Story: A Shot In The Dark

 

Written by: Ben Berkenbosch

Genre: Thriller, Drama

Age recommendation: 16 years or older (violence, foul language)

 

Chapter 1: Prologue

 

Shot of Mike wearing a worn, grey hoodie, shooting a rival gang, lots of fog

Neil: “Yo dawg, what's gotten into you? We could've easily stopped those fuckers!!”

Mike replied: “I'm sorry!! This wasn't my day!”

Neil: “Not you day?! You're getting sloppy, and it's costing us lives, I gotta report this to the boss mate…”

Mike: “Alright, please give me a chance.”

Neil: “Something is distracting you, and we gotta get rid of that, I’m sorry Mike, it’s the truth, and you know it!”

Neil and Mike went to HQ together with some other people from their gang.

Here comes a very cinematic shot, there should be a tragic intro song here with the main theme.

The logo of the game appears: A Shot In The Dark

 

Chapter 1

 

You see Jeremy waking up, turning around to kiss his wife, Liz. “Morning dear” - Jeremy whispers to Liz.

They wake up little Emma, make her breakfast, and then they bring her to school. After that, they both head to the gym to train. Then Jeremy goes to practise archery, while Liz is having an interview about healthy diet.

Jeremy acquires his bow and shoots some targets. Of course, Jeremy is a very skilled archer and he brags about his skill afterwards to his friends. After all this, Jeremy jumped back into his car to drive home.

Jeremy and Liz both get home in time and then Liz goes to pick up little Emma while Jeremy cooks dinner. While walking to the fridge, Jeremy hears a car sound in the back. The moment you open the fridge, you hear the doorbell. Jeremy quickly runs to grab his bow and arrows, and then opens up the door. Turns out it was just Liz and little Emma.

The family proceeded to have dinner, until the bell rang again

This time Jeremy got suspicious again, but Liz told Jeremy not to be too paranoid, and she walked to the door. To her surprise, Mike jammed open the door the second she opened it. Liz fell on the ground, Jeremy ran towards little Emma to protect her. Mike jammed a gun in Jeremy's face, Mike was terrified, and Jeremy told: “What the hell Mike, years of no contact, and now you want to shoot me?! Go ahead! But keep my family out of it!”

Mike got angry and jammed the gun close to Jeremy's face. Liz stood up and tried to attack Mike, but that moment he pulled the trigger. Boom! A loud shot was heard and Liz fell down to the floor, with a bullet to her brain. Emma started crying, Mike was in shock, and Jeremy got furious, he jumped Mike and started hitting him until Mike was unconscious, Jeremy looked back and still saw his daughter crying, but anger consumed him, and he kept hitting Mike.

But then two trucks stopped outside and friends of Mike jumped out, rescuing Mike. Then more people appeared and they tried to take Jeremy and little Emma, they only succeeded in taking Emma and ran quickly. Jeremy was devastated!

 

Chapter 2

 

With his daughter gone and his wife dead, Jeremy was desperate to get revenge and take his daughter back. During the night, Jeremy left home with all his equipment and his bike. He also just downloaded a map app on his phone to locate Mike. With no clue about where to find Mike and his gang, Jeremy decided to check out three locations: “Mike’s old HQ”, “His parent’s house”, and “The harbour”.

At Mike’s old HQ there wasn’t a lot of useful information, but Jeremy learned something useful here. The gang was referred to as: “The Whales”.

When Jeremy got to his parents' house, his dad: “Tom” opened the door and was shocked when he looked at Jeremy. Tom begged Jeremy to leave this up to police and not becoming a vigilante. But Jeremy was determined to do the job himself. Tom understood, even though he was worried and didn't agree. He taught Jeremy how to apply a med-kit for if he got wounded. Then he said: “Jeremy, I'm incredibly sorry about this, if you ever need someone to return home to, please do not hesitate for a second to visit me!” Jeremy nodded and took off to the harbour.

