Hard Reset

Entry #1: The Blink
Whatever you do, please, just listen. All that’s important is that I keep typing; relaying as much information as possible. If this happens to you in any point in the future, it’s absolutely essential that you know what I’m about to say. Because then you may be able to stop it if it leaves here.

19 minutes and 50 seconds left. Let’s make the time count.

Here’s my story:

Reddpier, Alaska. It’s where I live at the moment, and where at least 60 others do as well, along with about 140 tourists. Most of them are gone now, but that’s besides the point. It’s totally isolated from any other town on the map.

There’s a reason you’ve never heard of it.

If you look up a map on Google Earth, you’ll find an empty square of ocean where our island is located. If you somehow brave the wilderness to make it here, you’ll find that there are no bridges, no ports, and no landing strips anywhere near our location. In fact, if you try to find us, chances are you won’t even be able to see us amidst the fog.

It’s because nothing was meant to leave here.

It wasn’t always like this. About 65 hours ago, we were just your average winter getaway town. Hell, maybe we even had bridges and landing strips then. Skiing was our main attraction, pretty much because we had nothing else to offer besides. Snow was our weather forecast 24/7, and I don’t think we’d ever had a sunny day since this town was founded. At least, that’s what I picked up from a brochure.

Christ, what I’d give to see a sun now. I don’t even know what one looks like anymore....

I know what it is… it’s like it just comes as natural knowledge, the concept of it, but I can’t pair it with any relatable senses. It’s as if you’re trying to draw a scene from a book… you can never know what it really looks like in the author’s head. Except here, it always feels like something’s missing.

I’m going to be honest: I don’t know why I’m here in Reddpier. I don’t know who I am, I don’t know what I did for a living, I don’t know if anyone else knows I’m stranded.

All I know at the moment--in fact, the only thing I know for sure--is that two days ago, at 2:09 PM, everything went black.

This is what I’ve been able to piece together from the CCTV footage:

Everything was normal leading up to the event, with important-looking men and women leisurely walking around town, stopping in shops for some souvenir trinkets.

Any semblance of light that managed to permeate the thick cloud layer vanished in a matter of seconds. It went from day to night in the blink of an eye. The power lines running from the only power plant on the island went out instantaneously. Every light source, save for the fires in the hearths of the ski lodges, had been extinguished.

Naturally, the worst case scenario was assumed. Everyone was trying to contact family and ask if anyone else was experiencing the blackout. The town council tried to ring up the weather bureau to find out what could be causing it, but all the phone signals were dead. Worse still, the emergency spotlights wouldn’t come on. We were now totally isolated, even more than before.

Frantically, people declared that there could only be an absolutely massive storm incoming, seeing no other explanation, and the town went into lockdown. The tourists all lodged inside the cabins, boarding up the windows and sealing the doors in preparation for the worst.

But nothing happened for two hours. The sky stayed black, the power stayed off, and the doors stayed shut. Everyone was huddled inside, crouching in absolute silence at the anticipation of whatever event was to befall the quiet town. Eventually, the council issued an announcement over the loudspeaker, saying that they were still trying to figure out what was happening, and that everyone should remain indoors until further notice.

And that, as far as I can gather, is when the first wipe came.

At 4:09 PM exactly, in the span of less than a second, the following occurred:

The power came back on across town. All at once, the TV sets turned back on, the lights flickered back into life, and the spotlights began sweeping across the snow-covered streets.

The sky lit up in a brilliant flash, similar to lightning, but stretching across the entire island, and coming from no apparent source. (What does real lightning even look like? I only know what it is from the snowboard designs in the tourist center. I imagine it looks terrifying.)

And every single person on the island, including me, blinked simultaneously in a single, fluid motion.

Then everything went black again.

We woke up, looked around, and realized… nothing.

We couldn’t realize anything, because we had lost all ability to process information.

We had lost all ability to do anything.

I remember… not remembering. My mind was… just empty. Imagine-- no, don’t imagine. That’s exactly it. Just try not imagining, not thinking, not being able to connect any of your senses to your surroundings. That’s how it felt - or would have, if we had the ability to perceive what we were feeling.

