[[START]]
[[CREDITS]]
JUMPSCARES: |toggle>[(display: "toggle")](unless: (history:) contains "dark" or (passage:)'s name is "dark")[It is [[dark]].
](unless: (history:) contains "cold" or (passage:)'s name is "cold")[You are [[cold]].
](unless: (history:) contains "water" or (passage:)'s name is "water")[You can hear rushing [[water]] nearby.]\
(if: ((history:) contains "dark" or (passage:)'s name is "dark") and ((history:) contains "cold" or (passage:)'s name is "cold") and ((history:) contains "water" or (passage:)'s name is "water"))[Pulling on your jacket - woefully inadequate against the sudden cold - you unbuckle your seatbelt and walk unsteadily down the aisle towards [[the front of the plane]].]<h2>//.22LR//</h2>
A game by (link-repeat: "Damon L. Wakes")[(open-url: "https://damonwakes.wordpress.com/")].
Written in four hours for (link-repeat: "ECTOCOMP 2022")[(open-url: "https://itch.io/jam/ectocomp-2022-english")].
[[BACK|Title]](if: $jumpscares is true)[<u>ON</u>](else:)[(link-repeat: "ON")[(set: $jumpscares to true)(replace: ?toggle)[(display: "toggle")]]]/(if: $jumpscares is false)[<u>OFF</u>](else:)[(link-repeat: "OFF")[(set: $jumpscares to false)(replace: ?toggle)[(display: "toggle")]]]{
(set: $jumpscares to true)
}You fish your phone out of your pocket - no signal - and turn on the flashlight.
Your section of the plane is empty, as it was when you were watching //Big Momma's House// on the back-of-seat screen however long ago. Before, it was almost cosy to have the place to yourself. Now, it has a very different vibe.
Oxygen masks dangle from the ceiling, hanging at a strange angle. The floor slopes steeply forward and to the left.
(display: "START")A bitterly cold breeze drifts across your bare arms. It's more than just the chill of the air conditioning: it's like throwing open your sleeping bag on a winter camp.
(display: "START")Initially, still groggy, you mistook it for the sound of a fan, or perhaps the plane's intercom acting up.
But it isn't. It's definitely water - lots of it - running rapidly over rough ground.
You are no longer in the air.
(display: "START")You phone's light illuminates a place where, curiously, the ceiling of the plane dips down to meet the floor.
You approach, following the curve of twisted metal and torn fabric with your light all the way down, until you find yourself staring through a gash running the entire width of the floor.
You can just make out scraps of debris flapping and turning in a raging river far below.
Anyone who might have helped you here is - at best - in desperate need of help themselves. As far as you can tell, your only options are to [[climb through the gash]] or [[hope there's a door in the tail of the plane]] that you can open. It's that or simply [[stay inside for now]].With great hesitation, you grip the base of the seat nearest the gash in the floor and lower yourself down.
[[You begin to climb.]]There is a door.
After struggling with the lever for a while - despite the bold instructions printed right next to it - you manage to heave the thing open.
Or you manage to get it to move, at least. As you put your full weight behind it, the door judders to a halt, a dusting of snow dropping from above to fall on the sleeves of your jacket.
Squinting through the narrow gap between door and frame, it would appear that there's a tree right outside, blocking this exit. The one opposite seems to have been bashed in by the rough landing and won't move at all.
The only way out is [[through the gash|climb through the gash]].It's freezing in here.
You open up the overhead storage lockers, but much as you expected the only bag there is your own. All your other clothes were in the hold.
The airline might have had some blankets or something, but if so then they're locked away and you'd have no way of opening the door.
Whether you [[climb through the gash]] or [[look for a door|hope there's a door in the tail of the plane]], you have to find some way to stave off the cold.You watch the shadow of the helicopter flicker across the uneven mountainside, far below.
You're now way outside the original search area.
You turn to the pilot and shout over the noise of the rotor:
[["Would they really have gone this far off course?"]]
[["We must have missed it - circle back!"]]He twists in his seat to glance at you, giving a quick shrug.
"Couldn't say!" he shouts back. "No telling why the plane went down in the first place, so can't rule it out."
You're still not convinced, but you suppose that if the wreckage were along the expected route then you would have found it days ago.
[[You keep looking.]]He shakes his head.
"Those peanut packets didn't get up and walk into the river!" he shouts back. "The wreckage must be somewhere along here, and my guess is it shouldn't be too hard to spot."
