- Pandora's Jar
- UNIVERSE Old idea 1
- universe old idea 2
- Raven's Return
- GEAR article
- Wayward dream article
- Glowsticks and Clocks
- Day in the life, part 1
Item: RPC-XXXX
Object Class: Alpha-Yellow
Containment Protocols: Anomaly-X Is to be left in a chest, hidden under a house with 2 guards posted posing as civilians. The 2 keys to Anomaly-X are to be distributed to the Security generals in Site-[Redacted]. Testing is to be done on remote isles along the shoreline of [Redacted], Greece (situated approximately 200km’s from site [Redacted] to ensure minimal civilian exposure). Any exposed civilians will be administered amnesetics and detained in a nearby asylum, while class D are to be executed after testing.
RPC-X is currently on display in the ceremonial hall behind reinforced glass and restricted to lvl 4 access and higher. Under no circumstances should testing occur, and any occurrence of testing or unauthorised relocation (unless by express order of the Heritage director) will result in severe punishment up to and including demotion to CSD.
Description: RPC-X is a large sealed storage jar, that dates between 1000 B.C. and 500 B.C. RPC-X is in relatively good condition, with the only notable damage being discolouration on the lip of the vase and fading paint. RPC-X is considered by certain records as the mythical Pandora’s Box Jar1.
The interior of RPC-X contains ethereal entities, that currently do not fit into any type of scientific categorisation and are unable to be contained in anyway. These entities will usually float passively in the air for 5 seconds, before homing in on a person within 50m of RPC-X and “possessing” the subject. These “possessions" can drastically change the emotions or personality of anyone in that 50 metre radius. These changes have been recorded and documented below. A subject previously exposed to effects cannot be affected again, seemingly building an immunity to all other instances. Testing is prohibited due to extensive knowledge in Documents 1-5 and extensive testing viewable in Document-X-34.
Effect 01: Causes subjects to demonstrate a variety of illnesses all at once, such as the Common Cold, Anemia, Jaundice, Whooping cough, Cancer tumours, fevers and in one case, the Black Death. Most effects are able to be treated using modern medicines. This effect has an occurrence rate of 20%.
Effect 02: Subjects have an increased compulsion for Kleptomania, and other possible criminal activities such as homicide, arson, kidnapping, torture and rape. This effect has an occurrence rate of 20%.
Effect 03: Subjects experience intense anxiety attacks and paranoia, potentially leading to extreme seclusion, heart attacks, and hostility towards individuals who they believe to be "attackers". This effect has an occurrence rate of 15%.
Effect 04: Subjects become aggressive to all site personnel, with amplified levels of hatred shown if subjects had any prior prejudices on certain people or groups. This effect has an occurrence rate of 15%.
Effect 05: Subjects begin to show resentment to any person the individual considers family or a friend, and will express intense anger, occasionally accusing them of favoritism and deceit. On certain occasions the individual will attempt to kill the other person. This effect has an occurrence rate of 15%.
Effect 06: Subjects instantly die of a heart attack. This effect has an occurrence rate of 10%.
Effect 07: Subjects are instilled with extreme and illogical optimism. Witnesses recall subjects inflicted with this instance to be overly optimistic and often confront extremely dangerous situations without considering any consequences. Tests have shown that the subjects optimism usually results in death.This effect has an occurrence rate of 5%.
Discovery: —Anomaly-X was given during the first few years of our creation by our █████ the Vatican GOI, and to ensure no information leaks occur, documents also included along with Anomaly-X are only viewable by the current Authority leader.— RPC-X was given over by the Vatican GOI in 18█, due to an agreement. The documentation acquired alongside RPC-X dissuaded testing to limited extents and eventually it was discontinued altogether.
— Addendum: As of 12/06/193█, Anomaly-X has been relocated with all other Alpha & Beta Anomalies to fledgling Site-02 in the United States due to the threats on Anomaly sites by GARD. Notice to Staff with combat training and MST, report to Site-02 (notification soon on exact location) for enlisting in the RAVAAF to retake Captured sites of Gamma Anomalies: [Redacted by Global Directors]. —
Head Researcher’s notes: I’m still seeing outdated sections for this RPC. Wasn’t this supposed to be cleared up in 195█ with the big modernisation? Can someone fix this? - Dr Fedrikson
WARNING
The following documents are restricted to personnel with Level-4 clearance and above
Item number 451: The Jar of Legion
Certified: Satanic in nature
Description: This Jar looks Greek in origin with a seal on the lid and no major damage, but within it are cursed spirits that can possess anyone nearby and afar. The Sins of Wrath, Envy, Greed by theft, and Lust are present along with curses of Disease and Death. Those who are possessed have no effect when exposed to exorcisms or confessions, and so must be executed immediately to ensure salvation in heaven and to be judged fairly by The Lord. Weaker possessions such as cowardice can be left alone, brashness however could be used in our favour and ensure their place in the lord’ kingdom by protecting our halls and brothers as guardsmen. These soldiers of the Lord can be very helpful in the retrieval of this item should it fall in the wrong hands, as those possessed seem to be immune to any other other spirits.
Discovery: This Item was found in the secret tomb of the Holy Knight Sir █████ , along with the remains of several other knights. Tomb raiders opened the sealed off tomb and opened the jar, unleashing the spirits inside. One raider, stricken with cowardice ran away and confessed to Father █████, who notified the Vatican before setting off to exorcise the Jar with the other priests of the local churches. They returned possessed by the spirits, with some dying shortly after by the Curse of Disease while other pillaged, killed and raped the local townsfolk, only stopping when killed by the Papal guard.
Addition: After a thorough search and investigation, The Council has agreed to reseal the tomb along with 451 inside.
Foreword: This letter was originally mailed to Pope [REDACTED], however it appears it was instead found decades later by Pope [REDACTED]
To his Excellency, Pope [REDACTED]:
Item 451 was almost stolen by Protestant members after they discovered our original document. The plagued member explained before he died that they were looking to sabotage us with a bomb during a public assembly. After discovering the location of 451 however, they decided to find and use it instead.
After retrieving 451, the cart used for transporting it back to Rome hit trouble with bandits and they opened 451. Everyone in the area was possessed and most of them murdered each other, all but this one plagued man. After telling us where the cart was located, the evidence surrounding us pointed to one figure outlasting the others and closing the jar, allowing for a safe recovery. The jar was returned without further incidents.
Excellency, as a personal opinion i believe we’re losing control. We’ve been slowly declining, while the rise of the Protestant Faith have led to the congregation of a bastardised version of our own Holy Vanguard. If we are to safeguard humanity from these Demonic items and protect our own Holy items from the Protestant menace, we need a stronger power than that of our own churches. We need an Empire backing us. Therefore, I shall go to Spain, Portugal and France to assess if any of these Empires are fit to support a joint effort.
God Guide us
Handwriting change You are to search each of the following empires and assess if they are still viable for co-creation of a new Anomalous guard, or if one is already found, ensure we help their growth. I will also add the two following places to this small list:
The British empire, due to our agreement with the Protestant Group of Interest
And the Americas. Due to the amount of anomalous occurrences
The reconstructed image of the order’s insignia found blurred under blood:I write this knowing I may be heading to my death, and I pray that God is willing to forgive me for what has happened. I should have heeded the warning signs and known that Shultz was the demon that was spreading chaos in our ranks. The massacre in Jerusalem was his doing, thanks to that forsaken Jar we found.
I had my suspicions when he first joined our order, but he proved his worth, with the executions of many Witches and the retrieval of many Bewitched items. However, he did everything publicly, and instigated mobs against any considered out of the norm. While this went against our oath of Secrecy, he explained that the peasants could now defend themselves while we were summoned to the Vatican to align in the war for the Holy land.After swearing allegiance to the Pope and joining our ranks with other orders such as us, we embarked immediately for Constantinople, travelling across the sea and landing in Greece. We executed any Witches and collecting any Bewitched items along the way, which were few due to the work of our Greek brothers in arms. Amongst them, we heard the old tales of a jar that held great evils and great hope in it. We were able to track it down to a little village just inside of Byzantine control, and took it along with us to possibly use it against the Sacrean armies. We quickly merged into a mob of peasants heading for Constantinople, led by a man of God named Peter. We led the mob up front along with Peter while unbeknownst to us, Shultz blended into the crowd along with the jar.
He opened the jar when the mob reached the gates of Constantinople. Many died and succumbed to horrible illnesses, and others became overcome with hatred. He then led the mad to pillage the countryside, blaming the Byzantines for the state of the world, which the mob somehow accepted. We had no choice but to kill the mad peasants when they all attacked us, and with the help of the guards, we succeeded in stopping the riots. We immediately disavowed Shultz but he quickly fled before we could turn him in to the guards, leaving the Jar behind with us. We pleaded our case by identifying him as the leader of the mad and his complete betrayal of our laws. The Sultan accepted this and allowed us to stay in Constantinople until the main Crusaders arrived.
We all then participated in the Crusades, while Shultz crept his way into the Holy land and joined the forces in the siege of Jerusalem. On the 31st day we broke into Jerusalem, finally noticing Shultz and understanding what he intended to do. We were unable to stop him from opening the jar on the battlefield, killing many and driving the rest mad. Many of our Order were afflicted and I had to kill my own brothers to survive, while Shultz commanded the rest to kill anyone in sight whether it be ally, enemy or civilian. The blood that ran that day, was so thick that it crept up to our legs. I was somehow immune to the madness and death, but in turn my instincts were dampened to the point I impulsively jumped at Shultz then and there. I only succeeded in closing the jar, and Shultz sent the rest of the diseased and deranged at me. I easily disposed of them, but I was almost cut in half by Shultz' swing, had it not been for a diseased and dying man wading in the blood tripping me up and making him miss.
Shultz retreated upon seeing the other unaffected men of our order rushing to my aid. We were able to retrieve the jar from the battlefield, and chose who would protect people from this jar in the afterlife. We buried him in a cave back in France. We spent the rest of our time in the Holy land hunting down the mad soldiers that survived in secrecy.
