"The One Free Man" is a story written by Thefirstdecade, originally on LMBE before being moved here to LEGO Legends of Chima Roleplay Wiki. It details the story of Scordon Freeman and other characters, within an alternate timeline in which the Ice Hunters never invaded the south (Vamprah and Maulisa presumably having been unable to find Sabradia, Malgus and Maulryene to break their confinement curse and free the Sabertooths), the Third Great Illumination apparently occurred much earlier, and The Combine were able to conquer the Scorpion Tribe and most of Chima. The story follows the events of the "Half-Life 2" video game, with Chima elements.
The story was eventually put on hold indefinitely and presumed to be cancelled. Many of the events that likely would've occurred in "The One Free Man" were adapted into The Uprising story arc of the Chima Roleplay soon after, wherein aspects of it were retconned to better fit into Chima RP canon, such as the Combine being a separatist faction of arachnids created by Scortica, rather than invading aliens, and the Bats all remaining loyal to King Bliston rather than becoming controlled by the Combine. However, what was written of the story can be read below.
Prologue[]
...-SUBJECT-... ...FREEMAN...
...-STATUS-... ...CURRENTLY IN STASIS...
...-INCOMING MESSAGE-... ...-LOCALE UNKNOWN-... ...-ID UNKNOWN-... “WOULD YOU WANT TO RELEASE THIS SCORPION OUT OF STASIS?”
>>YES. NO.
...-CONFIRM: RELEASE FREEMAN FROM STASIS?-...
>>YES. NO.
...-CONFIRMED: RELEASING FREEMAN FROM STASIS-...
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...-FREEMAN OUT OF STASIS-...
...-SETTING SCENES: ‘d1_trainstation_01’ - ‘d1_trainstation_06’.-...
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...-SCENE SETTING COMPLETED; STARTING UP ‘story_prologue.exe’-...
Some people who barely know of me don’t know much about my little... “friend” here that I just released. He’s famous in the fields of science and so, and a prominent member in the Science Facility underneath the Scorpion caverns known as “Aperture Mesa”...it's an esteemed research facility for Outland military's and sciences, featuring biotechnology and biochemistry from the Spiders, theoretical and chemical/toxin physics and technology from the Scorpions, and aerodynamics, aeronautics, and portal technologies from the Bats. The research facility is more advanced than the inlanders' technology centers and companies, even though we evolved months ago, but even as Lysandre Labs taunted us, going so far as saying that their technology is “more advanced that the swiss-cheese-brained Outlanders” on the Chima Public Broadcast System, CPBS for short. But for once, I will release my biography on Dr. Scordon Freeman from what I saw on his adventure out of the Outlands, inland and back to the Outlands, as I will tell you roleplayers a story, from Freeman’s eyes, a scorpion that was an scientist here, now turned “Anticitizen One” by the mysterious paramilitary known to the Outlands as the “Black Overwatch”, a conglomeration of Scorpions and Spiders all aimed in the same cause; assimilate all inlanders, take all chi, rule with a iron fist. Otherwise known to us inlanders and “Forgotten” rebels as the “Brickbine”. But anyways, enough with exposition and onto the story with the first chapter: “Point Insertion”. Oh, and about me? I am Scrin, a former government agent for the Scorpions to keep track on rebels, until...well...Freeman happened...therefore, I now take on the alias as the mysterious “Chi-man”...
...-LOADING CHAPT. 1; POINT_INSERTION-...
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...-LOADING COMPLETE; INITIATING ‘TOFM_Chap1_pointinsertion.exe’-...
Chapter 1[]
...-‘d1_trainstation_01’-...[]
Thefirstdecade Presents... A legend of Chima: ——CHIMλ LIFE: The One Free MλN——
And Freeman’s journey begins, how? By me, Scrin, of course. You helped me send Freeman back awake from his slumber, and I thank you for choosing wisely, dear Role-Player... anyways, here's our story...The One Free Man.
Darkness, uncertainty, eerie feelings came across him, he was just waking up from stasis... until, a very cold, odd sounding and mysterious voice beckons to him... and soon, introductions are made quickly and vaguely.
“Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine...” the eerie voice said, before the seemingly disembodied voice became embodied in the form of a well-suited stomper scorpion holding a briefcase. He had skinny looks and piercing green eyes.
