The Midnight Trudge


cullam

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This may have been the most intense, terrified, 10 minutes of gameplay I've experienced in any game. It was my 4th or 5th attempt at survival in The Long Dark, about a week or so after buying the game. So I'm starting to know what I'm doing, but am still learning my way around the map, and the game play. I'm 20 days in, by far the longest I'd ever survived. Which means that I really, REALLY need to stay alive. I don't want to lose all that I've worked towards, and start from scratch, yet again! 

I'd been spending a fair bit of time going back and forth between the Camp Office and the Carter Hydro Dam. With an hour or two of daylight left, I'm nearly finished the trek towards the dam, when I stumble and twist my ankle. And dammit, I don't have any painkillers on me! That's fine. I'll be inside soon, and I can sleep it off. 

When I limp into the dam, I immediately notice a problem. My bedroll is not where I usually leave it. And it's not in my inventory... I'm nearly exhausted, have a sprained ankle, it's just gotten dark, and I have no way to rest. I check my lockers, go to the fir barel, and boil up the three cups of coffee that I can manage. At the time, I didn't fully understand how they worked, so I just downed them all, trying to get what little rest I could from that. 

And then, the trudging. 

To make sure I don't get lost in the dark, I follow the river. One limping step at a time, heart racing, I trudge down the river, towards mystery lake. I'm listening as hard as I can for any sign of danger! And sure enough, as I trudge, my foot steps seem to take on a different sound, almost like a slight echo. When I stop, the echo continues and moment, then stops. I turn around, and sure enough, there is a wolf stalking me, a shadow on the edge of the darkness. I have a gun, but only a handful of bullets. and maybe two previous experiences firing it. I don't yet know about decoys. I take my shot, and the wolf goes down! But I still have so very far to travel, through a wolf rich area. 

10 full minutes I limped along back to the Camp Office. I was attacked by 2 more wolves. My exhaustion meter was utterly spent by the time I collapsed into a bed in the camp office. I believe that ended up being the first game that I survived over 100 days in... 

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