At the harbour Jeremy found a knife, it was actually a really really solid knife and he decided to keep it. He also found some wood, metal, and feathers at the harbour, which he decided to keep in case he was out of arrow. Of course Jeremy knew that he could always get knew arrows at stores, because he's a recognised Wowlympian archer, but just in case there weren't any stores nearby, it's useful to have.

Without any clues, Jeremy decided to head back to his parents' house to get some sleep, it was about to be morning. But on his way home, Jeremy got chased by some Whales. This ended up to be a very perilous undertaking. Jeremy managed to shoot the people one by one.

Once the chase was over, Jeremy interrogated a straggler. But he didn’t give in. Jeremy resorted to torture as the final way to figure out more. The straggler eventually gave in and revealed information about their leader: “Zachary”, he never met him, but he told Jeremy about trust issues within the organisation, and one very important asset got sloppy.

He revealed that they were after Jeremy, because letting him live would be a danger to the organisation. Jeremy screamed: “I don’t need names!! I need locations, where can I find Mike!?” but the guy bled out before he could answer. Jeremy puked afterwards, he was disgusted by his own behaviour. Jeremy looted the body and got out before the police showed up.

 

Chapter 3

 

Flashback to the past where Jeremy and Mike were still kids

“Your grades are going down Mike, what’s going on with you?” said Tom, his dad. Mike was very teen-angsty, you know how that goes. But his mother: “Emma” didn’t let him go angry to his room this time. She told Jeremy to go to archery lessons himself, which surprised Jeremy, because usually they always go with him and spend their time with him, not with Mike. Mike got angry at his parents and started screaming eventually. Tom stepped forward and looked very angry at Mike, then he gave him a hug, without any judgement or anger anymore. But after a few seconds Tom fell something in Mike’s pocket, and it shocked him.

Tom took it out, and this turned out to be a bag of pills, he got very angry, but Emma told him to stay calm, Tom didn’t listen and he unleashed a bunch of ⚠️ words onto Mike. Mike couldn’t take it anymore and walked out. Mike ran to his friends that later turned out to be The Whales. He never came back home again.

Flashback ends

Jeremy returned back at his parents' house, completely in shock of what he’s done. Tom was shocked too, but he took his opportunity to lecture Jeremy about the consequences of his actions. “You should leave this up to the police Jeremy!” Jeremy wasn’t listening, and he asked if he was allowed to use Tom’s workbench. Tom agreed, but he was still very worried. At the workbench, he managed to track back coordinates by disassembling the walky-talky he looted from the Whales member.

Arrived at the outpost, Jeremy saw a bunch of armed Whales, he took them out with his bow, and managed to sneak his way inside. He killed a lot of gang members, but then his platform broke, Jeremy fell with a painful hit on the ground, and everyone was aware of his visit now. This turned into a rogue-like battle against multiple armed men, but they were no match for Jeremy’s archery skills.

Jeremy had to leave two people alive, and he tied both of them to a chair to interrogate them. One of them told him about knowing Mike, Zachary, their leader was supposedly very fond of Mike. He then also told Jeremy about the location of Sylvia, another important asset of Zachary. Sylvia would be at the harbour this evening, together with a bunch of other Whales to smuggle pills. If anyone would know Mike’s location, it would be Sylvia. Jeremy then asked the other guy if this was true, and he confirmed, Jeremy then killed them both.

 

Chapter 4

 

Flashback to 14 years ago

Jeremy just turned 25, but, Emma, their mother got very sick. She suffered from terminal diarrhoea, and there was nothing Jeremy and Tom were able to do. So the whole family came to visit, but to their surprise Mike also showed up. He was standing in the hospital looking awkwardly at them, but nobody knew what to say. It's the first time Mike showed up ever since he left home as a teenager. Then Mike asked if he could say goodbye to mom, and Tom said: “Of course…” with tears in his eyes. Then the mother saw him and was very surprised. She told him that she was sorry for the love she didn't give him, and she begged him to forgive his dad. Then she said: “Everyone fails at who they are supposed to be, but the measure of a person is how well they succeed in who they are”. The same day their mother passed away.

