hello everybody, my name is markiplier and welcome back to buried. now we're beginning chapter 3 and continuing our story down into the weird complex that we're in. and i'm not saying that this has anything to do with scp containment breach but the parallels are still there. we follow marcus into what i can only describe as a control room of sorts there are countless computer screens, some of which are obviously coming back on from having been shut off everything looks extremely complicated; from screens filled with code and data to what is obviously a security system. it reminds me of a miniaturized version of the operations center in just about every space travel movie i've ever seen. marcus is running from one screen to another, apparently looking for some pertinent bit of information. "where's the first aid kit?" i snap at him.
marcus stops in his tracks, as if he'd forgotten the whole reason for bringing us down here. "oh yeah," he says, rushing to the left side of the room. there he hunkers down by an opened panel in the wall what i assume is the emergency vault from where he got the rifle. i better, i better look at that. he may be trying to grab another gun and that probably wouldn't spell to much good for me. so i'm gonna look in to that. i peer over marcus' shoulder into the vault he's opened. it's much larger than it looks from the outside. it's partially filled with file folders marked classified. a few rounds of ammo for a rifle,
a peculiar plastic kit filled with syringes, and a locked black box. as marcus digs around, one of the folders slips open. for the split second it's open, i see a scanned document and a color photo. the photo shows a male corpse with its guts on the outside of its body, as if it had been turned inside out. there's also a massive swelling on his head, almost like his skull is about to explode. marcus slaps the folder closed and then i turn my
attention to one of the syringes. it's filled with a violet-colored fluid that, while rather pretty in color, looks deadly. marcus finally pulls out the first aid kit and turns around. when i look back to motion dennis over, he's paler than ever. "come on," i tell him, but he's not moving from the place on the floor where he sits against the wall. i slide the first aid kit over to him and go scrambling to his side. between the struggle for the rifle upstairs and arriving in this room, he's faded fast. i struggle to lift up his shirt and then over his shoulders as the dried blood holds it in place.
the mere act causes him to grimace. "this might hurt a little," i tell dennis. he only nods. he doesn't seem to care. ooh well, i mean, ripping off a band aid is one thing but this is an open wound. i mean gently might be good but ripping it off quickly might also do some damage. i mean the common instinct would probably be to rip it off quickly but when it's a wound of this size i think gently is the only way to go about it. yeah. well apparently that was important.
i lift the shirt off gently and it makes a sucking sound... there's so much blood that the moisture tries to keep the shirt pulled to him. dennis lets out a little moan but seems to relax, in spite of his injuries. with the shirt fully removed, the extent of his injuries become more clear. his wound is more visible now, although it's partially hidden by the blood that has started to clot around it. my medical knowledge is slim... basically just a bunch of basics i iearned in boy scouts. i look over to marcus hopefully and ask "you have any training?" "zero," he says. "sorry." it's just as well, i guess. he's far too concerned with what's happening on the monitors to be of much help anyway.
i start by taking out several rolls of gauze within the kit and wipe as much blood as i can away from the wound on his side. it's even worse than i'd figured from the start; the gash is deep. i'm pretty sure it's infected, too. he's going to need stitches, that's for sure. but i have no idea how to even start that. besides, i don't see the tools for it in the kit. when i splash rubbing alcohol over the wound, he responds with a hoarse yelp of surprise, but nothing more. his eyes are locked on me and he looks appreciative... but he's also scared. "be honest," dennis says hopefully.
"how bad does it look? you think i'll live?" oh man. "it looks really bad dennis." i mean it does look bad. but i-i've been reassuring him this whole time. see, i think he'll be fine. he's gonna pull through. yeah. "good to know," he says. "but i sure don't feel like that." "you've been through hell," i say. "i think it feels worse than it actually looks."
"thanks. that's a relief." "i won't lie... you're gonna have a scar," i say, trying to be funny. he chuckles a bit, but there's no humor in it. he rests his head against the wall and closes his eyes as i finish up. i place one layer of gauze against the wound and bind it with medical tape. i then reinforce it with a second layer. i know it's meager, but it's all i can do. "thanks roger," he says, actually managing to force out a smile. "i feel a lot better. i think i'll be fine."
i'm not so sure about that. but i'm glad i was able to encourage him. finally i patch up the bruises on my head a bit, cursing myself again for not grabbing my hard hat. i know, i'm an idiot. i look back at marcus and he's really looking back at us, deep in thought. my eye is starting to really swell up from where he kicked me earlier. maybe i shouldn't have let him off so easy. "are the first aid kits all you have in this facility?" "if there's something better, i don't know about it."
i notice then that his defensive posture is no longer there. something is different now... just a slight change in his demeanor. he's seen something on those monitors that has him frightened... more than he already was before. "what is it? what's wrong?" his eyes travel around the room and it's obvious that he's trying to decide whether or not to tell me the truth. if i ask him he's probably not gonna tell me so i'm gonna take a fuckin' look at this. rather than wait for him, i get up and scan the screens behind him, seeing if i can find any clues i had missed moments ago. after a few moments i see a few things that even i can comprehend hidden in the complex information in most of the screens. on one screen, i see what looks like a power meter that's slowly climbing upwards.
