Frostbitten (CYOA) #12

>>29034380
I wonder if anybody knows that there is a pony down here.

>>29034380
A: The fuck.
B:He's obviously infected with that... stuff.

I say we close the door again and follow the directions to get to the place to get the code.

>>29034733
>What do we do?
“He's obviously infected with whatever the hell that is. Probably been down here for so long he had nothing to drink but tap water...”
>So?
“So we keep looking for the code. We close the door and we head downstairs.”
>Are you sure we should just leave him here?
“I, I don't know, maybe we'll come back for him.”

Misty sighs, and speaks in a somber tone.
>Fine.
The door squeals once more as you close it, leaving the damned pony inside. Putting that at the back of your head and moving forward, you trot back to the staircase and begin your descent. It seems like you're always going down. Always descending, always falling. Your headache-racked mind can barely think correctly, but you carry on despite the pain and the nausea. As you descend there seems to be less and less emergency lights active, the darkness closing in on you. You're suddenly very glad you decided to pick these headlights up. Down to the second floor, you see that where an entrance to another hallway should've been, there's a solid wall. There's a door frame, but after that there's just a wall. The letters above the door frame even say “2F”, so at some point in time there must have been something here. You decide to ignore it for now, not wanting to think so hard about anything lest your brain fry.
Down to the third floor you go. The deepest floor, apparently, seeing as how the staircase does not descend further. You walk into the hallway and notice there are no doors in this hallway besides one at the very end of the corridor. You hear a hissing sound to your right, and look up and to your left. There's a couple of ancient, rusty pipes on the ceiling. One of them is broken, and is leaking some kind of gas.

>>29034947
Well that can't be good. Misty, what do you make of that gas?

>>29035007
There is no way that can be a good thing. You poke Misty and point in the direction of the
“See that gas leak?”
>Oh no... y-you think it's part of why you're getting headaches?
“Definitely.”
>Then we don't have time to lose while that gas messes with our brains. Let's get the code and get out.
You follow her commands and begin trotting down the hallway until you reach the very out of place-looking wooden door. Without hesitation, you turn the door knob and try to open it.
Won't budge.
You turn it once more. It isn't locked, but something's on the other side blocking it. You ram your side into it lightly, but it still doesn't give way.
>Here, let me help.
Misty comes to your aid and leans up against the door as well as you. You count down in sync with each other.
>One
“Two”
>Three!
Slamming into the door with both of your forces combined manages to burst the door right off of it's hinges. The pair burst into the room and fall onto the now horizontal door. You get up and look around, revealing yet another hallway, but this one is unlike any other so far. The corridor's walls, ceiling, and floor are all covered with red, fleshy vines. The air in the room is so thick and hot you could cut it with a knife. The smell makes you cough, and almost makes you throw up. Misty is having the same reaction. It smells like something is...burning. Unidentifiable liquid occasionally drips from the ceiling.
The only places that aren't covered by vines are 2 doors side by side, one having “HEAD DOCTOR” written on it in stenciled letters and one marked as “BOILER ROOM” written in black paint.

>>29035232
We're heading to the boiler room, right? Let's hurry and get what we need.

>>29035232
Doctor room. We might find out something about what went on here and we might also find the code we need.

>>29035570
Getting up off of the shattered door, you decide to go to the doctor's room first. Sounds much safer and more beneficial to your cause. The door opens with little resistance into room much like the ones upstairs. Except for the vines of course. Inside there is a rust-covered desk. It has nothing of note on top of it, so you get behind it and begin searching through the drawers. Eventually you come across a small piece of paper. Most of the text has been defaced by a red marker for some reason, but you're able to make out some of it.
“Doctor's log #204863
A number of patients have been asking about the mare in room seventeen. I think they know who's in there. This is the fifth time this week someone has sneaked into there, and I'm getting rather cross about it. One of the generators has been showing signs of trouble too. I think this place gets worse every day. The normal tens of patients that come through here daily are already so much to deal with, but by far the worst is the ha-”
Everything else is intelligible. That's it? This doesn't look like code to you. Maybe there's more to it? You take the note and store it in your saddlebag, just in case.

>>29035770
To the boiler room.

>>29035871
Walking out of the room, with the note in the back of your mind, you head back into the hallway, then to the boiler room. The instant you open the door a devastating wave of heat hits you and Misty, forcing you to step backward. Inside is what looks like a catwalk, leading into a bright orange mist. You hear something stirring inside of the room. Slow reverberant steps...the sound of a pony walking? It sounds off though.
>We gotta go in there don't we.
“Feels like that's the only way.”
>Why do you hate me?
“I know, right?”
You take a deep breath and walk into the room, Misty trailing behind you. You know you can't stay in here for long, so you try to go as quickly as you can through the mist. Below the catwalk is an orange abyss, reaching downward for who knows how long. Eventually you reach a metal door attached to a wall that stretches out beyond your vision, opening and closing it behind you. You seemed to have found yourself in a pitch black room with a large control panel, along with a door without a handle beside it. The panel seems to have many switches on it, but nothing catches your eye like the piece of paper on it.
“2 0 4 8 6 3 1 7 5 - - -” is written on it with red marker. It looks like the code, but three numbers are missing. You take the paper and shove it inside your saddlebag quickly. You turn to get out of the room and make it back to the hallway without a hitch.
You have part of the code, but it looks like you'll have to figure the rest of it out either now or when you get to the administrator's office.

