Item Name Set Number: 40649 upscaled minifigure
Lego Price: $50 + $3 tax
Shipping: $25 (16 x 12 x 4, 5 lbs, Insured 34240-98101)
Raffle Total/Spots: $78: 39 spots at $2/ea
Price justification: lego.com
Call spots: Y
Spot limit per person: N
Duration of spot limit:
Location(Country): USA
Will ship international: Sure, but winners outside of CONUS will pay any difference over $25
Timestamp pics: https://imgur.com/a/a4ZJJyC
Description: b boi
Payment required w/in 10 minutes of raffle filling.
PayPal payments are to be Friends and Family only with NO COMMENTS. CashApp payments should have NO COMMENTS. Comments will result in a permanent ban

PayPal Info: https://www.paypal.me
Cash App Info: https://cash.app

Tip BlobAndHisBoy
Number of vacant slots: 32
Number of unpaid users: 3
Number of unpaid slots: 7
This slot list is created and updated by The EDC Raffle Tool by BlobAndHisBoy.
1
2
3
4 stollba
5
6
7
8
9 sirius5715
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28 stollba
29 stollba
30
31
32 stollba
33
34
35 CalicoRosePawIsland
36
37 stollba
38
39

I recently made a post on a problem I was having, but apparently I was wrong, my coins aren't not converting, whenever the timer gets under a minute it adds 3 hours to the timer??

Escrow for u/Jig5
Item Name Set Number: 10306 Atari Video Computer System
Lego Price: $255.88
Shipping: $47 UPS Ground (24x20x6, 9lbs, 60605 to 98133).
Raffle Total/Spots: $300, 100 spots @ $3/ea
Price justification: LEGO.com
Call spots: Y
Spot limit per person: N/A
Duration of spot limit: N/A
Location(Country): US, outside of Lower 48 states pays the difference.
Will ship international: N
Timestamp pics: https://imgur.com/a/fdWv1r5
Description: box has some wear, see pictures
Payment required w/in 10 minutes of raffle filling.
PayPal payments are to be Friends and Family only with NO COMMENTS. CashApp payments should have NO COMMENTS. Comments will result in a permanent ban

Cash App Info: https://cash.app

Tip BlobAndHisBoy
Number of vacant slots: 99
Number of unpaid users: 1
Number of unpaid slots: 1
This slot list is created and updated by The EDC Raffle Tool by BlobAndHisBoy.
1 therontheteej
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100

Gyala Delve meta seems, at the moment, repetitive and not much rewarding.
The different things to do in the map also often conflict with each other, especially anything that isn't direct meta progress, as the meta itself has no pause and many things get locked.
Simply progressing the story requires at least some meta progress (or it gets painful), and this reason alone makes it necessary for this meta to be active forever (imagine if you had to complete complete the Serpent's Ire before entering the last steps in PoF story ?)
As it is right now, I'm very afraid that this meta is only active due to being new, and will be dead/rarely completed in a few weeks or months (just like it was in the past weeks before the 2nd part was released)
Here are a few random ideas. They may not all be good, but it's a start for a discussion and maybe for Anet to do some rework

Remove the global timer for the first part of the meta. It basically punishes people who work even harder and longer due to having less people participating => WTF. What's the point anyway ?
For the capture of each base, remove the capture circle part and move immediately to the fight against the big ball. Or at least make the capture substantially faster.
On the other hand, add 2 minutes of pause before the next part of the meta starts, giving people some leeway to complete other things on the map (rn there are objectives that are actively hindered by people simply progressing the meta, not to mention that if you want/need anything else you are forced to choose and miss big meta steps) or even go to the bathroom.
Don't lock camp upgrades (Jadepillar Point and Behemoth's Gap) when the last part of the meta starts. Or at the very least, unlock it (with the progress it had) after the meta is complete, along with letting all other events respawn during this 1 hour post-meta window
Let Ambush events spawn after the meta (during the 1h window) ESPECIALLY if people took the Oni lure debuff (eyes in the deep) ... what does it do anyway if it can't trigger ambushes ?
Also loosen the fail timer on them (ambushes) as they're less and less popular. People who want them now and people who will do the achievement in the future often have to solo them ...
Remove of halve the dumb cooldown on Turtle mount when it was damaged before dismounting
Speed up the mid-meta fight (previous end of meta). At least remove the phases where we fight adds or the big balls (we fight those balls when capturing each of the 3 camps, and several times again in the end fight ...it's enough)
Make the 4 "bonus" champs spawn one after another, like in Drizzlewood. Most maps do well, but why have a game design that actively allows trolling (people killing a different boss so nobody get all 4) for no reason ?
Don't repeat FOUR of the SAME event in the tunnel. Suggestion : (1) no change (2) fight 3 elite Oni (buffed) but no need to gather energy (3) gather energy only, no Oni (but the events should give as many keys and energized luxon box rolls as if you fought all Oni) (4) normal Oni (not elite, but doesn't take much damage) everywhere, Energy isn't collected at the end of the tunnel (we did that in steps 1 and 3 already) but gives stacks for a turtle elite shockwave that badly damages the oni => run around to collect energy and spam shockwaves. Once again, the event should reward the same amount of keys as the current version does.
I'm not sure how to make the last fight better even though I find it boring. Maybe just nerf the spawns at circles and don't let them spawn champion that prevent battery charge for a long time due to being HP sponges.

TLDR: We race F3 weekly on Thursday Nights. The session launches at 8 PM EST, racing begins at 9 PM EST. The event concludes at around 10:15 PM EST.
Hello everyone,
Are you tired of F3 officials yet? If you are, I might have a league for you.
League Zero just entered its 7th season on Thursday, May 11th. We are a league that races weekly on Thursday nights utilizing a Feature/Sprint race system that can be found in real life Formula 3 and Formula 2 racing. All of our races will include an open practice, open qualifying, a feature race, and a sprint race including a 12 car reverse grid. Our feature races also have a mandatory pitstop enforced by a 50% fuel capacity limit.
All of our league events are broadcasted LIVE by Team Goon Squad on YouTube and Twitch. We are a very welcoming community and you'll always have someone to race with whether you're at the front, middle, or back of the grid. Our average car counts are anywhere from 20-25 cars per race, but we are looking to expand that to 30+. If you feel this is something for you, read up on some more of the details below.
Brief Rundown of what we offer:

Open Qualifying sessions as seen in real life.
Multi race session. ~40 minute feature race, ~20 minute sprint race with a 12 car invert.
All events broadcasted LIVE by Team Goon Squad.
Entering our 7th season which makes us reputable.
We are branded as a development league, but the front of the field is significantly fast and very competitive.
12 race schedule with 1 race per country.
We try our best to run the league as professional as possible. This includes a proper penalty system, stewards, license points, etc...

Nightly Schedule: (All times are EASTERN STANDARD TIMEZONE)

8:00 PM - 8:45 PM - Practice
8:45 PM - 9:00 PM - Open Qualifying
9:00 PM - 9:45 PM - Feature Race**
9:45 PM - 9:55 PM - Intermission**
9:55 PM - 10:25 PM - Sprint Race**

**The mentioned timeslots would be considered the absolute longest the race could run. I.e. most races conclude around 10:15 PM.
Race Schedule:

~~May 11 - Watkins Glen International - Boot~~
~~May 18 - Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari - Grand Prix~~
~~May 25 - Suzuka International Circuit - Grand Prix~~
~~June 1 - Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto - Moto~~
June 15 - Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
June 22 - Nurburgring Grand-Prix-Strecke - BES/WEC
June 29 - Red Bull Ring
July 6 - Silverstone Circuit
July 20 - Hungaroring
July 27 - Circuit de Spa Francorchamps
August 3 - Oulton Park Circuit
August 10 - Phillip Island Circuit

Useful Links:
Website: https://leaguezero.net/
Schedule: https://leaguezero.net/schedule
Register: https://leaguezero.net/register
Discord: https://discord.gg/fBGhGg9
League Page: https://members.iracing.com/membersite/membeLeagueView.do?league=4534

Weather's been really hot. Fancy some icy cocktails, cold beer, and refreshing sodas?
This is a completely new bar-hopping route. Each stop is literally just a minute away from each other so well within stumbling distance even with the heat wave we are experiencing. There will be beer, wine, spirits, soft drinks, and food sold at all the locations. Also cheap eats and street food in the area for the hungry people.
Taking advantage of the happy hour, we start at:
7:30pm at underpass G/F, 18 Tsing Fung St, Tin Hau
9:00pm we go across the street to Hong Kong Island Taphouse 1a, 1b Tsing Fung Street Flyover, Causeway Bay
10:30pm at Drunkerland Shop B G/F, 27 Ngan Mok St, Tin Hau
Finish at around midnight or so at Ares (optional) G/F, 11 Lau Li St, Causeway Bay They have dart boards. Those who are keen can drink and throw darts at each other til late.
As per usual we will be wearing Reddit t-shirts, with a Snoo stuffed toy so we would be easy to spot.
Everyone including myself will be paying for their own drinks.
See you there!
meetup post

