Survive The Night - A choose-your-own Kelburn Campus adventure

CW: Violence, needles, body horror

(1) You’re on Kelburn campus in the Hub. You try the doors. Locked. The glass is cold under your hand, and inside the tables are empty, chairs pushed in like everyone left in a hurry. It’s late afternoon, and the sun is dropping behind the buildings, turning the windows orange for a second before the light slips away. The wind moves through the courtyard behind you, carrying the faint sound of traffic from Salamanca Road and making the posts outside Adam Art Gallery shake. You’re alone. You look back toward the steps leading up to the second story of the library, then across toward the steps that climb toward Kirk building. The campus is empty, everyone else knew to leave before you did. If you; 

Head toward the library, go to (2). Call for help, go to (3). Go to your lecture theatre, go to (9). 

(2) There’s nothing here but the glow of the vending machines. The library is almost dark, except for the blue-white light buzzing against the walls and the dull reflection of it on the polished floor. You stand near the entrance, listening. No footsteps from the stairs. No voices from the study rooms. The second floor stretches out ahead of you in rows of empty tables and pushed-in chairs, laptops gone, books left open. Outside the windows, the last of the sun has slipped behind Kelburn, and the glass has turned black enough that you can see yourself standing there alone. Somewhere deeper in the library, something clicks. If you; 

Continue exploring, go to (7). Take a nap, go to (5). Buy something as a snack, go to (6).

(3) Why are you yelling? There’s no one here. Go to (4).

(4) You look down at your phone… It has no service. If you; 

Give up, go to (5). Try the Hub doors, go to (57). 

(5) You decide to take a power nap. Just for a few minutes. You curl up in one of the library chairs, your bag tucked under your feet, the vending machines still humming softly nearby. The darkness presses in around you, and at some point, without meaning to, you fall properly asleep. When you wake, something is nudging your shoe. For one terrible second, you think it’s a hand. Then you hear the whirr of a vacuum cleaner and open your eyes to see a cleaner standing over you, looking more annoyed than surprised. Pale morning light is coming through the windows. The library is normal again. You survived. The end. 

(6) You tap your card against the machine. Nothing happens. You tap it again, harder this time, and the vending machine gives a low mechanical clunk. For a second, it just hums there in the dark, the rows of white Monster Energy and blue Powerade glowing behind the glass. Then it wobbles. Once. Twice. Before you can step back, the whole machine tips forward with a horrible metal groan. The last thing you see is your own reflection in the glass, wide-eyed and lit up by the vending machine glow. Then it falls on you. You die. The end. 

(7) What’s better than an empty library? You have the whole Green Zone to yourself, so you start with the seat closest to the window, then the one beside it, then the one across from that. Some chairs are too hard. Some are too close to the desks. After two hours, the sky outside has gone completely dark, your bag is still sitting where you left it, and you have tried every single seat in the Green Zone. None of them feel right. Now what? If you; 

Try the science labs, go to (8). Go to the lecture theatres, go to (9).

(8) You knew that science degree would pay off, didn’t you? You wander over to the Alan MacDiarmid buildings to find something curious. The lights are still on in a few of the labs, but the corridors are empty. There are posters about research projects you don’t understand properly, and locked doors with little windows that only show benches, stools, and shapes covered in blue plastic. You stop outside the elevator just as it gives a small ding. The doors slide open. No one is inside. The button for downstairs is already lit. It’s going down. If you; 

Jump in the elevator, go to (10). Ignore the elevator, go to (19). 

(9) You go to your favourite lecture theatre. It feels strange being there without anyone else, with all the seats empty and the projector off and the whiteboard still covered in half-rubbed-out notes from some class earlier in the day. You’re about to leave when you hear something from behind the podium. A small scuffling sound, then a pause, then another one, like something is trying very hard not to be noticed. If you;

Run, go to (19). Investigate, go to (45).

(10) The elevator is going down, go to (11).

(11) And down… go to (12).

(12) And down… go to (13).

(13) Until, eventually… go to (14).

(14) It stops. Go to (15).

(15) This is a new part of the campus. White walled and no windows. Are you under Kelburn Parade? You walk down the white walled corridor… go to (16). 

