I'm thinking of prayers when some semblance of consciousness drags back into my mind. I'm hearing voices, someone crying for help. Thousands of them, all condensed into one. It seemed familiar, a bad memory amidst an endless ocean of blackness. It's calling for me, and I hear the soft pat of leather shoes tapping against tiled cement. The footfalls are steady in their movement, and calm. My hand twitches against something soft, almost like a cushion. The voice, female, sounds like she's in distress. The footsteps aren't hers, it's someone else's. It must be him. Can't be anyone else. I blink and I see her, the person I promised I'd protect all the way to my grave. Her blue eyes are so innocent, I wonder who'd want to make her sad. She backs away from something out of my vision, I collect what strength I have left and turn my head towards the direction of the soft taps. It's a person, middle aged, partially bald. I'm not fazed by him in the slightest, but she is absolutely devastated. She breaks free of my grip and scrambles backward, I try to catch up to her but the man looming forth is too near. He snares me by the throat and heaves me up to his eye level. I feel the life inside of me diminish as he jams his stiff fingers into my neck, I try to grasp at his face, but the pain is too much. My legs try to thrash towards safety, almost like a cancer patient who thinks magic will cure him. I give one last look towards my attacker, the look in his eyes are unnatural. Almost like he enjoys seeing me suffer.

W͏̶͜͝h̡̨͠͠a҉̢́͟͡ţ̶̵̶͝ ̷̷̀a̷̶͘r̴͠͏̢̡e̶ ̢y̷̢̢͘͝óų̨̕͟͢ ̡́t̶̢ẃ͜͠͝ò͟͟͡ ̧͢͞͏̨d҉͢ǫ̀į̶̢͘n҉͜͜͏g̷͟͝ ̵̶͢i̢n̡̧͡ ̸̴̴̧h̢́͞ȩ̴̛̀r̨͏e̵̶̢͝?́͏́͡

Loutermilch.

"Jesus Blake, are you really sleeping?"

The female voice jolted me out of my sleep as I snapped open my eyes, the monotone drone of the helicopter rotors above instantly settling into earshot. I looked up to see Lynn staring at me rather confused, what had I done?

Oh, right. The helicopter. I was going out to Arizona to investigate yet another murder with Lynn. The pilot departed from the helicopter controls for a brief second, sparing the moment to check what were up to. I adjusted my position on the warm seat and wiped the moisture from my cheeks. Was I crying?

"I'm awake."

I quickly brushed her off and took a look around the interior, recalling the location we were going to. Past the plexiglass windows, things looked very foggy. It took me a few seconds to realize we had arrived at the desert where Jane Doe was supposedly murdered in. The only things I could make out were the mountains around us just managing to break free from the fogs clutches. There were supposed to be trees, but I figured that we were simply too high up.

"You should have slept last night."

She replied, forgetting about the massive amount of camera footage I had to organize last night while she comfortably relaxed in the bathtub. It was a habit of mine, staying up late to finish up on work. I'd stare at the same footage for hours, trying to find the perfect place for it in the report. But sleep was always the winner in these wars I raged in the pitch black, I'd lay my head down to rest my eyes, then the next thing I know, it's morning.

"I had to get that hospital footage organized."

The frequency that we were speaking on was a little garbled, some of her words likely fell into void and not heard by anyone. My headphones felt a bit heavy on my head, I just wanted to remove it and talk normally, but the desert was literally inaccessible without a helicopter.

The news about this Jane Doe, her real name unknown, spread quickly across the media. I sat down in front of my computer and surfed through various articles about her, all of them having their own personal theory about how she died. Some said she was subject to attempted murder, some said it was a suicide. Some said accident, but they couldn't prove jackshit without looking at the medical info taken from her once she was transported to the hospital. Extreme amounts of mercury in her blood, only a month away from birthing a child. Doctors quickly performed an abortion on her, but were perplexed beyond belief when her belly turned out to hold nothing. No baby, just a very big stomach for her size and height. She later died in the hospital due to a seizure. Lynn was of course the person to collect all this information, from some Murkoff agents who were strangely interested in the whole Jane Doe ordeal.