Jeremy saw Mike crying in the hospital cafeteria. He walked up to Mike and told him: “Why are you crying, what are you even doing here? You didn't care about her, if you did, you should've shown up.” Mike replied: “I wanted to!! It was just too hard!”. “Too hard?! You left, you left to become a criminal, you are a disgrace for our family!” said Jeremy. Mike got mad and they started fighting until they got broken up by a hospital guard. Mike walked out and right at the exit of the hospital he met some of his friends who were suspicious of his visit. Mike said: “My mom died guys, don't ever think maybe I should try to find a normal job?” He was very insecure. His friends were laughing mostly, and then showed him to their car, pointing out a normal job wouldn't be able to pay for this. His best friend, Neil, looked at Mike with a comforting smile. Then they headed off. Jeremy hasn’t seen Mike for 14 years since that moment.

Flashback ends

Jeremy went on his bike and drove to the harbour. Here it was still pretty calm, some people worked here, he needed to watch out not to draw too much attention. When Jeremy reached the door of one of the boats where it said: “Whale”, he got suspicious and tried to open the door, but it was locked. Then he looked behind him and someone appeared. She hit Jeremy in the face and tied him to a chair inside the boat. “It’s Sylvia, right? Your name?” said Jeremy. Sylvia didn’t show any fear and asked: “Ha! You must have found one of the weaklings that told you that. It doesn’t scare me!” Sylvia continued bragging, but you were able to reach for your knife and cut yourself loose. Sylvia noticed and sent two grunts your way.

After you defeated the two grunts, more grunts started showing up. Of course, Jeremy managed to defeat them all. Then Sylvia decided to fight Jeremy. This was a fierce battle, but Jeremy managed to knock Sylvia out and tie her to the chair.

When Sylvia woke up, Jeremy interrogated her to find out about the location of Mike. Jeremy eventually managed to get the location. Sylvia screamed: “He’s keeping the kid at an old warehouse, near the Ferris wheel!!” Jeremy said thanks and then killed her. He took off to the warehouse.

 

Chapter 5

 

Jeremy arrived at the warehouse, the doors were heavily guarded, but Jeremy managed to break in with his archery skill. Inside there were dozens of more armed men, but they were no match for Jeremy’s archery skills. Jeremy broke through the door leading to the next section of the warehouse, but he got ambushed by a very strong muscled guy with a 12-inch KitchenAid Stainless Steel Pan, this was a very tricky situation, but Jeremy managed to succeed in bringing him down.

Shortly after he heard Emma scream for help, he saw Mike and Neil on the top of a staircase. Mike ran into a room upstairs to keep Emma there, and Neil went off the stairs to battle Jeremy. This was a scary battle, Neil managed to break Jeremy’s bow, and this has led Jeremy to kill Neil with his bare hands. After killing Neil, Jeremy suddenly got dizzy, and he passed out.

Jeremy woke up by gunshots in the room next to him, he quickly ran upstairs and mashed through the door, and there he saw Mike and little Emma. Mike was super scared, and told Jeremy to take Emma and get out of here. Jeremy wanted to kill Mike for what he’s done, but he had to prioritise his daughter’s safety. Mike hid in the corner of the room, and Jeremy ran away with Emma. A lot of gang members ran in and Mike told them that Jeremy managed to run off with Emma. Mike pointed them the wrong way, but the commanding officer insisted that they should split up instead of listening to Mike. So Jeremy got chased, while having Emma in his arms. The armed Whales members were not afraid to shoot, so it was all a very close call. Jeremy jumped on the bike with Emma, there was one helmet on the ground, which he gave to Emma. And then they took off.

