It’s been days.. maybe even months since I last knew about the truth. I’m not sure if I even will even discover what is really going on. Everyone that I’ve tried to contact has been very vague and confusing with the messages they send back. “They have escaped from the facilities” or “The Devil has finally brought forth his children.” I don’t know what to think of this mess, days have just melted together for me at this point. I thought I’d document what is going on just in case I pass away at least someone else will be able to use what I went through to find some damn answers. To be perfectly honest I haven’t seen another person in days. The world is in such a disturbing place where no one wants to meet in person anymore, let alone share any supplies they have. Every building is either abandoned or destroyed by this point and the government hasn’t put out a report since the electrical grid went out. The world feels abandoned and empty, guess you could say it’s that apocalypse all those movies were preaching about. It doesn’t help that all this occurred at the start of winter where the snow makes everything look so calm and peaceful but in reality every child’s worse nightmare has come to life. Anyone with a crippling fear of the dark now have such a valid reason to doubt the unknown that comes with darkness. I’m rambling.
Anyway, to any lucky survivor in this hell hole, my name is Eli Walker. I was a private investigator for my local home town of Greenville, Maine mostly working on disappearances and missing person cases all over Maine. I had a wife and daughter named Joanna and Skylar Walker. Nothing could have prepared me for the hell I have endured in my weeks of trying to survive. I honestly couldn’t imagine surviving this long alone but here we are. The horrors that hide out in the night make you appreciate every second of daylight. If anyone is able to find this letter and is lucky enough to survive as long as they are, I am so proud of you. Not many are able to deal with adversity especially when you have no idea what is trying to kill you night after night. I may as well leave some wisdom behind for anyone who needs it cause I had to learn a lot of this the hard way.
The first and most obvious rule is to do all your traveling and scavenging during the day. If you leave shelter at night then you’re just asking for a painful death. The second rule that I learned quickly is to find a reliable and structurally sound building with no windows, side note: basements are your best best friend. Any place that can keep you hidden from the “Stalkers” ,as I like to call them, the better. Luckily I’ve never seen a stalker but I’ve definitely heard them calling out to anyone who is listening. They lure people to come outside and join them in the darkness. One night I swear I heard a small boy calling out for his mother, and would bang on doors and begging to be let in. This is how they got a lot of the naïve or ignorant by imitating the voices of loved ones or children. Rule three don’t approach any corpses you see on the ground, especially ones with their ribs exposed. They’re traps set by stalkers, at least I think they are, that I like to call “Husks.” They seem to be set for those who try and travel through the night or enter houses during the dark of the night to signal that a human is in the area. Running into one of these was something I thought would kill me but I somehow managed to escape. I’ll explain to you the night I ran into my first Husk and Stalker so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.
It was approaching dusk and I needed to find shelter quickly. I was already inside of a neighborhood so luckily I had not problem finding a house. You always want to find a house with windows that haven’t been smashed or broken into. The reason why is you’ll probably find hostile squatters or husks that will trap you for the night. I entered a home that I surveyed that had no broken windows about about 2 exits in case I needed it. As soon as I enter the house I went straight to the basement. My first mistake is that I then decided to check the upstairs for any food or water as the sun was setting.
Entering the kitchen I was met with the stench of a rotten corpse splayed on the ground, ribs exposed. The pantry was behind the body of this older man who was still wearing an local police uniform. I was tip-toeing past his lifeless corpse until it sprang to life, it’s ribs gripped my torso and was dragging me into whatever void it had in it’s chest. The head of the man gasped with life and air and let out a blood curdling scream that caused me to recoil in pain. The howls and cries of two Stalkers pierced the night air and I knew my time was limited. I tumbled around trying to get this man off of me, as I began looking around the kitchen for any weapon that I could find to kill my assailant. My hand stumbling around the counter brushed over a knife, the blade cut my finger causing me to gasp for air. I took in a large breath which I instantly regretted due to the crushing pressure this animated corpse was putting upon me. I took the knife with my opposite hand and jabbed it straight into the neck of the monstrosity grabbing me. As the blade entered its throat, the grotesque screams were silenced and I was freed from its grasp. My impulse to run down to the basement was quickly halted because as I took a step I heard a knock at the front door. The knock was followed by the voice of little girl crying for help
“Is anyone home? I need help, I’m so hungry please! My mother is sick and needs help to let me in!”
I paused for a second horrified that the voice of the little girl matched the one of my daughter. I hesitated almost tempted to see if my wife and daughter had really survived all this time alone. That hope was crushed immediately as the door of the house was berated with several fists and loud gurgling noises emitted from the Stalker. I immediately stood up and quietly made my way back to the kitchen. Luckily the blinds closed if they weren’t and a stalker managed to make it’s way to the window I would have died that night for sure. My only salvation was the pantry in the corner of the kitchen. I grabbed the knife off of the counter and the gun that was still on the deceased officers belt. I made my way into the pantry and made a small barricade of glass and chairs in front of the door. To my luck as I closed the door, I heard a sudden slam as the entrance to the home had been opened. A moment of silence followed then the sound of several footsteps echoed throughout the empty dark house. Furniture had being thrown all around the house, doors being broken, and several moments of stillness.
I held my breath in fear that a “Stalker” could be outside of my door listening for any signs of life. My biggest nightmare came to life as I heard heavy footsteps enter the kitchen. I tried my best at hiding behind a few boxes and cans that were littered around the the pantry. A deep guttural noise rung out right outside my door. “Mister, my mother needs food please we just want to eat.” The voice was accompanied by the sound of a thick liquid landing on the floor. This statement was followed by minutes of silence. Thoughts ran through my head, “what am I going to do? No one sees a Stalker and lives to tell the tale about it. The . My thoughts interrupted by a voice attempting to sing a sweet innocent melody.
“ We.. hide.. in the dark… waiting for you… hehehehe. Close your eyes and.. sleeeeeeeep.. the light will fade and you will weep… soon mommy and I will finally get to eatttttt.. ”