a single message is flashing beneath it, it reads: unexpected power failure, foreign entity another message trickling along the bottom of a black screen says: safety locks on level 3 containment doors engaged override? i see still scenes on a few other screens that i assume are security cameras showing hallways and passages from elsewhere in the facility. one of them shows the first level hallway we were on just a few minutes ago. another shows a hallway i don't recognize. the floor is covered in blood. from just off the screen, i see what i think might be a human body, but it's bent in an impossible way. it looks like the body's legs and torso have somehow been merged or melted into the floor. is it more important to say "what's wrong with the systems?" or is it more important to say "what is wrong with that body on the ground that's melted into the floor?"
i'm kinda curious about that. "i have no idea; i didn't see it. whatever happened to that guy must have happened in the last minute or so." well that's not good. "what the hell?" "there's something still happening? are we still in danger?" he turns away, clearly fearing he has already said too much. and as bad as that is, there's a scene on another monitor that makes my blood go cold and my fear spike to levels somewhere near terror. the scene is very familiar. it's the logging site. the equipment is unmistakably mine. i can even see my truck.
something like fury starts to rise up in my guts momentarily pushing aside the fear. for a moment, i consider just tearing into him. a few punches and a shove against the wall... nothing more. i want answers, and i want them now. but i'm not sure which would provide more answers: asking calmly, or kicking his ass. he's scared. i'm scared. he's angry.
there's no reason to escalate. he knows us, that's why, in the last episode, he sorta saw some truth when we said that we were loggers. he knew this. he was watching us. of course they would. they're a complex. they're gonna have security cameras all over the location that they are to make sure that no dumb lumberjack just stumbles his way in. i'm gonna ask him calmly. "could you please explain to me why you've been spying on my crew?" my anger is prodding at me and i have to hold it back again. it's near the surface, demanding a release.
"it was part of my job. mine and a few others... your crew has been watched ever since you set up your equipment." "why?" "because you're working with heavy equipment -- some of which digs into the ground -- less than a mile from a secret government facility." "i had no idea of that. how could i have known?" marcus gives me that same crooked, trembling smile that's beginning to creep me out. "because those things would draw attention to this place. you have no idea how secretive this facility is." "besides... i know that the higher ups looked into it. your site isn't on government land. it's shy by about 300 yards. every piece of your equipment is on private property... the timber contract you purchased from mr. gladstone two months ago.
"so even if we wanted to intervene and keep your crew away, we couldn't have without stirring up a fuss. the fact that someone with such a low level clearance knows this much about my logging crew is unnerving. "if you've been watching us, why didn't you recognize us when we met in the hallway?" i ask. he shakes his head and exhales, like it's obvious. "the cameras don't have a bird-the cameras have a bird's eye view. i can't see faces. we just track bodies and na-and names." now this is the point, probably the anger is building up in this guy, in me. 'cause i want to know where my crew is and this guy has probably seen what happened. unless the power went out at the exact same time and he didn't see what happened to my crew. i mean, i'm angry, i know that.
i want answers out of this guy. and this guy's a creep who's never seen anybody but i still feel like being calm is the only way to get out of this. i want to yell at him and if it comes up one more time i'mma yell at him but i'm gonna try to be calm about this. "so since you have all of this surveillance, do you know where the rest of my crew is?" i do my best to keep my voice level, even though my impulse is to shout. "well, all of you were on site as usual before the incident. it had been a few hours since i had checked though." "they might have come near the facility. or maybe not. i don't know." he says this casually, like it's not important. "well, are they inside the facility? you have cameras everywhere right? do you see them?" marcus shakes his head. "i've been looking all over and i haven't seen your crew. they aren't here."
"but, the lower levels don't have any cameras. classified. i'm not sure how they would have gotten there, but it's a possibility." i'm still shocked that we were being watched. do they know everything about us? "i'm telling you, the depth of influence in this facility goes deep." "there are 36 employees down here. outside of those employees, only five other people know this place exists." yeah, i'm done asking calmly. i'm done being jerked around with this guy not giving a shit. i'm gonna ask him "what the hell goes on here?". he doesn't even pause to consider if he should go any further. he actually laughs when he gives me the answer. "i honestly don't know everything. probably very little. but what i do know is that it is more than black ops.
"what does that mean?" i ask. there are scientists here who have been disowned by their own governments because of the nature of their work. you get it now?" i don't... not at all. but i don't want him to know that. "you said there are 36 employees. where are they now?" he shakes his head. "as far as i know everyone else is gone." "gone where?" he points to the screen that still informs us of unexpected power failure and cringes. "if this power failure was not corrected in time, there's no telling." "but they're here in the facility somewhere, right?" i ask, hoping someone will be able to help dennis better than i.
"i just don't know. they could be anywhere." "look," i say, furious with the way he's talking in riddles. "i don't..." "ah, god," dennis says. i look ever to him and he looks as pale as a ghost. he's stood up and his eyes are locked on the monitor closest to him. "what?" he simply points to the monitor and then looks away. i look at the monitor and see the logging site. ...but more specifically, i see the overturned dozer and the leg sticking out from under it, wearing work boots. right where i left him. tony...
the fact of his death seemed abstract almost... like it happened in some other world or very long ago. "i know that you already told me he was gone. but... it's different actually seeing him. my god..." suddenly something blazes by the open door outside. the shape is fast and in shadow, but i am pretty sure it's a person. "someone else is here," marcus says, wheeling around. he sounds very happy to discover this, so i try to follow his lead. if something bad happened at this facility, then surely the sight of another survivor is a good thing. right?" "we should check it out," he says. i realize this isn't the best moment to leave dennis, after revisiting tony's death all over again. "someone just ran by the door," i tell him. "hopefully it's someone who can help us."
