Team Asylum Plan takes on the Journey to the End of the Night

I heard about this madness several weeks ago, from my good friend Reed. Never being one to turn down an adventure (and certainly not one of such epic proportions), I told him I would be thrilled to join him. Being me (and Reed being Reed) the two of us wound up being the team leaders of a veritable army of runners.

We gathered at Reed's house near Rockridge to plan (and eat dinner) beforehand. Of course, with things being as they were, a solid half of our adventurers failed to show up, for various (mostly unexplained) reasons. Our initial team was thus myself, Reed, Nichoel, Greg, and Ben Gould. After Reed fried some pasta for dinner (why did he fry pasta? "Because it's TASTY!" No, I didn't ask either), we set out for the park.

We were a pretty solid adventuring party, and fairly well-equipped. In addition to the expected water bottles and cool-looking clothing, we had between us a walking staff, a large coiled spring, a video camera (the footage from which I will hopefully upload later), a bag of pastries, and half a baguette.

Upon arrival, we ran into two more compatriots, Savage and Polin, and rather hastily and arbitrarily settled on the name of Team Asylum Plan, beating out Team Not On Fire and Team Danger Penguins. We recognized various other people at the starting point, such as Con Jesus and an old acquaintance of mine from my aikido days.

Our start went smoothly enough, sticking to side roads... until we started to see the bike-chasers. This was all sorts of worrisome. Just short of one of the big roads, we saw a bike-chaser go whizzing past, and ran back down the way we'd come. Unfortunately, we ran into a group who informed us that the other end of the road now ALSO had a bike-chaser. The other chaser came back, and we suddenly found ourselves trapped. With a start, Polin realized our friend Vivi lived on this block. So we all made a mad dash and pounded on her door to let us in. We collapsed in the door the moment she opened it, and slammed it behind us, just in time. We watched half a dozen runners flee down the street outside, with the bike chaser hot on their heels. Vivi gave us all very strange looks, especially when Savage asked if she happened to have a red umbrella in the house. With the confirmation that yes, she did have one, and no, she would not take it out and join us (as this would've been against the spirit of the game, come on, team!) we set back out again.

We ran into another group about our size, and joined up with them briefly. Ben Gould split off from the main team as we got closer to the first checkpoint. Our system of having one person scouting around each corner seemed to be working well enough for the moment, but we were a very large group--at least ten. Half a block from an entrance to the park, a chaser came out of nowhere and rushed us. The others turned and fled, but I ran straight at him, slipping past him into the street and around a car at the last second. Rather than turn to pursue, he kept after the larger group. Now alone, I made for the checkpoint.

A few feet shy of it, a chaser ran out of the gate and at me. I hop-stepped back and again put a car between myself and her. This time, though, I was alone. "I've got patience," I told her.
"So do I. Happy to wait here all day," she replied, grinning.
"Ah, but I have one thing you do not: the knowledge that more people will pass through here soon."
My patience paid off, as within a minute another runner came through, and decided to risk a run. She went for him; I went for the gate. Another chaser came out from behind another car and dashed at me, but I beat him to the park in a madcap sprint. 

I sat down to have my fortune told by the tellers in the middle of the park, and drew the Page of Wands. Bex told me this was a good omen for a journey--the Page of Wands stands for taking risks, and finding adventure. I grinned wide and agreed that it was an excellent and appropriate card for tonight. And, indeed, it foreshadowed the rest of the night quite well.

I found Polin and Ben Gould wandering the checkpoint, still alive. Unfortunately, just after I found them, Greg, Reed, Nichoel, and Savage came in--sporting their orange bands all too visibly. There was a very awkward exchange. Reed wanted me to stick with them, which I pointed out was obviously very silly. They were now chasers, and I yet a runner.
Reed: Well, you still have my licorice in your bag.
Me: ... ::shakes head and hands back licorice:: See, Reed, this is what I'm in it for!
Polin: You're in it for licorice?
Me: No, you fool! I'm in it for ADVENTURE!

With this established, Gould, Polin, a fellow named Brad, and I departed, leaving through the opposite exit of the park as our friends. We wandered through the hills for a long while, heading towards Checkpoint Two. We had a number of close calls, and tons of fun panicking over whether or not other groups were chasers or fellow runners. I also picked up a large dried palm frond I found on a sidewalk, and carried it with me. Hey, I figured, it might come in handy at some point. A number of dives behind cars and into bushes later, we made it into the park, and the safety of the second Checkpoint. After getting our manifests signed by the extremely well-dressed fisherman, we started planning for the next leg.

Checkpoint Three was at the far end of the lake, and as swimming was out of the question, we were left with Lakeshore. A wide-open road with almost no side roads. We toyed with taking a bus down it, but couldn't find a schedule for Saturday, and weren't sure if it still ran. Our first attempt to go above Lakeshore looped back down onto it when our wooded path dead-ended into a fence. Ben Gould put his head up defiantly and walked straight down Lakeshore undaunted. He wasn't more than six feet down it when the man sitting at the bus stop bench next to him leapt at him, exposing the orange armband. I didn't stop to see what happened, instead turning back and sprinting the way I'd come.

I later found out that Gould got away from that one, but one of our other friends, Tom, a chaser, tracked him down halfway to Checkpoint Five. Polin wasn't so lucky, and got taken down right there. I now found myself alone, with just my trusty palm frond--which took that moment to jab me viciously in the finger. So now I was alone and bleeding, with just my traitorous palm frond. I decided to keep it with me anyway, as I had a feeling it was about to very useful.

