My name is Charlie, here’s a short background, not that it matters. I’ve never been much for the finer things in life. I’ve always been happy to put in the minimum effort into my life. I suppose that’s why I’ve been a short order cook for the last 5 years. I’m not going to say where, that would make me too easy to identify. But let’s just say it’s one of those places that no one really goes to, they just end up there. As long as it’s cooked, it’s good enough.
In my 36 years on this Earth, I suppose my failings at work aren’t that much of a surprise. I never really developed what one would call, drive. Barely passed my way through high school and ended up at the Jr College for a couple of semesters, until they kicked me out for bad grades. But that was always okay for me. As long as I could put a roof over my head, basic food on the table, and pay for my internet, I was happy. As much of a disappointment I was to my family, see, I’m only really interested in one thing, and that’s the internet.
A basic job with minimum effort required, frees up way more time and energy to pursue my one real passion. I suppose in a way that’s where it went all wrong. And maybe, for that, a life of mediocrity, this is my punishment. I hope someone believes me. Maybe one of you can even help me. I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I don’t know anyone who has. But if you can help me, please respond.
I suppose I should start at the beginning. It’s the internet that got me in trouble. Not the regular internet. Browse that as you will. Don’t do dumb stuff like download viruses or fall for scams, but it’s mostly safe. What got me in trouble is the Dark Web. STAY OFF THE DARK WEB. There is nothing for you there. You want to buy drugs? Find a real life dealer like a normal person. The Dark Web is a crap-shoot for that anyway since Silk Roadgate. Best case scenario you’ll end up scammed or traumatized, if you’re a normal person that is. Worst case scenario, you might end up like me. I don’t know why I was so interested in it. Maybe because it reminded me of the wild wild west internet days of the late 90s and early 2000s.
I learned about the Dark Web from my friend Gale, god forever ago. Has to be pushing 10 years now. We were just a couple of dumb kids, laughing our asses off about how you could look at everything and anything, free and clear. No roadblocks for illegal content. My interest only grew from there. Me and Gale drifted. He’s a normal person. He got one of those grown up corporate jobs at some dumb firm. He doesn’t have much time these days for a high school burn out.
But for me, the Dark Web was like an addiction. I had to look. No matter what it was that was there. Like some sort of perverse fascination. I won’t go into detail about all that’s there. I’m sure you already know. If you don’t, you can Google it. Lets just say it’s home to all sorts of illegal contents, and some fanatical ideologies. And I found it all so fascinating. Don’t get me wrong. I was never interested in participating in the perverse market before me. I’ve never been in a red room. But I like to see what’s out there, like some sort of modern day psycho sociologist.
I’ve never had too many problems before, until now that is. I take all possible steps to be anonymous, and try to be a ghost. Most users won’t notice you if you don’t interact.
I still don’t know what happened. Not really. I was just browsing like normal. Seeing what’s out there. I came across this page as I was going down the rabbit hole. I don’t know why it caught my eye, resistance.onion, but it was just a black background with a text box that popped up. It said “do you see us, do you want to be us?” I should have closed my browser. But no, of course not. There was a box for a response, and my smart ass self replied “no.”
Then a response popped up “resistance is futile.” I laughed at that. Whoever made this site was clearly a Trekki. Probably just some sort of joke site. I went to close my browser, deciding I’d had enough for the night. As I did, a bunch of scrolling text populated across the screen. I didn’t know what the hell that was. It looked like one of those visual effects they’d use for “hacking” in the old school tech movies. You know, just random letters and numbers. Dumb. Whatever joke this was, it wasn’t a very good one. So again, I went to close my browser, but I never did. I really don’t know what happened. I must have zoned out or fallen asleep because the next thing I knew, I became aware of my surroundings, but at least an hour had passed. All the screen read was “end.”
I’m not going to lie, I got totally freaked out and unplugged my computer. It could stay that way for the rest of the night. It was time I got myself to bed anyway, for my crappy job in the morning. But sleep didn’t come easy that night. I was seriously unsettled, and I wasn’t really sure why. Nothing bad had happened other than and obvious joke site. The fact that I zoned on it for so long seemed wrong though.
The next morning I got up for work like normal and went in. I cooked up eggs, pancakes, whatever the masses wanted. My coworkers were looking at me funny though. Ed in particular. He was a pretty hardened kitchen vet and not much got under his skin. I’d finally had enough of his side glances.
“Dude what?” I asked him.
“Stop talking about this cool new vegetable website I just have to check out. I’m not interested. You know I don’t buy anything online.” He growled at me, in true Ed fashion.