i'm gonna ask him if he's gonna be ok. of course, i care about this guy. "it's fine. go see who is is," he says, giving me a mock thumbs-up. i turn to marcus and motion us-for us to head out to investigate. "let's be careful. depending on who it is, they might not be as hesitant to shoot a stranger as i was." i nod at him as i head for the door. i'm still holding the rifle in my hand and i don't know if i have the guts to actually use it if needed. with a final look back to dennis, i run out into the second level hallway. ooh, continue. man, we're going deep into this.
that's the thing about this, it's so enthralling to see this story spread out. *creepy sounds* well that's not reassuring. and the subtleties of the sound is good. marcus follows. there's still fear in his eyes, but also the slightest glimmer of hope. that hope is contagious. we take off after the figure that just ran past the command center. ahead of us, the facility presents yet another long hallway. right away, i notice that on this level of this facility seems darker even though the lights are all on now. the hallway is adorned with numbered yellow doorways and large white panels along the walls.
it's clean and well-maintained, but there's something ominous about it. up ahead, i see the fleeting motion of something dark cutting quickly to the left, down a corridor. "there," i say quietly, pointing up ahead. marcus gives a nod and we continue chasing after the person we saw blaze by the command center just a few moments ago. it occurs to me that this person could be like marcus at first: armed and scared. may be best not to shout in this hallway. i mean, i know i have a proclivity to shout and maybe i should just keep going with that but uh, you know you never know. you never know. i'm gonna shout at them, i'm gonna shout. hey, hey, hey! hey buddy.
"hey! stop! who's there?" i get no response and i'm unsure if i should be relieved or upset by this. the last person we met nearly killed me with a rifle. why would this person be any different? i quickly dart around the corner and take some shooting-the same shooting stance i've seen countless times on tv. there's a woman standing there, about ten feet away. she has reddish blonde hair and a small mousy build. she looks terrified and is visibly shaking. she's probably in her late thirties, wearing a lab coat with dark jeans and green converse low-tops. i have a strange sense that her fear is not just about our sudden appearance. she looks like a woman who's been running scared for a while.
her hands are raised in surrender, she's not holding a weapon. marcus slowly approaches, taking a few steps ahead of me. "it's amy, right?" he asks. she blinks, seemingly surprised that he knows her name. "yes. an-and you're mark?" "marcus." she nods absently and then looks to my rifle. i'm not gonna use it. she's obviously scared. i was worried that this wasn't even going to be a human that we find.
i'm not gonna use it. but marcus knows her. "now how do i know that?" she asks. "you're trespassing on government property in the midst of a huge catastrophic event. and you have a rifle, how am i supposed to believe you?" "i have a friend back in the command center who needs medical attention. and we're looking for the rest of our crew." "i'm really sorry, but i don't know where they are," she says. "do you know what's happened? from the power outage?" "i don't know what caused it," she says, "but there was... an experiment taking place when the outage occurred. something happened and... she trails off here, giving me a look of distrust.
"i saw things on the security monitors. the experiment failed, didn't it?" "i don't know the specifics. i barely escaped the third floor." "i was gonna go to the command center to see if the security footage showed anything but then i saw you and the gun..." listening to their conversation, i'm feeling totally in the dark. "what has you so scared?" is more important and probably gets more pertinent to the matter at hand. what the hell is so scary? amy looks to me, her eyes widen, terrified. "who are you anyway?" i quickly give her my story: a logger stranded in the woods following a peculiar explosion at the logging site.
as i tell her, recognition blooms in her eyes. "you're one of the loggers?" "yes." she then looks to marcus and says "i thought they were being watched." "they were. this is a freak accident... and there's no proof that they were responsible." i feel myself wanting to submit to all of the questions that are piling up in my head, but dennis is waiting for me. let's see. i gotta get medical attention for dennis. that's like first priority. if she can in any way help.. i decide that despite my curiosity, i need to get dennis help as soon as humanly possible. "look, is there any medical help to be had here or not?"
"probably," amy says. "but you'd have to find colonel barksdale. he knows where all of those sorts of supplies are." "where is he? where is everyone else?" at this, amy starts to weep. she falls to her knees, as if someone had struck her from behind. "gone," she says. "some were killed, and some were just... i don't know. they disappeared right in front of me." "what the hell is going on here?" "something's here with us," amy says. "we were conducting an experiment and it all went horribly wrong. something came through." "came through what?" marcus asks. "i don't even know that much. an entity. but whatever it is, it's still here somewhere." "how could you not know? don't you have full security access?"
"no. i have access to almost everything... but there are two levels of security beyond my clearance." "so what do you suggest we do now?" "i'm not sure," she says, wiping her tears away. "but if you want to find your crew, we need to find barksdale. he's in charge." "where is he?" "down on the third level... in the hangar." "then, let's go." "it's not that easy," amy says, again looking to the rifle in my hands. "why not?" "like i said, something came through when the power went out. there's several of them... all roaming the third level."
what came through? what is it? "all i know is that the others referred to them as 'entities'," amy shudders as she recalls the horror she has seen. "i don't even know how to describe them. i didn't get a good look. all i did was run for my life, behind me i just heard screams." i know it's not very scientific of me, but i didn't feel like sticking around to learn more." "she's right," marcus says, stopping my train of thought. "the things i saw on the monitors... it was crazy." "this is insane," i bark. "i'm going to the third level to find this barksdale guy. thanks for your help." "wait," marcus said. "i'm sticking with you. if we want to get out of here, we have to find barksdale, right?" "yes but barksdale is on the third floor, and it's too dangerous to go back there."