“Not that I wish to imply you have been sleeping on the job. No one is more deserving of a rest. And all the effort in Chima would have gone to waste until...” the scorpion paused. There were odd hallucinations that were shown in his body, the background images being shown in the area the scorpion stood at; Freeman seeing odd things in the stomper scorpion’s body, seemingly foreshadowing what was to come of his soon-to-be adventure...and the scorpion continued speaking vaguely to Freeman.
“...well, let's just say your hour has come again. The right stinger in the wrong place can make all the diff-er-ence in Chima. So, wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell Cavora’s ashes...” the scorpion said, before the background faded into a seemingly empty passenger train interior, some streaks of white lines flying by them, and the stomper slowly slid away from Freeman, before a bright white flash of special effects outlined vertices and lines in the train before it faded away into color and reality, and the mysterious stomper scorpion disappeared from sight, and Freeman regained his consciousness and shook his head and breathed heavily.
A train horn rang out, and Scordon looked around. He was dressed up in this odd denim-fabric looking blue suit that had an ID tag on the upper back of his shirt. Inside the train were two men, a bat and a scorpion. They were both holding luggage. One was standing up; the other sitting down and looking very worried and sad. Freeman walked up to the bat that was standing up and he looked at him in a confused way.
“I didn’t see you get on...” the bat said, questionable, and turned his head to face the door; the train was coming to a slow and Freeman walked over to the scorpion who was sitting down.
The scorpion only looked up at Scordon with the same worried look and looked back down at his feet, his arms and body hunched over his luggage, but mumbled out, “No matter how many times I get relocated, I never get used to it...”
The train squealed to a stop and the bat sighed, looking out the window of the doors of the train; the station looked bleak and old. Rugged and dilapidated. The walls around the platforms had posters that advertised how “enlightening”, “fulfilling” and “trustworthy” the Black Overwatch was. The posters advertised joining them for better quality of life as well.
“Well, end of the line...” the bat said, the train doors opened and out went the two passengers, along with Freeman. They all walked off the train onto a platform, where a strange chi-powered machine floated by them. It turned to them, made camera clicking noises before a flash of light came from it; taking a last, final picture of them, it floated away.
Then, once they reached to a central platform, the trains up against their buffers, a holographic projection monitor lit up, and showed the face and upper body of Scortica; his face had nice snow white hair around his mandibles, mouth and the circumference his head; he wore a nice brown suit with a grey tie and looked very official and experienced with government, compared to his royal younger brother, Scorm. Then he gave a warm smile and spoke.
“Welcome, welcome to Cave 17; you have chosen or been chosen to relocate to one of our finest remaining urban centers. I thought so much of cave 17 that I elected to establish my administration here, in the Scorpion Cavern Castle, so thoughtfully provided by our benefactors. I have been proud to call cave 17 my home. So whether you are here to stay, or passing through on your way to parts unknown, welcome to cave 17, it is safer here...” Scortica said, bowing, and then the monitor turned off and Freeman noticed the other two walking away in a different direction.
Scordon then walked the other way, seeing a Black Overwatch Civil Protection unit, who was a spider, arguing with another Crawler citizen, dressed in the same identical attire as Freeman was dressed in. They were quarreling about a cart of luggage.
“First warning: move away.” The Civil Protection officer said.
“It's all I have left!” stuttered the crawler citizen. Then the Civil Protection officer shoved the citizen into the luggage, knocking down some containers off the cart, and the citizen yelped.
“Move it, citizen!” The CP said sternly, and the citizen groaned.
“Alright, alright I am moving, jeez!” the citizen said, hastily walking away to bars that rotated around.
Freeman shrugged and walked calmly but suspiciously, looking around at the authoritarian surroundings. The checkpoint he passed led into this run-down cafeteria, where he could see other crawlers sitting down, some of them with their heads in their hands in sorrow and worry. Freeman looked around and met a bat woman. The woman looked up and spoke to him about something.
“Were you the only ones on that train? Overwatch stopped our train in the woods and took my husband for questioning. They said he would be on the next train. I am not sure when that was. They are being nice and letting me wait though...” she said with worry, her wings twitching in the cold air conditioned cafeteria. Freeman shrugged again and walked through the cafeteria, before being stopped by another crawler citizen; he looked crazy but sane at the same time.
