Coronasona Writings

GhOsTs pt. 1

It was a brisk October morning. The wind blew leaves along the sandy ground, scattering them. The only sign of life in the desolate desert was the crunching of gravel as two people walked down the road towards the ruins of a once great facility.
    One of them, the shorter one, shuddered in the wind, wrapping their coat around them tighter. The taller one seemed completely unaffected by the wind.
    "Never thought i'd be back here," the shorter one said. They paused for a moment before shaking their head. "Nah. actually I expected to come back. I just expected to be dragged."
    The taller one glanced at him, worry written across his face. He cleared his throat and replied. "Yeah..."
    They both came to a halt at the remains of a chain-linked fence gate. The building looked rough after the nuclear attacks of April 2020, but it was miraculously still standing, even if barely so.
    "Well. What are we waiting for?" asked Shorty, starting towards the gate.
    Tall grabbed him by the back of his coat and pulled him back, pointing towards the clearance booth. "Grey for Christ's sake, stop and look for a second," he said.
    Sitting in the clearance booth was a decaying pile of bones. They looked humanoid, but the skull was missing. More worryingly was the sign in the front window. It was a plywood board with words painted on in thick red paint. It read "WARNING: ALIENS"
    Shorty, or Grey presumably, sighed. "Really, Jackson? You're afraid of aliens?" They taunted, planting their hands on their hips. "Aren't you like dating an alien?"
    It was Jackson's turn to sigh. "Yes but this is different."
    Grey rolled their eyes. "Alright then Mr. Area Fifty-Racist."
    "that doesn't make any sense," Jackson said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was starting to regret bringing Grey out here.
    Grey wasted no more time rushing towards the fence and climbing it. They planted their feet in the loops and pushed themself over the top, landing on their feet on the other side. They turned back towards Jackson and bowed.
    Jackson rolled his eyes and followed after them, not landing nearly as gracefully. Grey burst out laughing as he fell off the fence onto his face.
    "Very funny," Jackson muttered, getting up and dusting himself off.
    Grey continued to laugh. He fell against the clearance booth and clutched his stomach as he did. Jackson sighed again and walked to the door and pulled it open.
    The entry-room for Area 51 was not what you would expect. It resembled a dentist office waiting room rather than a top secret alien holding facility. The only indication anything deadly was ever housed there was the destruction. The tacky wallpaper (that's right, Area 51 had tacky floral wallpaper) was peeling off to reveal browning walls. The chairs were overturned and tore to pieces, littering the floor with fluff, cloth, and wood. The front desk appeared mostly untouched, but long scratches along the sides disturbed it's peaceful existence. The overhead light bulb was missing, so the only light came from the open door.
    Grey caught up to Jackson, still giggling to themself. They pushed their way into the torn up room and stood in the middle, letting out a long, slow whistle as they spun around.
    "Would ya look at that!" they exclaimed. "Never saw this part of the place."
    Jackson took a hesitant step inside, scanning the area. Grey turned back to face him.
    "Why are you so scared, Signal? You're already dead!" they shouted, throwing their arms out. "Aren't you like... invincible or something?"
    "Or something," Jackson said, subconsciously touching the small scars along his jaw. "You got a flashlight?"
    A grin grew on Grey's face as he produced a lighter from his pocket. "Even better!" They flicked it on, lighting the room with a spooky glow.
    Jackson sighed. "Close enough I guess." he said, walking to the door behind the desk. The next few rooms weren't in much better shape. They looked a lot more like what Grey recognized. They were white halls, a stark contrast to the dull room they entered through, and seemed to stretch on forever. Many doors had clipboards hanging on hooks in front of them, but most of the paper was torn to shreds. The fluorescent lighting was dead, but would occasionally flicker to life.
    "Spooky!" Jackson exclaimed, starting down the hall. "You know, this looks a lot like a setting for a horror movie!"
    Grey shivered again, this time not from the wind. The hair stood up on the back of their neck. They tried to push their unease down into their stomach and focus on what Jackson was saying, but it was near impossible. Their stomach turned as they felt they were going to be sick.
    "But that's all just speculation I guess, nobody knows for sure what happened to their bodies and--"
    "We're here." Grey stated simply, pointing to a door at the end of the hall labelled "Mission Control."
    Jackson walked up and cracked the door open and peered inside.
The room was larger than the halls they had been walking through, much larger. On the front wall was a television screen that covered nearly the entire wall. In front of it, taking up most of the room were rows of desks covered in PC computers, something you'd expect to see in NASA or maybe a university hall. The room was much nicer than the rest of the facility. There wasn't a single sign of destruction.
    Grey yanked the door open all the way and strolled inside, trying to act confident despite shaking like a leaf. They took a few breaths, but it didn't do much to help them.
Jackson looked around and grabbed a computer mouse off the nearest desk, shoving it into Grey's hands.
"What the hell is this, Radio Man?" they asked, holding up the mouse.
Jackson walked over to one of the computers and hit the on button. "Tell me about the mouse," he said simply.
Grey rolled his eyes. "I dunno. It's just a computer mouse. What is this supposed to do?"
"Ground you. What's the mouse like? Hard? Soft? Light? Heavy? Texture? Color?" Jackson asked, clicking some buttons on the keyboard in hopes of waking it up.
They sighed and looked over the mouse. It wasn't black, not quite, more like a dark gray. It was smooth on top of the buttons, but the bottom was more worn out. It was hard, obviously, and light. Grey set down the mouse and picked up a dead plant sitting by one of the computers and investigated that one too.
Jackson looked over at them and smiled when he saw Grey was shaking less. He knew a thing or two about grounding techniques, and it was always nice to pass that wisdom onto someone else.
He turned his attention back towards the computer which was now booting up. He pulled up a chair and opened it up. The computer wasn't password protected, much to Jackson's surprise. He got right in and opened up their archives.
"Hey Grey!" he called, waving them over to the computer. "Do you know when everything happened?"
Grey walked over to the computer and thought for a moment. "2016 I think?" they said, "my memory is trash though so it could be wrong."
Jackson nodded and clicked into the 2016 reports. The pair scrolled through for a while before Grey pointed at the screen. "Stop!" they shouted. "That's it!"
They pointed at a file titled "Russell-Abbas Case". Jackson clicked into it.
Sure enough, it was the right file. It described in no uncertain terms the deaths of Sadie and Kamila Russel-Abbas. It listed the cause of death (both shot for defying agents), the cover story (murdered in robbery), and everything they needed to know. Except for where they were located.