WARNING! Graphic Violence and Language ahead!
Recently declassified by the Library of Terra. Audio logs recovered during the Fifth Expedition into the North American Exclusionary Zone on 3 August 2045. Sensitive information has been REDACTED.
ENTRY 1 – 0850 CST 13 April 2032
So, I just talk into this thing and it records what I’m saying?
What?
It’s already on?
Shit! Can we start over?
Good morning, this is Dr. Elias Carver, and it is just before nine AM on Tuesday April thirteenth of twenty-thirty-two. This is my first journal entry, which, as I just found out, was apparently required according to the contract that I signed. We are at the NAEZ – sorry, the North American Exclusionary Zone – base camp outside of what used to be Memphis.
Memphis, Tennessee, that is. Are there other Memphis’s in the US? I would think saying Memphis would be enough for the records, right?
No? OK, but I’m pretty sure most people would be able to realize we were talking about Memphis in Tennessee through context.
Anyways, I am a xenobotanist. Not to brag, but there’s only like five of us in the whole world. Specifically, xenobotanists study extraterrestrial plant life and theorize how plant life can flourish in exotic biomes. For the record, Dr. Pingeton at MIT, I told you that specializing in xenobotany wouldn’t be a quote – waste of my intelligence – end quote, as you put it. I don’t see you here on a special UN scientific team, now do I? Suck it, Pingeton.
Right, sorry, I’ll try to stay on topic.
Anyways, where was I? Right, the North American Exclusionary Zone. I am part of the very first team to enter the Zone since the invasion two months ago.
Should I recap the giant monster attack?
No? Ok, that makes sense. Like there isn’t a soul on this planet that doesn’t remember that thing and what it did. Shit still haunts me to this day. What?
Sorry, on topic.
I am part of a team consisting of scientists from around the world that will be entering the Zone to study the alterations to the biome that took place after that creature plodded through. Initial reports show that the twenty mile wide, eight hundred and seventy-five mile long area that was left in the wake of the monster had been… I guess you could call it terraformed? It’s hard to describe. Shit got real weird where ever that thing walked. Like broken physics weird. All sorts of new life popped up in its wake – new plants! – and the terrain is like nothing I’ve ever seen. I still can’t believe my eyes and I’m looking at it through the window right now! It’s like someone ripped the weirdest, most bizarre landscape straight from a science fiction novel and plastered it across the countryside. I can’t wait to get inside of it!
Right back to the team. So first, there’s myself, the xeno-botanist. Dr. Mira Slovenski is our resident geologist; quiet, but kinda cute. Maybe I’ll bring her a coffee later.
I am staying on task! You told me to record my thoughts, so I’m recording my thoughts!
I dunno. Maybe the world will need to know that I thought the geologist was hot.
Fine, I’ll keep it objective.
Dr. Tan Mun-Hee is a fellow biologist. Xeno-zoology, I believe. He’s the animal guy. I don’t know too much about him other than what the dossier in my folder says, as Dr. Tan doesn’t speak a lick of English and my Korean is non existent. As if this trip wasn’t complicated enough, we have language barriers now.
Dr. Mohamed Al-Shabar from Dubai is our theoretical physicist. I had actually heard of this guy before I saw his dossier. This dude is crazy smart; like Hawking level intellect. Apparently, he is on the verge of releasing a paper that will upend the entire physics world. Or at least that’s what the guys in the physics department say. Personally, I’m not a huge physics fan; too much math.
Our last – well, I’m hesitant to call him a scientist – team member? Sure, let’s go with that. Our last team member is (laughter) Skyler Brightsoul (more laughter). You can’t make this shit up. Skyler is a philosopher, which makes no sense to lump in with a bunch of the greatest minds on the planet. Honestly, he looks like the dude I used to buy shitty pot off of during my undergrad.
Huh? Right, keep it objective.
Mr. Brightsoul holds multiple doctorates in a variety of philosophy majors. I’m not sure what they expect us to find inside the Zone, but maybe Skyler can meditate on it or something. (laughter)
Last but not least, we have my omni-present shadow, Agent REDACTED of the REDACTED. REDACTED hasn’t left my side since my flight landed and from the glare REDACTED is giving me right now, is not thrilled that I am talking about them.
