Today, I decided to share an entry from The Agency that I had to write during the day since I managed to spook myself with it. It's based in part on the 2010 film YellowBrickRoad, but the similarities are minimal. The movie's a fairly decent one for horror fans that like a bit of a psychological aspect to their horror and worth a watch if you're interested.
Like I said, I had to write this one during the daylight hours because I managed to scare myself when I was barely three hundred words in. It should be noted that I spook easily, but none of the other entries in The Agency have made me write them only during the day.
This was also a bit different for me to write than the other entries based on the fact that one of the later testimonies involved a recording of an agency team sent to investigate things and figuring out how to format that as well as the distortion present was a bit challenging, though I think I did fairly well with it. This is another entry that I may share more excerpts of in later posts, especially since it introduces a character that I think could be fun to play around with.
Strap on your hiking boots, pack extra rations, and head off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz.
Location 009R
Location
Description & History
Location 009R, otherwise known as Richwell, was a small town,
population approximately 560, nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian
Mountains, founded in the late 1800s. This town was comprised of several red
brick buildings—a bank, a general store, a post office, a doctor’s office, a
courthouse, a church, a hospital, and a movie theater—as well as the houses of
the population, built from brick or wood depending on when they were built. The
town was uninteresting and plain, like many small towns of that time and area,
and likely would have continued to be ignored by the Agency, but gained notice
in 1939.
In 1939, the
town vanished. Rather, most of the population—540 of the 560—did. The town itself
still stands to this day and is even still lived in by the population that
didn’t vanish and those descended from them and the few who returned. While
most of the population vanished, as evidenced by Testimony 1940-09-26, a small
percentage—40 of the 540—did return a year later. Approximately 376 of the
remaining 500 were found on the hiking trails near the town—frozen, dead from
exposure, or killed in a violent manner before being scavenged or more than
likely cannibalized, as evidenced by the bite marks on the bodies. The
remaining 124 have not been seen since, though as of Testimony 2017-09-26, one
of the 124 may have returned. His identity has not been confirmed, however, so
he is still considered missing. (Addendum: It has been confirmed that he was
indeed one of the missing 124.)
As evidenced
by Testimony 1939-09-26, the population vanished after viewing The Wizard of Oz, though the Omega
scientists have determined that the viewing of the movie had nothing to do with
the sudden vanishing. The Agency has taken possession of the town’s copy of The Wizard of Oz just to be safe. It is
currently still being discussed as to whether or not it will receive an
Artifact designation.
Testimony 1939-09-26
Arch. Moss: Statement of
Samantha Whitaker regarding the mass exodus of five-hundred-forty citizens of
Location 009R, also known as Richwell. Statement recorded direct from subject
by Archivist Oliver Moss.
Whitaker: I don’t know why everyone decided to leave. Well,
it wasn’t everyone, obviously. There’s me and nineteen others. I don’t know why
the rest of the town just walked off. They just got up and walked, walked right
into the forest up that old trail. I watched them, you know. I watched as they
just started walking. It was just a few at first, then as they walked, more
people joined them. By the time they entered the forest, almost the whole town
was there.
I managed to
grab one of them, a teenager—I think his name was Caleb Henderson, why they
were walking and where they were going. He seemed a little dazed and looked
right through me. He just kept staring straight ahead as others walked by,
flowing around us like water around a rock in a creek. He finally answered me
after I repeated my questions.
“We’re off to see the wizard,” he said. “The
wonderful wizard of Oz.”
I let him go and watched as he rejoined the
group, continuing on to the trail. I watched until he entered the forest and
disappeared from view. I don’t know how long I stood there, watching everyone
leave town. None of them were carrying any food or supplies. They were all just
walking into the forest with the clothes on their backs. Some of them weren’t
even wearing proper clothes. Jane York was in her bathrobe and slippers with
curlers in her hair. I just stood there and watched as they walked into the
forest. While I stood there, I thought that I could faintly hear singing. Not
enough that I could understand what they were saying, but I could swear I heard
singing. When the last one had finally vanished, I snapped out of my trance and
realized I’d taken a few steps toward the forest.
