The Bookwyrm

A sign attached to the ceiling when the elevator door opened read "Low Classification Records Archive". The room beyond was a small carpeted area with a tiny reception desk, leading to rows of office spaces and storage for filing documents. The rest of the walk to the containment building was uneventful. Eventually, the two agents reached the main enterance to the facility.

As the reader detected the card, the automated voice said "CLEARANCE 2 ACCESS GRANTED."

There was a reader Kastel could hold the card up to.

Each of them contained a small bedroom with a desk and a personal bathroom to the side. They were filled with personal effects and clothing items, everything to suggest that most of the facility personnel actually did live on-site, at least temporarily. For the first few rooms there was no luck, though one did have a document on the desk, next to a mug of writing utensils. Federal Agency of Research and Control Facility WA-ACM-4 "The Rim" Internal Correspondence I know you keep taking my pens, Walter. I don't give a [CENSORED] about your "trades" or whatever. Just give it back, or I'm filing a report. I've had enough. Eventually, he managed to find a card with the name "Samantha Clearwater" on it. The photograph was of a young woman, probably in her mid twenties, with light skin and curly black hair. She had a smirk on her face, like she wanted to smile more but wasn't supposed to for the photo. The bottom of the card read CLEARANCE LEVEL: 2

The area was built with a number of cleverly hidden light fixtures, and designed in a way to probably make it feel more comfortable, despite it being underground. Like it was open to the outdoors. There were a number of plants growing in rectangular planters, embedded in the walls, probably to add some color to the otherwise drab white walls. Unfortunatley, this floor too had fallen into disrepair. Most of the lights were off, shrouding the entire place in darkness. The plants had mostly wilted, as if left unattended for weeks. Or longer. Unfortunately, Kastel couldn't find much in the way of a keycard. There was nothing in the sort in the cafeteria area, and almost all the doors to personal rooms were locked.

As he clicks the button, an automated voice fills the elevator. "UNAUTHORIZED. CLEARANCE REQUIRED."

The dodge turned out to be unneccessary, as the shots seemed to have enough force to stagger the woman and break her momentum. Her voice showed no reaction, though, even as the bullets ripped through her body. "Go forward to get behind you. You're lost, right when you should be." The two bullet holes in her chest bled curls of mist that rose into the air. She stumbled back again and dropped the crowbar. Slowly, and still speaking those strange words, her body began to unravel. The bullet holes grew wider, the flesh around them dissolving into mist. She continued to speak, even as her neck and mouth turned into fog. "You left your name at the edge of the fog. The forest drinks your shadow. The sun in the sky and never rising. Yet, here it is, backwards..." Her voice faded into a whisper, like the slight stirring of air, as the last of her body turned into mist. All that was left was the faint outline of a woman, made of grey mist, hovering there in the air. Listening closely, the two agents could still hear her strange monolouge, eminating from the mist in a faint whisper, too quiet to make out the words. @Ookla the Inconclusive The first basement floor seemed to be a housing unit of some type. The elevator opened up to a cafeteria area, and beyond that were a number of hallways with numbered doors, like a hotel.

The doors slowly slid open for him. Surprisingly, the elevator still seemed to be working, despite the rest of the room's condition. The elevator listed 8 upper floors, counting floor 1 which Kastel was on now, and five basement floors. @Ookla the Inconclusive The woman took a teetering step towards them, then another, all the while speaking in that strange tone, uninterrupted. "You're rising to the deepest depth. We let them talk sometimes to help you feel better. You're path isn't yours." Slowly, her walk turned into a crazed run, dashing at Liv, holding the crowbar up. Her voice didn't change whatsoever. No yell, no sound of exertion. "The silence stretches until it breaks. Listen to the roots; they hum in reverse." She swung the crowbar at Liv's head.

The main lobby had a door on the right, a door on the left, and an elevator in the corner.

The lock broke, but the door didn't budge.

As Kastel tried to open the door which would lead to the outdoor path to the containment building, and thus the Rabbit Hole, he found it locked.

A lot of them were blank, as if someone had scattered general office supplies. The one Kastel grabbed simply read: Federal Agency of Research and Control Facility WA-ACM-4 "The Rim" Internal Announcement To all facility personnel: Please remember to fill out ALL the neccessary forms when submitting a request to use paid leave! If the paperwork is incomplete, the request will NOT be accepted, and a re-application will not hold your place in line. If there are any questions on how to fill out the neccessary forms, please contact the internal office of human resources. Thank you for your attention!

As the mist cleared further, Kastel found himself in a room completely different than the one he'd been in when the fog had enveloped him. In fact, he found himself in the lobby of Building 2, the lobby they'd passed through before entering the outdoor portion of the facility to get to the Containment building. Unlike last time, though, the lights seemed mostly broken. The lobby was shrouded in darkness, with individual fixtures only flickering occasionally. The floor was cracked in places, papers were scattered across the floor in patches, and the entire room was in a general state of disrepair.

Still no response.

They were too wet to burn effectively, though one or two did start smoldering. Eventually, they'd all retreated, the vines leaving the room through a crack in the ceiling. The only plantlife left was moss, grass, and some strange roots that cracked the ground in the corner.

The signal didn't go through. Each time a vine was cut, it simply slowly retreated, revealing more crumbled building covered in moss and grass.

Slowly, the remaining portion of the vine started to move, slithering back as if retreating in pain. *** @Ookla the Dragonslayer

The woman kept talking as she slowly turned, as if some unnatural rhythm drove her forward. "Watch your step. You know the way out, but it already happened. The trees saw it all; they tell you." Half of her face was dissolving into mist, the grey tendrils rising into the sky and blending with the murk in the air. Her skin was unnaturally pale and the expression on the remaining half of her face seemed far too calm. She held a crowbar in one hand. "The mist is here and it is already you." @Ookla the Finwëan Most of the papers he found had to do with internal operations within the facility. There was very little information on anomaly research, unfortunatley. While the vines were an actual species, it didn't make sense for them to be here in the middle of the Pacific Northwest. Their growth was unmistakably unnatural, even if the vines themselves weren't.

"The sun is behind you," she said. Her voice sounded...wrong. "The line is not straight this time. Was it ever? You died when you were born. Take a left at the next three minutes."

@Ookla the Finwëan As the two agents got closer, the silhouette resolved into the shape of a young woman with black curly hair. She was facing away from them. She wore a white button up shirt with short sleeves and dress slacks. Standard office clothing. Obviously a worker for the Rim. "Draw a cab. Is it here yet?" She said, still facing away. The mist cleared further. Tim and Matthew found themselves in the same room, standing across from each other. The room was some kind of office complex, looking completely different from where they'd been before...whatever it was that had happend. In contrast to what they'd seen before, this building was crumbling, overgrown with vines and grass, as if it had been abandoned for years. Papers were scattered about, and most of the light fixtures had stopped working altogether. The scent of life and rot hung in the air.

The mist cleared, revealing that Tim was already in a building. He couldn't tell which one.