by Jason Luthor
“Cultists.”
Tommy nods. “Looks like they’ve been this way, too.”
“What the hell happened over here? What smells so bad?”
“You got me.” He nods toward the crates. “Should you, or . . . ?”
“Are you asking or begging?”
Tommy tries to fake a smile, but he’s not able to completely pull it off. “Well, I’d rather not. I mean, I’ll pull the blankets off those crates, but only if you’re too scared, obviously.”
“Shove it, Tommy,” I say as I hit him with a vicious eye roll. Apparently, insulting my ego’s another way to get me to risk my life. I get over to the crates and rest my hands on top, but I really don’t want to pull the covers off. For a second, I listen, but there’s no noise I can hear, so my fingers squeeze on the fabric as I brace myself. “Deep breath, girl,” I tell myself as my muscles tense up, but my nose is rebelling against all my attempts to suck in any air. Finally, I just give up and commit to it. “One . . . two . . . three . . .”
I whip the covers back, and I’m just hit in the face by the stench. Immediately, I fall back into Tommy’s arms, who catches me as I stuff my mouth so I won’t gag. Dodger runs up to us and leans in. “Oh, my God, those aren’t crates,” she says. “Those are . . .”
“Cages,” I mutter as Tommy stands me upright. “What the hell?”
There are two cages against the back wall and whatever’s inside . . . well, they’re not human, or at least they’re not anymore. Don’t get me wrong, they kind of do look like people. Two arms, two legs, and a skull that looks like it belongs to a person. You’d have to see it, though. It’s the details. Piles of Creep look like they were growing from their shoulders, and their hands are stretched like a rubber doll whose fingers have been pulled out. Their eyes, well, there’s only one way to say it. They’re gone. It’s like they’ve just got black gaps there where the eyeballs sank into the sockets. Actually, their faces are pretty much as narrow as they could get, like they’ve barely got a layer of skin pulled tight over them. Everything else about these things is weird. Creep is growing from their legs in bunches that bubble out of the top of their feet.
Dodger shakes her head as she turns away. “Guys, I don’t remember being told anything about this . . .”
Tommy nods as we all group together. “Yeah, it’s like they got possessed or something. Like the Creep was growing right out of them.”
My eyes are pretty glazed over at this point, and I step away for a second. “It’s like Creepy Sally on repeat.”
Tommy steps in front of me with a glare on his face. “What? What’re you talking about, Jackie?”
“Creepy Sally. You know?” I look over at him and realize he was never told. Actually, I realize none of them were. “Damn.”
“You keeping a secret from us?”
I have to seriously think about this for a second. I mean, typically, I probably shouldn’t tell them anything about the incident last month. I don’t think Tower Authority wants people learning that the Creep can attach to you, even if that’s rare. Then again, they did just see the same bodies I did, so it’s not like this can stay under wraps. “Creepy Sally. I, uh, got involved with that incident. Basically helped take her down. You know, ‘cause I’m awesome . . .”
Dodger’s mouth drops and her eyes go wide like a fish’s. “You took down Creepy Sally? For real?”
“Look, I wasn’t supposed to say anything because they don’t want too many people knowing that the Creep can infect you. But, I mean . . .” I glance back at the bodies for a second. “Come on. You know what’s going on back there, right? You’re not idiots.”
Tommy’s arms fold across his chest and he just looks away. “So, the Creep really can take over your body?”
“Right, but if it’s any help, then you gotta know that it’s super rare. Like, the way I understand it, Sally basically let it happen to her. Like the stories say, you know? She just sat around all day waiting for it. I think she was depressed or something.”
“And what did you do to take her down?”
