Narrative Baseline
The Sun is rapidly dying, covering the world in darkness and hell spawn creatures emerge to feed from the living. Sean, the protagonist, is a lone blind ranger who suddenly finds himself in the apocalypse.
Several weeks have passed since Sean found refuge in a bunker on the outskirts of Pinecrest Hollow, a small town located between the forest and the Northern Pacific coast. Using his ranger and handcraft abilities, he built a radio-like device to try and contact any survivors. Using this device, Sean picked up a distress signal, a woman's voice giving coordinates located very close to the bunker. Sean, driven by his instinct to help and rescue and refusing to stay in the bunker waiting for his death, decides to venture out and follow the signal.
As he steps out and follows the signal, he finds the world worse than imagined. Clinging to the hope of finding someone alive, he’ll follow the steps of the signal to a grim realization.
In desperate efforts to find ways to survive the imminent eradication of life due to the Sun’s rapid decay, a secret nuclear laboratory hidden in a small town located in the North Pacific Mountains launches several projects that include human genetic alterations and testing the limits of the laws of physics. Things don’t go as expected and undesirable consequences of those tests begin to get rapidly out of control.
A bright young scientist in charge of one of the projects warns his loved one of the dangers to come, giving her instructions to escape the town, and promising that they’ll meet soon.
The woman, trustful, follows the instructions. The world around her begins to collapse and she hangs on to the hope of reuniting with the only person she has left. As she moves through, she leaves messages recorded in radioemitting units used by the forest rangers, hoping this will help the scientist find her.
Distress Signal Script
written by Dominic Hayes, Henry Broestl, Iván Plouganou, and Jordan Bzdel
Checkpoint 1
Over- Over- This is a grade 9 alert! To anyone out there- this is coming from North forty-nine degrees, twenty-eight track 40-
West one hundred twenty-three degrees, ten ah- track two six four! Does this thing work? Can anyone hear me? Please read-
Are you still there? Sorry… It's not safe here. I have to keep moving. I am heading northwest towards the ravine. It should be safer. I can’t wait any longer. I hope that you are safe but… I don’t know what is happening. It feels like everything stopped working all at once and now the world is falling apart. Please
be alive… you promised me.
Checkpoint 2
I just made it to what looks like a cargo park. Someone must’ve taken shelter here. There’s no one left though, and I… I hear noises. Sounds like something big is trapped in those crates. It sounded like it was in pain. I could hear it breathing. Is it pleading for help? Is it human? Why Is it locked up? What is going on? What were you doing here? I can’t find you. . . I’m moving on towards the Power Plant. I hope you’ll find me there.
Checkpoint 3
I tried to go through the power plant’s back entrance… There’s one of those things in there… I could hear it… I heard screams… I used the side door to the dumpsters… Maybe I should’ve helped but I couldn’t… I promised you I would stay alive…
Now everything is so quiet… The eclipse has lasted for so long.
They said that it would only last a few hours, but it is only getting darker, and colder. I know that they warned us, but is this real?! It’s like… Everyone’s dead or vanished. No one is coming, and nowhere is safe. I have to move and get through the power plant. I’m currently at…. North forty-nine degrees, thirty-three track… Ahhh…- West one hundred twenty-three degrees, track ….six five three. I have to keep moving… meet me
at the ravine...
Checkpoint 4
What the hell are those things??! I nearly died. What do they want?! They can hear my every move. I escaped by distracting them and running through the tunnel. What is happening here?!
You told me long ago to meet me at this location. WHERE ARE YOU?! It is getting cold! Are you not coming?!
Checkpoint 5
It’s so dark… I can barely see. The world is gone. There’s no one left. What’s the point?! Where did everyone go? Is this all that is left? What is happening? No one is coming... You left me to die… (*Ambient noise for a short amount of time*) I’m at
North forty-nine degrees, thirty-three West… What am I doing? It doesn't matter anymore… We are all alone… I'm… all alone.
Checkpoint 6 - FINALE
I know you are not going to find me anymore. I don’t even know who I am leaving this for. I am not even sure if you are alive. You’re probably dead… Everyone else is! There is no
point.
I just… I don't want to die alone. It looks like this is the end. The world has completely collapsed. Perhaps, we deserved
this…
It is so quiet… there is nothing but darkness. I don’t think it’s an eclipse anymore, It… It’s dying… But it’s oddly comforting… The ring of light is beautiful… It’s so quiet… I
hope that you can also hear it…
In-game Audio log
written by Ivan Plouganou
This message is left by the lab researcher to whom the character left the distress signals in the game. It gives some context on the black holes too. Should be hard to find.
“Is this thing on, is this recording? Ha… That’s something you would say. That was always your thing.
God, who would’ve said recording this would be harder than facing total obliteration? Maybe it’s because I have to face the fact that I lied to you. I gave you hope. I thought you deserved some. I thought we had more time. I really believed you could be saved.
Not me. My faith has been sealed long ago. I’m sorry I never came clean to you. I couldn’t bear to disappoint you. I still can’t…
I don’t even know why I’m doing this right now. I know you’ll never listen to this, the same way I’ll never be able to find you like I promised. But I still have this weird hope, you know. If the universe managed to find a way to create a record of itself through us, I hope that one day someone, somewhere will be able to find this log, even in the strangest way.
Those things, we call them black holes. They aren’t technically. They can’t be. But strangely they behave like one, to an extent... I was in charge of that project. We were trying to revert the gravitational anomalies that appeared with the sun’s decay. I acted as if I knew what I was doing. It seems that I didn’t. I screwed everything over… went too far.
I’m trying to hold them now. But my prediction is that they’ll start to pop up everywhere. They’ll get worse as the sun gets worse itself. And it’s only a matter of time before they grow uncontrollably, swallowing everything. I wonder what will get us first. Some will say it’s the rapture. Me, I think we’re just being held accountable for our actions. I guess it’s all the same in the end.
I just wish I could see you one last time... When I’m close to one of those things, I swear I can hear your laugh… I wonder If I get close enough, would I be able to see your smile? If they are what we think they are, maybe… Or maybe I’ll warp into another universe, and turn into an ape held captive in a weird lab run by slimes, that sounds like fun…
Well… See you in another life.”