There was a very long and dangerous chase, they sent a lot of soldiers after Jeremy, he made things personal when he started annihilating The Whales one by one. Eventually Jeremy managed to escape, where he ended up in Mancouver, which was outside of his country. It was a beautiful morning when they arrived.

 

Chapter 6

 

5-year time skip

Jeremy was having dinner with Emma in their new house, at the other side of the clouds, they now lived it Baris, far away from Beattle. Jeremy continued doing archery, but not on Wowlympian level anymore, he became a teacher. After dinner while they were cleaning up the dishes, the doorbell went off and Jeremy fell on the ground, Emma got scared and ran towards Jeremy to make sure everything was okay.

He replied with: “Yeah honey, I’m sorry, the doorbell just startled me, that’s all. Please open the door.” Emma went to the door and opened it, it was a friend of hers, wanting to record a MikMok video with her. They went to their room. Jeremy was suffering from his PTSD again. Emma never suffered from PTSD, and Jeremy knew something had to change in order to get better. Jeremy went to Emma’s room, he asked her friend to get some snacks from the kitchen. Then he talked to Emma, telling her how much he loved her, and how proud he was for her to be so strong. “Emma, I need you to keep being strong, because daddy has a business trip, which he needs to go on.” said Jeremy. Confused, but understanding, Emma replied: “Okay, have a safe trip dad!”.

Jeremy took the first plane to Beattle and left his daughter, he needed to get revenge on Mike and The Whales.

 

Chapter 7

 

Arrived in Beattle, Jeremy ran into one of his old friends: “Alex”. Alex was worried about Jeremy. Alex told Jeremy he shouldn’t have come back, and that he’s on the Beattle Most Wanted list. Jeremy was well aware but didn’t care. He wanted to run out, but Alex stopped him: “What the hell has gotten into you Jeremy!? This is not what she would have wanted!!”. Jeremy grabbed Alex by the throat and screamed: “DON’T YOU EVER TELL ME WHAT LIZ WOULD HAVE WANTED!!!!”. Alex struggled a bit, and then Jeremy let go. He was ashamed and ran out. Alex screamed: “You better run! I don’t want to see you here again, or I’ll notify the police!!!”

Jeremy stole a bike and drove to his parent’s old house. After not speaking to his dad for 5 years, he was scared. When he knocked, he got surprised. An unfamiliar woman opened up. She looked at Jeremy and said: “Hmmm, so you’re him? You are Jeremy?” Jeremy asked if she was dating his dad? The woman replied: “Dating your dad? Oh no, honey! I am merely a stranger. Before moving, Tom told me to give you this letter.” The letter was 4 years old, and Jeremy started reading it:

“Dear Jeremy,

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance I passed away. About a year ago you rescued your daughter and you two took off without letting me know. And I truly understand the burden all of this must have been on you. However, Mike is still my son, and I’ve done him wrong. I may not be much of a father to him anymore, but it’s still my responsibility to take care of him. The truth is, Mike has had a fallout with The Whales, and I’m out to stop them from killing him. But I am well-aware of the risk it takes to take on the organisation. If you ever want to help me, go to these coordinates: ‘47.63349876353852, -122.64756554284872’. Please don't come it you're just here for revenge, I am not gonna give up Mike's location. I love you Jeremy, and I hope you'll be able to find your peace again.

Best,

Tom”

Jeremy took off again. He knew he had to stay under the radar, so he drove to a motel just outside of Beattle. He had a little video call with Emma, letting her know he's okay. Then Jeremy proceeded to sleep.

 

Chapter 8

 

Jeremy woke up very early in the morning and went to the harbour in Beattle. Here he found a gang member, he turned out to be a rival gang member to The Whales, so Jeremy killed him, and hid his body in one of the boats. Jeremy planned to team up with The Whales in order to track down Mike.

