A Mission Cursed Tapes: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Another Mission Cursed Tapes: Part 4 Part 5
We finally got a connection here. The ones in Malcolm’s house seem to be sparse at best. The day after my last post, I got a text from Dean.
“We’re heading out in a few days. Pack light.”
We have to keep information given over the phone vague in case of hackers or spies. The next text I got from him was when he’d be picking me up. It had been a while since HQ put me on a field mission so I made sure to double-check my preparation list. We’re required to use specific code words to signal if something is serious. Dean hadn’t so I only packed the usual.
HQ would provide additional supplies. I have to say, being forced to wake up at the crack of dawn when you’ve settled firmly into the nightlife is all kinds of miserable. Before I left, I shot Brice and Sheila a text explaining I’d be away for a while. I know it worries them when I go on these missions, but work is work. The morning of the mission, I woke up to him honking outside.
Grabbing my things, I headed out. I put my suitcase in his trunk, then got in the passenger seat. When I was in, he backed out, and we began heading down the road.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Not well.”
“I figured.”
“Yeah, I’ve been busy. Sorry, I haven’t called lately by the way.”
He gave me a sideways glance.
“Don’t be. We’ve both had our hands full.”
“I know but still.”
An awkward silence hung between us. I cleared my throat.
“So, what do you think we’re dealing with here?”
“We aren’t entirely sure yet. All we know is that the signal is genuine. It’s not a prank or anything like that.”
“I guess we’ll see when we get there.”
“Yep.”
I wanted to use my phone until we got to where we were going, but thought it inappropriate. We chatted for a while, mostly about trivial stuff, new movies we’d seen, hobbies we were considering, things of that nature. This went for most of the drive.
“Are you still seeing Maryl?”
“No, we decided things weren’t working out.”
“Oh, that sucks.”
“That’s how it goes sometimes.”
I can’t say I was surprised. For as long as I had known Dean, he never struck me as the romantic type. Sure, he’d be attractive to women, but nothing ever lasted long. It made sense given our line of work. The fewer people you hold close the better.
“What about you?” Dean asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“What about me?”
“Have you been seeing anyone?”
“Oh, no, I mean. There was this one cashier who I thought might’ve been flirting with me.”
“Why didn’t you make a move?”
“I didn’t feel like it.”
Dean opened his mouth to reply and then stopped.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, it’s nothing. How are Brice and Sheila?”
“Fine, he came to my place the other day so that was fun.”
“That’s good at least. Hey, I could use a pick-me-up. What about you?”
“Do we have time for that?”
“We should.”
Dean pulled into a McDonald’s Drive-thru where we ordered some biscuits and coffee. The caffeine was a godsend for me and a nice change from energy drinks.
“Oh, by the way, we’ve been doing some field research.”
“On what?”
“Radio waves, I don’t fully understand it, though. Stevenson is spearheading the project.”
“I thought he hated being outdoors?”
“He does, but he’s also the most qualified for this. I never have gotten along with him.”
I’d only met with Stevenson a handful of times. If I had to describe him in an adjective it would be standoffish. Not only that, he also had a habit of not considering the opinions of others unless they were above him.
“Well, hopefully our interaction with him is kept to a minimum,” I said.
“You can say that again.”
We reached the airport not long after where some seats were already booked for us, coach. HQ likes to save wherever it can. At the very least, it gave me a couple extra hours of sleep. It wasn’t great, still better than nothing. I woke up to an attendant shaking me awake.
With my little power nap and the caffeine finally kicking in, I was feeling halfway decent. After getting off, Dean groaned.
“What have they got in those seats, cement?” he asked, cracking his neck.
“You should’ve brought a neck pillow too.”
“Yeah, I keep forgetting to get one.”
“Where to now?”
“Someone should be waiting for us out front.”
The person waiting for us turned out to be none other than Stella who was sitting on the front of her truck with some apple fritters and some iced frappes.
“When did you get here?” Dean asked.
“About half an hour ago.”
She offered us drinks and fritters. Dean refused. I didn’t.
“Thanks,” I told Stella.
“We just ate,” Dean said.
“You’ve been saying I need to eat more.”
“Whatever, I’m riding shotgun.”
He looked at Stella.
“Unless you want me to drive?”
“I’m good. We still have some time before HQ is supposed to contract us so how about we do some sightseeing? I passed a hiking trail on the way here.”
Stella turned to me.
“You look like you could use more sun.”