No, I will not delete that last line. You are the one that told me to record everything.
Fine, I’ll keep mentions about you to a minimum. Agent REDACTED of the REDACTED REDACTED REDACTED. REDACTED has REDACTED hair and REDACTED eyes and is about REDACTED feet tall.
END OF ENTRY 1
ENTRY 2 – 1115 CST 13 April 2032
So, I’ve been asked by the project lead to not talk about my handler on my recordings. Apparently, not everyone finds me as funny as I am. Whatever, their loss.
Right, we are now minutes away from our first expedition inside the zone. I wish this thing had video so I could show you what I have to wear. It’s like a fucking space suit! So cool! Oh man, I hope I get to keep this thing when the expedition is over. Although, realistically, it’s going into the hottest incinerator they can find. Can’t risk carrying anything out of the Zone and into the real world. Still, wicked cool suit; I can’t wait to put it on.
I just had the pleasure of meeting our security details. Some real tough customers in that group. A few of them are even survivors from the military encounters with the monster. Can you believe that? Like how badass do you have to be to first fight a monster, and then say, “cool, now I’m gonna explore the hyper-realistic terraformed shit-show it left in its wake.”
Hold on, am I allowed to talk about the soldiers?
Yes?
And you have a list of their names? Thanks, REDACTED.
Alright, here are the tough mofos that will be keeping us nerds safe. First, we have Lieutenant Gorman. His second in command is Sergeant Apone. Then we have… hold on, Corporal Hicks? Private Hudson. Corporal Vasquez. Private Frost. These names are awfully familiar. REDACTED, did you give me a list of the Colonial Marines from the movie Aliens?
I knew it! You had me going for a bit there. I love that movie!
I know, right? “I say we take off. Nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”
(laughter) Classic Hudson line! REDACTED, I think we just became friends, didn’t we?
Yeah, back on task. So apparently I can’t actually give out the soldier’s information and REDACTED played a bit of a prank on me. But trust me when I say these soldiers out there are truly ultimate badasses – see what I did there, REDACTED?
Alright, we enter the Zone at Twelve o’clock. Time to get my space suit on!
Dr. Elias Carver signing off.
END ENTRY 2
ENTRY 3 – 1530 CST 13 April 2032
I take back everything nice I said about the suit. This thing rides in the crotch and the armpits in the worst ways and it weighs like a hundred pounds. Fuck this suit.
So the expedition isn’t off to the best start. Vehicles are a no-go in the Zone, apparently. The front tires exploded on the first humvee inches after they crossed the border into the Zone. We had to shuffle soldiers and equipment into a replacement car, which was a real pain in the ass in these suits. And that’s without the gravity change when you enter the zone. Changes from the normal Earth gravity to about three-quarters of normal. I almost puked the first time I crossed the threshold. Only thing that stopped me was imagining this fucking suit smelling like puke for the rest of the expedition. No way in hell I was letting that happen.
So like I was saying, we got stuff moved to the second hummer, and what do you know, it’s tires explode the second it enters the Zone, followed a few moments later by the engine. Mo – that’s what we are calling Dr. Al-Shabar – at first thought it had to do with a variation in the air pressure or something, but he quickly changed that theory after looking at the tires. I won’t lie, I know fuck-all about wheels and tires and explosions, but it looked to me like the wheel blew up from the inside out. So vehicles are out, which meant we hoofed it into the zone. Carrying a ton of scientific equipment. That might all just explode for no reason, like the wheels did. Apparently they are bringing in an APC with treads on it from a nearby base, but it won’t arrive until tomorrow’s trip in.
If I thought the Zone looked crazy from the outside, then it is a pure fever dream inside of it. We are taking a break at what used to be a building, maybe; whatever it is, it’s providing a bit of shade for us to rest under. We made it about a mile in – I think; it’s hard to tell. The air density is different here, so light bends in manners that our eyes aren’t used to. Not to mention colors are all over the place. Not sure if it’s from refraction or rayleigh scattering or some other trick of light in the visual spectrum, but everything looks distorted and depth perception is real tricky at times. The sky is a shade of – I want to call it fuschia? Like really pink. Gravity is bizarre too; most of the times it is about three-quarters of what we are used to, but other times it is way less, and in some cases way more.
