your eyes.
action: Look around
response: Machine Room: East (as Ross)
It's a continuation of the machine room, with more of the squeaking, pulsing mechanisms and gizmos. A trapdoor in the floor leads into darkness via a ladder. Emanating from it is a symphony of slicing, cutting and crashing sounds, and there's a machine up here that's buzzing and shaking in time with it.

An archway leads east.
action: You cut west
response: You plunge the sickle into the wall, and it cuts itself into the shape of an arch, leading west.
action: Go west
response: Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.

An archway leads east.
action: You go west
response: Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a single stake, standing upright, and just beyond it is a gap in the floor, so that you can see through to the void of space below. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.
action: Up
response: You climb the stairs, and the stairs themselves fly upwards, so that with each footfall you're much higher up. Eventually the staircase halts, and you step off onto a platform.

Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.

There's a loud sucking noise, and a small crystal suddenly drops out of the flow, strangely intact.
action: You look at the crystal
response: (the piece of soul)
You're not sure it'll ever be the same after being ravaged by the beast.
action: You get it
response: Now you've got two of these soul things. Something tells you there are seven in total... at least, that's what you're going to aim for.

You suddenly see a burst of colour floating past you, and it turns out to be a glass sphere drifting up towards the pipe. Presumably someone's soul is within. You have no time to save it before it is caught by the flow and vanishes down the tube.
action: You examine flow
response: Material from the Earth is gushing through this pipe, on its way to the beast.
action: You look at the ladder
response: A little ladder leads up to the material surging through the tube.

You suddenly catch sight of a human face, burnt and disfigured, shooting past in the tube.
action: Up
response: Is this really the only option? You hesitate a minute and let the Earth gush past your eyes. Then you step in. The flow instantly arrests you, seizes you, hurls you, compacts you, bashes you, forces you into compliance. The beast and its insatiable hunger is waiting. Waiting for you.

"Hello, lost one," it hisses. "You should have known there's no escape..."

You fly between its jaws and for a moment find yourself hanging at the top of its digestive tract, looking down at a fiery, rocky end. Then you scream.
action: Scream
response: You bolt awake. Still in the train carriage, trundling along. You manage to push yourself back into a sitting position.

Carriage (as Ross)
The metal carriage is a deep grey with shadowy corners, and the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling is on the blink, so that every so often you're sent into total darkness. Your only company is the girl opposite you and a sea of dead wasps. You don't know where you're going or how you got here.
action: Sleep
response: You're not getting anywhere by being awake, so you don't think it will matter to try getting some sleep. It's hardly comfortable, but it isn't noisy - in fact it's far quieter than London. You push yourself over onto your side and shut your eyes.
Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.

You suddenly catch sight of a human face, burnt and disfigured, shooting past in the tube.
action: You get on the pipe
response: Are they right? Is there no other way? You hesitate a minute and let the Earth gush past your eyes. Then you step in. The flow instantly arrests you, seizes you, hurls you, compacts you, bashes you, forces you into compliance. The beast and its insatiable hunger is waiting. Waiting for you.

"Hello, lost one," it hisses. "You should have known there's no escape..."

You fly between its jaws and for a moment find yourself hanging at the top of its digestive tract, looking down at a fiery, rocky end. Then you scream.
You bolt awake. Still in the train carriage, trundling along. You manage to push yourself back into a sitting position.

Carriage (as Ross)
The metal carriage is a deep grey with shadowy corners, and the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling is on the blink, so that every so often you're sent into total darkness. Your only company is the girl opposite you and a sea of dead wasps. You don't know where you're going or how you got here.
action: Sleep
response: You're not getting anywhere by being awake, so you don't think it will matter to try getting some sleep. It's hardly comfortable, but it isn't noisy - in fact it's far quieter than London. You push yourself over onto your side and shut your eyes.
Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.
action: You examine the ladder
response: A little ladder leads up to the material surging through the tube.
action: You examine material
response: This material has been sucked out of the Earth and processed into a barely recognisable mush. Every so often a human form, or just a face flashes past, usually disfigured, burnt and incomplete. Except for the bits that have slipped out and coated the floor in a deathly crust, it's all headed for the beast's stomach.
action: You get the ladder
response: It seems to be firmly attached there.
action: You take the material
response: You wouldn't be able to scrape up the bits that have fallen out of the stream, and besides, it's too late to save it now.

A burnt body shoots through the flow of material in the tube above you.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
2 pieces of soul (of 7)
action: You eat soul
response: Disgusting thought. Not even going to try.
action: Descend
response: As you climb down the stairs, the entire staircase shoots down, landing in the huge machine room you came from.

Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a single stake, standing upright, and just beyond it is a gap in the floor, so that you can see through to the void of space below. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.
action: Up
response: You climb the stairs, and the stairs themselves fly upwards, so that with each footfall you're much higher up. Eventually the staircase halts, and you step off onto a platform.

Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.

A burnt body shoots through the flow of material in the tube above you.
action: About yourself
response: Can you honestly say you're above all this? Ross, you're an idiot.
action: You remember
response: Remember? Was there a past?
action: You be helen
response: Carriage (as Helen)
It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.
action: Sleep
response: You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.
You're walking up the mountain along with all the other dead people, heading for judgement at the summit. Grimy fear and sweat-soaked resignation are trooping up with you. The dust sweeps around your head and blinds you every now and then until you blink. Suddenly, you're at the top. There are countless books open on the table. A bony hand is holding your book in front of your eyes.