Murder or suicide never really appealed to me, I was more of a 'Governments or corporations putting their noses into where they didn't belong' kind of guy. That meant of course, risk of a lawsuit against me and forcing money out of my pockets for not minding my own business. But it was just that, business. Nothing more. I didn't have any hostility towards the officials or corporations I interrogated, just my business. That didn't happen often though, as I wasn't a freelance journalist, and couldn't do what I wanted, hence why I'm here.

She stared at me for a moment before continuing on.

"You were calling out some other woman's name."

"What?"

I replied, perplexed.

"In your sleep. Jessica, I think."

That name sounded familiar. Very familiar. My mind shot seven miles towards west, I was trying to remember who she was, but stopped after realizing what Lynn would think of it.

"You know a Jessica?"

Shit. I had to think of something quick. Right, uhh, Jessica, Jessica, Jessica... Oh, right! Jessica Gray from the catholic school!

"Oh, I was dreaming about Jessica Gray, when we were kids,"

I replied, stuttering a few words. I hope she still remembered her.

"Oh yeah, I haven't thought about her in ages."

The dread dawned on her face, as it did on mine. We both knew what happened to her.

Staring off to the side, I noticed that pines were starting to clear up beyond the glass, along with the mountains. The pilot was lowering altitude, which meant we had arrived.

"We're crossing into reservation land now. You said I'm looking for some sort of factory?"

The pilot informed, checking the windows to locate the factory where Jane Doe supposedly died at. The reports mentioned her mysteriously disappearing, but nothing past that. And Lynn had a weird obsession with mysteries that came straight out of a horror movie, so I knew right off the bat that this was for her.

"Yeah."

I replied to the pilot as I examined the landing past the panels, trying to locate this supposed factory. I was starting to have doubts that it even existed. Like, why would anyone build something this far away from civilization? A factory is always far from a major city, like they should be, but this was simply too far away. If we crashed by the means of some unlucky miracle, I doubt we'd survive long.

"We can look but there's nothing out here."

He was right, honestly. I sent him a thumbs up without Lynn's attention to confirm his words, he nodded and returned back to conrols. I was glad someone agreed with me. Lynn, on the other hand, was still eager as ever, determined to find the factory.

"So, we're calling it off then?"

The pilot asked me. He was probably sick of this, unlike Lynn, who was leaning into the other window to look more. There was no point in drawing it out, every minute we wasted, this little trip was gonna cost us more. We were gonna have to turn ba-

"What, no! We're not turning back."

She exclaimed with a harsh tone, clearly angry. I couldn't understand if she was in denial, or seriously still believed there was a factory out here.

"Lynn, there is nothing out here but trees."

"The woman back in the hospital was probably lying to you to throw us off track. What was her name? Paul something? You know how people who work for Murkoff are, they treat all of their operations as top secret."

I explained, hoping she would understand. I was gonna have to pay more than a thousand for this trip already.

"But then why would she-

"I don't know. I..."

I wasn't sure how to continue. Lynn waited for an answer for a few seconds before sighing and opening her mouth again.

"Look, all the mercury in that woman's blood, she had to have spent at least a decade downstream from some pretty heavy industry."

I stayed silent again, not sure how to retaliate.

"If you say so ma'am, you bought the time."

The pilot replied instead, speeding up the helicopter to scout this area of land faster. She was paying for this, I didn't care one single bit. I crossed my arms to signal her my distress towards the whole situation, which she quickly caught on.

"We should record an intro while we're up here. Production value?"

She mentioned, pointing at the camera with her eyes. I sighed in anger and leaned over to pick it up while Lynn did some things I couldn't decipher at the moment.

