Sand

(align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[(text-colour:red)[Welcome to //Sand//]] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[[[Play->The Beginning]]] (align:"=><=")+(box:"X=")[[[Statment from the Author->Statment]]]

''//Schhhhhhhhh//'' //"Three people reported missing at the Death Valley Om in California..."// //''schhhhhhhhh''// //"The popular desert arts festival was shaken yesterday when three attendees failed to return from moonlight hikes. State police are searching the area-"// //''schhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh''// The static once again cuts out the broadcast. You let out a deep sigh and turn off the stereo, looking back out the window. It was 7:30pm, and the sun was beginning to set, casting a blanket of orange across the barren landscape of the desert. you sit in the passanger seat of a truck lumbering down an unpaved road, jerking, bouncing, and kicking up sand and dust as it made its way down the road. In the distance, the lights, stages, and tents of the now infamous art festival drew slowly closer. You reach into your pocket and remove a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. As you go to put one in your mouth and light it, your neighbor unceremoniously coughs for your attention. "Hey Rudi, pass me a light?" The deep, gruff voice of your companion has just the added bit of sweetness- a slight tinge of a beg. You give him a sly smile. "I dunno Hauser..." [[Comply.->Smoke (a)]] [[Reject him.->Speak (b)]]

"Ah, what the hell." You shrug and pass Hauser a cigarette and lighter. "You know.." Hauser began, taking a puff of the newly lit cigarette. "This case is looking all ways of crazy, they have half the local departments out here looking for 'em." "Is that so.." you respond, half listening, as you flip open a tan-colored folder on your lap. Inside there are portrait pictures showing three people, two men and a woman. Below each picture is listed a name with age in parenthasis. You stare at the names. (text-colour:red)[Andrew Haymaker (26). Garcia Ludovicco (24). Nicolas Braun (24).] "Yeah." Hauser replies as you skim the names. "I heard from LA that the State Patrol has half of their missing-persons personnel on this, all becasue of that Braun guy..." You turn the page to Braun's description, your eyebrow raises. "Son of the Senator? Goddamn.." Hauser casts you a foreboding glance, one you can unfortunately return. Your truck enters the 'parking lot' of the festival. It is really nothing more than any other patch of waste along the valley floor, and would probably look better if it wasn't for the mass of police and emergency vehicles blatantly ignoring the rudementary system of traffic cones, plastic rope, and rocks which demarcated the individual parking spots. "This place looks like hell." Hauser muttered, just under his breath. You chuckle while the two of you slip your navey-blue jackets on. You glance over, just long enough to catch a glimps of the bright yellow block lettered plastered on the back, //FBI//. [["Yeah well, this is //Death Valley.//->Rancerous]]

You let out a snort and take a drag. "Um, no way buddy, aren't you supposed to be quitting?" Hauser lets out a sigh and rubs the back of his neck. "Shit, I thought it was worth a try at least..." He lets a second of silence exist before letting out a light whistle. "This case is looking all ways of crazy, they have half the local departments out here looking for 'em." "Is that so.." you respond, half listening, as you flip open a tan-colored folder on your lap. Inside there are portrait pictures showing three people, two men and a woman. Below each picture is listed a name with age in parenthasis. You stare at the names. (text-colour:red)[Andrew Haymaker (26). Garcia Ludovicco (24). Nicolas Braun (24).] "24... Judy is 24 right?" "Yeah." Hauser replies... somewhat awkwardly... as you continue to skim the names. "I heard from LA that the State Patrol has half of their missing-persons personnel on this, all becasue of that Braun guy..." You turn the page to Braun's description, your eyebrow raises. "Son of the Senator? Goddamn.." Hauser casts you a foreboding glance, one you can unfortunately return. Your truck enters the 'parking lot' of the festival. It is really nothing more than any other patch of waste along the valley floor, and would probably look better if it wasn't for the mass of police and emergency vehicles blatantly ignoring the rudementary system of traffic cones, plastic rope, and rocks which demarcated the individual parking spots. "This place looks like hell." Hauser muttered, just under his breath. You chuckle while the two of you slip your navey-blue jackets on. You glance over, just long enough to catch a glimps of the bright yellow block lettered plastered on the back, //FBI//. [["Yeah well, this is //Death Valley.//->Rancerous]]

"Well yeah, this is //Death Valley.//" You respond, exiting the truck. Leaving the saftey of the air-conditioned truck, you are immediately hit with a wave of heat and dust.Looking across the expanse of the valley which makes up the festival grounds, you notice the unnerving quietness of the place. No music is playing, there are no loud and frivilous screams errupting out from dense, dancing crowds. Instead there is just the ambient noise of the numerous vehicles, people, and animals which have been assembled to this spot. The sun- or rather, the light therefrom, is only barely visible over the tops of the mountains. Leaving the parking lot, the two of you walk down the main line of stages and shops, a place which must have been absolutely packed only 24-hours before. You follow the signs for the police station; turning the corner, you and Hauser are met with a slightly debilitating sight. Before you was the Police Station, which consisted of one, maybe two medium-sized white tents, with officers and supplies alike spilling out onto the ground outside. "Hey, FBI, over here." The voice catches you off-guard, apparently Hauser as well, as he wheels around to the source just as quickly as you. A man is walking quicklytowards you. He wears the tan uniform of the California State Patrol, with a cowboy hat and a pair of sunglasses that were quickly becoming less and less effective. He reminded you of a celebrity, Stan Lee? "I was just about to wonder if ya'll had gotten lost!" he exclaimed, smiling and extending his hand out to shake, which you oblige. "Hahaha, no not lost, just took us a bit longer than expected" Hauser replied for th both of you. "Well, you're here now and thats whats important. My name is Captain William Sytski, California State Patrol." "I'm John Hauser, SSA, and this is Maria Kawlowiski, SA. We're both from Kidnapping and Missing Persons." "Pleasure to meet you both, and thanks for coming out so quickly." Sytski gave you both a huge grin, and gestured to the white tent of the Police Station. "Unfortunately, this is all we have to work with for this massive combined effort. We have a meeting in about 45 minutes to wrap up the evening work, can I interest you people in some dinner? O-or I could also give you a tour of the station before the meeting." Instantly you feel four-hours worth of hunger explodes your stomach with a loud and kinetic growl. [["Uhh, how about food?"->A Mess]] [["No, I think we're good, show us around please."->Just a Phase]]

Sytski lets out a coarse laugh, and gestured for the two of you to follow him. "Alright, I'll show you to the food trucks." "The food trucks?" Hauser cut in. "yeah, food trucks. When we showed up, all the offical restaraunts, ya know, your Chickfila, you Taco Bell, your McDonalds, they all left, so we had to bring in food trucks." "O-oh... ok." The three of you once again round the corner, back towards one of the parking lots. In front of you are three different food trucks, one of which immediately catches your attention: curry. The ordering process does not take long, and soon you're eating at a provided table. "So, yeah, a lot of pressure is coming from the Governor because the Senator is involved." Sytski talked as you all ate. "I'm saying its pretty serious. Him and that girl." "What about the other guy?" Hauser asks. "Andrew Haymaker." "Haymaker? well yeah we have to find him to, but it might turn out that the kid is the priority." You don't interject, and instead continue with your meal. It was apparently freshly made, as it is still hot enough to make you pause. Because of this, eating has been at a slow pace. Your collegues do not appear to notice, but the thought suddenly creeps into your mind. "Hauser, when is the meeting?" He gives you a stunned expression before checking his watch. He looks up and looks almost like he's seen a ghost. [["We're late."->The Meeting (Wasteland)]]

"No, I think we're good, show us around please." You can see Hauser glacing at you with a slightly confused look, but you brush it off, wasting time now might put you behind further. //"And to be honest.."// You think to yourself. //"I want to get back to LA sooner rather than later."// Sytski awkwardly gestures to the front flap of the tent, and the three of you walk inside. The inside is even more of a disaster than out. The poor tent, which could have only been designed for a few officers, was absolutely filled to the brim with the bureaucratic and strategic planning hardware of an entire muliti-force operation. Numerous officers attempted to move and work in the slightly too small enviroment. Several desks had been brought in to acomodate more staff, but it had only added to the problem. "We are currently preparing breifing documents for you Agents, until then please go ahead and look over all we have, bios and other victimology info is over there..." Sytski continued on to Hauser, but you lose focus. Your mind is grabbed by the evidence wall, the drivers licence photos of each pinned above their respective category. You take the to look around and think. You're experienced in Missing Persons, //"And think about it, this is a desert! they can only have gone so far without air cover seeing them"// you think to yourself, staring at a map of Death Valley and the surrounding area. Then it hits you, almost like a lightning bolt "What if they aren't in the desert?" You think aloud. "What if they never left the mountains?" The possibilities begin to swirl in your head. Before you can delve further, a loud whistle pulls you from your thoughts. "Alright ladies and gentlemen, lets get this meeting started." The announcment came from a elderly-ye-fit man whose hair was a dirty mix of grey and white and whose eyes seemed to be dull yet focused all at the same time. [[You gather your things and assemble with the rest.->The Meeting (Highland)]]

"Ok everyone..." The man started, as the small-scale chatter of the tent quieted. "I am Lieutenant David Albertsson of the California State Police. I'll keep this brief as to not waste more of you fine officers' times as I think we will be having an early morning tomorrow." The thought of //"Uh oh"// immediately entered your mind. A tap on your shoulder brings you to the attention of an officer, who hands you another tan-colored folder, which you flip open to skim. "...As you all no doubt know, yesterday at approximately 11:45pm, three attendees of the //Death Valley Om// went out for a hike alone as a part of a festival sanctioned activity. At approximately 3:00am today, they were reported as missing by a friend, and here we all are." A small simmer of chuckling rumbles through the assembled officers before dying out. "The three missing are 24-year-old Nicolas Braun, son of Senator George Braun... his girlfriend Garcia Ludovicco, and 26-year-old Andrew Haymaker, who we beleive they met at this festival. He's no-one special, owns a studio apartment in Sacramento..." You begin to zone out again, or rather, you're mind wanders to what you were thinking about just earlier. As you work, the meeting continues; questions are asked and information is given. "...Considering the stakes everyone, I don't think I need to tell you that finding these hikers is of paramount importance, especially the Senator's son. A lot of pressure is on us to deliver results by tomorrow night, that is our window before resources are either pulled or not.. so be ready. Anyways, Unless anyone has any objections, I suggest that we prepare to do an air and ground sweep of the valley floor to see if we can turn up anything. We have the FBI here so-" At this point he gestures to you and Hauser. "SO if they are cool with this plan then we'll go for it." "Actually, I think we need to plan an alternative scenario." Hauser speaks up before you. "Primarly, are we absolutely sure that they are in-fact on the valley floor? what about the mountains?" "Uh, well, we did an initial sweep of the trails the festival use and couldn't find anything, so we shifted focus." "I think we should try again." You respond, cutting in. "We should work under the assumption they never made it out of the mountains.. We should try using...." [["Air support."->By Air!]] [["The Dogs."->By Land!]]

The crowd mutters; Hauser nods his head. "Well, in that case, we can get to planning. Ok everyone, get some rest and prepare to move out at first light. Dismissed." With that, Albertsson claps his hands and steps back. Almost simultaniously, the room errupts into action as everyone assembled moves off to work. You and Hauser share a look before you both move towards the operational planning desk. The next day came quickly. You had worked almost through the night, planning and organizing search parties and equipment. You had taken a nap sometime between 2 and 4am, but that and coffee were not really helping your condition. Now you sat in the truck, watching the first oozing reminders of the sun appear in the sky. Towards you walks Hauser, he seems geared-up and ready to go. "Come on." He knocks on the window. "We're moving out in 10, we've got the first bird!" With all the effort you can muster, you pull yourself out of the truck and haul your gear on, quickly following after your partner. Before you know it, you're strapping into the seat of a helicopter and watching as it raises off the ground and towards the mountains. As the journey continues, you look out the window. The area which you had been assigned was just some five miles from the trailhead the festival uses. If they had gotten lost, they could have gotten this far. The primary feature of their area was a river valley with minimal vegitation and wildlife. It would take them several passes before they even got to the correct area, such was the inexperience of the pilots with the local ground. They checked every tree, every shrub, every black dot which appeared in their binoculars, yet were coming out empty. "No one else is having any luck either, and we've wasted most of the day on this project." Hauser mused out-loud. "Yeah, I know." you reply. "We need to do one more pass of this area, then we can move on." You don't know why, but something is calling you onwards. Suddenly, you see it, a strange shape by the river, partially obscured from the air by a large overhang. "Wait! Down there! Do you see that??" you're almost unaware of how loud your voice is being. Your helicopter begins to decend, and you furiously [[prepare to jump out.->Discovery]]

You run towards the shape, something you cannot yet verify, yet at the same time you knew exactly what it was. As you drew closer, your worst fears became more and more reality. It is most certainly a body. One male, dressed in a red and white tye-dye t-shirt and a pair of brown shorts. (text-style:"rumble")[//"No.."//] you realize, the shirt is not red and white... the red is (text-colour:#e03131)[blood]. A feeling of of shock paralyses your body for a moment. Your running drags to a slow walk. You approach the body carefully and silently. The face of Andrew Haymaker is staring up at you, as blank as glass. You turn around to see Hauser walking towards you. "Sorry Hauser, only one of them..." "Yeah, and it doesn't look good for the rest of them either, if he is anything to surmise." The causal sickness of the comment rocks you, but you say nothing. "Well." He continues. "Guess we should probably call this in, get forenstics up the paths or whatever, see if we can figure out what happened... at least it wasn't the Senator's son." You nod in response. You wonder what happened to these poor kids, tragedy having befallen, at least, one of them. You think this as you stare over the body of this poor festival attendee. Peculiarly, you are reminded of a strange factoid, with almost no relevence or meaning to it. [["He was an author.."->Medium End (1 body)]]

The search would ultimately only take a few hours. However, you didn't know that when you started the hike and search. your group took is slow; your assigned piece of "territory" was about five miles away from where the trailed actually extended. The terrane was not at all dangerous during the day. You could easily see the safest route to take. Eventually, you all decided that the best way to reach your search area was to follow a small valley towards a clearly which was overlooked by a large overhang. "This would have been a lot more simple if we had ATVs or something" you could overhear one of the volenteers say. It made you laugh internally. "I almost feel sorry for these kids" Hauser says, sitting down next to you with a bottle of water. "It is so goddamn hot, I could probably keel over and die right here." "If you did that," you turn to him. "We'd have four bodies on our hands, that is going to look even worse for us.." You take a similar swig of your water. Unfortunatly, the break ended, and the party went back to walking. You made your way to the front, as you felt was only natural, being one of the first people who turned the corner. "Wait, whats that?" you breathed, half in a gasp. What had ensnared your attention was a shape, laying under the cover of the overhang. It filled you with dread; the very sight of it did. You don't know why you ran, all you know is. [[You did.->Discovery]]

(text-colour:yellow)[The End] The journey back to the festival grounds was a quiet one. It is always crushing when you lose someone in an investigation, but this was worse. At the end of the day, you had only found one of the three hikers, unfortunately not in the state you had been hoping for. Though you were unable to find, let alone save, all three hikers, the search continued, and over the course of the next week, all three bodies would eventually be found. (text-colour:magenta)[Thank you for playing //Sand.// You have reached one of only three endings in the game. However, there are others that you are able to discover. If you'd like to start over from the beginning, [[click here.->The Beginning]] If you would like to return to the homepage, [[click here.->Title]]]

By the time you reach the police tent the meeting is already winding down. "Just say that we only just got here." you whisper harshly to Hauser, who, tilting his head to listen, nods approvingly. The two of you approach the operations center, and are rather abruptly introduced to Lieutenant David Albertsson. He looks the two of you over with clear look of near-contempt, before extending his hand. "Welcome Agents, thank you for joining us all the way out here. Unfortunately, you just missed out on our debrief, so I guess I'll just have to fill you in with the important details..." He began to list off important information about the hikers, where they were last seen, and where we'd be focusing the search effort tomorrow. "We will be doing a joint air-ground search operation of the valley floor. We reckon that is where they are most likely to be, as it would make them the most visible to search-and-rescue teams." "Makes sense" you end. "Yeah, sounds like it is a solid plan to me too." Hauser agreed. "In that case Agents, all I need to know is whether you want to be located." You don't even need to think, you know where you ned to go. [["Save us a seat on the bird."->Like a vulture]] [["The ground search is the perfect place for us."->Like a rat]]

You get up early the next morning, the excitment is almost uncomparable. You drink coffee after coffee. check and recheck your briefing, study and study the geography of your search area, and were the first one of your team on the helicopter. About ten minutes later, Hauser climbs, grumbling and cursing, into the helicopter. "Have a rough night?" You tease. "You actually have no idea." he shot back, groaning dramatically while putting on his seatbelt. After a few more minutes of prep, you lift off into the air and fly off towards your designated area. The search takes long. Your section of the valley backs up to the mountains, making repeated passes difficult to maneuver. This slows down your progress of both indentifying and leadings ground units to any onjects of intrest. "Hey, Maria, can you look out there?" Hauser yells through the microphone and pointing out the window to the valley below. You lift up your binoculars and look in the general area. "Huh..." you say outloud. "That's strange.." "What, what is strange?" Hauser asks you. [["I dunno, I see something down there... something moving"->Specks on the desert floor]]

The morning breeze is, for once, a cool force upon your face. The early crack of dawn is just beginning as you trudge over to your truck and waiting partner. "Coffee?" He offers, holding up a paper cup and lid. "Pfft, no thank you." You reply. "that would be like, my third cup in an hour haha" "Suit yourself" he shrugged, climbing into the drivers seat. "We have a long day haead of us." "Not if we find them quickly" you chrip, settling into your seat. The initial few hours yielded little results. The expanse was as such that it made a standard search untennable. Instead, roving vehicles would drive slow enough to not kick up dirt for others, all while on the look out for anyhing which broke the quiet nothingness of the valley floor. Hauser received a call on his radio. "Yeah, I understand." He turns to you. "Ok Maria, we have a situation. We're almost done with this area, so.. either we go North or East, help out in whichever direction." "What is the difference?" you ask. Hauser shrugs. "Do you want to go North or East? if we go North, we'll quickly end up by the mountains, if we head East, we have more desert ground to cover before we hit the hills." [["In that case, go North, we'll hug the mountains."->North]] [["Lets head East, we're supposed to be checking the valley afterall.->East]]

You strain your eyes to get a clearer image through the lenses of the binoculars. You can just barely see something moving, back and forth, just a fraction of a speck on the ground. "Oh my god." you gasp. "That isn't something, its some//one//!" "What? really?" Hauser looks at you confused. "They must be trying to get our attention, quickly! Get someone over there!" you yell back at him. The next few minutes feel like hours. You can just barely see the truck scurrying across the desert ground towards the person. Finally, a radio message flowed through the speakers. //"Schhhhhh- You wont beleive this Eagle 2, copy"// Hauser pressed on the broadcast button. "Eagle 2 to Roach 5, we're listening, copy." //"Schhhh- Eagle 2, we are confirming Applesauce's positive ID, alive and well!"// "Applesauce?" Hauser and you cast shocked looks at each other. "Isn't that Braun?" //"Schhhh- Hold on Eagle 2, he has a message, over."// Hauser blinked, still a little in shock. "Copy Roach 5...." //"Schhhh- Eagle 2, Applesauce is indicating that he has the location of the other VIPs, over."// "The other VIPs?" you exclaim, putting your hands on your head. "Holy shit!" "Yes Roach 5, send that info up, over." //"'Applesauce' says 'Brimstone' is in the mountains, just off from the trail. No idea for 'Flower.' Also, be advised, 'Applesauce' is suffering from severe dehydration, requesting airlift to base if possible, over."// Hauser and you look at each other, he is the first to speak. "Maria... we need to do that airlift, we need to save him." You look at him in almost complete disbelief. "Hauser, we can make it to hi, we can make it to 'Brimstone.'" "No, we can't do both, we need to help him here and now." You bite your lip, you can obviously see his point, but you also don't know if there will be enough time to reach 'Brimstone' if you touch down now. After an anxious few seconds of thinking, you decide to... [[Push it.->Too dangerous]] [[Concede to Hauser.->the setting sun]]

"Ok, ok... Pilot, lets put her down." Hauser sighed a sigh of relief, and nodded to the pilot for confirmation. As the helicopter began to decend, your initial concern dissipates. //"If he is only just off the trail, it'll be just a matter of time before either we find him or he finds us himself."// The helicopter lands, the door opens, and Nicolas "Applesauce" Braun was aided in by yourself as well as a couple other officers. "Nicolas Braun, my name is John Hauser, I'm with the FBI...." Hauser begins to introduce himself and debrief, but you tune it out. The sun is beginning its fall from the sky; you're tired, dusty, and feeling like you're about to keel over. Not perhaps to the same extent as the young man who is now laying on the floor of the helicopter next to you anyways. As you zoom off back towards the festival, your mind wanders to the other two hikers, and you hope to God that they are safe. It is only back at base that you lean that they did find another hiker, Garcia Ludovicco, or at least, [[her body.->Bad End (2 body)]]

(text-colour:red)[The End]] The setting of the sun had forced you back to the festival grounds, and the spirits of the enitre force was riding high. You had found two of the three missing persons afterall, including the Senator's son. //"If we double down our efforts, we'll be able to close down shop within the week."// Thats what you thought to yourself at least. However, after that first day, something was off. You woke up the next morning to find that no plan had been put together to continue the search. Then, you saw officers beginning to slowly pack up. By the evening, half of the force was gone. Hauser and you stayed for a couple more days, before you too were recalled. The explination came to you later: the Senator's son had been found, and soon public and political pressure turned elsewhere. To this day, you're not sure if they ever found the third hiker. (text-colour:magenta)[Thank you for playing //Sand.// You have sucessfully reached the end of the game. However, there are other endings that you could go discover. If you'd like to start over from the beginning, [[click here.->The Beginning]] If you would like to return to the homepage, [[click here.->Title]]]

By the time you reach the area, there is precious little sunlight still remaining. Long shadows were mixed in with bright colors, making the search even harder than it would have been otherwise. The more you strech your eyes searching, the more you heart begins to fall; after all, you're spending time based on info a half-dead trust-fund kid told you. //"No."// You think. //"I can't give up, not until we have to turn back."// Something in you makes you check over a stream again, just a glance. You cannot but your finger on it, but there is something about that rock, that tree, that divet in the rock... Something must be here. When you see it, it hits you like a train, there //is// something there, something red and white and grey. "Hauser! down there, we need to put her down." There was no doubt in your mind, that has to be something, a clue, a hint, a body. The pilot begins the decent, your heart is pounding out of your chest. You don't even remember the decent; the next thing you know, your feet hit thr ground and you're running towards what is becoming more and more obviously a body. It took about twenty-minutes for more help to arrive, and they came bearing even more bittersweet news. They had found the third victim, Garcia Ludovicco, on the other end of the valley, unfortunately dead. "No idea what happened?" You ask Hauser, who had come over to give you the news. "No.." He says, shaking his head slowly. "I don't reckon they're going to have many answers until Braun starts talking." You shake your head and grit your teeth. "Don't get too worked up, These things happen, sometimes you lose people on cases." Huaser says, he's looking to reassure you, but you don't need it. [["I don't know Hauser, something about this just doesn't feel right."->Good End (3 bodies)]]

(text-colour:green)[The End] You never found out what exactly happened on that hike that night. With all the missing persons apparently accounted for, the FBI moved you back to LA, back to another case. From what you understand; from what Hauser has told you, Nicolas Braun recovered from his desert adventure, but was reluctant to give much information on what had happened. Only that they had decided to go bushwacking and had gotten lost, then seperated. It didn't seem without suspicion, to both you and Hauser, but there wasn't anything more than circumstantial. It has been a few years since then, since you found that body amongst the shade. It still grabs your mind's wandering attention sometimes, still lingering, questions unanswered. (text-colour:magenta)[Thank you for playing //Sand.// You have sucessfully reached the end of the game. However, there are other endings that you could go discover. If you'd like to start over from the beginning, [[click here.->The Beginning]] If you would like to return to the homepage, [[click here.->Title]]]

"No!" You shout; your mind resolved. "We need to locate the second body. The guys down there can give him water and drive him back, we can make it faster in the helicopter." Hauser blinks at you, shocked. "Do it John." You say in the most assertive tone you can. Hauser appears to faulter for a moment before casting his head down and letting out a deep sigh. "Ok... Roach 5, this is Eagle 2, airlift is a negative, provide aid and ground transport to base, we are going to inform command and do a priliminary search of the area of interest, over." A long silence followed. //"schhhhhhhhhhh-...Copy, Eagle 2, will do."// Hauser gives you the 'ok' sign, putting your mind at ease. The helicopter breaks off and flies towards the festival grounds. "He said five miles right? off the trail-head?" You tap Hauser on the shoulder. "No" He replies. "He said five miles off the trail, which probably means-" "-Their last known location." you cut him off. You search the map for the general location. "Alright, I can direct us, Pilot, lets go here. Wait, the cooordinates are..." [[The bath of Sunset's sweet colors blankets the valley. ->Landing (not)]]

The search North took several more hours. Though it was still fairly easy to see anything too out of the ordinary for the desert enviroment, you no longer could just scan the horizon for something to break the straight line of the desert. The temperature had been rising all day, and you could only imagine what being stuck outside out here during the day would be like, especially considering you had the truck's AC on top of the supply of water. "What do you think of our chances of finding them alive?" You ask Hauser, with just an edge of concern in your voice. "Well, its going to be nuts." He replied. "At the very least, the festival will be cancelled, likely perminently. There'll be lawsuits and trials... and that's just if it wasn't a murder!" "You think it was murder?" He shrugs and shakes his head. "I couldn't tell you two things about what happened to them, you'd think that it would be fairly difficult to miss the giant congregation of noise and bodies that is the //Om//. But I guess I was wrong..." He goes quiet. Slowly, a look between shock and disbelief took over Hauser's face as he leaned closer to the steering wheel. "Do you see that?" He asked. "I think I see a body." Your eyes widen, your view darts across the waste. Then you see it, nestled up against a small rock, there is a shape, most noticable by the neon pink and green clothes it was wearing. You knew what it was. [[It was a body.->Diary]]

"East." You decide. "Alright then." The second half of the search went similar to the first. Heading East, you really only saw more of the same empty desert for miles and miles. Your job was to make a note of all possible leads. So whenever one of you would spot something, even just an odd looking rock, you would have to top the truck to investigate. As you could have guessed, this process ended up taking forever. That is what you though the shape was at first, just another oddly shaped boulder. You assumed you and Huaser would stop, get out, and walk over to it. You would pick it up, maybe examine it for a moment, before putting it down, declaring all-clear, and moving on to the next. But that isn't what happened; the shape was not just some odd boulder. It was a body. You had been the one to call it, the light blue and black combo immediately made itself known compared to the bleached valley floor. Approaching the body, you could tell it was a male in his early- to mid-20s. He seemed at peace, laying on his back, hands on his stomach. "Call it in!" you yell to Hauser, racing out of the car and towards the body. "Fuck!" you yell. You know that body, that face. [["It's the Senator's son."->like a lonly boulder]]

Assistance came quickly. The news that the body had been discovered spread like wildfire across the internet and media waves. You, of course, didn't know that. As you stood over the body, as the paramedics and forensics teams came via helicopter, all you could think of was why. //"Why was he here?"// The question knaws at you. You catch a glimps of Hauser getting off the phone before walking towards you. You go to meet him. "Hey Maria, looks like we're done here." "What do you mean? we still have two more people to find." Hauser sighs, looking out across the waste. "They found the girlfriend, she was about five miles North-west of here." "And?" You retort. "There is still one out there." "I know that, but we're losing daylight and we aren't able to mount much more of a search. Looks like other agencies covered the rest of the valley, so if he is anywhere, he'll probably be in the mountains anyways." You go to object, but stop yourself. You know that your partner is right, the chacnes of finding the last hiker, with night falling, would only become more and more impossible. "I hate it too Maria... but we have our orders, lets move out and report back." [[The helicopter, carrying the body of Nicolas Braun, lifted up into the air.->Bad End (2 body)]]

The truck stops a few yards away from the body. Instantly you jump out and walk towards the body. The initial shock of the discovery is gone, your mind as reverted back to //"Work Mode"// and you begin to casually take stock of the scene. "I've just called it in to command, they are sending backup our way." Hauser tell you, coming to meet you from the truck. "Poor girl.." "Yeah." you mutter, "Poor girl." The body belongs to Garcia Ludovicco, the girlfriend of the Senator's son. Luckily, from what you can see, the body seems fairly unharmed; no obvious signs of assault or injury. You turn away from the body and look out over the valley. "But...where are the other two, they aren't anywhere to be found." "Who knows" Hauser says, listening to the radio. "Maybe they split up or something...wait!" He presses the radio closer to his ear and indicates to you with a finger over his mouth. He listens for a second, before he nods his head and a small smile creeps onto his face. "Maria..." "What?" "They found him, the son... he's alive!" [["What...->Bad End (2 body)]]

Welcome to //Sand//. This is, more than anything, a fanfictioney-sequal to the 2000 Interactive Fiction work //Shade// by Andrew Plotkin. This work essentially asks "What if //Shade's// story was expanded into a poorly constructed mystery story/procedural?" In this effort, I owe most of my inspriration to the classic choose-your-own-adventure works, as well as obviously the //Shade//, which this is based on. //Sand's// central concept in response to both //Shade// and the article "Thinking into the Box: On the Use and Deployment of Puzzles" by Jon Ingold, which appeared in the book //IF Theory Reader// (2011). In that article, Ingold discusses how because //Shade// makes the unusual step of existing and operating within one "one-room enviroment." This, he asserts was an "innovative subversion of the conventional IF map." While it is that, the one-room nature of the game also adds a lot to the narrative, as it elludes to the fact that the enitre dtory is gonig on within the player character's mind. In //Sand//, I looked to contradict this in both a narrative and design ways. Narratively, the story takes place over the course of several enviroments and locations, as opposed to //Shade's// single-room. Design-wise, the multiple endings and choose-your-own-adventure design stands directly opposed to //Shade's// more methodical, singular, and contracting design. I hope you have fun playing this game, because I enjoyed making it. Good luck, and think about your decisions! - Charles Walsh. Jon Ingold, "Thinking into the Box: On the Use and deployment of Puzzles," //IF Theory Reader// (digital release, May 2011). http://www.inform-fiction.org/manual/if_theory_reader.pdf#page=31