Ganama

Day 3.

A new hole had been discovered near some stream only about half an hour away. The news anchor claimed it was a den of some animal that collapsed but it was a lead for me. I grabbed my keys and pipe, and drove off.

I stopped by some diner on the way for some breakfast I badly needed. As I sat there I watched the TV closely. The hole was about 5 feet deep and 3 feet across. Some guy beside me at the bar in a dirty red shirt mumbled to himself "no fuck'n gopher digs a hole that big" like the news anchor would hear him and apologize for the mistake.

Driving there I passed a bridge and continued on for a few minutes on a small dirt road. A few people passing by had gotten out of their cars to look at the hole that they would have to drive around, but it definitely wasn't the anything spectacular. I looked for any tracks leading to it but not even a line like before, I was a bit relieved though.

It didn't take long for everyone to go on their way, leaving me the whole scene to myself. I walked around for a bit, checking to see if anything out of place present, but I saw nothing. I even walked down the path but there wasn't a thing. This made three days of searching and still nothing to show for it. I got my equipment (still just a pipe) and headed back to my truck.

Walking back I noticed there was another person around the hole, but unlike the others he was taking notes. As I walked by him I casually glanced at the note pad and read in big bold letters at the top GANAMA. GANAMA surprised me a bit, so I asked "What's Ganama" as I slowly strolled by.

"I don't know"

"You don't know?"

"Not until I find it". I stopped and turned towards the stranger.

"find what?". My mind started to race, could I have found someone else looking for the same thing?

"The thing that killed all those cops a few years back."

I quickly introduced myself and to which he told me his name was Andon. He had short hair that made him look like a soldier, and his body fit that idea. He was barely taller than me and from head to toe wore a jean jacket, with jeans, and brown boots. There was also a small scar on his forehead that looked like it was from years ago.

As we chatted we shared our thoughts, and eventually decided to head back into town to discuss more. On the car ride to the diner for the second time that day I was building up an idea of who he was in my head. I had come to the conclusion that he was a military vet that retired to live in the country, and maybe actually knew what he was doing. I had no idea though.

Andon had gotten to the diner before me, and we sat together at a booth in the corner.

"You're looking for it too?" He asked me.

"Yah."

Our talk started fairly poorly, but he pushed to keep it up.

"So why are you looking for it?"

"Alright, a few days a go... Well, I was out by a park a few days ago and heard a noise, some weird whining coming from inside. I went in and saw this thing." I was struggling to find the words to talk about my experience, but from his face, I could tell I was clearly getting through to him.

"So I walk in, and there's this person, some pale thing just ripping up a dog. It had wounds that would kill any human, but this thing had the energy of a lion hunting some animal."

"And it was really pale too." I added.

"You fucking serious?!" He hit the table with both his hands in excitement. "So like a zombie?!"

"I-I don't think so. Not after a dog right? Maybe something like a ghost that possessed something?" I asked unsurely.

"Ghosts are made up, this is something new."

"Not new, it's happened before." I waited for him to ask what I was talking about, but I only got a grunt.

"Some guy online knew what I was talking about. He described something like what I saw, but I haven't heard from him."

"Still not a ghost." He rebuttled "Ghosts don't dig holes. By the way, how did you connect that with the hole?"

"A while ago I found a hole in the forest. There was another pale, injured body inside, but that one didn't move."

"Fuck man, you have a lot more than I do.".

We chatted for the rest of the day. Andon seemed to be a good guy and as the diner was closing we exchanged contact info and drove off to our homes.

When I slept, I became another person. I lived in a very small town on a large island. The buildings looked like they were built during the 60's, but everything was in perfect condition. In fact, the whole island felt in the 60's, but I knew the rest of the world was in the present. The town looked down on rocky cliffs at the bottom of the hill. At the top of the hill was a massive hotel that towered over the island. Behind the hotel was the forest that covered the rest of the island.

I was on a train with a friend on our way to the airport. All of a sudden the tv's on the train showed a public message, and alarms sounded in the distance. There had been a massive disease that killed the rest of the world. We were told the island was the only known place to survive, and leaving would bring risk to everyone. Everyone was told to move into the hotel, and never go near the shore. There was even a giant battleship that circled the island.

Every day people went out to do simple jobs to keep the community going. The entire time soldiers watched us from the hotel, armed and ready. My job was to farm at carrots in a backyard were a family used to live. I had help from another guy my age, but we never talked to each other.

At the end of the day I would go back to my room near the top floor. There were days when I would go out onto the green copper balcony and play on my phone. We were allowed to have phones, and even internet, but everything was monitored closely. Any attempt at communicating with the outside world was a class A crime. The only other class A crime was trying to escape, and both were punishable by death. The man that I worked with tried escaping one day, but ended up shot instead.

One day while in the woods a plane flew over me, and shattered my belief. This led to me confronting the woman that ran the hotel. This became a large part of the dream, but all of that has been forgotten. It ended up with me getting Tor on my computer.

With Tor nobody could see what I was doing, and I quickly discovered that rest of the world was fine. We were all being kept on the island as a secret experiment by the government, and no one knew. I felt overwhelmed by this, and knew I had to escape, I had to tell the world what was going on. I had the idea to contact a news reporter and swear to exclusively talk through them, as long they could get me off the island. They had the plan to use a small boat to get me one night.