The Bookwyrm

Maria led the team out of the sliding glass doors at the back of the central lobby and into the outdoor portion of the facility. The ring-shaped fence that marked the facility's boundary outlined a fair portion of the forest. It was mostly clear, but a few of the unnaturally towering trees were scattered around the area, their upper trunks fading into the mist. The Agency had laid concrete paths connecting the separate parts of the facility. There were a few smaller buildings scattered around; most of them were just temporary research portables, probably for investigating minor anomalous effects, or doing lab work on samples from the forest. The map showed three other large buildings in the facility; two research buildings, of similar size to the one they'd just exited, and the contianment building, located at the center. The contianment building looked octagonal from above, with a circular space in the middle, open to the sky, that held the Rabbit Hole itself. While the two research buildings were too far away to see through the fog, Maria could make out the blocky shape of the containment building, it's silhouette emerging from the murk. She didn't like the fog. It wasn't dark; the unseen sun still gave enough light to see, but the fog made it useless, drowning everything in that uniform grey. Her flashlight wouldn't work here; it would just make that grey more prominent. That bothered her. @Ookla the Finwëan @Ookla the Inconclusive @Ookla the Doomfrog @Ookla the Irreplaceable @Ookla the Dragonslayer @Just_a_Fan

"In this line of work," Maria said, "the logical choice is looking for the unexplainable. Trust me." Maria turned and surveyed the room. Several monitors and desks stood around the perimeter of the room, and there were a number of inormational screens on the walls. The wall on the right also had an elevator, and there were several doors leading to other parts of the main floor. "Let's get to the containment building. We can assess the situation there, and come back here if we need to."

"We're ARC agents, Liv. She's not going to be drunk on the job. And it's perfectly within reason for there to be weird voices here."

Maria hesitated. Not good. "I'm not going to discount it as a hallucination. If it is an anomaly...well, just be on your guard. Let us know if it happens again."

Maria turned to look at Astrid. "...No," she said. "What was it?" She didn't whisper, but she did keep her voice low. The large, quiet room mad it both seem louder and softer than it really was.

As Astrid entered the lobby area, she got a strange ringing in her ears. She could almost make out words, as if whispered, in the sound. Lost.......should be....... The sensation faded.

Seeing her team gathered, Maria walked up to the main gate of the building. It was several stories tall, and was built out of simple, grey concrete. A human monolith deposited in the forest's. She walked over to the panel on the side of the gate and pressed the communicator button. "This is agent Maria Flores, ARC. If anyone is there, please respond." She waited several seconds, to no avail. "Again, please respond." Same result. Maria sighed. So much for this being one of the easy jobs. She took out her badge case, which also held the keycard she'd been provided. She slid the keycard out and held it up to the access panel. "Access granted," a robotic female voice said. "Please follow all security screening protocol. Welcome to the Rim." Maria turned back to her group as the facility's large metal door slowly slid open. "Let's move." The facility opened into a corridor that looked like a TSA station an airport. Several X-ray scanners for baggage, side by side with metal detectors. There was no sign of anything out of the ordinary, but there was also no sign of any people. Maria ignored the security machinery, making her way through to the main lobby. It was a large, square room, with the far wall being made of glass, to show the forest area the facility encompassed. The floor was marbled, with the ARC's seal printed large in the center of the floor. A reception desk stood near where the security station ended, but it was unmanned. In fact, the entire room, despite being well lit and in pristine condition, was completely empty. ....Huh.

...

He stared for a second. "...Who are you?"

Bookwyrm blinked. "How long was I gone?" He looked around. Then he checked the page count. "...Wow, you guys move fast."

"That's for sure," Maria muttered under her breath.

Maria hesitated. "True. But we also have no idea if there are any anomalies. All we know is the place went radio silent."

"You won't have to worry about that," Maria said. "The hole itself is surrounded by the containment building, and I'd imagine there are many precautions in place to prevent that from happening."

Maria nodded. "It should be on your phone." The ARC liked using modern technology, and so every agent was outfitted with a smartphone for field work. Unless the case made using it impractial. Or unsafe. "The Rim was built to contain an anomaly they call the Rabbit Hole," Maria said. "You'll find the hole itself at the center of the facility, in the grounds circled by Building 1. A pit that goes on forever. Anomalies of various kinds have been reported in the area. Mysterious things happening. Dissapearances. Cognitive anomalies, too. Weird dreams, apparently. The Hole was at the center of the area where these anomalies were happening. "What exactly the Rim was containing and researching was classified, even to me...but the Department of Containment and Protection assumes that whatever caused the radio silence also introduced several new anomalies into the area. So even if we could read the official files...we'd still be going in mostly blind." The thought made her uncomfortable. As streamlined as the ARC was, parts of it could still be a bureaucratic mess. The fact that she'd been denied access to research files on the anomalies in the area...it either meant that someone was being petty at the expense of others, or that something very dangerous was happening here. After a moment's thought, she changed her mind and grabbed a black shotgun from the back of the van. She threw it over her shoulder by the strap, letting it rest by her pack. Better safe than sorry, right?

