God is real, and we have created him. I wonder what Nietzsche would say to that.
This is Eric Brigman writing, assistant to the late Dr. David Schirmer. This is my official report on the outcome of experiment S-14 on the effects of experimental drug T-166 as Dr. Schirmer is no longer with us to write the report himself. I hope that you will excuse the fact that this report is not written in a typical academic style. Given the circumstances we now face, as I will explain, I no longer see the point in writing the report in an academic style. I have no intention of re-writing this report in a more academic manner, and I probably will not live long enough to do so anyway. I also have another reason to write in this more informal style that I will explain at the end.
If your security clearance is high enough to read this report, then I have no need to explain the circumstances surrounding the funding and purposes of the experiment, nor around my personal details or how I became involved with this project, so I will omit these details. In fact, my security clearance is not high enough to access all these details so you may know even more about the circumstances of this project than I do. If you wish for these details, access them yourself.
As a brief aside before I launch into the details, I was brough on to this project under the impression that it was an experiment. I now suspect that it was not actually an experiment, but rather a test. To the layman the difference between an experiment and a test may seem to be a matter of semantics, but from a scientific standpoint there is a significant difference between the two.
Scientifically, an experiment is a procedure performed to determine the relationship between a variable that we control and a variable that we do not directly control. An experiment is successful when it generates useful data about the relationship between the two variables, regardless of the outcome. A test, on the other hand, is a deliberate attempt to consistently produce a specific outcome through a given process. I believe that this explains the methodological flaws in the study as it does not appear to make sense as an experiment.
It is my belief, having taken part in the project, that we were actually performing a test. The goal was not to determine the effects of the drug, but to produce a very specific outcome. We certainly got an outcome, but I don’t think it was the outcome that was desired. Anyway, it is too late to do anything about that now.
For the test, we began by gathering 30 subjects from a pool of about 10,000 persons of interest. The persons of interest were people from FBI and CIA watchlists who were suspected of possessing supernatural powers to some degree. This could be ESP, telekinesis, or just being too lucky. From the list we weeded out people who were obvious charlatans or people who drew excessive public interest, such as celebrities. This left us with about 2,000 people.
Under the guise of a well-known and reputable lab we reached out to the persons of interest and informed them that we were interested in having them take part in a clinical trial for a drug and that they had been selected based on known medical records, and that we were offering a very large sum of money to participate in the trial. Some people didn’t respond and some people complained that us viewing their medical records was a violation of their privacy, although if they realized that they were on a watchlist they might have been even more outraged.
This left us with a pool of about 500 people who responded with interest. We then flew those people out to our lab and subjected them to 3 different tests to verify that their abilities were legitimate. Anyone who was able to pass any one of the tests was considered a candidate for the final study.
The first test was to test for ESP. The researcher would place 3 dice in an opaque cup and place the cup upside-down on a clipboard. The researcher would then shake the clipboard and cup. The researcher would then ask the participant what the face-up numbers on the dice were. The participant would then answer and the researcher would lift the cup, revealing the dice. The process was then repeated twice for a total of 3 times. Participants who correctly answered all 3 times were considered to be likely candidates for ESP and considered for inclusion in the study.
The second test was to see if the participant could knock over a card stood upright in a vacuum chamber using only their mind. Obviously, a card won’t stand on end by itself, so the card was actually slotted into a groove in the base of the vacuum chamber. This meant that to knock over the card, the participant had to either pull the card out of the slot or bend the card at the base. If participants could perform this task, they were candidates for telekinesis and considered for the final study.
The final test used dice again, this time to test for luck. This time, the participant was given three dice and told that they had to roll all sixes three times in a row to win a $100 cash prize in addition to any reward for participating in the study. If they successfully rolled 3 sixes 3 times in a row, they were given $100 and considered for the final study. It is worth noting that this test could produce a false-positive for luck among people who could use telekinesis, but that was considered acceptable since telekinesis was also an acceptable condition for inclusion.
These three tests left us with a pool of 37 people who passed at least one test. Of these, 30 were chosen for the final study. Of those 30, 23 passed only 1 test, 6 passed 2 tests, and only 1 participant, Number 26, passed all three tests.
Number 26 was a male in his mid-to-late twenties. He lived at home with his parents due to both his and his parents poverty. The large monetary reward for participation was likely the reason that he chose the participate in the study. The remainder of this report will focus on Number 26 as he is the subject of interest and the cause for concern. Additionally, attrition for this study was 96.7% since no other participants completed the study.