He has a point. There's been too much debris washing downstream for the plane not to have gone down right in the river. But still, this really is a long way from where you'd have expected to find it.
[[You keep looking.]]"There!" you announce, eventually.
There's a big piece of aluminium - possibly piece of the fuselage - washed up on the side of the river. A bright patch of paint stands out particularly clearly against the snow.
The pilot nods.
"That can't have washed far. We're definitely getting close."
But to have ended up all the way out here, the plane must have either been way off course for Vancouver, or else trying to set down at a different airport altogether.
The latter would seem more likely if there were some kind of emergency, but then...what other airport? There's nothing out this way but miles more mountain.
Eventually, [[the wreck comes into view]].It isn't in the river, as you expected. Or at least, the bit you can see isn't.
As far as you can tell, the plane touched down almost perpendicular to the gorge. The front half - maybe two thirds - is just gone, torn away by the water if not the initial impact. It's hard to tell how much is still here, beneath the white water.
The tail appears to be in one piece, though you're still not confident anybody inside it stood much of a chance. But as you circle the area, you spot [[something that gives you hope]]."There's luggage strewn about!" you point out.
The pilot strains to examine the ground from his side of the helicopter. "Thrown by the crash, or..."
You shake your head. "Looks like some of it's been piled up. There could still be someone down there!"
[[ELEVEN DAYS EARLIER]]You find the climb down a little less arduous than expected.
Clinging to scraps of fabric and seeking footholds on the side of the curved fuselage, no purchase you can find is particularly secure. However, at the same time, there is no shortage of options and no handhold you eventually settle upon gives way under your grasp.
It is, ultimately, a trivial climb, albeit above a terrifying drop.
Where the front of the plane was torn away downriver, a flap of metal has been pulled back, allowing you to step out onto open ground. The river lies at the bottom of a reasonably deep gorge.
You feel obliged to [[check for survivors]], but you desperately need to [[find warmer clothes]].You follow the gorge a short way downstream. The ground is uneven, and though you're afraid of tumbling over the edge you're also hesitant to wander too far away from it. Your light only reaches so far, and you're wary of losing track of this landmark.
Eventually, your phone illuminates what you assume is the front half of the plane. The water surges over it, the whole thing nearly submerged.
"Hello?" You call, uncentainly. "Is anyone there?"
It feels futile. If anybody made it out, they were almost certainly swept far downstream.
[[You return to the plane.|find warmer clothes]]The torn-open fuselage leaves the hold easily accessible.
However, it is very nearly empty. Given how few people were on the flight to begin with, that's hardly surprising. Still, you suspect a substantial amount of what was in there to begin with is currently rushing down the gorge below.
Walking stooped, you search about for your holdall but can't find it.
You do, however, find [[the one other item you packed]]. a long, plastic case.
Taking your keys out of your pocket, you unlock it, revealing a rifle chambered in .22LR.
It won't exactly stop a bear, but you hope it would at least strongly discourage one. If nothing else, the noise might be a help in drawing attention to your position.
If - that is - you can find any cartridges for it. Yours were in the missing holdall, so you're more or less counting on one of the other passengers having been on their way to the same competition in Vancouver.
[[You search the other bags.]]Freezing and exhausted, you don't find any ammunition - though you don't manage to work your way through the entire hold either.
You do, however, find no shortage of winter coats, some thick trousers large enough to wear over your own, and in one of the cases a hand-knitted wool blanket.
Hoping that whoever packed these things would understand your taking them, you set up as best you can at the back of the hold and settle down for the night.
[[TWELVE DAYS LATER]]You awake freezing despite your best efforts to keep warm.
The new day also presents a new challenge: you are getting hungry.
You're confident that a rescue mission must already be underway. Having spent the night hoping to catch the sound of search planes overhead, you're a little surprised that nobody has come already.
Still, cold and hunger are a concern even just for today.
You figure you can either [[continue searching the bags]], in hopes of finding food or possibly cartridges for hunting, or you can [[step outside to find firewood]].You drag all the bags out into the snow, to minimise the drain on your phone's battery: it is currently your only source of light.
A quick search - not bothering with any pockets too small to contain food worth eating - reveals a tin of souvenir shortbread and not much else. But it makes for a solid breakfast at least.
(if: (history:) contains "step outside to find firewood")[If you want more food, it looks as though you'll have to [[hunt]] for it.](else:)[Your hunger sated, you decide to [[search for firewood|step outside to find firewood]]]56 minutes, 27 seconds remaining to work on this.