Hello, my name is Gael Daly. I am a former deputy of the New Troy Sheriff Office. I don’t know what efforts have been made to save New Troy, Utah, but it’s too late for us. By the time you have finished reading, the last survivors and I will all be dead. At this time please, for your own safety, cease any rescue attempts being made. You do not want to release what has taken New Troy.
Our last wish was to spread our final story as far and wide as we can in hopes the outside world may know what happened to us. We don’t want to be dramatized into some unsolvable mystery where nothing more than some old photos of us show on the screen. We are real people and we want to be remembered with reverence and dignity. There are two others with me, each of us will tell what we saw during the day the sky went black. We give you our stories and our final days so we may be lost but not forgotten.
I will start it myself. Gael Daly, born of Irish immigrants (with a name like this who could have guessed, right?) Sean and Clara Daly. My mom and pop moved to the states near the tail end of The Troubles. I was born a natural American citizen but my pops didn’t want me to lose my roots. They didn’t know how to do much more than farm, so that’s what they did. Pops would spend sunrise to sunset out in the fields while mom and I herded sheep. We converted to The Church of Latter Day Saints, or Mormons as they are more commonly known. No, not the polygamy ones, those are the FLDS and they live more in the four corners evading the law. Growing up I always had an affinity for playing the good guy. I never found it boring, I just like doing the right thing and enjoy helping people. That’s why I joined the New Troy Sheriff Office. That is the man I am, or maybe the man I was.
You aren’t reading for my personal memoirs though, I already know. You want to know what happened the day the sky went black. I don’t blame you, I would wonder too. In short, Hell came to Earth and swallowed our whole town.
I was on duty that day. April 24th, the last day I remember. I was performing some good ol’ community bonding, just walking down the street, offering my help where I could. Not much crime happens around these parts so instead I make myself more of a handyman most days. Edith, a kind old woman who was the residential grandma, waved me over. Her car had hit a nail and now she had a flat tire. I popped open her trunk and got to changing the tire when it happened. It was like a sheet was pulled over our heads. In one great line, darkness slowly enveloped the entire sky. The sun was gone, the moon was gone, stars were gone, everything. I remember thinking to myself “This is exactly how I imagined outer darkness would look.” and I had no clue at the time how accurate I was.
The strangest thing of all when the darkness enveloped us, was that for a while nothing else changed. The temperature didn’t even drop. Street lights turned on, homes and businesses lit up, it was like we all subconsciously agreed this was just an unexpected solar eclipse that would pass any moment. Edith was as puzzled as I was, but I soon got her tire changed and she was on the road again. I kept checking my radio, expecting something to explain this, but nothing was coming through. I decided to return to the office and try to get some answers. Along the way multiple friends and neighbors questioned me, but I had no comfort to offer them.
At the office phones were in a frenzy and our poor dispatchers were overwhelmed with the amount of calls coming in. Sheriff Gaberiel Brady, Gabe as we all called him, had been trying to make contact with any of the neighboring towns for the past half hour.
“Can’t one of these lazy fuckers pick up a god damn phone?” Gabe tore the old phone from his desk and threw it across the room. “For now, we just tell everyone to stay calm and remain indoors. If any emergencies arise, we send Gael or Sherry out.” Gabe looked up from his desk and finally noticed me standing in the doorway. “Is that good with you Son?”
“All good with me Sir. No incidents on my way back, so I think other than missing the Sun we are fine.” I took a deep breath as Gabe strode on up and clapped me on the shoulder.
“Good son, very good. You’re going to be looking at a promotion after this mess.” He roared with laughter and everyone in the office felt a little better. Gabe was your stereotypical western cowboy lawman and he loved every bit of it. From his horseshoe mustache to his 10 gallon hat he was born to a sheriff, granted born a little late.
“Sherry! Are you still here?” Gabe shouted up the stairs.
