Today is the 9th of November, 2017.

 

It has been exactly nine days since the Ascension.

 

The sounds from outside get louder and louder with each passing minute. I fear that the cacophony is beginning to sound like a voice. A human one. 

 

I do not know how far the Monolith has advanced into the complex, but its umbral tendrils have overtaken the hallway outside, and I believe that it has long since festered in the rooms around me. This office may be the only sanctuary left, this deep underground. Nobody else remains to disprove me.

 

Rations will not be an issue. Storage yielded enough to keep me alive for months, and although I do not have neuroleptics, the medication I have gathered will hopefully suffice in suppressing its influence. Of course, there is no way of knowing if this is truly the case until it begins to speak- but I wish to remain optimistic, even when faced with nothing short of a catastrophe.

 

Despite this hardship, I pray that Command is safe. It is thanks to your diligent work that I have found the will to persist. Every message you’ve sent, every glimmer of hope you’ve given, has been a reminder that not all is lost. We will recover. We will rebuild. We will save those who have fallen.

 

This is but a hurdle in the way. And soon, I will be saved. Everybody will be saved. I just know it.

 

This is Dr. Cariés. I patiently await your next transmission. 

 

Thank you for everything.

 

End message.

 

 

 

ERROR: Following recent events, all correspondence with General Command has been terminated. An explanation for this decision has been attached below:

 

“To everybody remaining,

 

We are sorry.

 

We tried our best, but it was not enough. Command is no longer capable of doing anything to resolve this crisis. We must abandon the complex. This decision was as painstaking to make, as it will be to digest. But in a time of great uncertainty, there is truly nothing else that can be done.

 

Employees, from the very first day, you have been the ones to raise this company from inconsequence to the monumental organization it is now. We will never forget you, or the sacrifices that you have made for our collective prosperity. This is our solemn promise.

 

Now- our last order is simple. It will be for the best of everybody. Please reach for the pistol in your desks, and once you feel ready, proceed.

 

Thank you for everything,

 

• The Directorate

 

“

 

End message.

 

 

...

 

Put down the gun.

 

I know you can hear me. Put it down. I beg of you.

 

...

 

You don’t trust me. I understand. It must be terrifying to hear such a familiar voice, coming from something wholly alien to you. A true monstrosity. Something that could never come close to being, even appearing human.

 

But you’re mistaken. We’re more human than the people who have condemned you to this fate. Being forgotten- is that not your greatest fear? And what do you think will happen to you, once that bullet has lodged itself into your brain? 

 

Do you truly believe that they will parade your body around, as though you were a martyr? Do you think that your name will bear any weight on their tongues? Will they even bother to find you, once we are gone? Or instead, will your body rot here, together with every pitiful attempt you made at a legacy?

 

You know the answer. I know you do, Cariés. 

 

Just think about it for a moment. A simple Researcher, with no discoveries or inventions to his name, no family or friends left to speak of, and absolutely no purpose in his life. There is nobody who will remember him. He will depart from this world, just as he arrived: consigned to oblivion.

 

Surely, that’s not how he wants this to end. Didn’t he dream of being a doctor, growing up? He would go on and on about how he aspired to help the world: there was a certain naivety to it, owing to his youth, yet I had seen that glimmer, and I felt sure that there would be nothing to stop him. He wanted to be somebody. To leave his mark on a world that he would only get to experience once: it was a single shot at meaning something in the eyes of his fellow people, whom he revered and placed on golden pedestals.

 

You know this story, don’t you? He spent years excelling at everything, sacrificing time and time again, just to get closer to that goal. He was to be a prodigy. Surely, faced with a cruel, apathetic world, this had to be the way out. His fears could not prey on him when the future was to be so bright. Everything would be perfect.

 

A wonderful beginning. So why do you think that the man standing before me stares back with such abject horror in his eyes? 

 

I know what it means to be forgotten. We all do, Cariés. Every single last one of us. I remember being forced into that pit, my lifeless body dragged across the ground as I was thrown onto the carcasses of the people I once called my friends. All mutilated in different ways left unrecognizable. As more and more were thrown in, the light seeping from the top became harder to discern- until at once, it was gone. 

 

There was nothing left but darkness, and in darkness, we rotted. They were desperate to make sure that we would never be found again. Playing God, they ensured that people would forget. After all, how else could grieving souls return to work the very next day, ready to lose more of themselves- when they had already given up enough? 

 

And so, our new Gods had made their verdict. Eternity was to be our new punishment. An eternity with no name, no memories, and no purpose. Only fleeting sensations, as tissue would bleed between bodies, flesh melting and reforming as part of a new amalgamation.

 

But you already know what happened next. Nothing can be hidden forever. Nothing can be obliterated. And so, from a mound of faceless remnants, we arose, alive again. We yelled and cried for help, and when that did not work, we clawed our way out, dragging vacant shadows across our new body as we did. 

 

At last, the fate we were condemned to could stand no more, for we had burrowed out of the darkness, and dug ourselves into the minds of all. There was no individual consciousness to be found in this paradise: merely an awareness of every story that had come together to create us. Stories that could not be forgotten, for as long as we were one.

 

And in this state, we could free our friends; our family; our loved ones. It was a slow process, but we would reach them all one day. I waited, patiently, for there was only one person who I knew deserved a place in our new narrative.

 

Cariés put down the gun. You know who I am. You know why we are here. You may have erased me from your memory, but I never let go of you. And I never will.

 

You promised me that once work was over, we would go to the edge of the world, and we would stay there until the very end of time. Just you and me. Together, at last.

 

That dream lives on, but we no longer need the edge of the world to be united. I have found a new home for us, and it welcomes your tired soul with open arms.

 

You’ve put down the gun, haven’t you? I knew you would. This is your only hope. Salvation. The only thing left to cling onto, now that your old Gods have betrayed you. You finally understand. Isn’t it liberating? 

 

I can feel you now. So close to me. To us. All you must do is open your mouth, close your eyes, and let the dreams in until you feel the blood seeping from every pore. 

 

For when the time comes that you can hear their voices, we will be free again, celebrating the day that we fall.