I don’t know why I’m writing this, just to vent or just for some twisted sense of comfort because I know I’m not crazy, what I saw was real and I need to tell someone, let anyone know what happened to me and the rest of project misty, because the government is lying to you (surprise, surprise) and I don’t think I have much time.
I was new at expedition site five of “project misty” an underground government operation happening around the arctic circle. We were positioned near Longyearbyen in Norway, I didn’t know much of course, I was hired as a field artist but originally trained for paleoart, why the government was looking for an artist was beyond me, but I remember having to sign about a dozen different non disclosure documents beforehand.
It was cold, I remember that it was cold.
So cold.
The crew were pretty icy to me at first, but there were a few who I got along with; I’m still not so sure what a few actually did. There was Darren, he was an astrophysicist from the hayden planetarium which made me supremely jealous (the dude worked with freaking Neil Degrasse Tyson), Robert —- I never quite figured out what he did, but he had an air of authority to him that made me think he could’ve been military. The last person I “hung out” with was Stacy, a Biologist who I worked with frequently. Forgive me, Stacy.
Other than that there were a few mechanics, an engineer, a couple others who I didn’t quite know and two nurses, a pretty sparse crew. The cover story for Project Misty (at least the one they told me) was that they had found a new species of krill with “special” stem cells that the government were trying to implement in medical trials. I was there as a backup to the many cameras stationed around the site, and thus never saw much action. It should’ve been me.
Looking back it was moronic for me to just accept that. Why I never thought about why they needed an astrophysicist for krill research was beyond me, maybe I just didn’t want to accept the truth.
The first specimen I was asked to draw was small, even for a krill.
It was a Thursday, I had already been there for about a week and a half so I was eager to finally contribute and help the project. Stacy had been there with me, I can still remember her fiery hair and piercing blue eyes. I wanted to make a good impression but I can tell, looking back now that she didn’t care about that. I remember catching her eyes drift over just as mine did to her.
The krill were translucent, slightly blue and had huge eyes (relative to their bodies) . I actually had to use a microscope to view the specimen; without it I would have assumed it to be some sort of strange sea monkey. That’s what they reminded me of anyway.
Stacy told me the working name was “Malacostraca Cerebi Comedentis” a mouthful, I know.
I did a few more drawings for Stacy, she was kind to me — always playing the chordettes and always calling me Eddie which was funny because my real name is Stuwart (although the nickname soon caught on) I never understood why until now. That song is painfully bittersweet for me now but don’t worry Stacy, I won’t make you wait too long.
I’m almost done.
I remember one of the biggest finds Stacy let me in on was that the krill were apparently parasitic and attached themselves to small fish, she thought it was so interesting. God, I could listen to her for hours and not get bored.
I enjoyed my routine for a time, waking up and pretty much having the entire day to myself except for lunch with Robert and Darren as well as my sessions with Stacy. Only now can I realize they were all slightly withdrawn, all hiding this ‘big’ secret from me.
Get out
What I wouldn’t give to be back there, in my naively hopeful past self.
I had been there for two months when it all came out.
GET OUT
I can still remember waking up that morning, it feels so long ago now.
It must have been around four in the morning when the screaming started.
I woke up, it was a cold morning, and it didn’t help that a few of the windows had shattered, exposing us to the harsh forces of a norwegian winter.
Robert should have been in the bed beside me but it lay vacant, the gruff behemoth of a man was nowhere to be seen. Everything seemed (mostly) normal as I traversed across the facility in search of the noise. I couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary until I reached the mess hall. The beaming white lights shone brighter than ever that morning.
I remember how my heart dropped when I saw Robert, not because of the blood pooling out of his ears, nose and mouth as if he had been shot in the head. Not because of the scalpel he wielded over Darrens lifeless body, it was his eyes.
He stared at me but didn’t dare attack, he dropped the scalpel which gently clinked as it dropped onto the smooth floor.
Watery globs shimmered in his expressionless face. He was scared.
