On The Cross is a Z-code work of interactive fiction written with Inform 6 and is © 2004 by Ian Kaleb. It was a participant in the IntroComp 2004 event.
In this first chapter of an unfinished story, you play as a man named Joseph (a.k.a. Joe). After ten years with the company, Kenneth (a.k.a. Ken) is dissatisfied with the documents that you give him so he strands you on the roadside in the middle of the desert. You need to get back to civilization.
This solution is by David Welbourn, and is based on Release 1 of the work.
Roadside
The backstory is very confusing. There's four people in the company sedan: Sheila is the driver, Marcus is the "dark man" in the other front seat, Kenneth/Ken is the boss man in the back seat, and Joseph/Joe is you (also in the back seat). You've been working for "the company" for exactly ten years and you've just been fired in one of the worst ways possible.
But you know what? You can ignore all that. Just try to stay alive and get back to civilization.
> take wallet. x car. x road. x wallet. open it. x license. (+1)
At this point, a second car appears from the south. You need to hide, since the people in this car are coming to kill you if they can.
> e. e. e.
The Ridge
> hide. x car. x sun. x sand. w. w. w.
Roadside
Now a truck is approaching from the north. You want to stop and get into this truck. It may be difficult to guess the exact verbs and syntaxes to use, though. By the way, don't stand in the middle of the road; if the truck hits you, you'll die that way instead.
> x vehicle. wave. g. g. x truck. z.
> x truck. x driver. ask driver for ride. (+1)
*** To be continued ***
Mentioned:
In that game you scored your-score out of a possible 2, in some turns.
This walkthrough is provided free of charge since I wrote this walkthrough prior to January 2015 when I began my Patreon account, and also because the work it's based on has less than fifteen locations (so I wouldn't have charged for it anyway). I've since reformatted this walkthrough to use my currently preferred style. I hope you enjoy it!
I'm still creating new walkthroughs! Larger ones too! Please visit my Patreon account if you're interested in helping me create more interactive fiction walkthroughs. I appreciate all the help I can get! Thanks again.