Or something like one. After a little discussion and some arguing, two of my best friends and I have decided to keep a record of what has happened here, posting it on a public site for visibility. We’re in the bathroom during our 8 hours of safe rest(I’ll get there), and I mean we can’t sleep anyways, two of us at least, so what’s the harm?
In case you or someone else… finds us… I’ll give a name, and a description of our physical attributes: My name is Carter Moorhen. I’m a 21 year-old male, Caucasian, wearing a plain white t-shirt and khaki shorts. A little on a rotund side, with brunette hair and brown eyes. The guy sitting beside me with some pretty deep lacerations on his shoulder is 22 year-old Sebastian Huang, a second-generation Southeast Asian who’s beginning to look frighteningly pale. Too bad he’s the most fit out of all of us, since he’s the one that’s out cold. He’s got a mostly blue hoodie on and a pair of black joggers. Dude staying up with me is 21 year-old Quez Johnson, African American, red and black hoodie with black jeans. But don’t tell his ass that.
Seems like I’m done with the easy stuff, I’ll begin with the most regrettable moment of my life, or our lives.
Man, we had just gotten back on campus from a great party, one of those everyone-had-a-good-time-and-no-one-fought kind of parties. Walking back to our dorm bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Quez says I should relay everything from this point on exactly as it happens, in case the police look into this and can find some kind of clue in this shit. Guess I agree.
“Naw bruh, you lying as hell, you saying you almost pulled Freddie’s girl? That man has a ride-or-die for real.” Quez jabbed to my left with a grin, we were all still a little high, couldn’t really escape the smoke even if we wanted to in that place.
Sebastian scoffed, “Bro… I’m tellin’ you, she was all on me man, I had to dip right before Fred came back with more drinks and I nearly shit myself, dude is a behemoth. Gigantic. Monstrous, dog.” He threw his thumb over his shoulder emphatically as we continued down the barely lit walkway, still about five minutes walking distance from our building.
Quez snickered back in disbelief, “Hell naw I need some photographical evidence or some shit.” I cracked up a bit at that one.
“How the fuck was I supposed to take a picture of that shit?”
“With your phone.”
“Oh, so just like with your girl last—.”
“Whoa whoa, hold up ya’ll.” I held my hand out and slowed to a stop in front of a corkboard stand, this paper caught my eye. Tucked behind several other sheets was this blue copy paper, I could make it out by the bottom right corner, which had some text that read: “-,000 opportunity!” It was made visible by a storm that rolled in the night before I guess, and some of the sheets in front of it looked like they were torn or ripped off altogether.
“Take a look at this, holy shit.” I yanked it free from under the other papers, and glanced at the full message, reading aloud as the other two circled me in curiosity:
STATE SPONSORED EVENT!!!
Volunteers wanted for testing of a state-of-the-art facility!
New construction! Rest stop designed to withstand any danger, any emergency!
Contact this number for an opportunity to benefit your community and earn money!
This event requires you stay at the location for 72 hours, equipment and nourishment provided!
A $10,000 opportunity!
Each participant receives the $10,000, tax-free, cash reward!
Further instructions given on site!
“Dude, what?!” Sebastian grabbed the top of the paper and moved it toward himself while looking over my shoulder, squinting, “$10,000 fucking dollars for sleeping in a building?”
I let out a breath in disbelief, “Ay, that’s what it says.”
Quez put his hand on top of his head, furrowing his brow, “Place is gone be crowded as fuck, probably a limit of how many people can be there or somethin’. But, shit, 10 racks is 10 racks so we might as well call them.”
Right there. Right there is where I wish I just listened to my the little voice inside my head telling me it was too good to be true, too perfect, and threw that fucking piece of shit paper in the trash can. But I didn’t, none of us did. We didn’t know, how the fuck could we? And sponsored by the state? It had to be legit, those places were funded by tax dollars.
Sebastian looked up at me, “Dude, this money right here is like a godsend or some shit, like that’s nearly the exact amount in loans I’ll have when I graduate, are you kidding?”
“Hell yeah,” I smiled, “and Quez, your little brother man, didn’t he need dental work?”
Quez shrugged and gave a smile back, “Yeah, root canal. Shit, I say we do it.”
I looked at Sebastian, who was reading over the paper again, and pulled out my phone. “Hey, fuck it,” I chimed.
Dialing the number, it rang for a minute, then someone picked up. Pretty official-sounding, they answered, “How can I help you?”
My friends looked on excitedly as I gave a nod.
“Hey so, this ad for the rest stop event is it like, an actual thing? Like we can get money for staying there?”
“Yes.”
“Oh! Cool man, cool, well are there any open spaced for three people? Me and my two friends would like to participate.”
“Yes, there is room.”
“Awesome!” I gave a quick thumbs-up to Quez and Sebastian who gave each other a nod and dap-up.
“So… like where is it? And when? Any details we need to know about like, I know it said there would be info at the place but… any preliminary stuff?”
“No, all will be provided. Details of the location and time will be provided via text-message after this phone call. Your state and community thanks you for volunteering.” Just like that, the call was over.
