You raise the hockey stick high above your head, let out a primal scream, and charge the squirrels. You swing the stick wildly, but the squirrels are fast, and leap nimbly from counter to counter and evading the end of the wildly flailing stick. You can hear them chittering as they circle you in ever-decreasing circles. Suddenly you feel their bushy tails start to brush up against you, tickling the back of your neck.

You whirl around, but they just keep moving. Dropping the stick, you reach out blindly, snagging a fuzzy tail in your hands and holding on. The squirrel yanks you off your feet, but you at least have the satisfaction of hearing it chitter in pain right before you are hit over the back of the head with something rather heavy.

You slump to the floor, and as you slip into unconsciousness you feel them closing in on you. You are positive you are about to be eaten alive, but they simply truss you up (Where, exactly, were they hiding the ropes, you wonder. Do they have pockets in their fur?) and carry you out to the backyard and up a tree. You have an odd shrinking feeling as they shove you through a knothole, and you realize that you have shrunk and are small enough to pass into the trunk of the tree. Then you really pass out.

When you wake up you are in a small wooden jail cell, with twigs and vines as bars. Sunlight is streaming through the tiny hole in the ceiling, and your head is throbbing. There’s a squirrel sitting outside of the cell, casually reading a newspaper. You squint at it, but the writing is like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Do you talk to the guard? Click HERE.
Do you try to escape? Click HERE.

You glance around the cell again, looking for anything you can use to help yourself break out of this tree prison. You stretch yourself as far as you can and find that you can just hook your fingers on the lip of the window cut in the ceiling. You jump, and grab on. The hole is small, but you are determined, and you squeeze yourself through. Unfortunately, the roof has a much steeper pitch than you anticipate, and you find yourself sliding quickly towards the edge. You grab blindly for a twig, and for a split second it halts your descent. Then it snaps, and you find yourself plummeting over the edge.

You will yourself not to look down, as if you can retain the cartoon-like suspension if you just don’t realize there’s nothing under you. But physics and the laws of gravity are not to be ignored, and you feel the wind rustling past as you plummet towards earth… or wherever you are. Oddly, you don’t feel panicked. Perhaps because it all seems so unreal it must be a dream. Yes, that’s it, it must be a dream. You close your eyes and concentrate on the feel of the wind whistling past your ears, the sense of near-weightlessness, and the freedom of free-fall. You peek down and see the ground rushing up to meet you. You think, ‘if I could only miss the ground, I’d be flying!’ and resolve to try.

As the ground rushes closer and closer, you concentrate hard on missing it. It is not easy, there’s a lot of ground there and it would take a really uncoordinated person to manage to miss it, but you give it your best effort.

Do you miss the ground? Click HERE.
Do you hit the ground? Click HERE.

You hit the ground with a jerk, and suddenly find yourself sitting in bed. Your heart is racing and you hands are sweating, and the phone is ringing shrilly. You pick up the receiver and croak, “Hello?”

“You do realize the meeting started ten minutes ago?” Your boss’s voice is cold and hard.

“Yeah, I… no… what time is it?” You fumble for the beside clock. “I wasn’t feeling well, and I…”

“No excuses! Get yourself in here is 30 minutes or you are fired!”

“But my car…”

“I said no excuses.” There was a click, and the line went dead. You set down the receiver and drag yourself out of bed and into the shower. After hastily dragging on some clothes, you rush to the bus stop.

You tear around the corner just in time to see the back of the bus disappearing around the next bend. You slump dejectedly, and slowly walk the rest of the way to the bus stop to wait for the next bus. You are going to be late to the meeting, but there’s nothing you can do about it now.

You sit down on the bench next to Michelle, who is staring out into the street at a very large red splatter. “You just miss the bus, too?” you ask.

“It never stopped,” she replied absent-mindedly.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, it came barreling down the street and never even stopped, even though I was standing here and Chris was in the road.”

“Chris… that annoyingly perky, happy morning person that works on the third floor?”

“That’s the one,” she said, nodding to the big red splotch.”

“Huh,” you reply. “What was Chris doing in the middle of the street?”

Michelle just shrugged. “I thought the bus would stop and I was just so annoyed…”

“You didn’t! Really? And the bus didn’t even slow down? That’s odd.”

“Yeah, I thought that was kind of strange. Still, I guess that means there’s an opening, do you think I can get the job? It is a bit of a pay raise, at any rate. And John seems to like my work, so I may have an in.”

“I think you’d at least be a top contender, if no a shoe-in,” you reply. “Why are there no cars on the road?”

You both stare at the empty road for a few seconds. Normally by this time there were plenty of cars and a bunch of pedestrians. Even the birds were quiet.

“Is it a holiday? Did I miss something?” Michelle asks. “I mean, this is starting to creep me out. you?”

“A little. Something is wrong – was there anything on the news this morning?”

“My cable was out, I have no idea.”

Do you sit and wait for the next bus? Click HERE.
Do you get up and go in search of news or other people? Click HERE.

You pick the left trail and head down it. The caves can’t be too far, if you recall, the tour was only an hour long. Or was it longer, but only seemed to fly by because of the scenery? You stare up into the leaves of the tall, towering oaks and admire a blue jay chirping away, probably calling all the other blue jays and telling them of the strange two-legged creature invading their domain. In the distance you hear the grating call of a crow. You focus back on the path, keeping a wary eye out for snakes and spiders, as well as poison ivy. You think you would recognize it, but you can’t be sure. You skirt anything that looks overly bush and has three leaves just to be on the safe side.

