I hunt cryptids, this obviously should come as no surprise as No Sleep is riddled with us hunters. I’ve been hunting for a few years now, met many faces, killed many more. Now I am by no means an experienced hunter, quite the contrary friend, hell if it weren’t for me being a cryptid myself I’d have died long ago. Now so I don’t bore you why don’t I cut the context and get into a story.
I’ll first start with an origin story, the origin of the laptop I’m trying this on. It’s a bit of a doozy but it’ll help you fully grasp my situation. I’ll begin with how I obtained this oddity of a laptop I’m using to type this out. I’ll go over how I obtained it, maybe why it’s so important, eventually I’ll have to go over its past and future owners. But for now I’ll keep it simple, with what should have been a quick trip into a run down bunker.
I had been driving for hours on end through a vast desert, nothing but sand dunes for miles. When I had come across greenery, it had taken me by surprise with just how unnatural it looked. Grass, grass as far as the eye could see, there was no looking over it and it had overtaken the rundown road I had been traveling. The unease it caused me was not from its hight or the distance it spanned, my unease was from the fact that it stopped dead in its tracks. There was nothing gradual about it, it simply stopped growing past a certain point, not even the defiant patches growing out cracks in the road passed this line. I hadn’t realized it but I had been sat before the grass for nearly 10 minutes, my car stalling the entire time. I only snapped from my bewilderment because the engine had cut out
“FUCK!” I shouted, pissed off that I’d now have to get out and refuel
I grabbed my boots from the passenger side seat, steel plates running down the sides and one and the toe and heel on either boot. As I pulled on the boots I immediately found myself irritated by the heat of the metal that I had carelessly let sit in the sunlight the entire trip. Once I had dawned the boots I stepped out of the car, the blazing heat of the sun boiled my skin every step I took. I walked to the trunk and grabbed a jerry can and then filled the tank with the last of my backup fuel. After I had finished that I slumped back into the driver side seat, I was flooded with relief to be back in the air conditioned car. I was almost more relieved that I hadn’t encountered a giken, Almost.
From that point on the drive was relatively boring, just a mile of 7 foot tall grass. Eventually I came to a clearing. Sand again, the grass stopped dead in its tracks on this side too. I pulled up to a dilapidated building, A sign held on for dear life, it read “Ipsilon Med Tech Facility”. The name left a foul taste in my mouth, what they had done, what they’re still doing. I lowered my gaze to a shattered glass door, through which I stepped into what looked like an office building turned upside down. I knew well that what I was looking for wouldn’t be found on the ground floor so I went searching for a stairwell. Stepping past discolored tiles and long dead bodies each wearing a yellowed lab coat. I found the stairs, the stairs to the second floor had collapsed leaving no way up and making it a hazard to get down.
I climbed down rubble and stepped down the stairs I could, with every move I made to descend the stairs the stench of decay grew worse. I eventually made it all the way down the stairs. The blood bath I had expected from the smell was… not there. It was dark but I could still see fine, the smell however was unbearable, and my enhanced sense of scent was not helping one fucking bit. I opted to just not smell, I broke my own nose, I briefly debated using half a brick I spotted in the rubble however opted to use the but of my handgun. I didn’t fucking know what was on that brick, knowing Ipsilon there could be some sort of bio weapon coating that brick, coating anything in this place really. My nose was flooded with hot blood that quickly overflowed onto the floor and into my mouth.
I continued further no longer bothered by any stench now just the taste of iron in my mouth, a damn good trade in my opinion. The basement resembled a small warehouse, rooms with glass walls full of shelves that themselves were full of boxes. If not for the helpful signage this place would be a maze, but thanks to the signs I found the vault with relative ease. I stepped up to the door control terminal, the only computer outside the vault that still worked. I typed in the password Mike had told me, and watched as the door opened.
“Dear god” I said nearly retching, no amount of blood up my nose could have stopped the smell.
