Gamebooks (Choose Your Own Adventure Style)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 3


When we decide to trust Lania in CHOICE #2, the kids spend the evening watching TV.  The IFF uses a less effective method of mind control than advertisements, which have the benefit of marketing research and symbolism.  What do they air between segments of a TV show?  "Instead of commercials, there are several minutes of flashing lights between the programs.  These flashes make you slightly dizzy, but somehow you can't tear your eyes away from them".


Remember that Hijacked! was published well before the Pokemon episode that gave Japanese children seizures.  I've wondered why the intro for the Archie cartoon never did that to people!  This part of the IFF's plan seems one of the less realistic parts of the book. 


At night, I'm still seeing the flashing lights as if I'm hypnotized.  Maybe they're trying to give us the "Tetris effect"? I go over to Dan's bunk and we leave through the back window as instructed.  Lania is at least true enough to her word to meet us at the appointed place.


Lania's escape plan is a rowboat, as seen in a picture on Page 34.  The illustration has all three of us barely managing to hold onto the side of the boat as waves crash into us, which matches the text.  "The boat glides forward as another wave starts to build up just offshore.  The boat gets to it just as it crests.  For a moment, the boat-with the three of you clinging on to it-hangs on the top of the wave; then it slides down the other side".


Dan and I row as Lania pours water out of the boat with a pail.  Now we have some backstory for our heroes:  "Luckily you both learned how to row on Clover Lake back home".  Richard Brightfield is clever here:  there are candidates for Clover Lake in Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Alaska at least.  He must have done it just to prevent me from finding their home state.


Lania says that someone's earlier escape attempt had been foiled by the IFF's helicopter.  The idea is to follow the currents to the north to some nearby islands.  She has water and fruit for us, hopefully not the local fruit that killed us!  Two will rest as one person rows.  Lania naturally has more energy than the rest, and she also checks her compass "and a chart using a penlight".  We hope the fog will conceal us, but it disappears in an hour.


We're half a mile from Pine Island when we see the helicopter.  "Stop rowing at once and let us take you on board.  You must come back to the island.  You're in no position to refuse".  Dan and I think we should surrender, but Lania will swim for shore no matter what.  CHOICE #5 is whether to keep going on Page 71, or give up on Page 98.


In this CYOA, I know how to swim, and my character does the breaststroke.  We come up for air and dive again just in time to dodge machine gun fire.  The water becomes shallow near the beach, but lucky for us we have human shields!  "There are dozens of other bathers around you, all dashing out of the water and running for safety.  The man in the helicopter can't fire at you without hitting the others.  It turns around and swerves away".  Rampage killing must not be the IFF style.


"Lania comes ashore farther down the beach.  She has a gash in her arm where a bullet has grazed her.  A lifeguard helps her toward the first aid station.  You and Dan follow, trailing behind.  'That was close!' Lania says.  'Now let's find my friends.  Then we'll tell our story to the local police.  THE END".


This Good Ending is short and doesn't have a picture.  The illustration of Lania, Dan, and I climbing into the rowboat partially makes up for it.  Apparently the seaplane is the optimal route according to the author's opinion?


Pine Island may be a reference to the Isle of Pines in New Caledonia.


It's probably just a coincidence, but the terrorist group in CYOA #106 is called International Fighters for Freedom, and CYOA #107 is called. . .Fight for Freedom.  (The plots are unrelated.)

  

Results So Far


3 Good Endings

1 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 4


The next ending makes up for the disappointment of the previous ending with a drawing.  Never surrender in this Choose Your Own Adventure, or else you might be trained for the Summer Olympics.


". . .Three!' Lania shouts as she dives overboard.  You and Dan remain in the boat, waving your arms in surrender.  Suddenly bullets start to spatter the surface of the ocean all around the spot where Lania went under.  The helicopter circles around your boat, firing at different areas, you hope that Lania got away.  You haven't seen her surface since she dived overboard.


The helicopter comes back and hovers directly over your boat.  The men aboard send down a rope ladder, and you and Dan climb up.  Then the copter goes straight up about a thousand feet.  The men aboard look at each other and smile.  'It's time for your diving lessons', one of them says.  'What do you mean by that?' you say.  'Just this', he says as he pushes you and Dan out of the open door of the helicopter.  THE END".