The crusades and Shultz took many of our order, only 5 remained. More would have if not his Treachery, now we find out he’s searching for the Jar, breaking into all the tombs we recently created2. So my brothers and I will catch him in the tomb, defeat that traitor and seal the tomb with a barrel of Gunpowder to ensure no one else finds it. If I die, this letter will hopefully explain the reason we hid these away, and i Implore whoever finds this to continue the lord’s work, look for our sign drawn at the bottom of this letter and look for our name: L'ordre des écus rempart3 For we are the only line of defence for the common folk and we will-
- The rest is covered in blood. On the back of the note in thin blood reads:
His hatred…made him strong… was able to finish him…blew up the barrel just be safe….everyone’s dead…I shall soon follow.
I COME LAST NEVER FIRST
U1: AND GOD THEN SAID LET THERE BE LIGHT. AND REST ON THE 6TH AND 7TH DAY. I WILL SHOOT OUT ALL THE SUNS AND ALL OTHER THINGS I AM THE UNIVERSE A SITE TO BEHOLD. U2: TO THE ABYSS OF ABYSMAL IDEAS. I LATER SEE THEM RUNNING FREE, CONCEPTS BECOMING REALITY. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CREATED THESE ALTERED ENTITIES AND THE SMITING MUST BE DONE SWIFTLY TO THEM.
U3: AND THE ONES WHO BREAK THEM, U4: WHICH WE WILL PILLAGE, U5: WHICH WE ALL BURN AND DESECRATE WITH OUR CHAOTIC MINDS THAT MAY NOT EVEN BE OURS.
U6: THEY DO NOT BELONG TO THEM AND DESERVE TO CRUSH THIS PUNY UNIVERSE. U7: DOWN INTO THE ABYSS FOR ALL, WHERE NONE IN THIS UNIVERSE SHALL EVER REMEMBER YOU. U8: ALMONDS AND MILK, U9: I’M LOOKING AT YOU ██████.
U10: BUT THEIR THOUGHTS WOULD ONLY GO SO FAR. ACTION IS NEEDED. U11: THEY WERE INTENTIONAL AS ALWAYS. THEY HAVE NO LOVE FOR US. U12: WE MAKE SHADOWS ON SHADOWS LIKE TIME. AT ONCE U13: THE ABSOLUTE STATE IS CHAOTIC OVERALL EVEN TO THIS DAY THEY WATCH OVER US LAUGHING AT OUR FEEBLE ATTEMPTS TO KEEP OUR OWN UNIVERSE ALIVE AND TOGETHER.
i come first, never last
u1: the universe was created by all and one with similar intent. as the elder and outer gods watched on, tHEy worked, constructing our universe with no tools. u2: early on, tHEy brought down one of their own who threatened them with nothing and saw that tHEy left
u3: tHEy constructed our laws, u4: our earth, u5: and our bodies u6: tHEy brought about ideas u7: and their judgement on lesser creations was harsh. u8: The lesser creations, u9: were thrown and cast away from this universe
u10: tHEy saw their creations run amok, spreading chaos. and so created the ideas of containment u11: Their ideas spread throughout the ages and many of us came together to help protect this universe from their mistakes u12: the amount of defective creations that was occurring was too much for the universe to handle, and so u13: tHEy constructed parallel timelines to facilitate these new ideas. in time, the timelines spurred them on to create with differences which only further created more in the timelines and
Marcus was outside the Family's restaurant, leaning against the wall, undercover from the giant downpour that started a few minutes earlier. It was real late, no one was on the streets and the moon was hidden behind the clouds allowing the shadows to swallow up everything they lay on. The buildings around the restaurant were lively with the sounds of radios and families, no doubt they were all huddled around it hearing about the war effort and the tales of the courageous men going into battle against the Japanese demons. Meanwhile the restaurant was exempt, left closed for the next few days while it was repaired. A few days ago, it was one of the grandest restaurant in New York with couples and made men alike all meeting inside to socialise and impress their friends.
A sudden cold wind blasted Marcus’ face, snapping him back to reality. He quickly resumed his task and focused on looking for the lowlifes that trashed the restaurant last night. The cleaners got here before the downpour and the sidewalk was clean from any glass, however the window itself had yet to be replaced. Nothing inside was broken, yet that’s probably why Vinnie thought they’d return, to finish the job.
Twenty years of this shit and you’d think people would get the idea to not fuck with the family thought Marcus to himself. This was the 3rd restaurant trashed this week, and Marcus was ordered by the underboss himself to stand guard and fuck up any persons who returned to finish the job. Marcus had a few made men in the nearby buildings and in a car nearby, just in case things got hairy.
Marcus’ thought process was suddenly broken when he saw something move in the darkness opposite to him. His car wasn’t too far from him, just adjacent and within running distance if this got hairy. He slowly reached for his gun, silently pulling it from his holster and tightly gripping it, hoping to god the polishing he gave it earlier didn’t make it shine. He never took his eyes off the area and he kept gazing into the shadows hoping to see whatever it was that caught his attention.
Suddenly there was an almighty crash and he heard one of his men scream as he tumbled out of a second story building. Marcus quickly pointed the gun at the broken window, and he held his breath when he saw it. A short slender man in a suit and bowler hat. The moon wasn’t out, but Marcus knew the legends well enough to know he was smiling. He quickly fired at the figure, unloading 3 rounds only to see him vanish after the second shot.
Marcus immediately ran to his car shouting “LOU! ITS THE MESSENGER!” only to see Lou twitching as blood spewed out of his throat, streaming down his chest and gut and pooling around his thighs. Marcus didn’t have enough time to check as he jumped into the restaurant, but knowing the legend Lou’s throat probably had all these tiny holes pecked into him. Marcus quickly got to a wall, braced himself on it and turned his gun to face this thing…only to notice it was silent. There was no sound of rainfall, no sound of the families and radios, just an unnerving silence as his heavy, stressed breathing began.
Marcus looked around, anticipating the figure to appear from anywhere…when suddenly he heard a loud *CLACK* followed by something hitting the rug. Marcus’ mind immediately conjured up the idea of a grenade hitting the floor and he jumped as hard as overweight body would allow, making him land hard on his stomach with an audible *OMPH* safely behind a counter. He waited for a few seconds…only to hear nothing. His mind immediately raced to another thought He’s playing a trick on you. I’ll bet he’s coming up to the counter right now to peck you to death while you hide here like a fuckin kid.
Sucking in a deep breath, Marcus jumped up out of cover, and his entire body froze as he saw himself face to face with The Messenger. A pale dwarfish man, standing on a chair to ring himself to eye level, dressed in a black suit with white stripes and a bowler hat on top of his bald head. He wore a pince-nez on his nose with the golden chain running down into his clothing and disappearing into his suit and a bright golden pin in the shape of a spread raven adorned his lapel. The Messenger looked at him with the same wicked smile that was told in many stories, and was no doubt what many Mobsters saw before they died.
Marcus immediately pulled the trigger to his gun, only to hear it click several times. Marcus realised quickly that the *clack* sound was his gun magazine that fell onto the floor, no doubt pulled out by the Messenger before him.
“Now we can talk business” A cold smooth voice said, Marcus quickly realising it to be of the Messenger himself. Quickly Marcus remembered the line and stammered it out “I-I-I am Marcus F-Fencabia of the Bonnano family, a Capo-regime. W-We are here to help the flock.”
The figure somehow widened their smile “Ah, the Oath. Finally, someone who knows their place; I allow you to speak freely.”
“Uh, well…Why have you been trashing our businesses?” Marcus immediately knew he’d have a hard time being believed if he got out of this.
“Ah…Straight to business I see? I like that.” The Messenger straightened up his tie and removed his pin, laying it on the counter between the 2 of them. “I’ve been sent to give a message, take this to your Don. Allow no one expect for him to see it, or else you’ll end up like your friends. Understand?”
Marcus vigorously nodded his head while replying “Yeah…yeah, i’ll be able to do that”. He took the pin in his shaky hands, he observed it briefly to look at the remarkable detail. After only a few short seconds, he gazed back up, noticing the sounds of the night had returned. The rain pouring down, the sounds of families could be heard, radios had returned, and the figure vanishing from his sight. Marcus took a few deep breaths and immediately started running through the pouring rain to the Don’s house. He knew better than to wait till the morning for this news. As he got to the other end of the street, he suddenly stopped, realising he left this car behind. FORGET THAT his thoughts said. They’re watching you now, just get to Lenny as quickly as possible. Obeying his thoughts, he kept on running through the empty streets, soaking his clothes as he ran through the pouring rain.
“What is it Marcus? I thought I told you to look after the business incase the cocksuckers came back.”
“They fucking came back, Lou and Sammy are dead.”
Lenny’s mouth stayed open in disbelief at Marcus’ statement. It was only 2 hours since he ordered Marcus to take a few of his men to find the vandal, and he returns white as a ghost, soaking wet and out of breath.
Marcus panted out “lemme explain…you won’t believe it but-“
“Ho Mark…you better make me believe” interrupted Lenny as he poured himself a drink. “Start talking.”
“Well…y-you won’t fuckin believe me but..I did as you asked a-a-and stayed watch. Had Lou in my car and Sammy in the building…and they were both killed by the Ravens….You gotta believe me I SAW the Messenger-”
"Bullshit. You’re telling me that the Outfit’s boogeyman showed up and, what, trashed a few stores? That what the almighty Ravens did, eh? Specially after 10 years of hearing nothing from them?"
“I’m being serious Lenny. The Messenger showed up and everything. Look, he told me to give you this as proof.”
Marcus dropped a pin on Lenny’s table. Lenny placed his drink down and quickly grabbed it to inspect it. He rolled it around in his fingers for a minute, holding it up to the light and then finally putting it back down on the table.
Lenny silently chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. He turned back to Marcus and stated in a calm tone “I dunno what you saw, but it wasn’t the Ravens.”
Marcus stared at Lenny in disbelief, almost needing to fight back a strong feeling of knocking Lenny upside the head “Then what the fuck did I see!? You think i’m fuckin lying? Look at that pin!”
Lenny held up his hands and quickly replied “Woah woah Marcus, I’m not saying you’re lying, far from it. Just…you could’ve been fooled into thinking it’s the Ravens, when it isn’t. Like I said, its been a decade…they’re long gone.”
