JOURNEY TO THE END OF THE NIGHT!!!!!!!

CHICAGO!!!!

ohmygod!

JJason: So when my sister, who lives in the fair city of Chicago, asked me why I was coming down I told her "For possibly the weirdest thing ever." And it was pretty weird, traveling seven hours from Saint Paul to Chicago for a single weekend, with school on either end, to stay with a complete stranger and to play a street game. Pretty weird. And pretty awesome. This story will be told in seven parts. Bits in black happened to both of us, bits in Green to Shea only, bits in Blue to me only. JJason took most the pictures, and they're all blurry due to the high levels of awesome, which warped the pictures. JJason also did the phone messages, which you should listen too.

Part 1: Checkpoint 0 --> Checkpoint 1
JJason and Shea set off to checkpoint 1 at a fairly leisurely pace, choosing to take some side streets, avoiding the larger roads, and taking a path that would take us to the far end of the safe zone. A few other people apparently made the same choice, as there were small clumps of runners in front and behind us as we went. Figuring that they'd warn us of any runners, we kept our distance and stuck to our route. At Shea's suggestion, we avoided alleyways so as to not be caught in a confined space with a chaser.



We made it most of the way to the first checkpoint without incident. Which didn't mean we were calm - quite the opposite. Every bike, every pedestrian, was a potential chaser. The adrenaline started pumping early, making us extremely jumpy. More than once Shea jumped almost straight up at some bit of movement that only he could see. But we didn't actually enccounter any until we reached a set of traintracks that we had to go under. Suddenly, Shea spotted the bike chaser!

Shea: Run! and I was off. I quickly ducked into a nearby alley. Finding a fence between me and freedom I quickly surmounted it. However, as I was jumping off my pants caught and I nearly found myself faceplanting into the ground from 5 feet up. Luckily my pants tore and I was able to recover. JJason found that he had slightly more difficulty getting over the fence, as his shoes wouldn't fit between the bars, so he elected to go around.

JJason: Luckily for me, the bike chaser wasn't in the area when I came out of the alleyway. I wasn't even completely sure that there was a way around, so I made my way at a quick walk, glancing down every gap between the houses hoping to see a way through. I made it almost all the way through the block before I found a way around. At around that time I encountered another group of runners, which I teamed up with until I met back up with Shea, who was waiting for me by the bridge.

Shea: I think this was where what I was really doing sunk in. I was in Chicago, all alone, and surprisingly, scared out of my wits. I mean, I find myself taking walks in the middle of the night, and don't much care about dangerous neighborhoods, but right then, on that warm night, I was scared. I was back to my feral self, there was someone out there who was both faster than me, but also was trying to get me, and I was all alone. I huddled into a cubby between two buildings where I thought I was pretty safe and called JJason, just to make sure that he was coming around. The relief for me when he, and a group of others, came walking down the street was nearly tangible.

Once back together, we quickly decided to split away from the crowd and made our way to the first safe zone on foot. We got there without any sort of difficulty and made our way up to the checkpoint. Along the way, a chaser jumped out of some bushes, but we weren't scared. We were in a safe zone. We took this oportunity to taunt the chaser, as suggested in the rules. "Taunt! Taunt" we yelled after the departing chaser. Good times, all around. Soon we found the first checkpoint, and why look - it's Laura Black and Sean Mahan! Also, a bunch of runners, funny costumes, and cupcakes. Yup, that's the first checkpoint alright. We got our signature and a cupcake each. Success!


Part 2: Checkpoint 1 --> Checkpoint 2
At this point, we were still pretty energetic and relaxed (plus we had been bolstered with cupcakes), so we continued walking at a steady pace. ! By now the players had begun to become a little more spread out, so we saw less other players along the way. Besides that nothing worth noting happened between checkpoint 1 and checkpoint 2.

When we got to checkpoint 2, we found a charming tea party waiting for us! How nice. We stopped for a moment to enjoy the cupcakes and the cultured atmosphere and just then, Dax pulled up! Checkpoint 2 was a very nice checkpoint.


Part 3: Checkpoint 2 --> Checkpoint 3
Eventually we managed pull our way away from the charming tea party and head off to the checkpoint 3. At this point, we have our first choice to make: Should we go for the bonus checkpoint? Of course we would! So we came up with a path that we though would be safe and would bring us past the bonus checkpoint. We made our way there successfully without incident, got the stamp, and headed into downtown Chicago.



Journeying in the downtown areas turned out to be dramatically different from our Journey so far. With so many people all around, we couldn't affording to be paranoid about every single person we saw. With all the lights, everything was easy to see and things were less creepy. But overall, it was much more unreal - your seperation from the non-players, and also from your own normal life was all the more explicite now that the majority of people you saw weren't other players. At this point, JJason started becoming very paranoid and began glancing behind his shoulder every few steps or so. But despites this, We managed to get to checkpoint 3 without encountering any other chasers. We did however encounter some other players, who helped us find our way to the checkpoint, an underground bar. Where we got our signatures, used to the facilities, and set out - for we were only halfway there.