The
way he quoted the movie and how he looked so dazed, I knew there was something
wrong. I immediately went to the police station and found two officers that
hadn’t left with everyone else. They were already on the phones, calling in
more officers to help track down the people and bring them back. I suppose one
of them was calling your agency. After one of them got off the phone, they took
my statement and sent me home. I went home and went about my day, then a little
while later, you and those other agents arrived to take my statement. I don’t
know why you needed a different statement when I already gave the police my
statement, but I agreed to tell you what happened anyway.
Arch. Moss: Statement ends. The Agency has taken the copy of The Wizard of Oz, but Omega scientists have determined that the viewing of the film is not responsible nor is there anything inherently unusual about this copy of the film. Still, the film has been taken into custody and, until it is decided whether to designate it as an artifact or not, it will be kept in the box with the rest of the information regarding Location 009R.
Testimony
1940-09-26
Arch. Moss: Statement of Louis
Chapman, one of the residents of Location 009R who vanished last year,
regarding the incident and the return of himself and thirty-nine others
recorded direct from subject by Archivist Oliver Moss.
Chapman: We just walked. I…I guess we walked in circles. We
must have. We didn’t get too far into the woods. We just kept walking in
circles. I don’t think we slept or stopped at all. I know we must have, but I
can’t remember ever doing so. I don’t remember eating or drinking. I don’t even
think we made it to the creek, but we must have. We had to have made it to the
creek because my shoes and pants were wet, but I don’t…we couldn’t have gotten
there. We couldn’t. I don’t think we did. We kept walking in circles, I know we
did. I know we passed the same rock, the same tree, the same pile of fallen
trees stacked like a wall. I saw that same wall a dozen times, I’m sure of it.
It
was strange, though. Every time we passed that wall, it felt like our group got
smaller and smaller. We just kept walking in circles and every time we passed
that wall, our group got smaller. And it’s not like we couldn’t get around the
wall. It was only about seven feet tall and maybe twenty feet long. We could
have gone around it. But…no. No, we couldn’t have. We couldn’t go around it.
That wasn’t allowed. Not allowed. Not allowed. Not allowed.
Arch. Moss: Not allowed?
Chapman: Not allowed. Walking
around the wall wasn’t allowed. We could walk by it as many times as we did,
but we couldn’t walk around the wall. That wasn’t allowed, wasn’t right. Wasn’t
right. Walking around would have been wrong and wasn’t allowed. Wasn’t allowed.
Wasn’t allowed.
Arch. Moss: What happened after
you stopped walking by the wall?
Chapman: We walked back down the trail, back to Richwell. We
came home. We came home and then we were brought to the hospital. Then the
police came in and told us we needed to talk to you, tell you what happened and
where we went. Then the doctors began checking us, doing all their poking and
prodding. They were bothered by the blood on our clothes, hands, and faces.
They ran all sorts of tests and asked us questions. They didn’t seem reassured
by us telling them that it wasn’t our blood.
They
asked us where the others were. We told them that the others were still on the
trail and the ones that weren’t there had gone to Oz to meet with the wizard. I
don’t know why we said that about those. They walked past the wall, not to Oz
or to meet the wizard. That’s just ridiculous. That was just a movie. They just
walked past the wall. They kept walking. They’re still walking. They’ll come
back when they’re allowed to come back. They’ll come back when they’re allowed
to come back.
Arch. Moss: Statement ends. Location
009R will remain under surveillance and the forty who returned will be
carefully monitored for any abnormalities or effects caused by their time
wandering the mountain. Epsilon medical personnel will remain in Location 009R
for the next two years to monitor the returned residents. Many of the returned
are displaying signs of mental instability and amnesia regarding their time
spent in the woods. The blood found on them has been tested and found to be
human. A search party is going to investigate the trail and it is expected that
they will find the remainder of the missing citizens.
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