Mathews dxt 70 limbs for sale
The MH650 Headset - a One Month In review
2024.06.11 13:55 Rlahn The MH650 Headset - a One Month In review
 | tl;dr: an adequate option if you're looking for something in this price range. Mine broke in a month, due to a manufacturing defect - customer support was great, and I got it replaced with little hassle. submitted by Rlahn to coolermaster [link] [comments] All round, I'd say it's a good pair of headphones. It definitely gives me what I wanted, and its miles better than anything else I tried before. They do have some flaws. Most of these are minor, most of these I had known of when buying the product. None were significant enough to meaningfully alter my experience. My pair broke just under a month after I received them. I was able to take them to a service center in my city, who accepted it without any debate, and had a replacement ready for me in a week. QUICK POINTS:
BACKGROUND I am a PC gamer who also frequently listens to music. I've never seen grass in my life, and my primary concern has been making sure my audio products are convenient to use from the comfort of my room. Most of my past buys have been lower-end headsets from companies like CosmicByte. They were of remarkably poor quality, and all of them became practically unusable in less than two years. Tired of this trend, I was looking for something better. I wanted better audio quality and a more reliable mic, but also a better lifespan, and the safety that came with buying from a brand of more renown. My budget was initially at ~3,000₹ (<40$), although after research that was raised to 5-6000₹ (60-75$). I live in Mumbai, India. SOUND QUALITY Firstly, I want to be clear that I am not an audiophile. My requirements for 'good audio' are not really that high, and I don't know enough about the higher-end audio market. As such, I'm not really the best person to be talking about Sound Quality. For me, the sound quality fits my needs. I don't have the expertise (or the interest) to say much more. If the finer details of sound quality matter a lot to you, you'll have to look elsewhere. I will say, however, that the bass is VERY weak (this was something that was mentioned in a lot of other reviews I read, too). It was significant enough for me to notice right on day one - music I listen to that's heavy on bass felt DRASTICALLY different (weirdly, this doesn't affect gaming much - idk why, but I'm not complaining) I shall be discussing this more in the section on the Master+ app, but I wanted to add here that the in-built equalizer does not do shit. It did not affect the sound I was hearing AT ALL. The MH650 is quite loud - my system volume (which used to be at 100% with my old headphones) is now typically at 10-20%, with the volume sliders on most games being at 30-50%. That said, whenever I'm listening to music that's bass-heavy, the volume bar on Spotify has to go from ~30% to 60-70%. The bass is very weak. The 7.1 Virtual Surround sound does its job very well - I am able to easily pinpoint the location of sounds when I'm gaming, I have no issues here. However, it seems that I am unable to turn it off? Like, it seems physically impossible. Both the on-device Surround Sound toggle, and the option on the Master+ app, do nothing at all. This is very annoying, since SS does also make sounds feel like they're coming from further away, and it causes some sounds to be more muffled than I would like. If anyone else is having a similar problem, could you mention it in the comments below? THE MASTER+ APP In a single word - Dogshit. I have found the app to be finicky, inconsistent, and generally poor at doing its job. Many other people who have used it have felt the same. Once it recognizes your device (if it recognizes it at all) you get three tabs of settings: RGB, an Equalizer, and the 7.1 Surround Sound. All of them are subpar in performance. Equalizer: The equalizer, as I have said before, does not do shit. Audio sounds the exact same in all three of the default presets ('Pop Music', 'Gaming', and 'Movies') as well as when I had all the sliders pushed to their maximum and minimum values. I've dealt with it for now, but the weak bass is really starting to get on my nerves. I'll probably get some external EQ software set up to boost the bass, sometime soon™. Surround Sound: Admittedly, I haven't messed with the surround sound much (I didn't mind the default preset), so I don't have that much to speak about here. However, I want to state again how I seem completely unable to turn Surround Sound off - both the toggle option on the app, and the on-device 7.1 toggle button, don't do anything. Very annoying. However, I want to state again how I seem completely unable to turn Surround Sound off - both the toggle option on the app, and the on-device 7.1 toggle button, don't do anything. Very annoying. RGB: The RGB settings are very limiting. You have three options - a color cycle, a static single color, and a breathing single color (and also turning it off entirely). All three let you vary the brightness, but the color cycle doesn't let you choose which colors to cycle between. There is a significant difference between the colors that are shown on the app, and the colors that are produced by the lights on the headset. In general, what you get on your device is a lighter, less vibrant, more washed-out version of what you see on the app. This is especially so for the for the Red and Green components, which seem to be significantly weaker than the Blue. The RGB looks best with darker, blue-dominant colors: cyans, blues, purples, and magentas all look good. The other side of the spectrum (lighter pinks, yellows, oranges, greens) tend to look overly washed-out and desaturated. Another major issue is that the app has this annoying tenancy to just... forget all my settings? I can fine-tune everything to be a specific way, only for it all to be gone the next day. I have no clue why the app struggles so much, or why it as so many flaws. It is especially disappointing, since the app support was one of the major selling points to get the MH650 over the MH630. ON-DEVICE CONTROLS In general, I find these to be surprisingly responsive, much better than anything I've used before (granted, that's not saying much... but I like them all the same). There are 4 different controls - a volume slider and a mic mute button on the left earcup, and the 7.1 toggle and and RGB button on the right. There aren't any inline controls on the chord, which I have to mention because I HATE those with a burning passion. The volume slider doesn't have any tactile 'bumps', but it still works just fine. It doesn't have any issues faced by most cheaper headphones, where fiddling with the volume can cause a change in the audio balance between the earcups, which I greatly appreciate The mic mute does what it does, nothing much to say there. It extends out a good bit further than any of the other buttons, which I find helpful, since its the button you'll be using the most There is one issue I have though - using this to mute your mic will force the RGB to flash red. This 'hijacking' of your RGB takes place even when you have the mic detached. I have no clue why this was added... it feels kinda random? Its cool to have, ig, but imo there should be a way to turn it off. I definitely find it more annoying than useful. The 7.1 toggle, as I have mentioned already, does nothing for me. Idk why, or whether this is an issue only I face. The RGB button is standard. It cycles through the 3 RGB settings that you can customize with the Master+ app (a color cycle, flat single color, and breathing single color), along with turning the RGB off entirely. Not much to say here. It does its job. MICROPHONE I feel like the mic on the MH650 is excellent - especially for this price range. I've even had friends call out how my voice sounds much better with these than with my previous sets. It can act a bit over-sensitive at times, but that hasn't been too much of an issue so far. The mic is also detachable! I usually keep it off most of the time, storing it in one of my desk drawers, because I think the headset looks better with the mic off. There's a little cover for the plug-in point, but the joint connecting it to the body is very flimsy. It broke off within a week. Thankfully, this doesn't affect the audio quality in any way (although it might cause dust to accumulate in the hole... I suppose I'll update this post if it causes any issues). The mic is flexible, and the neck can be bent into any shape you want. So far, it seems to be pretty well-built, and able to retain its shape nicely. I will say, however: the joint that links the neck to the connector feels kinda weak. Its not shown any sign of giving out yet, but I feel like it might be liable to breaking if roughly handled. COMFORT AND BUILD QUALITY Earpads: The earpads have a fabric material on the outside, with faux leatheleatherette/pleather on the inside. This choice of material confuses me - typically, you would see the more breathable fabric on the inside so that your ears don't overheat, and the faux leather on the outside, to help avoid sound leakage. I hadn't noticed the double-material earpads while researching the product. I thought it would be fabric all the way. It was probably just me being blind, but if you hadn't noticed it either, this is something you should be aware of before buying. The pleather on the inside does give the earcups a nice seal. Sound is trapped inside well, and it muffles external noise adequately. It also means your ears will get quite hot, especially if you're living in a warm region like me. I definitely feel some discomfort when listening to music/gaming for long hours in the afternoons. The leatherette had already started to tear up by the time my headset broke - sad, but not entirely unexpected; the faux leather is usually the first thing to break in most headsets. Obviously, the replacement I got does not show any signs of damage. Frame: Feels pretty comfortable. It's well-built, and looks to be pretty sturdy. It's mostly plastic, not metal: this does hurt the durability, but it also makes the headset quite light (282g, without the cable). The headband cushioning is made of the same fabric material on the earpads. It's flexible, doesn't chafe, and feels comfy to use (even after several hours). No problems here. The clamp force is high, but not uncomfortably so. I got used to it in about a week. Earcups: Similar to the frame, they are built mostly out of plastic, but still feel quite sturdy. They're pretty flexible, and comfort-wise don't give you any trouble. I want to mention, however, that the swivel joints that connect them to the headband don't feel sturdy. According to reviews, this is a common first point of failure. Personally, I never really liked 90° swivel joints in the first place, so its annoying to see them be so weak. Still, they haven't caused me any problems yet. BREAKAGE AND RMA EXPERIENCE My headset broke in just under a month of usage. From what I can tell, something inside the hinge that connects the left earcup to the headband shattered - it jutted out at a weird angle, and the screws didn't go back in [note: the hinge here is different from the swivel joints I was talking about in the previous section] https://preview.redd.it/3sc2lh4xpw5d1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1f33776758207c1a12a181f812631d6717fca510 https://preview.redd.it/3uuf7c4xpw5d1.jpg?width=4000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=afcfe2d236b12bc0f35351fc67e390373d064643 This happened during a late-night gaming session, last thursday. I contacted Cooler Master the next morning, and they told me to go to a service center in my city. I went there on Saturday, with the tax invoice for the product, and the original packaging it came in I ended up sitting there for about half an hour, during which they inspected the product. Eventually, they deemed that all was in order, and took it in with no further questions asked. I was given a receipt and told that they would call me once a replacement was ready for pickup. I got the call a week later (this saturday), and picked it up with no hassle. All in all, it was a remarkably smooth process. Everyone I talked to was pretty helpful, and there weren't any random delays or hold-ups along the way. Way to go, CM Customer Service! OTHER STUFF This is a collection of other minor points, that I can't fit elsewhere
THE MH6XO SERIES I feel like I want to add a section here, at the end, to compare the MH650 with the other products in its series. If you didn't know, the MH650 is one of three headsets in the MH6XO line, with the other two being the 630 and the 670. The MH630 is the 'base' product. It has all the core functionality you would expect from a headset, but without most of the other 'premium' features. It does also come with a detachable AUX chord. The MH650 is similar to the MH630, but with a few additional features bundled in. These are:
Now, if you've been following along, you'd realize that the 650 really isn't all that superior to the 630: The app support and RGB are meh. The detachable mic is cool, but idk how many people actually care about that. The cable is no longer detachable, and the USB connector they put in is very loose. The surround sound... I know that a lot of people care about this, a lot, but you must also realize that a headset does not require surround sound support for you to have directional audio. Stereo headsets are perfectly capable of telling you the exact location a sound - the concept that you need Surround Sound because its the only way to achieve proper directionality is, for the most part, just marketing All in all, the MH630 really isn't that much worse than the 650. Rn, its available for ~3.9k... compared to this, the 650 is a ~25% rise in price, and that's almost entirely just so that you can get surround sound bundled in (and maybe a detachable mic if you really want that). The 630 was out of stock when I was making my buy, but rn it's back for sale, at ₹1k less than the 650. Consider giving it a look? SUMMARY All in all, I'd say this is a great set of headphones. It has some annoying flaws, it has some great traits, but for the most part its *adequate* - and for me, that's exactly what I need. If you're looking for a pair of lower-end headphones, perhaps as an entry into the world of branded gaming headsets, then this is a great option. I am definitely quite happy with what I've gotten. Some other options you could consider, if you didn't like what you heard here and want some suggestions in a similar price range:
|
2024.06.11 13:39 Automatic-Shoe-1013 Noblenest.shop scam or no scam?
 | Always wanted an oversized beanbag chair and luckily Instagram knew just what to show me! A large beanbag for 70% off and it’s only $90? Heck yeah - so I bought it. Shipping all the way from China; my experiences of things shipping from China with ‘good prices’ is not the best lol. Looking closer at their site: only 4-5 star reviews that praise everything about them, everything is on sale but they do NOT refund sale items, only contact information is an email - hella suspicious. Not too fucked up if it is a scam but I’m just curious if anyone has purchased from them and actually received it submitted by Automatic-Shoe-1013 to Scams [link] [comments] |
2024.06.11 13:18 JustBoatTrash Pimco Warns of More US Regional Bank Failures on Property Pain
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-06-11/pimco-warns-of-more-regional-bank-failures-on-commercial-property-pain
Pacific Investment Management Co. expects more regional bank failures in the US because of a “very high” concentration of troubled commercial real estate loans on their books.
“The real wave of distress is just starting” for lenders to everything from malls to offices, John Murray, Pimco’s head of global private commercial real estate team, said in an interview. His division sits within Pimco’s $173 billion alternatives business.
Uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates has exacerbated challenges faced by the commercial real estate sector, where high borrowing costs have hammered valuations and triggered defaults, leaving lenders stuck with assets that are tough to sell. Contrary to some market expectations, larger banks have been disposing of some of their higher quality assets first to avoid deeper losses, according to Murray.
“As stressed loans grow due to maturities, however, we expect that banks will start selling these more challenged loans to reduce their troubled loan exposures,” he said, adding his team has been snapping up CRE loans offloaded by some large US banks for the past 18 months.
The turmoil has been particularly felt among regional banks, which boosted their CRE exposure that in many cases is now worth only a fraction of their value at their peak. Smaller banks have continued to worry investors ever since the collapse of a few last year. Earlier this year, US Bancorp, the largest regional bank by assets, increased its provisions for credit losses in the first quarter to $553 million.
Regional banks were also the only lenders that didn’t demand extra down payments from commercial-property borrowers in recent years, highlighting their vulnerability to falling values, according to a report released by MSCI Real Assets in March. Deposit-taking institutions face an estimated $441 billion wall of maturing property debt this year.
For larger banks, the property exposures aren’t expected to cause systemic failures as their CRE lending was curbed after the 2008 crisis, Murray said. But borrowers’ failure to repay means they’re lending even less compared with 2021 and 2022, he added.
Meanwhile, many mortgage real estate investment trusts have become more sidelined as they deal with problems of their own. That’s limited their ability to underwrite new investments. Starwood Real Estate Income Trust tightened its shareholders’ ability to pull money last month in an effort to preserve liquidity and stave off asset sales, while Blackstone Inc.’s $59 billion property trust saw an uptick in withdrawal requests.
Lending volumes for major public mortgage REITs have plunged 70% from 2021 levels, according to Murray.
While banks tend to hog most of the headlines, another area that needs close attention is the more than $200 billion of loans made by debt funds in the US that are set to mature through 2025, Murray said. Many of these loans were originated during the peak pricing era of 2021, often with a three-year term and a three-year rate cap.
“The first catalyst for stress at the asset level is occurring right now, as assets will struggle to meet extension tests in this higher rate environment,” Murray said.
The Newport Beach, California-based asset manager is also keeping an eye on how German banks deal with their commercial real estate exposure.
“The combination of rising rates plus recessionary pressures creates real challenges for commercial real estate, from both a capital markets and fundamentals perspective,” Murray said.
submitted by JustBoatTrash to REBubble [link] [comments]
Pacific Investment Management Co. expects more regional bank failures in the US because of a “very high” concentration of troubled commercial real estate loans on their books.
“The real wave of distress is just starting” for lenders to everything from malls to offices, John Murray, Pimco’s head of global private commercial real estate team, said in an interview. His division sits within Pimco’s $173 billion alternatives business.
Uncertainty over when the Federal Reserve may cut interest rates has exacerbated challenges faced by the commercial real estate sector, where high borrowing costs have hammered valuations and triggered defaults, leaving lenders stuck with assets that are tough to sell. Contrary to some market expectations, larger banks have been disposing of some of their higher quality assets first to avoid deeper losses, according to Murray.
“As stressed loans grow due to maturities, however, we expect that banks will start selling these more challenged loans to reduce their troubled loan exposures,” he said, adding his team has been snapping up CRE loans offloaded by some large US banks for the past 18 months.
The turmoil has been particularly felt among regional banks, which boosted their CRE exposure that in many cases is now worth only a fraction of their value at their peak. Smaller banks have continued to worry investors ever since the collapse of a few last year. Earlier this year, US Bancorp, the largest regional bank by assets, increased its provisions for credit losses in the first quarter to $553 million.
Regional banks were also the only lenders that didn’t demand extra down payments from commercial-property borrowers in recent years, highlighting their vulnerability to falling values, according to a report released by MSCI Real Assets in March. Deposit-taking institutions face an estimated $441 billion wall of maturing property debt this year.
For larger banks, the property exposures aren’t expected to cause systemic failures as their CRE lending was curbed after the 2008 crisis, Murray said. But borrowers’ failure to repay means they’re lending even less compared with 2021 and 2022, he added.
Meanwhile, many mortgage real estate investment trusts have become more sidelined as they deal with problems of their own. That’s limited their ability to underwrite new investments. Starwood Real Estate Income Trust tightened its shareholders’ ability to pull money last month in an effort to preserve liquidity and stave off asset sales, while Blackstone Inc.’s $59 billion property trust saw an uptick in withdrawal requests.
Lending volumes for major public mortgage REITs have plunged 70% from 2021 levels, according to Murray.
While banks tend to hog most of the headlines, another area that needs close attention is the more than $200 billion of loans made by debt funds in the US that are set to mature through 2025, Murray said. Many of these loans were originated during the peak pricing era of 2021, often with a three-year term and a three-year rate cap.
“The first catalyst for stress at the asset level is occurring right now, as assets will struggle to meet extension tests in this higher rate environment,” Murray said.
The Newport Beach, California-based asset manager is also keeping an eye on how German banks deal with their commercial real estate exposure.
“The combination of rising rates plus recessionary pressures creates real challenges for commercial real estate, from both a capital markets and fundamentals perspective,” Murray said.
2024.06.11 12:32 realAlias_ I got the Ironman Hyperion + all scrolls within 32 runs
 | submitted by realAlias_ to HypixelSkyblock [link] [comments] |
2024.06.11 12:04 DonutOfTruthForAll Thoughts on Lib Dem manifesto for health?
Give everyone the right to see a GP or the most appropriate practice staff member within seven days, or within 24 hours if they urgently need to, by: Increasing the number of full-time equivalent GPs by 8,000, half by boosting recruitment and half from retaining more experienced GPs. Giving everyone 70+ and everyone with long-term health conditions access to a named GP. Freeing up GPs’ time by giving more prescribing rights and public health advisory services to qualified pharmacists, nurse practitioners and paramedics. Introducing a universal 24/7 GP booking system. Removing top-down bureaucracy to let practices hire the staff they need and invest in training. Establishing a Strategic Small Surgeries Fund to sustain services in rural and remote areas.
Guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care by: Bringing dentists back to the NHS from the private sector by fixing the broken NHS dental contract and using flexible commissioning to meet patient needs. Introducing an emergency scheme to guarantee access to free NHS dental check-ups for those already eligible: children, new mothers, those who are pregnant and those on low incomes. Guaranteeing appointments for all those who need a dental check before commencing surgery, chemotherapy or transplant.
Take action to prevent tooth decay by: Providing supervised toothbrushing training for children in nurseries and schools. Scrapping VAT on children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Work towards a fairer and more sustainable long-term funding model for pharmacies, and build on the Pharmacy First approach to give patients more accessible routine services and ease the pressure on GPs.
Improve early access to mental health services by: Opening walk-in hubs for children and young people in every community. Offering regular mental health check-ups at key points in people’s lives when they are most vulnerable to mental ill-health. Putting a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every school, as set out in chapter 8. Ending out-of-area mental health placements by increasing capacity and coordination between services, so that no one is treated far from home. Extending young people’s mental health services up to the age of 25 to end the drop-off experienced by young people transitioning to adult services. Increasing access to clinically effective talking therapies. Taking an evidence-led approach to preventing and treating eating disorders, and challenging damaging stigma about weight. Making prescriptions for people with chronic mental health conditions free on the NHS, as part of our commitment to review the entire schedule of exemptions for prescription charges. Transforming perinatal mental health support for those who are pregnant, new mothers and those who have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth. Tackling stigma through continued support for public education including Time to Talk. Cutting suicide rates with a focus on community suicide prevention services and improving prevention training for frontline NHS staff. Recognising the relationship between mental health and debt, and providing better signposting between talking therapies and debt advice. Ending inappropriate and costly inpatient placements for people with learning disabilities and autism. Modernising the Mental Health Act to strengthen people’s rights, give them more choice and control over their treatment and prevent inappropriate detentions. Creating a statutory, independent Mental Health Commissioner to represent patients, their families and carers. Widening the current safety investigation into mental health hospitals to look at the whole patient experience, including ward design and treatment options.
Boost cancer survival rates by: Introducing a guarantee that 100% of patients will be able to start treatment within 62 days from urgent referral. Replacing ageing radiotherapy machines and increasing their number, so no one has to travel too far for treatment. Recruiting more cancer nurses so that every patient has a dedicated specialist supporting them throughout their treatment. Passing a Cancer Survival Research Act requiring the Government to coordinate and ensure funding for research into the cancers with the lowest survival rates. Halving the time for new treatments to reach patients by expanding the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s capacity. Launching a new prostate cancer screening programme for those at higher risk.
Help people spend more years of their life in good health by: Increasing the Public Health Grant, with a proportion of the extra funding set aside for those experiencing the worst health inequalities to co-produce plans for their communities. Establishing a ‘Health Creation Unit’ in the Cabinet Office to lead work across government to improve the nation’s health and tackle health inequalities. Introducing regulations to halt the dangerous use of vapes by children while recognising their role in smoking cessation for adults, and banning the sale of single-use vapes. Improving access to blood pressure tests in community spaces. Expanding social prescribing and investing in community projects that bring people together to combat loneliness. Introducing a new kitemark for health apps and digital tools that are clinically proven to help people lead healthier lives. Introducing a new levy on tobacco company profits to help fund healthcare and smoking cessation services. Protecting children from exposure to junk food by supporting local authorities to restrict outdoor advertising and restricting TV advertising to post-watershed. Extending the soft drinks levy to juice-based and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar. Tackling air pollution and poor air quality in public buildings with a Clean Air Act, as set out in chapter 12.
Train, recruit and retain the doctors, nurses and other NHS staff we need, including by: Establishing a properly independent pay review body. Retaining more staff across the NHS through a ten-year retention plan. Making flexible working a day-one right and expanding access to flexible, affordable childcare, as set out in chapters 4 and 9. Fixing the work visa system and exempting NHS and care staff from the Immigration Skills Charge, as set out in chapter 18. Ending the false economy of spending money on agency workers and encouraging the use of flexible staff banks.
Fix the life-threatening crisis in our ambulance services by: Ending excessive handover delays for ambulances by increasing the number of staffed hospital beds to end degrading corridor care, and fixing social care as set out in chapter 7. Publishing accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times. Creating an emergency fund to reverse closures of community ambulance stations and cancel planned closures where needed.
Implement a ten-year plan to invest in hospitals and the primary care estate to end the scandal of crumbling roofs, dangerous concrete and life-expired buildings.
Create a new ‘Patients Charter’ to harness lived experience of patients and embed patient voice, partnership and safety standards across health and care settings, including: A new legal right to a second opinion. A new legal right to maintain contact in all health and care settings. Protecting patient data and patients’ rights to opt out of data sharing.
Implement the recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry in full, including delivering full and fair compensation to all victims of the scandal in a timely and transparent manner.
Introduce truly independent complaints processes and transparent monitoring of reports of sexual misconduct in the NHS.
End the General Medical Council’s five-year rule which prevents patients raising complaints relating to matters more than five years old.
Enable patients to leave hospital when they no longer need to be there by investing in social care and community care, as set out in chapter 7.
Develop and implement a post-pandemic strategy for supporting people who are immunocompromised.
Harness the benefits of new technology and digital tools for patients by: Ring-fencing budgets to enable the NHS to adopt innovative digital tools that improve patient care and experience and save staff time and costs. Replacing old, slow computers to free up clinicians’ time to care for patients. Requiring all IT systems used by the NHS to work with each other. Ensuring every care setting has electronic records that can feed into a patient’s health record with the patient’s consent. Expanding virtual wards and investing in new technologies that free up staff time and allow people to be treated at or closer to home.
Review diagnostic provision across the NHS and implement a new ten-year Strategic Diagnostics Plan.
Improve faster access to new and novel medicines and medical devices by seeking a comprehensive mutual recognition agreement with the European Medicines Agency.
Combat the harms caused by drugs by: Moving the departmental lead on drugs policy from the Home Office to the Department of Health and Social Care. Investing in more addiction services and support for drug users, including specialist youth support services. Freeing up police time, reducing court backlogs, tackling prison overcrowding and reducing the harms of drug misuse by diverting people arrested for possession of drugs for personal use into treatment where appropriate. Protecting young people, tackling the criminal gangs and taking ‘skunk’ off the streets by introducing a legal, regulated market for cannabis. Sales will be restricted to over-18s only, from licensed retailers with strict limits on potency and THC content. Treating Scotland’s drug deaths crisis as a public health emergency, and devolving powers for tailored solutions where necessary.
Provide a fair funding deal for hospices, including children’s hospices, recognising the valuable services they provide and saving money on hospital admissions.
TLDR:
End the General Medical Council’s five-year rule which prevents patients raising complaints relating to matters more than five years old.
Legalise cannabis
Repair crumbling buildings and replace old computers.
https://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto
submitted by DonutOfTruthForAll to doctorsUK [link] [comments]
Guarantee access to an NHS dentist for everyone needing urgent and emergency care by: Bringing dentists back to the NHS from the private sector by fixing the broken NHS dental contract and using flexible commissioning to meet patient needs. Introducing an emergency scheme to guarantee access to free NHS dental check-ups for those already eligible: children, new mothers, those who are pregnant and those on low incomes. Guaranteeing appointments for all those who need a dental check before commencing surgery, chemotherapy or transplant.
Take action to prevent tooth decay by: Providing supervised toothbrushing training for children in nurseries and schools. Scrapping VAT on children’s toothbrushes and toothpaste.
Work towards a fairer and more sustainable long-term funding model for pharmacies, and build on the Pharmacy First approach to give patients more accessible routine services and ease the pressure on GPs.
Improve early access to mental health services by: Opening walk-in hubs for children and young people in every community. Offering regular mental health check-ups at key points in people’s lives when they are most vulnerable to mental ill-health. Putting a dedicated, qualified mental health professional in every school, as set out in chapter 8. Ending out-of-area mental health placements by increasing capacity and coordination between services, so that no one is treated far from home. Extending young people’s mental health services up to the age of 25 to end the drop-off experienced by young people transitioning to adult services. Increasing access to clinically effective talking therapies. Taking an evidence-led approach to preventing and treating eating disorders, and challenging damaging stigma about weight. Making prescriptions for people with chronic mental health conditions free on the NHS, as part of our commitment to review the entire schedule of exemptions for prescription charges. Transforming perinatal mental health support for those who are pregnant, new mothers and those who have experienced miscarriage or stillbirth. Tackling stigma through continued support for public education including Time to Talk. Cutting suicide rates with a focus on community suicide prevention services and improving prevention training for frontline NHS staff. Recognising the relationship between mental health and debt, and providing better signposting between talking therapies and debt advice. Ending inappropriate and costly inpatient placements for people with learning disabilities and autism. Modernising the Mental Health Act to strengthen people’s rights, give them more choice and control over their treatment and prevent inappropriate detentions. Creating a statutory, independent Mental Health Commissioner to represent patients, their families and carers. Widening the current safety investigation into mental health hospitals to look at the whole patient experience, including ward design and treatment options.
Boost cancer survival rates by: Introducing a guarantee that 100% of patients will be able to start treatment within 62 days from urgent referral. Replacing ageing radiotherapy machines and increasing their number, so no one has to travel too far for treatment. Recruiting more cancer nurses so that every patient has a dedicated specialist supporting them throughout their treatment. Passing a Cancer Survival Research Act requiring the Government to coordinate and ensure funding for research into the cancers with the lowest survival rates. Halving the time for new treatments to reach patients by expanding the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s capacity. Launching a new prostate cancer screening programme for those at higher risk.
Help people spend more years of their life in good health by: Increasing the Public Health Grant, with a proportion of the extra funding set aside for those experiencing the worst health inequalities to co-produce plans for their communities. Establishing a ‘Health Creation Unit’ in the Cabinet Office to lead work across government to improve the nation’s health and tackle health inequalities. Introducing regulations to halt the dangerous use of vapes by children while recognising their role in smoking cessation for adults, and banning the sale of single-use vapes. Improving access to blood pressure tests in community spaces. Expanding social prescribing and investing in community projects that bring people together to combat loneliness. Introducing a new kitemark for health apps and digital tools that are clinically proven to help people lead healthier lives. Introducing a new levy on tobacco company profits to help fund healthcare and smoking cessation services. Protecting children from exposure to junk food by supporting local authorities to restrict outdoor advertising and restricting TV advertising to post-watershed. Extending the soft drinks levy to juice-based and milk-based drinks that are high in added sugar. Tackling air pollution and poor air quality in public buildings with a Clean Air Act, as set out in chapter 12.
Train, recruit and retain the doctors, nurses and other NHS staff we need, including by: Establishing a properly independent pay review body. Retaining more staff across the NHS through a ten-year retention plan. Making flexible working a day-one right and expanding access to flexible, affordable childcare, as set out in chapters 4 and 9. Fixing the work visa system and exempting NHS and care staff from the Immigration Skills Charge, as set out in chapter 18. Ending the false economy of spending money on agency workers and encouraging the use of flexible staff banks.
Fix the life-threatening crisis in our ambulance services by: Ending excessive handover delays for ambulances by increasing the number of staffed hospital beds to end degrading corridor care, and fixing social care as set out in chapter 7. Publishing accessible, localised reports of ambulance response times. Creating an emergency fund to reverse closures of community ambulance stations and cancel planned closures where needed.
Implement a ten-year plan to invest in hospitals and the primary care estate to end the scandal of crumbling roofs, dangerous concrete and life-expired buildings.
Create a new ‘Patients Charter’ to harness lived experience of patients and embed patient voice, partnership and safety standards across health and care settings, including: A new legal right to a second opinion. A new legal right to maintain contact in all health and care settings. Protecting patient data and patients’ rights to opt out of data sharing.
Implement the recommendations of the Infected Blood Inquiry in full, including delivering full and fair compensation to all victims of the scandal in a timely and transparent manner.
Introduce truly independent complaints processes and transparent monitoring of reports of sexual misconduct in the NHS.
End the General Medical Council’s five-year rule which prevents patients raising complaints relating to matters more than five years old.
Enable patients to leave hospital when they no longer need to be there by investing in social care and community care, as set out in chapter 7.
Develop and implement a post-pandemic strategy for supporting people who are immunocompromised.
Harness the benefits of new technology and digital tools for patients by: Ring-fencing budgets to enable the NHS to adopt innovative digital tools that improve patient care and experience and save staff time and costs. Replacing old, slow computers to free up clinicians’ time to care for patients. Requiring all IT systems used by the NHS to work with each other. Ensuring every care setting has electronic records that can feed into a patient’s health record with the patient’s consent. Expanding virtual wards and investing in new technologies that free up staff time and allow people to be treated at or closer to home.
Review diagnostic provision across the NHS and implement a new ten-year Strategic Diagnostics Plan.
Improve faster access to new and novel medicines and medical devices by seeking a comprehensive mutual recognition agreement with the European Medicines Agency.
Combat the harms caused by drugs by: Moving the departmental lead on drugs policy from the Home Office to the Department of Health and Social Care. Investing in more addiction services and support for drug users, including specialist youth support services. Freeing up police time, reducing court backlogs, tackling prison overcrowding and reducing the harms of drug misuse by diverting people arrested for possession of drugs for personal use into treatment where appropriate. Protecting young people, tackling the criminal gangs and taking ‘skunk’ off the streets by introducing a legal, regulated market for cannabis. Sales will be restricted to over-18s only, from licensed retailers with strict limits on potency and THC content. Treating Scotland’s drug deaths crisis as a public health emergency, and devolving powers for tailored solutions where necessary.
Provide a fair funding deal for hospices, including children’s hospices, recognising the valuable services they provide and saving money on hospital admissions.
TLDR:
End the General Medical Council’s five-year rule which prevents patients raising complaints relating to matters more than five years old.
Legalise cannabis
Repair crumbling buildings and replace old computers.
https://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto
2024.06.11 11:49 sigul77 What are the must buy during the Summer Deals?
I bought my Switch a month ago, and I am eager to buy new games.
I've seen these on offer for the summer deals in Italy (EU maybe). What would be your must buy?
Here is the list of games on sale I could be interested in with their discounted and full prices:
What should I absolutely get from the list?
submitted by sigul77 to Switch [link] [comments]
I've seen these on offer for the summer deals in Italy (EU maybe). What would be your must buy?
Here is the list of games on sale I could be interested in with their discounted and full prices:
- Chained Echoes - 21,24 € (originally 24,99 €)
- Sonic Frontiers - 20,39 € (originally 59,99 €)
- SONIC FORCES™ Digital Bonus Edition - 7,99 € (originally 39,99 €)
- The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame - 4,79 € (originally 39,99 €)
- Superliminal - 8,99 € (originally 17,99 €)
- Dragon Quest® XI S: Echi di un'era perduta – Edizione definitiva - 29,99 € (originally 59,99 €)
- The House in Fata Morgana: Dreams of the Revenants Edition - 24,49 € (originally 34,99 €)
- Tetris® Effect: Connected - 23,99 € (originally 39,99 €)
- Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition - 7,99 € (originally 19,99 €)
- Ori and the Will of the Wisps - 11,99 € (originally 29,99 €)
- Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm - 14,99 € (originally 29,99 €)
- TUNIC - 13,99 € (originally 27,99 €)
- OKAMI HD - 9,99 € (originally 19,99 €)
- IMMORTALS FENYX RISING - 7,99 € (originally 39,99 €)
- Hollow Knight - 7,49 € (originally 14,99 €)
- Outer Wilds - 15,99 € (originally 22,99 €)
- Oceanhorn - Monster of Uncharted Seas - 3,74 € (originally 14,99 €)
- Balatro - 12,59 € (originally 13,99 €)
- Dead Cells - 12,49 € (originally 24,99 €)
- Gigantosaurus Il Gioco - 12,49 € (originally 24,99 €)
- NBA 2K24 Edizione Kobe Bryant - 8,99 € (originally 59,99 €)
- Prince of Persia The Lost Crown - 29,99 € (originally 49,99 €)
- The Lara Croft Collection - 19,99 € (originally 24,99 €)
- Tomb Raider I-III Remastered - 22,49 € (originally 29,99 €)
- Street Fighter™ 30th Anniversary Collection - 9,89 € (originally 29,99 €)
- Capcom Fighting Bundle - 19,79 € (originally 59,99 €)
- Night in the Woods - 9,49 € (originally 18,99 €)
- World of Goo - 10,04 € (originally 14,99 €)
- HOT WHEELS UNLEASHED™ - 5,99 € (originally 39,99 €)
- Fashion Dreamer - 34,99 € (originally 49,99 €)
- LEGO® Harry Potter™ Collection - 7,99 € (originally 39,99 €)
- EA SPORTS FC™ 24 - 14,99 € (originally 59,99 €)
- LEGO® Gli Incredibili - 4,79 € (originally 59,99 €)
- STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ II: The Sith Lords - 7,00 € (originally 14,00 €)
- STAR WARS™: Knights of the Old Republic™ - 6,24 € (originally 12,49 €)
- STAR WARS™: The Force Unleashed™ - 9,99 € (originally 19,99 €)
- STAR WARS™ Republic Commando™ - 7,49 € (originally 14,99 €)
- STAR WARS™ Knights of the Old Republic Bundle - 11,92 € (originally 26,49 €)
- STAR WARS™ Heritage Pack (2023) - 37,85 € (originally 75,70 €)
- Detective Pikachu: il ritorno - 34,99 € (originally 49,99 €)
What should I absolutely get from the list?
2024.06.11 11:35 YaekoHepner98 What a sweetheart.
 | submitted by YaekoHepner98 to Nicegirls [link] [comments] |
2024.06.11 11:12 AlexIbt ☀️ AliExpress Summer Sale 2024 June 618: Up to 70% Off! - reddit
 | AliExpress Summer Sale 2024 - redditGet ready for the 618 Shopping Festival, the mega sale event of the summer! Here’s everything you need to know about the AliExpress Summer Sale 2024:☀️ https://promossale.com/aliexpress-summer-sale-2024-june-618-up-to-70-off/ - A short guide to the sale When is AliExpress Summer Sale 2024 in June? Timeline
Play Games, get coins Main Sale Pages
Stay tuned for updates and follow our news for the latest information on promo codes and exclusive deals. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to save big on your favorite products during the AliExpress Summer Sale 2024!AliExpress Sales June 2024 - PromosSale |
2024.06.11 11:01 Windyo Summer '24 Release Notes - Abridged Edition
- This Release Update
which totally won't get cancelled forgotten or delayed 5 yearsforces verification of your default no-reply address. Action required for all that use outbound emails with that address.
- You can finally use blank spaces in Dynamic Forms and add fields on creation to them as well as see in which Dynamic Form they're used. With recent updates they are now usable-ish (one year after release...) - if you're migrating, check out this wiki on considerations. Using this feature involves a free coffee break while you wait for Lightning Page Builder to load!