TL;DR: Guzzle Rock Cake, Cast Imbue, Dream and hunter kit at the same time then bank the kit or if youre an ironman store the imp jars in puro-puro to drop trade later.
https://reddit.com/link/140i6zl/video/h21ctfwr114b1/player
I was theory crafting getting 84 - 90 magic on my UIM, I dont have any alchs, not enough gold or runes to burst, I haven't got MM2 or SOTE completed.
I initially done MTA to get a master wand and B2P with the intention of bursting or doing slayer with auto cast ancients but didnt factor in the cost of the runes, I looked at Lunars and wondered about the Imbue spell and saw that I hadn't done Dream Mentor, I completed dream mentor and saw that once every 12 seconds you can cast Imbue and another spell on the same tick.
I remembered back waaaaaay waaaay back in the day that people used to train magic with making hunter kits, back then I used to make a hunter kit, bank it then come out and cast again, quick enough this would be good exp.
I went ahead and started theory crafting around that spell and how I can utilise that hunter kit, I was looking on the wiki at the lunar spells and saw the Dream spell, I decided to check that out and much like the Imbue spell, it doesnt have a cast animation and can be cancelled by doing another action, only difference is that the Dream spell doesnt have a 12 second timer, it had a few seconds at best (I havent figured it out yet)
I went and got a Rock Cake from Khorak and guzzled down to low hp and tried using all three spells, which does infact work, you can even tick all three spells perfectly to be cast at the same time.
Initially I was destroying them because of the lack of banking, then I tried dropping and saw that the imp jars were 1300+ gp (my drop limit was set to 1k, I then remembered that they added imp supply storage at Puro-Puro and decided to head there.
The video is the results, You can get roughly 90k+ EXP an hour, I've peaked at 106k with minimal failures.
It works out roughly to be 600 jars an hour (10 every minute) which by todays prices is roughly 780k (not taking into account cost of runes)

I found myself commenting a lot about sleep training my 13 mo. Posts about older babies usually have fewer responses because most people sleep train earlier. This post details how we sleep trained, night weaned, and dealt with early morning wake-ups. It does not include nap training.
Method - Sleep Wave from The Happy Sleeper book
Background - We moved when LO was 4 months old. I started a new job when she was 4.5 mo and she started daycare at 5 mo. We had originally planned to sleep training but after all that upheaval I was really enjoying nursing to sleep and rocking my daughter for awhile before putting her down. It was the most peaceful time of day for me. Also, it was working really well, so I didn’t feel the need to sleep train at them time. I’d also let the internet get into my head a little about sleep training and was less inclined to try.
As I said, it was working really well. I nursed to sleep, she got up twice a night to eat and that was really it until 8.5 months. Then, we had a never ending chain of ear infections which culminated in tubes at 11.5 months. Sleep was so terrible during that time (which obviously was inevitable) and while it got better, it never really recovered. So we sleep trained at 13 months.
Sleep Training - The Sleep Wave
I highly recommend reading the book. The method involves a sleep routine and 5 minute check-ins with a mantra.
Our bedtime routine: - breastfeeding - diapers and pjs - brush teeth - baby led play (awesome and highly recommend!) - sleep sack - books - rocking and lullaby - put down awake and say mantra
Check-ins: - If she was crying, we’d set a timer for 5 mins - timer goes off —> go in room, say a mantra like “it’s time sleep. We’ll be right outside. We love you.” Then, leave the room. No soothing. - Repeat check-in until asleep - She stops crying but then restarts, restart the timer when she starts crying again - Since I was breastfeeding (and to be honest baby is more attached to me), it was critical that my husband did the check-ins. Once we switched the first night, it was much faster. - We continued breastfeeding overnight until done with sleep training. If it had been 3 hours, I went in and fed her. Tried to put her down awake (didn’t always happen, I didn’t stress it). If she cried, my husband did the sleep wave. -If she cried between feedings, my husband did the sleep wave.
Night 1 - She was overtired. Fell asleep after one check-in by me. But woke up an hour later and screamed. I did a handful of check-ins that didn’t work great. She was standing and crying when I went in. My husband took over. I think after 2 check-ins with him, she went to sleep. She ate twice overnight, cried when I put her down, but went to sleep each time with 1-2 check-ins for Dad. She woke up a few times and went to sleep with check-ins.
Night 2 - cried when put down but went to sleep with 2 check-ins (I think). Ate overnight and woke up a few times but less than night 1
Night 3 - cried when out down but asleep after 1 check-in. Ate overnight twice. I don’t think she cried other times.
Nights 4-5 - I honestly can’t remember. She may have needed one check-in in the beginning or after eating. We were definitely done after 5 nights though.
Nights 6-7 - sometimes she would cry a little but always less than 5 minutes. Started timing limiting night feeds to 5 mins to prepare for weaning.
Night weaning - Reducing time
For a few nights before, I limited feeds to five minutes based on the book’s suggestion. Then, I dropped 30 seconds every other night. She eventually dropped to one feed and then none. If she regressed, I used the last amount of time. We were done in a week. She dropped them all before we hit the final time of 1 min 30 seconds. I think after that you start cutting feeds beginning with the earliest.
Early morning wake-ups - Sleep Wave and Green light
The downside of sleep training is it came with 5-5:30 wake-ups which were never an issue before. At first we just dealt with it but once sleep training and night weaning were cemented for a week or two, we followed the book’s advice.
We used the sleep wave from 5-6 am. The book recommends 6 am (or 11 hours after bedtime) as your okay to wake time. Even if that meant a check in at 5:55am. At 6 am, we went in, made a big deal about it being morning, and got up for the day. I also started using the green light and bird sounds on the hatch to signal it’s okay to wake. But I turn it on manually right before going in because we don’t actually need to be up until 6:30.
It took about a week. She just made it past 6 two nights in a row. Hopefully, it sticks. The book says to expect it to take 2-3 weeks.
Naps - We haven’t napped trained because we mostly don’t need to and she goes to daycare. Before daycare, we did drowsy but awake while we stayed in the room and sang. She learned to nap independently at daycare pretty much right away. Sometimes she wakes up to early on the weekends from naps. We hold her to if she hasn’t slept an hour yet. Since she’s only napping at home two days a week, we’re not going to nap train. Might do it when we drop to one nap if it’s an issue.
This post has gotten ridiculously long and it’s time to go to the playground. I’m going to edit it later. I’m sure there’s mistakes but I’ll post now so I don’t lose it.

05/19/2019: Money in the Bank 2019: Seth Rollins (c) def. AJ Styles - WWE Universal Championship
(Same buildup, same match, same everything. Styles still shakes Seth’s hand afterward.)
05/20/2019: Raw: Seth Rollins (c) def. Bobby Lashley - WWE Universal Championship
(For a short period of time, Seth brings back the open challenge. Bobby accepts first, putting up a hell of a fight against the Beast Slayer.)
05/27/2019: Raw: Seth Rollins (c) def. The Miz - WWE Universal Championship
(These two have put on some underrated matches in the past so why not have another one here? Seth wins in the best match of the night.)
06/07/2019: Super Showdown 2019: Seth Rollins (c) def. Brock Lesnar - WWE Universal Championship
(Instead of the weird Rollins/Corbin feud, on the go home show, Rollins is in the ring, waiting for someone to answer his open challenge when “The Beast” Brock Lesnar jumps him from behind, saying that at Super Showdown, he’s cashing in on Seth.)
06/23/2019: Stomping Grounds 2019: Seth Rollins (c) def. Drew McIntyre - WWE Universal Championship
(On the Raw after Super Showdown, Seth is in the ring talking about how he will accept any opponent, when Drew McIntyre attacks him from behind. Despite a cheating attempt, Seth retains.)
06/24/2019: Raw: Seth Rollins (c) def. Drew McIntyre - Steel Cage Match - WWE Universal Championship
(The blowoff to this feud. During the match, Elias smacked Seth over the head with a guitar.)
07/14/2019: Extreme Rules 2019: Seth Rollins (c) def. Elias - Extreme Rules Match - WWE Universal Championship
(After hitting Seth with a guitar on Raw, Seth is livid, these two fight every time they see each other. The match ends when Seth hits a Pedigree onto a guitar.)
07/22/2019: Raw: Seth Rollins (c) def. Braun Strowman - WWE Universal Championship
(After saving Seth from a getting jumped by Drew McIntyre and Elias, Seth gives Braun a chance at the Universal Title. Seth wins, but not easily.)
08/11/2019: SummerSlam 2019: Seth Rollins (c) def. Roman Reigns - WWE Universal Championship
(Elsewhere, Roman wins a mini tournament to get this match. In the buildup, there is nothing but love and respect for these two. That starts to crumble however, when they are in a tag match against Daniel Bryan and Rowan, when Seth went to hit Rowan with a chair, he accidentally hit Roman, much like he did 5 years prior. Roman said “I guess some people never change” and walked off. They do, however, shake hands post match and do the Shield fist bump.)
09/15/2019: Clash of Champions 2019: Seth Rollins (c) def. Robert Roode - WWE Universal Championship
(Instead of the random Rollins/Strowman tag title run, Roode won a gauntlet match to get here. They put on a great match nearing 20 minutes.)
09/30/2019: Raw: Seth Rollins (c) def. Bray Wyatt via DQ - WWE Universal Championship
(Same match as in real life, with The Fiend still attacking Seth post-match.)
10/06/2019: Hell in a Cell 2019: The Fiend (c) def. Seth Rollins - Hell in a Cell Match - WWE Universal Championship
(Same match, same buildup, same everything as in real life, except, oh i don’t know, THE FIEND WINS?! Arguably the dumbest booking decision of the past 5 years is avoided by remembering the rules of Hell in a Cell.)