But we'll be fine, right?  The island and the rowboat are so close in the picture, and surface tension doesn't exist in most fiction!  At least the man shoving us out of the helicopter will lose his cap as we hurtle into the sea with wide eyed expressions of fear.


And that ends the "go with the IFF to their island lair" branch.  It's surprising considering it's featured on the cover, and even the summary on the publication page:  "The reader's decisions control the course of an adventure in which terrorists hijack a schoolbus and hold the students prisoner on a remote island".  It's often the case that one CHOICE #1 branch has more endings in these books, but it's rare to see the main story have fewer.


Sally's "hide under the bus" branch must have 12 endings, but those will be played another day.



Results So Far


3 Good Endings

2 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 5


When I decide to hide with Sally under the bus in CHOICE #1, Dan goes with the other classmates to the Pacific island.  He'll probably eat the local fruit and die without me.  One of the hijackers does shine his flashlight under the bus, but not thoroughly enough to find us.  The van carries the bus with it, and we look outside just long enough to see the other kids before it drives away.  I tell Sally we should return to the bus and sit inside.  In the black-and-white illustration, Sally appears to be a tall blonde girl with a striped shirt.


I believe we're on the highway now that the ride isn't bumpy.  Sally hopes the police will stop the hijackers for speeding.  (Since that doesn't happen, it's probably not the end of the month in CYOA land.)  Eventually we can feel we're going uphill, and we pass by a store that says GLOVEVILLE HARDWARE.  We pass through the countryside, but not for long as the light disappears.  We think we're now in either a cave or a tunnel.


We hide under the bus again as the van door opens.  The IFF men must be at ease because they're not wearing ski masks now.  Staying with the bus is no longer an option, as we find out from eavesdropping:  "We better get rid of this bus as soon as we can', you hear one of the men say.  'Dump it into one of the deep pits".


Sally and I realize we're in a cavern when we see stalactites.  Most of the floor is covered with a curving cement road as seen in the picture, but there are still some stalagmites.  It's not the Cave of Time, since that was described as having tight and narrow spaces.  After an excessive amount of "random" page flipping (4, 67, 76, 7, 14), we're finally at CHOICE #6.  Some guards are approaching our hiding spot, but there is a sole guard with a rifle ahead of us.  We can either sneak by him on Page 60, or go further into the cave and hope to find a side exit on Page 37.


Sneaking seems too risky, so let's explore.  Apparently our heroes don't try to look for a natural tunnel out, as Sally and I try a door and are greeted by a bald man with a handlebar mustache:  "What are you two doing here?' he demands.  'You must have somehow gotten away from the bus and-"


I pull Sally out of the way by her hand, and more IFF terrorists are chasing us.  CHOICE #7 is a Left or Right decision, but Hijacked! is more generous than early CYOA books and provides a hint:  Left on Page 89 leads to a closed door, and Right on Page 73 leads to a wide blind corner.


Given our track record with the previous door, we might as well take our chances with Right.


"You and Sally dash down the corridor to the right.  You go around the curve and come to a wide double door.  You go through it and find yourselves in an immense underground amphitheater.  Hundreds of figures dressed in makeshift khaki uniforms are lined up in rows on both sides of a central aisle.  As all eyes turn to look at you, you and Sally stand there for a few moments, not knowing what to do.  A loud murmur goes through the crowd.


'Silence!' a figure in a somewhat more elaborate uniform at the far end of the aisle commands.  'Bring them forward.'  The guards from the outside corridor grab the two of you down the aisle to where their leader stands in front of a huge pit.  The other figures gather around you.


'Now you will see what happens to those who oppose us!' he screams.  You and Sally are tossed over the edge of the pit, hurtling down into the abyss.  By the time you hit bottom, you don't feel a thing.  THE END".


If given the CHOICE between spelunking and tropical island survival, I should pick the latter!  I was actually trying to win in the Sally arc despite it being Alternate Endings since that was the beginning of a new storyline. 


The IFF must be rich if they not only have a South Pacific private island headquarters, but a paved cavern hideout too.  And hundreds of terrorists with nothing else to do than hang around in an amphitheater.  The drawing shows many IFF members looking forward at us as we're about to fall into the pit.  This is a fair Death as they did mention the abyss earlier when talking about the school bus. 