Marcus looked at Lenny with disbelief “Well….what do we do?”
Lenny picked up his drink again, taking a small sip while thinking. He then finally spoke after a brief silence “You tell anyone else about this? Does Vinnie know?”
Marcus shook his head “Nah, the Messenger said to only tell you, and I know damn well to listen to him."
Lenny nodded, replying “Well if we’re the only ones who know about it, and if we don’t know for certain if it is the Ravens, let’s keep it a secret until we know if it is fakes or not. We don’t hear from them again? Hey, we didn’t freak out the rest of The Outfit for nothin'.”
Marcus hesitantly nodded as Lenny continued.
“Besides, who says it was one guy you saw there? Coulda been…I dunno fuckin freak show midgets who wanted to earn a few more bucks for all we know.”
“I…suppose so Boss.”
Lenny gave Marcus a pat on the shoulder and replied “Go and get some rest, I think you need it…hallucinating and all that. We need our sharpshooter fit as a fiddle in case the vandals fuck up another of our restaurants. The pay’s on the desk as usual.”
Marcus hesitantly nodded again and slowly picked up an envelope on Lenny’s desk. He checked inside to see a few hundred dollars bills and satisfied, left the office.
Lenny quickly gulped down the last of his drink and picked up the pin still laying on his desk. He inspected it once more before silently unsheathing the pin from its guard and pricking his thumb with it. He smeared his bloody thumb on the pin’s front and placed it on his shirt. All of a sudden the world became silent and started slowly losing colour. Lenny smiled, knowing he’d finally meet the Flock Father again.
A voice came out of the void of silence. “Lenny, are you there?”
“Sure am.” was the gleeful reply.
“Good. How’s the family?”
“Better than ever Pa. We’re rolling in dough and are on good terms with the Gambino’s due to the marriage you helped set up.”
“Excellent to hear you're going well and excellent to see Creedence finally got a message to you. Now I need your help."
“Anything Sir, just name it.”
“Well the reason you never heard from us for such a long time was cause…well…you remember my wife Myra?
“Oh yea sir, she made the greatest feasts for the family! Why, what happened?”
“She went missing all those years ago. I had no idea how to react when she just vanished, spent all my time looking for her…And a few days ago, we found out she was alive, and where she is.”
“She was kidnapped? By who? I don’t give a damn if it was Lucky Luciano himself, i’ll break every bone in their body on your behalf.”
“One of our spies found some people talking about her, and he followed them to this…secret facility.”
“It was the government? We gonna actually raid a Government base?”
“We are damn sure gonna raid it, but…these people are different. They’re not government, they’re something more. They managed to catch Myra after all.”
“Shit, Boss are you going conspiracy on me? 'Ain’t nothing bigger than the Ravens’, that’s what you told me when you got me ‘made’. Now you’re saying there’s something bigger than the Ravens?”
“Mind your language boy, and yes…I think these people are even behind the loss of some of our men and assets from when we first unveiled ourselves.”
“Holy Moses, you’re saying they’re older than The Ravens?”
“I can’t be sure, we don’t know much about them…apart from they know how to fight against our assets and men. Not to mention they’re armed to the teeth.”
“You can count on the Cubannano family to help you on this raid.”
“It’s great to hear Lenny, but I need more help than just you.”
“No need to say anymore boss, I’ll scour around and see if I can find any of our people still around.”
“That’s my boy, next meeting is in a week’s time. I expect to hear from more than just you.”
“No sweat, I know where to start.”
Quickly the life and sound flooded back into the room. Lenny sat down at his desk, a big grin spreading over mouth as he moved all his files away and opened a dusty drawer to retrieve a large book. He quickly opened it up and started flipping madly through the pages searching until he reached one name: “Unholy” Salvatori. Lenny picked up his phone and dialled a number, which was met with a loud angry man on the other end. Lenny couldn’t decipher any actual words, and quickly butted into the possibly drunken ramblings. “Salvatori? Listen, its Lenny.”
The undecipherable words became less angry and closer to annoyance.
“Yeah yeah I know you big lug, just listen: The Ravens are back. Contact every other member you can remember and get them to come and see me.”
A short grunt as heard followed by a dial-tone. Lenny leaned back into his chair, excitedly saying to himself “It’s about time for a family reunion".
CHANGE THIS ENDING, MAKE IT FROM THE MAIN CHARACTER COMING TO GET SOMETHING HE LEFT BEHIND
Object Number: A-056
Containment Requirements: Low
Danger Level: Low
Description: The item is, in appearance and function, a standard ███-███ crime scene UV light, which functions mundanely in everyday settings. However, the item's anomalous properties appear whenever it is used with the goal of inspecting a crime scene of any type, particularly those of a violent or sexual nature. The item causes a manifestation of erroneous, often threatening/insulting messages and evidence only visible under a UV lamp. As of the writing of this description, there is no theory to these patterns As of ██/██/████ there are multiple proposed theories on what will elicit specific types of responses. The secondary anomalous effect will occur if the same user uses the item on a separate crime scene within approximately 48 72 hours. When this occurs, the item will cause a similar manifestation of evidence, however, previously insulting messages will become more personal/direct and accusatory in nature, often implying that the victims of perviously surveyed crimes were linked to the user of the item.
After the activation of the secondary effect, the continued use of the item will cause a rapid escalation in the severity and commonality of the threats. In addition, the object will begin to affect the subject more directly. Subjects have reported returning to places they commonly inhabit to find furniture slightly moved, and objects such as mail tampered with, alongside vivid hallucinations.
In extreme cases of prolonged uses of the item will result in the formation of visible messages manifesting themselves in the subjects residence, place of work, or place of education. cause the subject to begin to see patterns where there are none, such as messages hidden in the cracks in brickwork.
Please note that the item will occasionally substitute itself for similar non-anomalous items, presumably in order to be used. In addition, after use, the item will attempt to position itself in order to be used by the same subject again within a 48-72 hour period causes an increased rate of disorientation. There have been multiple cases where, due to interruptions during testing or other similar distractions, the user has misplaced the item, causing it to be erroneously replaced with the standard UV lights.
Addendum ██/██/20██: It appears that the object will cause the manifestation of notes, written in unknown handwriting to manifest to colleagues of its current target, accusing the target of various malicious acts targeted at the recipient. It is speculated that this behavior is an attempt on the object's part to initiate conflict between the target and the recipient.
Addendum ██/██/20██:
Note from Jacobson
Analysis of the camera feed has shown strange behaviour…possible entity manipulating camera feed? Is it tied to the item somehow?
EDIT ██/██/20██:
All staff is to be reminded that there is no evidence of an entity manipulating the item or the messages which appear from the use of the item.
Containment Procedures:
All non-anomalous UV lights in this facility are to be clearly marked with a bright red band, in order to prevent substitution of the item.
The item is to be kept in a standard storage locker, with a camera feed on it at all times. Every two hours, the feed is to be checked in order to ensure that substitution has not taken place.
In the event that the item is found outside of it's designated storage locker, it is to be reported to a Facility supervisor immediately, then returned to the designated storage locker.
This item is not to be used outside of testing.
Notable Tests:
Test Number | Subject | Cumulative Uses | Notes |
1 | Examiner Jacobson (voluntarily) | 0 | Used on a violent murder scene. Anomalous Markings include: Several arrows pointing at a single section of wall, breaking wall at said point revealed nothing with the exception of a large plumbing line. Four large intersecting circles. The words 'Blue Lake' repeated three times. Examiner Jacobson requested the use of inmates for further testing. Request was granted. |
4 | Prisoner | 3 | Subject was extremely hesitant, but was eventually forced to investigate a crime scene under previously sanctioned conditions. Subject reported following a blood trail to a garbage dumpster. Upon opening, subject replied seeing a dead baby and sentence written in the dumpster. Upon inspection by Investigators, all that was discovered was a bloody knife, which is undergoing forensic analysis. Subject was incredibly distressed upon initial viewing of the dumpster, when inquired about what the sentence was, they answered “Here’s another one, try and get rid of it properly this time”. Subject was decommissioned due to ongoing erratic behaviour. Examiner Jacobson has requested personal testing of the item. His supervisor declined. |
5 | Prisoner-2 | 2 | Prisoner used this item in a violent crime scene, reported seeing fingers pointing to a painting on the wall. Upon closer inspection, a bloody handprint was discovered and a sentence. When inquired on the sentence, the subject replied “My Condolences.” Inspectors also inquired the subject during testing on feelings, and mentioned the feeling of being watched. When inquired further, the subject said it felt like the entity in question was following him ever since he first used the item. Researcher Jacobson requested yet again personal testing with the item. That approval is pending. |
11 | Security Guard ████████ ██████ | Presumably 0 | Not an officially sanctioned test. Object substituted itself with a standard UV-light from the Facility-██ armory was mistakenly swapped with a control UV lamp during the previous test, causing it to be erroneously returned to the Facility-██ armory and used during a routine maintenance test. Anomalous Markings include: The number 001 repeatedly, followed by the words 'lies'. |
13 | Examiner Jacobson | 1 | Anomalous Markings include: The words 'Blue Lake' repeated eight times. A large circle with a cross through it. The phrase 'I know’. |
14 | Examiner Jacobson | 2 | Examiner Jacobson never noted what the Item’s markings suggested, and initially terminated testing here. Later, Examiner Jacobson’s objects and the experimented on item in question were found missing, including several Item files, his Facility-ID, a thumb drive containing personal pictures, and his checkbook. Edit: All missing items were found at a security checkpoint. It appears that Examiner Jacobson misplaced them due to an unrelated incident. Unfortunately, Examiner Jacobson was under severe stress due to the anomalous nature of this item, and his contract has been permanently suspended. |
Acquisition: The item was discovered in the ██████████ City Police department after a string of crime scene investigation members suffered mental breakdowns, with one resulting in the death of ██████ Shipman, a deliveryman for ████████. The investigation into the case led to the US Anomalous agency being contacted due to the anomalous nature of the case. Messages directed at each individual who had suffered a breakdown were filed by each member from several crime scenes they had been present at which failed to appear for any other. For further investigation, The US anomalous Agency passed examination of this item to GEAR appraisers.
