The Copycats: Face Of Goliath

Laboratory exploration day 8:

Randy:

We finally reached floor 3, and it isn’t really what any of us expected. It’s a lot more dirty than we remembered, and there are several broken glass enclosures. There’s paper everywhere, little pages and sticky notes covered in illegible scribbling. Something happened here, something serious.

Steven:

It looks like some sort of lab, there’s some random beakers and shattered vials on the floor, along with several pieces of paper coating the floor. I don’t think the others noticed this, but they all have something in common; they all have the word “Goliath” scribbled all over them. I don’t even want to think about what happened here. I asked Wendy for the map, but she said no. She didn’t want me “damaging” it. Yeah right. She never really liked me. She probably thought I was gonna use it to map a way out of here.

Wendy:

judging by the map, there’s five rooms.

There’s  specimen research 300-400, 200-299, and specimen research 100-199. There’s also two offices, the head director’s office and the experimentation lab, (which we’re in now) finally, there’s just a scribbled out black space that just says “The Pit”

Randy:

I’m not really sure we should still be doing this, it feels dangerous, especially with the obvious ties this place has to The Copycats. Nevertheless, we need to keep moving forward. I’m almost certain that “The Pit” has the answers we’re looking for.

Steven:

something locked the door behind us. I could see it through the dusted window. It was tall and thin, with deep, hollow eyes and a gaping mouth, and it had these three long horns jutting from its head. I could see its bones through its skin, and I could feel it staring into my soul.

of course.

They wanted us to be here, but we weren’t going to leave without their permission.

Wendy:

Steven tried to leave, just like he usually does, but then the door locked. I guess we’re stuck here until we can find something to break the door down. We tried the axe, but it barely made a dent on the metal. Our only choice is to move forward.

Randy:

I’m not ready for this, but there’s no turning back now. That thing blocking the door is making sure of that. I think our best course of action is to keep moving forward and hope that we don’t encounter anything else that might want to kill us. Wendy laid down the map and said we should map out a path, so, I guess if we do find a way through this, we’ll write more tomorrow.

day 9:

Steven:

We decided that either way we were going to have to go through the specimen research stations, so we chose the path that would let us pass through as few of them as possible. We settled on this path: we would go through Specimen research 100-199, then through the Head director’s office, and then through Specimen research 200-299. That should be the safest path to “The Pit”.

Wendy:

I let the others make a plan while I slept, and I think they did a pretty good job. We’re going to go through SR 100-199 today, then rest in the Head Director’s office. That should give us enough time to finish the trip to “The Pit” in about a day. I’m still skeptical that there’s going to be anything there, but hey, I lost the vote, and some answers are better than none.

Steven:

I’m really worried about Sam and Janet. Normally it takes a week or two for the strand to fully infect someone, and it’s definitely been longer to that. I hope she’s holding on, but I know she’s probably already turned. I just hope that Sam was able to get away from her before that happened.

Randy:

I was able to get the door to SR 100-199 open, and it was mostly the same as before, except some of the containers weren’t damaged. Its almost depressing, seeing this. The Copycats inside look big like the Flawed, but they still look human, almost too human.

almost.

Steven stopped at the first container, it took a while to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. He almost looked upset, but then again, it was probably just the fear.

Steven:

I can’t believe they did this.

they experimented on her, they turned her into this, and didn’t even tell us. How could they do this to a person?

How could they do this to my mom?

She looks different, sure, but her face is too perfect to have been a normal Copycat.

Her eyes though, that’s what really got to me, cold and dark, as if any hope, any humanity was left in her had died long ago. I found a clipboard next to her cage, the first page was covered in the same scribbling as the rest of the papers in here, but behind that were two files. Almost as if whoever put it here wanted me to find it;

I’m done writing, mostly because I don’t want to think about this, but here are the documents I found:

RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION FORM FOR NEW SPECIES:

HOMO FALSUS DISSIMULARE

SUBSPECIES 1: HOMO FALSUS LIBRARIUS (EXTINCT)

MEMBERS:1

CURRENT SUBJECT: “SALLY” (deceased)

AVERAGE HEIGHT: 6-10 FT tall

AVERAGE WEIGHT: 331 to 695 Lbs

TRAITS: Bipedal, long limbs and neck make for most of height, large, covered in red, exposed muscles, has a set of long sharp teeth that alternate between injecting genetic code and pumping prey with venom to nurture the Homo Falsus growth

OBSERVATIONS:

Dr. Joseph Han:

Yesterday, the specimen we named “Sally” attempted to attack one of the researchers, resulting in subject termination and loss of government assets.