The leader wears a uniform and a hat with a pistol in a belt holster, though the other members are inconsistently dressed.  Some wear what look like baseball caps, while others wear bandanas.  A few have sunglasses, but most don't.  (Sunglasses in a cave?  Their vision must be "augmented" like J.C. Denton's.)



Results So Far


3 Good Endings

3 Deaths

0 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 6


When we head Left in CHOICE #89, we come to a door with a conveniently unlocked padlock.  Sally has a high Dexterity score unlike me in real life, and manages to lock the door behind us.  One IFF member orders for a crew to bust down the door, which gives us enough time to go through a narrow tunnel.  It opens into another cavern with a wide stream running through it.  We have just enough daylight to see thanks to a small opening in the ceiling.


Sally realizes the water is shallow, and thinks we can ford the stream.  CHOICE #8 seems to have no good solution:  fording the stream on Page 40 has the risk of slipping and falling or dropping into a sinkhole, while the ledge we can continue following on Page 77 may be a dead end.


Anyone who's played some version of Oregon Trail knows that eventually you have to ford a river, so let's try that.  The water is almost freezing, and we slip halfway through.  The stream carries us away to a 20 foot waterfall, and trying to swim against the current is no use.  The picture shows my character falling and Sally at the edge.  It looks like my decisions are traumatizing her more than the IFF is!


We end up at a beach and encounter other kids who escaped hijackers.  Bob says they can climb the cavern walls, but guards are posted at strategic spots.  Some have been recaptured, while the rest have been stuck in this area for months.  Sally asks what they eat, and Bob says they catch fish with a spear.  George the Boy Scout cooks them with driftwood.  Now's the perfect time for a Mark Trail reference!  Mark Trail was once trapped in a cave for months of real time, and he suggested eating "cave crickets" to a companion, which became a joke among comic strip fans for years.


George impresses Sally by starting a fire by rubbing sticks together:  "That really works?"  George says he'll never eat fish again after he escapes, but Sally thinks it's delicious.  Then again, she hasn't been pinned down at a beach by terrorists for months.  I envision George as more of athletic boy, but the picture makes him look more like an intellectual.  Maybe it's the kind of glasses he wears.  A girl is impaling a fish on a spear in the pool, while a boy is pointing his spear towards the water, about to strike.


CHOICE #9 is whether to try to escape with Bob tonight on Page 82, or wait for it on Page 78.  When we decide to escape, our "hero" ditches Sally.  The official excuse is "There's no point in both of us taking a chance.  If I get away, I'll go to the police and come back for you, I promise."  Then again, the hijackers were planning to bust down the door and charge in that direction, and the protagonist probably didn't think of that.


The party now consists of Bob, a boy called Darcey, and Norma.  When we're close to the top of a 50 foot shaft, my body aches.  When I immediately see the illustration of a helicopter shining a spotlight on me and a shot fired into the back of my knee, I know this path doesn't lead to a Good Ending!  


Bob orders everyone to scatter so we won't all be captured.  "There is the sharp crack of a rifle shot from behind, and you feel a stab of pain in your leg as you sprawl to the ground.  Your head hits something hard, and everything goes black".  The gun doesn't have a "report"?  Guess this really is a modern book after all.


When I come to, I see that I'm in tied to an infirmary bed inside the cavern.  Must be a cutting edge medical treatment.  Handlebar Mustache Man "apologizes" for shooting me, and the nurse says he's Dr. Cranshaw.  He whispers that if I pretend to join the IFF, I might be able to flee with him.  He hints that the group didn't live up to the ideals he had when he joined:  "These people are not what I thought they were, they're-"


CHOICE #10 is whether to feign allegiance to the IFF on Page 6, or refuse to trust Dr. Cranshaw on Page 116.  Dr. Cranshaw is no Lania.


"Okay', you say to Dr. Cranshaw, trusting him.  'I'll join'.  The nurse helps Dr. Cranshaw untie you.  Then she brings you a wheelchair.  They push you out of the infirmary, down a long corridor, and into a large amphitheater filled with members of the International Fighters for Freedom.  At the front, standing on a platform is Carlos, their leader.  He raises his arm in a fascist salute, and the crowd shouts their support.