"NO!" the judge shrieks, and you're thrown forwards, and the book is flying with you. As you soar through the air, you can see its pages fluttering down over the rocky landscape. You manage to snatch one from the air just before you crash into the mountainside and roll over and over, and stop yourself before you shoot over into the pit of fire below.

Mountainside (as Helen)
You're looking out upon the enormous pit of fire surrounding the mountain. Rocks of various sizes litter the ground, and an acrid dust suffuses your senses. It looks like you could probably scramble down to the south without much injury. Up above, the judgement continues.

You hear a noise from up the mountain, and see a colourful glass sphere tumbling down towards you. The sphere instantly smashes into a million shards, which disappear in the dust.
action: About yourself
response: You look at yourself and immediately look away. You don't want to be reminded of what an ugly thing you are. You're wearing shitty clothes as usual and are taking up too much of the universe's precious space with your good-for-nothing body.

You don't know why, but something's telling you that you want your book back. You want to see your life, work out where you went wrong.
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
a page
action: You look at the page
response: A page from your book, a piece of you. But the words are blurred and you can't read them properly. Maybe if you were awake you'd be able to concentrate on it?
action: You wake
response: Suddenly you're awake, and you struggle back into a sitting position, but it feels like you've just come from one nightmare to another. Images and memories from your dreams are parading through your mind, as if you didn't have enough torment. [ Use the REMEMBER command,
with or without a memory. ]

Carriage (as Helen)
It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.
action: Sleep
response: You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.
Mountainside (as Helen)
You're looking out upon the enormous pit of fire surrounding the mountain. Rocks of various sizes litter the ground, and an acrid dust suffuses your senses. It looks like you could probably scramble down to the south without much injury. Up above, the judgement continues.
action: You examine the rock
response: The whole landscape is strewn with dusty rocks.
action: You get the rock
response: You touch one, and find that it's too hot to handle.
action: Go south
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. You can reach it by a wooden bridge to the southeast, which is held up by two anchoring poles lodged into the ground. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
action: You examine pole
response: The bridge is connected to two anchors on this side and two on the other side. The stakes are lodged into recesses in the ground.
action: You get the pole
response: You pull out one of the stakes, and the bridge to the southeast burns up, disappearing in an instant.
action: Look around
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
action: You put the stake in the hole
response: (the wooden stake in the recess)
You lodge the stake into the recess, and a bridge shimmers into existence, leading southeast.

A body rolls down the mountain, screeching desperately, before expiring in the flames below.
action: You go southeast
response: Church Isle (as Helen)
A small hexagonal stone church stands here, filling up almost the whole surface area of the island. It's somewhat crooked, and seems to get thinner and more distant the higher up you look, until the spire is like a spindly wire reaching up to the sky. The church is surrounded by a spiky wire mesh fence; there might be an opening around the back, but you can't tell. You can only walk back across the bridge to the northwest. Flames are licking up at the church's foundations, and you have to be careful that they don't claim you too.
action: You examine the fence
response: A wire mesh fence topped with spikes is hugging the walls of the church.
action: You examine the flames
response: It's a colossal pit of constant flame. You can feel its heat from here, and hear the blaze as loudly as if it were already consuming you. You know that it will do so. You belong there.
action: You pull the fence
response: It is fixed in place.
action: You go to the north-west
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. You can reach it by a wooden bridge to the southeast, which is held up by two anchoring poles lodged into the ground. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
action: Go east
response: You follow the rocky path around the base of the mountain, until it suddenly becomes impassable.

Foot of the Mountain: East (as Helen)
In front of a line of heavy boulders, there's a cage. A cage, large enough for you to get into, and indeed with a door hanging invitingly open. A thick wire is connected to the top of the cage and runs right up into the sky, disappearing into thick cloud. You can still ignore it all and go back to the west, of course.
action: You look at the cage
response: It's a cage, cube-shaped and made of vertical metal bars. A thick cable is tied to the top of it, running all the way up into the clouds above. A door, also made of vertical bars, is hanging open.
action: You get the pole
response: You pull out one of the stakes, and the bridge to the southeast burns up, disappearing in an instant.

There's a scream, and someone rolls down the mountain into the fire.
action: You enter the cage
response: No sooner have you stepped into the cage than the door slams shut, and you start moving upwards. You look out at the side of the mountain, and then the movement gathers pace and before you know it, you've passed the summit. You look up through the bars and see the clouds getting nearer. Far below, the pit of fire is still bubbling and spitting away. You can see the great line of the dead, queuing all the way down the mountainside, waiting to be judged at the top, but now even the judges and the judging table look small and insignificant. Suddenly the vision disappears as you shoot into a cloud. The cage keeps on moving up, and you see the clouds changing colour: the first ones red and fiery, the next ones gradually cooler, whiter, bluer. Then you see people. People looking at you, resting on the clouds and looking at you, pointing at you. Angels casting murderous glances at you. People laughing.