“Ed, the fuck are you talking about?” Was he finally snapping from the decades of crappy kitchen jobs? Was he about to go postal on this place?
“Charlie, you keep talking about some kind of garlic website, and how I’ve got to check it out I don’t know what a garlic website is, but I just buy stuff at Walmart like a normal person.”
I didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. I hadn’t said anything about a site. I would never, not to him anyway. Ed can barely read his email and god knows I didn’t have the time or energy to explain the finer parts of the the sires I visit to him. So I did what anyone would do and avoided the loone for the rest of the day. Hopefully he’d be normal by tomorrow.
However, not that much later the manager called me into her office. Oh god what kind of nonsense had Ed said to her?
“Charlie, I’ve gotten quite a few complaints from your coworkers that you won’t stop talking about some soft of website? Now I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but this is a place of business. I know that influencers and ‘promoting’ is all the rage these days. But I just can’t have that here. The whole kitchen and waitstaff has been distracted all day. Now you need to go home and get yourself together. Come back tomorrow ready to work.” Her normally soft spoken self commanded.
I stared in disbelief at my manager Sharon. I’d never known the young woman to be unreasonable before. But how could she be listening to this hogwash? It just can’t be true.
“But Sharon….”
“Don’t ‘but Sharon’ me….” She interupted. “I can’t have this here. If a customer overheard and complained to corporate, what would happen? That would reflect badly on all of us. Now, go home and get whatever this is out of your system.”
Nothing more to say I suppose, so I walked off to clock out and me on my way. At home, I turned my computer back on. Maybe I could unwind on the internet. The regular internet. I’ve had enough Dark Web for the moment. I booted up, all seemed well. I opened my browser and all the sudden I heard the noise of many, many emails coming in. Great. What now?
I open my email from my browser bar, and it looks like everyone in my contacts list just about had messaged me! I open a few, and it’s all messages like WTF, and this better be a joke. I look at the chains, apparently I had sent a message to every single person in my contact list. Some sort of video. I play it, it looks the same as the “code” scrawl that I watched last night on that Dark Web page. Fuck I had to have a computer virus. How could this happen I was so careful. I spend the next several hours replying to the most important people that I was hacked and to not watch it. Unplugged my computer and sat there wonder what the fuck was going on. I was going to have to get a new computer that was for sure. Hopefully I’d done enough damage control just now.
I thought maybe I’d just watch some youtube on my TV. Oh fuck though, I couldn’t be sure using my internet at all would be safe. With that thought I unplugged my modem and router. I guess I was in for a long night of going to bed. Sleep didn’t come any easier that night.
In the morning I got ready for work again and went in. I was determined to say as little as possible to anyone and everyone. I though I did well. But an hour into my shift my manager Sharon called me into her office again.
“You know Charlie, I thought you understood what I was telling you yesterday. Not only am I still getting complaints today, now Ed can’t stop talking about this website of yours too! That’s it, you’re fired!” She exclaimed at me.
I was stunned to say the least. I didn’t bother arguing. How do you argue with crazy? So what could I do? I stormed out. As I was leaving Ed called after me “hey buddy, make sure you check out resistance.onion! It’s so cool. You have to check it out”
With that, my blood ran cold. There was definitely something very wrong. Ed would never get on the Dark Web by himself. He can barely work email. God, I hope this wasn’t something originating from those email shenanigans I found yesterday. But then it dawned on me, that I didn’t even have Ed’s email.
I raced home and slammed the door behind me. Got out my cellphone and opened up the recorder. I recorded myself going on about my favorite movies. Just a sample. I played it back, and hear myself start talking about some B rated slashed, but abruptly that stopped, and I started talking about that mother fucking Dark Web site. How? How could I do that without even knowing!
I took off. Got in my car and started driving. Ended up at some seedy motel. The whole way there, I heard my phone going off. Emails, texts, voicemails. Got myself a room, the clerk was staring my down the whole time. I obviously got the point across that I wanted a room, but god knows what else I said. I sat on the bed and opened my phone. Every. Fucking. Message. Was about resistance.onion. Seems like everyone I had ever been in contact with was sending me a message about the same God Damned website.
That brings me to the present. I posted this on Reddit hoping someone out there knows what’s going on, and can tell me how to fix it. I don’t know how much of this story will get though. I’m not sure what the rules are here for spreading this thing. Best I can tell it’s some sort of virus. God help me I think I have a computer virus. I don’t know how that’s even possible but I don’t know how else to explain it. Seems to be extremely contagious.
The phone to my room just rang. I didn’t pick up. I’m scared to answer it. Please help and I’m so sorry.