We found out about the gravity differences the hard way. One of the soldiers – let’s call him Frost – found a patch of lower gravity and was able to jump like fifteen feet off the ground with no problem, floating back safely. Everybody was in awe, laughing and super fascinated. Whimsical even. Then Frost took another step forward and the bottom half of his leg turned to jelly as a patch of gravity, probably ten times normal, shattered every bone in his right leg. Thank god he had the foresight to fall backwards and away from the high gravity pit; I hate to imagine what would have happened if he had stepped all the way in there. Luckily, we were only a few hundred feet from the border of the Zone when this happened, so we were able to get Frost back to the base camp safely. It also taught us to look out for places where everything was a bit more squished than the surroundings.
Frost’s leg was also a wake up call for all of us. This place is dangerous, and I think we all forgot that. Scientists are a curious bunch and sometimes we forget that curiosity can get you dead.
We went slow after the gravity thing. Which was fine by me as walking in this suit with a pack full of equipment was awful. It also gave me a chance to check out all the new flora and get samples. Just like the sky, most of the flora are some shade of pink or orange. It’s also, for lack of a scientific term, really fucking bizarre. For example, the structure on some of the plants makes no sense at all from a survival standpoint. Most trees fan out their foliage at the top to take in as much sunlight as possible to photosynthesize into energy. The ones here sometimes have sparing foliage that is super spread out, or an abundance of it that is all bunched together. Neither are effective distribution methods to maximize photosynthesis, so it doesn’t make sense that they evolved in this way?
Holy shit. I just realized that it is entirely possible these things don’t even photosynthesize at all!
(Deep exhale)
Fuck me, are these even plants?
END ENTRY 3
ENTRY 4 – 2100 CST 13 April 2032
Sorry about the abrupt ending of the last log. There are a few traits that nearly all plant life share, such as having chloroplasts and photosynthesizing. The realization that the plant life in the Zone may not photosynthesize was just a bit too much for me after all the other excitement today.
Oh yeah, speaking of exciting developments, we are lost.
In the Zone.
Fuck.
As we discovered shortly after entering, compasses are entirely useless inside the Zone and the distorted visuals make it damn near impossible to keep yourself oriented. We tried to follow retrace our steps out, but our trail was just gone. It was as if the landscape actually changed behind us. The guards left markings as a contingency for this sort of situation, but we couldn’t find a single one when we tried to backtrack. One of the soldiers had the brilliant idea to follow the sun but only one little problem there; at any given moment, it can appear like the sun is in about six different places in the sky because of refraction or something. I don’t know, that’s more of Mo’s field and he hasn’t given a single worthwhile explanation for it either. My professional analysis; it’s weird as fuck.
On the plus side, I was able to get out of that walking coffin of a suit. The geniuses at headquarters had one good idea before sending us in, which was to drop emergency shelters throughout the zone for expeditions like this one. Actually, it’s kinda cool how they did that. You see, the zone extends ten miles in radius in every direction, including into the air and beneath the ground. They had to drop these bad boys in from like sixty thousand feet up, which is really fucking rad when you think about it. You see, what they do is…
Right, stay on topic. Doesn’t matter how the shelter got here; what matters is that it is as close to a normal place as possible. Air pressure is normal in here, with all the right gasses and such. Gravity is still weird, but its not like we can really do anything about that. Vision is a little better due to being in normal air pressure and seeing through normal air again, but I still see… I don’t know what to call them? Visual artifacts? Think of those eye floaty things that everybody sees except weirder and way more prominent. I found myself swatting at them when we first got here, but almost ten hours in I’m starting to get used to them. At least a little bit.
Anyways, we are lost, and it is nighttime, and it sucks. The head soldier, let’s call him Lieutenant Gorman…
You worry too much, REDACTED. I’m not playing with fate by nicknaming them after Aliens characters.