Carlos soon sees you.  Slowly he comes down from the platform and walks up the center aisle until he stands in front of you.  He takes a metal scepter from under his jacket and places it on your head.  You feel an electric shock go through your body.  At the same time, you see a blinding flash of light that seems to come from inside your head, behind your eyes.


'Welcome' to the International Fighters for Freedom.  You are now one of us', Carlos announces, and walks back to the platform.  You sit there, unable to move.  Every time you try to think about what is happening, you see another flash of light.  'Don't worry', Dr. Cranshaw whispers, 'you'll soon learn not to think'.  THE END".


The IFF is fascist?  Fascism is a nationalist ideology, and scorns internationalism if I'm not mistaken.  So giving the group that name, even as a disguise, sounds off.  They seemed more like Maoists in the island story.  They're probably not Nazis given the ethnic diversity.  Given the leader's name is Carlos, maybe they're more like Spanish Falangists or something?


Wonder how you're supposed to take the hint to trust Lania and not Dr. Cranshaw.  And why did we never hear about Carlos on the island, if fascism is based on following a single leader?  It seems like Hijacked! is really more like two separate books rather than a singular storyline like La Prisión.


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

3 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

0 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 7


Rejecting the IFF recruitment offer in CHOICE #10 changes the Bad Non-Death Ending to a "pessimistic" Inconclusive Ending, since there's a small chance of escape.  Wonder why Carlos doesn't just tap me on the head with the scepter again to make it easier for myself.  His dialogue here makes me wonder if he knows I'm a CYOA protagonist rather than a random kid.  There's no reason for him to "need" me otherwise, as he isn't demanding ransom money.  


Sally's probably laughing at me right now given how leaving her behind to attempt Bob's escape plan in CHOICE #9 worked out!


"I wouldn't join your organization', you say.  'You're nothing but a bunch of terrorists.'  'I can see now that there is nothing we can do to help you.  Nurse, get Carlos', Dr. Cranshaw says, stomping out of the infirmary.  The nurse leaves, and for a few moments you are alone.  Desperately you struggle with the straps holding you down.  You manage to get one of them loose just as Carlos comes in.


'So, you are the stubborn one', he says.  'I admire that.  I too am the same way.  Perhaps one day I will let you go.  But not just yet.  I'll need you until my new order has risen to take over the world.'  Then he laughs diabolically.  Carlos goes out of the infirmary as two of his guards come in to make sure you don't try anything.  How long will it be before you can escape from this madman? you wonder.  Looking around at the guards and the stone walls of the cavern, you know it's not going to be anytime soon.  THE END".


Results So Far


3 Good Endings

3 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 8


Staying together with Sally is the way to go in CHOICE #9, as it leads to an illustration of Sally and I climbing a ladder and being pulled up by rescuers wearing wide-brimmed hats.  Bob, Darcey, and Norma are likely dead regardless of my reassurances to Sally, so this may be the worst Good Ending.


"You decide to stay in the cave and wait.  You wait.  You watch as the group led by Bob scales the stone wall and vanishes into the pale moonlight high above.  A few minutes later, you hear gunshots and screams from the outside, then silence.  'I hope some of them managed to escape', Sally says.  'I'm sure they did', you say.  'They'll go and send help.  I'll bet we're rescued soon.'


You are rescued, but it's not anytime soon.  It's a few months before a voice calls from above.  'Hello.  Is anyone down there?'  'Yes, we're here', you call back.  'Help us.'  A rope ladder comes tumbling down, and all of you climb up one at a time.  You and Sally are the first to go.  Several tall men in trench coats and broad-rimmed hats are standing at the top. 


'My name is Agent Mitchell from the FBI', one of them says.  'It took us a while, but we finally found you.  The rest of your classmates were rescued a few weeks ago.  They led us to the caverns, and we've been able to break apart the terrorist organization.'  'You got here just in time', you say.  'I don't think I could have eaten another one of those fish.'  THE END".


Be glad you're not eating fish on an airplane!  That always causes disease.


Results So Far


4 Good Endings

3 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 9


Following the ledge in CHOICE #8 seems like a bad idea when it narrows to 1 inch wide.  Sally thinks we'll have to turn back, but I notice a steel door in a wall.  It opens without much effort, and I pull Sally and myself through.  There's an iron door on the other side of this room that won't open.  I tell Sally "There doesn't seem to be a latch on this side.  I hope that-"


"Suddenly the door behind you slams shut.  You run over to it and try to open it.  'Now this one is locked too.  We're trapped in between', you say.  At the same time, water starts rising up around your ankles.  Soon it's up to your knees.