There was panic at first, if you could call it that. People flailing all over the floor, men and women feeling around their heads as if trying to clutch at their unconscious minds. Soon after people had gotten a grip on what was where, it didn’t take long for fighting to break out. It was total chaos.

That’s when the abductions started.

We don’t know exactly what happened. Most of us couldn’t register it. Among the crowds of frenzied people, one or two would have shining, writhing tendrils composed of light slowly creep out of his or her orifices, like vines growing through the cracks of a wall. (Again, this is a concept I only know from one of the framed pictures in the lobby.) In the CCTV footage, you could hear the confused moans and screams of the people slowly being drowned out by a much louder, penetrating shriek; a terrifying whine of white noise created from the combined agony of all the people who had no ability to feel--or even understand--anything besides.

All the cameras went static for a split-second, and when the footage returned, the people were gone. Vanished without a trace.

The fortunate souls who had avoided being taken over by the tendrils were completely unaware of the sudden disappearance of their colleagues, and many were completely unaware that they were even alive and breathing.

I don't know who those people were. None of us will ever know. It's like they never existed.

But the mind is a fantastic contraption. Even when all of its data is erased without warning, it still retains the most basic human ability: to learn.

As the hours passed, those of us who survived began to realize that we could place our senses. As we stumbled our way down the empty corridors, we began to grasp what we were seeing; the fact that we were seeing. We developed the ability to process, to comprehend, to put into action thoughts which came into our heads.

Through the books and brochures in the tourist center, and by watching the video stockpile in the board room, we eventually pieced together how to read, how to speak, and how to communicate. Self-preservation kicked in, and soon we began to fight, not out of confusion, but for survival. Resource gathering began, factions were made, and we eventually began to associate priorities with jobs and responsibilities.

We were rebuilding society in complete isolation.

Who we were previously became unimportant. Our identities didn’t matter. I tried searching pockets to find some sort of name, but I couldn’t find any. For now, we just refer to ourselves by letters. I’m H.

Even though we had regained our sense of self, we still couldn’t understand what had happened.

I’ve tried working it out. It’s possible the lights take the people with the slowest brain development first, still unable to process what is happening. An empty shell to hijack for whatever purpose is seen fit.

I don’t know who or what is doing this, either. But they’re up there, in the clouds. And they’re waiting for our next move.

We’ve deduced that this has happened 2 times already, and that they occur 22 hours apart to the minute. Which means we’ve restarted civilization 3 times since. If it were any other situation, I’d be proud. All I have to say is, thank God the clocks here are analog. Keeping track of time is probably the most important skill we can have. In fact, I’m so focused on it that I barely notice anything else.

But what I have noticed, going through the CCTV, is that every time the cameras turn to static, something disappears along with the people. First it was the IDs, I think. There were a few wallets lying on the ground that weren’t there when the footage returned. Next, though, it was the pictures on the wall. Before the static, the lobby was lined with several examples of nature photography, but the next second there were just blank frames. Most recently, it was the books. A few of them that I hid survived, but it’s become clear that whatever is causing this doesn’t want us to learn or adapt from our environment.

It wants to abduct us quietly, before we have any free will to say otherwise.

Well, I for one am not giving in. And that’s why I’m telling you this now. It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me.

This isn’t for you.

I need to have something physical to remember what happened after the next wipe comes.

The next wipe.

1 minute and 7 seconds.

Fuck.

Listen, please, whatever you do, don’t come looking for us. They will find you. You can’t escape from here; trust me, we’ve tried. The waters are too cold to swim in for even a minute before hypothermia sets in. At least three men have died trying.

What worries me most is what could be next to vanish along with the people. I’m using a laptop I found for this right now, and it doesn’t have much battery left. If they take this, or disable the Internet, or even the CCTV, then I don’t think I’m gonna last another wipe. Hell, I don't even know if sending this will work. If the council couldn't reach anyone, then it's unlikely this will, either.

13 seconds left. Hitting submit now.

Wish me luck.