No, they didn’t all die in the end. Hicks lived. Well, depending which canon you follow. As far as I’m concerned, Alien 3 never happened. That movie was shit.
Right, right, back on topic. Sorry, REDACTED, this is all part of my coping process.
Gorman said that he and his team are going to try and pick up our trail again first thing in the morning. He assured us that we are safe in the shelter for the time being.
And hey, where better for us science nerds to do our science than right smack in the middle of this place? At least we have a base camp now, so things could be worse.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, REDACTED, time for me to bring some coffee to Dr. Slovenski and try to work my magic…
END ENTRY 4
ENTRY 5 – 0915 CST 14 April 2032
I’m not going to lie; sleeping in half of normal gravity feels damn good. Even on this poor excuse for a cot that they have us on, this is the first time my back hasn’t hurt when waking up in, I don’t know, decades!
Super fucked up dreams, though. Not sure if I can blame that one on the Zone or not.
There was a definite mood or vibe in the shelter this morning. Lots of forced enthusiasm and positivity. I had breakfast with Mo, Mun-Hee, and Mira – who I found out does not like coffee and definitely does not like clumsy advances in the middle of a crisis – and there were maybe like three words spoken the whole time. At dawn, Gorman sent his second in command, aptly referred to henceforth as Apone, and a pair of soldiers to scout the area and see if they could pick up any sign of our trail in to this place. Not a peep from them since, and that was like three hours ago. Gorman assures us that there is nothing to worry about, but his face tells a different story: That man is scared shitless right now.
Oh, before I forget. Fucking Skyler refused to sit with us, claiming that our food was upsetting his chakra or some shit. He’s been meditating in the corner for like an hour, humming and chanting under his breath. Dude is super weird.
How’s that not objective, REDACTED? Objectively, that dude is weird as fuck by normal standards. Subjective would be for me to say I don’t like him because he is weird as fuck. Which is also objectively true.
Mark my word, REDACTED, Skyler is going to snap and kill us all, just you wait and see.
Anyways, us scientists get to work our magic today, which is at least something to be happy about. Personally, I cannot wait to get some samples from the flora nearby and see what makes them tick.
END ENTRY 5
ENTRY 6 – 1542 CST 14 April, 2032
So Mira’s finger got bitten off today. By a rock.
By. A. Rock.
(Long silence)
Yeah, that one took a moment to sink in.
This place is fucking madness, REDACTED.
Right, details for posterity.
Ok, so we left the shelter shortly after my morning log and spent the next few hours gathering samples. That part was actually pretty awesome, truth be told. The variety of flora just in the few hundred feet around the shelter is astonishing. Like, this much floral diversity shouldn’t be possible in a healthy ecosystem. Between evolution and competition, biomes tend to reduce the number of active species at any given time. For example, the redwood forest in California is almost exclusively redwood trees due to their ability to out compete their competitors for sunlight and root space. Or take pine trees as another example; due to receiving less direct sunlight, they evolved a way to photosynthesize year round by not shedding their foliage. In both cases, competition and evolution, the diversity of species in those areas was limited.
In here it’s almost the complete opposite. Almost every single species of flora that I have seen so far has been distinct from the one next to it. There is no uniformity, no sign of breeds evolving or competition, just a smorgasbord of wildly distinct plant life. And even calling it plant life is a bit of a stretch so far as some of the species don’t seem to photosynthesize at all, like I talked about before, and their cellular structure is vastly different from anything I’ve ever seen on Earth. I mean, they look like plants, but so does the stick bug, and I would hardly call that a plant. It’s almost as if these plants didn’t naturally evolve and haven’t had the time to compete yet. It’ll be interesting to see what the area looks like in a few hundred years and which of these species has become the dominant one in the area.
Honestly, my plants were nothing compared to what Mun-Hee found. Apparently, this shelter landed in what used to be a playground, and there is one of those merry-go-round things behind the building. You know, the thing that as kids you would spin on as fast as you can until you were violently thrown off of it or puked your brains up? So, there is one back there and Mun-Hee touched it and it felt squishy to him. So he cut it open and discovered it had a fucking nervous system. No muscles or bones or circulatory system or anything else, just a whole shitload of nerve endings running throughout the whole thing.
