NO SUBJECT [CLASSIFIED] (Part 5)

Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash.

Sent: 26/1, 04:32

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: STOP

JUST STOP MIKE I CAN HEAR YOU GURGLING STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT

---

Sent: 26/1, 12:14

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: They Want My Bones

They want my bones. They’re pressing themselves up against the glass but they can’t stay upright for long. They’re making noises. It’s the sound of someone breathing out except they never stop. It’s not the same as the noise you make. It sounds like scheming. I know they need a fresh skeleton to wrap around because all of theirs are dissolved. What else could they want? I took your arm to them to see what they would do and there was a little movement. For the first time (outside of you) I’ve seen them move. They want to move some more. I don’t have any food left as long as they’re still inside that room. I won’t do it I wont go in there they’ll take my bones. They’ll take your arm and I’ll never get it back. My food will eat me if I go in there.

---

Sent: 26/1, 15:11

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: I don’t know what to do

I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.

---

Sent: 27/1, 09:05

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: (no subject)

After all of that I’m going to die. After everything I’ve done to stay alive, I’m still going to die here. Alone. After all that. I’m alone. I’m alone with myself, with what I’ve done. Oh my god I killed all my friends and now they’re coming to kill me. I ate them and now they’re coming to eat me. They’re going to take my bones from me and I can’t let them because I need my bones and if they take them then I won’t have any bones and I can’t live without my bones I need my bones I NEED MY BONES MIKE WHY WON’T YOU HELP ME I GOT YOU THAT WATCH FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY AND NOW YOU’VE LEFT ME ALONE WITH THEM DON’T LET THEM TAKE MY BONES MIKE

I need you to answer me, Mike. Please. Just answer me once. Let me know I’m not alone with them. I need you to answer me. Please. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t do this anymore.

---

Sent: 28/1, 08:57

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: (no subject)

I watched you all die die die died you all died you’re all dead because of me one little spill is all it took and now no one is left to tell me I was wrongright I was right to do it but they didn’t care and now they’re dead and I’m trapped alone and nobody is coming hahahaha I’m not dead yet the dead can’t laugh hahahahahaha can you hear me laugh mike laugh with me mike laugh like this hahaha please mike please don’t eat me like I ate the others im sorry please please stop gurgling im sorry

---

Sent: 29/1, 17:10

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: no more

I have to open the door

---

Sent: 29/1, 17:32

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: (no subject)

I did it. I managed to take one of them out of the room without getting caught but it was a close call. I’ve already eaten all of it so I should be fine for a few more days at least. God I was so hungry. But I think that might be my last meal, actually. I stole one of them, yes, but I was in such a rush I didn’t close the door behind me. There’s no chance I’m going to be headed back out there with them on the loose. They are terrifying creatures of rippling flesh and mucus. They drag themselves across the floor on reconstituted limbs; the one I took was thankfully without limbs which made it much easier to capture and devour. They groan the same as you do Mike. All of them in unison. Just hearing them makes me feel sick. They’re moving towards the door and the windows. They leave smears of blood and gunk behind them. Did I really just eat one of them? I can’t believe it. I actually put one in my mouth and swallowed it. I don’t think I even paid attention to the taste. I was so hungry I actually ate the reconstituted remains of my colleagues and didn’t even think twice. This is a new kind of hunger I’ve never experienced. Eating dead meat is one thing, but dead meat that screams is altogether a different experience.

I can’t fight them. I can’t kill what’s already dead. I can barely keep my food down. I’m going to be sick.

---

Sent: 30/1, 01:03

From: Mike

To: Frank

Dear Mike,

Has it really only been around a month since we were locked in here? I can hardly believe it; it feels so much longer already. Despite that, I think it’s fair to say we’ve both evolved as individuals in that time. It sounds hollow to say this now, as you’re about to break in and kill me, but of all my colleagues you were by far my favourite. I could never really put my finger on it at the time. Perhaps it was instinct to begin with, but now I can finally identify why: adaptability and tenacity. In these past few weeks, you have shown how quickly you are able to overcome exceptional circumstances, and indeed thrive where others cannot. You don’t give up when things get tough in the lab. You’ve given yourself over fully to the team and our research, and I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve sacrificed for us. I’ve learnt a lot from working with you.

I believe this will be my final correspondence (unless present circumstances take a drastic shift in direction), and as such I would like to take this time to reflect on my own experience. I was locked in here on the 4th January along with several of my colleagues. I’ve been in almost total darkness since I turned off the emergency lights on the 18th, and have been alone just as long (looming company notwithstanding). I’ve been a cannibal for 13 days. I wonder if anyone else would have done anything different, done a better job. Faced with what looks to be my final doom has made me realise just how fickle concepts like morality and ethics are. Ethics are for the privileged, or the dead, and I have had the dubious pleasure of running the entire gambit between the two.

