If you woke up in the middle of
a massive cornfield and had to solve a series of puzzles to MAYBE find
your way out, what would you do?
Left with only the clothes on their backs and a
single seemingly random tool each, our six maze runners will have to work together if they want
any chance of making it out alive. Easier said than done when they’re constantly finding excuses
to remain at each other’s throats. One thing’s for sure. Whatever they do, it’d better be quick,
because food and water are extremely limited, and they’re not the only ones out here.
I’m going to break down the mistakes made, what you should do, and how to beat the
endless corn in ESCAPE THE FIELD.
Sam is in a cornfield, and she has absolutely
no idea how or why that is. However, this isn’t your typical post-bender teleportation. It
seems someone or something brought her here, and now it’s up to her to get herself out.
Well, better get to it. First order of business, figuring out where that spider went. Last thing
we need is that sucker crawling inside our ear and whispering FUD at critical junctures to lower our
morale. Fortunately, we have an old Smith & Wesson Model 10 in case he won’t go quietly. Only
came with one shot, though, so I guess this means we’ll be making a difficult decision at
some point down the road. Although it looks like that might be sooner rather than later.
Yeah, I don’t know about this guy. We’ve covered two other movies he’s been in so far,
and in both cases, he was a huge piece of crap. Not to mention the way he’s holding
his hands below his shoulders in the universal sign of “I’m about to try something.”
This potential snake in the grass is Tyler, and like Sam he also just woke up without
any clue as to what brought him here, or so he says. Can’t say I blame her for not
immediately taking him at his word. After all, unless this cornfield’s the size of a kiddie
pool, what are the odds he just happened to stumble upon us? And even if he spawned in nearby,
Sam wasn’t exactly making much noise, so I guess we’re just supposed to believe he randomly
chose to start walking in our direction.
Hey, we don’t know you’re not an imbecile.
Maybe you dropped it after dragging us out here, and now you’ve come back to get it.
Besides, how do you know we were given a gun, and didn’t pack it from home?
Well, about that. Apparently, he was stripped of everything but a parting
gift he found lying next to him upon waking up, so it stands to reason she got the same
treatment, which she did. Although, man, talk about getting screwed on that one. He gets a
tube of waterproof matches, and she gets a friggin revolver? Who’d he anger on the way out here?
Ultimately, he’s not looking for much. He just wants to go wandering aimlessly through the corn
and invites Sam to join him if she so chooses. Normally, I’d say this is a terrible idea, since
blindly trailblazing into the unknown could take you even farther away from civilization
and leave you exhausted in the process, but this isn’t a typical survival situation.
Someone brought us here on purpose, and I’d rather not stick around for when they come back
through in a combine. Plus, it’s just a field, so unless we were taken to the corn dimension, we’re
going to find the boundaries eventually.
Oh, okay, princess. What a bunch of coddled
garbage. “Even though I have zero means of communicating with the outside world and no
one but my kidnappers actually knows I’m here, certainly someone will be coming to
save me.” It’s Finny all over again, or at least it would be had she not dramatically
changed her mind at the last second.
As skeptical as I am about Tyler’s story,
he’s not asking us to trust him implicitly, and him volunteering to walk in front of
a visibly armed stranger is as reassuring as it is foolish. Fact is, we have no idea who
or how many attackers we’re dealing with here, so having an extra pair of hands could make all
the difference, especially since we only have a single round of .38 Special to play with.
Speaking of which, it’s imperative we know our piece is in working order. When Tyler isn’t
looking, I’d quickly remove the cartridge and shake it beside my ear to make sure
it actually has a powder charge. If not, then we’d better be prepared to run away or go
for the pistol whip if things get crazy. Also couldn’t hurt to block up the empty cylinders
with something easily removable like corn husk, so it’s not immediately obvious to those
downrange we’re only packing one round.
Getting back to our new best friend, we’ll want
to keep him far enough ahead he can’t readily turn around and swat our gun away, but close
enough he can’t easily vanish into the corn and stage an ambush. About six or seven feet
ought to do it, but any time he turns around, he’ll be getting a facefull of steel.
