Enhanced Ink

Science Fiction writers are always coming up with all sorts of ways the world is going to end. Genetic modification run wild. Crop failure on a massive scale. Robot uprising. You know the staples. When the first genetically-adapted biotic tattoos came on the market, it was met with a mix of emotions. Some people considered them the mark of the beast, an abomination that needed to be stymied. Others, the thing that was going to elevate humanity to the next level of evolution.

Then there's you. A normal person who'd seen the health and performance-enhancing benefits of the tattoos firsthand. They'd been on the market for a few years and still required a prescription - but those were easy enough to get. Any number of common maladies could be corrected with a tattoo, so they were quickly becoming the go-to treatment. The fact that they were self-healing and adaptable to any further situation was just an extra perk.

Things were going well, for a while. You felt better than you ever had, your vision enhanced, your overall health restored. You'd had the occasional weird dream, where strange glowing red symbols filled your vision. Hidden messages embedded within. They sing to you, in the dark. But morning comes and you go about your day as normal. Until ten days ago that is. That is when the sky went dark, as if the sun had gone out. Global communication was severed in an instant. Local governments mobilized quickly, keeping the worst of the situation contained. There was a bit of isolated looting, and some mild panic, but otherwise things were looking like they'd be okay.

However, five days ago something happened to all those who carried the tattoos. Simultaneously they all saw the same glowing red symbols from their dreams. For you and many others, this was nothing more than a strange vision, a coincidence. For others... well, it changed them. The carnage was swift and immediate. Like something out of a zombie apocalypse film, but somehow more terrible in every way possible.

You've been holding up in an abandoned high school's overgrown and untended sports field ; the blinding lights of the stadium keep them at bay. You've been trying to keep up hope for some sort of rescue, but the hallucinations that were once sporadic have become much more frequent. You're starting to see symbols everywhere you look, even when you're wide awake. One of your fellows tried to cut out the tattoo in desperation and was immediately overwhelmed by it - his twisted and broken body is just on the other side of the fence.

Your only faint hope has come from a repeating broadcast on the radio, weak though it is. You've been able to learn that there's a hospital nearby with the equipment to remove the tattoos safely and stop the visions - seems like that's your only hope now. But there are miles of city, filled with them, in between you and salvation. Do you wait to lose yourself to the symbols, or do you seek salvation?

Areas of Note: High School Football field, Surburban Sprawl, Supermarket, Library, St. Lucian's Memorial Hospital

Goal: Make it to the abandoned hospital, or find some other way to remove the tattoo before you turn.