Day 139, end transmission

ARC Project 7 Report

Day 139

What [static] what's happening?

I... I recognise this wh[crackle]t it's not go[static]

=transmission offline=

Day 133

I think I know what the letter says.

It wasn't "fry nud" at all, it was "friend". The last line reads "A friend".

I'm scared of the rest of the letter, though. If I'm reading it right, of course. I hope I'm making a terrible mistake somewhere in the pronunciation but, I daren't assume that. And it's pretty simple, and hard to misread, I think.

The letter starts a little strange, and I assume the person is talking about me. It reads, "To the one who knows not who she is."

Every time I read the next part, my stomach fills with dread and, and... I don't understand it. "They know where you are. They are watching you. They know what you have done."

Then, "Stay where you are. You are safe for now." - which seems contradictory to me. How can I be safe when they know I'm here? I don't even know who they are!

It then ends simply with "A friend."

What do I do? If they're watching me, surely I should get out now? But where would I go? I don't have a car. Not anymore. I have nowhere to run.

I wrote a note back.

I found a card, with pictures of some kind of food, and the back was blank. So I used a pen from behind the counter at the front of the station.

I didn't know what else to write, so I just wrote "Help."

I put it back where I found the other note, just inside the door, on the patch of dirty floor.

I am so scared.

Help me. Please.

Day 132, later

I think they've gone... I can't hear any noises from outside, other than the occasional car going past. I can't see anyone through the stained windows either.

There was something on the floor, just inside the front door, a note. I think they put it there. I don't think it was there before. A small sheet of paper folded in half, then half again.

It has something written on it, but here is where I encounter yet another problem. I can't read it.

I know what the letters are, I know they represent sounds, and I can understand some of them, but not enough to make sense of what it says in it's entirety.

There's this part at the bottom though, I think it's... I'm not sure. Fry? Fray. Mud, no, nud. What on earth is 'nud'? Fray nud.

It doesn't make any sense at all.

Day 132

Okay... battery charged again.

There's someone outside. I just heard them rattling the front door, and now I can hear the crunchcrunch as they walk around outside.

I buried him. I couldn't leave him in the car, and I couldn't bring him in here.

The gas station stands to one side of a long, straight, dusty road, and behind the station the ground falls off into what looks like a huge green bowl, with dense trees at the bottom. You can't really see the other side of the bowl when you're outside. When it was dark, a few nights ago, I went and had a look down there. I became scared after a while that I wouldn't be able to find my way back to the station, so I came back, and waited until the sky started to lighten a little.

They're banging on one of the side windows now.

There was no way I could carry him, and it turned out that the car was already facing the right direction, and once I remembered about the brake lever it was fairly easy to push the car.

I followed it down. It seemed to take forever, but I didn't need to push it again, and it went a fair way into the forest before it finally stopped up against a fallen and mostly rotted tree.

I pulled him out of the car. That wasn't very nice at all, but... well, I don't know what else to do. I thought he'd left his shadow in the car but the seat was just all dark brown where he'd been sitting. Maybe that's what happens to your shadow when you die, it just gets stuck there.

Shh.

It's gone quiet outside now.

The ground was soft by the rotten tree, and it didn't take long to make a hole with my hands, just enough to put him in. Then I kicked all the loose ground over him, pulled some thin branches and leaves over as well.

The telephone doesn't work. I don't know who I'd call even if it did. When I listen to it, all I hear is this long beeeeeeee noise.

The last thing... shh! Noise outside.

The handle on the front door is rattling again.

Now it's stopped.

I'm going to go and look.

Day 126

I've slept, mostly. And eaten, but tried not to eat too much... I've no idea how long this food is going to last. The water does seem to be clean too... I don't feel ill or anything. Just tired.

I'm starting to think something truly awful might have happened. He wasn't asleep, at all, and I'm alone.

I don't know what this recorder actually does, but, it's here, and it focuses my mind on a task.

I'm starting to remember some things, too, from before... before whatever it was.

The world seemed dull and flat, before. It seemed empty, and unfulfilling.

But still... I'm starting to think I would have been better off there, but that was out of my control, and things have happened since then to make returning irreversible.

I don't know what to do, about him. He's still sitting there, not moving.

I think he might be dead.

What do I do?

Day 125

[click]-lo? Hello?

Hello?

OK, I guess this is working, then.

The one thing that's been consistant over the last few months is this recorder, so, I think I'll keep using it. I don't know what else to do.

At least this place still has electricity. Ah, yeah, I forget that there's things you don't know, things you haven't been told. I'm in an abandoned gas station. There's food here, stuff in tins, and occasionally another car will drive past. Sometimes, rarely, someone will come and rattle the main doors at the front, but they always go away, eventually, and it's not like this place doesn't look abandoned.

So, we managed to escape from them. He, he helped me drive, all this way, I don't know how long it took, but the sun set and rose again during the journey, and I was so, so tired. I'd never driven a car for that long before, never for more than about 10 minutes before, but it had to be done, otherwise... I don't know what, otherwise.

He kept falling asleep, and I dared not wake him, he seemed to be in a lot of pain. He wouldn't let me know why. So, I just kept driving. He woke up, and told me to pull over into this place, and here is where we, and the car, have stayed.

That was the last thing he said to me.

I don't know what else to do.

I need help. I need answers. I have no idea where to go, who to ask. I'm too scared to ask any of the people who keep coming here, who keep driving past, who are presumably going about their own business. I'm also utterly, terribly frightened, because I think the only people who can answer my questions are the people who are looking for me, and I can't risk them finding me.

He had the answers too, I think. Maybe he didn't know what they meant, though. I tried for a long, long time, to wake him up. I felt sure he was just asleep. Maybe he still is.

So, right now, all I have is to keep myself going, is this recorder. I will keep myself going.

I don't know how long the food in here will last. The water seems clean.

Maybe he's just asleep. I should check.