-H

Entry #2: The Power
It’s me again. Whoever I am. I went by the name H before, so I guess that’s my identity now. I’m still regaining control of my brain at the moment, so forgive me if my thoughts seem a little… cluttered.

From the looks of my previous post, it seems I’m lucky to be alive. How I managed to evade the abduction is beyond me. I assume then there were a lot more people left than there are now.

All that’s left is a group of eight of us, five women, three men, including me. All corresponding to letters, which were already written on our arms when we regained consciousness. I guess we decided to write our identities before the most recent wipe. That was smart, not because we all know who we are.

It’s so we know who’s missing.

It’s just A, C, D, E, F, H (me), K, and P left. we still haven’t figured out what’s going on here. It hasn’t been that long since the wipe, and we still can’t fully remember things. All our nerves feel numb, and my muscles often break into wild spasms.

I remember coming to in front of this laptop, totally confused and disoriented, making whatever sound I could to let the world know I was there. From what little details I can recall, I just felt… alone. Without knowing it, or knowing anything, the concept of isolation… got to me. Mere existence was not enough - I needed to know I existed.

It’s a comfort we all take for granted, I guess.

Well, I think it’s time I updated you on my scenario here in Reddpier.

In my other post, it said there was CCTV somewhere in this building. I’ve looked everywhere, but I can’t find any terminal, or even any cameras to interact with. The only explanation I have is that whatever is doing this do us has taken them, like before with the books. This means that I’m going to have to pay a lot more attention to my surroundings, because the cameras were the only things that truly showed us what happened. We still have the books I stowed away, the tourism films, some rations, and, most importantly, the clocks. Nothing else is of much use.

Eventually, this post will be the only evidence we have left. Until they take away the laptop, which I’ve made sure to keep on my person at all times. I don’t think they’re able to knock out Internet entirely, considering that my first post went through, thank God.

So let’s make these hours count. Again.

Here’s a list of my surroundings for next time, assuming there will be one:


 * There are three books (two novels, one encyclopedia) inside the armchair cushion on the ground floor.


 * The tourist videos are always in A’s backpack.


 * There is at least one clock observable from any one place in the building. If I can’t see any, it’s safe to assume they’ve been taken.


 * The laptop is inside my shirt, tied up at the bottom so it doesn’t fall. That way it’ll be the hardest to get to, if I don’t get abducted first. If I do, then it comes with me. Assuming I'm still alive.


 * The visitor records are still inside the reception desk at the front, but it's been barricaded off.

I’m sitting here in the lobby with the others. I don’t know if any of the other factions have survived, but since we were the largest, I think it’s unlikely.

We’ve been making trips outside periodically to gather supplies from the other buildings. A, D, and K are out there now. Meanwhile, the rest of us are throwing what furniture is left into the fire so we can stay warm. The heat shut off with the lights, and E is already suffering from hypothermia. I don’t think she can hold on much longer. It’s only going to get harder.

I find myself reading over the last post again, trying to picture everything I mentioned that I can’t remember anymore. I talked about a snowboard, but none of us have found any boards or skis across the town. Maybe they took those too.

The worst thing is reading about how the others were taken. Without the footage, I keep trying to picture those tendrils of light, but I can’t. I said it myself - you can’t know what the original scene looked like if it’s only written in words. It’s terrifying to know how you’re going to die, and yet not know what it is that’s going to kill you, or even what it looks like.

That said, I don’t even know if the people who were abducted are dead. But I really can’t imagine any situation they could be in that would be better than death. In fact, I can’t imagine much of anything anymore. Every time there’s a wipe, I think we lose a little bit of ourselves inside our subconscious. My memory is getting more and more fuzzy as time goes by, and I’m having trouble remembering where I’ve hidden my rations this time around. Whatever is doing this has powers we can’t possibly comprehend; the ability to manipulate the inner workings of the brain.

A few of us have been talking this out, trying to theorize what’s happening. Here’s what we know so far:


 * They’ve left some of us alive. This can mean one of two things:
 * a. Their powers are limited, which could explain why the abductions only happen every 22 hours.
 * b. They’re fully aware we’re alive down here and are doing this on purpose. Maybe it’s some sort of sick, twisted experiment to find out God-knows-what. I hate to think any more down this route.