All that aside, he doesn’t necessarily have to have ulterior motives to get us killed.
“Hey, over here. Come right into our kill zone.” What, you never use prox chat before?
Seriously though, you were dragged and dropped into a cornfield against your will. For all
you know, you’re being hunted for sport by a bunch of rich psychopaths MOST DANGEROUS
GAME style. Sure, I get other people might have more information and/or supplies
we could use to get out of this mess, but we shouldn’t go blindly walking up to anyone
without spying on them for a bit, or at very least listening in on their conversation.
Fortunately for our heroes, they aren’t immediately shot dead upon waltzing into the
open. Instead, they meet three fellow prisoners, Ryan, Denise, and Ethan. The three of them woke up
with a lantern, knife, and compass respectively, the last of which they’ve been following
northbound some three kilometers in hopes they eventually reach open ground.
Yeah, quick note on that. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, but it’s worth acknowledging
that whoever’s responsible for this probably isn’t going to let us simply walk out of here.
Think about it, they captured all five of us and brought us here without so much as a single one
seeing anything in the process. These aren’t your ordinary Ethan Hawkes we’re dealing with here,
and it stands to reason they’re keeping an eye on us to make sure all their hard work doesn’t
go to waste. Not only that, but the fact they’re letting us walk around unrestrained indicates
they’re pretty confident in their ability to keep us penned up, so we should probably keep
an eye out for traps and get ready for a fight, especially if we see what looks like an exit.
As for the items they gave us.
Yup, that’s a symbol all right. I’d say it’s as
sure a sign as any we’re all in the same boat, as if that were even a question at
this point. Furthermore, each of us having something different suggests we’re
supposed to work together in some way. Well, either that or brutally Tarkov one another to
extract with as many things as possible.
In any case, we should accept Ryan’s offer to join
their group; however, before we proceed, we should try and get a look over the top of the corn
to see if we can spot… well, anything. I mean, come on. You three have been walking together for
over half an hour and at no point did anyone think to climb on top of someone’s shoulders to see
what’s out there? Assuming we’re on flat ground, which would be ideal for growing corn, if
we could boost someone’s line of sight to around three meters, we’d have visibility out to
over six kilometers in every direction. I mean, I’m not going to do it in case someone’s watching
with a rifle, but I’m sure we can convince someone else in the group to stick their neck out.
Having joined forces, the gang continues bushwhacking through the field until a distant
tornado siren stops them dead in their tracks. Awesome. Hopefully, it means pretty much anything
other than what it sounds like. Oh, well, no point worrying about that, because it looks like
we’ve found a scarecrow, and that’s not all.
Seriously? Only the single most
normal thing about this place, although I guess it is kind of creepy.
What’s abnormal, at least according to Ryan, is that fact the newcomer is the only one without
an item, something he finds suspicious. Yeah, it’s a good thing Tyler was there, or she might have
joined Mr. Scarecrow. I get it makes her the odd one out but given we’re only dealing with a sample
size of six here, who knows whether that’s to be expected. Besides, as panic stricken as she was,
who’s to say she didn’t get up and start running without even looking around. Might be worth it to
have her lead us back to her spawn point in case she was given a machete or frag grenades.
The Brit here is Cameron, and as is tradition, she doesn’t remember jack. Whatever. Welcome
to the club. The real question here is why everyone just walks off without stopping
to strip search the scarecrow. I mean, for Christ’s sake, one of us isn’t even wearing
pants, and with our grossly limited resources, even something as simple as the pole he’s held up
with could be a valuable asset. At the very least, we should mark him with the knife in case we lose
the compass or otherwise get turned around.
