Game On

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Home sweet Home

He found the place with no difficulties , the sat nav doing it's job admirably .

The main house itself was about a quarter of a mile up a smooth dirt track and as best he could tell in the fading light of early evening there was heavy wooden fencing around the whole property, marking his boundaries clearly. This was a good thing. The out buildings and the barn were laid out about 50 yards from the house and this was also good as it meant no one could get within a hundred feet without being visible , he admonished his paranoia silently in his head adding "no one even knows who I am " .

He unlocked the front door and went inside . It was everything he had expected it to be . A wooden framed house all on one level , 5 bedrooms in all , a large kitchen/dining room , 3 bathrooms, and a large living room , there was very little furniture and he had noticed that none of the bedrooms actually had a bed in them , an inconvenience but nothing to stress over , he would sleep in the truck tonight and resolve his furniture issues in the morning , he figured it would be warm enough at this time of year . He was completely wrong . By 10:30 the temperature had dropped to a point where sleeping in the truck just wasn't an option . He went exploring the out buildings in search of firewood for the big open fire in the living room and was rewarded in several ways , firstly he came across a shed full of old furniture that had definitely seen better days but did include a serviceable mattress and some old blankets . "Result" he said aloud on further exploration he found the 'woodpile' a huge pile of timber some already cut down to size , most in need of a chainsaw to make it manageable , he also saw a large axe and an old rusty two man saw , "Fuck that " he said aloud and resolved to get a chainsaw sourced as soon as possible , he noticed a smaller hand axe laying on a big stump and used it to make some kindling .

He got the fire going and dragged the mattress in front of it , in no time at all he was warm and comfortable , as he drifted off to sleep it occurred vaguely to him that the blankets smelled a little like horses but then he was asleep and it didn't matter .

He awoke at sunrise , the lack of curtains contributing to his early rise , he was deep in farming country here with his nearest neighbour being over two miles away and the nearest town being closer to ten miles away. This was an ideal situation as he could pretty much come and go as he pleased but mostly due to the flatness of the surrounding land he could see for literally miles in all directions which meant that no one could ever approach without being seen from distance , he finished his exploration of the property but found very little of any real interest , as he wandered around the house he made a list of everything he would need to furnish the place properly , it would take a few days to get round all the shops and probably a few more to get everything delivered , he needed to find a fuel supplier so he could run the generator for electricity . he locked the house up and headed out shopping.

It took just over a fortnight to get the house properly sorted out with every thing he needed as well as a few choice luxury items including of course a new console , a selection of games from the target companies ( for research purposes of course) and a state of the art 60 " television set . he had furnished the entire house including putting beds etcetera in the spare bedrooms  . he felt it was important to maintain a semblance of normality in case he came under any level of scrutiny. 

He created an entirely new and fictitious online persona so he could continue to stay up to date with the gaming forums anonymously and hopefully gain more information to further his plans although he firmly believed that all he would achieve would be to extend the list of offences perpetrated . He was missing the familiar surroundings of the chat rooms so it would be a worthwhile distraction even if only for his state of mind . it was beginning to occur to him that he had not seen a living soul outside of the shops he had visited in over two weeks and the loneliness he was starting to suffer with could become a real problem if he wasn't careful . he had learned many years ago that too much alone time caused him to withdraw into himself and focus on what he considered to be his failings , this was not good as he had suffered with suicidal thoughts for a long time on and off . feeling like this flared his internal anger , these thoughts are not allowed , he would not give in to feelings of inadequacy put there by a money hungry corporation . He resolved then and there that he would have at least two nights a week where he would go to town for some socialising and a few beers if he could find a bar he was comfortable with and he would find real people to interact with . "that'll fix it " he said to himself .

He called a taxi and arranged for his first night out on the town , he showered and changed then fixed himself something to eat as he didn't want to drink on an empty stomach.