“That thing can't out-think me, I can slip past it if I'm careful,” you say to yourself confidently. Over the pounding of your heart in your ears, you hear a lot of noise nearby. “What is that thing doing?,” you say under your breath. You crawl out from under the desk and remain on your hands and knees as you approach the door. You look right then left. Several long tail feathers protrude out of a doorway of another office not far from you. It seems to be making a mess of the office as you can hear various objects clattering on the desk or landing on the ground. You bite your lip. “Now's my chance.”

You crawl quickly back to the door to came into the offices through. The bird is still making a small raucous in the other office. It didn't notice you. You get to your feet, close the door quietly, and run towards the gym. The bird has caught notice of you now, exits the other door near Cliff, who is still unconscious in a heap against the wall, and barely misses spearing you through with its large long beak as you streak past it. You hear its beak hit the wall, dazing your pursuer for a moment.

You look back for too long and end up passing the gym doors. “Not again!,” you yell at yourself, and instead enter the very last door back into the weight room. “Something...something...something...,” you mutter as you search for anything you can use to defend yourself. You pick up a curl bar and take position behind one of the weight machines as the bird nudges the door open. Regardless of how you try to conceal yourself behind the equipment, the bird spots you, ruffles its feathers, and approaches quickly. It tries its best to get to you through the equipment, but you're too far back. Like a dance, the bird and you circle the equipment, always just out of each other's reach. Frustrated and enraged the bird tries to climb over the top of the machine, and you simply run to another.

You're getting tired. You can't keep this up all night. Then you start looking at the lat pull down machine itself and realize that you can use it to your advantage. You just might be able to render the bird mute by catching it in the machinery. It's worth a try. You position yourself in front of the machinery with the bird on the opposite side. Weights, pullies, and heavy metal separate you. You taunt the bird by leaning towards it and offering your hand. The bird cranes its neck out to meet you, but you use this chance to pull down as hard as you can on the lat bars above you to catch the bird's head on top of an ascending weight and then smacking it against the unforgiving metal at the top of the mechanism. You release the lat bar, the weights descend back to the bottom, and the bird's large head lays motionless on top of it.

After pausing for a moment, you run back to the security phone to dial 911. Shortly thereafter, the Albany Police Department arrives. There were plenty of questions to go around. The large avian was taken away by Animal Control. Cliff, Andrew, Mark, and the OHSU scientist were brought back to consciousness by the EMS personnel, and spent a fair amount of time filling in the details about the origin of the feathered fiend. The conversations that you overhead were very insightful. Apparently, the whole situation came from an idea by marketing for the re-branding of LBCC in the sports and athletics department. The bird was bio-engineered at OHSU and trained to interact with basketball players at public games. It was a project meant to literally bring the LBCC Roadrunner mascot to life. The objective that evening was simply to introduce 'Rocky the Roadrunner' to his new home, and then take it back to Portland. They had yet to add a holding pen or play-yard for the giant bird to the campus grounds, but it was being budgeted for later that year.

After such an evening, you were not amused, but you were exhausted and ready for your weekend. After being pummeled with round after round of questions, the officers said you could go home, and you were all too happy to do so. As you stumble from exhaustion into your vehicle, you reflect on the events that evening. You lean back into the driver's seat and exclaim “I hope I get overtime for this,” then you snap on the radio and head home.

THE END

(Congratulations, you've reached one of several different endings. Try the story again from the beginning!)