If you don’t remember what happened in the last part, you can find out here
And if you’re new to this series here is what happened.
I did do some research on Atari and Commodore, and in 1983 there was a major event going on that had Atari right in the center of it, they called it “the video game crash of 1983” supposedly it was because of the game E.T for the Atari 2600 that was such a bad game, they had invested so much in the licensing rights for it, and so many people were disappointed by the weird gameplay of the game that Atari just decided it was cheaper to go bankrupt and then drive out into an unknown location in the Nevada desert, and just bury everything…. Including brand new prototype controllers, software and systems.
At the same time Commodore was on their third revision of the, at the time, very popular computer the Commodore 64, which at the center of it had… the exact same processor… well not exactly the same, but not in a way that would make much of a difference. Meaning they can run the same instructions, though the programs would still end up being majorly different from each other, suppose however that the program could adapt and change itself, mutate like a human virus, so that when it has entered a new system, as long as there is any familiarity in that new system, it could run.. that should never happen in real life though, because that would mean that humanity would be extremely fucked… but it does happen.. let me go back a few days and I’ll explain.
I finally received the chip reader from china in the mail, so I hooked it up to my modern computer and updated all the drivers and the program, the internet has been slowing down even more lately but there was no rush, good things will come to those who wait as the old saying always goes, when it finally was done I wasted no time in plugging in the rom which the program immediately identified and I clicked read..
It popped up a window which showed the data of the first rom and then prompted me if I wanted to read another one, so I swapped the chip with the second one and clicked “yes” it began reading, after a while it too read successfully, but this time it didn’t show the data, it just popped up another window that read “Thank you” and then began playing what I can only describe as “really awful high pitched noise” at full volume. I wish I could say I recognized it as a data stream in audio form, but at the moment all I could think about was how paralyzingly painful the sound was, my entire head felt like it was going to explode, and it felt like my eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, even though I was squeezing my eyelids shut as hard as I could.
While this noise was playing, I had called down to the floor and I couldn’t move, I could barely breathe, it probably didn’t last very long, but if you’ve ever been in an almost panicked state before, you know that time seems to slow down significantly and you become hyper aware of the tiniest of details, everything in the entire room seemed to start vibrating and shaking violently. After what felt like hours of torturous noise there was a loud pop and it all went quiet, “way too quiet” I thought, as I slowly started to open my eyes to take a look around, I noticed that all my computers had turned off, I tried moving and getting back up very slowly because it felt like one thousand razorblades had grazed every single part of my skin, even if I couldn’t see any pierced skin it still hurt massively in a stinging kind of way.
I had to get back to my computer though to see what was going on, I tried turning it back on but it completely refused, no lights turning on, no fan noise, no nothing, I took a deep breath trying to think what could’ve happened but my brain felt like it was made out of maple syrup. I don’t think you’ll blame me for what I did next, I simply panicked, grabbed my coat, the commodore and my phone, I put the coat on in a hurry and went out to my car and just drove, aimlessly, that’s when I do my best thinking anyway, and I was considering just dumping the commodore like the previous owner but that’s when I noticed something, I could not hear the car engine, at all, and I happened to take a glance at my rear view mirror, red glistening liquid was seeping out of my ears “it must’ve gotten so loud that it blew out my eardrums” I mumbled to myself, feeling creeped out by the sight of the blood. I couldn’t stop staring though, as the blood started coming out my nose as well, I tried wiping it off on my shirt, but it just wouldn’t stop.
Somehow though, the sight of the blood made me remember the code that flashed up on the screen before everything went crazy, when I first saw it I didn’t pay much attention to it, but now that I was thinking about it, I did see something slightly off about it in the header section that was translated to ASCII.
“Atari inc copyright 1982” and then what looked like coordinates, I do have a very good memory for numbers, so I just punched it into the GPS and I started heading that way.
I think that the blood loss started to seriously affect me after a while, because I saw things that should not have been possible on that drive, things like angels with torn tattered clothes, scorched flesh and soaked in blood flying around on the sky, strange animals that looked like regular ones, but they looked wrong, especially considering that herbivores, like horses and rabbits, shouldn’t be chewing on corpses. They didn’t even bother to move as I drove past, so it must’ve been hallucinations right !?
On the way I did have to stop for gas, it was quite a long drive, I thought that I might as well fill up on some snacks and empty my bladder, and while I was washing my hands and face trying to get all the blood off, for a split second I thought I could hear some faint whispering, which made my head spin so much that I had to brace myself..
When I was finally done in the bathroom I went over to pay the cashier, I still couldn’t hear anything, which made it a bit clunky to pay, but I just paid through my phone as usual anyway and went back out to my car, the rest of the drive went by in a hurry, I can’t really remember much about it, more than that I saw more angels and weird shadowy figures behind the trees, but I did finally arrive at my destination and that does bring us back to more current events.