I couldn’t dispute that. Until then, the closest I’d gotten to nature was the once-a-week night walk around my neighborhood. Before going to it, we stopped off and got some feed for the ducks. As an aside, you’re not supposed to feed them bread. Apparently, it makes it harder for them to fly or something.
As I said, it had been a while since I’d been out in the field with Dean. It had been even longer since I’d been out with Dean and Stella, especially since we came across those tapes. It’s strange. On one hand I don’t like having my research on them interrupted. On the other, it does feel good to be away from them.
I know they’ll be waiting for me when I get back, though. It was approaching noon when we were contacted. I had engaged in some casual conversation with Stella and then left her and Dean alone to get caught up. I was walking, lost in thought when some squirrels came onto the path. They skittishly searched the ground presumably for some food.
Watching them, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of their minimal awareness. They operate mainly on instinct with not a care in the world other than the occasional predator. Meanwhile, it’s always in the back of my mind. We’d also gotten some snacks. In my case, I grabbed some almonds.
The squirrels must have been accustomed to people feeding them because the moment I pulled out my bag some were already trotting to me. I gave them a couple handfuls. As soon as I did, the ducks came, expecting a helping of their own. Luckily for them, I had some feed in my other pocket. The symphony of quacks was interrupted by Dean calling my name.
“HQ just contacted us.”
He noticed some ducks nibbling around my shoes and let out a brief chuckle. In retrospect, I suppose it did look kind of amusing. I dropped the last of my food to the animals and then followed Dean.
“They’ve booked us a hotel near the distress signal location.”
“Motel 6 again?”
“No, Super 8.”
At least we’d be getting complimentary breakfast with our bed bugs. As I was lying in bed that night, I found myself wondering how Brice and Sheila were doing. Then I wondered when I last thought of them up until then. I couldn’t even remember the last time I reached out to them instead of the other way around. Why had it taken me this long to realize this?
We aren’t allowed to make leisurely calls while on the job. Yes, even though I was about to sleep it was still under HQ’s dime. The loophole to this would be if someone was receiving a call. We’re encouraged to accept them when we can to keep up appearances. Brice and Sheila know of what I did and never called me while I was away in case they might catch me at a bad time.
While it made sense, I found myself hoping they’d break this rule just that once. My phone remained silent other than the occasional unrelated notification. Before I drifted off, I made an e-note to get them some souvenirs if I could. That night I know I dreamed. However, I can’t recall what it was about.
I can only remember the vaguest of details like conjuring up the memory of a flavor. All I can say about it is that there were dark shapes and voices. Why does my heart race whenever I try to think about it? What am I doing? I already have enough to worry about without getting sidetracked.
Dean and Sheila were already having breakfast in the lobby when I was finished getting ready. By the time I got there, most of the stuff was picked over. The former’s plate was your classic breakfast, pancakes, eggs, bacon, and a hash brown with a cup of coffee. He’s already eaten most of it. Stella’s plate was mainly eggs with a bit of sausage, a cinnamon-roll-flavored premier protein shake, an apple, and a grapefruit.
“You better grab something fast. They’ll be closing down soon,” Stella told me.
“Didn’t you just sit down too?”
“This is my second plate. I have to get my protein in, you know.”
“Eggs I understand. Grapefruit, I don’t.”
“It’s good for the skin.”
I shrugged.
“Fair enough, let me know when it’s time to leave.”
I settled on making some bacon, egg, and cream cheese bagel sandwiches. To drink, I grabbed a bottle of Minute Maid. I sat at another table and got on my phone to pass the time. Dean and Stella were talking. I wasn’t paying much attention, though.
I think Stella was telling him something about rice water being good for the hair. Brice and Sheila do post online, not under their real names. It’s mostly just different events, food, clothes, and pictures of their pets. I saw they posted something new. They’d found some puppies.
“Do you see something funny?” Dean asked me.
I didn’t even realize I was smiling until he said something.
“No, I saw this.”
I walked over and showed them the post.
“Cute little things, Leonberger retrievers if I had to guess,” Stella said.
“Since when did you become a dog expert?” Dean asked her.
“Farm girl, remember? We had a bunch of dogs roaming around.”
I let her scroll through the picture.
“And the post says they’re wanting to give them to a good home.”
Stella smirked at me.
“I’ll talk to them about it when I get home.”
“Thanks, Zane, you’re the best.”
Hopefully, Brice and Sheila will still have one to spare if and when we get out of this. We headed straight to the distress point after finishing up. There, a team was waiting for us. Among them was one of HQ’s heavy hitters, a muscular man the size of a mountain. He was leaning against one of the armored vehicles, smoking a cigarette.