I coughed up blood about an hour ago. It started twitching on the ground like the others, so I put a cup over it. The cup has been steadily nudging its way towards me since then. It’s almost farcical at this point. Instead of a rock and a hard place I’m between a malicious cup and Mike the limbless wonder. Wasn’t really expecting such a difficult start to the new year.

I think I should wrap this up though. You’re so impatient that the glass is starting to crack under your weight, and by the sounds of it you’ve roused the others as well. I can’t imagine this is going to be painless. But I can at least die with the dignity I tried to live with. I’ve got your arm right here Mike. I’ll just bring it out to you now.

So long world!

Sincerely, eternally,

Dr. Frank Stoller

---

END OF CORRESPONDANCE.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

· THE BODY OF DR. STOLLER WAS RECOVERED FROM A CAVITY IN THE PIPE SYSTEM OF FACILITY 4 (COMPROMISED). AUTPOSY REPORT DEFINED CAUSE OF DEATH AS SEVERE BODY TRAUMA CAUSED BY PERSISTENT AND CONSECUTIVE BLOWS. 30 (THIRTY) VERTEBRAE MISSING FROM SPINAL COLUMN. 17 (SEVENTEEN) RIBS MISSING, INCLUDING STERNUM. ARMS MISSING. TOUNGE BITTEN IN HALF; EXTREME PAIN BEFORE DEATH. STOMACH CONTENTS TAKEN FOR TESTING.

· ON INITIAL INVESTIGATION OF FACILITY 4, SALVAGE TEAM 1 WAS ATTACKED. DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSAILANT CORRESPONDS TO THE “RECONSTITUTION” OF THE CORPSES DR. STOLLER WITNESSED. BONE SAMPLE FROM THE ASSAILANT CONFIRMED THEY WERE DR. STOLLER’S. HIS ARMS HAVE NOT BEEN LOCATED.

· DR. STEVENSON MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD.

END OF DOCUMENT. SUBMIT FORM F.49 FOR RELEASE OF ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTATION.

NO SUBJECT [CLASSIFIED] (Part 4)

Image by 2427999 from Pixabay

Sent: 24/1, 14:00

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: (no subject)

I feel sick. I feel dizzy. It’s too much to type right now.

Sorry I had to take a break, I felt very faint all of a sudden. Just for reference it’s now been 20 days since the sample went missing and we were left behind in the lab. I feel like if I get to a month, I should celebrate in some way. Fortunately, there’s still lots of time to brainstorm ideas. I’ll go ask the others for their opinion.

---

Sent: 24/1, 19:33

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: (no subject)

Just wanted to check with you if you knew where the others are going? I went back about ten minutes ago and they aren’t all together. Relatively, I mean. I know they’ve been a stack of gelatine for a while now. But if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that Jenny was moving away. Her torso (I think it’s hers) has slunk from the residue spinal cord and is now about half a metre from the rest of the pack. Obviously, there’s still a trail of slime connecting her to the rest of them, but it seems almost deliberate. That can’t be right though, can it? I suppose if you’ve been walking around the facility for the last week or so, then it’s possible she’s trying to do the same. Although what this means for my food supply is deeply worrying. I’ll have to observe the carcasses for a while, see if anything more happens.

---

Sent: 24/1, 23:55

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Update

I’ve been watching the bodies for almost six hours now. I'm starting to give me another headache. Jenny’s torso hasn’t moved. I’m going to sleep.

---

Sent: 25/1, 09:45

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Fwd: Update

The torso moved! It moved! It’s almost out into the corridor now! This is incredible! The trail behind it shows how it crawled into the wall and then along until the exit. It’s like a blind slug finding its way out of a pot of beer! It’s left parts of itself behind it, slowly shedding lumps of skin and sinew. This is absolutely wonderful. I have to document this in more detail.

---

Sent: 25/1, 14:32

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Fwd: Fwd: Update

How and why it is moving I do not know. What I now know is that, when sampling some of the torso for lunch, I encountered much more resistance from the slime than usual. In every case up until now, taking parts of the bodies has been as easy as slicing through whipped cream, but in this instance, it has proven far more like rubber. Malleable still, of course. Slimy, most definitely. But far more resistance to a finger.