Next week's Steam releases (2023-06-05 - 2023-06-11)

Game	Date	Followers	Genre	Additional
Secrets of the Witch House	Jun 5	20	3PS
Lhama Clicker Prologue	Jun 5	11	idleclicker
Alien Protection	Jun 6	2	defense
Noxious Weeds: Prologue	Jun 6	8	horde survivor	(release delayed)
Death Roads: Tournament Prologue	Jun 6	11	deckbuilder
Battle Grid	Jun 7	378	horde survivor	Early Access
Zombie Soup	Jun 7	2581	top-down	Early Access, demo
Survivors Will	Jun 8	14	horde survivor	demo
Slayer	Jun 8	6	FPS	Online Multiplayer
Block Tower TD	Jun 9	39	tower defense
Ethereal Rift	Jun 9	28	top-down	Local Multiplayer
Burning Branch	Jun 9	22	sidescroller	Early Access

Past week's Steam releases not on last week's list

(roguelites/comments/13ufjb1/steam_roguelite_release_list_2023_may_29_june_5/)

Game	Date	Followers	Genre	Additional
Astebros	May 30	121	platformer	Local Multiplayer
Monsters 'til Midnight	May 31	158	horde survivor	Local Multiplayer
Jianghu Survivor	May 31	2224	horde survivor	demo, Online Multiplayer, left early access
RuneLight	May 31	4	horde survivor	Early Access
Big Survivor	May 31	13	horde survivor
Galactic Glitch: Prologue	May 31	378	top-down
Three of Us 我们仨	May 31	36	autobattler
Battle Talent	Jun 1	1570	1st person melee	demo, VR Only
2 Minutes 16 Seconds (2分16秒)	Jun 1	9	shmup/horde survivor
That's My Space	Jun 1	12	top-down	Early Access, demo
Zero to Hero	Jun 1	25	turn-based tactics
Galactic Crew II	Jun 1	1326	space exploration / building	left early access
Pile Up!	Jun 2	4130	puzzle	Early Access
I'm a cowboy: Western Shooter	Jun 2	49	top-down	left early access
Defiled Survivors: Prologue	Jun 4	5	horde survivor

Past week's Steam demo releases (2023-05-29 - 2023-06-04)

Game	Date	Followers	Genre	Additional
Krzyżacy - The Knights of the Cross	May 29	579	deckbuilder
Feed The Cups	May 29	33	action restaurant management	Early Access, Local Multiplayer
Catboy Crazy	May 30	7	top-down
Landnama	May 30	405	builder
Trash of the Titans	May 31	2	turn-based tactical
That's My Space	May 31	12	top-down	Early Access
Predictors	May 31	491	turn-based tactical	Online Multiplayer
REDLINE CROOKS	Jun 2	28	top-down vehicle
Vampire Hunters	Jun 2	44	FPS horde survivor	Early Access
Riddle for your Life	Jun 2	2	Puzzle	Early Access
Blackout Protocol	Jun 2	2014	top-down	Early Access, Online Multiplayer
CrossOver: Roll For Initiative	Jun 2	141	Puzzle	Online Multiplayer
Van Hellswing	Jun 2	30	FPS / parkour	Steam says there's a demo, but I don't see it... Though itch.io demo here
RAD Survivor	Jun 2	10	horde survivor
The Dark Crown: Genesis	Jun 3	29	platformer
Witchcraft Survivors	Jun 4	6	horde survivor	Early Access

Games selected automatically by Steam tags (roguelite and roguelike). Follower count taken from Steam (it's the size of the game's community group). Steam wishlist counts are not public.

Tengo 5 plantas en vege (literalmente pensaba apsar a flora en estos días). Situación: -las plantas venían en 18/6 de luz. -ayer a las 22.00 se apaga la luz como venía siendo habitualmente -un amigo vino a las 23.00 y prendi la luz (menos de un minuto) para mostrarselas y volví a poner el timer donde estaba. -hoy me levanté hace un rato y vi que estaba la luz apagada cuando en realidad debería estar prendida desde las 4am.
El timer estaba bien puesto, así que algo falló (creo que el enchufe, pero ya lo solucioné).
La decisión que tomé es volver a prender la luz y apagarla a las 22.00, ya hasta las 10.00 de mañana, para empezar la flora.
Mi duda es, puede pasar algo por este error? Pueden hermafroditizar por esto?

Hi everyone, if this feels too long, TLDR is at the bottom . Would appreciate genuine advice.

I (25 M) met her (22 F) at work almost a year ago. We hit it off instantly and would spend lunches together and take walks during our breaks. I asked her out, but our work schedules and location made dating difficult.
She comes from a conservative family and stays with them, so we couldn't meet even on weekends.
She stopped talking to me and hanging out because of office gossip regarding us, even though I said that the gossip didn't bother me.
We then only spoke if it was work related. She quit 3-4 months before me because of personal reasons (and no, the office gossip wasn't the reason).
I stopped talking to her, deleted her number, and unfollowed her on social media after she left.
She suddenly contacted me during my notice period to talk about stuff and office gossip (who joined and who left, etc.). She was busy with interviews and online learning as well.
I guess my feelings were still there, so we started talking, chatting and following each other on social media again. I asked her out again, and we made plans to meet, but work, family, location, and other things always came in the way.
She had even come to shop at a market near my place and had asked me to come and accompany her, but I couldn't meet because of work pressure then.
We had finally agreed to meet after almost a month of chatting and talking, to a place and day of her choosing, but she finally got her new job on the day we were supposed to meet and is now busy with that.
I'm also working at a new place now, but our timings are completely different.
As of now, we barely talk on the phone, and even our messages are brief and we both take hours to respond, whereas we would respond to each other in seconds or minutes before. And as mentioned above, we also stay quite far from each other's place.
She's asked me to come to a nearby location next Friday to meet.
But honestly, I'm tired of the chase and am not interested anymore.

Should I just stop texting/talking or should I tell her my reasons for not going out?
I could say that our timings don't match, we constantly make plans but cannot follow up due to work, family, or other commitments and I feel its better to not meet and talk or chat anymore.
If I tell her, should I do so on text, voice message, or should I call her?
TLDR -

I met a girl at work and we hit it off instantly, asked her out, but our work schedule, location, family and office gossip made dating difficult.
We are working at different places now but due to the above reasons (except office gossip) makes meeting up difficult and I have lost interest in meeting and talking to her.
Should I just stop texting/talking or should I tell her my reasons for not going out?

