The Rules We Follow at a Paranormal Army Base in the Desert

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome Weirdos. I'm Darren Marler and this is Weird Darkness.
Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lower
the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained.
Coming up in this episode, it's a creepy pasta I

(00:30):
narrated years ago that has become a fan favorite. It's
a story from David Pointer entitled Simply the Twelve Rules.
If you're new here, welcome to the show. And while
you're listening, be sure to check out Weirddarkness dot Com,
from merchandise, my newsletter, to connect with me on social
media and more. Now, bult your doors, lock your windows,

(00:53):
turn off your lights, and come with me into the
Weird Darkness The Twelve Rules by David Pointer. Rule number one,

(01:32):
don't stray from the installations access roads. I spent a
lot of time doing contract work for the Army. They
contract a hell of a lot of mechanic work out
to civilians. Saves on overhead, I guess, but that means
I'll often be driving out into obscure training ranges out
in the middle of nowhere to unmess up a mission

(01:54):
critical vehicle or piece of equipment that can't be easily
brought back into the shop. It could take an hour
or more just to get out to some of these
places that these guys and goals more and more these days,
break their A million dollar toys. Most of the time,
the job is routine. Spend an hour or more getting
to the site, do an assessment, fix it if I

(02:15):
can or get an M eighty eight out there. If
I can't, head back to the shop, do the paperwork.
Call it a day. At least that's how it went
before they transferred me out to a certain well known
installation in the California desert. Right off the bat, I
felt like I was being punished. The folks I met
in the shop one day. They were nice enough on

(02:37):
first blush if a bit coy about the command climate,
but they chided me for not knowing any of the
rumors about the base and proceeded to tell me a
menagerie of what amounted to ghost stories. They were just
messing with a new guy, I thought, one guy, Mikey.
He even put on an Oscar winning performance as he
took me aside and tried to tell me about a

(02:58):
bunch of unwritten rules and things to watch out for
building upon what the other tall taills the folks in
the shop were weaving, and then in ominous tones, he
told me about the previous mechanic whose spot I was filling. Yeah,
he went missing when responding to a false call. No
one else heard it over the radio, but he recorded
it and went out. He should have known better. The

(03:21):
unit reporting the call doesn't exist, and the training range
was vacant. I we have no idea why he went
out there. He looked down sadly. We only know that
we found this truck buried in a sand burm about
three days later. No sign of him or how his
vehicle could have wound up buried like that. Just be careful.

(03:43):
Things get weird out here. I rolled my eyes and
shrugged it off. Talk about commitment to a prank. A
few days later, I was still settling in and went
on to my first two job call. It was well pasted,
one hundred degrees out and both training areas I had
to hit were at the extreme eastern edge of the base.

(04:04):
As luck would have it, my utility vehicle did not
have working air conditioning either. Thankfully, The first job was
an easy, if time consuming fix. After packing up and
getting ready to head to the second site. I was
required to report my time, position and estimated arrival at
the next site. I thought to myself, I could take

(04:25):
the main roads the long way around all the ranges,
following procedure, and in doing so avoid entering an active
training area. Or I could take a short cut across
a training area and cut forty minutes off of my
transit time to the next job. Since I knew the
training area between me and my next call had actually
been vacated that morning, and the heat was brutal, I

(04:48):
decided to take the shortcut. I drove for what felt
like hours in the intense heat. Under those conditions, they
often say your eyes start playing tricks on you, and
they are not wrong. Strange, distorted forms appeared off in
the distance, only to fade to nothing as I'd drive by.
For miles and miles this went on. Then all of

(05:11):
a sudden, I was brought out of my trance by
a form that didn't dissipate, breaking one of Mikey's silly
cardinal rules. I pulled off the road to have a
look and see if I could help. As I neared,
I could see clearly that it was an old jeep
stuck in the sand. It seemed like the kind of
jeep that probably hadn't been used by line units since

(05:33):
the early eighties and the latest. What the heck was
it doing out here? I slowed down and pulled up
next to the wreck, and I immediately felt my stomach drop,
as if I were weightless. Two limp forms rested in
the front seats of the jeep, one laid nearby in
the sand. My adrenaline spiked, and I jumped out of
my truck, rushing over to help. Despite the oppressive heat,

(05:56):
A chill overcame me. The men were clearly dead, but
they couldn't have been out here more than a week
by their appearance, bloated tongues bulging out of slack jaws,
eyes half closed, and milky white skin. Peel and taunt.
Took me a moment to note other details. The uniforms

(06:16):
were wrong. They were a simple, solid green. Their helmets
were wrong too. It didn't make any sense. There was
no way a vehicle would have just sat out here
unnoticed for decades. Likewise, there was no way a unit
would have dressed up in vintage uniforms, carrying vintage gear

(06:37):
just to mess around out here, and then my eyes
drifted to the vehicle. Against my better judgment, I walked
around and inspected it. The water cans in the back
were empty, and the whip radio antenna was missing from
its mount on the rear of the vehicle. I stood
there at a loss, knowing what probably happened to these men,

(06:59):
but not under standing who it had happened to. I
walked back around to the front of the vehicle and stopped.
The man who was laying in the dirt was gone.
What Hey, a voice called from the far side of
the immobilized jeep. Not knowing what to say, I said

(07:19):
nothing at all as I slowly started moving backwards, careful
to make as little sound as possible. Hey, can you
give us a hand? We're stuck here. I heard the
driver's side door open and closed, but couldn't see what
was happening as they went to work trying to free
the jeep. Hey. The voice called again, more urgent and louder, Hey,

(07:40):
can you give us a head? We're stuck here. I
glanced to my truck, still apparently undisturbed, only about ten
meters away. The problem, though, was that the only way
to get to my truck was to go right by
the passenger side door and cross the line of sight
of whatever it was that I stumbled upon. I wanted

(08:01):
to run, but found my feet too heavy to lift,
so I used all my will to take another step backward,
and just then I stepped onto the only piece of
vegetation within fifty meters on me. Crunch time slowed. The
sounds of strain and digging coming from the far side
of the jeep stopped for a mere second. There was

(08:22):
complete silence before a grotesque visage slowly peered out of
the passenger side window, and its cloudy eyes looked into mine. Hey,
it called, its voice muffled by its swollen tongue. Before
the shock wore off and I could begin running toward
my truck, its deathly brethren came around at a trot,

(08:43):
blocking my only clear path of escape. Hey. They called
in unison, and I sprinted faster than I'd ever done before.
I was driven by mad panic. Somehow I made it
past them, barely slipping through their grasp. I jumped into
the truck, turned over the ignition, which caught on the
first try, and threw it into reverse. I was peeling backward.

(09:06):
Just as one of the forms grabbed onto the grill
of the truck and began climbing up and over the hood.
I swerved left and right, trying to throw it off,
to no avail. It tore into the hood for purchase
and kept right on coming. It anticipated and braced for
every clumsy maneuver, and just as its hand firmly grasped

(09:28):
the driver's side view mirror, it began to shift and
fade from reality. I was back on the main road.
It was gone, and its compatriots stood off the main
road as mute statues. They watched for moments before returning
to their ceaseless task. I drove onward, leaving them behind.

(09:49):
It ignored anything and everything else along the way. When
I finally arrived at the next job, the group of
soldiers waiting in the shade next to their broken down
and one the hurried over and helped me out of
the vehicle. I heard muffled voices and looks of concern
as I was led to the shade heat stroke. Hey doc,

(10:10):
we're gonna need to stick him. As I laid there
and let them push about a lid of fluid into me,
I stared at the front of my truck, now visible
to me for the first time since the encounter. It
was pretty messed up. Handholds were cleaved from the metal
paneling itself. Then I faded out. I woke up in

(10:31):
a small clinic with both Mikey and my supervisor waiting nearby,
as a cool stream of saline fed into my arm.
Don't break the rules again, my supervisor said, you're lucky
to be alive, and you'll be restricted to light duty
until you recuperate, just so you know what happened, I asked,
unsure of my experience. Well, based on how messed up

(10:55):
your trunk was and the fact that you were able
to get to the second job site and under two
minutes from your check, I'd say you broke the rules.
It was real. Mikey and my supervisor glanced at one
another for a moment. Yeah. Absolutely, I thought we were
pretty upfront about that. I just thought you were messing

(11:15):
with me, I sighed. I saw guys corpses stuck out
there from another time. It looked like they got lost
out there long ago. Well, that happens all too often. Actually,
I can't tell you if they are echoes or what,
or how time can cease to have meaning when you
break the rules. But they were people that I'm sure of.

(11:38):
I guess they never let go, They never gave up hope.
That desperation echoes through time, but it's only one of
the more benign things out there. They left me alone,
confident in my recovery, while I contemplated my supervisor's last words.
I probably need to write all the rules down. Rule

(12:14):
number two COMSEC communications security. COMSEC is beaten into soldiers, sailors, airmen,
and marines. Well that's more figurative than it used to be,
but you get the point from the earliest iterations of
their training. One of the biggest force multipliers on a
battlefield is effective communications. Without working comms and operation can

(12:39):
fall apart, assets can be lost, and people can die
even in training. For my part, providing support to units
conducting training requires us to have working comms both in
the mechanic shop and in our vehicles. Usually these comms
are unsecure, truth be told, just an old sink GUARSP
set with the basic single channel plain text configuration. Every

(13:03):
once in a while, though, when there was a big
combined arms operation, we actually get orders to shadow the
units through their evolutions to ensure their vehicles remain mission capable,
and something as small as a cracked hose doesn't stop
Some would be patent from showing off to his commanders that,
my friends, requires a radio phil to keep us all

(13:24):
talking the same language, to keep it simple, a radio
phil will be uh, we'll call it a code and
make sure all our radios speak the same language on
the same frequency at the same time, and that nobody
else can listen in or communicate with us. So, after
returning to duty and steadfastly adhering to the rules laid

(13:45):
out by Mikey and the Shop, we got detached to
a brigade level assault on the notional fake city of Secouvia. Yeah. Seriously,
that was pretty excited, to be honest. Sure it'd be
hard work and we wouldn't get much sleep for a while,
but it is fun as hell watching entire battalions maneuvering
through the desert, dancing with combat engineers acting as op

(14:07):
for doing everything in their power to slow the assault.
It started out about as beautiful as you could imagine.
Entire armor columns roared to life and advanced as one
for a time. The harmony was flawless, but all plans
start to fall apart when they encounter reality. We call

(14:28):
it friction. Oh and oilly here, pete stroke there, miscommunication
on fuel point. You know how it goes. Reality is
complicated and everyone makes mistakes. Before long, we found ourselves
having gone without sleep for two days, bouncing around the
alien hellscape, trying to do what we could to help

(14:48):
keep the beast moving on its objective. After a particularly
exhausting day, we received a call to help a CALV
scout who got stuck on the far and inaccessible side
of Sukuva. We knew what went wrong right away. Some
enterprising young officer or NCO tried to work their way
through the hills to flank their objective and broke down.

(15:11):
And now we'd have to go pull it all nighter
to undo it. Problem was we couldn't establish contact with
them on the radio. Their commanders dialed us into the
last grid that they were seen at, stating their calm
equipment had been acting up. That got Mikey's attention. We
tried to clarify, but they weren't exactly. Wasting a whole

(15:32):
lot of breath on a couple knuckle draggers like us
all the way out there. Mikey was acting fidgety. I
knew concept was another important rule with about three derivatives,
of which my predecessor broke one, but I was still
wet behind the ears and hadn't yet grasped how serious
things could get. We rolled up on a dead striker

(15:54):
at about half past midnight. Sikovia was lit up with
all sorts of training rounds as the assaulting force began
fighting building to building, so we had a pretty memorable backdrop.
Mikey keyed the mike with a shaky hand, striker two six.
You boys, all right, We're here to help you back
in the fight. Silence. We pulled to a stop, and

(16:17):
we're still maintaining light discipline, but kept our distance from
the dead vehicle. Striker two six copy static echoed back
for a time. Suddenly someone hot keyed the mic on
their end and we could hear some weird, indecipherable tone
in the background. We could barely make out heavy panting
and screams. Mikey tried to key the mic, but the

(16:41):
channel was a wash with the cacophony of misery. I
was too stunned to even question it, and let Mikey
take the lead. He switched the channel over to the
company frequency Striker Actual, this is Romeo, Charlie. We have
eyes on Striker two six. Can you verify the last
comfill Romeo, Charlie. This is Rycheerromeo. Last comfil was sixteen

(17:03):
hundred today, but two six was mission non capable at
the time, so they didn't get the update. Mike. He
looked at me, and even in the gloom, only illuminated
by indirect fires, I could tell he had gone white.
What is it, man, dude? They didn't They failed the
cosmic one on one. Okay, Striker two to six has

(17:24):
been out here without any communication with their chain of
command for almost nine hours. He continued to mutter obscenities
at himself. They know better. They all get the briefing.
He sounded exhausted. Listen, two six didn't get the comfilled
and they went off the grid. Okay, you know what
usually happens when you get a couple joes who can't

(17:45):
reach anyone, all of a sudden, they switch over to
unsecured coms and try to reach range control or start
using their cell phones. I finished for him. That's right,
and unsecured coms out here on this range is a
huge no no for all all sorts of reasons, not
least of which is Samantha. We've been awake for almost

(18:05):
two days, and despite the fact I'd learned not to
doubt him, I could barely control my laughter. Shut up, dude,
cut me off mid giggle. I'm sorry, I just I'm tired.
He carefully reached over to the radio and cleared it
before I could react. He dumped everything, our frequencies, our
fill everything. Now we were alone to what are you doing?

(18:30):
I almost shouted. He held his hand up, index finger
pointing upward, telling me to hold on, and then he
pointed to the striker still laying there, dark and seemingly abandoned.
He reached a hand out of the driver's side window
of our truck and wrapped the roof with his gerber.
An ear piercing moan emanated from all around. Okay, rookie,

(18:51):
single channel, playing text frequency thirty nine to five hundred GO.
I stared at him mouth a gate for a mere
moment before my reflexes kicked in and I went through
the process of re establishing the kindergarten level of colms.
He was asking for once it was set. He keyed
the mic again. Hey, Samantha, what's going on? Static emanated

(19:13):
from the radio while we felt a single reverberation travel
through the ground beneath us, through the chassis, and into
our bones. Samantha, that's not very nice. These boys just
got a little lost. Snuggles were white, though his voice
was calm. Another quake irrupted from the desert, contrasted with
and masked by the continuing city assault in the distance. Listen,

(19:36):
we need you to let them go. Okay, We've got
quite the show for you tonight. You can feel it,
can't you, he said, as if enticing a child out
of a tantrum. Silence followed for a few moments, then
the striker itself shuddered in defiance. I'm not trying to
trick you, he spoke, calmly, in reply to a comment
I clearly didn't catch sweat dripping down his face. We'll

(19:59):
be happy stay here with you and watch it together.
Would you like that? For a moment, even the distant
report of training ammunition was muted by an almost imperceptible
evacuation of atmosphere from all around us. I instinctively breathed
out to clear my lungs. As vacuum engulfed us and
sound ceased to have any meaning. In my panic, I

(20:21):
struggled and flailed hopelessly, as if I were a kid again,
having been thrown into a pool, not knowing how to swim. Mikey, however,
kept focus on the mission. He was tapping on the
roof with his gerber while I clawed at the window
Morse code. He continued to bargain with Samantha even as
we faced our end. Then, as soon as it had begun,

(20:43):
it ended. The sweet stench of that hot desert air returned,
and with it my sanity. The striker's lights came back on,
and all at once I could see her crew wandering
around as if nothing had happened, Quicker to recover than I.
Mikey stepped out of the vehicle. Hey you guys, all right,
He wandered up to the NCIC, who was clearly in shock.

