*BANG* “He’s down.” is what I heard as I quickly and quietly crammed myself into a locker. I tried to quiet my breathing as the guards swept through the halls, guns and flashlights in hand. I swear to you I was moments away from being caught before a scream came from further down the hall and the guards rushed after it.
So yeah, that’s what made my life become the living hell that it is. I rarely sleep, I can never stay in one place, relationships are a thing of the past, my life is nothing but a game of cat and mouse at this point. I keep running and they keep finding me, this is how it’ll be until the day I die.
I know none of this makes sense, I’ll explain. I’m a bit of an anarchist, and when you happen upon a group of like minded people who ALSO just so happen to have found the location of a secret government lab, it means big things are stirring in smalltown Minnesota.
Putting government facilities out in the middle of empty farmville never made sense to me. I mean, yeah, I guess people are less likely to look out there, but it’s such an inconvenience in every other way. How do you even plan to move supplies into it? Oh yeah no one will notice the line of military vehicles slowly descending into the middle of a field. Flawless logic, one point to the US government. Then again, not many people live out here, I don’t know, just seems dumb.
When I was grocery shopping once a month, like usual, yeah I live alone, I looked at the pinboard in the front of the store. It’s usually the same thing every day,one free guitar lesson, volunteer opportunities, donations needed, a group of anarchists looking for fellow rebellious people, etc. Well maybe not that last one, that one’s not always there and it caught my attention. Should they really be advertising like that? Like,”Hey! Everyone! We’re looking to overthrow the government!” It was searching for new members, I quickly took it down and stuffed it in my pocket, I didn’t want to risk anyone else seeing it and I needed the number for later.
So that kind of explained it, right? At least part of it, you’ll likely piece the rest together as I go on. If you can’t, well, sorry.
After I got home and finished putting the groceries away, I took out the paper and flattened it on the counter. I read it over again, “Anarchists looking for like-minded people willing to join the cause, if interested, contact us [REDACTED].” Of course it wasn’t redacted on the sheet, but I’m not giving away the information to you guys, I’m doing you a favor.
Anyway, I emailed the address, saying that I found their flyer and told them I was interested. After that, I made dinner and ate alone, watching TV, as always. See this is why I needed a change in my life, everything was so mundane and repetitive that I felt like I could feel my sanity slipping away each day I went on. I couldn’t keep living like that, otherwise I’d probably end up like Hemingway. Guy was a cool writer and all but the end didn’t see that appealing to me.
I checked my email one more time before bed at around 2:00 AMish. Not like the guy with the beards but the time. Like, roughly around that time. Why am I even explaining this? I checked my email and saw I had received a response. There was no subject and the only thing it contained was a link, I ran the link through my virus protection and it came back clean, I clicked it.
“Government Spy Catcher” was the title of the google survey it brought me to, oh great. The survey contained two questions, “1. Are you a government spy? (A.) Yes, I’m a filthy spy. (B.) Ew, no.” and the second, “2. Are you sure? (A.) Yes. (B.) No.” I was beginning to see the type of people I was dealing with. I answered it anyway, because why not? B and A, obviously. I submitted it and went to bed, only guessing what I could expect in the morning.
“Yo, get up.” is what I could (but didn’t) expect apparently. I looked over to my laptop, seeing I hadn’t closed it before passing out last night. There he was, who I’d come to know as James, later on. He was dressed like a…don’t even know. He was like the mix of a stereotypical 90s hacker along with an FBI agent who became a basement dweller. His hair was slicked back, but he was wearing a suit jacket with a white t-shirt and jeans. He looked kind of what I’d imagine a formal greaser to look like.
After recovering from that rude awakening, I looked at him, “I don’t recall ordering a wake up call, who are you, again?”
“Doesn’t matter, you answered the survey, I’m here to do one final check.”
It took a moment for last night’s quick questionnaire to return to my waking mind, but then I remembered.
“Ah, yeah, right. Alright so what’s left to ans-”
“Are you a government spy?!”
“Wh- No.”
“You promise?”
“Yeah, I promise.”
“Alright, you’re in, here’s the address, be there by 10, tonight.”
An address quickly popped up onto my screen through the notepad app, just as quickly as it arrived, James left.
“But I have work then…” I said half to the absent James and half to myself. Well, guess I’m calling in sick. I’m sure they’ll just love that.