“Yes Sir! No luck on the internet though. It’s odd. I can send things, but I haven’t received anything. Things will load, but nothing is older than 3:19 today. You think this might be affecting more than just us?” Sherry shouts down to us from her workstation. Gabe made our offices upstairs so he didn’t have to walk up and down the stairs every day.
“I have no clue. I certainly hope not. Can you get any messaging to work? Email, Phone, hell I’ll even let you tweet it.”
“So far no good. Let me try… Debbie! Check your email!” Sherry shouted as she rushed down the stairs and ran up to Debbie’s side.
“Oh! Okay.” Debbie hung up her current call and turned to her computer. Opening her email there was one new message. “Test” from Sherry.
“Yeah! It went through Sherry!” Debbie beamed up at Sherry. The first good news all day.
“Awesome! Try replying to it. I want to see if I can receive anything.” Sherry ran back up to her office.
“Okay. Sent! Did you get it Sherry?” Debbie shouted upstairs. It was odd hearing her yell, she’s pretty shy and more likely to mutter than anything. I could feel myself smiling at her new found courage.
“I got it too! Emails work boss! I’ll start sending one to every PD I can think of. Just send Gael out for whatever until I get done. Somebody is going to respond eventually.” Sherry was officially glued to her seat and there was no arguing with her now. With a sigh Gabe turned to me.
“Think you can handle things by yourself for a bit, son?”
“Sure thing Sir. Leave it to me.” I went over to sit by Debbie and Shawn as they continued to take calls. Once one of those calls was a true call for help, instead of a question, I was going to be ready to go.
“I’m heading towards the edge of town. Stay on radio, I’ll let you know if I can find the point where this thing ends.” With a pat on the back Gabe strode out to his cruiser, flicked the lights on, and drove off into the distance. That was the last we ever saw of him.
It didn’t take much longer before things really started kicking off. We got a call from Jason about Edith. Jason had been Edith’s neighbor and volunteer caretaker for quite some time now. Under normal circumstances we would be calling him if she ever needed any help.
“Hey, I think all the stress has been too much for Edith. She’s been standing outside of my door knocking ever since she came home. I tried asking her what she needs but she won’t answer, she just keeps knocking. She’s being really strange and I’m worried she might hurt herself. I don’t think I can handle this alone.” Faint knocking could be heard in the background of the call. Rhythmic, almost like clockwork. Knock-knock-knock-knock. Pause. Knock-knock-knock-knock. Pause. Knock-knock-knock-knock.
I didn’t even wait for Debbie to respond. I’d just been with Edith, she’d been a little unnerved but seemed fine earlier. I was probably the best chance of getting her whatever help she needed without injury. I drove cautiously through town. The street lights seemed to light a majority of the road up, but anything to the side was shrouded in darkness. Even living here all my life, I had to use my searchlight on the houses to find Jason’s. When I did, Edith was still there, still knocking.
“Edith, are you alright? What’s going on?” I made my presence known so that I didn’t startle her. Last thing we needed was for me to give her a heart attack on top of whatever is going on. Edith turned slowly towards me with an unnaturally wide smile on her face.
“Good Deputy! I’m so glad you came. I need to feed my cat but I can’t find any of the lights in my house. Will you please help me?” Despite her smile her speech was lacking in emotion, an odd thing for the usually bubbly and kind old woman. It was almost as odd as her request. She doesn’t own a cat or even a dog. She is allergic and far beyond the physical capability to take care of a pet.
“Right! Your cat. Sweet flufferkins. She must be hungry, let’s go.” I followed behind Edith as she waddled back towards her house. Jason stared at me through the window and I gave him a reassuring nod as we walked past. Edith’s car was in the driveway, headlights off but still running. She walked past the car with no hesitation, into the already wide open front door to her house. I quickly turned the car off and pocketed her keys before walking inside after her. I tried flicking the light switch but nothing was coming on. Strange, all the other houses had their electricity working. I turned on my flashlight instead and scanned the room. In the corner of the living room I saw something scurry away from the light and Edith slammed the door behind me.