- Tab Component on LEX Pages gets Conditional Visibility per Tab
- To compensate the mounting sharing complexity, you can now view a Summary of Permissions and Access on Users. In the same vein, you get Permset- and Permset Group- Permission Summaries, and you can also see where a Group is used. A new help page groups all the User Access docs together.
- User Access Policies are now GA with a limit of 200 active UAP per Org, and you can control their order of execution which you couldn't before.
- Freezing Users does not require you to be able to create them and edit them anymore which is great for deputy admins
- Search Manager allows you to change security, sorting, etc for search for your users. Once search is fully refined you can expect Salesforce to find product names that stick more than a year.
- List Views are now running as LWC not Aura which yields some considerations regarding how List Views behave. I also put this one in Doge because of their wording and title.
- Einstein Activity Capture gets automated Contact Creation
- Salesforce seems to want to bring Topics for Objects back via Labels so people can sort stuff themselves. Not a fan of this but eh.
- Those new "intelligence" views from last release now support standard and custom actions
- External Apps, the "Connected App v2", now have a frontend to create them and support more oAuth flows. (Also have a new API endpoint to manage credentials). Within these External Apps, Named Credentials can now call a Refresh token on custom status codes instead of just 401.
- The switch of focus from CPQ to Revenue Cloud seems to be an open secret at this point seeing as Steelbrick has been left to die for years now while RLM gets better product catalog, pricing and configuration management.
The MIAW team gets the award of "team that I have liked reading the releases of the most over the past year consistently". Have a cookie.
- Enhanced Messaging, Messaging for In-App and Web, and Voice Transcripts get sensitive data rules which allow masking or deleting data matching conditions in these elements.
- Status-Based Capacity with Messaging is a HUGE feature with a shit name. You'de think it's the same old "based on the agent's status" crap we've had for years, but no, it's per work item status. The example they give is exactly why it's awesome: "If a session is inactive and the customer sends a new message, the agent who was handling it receives the message and continues helping the customer".
- Messaging for in-app and Web now allows you to do your full-custom UI in your website or app on top of their API. There's also quite a few releases about messaging components which use a builder to build custom forms, data exposition or input in Messaging. I hadn't noticed that in past releases but it looks sweet. On the Agent side there's filtered Transfer options and refresh after disconnect
- Unified Knowledge allows you to import articles from other systems like JIRA or Sharepoint, unsure why it's not just listed as a data import tool or something.
- Action Button allows you to call an Autolaunched Flow from a Screen and use returns from that Flow.
- Address fields can now be required and be autofilled via search, and also store ISO Codes for State and Country which is all great but feels like it should have always been the case.
- Reactivity got brought to Collection Choices
- ISBLANK and ISEMPTY operators lessen the amount of workarounds needed to check the state of a string or collection.
- Creating Records now allows you to check for duplicates using a Flow-specific engine that is not the Duplicate Rules and allows merging... If it's bad practice when I rebuild standard in a client Org, why can Salesforce rebuild its own standard in its own application ?
- The Automation Lightning App looks like a non-setup way to allow users to see, group and maybe edit Flows. Can be nice for delegated Admins I guess.
- Record (Un)Locks now can be controlled via Flow which is VERY powerful because no previous automation tool could do it :)
- Unlimited Flow Interviews are probably only useful for huge clients as most the time you should optimize to avoid undue waits anyway. Yes, you should optimize to avoid undue load. Jankforce isn't best practice even if it works.
- You can FINALLY stop building your own case threading formula and just tell Flow to add the threading token for you. The best part is the threading token isn't just for Cases anymore but for any Activity-Enabled Object. Understated feature of this release IMO.
- You need to review your Flow permissions so it'll continue working after Winter 25. Security is becoming something Flow cares very much about, even for URLs
- Data Cloud continues to try to be a useful platform. While some updates are just "why wasn't it that way before anyway", others are pretty impressive and seem to be thought out for Service most of all. Tons of the major notes are mostly around "we're building what most other data lakes already have". I still don't think I'd buy it outright on most clients, it'll be nice in a year as per usual with Salesforce I guess. If you read this page and you're wondering about classification vs regression read this. There's something called unified messaging that looks to be interesting for Marketing Cloud users that leverage Whatsapp (it's critical if you are), and Marketing Cloud Growth looks like it'll already soon be a good replacement for Pardot or whatever name it is now.
- Something called Intelligent Analytics seems to be preconfigured Data Cloud and Normal Reports for Service, Field Service, and Commerce (?) but licenses seem to vary for each product.
With most of the articles being factual, exhaustive, example-full and linking to proper documentation both in reference and in help pages, the Development subsection gets a special award for being lovely release notes that were actually interesting.
- LWC API v61 brings FACE compatibility for programmatic form control, and force only connected components to use connectedCallback() and disconnectedCallback(), which also dispatch errors globally now.
- You can now Update using an External Id in REST using update
- Dynamic Formulas in APEX were first available last release (but as a pilot only so we didn't cover them). Yes, that does mean you can evaluate formulas without DML, and technically can invent create them on-th-fly without an actual field, and yes it's awesome.
- Apex now was Cursors which are an alternative to Batches wherein you control which subset of that data you are referencing. There are new limits tied to this
- You could already use Third-Party Web Components in LWC but now you can do that while exposing shadowRoot which makes 90% of use cases NOT bug out instantly. This feature allows you to provide custom-branded styling Web Components by uploading them as a staticresource. Anything you can write client-side, you can put in there.
- Support for Five-Level Parent-to-Child Relationship SOQL Queries in Apex
- Scheduled APEX Jobs, including CRON, can now be viewed and managed using the new All Scheduled Jobs page
- LWCs can now be url-adressable and can control the utility bar which I'm guessing can be interesting for CTI cases for example ?
- OpenAPI Spec ingestion to External Services now support YAML
- The Pub/Sub API now has subscription objects
- A release update
which also totally won't get cancelled forgotten or delayed 5 yearsallows modal Stacking. Action required both in LWC and Aura quick actions. - Google Chrome Storage Partitionning is enabled this release and can be disabled. Multiple APIs change behavior, specifically localStorage and sessionStorage. The first-party cookies requirements adds to this.
- SLDS styling focus buttons change
- If you use @testSetup to generate your test data you can now monitor their execution.
- Logging gets better for consultants thanks to Apex exception emails including the org name, user name, and My Domain name
- Scratch Org Snapshots are now beta and allow you to clone scratch orgs. At some point you'll be able to mount VHDSK in them as well I'm sure (/s).
- Mobile Publisher gets opt-in biometrioc login, a new distribution method, new menus for LWR sites, and requires new Firebase information
- "If you did stuff we told you not to do, you might want to do stuff we told you to do instead, because otherwise shit'll break"
- :doge: Related Lists are now "Enrichments" and are now supported on "more Objects" - which is apparently all the explanation we're being given at this time.. Thanks Data Cloud Release Notes, thank heck you decided to give us monthly release notes so I can stay on top of your vocabulary in addition of your feature list.
- :doge: "General Setup > Einstein for Formulas" (but Note: Contact your Account Executive (AE) to understand the pricing and license requirements for this feature.), AKA "let's pretend you get AI stuff but hide pricing behind blog posts". In testing, the AI also worked fine for simple formulas and failed for more complex ones with nested conditions or mathematical considerations, which is where you'd need it.
- :doge: "Improved Performance" yeah no. You migrated to a new framework in the backend, and there are considerations for admins to check if things impact their org. ALL the bullet points in your release note are limits are changes in behavior.
- :doge: You can use Direct SOQL to query Data Cloud Objects (if you love getting only a few records using a specific query class, while ignoring field access rules)
- :doge: 10% of net spend but let's not make that public using the usual "available using extra licensing" or whatever. Same shit for "Custom Adapters for Salesforce Connect" Like brudda that feature is EXPENSIVE AS FUCK it's 5k/month lol
- :doge: If there's one thing Admins love it's "security" features that get auto-enabled and high process cost but low security benefit
- :doge: If your naming's so shit you need to list them every time because it's too confusing maybe you can like... stop renaming stuff badly.
- :doge: "Label-First" is great when you action something, not when you're digging in a manager to find where something happened. This is how you end up with Hungarian notation again. Especially if you
auto-generate names(rolled back) forgetting your own darn best practices but it's ok because you get to click more when searching for screen elements anyway anymore - :doge: Einstein Flow Creator 90000 is now available in Beta (for $70/m/user) and the demo they chose is a Big Deal Alert because it can't do anything complex I guess.
- :doge: Maybe it's just me but if SMS was insecure and required update to TOTP etc, maybe don't release a feature for SMS OTP for a subset of users IDK
We have a nice wiki: https://wiki.sfxd.org/
And a linkedin page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sfxd/
Join the ~14000 members in the most active chat-based community around Salesforce these parts of the web at http://join.sfxd.org/
2024.06.11 10:58 VectorMediaGR From Big Clive to you. Stop fucking playing with MOT's! 70% die from playing with them while 30% survive with serious life altering injuries like mangled or amputated limbs. Just stop. If you want to actually do something with a MOT, make yourself a welder or rewind it for your project.
 | submitted by VectorMediaGR to ElectroBOOM [link] [comments] |
2024.06.11 10:51 bruddagames [Store] Welcome to Brudda's Store featuring Collector's Cache Sets from TI7, TI8, TI9, TI10, Nemestice, Aghanim's and 2023 Diretide events.
Please don't hesitate to contact me to discuss the sale of my sets at the prices listed below, payable in items.
If you're curious about why you should trust me, consider my extensive track record. I've successfully sold over 1000 sets from events like TI6, TI7, TI8, TI9, TI10, Nemestice, Aghanim's, and Diretide 2022 Collector's.
For checking my gifting Cache Sets history, feel free to review the comments on my profile and verify the sets in their inventory that were gifted by me.
In terms of transaction protocol, the buyer is always goes first. However, if you prefer an added layer of security, we can involve a middleman from this subreddit.
Regarding any concerns about scamming, it's simply not in my best interest. With over 800 cache sets available for sale, my focus is on providing a trustworthy and legitimate service.
Profile https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198107212373
I've updated my policy and no longer entertain joy riders. If you're interested in adding me, I request a $3 deposit in items upon adding me.
This $3 deposit will be deducted from your total set cost.
Please refrain from adding me if you're not comfortable with the listed prices.
Keep in mind that prices are subject to change, and sets may go out of stock even if you're waiting for one, as someone else may purchase it before you.
If you're interested in reserving sets, please make sure to do so.
submitted by bruddagames to Dota2Trade [link] [comments]
If you're curious about why you should trust me, consider my extensive track record. I've successfully sold over 1000 sets from events like TI6, TI7, TI8, TI9, TI10, Nemestice, Aghanim's, and Diretide 2022 Collector's.
For checking my gifting Cache Sets history, feel free to review the comments on my profile and verify the sets in their inventory that were gifted by me.
In terms of transaction protocol, the buyer is always goes first. However, if you prefer an added layer of security, we can involve a middleman from this subreddit.
Regarding any concerns about scamming, it's simply not in my best interest. With over 800 cache sets available for sale, my focus is on providing a trustworthy and legitimate service.
Profile https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198107212373
August 2023 Collector's Cache
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primeval Abomination | Primal Beast | 20+ | $10 |
| Astral Herald | Dawnbreaker | 20+ | $15 |
| Taur Rider | Alchemist | 20+ | $10 |
| Spectral Shadow | Abaddon | 20+ | $15 |
| Crescent Huntress | Spectre | 20+ | $20 |
| Tyrant of the Veil | Wraith King | 20+ | $15 |
| Tomo'kan Footsoldier | Hoodwink | 20+ | $10 |
| Darkwood Eulogy | Death Prophet | 20+ | $10 |
| Sea Spirit | Kunka | 20+ | $20 |
| Triumph of the Imperatrix | Legion Commander | 20+ | $10 |
| Beast of Thunder | Storm Spirit | 20+ | $20 |
| Ancestral Heritage | Jakiro | 20+ | $10 |
| Dezun Viper | Dazzle | 20+ | $15 |
| Brightfist | Marci | 20+ | $30 |
| Snailfire | Snapfire | 20+ | $50 |
Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache II
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bird of Prey | Legion Commander | 20+ | $15 |
| Grand Suppressor | Silencer | 20+ | $10 |
| Darkbrew's Transgression | Alchemist | 20+ | $15 |
| Transcendent Path | Oracle | 20+ | $15 |
| The Wilding Tiger | Brewmaster | 20+ | $10 |
| Dawn of a Darkness Foretold | Doom | 20+ | $15 |
| Cursed Cryptbreaker | Pudge | 20+ | $15 |
| Feasts of Forever | Night Stalker | 20+ | $10 |
| Darkfeather Factioneer | Phantom Assassin | 20+ | $10 |
| Withering Pain | Clinkz | 20+ | $10 |
| Freeboot Fortunes | Ogre Magi | 20+ | $10 |
| Acrimonies of Obsession | Vengeful Spirit | 20+ | $20 |
| Sacred Chamber Guardian | Huskar | 20+ | $15 |
| War Rig Eradicators | Techies | 20+ | $10 |
| Grudges of the Gallows Tree | Treant Protector | 20+ | $25 |
| Brands of the Reaper | Anti-Mage | 20+ | $40 |
| Sublime Equilibrium | Void Spirit | 20+ | $50 |
Diretide 2022 Collector's Cache
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shadowleaf Insurgent | Hoodwink | 20+ | $15 |
| Scarlet Subversion | Riki | 20+ | $15 |
| Whippersnapper | Snapfire | 20+ | $10 |
| Hounds of Obsession | Chen | 20+ | $10 |
| Seadog's Stash | Clockwork | 20+ | $10 |
| Starlorn Adjudicator | Dawnbreaker | 20+ | $15 |
| Spoils of the Shadowveil | Spectre | 20+ | $15 |
| Chines of the Inquisitor | Faceless Void | 20+ | $10 |
| Trophies of the Hallowed Hunt | Ursa | 20+ | $10 |
| Crimson Dawn | Phoenix | 20+ | $10 |
| Forgotten Station | Terrorblade | 20+ | $15 |
| Dirge Amplifier | Undying | 20+ | $15 |
| Champion of the Fire Lotus | Monkey King | 20+ | $10 |
| Deathstitch Shaman | Witch Doctor | 20+ | $10 |
| Blue Horizons | Marci | 20+ | $30 |
| Angel of Vex | Invoker | 20+ | $50 |
| Dark Behemoth | Primal Beast | 20+ | $50 |
Aghanim's 2021 Collector's Cache
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scales of the Shadow Walker | Phantom Lancer | 23 | $15 |
| Perception of the First Light | Dawnbreaker | 22 | $15 |
| Apex Automated | Clockwerk | 22 S | $15 |
| Test of the Basilisk Lord | Razor | 25 | $10 |
| Secrets of the Frost Singularity | Ancient Apparition | 23 | $8 |
| Perils of the Red Banks | Chen | 22 | $10 |
| The Chained Scribe | Grimstroke | 24 | $10 |
| Widow of the Undermount Gloom | Broodmother | 23 S | $15 |
| Forgotten Fate | Mars | 22 | $5 |
| March of the Crackerjack Mage | Rubick | 24 | $10 |
| Cosmic Concoctioneers | Alchemist | 23 | $20 |
| Blightfall | Abaddon | 23 | $15 |
| Pyrexae Polymorph Perfected | Ogre Magi | 25 | $35 |
Nemestice Collector's Cache 2021
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twilight Hex | Dark Willow | 23 S | 15$ |
| Litany of the Damned | Doom | 24 | 15$ |
| Astral Terminus | Enigma | 23 | 10$ |
| Caerulean Star | Enchantress | 22 | 10$ |
| Arcane Inverter | Gyrocopter | 22 S | 25$ |
| Creed of the Skullhound | Lycan | 22 S | 25$ |
| Desert Bloom | Nature's Prophet | 23 | 20$ |
| Silence of the Starweaver | Oracle | 23 | 10$ |
| Eyriebound Imperator | Skywrath Mage | 23 | 15$ |
| Anthozoan Assault | Tiny | 23 | 25$ |
| Defender of the Brumal Crest | Winter Wyvern | 10 S | 10$ |
| Red Sands Marauder | Shadow Shaman | 23 | 20$ |
| Footfalls of the Sporefathers | Witch Doctor | 12 | 60$ |
Collector's Cache I 2020
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravenous Abyss | Underlord | 20+ | $15 |
| Apocalypse Unbound | AA | 20+ | $10 |
| Beholden of the Banished Ones | Warlock | 20+ | $15 |
| Fury of the Righteous Storm | Disruptor | 20+ | $5 |
| Mindless Slaughter | Pudge | 20+ | $20 |
| Heartless Hunt | Bounty | 20+ | $15 |
| Herald of the Ember Eye | Grimstroke | 20+ | $10 |
| Fissured Flight | Jakiro | 20+ | $10 |
| Flashpoint Proselyte | Husker | 20+ | $15 |
| Signs of the Allfather | Nature prophet | 20+ | $15 |
| Glory of the Elderflame | Lina | 20+ | $35 |
| Origin of the Dark Oath | Night Stalker | 6 | $25 |
| Songs of Starfall Glen | Enchantress | 20+ | $10 |
| Ancient Inheritance | Tiny | 20+ | $30 |
| Forsworn Legacy | mars | 20+ | $50 |
Collector's Cache II 2020
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Evolution of the Infinite | Enigma | 20+ | $6 |
| Beast of the Crimson Ring | bristle back | 20+ | $15 |
| Clearcut Cavalier | Timber | 20+ | $10 |
| The King Of Thieves | Keeper of light | 20+ | $10 |
| Horror from the Deep | Tide | 20+ | $20 |
| Talons of the Endless Storm | chaos knight | 20+ | $15 |
| Carousal of the Mystic Masquerade | Rubick | 20+ | $6 |
| Crown of Calaphas | Shadow demon | 20+ | $15 |
| Wrath of the Fallen | doom | 20+ | $20 |
| Blacksail Cannoneer | Sniper | 20+ | $10 |
| Secrets of the Celestial 📷 | Skywrath mage | 20+ | $5 |
| Blaze of Oblivion | Phoenix | 20+ | $10 |
| Steward of the Forbidden Chamber | Templar Assassin | 20+ | $25 |
| Claszureme Incursion | Void | 20+ | 70$ |
| Ire of the Ancient Gaoler | Arc Warden | 6* C | 35$ |
| Master of the Searing Path | Ember Spirit | 3* C | 40$ |
Collector's Cache 2019
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paean of the Ink Dragon | Grimstroke | 1*C | 15$ |
| The Arts of Mortal Deception | Enigma | 21 | 10$ |
| Poacher's Bane | Tidehunter | 20 | 10$ |
| Soul of the Brightshroud | Death Prophet | 21 | 10$ |
| Curse of the Creeping Vine | Undying | 6*C +1 | 25$ |
| Appetites of the Lizard King | Slark | 18 | 25$ |
| Riddle of the Hierophant | Oracle | 20 | 10$ |
| Defender of Ruin | Disruptor | 22 | 25$ |
| Allure of the Faeshade Flower | Dark Willow | 4 * C - 1 reserved | 25$ |
| Pursuit of the Ember Demons | Huskar | 4* C | 25$ |
| Forbidden Medicine | Dazzle | 3* C | 35$ |
| Priest of the Proudsilver Clan | Chen | 4* C | 15$ |
Collector's Cache II 2019
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sight of the Kha-Ren Faithful | Drow Ranger | 31 | 15$ |
| Tribal Pathways | Warlock | 30 | 10$ |
| Directive of the Sunbound | Clockwerk | 31 | 10$ |
| Endless Night | Abaddon | 30 | 15$ |
| Dapper Disguise | Pudge | 27 | 15$ |
| Fury of the Bloodforge | Bloodseeker | 30 | 15$ |
| Automaton Antiquity | Broodmother | 31 | 10$ |
| Grim Destiny | Wraith King | 29 | 10$ |
| Distinguished Expeditionary | Tusk | 30 | 10$ |
| Verdant Predator | Venomancer | 31 | 10$ |
| Prized Acquisitions | Batrider | 31 | 5$ |
| Fowl Omen | Necrophos | 34 | 30$ |
| Echoes of the Everblack | Abaddon | 4*C | 25$ |
| Souls Tyrant | Shadow Fiend | 1 * C | 45$ |
| Tales of the Windward Rogue | Pangolier | 3 * C | 45$ |
The International 2018 Collector's Cache I
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trail of the Sanguine Spectrum | Bloodseeker | 20 | 10$ |
| Insights of the Sapphire Shroud | Dark Seer | 18 | 4$ |
| Pillar of the Fractured Citadel | Spirit Breaker | 21 | $10 |
| Molokau Stalker | Venomancer | 21 | $10 |
| Morbific Provision | Witch Doctor | 22 | 10$ |
| Raptures of the Abyssal Kin | Queen of Pain | 20 | 15$ |
| Grasp of the Riven Exile | Weaver | 20 | 5$ |
| Fate Meridian | Invoker | 2 *C | 30$ |
| Visions of the Lifted Veil | Phantom Assassin | 1 *C | 40$ |
| Grasp of the Riven Exile | Weaver | 4 *C | 20$ |
The International 2018 Collector's Cache II
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pitmouse Fraternity | Meepo | 37 | 10$ |
| Fires of the Volcanic Guard | Ember Spirit | 37 | 10$ |
| Shackles of the Enduring Conscript | Axe | 37 S | 6$ |
| Shimmer of the Anointed | Nyx Assassin | 29 | 5$ |
| Loaded Prospects | Brewmaster | 39 | 15$ |
| Ire of Molten Rebirth | Phoenix | 36 | 10$ |
| Pattern of the Silken Queen | Broodmother | 26 | 5$ |
| Third Awakening | Dragon Knight | 7 *C -2nonR | 35$ |
| Dread Ascendance | Doom | 5 *C | 40$ |
| Raiments of the Obsidian Forge | Underlord | 22 | 20$ |
The International 2017 Collector's Cache
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rumrunner's Carronade | Brew master | 20 | 15$ |
| Abyssal Vortex | Enigma | 27 | 10$ |
| Samareen Sacrifice | Huskar | 22 | 10$ |
| Shadowforce Gale | Luna | 24 | 20$ |
| Mechalodon Interdictor | Gyrocopter | 27 + 3*C | 15$ |
| Cunning Corsair | Riki | 24 | 20$ |
| Pressure Regulator | Clockwerk | 3 *C | 20$ |
| Meranth Dragoon | Sven | 2 *C | 35$ |
| The Dread Prophet | Nature's Prophet | 2 *C | 35$ |
| Riptide Raider | Monkey King | 2 *C - 1nonrev | 20$ |
The International 2016 Collector's Cache
| Set name | Hero | Quantity | $$ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nightsilver's Resolve | luna | 2 M* dtygod* | 20$ |
| Oni Knight the Dark Conqueror | Chaos Knight | 3C + 2 dtygod dopey* | 20$ |
| Rising Glory | Magnus | 2C+ 1 moiz | 20$ |
| Dirgeful Overlord | Undying | 3 *C | 25$ |
| Iceburnt Elegy | Winter Wyvern | 1 *C | 25$ |
| Wartorn Heavens | Zeus | 1 *C | 35$ |
This $3 deposit will be deducted from your total set cost.
