TheEldritchGod

The waterfall. Noticed it myself.

Few more facts: 1. It takes about 12 hours from when you place the trap to when it is triggered. However, only up to 3 traps will be checked at a time. So, it is best to stagger putting down your traps. In theory, you could have 36 traps down, 3 for every hour of a 12 hour period. If you checked every hour, you could, theoretically get 72 rabbits a day. 2. In practice, considering harvest time, 12 traps is the best ratio or traps to check times. Checking every 3 hours seems to be about right. 3. The traps are checked automatically 12 hours after you place them. You can watch the rabbit carcass spawn if you are sitting there watching it. However, it will not check traps if you are off the map. Placing a bunch of traps, then leaving the map, will result in the traps being checked when you return. This includes entering a building.

I didn't say what I did was the best way. I said it's the way I did things. I meant it when I said I went through about 30 games. Not all of them with over in the first 24 hours. I tried making arrows, both forges. I tried Going for cooking 5 and the flare guns. I tried every trick I knew. The problem is the way I play interloper relies on flirting with death. I realized I always needed SOME way to heal. If I wasn't freezing to death, I was burning through matches too long to survive. If I was making sure to husband my heat and making fires as I traveled, I didn't get out of harms way fast enough. If I got the arrow heads made at FM, I died trying to get out because of the weather. If I got arrows made at DP, I got them done before I had the arrows, sapplings, and guts I needed to make use of them, and starved to death waiting for them to cure. If I got the flare gun and went bear hunting, I didn't level up my cooking fast enough to take advantage. If I leveled up my cooking and got the flare gun, then It'd be too cold to hunt the bear effectively. The obvious methods, the ones that should have worked, they all failed. Something happened. Bad luck, bad timing, just not enough resources to push through. In the end, I was making the runs to test the plans, not actually expecting them to work, but just to see how they failed. Then I was flipping though Youtube and a suggestion came up of a clip from an old ST:tNG episode where Data lost playing a game to a master tactician. Data's solution was not to play to win, but to play to tie. So I stopped trying to "win". I deliberately avoided the "win" state. I didn't go for the "game changer". I went for the safe bet. I went for the "tie". I went for break even and playing it safe.Yes, it was a great deal more work, but I won, sliding in at the end with a burned out map and no where to go, but past the 30 day mark. Long term, I'm dead. Long term, there's no where else to go. but I stopped trying to "win" and went for crossing the finish line by the skin of my teeth. Logically, my method isn't a good one. I know in my heart that Getting the cooking 5 and flare gun and going for the bear is the insta-win. I know if I get arrows early game, calories won't be a problem. Calories not a problem. I would have plenty of time to make water. I knew it. I KNEW it. And yet, I would die. over and over. Something would kill me, or render the game unplayable. Wandering around at 4% for 16 more days was never an option. And after 30 attempts I came to the conclusion, the problem isn't the game. It's me. I cannot win that way under those conditions. My method, your time is spent getting calories, then barely making enough fluid to stave off dehydration, then scraping up food and always always never taking any risk. Always playing it safe. Never taking risks and always going for just enough. Never get greedy. Minimize my profile. Instead of going big, I went small. Sleeping from self inflicted food poisoning at minimized caloric intake to pass the time. Boring. Dull. Predictable. Yes, every instinct told me that I should go for the "game changer". And I failed every time. This is why when I was asked, "when did you get over the hump", the answer is, "I didn't". The point of this method isn't to get over the hump. You never get over the hump. Don't even try to climb the hump. I moved the finish line back to the Hump. Reach the hump, you win. That was the mind set. That was how I played. I'm not saying this is how YOU beat the challenge. I'm saying this is how I beat the challenge.

Day 30. And I am not joking. It really felt like every moment I was doing something. If I wasn't getting food, I was making water. If I wasn't getting water, I was trying to max out my skills. I took the time to harvest hides for clothing, but the truth is, I never got the time to make them until after I got to day 30. Even then, I'm screwed. If I was going to keep playing, I need to get a MASSIVE amount of food. I'm out. Of everything. I got a dozen teas and that's it. Maybe head to FM and grab a few dozen cattails, maybe CH and loot that map, have not touched it yet, but I honestly am unsure how to get to CH without taking a condition hit. I won't have enough calories to make it across the ravine map and I think I got one cup of coffee left. I sacrificed everything to get to day 30 and I honestly have no idea what to do next that is viable in the long term. I need a bow and arrow if I'm going to survive, but I have no idea how to gather enough stuff to get either forge going. I think I'm just going to leave it along because it was a fluke. This was a nonstop cavalcade of "Someone Must Like Me" because 3 stims is a ton to find. The weather has been amazing. The deer practically walked up to the wolves and exposed their throats. The bears never came out until I was leaving an area. I don't know if I could reproduce this in a month. I suppose getting the matches at the starting point was a "hump". Getting the bedroll was a hump. Getting the firestarter, the mag glass, the hammer, the hacksaw, but the real game changer was the flare gun. I even used it to just scare off wolves form a kill. Yes, a waste, but my goal was day 30, not carefully husbanding my resources for a 500 day run. Although... I think I might trying this again with the "healing while resting" turned up just a smidge. Just a little bit of healing while sleeping. Just enough to make the herbal tea mean something. That small amount of wiggle room would make this a hell of a lot less aggravating. While I enjoy having pulled it off, it was very... hrmmm... It broke immersion. There was no way to PLAY the game. You couldn't be in character. You couldn't be in the moment, because everything needed to be measured. Every time I took 10 minutes to harvest some cloth, I agonized if that was going to kill me. If I just started a blizzard and now I won't find food and now I will die. Interesting as a thought experiment, not "fun" in a traditional sense. This was more like "IRON MAN TRIATHLON" and less like an enjoyable 36 mile, three day hike. One is for fun, One is something you spend a year training for.

Not quite yet.... So there I am, figuring I'm dead. No water save a few .01kg cups of rose hips and Reishi tea, No calories. Ate my last cattail. Wolves at both exits to the hydro dam and I'm sitting, what to do... when I remember I still had that last Stim. And it occurred to me, I was saving it for a good time to heal myself, but why not use it for the unlimited stamina boost. So drank what little supplies I had left, ditched everything that wasn't absolutely essential to survival to get my weight down, then climbed up on top of the fence outside of the Hydro dam. Perched on top of the barbed wire, I threw rocks into the ravine to lure off the wolf, then shot myself up with an emergency stim and just ran, break neck, for camp office. I don't know how, but not only did I not get eaten by wolves, but the one wolf that was along the way, got screwed up by the pathing and lost me at the derailment. I only lost 2% over all as I had to drag my exhausted ass into the camp office. I have never been so happy to see a tin of sardines in my life. And after I got there, rested and rehydrated, I ate up the cattails at the place, then crafted me a pair of brand new rabbit mittens and Deer skin boots... just to be MEAN. ... Now to figure out how to reopen the quonset.

I'm going to be honest, if I figure out how to make it the last 31 hours, I'm just leaving that run saved and not looking back. It was a grind. Interesting to actually put everything to the test, but well... I should have made this the first tip. Lets call it Tip Zero. 0. Stop playing the game and start playing WITH the game. Forget the fluff and see past the images to the code itself. The graphics are an illusion. There is what the fluff makes you THINK is supposed to happen, then there is how the code actually FUNCTIONS. To beat this challenge, you must see past the intent of the code and see the code for how it actually effects your in game avatar.