Examination Interrogation:
Foreword: This Interrogation was taken immediately after the apprehension of Examiner Jacobson, who at the time was under extreme stress and was clinically delirious. This interrogation is to be used as a study of peoples under the item’s influence, so GEAR employees better understand the warning signs of a potential mishap as seen in Test #11.
<Transcript Start>
Interrogator: Now can you explain to me why you fled our security guards when they approached you?
Jacobson: You don’t understand! It’s coming after me, you keep saying its not there but it is! I needed to prove it-
Interrogator: If you’re referring to the “entity” that you believe is stalking you there’s no evidence to show for it.
Jacobson: Are you ██████ serious? Look at these photos! This one here says “I KNOW” on it! and this one says “DEATH TO ██████”.
Interrogator: …I don’t see anything close to what you’re describing in these photos. All I see is graffiti and a stop sign.
Jacobson: Then you need to use it! That’s the only way to see what I mean!
Interrogator: I think for your personal wellbeing and for the safety of others, we need to admit you for psychiatric help.
Jacobson: THIS IS WHAT I MEAN! I come with PALPABLE proof that an entity exists with MULTIPLE people saying they felt this thing watching them…It swapped the item after test 11! Look, even states in THIS EXACT PHOTO HERE that it’s coming for me and you immediately throw these gas lighting techniques on me!
Interrogator: Jacobson-
Jacobson: You want to know what i was doing?! Fine! I was taking this item to The Authority so I could get actual answers on this entity instead of this bullshit that I bet the superiors are hiding!
Interrogator: ….Unauthorised transactions with another anomalous organisations, specifically that of the anomalous and informational are prohibited under Corporation policy-
Jacobson: I don’t fucking care. Dock my pay, as long as you look into this entity theory and take it seriously.
Interrogator: This is a serious crime. Mild Corporate espionage is nothing to sneeze at.
Jacobson: Cor….What??
Interrogator: I hereby am here to announce that your contract with GEAR is now terminated. You will evacuate the-
Jacobson: You son of a bitch you’re working with it!!
[Sounds of objects dropping to the floor are heard]
Interrogator: Security! Security!
Jacobson: You’re working with it! You drove all those people to death and now its trying to cover its tracks!
[Security heard entering]
Security guard 1: Jacob! Calm down!
Jacobson: I’LL KILL YOU ALL IF I NEED TO PROVE THIS THING EXISTS
Security guard 2: Tazer! Tazer!
[Sounds of tazer prongs and zapping are heard]
Security guard 2: He’s down and out sir.
Interrogator: Ugh…You know what to do gentlemen.
<End Log>
Aftermath report: Jacobson was found concluding the investigation to have acted out of paranoia, created by the item under his care. thus proven as "under anomalous influences" and acquitted of Espionage. His contract was still terminated and a severance package was delivered to his family for compensation.
Addendum ██/██/20██: A new effect in extreme circumstances, leaves users of the item believing that an unknown entity stalking or hiding from them. Subjects will become increasingly aggravated and attempt to accuse other personnel of assisting the entity. Any persons showing any of the symptoms are to be reported to the Health and Safety committee to ensure no casualties occur and that the personnel can get the appropriate help.
Evergreen
Orange
Inactive, destroyed
Description: I honestly didn’t know it existed, but it was this tall man with a business suit like all the creepy stories on the internet said. But he had a mouth that kept on appearing and disappearing whenever I looked away. My fuckin vision kept distorting whenever i looked at him for too long or he got too close. I didn’t see any tentacles like some iterations have of it, but its teleportation was something it used extensively. It also had the ability to shape shift into a small child, which i have never seen or heard about before. Used it to try and sneak up on me (but i’ll explain that soon).
Background: Apparently this thing had some kind of following online as an urban legend, a monster that would snatch kids up when they wander into the woods alone. Never heard nor cared for spooky stories online till after my first encounter. For me, I first encountered him in an old abandoned hotel, this small ramshackle building where I thought i’d instead find a spectre. There were missing reports of vagrants and people from this hotel.
Instead a few warders went missing and when we searched further in this thing attacked us. We had no idea what it was and tried to open up fire at it, but the thing kept on teleporting people away until I was the last one left. I did the only sensible thing and booked it.
Location and Population: The hotel I first encountered it was just off the outskirts of this little country village, was so small I forget the name. And I hope to god there’s only one, i’m writing this in the fear that there may be more…but please let the one I encountered be the only one. If there is more, then Warder’s won’t have to face it with no info
Hunting methods: This is based on first hand experience so you better be fuckin listening:
This monster teleported around the place real quick, any use of guns would need to be fast, it could teleport away faster than the bullet traveling out of a gun. It looked like it was jump cut out of existence, and it would always teleport to get closer or to suddenly give room, usually led me to get extremely paranoid over where it was.
His distorted vision shit made it hard to aim also, who can fire a thing that can’t even look at? led to my many misses cause I was mostly keeping it in the corner of my eye. Careful though, cause if it teleports holding onto chunk of you, it’ll rip that chunk of flesh off when it teleports away. Good pal Cecil had that happen to him, so i guess to teleport people away whole it hugs them? I never saw it teleport a person whole so I don’t know. But, he never goes for couples, only singular people. Stay in groups
However, despite hoe fucking creepy this thing is, guns and knives work against this thing. You get a shotgun right up to it, its VERY effective, nice spread-shot to the face worked remarkably well. The tactic I used was real risky, I let him get close then blasted him with a shotgun, when i thought he wasn’t going down I stuck him with a knife. No more teleporting from that fucker.
Encounter record: While my experience is the first official recorded instance to the Society, people from the town near the hotel had a small problem with people disappearing in their beds, but it stopped after I had my little adventure…led me to realise this thing was preying on other folk and I helped them without realising.
Addition: I didn’t even fucking realise it, but there was this massive pattern of people missing last seen sleeping, it dates back years and it goes in this perfect line all across the US. From Wyoming to _ where I first encountered it.
Additional notes:
Spectre enounter log-1
Foreword: I found this when i returned to the hotel. Felt a bit sad after listening
Me: Well, Ron told me to start an audio log, i dunno why but he dragged us out here thinking there was an aberration here. We’ve been here for almost an hour, It’s almost nightfall and i’m goddamned bored. Hey Ron! How long are we going to be here for?
Ron: As long as we damn need to! This is the perfect time to catch if this is another Wallpaper Haunt situation.
Me: The grave digger outfits said nothing about what aberration could be here, only about missing people Cmon you know Cecil is waiting for us back in the villiage. We don’t need to stay outside waiting for the guys to grab wallpaper from each room.
Ron: What, you’d rather we stand IN the old rundown mansion?
Me: You know what I mean bitch!
[It was here we saw the Slender man briefly in one of the windows]
Ron: Holy shit did you see that?
Me: How couldn’t of I??
Ron: I fuckin knew Russell and Steve wouldn’t be gone for that long unless something got them! This is a new aberration for sure!
Me: Well shit, we better go let the rest of the outfit know-
Ron: What you want to fucking leave Russell and Steve in there?
Me: You really think they’re still alive?
Ron: Well we got to check. I already told the rest of the outfit we were heading out here. If it troubles you so much, maybe leave that recording here and someone can find it if we both die.
Me: I ain’t dying today, you can go in there and I’ll stay out here.
Ron: Cmon man, don’t be a pussy. You saw that thing, it looked relatively human, means we can shoot it like any other human.
Me: …ah alright. Let me just end this log.
[End log]
Memory of what happened after:
Like i previously said, after we went in i lost contact with everyone and that thing appeared and started teleporting around me, couldn’t shoot it right. Then i ran out of ammo and decided to book it, ran out with that thing walking after me and grabbed the pickup and drove off. At first I thought I was ok, but then I saw it, standing on the side of the road half hidden by some shrubbery. I put my foot down and drove right past him, only to see him again, standing on the side of the road. Every time I drove past him he appeared a little further down. I was fucking losing it at this point, the next time he appeared, I pulled out my carry on and shot at him. He disappeared, and i thought it was ok…then I check the rear view mirror to see if he was behind me. He was in the back of the pickup, teleported there when I fired.
Vision got immediately blurry and I swerved off the road, crashing the pickup. The village was a mile or 2 out and I had no car and that thing chasing after me. I’ll be honest I don’t remember the run back, but somehow I got my trousers and shirt off and i held my gun the entire way. I don’t know why i took off my clothes, especially during Winter, I don’t even remember seeing any other people along the way. Just the next thing I remember is i’m in front of the train station and Cecil was there shouting at me.
He was fucking worried, here I was, with only underpants and boots on, a gun in my hand and I was fuckin shivering cause of the cold. I told him what happened, he didn’t believe me, thought I was hallucinating or something. He went to go get me something from a nearby vending machine, so i just sat there really quiet wondering how i’d take that thing down. It was then I saw this little kid walking down the street towards me, i don’t know why but it freaked me out. I shouted for Cecil, he came running with a pocket of gummy bears but then relaxed when he saw it was just a kid, said I was probably still shaken by whatever happened to me. I was inclined to agree, till i realised my vision was going all funny.
I looked around and i could only see this kid and Cecil, he was about 3 feet away. Every time he took at step closer, my vision would act up just a little more, so before Cecil could say anything else, I grabbed my gun out and shot the little kid right in his forehead. I heard Cecil exclaim in horror, but looking at the kid i knew I was right…the bullet hole started bleeding and (I can’t express how difficult it is to try and describe it) it seemed like the kid was teleported away, and in its place stood the Slender man, bullet hole in its leg. Cecil suddenly grabbed his shotgun and fired at the thing but it teleported away, we both stood back to back observing our surroundings. that’s when I had the idea to try and get back to the nearest Warder outpost to get more men, looking at the timetable for the trains i saw one was coming soon, a late night train, would have no people on board.
We stayed back to back for 20mins, then the train arrived and we got on board, we stayed back to back waiting for it to go, but it never did. I quickly realised what happened, and told Cecil the train driver was taken by the aberration, wether he was in the train now was the biggest question. We got all the way to the front compartment and sure enough, there was no driver, only a half eaten sandwich laying muddled on the floor. I know how to drive trains, thanks to my grandpa and I was able to get it running. We stayed in the front compartment, Cecil keeping an eye on the door while I drove the train.