'This chamber is going to be completely filled with water in a few minutes!'  Sally exclaims.  'We have to get out of here!'  You throw all your weight against one door-and then against the other, but it's no use.  The water keeps rising until it's up to the ceiling.  When the water eventually goes down again, it leaves two lifeless bodies on the floor of the chamber.  THE END".


Carlos always removes the swimming pool ladder when he plays The Sims.  I made a similar trap for elven merchants in Dwarf Fortress, but they always went mad and killed each other first.


Page 59's illustration shows water rising in the trap room, as Sally and the protagonist look up at the ceiling in panic.  Going further into the cavern in CHOICE #6 looks like the worst path in the book so far:  two Deaths and two endings where you're either brainwashed or held captive indefinitely in the cave hideout.  For comparison, you have a 60% chance of a Good Ending in the entire island campaign, and that's if you're not paying attention to the clues.  How does Sally fare if you go to the island, anyway?


Results So Far


4 Good Endings

4 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 10


Did Richard Brightfield mean for us to take the phrase "dead end" literally in CHOICE #8?


Back in CHOICE #6, Sally and I tiptoe around a snoring guard, only to find two alert guards at an entrance of the cavern.  The sleeping guard yawns and is starting to awaken.  One door in the wall close to this guard is our only option, so I grab Sally by the hand and rush to it.  I notice a trapdoor leading up before Sally does and I make hand motions indicating she should climb.


We hear a "commotion" involving the school bus being hauled out of the van.  The IFF may have infiltrated the police since several guards are wearing a cop's uniform.  We listen to the bus bouncing off the walls of the pit as it falls into oblivion.


We fumble around for the hatch to open the trapdoor, then crawl through a pipe.  Sally hates it:  "I'm really claustrophobic.  I hate tight places like this.  Suppose we get trapped at the other end".  I reassure her by telling her it's an air vent or an emergency escape.  Air vents are always just big enough to sneak through in fiction, and it wouldn't be the first time I've thought of Deus Ex while typing this playthrough.


The grate has a latch inside that opens.  Otherwise this book would have fewer endings than the 17 advertised.  The exit to the air vent is on a hill, and we're in a region with "blue, hazy mountains".  Church steeples and tall buildings are visible from here, so it might be Gloveville, the town that we saw while hiding in the bus.  Farms with cows, "neat white farmhouses, and large red barns" are nearby, and the town is next to a forest.


Sally wants to go into town to talk to the police on Page 56 in CHOICE #11, but my character is worried the police are IFF agents and wants to travel through the woods on Page 105.  If crime drama schlock has taught me anything, it's to never ever go in the woods.  That's a sure way to play a corpse on TV.


Sally fears the road, thinking that the terrorists are driving on it.  I tell her they don't know we escaped in the first place.  Something's off about Gloveville when we arrive after walking for 5 miles.  No one seems to be on the street, yet the lights are still on.  The only store that's open is a drugstore.  A helpful, or maybe "helpful" old woman says we shouldn't bother with the police station because "The town police are. . .well, not very helpful around here".  I wonder whether some cops are really IFF guards, or if the hijackers merely stole a few uniforms.


CHOICE #12 is whether to visit the police station on Page 10 in spite of the warning, or walk down a side street on Page 108 like Sally suggests.  While we're walking, we see a sign saying Denver is 35 miles away.  Gloveville is probably based on Globeville, a real neighborhood in Denver.  This page confirms the Hijacked! cast lives in Colorado. 


We hide from a police car behind the trees, and we may not be paranoid since it's driving to Gloveville and passes by multiple times in two hours.  You'd think deciding to hitchhike would be its own CHOICE, but not in this book.  We just climb into a truck, but the owner lets us. 


"You and Sally jump in.  Seconds later, the back door of the truck slams shut, and you hear a click.  'Hey, you don't have to lock it!' you call out, banging on the inside of the door.  You hear the driver laugh as he starts the truck up, makes a U-turn, and heads back toward Gloveville.  Soon the truck is back at the caverns.  The door is opened, and the hijackers drag you out, taking Sally off in one direction and you in the other.


