06: The Last Scientist
Log Recordings
Dr. Yeltz, Head Researcher’s log, day zero. Briefing: We’re setting up a covert listening post in the heart of Avarrach, the city known as Vis’Maw. We’ll have stealth, distraction and lethal countermeasures to ensure our safety to the clock tower, as it’s seemingly one of the most defensible positions, and will be a point high enough to also ensure our home seeker pods will make enough distance to escape the bulk of the infected horde.
Once there, we will first cover our tracks with zom-b-gone, extreme scent and odor dispensers, and heatproofing foam, which will likely cover all known ways that the sleepers of avarrach can currently track people, and if it doesn’t, the repellant should make it pretty hard for them to encroach on our position. If we fail to secure our position within the first two hours, we’ll have to use the pods to get home and the mission will be postponed until we can better secure our safety.
Assuming all goes to plan, we should have our listening post set up, constantly surveying the area and taking scans of the sleepers of avarrach within range, looking for biological anomalies and oddities. The hypothesis of the Omnimind is that the Sleeper virus has some sort of evolutionary behavior, which would explain the different variants we’d seen over the past few years. If we can pinpoint this exact mutation as it’s happening, we’ll be able to better understand the Sleepers virus, coming closer to a complete cure and developing further countermeasures for the Avarrach threat. We’ll be posted at the listening post for one week, with plenty of rations, and once the preliminary scans are completed, we can leave via the pods, and the machine will have enough battery for run for up to an additional week, the data for which should hopefully make it through the rifts to our radars and satellites, but as long as we have the first week of data, it should give us the scans we are looking for pretty easily.
Assigned on the team, we have a security officer Graham, who will be responsible for our safety, and the command of our security drones. An engineer, Dr. Archen, who will be responsible for our equipment and machinery. And we have three other scientists working directly under me for sample analysis, data analysis and viral infections research. I’ve only met the sample analyst, Dr. Freed, and he’s a good man. The other two I’ll be meeting shortly after the final briefing tomorrow.
If all goes well, we should b-
*Click*
Dr. Yeltz, Head Researcher’s log, day one. Our arrival and setup was a total success, with flares and dummy bots providing ample distraction to the hordes of undead, who barely noticed our camouflage fly right past them. There was some trouble with setup, as there was pools of gunk within the clock tower. These pools seem to be highly concentrated, liquified bodies of organic mass and the sleeper virus. Not knowing whether they were capable of releasing any form of airborne virus, we coated one of our drones in Zom-b-gone and had him clean and dispose of these putrid puddles. What’s worrying is that the drone then quickly showed signs of infection, however because it was noticed quickly, the drone was dismantled and it’s parts were thrown out the windows. We’ll monitor for any further signs of infection, however quarantining and care have both been implemented, so fingers crossed we don’t have to end this mission early.
Dr. Archen set up the machinery necessary quite quickly. This included a frequency scrambler, the heat masking foam, an air purifier, three separate scanners and a central interface, motion sensors through all the floors below us, as well as a microwave for our rations. I didn’t think the microwave was necessary, however after trying the first day’s rations heated, I can’t believe I’d ever eaten these at room temperature. If the entire mission ends as a failure, I have at least learned a new way to eat rations that tastes better than dry processed refined grains and chemicals.
I met the other two scientists on the journey, however both are juniors without field experience. Mr. William is the data analyst, and is already going through the logs and graphs on the central interface. His passion for numbers and patterns is obvious. As for Mr. Hundt, he’s studying a doctorate, and wanted his work experience to be something that would stand out on his resume. I don’t think the kid knew just what he was getting himself into, but I’ll make sure he makes it back unscathed, and hopefully with a story to tell.
The sounds of the groans and screams of the sleepers is certainly creepy and unnerving. I’ll make the recommendation that any future field operations involving high densities of sleepers also include headphones.
This is Dr. Yeltz, signing o-
*Click*
Dr. Yeltz, Head Researcher’s log, day three. Mr. Hundt brought a handheld telescope, which has kept people relatively busy and entertained. It’s weird to think that their world likely looked a lot like ours does, once upon a time. One of the oddities we have been able to spot includes a sleeper in an apartment building with a clearly blockaded door, still wearing clothing, though very dirty and torn. So it seems that the sleepers didn’t naturally mind the clothes on their body as they turned, and they more likely than not came off through wear and tear, or the acidic rain that plagues the Avarrach region. I doubt that knowledge will ever have any practical field uses, but you never know, and one should write down everything they observe.
