In the past two weeks, two strains of covid have been making headway. Last week, JN.1.13 made headway, while this week it looks to be KP.2 (going from 10-25% of infections.) At this point, it's not cause for alarm, but it's something to keep on the radar, especially since every variant thus far has brought it's own unique set of challenges. If you're vaccinated, everything will likely be fine, if not, good luck on this dice roll. Hope it's not the one that busts you out.
The bird flu (H5N1) that has jumped to cattle is now showing up in 20-40 % of our milk supply indicating more widespread transmission than previously thought. Pasteurization renders the virus inactive and harmless in our milk. I do not have a report on beef yet. I have no idea what it will do to our beef supply.
Here is an article from Caitlin Rivers from the Force of Infection:
"Outbreak Outlook - National - April 22

Plus the latest on H5N1

APR 29 📷📷📷📷READ IN APP📷

ILI

Seasonal: Influenza-like illness (ILI) is at 2.3%, well below the national baseline of 2.9% which marks the beginning and end of flu season. No jurisdictions are in the very high or high categories; only one (North Dakota) is moderate. All other states are low or minimal.
National Region: ILI ActivityPercent of doctors visits for ILI symptoms📷
On H5N1: The same surveillance systems used to track “regular” flu are also used to monitor for the emergence of pandemic influenza — like H5N1. So the continued decline in influenza-like illness, both in outpatient and emergency data streams, is useful reassurance that H5N1 is not circulating in humans.
Moreover, as part of our country’s influenza surveillance, a selection of influenza specimens are sent for additional testing to see what type of influenza it is (e.g., H1N1, H3N2). In the most recent week, for example, 63 specimens were typed. This is one of the ways that H5N1 would be detected.
The other, more likely way is if someone is ill and undergoes diagnostic testing. Most standard diagnostic tests in the hospital or clinic cannot directly confirm an H5 infection. However, they can determine that a person has an influenza A virus that is not type H1 or H3. This result should prompt a clinician to send the sample for further testing to pinpoint the specific type of influenza.

COVID-19

Covid-19 activity is low. The rate of new weekly hospitalizations is still declining, and wastewater concentration is low.
National Region: New COVID-19 HospitalizationsAverage rate per 100,000 population📷
There are a few little hints that have me paying closer attention. First, the variant KP.2, jumped from an estimated 10% of 25% of variants circulating (these estimates are uncertain) in the U.S. Scientists have found that it likely has an advantage over the currently-dominant variants. And the United Kingdom is seeing a small increase in Covid-19 metrics like test positivity, particularly in the oldest age groups. At this point I’m not especially worried that this variant will give us an early summer wave, but I’m keeping an eye on the data just in case.

Stomach Bugs

This has been a loooong norovirus season, and test positivity is still high. I’m ready for it to end!
National Region: Norovirus ActivityTest Positivity, Percentage📷

Food recalls

The following foods are being recalled because they are contaminated. Please check your cupboards and throw out any of these items:
New

• None

Previously reported:

• Fresh basil sold at Trader Joe’s (more info)
• Helados Mexico mango bars (more info)
• Trader Joe’s 50% Less Salt Roasted & Salted Whole Cashews (more info)
• If you have food allergies, you may wish to review these FDA safety alerts and USDA alerts for foods with undeclared allergens.

In other news

• Avian influenza A(H5N1) continues to draw my attention. The virus has now been reported in 34 herds of dairy cattle across 9 states. A federal order requiring testing of lactating cows being moved between states takes effect today, which I expect will increase the number of reported cases.
  
  • It was reported last week that viral RNA was found in some 20-40% of commercial milk samples sourced from multiple states. Testsconfirmed that the virus had been inactivated by pasteurization, meaning it cannot cause infection. The finding suggests significant underascertainment (meaning there are more out there we haven’t found).
  • One of the themes of my career is that rapid, transparent data sharing is absolutely essential to effective outbreak response. We haven’t seen that, yet. CDC has been ramping up information sharing, but data coming out of USDA has been thin. Some genomic data was released recently, but it didn’t have metadata like where or when the samples were collected. No data about how many tests are being run has been shared, either. I would like to see more data sharing in the week ahead so the scientific community can make a better assessment of where things stand, to supplement the work being done in government.
• Now, on to mpox. According to the Associated Press, “Republic of the Congo has declared an epidemic of mpox after 19 cases were confirmed across five departments, including the capital Brazzaville.” The first cases in the country were reported last month. Neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo has been grappling with the virus for some time now.
  
  • The current outbreak is presumed to be clade I, which is different from the clade IIb outbreak implicated in the 2022 epidemic.
  • Epidemiologists in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congohave found evidence that the virus is spreading through heterosexual contact. There is also a large number of cases in children, which could suggest household transmission. Both of these characteristics are new compared to the 2022 event, and raise concerns about wider spread.

I’ve decided to rewatch every Amazing Race and rank them all.
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SEASON 23 gets a 6/10
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This season had some good aspects but felt underwhelming overall so is ranked near the bottom. The cast was average besides 3 teams (Leo/Jamal, Tim/Marie, Nicole/Travis who were all pretty dynamic), the route was average (no new countries or anything unique), challenges were okay but few standouts, winners were very forgettable and drama was okay but nothing special. It was an enjoyable season (so gets a 6) but not much stands out as ‘fantastic’.
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General Thoughts

• Immediately I felt the cast wasn’t great, and a cast is the most important element of a good season. Only 3 teams (Leo/Jamal, Tim/Marie Nicole/Travis) had dynamic personalities or storylines while the rest were either bland or 1 dimensional. This cast also felt very gimmicky and mactorish which was a big turnoff when introduced in the 1st leg. It had ChesteEphraim (former footballers), Nicky/Kim (baseball wives), Jason/Amy (Miss Rhode Island), Tim/Marie (sport agent and “friends” with Kim’s husband which is another big turnoff when casting is taking contestants from a similar pool), Nicole/Travis (married doctors), Rowan/Shane (theatre performers), Ally/Ashley (LA Kings Ice Crew workers) and most of the others just felt loud and unrelatable. And teams like Leo/Jamal and Tim/Marie felt like they were playing up to the camera a lot. Probably the least relatable cast so far. Some likeable and interesting teams amongst them though.
  
• While there was some interesting drama, it did come off as annoying sometimes. Tim/Marie giving away the 2nd Express Pass was a big storyline at the start but was mentioned WAY TOO MUCH (it was like this in TAR22 too but TAR23 was worse). After 4 episodes we were like “just hurry up and give it to someone!” There were some interesting alliances (Jason/Amy and Nicole/Travis helping eachother, as well as Leo/Jamal and Ally/Ashley “The Ice-ganimals”) and rivalries (Tim/Marie and Leo/Jamal causing conflicts with other teams). It did have some surprise early boots with 3 alpha male teams (ChesteEphraim, Brandon/Adam, Tim/Danny) all leaving early which felt unique. I don’t understand why they would cast 5 male/male teams after we just had 2 male/male winners in a row…and only cast 2 female/female teams? They lucked out though with an interesting boot order.
  
• Jason/Amy were very forgettable and underwhelming winners unfortunately. They are up there with TyleJames as very unremarkable. I found Jason/Amy very boring and they weren’t even super sweet like Anthony/Bates or TK/Rachel so they were just this boring middle ground. Leo/Jamal were the ideal outcome being the fan favorites, or even an underdog story like Nicky/Kim winning. A Tim/Marie win would have been crazy and unique. Nicole/Travis crashing and burning in the 2nd half was more satisfying than them winning. So another outcome that is “that random boring couple/alpha males won…now time to move on”.
  

*************************************
Route

• Not a great route but not terrible. While there were some stunning locations (such as castles in Portugal and Austria, the midnight sun in the Arctic Circle with the Viking longhouse, the deserts near Abu Dhabi, the crater and rural Indonesia looked fantastic, the Shibuya scramble…for the 3rd time), there were also no new countries and no Africa or Oceania. The movie ranch was NOT an epic starting line (TAR22 proved Los Angeles can still have epic starting lines) and Alaska as a finale leg is very overused.
  
• Most of the challenges were okay! I enjoyed the shoe shining (some chaos), measuring Magellan’s journey within 500 nautical miles, polka dance/dressing as Neptune for tips, singing with the Vienna boys choir, sorting dates/making the fishing net, dressing a camel for a beauty contest haha, transporting awkward ingredients like sugar cane across town in taxis, making the angklung instrument (mostly interesting because of Nicole), boiling eggs (an interesting concept with being patient but may have worked better with more teams than just 4), painting partner in makeup/searching the plants and the Japanese robot puzzle. A few that weren’t that interesting (like always) but overall they tried making each one either interesting or challenging.
  
• This season basically had the same format as TAR22 which I don’t mind. It brought back the twist where the winner of the Express Pass gives a 2nd one to another team. I liked this twist because it isn’t game changing but encourages inter-team dynamics and strategy (and provided some good moments this season). Besides that, this season also had 2 Double U-Turns, 1 Fast Forward, Speed Bumps and 1 Keep on Racing leg. Just like TAR22.
  

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Cast Ranking
1.Leo/Jamal - the Afganimals were the obvious fan favorites! They aren’t for everyone - they do ham it up for the cameras A LOT (Yelling LALALALA, dancing, imitating the elephants and being LOUD) but I still liked their enthusiasm and fun commentary like joking that Ally/Ashley were their race wives (“My wife is flying off with another man” when paragliding). They were also sneaky (such as “My wife is pregnant”) and lied just for the fun of it (lying about not U-Turning Brandon/Adam, lying about the challenge taking hours, lying about Tim/Marie being ahead). But I appreciate teams that cause friction and some drama…while also managing to be likeable and providing some laughs. Also somewhat became a “final boss” at the end where every other team wanted them out and worked together to do so.

1. Tim/Marie - were the next big characters! Their banter and roasting each other was hilarious (“I didn’t know they made voices as shrill as yours” - “Well I didn’t know they made people as dumb as you” haha) and Marie was such a ballsy and wacky individual who claims she’s “always right” and demanded a 60-40 split of the winnings haha It’s fascinating having 2 individuals who hate eachother (the Japanese host saying “American love story” but Marie calling them “American horror story” haha) but I sort of picture them being fun friends in a way. Besides their bickering, Marie was also pushy at the start trying to leverage the Express Pass at every chance (“Remember we have an Express Pass”) and not afraid to steal a taxi (and blame Leo/Jamal). She was petty and bitchy but also aware of it “I’m mad because they did something I would have done”. Sometimes their fights came off as playing up for the camera but still witty and entertaining! And a pretty strong team too!
   
2. Nicole/Travis - had one of the most unique storylines in that they started off as these likeable and dominant “power parents” but the second half they were a disaster - Nicole freaked out at multiple challenges and Travis was impatient and tough on her. Possibly the biggest editing nosedive of a team ever - and I found it fascinating! They weren’t necessarily likeable but I liked Nicole mentioning “Express Pass” EVERY episode, hilariously blackmailing Tim/Marie for it, plus some sassy looks! They got a hypocritical edit where they wanted to be role models for their kids…but were then shown not being that honourable (Nicole trying to cheat off Leo and begging for help is one of my favorite moments) and were carried to the end by their allies Jason/Amy. Also Travis previously mentioned about staying unflustered and wanting their children to see them working together well haha I much prefer a messy team like this than the actual inspirational ones.
   
3. Nicky/Kim - had everything needed to be a ‘likeable underdog team’ but I found them hard to root for because they were “baseball wives” rather than “regular people”. But I still liked them. They weren’t huge characters but were very sweet, endearing, and actually quite independent and strategic, like plotting with Tim/Marie and then getting in front of the counter. They weren’t pampered divas AT ALL like many expected. They also felt down to earth with some witty comments such as “she's like Cameron Diaz in my best friend's wedding” at the opera challenge and getting excited “Our cab has pink on it” haha. Some cute moments like “We’re not bunnies anymore…we are ninjas” but after struggling at that wave pool “I think we’ll just go back to being bunnies” haha Enjoyed seeing them scrape through each week.
   
4. Jason/Amy - I’m not a fan of the “generic couple” archetype and Jason/Amy were basically just that, and they weren’t that interesting or memorable. However I ranked them higher because of their role in a few dramas like their fight when Tim/Marie stole their taxi, as well as their alliance with Nicole/Travis. Helping other teams at the final 4 created some interesting discussions, especially when Nicole/Travis were a bigger threat than Ally/Ashley. I remember Jason randomly asking if Indonesians were like Asians or Indians haha But forgettable as characters.
   
5. Tim/Danny - had the “needs the money” backstory and a very sad elimination with Tim struggling at the choir challenge (arguably unfair because Tim was just a terrible singer so not sure if he could have done much better). Team Oklahoma had some good banter dressing up as the couple (“wanting rock scissors paper” to determine who was the woman, humorously arguing and suggesting things like 1 was smaller or more attractive as a woman) and helped Ally/Ashley with their truck..but nothing special. Not overly memorable but still a likeable team!
   
6. Brandon/Adam - another fun likeable male team who always seemed to be enjoying the race…and lived in the woods. A few fun confessionals and making their own fishing rods to fish on the boat in Norway. Started out strong (including a 1st place before their elimination) but had 1 bad leg with a bad Detour choice and a U-Turn. In a way I liked these shock eliminations. Similar to Tim/Danny in that they were likeable but not that memorable.
   
7. Rowan/Shane - had some fun moments like “Phil don’t fall asleep” when they finally arrived at the pit stop, “My name is not Rowan for nothing” when rowing and telling Shane to stop talking on the bikes because they are wasting “air” haha. We don’t see “2 older goofy men” often and I like older, unfit teams who are a bit of a disaster. Team Bingo were wacky and funny like a modern Steve/Dave. They had a disaster of a leg - wrong bus, hilariously taking a local shoe shiner’s cart (one of the best moments of the season) and calling Marie “el diablo” haha One of the more memorable early boots and would have been unique characters if they somehow lasted longer.
   
8. Ally/Ashley - they were the “dumb blondes” but pretty forgettable and just didn’t have any charisma like Caroline/Jennifer or Liz/Marie. One of them wanted to find love…but was then reminded that she had a boyfriend haha plus calling Abu Dhabi “Abu Dubai” and were edited as just riding Leo/Jamal’s coattails. I actually would have liked them more if they had more dumb moments - they weren’t great racers, but not in a funny way. And Nicky/Kim were definitely the more endearing underdog team. They had a big fight in their elimination episode and would have been more entertaining if they were like this more often.
   