(21:07):
We missed the Yeah, you missed the fil We came
out and see what was up. Everything. Okay, your vehicle
up and running? Yeah, yeah, he replied, in a daze.
All right, Well, don't forget the safety briefings. Okay, you
can't miss your pills on this range, and if you do,
you maintain radio silence here. Mikey pulled out a small

(21:28):
device and helped them load their radios properly. They confused.
NCIC nodded, and they got back into their striker and
continued with their mission toward the city. Mikey stepped back
into the cab and deflated. I don't know what the
hell is up with these units. Man. Their command says
they broke down and so they didn't get the fill.
But that's crap. Leadership Field, they didn't even get S

(21:52):
six out here, just forgot about them. Leadership dropped the
ball and Samantha almost got those poor guys because of it.
So we're getting the hell out of here or Mikey
looked at me, wide eyed, miming for me to shut up.
In a hush tone. He gestured at the radio and
told me, now, no, not not if you ever want

(22:12):
to get home. A promise is a promise, and thank
god we have something to bargain with Tonight. We're going
to stay out here until sun up and keep Samantha
company and maybe we'll get to leave. I didn't ask
any more questions that night as we witnessed the fall
of a city. We sat there drinking cold coffee and
slurping copious amounts of dip. Mikey kept the mic hotkeyt

(22:37):
narrating for our guests so Samantha could hear the song
of Secovia. Rule three, don't look up. I get it.
The sky is beautiful at night, but you should really
focus on what's in front of you so you don't
wind up lost in the cosmos, or worse, with a

(22:57):
sheared front axle from that boulder you somehow didn't see.
But seriously, don't look up. My supervisor normally hates accepting
help from anyone, but this one was a mess. I
was on call, sure, but I was sound asleep when
he got me up. Hey man, I hate to do
this to you, but we have to go out to

(23:18):
the qualification range to salvage an MTV that's carrying about
a million dollars in munitions. They shouldn't have been out
this late, but yes, screwed up command chain and all that.
I whimpered a little before getting dressed and loading into
our recovery vehicle. We had positive communication with the group,
which was nice for a change, but you could tell

(23:38):
by their radio etiquettes that these were not the sharpest
crayons in the box. I don't know who gave them
keys to the vehicle or the responsibility over those munitions,
but it was about par for government bureaucracy, I suppose.
As we left the contoement area and entered the dark
expanse that held the ranges, we started to get some
odd chatter. Since we knew there was only one range

(24:00):
still occupied, we knew it was the guys we were
going to help. Hey, what's that the speaker box squeaked
My supervisor and I quieted, listening intently up there. Another
voice responded, yeah, well, what's that, hey, sergeant? Look at that?
Is that a rocket or some I fancied myself a

(24:21):
fast learner and knew that they were about to break
one of the main rules. With a speed and intensity
uncharacteristic of me. I grabbed the microphone. This is range control,
I winced at the falsehood. Do not look up. This
is a test fire out of Edwards Air Force Base,
and you will risk blindness. Before I could finish my
lie to save them, I felt my supervisor's hand clamp

(24:43):
on the back of my neck and slam my face
hard into the dash Ow. What the hell you do
that for? I shrieked in surprise at the same time
as the radio chatter immediately ceased. We have to let
it happen get me. We have to let it happen
to them. It's the only way. The next step is
the wager, and we're going to win this wager. You here,

(25:03):
his passion made no sense to me, but he continued, Yuwike,
you need to worry about yourself now. Remember any siege
wisdom you should be following right about now. The thought
percolated up from the depths of my sleep deprived brain.
I never look up, damn right. The rest of the

(25:24):
ride consisted of me locking my eyes onto the radio
waiting for someone to come back on the line, as
my supervisor did his best to keep his eyes on
the road as low as possible while still being able
to drive the truck. We pulled up to the dirt
parking lot at the entrance to the range. It was
empty except for one MTV, a million dollars of ammunition

(25:46):
and explosives, and a half dozen figures standing perfectly still
around the vehicle. My supervisor killed the headlights before they
could illuminate the figures surrounding the truck and started briefing me, Oh,
keep your head down, keep your eyes on the ground,
do not look at any of them. Okay, we're going
to do our job as if nothing's wrong. Clear, clear,

(26:08):
I echoed, Why why don't we just leave? We leave
and they take those soldiers with them. This is the wager.
We do this right and everyone goes home. We mess
it up and well you let the last statement hang unfinished.
For a moment. I was uncomfortable, and something about the

(26:28):
way my supervisor was acting made me think he wasn't
telling me everything. We dismounted and grabbed our toolboxes. The
exchange between my supervisor and the figures surrounding the vehicle
was almost comical. If I weren't about to piss myself,
it would have been hilarious. He, with his eyes pinned
to the ground, refused to look up. Hey, we're here

(26:51):
to get you back up and run, and mind if
we take a look. No sweats, sir, you can look
up if you like. One of them responded, thank you, sergeant,
but I just need to take a look at the vehicle,
if you don't mind. My supervisor pressed heez, relax, man,
all you guys this uptight. You can look up. Man,
I think I recognize you. Do you recognize me? No?

(27:13):
I don't think so. Thank you, my supervisor replied, eyes
still on the ground, i'd I just like to look
at your engine trouble if you don't mind. As he
attempted to sidestep the figure blocking his path, another moved
forward to obstruct him. No, really, look up, they commanded,
stepping closer. I thought I saw my supervisor trembling, but

(27:35):
it could have been me. My supervisor squeezed past the
two in a weird game of chicken. They avoided him,
as if touching him before he looked up wasn't fair play,
and so I followed his lead and squeezed past. We
opened our gear and got to work. He whispered to me. Okay, rookie,
this is the most dangerous part. We're going to fix

(27:57):
this piece of crap because that's how the wager goes,
and they're going to try to get in your line
of sight. If they do, you're screwed. Not we you.
This is essentially a single player game. You get me. Yeah,
thanks for getting me into this game, asshole. I nodded,
eyes glued to my feet. What followed was a weird

(28:18):
game of chess. The six figures crowded around us while
we worked, doing their best to get into our peripheral view.
My supervisor and I would pass tools to each other
and make awkward small talk, as if these things weren't
constantly shifting, making odd noises, and doing anything to get
us to look their way. They'd even step in to
hand us what we needed or point to something we

(28:41):
were looking for, as if they themselves knew everything we did.
So you see the new all or act on that
desert towardise, But all the figures prompted, once again trying
to engage us in small talk. My supervisor paused and laughed,
what the hell are you talking about? Man? You know
it's gone extinct. Saddest thing. It's awful when people are

(29:03):
to blame. We paused, The desert tortoise is an extinct, man.
My supervisor replied, Oh wrong, year, it replied nonchalantly. It
almost sounded like it was smiling. We finished our work
a few hours later. The constant dance left me drained
and yearning to return to my cot, but my supervisor

(29:25):
kept me from loading up the truck and getting out
of there. Not yet, he said. We stood there with
the other six figures in silence for long enough that
my feet began to ache, before the lead Anthony spoke up. Well,
come you on the wager again, but you'll only get
these soldiers back for now. Maybe next time, Lee, maybe,

(29:46):
my supervisor replied sadly. A bright, blinding light came into
a being above us, and just as quickly was gone.
The six figures were still there, but different in demeanor. Somehow,
they were just men now. My supervisor patted my shoulder paternally.
Good job. Seriously, I looked at the six dumbfounded and

(30:09):
mute soldiers struggling to come back to our reality, as
my head continued to throb from kissing the dashboard of
our truck. Have you ever lost a wager? I asked.
He didn't respond at once. Rather, he let the question
stand as if lost in that distant defeat. Yes, yes,
I have. What happened? They sent the two young airmen

(30:33):
they had possessed to die of thirst in the desert.
He exhaled deeply and muttered the last line, And they
took my son. My mouth hung open in surprise. He'd
never mentioned his family. I'm so save it, Rookie. I'm
sorry about slamming your head into the dash, but I
have to play the game every chance I get. It's

(30:56):
my only hope of ever getting my son back, and
it's not every day that I have someone else to wager.

(31:17):
Rule number four. If you go to the City of
Faceless Men, you'll need to bring a sacrifice. Now, I
know what you might be thinking, how many rules are there?
Do you really have firsthand experience with breaking all of
the rules. The answer to that is a dozen and
maybe sort of. But I do have the distinction of

(31:39):
never unintentionally breaking a rule twice though. That's key. Hold
on to that for later. Our installation is known for
its urban training sites. We have entire cities built to
mimic those in the countries the corporate we obviously get
deployed to. They have everything from markets to movie theaters.

(32:00):
They even have power stations and sewers, to the surprise
of many. Most of the time units rotating through prior
to their deployments only train on the surface. Occasionally, units
break the rules and find ways into the catacombs beneath
the cities, where things can get hairy. Usually though folks
don't know what's under their feet. That's for the best,

(32:23):
unfortunately for me, and one of the reasons I landed
the job at this post was because I had extensive
experience with power generators. I was one of only two
in our maintenance section with that accolade. And no, the
other is not Mikey. That distinction goes to another knuckle
dragger named Sarah. One afternoon, Lee, my supervisor, comes into

(32:45):
the shop in a panic. Sarah was working on a
blown transmission on a Bradley, and I was well, I
was doing something terribly important. I'm sure there's en up.
He croaked Denerator three just went down in Moltown. We
need to get out there and get it up and
running as soon as possible. I'm not going with you, man,
A shot back, calmly, flipping the page of my magazine.

(33:07):
You know why, he paused, squinting his eyes at me
before smiling. Not to worry, I'm not certified for that equipment.
You'll go with Sarah. Oh and take this. There was
satchel to me. Rule four a sacrifice. Damn it came
the reply, somewhere in the bay under the Bradley. Twenty

(33:29):
minutes later, we were on our way to the fifth
largest urban training site on Post. It was never used honestly,
and as such not very well known, but it had
a series of generators that kept its lights on and
those in turn kept the locals away. It was hot
as hell as the sun went down, per usual, but
the breeze betrayed the changing of the seasons. We were

(33:52):
in high spirits and it gave me a chance to
break through Sarah's shell. In contrast to Mikey, Sarah was
withdrawn in fok. She gave me the pucker factor walking
by the same way jumping into an ice bath wood,
and I didn't know a damn thing about her. So
you have any advice, Mikey usually either lets me know

(34:12):
you know what to expect, or he takes care of it.
I tried a soft open. What you're worried about living
forever or something? She smiled coyly from under her sunglasses. Besides,
I'm not your babysitter, dude, You're a grown up. Strike one. Okay,
let me rephrase, what are we walking into? She'smirked for

(34:35):
a moment before it disappeared. Well, since you asked like
an adult. Let me explain. This site sits on top
of something unsavory that was intentional. The city gives the
unsavory things something to do. It's like a literal red
herring or a bug lamp whatever. Anyway, the city has
its own op for That means it's staffed by soldiers

(34:58):
of a sort. They come out in the dar We
keep the lights running, so they stay underground, and we
generally find excuses not to let units train there. And
everything is copacetic. Now, if the power goes out, or
a unit actually gets lost and strolls in, or it's
just time to give a dog a bone, then well
things can get a little unsavory. I took it in

(35:20):
stride after what I'd been exposed to so far. Oh
all right, so folks go missing, Yes, honey, folks go missing.
We continued in silence. Why don't they seal it off,
quarantine it. She pulled a pinch of dip, listing you
they tried didn't work. It's the difference between making an

(35:42):
olympian think they are competing and trying to contain said
athlete by tying them up with used toilet paper. One works,
one doesn't. It's just stop overthinking it, dude. A long,
awkward silence ensued. So we go in, fix the generator,
and get out. She grimaced. Sort of, Hey, would Lee

(36:05):
give you, she asked, pointed to the satchel. That's the sacrifice,
she snorted, and continued driving. By the time we entered
the city, night had fallen. Three quarters of the city
were illuminated by the other generators. The rest was dark.
We were heading into the dark. We kept our lights
on as we moved through the streets. Our head lights

(36:28):
would splash shadows over the empty storefronts and alleyways, and
in the dancing of darkness and light, the thought I
could see distended forms moving about. We moved through several
blocks before coming to a stout concrete structure protruding into
an empty courtyard. We're here, she exhaled, leaving the engine
and the lights on. It's in there, son of. We

(36:51):
exited the vehicle, tool bags and satchel in hand, and
trotted over to the structure. No more words were needed.
We entered the dark and ignited our flashlights. The rooms
were surprisingly barren, though some garbage had collected in the
corners of the rooms that we'd passed the wind whistled
to the windows and doorways that weren't permanently shuttered. While

(37:12):
we crept forward, we passed a window overlooking an alleyway
leading off from the courtyard, and I caught my first
glimpse of one of them. It was difficult to make out,
but it was a tall, lanky form with a bloated
abdomen abnormally so, with something grotesque embraced in its arms.

(37:32):
It watched our vehicle idling not fifty meters from its
sheltered position. As it swayed there, I could just barely
see the smooth, featureless void where its face ought to
a bent. I was suddenly yanked to the ground. Not
yet rook, Sarah whispered, We can't let them see us yet.
We moved along in a low crouch, avoiding the windows.

(37:55):
The rooms became smaller and more oppressive the more we
traveled into the building, and the window windows became less frequent,
before ceasing altogether. At last, we came to the room
Sarah had promised was our objective. It was empty. Wrong turn,
she mouthed, shrugging her shoulders. The only outlet besides the
way we had just come in was a drainage pipe

(38:17):
that would require us to crawl through. Without a word,
she moved forward and I followed. We crept down onto
our stomachs and shimmied into the drainage pipe. It was
so tight I had to rock back and forth to
work my way down deeper into the abyss. Minutes passed,
and the tight space began to frame my resolve. I
felt faint. She must have heard me start to hyperventilate.

(38:40):
We're almost there, rook. Then we were. We emerged into
a much larger chamber where a silent generator stood. You
know the model? She panted, exhausted, our situation forgotten for
a moment, I rejoiced, I did know that model, A generator.
We did an assessment and I figured it was a
pretty easy fix. Ten minutes tops, I promised, you sure,

(39:04):
I'm going to be counting on you. She replied, Yeah, absolutely.
That's when we heard it shuffling in the antichamber adjacent
to us. We killed our lights and froze as the
sound got closer. Ready, she whispered, you're going to have
about ten minutes to get the generator running and get
the hell out of here. Got it? Don't wait for

(39:25):
me I'll be fine. I started to object, but stopped.
I had to trust my team good stay frosty. And
with that, she shot up and ran into the antichamber,
screaming like a valkyrie while I got to work. It
must have been only minutes before her war cries echoing

(39:45):
through the empty city as they departed, turned to screams
of agony. I didn't expect her to die so pointlessly,
but I still had a mission, and just as I
had promised, I finished my work in under ten minutes.
Restarting the generator, I ran. I ran through rooms that
were familiar and not familiar all at once. The city

(40:05):
was a jumble of identical prefabricated units, which mocked my
attempts to flee. I traveled for what felt like hours
before I stumbled upon what was left of Sarah. I
could only tell it was her because her tail tailed
boots with that distinctive pink OH positive stenciled in the side,
protruded from the piles of faceless, long limbered horrors slobbering

(40:28):
and feasting on her corpse. Sarah No I cried impotently
in shock and disgust and horror and despair as the
lights began to illuminate the horrors elsewhere, retreated to the
safety of darkness like a receding tide. Nonetheless, it would
be some time before Sarah's corpse could be recovered. I

(40:49):
flung the satchel at that wretched mob and sprinted off
once more. The lights were on now, and I kept
to them as I wandered through the maze of the city.
I circled back, ran, and circled back again, but found
myself on familiar and unfamiliar ground, both at the same time.
At some point I found the courtyard, jumped into our truck,
and sped off back to the maintenance shop. I pulled in,

(41:13):
drew the doors closed, and like a Celtic hero of old,
locked myself in the small duty room before passing out
on a surplus cot. My sleep was tortured by those
long limbed, faceless abominations. Their gnawing and rendering of flesh
from bone echoed in my mind. The cracking of Sarah's
bones accompanied my fitful rest, then blackness, then nothing. I

(41:39):
awoke to an unexpected, other worldly shriek. Get up, sleepy,
Sarah shouted as she kicked my cot over. I rolled
onto the ground disoriented and confused. Good job last night.
I'll give you a gold star if I have one.
What you how, whenever you go to the City of
Faceless Men, you need to bring a sacrifice. You also

(42:01):
need to bring an actual mechanic, though, too, which is
the rub. Otherwise they be feasting on me in the
dark for eternity, like that poor bastard Prometheus. Thankfully I'm immortal,
and you, well, you are a pretty decent mechanic, she sneered,
poking me in the shoulder. Ah, come on, it was fun.
I had a good time stared at her, unbelieving. But

(42:24):
the satchel had the sacrifice. What No, the sacrifice has
to be alive. Lee was just messing with you. Probably
just some Nudi mags in there or something, she laughed. Listen,
it's part of the show that keeps them bottled up. Remember,
gott to keep them distracted and feed them every so
often so they don't get restless red herring bug lamp No,

(42:46):
I thought, I explained it to you. Hurts like hell.
Though her face darkened for a moment before the joy
I'd never seen on her returned. We can bend the rules,
you know, what better way to bend the rules than
to use in a more as a sacrifice. Rule number five.
Always have a map. I mean that literally and figuratively.

