We made some necessary stops before we reach the rural area of Lake County. We made a stop at a gas station and at a restaurant to get us lunch. Prior to this Miles got an email from an unknown who identified himself as a worker currently working for Murkoff, a big psychiatric company that has a long records of involvement in nasty experiments and rumored to be backed up by the government. Miles was obsessed with Murkoff, and he dared to do anything to dig its story. No wonder Miles was so excited on this, he couldn't stop talking about this on the way, while I couldn't stop thinking how crazy the whistleblower was. Miles insisted on visiting some locals to ask them about the rumors, most of them were unaware but some gave us terrified look and refused to say a word, Murkoff must have a control over the area within its territory.
We were up the mountain by dusk, I fell asleep couple of times before we reach the mountain. I saw Miles nearly worn out by the five hours drive, and he hadn't had meal since our breakfast. He was anxious about the assignment. The road was rough and that was what disturbed my sleep. I looked out of the windshield, it was a nice view yet creepy, gloomy forest irradiated by dusky sun. All the way you could see brown-reddish plants which leaves waved because of the wind. Gravel bounced and kept pounding beneath us, giving a loud noise collaborating with unpleasant diesel sound that worked too fine. I turned on the radio and hoped for a nice relaxing music but Miles immediately sabotaged the toggle and set it to a local news.
I pulled out my cellphone from my coat pocket, there's only a bar left on its battery, I intended to text my fiance about the trip which I forgot to tell him earlier, but before I got the chance to send it, the signal bars disappeared coincidentally corresponding to the radio distortion before the announcer sound finally gone leaving only loud shriek. I looked up again at the windshield the brown-bricked building now visible in distant. The headlight beamed the darkness ahead and revealing a welcoming sign 'Mount Massive Asylum'.
We reached the iron gate that was wide open. Miles slowed down his jeep and zoomed his vision to the guard post where no one could be seen.
"Where's the guards?" I set my vision to the small square building across us, something wasn't right about this.
"Maybe they need to take care of their business." Miles said while parking his jeep next to the guard post.
"Someone got to replace them." I said worrying.
"Look, the surveillance cam is on, so they must've had an eye on us since we arrived."
"But there's nobody greeted us."
"We'll see them inside maybe."
"How about we go back to the town, find a motel and visit them again in the morning." He gave me a look and furrowed his thick brown eyebrow.
"We'll find someone to talk to and leave."
He took my worries into consideration but persisted on proceeding, we made a sacrifice coming to this place and he just didn't want to go back empty handed. I could see his eyes sparked with excitement for this, I knew deep in my heart nothings gonna stop this stubborn man once he's excited. It was supposed to be a short visit to the receptionist, ask them a few questions and then leave, we would be lucky if they granted us a visit for sightseeing whatever they have inside. I took out a notebook from my backpack, left my laptop and my dead cellphone in it, meanwhile Miles grabbed his camcorder and couple of batteries from the glove compartment. He re-read the printed email from his tipster and then folded it to be fitted to his jacket pocket. I dismounted the jeep and Miles followed, I could hear his door beeping, he didn't take his car key, Miles knew it was going to be a very short visit.
Strong wind slapped my face immediately after I closed the door, it was cold but refreshing. I regretted my decision on picking up my costume today, my cardigan didn't protect me enough from cold, meanwhile Miles was just doing fine with his white shirt and brown leather jacket. I just wanted to get inside ASAP.
"It makes me sick just by seeing this building." He said while taking out his palm sized notebook from his chest pocket.
"What the—." I said while looking at the facadé of the building in front of us. There was a silhouette behind the window that lit, a man?
Suddenly, I felt like I was in a horror movie, the cold air, the dry leaves that produce a crunchy tone when we stepped upon it in a total silent, the 70s building that didn't get enough care because it was just old, all of that brought a hunch of supernatural thing. Miles' might've sensed danger, what if our decision to come here is just causing us troubles? The thought was reinforced by the military vehicle that parked just before the main entrance. What are they doing there? Is there a big problem took place in the asylum until they hired a military to solve it? No, I don't want to think about it.
