The Secret Room

I always thought that I was pretty safe from most things since I was living on a military base. The past recent events have proved otherwise. My name is Seaman Murphy, U.S. Navy and I’m writing this to warn future sailors or anyone in the military about what they might encounter.

It had been a couple of months since I graduated boot camp and I was enjoying life in “A” school. I was particularly enjoying the luxuries deprived from me in boot camp such as taking long showers, wearing civilian clothes, going off base with my friends during liberty, sleeping in on the weekends, and most importantly, my phone; my dear beloved phone. Things were looking up for me. Now that I was in the military, I was finally free from my crummy neighborhood, a dead end job with a douchebag for a boss, and a cheating girlfriend. Being in the military sure had its benefits. I was getting paid steady income, I had free health care and dental, I was always fed, and I had a place to live for free. Life couldn’t have been better, at least until I had to stand watch at Grey Hall for the first time.

It was a cold and bitter winter night. It was only 1600 and the sun was already going down. Darkness began to envelop the base. It was my duty day, so I shaved, got dressed, and headed to the quarterdeck to check the watch bill. As my eyes scanned the watch bill, I hoped in vain that I would not see my name. Sure enough, I saw my name. I had watch from midnight to four as the rover at Grey Hall. I grimaced at my misfortune and reluctantly signed the watch bill.

I had heard many rumors about Grey Hall, but I didn’t know if any of them were true or not. Apparently the most prominent rumor going around was that a Master Chief hung himself on the top deck of the building. No one knows exactly where or why. They say that the Navy tried to cover up the incident to protect its image. It didn’t matter to me anyway because I didn’t really buy in to any of the rumors. I took them to be nothing more than myth or old wives tales.

After shoveling snow for an hour, I headed back to my barracks room to get some sleep before watch. After a few hours, I was abruptly woken up by the high pitch of the alarm on my phone. The time was 2300. I sluggishly got out of my rack and slowly put on my uniform. I then made my way down to the quarterdeck and entered into the frozen tundra that awaited me outside. The air outside was a loud cacophonous symphony at its climax, blowing harsh gusts of wind that pierced through every layer of Navy issued clothing I had, straight into my soul. There’s nothing like a fresh blast of wind to wake you up for watch.

After a few minutes, I finally arrived to the base of the building. It was the largest building on base and one to be revered. It stood 13 stories high and overlooked the whole base. The building was ancient. I was surprised that it was able to withstand so many brutal winters like this. It was supposed to be renovated, but I suppose there just wasn’t enough funding do so. It was no longer being used by anybody due to its condition. However, it was still used to store classified documents, so there was still a watch stationed there. The bricks on the outside of the building were a dark and faded rust color. They looked brittle and corroded as if they were ready to collapse at any moment. The windows were blurry and opaque. All you could see was the dim lighting that bleakly shined through. I entered the building and saw the Petty Officer Of The Deck and the Rover anxiously waiting to be relieved. I approached the rover and signed into the log. I checked over the previous logs to check the condition of the building. There were a few lights out and some leaks here and there, but nothing serious.

“Is there anything in particular I need to know about this building?” I asked the Rover. He shook his head.

“Just try to get your rove done as soon as possible, this place gives me the creeps. Oh, and try not to anger the ghost of the Master Chief.” He held out his arms, doing a poor imitation of a ghost.

“Good thing I shaved and shined my boots before I got here. He won’t be able to chew me out for that,” I replied jokingly. I then bid the Rover good night and he left the building. Shortly after, the relief for the Petty Officer Of The Deck showed up. As soon as he signed into the logbook, I grabbed a flashlight and departed for a rove of the building.

As I walked up the stairs to each deck, every step I made echoed and reverberated through the entire stairway like a ghostly wraith. Every hallway on every deck was lined with huge paintings of deathly old Admirals and other high-ranking officials. Their faces were cold and austere, and their eyes were lifeless and filled with contempt for those below them in rank. They seemed to glare at me and follow me as I lazily moseyed about through the corridors half asleep. Every time I took a step, the floor underneath me creaked. The whole building smelt of mildew and asbestos, the paint on the walls was chipped, and the ceiling was deteriorated. This place was in dire need of a makeover.