 * They never take more than one or two collective pieces of evidence every wipe, in a seemingly random pattern, which means we have to have backup ways of relearning. We can never know how many people are taken each wipe, since we can’t remember their existences in the first place.


 * The power plant I mentioned in the first post definitely has something to do with all this. While on one of his supply runs, C noticed that, although the town’s power is shut off, the power plant is still running. He says that he could faintly hear the whining of the turbine rotors as they churned through the water. It’s entirely possible that, if scenario a is correct, the limitations are due to the power it takes to transmit the signal.


 * We will find a way to fight this.

It’s all we’ve been able to come up with while we can still think. We have multiple copies of this list with a few of our people in case one gets taken. Abduction is an inevitability at this point, and we know we’re fighting in vain against something that will ultimately claim us.

But if we didn’t fight, we’d be giving in out of cowardice. And that’s not how humanity works.

I’ve come this far, rebuilt civilization isolated on this island five times now. If there’s anything I’ve learned, it’s that our species’ greatest strength is its will to keep going--our will in general. The will to continue on, even when the situation is in total disarray. The will to persist in the face of annihilation. The will to adapt to any conditions if it means living for just one more day, to see the light of an intangible sun one last time before falling into the darkness.

I look back on myself sometimes and wonder if any of this is worth it; if we should just give in now and dive headfirst into the current. It’s a feeling I’ve gotten used to over the time I’ve been aware. All of us here have it at some point. And we’re here to tell ourselves that, yes, it is worth it, that our consciousness is a right worth fighting for.

It’s not just a basic right. It’s a basic human right.

The more I look at this, the more I question whether the cause of this is actually human. I don’t know how any person could live with seeing their own kind pushed to the brink of sanity in this way. I want to think it’s something inhuman, and yet that thought scares me even more.

Well, D and K just came back. They said they checked out the area near the power plant.

They said they saw lights coming from inside.

Lights. The thought of bathing in the warm glow of an incandescent bulb is enough to make me cry.

They say we should plan an excursion to investigate the source in the next few hours. I'll fill you in when the time comes.

I should be able to provide updates, now that I have time. We’re going to make it through this.

We will.

We have to.

UPDATE #1
I don't know how this happened, but A has vanished.

None of us remember who she was, what she looked like. I can only assume she was female because I mentioned above that there were five women, and now there are only four. D and K say they went out alone as a pair, with nobody else.

I'm starting to get really fucking paranoid now. Either D and K are hiding something, or, somehow, the wipe is becoming localized, able to pick us off while we're still conscious. Fuck, I don't know which is worse.

This is especially bad, considering A apparently had the videos on her. Which means we've lost another piece of evidence. Those were the only things teaching us how to speak. I'm worried that, if we survive the next wipe, we'll lose all ability to communicate vocally.

Anyway, I've told everyone to keep a close eye on D and K. The last thing we want is mistrust within our own group.

In the meantime, C, F, and I have been discussing what to do. We were supposed to travel to the power plant as a threesome, but that would mean leaving the others alone with D and K, especially E, who can no longer move her legs as a result of frostbite.

Honestly, I don't know what to do. We're all paranoid beyond comprehension.

I'll update more soon, once we figure out what our next plan of action is.

UPDATE #2
I don't know what the fuck has happened since last time.

All I know is that I woke up in a pool of my own blood about four hours ago. My jaw has a huge gash in its underside. There's a blood-soaked ice pick on the chair where I put my books, so my best guess is that someone stuck that right into my head and dragged it through.

I couldn't feel pain when I regained consciousness after the last wipe, like always. But, this time, it was different. I could see that something was wrong, that the liquid on the floor didn't belong there. And I was aware that my life force was slowly draining, oozing out of my body in steady streams. I just stared as my own blood poured from my mouth and wound, collecting on the floor and being bathed in what remained of the firelight.

I don't think I've ever felt such fear before.

As for everyone else...

When I came to, I found F dead on the floor with her skull crushed in. The way she was lying, it looked like she was trying to crawl towards the fire, to experience the sensation of warmth for one last time as her senses slowly faded away. I don't blame them. It's what I would have done, too.

