Chapter : The 8 Pages (Part 4)
—Hyun Ji's
I'd never been carried before. Not like this. Not by a woman whose built like Noel Deyzel who lifted me with what looked like the same effort I'd use to pick up a coffee mug.
"How you faring kid?" The one named Old Man Randy asked me out of the blue.
"U-uhm… I'm good I think."
"Good enough, can you walk yet"
"U-uhmmm…"
"Tsk. Figured. Kids these days…" Honestly? This was a breath of fresh air.
Now normally, even though everyone eats at the same cafeteria. No one mingles with each other. Security guards with other security guards, Researchers with other Researchers and so on. There wasn't any rule forbidding interactions between factions.
It just kinda became like that. No one knew who started it or if there was any bad histories or fight but nobody really questioned it. It is the golden rule after all. Don't ask questions. One wrong move? you either get turned to an R class or classified as KIA.
"U-u-uhm he's nice, he's just quite grumpy…" The big muscle lady, I learned her name was Amanda
"I see."
"…"
Step Step Step
"Still not afraid of you," the old man said. He was talking to the shape. The tall one. The faceless one. The one that had been chasing me through corridors that didn't make sense, past walls covered in handwriting that hadn't been there this morning.
He said it like he was telling a dog to sit.
Then he turned his back on it and kept walking.
"Is he—" "Is he always like that?"
"Yes," Amanda said. There was something in her voice—not quite pride, not quite reverence. Something quieter. "He always like this He always—he's Old Man Randy."
Step Step
At some point we turned a corner. The fog thinned slightly—not enough to see clearly, but enough to see shapes ahead. Human shapes. Three of them. Sitting down in a table in what used tobe the cafeteria,
surrounded by overturned tables and scattered trays and walls covered in words I didn't want to read. One of them stepped forward. A man. Dark hair. Tired eyes. The kind of tired that wasn't just from one bad night.
"You found her," he said. Not a question.
"Tsk. Found a researcher too." The old man—Randy—gestured at me with his thumb. "She was frozen in the corridor. Static had her bad."
"Hyun Ji." I didn't know why I said my name. Maybe because I needed to remind myself it was still there. "Junior Researcher. Fourth year. I was—we were in the cafeteria when—"
"Later." The tired-eyed man cut me off. Not unkindly. Just efficiently. "We're still missing pages. How many do you have?"
"Four," Randy said. He pulled them from his jacket pocket. Crumpled. Stained. Covered in scribbles I couldn't read from this angle.
"We found three more," said another man—this one with curly hair, a notebook open in one hand, a pen in the other. He was writing even as he spoke. "That's seven. One more."
"The quarters," said the tired-eyed man. "The last page. It has to be there."
Nobody argued. Nobody hesitated. I didn't understand what was happening—quarters? pages? what quarters? what pages?—but I understood the tone. The tone of people who knows what their doing.
Amanda set me down. Gently. My legs wobbled but held. The woman with the torn jacket sleeve—Evelyn, I'd learn later—handed me an energy bar. I stared at it.
"What's this?"
"Food," she said. Her smile was tired but real. "You probably haven't eaten. It'll help you~" She said with a rather happy going tone. Food. Right. I'd been eating a bagel. When was that? An hour ago? Two? The bagel was still on the cafeteria floor somewhere, half-eaten, abandoned.
I took the energy bar. Ate it. Couldn't taste it. Didn't matter.
"We're going to the quarters," the tired-eyed man said. "You can stay here if you want. It might be safer."
"Safer?" I almost laughed. "Nothing's been safe since the lights went out."
He looked at me for a moment. Then nodded. "Then stay close. Don't look at it. Don't fear it. If you feel static in your eyes, look away immediately."
"Those are the rules?" instinctively I asked
"Those are the rules." I was a researcher. I dealt with rules. Protocols. Procedures. I'd spent four years memorizing containment guidelines and cognitohazard classifications and the exact sequence of buttons to press if a Remnant breached containment.
None of those protocols had covered this. Well maybe they did but I must've forgotten. A faceless man in a black suit. Pages scattered through the facility like breadcrumbs. Fear as fuel. Acknowledgment as a hook.
But these Cleaners—these people I'd never spoken to, never looked at twice—they knew the rules. They'd figured them out. They were surviving, and somehow it made me realize something.
I have so much to learn.
"Let's move," said the one with the notebook. Jeremy. I filed the name away. Tired-eyes was Cael. The blonde was Evelyn. The tall one carrying me was Amanda. The old man was Randy. It was something I found out later after searching for their names
But at that moment. We were merely Five Cleaners. One researcher. Eight pages—almost. And a faceless thing in the fog that was getting angrier with every page we found.
—Cael Lucian's
In the end there was nothing much we could for Old Man Randy and Amanda, so the three of us decided to find more pages, and after what felt like a few hours.
"We've gotten 3 now right?" I asked
"Yep~ the one that says 'ALWAYS WATCHES NO EYES'' was in the women's toilet" Eve said as we moved towards the cafeteria once more, hoping that just maybe. Randy and Amanda were there again.
