


＄03-00-05-01-1-0



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My journey is drawing to an end. It won't be long now before I arrive at my destination in southern Nevada.
[k]

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Not that it'll change anything once I get there.[sr]I certainly won't be getting a reward for my trouble.
[k]

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Nor do I have a home to return to,[sr]or enough fuel to get me there even if I did.
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The only point this journey ever had[sr]was to get where I was going.
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...Well, no, that may be technically accurate, but it's still not quite right. Let me be clear, so I don't invite any misunderstandings.
[k]

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When I say I don't have a home to return to, I don't mean that in the heartless, cold-blooded bastard sense.
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My home may be gone now, but I still remember it clearly. And as long as I have those memories, I'll never feel the pain of its loss.
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See, since I was born, I've had the ability, for better or worse, to recall anything I've ever seen in perfect detail.
[k]

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It's called, “hyperthymesia,” though it's more[sr]commonly known as a superior autobiographical memory.
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My friends considered it a disability, and sympathized with the drawbacks, but scientists considered it a gift.
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It drove me insane when I was a kid. At some points, it caused me to hate cities and people in general.
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When I grew up, I left the city behind and started living a much quieter life out in a village near the mountains.
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As a result, I've only spent about a third of my life in busy, urban areas, so I'm not really overburdened with memories of those places.
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Still, my memories are just as clear now as they ever were. I can see the friends I used to hang out with smiling and laughing as if they were right here with me.
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Of course, that includes the beautiful scenery and the stars that used to twinkle bright all across the nighttime sky.
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...Maybe that's why I couldn't shake my doubts about why this happened the way it did.
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Something just seemed...off.
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I don't mean the Earth's surface being bleached white. I mean it feels like something even bigger has changed, but in a way I can't put my finger on it.
[k]

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Whatever it is, I've noticed it at different points during this journey.
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There was something different about the skies above Russia, Scandinavia, China, India... Whatever it was, they weren't the same skies I'd seen before.
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There must be some other change occurring in places I'm not privy to. Or maybe some other humans besides me are struggling to fight back.
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Maybe they're doing their best to retake this world, this planet, this universe for humanity even as I speak.
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...Unfortunately, as intriguing as that possibility is, those places are much too far away for me to make a detour, and I have precious little time left as it is.
[k]

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I ran out of food yesterday,[sr]and my bike's not going to last much longer, either.
[k]

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Again, once I reach my destination,[sr]my journey is over.
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It would be nice if whoever's causing these changes taking place around the world were to stop by the States...
[k]

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...but I doubt anyone who's lost as hard as me and the rest of humanity have anything close to that kind of good luck left.
[k]


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...What a strange feeling.
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Even if this is the end for me, in multiple senses, it still feels good to achieve the goal I set for myself.
[k]

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“Why did humanity die out?”[sr]“Why did these alien invaders show up?”
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“Why did they conquer us by bleaching the Earth white?”
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My heart is racing at the prospect of possibly uncovering the answers to these and all the other mysteries.
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I've arrived at the U.S. Air Force base once known as Area 51. It's the one place[line 2]the only part of the texture[line 2]on the entire planet that managed to evade the bleaching.
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The sheer secrecy surrounding this place led to all sorts of rumors about high-tech experiments and training being conducted here, but you'd never know that looking at it now.
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Not only are there no survivors here, there's not so much as a single piece of cutting-edge equipment.
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Any seaplanes and armored tanks that may have been here before are long gone.
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And since there's no power, I doubt I'll be able to stock up on food or water, either.
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On the plus side, the buildings are mostly untouched, so at least I shouldn't have to go sifting through rubble.
[k]

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...I can't believe it. Rain clouds cropped up here out of nowhere. I guess that means it still rains in the last area on Earth that hasn't been bleached away.
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I pushed my excitement down to keep it from getting the better of me, and began carefully making my way through the base.
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The rain clouds that cropped up in the skies overhead[sr]stuck around the whole time I was there.
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I learned several things from my expedition into the inside of the base; the part completely cut off from the outside world.
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I wish I could offer my own personal insights on what I found, but since I'm running low on both time and energy, I'll have to stick to just the facts.
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This base did in fact contain an alien life-form.
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“2018 - Subject E Relocation”[sr]“2018 - Initiate Subject E Examination”
[k]

