[b]Dead Map.[/b] I never recorded how long I slept for, but when I awoke I immediately noticed things were different. Still weary despite my rest, I wasn’t able to pin down exactly what this change was. The first thing that came to my mind was to move to a new spot before my luck ran out. I again took the back routes and covered areas as I went, yet all the while perplexed like never before. What could be different? Before I had gone to sleep, the colour had drained from the map entirely. A quick check confirmed that was the same. I shrugged off a growing unease and carried on. It was as I went that I stumbled across the first other Player I had seen in what felt like an eternity. He was crouched in a corner, alive, but completely unapproachable. Armed with a rifle, he spat garbled gibberish for words and swung the rifle around at random. I should have stayed with him but for the semi-understandable threats he hissed. I left him behind, but that was when it hit me: Everything was still. Everything was silent. There was no noise but for that of my footsteps and no movement but for the rustle of the wind. I emerged onto a platform looking over the map, spotting several Striders. The black colossi were standing at a stiff attention at random places, with none of their ruthless persona about them now. I looked to where their vast Teleporter should have been, but I could find nothing. This finding only heightened an underlying tension in my mind. The map seemed in everyway condemned and derelict, with the black-and-white sights and no sounds, it was like an abandoned home. The more my mind dwelled on this, the profounder grew the suspense. I nearly jumped out of my skin when a chilling wail, almost like a sobbing noise, split the air. “lol, lol, lol, lol, lol, lol, lol” It cried, and I realised one of the Striders was the source. Suddenly determined to investigate, I set off for a staircase to descend to the Strider’s level, with the peculiar cry resounding off the walls to chase me. Why was I wandering alone in this map of the dead? Why was I alone while all else was lying in state, in its black shroud? “lol, lol, lol, lol, lol, lol, lol,” Went the cry. Once I finally reached ground level, I peered out from cover to look for any Hackers. The nearest Strider was some distance away, and facing in the other direction, so I fancied my chances if I tried to pass through the open. But, as abruptly as it began, the sobering howl cut off. The silence was as petrifying as having to fight a Strider face to face, yet somehow worse. But while that voice sounded, and as haunting as it was, the map still seemed to have some vague semblance of life. Without it, the gaunt quiet made the map into a tomb. An insane resolve possessed me. I would put an end to this here and now. I had had enough of this game, for that was all this was. There was no real threat to my personal safety, no painful death awaiting me. I felt foolish to have been so involved over nothing more than a videogame. I physically slapped myself for such behaviour and started to run at the nearest Strider. I felt no fear, only a wild, trembling exultation as I shouted and fired whatever weapons I had at the Titan before me. I primed a grenade, threw it in a long arc and cheered as it exploded by the Strider’s legs. The cheer died in my throat though, as the Strider quaked with the blast, then toppled backwards with a screech of grinding metal. The impact shook the ground and sent a billowing cloud of dust in all directions. I could only gawp in surprise. The other Striders refused to move, as motionless as before. I needed no further coaxing, and opened up the pause menu to quit the game. I was free! The torment was over!