Transcript of audio file recovered from Base Michael, West of Erie, Pennsylvania; author verified by voice pattern and testimony as Sgt Raymond Wilkins, US Army (retd) employed as security guard at base; dated 28-Apr-2022. Throughout the recording there is the sound of a low repeated noise in the background; analysis has revealed it is likely to be a metal door being repeatedly struck
If you’da betted on what profession would cause the end of the world, what would you've picked? Virologist? Them Scientists at CERN? Or maybe a safe choice like politician?
I know I wouldn’t have picked archaeologist ... but it will be down to them if those things get out ...
I'm telling the end before the beginning though; guess I better get this sorted out ...
[PAUSE - SOUND OF CARBONATED DRINKS CAN OPENING]
That's better ...
I've been here since it was just another dig for Native American artifacts ... the first group from Miskatonic University had come here to try and find a burial ground mentioned in some accounts from the very first settler accounts and they hired me on as a guide to the area. Well, once we'd found the place they started paying me to look after it at night instead ... keepin the local kids and newshounds out ... easy work and good money, so why not? That was back in ... oh, oh-eight I reckon.
[SLURPING NOISES]
Anyways, things were going so well, they was still bringing stuff up after 6 months foolin' around in the mud, so they bring in this underground radar thingy - shows you what's down there without havin' to dig loads of pointless holes. I was there when they found it; they'd been radarin' the ground all day, and were just about to finish, when the kids runnin' this thing start shoutin' "No Way, Man!" 'n' "You gotta be kiddin' me!" 'n' all kindsa stuff like that ...
Anyways, seems they found some kind of metal dome 'bout 40 foot under the diggin's they'd already made an' if they hadn't of done those, they woulda never found it. Well, all the people here went absolutely apeshit with excitement, and then, within a week, men in black - federal types - are swarmin' all over the place like bugs on shit ... they kept me on, as they reckoned I was trustworthy havin' bin in the army, and made me shift supervisor for night security ... there was certainly more of us looking after the place after that, I can tell you!
So it stays mad here for a coupla years all told ... all the Miskatonic guys are kicked off site and the federal government builds an office block right on top of the place where the dome was and it gets chockful of lab geeks. I Googled a few of the names of the geeks who signed in day-after-day ... turns out they're nearly all archeologists, with a few physicists ... mosta them only had college entries - nothing later than that. That's when I got careful and stopped looking - people like that only have a worlda hurt attached them if you keep diggin' ...
While they was digging the basements for the block, they go down and dig right round this dome, but I never got to see it ... they kept it covered up the whole time - they had army engineers doin' the diggin' as well.
[SLURPING NOISES]
Anyways ... more and more people starting coming to work here as time passed. There was so many labcoats and soldiers I was startin' to think it was like that Stargate programme I watched when I was a kid ... but I never found out what the hell was goin' on down there, and I guess I never will now ...
So, I been here 14 years now ... been easy work and good money the whole time - until today that is ... tonight I arrived at twenty-hundred hours local, and Jim 'n' me do the handover as usual, then he buggered off home at twenty-fifteen. Seems a bunch of the geeks was still downstairs workin' on something - no change there, though.
[SLURPING NOISES]
That's better ... at twenty-three-oh-six, all hell breaks loose - sirens, red lights the works! I had to look at the procedures manual just to see what the fuck it all meant! Turns out there was a 'Code Alpha Security Breach' which the book said meant
'contamination from Base Gabriel; inform site commandant
and response team immediately; security supervisor to ensure
ground level access to sub-ground secure'
and response team immediately; security supervisor to ensure
ground level access to sub-ground secure'
So I got Bob to ring the boss, and called up the response team leader as I ran from the security office by the gate to the main building. I knew the shit musta really hit the fan, as us security grunts ain't normally allowed in the main building ... I get there and find the elevator is locked down and the fire stairs is all locked up ... bit of an anti-climax after all those lights 'n' sirens. Bob manages to get them all turned off after a coupla minutes and everythin' went back to the usual quiet.
Not for long though, I'm stood there for about fifteen or so, and then the response team come pilin' in the main doors, followed by the boss-man ... I dunno what branch those guys was from, but their eyes told me they'd seen some serious shit ... I'd served and I knew regular equipment when I saw it, and I kept up-to-date with what was bein' issued - professional curiousity - but I'd never seen what the stuff they was carryin' before ...
They takes a quick look round and head over to the stairs, and then open the door ... what a great dispersal! Never seen anythin' that good before - these guys 'n' gals were shit-hot. They start down the stairs and the boss follows them - 'Stay here' he says to me 'If anything apart from us comes up the stairs, get to the communications office, call this number and report an uncontrolled archangel incident' and he gives me a white card with a Washington DC number on it - that's it, just a number - no name ...
And I didn't realize it then, but he said anyTHING not anyONE ...
So I'm waiting there for them to come back - I'd heard the security door down at the bottom open so I knew they'd got in alright ... I'm getting bored, so me 'n' Bob start shootin' the shit on the walkie-talkie when I hear sounds of gunfire from down the stairs; I turned off the walkie so I could hear better and I could hear screams start mixin' in with the gunfire ... then there's breaking glass and the light at the bottom of the stairs goes out
Something made me start goin' down the stairs, like I was being pulled down, real slow, but definitely pulled ... next thing I realise is I'm halfway down the first flight of stairs and the gunfire and screams have stopped - it only lasted a coupla minutes, but it seemed like forever ...
[BACKGROUND THUMPING IS GETTING GRADUALLY LOUDER; SPEAKER INCREASES VOLUME TO TALK OVER IT]
Then I hear moaning coming up the stairs - I thought it might be part of the team tryin' to get out so I start down the stairs towards it, but as I go, I realise it sounds like twenty-or-so people down there ... so I stop and, I'm big enough to admit it, I was startin' to get scared ... edging back up the stairs, I was looking down the gap in the middle tryin' to see what's there, when I see a blood-covered hand on the rail ... shit, that made me jump and I missed the step behind me - bang! I fall right on my arse and the walkie-talkie bounces once and falls down the gap ...
[SLURPING NOISES]
I get off my arse quicker than I'd done in the last twenty years and get back to the top of the stairs, turnin' round when I get there to see what was down there ...
Jeeeesusss-Christ-on-a-bike if it weren't the boss man walkin' up the stairs with a bunch of the lab-geeks right behind him, only now, his entrails was hanging out of his guts and his face 'n' hands is covered in blood! all the labguys was just as bad, if not worse and it's all of them making the noises as they come trudging up the stairs ...
It'd be nice to say I did the sensible thing and closed the door, but the truth is I shat myself and ran for the front door ... but it was locked. I managed to find my key, but the bossman musta done somethin' to it, 'cos my key didn't work anymore ...
Shit - they found me ... I thought it'd only be a matter of time; best I get this finished, then. Thinking of the boss I remembered that card and the comms room and my duty came back to me like a stick to an old man. I pulled my pistol and headed off to the comms room; trouble was, I had to go back past the elevator and stairs ...
When I got there those ... things on the stairs had got to the top and seeing me was like a rabbit to a greyhound and they starts shufflin' toward me; BLAM! BLAM! I shoot the bossman twice and he goes down - but then starts gettin' up again!
[BACKGROUND THUMPING IS STILL INCREASING IN VOLUME; SPEAKER AGAIN INCREASES VOLUME TO TALK OVER IT]
That almost broke me right there, but I just kept it together and ran as fast as I could to this here comms room, where I managed to lock the door behind me thank christ, as those things were right behind me ...
[SPEAKER IS PRACTICALLY SHOUTING NOW]
They're batterin' on the door tryin' to get it an' I bet it ain't to say 'hello' neither ... I called the number on the card and this computer voice says 'Report' ... I lost it and shouted 'You gotta help me! There's these things trying to get me!' and the voice just says 'Report' again. 'FUCKIN' UNCONTROLLED ARCHANGEL INCIDENT YOU BASTARD!!' I shout into the thing and all it does is say 'Acknowledged' and the line goes fuckin' dead!
[CRASHING SOUND - ASSUMED TO BE DOOR COLLAPSING]
SHIT! They're in!!
[4 GUNSHOTS; LOUD MOANS; SCREAMS; THEN CONTINUOUS MOANING]
[TRANSCRIPT ENDS]