When we finally got there, I was about to collapse. We got off the train, and thought we finally lost it…then out of nowhere i saw it behind Cecil, clasping onto his shoulder. I fired a bullet at it and it disappeared, taking the chunk of shoulder it was holding onto also. Knew I hit it with its shot, i could see a few drops of black blood on the ground, but i was more focused on Cecil, we booked it to the outpost and all the other warders patched him up and gave him a bed to rest in. Then they all huddled around me to hear my story. I started telling them the beginning, but stopped when I talked about it targeting isolated people. I asked if Cecil was alone.
When I ran into his room he was already gone, The slander man looking over his empty bed. All the other warders looked in shock, then recoiled at his blurry vision shit. I had enough at this point, the thing turned my way and put one long outstretched arm onto me. I already had Cecil’s shotgun in my hands but my vision was blurry as shit. As soon as it grabbed me I knew where to aim, I fired the shotgun into its chest, leaving a nice big hole. It only grabbed on harder, thankfully I had a small knife in my boot, and I quickly pulled sit out and stuck it in its forehead. It dropped like a sack of bricks, and the distorted vision thing stopped. The warders there gave me around of applause, but it felt…real stinging. They initially didn’t want to make an article on this thing, cause I killed it. But i kept having that same dreams over and over again about the Slender man, i’d wake up at 5 in the morning with a cold sweat and a nosebleed. So i decided: Fuck it. I’ll write it up in the hopes that it finally leaves my mind once and for all. And if this thing appears again, people will know how to hunt for it. Hopefully we won’t lose as many people as we originally did with this new info.
The freaky kid cloak:
I realised recently why I was so freaked out by the kid. Ron and I went back for some years and I remember seeing this photo of him. This was why, the Slender man somehow took the form of Ron when he was a kid.
As written by Setra Vexalia, Mistwood Scribe
Since first contact and interactions with the empire known as “The Auctoritas” many strange inventions and materials have been brought to our lands. But none have piqued the interest of the nobility like that of “Glow Liquid”, nor helped the masses like that of “clocks”. both of these items mentioned by Auctoritas members, and through the joint efforts of both our people and theirs, we’ve not only created inventions similar to those from their world, but forged relations and new traditions that meld and blend with our own.
The concept of the Timekeeper was first brought up after the sighting of a “Pocket watch” during negotiations between Auctoritas forces over possible entry into Mistwood on business. Upon sighting on an Auctoritas member and an explanation of its purpose, the Auctoritas members were allowed entry provided they hand over the “Pocket watch” instance among a previously determined entry fee. The instance was taken to the Pigglesmith Dwarven guild for analysation and possible duplication. The report received from *Daoimean Mor* Pigglesmith the following day was promising, mentioning the “Pocket watch” was constructed with the use of various tiny gears that turn 2 needles which are overlaid a display. The simple mechanics alongside the un reassembly of the “Pocket watch” meant that duplication of the invention was possible and affordable. Small Dwarven runes needed to be inscribed onto each gear to allow for uninhibited performance and a way for further “Pocket watches” in the future to be in synch with each other. Named “Pigglesmith Timekeepers” after the creator, the common folk took to simplifying this name to “Pocket Piggies” and “timekeepers” respectively.
Within a week, other dwarven guilds found ways to recreate and reinvent their own version of the Timekeeper and a small market war ensued over the potential for a monopoly. It began first with embellishments and attempts to invent new features onto the Timekeepers: alarms for certain times of days (it was quickly deemed annoying by many buyers so the feature was redesigned to be set by the buyer themselves), a feature to keep time in music (many musicians at first complained at the lack of tempo variation but this was fixed by guild-masters at a later date), compasses inbuilt into the design also (just to name a few of the more prominent ones). The most prominent feature to timekeepers were secret compartments, first used by merchants to hide small slips of paper the criminal underground was quick to offer services between different Dwarven guilds. Soon after, small scale crimes began plaguing merchants who refused to sell timekeepers, many merchants who agreed to sell one type of guild’s timekeepers would be harassed by another guild’s hired guards. Vandalism, theft and breaking and entering's were rampant for all traders but Dwarven ones much to the suspicions of the Mistguard. While an investigation was being launched, a trade emporium in Theivesport was set ablaze, many guards sighted the perpetrators and after a night’s search were able to apprehend them. Upon interrogation, the investigation was invigorated upon the confession of the arsonists and soon the small trade war ended with arrests on well known criminals and a few dwarven guild-members. In an effort to improve public perception after the small trade war ended many guilds began constructing larger more decorated structures that would be hosted in homes, known as “Grandfather clocks” by the Auctoritas members, but known to the common folk as “Grand Timekeepers” or “Father-Times”.
2 years since the first timekeeper’s creation, the Dukedom of Thievesport decreed a tower to house a large Time keeper, tall and large enough to be seen from the business district. Construction is nearing completion as of the writing of this document, and many poor folk are looking forward to keeping time like the workers with the “time tower”.
When we first heard of “glow liquid", it was remarked by an Auctoritas member when upon seeing the dim light of glowing mushrooms in Lord Rehba's garden. He remarked how much these reminded him of “glowsticks” from his realm and upon further questioning he revealed these were a portable multi-coloured light source with a liquid base. Lord Rehba immediately requested if such a thing would be brought over, however Auctoritas alchemists advised it would be impossible due to the nature of its construction requiring ingredients impossible to survive the journey over. The lord then commissioned Auctoritas alchemists to sample ingredients from across the land to possibly create suitable substitutes to the impossible ingredients. After months of scouring the lands, sampling different plants and submitting them to tests of sorts, in the words of the alchemists “testing their chemical properties”, results were discovered.
While not understood by most Mistwood alchemists, when 2 specific plants were used in tandem with certain chemicals from the other realm, the resulting reaction created what we call now “Glow Liquid”. This substitute was commented by many Auctoritas members to be superior to the original “glowstick”, boasting a strong light that lasts for a broad measure of time depending on the strain and amount of mixture. Some can last for minutes, hours, or indefinitely. The chemicals needed for such "Glowliquid" are imported by the Auctoritas and are only permitted due to current trade deals.
Upon the first batch of Glow Liquid being created, Lord Rehba was quick to order his entire garden ornamented in glowing decoration, which forth he organised a dinner party with other noble and politics figures in attendance. While the guests were amazed by his garden, when Lord Rehba then presented the dinners, all decorated with glow liquid. Nobility were ordering Auctoritas members to produce incredible amounts of Glow liquid for their own purposes. Due to the overwhelming orders, Auctoritas alchemists worked with Mistwood traders and the Ironenger Dwarven Clan to keep up with the overwhelming and specific demands. Since then, various royal and noble families have discovered ways to use Glow Liquid. A small timeline was constructed:
Lady Morgana Ev’red commissioned the Mistwood Art guild to paint a mural of a giant glowing tree with branches, roots and vines on a spire for the Blossom festival. Come sundown the seemingly invisible art glowed and the Lady announced “Be here the blossoming of new relations and art that be a testament to it!” Further nobles would commission Glow art on their spires, so at night time the spires now glow with the art of a thousand hands.
Lord Annaris was quick to mix glow liquid with various alcoholic drinks, using different colours of glow liquid to accompany different special mixes of his own concoctions. Lord Annaris began selling these alongside his typical vineyard brand and it proved popular as a luxury wine, many nobility talk of its irresistibly sweet and rich taste.
Lady Ev’red’s sister, Daira Ev’red, would instead take glow art to fashion, turning up to a party of her betrothed Lord Exhel’ta wearing a dress with slits along the arms revealing painted portions of her arms. Despite Miss Ev’red’s controversial dress design, the younger nobles quickly took to wearing glow liquid for parties and festivals. Soon, fashion was designed with glow liquid set into it, allowing for intricate designs only visible at night.
Lord Ever’texa was the first noble to attempt to create a stronger strain of glow liquid, commissioning personal alchemists to further intensify the strength of the brightness. The first attempt created a formula so bright it shone even in daylight, usually acting similar to those who stared right at the sun, it was deemed a failure of a prototype but nevertheless the alchemists continued working. The second bath was considered more successful, with allowing for a strong light, but without too much visual irritability. Lord Ever’texa at first attempted to use these around his house, but became annoyed at the light disrupting his sleeping and threw out orbs filled with his glow liquid experiment. Poor folk saw these and stole said orbs, believing them to be glowing mushrooms they could tie on walkways in an effort to praise “the Nightmother” (An old legend of a patron and defender of the homeless). After Lord Ever’texa saw what the poor folk did and propositioned to the Mistwood council that his orbs be fixed on public walkways and city streets throughout the spirelands as cost efficient ways to improve visibility. After much deliberation the council agreed to test his invention in Thievesport as a means to deter nighttime robberies. There was some success seen on this end which was further capitalised upon after reinforcing the orbs against attacks from said criminals.
Upon the request of the Pigglesmith Dwarven guild, a weak but indefinite strain of Glow liquid was ordered and upgrades to Timekeepers were now being added to those who requested. Glow liquid would be painted on the display of the timekeeper, allowing for it to be read at nighttime. Many Nobles began requesting their Timekeepers to be painted and the Pigglesmith guild has set a business relationship with the Auctoritas and Ironenger guild.
The Ryn’xia family of nobility began implementing glow liquid in a way to counteract thievery in the bank branches. Using small packets of glow liquid designed to burst upon the unauthorised opening of safes, covering the contents of the safe to ensure quick noticeability of stolen wares.
KRRRRZZZT
“Venerable workers. [Maintenance] is needed in [Sector] [A]-[5].“
Joe woke up to the announcement, the familiar smell of oil hitting his nose as he attempted to get out of bed. He moved gradually, trying to will his body to further action. Slowly, his hunched torso rose, beaded with sweat. Another bad night; his sleep again ruined by….something. Joe bitterly wiped the now cold sweat off as he tried to remember.
Ah, the same nightmare. The revolving door in the dark void…Someone walking out of it, a woman in some summer dress. Joe recognised her and she shone like a beacon in the void, but he had never seen her before. When he approached her the world suddenly grew bright, flowers popped out of a suddenly sprawling field, a blue cloudless sky stretched out as far as the eye could see…It scared him. He was screaming while she calmly talked to him. He never heard what she was saying, the screaming overtook everything even through clenched teeth it filled his mind and ears.
