Thank You for Your Cooperation

Ivan came home from school on a hazy spring afternoon. It was the last day of school of his junior year in highschool. He made a promise to himself to finally do something productive for the entire summer vacation. Preferably something that would benifet him finacially. He walked along his driveway and noticed a package on the step of his porch. He looked at it then picked it up. He found the label on it and it read his name. He became overjoyed. The GoPro Camera he ordered came today. He wanted to open the package right now but he needed to get inside. It looked like it was going to storm soon. He got his house key and put it into the knob where the lock was. He heard something.... strange. From outside it heard like muffled talking. This may be normal for most people but Ivan's parents don't get home until 7... and its always been like that for about 6 years. Chills crept down Ivan's spine. He listened more, then he finally swung open the door. To his relief, it was only the TV. Ivan sat on the couch with the package still in his hand. He realised that the TV automatically turns off after 2 hours so no one could have accidentally left it on this morning. Ivan dismissed this and watched TV for a little bit.

The channel was on PBS and the show was old reshowings of Bob Ross. Ivan smiled as this was his favourite childhood show and it was like a blast from the past. He looked down at the package in his hand. He went to the kitchen to grab a small knife to open the package. He sat back down on the couch. He was about to cut open the package containing his GoPro Camera when suddenly the TV switched to an Emergency Broadcast. This practically made Ivan jump out of his skin. The broadcast started to make the infamous bleeps. Ivan thought for a moment. The day was only a little hazy and cloudy and the news this morning said it wasn't going to rain so this couldn't have been a thunder storm or a tornado warning. The broadcast went slient for a minute. Then the message moved horizontally across the screen. It read, "Dangerous criminal in the area". Ivan's eyes widened. The nearest prison was only a mile away from his own house. Then the message quickly switched to a different one, "Nuclear Attack Warning". This both confused and frightened Ivan. Why would there be a nuclear attack? He was on the edge of his seat. The message changed again. It changed back to the original message. This was very odd. The message started to blink from "Nuclear Attack Warning" to "Dangerous Criminal in the Area" every second. This put Ivan in a pool of confusion. This had to have been a joke. Ivan's town was very rural and full of jokers and broadcast hijacks were incredibly common unlike most places.

The voice message finally, yet abruptly started causing Ivan to jump once more. Ivan was rather prone to being jumpscared. The message was in the female bot voice. "THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT HAS ISSUED A WARNING IN THESE COUNTIES: BOONE COUNTY, KENTON COUNTY, CAMBELL COUNTY, CARROLTON COUNTY, BOWLING GREEN COUNTY, GRANT COUNTY". That last county was the one Ivan lived in. This made his heart pound. Another voiceover came on and this one was from an actual person. The voice was notably calmer than the female bot voice. "An escaped animal experiment of unknown origin has been spotted in your area. It is advised that you lock all doors and windows and turn off all the lights in your home. DO NOT make eye contact with the suspect. Keep your house in full lockdown untill the authourities give the "all clear". Thank you". Ivan was frozen in his seat. He had to act quickly, even if the broadcast was real or not. It was too real to be fake after all most hijack broadcasts were in low quality. This one happened to be in a more official quality. Ivan quickly got up and locked the door. He went to all of his windows and locked them and he turned off all the lights in the house. He turned off the TV, grabbed the package and knife, and rushed upstairs to his room. Ivan did this so quickly it started to make him sweat along with all the stress and fear this put on him. He took a deep breath.

He decided that this whole "lockdown" issue would give him the motivation to teach himself how to setup and use his new GoPro Camera. He took the knife and cut the tape causing the box to open. The glorious moment he has been waiting for. After all the money, blood, sweat, and tears he went through to buy this camera. He pulled the GoPro box out of the package. He examined the package closely. It was very shiny. He opened the box and pulled out the inner packaging containing the camera. He took out the camera and held it. It was awesome to finally hold this amazing piece of equipment. He looked in the box for some instructions. He didn't find any. Figures. He knew it had to have been a packaging mistake. He wanted to turn on his computer to look for instructions but he had to stay in lockdown. Ivan sighed. He knew that he had to figure it out on his own. He looked outside his window. the sky had turned a scarlet colour. This sort of scared Ivan. He ignored it and proceded to fiddle around with the camera. He noticed they turned on the tornado siren. He quickly realized that the siren pattern was on attack mode. He knew the broadcast was not a joke. This almost made Ivan panic. He knew he had to stay calm. Chances of this... "thing" finding him was very unlikely. He kept fiddling with camera.

Hours passed. The siren never turned off. Ivan ignored it although it was starting to get to his head. He kept fiddling around with his camera trying to figure it out. He put the camera on one of his helmets he wears when he plays airsoft. His room was lit orange because of the sky outside. It started to get darker and darker. The TV in his room suddenly turned on on it's own. It was on the emergency broadcast from before repeating the same messages and beeping very obnoxiously. It wouldn't stop repeating the same message over and over again. Strange enough, it was louder than before.

More hours passed. Ivan was on the brink of insanity... The attack alarm never turned off, neither did the emergency broadcast. Ivan's room was very dark. He furiously tried to fix his camera, fighting to ignore the noises of the siren and the broadcast... and to save his sanity. The sound of the siren and his TV had progessively gotten louder as the hours passed and were as loudas shotgun blasts. Ivan looked at his digital clock. It was midnight. Ivan's parents haven't gotten home yet and he was about to break out into tears and sprint out of the house.

Suddenly... The siren and the TV went silent... The GoPro Camera had finally started to work capturing the creature that Ivan saw in only about 3 frames. Glowing white eyes... That smile, the kind that would condemn you to damnation in an instant. The broadcast voice message changed, "The authourities have givin the "all clear" you may return to your normal routine. Thank you for your cooperation".