Shit, I just had a thought – do you think it hurts the merry-go-round when it spins? Like, I can just picture every time the thing starts to go fast, it just starts screaming out in pain wildly. Or maybe pleasure? I don’t know, it’s fucked up either way.
What’s that, REDACTED?
The rock? What rock?
Oh, yeah! Jesus, how could I forget about THAT rock. Sorry, when I start talking plants I tend to just lose myself a bit.
Right, so Mira had one of her fingers bitten off by a rock. Just a normal rock from appearance. We brought it inside and she went to chip a piece off and the little fucker chomped down on her finger. Mira screamed and there was blood everywhere. I mean everywhere. Surprisingly, Mo and Skyler were the big heroes, with Mo smashing the rock with a hammer and Skyler, who as it turns out used to be a physician, stabilized Mira and did all the doctor stuff to stop the bleeding and what not.
The most fucked up part? When Mo smashed that rock, we expected to find out that it was an animal or something like the merry-go-round with some characteristic of life. Instead, the rock smashed like any other rock, except this one had a human finger in the middle of it. Don’t know how it bit Mira without muscles or anything like that, but it was freaky as hell.
All I know is that I need to be more careful with my samples from here on out. Last thing I need is to get eaten by a fucking plant.
END ENTRY 6
ENTRY 7 – 1951 CST 14 April 2032
Well, it’s official. We’re all going to die in this fucking place.
I don’t care that it’s not helpful, REDACTED, it’s the truth.
Fuck you, it’s my log and I’ll say what I want.
Apone and the other two soldiers got back from their recon mission. Zero luck in finding a path out and the only reason they found a way back was because they left a rope trail the whole way behind them.
Oh yeah, one of the soldiers was super dead when he got back. Let’s call him Drake. You see, Drake died when –
Yes, it is a little tasteless to call him Drake, REDACTED. I can’t NOT call the guy who got melted by acid Drake. I mean, how fucking spot on is that?
Yes, I am an asshole. I think I’ve earned it, though. I saw a woman’s finger get bitten off by a fucking rock today and saw what was left of a highly trained soldier that was melted by a random stream of acid that fell on him. You’re the REDACTED agent; you’re used to this shit. I’m just a fucking botanist that specialized in making up imaginary plants!
(Deep inhale, followed by long exhale)
You’re right, I need to calm down. Sorry, REDACTED, this shit has been a little much for me. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.
Good call on calling it an early night. I’m still referring to that soldier as Drake, though. I mean, the shoe fits…
END ENTRY 7
ENTRY 8 – 0630 CST 15 April 2032
Saying I didn’t sleep well would be an understatement. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was man-eating rocks and the melted remains of Drake. I think I dozed off for maybe a few minutes here and there, but kept waking back up. I didn’t notice it the first night, but there is a lot of ambient noise in the Zone. Weird, haunting noises. I don’t know if it is the Zone animals or just the wind moving through the weird air mixture, but there are constant sounds, ranging from the lowest lows to frequencies similar to that weird ringing sound that you sometimes get in your ears.
This place scares the shit out of me.
(Deep exhale, followed by silence)
Anyways, at around five, I figured I had had enough of tossing and turning and decided to get a head start on the day. One of the soldiers was on guard duty; the only female soldier in the group, so we’ll call her Vasquez. Other than Vasquez, the only other person awake was Skyler, surprisingly. After witnessing his medical heroics yesterday, I decided against my better judgment that it wouldn’t hurt to get to know our resident philosopher over a cup of coffee.
Apparently, Skyler used to be called Dr. Brian Meadows. He was a pediatric oncologist when he was younger. About fifteen years ago, he left behind what he called a “promising medical career” after a patient who had been cancer free for multiple years had a recurrence that metastasized aggressively. Two weeks later, the kid was dead. That patient was his son, Skyler.
Right? How can you not change after something like that happens.
