This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/jhurl24 on 2025-02-24 04:52:02+00:00.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

“Hey, Jay, you ready?” Carrie’s voice woke me up.

I sat up, “How long was I out?” I yawned.

Carrie was setting up the camera. “Two hours,” she said. “Can you go make sure the front door is locked?”

“Yeah,” I said. When I walked into the lobby and saw that it looked completely normal. The door was already locked. “Hey, was the door already locked?” I yelled behind me.

“Uh, yeah. I locked it after Mary left.” Carrie said, “Why?”

“It’s still locked.” I said.

The silence was deafening, we both knew what we saw and what this meant. “I’ll check back here, can you walk through the front areas and see if there’s any sign of Will?” she asked.

I immediately got to work checking the windows and the door, just in case I missed anything on my first glance. “Yeah,” I made my way to the front desk. Everything was as it was. I remember thinking, how the fuck did Will get in and out without a trace. “Lobby and front desk are clear.” I said. I got to the last room I hadn’t checked yet, the bathroom. I knocked on the door before opening it, no answer. I braced for the worst as I turned the door handle. When I swung the door open, it was dark. I inched my way forward, my heart pounding with every move, waiting for the motion sensor to kick the light on. My heart nearly shot out of my chest when it turned on. I looked around the small room and saw nothing. “Bathroom is clear.”

“All clear back here too.” Carrie yelled. I walked back into her office and sat down on the couch. “Was there any sign of someone coming in at all?” she asked.

“Nothing.” I sighed. “How about back here?”

“Same,” she said. We sat in silence for a moment before Carrie leaned forward and grabbed her notepad. “Only one thing left to do.”

I nodded. “Alright, I’m ready.” With that, we started the second session.

When she put me back under, she had me think back to when I ran into Smith and saw the guards pinned to the wall. “I want you to tell me where the others went. Last session, you said after you saw the lights went out.”

Immediately after, I was back in that moment. I looked at Smith and looked around. ““Where’s everyone else?”

The two bodies were still on the wall in front of us, but there was no sign of the group we were just with. “No clue.” Smith said. “There’s not even a trace of anyone else.”

I looked around and he was right. I looked behind us and there were faint footprints leading to us but none going back or away from us. “It’s like they just vanished.” I said.

I could see the worry on Smith’s face. He shook it off and looked up and down the hallway in front of us. “I don’t see anything in either direction,” He said. “Let’s go.”

I followed closely behind him and we made our way down the hallway. Everything went dark, “Now go to where you left off last session,” Carrie said.

I immediately snapped to the moment the door opened and we saw the trail. “Hey, Smith. Where are we exactly?”

Smith looked absolutely confused. “I have no idea.” He looked around before turning around and walking over to the wall to our left. “When I picked you two up, I drove you to our office in the city.” He pointed at the ‘Emergency Evacuation Map’ on the wall in front of him. “See right here?” Will and I walked over to him. I immediately saw the ‘You are here’ star. Right next to where the door, read ‘First Avenue’. “This door is supposed to be used for emergency use only. It’s red so that if you’re inside, you know what doors lead outside. This is one of three doors that’s also red on the outside so that First Responders know where they can pull in.”

“So it leads to a trail?” I asked.

“That’s pretty stupid,” Will added.

“There isn’t even decorative bushes or trees on any of the surrounding streets from this office.” Smith said. “It’s in the middle of the city. So no, at the moment, I have no fucking clue where we are now.”

We went back to the door and looked outside. It was nighttime, “How many days has it been since you picked us up?” I asked.

Smith hung his head and sighed, “About three days.”

Will looked at me and was clearly surprised by this. “So where were we at this whole time?” Will asked.

“We had you in a Medical Holding area,” said Smith. “While there, a series of tests were ran to make sure you were healthy.”

“And?” I asked.

“Well, they all came back negative for any issues,” he said.

I looked at my arms and hands, searching for any needle marks. “I don’t see any needle marks,” I said. “So what kind of tests were ran?”

“We mainly ran sleep tests, scans of your brain. Leaves no physical marks, but lets us see if there are any issues.” Smith explained.