I shrug. “I dunno. Knocked her across the head with my bat.” I leave out the part about the top secret serum my dad developed that can kill the Creep. A girl has to have some secrets, right? “I mean, it wasn’t just me. There was lots of Security there, too. It was a weird situation, you know? I just ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I’m lying through my teeth, but at least it gets Tommy to back off a little. I really don’t need him asking more questions about Creepy Sally, how I got onto Floor 1, or anything like that. It’s impossible to tell what could get him in Reinforcement. Anyway, he backs off and rubs at the back of his head while he sorts it all out. “Well, I guess,” he finally says. “But we’ve got to call the commander. I don’t think they meant for us to find stuff like this.”
“Fine, but just don’t say anything about Sally, okay? I think they want to keep it kind of hush hush about how I ended up on the team.”
Tommy stops and stares at me for a second. “So, that’s it. I always wondered how you got onto the Scavengers. You’re not even eighteen yet. I mean, you’re not even close, like me, but it makes sense if you already had experience with this stuff.”
“Don’t overplay it, Tommy. Like I said, I was just there at the wrong time. But, look, super serious, please don’t tell anyone.”
“I got you, Jackie. Still have to tell the commander about these two, though.”
“Hey, go ahead and shoot. I don’t care if he knows about these.”
He turns away for a second and yanks out his tablet before tapping the commander’s contact. We all stand around, waiting as the connection is made, and Abbott’s voice bursts through the signal, as annoying as ever. “Jones? What is the purpose of this contact?”
“Uh, think we’ve got something here you might want to see, sir. Couple of bodies over in some labs we found.”
“Bodies? You mean of Cultists?”
“Well, not quite, but I really think you’re going to want to check this out.”
It doesn’t take much more than that to get Abbott and the team gathered inside the lab. Everyone pretty much has the same reaction I did to the smell, and Shreya actually has to step out of the room when she gets a whiff. Anyway, the commander looks pissed as he walks between the bodies. He doesn’t even bother talking for so long that I’m starting to wonder if we should leave. Finally, he looks up at the wall, and I can see him getting these angry, squinty eyes as he looks at the scene. “What would bring them this high?” he asks as he kneels down to inspect the corpses. “And why haul this pair up here?”
I’m glad Dodger’s willing to ask all the questions so I don’t have to. She just can’t seem to keep from standing out. “Sir? Um, does this mean you really can get infected by the Creep?”
Abbott’s head twists, and his eyes cut the air as he looks over his shoulder. “Yes, rookie. In extremely rare cases, this has been known to happen.” The commander gets back to his feet and turns to us. “I wouldn’t worry about infections, though. This type of merging only happens to people that spend extended amounts of time actually in the Creep. As in, covered with it. Eventually, your skin and muscle bond with it, and as you all know, it has an effect on the mind. Victims are left in a constant state of hallucination and attack anything they see in a mindless rage. Just to be clear, over my years of service, I’ve seen this less than half a dozen times, and almost all those incidents occurred far deeper inside the Tower.”
“So, why are these two up here? Did the Cultists bring them?”
“Perhaps.” The commander stops and turns to look at the wall again. “Most likely they captured these two and brought them up. Perhaps it was some sort of trap. Apparently, these two victims died a long time before we got here, though. Even the Creep needs to feed, after all.”
Sunny claps his hands. “Sounds like more reason for us to keep our guard up. Right, people?” he asks, staring at all of us and beaming t
hat smile of his. “So, come on. Let’s keep looking for supplies. Our room for the night’s been secured and tomorrow we start out for the heart of Polar North. You know what that means. Everyone gets well fed and gets enough rest, because tomorrow’s a big day. Everyone with me?”
“Yes, sir,” we all almost cheer, since everyone’s pretty happy at the thought of getting some food. It’s a funny thing to think about, considering the two corpses still on the floor. But, you know, the thing that gets me is, as we’re all hauling out of the door, I just barely hear the commander call out to Dodger.
“Tiffany Anne,” he says, which is so weird because we never call her by her real name.
“Yes, sir?” she asks as she falls behind the group. I keep walking because I know Abbott will just get pissed if I interrupt their convo, but I strain to hear them as I’m on my way out.