Tips: THERE IS NO TOMORROW. There is no "saving for a rainy day" because this run is a non-stop monsoon. There is no time. There is only right now. Use EVERYTHING as soon as you get it and as soon as it gives you the slightest advantage. Burn through your resources and KEEP MOVING. Always do SOMETHING. Micromanage every moment and maximize every advantage. You are a dead man walking. You are going to die. It is only a question of when. 1. Most Important: Do everything you can to avoid condition loss, at all costs. Sleeping doesn't heal you. Herbal tea doesn't work. Only Stims will heal you 15%, and then you need to sleep immediately after using it, or you'll suffer condition loss. Healing is next to impossible. NEVER DO ANYTHING TO RISK LOSING ANY CONDITION UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO. 2. Oil/lighter fluid is a top priority. The ability to make a fire instantly is key, because in this run, it's speed, speed, speed. 3. Eat almost everything as soon as you find it. Save food that might give you food poisoning for when you are about to sleep. 4. Cabin Fever isn't a thing on this run, because that's the result of custom settings. Ignore it. 5. While my best run is badges +2 degrees, improved stamina recovery, I'm thinking I should have switched out the +2 degrees for reduced caloric consumption. The reduced calories on sprinting is so situationally specific, that it's not worth it. The +2 degrees helps in the initial 1-3 days, but very quickly fell behind in long term usefulness. The fact I'm scrambling for calories, I should have taken the -10% consumption. 6. I did abuse the Double Boiler exploit like a red-headed stepchild. Honestly, without using the ability to multiply the number of cooking surfaces on a fire as well as making use of the fact that fires burn longer in "outdoor" locations, I couldn't have made enough water to keep up with the demand. I estimate you need 3 liters a day. 7. Sleep constantly. This is the biggest change in strategy. Normally you "save up" your exhaustion, using it as a resource. In the deadman challenge, sleep is to be done at every chance you get. The difference of 75/hour sleeping vs 125/hour passing time is huge. And since red eye causes you to loose condition, constantly sleeping at every opportunity is just sound advice. Never sleep more then 6 hours. 8. Food poisoning is your friend, if you have 800 calories and antibiotics and a place to sleep immediately upon gaining it. Collect Reishi mushrooms and drink them to .01 weigh, saving them for food poisoning. Eat food that is risky when you are well hydrated and have enough calories for a 10 hour nap. If you get food poisoning, be prepared to immediately take antibiotics or reishi tea and sleep 10 hours. You won't heal during this time period, but you will sleep at reduced calories. 9. If you have enough water and antibiotics, you don't need to cook your food. 800 calories on venison is enough to sleep the 10 hours of illness, which you can do even if you are fully rested. Use this to aim for waking up in the afternoon when its at it's warmest. HOWEVER, don't eat predator meat unless you are swimming in antibiotics and close to the end of your run. If you are doing this trick, make sure you have enough "room" to eat the raw meat, and make sure you don't escape out. Eat it all in one shot. You can get MULTIPLE cases of food poisoning, each one needing it's own antibiotics, although sleeping clears up all cases of food poisoning that you have at the same time, assuming you took the antibiotics you needed to treat it. 10. Cloth and sticks make snow shelters. The problem is, you need that wood to make fires. It's a toss up, but if you are making one, make it during the day when it's warmest, and limit use of them to during the first week. Very quickly they become death traps during a blizzard as the world temp plummets. Don't bother harvesting. 11. Take advantage of cooking 1 while you have it. If you start melting water, you can immediately sleep 1 hour and when you wake up, you should have 6 minutes before the water boils away. Once you get to cooking 2, you no longer can do this trick. Hopefully you will find cooking pots. With a cooking pot making 2 liters, you can sleep 2 hours and the extended "boiling off" period of the pot will give you the time you need to grab the water as soon as you wake up. 12. I'm not sure if you should power level your cooking or not, I err on the side of you should as soon as you have 2 cooking pots. If you harvest an animal, and you can do it, you should quarter it and get the meat inside where you can take your time. This goes double for rabbits. It is possible to, by harvesting and escaping out, to set harvesting meat on a carcass to .1 kg. As you harvest, watch where the progress circle is as you escape. If you don't see .1 kg harvested appear when you quit, you quit before you could harvest the minimum amount of .05 kg. Each time it's different, but if you time it right, you can find that sweet spot and harvest exactly 0.05 kg of meat. This doesn't help with your harvesting skill, since that advances based on time, but it will help your cooking skill. Cooking the meat in .05kg chunks gives you more skill points then just cooking it in 1kg chunks. 13. Trying to make a bow is pointless, unless you are trying for past 30 days. 14. If conditions allow, harvest dead predators, not to eat, but for the harvesting skill points. If you can carve one up into 0.05 kg chunks, and you have the time, cook the bits, but don't eat, until you get cooking 5, or you are out of options. At best it can buy you another day or two. 15. Don't eat cooked meat under 80% until cooking 5, or you are ready for food poisoning. if the meat you harvest is under 30%, don't harvest it in 0.05kg chunks, but in 1kg chunks, or not at all. Then cook and eat immediately. I made meat that was at 78% condition in 0.05kg chunks after being cooked and ate them right off the fire. Alas, I got food poisoning because each time I ate every little bit, I had a chance of food poisoning. So if the final product isn't 80% after cooking, cook it on 1kg chunks to minimize unplanned food poisoning. 16. Fishing with antibiotics is a toss-up. On the one hand, the single greatest chunk of raw meat calories comes in fish form. On the other hand, the oil from cooked fish is life or death. It depends on how screwed you are and how many matches/how much fuel you got. Everything is a risk. I'd normally cook the fish for the oil. 17. If you are idle by a fire, take a torch and start a fire using tinder and sticks. Boiling water? Start a second fire. Yes, 60% chance of success, but you need to get Fire starting skill 2 ASAP. Why? Because if you have the interloper loot tables, you know where to find a firestarter. If you have a fire starter, fire building skill 2, and a book, you have a 100% chance of starting a fire without accelerant. No matter what it costs you, except for practice fires to level up your fire building skill, every fire you start should be at 100% chance of success. 18. If you don't find a firestarter early on, you're dead. If it doesn't have at least 60% condition, you might want to consider a restart, because you are going to be using it at least once a day and 60% gives you 30 fires. Yes, it's that important to get one. 19. If you are starting a fire, NEVER do it with a torch unless you are in a safe location and in favorable weather conditions. You cannot waste the time. If you aren't at risk of hypothermia or whatever you are cooking from the fire isn't needed immediately to fend off dehydration or Hunger, THEN you can use a torch. But when in doubt, use books, accelerant, and fire starters to maximize the chance of making a fire and the speed at which the fire starts EVERY TIME. 20. If you have a fire burning, use it. Make water (sleeping as it boils), cook food. Cook everything you can cook. If you aren't using it, and don't need it to sleep, take a torch, then take another, letting the one in your hand fall to the ground. Repeat. Every torch reduces the fire time by 10 minutes. Let the torches burn out on the floor. Repeat until the fire goes out. Pick them up later and harvest them for sticks. Even if you are leaving, never to return and you don't have time to wait for them to burn out, take a burning torch with you for the extra warmth and leave the extras on the floor. If you are pulling torches with 40% condition or better, put at least 3 out and keep them, just in case. You can chain the torches as you go along. 20a. I forgot... If you find a cup of coffee or a cup of herbal tea, WARM IT BY THE NEXT FIRE YOU MAKE. Don't cook it on the burners, just place it next to it. Since that Cup of Coffee/herbal tea spawned and you did not brew it, if you heat it up by a fire, you will gain a point towards leveling up your cooking skill when you pick it up. DO NOT LET A SINGLE SKILL POINT GO TO WASTE. Except for skill books that level your rifle firearm skill. Those books are just mocking you, since there are no rifles in the Deadman Challenge. Burn them like an SJW burns books that offend them. 21. Try to wait until you have a can opener to eat from cans, so you get the extra cans to boil water with, but it's not a priority. What IS a priority is cooking said canned food. Remember that canned food can be heated without risk of burning simply by placing it NEXT to a fire. This frees up the cooking surfaces for something else. it isn't just the calories, it's the cooking skill points you earn heating your food. 22. Brewable drinks are a must. 0.10 kg weight that gives you 100+ calories and .33 worth of water. The most compact form of liquid you can have. When you are traveling any long distance, heat one up by a fire and drink it. Herbal tea is useless for healing, but it's still compact liquid and calories and can be heated to give you a temporary warmth bonus. Every cup of tea/coffee is that much closer to your next level in cooking skill. If you are going to be traveling any distance (i.e., not just stepping outside to grab a few sticks), drink heated tea. If it's Reishi or Rose hip, only drink .09kg of the liquid and save the .01kg for later, because that last .01kg is what triggers the Antibiotic properties or the pain killer properties. Save coffee for climbing or long distance runs. 23. Climbing. If it's a short rope, like in the ice caves, or the one in the Hydro Dam, it's not a big deal. All other ropes, going down is fine. Avoid climbing up like the plague. There are some places you have to climb up, prepare. Before climbing drop all extra water, eat all food you can eat, ditch all the wood you can. Only climb up when you are as light as possible. Sleep right before you climb. Make a fire at the base for at least one hour. Heat coffee by the fire (not on cooking surface), sleep as much as you can safely, depending on weather conditions, drink coffee, climb. Recover stamina on ledges when possible. Do not sleep, as this will cost you the coffee's benefits. If you do not have coffee, or even a warm drink, then it is safe to grab a 1 hour nap on a ledge, assuming the conditions are favorable. If you are getting to the top ready to collapse, you are at risk of losing condition, and you can NEVER get it back. 23. Medication: Use up pills first, save .01kg cups of Reishi and Rose Hips for last, since it weighs less. Ditch all bottles of disinfectant. You need at most 1 prepared old man beard and 1 bandage. In fact, since a single wolf encounter is bound to end your run, you might want to skip having it at all. Until you get the hammer so you can end a wolf struggle in a minimum amount of time, don't even carry any disinfectant or bandages. Yes, it's a risk, but the extra weight isn't worth it, unless you have a hammer. If you are ill, take antibiotic immediately. 24. The Flare Gun at the bottom of Ravine map comes with a Stim at the same location. Getting both is paramount to survival. In fact, this is your first priority. If you can't get these, you are screwed. I started in Mountain Town, spawned at the original crash site, made my way to Grey mothers, looted the town for supplies, went back up to the pond above Grey mothers, got all the cattails. I had gotten lucky and found a crowbar. Mountain goat down to the logging area. Made it to Orca X. Found a bedroll at the Park office. Made it to trappers. Went directly to Camp office. climbed up to overlook. Took the rope at over look. Went to Hydro Dam via the overhead route. Got my supplies at the Hydro Dam all set up. Found coffee there. Made my run on ravine. I set up a base camp at the first cave and deployed the rope, then returned to Hydro for more wood and water. Then returned to the first cave, drank coffee. Climbed down to the first ledge. Dropped off enough wood for a 3 hour fire, then made my way to the bottom. Grabbed the flare gun and flares. Found the stim. Went to the ravine basin cave. Looted the cattails and supplies. Harvested the Deer and the bunnies. Rested in the cave. Waited for favorable conditions. Stopped at the base of the rope to make a fire so I could heat another coffee and sleep. Ate everything I could, ditched the extra sticks and crap I had (kept the coal) then made it up to the second ledge. I was fortunate not to need the wood I left there. Rested, climbed up the rest of the way, ran for the cave. 25. Getting food is paramount. Since I recommend avoiding the risk of making a bow, you are stuck with using the flare gun to take down critters, or chasing a deer into a wolf and scaring a wolf off. If I saw a deer, I was drawing aggro on the wolf (another reason to keep your weight to a minimum) and luring him to the deer, or I was chasing deer into the wolves. Trying to scare off the wolf with a thrown lit torch is an art form, and one I have not mastered. I just get as close as possible, then start a fire to scare him off. I would say 50% of my calories were from deer. The rest were from cattails or rabbits. If you are near trappers, 3 snares next to the cabin are good, and there is a second rabbit run near the bear's cave. You can, if you are lucky, get up to 6 rabbits at a time. Three next to the trappers, and three by the bear's cave. This proved to be too much work, and I merely focused on snares next to trappers, while luring wolves to the three deer that spawned there. 26. Travel in the late afternoon when possible, but it is far more important to travel when the wind dies down then it is to travel when it is warm. Yes, traveling at -36 on a windless morning is tough, but you can stop and start a fire to warm up. I don't care if it's only -5, if it's too windy to start a fire in an emergency, you had better know your route like the back of your hand. Windy days turn into blizzards at the drop of a hat and getting lost in a blizzard will end a run in a matter of minutes. Better to get food poisoning, eat some antibiotics, and sleep the day away, then get stuck in a blizzard. Remember that weather unperdictability is maxed out, so oddly enough, this helps you. Blizzards don't last for days, usually only hours. You can wait it out.... usually. Last Tip: Cut your losses. Sorry, but as I said else where, I died about 30 times before I got a good run going. If you want to struggle, just to struggle, I got it. If you want to get to that 30 day run on deadman, you need to know when you are screwed and need to start over. I had a PERFECT start. I found a bedroll and firestarter very early on. I got lucky next to trappers and had 3 deer and 2 rabbits. I got what I needed, let the guts cure, then made a sweep of the map to wind up back there to make snares and find more deer spawning at the unnamed pond. The fact is, I had nothing but good fortune. Everything landed perfectly, and despite finding matches at the Spawn Site where I started the run, despite the luckiest clothing drop I've seen on any loper run I ever had, despite making fires at the drop of a hat and abusing the HELL out of the double boiler bug to make sure I was swimming in water, despite min/maxing EVERYTHING to the utmost in a display of pure power gaming... Nay, in a display of my power as the Kwisatz Munchkinrach I still had to use two stims for the +30% heal bonus to achieve the heights of 52% condition on day 28. And I have doubts I'll make it to day 30.