Then the cage stops, and you're looking out at a familiar group of people, playing cards on this white fluffy cloud. Mark is there.

On the Cloud (in the cage) (as Helen)
Mark, and a couple of unimportant cronies, are playing cards here, here on this cloud. This must be the little place in heaven they've been granted for their unshakeable faith. You get the feeling you should be guilty, but shameless or not, there's only one thing that interests you about the whole scene: the page of your book that's on the table.
action: You get the page
response: (the page)
You can't reach that from inside the cage.

"What's that whore even doing here?" says one of Mark's cronies.
action: Examine page
response: (the page)
A page from your book, a piece of you. But the words are blurred and you can't read them properly.
action: You examine Mark
response: Mark is sitting at the table, playing cards with two of his friends. He's completely ignoring the page that's right next to him, but something also makes you feel that he's guarding it.

"What's that whore even doing here?" says one of Mark's cronies.
action: You remember
response: You can't seem to do that. Your mind's gone blank.
action: You talk to Mark
response: "Mark, look, I'm sorry about what happened. I'm really sorry. But I was wondering... could I have that page please?"

One of Mark's friends snickers. That's all the response you get.
action: You examine the cronies
response: Two of Mark's friends are also sat at the table, concentrating hard on their game. You think one of them is Chris, and the other one is Paul. Or is it Luke? You're not sure. They're all pretty much the same anyway.
action: You talk to the cronies
response: "Would one of you be able to let me out of here please?"

"Did you hear something?" says one of Mark's friends.

"No," he replies. Perhaps if you could somehow prove to Mark that he once cared about you... Which you're fairly sure is true, even if it's incomprehensible.
action: You ask Mark about the tattoo on the left bicep
response: [ You cannot specify topics to talk about. ]
"Mark, that page you've got there... it's useless to you. Let me have it. Please!"

Nobody answers you, but you notice Mark slowly shaking his head. Maybe you could somehow prove to Mark that he once cared for you. He goes in for that soppy stuff.
action: You examine the cage
response: It's a cage, cube-shaped and made of vertical metal bars. A thick cable is tied to the top of it, running all the way up into the clouds above. The cage is currently shut.
action: You open it
response: It's locked! "Hey there!" you call. "Please can I come out for a little bit?"

They ignore you.

"What's that whore even doing here?" says one of Mark's cronies.
action: You look at what you're carrying with you
response: You are carrying:
a wooden stake
a page
action: You look at the stake
response: It's a simple wooden stake that used to be holding up a bridge.
action: Sing
response: You have an awful singing voice.

"Can't we get rid of that horrible thing over there? I swear I'm going to puke in a minute."

"She's insignificant enough just to ignore," says Mark coolly.
action: You throw the stake at Mark
response: No! You might not be able to get it back.
action: You show the page to mark
response: (the page to Mark)
"Hey, look at this!" you call. But he doesn't pay any attention.

"We've got to be thankful for the Lord's protection," says Mark. "There's so much evil around."
action: About yourself
response: You're just as useless in the dream world as in reality.
action: You wake up
response: Suddenly you're awake, and you struggle back into a sitting position, but it feels like you've just come from one nightmare to another. Images and memories from your dreams are parading through your mind, as if you didn't have enough torment.

Carriage (as Helen)
It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.
action: You examine the wasps
response: Disgustingly, there are about a hundred dead things on the floor - concentrated in the centre of the carriage - bobbing up and down with the train's movement in a grotesque dance. They're bigger than wasps, and they're red, with menacing needles for stinging. It's a good thing they're all dead.
action: You remember
response: Pictures and memories of being a bully are lingering in your head, for whatever reason.
action: You think
response: You're not feeling hungry at the moment - not in the slightest - but what's going to happen when you are? Will the train stop before that happens, and you'll be hauled into a creepy nightmarish abandoned mansion in the middle of nowhere, where your screams will echo throughout the valleys, startling sheep and assorted wildlife but reaching not a single human ear, and you'll be kept barely alive by stringy, tasteless sludge that's shoved under the door once a day? Or will you be lucky and starve to death?
action: You talk to the man
response: You so wish that you could talk. Of course, you have no idea what he's like, but he can't be the bad guy around here. Just having somebody to talk to would make things so much more bearable.
action: You get up
response: You might be able to stand up, but there's no way you can walk anywhere without tripping: your legs are tied together with no fewer than three ropes. And even if you could walk, there is nowhere to go.
action: You examine the ropes
response: The ropes around you and him are the same and are in the same places - two are binding your arms to your sides and three are sticking your legs together. They are all excruciatingly tight.

Suddenly that loud noise comes back, and the red light fills the room again. You can't help your pulse raising. But it happens just like last time: there are little tubes leading into the wall, and some sort of gas is being pumped out of them, but nothing happens. Then they shut.
action: You remember the bully
response: Your primary school. A drab single-storey building surrounded
on all sides by the most garish green fence. You were standing next to that little extension on the side - you think it was the
secretary's office or something - and you were trying to count the bricks. A girl came up to you, and then she ran off because you
told her to go away.

