Part 29: Day Two- Page 29

Alright, maybe most of you got the joke.

To the MILL!

>put keys in coat
You slip the keyring into the pocket of your trenchcoat.

Airy strains of vacuous elevator music waft through the room from invisible speakers.

>n
Asylum Courtyard
>n
Dark Corner
>e
Town Square
>n
Whateley Bridge
>n
Narrow Street
>w
Junction
In the distance, you can hear the lonesome keening of a train whistle drifting on the wind.
>n
Mill Road
The cold wind cuts through your clothes, chilling you to the bone.

>West
As you cross the railroad tracks, the air becomes warmer, more dingy, and slightly more difficult to breathe.

Entrance to the Paper Mill
The road turns southwest here and runs squarely through the front entrance to the old paper mill. A gate of heavy iron bars blocks the only opening into this charred fortress, although an overgrown path leads around the wall to the south. To the north, a rutted lane threads its way past a row of dilapidated shacks.

Flakes of ash drift gently down from the sky like gray snow, coating everything with a thin layer of soot.

One of the things I love about Anchorhead is the subtle touches here and there. Such as the south of town being misty, cool, and forboding while the north is warm, ashen, and oppressive.

>look at gate
The gate, a twenty-foot high barricade of narrowly spaced, thick, black, iron bars, is designed to roll horizontally, sealing off the entrance to the mill compound. It is currently shut and locked. There are no guardhouses, no buzzers or intercoms, no apparent means of getting in or letting anyone inside know you want in; just this implacable gate in an unscalable wall.

Not much here. Maybe there's some other way in?

>North


Shanty Town
The road peters out at a wide clearing of rutted mud, flanked by uneven rows of decrepit, clapboard shacks. The town is quiet, almost deserted; only a few bits of loose tarpaper blowing listlessly in the wind betray the overall stillness.

>look at shack
Which do you mean, #1 Mill Town Road, #2 Mill Town Road, #3 Mill Town Road, #4 Mill Town Road, #5 Mill Town Road, #6 Mill Town Road, #7 Mill Town Road, #8 Mill Town Road, #9 Mill Town Road, #10 Mill Town Road, #11 Mill Town Road or #12 Mill Town Road?

Good God. I didn't realise there were so many.

>#1
It looks run-down and weather-beaten, just like all the others.

>Enter #1 shack
It wouldn't be polite to just walk in.

Well, Miranda doesn't want to bother the hobos yet. Not without some kind of plan.

>South

Entrance to the Paper Mill

Flakes of ash drift gently down from the sky like gray snow, coating everything with a thin layer of soot.

>South
The path curves southwest, leading you into an overgrown area behind the mill.

Bare Foundations
The foundations of an older structure lie crumbling in a sunken square of ground, hidden away behind the imposing shadow of the mill wall. Weeds push up through cracked and buckling slabs of concrete; twisted rebar and rusting pipes poke up like the legs of dead insects. The ruins are surrounded on all sides by dense thickets, although narrow, overgrown trails lead northeast and southeast through the underbrush.

Coming from Texas, Miranda has actually see plenty of places like this. As children, South Westerners tend to stumble onto old abandoned factories, wells, or warehouses.
I, personally, have, anyway.

>look at foundation
The broken rubble is all that remains of whatever building once stood here.

Flakes of ash drift gently down from the sky like gray snow, coating everything with a thin layer of soot.

>look at weeds
You needn't worry about that.

Hope these weeds won't be an ingredient to some unknown salve we'll need later.

>look at wall
The wall is twenty feet high, solid brick. Stepping back a bit and looking up, you note that a forest of vicious glass shards is embedded along the top.

Chirst. They don't want anyone in, do they?

>se

Railroad Tracks
The trail heads up a short embankment and emerges from the thicket alongside the railroad tracks. The tracks run down from the northeast and past the mill, continuing southwest but slowly curving westward until they cross the Miskaton River some miles outside of town. From the embankment you can look out over the entire heath: jagged, shadowy rooftops to the south; the oily ribbon of the Miskaton to the west; and to the east, the lighthouse sentinel and the leaden waters of the Atlantic beyond.

At least the view is lovely... if greasy.

>look at tracks
They're just ordinary-looking railroad tracks.

Well, let's follow these tracks, then.

>ne
It's dangerous to walk along railroad tracks.

>sw
It's dangerous to walk along railroad tracks.

Well, let's not.

>get on tracks
You get onto the railroad tracks.

Miranda surely remembers following the tracks home from school or something.
She's just going to stand here on the tracks and try to remember.

>z
Time passes.

By the By, the letter "Z" means "Wait" in Text Adventure short hand.

>z
Time passes.
>z
Time passes.
>z
Time passes.
You can hear a low rumbling and a distant, plaintive whistle coming from the northeast.

What was that?

>z
Time passes.
>z
Time passes.

The train lumbers into view, its rumbling passage growing louder as it approaches.

It's probably nothing.
Miranda can get off the tracks in time.
Now, what was that thing she was remembering?

>z
Time passes.

The ground beneath your feet begins to vibrate as the rumbling grows to a roar. The whistle lets out an urgent shriek. The train is bearing down quickly now, very, very close.

A gust of wind blows your hair into your face.

Did she pass the second grade or skip it?
Miranda can't remember.

>z
Time passes.


Before you can leap away, the train hits you, pulverizing your body like a rotten squash.


*** You have died ***


In that game you scored 13 out of a possible 100 points; you have merely scratched the surface of evil.

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, UNDO your last move, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT?
> full

In that game you scored 13 out of a possible 100 points; you have merely scratched the surface of evil.

The score was made up as follows:

2 points for finding the house keys
2 points for showing the keys to Michael
1 point for taking a bath
1 point for getting the key from the cellar
2 points for finding the journal
2 points for finding the diary
1 point for finding the safe
2 points for opening the safe

13 total (out of 100)

Would you like to RESTART, RESTORE a saved game, UNDO your last move, give the FULL score for that game or QUIT?
> Quit


Items
None. Miranda is dead.