A trio of chasers passed me by, walking casually and calmly on foot, and didn't notice, so I decided to follow them down Lakeshore. It was dark enough that armbands were barely visible, so they might get mistaken for runners and draw out potential ambushes... I made it a good three blocks in safety, but then a girl leapt at me from barely two feet ahead, from inside a huge bush. I threw my frond at her feet, and she recoiled, stopping her momentum hard and giving me the narrow lead I needed to break into a dead sprint. I didn't even slow to look back until I'd made it the full three blocks back the way I'd come. She was nowhere in sight, thanks to my palm frond. I vowed never to forget its noble sacrifice, and began pondering another route.

At this point, I saw another runner, alone like me. His name was Tyler, and he too had lost all six of his original compatriots. I explained the situation on Lakeshore, and he agreed it was far too dangerous to risk it a third time. We backpacked WAY back past Checkpoint Two, and then looped into the high hills. I wasn't sure if he was leading me into an ambush, though--if all of his friends were chasers, what if he was working with them as bait, like Reed had wanted me to do for him? He seemed so confident, not bothering to look down alleyways or between cars as he walked. So I made sure to always lag half a block behind him, scouting much more cautiously. His navigation worked, though, as we made our way through the hills to the top of East 18th St., which was one long Safe Zone all the way down into Checkpoint Three from above.

At Three we met up with his friends Britney, Bryce, Steven, and J Tony, who had in fact survived. As it happened, they were all experienced SF0 players (or "Zerians" as Bryce called them), and knew what they were doing. I decided to stick with them, figuring my chances were much better in a group than on my own. Besides, Tyler had gotten me this far...

After some deliberation and planning with the map, we headed back up E18th, and over and down through Laney College. Again we hit the top of a Safe Zone and followed it all the way into Checkpoint Four. Along the way I found and picked up another dried palm frond, in memory of how well the first one had served me.

Checkpoint Four was a classical labyrinth, chalked onto a park blacktop. I passed deep into it, informed the Lady of the Labyrinth that my favorite word was "defenestration," and continued to the heart of the labyrinth. There, I did great and terrible battle with a minotaur, armed with my trusty frond. With its help, I snatched the ring from its nose, and earned my freedom. I left the way I came, and got my fourth manifest stamp.

We ran into the other Zerians' lost friend, Danielle, who had been tagged earlier, but was deciding to opt-out of most of the rest of the game rather than don her orange permanently. We heard that the area between us and Five was swarmed with chasers, so we sat down for a bit of a rest before heading out. We had Danielle walk a block ahead of us, keeping a lookout for any chasers. We made it in total safety down to 2nd St., the next safe zone, and followed the train tracks down to Jack London Sq. This turned out to be a rather large area, and we wandered for a good ten minutes looking for the Checkpoint. At this point we were actually starting to run into the time limit--we made it to Checkpoint Five a bare ten minutes before they were scheduled to shut down.

There we had to spot twelve differences between two scenes of an office desk. Working as a team, we quickly scoured the setups and found a solid number. Some were easy--different colors of candles. Some were subtler--Bryce discovered the skittles in the bowls were different flavors. Our twelfth and final was noticing that one desk had, buried in a holder, a floppy disk full of PRON, whereas the other had a floppy disk full of PORN. We all got our fifth manifest signatures.

Waiting for us on a nearby bench were the fortunetellers from the first Checkpoint, armed with one of the glorious and legendary Red Umbrellas. Bex declared (due to mild claustrophobia) that she was officially extending the safety zone granted by it to a full five meters. Now confident and safe, we trekked the mile or so to Checkpoint Six casually and proudly. Along the way, Bryce earned a new nickname. The thirteen-year-old (who looks a good three years older than he is) is now known by his initials--JB. Yes, he's stuck as jailbait for the next five years. I told him to enjoy it while it lasts...

At Checkpoint Six, we had to tell a carnie a joke he hadn't heard before. I told Rancid's joke about the cat outside his window, only with the frond standing in for Rancid's flail... obviously the joke fell on deaf ears, but hey, I'm not exactly a ringleader. Cut me some slack.

It was now midnight, which meant that any remaining un-exhausted Chasers would be at Checkpoint Seven, our final destination. This meant we had a terrifying and madcap rush ahead of us. We took a paranoid stroll to a nearby BART station, where we hid out and waited for the 51 bus to arrive. We hopped aboard, senses still VERY much aware and alert. Halfway there, J Tony realized the last BART to SF was soon, so he and JB hopped off early to get home in time, sadly just shy of the end. We know in our hearts they finished, though.

We arrived a few blocks from the park, and the last of us--Tyler, Britney, Steven, and I--prepared for our final mad dash to the finish line. It turned out to be an easy stroll, though, and we walked into the park unaccosted. As we learned, apparently the chasers had gotten tired and started heading home as early as 11:30, so all our waiting and planning had paid off. After an exuberant (but brief) celebration, and the distributing of my pastries to the assembled victors, I called up Nichoel, who (along with Reed and Tom) got back out of bed and drove over and picked me up. Mad props to them for that.

All in all, I had an absolutely fantastic Journey. The first half was through a city I knew, with friends, but marked with adrenaline, the thrill of the chase, sprinting, and the evening heat of fire. The second half was through an unfamiliar and dark underbelly, allied with mysterious strangers, run through with wit, cunning, planning, paranoia, and the night's cold of ice.

I acquired new skills, earned a badge of triump, made new friends, had epic adventures, proved myself against the night, and gained a newfound appreciation for palm fronds.

Thanks for the Journey, friends, and here's to many more.