-Where am I ?
I asked myself, looking into complete darkness as I felt myself floating in mid air wonder about what kind of place I had gotten myself into.
There was no sound, no sensation and no light, the only thing I knew for certain was the fact that there was only me in a endless void filled with nothing.
-Wait..who am I ?
The recognition of I soon garnered such question as I tried to remember who I was, but to my dismay I quickly found out that I simply didn’t know or rather such information simply didn’t exist in my brain, all personal information that should have been inside my head was as if it never had existed in the first place, even though I knew common concepts like what a “table” was I simply didn’t know from where I had learned such concept, its was truly strange, but this wasn’t even the worst of my problems.
-What am I even ? Am I a Human ? A Animal ? A Alien ? Why is there no concrete information about my being ? What is this void ?…
I looked around, or at least tried to but with the way I felt and saw my surroundings I didn’t even know if I was moving or not, not that it even mattered since no matter where I looked there was only pitch darkness.
There was truly nothing here, the concept of time and space were completely absent my sudden awareness of myself was even more baffling since I had no clue why I was here in the first place or what my purpose was, how long would this even go on for ?
With the awakening of my self-awareness it brought a sense of dread as I soon realized my situation, in a way this was worse then death and I didn’t even know if I had died or not.
I wanted to cry and scream, ask for help at that very moment, but what I wanted the most was something different.
-I…I…I WANNA OUT !
And as if responding to my desperate plea the void suddenly shook.
It scared me for a second not knowing what was about to happen but at the same time anticipating the unknown within a grand stage of nothing, for a moment I even considered my brief existence to end like this but to my surprise it wasn’t what really happened.
Instead a screen of light suddenly illuminated the dark void, the scene glorious as it made me believe that help had finally come, but as soon as I looked at the screen I realized that it may not be help at all, but at the same time it was what I desired.
-Is this…a way out ?
I stared at the screen reading the top part as it spelled out 6 separate words highlighting the word at the very beginning which said.
-Scenario ?
I whispered.
The other 5 were in the subsequent order “profession”,”traits”,”stats”,”skills” and “description” with finally another line of text bellow these words on another line which simply said “points” followed by the number 10.
The “points” eluded me for a moment, but from what I immediately understood just by glancing at it these words all represented a certain tab which governed what was described.
In fact the screen reminded me of a character creation screen from popular video games more specifically role play games in which you make your own unique character to unravel the world and go on a grand adventure.
Under the scenario tab for example, the one I was currently at, it showed me many locations or rather “staring zones” from where I could presumably begin my journey, the fact alone that I already found a way out relieved me immensely, but just as quickly made me cautious as I felt everything was just too strange.
Looking at the list with all of the starting zones I immediately found myself lost as the amount listed could be described as enormous maybe close to a thousand, whenever I focused on one specific zone it would always highlight it and describe the specifics, after realizing this I didn’t just start reading each one willy-nilly and quickly decided that I should start from the top to keep it orderly.
Excitement boiled in my non-existed chest, things seemed to be going well, but the first line once again shattered my imagination as it momentarily clouded my eyes if I even had those.
-Evacuee ?
The name of the scenario was odd and the description was even more so as it was really short.
-“You have survived the initial wave of panic, and have achieved safety in one of the many government evac shelters” ?
Immediately the key words of this scenario echoed inside my mind.
Survived. initial wave of panic, safety and the many government evac shelters.
I frowned or at least I thought I was frowning as I stared at the scenario not sure what to make out of it. If I had a stomach I am sure it would be churning right now with an uncomfortable feeling, but right now only confusion occupied my mind.
-Never mind I should look for something different..
I quickly shifted away not wanting to think about it anymore as I followed the next in line.
Unfortunately, the next one was even worse then the first.
-What ?! “Infected” ?!
It read, “in the chaos and panic of evacuation, you got bitten by something ! You didn’t get proper medical care and now the wound has started to turn green”.
My imaginary face immediately paled the moment I read those dreadful words, even though I had not a shred of context or understand of what was going on here I could immediately guess from these two initial scenarios that they were connected in one aspect this being that they both happen in a time or place that has experienced a great catastrophe or incident.
Of course thats just what I am assuming just by reading the first two scenarios, the others could be something completely different not connected with the first two scenarios which kept my hopes up.
But as my luck had proven thus far it wasn’t so simple.
I read the rest of the scenarios.
Even though the amount was enormous and close to a thousand I continued to read, time was a non-existed concept in this void, fueling me was patience and curiosity, what unfortunately did suffer was my expression, after each read through a scenario it would only continue going down as I pieced more and more information together until I finally reached the end, not completely understanding everything but knowing enough to clasp my face or at least think I am doing so.
At the end, it took me quite a bit to finally look at the screen again, this time the initial excitement completely gone as it was replaced with a complex and contemplating feeling.