i figure i'll let them make their own decisions. in the meantime, i start heading back to the command center to get dennis. before i get there, i hear their footfalls behind me, getting closer. i give amy a questioning look and she quickly looks away, clearly torn. "neither of you know your way around here. looking for barksdale on your own would be suicide." like it or not, she has a point. "fine. then let's go get dennis from the command center and head down together." yeah, best not to split up. that's like the last thing that you should do. but i don't even know if dennis is gonna be able to move. dennis is like really hurt. there's not even any pain killers for him. we enter the command center and i'm happy to see that dennis has regained some of his color. "we're gonna get you some help," i tell him. "and then we're gonna find our crew and get the hell out of here."
"more help would be great," he says. "with the way you took an hour to get my shirt off earlier, i'm not letting you touch me again." "wait. maybe one of us should stay here with him." "i'll be ok," dennis says. he stands to his feet with a grunt. "you don't know what's out there. i saw them... i saw what they can do. this facility is not safe." "are there any of them on this floor?" "i'm not sure. but they're down on the third floor. so we'll need to be careful." marcus looks a little hesitant but he nods his agreement and the four of us exit the command center. heading back out into the hallway, i look back to the monitors. i take a final look at the screen that shows my wrecked logging site and i feel a pang of sorrow.
then i look to the other monitors, showing live feed of the facility's security cameras. i try to tell myself that i'm not looking for any sign of amy's... creatures, but i can't. that's exactly what i'm doing. and there's no need to pretend otherwise. we head back through the hall and towards the elevator. the tension exists between us is like a physical presence. oh, this seems like a bad idea. we step inside the elevator and those pristine doors close. inside the elevator, amy seems to become much more guarded and distant from us. i want to assure her that i mean her no harm but i'm also not going to put the rifle down. "so you have pretty high clearance in this place, right?"
"that's right." "so what kind of experiment are we talking about here? what went wrong?" when she starts to answer my question, i can tell that it is something of a relief for her to get some of it off of her chest. "there's been a lot of work on a project taking place over here over the last three years or so." "the purpose is to find out if there is any real viable science behind point to point instantiation." "like teleporting?" "oh my god. i had no idea. i knew there was some weird stuff here, but nothing this insane." "it's really not all that insane. we found our first major breakthrough about nine months ago." "we were able to transport a live rat from its cage on level three to a small lab in new mexico. the trip took the rat five seconds."
"are you kidding me?" i can tell that he wants to sound as if he is mocking the idea, but he fails. he is scared. "not at all. the problem was that when the rat arrived, its retinas were detached and its intestines were on the outside of its body." "what does this have to do with us now?" "well, about six months ago, we successfully made that same experiment. the rat arrived in great health and this time in just three seconds. "still, one of the things that we needed to tweak in order to make the process completely safe was to figure out how to keep the subject on a straight course. "when the matter is being transported, not only are its atoms being unknit and then put back together upon arrival..." unknit? that's exactly the way that star trek does it. "yeah. deconstructed and translated through space. it's the only way we know how to do it right now.
"but the issue, as i said, comes in a keeping the deconstructed subject on a straight course to its destination. "when the process occurs, we are deforming space time. we are creating a shortcut through space. and that has risks. "why, exactly?" dennis asks. "because there are many more dimensions in space than the three we exist on," she explains. "there's some evidence to say that there are as many as ten." "so when you send the rat to new mexico, it's traveling through another dimension to get there?" i ask. "basically. and because of that, we were trying to get a better understanding of what these other dimensions are capable of. "things that a great deal of the population would be scared of if they knew what we were doing. hence all the privacy. "then today, the power went out-went out as we were right in the middle of an experiment. something happened... what, i don't know." she's speaking with the authority of someone who knows what she's talking about.
"is that why those creatures are here?" "that's my assumption. i wasn't present for the experiment. i'm not cleared for such things. but i do get reports." "what reports?" marcus asks. "i'm given access to the results of the tests." "in other words," marcus replies, clearly upset. "you guys have been peeking into other dimensions and taking notes on what you see." "i can't believe that i've wasted my life for this..." he murmurs to himself. he looks like he's starting to freak out. amy is quiet. her expression indicates that she's waiting to see how i react to all this. honestly, that's incredible. like legitimately, that's-that's legitimately incredible.
that am-that's groundbreaking science. like legitimately. "so this is like interdimensional stuff?" i ask. "in a way," amy answers. marcus on the other hand is incredulous. "i don't want anything to do with this," he says. "all this time, i've been working for... for..." he laughs cruelly and the sound of it makes my blood go cold for a second. "just a single level beneath my feet, you assholes have been tearing apart space and time..." marcus continues. when the elevator doors open, i can't get out fast enough. the tension is growing way too thick for my liking. outside of the elevator, we step out into what appears to be a massive industrial area.
the carnage waiting for us is unlike anything i'd seen in the upper levels. oh boy. oh, that's not good. oh, that's not good. oh that's the opposite of good. the area looks industrial, like everything was built for utility only. but more noticeable than that is all of the blood. my god, i have never seen so much blood. those creatures must have had a field day. "holy shit," marcus says, looking like a man that just awoke from a very bad dream. "there were more personnel in this area when the experiment went haywire," amy says, as if the explanation makes it all better. "the research you had to do all down here had better be worth it," i say. we have to get moving or we're going to lose our nerve. "amy, let's focus. barksdale is in the hangar?" i ask.