No records concerning Number 26’s participation in the study remain. All records, including name, age, parents, residence, etc. were lost with the conclusion of the test. All description regarding events surrounding Number 26 comes from my memory since I was responsible for much of Number 26’s observation. I cannot guarantee that my memory is error-free, or accurate, but for now it is the only record that remains, so I will rely on it for this report.
For the study, the participants were supplied with one-week’s supply of 10-milligram T-166 capsules each week and were monitored, without their knowledge or consent, via cameras installed in their home, workplace, and other places they frequented, as well as having their phones, emails, and other electronic accounts monitored.
T-166 is a drug designed to potentiate or enhance psychic or otherwise supernatural abilities that individuals may possess. It does not have this effect among people who do not possess any such abilities. Side effects include constipation, hair loss, and psychosis. Participants were not told about the primary effects or side effects and were instead instructed to report any changes in their physical or mental state through an online portal. They were told that the test was a double-blind placebo controlled study and did not know if they were given a placebo. In reality, none of the participants received a placebo and there was no control group.
Number 26 received his dose and began the study with the other participants, none of whom were allowed to meet or interact with other participants in the study. His first week seemed normal. He woke up at his usual time. He would shower and eat breakfast before going to his job, where he worked as a checker at a grocery store. He returned home after his shift and without fail appeared exhausted. He would then make himself some kind of dinner, most often microwave ramen, and go to his room and browse the internet or stream tv shows. He only left his room at this point to return dishes to the kitchen sink, where he did not wash them or place them in the dishwasher, and to brush his teeth before bed. As previously noted, Number 26 lived with his parents. However, throughout the duration of his daily routine he rarely interacted with them.
Number 26’s father did not work a steady job. He would occasionally perform cash jobs for acquaintances but did not appear to have any kind of steady income. On days when he did not work, which is to say most days, he would stay home and drink. His preferred drink appears to have been beer and he would often begin drinking around 10 in the morning, which is when he awoke.
Number 26’s mother also did not have a job. Medical records indicate that she was considered disabled due to her loss of mobility due to obesity. As a result, she typically sat on the couch and watched tv, getting up occasionally with the aid of her walker to get snacks or meals. She had been on a prescription for weight-loss pills some years ago, but when the family became unable to afford insurance her prescription lapsed as she was unable to afford the regular checkups and she regained the lost weight. I include this information to show the home environment that surrounding Number 26.
Throughout the first week, Number 26’s routine did not vary much. It was noted on the third day that he was called into the store manager’s office and berated for being too slow to scan groceries. His performance appeared to be comparable to that of the other checkers, so it is possible that he was being singled out and harassed, although this was never demonstrated and further research into the matter is no longer possible since the store was destroyed in a fire.
Throughout the first week, Number 26’s self-reports through the online portal reported that he was angry and frustrated with life, work, and his parents, but that this was normal and that he had not experienced any abnormal variation in mood since beginning T-166. The second week proceeded as the first and no significant changes occurred.
Symptoms of T-166 began to manifest in the third week of the study. Number 12 reported an increase in his telekinesis, now being able to lift a pen, whereas before he hadn’t been able to lift anything heavier than a paperclip or two, a weight of approximately 3 grams. Number 29 reported that he was feeling more powerful than before; he did not clarify what he meant by powerful. Number 16 reported that she had realized that someone was following her and feared for her life. Analysis of the footage from our hidden cameras indicated that she was not being stalked and her paranoia was likely the beginning of drug-induced psychosis as a result of T-166 use, although it may have been subconcious ESP recognition of the cameras monitoring her. Number 26 reported slightly improved mood.
During the fourth week of the study there were two dropouts. Number 29 engaged in a dispute with his wife and struck her. She promptly called the police and when the police arrived Number 29 claimed that he would “Show them who was boss” and attempted to attack the officers. One of the officers shot Number 29, who was transported to the hospital and declared dead 12 hours later as a result of his wounds.
