Event: They Live - Part One

[snowblindmods]

THEY LIVE

A beam of light shines again an hour after the doors lock on night sixteen, and shifts. Closer, closer, there, on top of you, from above in the residential zones or from the sides in the tunnels, bouncing and reflecting off glistening snow and ice. It only lasts a few seconds, but it's the sort of brightness that leaves spots in your eyes. At first, nothing else happens. Then, as the night deepens, things move and twist through the snow. Barely-there figures, like you but not. Like you, no matter what you are, no matter who is looking--there's always something familiar. They don't seem to see you, don't seem to be able to see anything. Unless you turned on the Beacon. If you turned on the Beacon, they wait at your windows and claw at your door and they don't go away, not even when morning comes and the doors unlock. If you don't block the door, they will come in. They are twitching, flickering monstrosities, like everyone and like nothing all at once. Close proximity to these creatures without a closed door in the way causes nausea, nosebleeds, unconsciousness, and death if they are allowed to touch you for any period of time. They cannot be fought--the only recourse is to run from them, to run to the nearest shelter, block the door, and hope you were fast enough. If you turned on the Beacon, you're in for a long week. At best, you'll be trapped in the house you spent the night in until they go away. And how to get them to go away? You'll have to rely on the bravery or foolishness of others who did not alight their Beacons. If someone outside draws close enough to one of the buildings the things surround, they will chase after them--and leave the building they surrounded. There's enough time to run to another location, if you're quick. If you know where you're going. If you're lucky. Still, at night, they'll always surround your shelter again. Even if you didn't turn on your Beacon, even if you can avoid all the houses where they're lurking in wait of someone inside, you still might run into them in the dark corners of Norfinbury. Waiting and twitching in buildings, they will pursue anyone who approaches until they catch and kill or until that person hides behind a sealed door they cannot open. They won't leave until nightfall if that happens, but at least they do leave. Unfortunately for those who travel in groups, they seem to show up far more often the more people are gathered in one place. Hopefully all of you are good at running. This lasts for two days--for the seventeenth and eighteenth, this is how life is in Norfinbury. Surely things will change, though. Hopefully things will change. Maybe things will change. You'll have to wait and see.