“Hey, Mick, how’ve you been?”
He looked at us and grinned.
“Dean and Zane, it’s been a while.”
Mickey originally oversaw firearms training before eventually being promoted to head of guard duty. At least, he was.
“Shouldn’t you be patrolling the facility?” Dean asked.
Mickey grunted in annoyance and let out a puff.
“No, I got demoted because of the escape incident. The bigwigs lost their shit over that one.”
Dean, Sheila, and myself were away from the facility during that time. From what we heard,three prisoners managed to escape with the help of one of our doctors who was released months after. There hadn’t been a disaster that bad at the facility since over a decade before I was born.
“Sorry to hear that,” Dean said.
Mickey’s demeanor brightened.
“Don’t go feeling sorry for me. Sure, the pay’s not as good, but at least I’m not cooped up inside all day.”
He looked at me.
“Speaking of, you look like you could use some sun.”
“Yeah, I’ve been getting that a lot lately, so where’s the signal’s origin?”
“The labcoats are using one of Stvenoson’s devices to try and pinpoint the location. Once they have it, we’ll go there. In the meantime, we got some extra weapons. Help yourself. By the way, isn’t Stella supposed to be with you two?”
“I already helped myself.”
We turned to see Stella walking over with a rifle strapped to her back.
“You haven’t changed a bit,” Mickey said as they shook hands. “How’ve you and Ginger been?”
“Great, we’ll be getting a new puppy soon.”
“Well, isn’t that cute? Gunner’s still going strong.”
They chatted for a bit, while Dean and I went to get some weapons. Despite my line of work, I’m not big on guns. Although, I do have one for self-defense. We each grabbed a handgun, Dean grabbed a desert eagle while I grabbed a magnum. Then we got some cartridges and speedloaders. When I touched the bullets, I instantly drew my hand back.
“What’s wrong, Zane?” Dean asked, concerned.
“It felt like I was touching someone’s fingers,” I replied.
“Oh yeah, that’s the special ammo,” Mickey explained/, “It’s from Stevenson. He got some kind of special dagger shard from a town somewhere. I don’t know how it works, but we managed to replicate it and use it to enhance some of our weapons. The supply is limited so don’t go wasting them.”
Even though it still felt weird to touch, we grabbed the ammo along with some emergency supply kits. I examined the special kind and noticed it had the letter “S” carved into it. By the time we were done, the signal’s location was finally pinpointed.
“Alright, time to move out,” Mickey ordered.
Each of the vehicles got a radio. Mickey’s truck led the expedition with Stella’s at the back. We didn’t know exactly what we were looking for, most likely some kind of portal. I’d never dealt with a dimensional rift before. I learned about accessing them when I was younger.
In short, it requires using a special device to match a specific frequency with one that has already appeared in a location. It’s easier to do with ones that have appeared recently which is why took a while for us to find it.
“We’re picking up on something up ahead,” Mickey’s voice crackled over the radio.
Everything looked the same, then there was a ripple in the air as if it was water that was hit with a stone. Being that it was my first time dealing with one, I made sure to stay alert.. We passed through and on the other side was the hardest rain we’d ever seen.
“I can hardly see a thing,” Stella said as her truck’s windshield wipers moved back and forth.
Dean turned on the radio.
“Mickey, can you see anything up ahead?”
“No, what’s with this rain?”
We continued on in silence. All we could see was the road, railing, and a surrounding forest. Then we heard Mickey yell.
“Oh shit.”
What followed next was a chain wreck. Something appeared in front of Mickey. He crashed into it, causing the truck behind him to rear-end his bumper. This ended with Stella’s truck slamming into the second last vehicle. She screamed out a curse before Mickey’s voice sounded again.
“Everyone alright?”
While we were only in a pickup truck, Stella had modified it to be more durable over the years. We all confirmed that we were fine and then Dean asked what happened.
“There’s some cars on the road,” Mickey said. “It’s packed with them.”
Since there were also trees, off-roading wasn’t an option either.
“I guess we’re walking then,” Dean said. “Stella, do you have any umbrellas in here?”
“I got some ponchos under the seats.”
I reached down and grabbed them.
“Do they all have to be pink?” I asked.
“You got a problem with pink?” Stella asked.
“No, but it’s not exactly an inconspicuous color.”
“That’s why we have those.”
She gestured to the gun holstered around my waist. Once we put them on, we stepped out. Stella grabbed her rifle from the truck, then we made our way to Mickey and the others. They’d put on black Panchos. With his face shrouded in one, he looked like if the Grim Reaper hit the gym.