I spun around fast enough to catch a glimpse of her before she was on top of me. Black tendrils had replaced her arms and sprouted from her back. Her eyes were completely blackened as well and she screeched in my face as she wrapped her tendrils around my neck and arms. I tried to reach for my gun, my taser, anything I could get my hands on. The only thing I found were the keys that fell from my pocket, and they would have to work. I jabbed the keys into the side of the creature, angering it as I felt the grip on my neck tighten. The annoyance proved it’s worth though, as it loosened its grip on my left arm so that it could pry the keys out of my right hand. Breaking free my left arm from its grip I was able to pull my gun and shoot directly into the chest of the demon. (I don’t know if they are actual demons or not. That’s just what it reminded me of.)
The thing went limp, but I heard scurrying heading my way. An inky blob jumped on my face while I was still on the ground and tried to ram itself down my throat. I was able to free my right arm and catch it before it slithered down. I slammed the thing into the ground over and over again until it stopped struggling. Finally, I was able to get up and recover my flashlight. I looked over the bodies, the blob was unrecognizable, I didn’t know for sure if that was a result of my slamming it to death or if it was born that ugly. Edith, or whatever it was, left a puddle beneath their body the same shade as the black blood leaking from the blob. That’s when I knew for sure the two were connected.
I didn’t have time to step outside before chaos erupted. Screams and slams filled the air. Looking all around I could see houses going dark, and then neighbors I’d known for years would calmly emerge and walk towards the next lit house. Others were climbing the street lamps and smashing them out. A few had noticed my flashlight beam hit them and did not take kindly to it. They began to run my way and I looked around me for anyone else who was still sane. Jason’s door had already been kicked in and I could hear no struggle. Ted, who lived on the other side of Edith, was busy smashing the lights on my patrol cruiser. I was alone in this.
I quickly grabbed Edith’s keys from under her demon’s corpse and jumped in her car. I barely had time to lock the doors before the neighbors slammed themselves against the car. They punched and kicked furiously at the windows as I started the car, but their attention diverted to the headlights once I flicked the lights on. They hated light above all else. I slammed into reverse and drove over a couple of inky speed bumps before shifting into drive and flooring the gas. I made my best guess at the direction I came from, trying to get back to the police station and tell them what’s going on. At this point I didn’t know if it would make a difference. How did they multiply so fast? Edith tried to be subtle, but now they must have enough that they feel they can be blatant about their attack and there’s nothing we can do. I guess in the end they were right about that assumption.
On my way back, a woman jumped in front of my car screaming for me to stop. Lilith, a punk rock style woman who, well, I’ll let her introduce herself. She might not want to be depicted by the “Goody two shoes cop” as she calls me. Anyways, even though she was carrying a battle axe, she didn’t try to bust out my headlights, so I unlocked the doors and let her in. There was no time to chat as I noticed she had pursuers and they were rapidly approaching us. I slammed on the gas again and drove us to the station. I parked blocking the station’s doors with the car and Lilith and I scrambled to get inside. The station was dark, and I feared the worst until I heard Sherry shouting.
“What in the hell are you doing Gael?” Sherry came storming down the steps to inspect the doors. “What is the matter with you? Driving like a bat out of hell. That’s not even your cruiser! Why are you driving Edith’s car? This isn’t a repair shop.”
“Sherrel shut the fuck up! Do you have no clue what’s going on out there? People are being killed, or possessed, or replaced, or I don’t fucking know. Bad shit is happening!” Sherry was taken aback by my outburst. I had never yelled at her before.
“What is going on? What did you get into?” Sherry wiped her finger on my shirt and examined the liquid.
“Blood of some sort, I think.” I respond and Sherry frantically wipes her finger off on a clean part of my uniform.