"if he's still alive, yes... that's where he'll be." "then let's hurry," i say. as far as i can tell, dennis is doing much better, but i am beginning to grow tired of trying to keep my fear at bay. between the blood on the floor, the silence of level 3, and amy's talk of the lab rats... i'm getting freaked out. no, no. i can take it. i am a brave boy. i can do this. i've got the gun.
jesus, i'm not gonna let anyone walk in front of me with the gun. the four of us starting walking ahead, with me in the lead. we stop walking when we come to the remains of what looks to be three different people. it's hard to tell how many bodies there were because they have been torn to shreds and are... distorted. two of the bodies look as if they had been fused together. another man looks to have had his leg welded through the floor. i can see this man's face; he died in an abject state of horror, his mouth pried open in an eternal scream. we gotta investigate the bodies. we have to it's grim work but we have to know. i see half a face pushed down into the floor like putty, barely attached to a separated skull. a single, dead eye stares at me. i think i might puke. behind me, marcus does just that.
as i listen to him heaving, my eyes cannot leave the carnage. there is blood everywhere, a crimson pool flooding the floor. there are hunks of skin and tissue splattered on the wall, and a strand of unspooled intestine that clings to the floor like a dead snake. dennis steps up beside me and when he speaks, his voice is soft and flat. "what in the hell could do that to someone?" he asks. "the things i saw," amy answers. "they could do it pretty easily, i think." she looks pale and i think that she may pass out at any moment. tears spill from her eyes and she is visibly shaking. but she soldiers on, looking back to me and stepping to the side of the gruesome carnage. her eyes again go to my rifle and she doesn't look very hopeful. "you good to go?" she asks me.
we need to move on, but for some reason, i can't take my eyes off the scene. my mind is reeling, trying to process it all. i don't know. if i keep looking around then we're gonna stick around to this area and that may be too long. and also, it might be bad for the group. i mean is there anything to gleam more than what we've seen already? there could be a key or there could be something but i don't think the-i don't think the group could take it. we gotta get out of here. we leave the grisly sight behind, moving into equally destroyed area. from what i can tell, the next room was once an open area for experimentation. the place hasn't just been destroyed; it has been physically altered in a way that makes no sense. the girders look to have been warped, their very materials distorted and twisted. to my right, a machine has been catapulted and looks to have somehow merged with the wall rather than crashing into it.
beyond these phenomena, there is the standard violence i was expecting to see. there is a limp arm sticking out from underneath the wreckage and more blood. i see no signs of an explosion which makes me wonder just how this happened. seeing the aftermath is sickening enough. but it makes me wonder if amy saw it while it was happening. "did you see what happened to those girders?" i don't need to remind her about the people that died. "i only caught a glimpse of it. it was like trying to focus your eye on something that was too close." "they just started twisting, but not creaking or breaking. it's like these creatures are able to deform matter." she pauses here, and that's when we hear something echo through the facility. it comes from behind us and slightly to the right. i'm not sure what it is, but it makes my blood feel like ice. it sounds almost like static from an am radio, but there is a high-pitched noise beneath it that i can't even start to fathom.
"what in the hell is that?" i ask, instantly clapping my hands to my ears. "one of them," she says, her voice a whisper. "one of the creatures." "that's what they sound like?" dennis asks. i see that he's leaning against the wall, wincing at the noise. i suddenly realize that i have a death grip on the rifle, ready to shoot at the next thing i see. "anything between us and them?" "not really. none of the hallways are blocked off by secure doors." everyone seems to take this as the cue to start moving again. we make our way around the office wreckage, now with new purpose in our step. we barely make it to the other side of the room, approaching a dark hallway, when another high-pitched noise sounds out. this one louder.
closer. we all share a terrified look and i can tell that amy is on the verge of losing it. i grip my tight-rifle tightly as we head towards the hallway in front of us. "how much further to the hangar?" "close. it's just at the end of this hallway." dennis speaks up, his voice like ice. "why don't we just haul ass then?" no one says anything after that, but i can feel the presence of terror around us, pressing in on us like some new violent gravity. we gotta move out of here. this is a bad place to be caught out in the open. that is even more blood. there's just blood everywhere.
the small utility hallway is well-lit. it looks as if it was designed to only be used by select maintenance workers. "what goes on in this area?" i ask. i'm looking at marcus and i ask questions, but he only shrugs in response. "she might know," he replies, pointing to amy. "i've never been down here before. "it's just a utility hallway, but at the end there is a maintenance room. there should be a gun or two in there." "it's also the most direct path to the hangar entrance." as we walk quickly and quietly down the hall, i take a glimpse ahead and feel the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. the lights become more sparsely spaced and it's impossible to see just how far the hall extends into the darkness. this hallway has the occasional trace of bloodshed, but nothing like the main area we've come from.
we continue farther down and just as i begin to see what the large-what looks like a large metal door further ahead, i hear yet another shrill sound. this one sounds farther away but no less demonic. "how many of these things did you see?" "three. but that's just what i saw. there could be more." "what did they look like?" "yeah, what are we dealing with?" i don't wanna-i don't wanna ignore this. i don't even know how to explain them." "monsters... that's the only word i can think of. my mind seemed to struggle just trying to understand what i was seeing."
they're big and they seem to jerk around every few feet or so. they look like they're made of light. that's about all i know for sure." "you know, my ex-husband always said i'd let my work kill me," she continues, seemingly unable to stop herself. "i mean, i doubt he imagined this exact scenario, but still..." as we make our way to the hangar doors, another high-pitched noise rings out. angrier now. amy stops walking, causing all of us to stop and turn to her. "we have to do something to slow those things down," she says. "no. there's no time. we need to distance ourselves and get to the hangar. fast." amy ignores him, deep in thought. "there's an old hydraulic door set into the wall right here. it hasn't been used for years though." she looks to me, pleading her case. "together we might be able to pull it closed behind us to keep those things back." "those old hydraulic doors weigh a ton. there's no way it'll work."