One hundred and forty-nine stairs. That’s how many there are to get up to the fire tower I’m posted at. I used to think getting up there meant safety. Now, I’m hoping it just means survival.
Climbing one hundred and forty-nine steps when you’re healthy is no small feat. When one of your legs has been torn to shreds, you’re bleeding from many places and you’re trying to get up there to wrap it, hoping there’s enough bandages so you don’t bleed to death, it’s a lot more difficult.
Then there are the stairs themselves which also count as a hazard when you have to hop up each one, causing pain to shoot through your injured leg. The stairs are skinny enough as they are, but the closer you get to the top, the smaller they get.
How do I know the exact number of steps? I counted them. I also counted which ones I miscalculated my jump, or brushed my foot against the step, or did something else that nearly sent me sailing over the rickety railing to my untimely death. The first time was one step number three, then fifteen, thirty-seven was a bad one, fifty-two, one oh seven, one-twenty, and finally one-forty-three. I guess it’s a good thing I’m deathly afraid of heights.
By now you may have figured out, I’m a park ranger. How did I end up playing this deadly game of hopscotch? It started a week ago when I got the job.
I was super excited, because I love working alone, and I love nature. What other job blends those two so well?
That excitement waned quite a bit when I arrived at the tower on my first day and looked up at those tiny metal steps I would have to climb to get to my job. The whole thing looked about as sturdy as if someone had built it with an erector set. I mean honestly, seeing surface rust on stairs that have to support your weight is terrifying, and I had to wonder how much I would be swaying when the wind really kicked up.
I wanted to close my eyes and just run up, but I didn’t dare. I paid attention to every single step, watching the metal bow under the weight of my foot, white-knuckling the railings as I went.
Finally, I reached the top and knocked on the trapdoor that had to be opened to let me in. I met the ranger who would be training me. His name was Bob, and he looked every bit how I envision a park ranger would look. Tall and thin, wiry but not scrawny, with a five o’clock shadow because he never had the time to shave properly.
Bob was one of those guys who seemed to always have a smirk on their face like they’ve just been told the greatest joke of all time, but they don’t want to let you in on it.
He spent the entire shift showing me around and then boring me to tears with all the little details of working in a fire tower. The place wasn’t bad. I was expecting an empty room with a card table and a radio, but this was nice. It reminded me of a small apartment or the inside of a small RV. There was a kitchenette with a microwave, sink, and minifridge. There was a couch and a couple of chairs, and most importantly, there was a bathroom.
At one point I thought there would be an outhouse at the base of the tower I would have to use. The thought of going down all those steps while holding number one or especially number two was something I didn’t even want to have nightmares about.
Just before the end of the shift, the next ranger came up. His name was Toby.
Toby looked nothing like I envisioned rangers looking like. He was overweight but made up for it by being under tall. He had a look of mischief in his eyes like a seventh grader who had just dropped a cherry bomb down the toilet and was trying to walk away looking nonchalant.
He smiled and shook my hand.
“So did Bob bore you to tears?” he said.
“Not quite to tears,” I said.
“Hey, I’m a good trainer,” Bob said looking offended yet still wearing that grin.
“Did you tell him everything?” Toby said.
“Pretty sure,” Bob said.
“Did you tell him about?” Toby leaned closer and whispered something in Bob’s ear that I couldn’t hear.
Bob’s grin grew.
“No, I didn’t tell him about that.”
“Maybe we should wait until he’s done training,” Toby said.
“What?” I said looking back and forth between them.
“We’ll tell you once you’re done job shadowing,” Bob said with that infuriating grin.
When we left, I was so focused on what they weren’t telling me, I nearly missed the first step and plunged to my death.
“Yeah, you’re gonna want to focus on those steps,” Bob said. “We had a coworker get hurt really bad because of them.”
“Is he ok now?”
Bob looked away.
Toby came over and volunteered, “He’s dead.”
That was definitely what I wanted to hear.
The next few days were a blur. Between total boredom with reading the procedure book and Bob grinning all the while refusing to tell me the big secret, I was getting super frustrated. I couldn’t wait for my first night working alone.
At least I had brought some supplies up to keep in the tower. Some snacks, a few books, and a tablet to make some notes on if I started writing a story.
Finally, the night came. I was working on my own for the first time. Surprisingly, Bob’s smile vanished as he told me.
“Did you ever read anything off of Reddit?” he said.
I shrugged.
“I don’t really read much other than books.”
“Sign up for Reddit, then go to the nosleep subreddit and look for a story called, ‘I was a park ranger stationed in a fire tower. It had a strange set of rules.’ Read that. It’ll tell you what to do.”
“Ok,” I said. “That’s the big secret? Read someone’s made-up story?”
“It might seem made up,” he said. “But trust me, follow the rules.”
I tried to read his expression to see if he was messing with me or not. In the five days I’d known him, there was never a time he wasn’t wearing that stupid grin, until now. His face was serious as a heart attack.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll look it up later on my phone.”
“You really should do it as soon as I leave.”
“Ok.”
“Good luck.”
He stepped over to the door and went down the stairs. A few minutes later I heard his truck drive away.
“What the hell was that about?”
I stood in the middle of the room looking out at the beautiful trees, but not even seeing them. My mind was occupied by what Bob had said.
“It has to be a prank,” I said to the empty room. “Bob and Toby cooked this up to scare me on my first night. Well, I’m not falling for it.”
I did my first round of walking around on the outside walkway, looking for any sign of fires. We worked twelve-hour shifts, so I was working from seven am to seven pm. It was late summer and still warm enough to go without a jacket, at least on my first round. By the time I got to my fourth round, there was a chill in the air. I started doing my rounds from the inside and made a mental note to bring a jacket with me tomorrow.
It seemed odd to be talking about a jacket in late summer, but in the forest, the temperatures can vary wildly. It could be thirty degrees at night and eighty during the day.
I stepped back inside and saw my phone had lit up with a text message. I looked at it and it was Bob.
‘Did you read the rules yet?’
‘No,’ I texted back.
‘You don’t have much time.’
I knew this was a joke, it had to be a joke. The old timers pulling a fast one on the new guy, jerking his chain a little.
‘I’ll get right on it,’ I texted.
‘You better.’
I put my phone down and looked at the clock. It was ten minutes after ten. Outside was now completely dark, creating a very disconcerting illusion where when I would look outside, all I saw was my reflection. I decided to turn some lights off and go with just the bare minimum. That reduced the reflection some and I could see some trees outside.
I did a slow pan around, then grabbed a bag of chips and a soda, sat down, and worked on a crossword puzzle. That only lasted a half hour until I was bored with it. I picked up a book and started to read.
I woke sometime later, with my head resting on the back of the chair, chip crumbs all over my shirt, and the book laying on the floor.
I stretched and looked over at the clock. It read two-thirteen.
I jumped up, flinging the bag of chips to the floor, realizing I’d missed several checks, then ran around the room staring out at the trees. After my quick lap, I took a breath and did another slower lap to make sure there was no smoke. Thank God, there was none.
I chided myself for falling asleep on duty like that as I cleaned up my mess. I decided I should set an hourly alarm on my phone so that wouldn’t happen again.
When I picked up the phone I noticed there was a series of texts from Bob.
‘Did you read it yet?’
‘Why aren’t you answering?’
‘Are you alright?’
‘Don’t open the door for any reason.’
The last one sent chills down my spine.
Why would I open the door in the middle of the night?
As I was thinking this, another text came in.
‘For the love of God, read it!’
What the hell was wrong with this guy? Was he seriously losing sleep for a stupid joke?
I decided I would humor him and read the story. I opened my phone and went to the Reddit site. I had just signed up and put my information in when I heard static over the radio. I stepped to the receiver and checked it. Static blared out of it, making me jump as I heard a faint voice in it.
“Tower seven, do you read me?” I heard from a voice I could barely hear through the static.
I hesitated for a moment trying to remember if this was tower seven or not.
“Tower seven do you read me?” the voice said sounding a little more desperate.
I picked up the mic and keyed it.
“This is tower seven, go ahead.”
“It’s good to hear you tower seven,” the voice said suddenly clear. “I didn’t think you would answer.”
“Well, here I am, awake and alert, answering you,” I said. “What did you need?”
“I already have what I need,” the voice said sounding like it was chuckling. “I’d like to come visit if that’s alright.”
“Tower seven, this is base, who are you talking to?”
“I don’t know, someone on the radio,” I said into the mic.
“Seven, there’s no one else on this channel,” base said.
I got chills for a moment. What did that mean? How was I hearing someone that base couldn’t? Why would someone be calling now? Then it hit me that the base dispatcher was probably in on the joke too.
“Ok, base, maybe it was just some random transmission.”
“Tower seven,” the voice said. “Am I alright to come from a visit?”
I hesitated for a moment. What if it wasn’t a joke? Who the hell is walking through the forest at two thirty in the morning?
“Maybe we’ll do that visit another time,” I said.
“Visit?” base said. “What visit? Seven, you know it’s against policy to have visitors.”
“Yeah, sorry, base, I won’t be letting anyone visit.”
More static came over the radio. I could swear I could hear someone say something in the middle of it.
It sounded like, “We’ll see.”
I put down the mic and picked up my phone to read the story when I saw something off in the distance. It was a light, but it was hovering, like a helicopter. I switched my phone to camera mode, zoomed in, and took a picture. It was weird because the light was blue. I didn’t think helicopters had blue lights on them. Also, this light wasn’t flashing, it was solid the whole time. It came closer and I took another picture.
It floated even closer. It was mesmerizing. There was no sound. No hum, no whirring of tiny blades keeping it afloat like a drone, nothing. It was about the size of a basketball and glowing the most brilliant blue I’d ever seen. I reached out for it and it backed away from my hand. I took a step closer to the edge of the walkway, reaching out as far as my arm could stretch.
It backed away a few inches, just out of reach. I stood on my tiptoes, pushing against the railing trying to touch it. It moved away another inch.
I reached the tipping point and pinwheeled my arms to regain my balance and shove back against the railing.
I fell onto the walkway, landing hard on my backside and hitting the back of my head against the window. I looked up and the light was gone.
I shook my head, painfully stood up, and went back inside. I didn’t want to do a patrol but figured I’d better. After a slow walk around, I collapsed in the chair and set my alarm to go off in an hour.
After sitting there for a few minutes I could feel myself nodding off, so I opened my phone and started reading the story. After about ten minutes, I lowered my phone, eyes wide, hands shaking.
“It can’t be real,” I whispered. “It’s just a joke.”
I scrolled back through the story and re-read the rules.

Never, under any circumstances, leave the fire tower until you are relieved.
Turn off all lights between the hours of 2 and 3 am.
If you receive a radio transmission or phone call between those hours, do not answer.
If anyone knocks on the trapdoor during those hours tell them they’ll have to wait until morning. Do not open the door.
If you see a glowing object floating toward the tower, don’t look at it. Cover your eyes and count to 50. When you open your eyes it should be gone. If not, cover and count to 50 again.
If animals surround the tower don’t go down to look. Fire your flare gun into the air twice one minute apart, then lock yourself in the bathroom and hope for the best.
My skepticism started to waver. How could they have known about those things, unless…

