Location 024C

 In this week's installment of The Agency, we get to visit one of the many locations the Agency investigates. Location entries have proven to be the easiest for me to write so there are many location entries that I've finished. This is going to be a bit different since location entries are much longer than the other entries I've posted so far so this will just be an excerpt of the entry, "Location 024C."

Testimony 1962-05-27-B

Arch. Johnston: Statement of Collector Samson Gardner regarding the incident in Location 024C and the entities found there, recorded direct from subject by Archivist Peter Johnston.

Coltr. Gardner: We’re calling it a mine fire, yeah?

Arch. Johnston: Yes, I believe that’s what we’re calling it and what the town leadership and media are telling people it is.

Coltr. Gardner: Fair enough. I mean, there is a fire so it’s not as though that’s a complete lie. What are they saying about the entities?

Arch. Johnston: As far as I know, nothing. There’s been an agreement not to mention the entities to the media or the town at large and anyone who has an encounter with them and survives is being directed to give a statement and not say anything to anyone else.

Coltr. Gardner: Yeah, that sounds like the Agency. Don’t warn people about the human-eating creatures that look like their dead loved ones and just take a statement if they survive.

Arch. Johnston: That is our standard operating procedure. If you’ve got a problem with it, you are free to reconsider your employment.

Coltr. Gardner: Not interested in anything else. Just…kinda shitty that we don’t even give them some kind of warning.

Arch. Johnston: The vast majority of humans do not respond well when they are told of things that they can’t readily understand or explain. This lack of knowledge and warning is as much for their protection as anything.

Coltr. Gardner: Right. Well, as long as there are custodians in place to keep Location 024C contained and keep out trespassers, I don’t suppose it matters much.

Arch. Johnston: Now, regarding the entities…

Coltr. Gardner: They’re pretty good at impersonating people, fair mimics. Sound and act the same as the dead person they’re pretending to be. Look identical, at least until they’re hunting. Then they change. Their limbs get a little longer, nails and teeth sharper. Teeth also grow in number and size. Eyes widen and pupils change shape. It’s impressive, really. The Omicrons and Omegas that went with us—right, you want names. Omicrons were Ben Kelley and Joe Clay; Omegas were Elsie Gibbs and Tara Crawford. They were all fascinated and intrigued. God, it took us three hours to get them to stay with the team so they wouldn’t get hurt. It’s like herding cats, but more difficult. Cats at least have a sense of self-preservation. Omicrons and Omegas? Nope. I don’t even think they’ve heard of the word. They’ll go into any dangerous situation, get cozy with anything that wants to take a bite out of them if you don’t keep them locked up in their labs or if you don’t keep a close watch on them when they’re in the field. Constantly trying to get close to things they shouldn’t.

Did you know that one of them, pretty sure it was Kelley, tried to walk into the mine? You know, the mine that’s burning and filled with toxic gasses that burst through the asphalt in places? Yeah. Kelley tried to do that. We stopped him, of course, but still. Between him trying to walk into the burning mine and Crawford trying to take a sample from a steam vent while straddling said vent and Clay trying to get close to the entities to photograph them while Gibbs tried to harvest a shed tooth…honestly, we spent more time keeping the Omicrons and Omegas from getting themselves killed than we did keeping the entities at a safe distance while we tried to convince the town to evacuate due to the ground below their feet literally being on fire.

Anyway, once we managed to keep them corralled, we were able to do our job a lot more successfully. We managed to convince a few people to leave, but most decided to stay because they’d been told it wasn’t that dangerous, that the fire would eventually burn itself out. Gibbs speculates that there’s enough fuel in that mine to keep the fire burning for at least three hundred years. On our way into Location 024C, we saw the remains of the cars that some of the unfortunate residents tried to leave in before they encountered the entities. Saw the entities, too, feeding on the bodies. They ignored us and ignored the few that we convinced to leave.

They don’t try to leave the city limits. They mostly stick to the wooded areas and the mines, but when they venture into town, the residents don’t even realize that these aren’t their dead loved ones. These are predators who are skilled at hunting humans and have been doing it for years. One of the residents, an elderly woman named Eleanor Harrell, was on her front porch and watched us as we went door to door to try to convince people to leave. I’m pretty sure you’ve talked to her by now. She called to us from her porch and told us she was staying, not to waste our time trying to convince her to leave. She said that she knew how to survive there just fine and she wouldn’t be leaving. I asked if she’d at least come back to give a statement and she agreed so long as we’d drive her back, which obviously we did.