One of the scanners was having some issues recently, however Dr. Archen was able to fix things pretty quickly. It also turns out that from such a position, when we turn off the frequency scrambler, we actually do get some weak mobile signal, even on our personal devices. Graham has been texting his partner back home. Calls don’t seem to come through very clearly, but it has been good for the mental health and morale, especially at night, with the wailing cacophany in the city below. However, we have made a recent discovery too. When the skies are clear, they actually glow with a very light dancing wisp of blue light, which we’ve all come to agree likely comes from the energy of the Rift to the Old World combined with their nonexistent night time light pollution. It certainly is tranquil, it’s just hard to enjoy in our circumstances. Mr. William is disheartened that we haven’t found anything so far, as we were told this would likely produce a lot of results very quickly, however we’ve yet to find anything.
Hopefully we get the results we’re after.
*Click*
Dr. Yeltz, Day five, something happened, and- and none of us know what to do. The rift, it’s gone. Just- gone. There was a bright light for a while, and some very loud sounds coming from the direction of the rift, and when the light disappeared, it’s just gone! The radar that tracks the energy readings of the rifts is picking up absolutely nothing, we can’t see the Rift through the handheld telescope, it’s just gone.
We are hoping this is just some sort of freak anomaly. We’ve widened the radius of our search equipment to try and find other rifts, hoping one can lead us back home. The team has been looking to me for guidance and reassurance, but… I don’t fucking know! I thought we understood these things, and it turns out we don’t, and now we might be trapped here in a zombie hellscape until we starve to death in like two weeks!
It’s going to be hard to get to sleep tonight, but, we can’t let this shake us. We need to keep our bodies and minds primed just in case things get better.
*Click*
Dr. Yeltz, day eight of our seven day field operation. People are certainly on edge, debating what we should do. Thankfully, the power system we’re using is extremely efficient, so we still have weeks left of power, however we will be cutting back on all non-essential power usages, such as the air purifier, microwave, and after this recording, I’ll be done with this too. Dr. Archen has disassembled one of the scanners along with one of Graham’s security drones, and is working on creating a primitive form of water purifier. I don’t think it can purify acid rain, but the man is a great tinker, so if anyone can do it, I believe it would be him. Graham has been quite insistent that we should get in the escape pods and launch them. I’ve explained several times that they specifically seek out the energy readings of the rifts, and they won’t do anything but crash to the ground if no rift readings are present. Why a security officer thinks they know better than a scientist during a scientific challenge nobody has ever had to face before is beyond me. I just hope he’ll be okay.
If I don’t make it back, and you’re finding this tape at some point, I need to tell Charlie I’m sorry. He’s only five, and I promised I’d always be there for him. He needs to know that was always my intention. I love you Charlie, more than anything in the world. I hope I get to see you soon.
This is Dr. Yeltz, esteemed scientist of Genesis Industries, and proud father, signing off.
*Click*
Uhh, testing. I… think this is working? Alright then, hey, this is Brian William, Data Analyst of Genesis Industries, and it is day… forty three here in Avarrach. I’m out of food, low on water, the power is about to run out, so with nothing left to lose, I thought I’d at least take the time to recap. Regardless of what happens, I’ll be dead at the end of the day anyway.
The entire team is dead. The first to go was Graham, who on day ten, got into one of our two escape pods and shot himself towards the direction of where the rift used to be. Likely not knowing how to pilot the manual controls, his pod crashed directly into the ground and went up in a ball of flames that was quickly surrounded by Sleepers, so even if he did survive, it wasn’t for long.
Next, on day fifteen or so, Finn, or Mr. Hundt, he began showing signs of infection. We treated it as best we could, eventually amputating his entire leg, however without proper equipment we couldn’t stop the bleeding, and the infection spread through his body anyway, and eventually the decision was made to throw him over the edge of the clock tower and let gravity do the rest. Finn hadn’t really gone very far outside of where we were, so nobody knew how he got infected, however I later found some muck on an outside wall of the clock tower that had a perfect hand print. It seems like he probably came out at night to enjoy the view, and didn’t notice he’d touched it, or just thought it was something like moss and wiped it off on his shirt.