And it doesn’t stop there. A few minutes later
they come to a wooden fence line in the middle of the field, and everyone just blows right by
it like it’s a total inconvenience instead of a potentially invaluable resource. Not only could we
use some of the handier-sized planks as weapons in a pinch, it provides us a direct line of sight
through the corn in two directions. Screw the compass bearing. The direction we picked was
totally arbitrary in the first place. Let’s walk along the fence line so at least we don’t
have to worry about constantly beating our way through insect ridden corn stalks. That can’t
be helping the exhaustion at this point.
I’m honestly surprised they bothered to pull some
firewood off of it instead of just sitting around Tyler as he burned through his matches one at
a time. Of course, the problem with a campfire is that it makes you easier to find.
Yeah, you all saw the ghillied-up monster with piercing red eyes drag that dude
off to certain death right?
Apparently not, because almost immediately
Ryan and Tyler go running in after him. I mean it’s not like it’s virtually invisible
and has the strength to drag a grown man off at a break-neck speed. Just let him go. You guys
aren’t even armed and there’s no telling how many of those things might be out there. What’s most
important is what we can learn from him.
Before he got, got, dude counted us off and
remarked how it’s the same, meaning we aren’t the first group of six he’s seen out here. Also, in
addition to the exact same lantern and revolver as we have, he was wearing a metal flask on his belt,
which is an item we haven’t seen so far. In fact, it could be a sign Cameron’s holding out on us.
Finally, right before he showed up, we heard that siren again. Could be that it sounds when
players are approaching one another, but we didn’t hear it when we met up with Ryan and company, so
maybe it goes off whenever the creeper’s nearby. We’ll probably need more data for that one.
Speaking of that freak show that attacked him, we all saw it vanish back into the corn,
so why in the heck would anyone think that leaving the open area to sprint blindly
into the field would be any safer?
Honestly, it’s a miracle they only
ran into each other. Although, I guess a stake through the abdomen isn’t
all that much better than being hauled off to oblivion by a living salad. Chick’s toast.
Oh, well, at least now we get to see Sam’s special doctor powers in action. Of course, without any
equipment, the best we can do for her is bandage around it with excess clothing to help control
bleeding and keep it in place. From there, we’ll just have to light one up to the patron saint of
maze runners and pray we can get her to a hospital within the next few hours, because barring serious
medical intervention, she’s not going to last long. I mean, sure you could try pulling it
out, ya know, if you want her to die.
Huh, ya know what, maybe she
worked in the morgue.
From what I can find online, the only reason
you’d remove an impaling object in the field would be if it was obstructing the airway,
and/or preventing CPR. And, given she was just talking and now screaming, I don’t think
either of those conditions applied.
Uncorking her like that is just going to
exacerbate blood loss and make the wound even worse, along with leaving a trail
of jagged splinters through her insides. Better to just leave it place and hope we
can make it out before the peritonitis sets in. Of course, let’s be real about this.
That’s probably not going to happen.
By morning, the big concern on everyone’s
mind is the lack of water. In the short term, I’d recommend licking the dew off leaves, or even
trying to squeeze it from the corn stocks. You could even get some degree of hydration by eating
the corn itself, although as we find out later, it’s pretty much all completely rotten.
Then again, they only opened up like two ears from right next to each other. Ya know, for
people stranded out in the middle of nowhere, they sure seem reluctant to make full use of
what few resources are all around them.
Another thing they’re failing to take
advantage of is one another, although I’m sure part of that’s because no one has any
idea what each other’s strengths and weaknesses are. Heckl, it’s already been a day since they
linked up, and only just now does anyone even think to mention their own background.
And you’re just bringing this up now?
One of the first thing’s we should have done
as a group was go around and share the basics of who we are. Not only could this shed some
light on why we might have been taken, but it would allow us to gain a sense of who’s capable of
what. It’s not even a show-don’t-tell issue. Any reasonable group of people would want to figure
this out right off the bat, as it would greatly facilitate resource allocation and group decision
making. For example, in a survival situation, it’s generally advisable to appoint a leader,
which would have been a no-brainer had we found out Ryan was a squad leader in the military. This
way we also could have learned that Sam was really a butcher before we had her treating someone’s
traumatic injuries. Gosh dang people.