After calling in sick, I got out of bed and checked the time, it was only 10 AM, 12 hours to kill. I decided to spend it doing various pointless things that aren’t even worth writing here, so I’ll just skip to the good part.
I left for the address around 9:40 PM, arriving a few minutes early. It led to a pretty normal looking house, just WAY out in the country. I pulled into the driveway, and turned off my car. As I stepped out, a woman opened the door to the house, shrouded in darkness.
“Are you (You’re not getting my name)?”
“Ye…Yeah?”
“Then get it! Quick quick quick!”
I rushed over to the door, mentally going over the fact that this could very well be the last place I ever enter, and stepped inside.
The inside was of course, pitch black. I flipped a nearby lightswitch and the woman slapped it back down, returning the room to darkness.
“No! No electric light!”
“Why?”
“*sigh* It doesn’t look as cool! Duh!” she said, cracking a glow stick.
“Ah, right then.” I said, slowly nodding, but also giving her a very confused look.
“Ugh, where does James even find these people…” She muttered to herself “Follow me.”
Not wanting to deal with this woman alone any longer, I followed her. She led me through the fairly normal looking home, albeit a bit decrepit, to a dusty living room. There was nothing notable about it, it was filled with regular living room furniture. There was an old Zenith TV (wow) a lumpy couch and loveseat, a lamp, coffee table and two very clearly fake plants. Oh and a rug, a rug she moved to reveal a metal hatch, honest to God. She reached behind the TV and flipped a switch, the metal hatch slid open and revealed a well lit staircase that descended far beyond what I could see from the top.
She motioned for me to start walking down, I did a double take. She rolled her eyes, made an annoyed sound, and started leading me down.
“I don’t get why you’re acting like it’s such a big deal.”
“A stranger is motioning me into the secret basement of an old farmhouse in the middle of nowhere without giving me any information on where I am or what it leads to.”
She stopped for a second, processing what I said, and then kept walking. Yeah, I wouldn’t have believed they ever had the brains to work for the government either.
After walking for about a minute, it was seriously that long, we came to a big vaulted room with thick metal walls. In stereotypical fashion, the walls were lined with lights, computers, monitors, buttons, switches, the whole nine yards.
“Well, go on, get familiar with everything.” The woman said. Then, quickly muttered, “Oh yeah, I’m Tara by the way.” and proceeded to quickly walk away.
Well, what the hell am I supposed to do here? I started to walk around, reading the panels with dials and knobs. I flipped one labeled “Break Room.” A loud whooshing came from my right and I spun my around head to face it. One of the walls had lifted to reveal a large break room. It was filled with vending machines, several refrigerators, cabinets, ovens, microwaves, snacks, basically everything you’d expect and more.
James walked up to me, wearing the same outfit he was wearing when he called me. He punched my shoulder and said, “I see you found the break room! That’s my favorite one here, but there’s plenty to choose from.”
“Uhhh.. how many people are in this group again?”
“Four, including you.”
I stared at him in confusion, he didn’t seem to think that this was overkill.
“What?”
“You don’t think this is a bit much for three, now four, people?”
“Nah, we don’t really leave much.”
Of course, I could’ve guessed that based off the amazing social skills Tara showed off.
“Ah, alright then.” I said. He flashed a smile at me, two rows of surprisingly bright and straight teeth. Probably fakes.
I continued to explore the bunker, finding more rooms with the flip of each switch. It was almost funny, this seemed like a fantasy world, the work of science fiction. It wasn’t fake though, I was really experiencing this. As I moved towards the back of the first room, I saw the presumed third member of the group. He was sitting in a desk chair, typing away at one of the countless monitors in the room.
“Ah hey, you must be the third member, sorry they haven’t given me your name.”
The man glanced up from his computer to my face, looking like he was trying to remember something.
He jumped up, “Ah! You’re (REDACTED), what’s up!” He said enthusiastically.
This guy is huge, he’s like the old viking stereotype. He has a big, long beard and hair that went down to the middle of his back. He’s built like a tank, huge, broad shoulders, arms like tree trunks and a chest to rival a gorilla. He has to be at least 6’10”. He was wearing a “I Smash Computers For a Living” t-shirt that was clearly too small, but I don’t even know how there would be a shirt made for someone his size so I don’t blame him. That shirt seemed ironic though.