My trusty Spatlin brand camera. It was with me all through my career of being a cameraman to Lynn while she did her whole investigative reporter thing. Fitting that the husband would be the cameraman. It had night vision which helped me navigate dark areas with Lynn, more often than a normal journalist couple. An extra set of external and directional microphones that helped me pinpoint noises from far away. I had also brought 2 pieces of battery in case I forgot to put new batteries in the camera. I put my finger on the directional mic. button as the audio would be crap otherwise.

"Audio's gonna be crap, we're gonna have to- OH FUCK!"

Before I could finish my sentence the entire helicopter violently shook, knocking me out of my haze as my glasses fell out of my face into my hands. Lynn turned over to the pilot to check what was going on, quite colorful profanity erupting from his voice cords.

"Sorry about that. The left panel's a little soft, but, uh... We're good."

He nodded in our direction before facing back forward.

"What does that mean?"

I commented in a stupified haze. I didn't know what I was thinking when I said it.

Me and the pilot exchanged an awkward stare before Lynn coughed to remind me we had an intro to record. I swiftly activated the microphone and put my finger on the record button.

"Well, that was exciting." She positioned herself so that her back faced the windows on her side, waiting for me to start recording.

"Get as much of the landscape behind me as you can." I nodded and positioned the screen to mainly face the long trees while she only appeared on the right side of the record. I hoped this intro would be worth it and we wouldn't waste our money taking this helicopter trip. She earned more money than me, but I still didn't want this to cost us too much.

"You got me?"

"Yeah, we're good. Start talking." I put the camera out of standby mode and started recording as she cleared her throat one last time to speak more clearly.

Recording

"I'm Lynn Langermann, here for news tomorrow . net, we're flying past the Havasupai Indian Reservation in central Arizona, in search of the origins of murder victim Jane Do-

"Hey, Lynn." I abruptly cut the recording to quickly remind her to stick to the facts.

"Yeah?"

"I don't think you should say "murdered," we don't know that." We didn't. The records said that she strangled herself to death, not specifically murdered.

"So I'll say she strangled herself to death?"

"That's what the police report says."

"We might play this before the doctor interviews. If this falls in the first thirty, we need to get the word "murder" in there." She quickly lectured me about the arts of being a journalist. No cameraman allowed apparently.

"We should probably mention the fetus too, I mean how it just..." She stalled for a moment, seeming like she recalled something.

"Here, let me try a version that can serve as an intro for the whole piece. Tell me when we're good." I quickly checked the camera to see if anything was malfunctioning after the little bump in the helicopter, but everything looked good.

"Okay, we're good."

Recording

"Two weeks ago, a young woman was found wandering, barefoot, pregnant, and alone on a barren stretch of highway a hundred miles from the nearest- OH." The mountains ended their quiet demeanor as a bright white light emerged from the distance, giving off a deathly sound, triggering off all kinds of alarms on the helicopter. I let out a few yelps before grabbing onto Lynn to protect her from whatever happened to the helicopter. It was spinning out of control wildly and rapidly descending down into the ground.

"SHIT! WE LOST THE ENGINE!" The pilot yelled out as he quickly jumped from the helicopter, grabbing his parachute and leaving us to die. What the fuck was happening? I didn't have time to comprehend the situation before the passenger door flew away, exposing us to the heavy oxygen that could very well be our deaths.

"OH GOD! OH GOD! Lynn managed to yell out before I covered her eyes with my hand, trying to relax her before death overtook us. I knew we were utterly fucked, the helicopter was beyond saving. I tried to hold onto something, darting my eyes all around the cabin while the helicopter was spiraling in all kinds of unorderly manners. Lynn has to be safe, she has to be! Fuck! I'm not gonna make it! In a last desperate attempt to preserve Lynn's life, I threw her towards the vacant pilot cabin, getting ready for my very soon eternal rest.

"HOLD ONTO SOMETHING LYNN!"

BLAKE NO! PLEASE! YOU'VE GOT TO-"

Blackness.