Unfortunately, my colleague, Dr. Sandra Mullings, was successfully bitten by Sally, who wouldn’t let go until she was shot, resulting in subject termination. This may  result in the second ever non hatched specimen of Homo Falsus Gigantus.

Beginning quarantine protocol.

END OF OBSERVATION

RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION FORM FOR NEW SPECIES:

HOMO FALSUS DISSIMULARE

SUBSPECIES 2: HOMO FALSUS CORRUPTUM

MEMBERS: 2

CURRENT SUBJECT:Sandra Mullings

AVERAGE HEIGHT: 7 FT tall

AVERAGE WEIGHT: 300 LBS

OBSERVATIONS:

We discovered that even after infection, Sandra seems to still be fully conscious inside of her body, unlike Specimen 3. However, due to the increased likelihood of potential mood swings, loss of communication abilities, and heightened aggression, I regret to inform that the head of operations has deemed her no longer human. Beginning research for use in military and medical purposes tomorrow.

I’m so sorry this happened to you, my friend.

(End of documents)

Randy:

We managed to get to the head director’s office with surprisingly little confrontation. Most of the Copycats inside of the containers seemed non-hostile, blind, or just too tired to try to attack us, and that’s not including the dead ones. Steven still seems a little shaken up, so we’re going to rest here for the rest of the day, and continue tomorrow.

Day 10:

Steven:

there’s shrieking coming from the other side of the door. If we’re careful, we might be able to progress, but that seems too risky. I almost suggested that we leave, but then I remembered the door was locked. I don’t think we have any choice but to move forward.

Wendy:

I don’t know  what we were expecting, but then again, how could I expect anything here? For once, Steven got to take the risk opening the door, and managed to get it open most of the way before stopping. I walked towards him to ask what was wrong, and then I saw it. This thing was huge, like a giant wasp made of exposed flesh and boney spikes, it covered almost a quarter of the wall, and was spitting this gross, scabby substance onto the walls. There were a lot more of them, too, each of them tending to the large beast in the center of the room. It looked like one of the skinless Flawed, only its back was lined in long, sharp, boney quills, and its body was like a Gorillas, its body was too big to stand, and it sat in a monk’s pose, a large pile of white rocks behind it.

eggs.

This was a nest, entirely taken over by The Copycats, and we had just come in uninvited.

There were two more Copycats next to the bigger one, too. both almost as big, but crawling on all fours.

The two of them were glaring at us, their eyes red and shiny, like big old tomatoes had been jammed into the sockets. Slowly, the biggest one in the room began to move, tilting its head at us as its body cracked like this was the first time it had moved in years, and then, it began to shriek. Suddenly, all of the Copycats snapped their heads towards us, before buzzing loudly. We had to run, so run we did.

Randy:

I thought we were going to die, I thought they would rip us apart, but then I heard the roar. It came from the other side of the room, from the door that leads to the pit, and after the Copycats heard it, they just stopped. They just turned around and went on working on their nest. The two bigger ones were still glaring at us, but they didn’t look hostile. We’re going to just move forward and think about this later.

day 11:

Randy:

I was expecting answers. We all were expecting answers, not this. When we opened the door, we were greeted by almost pitch black, save for a single, flickering light. I could feel the floor beneath us, cold and moist like dirt, and as we walked forwards, the brighter the room got, each step causing another light to turn on until we were face to face with several large Copycats, pitch black, with old bits of cloth wrapped around their bodies like robes, each one chanting around the largest thing I had ever seen. It looked like it was made of bones, but it had eyes and twitches occasionally. The ones that are circling it, there’s at least ten of them, they tried to charge at us, but then the skeleton began to shriek, the same roar as before. And with that, the figures retreated into the darkness as the bones began to move, cracking and popping with each movement as sits up and crouches itself down to look at us. Its teeth are almost as big as I am, it could crush me in an instant if it wanted to, but no. Instead, it began to speak. Its voice is loud enough to hurt my ears.