9. Naina/Hoskote - felt less mactorish and had a storyline of Hoskote wanting an arranged marriage for his daughter and being old fashioned. If they lasted longer, they could have had a Ron/Christina type storyline with Hoskote showing signs of being “real truth flavour” haha, and there was some very mild bickering in leg 1. However they didn’t really stand out in their 1 leg and didn’t have much of an interesting storyline or a memorable elimination.
   
10. ChesteEphraim - seemed fun and likeable in their short stay with “We’re heavy, it’s gonna take a mountain of salt to make us float”, “You were easy to spot - you looked like a military jeep under the parachute” and comparing themselves to the Beekman Boys when struggling at the airport. They came in 1st in leg 2 and were a shock elimination in leg 3 with their bad luck with their flight connections and delays. Were eliminated at the airport after falling a day behind! Usually find it hard to root for alpha male teams (especially former athletes) so that’s the main thing that separates them from the teams ranked just above them (2 blondes and a fathedaughter team).
    

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Leg Rankings
1.Leg 9 - Indonesia (F5 - Ally/Ashley eliminated) - a fantastic leg that sets up the final 5 so well with a chaotic location in Bandung, trains, cultural animal tasks (ram fighting, making birds sing, feeding elephants), drama (Leo/Jamal vs Nicole/Travis over the U-Turn), great detour (Ally/Ashley not going to the market first, teams hilariously trying to fit sugarcane into taxis…the poor taxi drivers), Ally/Ashley arguing and pleading for help, and some placement shifts at both the Detour and Road Block. The best part was the storyline of Nicole/Travis being like “we want to be a beacon for God’s light” and continually critiquing Leo/Jamal for playing unethically….and then ending with Nicole’s hilarious meltdown at the anklung Road Block (hypocritically trying to look at Leo’s, getting frustrated with the children “Don’t laugh, you have to help the lady” haha, Travis groaning in disappointment “She doesn’t know an octave is 8”). Tense ending with Nicole begging Amy to help her with Ally/Ashley getting closer!

1. Leg 5 - Poland (F8 - Brandon/Adam eliminated) - navigation dramas, great tasks, U-Turn drama, great location in Gdansk, banter between teams, Express Pass used and lots of action. The Express Pass cliffhanger is resolved haha The polish dance was fun with Tim/Danny bantering about being the woman and struggling “I’m a white body with 2 left feet…and I have 3 left feet” haha and the judge “don’t fight with each other” and Tim ripping his pants. The huge apartment building Road Block was basic but had some fun moments between teams - Some teams working together, Tim and Jason randomly dancing, Travis pressing the elevator on every floor for Kim haha and Tim having to warn Marie that you can get a penalty for “bad manners”. Plus some nice interactions with locals. Some navigational issues and Brandon/Adam get tricked by Jason/Amy’s taxi driver haha Brandon/Adam had a disastrous leg after finishing 1st at the “Keep on Racing” (shock elimination). Great episode but misses #1 because it had bigger moments.
   
2. Leg 11 - Japan (F4 - Leo/Jamal eliminated) - a very exciting final 4 elimination with some great inter-team drama! A few too many wacky Japanese tasks though rather than cultural tasks - walking vending machines, crazy game shows, jump into a telephone box filled with water, cat temple, capturing a rhino in a suit, and a robot greeter. Detour was too easy for a final 4 (especially answering the phone underwater - awful) and the rhino Speed Bump was embarrassing…but I loved the robot Road Block - placement shifts, Amy and Nicole working together, Amy staying behind to help Nicole who was freaking out again, and Travis ridiculing Nicole afterwards (and Jason frustrated that Amy wasted time helping). It was sad seeing Nicole so sad and disappointed when Travis should have been relieved a team was behind. Great storylines for the final 4 with everyone vs Leo/Jamal (plus losing Tim/Marie while searching the park) and memorable elimination. Unfortunately the weak challenges let it down a bit though.
   
3. Leg 2 - Chile (F10 - Rowan/Shane eliminated) - Some drama at the start with Tim/Marie trying to dictate lines at the hours of operation with Afganimals calling them “Pinky and No Brain” haha with teams annoyed by them for the whole leg, Ally/Ashley call her miserable (love this trashy drama). Reading the newspaper on saltwater was one of those “silly” challenges but had Nicky/Kim having a minor meltdown and Nicole “What a lovely way to start my birthday, a salt bath with my husband”. Some Detour switching and Nicole crashing her bike. Some interesting bus scrambles with Rowan/Shane getting confused and picking a later bus. The shoe shining Road Block was fun and tense at the end - Rowan taking a random person’s shoe shining equipment haha (and calling Marie the devil haha), Kim forgetting equipment with Marie not giving her the Express Pass (earlier had an alliance because Tim knows Kim’s husband), Leo/Jamal missing out on 1st because they didn’t pay their driver, and just felt so much more exciting than leg 1.
   
4. Leg 10 - Indonesia (F4 - Non elimination) - a fun leg despite being an obvious non-elimination. Challenges weren’t great but the teams made them better than they should have been. Eating the cobras was a lame eating challenge…but Marie being a picky eater had fun moments. Boiling the eggs in the volcanic crater was also a dull challenge…but had teams having to redo it plus Marie freaking out again because she’s never boiled an egg and wasn’t even putting the eggs into the water haha (but surprisingly got it on her 1st try). Painting their partnesearching the fields also had fun moments especially painting the men with Nicole “My husband looks like the sexiest drag queen ever” (and Phil calling him an angry showgirl) and Marie “You’re so metro, you’ll be fine”. Leo/Jamal also lie again and then have to confess (about Tim/Marie being ahead). Felt like a tense ending with Leo/Jamal struggling to find the shears, switching, immediately leaving at “shave your beards” haha but still felt close. More drama in the ones above it though.
   
5. Leg 6 - Austria (F7 - Tim/Danny eliminated) - just an “okay” leg but the taxi drama raises it up higher plus the singing challenge at the end. Assembling the chandelier looked interesting but all teams chose matching the masks which wasn’t that difficult or interesting (which Marie said “We did it in like 3 minutes”). Some drama with Jason/Amy trying the bungy jump Fast Forward but choosing to leave due to weather (tense deciding whether to wait or leave with the wind). But the German opera song was a nice tough task with lots of teams together (Tim really struggling and the judge being like “That was terrible” haha). It felt a little bit long and drawn out though. Also a random scene where clowns appear “When you said clowns, I got scared because I thought you meant the Afganimals were here” haha Leo/Jamal also lie about the U-Turn. Tim/Marie stealing Jason/Amy’s taxi and arguing on the mat was the highlight. Would rank higher if the leg was more interesting overall.
   
6. Leg 7 - United Arab Emirates (F6 - Non elimination) - another “okay” leg. Some airport banter with Marie complaining about Nicky/Kim chatting on and on with their airport staff, and also Tim getting over the Jason/Amy drama because we’re dudes and then calls Marie a “dude” haha Then visited mosques in Abu Dhabi with a nice scene of Nicky/Kim reflecting on Arab culture and not to judge a group of people by one’s actions. Ally/Ashley also hope Leo/Jamal help them there because “it’s a man’s world” and also “Abu Dubai”. Sorting dates/assembling fishing net were both challenging detours, Tim/Marie hilariously bicker (Nicky/Kim being like “As an American, it’s embarrassing”) and Nicky/Kim keeping one of the locations a secret from the other teams and Nicole/Travis struggle putting together the net (the start of their downfall). The repel and racecar Road Block weren’t that interesting at the end (Kim was scared of heights…and cars). Also the ferries before the Road Block made it obvious that Nicky/Kim weren’t catching up.
   
7. Leg 3 - Portugal (F9 - ChesteEphraim eliminated) - a modern season with a classic flight scramble! This took up half the episode…and I don’t mind because I love flights and travel - they’re the heart and soul of the race more than challenges. Aggressively trying to get on standby, a team books the wrong date, a clash between Nicky/Kim and Tim/Marie, a few teams work together (and Tim/Danny don’t trust the Afganimals’ alliance), Marie tries to get information from Tim/Danny, and ChesteEphraim’s bad luck becoming “Beekman Boys part 2” haha Such classic feels! The Lisbon section was pretty dull though with ChesteEphraim as obvious boots and dull tasks (Detour may have been better with teams together), but I also like when teams are far apart from flights and can keep their leads. Ashley is inspired by her Portuguese grandfather with Leo “My race wife is Portuguese” haha Leo/Jamal lying about the tiles challenge taking a long time and Tim/Marie not using the Express Pass were the only notable things though. Average overall!
   
8. Leg 12 - USA (F3 - Finale) - a dull finale but not necessarily terrible. Alaska has been done many times before and no challenges stood out as memorable plus boring winners. And there wasn’t any drama between these teams like there usually is, and Marie had no crazy moments. Nicole being a hot mess was the only highlight - failed the supply drop Road Block, dropped her pick on the ice climb haha, Travis told her to stop rowing because she was that bad, and then at the final puzzle Travis just groaned at how useless she was “I’m basically doing the whole thing myself” haha A fitting ending for them! Unfortunately Jason/Amy left the Road Block first and just never lost their lead. That’s also why TAR16, TAR17, TAR19 and TAR22 were also underwhelming finales - the team that leaves the first challenge first never loses their lead. It looked like all teams were together at the final puzzle (remembering the currencies wasn’t a bad idea) but it just didn’t feel tense enough. The last 3 are also boring, but at least this had the excitement of the finish line.
   
9. Leg 4 - Norway (F8 - TBC) - had the gimmick of “daytime at 1:00am” but nothing much happened besides Nicole aggressively asking for the Express Pass in return for helping Tim/Marie (who missed their clue). Nicole “I want that Express Pass, I want that Express Pass” with a hilariously sassy look to the camera…and To Be Continued haha. One of the best moments of the season…however the rest of the leg was dull. Both Detours were just “doing boring things with fish” plus hanging up the fish heads was so much quicker that it seemed unfair. The Detour really only had Nicky/Kim “The Cod Queens” struggling to carry the fish and freak out that they’ve lost their clue (but it’s in her mouth haha). Tim/Marie also place the fish on the wrong pole and try leveraging the Express Pass with Brandon/Adam ignoring and mocking her (they may actually need this the next day haha). Jumping into the cold ocean and moving the boulder with your car “Ford product placement” were also boring besides Ally/Ashley almost driving their car over a cliff haha
   
10. Leg 8 - United Arab Emirates (F6 - Nicky/Kim eliminated) - didn’t have much happen despite another U-Turn. It had desert scenery but teams were mostly in the same order with no equalisers and Nicky/Kim never caught up. In fact Nicky/Kim’s buggy got stuck in the sand and then got U-Turned and a Speed Bump…so just fell further behind. Preparing the wedding dish/grooming a camel weren’t great. Preparing a camel for a beauty contest was a funny concept I guess, with the camels kicking and teams laughing about their hot camels. The rafting Road Block was boring and easy…even Nicole did it with no problems haha The wave pool Speed Bump was a bit silly but worked well with Nicky/Kim being scared. Some of the U-Turn drama was okay but nothing special - Nicole/Travis strategically using the Express Pass to get to the board first, Tim/Marie U-Turned Nicky/Kim because of a petty rivalry, and Leo/Jamal lying about how easy the cooking challenge was (they switched). But dull overall!
    
11. Leg 1 - Chile (F11 - Naina/Hoskote eliminated) - a very boring premiere and very similar to TAR20’s very boring premiere (ep2 is also similar to TAR20’s ep2). A dull heights challenge where the person NOT doing the Road Block is completing the paraglide (same twist as TAR20’s skydive except paragliding is less scary). Following the paragliders (the actual task) wasn’t that hard with the only interesting thing being Marie taking Jamal’s taxi and him saying “Bitch”. The paragliding only had Kim being slightly scared, and doing it for her children…named Spidey and Baboo haha. Then a 2nd dull challenge just like TAR20 (rowing a boat and collecting fish) where the only difficulty was 2 team members accidental doing both Road Blocks. Ally/Ashley tipped off Leo/Jamal about their Road Block mistake. And just like TAR20, not many teams stood out, no drama and it was a dull looking South American city. The only highlights were Nicole/Travis taking a taxi instead of walking and Tim/Danny having a language barrier in the US haha
    

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Summary
So the best way of describing this season is - not terrible but not much stands out as “fantastic”. This season needed some more dynamic characters (and less gimmicky/mactorish/camera aware), a more likeable final 3, more interesting winners, and some more memorable moments. Around half the episodes I’d regard as average or dull. It did have some interesting parts due to some drama (mostly due to the polarising characters of Tim/Marie, Nicole/Travis and Leo/Jamal) and some top episodes. I found it similar to TAR4 and TAR15 in that they had a dull feel overall but some fun characters here and there. Enjoyable enough so still scrapes through with a 6/10 which is still “good”.
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So after each season I will place it on a ranking:
1.TAR5 - 10/10

1. TAR3 - 10/10
   
2. TAR12 - 9/10
   
3. TAR17 - 9/10
   
4. TAR18 - 9/10
   
5. TAR2 - 8/10
   
6. TAR7 - 8/10
   
7. TAR20 - 8/10
   
8. TAR11 - 8/10
   
9. TAR13 - 8/10
   
10. TAR6 - 8/10
    
11. TAR10 - 7/10
    
12. TAR22 - 7/10
    
13. TAR14 - 7/10
    
14. TAR1 - 7/10
    
15. TAR9 - 7/10
    
16. TAR21 - 6/10
    
17. TAR15 - 6/10
    
18. TAR23 - 6/10
    
19. TAR4 - 6/10
    
20. TAR8 - 6/10
    
21. TAR19 - 5/10
    
22. TAR16 - 5/10
    

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I typically try to check my 10 y/o’s phone nightly, but missed a few nights - last night he spent searching things like “sexy girls” “girls in bikini” “newd girls” “naked girls no blur” “girls see through crop top” “world sexey girl” on his phone. Thankfully safe search worked well enough that for the most part nothing truly explicit came up just pictures of bikinis and crop tops 🤦🏻‍♀️, but in the browser history was a trailer for Netflix’s ‘Hot Girls Wanted’ which is a documentary about cam girls, it was just the trailer but of course it had suggestive content, and mentioned sex. Im not sure how to approach. He’s not looking at actual porn, but I know grown men who suffer from porn addiction and the negative impact of it and of course don’t want that life for my son, but I don’t want to go a full “I saw your search history this is bad approach” and make him feel ashamed because it’s hormones and natural. One he doesn’t even know search history logs, what private browsing is, he’s still got a lot of innocence (like in between these search is avatar and dbz memes and Mario stuff), he literally just got his first crush. Basically with safe search on most off the stuff he got was sports illustrated esq. pics. But ya know - all photoshopped, skinny big boobed etc.
I was thinking of kinda saying “Hey I used the phone to search something and saw this - no judgement and it’s normal to be curious about this stuff, but it’s important that you know that all of those photos are photoshopped and faked, real life girls don’t look like those pictures and it’s not healthy to compare them” and then I’m not really sure where to go from there.
He’s my first and only - and I wasn’t parented myself as a kid and I think like a lot of us had unchecked internet freedom. I don’t want to accidentally say anything to him that would make him go hey there’s more on the internet for me to find and I don’t want to make him feel embarrassed to ashamed.
I appreciate any advice here on how to approach the discussion with him. Thank you!
Editing to add - if your input is that my child shouldn’t have a phone, please scroll by. I set his phone up as a child phone linked to my account, I have controls over it, explicit content filters, a Netflix trailer slipped through the cracks, but actual porn is blocked on his device, I have bark installed to get alerts, he does not have social media at all, i have to approve all app downloads from my device before they’re downloaded, he’s not chatting with strangers. His phone doesn’t have private browsing features. I’m not some boomer who doesn’t know tech, I understand how to keep my kid safe online. He googled things, even when he googled ‘no blur’ he didn’t get any nude photos, because the safety features I installed. The worst he saw was a thong bathing suit, and underboob in a too small bikini - which are both things he’s seen in real life at the beach and Waterpark.
His phone is no different than an iPad or tablet with safety features installed.

