Bogleech.com's 2016 Horror Write-off:

Containment

Submitted by Jac R. B. (Jacobguy)


I don't know how long ago it started, but I remember the day I first saw one.


These monsters I guess, though, no one could really say what they really were, just began showing up, wreaking havoc and so on.


All in different, yet very chaotic ways.


One infects you, another traps you, one even whisks you off like some fair folk of old, never to be seen again.


all of them horribly outlandish.


But then, one day, our saviors arrived.


Clad in their yellow, fat cylinder, hazmat suits they came, the containment they called themselves.


They came and they took every single one of the monsters away. To where? I'm not sure, but we were safe, and in their debt.


Forever did we beg to pay them for their efforts, but they rejected. Said it was their duty to do so, to us, to all.


And so they did, and we were grateful.


But one day, as I was on my morning commute, I saw a commotion.


I saw the containment battling with one of them.


God what would it be today? The slippery one? The quiet one? The Cat?! Oh god, I pray its not the cat.


I continued postulating before I heard the distinct sound of spinning blades in the air.


"Ah, the thief"


And indeed it was the thief, as it began its escape, only to be stopped by multiple control poles looped around its ankle.


It was only around when the containment had it detained and were cleaning up when I noticed I was dawdling.

I was getting ready to get out of there and on my way before the containment suddenly stopped me.


They started looking over me and my car with their signature strange equipment for a while before one, seemingly their command, spoke.


"Here's one, detain it."


"What"


Before I could ask any more questions, the car was instantly surrounded by them.

They readied themselves up, as if bracing themselves for war. I simply stood up out of my car and held my hands up.


They looked at each other, seemingly in confusion before they calmly took me, detained me in strange cuffs and put me in the back of the patty wagon outfitted with all of their gear.


The thief was back here too.


It simply stared at me, trying painfully to move its blades under its restraints.


Up close you get to see things you never would have before, like how oddly it looks like this thing had been stitched together and colored in with crayons. But it's of such a quality that you never would've known if you weren't right where I am now.


Eventually it just stopped altogether, but it never stopped staring.


We rode along for quite some time, long enough for me to fall asleep and long enough for the thief to go "inactive". but when we arrived I instantly recognized where we were.


We were at their HQ, the containment facility.

It was a large grey, plain building in the middle of a flat, arid desert, like one you'd see in Arizona.

It had a particularly memorable symbol to represent themselves, it was something that looked oddly similar to a bio-hazard symbol in execution, but rather than the three "brackets" or what they're called in the middle, it had the strangest symbol. It was like a thin capital "U" that went into two dots, with a third somewhere above them in the middle, the only addition to the symbol were three rather un-notable spikes that jutted out in a trifecta.


I could only take it in for a moment since we had just arrived. The containment then opened the back of the vehicle and begun dragging the thief outside, and then into the building. It didnt fight, nor did it move at all. I suppose it was still inactive.


They looked at me and I calmly got out of the back and followed them in.

They never shoved me, or jerked me along like one might expect a particularly unruly police officer to, but they did lead me to what appeared to be an interrogation room.


They kept me in my cuffs as their command entered alone, still in their signature hazmat suit. they don't ever seem to take them off. I wonder what they must be hiding.

They began to question me, their words taking on an almost alien tone through the gas-mask like filter over the area of their mouth.


"Who are you?"


"I'm Sam Jameson"


"...are you certain that's who you really are?"


This question took me back, and I suppose that the command could see it in my face, as they looked away solemnly and gestured to the two way mirror in the wall. I was quickly ushered out of the room, but the command seemed... upset, sad almost. Before the door closed I thought I could see a look of sorrow beneath their pitch black, rectangular visor before the door shut completely.


As I was escorted to what I would assume to be my cell, I noticed the other cells.

All of them, HEAVILY fortified with metal and numerous containment doors. All of them are locked tight and...oddly quiet.


It was eerie how silent is was aside from the sound of my own footsteps and the containment's uniform marching.


After a while in the uniform hallways I noticed that I wasn't seeing cells anymore. In fact, I wasn't seeing any rooms at all, just cold concrete hallways.


Odd.


It felt like hours of quiet walking before the hallways finally ended.


There was a single, solitary door at the end of the hall. We entered, and I was greeted by quite the sight.


It was a large machine, indescribable in a way, though rounded and spiraling, not unlike the shell of a long extinct sea creature. It attached to a single large glass tube, and a smaller box with a door, about the size of a cabinet, across the way. We were seated behind a large pane of glass, assumingly, it was a two way mirror.


In the room, the containment were ushering a monster into the glass tube. It seemed to be a woman with some sort of fungus growing from them, I instantly recognized them as the "companion".


They were sealed inside the glass cylinder and the containment began typing away at a control board next to the cabinet box. soon, the tube was filled with nothing but a thick mist. you couldn't even see the companion within it. It Rattled and shook as if under the might of a great earthquake before a bright light blasted from within.


The tube opened and let the mist out. there was nothing.


They opened the cabinet box and pulled out a much smaller tube, roughly a foot in length, appearing to be filled with some sort of... Kaleidoscopic substance.


The containment carefully took it away as they ushered in another monster.


It was the thief from earlier.


It fought and fought against then as they loaded it into the tube, they hadn't even taken the cargo from the prior creature out of the room yet as the tube sealed.


Something about the tube seemed off though, as the swirling chaotic colorscape pulsed and throbbed, so too did the room suddenly begin, much to the apparent horror of the containment.


As all of the glass began to pulse the ever brightening colors, the thief broke free, shattering its glass prison and breaking its constraints.


It slammed against the containment, knocking the other tube out of their hands and shattering it soon the floor.


It a great flash of light, the companion was released, and they began to flee in the resulting chaos.


Soon, the thief crashed through the glass pane separating us and the room I was surely soon to enter.


In the incursion, the thief managed to knock the mask off of the containment in command.


No one had ever seen one of them without a mask, and I can see now, why.


Their flesh was completely clear, save for the slight, radioactive green illumination it gave off around the near pitch black, yet very human, bones beneath.


The containment made no hesitation and began to grapple the thief as they tumbled through the door, setting off the alarm.


I tried to follow the command, but they were much faster than I was. Along the way, I saw the doors from earlier begin to glow and pulse in the same way the doors and glass did, with the same swirl of completely alien colors.


I heard repeated crashing and small explosions from within, and several doors burst open behind me.


Screaming, screeching, squelching, all surging forth in a new wave.


Truly, Chaos in bloom.


I rounded several hallways before I found myself in a large room, seemingly the foyer. I was about to make my way outside and away from all these monsters before the thief Jumped down in front of me from above.


It stared at me, just like before.




I could feel the malicious hole inside of it, and I could feel it's lust for possession.




Before it could grab me like so many others, a massive form angrily crashed through the adjacent wall and into it, slamming it into the opposite wall.


"WATCH IT TOOTS!" A voice said angrily.



the delinquent! Never did I expect a monster to come to my rescue.


I shouted a thanks to him as I ran out the door, catching a final glimpse of the sinister, staring gaze of the thief. I could feel it's sorrow from loosing me.


I ran, ran as far and as hard as I could out into the apparent desert. It was flat and white as yellowed bone out there.


I have seen things no other person had, and even if I'm still in my cuffs, I know I can make it somewhere.


The only thing left to deal with, between the creatures and the containment, is one question,




Why did they want me?