Did you accidentally trigger the wrong ending? Don’t worry, BC13 is still on the map, just keep walking towards it to continue your adventure!

Herbarium

The Education Officer leads you up the stairs to the foyer in front of the Queensland Herbarium. But for some reason you don’t go inside where it’s safe, you stay outside.

To the right are a few very tall palm trees that are swaying in the wind. To your left is a large shrub, which has overgrown the railing. You see a man at the other side of the courtyard. He’s very focused on pouring the liquid from one vial into another. In front of him is a camping table and on that are a gas burner and various beakers.

‘This is Kenneth,’ the Education Officer says. Kenneth nods slightly but doesn’t look up from what he’s doing. The Officer turns to you and smiles. ‘Okay, all we need to complete the cure is your two ingredients.’

You nod and open the Cure app on your phone and scroll through your list of plants. You click on the Pepper Vine sample and you look around until you find a green button that says ‘Rematerialise.’ You hold your phone over your hand and tap the button. Several small, glossy green leaves pop into existence and fall into your hand. You pass them to Kenneth who mashes them up and places them into a beaker of boiling water.

‘Perfect,’ Kenneth says.

You smile and rematerialise the Riberry leaves. You hand them to Kenneth and he mashes them up, but instead of putting them in the beaker he throws the leaves into the flames of the gas burner.

Your jaw drops open. ‘What the–’

The Education Officer grabs your hands and pull them behind your back.

‘What’s going on?’ you shout.

Kenneth rolls his eyes. ‘Riberry leaves would have weakened the cure. We only need ingredients that will help us.’

‘And by us you mean you,’ you say looking between the Officer and Kenneth, both presumably over 50.

‘Correct.’ Kenneth stirs the beaker a little and then pours the concoction into the first vial. He looks up at his companion. ‘It’s done. Tie up this one. We’ve got to get this in the water supply now. If we get time, we’ll come back to try and find your cure. But we’ve just heard that the younger generation of infected are starting to bite people. So who knows how many we’ll have to destroy before then. Don’t fancy being cured only to have my arm bitten off.’

You try to struggle free but the Officer is much stronger than you, for an old guy. He ties your arms behind you with a rope. Then the two men walk off, the cure for their strand of the virus in hand. You try to break free but the ropes are too tight.

You got so close to creating a cure, but now it will count for nothing. Those men will release a cure for the older generation into the water supply and everyone 50 years and older will be okay. You may get a cure for the younger people eventually, but who knows how many will die out before then? Whether they turn on each other or are ‘destroyed’. What happens when the oldies start dying out? Who will create the next generation? Have you just caused the extinction of an entire city with your dumb response to stranger danger?

THE END

EASTER EGG: Using Plants for Medicines

We hope you enjoyed your adventure! Why not go back to the start and see what you happen if you chose a different path? Until then, share your photos of your cure with us via Facebook by tagging your post #StoryCity.