I knocked it while having bath that had bath salts in it, I also stupidly tried to turn it back on to see if it had just gone to sleep, I was going to try and attempt to open it to dry it out myself, but have realised I have none of the tools for that while I have started hair drying it, I left it for a few hours and have come back to it having the light next to the front camera on red (it’s seems like a little red windows symbol but I couldn’t quite tell)
Any info would be appreciated, I plan to take it to a repair person tomorrow but would rather know what I’m looking for
P.s everyone told me (after I bought it) how hard surface pros are to repair… they were right)

I'm not sure if everyone who appeared at yesterday's LGAT & Subject test for graduate admissions had the same feelings or it's just me.
Firstly the not enough sitting arrangement in what was designated as waiting area, many students were with family even with extended families and seats were limited.
What's the point of online test registration when they have to do it again in manner how sarkari offices operate in Pakistan. Long lines almost not fans (forget about ACs) under the tent they were doing this.
Exam halls brought back horrors of Fsc boards. To add salt to injury, they took test on bubble sheets. Who does that now?
Fixed timing on each section attempts, about 35 minutes were given for each of three sections of LGAT, and we were not allowed to move to another section even if we had done the first one quickly.
During Subject test, the invigilators forced everyone to sit at their seats long after almost everyone in hall was done with their test, even board exams didn't have this shit rule. Its 2 hr long i was done in 50 smth minutes and had to sit entirety of remaining duration doing nothing.

Hi. I'm looking for colour recommendations for darkening salt and pepper hair using semi-permanent dye. The darkest grey possible. a little purple, blue, or pink in there would be fine. Should I apply a developer bath or bleach bath before dyeing? Are there directions?
Last November I lost my dreads to illness. They were past my waist. Instead of having them hanging by a few hairs as it fell out, I shaved my head. My hair is about 3½ or 4 inches long now.
I'd like the white to be a much darker grey, to make my overall colour darker, as that's what I'm used to. Permanent dye running down over dreads weakens them over time, so semi-permanent dye is needed because I'll start dreads again when I have 4-6 inches to work with.
Thank you!

I attended a silent retreat where you do 9 hours of meditation every day for 10 days. It is pretty intense as you dive into a very deep level of the unconscious mind. It is a very unique experience for everyone but my traumas began to bubble up on day 2. Some people reach that point on day 8 or even later.
I walk down memory lane dating back to 17 years ago and have faced something I totally forgot and somehow overcame without damage- I may have lied to myself. I lost my virginity when I was 18. Back then it was very important to have a meaningful first sexual experience. However, now, I remember it was a rape. I’m not entirely sure it was rape as I was almost in a coma and semi-conscious due to drinking too much alcohol but I barely remember the night. There were 2 guys in the room with me. I only had sex with one of them yet again, not sure if something happened with the other guy. All I know is one of them was up all night to make sure that I was not choking on my vomit. The next day I woke up with a bath rope totally dysfunctional and had a massive hangover. When the main guy came back home I asked him if anything happened he said yes I added I wanted to and he didn't force me to do anything. Who knows?
Now, 17 years later, I started thinking about it. Even thought perhaps I may send a message and ask the whole story since I’ve never done it before.
I will not let this unpleasant memory ruin my life. I am in a very healthy relationship and even I talked about that with him.
I just wanted to share and ask do you think I need to talk to a therapist? I see some of my patterns may be related to that first experience.

Hello all!! Let’s get to it. I have bipolar depression, ADHD, Severe Anxiety, PTSD etc.. I want to talk about how important it it to practice daily self care. It can make us feel a lot better. We have to care and love ourselves. I know some days it can be a struggle just to get up and out of the bed. I have printed a daily list of things to do to for daily self care. Once we have dragged ourselves out of bed we must get clean. Be it a shower, bath, or just wash in the sink it’s a step of self care. Look at that 2 steps done already you go!! We must be presentable. When we look good it can make us feel better ladies try something slight that’s not permanent like a rinse hair color, or put together a cute outfit. Same with men you too try something new go put yourself together a nice outfit. Everyone do something nice for yourself love yourself treat yourself do something nice for you. Get out get some air take a small walk on a nice day. I use to deal with bad Argoraphobia (fear of leaving the house and being in open spaces or large crowds). I started slow. Everyday I would get a chair a sit outside. Next I began taking short walks everyday. It became my daily routine. Suddenly I was out everyday walking enjoying the fresh air and nature…

Welcome to Spell Token Daily!!!!!! 🔮📖🧙‍♂️🪄💫✨⭐️🌟🌕
(Workaround required for US based IP addresses!! IP/VPN blocking has been activated by the abracadabra team to avoid any SEC backlash!! Forked unblocked links to the abracadabra front end can be found below) ✅
Helpful LINKS and INFORMATION can be found underneath the disclaimer!!! 🐸🦍
Disclaimer:
Consider all information posted here with several liberal heaps of salt, and always cross check any information you may read in this chat with known sources. Any trade information posted in this open chat may be highly misleading, and could be an attempt to manipulate new readers by known "pump and dump (PnD) groups" for their own profit. BEWARE of such practices and exercise utmost caution before acting on any trade tip mentioned here.
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Promoted blog post —> https://mirror.xyz/0x5744b051845B62D6f5B6Db095cc428bCbBBAc6F9/rpL2QJ1F6Eb7K2Lt5Yy7fnK-Endz6Jr9-7VlYw6jSO8
🔮
FOR SPELLCASTERS IN VPN/IP BLOCKED TERRITORIES - You can try to use a VPN (may have to change VPN location several times before it finds a working IP. Proton VPN is free OR you can try out a community forked IP!

• https://abracadabra-us.money/#/ - Forked by Spellcaster roxx3r
• https://abracadabramoneyunblocked.on-fleek.app/#/ - Forked by Reddit Mod MagicThePuff (SpellcasterPuff📖🪄)

(Will be updating "https://abracadabramoneyunblocked.on-fleek.app/#/" as updates release to keep the Front End working properly!)
It is possible for anyone to fork the abracadabra UI as well!! For more information on forking a UI —> (https://docs.github.com/en/get-started/quickstart/fork-a-repo)
FOR SPELLCASTERS INTERESTED IN BURNING SPELL TOKEN - Send $SPELL to “0x090185f2135308BaD17527004364eBcC2D37e5F6” (Token Contract Address) —> https://etherscan.io/address/0x090185f2135308bad17527004364ebcc2d37e5f6
🔮
Staking: (Check https://wenmerl.in for each “buyback” and “collection”)

• $sSPELL - Deposit $SPELL for $sSpell.
• $mSPELL - Deposit $SPELL for $mSpell.

Other Staking Methods

• $mGLP - Deposit your staked $GLP for $mGLP.
• $mAPE - Deposit your staked $APE for $mAPE.
• $mKLP - Deposit your staked $KLP for $mKLP.
• $mLVL - Deposit your staked $LVL for $mLVL

(Interest bearing assets can be utilized for loans/leveraging on abracadabra.money, or utilized using different protocols.)
KEEP IN MIND!! $MIM has an intrinsic value of $1 no matter what the market prices it thanks to the collateral backing it. Interest rates CAN BE increased to incentivize repayments until the $1 (or in this case 1 USDT) parity is reached in the main pool!!
HELPFUL LINKS:

• (https://abracadabra.money/)
• (VPN/IP BLOCK WORKAROUND) https://abracadabra-us.money/#/ - Forked by Spellcaster roxx3r
• (VPN/IP BLOCK WORKAROUND) https://abracadabramoneyunblocked.on-fleek.app/#/ - Forked by Reddit Mod MagicThePuff (SpellcasterPuff📖🪄)
• GREAT PLACES TO GET $MIM!-

https://app.camelot.exchange/
https://swap.defillama.com/
https://curve.fi/
​

• Abracadabra Debt can be found under “MIM Cauldron” debt!! —> (https://zapper.xyz/apps/ethereum/abracadabra?tab=holdings&addresses%5B%5D=0xa71a021ef66b03e45e0d85590432dfcfa1b7174c&addresses%5B%5D=0xdf2c270f610dc35d8ffda5b453e74db5471e126b)
• Breakdown of Abracadabra Debt —> (https://zapper.xyz/bundle/0xdf2c270f610dc35d8ffda5b453e74db5471e126b?tab=dashboard)
• (https://x.com/MIM_Spell?s=20)
• (https://x.com/MIMSwap?s=20)
• (https://zapper.xyz/daos/abracadabra) (Check out the abracadabra treasury wallet)
• (https://portfolio.nansen.ai/dashboard/0xfddfE525054efaAD204600d00CA86ADb1Cc2ea8a) (Check out 0xmerlin.eth’s wallet on nansen.ai)
• (https://zapper.fi/account/0xmerlin.eth?tab=dashboard) (Check out 0xmerlin.eth’s wallet on zapper.fi)
• (https://wenmerl.in/) (Check Buybacks/Collections for sSpell/mSpell - Community Driven)
• (https://forum.abracadabra.money/)
• (https://rekt.loan/) (Community Driven, Check liquidations) - by mDreamy4
• (https://analytics.abracadabra.money/overview) (Official analytics page to keep track of Abracadabra.money)
• (https://www.abrastats.money/about) (Community Driven analytics page to keep track of Abracadabra.money (may be out of date))
• (https://dune.com/brab/beam) ($MIM Beaming analytics page, setup by brab AKA @stablebrab)
• (https://dune.com/melenxyz/abracadabra-mim-beaming) ( $MIM Beaming Revenue page, setup by melen AKA @melenxyz)
• (https://youtube.com/@shadowboy835) (Video versions of AMAs)
• (https://soundcloud.com/stablebrab) (Audio versions of AMAs)
• (https://mirror.xyz/0x5744b051845B62D6f5B6Db095cc428bCbBBAc6F9) (Abracadabra.Money Blog, learn more about tokens like $mAPE and $mGLP)
• (https://mirror.xyz/0x8A7f7C5b556B1298a74c0e89df46Eba117A2F6c1) (Daniele Sestagalli’s Blog, “Chief Frog of Frog Nation”) NOVEMBER 21, 2022: DANIELE HAS BEEN DECLARED NO LONGER ACTIVE AS AN ABRACADABRA TEAM MEMBER
• (https://app.bubblemaps.io/eth/token/0x090185f2135308bad17527004364ebcc2d37e5f6) (BubbleMaps for Spell Token)
• (https://app.bubblemaps.io/eth/token/0x99d8a9c45b2eca8864373a26d1459e3dff1e17f3) (BubbleMaps for MIM)
• (https://snapshot.org/#/abracadabrabymerlinthemagician.eth) (Voting Proposals for Abracadabra.Money)
• (https://www.lensfrens.xyz/magic.lens) (Abracadabra.Money’s social graph)
• (https://abracadabramoney.gitbook.io/abracadabra-english/) (Abracadabra $MIM $SPELL documents can be found on Gitbook)
• (https://github.com/Abracadabra-money/abracadabra-ui) (Check out abracadabras front end tech)
• (https://hackmd.io/@Clonescody/BJ2qk4A0F) (Awesome article by Clonescody on staking spell)
• (https://rantom.app/abracadabra) (Check Abracadabras transaction activity)
• (https://www.tally.xyz/profile/romy.eth) (Romy’s delegate profile)
• https://www.tally.xyz/profile/0xa71a021ef66b03e45e0d85590432dfcfa1b7174c (Abracadabra’s delegate profile)
• (https://dune.com/melenxyz/abracadabra-mim-beaming) (MIM Beaming Fees/Analytics by @melenxyz)
• (Beam (dune.com)) (MIM Beaming Origin/Destination percentages by @brab)
• Abracadabra Money Galxe - Follow Abracadabra on Galxe and try out the quests when available!!