The second dropout was Number 16. On the third day of the fourth week, she took her remaining supply of T-166 along with 40 over the counter sleeping pills. The effects of T-166 at the dose she took are not known, and the active ingredient in the sleeping pills she took was diphenhydramine. The diphenhydramine overdose sent her into anticholinergic toxicity, but does not appear to have been acutely fatal. The influence of the T-166 megadose in her subsequent actions is not known. Approximately 2.5 hours after taking the pills she left the house, delirious and stumbling, and managed to walk to a nearby freeway where she stood in the way of an oncoming semitruck and was killed. We noted that the damage to the front grill of the semitruck far exceeded what should have been caused by striking her body and it was hypothesized that she may have used telekinesis in an unsuccessful attempt to repel the truck.
During the fourth week, Number 26 reported another significant improvement in mood. At no point during the study did Number 26 discuss his psychic abilities in his self-reports despite appearing to see the most increase in his abilities of any participant. Additionally, one customer that appeared to have been rude to Number 26 at the grocery store collapsed from a heart attack after exiting the store. Medical professionals arrived on the scene and were unable to resuscitate the customer. It is unclear if this incident is related to the study or purely by coincidence. Number 26 was also recorded practicing his telekinesis in his room, and was able to crush aluminum cans with apparent ease.
The nature of the program’s results changed significantly in the fifth week. Number 2 told his family that he was going to meditate and went into his room and locked the door. After 2 days his family members, after knocking on the door and hearing no response, found it locked, contacted authorities who arrived on the scene and, after breaking in the door, found Number 2 unconscious. He was transported to a local hospital and placed on life support, where he remained in a comatose state for 9 days before vital function stopped and he was declared dead. No injuries or medical issues were discovered during autopsy. The cause of death was declared inconclusive.
Number 7 was the first to exhibit an unforeseen effect. Number 7 was recorded teleporting between rooms in his house. Teleportation was not a known possibility with T-166. Number 7 died after teleporting into a wall which fused his spine and some of his vital organs with the construction materials. A team was dispatched to dispose of the body and cover up the events that had transpired. A death certificate was issued by a doctor associated with the project and no further issues occurred regarding Number 7’s death.
Numbers 1,13, and 17 began exhibiting symptoms of psychosis at this point and were confined to psychiatric wards. Numbers 6, 10, 22, 24, and 30 also began showing symptoms of psychosis but were not confined to psych wards and may not have been noticed by anyone other than researchers in the study. All of these participants ceased taking T-166, which appears to have led to withdrawals which further intensified the psychosis.
During the fifth week, Number 26 was the next to experience an unanticipated effect. One customer at the grocery store where he was working became belligerent with another of the checkers. The customer’s clothing caught fire in the store and he was fatally burned. The store was closed for the remainder of the day. No definitive proof exists, or perhaps I should say existed since all record of Number 26 has been lost anyway, that Number 26 caused this accident, however, Number 26’s self-report that day read, “Did my good deed for the day. Feeling very satisfied.” Pyrokinesis was not one of the known enhancements caused by T-166, nor was it tested for during the initial screening process.
At this point I’m sure that any readers are wondering why we didn’t stop the study. No ethical study would continue when a drug had been shown to cause the kind of dangerous effects that we were seeing. In fact, most studies would have been stopped after the first death, or the second if they had assumed that the first was a fluke.
At several points prior to the fifth week I and several of the other assistants had independently spoken to Dr. Schirmer and requested that the experiment be terminated as the drug’s effects were undoubtedly too volatile to have any legitimate uses. Dr. Schirmer then threatened us and stated the we might have to be terminated if we did not continue with the study. Given that we were working under contract for the government as a highly secret operation I think we all assumed that “termination” did not mean that we would be fired from our job. So the study continued.
Week six was the tipping point. I believe that at this point the effects of the drug were irreversible. Additionally, I am unsure if continued treatment with T-166 had any additional effects. Based on observation it appeared that by week 6 T-166 had created a chain reaction such that the participants’ abilities and the side effects continued to grow even when participants ceased taking T-166.
Number 26 changed the most during the following weeks. Week 6 was the beginning of the end for the study. Number 26’s self-reports continued to indicate that he felt a growing euphoria.
On the second day of week six Number 26’s father began drinking at around 10:30 am, which was not uncommon for him, and continued drinking until Number 26 arrived home. Number 26 got off work at 5 pm and arrived home around 5:20 (exact time unsure since data has been lost) appearing exhausted as usual despite his reports of feeling euphoric. When Number 26 entered the kitchen his father began to speak to him. Number 26 did not respond, clearly recognizing that his father was drunk. His father became increasingly agitated and aggressive, culminating in his throwing an empty beer bottle at his son.