Please refrain from adding me if you're not comfortable with the listed prices.
Keep in mind that prices are subject to change, and sets may go out of stock even if you're waiting for one, as someone else may purchase it before you.
If you're interested in reserving sets, please make sure to do so.
2024.06.11 09:50 mobile-pixels Father's Day Sale: Up to 50% Off on Mobile Pixels Monitors!
2024.06.11 09:12 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…
Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to CreepsMcPasta [link] [comments]
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
2024.06.11 09:11 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…
Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to ZakBabyTV_Stories [link] [comments]
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
2024.06.11 09:10 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…
Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to horrorstories [link] [comments]
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
2024.06.11 09:10 CIAHerpes An alien fungus has been spraying black semen across town. People exposed to it have started changing in horrific ways…
Strange and seemingly isolated incidents had happened in the days leading up to the massacre. I lived in a small farming community called Matheson where everyone knew everyone. My neighbor, Steuben, owned a sprawling dairy farm. He must have been at least seventy, but he still looked sixty, a vigorous and healthy hard worker with wide blue eyes and thick salt-and-pepper hair. His land rose up in the rolling hills and gently babbling creeks of the surrounding woodlands.
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
submitted by CIAHerpes to Horror_stories [link] [comments]
Three days before, one of his cows had given birth. Steuben said the calf had been something from a nightmarish fever dream. It screamed and wailed constantly, gurgling in a sick, blood-choked voice. It had no skin, but instead looked like it was flipped inside-out, the gleaming veins and slick, wet muscle thrumming with adrenaline and primal agony. It looked like a bloody, crying mass of pulsing organs. Steuben had grabbed his hunting rifle and put the poor creature out of its misery, shooting it in the back of its deformed, slanted head. It had no eyelids, and he said the filmy cataract eyes had stared up accusingly at him as he killed it.
Though I didn’t witness it myself, a few of my neighbors and friends had talked about seeing a meteor shower over town the night before the deformed calf’s birth. Bright blue streaks like lightning flashed across the night sky. I wouldn’t know the significance of this until much later, until it was far too late to do any good.
One of my neighbors, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ended up giving birth to a baby boy a couple days after the incident with the calf. The father told me that the infant had only lived for a few hours in intensive care, and it had been such a horrific sight that the mother and father could barely stand to look at its twisted, alien features. The doctors had told her it was an extreme case of something called “Harlequin Ichthyosis.” I looked up the pictures of what he described, seeing pictures of mutated, skinless infants with dark blood vessels like tumors running down their chests and bulging, clown-like eyes that gleamed an infected red.
It was around the same time that people began to notice the fish dying off in large numbers, their rotting bodies floating to the tops of ponds and streams all over the area. Fishermen said many of the lakes had become dead zones overnight, as if chemical weapons or high doses of radiation had contaminated them. The local and state governments started putting up signs all over town, warning people not to swim or eat anything they caught from the local waterways until the Department of Environmental Protection could test it for toxic contaminants. All of the state parks in the area were closed down temporarily as well. My wife Sophie and I had joked about finding a cabin out in the woods to wait out the Rapture.
In hindsight, that was probably far closer to the truth than either of us could have ever imagined.
***
I awoke early the next morning, seeing the first razor-sharp shards of a sunrise peeking through the window. It was Saturday, and I had the weekend off from work. I looked over, seeing my wife still sleeping soundly on the other side of the bed. Purple light like fresh bruises streamed in from a cloudless blue sky. I didn’t know why, but something felt wrong. It took me a few moments to realize what it was.
I didn’t hear a single sound outside. Our house was surrounded by woods and swamps, and normally the birds would be singing their little heads off by now. But it sounded as dead as in the aftermath of a nuclear war. Even the insects had gone quiet.
I crept out of bed, trying not to wake Sophie. I ended up getting dressed and making coffee and a bagel. Feeling restless, I decided to go out for a drive around the block. I hopped in my truck and slowly pulled out onto the empty street.
After a few minutes, I drove past the local park. It had a brightly-colored playground looming high in the air, though this early in the morning, it stood empty. A few joggers and random people walking their dogs lumbered through the foggy mist, circling around the paved trails of the park. A still pond coated with green scum stood at the center. I noticed how the eerie quiet extended out here as well. Besides the rumbling of my truck’s engine and the distant barking of a dog, I might as well have been driving through a graveyard.
I was glancing out the driver’s side window and didn’t see the young woman covered in blood slinking out onto the street until the last second. She dragged a broken leg behind her, the sharp points of bone poking out through the skin. Her head turned to look at me moments before I collided with her. She was completely naked. But that wasn’t the strange thing.
There was something wrong with her face. Long, black tendrils like spidery legs jutted out of her mouth, her nose and her ears. Her eyes looked like they had been removed or eaten away, and more skittering, jointed things oozed out of those. She was crying scarlet tears from her dark, empty sockets. Orange pus and clotted gore dripped down her chin from the open wounds, staining her lower body in rivulets of drying filth. I tried to slam on the brakes, but it was far too late. My front fender smashed into her waist. After that, everything seemed to happen very fast.
Her body flew up with a shattering of glass, but the woman never screamed or made a sound. Her face remained as blank and slack as that of a puppet’s. A spiderwebbing of cracks flew across the windshield as her body rolled over the truck, flying up over the top of it and crashing down on the road with a wet, bone-shattering sound.
“Holy shit!” I cried, my tires fishtailing wildly with a squealing of rubber as I came to a stop. I heard people screaming in the nearby park now. I thought they had seen the accident, but I was too focused on the destroyed body of the woman to care. Hyperventilating, I climbed out of the truck, running over to her side.
She jerked on the road like a dying hornet, her shattered limbs twisting with a grinding of broken bone. Her empty eye sockets stared blankly up at the vast blue sky, the spidery legs twitching faster. The right half of her chest appeared caved in, and she continuously coughed up frothy streams of bright-red blood. I immediately pulled out my cell phone. With trembling fingers, I dialed 911, never looking away from the dying woman laying in front of me.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Hello?! I need help! I think I killed…”
“...this is a prerecorded message. Emergency services are temporarily suspended in your local area due to a federally-declared state of emergency. This is not a test.
“Please stay inside for the duration of the emergency. Assistance is on the way. Do not panic. Your government has everything under control.
“If you notice any unusual lifeforms in your local area, do not approach them. Do not try to kill or harm them in any way. Give them as much distance as you can. If possible, try to seal all windows, doors and cracks.
“Your area is now a federally-mandated quarantine zone. Until you can be safely evacuated, stay in your home and await rescue. Thank you for your cooperation in this difficult time.”
“What?!” I screamed into the phone. “There’s someone dying here! I need an ambulance!” In response, the message started to repeat, the cool robotic female voice sounding as nonplussed as if it were announcing a sale on produce at a grocery store. I ended the call, looking around hopefully for someone who might be able to help. It was only then I noticed the bloodshed spreading all around me.
***
“What is that?!” a female jogger cried, pointing at the sky. My eyes widened in confusion and horror as I tried to comprehend what I saw there. No one was looking at me or the woman I had run over. No one had even noticed in all of the chaos.
A writhing, twisting black mass of thrumming flesh stretched over the forest, growing at a rapid rate over the tops of the trees. The mass was a few feet across, lumpy and wet. It seemed to be passing fluid through its main body, like some enormous intestines uncoiling out above the world. It stretched upwards like something from Jean and the Beanstalk, growing and curving back down towards other tube-like masses.
Every few feet along the fleshy, worm-like mass, hollow protrusions as long as railroad spikes shot out. They reminded me of spider legs, jointed and covered with fine, dark hairs. They skittered constantly as the central body continued growing. Even from the street, I could hear the wet, sucking sounds the legs made as they constantly flexed and relaxed, dripping black sludge like dirty oil from their glossy skins.
As more and more hollow tendrils spiraled out of the eerie flesh, I saw the movements of the spidery tendrils were not random. They would spray thick, black fluid in the direction of anything that moved. A man and his dog at the far perimeter of the park were totally covered in the strange goo.
As they continued thrashing and fighting, the tendrils kept shooting more sludge at them. After a few seconds, it covered his face like an opaque mask. The man clawed at his eyes and mouth, trying to get it off. The dog gave high-pitched squeals of terror and pain as it rolled on the ground, its legs kicking randomly in the air. Its fur had become a soaking black mass of goo.
Throughout the air, I smelled a disgusting odor that I immediately recognized. It was the slightly sweet, chlorine-like smell of semen, but so concentrated and pungent that I almost retched. As more and more of the black goo sprayed down at the screaming, writhing people, the smell intensified, so thick that I could taste it on the back of my throat.
As I stood staring, open-mouthed, watching the stragglers in the park get consumed and covered by this strange sight, something grabbed my ankle. I jumped, yelling in panic. I looked down, seeing the twitching body of the woman I had hit changing before my very eyes.
Her blue lips chattered, the broken shards of teeth biting deeply through her bloody lips. The thin, crooked legs skittering out of her mouth, eyes, nose and ear continued lengthening before my eyes. A couple heartbeats later, I saw what they attached to.
Five of them ripped their way out of her jerking, dying body, looking like mutated alien spiders. They plopped wetly onto the pavement below. Their sharp points of legs skittered and ripped through the seizing woman’s mutilated flesh, sending drops of blood flying in all directions.
The alien spiders looked like some eldritch combination of an infant and a black widow. Each of them had a fat, round central mass, the same color as the woman’s pale skin. The pink flesh was stretched as tight as a snare drum. It looked like mice were living inside the thick liquid of the creatures’ central bodies, pressing against the thin membrane with the fleeting impression of tiny legs and gnashing faces.
Dozens of the jointed, skittering legs jutted out from their thrumming flesh. Looking up at me, I saw big, blue human eyes on their twisted faces. They were bloodshot, the pupils dilated and wild. The fleshy orbs had no nose, but each had a pair of human-like lips twisted up into a savage snarl beneath the massive eyes. Hundreds of thin, hollow needles emerged from their gnashing mouths.
Instinctively, I backpedaled to the driver’s door. Each of the spiders started wailing like a crying baby, their mouths opening in dissonant shrieks. They turned towards me, their wild, insane eyes meeting mine. At that moment, I felt like I had been plunged into a nightmare.
I had no time to think as they pushed themselves off the ground, flying high in the air with a sudden fury. Those very human mouths filled with too many sharp black needles flew straight at my face. I ducked at the last moment, hearing them smash into the side of the truck. There was a ringing of metal as they left deep dents in the body, each about the size of a baseball.
I leapt inside, slamming the door behind me as more spidery creatures flew up, smacking hard into the glass. Their wild faces stayed stuck there for a long moment, staring in at me with a gnashing of teeth and an oozing of more black sludge.
I started the truck. As the air conditioner clicked on, blowing air from outside into the cab, the smell of thick semen wafted in, cloying like ammonia.
***
I pulled a U-turn, burning out in my rush to get back home and check on Sophie. I needed to get us out of this cursed town.
As I passed by the park, I noticed that nothing moved now. The bright summer day started to go dark overhead. Looking up, I saw more and more black, worm-like masses growing over everything, partially blocking out the Sun in their rapid growth. Like cancerous cells, the disparate lifeforms connected, their spidery legs skittering faster with a renewed vigor. Hundreds more small spiders were crawling out of the park, but not all had human faces. One of them had a dog’s eyes and black lips, its central mass furry and yellow like that of a golden retriever.
Nothing moved on the streets now except the spiders and the black, worm-like masses stretching above our heads. I sped down the streets, seeing pale faces peeking out of windows. As my truck sped ahead, it continuously got sprayed with black sludge from above. It covered my windshield like some kind of hellish snow. Within a couple minutes, it was nearly impossible to see anything.
When I tried to use the windshield wipers to clean it off, it just smudged and bubbled. Cursing, I tried to see through a smaller and smaller portion of the glass until I was forced to stop, only a few hundred feet away from my home. The sludge continued raining down on me, covering every single window until I was submerged into blackness.
***
I breathed hard in the sudden darkness, my heartbeat roaring in my ears. I had no idea what to do. I heard soft thuds land against the outer body, more mutated spiders throwing themselves at the only moving thing on this dead, apocalyptic street.
I tried to inch forward slowly, like a blind man trying to drive. I was moving in the right direction overall, but at any moment, I knew I would hit something. Moving along at a few miles an hour, I heard the crunch a few seconds later. I must have hit one of the cars parked along the side of the street.
I looked through the truck for anything possibly useful in this situation. I wished I at least had a gun, but I had nothing here except an old, rusted boxcutter in the glove department. I didn’t even have a mask or anything to put over my face. I refused to wear masks for any reason, though I might have made an exception for this situation.
I found a plastic bag covered in dirty streaks of grime underneath the seat. Grabbing the box cutter and the plastic bag, I prepared myself to get out and run.
I knew it was absolutely insane, but I had to get back home. I couldn’t stay in this truck until I simply starved or dehydrated to death. If the US government was anywhere near as useful at fixing this situation as they were at anything else they tried to do, then I knew they would be no help. With the efficiency of government services, I figured they might get here sometime around next year and spend hundreds of billions of dollars doing so, after every single person in this town had already rotted down to skeletons.
I inhaled deeply, putting the plastic bag over my head like some sort of cheap Halloween mask. I ripped two tiny holes for the eyes, hoping it would still do some good. Grabbing the box cutter in one trembling hand, I flung open the door, running out onto the street.
***
The black masses stretching overhead made it as dark as a solar eclipse outside. They covered the roofs of every home, wound their ways through trees and branches and slunk across creeks like organic bridges. The entire pulsating, massy flesh constantly shimmered and gurgled. I heard sounds of wet sliding above my head.
I looked around frantically, seeing my house only a hundred feet away. I sprinted as fast I could, zigzagging wildly.
Something liquidy and thick crashed directly next to me, a mass of sputtering black goo reeking of semen. The strange tendrils continued shooting wads of this alien material. I knew I couldn’t make it to the house. Then I heard a cry from nearby.
“Walt! In here!” someone cried, a wavering old man’s voice. I looked up, seeing my neighbor Steuben standing in his open doorway only a dozen feet away. I leapt towards him, climbing up the steps on all fours and flinging myself through the door with every ounce of strength I possessed. I heard more wet, thudding sounds as that strange alien goo continued covering the path behind me.