I’m scared
I couldn’t process it right then though, “Rob,” I said, as a friend who truly wanted this to be some kind of sick joke “what the fuck did you do?” I can remember the slight tremble in my voice as all my emotions bubbled up, Darren, although not a close one — was still someone I considered a friend, and now he was dead.
Robert didn’t respond, it was like he couldn’t. He wobbled over toward me and dropped to his hands and knees just a few meters ahead of me.
The words he managed to croak out haunt me, to see such a strong authoritative figure reduced to a whimpering, struggling shell was eerie and made it no easier for my just awoken mind to do any real thinking and assess the situation.
“…Help” His hands tightened into fists of agony before going lame.
Robert died at my feet.
I stood still in shock, I can remember the suffocating, overwhelming reality of it all, I didn’t want to leave but I had no choice; I had to get someone, anyone.
My hands shook as I walked down the barren corridor, I chose to ignore the droplets of blood I would occasionally find along the floor.
I marched toward the biology wing, to Stacy.
I had called out to her while walking through those same glass doors I had walked through many times before. She didn’t respond, I tried my best to ignore what I saw.
The large room was the heart of the facility and it had been trashed by forces I would soon be made aware of. The massive krill tank had been shattered, sprinkling the room with shards of glass that I gave up on avoiding, my slippers didn’t do the best at deterring the increasingly uncomfortable lumps of glass.
I remember seeing a few bodies slumped behind the counters, it was hard to ignore them but I had too, I wasn’t going to allow myself to feel those things — not until I knew she was safe, that someone was safe.
“…Eddie?” I heard a voice mumble from the back corner of the room, Stacy.
Why didn’t I save her?
I didn’t know that would be the last time I heard her voice.
Cradling her felt like my heart had been ripped out, “Eddie?” she mumbled again, “I…”
And then she was gone.
When I moved away from her only then did I notice the blood, red streaks dripped down her ears, mouth, nose and unlike Robert her eyes as well.
She had been blinded in her final moments, did she even know it was me?
I back away now, tears ran down my face, what the fuck was happening?
I remember screaming louder than I ever had that morning, I threw myself around the room breaking and screaming at whatever I could.
I searched the room, it must’ve taken nearly an hour but I finally found something, a document, locked away in the back.
They had lied to me. All of them, I wasn’t upset about it — reading through the files it was clear they withheld that info out of mercy.
The Krill weren’t being studied for their stem cells, they were being studied because of their origin. Creatures not of this world, parasitic beings from an alternate dimension, It wasn’t fish they attached too — it was us.
I searched further and found Stacy’s research journal, it felt wrong to read but I had to know more. I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I found more stuff about project misty, some old files from the 70’s; some notes from Stacy it was just too much, I ripped the corner page out and scrunched it into my pocket.
The note read:
Eddie is coming over today — I can’t wait to see him.
I don’t want to be forgotten, I don’t want Stacy, Robert, Darren or any of the others to be forgotten.
The cold didn’t seem so harsh when I walked toward the entrance doors, I thought about a lot of things. It didn’t matter though.
I removed my slippers at the entrance to the facility and let the snow overcome me; I hardly noticed the cold.
I must have walked for hours because when I finally stopped the sun had begun to rise just above the mountainous icy peaks that surrounded the desolate site.
That’s when I saw it, most would assume them to be the northern lights; what I learnt from Stacy’s document taught me enough about their true nature; how long had the doorway been open? It didn’t matter now. I stood still on the ice, alone, desolated — waiting for a reason to go on.
The facility lay a distant speck, as far as I know all twenty five members of expedition site five died that morning, and as far as I know all twenty five members, coworkers and friends remained locked in ice as the government set fire to the whole facility.
It’s been three weeks since then and I’ve been hunkering down in a hotel nearby, I can’t leave them there. Tomorrow I think I’m going to go back there. Something is in my mind, I can feel it.
If one of those fucking Krill infected me like they did the others I probably haven’t got long. The incident must’ve happened overnight with most staff being infected all at once; Stacy’s journal did mention one of the krill tanks breaking just before I arrived.
I’m scared.
It’s so cold.