I didn't see it coming. He didn't care about me. He just cared about the game. From that point on, he blackmailed me into helping me finish it. Even when I realized what he was trying to do, I was helpless to stop him. If I refused to help him code, he would tell everyone what we did... And I would be ruined.
Alex wasn't just trying to tell a story with his game. I still don't fully understand it. The only parts I helped with were the graphics and animation. He coded everything behind the scenes. He created everything that made the game more than a game.
He never let me actually play it. No matter how much I asked, no matter how much I begged him, he wouldn't give in. I still wonder why. Did he care about me after all? I don't know. All I know is that as soon as my assignment was finished, I left Monmouth Hills. I left Vermont. I never looked back.
After I left, I heard about what happened. The bombing. The rest of the students in the technology club. I realized that Alex had done exactly what he hoped to do. He distilled his own pain and suffering into this game and forced it upon the rest of them.
I feared it was just the beginning, but the game never resurfaced. It all disappeared. I hoped it was over. Now I know it wasn't. The game wasn't destroyed, and now it's back.
I wish I could help you, but I don't know what to tell you. Don't play Room 127. Destroy the disk. Destroy every computer it's ever been on. Never look back. It's the only way.
Corey Thatcher
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 10:33am
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Corey:
Thank you so much for your response. You don't know it, but you have been very helpful.
Do you know what happened to Alex?
Steve
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 10:41am
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Ken:
Please read this. I received this e-mail from someone who helped program Room 127. This should show you why you need to stop playing the game.
Steve
[email protected] (Corey Thatcher) 6/15/13, 11:12am
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I'm sorry. I didn't keep up with Alex for obvious reasons. And I never made any attempt to find him.
[email protected] (Yancy Rand) 6/15/13, 12:01pm
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Steve:
I wasn't sure publishing that article was the right move, but it paid off. This is getting stranger by the moment. I'd like to believe that it's still just something you're making up, forging all these e-mails and forwarding them to me, but I'm beyond the point where I can justify that sort of denial.
This morning, I spoke to friend of a friend who works in the State Department. Like I said before, the adoption of a teenager is strange enough that I hoped it would have raised some flags with the government. I was right.
Alex was apparently rescued from a compound in Bachau by U.N. Peacekeeping forces requested specifically by the revolutionary government in 1990. This was a very unusual orphanage, cut off from the rest of the country by a large stone wall. Inside, the officers, teachers, and scientists didn't even know that the Communist government had fallen four months earlier.
I gave my State Department contact your e-mail address. She'll write you with more information.
Looks like we're at the end of this. You did a good job. This is going to make a fantastic feature piece. I'd be happy to co-write it with you. Maybe this will get your foot in the door with a legitimate news outlet.
Yancy
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 2:09pm
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Hey Sam, just thought you'd like to know that I've gotten a lot more information on the game. I won't go over the details here, and you probably don't want to hear it, but I think pretty soon I can stop thinking about it. Thank god.
You should come back up to SF soon. Or maybe Ken will give me some time off when he realizes that I saved his life. I miss you!
Love,
Steve
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/15/13, 4:19pm
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Steve, you may have noticed that your article is back up on the site. I'm sorry about that. I have no fucking clue why it happened. To be honest, I'm afraid that Ken may have put it back up himself. He has just as much access to the editing tools as me.
Brett
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/15/13, 5:55pm
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Brett:
Don't worry about it. Maybe Ken will pull it down after he reads what I sent him. You may not believe me still, but this game is something real and dangerous. Hopefully he backs down in the face of all this evidence.
Steve
[email protected] (Donna Everidge) 6/16/13, 9:49am
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Mr. Norman:
I am writing on the request of Yancy Rand, who spoke to me earlier this week concerning the U.N. operation that secured Bachau Orphanage in 1990. He told me that you would want to know as much about the orphanage as possible, and that I should send any reports along.
I regret to inform you that there are no official reports of what happened at the Bachau Orphanage, at least not that are available to me. This was U.N. initiative that was supervised by Romanian officials, so any United States participation was minimal. We had a few boots on the ground, and provided financing as well as homes for several of the children. But the only reports we have are second-hand, typed up by analysts after interviewing the operation commanders. Some of that information is classified, and all of it would normally require a FOIA request. But Yancy is a friend of mine, and he said this was time sensitive, so I looked over everything we have for him.
The Bachau orphanage was rather unique. It wasn't just a place to stash the unwanted children of the Ceausescu regime like most of the others. This was a state-sanctioned research facility, staffed by government scientists and protected by PCR soldiers. It was hidden away from the public, walled off and designed to be entirely self-sufficient. There were gardens to grow food, a stream that provided water, and other amenities.
Many of the children raised there—raised and experimented on—grew up to become control the facility. They were guards and they were the scientists who continued the inhuman experiments on the children. Of course, the only education these children would receive would be at the hands of their captors, so the second generation scientists were performing tests and experiments that were entirely unscientific.
Even though the PCR had fallen a year before, none of the inhabitants of the orphanage knew it. It was secluded enough that the revolution didn't reach its walls until the U.N. Officers arrive to survey the damage. The guards fought back, as if they were an invading force. Even some of the children took up arms in defense of the facility.
Inside, the officers found evidence of the terrible experiments, which had taken on a life of their own. The details are classified, and you'd probably rather not know them anyway. But I can tell you what we believe they were trying to accomplish. Most of the experiments dealt with sleep and sensory perception. They approached the boundaries of what the human body could sustain and perceive. And then they pushed on further.
The children rescued from the orphanage were all troubled. We placed them with families across the country. Very few were a
ble to re-integrate into society. Some of them, once they were adults, even tried to return to the site of the orphanage. Every few years, even to the day, a body is found in one of the rooms. It's always one of the orphans rescued there.