Height: 5’10 Weight: 193 lbs Age: 30 Gender: Male
Simplified Symptoms list: Experiencing a lot of symptoms, but here is a list:
1. Visual disturbances (blurry vision, visual snow, afterimages, flickering vision, can see pressure phosphenes in vision that come in from the side, closed eye hallucinations, floaters, eyes cross at times, Trails, Entoptic phenomena (can see sparks flying in the sky that are different from floaters), right eye twitching, can see vein pulsing in left eye when I am walking or exercising, light sensitivity) 2. Tinnitus (both regular and pulsatile on right side) 3. Extremely dry, gritty eyes after waking up 4. Sound sensitivity 5. Internal vibrations (especially after waking up from sleeping, or when eating something really carby like pizza) 6. Creaky extremities, crunchy hands that can lock up sometimes if I am playing the guitar or if I am gripping grocery bags for 5 minutes. 7. Muscle weakness and Droopy eyelids 8. Moments of visual/auditory hallucinations only when waking up from sleeping or falling asleep 9. Muscle twitches 10. Blood feels like it is running towards my hands when standing up and putting arms down by waist (bier spots, maybe?). Becomes splotchy. Goes away when I have my arms up. 11. Watery sensations, especially after eating. If I put even mild pressure on my arms or legs, I get a cold sensation back, maybe poor circulation? 12. Blood rushes to head sometimes when I stand up 13. Body jerks me awake some times (this has gotten less over the four years since it started but it still happens from time to time) 14. Notice burning, inflamed eyes after I eat or drink (food sensitivities). Lot of my symptoms change with food, will describe below. 15. Extreme dryness in hands after shower (mostly hot water) and washing hands. Hands look very wrinkled and pruney right after. Left side more affected than right.
Family History: Mom: Diabetes, Breast Cancer Dad: Diabetes, Prostate Cancer, High Blood Pressure Grandma (Father’s side): Low thyroid issues
Health Background: Currently diagnosed as Prediabetic (A1C 5.7%). Have lost 30 pounds to help this. Wisdom teeth surgery, Tonsillectomy in 2004. Allergic to dust and pollen. No other issues until all of these issues starting happening in 2020.
Background of symptoms: Symptoms began in November 2020. My first symptom was dry eyes, especially in my left eye. When I would wake up, it would feel like sand was stuck in my eye (gritty feeling). This went on until I ended up getting a corneal scratch in February 2021. Doc gave me salt drops for my eyes, which made it better. Got the vaccine in April, May 2021, had some weird symptoms for 3-4 days following each shot but back to normal after. In around June 2021, I got a corneal ulcer in my left eye from the constant dryness. Opthalmologist gave me doxycycline and Lotemax steroid drops and antibiotic eye drops for it and to treat the dry eyes. A day or couple days after I started getting tinnitus on my right side. A week later, after bowel movement, I started noticing a bunch of visual disturbances (static in vision, afterimages, etc.). From then on, I started getting all the symptoms mentioned before, including muscle twitches, pulsatile tinnitus, etc. When I was almost about to fall asleep, my body would instantly wake me up and it felt as if my breath had stopped for a millisecond. As the months went by, my vision also started to get more disturbances. Everything looked sharper and more glarey than it should. Also, I started to get vibrating vision too, where if I look at a block of text, I could see the words move. Started seeing a wave effect. Noticed that this barely happens if I close and use one eye. Another disturbance that I get is that when I close my eyes, I sometimes notice two tiny balls of light that move towards my nose (in the left eye, the ball moves from the left side of eye to my nose and in the right eye, the ball moves from the right side of my eye to my nose). Closest that anything has come to describe it is “pressure phosphenes.”
Here is an accurate description of some of my visual disturbances:
Glare: http://VisionSimulations.com/daytimeglare.htm?backgroundBlur=19&spreadOfGlare=4&opacityOfGlare=100
Static:
http://VisionSimulations.com/visual-snow.htm?background=office1.png&density=0.79&speed=10&grainsize=1
Ghosting:
http://VisionSimulations.com/simple-ghosting.htm?background=office1.png&ghostX=10&ghostY=10&ghostOpacity=8
Then I started noticing a lot more cardiovascular issues in Feb 2022. Heart rate would spike up after standing up from sitting down. Also noticed that my tinnitus behaved differently when I was lying down. While my regular tinnitus is predominantly in my right ear, I would start hearing some of it in my left ear if I was sleeping on my left side. And sometimes, it would actually DROP 30%-50% if I was sleeping on my right side. which is strange. Also noticed that I was getting watery sensations in my ears too, especially when I was lying down on the side my bed. I also notice that my eyes crossed more as well, especially in the first hour after I get off my bed and sit on my computer chair. The cold sensations happen a lot more after I eat, so I am assuming it’s from poor circulation but I am not sure.
Around the same time, I also started getting splotchy spots in my hands when I kept them below my waist. It felt like blood was moving down to my hands. Raising them up below the waist would stop the pooling and the spots go away. When I drop my hands down, I notice that my fingers start twitching more too as the blood moves into my hands. My testicles would also start to tingle as well, but not constantly. I get waves of tingling in my testicles for 1-2 seconds and then it goes away for a while.
I started getting internal vibrations in my body as well, like a cell phone is stuck in my body. This happens mostly when I wake up from sleeping initially, and then goes away as soon as I am awake. My muscles started twitching a lot more, started getting more burning/cold sensations around my body, and I noticed my hands were very creaky as well. If I close my hands into a fist and slowly open them, they do not feel smooth at all. The feeling is similar to that of a door creaking. I noticed that this is also happening all around my body, not only in my fingers. I just don't notice it as much as I do in my fingers. Also noticed some loss of muscle in my hands. They're more pruney looking. Also have some weird unexplained yellowish/oorange spots on my hands. Confirmed that it's not jaundice but doctors dont know what it is either.
Here are some images of my hands. This is what my hand looks like on a regular day.
https://postimg.cc/qNVX3jXz
https://postimg.cc/p5j5VMSk
It gets better if I have electrolytes (which I started in the last week). Gets worse after loose bowel movement. Noticed it got WAY worse when I was prepping for my colonoscopy by drinking only liquids and not eating any solid food (lot more pruney and wrinkled).
Similarly, my left eye is droopy (left side in general is more droopy):
https://postimg.cc/tYHN1Bz7
Also, this is what my hand looks like if I have my hand down at times (splotchy, bier spots, orangeish lines):
https://postimg.cc/rdpd0rbD
In late 2022 is when I started noticing a vein pulsing in the vision of my left eye. This normally happens when I am standing up or walking, and then goes away after 3-4 seconds of pulsing. Around the same time, I started noticing that I was getting dizzy when sitting down. Similar to the sensation of sitting on a boat in water. My eyes started twitching more as well and my joints were a lot more clicky. Another interesting thing that I have noticed is that I've started getting weird hallucinations when I am sleeping or drifting off into sleep. For example, I start hearing random noises as soon as I drift into sleep sometimes, which causes me to wake up instantly. Additionally, when I am starting to wake up from sleep, sometimes I can literally see scenes of a movie or a tv show or something random while my eyes are closed. It's like I'm watching a movie with my eyes closed, it's by far the strangest thing I've ever experienced. This happens more if I have bowel movement and then try to go to sleep or if I have loose bowel movement the day of.
In early 2023, I started getting reactive hyperglycemia as well. I'm suspecting this was happening to me a bit in 2022 as well. This led to a lot of fatigue after eating, but I realized the fatigue wasnt as bad if I ate less carbs and smaller portions. Also started noticing that my bladder control was weaker too. When I was urinating, I noticed more dribbling. During this year, one doctor also told me it could be Lyme disease, so I tried to go on intravenous antibiotics for 3 months but they did not help me.
I also started to get food intolerances slowly. For example, my left eye starts getting inflamed when I drink coffee. Also, sometimes dairy causes burning/stinging in my eyes. Multiple other foods started to cause reactions as well, including increased muscle twitches, tinnitus, light sensitivity, burning/watery sensations, fatigue, dizziness. Went gluten free and dairy free for a while, did not really help. Also, I noticed that one day I would get a reaction from eating oranges, and the next day I would not get any reaction from eating oranges. Same thing happened with a bunch of other fruits and foods as well.
Tests/Results:
I can provide tests for anything upon request if I have them. My tests are basically 99% normal so far. Here is a quick summary of my medical journey:
I've been to over 25-30 doctors since this started. Most blood tests are normal. My immunologist saw that I have high IL-6, which is an inflammatory marker. He thinks that maybe I can try an immunosuppressive drug (Rituxan), but my other doctors have told me that this is kind of hardcore so I'm not sure if I want to do that yet.
My interventional neuroradiologist took an MRA/MRV of my head. He noticed I have stenosis on the right side (which is also where my pulsatile tinnitus is). However my pulsatile tinnitus is very infrequent, and does not cause me much discomfort as much as my regular tinnitus. He says that the stenosis is ONLY causing the pulsatile tinnitus, not any other symptoms that I have. He told me to revisit if the pulsatile tinnitus gets extremely bothersome, and then he'll think about stenting.
All my other rheumatology/neurological blood tests are normal. Neurological (EEG, etc.) tests are also normal. Worked up for Myasthenia Gravis but also negative for that. Tried dose of Mestinon, it made me worse temporarily. Don't have Sjogren's either according to bloodwork.
Endocrinology blood tests are also mostly normal, including thyroid. A1C is at 5.9% last we checked, but the last couple years it was at 5.4% as all of this was happening (it’s always been between 5.0% and 5.4%). I’ve been losing weight to keep it under control as I have diabetes in my family history. Only other thing is that I have low Ferritin, but my doctor said that this is okay as my Iron and hemoglobin are normal. I have done an iron infusion recently as well, but it did not help. We are going to monitor to see if my Ferritin drops in a month or so.
Endo also noticed I have a benign pituitary tumor in my brain. I went to a neurosurgeon to get his consultation for this and he said there’s nothing to worry about, it is benign and is not causing my symptoms. It just needs to be monitored every year, so we will do a scan every year.
Did a colonoscopy and endoscopy to check for malabsorption, celiac, crohn’s etc. I am all clear on that front too.
Some quirks, possible clues, and interesting points that I’ve noticed regarding my symptoms:
1. My constant blurry vision gets 70-80% better at times when I have a sugary drink. Goes back to being blurry after about 5-10 minutes. This is the only thing that makes my blurry vision better. Droopy eyelids also lift up a bit when I have a sugary drink or after I eat a carby meal. Also, I noticed that the tear production in my eye increases especially when I have sugary desserts. And if I have a pretty carby meal(s) day the day before, I generally wake up with less irritation in my eyes. Sweating all over my body also increases when I eat or drink something sugary. At all other times, my body is extremely dry. I also get a prickly feeling in my back sometimes as I am drinking the sugary drink. All in all, my symptoms are *mostly* worse when my blood sugar is normal, but better at higher sugars. Either that or carbs just help some of my symptoms and I am not sure if my body is having trouble processing them?
2. My visual snow generally gets worse after eating food or going for a walk/doing exercise. My tinnitus gets betteworse after food as well.
3. My bladder control/dribbling is worse after going for a walk/doing exercise.
4. When I took an iron supplement a couple months ago, I was getting loose bowel movements every couple of days. After the loose bowel movement, I noticed that most of my issues would be way worse for the next couple of days (muscle twitches, static in vision, tinnitus worse, hallucinations would reappear) -- I’m assuming dehydration/fluid balance has a part to play in all this too.
5. Also, one day after I woke up and took an iron supplement on an empty stomach, I got a migraine with aura for the first time in my life. Seemed to mostly affect my left side but I did experience a kaleidoscope sort of vision and vision loss for around 10-15 minutes. Didn’t happen again after.
6. Bowel movement causes dizziness (boat like sensation). I am assuming this is because the Vagus nerve is affected. Get same type of dizziness when I sit up from laying down on my bed or after I eat food.
7. Bowel movement also (even if not loose) generally makes my vision worse. Right after, my vision gets pretty blurry and I generally feel weaker. There have been times where my eyesight has been decent after I wake up (after I have a big, somewhat carby dinner the night before), but then it gets noticeably worse after bowel movement in the morning (can possibly be connected to point #4, not sure).
8. My neurological symptoms most closely match the symptoms of those that have had B6 toxicity (mostly triggered by a dehydration event), those that have intracranial pressure (don’t have headaches at all, doctors don’t think this is it), and those that have mold toxicity (don’t have mold in my house).
9. The inflammation in my left eye gets worse after I drink coffee, but also I noticed that it would consistently become inflamed when I tried Betaine HCL supplements specifically. The more Betaine HCL supplements I took at a time, the more inflammation I was getting. Not sure what that could mean, but something isn’t right with my stomach and acid maybe.
That’s all I can write for now, I tried to explain everything as best as I could. This thing has been ruining my life for the past 4 years, and I need help. Feel free to request or suggest anything you may think can possibly lead me in the right direction, as this has taken over my life and it's really difficult to hold a job. Thanks

I made my second (ever) sourdough bread, and while it's better than the first attempt, something is still wrong with my bread. Also, sorry in advance for grammavocabulary mistakes!
The recipe I used: 600g white flour + 200g rye flour 540g water 20g fine sea salt 200g active starter
I combined starter, water and flour. Let it sit for 30min. Added salt and let it sit for another 30min. Stretch and folds every hour up to 4 hours (so 4 folds total). Pre-shaped the dough and let it sit on the counter for 30min. Shaped the dough, put it into a basket, that was covered with a plastic bag and into the fridge for something like 12-24h. Heated oven (and my dutch oven) to 250 degrees (celcius), scored the bread and baked for 20min with the lid. Except that I didn't have a lid so I used aluminum foil as one. I did add some water (maybe a deciliter) under the foil. After 20min removed the lid, lowered the oven to 200 degrees (celcius) and baked for another 30-40min until I received the crust I was looking for. I let it cool down for 2 hours before cutting into it.
I pushed a dent into my dough before baking it. It did spring back up slowly leaving little indent. I read somewhere (can't remember where) that it would mean the dough is well-proofed?
I have what feels like a thousand questions:
So the problem is that the crumb is moist and not as airy as I'd like it to be. Is it supposed to be little moist or should it be dry like store-bought bread? I tried looking up pictures of oveundewell-proofed crumbs, but I can't tell which one mine is.
I might have added too much water for steam while baking? The bread had quite nice oven-spring (at least compering to the first loaf I made) but the crust tore in addition to the scores I made.
I also added a picture of the starter I used. Maybe it had already gone past or hadn't reached the using window? It was double the size and had active bubbles on it.
Also my dough was very sticky. Even though recipes said to use little flour on the table/hands, my dough kept sticking to the table quite badly while pre-shaping and shaping. I had to dip my hands into flour constantly. The hydration in my dough was at 67,5% which is on the lower side to my knowledge?
It might very well be that I just didn't mix/shape for long enough. But if anyone has any tips/suggestions/feedback I'd appreciate that very much!