"roger, what do you think? they'll have a harder time getting to us if these doors are locked." "look," marcus shouts, "we need to get to the hangar, now." okay, there's one person in this group that has survived these things and that's amy. i don't know if it's blind luck or actual intelligence but i'm guessing that she knows what she's supposed to do. we're gonna close those damn doors. "damn it!" marcus says. "we don't have time for this!" amy ignores him and starts feeling along the hallway wall for a groove. dennis and i start looking as well. a minute passes. then i see a small metal frame that runs from the floor to the ceiling. is this-is this it?" i ask. "yes," amy says.
i look to the floor and see an old metal track that runs along the frame. "let's move it," i say. amy, dennis and i start pulling as hard as we can. but it barely budges an inch. behind us, that static noise rings out. my heart seems to stutter and mark lets out a little whine. "we're running out of time, we need to go! those things are getting closer every second!" "help us marcus." if marcus just gets off his ass and helps us.. "it won't make a difference. we.." "shut up and help us and then we'll find out!" i shout.
reluctantly, mark walks over and grasps the door. we all groan as we strain to pull. it starts inching slowly and then begins moving steadily. once we get it started, it slides easily. as we near the wall, closing off the hallway behind us, i can-i think i can see the merest glimpse of an odd illuminated shape in the darkness. it's cut off by the slight thump of the hydraulic door being pushed against the frame in the opposite wall. amy turns a lock into place. "great. now let's haul ass," says marcus. we all turn and get moving again, still feeling unsure about our prospects. the fact that yet another shrill noise sounds out elsewhere in the facility is not calming. and then there are two of them. it's almost like they are calling out to one another. the doors to the hangar sit up ahead like an entrance to some enormous labyrinth. i think we made the right choice but that does not look promising.
there's blood right on that hangar door and it seems to be bent. when we reach the hangar door i get a true sense of how impenetrable they are. the computer terminal is mounted on the wall nearby and has a blinking red light. "any idea what this means?" i ask. "it's an automated lock. a fail-safe from the lock-down," says amy. "i've never been down here before," marcus says. "if i had known this door was here, i would have opened it earlier." "how?" amy asks. the fear in her voice is more present than ever. "from the command center. you need the override from there first then use this terminal to open the hangar doors." "the command center on the second floor?" i ask. "yeah."
amy shakes her head and lets out a nervous laugh. "are you kidding me? we just pulled that hydraulic door and blocked off the hallway, remember?" "if we want to get into the hangar, we have to get back to the command center. isn't there another way?" turning to marcus, amy replies, "well, there's another elevator. but we'll need to go through biochem storage." "i need to stay with dennis so he can rest. you two go. you know your way around this place. and you know the controls, marcus." "fine, but we'll need to be armed." oh, the thing is amy doesn't know how to use the gun, marcus does. he's been trained for that. as much as i don't like marcus, he's the one qualified to do it. amy is a scientist, what training would she have in that? then again, i like... i do trust amy more but i can't be guaranteed that marcus isn't gonna do something stupid.
god damn it. oh this is a bad choice. this is a bad choice but i think i'm gonna give it to marcus just because-just because marcus does have the training. then again, i don't know if amy doesn't have the training. marcus didn't shoot us. that's the thing. he-he had enough self-control even though he was scared, not to shoot us. i don't know what amy would do. i'm just gonna give it to marcus. 'cause amy could be like a sole survivor instinct but then again, marcus could be too. i'm gonna give it to marcus. it's his gun anyway.
i hand marcus the rifle and he turns to go. amy gives me a concerned look, but follows along behind him. once amy and marcus made it a good distance down the hallway, dennis lets out a nervous laugh. "and then there were two," he says. dennis looks much better. but he still needs to use the wall to stay standing. "didn't amy say that there were guns and emergency kits in the maintenance room near the hangar doors?" i ask. "yeah, i think so," dennis says, look exhausted. i look ahead and see a door to the right that reads "maintenance". might as well give it a try." i go to the door, try to open it and find that it's locked. no, i don't want to kick it down, my knee's bad. my knee's bad. i'll push it with my shoulder.
my knee is bad. i give it a hard shove, but it doesn't budge, i'm about to try again but that's when i hear the dry choking sound from just down the hallway. it's barely audible. but it is not my imagination my first thought is that it's one of those things... one of the monsters. but after calming my nerves and reassessing, it sounds more like a person. i think about how angry and on edge amy was when she turned to leave, as well as how scared marcus had looked. alarm bells sound in my head and before i know it, i'm heading back down the hall, away from the hangar doors. "stay here, i'll be right back," i whisper over my shoulder to dennis. "see if you can figure out how to get into that maintenance room." "where are you going?" he asks.