What’s more, it’s not just Jenny that’s changing. Whilst Tony is unrecognisable now (he is completely subsumed by the bodies of the others and exists only as an ever-shrinking pelvis among a mound of shiny flesh), I can see isolated features of each person moving away from where they’ve been lying. I can’t possibly identify them at this point, but there’s a shoulder (disembodied), and a foot (toes missing) that are now firmly isolated from the rest of the mound. They aren’t following the same pattern as Jenny’s torso though. It appears that they’ve been… I don’t know how to describe it. Searching? Scanning? Or maybe they just slipped off the stack and I’m overthinking it. I can understand how a torso could move by itself, but these elements are so small that I can’t possibly believe they’d be able to propel themselves anywhere.

More observation is required. For now, I’m going to enjoy some lunch.

---

Sent: 26/1, 13:00

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Reconstitution/ What this Means

There’s a process happening, with the bodies. I have no idea how or why it’s happening, but it is. They’re reconstituting themselves. Rather, different aspects of the bodies are joining together once they are away from the corpse pile. I know they are. They do it when I’m not looking, when I’m asleep, but I swear to god it’s true. Jenny’s torso, do you remember how it was almost out into the corridor? I said bits of it were shedding off. Well, I didn’t realise how right I was because now the toros is almost entirely sinew and flesh. There’s no skin left on it. Jenny’s torso just looks like an unclean butcher’s yard. The deterioration of the torso is at such a state that I can now see the imprint of where the pelvis used to be in the flesh that’s left behind. It’s like Operation, but the plastic piece has already been taken out. One of her eyes is currently caught in the trail from the corpse pile. The other one is resting on the remains of the jawline.

Bu that’s not the creepiest part. The shoulder and foot I mentioned before have picked up(?) the trail left by her and are now on the same track as she was. They’re joining together. It’s a shoulder-foot. They aren’t even attached at the joint, they’re just… together, and now on the slime trail of Jenny’s torso. It must have been on purpose because now Jenny’s nearly at my door. She’s currently propped up against the wall outside. If I listen carefully, I can tell when a big bit of slime drips onto the floor. I don’t know why they’re coming this way, IF they’re coming this way. They might be on their way to somewhere else.

It makes me wonder if that thing in down by the pipes is just a progression of this metamorphosis. To dissolve a body only to reconstitute it seems ridiculous. There can be no way this is what is actually happening. Could the virus we created really have the capacity for this? Was it even the virus at all? Mike, help me out I don’t know what to do in this situation. Is that why your arm was on the floor instead of in the wall?

Shit.

---

Sent: 26/1, 16:09

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: (no subject)

OK. OK. OK.

For the first time in a month, I have something to do and it terrifies me. How do I stop the flesh from getting into my office? Do I eat it? I can’t eat all of that at once, I’ll feel sick. But I can’t stop it from coming back. Why does it want to come here so badly? There’s a whole lab to choose from and annexes and toilets and why does it want to come HERE. I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING JENNY. Are you still upset about me killing you is that it? Are you so upset that you’re coming for me now? When your fucking eyes aren’t even on you anymore? A blind legless torso is meant to threaten me is that it? Did the others send you? Did you all conspire against me in your huddle and sent out bits of you one by one? Did you think I wouldn’t notice my food disappearing? I’ve had enough of this. I’m putting you all back in your room and locking the door. You’re being weird and if you can’t respect my privacy then I have to keep you in a cage. It’s for your own good. Ill consume you before you consume me don’t think I won’t. I’ll eat all of you. I’ll eat all of you.

This is giving me another headache. I think I’m going to be sick. I wish there was water.

(Concluded in Part 5)

NO SUBJECT [CLASSIFIED] (Part 3)

Photo by Denny Müller on Unsplash.

Continued from Part 2

---

Sent: 18/1, 04:22

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Gurgle Test: 1

Hi Mike,

Today I turned the emergency lights off, as they were becoming distracting. The buzzing was most irritating, more so even than when I had to finish off the rest of the assistants. You have to understand Mike, they were becoming a terrible inconvenience. Only some had the decency to die quietly. The rest tried to fight me off, but the little concoction I made seemed to do the trick. I hardly needed to test it first anyhow; they were supposed to die after all. In any case, it’s just you and me now as I try to figure out where that gurgling sound is coming from. I had hoped that, with the rest of us dead, the gurgling would stop. It sounds organic, but there’s nothing left here that could make it. The only other person it could be is you. I haven’t heard from you since the incident with your arm, but I assume you must be holding it somewhere. Don’t worry Mike, I’ll find you sooner or later. I’ll save you from yourself. But please stop gurgling! Wait until I’m ready to locate you first.

I must listen to the pipes.