When evening came around, more criminals started showing up. Jeremy found one of The Whales, and showed her the body, and then asked if he was able to join. The woman led Jeremy to one of the hideouts. Here he was given guns, but Jeremy rejected, told them he prefers bow and arrow.

After a few weeks of helping The Whales battle with the rival gangs, Jeremy noticed someone walking out. This turned out to be Zachary. He started talking: “Jeremy, the infamous archer that took down a good chunk of our operation. We almost considered going international for your body, but we decided not to take that risk.” Jeremy got a little worried at this point. “Don’t you worry Jeremy, we realised Mike was really the one to put the blame on, that motherfucker killed your wife, didn’t he? And it was his idea to kidnap your daughter, I would feel the same. So no worries. I am happy you joined us. In fact, we are close to finding Mike’s location and taking him down. The issue is, the area is surrounded by rival gangs, and we aren’t as strong as we were in the past. But with your help, we might have a chance…” Jeremy replied, I actually have some coordinates that might be useful. Jeremy showed Zachary the coordinates from the letter. It turned out these coordinates only pointed to the house of a random police detective. Tom really didn’t want him to find him.

A few more weeks passed and they finally pinpointed Mike’s location. Zachary was sure this is Mike, but some Whales questioned their bosses’ integrity. For the first time Zachary didn’t have his team’s full support. They eventually went with a small group, and Zachary joined the mission himself. This was personal, Zachary wanted Mike to suffer.

Jeremy, Zachary, and gang got to the house, but they were surrounded by rival gangs. This was a very tricky situation, and a super difficult battle, and nobody survived, except for Jeremy and Zachary.

 

Chapter 9

 

Jeremy and Zachary entered the house. The sneaked upstairs and heard someone being in a room. They looked at each other and Zachary held his finger to his mouth, implying they should be silent. But Jeremy had other plans. He slit Zachary’s throat and then went to open the door to deal with Mike himself.

Mike noticed Jeremy and got super scared. Jeremy screamed: “You thought you could get away with all this, you kidnapped my daughter and killed my wife!” Jeremy went for his first hit, but Mike fought back. This was a very painful, and sad battle. But Jeremy won, he was more skilled, better trained, and he had the tactical advantage.

Mike was injured on the ground and he told Jeremy that it’s okay. Mike said: “Jer, I need you to listen, just for a second. I never meant to shoot your wife!! I guess at the moment I just got spooked, and I was terrified. And regarding Emma, I never wanted to kidnap her, but The Whales wanted to kill both her and you. You sold your soul to them, but you need to know I was protecting your daughter from their violence! It’s okay though, you can shoot me, but please make it quick. You know what’s funny Jer? It turns out mom’s diarrhoea is hereditary, it’s running through my jeans right now. I can die any moment…” Then they heard a noise and the lights went off, it was too dark for anyone to see. Then Jeremy heard someone coming in and without hesitation he shot him. Then Mike screamed: “Nooo!!! You son of a bitch! Why did you sh…” then Mike started shitting his pants and died before he could finish his sentence. Jeremy grabbed his phone to get some light and then he collapsed.

It was Tom lying there, with an arrow through his heart. For the past 4 years, Tom has been taking care of Mike, while Mike was slowly getting sicker. Tom never went after the Whales. All he did was being a father. Something Jeremy neglected the moment he got on that plane.

 

Chapter 10

 

10-year time skip

Jeremy woke up in his prison cell, the guard told him he got visitation. Jeremy looked at the other side of the glass, and there he saw Emma, now 24 years-old. Emma said: “Hi dad, it’s been a while.” Jeremy couldn’t say anything, he was too emotional. Then Emma said: “When I first heard it on the news I was 14 years-old, and while I was shocked, I defended you. My friends thought I was crazy. But when I got older, I realised that there is nothing good, decent, or noble about what you did. I actually only came here for one question… Why? Why did you do it?

The screen fades to black and the logo of the game appears: A Shot In The Dark