There was a powerful banging at the trapdoor that made me jump.
“Who is it?” I said.
No one answered.
I minute later, the pounding resumed. I searched for anything I could use as a weapon. Digging through the silverware drawer and finding an old, dull, paring knife, I backed as far away from the trapdoor as possible while staying inside. The pounding repeated. Somehow through the fear that coursed through my veins, I found my voice.
“You’ll have to come back in the morning,” I said.
“But I’m here now tower,” said the voice from the radio. “Let… me… in... ”
The last three words changed from asking to demanding. The voice also became deeper and more menacing.
I didn’t answer. I just slid down to the floor and hugged my knees holding the knife in front of me, silently searching through the story on my phone to see if there was something I missed, some way I could remedy the situation. But there was nothing, and the end of the story didn’t give me much hope.
I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the pounding continued now mixed with the voice that was going back and forth between pleading and threatening. It whispered then it screamed. It sound like a young boy, then it sounded demonic.
I rocked back and forth trying to keep some measure of sanity as the assault continued. I began to wonder how long the trapdoor would hold before whatever it was broke through.
Then suddenly it stopped.
As happy as I was that there was no more pounding and yelling, I didn’t trust it. My entire body was on pins and needles. It felt like the calm before the storm.
The fire tower shook. It felt like an earthquake, only different. I stood and went out to the walkway to see what was happening. When I looked down, I couldn’t believe it. The tower was surrounded by animals of all kinds. Deer, squirrels, bears, moose, any forest animal you could imagine, and even a couple I couldn’t and didn’t want to identify.
As I leaned over watching this strange menagerie, a moose rammed into one of the tower’s legs. It sent a shockwave through the entire metal framework. By the time it got up to me the tower was shaking so hard it made me lose my balance.
I toppled over the edge and fell. I threw my arm out attempting to catch the rail, but only touched it with my fingertips.
I knew I was falling to my death, there was no doubt. The wind rushing in my ears didn’t drown out the sound of my screaming. It sounded odd like I was listening to someone else scream. I closed my eyes, not wanting to know when the end was coming.
Suddenly something hit me hard in the ribs. I looked and I had hit a tree limb, but it didn’t stop me. The branch broke sending me falling again until I hit another branch. This one tore a gash on my leg as I flipped head over heels and fell again. The next branch grazed my head and made me see stars. I bounced off another branch hitting my shoulder, then took one to the knee, and landed flat on my back on the ground.
I lay there dazed, injured, but alive and surprised to be so. As I tried to regain my bearings, I saw the animals rushing over to me. I doubted they wanted me to pet them while they licked my wounds and cared for me while singing Disney songs.
I jumped up as pain rocked my body from more places than I wanted to think about. I hopped over to the tower steps and began my long arduous journey, just a half step away from a bunch of animals that seemed dead set on my destruction.
About halfway up I realized there was no more pursuit, so I slowed trying to conserve energy.
I got to the top, unlocked the hatch and tried to push it open. It took several tries to get enough strength while balancing on one leg standing on the tiniest of all the tiny steps. As soon as I got it open, I turned and slammed it shut, locking it.
I hobbled into the room, found the first aid box and struggled to get to the couch. I wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and forget this day ever happened.
I tried to easily lay myself down, but ended up collapsing in an excruciating heap.
Once down, I focused on bandaging the leg since it was losing the most blood. Once done, I proceeded to bandage all the rest of the areas that needed.
“How are you feeling, tower seven?” I heard the voice say over the radio.
I didn’t answer.
“Oh, come on now tower, don’t be like that,” it said. “Talk to me. Let me in and we’ll have a conversation.”
I lay there trying to think of anything other than pain and this voice.
“There has to be punishment for disobeying the rules.”
My blood ran cold. How did that thing know about the rules?
I reached into my pocket and was astonished that my phone was there. It had a cracked screen, but was usable. I texted Bob.
‘I’m alive, somehow. I broke half the rules without knowing it because I read the story too late.’
‘Are you alright?’
I took pictures of my bandaged leg that was wrapped but blood was still seeping through. I took pictures of my battered face, and my bruised ribs. I sent them all to Bob.
‘Good Lord, man, what did you do?’
‘I fell out of the tower.’
‘You did what?’
‘Was leaning over the edge of the walkway when one of the animals smashed into the support leg and shook the tower, knocking me over.’
‘How are you alive?’
‘Tree caught me.’
‘I’ll call the paramedics and come in early to relieve you.’
‘I’ll be laying here on the couch, bleeding.’
Then I added, ‘I’ll follow the rules from now on.’
There was static on the radio and a faint voice said, “You’d better.”
***
When Bob unlocked the hatch and led the EMTs in, he didn’t have that grin on his face.
“You ok, kid?” he said.
“Hunky dory, how about you?” I said laying on the cushions that were soaked in my own blood.
“He might be in shock,” one of the EMTs said.
My rescue was an adventure in itself. When they examined me they informed me that my leg was broken. I was sweating trying to go back down those steps with a splint on. I could just see me slipping near the top and falling again. There didn’t seem to be any trees close enough to catch me on this side.
Apparently, the EMTs seemed to be thinking the same thing. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of tying me to a backboard and trying to carry me down the steps. After two EMTs nearly fell, they decided to tie it to a rope and lower me like a sack of potatoes.
They rigged up a rope around one of the support poles for the walkway. Watching the rope scrape along the edges of the wood, fraying as it went was probably more terrifying than anything I’d experienced last night.
Floating in the air, spinning slowly didn’t help my fear of heights any. I decided to close my eyes and try to stay as still as possible so the balance wouldn’t be disturbed and slide me out of the end to fall to my death.
I was extremely grateful when the board hit the ground. My adrenaline finally crashed and I fell into a deep sleep as they loaded me into the ambulance.
***
Truth be told, I’m absolutely terrified to go back to the tower. It’s not like I have a lot of choices. Park ranger is a good paying job and sitting around watching for fires is about the easiest job I’ve ever heard of.
If you take away the supernatural voices, bizarre wildlife, strange lights, and the stairs of death.
I’m hoping paying attention to the rules will keep me safe.
I’m posting this as a warning. If your job has some strange rules, make sure you follow them, no matter how stupid you think they might be.

One hundred and forty-nine stairs. That’s how many there are to get up to the fire tower I’m posted at. I used to think getting up there meant safety. Now, I’m hoping it just means survival.
Climbing one hundred and forty-nine steps when you’re healthy is no small feat. When one of your legs has been torn to shreds, you’re bleeding from many places and you’re trying to get up there to wrap it, hoping there’s enough bandages so you don’t bleed to death, it’s a lot more difficult.
Then there are the stairs themselves which also count as a hazard when you have to hop up each one, causing pain to shoot through your injured leg. The stairs are skinny enough as they are, but the closer you get to the top, the smaller they get.
How do I know the exact number of steps? I counted them. I also counted which ones I miscalculated my jump, or brushed my foot against the step, or did something else that nearly sent me sailing over the rickety railing to my untimely death. The first time was one step number three, then fifteen, thirty-seven was a bad one, fifty-two, one oh seven, one-twenty, and finally one-forty-three. I guess it’s a good thing I’m deathly afraid of heights.
By now you may have figured out, I’m a park ranger. How did I end up playing this deadly game of hopscotch? It started a week ago when I got the job.
I was super excited, because I love working alone, and I love nature. What other job blends those two so well?
That excitement waned quite a bit when I arrived at the tower on my first day and looked up at those tiny metal steps I would have to climb to get to my job. The whole thing looked about as sturdy as if someone had built it with an erector set. I mean honestly, seeing surface rust on stairs that have to support your weight is terrifying, and I had to wonder how much I would be swaying when the wind really kicked up.
I wanted to close my eyes and just run up, but I didn’t dare. I paid attention to every single step, watching the metal bow under the weight of my foot, white-knuckling the railings as I went.
Finally, I reached the top and knocked on the trapdoor that had to be opened to let me in. I met the ranger who would be training me. His name was Bob, and he looked every bit how I envision a park ranger would look. Tall and thin, wiry but not scrawny, with a five o’clock shadow because he never had the time to shave properly.
Bob was one of those guys who seemed to always have a smirk on their face like they’ve just been told the greatest joke of all time, but they don’t want to let you in on it.
He spent the entire shift showing me around and then boring me to tears with all the little details of working in a fire tower. The place wasn’t bad. I was expecting an empty room with a card table and a radio, but this was nice. It reminded me of a small apartment or the inside of a small RV. There was a kitchenette with a microwave, sink, and minifridge. There was a couch and a couple of chairs, and most importantly, there was a bathroom.
At one point I thought there would be an outhouse at the base of the tower I would have to use. The thought of going down all those steps while holding number one or especially number two was something I didn’t even want to have nightmares about.
Just before the end of the shift, the next ranger came up. His name was Toby.
Toby looked nothing like I envisioned rangers looking like. He was overweight but made up for it by being under tall. He had a look of mischief in his eyes like a seventh grader who had just dropped a cherry bomb down the toilet and was trying to walk away looking nonchalant.
He smiled and shook my hand.
“So did Bob bore you to tears?” he said.
“Not quite to tears,” I said.
“Hey, I’m a good trainer,” Bob said looking offended yet still wearing that grin.
“Did you tell him everything?” Toby said.
“Pretty sure,” Bob said.
“Did you tell him about?” Toby leaned closer and whispered something in Bob’s ear that I couldn’t hear.
Bob’s grin grew.
“No, I didn’t tell him about that.”
“Maybe we should wait until he’s done training,” Toby said.
“What?” I said looking back and forth between them.
“We’ll tell you once you’re done job shadowing,” Bob said with that infuriating grin.
When we left, I was so focused on what they weren’t telling me, I nearly missed the first step and plunged to my death.
“Yeah, you’re gonna want to focus on those steps,” Bob said. “We had a coworker get hurt really bad because of them.”
“Is he ok now?”
Bob looked away.
Toby came over and volunteered, “He’s dead.”
That was definitely what I wanted to hear.
The next few days were a blur. Between total boredom with reading the procedure book and Bob grinning all the while refusing to tell me the big secret, I was getting super frustrated. I couldn’t wait for my first night working alone.
At least I had brought some supplies up to keep in the tower. Some snacks, a few books, and a tablet to make some notes on if I started writing a story.
Finally, the night came. I was working on my own for the first time. Surprisingly, Bob’s smile vanished as he told me.
“Did you ever read anything off of Reddit?” he said.
I shrugged.
“I don’t really read much other than books.”
“Sign up for Reddit, then go to the nosleep subreddit and look for a story called, ‘I was a park ranger stationed in a fire tower. It had a strange set of rules.’ Read that. It’ll tell you what to do.”
“Ok,” I said. “That’s the big secret? Read someone’s made-up story?”
“It might seem made up,” he said. “But trust me, follow the rules.”
I tried to read his expression to see if he was messing with me or not. In the five days I’d known him, there was never a time he wasn’t wearing that stupid grin, until now. His face was serious as a heart attack.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll look it up later on my phone.”
“You really should do it as soon as I leave.”
“Ok.”
“Good luck.”
He stepped over to the door and went down the stairs. A few minutes later I heard his truck drive away.
“What the hell was that about?”
I stood in the middle of the room looking out at the beautiful trees, but not even seeing them. My mind was occupied by what Bob had said.
“It has to be a prank,” I said to the empty room. “Bob and Toby cooked this up to scare me on my first night. Well, I’m not falling for it.”
I did my first round of walking around on the outside walkway, looking for any sign of fires. We worked twelve-hour shifts, so I was working from seven am to seven pm. It was late summer and still warm enough to go without a jacket, at least on my first round. By the time I got to my fourth round, there was a chill in the air. I started doing my rounds from the inside and made a mental note to bring a jacket with me tomorrow.
It seemed odd to be talking about a jacket in late summer, but in the forest, the temperatures can vary wildly. It could be thirty degrees at night and eighty during the day.
I stepped back inside and saw my phone had lit up with a text message. I looked at it and it was Bob.
‘Did you read the rules yet?’
‘No,’ I texted back.
‘You don’t have much time.’
I knew this was a joke, it had to be a joke. The old timers pulling a fast one on the new guy, jerking his chain a little.
‘I’ll get right on it,’ I texted.
‘You better.’
I put my phone down and looked at the clock. It was ten minutes after ten. Outside was now completely dark, creating a very disconcerting illusion where when I would look outside, all I saw was my reflection. I decided to turn some lights off and go with just the bare minimum. That reduced the reflection some and I could see some trees outside.
I did a slow pan around, then grabbed a bag of chips and a soda, sat down, and worked on a crossword puzzle. That only lasted a half hour until I was bored with it. I picked up a book and started to read.
I woke sometime later, with my head resting on the back of the chair, chip crumbs all over my shirt, and the book laying on the floor.
I stretched and looked over at the clock. It read two-thirteen.
I jumped up, flinging the bag of chips to the floor, realizing I’d missed several checks, then ran around the room staring out at the trees. After my quick lap, I took a breath and did another slower lap to make sure there was no smoke. Thank God, there was none.
I chided myself for falling asleep on duty like that as I cleaned up my mess. I decided I should set an hourly alarm on my phone so that wouldn’t happen again.
When I picked up the phone I noticed there was a series of texts from Bob.
‘Did you read it yet?’
‘Why aren’t you answering?’
‘Are you alright?’
‘Don’t open the door for any reason.’
The last one sent chills down my spine.
Why would I open the door in the middle of the night?
As I was thinking this, another text came in.
‘For the love of God, read it!’
What the hell was wrong with this guy? Was he seriously losing sleep for a stupid joke?
I decided I would humor him and read the story. I opened my phone and went to the Reddit site. I had just signed up and put my information in when I heard static over the radio. I stepped to the receiver and checked it. Static blared out of it, making me jump as I heard a faint voice in it.
“Tower seven, do you read me?” I heard from a voice I could barely hear through the static.
I hesitated for a moment trying to remember if this was tower seven or not.
“Tower seven do you read me?” the voice said sounding a little more desperate.
I picked up the mic and keyed it.
“This is tower seven, go ahead.”
“It’s good to hear you tower seven,” the voice said suddenly clear. “I didn’t think you would answer.”
“Well, here I am, awake and alert, answering you,” I said. “What did you need?”
“I already have what I need,” the voice said sounding like it was chuckling. “I’d like to come visit if that’s alright.”
“Tower seven, this is base, who are you talking to?”
“I don’t know, someone on the radio,” I said into the mic.
“Seven, there’s no one else on this channel,” base said.
I got chills for a moment. What did that mean? How was I hearing someone that base couldn’t? Why would someone be calling now? Then it hit me that the base dispatcher was probably in on the joke too.
“Ok, base, maybe it was just some random transmission.”
“Tower seven,” the voice said. “Am I alright to come from a visit?”
I hesitated for a moment. What if it wasn’t a joke? Who the hell is walking through the forest at two thirty in the morning?
“Maybe we’ll do that visit another time,” I said.
“Visit?” base said. “What visit? Seven, you know it’s against policy to have visitors.”
“Yeah, sorry, base, I won’t be letting anyone visit.”
More static came over the radio. I could swear I could hear someone say something in the middle of it.
It sounded like, “We’ll see.”
I put down the mic and picked up my phone to read the story when I saw something off in the distance. It was a light, but it was hovering, like a helicopter. I switched my phone to camera mode, zoomed in, and took a picture. It was weird because the light was blue. I didn’t think helicopters had blue lights on them. Also, this light wasn’t flashing, it was solid the whole time. It came closer and I took another picture.
It floated even closer. It was mesmerizing. There was no sound. No hum, no whirring of tiny blades keeping it afloat like a drone, nothing. It was about the size of a basketball and glowing the most brilliant blue I’d ever seen. I reached out for it and it backed away from my hand. I took a step closer to the edge of the walkway, reaching out as far as my arm could stretch.
It backed away a few inches, just out of reach. I stood on my tiptoes, pushing against the railing trying to touch it. It moved away another inch.
I reached the tipping point and pinwheeled my arms to regain my balance and shove back against the railing.
I fell onto the walkway, landing hard on my backside and hitting the back of my head against the window. I looked up and the light was gone.
I shook my head, painfully stood up, and went back inside. I didn’t want to do a patrol but figured I’d better. After a slow walk around, I collapsed in the chair and set my alarm to go off in an hour.
After sitting there for a few minutes I could feel myself nodding off, so I opened my phone and started reading the story. After about ten minutes, I lowered my phone, eyes wide, hands shaking.
“It can’t be real,” I whispered. “It’s just a joke.”
I scrolled back through the story and re-read the rules.