Step Step Step
—
We had been at the cafeteria for what felt like 2 hours—I think,
"In 1 hour we'll move out." Jeremy said as the 3 of us only sat on one of the tables.
…
"Let's play Uno~"
What?
Somehow Eve had pulled out a whole stack of Uno cards on her hands
"Well if we're playing we probably won't fear 'It' as much don't we?" Well I mean… It's not exactly wrong so—Yeah why not? And at some point…
"Hey, look" Jeremy suddenly pointed at a direction where we could see what seemed to be 3 heads coming closer, a closer look and it was rather obvious who they were.
"You found her"
"Tsk. Found a researcher too" Old Man Randy's remark came instantenous like it was a reflect at this point
"Hyun Ji." The girl said "Junior Researcher. Fourth year. I was—we were in the cafeteria when—"
"Later." "We're still missing pages. How many do you have?"
"Four," Randy said. He pulled them from his jacket pocket. Crumpled. Stained. Covered in scribbles I couldn't read from this angle.
"We found three more," Jeremy muttered "That's seven. One more."
"The quarters," "The last page. It has to be there."
Nobody argued. Nobody hesitated. I didn't understand what was happening—quarters? pages? what quarters? what pages?—but I understood the tone. The tone of people who knows what their doing.
Amanda set the researcher down gently her legs seemed to wobble for a second. Then out of no where, Eve handed her an Energy bar
"What's this?"
"Food," she said. "You probably haven't eaten. It'll help you~" She said with a rather happy going tone. As she always does after all, after a while the researcher named Hyun Ji took it and ate it.
"We're going to the quarters,""You can stay here if you want. It might be safer."
"Safer?" "Nothing's been safe since the lights went out."
"Then stay close. Don't look at it. Don't fear it. If you feel static in your eyes, look away immediately."
"Those are the rules?" She asked
"Those are the rules."
"Let's move," I said
—
The quarters were unchanged.
That was the first wrong thing. Everything else in the facility had warped—corridors stretching, walls shifting, lights cycling through patterns that made no sense. But our quarters were exactly as we'd left them. The bunks. The table. The drawer where Randy kept his folder.
Because this is where it started. Where Amanda opened her phone and showed us the Roblox thumbnail and said the name out loud. Where the war began. Where it wants to end.
The last page was on the table, right there untouched, unchanged a single glance and the words it muttered were remarkably simple. 'CAN'T RUN'
"It's the last page eh."
"The second we take this last page, Either It leaves us alone or we become the ones with the most taunt value, like when you see a BMPT "Terminator" or 2S38" Jeremy out of no where said, perhaps trying to lighten the mood
…
Obviously everyone was silent. After all after this we either die, or we live. Nothing in between.
"Well? Might as well take it now?" I muttered after a small moment of silence.
"No use in hesitating right~? Let's do it right here right now" Eve, still replying in her somewhat energetic voice.
Grab
And right then without hesitation she grabbed the last page and at the same time—
FWOOOSHHHHHHHHHHHH
The fog seemed to disappear instantly like it was sucked somewhere, Hyun Ji couldn't keep her eyes often as she only squinted while screaming, Amanda shielded her eyes with one of her hands, the other trying to grab Eve.
"Tsk." Old Man Randy muttered as the fog faded away instantly.
"Is it over?" Jeremy asked, our quarters had returned back to how it was before everything began.
"It should be." I muttered, and right as I muttered those words. Hyun Ji seemed to slump in one of our bunk beds, as if she had lost all power in her body muttering " It's over…"
"We are so going to need a vacation after this" Eve said out of no where, I myself also relaxed my body. It had been a long day after all…
"Say Hyun Ji what's it like working as a researcher?"
"Eh-? Uhm you basically review protocols then do routine experiments, and normally after we've finished those experiments we just chill and doom scroll"
"Oh? not as fancy as I thought"
"Pfft? what'd you expect? fancy things and upright workers?"
"Yeah, turns out you Scheisse Researchers are basically like us too"
"Well we are humans too, oh I guess we do have these things called PSI-Tablets" She said as she waved the rectangle looking tablet with a crack like it was a toy
"Uhh if that thing breaks won't your salary get deducted?"
"Nahh~ when things like this happens the government pays everything so it's fineeee"
"Danggg"
"Ya got any plans after this? we could go for a drink"
"Eh, you know what sure, you guys saved me, it'll be my treat!" with enthusiasm Hyun Ji said as she gave us a thumbs up.
"Ayyyy, nic—"
BZZZZT WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH
"Wha—"
"HEL—WHOOOSH"
"Hyun Ji-? HYUN JI? HYUN JI?"
TssshhhBzzzzzztTssshhhBzzzzzztTssshhhBzzzzzztTssshhhBzzzzzztTssshhhBzzzzzzt
"SCHEISSE"
"Tsk. Knew it wouldn't be that easy"
At that moment, I only had a single thought in my head, one that was probably only mirrored by Amanda who also knew the lore of Slenderman.
FUCK WE'RE SCREWED