(43:11):
Most people don't appreciate how easy it is to get lost.
Most people don't realize how lost they are in life.
Others others are just lost in the sauce. The point is,
it's really really easy. Now. One of the most basic
ways to not get lost is to know where you've been,
where you are, and where you think you're going. No dah.

(43:33):
You might say that's obvious. One might even say that's
the definition of not being lost, to which I say maybe.
But if it were obvious, no one would ever veer
off course, now would they. A map helps with that.
Now take my supervisor Lee for example. He knows exactly
where he is and exactly where he needs to go.

(43:55):
He's not lost. His love for his son is his map,
and as such, Lee he is stuck here in an
endless search for him. He's kind of a jerk, and
I trust him as far as I can throw him.
But he's sure as hell isn't lost. See rule number three. Now,
contrast that was Sarah, our local deity. She has no

(44:15):
clue where she's going, she can tell you where she
has been, like the genealogies of Genesis, and boy is
she a boring storyteller, bless her heart, But she couldn't
tell you where on Earth she is or where she's
trying to go. If you get my drift, you know,
figuratively in life, no map. And then there's Mikey. Nothing

(44:37):
figurative here. He just forgot his actual map, and we
found ourselves wandering around a damn hellish, twisted version of reality,
all because Mikey wasn't paying attention to what he was doing.
Thanks brou Sarah, Mikey and I had crammed into the
cab of our truck and were making the rounds for
our quarterly maintenance rodeo. This required us to drive around

(45:00):
post doing basic maintenance on everything from pump stations and
generators to solar collectors. It was usually boring, but not always.
We plodded along northward towards the impact ranges for the
big guns, artillery, aircraft and tanks, and then skirted those
via the maintenance road. The air was still and only

(45:21):
made the heat worse than normal. If such a thing
were possible, Mirages formed in the distance and dissolved as
we neared not all but most. How long you've been
out here? Sarah? Her brow raised, Oh, four years or so.
I usually move on after seven or ten, so I
have a few left in me. And before that, I pressed, well,

(45:44):
I mean, she smiled sadly, I could talk endlessly about that, couldn't.
I sure? But I mean, where'd you come from? Originally,
she rolled her eyes. It's hard for me to answer.
I've been immortal for as long as I can remember,
not that that's all that odd around here or anything

(46:04):
I can remember a long time. I'm not sure I
came from anywhere specifically, I can't be sure. Didn't have
anything resembling a map you'd recognize today, anatolia, maybe, I frowned. Okay, well,
what's your earliest memory? Being a wash in light, playing
among gods, being abandoned, then alone lost? So I wander.

(46:29):
I wander when I get bored or the people I
know and love start to find something odd about how
I don't age I leave it all ends, yet I
live on. Are you like an angel or some sort
of god or something? I asked? She snickered, what no, no, now, no, no,

(46:49):
Mikey slammed on the brakes. A puzzled look had crept
over his face. He stepped out onto the dirt road
and looked around as if confused. Hey, what's up? I called?
This isn't right. We should have gotten there by now.
His eyes widened in realization of something. Oh no, He
walked around to my side of the truck and reached

(47:10):
into the glove box, searching frantically before stopping entirely. Uh, Sarah,
did you happen to bring the map? No, Sarah replied slowly. Crap,
Well we uh, we definitely crossed the aperture, though what
I asked, Mike, you looked around nervously the aperture we

(47:32):
were in a well, shall we say, a different reality,
and it's it is dangerous, he stuttered. The map would
tell us where everything is on this side and where
the aperture is at different times of the day, so
we can get back without having to Is this another
one of those messed with the new guy things? Or

(47:54):
you being serious? I pressed, incredulous. Oh, come on, really,
we have to do this. You sure you checked everywhere?
Check again? Do it quick? Clock's ticking. Sarah's tone silenced
me and kicked Mikey back into action. Mikey tore the
cab of the truck apart, looking for the map. As
we waited, I looked out over the landscape, waiting for

(48:15):
them to stop missing around. At first I thought the
heat was causing my eyes to blur, but it was
soon clear that roads and terrain features distant from us
started to shift and change. The sky turned from blue
to dark red, and the sand from tan to deep orange.
By the time the mountain ranges melted into the sand,

(48:36):
Sarah was fuming and Mikey's desperation reached a profanity laced crescendo.
I guess they weren't joshing me. Well, look at that
time's up. Listen, rook. Never forget the map. You get
lost like this and you are in for some heartache. Normally,
the aperture oscillates over the impact ranges on our side

(48:56):
of reality, the real, so it's never a problem, but
occasionally it drifts on to post. The good thing about
the map is that it'll guide you to the exit
aperture without having to go to the contonement area, which
is what we have to do now. The only other
way out is through the spire Mikey climbed back into
the cab and waited for us. What is the aperture though,

(49:19):
I mean, really, why is it? It's pre history. It
was a prison built long ago by powers unknown, Mikey
replied coldly. The post was no longer what I recognized.
The terrain was inverted, and the dirt roads had no
counterparts in the reel. Some branched and inverted upon themselves
in an endless loop, while others ended abruptly going nowhere. Thankfully,

(49:43):
an ominous cinder spire rose from the contonement area, easily
visible even from the horizon. This structure had no worldly analogue,
but served as our north star. The barren desert of
the other gave way to sparse dustings of something or
organic infesting the dirt. I couldn't see clearly as we

(50:04):
sped past, but I imagined it to move and pulsate,
like a sea of worms. The nearer we drew to
the twisted center of this reality, the more abundantly the
fleshy infestations became. If this was a prison, what was
imprisoned here? I asked. Sarah and Mikey glanced at one another.

(50:25):
We don't know, really, We just hear rumors on we
drive in silence. As the organic growths become more common,
they grew in size, from mere inches to dozens of
feet or more in height, and in all instances that
things moved and swayed in the absence of wind. We
passed the first intersection, demarcating the contonement area, and in

(50:48):
the place of the static patterned geometric forms of construction
and negative of man stood mute organic chaonic refutations of
such amateur control over the world. Columns of bone branched
out over the streets, while masses of wriggling tubule like
grotesqueries crunched under the tires of our truck. As we

(51:10):
sped onward toward the base of the spire, we stopped
mere feet from its trunk, and Mikey killed the engine. Well,
we're gonna get our asses shoot out for losing this truck.
I'll I mean, it's my fault, obviously, I'll do the
flipple on it. As we stepped into the open, I
could hear the throbbing of the spire and could see

(51:32):
its skin tense and loosen in an odd synchronization, as
if it were the beating of a heart. The stench
of our sour bile permeated everything. Okay, let's get this
over with. Sarah led the way. We moved towards a gaping,
three story gash in the trunk of the spire, brushing
aside sinew and drapes of flesh. The path we followed

(51:54):
was like an artery, with smaller branches shooting off in
all directions. I could tell that so slightly we were
going downwards, deeper into the labyrinth. The further we went,
the louder the rhythmic melody of this place became, to
the point we could feel the reverberations in our chests
and struggled to hear one another. Finally we reached the heart,

(52:18):
a wet, bulbous thing the size of a house. It
convulsed even more rapidly though nearer we drew, as if
it were becoming excited. So what now? We have to
succumb to it before we can leave. Watch whatever happens
follow me through. Sarah stepped towards the heart. She placed

(52:40):
her hands on the soft, mucus covered wall of the
palpitating structure. Then she pressed her hands into it, opening
a fissure. It resisted at first, but then gave way.
She fell forward with a brief yelp, before being pulled
violently into the fissure in the engorged organ. Then she
was gone. Rook See on the other side, Mikey called

(53:03):
to me as he too pressed his hands against the
heart and penetrated it. With Mikey, however, I could hear
him scream in agony before being abruptly cut off as
he was consumed by it. I was alone and overcome
with fear of the unknown, fear of death. My internal
turmoil was cut short as movement in the dark got

(53:23):
my attention. One of the faceless men stood a dozen
meters from me. It seemed to be in as much
shock by my presence as I was by its. They
exist here too, perhaps they come from here. Before I
could further contemplate its being, it launched itself toward me.
The featureless void where its face ought to have been

(53:44):
became clear, and in it I saw stars, a timeless expanse.
I snapped out of my awe and plunged my hands
into the heart. As soon as my hands pierced it,
a searing pain shot through me. Every inch of me
that passed into the heart irerupted into blind, white hot pain.
My bones shattered, skin split and fed the thing. Unimaginable

(54:06):
agony radiated up my arms as I was sucked in,
the rest of me followed as the heart pulled with
all its unimaginable strength. For the briefest moment, I felt
as if every cell, every atom was ripped from me.
And at the end of it, it was all darkness. Nothing.
That was the most surprising thing in hindsight. Obviously it

(54:28):
was nothing. There weren't even thoughts of reflection, just nothing
like death itself. And then at once I was conscious again,
climbed out of a pit of scorching California lone. Two
pair of hands reached down to help me up, and
as they touched me, my nerves continued to scream from
the pain of deconstruction. That's two you owe me rook,

(54:53):
Sarah smiled, Oh screw you, I coughed. We were back
where we belonged, in a nondescript section of the contonement area.
It's all both Mikey and Sarah what I saw in
the end one of the faceless men. Mikey looked confused,
but Sarah obviously knew more. She tightened up and averted

(55:14):
my gaze. Later that night, when Mikey had already gone home,
she finally confided in me. Listen rook. The aperture isn't
an intentional part of that prison. The heart was the warden,
the only entrance and exit point. The faceless men were
its custodians, and they followed a fugitive here. The aperture

(55:37):
is the rip caused in that reality by something that escaped.

(55:59):
Rule number six, maintain accountability of your sensitive items. Speaking
of getting your butt lost, don't lose accountability of sensitive items.
What's a sensitive item? Glad you asked? Sensitive item is
a blanket term for something really expensive, really dangerous or

(56:20):
mission critical night vision goggles, sensitive item, weapon, sensitive item,
com sec fill device. Oh, you better believe that's a
sensitive item. You wouldn't believe how common it is for
someone to sneak onto our post and then try to
find an unsecured item and make off with it. You
also wouldn't believe how easy it is for our special

(56:42):
need soldiers to lose stuff. I want to do a
guy on a road march who buckled his canteens in
place and still lost them. We had to dummy cord
everything to that guy because he would just lose stuff.
How did he get into the military? Hell if I
know anyway, For folks with an IQ and the range
of normal, the mere thought of losing a sensitive item

(57:05):
causes the sphincter to clinch hard enough to make diamonds.
Imagine if you lost your own child. Almost like that,
not quite, but in the ballpark. So you lose a
sensitive item, the base goes on lockdown until that piece
of crap is found, and it's usually right where someone
left it, but not always. Sometimes you have to do

(57:27):
police call for nine hours in the desert only to
find the jerk who lost his weapon left it in
the latrine. Thanks thanks for that. That was fun walking
around for nine hours checking underneath rocks. Really enjoyed that. So,
if you want to lock the base down because you
lost something very special, something that you can't let escape,

(57:48):
you put out an alert that a sensitive item was lost.
You aren't lying, per se, but you aren't being truthful,
and that poor eighteen year old son of a mother's
going to be hating life, or she pointlessly combs the
desert like the scene ride out of space Balls while
you fix the situation. I was on my lunch break,

(58:08):
eating a ham of cheese and ten W forty sandwich.
When my supervisor, Lee delivered the news brought lockdown, sensitive
item went missing. I rolled my eyes and kept chewing.
We even asked to halt our work and join the search.
That was unusual. Normally we were sort of exempt from

(58:29):
these types of things. We've been assigned to search the
power substation and the warehousing area south of it. He
held up his hands. I know, I know. Just listen.
They want us to do this quietly. Okay. We just
head over there, poke around, and let the bosses know
what's up. When we find it, we don't have to

(58:49):
touch it or anything. Okay, I paused. You volunteered us
because you want us to do the preventive maintenance on
the substation while we're out there, didn't you, Lee blushed,
and I rolled my eyes. You said the sensitive item
was heading south. How's that possible? Yes? And well it's
less of a thing they lost and more of an it. Oh,

(59:13):
come on, I sighed, Sarah and Mikey, we'll go to
the power substation. And I told you I'm not pairing
up with you, and you will pair up with Chris.
Lee finished I'll be here. Chris was a quiet, older guy,
probably a Vietnam VET, stand offish. He'd spoken all of

(59:35):
three words to me since I had started, and I
got the distinct depression. He hated me. He told me
and I quote go to hell. They should be fun.
We arrived at a decaying warehouse armed with a crowbar
and pipe fitters wrench. I know we're on a military
base with new weapons. Silly right, Well, contrary to popular

(59:57):
opinion and sanity, military base says are pretty close to
gun free zones unless you're training. The warehouse itself must
have been built in the fifties, and the decay was
only hidden by judicious applications of drab paint. I took
the lead while Chris limped behind me with a walkie talkie.
He was struggling to keep up, so I knew the

(01:00:18):
search was going to take forever. We had to cover
at least half a dozen warehouses spread out over half
a mile. The first building we got to was locked
up tight. The second wasn't looked like forced entry. Chris
radioed it in while I crept past the threshold. Hey, Lee,
we're heading into the warehouse seventeen so Chris, now you

(01:00:41):
like working here? See anything odd? He grunted. Yah, you
know I have, we all have? You have got the
small talk? I yielded, and we pressed onward into the
dark cavern. The warehouse consisted of aisle after aisle of
equipment and gear wrecks, like a giant Walmart without the

(01:01:01):
curb appeal. We decided to split up and handle two
miles at a time. Everything looked in order for my part,
and I cleared the first dial in a few minutes tops.
When I came to the end, Chris was already there
waiting for me. Oh, old man, is sprier than you look? Yeah?
All right, well, let's check the next section over. I

(01:01:23):
moved and he grunted, but followed. The warehouse was empty.
All right, Chris, let's head over to the next building.
He looked pale, and as he followed, I noted he
was no longer limping. You all right, man, you don't
look so good? Yeah? You sure? He looked confused, as
if unsure of how to respond or what I was saying. Hey, Lee,

(01:01:46):
we're heading in. Did you just have a stroke? My
concern mounted Just if you can't talk, use your hands.
See if that works? Do you have full feeling in
your arms? Chris's concern grew to match mind, but he
didn't respond. Held out my hand for the radio. Dude,
we need to call an ambulance. Give you the radio.

(01:02:07):
You know I have we all have? You have cut
the small talk, he replied, he didn't hand over the radio.
Now that I was thinking about it, he didn't even
have the radio anymore. Crap. I did my best to
suppress my shock. All right, let's go, I said instead,
and started walking toward the door. As that primal panic

(01:02:29):
called forth a desire to flee that I could hardly control.
Chris didn't respond, but he followed. My hands grew sweatier
as we walked, making it even more difficult for me
to keep hold of the crowbar in my grasp. We
exited the building and walked towards the truck. The crunching
sound of our boots on the gravel was steady and quick,

(01:02:50):
but there was something unnatural underneath it all, something akin
to chattering. I walked to my side of the truck,
and he to his. I opened my door, got in
and turned on the truck. Chris's side door didn't open.
I glanced over and he just stood there like a
mute Chris it didn't know how to open a truck door.