Camera footage clearly showed that the bottle simply stopped midair for a few moments, suspended between Number 26 and his father. The father appeared stunned, although that may have been the results of a drunken stupor. After a moment, the bottle flew back, missing the father by a few inches and shattered against the wall, leaving glass shards embedded deep in the wall. The velocity of the bottle is difficult to determine based on footage, but given that the bottle’s entire return trajectory was a blur on a single frame of the video, the bottle was likely traveling at over 200 mph when it struck the wall
Number 26’s father clearly did not comprehend what had just transpired and he stepped forward to shove Number 26. Number 26 did not move as his father planted his hands on his chest and shoved, but Number 26 remained immobile and his father stumbled back on the impetus of his own shove. Number 26 then reached out and shoved his father, which sent him flying across the room where he crashed into the wall. Number 26 then disappears from the video feed from the kitchen and appears in his room, indicating teleportation. This marks the first time that Number 26 had been recorded teleporting.
Number 26’s mother managed to make her way to the kitchen, and after finding her husband injured she called an ambulance despite the fact that the family couldn’t afford medical care. Number 26’s father was transported to a hospital where he was treated for fractured ribs and vertebrae, as well as a severe concussion and whiplash. Based on the doctor’s diagnosis it seems unlikely that Number 26’s father would have survived his injuries had he not received medical treatment quickly.
The next day, Number 26 drove to the grocery store where he worked. This trip would mark the last time that he would use his car. When he arrived, rather than going in he simply stood in the parking lot staring at the building. After a few minutes of staring, the building erupted into flames. Security camera footage from the parking lot shows that some of the people inside ran to the doors, however the doors remained firmly shut. As with many grocery stores, the doors were glass and several of the people inside attempted to break the glass but their efforts were repelled by the seemingly indestructible doors.
After watching the building burn for a few minutes and watching first responders arrive on the scene, Number 26 got back in his car and returned home. First responders, including firefighters, were unable to open the doors of the building or to break the glass. None of the people inside the store survived.
At this point I want to reiterate that none of the assistants were initially aware of the nature of the study that we were conducting. As far as I know, the true nature of the study was only known to Dr. Schirmer and our contacts in the government. If your security clearance is high enough to read this report, you are probably one of those people. If you are, it is my hope to give you the metaphorical, and perhaps literal, middle finger at the end of this report as you are responsible for the deaths not only of the participants of the study but also of countless victims who had nothing to do with any of it other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. My only consolation is that I think you will pay the price for your error. Unfortunately, the rest of humanity will likely also pay the price for your hubris.
To those who were aware of the nature of the study, it should have been obvious that Number 26 should have been excluded. His file indicates that he had shown obvious signs of misanthropy prior to the beginning of the experiment. While this is not uncommon among retail workers, his file clearly indicated that he would be an extreme liability if given the kind of power that the T-166 granted him. I only say this so that you will realize that everything that is coming is your fault and that you could and should have prevented it, but chose not to.
Number 26 stayed home for the rest of week 6. Video footage shows that he remained in his room and did not even come out to eat or drink. At this point he had stopped consuming T-166. I believe that this marked the beginning of his Ascension phase.
It is not worth the effort of documenting what happened with the rest of the test subjects for the duration of week 6. By the end of week 7 all of the participants except Number 26 were dead.
On the third day of week 7, Number 26 showed up at our lab without warning. The lab is over 1,500 miles from Number 26’s residence, indicating that his capacity for teleportation allows him to travel at least that far. The entrance was guarded, but security footage from the lab showed that when the guards asked to see his ID they collapsed to the floor. Following the incident they were taken to the hospital. They have still not regained consciousness over two and a half weeks later.
It is unclear why Number 26 did not teleport directly into Dr. Schirmer’s room, but after entering the building he walked straight to Dr. Schirmer’s office, despite never having been anywhere in the building except for the testing room, which was on the opposite side of the building.
Dr. Schirmer was reviewing the results of the study so far when Number 26 walked into his office. Security camera footage shows that he jumped out of his seat. The audio recording for the camera, though of low quality, clearly recorded that Number 26 asked Dr. Schirmer about the location of the other participants. Dr. Schirmer stammered something about patient confidentiality. Number 26 grabbed him by the neck and lifted him up, staring into his eyes for a few moments. The camera recorded the following statement by Number 26, and I am quite sure that it is accurate verbatim since I can’t seem to get the memory of it out of my head.