"You can't join me because you can't count," you said. "You're too stupid." You don't know what happened next. You didn't care. Maybe she went and cried in a corner, or maybe she just played with someone else.
action: You remember girl
response: Rhiane was her name. One of many people you looked down on. She
was stupid, though. She always got the teachers' questions
wrong. She was enthusiastic, always wanted to answer, but even simple arithmetic eluded her. Still, you were mean to her. You never saw her again after you went to secondary school.
action: You remember the extension
response: It was just a little block jutting out from the main building. The curtains were almost always shut. You think it was the secretary's office.
action: You remember the primary school
response: You don't have too many memories of that place. The building was from the eighties: it was ugly, but not intolerable. The playground was just concrete with hopscotch painted on it and stuff like that; you remember it got really hot in the summer. You spent minimal time outdoors. You were first in line to get in, and you just put your head down and worked, storming through arithmetic workbooks and leaving everyone behind.
action: You remember secretary
response: You can't remember how many bricks it had. You did get an answer, but you can't remember it, nor even how you felt when you finally got it.
action: You remember the curtains
response: The curtains were almost always shut.
action: You think
response: Time to take stock. Here you are, tied up, gagged, sitting on the floor in an iron train car, with only a load of dead wasps and a complete stranger who is similarly incapacitated for company. Now, what does this mean? Can you solve this one by induction? Stop being silly, Helen, this is bloody serious. It means you've been kidnapped. But why would that happen? You can't understand why a kidnapping of this magnitude would happen to a nobody like you. You would expect a random psychopath to just hack your limbs off and be done with it; if somebody is actually keeping you alive, it makes you think they need you for something.
action: Inventory
response: Your hands are bound to your sides, and honestly, there's nothing here that you'd want to pick up anyway.

Suddenly that loud noise comes back, and the red light fills the room again. You can't help your pulse raising. But it happens just like last time: there are little tubes leading into the wall, and some sort of gas is being pumped out of them, but nothing happens. Then they shut.
action: Sleep
response: You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.
On the Cloud (in the cage) (as Helen)
You're looking out of your prison at the little piece of heaven that Mark and his friends have been given. They're sat at a small table, completely ignoring you, having a game of cards. One of your pages is on the table. If the situation seems hopeless, then you think the lever that's poking through the bars of your cage would send you back down.
action: You look at the cards
response: The card game seems placid, but serious. Mark's hand is unreasonably good. You can't see what the others have got.

"We've got to be thankful for the Lord's protection," says Mark. "There's so much evil around."
action: You call the tichu
response: You don't have a phone.

"Can you smell something?" says a friend of Mark. "It's horrid."
action: Down
response: How do you propose to get down?
action: You pull the lever
response: Suddenly the whole scene disappears as the cage shoots down into the cloud. It's swaying violently from side to side, shooting down between the clouds, barely giving the other residents chance to see you. Soon you're looking down at the pit of fire far below you, but before you know it the cage has slammed back into the ground and you're back at the side of the mountain.

Foot of the Mountain: East (as Helen)
In front of a line of heavy boulders, there's a cage. A cage, large enough for you to get into, and indeed with a door hanging invitingly open. A thick wire is connected to the top of the cage and runs right up into the sky, disappearing into thick cloud. You can still ignore it all and go back to the west, of course.
action: Go west
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
action: You go west
response: Foot of the Mountain: West (as Helen)
Looking west you can see an island, floating on the surface of the fiery sea. A single wooden stake is lodged into the ground here, with a recess next to it, and directly opposite you on the island's shores are two more stakes. You can continue around the mountain to the north, or go back where you came from to the south.
action: You put the stake in the hole
response: (the wooden stake in the recess)
You lodge the stake into the recess, and a bridge shimmers into existence, leading west.
action: Go west
response: Coast (as Helen)
You're on the shores of an island, bigger than the church isle you saw earlier, floating in the pit of fire. The great mountain is visible to the east, and a bridge leads over to its base. There's a crater here, with a signpost next to it that has an arrow pointing down.

There's one of your pages here, glowing faintly.
action: You get the page
response: (the page)
That was the second of your pages. Somehow, you know there are seven. There's always seven.
action: You examine sign
response: The arrow is pointing straight down.
action: You look at the crater
response: There's a crater, with a radius of almost a metre, and there's a signpost next to it with an arrow pointing straight down.
action: You read the page
response: A page from your book, a piece of you. But the words are blurred and you can't read them properly. Maybe if you were awake you'd be able to concentrate on it?
action: You wake
response: Suddenly you're awake, and you struggle back into a sitting position, but it feels like you've just come from one nightmare to another. Images and memories from your dreams are parading through your mind, as if you didn't have enough torment.

Carriage (as Helen)
It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.
action: You remember
response: Images from your wretched past are swimming around in your mind: the holiday in Turkey and being a bully. Most prominent are the memories of being a bully.
action: You remember the Turkey
response: There was that nuclear furnace we call the Sun, and though you knew it was the same one, it definitely felt different, beating down on you on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. You felt very dizzy on that walk, because of the heat. You'd gone out of your little holiday cottage on your own, hadn't told your parents where you were going. Mary was in the pool, and you didn't like swimming, so you just left. You walked through the town, wandered in and out of shops, tried to talk to random locals, who didn't answer you, not even if you said "merhaba" or some of the other phrasebook things that you can't remember now. You ended up on this beautiful coastal path, looking out at the glimmering sea and the beautiful rocks poking out of it.
You were fourteen.
action: You remember the sea
response: You remember looking down at the sea, and all you could think about was what it would be like to jump in. It was a really long way up, and you weren't scared. There was no fence on the side of the cliff - it would have been so easy to just dive down. You knew you wouldn't do it, but you couldn't resist thinking about it.