My rove was very uneventful. I checked to make sure certain doors were locked, and then checked them off on my log sheet. One by one, I kept checking things off. As I walked on my rove, I could see a faint reflection of myself in the windows as if I were a vague or forgotten memory. Despite the raging wind outside, the inside was almost dead silent besides the creaks and moans of the building. It was all a little bit unsettling to me, but I was too tired to think about it. After roving the first 12 decks of the building, I finally arrived to the 13^th deck where the Master Chief had supposedly hung himself. “It just had to be 13,” I thought to myself. It looked no different than any of the other decks. It was as lifeless as the rest of the building. I continued on my rove as usual until something peculiar caught my eye. I was roving around the machinery room on the top floor checking for leaks when I saw a very subtle square outline in the wall. It didn’t seem too strange or out of place, but I was so bored that my curiosity urged me to take a look. I put my hands up against the center of the square outline and pushed slightly. The square caved in a little bit. I felt the wall outside of the square; it was dense as a rock. I then proceeded to push harder on the square in the wall. I kept pushing until I heard a loud thud. My heart jumped. To my surprise, I had pushed a neat square hole through the wall. I looked through the hole and saw nothing but darkness. I then took my flashlight and shined it through. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Lying in the dark was a small room filled with what appeared to be boxes of classified documents stored on a shelf. I peered my head in through the hole and examined the room with the flashlight. The strangest part about the room was that it didn’t have any doors or windows, just the one square hole in the wall. In the center of the room was a small table with a piece of paper on it. It appeared to have writing on it. I placed my clipboard with the logs on the ground then climbed in through the hole and fell abruptly onto the floor. I was surprised to see that the square I had pushed through was still perfectly intact. I then got up and walked over to the desk with the paper on it. I shined the flashlight on the paper and examined it. It appeared to be written in Latin. There was no security classification stamp on the paper, so I figured it would be safe to take the paper back with me to study it. I folded up the piece of paper and put it in my pocket.

The place gave me the creeps and I was anxious to leave, but I was too curious to find out what was in there. I had plenty of time to complete my rove anyway. I grabbed a couple of boxes off of the shelf and started perusing through some of the documents; a decision I will regret forever. I thought I would find just a bunch of long and wordy instruction manuals, but what I found made my jaw drop. The documents consisted of instructions on how to perform strange rituals such as summoning people from the dead, summoning Demons, performing human sacrifice, and even communicating with the Devil himself. These were just some of the many different rituals to be found. All of it made me sick. I didn’t want to keep browsing through all of the documents, but I just couldn’t help myself. Why were these strange papers hidden here? How did they get there? How come nobody noticed this before? I had too many questions and not enough answers. I had to keep searching to see if I could find out more information.

I grabbed another box off the shelf and placed it on the table. This box consisted of several really old newspapers with a bunch of different articles. I picked up one of them and read the title. “Communist Spies In Our Navy: Threat To National Security”. I proceeded to read the article. It was basically about suspicions of a secret society within the Navy that was selling secrets to the Soviet Union. A Master Chief named Ronald Hart brought up the suspicions after he discovered a secret hideout area containing very peculiar artifacts by accident and pursued an investigation. I took the contents of the article with a grain of salt. In those days it was easy to accuse anyone of being a communist.

I looked at another article. The title read, “Master Chief Commits Suicide In Grey Hall”. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The rumors were actually true. After reading through the article, I discovered that it was the same Master Chief who conducted the investigation. The rest of the article dismissed the Master Chief’s findings and the whole case was dropped.

I continued to look at more articles when suddenly, the room temperature dropped. A cold chill went up my spine. I could sense something in the room. I could feel it behind me, looming over me. I felt a subtle breath of air against my neck. I looked over my shoulder… there was nothing there. My heart rate began to increase. I had a gut feeling that when I turned back around I would see something unpleasant. I quickly turned my head back around…nothing. I let out a sigh of relief. I decided that it was finally time to put away the boxes and get the hell out of this room. My sweet tooth for mystery had been satisfied for tonight and I was ready to forget about all of this.

I picked up the boxes and quickly stowed them back on the shelf. As I turned around to leave, my heart skipped a beat. I didn’t want to believe it but I couldn’t deny what my eyes were seeing. It was indeed, the ghost of Master Chief Hart, hanging just a few feet in front of me. His neck was crooked and his head lay tilted to the side, but there was no rope to be seen. His eyes were veiny, bloodshot, and filled with agony and rage. His face was boiling red to the point where it looked like it was getting ready to explode. His arms and legs fell limp to his sides. The ghost wore a Navy dress blue uniform with a Master Chief rank insigne and 6 gold service stripes on his left sleeve. He looked just like the man I saw in the pictures of the articles. There was no denying that this was Master Chief Hart. I stood there stiff and frozen in shock as the Master Chief towered over me lifelessly. Hot and cold flashes ran through my body, sweat ran down the brow of my forehead, my entire frame helplessly shaking. I have had Chiefs chew me out before, but the fear I felt during those times were nothing compared to the sheer terror that the Master Chief inflicted upon me.

There was not really a reason for me to be afraid. Ten seconds had gone by and the apparition hadn’t made a single movement to harm me, but it was the look of pain and misery on his face that sickened me. I couldn’t bear to look at the awful figure before me, but my eyes couldn’t look away, locked on to his horrible face. Finally, I mustered up enough courage to run around the Master Chief and do an Olympic dive through the square hole. I grabbed my clipboard and started racing out of the machinery room. I knew I shouldn’t look back, but once again my curiosity got the best of me. I took a look over my shoulder and all I could see was the Master Chief’s head staring at me through the square hole in the wall. I bolted out of the machinery room and dashed down all flights of stairs to the quarterdeck. My heart was racing, my adrenaline was pumping, and my whole body was perspiring.

As soon as I got down to the quarterdeck, the Petty Officer Of The Deck stared at me funny.

“Are you alright shipmate?” he asked.

