Plague Dog

// It is a cruel winter – much crueler than the ones before it. Though it is not because rations have become scarce, or that snow has fallen heavier than previous winters, you wish it was as simple as that. You find yourself confined, self-quarantined inside your residence in Laus, a village that was once home for tens of thousands refugees affected by the ongoing conflict between rival nations Khian and Olawi. It was the second-largest settlement in Khian – that is, until the entire population was wiped out. // [[Continue.]]

//One fateful day in the deep of winter, a handful of individuals contracted a mysterious illness. It spread quickly through the village, with handfuls turning to hundreds, and eventually into a majority of the population contracting the disease. There was only so much to be done with a limited staff of doctors in the village, and with the true extent of the disease’s effects on the human body having yet revealed itself. It was too late; psyches rapidly deteriorating, savagery consuming the population – the disease was turning man into beast overnight. There was no saving these poor souls. A militia was eventually sent to Laus, initially thought to bring aid to the people. However, soon enough, all of the inhabitants were wiped out within a brutal massacre. All… except you. // [[Continue. ]]

It is the first time you have heard silence outside of your home since the miitia arrived. In fact, this is the quietest you have ever heard Laus in your time living here. The notion alone sends shivers down your body. The measly rations you were able to collect before self-quarantining are running out, and you cannot afford to spend another day inside your house. It appears that the coast is clear, and that the soldiers have completed their operation. Now is the best time to go outside. [[Prepare to leave.]] [[Stay inside.]]

You grab a pocket-knife you keep usually for self-defense. Upon opening the door, a gust of pungent, foul stenches enter your nostrils, forcing yourself not to throw up whatever nutrients you still have in your system. The source of such smells come from the sprawl of bodies that lay motionless and decaying on the ground outside of your residence. Their anatomy has been transfigured and mangled to a point that you give up trying to pinpoint any familiar faces among the masses. You make your way to the central area of the village, finding a pile of dead militiamen above the sea of other corpses, presumably arranged by the remaining soldiers before retreating. For some reason, despite being disgusted by this site, alongside the bad air, a part of you wants to scavenge their bodies in case something of value is found on their bloated corpses. [[Check their bodies.]] [[Leave them be.]]

The horrors of war and disease have undone you, and you simply cannot think of continuing on living in a world so full of despair. You spend your last days waiting for your succumbing, ignoring the signs of hunger that your body is signaling. You feel your organs shut down until you can no longer feel anything. You pass away quietly, joining the rest of the village. ''(text-colour:red)[ BAD ENDING #1 ]''

In an instance, your morbid curiosity precedes your rationale. You find yourself searching through each of the compartments of their uniforms, unphased by the fluids leaking out of their rotting bodies or their bacteria getting on your naked hands. Though nothing of nutritional value is found, the appearance of several journals found on them makes you curious of their contents. [[Leave them be.]] [[Skim through the journals.]]

You are already trying hard to not vomit at the sight of practically everything and you cannot afford to lose any more nutrients while on an empty stomach. You give up trying to make sense of what has become of Laus, and decide to leave the area. There is nothing left for you here anymore. You decide that your last resort for a safe haven is Chuangu, the capital of Khian and the largest-populated settlement in the country. It is also the last safe haven in the nation as a result of the government's presence. [[Head to Chuangu.]]

Your stomach sinks as you go through the pages of the various journals these men carried; you realize that your situation has become more serious than it was already, and that you have found yourself in the middle of a conspiracy that your own nation is behind. Several entries uncover the truth of the disease, having been developed and administered by the Khian government as a means to frame Olawi and increase the nationalism and support of its citizens. It also becomes clear that these men did not realize the severity of this illness, as you find comments from before the operation, boasting their premeditation before murdering the innocent inhabitants of Laus. You quickly realize you must spread the truth of the disease before the Khian government uses it on its people once more. [[Head to Chuangu, capital of Khian.]]

For an entire month, your physical hunger is subsided and replaced by the hunger for vengeance for the thousands of innocent lives lost in Laus over propaganda. You make the long and tiresome trek to Chuangu, the capital of Khian and most-populated area and final safe haven in the nation as a result of the country’s government being headquartered here. You smuggle yourself into Chuangu by convincing a trader to hide in his carriage, successfully making it through the security checkpoints at the border of the city. You hear that the leader of Khian is expected to make an address to the nation over the ongoing conflict with Olawi. You quickly make your way to the city’s central district to see the man who has committed such diabolical acts. This is your only chance to bring justice to the people of Laus, what are you willing to do? [[Kill the president.]] [[Show the journals.]]

It was a long, tiresome trek to Chuangu, but you miraculously made it despite surviving off scace fruits and fungi you were able to forage during your journey. After a month of venturing from Laus, you have finally made it to the outskirts of Chuangu, where settlers are being stopped by border patrol before entering the city. Upon request, you give the patrol guards your identity and your belongings. Surely they will let you in, right? [[Continue. ]]

You recall the pocket knife you hid within the inner lining of your coat. You graze through the sea of people forming a massive audience before being able to get on the same stage as the president. Within the blink of an eye, you rush the man behind the massacre with your knife, leaving a mortal wound too deep to ever recover from. The audience gasps at what you have committed, and you are quickly apprehended by police. Without ever telling your motive behind killing the president, the media has already villainized you and will not hear what you have to say. They ignore your pleas so much that you are executed without trial, leaving the government to continue spreading the disease without the real truth ever coming out. Soon enough, the illness spreads out of control, and the civilization of Khian falls into itself, killing almost every citizen. ''(text-colour:red)[BAD ENDING #3 ]''

You draw the attention of the large crowd to yourself as you begin shouting out your expose of both the president and the government’s wrongdoings. You show the journals to the people and pass them around, spreading the truth to a massive audience. Chuangu is a city that already suffers from paranoia as a result of the nation’s conflict between Olawi, and its anxiety was bound to consume itself at any point. Your expose was the catalyst of its cultural collapse; the people of Chuangu began revolting against the government, and a revolution formed by the citizens of Khian began. Soon enough, Khian was reformed by the people, and successfully came to an alliance with the nation of Olawi in the process. With your help, you have freed both nations from violence and corruption. TRUE ENDING ''(text-colour:blue)[Your Text Here]''

You find yourself pulled aside by the patrol guards without being given an explanation. You are placed in handcuffs, and are forced to follow the guards to a nearby tower. Within the tower is a small cell where a guillotine is set up. You soon realize that you should not have been so honest with your background as you are forcibly placed in the contraption. “We cannot let the people of Khian know what happened at Laus”, exclaimed one of the guards. Before you even knew it, you were beheaded, immediately dying with the truth of what happened dying alongside with you. ''(text-colour:red)[BAD ENDING #2 ]''

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It is a cruel winter – much crueler than the ones before it. Though it is not because rations have become scarce, or that snow has fallen heavier than previous winters, you wish it was as simple as that.
You find yourself confined, self-quarantined inside your residence in Laus, a village that was once home for tens of thousands refugees affected by the ongoing conflict between rival nations Khian and Olawi. It was the second-largest settlement in Khian – that is, until the entire population was wiped out.

Continue.