Usually you wouldn't want to be asleep when you feel in danger, but you've somehow ceased to care. You could do with a nap.
action: You remember the rocks
response: You thought about the rocks poking out from the water. You thought about your jumping trajectory. You imagined what it would be like to fall straight onto the rocks, your blood flowing out to sea.
action: Sleep
response: You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.
action: You go downwards
response: Coast (as Helen)
You're on the shores of an island, bigger than the church isle you saw earlier, floating in the pit of fire. The great mountain is visible to the east, and a bridge leads over to its base. There's a crater here, with a signpost next to it that has an arrow pointing down.

You step into the crater experimentally, finding the ground to be somewhat elastic, almost like fabric. Nothing happens though, so you step out.
action: Inventory
response: You are carrying:
2 pages (of 7)
action: Go east
response: Foot of the Mountain: West (as Helen)
Looking west you can see an island, floating on the surface of the fiery sea. A wooden bridge leads over to its shores. You can continue around the mountain to the north, or go back where you came from to the south.
action: You go north
response: You continue walking around the mountain, clambering over fallen rocks and picking your way through dead bushes. You look ahead, and stop dead in your tracks. In the distance you can see that parade of death that you came from: the dead, clambering up the mountainside towards judgement. Nobody's seen you, and you'd rather it stay that way. Your heart beating fast with terror, you scurry back around to where you came from, moving so recklessly that you almost fall into the fire.

Foot of the Mountain: West (as Helen)
Looking west you can see an island, floating on the surface of the fiery sea. A wooden bridge leads over to its shores. You can go back where you came from to the south.
action: Up
response: Your climbing skills are too pathetic. You might as well just jump straight into the fire to save yourself the bother of falling in accidentally.
action: You get the stake
response: The stake looks as though it would be easy to pull out, but there's that other recess right next to it: you'd rather put another in than have both recesses empty.
action: Go north
response: Mountainside (as Helen)
You're looking out upon the enormous pit of fire surrounding the mountain. Rocks of various sizes litter the ground, and an acrid dust suffuses your senses. It looks like you could probably scramble down to the south without much injury. Up above, the judgement continues.
action: You go west
response: Foot of the Mountain: West (as Helen)
Looking west you can see an island, floating on the surface of the fiery sea. A wooden bridge leads over to its shores. You can go back where you came from to the south.
action: You get the stake
response: You pull out one of the stakes, and the bridge to the west burns up, disappearing in an instant.
action: You put the stake in the hole
response: (the wooden stake in the recess)
You lodge the stake into the recess, and a bridge shimmers into existence, leading southeast.

Another body wordlessly accepts its fate, and flies down into the pit of fire.
action: You go southeast
response: Church Isle (as Helen)
A small hexagonal stone church stands here, filling up almost the whole surface area of the island. It's somewhat crooked, and seems to get thinner and more distant the higher up you look, until the spire is like a spindly wire reaching up to the sky. The church is surrounded by a spiky wire mesh fence; there might be an opening around the back, but you can't tell. You can only walk back across the bridge to the northwest. Flames are licking up at the church's foundations, and you have to be careful that they don't claim you too.
action: You enter Church
response: You bump into the fence surrounding the church. Your vision blurs momentarily.
action: You cut the wire
response: Which do you mean, the church or the fence?
action: Fence
response: Things do seem quite soft here, as though you could easily cut into them. But you'd still need a tool of some kind.
action: You climb the spire
response: It's much too high, and you imagine it would just get keep getting taller if you climbed up, so that you'd never reach the top.
action: Pray
response: God's dead, remember?
action: You turn the Church
response: You are unable to.
action: You look at Helen
response: The girl is up against the wall directly opposite you, with the same tight ropes binding her limbs together, and the gag over her mouth. There's a nagging familiarity about her, but no matter how many times you cast your eyes over her tangled brown hair, pale face, the expensive-looking navy blue jumper or surprisingly intact jeans, you cannot work out who she is. She looks to be in her early twenties, and generally, you feel she doesn't deserve to be here. Not that anyone does.

She's currently lying on her side, getting some sleep.
action: About yourself
response: It really is as bad as it feels. Your arms and legs are tightly bound; you've got no chance of shaking yourself free or even being able to move around. And worst of all, you can't even talk to the only other person in the room. The gag feels like a permanent attachment.
action: You remember
response: You decide to give it another go. Shutting your eyes tightly, you devote all your energy to the task of remembering, and this time the memories come in thick and fast, so quickly you can scarcely keep up. And that's it. Your sad, sorry life. You're just another idealistic idiot who thinks he can make a difference. You've achieved nothing, done nothing wrong and nothing right. Your last memory is of racing to the Underground and fighting your way through the carriage to stop Reth's stupid, stupid plan from working. And you did, didn't you? You did it. And that's all you remember. Don't say this is his silly messed-up idea of revenge... Reth isn't like that. No, you just don't get it.