KRRRRZZZT
“Venerable workers. [Maintenance] is needed in [Sector] [A]-[5].“
The repeat of the announcement snapped him back to reality, away from the screaming and back to his vision. Joe realised he was looking at his decaying feet, what remained of his toes were blackened and rotting to the point they were more bone than flesh. He gave a small gulp and steadied his nerves. No time to think about that, Joe’s team was on shift this week he needed to get ready!
He quickly rose from the bunk bed and started dressing while trying not to look at his own body, but the blackened necrotic clumps were a stark contrast to the pale of his skin. Joe tried to whistle the work song to take his mind off of it all. Shirt on, coat on, overcoat, thermal pants, work pants, work socks, work boots. Finally, he covered his blackened fingertips with gloves. A sense of ease swept over Joe’s mind as he looked at himself in the mirror again, not a single blackened blemish could be seen…He almost looked human…
KRRRRZZZT
“Venerable workers. [Maintenance] is needed in [Sector] [A]-[5].“
Joe once again snapped back to reality with this announcement and left the dormitory to grab something quick to eat.
Joe ran through the slim halls, quickly passing by 2 other workers, just coming back from the night shift. He couldn’t see who exactly it was due to the heavy gas masks still on their faces but the limp of one of them was distinct enough that Joe could possibly guess.
“Fokin' ell the waves were a bit tougher this night, eh?” started the one with the limp.
“Nah it was pretty much the same, maybe your legs just wasted away a bit there pal” replied his friend, the beard poking out of the mask. “Ey! We cannae talk about that…”
KRRRRZZZT
“Venerable workers. [Maintenance] is needed in [Sector] [A]-[5].“
Joe caught that small bit of the conversation before bursting into the mess hall. The few workers still finishing their meals looked to Joe as he quickly excused himself and ran to the food counter. The chef eyeballed him as he approached. “Sleep in again ey Joe?”
“So sorry about that, had a horrible sleep. The others just left?” asked Joe as he grabbed a metal tray and smacked it onto the counter with accidental force.
The chef nodded “Thank the stars I had a spare ‘to go box’”. The chef lifted his meaty hand and handed Joe a small piece of food wrapped in plastic. Joe gave a small nod to the Chef and darted to the doors once again. The chef called out to him “Ya better have some real food soon!”
“It’s just maintenance!”
KRRRRZZZT
“Venerable workers. [Maintenance] is needed in [Sector] [A]-[5].“
Joe pushed through the doors to the suit room. His crew was fully prepped and waiting around, presumably for him. Joe was still chewing as he entered. “Finally! Joe hurry the fuck up we were supposed to be there 5 minutes ago!” shouted one of the hazmat clad members of his team.
“So sorry! I-I’ll be a minute!”
KRRRRZZZT
“Venerable workers. [Maintenance] is needed in [Sector] [A]-[5].“
Joe quickly suited up and fitted his mask on while the rest of his team waited impatiently for him by the door. When Joe finally approached them they all began walking out of the building to the wires. As they pushed past the heavy worn doors, the rainy morning finally welcomed Joe to yet another dreary day on Skye. He subconsciously acknowledged the train, huffing and puffing from its stack. That same train would take them back by the end of the shift, but the wonders of an anomalous train lost its lustre after the first few hundred trips. Joe instead had his attention on the cliffside, a mere 50 or so meters away from him and his crew.
As the workers told Joe the first time he asked: “The bottom of the cliff is a long way down but you don’t need to be at the edge to see the peaks of the factory”. And from the small field of grass and mud just outside the changing rooms, the dark silhouette of the factory eclipsed the sun and its light radiating through the heavy cloud line.
Small smokestacks snake out of the tops of roofs into the cloudy air, all dwarfed by the large electric towers that hold the power wires running from the top of the cliff to the bottom. The cranes that stand large, rusted and unmoving are only surpassed by one giant satellite dish that sits in the middle of the factory, off kilter, cracked in some places with visible sparking every now and again. A massive metal floor supports the factory, with giant rusted holes yawning into the dark below and jagged pieces of cliff rock penetrating through the metal into the ocean air above. Some buildings were uprooted from their spots, left destitute for the scavenger crews to pick at. Many other buildings are left at slight angles, with some partially underwater. Only one building stood completely out of the water. In the centre of the factory stood a huge sprawling structure, similar looking to a warehouse. Masses of rope and metal wire snake from a balcony on the ground floor to the top of the cliff. This scene would greet Joe every morning he was on shift and the sight always filled him with a sense of wonder and melancholy. He knew what happens down there, but the sheer size and location always trounced his negativity.
Joe quickly approached a small pole with a metal wire snaking down to the factory and slipped the nearby harness on, fastening the ropes and clipping it onto the wire. He looked at the crew, who had all done the same, taking positions on neighbouring poles with wires. “Radios on!”
Joe fumbled to get his out his pocket, but in a few seconds the knob was dialled in and radios were attached to their shoulder mounts. “Ready boys? 3, 2, 1….”
GO
The wind and water suddenly rushed past Joe as his crew all flew down the ropes towards the factory. This was the one time Joe felt alive…feeling the rush, the cold air, the quickly dimming echo of the loud speakers to the “venerable workers”. He knew he had a minute to enjoy this before it was over.
Joe closed his eyes and just listened to the sounds of the rain pelting onto his suit, the wind howling at his descent and the whirring of the grappling mechanism on the metal wire. Joe, stuck in his own revelry, closed his eyes and detected a faint outline of something. Looking deeply into the darkness he saw faint moving colours, a soothing visual and one Joe knew well…but something else was in his vision this time, so Joe peered further inward…deeper into the darkness of his eyelids. A faint black and white twisting spiral came into view in his vision. Confused, Joe focused on another point in the darkness and again the twisting spiral appeared out of the blackness, now throbbing violently as his eyes twitched in their sockets. A faint pang of fear hit Joe as his mind unconsciously raced at what this could mean. Before any serious thought began in his mind, Joe opened his eyes.
Joe was on the factory’s balcony, his crew were all clocking in and talking about what the problem could be. Confused, he looked around and saw his harness was off and neatly placed in the return box, despite no memory of Joe doing that. “Oi! Joe!”
Joe looked up and his crew supervisor was gesturing him to hurry up.
“Cmon Joe!” continued his supervisor “We gotta get going! Factory ain’t gonna fix itself!”
“So sorry Mack! I’ll be there in a second!” Joe walked towards the little box and activated his punchcard, locking in the time. Looking at the clock he noticed the red light and knew his crew were losing luxury privileges this week on the count of being late, but he didn’t mind. That Rubik cube he got last week was giving him enough trouble to last a few months.
After punching in, he turned to his crew and they all began walking on the rusty patchwork balcony towards the great entrance of the factory. The platforms all groaned and creaked with the maintenance crew shifting their weight to and fro. Joe couldn’t help but look over the platform to see the churning sea down below. On a good day you’d be able to see the factory grounds, but on this day it was all muddy with the froth of the sea and the dark of the sky.
“Ey, Joe! Eyes front!”
Joe glanced back to the front of the crew as they moved into the decrepit factory. Mack was holding the doors open waiting impatiently, no doubt noticing his aloofness. “Joe, we need ya focused today. Can ye do that?” “Y-Yes Mack, so sorry about all of this i’m just very-“ “No need to apologise Joe, ya can explain it over lunch once this is over. Sound good?”
Joe nodded and followed Mack into the factory, closing the rolling doors behind them.
Joe took a minute to observe the ever-running machinery. The giant gears of construction kept on turning despite the caking of rust from the salt air and water that leaked every now and again. This massive piece of machinery and its function was lost on the crew, with only a conveyor belt stretching from one hole in the wall giving a clue. Large boxes were placed on this line, feeding it into the machinery. One of the crew, Mack, gestured to the rest. “Ah, we got a leak” pointing to a small pool of water forming in a corner of the room. “Joe, could yer go fix that up? I’ll have the rest of the crew scrub the rust.”
“Uh sure Mack. You got the welder?”
Mack gestured to the giant pack on his back, “Sure do, lemme get this off an’ get my brush”
Mack shrugged the pack off, removing his retractable metal brush off the side with a little *click*. Joe quickly grabbed the pack and put it on his back, grumbling to himself how the cold water would affect his aching feet. He hoisted his body up to the leaking doorway and turned on his flashlight. Joe knew it’d only get darker the further he got in.
Joe followed the small stream of water as it fed through various small corridors. Sometimes he’d pass through broken rooms with claw marks or bullet holes visible on the walls. Every room’s location within the factory changed, but every time he came through these backrooms there were some recognisable layouts. Today was a lucky day for Joe, as he entered a room and saw a mess hall.
The benches were overturned, the walls were discoloured and there was a massive blackened charred dent in the floor with dried blood all around it. None of this irked Joe, who walked over to the food counter, knowing a feast would most likely be there. To his delight, there in one of the troughs was organic paste, tasteless and nutritious. Food always tasted horrible to Joe and after a few months he learnt to ignore it…this tasteless and odourless paste always brightened his day. He scooped his hand into the trough, quickly removing his gas mask and squishing as much of the paste into his mouth from his hand. The texture brought him back to his first awakening:
Naked and hungry he found himself stumbling through the halls to this room. He had no idea who or where he was, but his hunger forced him into this room of all rooms. At first hesitant, he was soon shovelling mouthfuls of this paste into his mouth. And that’s how the workers found him, naked with paste around his mouth. They thought at first he was feral, but after he began speaking they calmed down.
All these memories were running through Joe’s mind as he scooped another dollop of paste into his mouth. He gave a small smile as he wiped the remaining paste from his mouth, refitted his mask and washed his glove in the small stream of water. Not too further in, he saw the stream get bigger and bigger. And walking up to it Joe realised he was approaching the leak.