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According to the documents I found, this “subject” had flown to New Mexico in the year 2018.
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The craft it had been piloting either burned up when it entered Earth's atmosphere (or was possibly destroyed by the subject itself, according to a handwritten note)...
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...leaving the subject completely exposed upon its discovery.
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The injuries sustained during its emergency landing had left it critically wounded and near death...
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...but by flash-freezing it, the Air Force managed to preserve its life functions. They then brought it to this base.
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All the other records pertaining to the subject can be summed up in a single word: “gruesome.”
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The scientists performed all kinds of tests, experiments, and surgeries in order to keep this alien visitor alive.
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They conducted clinical trials with different kinds of medicine. They tested every known substance on Earth to see how it would react.
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They observed reactions that corresponded to pain.[sr]They observed reactions that corresponded to joy.
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To measure its endurance, they stopped supplying it with nutrients. Then they tried burning it. Freezing it. Melting it. Attaching things to it.
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They stirred its intestines around. Cut off parts of its body. Measured signals from the organ they thought was its brain.
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They performed all of this research, what could also be called the very crystallization of human history, on the subject while it was still living.
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...It didn't take long for the surgical procedures meant to resuscitate the subject to morph into brutally exploitative experiments.
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And since the cells taken from the subject's samples were made up of elements that didn't exist anywhere on the planet...
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...it wasn't hard to imagine that further research could eventually lead to military and civilian applications.
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Truth be told, that was where the top brass's true interests lied.
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After all, ever since the turn of the twentieth century, the energy race between nations had only continued to pick up speed...
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...and there was now an insurmountable gap between industrialized nations and developing ones.
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I could tell from poring over the documents that they began with the best of intentions.
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They wanted their research to result in a better life for every person on Earth. To help humanity move past its endless squabbling for wealth and forge ahead with new, loftier goals.
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However...Area 51's researchers[sr]didn't see things the same way.
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With every experiment they ran, they became more and more certain that the subject was emitting a constant, unknown signal. It was calling for help.
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So they thought, if they kept running experiments on it, if they kept inflicting greater levels of pain on it...
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...even more potential test subjects were bound to show up.
[k]

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That's why this all happened.[sr]This wasn't a natural disaster. It was a man-made one.
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[51d4ff][sr]　　　　　　　　　　　(But is that truly the reason?)[-]
[k]

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I finally know why those trees came here.[sr]Now...I just have to confirm one last thing.
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Was this the true cause? Was there really a “Subject E” here, at this base? I have to see it for myself.
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And I have to do it before I die of malnutrition.
[k]

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It took me several days to discover that door.
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“E Reference Room.” A secret area that had been built even further underneath the base's underground structure.
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I manage to open the door and make my way inside the sealed-off passageway.
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...I can already tell there's something here. This is it. This is where I'll find the answers I've been seeking.
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There's just something...different about the air in this passageway that makes that all too clear.
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My instruments aren't picking up anything unusual, even though the passageway itself is like something from another world[line 2]entirely removed from what we think of as reality.
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I know this passageway is made out of iron and steel, but it feels like I'm walking on pulsating jelly.
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I make my way across the simultaneously hard, soft, warm, cold floor, one careful step at a time.
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My body temperature is dropping like a stone. I can barely breathe. My consciousness is hanging by a thread.
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...I can't even remember how many days it's been since I last had something to eat or drink.
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Soon, I won't even have enough energy left to talk into this recorder.
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But I can't stop now. I have to find the answers before I die. Answers that I'm sure lie just beyond this passage...
[k]

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＠David
...?
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The only sound that escaped my lips was a quiet gasp of shock.
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It was the most retro room I could have imagined. If I hadn't known better, I would never have thought it was located in the middle of one of the most high-tech bases on Earth.
[k]

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And yet, there it was atop the exam table. A bizarre...thing that resembled nothing so much as a dead tree.
[k]

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＠A：???
...Hey there. It's about time you showed up, Bluebook.
[k]
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