When I got out of my car I saw what looked like a big concrete bunker out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a big forrest, my only thought was : what they did here sure seemed like they really wanted to keep things secret from the public. There was a big metal door under a small overhang , so I went up to it and tried the handle, it was of course locked but I decided that I’d just knock on it, I just stood there immobile for a bit, thinking of what I should do if there wasn’t any response, however the handle eventually jiggled and the door slid ajar.
Hesitant I opened the door and entered, only to be struck by a bright light and vibrant warm feeling environment, when my eyes had adjusted I saw that the walls were covered with half height wood paneling and white wallpaper with small red Atari logos painted on them, there were chairs and sofas around the walls with plants next to them that looked so fresh and nice that I wondered if they were plastic, but more importantly there were people hunched over sitting in those sofas and chairs, they looked like they were sleeping. I did move closer though calling out to them to see if they’d wake up, no response, I moved even closer and poked one of them with my finger, he fell over on the ground and I could see that they were just mannequins.. hmm why would they have mannequins here ? I noticed that there was a reception area as well, the countertop seemed to be made out of a granite slab sitting on top of their volcano logo, I walked up to it and saw that there was a chair with yet another mannequin in it, in front of the mannequin there was a computer, it was on and I thought I could find the floor plan on it, and sure enough browsing through the files I did find the floor plan, and one area on the map showed just what I wanted to see “subliminal test area 1”.
I hurried over there running through empty corridors and glass doors only to find what looked like an operating table, with a mannequin torso and a big flat blade screwdriver on it, I couldn’t resist touching the torso, how odd… it felt like real skin when I touched it, but I was quickly brought out of my thoughts when I heard a repeated banging noice, I looked over and saw a window, and on the other side of that window, a woman was banging on it with her hands trying to get my attention.. I walked up to the it and took a look at her, she was roughly 1,65 Meters tall and had her red curly hair back in a pony tail, her pale blue eyes, were stunningly beautiful. She also had a lab coat on with an Atari logo on it. She told me that she had managed to get trapped in the adjacent room and that the mannequins were in fact robots that did most of the maintenance in this facility, and that the mannequin on the table was the one in charge of this room, so if I could just grab some spare parts from the other ones that I saw earlier and get her out of there, she would be very grateful.
Not being able to resist the request of a beautiful woman, I grabbed the screwdriver from the table and hurried back to the main lobby, when I got there I did notice that most of the robots actually were missing some limbs, so I had to pick different limbs from different robots, it was pretty easy, I shoved the screwdriver into the sockets and gave it a twisted and off they came with a squish, they were heavier than I expected though so I had to make at least 3 runs, I carried the head last, it was dripping what looked like hydraulic fluid though so I had to take carful steps but hurry so that it wouldn’t dry out.
All I did was then place the limbs on the table and robotic tendril like arms came out and put the robot together again and filled it up with the important liquids it needed.
In a jolt it came to life, sat up with unblinking eyes, walked over to what looked like just another piece of the wall, but when he touched it there was a purple glow around his hand and a concealed door opened in the wall, the woman that was trapped behind the window came running out and thanked me, she told me her name is Zoe, she also told me that she worked at this facility as a programmer, according to her, back in their heyday, she made a demo for the new Atari computers that would hold subliminal messages that would increase the cravings in the customer for their new products, but that it would adapt so that the messages would be different from person to person, however something went wrong with the program when they tested it in the 80s and the program would act more like a computer virus and jump from one machine to another adapting and mutating to its new environment, making you see what it wanted you to see, so they had to cover everything up and bury all their things in the desert so that nobody would ever find it again.
And that sent a chill down my spine, because stupidly enough when I read the roms, the computer was hooked up to the internet, I told Zoe about it, but all she said was “I know” and hit me right in the head with a hammer.. and everything went black..
Everything was dark when I woke up again, nothing looked the same as it did, more than that the rooms looked similar, except rotten and run down, the wood paneling was peeling and moldy, there was graffiti on the walls.. and is that… brain matter and blood smeared on the wallpaper ? Somehow seeing all this made a smile grow on my face and I started to laugh, hysterically, like one of those laughs that you can barely control, almost like I wasn’t even in control over my own body anymore, like all my limbs weren’t my own. With a tremendous amount of willpower though I was able to start moving my feet, it was more like dragging them though, but I decided it was best if I headed back to the main lobby to get out of here, the thing is though what I just saw in the lobby was a pretty sight, rotting carpet, blood, intestines and mold mixed everywhere, in a way that’s kinda funny, or at least that’s what Zoe keeps saying, she’s making me laugh at the dismembered corpses that was sitting in the chairs and sofas… I poked one right in the eye, he didn’t move and was definitely human, I giggled at it for a second, before I could focus and remember what I needed to do.
Giggling to myself I dragged my feet over to the door and tried the handle, of course it was locked, so now it seems like I’m stuck in here, my phone battery is running low, and the only company I have here is Zoe, I can’t see her but I hear her, she’s telling me to have fun, to rip everyone’s eyes out, to split everyone’s brains open and to paint the walls beautiful with blood and guts.. oh and Zoe wants to tell you guys on here something, “you will get a new best friend too”