“Do you think you can access these computers? I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m fairly convinced these were brought up from elsewhere. Still, if not, and they’re from this floor . . .”
“You want to see if the Cultists left any records of what happened?”
“Precisely. That, and I’m not convinced these creatures are random creations. I’ve never seen them in pairs. At any rate, it’s better to be safe than . . .”
I’m able to hear just enough as we’re marching through the doorway. It’s really nothing to be worried about, since the commander’s just being cautious. I guess what gets to me is him saying they’re not random. I’m not really sure what he’s implying, but if they’re not random, then what are they? Planned?
How would that even work?
Researcher’s Log
Private note
David Marshall recording
To be quite blunt, today was a debacle.
Time and again, interference from Tower Authority has contributed to a complete breakdown in our experiments. Or, to put it another way, while Authority is willing to round up people for thinking incorrectly and to flood their neural pathways full of Creep excretion, they’re for some reason not willing to sign off on the sort of experimentation that would advance our understanding of psychoreaction.
Sometime just after my team and I had assembled in the laboratory, we were notified by Security that our all-knowing masters, in their infinite wisdom, had decided against proceeding with the experiments. Now, you tell me, oh journal, is it more cruel to experiment upon a man, or to tell him he will be the subject of an experiment, only to leave him dangling for another day? Because, mark my words, this project will happen. It must. However, in the meantime, these repeated cancellations are leading to mounting frustrations among the researchers, myself included. I can’t even imagine the level of resentment my team has toward me after all the promises I’ve made them of achieving a breakthrough in understanding the Creep.
Although, not all has gone so badly. We do have our silver linings. For example, our theoretical models are sound. I believe – no, we believe – that the Creep selectively chooses individuals for a type of symbiotic bond. It’s rare, no doubt, since the infestation prefers to feast on human bodies for nutrition, but we know these mutually beneficial relationships do exist. To recap, the Creep, of course, reacts to human emotions in a very visceral way. It quivers or creates those tendrils it uses to lash onto its victims, followed by the onset of digestion. The question that continues to baffle me is why it chooses to bond with a few while making a meal of others.
These bonded subjects appear throughout the lower depths of the Tower, beneath Floor 21, although sightings are rare. Sadly, none of them demonstrate the same level of control over the infestation as Creepy Sally does. She is, in a word, unique. Now, quite obviously, that’s not her real name. It’s a common reference used for her given by the less educated of our population. As a classification, we label her SFH-01, but the name Sally suffices, at least for my personal recordings. The poor girl’s body has sustained itself for well over a century now as a product of her infestation, but of course, the unfortunate side effect has been the loss of her consciousness. Now she exists only as some shambling, animated corpse, though one with the powerful ability to summon the Creep as a means of self-defense. As for her mind, well, it barely exists in any form. Occasional utterances of names and places indicate that she has some memory of her life before bonding occurred, but the Creep uses her as much as she uses it. Most likely, more so.
Why, though? Why would the Creep choose to use a victim in this way? Sally has no ability to communicate with the world around her, considering the fact that her use of language is limited to simple, one or two word statements. It cannot be using her to try and contact us. Even the mere notion would suggest it is sentient, and all of our experiments have shown that to be false. So, we must understand why it bonds this way. If we knew the why, it would help us to understand the moment when the Creep chooses not to consume a victim, but instead to join with them. If we knew the why, perhaps then we could also understand the how. Creep fluids have hallucinogenic properties that quickly toxify the human bloodstream. This is obviously why Sally’s mind is so badly destroyed. If we could only discover a way to maintain human consciousness after bonding . . .
Although, I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself. First we must achieve a bond, and then we can worry about preserving the test subject’s mind. Afterward, humanity’s potential would be without limit. To physically join with the Creep and have control over it? It would mean an end to our imprisonment in the Tower. It could lead to the end of death. The Creep’s limitless ability to regenerate is impressive. Can you imagine what we would be capable of if our own cells were able to do the same?
