Would you survive a zombie apocalypse? Start with the mini-mart.

Twelve minutes to the milk truck

The Last Shop Before Dawn is a short choose-your-path game. It is 5 a.m., the town is being evacuated, and you are in the Last Stop Mini-Mart in pajama pants because you ran out of coffee. Outside, the Groggies, the neighborhood's undead, are gathering on the sidewalk. They are slow and drawn to noise, and if enough of them reach you, you do not get away. The local dairy's milk truck is doing the last evacuation run. It leaves the plaza in twelve minutes and plays its delivery jingle the whole time it waits. Nobody is coming back for whoever is still in town after it goes.

You make eight decisions between the shelf and the truck: what to carry, what to do about the shop's doorbell, whether to help a delivery rider stuck in the alley, which exit to use, how to get past what is blocking it, how to cross the plaza, what to do when the shop owner drops her supplies, and how to leave. Each choice costs time, makes noise, or changes who is with you, and the game tells you which before you pick it.

How this episode plays

Two meters sit above the scene. Minutes left starts at twelve and only goes down. Crowd shows how much attention the Groggies are paying to your part of town, in three bands: Clear, Gathering and Blocked. Careful choices usually cost minutes. Fast choices usually cost attention. Most of the game is deciding which of the two you can afford at that moment.

Reading never costs time. There are no timers and nothing happens while you think, so take as long as you like on any screen. The clock only moves when you choose something that takes time, and the line under each choice says how much.

On the first screen you take one item off the shelf: industrial tape, a crowbar, or a crate of extra-fizzy soda. Each one gets you past one particular obstacle without noise, depending on which exit you pick. The tape and the crowbar are reusable. The soda is one big distraction, and you have to decide where to spend it. At the end, the meters decide what is still possible: the truck needs time on the clock and a clear street, a delivery trike only needs a thin crowd, and the newsstand kiosk is always open, though hiding in it means watching the last truck leave without you.

Who you can bring with you

Kit, a delivery rider, is stuck in the alley outside the stockroom door. You can pull Kit inside, send Kit around through the courtyard to meet you later, or point Kit to a reinforced bus shelter. Pulling Kit in costs time and noise. A companion who is with you can get you past an obstacle even when your item does not fit it.

Dot owns the shop and has spent the night packing medicine and emergency biscuits for the evacuation. She meets you on the plaza just as her bag splits. Picking everything up costs time, hurrying her can cost noise, and leaving her in the kiosk costs nothing now and keeps her off the truck. What you do about Dot decides whether the best ending is still possible.

The five endings

All Three Aboard, Dawn Rider, The Back Streets, Safe for Now, and Caught at the Crossing. Two of them end on the milk truck, one on a borrowed delivery trike, one behind the glass of a newsstand kiosk in a town nobody is coming back to, and one in the middle of the plaza, where the crowd closes before you reach the other side.

Every ending names the choice that made the difference, as "your one right choice" on a win or "your one wrong choice" otherwise. From the result page you can rewind to a key decision instead of starting over. Your discovered endings are saved on this device, so you can see how many of the five you have found.

How serious is it?

Serious, and told plainly. The Groggies never run and never rush you. They notice noise, they drift toward it, and once enough of them are standing in the street you cannot get through. In the worst ending they close around you halfway across the plaza and the truck leaves without you. That ending takes a few sentences and stops there: no gore, no bites on screen, nothing graphic. There are a few dry moments, most of them involving Mr. Hollis and his coupon, but the danger is real inside the story.

It is also fiction. The town, the shop, the dairy and the Groggies are invented, and nothing here is survival advice. It is written for adults who want a short game with real stakes and a real decision on every screen.

Who you meet

• You. An adult in pajama pants and a puffer jacket who came in for breakfast.
• Dot. Owns the Last Stop Mini-Mart. Calm and organized, and trying to get the shop's medicine and emergency biscuits out in one paper bag.
• Kit. A delivery rider stuck in the alley, still holding a breakfast order nobody is going to collect.
• The Groggies. The neighborhood's undead, mostly in slippers. Slow, vacant, and drawn to noise.
• Mr. Hollis. A Groggy who keeps trying to redeem a coupon that expired years ago.

Questions

How long does The Last Shop Before Dawn take?

About four minutes for one run. There are eight decisions, and most people play it a few times to find more of the five endings.

Can you lose before the last decision?

No. Every run reaches the final crossing. Earlier choices decide which escapes are still possible when you get there.

Does the game save?

Yes. Your current run and the endings you have found are saved in this browser, so a refresh puts you back where you were. Nothing is sent to a server.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no sign-up and nothing to buy.