So, Dr. Meadows, devastated over the loss of his son, leaves his career and commits himself to studying philosophy. As he put it, he was tired of understanding how life worked and wanted to know why it worked instead. This dude traveled the world, just seeping in cultures and knowledge and history, trying to gain a better understanding of the meaning of life. After spending some time with the Navajo people, Dr. Meadows legally changed his name to Skyler Brightsoul and began publicly speaking about life. Full on TED Talk sort of stuff. He even did some life coaching for a few famous people, including REDACTED and REDACTED.
So we got to talking about the Zone and the monster and how the two were related and this is where things got interesting. Skyler believes that the existence of the monster actually confirms that there are godlike beings that exist. He started talking about creation myths around the world and how experimentation played a part in creation and how, when that monster appeared, it recreated the world around it in a new image, experimenting as it went.
I didn’t know what to think at first. I mean, you hear that and it sounds crazy. But, and I preface this by reminding everyone that I am a deeply atheist individual, that his idea has some merit. Take the hyper-diverse plant life; the reason that it doesn’t fit any evolutionary pathways is because it hasn’t had any chance to evolve, but was all just imagine on a whim! The idea honestly hurts my mind, but it makes so much damn sense in the end. I mean, why else would a merry-go-round have a nervous system if it wasn’t some crazy god-like creature just fucking about with things?
He even had theories about the crazy visuals that we are seeing, too. Get this: that floating ocean of human DNA that used to be the residents of Dallas and the entire Texas national guard? Those wispy glowing visuals are remnants of the energy released by their souls when the monster liquefied them. He took some measurements yesterday with a galvanometer and every time he touched it to where one of those wisps was, the galvanometer would read about a quarter of a milliampere, which is the same as the current in a human nervous system.
Yeah, mind fucking blown by that one.
He also raised some other, more frightening questions. Like what if we did something wrong by killing the creature? What if we had inadvertently doomed ourselves in some way by preventing the monster from finishing whatever it was doing? Yeah, it killed literally millions of people, but what if that was all some sort of greater plan? I’m not a believer in that sort of stuff, but I have to admit that Skyler got me wondering a bit.
Or maybe just being stuck in this bizarre fucking place has driven us both insane. After all, crazy people rarely ever notice that they are crazy.
END ENTRY 8
ENTRY 9 – 1207 CST 15 April, 2032
Well, we figured out what caused the tires to explode. As expected, it was Dr. Mohamed Al-Shabar, physicist extraordinaire and tumbling aficionado, who figured it out for us.
You see, Mo found a really low gravity spot near the base. He decided to jump up in it and do a somersault. The second he completed a full forward rotation, Mo exploded.
So yeah. Now we know that forward rotational energy reacts violently in the Zone. If any of us survive this hellhole, we need to make sure that Mo receives credit posthumously.
Seriously, fuck this place.
END ENTRY 9
ENTRY 10 – 0713 CST April 15, 2032
I didn’t have the heart to make a log last night. Between Skyler’s crazy talk and Mo fucking exploding, I wasn’t feeling very chatty. We all just kinda sat around moping after Mo blew up. It’s a rare day that I don’t want to talk about plants but right now, but I just wasn’t feeling it yesterday. Like, I remember the expression on his face. There was a child-like joy when he started, just bouncing in the low gravity. Then, that sudden realization that something was terribly, terribly wrong. I swear, he looked right at me like he knew he was about to explode. Then, POP. No more Dr. Mo.
Well, there was still plenty of Dr. Mo, just not in a familiar form.
(Sigh)
I told you, REDACTED, humor is how I cope.
On the plus side, Mira is back on her feet today. Obviously, she is in pain and still in shock over the fact that a rock bit her finger off –
(laughter, followed by more laughter)
Why am I laughing? Cause this fucking place is a joke, REDACTED! I mean, one dude breaks his leg just by stepping in the wrong spot, another dude gets melted to death by some run-off, a world famous physicist explodes after doing a somersault and the cute geologist got her finger bitten off. By a fucking rock! A rock, for Christ’s sake!
No, I won’t calm down! You fucking calm down!
