Disaster Report Diaries (SOS: The Final Escape) Part Seven

This is my exploration of the Disaster Report series where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. Now let’s continue SOS: The Final Escape…

They had missed out on extraction via both helicopter and boat, and been split up from their fellow survivors, but at least Keith Helm was being pursued through a mall by mercenaries…

With Karen safely hidden away or making an escape, I headed back down a ramp to where Mr Bazooka was patrolling. I managed to evade him by hiding behind stacked boxes and sneaking to the escalators just past him. Weirdly, one of them was still working, while nowhere else had power…

On the next floor, I headed towards a ramp but heard Mr Bazooka following me upstairs. Ignoring a First Aid kit in an elevator, I hurried across a broken floor and ducked under a partly-open shutter. A tremor knocked me to my feet, but it was so dark that I couldn’t see what it did. I put on my Lamp Helmet and ignored a flashlight on a chair as I started to explore the area. Shutters were closed everywhere, but the escalator up was clear so I walked up and found an open storefront.

There was no sign of the armed men, so I took my time checking the shelves, but it seemed that things were still being set up when the earthquake hit. I could see a key hung up behind a counter, but being unable to climb over some knee-high boxes, I went through a door into the locker room. There was an exit at the back, but I wanted the key before I checked it, so I went through a second door behind the counter — but a radio crackled!

Mr Bazooka trudged towards my store, but I was hidden behind a box. Quickly removing the helmet, I then managed to grab the key and take cover while the guy wasn’t looking, then used it to unlock the door in the locker room. Unfortunately, even as I ventured out into what appeared to be a warehouse area, Mr Bazooka followed so I had to carefully make my way past by ducking behind televisions, boxes, and shelving units, and I picked up a Bandana just because.

A tremor dropped the ceiling right behind me, so I figured that I was safe — but as I crawled beneath some rubble, I found that to be wrong as Mr Bazooka’s friend Mr Sniper was walking right beside my “hiding place”. I legged it up an escalator and hurried along a hallway, but suddenly heard Karen call out. I found her on the other side of a shutter, but our reunion was short-lived as Mr Bazooka’s radio crackle alerted us to him finding a way out of the shop I’d left him in. Karen made a break for it and I squeezed past some bookcases and exited the new shop to find literal light at the end of the tunnel! But Mr Bazooka blasted some boxes out of his way and found me.

He launched rocket after rocket at me, and I ran as serpentine as I could, reaching the outside moments before the multiple rocket strikes brought the roof down! I was quite high up as I looked over the edge of a railing to find water running far below. Clearly, the flooding was getting worse… Karen called “Look out above!” from a couple of storeys higher, so I set out to try and reach her. After putting on my Gloves to aid climbing, I went up a ramp as Mr Sniper began firing at me! I ran up an escalator and saw a helicopter flying around outside the mall, obviously Albert Sims waiting to hear from his men.

A lighting rig bridged the distance between my side and where Karen was, which was a little tricky to cross while hurrying, trying not to fall, and being shot at… But I managed it and went up an escalator to reach Karen’s level, when a big tremor caused the front of the mall to fall off! I barely had time to catch my breath when the helicopter rose up, and sitting inside was Mr Bazooka! Karen ran off and I went straight for a fire hose, hoping that I could at least knock the man out of the chopper or at the very least knock some rockets off course. The torrent of water made the pilot lower the helicopter for some reason, but only for a few moments before trying to get Mr Bazooka back into position. But then I noticed that more lighting fixtures were positioned just above it!

Using the hose, I was able to knock the huge, artistic lights free, sending them crashing into the helicopter! It crashed to the ground in a huge explosion which knocked me down, but Karen and I were finally safe… We left by walking down the side of a building which had crashed into the mall, and overheard a radio that was sitting on a box. The rescue boat Zeus had struck a submerged bridge and was sinking, though everybody on board was safe.

As we walked down a street, we could hear a helicopter and I was suddenly concerned that a second attack chopper was after us. However, we couldn’t see it — but we could see the huge, sinking ship Zeus. Looking at it, I was unsure how it had struck a submerged bridge, when it was right next to an actual bridge. Then, we spotted where the noise was coming from: it was a rescue helicopter! We hurried across a still-intact bridge and went up to the fence to find Kelly Austin and William Hardy.

They didn’t know where Greg was, but knew he was in the area at least. Since there was no way to get through the fence, and I assumed climbing over it was a no-go due to Karen’s underpants situation, we entered the building to try and find a way through to the other survivors. There were shutters almost everywhere, except for a specific route set of staircases leading down into the lowest area of the building. Our travel was accompanied by minor tremors, and there was a humming noise as we approached a courtyard. Karen decided to stop to discuss the helicopter, and I agreed that William would make sure we weren’t left behind.

The rescue helicopter flew overhead at that precise moment, making Karen fall to her knees in grief. But then I saw Albert Sims walking into the men’s room? I followed and had a drink, then overheard Albert in one of the stalls on the phone. He confirmed that the island was almost completely sunk, and that it was “time to show off your skills”, whatever that meant. I tried to get his attention, but he only kept asking if someone was there, so Karen and I left to try and find another way out of Capital City.

After going under a shutter, we climbed another specific set of staircases to an upper floor, finally locating an open shutter. Then we heard a helicopter flying over! It wasn’t a rescue one this time, it was black which meant that it was almost certainly there for Albert. A tremor caused a huge chunk of ceiling to cave in right in front of me, and I couldn’t see another way forwards, so led Karen back downstairs to the courtyard. The door to where the humming noise was was now open, so we went in and had a look, discovering a control room of some kind, with a model of Stiver Island, including the Honeycomb-Caisson foundation beneath it. Perhaps this was where they had caused the earthquakes?

Leaving the room and still heading back the way we had originally come, we got outside where we found a fancy car and saw the black helicopter parked where the rescue one had been. I decided to head back up to the ceiling collapse to see if I missed anything, so I grabbed a quick drink in the men’s room before we went upstairs. This time, I actually spotted some fallen vending machines which we climbed over to get around the collapsed ceiling. That led us to an office where we overheard Greg talking to Terry Stiver.

Greg asked Terry why he caused the earthquake, but Terry only admitted that there were design flaws. Suddenly, we heard footsteps approaching and barged into the room. Terry was surprised to see his niece, and Greg was annoyed that we were interrupting his interview. I decided to play the recording of Albert and Terry deciding the date of the earthquake, which made Terry break down and admit that this was all done for revenge against the government. His family had died in the 1990s, caused by a landslide as a result of soil being gathered for the construction of Stiver Island; they were amongst the nine deaths. Albert had prevented him from taking his own life and to see through construction, with the promise of ultimately sinking it.

So I played the recording I’d captured of Albert on the phone, where he happily admitted to causing the landslide. Terry was obviously shocked by the revelation, but suddenly Albert knocked on the door! Greg, Karen and I made our exit out of the office and outside…