(01:03:18):
Hey man, I'm gonna just call it in real quick
and then we'll get out of here. Okay. I raised
my hand with the thumbs up. He mimicked me, holding
a smile with clenched teeth. I continued, You probably ate
Chris or something, didn't you? You slippery? Yeah? Hi, keep
holding the thumbs up. Weirdo. Hope you can't run faster

(01:03:38):
than I can drive. Put the truck into gear before
reaching for the radio, thinking he might just know how
a radio works, and just as expected, he did, and
I put my hand on the mic. His jaw unhinged
and opened twice as wide as a normal humans could,
and his shriek was overpowering. I threw it reverse, immediately,
remembering the last time or first time rather I had

(01:04:01):
to do this. It immediately started running after me. I
pushed the pedal down and fingered the key to the
mic and called in my situation, Hey, I'm pretty sure
Chris is dead and something's chasing me that looks like him.
I cringed at my stupid description, but eh, well, close enough,
I continued in reverse As the seconds ticked by, the
inhumane monstrosity wearing Chris's form extended its gait and kept

(01:04:25):
pace with my truck, unable to grab hold, but also
not slowing down. It had cast aside some of its form,
and in place of hands were grotesque appendages with no
other natural facsimile. Guard's a rook, Friendly's inbound. Don't the line,
cut the static, don't break, or it'll kill you, Lee finished.

(01:04:46):
What followed felt like hours, but it was a mere
ten seconds or so. As soon as I passed on
to the main road, time slowed and then stopped. Time stopped.
I was unable to move as Chris, but I saw
something walk into my peripheral view, another man in a suit.

(01:05:06):
He walked up to Chris, casually put restraints on him,
his hands, things, whatever, and then dragged him off, still incapacitated,
just like me. Minutes passed. Then the man walked over
to me. Hey, you promise to keep quiet about this,
he asked, in a cordial tone. My mind, I screamed, yes,

(01:05:27):
you're crazy, time warping jerk. I've just seen some weird
things around here, and I haven't said a damn word.
I'm good I'll go back to my shop. Shut up,
no problem, Okay, I guess you're right. He went through
the aperture and kept quiet, So that's good enough for me.
But don't he chuckled. Don't get the impression. This was
what escaped from the aperture. Smiling, he turned and left,

(01:05:50):
and as he did, time returned to normal. Slammed on
my brake and I was alone in the street. After
returning to the shop, Lee asked me how it was terrible?
Some cheap shifting, murderous thing killed. Chris took his form,
and then a time warping dude in a suit took
it back. Sweet What the hell was sweet about that?

(01:06:13):
Huh oh? He looked around sheepishly. Well, Sarah PM to
the substation and well, uh we got rid of Chris again. Really,
you used me again, bottom of the totem pole, my dude. Besides,
he got to meet the big bosses. Those guys helped
cover for us when things get a little wacky. Okay,

(01:06:35):
so why did Chris need to die? I mean, kind
of a jerk, but oh yeah, Chris was a bad
apple man. You ever heard of vampires? Kind of like that,
but not allergic to sunlight. He got in a bit
out of hand lately, too many soldiers dying due to
training accidents. I counseled him on it, but he just

(01:06:56):
wouldn't stop. He shrugged. Hell, I had odds he'd suck
you dry before the mimic got him. Odds. Who were
you betting against you? Piece of Sarah Rule number seven?
Stay away from the desert tortoise? Why, I asked Sarah

(01:07:18):
as her eyes focused on the tank trail we were traveling.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. Oh, come on, lighten up.
I knew you were going to be fine. She briefly
put her hand on my shoulder. Don't let it bruise
your ego, Bud, I bet on you, not against you.
You could have at least told me about Chris, I
muttered I. She paused at a loss. I thought you knew.

(01:07:41):
There's so much odd stuff around here. It's hard to
make sure you know everything. Simple miscommunication. I'm an immortal,
not a mind reader. She winced at that last comment.
Speaking of I started the suit, he was able to
hear my thoughts. Sarah grew quiet. Yes, you know a

(01:08:04):
bit about him, don't you. Yes, and Brook, there's a
lot of odd stuff that goes on here. Clearly the
suit keeps a lid on it, or rather he steps
in from time to time to make sure the lid
is still secure before going on about whatever his business is.
Command is complicit in it because of what the suit

(01:08:25):
can do for them, and the suit uses us all
as expendable assets in keeping some of this stuff bottled
up and off the radar. If any of this were
to get out and someone were to study it, especially
the aperture, he might be threatened. He can't have that,
she sighed. Listen like you. I don't want you to

(01:08:47):
get hurt, but you have to know by now that
working here is dangerous for any number of reasons. I
won't use kid gloves with you. You should get out
of here if he'll let it. I oh, but it's
more complicated than that. I kind of enjoy the excitement,
so you did have fun. Her sentence broke off as

(01:09:08):
she slammed the brakes. My head jerked forward, then slammed
into the headrest. I winced, caressing my neck and looked forward.
There stood before us was a solitary desert tortoise, slowly
lumbering across the road. Sarah laughed, that was close. It
don't be such a baby, you know, speaking of me

(01:09:28):
being a crappy communicator. Do you know why these things
are protected? Yeah, they're endangered or something. BPA would be
all over our asses if we so much as touched them. Nope,
wrong about the first part. Or I mean that's the
cover anyway. You know, it's probably better if you assume

(01:09:48):
everything is some sort of cover up, even if it's not.
Like gun safety. Just always assume the guns loaded. Just
assume your co workers are bloodthirsty vampires or sture dimensional mcguffins.
She smiled, Hey, can you cull it into range control?
And while we wait for the environmental guys to get here,

(01:10:09):
buckle up story time. I'm already buckled. Shut up Brook.
Almost one hundred years before this base was established, there
were a number of native tribes in the area, whom
are now all gone. The first fort established in the area,
not too far from the current contonement area, was built

(01:10:30):
to patrol for horse thieves and housed a company of
cavalry as well as accompanying auxiliaries. The first year passed
without incident. The garrison was kept busy improving the fortifications
building relations with the local natives and trappers and acclimating
to the region. The commander of the garrison noted a
superstitious warning conveyed to him through both the native tribes

(01:10:53):
and the trappers. Getting agreement on local lore from both
groups was an oddity, but the message was clear, avoid
the desert tortoises at all costs, or else. The or
else came in the form of ominous allegories of pestilence
and death. The commander recorded it in his log, which

(01:11:15):
is how I came by it. He heated to those
warnings as well for a time, because he noted other
oddities in the area. These included brief mentions of spirits walking,
faceless corpses, and a mysterious apparition which caused the sky
to redden and the land to change. In the second year,
the garrison grew more comfortable in their duties despite the oddities,

(01:11:37):
but they began to make mistakes. They alienated the tribes.
Their commander expressed concern in the behavior of the troops
and general malaise of the garrison, but seemed unable to
assuage their discontent. The last time the garrison was seen
was by a logistics convoy, who had been tasked with
the monthly resupply. The convoy executive officer at H noted

(01:12:01):
in his journal that the garrison was more beleaguered than
the dispatch's report. What did they do right or wrong?
Justifiable or unjustifiable? Which I need not to discuss today?
For one long year these civilized men engaged in killing.
The convoy's XO journal was curious in so far as
it mentioned something not even hinted at in the garrison

(01:12:23):
commander's log. This indicated a darker second year than the
garrison commander would admit to. Looking back, it was clear
that he used code for multiple incidences that could have
been murders, theft, or worse. As the supply convoy left
the fort, once more, the garrison was well provisioned and

(01:12:43):
in good spirits. In part, the convoy XO was sure
to the casks of rum, which were accidently included in
the manifest. The commander's own log noted, and the men
are renewed in spirit, and so I shall retire to
my quarters, careful to overlook their punching libations. The following month,
when the supply convoy arrived, they found an abandoned fort,

(01:13:06):
whose palisades had been turned out. Within the fort, the
commander's log was found among the destruction of his billet.
The door had been torn from its hinges, and charred
stretches of timber indicated someone had attempted to burn the
building down. The men of the convoy quickly concluded that
the garrison had come under attack from the natives. The

(01:13:29):
discarded weapons and ample bullet holes seemed to indicate a
furious battle of some sort. There was evidence of rival
fire from within the fort, going in multiple directions. It
was total confusion. Some bloodstains remained, but whatever had once
rested on the ground had been consumed by scavengers. The
men of the convoy began a wide ranging search, but

(01:13:51):
it didn't take them long to find dozens of tracks
leading away from the fort into the desert. The scouting
party found the first corpse. It was naked and partially
eaten by carrion feeders. Little could be discerned from the
corpse other than it was a white male. They continued
on and, coming to a ravine, found three more bodies,

(01:14:12):
broken and tangled in an inaccessible crevice. Equally ill dressed
for the climate, They continued and found collapsed forms in
various states of decay lying in the desert. But they
also found one who had climbed up on top of
a cactus to die, another who'd obviously used a stone
to smash the skull of his compatriot not ten feet away,

(01:14:33):
before turning the stone on himself. It made no sense.
At the end of the trail of death, the scouts
came across a couple of men from a local tribe.
They stared out across the valley at a distant structure.
They didn't react to the Scouts. They didn't seem concerned
that they might be found responsible for the deaths of
so many. For a time, the Scouts and the natives

(01:14:56):
both stared at the grotesque structure. The poor wretches from
the garrison had clamored atop one another to form a
massive pyramid in their depths, with one quavering stalk emerging
from the center. As one of the Scouts begged their
horse onwards, the older of the two natives spoke, no,

(01:15:17):
do not approach. If you don't want to end up
like them, stay away. Don't hunt the tortoise, or it
will drive you mad. Their commander didn't listen, and so
he brought the pestilence with him. It affected all of
his men. The scouts acquiesced and turned back, careful to
avoid the bodies they saw on the way. In the end,

(01:15:39):
they quietly reported that a rare sickness had killed the
entire garrison. They returned the notebook and burned the fort
to the ground. The last entry in the commander's notebook read, So,
I and my frustrations with my dreadful mysteries of this
land lashed out. I took to the desert and shot
a tortoise, intending to eat it to curse the land.

(01:16:01):
I was too close. As the bullet penetrated its shell,
A black cloud erupted and showered me in a filth
I cannot describe. It ate into my pores and scarred me.
Now I change. I've secured the door to protect the men,
but I can hear them inside my mind, growing louder,
beckoning me to pilgrimage to somewhere I cannot describe. But

(01:16:24):
they sing to me. They scream in me, those faceless ones.
So don't mess with the tortoises, Sarah finished. What are
they some sort of interdimensional all knowing hypno tortoises or
something or aliens. Sarah looked at me cock eyed, then
smiled and mined that ancient aliens, guy, smart ass. We

(01:16:49):
could say perhaps that they are part of a more
complex ecosystem than we understand. I mean, I'm not saying
what the disease is. I'm just saying, don't mess with
the day things, and everything would be fine. Okay. We
watched it continue its slow journey off into the desert.
I checked my watch. We uh, we have to keep

(01:17:11):
our eyes on it until the environmental folks get here. Huh,
I asked, yep. An unforgettable silence followed. So what would
happen if you messed with one of them? She paused
a moment, brow furrowed. You know, I'm not sure. Can
you imagine if I contracted it, then went mad from

(01:17:33):
it but couldn't die, and with some sort of unkillable monster?
She shuddered. I smiled back at her. Are you not

(01:18:03):
rule number eight? Aim? Small? Miss Small? You've heard the
phrase before. I'm sure. It's a foundational concept of marksmanship.
The idea is that if you need to engage a
target rather than trying to just hit anywhere on said target.
You focus on something very specific, something small in the

(01:18:24):
center of it, a coat button, a zipper, or a pocket.
You focus so hard that becomes your whole world, and
the thought of straying outside of that target isn't even
a possibility to you. It's not on your mind at all.
You aim small, and you really apply yourself well. If
you do miss, you're only going to miss by a little,

(01:18:45):
And even if you miss by a little, you're around
is still going to cause a lot of pain. It's
not just useful for markmanship either. If you have a
clear picture of your target or your goal, and the
discipline to apply yourself toward achieving that goal. With a
single minded determination, you can be a very dangerous individual. Indeed,

(01:19:06):
it also sure as hell comes in handy if you
are staring down a horde of faceless horrors intent on
consuming you like a bulldog eating oatmeal, which is exactly
where I ended up when the suit wandered into my life.
Once more, Michael, I need you to do this for me. Okay,
Lee normally handles this, but since he is currently indisposed

(01:19:27):
and I'd rather not interrupt his wager with the new guy,
I need you to help me out here. Besides, these
sacrifices aren't even your people. They are foreign nationals training
with the US Army. No one will ever know. We'll
just say they walked off post and are trying to
settle in the US illegally. They'll never be found and

(01:19:48):
no one will care. The garrison commander already has the
press release drafted. The suit explained it calmly, as if
to a child. Ah, Mikey started, Can we just wait
few hours for Lee to get back? Michael, Michael, Michael.
I'm on a tight schedule. I don't want to wait,
and you don't get to dictate my schedule. He stepped

(01:20:11):
forward and placed an open hand, palm upward on Mike's shoulder.
Do you want to object? I can hear it. I
can hear your thoughts. His eyes closed as if in ecstasy,
and the words bit like a winter wind. Then he
leaned in, go ahead and say no, I dare you.

(01:20:31):
A single beat of sweat rolled down Mikey's nose and
fell to the floor. I'll do it, he said, softly,
eyes still downcast. I'm sorry, Michael, what was that? I
can't hear you? The suit smiled, with clenched teeth as
he bit out the last sentence. I'll do it, he
spoke up, avoiding the suit's gaze. Good. Good. The convoy

(01:20:55):
will be going through the city of faceless men soon.
You have forty five minutes starting. He looked at his watch.
Now Mikey locked eyes with me and shouted, echo, seventy five.
Get the keys rook, and get the truck ready to roll.
I began running as if a fight bell had rung,
releasing my pent up tension, ignoring the suit as Mikey

(01:21:17):
grabbed his tools. We jumped into the truck and Mikey
white knuckled it the entire way, breaking every speed limit
we came across. Once we were out of the contonement area,
we left the street lights and the semblance of civilization
behind to embrace the empty planes of the desert. Mikey
glanced in his rear view mirror. Damn it, he's following us.

(01:21:39):
He never does that with lee whatever. We'll meet him
in the city. He always likes to watch, he said
it with disgust. As we pulled into Moletown. The entire
city was bathed in night. Mikey let the truck idol
once we reached the generator too. All right, rook, get
in and kill the generator and then get yourself back

(01:21:59):
out here. Okay. I looked behind us to check for
the suit, but he was nowhere to be found. Then
I leapt out of the truck and ran inside. It
was a simple job, given the dangers involved in shutting
a generator off. I wondered why they didn't add some
sort of remote access, but chalked it up to budgeting

(01:22:19):
a stupid reason, which meant it was probably the right reason.
As the incandescent bulbs overhead dimmed, I was already running
out to the front of the building and diving into
the truck. As soon as I had my butt in
the seat, Mikey accelerated and killed the headlights. What the hell, dude,
I screamed at him. Those things can get us with
the lights off, he laughed, It takes him a little

(01:22:42):
while to come out of their hidie holes. Plus, I
don't really want the suit watching us right now. He
moved into a section of the city that was still lit,
and when he approached that section's generator, Mikey hit the brakes.
Right here, bro, he called over his shoulder without acknowledging me,
He disappe peered into the building for a few minutes
before returning. I pressed, what'd you do, man? He gave

(01:23:07):
me a sidelong glance. Nothing. Just had to make sure
the generator had the right atomount of fuel. All right,
we'll meet back up with the Suit. He'll be in
this sector, he pointed to the unfolded map on our
dash Right there, close enough to watch the convoy as
it moves into the darkened section of the city, about
far enough away to be protected by the light. He uh.

