Building 86

The stupid sensor went off again. It was always going off for no reason, which meant I had to go back into that horrible place and look around. Yes, that’s my job, but it doesn’t mean I want to do it. I have no problem looking into any other building on these grounds, but building 86 was creepy, it always had been. The old man who trained me told me crazy stories about that building. Said it was where they stored the organs from alien autopsies, real venom from a basilisk, and he even said they had a mummified faery and the body of a gnome in some liquid in a jar like a science experiment. It was a trip. Needless to say I have never seen any of these things, but I will say that building 86 was the loudest building and the sensors kept going off. I complain to maintenance about how the sensors aren’t working, and they check it out during the day shift and say it’s fine. But it’s not at night, I can tell you that. Something was setting them off in that stupid building, and nothing the old coot told me about could do it, because all of those things were dead. So unless the gnome broke out of the jar and is now a zombie gnome wandering the building, it was something else. In all likelihood it was a bird or a rat or maybe even a racoon that got in there and somehow knows where all the cameras are and can avoid them. Yes, it sounds crazy, but it’s a hell of a lot more sane sounding than a) a zombie gnome, b) a mummy faery come back to life without the help of Brenden Fraser, or c) an alien putting back in his harvested organs. When comparing a smart rodent to that, the smart rodent wins every day, because it’s the least goddamn crazy of the group.

*BAM* I heard while approaching the building, and it was not imagined. Something knocked or rammed into the door. All things a, b, and c were still bottom of the list of suspects. That may be a dumb bird thing, throwing themselves at the door to get free, so despite the weirdness of the building I opened the door, and what did I see? A dead bird who had bashed its head in flying into the door. Knew it. Wait, and then there was another, but a little further from the door, and then another further inside the building. What the fuck. How were birds hitting the door, or wall or whatever and falling to their deaths? There was nothing for them to hit in the middle of the road, after I had found four more birds.

The sunlight had all but disappeared, the birds should have been in their nests by now. Looking up, they circled above the troubling building.

“Told ya.” came the croak from the old coot Tom, startling me. Where had he come from? “Building 86 gets busy at night.”

“What the hell are’ya doing here, Tom? You should’ve clocked out hours ago.” I didn’t even bother looking at him, plus didn’t want to miss if any birds were going to fly into an invisible wall again. Tom just grunted. “Besides it’s barely night, and them birds should already be asleep.”

“‘Sept they ain’t.” Tom said staring up at the birds, a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock.

Without a sound, both me and Tom were being pushed away from the building by nothing. No wind, no force really, it felt like a wall was pushing us back slowly. I reached out and my hands pressed hard on something invisible, it had no heat or cold, it was flat and hard. I knocked on it, it made no sound. But sure as birds fly, we were being pushed back, closer to another building. It wasn’t fast, mind you, but it was relentless. Our backs were slowly approaching building 85, so me ‘n Tom headed to the space between 85 and 83. Surely whatever that was would stop at another building.

When it continued to expand into buildings 85 and 83, Tom and I ran towards the control booth. Not sure who or what to call, but we weren’t sure what was gonna happen next.