I slowly opened my eyes, setting sight to something... familiar. Everything was so pristine and well kept, reminding me of catholic school when I was a kid. Blue lockers were strewn on the walls while a model of Jesus hanging on the cross stood on the wall opposite from me. I moved my body around, trying to get a sense of the world around me. Everything seemed so familiar, but yet so distant. Where was I?

I began to move my feet and walked towards the light, passing by the lockers I saw earlier. I felt so small and weak, the lockers were easily twice my height. I didn't question as I walked over to the Jesus model which seemed the most familiar so far. Everything in my head felt so clear than ever before, except for a small buzzing in my head. It reminded me of locusts and maybe bees? I wasn't sure. The buzzing seemed to transition between insect sounds and malfunctioning machinery. It see-

One of the lockers creaked open on its own, slightly startling me before I walked over to it without missing a beat. There were a few books inside, I picked one up to see what it was about.

SCIENCE OF FAITH

I quietly put it down and turned my head towards the locker door where the most interesting stuff was. Medals were hung on it as well as a few pictures of some kids. One of the medals mentioned someone named Jessica... Her name seemed familiar too. I moved on to the pictures, the top one featured 2 girls posing for the camera, and a boy between them. His face looked more familiar than the rest for some strange reason. I stared at him for a few seconds before darting my eyes away to look at the rest of the pictures.

The below one featured one of the 2 girls in the upper picture posing beside her locker, smiling. I examined her features for a few minutes in a trance-like state before moving on, spotting the picture in the very bottom.

It was the same boy again, posing for the camera beside a table and a green writing board. Why did something about him seem so familiar? I couldn't quite place it.

In the end, I shrugged and moved on towards the light, taking a right. More series of lockers stood beside the walls including a few rolling carts with books on top of them. I began to walk towards the open door at the very end of the hallway, not really knowing what to do. Beside me was the map of America hanged on the wall... What? What was the map of America doing in this place? Whatever it was.

As I got closer, I began to notice the big red sign that simply said "EXIT" on top of the open door. An exit from what? I hoped I would find out soon.

I strolled until I reached the doorway, planning to walk through it. I took a few more steps before the door suddenly slammed on me, pushing me back a few feet. I strangely didn't react, and simply watched the now closed door that was once open. Why wasn't I reacting to anything? I felt like something was missing from me, something that should be in everyone. What was a reaction? I clearly didn't have what it takes to have a "reaction" to something. If then, what was I doing here?

I began to pick up someone humming behind me. Her tone sounded bored, and aloof. I slowly turned around, curious to learn who was producing the eerie hımming.

It's her.

Indeed, it was her doing the humming. She stared at me with cold dead eyes that looked quite lifeless for her, weirdly. She looked quite happy in her photos. What had happened to her? Or, what was happening to her? Why you? I thought I had forgotten...

The moment I took a step towards her, a huge body of blood emerged from behind her, picking up speed towards our direction. I took a quick step back before it swiftly engulfed me and her inside it, drowning us in its thick interior. I struggled to get out, but it was to no avail. The whole hallway was full of blood and I was drowning. Everything was going black. At that moment, I felt it. The true fear. The type of fear that only a few random people get to experience in their lives. It told them to run, to hide or to die. The fight and flight response. I managed to let out a small gag before I gave into death, my body progressively becoming limp as I drifted away. This was it then, the beginning of an end. Blackness eventually covered all of my vision, and I felt my senses dissipate one by one. After a few more seconds, I was now once alive.

We're not alone here

Aching overtook my body as soon as my conscious managed to drag itself somewhere inside my head, throbbing like a fire threatening to strengthen. It felt like someone took a wet stick and smacked me again and again until all of my brain cells died. I didn't know where my current location was, let alone what happened to me. I slowly opened my eyes in agony, setting sight to my badly cut up and limp arm and a torch set down near me. It took me a moment to register my position; I was lying on the ground, trapped by helicopter door on top of me...

Wait a minute, helicopter door? But we were just... riding a helicopter. Faint memories of Lynn screaming popped into my mind, and I immediately caught on to what had happened to me.