This could also help shed some light on what
exactly we’re supposed to be doing. The fact they rounded up two professional geeks and
a student in the form of Denise, Cameron, and Ethan, suggests we’re supposed to think our
way out of this, and the fact we have a soldier and a criminally negligent doctor means there’s
probably going to be a lot of danger along the way. Of course, no one ever even thinks to ask
Tyler what he does for a living, but given the way Denise was hiding her extremely relevant
experience from the rest of the group, dude probably designs death games for a living.
And On the subject of holding out, it seems Denise wasn’t the only one as Ryan soon
discovers during a bathroom break.
Well, looks like he called it.
Goes without saying that hiding valuable resources from your commiserates in a crisis
isn’t going to win you any popularity contests, especially after they saved your life and
kept movement to a crawl so you wouldn’t be left behind. Sure, at only half full
it would hardly keep the group hydrated, but even in sips, that much water isn’t going to
keep you going all that long either. Better to be forthcoming with something like that and
buy yourself the brownie points. After all, right now the last thing you want to do is
isolate yourself, like poor Denise here.
And so the Green Meanie strikes again.
Yeah, great going doctor. Weren’t you supposed to be watching her back? Least you could
have done is told her you were going to check on Cameron and gave her the option to tag
along. Of course, given what we saw last night, even being only slightly apart from others
is enough to get yourself got, so we really should have put decency aside for the sake of
survival and dropped trow next to the group.
Also worth pointing out is the fact this
is the second time the monster showed up after we heard the siren, so next time it
goes off, we should immediately circle the wagons just to be on the safe side.
Naturally, by the time everyone fights their way to Denise’s last known position,
she’s nothing but a bloody stain on a field jacket. Yeah, cue Sam wanting to put everyone’s
lives at risk going after someone who’s clearly already dead to make up for her own failures.
Take a look around, he could have dragged her off in a near infinite number of directions, and
the fact we can no longer hear her screaming means she’s probably already halfway to roasting on
a spit. Let’s just call this a lesson and try not to repeat our mistake in the near future,
which we already know you’re going to do.
Oh, spare me your hyper-compassionate bullcrap
right now. You’re no better than Scottward’s idiot daughter from Army of the Dead. “Let’s just pause
the whole mission and throw our lives away chasing a corpse.” God, I hope you're next, but let’s
be real, chick’s a classic case of Protagonist Personality Disorder if I’ve ever seen one.
Fortunately, for those of us left alive, our ship’s about to come in. It turns out
Ethan’s compass wasn’t pointing North, or in any fixed direction for that matter. Apparently,
the whole point was to lead us to a water spigot, and the compass itself serves as a handle. This
gives Sam an idea. What if the items themselves are clues as to where we’re supposed to go? She
then calls out the tree printed on the flask, claiming it resembles the tree she saw earlier in
the… wait, you saw a tree and didn’t think to tell anyone? What the heck is wrong with you? Given
we’ve been surrounded by nothing but corn for 24 hours, seeing a tree is a massive development,
even if it’s only just a way for us to climb up for a better look at our surroundings.
I swear, no one actually wants to get out of her alive. Case in point, they walk by yet
another scarecrow without bothering to dismantle it. Huh, something’s different about this one,
although I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Wow, gotta get me one of those.
Why scare crows when you can just inject them with melted gumdrops.
For real though, let me guess. You’re not going to tell anyone about this, huh? The
thing waited to strike until you were all alone with your back turned. That means it was actively
watching you and waiting for the best opportunity. This is something everyone needs to know about,
and reason number 9000 why you should be tearing these things apart every time you see them. I
mean, if it can shoot darts, who knows what other useful items it has rattling around in there.
Not to mention the fact whatever’s in that thing could cause you to drop dead, or start wigging
out, which the other’s definitely need to know about if they’re supposed to rely on you.