“Oh uh- hey! Not much man, what’s up with you?”
“Not much, not much, I’m Todd, real nice to meet you!” He said as he reached out his oven mitt sized hand for a handshake.
I shook it, feeling each bone in my hand trying its hardest not to snap. We talked for a bit, and then he said he had to get back to his computer, but would like to talk more later. Todds a cool guy. You may notice that I talked about him in present tense, yeah I think Todd made it out alive. The reason I think that is because on my way out of the government facility we were caught in, there was a trail of soldiers laying on the ground who looked like they had their chests caved in by a boulder. I’m not exaggerating Todd’s size.
After meeting each member, I just walked around for a while, eventually sitting at a table towards the center.
“Wandering around like a lost little puppy, I see.” said Tara, walking up behind me.
I turned to face her, “Well, I’m not wandering, and it’s not like I was given any direction or even the slightest idea of what I’m supposed to be doing.”
She sneered at me and started to walk away. I watched her, she stopped, turned to me, looking at me like I was the dumbest being she’d ever encountered. She jerked her arm in the direction she was walking and I stood to follow her. I don’t know if I’m supposed to be able to read minds or something but she sure seemed to think I could.
She brought me over to one of the many vacant computers and showed me the layout of that bunker I mentioned earlier. Proceeding to pull up separate documents on each monitor around me, she said, “This is our goal, we need to get in here, figure something out.”
I nodded, and got to work. I called my boss and said I had some weird sickness. Life-threatening, with flu-like symptoms, I don’t know I just made it up. He asked me if I knew what it was exactly and I had to think fast, I looked around and saw James had an empty pack of corona next to his desk.
“Uh- Yeah it’s like, the uh.. Coronavirus, I think.” it was so dumb, I don’t even know how he believed me. It worked though, he told me to get some rest and take off as much time as I needed. Seriously though, who would name a virus, “Coronavirus?” That’s just stupid.
Anyway, I started working on analyzing the blueprints of the bunker. Only one obvious entrance, the huge, obvious, metal hatch that could fit a semi. I knew, however, that they wouldn’t be dumb enough to have only one way in and out. There had to be some other exit, even if it was a terrible way to evacuate an entire bunker of employees in the event of a disaster. Yeah that sounds oddly specific, that’s because it is. They had a, stay with me here, manhole cover. A single manhole cover about a half mile from the hatch. It was in an ol, abandoned utility shed in the middle of the field. I guess they didn’t think anyone would ever be curious enough to explore an old shed. HOW ARE THESE PEOPLE RUNNING THE COUNTRY?
I pointed it out to Tara, she looked at me, back at the monitor, then back at me.
“That’s a sewer, idiot.”
Without a word, I zoomed in on the tunnel that lead directly from the shed to the back of the bunker. She squinted at it, moving closer.
“Oh.” she said.
“Yep.” I said, smiling.
“Well, I’ll get the others.” she muttered, swiftly moving over to James.
A few hours later, she walked to one of the switches on the walls and flipped it. A wall slid open, revealing several suits of “Covert ops infiltration” gear. Todd’s, unsurprisingly, was many sizes bigger than our’s.
“Everyone suit up, we’re leaving tonight.” Said Tara.
“Tonight? Isn’t it like 4 am already?” I questioned.
“No, my guy, it’s not. It’s (he checked his phone) 9:30 am.” James told me, smiling.
I didn’t believe him at first, I checked my own phone and sure enough, he was right. I had already been down there for that long? Time flies when there’s no sun to remind you.
The suits were amazing, they adjusted to seamlessly and flawlessly match our movements. No sounds whatsoever, they must’ve had some INCREDIBLE communication systems built into them because we could hear each other through the suits just fine, but outside the suits, our voices didn’t make a sound.
Flipping another switch, Tara revealed a wall several meters high that was lined with weaponry. Lasers, plasma, pistols, grenades, rifles, pistols, machine guns, shotguns, knives, machetes, and even rocket launchers. I have no idea how they managed to get their hands on all this, or even the bunker for that matter. I didn’t ask questions though, I just started to take a look at the weapons.
“Ever shot a gun before?” Asked Tara.
“No, actually.” I replied.
“Here! It’s easy, watch!” Todd said, jumping up to grab a heavy machine gun.