---

Sent: 20/1, 13:10

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Gurgle Test: 2

Hi Mike,

Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been dissecting your arm. I found it when I’d finished following the pipes. They’ve remained curiously warm despite all power having been shut off. Usually, I would attribute this to the latent water supply that has stabilised at a certain temperature, but there is no water supply (sidenote: after consuming Tony I have not needed water for hydration. The slime seems to be enough to keep my body functioning optimally). Even more curiously, only one of the pipes was warm enough to heat my hand. The others were lukewarm at best. I anticipated that this pipe in particular would lead me to the gurgling.

The pipe took me deeper into the complex, of which I had only explored a cautious amount so far due to the previously more pressing issue of escape from starvation. After the deaths of my associates and their exposure to a sample of Tony’s body cavity, I had enough supplies to continue my investigation. The sensations experienced in the pitch black were… I’m not sure. I was hyper-aware of my surroundings, even though I couldn’t see them. Just having my hand on the pipe let me visualise the wall. The echoes gave me a sense of space. The differing air quality helped me identify how far away I was getting from the office. Things began to smell bad the further away I went.

As I went along, I could hear the gurgling every now and again, slowly getting louder. It remained sporadic; there was no pattern to it that I could discern. Eventually I found myself in a much larger space; the air was colder, and I could feel the room open up around me. When I let go of the pipe and stepped into the centre, I felt something wet stick to the bottom of my shoes. Though I could not see it I am almost certain it is the same compound as Tony. It was a viscous, smelly substance, but I didn’t get to spend too much time studying it before that gurgling started up again.

That’s when I found your arm again. I assume you must have brought it with you there, but why? It was lying in the middle of the floor. I know this because I almost tripped over it after stepping out of the sticky puddle. From how it felt to touch, it was no less fresh than before, when it was in the ceiling. Considering the state of the others, I don’t yet understand why you’re persevering so well (I brought your arm back with me this time, since you’re clearly not using it anymore. You can come pick it up from the lab whenever you next have some time free).

In any case, by this point the constant drawl of the noise was making me feel quite faint, and I’m ashamed to say I grew afraid for myself the longer I was there. The noise grew louder and what I can only describe as angrier. Once it had, I recognised the same pattern as before - low, high, long, short - but this time it grew more rapid over time. It grew closer, and faster, and I felt as if it would envelop me any second. Then all at once it stopped. I felt the presence of the voice – and I am fully certain it is a voice now – in the same room, occupying the same space as me. It was impossible to tell for sure due to the lack of light, but I could sense the mass in front of me. I could hear how wet it was. It became too much for me ultimately, and I fled with your arm back to the lab.

I am not downcast though! The second test has been a success. I now know where the voice lives. I’ll try confronting it on my own terms next time.

---

Sent: 22/1, 11:44

From: Frank

To: Mike

Subject: Arm Test Results

Good morning Mike,

I’ve been running tests on your arm, as I mentioned before. At the most basic level your arm defies belief. I’ve had an entire laboratory to use, and have attempted every sort of test I’m able to perform, yet I still can’t make sense of it. Below are some of the more basic observations:

· Forequarter amputation. Violent dismemberment.

· Flesh has remained remarkably well-preserved. Raised veins and arteries.

· Hair follicles and nails missing. Dissolved?

· Some bloating around the wrist.

· Slime continues to excrete from the limb. Reminds me of a hagfish.

· Unable to separate slime from limb. Any removed slime is replaced over several minutes.

· Slime is non-reactive to touch (previously observed when ingesting Tony). Unable to determine composition without additional resources.

· Slime is resilient to acid and alkaline substances. Even the stronger solutions had no effect. Slime still edible after prolonged exposure to acid and/or alkaline.

· Slime from arm has similarly nutritious effects on the human body.

· Inconsistency between effect of slime on Tony’s body and Mike’s arm. Mike is well-preserved. Tony is almost entirely dissolved after 17 days (time flies!).

As far as I can understand, your arm is alive in every way except movement. It remains in a state of suspended animation. The slime keeps the arm hydrated, although all hair and nails are missing. The trauma at the shoulder has neither dried nor scarred. The tissue is still “fresh” as it were. You could almost believe it had been removed in the last few minutes. The taste is different from the others. Most similar to what remains of Jenny; raw lamb at the front, with a sour custard finish.

(It’s like I’m wine-tasting, isn’t that funny? Ah yes, a beautiful French bouquet from the Picardie region. The despair of life tempers the flavour of the corpse wonderfully. Haha!)

Unfortunately, I’m not done with it yet, although I’ll make sure to return it once I am.

Thanks for your patience,

Frank.

(Continued in Part 4)