“Don't drink the chi-water, they...they put something in it to make you forget, I don't even remember how I got here!” the citizen rambled quickly and incoherently. Freeman took a mental note on this and walked away from him, passing by two other crawlers conversing on something relating to Scortica, as his face came back up on a different hologram monitor past a little gate barrier that turned in 90 degree turns in an “S” shape.
“Dr. Breen again? I was hoping I had seen the last of him in cave 14!” he said with fervent disapproval.
His fellow inquired on that. “I wouldn't say that too loud, this is his base of operations!” he said, looking surprised.
Freeman continued to walk through this station, only to be halted by yet another spat between another citizen and another Civil Protection, this officer being a scorpion. This happened near another checkpoint that led to a different looking train. “You, citizen come with me!” the scorpion CP officer said, the citizen looking surprised for his confrontation, the CP in the gate and near a door leading to a hallway.
“Wai-Wait a minute, where are you?!” the civilian shouted worriedly before being stung by the CP.
“GET IN HERE!!” the CP hissed out angrily and began walking towards the citizen. “Go on!” Shouted the CP again and grabbed the citizen by his neck.
“Wh-what? M-me?!” the citizen shouted, scared.
“I SAID MOVE!!!” the scorpion CP hissed, dragging the citizen into the hallway, and Freeman looked dissatisfied with such authority.
Then Freeman stepped into the checkpoint, looking uneasy. Then, much to a coincidental surprise, alarms sounded and the gates between him shut, and CPs walked over to the gates to see Scordon in such a pickle. Then the door in the checkpoint opened, and led to the same hallway that the previous life was dragged into. And another CP, this time being a bat, walked up to the door-frame and gestured to Freeman.
“Don't move, hold it! You, citizen. Come with me!” his voice was distorted and fractured from his voice changer built into the CP’s mask. Then Freeman followed the CP into the hall. There, they passed by some doors that led into interrogation rooms. There he saw how dystopian this cave city could get, as he looked into one of them.
“This must be a mistake, I got a standard relocation coupon just like everyone else!” the citizen in the interrogation chair griped, but before the CP could do anything, he shut the eye-slot on the door, and Freeman grunted and kept following the bat CP to another room. There the bat CP opened the door to, seemingly, an interrogation room with a large console computer; with multiple blue screens that made a nice lighting effect in the small, cramped up room. Another CP was inside the same room and held up his hand in a “Halt” gesture.
“Get in! Need any help with this one?” the CP asked his flying mammalian comrade.
“No I am good, thanks anyway...” the bat CP replied, and the other CP officer left the room before stopping and looking back at them, and then continued walking. Then the bat CP shoved Freeman inside the room, stood over his console, and entered something into the computer. The bat CP then turned around to face Scordon, and the Scorpion slowly walked up to him to inspect the back before being shoved away by the Bat CP.
“Back up! I'm gonna need some privacy for this...” the CP mumbled before getting back on the console and entered codes to retract the two cameras inside the room, and they did. Then he turned around to Freeman and chuckled.
“Now...” the bat CP said, before he surprised Freeman as he took off his mask, and showed a familiar creme-white furred face with a pink nose and brownish-gold eyes. He smiled, and his face was all too familiar to Scordon.
“About that chi-infused beer I owed ya. Its me Scordon, Barney from Aperture Mesa. Sorry for the scare; I had to put on a show for the cameras. I have been working undercover within civil protection; I can't take too long or they will get suspicious. I am way behind on beating my quota!” The old friend said, cracking his knuckles, grinning with a very relived expression on his mug, Freeman wiping his brow in relief too.
Then, a transmission began to be relayed on the console’s main screen; it showed the background of an unknown location, but looked very urban and lab-esque. Then, another Scorpion showed up in the console’s screen, the crawler wearing a dirty lab coat; and he had a receding hairline. He then cleared his throat and looked at Barney in annoyance. His nametag read “Dr. Skilener”.
“Yes Barney what is it? I am in the middle of a critical test!” the scorpion shouted, Barney grinning as he stood in-front of Freeman.
“Sorry Doc, but look who's here!” the bat said with a grin, before walking out of Freeman’s way, and Scordon walked up to see his former teacher.