And we do need to be thinking about enhancing our cells if we hope to survive. I do not think Tower Authority recognizes the severity of the living circumstances on the lower floors. The Tower has been conducting the Scavenging for what we estimate to be centuries now. Over that time, we have lost floor after floor. It was only in the last hundred years or so that we believe we were forced to restrict ourselves above Floor 21. Specific records of what happened are hard to come by, but it’s quite apparent that devastating attacks by the Creep crippled our technology several times since we came to live in the Tower. From what I have been able to piece together, the worst of these attacks were launched by Sally herself. I am confident in saying she is part of the reason we have so many missing records from earlier time periods, and that she may have had a hand in us losing the lower floors. Now our numbers have dwindled to just above 15,000 in a Tower that I estimate once could have housed at least five times as many individuals. If we hope to survive, we have to evolve, just like the Creep. That’s why my experiments are so necessary. If we don’t act, don’t grow, humanity will become an extinct species. Forget all the babbling religious nonsense about how the Builders will come rescue us. We are dying and have been for hundreds of years. These tests I conduct aren’t done just to make people suffer. The truth is that their suffering is the only way for us to save our species.
And for me, this is the most frustrating part. I sit here, no more than a few feet away from a sorry looking man who has been wallowing in his own miserable depression for the past few hours. These glass walls between us cannot hide his panic, which is why the humane course would have been to simply get the experiment over with. I can see all the tell-tale demonstrations of fear: the dilation in his eyes, the quickness of his breath, the trails of beaded sweat that drip down his head. This hellish limbo he finds himself in cannot be good for his sanity. I imagine that if he could see me on my side of the wall, as I can see him, that he’d be only further insulted. Perhaps angered. Then again, that is what we want. That terror he feels now, that sinking feeling of being helpless and unable to save himself, that is what we need. What I need. For the experiments, of course. Combined with rage, anger, hatred, we would be able to provoke a Creep reaction. When we do finally introduce the Creep to his cell, and we will, we know it is negative emotions that will encourage a reaction.
It will most likely attempt to consume him. Then again, if we’re fortunate, it may attempt a bond. So, on second thought, perhaps I should be encouraging this man’s depression instead of sheltering him from it. For science, after all.
Recording Twenty-Two
I’m guessing that maybe the commander thought we should take a break after finding . . . whatever it is we found. Whatever those things were. I mean, I know what they are. What I don’t know is how they got here or what they’re doing on this floor. Captain Sunny’d been psyched to start out for Polar North, but Abbott brought the search to a stop for a second so we could do some scavenging. Which, I mean, that’s cool. It feels like a drill in my teeth because I keep thinking this is just putting more time between us and finding Mike, but it’s not like we don’t have a job to do. Plus, I just think the commander’s been a little different since we found those bodies. I don’t really see him get surprised much, so even just one second of him acting human is kinda scary but also weirdly comforting.
So, I guess it’s cool if we break for a second. At least it gives me a chance to breathe.
We made base in one of the large rooms that has all the bunks set up. That wasn’t exactly good for my sanity, I mean, any time I haven’t been hunting for food, I’ve been searching the room for clues about what’s been going on around here. Guess what I found? Zilch. You couldn’t have asked for a more boring place to stay. Well, sorta. The first night we bunked down, the commander’s sensor went off. Everyone woke up to this red haze filling the room, and even if all of us had our guns ready, like, the instant our eyes opened, there wasn’t anything we could do. Abbott had us wait around to see if it would die down, but everyone was ready to run if we had to. I don’t know if it was just our training that helped us stay cool, but eventually everything got back to normal. Just keep your emotions calm. That’s the one thing the vets keep reminding us over and over. They’re right, though. The Creep doesn’t seem like it attacks much, or at all, as long as you’re not freaking out.