[ WP ] Someone has the ability to save and reload their life like a video game . One day something goes very wrong .

I have 497 seconds. 
 
 My previous checkpoint was more than a week ago. Would have been more than enough time to stop this. But I just *had* to set a new one to give myself a shot with that girl. Always knew women would be the death of me one of these days. Could n't have predicted the way that played out, though. 
 
 After 12 attempts, I finally got her. She was a tough one, had to go through a few rotations picking up details and then playing the mind reader card, but it was enough to get me a date. I walked away with her number in my phone and a skip in my step - and then saw the bombs dropping. 
 
 8 minutes into the past, I found myself facing the girl again, this time ignoring my skirt chasing and shouting for her to run. Turns out getting out of the blast radius in 8 minutes is n't possible, no matter how fast or in what direction I run. I tried learning how to hijack a car by trial and error. No matter which one I take, even if I get that Italian sportscar parked around the corner in front of the coffee shop and turn into the left lane in front of that SUV to avoid the oncoming truck, run the red light and let the cop there chase me for the whole remainder of the time I have, the blast is still too close, and the pain and the heat cause me to reflexively reload my checkpoint. 
 
 I'm getting desperate. Searching for a place to hide. The basement was n't deep enough. A fridge ca n't actually do what that movie I saw a few years back claims it could. I can easily reach the vault at the bank in time, but it ca n't be opened from the inside, and I ca n't stay long. The best I can manage is to steal the bag of groceries that woman two blocks over is carrying, pick up 3 gallons of water from the bed of the pickup parked in front of the courthouse, and still make it into the vault across the street in time - but supplies run out before anyone comes to help no matter how tightly I ration them, and how obvious I make it that there is someone inside before sealing myself in. 
 
 I reload one last time. Grab the girl, bend her over and plant a kiss like a soldier returning from war. Earns me a slap. Probably deserved it. I lie down in the middle of the sidewalk, much to the confusion of everyone around me, and close my eyes. Maybe if I do n't see it, I can ignore my now too well trained sense of exactly how long just over 8 minutes lasts, and suppress my reload reflex. 
 
 272 to go. 
 
 Damn.
