A childcare center

asphalt escapes beneath the ashen sand and leads to a single building, standing alone among a strip of collapsed structures. a sign over the glass doors indicates it was once a place where parents would leave their children during working hours. graffiti coats the walls, most of it too faded to read, but one mural states "it was them all along".

- look inside

## an empty waiting room

the glass door creaks open to reveal a colorful room, with posters of cartoon characters peeling off the walls. the chairs in the lobby are still aligned neatly, and papers still rest peacefully on the receptionist's desk. someone could have been here as recently as yesterday. there's a few doors against the walls, and a short hallway that leads to a kitchen and maintenance area.

- the front desk

- the other rooms

## the front desk

the papers behind the desk are strewn wildly, as though someone left in a hurry. a light on the monitor is blinking softly, and tapping the keyboard wakes the computer up. an email is open on the screen, unfinished and unsent. there are about forty addresses this would be sent to.

attention parents: due to the recent rioting and controversies, we have decided to close the business permanently. please keep your children safe at home, and don't let them leave until the public outcry starts to ...

the network connection is offline, the rest of the inbox is inaccessible.

- the other rooms

- connect drive

**requires:**

	* (1x) flash drive

**you will not lose this item.**

**Note:** The 'connect drive' option will only be visible if you have a flash drive in your inventory.

## the other rooms

each room is a different color, with walls plastered with historical facts, simple math, or english phrases. even in the dark, with little escaping through the windows, the bright colors are a stark contrast to the rest of the world. the desks are still organized, the chairs still in order. the boards on the walls have been wiped clean. there's still toys and instruments and writing utensils in these rooms, but otherwise nothing useful.

- the front desk

## the drive's files

the screen shows that the device contains three files. their filenames are random strings of letters and numbers.

- 0xa89bd91c.txt

- 0xd910aeeb.txt

- 0x18b4cae7.txt

- the other rooms

## 0xa89bd91c.txt

the notepad program opens up and displays the file.

the president of the united states to the assembly of joint chiefs, may 18th, 21██
the cia director got back to me earlier today. ████████ is going to war with ██████████, and we're expected to join in. leave it to ██████████ to get the last of their wars in while humans can still live. don't they realize their religion can't be possible by now? humanity will all be gone within a hundred years. forgive the lack of formality, but it hardly matters anymore anyway.
i have agreed to the authorization of nuclear bombardment across their nation. i know this means there is a high chance of ██████ retaliating on their behalf, but we have no further choice. if we don't act now, ████████ will launch at us when they know we won't act.
god help us if ██████ wages war. we'll wait for intel from the cia to see if we need to launch a preliminary attack on them. but we'll probably have to, and then it'll really be over for our species.
the great seal of the potus, ████████ ███

the file ends there.

- back

## 0xd910aeeb.txt

the notepad program opens up and displays the file.

chairman of the joint chiefs to the president of the united states, may 25th, 21██
we just got off a call with the cia director. ██████ is bombarding us tomorrow. ██████████ ██, ███ ████, ███ ███████, ███████, a few for every state. each an order of magnitude more powerful than the czar bomba. they're already in space by now, and we'll try to shoot them down, but detecting even one would be a miracle. if there's already hundreds up there, we're finished.
we recommend ordering a return bombardment just so no one wins. mutually-assured destruction, as all those philosophers used to talk about when we first made nuclear bombs. it's a shame we had to go out this way; not even six months since we knew humanity was doomed and we're already launching nukes at each other. once the radiation gets in the air, the rest of the planet is done too. we're officially extinct; not even a chance to find a cure now.
chairman ██████ █████████

the file ends there.

- back

## 0x18b4cae7.txt

the notepad program opens up and displays the file.

the president of the united states to the assembly of joint chiefs, may 25th, 21██
i've authorized the bombardment. they've been in the air since 0600. ██████ will be a wasteland before the evening, but so will we. by order of maximum security, i've retained flights out of █████ █████████████ ███████ to ██████, █████████ for ███████, ██████ █████████, ███████ ██████, the vice president, first lady, and other related maximum clearance personnel such as yourselves.
god forgive us for those we leave behind.
the great seal of the potus, ████████ ███

the file ends there.

- back