We crashed.

I put my head back in exhaustion, seeing my camera lying behind me. How the hell was I gonna get this huge door off of me? I struggled, but the door only moved an inch. I felt trapped, and I was. I struggled again, pushing the door with all my might, but my arms gave out and the door fell back on me.

Shit.

I stared up at the moon, glowing at us even at the darkest times. I liked to think of it as a metaphor to never give up. Or at least my catholic teachers did. Really, to me, it was just pretty and gave us light at night.

I looked back down at the helicopter door still on me, not eager in the slightest to move a little bit. I wasn't getting out of here until a rescue team came. If they never did, I would just starve to death and turn into a corpse right here, right then. I couldn't call anybody either, my smartphone was back home where it was at zero charge. The pilot was the only one that could've survived, but I didn't know where the heck he was. And Lynn...

Lynn. Fuck.

I didn't know where the heck she was either. She could've survived like me and could've just been wandering around while I was laying here unconscious. In fact, she may just be doing that right now.

I needed to get out of this position. I pushed at the door with all my upper body strength, not daring to give up, even though my arms were aching like crazy. Finally, the door came off and got thrown to the side as I quickly rose up to my feet, looking down at my body to inspect what damage had been done to me.

My green parka had been torn to shreds, with little cuts strewn all over it. Thankfully, my batteries were unscathed in my pockets, waiting to be consumed by my camera over there. I leaned over to it and swiftly snatched it into my hands, checking to see if it was still in good working order.

It was. Everything seemed perfectly functional and ready to work as I flipped on the lid, looking through it to examine my surroundings. I was on the side of a cliff, and probably nearly fell off too along with my camera. The helicopter wreckage wasn't too hard to spot either, just on another cliff a little bit in front and below me. I needed a way down there, whatever it took me to achieve that.

Find Lynn, nothing matters but Lynn.

This was my temporary motto from now on. I needed to make sure she was safe and with me before I tried to find civilization. My best hope right now was that she met up with the pilot and were looking a way out of there. I hoped she didn't waste time trying to look for me. I could handle myself.

I examined the little cliff I was on, trying to find a way down. There was a small drop beside me, leading to some obstacles that required me to flex a few joints and muscles to get through. Nothing I won't do for Lynn.

I dropped down, focusing fully on my path instead of the helicopter. I wanted to find out if she was in there after I got down... I couldn't bear to look. There was a short slope I needed to ride down to get down further. I took in a sharp breath and did it without thinking twice, managing to find my footing when I reached the end. Every second I wasted, Lynn had the chance to slip away from me forever, and I couldn't accept that if I ever found out. I'd rather die thinking she was safe rather than live, knowing that your wife was lost because of you.

"It's not my fault," I repeated, dropping down from a few more rocks before coming across a gap. I could probably jump it, but it'd take effort. Again, nothing I won't do for her. I backed down a little bit, putting myself in the right position before sprinting towards the small gap, hopping along to the other side gracefully. Turning the opposite way, I dropped down yet again, getting closer to the main crash site. The anticipation was killing me. I needed to find out if she was in there.

After a few more steps, I came across a steep surface a normal human normally couldn't stand on. No, I needed to shimmy ahead to get to the other side, both religiously and literally, depending on what happened. I needed to be more careful with this one though, as one wrong step could easily be the end of me. Also, it would be pretty stupid to survive a helicopter crash only to die later while shimmying across a 2-foot ledge.

I took in a few breaths before putting my heels on the rock, analyzing my every step and praying to god I would make it. The emptiness that stood before me was the most frightening thing so far. I had never been so close to death before, and I could seriously die here if I was not careful. I wasn't in a dream, this was actually legit.

Fortunately, I successfully reached the other side without falling off and dropped off to land on a solid surface again. I was getting really close now. Only a very small jump ahead of me.