Dr. Freed was two or so days later. He simply left a note, talking about how he couldn’t take the constant screams of the dying and damned, and how he swore vengeance on any form of god he would meet in the next life for subjecting everyone to something so cruel and heinous. I thought I saw him on the outskirts of town the next day, however it was unclear. It looked suspiciously like a Sleeper of Avarrach wearing torn lab equipment, however the now broken telescope has made it difficult to confirm that.
On day nineteen, Dr. Archen declared he was leaving to find food, and armed himself with broken machinery and a prototype stealth field we were given for potential testing. I’m not sure what happened to him, but he never returned. Given that the infection has seemingly been a part of avarrach for over thirty years before the rifts opened up, I’m skeptical there would be anything edible, even if he managed to find a supermarket.
Dr. Yeltz was the final one to leave, and he ordered me to stay alive for as long as possible, and he was going to head to the old rift site, and see if he could find any clues as to why the rift shut, and maybe see if there was something he could do to open them again. It may have been the delirium, but it seemed like a perfectly logical idea at the time. I don’t think he made it out of the building.
I’ve been here, by myself, for the last twenty days. The motion censors broke, and the Zom-B-Gone has worn off, so I spend most nights pointing my handgun at the door. Approximately two weeks ago, the water purifier stopped working, and now rain water just tastes like toxic sludge. I’ve been bedridden for the past week. This morning, celebrating being down to the last ration, I tried microwaving it as Dr. Yeltz had recommended. After a month of meager rations every couple of days, it tasted just as boring as the last ten. Analysis suggests the toxic rain has damaged my taste buds, and god knows what else it’s doing internally.
I’ve had a lot of time to think, and I think I’ve figured out how I’m gonna go. I’m gonna head out to the roof, and look down at the hordes. Then, I’m gonna pick one Sleeper specifically, and see if I can jump off the roof and crush it by landing on it. The fall should instantly kill me, and I’ll get to at least say that I killed one of these things. That’ll be my last bit of sweet little petty vengeance as death approaches.
I hope that someone does find these recordings in the future. It feels like I’m about to die for no reason, but I dunno, just knowing that someone could be hearing these words, months or years from now, and taking down what I’m saying, It just feels like- like, special, you know? Or, I’m about to die for no reason. I shouldn’t be petty, plenty of people die for no reason every day. I’m just bitter I never got the chance to have a reason…
Well, here goes nothing. Wish me luck.
*Click*
Vis’Maw Tower, Avarrach, Day 43.
Brian ended his voice recording, and slowly packed the recording equipment away. The roars and screams echoed in the background, which by now was an almost comforting reminder that at least those things are far away. Scanning equipment hummed, as Brian turned on the central interface for the first time in over a week. It took a moment to import the data from the scanners, however when it had completed the process, the interface made a noise, a ding that Brian had never heard before.
“Huh?” Brian was curious, and checked the system. It had highlighted data. Cell genomes or something, but it was vastly different to everything around it. It was still unmistakable Sleepers of Avarrach cell data, but it seemed to be completely rejumbled. The machine made another ding noise. Another string of data was highlighted, another sleeper had been identified as having this new genome trait. And then another, and then eventually the machine was dinging constantly, and showed a number of successful scans, with 600 and growing.
Brian laughed to himself. “Typical, of course.” The last thing Brian was going to be hearing before his jump was going to be the dinging sound of a mission completed, which felt ironic in a way. He took the time to look at the data, and for a moment, felt himself getting excited about it once more. This was his passion, and it was strong enough to make him forget exactly where he was, even if just for a few minutes. Brian knew the data the machine had gathered would be significant, and history altering potentially, however there was nothing he could do. He turned off the notification sound, and just sat, watching the number of successful scans grow, now at 2000.
Another noise emanated from the machine, different from the first. A gentle fluctuation of power, giving off a wub-like noise, slowly speeding up. It wasn’t from the scans of the Sleepers, what was it? Brian checked the other programs. The water was still out, the stealth field was about to go down, the power was about to run out, everything seemed normal. And then, he found it. Rift energy source spikes. Brian’s eyes widened, as he heard an explosion in the distance, followed by the escalating screams of the sleepers below. In the distance, he could make it out, a light glow on the streets, seemingly cut off from a certain point. It was a Rift! Brian screamed as much as their weak body would allow.