Well, after about 30 deaths in rapid succession, I figured out how to get the flare gun and it made my run remarkably easier. I have had the most excellent run of luck, having just found my third stim injection. Alas, unless I can find another deer to run into a wolf, or my cooking finally reaches level 5, I fear I may be about to die. I need to get some sleep. however... It will be most cruel to trip at the finish line. Honestly, I have never micromanaged so hard before in my life, The weekend has been pure grueling grind. I still have a stim left. I just found coffee. I had a metric ton of water in the form of tea, I'd been saving that for a rainy day. Alas, that rain has become biblical. I'm gonna take a break and think about the next course of action. It has occurred to me, the river behind the dam was underharvested for potential cattails. I do have three flares left. And a metric ton of reishi tea in .01 form. You know... I could just murder those wolves behind the dam, eat them, and say, "Screw the intestinal parasites. I only have to make it a day and 7 hours. I dunno. Need a break. This is giving me a migraine.

Thank you. The story continues.

Someone has been sneaking up to the radio tower during the auroras.

Foreward: The following dissertation has been a labor of love. Ever since I read the chronicles of the Quonset Manager as a child, the story stuck with me, like so many others. It is considered by most to be the definitive story of the beginning of the Aurora era. While his stories would not come to light until 2082, and were originally a propaganda piece put out by the Vancouver Empire, since the fall of that barbarous civilization the stories have sparked pride in the human spirit and it's ability to overcome. In the years since, few expeditions have traveled to Great Bear island. The island is fully abandoned since the destruction of the Great Bear Air Fleet in 2088 (The infamous "Vancouver Bear Force"). It's inhospitable climate preventing long term human habitation without aurora crystal technology. Few people wish to travel there, and none remain. My expedition went there on an archeology dig to see if it was possible to uncover more evidence of the Quonset Manager. The actual Quonset garage having been found and investigated decades ago. We do know the Quonset Manager duplicated many of his journals and hid them in various caches all across the island. I am proud to announce that me and my team were quite successful in uncovering several of these back up copies as well as some video footage. It is unknown exactly how the Quonset Manager managed to figure out how to build a Faraday cage around his video and computer equipment that could withstand the aurora particle electron surges with the materials he had. It is just another sign of the indomitable spirit of "QM", as he liked to refer to himself. Another indication that there is a blurred line between brilliance and insanity. His technological advancements parallels the development of the crystal based technology that allows us to harness the aurora particle that fuels our technological paradise. However, there is no evidence that he figured out how to harness it for it's anti-gravity properties, even if my team of investigators has determined that he came close to figuring it out several times. The Quonset Manager's journals can be divided into three types of entries: Technical, philosophical, and personal. The three did tend to blend from one to the other. It is hard not to be read his works and not want to know more about the brilliant wild man of Great Bear. Others have had better insight into the technological journals of the Quonset Manager (I would direct the reader to Professor Giorgio A. Tsoukalos the 3rd's ground breaking book, Ancient Icarus: Were the pyramids built by Atlantis in an Aurora Era?) and thus we will not be looking into that aspect of his journals. Instead we will be delving into the question: Did he die alone? We have yet to find any journals that indicate to us as to what may have finally killed the Quonset Manager. Given his haphazard and erratic nature, there is no rhyme or reason to where he kept his journals, as well as the nature of the journals themselves made deciphering them difficult. He found a great deal of red ink pens used by accountants which allowed him to write over the pages of other books, but in the later years his supply of ink ran dry and he fell back to charcoal, etching into sheets of metal, carving into rock, and stitches using tanned rabbit hide and old fishing lines. Which raises the question of Jennifer. The original telling of the Quonset Manager story was a propaganda piece and as such had many embellishments. The entire story of Jennifer was created whole cloth by the propaganda minsters of the Vancouver empire, but was based on one particular entry in the journal that they found. In the two other expeditions to Great Bear, nobody found any more entries that indicated who Jennifer was or if she even existed. Historians have speculated that it was simply another manifestation of his deteriorating mind. We have uncovered new entries that include many new details and insights into who Jennifer was as well as their relationship. Unfortunately we cannot provide any answers into the actual existence of Jennifer. The Quonset Manager's video equipment broke down completely long before Jennifer entered his life, so we have no images of her. We simply cannot find any physical evidence of her existence, and the journal entries, even the ones that supposedly she wrote, are all in The Quonset Manager's hand writing. This of course means nothing, since the Quonset Manager was known to create up to five different duplicates of entries he deemed important and scatter them over the island in sealed plastic containers. She could have indeed written the entries themselves and we only found a copy that she transcribed and he duplicated. If there is an original out there, I pray future archeologists will find them. Alas, the building Jennifer was purposed to have used as her home burned to the ground, unlike the Quonset which was found buried in ice. We may never know the true story, but having read the entries, and the radical shift in writing style, I like to think that Jennifer was real, if for no other reason then the Quonset Manager seems to have found some solace in her presence. Of course she may have been just another imaginary character in his life, like EF and CB. A much more nuanced and real character then the bottle of lamp fuel and the car battery that he frequently had long conversations with. It is this nuance that makes me think she was real. I like to write off any inconsistencies in the journals to embellishment. The Quonset Manager was nothing, if not a good showman. So if you are looking for the definitive work on the existence of Jennifer, you will not find it here. I leave it up to the reader to make their own conclusions on the matter. As for the eventual fate of The Quonset Manager or Jennifer, well, I wouldn't want to spoil things. As the Quonset Manager would say, "There are no destinations, only the way points of your life and how long you choose to spend there." How long you linger here, is up to you. Keep Surviving, Survivors. Professor Charlton Györgyi University of Hawaii

Alright, I think I figured it out. A cave has 3 zones, +0 (wind-less) +3 and +8. However, on interloper, if you play long enough, you get an additional +20 degree bonus in the back of the caves. But when I was testing the caves, I also got some at +18, so does that mean at some point in interloper, all caves get +10 and then later +20? (+0,+3,+28) Or is it that on Stalker it turns to +18 and interloper it jumps to +28? Also, what specifically are the days? day 25/50? Unfortunately, I don't have time to repeatedly test caves to see which day EXACTLY it changes. Confirmation would be most welcome. Now then, I am running the Explore the lore channel, and I would be remiss if I did not attempt to explain away this obvious game balancing mechanic. On my channel, I proposed the theory that auroras are not caused by Charged particles from space, but WIMPs passing through the earth forcing electrons up from the earth's core. Basically the Auroras are a form of earth quake lightning, but across the entire planet. See my video on the subject for the specifics. That all said, If indeed the auroras are caused by particles streaming through the earth pushing electrons up and out into the sky (and only at night because the electrons are flowing away from the sun), then that sort of constant bombardment could cause heat to build up over time. This would mean the interior of underground areas might become warmer over time as the aurora particles continue to stream through the planet. So to sum up: Is the warming of the caves over time a game mechanic in interloper? Or also in stalker? What day exactly does it switch over, and how much is the temp change? Is it caused by the aurora?

Day 499:

I answered that in my first video on the trapper's homestead. That is where it picks up on the answer to your question. I think after you hear the answer, you'll know why the question is unlikely to be answered by HLG.