“Ms. Officer Sherry, there’s something that came with the darkness. These little, like, black jelly things. They try to crawl into people, and when they get in they take over or they become a copy. The people they get start going after light, and anyone who is left in the light.” Lilith backed me up.
“We have to send out a warning!” Sherry was about to run back upstairs when I caught her.
“It might be too late. I don’t think we can handle this without more people. Have you heard back from anyone outside of town yet?”
“Not yet. Gabe just got back a bit ago. I overheard him ask Debbie to come help him look for some old maps.” Sherry pointed towards the shut doors of Gabe’s office. My blood ran ice cold as I came to a realization.
“If you didn’t know what’s going on. Why did you turn the lights off down here?” Sherry gives me a quizzical look.
“I didn’t. I figured you two turned the lights off to keep attention away from us.” I unholstered my gun and approached Gabe’s office.
“Gale?” Sherry whispered but I cut her off. Slowly and cautiously I opened the door. My light scanned over the room until it fell upon Debbie’s body lying upon Gabe’s desk. Her eyes were wide with horror and black liquid oozed out of her mouth. A large puddle lay on the floor beneath her and as the light hit the puddle it began to take shape. In the span of a few seconds it had transformed from a puddle of black ooze to a perfect physical replica of Debbie. The creature turned our way but I shot it before it could make its move.
Right after taking the shot I felt a linebacker level tackle knock me to the ground once again. Gabe stood over me growling as I tried to fight my way back to my feet. His body was much stronger than Edith’s demon though, and he quickly had me pinned. I thought I was finished until I watched his head be split in two. He went limp and I was able to push him off as Lilith freed her axe from the demon’s skull. Sherry turned the light on in the room and we were allowed to breathe a short sigh of relief as no other monsters were in with us. Our relief was short lived, as upon checking on Debbie it was clear she was truly dead.
“What happened to Shawn?” I ask Sherry.
“Well, the calls stopped coming in all of a sudden, so he went to check on the phone lines.” Sherry’s tone dropped as unspoken understanding fell on all of us that Shawn was likely already gone as well. This was it. This is all that is left of us. Before any of us could ask what to do next, we heard knocking on the window of the front office.
“Hey. I think I found what is wrong with the phones. Can someone come out here and help me fix them?” Just like Edith, this demon had Shawn’s voice but couldn’t mimic his emotion.
“What do you see wrong out there Shawn?” I played along.
“The phone line is cut. It must have been an animal. I can fix it if someone comes out to help me. Come help.” The replica continued knocking, just like Edith. Knock-knock-knock-knock.
“Is there something wrong with the front door bud?” I kept trying to distract it as we crept back towards the stairway.
“It won’t open. I think someone locked it. Can you come and open it so we can fix the phone lines?” We were almost up the stairs, but the stress in Lilith had been welled up for too long and it finally burst.
“Or it’s because there’s a fucking car in front of the door you stupid freak! You’re a fake fucking freak and we all know it! Leave us the hell alone!” Lilith’s outburst stunned the demon. It ceased knocking, and for a second I thought her yelling had actually convinced it to give up and leave. Instead, the creature let out a guttural howl that could be heard reciprocated from all around.
I slammed the door shut and began stacking desks against it as we heard glass shatter down below. We all backed away from the door as our barricade shook from the force of those things slamming themselves against the door. They slammed as hard as a battering ram, over and over, for so long that I was convinced the door would just shatter into splinters and they would come crawling through. After a few hours, they suddenly stopped, and all was silent for just a moment. Then the knocking returned. Knock-knock-knock-knock.
My name is Sherry, also a deputy in New Troy’s Sheriff’s Office. I read over what Gael has already written and I don’t know how much to add. I don’t exactly feel like talking about myself or my background. I’m nothing special, just a girl good at solving things. I guess this is a bit too much for me to solve though.