The walls were covered in black sludge, as was the floor and ceiling. I stepped into the vault, and the sludge reached up to my ankle. A quick glance back at the vault door, and realized the sludge was already creeping through to the rest of the building, then it stopped. I turned my attention back to traversing the maze like hallways. I continued further into the place no longer granted aid by the signs because like fucking hell am I going to touch that sludge with my hand to clear the signs.
I eventually find myself in the testing wing of the bunker, not making very far into the wing before I hear something stomping through the sludge. The stomping stops, seems it heard me as well. I drew my handgun again the but still painted red in my blood. I continue. A quiet scream starts steadily growing louder and louder and LOUDER. I raise my hands to my ears but the handgun keeps my right hand from properly covering my ear. As I felt a hot liquid flowing through my ear I realized I no longer needed to worry about covering that ear.
I continue round a corner and find the source of the screaming, In the center of a large room stands a woman. Torn clothes covers near pitch white skin, her veins and eyes glow purple and her hands and feet are a dark rotten purple both baring long jagged claws where the nails should have been. She halts her screeching lunge at me, claws bared and raised to strike. I fire at it the bullet missing its mark but still hitting it in the shoulder. Her claws connect with my face and next I know I can’t see out of my left eye. I recover from the shock of being clawed in the face and knocked on my ass, jumping to my feet, firearm not in hand.
“OH FUCK!” I watched as my gun was swallowed by the sludge.
I looked back up to the woman; her entire shoulder now glows purple and the previously glowing veins have gone dark. The woman kneels where she had attacked me, stunned and weakened by the shot. I reach into the muck and grab my gun, I draw back the hammer and let another bullet fly. Bullseye! Sludge falls from the walls and ceiling and light floods the room from previously covered ceiling lights. My one still good eye blinked a few times while adjusting to the new brightness of the room. Now able to read the signs again I make my way to the test wing storage. More shelves, some old drugs, electronics.
“Eurica!” I found 4 Ipsilon branded generator cores
I grabbed two in either hand only able to carry the two as each core is a little bigger than a bowling ball and far too heavy to carry more than the two. I step out into the sun’s heat once again, this time however it’s a welcome, I was more than ready to never step foot in a vault ever again. I set the cores in the trunk of my car and realize I don’t have enough gas in this thing to even make it past the grass. My next trip through the place I made sure to grab an energy cell from storage as well. Once I had completed my second run through the place I set the cores next to a dusty old white van with big blue letters spelling out just like the sign “Ipsilon Med Tech”. I tried the door and luckily it was unlocked, I popped the hood, took out an old depleted cell and slotted the new one from storage into its place. I taught myself to hotwire because there wasn’t a key in sight. Threw the cores in the back and was about to drive off.
I remembered the woman. I made my way back down for the third and hopefully final time. Found the woman’s body where I had left it. I was about to drag her out so I could give her a proper final resting place but was surprised when I heard a noise from storage. I made my way back to storage and found it was a laptop that had made the sound. It was open and logged into an account with a file open. It hadn’t been open last i was in here, and the file piqued my curiosity.
The top line read “Anomalous object report” I skimmed through some more text and to summarize it this laptop is the anomaly and exists at multiple points in time simultaneously. Why on earth they would make such a report on the anomaly is beyond me but I wouldn’t put such stupidity past Ipsilon. I carried the laptop and the woman’s corps to the surface, as I dragged the woman’s body outside I felt a raindrop. I sped to get the laptop in the van not wanting any water to damage it. I then spend a few hours in pouring rain shoveling out a grave. Once the body was buried I slumped into the seat of the van, It was pitch black out. I fell asleep. The next morning I woke up, drove off and turned in the generator cores to Mike for my reward.
The laptop I had taken is the one I use to type this now. It has access to the old internet thanks to one of the times it exists in. Noone from your timeline will ever need to deal with the Warplands so this survival guide is purely for the sake of documentation, and giving myself something to do in my downtime. I plan on posting about more of my ventures in the warpland. I’m thinking next time I’ll tell you about the gikens to explain why I’ve covered my boots in steel.