Sunday, December 12, 2010

Party Games!



As Savage, Defoe and Rogue open fire on the advancing zombie hoard, you scrabble to your feet and run for cover behind an iron boiler, finding yourself in a narrow gap that leads to the back of the room. Taking one final look back, you see Shako the zombie polar bear bellow in rage and thunder across the floor towards Rogue, who fruitlessly unloads round after round from Gunnar. Bullets slam into the furry beast's hide and burrow deep into its rotting flesh, but don't so much as slow the stampeding beast. Elsewhere, Savage is locked in combat with the zombie cyborg Artie Gruber, his shotgun jammed into Gruber's stomach and blasting holes in him while Gruber sinks his teeth into his neck.



Finally you see Defoe facing off against a giggling, grinning Zombo, who has one rotting hand around the zombie-hunter's throat and is asking him over and over: "Can I eat you, can I eat you, can I eat you Mr. Angry Man, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?" Having seen enough to know this battle can't end well, you turn your back on the scene and make your way to the other end of the chamber, where you find an open door that leads into a new corridor. Closing it behind you so you don't have to hear the screams of the dead and dying, you take a deep breath and look at the floor for tell-tale signs of Toby's passing. Before you can spot anything, however, there is a growl from behind you, and you turn to see Toby leaping at you, snapping his metal jaws.



"You don't know when to stay out of a doggie's way, do you?" the robot howls, slamming into you and knocking you back into the wall. You hit your head hard on the cold metal and an explosion of light before your eyes is the last thing you are aware of...

***

When you come to, some indeterminable amount of time later, Toby is gone and all sounds of combat from the boiler room have ceased. Rubbing your head and using the wall as support you get to your feet, fighting off dizziness until you can stand unaided. It takes a few seconds for you to remember exactly what you were doing here, then it all comes back in a flood, Tharg, the invitation, the party, Toby...Halo. Unsure how long has passed or what may have happened while you were out, you make your way forward through a number of winding corridors until you spot an open door with a laminated card stuck to it and a card reader in the wall alongside. The wording on the card reads: "Party Access. Scan Invite to Enter" and you are surprised to find there is a card in the slot. Noticing bite marks in the protruding end, you realise this is the invite Toby took from you. Pulling the invitation from the card reader, you slip through the door and enter a short passageway. Hurrying along it you arrive at an intersecting corridor that stretches left and right away from you. Sounds of music and revelry reach your ears, coming from both directions, and it's clear that the party is in full swing. The question is...which way did Toby go?

Do you...

Go left, or...

Go right?