E is the only one without any visible wounds on her corpse. It seems she died of hypothermia long before this wipe, like I said above.

But D and K are gone. There's no sign they were ever here, or that they even existed.

I don't know if it was them that did this. I fucking hope it wasn't. But it's unlikely that the cause of this would try hurting us physically, instead of just wiping us off the face of the island. If it *was* them, then we have a big fucking problem.

I so badly want to say that they fled into the snow after committing all this, but both C and I know that they would've left footprints. There aren't any outside either exit.

Which means they're still in the building. Or they've been taken, too.

Why the fuck would they do this? Did they kill A as well?

I don't think we have time to ponder about that. C is motioning us to head out as soon as we can.

Oh, by the way, they took the clocks. And the books I had in the chair. And the documents. As if things couldn't get any worse.

I've read and reread my above posts to try and get a better understanding of what our situation is, but at this point my mind is so fuzzy that I can barely retain any information anymore without giving myself a headache. C's complaining of these problems, too.

Holy fuck, I think I just heard something from the upper floors.

I'll update as soon as I can. I believe that we're going to get through this; all we need to do is pack up our rations and deal with the potential murderers loose in this building.

I almost don't want to stop typing. Even though I can't see any of you, I feel so much more comfortable telling all of this, knowing that someone else knows. I can't describe this feeling; I don't thing anyone really experiences true longing until their lives are pushed to the brink. I'm sorry if I can't reply to your comments as quickly as I want to; trust me, I want to more than anything right now. But

No, that was definitely a noise. Fuck it, I'm going up there with this ice pick. C's nodding in agreement.

Wish me luck. Again.

UPDATE #3
C and I just woke up outside one of the second-floor rooms. We can't remember anything that happened in the past hour-- how we got up here, why we came up here.

There's a door in front of us that's been split off its hinges, and inside is an empty room with no windows. We took a quick look inside, but it's empty. Completely empty; no furniture, no lights, no decorations. It's just a blank room in the middle of the tourist center.

I think this was where the noise I was talking about came from, but it looks like this room's been abandoned for years. The only evidence we have that something happened is a residue that was left on the inside of the doorframe.

Think of when you burn something in a fire, and the picture that black, charred outline that forms around it when you take it away.

Imagine that, but if it was made of light.

Instead of black soot, the inside is covered in this... energy. I don't know what to call it. It's just a series of points of light stretching from where the door was clearly ripped open. It's not even light... it's not glowing. It's like it's just a single, contained instance of pure illumination.

Something was definitely here. Inside the building. This can't be D or K, not unless they're somehow connected to all of this. This is something directly connected to whatever's controlling our consciousness. I don't know how long it's been here, how long it's been listening. Feeding the others information on what our most valuable assets are in retaining our ability to think.

If it can do this, God knows what else it can do. It could still be in the building, for all we know.

One thing's for certain. We need to leave. Now.

We're only grabbing a few rations. In about three minutes, we'll be outside in the snow, making our way toward the power plant.

It's been growing progressively louder as time goes by. I can faintly hear the screeching of metal spinning in the harsh waters of Reddpier.

We need to find answers. I don't care if I die at this point; I just need to die knowing what's going on here.

I need to die knowing something. Anything at all.

Laptop battery: 13%.

Two of us left.

The next wipe is in 4 hours and 13 minutes.

I'll see you then.

-H

Entry #3: Something Missing
I’m back. We’re still alive. I've marked this as final since it's unlikely you'll hear from us after this.

It’s been over 29 hours, and the wipe still hasn’t come. C and I can still remember everything.

I’ve read over my previous posts over and over; showed them to him in the hopes he’d find something in there that we missed. But neither of us can. For some reason, the wipes have stopped, at least for now.

I think whatever is causing all this knows we’re coming. All of this is deliberate. It's setting up for something big.

I’m typing to you from the camp we’ve set up outside the plant. It took us about 4 hours to hike here in the snow. We haven’t decided whether we should go inside, yet.

I’m finally seeing it up close, after hearing about it for so long.