(16) You’re at a fork in the road; there’s a light on in the distance, and an open door to your left. If you;

Go to the light, go to (17). Go to the open door, go to (18). 

(17) You follow the corridor, and the light, until eventually you’re in a massive biology lab for postgraduate students. The room is bigger than you expected, with long black benches, high stools, sinks, glass cabinets, and labels taped onto almost every drawer. The light is coming from a single desk lamp left on near the back, shining over a pile of papers, a half-open notebook, and a tray of small capped tubes. Someone has left a lab coat hanging over the chair, one sleeve touching the floor. You step closer and see writing on the notebook, rushed and uneven, like whoever wrote it was running out of time. If you; 

Leave, go to (19). Continue to explore, go to (20). 

(18) You go through the door. You don’t know what you’re seeing. The floor is smeared with blood, not in one clean patch, but dragged in lines across the tiles like something was pulled through it. A stack of mice cages has been knocked over near the bench, bedding spilling out in clumps, little metal lids bent sideways. Empty syringes are scattered through it all, some cracked, some still rolling slightly when your shoe bumps the floor. You go closer and crouch down beside one of them. There’s a sticker wrapped around the barrel. It says “biohazard.” If you; 

Pick it up, go to (29). Keep looking, go to (36).

(19) Nope. This is officially too creepy. You speed walk to your comfort spot: the tuatara enclosure. You tell yourself you’ll be fine when you get there. The tuatara are always there, sitting under the heat lamp, barely moving. You turn the corner and stop. The glass at the front is still intact, but the small door at the back of the enclosure has been pulled clean off its hinges. One hinge is still screwed into the frame, bent sideways. The other is lying on the floor amongst the plants. The heat lamps are still on. The rocks are empty. Oh, no. Go to (21). 

(21) Where you were supposed to find peace at the tuatara enclosure is the opposite. There’s something crouched inside it, too big to be a mouse and too wrong to be a person. Its back is hunched under the heat lamp, skin patchy with grey fur, one clawed hand pressed into the dirt to hold itself up. For a second you don’t understand what it’s doing. Then it turns its head, and you see Spike hanging from its mouth. You scream as it grips him with both hands and rips his head off. Go to (22).

(22) It looks up as you scream. For half a second, it just stares at you, Spike still hanging from one hand, its mouth dark and wet under the heat lamp. Then it drops him and charges at the glass wall of the enclosure. Its shoulder hits first. The glass bows, cracks, then shatters outward. You throw your arms over your face, but the fragments hit you anyway, slicing into your hands, your cheek, the side of your neck. When you look again, the creature is climbing through the broken frame. If you; 

Run, go to (23), Fight, go to (24). 

(24) You attempt to fight the creature, which turns out to be a terrible idea almost immediately. It is too strong. You manage to grab one of its arms, but it twists out of your hand and slams you back against the enclosure frame. Glass crunches under your shoes. Its teeth sink into your neck, and the last thing you think about is how you could have avoided all of this if you’d just attended your lecture online. You die. The end.

(23) You turn around and boost it toward the nearest fire exit. You slam both hands into the green emergency button. Nothing. You press it again, then hold it down until your thumb hurts, but the door stays locked. The creature is still behind you, dragging itself out of the broken enclosure, glass scraping under its hands. You shove your shoulder into the fire exit, then kick the bottom of it, but it barely moves. Through the narrow window in the door, you see the outside path, the grey light, and a janitor pushing a yellow cleaning trolley past like this is a completely normal day. If you; 

Yell for help, go to (25). Try another exit, go to (26).

(25) You yell for help, banging one hand against the narrow window in the fire exit. The janitor looks over. For a second, they just stand there beside the yellow trolley. Then they drop the mop handle, and you see the black gloves, the mask hanging under their chin, and the metal canister strapped across their back. They’re not a janitor after all. They’re pest control. They look past you, through the glass, at the creature pulling itself down the corridor. Then they charge towards you. Go to (27).

(26) You run over and try another exit. Also locked. The whole place is on lockdown. You bang on the glass windows, yelling for help, but no one outside turns around. Behind you, the mouse-human hybrid drags itself closer, one hand scraping along the floor, its breathing wet and uneven. The last thing you see is its eyes. That’s when you realise what’s been wrong about them this whole time. They’re familiar. Around its neck, half-buried in fur, is a torn VUWSA lanyard. The name card swings forward. Matthew Tucker. VUWSA CEO. He kills you. You die. The end.

(27) Just as they approach the glass, you feel a stabbing sensation in your arm. You look down and see teeth sunk into your sleeve. The rat-human hybrid has caught up with you. You yank your arm back, but it has already bitten through the fabric, leaving a dark, wet mark spreading near your elbow. The pest control officer sees it. They stop with one hand halfway to the door. You bang on the glass, yelling for help, but they slowly back away, eyes fixed on your arm, and pull out a radio. Go to (28). 

(28) The next thing you know, you’re waking up in a lab. The walls are plain white, the lights are too bright, and everything smells like disinfectant. Your head feels heavy. Your mouth is dry. Did someone tranquilise you? You try to sit up, but straps cut across your chest, wrists, and ankles, holding you flat against a bed with no blanket. Two doctors stand behind a sheet of glass, talking to you through a speaker. They explain that you’re now “contaminated.” There is no cure. You look down at your bitten arm. The skin around it is grey, and a thick patch of mouse hair has spread from your wrist to your elbow. You’re a science experiment gone wrong. The end.

 (29) What kind of idiot picks up a dirty syringe? You prick yourself with it, because of course you do. If you; 

Do first aid, go to (30), Continue exploring the lab, go to (36).

(30) You look for a kit and then wipe your cut with an antiseptic wipe. It hurts. If you; 

Continue exploring, go to (31). put even more antiseptic on it, go to (32). 

(31) You get deeper and deeper into the labs. The doors all look the same after a while, with swipe-card panels, warning stickers, and tiny windows showing benches covered in equipment you don’t want to touch. At the very final door, you find a student sitting on the floor with her back against the wall. She’s crying into the sleeve of her lab coat, and there are red marks around her eyes like she’s been doing it for hours. When she sees you, she shakes her head before you can say anything. She tells you this is all her fault. She wanted a scholarship. She thought one successful experiment would fix everything. Instead, she made mice mutants. If you;

Bite her, go to (33). Comfort her, go to (34). 

(32) You dump so much antiseptic on it the room stinks of it and it overwhelms you. You pass out… Go to (35).

(33) Ties only dissolvable by the annihilation of one of us and all that. Your instincts take over before your brain catches up, and you bite her. Hard. For one second, both of you freeze, staring at the mark in her arm like neither of you can believe that just happened. Then her hand closes around a hammer you somehow did not see before, half-hidden beside the lab bench. She swings it at you. The first hit lands on your shoulder, then another catches the side of your head. You’re so caught off guard you don’t defend yourself. You just stand there while she beats you with it. You die. The end. 

(34) You tell her it will be okay, which feels like a stupid thing to say in a lab full of overturned equipment and mutant mice, but she looks like she needs to hear it. She wipes her face with her sleeve and asks if you’ve been infected. You look down at your arm, at the bite mark under your torn sleeve, and say yes. She goes very still. For a moment you think she’s going to run, or scream, or pick up something heavy from the bench. Instead, she nods once, like she’s made a decision. She says she’s going to protect you. Go to (28). 

(35) When you wake up you are in a white walled room. There’s a doctor staring at you. You can’t remember the past day. She tells you there was a gas leak on campus, but you’re okay. After observation, you can go home. You believe her. You survive. 

(36) You notice something on the bench of the room. It’s a log book. You open it up. Most of the pages are filled with experiment data: dates, cage numbers, sample notes, tiny graphs drawn in pen. Someone has been investigating cloning mice. Only, the more you read, the less it looks like cloning. There are repeated references to “human compatibility,” “behavioural transfer,” and “failed integration.” From these logs, it looks like they were trying to splice mice and human DNA.… Go to (37).

(37) You have a bad feeling about all this and decide it’s time to leave the labs. Go to (38).

(38) You find the elevator and go up. Go to (39).

(39) And up… Go to (40). 

(40) And up… Go to (41).

(41) And up… Go to (42).

(42) You’re back wandering the campus. Where do you go now? If you; 

Go to the tuatara enclosure to check on Spike, Shorty and Hazel, go to (21). If you go to a fire exit, go to (43). 

(43) This has been too much for you. You want your flatmates to get Uber Eats for dinner. You go to the fire exit and push it open, an alarm goes off and you don’t care. In the distance you see a van pull up with “Pest Control.” You ignore it. Go to (44).

(44) You make it back to your flat safe and sound with a story your flatmates don’t believe. You survived. The end. 

(45) Peering around the podium, you see your favourite lecturer. For a moment, you almost say their name, because it’s definitely them: same haircut, same rainbow lanyard. Only, some things are wrong. They’re hunched over, breathing through their mouth, with their lecture notes crushed under one hand. Their sleeves have been pushed up to the elbows, and there’s fur there. Not a lot at first, just enough that your brain tries to make it into shadow. Then they turn their head, and you see it covering their arms, their cheeks, and the side of their face. If you; 

Run, go to (19). Get closer, go to (46). 

(46) Surely HR would have something to say if they were going to hurt you… right? You go up to them, keeping one hand on the edge of the podium, and reach out for their shoulder. For one second, they don’t move. Then your fingers touch their jacket, and their head snaps around. Their eyes are bright red. Their teeth have grown past their lips, too long to fit properly in their mouth. Before you can step back, they grab your wrist and bite into your arm. If you; 

Run, go to (47). Fight back, go to (24).

(47) You run and run until you find an empty lecture theater. If you; 

Keep going, go to (48). Hide inside, go to (49).

(48) Something about that lecture theatre feels off. Or maybe it was the fact you got attacked in a different one. You keep running until you bump into someone. A man in a Pest Control suit. He asks if you’ve been bitten. If you; 

Lie, go to (50). Tell the truth, go to (28). 

(49) You hide in the theater and smell… something! It is a piece of cheese left behind. Do you eat it? 

If yes, go to (56). If no, go to (55).

(50) You say no. He looks at you suspiciously but decides to believe you. Go to (52). 

(52) You walk with him until you reach the fire exit. He keeps checking over his shoulder, one hand on the strap of the canister across his back, and you start to think maybe he knows more than he’s saying. Then something drops from the stairwell above you. You scream. It isn’t a lecturer. It looks like some sort of rat-human mutant, all bent limbs, grey fur, and hands that hit the floor before its feet do. The pest control man reaches for something at his belt, but the creature gets to him first. It pulls him down by the legs, and you watch him disappear under it, yelling for help. If you; 

Help him, go to (53). Ignore him, go to (54). 

(53) You try to help, which is noble, but not especially useful. You grab the pest control man by the arm and pull as hard as you can, but the rat mutant turns on you too. It moves fast, and suddenly its hands are on you, dragging you down onto the floor beside him. You kick, yell, and try to crawl backwards, but it’s already too late. You are ripped to pieces. You die. The end.

(54) You watch as he is killed. There isn’t much you can do except press yourself against the fire exit and try not to move. When it’s over, the rat mutant turns to you. Then another shape appears at the top of the stairs, and another behind the broken door. They come close enough that you can feel their breath on your hands. They sniff you. Your bite throbs under your sleeve. One of them tilts its head, then gestures down the corridor for you to follow. You survive. You are one of the rats now.

 (56) You eat the cheese… then suddenly get very sleepy. Are there sedatives in it? Go to (28). 

(55) You ignore the cheese, curl up in a corner and hide. Go to (56). 

(56) It is morning, and your arm is incredibly itchy from the bite. You pull your sleeve down over it and sneak out of the university just as the lecturers start coming in for a normal day, carrying keep cups and laptop bags. The campus is squeaky clean. No broken glass. No blood. No scratch marks on the floors. It’s like nothing happened all night. No one stops you. No one even looks at you properly. Maybe last night was all just a dream? When you get home, you go straight to the bathroom and look in the mirror. You have whiskers. Your eyes are red. You survived, but at what cost?

(57) The Hub doors are locked but you can see a figure outside. If you; 

Call out, go to (58). Turn around, go to (19). 

(58) You call out but he doesn't hear you. You decide to try the biology labs, go to (8).