Thoughts rushed through Brian’s mind. The readings weren’t stable like the rift that bought them here, this must have been one of those Micro-rifts he had read about in the briefing. There’s no telling how long that thing will be open, every second counts. Brian instantly plugged in his data pad to the terminal and began syncing all of the data. While that happened, he worked on moving and rotating the escape pod. It wasn’t going to get him directly in the rift, especially when he couldn’t technically see it, but it would get him close. What else did he have access to? A fresh pair of leather-bound boots would keep his feet safe from the puddles of decay. The hover car was out of fuel, and it’s greater stealth field was already gone, but it could provide a distraction regardless. A handheld scanner, it could plug into his data pad and provide some extra guidance and navigation. A small experimental stealth belt, these weren’t field tested, but it could work. A can of deodorant. Well, if it could mask Brian’s smell, it could do something, maybe. It still wasn’t clear how effective scent based repellants were, however if data is inconclusive, and one’s desperate, you do it just in case.
Gunfire and screams rang out in the distance, however it seemed the thickness of the Sleepers threat in the streets had died out, with barely a few noticable. The remaining sleepers jogged around, seemingly in contradicting directions, like they weren’t sure which way they were heading. With the escape pod pointing perfectly north, toward the rift readings, Brian turned it on. The pod was having a hard time picking up the signal, but it did seem to latch on to it. With all the preparations, it was time.
Brian slowly pushed the flying car towards the same wall it crashed through, and eventually he felt it giving way to gravity, as it toppled over into the street. A new, much closer scream rang out, as Sleepers began emerging from buildings within a block radius, and converging on the clock tower. Brian grabbed the data he could, as well as the note left by the late Dr. Freed, and he got into the pod. He turned it on, and fiddled with the stealth field belt while the engines charged. He began hearing it, the growing sound of Sleepers screeching as they stormed the clock tower. His already racing heart shifted into fifth gear as they approached. A chime rang out from the pod, and Brian hit the big blue button in the middle of the control panel. Jets kicked into gear, spluttering slightly as they pushed Brian off the edge of the building. As gravity pulled the pod down, Brian screamed. The engines fiercely fired off just in time however, and jolted him forward, stopping the pod’s freefall. The pod skid against the ground as it hopped and jumped down the five or so blocks separating the clock tower from the energy reading.
The pod came to a sudden stop, and Brian popped the top open wasting no time, and ran directly into the building the light was emanating from. As he ran towards the entrance, a Sleeper of Avarrach burst out, and sprinted directly towards him. Brian instinctively screamed, and jumped to the left. The Sleeper ran past, and stopped for a moment, looking alert and confused. The stealth field must be working, Brian thought to himself, as he continued to run inside, more sleepers already swarming the pod behind him and tearing it apart. Brian ran up the stairs, data pad in hand, watching the numbers fluctuating, and listening for the gunfire.
Brian approached the fourth floor, as lights danced at the end of the long hallway, corpses aplenty. This was it. A bang rang out, not coming from the hallway, but instead, Brian’s belt, as smoke leaked from the stealth field. He began jogging with the last remaining strength he had towards the end of the corridor. Looking left, he saw the Sleepers. Worst of all, he saw the Sleepers seeing him. They let out a shriek, and charged at him. Brian’s body moved faster than his previously comfortable yet tired jog, as a group of sleepers took chase. Running towards the lights, the smell of gunpowder and brimstone grew stronger. Brian turned the corner, facing into a destroyed office building. There were corpses, both sleepers and human, and a man opening fire on a Sleeper that fell at his feet, while another swung their flaming sword at a sleeper, taking it’s head clean off, before pointing their offhand pistol directly at Brian.
A moment passed, of almost pure confusion, as the Flame Dawn soldiers take in the sight of a dirty, scraggly human in Genesis Industries field scribe wear, emerging from the middle of the Avarrach city, standing at the doorway, gasping for air with both hands raised. One of the soldiers eventually beckons and screams out, “COME ON!” Brian moves with all of the energy left in his body, as a shooting pain strikes his foot and causes him to stumble. His ankle had rolled. Brian let out a scream, and simply kept hopping towards the soldiers and the rift. A large group barrelled in right after them, and charged. One flame dawn soldier continued to open fire on the horde, while the other rushed to Brian to support his bad leg and escort him out.
“Reloading!” screamed the second soldier. It seemed that Brian had inadvertently led the lost Sleepers directly to the rift’s opening. A third soldier appeared through the rift and began opening fire while the second reloaded his weapon, before realising they were much too close, and resorting back to his flaming sword for protection. A sleeper lept forward and grabbed on to Brian’s arm, pulling them down a bit before sinking it’s teeth directly into Brian’s wrist.
Brian screamed, as other sleepers ran in, seemingly grabbing on to the sleeper that held on to Brian to further weigh them down. Gunfire continued to spray at the Sleepers, as the soldier saw the sleeper holding on to Brian’s arm with his teeth. He readied his sword, and simply yelled “Forgive me for this.”, before taking a swing at Brian’s shoulder, cutting his arm clean off, the intense heat searing over the wound in an instant.
Brian let out a scream of immense pain, as the Flame Dawn soldier continued to carry him towards the rift. Barriers were being hastily constructed and assembled by a small army of soldiers just beyond the rift. There was commands and yelling everywhere, as they seemingly wanted to barricade and clog the hole that was just taller than the height of the office floor they emerged from. Brian was carried through the rift, and ushered onto a stretcher, where another flame dawn soldier joined the one who carried him from Avarrach, and ran him towards a tent that was being unpacked as they ran towards it. Brian was stunned by the Flame Dawn’s tactical coordination and brotherly camaraderie. Seeing them first hand for the first time in his life, he suddenly understood why they were portrayed as such a threat to Genesis Industries in the media.
Within a minute, Brian had bandages wrapped around his left shoulder where his arm used to be, and a fluid drip into his right arm, as a field surgeon continued to assess his injuries and health. “Wow. I just, I never expected this.” The Flame Dawn soldier who rescued Brian remained in the tent, as the others seemingly continued to fight or prepare. A loud warping noise was heard, followed by the pulse of air. Immediately after, the army began cheering loudly. The soldier smiled. “Good, it’s shut. That’s one less thing to worry about.” Brian looked at the man, who it seemed was actually quite young, being early 20s just as he was. His emblem only had two notches on it, which meant he was likely an Aspirant, or perhaps a junior Knight. The man held out his hand towards Brian, who sat up on his gurney. “Eli.”
Brian, now very well medicated for the pain, held his remaining hand out to shake Eli’s. “I’m Brian.” Brian chuckled slightly.
“Lovely to meet you Brian. So tell me, what the hell were you doing in Avarrach? The rifts shut over a month ago, have you been there this whole time? What was a scribe doing on Avarrach in the first place anyway, don’t you usually make your drones do all your work for you?”
Brian nodded to Eli, “We had to study the virus in person on Avarrach, we couldn’t do it anywhere else. And we had to-” Brian took in a huge deep breath of shock, stunning their own sentence, and Brian’s head became clear for a moment. “The data!” Brian pulled out the data pad from his pocket, “I have to get this back to Genesis Industries! It’s absolutely critical!”
Eli looked over to the field surgeon, who sighed and shook his head. “Look, Brian…” Eli sighed, “Unfortunately, we can’t just let you go, even if you did just escape hell.” Brian’s expression went stern, as their eyes lay cold on Eli. “Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you or anything, you’re safe with us, but our training is very clear. You’re- well, you’re a prisoner now.” Brian felt his throat tighten, and as he flipped his data pad over, the screen seemed broken, and his hand began to tremble. He hesitantly pressed the centre button of his data pad, expecting the worst, however it lit up. Eli watched as he opened and navigated the device.
“Hey.” The field surgeon spoke up and approached Brian, “You can’t just-” Eli held his hand out, stopping the surgeon. Brian tapped away at the device, as it scanned for a signal. One bar of signal - that’s all he needed. He pressed the Sync Data button, as a progress bar came up. It moved slowly, but the data was being sent directly to Genesis Industries. As he shifted, Brian fell lightly to his side, no longer having a hand to support him, as pains shot through his shoulder. He let out a whince of pain as his face soured, and tears welled up in his eyes. Through his tears, he looked at his data pad. Data sync completed. Brian smiled as he started to cry. Eli sat next to him, and pat his back gently.
“I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, but don’t worry. You’re safe now.” Brain cried directly into Eli’s shoulder insignia, as he gently held him. After all of the pain, all of the sacrifice, everything that went wrong - he had done it. Perhaps one day, he would see recognition for it, but right now, he wasn’t the hero scientist who escaped the world of the dead. He was just a prisoner of a war, neither he nor his wardens signed up for.
Regardless, he had done it.
Story by JasonOCE
Art by Nick @459208185Nick