Part 4: Checkpoint 3 --> Checkpoint 4
Coming out of the bar, we looked out onto the street and Oh No! A chaser!! Luckily, she was taking a break for a smoke and was too tired too chase us, so we made it out with our life. Barely. By this point we were beginning to wonder if our "avoid main streets" strategy was actually worth it. I mean, we hadn't seen very many chasers already. Maybe they were all waiting on the side streets, assuming that nobody would be stupid enough to actually take the main streets. But we were exactly that stupid, so we headed towards Michigan avenue.

Finding the second bonus checkpoint took some work. Walking on the top of Michigan ave, we quickly overshot and had to turn back around. Assuming that we'd missed it because it was underground, we took the stairs and quickly found that there wasn't actually any sidewalk on the lower level. Instead, we walked along the median, getting into the road ever now and then to make our way around pillars. We walked this way between the two streets that the second checkpoint was supposed to be between, and still no sign of it. Only when we turned around did we see the street sign. Ah, there's the second checkpoint. There in that creepy, hard to access alleyway. Of course. But we hadn't gone this far too give up when faced with just a creepy checkpoint. So we ventured in and found the bonus checkpoint. Victory!

With the bonus checkpoint in hand, we made our way out of the alleyway and climbed the stairs to Michigan Ave, ready and willing to make our way SHIT! CHASERS! AAAAAH!! CHASERS! Right in front of us! AAAHH!! RUN AWAY!! We instantly scattered.

JJason: This was only the first time that night that my finely honed Bostonian running-into-moving-traffic skills served me well. Although dampened by living in the Twin Cities for three years (where apparently people can't handle pedestrians jumping into the road with no warning), I was able to I dashed straight into Michigan Avenue, with only the slightest glance towards incoming traffic. My plan was to make it to the median and to run up that if pursued. But luckily the chasers weren't quite as crazy as I was and had decided to seek out saner prey.

So I made it out alive, but there was no sign of my companion. With a heavy heart, I soldiered on. Crossing the street to avoid the original chasers, I headed down towards checkpoint 4. Without Mr. Wolfe, I found myself checking the map more often, simply to give myself something to distract myself from the anxiety of being hunted. Unfortunately, I spent too much time checking my map and not enough time looking over my shoulder, because by the time I saw the chaser coming up behind me, she was almost directly behind me!

I booked it. I ran for a straight line for a while before, once again, dashing into traffic to get back on the other side of Michigan again. Now, I can't run very far, but I can run pretty fast for a short distance and it was fast enough to convince the chaser to let me go. As I ran, my transit map fell out of my raincoat's pocket. "You dropped your transit map!" Yelled the chaser from across the street. "You can keep it! It's a souvenir!" I yelled back, and ducked off of Michigan.

Once off Michigan, and away from the chaser, I took a moment to catch my breath, recheck the map. I was close to checkpoint 4. I could do this. I set out on a zig zagging path, turning almost every block, walking quickly to save my strength and too get there quickly. But all too soon, a voice from behind - "You lost something!" It was the same chaser! Once again, I booked it. I idly considered yelling back "Yah - You!" but decided that would too cocky. Anyways, I had running away too do. Another burst of speed took me away from the chaser. Exhausted but triumphant I exclaimed "Is Miracle!" to a random of group of runners who had arrived around the same time as I did. I honestly hadn't thought I was going to make it there alive.



Once within the safezone, it was fairly clear that the two people dressed all in white dancing around the cardboard tower of white boxes were the checkpoint. Just a hunch, is all. A passer chaser tipped me off to the location of the stamp and stamped my manifest good and hard and then took a few moments to plan and regain some of my strength. I wrote the word "Journey" on the tower, since I figured that it would be a useful word for them. I wandered a little around the block, going over the map and further planning my trip when all of a sudden, who should I see but Shea Wolfe! He had survived the chaser attack! Hooray!

Shea: Sorry, this bit is a little late. JJasons summary was pretty correct though. All I did was run, run like heck in the opposite direction that the chasers came at us from. I'm an ex-track kid so it wasn't as bad as it could've been. I was pretty demoralized cause I thought I heard JJason surrendering his ribbon. I soon met up with two female runners who seemed pretty unhappy about the state of their feet/legs and we joined the parade of runners going to the forth checkpoint. (mental note, when participating in giant adrenaline fest, er I mean street game, do not count on yourself for directions, others are much better for it anyhow.) It was all pretty easy going, until the group ahead of us scattered, causing us, and all 20 or so other runners around, to scatter in random directions. Turns out, there wasn't even a chaser there, just one very bewildered girl in a shirt with red stripes on her sleaves (pretty sure this is better docuemented in another piraxis). Anyhow, after that fun we made it to checkpoint 4 without anything else happenind. I immediately took notice of the cop car standing about ten feet away from the crazy box tower, so I ran in, got the stamp, and got the heck out of there. Lets just say I don't much like police. This turned out to be a good move, because without the mob of people around me I was spotted by CHASER JJASON...only he wasn't a chaser, his blue ribbon proved that. Man, I have never been happier to be wrong in my life. At least, not that I can recall.