While Gael was gone I looked for more information to figure out what exactly was happening. That was all before I learned about the body snatchers but maybe something about the data here can help people understand what happened to us. I’m hoping at the least it may present some warning signs to prevent this from happening anywhere else. If you want my professional opinion about what to do if you think a town is being taken over, I’d probably suggest nuking it until nothing is left.
We don’t have a clue how far this stretches, but considering the highway that runs through town I imagine if anyone could get in or out help would have come by now. I already know we had trouble reaching people remotely, I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a physical barrier as well. Geographically, as far as I can tell we have not moved. We haven’t been transported to another dimension, we haven’t entered some afterlife, we’re simply held captive by… something.
On the day the Sun was taken, it was much like how Gael described. It was as if we were living in a cartoon day/night cycle, where there is no sunset or fading of light. It was just like the black wave consumed all the light in the sky over us. No stars, no moon, no sun. Even though we lack sunlight, the temperature hasn’t shifted. The temperature still changes, but it’s not hotter or cooler than before. We also follow a day/night cycle when it comes to temperature, even being devoid of sunlight. My computer still tracks the time, and when it says it is night the temperature is significantly cooler. When it is supposed to be morning we can feel the heat returning as if the sun was still rising with us. All of this leads me to believe we are trapped under whatever has taken us hostage. It’s almost like it just threw a giant blanket over our heads.
As for the body snatchers, I don’t know what to make of them. They obviously don’t like light. Unless being directly threatened, they will make it their first priority to seek out and destroy light. That makes me wonder if our captor works to shield them or if they are even a part of the giant blanket in the sky. It seems odd that a creature that dislikes light would also use itself to shield smaller parts of it from life, so I think the two are separate. Maybe if we were able to cut open or even kill the giant blanket we would be able to beat these things. That’s just a pipedream though. There’s nothing in our town large enough to hurt that thing. We would need the military to have a hope. I fear us three have simply all run out of hope.
We lasted a good while though. I never thought I would appreciate the day that Sheriff Gabe made Gale and me haul all the emergency relief supplies upstairs for storage so that he could turn the storage closet into the “Sheriff’s Office Arsenal”. I’m pretty sure if I could get down there now that room would still be empty. Gabe was such a goofball with visions of grandeur. I miss him. I miss Debbie, I wish I had been paying more attention that day. Maybe I could have saved her. I miss Shawn, I wish I went out with him to check on the lines. I wish so much that things had gone differently. I wish that I could have saved just one person.
That’s the only reason why I agreed to write in this. I hope what little I was able to learn can help save someone in the future. If I even save one person that’s enough. I just don’t want to die without doing something. I don’t want to die without a reason.
Wow, and here I thought I’d be the doom and gloom of this little diary of Gaels. I’m Lilith, the last survivor of what I have to imagine is one of the worst apocalypse scenarios in the tier list. I was hoping for something a little fun at least. Zombies, machine uprising, hell I would have even settled for nuclear fallout. I guess it at least beats climate change.
I’m going to take a time out to redeem Ms. Sherry for a second here. She’s being too hard on herself and she can’t tell me no, so let’s get her backstory first. Sherry is your typical go-getter. She was blessed with good looks and a functioning brain, which made her homecoming queen every year in high school and prom queen of course. She was also Valedictorian, which I know our graduating class wasn’t the largest but is still an impressive achievement. She was born to do great things, which I think is why she’s so down right now. It’s fair enough though, she didn’t deserve this. I mean, none of us deserved this I would say, but she especially didn’t deserve this.
As for myself, thank you so much for asking, I was the opposite of Sherry. I’m not in the prep group, I was the goth girl who was SO above that and I gave Sherry a lot of shit growing up. I myself, was a little shit I will admit, and while I haven’t grown out of my “rebellious phase” I have grown. Getting to know Sherry now makes me wish I hadn’t been so hostile to her all this time. Who would have thought she was a total softie?