It’s massive. Fenced areas filled with power cells and overload buffers surround the entire place, taking up the entire corner of Reddpier. The walls must be at least 40 feet high, covered in pipes and corrugated metal.

The hum of the rotors is deafening from this location. It’s like the water is rising up out of the ocean and dragging the land into its domain. It’s terrifying.

And the light. That light coming from inside.

This is the first time I’ve seen incandescent light since the first wipe. I’ve only been able to see by a fire for… God, I don’t even know how long it’s been. Our sense of time passing is probably warped beyond comprehension. I can’t describe how strange this artificial illumination looks now.

I remember feeling this when by the fire in the tourist center, albeit vaguely. I would always crawl up close so I could feel the warmth of the flames steadily licking my face, thawing away the cold. And when I was at that perfect euphoria, that state where I was neither hot nor cold, I’d close my eyes.

The way the light danced across my eyelids was the only thing that let me rest.

Now, seeing the purposeful radiance coming from inside this huge structure… It’s almost as if I’m able to ignore the conditions out here, and bathe in this sweeping, shimmering glow. I feel warm and cozy inside, almost as if I’m still at… home.

Home.

Why am I remembering this now? Why, all of a sudden, do I have a perfect image of what home is? This entire time, I don’t think I’ve ever considered the concept of having a home. I never even once thought that I came here from somewhere.

That warmth, that soothing glow… It feels…

What is this feeling?

It feels… familiar.

Why am I remembering now? Why am I able to recall things that occurred before the first wipe?

I’m… I’m in the air.

The clouds are rushing past my face. I see the beautiful blue sky wrapping across an endless plain. I’m on some sort of vehicle… a plane. This has to be a plane. I’m connecting my thoughts.

There’s another man sitting next to me. His legs are crossed over the bench seat, and he’s looking at me and smiling. He’s dressed in a coat and a woolen cap.

His face is… it’s just a blur. In fact, everything’s a blur now. What’s happening to me? What is this memory?

C just slapped me across the face. He says I’ve been sitting frozen in front of the laptop for about two minutes. The battery just reached 10%.

My ears have just popped with the sudden rush of cold air coming from the resort town in the distance. The piercing screech of the turbines isn’t helping.

We’re going inside, I’ve decided. Yes, C, we’re doing it right now. Don’t worry, I’ll update as we move forward.

I need to find out what’s causing all of this.

I need to remember.

UPDATE #1
We’re inside.

The whole place is filled with this brilliant, pervasive light. It seems to be coming from no specific source; it’s just filling up the entire place. It feels… wonderful.

It feels wrong.

I don’t know how, but I feel like I’m not supposed to be experiencing this. This… light, whatever it is, wherever it comes from- it’s not human. It can’t be.

It’s like before, with the residue on the door… the light doesn’t seem to reflect off of anything. It’s like.. A solid object. A mass.

I’m seeing my memories again.

The man from the previous flashback is there by the fire. The same fire that was at the tourist center. He’s sitting on the hearth, laughing at some unheard joke.

He’s dressed in some sort of sweater vest, and is sipping a mug of cocoa.

I still can’t see his face… it’s like it’s been smudged by an ethereal fingerprint. No matter how hard I try, I can’t picture what its form is.

...

Everything in the background- the noise, the color- suddenly just amalgamated into a long spout of white noise.

I’m left here alone with my thoughts, now.

C is outside, making sure we erase all trace of our campsite, in case they don’t know we’re here and are tracking us.

I keep looking at this alien light, and it reminds me of my home. My home, which I forgot a long time ago.

Why is it so alluring? What does it want?

C’s back. Well, there’s no going back from here.

We’re going into the turbine room.

UPDATE #2
The room is empty.

As soon as we opened the doors, it all went dark. All the lights just simultaneously shut off.

It's completely black. It's a darkness I've never experienced before. Even when we had no light, our eyes were able to make out things.

It's like I'm floating in space.

The noise of the turbines is muffled, now. It's like an oar paddling through a steady pond.

What? Why do I know what an oar is?