I put up a sign. Gone fishing. I figured the entire crew needed a corporate retreat anyways. Everyone was there. Bertha, CB, EF... https://www.twitch.tv/videos/277280258

24 Storm Lanterns. 2 bonfires. 1 Beacon of Amon Din. GONDOR CALLS FOR AID!!! In celebration of reaching day 500.

Greetings from great bear island! Where the air is crisp. The fresh snow sparkles. And strange glowing wolves are slowly circling your home. I am your host, Robert York, and I’ll be taking you through the Midnight hour to the early morning, or until the aurora finally flares out, which ever comes first. Before we get started, I'd like to let people know how to get to the disused bathroom that I am broadcasting from. First, Go down the hallway. No, not literally down, just "down." At the first intersection, turn left. Then continue. Then left again. Then right. Then hyper-right. Then down. This time, literally down. The next part is tricky. If you've followed the directions carefully, and successfully navigated all four spatial dimensions, you should be in a hallway. The number on the door to the bathroom always changes. It's supposed a prime, but that's not much help since I never know what base the numbers are in. It's definitely not the door with screaming coming from it. Usually I just hope a toilet backs up and choose the door with a puddle under it. But make sure it's a puddle of water. If you reach the moat, you've gone too far and you will be missed. Don't forget the key. You'll need that. Not to unlock the door (it doesn't have a handle, just push) but to deal with the logic-puzzle involving three locked chests. Good luck! ------ And now, clarification. There seems to have been a misunderstanding. This is a call in show, not a culling show. People call in with questions. You do not call in who you want culled. Will all you wolves stop spamming me. This has been, clarification ------- And now, A political advertisement from Survivors for a higher minimum rage. Fellow citizens. Did you know that in the year since the apocalypse, rage disparity has increased dramatically? The difference in the amount of rage between your average apathetic survivor, and the one percent has widened over 70%, despite the fact that inflation has increased the over all amount of rage by 260%! My fellow survivors, too long have the one percent among us possessed all the outrage and indignity. People today are disillusioned and have given up on any hope of becoming intolerant, tooth-gnashing firebrands of myopic opinions. If we are to have any hope of turning the apathetic children of today, into the ranting blowhards of tomorrow, we need to raise the federal minimum rage. Our detractors would speak about how raising the minimum rage hurts small businesses, how we need to reduce the minimum rage to remain competitive. What they don't want you to hear is - their screams. As we beat them to death. With lead pipes. So join with us and ask to raise the minimum rage. Think about the children. Think how lazy they are. Support Prop H8R This has been a political advertisement from Survivors for a higher minimum rage. ----------- And now, Local News An update on this morning's book drive. The book drive took a nasty turn when a copy of Friedrich Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra got all Ubermensch and challenged the herd alpha for control. The resulting stampede tore through mystery lake causing wide spread panic. A local wolf was quoted as saying, "woof." Search parties are still looking for survivors. We will update you as soon as more details become available. This has been, Local news ------ And Now, a word from our sponsor A child at school. He is different. The others wait until the watchers are distracted. They surround him. They prey upon his fears. They melt way with the return of the watcher. He speaks of his tormentors. The watcher turns a blind eye. He is punished. He suffers in silence. He weeps into his pillow. He talks to his mirror. He carries with him emptiness. He does not know peace. He never forms a meaningful connection. He revels in the suffering of others. It is the only sense of control he will ever know… Until Now! Pinkberry: Eat the sad away, fat kid. This has been, a word from our sponsor. And now, Letters from the listeners. Dear Rob, The sludge keeps getting closer. What should I do? Sincerely, Hateful Sludge. Dear Hateful Sludge, Thanks for your letter. Allow me to me the first to tell you, you're not alone. Hateful sludge is a real problem this time of year, what with the upcoming alignment. As we all know, hateful sludge is the physical manifestation of all the sins that no longer can be contained within your frail human form. You can expect for this Sludge to continue to manifest until you take the following corrective measures: Molt - Now, I'm sure that you tried the obvious first, but it never hurts to start at the beginning. Just to be sure, even if you have already molted, do it again. Maybe you didn't do it right the first time. Feed a single potato chip to a cat - Again, I'm sure you tried this, but did you use an Oven Baked Lays Original chip? The cat in question, Was it a Russian Blue properly cross bred with a Siamese so that it's harsh vocalizations were pleasing to Maui the Time Shifter? You may have skipped this step, what with the high fatality rate of this remedy, but you really can't move on to more extreme solutions until you've tried the basics. Seek a professional - If you are still having problems, then clearly you have been learning too much forbidden knowledge. You awful, awful person. I'm afraid you've gone past ritualized cleansing and appeasement and need to seek the help of a professional. Such a professional will surely betray your trust and report you for the standing reward. So if you're a Do-it-yourself Handyman, or if you have run out of internal organs that can be harvested without perishing, you might try the following: Pretend to be someone else - Since the Hateful Sludge cannot see, this is fairly easy to do. Just talk loudly about how you are now leaving and never coming back, then stomp away. Return some time later and speak in a different voice. Ask everyone to loudly refer to you by a new name that begins with an "M". Hateful sludge finds words that begin with an "M" quite pleasing. However, any slip up, and the Hateful Sludge will redouble it's efforts. It may, in fact, make an alliance with the mildew festering in your shower grout. Normally it would never consider such an act, but there are depths hateful sludge will sink to, if it knows it has been tricked. So while this has been known to work, I cannot recommend it. Salt - You might not actually have Hateful Sludge, but Demonic Effluent. It's a common mistake, for demonic effluent is actually quite rare. Sprinkle the offending substance with salt. If it reacts by releasing a screech that triggers memories of crimes you never committed, you got that Effluent. This is easy to fix. Just search your home until you find your mephistophelian house guest. Usually he'll be hiding under a couch cushion or in your pillow case. When you find him, just look stern and waggle a finger in a disapproving fashion while saying, "Okay. You got me. You got me good." Your cloven-footed friend will then look sheepish and leave. Mint Enzyme Cleaner - This stuff is amazing. It's got live bacterial cultures that break down offending organic material and physical manifestations of sin, yet leaves a pine fresh scent behind in the process. Remember to alternate between spraying the enzyme and distilled water between scrubbing. It will take several days, but between enzyme and elbow grease, you should be able to clean up most minor outbreaks. Paint Your House Black - When all else fails, paint your entire house black, or replace your aluminum siding with any of the patterns available from the new Jackson Pollock collection. It's a last resort, but if you are going to continue to be a wretched miscreant that is truly unworthy of love, and you are on a budget, painting is the way to go. May I suggest you call up some friends and make a day of it. This has been, letters from the listeners. ------ And so another day comes to a close. The sky starts to brighten in the south with the rising sun. As my night ends, your day begins. So I will leave you with this final thought. We, as a culture, romanticize the unstoppable survivor. The survivor who is knocked down, only to rise back up again. The survivor who wins by simply refusing to die. The reality of such an individual is not so cinematic. If life piles enough upon the back of a man, he will break, either his spirit or his mind. A man goes crazy when he gets to the point where he is surviving just to survive. No longer living, only existing. If you get good enough at enduring the trials and tribulations of existence, it becomes a primordial need manifested as psychosis. Yes, such a man could claw his way out of his own grave. But he cannot stop for even the most minor of injuries. You can never rest. If you stop to heal, then you have to feel. Feeling is death to a man like that. You must always move forward. No matter how hard you are knocked down, you must get back up and keep going because of one simple belief. Things will never get any better. This is as good as it gets. But as terrible and horrible as things may be, this is not truth, only conviction. Eventually, we all need to heal. Can you stop? Can you let it hurt? Because we glorify such survivors, nobody will notice your pain. Nobody will help you because people try to become as broken as you are. The determinator. A force of nature. Just as strong. Just as pitiless. And when your Sisyphean task is at an end, In a dark windowless room you will sit, trapped alone with horrific truths… and missing friends. Just something to think about. Until next aurora, Keep surviving, Survivors.