I’m trapped. I can hear that thing lumbering through the hallway. My God, what the hell is it? I’m trying my best to keep quiet but I can’t help but whimper. The soft scratching of my pencil on this notepad sounds deafening in the quiet of this tiny closet. I’m almost certainly gonna die in this place. I just hope someone can find this, maybe it will do some good. Or maybe it already doesn’t matter. I’m not sure how long I have until that wheezing thing finds me. Oh God, or that grey stuff might ooze under the door and dissolve me. Oh my God! What it did to Benny, Bill, Jonesy and Donald! To all of them! Even if I don’t survive, the world needs to be warned!
Long story short, I was a cop but I got shot in the head. The doctors said I was lucky, that it went straight through without hitting anything vital. However, I still needed three steel plates to hold my fragmented skull together. Also ended up with permanent tremors in my right hand from brain damage. So it’s no surprise that my cop career didn’t thrive. Just a year later I was a “retired” 45-year-old cop, living on scraps. After a few months, I started to get desperate for work. One evening at my pub, my friend, Graham, mentioned an acquaintance who was looking for employees for some private research institute in the Mojave Desert. “What, are they still blowing A-bombs out there?” I scoffed, eyebrows arched with bemused incredulity. Graham stared down at his beer, “Not sure what the hell they do. But they pay super well, so who cares,” he took a long sip of beer, foam clinging to his lips, “I think it would be a good fit for you”.
Turns out this facility, and it really is known as the “Facility”, was located in the middle of nowhere. When I looked it up online I couldn’t find any information. Later that week I called the number that Graham had scrawled down for me on a beer stained napkin. My right hand was useless to me if I wanted it to do anything that required fine motor function, so when I dialed the number on my phone I had to use my left hand. The phone rang twice before a metallic feminine voice answered and said to hold for an operator. After a few seconds of muted elevator music, I spoke to a soft voiced man who told me my skill set was perfect for their current vacancy: a security management position. He said if I filled out some forms they would pay for me to fly on out for an interview in person.
One month and several NDAs later, I was employed again! By the time I started my new job I realized I had no idea what research went on down here. During the interviews my duties as a security manager had been discussed but any mention of their actual research interests had been carefully avoided, redacted or omitted. The security staff were also told to avoid fraternizing with anyone not from their own department, including security personnel from other sections of the Facility. On my first day I asked others about the nature of the Facility’s research, but no one had any interest. “Just stick to your contract. No point in rocking the boat,” my new boss, Bill, said to me curtly. So since then I’ve not discussed it with anyone else.
If only I had, maybe I would have seen this coming. The section of the Facility which I managed was section B.15. This area, like most of the core Facility, was located several hundred feet below the sun scorched surface of the Mojave Desert and comprised many green painted corridors peppered with tall, wide doors made from dark, stainless steel. The rooms inside were large and sterile. Artefacts were cleaned and studied in these rooms after they were brought from the excavation sites (sites E.1 through E.27). Of course, whether we wanted to know the nature of the research or not, eventually, after patrolling some of the research labs for weeks, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the scientists were mostly archeologists or paleontologists. I would often find objects of different sizes and shapes lying around in various states of cleanliness. Some looked like ancient amphoras, or large stone bird baths. Others were less identifiable: a chipped statue, a melted lump of some unidentifiable metal or large chunks of a glass-like material. I found this all extremely curious because, as far as I knew, the Mojave Desert didn’t have much in the way of ancient architecture. At least of any ancient civilization that I know.
As the months went by I started to get friendly with the other guards, most of them ex-cops too, and we started playing cards and drinking Irish coffee in the evenings. My two main colleagues consisted of a jovial, short man with orange hair named Jonesy and a much older much grumpier and much balder man, Donald. They were good men and we had a lot of laughs together. My stomach twists when I think about where they are now. Though I grew fonder of my fellow guards, I found myself developing a severe dislike for the white coated researchers. Most of them were pernicious and arrogant. The only scientist my security buddies and me could stand was a scrawny man named Benny. Our favorite thing about Benny was that he never talked about his work.
It was earlier today, at around 1400h, when all the scientists were running from their rooms. They must have received some message a few minutes before and we watched them from the surveillance monitors as they got all excited and leapt up. Their lab coats flapped and flowed around as they jumped to their feet and made for the main exit. Soon after this the large red landline phone near my video surveillance desk began to ring. Expecting the call, I picked up the receiver before the first ring finished, “Hey boss, what’s all the excitement about?” Bill’s voice was uncharacteristically hesitant “The diggers have found a friggin’ huge object out here! The biggest thing they’ve ever dug up, it’s really irregular. They want to bring it to B.15 and I need you to organize the logistics and security”. My brow furrowed, “I guess it’s too big for the main entrance? Maybe we could bring it in via the big doors of the auxiliary hangar?” Bill grunted with agreement, “Yea, we’ll have to improvise a bit but should be manageable. I have no idea what it is… well you’ll see for yourself. I’ll get some of the boys from B.14 to help you out. And just, well…” He paused for a moment, “just be careful.” I grunted, my eyebrow arched from surprise; why was he so afraid? “Um thanks, appreciate it, see you guys soon”.
Donald, Jonesy and I had coffee in the office and called the guards at the hangar doors to arrange clearance. About an hour later we were at the platform near the doors waiting for the cargo to arrive. The massive metal hangar doors had been opened, which was rare. What was more irregular was that nearly every staff member from sections B.11 to B.18 were all gathered together in a silent knot of people. Despite the silence the air sizzled with anticipation, as well as the searing heat. I stood transfixed from curiosity at the massive doorway, waiting in the shade of the hangar as the relentless sun beat down outside. In the distance I saw a black speck grow larger against the bright blue sky. Slowly it took the form of a helicopter which was carrying a large rectangular shaped mass below it.
Within less than a minute the helicopter made its cacophonous approach toward the hangar and gently lowered the object onto an enormous wooden scaffold. I barked orders and signed forms as the guards rushed about, making sure the other personnel stayed a safe distance away. The air was blaring with the sound of the helicopter blades and sand rocketed into my face, forcing me to splutter. “Alright, let’s get this thing processed!” I yelled over the sound of the helicopter as its engines powered down, my colleagues and I wiped dirt from our faces. Bill emerged swiftly from the chopper and shook my hand. We quickly reviewed the paper work he gave me and then he made his way back downstairs to his office in section B.1. He was keen to get away for some reason.
“Alright, it’s officially in my care now. Show’s over. Get the non-essential personnel out of here immediately and secure the object. I want to get Benny up here to analyze it ASAP.” As my colleagues cleared away most of the staff and the excitement died down I was finally able to take a moment to inspect the object. It had been lowered onto the wooden scaffold fitted with wheels just outside the hangar and had been pushed slowly into the center. The few aircraft in this hangar were all currently under repairs and were non-operational, therefore there was plenty of space. As soon as I saw the sheer size of the object, I knew it would be difficult to transport, but not impossible. The object was a wall. Or a large fragment of a wall.
It was about twenty feet long, eight feet thick and ten feet high. At first the wall appeared made from some sort of boring grey stone. However, when I looked closer the wall was… alive. The wall’s surface bubbled slightly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I stepped closer. When I was only a few inches away from it I felt cold. A bead of sweat ran down my cheek and I thought I heard something. It sounded like someone far away calling my name.
I felt a strange pressure around my head. A sudden invasive thought wormed to life: throw yourself into the wall. I shuddered and held myself back despite the sudden strong desire. I heard the faint voice of Benny and crashed back to reality. My eyes snapped open and I found my nose an inch away from the wall. It radiated cold like an open freezer and it smelled like rotting clay. The surface of the wall simmered ever so slightly. It reminded me of the fizz of some grey effervescent medicine. I paled as I took a large step backward, “I.. uh, what is this?” I turned to face Benny who stood with another scientist. He glanced at her briefly before he approached the wall to apply more straps. He was careful to avoid touching the wall with his bare skin. “Honestly, we have no idea”.
I got Donald and Jonesy to help Benny transport the wall down to room 278B via the service elevator. Donald grumbled about how badly the wall smelled and Jonesy had eyes as large as saucers when he saw it up close, “It looks so unreal!” Once downstairs I returned to my office to get some more coffee and file away the paperwork. I tried to put the strangeness of the wall out of my mind, but it had truly unnerved me. I felt so tired, my forehead drenched with cold sweat. I had been working extra shifts lately, but I had never been hit by such exhaustion so rapidly. As I sat at my desk facing the surveillance monitors I was unable to fight the sleep forcing my eyes shut.
I’ve had many hangovers in my life, most of them unpleasant, but when I woke up at my desk I’d never felt quite so singularly awful. My clothes were soaked with sweat and my whole body felt exhausted. My arms felt like molasses as I attempted to move. My forehead throbbed and I felt bruised. I also felt a pressure squeezing my head from all sides. It was quite peculiar. I sat back in my seat and rubbed my eyes.
Then I froze.
A hand was lying motionless on the floor just behind the table in the center of the office. I leapt to my feet and rushed forward. I gasped from horror as I saw Donald lying on the floor, his chest sliced to ribbons. Gallons of crimson red stained his blue uniform and his eyes stared up empty and terrified. Pallid and shaking I went to my office landline to call for backup immediately. As the receiver met my ear my stomach dropped into my feet.
The line was dead.
The sole means of communication within the core Facility is done through landlines. The landlines are monitored at all times and any interruption results in an immediate response from security. We had many protocols and fail safes to ensure communication remained enabled, but the line was dead and there was no sign of any response. In fact, how long had I been asleep? What was happening? I rushed back to the monitors. I hadn’t noticed it before but I couldn’t see anyone. The cameras were all operating normally but not a single person could be seen. The corridors were just as green and bare as most late evenings. I looked at the clock, it was only 1817h. I had slept for about two and a half hours. Where were the janitors? My heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath. Meanwhile my head was throbbing and my eyes were burning. Suddenly I heard an indistinct whisper. Gooseflesh bloomed all over my back and arms.
I’d heard this voice before.
I’d heard this voice from the wall.
I turned to the monitors and searched for the wall. It had been brought back to the surface; the hangar! It sat upon the bare ground right by the massive doors. However, the doors were all sealed. The wall itself looked different. It was enormous! Almost three times longer and taller and wider. Just then, I realized that the titanium blast doors had been sealed as well. My heart rate doubled as I noticed large dents, scorch marks and scratches all over the doors. Someone had tried to break them down. The hangar floor was covered in blood and ash as well as abandoned weapons. My God, I even saw a rocket-launcher lying blackened and fractured near the doors. What the hell had happened?
I spun my head to look at the security control panel on the wall to my left. My heart, already blaring, felt like it leapt out of my mouth. My eyes grew wide as I realized someone, probably Donald, had activated a quarantine procedure. This meant that the entire Facility would be sealed airtight. The only way to open any doors now was from the outside. My God! Why had he done this? Where was everyone? Did he try to wake me? Did I really sleep through all this? I looked back at Donald, my heart still hammering from seeing his dead eyes stare into mine. I sighed sadly and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was currently 1831h. I returned to the monitors and began to rewind the security footage.
Surveying the screens, I watched my past-self enter the security office at around 1600h. By 1610h I had passed-out on my chair, drool dangling from my mouth. “Ok, so let’s see where the wall was at that time. Should be room 278B.” I thought to myself aloud as I clicked on the button that would display the footage from that room as well as the surrounding corridors. The screen was black as the footage loaded and I was about to hit the play button but hesitated. Did I really want to see this? I closed my eyes and took a few slow breaths. I can’t figure my way out of here if I don’t know what’s going on. I have to know. I hit play.
The camera was located opposite the door giving a full view of the room. At first everything seemed normal. Benny and some other scientists had transported the wall into room 278B. It was 1623h when they were taking the straps off the wall. A loud popping sound was heard and the researchers spun around. The lights in the room dimmed and flickered. Suddenly something long and slimy exploded from the wall, curled around Benny, and pulled him in. He screamed in terror as he vanished, his cries immediately silenced. My jaw dropped open and a small yell escaped me.
Without realizing it, I was instantly on my feet, shaking my head in pure denial. My heart burst. What the hell was that? What the hell? What the hell? My head was full of static. I felt tears in my eyes as I watched guards and researchers rush into the room. The wall shimmered, it’s simmering surface began to boil and bubble and it grew three feet higher. I saw it reshape itself so that intricately carved figures appeared on the wall’s edge. I leant in closer and gasped. One of those figures looked just like Benny, his mouth stretched open wide into a permanent scream. I didn’t want to continue watching, but I had to. The guards and researchers were horrified by what they saw before them. Suddenly, without warning, their body postures relaxed, their eyes grew glassy, and their arms fell slack at their sides. Those within the room moved as if sleepwalking. Some stayed still while others left the room. Brow furrowed from confusion and fear, my eyes swiveled to the footage of the corridor outside. The guards and researchers that had just exited 278B immediately began attacking and grappling those around them. I yelped as a vacant-eyed guard lazily shot another man in the leg. The thrall then dragged the wounded guard into room 278B. The mad guard held the wounded guard’s leg fast as he casually walked into the grey wall, pulling the struggling man in behind him. During this altercation I noticed Donald for the first time, he was hiding behind the corner of the corridor at the far end and was firing his gun at the madmen. He didn’t manage to hit anyone though. He then ran over to help a stray researcher to their feet and then they both ran down the corridor and out of view.
I can still hear the cries of pain and pleas for mercy as those who fell victim to the thralls were each dragged into that horrifying wall. With every person it swallowed, the wall wriggled and grew and grew. More and more ghastly decorations began to bloom on its surface, all of them made from the bones or likenesses of those who had been absorbed. The bigger it got the stronger its psychic influence became until it seemed to reach nearly everyone in the Facility, turning them into thralls. I looked on in horror as one by one, all janitors, researchers, guards, diggers, admin staff, everyone gradually stopped what they were doing, mid conversation, their eyes emptying. The janitors dropped their mops and buckets. Researchers dropped precious materials and equipment without care, letting them smash to pieces. In unison they all slowly, with vacant expressions, moved toward room 278B. Among the horde of thralls, I saw Bill and Jonesy, and so many others I knew by face. A guy who’d held the door for me once, a researcher who always slurped her coffee at lunch. Hundreds of people! What filled me with an unnamable dread was that I knew what was gonna happen. I knew what was coming. I tried to shout at the monitors, “Stop! Wait!” I grabbed the monitors and shook them with frustration.
