Not in Order

THE SHIFT BEGINS.

A night in September 1911. The night is already well underway when you report for duty.

You have a punch, a uniform and a round to make. Aboard a night train racing through the darkness, you must move from carriage to carriage, inspect the passengers, and make sure every ticket is in order.

• A name.

• A date.

• A seat.

• A carriage.

Everything must match.

INSPECT. OBSERVE. DECIDE.

Every passenger must be checked.

Compare the tickets, the papers, and the information recorded in your service documents. A mistake may seem harmless: the wrong seat, an incorrect date, a passenger in the wrong carriage.

It is up to you to decide whether everything is in order.

Nobody really seems to be expecting you.

SOME THINGS FALL UNDER NO REGULATION.

A valid ticket is no guarantee that the carriage is.

There are things aboard that obey nothing at all. An object that does not behave the way matter should. A shape that fits into a space it could not possibly fit into. Something at the far end of the corridor that never boarded this train, and that is not a passenger.

No document mentions them. No regulation provides for their case.

There is only one move: pull the emergency cord and file the report.

Assuming you saw it at all.

TRUST THE RECORDS.

Passenger manifests, registers, tickets, and reports may hold the answers you are looking for.

Listen to what the passengers say to one another. Read what has been left lying around. Look where nobody else is looking.

Cross-check the information. Remember what you have read. Pay attention to the smallest details.

Because aboard this train, a simple clerical error may be hiding something far more disturbing.

NOT IN ORDER.

First-person psychological horror, aboard a French night train of 1911.
No combat, no weapons, no interface.
One trainset to walk, in one direction only, all the way to the head carriage.
Inspection by ticket punch: in order, or reported.
Anomalies to spot and report at the emergency cord.
Documents, archives and conversations to cross-check.
A line that yields only to those who keep walking it.

Each night teaches you something. Each inspection may reveal another discrepancy.

And the more you understand the train, the harder it becomes to know what truly belongs aboard it. And who.

Tickets, please.