Unfortunately, any information about any individual child rescued, such as Alex Gogoasa, is classified.
All of this is public record—fully available with a proper FOIA request—so if you want to write about this in your story, I have no problem. I would ask that you omit my name. I really don't have much to do with Romania or Eastern Europe. I just pulled the file for Yancy. My bosses would think it was strange if I ended up cited in an article about the area.
I hope this was all helpful.
Donna Everidge
Civil Service Officer
Public Affairs
U.S. Department of State
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/16/13 10:33am
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Ms. Everidge:
Thank you so much for your help. You mentioned rooms... Is there any way you could tell me if there was a Room 127? And, if so, what was inside?
Steve Norman
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/16/13, 11:19am
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Yancy:
I got an e-mail from Ms. Everidge. I think I'm starting to understand. The scientists in Bachau were performing experiments on the children at the orphanage. They were trying to enhance their senses or something like that. It doesn't matter. The things they did were unorthodox, but they must have worked. The children didn't want the experiments to end, no matter what was being done to them.
Room 127 is an experiment. It's the extension of what was done to Alex in Bachau, and he subjected his classmates to it. But it's gone beyond that. It has continued to exist.
I'm going to destroy the disk and all the computers it was installed on. I don't care if I get fired. I don't care if they think I'm crazy. The experiments have to stop now.
Steve
[email protected] (Donna Everidge) 6/16/13, 6:46pm
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Steve:
How do you know about Room 127?
Donna Everidge
Civil Service Officer
Public Affairs
U.S. Department of State
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/16/13, 7:20pm
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Ms. Everidge:
Alex Gogoasa is continuing the experiments. Something he learned there... I don't understand it. But it has something to do with what happened in Room 127.
[email protected] (Ken Greene) 6/17/13, 2:01am
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I made it to the end. I solved the last puzzle. I opened the last door.
It's so beautiful, Steve. It's so god damn beautiful. You have to see this. I have to show this to you. I have to show this to everyone. At first it is like knives in the eyes but then you get past the darkness. And it is so amazing.
Everything is so fragile but it is not so bad being broken.
[email protected] (EMERGENCY SAFETY) 6/17/13, 8:44am
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THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE PREPARED AND DELIVERED BY THE CDN COMMUNICATIONS EMERGENCY SAFETY NOTICE SYSTEM. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.
At approximately 8:00 AM this morning, an armed gunman entered the main lobby of the CDN Communications building. Police currently advise that he has taken hostages within the building. All employees are advised to remain at home until further notified.
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE. DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE.
[email protected] (Samantha Strickland) 6/17/13, 9:02am
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Steve I just saw the news. You didn't pick up your phone. Please tell me you're at home.
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 9:15am
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Don't worry, I'm not in the building. I got an e-mail from Ken telling me he finished the game this morning and I froze. I couldn't go in to find out what happened to him. Now I see this...
It's him, Sam. He's the one with the gun. Apparently he's claiming he wired explosives in the building, too.
I think I have to go down there. I have to see if there's something I could do. I was too late to stop this, but I'm the only one who knows why he's doing this. Don't worry, I won't go inside... But maybe I can figure something out. I need to check with a few people...
I love you.
Steve
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 9:29am
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Yancy: That's him. That's Ken. He finished Room 127 and now he's doing this,
How can we know so much about this game but we still don't understand... Why is this happening?
Steve
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 9:44am
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Mr. Thatcher:
Check the news. The game did this. Room 127 did this. You helped program it. You must know something. There has to be something we can do.
I'm going downtown with my laptop. I'll find a wifi spot, so I will get your responses.
Please, I know this is painful for you, but I need your help.
Steve Norman
[email protected] (Yancy Rand) 6/17/13, 10:03am
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Steve:
I don't mean to sound insensitive, but if everything we've learned is true, there may be nothing you can do to help your friend. And isn't every copy of the game in the building? If it's destroyed, at least we know it's gone.
Just something to think about.
Yancy
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 10:45am
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I'm not going to give up that easy. I took a cab. I'm here, outside the barricades. The police are saying that they have the situation under control, but I'm not so sure.
[email protected] (Brett Jackson) 6/17/13, 10:51am
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I managed to get on my phone for a moment. Ken has us all here. He wants us to play the game. He's threatening to fucking shoot us if we don't. I don't know what to do. FUCK why don't skills from Rainbow Six transfer over to real life, I could fucking e-mail the police and tell them breach points and shit but instead I'm doing this.
This is all about the game. It's driven him crazy. His eyes... He blinded himself with a pair of scissors shortly after he pulled the gun. I thought that was going to end it, but it didn't.
He can still see.
[email protected] (Corey Thatcher) 6/17/13, 11:06am
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Steve:
I am terribly sorry to see what has happened. You are correct, I was responsible for some of the coding on Room 127. But I assure you, I have very little idea of how it works. Most of my work was on the graphical interfa
ce. I didn't design the puzzles. I didn't write any of the text. The effect that it has on people... I still cannot understand it, and I have looked at the full code of the game.
That being said, there may be one way that you can help your friend. But I suspect you will not want to do it.
Alex told me that he wanted to observe the effects of the game from a distance, in different environments. To that end, he didn't want it to immediately affect the player. He needed to be able to suppress the effects of the game after beating it for a short while.
There is a song that plays at the very end of the game which will calm your friend. If you can make him hear it, he will likely become docile for a short amount of time. This would allow the police to take him alive, and prevent him from hurting anyone.
But to do this, someone else will need to play the game through to the end.
Corey
[email protected] (Steve Norman) 6/17/13, 11:14am
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Corey: