Go to Colby

Are you in any position to go help? No. You don’t have full HP, you’re burning through your medical supplies alarmingly quickly, FPS games are not your specialty, you don’t have the map knowledge that you need… the list goes on.

But that doesn’t matter. You have to go; it’s your only chance. It bugs you that this game shuns classical gameplay dynamics and forces you to do things that feel eerily real. Most games are about what is optimal, but this game is about what is feasible.

You check your AK, set it to single, and move out, sweeping left and right as you intrepidly make your way across. Sprinting is an option, but if there’s a chance that you can do this without being noticed, you’d prefer that. Being stuck with Colby in that trailer puts you both one grenade away from Game Over. Discretion is needed.

But as you near the trailer, a figure appears along the side. He’s not well equipped: a scav, but he’s not acting like the AI scavs. This is a player scav. Because scavs wear less armor and carry less gear, they make less noise. Colby has no idea that he’s here; it’s a good thing that you came, or this guy would’ve just shot her in the back when she came out.

“Nope! Back off!” You fire rapidly. He manages to react and turn, but not to get a shot off. He falls over dead and you hurry into the trailer, coming face to face with Colby’s MP7. You should have announced yourself, but she doesn’t shoot you. Her reflexes are amazing.

“What was that?” she demands.

“I just shot a guy.”

“You know those bullets go through stuff, right? You almost killed me.”

“He’d have killed you if I didn’t. OK, what do you need?” you ask, dropping to a crouch and opening your backpack.

“Morphine.”

You don’t have that, but you do have the pain pills. You put those in your backpack and dump it. Colby grabs them and uses them, then gets back to bandaging. You pick up your backpack and go to the doorway to keep watch. You’re low on ammo and she must be too. And there’s at least one of those guards around here somewhere, but you aren’t as worried about him as the PMCs.

She finishes bandaging and gets to her feet, joining you.

“You good? Did you consolidate your mags?” she asks.

“I’m ready. We don’t have much resources,” you note.

“We can make it,” she assures you. You can’t help but think about how she is like this, and how she is in person. You picture her last night, a little buzzed on the bed with you. And today at the con. And this. You giggle.

“What?” she snaps.

“Nothing. Take point,” you say, following her out.

You hear booming shots from the east, but they’re far enough away that you don’t need to worry about them. You check the immediate area for that stray guard, but he must’ve locked onto someone else and left, or gotten killed. There are several bodies down; you could scavenge ammunition and supplies, but you’ve already spent too much time here. Colby doesn’t bother. She runs to cover, pauses to regain stamina, then runs to the next vehicle or piece of debris. You cover her while she runs, then she does the same for you. You’re never both in the same place, and you’re never stationary out of cover.

There’s the truck.

“How’s this work?” you ask, crouching behind a busted jeep.

“I have to unlock the door and grab the watch. It doesn’t take long. I never have trouble getting it,” she grumbles. “I just never get out.”

“What’s our exit again?” You check. Looks like you’ll have to use the exit at the end of the road, across the bridge. That’s probably three to four minutes away if you’re mostly running, but you won’t be. And there are several extremely dicey areas that you’ll have to pass through or go around.

“Do we grab it and move fast?” you ask.

“No.” Colby sighs. “No, we’ll have to be careful. Lots of poaching at Crossroads.”

“Great.” Somehow, twenty minutes have gone by. You have twenty left. It sounds like a lot, but in this game it’s not.

Anyway, it looks clear. But that’s the problem with this game. Sometimes you go long periods of time without seeing a soul. It’s almost boring. But then out of nowhere, you’re dead. You hate it. Maybe there’s no one here, but if there was, how would you know? Even in the limited time that you put into this game, there were plenty of situations where you had no idea someone was close by until they opened fire, or you spotted their laser sight or something.

“Go,” you say, and Colby sprints to the truck. You follow as she disappears around the front, covering as many directions as you can, but you’re in the open. You crouch by the wheel, listening as she opens the door and grabs the watch. She runs to cover, and you get down flat.

That’s it. Just like that. Now you just have to extract safely.

To get out, you have to cross the river. The shortest route would take you across the main bridge, which has a few cars on it, but is very exposed. You’d also have to go past a sort of junction that’s a bit of a hotspot.

Or… you could get back to the road, cross it, and take the long way down the hillside. There’s a bridge of debris across the river that’s by no means secret, but at least it’s not forty feet in the air. There are no guarantees in this game, but it’s generally considered safer to avoid more contested areas.

Take the direct route?

Or the long way?