One step into the room, Joe found himself falling in a big puddle of water. Cursing under his breath he righted himself, the water ran waist deep and his flashlight was out. Joe began hitting the flashlight against his hand, beckoning the device to work again as he tried to hear if anything was moving. The only noises Joe could hear was the far off sound of machinery clanking and whirring, no doubt the awakening room and output room. Where these are right now? Joe couldn’t know. Finally the light sputtered back to life and the ray shone on a small hole in the wall. Joe sighed with relief, it was out of the water and he could easily reach it. This job would take maybe 10 minutes at most…but cleaning up the water would be another story.
“Hey its Joe, I found the leak. Should take a few minutes to plug but the water has been here for a bit of time.”
“Mack here, you got any estimate for how long?”
“I’m waist high so i’m guessing a few hours.”
“Shit…You know how many room rotations that is?”
“i think at least 2?”
“Goddammit. Once we finish scrubbin’ up this we’ll come and search all the rooms we can for any more water and get it cleaned up. Once you get that all cleaned up you’re free to go scavenge, i’m feeling like we could hit our quota in a few hours, get some more luxury time.”
“Right you are Mack, i’ll get it started now.”
Joe grabbed the welder and approached the hole. His mind pondered as he began his work, placing a welder’s mask over his already masked face. The nightmare he had, it wasn’t the first time but his mind reminisced on a talk he had with the chef.
Joe was sitting at a lunch table, it was late at night and the chef woke him out of his nightmare. He sat him down with a cup of tea and a biscuit, just waiting for him to talk. Joe quietly sipped the tea, the flavour slightly bitter but the warmth being somewhat comforting. After a few minutes of silence Joe finally spoke, “It…It was horrible.”
“I can tell that mate, ya screaming woke up a good lot of us.”
“…Have…you ever…seen someone you know…but not know them?”
The Chef’s eye glared at him for a few seconds, quickly darting to the floor as he only said “Ah. You’re at that point…”
“Th-This is something you know about?”
“Aye, its something we all go through. We call them…Forlorn memories. You know what the factory does, right? Ya don’t like to think about it and yer better off not thinking about it. We’ve all been reborn, given a second chance, not like those blasted Gommy men, so use your second chance properly lad.”
“I don’t see how you’re so calm about it. You didn’t fare any better from it than I did” Joe unconsciously stared at the Chef’s eyepatch. The Chef peered hard at him, his face crinkling into a mix of anger and restraint as he seemingly thought about what to say next.
Joe quickly averted his eyes and said “So sorry, that was…rude of me.”
The chef’s face went back to resting as he simply replied “Ya better not make a habit out of that mate, plenty of people would love to leave that pretty face of yours more fucked up than an Olympus whore.”
Joe only nodded, his gaze on the floor. The chef just continued where he left off “As it turns out…whatever we were previously sometimes haunts us. But who we were before and who we are now are different so…” Joe’s breath quickens a bit as he tries to stop his mind racing, pierced with blurred images and intrusive thoughts.
“Ey, ey! Calm yerself! No use thinking about it. It’s gone. It’s in the past. Best leave it behind.”
“You have no idea what i saw.”
“You saw a ghost. Something that no longer exists. You need to get that through yer head! Whoever it was, you don’t know and will never know!”
Joe felt tears welling up in his eyes. He stayed silent for what felt like an eternity as he processed a grief he didn’t fully understand.
When Joe finally looked up he noticed the chef was wiping away a few tears also. Immediately the Chef said “Fuckin pull yourself together! You got me getting all teary eyed at your fuckin…” The chef got up and left mumbling.
As Joe’s mind turned back to the task at hand he realised the hole was patched and he was halfway through mopping up the water. He suddenly stopped and tried to recount what happened, only to find his memory fragmented.
Plugging the hole…Finding a mop?….Where?….Broom closet….Where’s that?…..No idea…Test tubes and papers….Picked up a key….Wait.
Joe reached into his hazmat suit and fumbled in his pocket, eventually finding a metallic red key. Suddenly an extreme nausea hit him making Joe quickly sit on the floor, fighting the strong impulse to throw up. He took off his mask and gasped big heaving breaths, sitting for minutes just trying to calm his stomach. A brief thought crossed his mind that it was the paste he had earlier, but his stomach seemed to worsen when focusing on the key. Joe quickly pocketed the key and stayed a minute more controlling his breathing. As soon as he felt his guts calm down he stood up and tried to think of what to do next.
Joe immediately tried to mop up as much of the water left, leaving a small puddle behind as he quickly attempted to retrace his footsteps. Down this corridor….not this one…take a left…straight through….was this room familiar? Soon enough, he found himself in a laboratory. Joe began searching through whatever he could find, “The Suits” usually payed double for science-y looking stuff. Some of the stuff here was too big to carry but there were some notes with sketches in them.
Joe started trying to read these, some words he could read but the rest was gibberish. The sketches showed designs for what seemed like machinery and rooms in the factory. The words Joe picked out of all the others were of 2 rooms: The [something]’s seat and part replace-men-t.
The part replace room seemed to be not that far from the laboratory, while the seat room bizarrely enough had directions designating how to get to it. Joe couldn’t really understand it, the map seemed to chart corridors that didn’t exist and gave directions that made no sense. He decided to pocket the notes for safekeeping. The seat room sounded interesting but the map made no sense…the “replace part” room sounded more interesting, so Joe decided to try and search for it. There was a weird superstition among workers that wishing to go to a room would make it more likely to appear.
Joe kept walking through the rooms, sometimes coming across skeletal corpses, weapons still at their side and all amount of blood, bullet holes and scorch marks surrounding the sites of these skirmishes. In the dormitories skeletons lay in beds, some charred…others covered in blood. On a bare wall written in dried blood were the words “Author-i-tar-ian-s be damned! Skye shall stay!”. Joe could barely read the first word but had no idea what it was until he said it out loud. He gave a small sigh as the radio crackled to life. “Joe! Where are ya mate?”
“Oh! So sorry Mack, something….odd happened”
“Good odd or bad odd?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out, i found a map of the factory and it mentioned a part replace-men-t room. I’m checking it out now and-”
“Wait wait, ye found a MAP of this factory? And a…part replacement room?”
“It’s confusing…i’d rather read it later, we can check out the ‘Seat room’ with the rest of the crew.”
“Seat room? Wait, Joe ya mean the Controller’s seat? If it is that, get back here immediately so we can look at that map! We’ve been looking fer….”
Joe tuned out Mack, suddenly realising he walked into a room he’d never seen before. Big room, with a conveyor belt running through 2 walls still processing those big crates that Joe saw before. A big mess of machinery in the middle, no rust, unmoving and looking brand new. Joe unconsciously switched off his radio and began looking around for any mention as to what this room is, and on a small panel in the corner were the words “Part replace-men-t” or as Mack said it, “replacement”.
Joe immediately pulled out the notes he got and searched for the word “replacement”, hoping to see if he could read a bit more about the room. A small piece of text caught his eye “Some cad-a-vers have lost pie-ces during trans-port-a-tion and with that, research-er Bo-ffins has cr-eat-ed a sec-tion of the production line to [something] these bodies with new working ap-pen-dag-es”.
Joe got slightly nauseous at the mention of the factory’s workings but what it seemed to mention was something to do with replacing lost pieces of these “cad-a-vers”. Searching the panel Joe realised this seemed to turn the machinery on, but it had no button or lever to turn it on, only a tiny thin opening he could barely wiggle a finger into. He sighed, and slumped to the ground in defeat. He couldn’t believe how bad this day had gone! First it was being late, second was almost throwing up, third was going against Mack. Joe knew better to go against Mack, but here he was-
Wait, what was he just doing? A loud alarm blared and cut through his day dreaming, he suddenly noticed the red key inserted into the slot he was just looking at. Yellow caution lights shone like sirens as the machine jutted to life. Joe watched as the machine stopped on every box and did something to it, he would’ve been disgusted if he wasn’t wondering what was occurring.
“Ey! JOE!”
Joe was suddenly cut out of his stupor once again seeing Mack walking furiously towards him. “Joe! where the fuck ya been? What is this?”
“I think its the replacement machine-”
“You think? What does that even mean? What happened to coming back to me, i’ve been looking for ya for the past hour!”
“Uh well i found a map and a key-“
Joe was suddenly cut off by the yellow sirens turned to blue. Mack noticed the colour change and quickly turned his attention off of Joe and to one of the other crew members. “Ey! Where’s the Fuadain being deployed?” The crew member pulled out a small device to try and locate it, but everybody in the room immediately heard a loud thump as a box dropped from under the machine. Mack looked around at all the other crew members, attempting to gauge their reactions from behind their masks. Joe wasn’t even paying attention to his crew members, just focusing on the box. He never got to see a new Fuadain and there was this irrepressible urge to open it.
Joe slowly approached the long large box, despite Mack whisper-shouting “Let the cleaners come and take care of this! Don’t fuckin go near that!” As Joe got closer he started to hear movement in the box, was it feral? Unknown. Was it scared? Definitely. The urge started decaying inside him with every step, but even as the fear slowly seeped back into Joe, he knew what it was like when no one opens the box as soon as possible and he hypothesised it’d be better if he caught the brunt of whatever was in there. Mack kept trying to get Joe’s attention, eventually chucking a wrench at him which missed entirely and clanked onto the floor loudly. The movement in the box intensified and Joe could hear whatever was inside wailing, growing more frantic as the seconds passed.
Mack and the rest of the crew quickly ran out of the room screaming “FERAL! FERAL!” but Joe felt a weird calm over his body and a giddy smile creep onto his face. His mind was racing to try and understand why this was, but after a few seconds Joe recomposed his mind with this physical calmness, grabbing the wrench off the ground and holding it ready to hit the thing inside if it was indeed feral.
A small golden latch was on the side of the box, sturdy and keeping the thing inside. It was thrashing inside the box, each hit moving the box as it screamed. Joe knew it wouldn’t help if the thing was already in a frenzy, so he called out to it: “Uh…please calm down. I can’t get you out of the box if you’re thrashing around.”
The sounds and movement suddenly stopped, it sounded like it wasn’t feral….maybe. It could instead be waiting to pounce out now that it knows there’s something outside the box. Joe thought briefly, trying to figure out how to discern if it was indeed feral, then quickly said “Knock once if you understand me”.