Like he said, my phone got a notification stating the exact time we should be there, and where this shithole is.
“A week from today, fellas.” I said, lowering my phone into my pocket.
Sebastian lifted his hands a bit in satisfaction, “Ay, I could do it right now to tell you the truth, but I’ll let my work know. You guys should do the same.”
Quez had his phone in his hand and a grin on his face as he was texting someone, “Hey you know I’m already on that shit.”
Afterward, we went on, separating at our dorm building to go to our individual rooms, elated at this chance to get a little ahead in life, talking about what we’d do with the spare cash. It was good, then. Seriously. How the hell could it turn out like this?
A week passed, the day had come. We all met in the parking lot outside the dorm building as we planned, and headed to the location.
Sebastian hopped in the back, “Dude, I was not expecting a 3 hour drive today but for 10k I’d probably ride waaay more.”
Quez buckled up in front, “Shit you ain’t lyin’, where we gone sleep at, though? They got like cots or somethin’?”
I started off, looking up a bit in thought, “Uh… I dunno, sleeping bags or something, maybe?”
“Aw well, I got blankets and stuff anyway just in case. Hey Sebastian you grab the Switch and all that?”
“Yeah,” Sebastian peered through his bag to double-check, “got the Switch, couple of controllers, cards, monopoly… enough for three days I think.”
Quez nodded and I continued down the road, nothing eventful happened, we had our last good time.
Eventually, we reached it. A massive building by rest stop standards, with a large campus littered with gazebos and park benches.
“Damn… “ Quez commented as he observed the size.
“Yeah, for real,” I said, presumably the same amount of awe-struck as Sebastian whistled in admiration.
“Where’s everybody at, though?” Quez noticed, moving his head to get better angles of the park.
Sebastian shrugged, “Yeah I don’t know, you’d think there’d be like… rows of people tryna get at this money but it looks like… we’re the only car here.”
We all stepped out, a bit apprehensive at this discovery, but gathered our things and opened the big glass doors that led into the lobby. Place was incredible for a first-time viewer, vending machines to the left, information room to the right with big glass panes and a door leading into the room, huge bathrooms on the left side with what looked to be security grates that’d you see in front of closed mall stores. Everything was so… pristine, so new.
The door closed behind us with a fssss…
Quez looked back with a smirk, “What, they got this shit like… depressurizing or some shit?”
I looked around the lobby, it was dead quiet besides our footsteps and the occasional comment of how crazy this placed looked. Then my eyes met with a single piece of copy paper presented on the front desk, I picked it up and read it.
Welcome, and thank you for volunteering!
There are a couple of basic things you should know, as you read this the event has already begun.
Every night at 11pm the men’s bathroom gate will open, providing you a safe place of rest for exactly 8 hours. You must manually close the gate again. At 7am this gate will open once more.
Everything you will need for your 72 stay is in this bathroom’s janitor closet, right beside the entrance.
The facility was designed to shield individuals from all disasters, but it is new, so some things will not work exactly as intended 100% of the time as unforeseen issues arise. Should a maintenance problem occur, there is a booklet detailing basic repair processes in the janitor’s closet.
Remember: You are not defenseless.
Stay together.
You are not alone.
My heart drooped a bit. What? My brow furrowed and I couldn’t really fathom what danger we were in at that moment. If anything, I didn’t believe it, or I didn’t want to. My mind wandered into the sorts of things this message could mean, and none of them were all that great. I looked to my friends, each of whom were perusing the lobby, Quez looking at the food in the vending machines, and Sebastian looking into the information center.
“Yo… guys, come here, seriously.” They both turned around and exchanged glances, then walked over as I presented them the paper.
Sebastian leaned against the desk, “Yeah, uh… is it telling us that we’re a group, we’re not alone, so like… any intruders or some shit we can fight off?”
I shrugged, rereading the page, “I… don’t know, I guess. Weird way to put that though, right?”
Quez shook his head, “Nah, nah, I do not like that at all, like.. at all bruh, fuck they mean ‘You are not alone.’, we the only motherfuckers in here, ain’t no cars, ain’t no other people I’ve seen.”
Sebastian held out his hand a bit, “Dude, chill, like I said I think it’s referring to us.”
A look of deep confusion swept across my face, “How did they know it was a group, though?”
Quez’s face twisted a little, trying to come up with an explanation, “Shit… I mean if you posted a ad for $10,000 you don’t think more than one person would show up?”
I ran my hand through my hair, “Yeah… that makes sense. Come here for a sec, Quez.” He walked over, and I gestured for him to turn around as I put the paper into a pocket in his bag.
“More importantly, it says we’re ‘safe’ in the bathroom at 11, cause of those big ass grates in front of the entrances? I mean there aren’t any other doors or anything over there, but safe from what?”
Sebastian glanced behind him at the grates, “Anything? Everything? I’m not exactly sure… bu- whoa, the fuck?”
I turned to meet where he was looking now, to the right of the bathroom, out of the big glass doors on the other side of the building opposite of where we came in.
Movement.
Far away, but still, something was moving at the far side of the park, near one of the gazebos. It was brown, hulking.