Some memories seem particularly clear in your mind now. Usually you have no interest in the past, especially your own.

You're feeling quite sleepy.
action: You remember
response: Various memories are running around your head: the climate change talk and the anti-war march.
action: You remember the climate change talk
response: The talk was over and you were pretty much exhausted, especially after all the long, technical and boring questions that had been asked at the end. Various campaign groups had stalls in the entrance
hall area and you quickly lost Caroline in the crowd. You'd
been loitering in the middle of the room for a while, not knowing where to go, too jaded to go and read the posters and leaflets that had been set out, when a youngish or middle-aged woman spotted
you and started talking to you, for whatever reason.

There's that clanking sound again. As before, a red light fills the room every second, and little vents open on the walls. There's the sound of rushing air, a horrid smell, and then they shut.
action: You remember the woman
response: You'd never seen her before and you never saw her again. She was wearing a shirt and a jacket like a businesswoman but she still seemed a bit scruffy. She had short hair and a rucksack over one shoulder. Her voice was quite deep, full and stern, but it was so busy in there that you doubt anyone else heard what she was saying to you.

Maybe you could try going to sleep... Maybe when you wake up you'll have arrived. Somewhere.
action: You remember the rucksack
response: You don't remember everything you talked about, but some of it sticks out.

"I just want to know the answer," you remember saying. "All this talk about the problems and about how deeply ingrained they are in our society, but what do you do about that?"

"You should go over there," she said, pointing to the socialist youth stall. "Far as I'm concerned, that is the place to start."
action: You remember the stalls
response: There were stalls for all kinds of things, from political parties to environmental campaign groups to home solar panel installation companies.
action: You remember the socialist youth
response: You were too tired to look carefully or to speak to them there and then, so you just snatched up one of each of the leaflets and fliers.
action: You remember the leaflets
response: Which do you mean, the stalls or the socialist youth stall?
action: You remember Caroline
response: Caroline wasn't in the best of moods that day, and you can hardly go to a talk on climate change to unwind. You'd just recently caved in to getting a soul-destroying job at a supermarket, just for the money, and as soon as her ex-husband heard about it, he stopped sending Caroline the money packets that were only just keeping you afloat as it was. So, money was as tight as ever, if not more so.
action: You remember the march
response: The memory has been overtaken a bit by all the other demos you've been on since, but the first one always sticks out, of course. The anger on the streets was probably more palpable than you've ever felt it. You remember loving the crowd, being able to voice that anger along
with so many others. The streets were familiar but transformed. You all felt so powerful; you could make a difference; surely they couldn't ignore you, the people. Best of all, Caroline was
there all the way, shouting along with you. You loved having a mother who felt the same way as you.

What you learned from it all was: the government can't be trusted.
action: You remember the crowd
response: It's strange that the first march you went on was also the biggest. You suppose it was something that tended to cut across political differences. You weren't 'political' at 11 years old, after all, so you suppose there were plenty of older people who were similarly apolitical but just knew injustice when they saw it. The streets were simply packed full. You remember catching glimpses of the sidelines; the police were always there.
action: You remember Caroline
response: You're not really sure how it started, but you can scarcely imagine it any other way. It's not like she dragged you into this or that you dragged her into it: together you saw what was going on around you and together you acted. You were sounding boards for each other, trying to disentangle the politics. You learnt from each other. Even then, you called her Caroline. Her husband - you didn't call him dad, let alone Steve - was out of the picture. You didn't talk about him and didn't need to.

There's that clanking sound again. As before, a red light fills the room every second, and little vents open on the walls. There's the sound of rushing air, a horrid smell, and then they shut.
action: You think
response: You've established you're called Ross, you're twenty-one, a Londoner, a worker, a servant, a groundsman. Just another cog in a big world-destroying machine, and that's all you'll ever be.
action: You be
response: (the person opposite you)

Church Isle (as Helen)
A small hexagonal stone church stands here, filling up almost the whole surface area of the island. It's somewhat crooked, and seems to get thinner and more distant the higher up you look, until the spire is like a spindly wire reaching up to the sky. The church is surrounded by a spiky wire mesh fence; there might be an opening around the back, but you can't tell. You can only walk back across the bridge to the northwest. Flames are licking up at the church's foundations, and you have to be careful that they don't claim you too.
action: Go west
response: If you go that way, you'll fall headlong into the fire. You can sense the pain already.
action: You go to the north-west
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. You can reach it by a wooden bridge to the southeast, which is held up by two anchoring poles lodged into the ground. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
action: You get the pole
response: You pull out one of the stakes, and the bridge to the southeast burns up, disappearing in an instant.
action: You be ross
response: Carriage (as Ross)
The metal carriage is a deep grey with shadowy corners, and the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling is on the blink, so that every so often you're sent into total darkness. Your only company is the girl opposite you and a sea of dead wasps. You don't know where you're going or how you got here.
action: Sleep
response: You're not getting anywhere by being awake, so you don't think it will matter to try getting some sleep. It's hardly comfortable, but it isn't noisy - in fact it's far quieter than London. You push yourself over onto your side and shut your eyes.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.

