text: “Simon!” Clyde, my boss called from his office. Walking into Clyde’s office, I hear him talking to someone over the phone, “Yes, I understand.” Clyde pauses for a moment. “Yes, I will send him over now.” Clyde hangs up the phone and then proceeds to look at me. A smile spreads across Clyde’s face as he begins to speak. “Simon, my boy! I have news.” I give Clyde a curious look. “Do you remember that project we were told to drop by the Eagles?” I give Clyde a nod. “Well Simon, today is our lucky day! We, more specifically, you, have been given the honor to go to their base.” Shock ran through my body. Was this a joke? Managing out an “Okay.” I turn around and make my way to my desk. Reaching my desk, I grab my belongings and make my way to my car. Arriving at the base, I get stopped by an armed soldier. “Sir, I need you to turn the car around. The public is not allowed here.” The soldier said in a gruff voice. Taking a gulp, I answer, “I was told to come here for an interview.” The soldier looks at me, then says something into his walkie. “ID please.” The solider says, extending his hand. Fumbling, I get my ID out of my wallet, and hand it over. The soldier looks over it and hands it back, “Go straight through the gate and turn left into the parking lot. Someone should be there for you.” Upon reaching the parking lot, I see someone in a white lab coat. Pulling into a spot, the person comes towards me. “Simon?” The person in the white lab coat asks. “Yeah, that’s me,” I say, extending my hand. “Alistar, nice to meet you.” He says while taking my hand. Alistar offers a smile and turns, walking away. Jumping a bit, I take off behind Alistar, fidgeting with my camera all the way. Once reaching the door, I see Alistar stop. Alistar lets out a cough, “Would you mind turning around for me?” I let out a laugh, looking at Alistar. “You’re serious?” Alistar nods. Laughing, I turn around. In a maximum of five seconds, I hear a door slide open. “Thank you, you can turn around now.” Turning around, I can't help but peer into the base. I hear Alistar let out a cackle. “Hold your horses.” A sheepish smile spreads across my face, and I follow Alistar inside. Looking around at everything, I notice the colorless walls, clocks here and there, bars on the high windows, and lots of rooms. I stop walking when I see it, grabbing my camera and snapping a photo. Suddenly my camera is grabbed from my hand. “Sorry, no photography,” Alistar grumbles. “How am I supposed to do my report then?” I ask, looking at Alistar. Alistar suddenly pulls out a small notebook and a pen. “Here you go.” Alistar hands me the notebook and pen. Shocked, I take it from him. Alistar turns and hands my camera off to a soldier. “You will get that back after our journey.” All I can do is nod and proceed to follow Alistar as he takes off down the hall. After what felt like hours of walking in this colorless labyrinth, Alistar stops in front of a door and takes in a deep breath. “Simon, what you are about to see is top class.” I nod. “There are papers on that desk that I need you to sign.” Walking into the room, I notice a window on one of the walls, with a desk and a few chairs around that window. Taking a shaky breath, I move towards the desk. Scanning through the papers, I freeze as I see the NDA. Clearing my throat I call to Alistar. Hearing nothing, I look towards the door, which is closed. Shit. Frantically, I stand up and run to the door, which I can’t open. Spinning, I look around the room for an escape. Adrenaline was pumping through my veins as fear flooded my mind. Suddenly the door opens. Turning towards the door, I see Alistar. Letting out a breath I didn’t know I took, I let out a laugh. “Sorry to startle you,” Alistar says calmly. “What did you need.” Regaining my senses, I head back over to the desk. “This NDA. I thought I was supposed to do an interview?” A smile shows up on Alistars face, and he quickly coughs. “I have to inform you, that what you do with the information is your own choice.” Nodding, I sign the NDA and the rest of the papers and hand them over. Alistar smiles as he takes the papers. He motions for me to sit at the desk while saying that he will be back in a minute. This time, Alistar does not close the door on his way out, leaving me to peer out into the hall. Soldiers walk by, wheeling cages as they go. I hastily write ‘cages?’ onto the notebook. I look around the room one last time, before taking the chance to run out of the room. I run around the corner of the hall and end up in a place with three new hallways. I could hear my heart beating in my ears, and suddenly it just stopped. I felt a shiver go up my spine as I hear a blood-curdling scream from the hallway to my left. “Simon!” I hear Alistar call from a distance. I could hear his footsteps running down the hall. Fuck it. I take off down the hall to my left, determined to find where the scream came from. I hear more screaming as I come to another room of halls. I take a chance and run down the one to my right. I stop, having reached a dead end, I finally notice how there is not a single shred of light. My body enters fight or flight mode as I hear a door open. People groaning? I stumble my way in the darkness towards the sound. Giving up, I reach for my phone. Shit, it’s in the car. I let out a groan. Coming in front of me, I hear other groans join in with mine. Taking a step forward, I move my hands to the side of the wall to find a light switch. Once finding it, I turn on the light, which is met by screeching. I turn and look, only to find a gruesome scene. There were people, some locked in cages, others on tables. I went over to one of the people on a table, and they looked back at me with their bloodshot eyes. They proceed to open their mouth and let out an inhuman scream. That’s when I notice, this person doesn’t have a tongue. Backing up, my shoes get stuck in something sticky. I look down and I can see a crimson fluid on the ground. Not wanting to stay there, I start to turn around to the door and leave. Walking back to the room with the halls, a siren suddenly goes off, accompanied by a flashing white light. “Code 48” was said over and over again. I could hear footsteps coming from behind me, so I head down the hall in the center. This hall had light, but more importantly, there were windows all over the wall. Stopping at a window, I peer into the dimly light room on the other side. What the fuck. I feel someone grab me, as I hear shouting, “He’s here!” Fighting, I try my hardest to get free. The soldier who was holding me growled like a wolf. “Hold still.” I see Alistar coming from the beginning of the hall. As he got closer I could see two things; Alistar shaking his head, and a syringe in his hands. In a moment, Alistar was in front of me and the syringe was at my kneck. “I’m sorry that it had to be this way.” Waking up, I panic. Before I could register anything, I was up on my feet, only to fall again. Someone helped me up. When I looked at the person, I was in fear. “What did you do to me?” I shout at Alistar. “Absolutely nothing,” Alistar states. I shake in anger, fear maybe. “Let me go.” Alistar smiles, “You’re free to go.” Alistar hands me my camera and motions for me to follow. He walked me out of the building towards the parking lot. As soon as I hit the parking lot, I run to my car. Throwing my camera to the passenger side, I take off away from the base. Once going a few miles, I stop the car on the side of the road. I grab my phone from where it fell and I dial up Clyde. In a few rings, the call falls through. Sighing, I run a hand through my hair, before looking over at my camera and grabbing it. Looking through some of the photos I have taken for other news stories, I notice some new ones. There were photos of humans with needles sticking out of them, humans being misconfigured, and there were a few videos. The first video consisted of nothing but a dark room, and screaming. “Will you shut up?” A person shouts. The screaming stops. “Get up.” Screaming starts again as I can hear a whipping sound come through the camera. Disturbed, I turn on the second video. This time, I am met with a familiar face, Alistar. Alistar begins talking, “The date is September 14th, twenty-twenty-three this is our first test for project Y-250.” Alistar moves out of the way, showing a person in a seat, with cuffs around their wrists and ankles, keeping them there, despite their attempts at escape. Alistar puts something on the person's head and presumably turns the thing on. The restraints are taken off in a second, as the person goes slack. “Stand.” Alistar commands. The person stands. “Walk towards me.” The person walks towards Alistar. “Pick this gun up, and shoot yourself.” With no hesitation, the person takes, what I presume is a gun, and shoots themselves. I sit there, watching the camera freeze on that last frame. Blood and brain coming out of the person's head. Still in shock, I didn't see the car coming from behind me. In a second, my window was smashed, and I was being dragged out of my car. I saw Alistar as I was being dragged away. “You shouldn't have seen anything. We could’ve been friends.” Alistar calls out.