Getting on with the point, I watched firsthand as those jello sludge blobs took my family from me. I was in my room, playing a game that is unnecessary to title, when the blackness swallowed the sky. At first I thought it was pretty cool but it quickly lost its luster when things started going sideways. I could hear knocking on the door and it was irritating as I tried to play so I yelled down to my dad to go answer it. I heard the door open and shut and I got back to playing. About 20 minutes had passed since the knock and I was curious who had bothered us. I went downstairs to try and find my mom but she had left the house too. Being alone in the house, in the pitch black, kind of put me on edge. I decided in case anyone wanted to try and break in to go grab my axe. I got a replica of the axe Kratos uses in the new God of War. Damn. That sequel was supposed to come out soon too. Why couldn’t this shit happen after I got to play that?
Anyways, thoroughly creeped out but feeling a little better with my axe, I went to go look for my mom and dad. The streets did not help with the creepy feeling. They were completely empty, absolutely quiet, not a soul in sight. I shouted down the street for them only for them to call me from the neighbors house across the road. I asked what was taking them so long and they just told me to come inside. The house was pitch black inside and so I wasn’t going in there for a million bucks. I tried to tell my dad that when my mom chimed in.
“We got you a puppy darling. Please, come in so you can see it!” My mother spoke in a sing-songy voice which she wouldn’t be caught dead using. Red flag #1. She was my role model and I was her mini-me. We were two punks through-and-through and we were way too close to need to pretend to be otherwise with each other. Red flag #2, who buys their 24 year old daughter a puppy without even mentioning it or talking about it first?
“Mom. Why don’t you and dad bring it over to our house instead?”
“Sweetie, don’t be difficult and get over here now.” My dad insisted and so stupidly I complied.
I got up to the porch before my better judgment got a hold again. I couldn’t see inside at all. Things were just too weird. I began to call for my parents again when my dad came lunging out the door at me. I jumped back but he managed to grab my ankle and I could hear my mom and the neighbor running for me as well. I held the axe up and looked down at my dad. I didn’t know it wasn’t him, so I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him. Despite popular belief, I loved my parents. They had always done their best in raising me and even when we would disagree we would sit down and talk things out. They never so much as spanked me. If it was a zombie apocalypse the answer would have been clear, there’s no coming back, aim for the head. I didn’t expect that when I was in a life or death situation with my dad he would still look normal. Just acting weird didn’t mean he was gone for good. I slipped my shoe off instead and retreated back towards the street. Looking around I saw more people leaving their houses, eyes fixed on me. They were threatening to encircle me, so I did the only thing I could.
I ran, hopping over fences and twisting and turning just like the time when I was 16 and Officer Dandy pulled me over. I had a couple grams of weed on me and so I panicked and bolted. Never ran so fast in my life until now. I guess I should give Gael a break about that too. He was pretty cool with me when he caught me. He didn’t charge me with anything, he said he just wanted to let me know my tail lights were out and to get the bulbs changed. He did take my weed though and that pissed me off. Unlike on that night, I couldn’t have been more glad to see him when I saw the car speeding down the road. I wasn’t the most thrilled seeing Gael was the driver, but when I thought about it at least I knew he wasn’t going to hurt me. In the end he really does have a heart of gold despite being a cop.
All things said, I’m glad we had our time together. Even with it being just us three, we had some good times. Never before would I have ever guessed I’d say being locked in with two cops would be a good time, but I guess the apocalypse really does change you. I really love these two now. I don’t think I would have made it this long with any other duo. I never really cared before, but now I hope there is an afterlife. I hope it treats Sherry and Gael well, and if I’m lucky I’ll get to be there with them.
This is the end for us though, we would rather go on our own terms than become one of those things. With us gone, you can forget about New Troy. You must leave it undisturbed forever.
We three swear that what we have documented here is true. We leave you with our final thoughts, and one final warning. Do not try to save New Troy, UT. Whatever is left inside, it is not us. It is not human.