I rolled through the door, falling forward and slamming my head into the wall. My vision turned black for a moment. I swam through the pain and confusion, hearing Steuben slam and lock the door behind me. I ripped the plastic bag off my head, breathing hard and covered in sweat. My heart pounded in my chest, frantic as a cornered, panicked animal. I looked down, seeing the box cutter still clutched tightly in my hand, my knuckles white with tension. I slipped it in my pocket.
“Sophie!” I cried, breathless. “I need to get to Sophie!” Steuben came over slowly in his typical long-sleeve plaid shirt and blue jeans, looking down at me with his flat, blue eyes.
“It’s OK, Walt,” he said calmingly. “Sophie’s here.” I looked up, surprised.
“What? Where?” I asked, confused. “Why is she here?”
“When everything started, she said she got scared and saw you weren’t home. She came here when the announcements began on the radio and TV. She’s in the back room right now.” He knelt down, extending a withered hand towards me. “Come on up, I’ll bring you to her.” My heart soared with waves of bliss. I scrabbled to my feet.
“Thank you so much, Steuben!” I cried in ecstasy, grateful that Sophie was alive and OK. He put out a hand, pointing down the hallway.
“She’s in the room at the back,” he said. “Go see her.” I nodded happily, running forward. His slow, plodding footsteps followed behind me. The floorboards creaked ominously as I flung open the door.
I saw Sophie there, naked and bound with strands with razor-wire. Fresh streams of blood dribbled down her smooth, pale flesh. Her mouth was gagged, her eyes huge and wild. The back window was open, and I saw alien spiders slinking through. Some were a combination of human and spider, while others had dog, squirrel, cat or racoon features. Yet every single one gave the same ghastly aura of sickness, the smell of thick semen in the air.
“Sophie!” I cried as one of them skittered up on her face, its black needles dripping drops of mutating sludge onto her eyes and nose. She shook her head wildly from side to side, trying to clear it. Her panicked, muffled sobs filtered through the gag, ripping at my heart.
I heard the cocking of a gun behind my head. I turned slowly, seeing Steuben standing there with an insane rictus grin splitting his old face, aiming a .45 pistol at my forehead.
***
“Steuben? What the fuck?!” I cried, my hand instinctively crawling nearer to my pocket with the box cutter. He smiled.
“Get into the room with that stupid bitch,” he said, “or I’ll kill you both.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “I never did anything to you!” He shrugged.
“It’s part of my job with the Cleaners,” he said simply. “After the meteorite hit and started contaminating the local environment, the government asked me to experiment a bit on the locals if I could, measure the time it takes for the reaction to occur.” He pointed to cameras and audio recorders located all around the room. “You and your wife will be the first scientific subjects for the fungus. If we can control this, imagine how powerful of a biological weapon it would be! It could take out a whole country in days.” I closed my hand around the box cutter, ready to make my move.
“OK, I’ll go,” I pleaded, nodding slowly. “Just don’t kill me.” Steuben smiled grimly as I leapt forward, yanking the box cutter out of my pocket and slicing upwards at his neck.
The pistol went off instantly. I felt a burning pain in my left shoulder as the bullet exploded through the top of it, blood instantly soaking my shirt. With a battle-cry of pain and anger, I forced the blade into the side of his neck with all my strength. It cut through his jugular vein easily, the skin separating a moment later. A waterfall of blood poured down his chest.
He stumbled back, grabbing at his spurting neck. The pistol fell to the floor with a metallic clatter. Looking at me with dead, surprised eyes, he fell slowly forward.
I looked back, seeing Sophie’s face covered in black sludge. She was suffocating, her lips turning blue. Spiders crawled over every inch of her exposed flesh. When their strange, alien eyes met mine, the ones closest jumped in my direction.
I backpedaled quickly, slamming the door shut. I heard them slam against its other surface with soft crashes.
***
I took Steuben’s gun, searching his house meticulously for something that might help me survive. I felt sick about Sophie’s death, but once she had become infected, I knew she was gone. The moment that black goo entered someone’s body, it seemed they were beyond help.
I tried to slow the bleeding from my shoulder, bandaging it as best as I could. I felt pieces of bone splinters rubbing in the wound as I tightened it, gritting my teeth against the pain. The bullet appeared to have gone through the top of my shoulder, missing the arteries but shattering the bone. I would have to use my right hand for everything for a while, I thought as pain like battery acid shrieked from the wound.
In Steuben’s garage, I found a strange vehicle. It looked like a bulldozer, but it had cameras on the outside connected to a TV in the center console. There were special high-pressure water jets pointed at the cameras to clean them off. It was as if Steuben had known what was coming and had made plans to escape.
I looked at the plates, seeing they were government plates. They said the vehicle was federal property. Steuben’s story started to seem more and more true. Had he actually been a member of some secret government agency experimenting on US citizens?
I played around with the bulldozer for a few minutes, finding out how to operate it and keep the cameras running. It took significantly longer with only one hand and with the many injuries and bruises covering my body, but I forced myself to ignore the pain. Once I knew how it worked, I turned it on, sealing the exterior.
Feeling a combination of bliss at escaping and sickening horror at Sophie’s fate, I crashed through the door of Steuben’s garage, ambling the bulldozer down his driveway. The windows were instantly covered in black goo, but through the aid of the cameras, I could still see.
Making my way slowly forward, I left that den of horrors behind, driving through the dead streets of Matheson towards freedom.
2024.06.11 08:59 Electrical_Formal755 9 Step first date same day lay guide - planning texting and escalating
https://mindful-masculinity.org/2024/06/11/9-step-first-date-same-day-lay-guide-planning-texting-and-escalating/
I wrote this guide roughly 5 years ago on rapid escalation and how to get a girl to your place on the first date . Since i started daygame roughly 2017 it wasn't until 2019 that i had a system in place to getting the woman back to your place on the first date. Rapid escalation can be a useful tool but bear in mind any sort of guide or routine you do will have stumbling blocks and won't work 100 percent of time. You need options to get a system work just like you need sales to get a sales funnel working . If you just try this routine with 1 or 2 women it may capitulate the first time and you may find yourself frustrated. Similarly you wouldn't try one day game roll play with one set you'd spread it with 100-200 sets and look for trends as a result. Rejection and failed dates are part of the game . Also this depends on the women's ideology and their personal views of course. If a woman is rigorsly conservative and religious then rapid escalation is really unlikely to work regardless of your SMV or your game on the first date .
Also note that when trying this there were numerous occasions in which the girl got back to mine and the sex didn't occur. There was even one occasion when a Hong Kong girl took a 40 minute cab to mine just to say she wanted a cuddle at 3am and slept next to me . Just because you get a woman back to yours on the first date doesn't necessarily mean its going to end up in sex on the first date- more often than not it didn't on the first date.
Re: Text game- I am no text game professional - it's not my expertise and as I said before I am not a dating coach- this is a free guide which i wrote 5 years ago and I am well aware that my text isn't particularly good or on a "master" level. The texts I've included in this guide were what worked for me in those specific situations with those girls in question- there might be other objections you face that are different than mine . Of course a lot of my daygame numbers would flake - around 70 percent would and i am not going to share those screenshots because that would make for a very boring guide lol . What you're seeing are the outliers of a lot of daygame approaches - the 1-2 percent of girls that are very responsive and keen to meet . Don't think every woman I am texting is eager to meet up for a date- far from it. Even Paul Janka who is a male model who went to Harvard who lived in New York said 1 in 10 of the phone numbers he got from cold approach actually ended up in lays. My statistics are roughly 1 in 14.
Any questions about the dates or planning dates feel free to just ask
submitted by Electrical_Formal755 to PickUpArtist [link] [comments]
I wrote this guide roughly 5 years ago on rapid escalation and how to get a girl to your place on the first date . Since i started daygame roughly 2017 it wasn't until 2019 that i had a system in place to getting the woman back to your place on the first date. Rapid escalation can be a useful tool but bear in mind any sort of guide or routine you do will have stumbling blocks and won't work 100 percent of time. You need options to get a system work just like you need sales to get a sales funnel working . If you just try this routine with 1 or 2 women it may capitulate the first time and you may find yourself frustrated. Similarly you wouldn't try one day game roll play with one set you'd spread it with 100-200 sets and look for trends as a result. Rejection and failed dates are part of the game . Also this depends on the women's ideology and their personal views of course. If a woman is rigorsly conservative and religious then rapid escalation is really unlikely to work regardless of your SMV or your game on the first date .
Also note that when trying this there were numerous occasions in which the girl got back to mine and the sex didn't occur. There was even one occasion when a Hong Kong girl took a 40 minute cab to mine just to say she wanted a cuddle at 3am and slept next to me . Just because you get a woman back to yours on the first date doesn't necessarily mean its going to end up in sex on the first date- more often than not it didn't on the first date.
Re: Text game- I am no text game professional - it's not my expertise and as I said before I am not a dating coach- this is a free guide which i wrote 5 years ago and I am well aware that my text isn't particularly good or on a "master" level. The texts I've included in this guide were what worked for me in those specific situations with those girls in question- there might be other objections you face that are different than mine . Of course a lot of my daygame numbers would flake - around 70 percent would and i am not going to share those screenshots because that would make for a very boring guide lol . What you're seeing are the outliers of a lot of daygame approaches - the 1-2 percent of girls that are very responsive and keen to meet . Don't think every woman I am texting is eager to meet up for a date- far from it. Even Paul Janka who is a male model who went to Harvard who lived in New York said 1 in 10 of the phone numbers he got from cold approach actually ended up in lays. My statistics are roughly 1 in 14.
Any questions about the dates or planning dates feel free to just ask
2024.06.11 08:54 WangYat2007 Researching the price elasticity of software and the effectiveness of Loss Leader Pricing in Software Inc
 | This guide is also avaliable on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3256150569 submitted by WangYat2007 to SoftwareInc [link] [comments] This guide is not for absolute beginners as I will not be detailing where every button is, there are plenty of absolute beginner guides that already exist. However, if you've already played a bit, you will understand this guide as the concept is very simple to execute. Here, I detail what I've discovered about Software Inc's game mechanics, presented them, and added my thoughts onto it. Whether loss leader pricing is worth it or not, is up to you to decide. Hey there! I’m Wang, and recently I’ve been experimenting with a sales tactic: Loss Leader Pricing. This isn’t much of a guide, but more of a summary of my research as I tried this tactic in game. It’s not super powerful or game breaking, but can give you an edge against your competitors and accelerate your growth. What is Loss Leader Pricing?The concept and execution is very simple. Its when a company sells a product at a lower price than usual (usually below market price) to sell more product, and often at a loss; whether it’s to increase market share, draw customers away from competitors, or stimulate more sales of complementary products*, the effect is still the same.*a complementary product is when a product is sold alongside another product, eg. Phones and phone chargers, movie tickets and popcorn. There are plenty of real life examples one can find by simply googling. One of such is Costco’s Rotisserie Chicken, which is sold at a net loss. Shoppers coming to buy the chicken would expose themselves to other products in the store and hence buy more. I haven’t personally seen this in action as Costco doesn’t exist where I live, but the concept still applies: attract more customers. Before the gameI've just realized this guide is going to look a LOT like a lab report.What I plan to do is to release a product at various prices, and compare the differences in market recognition and sales. Before trying this out, there are a couple variables I needed to decide on. Type of product: I chose a computer OS as the number of potential customers is constant (Not OS dependent). Computer OS in particular as it's the one with the most potential customers out of all OS types. Quality and creativity of product: Visionary and outstanding. This will make competition less of a variable, thus exaggerating the effects of price, which is what we are trying to isolate and investigate here. Price of product: This will be my independent variable. I will test out $0, $1, 50% of recommended price, and 100% recommended price for now. Setting things upNow, a little annoying quirk I encountered is that the game for some reason treats free products differently from priced products. In the design document, if I change the price to $0, then develop and release the software, i cannot raise the price; the game will give me a prompt saying "Product is already free". Similarly, if the price is non-zero and I try to change it to $0 afterwards, the game will say "please enter a valid value". So I have to develop the OS twice, in two seperate saves in order to test out the effect of free product too. Annoying.I got myself 37 million dollars in January 1990. I hired a team of designers, programmers and artists for my OS, designed my Computer OS while following the recommended market targeting as best I can, and here I saved. https://preview.redd.it/8j3w20yi2w5d1.png?width=1212&format=png&auto=webp&s=b3d23e8052ebe169ded2c6328431a16edb3d5797 Notice that the recommended price is $150. I've gotten a marketing publisher as I don't want to set up a marketing team myself. DataHere is my gathered data from the various playthroughs.points to note:
* note that on the second month, I sold 294,628 copies as my marketing efforts caught up (Sparse > Prominent) ** I didn't make $37034 in sales because some people got refunds Data analysisChanges in sales when price changesSeems like when you lower the prices a little bit from the optimal value, sales do go up a little, but not nearly as much to make up for the decreased price, resulting in less profit (Price inelastic demand). But at very low prices, sales go down. This is very interesting, I did not expect this at all. You would expect the sales to go up when prices go down, right? Imagine a 1 dollar computer OS software that has outstanding quality, that would fly off the shelves! But not here. Upon release, the reviews do indeed say "It is suspiciously cheap". And then sales skyrocketed when it's free. One would expect $0 and $1 to make no difference, but not in this game. Seems like Software Inc treats "free" and "not-free" products VERY, VERY differently. So if we plot a graph of price of product against sales, I expect it to look something like this: https://preview.redd.it/2nhk6h733w5d1.png?width=2048&format=png&auto=webp&s=b56ff4d3b0ec4722c51384294a38270288a37576 And in order to test this theory, I released the product at different prices with increments of $10 ($10, 20, 30 and so on, until 150% of the recommended price, which is $225) and recorded their sales on release. According to my earlier data, seems like the sales on release and sales after a year are directly tied together: Hence, I won't waste time waiting an entire year 23 different times and only record the sales on release. https://preview.redd.it/zi6yoep53w5d1.png?width=249&format=png&auto=webp&s=a718846c565d2ec71bc23d36fbb3b291fd0deec3 Now this was not what I was expecting. I gathered data until $100, before i noticed something was wrong. At $80, sales started to plummet. I was on track to getting no sales at all by the time I reached $150, the suggested price, in direct contradiction with my earlier data. Taking a closer look, when changing the price, the prompt tells me, Suggested Price: $75. This was the price I set in the design document for this save (which I reloaded over and over to change the price). The anomaly in my data started occuring at $80. Do you see it? Seems like the game no longer takes their suggested price, $150, as the "best price" anymore. Before development, I "promised" to consumers that the price would be $75 in the design document. So when I raised the price to something above $75, consumers understandably got angry and didn't buy. You would feel cheated too if a game you were looking forward to jacked up it's price at the last minute for no reason, wouldn't you? But the more important part is that the data for $10 to $70 fits into my theory. Raising prices, weirdly, raises sales. I'm sure there's a term for this in Economics, where increasing the price of something increases the perceived quality of the product. Some terms I could find with some simple googling and asking ChatGPT were "Veblen Good", "Prestige Pricing", "Snob Effect". You can look into those if ya want. I re-released Scam OS with $150 set in the design document, and collected the rest of the data. https://preview.redd.it/s3pprft73w5d1.png?width=1738&format=png&auto=webp&s=2eb80abdd50d4c641c8d723e6737ce96693ba3d5 Note that data at $150 doesn't match the data I presented earlier as this is a completely different save - slight deviations due to random factors occurred during the development process (eg. competition). Pretty much just what I expected. Massive sales at $0, and a second peak sales at the suggested price. Another noteworthy thing here is the total profit graph - the maximum total profit is the suggested price. Literally anything else will give you less total profit. I didn't go all the way to $225 as the trend tells you pretty much everything. An exponentially decreasing quantity in sales as you go further and further higher than the suggested price, gradually approaching 0. Market Recognition Market recognition seems to be directly tied to how many sales you have. That makes sense. But it doesn't seem to be proportional - the free OS sold 5.4 times as many copies as the $150 OS, but only has a market recognition of 2.2 times more. Competition Competition is arguably one of the most important elements that decide the success of your product. Here are the competition charts for my 4 test products: $150 $75 $1 My Computer OS, which I have very creatively named "Scam OS" in an attempt to lure more customers into my social experiment, is represented by the white bars. There are some differences in the competition due to random factors I cannot control, but the general trend is the same: A very well-off OS dominates the market, I release my OS, and another OS quickly releases in succession. These graphs are not very interesting by themselves - Scam OS is able to compete, but not completely dominate the competition. Now, let's look at the $0 graph, shall we? $0 look at all that beautiful, beautiful white. Scam OS completely destroys the competition. Monthly OS sales at historical records. Conclusion and TakeawaysSo, what does this tell us about the effectiveness of Loss Leader Pricing in Software Inc?Set the price of the product either to free, OR the suggested price. No in between. Definitely not even $1. The whole point of Loss Leader Pricing is to generate more sales. By lowering the price, you generate a teeny tiny bit more sales, but lose out on a huge chunk of profit. When lowering it even more, the effect is reversed - you lower the price AND lower the sales. This has been thoroughly proven in the excel spreadsheet and graphs. The peak value for profit occur at the suggested price; Sales peak at 80% of the suggested price ($120), but not by that much. So quite objectively speaking, any price in between is not worth anything. Set the price either to free OR the suggested price in the design document. The price set in the design document should be the finalized price. (which should be the suggested price anyway, see paragraph above) As seen in the earlier section, if you lower the price and raise it again on release, even if you raised it back to the suggested price, consumers don't buy the product as much. It's like as if they feel "cheated" when you raise the price after promising them something lower. Free, high quality products destroy the competition. A high quality free product is pretty much just a highly effective DDOS attack (Distribution Denial of Service - this option is available in the Accounting tab). If you have a grudge or simply hate the logo of a particular company, releasing a free version of what they do best can really hurt their feelings. This may have a ripple effect in the future, when you've beaten down a competitor product and they don't do so well in the future and you in turn do better. Software Inc treats free and non-free products VERY differently. The difference between $0 and $1 is monumental. Such differences include, but is not limited to:
Usually, one would need to release 5 to 6 sequels of an IP before they can get a full 6 hearts of market recognition. The nice thing about Software Inc customers is that they all seem to have long term memory loss - they still buy a fully priced sequel even if the prequel was free (i.e. there is no "consumer expectation" that the sequel will be free too). Releasing a free product can shorten the time you need to gain market recognition, perhaps to 3-4 sequels before getting a full 6 hearts. You can even release multiple free products to REALLY get there quick. This can be especially useful in highly saturated markets such as Antiviruses, 2D, 3D editors, audio tools etc. to gain an edge over competitors (Sometimes, releasing 7, 8 sequels of an antivirus can only get me to 4 hearts) Boosted market recognition, but at what cost? https://preview.redd.it/4dnajtvr3w5d1.jpg?width=992&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96339aef43bfafa852453581f9c51791888e69b0 Now, of course, this action is highly, highly unprofitable. my 2.9 hearts of computer OS market recognition costed me 13 million, and losses will only continue to increase as salaries stack. Loss Leader pricing could be used when you've established yourself as a company, have millions in the bank already, and want to tap into a new market. The printing costs of software can easily be brushed off ($2 for ordering copies, $0.15 for printing it yourself) so this strategy is more applicable for software. But, I strongly, STRONGLY, do NOT recommend doing this with hardware, such as phones and consoles. The printing costs of each copy can easily reach $100+. with 4 million sales, you are looking at a net loss of 400 MILLION, That's the net worth of some of the largest companies in Software Inc! not to mention the printing machines and distribution infrastructure needed to print some 400 thousand copies per month! Is this a viable starting strategy? But you might wonder, what if you're just starting out? where can I get 13 million dollars of startup cash? Well well well, dear reader, I have written a guide on manipulating the stock market, and with the right decisions, a keen and attentive eye, and a hefty dose of luck, you can potentially earn yourself upwards of 300 million dollars in 10 years with 100k starting cash. You can see it here: https://www.reddit.com/SoftwareInc/comments/1cf0cb1/a_detailed_guide_on_manipulating_the_software_inc/ I sound so much like an advertisement. Shameless self promotion, woohoo! (Though I don't earn anything from writing these, it's simply fun for me!) Anyway, moving on: Does all this apply to other types of software? 2D, 3D editors? Games? Honest answer: I don't know. Without actually testing it out, there will always be a degree of uncertainty. However, I also have yet to see anything that suggests otherwise. I would assume the sales of all software is calculated by the game based on the same system, combining the effects of price, competition, market recognition, product appeal and so on. Andddd that should be everything. This guide took me 15+ hours of research and writing, holy moly. This is my analysis and interpretation of the data I've collected. If there are different interpretations and conclusions, please let me know. And at the end of the day, it is up to you to decide whether loss leader pricing or messing with prices is worth it. Manipulating the stock market and then crashing your way into markets with loss leader pricing is just one of the many ways to enjoy a game of Software Inc. And that marks the end of this guide, a beautiful 2600 words. This is Wang, wishing you high market recognition and customers suffering from long term memory loss in your loss leader pricing journey. Thank you for reading! |
2024.06.11 08:49 rbanksy Ticket for London show 11 June for sale
Just found out I can't go to the Brixton Academy show tonight 😭
I've listed my ticket for sale on the Ticketmaster site if anyone wants it. It's on for £70, so about 10% off the face value.
https://secure.ticketmaster.co.uk/rs/3E00606993AD07F7/lckdh5k3cz
submitted by rbanksy to nofx [link] [comments]
I've listed my ticket for sale on the Ticketmaster site if anyone wants it. It's on for £70, so about 10% off the face value.
https://secure.ticketmaster.co.uk/rs/3E00606993AD07F7/lckdh5k3cz
2024.06.11 08:28 Furystorm [WTS] ✪ Upgrades to Retaliator Bomber ✪ Banu Tholo / Banu Cube ✪ Furystorm's boutique™ (⌐ ͡■ ͜ʖ ͡■) Galaxy's Finest (⌐ ͡■ ͜ʖ ͡■) ✪ Game packages (SQ42 & starter) ✪ LTI Pioneer, Orion, Carrack, Merchantman, Vindicator, others ★ Rare CCUs (upgrades) ★ Vanguard BUKs ★ Modules/Flairs/Weapons/Armor ★
▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
Currencies accepted: PayPal: [$] [€], Skrill (+10%): [€], Crypto(+5%): BTC, BCH, ETH, can take others
╔════════════════════╗
►1◄ REFERRAL SERVICE
╚════════════════════╝
╔══════════════════╗
►2◄ SPECIAL OFFERS
╚══════════════════╝
╔═════════════════════════════════╗
►3◄ STAR CITIZEN AND SQUADRON 42 PACKAGES
╚═════════════════════════════════╝
Game package can be upgrade as well on your demand, price negotiated
╔═════════════════════════════════╗
►4◄ SHIP & VEHICLE COMBO PACKAGES
╚═════════════════════════════════╝
Game package can be upgrade as well on your demand, price negotiated
╔══════════════════════════╗
►5◄ LTI STANDALONE SHIPS & VEHICLES
╚══════════════════════════╝
CCU-d ships are upgraded from another ship. Also I have ships from original sale - they may come with different bonuses but are more expensive.
╔════════════════════════════════════╗
►6◄ NON-LTI SHIPS & PACKAGES, COMMON
╚════════════════════════════════════╝
Below are listed combo packs with different combination of vehicles, or with space ships
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════╗
►8.1◄ MODULES, PODS, BATTLEFIELD UPGRADE KITS (BUKS), OTHER ITEMS
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
►8.2 ◄ FPS WEAPONS, ARMOR, CLOTHES AND OTHER GEAR
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
╔════════════════════════════════════════╗
►9◄ CROSS-CHASSIS UPGRADES (CCUS)
╚════════════════════════════════════════╝
Sorted by: Manufacturer -> ship
╔═══════════════════════════════╗
Click here to continue to 2nd part of the store
╚═══════════════════════════════╝
New players - use this code (STAR-MRG5-2TBJ) on registration to get additional 5000 UEC for free! (just click this link)
submitted by Furystorm to Starcitizen_trades [link] [comments]
👽👽👽 Welcome to Furystorm's boutique ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 👽👽👽
Click here to see links for previous stores with a lot of positive feedback from happy customers ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓New players - use this code (STAR-MRG5-2TBJ) on registration to get additional 5000 UEC for free!▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓
(Just click this link)
Currencies accepted: PayPal: [$] [€], Skrill (+10%): [€], Crypto(+5%): BTC, BCH, ETH, can take others
To make an order 📨 PM me via Reddit or via Discord (Furystorm#4218)
!!! Please use standard messages, not chat (notifications aren't working properly sometimes) !!!►1◄ REFERRAL SERVICE
╚════════════════════╝
20 $ per eachInfo about rewards can be found here - https://robertsspaceindustries.com/referral-program
╔══════════════════╗
►2◄ SPECIAL OFFERS
╚══════════════════╝
╰( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )つ──☆
Upgrades
| Item | Price, $ |
|---|---|
| Starfarer Gemini to Merchantman | 169 |
| Banu Tholo code | 79 |
| Banu Lockbox (Banu Cube) code | 89 |
| Mole to Merchantman | 159 |
| Starfarer Gemini to Merchantman | 165 |
| C2 Hercules to Carrack | 139 |
| Valkyrie to Carrack | 169 |
| Constellation Aquila to Orion | 180 |
| Starfarer Gemini to Hull D Upgrade | 109 |
| Constellation Andromeda to Hull C Upgrade | 139 |
| Anvil Terrapin to Hull C Upgrade | 179 |
| F7C-R Hornet Tracker to Constellation Taurus | 39 |
| Corsair to 400i Warbond Edition | 12 |
| Hull E to Polaris | 50 |
| Ship Upgrades - Drake Kraken Conversion Kit | 799 |
| PAINTS - PERSEUS - THUNDERCLOUD PAINT | 31 |
Stuff
| Item | Price, $ |
|---|---|
| CitizenCon 2951 Digital Goodies | 9 |
| Gemini LH86 Pistol - Voyager edition | 6 |
| Kruger P-72 Emerald | 105 |
| RSI VENTURE PATHFINDER ARM ARMOR | 10 |
| RSI VENTURE VOYAGER ARM ARMOR | 10 |
►3◄ STAR CITIZEN AND SQUADRON 42 PACKAGES
╚═════════════════════════════════╝
Game package can be upgrade as well on your demand, price negotiated
| Package | Insurance | Game Pledge - SC | Game Pledge - SQ42 | Price, $ | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Package - Aurora LN | 3MI | + | + | 59 | Aurora LN (best aurora) Starter package |
| Package - Aurora MR SC Starter - Backer Edition | 3MI | + | + | 55 | Aurora MR Starter package |
| Package - Syulen Starter Pack | LTI | + | 115 | - | |
| 3MI | + | ||||
| Anniversary 2017 Mustang Discount Starter | 5YI | + | 58 | - | |
| Scoundrel Pack | LTI | + | + | 799 | 7 Items, see picture |
| Entrepreneur pack | LTI | + | + | 699 | Prospector + Vulture + Vulcan + Hull B + Ursa Rover |
►4◄ SHIP & VEHICLE COMBO PACKAGES
╚═════════════════════════════════╝
Game package can be upgrade as well on your demand, price negotiated
| Package | Insurance | Price, $ | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argo Combo Pack | LTI | 111 | MPUV Cargo + MPUV Personnel |
| Dragonfly Ride Together Two-Pack | LTI | 116 | Yellow + Black |
| Nox 2 pack | LTI | 121 | Nox + Nox Kue |
| Aopoa Nox 5 Pack | LTI | 242 | 4 Nox + 1 Nox Kue |
| Race Team Pack | LTI | 169 | X1 + NOX + Dragonfly Black |
| Origin X1 THREE-PACK | LTI | 169 | X1 Baseline + Velocity + Force |
| Argo Utility Pack | LTI | 249 | Argo SRV + MPUV Cargo + MPUV Personnel + VFG Hangar |
| The Tortoise and the Hurricane | LTI | 409 | Anvil Hurricane + Anvil Terrapin |
| Starfarer + Nox 2 pack | LTI | 429 | Starfarer + Nox + Nox Kue |
| Origin 600i Series Combo Pack | LTI | 999 | 600i Luxury + Exploration + Origin X1 |
| Aegis Wrecking Crew Pack | LTI | 1159 | Reclaimer + Vulcan + Eclipse + Avenger Warlock/Titan |
| Exotic Mega Pack | LTI | 1259 | Banu MM + Genesis Starliner + Khartu-al + other small ships |
| UEE Exploration 2948 Pack | LTI | 849 | Carrack, Terrapin, Freelancer DUR, Cyclone RN |
| Offroad Vehicle Pack | LTI | 137 | Cyclone TR + URSA + Greycat PTV |
| Tumbril Cyclone Pack | LTI | 309 | All Cyclones |
| All-Terrain Vehicle Mega Pack | LTI | 479 | All Cyclones + Ursa + Lynx + Greycat |
| Air and Space Pack LTI | LTI | 299 | Terrapin + Cyclone AA |
| Ground Vehicle Pack VIP | LTI | 379 | Gragonfly + Nox + X1 + Ursa + Cyclone + Nova + bonus |
| Deluxe Ground Vehicle Pack VIP | LTI | 849 | A lot of items, check screenshot |
►5◄ LTI STANDALONE SHIPS & VEHICLES
╚══════════════════════════╝
CCU-d ships are upgraded from another ship. Also I have ships from original sale - they may come with different bonuses but are more expensive.
You can click on the price of original sale item to see it's contents.
| Ship manufacturer | Ship model | Insurance | Price (CCUd), $, no fee | Price (OC), $, no fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aopoa (Xi'an) | Khartu-Al | LTI | 179 | - |
| - | Nox | LTI | - | 77 |
| - | Nox Kue | LTI | - | 77 |
| - | San'Tok.Yai | LTI | 231 | - |
| Aegis Dynamics | Avenger Titan | LTI | 74 | 100 |
| - | Avenger Titan Renegade | LTI | 95 | 111 |
| - | Avenger Stalker | LTI | 84 | - |
| - | Avenger Warlock | LTI | 100 | - |
| - | Eclipse | LTI | 305 | 333 |
| - | Gladius | LTI | 116 | - |
| - | Gladius Valiant | LTI | 132 | 147 |
| - | Hammerhead | LTI | 672 | 777 |
| - | Hammerhead Best in Show Edition | LTI | 746 | - |
| - | Nautilus | LTI | 672 | - |
| - | Reclaimer | LTI | 336 | - |
| - | Reclaimer Best in Show Edition | LTI | 429 | - |
| - | Redeemer | LTI | 333 | - |
| - | Retaliator Bomber | LTI | 284 | - |
| - | Sabre | LTI | 184 | 221 |
| - | Sabre Comet | LTI | 195 | - |
| - | Vanguard Warden | LTI | 263 | - |
| - | Vanguard Harbinger | LTI | 289 | - |
| - | Vanguard Sentinel | LTI | 268 | - |
| - | Vanguard Hoplite | LTI | 231 | 268 |
| - | Vulcan | LTI | 216 | 242 |
| ARGO Astronautics | MPUV Cargo | LTI | 69 | 74 |
| - | MPUV Personnel | LTI | 74 | 79 |
| - | MPUV Tractor | LTI | 74 | 79 |
| - | Raft | LTI | 142 | - |
| - | SRV | LTI | 165 | - |
| - | Mole | LTI | 321 | - |
| Anvil Aerospace | Arrow | LTI | 95 | 137 |
| - | Ballista | LTI | 168 | - |
| - | C8X Pisces Expedition | LTI | 69 | 79 |
| - | C8R Pisces | LTI | 84 | - |
| - | Carrack | LTI | 390 | - |
| - | Carrack W/C8X | LTI | 420 | - |
| - | Carrack Expedition | LTI | 430 | - |
| - | Carrack Expedition W/C8X | LTI | 450 | - |
| - | Crucible | LTI | 369 | 431 |
| - | F7C Hornet Mk II | LTI | 184 | - |
| - | F7C Hornet Mk I | LTI | 121 | - |
| - | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | LTI | 189 | 210 |
| - | F7C-S Hornet Ghost Mk I | LTI | 140 | - |
| - | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | LTI | 155 | - |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | LTI | 199 | 252 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | LTI | 200 | - |
| - | Gladiator | LTI | 177 | 221 |
| - | Hawk | LTI | 116 | 132 |
| - | Hurricane | LTI | 210 | 231 |
| - | Terrapin | LTI | 231 | 263 |
| - | Valkyrie | LTI | 357 | - |
| - | Legionnaire | LTI | 132 | - |
| Banu | Merchantman | LTI | 399 | - |
| - | Defender | LTI | 226 | 237 |
| Consolidated outland | Mustang Alpha | LTI | 74 | - |
| - | Mustang Beta | LTI | 95 | - |
| - | Mustang Gamma | LTI | 74 | - |
| - | Mustang Delta | LTI | 84 | - |
| - | Pioneer | LTI | - | 1599 |
| - | Hoverquad | LTI | - | 74 |
| Crusader Industries | Ares Inferno | LTI | 252 | - |
| - | Ares Ion | LTI | 252 | - |
| - | Genesis Starliner | LTI | 357 | 578 |
| - | C2 Hercules | LTI | 368 | - |
| - | M2 Hercules | LTI | 483 | - |
| - | A2 Hercules | LTI | 735 | - |
| - | C1 Spirit | LTI | 137 | - |
| - | E1 Spirit | LTI | 163 | - |
| - | A1 Spirit | LTI | 210 | - |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | LTI | 273 | - |
| Drake Interplanetary | Dragonfly Yellowjacket | LTI | - | 84 |
| - | Dragonfly Black | LTI | - | 84 |
| - | Dragonfly Ride Together Two-Pack | LTI | - | 126 |
| - | Buccaneer | LTI | 126 | 142 |
| - | Caterpillar | LTI | 336 | - |
| - | Caterpillar Best in Show Edition | LTI | 347 | - |
| - | Corsair | LTI | 263 | - |
| - | Cutlass Black | LTI | 126 | - |
| - | Cutlass Black Best in Show Edition (2949) | LTI | 137 | - |
| - | Cutlass Steel | LTI | 221 | - |
| - | Cutlass Red | LTI | 142 | - |
| - | Cutlass Blue | LTI | 168 | - |
| - | Herald | LTI | 111 | - |
| - | Vulture | LTI | 158 | - |
| Esperia | Blade | LTI | 284 | 326 |
| - | Glaive | LTI | 373 | - |
| - | Prowler | LTI | 399 | 510 |
| - | Talon | LTI | 132 | - |
| - | Talon Shrike | LTI | 132 | - |
| Gatac | Railen | LTI | 242 | - |
| Greycat Industrial | ROC | LTI | 77 | - |
| Kruger Intergalactic | P-72 Archimedes | LTI | - | 90 |
| - | P-72 Archimedes Emerald | LTI | - | 105 |
| Mirai | Fury | LTI | 69 | - |
| - | Fury MX | LTI | 69 | - |
| - | Fury LX | LTI | 69 | - |
| MISC | Endeavor | LTI | 378 | - |
| - | Endeavor DISCOVERY-CLASS | LTI | - | 735 |
| - | Endeavor Master Set 2018 | LTI | - | 1399 |
| - | Expanse | LTI | 168 | - |
| - | Freelancer | LTI | 121 | - |
| - | Freelancer DUR | LTI | 147 | - |
| - | Freelancer MAX | LTI | 163 | - |
| - | Freelancer MIS | LTI | 184 | - |
| - | HULL A | LTI | 99 | - |
| - | HULL B | LTI | 147 | - |
| - | HULL C | LTI | 357 | - |
| - | HULL D | LTI | 462 | - |
| - | Odyssey | LTI | 578 | - |
| - | Razor | LTI | 163 | 179 |
| - | Razor LX | LTI | 168 | - |
| - | Razor EX | LTI | 174 | - |
| - | Prospector | LTI | 163 | 179 |
| - | Reliant Kore | LTI | 84 | 105 |
| - | Reliant Tana | LTI | 95 | - |
| - | Reliant Mako | LTI | 121 | - |
| - | Reliant Sen | LTI | 105 | - |
| - | Starfarer | LTI | 315 | 399 |
| - | Starfarer Gemini | LTI | 347 | 452 |
| Origin Jumpworks | X1 | LTI | - | 69 |
| - | X1 Velocity | LTI | - | 74 |
| - | X1 Force | LTI | - | 79 |
| - | M50 | LTI | 121 | - |
| - | 85X | LTI | - | 79 |
| - | 100I | LTI | 74 | 95 |
| - | 125A | LTI | 79 | - |
| - | 135C | LTI | 84 | - |
| - | 300I | LTI | 77 | - |
| - | 315P | LTI | 77 | - |
| - | 325A | LTI | 93 | - |
| - | 350R | LTI | 137 | - |
| - | 400i | LTI | 265 | - |
| - | 600i Touring | LTI | 399 | 525 |
| - | 600i Explorer | LTI | 420 | 580 |
| - | Origin G12 | LTI | 79 | 0 |
| - | Origin G12R | LTI | 79 | 84 |
| - | Origin G12A | LTI | 84 | 90 |
| RSI | Aurora CL | LTI | 74 | - |
| - | Aurora LN | LTI | 79 | - |
| - | Apollo Triage | LTI | 268 | - |
| - | Apollo Medivac | LTI | 294 | - |
| - | Galaxy | LTI | 378 | - |
| - | Mantis | LTI | 168 | - |
| - | Perseus | LTI | 557 | - |
| - | Polaris | LTI | 735 | 999 |
| - | Constellation Taurus | LTI | 179 | - |
| - | Constellation Andromeda | LTI | 252 | - |
| - | Constellation Aquila | LTI | 321 | - |
| - | Zeus MK II MR | LTI | 205 | - |
| - | Zeus MK II ES | LTI | 163 | - |
| - | Zeus MK II CL | LTI | 163 | - |
| - | Scorpius | LTI | 263 | - |
| - | Scorpius Antares | LTI | 252 | - |
| - | Orion | LTI | 489 | - |
| - | Lynx | LTI | 79 | - |
| - | URSA Fortuna | LTI | 74 | - |
| - | Ursa Fortuna | LTI | 79 | - |
| Tumbril | Cyclone | LTI | - | 74 |
| - | Cyclone TR | LTI | - | 79 |
| - | Cyclone RC | LTI | - | 79 |
| - | Cyclone AA | LTI | - | 95 |
| - | Cyclone RN | LTI | - | 79 |
| - | Ranger RC | LTI | 105 | - |
| - | Ranger CV | LTI | 111 | - |
| - | Ranger TR | LTI | 116 | - |
| - | Nova | LTI | 126 | 132 |
►6◄ NON-LTI SHIPS & PACKAGES, COMMON
╚════════════════════════════════════╝
| Ship manufacturer | Ship model | Insurance | Price (OC), $ | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARGO Astronautics | Argo MPUV 1C Cargo | 10YI | 53 | - |
| Drake Interplanetary | Drake Loot and Scoot Deluxe Package | 5YI | 189 | Cutlass Black with Skull and Crossbones skin + DF Yellow |
| Consolidated outland | Consolidated Outland Mustang Alpha Vindicator | 6MI | 79 | Limited Vindicator version |
| Esperia | Glaive | 6YI | 439 | - |
| - | Glaive | 6MI | 399 | - |
| Greycat Industrial | Greycat PTV | 6YI | 27 | - |
| - | Greycat PTV | 10YI | 37 | - |
| Kruger Intergalactic | Kruger P-72 Archimedes | 10YI | 55 | - |
| - | Kruger P-72 Archimedes | 6YI | 45 | - |
| - | Kruger P-72 Archimedes Emerald | 6MI | 53 | - |
| - | Kruger P-52 Merlin | 6YI | 37 | - |
| MISC | MISC Endeavor OLYMPIC-CLASS | 4YI | 578 | Endeavor with modules |
| Origin Jumpworks | Origin 890 Jump | 10YI | 1249 | - |
| - | Origin 890 Jump | 6YI | 1099 | - |
| - | Origin 890 Jump | 6MI | 1029 | - |
| RSI | RSI Aurora ES | 10YI | 37 | - |
| - | RSI Constellation Phoenix | 10YI | 420 | - |
| - | RSI Constellation Phoenix | 6YI | 399 | - |
| - | RSI Constellation Phoenix | 5YI | 394 | Revel&York Hangar |
| - | URSA Rover | 5YI | 63 | - |
| - | URSA Rover | 10YI | 70 | - |
| Combo packs | Insurance | Price (Concept), $ | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Offroad Vehicle Pack | LTI | 137 | Cyclone TR + URSA + Greycat PTV |
| Tumbril Cyclone Pack | LTI | 305 | All Cyclones |
| All-Terrain Vehicle Mega Pack | LTI | 473 | All Cyclones + Ursa + Lynx + Greycat |
| Air and Space Pack LTI | LTI | 315 | Terrapin + Cyclone AA |
| Ground Vehicle Pack VIP | LTI | 378 | Gragonfly + Nox + X1 + Ursa + Cyclone + Nova + bonus |
| Deluxe Ground Vehicle Pack VIP | LTI | 840 | A lot of items, check screenshot |
►8.1◄ MODULES, PODS, BATTLEFIELD UPGRADE KITS (BUKS), OTHER ITEMS
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════╝
| Module | Insurance | Price, $ |
|---|---|---|
| MISC Endeavor Modules (Pods) | - | - |
| BIODOME POD | 10YI | 126 |
| TELESCOPE ARRAY POD | 10YI | 153 |
| SUPERCOLLIDER POD | 10YI | 155 |
| SERVICE EQUIPMENT AND CREW POD | 10YI | 53 |
| GENERAL RESEARCH POD | 10YI | 72 |
| GENERAL SCIENCE POD | 10YI | 71 |
| FUEL POD | 10YI | 60 |
| MEDICAL BAY POD | 10YI | 105 |
| LANDING BAY | 10YI | 105 |
| RSI Galaxy Modules | ||
| Galaxy - Med Bay Module | 10YI | 116 |
| Galaxy - Refinery Module | 10YI | 126 |
| Galaxy - Cargo Module | 10YI | 95 |
| Aegis Vanguard battlefield upgrade kits | ||
| Harbinger battlefield upgrade kit | LTI | 140 |
| Sentinel battlefield upgrade kit | 6MI | 69 |
| Other stuff | ||
| Add-ons - Aegis Idris P after market kit | - | 294 |
►8.2 ◄ FPS WEAPONS, ARMOR, CLOTHES AND OTHER GEAR
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
| Module | Insurance | Price, $ |
|---|---|---|
| Overlord "Dust Storm" Armor Set | - | 11 |
| Overlord "Riptide" Armor Set | - | 11 |
| Overlord Helmets "Silent Strike" Pack | - | 8 |
| Overlord Helmets "Forces of Nature" Pack | - | 8 |
| Parasite Replica Helmet (Original) | - | 11 |
| Parasite Replica Helmet (Dark Birth) | - | 11 |
| Stegman's Cordimon "Voyager" Complete Outfit | - | 11 |
| Stegman's IndVest “Pathfinder” Complete Outfit | - | 11 |
| RSI MacFlex Rust Society full armor set (5 items) | - | 21 |
| RSI Venture Rust Society full armor set (5 items) | - | 32 |
| Mr. Refinement’s Cabinet of Rare & Exquisite Spirits | - | 11 |
| Life in the 'Verse Shirts Pack #1 | - | 5 |
| Life in the 'Verse Shirts Pack #2 | - | 5 |
| "Caudillo" Helmets Pack #1 by CC's Conversions | - | 10 |
| "Caudillo" Helmets Pack #2 by CC's Conversions | - | 10 |
| "Caudillo" Helmets Pack #3 by CC's Conversions | - | 10 |
| QuikFlarePro Pack | - | 5 |
| QuikFlarePro Pack Deluxe | - | 6 |
| Polar Vortex Collection | - | 7 |
| Cold Front Collection | - | 7 |
| UltiFlex FSK-8 "Mirage" Combat Knife | - | 5 |
| UltiFlex FSK-8 "Ghost" Combat Knife | - | 5 |
| Urban Collection by Element Authority | - | 11 |
| Adventurer Collection by Element Authority | - | 11 |
| Manaslu Rust Society Jacket | - | 8 |
| RSI Horizon Rust Society Helmet | - | 8 |
| RSI Beacon Rust Society Undersuit | - | 6 |
| Paladin helmet | - | 10 |
►9◄ CROSS-CHASSIS UPGRADES (CCUS)
╚════════════════════════════════════════╝
IAE-insurance upgrades (adds IAE insurance (10 years) to your ship)
| Upgrade | Price, $ |
|---|---|
| Prospector to F7C-M Super Hornet | 50 |
| Vanguard Warden to Caterpillar | 60 |
| Target ship manufacturer | Target ship | Upgrade from | Price, $ |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aegis Dynamics | Avenger Titan Renegade | 325A | 18 |
| - | Avenger Warlock | 325A | 29 |
| - | Avenger Warlock | Arrow | 26 |
| - | Eclipse | Constellation Andromeda | 78 |
| - | Eclipse | Vanguard Sentinel | 37 |
| - | Eclipse | Vanguard Warden | 53 |
| - | Eclipse | Blade | 37 |
| - | Gladius Valiant | Gladius | 32 |
| - | Gladius Valiant | M50 | 23 |
| - | Hammerhead | Constellation Aquila | 477 |
| - | Hammerhead | 600i Touring | 357 |
| - | Hammerhead | 600i Explorer | 315 |
| - | Hammerhead | Merchantman | 131 |
| - | Hammerhead | Hull D | 236 |
| - | Hammerhead | Crucible | 446 |
| - | Hammerhead | Carrack | 173 |
| - | Hammerhead | Reclaimer | 383 |
| - | Hammerhead | Prowler | 341 |
| - | Hammerhead | Orion | 120 |
| - | Hammerhead | Glaive | 435 |
| - | Hammerhead Best in Show edition | Carrack | 219 |
| - | Hammerhead Best in Show edition | Orion | 169 |
| - | Nautilus | Constellation Aquila | 462 |
| - | Nautilus | Endeavor | 425 |
| - | Nautilus | Crucible | 425 |
| - | Nautilus | Genesis Starliner | 372 |
| - | Nautilus | M2 Hercules | 246 |
| - | Nautilus | Merchantman | 110 |
| - | Nautilus | 600i Explorer | 294 |
| - | Nautilus | 600i Touring | 336 |
| - | Nautilus | Orion | 110 |
| - | Nautilus | Prowler | 330 |
| - | Nautilus | Carrack | 173 |
| - | Nautilus | Reclaimer | 372 |
| - | Nautilus | Hull D | 215 |
| - | Nautilus | C2 Hercules | 372 |
| - | Nautilus | Valkyrie | 399 |
| - | Reclaimer | Constellation Aquila | 110 |
| - | Reclaimer | Starfarer Gemini | 84 |
| - | Reclaimer | Endeavor | 73 |
| - | Reclaimer | Crucible | 73 |
| - | Reclaimer | Valkyrie | 47 |
| - | Redeemer | Constellation Andromeda | 110 |
| - | Redeemer | Vanguard Hoplite | 110 |
| - | Redeemer | Mole | 31 |
| - | Retaliator Bomber | Constellation Andromeda | 57 |
| - | Retaliator Bomber | Vanguard Warden | 39 |
| - | Retaliator | Razor | 46 |
| - | Retaliator | Ballista | 52 |
| - | Sabre | Prospector | 31 |
| - | Sabre | Gladiator | 16 |
| - | Sabre | SRV | 16 |
| - | Sabre Comet | Sabre | 31 |
| - | Sabre Comet | Freelancer MIS | 26 |
| - | Sabre Comet | Khartu-Al | 31 |
| - | Sabre Comet | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 23 |
| - | Sabre Comet | Gladiator | 35 |
| - | Vanguard Harbinger | Constellation Andromeda | 68 |
| - | Vanguard Harbinger | Vanguard Sentinel | 26 |
| - | Vanguard Harbinger | Vanguard Hoplite | 68 |
| - | Vanguard Harbinger | Vanguard Warden | 42 |
| - | Vanguard Hoplite | Constellation Taurus | 54 |
| - | Vanguard Hoplite | Defender | 33 |
| - | Vanguard Hoplite | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | 54 |
| - | Vanguard Hoplite | Hurricane | 44 |
| - | Vanguard Hoplite | Terrapin | 33 |
| - | Vanguard Sentinel | Constellation Andromeda | 52 |
| - | Vanguard Sentinel | Vanguard Warden | 31 |
| - | Vanguard Warden | Constellation Andromeda | 31 |
| - | Vanguard Warden | Vanguard Hoplite | 35 |
| - | Vulcan | Prospector | 61 |
| - | Vulcan | Cutlass Blue | 40 |
| - | Vulcan | Freelancer MIS | 40 |
| - | Vulcan | Sabre | 46 |
| - | Vulcan | Sabre Comet | 30 |
| - | Vulcan | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 40 |
| - | Vulcan | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 30 |
| - | Vulcan | Gladiator | 51 |
| - | Vulcan | Khartu-Al | 46 |
| Anvil Aerospace | Ballista | Freelancer DUR | 15 |
| - | Ballista | Cutlass Red | 15 |
| - | Carrack | Constellation Aquila | 320 |
| - | Carrack | Mole | 320 |
| - | Carrack | M2 Hercules | 99 |
| - | Carrack | 600i Explorer | 147 |
| - | Carrack | 600i Touring | 189 |
| - | Carrack | Prowler | 183 |
| - | Carrack | Reclaimer | 225 |
| - | Carrack | Genesis Starliner | 225 |
| - | Carrack | Valkyrie | 215 |
| - | Carrack | C2 Hercules | 189 |
| - | Carrack | Hull D | 73 |
| - | Carrack | Endeavor | 283 |
| - | Carrack | Crucible | 283 |
| - | Carrack | Starfarer Gemini | 294 |
| - | Carrack W/C8X | Carrack | 55 |
| - | Carrack Expedition | Carrack | 60 |
| - | Carrack Expedition | Carrack W/C8X | 40 |
| - | Carrack Expedition W/C8X | Carrack | 80 |
| - | Carrack Expedition W/C8X | Carrack W/C8X | 73 |
| - | Carrack Expedition W/C8X | Carrack Expedition | 68 |
| - | Crucible | Starfarer Gemini | 26 |
| - | Crucible | Constellation Aquila | 94 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | Prospector | 43 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | Khartu-AL | 27 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 22 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | Gladiator | 32 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | Freelancer MIS | 22 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | Sabre | 27 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | Razor EX | 43 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Prospector | 63 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Freelancer MAX | 68 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Razor EX | 63 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Gladiator | 52 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Khartu-AL | 47 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Sabre | 47 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Sabre Comet | 31 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 42 |
| - | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | Freelancer MIS | 42 |
| - | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | Prospector | 31 |
| - | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | Khartu-Al | 16 |
| - | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | Gladiator | 22 |
| - | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | Sabre | 16 |
| - | Gladiator | Prospector | 21 |
| - | Hawk | Gladius | 21 |
| - | Hurricane | Constellation Taurus | 22 |
| - | Hurricane | Prospector | 69 |
| - | Hurricane | Gladiator | 58 |
| - | Hurricane | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 48 |
| - | Hurricane | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 37 |
| - | Hurricane | Freelancer MIS | 48 |
| - | Hurricane | Sabre | 53 |
| - | Hurricane | Sabre Comet | 37 |
| - | Hurricane | Khartu-Al | 53 |
| - | Terrapin | Prospector | 84 |
| - | Terrapin | Constellation Taurus | 33 |
| - | Terrapin | Freelancer MAX | 86 |
| - | Terrapin | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 52 |
| - | Terrapin | Freelancer MIS | 63 |
| - | Terrapin | Vulcan | 36 |
| - | Terrapin | Gladiator | 73 |
| - | Terrapin | Khartu-Al | 65 |
| - | Terrapin | Sabre | 65 |
| - | Valkyrie | Constellation Aquila | 78 |
| - | Valkyrie | Endeavor | 42 |
| - | Valkyrie | Starfarer Gemini | 52 |
| - | Valkyrie | Crucible | 42 |
| - | Valkyrie | Glaive | 42 |
| Aopoa (Xi'an) | Khartu-Al | Prospector | 29 |
| - | Khartu-Al | Freelancer MAX | 31 |
| - | Nox | Aurora LN | 22 |
| - | Nox | Dragonfly Black | 15 |
| - | Nox | Dragonfly Yellowjacket | 15 |
| - | Nox | MPUV Cargo | 27 |
| - | Nox Kue | Aurora LN | 17 |
| - | Nox Kue | Dragonfly Black | 15 |
| - | Nox Kue | Dragonfly Yellowjacket | 15 |
| - | Nox Kue | Mustang Beta | 15 |
| - | Nox Kue | MPUV Personnel | 15 |
| - | Nox Kue | MPUV Cargo | 22 |
| - | San'tok.yāi | Constellation Taurus | 56 |
| - | San'tok.yāi | Hurricane | 46 |
| - | San'tok.yāi | Vulcan | 56 |
| ARGO Astronautics | MPUV Cargo | Mustang Alpha | 15 |
| - | SRV | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | 26 |
| - | SRV | Razor | 31 |
| - | SRV | Prospector | 21 |
| - | SRV | Freelancer MAX | 26 |
| - | SRV | Razor EX | 21 |
| Banu | Merchantman | Mole | 199 |
| - | Merchantman | Starfarer Gemini | 169 |
| - | Merchantman | Prowler | 231 |
| - | Merchantman | 600i Touring | 236 |
| - | Merchantman | 600i Explorer | 194 |
| - | Merchantman | Genesis Starliner | 273 |
| - | Defender | Constellation Taurus | 31 |
| - | Defender | Retaliator | 57 |
| - | Defender | Cutlass Blue | 57 |
| - | Defender | Freelancer MIS | 65 |
| - | Defender | Gladiator | 70 |
| - | Defender | Khartu-Al | 65 |
| - | Defender | Sabre | 65 |
| - | Defender | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 59 |
| - | Defender | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 50 |
| Consolidated outland | Mustang Delta | Mustang Gamma | 22 |
| - | Mustang Delta | Avenger Stalker | 15 |
| Crusader Industries | Genesis Starliner | Constellation Aquila | 115 |
| - | Genesis Starliner | Endeavor | 73 |
| - | Ares Inferno | Constellation Andromeda | 26 |
| - | Ares Ion | Constellation Andromeda | 26 |
| - | A2 Hercules | 600i Touring | 393 |
| - | A2 Hercules | 600i Explorer | 351 |
| - | A2 Hercules | M2 Hercules | 304 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Carrack | 220 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Constellation Aquila | 519 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Crucible | 483 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Endeavor | 483 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Hull D | 273 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Merchantman | 168 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Orion | 168 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Prowler | 388 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Reclaimer | 430 |
| - | A2 Hercules | Starfarer Gemini | 504 |
| - | C2 Hercules | Constellation Aquila | 110 |
| - | C2 Hercules | Valkyrie | 47 |
| - | C2 Hercules | Crucible | 73 |
| - | C2 Hercules | Endeavor | 73 |
| - | C2 Hercules | Glaive | 73 |
| - | C2 Hercules | Starfarer Gemini | 84 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Constellation Aquila | 236 |
| - | M2 Hercules | 600i Touring | 110 |
| - | M2 Hercules | 600i Explorer | 68 |
| - | M2 Hercules | C2 Hercules | 147 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Crucible | 199 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Endeavor | 199 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Genesis Starliner | 147 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Prowler | 105 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Reclaimer | 147 |
| - | M2 Hercules | Starfarer Gemini | 210 |
| - | A1 Spirit | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | 63 |
| - | A1 Spirit | Razor | 68 |
| - | A1 Spirit | Khartu-Al | 42 |
| - | A1 Spirit | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 26 |
| - | A1 Spirit | Sabre | 42 |
| - | A1 Spirit | Prospector | 57 |
| - | A1 Spirit | Zeus Mk II MR | 21 |
| - | C1 Spirit | Freelancer | 26 |
| - | C1 Spirit | Legionnaire | 15 |
| - | C1 Spirit | Nova | 15 |
| - | C1 Spirit | Cutlass Black | 26 |
| - | C1 Spirit | Talon | 21 |
| - | C1 Spirit | Talon Shrike | 21 |
| - | E1 Spirit | Razor | 15 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Prospector | 120 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | San'tok.yāi | 31 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Defender | 52 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 99 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 89 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Freelancer MIS | 99 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Hurricane | 63 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Khartu-Al | 105 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Razor EX | 120 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Sabre Comet | 89 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Sabre | 105 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Terrapin | 52 |
| - | Mercury Star Runner | Vulcan | 73 |
| Drake Interplanetary | Caterpillar | Constellation Andromeda | 116 |
| - | Caterpillar | Constellation Aquila | 31 |
| - | Caterpillar Best in Show Edition | Vanguard Harbinger | 89 |
| - | Corsair | Prospector | 115 |
| - | Corsair | Constellation Taurus | 68 |
| - | Corsair | Freelancer MAX | 120 |
| - | Corsair | Freelancer MIS | 94 |
| - | Corsair | Sabre | 99 |
| - | Corsair | Sabre Comet | 84 |
| - | Corsair | Gladiator | 105 |
| - | Corsair | F7C-M Super Hornet Mk I | 84 |
| - | Corsair | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | 68 |
| - | Corsair | F7C Hornet Wildfire Mk I | 94 |
| - | Corsair | Vulcan | 68 |
| - | Corsair | Hurricane | 57 |
| - | Corsair | Razor EX | 115 |
| - | Corsair | Khartu-Al | 99 |
| - | Cutlass Black Best In Show Edition | Gladius | 52 |
| - | Cutlass Blue | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | 36 |
| - | Cutlass Blue | Razor | 36 |
| - | Cutlass Blue | Prospector | 31 |
| - | Cutlass Red | F7C Hornet Mk I | 21 |
| - | Cutlass Red | Freelancer | 36 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | Constellation Taurus | 47 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | Railen | 21 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | Defender | 26 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | Terrapin | 26 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | Vulcan | 47 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | Hurricane | 36 |
| - | Cutlass Steel | F7C-M Super Hornet Heartseeker Mk I | 47 |
| - | Dragonfly Black | MPUV Cargo | 15 |
| - | Herald | 325A | 26 |
| - | Herald | Avenger Titan Renegade | 21 |
| - | Ironclad | Prowler | 31 |
| - | Ironclad | 600i Touring | 36 |
| - | Ironclad | Reclaimer | 73 |
| - | Ironclad | Genesis Starliner | 73 |
| - | Ironclad | C2 Hercules | 73 |
| - | Ironclad Assault | M2 Hercules | 26 |
| - | Ironclad Assault | Hull C | 47 |
| - | Ironclad Assault | 600i Explorer | 73 |
| - | Ironclad Assault | Ironclad | 99 |
| - | Ironclad Assault | Prowler | 110 |
| - | Ironclad Assault | 600i Touring | 115 |
| - | Vulture | Prospector | 31 |
| - | Vulture | Razor EX | 31 |
| - | Vulture | Sabre | 15 |
| - | Vulture | Khartu-Al | 15 |
| - | Vulture | Gladiator | 21 |
| - | Vulture | SRV | 21 |
| - | Mule | Aurora LX | 21 |
| - | Mule | Mustang Beta | 15 |
| - | Mule | STV | 15 |
| - | Mule | Ranger TR | 15 |
| - | Mule | MPUV Personnel | 15 |
| - | Mule | MPUV cargo | 21 |
| Esperia | Blade | Constellation Andromeda | 52 |
| - | Glaive | Constellation Aquila | 52 |
| - | Glaive | Starfarer Gemini | 26 |
| - | Talon | Gladius | 42 |
| - | Talon | Reliant Mako | 36 |
| - | Talon | Freelancer | 21 |
| - | Talon | Cutlass Black | 21 |
| - | Talon | Buccaneer | 21 |
| - | Talon Shrike | Gladius | 42 |
| - | Talon Shrike | Reliant Mako | 36 |
| - | Talon Shrike | Freelancer | 21 |
| - | Talon Shrike | Cutlass Black | 21 |
| - | Talon Shrike | Buccaneer | 21 |
| - | Prowler | Constellation Aquila | 147 |
| - | Prowler | Reclaimer | 57 |
| - | Prowler | Genesis Starliner | 57 |
| - | Prowler | Endeavor | 110 |
| - | Prowler | Crucible | 110 |
| - | Prowler | 600i Touring | 21 |
| MISC | Freelancer MIS | Prospector | 32 |
| - | Freelancer MIS | Freelancer MAX | 37 |
| - | Freelancer MIS | Gladiator | 22 |
| - | Freelancer MIS | Sabre | 16 |
| - | Freelancer MIS | Razor EX | 32 |
| - | Freelancer MIS | SRV | 22 |
| - | Endeavor | Constellation Aquila | 78 |
| - | Endeavor | Starfarer Gemini | 52 |
| - | Hull A | 300I | 42 |
| - | Hull A | Mustang Gamma | 47 |
| - | Hull B | 325A | 94 |
| - | Hull C | Constellation Andromeda | 294 |
| - | Hull D | Constellation Aquila | 278 |
| - | Hull D | Starfarer Gemini | 262 |
| - | Razor | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | 15 |
| - | Razor | Nova | 36 |
| - | Razor | F7C-S Hornet Ghost Mk I | 15 |
| - | Razor LX | F7C-S Hornet Ghost Mk I | 21 |
| - | Razor LX | Freelancer DUR | 26 |
| - | Razor LX | Razor | 15 |
| - | Razor LX | 350r | 36 |
| - | Razor EX | Freelancer MAX | 15 |
| - | Razor EX | Razor LX | 15 |
| - | Razor EX | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | 15 |
| - | Reliant Tana | 325a | 15 |
| - | Reliant Sen | Arrow | 21 |
| - | Reliant Mako | Gladius | 15 |
| - | Starfarer | Constellation Andromeda | 76 |
| - | Starfarer | Vanguard Warden | 55 |
| - | Starfarer | Vanguard Harbinger | 24 |
| - | Starfarer | Vanguard Sentinel | 39 |
| - | Starfarer | Vanguard Hoplite | 76 |
| - | Starfarer | Blade | 39 |
| - | Starfarer | Apollo Medivac | 39 |
| - | Starfarer Gemini | Constellation Aquila | 57 |
| - | Starfarer Gemini | Redeemer | 21 |
| - | Starfarer Gemini | Mole | 47 |
| Origin Jumpworks | 350r | Freelancer | 28 |
| - | 350r | Nova | 17 |
| - | 350r | Legionnaire | 17 |
| - | 350r | Talon | 23 |
| - | 350r | Talon Shrike | 23 |
| - | M50 | Gladius | 22 |
| - | 85X | Aurora CL | 15 |
| - | 100i | Dragonfly Black | 18 |
| - | 100i | Dragonfly Yellowjacket | 18 |
| - | 100i | MPUV Personnel | 22 |
| - | 100i | Mustang Beta | 22 |
| - | 100i | X1 | 16 |
| - | 125a | 100i | 22 |
| - | 125a | 85X | 19 |
| - | 125a | Ursa | 19 |
| - | 125a | X1 Force | 14 |
| - | 135C | 100i | 27 |
| - | 135C | 125a | 15 |
| - | 135C | 300i | 14 |
| - | 135C | Cyclone | 19 |
| - | 135C | Mustang Gamma | 19 |
| - | X1 | Mustang Alpha | 26 |
| - | X1 | Aurora LN | 15 |
| - | X1 | MPUV Cargo | 21 |
| - | X1 Velocity | Mustang Beta | 21 |
| - | X1 Velocity | MPUV Personnel | 21 |
| - | X1 Velocity | X1 | 15 |
| - | X1 Force | Aurora CL | 21 |
| - | X1 Force | X1 Velocity | 15 |
| - | X1 Force | Nox | 21 |
| - | 400i | Constellation Andromeda | 21 |
| - | 400i | Vanguard Hoplite | 21 |
| - | 400i | Constellation Andromeda | 21 |
| - | 400i | Scorpius | 31 |
| - | 600i Touring | Constellation Aquila | 147 |
| - | 600i Touring | Constellation Phoenix | 110 |
| - | 600i Touring | Reclaimer | 57 |
| - | 600i Touring | Starfarer Gemini | 120 |
| - | 600i Touring | Endeavor | 110 |
| - | 600i Touring | Crucible | 110 |
| - | 600i Touring | Eclipse | 162 |
| - | 600i Touring | Genesis Starliner | 57 |
| - | 600i Touring | C2 Hercules | 57 |
| - | 600i Explorer | 600i Touring | 63 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Constellation Aquila | 189 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Prowler | 57 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Genesis Starliner | 99 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Starfarer Gemini | 162 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Endeavor | 152 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Reclaimer | 99 |
| - | 600i Explorer | Crucible | 152 |
| - | 600i Explorer | C2 Hercules | 99 |
| RSI | Apollo Triage | Constellation Andromeda | 23 |
| - | Apollo Triage | San'tok.yāi | 23 |
| - | Apollo Medivac | Constellation Andromeda | 49 |
| - | Apollo Medivac | Vanguard Warden | 26 |
| - | Apollo Medivac | Apollo Triage | 36 |
| - | Apollo Medivac | Vanguard Hoplite | 47 |
| - | Constellation Taurus | F7C-R Hornet Tracker Mk I | 42 |
| - | Constellation Taurus | Razor | 47 |
| - | Mantis | Razor | 15 |
| - | Mantis | Ballista | 21 |
| - | Perseus | Mole | 409 |
| - | Perseus | Carrack | 110 |
| - | Perseus | Carrack W/C8X | 89 |
| - | Perseus | Carrack Expedition | 84 |
| - | Perseus | Carrack Expedition W/C8X | 63 |
| - | Perseus | Merchantman | 57 |
| - | Perseus | Orion | 57 |
| - | Perseus | 600i Explorer | 241 |
| - | Perseus | M2 Hercules | 194 |
| - | Perseus | Hull D | 162 |
| - | Polaris | Constellation Aquila | 509 |
| - | Polaris | Perseus | 131 |
| - | Polaris | M2 Hercules | 294 |
| - | Polaris | Nautilus Solstice Edition | 78 |
| - | Polaris | Hammerhead | 78 |
| - | Polaris | Carrack | 210 |
| - | Polaris | Crucible | 472 |
| - | Polaris | Merchantman | 157 |
| - | Polaris | Orion | 157 |
| - | Orion | Constellation Aquila | 209 |
| - | Orion | Starfarer | 219 |
| - | Orion | 600i Touring | 273 |
| - | Orion | Reclaimer | 294 |
| - | Orion | Genesis Starliner | 294 |
| - | Orion | M2 Hercules | 168 |
| - | Orion | Prowler | 252 |
| - | Ursa Fortuna | Ursa | 36 |
| Tumbril | Storm | Nomad | 23 |
| - | Storm | Herald | 17 |
| - | Storm | Avenger Warlock | 17 |
| - | Storm | Reliant Sen | 17 |
| - | Storm | Spartan | 23 |
| - | Storm AA | Gladius | 23 |
| - | Storm AA | Storm | 21 |
| - | Storm AA | Reliant Mako | 15 |
| - | Storm AA | Hull A | 21 |
| - | Cyclone | Ursa | 15 |
| - | Cyclone | 85X | 15 |
| - | Cyclone | Dragonfly Yellowjacket | 26 |
| - | Cyclone | Dragonfly Black | 26 |
| - | Cyclone | Aurora LN | 26 |
| - | Cyclone | Nox | 21 |
| - | Cyclone | Mustang Beta | 26 |
| - | Cyclone | MPUV Personnel | 26 |
| - | Cyclone | Nox Kue | 21 |
| - | Cyclone | Aurora CL | 21 |
| - | Cyclone | X1 | 21 |
| - | Cyclone AA | Cyclone | 36 |
| - | Cyclone AA | Cyclone RN | 26 |
| - | Cyclone AA | Cyclone TR | 26 |
| - | Cyclone AA | Ursa | 42 |
| - | Cyclone AA | Cyclone RC | 26 |
| - | Cyclone RC | Ursa | 26 |
| - | Cyclone RN | Ursa | 26 |
| - | Cyclone TR | Ursa | 26 |
| - | Ranger RC | Mustang Alpha | 15 |
| - | Ranger CV | Mustang Alpha | 15 |
| - | Ranger TR | Ranger RC | 15 |
| - | Ranger TR | Ranger CV | 15 |
| - | Ranger TR | MPUV Cargo | 15 |
| - | Ranger TR | Mustang Alpha | 21 |
| - | Ranger TR | Aurora LX | 15 |
| - | Ranger TR | P-72 Archimedes | 15 |
| - | Nova | Ursa | 84 |
| - | Nova | Cyclone | 78 |
| - | Nova | Cyclone TR | 68 |
| - | Nova | Cyclone RN | 68 |
| - | Nova | Cyclone RC | 68 |
| - | Nova | Cyclone AA | 52 |
Click here to continue to 2nd part of the store
╚═══════════════════════════════╝
2024.06.11 08:21 tiemjr Cos Bar Discount code: $25 off your First order $150+
Use cosbar.com Referral link to get $25 off promo code for your first purchase of $150 or more. Apply your Cos Bar coupon code at checkout.
Free shipping on all orders over $100 plus enjoy samples with every order.
Check out Cos Bar sale items and find deals up to 70% off.
Cos Bar offers quality, personally selecting skincare and makeup from the world’s finest, most prestigious collections.
submitted by tiemjr to CouponsSavings [link] [comments]
Free shipping on all orders over $100 plus enjoy samples with every order.
Check out Cos Bar sale items and find deals up to 70% off.
Cos Bar offers quality, personally selecting skincare and makeup from the world’s finest, most prestigious collections.
2024.06.11 07:55 Parsnip Diamantenhände 💎👐 German market is open 🇩🇪
Guten Morgen to this global band of Apes! 👋🦍
I just want to start by thanking you all for your steadfast support of this community. The breadth of this movement is demonstrated here each day.
With the SHFs continuing their aggressive FUD campaign and overzealous price manipulation, we saw exactly the discounts that many of us were wishing we'd purchased just a week ago. I puchased this latest dip as I have so many others, as I will regret if I somehow miss the last dip before the MOASS. With the official earnings date tomorrow, I am eager to see if any additional information is shared that we haven't seen in the recent releases with the share offerings. I personally am looking forward to updated DRS numbers.
Will they remain unchanged? Will they have gone up by the exact amounts of the share offerings? Will the DTCC's DRS number manipulation still be on full display? And finally, will the shorts do their usual fire sale after earnings?
Today is Tuesday, June 11th, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
Link to previous Diamantenhände post
FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.0756. I programmed a tool that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check Lang & Schwarz or TradeGate
Diamantenhände isn't simply a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!
submitted by Parsnip to Superstonk [link] [comments]
I just want to start by thanking you all for your steadfast support of this community. The breadth of this movement is demonstrated here each day.
With the SHFs continuing their aggressive FUD campaign and overzealous price manipulation, we saw exactly the discounts that many of us were wishing we'd purchased just a week ago. I puchased this latest dip as I have so many others, as I will regret if I somehow miss the last dip before the MOASS. With the official earnings date tomorrow, I am eager to see if any additional information is shared that we haven't seen in the recent releases with the share offerings. I personally am looking forward to updated DRS numbers.
Will they remain unchanged? Will they have gone up by the exact amounts of the share offerings? Will the DTCC's DRS number manipulation still be on full display? And finally, will the shorts do their usual fire sale after earnings?
Today is Tuesday, June 11th, and you know what that means! Join other apes around the world to watch infrequent updates from the German markets!
🚀 Buckle Up! 🚀
- 🟩 120 minutes in: $24.95 / 23,19 € (volume: 121820)
- 🟩 115 minutes in: $24.93 / 23,18 € (volume: 118857)
- 🟥 110 minutes in: $24.86 / 23,11 € (volume: 116050)
- 🟥 105 minutes in: $24.87 / 23,12 € (volume: 113009)
- 🟩 100 minutes in: $24.95 / 23,20 € (volume: 109149)
- 🟥 95 minutes in: $24.82 / 23,08 € (volume: 108210)
- 🟥 90 minutes in: $24.92 / 23,17 € (volume: 104891)
- 🟩 85 minutes in: $24.94 / 23,19 € (volume: 104310)
- 🟥 80 minutes in: $24.87 / 23,12 € (volume: 102256)
- 🟥 75 minutes in: $24.92 / 23,17 € (volume: 98536)
- 🟩 70 minutes in: $24.95 / 23,20 € (volume: 95287)
- 🟩 65 minutes in: $24.92 / 23,17 € (volume: 90900)
- 🟥 60 minutes in: $24.81 / 23,07 € (volume: 88765)
- 🟩 55 minutes in: $24.90 / 23,15 € (volume: 86402)
- 🟥 50 minutes in: $24.84 / 23,10 € (volume: 85344)
- 🟥 45 minutes in: $24.87 / 23,12 € (volume: 83447)
- 🟥 40 minutes in: $24.90 / 23,15 € (volume: 74849)
- 🟩 35 minutes in: $25.11 / 23,34 € (volume: 68324)
- 🟩 30 minutes in: $25.00 / 23,24 € (volume: 63528)
- 🟥 25 minutes in: $24.98 / 23,22 € (volume: 61664)
- 🟩 20 minutes in: $25.13 / 23,37 € (volume: 56957)
- 🟩 15 minutes in: $25.10 / 23,34 € (volume: 49250)
- 🟥 10 minutes in: $24.93 / 23,18 € (volume: 44118)
- 🟥 5 minutes in: $24.95 / 23,20 € (volume: 34556)
- 🟩 0 minutes in: $25.36 / 23,58 € (volume: 14960)
- 🟥 US close price: $24.83 / 23,08 € ($25.02 / 23,26 € after-hours)
- US market volume: 127.84 million shares
FAQ: I'm capturing current price and volume data from German exchanges and converting to USD. Today's euro -> USD conversion ratio is 1.0756. I programmed a tool that assists me in fetching this data and updating the post. If you'd like to check current prices directly, you can check Lang & Schwarz or TradeGate
Diamantenhände isn't simply a thread on Superstonk, it's a community that gathers daily to represent the many corners of this world who love this stock. Many thanks to the originator of the series, DerGurkenraspler, who we wish well. We all love seeing the energy that people represent their varied homelands. Show your flags, share some culture, and unite around GME!