We all had our focus locked in onto this… whatever it was. Looking at each other with concern, Quez made the first move toward that side of the building. Slowly, Sebastian and I followed. He reached the doors first, and… I’ve never seen this look on his face, ever. Eyes wide like saucers, mouth open in total disbelief in what he was seeing. When we reached the doors, we knew why.
It was a bear. A brown bear, like a grizzly. But, Jesus… it was walking around like a person and its skin… sagging, dragging behind it like whatever was inside didn’t fill it out quite right. It made its way to the trash can under the gazebo, looking inside as the meat hanging around its form swayed with every motion.
We were stunned, never seeing anything like this, nothing to prepare us for some shit like this. Or what came next.
It looked at us.
Between the sun going down and the distance, mixed with the muddiness of the time that passed between the first sighting and our observing it, it was hard to tell. But it did.
“Holy fucki—.” Sebastian grabbed Quez’s and my arm, and bolted to the bathroom before we could even entertain the idea of staying any longer. The motion seemed to awaken Quez, and he turned to the grate, and tried to pull it down.
“Fuck, FUCK.” Quez was pulling with everything he had, all of his weight. It wouldn’t budge.
I stammered back to life, “I-It’s not 11 yet, man we can’t fucking close it.”
Sebastian was panting, staring at the open entrance to the bathroom, “We got to get the fuck out of here, what the fuck was that? Huh? What kind of shit was that? We’re dead if we stay in here, there’s only one fucking way out.” He was looking at me and gesturing at the entrance.
I looked back, “And what the fuck are we supposed to do about that fucking thing out there?”
In response, he gripped his head with both his hands. “Man, I don’t know but we are not staying here, we can’t.”
Quez had given up, and was approaching the corner we had to round to get inside the bathroom, I could tell he was trying to muster the courage to look around it.
“Yo, Quez, don’t do that shit.”
Sebastian walked up behind him, “Hear anything…?”
“Fuck no, I—.” He was forced into silence.
Scratching, from the left. The doors. They both ran backwards as silently as they could, nearly tripping over each other. We all ended up huddled in a corner, under the last sink. All we could do was sit, and listen.
Scratch, scratch.
Sebastian was crying.
Scratch.
Quez was silent, hardly blinking as he stared at the entrance.
Bang, bang, bang.
We waited.
Silence.
We waited more.
Silence.
Hours must have passed, we sat there, unmoving. Paralyzed. The room grew darker and darker.
It was pitch black. We stayed silent.
Scratch…
Creak… BANG.
It was in. We all knew it.
Sebastian was crying even more, I couldn’t see him at this point, but I heard his shuffling. Headed toward the stalls, trying to crawl under one I think.
Skin slapping against linoleum, closer, closer, then on tile. It was here.
Sebastian seemed to realize this as he couldn’t control his cries. Quez and I stayed silent.
Then… it cried. This thing, it cried. The exact same way Sebastian was crying, every hiccup, every sniffle. Each and every sound emulated, but it was as if someone had pitched it down, and forced something without human vocal cords to try and make human noises. I felt Quez squeeze my wrist.
The meaty footsteps rang throughout the room.
I could hear Sebastian speak in between cries, “Please… please… “
Another voice from right in front of his, “Please… please… “
Sebastian could no longer hold anything together, he was bawling uncontrollably, pleading, “No… no… NO! Please, no… !”
Again, repeated, “No… no… no… please, no… “
A stall opened.
Sebastian held his breath, then.
Silence.
Then, a scream, Quez and I jumped. Sebastian. What the fuck was happening to him? Bloodcurdling, instinctual, I’ve never heard someone scream like that.
Suddenly, the scream stopped, Sebastian was still alive, I could tell by his whimpering.
Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap, SLAM.
It was gone.
I didn’t understand what happened. He had him, I thought my friend was going to die. Then Quez got out his phone and showed me, 11:00.
We got up in a flash, going back toward the entrance fumbling for the light, eventually we found it. Closing the grate, I turned around as my eyes adjusted, revealing the results of that encounter. Blood splattered the ground of one of the middle stalls, and I saw Sebastian’s legs. Quez and I looked around the open stall door.
Sebastian… my god, my friend, was covered in his own blood, a wound on his shoulder gaping and giving way to more.
Quez immediately dashed into the janitor’s closet, and I heard him rummage through it as all I could do was look at Sebastian, at his chest rise and fall slowly, I knew he didn’t have much longer.
Quez came back quickly, a first-aid kit in hand.
“Fuck are you doing, man? Help me! Move him to the floor, shit!”
I snapped out of it using his words, and helped lift Sebastian to the floor, where he lays now.
We think he’s stabilized, for now. We haven’t talked much, except to discuss this post. I guess we’ll discuss a plan for escaping this hell later. What did we do to deserve this shit? What the fuck is going on? Everything, everything has changed so fast and I don’t know what to do.
I look at Quez right now, and he just has this look on his face, eyes still wide, staring at nothing. I only hope I can gather enough of my own strength to match his, maybe then we’ll get out of this. I just don’t know.
I just don’t know.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings.