ZooStuck

Originally posted on MSPA by Dragon Fogel.

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> Get in the airlock and punch open the exit door. Take one for the team.

This is the time for action. It may mean your death, and you'll never get back to your place in line for that space helmet, but you're getting that airlock open.

You pull back your lower-right arm and punch with all your strength!

OW OW OW OW

It turns out that airlock doors are made of very strong material so that people don't just punch them open. There's that damn foresight again!

Pound on the airlock and whine.

Brute strength has failed you, so you resort to begging. You just pound on the door weakly and whine, hoping that maybe it will take pity on you and open.

"Citizen, what exactly are you doing?"

Oh. You seem to have drawn the attention of an airlock technician. You notice that he has a space helmet on already. Lucky jerk! He pulls up the visor so he can hear you better.

> ...Is there ANY WAY the authorities can have the airlock NOT scanned? There has to be some sort of override for this occasion...

You inform him that all these packages probably have the prophecied civilization-destroying game on them and you ask if he can have them not scanned, or inform somebody who can. He shrugs, which you have to admit is a pretty impressive sight with four arms.

"I don't really know, it's never happened before. We sent a team to mess with the global computer system's main chronometer and buy us some time before the global package scan, but the airlock scan doesn't check with the clock before priming. It's probably better if we take these out of the airlock's zone for now."

You help him pull thousands of packages back into the ship. The scan registers nothing at all in there. But you have no idea how much time is left before the global scan. You guess you may as well get back in line, if civilization is going to be doomed at least you won't have to smell it.

You are now...

Wait, who exactly are you again?