Chapter 16 - Extra(1): Tale of site 57

The tale of site 57.

Classification: Rank 5 and below.

Note: Due to the lack of information and the large amount of cognitive hazards resulted from the aftermath, this incident will be in the tales format.

There are several recording of a senior researcher involved in the tale. They will be put in the order of events.

Tale#4657: The destruction of site 57.

The tale started on the 5th of May, 2013 where all contact with site 57 was lost after 10 am.

Site 57 was a research site for anomaly. It contains 47 rank 5 anomalies, 23 rank 4 anomalies and 3 rank 3 anomalies.

The emergency response team immediately got into action and tries to reconnect with the site while another team was sent to rescue the people in the site. The attempt failed however as they couldn't reconnect no matter how hard they tried. All contact with the rescue team was lost and they are presumed dead.

Several days later, on the 11th of May. The first recording:

"Hello? Is this thing on? I'm researcher Andrew, senior researcher rank 5. I'm here to record, uhhh whatever is happening in here. I have a bad feeling about this and thought that I should at least let the people outside know what happened.

It's been about 6 days since we lost all contact with the outside world. Everywhere outside the site is covered in darkness and any attempt to go outside is futile. The director said that there was a problem with 2 anomalies resulted in the current situation and it'll soon be resolved.

I didn't believe much of what he said. I was one of the people working on the situation before it gets this bad and I sure as hell know that there's more than 2 anomalies at work here.

The place is on full lockdown and emergency code 2 was activated. Everyone is slightly unease being trapped inside what's essentially a containment breach. At least all the others are still contained. And we have plenty of food too. I just wished things will get better soon.

As for the problem itself, it was due to 3-47 and 3-33. I got nothing more."

Anomaly 3-47 is a small burning torch. The space around the torch will be trapped in darkness with no way to escape. The radius is constantly increasing. Because the darkness can block the sunlight, all normal life will cease if this covered the planet.

Anomaly 3-33 is a mountain. All those that went into the mountain will not have the desire to escape and only a rank 5 or higher was capable of nullifying this effect.

Site 57 was original built to use 3-33 to contain 3-47. After going in 3-33 area of effect, 3-47 stopped increasing.

13th of May, another identical site 57 appeared in Sundial city. It directly replaced whatever was there before it. The land it occupied was a residential area. All the buildings and people in the area were gone without a trace.

A team was sent to explore the site. Inside was copies of everyone presented inside site 57 before all contact was lost. Despite the geological differences and the lack of anomalies everyone still act like normal.

The team tried to lead them outside but all refused. The team is met with fierce resistance when they start using force and decided to retreat.

After checking the available information the analytics team figured out the cause of the problem. It's due to anomaly 3-10, the last rank 3 anomaly of site 57.

3-10 is a broken hologram projector. It's able to project a copy of anything and that copy will act identical to the original. 3-10 was also sealed by 3-33, being unable to project anything too big inside.

At this point full focus were put onto the site and the mobilizing of rank 3 were on the way. Unfortunately most rank 2 and below were busy on a bigger incident thus was unable to provide aids in time.

14th of May. The second recording:

"3-10 broke free. It didn't do much damage to us but I reckon the outside is having one hell of a time right now.

Every anomalies contained by 3-33 seemed to be going haywire right now. We did some protective measures but I'm not sure how long it's going to last. Our reality level has dropped down to 87% and doesn't seem to go up anytime soon. Any reality stabilizer we have malfunctioned.

Researchers of rank 10 and 9 wasn't able to adapt to the changes and died. There's about 60% of site personal left. All these deaths affected all of us and some started hallucinating about a finish line, saying it's the end. I holed up in my room in these last few days, afraid what affecting them might spread to me.

Hahahah... if there really IS something... then all of us are likely already affected.

...I miss my wife Layla... I heard that life insurance for our line of work is pretty good...

Sigh... I shouldn't think too much about this.

The director is trying to calm everyone down but I don't think it's working anymore.

Things might go really bad soon."

16th of May. Several abandoned site 57 appeared all over the world. It's similar to the first case except no one is inside and the site is partially destroyed. It has been causing mass panic and S-5 isn't enough to keep the information from spreading anymore.

Deployment of Alter-3 is pending.

A team of 7 rank 3 was mobilize to destroy all these sites. When searching the team found notes inside the site. The notes read:

"We have been lied to."

"The world is ending."

"We aren't in control."

"You aren't in control."

These notes have no anomalous properties and was stored in the Information Tower.

A problem occurred when the team tried to locate the original site 57 as all the team members forgot what they were trying to do and went back home. No attempt to remind them of the mission was successful and further attempt at trying to find site 57 have the same result.

17th of May. The third recording:

"I'm sorry Layla

I killed someone. He was an innocent man. There was no other way. I need to reach the goal. 𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓇𝑒𝒶𝒸𝒽 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓈𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑒.

...The director was killed.

Her corpse is still hanging on the cafeteria. No one bothered to clean it up.

Something is wrong. I'm sorry Layla."

18th of May. Deployment of Alter-3 was approved by the council. 01-5 and 01-3 will personally use it. The fourth recording:

"Someone.

SOMEONE.

The anomalies are out, all of them.

Who did it? WHO!

I can't think straight anymore, the reality level dropped down to 64%.

There's only 27 of us left. It's so close. I'm at the finishing line.

I'm sorry... wife."

19th of May. Last recording:

"It is finished."

All reality bending effects were overwritten by Alter-3. Site 57 opened up for a brief period of time. No one was alive in the site and all anomalies contained were gone. Only 5 recordings were found.

3-33 has merged with 3-47. 3-10 was neutralize. Site 57 was entirely destroyed.

The aftermath of this incident was the worst in over 100 years with the containment breach of all anomalies inside a site and the mobilization of Alter-3.

Explanation: Tale of site 57 was a result of several anomalies effects overlapping with each other. The true cause of this incident wasn't site 57 but an anomaly in a different site.

Anomaly 2-59 (previously 6-654) was a starting line located in site 23. Anyone who stood at the starting line longer than 5 seconds will start running aimlessly. If asked, they'll answer that they were running to the finishing line. They'll run until they die of exhaustion.

A test was conducted by the site director. A rank 4 with infinite stamina was asked to go to the starting line. After running more than a week the tester was given S-4 to break free from 2-59 (6-654) effects.

When interviewed the tester stated that 'the finishing line was always far far away, constantly moving'. However they was also sure that if they can get close to it, something terrific will happen.

It's speculated that 2-59 finishing line appeared in 3-33 radius, trapping it inside. At the same time, whatever the 'terrific' thing mentioned by the tester happened, causing the full meltdown of site 57. This is greatly hinted from the recording.

In the end, both the old 6-654 and the merged 3-33 and 3-34 were given rank 2 status, becoming 2-59 and 2-60.

The tale serve as a reminder for the 6 main organizations that any incident involving anomalies should be taken seriously no matter how small it may seem.

* * * * * * * *

Author here! This is a note about the extra series.

The extra series are short stories inside of this universe. They are mostly unrelated to the main story and are more of an inside look into how this world operates for non-protagonist. There'll be more things similar to tales for me to test different narratives and writing style. I hope you enjoy this extras along with the main story and any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

Most of these stories are spoilers free and the scale will progress along with the main story. There'll one extra every 50 or so chapters.