>>29036069
Let's get back to the office. Don't want to be near that gas.

>>29036069
Perhaps we should leave for a bit to let our heads clear.

>>29036163
>>29036169
You were thinking of doing it here, but then remembered that gas could probably kill you. Probably not a good idea to be right next to it.
“Let's just get out of here.”
>My thoughts exactly.
Ascending the staircase, and making it back to the first floor, you begin to walk down the hallway to get out of the medical wing until-
>Shhh!
You both stop halfway down the corridor and listen intently. Before you have time to react, you see a part the ceiling at the end of the hallway begin to char and fall apart until there's nothing left but a burned out hole. You take a step towards it and a body falls out of the ceiling. At least... the front half of a body. That smell from the bottom floor came back full force to assault your senses. You were too far away to make out the details of it, but just seeing the head of it flop to the side is enough to question your sanity.
“Y-You see that too right?”
>Y-Yeah.
It starts to twitch.
Then it begins to do it's best to start crawling across the floor, making a pitiful high pitched moan as it tries to get toward you. What's left of it's skin has the consistency and looks of cooked hamburger meat.
An odd , smouldering, tentacle-like limb starts to protrude out of it's left eye socket. Where eyes should be, nothing remains except for dark pits. The tentacle makes futile attempts to extend itself out to you.
It leaves burn marks everywhere it treads.
The infected-looking pony in that room from earlier is screaming.
>The medications don't work! I hate this place! I've been here for seven years! Nothing works here!
He just says variations of those same sentences over and over.
The burnt pony is getting closer.

>>29036295
KILL IT!!

>>29036295
Misty, shoot it!

Pull out our sword and swipe at the tentacle to keep it at range.

>>29036317
>>29036353
>Misty, take out your pistol, I'll keep it at a safe distance.
“Got it!”
You pull the sword out of it's sheathe and carefully step towards the the burnt pony. It notices you and turns it's head toward you. It's mouth opens to let out a painful whine as the tentacle whips at your head. It's slow enough for you to duck your head in response, following it's attack with one of your own. You swipe at the tentacle, the blade burying itself only about an inch into it. With some difficulty and resistance, you pull the sword out of the wound to have it spout fire. You aren't sure if you made this situation worse. It begins to crawl toward you once more before a white crystal barrels past you, into the side of the ponies' head. It quietly whimpers in response before another couple of rounds go past you, only one hitting it's target. It was enough to do the job however. That makes 21 crystals now.
The burnt pony falls to the floor with two white crystals in it's head. Before you get to move forward, the body begins to slowly bloat up. You move back from the body, but the distance away from it didn't stop you from hearing a pained voice come from it's mouth.
>Th...thank y-you...
The body bursts into flames, forcing you backward. The flame dies fairly quickly, leaving only a smouldering black mark on the floor. The screams from the pony in the straight jacket have ceased as well.

>>29036466
Check on the pony.

>>29036466
Ask Misty if she's ok. I think we should see that pony. I took him to be hopelessly lost by whatever unholy fate he had succumbed to, being down here for so long by himself. Perhaps we can get something coherent from him.

>>29036564
>>29036743
Deciding to check on Misty, you turn to her.
“You okay?”
>Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine.
“You're sure?”
>Of course, Chance. Besides, you should be worrying about yourself more than me.
“I should, but- well, it doesn't really work out that way.”
>I know, I know.
Perhaps checking on that stallion would be a good idea as well. Just to see if he's okay. You open the door and check on him, but a pool of black liquid is all that is left inside. The pony is gone completely, turned into nothing but a puddle of filth. You sigh and close the door. You know that there's not much you could've done besides ending his pain prematurely, but you just wish that things weren't so bad.
You can't save everyone, and you have to nail that into your head.
Out of the medical wing you go, Misty being a bit more quiet than usual. Maybe she doesn't want to disturb you considering what happened. You appreciate it. You weren't exactly feeling like socializing either.
Out into the main hallway, and into the administrator's office, you enter the doorway to find half-circle desk with a terminal placed on it in the middle of the room, along with some empty lockers. You go behind the desk and flick a switch on it's side. A few commands pop up on screen.
>EMERGENCY GENERATOR ROOM FLUSH
>CHECK BOILER TEMPERATURE
>CHECK POWER EFFECIENCY
You promptly pick the top action, and a prompt shows up on the screen.
>12 DIGIT CODE:
Taking out the sheets of paper, you look them over for anything that could be a hint to what the password could be.
All you have at the moment is “2 0 4 8 6 3 1 7 5 - - -”.

>>29036800
Did we miss any rooms?

>>29036845
Nope. You have all the clues you need.
The sheet you found in the Head Doctor's office is more than just exposition.

>>29036800
>>29036940
110

Damn. I noticed the 204863 matched but I gotta say, that's a pretty fucking clever puzzle.