Greetings from great bear island! Where the air is crisp. The fresh snow sparkles. And strange glowing wolves are slowly circling your home. I am your host, Robert York, and I’ll be taking you through the Midnight hour to the early morning, or until the aurora finally flares out, which ever comes first. This is my latest transmission into the ether in a vane hope to finally reach another human being somewhere on this planet and bring an end my sophistristic existence. If you want to reach me, I am deep beneath the mountain military instillation in a subterranean cyclopean labyrinth of steam tunnels, surrounded by leaking pipes that have grown cancerous, and the strange phosphorus materials that have collected in frozen pools beneath them. Down here I have found one single haven of warmth, a disused bathroom with an easily barricaded door. Now, logically, I know I have nothing to fear in this abandoned maze, but even as I speak into this microphone, I finger this sharpened leg from an abandoned vanity set, for it gives me comfort against a horrifying conclusion: Something is down here with me. I have not seen it, nor any sign of it’s passing, but it is here. So if you come looking for me, watch out, for the beast. And now, a public service announcement. The Desolation Point Whale Watchers are on a recruiting drive. They would like to remind everyone that a fair number of buildings are still lit by whale oil, and until we finally get those crystals to directly harness aurora energy, the Quonset Garage will still need oil, and that means: We. Need. WHALES. So, if you have some spare time, why not go out with the Desolation Point Whale Watchers and spend some time watching for these majestic creatures. Their long and supple forms, their peaceful and ancient songs that they sing as they perform their many daily activities such as, eating krill or performing a slow under water ballet in a subtle social interaction that hints of higher intelligence. Hopefully that will quickly be followed by the sickening thud of a harpoon impaling one of the leviathans. Those you help haul it to shore will be paid with 10 kilograms of raw whale blubber. Can’t beat that with a stick. Whales are too big. You really need to use the harpoons. Trust me on this one. This has been a public service announcement. And now, letters from the listeners. I found a letter here from a listener, I think. Or maybe I just wrote it and forgot I did, like so many of the previous ones. This one is from a young lady named Beth to a gentleman named Cogsworth. Cogsworth, I want to burrow into your chest and lay my eggs. Love, Beth I'm not up on teen slang these days, but it sure seems that Beth has the hots for Cogsworth. You'll have to stay on your toes if you want to stay single, mister Now, That said, It's difficult to understand what other people feel about us. We exist as frightened creatures, evaluating our self worth based on what other people think about us. We have found it’s best to assume that people think the worst about us, and thus we are all happily surprised when we discover that someone actually wants us for who we are. So, to you, Cogsworth, my advice is, go for it! You never know where a relationship may take you, and the road not taken is the road that will haunt you. Haunt you until your dying day. Fill you with regret and poison all your future relationships as you measure them against an impossible to reach theoretical ideal that exists only in your head. I recommend dinner and a movie. Just test the waters a little. Then, if you choose to get serious, follow it up with flowers, chocolates, and promises you don't intend to keep. This has been, letters from the listeners And now a word from our sponsor: Touch your forehead to the glass. Press it hard. Stare. Gaze with wonder. Tremble in fear at the low, low, low prices within Announcing the buy out of the abandoned Orca Station which has joined the Quonset, LLC family. This Friday it will reopen under it’s new name, Orca X. The X stands for EXTREME! We are slashing our prices on taxidermy equipment and supplies. We are slashing our prices on petrified animal carcasses. We are slashing… EVERYTHING. Our prices are insane. Our prices have chewed off their own manipulative digits right down to twitching bloody stumps! Our prices are gibbering due to mind numbing loneliness! Consume. CONSUME. CON-SUME. Support small town businesses. THINK. globally. ACT. Locally. Shop ORCA X NOW. If You Know What’s Good For You. This has been a word from our sponsor. A message from The Great Bear Island Postal Service. The local post office has announced a change in their offered product, return receipt requested. From now on, if you are not present when the package is delivered to your home, it will be left on your doorstep. A large vulture will be released, and it will ascend into the sky to circle slowly about, far too high for the unaided human eye to perceive. When you, or anyone for that matter, touches the package, the vulture will descend rapidly and strike like fiery vengeance from an offended demiurge. The vulture will then tear out exactly one, and only one, liver, then return to the post office, where it, your liver, will be sent back to the original sender, as confirmation the package was received. This has been done for your convenience and to improve your postal service experience. The Great Bear Island Postal Service: We don't go postal anymore. The pain is too intense. This has been a message from The Great Bear Island Postal Service. And now, business news: I'm afraid it is no longer a rumor, folks. WheatCo has finally closed its’ doors for the last time. WheatCo, creators of Centralized Wheat, produced and installed pneumatically delivered faucet-based wheat systems, so you could have wheat available on tap, conveniently located right at your kitchen skin. Alas, despite federal bail out money, the aurora has caused all installed centralized wheat systems to violently kill anyone who activates them during an aurora event. WheatCo has been unable to retool for any other pneumatically delivered product. Attempts to convert to other substances such as mashed potatoes, iron filings, or ectoplasm, have all met with either insurmountable technical problems, or luke-warm customer interest. The CEO was quoted as saying, "We just can't generate enough interest in the new products. We think it's because we can't get a viral video going. The firm that we hired to handle our re-branding apparently used an actual virus, and wiped out our entire target demographic. Our target demographic were people who will lick anything, at least once, and people who don't know how to read a credit card statement, and thus pay their monthly bill without verifying if any of the charges are legit. Also, I’m dead. I froze to death. Snap out of it, Rob! You’re hallucinating again!” The closing of WheatCo has resulted in the lay off the entire workforce of 12 individuals, and one collective consciousness. They can expect to receive up to 6 months of unemployment insurance. You have six months. SIX. MONTHS. You HAVE to find a JOB in SIX. MONTHS. This has been Business News And now, the weather: It’s going to be cold. This has been, the weather. Well, by the sight of the light that creeps into the broadcast booth, fighting against the aurora in spurts and thrusts across the floor, I can see that our time has come to an end. As you struggle to wipe the sand from your eyes and the dawning realization that you have survived another night seeps into your brain, I ask this question: Do you consider this a good thing? Until next aurora, Keep surviving, Survivors.

Oh cool. A thread to put my Tips and Tricks Videos! Sleeping, Healing & Cabin Fever Enjoy.