Never, under any circumstances, leave the fire tower until you are relieved.
Turn off all lights between the hours of 2 and 3 am.
If you receive a radio transmission or phone call between those hours, do not answer.
If anyone knocks on the trapdoor during those hours tell them they’ll have to wait until morning. Do not open the door.
If you see a glowing object floating toward the tower, don’t look at it. Cover your eyes and count to 50. When you open your eyes it should be gone. If not, cover and count to 50 again.
If animals surround the tower don’t go down to look. Fire your flare gun into the air twice one minute apart, then lock yourself in the bathroom and hope for the best.
My skepticism started to waver. How could they have known about those things, unless…

There was a powerful banging at the trapdoor that made me jump.
“Who is it?” I said.
No one answered.
I minute later, the pounding resumed. I searched for anything I could use as a weapon. Digging through the silverware drawer and finding an old, dull, paring knife, I backed as far away from the trapdoor as possible while staying inside. The pounding repeated. Somehow through the fear that coursed through my veins, I found my voice.
“You’ll have to come back in the morning,” I said.
“But I’m here now tower,” said the voice from the radio. “Let… me… in... ”
The last three words changed from asking to demanding. The voice also became deeper and more menacing.
I didn’t answer. I just slid down to the floor and hugged my knees holding the knife in front of me, silently searching through the story on my phone to see if there was something I missed, some way I could remedy the situation. But there was nothing, and the end of the story didn’t give me much hope.
I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the pounding continued now mixed with the voice that was going back and forth between pleading and threatening. It whispered then it screamed. It sound like a young boy, then it sounded demonic.
I rocked back and forth trying to keep some measure of sanity as the assault continued. I began to wonder how long the trapdoor would hold before whatever it was broke through.
Then suddenly it stopped.
As happy as I was that there was no more pounding and yelling, I didn’t trust it. My entire body was on pins and needles. It felt like the calm before the storm.
The fire tower shook. It felt like an earthquake, only different. I stood and went out to the walkway to see what was happening. When I looked down, I couldn’t believe it. The tower was surrounded by animals of all kinds. Deer, squirrels, bears, moose, any forest animal you could imagine, and even a couple I couldn’t and didn’t want to identify.
As I leaned over watching this strange menagerie, a moose rammed into one of the tower’s legs. It sent a shockwave through the entire metal framework. By the time it got up to me the tower was shaking so hard it made me lose my balance.
I toppled over the edge and fell. I threw my arm out attempting to catch the rail, but only touched it with my fingertips.
I knew I was falling to my death, there was no doubt. The wind rushing in my ears didn’t drown out the sound of my screaming. It sounded odd like I was listening to someone else scream. I closed my eyes, not wanting to know when the end was coming.
Suddenly something hit me hard in the ribs. I looked and I had hit a tree limb, but it didn’t stop me. The branch broke sending me falling again until I hit another branch. This one tore a gash on my leg as I flipped head over heels and fell again. The next branch grazed my head and made me see stars. I bounced off another branch hitting my shoulder, then took one to the knee, and landed flat on my back on the ground.
I lay there dazed, injured, but alive and surprised to be so. As I tried to regain my bearings, I saw the animals rushing over to me. I doubted they wanted me to pet them while they licked my wounds and cared for me while singing Disney songs.
I jumped up as pain rocked my body from more places than I wanted to think about. I hopped over to the tower steps and began my long arduous journey, just a half step away from a bunch of animals that seemed dead set on my destruction.
About halfway up I realized there was no more pursuit, so I slowed trying to conserve energy.
I got to the top, unlocked the hatch and tried to push it open. It took several tries to get enough strength while balancing on one leg standing on the tiniest of all the tiny steps. As soon as I got it open, I turned and slammed it shut, locking it.
I hobbled into the room, found the first aid box and struggled to get to the couch. I wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and forget this day ever happened.
I tried to easily lay myself down, but ended up collapsing in an excruciating heap.
Once down, I focused on bandaging the leg since it was losing the most blood. Once done, I proceeded to bandage all the rest of the areas that needed.
“How are you feeling, tower seven?” I heard the voice say over the radio.
I didn’t answer.
“Oh, come on now tower, don’t be like that,” it said. “Talk to me. Let me in and we’ll have a conversation.”
I lay there trying to think of anything other than pain and this voice.
“There has to be punishment for disobeying the rules.”
My blood ran cold. How did that thing know about the rules?
I reached into my pocket and was astonished that my phone was there. It had a cracked screen, but was usable. I texted Bob.
‘I’m alive, somehow. I broke half the rules without knowing it because I read the story too late.’
‘Are you alright?’
I took pictures of my bandaged leg that was wrapped but blood was still seeping through. I took pictures of my battered face, and my bruised ribs. I sent them all to Bob.
‘Good Lord, man, what did you do?’
‘I fell out of the tower.’
‘You did what?’
‘Was leaning over the edge of the walkway when one of the animals smashed into the support leg and shook the tower, knocking me over.’
‘How are you alive?’
‘Tree caught me.’
‘I’ll call the paramedics and come in early to relieve you.’
‘I’ll be laying here on the couch, bleeding.’
Then I added, ‘I’ll follow the rules from now on.’
There was static on the radio and a faint voice said, “You’d better.”
***
When Bob unlocked the hatch and led the EMTs in, he didn’t have that grin on his face.
“You ok, kid?” he said.
“Hunky dory, how about you?” I said laying on the cushions that were soaked in my own blood.
“He might be in shock,” one of the EMTs said.
My rescue was an adventure in itself. When they examined me they informed me that my leg was broken. I was sweating trying to go back down those steps with a splint on. I could just see me slipping near the top and falling again. There didn’t seem to be any trees close enough to catch me on this side.
Apparently, the EMTs seemed to be thinking the same thing. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of tying me to a backboard and trying to carry me down the steps. After two EMTs nearly fell, they decided to tie it to a rope and lower me like a sack of potatoes.
They rigged up a rope around one of the support poles for the walkway. Watching the rope scrape along the edges of the wood, fraying as it went was probably more terrifying than anything I’d experienced last night.
Floating in the air, spinning slowly didn’t help my fear of heights any. I decided to close my eyes and try to stay as still as possible so the balance wouldn’t be disturbed and slide me out of the end to fall to my death.
I was extremely grateful when the board hit the ground. My adrenaline finally crashed and I fell into a deep sleep as they loaded me into the ambulance.
***
Truth be told, I’m absolutely terrified to go back to the tower. It’s not like I have a lot of choices. Park ranger is a good paying job and sitting around watching for fires is about the easiest job I’ve ever heard of.
If you take away the supernatural voices, bizarre wildlife, strange lights, and the stairs of death.
I’m hoping paying attention to the rules will keep me safe.
I’m posting this as a warning. If your job has some strange rules, make sure you follow them, no matter how stupid you think they might be.

One hundred and forty-nine stairs. That’s how many there are to get up to the fire tower I’m posted at. I used to think getting up there meant safety. Now, I’m hoping it just means survival.
Climbing one hundred and forty-nine steps when you’re healthy is no small feat. When one of your legs has been torn to shreds, you’re bleeding from many places and you’re trying to get up there to wrap it, hoping there’s enough bandages so you don’t bleed to death, it’s a lot more difficult.
Then there are the stairs themselves which also count as a hazard when you have to hop up each one, causing pain to shoot through your injured leg. The stairs are skinny enough as they are, but the closer you get to the top, the smaller they get.
How do I know the exact number of steps? I counted them. I also counted which ones I miscalculated my jump, or brushed my foot against the step, or did something else that nearly sent me sailing over the rickety railing to my untimely death. The first time was one step number three, then fifteen, thirty-seven was a bad one, fifty-two, one oh seven, one-twenty, and finally one-forty-three. I guess it’s a good thing I’m deathly afraid of heights.
By now you may have figured out, I’m a park ranger. How did I end up playing this deadly game of hopscotch? It started a week ago when I got the job.
I was super excited, because I love working alone, and I love nature. What other job blends those two so well?
That excitement waned quite a bit when I arrived at the tower on my first day and looked up at those tiny metal steps I would have to climb to get to my job. The whole thing looked about as sturdy as if someone had built it with an erector set. I mean honestly, seeing surface rust on stairs that have to support your weight is terrifying, and I had to wonder how much I would be swaying when the wind really kicked up.
I wanted to close my eyes and just run up, but I didn’t dare. I paid attention to every single step, watching the metal bow under the weight of my foot, white-knuckling the railings as I went.
Finally, I reached the top and knocked on the trapdoor that had to be opened to let me in. I met the ranger who would be training me. His name was Bob, and he looked every bit how I envision a park ranger would look. Tall and thin, wiry but not scrawny, with a five o’clock shadow because he never had the time to shave properly.
Bob was one of those guys who seemed to always have a smirk on their face like they’ve just been told the greatest joke of all time, but they don’t want to let you in on it.
He spent the entire shift showing me around and then boring me to tears with all the little details of working in a fire tower. The place wasn’t bad. I was expecting an empty room with a card table and a radio, but this was nice. It reminded me of a small apartment or the inside of a small RV. There was a kitchenette with a microwave, sink, and minifridge. There was a couch and a couple of chairs, and most importantly, there was a bathroom.
At one point I thought there would be an outhouse at the base of the tower I would have to use. The thought of going down all those steps while holding number one or especially number two was something I didn’t even want to have nightmares about.
Just before the end of the shift, the next ranger came up. His name was Toby.
Toby looked nothing like I envisioned rangers looking like. He was overweight but made up for it by being under tall. He had a look of mischief in his eyes like a seventh grader who had just dropped a cherry bomb down the toilet and was trying to walk away looking nonchalant.
He smiled and shook my hand.
“So did Bob bore you to tears?” he said.
“Not quite to tears,” I said.
“Hey, I’m a good trainer,” Bob said looking offended yet still wearing that grin.
“Did you tell him everything?” Toby said.
“Pretty sure,” Bob said.
“Did you tell him about?” Toby leaned closer and whispered something in Bob’s ear that I couldn’t hear.
Bob’s grin grew.
“No, I didn’t tell him about that.”
“Maybe we should wait until he’s done training,” Toby said.
“What?” I said looking back and forth between them.
“We’ll tell you once you’re done job shadowing,” Bob said with that infuriating grin.
When we left, I was so focused on what they weren’t telling me, I nearly missed the first step and plunged to my death.
“Yeah, you’re gonna want to focus on those steps,” Bob said. “We had a coworker get hurt really bad because of them.”
“Is he ok now?”
Bob looked away.
Toby came over and volunteered, “He’s dead.”
That was definitely what I wanted to hear.
The next few days were a blur. Between total boredom with reading the procedure book and Bob grinning all the while refusing to tell me the big secret, I was getting super frustrated. I couldn’t wait for my first night working alone.
At least I had brought some supplies up to keep in the tower. Some snacks, a few books, and a tablet to make some notes on if I started writing a story.
Finally, the night came. I was working on my own for the first time. Surprisingly, Bob’s smile vanished as he told me.
“Did you ever read anything off of Reddit?” he said.
I shrugged.
“I don’t really read much other than books.”
“Sign up for Reddit, then go to the nosleep subreddit and look for a story called, ‘I was a park ranger stationed in a fire tower. It had a strange set of rules.’ Read that. It’ll tell you what to do.”
“Ok,” I said. “That’s the big secret? Read someone’s made-up story?”
“It might seem made up,” he said. “But trust me, follow the rules.”
I tried to read his expression to see if he was messing with me or not. In the five days I’d known him, there was never a time he wasn’t wearing that stupid grin, until now. His face was serious as a heart attack.
“Alright,” I said. “I’ll look it up later on my phone.”
“You really should do it as soon as I leave.”
“Ok.”
“Good luck.”
He stepped over to the door and went down the stairs. A few minutes later I heard his truck drive away.
“What the hell was that about?”
I stood in the middle of the room looking out at the beautiful trees, but not even seeing them. My mind was occupied by what Bob had said.
“It has to be a prank,” I said to the empty room. “Bob and Toby cooked this up to scare me on my first night. Well, I’m not falling for it.”
I did my first round of walking around on the outside walkway, looking for any sign of fires. We worked twelve-hour shifts, so I was working from seven am to seven pm. It was late summer and still warm enough to go without a jacket, at least on my first round. By the time I got to my fourth round, there was a chill in the air. I started doing my rounds from the inside and made a mental note to bring a jacket with me tomorrow.
It seemed odd to be talking about a jacket in late summer, but in the forest, the temperatures can vary wildly. It could be thirty degrees at night and eighty during the day.
I stepped back inside and saw my phone had lit up with a text message. I looked at it and it was Bob.
‘Did you read the rules yet?’
‘No,’ I texted back.
‘You don’t have much time.’
I knew this was a joke, it had to be a joke. The old timers pulling a fast one on the new guy, jerking his chain a little.
‘I’ll get right on it,’ I texted.
‘You better.’
I put my phone down and looked at the clock. It was ten minutes after ten. Outside was now completely dark, creating a very disconcerting illusion where when I would look outside, all I saw was my reflection. I decided to turn some lights off and go with just the bare minimum. That reduced the reflection some and I could see some trees outside.
I did a slow pan around, then grabbed a bag of chips and a soda, sat down, and worked on a crossword puzzle. That only lasted a half hour until I was bored with it. I picked up a book and started to read.
I woke sometime later, with my head resting on the back of the chair, chip crumbs all over my shirt, and the book laying on the floor.
I stretched and looked over at the clock. It read two-thirteen.
I jumped up, flinging the bag of chips to the floor, realizing I’d missed several checks, then ran around the room staring out at the trees. After my quick lap, I took a breath and did another slower lap to make sure there was no smoke. Thank God, there was none.
I chided myself for falling asleep on duty like that as I cleaned up my mess. I decided I should set an hourly alarm on my phone so that wouldn’t happen again.
When I picked up the phone I noticed there was a series of texts from Bob.
‘Did you read it yet?’
‘Why aren’t you answering?’
‘Are you alright?’
‘Don’t open the door for any reason.’
The last one sent chills down my spine.
Why would I open the door in the middle of the night?
As I was thinking this, another text came in.
‘For the love of God, read it!’
What the hell was wrong with this guy? Was he seriously losing sleep for a stupid joke?
I decided I would humor him and read the story. I opened my phone and went to the Reddit site. I had just signed up and put my information in when I heard static over the radio. I stepped to the receiver and checked it. Static blared out of it, making me jump as I heard a faint voice in it.
“Tower seven, do you read me?” I heard from a voice I could barely hear through the static.
I hesitated for a moment trying to remember if this was tower seven or not.
“Tower seven do you read me?” the voice said sounding a little more desperate.
I picked up the mic and keyed it.
“This is tower seven, go ahead.”
“It’s good to hear you tower seven,” the voice said suddenly clear. “I didn’t think you would answer.”
“Well, here I am, awake and alert, answering you,” I said. “What did you need?”
“I already have what I need,” the voice said sounding like it was chuckling. “I’d like to come visit if that’s alright.”
“Tower seven, this is base, who are you talking to?”
“I don’t know, someone on the radio,” I said into the mic.
“Seven, there’s no one else on this channel,” base said.
I got chills for a moment. What did that mean? How was I hearing someone that base couldn’t? Why would someone be calling now? Then it hit me that the base dispatcher was probably in on the joke too.
“Ok, base, maybe it was just some random transmission.”
“Tower seven,” the voice said. “Am I alright to come from a visit?”
I hesitated for a moment. What if it wasn’t a joke? Who the hell is walking through the forest at two thirty in the morning?
“Maybe we’ll do that visit another time,” I said.
“Visit?” base said. “What visit? Seven, you know it’s against policy to have visitors.”
“Yeah, sorry, base, I won’t be letting anyone visit.”
More static came over the radio. I could swear I could hear someone say something in the middle of it.
It sounded like, “We’ll see.”
I put down the mic and picked up my phone to read the story when I saw something off in the distance. It was a light, but it was hovering, like a helicopter. I switched my phone to camera mode, zoomed in, and took a picture. It was weird because the light was blue. I didn’t think helicopters had blue lights on them. Also, this light wasn’t flashing, it was solid the whole time. It came closer and I took another picture.
It floated even closer. It was mesmerizing. There was no sound. No hum, no whirring of tiny blades keeping it afloat like a drone, nothing. It was about the size of a basketball and glowing the most brilliant blue I’d ever seen. I reached out for it and it backed away from my hand. I took a step closer to the edge of the walkway, reaching out as far as my arm could stretch.
It backed away a few inches, just out of reach. I stood on my tiptoes, pushing against the railing trying to touch it. It moved away another inch.
I reached the tipping point and pinwheeled my arms to regain my balance and shove back against the railing.
I fell onto the walkway, landing hard on my backside and hitting the back of my head against the window. I looked up and the light was gone.
I shook my head, painfully stood up, and went back inside. I didn’t want to do a patrol but figured I’d better. After a slow walk around, I collapsed in the chair and set my alarm to go off in an hour.
After sitting there for a few minutes I could feel myself nodding off, so I opened my phone and started reading the story. After about ten minutes, I lowered my phone, eyes wide, hands shaking.
“It can’t be real,” I whispered. “It’s just a joke.”
I scrolled back through the story and re-read the rules.

