The Copy: Project 863

Just Another Job

(Ben's POV)

It was quite unfortunate that we had to do this during the day. At night, the black clothes were camouflage. But in sunlight, we stuck out like a sore thumb. Nelson had Matthias plant a microphone on himself so we could hear where he was and what he was doing. Along with Spellbound's hacked camera system, we had a perfect way to know where everyone was. I pulled my phone out, staring up the surveillance system. 

When it finally loaded I heard them talking about when they had interrogated the experiment survivor. 

Lab rat. I always hated the way he said that. 

They are people. 

You are one of them. 

So? That doesn't change anything. 

What are you? 

Human. Despite what people may think, I am human. I heard him chuckle. Sick bastard. 

Woods moved the mannequin into the chair across from "Megadesk." 

"Alright," I said to the person behind me."Let's go."

"Kat" soon moved out of the common room, we didn't have a lot of time. We went through a side door, quickly grabbing the mannequin and positioning it in another room. Immediately leaving. The subjects had switched rooms in the time, and had returned in the kitchen, leaving us barely enough time to hide somewhere and check the surveillance once more. Nelson was stalling, trying to give us more time. Talking about soy sauce. I'll admit, he was doing a good job of copying Matthias' demeanor, constantly hungry, talking about food.

Once they saw it they appropriately reacted and  continued to look for whatever they were looking for. They eventually left the room and gathered at the "Blue Base" main door talking. Olivia and I grabbed the mannequin and hurried out the door we came in running over to "Orange". We positioned it on top of the stairs, we had even less time for this switch.  

They put it in the closet. Even if this was a real haunting, I don't think a door would stop it.  We got it out of the closet and ran over to "Red Base." I wasn't thrilled to be back in that building. That's where some of the writing happened. And so much else.... Nevertheless we did what we were told. We placed the mannequin in the "Tell-Tale-Heart" room as Olivia referred to it as. When I walked in there I froze. Seeing the writing again, even though knowing it wasn't real, was so much worse than I would've imagined. 

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No, that's crazy. Writing on walls? It's insane. Maybe they're right. No doubt this serum has unwanted and unexpected effects. But this? This is ludicrous. But it's right there! It's right in front of you! There's no denying it! I can deny it. I'm just crazy. What about the voices? I'm guilty. Simple as that. Clearly this is jut my conscience telling me I did something horrible, which I did. But was that your fault? Well I did do the deed. But Nelson, he kind of pushed you into this. He pushed you into everything. That's what he does. I didn't want to do the trials, but I was the cause of a bunch of innocent deaths. I didn't want to test on myself but here we are, here I am. Talking to myself, trying to convince myself that I'm not seeing what I clearly am.

It's crazy.

But maybe I am as well.

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I expected to hear Olivia doing her, well, our job, but when I turned around, I saw her staring at the wall as I just had, shaking. I forgot. She spent a week in there. No-one to help her. I'm not the only one. I'm not alone. She soon snapped out of it and we set to work scaring these poor people. They made their choice. As you made yours. 

I didn't get that courtesy. I knew I was walking on thin ice. No doubt I was going to have horrible nightmares tonight as punishment. For some reason I had the urge to talk back today. Idiot. I scolded myself. 

From somewhere in the base we heard a loud crash followed by cursing. We headed out after being nearly scared to death. After they found it and concluded that it was probably haunted- Mission success. - They went back to check the closet where they had put the mannequin before. We grabbed it and hurried back down to the warehouse and put it in the Mountineer. I suppressed the urge to laugh as I had only been near this car for the purpose of stealing it. It made me think of Wesley. He was weak. As are you. He never passed up a chance to belittle me. We left quickly, we heard them coming.

Olivia already had her laptop out currently editing the Nest cam footage. We had created a fake Nest front, we input the footage we wanted them to see and they didn't question it. It makes for good hauntings. 

"Aaaaaand....Done." She said quietly as she hit a button on her keyboard. 

And for the finishing touch, I thought as I pulled the fishing wire connected to the mannequin's head, turning it straight towards the Nest cam.

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We waited a little while until we were sure they would stop looking at the camera. Once we thought the time was right we took the mannequin away. We headed upstairs and found a small storage room most people didn't know about. Olivia was making sure the rest of the cams were wiped clean of our being there when Matthias walked in the room. I soon realized Nelson was in control.

"I assume you've done the rest of the footage?" He asked.  Olivia nodded. "Good. It looked quite, believable." She nodded once more. He scoffed,"They certainly believed it.  Even Woodland." I remember watching the camera. Woodland had said he didn't believe in that sort of stuff. Matthias soon walked out of the room, and I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding. After all these years, you're still scared of him. The longer this goes on I feel I gain more reasons to be. We left as well,  stying out of sight and driving back to Syntec. 

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As we walked into the building, I immediately felt the sterilized chill. We separated, heading to our cells, both of us knowing true sleep would never come. But when I reached my room, when I heard the door lock behind me, I slipped off my overcoat and hoodie, and laid  down on my cot, I let the drowsiness overcome me. Dragging me under.  Away from the light.