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

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…

While breaking into Christophe Construction had almost gotten him shot, Keith Helm had managed to retrieve a damning document for his boss William Hardy, but the older man had been injured…

Karen Morris led the way through Windrunner Park which had avoided much destruction. We took a rest at some benches, despite telling them that I was okay, so we talked about what I saw at Christophe Construction. I thought the guy’s name was Albert, as he appeared on some posters we’d seen around the city, so William confirmed it was likely Albert Sims from the Land Development Department. I played the recording that I had taken, and William cautioned me and Karen to not tell anyone else, not even Greg.

Speaking of Greg, I asked for more information about the freelancer and was told that he lost his family in an accident some years ago, and seemed to suffer from survivor’s guilt combined with a death wish. Always requesting dangerous assignments, that sort of thing.

We continued walking after I had a drink, arriving at a lake. The bridge across had collapsed, so we headed around to the right, as the left was blocked by fallen trees. But then a tremor toppled some trees right in front of us! With no easy way to get William across, he and Karen waited on a bench, but before I could step away the radio lit up with an update. Three boats were being loaded with survivors — Poseidon, Triton, and Zeus — and the first two were almost full. That left Zeus as our way off the island, but we would have to hurry, as estimates put it as leaving by noon. However, helicopters would still conduct searches afterwards.

Speaking of helicopters, we heard one flying nearby! William told me to cross the lake and signal from near the 130-feet-tall, 300-year old Memorial Tree across from us, so I hurried to the broken bridge and entered the water. After swimming across and reaching the tree, I realised that I tossed my Flare earlier! Looking urgently around I located a Wooden Compass and a Bottle L, but no Flares and the helicopter flew off… I threw away my Bottle M, which I had accidentally refilled with water so it was no longer filled with Juice, and got rid of my First Aid kit to fit the Bottle L in my bag. I decided to scout ahead a little to see what I could find, before I went back for William and Karen.

A large stadium stood across a wide body of water, but more notably was someone in a raft! I spoke to them and they asked if anyone was with me. I entertained the idea of telling him that I was alone and hadn’t seen anyone else. Then we’d leave, and out of guilt I’d glance back to shore and see Karen, utterly betrayed, but I’d be safe…

Game Ending 5, Rank E, with a play time of 3h 35m, 27 Saves, seven Game Overs, 11 Falls, and 10.4 miles Distance Traveled. Also, 6.2l of Water Consumed, and 11/35 Compasses Found.

Of course, I told them that there were more people, so they told me to go and get them. However, while I was swimming across the lake, a tremor struck and three whirlpools opened up! I had to carefully swim around them to reach the bridge and get to my fellow survivors. I told them about the boat and took a drink before carrying William into the now-drained lake. While walking around the mud puddles, another tremor hit and took down the Memorial Tree! It fell right toward us, and we barely managed to escape being crushed…

We walked to the raft and I put William on board. However, there wasn’t enough room for Karen and I, because a random kid had boarded. The rescue worker took them to Zeus and came back to us — but a building fell on top of them. Not a part of a building, no, an entire high rise fell directly on top of the raft…

Some time later, Karen and I approached the stadium, though quite how is a little fuzzy as I didn’t recall seeing another route away from Windrunner Park other than the raft… Just as she wondered aloud whatever had happened to Greg, he called out to us! He had met up with Kelly Austin, looking for her kid brother, so I told her about the kid on the raft, who was safe on Zeus with William.

Greg suggested that we head for May Stadium to see if people were still being evacuated from there, and if not, then we could try the Stiver Island Control Center. We walked down a staircase into the stadium and Greg took me aside, hiding behind a pillar from the two women. He asked me who I wanted to “look after”, and since I had only just met Kelly, I chose Karen. We regrouped with them, and Greg said that he and Kelly would check out the stands, while Karen and I went onto the field. Hopefully one of us would locate a route to the exit.

We found tents and a water truck waiting for us, but no sign of any other survivors. I checked one of the dugouts for supplies, equipping some Shin Guards, then approached the water truck to get a drink. A tremor hit, bringing down part of the stadium roof just past the truck, so I took a drink, then checked behind some boxes where I found Juice and equipped a Chest Guard. I was sure to be protected from any baseballs that hit my chest or legs! In the other dugout, I found a Helmet, but I already had one of those, with a light, so I didn’t pick it up.

After having another drink, I used a gap in the fence past the water truck, decorated with notes to missing friends and relatives, to keep heading to the back half of the field. Suddenly, another tremor hit, bringing the rest of the roof down! Karen and I ran and dodged around girders, and I was knocked to the ground by the shaking. But the stadium was sinking, too! Water chased us uphill as Kelly tried to lead the way from behind a fence, though I was pretty sure she was just trying to escape like we were.

I was knocked to the ground a few times as we made our way just away from the water, if nothing else, and we eventually found a piece of debris that had crushed the barricade, so we climbed it to an exit just before the whole thing went under…

We were separated from Greg and Kelly, but worse we had no idea where the Control Center was, so we wandered. Until a helicopter bore down on us, firing rockets! We ran down an open culvert which was ironically almost completely dry, as either the tremors or the rockets took out a bridge around us. Karen led us into a shopping mall and we hurried for cover, and I had to use a water hose to break through some signs which were blocking our way. I grabbed the Lincoln Plaza Map and we hid.

No sooner were we in hiding when two men entered after us and closed the shutter behind them. One of the men was the guy who tied me up and left me on the roof, so clearly Albert Sims knew that I was still alive. The other guy had a bazooka and used it to destroy some ordinary cardboard boxes which were in their way…

I took a drink and led Karen by the hand from cover-to-cover, but luckily we didn’t need to rush past Mr Bazooka, as his radio crackled and he wandered off upstairs. However, the shutter control was damaged, so we had to follow him. I decided to check to the right, as he had gone left, and found a shutter not quite down all of the way, so I used my Jack to get it open and we went through. I grabbed the Jack and led the way up an escalator to find all the ways blocked by boxes. Then Mr Bazooka came up to join us.

We managed to avoid him and he blasted the way clear and went ahead, so I took Karen up a broken floor to find another way. There was a partially-open shutter, so I told her to go through and I would attract their attention. The second she cleared the shutter, a tremor dropped it, stopping me from using it even if I wanted to. Now it was just me and the killers…