And of course, even once he starts feeling loopy, it still doesn’t occur to him that he should
bring this up, although after the entire group watches him one-hand Dr. Sam out of danger
like she was a lunch box, they should probably realize something’s up. Now, tell me. If you
saw someone perform a virtually impossible feat of human strength right in front of you
while also acting somewhat unhinged, would you openly antagonize this person? Because apparently
that’s what Cameron thinks she ought to do.
What’s that? Sorry, I’m having trouble
understanding your accent. Are you saying, “put me down?” Cuz I’d be happy to oblige. For real, dude,
next time drop her. Let the punji pit finish what Sam’s abhorrent medical malpractice started.
However, as annoying as she might be, re-impaling her in front of the entire group
would definitely paint a target on your back, although given his newfound superpowers, he’d
probably give the creature a run for his money. Speaking of which, everyone saw Ryan’s
eyes glowing bright red, right? Ya know, just like the thing that’s going around grabbing
people. This can only mean one thing. They’re injecting people with Las Plagas from Resident
Evil 4. We saw the same thing with Leon when he was starting to turn.
Yeah, hate to say it, dude, but it’s starting to look like the purpose of
Sam’s Smith & Wesson is for telling someone about the rabbits once they catch the ugly.
Sure, his immense strength could be an asset, but there’s no telling when he might tear someone
in half like a phone book just for looking at him funny. Fortunately, it seems he still has the
clarity to recognize his own behavior.
Yeah, now he tells us. By the way, you
completely failed to mention where that dart actually came from. Might be useful
information considering those human effigies are all over the place out here.
Hey, props to him for sharing with someone, but after that outburst, this is
something everyone needs to hear. I mean, I get the need to keep up morale, but at
this point speculation will be running wild, and we all know Sam isn’t gonna say anything.
Getting back to the palisade trap for a second. Anyone from the management, to our fellow
players, to even the creeper could have dug it. Whatever the case, we should keep an eye
out for more, and stick to established paths as much as possible for better visibility.
They’ll have to cover them with something, so any piles of leaves or cornhusks should be
treated as potential traps. Also couldn’t hurt to cut down a few corn stalks and use them like
walking sticks to probe the ground ahead.
Sometime that night, the group finally makes it
to the tree, and right away the decision pays off. Underneath the bark, they find a map etched into
the trunk, and with the lantern oriented properly on a nearby fencepost, they’re shown a clearly
marked path towards… something. Well, that’s good enough for me. Still, we shouldn’t get our hopes
up too much. There’s nothing about this crudely drawn “map” that suggests we’re going to an exit.
If anything, it's probably just another puzzle we’ll need to solve with our monopoly pieces.
As for now, we should make camp beside the tree and set out first thing in the morning.
This way we can climb up to get a sense of what lies ahead. Well, that and we have a
corn demon stalking us from the shadows.
Oh, sure, just stand with your
back right up against the corn. Have you completely forgotten about what
happened to Denise and the rando?
That said, we didn’t have the benefit of the
air raid siren to remind us we were in danger this time, so either the horn guy fell asleep
at the wheel, or it has nothing to do with the attacker’s movements at all. Who knows, maybe
the Red Baron's zipping around out there.
Whatever the case, it’s a good thing Super
Ryan was there to lay a smackdown on the beast before Tyler was too far gone, but he’s
not exactly the picture of good health. Plus, now he has to endures Sam’s bass-ackwards
medical training making it all worse. “Diagnosis: the stab wounds are all in your head. Try
lying down and eating more hazelnuts.”
Meanwhile, it looks like Cameron’s gone full
Velma while running away from the closest thing to safety she could possibly find out here.
Seriously, the tree was the one place you know the freak show wasn’t. You’re just making yourself
an easy target. Oh, well, thank God the blind girl has a dangerous weapon she can swing around
recklessly. Can’t see that going wrong.
Oh, no! It totally went wrong. But at
least she has the sense not to immediately wrench the blade from his still-beating
heart, unlike some people out here.