And the Skilener gasped. “Great Scott! Scordon Freeman! I expected more warning!” the doc said in surprise, adjusting his glasses in reaction, and Barney added in on it.
“Yeah, you and me both, Doc. He was about to board the express train to the Black Fang Mountain mine, Fang Prospekt!” Barney said.
“Well, Barney, what do you intend to do?” Skilener said in pondering, Scordon Freeman looking at Barney, then back on the scorpion on the screen.
“I'm thinking, I'm thinking!” Barney said hastily.
“Spalyx is around here somewhere, she would have an idea of how to get him out of here!” Dr. Skilener said, scratching his chin.
“Well, as long as he stays away from checkpoints, we should be okay. Listen, I gotta go Doc, we are taking enough chances as it is!” Barney said adamantly.
Doc Skilener nodded in agreement. “Very well. And eh, Scordon? It's good to see you...” Skilener said, his face giving a proud expression, and then the monitor turned off.
Then Barney sighed and turned to Freeman, looking a bit surprised and embarrassed. But his face turned serious and straight. “Okay Scordon, you're going to have to make your way to Dr. Skilener’s lab!” he said, but then a loud banging was hitting the door they came in from, and Barney gasped and quickly ran over to a back door. “Oh man! That is what I was afraid of! Get in here Scordon! Before you blow my cover!” he shouted, hastily opening the back door. Freeman nodded 'yes' and quickly ran out of the door, and was in a dark backroom with a ladder, wooden crates, scaffolding and pallets.
“Pile up some stuff to get to that window, and keep going till you're in the outdoor plaza! I will meet up with you later, Scordon!” Barney shouted before closing the door shut, and Freeman nodded, quickly clambered up the ladder, and saw a high window above him. He tried to jump up to it, but his jumps were a bit impudent. So then he resorted to stacking a few crates on top of each other. It worked and he quickly jumped in and out of the window, falling a yard or so down before his fall was broken by another wooden box. He entered a door that was in this odd outdoor alley room. He scurried to a door and opened it.
...-‘d1_trainstation_02’-...[]
Then Freeman quickly opened the door and entered into another basement-looking room. He scurried up the stairs and entered into another station-looking hallway with a gate that led to another terminal, handing out food packages to crawler citizens that looked like sacks of soil. But before he could enter, he was stopped by another spider CP officer and a can was standing on top of a trashcan. The CP chuckled and knocked down the can and it rolled up to Scordon. Then the spider CP ordered Freeman the following: “Pick up that can.”
Then Freeman picked up the can as told and looked at it, then at the CP. He impulsively threw it at the CP officer and in an angered response, the spider CP quickly hissed in fury and pulled out his Webroax and quickly charged at the offending scorpion. Scordon grinned and outsmarted the spider by making his back-walking trajectory shallow then deep to out-run the pursuing spider, until he crossed past the gate and the CP spider growled, absolutely annoyed that he was tricked by a civilian!
There, Freeman walked into the terminal and saw another holographic screen, and it once again flashed on Scortica’s face; and he once again began another of his speeches. Scordon ignored this and kept hastily walking to, seemingly, the entrance to the train-station. Then, Scordon came to a large plaza, with gates branching to different areas of the underground cave city (the city looked very eastern European, giving it a lot of different architectural vibes to it, the cave backdrop being dimly lit due to the vast city lights trying to light the pseudo-night). Then, freeman looked around in curiosity, seeing citizens, flying robots, patrolling Civil Protection and a tower in the middle of the plaza that was fenced off, and it showed another “Scortica-cast” of sorts. There was also another citizen sitting on a bench, looking very sad.
Freeman continued past the plaza outside, to the alleyways beyond the plaza. He climbed up a ladder and ran over a fire-escape, and ran into another alley. He noticed in the background a large arachnid machine, the Black Overwatch Spider Strider, passing by a barrier along with another floating robot accompanying it. There, in front of him, were two crawlers in custody from the metro-police, seemingly being arrested for harboring smuggled chi. He curiously walked towards the event but was then halted by another scorpion CP officer. He walked closer to the event only to be pursued by the same CP, who whacked him with his Sting Hammer, which threw Scordon back a ways.