(Sounds of struggling. Sounds of glass breaking)
Get your fucking hands off of me! You mother fu-
END ENTRY 10
ENTRY 11 – 1623 CST 15 April, 2032
I want this on the record.
I, Dr. Elias Carver, am sorry for lashing out at REDACTED.
No, no, you were in the right. Sedating me was probably a smart move. I mean, look at my lab; I trashed the place. I’m just… I’m just not used to this shit. I mean, this is straight up horror movie stuff at this point. I’m just a plant nerd who got into botany because I really liked smoking weed in high school. Shit, I still really like smoking weed, if I’m being honest.
Thanks, REDACTED. It’s good to know that you have my back in here.
So, now that I am back to being kind of sane, it is back to the science. Gorman reiterated how important it was for us science folk to keep busy to avoid any, um, slip-ups like this morning. We are heading out to get some samples just after the sun – er, suns? – set to see what the nocturnal behavior of the flora and fauna is like. Honestly, it’s nice to just be able to try and focus on the science right now. It keeps my mind off of all the… let’s call it unpleasantness.
END ENTRY 11
ENTRY 12 – 0117 16 April, 2032
So the evening sample gathering was a bad idea.
Turns out there is a nocturnal predatory species out here. That high-pitched whining sound that I talked about before, the one that sounds like the ringing in your ear? Yeah, that’s from this creature. And they run in packs, or herds, or whatever the fuck you want to call a group of them.
We were about two hundred feet out, still close enough to see the shelter, when they attacked. It started with everyone complaining about the ringing sound. Vasquez went down first. Didn’t even get to fire a shot before, like seven of the things ripped her to pieces. We could barely even see Vasquez, but everyone heard her screaming.
Then came the gunshots. To their credit, the four remaining soldiers and REDACTED got all of us science types back safely, but the creatures got Apone before we made it back to the shelter. REDACTED even managed to grab the corpse of one of the creatures and drag it into the shelter with us.
Always thinking of us scientists in the end, aren’t you REDACTED?
Let me tell you, this thing is pure nightmare fuel. The creature, which I am officially calling a Zone Stalker for the record, is heptapodal, and vaguely canine in appearance. It has one thick, powerful back leg, and four front legs, all of which have one clawed toe on the end. A pair of eerily human looking arms, albeit with razor sharp nails on the end of each finger, are connected to the front shoulder joints. The head, if you can call it that, is a stumpy thing that splits open four ways and is filled with pointy little teeth. Inside the mouth is a long ass tongue that seems to be prehensile as well. The creature is a deep green color and has a series of holes or vents on the side, which if I had to guess were for emitting that weird ringing noise.
Either way, Mun-Hee is prepping to dissect this thing and I am going to watch just out of pure fucking spite.
END ENTRY 12
ENTRY 13 – 0359 CST 16 April, 2032
So, it turns out that the Zone Stalkers are multicellular eukaryotes. For all the simpletons in the audience, it means their cell walls are made of cellulose and that they have chloroplasts.
In other words, Zone Stalkers are fucking plants.
Go figure.
END ENTRY 13
ENTRY 14 – 0645 16 April 2032
Lieutenant Gorman decided to call it quits this morning. He stepped out of the airlock without his suit. He was dead ten steps later. Asphyxiation, exposure, a little explosive decompression. Probably hurt like hell.
What? I mean, If I’m going to take the easy way out, I at least want it to be quick and painless. That shit must’ve been agonizing. You know I’m right, REDACTED.
Whatever, I’m going back to bed. Wake me up when we’re not in hell anymore.
END ENTRY 14
ENTRY 15 – 1020 CST 16 April, 2032
Finally, some good news!
Hicks, one of the two remaining soldiers…
What?
He gets to be Hicks because he is the hero who found us a way out, that’s why.
Yes, I understand that Ripley was the hero in Aliens and that Hicks was a supporting role, but it felt kind of wrong to call him Ripley. Besides, Ripley wasn’t a soldier, she was a warrant officer and a civilian. I mean, I think the only one that can qualify as a Ripley in this situation is Mira. Or possibly me, if we aren’t going by gender.