Whatever. Serves him right for going after her
in the first place. The tree is life. Stay at the tree. Climb up into the branches if you need
to, but for Christ’s sake, don’t just go running aimlessly into the darkness. Which, by the way,
is exactly what Ryan’s doing right now.
Yeah, good luck killing this thing when you have
no weapons, no flashlight, and no idea where it could possibly be. If you want it dead so bad, you
should dig a few dead drop traps like the one back on the trail and lure it in with one of your
dead or injured teammates. I’m looking at you, Ethan. Going full Martin Sheen and duking it out
in the bush is as dumb as it is stupid, especially now that you know he’s got a knife.
Of course, with everyone’s all spread out, Sam decides this is the perfect opportunity
to buddy carry her grievously injured teammate into the night. Yeah, no point trying to
regroup back at the tree or wait for sunrise, or anything. After all, it’s not like we’re
a slow-rolling double kill right now.
However, by some miraculous plot convenience,
they actually make it to morning, arriving at the specified location to find yet another scarecrow,
only this time, someone finally thinks to take it apart, or at least undress it anyway. Turns out
the map from the tree was printed on each of their shirts, and that’s not all it’s got going on.
Hmm, that looks important. Man, if only we’d thought to try something like that before.
Then again, it stands to reason this one might be special given its prominence on the map, and that
certainly seems to be the case. After entering the combination off an attached card, a hidden path
suddenly Photoshops itself into the corn. At the same time, we get treated to the familiar wailing
of the air raid siren, only this time it seems we’re standing right by the source. Huh, so does
that mean we’re the fourth team to make it this far? If that’s the case, let’s hope whoever’s
up ahead is doing a Paragon playthrough.
Eventually, Tyler and Sam come to a raised tunnel
in the corn that seems to form some kind of maze. Wait, hold on a second. Did it seriously
take you guys all day to get here? Jesus, I know the going must be slow with Tyler
limping along like that, but that’s a long time spent walking away from your teammates. Like
it or not, we’re almost certainly going to need their items to progress at some point, especially
given we had to sacrifice the compass to power up the scarecrow. We haven’t used the knife for
literally anything at this point, well, anything besides what it’s normally used for I mean.
Fact is, this is why we should have waited for the others after our last run in with the lurkatron.
Now we might very well be a full day’s walk away from them without any idea if they’re even still
alive. As much as I hate to say it, time to think about ditching the dead weight and going back to
look for them. Will it be extremely dangerous? Absolutely, but we shouldn’t have put ourselves
in this position in the first place.
Awesome. Well, looks like we’re in it now.
The good news is there’s a surefire way to
beat this one using the Left-hand method, and, no, I don’t mean the one from my Alice in
Borderland video. Besides, in Tyler’s condition that definition won’t be necessary.
Basically, for those who don’t know, you just put your left hand on the left wall and
keep walking until you eventually make it out. This works because you’ll never touch the same
part twice, ensuring success is inevitable if not very time consuming. And, yes, Redditors,
you can technically use either hand; however, in the United States we always use the left one
so that the right is free to hold our firearm, lefties notwithstanding.
Of course, the last thing we want to do is split up as there could easily be
some kind of threat roaming around inside…
…or death traps. For real, you already had
a hidden door close on you from the very beginning. You really didn’t think
there might be more of them?
Fortunately for Tyler, quicksand usually isn’t as
bad as people think, and it’s certainly possible he could escape on his own if Sam doesn’t come
through. The first thing we’ll want to try is backpedaling closer to the ledge we fell in from
in case we can reach solid ground. If that’s not possible, we should try to slowly lean backward
into a sort of back float position to maximize our surface area, thereby slowing the rate
at which we sink in further. From there we need to start gently moving our feet upward and
let the goop fill in underneath them. Mind you, this could take quite a while as we’ll want
to move in very small increments to keep from sinking back in, but at this level of screwedness
it’s really our only chance. Once we’re more or less flat on our backs, we can slowly reach for
some of the corn accessories lining the wall with which to gradually pull ourselves to safety, and
there you have it. No Collie dogs required.
Ultimately, Sam is able to find the symbol on the
door pointing to an underground release lever, and it’s a good thing too. By the looks of it,
Tyler totally panicked and started flailing uncontrollably, which would certainly
explain how he sank almost completely out of sight in like thirty seconds.
In any case, it seems Tyler’s little brush with death was actually a blessing in disguise,
as he seems to have dredged up some kind of maze map on his way out. Sure enough, this
quickly leads them to the other side, where they find their next puzzle hidden inside
a shipping container. Looks like some kind of elaborate computer system, probably why they
left us with not just one, but two computer geeks from the very beginning. Too bad the only
one left is currently curled up in the fetal position God knows how many miles away.
Absent professional help, the two smooth brains are able to get through the first couple
stages using the bullet and the switch card. Huh, I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t choose
violence along the way. However, it seems they’re missing the requisite item to complete the next
phase. Any guesses as to what that might be?
Oh, no crap. Although, you also don’t have the
lantern or the flask, either. Just staying, we’ll want to grab everything we can when we
go back. What, you didn’t think this was going to end without Sam having to run all the way
back to the others by herself, did you?
Yeah, sit tight, Tyler. We’ll
see you in two days.
Nah, I’m sure she can move a little
bit faster minus the dead weight, and provided she counted their paces and
maintained a clear sense of direction, she can even bypass the maze altogether. As long
as she knew which grid square it started in, this would give her at least some idea of where
the tree might be relative to her position, although it would only work if we
actually took the time to measure out the width of each individual grid square.
If we’re lucky, the route from the final scarecrow leading to the shipping container backtracked
quite a ways towards the tree. Otherwise, we might wind up running a marathon to get there and
back before Tyler gives up the ghost. Mind you, neither of them have had literally anything
to drink since they left the others the night before. Piece of cake, right?
Well, however she does it, Sam finds her way back almost immediately, and
by the looks of it, just in time for dinner.
Well, at least we know Ryan’s still kicking.
More importantly, however, it seems Ethan’s body is still wearing the combat knife from
his run in with Cameron, and you gotta believe Sam knows just what to do with it.
Of course, we can’t go strolling into the campsite like we own the place, only a complete and utter
moron would do something like that. After all, judging by the choice of cuisine, this is clearly
where the green dude calls home. Instead, we need to follow Ryan’s lead and camouflage ourselves so
we can stake the place out without being spotted. Ideally, we’ll want to wait until after Ryan
springs his attack to go for the steal. Otherwise there’s no telling when he might show up, and
he might even be using this overtly conspicuous bonfire to lure in potential prey.
I would also circle around to the opposite side where we’d be closer to those two piles of junk
beside Ethan. Not only are they slightly farther from the light, but assuming we can find a knife
in one of them, it’ll be much easier to swipe, especially since it turns out School
Boy hasn’t quite checked out yet.
Hmmm, strange he would stab the mortally
wounded person who hasn’t moved for over a day and not the relatively healthy
woman crouched right next to him. Not to mention the fact he was able to get within
an arm’s reach without her even noticing.
Oh, well, every good manhunt needs bait,
and it looks like we’re it right now.
Apparently, Ryan needs to work on his aim, or,
ya know get closer. Shooting is generally most precise when the muzzle is placed directly
against the intended target. A little pro-tip for all you armchair operators out there.
Luckily for Sam, it keeps the creep distracted long enough for her to grab the knife and make her
escape, only she didn’t bother grabbing any of the other items. Jesus Christ, do you really want
to risk having to make another trip out here? In fact, we should have grabbed as many as we
could possibly carry. I mean, as far as we know, you have to arrange 12 lanterns in the shape
of a snowman to trigger the next event.
As for Ryan, looks like he finally gets what he
wanted. Well, almost. After a mostly one-sided bout of CQC, the stalker realizes he’s
been beat and retreats into the corn, and you know Ryan has to throw caution to the wind
and go right in after him like a total dumby.
Bruh, how did you not see that coming?