About then, one of the Omicrons—not sure which one, I wasn’t paying attention to them—noticed one of the entities near the edge of her house, watching us. It looked like a teenager, male, about five-five with brown hair and blue-black eyes. Eleanor saw us staring at the entity and just said to leave it be as she went inside, then came out with raw steak. She tossed it to the entity and it pounced on it, snapping it up in its jaws and scurrying back away from us. She sat back down in her rocker and said, “It’s easy to live here, once you know how to handle them.”

I’m sure she provided you with more details about how she handles these things.

Anyway, she explained things to us and helped us lure one closer so we could examine it. It was the teenager again and it cautiously approached when she flung another steak towards it. Smaller entities—these looked like children—approached as well, seeming more like feral animals than humans. I don’t think the younger entities have learned how to pretend to be human yet. The smaller ones began gnawing on the first steak she tossed that the teenager took over to them. They seemed the most uneasy with us. I’m sure Crawford recorded that the younger entities seemed to be covered in soot or coal dust, she wasn’t sure which and I was not about to allow her to get any closer, especially as the entities seemed wary of us and not as willing to pretend to be human.

The teenager allowed Kelley and Gibbs to get close enough to photograph it and then Eleanor asked it if it would be okay talking to us. It said, “No.” She nodded and said she understood, then asked if it and the others were okay. It nodded, took the meat, and went back to the little ones. I think they behave sort of like wild dogs. Juveniles stay with the young while the adults hunt. I don’t know why the adults have decided that Eleanor’s house is the perfect area to leave their young, but I’d suspect that Eleanor feeding them would have something to do with it.

Anyway, after that encounter, we headed toward the mines. As we walked, we noticed more and more of the creatures. Some were visibly injured—badly, too, in some cases—while others were just covered in soot and dust. Many of them watched us, but didn’t approach. We followed their lead and kept a safe distance. Upon arriving at the mine and seeing the entrance a wall of flames, we realized it would be impossible to put out the fire. Gibbs reaffirmed her speculation that the fire could burn for another three hundred years and Kelley asked if there was going to be something done about the creatures, capture and relocation or captivity. I told him that was unlikely and then one of the entities spoke up. I hadn’t even heard it approach.

It looked like a man, about middle-aged with dark blond hair and blue-black eyes, standing at a towering six-five. It spoke up from behind me and it was only by sheer willpower I didn’t end up turning around and shooting it. It said that they weren’t leaving. This was their home and they were going to stay. The fire wouldn’t be a problem for them, it said. It would just keep them out of the mines, but there were plenty of other places they could hide. “Consider yourselves lucky,” it said. “We usually don’t talk to strangers or allow them to get so close to the mines.”

After our encounter, we came back and informed the waiting custodians that they needed to quarantine the area, though they could be a bit lax about it since the creatures didn’t seem interested in leaving and, given the fire, it would make sense for some residents to leave. I did tell them that they should make sure to have photographs of anyone who has died within the city limits so that they could verify each person who leaves is actually a living person and not an entity pretending to be one of the dead ones and hoping we don’t notice.

It seems like the majority of the town know about the entities to some extent and just ignore them as though they’re part of the natural environment, like a deer or a rabbit. It’s unlikely that the residents will leave on their own as long as the fire isn’t causing too many problems for them and I doubt the entities will be willing to let too many leave. For now, containing the fire and keeping people out is going to be the best way to handle this.

Arch. Johnston: Statement ends. It would appear as though the entities that call Location 024C home are not eager to leave it, but are now less tolerant of at least some residents. It doesn’t appear as though they will harm the majority of the residents, but I suspect they will be stalking the ones who agreed to the burning of the mine. That does beg the question though of how they found out and how they recognize the complicit ones. Is it the smell of guilt? Some kind of psychic ability? Did one of the residents who objected inform them? If so, who? These are all questions I do not foresee being answered. 

Next week, you're in for a special treat as I share a bit of my poetry and terrible map-making skills. Then after that, join us for another excerpt from The Agency.