A terror began to fill my stomach, deep and cold and aching. Suddenly I noticed Donald reappear on the screen. He was trying to hold back the researcher he’d helped earlier, but it was useless. I saw Donald, chest heaving from effort, stare with incredulity as he sat defeated on the ground. Everyone else around him stumbled dreamily toward their doom. But Donald refused to give up. I saw him run from corridor to corridor, trying desperately to stop them. He threw chairs and tables in their way but they simply pushed them aside or jumped over them. I saw him run toward this office. I saw him enter, saw myself slumped on my chair still completely unconscious. I saw Donald try to shake me awake, he slapped me a few times and was yelling in frustration. He gave up with me eventually and ran over to activate the quarantine lockdown. I saw him tear down the hall back toward room 278B, pistol in hand.
My best guess was that he saw what was happening in room 278B and decided he was gonna stop it. However, as soon as he got close to the door a long pale tendril burst through the door directly into Donald’s chest. The tentacle had a hooked end and it slashed at him. I saw blood spurt out of him, saw him stumble and fall from the ground in fright. However, he still managed to get a hold of his gun and fired multiple shots at the tendril. It writhed and flailed. Donald took the opportunity to climb to his feet. He grimaced and clasped his chest as crimson leaked to the floor. He moved back down the corridor, much more slowly than before. Eventually he got back to the office. He locked the door and then collapsed. I cried out in frustration. That whole time I was completely useless!
My mind felt like static again for a few seconds. I couldn’t work out what my next move should be. A thought hit me hard, one I should really have thought of before. Why had Donald and I not been psychically affected by the wall? Everyone had been enslaved, everyone had been forced to walk into that wall. Why not Donald? And me? I knew it must be connected to my horrendous sleepiness. My eyes grew wide with sudden realization. “Shit, the steel plates in my head!” Donald had a single steel plate in his skull because of a rock-climbing accident he had in his 20s. When I got close to the wall, had it sensed my resistance? Had it tried to incapacitate me? If so, it means this thing possesses sentience.
While I pondered this, I noticed some thralls re-strap the wall in room 278B. They transported it to the elevator and back up to the hangar. Once there, the thralls moved the wall off the scaffold onto the floor and began to beat heavily on the large metal doors with bare fists. Some even shot at the doors with their handguns. The ricochets killed a few of them but not one single person seemed to even notice. Some of the guards even used a rocket launcher! I yelled with shock as they fired at deadly close range, lazily blowing themselves up, leaving the doors scorched. After this proved futile, the thralls all grew suddenly rigid. Next, they all formed a line in front of the wall and one shambling step after another, all the remaining employees were - assimilated. Even the dead and wounded were not spared. Those still alive carried the corpses of their fellow thralls into the wall.
It was 1705h when the last employee disappeared forever into the grey horror, and the wall expanded to its current size. Without warning, a large writhing mass of twisted limbs emerged from the wall. I gasped from horror. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because the lighting in the hangar wasn’t good enough, but it definitely wasn’t human. Its silhouette was about seven feet tall and thin and stretched. It had too many legs and it didn’t seem to have a head. This thing lumbered over to the doors and began to strike them with a strength and ferocity one would only find in a starving polar bear. I could tell that the doors were taking strain, and they began to bend, but even then, they would not yield. After about half an hour of smashing the door, the creature stopped and slowly shambled toward the stairs. My heart froze. It was coming here! Or was it here already?
My eyes swiveled back to the main monitor and I was surprised to see Donald still alive. He was scratched and bleeding badly as he shakily pushed himself from the floor. He then looked up at the ammunitions cupboard and began to search through his keys. I saw him curse. He couldn’t find the key with his trembling, bloodied fingers. In the next instant his eyes bulged and he heaved as if vomiting. His body doubled over and long grey tendrils oozed from his mouth and wriggled furiously. He grabbed his throat and fell forward onto the floor. Frozen in horror I watched as his body squirmed and he wriggled as if his intestines were filled with snakes. I continued to watch absolutely transfixed as three long grey tendrils emerged again from between Donald’s lips. Slowly they wriggled free of his mouth. They were about half a foot long, dull grey and thin like spaghetti.
I watched as they slithered toward my unconscious form on the monitor. I bit my lip and stood up. Slowly my brain put two and two together. Bile rose in my throat. I yelled at myself to wake up and see the worms. Just then my stomach dropped and I could feel an itchiness in my belly. I could feel the wriggling itch of a thousand grey eels in my gut. Or was I imagining it?
My stomach writhed and I was about to puke when I saw myself awake and stretch in my chair. The worms somehow realized I was awake and they moved out of view towards the –before I could watch the screen any longer, I heard a hiss and something slimy and long wrapped itself around my throat so tight I couldn’t breathe. I gasped with surprise and strained my neck to look at the monitor that showed the room in real time. I saw from the camera behind my head that something thin and grey had wrapped itself around my throat. I saw two more of those things coming at me from behind as well. They were about to come wriggling up my chair when I grimaced with anger and grabbed my gun from its holster. The thing around my neck was hissing and making awful clicking and guttural noises. Its small worm head had a mouth that bit and it latched onto my neck to suck my blood. I pulled at the leach and pressed my gun up against it. I pulled the trigger. With an earsplitting bang and a sound like a water balloon popping the leach was reduced to sticky goo. I pulled the remnants of the leach off my neck and spun around just in time to shoot and kill the others. I grinned with a mad-joy and yelled with relief. Immediately, a wave of nausea and exhaustion hit me and I fell back onto my chair. “What the hell was that? What the hell do I do now?” I sat still for a moment and tried not to lose my mind completely. I swear I could hear Woody the woodpecker laughing somewhere in the distance. I needed to keep it together. I took a long deep breath and tried to think of a way out.
Summarizing the details of my predicament, I realized I was trapped alone inside the Facility with an otherworldly force. Also, even if I found a way out, I’d potentially be letting an evil into the world that could destroy all life. At once an old thought returned to me, one I’d often experienced as a cop. “If I need to sacrifice myself to save others, I will do so without complaint.” A wry smile spread over my face. “Once a cop, always a cop.” My smile vanished as a I continued to think. “But my God, if this thing gets out. If it gets into the minds of other people. If it gets larger and larger. Could it swallow the world? The solar system? What other monstrosities would it unleash?” I was talking aloud now; the sound of my voice gave a new reality to my situation that made me shudder. I turned back to the monitor. It seems I was all caught up with what had happened. I stared blankly into the screen while I watched my past-self continue to wake and wince from pain. I switched the monitor off and saw my reflection in the blackness of the screen. I was pale and my eyes were wide and unblinking. “What do I do now?” I turned in my chair to look at Donald’s body. Were all those worms gone? Could some still be hiding? And what should be done with his body? Probably best to have it burned. “Poor Donald, he didn’t deserve this”, I muttered softly as I examined his corpse, making sure there were no unexplained twitches beneath his skin. My eyes moved from his body up to the ammunition’s cupboard just above. “Wait, why was he trying to get into the cupboard earlier? We don’t have much…”, my eyes grew large with realization. “Holy crap, he was trying to get the bomb! Me and Donald were gonna use a left-over bomb from the excavation site to blow some random shit up!”
I sighed sadly and heavily. We never got around to it. I stood up quickly and walked up to the cupboard. I pulled out my keys and quickly found the key I’d need. I opened the cupboard with little effort and found the ten kilos of plastic explosive inside. It had already been set up with a sixty second timer and a remote detonator by a colleague. I sat at the table with the explosive, a vague plan forming in my broken mind. “Maybe if I somehow get this wall-thing to eat this bomb then...”
Before I could formulate my thoughts fully, the lights flickered, and the entire Facility was plunged into darkness unceremoniously. My nerves were burning with fear. What had happened? Had that thing knocked the power out somehow? The next few seconds that past were some of the longest I’d ever experienced. However, dim green light bloomed to life and the reserve power kicked in. Then I heard slow, shuffling footsteps in the corridor just outside the office. I froze once again, my insides turning to mush. My mind raced. Had I remembered to lock the door? My stomach leapt into my feet as I heard the shuffling get louder and louder. I heard hoarse, wheezing breaths, as if the thing struggled to breathe. I jumped from fright but remained absolutely silent as whatever the thing was banged on the door with a deafening blow.
BANG! The door shook and bent slightly.
BANG! Silence for a moment.
BANG! BANG! Again silence. My heart was hammering in my ears and I sat deathly still. I could hear that thing breathing louder. After a few moments I heard it shuffle away. My entire body was shaking as relief washed over me. Whatever the thing was, it had walked away and I could no longer hear it. I turned to look at the monitors. Dare I turn them on and check what it was? After a few seconds of consideration, holding my breath, I turned to the monitors and switched them on. I waited in nervous anticipation as the screens flickered to life showing me that all the corridors between me and the wall were currently empty. I didn’t bother checking the corridor I suspected the shambling thing was in. I didn’t want to see it unless I needed to. I’d had just about all the stress and terror I could take and by this stage I felt weirdly calm. It must be shock. A thin sigh escaped me as I stood. The fear in my blood began to feed a furnace of anger in my heart. I thought about all those who I had lost. I felt my expression turn to granite, “It’s time to kill this thing.”
I opened the door slowly, my fully loaded gun in my good hand. Spare ammo along with the explosive and a shotgun was stashed in my backpack, and the remote detonator was tied to my belt. I held a heavy-duty flashlight in my shaky right hand. I moved cautiously through the dark green corridors. I’d never thought of how creepy this place could be until this moment. Gooseflesh crept up my arms and neck as I continued. All I could hear were my soft footfalls and shallow anxious breaths. I cleared the corridors one by one until I made it to the stairs that would lead me to the thing that looks like a wall. I walked up the stairs slowly, my ears honing in on any sound. That’s when I heard it. I heard the soft sound of crying.
Someone was crying. I stopped dead in my tracks. My entire body shook from the adrenaline surging through me. I took one step. Then another. Slowly, I climbed. Once my head could peek over the top, I froze. Jonesy was squatting on his knees, naked. He was between the wall and me, with his back facing me. The terrifying thing loomed enormous before us. It was now framed intricately with the skeletons of hundreds of people, all twisted and screaming in agony. Writhing, tortured souls fused together. Then came the sound of crying and moaning from the wall. I could hear them all. They were all screaming. Screaming for me to help them. To join them. I felt that pressure squeeze against my skull tighter and tighter. I shook my head in defiance. “No! You bastard! NO! I will not join you! You’re not Jonesy!” All at once the moans and wails stopped. I suddenly found myself at the top of the stairs without knowing when I’d finished climbing them. “But we are Jonesy” came a voice that was not human. It was a voice made from all those it had swallowed up. It was as though something had made a distorted copy of the voices of all those people and then just used them all at once to speak. It didn’t understand the concept of individuality. All of a sudden, the wall rippled and grey tendrils squirmed from the flesh of the wall, curling around Jonesy as they teased his face and slowly pulled him in. As he disappeared there was a horrendous sucking, squelching noise. “We are Jonesy. We are all. We can be all. We will be all. All and all and more than all.” The voice was chanting this over and over. Louder and louder.
A deafening blast came from the wall and a slithering, writhing mass of tangled human limbs emerged. It had four legs and several arms. It looked like the bodies of eight or more people shuffled and glued into an otherworldly horror. Its multiple mouths screamed a high pitch squeal that was more horrifying than the screams of the damned, and its sharp pointed teeth gnashed and chomped. I only had a second to dodge this monster. I leapt to the side and fired multiple shots at the thing’s center of mass. Its horrifying body of fused torsos wriggled and bled black ichor. It screamed with pain and jumped at me, grabbing my leg. It tossed me into the air and I almost lost my gun as I slammed into the floor a few feet away. Before I could catch my breath, it was upon me again. From the ground I fired several shots at it. This made it jump away and scuttle down the stairs. With it momentarily out of sight, I quickly got to my feet and kept my eyes on the stairs.
After a second, I decided to kneel and take off my backpack as fast as I could. I pulled out the bomb and started the timer. I also decided to get the shotgun out and get it loaded. I needed to do this now or never. As the final shell clicked into place I heard a roar coming from the stairs. The thing was back. Before I could react, it leapt at me and knocked me to the ground. The bomb flew from my grasp. It bared down on me, grabbing at my throat ready to tear me apart. My reflexes saved me though and I managed to use my shotgun to hold the thing at bay, but it was too strong. Desperate, I kicked it hard in the chest and it let go. I used this moment to grab the bomb that lay behind me; only 37 seconds to go! Terrified and crazed, sweat pouring down my face, my mind in pieces, I rammed the bomb into the creature’s mouth and kicked it back again as hard as I could. I heard it yelp like a wounded dog and it lost its footing. It fell sideways and in that second, I took my shotgun and fired at it in the chest. The force of the close-range blast sent me flying. At the same time the creature was hurled back into the wall where it was enveloped quickly.
My head was fuzzy. I was dizzy and the wind had been knocked out of me. Was the bomb going to work? I felt something warm and wet drip into my ear and touched the side of my head. My fingertips came away soaked in blood. My head was spinning. With a foggy mind I grabbed my bag, collecting my weapons and flashlight. As I stood up I heard a low rumbling sound. The ground beneath my feet shook and for a moment I was confused. Then I looked up at the wall. Its surface was roiling and boiling like I’d never seen before. It was shaking and growing. I turned to run when suddenly there was a massive blast from inside it, and the entire wall exploded into hundreds of small grey chunks. These chunks rained down all around the hangar, smashing several aircraft. The blast knocked me off my feet and this time I definitely passed out because when I awoke I could see daylight through the tiny cracks in the blast door. Where the wall had once been now stood a small blackened crater. I turned around to inspect the wall pieces and found that they – my eyes grew wide and my mouth opened. They were melting. As I approached a fragment of wall, a horrible twisted hand shot out at me. I yelled and jumped away. It was still alive! I watched in dumbfounded horror as the pieces continued to melt and began to merge, just like that scene from Terminator 2.
It was rebuilding itself. Then I heard a groan. My blood became ice. I turned slowly in terror to find the shambling, wheezing monstrosity behind me. Like the creature I'd shot, this one seemed made from bits and pieces of human limbs knitted together randomly. This one had legs which came out its mouth, its head positioned within its torso where the bellybutton should be, and it wheezed in pain. I almost puked from fright but my legs were already carrying me away. I sprinted down the corridors, ignoring all the pain and fear and exhaustion and anger and frustration I had inside me. Without thinking, I leapt into the first janitor's closet I found and locked the door with a dull clunking sound. After catching my breath, I found this notepad and pencil, and have been writing this report in the sterile glow of my flashlight. Hopefully, I have left some useful information for anyone who may find this.
Now I lie in wait for that thing. Now I lie in wait for that grey ooze. What is that thing? Is it truly indestructible? If it can survive a bomb like that, what hope do we have? It’s no wall at all. It’s a membrane. An interface. Somewhere very different is pressing up against us. It has torn a small hole, and was now prying it open further. I should blow up this whole damn place! I should burn it! But would it matter? Or would it just be buried, to be rediscovered? I think even if I survive this, nothing can help us. So here I wait, hoping to be saved, but even as I write this I can hear that thing walking past the door. With a soft click I turn off my flashlight. I try not to breathe. I can hear the snuffling, it’s right outside! I can smell its ugly breath.
Oh God! I hear the jingling of keys. The door is unlocking! How? How?
Oh God! The doorknob is turning...

