THIS FILE DEPICTS THE BEGINNING EVENTS OF THE FOLLOWING DAY.
--File 027: 24 Hours Remaining--
10/19/XXXX - 9:58am
SNAPSHOT #4
The video starts with Anders, Blaine, and Emma in the car. It is at first unclear what is happening, but Emma is holding the camera from the backseat, and the camera, pointing forward, captures the game console sitting on the front hood of the car... outside the vehicle.
Blaine: "Okay, hopefully this works and the damned thing doesn't teleport back in here."
Anders: "We know it doesn't move while we're looking at it. So long as someone keeps an eye on it, it shouldn't come back into the car, and whatever it decides to do, it can do it out there, away from us."
Emma: "I have a bad feeling about this. 9:58, by the way. It'll be triggering soon."'
Blaine: "We're prepared. It can't catch us off guard."
Anders: "I wouldn't tempt fate on this."
They all three fall silent, staring very fixedly at the game console outside the car. After about five minutes passes in this way, with no one moving and the tension exceptionally high, Blaine begins to speak when there is a sudden, audible sound as something smacks into the window. It is small, like a pebble being shot at the windshield, but there are no cars passing by their small rest stop, which is completely uninhabited.
Emma: "What was that?"
Before anyone can answer, there is another sound of something hitting the window, only this time, there is a visible mark on the front windshield; a splattering of bug guts.
Anders: "Ah, shit."
Several more small cracks sound out as about fifteen more bugs- presumably flies- smash into the windshield. There is a brief moment of silence as the trio sits and waits, holding their collective breaths, before there is a sudden darkening of the car as hundreds- perhaps thousands- of flies all begin pelting the car at top speeds.
Emma shrieks, Anders swears, and Blaine yells as he ducks his head. Emma's hands are shaking, putting the camera's auto-stabilizer to work, but she doesn't look away, even as Anders ducks. The camera catches the full footage of thousands of flies all smashing themselves at full speed into the glass of the window for nearly two minutes.
When it finally stops, Anders has managed to tuck himself almost under the wheel, and Blaine has his arms over his head. Emma, alone, is sitting upright, though the car is now significantly darker than it was when they first started filming. To make matters worse, shadows are slowly dancing up the length of the windshield between the cracks of thousands of fly carcasses.
Emma: "...It's over."
Blaine: "That felt significantly worse than the last one!"
Anders: "We're going to have to stop to get the car cleaned."
Emma: "We need to be careful getting out- I think the game spat out maggots, and they're crawling across the windshield."
Blaine: "When I find out how this stupid game is doing this, I'm going to hot wire it to an electric fence and then make it dance."
Anders: "You and me both, kid."
Very slowly, the three manage to crack open their doors, and the damage is slowly revealed, even as maggots rain down past their heads and onto the dirt. Blaine immediately goes into full pest control mode, smashing as many of them as possible while Emma gets full footage of the decimation.
The car is completely and totally covered in nearly all areas with exploded fly guts and body parts.
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Emma: "I... we're going to look like total psychopaths, pulling into anywhere with this."
Anders: "We've got no choice. I've got a couple towels in the trunk, I can do my best to clean the windows."
Emma: "Here, give me one, I'll help."
The camera is jostled for a moment, and then Emma switches it off, presumably to help Anders with wiping fly innards off the front and rear windshields.
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SNAPSHOT #5
10/19/XXXX 11:17am
This video is filmed, again, by Emma in the backseat. It begins as Anders and Blaine leave the car, and Emma scrambles after them. There is a small collection of employees at the small town car wash pitstop that they have pulled up to gathered outside their shop, expression frozen in mute horror, and it is growing by the minute as the remaining employees all step out, as well.
Anders: "We... drove into a cloud of bugs. I've never seen anything like it."
Emma: "We'll pay extra for the work."
The oldest-looking gentleman there, balding with a thick, pepper-gray beard that stretches down past his chest in a scraggly mess, shakes his head slowly, before finally coming to himself.
Old Man: "Yeah, all right. We'll get her cleaned up for you. Thomas? You get the... the heavy duty gear."
A young boy with brown hair turns tail and flees into the shop. Emma, Anders, and Blaine all exchange looks as they step aside, but they say nothing. Emma catches one more interaction before cutting the filming.
Young Employee 1: "I've... never seen anything like this."
Old Man: "Just grin and bear it."
Young Employee 2: "My dad's a trucker. His cab gets pretty nasty, but like... nothing like this. How the hell does this even happen?"
Old Man: "Don't question it. Get your gear, get some gloves, a mask if you need it, and get to work."
The footage ends here.
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SNAPSHOT #6
10/19/XXXX - 1:30pm
The footage starts from Blaine's seat in the passenger side. They are on the road again, and there is evidence of fast food in the shot.
Anders: "That took a lot longer than I was hoping it would take."
Blaine: "I'm not surprised. The car was caked in all of... that."
Emma: "I'm still eating, please don't remind me."
Blaine: "Are we going to make it to Bartosz before the next level starts?"
Anders checks the GPS on his phone for a moment, a battered, older generation smart phone with a cracked screen.
Anders: "If we drive all night, we should be able to make it."
Emma: "I guess I can't say no to no more motels."
Anders: "After Bartosz, we'll be on the road to [BEEP], so there will, unfortunately, be more motels."
There is a collective groan from both Emma and Blaine.
Anders: "All for a good cause."
There is a slight pause.
Anders: "Do either of you have an idea of what we're about to get into, after Bartosz?"
Blaine and Emma exchange looks.
Blaine: "No, why?"
Anders: "When we get to [BEEP], things are going to start getting hairy fast. Bartosz will likely travels separately from us, and we will only be in contact with him when we're out of the public eye."
Emma: "What? Why?"
Anders: "You forget- and you read the books. Bartosz alluded to it, but he's been going there for years now, trying to pry answers out of the locals. At this point, anything he could have gleaned from them, they're never going to give up. When we get there, they can't know we're with him, or just about everyone and their mother is going to shut down."
Blaine: "If Bartosz couldn't get answers, who's to say we will?"
Anders: "Bartosz could never get the curse to activate for him. We have no idea why. The games never responded to him, the flies never took to him- nothing. He repels all of this, or perhaps... it could be a torture of its own."
Emma: "A man who desperately wants answers enough to sacrifice his entire life, career, and family would definitely suffer deeply from being unable to attain those answers."
Anders: "Precisely. There's something going on in that town, and you'll see it better in person, but people are... strange. The whole town is strange."
Emma: "In what way?"
Anders: "For starters, it's just... something in the air, the ground, the way the people look and talk to you. There's something eerie. Outwardly, everything about them is completely fine, but inwardly... I don't know. It's very strange. There's hunting, too, year round, in that town, but the animals..."
Blaine: "If you tell me there are cryptids there, I swear-"
Anders: "No, not Big Foot. But nothing quite right, either. It's like if normal fauna developed an interest in Satan worship."
Emma: "Oh, fantastic. And I'd been thinking this whole thing was bad enough as it is."
Anders: "We don't know what's going on out there, but obviously, as you're both aware of by now, it's not normal. It's nowhere near the realm of normal- and you're on a timer, so long as Emma keeps solving those puzzles."
Blaine: "Right. I don't necessarily need a Biblically accurate fly plague to descend on us at any given moment."
There is a collective shudder.
Blaine: "I'm going to finish up my lunch. Try not to say anything too interesting until I'm recording again."
There is a snort of laughter from Anders, but Emma is staring out her side window, looking concerned even as Blaine messes with the camera and finally shuts it down.
--END TRANSMISSION--