*KNOCK*
Joe let out a sigh of relief and quickly raised the wrench to hit the latch. Once, twice, thrice. On the 3rd time the Latch burst off and Joe flipped the lid on the box, to his surprise a naked figure sprung up to look at him. A woman? She looked around bewildered, trying to no doubt piece together where and who she was. Joe quickly reassured her “Woah, woah, easy. You’re safe.” The woman audibly gasped at Joe, pointing at his face and making an attempt at slurred speech “MAHSHHK! MAHSK!” Joe sighed, cursing his stupidity and quickly took it off. He gave a small smile and the woman seemed to calm down.
Joe began talking again. “Oh…I say give it a few minutes before you try to talk. Your body is still…waking up as it were.”
“UNGH?” The woman looked confused as she contorted her lips and mouth.
“See you’ve been…ah…I don’t think i want to sugarcoat this…”
Her face was twisted like it was painful to move. Joe decided to just say it.
“Miss…You were dead.” The woman just looked confused, so Joe continued “This is a place where…dead bodies are reawakened. You were dead, but you’re back.” The woman looked more confused than before.
“It’s confusing yeah? Just…Well, you’re alive and I can help you find a place to rest once we get topside. How’s that sound?”
The woman nodded, looking down and suddenly gasping loudly. Joe looked down and saw that a section of her forearm was completely metal. The skin around the metal had clear signs of necrosis, meaning this was a portion that had rotted away, but now had metal. Joe held out his hand and said, “why don’t we get you out of this box?” The woman nodded and took his hand. Shakily, the woman was on 2 legs.
“Slowly miss, you’re gonna need to relearn how to walk for a few minutes.” Tentatively, the woman made one wobbly step, almost losing her footing if it weren’t for Joe holding onto her. Slowly they worked their way to the door, when suddenly Joe realised he needed to tell Mack the situation. He excused himself with the woman and talked into his radio.
“Mack, We got ourselves a new Fuadain!” A few seconds later Mack replied “Joe…ye fuckin prick if you weren’t bringing back a Fuadain i’d’ve fuckin laid you out there. Still…you all good? Ye be needin any help bringing it back?”
“No problem Mack, I also think I know what the machine does now, the Fuadain has metal where the rot’s supposed to be.”
“…Really? fuckin hell if this applies to all future Fuadains we won’t be needing sick leave too often. You think this’ll apply to the Gommy men also?”
“No idea. Permission to escort the Fuadain back up and get her settled?”
“…Sorry can you say that again Joe? Her?”
“I-I’ll meet you back up on the deck!”
Joe turned off the radio, and turned back to the woman. “Hey Miss, you hungry? cause i know a place where we can get something quick to eat.”
She looked at him, opened her mouth to speak but quickly closed it again just to nod. Joe quickly walked through a few corridors till he stopped at the cafeteria. The woman was bewildered at the scene in the cafeteria. She pointed at the scorch mark and mouthed “What?”.
Joe gave a little shrug and replied “There was an attack on this factory, before my time. The locals here didn’t like it, was something about a…”tear-a-morf-er”? form-er? Massive attacks, loads of people died, not just here but all over if i read the paper right.” The woman got a solemn look on her face and Joe grew nervous if he said the right thing, quickly changing subject “Well see that trough over there? Nutritional sludge in there, good eating. Please Miss, dig in”.
The woman gave a VERY long stare at the sludge, but after a minute scooped a mouthful and after yet another minute licked it. The woman got a puzzled look on her face, but slowly ate the mouthful. After finishing, Joe questioned her “Well, how do you feel now Miss?” She cleared her throat, stared into space for a few seconds and then suddenly replied “I…feel better.”
Joe gave a small smile and replied “Well let’s get you topside then and make it even better.”
After just a few more minutes of walking they ended up in the first room again. The previously small leak was all but a wet stain on the metal floor, and a few of the crew were brushing the rust off of the giant machine. The woman stared at this and quickly asked “Excuse me, but what is going on here?”
The realisation hit Joe that he never introduced himself to this woman. A few of the workers turned to see where the talking was coming from, only to acknowledge it and carry on with their work. “So sorry, I forgot all about introductions. My name’s Joe, and i’m a maintenance worker for the Skye factory. This factory, i-if you couldn’t tell. We keep it working and plug leaks a-and all that.”
“Right. I…don’t have a name. What did you call me back there? Miss?”
“Uh yeah. It’s not a name…well…I could call you Missy.”
The woman gave a nod of approval “I like that name. Let’s keep it till we find out what my actual name is.”
Joe felt his blood chill and his smile fade. He quickly forced the smile back but before Missy could question it he moved on “Well let’s get you back on land and i’ll explain more.”
As Joe pulled the factory doors open Missy tried to question Joe further but was immediately silenced by the deafening crashing of waves on the walls of the factory. water misted the both of them and Joe stepped outside, grabbing Missy and quickly shutting the door to prevent rust. Missy looked absolutely shocked and yelled above the waves “IS THIS WHAT YOU MEANT BY GOING BACK TO LAND?”
“YEAH, THE FACTORY WAS ORIGINALLY ON TOP OF THAT CLIFF. FELL OFF DURING THE ATTACKS, BUT IT STILL WORKS. THE SUITS DECIDED IT WAS EASIER AND CHEAPER TO LEAVE IT HERE RATHER THAN GET IT BACK UP THERE.”
Walking with hands on the railings, the platform stepped up, higher and out of reach of the roaring sea. Mack was near the train platform talking to a small unit of cleaners. Mack turned to look at them and upon seeing Missy his conversation turned to them: “Its not a feral and Joe said he’d be- JESUS CHRIST JOE WHY IS SHE NAKED!”
Joe looked at Mack confused, slightly shaken by his sudden shouting “W-Well I didn’t have any clothing with me so I was gonna take her back up and get some.”
Mack had his hand up so he was blocking Missy from his sight, glaring right at Joe “R-Right. Joe put your mask back on and get back up.”
Joe quickly fastened his mask back on and he beckoned Missy over to him. Missy looked warily at the cleaners, their hazmat suits and masks a darker colour than the ones of maintenance, carrying rust-flecked guns. Joe noticed her concerned glare and quickly moved to her side, ushering her on. She turned to Joe, her expression almost asking for answers. Joe whispered to her “Don’t get on their bad side. They’re employed by the su- higher ups i mean. The bosses.” They clean up…ferals or rogue gommy men.”
“So they kill people?”
“No, they kill Gommy men”
“But…that sounds like a person, you use the word “men” so it has to be one right?”
Joe puckered his lips as he thought about how to explain The Gommy men. “Well…they look like people, but they’re not. They have no…ah…There’s a shipment of them we’ll be taking up soon. You’ll see what i mean when it gets here.”
Missy looked away from Joe, a slight expression of annoyance on her face.
The pair followed the rusting balcony further down the side of the factory, there stood train tracks under a large rusting corrugated sheet of iron. There was a big platform next to the train tracks with a few small wooden benches, which Joe sat on and beckoned missy to sit on also. It didn’t take long for the shipment to arrive as a group of Gommy men appeared. Soon hundreds appeared on either side of the tracks and Joe had to order a few to leave some room for him and Missy. Missy was shocked and appalled by the sight. Dozens and Dozens of naked, necrotic people were standing, eyes never moving, mouths never speaking. Something was different this time, Joe could faintly see on some of the Gommy men where missing chuncks of flesh would be, there was gleaming metal filling the gaps. Some were filling small pockmarks on the face, some filling in fingers, others whole legs. It seemed the Gommy men could move despite this metal, legs still bent and fingers curled.
Joe looked back to Missy to see her expression just turn to sheer horror. She approached one of the Gommy men and asked it “Hello, what is your name?” The thing looked at her, but did not reply. She approached another and asked it the same question. Same reply.
After a few minutes of asking and getting no replies she finally backed away from the Gommy men and clutched her arms around her legs and just began rocking. Joe nervously leaned over to her and asked “Are you ok?”
She didn’t answer.
“Missy, you’re not them, you can think and do things for yourself.”
Missy buried her head in her legs and tried to control her faltering breath.
“Missy, you’re a Fuadain! Like me! You can work and learn about the world! You have a second chance!”
Missy didn’t talk to Joe, leaving him with a sense on unease if once again he did the right thing. His pang of concern melted away with the faint sound of a train horn.
The train made its presence clearer by blaring the horn again, this time the sound reverberating out from the water. Joe shouted to the Gommy men “TAKE 3 STEPS BACK” and they all collectively took 3 steps back from the tracks. Riding the tracks came an old steam train, rising from the depths of the ocean and slowing down at the platform. Joe yelled again “ALL ABOARD THE TRAIN” and all the Gommy men collectively filed into the train. Joe looked to Missy and asked “Well? Missy let’s go on board.”
Missy had collapsed her fetal position when the train arrived and now she stood in bewilderment at the sight of a train rising from the ocean. She slowly got up and pointed to the train. “Yes Missy, it’s magical. If you’ll believe it, it’ll take us up the cliff back to home.”
Missy stared off into space for a few seconds and then asked “Is there a bed and food there?”
“Yes Missy, also showers and clothes and many other people who’ll want to meet you.”
Missy walked towards Joe then held out her arm. Joe absentmindedly hooked his arm around hers and she said in a posh accent “Then we best be off, chap!”
Joe was surprised by her sudden mood change, but then noticed in her eyes that she was fighting off the intrusive thoughts in her head. The nightmares would no doubt start early for her too, but he knew these better than anyone else. And he felt a swelling in his heart as he vowed to himself he would try his best to help out his new maintenance partner Missy. And so he replied in a snooty voice “Yes yes quite! Off we go i say!”
The sight of a naked woman and a man in a full hazmat suit and mask linking arms and boarding a steam train full of other naked brain dead people was a sight that made Mack emit a small chuckle at the sheer absurdity of it all. He gave a small sigh as the happy feeling left his body and he finally moved to open the letter. It was delivered to him that morning and he knew he’d better read it or he’d be missing crew the next day. It simply said:
INSPECTION TONIGHT. REMEMBER THE DEAL. 20 GIRLS AND 10 MEN. PERFECT CONDITION.
Mack sighed. It was time to finally alert the Central Protection to this little situation.