“Well, Well, if it isn’t the bubble gum squad,” he said upon seeing us. “How’s the truck?”
“There’s a few few dents. They should buffer out, though,” Stella replied.
“Fantastic,” Dean interjected, “so how about we figure out what the hell’s going on here?”
“Some kind of weather anomaly?” I suggested.
“Well, we won’t find out by staying put,” Mickey responded.
He barked out an order for everyone to move out. The cars gave off an eerie sensation. It was as if something compelled those inside to stop and get out all at the exact same time. Checking them didn’t reveal much at first.
“Wait,” I said.
Mickey told the others to stop.
“What is it?”
Going up to one car, I glanced inside.
“The stuff in this one has been picked over,” I said. “That means someone came here after everyone else was gone.”
“Then it looks like we’re on the right track,” Mickey replied. “Hopefully, they’re still kicking.”
While we moved, I glanced down and noticed a phone on the ground. Even though it was damaged and probably wouldn’t even come on, something compelled me to grab it. What we ended up reaching was a town. It seemed to be as empty as the cars we passed.
“Which way now?” Dean asked.
Mickey pulled off a pair of binoculars from his belt.
“I see a neighborhood. I say we head there. Maybe whoever sent the signal is holed up in their home.”
As we walked, I got a bad gut feeling. I wasn’t the only one and everyone made sure to have their weapons ready. We’d made it about halfway to the neighborhood when were met with absolute hell. I spotted the first of them, peeking out from over the roofs of buildings surrounding us. When dozens followed by hundreds more appeared, my heart thundered.
“Look out,” I yelled right as they pounced.
We managed to scatter before they landed on us. Although, they pinned down several agents. They varied in appearance. Some were furry. Some were scaly.
Some were like amphibians. Some were bipedal and others crawled on several legs. What they all had in common was that they were huge.
We wasted no time in opening fire. This only seemed to annoy rather than hurt them and they let out different cries to show it, so loud they could even be heard over the gunfire.
“Switch to the special ammo,” Mickey hollered.
We did so with much better results and soon the monsters were a pile of corpses.
“Everyone alright?” Mickey asked.
There were some injuries among us. Luckily, they were easy to treat. All in all, things were pretty straightforward. Then I looked off in the distance. There were more of them.
“Guys,” I spoke up.
They saw them too. Compared to what we were seeing now, what we just faced may as well have been a schoolyard scrap. Even Mickey was shaken up.
“Let’s move it,” he ordered.
We were out of there like frogs dropped in a boiling pot. Beelining through the forest, we headed to the neighborhood. Even that far, we could hear them and they were rapidly approaching. In getting caught between a rock and a hard place fashion, there were more of them up ahead.
“This is just fucking perfect,” Dean said a bit shakily. Under my poncho, I could feel beads of sweat pouring down my face.
“Does anyone have any flashbangs?” Stella asked.
“Good thinking,” Mickey replied.
He ordered the others to throw some and pulled out his. They threw them and we all made sure to cover our eyes before they went off. Luckily, the plan worked, or rather, it worked somewhat. The grenades did stun the creatures just not long enough for most of us to slip by. In fact, it was a slaughter.
The only ones who made it away were myself, Mickey, Dean, and Stella. Unfortunately, we weren’t far behind. That was until we heard a door open behind us. There was a man there and he urged us to come in before the monsters noticed. Good thing they weren’t smart.
The man introduced himself as Malcolm and then asked who we were. Upon learning how and why we got here, he let out a defeated sigh.
“I guess I underestimated those things. Sorry to have dragged you all into this,” he said.
“Don’t be. It’s part of the job,” Mickey told him.
“So does this mean we’re all stuck here?” I asked.
None of us wanted to consider the implications of that question, but it wasn’t as though we could simply ignore it either.
“For now,” Stella said, “At least we got some supplies.”
“Well, make yourselves at home I guess,” Malcolm replied.
We’ve been stuck here for almost a month now. I swear I find myself reaching for my gun every time I hear those things get close to Malcolm’s house. The only possible clue we have to figure this mess out is the phone I found. We’ve been working on repairing it. However, it’s slow work given our limited supplies and the fact we need to keep noise to a minimum.
Oh well, we are still alive so at least there’s that. In the meantime, I’ll be uploading this from my own phone as soon as we have a connection. Hopefully, we find out what’s going on. This is Zane, logging out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/16w0tca/records_from_a_research_assitant_the_game_in_the/ (Why is it fascinated with me?)