Sure, Mun-Hee could be Ripley too.
You? Isn’t obvious, REDACTED? You’re the Bishop of the group.
Can I record my log now, REDACTED? And you’re the one who yells at me for going off topic…
Anyways, Hicks thinks he spotted a morse code light signal in the distance. He was patrolling and climbed a tree/tower thing that was nearby and he spotted a repeating light signal. He said it kept repeating the same word over and over: “safety.”
So, I’ll keep this brief because next time you hear from me, hopefully, we will be out of this nightmare and back in the real world, cause we are heading out in fifteen minutes!
END ENTRY 15
ENTRY 16 – 1712 CST 16 April, 2032
So Hudson is dead. We took a break after about six hours of marching and Hudson sat down on a rock. Then the plant behind him bit him in half.
Game over, man.
(slight laughter)
What, too soon?
Yeah, probably. The worst part? Five minutes after he got bitten in half, his leg started violently kicking. Postmortem spasming is pretty common apparently, but still super fucked up to actually see happen. Like, there were his legs, lying in there in a pool of blood, and one of them starts kicking like it is trying to punt something out of the air above it. This went on for like two minutes.
To top it off, Skyler is acting really weird. He keeps saying some shit like this was supposed to happen and that we had made a mistake when we killed the big monster that caused all this shit in the first place. REDACTED is keeping an eye on Skyler, but I’m worried about what may happen to him if we don’t get out of here soon.
Alright, break is over, Hicks says it’s time to march again. Hopefully, the end is in sight.
END ENTRY 16
ENTRY 17 – 2313 CST 16 April 2032
Well, I hate being right all the time.
We made camp for the night in what possibly used to be a bus? Doesn’t matter. What matters is that I woke up to the sound of Mun-Hee choking on his own blood as Skyler cut into him and started removing his organs while he was still alive. He had the awareness to open his comm link so that we could all hear as Skyler literally cut the life out of him. Unfortunately, he had already finished with Mira well before that, cutting her open from crotch to jaw and opening her chest like some sort of fucking grotesque butterfly. REDACTED managed to shoot Skyler once, but it only winged him and he ran off. Hicks took off after Skyler to make sure that he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
That was about an hour ago. We heard some gunshots in the distance, but it has been silent since then. No sign of either Skyler or Hicks.
(Deep exhale)
No, I’m good. Scared, but good.
Honestly, I just want to go home, REDACTED. I’m terrified that I’m going to die here.
No offense, but you telling me you are going to keep me alive isn’t super reassuring. I mean, you weren’t just responsible for me. Mo, Mira, Mun-Hee, shit even Skyler; you were responsible for all of us. Your success rate on keeping scientists alive blows.
No, you’re right. That’s not fair. I’m sorry. None of us could’ve foreseen any of this.
Yeah, let’s just hope that Hicks lives up to his namesake.
END ENTRY 17
ENTRY 18 – 0630 CST 17 April 2032
Hicks didn’t return. But Skyler did. And when he came back, he had Hicks’s rifle. It all happened so fast. Skyler yelled something about divine justice and shot REDACTED. REDACTED shot Skyler in the head, killing him instantly. Unfortunately, REDACTED’s wound proved fatal, too. REDACTED died about ten minutes ago.
He saved my life. He truly was the Bishop of our group.
I’ll be honest; I doubt I’m going to make it out of here alive. I’m going to start walking in one direction when I’m done recording this and maybe I make it out of here, or maybe I get eaten by a fucking plant. Either way, I want to tell those that read this some day one vital message.
Stay out of the zone. It’s not ours anymore. I don’t know if Skyler was right or if what he said was just the rantings of a crazy man, but this isn’t Earth anymore. When the monster passed, this stopped being our world and became something new, something different. If you want to study it, study it from afar. But, please, for the love of god, do not come in here. All that exists in here is death and terror.
This is Dr. Elias Carver, xenobotanist and last surviving member of the first expedition into the North American Exclusionary Zone, signing off.
END ENTRY 18
Patrick D Quinn 
Leave a comment