I asked myself, or rather the void itself from which I came from looking at the deep sky of nothing, screaming.
-WHAT IS THIS ! ARE YOU JOKING WITH ME ! WHY !
Of course no one answered my cries, the purpose of my screaming only served to release my agitation as I looked back at the screen slightly despondent whispering.
-A ruined world, ravaged by a cataclysm, full of monsters and the walking dead, you gotta be kidding me..
The cataclysm, or at least thats what most of the scenarios mention, all of these scenarios revolved around this event which is the entire basis of this new world where mutated monsters and the undead now walk freely, a full on apocalypse caused by a unknown event akin to a explosion that rattled the world to its core.
Reading all of the scenarios I came to understand that they all aren’t just simple starting locations either but also serve to give a history for the character.
One of the starting locations for example allows the player to start inside a prison as a inmate, a say player because I have no other way to describe it, the description even says that the player character planned to escape prison way before the events of the cataclysm but now has to expedite their plans as the dead guards had arisen to eat their flesh.
A few other scenarios include being the last soldier of a battalion during the cataclysm, a rioter who fled the city after the military failed to quarantine it and even a mall cop who is in the very middle of the cataclysm happening.
The one thing I had to give credit to all of this was the fact that every scenario was unique and always gave some new information regarding the world, all of these scenarios happen in very different time periods as well, some starting at the very beginning of the cataclysm and some after 1 or 5 years, the seasons are also a factor.
Even though I was extremely shaken about of all of this at least I was glad that I wouldn’t be just send without any prior understanding of what was going on.
In fact I could chose not to go to this messed up world and just stay in the void, but even as a joke I realized that staying in the void was still worse then the world presented in these scenarios which is why there was no other option but to go.
Acceptance came quicker then expected.
The only thing I could do now was scrutinize every piece of information I had to swing it to me advantage, there were some facts within these scenarios that were still unknown, but after observing the screen I understood one specific point of importance that seemed to be the most significant of all.
These scenarios are not all equal, just like the “Infected” scenario which is presumably starting my journey with the zombie virus, there are a lot similar scenarios with extremely bleak or almost impossible to survive circumstances in them, take for example another scenario called “Burning Building”, its not telling me what kind of building it is or where I will specifically start once the scenario begins what is assured though is the fact that it is burning and that I need to get out quickly once I start, since most buildings are likely located in towns or cities it’l become even more difficult considering the fact that I will be also immediately surrounded by the undead once I get out, why anyone would pick either of those scenarios is beyond me if the goal is survival, but it is very much because of survival that this scenario is so difficult, this is where the “points” come in, currently I have 10 points, what they do specifically I don’t know yet but if I chose to start with a difficult or problematic scenario, my points increase depending on the difficulty ranging from 1 to 9, with 9 the highest I can get on a scenario.
If I had to categorize what each scenario looks like depending on how many points I earn by starting with them then 1 to 4 would be the inconvenient to risky scenarios while 5 to 9 would be the life threatening to almost impossible scenarios.
To given an example a plus 9 point scenario would be the harshest scenario I had seen which is called “Really Bad Day”, the scenario starts you off inside a burning building like in the “Burning Building” scenario within a city, but this time you are also infected and not only that you are completely drunk to the point you can’t stand straight, you are also depressed, naked, sick and it is winter outside.
How you could possibly survive this scenario is beyond me which is why I didn’t even bother looking at it again once I saw it once thinking it was completely insane.
There are also scenarios that decrease my points as they seem to actually benefit my situation then make it problematic, being a soldier is one of those scenarios which decreases my points by 2 which isn’t a lot, but then again I have nothing to compare the value of my points to which is why I am extremely hesitant to chose those beneficial or easy scenarios.
The highest amount of points for a easy scenario that I had seen within this list is also 9, its extremely tempting as well as its called “Bunker”, and just like its name implies, the player starts inside a self made underground bunker with food, water, medicine, weapons and ammunition all fully stocked, that will last you for a whole 5 years without going bad, the bunker also possesses functional facilities like a shower and toilet plus electricity which will last for 3 years without maintenance.
Overall choosing this scenario can guarantee my survival for up to 5 years, and 5 years is a long time, and for the cost of 9 points I could essentially guarantee my life to be safe for another 5 years if I play my cards right.
The only problem is once again, I simply don’t know the exact value of my points to make the right decision.
If 9 points can buy a super bunker like this then how valuable are the points really ?
I would like to move to the next tab already to have a better understanding but looking at the screen I quickly came to understand that I cannot move to the next tab without having already chosen a scenario, what I fear is that if I chose a scenario will it be permanent or will I be able to go back and change it…
-My mind is telling me that it should be possible to change it, but gut doesn’t trust the risks involved with these matters..
A crossroads appeared before me, what do I do ?
A Place Of Legends 