Day 116: I have been wandering this blasted landscape for far too long. I notice I have been talking to myself. I need to focus on something to maintain my sanity. I found a note stating that a plane crashed on a nearby mountain. Might find something useful. Day 127: I made it to the top of the mountain and the plane wreck. I write this in a cave realizing that there is just too much stuff to bring down the mountain. I think I will take the best and leave the rest. I just don't need it. Day 138: Found an hatch to an abandoned nuke shelter. Can't believe I went past it going up the mountain. Been trying to move onto the coastal highway. I think it leads to the lighthouse. Maybe I'll find a boat or something out by the place. Day 143: Finally made it across this blasted Pleasant Valley. Whoever named it such was a sick sadistic bastard. Day 156: Made it out to the light house. Found my boat. It's marooned on a bunch of rocks and filled with corpses. I managed to make use of the furnace to outfit with some back up tools and arrows. Finding this place to be... nerve wracking. I think I'll head back to my fishing hut on the coast. Day 161: Got bored. Got attacked by a bear and six wolves. Figured, what the hell, my kills, my meat. While gathering it, I found a gas station. Walked in. nice place. Think it's a good place to stash my crap. Day 170: Finished looting most of the area. Lots of food, need more wood, but I got more houses to chop up. Getting bored. I think I'll start restocking the shelves. Day 181: Finished cleaning up the place and piled mucho loot inside. I think it's stupid as hell to make my base camp here, what with the relentless wolf attacks, but they break up the monotony. Day 183: I've started making extra Wolf coats and stocking the shelves with them. I mean, need to give the customers what they want, right? I'm thinking I need something as a unit of exchange. I'm going to fill the cash register with all my matches. Maybe I need to go back up the mountain to get the rest of that stuff before it rots away. I'm sure my customers would want to buy them. if they ever show up. Day 188: I've taken to wandering the area with strips of meat that I scatter about as I walk in a big circle. I have lead up to seven wolves in a parade around the frozen ice. I sometimes wonder if I might tame them. Then I think, maybe they could become my future customers. I'm not sure what they would pay for, but I'm sure some sort of exchange could be made. I contemplate what a race of intelligent wolves would be like and what sort of economic systems that they would develop, given the possible socio-economical and political combinations that are available for an animal that has a pack like mentality. Then I shoot the nearest one in the face and skin him, draping his entrails about my body and howl to the others as a warning. After all, need to stock those shelves with SOMETHING. Day 192: I'm not quite sure if this happened, or if it was a dream. But last night, while I was sleeping, there was an Aurora Event. The usually happened, lights came on, crackling electricity, strange sounds outside... But then the phone rang. That was new. I answered it and there was a warbling voice on the other side that faded in and out and it informed me that he was very happy with my work. He's sorry he didn't have time to come out to meet me personally, but you know how it is. I asked who it was, and whenever he said his name, the sound cut out, but I heard quite distinctly, that he was my district manager. He was looking forward to a long relationship with me as part of the Quonset Family. I tried to ask him to send help, or a rescue plane or something, but he couldn't hear me. What he did mention was that he hadn't gotten an updated inventory report and if I could write that up and load it into the fax machine, that'd be great. Then I woke up to the howling of wolves as the sunlight slowly crept across the concrete floor. Was it a dream? Was I finally snapping? Was it a hallucination or was there really a regional director and I was the newly appointed manager of the Coastal Highway Quonset Gas Station? I knew it couldn't have been real. I knew that it was just a dream. I figured it was a good idea to write up the inventory on the shelves. I should keep track of that stuff anyways, just in case. Day 194: Another Aurora event, but I stayed up this time. Again, another phone call. My Regional Director thanked me for the fax. He apparently couldn't hear me when I explained we didn't have a fax machine. He just went on and on about how we need to synergize our marketing strategies to minimize expenses while maximizing our positive income flow. I tried to explain that I burned all the money and that I was keeping my matches in the cash register. He then informed me that matches were the new money and that it was all good. I also explained that this made no sense as the place is surrounded by corpses and wolves. He then explained that the Quonset Gas, LLC had a government run contract that required them to maintain gas stations in out of the way areas. "Sometimes you can turn a minus into a plus, in the right location. Don't you worry about company profits. I'll worry about company profits." I seem to recall hearing something like that on Futurama or something. Anyways, he then mentioned that if I wanted to get promoted and moved out of that location, I'd have to show some personal initiative and show how I can be a great asset to the company. "HR department has it's eye on you. There's buzz about making you team leader." A team of WHAT, I got no clue. I couldn't get a word in edge wise. That's when I woke up. I'm not sure if I fell asleep and dreamed it, or if I'm just going mad. I really believe I was awake. Day 195: The aurora came back and lasted a long time. Kept waiting for another call, but it never came. In order to stay awake, I declared that we were having a Karaoke Night in the garage. As the lights flickered, I sang songs while swilling expired soda. The wolves joined in as they paced around the building, growling and snarling as they smelled the piles of rotting meat I keep in back. I remember dancing a bit and doing my best to sound like a Las Vegas Lounge singer. Oddly enough, I could only remember songs by Nine Inch Nails. Then I totaled up the sales for the evening and stepped outside to shoot a wolf in the face. The sound sent the rest scattering. I quartered the corpse and dragged the meat inside. I stacked the bags on each other behind the counter and put the wolf's head on top with a spare wool Toque. His ears looked cold. On the sacks of wolf meat, I put a name tag that I found in the back. HI! MY NAME IS: D. Wolf There. Now I have a team to be a leader of. Day 198: Just got back from being stuck out in a fishing hut for three days straight. Ironically, I find it relaxing out there. If I spend too much time here in this spacious garage, I get cabin fever. The solution I have found is to lock myself in a tiny green hut out on the ice along with close to seven hundred pounds of frozen fish in various states of decay. If my therapist was alive, I've sure she'd have something to say about that. I spent the day cleaning up the store. I must have spent three hours alone with a hack saw trying to get this one soda can off the floor. It's just STUCK there, no matter what I do. I can turn entire shelving units into piles of scrap, then turn that scrap into an even BIGGER pile of fishing hooks, yet I cannot remove this one god damn soda can from the floor. I'm beginning to wonder if it's actually a hallucination. I've considered shooting the damn thing, but I'm running low on bullets. I may have to go to this hunting lodge that's on the wall above the cash register. I'm sure they have more bullets there. Long trip, but for a few more bullets, I'm sure it'd be worth it. I have elected to place the boots I have for sale on top of the can, in hopes of keeping it hidden from the customers. Now, I know there are no customers coming, but it actually feels nice to have the store front cleaned up. I wish I could figure out how to bring more of the lamps from other nearby houses into the garage. Sure, they don't work except during aurora events, but during the event, it should light up nicely. Thinking of pulling down all these tires and making a stage for Karaoke night. Any rate, it's getting late. I think I'll total the evening's sales and get to bed. Day 201: I just redid my inventory AGAIN. Some of my stock is MISSING. I'm not entirely sure how. There's items I never use sitting on the shelves, yet, it's gone. Yes, some of the raw meat vanished. I mean, a rodent or something got in. That's explainable. As for the matches, well, I count them every god damn night. So why are four missing? Doesn't make any sense. As well as the pain killers. Someone has been taking the pain killers. You know, I never had missing inventory until... D. Wolf. When I put D. Wolf behind the counter, then things started missing. I mean, it sounds a bit crazy, but ever since I put him behind the counter, things have been... moving around. Things are out of place. It... couldn't be a pile of rotting meat with a wolf's head on top. No. I'm just... having black outs or something. Maybe I'm sleep walking and cooking food in my sleep. That's a possibility. One sec. Just got back from the rear entrance. I must be doing that. There's a fire back there between the wall and the car. I must have done some cooking in the night when I wasn't thinking about it. However... one thing... There's no charcoal in the burned out fire. I have an entire pile of charcoal for sale to the customers. I keep track because I need it for mapping, but more importantly for writing these log notes. So, if I made the fire, I gathered the charcoal afterwords and did... something with- I just noticed. Maybe... maybe I got some on D. Wolf when I wrote his name on his name tag, but the stacked sacks of meat that comprise of D. Wolf's "body" have a lot more charcoal dust on them then I remember. That's... that's very... very... strange. Day 204: Got back from a little fishing to walk in during an aurora event. The phone was ringing. This was quite chilling. I answered the phone and said, "Hello?" But no body answered. There was only this silent crackling pop that echoed in time with the surging overhead lights. I hung up, only to have it ring again. I picked it up and stated, half as a joke, "Quonset Garage. Manager speaking. May I help you?" I stumbled over the manager part. You might wonder why. Because as I stood there, listing to the warbles and clicks of a distant solar event playing tricks with the dying technological remnants of a dead world, I couldn't remember my name. For the life of me I haven't said my name in so long, I can't remember it. I think it started with a 'B'. Unfortunately I lost my wallet a long time ago. Left it in a nameless building when I was running from cabin to cabin, trying to find shelter after the crash. There was a crash, right? I don't... entirely remember it. I think there was a crash. A plane crash. But... I don't remember waking up next to any wreckage. Come to think of it, why was I wearing normal clothing out in the middle of a frozen wasteland? Couldn't I think of something better to wear then a t-shirt, jeans, and a pair of running shoes? What the hell was I doing here in the first place? G'dam this is some serious bullshit. What made it impossible to even think about the answers to these questions, was that even when I took the phone off the hook, it kept on ringing. It just... kept ringing. I wanted to rip it off the wall. Destroy it completely. Scatter the pieces into the sea. But I stopped. The only outside contact I've had has been my hallucinations and those hallucinations focus on that damn phone. So I just laid there, staring at the phone, listening to it ring, until the aurora event ended, and the lights abruptly went out. In the dark, listening to the rattling roof and the whistling wind, I tried to fall asleep, but I couldn't. Because I could still hear that damn phone ring. Day 206: Been up for two days straight. Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me. Heh. Old joke. but seriously. I have not slept in two days. Can't. Can't take it. I know D. Wolf is waiting for me to fall asleep. he's waiting. I did another inventory check. In the past six hours I'm missing another can opener. Why does D. Wolf want a can opener? Frankly, can't take it anymore. I have made my choice. I'm going to fire D. Wolf. As in, I will cut him up and set him on fire. But I will also see him terminated. As in, killed, But also given a pink slip. Day 207? 