(01:23:30):
He likes to watch every time, and likes us to
be there until the job's done. We pulled up to
a building safely protected by the light, the Suits building.
When we climbed to the top, we found the Suit
standing near the edge, watching the darkness, smoking a cigar.
You know, I've really come to enjoy the products of humanity, creation, destruction, kindness, cruelty,

(01:23:55):
the dark and light against each other, and even your
own creations, your children. It's all just so right up
my alley, he shuddered in exuberance. To destroy your own creations.
There is no greater feeling of power of control than that,
And soon new creations will displace the old soon. The

(01:24:21):
suit glanced over at us and smiled, Well, maybe bending
your creations to your will is a greater rush. Tricking them,
convincing them to act against their own interests, that is
something else, altogether enjoyable too. It tastes a little different,
but still quite wonderful. His smile vanished. Oh, lighten up.

(01:24:43):
You're stuck with me. You're stuck working for me until
I see fit to release you from your task. You
might as well learn to have a little fun, his
face twisted in delight. And so it begins. You'd already
returned to watch the incoming convoy when we started to
hear the rumble of their engines, three vehicles in total,

(01:25:05):
packed with fifteen men. They were running under tactical blackout,
so their lights were off to prevent them from being
seen from the air. That's what their orders stated, So
that's what they did. I winced. They entered the darkened city,
driving onward without a care in the world. Suddenly the
tone shifted. The vehicles attempted to accelerate. At the same moment,

(01:25:28):
gunfire began erupting from the convoy. It wasn't long before
the vehicles turned down the main street that bisected the
city and raced in our direction toward the light. The
lead vehicle lost control as dark figures clutching its roof
and sides finally overwhelmed the driver. The vehicle turned sharply
and slammed into a wall, sending the faceless shapes flying about.

(01:25:50):
The scene was repeated two more times as the remaining
vehicles lost control. The faceless men were unfazed and popped
back up onto their feet and swarmed the survivors. Screams
echoed for agonizing moments as each in turn was silenced.
Not all were consumed, though some were dragged into the
buildings to an unknown fate. The remaining faceless forms stood

(01:26:12):
there in the street, facing us, watching us with non
existent eyes. Ah, you see, the suit spoke, savoring the moment.
They don't consume them all. Some they convert to continue
their ceaseless task, searching for the one that got away,
similar to the human heart. No, he laughed, and the

(01:26:34):
one that got away is actually quite close, but they
lack eyes to truly see. The lights in our section
of the city began to dim. What he screamed, what happened?
I think we ran out of fuel, Mikey stuttered. The
suits stomped over to him until their faces were nearly touching.
As I sat there, speechless, mind blank from fear, watching

(01:26:57):
it all unfold, the suit's eyes clenched tightly, as if
searching for something. He frowned, then opened his eyes. I
guess you're right, he conceded reluctantly. I need to leave now.
All three of us rushed downstairs to get our vehicles,
and in that chaotic darkness, Mikey slipped me a large

(01:27:17):
caliber handgun with a couple of magazines he pulled from
his toolbag. We stepped out of the building into the street,
and a half dozen faceless men were already arriving at
a trot. Two of them carried the large, unidentifiable things
I had seen the first time I was in the city.
Can you use your special time stopping power now, please,

(01:27:37):
I strained with my inner voice. The suit didn't even
acknowledge me, so I spoke out loud, it'd be really
cool if you could use your neat time stopping trick.
He turned to me, obviously rattled. He opened his mouth
to speak to perhaps make an excuse why he couldn't
in the presence of these things. But he saw the
gun in my hand and that in Mikey's Shoot you fools,

(01:28:01):
he screamed, and well, who was I to argue? He
had a point. Mikey and I drew on the advancing
things and opened fire. It had been years since I'd
gone to the range, but after the first few rounds,
I fell back into old routines. Two centers of mass,
shift to the next target, two center of mass, and

(01:28:21):
so on. To my surprise, hitting center of mass on
these things actually worked. Granted they were about as hard
to drop as someone wearing a light body armor, but
they went down. We kept moving forward, careful to balance
the burning, screaming desire to run to our truck with
basic survival needs of keeping rounds on target to drop

(01:28:41):
the faceless men before us. Am small miss small. In
the opening volley, we dropped three of the things, but
the remainder sprinted at us, making it even harder to
hit them. Mikey would swap a magazine while I fired,
then I'd do so in reverse. We were careful to
keep one way and singing at all times, like we

(01:29:02):
were anything more than amateurs. Thirty feet turned to twenty
twenty to ten, ten to five. Only one of them
remained standing, and it leapt for Mikey, swatting his weapon
away and tackling him to the ground. It held him
down and began to feed off him. In each moment
I took to aim. Its void peeled parts of Mikey away,

(01:29:23):
molecule by molecule, and consumed them. The tendril of life
linking Mikey to the faceless man grew as more and
more skin was stripped away into the void. I fired once, twice,
three times. At the end, the faceless Man was down,
and I couldn't hear a damn thing over the ringing
in my ears. As I dragged Mikey to the truck,

(01:29:44):
the suit was gone. The dust from his car's speedy
exit still hung in the air, bearing witness to our abandonment.
Through the ringing of my ears, I could hear the
eternal screams of more the faceless men approaching. I could
barely make out an inaudible plea beckoning me toward them.
I heaved Mikey into the back of the cab, and
before I jumped in, I saw the thing they had dropped,

(01:30:06):
laying discarded on the ground and avoid relic indecipherable in nature,
and yet something compelled me, against my better judgment, to
take it. So I did. I chucked it into the
truck and fled, defeated and afraid. In the rear view mirror,
I thought I could see the bodies of dead, faceless men,
illuminated by our tail lights, no longer faceless at the

(01:30:29):
end of it all. When Mikey finally regained consciousness on
the drive back, he whispered to me, We've got We've
got to get Sarah. We've got to get the generators
back up, and don't worry about it, man, don't worry.
We're going to get you patched up, and then we've
got it covered, easy peasy. I suddenly felt exhausted, But

(01:30:51):
one question remained. What did you do to the generator?
Not much, just made sure it had the right amount
of fuel to shut off. While he was gloating in
another one of his lonely rants, I hate that murderous
prick did the work how I wanted it to, almost
had him. His power is not work around the faceless men.

(01:31:11):
As you may have noticed, he chuckled a little, wincing
from the pain as the wounds on his face, continued
to ooze. How did you convince the suit you didn't
know you can read your thoughts. How can you lie
to a mind reader? He smiled. I didn't lie. I
focused on the truth. I focused so hard my thoughts

(01:31:31):
didn't stray. I focused on the fact that I did
check to make sure the fuel level was adequate, adequate
to screw him over. But I didn't think about that part.
I focused on that and might desire to flee. I
did my mind and focused everything I had on those truths.
Aim small, miss small. Rule number nine, maintain perimeter security. Listen.

(01:31:59):
This is one of the most basic rules out there,
as anyone who's ever carried a rifle will tell you.
But it's number nine on the list. Why, well, it's
probably the fourth most important. The twelfth rule, well, that
is the most important one. Math doesn't make sense, Well
it will. There are twelve rules. I'll let's figure that out,

(01:32:21):
or don't stick around, and I'll tell you. I'll be honest.
When I was trying to frame this narrative and digest
my experiences into a cohesive series of events, I actually
had to leave a lot of rules out there are
a ton of rules as anybody in any job ever
will tell you, such as don't crap where you eat,

(01:32:43):
or don't sleep around the office kind of the same deal,
I guess, or don't piss on the boss's cat. But
this one is up there at the top. Story time
before storytime. Once when I was a young buck full
of hormones and certainty, I was an infantry man. How
the mighty have fallen? Right? I was on perimeter security

(01:33:05):
with another dude. We were m two forty nine gunners.
Big gun go boom boom, scary but not too scary,
five point five to six millimeter scary, not seven point
six two millimeter or Medusa scary. Controlling the entry exit
point to our outpost. It was training, so no big deal,
right wrong, Cadre tests you more than the enemy. It

(01:33:30):
took a wink, thinking my battle buddy would cover me,
but he took a wink too. Crappy communication, but we
were twenty years old, give us a break. Well, Cadre
walked up and tapped my dumb ass on the helmet.
Hey sleeping, no? And then there I was, in the

(01:33:50):
middle of the night, soaking my own sweat like a
prime roast and a slow cooker with my squad automatic
weapon held high over my head whilst I maintained a
squat position for thirty minutes. Frickin' awful. Anyway, perimeter security
is no joke. It is war fighting one oh one,
that and fireguard. But anyway, different story for a different time.

(01:34:15):
Where was I perimeter security? On a cold January evening?
There was a National Guard unit that was training on
a small mount site. That's a couple shipping containers with
doors so they could practice breaching and room cleaning in
a simulated town. They were ambitious for the National Guard.
They came out with a couple of ten ton trucks

(01:34:36):
with a bunch of concertina wire that's razor wire in
the civilian world. They had glow sticks for safety on
the concertina wire and twenty four hour operational command post
roaming perimeter security the whole works. Things get a little
tricky though, because no one told them they weren't allowed
to set up the range. This was a range that

(01:34:56):
was strictly off limits overnight. The nine PM the lights
would shut off due to some snaffoos in communication. Sarah
and I found ourselves heading out to a location two
ranges down from where these folks were to help a
unit with a power outage. We get to the place
that we were told to go to and no one
was there. Big surprise, Colm's working as expected. Then we

(01:35:22):
put out an all call on the range control frequency
and got some squirrely private trying to tell me where
they actually were, So we jumped over to their company
frequency to hash things out. Long story short, we do
a who's on first bit and finally figure out where
they are. Good timing, Sarah said. I rolled my eyes.

(01:35:43):
What now, they aren't supposed to be camping out on
that range. Either someone cleared them that shouldn't have or
they went ahead and did it. Anyway, it's a coin flip.
So do we go help them, tell them to clear
out or what Sarah thought for a few moments, how
about we watch that's so romantic, I said jokingly, before

(01:36:07):
getting a vicious straight to the arm ow. Hey back
in super strength too. Geez, watch it, rook. You don't
want none of this, she shot back, making exaggerated karate
knife hands. From the shadows behind my seat, she pulled
out two objects the crack of the can, which certainly
did not contain alcohol because we were on the clock.

(01:36:30):
It did was unmistakable and passed me one lady of
the lake. She shot me a dirty look, and then
the show began. The radio chirped two five. This is
Hotel Romeo. Has your security made its way back? Yet
they missed their check in twice? Now, the radio operator
for the command post stated, calmly negative, Hotel Romeo. A

(01:36:53):
groggy voice responded, after a delay, I'm gonna go check
on him. Wait one couple, it's passed, Hotel Romeo. This
is two five. The Century is ineffective. He uh, he's unconscious.
I'm getting the medic over here to check him out. Meanwhile,
can you get three six to send someone up? All
my guys just got off duty, Roger out. More time

(01:37:18):
passed before the radio chirped again, three six, where's your Century?
Two five was supposed to be relieved. I can't reach
anyone at the entry point, Hotel Romeo. This is three six.
Sent my sentry out twenty minutes ago. Like he asked
to relieve him thirty six. No one is answering my
radio checks. Indistinct cursing could be heard. Where are those

(01:37:40):
mechanics anyway? We need to get the power back up. Now,
I'm gonna check on the century. Wait one more time passed?
What five three six is out of contact? Can you
please send someone? Silence on five? Silence, The radio chirped again. Hey,
can I command? Sarah sat forward suddenly. Who's this? The

(01:38:05):
radio operator for the command post asked, I just want
to take a rest. Can I command twenty five? Is
that you, dude? I mean the sergeant. This isn't funny,
the radio operator replied nervously. The radio crackled for a while.
How do you know if I'm a sergeant? A sergeant more?
This isn't cool. Okay, funny joke, ha ha, mess with

(01:38:27):
the private good times? Right? My relief didn't show up.
No one else's answering the calls. This is pretty messed up.
Just let me in, it'll be fine. What do you mean,
the radio operator replied, you're in the shipping container. The
doors are closed. Just open them. The boys replied silence.
I uh I, it's okay, just open them. I'm okay,

(01:38:51):
the radio operator responded in a trance like state. Sarah
looked over at me and hurled her empty can into
the back seat. Okay, look here we go. What are
we doing? I asked, scusey, dooby doo, where are you?
We got some work to do now, She sang, slightly
out of tune. Creepy as hell, Sarah, ooh, come on,

(01:39:13):
we're going to keep those poor asses from dying. And
she drifted off as she started the engine and put
the truck into gear. We're going to get ourselves a
special souvenir. Her broad smile was clear as day in
the moonlight. It was beautiful. We sped down the road
towards their camp, kicking up dust in our wake. When
we finally arrived, it was plain to say that no

(01:39:35):
one was conscious. We pulled up and killed the lights
before getting out. Two guards at the entry exit point
were unconscious or dead, which briefly brought my memory from
basic training back to the surface. It was then I
noticed I was a little uncomfortable with our so called
plan to get a souvenir. What are we doing here, Sarah, han,

(01:39:59):
you worry too uch, I've got you covered. Oh and
follow me here. Take this. She tossed a pack of
zip ties to me. Open them and have three ready
to go. Okay, my hands are going to be a
little too occupied to get them out. She cracked her knuckles.
We crept through the perimeter without drawing attention. The guards

(01:40:19):
actually were sleeping, thankfully, but it was unclear if their
current state was permanent or a temporary stop on the
way to something much worse. They were collapsed forms, strown about,
as if someone just fell to the ground the middle
of whatever they were doing. We moved quietly to the
shipping container that obviously housed the command center. We stacked

(01:40:41):
up near the half open door, and she pressed a
solitary index finger to her lips and smiled. Before I
could even conceive of a protest, she rushed in, and
after a moment's hesitation, I followed What was in that
shipping container I couldn't describe. As soon as I entered,
I felt dizzy, short of breath, forgetting where I was

(01:41:03):
or why. I wanted to sit down and take a rest,
but something about Sarah's urgency pushed me onward. I could
see the radio operator on the ground as my cone
of vision narrowed, but I can also see Sarah wrestling
with something, some form. I heard screams and shrieks, but
they weren't hers. I continued stumbling forward due to mobentum

(01:41:25):
with one outstretched arm. I held three zip ties and
then everything went black. I awoke to a dawning son
and Sarah standing over me, smiling in pure joy. What
I croaked? What happened? Sleepy? You took a nap? But now, really,
we saved a bunch of guys' lives before they went

(01:41:45):
into respiratory failure. Oh. She just shook her head vigorously,
and look, she daggled something in her hands, a souvenir.
It was a horn of some sort. As soon as
she put it into my field of vision, I started
to feel dizzy again, slipping back into darkness. Oh crap,

(01:42:05):
she cried, Sorry, sorry, you're right, don't look. Just know
we got a souvenir. She stashed it back in her pocket.
What was that thing? And you, well, wait, how did
you remove that horn? I call it the sleeper because
I'm just so creative. It's just another one of the

(01:42:26):
things that roams at night. One of the centuries talked
to it, thinking it was a person, then let it
into the perimeter. That's why we don't let folks camp
out here. You ever hear this thing asking to be
let in, you ignore it, You yage it in conversation.
You look at it, then it has you, not me, obviously,
another perk of my condition where its power is useless.