"Only what we need," Maria said. "But what we need might end up being more than you think. At the very least, make sure you have the receivers for monitoring." Devices that could pick up on anomalous or extradimensional influences. She didn't know how they worked, exactly; she wasn't from the Department of Research and Records. But she did know how to use them. They were vitally important to containment work. "I'd also bring a videorecorder," Maria said, grabbing one for herself from the stash and sliding it into a case on her belt. "The people in charge are going to want footage."

"I have the clearance to get us right through the front gate," Maria said. "Our primary goal is to get to Building 1, the center of Containment for the facility. We'll gauge the situation, then spread out and explore the rest of the facility. Primary goal is to figure out what happened, and relay the information so that a better specialized team can finish handling the situation. Our secondary goal, if possible, is to re-establish contianment ourselves. The sooner we can get this place back under control, the better." She walked around to the back of the van and opened the doors, revealing a stache of equipment and weapons. They weren't the most heavily armed at the moment - this wasn't a paramilitary operation - but there was enough to feel at least secure. You had no idea what you were going to find during an operation like this. Maria took out a simple backpack, one that she'd packed previously with supplies and surveillence equipment. The other operatives had similar packs. She pulled out her handgun and checked the ammo in the magazine. Full. And there were extra mags in her pack, in case things got dicey. She hoped it wouldn't but...you never knew. Maria wore her ARC jacket, simple grey with the seal of the organization on the back and the acronym on each sleeve's shoulder. Underneath that was a white button up shirt, sturdy cargo pants, and hiking boots. With the pack on her back, and her gun and flashlight tied to her belt, she felt secure. Ready. Or at least as ready as she'd ever be. "Gear up," she said to her team. "Then we'll head in."

"Up and at it, agent," Maria called to him. "I don't care how long your nap was, we've got work to do." Maria could tell that Matthew's lethargy was false, at least in part. She played along anyway. That kid had some...well, maybe issues wasn't the right word. But he was strange. Hiding some things. Then again, who in the Agency wasn't?

Agent Flores smiled at Astrid's promptness. Came from military experience, she supposed. Hopefully that experience would prove invaluable on the operation. Flores assumed it would; Astrid was one of the best snipers she'd ever seen.

A heavy fog hung over the trees of the forest. It only got worse as Maria Flores drove her team's van closer to the site of the anomaly. She couldn't remember whether or not the reports had stated it as a prior effect, before...whatever had caused the radio silence. Regardless, it certainly seemed to be an affect of the anomaly now. They were in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, located in southern Wyoming. A place for hikers and tourists, nestled between Mount Adams and Mount Saint Helens. However, Agent Flores now took her team deep into a part of the forest that none of those tourists would ever be able to visit. The anomaly the ARC had been monitoring within the forest had already had some Information Dampening effects, making it nearly impossible to find for someone without the proper training or equipment. Someone standing on a nearby mountain would look right at the area and completely miss it. Hikers walking towards it would get the sudden unshakable feeling they were going the wrong way, and alter their path to avoid it. The area didn't even show up on satellite footage. It took a measure of willpower to keep Maria going the right way due to these effects. Every bit of instinct in her mind told her the dirt path she was driving on, which no normal person would ever find themselves doing, was leading her in exactly the opposite direction of where she wanted to go. Luckly that overpowering instinct was a clear indicator she was going the right way. Logic versus instinct. Both of them would betray you, in this line of work. The trick was knowing which one was doing so at which times. The fog - more of a mist, really - continued to grow thicker as the trees around the road got taller. Towering, almost as much as the redwoods down south. Another anomaly, and another aspect of the area that was hidden from the general population. Apparently, analysis of the trees had revealed that there was nothing inherently anomalous about them. They were just...tall. Taller than logic dictated they should be. After several more minutes of driving, they finally came up to the gate of the facility. A tall, blocky building emerged from the fog, though not nearly as tall as the trees surrounding the area. Extending from either side of it was a barbed wire fence that gently curved, encircling the center of the anomalous area in a physical perimeter. The main gate of the building was a heavily reinforced door. Above the door were the words: FEDERAL AGENCY OF RESEARCH AND CONTROL SITE-209 "THE RIM" BUILDING 2: ADMINISTRATION They'd arrived. Maria pulled over to the side of the clearing and parked the van. The instinct to turn around had stopped, thankfully, now that they'd actually arrived. She turned around in her seat and looked back at her small team. All young, but all skilled. "Alright, ladies and gentlemen, here we are. Let's get to work." She opened the door and stepped out of the van. Time to figure out what had happened. @Ookla the Inconclusive @Ookla the Dragonslayer @Ookla the Finwëan @Ookla the Irreplaceable @Ookla the Doomfrog

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