"It's locked!" I said as I checked the main door.
"I'm gonna check the side gate" he offered.
The place seemed didn't allow us to uncover its innards, all the entry didn't want to be penetrated. We just discussed about going back to the town before Miles raised his head and pointing his finger to the facadé of the building.
"Look there's an open window" He smirked.
"Are we thieves now?!" I said not believing Miles would do illegal thing to see Murkoff, Miles was curious and just didn't want to go back empty handed. I climbed the window while Miles giving me a boost, but the light suddenly out and I screamed in panic.
"Hold on I'm coming!" Miles said trying to climb the window. I'm not as brave as Miles and darkness is on the list of my phobias. Miles' head emerged from the window, he could climb up easily with his towering figure of 6'2.
"Miles where's your camcorder?!" I said panicking.
"Oh shit I left in the car!" He said while I pulled him out from the window frame.
"What?! How could you be so ***ing stupid" I started to panic uncontrollably. I can hear his laughter in the darkness. "You bastard!"
He switched on the camera and immediately switched to infrared vision, he led to the way out of the room. The corridor was blocked by bookshelves and furnitures, we used the room across to access the other side of the corridor.
"Oh my god!" I jolted from my feet because the television just turned on by itself broadcasting white screen and shriek. I began to inhale heavily, starting to pray the TV wasn't by supernatural thing, which was a stereotypical jumpscare from horror movies. I've seen lots of them.
"Relax it's just a TV." Miles turned round and grinned.
"Do you smell that?" I smelt copper, a strong one like blood.
My prejudice was confirmed by the handprint painted on the wall with blood. The carpet also stained with footprints which led to a restroom. We didn't think twice to claim it real. Something had happened just before our arrival at the asylum, judging by its freshness. Whatever happened here must be unpleasant and appalling. Something that we obsessed, just one thing crossed in our mind: this is going to be a good story! Therefore, we have to find out more about this place. There was a document labelled Confidential upon a table in one of the rooms in the corridor. We immediately read it.
The document was a report of a patient that was likely to be involved in a scientific project named Walrider. It told about things beyond our comprehension. We've been through cyber crimes, homicide, war, white collar crimes but never a scientific project. Miles was focused, didn't take his eyes out from his camcorder, he recorded everything and took notes once in a while. We reached a point where was a glass door separating us from the next room, before we reached it, the toilet door closed by itself probably by someone who worked here terrified by whatever occurence took place in here. Miles tried to open the door but it didn't budge. He started to regret his decision, because whoever behind the door could've hurt us. There's no way we could proceed through the glass door, it was locked.
"(y/n) we'll go that way." Miles said pointing to a room with an open venthole.
That wasn't a bad idea afterall but there's blood dripping from the ceiling. What kind of violence could cause the blood to end up in the ceiling? The more absurd the situation the more obsessed we are to explore this place. Miles went first and I followed, shortly after a loud thud from the door caught our attention. We ceased our movement and held our breath.
"Walrider..not again." It was the guy from the restroom, he didn't notice us and shut the door immediately after he came.
At the end of the hole, Miles stopped and pointing his comcorder straight to the end of the vent.
"What is it Miles?" I asked but he didn't answer. Miles went down and helped me climbing down the wall. There was a door to our left but barricaded with office stuff, to our right there was a door with a plank revealing Library.
"aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" we both screamed our lungs out, jumped from our feet. Miles landed his back on my chest and I squeezed his jacket with my might.
We saw a glimpse of a body hung behind the door which we just opened. The light suddenly out and the room was in total darkness, prevented us to have a look to what we just saw.
"What the fuck (y/n ), what the fuck we just saw?!" He said in shock. I stayed in the entryway, catching my breath and my mind refused to comprehend the reality.
"Give me your phone!"