Will cleared his throat, and said what we all were thinking, “We need to stop procrastinating and go.”

“Agreed,” Smith and I said.

We stepped through the door and onto the trail. When we got about thirty feet from the door, we heard a loud ‘clang’. “No…,” Smith whispered.

We all turned around and expected to see the red door, “What the hell?” I asked. Seeing the door, even closed, would have been better, but all that stood where the door should have been, was more trees.

“Well that’s not good.” Will said.

What made it worse, was with the door open, there was a light source. Now there was only darkness. “What way do we go now?” I asked.

As the words left my mouth, I heard a loud ‘crack’ in the distance. Will looked at Smith, “Did you hear that too?”

Smith, who was pulling out his service pistol, “Sure did.” He turned on the flashlight and illuminated a group of large rocks a little ways in front of us. “You two take cover there. I’m gonna scout ahead.”

“Are you stupid?” Will spat. “That’s a terrible idea. We are in the middle of the forest, don’t know where we are, have been experiencing completely unexplainable things, just heard a loud crack, and your idea is to just run off by yourself and see what's ahead of us?” I could barely see Smith’s face in the faint moonlight, but he looked embarrassed. “Besides, do you know where that sound came from or what made it? I know I sure as hell don’t. Jay, do you?”

I hadn’t seen Will this worked up before and it took me by surprise. “No, I don’t. Smith, he makes a good point–”

I was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching us from the rear. “Shhh” Smith said.

As quietly as we could, we rushed to the rocks and attempted to hide. When I got behind the rock, I felt Will grab my shoulder and kneel next to me, “Stay low,” he whispered.

We sat there and listened as the footsteps walked right up to the rocks we were behind. I placed my hands over my mouth and held my breath. After a few seconds, I heard the sound of footsteps walking away. Me and Will sighed. “Where’s Smith?” I asked, noticing it was only Will with me.

Will felt around, “That fucking idiot.”

Just then we saw a light shine from where we were gathered. I listened in horror as the footsteps went from walking to running. BANG. Smith’s first shot rang through the air. He missed and hit the tree behind me and Will. BANG. BANG. Two more shots missed their mark. The footsteps echoed through the forest. “Why?” I whispered.

“Jay. Will. Return.” The woman's voice echoed in my head.

Will looked at me, “Did you hear it that time or was it like a message implanted?”

“Implanted,” I said.

BANG. Another shot rang out. The footsteps stopped and were followed by a soft crunch and a moan. Will nodded at me and we both peaked over the rocks. I saw the dark shadow of something huge standing where Smith was. It threw something to the ground beside it. I heard a loud growl before it ran off, joined by three other figures, each one more imposing than the last. “Let’s go.” Will said, grabbing my shoulder.

I stood up and we ran towards where Smith was. The Sun was rising and the light barely pierced through the dense trees, but enough to see the scene before us. Smith was on the ground next to a tree, his body broken and the look of pure horror would remain on his face until it was no more. “Why’d you do this?” I asked the body in front of me.

Will stood there solemnly. “He was doing what he thought would give us the best chance.”

I nodded slowly, “Rest easy Agent Smith.”

After a moment of silence, Will nudged my arm, “Let’s find some downed branches and at least cover him until we can get in contact with a crew to come back for him.”

“Alright.” I looked around and gathered a couple branches. When I reached down to grab the last one, I dropped the rest on the ground. “Hey, Will. Look at this.” I said.

I wiped away some moss to reveal deep carvings of straight lines. It didn’t look like runes, numbers, or letters. “What is it?” Will asked.

“No idea.” I said. “But, doesn’t it look like the same kind of style as the carvings on the tree in the clearing?”

“Yeah, but we could read those. I have no idea what it says.” Will said.

I looked closer at it and realized that there was a piece missing. “Looks like it broke in half, long-ways, and is missing the rest. Try and see if you can find the rest of it.”

Will nodded and began to look around where we were. It didn’t take long, “Found it.” he said.

I put the pieces together and could clearly read the inscription now. “It’s the rules Smith ...

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