208? I chopped up the bags of meat that comprised D. Wolf's body and ate him. I think I tossed his skull into the sea. I lost it for a bit there. It's this gas station. It's driving me insane. And I'm running low on bullets. Day 208: I made it up to the trailer by the tracks. I saw on the wall map that there was a hunting lodge past the old trapper place. yes, a trip like that is dangerous, but I'm going absolutely insane staying in the gas station. Besides, I used up too many bullets getting out of there. Now I have what's in my gun. Once I run out of those bullets, it's on to the bow I made. But I like the gun. I've gotten good at it. I'm going to hold out here until the dawn. The Aurora broke while I was trying to get out. God damn glowing wolves. Can you believe that shit? The further I get from the coast the better. Day 211: made it to the Dam. Forgot how much crap I piled up here. A bit of nostalgia welled up as I saw an old pair of deerskin boots I abandoned here was still in serviceable condition. My ski boots are heavier, but they protect my ankles from those wolf bites. I broke down into tears. I think I cried for a full hour. I started to wail and beg the boots for forgiveness. I was so sorry I abandoned them. I tried to put them on, but they had been abandoned for a reason. The seam ripped. I was so horrified I ran out into the yard and threw myself to the ground in penance for my crimes. It was only the howl of the nearby wolf who circles the fence that returned me to my senses. If it had not, I suspect the frostbite would have set in and I'd have a few less toes. I went inside and fumbled in the dark to the fire barrel inside and started burning the coal I had found. I stared at the boots through out the night, wondering what I should do. My knees were pulled up to my chin and all I could do was silently weep. When the sun rose, I grabbed a bunch of old papers I stuck in a briefcase and poked holes through them then sewed them into a crude book. I bound it in leather and wrote "BIBLE" on the cover and then went out back. There was a nice tree that was near the back of the dam near the river. I dug a hole and buried the boots. Then I stood with the bible and performed final rites. It was a very moving ceremony. Then one of the wolves who lingers around at the foot of the damn creeped up on me. When the wolf rushed me, I pulled my hunting knife out of the bible and stabbed it in the face. It ran off after giving me a good bite on the hand. The pain felt good. I followed it and waited for it to die. I climbed up on the rocks and looked down on it, telling it how it was unworthy of being a coat. It was not as nobel as the deer. He was not worthy of my legs! The legs are far more holy then he could ever know! It stopped rushing about and collapsed from blood loss. I jumped down from my rock as a second wolf approached, but he smelled my two coats of wolf skins I wear layered against the cold. He fled. I cut the meat from the wolf's bones, but left his hide to rot. Upon going back inside, I made it back to the fire barrel and then, only then, did I put my ski boots back on. My feet made a full recovery. I know now my boots forgave me. Now the past is the past. I shall move on to the hunting lodge. And the devil's spawn... those cursed wolves... they will know the vengeance of the deer. Day 220? Honestly not sure how long its been. My notes are completely incomprehensible and unreadable. I ate some bad meat and got sick, only to discover I neglected to pack any antibiotics for the trip. And I was unable to locate any reishi 'shrooms to counteract the effects. I was laid up in bed for over two days and could barely keep any water down. This, it turns out, was a good thing. While I felt like death warmed over, my head was clear for the first time in weeks. And I figured out why. Oh. I should mention that I have found myself on the second floor of a hunting lodge. Not entirely sure how I got here. That said. When I made my way downstairs I discovered that the entire first floor was a charnel house. It's a good thing I was born without a sense of smell, because I can still taste and the air had a tang to it. Intestines of all sorts were strung about the walls like christmas lights. Many hides were lying about, on top of chairs, tables, the walls, the floor. By the door were a half dozen empty boxes of ammo. I couldn't find the bullets, but judging by how many hides were covering every surface, I suspected I went on some sort of killing spree. Two bears, a moose, and well over a dozen wolf hides. I must have slaughtered a couple packs. What disturbed me were the... symbols? Not sure. I don't know exactly what they were for. Swirling and jagged. They obvious meant something but for the life of me I have no clue what. And the Bible, if you can call it that. Written over old paperwork from the Hydro Dam and bound in leather, I scribbled The book of Deer. It's hard to pin down exactly what I was going for. I think the knife sheath concealed inside the back cover was telling. I'll try and decipher it later. The revelation was when I reached for the pain killers. This was the first time I really looked at the bottle. It was worn and old, but I used my magnifying glass to look at the faded letters more closely. They were 222s. 2 cups of coffee. 2 Aspirin. 2 codeine. I'm quite allergic to codeine. When I was a child I had surgery to correct my underbite. They put me on codeine for the pain. Turns out I react badly to the stuff. It makes me paranoid. Causes massive pupil dilation so everything looks brighter. I get fairly crazy on the stuff. At small doses, no problem, but as it builds up in my system... Two other things. One, this bottle that I found up on the plane crash. It expired in 2011. Also, when I dumped the pills out, I discovered on the bottom was something... brown. Not mold but... something. Is it called Ergot? Maybe that's it. I'm not sure. It's not on all the pills, but there's little brown dots on some of them. All I know is, every time I took something for pain, I was also taking 2 pills of pure crazy. I almost threw the rest of the pills out, but thought better of it. You never know. Maybe I can poison some meat with it and see how it effects the wolves. The truth is, usable medicinal plants are getting harder to find, so any medication, even meds that have gone bad, are to be valued. I'm going to avoid taking any drugs for a while. Stick with nothing stronger than herbal tea until I'm all dried out. I might feel like crap, but I'm thinking clearly for the first time in weeks. Day 200? I'm not sure what day it is so I'm starting over at day 200. I've managed to recover from the contaminated medication but- [several lines are scribbled out] You know what? I'm just not ready to talk about this. I left the hunting lodge. That's it. Day 203: Managed to haul all the hides and supplies up to the tunnel. Took three days and had to kill two wolves, which added to the weight of the cargo I was hauling. Tomorrow I transfer everything to the train cars. Day 204: Managed to get everything to the train car. Had to kill two wolves and a bear to do it. Day 206: Finally got everything to the camp office. Three more wolves dead. Where the hell are they all coming from? Day 209: Took several trips, especially since I keep accumulating more gear as I move along. I'm stocking everything at the Hydro Dam. This has been a save leg of the journey because I can take the overhead route. Even managed to snag some rabbit. Alas, I regret leaving the meat on that bear to rot, but there was just too much to carry. I'm considering moving everything in the area to the hydro, or just pushing ahead with the supplies back to the coastal road. The weather has turned horrid lately and these trips are taking their toll. Day 210: Abandoning any chance of looting the Mystery Lake area. The wolves have returned in force and I'm way too low on bullets. Not even sure I can make it across that rickety bridge in these winds. Going to have to go the long way. Damn it, I have to return to Pleasant Valley. Day 215: On the one hand, I should be glad I can still write. On the other I suspect I won't be able to much longer. After making it through the cave system I was forced off my path by four wolves and a bear. Unfortunately I'm running low on bullets and retreat was my only option. The irony is, I know of a stock pile of arrow heads and bows that was past these damn wolves. I just found some birch to make the arrows, but I'm not going to be able to get to that farmhouse any time soon. I did luck out and find some dead guy with a box of bullets, so I'm not completely screwed, but I've been forced out into the middle of a pond and I'm holed up inside a fishing hut. The door is strong and the wolves have failed to break it down, but the cold is likely to finish off what the wolves cannot. This Hut is so poorly made I can feel the wind right through the walls, if I stand in the right spot. You might say, "Hey, make a fire!" Wish I could. I rush out to find something to burn, and then the wolves show up. I've been trying to get wood without using up any bullets, shooting only when I need to, but my luck has run out. One wolf wasn't scared off by the gun shot and rushed me. I managed to stab him in the face, but he screwed me up good. Had to run over to some nearby trees to get some of that old man, then I got jumped again. I've treated my wounds, but I don't have nearly enough wood to make it if this storm lasts. I got a choice, wait it out with these piles and piles of tasty wolf meat and hope that I don't freeze to death. I could fight my way to the farmhouse, which will be a ton of wolves. I could make my way along the ridge until I find that old coal mine. I have supplies there, but there is at least a bear or two along the way. I think I will be making a run for the farm house. I'm going to need those arrows if I'm out of bullets. Been giving this some thought. I didn't talk about why I left the Hunting lodge. After I recovered from the food poisoning and the meds that were driving me insane, I tried to make a go of it. I packed up most of the stuff, in case I had to bug out, got everything lined up. I even took some time to explore that ravine and found some nice hides down there. Then the phone rang. Yes Yes. That's been happening. Except it was MORNING. I almost jumped out of my skin. It wasn't the Aurora. It wasn't a hallucination from the meds. It was the actual, god damn phone. I swear I almost ran out there and just kept running. I managed to pull it together from the doorway. I kept it open, just in case. Leaving the door open made me feel safer. I remember that. Then I picked up the phone. There was a crackle. And then I heard the voice of my general manager. My blood turned cold. The world started to spin. But then... I listened to what he was saying. It may have sounded like the voice I remember listening to at the Garage, but it wasn't a human. It was a robo-caller. The voice of some guy, sounding all serious and dramatic was telling me how there was an urgent issue involving my credit card and that I needed to contact them immediately. Press one to be connected to a representative. God. Damn. Tele-scam. Somewhere in the world there is a computer, more then likely hooked up in some protected bunker to make sure it isn't found by the authorities. When the Aurora hits it right, it powers up, reboots, and does it's job. It starts calling people. I suspect it's set up on an illegal tap into the system so its harder to trace. And it does its job, calling phone number after phone number, remembering which numbers are bad and which ones connected and which ones are still good. I bet at this point, the number of good phone numbers left is fairly small. Must be the old fashioned set up of the phone lines on the island. They must be a bit more resistant to power surges then the fiber optic crap. At first, I laughed and would have pressed 1, but their was a crackle and the line went dead. I pressed 1. I stopped laughing. I pressed it again. And again. And again. and again. Then I smashed the damn thing. Then I ripped it out of the wall. Then I shot it. Then I dragged it outside and set it on fire. You know why, oh hypothetical person who finds these entries on my frozen corpse? Because here I am, at the end of the world... At the end of civilization... At the end of an Era... At the end of civilization... At the end of humanity... And what will survive us like the civilizations of old? Will we leave behind our own version of the pyramids? Will we leave behind the statue of David? Will we leave wise words carved into the rock for those who follow to read and ponder? No. When the final switching station fails to switch. When the last power relay fails to relay. When the last LED light finally flickers and dies and all that we have crafted and created and forged and built and made has failed, rusted, and is no more... the very last light to go out before the coming of the long... long dark... Will be a robo-caller trying to get my credit card information. I'd blow my brains out with one of these last three bullets, but I won't. The wolves have been after me for a long, long time. I owe them that much. Day 230: So you might be wondering how I'm alive. Honestly, I'm wondering that myself. There I was, thinking of dining on a bullet when the wind finally broke. So I made run for it. That's when the aurora came out. And the aurora wolves came at me. And I ran off a cliff. The whole, shoot behind you and walk backwards thing, while normally a sound tactical maneuver, seems to have a flaw under certain terrain conditions. Finding myself limping along without medical supplies, I had to fight an aurora wolf in hand to hand combat with a knife. I fought off the wolf, used up my last bandage, and with my heart pounding in my ears, made a run for it. One more wolf came at me. Used my last bullet to kill it and then ditched the gun. It was just dead weight to me at that point. I have never been so happy to own those wolf coats as I did that night. Because as I came up over the ridge to see the farmhouse in the distance, the blizzard returned and the wolves went back to normal. Between dropping bits of rotting fish and my coat which seemed to scare off a few of the more intelligent wolves. I managed to limp my ass into the farmhouse. With a bite wound that had gone septic, two broken ankles, two sprained wrists, and all my head gear shredded. Damn. I'm gonna miss those ear wraps. I