He then flipped a switch, revealing yet another room, a firing range. He proceeded to pump a training dummy full of about 300 .50 caliber rounds. The thing was decimated in seconds.
Todd looked back to me, I can only assume he was smiling under his suit’s mask. He handed me the gun and told me to fire at the next target. I held the gun, steadied my aim and fired. The thing kicked like a damn mule on steroids. I fell back, luckily releasing the trigger before my line of fire reached outside the range.
“Oh I’m so sorry dude! I probably have a frame that’s better fit for that than most people, huh?” He said, helping me up.
“Yeah, yeah you definitely do. I can see why these are usually mounted.” I replied, accepting his hand and regaining my composure.
“Here, maybe this is more your size.” He said, handing me a pistol.
The thing was like a toy gun in his hands I swear.
I smiled, realizing that was pointless with the mask, and took it from his enormous hands. I know I keep pointing out how huge he is, but seriously, it’s insane.
I took aim and fired at a hanging target, 9 shots, dead center.
Tara whistled, seemingly forgetting her always unimpressed attitude and slapped me on the back.
“You sure you’ve never fired a gun before? Your aim is better than any of our’s, and we’re government trained.” she said.
“Yeah, I’m sure.” I replied, reloading the gun. “Just played a lot of video games.”
We continued to train at the range, trying out each weapon. We more or less left all the large arms and explosives to Todd, understandably. I think I’d do best with the sniper, but that wouldn’t be very useful in closed quarters.
A few hours later, we were ready. We geared up and headed out. I settled on a pistol (with a silencer), a knife, an MP5 (incase we had to abandon stealth) and a bag full of grenades. The grenades were a last resort.
We walked to the shed, this walk was in no way short and in no way enjoyable. Todd carried Tara on his shoulder at one point, yes, one shoulder. It felt weird for me to ask to be carried as well, I mean, I’m a grown man, but I really wanted to, my legs were getting tired.
When we arrived at the shed, Tara went in first, checking for any security measures, surprisingly, or maybe unsurprisingly, judging by all their other decisions, there was none.
She tried to lift the manhole cover, but it was too heavy. You already know what I’m going to say next, don’t you? Todd crouched through the door and picked it up like it was a pancake filled with helium. He nodded, and we went in, one by one, Todd taking up the rear so he could recover the hole.
A veerryy long hallway was ahead of us. Another long walk, so wonderful. I couldn’t tell you how long it took, I never checked the time and it seemed like we were never making any progress, no matter how long we walked.
Eventually, however, we came to a door, Todd took the lead and we all exited into what looked to be a storage room. We all started opening crates, seeing what was in each. They contained various supplies, secret weapons and technology. All pretty cool stuff, we help ourselves to some of the smaller items we could carry and moved on.
That’s when it hit me.
“Hey, uh, I feel dumb asking this but, what exactly are we trying to do here?”
“Search for anything that could be useful to us in our fight against the government.” said James.
“Ah, alright then, that makes sense.” I replied, not expecting James to know anything about what was going on.
Our search continued, each room was full of more and more new things to take. The security in this place was awful, not a single guard or alarm in any room we entered. The government isn’t doing great at protecting their secrets, but I suppose that pattern has been pretty clear throughout this.
One room was locked, a metal bulkhead with a big hazard sign on it. Tara said the stealth suits had built in protection to any type of radiation, toxic gasses, poisons, or anything else that would usually kill someone without proper protection. So, Todd just ripped the hinges off and caught the door before it fell. He lightly placed it against the wall and told us to head inside.
Now, if you’re faint of heart, you may want to stop reading now. We’ve all heard tales of government experiments, and of course, those that have gone wrong, but I’ve never heard a story that could even shadow what I saw.
The room was huge, the floor, walls and ceiling were all a bright white tile. There was a constant haze in the air, but I don’t know what was creating it. We activated the night vision on our suits, surveying the room. There were cages, hundreds of them, lining the floor. Each contained a different, horrifyingly mutated, vile and repulsive creature that was once a human being, as far as I could tell. Their skin was covered in boils, rashes, burns and any seemingly any form of a painful blemish a person could have on their body.
