The Spasm

Written by Ares Leviathan on Flickr.

October 25

Man these past few days are just getting on my nerves. The stress has built up to the point where I feel I need to write this down to vent my frustration. It started after a couple of our scanner clients told us that they weren't hearing any radio chatter from Oakdale, a nearby town. A few of them gave us a hard time, putting the blame on the scanner we sold them or some bullshit like that. No offense, but scanner people are just weird and know close to nothing about how scanners and radios actually work.. Oakdale was surrounded by mountains and we figured it might've been interference. It wasn't until today that we recieved a transmission with a distorted voice on Oakdale Fire's frequency that we got a little spooked. 'Anyone...(static)...help...(noise)....bad...radio..no one...town...(noise)..' That was all we got out because there was so much noise coming from the radio.

After hearing this we paused for a second and thought about what we just heard. We figured that maybe their antenna was out of alignment or maybe they were getting radio interference from somewhere. Either way, we presumed they were attempting to call for assistance. So we decided to send Bill up there to check it out. I guessed that maybe they were in need of some new equipment considering we hadn't had business with them for almost ten years. But then why didn't they just use the landline or send someone to us?

October 27

Bill came back this afternoon and looked a little on edge, though I wasn't sure what. He explained to us that when he arrived yesterday afternoon in Oakdale, he was suprised to find the entire town deserted! He looked through the police station, the diner, the motel. No one. Not a living soul, he said. The whole place was a ghost town! What was even weirder, he mentioned, was that the place looked perfectly clean. Like somebody made sure the tables were tidied up before they left! But then he noticed that there were still cars parked on the street. So where was everyone?

He decided he'd try not to think about it and headed over to the fire station to check the radio equipment. As far as he was concerned, the entire system was a mess. All the internals were absolutely fried! He'd have to replace the entire set, but to what end? Who was going to use it?

By the time he got ready to head out it was already six o' clock in the evening. Hell, it took him half the damn day to get there! No way was he going to travel through sharp turns in the wee hours of the night. So he convinced himself to spend the night at the town. He felt weird doing it, but he went to the diner and cooked himself a burger and had a few beers. He even decided to take the liberty of giving himself a decent tip by taking the money from the cash register. It wasn't like anyone else was going to use it, right? After having a little fun in the abandoned diner, he checked himself into the now, vacant, motel. From there, he proceeded to undress and went to sleep.

At this point, he started to twitch his eye as he recollected to us what was probably the worst night sleep he ever had. He had a dream of yellow-brown, limbless, faceless figures surrounding him and hissing through unseen lips. They kept shifting from side to side along the edges of the bed like mindless zombies. This kept up for several hours but when he woke up, they were gone! Not stopping to think for a second, he got up, put his clothes on and fled the town!

After telling us this, he immediately requested that he go home, saying he wasn't feeling well. His request was granted, and he left.

October 31

Bill hasn't showed up to work for days. We're getting a little worried about him. He didn't even show up for the town's Halloween festival! But that's not really what on my mind... Now I've been re-reading this "journal," since that's what it's turning into, and I'm getting a little...nervous.

See, people are beginning to say stuff. Stuff like seeing figures wandering through the backyards and the edges of the wood. Stuff like hearing hisses in the middle of the night. Stuff like people calling in sick! Even the town doctor had to call in sick! More or less however, pretty much everybody showed up to the festival, save Bill.

The festival itself was a little weird come to think of it. Everyone seemed a little...different. They talked just fine but I noticed that once in awhile, someone would twitch their arm or leg or something every ten seconds, like a form of OCD or tourettes or something of the sort. Even while I was talking to our schoolteacher, Brianna Walters, she would every so often twitch her cheek uncontrollably...like a small spasm, if you will. Another, a small boy, Joey, would sit and twitch his neck every once in awhile. I eventually had enough of this (along with the pumpkin pie and festivities) and decided to head home.

November 2

I don't know what to tell you. Brianna, Joey...maybe even Bill. Everyone! They just...changed! I saw Brianna walking towards the school like normal when she just...stopped. Right there. She kinda twitched her cheek, bent forward and began shaking her whole body! In less than a second, she changed into this...this thing! It looked like a person, but it had no arms, no hair and no face! Before I knew it, it was stumbling towards me, violently twitching it's neck and legs with every step!

I lost it. I began to run away screaming! I could here a few other people doing the same thing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw another creature stumble through old Ms. Kimble's door and began to hiss at me even as it started to trip down the steps and started spasming on the ground. It was like a nightmare! I finally got to my house and slammed the door shut, locking it in place. I then proceeded to lock every other door and began barricading the windows. My house is now a fortress and I've pulled out my shotgun and my old man's .38 special, just in case.

November 5

These creatures have taken over the whole town! They're just shambling out there...but at the same time they seem to be gathering around my house. I think I'm the only one here who isn't turned yet. I'm just so unnerved by them! It's like they know I'm here but have no idea where I am! They're just...drawn to me. Three of them are standing outside my porch. As I looked out to take a good look at them, I noticed one of them stopped right in front of the window but was facing away from me. It just stood there. Twitching... Fuck! What the hell am I going to do?

November 7

I decided to try and fight the bastards. I went upstairs and climbed onto the roof to take a few shots at them. Gave one a good taste of buckshot and it began convulsing radically, it fell on the ground, still convulsing and eventually stopped moving. I pulled the .38 out and put one in the chest of another and it, too, began convulsing wildly. But it didn't stop until I put another in its head. At least I can kill the fuckers.

Despite this seemingly good news, I figured something else out. The forest. They're coming from the forest. For every one I kill, two more show up. Like a fucking hydra! The whole fucking town is around my house! That's over a hundred of them!

November 12

This is it. I can't fight them. I can't run. I'm low on food and ammo. I can hear them breaking through the window. I've locked myself in the attic, with nothing more than the emergency radio I keep and this laptop. I think I have no choice but to use the radio to send out a message. Maybe I'll e-mail this to an old friend of mine. It looks like the signal is pretty bad. It's an old radio and the nearest town is on the other side of a mountain!

My fingers are shaking nervously as I try to grab the the microphone. If only my hand would stop twitching...