got spare toques and balaclavas back in Quonset. I've had a lot of time to think about things. You know what? If I managed to heal up, it's time I had a long term plan. Something to keep my mind occupied. I've got supply caches all over this god damn valley. I'm gonna consolidate them into one place. That old cabin under the ropes. From there, I'll only have to fight a few wolves along a narrow path. They'll have to come at me from the front or the back and if I keep moving fast, I make sure they only come at me from the front, whatever direction I take. Then it's only a matter of time. Eventually. I will reopen the Quonset Garage. I need a slogan. Something to bring in the customers. I know. Quonset Garage: Where the water is always free. I like that. I'm going to make a break for it in the morning and just start hauling cargo over and over. Either this will kill me from the relentless blizzards, or the endless number of wolves. But I swear. It's better then sitting here in this empty building where I shopped up everything for firewood. And if I survive. Well... that's something to be proud of, eh? Day 264: I know I said I'd take everything, but there are far too many wolf pelts. I'm leaving those behind and taking everything else. I'm at the coal mine entrance. The short cut through the mountain to the coast. I've filled every locker in this coal mine with crap. So much stuff to stock the shelves from. Now, I haul it all to the abandoned look out. I know I only need to kill two wolves for that. Then repeatedly mad dash down the side of the cliff with my stock to the garage. Alas, I can only carry so much and it is getting colder. However, this will be a far safer leg of the journey. Maybe, if I get bored, I will come back for all the wolf pelts I left behind. I also want to return to TWM and take all the extra ropes. I bet ropes would sell well. Then again, if I ever were to commit suicide, I think the view from the top of the mountain is nice. That'd be a great place to die. I dream of it sometimes. Taking the skulls of all these dead wolves and stacking them on top of each other. Stacking them into a throne. A Throne of skulls at the top of the world. With crossed guns and Moose Antlers as the Heraldry on the top of my throne. It will be covered in bear hide and have twin fires burning at my fingertips. That is where I would blow my brains out. Because I like to imagine that some day, decades from now, the humans that survive elsewhere in the world might come climbing up that mountain, find my corpse on my throne of skulls on the top of the world... And declare me the ultimate bad ass. I just wish I could remember my name. Day 265: I was resting up in the cave under the coal mine when I got around to finally reading my "bible" that I wrote when I was going insane from the contaminated pain killers. I apparently kept careful track of how many wolves I killed. I have piles of wolf meat and plenty of water and I just... need to take a break. A mental health break. The wolves never come down here and I just want to enjoy hunting some rabbits. I think I know how to hold the bow sideways and I want to practice. You know, crouching and firing a bow is harder then it looks. Sorry. I digress. I took the time to total it up. 144. One Hundred and fourty four wolves. I killed 19 of them with knives. I think it's this moose cloak. It really gives you an edge. Now, you might think, like the bear coat, that you need to get more moose hide to repair it. But no. Moose hide is hardy stuff. It may take longer, but most of the abuse a moose hide takes is the seams. Wolf claws don't do jack to moose hide. You are far better off completely tearing the cloak apart then sewing it back together with wolf guts and fishing line. No. I'm serious. It may take days, but if you continuously tear your cloak apart and then rebuild it, you can make a moose cloak last forever. I tried to do that with the moose satchel. You only get enough leather out of moose satchel to maybe repair a pair of boots. Moose Cloak is a must have for any serious survivor. Who the hell am Giving this advice to? Nobody is ever going to read this. Memorandum From: General Manager To: Quonset Garage Manager You are writing it because your memory is failing and you can't even remember your name. It's reminders like this that will keep you alive. You need to write down what works and what doesn't so you can go back and remind yourself what you should and shouldn't do. For example, walking backwards off a cliff is BAD. That will not reflect well on your annual review. Day 275: I've finished moving all the stuff to the Abandoned lookout. It's a nice place. Something about being all storm resistant glass that makes it basically a solar hot house. Comparatively. Being only slightly freezing is a step above deadly. Still. Had to spend some time here. Not for any particular reason. It just took a while to get all the gear out of the coal mine. At one point I just stripped naked and ran through the mine with only my running shoes, underwear, and my moose satchel. It actually gets rather warm in that mine. Again, comparatively. Wouldn't want to live there, however. At least two dead bodies in there from mine collapses. One guy got trapped and starved to death, the other guy got crushed by a cave-in. I know which way I'd prefer to go. Still, the view from this place is nice. It might make a great place to go relax. Better then sitting in an ice fishing hut surrounded by wolves. I think I will drag that pile of rocks I have back in the coal mine up here. Might be fun to start chucking them off the balcony. Regardless, this part of the transfer was rather easy, normally there's a couple of wolves wandering about up here. Didn't see either of them. I wonder if the bear living down below by the trailer is the reason? No harsh weather events either. Just the fog. That odd, welcoming fog that surrounds you and holds you like a mother welcoming a soldier home from the war. Yes. It's like returning home. Day 276: Completely lost track of time. I have no idea where the day went. I spent the better part of the day gather coal and rocks. Why? because coal burns hot and the customers will certainly want some. And the rocks, well... I hauled them up to the top of this abandoned tower. This isn't a good morning for it, but some day, I'm gonna take these sixty seven rocks and throw them off this tower all over the place. I'll need something to pass the time. Gonna take a short trip off to look at some of the abandoned buildings in the area for the fun of it. Then I'm gonna get this loot down the side of this cliff. Day 277: Nothing interesting at the trailer, but that's not the problem. The problem is these storm lanterns. I was packing them up and realized how crappy they look. I'd better take a few days to clean and fix them up. Only the finest stock for my customers. That's what I like about this lookout. It's got so many glass windows you can see what you are doing by moonlight. Day: 300: Holy crap. I just realized how much I've had to haul ass around this area. Unfortunately I seem to have developed some sort of phobia for being indoors too long and The wolves that I thinned out before have returned in force. Between running around trying to get wood, hauling the inventory down to the garage, and trying to repair all the damaged stock, and every three days rushing out to squat in a fishing hut surrounded by pacing wolves. Also, I discovered that water boils faster on the stove out at the ice hut. So I have to haul all the water I want to stock my store with from the ice, which means I have to keep fighting through wolves. And wolves are good meat. So every time I have to kill a bunch of wolves, I lose days cleaning them, gutting them, harvesting the hides. And once I got sloppy and didn't even notice my gauntlets had iced up. I tried to thaw out my left hand and a finger snapped off. You know, normally that sort of thing would have freaked me out. I've gotten kind of blasé about things as of late. Maybe being back in the area and having some sort of purpose has changed my attitude. So I used a torch to cauterize the stump and a kit to sew it closed. Then I snapped the finger in half and used it to catch two of the biggest coho I've ever seen. You know, I think they might look good in the deli section. I'll have to save them. Dragging them uncooked to the garage is bound to attract attention, but it will be worth it to have on the shelf when the customers come by. Day 314: So I finished stocking the shelves when I asked myself where was the fifty pounds of coal I had collected. Then it dawned on me that I left it up at the abandoned look out. And I also remembered that I moved to the rope so I'd have to try and sneak past the bear that moved up on the ridge over looking the garage. Well, you know what? I wasn't in the mood to delay anymore. So I grabbed my arrows and bow and headed up to go clear the path. Yes, I just lost a finger, so I was in a bad mood. I snuck up on a rock, waited for it to stroll into view, shot it in the side. I honestly thought it was dead. So I worked my way around the rock to get down to it. And... the bear was gone. I mean, poof. Vanished. No idea where it went. So, looking around, thinking it walked off a bit to die somewhere else. Then I heard it. I had missed that the sun had got down and that an aurora had started. There's this weird humm in the air when you get an aurora. And then I heard the bear. So I turned around. You know, I had fought an aurora wolf before. But it never occurred to me there would be aurora bears. And funny thing about the aurora, it seems to heal bears. So my first shot goes wide, which just gets it's attention. Then it starts to charge me and my second one drops it. Now, this is when it gets weird. I'm not bullshitting. The arc of my arrow was hanging in the air. No. Serious. It was softly glowing and just, hovering there, ending right where the arrow hit the bear. It had fallen over, dead, glowing eyes and green swirly fur, but it's... dead. It was just dead. But the shot that killed it was just glowing and hovering in the air. As I was looking at it, I got to thinking. So I spent the next week working on carving it up, cooking it, and making me another bedroll for the customers. That'll be my fourth. Sorry. I digress. So, I was thinking, this doesn't make any sense. Why are they glowing along with the aurora? Then I noticed that the bear was warmer then normal. And come to think of it, no snow fell on the aurora wolf, even though I killed it in a snow storm. I think, and this is just a theory... I think this aurora thing has happened before. maybe it's a solar thing. It happens, it dies down, it happens, it dies down. Maybe it lasts a few centuries, or a few decades, or a few thousand years. When it happens, energy pours down onto the world. Makes all this electronic crap flicker and spark. So, why the bears and wolves? What if... there is a bacterium. I know of bacterium that respond to magnets and other electromagnetic energy. Now, bear with me, but I think I remember this. It was called Magnetotactic bacteria, I think, that are are a polyphyletic group of bacteria discovered by Richard Blakemore. When they grow, they orientate themselves along magnetic fields. So, here's the theory. If this bacterium EVOLVED to feed off the energy, right? But it needs to be warm and the energy isn't constant. It fluctuates. So it needs warmth from somewhere else. It evolved to live in the fur and on the skin of carnivores. It keeps them warm during the aurora, and the wolf keeps the bacterium warm when the aurora is off. The glowing bacterium also seems to make what it is growing on more aggressive. So, if it started growing on a bunny, the bunny would get aggressive, then it would die. But an aggressive wolf that is warmed up by glowing aurora bacterium, that could become more aggressive because, you know, burning bacterium in your fur, but also it's more likely to SURVIVE being aggressive. So, if that's the case, I think that the bacterium isn't new. It's old. It's been around a long time. It just turns on and off during these solar cycles. Plus, it has a nasty implication. It's been almost a year and it hasn't gotten any warmer. In fact, I think it's gotten colder. That means that the whole world is getting colder and all over the world every form of electronics is screwed as well as every carnivore that evolved along with this bacterium is going to be hyper-aggressive. If that's true across the world, then nobody is coming. Everyone would be heading south, where it's warmer. But I could be wrong. And maybe, maybe there's people to the north of here who are going to try and make it south. They aren't going to find much left in the area, especially since I've looted everything. They're going to need supplies. Clothing. Food. Shelter. even water. Fortunately for them... at Quonset Garage... The water is always free. Day 331: I've finished putting up the stock on the shelves. I'm going to close up the place then go to the surrounding areas to put up signs to direct people to the garage. I just sent a memo to my General manager letting him know we're on schedule. Day 364: I just made it back in time. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the first aurora. Year 1 of aurora earth begins with the grand re-opening of the Quonset Garage. Tomorrow I open the garage to the general public. Tomorrow, I open to the public. Tomorrow, I light a beacon in the long dark. Tomorrow, I begin the long wait. BONUS: The Commercial - https://youtu.be/NLUkucmzntg