You are carrying:
a sickle
2 pieces of soul (of 7)
action: You wake
response: You bolt awake. Still in the train carriage, trundling along. You manage to push yourself back into a sitting position. Pictures from your past, things you saw in your dream, are still in the front of your mind.

Carriage (as Ross)
The metal carriage is a deep grey with shadowy corners, and the fluorescent lamp on the ceiling is on the blink, so that every so often you're sent into total darkness. Your only company is the girl opposite you and a sea of dead wasps. You don't know where you're going or how you got here.
action: You touch girl
response: You can't reach her... You're tied up.
action: Untie
response: What do you want to untie?
action: Ropes
response: If only. But there's no way you can do anything with the ropes. Your arms are bound to your sides, and your hands come down frustratingly short of the rope around your shins, so you can't even touch it.
action: You untie Helen
response: So, if you weren't tied up, you'd pick her up and take her... where exactly? This plan seems doomed to failure.
action: Wriggle
response: You try scraping the ropes against the wall, and the floor, but it's not working. They're much too strong.
action: Bite gag
response: Even if your hands weren't bound to your sides, you reckon taking it off would be extremely painful and might also remove your lips. It would probably be worth it, all the same.
action: Shout
response: You cry out, wanting to release some anger, but the gag over your mouth is so thick that it muffles and enfeebles every sound you make.

You feel so tired.
action: Go west
response: Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.

Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a single stake, standing upright, and just beyond it is a gap in the floor, so that you can see through to the void of space below. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.
action: You look at the sickle
response: A dependable worker's tool.
action: Go east
response: Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.
action: You cut east
response: You plunge the sickle into the wall, and it cuts itself into the shape of an arch, leading east.
action: Go east
response: Machine Room: East (as Ross)
It's a continuation of the machine room, with more of the squeaking, pulsing mechanisms and gizmos. A trapdoor in the floor leads into darkness via a ladder. Emanating from it is a symphony of slicing, cutting and crashing sounds, and there's a machine up here that's buzzing and shaking in time with it.

An archway leads west.
action: You get sickle
response: You feel around the edges of the arch, then peel it away, removing the way to the west. You now have a sickle.
action: You put sickle in Machine
response: (the sickle in the loud machine)
You'd rather put things on the floor than on the machines.
action: You put the sickle on the floor
response: (the trapdoor)
If possible you'd rather not drop anything important in there.
action: You get the ladder
response: How on earth could you carry that?
action: You turn off Machine
response: There are no visible controls on the machine. You'll have to take a more physical approach.
action: Kick machine
response: It is fixed in place.
action: Kiss machine
response: Disgusting thought. Not even going to try.
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
a sickle
2 pieces of soul (of 7)
action: You cut W then W
response: You plunge the sickle into the wall, and it cuts itself into the shape of an arch, leading west.

Machine Room: Central (as Ross)
Giant cogs are turning, forming a messy pattern that snakes around the room, interspersed with other machines whose function is entirely opaque to you. Some are spewing steam, some are making horrid squelching noises, some have bright flashing lights. There is a wall to the east, and many of the cogs cut right through it. You can go back to the west.

An archway leads east.
action: Up
response: You climb the stairs, and the stairs themselves fly upwards, so that with each footfall you're much higher up. Eventually the staircase halts, and you step off onto a platform.

Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.

You suddenly see a burst of colour floating past you, and it turns out to be a glass sphere drifting up towards the pipe. Presumably someone's soul is within. You have no time to save it before it is caught by the flow and vanishes down the tube.
action: You put the sickle in the pipe
response: You stretch your arm out and let the torrent seize the sickle. It disappears down the pipe in an instant.
action: You look at your surroundings
response: Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
2 pieces of soul (of 7)
action: You examine flow
response: Material from the Earth is gushing through this pipe, on its way to the beast.
action: You examine the floor
response: There's a staircase.
action: You be helen
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.

You hear a noise from up the mountain, and see a pair of scissors and a colourful glass sphere tumbling down towards you. The sphere instantly smashes into a million shards, which disappear in the dust.
action: You get the scissors
response: You bend down and retrieve the pair of scissors.

Another body wordlessly accepts its fate, and flies down into the pit of fire.
action: You look at it
response: It's a big pair of scissors that came over the mountaintop.
action: You go south
response: If you go that way, you'll fall headlong into the fire. Perhaps it's time.
action: You go to the southeast
response: Time to stop fooling around here. You step to the edge and let the flames lick your feet. You get used to the burns, almost enjoy it, and then you sway forward and let yourself go. The heat surges inside you, an intense pain eating through you, snaking round your blood vessels and turning you to death. You still have the sensation of falling, and falling, and you think you see something metal. Something big and metal, floating in space, consuming the Earth, but that's all you have time to notice before you scream your way into oblivion.
action: Sleep
response: Suddenly you're awake, and you struggle back into a sitting position, but it feels like you've just come from one nightmare to another. Images and memories from your dreams are parading through your mind, as if you didn't have enough torment.