That man. He's in a rowboat with me, looking out at a series of calm waves that I can't quite focus on.

His hand reaches out and takes mine. I see a small gold ring on his finger. He smiles at me.

Were we... were we in love?

Why can I see this when it's only black?

No, this has to be a hallucination. They're playing tricks with my mind, making me see and feel things that aren't real.

C.

Where is C?

I keep calling out to him, but I'm not getting any response. I'd almost forgotten about him. Did they take him, too?

Am I the only one left?

I'm starting to panic. Not even the fading light from the laptop is enough to permeate the encroaching blackness.

Everything's going dark.

The laptop battery is at 1%. It's not going to make it.

I'm going to be stranded here. I won't have figured out anything.

No, there are too many questions. Where did the people go? What is that light? Who is that man I keep seeing?

Who am I?

I need answers... I need to know.

Something. Anything.

I need to be aware. I need to know I'm not alone.

But I am alone.

I'm going to vanish off the face of the earth, just like the others.

It's funny; even when I'm typing this, I feel like I'm talking to a real person. But the disconnection between us... just the acknowledgment of the gap between me and every single person viewing this is enough to make me give up hope.

Hello? Is anyone there?

I need to know if someone hears me. Not just acknowledges me, but hears me.

I need to know.

...

FINAL UPDATE
It's hard to describe what's just happened.

I'd been in the dark a few minutes after the battery ran out. Or hours. Or days. I don't know. It doesn't matter.

I just remember that, the next second, I was surrounded by light.

That same light I remember seeing so many times before, twisting out of the eyes and ears of those people as they screamed in unbearable pain.

I remembered that. I could remember everything.

Then the light spoke to me.

No, not spoke. Spoke isn't the right word. The combined thoughts of this being permeated my very consciousness, delivering its words into immediate comprehension. There was no delay between the transmitting and the receiving; it was an instantaneous flow of information.

It said that this was a test. An experiment.

It started with the ones with the weakest will, the flimsiest brain capacity. They were the easiest to infiltrate; work their way through their consciousness using as little power as possible. Everyone after that needed more and more power.

We never realized that each wipe meant the removal of an entire tier of intelligence.

Reddpier was a giant crucible, with the power plant burning bright at its epicenter. Those too frail to fight the light were quickly erased from existence.

Until only one was left.

It said that I was being given the opportunity to ascend.

It gave me my memories back, one by one, watching me sob in pain and sorrow for those I'd lost. I'd had a husband- a beautiful, beautiful man who wanted nothing more than to be with me. We'd come to Reddpier for our last date before our wedding. It showed me how I was afflicted by these emotions.

The beings that make up this light are free of the bonds of consciousness, and all the burden that comes with it. To them, it's a disease. It's a deep, unstoppable pain that eventually consumes us all. It worms its way through our hearts and minds until the agony is so great that we simply can't be brought to live any longer.

They asked me to join them.

I told them I needed some time, and now I'm here. I'm in a room not too different from the empty, abandoned space in the tourist center. The laptop is in front of me, its battery infinitely being drained as time perpetuates around me.

And I'm left alone with this impossible decision.

If I stay here on this plane, everyone I love will be dead. I'll have to live with the thought that people died so I could have this opportunity, this opportunity which I passed down like an ungrateful, spoiled child. They'll all have died in vain.

If I ascend, I'll lose all semblance of humanity. Everything that made me my own self, *any* self, will be completely wiped out. I'll spend the rest of infinity crossing the multiple planes of reality as a passenger without a vehicle, living whatever I want to live.

I wouldn't be able to live with myself either way.

But, before you all suggest to me what I should do, I just want you all to know that I've already made my decision. In fact, the decision was already made from the start.

By sending this message out, not only will I have spread the word, I'll have spread knowledge of these beings to people across the globe. Ignorance was what kept them sedated. Keep this as a record of what happens when the light comes and takes you. When we come to your location, you'll know. In the meantime, we'll be preparing, looking for a sufficient source of power for our next test.

You'll come to see the light in one way or another.

The next wipe is in 5 days, 8 hours, 44 minutes, and 2 seconds.

Good luck.

-H