“Dr. Schirmer, there can only be one god left at the end. It’s going to be me.”
Dr. Schirmer then exploded. I mean that quite literally. No more security footage is available from the camera in Dr. Schirmer’s office since it was covered in a splattering of blood and other corporeal particles. No other security cameras showed Number 26 leaving the building.
The next footage of Number 26 occurs approximately 20 minutes later, where he appears inside the home of Number 3 and kills him. Presumably he had already killed Number 1 at this point, but we were unable to retrieve footage of this incident and there will be no footage left now anyway, so footage is a moot point.
From this point onward Number 26 proceeded to kill all surviving participants in the study in their numerical order. Presumably he pulled this data from Dr. Schirmer’s mind somehow, but we failed to record any verified incidents of telepathy or mind reading from the participants in the study so this cannot be confirmed.
Most of the killings were captured on film and I can assure the readers of this report that many of them were stomach-turning. I see no point in recording them here, however I wish these deaths and worse on the people who incited this study.
Readers of this document that do not have adequate security clearance to view it may wonder why we did not terminate the study with Dr. Schirmer’s death. Within 4 hours of his death a number of people in suits showed up and instructed us to proceed with data collection, assuring us that we would continue to receive our paychecks. One of the other assistants refused and a man in a suit shot her in the head where she stood without another word. Several others came in and carried her body out of the room. So the study continued. I hope this may explain some of my unconcealed animosity towards those who organized this study.
As Number 26 continued the killings his body began to give off a faint glow, such that he was visible in several instances where he appeared in darkened rooms. He also began to become slightly translucent. I believe these to be effects of the final phase of T-166’s effects. I have dubbed this phase “Ascension”. It is worth noting that none of the other participants exhibited these symptoms at any point in the study, so Number 26 is the only recorded case.
It was the third day of Week 8 when we made the final sighting of Number 26. A search algorithm flagged a video uploaded to social media as potentially containing footage of Number 26. The video was from a trail cam at night. The trail cam is facing a lake and Number 26 is faintly visible hovering above the water at what is approximately the center of the lake with his arms outstretched and looking upward. We had the video taken down immediately.
I spent the next two days reviewing everything about Number 26, which is why I remember so many of the details in this report. No new data regarding Number 26 was collected after that trail cam footage.
On the sixth morning of the eighth week we came into the office to find all of our data on Number 26 gone. Where the files had been were files titled Ω.z. Extraction of each of these files yielded a text document that read, “I am God.”
There was one exception to this. In the folder where Number 26’s personal information file was kept was a document titled αΩ.txt. This file contained the following text:
“I am the new God, and humanity has reached its end.”
Attempts to retrieve the original contents of the digital files has proven fruitless and all paper files containing data on Number 26 have disappeared.
Having seen Number 26’s nature over the course of the weeks that we have been following him, I believe that this is possibly the worst possible outcome for humanity. He has proven to be extremely misanthropic, and annihilation of all humanity might just be one of the first things on his bucket list as god. We might have finally created the Superman that Zarathustra spoke of, but somehow I don’t think that this is what Nietzsche meant.
I mentioned earlier that there was a reason that I would mention at the end regarding why this was not entirely written in an academic style. Part of the reason is that, before I turn in this official report, I will post it to the internet in its entirety. People deserve to know what’s coming and they deserve to know what the people who organized this experiment have done. Perhaps they will think that it is fiction, but I will have done my part. It’s the least I can do given the hand I had in all this.
I’m not worried about the repercussions. I suspect that regardless of whether I release it I will be silenced for my role in this disaster. Silenced to cover the necks of the people responsible. I don’t even know who they are, my security clearance isn’t high enough to find out, but I can tell you that it goes all the way to the top, maybe even higher than that. So I am releasing this document as a last ‘screw you” to the people in charge.
Honestly I don’t even care about the consequences. Death will probably be better than whatever is coming. I don’t know what to do with this information, but maybe someone smarter than me can put it to use. If you’re one of those people, best of luck to you.
I was never really religious, but now I’m hoping that there really is a real God up there somewhere. If there is, we may see what it looks like when Gods go to war. It wouldn’t be pretty, but at this point I think that’s humanity’s only chance. If not, then this may be the end.