Never, under any circumstances, leave the fire tower until you are relieved.
Turn off all lights between the hours of 2 and 3 am.
If you receive a radio transmission or phone call between those hours, do not answer.
If anyone knocks on the trapdoor during those hours tell them they’ll have to wait until morning. Do not open the door.
If you see a glowing object floating toward the tower, don’t look at it. Cover your eyes and count to 50. When you open your eyes it should be gone. If not, cover and count to 50 again.
If animals surround the tower don’t go down to look. Fire your flare gun into the air twice one minute apart, then lock yourself in the bathroom and hope for the best.
My skepticism started to waver. How could they have known about those things, unless…

There was a powerful banging at the trapdoor that made me jump.
“Who is it?” I said.
No one answered.
I minute later, the pounding resumed. I searched for anything I could use as a weapon. Digging through the silverware drawer and finding an old, dull, paring knife, I backed as far away from the trapdoor as possible while staying inside. The pounding repeated. Somehow through the fear that coursed through my veins, I found my voice.
“You’ll have to come back in the morning,” I said.
“But I’m here now tower,” said the voice from the radio. “Let… me… in... ”
The last three words changed from asking to demanding. The voice also became deeper and more menacing.
I didn’t answer. I just slid down to the floor and hugged my knees holding the knife in front of me, silently searching through the story on my phone to see if there was something I missed, some way I could remedy the situation. But there was nothing, and the end of the story didn’t give me much hope.
I covered my ears and closed my eyes as the pounding continued now mixed with the voice that was going back and forth between pleading and threatening. It whispered then it screamed. It sound like a young boy, then it sounded demonic.
I rocked back and forth trying to keep some measure of sanity as the assault continued. I began to wonder how long the trapdoor would hold before whatever it was broke through.
Then suddenly it stopped.
As happy as I was that there was no more pounding and yelling, I didn’t trust it. My entire body was on pins and needles. It felt like the calm before the storm.
The fire tower shook. It felt like an earthquake, only different. I stood and went out to the walkway to see what was happening. When I looked down, I couldn’t believe it. The tower was surrounded by animals of all kinds. Deer, squirrels, bears, moose, any forest animal you could imagine, and even a couple I couldn’t and didn’t want to identify.
As I leaned over watching this strange menagerie, a moose rammed into one of the tower’s legs. It sent a shockwave through the entire metal framework. By the time it got up to me the tower was shaking so hard it made me lose my balance.
I toppled over the edge and fell. I threw my arm out attempting to catch the rail, but only touched it with my fingertips.
I knew I was falling to my death, there was no doubt. The wind rushing in my ears didn’t drown out the sound of my screaming. It sounded odd like I was listening to someone else scream. I closed my eyes, not wanting to know when the end was coming.
Suddenly something hit me hard in the ribs. I looked and I had hit a tree limb, but it didn’t stop me. The branch broke sending me falling again until I hit another branch. This one tore a gash on my leg as I flipped head over heels and fell again. The next branch grazed my head and made me see stars. I bounced off another branch hitting my shoulder, then took one to the knee, and landed flat on my back on the ground.
I lay there dazed, injured, but alive and surprised to be so. As I tried to regain my bearings, I saw the animals rushing over to me. I doubted they wanted me to pet them while they licked my wounds and cared for me while singing Disney songs.
I jumped up as pain rocked my body from more places than I wanted to think about. I hopped over to the tower steps and began my long arduous journey, just a half step away from a bunch of animals that seemed dead set on my destruction.
About halfway up I realized there was no more pursuit, so I slowed trying to conserve energy.
I got to the top, unlocked the hatch and tried to push it open. It took several tries to get enough strength while balancing on one leg standing on the tiniest of all the tiny steps. As soon as I got it open, I turned and slammed it shut, locking it.
I hobbled into the room, found the first aid box and struggled to get to the couch. I wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and forget this day ever happened.
I tried to easily lay myself down, but ended up collapsing in an excruciating heap.
Once down, I focused on bandaging the leg since it was losing the most blood. Once done, I proceeded to bandage all the rest of the areas that needed.
“How are you feeling, tower seven?” I heard the voice say over the radio.
I didn’t answer.
“Oh, come on now tower, don’t be like that,” it said. “Talk to me. Let me in and we’ll have a conversation.”
I lay there trying to think of anything other than pain and this voice.
“There has to be punishment for disobeying the rules.”
My blood ran cold. How did that thing know about the rules?
I reached into my pocket and was astonished that my phone was there. It had a cracked screen, but was usable. I texted Bob.
‘I’m alive, somehow. I broke half the rules without knowing it because I read the story too late.’
‘Are you alright?’
I took pictures of my bandaged leg that was wrapped but blood was still seeping through. I took pictures of my battered face, and my bruised ribs. I sent them all to Bob.
‘Good Lord, man, what did you do?’
‘I fell out of the tower.’
‘You did what?’
‘Was leaning over the edge of the walkway when one of the animals smashed into the support leg and shook the tower, knocking me over.’
‘How are you alive?’
‘Tree caught me.’
‘I’ll call the paramedics and come in early to relieve you.’
‘I’ll be laying here on the couch, bleeding.’
Then I added, ‘I’ll follow the rules from now on.’
There was static on the radio and a faint voice said, “You’d better.”
***
When Bob unlocked the hatch and led the EMTs in, he didn’t have that grin on his face.
“You ok, kid?” he said.
“Hunky dory, how about you?” I said laying on the cushions that were soaked in my own blood.
“He might be in shock,” one of the EMTs said.
My rescue was an adventure in itself. When they examined me they informed me that my leg was broken. I was sweating trying to go back down those steps with a splint on. I could just see me slipping near the top and falling again. There didn’t seem to be any trees close enough to catch me on this side.
Apparently, the EMTs seemed to be thinking the same thing. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of tying me to a backboard and trying to carry me down the steps. After two EMTs nearly fell, they decided to tie it to a rope and lower me like a sack of potatoes.
They rigged up a rope around one of the support poles for the walkway. Watching the rope scrape along the edges of the wood, fraying as it went was probably more terrifying than anything I’d experienced last night.
Floating in the air, spinning slowly didn’t help my fear of heights any. I decided to close my eyes and try to stay as still as possible so the balance wouldn’t be disturbed and slide me out of the end to fall to my death.
I was extremely grateful when the board hit the ground. My adrenaline finally crashed and I fell into a deep sleep as they loaded me into the ambulance.
***
Truth be told, I’m absolutely terrified to go back to the tower. It’s not like I have a lot of choices. Park ranger is a good paying job and sitting around watching for fires is about the easiest job I’ve ever heard of.
If you take away the supernatural voices, bizarre wildlife, strange lights, and the stairs of death.
I’m hoping paying attention to the rules will keep me safe.
I’m posting this as a warning. If your job has some strange rules, make sure you follow them, no matter how stupid you think they might be.

22 minute timer

Battle Maps

Next week's Steam releases (2023-06-05 - 2023-06-11)

Past week's Steam releases not on last week's list

Past week's Steam demo releases (2023-05-29 - 2023-06-04)