Freeman hissed and quickly ran away from them. Running with his life, Freeman scrambled over many urban obstacles and blockades. He made his way down the street to a area with 2 buildings. One of the entrances was guarded by civil patrolman; a large apartment complex. What lay before the building; a dilapidated playground, where ominously and creepily Freeman could hear the laughter, screams and frolicking of children in the distance, like ghosts whom haven’t rested their souls in the rusted metal-works of the playground equipment. He shuddered in response to this. Then Freeman saw two crawlers, a spider and bat, converse over a CP occupation in their neighboring apartment.
“This is how it always starts; first one building, then the entire block!” the bat grumpily said, his wings twitching in concern. The spider responded to the bat.
“They have no reason to come to our place...” the spider said, inquiring on a brighter side of things.
“Don't worry, they will find one.” the bat replied, his arms crossed; his line being a bit vague when he mentioned, “they will find one”. Freeman shrugged yet again and quickly entered into an unguarded entrance to the apartment complex.
Scordon quickly ran up a stairway that led from the side-entrance hallway and into a door, after hearing loud noises...
...-‘d1_trainstation_03’-...[]
Scordon quickly ran upstairs to see what this was all about, and as he made his way up the stairs he saw a group of four civil patrolmen knock down a door and rush in too a room with a SWAT-team ethic, after their leader declared a “603-Unlawful entry!” After they rushed in, he could hear a lot of scuffling and fighting going on in the room, then he turned and he entered the adjacent room. There he saw more crawlers in the same attire as him, living miserable lives in these poor housing conditions of dilapidated hotel rooms that were small and cramped. There, he accidentally surprised the residents in this old run-down living-room that was connected next to the kitchen’s entrance.
“Oh, I thought you were a cop!” exclaimed one of the room’s residents.
“Don't worry, he is one of us!” chimed another crawler.
“Look at them down there!” said another, as he and a few others looked down a window and saw a few Black Overwatch APC’s and Royal Bat Army speedorz speed down a street, followed by a few unlucky CP’s that ran after the APCs that missed their ride. There was an echoing siren from the APC going "DOOOOP... DOOOP... DOOOP!"
“I told you they would be coming for us next!” exclaimed another, angrily.
“Just this once, I hope you are wrong!” another crawler shouted.
Then Freeman saw yet another broadcast of Scortica’s speeches and growled. Then he grabbed the small, old 1980’s-looking tube TV with his stinger, ripped the cord out of it’s socket and tossed the TV out the window in anger; the resident crawlers gasping at what he had just done before Freeman sprinted out of the room and down the hall, and up another flight of stairs and another hallway, where an mysterious female voice came on a nearby radio hidden in the stairwell.
“Citizen notice, priority identification check in progress. Please, assemble in your designated inspection positions. Attention please. All citizens in local residential block, assume your inspection positions. Attention residents, miscount detected in your block. Co-operation with your Civil Protection team permits full ration reward.” The voice robotically and monotonously said, and Freeman grunted, ignoring it. Then, another voice came to him from another room.
“Psst! Hey you! In here! Head for the roof! There is no time to lose!” a bat hiding behind a doorframe whispered out to him, gesturing Freeman to come to them. But as soon as he got into the room, CPs and royal infantrymen of the Scorpions and Bats quickly ran into the room, and the citizens panicked!
“Run for your life!” squealed the bat civilian that beckoned Freeman in.
“Civil Protection!?” shouted a scorpion Civilian.
“Here they come! CPs!” a spider civilian shouted and all ran from them, Freeman caught up in the rush to get to safety, some left behind to be beaten by the CPs. The royal infantryman chased after them upstairs to a roof, where another scorpion gestured Freeman to get in.
“Get in here, quick!” the scorpion shouted. Freeman ran past him and the citizen quickly barricaded the door with himself, the royal grunts banging on the door!
“Keep moving! Head for the roof!” the scorpion screamed, and Freeman nodded and ran out to an upstairs attic, just wanting to get out of the chaos that ensued thanks to a faulty miscount detection.