(01:42:49):
As for the horn, well, she pulled out her gerber
and with a flick of the wrist, extended the pliers
and started clacking them. This in some elbow grease. Had
to restrain it first, though, thanks for not passing out
like a woosp before getting the zip ties to me though,
you you're a savage. Where is it the sleeper? I'm

(01:43:13):
a catch and release girl myself. I let it go.
Why would you do that if it can kill folks?
I trailed off, She shrugged. People follow the rules and
the sleeper is never a problem. Plus it can come
in handy from time to time. What for, I asked skeptically.
She looked a little sheepish. Ooh, I don't know. I

(01:43:36):
rolled my eyes. Oh crap, what did Mikey put you
up to? Now? The suit said something to you and
Mikey remember he's a bit long winded, but he said
something along the lines of soon new creations will displace
the old, right, I nodded, Well, he kind of thinks
of himself as a god, so that would mean he

(01:43:58):
thinks of us as his creations. Somehow I finished for
her right and I don't know about you, but being
replaced doesn't sound so good. So we need to figure
out what exactly he meant. And this she patted her
pocket might just come in handy Rule number ten. Keep

(01:44:36):
it simple, stupid, bear with me on this one, folks,
We're going to go for a ride. And if you
haven't listened through to the other rules, well don't start here.
It's not going to make any sense. Complex planning, civil
or military, is one of the most difficult skills to master.
It requires abstract thought. It requires an ability to think

(01:44:57):
along multiple different streams at once and to an vision
how those streams interact with one another. It requires the
ability to task prioritize. It requires you to understand not
only the technical details, but the personal ones too. The
most important part of any plan is the people. If

(01:45:17):
you know your people, if you understand them, train them
and develop them, they can do wonderful and amazing things.
And if you ignore and abuse them, well, people are smart,
people are creative. People can also throw a wrench into
things if they are so inclined. I don't think the
suit ever really understood people. I walked into the breakroom

(01:45:42):
of our shop and sat down next to Lee, my supervisor.
After the stresses of our last encounter with the Suit
and the suspicions Sarah raised, I had to know more
so what happened to the new guy? Lee kept reading
the article on his phone, rating accident. Really, he glanced over. No,

(01:46:05):
not really. He looked at the others. Well, well, what
do you think rule three man? I shrugged, Yeah, I mean, uh, okay,
I'll just get to my point. The suit had us
go do your stupid job because you were out playing
your wager game. But despite all, he didn't want to

(01:46:26):
interrupt the game. Why he put down his phone because
the others aren't within his domain of power. They are
beyond it. They are completely unfriggin related to it, unlike
just about every other oddity around here. That's why he
doesn't want to mess with things that might just be
more powerful than he is. I took it in okay,

(01:46:49):
that that makes about as much sense as anything I can.
I suppose does he have anything else for us? I
mean it's been pretty quiet, Lee smiled. Yeah. As a
matter of fact, he asked for you specifically. He doesn't
trust Mikey after what happened in Moletown and Sarah. Well,
let's just say he doesn't know about Sarah and I'm

(01:47:12):
not about ready to let him, so that leaves you
and me. Okay, cut the crap. Why do you take it?
Why do you act like such an ass. You don't
have to You could leave, Lee cut me off. No,
I can't. My son is the biggest part of this,
but not the only one. The suit likes having dependable
little worker bees. Once he decides he likes a worker bee,

(01:47:35):
he doesn't let them leave. Your predecessor tried to leave.
Look what happened to him. That's why you are even
here to begin with. He shook his head vigorously. Nah no,
I'm stuck here with my kid or without. And now
he's noticed you too, something about you saving him or something.

(01:47:56):
Lee winced, you should have just dropped the gun and
let the face man, have you all? I pondered that
for a moment. I was sooth concerned with saving my
own but I didn't even think about it. Okay, fair enough,
But do you know what he's up to? Lee laughed. Yeah, man,
I can't quite get my head around the why of it.

(01:48:18):
But Jared. I know what he's doing, and he's creating things,
monstrous things. Most of them are one offs, but not all.
Why else is this such an epicenter for crap that
doesn't make sense. He makes these things with powers I
can't understand, and then releases them when they no longer

(01:48:39):
amuse him. He wants to subsume humanity with another of
his creations. He says he made mankind, but I don't
believe it. I think he's jealous of whatever or whoever
actually might have made us. He lies about creating us
because we're a testament to the fact that he's not

(01:48:59):
a god. Thou shalt not worship no other god or
some such. He's arrogant. He's a freaking delusion on it.
He knows I think it, but he apparently doesn't care.
He made the mimic, and that rook is probably his
final project he wants. He thinks it's funny to replace

(01:49:19):
us with an apex predator that can't be differentiated from
normal people. He embraces the chaos and fear that will
cause as mimics spread and subsume humanity. He also enjoys
our chaos, but the confusion of such an intrusion, the violence,
the collapse. It's it's insane, this whole genocide. It wouldn't

(01:49:46):
just be entertainment to him, both entertainments and I guess
wiping the board clean of anything. He didn't create, anything
not in his control, spitting in the eye of whatever
on fatho the little beings created us and imprisoned him.
Why don't you stop it, I asked, defeated. How he

(01:50:08):
can read my mind? Man, he can react before I do.
It's I don't know how. I focus on what I
can do, what I can change. That's the only way
to stay saying I'm bitter, rook, I'm angry. But enough
about all of that. You got to go and meet
the suit. Remember the range northwest of the post that

(01:50:31):
they turned into a wildlife refuge. He's out there. You
won't be stopped. Go. The drive out was uneventful. I
passed the normal menagerie of traffic on a late afternoon
folks running food and ammo out to ranges that were
still hot. Other units clearing ranges and heading to their billets,

(01:50:52):
got trucks, junk food GSAs government civilian vehicles, and range
control folks just going about their normal daily routines. As
I crept further northwestward and the pavement turned to dirt,
the traffic dropped off. Soon I was alone on the road.
The dirt road became narrower and less well kempt, until

(01:51:15):
finally I reached an ancient gatehouse straddling the boundary between
the base and the wildlife refuge. I stopped, unsure of
what came next, when suddenly the gate started to open
on its own, beckoning me onward. Thankfully, there was just
one road, and it led right to an old munitions
bunker tucked away in a draw between two hills. Outside

(01:51:38):
were parked several vehicles, including none other than the suits
black sedan. I made it to the door to the
bunker and it opened for me. On queue, I was
met by a blank faced man and a lab coat
who led me in. The facility was much larger than
it looked on the outside, which was to be expected.
I guess I never been inside a munitions bunker, so

(01:52:00):
made sense that there'd be a lot of it underground.
A followed the man through a maze of equipment and
containment cells which would have previously been used to segregate
and secure different types of heavy munitions, but were now
imprisoning many things much more unique. The darkness prevented me
from seeing clearly, but in one I could see Chris

(01:52:21):
laying on a cot in another, and ethereal form in another,
something resembling a demon. Just as quickly as those glimpses came,
they went. My mind was reeling, and every junction I
passed was guarded by twisted versions of men with empty,
soulless eyes. Then I was standing in front of the suit.

(01:52:44):
So you're good with high voltage equipment, generators and such, yes,
he started, without pretense. I nodded, I'm certified. Wonderful. I
had a falling out, shall we say, with our plant manager.
He tried to kill the power in the facility, and well,
his position was vacated. The job's yours. He clasped his

(01:53:09):
hands together with a smile. You helped me escape, and well,
you were kind of my only choice right now. But
I don't need to tell you what would happen if
you were to become a problem, do I? I shook
my head vigorously, and he continued, good, and don't worry,
it's temporary. Soon we'll be shutting this facility down sheepishly,

(01:53:33):
I asked, So where do you want me and what
are the rules? Am I stuck here? What? No? No,
You'll just be on call with some additional duties. When
not here, you will be back with lee. And with
that he shoot me out of his office, and I
was back in the corridor, face to face with the

(01:53:53):
man in a lab coat. Fellow be, I'll give you
a breakdown of your duties and where the equipment is.
We went deeper into the facility than the man. Gabriel
explained how things worked here. I mean that literally, he
the mechanics of it. Boring stuff. However, as we neared
the generator room, nestled deep within the darkest depths of

(01:54:15):
the bunker, we came across a bank of chambers. I
slowed and peered in. He uh is pretty open about
what's going on in here, isn't he? I asked. Gabriel shrugged. Yes.
Though you flee, he'll find you. But he doesn't see
any of us as a threat. No matter what we do.

(01:54:36):
We try to speak out, and he appears and well
obviously know what has been able to speak out. He
knows nobody could do anything to stop him. He looked sad.
At the last, a defeated man resigned to servitude. I
leaned closer in to the viewing pain of the first chamber,
and in it a faceless man paced. I walked to

(01:54:58):
the next and soft form on the ground, unmoving yet
clearly in the process of some sort of transformation or infection.
And the next I saw a naked man pacing around
and uttering nonsense. Yeah, it's the infection. Does it take it?
Everyone about what it ted? Baby? The rest go insane?

(01:55:20):
Die Gabriel opened up to me, unprompted. Sure, the faceless
mad can affect you if they choose, but that's not
always how it was before the affection was spread by
the local fauda well, one species, in particular, the tortoise.
Where the effection came from, How it spread I don't know,

(01:55:40):
but it's part of an ecosystem. It refills the well
of the other reality with the sacrifices of this wood.
It's like a sabbath swimming upstreamed spad. It turns bed
it only bed into faceless ones, or it kills them
and well they I jumped as hand rested on my shoulder.

(01:56:01):
The suit was standing right behind us. What are you
guys talking about, he asked coolly. Gabriel clammed up and
looked downwards. Your pets, I opened, He smiled at that. Ah, Yes,
they are fascinating. Aren't they dangerous too? I've actually used
them to help me shape other rather fun projects. The

(01:56:26):
transformation is especially interesting. It subsumes the original identity and
imparts fantastic gifts, including agelessness, but they retain mortality. There
is still so much I don't understand about them. But
do you remember the mimic, right, he asked? Yeah, of course,

(01:56:48):
that's my pride and joy directly inspired by these wretches.
He scoffed. You mean you didn't create them. You didn't
create a us, I asked inoculantly, his face reddened. I
created something better than you both. It just needs a
little bit of tweaking before I release it, and then

(01:57:11):
I get to watch the fall of everything my dearly
departed brothers and sisters ever loved. Oh. I can hear
the wheels spinning in your mind, the realization. But I
also know, just as you do, that you can't stop me.
At once, I was frozen, and a familiar burning sensation

(01:57:34):
shot up my arms. I could see. Gabriel was motionless.
Time itself stopped. Don't you ever compare me to my siblings. Never,
they were jealous of me, so they imprisoned me. They
subjected me to endless torture at the hands of those
His hands shot out, pointing to the faceless men, those demons,

(01:57:57):
and cursed humanity with the burden of sustaining my eternal
prison with their own flesh and blood through the disease.
But this isn't the only place where that's true. No,
it takes a lot of blood to sustain that prison,
a lot more than can be found out here. He
caught his breath and began to calm, just as my

(01:58:19):
inability to breathe was about to cause me to black out,
and then he released me. I gasped and fell to
the deck, followed by a Gabriel. My siblings created humanity
and all the rest, but I uplifted you. For that,
I was cursed with eternal suffering. I was Humanity's greatest champion.

(01:58:42):
But no, my siblings hypocrisies and cruelty could not tolerate it.
I uplifted you, and then they burdened you with cruelty
to match their own despite me. Then he began weeping.
Then they tortured me until I'd become as lost and

(01:59:02):
monstrous as they. That rage sustained me. I honed the
powers we are imbued with over an eternity. I bent
one of their servants that straddled the division between this
reality and the prison to my will and forced her
to release me when they had become complacent. Then I

(01:59:23):
committed them all, my dear brothers and sisters, to the void,
an eternity not of suffering, but of maddening nothingness. In
that way, you could say I am merciful, but it
doesn't matter now I'm over it. It's almost over. His

(01:59:46):
calm demeanor and smile returned. You shouldn't ask questions like
that again, Rook. I might find I don't need you
after all. On the other hand, serve me well, and
you may survive as a favored pet among my new dominion.
I struggled to suppress a thought that was screaming in

(02:00:07):
the back of my mind. This plan relies on compliance
of the very people you wish to destroy. Each person
you tell complicates it all and increases the chance of
it all coming down. He smiled, clearly able to hear
my thoughts. No, that's where you were wrong. There's nothing
anyone can do to stop it. Many have tried, all

(02:00:31):
have failed. Rule number eleven. Fight until you can't Hi. Know,

(02:01:00):
these rules are getting a little more nebulous than the first,
but this is intentional. As you go through life, age,
and climb those social ladders, things get more complicated. It
becomes less about following arbitrary rules blindly and more about
incorporating the ethos of those rules into your being. The

(02:01:20):
more important the rule, the more it needs to become
second nature resilience. In the course of everyone's lives, we
face setbacks. The cold hand of reality will knock us
to the ground and will beat us down until we
give up, or until we fight hard enough to get up,
or until we get lucky, or until we use our

(02:01:41):
trickery or our speed or our clause. You know metaphorically well,
that defeat can happen again and again and again. The
main point here is how you recover and push on
despite hardship, how you adapt and overcome. Is how resilient

(02:02:01):
we are in the overwhelming face of defeat. You can
get beat down seven times in a row. You need
to get up eight. You need to rise again and
continue the fight. Never accept defeat, fight until you can't.
I know he's up to something, the suit said, frustrated.

(02:02:23):
I just don't know what. He glanced at me. What
do you know? I haven't spoken to him much since
he got back from the hospital. I'm not sure. Why
does he interest you all of a sudden, I asked,
He sided intuition. It's my nature. I've watched people try
to betray me for so long that I can sense

(02:02:45):
it coming. Michael has a small chance of making it
more annoying than normal. However, he grimaced. He knows too much.
I bit my lip and tried to concentrate on the
slight stench of mildew in the air, indicative of not
quite adequate pumps for the bunker. I don't trust him.

(02:03:07):
I sensed something. He was and is hiding something from me.
I just don't know what that. He waved his hands,
beckoning me to leave. That night at the shop, I
was crowded into the bay under an incapacitated Emlon abrams
with Lee, Mikey and Sarah. Listen. It's worse than I

(02:03:29):
ever thought possible. That mimic. We hunted a while back
that was his prototype. I think the whole reason it
got loose was because the previous plant manager, I shuddered,
felt he had to act and cut the power, causing
the mimic to escape. It replaced Chris and less than
two minutes without so much as a sound. There's no

(02:03:50):
telling how bad that can get. Wants to suit perfects
it or hell even just decides to release it as
it is. He wants to destroy humanity because he's delusional.
He told me Prometheus's story to try and get sympathy
from me. I was nearly shouting, and I almost believed him.
Sarah looked down at her feet and took a deep breath.

(02:04:10):
He might not be lying about that. All three of
us looked at her, dumbfounded. You saw what the faceless
men do to me every time I'm used as a sacrifice.
Imagine that for eons. That was the Suit's fate, Tortured
but not able to die. He is a mortal like me,
you know, imagine that suffering forever, No wonder he's where

(02:04:35):
he is. You sympathize with him, I asked, Confused, She
held up a hand. No, no, I just empathize, don't
you judge me. You don't know what it's like to
be conscious while demons feed upon you, causing just as
much pain in the beginning as in the end. What
that could do to your mind over eons? She shook

(02:04:58):
her head. No evil he may be, but he had
evil done to him too. None of it was right.
Lee spoke first, Well what do we do? He was cool,
almost free of worry, despite the circumstances. We have to fight,
We have to do something, Mikey responded passionately. Sarah was

(02:05:20):
silent in thought. I spoke first, why don't we use
the others to help us get a bargain? And Lee
stopt me. If he really wants something, they will never
give it to you because it won't amuse them. Don't
be naive. We can't go to them. Mikey spoke next, Well,
they could take him through the aperture somehow, Sarah interrupted,

(02:05:45):
how would you lure him? And how would you secure
the lure? You've seen what he can do. I was
about to speak when Mikey got red in the face.
Damn it, Sarah, what am I supposed to do? I'm
always coming up with ways to deal with this evil
son of a bitch, and you always shoot me down,
and you never offer any frigging answers, no explanation for

(02:06:05):
your abilities or how you know so much about the suit.
Makes me think you're trying to protect him. He shouted, you,
even making excuses for his senseless slaughter innocence. Did you
help him escape? Is that what this is about? Your
memories have been returning since stuff's been going off the rails.
You remember that far back? Yet? Huh? I'm remembering a

(02:06:28):
lot more, but I'm not. I didn't, Sarah started. Before
Lee jumped in, Mike had calmed down. You know how
powerful he is. What do you expect us to do
almost frigging out him in a mold town? What have
you or Sarah ever done to even slowest progress? Mikey?
Just a minute, Mikey shot back. Now this is bull crap.

