The Backrooms: Descent into Madness

Chapter IV - MEG.

A loud screech of pain echoed from above me, as I grasped onto some form of large mass. The wind whipped around me as I fell, still trying to grasp what I had just witnessed. I barreled through the darkness, surrounded by particles and motes of dust. Suddenly, a pain shot through my back as I crashed through some form of barrier and I fell onto the floor. Another searing pain shot through my arm and I tried to scream. I gingerly sat forward and ripped my arm away from the source. A spurt of blood shot upwards as I looked down at the cause. A massive piece of rebar had pierced my arm, leaving a massive gash behind. I felt a weight in my lap and looked down, my eyes widened in pure shock. The severed hand of the massive Smiler lay in my lap, black as the halls of Level 2.

I stared in complete shock, horrified at the limp hand in my possession. It still twitched slightly, as if enraged at its current predicament. Some strange feeling took hold of me, one that sought to preserve my life above all else. I didn't even question what it was made of, if it was toxic, or if it was even going to provide me sustenance. I grabbed a finger of the hand and ripped it off. My forearm screamed in pain due to use, and I hesitated for a moment, but my hunger drove me to desperation. I quickly shoved the finger into my mouth and bit down, it was like chewing on air and broken glass at the same time. When the agony ended, I swallowed, and it went down surprisingly easily. My stomach felt slightly heavier, which led me to believe that this was in fact providing me sustenance.

But then, what was the point of surviving here? To wander endlessly in dark solitude? No, I won't give up. I grasped the next finger, pulling it off like the last one, and chewing it with teary eyes. What I would give for slop compared to this I cannot convey. One by one, I ate each finger, careful not to chew too fast. All that was left was the palm. I wanted to save it for later, but my stomach protested. I slowly took bites out of it, like eating a glass sponge, until it was all gone. With my stomach satisfied, there was only one thing left to tend to. Water.

I looked down at the substance that covered my hands from before, it was indeed blood. I had tripped over a corpse, after all. I shakily rose to my feet, caked in blood and sweat, and took in the environment around me. I was in an empty parking garage, with flickering lights and humming ventilation. I held my wounded right arm with my left and staggered onwards through the garage desperate for water. I tried to call for help, but failed to recall that I was mute until the strangled gasp escaped my throat. My breathing was growing increasingly faint, and fatigue began to take hold of me. How long has it been since I fell? Hours? Days? My eyes grew heavy as I approached a wall of boxes in one of the massive areas of the garage. My vision became blurry and I fell to the ground, unconscious.

When I awoke, voices swirled around me, and a bright light shone down on my body from above me. I was laid on some cold surface, and I felt strangely clean. Suddenly, a resounding chopping sound echoed through the large tent I was in, and pain shot through my body like a bullet to the brain. I sat up quickly and looked around, terrified and in pain. I began to sweat profusely as I saw the first actual people I'd seen in days. Three people dressed casually with various pieces of equipment and explorer's gear, and one in a white lab coat holding a bloody cleaver. I quickly backed away and looked down at my wounded forearm. It wasn't there. I looked quickly at the table in panic and confirmed my fear. He'd lobbed my forearm off. "Wait a minute now, just calm down!" The jolly-looking man wearing the lab coat called out in a southern drawl as I backed into a corner, blood gushing onto the floor. "What the hell, doc! I thought you gave him sedatives!" A tomboyish woman with an Australian accent said with urgency and audacity. "I gave em' enough to keep a man down for hours!" The doctor yelled.

This bickering continued until a middle-aged man with a familiar voice shouted "Shut up, Doc, get the kid patched up! He's bleeding out all over the place!" The guy was right, I began to feel faint again like I was slipping out of my own body. The Doctor approached me gingerly and said, "I know this is all a shock and I did just amputate you and you don't know why, but I just saved your life kid. Let me finish the job and stitch up that stump of yours." I looked at him with fear in my eyes, I had no choice but to believe him. I couldn't just bleed out here and die. I sat back on the table and the doctor set about stitching up my wounds. "Do you speak?" The middle-aged man asked me, "I can see that nasty scar on your neck." I shook my head no, and looked at his face. He sounded just like... Johnathan Bradley? He looked nothing like his voice portrayed, with a messy 5 o'clock shadow and tired, sunken eyes.

I pulled out my card from my pocket and showed it to him, which surprised him. "So you found one of the computers and made it out of a hostile level alive?" He asked. I held up the number two with my fingers. "Two hostile levels?" He asked. I nodded. I hardly even noticed the stitches going into my arm stump. "I'm sorry about your arm kid, it was all torn to hell. Bone broken and flesh all bent out of shape, what happened to you?" I looked at him and touched my neck. "Right, right, you can't talk. How'd that happen either? Let me get you a pen and I'll hold a pad for you to write on." He said as he pulled out a notepad and pen.

I wrote down what had happened in Level ! and Level 2 as well as what happened to my arm when I arrived here on Level 1. His eyebrows knit together as I told him about the red-eyed Smiler but he said nothing. "Well, that's one harsh introduction for you my friend. Wait, you ate Smiler flesh?" He asked. I nodded. Everyone looked at me like I was a psycho. "No one has ever been in a situation where they had to resort to that. I mean people have been desperate before, but not everyone just has Smiler flesh on them." The Australian lady said. "My name is Judy by the by." I nodded to Judy, and the Doc pat me on what I realized was my bare back. "You're all good son." He said as he took a step back. I stood and looked at the bandage-wrapped stump where my arm used to be. "You'll get used to it don't worry." The Doc said. I raised my left hand and looked at him with a dumbfounded expression. "You are a lefty... right?" he asked. I shook my head. "Oh... I'm sorry son. You'll get used to it eventually."

I sighed and nodded. I gestured to my torso, which was bare, and Johnathan tossed me my shirt which was strangely clean. "We have washboards." He explained. I just nodded again. He then led me out of the room and into the little campgrounds they had set up in the large parking garage outside the medical tent. "Since you watched one of those tapes I left around, I'll spare you most of the explanation. We're an exploration squad sent by the MEG to establish a settlement here. It's pretty small, and considering you clipped not far from here and pissed off a Smiler we're going to have to leave." he said. I look at him confused. "Some entities in the Complex are capable of travel from one level to another, and considering you took one's hand off we're going to have to follow standard procedure and abandon the site. We're all going back to base camp!" He called out to the settlers. "Finally." One said. "Damn it!" Another swore angrily. "I miss my daughter, thank god we're going back." A naive-looking old man said. I almost didn't notice the immense sorrow and fear in most of the settlers' expressions, like a sullen and traumatic hopelessness.

They all set about packing up equipment and tents while Johnathan led me to the equipment tent. It looked like a mini-workshop, with tools and gadgets lying on the table. He walked to the table and grabbed something, before tossing it to me. I caught it with my left hand and looked at it. "That, is a voice synthesizer. You just type what you want to convey and it'll speak for you." Johnathan explained. "We get plenty of mutes in the MEG." I nodded, typing in "thank you" which resulted in the speaker saying those exact words. "Well, for now, help us pack up camp, you're coming with us to the MEG Primary Operating Base afterward." he said as we walked back out of the tent where everyone was loading their equipment onto carts and into massive gray whale bags. I set about helping people load the carts, doing what I could with one arm, until the entire encampment was packed and ready to go in just a few hours. "All right, settlers! Stay together for safety and don't get left behind!" Johnathan called out from next to me to the rest of the settlers as we began our trek into the hallways of Level 1.