The sun is hot and you are getting decidedly crankier when you come to another fork in the trail. This time there are no trail markers, not even broken ones, and you worry that you might be on the wrong path. But you can almost smell the ocean, and you are still heading downwards, so you can’t be too far off course. And anything is better than climbing back up that hill. Worst case, you’ll find your way down to the beach and walk along it until you get to the caves.

Do you take the right trail? Click HERE.
Do you take the left trail? Click HERE

You decide to mix it up and pick the right trail this time Hopefully, despite the twist and turns of the trail, it will keep you heading straight down to the caves. They really can’t be much farther, you tell yourself as you force your stiffening legs to keep moving. You glance back up into the leaves of the tall, towering oaks, but this time you see the hulking form of buzzards perched in their branches. You shiver at the thought of becoming their next feast. Repressing that thought, you focus back on the path, still keeping a wary eye out for snakes and spiders and poison ivy.

The sun is getting hotter and you are getting decidedly crankier when you come to another fork in the trail. This time there are no trail markers, not even broken ones, and you worry that you might be on the wrong path. But you can almost smell the ocean, and you are still heading downwards, so you can’t be too far off course. And anything is better than climbing back up that hill. Worst case, you’ll find your way down to the beach and walk along it until you get to the caves.

Do you take the right trail? Click HERE.
Do you take the left trail? Click HERE

You pick the right trail and head down it. The caves can’t be too far, if you recall, the tour was only an hour long. Or was it longer, but only seemed to fly by because of the scenery? You stare up into the leaves of the tall, towering oaks and admire a robin chirping away, probably calling all the other robins and telling them of the strange two-legged creature invading their domain. In the distance you hear the soft call of a dove. You focus back on the path, keeping a wary eye out for snakes and spiders, as well as poison ivy. You think you would recognize it, but you can’t be sure. You skirt anything that looks overly bush and has three leaves just to be on the safe side.

The sun is hot and you are getting decidedly crankier when you come to another fork in the trail. This time there are no trail markers, not even broken ones, and you worry that you might be on the wrong path. But you can almost smell the ocean, and you are still heading downwards, so you can’t be too far off course. And anything is better than climbing back up that hill. Worst case, you’ll find your way down to the beach and walk along it until you get to the caves.

Do you take the right trail? Click HERE.
Do you take the left trail? Click HERE

You decide to be consistent and pick the right trail again. The caves really can’t be much farther, you tell yourself as you force your stiffening legs to keep moving. You glance back up into the leaves of the tall, towering oaks, but this time you see the hulking form of buzzards perched in their branches. You shiver at the thought of becoming their next feast. Repressing that thought, you focus back on the path, still keeping a wary eye out for snakes and spiders and poison ivy.

The sun is getting hotter and you are getting decidedly crankier when you come to a small opening in the forest, and in the center is a small cottage. There’s a gentle, lazy curl of smoke wafting up from the chimney, and as you creep closer you can hear a faint tap-tap-tap sound. Your creep close to the door, but there’s no other sound from inside. You definitely don’t remember this being on the tour, and have to admit you are almost certainly terribly lost.

On one hand, there might be someone in there that can help you. On the other hand, there might be a sadistic axe-wielding maniac in there.

Do you knock on the door? Click HERE
Do you walk away from the cottage and continue on the trail? Click HERE

You decide to mix it up and pick the left trail this time. Hopefully, despite the twist and turns of the trail, it will keep you heading straight down to the caves. They really can’t be much farther, you tell yourself as you force your stiffening legs to keep moving. You glance back up into the leaves of the tall, towering oaks, but there are no birds in sight. You imagine you see a black shadow flit among the branches, but it moves too fast for you to get a good look. You tell yourself it was all your imagination, and focus back on the path. The last thing you need to do is trip over an exposed tree root and twist an ankle.

The sun is getting hotter and you are getting decidedly crankier when you come to another fork in the trail. This time there are no trail markers, not even broken ones, and you worry that you might be on the wrong path. But you can almost smell the ocean, and you are still heading downwards, so you can’t be too far off course. And anything is better than climbing back up that hill. Worst case, you’ll find your way down to the beach and walk along it until you get to the caves.

Do you take the right trail? Click HERE.
Do you take the left trail? Click HERE

You think back to the last two turns you made – right and then left. If your theory of alternating them is correct, you need to go to the right. Without hesitation you set off down the trail. They really can’t be much farther, you tell yourself as you force your stiffening legs to keep moving. You glance back up into the leaves of the tall, towering oaks, You shiver at the thought of becoming their next feast. Repressing that thought, you focus back on the path, still keeping a wary eye out for snakes and spiders and poison ivy.

The sun is getting hotter and you are getting decidedly crankier when you come to another fork in the trail. This time there are no trail markers, not even broken ones, and you worry that you might be on the wrong path. But you can almost smell the ocean, and you are still heading downwards, so you can’t be too far off course. And anything is better than climbing back up that hill. Worst case, you’ll find your way down to the beach and walk along it until you get to the caves.

Do you take the right trail? Click HERE.
Do you take the left trail? Click HERE