I’m trapped. I can hear that thing lumbering through the hallway. My God, what the hell is it? I’m trying my best to keep quiet but I can’t help but whimper. The soft scratching of my pencil on this notepad sounds deafening in the quiet of this tiny closet. I’m almost certainly gonna die in this place. I just hope someone can find this, maybe it will do some good. Or maybe it already doesn’t matter. I’m not sure how long I have until that wheezing thing finds me. Oh God, or that grey stuff might ooze under the door and dissolve me. Oh my God! What it did to Benny, Bill, Jonesy and Donald! To all of them! Even if I don’t survive, the world needs to be warned!
Long story short, I was a cop but I got shot in the head. The doctors said I was lucky, that it went straight through without hitting anything vital. However, I still needed three steel plates to hold my fragmented skull together. Also ended up with permanent tremors in my right hand from brain damage. So it’s no surprise that my cop career didn’t thrive. Just a year later I was a “retired” 45-year-old cop, living on scraps. After a few months, I started to get desperate for work. One evening at my pub, my friend, Graham, mentioned an acquaintance who was looking for employees for some private research institute in the Mojave Desert. “What, are they still blowing A-bombs out there?” I scoffed, eyebrows arched with bemused incredulity. Graham stared down at his beer, “Not sure what the hell they do. But they pay super well, so who cares,” he took a long sip of beer, foam clinging to his lips, “I think it would be a good fit for you”.
Turns out this facility, and it really is known as the “Facility”, was located in the middle of nowhere. When I looked it up online I couldn’t find any information. Later that week I called the number that Graham had scrawled down for me on a beer stained napkin. My right hand was useless to me if I wanted it to do anything that required fine motor function, so when I dialed the number on my phone I had to use my left hand. The phone rang twice before a metallic feminine voice answered and said to hold for an operator. After a few seconds of muted elevator music, I spoke to a soft voiced man who told me my skill set was perfect for their current vacancy: a security management position. He said if I filled out some forms they would pay for me to fly on out for an interview in person.
One month and several NDAs later, I was employed again! By the time I started my new job I realized I had no idea what research went on down here. During the interviews my duties as a security manager had been discussed but any mention of their actual research interests had been carefully avoided, redacted or omitted. The security staff were also told to avoid fraternizing with anyone not from their own department, including security personnel from other sections of the Facility. On my first day I asked others about the nature of the Facility’s research, but no one had any interest. “Just stick to your contract. No point in rocking the boat,” my new boss, Bill, said to me curtly. So since then I’ve not discussed it with anyone else.
If only I had, maybe I would have seen this coming. The section of the Facility which I managed was section B.15. This area, like most of the core Facility, was located several hundred feet below the sun scorched surface of the Mojave Desert and comprised many green painted corridors peppered with tall, wide doors made from dark, stainless steel. The rooms inside were large and sterile. Artefacts were cleaned and studied in these rooms after they were brought from the excavation sites (sites E.1 through E.27). Of course, whether we wanted to know the nature of the research or not, eventually, after patrolling some of the research labs for weeks, it wasn’t difficult to figure out that the scientists were mostly archeologists or paleontologists. I would often find objects of different sizes and shapes lying around in various states of cleanliness. Some looked like ancient amphoras, or large stone bird baths. Others were less identifiable: a chipped statue, a melted lump of some unidentifiable metal or large chunks of a glass-like material. I found this all extremely curious because, as far as I knew, the Mojave Desert didn’t have much in the way of ancient architecture. At least of any ancient civilization that I know.
As the months went by I started to get friendly with the other guards, most of them ex-cops too, and we started playing cards and drinking Irish coffee in the evenings. My two main colleagues consisted of a jovial, short man with orange hair named Jonesy and a much older much grumpier and much balder man, Donald. They were good men and we had a lot of laughs together. My stomach twists when I think about where they are now. Though I grew fonder of my fellow guards, I found myself developing a severe dislike for the white coated researchers. Most of them were pernicious and arrogant. The only scientist my security buddies and me could stand was a scrawny man named Benny. Our favorite thing about Benny was that he never talked about his work.
It was earlier today, at around 1400h, when all the scientists were running from their rooms. They must have received some message a few minutes before and we watched them from the surveillance monitors as they got all excited and leapt up. Their lab coats flapped and flowed around as they jumped to their feet and made for the main exit. Soon after this the large red landline phone near my video surveillance desk began to ring. Expecting the call, I picked up the receiver before the first ring finished, “Hey boss, what’s all the excitement about?” Bill’s voice was uncharacteristically hesitant “The diggers have found a friggin’ huge object out here! The biggest thing they’ve ever dug up, it’s really irregular. They want to bring it to B.15 and I need you to organize the logistics and security”. My brow furrowed, “I guess it’s too big for the main entrance? Maybe we could bring it in via the big doors of the auxiliary hangar?” Bill grunted with agreement, “Yea, we’ll have to improvise a bit but should be manageable. I have no idea what it is… well you’ll see for yourself. I’ll get some of the boys from B.14 to help you out. And just, well…” He paused for a moment, “just be careful.” I grunted, my eyebrow arched from surprise; why was he so afraid? “Um thanks, appreciate it, see you guys soon”.
Donald, Jonesy and I had coffee in the office and called the guards at the hangar doors to arrange clearance. About an hour later we were at the platform near the doors waiting for the cargo to arrive. The massive metal hangar doors had been opened, which was rare. What was more irregular was that nearly every staff member from sections B.11 to B.18 were all gathered together in a silent knot of people. Despite the silence the air sizzled with anticipation, as well as the searing heat. I stood transfixed from curiosity at the massive doorway, waiting in the shade of the hangar as the relentless sun beat down outside. In the distance I saw a black speck grow larger against the bright blue sky. Slowly it took the form of a helicopter which was carrying a large rectangular shaped mass below it.
Within less than a minute the helicopter made its cacophonous approach toward the hangar and gently lowered the object onto an enormous wooden scaffold. I barked orders and signed forms as the guards rushed about, making sure the other personnel stayed a safe distance away. The air was blaring with the sound of the helicopter blades and sand rocketed into my face, forcing me to splutter. “Alright, let’s get this thing processed!” I yelled over the sound of the helicopter as its engines powered down, my colleagues and I wiped dirt from our faces. Bill emerged swiftly from the chopper and shook my hand. We quickly reviewed the paper work he gave me and then he made his way back downstairs to his office in section B.1. He was keen to get away for some reason.
“Alright, it’s officially in my care now. Show’s over. Get the non-essential personnel out of here immediately and secure the object. I want to get Benny up here to analyze it ASAP.” As my colleagues cleared away most of the staff and the excitement died down I was finally able to take a moment to inspect the object. It had been lowered onto the wooden scaffold fitted with wheels just outside the hangar and had been pushed slowly into the center. The few aircraft in this hangar were all currently under repairs and were non-operational, therefore there was plenty of space. As soon as I saw the sheer size of the object, I knew it would be difficult to transport, but not impossible. The object was a wall. Or a large fragment of a wall.
It was about twenty feet long, eight feet thick and ten feet high. At first the wall appeared made from some sort of boring grey stone. However, when I looked closer the wall was… alive. The wall’s surface bubbled slightly. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I stepped closer. When I was only a few inches away from it I felt cold. A bead of sweat ran down my cheek and I thought I heard something. It sounded like someone far away calling my name.
I felt a strange pressure around my head. A sudden invasive thought wormed to life: throw yourself into the wall. I shuddered and held myself back despite the sudden strong desire. I heard the faint voice of Benny and crashed back to reality. My eyes snapped open and I found my nose an inch away from the wall. It radiated cold like an open freezer and it smelled like rotting clay. The surface of the wall simmered ever so slightly. It reminded me of the fizz of some grey effervescent medicine. I paled as I took a large step backward, “I.. uh, what is this?” I turned to face Benny who stood with another scientist. He glanced at her briefly before he approached the wall to apply more straps. He was careful to avoid touching the wall with his bare skin. “Honestly, we have no idea”.
I got Donald and Jonesy to help Benny transport the wall down to room 278B via the service elevator. Donald grumbled about how badly the wall smelled and Jonesy had eyes as large as saucers when he saw it up close, “It looks so unreal!” Once downstairs I returned to my office to get some more coffee and file away the paperwork. I tried to put the strangeness of the wall out of my mind, but it had truly unnerved me. I felt so tired, my forehead drenched with cold sweat. I had been working extra shifts lately, but I had never been hit by such exhaustion so rapidly. As I sat at my desk facing the surveillance monitors I was unable to fight the sleep forcing my eyes shut.
I’ve had many hangovers in my life, most of them unpleasant, but when I woke up at my desk I’d never felt quite so singularly awful. My clothes were soaked with sweat and my whole body felt exhausted. My arms felt like molasses as I attempted to move. My forehead throbbed and I felt bruised. I also felt a pressure squeezing my head from all sides. It was quite peculiar. I sat back in my seat and rubbed my eyes.
Then I froze.
A hand was lying motionless on the floor just behind the table in the center of the office. I leapt to my feet and rushed forward. I gasped from horror as I saw Donald lying on the floor, his chest sliced to ribbons. Gallons of crimson red stained his blue uniform and his eyes stared up empty and terrified. Pallid and shaking I went to my office landline to call for backup immediately. As the receiver met my ear my stomach dropped into my feet.
The line was dead.
The sole means of communication within the core Facility is done through landlines. The landlines are monitored at all times and any interruption results in an immediate response from security. We had many protocols and fail safes to ensure communication remained enabled, but the line was dead and there was no sign of any response. In fact, how long had I been asleep? What was happening? I rushed back to the monitors. I hadn’t noticed it before but I couldn’t see anyone. The cameras were all operating normally but not a single person could be seen. The corridors were just as green and bare as most late evenings. I looked at the clock, it was only 1817h. I had slept for about two and a half hours. Where were the janitors? My heart was hammering in my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath. Meanwhile my head was throbbing and my eyes were burning. Suddenly I heard an indistinct whisper. Gooseflesh bloomed all over my back and arms.
I’d heard this voice before.
I’d heard this voice from the wall.
I turned to the monitors and searched for the wall. It had been brought back to the surface; the hangar! It sat upon the bare ground right by the massive doors. However, the doors were all sealed. The wall itself looked different. It was enormous! Almost three times longer and taller and wider. Just then, I realized that the titanium blast doors had been sealed as well. My heart rate doubled as I noticed large dents, scorch marks and scratches all over the doors. Someone had tried to break them down. The hangar floor was covered in blood and ash as well as abandoned weapons. My God, I even saw a rocket-launcher lying blackened and fractured near the doors. What the hell had happened?
I spun my head to look at the security control panel on the wall to my left. My heart, already blaring, felt like it leapt out of my mouth. My eyes grew wide as I realized someone, probably Donald, had activated a quarantine procedure. This meant that the entire Facility would be sealed airtight. The only way to open any doors now was from the outside. My God! Why had he done this? Where was everyone? Did he try to wake me? Did I really sleep through all this? I looked back at Donald, my heart still hammering from seeing his dead eyes stare into mine. I sighed sadly and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was currently 1831h. I returned to the monitors and began to rewind the security footage.
Surveying the screens, I watched my past-self enter the security office at around 1600h. By 1610h I had passed-out on my chair, drool dangling from my mouth. “Ok, so let’s see where the wall was at that time. Should be room 278B.” I thought to myself aloud as I clicked on the button that would display the footage from that room as well as the surrounding corridors. The screen was black as the footage loaded and I was about to hit the play button but hesitated. Did I really want to see this? I closed my eyes and took a few slow breaths. I can’t figure my way out of here if I don’t know what’s going on. I have to know. I hit play.
The camera was located opposite the door giving a full view of the room. At first everything seemed normal. Benny and some other scientists had transported the wall into room 278B. It was 1623h when they were taking the straps off the wall. A loud popping sound was heard and the researchers spun around. The lights in the room dimmed and flickered. Suddenly something long and slimy exploded from the wall, curled around Benny, and pulled him in. He screamed in terror as he vanished, his cries immediately silenced. My jaw dropped open and a small yell escaped me.
Without realizing it, I was instantly on my feet, shaking my head in pure denial. My heart burst. What the hell was that? What the hell? What the hell? My head was full of static. I felt tears in my eyes as I watched guards and researchers rush into the room. The wall shimmered, it’s simmering surface began to boil and bubble and it grew three feet higher. I saw it reshape itself so that intricately carved figures appeared on the wall’s edge. I leant in closer and gasped. One of those figures looked just like Benny, his mouth stretched open wide into a permanent scream. I didn’t want to continue watching, but I had to. The guards and researchers were horrified by what they saw before them. Suddenly, without warning, their body postures relaxed, their eyes grew glassy, and their arms fell slack at their sides. Those within the room moved as if sleepwalking. Some stayed still while others left the room. Brow furrowed from confusion and fear, my eyes swiveled to the footage of the corridor outside. The guards and researchers that had just exited 278B immediately began attacking and grappling those around them. I yelped as a vacant-eyed guard lazily shot another man in the leg. The thrall then dragged the wounded guard into room 278B. The mad guard held the wounded guard’s leg fast as he casually walked into the grey wall, pulling the struggling man in behind him. During this altercation I noticed Donald for the first time, he was hiding behind the corner of the corridor at the far end and was firing his gun at the madmen. He didn’t manage to hit anyone though. He then ran over to help a stray researcher to their feet and then they both ran down the corridor and out of view.
I can still hear the cries of pain and pleas for mercy as those who fell victim to the thralls were each dragged into that horrifying wall. With every person it swallowed, the wall wriggled and grew and grew. More and more ghastly decorations began to bloom on its surface, all of them made from the bones or likenesses of those who had been absorbed. The bigger it got the stronger its psychic influence became until it seemed to reach nearly everyone in the Facility, turning them into thralls. I looked on in horror as one by one, all janitors, researchers, guards, diggers, admin staff, everyone gradually stopped what they were doing, mid conversation, their eyes emptying. The janitors dropped their mops and buckets. Researchers dropped precious materials and equipment without care, letting them smash to pieces. In unison they all slowly, with vacant expressions, moved toward room 278B. Among the horde of thralls, I saw Bill and Jonesy, and so many others I knew by face. A guy who’d held the door for me once, a researcher who always slurped her coffee at lunch. Hundreds of people! What filled me with an unnamable dread was that I knew what was gonna happen. I knew what was coming. I tried to shout at the monitors, “Stop! Wait!” I grabbed the monitors and shook them with frustration.