“No one has made it this far.

Not a single soul, and yet you three search for a truth you will never find.

you cannot get rid of us, you cannot get rid of ME, you cannot stop us from removing the plague that is humanity.”

I could barely muster up the word “why” before it began to speak again.

“You want to know why we did this? Why we wipe you out? Why we destroy everything you touch?

It’s all what your kind did to us, millenia ago.

WE were here long before you were, we watched as your race crawled from the mud and grew, and flourished as we silently watched without intervention, but then you began to worship us, you began to call us gods, and in our foolishness, we made our presence known. We bestowed ourselves upon the human race, we came offering gifts of knowledge and power, and in their greed, in their hatred, they cast us aside, they plummeted us into the ocean and branded us monsters, casting us to be lost to time. For millennia I waited, I ROTTED, and I died beneath the waves, each second remembering that which dared betray us, and for a moment, I found understanding, I found reason, But then your kind dragged us from the waters, you cut us and you burned us with chemicals and fire to see what we would do, and I found no chance at redemption. Can you imagine, children, can you imagine being asleep for thousands of years, only to be awoken to the pain of being chopped and cut, to watch your brothers and sisters die? I watched them tear us apart for their RESEARCH, and I felt nothing but rage, I felt nothing but hate towards the ants that dare tried to tear me apart. And in that rage, in that searing flame of hatred, I adapted, I survived, I remade the world.

and my perfect world, my world that will be untouched and pure, a world where all that is normal and natural grows free and joyful, where nature and its purities are untouched by man,

Is a world without your influence. It is a world without human corruption and without human interference. It is a world that you will never get to see because you are not pure enough to see it.

You call us freaks, you call us imitators, you call us monsters, you stab us, and kill us, and tear apart our flesh, only to stitch us back together again and again in the mockery that you call science.

but know as you burn our flesh and tear our bodies as we cleanse this world, that it was your kind who started this cycle of pain, the cycle of bloodshed that will not stop until the last of your pathetic species is wiped from the planet you never deserved. So remember children, remember who started this,

remember that you are not worth saving. There is no hope for the human race.

enough of this. Enough of your kind. We have no use for you. We have no answers for you, and we have no care about you. We have watched you, we have learned from you, and we have watched as you tried to tear us down and burn us, as you rip us apart in fear and as you try to survive a minute longer in a world that doesn’t want you, only to suffer in our hands. I have seen your struggles and all of them are in vain, you seek to bring yourself longer mortality, you seek immortality just as the rest of your kind, you fear what we bring because of your twisted sense of difference, and you know that it is pointless. Pointless because in the end, you’ll die all the same, you’ll die afraid and starved, you’ll die ripped apart, and you’ll die alone, wishing to see one more human face, wishing that you could have lasted longer, and like every corrupted soul, you’ll wish the same thing; you’ll wish you’d left your mark in the HISTORY that you know has already been erased.

Remember my name as the one who cleansed the world.

remember the name of the one who purified this world of dreams of riches and corruption, and hopes of immortality. Remember the name of the giant.

Remember

The name

GOLIATH.”

Steven:

After that, we left. I knew good and well that we aren’t wanted here. We made it back to base camp in about 3 days, and met with very little resistance. Sam and Janet however, they were long gone before we got there. I know now that there really isn’t a point in fighting back, we could never recover if these things really wanted us gone. There is only one little fact in the back of my head, that echoing, uneasy truth that we are no longer in control of the world, the monsters that wiped us out are. And sometimes I shudder at the thought, and I try to clear my head from it, but no matter what I try, I still sometimes find myself wondering if maybe the world is better off in their twisted, gnarled hands.