I had the sudden urge to zoom in with my camcorder, but I had to fight it. I needed to see it with my own two near-sighted eyes. I quickly made the jump and ran towards the wreckage, on the verge of crying. Bits of metal parts were lying around the site, and I made sure to leave them alone as I got over to the remaining, not disassembled part of the helicopter.

The whole interior was in flames, so it was difficult to see if anybody was inside. I ripped open the pilot door and peeked inside, looking at the passenger seats, and thankfully finding just the seats, and not her body.

I sighed in relief and pulled out my camera, planning to record this. Could be good for showing this to the press later on, or I just wanted to have it on my camera to show it to friends later on.

Recording

"She wasn't there. Lynn's body wasn't in the wreckage. She could still be alive." I reminded myself to do a voice-over in case anyone didn't get the point when they watched it. I didn't have Lynn's skillful reporter voice, so I needed to make do with my own. I put the camera down and examined the big flaming ball of metal one last time, quite amazed at the amount of destruction a helicopter could cause.

To look on the bright side, I didn't have to pay the helicopter fee anymore, and I'm sure the pilot didn't care either, wherever he was.

Curiously, I put my camera up again, remembering the bright light that spun the helicopter out of control. What was that? I was pretty sure I was recording, as we were doing an intro the moment before the white flash came.

I picked the second intro and pressed the play button, getting to relive the moments just before the chaos for the second time. She was talking about Jane Doe, but I didn't give a flying fuck about her anymore. I just wanted to find Lynn then find help. Easier said than done.

The approaching noise could be heard over the recording, but the camera had cut out just before the flash came... The only thing that came to mind was an EMP, but that was crazy, nobody in this area would have the money and people to build something like that which would cover a massive part of the desert. It wasn't close by either. I repeated the recording again, making sure I didn't miss anything. The pilot talked about the engines being gone, and the camera was too, apparently. So the light must've been something related to EMP's. The camera was working fine afterward though... My bet was temporary EMP, as a camera can survive a few seconds of a blackout, but a helicopter can't. Or something like that.

I just didn't know. Focus Blake, find Lynn.

I put the camera away and continued down my path, remembering to check anything that looked like a corpse. There seemed to be a slope that I could slide down like before, but the area was too dark. So I put the camera near my eyes again and turned on the NV, squeezing my eyes shut for a moment to adjust to the green-tinted wilderness.

Sliding down and eventually finding my footing, I began to pace towards a campfire that seemed to be the outlier in the pitch black. I'd be really screwed if my camera wasn't with me right now, and I didn't even bring it for this purpose.

The plants and trees weren't too difficult to navigate through except for a few rocks down on the ground, but my night vision took care of that skillfully. I looked terrible. My skin and overalls skewered due to the crash, my ribs hanging just loose off their roots. I was scared, and my body was certainly reflecting that. Sore, mangled, and torn beyond recognition. Rangy cuts hosted across my entire body, dripping red with each step I took into the woods. Fuck! I need to rest, stop the bleeding. I'm gonna die. Dammit.

After enough walking, I finally arrived to the foretold campfire, and immediately thrust what was left of my collar against my nose. I gagged hard, a horrifying stench gushing me full in the face as I staggered backwards, prompting me to almost puke before I looked away. What the fuck is that smell? The scent got stronger and more disgusting the more I walked closer to the fire. What the fuck, a fire wasn't supposed to smell this bad.

I pointed the NV of my camera towards the silhouette on top of the fire, and quickly discovered the source of this horrifying stench and now scenery.

Recording

"The pilot. I don't even remember his name. What the fuck kind of people would skin somebody alive? Jesus Christ Lynn..."

I couldn't believe my eyes. That was definitely the pilot. He was naked down to the skin and covered in blood, hanging on some kind of stick and rope was tied around his body, and his... penis was gone.

What the actual fuck.

I need to keep moving. Whoever that did this to the poor man, it wouldn't be long before they found Lynn. Oh god, the thought of her being skinned alive...

I need to find her fast.