i don't bother answering him as i bound through the door where amy and marcus went. oh no. did i make a goof? i better not have made a goof. that's a lot of blood. i would have heard a gunshot. as i enter the biochem room and start walking between the massive silos, i wonder what classified chemicals could be inside of them. i'm fully expecting one of amy's creatures to come flying out from the intersection of halls up ahead. i hear something... a skittering noise, like something moving quickly.
i run ahead so fast that i almost trip over two people in a life-or-death struggle. my mind tries to process what i am seeing. but, it makes no sense. none at all. marcus is on the floor with amy pinned beneath him. he has his rifle at her throat, pushing her down to the floor and choking her with it. her face is turning purple and her eyes look like they might pop out of her head. marcus sees me coming down the hallway but acts as if what he is doing is perfectly normal. i gotta stop him. what the hell is he doing? i start rushing towards him before i really know what i'm doing.
i bring my fist down hard in an arc across the bridge of his nose and am rewarded with a sick cracking sound. he cries out as he falls to the ground, looking at me as if he doesn't understand why i punched him. on the floor, amy clutches at her neck and gasps for breath. i start to fear that i was a moment too late just as i see that the rifle has been thrown across the floor. marcus seems to notice this at the same moment that i do. i'm gonna hit marcus again. jesus, this guy deserves to be hit. i deliver a surprisingly strong blow with my right hand, clipping his chin from my awkward position. i'm in the process of planting a knee in his chest to hold him down when his left foot comes out of nowhere, landing hard. the kick catches me squarely in the ribs, knocking the breath out of me.
"what the hell are you doing? by killing her, i'm saving us. all of this was her fault!" i sense that he truly believe this, but if that's the case then why not just shoot her rather than strangle her with the rifle? the answer is simple: we would have heard the gunshot and i, or those things, would have come running. he wanted to kill her quietly. and then what? would he have done the same to dennis and me? it seems fitting, really: when we first came upon marcus, he'd held a gun on us. i'd been so relieved to see another human being that i had underestimated just how unhinged he was. marcus and i both dive for the rifle, still laying on the floor, and start wrestling for possession. but i'm not confident i'll come away with it. as we struggle he starts inching the muzzle of the gun towards my face, a position i do not want to be in. i start pushing back hard.
but if this thing accidentally fires, i'm not sure where i'd prefer the bullet to go, especially in this room full of chemical tanks. force muzzle towards marcus oh boy. what the fuck is going on? i grunt as i push the muzzle to point towards his face. realizing he is literally looking down the barrel of a gun, marcus ducks his head out of the way. this makes him lose leverage, allowing me to yank the gun from his grip. i get to my feet as quickly as i can, swinging the rifle back around on him. for a moment i think i've knocked him out but his eyes flutter and he looks at me as if i've betrayed him.
"her people. it was them that did this. she deserves to die. she did this!" i look to amy and wish i could help her. i'm relieved to see that she is managing to draw in a few breaths. her legs move as she tries to push herself into a sitting position. "you wouldn't know. you didn't work here under their secrecy. you don't know what it was like to..." he surprises me by lunging towards me, leaping from the floor like a human projectile. i don't have time to aim carefully; i have to react fast. i-i can't shoot him. that would defeat the entire purpose of this. i have to try to dodge but he's probably gonna hit my knee and that's gonna be damaging but that's better than shooting him. his aim is poor and his strength is failing, so i dodge him easily.
oh! okay then. i don't want to have a gunshot go off and alert those creatures to where we are. make a hard jab of the butt of the rifle, striking him in his chest. something crunches and he lets out a whoosh of air. he crumples for a moment and then goes to his knees. he roars in pain on the floor... only, after a few moments, i realize that they are not purely screams of pain. the bastard is calling for them... calling for those creatures to come for us. this place is evil, along with everyone involved," he wails from the floor. "if you are taking her side, then you deserve to die, too." if you want to stop me, you'd better do it now, you coward." the rage in his eyes at amy, as well as towards me for stopping him, makes me think he'll deliver on his threat.
i raise the rifle again, every urge in my body wanting to make sure he doesn't come back to bite us. but i am not a violent man. i could easily not kill him and just leave him behind. agh, i'm a forgiving guy, but this is ridiculous. like he-he's obviously scared and unhinged. it's not like he's possessed by the demons. he's just not thinking rationally. he's been in complete solitude for months at a time and maybe even a year. just in this place alone with no one telling him what's going on. and he finds out that it's something that he staunchly opposes. if i sho-if i kill him then i'm shooting him and that defeats the purpose anyway.
god, i don't want to. i don't want to! just like when i could barely shoot earlier as he was coming at me, i can't bring myself to deliver a kill shot. i ignore him and lean down to amy. "you ok?" i ask. she nods slowly. "...have to go," she says. "they'll be here any minute. too much noise." i have to hold her arm so she can get to her feet. we start forward and then i think of dennis. "we should go back to the hangar doors. i can't just leave dennis there..." "there's no time. you need to come with me up to the command center. now. we'll be back for him soon." "you're all dead now anyway," marcus shrieks. "if they don't get you, i will." he laughs manically after saying this, hooting like a madman.
as if in response, a high-pitched noise tears through the hallway. i seem to feel it in my bones. "they're following his noise now." she takes off away from marcus, presumably towards the other elevator she had mentioned moments ago. i follow her. as we move out, i hear marcus slowly push himself off the ground and stumble off, slipping in between the tanks and disappearing. we start running and after the first few strides, another noise sounds out. it sounds mechanical, but at the same time, it also reminds me of recordings i've heard of whale songs. a sound of metallic creaking and crashing echoes through the door i came in through. "they've reached the hydraulic door we pulled in," amy says. the sound grows louder and it's clear they're struggling with it. which is good. we have a bit more time.
i speed up my step to follow amy as she leads the way to the other elevator. she's panting furiously but pushes on. i can hear something rattling in her breath, likely the result of marcus' attack. this makes me imagine how his cold, uncaring eyes must have looked, staring down at her as he tried to deliver her to death. how she is still forging on is beyond me. "i'm sorry about marcus. i..." "it's not your fault. when you handed him the gun, you didn't know he would use it on me." "i just hope we can find a way to survive this mess." "we'll be fine, don't worry." that's me. the reassuring guy.