(02:06:51):
Humanity is gonna end, and we need act. He kicked
open the door and sprinted to his truck before peeling out.
Lee and Sarah I looked at each other. I go
get him. Sarah nodded without showing any emotion, and then
Lee took off. Neither Lee nor Mikey had returned for
over an hour before I got worried. I checked my

(02:07:13):
cell nervously, awaiting a call from the suit, but none came.
I decided then that I needed to act. I'm going, Sarah.
I have to know if he's okay. The best way,
as I see it, is to head back to the
suit's bunker and check. I grabbed my tool bag, planning
to use preventive maintenance as a pretext to returning so soon.

(02:07:37):
Sarah looked at me with a sad smile. Okay, just
be careful. I turned to leave and paused, Do you
remember anything else about the suit that could help me
before I go? No, this is how it needs to be.
I could tell she was lying about the first part,

(02:07:57):
but I didn't press it. The suit won't be able
to read my mind and figure out whatever she was
up to if I didn't even have a clue. I
shrugged and left. When I pulled up to the bunker,
I could see both Mikey's truck clearly marked with the
white E seven to five bumper number, parked haphazardly near
the entryway, and in the place of the suit's car

(02:08:19):
was Lee's own vehicle. I walked over to the bunker
door and keyed the code in. When it opened, I
found myself face to face with one of the disfigured guards.
I just came back for some preventive maintenance. I don't
know if the last guy I kept up to date
with all that needs to happen to keep the generators up.
We wouldn't want to have a power out of your thing,
would we. The guard grunted and stepped aside, letting me pass.

(02:08:43):
I stalked through the cramped hallways, peeking into each cell,
looking for any sign of Mikey or Lee. Contrary to
my expectation, I ended up finding them in the suit's office.
I was down the hall and still out of sight,
peeking from the shadows. What I saw ah caused my
heart to sink. Mikey was bruised, beaten, and being held

(02:09:05):
in the suit's temporal grasp. Mikey was unable to move,
and only the barely perceptible muscle tension indicated he was
an immense pain. Lee. I'm so very glad you were
on my side and that you caught this snake before
he could annoy me any more than he already has.
The suit turned his gaze to Mikey. Nice trick at Moletown,

(02:09:28):
by the way, Lee told me all about it. The
only question now is what to do with you, traitor.
The suit seemed genuinely elated at the prospect of punishing Mikey.
Lee smiled and glanced down. Well, he could give him
to the mimic, or maybe put him with one of

(02:09:49):
the faceless men. The suit rubbed his chin. Hm. Either way,
it'd be quick, perhaps too quick. What to do? What
to do? Then an idea came to him. Let's do this.
Let's give him to the mimic and then set it
loose into the population. What I really like about the

(02:10:12):
mimic is how it binds and sustains the victim's consciousness
for a time. As it replaces the victim top to bottom.
Mikey will be able to watch helplessly while his consciousness
slowly fades to nothingness as his stolen form ushers in
the end of humanity. Yes, that would be a perfect

(02:10:34):
punishment for disobedience. It moves our time line up. But
after thinking about it, Rooke was probably right. I overcomplicate
things for symbolic purposes. We can just go ahead and
get started. Lee looked up perfect I darted down the
hallway as Lee escorted a defeated and bound Mikey, now

(02:10:57):
free of the suit's power, up to the Mimic's cell.
I knew I didn't have any time to act, and
only one idea occurred to me. I headed down to
the depths of the bunker, toward the cells of the
Faceless Men, towards the generator. I rushed forward, careful to
slow down as I passed hideous yet powerful guards, in

(02:11:18):
a vain attempt to not look like I was in
a rush. I'm sure I looked pale, and if any
of the guards could read a human face, I'd be screwed.
But they couldn't. I had the protection of the Suit
for now, but I was about to blow through all
of his good will. I opened the final door between
me and the Faceless Men's cells and was met with

(02:11:40):
a terrible blow to the face. My vision blurred and
I saw stars. There before me was Gabriel. I knew
you'd be a problem, I told the Suit. I told
him you'd try something slick. You think you could eavesdrop
and not get noticed. We have cabras everywhere. Crap. I

(02:12:01):
dove forward for a tackle, and Gabriel sprawled demonstrating far
more physicality than a man his age had any business having.
In the course of his sprawl, he drove my face
straight into the concrete floor. I almost blacked out from
the pain. I managed to grab one of his ankles
and pushed off the ground with all my might, twisting
to lift him off his feet. It worked, sort of.

(02:12:23):
He went to the ground and I was up, struggling
to maintain a dominant position. I was only able to
land two hits before Gabriel delivered another devastating blow to
my temple, causing my legs to buckle and me to
collapse on top of him. I struggled for breath. I
struggled to stay conscious, and somehow was able to escape
Gabriel's defensive guard and stand back up in an unstable

(02:12:45):
boxer's stance. Oh kabad rook, I'm not even breathing hard
a perk of following the wood. True, God, you're dud.
It's over. A new domidiate is upon us. I lurched
forward with a jab, which Gabriel easily blocked, and then
he shifted into a counter strike to my solar plexus.
I collapsed, unable to breathe stay dout. It's over. If

(02:13:09):
you make me kill you, you won't get to have
any thud with the suit. You can't have that. The
monster of a man continued to talk, though through the
ringing in my ears and my semi delirious state from
repeated blows to the head, I only caught bits and pieces,
something about the coming end, the fickle, and a moral

(02:13:31):
carelessness of God's, the worship of chaotic impulse. I don't know.
I couldn't make sense of it. I made another attempt
to move, and Gabriel delivered a blow to my side,
more powerful than the rest. The kick was accompanied by
an inaudible crack as at least one of my ribs broke.
I collapsed, unable to think or move as my vision

(02:13:52):
started to dim from the pain. Gabriel walked to the
wall and picked up the phone. He punched in a number,
and almost immediately I could hear this suit's voice. Smiling,
Gabriel said, you need to come down here. I have
an offering for you. Rule number twelve. Never leave a

(02:14:26):
fallen comrade. This is it. This is the end, the
last rule, the most important, and the longest. If you
haven't listened to the other rules, do so now or else,
None of this will make a lick of sense. The
cold concrete pressed against my cheek helped me to cling

(02:14:48):
to consciousness barely. I'd been careless, I'd acted without thinking,
and now I'd pay the price. We'd all pay the price.
My thoughts drifted to Lee's treachery. We never had chance.
I then thought about Sarah. How could she have let
us fail so miserably? Why didn't she want to help?

(02:15:11):
One moment she seemed loving and supportive, the next, cold
and distant at one time, wanting to act, the next
avoiding confronting the suit at all costs. I felt betrayed,
abandoned Rule twelve, never leave a fallen comrade, Mikey pulling

(02:15:31):
my knees to my chest, I placed my palms down
flat and began to rise. I got into a crouch tentatively,
and found my feet surprisingly functional, even as shooting pain
emanated from my broken ribs. Gabriel wasn't facing me yet
and hadn't heard me stand. I looked to the cell
door past him, whose viewing window contained a faceless man

(02:15:53):
who had pressed itself against the glass in a faceless
man's void. I was treated to images that made little sense,
all but one an image of a guard punching in
the code for the cell door. The digits were clearly visible.
Rule eleven. Fight until you can't screw it. I launched

(02:16:16):
myself at Gabriel with the last of my strength. I
caught him by surprise, slamming him into the cell door.
Dropping my level, I gripped his waist like a vice
as I attempted to key in the three digit code.
Before he could process what was happening, A stabbing pain
shot through my back as Gabriel brought an elbow down.
The cell door unlocked and opened. As we spilled into

(02:16:37):
the cell. The sudden loss of the door as a
firm surface to mount his defense caused Gabriel to flail
and fall. We sprawled out as the faceless man descended
upon Gabriel. I scrambled to exit the cell and lock
it behind me. The faceless man made no effort to
stop me as he consumed Gabriel, a tacit approval of
my ends. Gabriel's shrieks slowly embedded and then ceased altogether

(02:17:02):
as he was consumed by the void, still struggling to
breathe and stay standing, I made my way to the generator.
The door behind me, which led to the rest of
the facility, creaked open ominously. Expecting the Suit, I turned
rule number ten, keep it simple, stupid, There stood Lee,

(02:17:23):
Hey rook, Oh, you traitor, I gasped through the stabbing
pain in my chest. He sighed, easy, easy, We don't
have much time, Sarah said, you were on your way.
We have to go. Mikey's counting on us. Everyone's counting
on us. I what My anger melted away, replaced by

(02:17:44):
guarded confusion. The Suit doesn't understand people. He's so confident
he knows all the variables and that he's defeated our
will to resist. Well, he doesn't get people. I'll be honest.
You and Mikey have thrown a wrench into things, but
if we can pull it off, it may end up
being cleaner than our original plan. The Suit thinks he's
the only one who can see past his own nose.

(02:18:06):
He rubbed his temples. Listen, Mikey's outside the mimic cell,
waiting for the power to go out so we can
steal it and lure the Suit out of here. I
want you to get up there. Let Sarah in I'll
cut the power and then head up. Lee walked over
to the wall phone, picked it up and dialed Sarah.
It's Lee. Weere ago. Give me one minute. It's time

(02:18:27):
for you to get to work. Also, I'm sending Rook
up to let you in. Then we're getting the mimic
and we're getting the hell out of here. There was
indistinct chatter. Now he's a little worse for wear, but
he's alive. He'll live. Lee hung up the phone. Go
so I left. No alarms had been raised yet, so
the guards remained at their posts, unconcerned that anything might

(02:18:51):
be amiss. I climbed out of the belly of the bunker,
careful to hide the pain I was in. I made
it all the way to the entrance of the bunker
without incident. As I stepped towards the panel to open
the door, the guard standing near by grabbed my wrist
and squeezed so tightly paint shot up my arm. What
are you doing, it gasped through barely functional lips when saying,

(02:19:13):
I squeezed a response through clenched teeth. I left a
set of tools I needed my truck. I'll cover right back.
It's easy peasy. The creature thought for a few moments
and released its grip. It grunted. I reached forward and
opened the door Rule nine maintain perimeter security. Sarah stood
there with a small object in her hand and a

(02:19:33):
large one strapped to her back in the bag on
her back. I could see some movement, but then the
sleeper's horn held in her hand caused me to start
to lose consciousness. I clenched my eyes shut, using the
wall to help me keep my balance. I waited until
I heard the guard collapse, and Sarah gave me an
all clear. Hey, sleepy, you okay. Her smile had returned,

(02:19:55):
and her new nickname from me warmed my heart. She
was in her element, thinking about tomorrow, just focusing on
the adventure, forgetting about what she carried on her back.
I groaned, let's just get a move on today, blows
major ass. She winked at me and took the lead.
As we moved toward the mimic's cell, the sleeper's horn

(02:20:15):
held in front of her but out of my view.
Each junction we passed, we left unconscious guards in our wake,
as if on cue. When we came to the mimic's cell,
the power cut out. We stood in darkness for moments
before the emergency lighting came on. Mikey Sarah whispered. She
was answered by a form creeping out from behind some piping. Hey,

(02:20:39):
we're really doing it despite his wounds, he looked excited.
Don't get cocky. A lot can still go wrong. Come on,
let's get the mimic. Lee came around the corner at
a run. The suit's coming. We have to move. Without
even thinking, I darted in the direction from which Lee
had come. Sarah tried to grab me, but I just
barely slipped from her grasp. Rule eight aim small, miss small.

(02:21:03):
I had to delay him. I ran out of earshot
of the mimicked cell and came face to face with
the suit. I emptied my mind and focused. Even in
the crimson glow of the emergency lighting. I could sense
his fury. Before I could speak, he stopped time around
us again. I couldn't breathe and experienced that same searing

(02:21:24):
pain radiating from my fingertips to my shoulders. He approached
me to the point where our noses were nearly touching,
and he yelled, what did you do? Nothing? Nothing. I
was heading down to you to the generator. I didn't
cut the power, I couldn't have my inability to Breathe
helped my please both sincere and focused. I emptied my

(02:21:46):
mind and focused on the nameless horrors that could escape
if I couldn't get the generators back up before the
backup power ran out. He closed his eyes but didn't
release me. I could feel him searching my mind, and
in it he found here were panic, all genuine, but
all misleading. Then he released me. I fell to the deck, coughing,

(02:22:07):
once again near the abyss of unconsciousness. Follow me, he commanded.
As he walked. He looked at me. You are in
immense pain. Why I fell and hit my head? One
of the guards damn near crushed my wrist for trying
to open a door. Oh and I have a few
broken ribs from a fight I got into not too
long ago. The girl in my dreams keeps giving me

(02:22:30):
mixed signals, and he also nearly choked me to death.
Today is just not my day. We continued walking towards
the cell, and I tried to suppress a reflexive prayer
that Nike, Sarah, and Lee had been able to escape
with their prize. Rule number seven stay away from the
desert toward us. My suffering and sincerity must have amused him,

(02:22:53):
He briefly smiled, before his eyes rested on the collapsed,
unconscious form of a guard. Then his eyes drifted over
to the s warps of a desert tortoise laying inside
the otherwise empty cell that was supposed to house the mimic.
Oh damn it, I cried out, both in confusion about
the tortoise roll in the plan as well as an
anticipation of the Suit's inevitable tantrum that usually ended in

(02:23:15):
me getting choked. He must have sensed my confusion above
and beyond any other emotions or thoughts. Because the exercise
of his power didn't come. The Suit stood there, displaying
an emotion I'd never seen in him before. Shock. Things
were happening too quickly for him, throwing all his best
laid plans into chaos. Rule number six, maintain accountability of

(02:23:40):
your sensitive items. No, no, this can't be. He was scared,
but only for a few moments. He recovered his poise,
his vigor, and his rage, and turned it toward the
task of hunting down those who were causing such great annoyance.
How how could I have not seen this plan in Mikey.
They they must have contaminated the mimic with the affliction.

(02:24:03):
That'll be bad, very bad. It will imbue the mimic
with powers it shouldn't have. After a brief moment's pause,
the Suit took off at a sprint, heading towards the entrance.
I was in no shape to keep up with him,
not after the beating I'd taken. But I emerged from
the bunker in time to see Mikey in his idling
truck with a zip tied and gagged mimic in the back,

(02:24:25):
still wearing Chris's form. I idly wondered why the mimic
chose to keep that form, as Mikey's taunts stole my attention.
Then it clicked. He was taunting the suit, and the
Suit was unable to use his power over the curses
and insults Mikey was shouting at the stunned deity. I
scanned the bumper of his truck once more, Echo seven five,

(02:24:49):
Echo seven to five. The same truck we used to
try to ambush the Suit in the City of Faceless Men,
the same truck that housed the artifact I recovered from
the faceless man. We'd shot the same artifact they carried
to shut down the Suit's power, and it inhibited the
mimic as much as it inhibited the suit. I was

(02:25:09):
completely out of the suit's mind at this point, literally
and figuratively, and he shouted a frustrated curse and ran
to one of the utility vehicles, hopped in and fired
it up. As he did, Mikey took off, beginning to chase.
I stood there, exhausted, watching the vehicles race off into
the distance. Well what do I do now? Nobody wants

(02:25:31):
to let me in on the plan. Oh, we're just
gonna let him bumble through it all. That's cool. We
told you and Mikey only what you needed to hear.
Lee called out, Hey, Sleepy from a hiding place behind
the bunker walls. Both Sarah and Lee emerged. Lee looked
pale from the exertion and stress he'd experienced so far

(02:25:51):
in keeping up the lie. Sarah looked a little sickly,
red in the eyes, flushed. I felt a stab of fear.
I didn't imagine i'd feel for her. Sarah, You okay,
She shrugged it off. I'm fine, just tired. It's been
a busy month, she smiled sadly. Listen, we need to
get going if we're going to pull this off. Sorry

(02:26:11):
about not filling you in, but to be honest, Lee
and I were prepped to do this all by ourselves.
You and Mikey are just adding a welcome bit of
confusion to the mix. Sorry for that, by the way,
but you can't be too careful with a mind reader. Okay, fine,
but will you finally let me in on you guys's plan?
What was with the tortoise? I asked, exhaustion, sapping the

(02:26:31):
normal sarcasm I choose after being lied to multiple times
by a pair who schemed behind my back. Well, we
want the suit panicked agitated so he'll make mistakes. The
tortoise seems to have helped. As for the plan, Rule
number five always have a map. Lee and Sarah looked
at each other before Sarah's vibrant smile returned and she

(02:26:54):
held up a map. Mikey doesn't have a map. She
tossed it into the dirt. I was in displ You're
gonna lead the suit back through the aperture. How the
hell's that gonna work? Lea spoke first while We've never
told him it oscillates through careful emissions and have truths.
He still thinks it's entirely constrained within the impact area

(02:27:15):
of the Northern Ranges. That's the entire reason we are
arranged to have the ranges set up that way to
begin with. But he's not very patient. He didn't see
the aperture move. We did though, when we were tesked
with mapping the other side, we mapped this side too. Okay, okay,
but even if we can get him passed through the aperture,

(02:27:36):
how do we seal it. I'm assuming Mikey is gonna
come back via the heart, but what if the suit
corners him? What if Sarah cut me off? We have
a plan, hun and it will work. It has to,
she coughed. We're gonna go get him and make sure
the job gets done, whatever it takes. Rule number four.