Carriage (as Helen)
It's a grey, metal carriage, only slightly longer than it is wide. There's no window, so the only light is from a slim fluorescent lamp in the ceiling that flickers every so often, periodically plunging you into darkness.The floor is littered with dead wasps, but they're not you're only company: a man, probably in his early twenties, is in the same state, leaning against the opposite wall.

You're feeling surprisingly tired, so even though you'd rather not be off your guard in a situation like this, you can't be bothered to worry about it. You fall down onto your side, shut your eyes, and try to let the train's steady movement send you off.
action: You put the stake in the hole
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.

You need to be holding the recess before you can put it into something else.
action: You check your inventory
response: You are carrying:
2 pages (of 7)

Another body wordlessly accepts its fate, and flies down into the pit of fire.
action: Go north
response: Mountainside (as Helen)
You're looking out upon the enormous pit of fire surrounding the mountain. Rocks of various sizes litter the ground, and an acrid dust suffuses your senses. It looks like you could probably scramble down to the south without much injury. Up above, the judgement continues.
action: Go south
response: Foot of the Mountain: South (as Helen)
Down here, the pit of fire attacks all your senses at once, your eyes with its intense colour, your ears with the sound of its bubbling and popping, your skin with its searing heat. Just a short distance away over the fire is a small island with a small church on it, and indeed no room for anything else. There's no way over to it, but there is an upright stake lodged in the ground, and a recess next to it where another one might go. There are also paths around the base of the mountain to the west and east, and a way back up to the north.
action: You be ross
response: Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.

There's a loud sucking noise, and a sickle and a metal pole suddenly drop out of the flow, strangely intact.
action: You get all
response: metal pole: You expropriate the metal pole.
sickle: You expropriate the sickle.
action: Descend
response: As you climb down the stairs, the entire staircase shoots down, landing in the huge machine room you came from.

Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a single stake, standing upright, and just beyond it is a gap in the floor, so that you can see through to the void of space below. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.
action: You put the pole in the hole
response: (the metal pole in the recess)
You lodge the stake into the recess, and a bridge shimmers into existence, leading north.
action: Go north
response: Over the Gap (as Ross)
You've crossed the abyss to get over here, and there's just a boarded-up door to the north and, slightly more intriguingly, a strange device hanging through the ceiling - a column of metal with handles at the bottom. You could get back via the bridge to the south.

A small crystal is here - a part of your soul ready to be taken back.
action: You get the crystal
response: (the piece of soul)
You've found another part of your 'soul'.
action: Examine column
response: A strange column of metal is hanging down from the ceiling, a bit like a periscope, with handles at the bottom as though you could turn it. You imagine it goes up into one of the pipes, but you're not sure what effect turning it has.
action: You turn it
response: You get a grip on the handles and try turning the machine in an anticlockwise direction. It's stiff, but you put in all your might and it finally budges, moving around by a set amount and clicking into a new position. The handles are strangely hot, as though the machine is connected to a furnace or something.
action: You look into it
response: That sounds like a waste of time.
action: You turn the column
response: You get a grip on the handles and try turning the machine in an anticlockwise direction. It's stiff, but you put in all your might and it finally budges, moving around by a set amount and clicking into a new position.
action: You turn the column
response: You get a firm grip on the handles and rotate the mechanism anticlockwise, which clicks sharply into a new position.
action: You go south
response: Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a bridge across a wide gap in the floor. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.
action: Go downwards
response: As you climb down the stairs, the entire staircase shoots down, landing in the huge machine room you came from.

Machine Room: West (as Ross)
Complicated machinery is everywhere, clunking and scraping and turning and chugging away at the task of destroying the planet. At the north end of the room is a bridge across a wide gap in the floor. A set of stairs leads up, and the machine room itself extends eastward.
action: You go north
response: Over the Gap (as Ross)
You've crossed the abyss to get over here, and there's just a boarded-up door to the north and, slightly more intriguingly, a strange device hanging through the ceiling - a column of metal with handles at the bottom. You could get back via the bridge to the south.
action: You look at the handles
response: A strange column of metal is hanging down from the ceiling, a bit like a periscope, with handles at the bottom as though you could turn it. You imagine it goes up into one of the pipes, but you're not sure what effect turning it has.
action: Turn
response: What do you want to turn?
action: You turn the column clockwise
response: You get a grip on the handles and try turning the machine in a clockwise direction. It's stiff, but you put in all your might and it finally budges, moving around by a set amount and clicking into a new position.
action: You turn the column clockwise
response: You get a firm grip on the handles and rotate the mechanism clockwise, which clicks sharply into a new position.
action: Go upwards
response: You climb the stairs, and the stairs themselves fly upwards, so that with each footfall you're much higher up. Eventually the staircase halts, and you step off onto a platform.

Beneath the Pipe (as Ross)
You're standing on a small platform, watching severed parts of Earth shoot past through the pipe just above you that leads to the beast. By this point in their processing, things are barely recognisable as belonging to Nature - there are some earthy colours and familiar shapes, but it's mostly just a kind of tangled mush. Bits of it escape the flow and trickle onto the floor, creating a pungent deathly odour. A tiny ladder will take you right into the flow.
action: You check what you're carrying
response: You are carrying:
3 pieces of soul (of 7)
a sickle