You are thrown into a bare, windowless cell that is carved in the rock.  For the next four days, you are fed only tasteless gruel pushed through a small opening at the base of the door.  Eventually the cell door is open.  You stagger to your feet.  Sally is standing there, dressed in a khaki uniform like the ones the terrorists are wearing.  She seems to be drugged.


'What have they done to you!' you exclaim.  'I came to say good-bye', she says.  'I have joined the IFF to fight for world freedom.  I told Carlos, our leader, that you could never be converted to our great cause.  Therefore, you must be terminated.'


'Terminated!' you scream.  'Sally, you can't let them do that to me!'  You rush toward Sally, but the door is slammed in your face.  A short time later, they come for you.  THE END".


OUCH!  It's rare for a companion to betray you in a gamebook.  The exceptions I've played are Heart of Ice when everyone fights for the Heart of Volent at the end, and The Tower of Never There if you make Gold Orb YON.  Now the IFF seems more like the Symbionese Liberation Army.


As for the gruel, who else is picturing my character pleading "Please sir, I want some more!" in a falsetto voice?  At least the IFF gave us doughnuts on the island!


The illustration shows Sally and I leaving a steel door in a brick wall.  An IFF man wearing a baseball cap, khaki fatigues, and sunglasses, is pointing a submachine gun (?) at Sally.  My character is still wearing a T-shirt and ripped jeans, and is staring with his mouth agape at Sally.  Like the text says, she's wearing the IFF uniform, and she has an impassive facial expression.


It seems the "don't trust the Gloveville police" clue might be one of the biggest red herrings in CYOA history.


Results So Far


4 Good Endings

5 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 11


No, the Gloveville police really are bad at their jobs.  After CHOICE #12, the cop greets us with this message:  "You must be the two strangers who were reported wandering around town".  Sally says we came to report a crime, and I tell him about the hijacking.  He asks where the "alleged hijackers" are, and we point out the location of their cave lair.  He says he'll have to "get some help", and shoves us into a holding cell at gunpoint.


When more officers come, they say they'll have to talk to Carlos to find out what to do next.  "Remember now, it has to look like suicide".  This really is the English version of La Prisión, if not as good!  State police arrest the Gloveville police, and they've been monitoring the town for a while.  The old woman at the drugstore is Miss Binnie Atwater, and she gave the state police the tip.


"The next day, your photo, along with Sally's, is on the front page of every newspaper in the country.  The headlines read HIJACKERS CAPTURED.  TWO FROM MISSING BUS RESCUED.  SEARCH FOR REST OF STUDENTS CONTINUES.  You and Sally lead the rescue mission.  It doesn't take long for you to lead the authorities to the terrorists in the caverns and set your classmates free.  THE END".


But all the other classmates, except for Buzzy, are on the Pacific island!  The other companions in the cave arc (which we didn't meet in this timeline) are victims of a separate hijacking.  I'm still waiting for Buzzy to come back and sell us out to the IFF.  You don't spend that much time on a character in the first few pages if you're going to ignore him completely.


The newspapers must be using the Associated Press's headline if they're all the same.  No illustration here.


This Good Ending is one of the more counterintuitive victories in Hijacked!.  We do exactly what the one ally in Gloveville warned against, and we're set free.  It's probably meant to teach kids to contact the authorities when they're in danger, but the plot so far contradicts that.


Results So Far


5 Good Endings

5 Deaths

1 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Choose Your Own Adventure:  Hijacked! Alternate Endings Part 12


Five endings remain.  Let's see what grisly Deaths await us in the woods in CHOICE #11.  Sally is pleased by a sunset that looks like "fiery searchlights".  I notice a patrol coming in our direction, but don't think they saw us because otherwise they would have rushed at us.  "You are almost to the woods when a beam of light cuts across the field behind you".


That last quote is the cliffhanger on Page 105, which then goes to Page 20.  We jump behind the rocks just in time to avoid the IFF flashlight and hear some walkie-talkie noises.  (Yes, people still use walkie-talkies!  I once had to use them for work.)  I think they were looking for another escapee, but Sally hopes they were trying to flee in the opposite direction.