>>29037011
You look over the two sheets for a while before something clicks in your head.
2048635
In the note from the Doctor's room: seventeen, fifth, one, tens.
You look to the computer and type in the completed code: 204863175110
>ACCESS GRANTED: DRAINING GENERATOR ROOM, PLEASE STANDBY...
You hear the whirring of mechanical instruments and the muffled sound of rushing water below you.
>It worked!
“Nice work, detective!”
The terminal pops up with a new message:
>COMPLETE.
The terminal shuts off. You walk back into the maintenance room with a little more courage in your heart and look around the room. Knowing the most stereotypical place for a switch to be, you look underneath the desk and sure enough, there's a button there. You promptly press it, and turn back to see the black rectangular piece of the floor sink. You go to the edge of the hole where the piece once was and look downward. It isn't long enough of a drop to hurt you, and you can see a lever mounted onto a support beam that must lift the platform back up. You notice that a simple door and a set of stairs could've done the same job and been much more sensible, but you disregard the thought because you have more important things to think about than the bad decisions ponies that are probably dead made.
>Ready?
“Am I ever not?”
>Then let's go!
And with that, you both drop into the generator room, prepared to face whatever is inside.


That's it for me today. Hope everyone enjoyed. I might try to run more often than I have, but you know how much I hate making promises.
Thanks for playing.

>>29037218
Blegh, and I made a mistake on the last post again.

>>29037218
Damn. We did pretty good, didn't we?

>>29037382
Mhmm. However many "we" are at this point.

>>29037446
Two if I had to guess. Maybe three if we're lucky.

10

Chance is a cutie.

I can run again today if there's enough people interested.

>>29041332
I am most definitely interested.

>>29037218
You hit the bottom of the hole, Misty landing right beside you. Finally inside the generator room, you examine your surroundings. It's very dark, which you expected, of course. The bottom half of the entire room seems to be covered in a layer of rust, probably from all of the water. There's still a barely noticeable amount of moisture on the floor as well. You're surprised the lift even worked after it's been submerged in water for who knows how long. Pipes run all throughout the room on the walls and ceiling. Not wanting to take any chances with gas again, you make your way away from the lift, further into the depths of the room, Misty trailing behind as always.
You stop in your tracks, and look at the floor. A rusty nautical helmet rests on it's side. The bottom seems to be leaking a black liquid of some sort. Next to it is a huge ruptured pipe, which is leaking the same liquid.
You decide to ignore it for now, and press on further until you reach two huge steel rectangular masses, both with electrical boxes on them. Each box has a light installed on the top right corner of it. One glows an orange color, while the other seems to be off entirely. There's also a small toolbox next to one of them.
These must be the generators.
You open the box with the turned-off light to find a switch next to a bunch of wiring. Promptly flipping the switch, you hear the internal organs of the machine go to work.
You hear something else too. Far behind you, a metal squeal makes it's way into your ears, followed by what sounds like metallic footsteps. You look back at Misty, and she looks to you.
If that's something dangerous...you're cornered like a rat.

>>29042061
I assume the generator is on. The best we can do is keep calm and have our weapons ready. Shine our lights down the hallway.

What's our inventory?

>>29042191
You whisper to Misty.
“Just keep calm and get your pistol ready. Shine the lights down the hallway.”
>Got it.
You keep your lights shone down the hallway as the stomping...doesn't get closer?
>We've been here for about a minute. I don't think the room is that long.
Misty moves a little further down the hallway.
“Be carefu-”
>Shh!
You zip your mouth shut as she moves further down the corridor before the stomping stops. She yells back at you.
>There's nothing here!
“What?!”
Trotting over to her at a brisk pace, you look at her with a confused look.
>I don't know either. I swore I heard stomping but...
“Maybe it was just something mechanical?”
>Maybe.
You sigh.
“How disappointing. Scared by machine noise.”
>Hey, it sounded a lot like stomping. Anyway, we should probably get outta here before the gas gets to our head, so unless you have another reason to stay here, we should get outta here.


Black/Red Crystal
Normal Head Light
Dark-Lensed Head Light
Medkit
Alchest Sword
Suit of Alchest Armor
Suit of Leather Armor
Etcher Pistol
Small Bag of Pistol Ammo (21)

>>29042378
No argument here, let's get out fast.

>>29042434
“No arguments from me. The sooner we're out of here, the better.”
Misty climbs aboard the platform. As you pull the rusted lever down, something that took a fair bit of force, you get on as well. The platform slowly rises until you're back in the maintenance room. Having a constantly rising urge to get the hell out of this place, you trot your way out of the maintenance room, through the main hallway, and back through the huge metal door from which you came. You turn around and put the door bar down, along with locking the door shut.
You breathe a sigh of relief, the heat of the basement finally replaced with the slightly cold air of the prison. It feels so, so good.


Feels good to be outta there huh? That's it for me once again. Don't bump the thread, I'll run maybe next weekend if I'm not busy being a lazy fuck.
Thanks for playing.

>>29042692
I'm glad you ran, hope you had fun!