"i...i'm not so sure," she says, her eyes fixed straight ahead. i'm not sure i can blame her. i had just wanted to say something encouraging, i guess. we finally come to the elevator at the end of a row of silos. the elevator's door slides open slowly. at that moment we hear something behind us... a strangled sort of whistling sound. we step inside and turn around to face the biochem room, thankful we've been given a few moments to spare. the elevator doors remain open for three seconds before they start to slide closed again. in those three seconds, i see a large shape floating towards us. a phosphorescent-like white glow outlines an impossible shape. behind it, i see another shape that's also entered the biochem room... and another. the third one breaks away from the other two, taking a quick right. it moves with eerie speed.
that's the direction marcus had gone. honestly, the thought of them hunting him down doesn't bother me in the slightest. amy is pressing the button to close the elevator doors over and over, but they stay open for what seems like an eternity. i curse whoever designed these damn doors. i don't think-honestly, if they're made of light, i don't think bullets are gonna do a damn thing against them. we're gonna hide in here. amy and i slide ourselves up against the sides of the elevator, trying to avoid being seen. but i can't help but peeking around the corner. i hold the rifle steady, ready to fire, and that's when i see them in a clear light for the first time.
i can see their features, their shape and their colors. but my mind can't quite process it all. nothing about them makes any sense. my eyes try to see a squid, but that's not what those things are. they are gray and white and seem to be nothing more than squirming light. their appendages are neither legs nor tentacles but somewhere in between. they don't walk on these appendages, they just use them to glide. they move like ghosts and seem to jerk every few feet or so. but i am pretty sure that this jerking effect is not a result of their moving but my mind's inability to understand how they're moving, exactly. it's also more than their appearance that makes a mockery of reality... the light around them seems to bend inward, as if the space within the room has to reshape itself for the for their existence. that peculiar effect on the air makes their movements seem like something moving underwater, only faster.
they screech in unison as they rush towards the elevator. they'll be inside here in another few seconds. i check the rifle and see that my ammo is diminishing. i have to start saving me shots... i'm going to have to be choosy. but... wait. i haven't shot it yet. it's never been shot. i have full faith that this elevator is going to close. but should i shoot at them? they already know i'm here. they're right in front of me. at least if i shoot at them, i'll know if it effects them. that's important. they're saying my ammo's diminishing but i haven't used my bullets yet. i did not shoot marcus. i think i can spare a bullet at this one.
you decide to shoot at the creatures. now about a foot remains between the sliding doors. i find my muscles reacting instinctively again. i pull the trigger. the shot fills the elevator and there's a thunder in my ears. i hit the thing in its center and the reaction is not what i expect. the monster pauses and spasms for about two seconds. its body of light flickers for a moment, similar to a lightbulb on the brink of burning out. my finger keeps pulling the trigger. the throb of the rifle in my hands is comforting and each screech from the creature is like music. but then i realize that this only seems to be slowing it down. it's tentacles seem to tighten and then loosen, like a weird muscle reflex. but then it's on the move again, unharmed by the shots.
finally the elevator door closes. the creatures wash against the other side of the door, making an electrical noise and crying out in anger. the tips of their spider-like appendages poke through the wall and elevator door. but for some reason they can't get all the way through. amy screams at this and curls into a ball in the far corner of the elevator, crying. i say nothing to her... i just cling to the rifle, hoping those creatures don't find dennis as he waits by the hangar doors where i left him. for his sake and ours, we need to get them open now. end of chapter three. wow this was a long one. this was actually a long one and we made a lot of choices here. i want to see how i stack up against everybody else because this was quite a chapter. the blunt truth:
you and 59% of players told dennis he'd probably be fine. slowed them down: you and 35% of players sided with amy on pulling the hydraulic door. who to trust: you and 31% of players gave the gun to marcus. you and 58% of players left marcus alive. now or later: you and 32% of players used your ammo and took extra shots at the creatures. so, i-i was kind of on the outside of the norm here.
but it seems to me that no matter if you gave it to amy or marcus, it doesn't matter because marcus would've tried to kill her anyway. because "murder or mercy" seems to be there. i think i made some good choices, i really do. but maybe, maybe not. we shall see in the next episode. there's only two chapters left so it's getting down to the wire and things are getting very dire. i don't know if dennis is gonna survive this. he's down there alone, but then again, marcus is probably gonna die because one of those things went right for him. it b-lined for him. so i don't think he's gonna be able to get away from that. i think we're gonna find marcus' corpse very soon. but dennis, if he could get into that maintenance closet and get a gun, maybe he has a chance but i'm not 100% sure.
but either way, thank you everybody so much for watching. and as always, i will see you in the next video. buh-bye!
Coloring Hair Makes It Turn Grey Faster