Sally is the first to smell a campfire where a man is roasting marshmallows.  In the picture, he's wearing a cap and a plaid buttoned shirt.  He has a glum expression.  Sally's worried that he's part of the IFF, but my character hopes he's just a camper.  CHOICE #13 is whether we should talk to the camper on Page 22, or hide from him on Page 64. 


We tell the camper we're lost.  His name is Jason, and he tolerates us despite startling him.  We then tell him about the hijacking and escape from the cavern.  Jason wants to go to the Gloveville police, but Sally explains that the Gloveville police are doubtful and we should try a town farther from here.  Jason doesn't believe this part of the story, but Sally tells him to listen to the radio or watch TV since they're sure to cover that story. 


Jason is a modern camper:  he went to the woods to get away from the mass media.  He gives us cheese sandwiches and we sleep at the campsite until morning.  As we pack up the tent and fishing equipment, Jason brags about his "supercharged V-8 engine".  Our cover story will be that we're Jason's children.  A police roadblock near Gloveville stops us.  The page flipping in Hijacked will forever confound me:  I was just on Pages 22-23 and now on Page 80.  The next page?  24.


The IFF cops fall for our lie instantly.  They claim they're looking for hitchhikers that "escaped from the state reformatory" who are "wanted for murder".  Jason's doubts are destroyed when the local newspaper has a headline that displays the title of the book.  He looks bug-eyed in the picture!  Both Jason and Sally are drinking "Cola" out of what look like tall aluminum cans with a straw.


More Gloveville police corner us and CHOICE #14 is whether to tell Jason to run from them on Page 63, or "decide it's too dangerous" on Page 38.  Does the V-8 engine live up to Jason's boasting?


"I've always wanted to try this', he says, flooring the gas pedal.  The car leaps forward".


A tractor-trailer is up ahead, and the only way to avoid a gunshot from the patrol car is to swerve directly in front of it.  Sally's facial expression in the picture looks like me when I ride in a car in real life!  The drivers in my area think they're playing Mario Kart.  The front of the tractor-trailer has the number 70-442 and the word ARWEST.  (Maybe it's FARWEST?  The left side of the picture is cut off a bit.)


Another cop pursues us, but fortunately it's from a Denver precinct:  the speed limit here is 30 miles per hour.  The Gloveville patrol car appears and one IFF member claims we're murderers.  But the Denver cops know about the hijacking and have a shotgun ready.  The Gloveville officer says "You're going to be in big trouble", but the Denver officer says we're in their jurisdiction.  They'll alert the Colorado police about the Gloveville terrorists.


Fortunately, the Denver police have school pictures of us from the previous year.  The FBI questions us and disbelieves our claims.  The Colorado state police raid the cavern, but now it seems the cave was "boarded up twenty years ago for safety reasons".  But they do find the remnants of the school bus to prove we're not lying.  The IFF must be about as competent at cover-ups as Enron paper shredders.


In this timeline we don't even know the hijackers are called the IFF until the FBI tells us, or even that they're terrorists.  Sally says "They sure fight for freedom in a strange kind of way".  The FBI sends us to a guarded "isolated farmhouse", but we can still call our families and friends.  Do we get witness protection program plastic surgery too?


"The two FBI men sneak you and Sally out the back of the police station.  A van is waiting to take you to the farm.  You and Sally get into the back, and the FBI men close the door.  Suddenly you realize that the two men who are supposed to protect you are both tied up and gagged.  You turn around to try to get out of the van, but a dark hood is pulled over your head, and your hands are tied behind your back.  As the van drives away, the heavy smell of chloroform hits you.  Before you lose consciousness, you hear someone say, 'We'll take the kids to our new location.'  But that's the last you hear.  THE END".


Chekhov's V-8 engine and the book's hints aren't enough to save us.  The amount of pages involved in this ending really increase the tension.  Kids in 1990 probably thought Hijacked! was one of the scariest books in the series.


Hijacked! follows the gamebook ending tradition of "the last thing you see/hear".  No illustration of a chloroform rag on the face.  The text suggests that we're hostages rather than murder victims, so I'll rule this as a Bad Non-Death Ending.



Results So Far


5 Good Endings

5 Deaths

2 Bad Non-Death Endings

0 Neutral Endings

1 Inconclusive Endings