"You want to make a fucking phone call right now?"
"I need some lights damnit, I left mine in your jeep" He handed out his phone and I received it with my shaky hand, I used it as a flashlight.
Miles slowly entered the room and crouched near the headless corpse, I followed. "What the fuck—?" He swore.
I began to pray that it was just a prop, yet apparently that was once a living human. "Murkoff Advanced Research System" Miles read the badge of the corpse.
"OMG Miles this man was a scientist" I said.
"What the fuck happen here?" He stood and walked away from the corpse. The air in the room was thick and stale, smell like butcher shop but worse like they put garbage inside their shop.
"You might want to see this" he said while pointing his camcorder to the corner of the room.
"Just what the hell is going on in here?" Body were hanging from the ceiling with no head, a technique used by the butchers to drain the blood from the slaughtered animal. Parts of body were everywhere, heads, bones, limbs, viscera were once belonged to a person which you couldn't tell which was whose. What kind of lunacy happened here that resulted in this? No sign of humanity in the killing.
"There's no way Murkoff can get away with it!" Miles muttered while recording the lined heads in the bookshelf. He turned his camera to the window where there was a man embedded in a wooden pole, beneath him was a pile of body parts.
"They killed us...they got out..." The man was still alive and startled us, Miles bumped into the bookshelf and almost dropped his camcorder.
"Sir, what happen here?" I asked. As I looked closer to his appearance, he was a military man. There were many of them judging by the armor that still attached to body parts piled in the mound of meat. They were here just before we reached the place, what happen to the rest of them? Are they end up like this man?.
He warned us to get out of this place by accessing the security control if we wish to live, he mentioned 'variants' and that was what caused this. We had no idea about it and we were definitely in danger, my mind no longer filled with curiosity, it was all fear and a strong desire to get out alive. Miles lowered his camcorder after the man finally lifeless, we walked toward a door at the corner of this room.
We heard a rough hum, we caught a glimpse of a shirtless fat man and immediately crouched hoping for whoever he was doesn't come to us. He entered a wooden door and disappeared. Miles and I exchanged glares at each other, I could see fear on his eyes. Maybe the fat man was the one responsible for the montrosity in the library.
"That's it Miles, we have to get out of this—." Miles quickly covered my mouth with his hand.
"Sssshhhh...alright, alright we'll go out." He calmed me.
We stood up and started walking toward the way we had been before to the library, the vent, and the small cafe, Miles lead the way. The cafe door won't budge, someone was behind the door, muttering something about blood and dream.
"Goddamnit, open the door!" Miles shouted in anger, there's no way the door prevent us from getting out of this place. He kept banging and kicking the door. "I said open it you fucker!" There's a crack in the door, the person's eyes peeking through the crack. We could see his unsavory look, he has only one eye with disfigured face, and wore an orange jumpsuit. We assumed he was one of the patient. How could a patient be in here?
The patient didn't move from the door, so we have to find another way out. We walked to the library again, seeing through the glass window in the corridor, we were in the second floor of the building and there's a stair leading downward. We took a direction to the stair, the corridor was blockaded by piles of office stuff and two bookshelves facing each other. The small gap between was enough for us to squeeze through. I was the first and Miles followed.
"Little pig" The obese man was back, grabbing Miles by the shoulder and pulled him out of the gap with all his might. He strangled him before throwing Miles through the window. I watched it in horror before I snapped my attention to the man who was now took an interest to me. He spreaded his arm to reach me but I managed to go out of the gap. He looked at me in vexation, muttering something in rough hoarse voice.
I fell onto the floor and trying to catch my breath, I repeatedly inhaling large amount of air, it felt like the whole air wasn't enough to fill up my lungs and it began to feel sore and suffocating. My heart pumped up so fast I could feel it beating on my back. The fat man was now long gone. I gathered my courage to stand on my feet again and now my mind was clear enough to figure out my situation. I have to get out of here ASAP if I want to live.