...-‘d1_trainstation_04’-[]
There, Freeman sprinted out of the large hole on the attic rooftops. In the background, a couple bat Wing Strikers flew in the cave 17’s “skies”, not chasing Freeman. After he had just gotten up to the roofs, the sound of a door being kicked down was followed by a hiss of pain and a voice from the scorpion in the distance, yelping, “I'm hurt! Help!”. Then, a hail of pistol-fire and shouting from the royal infantry barked out of the hole in the roof Freeman leapt out off. He quickly dove for cover, and continued on through the roof-tops. He slid down some steep inclines and carefully tight-rope walked across some small boards that bridged a gap from one ledge to another. There, a Black Overwatch APC rolled down the street, turning into a parking lot, and parked there. A few CPs chasing down the APC aimed their attention at an escapee Freeman up on the roofs. They opened up pistol-fire using their signature “US-Chi Match” standard issue. A couple City Scanners were following the scorpion, taking multiple pictures of him.
There, Freeman sprinted across roofs, hiding in alcoves to dodge incoming blaster bolts from the pistols. He kept moving on, taking cover when needed. Expunged from cover in the last stretch to home plate, the scorpion quickly threw himself through a window and into a crummy-looking attic. He caught his breath, but he still needed to escape. As the distant city-wide alarms rang out, and the Overwatch voice gave orders to ground protection teams to stop the “miscount”, Freeman then walked over to a staircase in the attic and went down it. It was old and very moldy, and looked like it could splinter and shatter with a nice "SNAP". And SNAP it did, on the last few steps, to which, embarrassingly, Freeman could not just simply jump up that high or climb up it. Realizing his faults, Freeman then opened up the door which led to a hallway. He seemed very relieved as there were no CPs in sight, but the area was just a narrow hall, ready for either door on either side of the room, to be busted down, and the room to be raided.
And raided it was. Suddenly, CPs from either door busted the barriers down with nice CRASHES and SNAPS from the doors being knocked down off their hinges, and with a wooden thump when they hit the floor. Freeman silently gasped and looked around himself in alarm. The CPs, who were a mixture of Bats, Scorpions, and Spiders, all activated their stun batons and charged at Freeman.
“Take him down!” “There he is!” “Suspect, prepare to receive civil judgement!” The CPs barked.
The poor scorpion Scordon Freeman, mobbed and dog-piled and beaten senseless with the stun batons, obstructing his sight with flashes of bright white light. It may have just been the “miscount” the civil protection had been looking for, but before any more misconduct of this military-style police could do anything further, another voice barked at the CPs, seemingly in the same room.
“Over here!” then Scordon could hear scuffles and fighting and breaking of wood.
“HAH, no you don’t!” the voice shouted once more again before a loud CRACK and a death-rattle from a CP. Once the blinding white light slowly cleared from his vision, a female spider loomed over him, and she had a very relieved smile on her face.
“Dr. Freeman, I presume?” she said, before turning her head to distant sirens that began to go off and the Overwatch voice addressing an “Unidentified Person of Interest.” She let Scordon up, and the Scorpion saw the knocked out bodies of the CPs that this spider girl ambushed.
“We better hurry up; the Combine can be slow to wake, but once they are up, you would not wanna get in their way...” she said, walking over to an elevator and pressing a button for it to go down.
“Dr. Skilener said you might be coming this way. Heh, I don't think it occurred to him that you might not have a map.” she said with a slight chuckle, and Freeman examined the bodies of the fallen CPs before he walked in the elevator with her. There, the elevator went down, and the spider girl introduced herself.
“I'm Spalyx Vance, my father worked with you back in Aperture Mesa, but i'm sure you don't remember him...” she said. She was acting a bit shy, but Freeman didn’t notice.
“Man of a few words, aren't ya?” Spalyx said, getting at Freeman’s silence. Then, the elevator ended at the basement of the building they were in and the doors opened up, and both crawlers walked out and around a corner.
“Remember him from Aperture Mesa? Your old administrator?” Spalyx gestured to a propaganda poster of the same man that was on the large monitor Freeman saw earlier in the train station. “Ha! Don't get my dad started on Dr. Breen...” she chuckled. Then she pressed a button that was hidden on a nearby fuse box, and then the poster sectioned wall slid out and moved aside.
“Through here...” she calmly said, and led Freeman into the dark passageway. She turned around and walked backwards to get a nice long look at Freeman.
...-LOADING: ‘d1_trainstation_05’-...
...-LOADING: Chapt_02; “A Red Letter Day”-...
[It is at this point that the story stopped being written.]