We started walking towards the cages, and that’s when the smell hit us. I could never properly describe the foul, gut wrenching, and vomit inducing scent that filled my nostrils. It was a combination of blood, bile, sweat, urine, feces and the sickly sweet aroma of rotting flesh. I’ve had to repair my septic tank before, I’ve come back to my house after forgetting to take out the trash for two weeks, I’ve been in a men’s locker room on, “Bring a Friend” day, but none of those could begin to compare to this smell.
I had to stop moving completely and focus every fiber of my being on not throwing up. If I just stood there for a minute, I’d probably get used to it, at least kind of, right? Maybe, maybe, but I didn’t get the chance, one of the “people” began to approach the edge of their cage, dragging their body forward, slowly. It was completely naked, its face was twisted in an unimaginable look of agony. They were missing a leg, it looked to have been messily amputated, or eaten.
With each drag of their body, a ragged and labored wheeze came from their toothless mouth. I got a better look at their face, their jaw was clearly broken, just hanging there, pointlessly. One of their eyes was missing, an empty, bloody socket in its place. The other eye, bloodshot and gray.
When they reached the edge of the cage, I could see a large, oozing gash on their back, clearly infected. I think they tried to speak, but when they opened their mouth, all that came out was another wheeze, and what remained of their tongue.
That was too much for Tara, she tore off her mask and started vomiting, either forgetting or not caring about the room being full of something quite deadly to us. Todd picked up her mask and quickly tried to put it back on her, but he was too late.
Whatever was in the air has already made its way into her lungs, she gasped, looking at us with wide eyes and an expression that spoke volumes. Her last few moments weren’t pleasant, but none of us could even think about putting her out of her misery before it was too late. I’d only known her for a day, and she wasn’t the most friendly person I’ve met, but somehow she already felt like family.
“She.. she.. No, no no she’s fine, Todd she’s fine, pick her up, we’ll bring her out, she’s fine!” James cried out.
“James man, I’m so sorry, she was an amazing sister, but.. You know she’s gone…” Todd whispered, wrapping James in a bear hug.
“NO NO NO NO SHE’S FINE GET OFF OF ME!” James somehow managed to wriggle his way out of Todd’s vice grip and ran over to Tara’s lifeless body.
“Come on, come on Tara, you’re okay, come on.. please..please.. GET UP YOU HAVE TO GET UP!” James screamed, every word dripping with anguish. He took her shoulders, lifting her up and shook her, hard. We only stood and watched, not knowing what else to do. James only stopped after Tara’s neck gave a loud snap and her head went completely limp.
He dropped her back onto the floor, sobbing into her suit between deep inhales. Todd started to move towards him but I placed my hand on his arm, signifying to leave him alone. Todd looked at me and I motioned towards James’s hands, one laying beside Tara and one laying on his pistol.
We didn’t know what time it was or how much time we had left, but we weren’t going to leave him here, so we waited. Until suddenly, out of nowhere, he shot up and bolted out of the room, running towards the central part of the bunker.
Todd and I got up, and chased after him, trying to stop him before he attracted any attention. As always, though, we were too late. Guards flooded the halls ahead of us, chasing James and firing at him. Todd and I debated taking shots at them, but knew it would just get us killed too. I reached for my bag of grenades, hoping they would be enough, before I realized that I dropped them in the same room Tara was in. It was far too late to go back and get them, we knew they’d be on us any second and had to think fast.
Me, being small enough crammed myself into a locker before the soldiers saw me. Todd, being not so small, charged through them and kept on running towards the main entrance of the bunker. I don’t know if he just forgot about the manhole or was still planning on finding James, but he was out of sight fast.
The guards shot James, confirmed his death, and started to move towards the lockers before Todd screamed on the opposite end of the hallway. It was very obvious that this was a scream of anger, this is probably when he plowed through all the guards.
After they ran down the hall towards his yelling, I slipped out of the locker, ran down the hall and made my way out of the shed. I quickly headed back to our base, got in my car and sped home.
I took everything important, threw it in my trunk, and hightailed it out of the state. I’ve been moving from place to place every once in a while to make sure I’m never pinned down. I haven’t heard from Todd, and my boss hasn’t called, so I assume everyone I know thinks I’m dead, but the government knows I’m not. They’re still hunting me, always.
If I could find Todd and go back to the bunker, I would, but I don’t know how likely that is. If I ever do, I guess I’ll keep you guys updated. Wish me luck.