-Hi! I welcome you to our establishment. Before you get in, it is my duty to give you this note. YOU MUST KEEP IT WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES, NO MATTER WHAT. Things here are a little bit… uncommon, so to ensure your safety and a nice experience, we recommend you to read in detail the paper I delivered to you. This contains rules you have to follow. Please, don’t ignore them.
-With these words, was how I was received in this supermarket. I am currently vacationing in a small town where a ridiculously small number of inhabitants live. Everything was pretty normal, until I decided to come here to, basically, get all the necessary things to stay alive during my time in this place.
When I heard those words coming out of the mouth of that employee, I was struggling to comprehend what he meant. I couldn’t imagine any similar situation happening anywhere else in the world. Perhaps, being a place with only a few people, they prefer to keep safe with rules to avoid thiefs, or problems in general. Whatever, I would buy what I needed and I simply would get outta here to enjoy my trip.
I took a cart, and I noticed an uncomfortable calm around the place. An absolute silence. There wasn’t more noise than the inevitable people’s movements. This intrigued me enough to read the paper, which I had decided to ignore despite the employee´s alert.
It dictated:
°1: Do not interact with any client, avoid them at all costs. Each person here has to follow the rules as you do, so they will neither disturb you.
°2: If a person wants to exchange words with you, ignore them. If they insist, communicate the problem to one of our security guards. You can easily distinguish them among the clients by their uniform: cap, shirt, trousers and boots. Any person missing one of these clothes IS NOT PART OF OUR STAFF. Once you have done this, walk the farthest you can and do not look behind.
°3: If you are the one breaking the rule, beg so that person does not call the guard. As soon as you realize you have broken the rule, get away from the hearer immediately.
°4: Speakers are going to be the only thing you will listen to here. These, communicate typical information, such as lost kids or particular situations in some areas. Feel free to ignore it. If anytime, a countdown of 2 minutes starts, search for an excellent hideout. Believe me, you do not want to be found. Ignore anything you hear, anything you see, you MUST be there for another 2 minutes. Once the time has passed, you can continue shopping.
°5: This rule is unlikely to occur, but you better keep always alert. If the speakers start saying your name, close your eyes, cover your ears and wait 30 seconds. If they have not stopped, find a guard to accompany you to the place you are being called from. Now, you must be totally focused. If the guard is taking you to the office next to the entry, tell him that it is not your turn to get in yet. The guard will let you go. On the other hand, if the guard seems to go upstairs, you are dead. Run, search the closest exit and luckily you will manage to escape. TAKE INTO ACCOUNT RULE 12.
°6: Accidents can happen. If a product breaks or its content made a mess, communicate it to the janitor. He is not always in the same place, but do not ignore the situation. Find him, and tell him about a 04 code, but not where. Get the farthest you can from the zone of the accident.
°7: The janitor is always carrying with him a bucket full of water and a mop. If you find him without these things, maybe it is better for you to keep what happened in secret.
°8: There are some products which you clearly have not ever seen before, products which stand out for being things that humans would not consume. Do not take them out of their place, do not touch them, and for God’s sake do not buy them, they are not for you. If you are seen with any of these in your hands, you will be thought to be with them. If you break this rule, there is nothing we can do for you.
°9: If you want to know any product´s price, you can reach one of our screens, which include a code bar reader. It is probable that when you are scanning a product some… particular images appear on the screen. Stare at them until they disappear. They will try to distract you, but you must be strong.
°10: Security cameras are only located among the hallways. If you see one anywhere else, tell the guard that they are seeing too much. He will understand, and solve the issue. Do not look at the camera for a long time. You have to be really sure about this rule. The guard hates wasting his time, so think it carefully.
°11: To pay for your products, we only have 12 cash registers working, which are put in order. If you see any of it with a different number, or a number which is not in order, do not get through that one.
°12: YOU MUST GIVE THIS PAPER BACK TO THE GUARDS NEXT TO THE EXIT DOOR. They will not remind you of it, this rule is entirely your responsibility. If you break this rule, you may have some unexpected visitors at home. If you had to follow rule 5, just make sure that at least the paper is inside this building when you leave.
Please, do not make things difficult neither for you nor our clients and follow every step carefully, everything will be alright. We hope you have the best possible experience.
8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… Shit.
-All lights suddenly turned off. I couldn’t believe they weren’t joking. Alone against the unknown I tried to keep calm, firstly, checking my cellphone to call for some help. No signal was there. I started feeling that I had to run, but I couldn’t move until I heard strong footsteps coming directly to me, it was too late.
-I was taken by hands with a texture I find very hard to describe. Those were the longest 2 minutes of my life, until the light came back. I had no clue where I was, but according to what I difficultly saw through the windows, I was at that damn office the rules mentioned, sitting on a chair.
-I could recognise a human voice in the room next to me, when the door it connected them both opened. The ugliest and most terrifying man I had ever seen appeared just to sit on his desk. He started writing on some kind of documents, but without taking an eye off me. It was a long time ago since I was that scared.
-Although I spent hours inside that office, I couldn’t relax at any moment, I was starting to feel really tired, my body and mind demanded to me some rest. That sense of tiredness was suddenly interrupted by screams, followed by the light turning off again. How was i handling all that preassure? I have no idea, but it surely helped when I saw a girl right next to me, we both were in the same situation. Some may think that it’s arrogant, but one part of me was happy to have some “human” company with me.
-The supermarket closed, and the man writing the documents stood up of his chair. I was amazed when I found out I ignored how enormous he was. He grabbed us with his hands to go to other place. How could we escape from such beast?
-Appearently, we were on the zone where meat was produced. The first thing which caught my attention were the jars. Hundreds of them were through all the place, filled with, as you may think, meat. Was it human? Were those jars the products the rules said “humans would not consume”? I really didn’t want to find it out. I had to scape.
-Every scenario I imagined ended in a fatal way, but I had to try. I didn’t want to become food for who knows what. Only two “cheffs” were with us, they were as horrific as the man who brought us here. We had the advantage that we were able to move, we were sitting only with the limit of our fear.
-I could beat it, I stood up and started running to the only window there, plannig to break it with the chair. Those creatures seemed not to be concious at all, it was the perfect opportunity, until I remembered about the girl. I yelled at her to hurry up once, twice, she didn’t react. Anyways, I don’t know about her, but I wanted to live.
-Again where all started, I had to find an exit, but everything was locked. It couldn’t have been that easy. I heard some vehicles outside, they were being received by some employees to get some new products. I only had to wait.
-Not taking so long, my time arrived, the doors opened and I run as fast as an olympic runner, when I heard a voice telling me to stop. It was that girl. I started to pale when I saw where I had run through. A cash register with the number “87” above it was right on my way. I fainted.
-Now, I’m here, alone, waiting for something to happen I guess, in an endless room with the supermarket’s appearence, just that and me. I hope that if this messagge reaches a sane person, it will be enough for them to stay away from this place. I don’t know if I will return, but if I do, my life will surely be a nightmare, I still have this stupid paper with me.