A terror began to fill my stomach, deep and cold and aching. Suddenly I noticed Donald reappear on the screen. He was trying to hold back the researcher he’d helped earlier, but it was useless. I saw Donald, chest heaving from effort, stare with incredulity as he sat defeated on the ground. Everyone else around him stumbled dreamily toward their doom. But Donald refused to give up. I saw him run from corridor to corridor, trying desperately to stop them. He threw chairs and tables in their way but they simply pushed them aside or jumped over them. I saw him run toward this office. I saw him enter, saw myself slumped on my chair still completely unconscious. I saw Donald try to shake me awake, he slapped me a few times and was yelling in frustration. He gave up with me eventually and ran over to activate the quarantine lockdown. I saw him tear down the hall back toward room 278B, pistol in hand.
My best guess was that he saw what was happening in room 278B and decided he was gonna stop it. However, as soon as he got close to the door a long pale tendril burst through the door directly into Donald’s chest. The tentacle had a hooked end and it slashed at him. I saw blood spurt out of him, saw him stumble and fall from the ground in fright. However, he still managed to get a hold of his gun and fired multiple shots at the tendril. It writhed and flailed. Donald took the opportunity to climb to his feet. He grimaced and clasped his chest as crimson leaked to the floor. He moved back down the corridor, much more slowly than before. Eventually he got back to the office. He locked the door and then collapsed. I cried out in frustration. That whole time I was completely useless!
My mind felt like static again for a few seconds. I couldn’t work out what my next move should be. A thought hit me hard, one I should really have thought of before. Why had Donald and I not been psychically affected by the wall? Everyone had been enslaved, everyone had been forced to walk into that wall. Why not Donald? And me? I knew it must be connected to my horrendous sleepiness. My eyes grew wide with sudden realization. “Shit, the steel plates in my head!” Donald had a single steel plate in his skull because of a rock-climbing accident he had in his 20s. When I got close to the wall, had it sensed my resistance? Had it tried to incapacitate me? If so, it means this thing possesses sentience.
While I pondered this, I noticed some thralls re-strap the wall in room 278B. They transported it to the elevator and back up to the hangar. Once there, the thralls moved the wall off the scaffold onto the floor and began to beat heavily on the large metal doors with bare fists. Some even shot at the doors with their handguns. The ricochets killed a few of them but not one single person seemed to even notice. Some of the guards even used a rocket launcher! I yelled with shock as they fired at deadly close range, lazily blowing themselves up, leaving the doors scorched. After this proved futile, the thralls all grew suddenly rigid. Next, they all formed a line in front of the wall and one shambling step after another, all the remaining employees were - assimilated. Even the dead and wounded were not spared. Those still alive carried the corpses of their fellow thralls into the wall.
It was 1705h when the last employee disappeared forever into the grey horror, and the wall expanded to its current size. Without warning, a large writhing mass of twisted limbs emerged from the wall. I gasped from horror. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was because the lighting in the hangar wasn’t good enough, but it definitely wasn’t human. Its silhouette was about seven feet tall and thin and stretched. It had too many legs and it didn’t seem to have a head. This thing lumbered over to the doors and began to strike them with a strength and ferocity one would only find in a starving polar bear. I could tell that the doors were taking strain, and they began to bend, but even then, they would not yield. After about half an hour of smashing the door, the creature stopped and slowly shambled toward the stairs. My heart froze. It was coming here! Or was it here already?
My eyes swiveled back to the main monitor and I was surprised to see Donald still alive. He was scratched and bleeding badly as he shakily pushed himself from the floor. He then looked up at the ammunitions cupboard and began to search through his keys. I saw him curse. He couldn’t find the key with his trembling, bloodied fingers. In the next instant his eyes bulged and he heaved as if vomiting. His body doubled over and long grey tendrils oozed from his mouth and wriggled furiously. He grabbed his throat and fell forward onto the floor. Frozen in horror I watched as his body squirmed and he wriggled as if his intestines were filled with snakes. I continued to watch absolutely transfixed as three long grey tendrils emerged again from between Donald’s lips. Slowly they wriggled free of his mouth. They were about half a foot long, dull grey and thin like spaghetti.
I watched as they slithered toward my unconscious form on the monitor. I bit my lip and stood up. Slowly my brain put two and two together. Bile rose in my throat. I yelled at myself to wake up and see the worms. Just then my stomach dropped and I could feel an itchiness in my belly. I could feel the wriggling itch of a thousand grey eels in my gut. Or was I imagining it?
My stomach writhed and I was about to puke when I saw myself awake and stretch in my chair. The worms somehow realized I was awake and they moved out of view towards the –before I could watch the screen any longer, I heard a hiss and something slimy and long wrapped itself around my throat so tight I couldn’t breathe. I gasped with surprise and strained my neck to look at the monitor that showed the room in real time. I saw from the camera behind my head that something thin and grey had wrapped itself around my throat. I saw two more of those things coming at me from behind as well. They were about to come wriggling up my chair when I grimaced with anger and grabbed my gun from its holster. The thing around my neck was hissing and making awful clicking and guttural noises. Its small worm head had a mouth that bit and it latched onto my neck to suck my blood. I pulled at the leach and pressed my gun up against it. I pulled the trigger. With an earsplitting bang and a sound like a water balloon popping the leach was reduced to sticky goo. I pulled the remnants of the leach off my neck and spun around just in time to shoot and kill the others. I grinned with a mad-joy and yelled with relief. Immediately, a wave of nausea and exhaustion hit me and I fell back onto my chair. “What the hell was that? What the hell do I do now?” I sat still for a moment and tried not to lose my mind completely. I swear I could hear Woody the woodpecker laughing somewhere in the distance. I needed to keep it together. I took a long deep breath and tried to think of a way out.
Summarizing the details of my predicament, I realized I was trapped alone inside the Facility with an otherworldly force. Also, even if I found a way out, I’d potentially be letting an evil into the world that could destroy all life. At once an old thought returned to me, one I’d often experienced as a cop. “If I need to sacrifice myself to save others, I will do so without complaint.” A wry smile spread over my face. “Once a cop, always a cop.” My smile vanished as a I continued to think. “But my God, if this thing gets out. If it gets into the minds of other people. If it gets larger and larger. Could it swallow the world? The solar system? What other monstrosities would it unleash?” I was talking aloud now; the sound of my voice gave a new reality to my situation that made me shudder. I turned back to the monitor. It seems I was all caught up with what had happened. I stared blankly into the screen while I watched my past-self continue to wake and wince from pain. I switched the monitor off and saw my reflection in the blackness of the screen. I was pale and my eyes were wide and unblinking. “What do I do now?” I turned in my chair to look at Donald’s body. Were all those worms gone? Could some still be hiding? And what should be done with his body? Probably best to have it burned. “Poor Donald, he didn’t deserve this”, I muttered softly as I examined his corpse, making sure there were no unexplained twitches beneath his skin. My eyes moved from his body up to the ammunition’s cupboard just above. “Wait, why was he trying to get into the cupboard earlier? We don’t have much…”, my eyes grew large with realization. “Holy crap, he was trying to get the bomb! Me and Donald were gonna use a left-over bomb from the excavation site to blow some random shit up!”
I sighed sadly and heavily. We never got around to it. I stood up quickly and walked up to the cupboard. I pulled out my keys and quickly found the key I’d need. I opened the cupboard with little effort and found the ten kilos of plastic explosive inside. It had already been set up with a sixty second timer and a remote detonator by a colleague. I sat at the table with the explosive, a vague plan forming in my broken mind. “Maybe if I somehow get this wall-thing to eat this bomb then...”
Before I could formulate my thoughts fully, the lights flickered, and the entire Facility was plunged into darkness unceremoniously. My nerves were burning with fear. What had happened? Had that thing knocked the power out somehow? The next few seconds that past were some of the longest I’d ever experienced. However, dim green light bloomed to life and the reserve power kicked in. Then I heard slow, shuffling footsteps in the corridor just outside the office. I froze once again, my insides turning to mush. My mind raced. Had I remembered to lock the door? My stomach leapt into my feet as I heard the shuffling get louder and louder. I heard hoarse, wheezing breaths, as if the thing struggled to breathe. I jumped from fright but remained absolutely silent as whatever the thing was banged on the door with a deafening blow.
BANG! The door shook and bent slightly.
BANG! Silence for a moment.
BANG! BANG! Again silence. My heart was hammering in my ears and I sat deathly still. I could hear that thing breathing louder. After a few moments I heard it shuffle away. My entire body was shaking as relief washed over me. Whatever the thing was, it had walked away and I could no longer hear it. I turned to look at the monitors. Dare I turn them on and check what it was? After a few seconds of consideration, holding my breath, I turned to the monitors and switched them on. I waited in nervous anticipation as the screens flickered to life showing me that all the corridors between me and the wall were currently empty. I didn’t bother checking the corridor I suspected the shambling thing was in. I didn’t want to see it unless I needed to. I’d had just about all the stress and terror I could take and by this stage I felt weirdly calm. It must be shock. A thin sigh escaped me as I stood. The fear in my blood began to feed a furnace of anger in my heart. I thought about all those who I had lost. I felt my expression turn to granite, “It’s time to kill this thing.”
I opened the door slowly, my fully loaded gun in my good hand. Spare ammo along with the explosive and a shotgun was stashed in my backpack, and the remote detonator was tied to my belt. I held a heavy-duty flashlight in my shaky right hand. I moved cautiously through the dark green corridors. I’d never thought of how creepy this place could be until this moment. Gooseflesh crept up my arms and neck as I continued. All I could hear were my soft footfalls and shallow anxious breaths. I cleared the corridors one by one until I made it to the stairs that would lead me to the thing that looks like a wall. I walked up the stairs slowly, my ears honing in on any sound. That’s when I heard it. I heard the soft sound of crying.
Someone was crying. I stopped dead in my tracks. My entire body shook from the adrenaline surging through me. I took one step. Then another. Slowly, I climbed. Once my head could peek over the top, I froze. Jonesy was squatting on his knees, naked. He was between the wall and me, with his back facing me. The terrifying thing loomed enormous before us. It was now framed intricately with the skeletons of hundreds of people, all twisted and screaming in agony. Writhing, tortured souls fused together. Then came the sound of crying and moaning from the wall. I could hear them all. They were all screaming. Screaming for me to help them. To join them. I felt that pressure squeeze against my skull tighter and tighter. I shook my head in defiance. “No! You bastard! NO! I will not join you! You’re not Jonesy!” All at once the moans and wails stopped. I suddenly found myself at the top of the stairs without knowing when I’d finished climbing them. “But we are Jonesy” came a voice that was not human. It was a voice made from all those it had swallowed up. It was as though something had made a distorted copy of the voices of all those people and then just used them all at once to speak. It didn’t understand the concept of individuality. All of a sudden, the wall rippled and grey tendrils squirmed from the flesh of the wall, curling around Jonesy as they teased his face and slowly pulled him in. As he disappeared there was a horrendous sucking, squelching noise. “We are Jonesy. We are all. We can be all. We will be all. All and all and more than all.” The voice was chanting this over and over. Louder and louder.
A deafening blast came from the wall and a slithering, writhing mass of tangled human limbs emerged. It had four legs and several arms. It looked like the bodies of eight or more people shuffled and glued into an otherworldly horror. Its multiple mouths screamed a high pitch squeal that was more horrifying than the screams of the damned, and its sharp pointed teeth gnashed and chomped. I only had a second to dodge this monster. I leapt to the side and fired multiple shots at the thing’s center of mass. Its horrifying body of fused torsos wriggled and bled black ichor. It screamed with pain and jumped at me, grabbing my leg. It tossed me into the air and I almost lost my gun as I slammed into the floor a few feet away. Before I could catch my breath, it was upon me again. From the ground I fired several shots at it. This made it jump away and scuttle down the stairs. With it momentarily out of sight, I quickly got to my feet and kept my eyes on the stairs.
After a second, I decided to kneel and take off my backpack as fast as I could. I pulled out the bomb and started the timer. I also decided to get the shotgun out and get it loaded. I needed to do this now or never. As the final shell clicked into place I heard a roar coming from the stairs. The thing was back. Before I could react, it leapt at me and knocked me to the ground. The bomb flew from my grasp. It bared down on me, grabbing at my throat ready to tear me apart. My reflexes saved me though and I managed to use my shotgun to hold the thing at bay, but it was too strong. Desperate, I kicked it hard in the chest and it let go. I used this moment to grab the bomb that lay behind me; only 37 seconds to go! Terrified and crazed, sweat pouring down my face, my mind in pieces, I rammed the bomb into the creature’s mouth and kicked it back again as hard as I could. I heard it yelp like a wounded dog and it lost its footing. It fell sideways and in that second, I took my shotgun and fired at it in the chest. The force of the close-range blast sent me flying. At the same time the creature was hurled back into the wall where it was enveloped quickly.
My head was fuzzy. I was dizzy and the wind had been knocked out of me. Was the bomb going to work? I felt something warm and wet drip into my ear and touched the side of my head. My fingertips came away soaked in blood. My head was spinning. With a foggy mind I grabbed my bag, collecting my weapons and flashlight. As I stood up I heard a low rumbling sound. The ground beneath my feet shook and for a moment I was confused. Then I looked up at the wall. Its surface was roiling and boiling like I’d never seen before. It was shaking and growing. I turned to run when suddenly there was a massive blast from inside it, and the entire wall exploded into hundreds of small grey chunks. These chunks rained down all around the hangar, smashing several aircraft. The blast knocked me off my feet and this time I definitely passed out because when I awoke I could see daylight through the tiny cracks in the blast door. Where the wall had once been now stood a small blackened crater. I turned around to inspect the wall pieces and found that they – my eyes grew wide and my mouth opened. They were melting. As I approached a fragment of wall, a horrible twisted hand shot out at me. I yelled and jumped away. It was still alive! I watched in dumbfounded horror as the pieces continued to melt and began to merge, just like that scene from Terminator 2.
It was rebuilding itself. Then I heard a groan. My blood became ice. I turned slowly in terror to find the shambling, wheezing monstrosity behind me. Like the creature I'd shot, this one seemed made from bits and pieces of human limbs knitted together randomly. This one had legs which came out its mouth, its head positioned within its torso where the bellybutton should be, and it wheezed in pain. I almost puked from fright but my legs were already carrying me away. I sprinted down the corridors, ignoring all the pain and fear and exhaustion and anger and frustration I had inside me. Without thinking, I leapt into the first janitor's closet I found and locked the door with a dull clunking sound. After catching my breath, I found this notepad and pencil, and have been writing this report in the sterile glow of my flashlight. Hopefully, I have left some useful information for anyone who may find this.
Now I lie in wait for that thing. Now I lie in wait for that grey ooze. What is that thing? Is it truly indestructible? If it can survive a bomb like that, what hope do we have? It’s no wall at all. It’s a membrane. An interface. Somewhere very different is pressing up against us. It has torn a small hole, and was now prying it open further. I should blow up this whole damn place! I should burn it! But would it matter? Or would it just be buried, to be rediscovered? I think even if I survive this, nothing can help us. So here I wait, hoping to be saved, but even as I write this I can hear that thing walking past the door. With a soft click I turn off my flashlight. I try not to breathe. I can hear the snuffling, it’s right outside! I can smell its ugly breath.
Oh God! I hear the jingling of keys. The door is unlocking! How? How?
Oh God! The doorknob is turning...