(02:27:58):
If you go to the city face useless men, you'll
need to bring a sacrifice. We loaded into Lee's truck
and headed toward the City of Faceless Men. As we approached,
it was clear something was wrong. The entire city was
bathed in darkness. I felt uneasy given my previous experiences there,
but the exhaustion, pain, and adrenaline helped to dull my anxiety.

(02:28:19):
Our headlights helped drive the faceless men back into the
shadows as we headed deeper into the city until we
came to a central courtyard. The good thing about the
others is they are pretty punctual. He checked his phone.
Looks like Mikey's made it. He sent me a text
that he was entering the aperture with the suit in pursuit.
He chuckled at the rhyme. He continued, I think it's

(02:28:42):
actually an object that's up there on some ancient trajectory.
They get close enough to Earth every month to exact
their tool on us, according to some completely alien imperative.
Just a theory, mind you. Lee took a deep breath. Brook.
I'm sorry I was a total jerk to you. If
you see my son, please let him know as Daddy
loves him more than anything else in the whole world.

(02:29:04):
I never gave up on him, but I had no
choice but to do what I'm about to do. The
only thing that kept me alive was the thought of
seeing him again. The only thing strengthening me against what
comes next is the hope that maybe he'll be returned
to live in the world that will give him. Tell
him Daddy loves him. Lee, what are you talking about?

(02:29:27):
Rule number three? Don't look up? He locked eyes on
me and continued with stern determination. Rook, look up. I
complied with the comment on instinct, then blackness, then nothing.
What followed as I came to was a collection of
incoherent memories. They were jumbled all about, as if time

(02:29:50):
were meaningless. I saw Sarah and Lee eyes downcast as
we went into the generator room for the city, myself
trying desperately to make eye contact, careful not to touch
them so that the rules would be followed. I remembered
myself smiling. I remember a few tears running down Lee's
cheeks as the thing that took control of my body

(02:30:11):
told him something about his son while sneering. Then before
a flash of light returned me to myself, I could
hear the other that had possessed me speak, You've won
the wager. We will do what you ask. Then, all
at once, I had control of my faculties once more.
I looked around, coming out of the haze, I was
under to find Sarah and only Sarah there beside me.

(02:30:35):
She was looking even more sickly than before, daunt and exhausted.
How long was I gone for? Where's Lee? What? Too?
Was the wager? Sarah said nothing for a while, eyes
still downcast, these gone sleepy. You were the wager, but
he took your place in return for closure of the aperture.

(02:30:57):
The others accepted the sacrifice. They made it, and they
always keep their word. Can they do that? She looked
at me. I don't know if there's anything they can't do.
We sat there in the still idling truck in a
moment of numb silence for the cost of the day's work,
as she reached over and handed me the radio's microphone.

(02:31:19):
All right, I'll let you do the honors. We aren't
done yet. We're almost there. We've closed the aperture, but
Mikey's still over there, in a whole city of faceless men,
are still over here. She smiled weakly and pointed at
the radio. Rule number two. Com sick Samantha. My physical

(02:31:41):
exhaustion almost made my exclamation of her name sound sensual.
Sarah giggled deliriously. Don't make me jealous, Sleepy, I smiled,
but hesitated. She reached over and calmly held my hand.
Samantha is the one who broke the suit free Samantha
Straddle's reality between this world and the next. Once she

(02:32:02):
was a helpful tool in the enforcement of his exile,
ensuring his siblings could check in on him without ripping
open his prison. But as eons passed, their visits grew sparser,
until many forgot about him and his imprisonment altogether. Meanwhile,
he twisted Samantha to his will, contaminated her with his rage,
and convinced her to tear open the reality in which

(02:32:25):
they resided. It was a tear so large even she
couldn't fix it. Then he cast her adrift and ignored her.
As he exacted his revenge on all of his siblings,
he spawned his Prometheus story for her, long before you,
all myths start somewhere. You aren't the first to be
won by its emotional power. She still possesses an artifact

(02:32:47):
of his rage that paired with her own rage at
his betrayal, and that results in unfortunate confrontations. But she's lonely,
shunned and depressed. She'll help us make everything right. My
mouth hung open, unprepared for that confession, how do you
know your memories? Well, for one, the longer I contemplate

(02:33:10):
my distant past, the more memories come back to the surface.
And two, well, let's just say I've dipped myself into
an eternal river that shows me things I'd forgotten. Three,
I know Samantha will help us because I've already asked
her to help us, and she agreed. She's going to
send us all over to the other side, this city
and all of its horrific inhabitants, and the Booker too.

(02:33:33):
She's waiting now for us to ask. So just ask.
Remember how I said all those rules ago that I
never unintentionally broke a rule twice. I reached over and
cleared the encryption phil on the radio. Then I keyed
the microphone, Samantha, We're ready. Is the aperture closed? A

(02:33:54):
simple response issued from the radio in morse code. Yes, okay, good?
Can you help us make this right? Can you help
us save Mikey? The ground trembled, A loud moan echoed
from all around the stars and moon disappeared behind a
black fog. As we were passing through the mysterious ether,

(02:34:15):
all sound stopped. Time once again became meaningless. The lights
on our truck dimmed and died, and then slowly light returned,
all reds and oranges. We were still in the city
of faceless men, but we were in the other, the
eternal Prison. The wastes of the eternal Prison were bright, forever,

(02:34:37):
illuminated by another sun that never set. This place is
sustained by the blood of men. I don't know why
we did it like that. I was too young. That
entire era feels like a fevered dream. Childhood. That's what
it was, childhood among gods, well not gods, but you
get what I'm saying. It was some sort of packed

(02:34:59):
to bind together. I'll be honest. The old ones who
created this place were not kind. They were powerful, but cruel.
They demanded much. If a new pact is formed, it
cannot be the same as the old. The cycle of
suffering must end. So he and you are the same
type of being, I stated more than asked. Oh yes,

(02:35:23):
And the reason I've avoided him is that I've always
felt he'd noticed me on site, though only recently have
I came to know why he spared me the fate
of his siblings and cast me adrift. She looked exhausted
enough We have to find Mikey. We find Mikey and
get out of here. That's all we have left to do.
Never leave a fallen comrade. Who Ah. She added the

(02:35:47):
last part sarcastically, and it gave me a chuckle. False
motivation is better than no motivation. So I put the
truck in gear and we headed to our next destination,
the spire. We pulled up to a scene of chaos.
Mikey's truck had wrapped itself around a bone spire, while
the suit's vehicle rested overturned not far off the remnants

(02:36:08):
of an intense chase. Mikey was in bad shape, blood
oozed from multiple cuts, and it was clear his leg
was broken as he dragged himself along the ground toward
the spire and away from the advancing figure. Not far
away was the twisted corpse of the mimic. The advancing
form held a tire iron. It was unmistakably the suit.

(02:36:31):
His clothing was torn from the wreck, but whatever wounds
he had sustained had healed completely. It must have been
the only power he had that wasn't muted by the artifact,
presumably still resting in Mikey's truck. You've ah the suit started.
You ah have really sent me back here, Michael. I
have to be honest. I'm a little irritated. I didn't

(02:36:54):
want to come back here. That was a good trick,
you know, very tricky. I didn't even know the But
you're moved. Now. After I'm through with you, I'm going
to have to go find it. What a pain in
the ass, you know. I can't leave through the heart
right it? Old Warden won't let me. It'll let you out,

(02:37:17):
just not me. He took a deep breath. And what
was the deal with that tortoise? You really gave me
a scare. If you'd have exposed the mimic to it, well,
well that would have been bad for everyone. But the
mimic is dead, and an exposed mimic wouldn't be able
to die. So what was the point? Who got exposed? Lee?

(02:37:41):
He chuckled. It doesn't matter, I guess, just another faceless
man in the making. Okay, enough talking, time to die.
He strode forward and raised the tire iron. Dad stop,
Sarah shouted. Enough for the first time in our relationship.
My jaw hit the floor. The suit froze, and his

(02:38:03):
head swiveled inhumanly fast, and Sarah turned to me. Listen, Sleepy,
our adventures have been one hell of a lot of fun.
But all good things end. She leaned in and gave
me a kiss on the cheek. I'm going to talk
to him while you get Mikey out of here. I'm
going to stay with him here, either until he is
redeemed or until humanity's end. I could see clearly a

(02:38:27):
change was overcoming her for symptoms the tortoise. It hit
me all at once, That eternal river she dipped herself into.
It was the ancient affliction she'd exposed herself in order
to become something more. No, I whispered, No, no, come on,
there has to be another way. Please tell me you

(02:38:47):
didn't what why would you? We were supposed to walk
out of here together. I know, I know it's okay.
Everything's going to be okay. This is how it has
to be. Redemption in peace require sacrifice. For as long
as he is free to roam here, he might find
a way to escape. He could outwit the faithless men

(02:39:10):
even with their abilities. He could escape again. We will
do it right this time. I will remain here to
watch over him as those who imprisoned him refused to do.
It's a responsibility I'm willing to shoulder that the older
ones and their narcissism weren't. And this transformation it's what's
needed to make that happen. So I can be one

(02:39:31):
with this prison and all those who ensure its integrity.
I'm only half deity. I had to to be strong enough.
She took a labored breath. He really was one of
humanity's greatest allies, you know, before the fall he was good,
or as good as our kind could be. He was

(02:39:53):
also powerful still is. Honestly, I'm not strong enough without
entering the ecosystem, the eternal river, without sing the burden
of the affliction. The heart alone is not enough. This
place requires a mind too, she smiled weakly. Plus the
affliction only kills men, It only creates faceless men out

(02:40:15):
of men. She was growing weaker as the transformation progressed. Go.
I held her eyes for a moment, then moved. The
suit was walking directly towards Sarah, and I gave him
a wide berth. Both Mikey and I were forgotten. I
dashed over to Mikey and hoisted him up. He winced

(02:40:36):
from pain, of a broken leg, and I from my ribs.
Together we made one fully functional cripple. As we limped
toward the spire, I caught a mere sample of the
conversation between the suit and Sarah. You you worked with
them to lure me here, Why, he asked, pleading. I

(02:40:56):
spared you because I loved you. Why would you betray me?
You've lost your way, Dad, I'd hoped somewhere, deep down
that you'd abandon your pursuit of cruelty and chaos, despite
those who committed crimes against you. But the stains of
your imprisonment here, they won't wash away. And what are

(02:41:17):
you to take over the mantle of head torturer? He scoffed.
Sarah collapsed, and I could hear genuine concern in the
suit's dash to catch her. No, of course not, Dad,
I'm not like your siblings. I couldn't have faced you
on the other side. You wouldn't have listened. You would
have brushed me aside. Damn right, I would have. She smiled.

(02:41:42):
There will be no more torture. I can hear the
faceless man now beckoning me, beckoning me for order direction,
a counter to the chaos you brought I can hear them.
They will no longer torture you as I transform my
control over them, and this place will grow and you
will remain unmolested. But you also cannot roam free in

(02:42:05):
the world. We have all the time. We need to
work through this together to find redemption. But you must
find redemption. This is a new covenant. The old ways
are dead. I didn't catch the rest. Mikey and I
stumbled out of earshot and descended into the spire. We

(02:42:25):
passed several faceless men who simply watched us and let
us pass. Sarah was in control. I whispered one last
goodbye as we pierced the Heart and tasted complete and
overwhelming pain. As the Heart tore us Adam from Adam
and returned us to our world. Mikey and I dug

(02:42:46):
our way out of shallow graves, somewhere out past where
the city a faceless man once existed, replaced now by emptiness.
Our wounds were gone as the Heart had rebuilt us whole,
but I, for one, could still feel the pain of oblivion.
Now we were faced with a long walk back to
the contonement area. Thankfully, even though we didn't have a map,

(02:43:09):
we could see access roads in the distance. We just
need to make our way there and head south. It
was morning. A cool, refreshing wind caressed us the consolation
for all we'd endured, all that we'd lost. We said nothing.
Rule number one, don't stray from the installation's access roads.

(02:43:34):
After an hour of walking, we came to a jeep
stuck in the sand. Three forms continued their eternal task
of trying to free the jeep. I didn't try to
avoid them this time. Rather, we walked right up to
the jeep. Need a hand I called a ghoulish face
popped out from the front of the jeep. Its dead

(02:43:56):
eyes locked onto me, and it strained through its bloated tongue. Yeh,
we'd appreciate it. Mikey and I fell in among the
three long dead soldiers and helped them dig their jeep out. Then,
with what meager tools they had, we helped them fix it.
Thank you, the lead apparition said, thank you. We rode

(02:44:19):
in silence over the barren plane. As the three lost
souls drove us to the edge of the access road.
We hopped out and I walked over to the driver's
side of the jeep. Hey, is there anything else we
can do to help you, to free you from this cycle.
Now you've already freed us compassion, redemption for your prior cowardice.

(02:44:42):
That last bit stung as I remembered my fear on
our first meeting. Then the creature saluted and pulled onto
the main access road, fading to nothing, as if they
had never been there to begin with. Never leave a
fallen comrade. In the end, this was embodied by Sarah's
steadfast determination to redeem a father who once was. It

(02:45:06):
was her stubborn refusal to abandon him and her rejection
of a perpetual cycle of horror. It was also her
offering to Samantha for closure to wash away the sins
of the past. For me, it was Mikey. Perhaps in
some small way, it was also those lost souls in
the desert who'd never given up hope of rescue and

(02:45:28):
clung to their non corporeal existence. For Lee, his son,
Sometimes adherence to this rule leads you to destruction, but
it can also lead you to redemption and a meaning
greater than yourself, if you're willing to shoulder the burden
of the requisite sacrifice. We eventually made it back to

(02:45:49):
the shop, It was surreal in its normalcy, quiet and peaceful.
Sarah's stuff still decorated her workspace, pink craftsmen wrenches now
an artifact of someone long gone. The coffee Lee had
brewed before the final chapter kicked off was still sitting
there in the pot, unconsumed, and on his desk a

(02:46:12):
photo of his sun. I was numb to it all,
and I had no idea how we were going to
explain things. Then I noticed something out of place. A
printed article from that morning was resting on my desk.
I picked it up. Missing seven year old boy found
in good health after three years, no clues in disappearance.

(02:46:43):
Thanks for listening. If you like the show, please share
it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or
strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do.
The Twelve Rules was written by David Pointer. You can
find a link to the original story in the show.
Weird Darkness is a production and trademark of Marlar House Productions,

(02:47:05):
Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of
the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Proverbs sixteen,
verse thirty one. Gray hair is a crown of splendor.
It is attained by a righteous life and a final thought.
God's vision for your life is bigger than your dreams.

(02:47:28):
I'm Darren Marler. Thanks for joining me in the weird darkness.

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