Part 5: Check 4 --> Checkpoint 5
After our miraculous reconnection at the fourth checkpoint, we decided to hop aboard the blue line to go get the third bonus checkpoint - after getting the first two, we were sure as hell getting the third. The train took us almost right next to our goal and we found the third checkpoint, hanging from a chain link fence. A quick stamp and we headed to our goal. The wisdom we had obtained previously served us well as we went more or less directly to the fifth checkpoint. Going to the 3rd bonus checkpoint had put us fairly off the beaten path, so we encountered almost no chasers until we were almost there.

Our easy spell came to a close after we ducked through an alley by a bank and began to approach the fifth checkpoint. A group of individuals were on the other side of the street, but it was too dark to see if they had ribbons. We slowed our approach. They waved to us. We slowed some more. They began to stand up. They began to run towards us! In time honored tradition, we scattered in all directions once again.

JJason: I made a 180 degree turn and ran back in towards the bank. It's funny - you think that you can't possibly run anymore but when push comes to shove, it turns out you can. Nice. Luckily for me, the chaser who was after me gave up after I made it past the bank, probably assuming that I was fast or something*. This was lucky for me, since I don't think that I would've been able to run much faster. Knowing that that direction was full of chasers, I circled around the bank, dashing the street (using my aforementioned Bostonian pedestrian skillz), and running into the safe zone. Along the way, I thought I saw some people hanging by a Walmart. Chasers? Civilians? Who can say. At the intersection across from the checkpoint, I hooked back up with Shea, who had had a much more interesting adventure, and we continued to the checkpoint.

Shea: So, seeing them walking towards us I made the obvious decision to walk right at them as well. Something I noticed about the chasers is they can never keep their cool long enough and always break into a run before you are close enough, or at least, I was close enough. Anyhow, I found myself in the middle of the street and decided to dart left towards the Safe zone. Bad idea. Turns out that was a trap and I found myself running straight into a second chaser. I made a quick turn, doubled back across the street, and the first chaser once again tried to move in on me. At this point I noticed a car entrance just to the left of the safe zone and decided to go for broke. I sprinted in, hoping that there was an exit, only to be greeted by a cheer of "You're trapped, there's no way out!"

...Oh hell no. I did not just drive 7 hours and navigate the wonderfully broken red line at four in the morning just to get caught 1 checkpoint out from the end. I found myself in a car garage and began to look for something, anything, that could get me out of there. What I found was a railing, and I realized that where there is a railing, there is an other side. My mind became abuzz with Dax's warnings of jumping off bridges and whatnot, but fortunately the ground was only a ten foot drop or so. Better yet, there was a normal fence that came up almost to the level of the parking garage. I climbed the railing and lowered myself quickly onto the top of the fence below. Jumping off I ran under the safe zone and found myself in a outdoor parking garage. The entire place was surrounded by a ten foot fence with barbed wire on top, which I may or may not have considered climbing, before I noticed that the gate to the place wasn't actually closed. I dashed the short distance (10m..maybe) and found myself in the safe zone. Better yet, JJason came running up from across the street, blue ribbon still intact!

Out of breath, we staggered into the diner. Both of us had forgotten to get the clue checkpoint 4, but the presence of Ink Tea was a tip off. We got our signature, JJason got a soda to replenish some of his strength, and we headed off to the 6th checkpoint.

*An aside - a while after Journey, I found out that OliverX had spent some time trapping runners who tried to do exactly what I did. Luckily for me, he wasn't there at that moment.

Part 6: Checkpoint 5 --> Checkpoint 6
At this point, there was no fucking way we were getting caught by no chasers. Hells no. So we decided to take a different tact - once we got off the bridge, we went straight south. Way south. The way we figured it, there ain't no way that no chasers would be brave enough to go beyond the map. So that's exactly what we were going to do.

In the arena of chaser avoidance, this worked like a charm. We didn't encounter a single chaser all the way from checkpoint 5 to checkpoint 6. In the arena of getting to the checkpoint quickly, or preventing JJason's feet from falling off, not so much. Being off the map, we had no idea where we could cross the freeway safely. But there had to someplace. So after getting to the edge of the freeway, we kept walking south. We walked. And walked. And walked. By the time we walked past Soldier Field*, we were beginning to get desperate. JJason wanted to turn back, since we knew there was an entrance there, but Shea called his brother, who lives in the area, and he told that us should be a place to pass through shortly. And sure enough, there was a way to get across the freeway soon after that.

Now, it the way across was a locked gate going across the train tracks but we weren't going to let a little thing like that stop us. JJason went under, Shea went over and lickety split were were jogging across the train tracks, climbing over another gate, and making our triumphant way into the safe zone. As we were climbing, the sound of police siren was heard in the distance. But we didn't care. The forces of law were no match for our fatigue. Desperately tired, we staggered under the bridge and into the safe zone. To victory.

After victory, it took us a bit of a while to actually find the final checkpoint, but we got to spend a fair amount of time exploring all sides of auditorium, before finally triumphantly making our way to checkpoint 6. Somewhere around 5 and half hours after we set out, we were victorious. We died, triumphant.**


*I think that's what that big stadium is called
**No really. We are dead.