I was contemplating whether or not I should tell him what I had just witnessed. No one would believe me though. People would think I was crazy. I would lose my security clearance and get kicked out of the Navy. I did not want to go back to my old life. I decided to keep it to myself.

“I’m fine,” I replied. “I just got a little bit winded from walking up all these stairs.”

“Are all conditions normal?” he asked.

I nodded my head, still trying to catch my breath. I still had three more roves to complete before I got relieved. That meant I had three hours alone with the Master Chief. I checked my watch. The time was 0105. I reluctantly departed for another rove. This time, I went through my rove as quickly as possible. I wasted no time climbing each flight of stairs to the next deck and quickly hurrying through each deck to check things off on my log sheet. I tried to avoid the ominous gazes from the paintings of the Admirals as I rushed through the corridors. I also kept my eyes from wandering over to the windows in fear of seeing the reflection of the Master Chief behind me. Everything went smoothly for the first twelve decks, but sure enough, I approached the 13^th deck.

As soon as I stepped onto the 13^th deck, I could immediately feel the air begin to grow thin as if the oxygen were being sucked right out of the room. Something was definitely off about the 13^th floor but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It looked practically the same as every other deck. Perhaps my mind was just playing tricks on me. I continued to tour through the building. I checked the appropriate doors and emergency exits and continued onward to the machinery room.

When I got to about 10 feet away from the machinery room, my feet instinctively halted and planted themselves into the ground. I stared at the door head on. Every instinct in my body told me not to go into the machinery room, but I knew that it was one of the areas I had to check. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I just skipped over it. I was also inquiring to what I may find inside. Would the Master Chief be there, waiting for me? I decided to stop speculating over the thoughts in my head and mustered up enough courage to set forth into the machinery room. I started to step slowly and carefully towards the door. The floor creaked uneasily under my feet. Each movement felt like I was carrying bags of rocks on my shoulders, every step felt like a thousand miles, and every second felt like a million years. My whole body was stiff, my muscles ached, and my stomach felt nauseous. After what felt like a long and arduous endeavor, I finally reached the door.

I grasped the doorknob with my cold and sweaty palm. The doorknob was cool to the touch and sent a shutter down my spine. I don’t remember it being like that before. Perhaps I was just letting my imagination run wild, or maybe my fear was heightening my senses. I took a deep breathe in and quickly opened the door. I peered my head in through the room and looked around. I looked for the hole in the wall and found it plugged back up with the square piece. I didn’t recall putting it back. I quickly rushed into the room and briefly walked around just to make sure there were no leaks. I was not interested in having another encounter with the Master Chief. As soon as I concluded that the room was okay, I hurriedly shot out of the front door.
My mind began to race as I headed back downstairs. How did the square piece get put back in its place? I’m pretty sure I already knew the answer to that question, but what would’ve happened if I went back into the secret room and dug around deeper? Would the Master Chief show up again? I’m glad that I decided not to find out.

The rest of my rove was uneventful. I had no more strange encounters with the Master Chief and didn’t see anything else that was suspicious or out of the ordinary. At 0330 I was relieved from watch and headed back to my barracks room to get some sleep. After what I encountered that night though, there was no way I was going to be able to get any sleep. That whole night, I lied awake in my bed trying to comprehend what had just happened to me. Was there a reason why the Master Chief appeared to me? He must have been trying to get revenge for some reason. Whatever it was, I didn’t plan on finding out. I was done poking my nose into something that wasn’t my business. Or so I thought.

A couple weeks had gone by since my encounter with the Master Chief and I had pretty much put the whole thing behind me. That all changed when I was doing laundry one day. I found a piece of paper lying around in my pile of clothes. I picked it up and unfolded it. It was the page written in Latin that I found in the secret room. I had completely forgotten about it. My curiosity was ignited once again. I reasoned that it couldn’t hurt to study it from the safety of my own room.

I got onto my laptop and started typing the words on the page into Google Translate. Here is what the rough translation was:

“Our fallen father, we humbly offer you this sacrifice as tribute for your noble cause. Forgive us of our transgressions against you and allow us to bask in the rewards of your glory. We denounce the holy one and his teachings in return for your favor upon us so that we may triumph over our enemies.”

I shuddered at the words I was reading. What did they mean? What could possibly be going on in that room? How did all those strange documents get onto this military base? The answers continued to elude me. I decided that it was time to stop trying to avoid the evidence before me and get to the bottom of this nonsense. My first thought was to speak with the base Chaplain. I could say literally anything to the Chaplain and he would have to keep one hundred percent confidentiality.

“What can I help you with today shipmate?” asked the Chaplain.
I told him about the secret room, the strange documents in the boxes, my encounter with the Master Chief, and the paper written in Latin. He stared at me expressionless the whole time while I explained my discovery. Once I finished, he just nodded.
“Shipmate, that building is very old and in poor condition. All of those factors are probably just playing tricks with your mind. You’re over imagining things. That paper you found was probably just an old Halloween gimmick. That room was probably just an old abandoned storage room. Just forget about everything you’ve seen and don’t let it stress you out.”

I stared at the Chaplain with my mouth agape, appalled by what I was hearing. I couldn’t believe he was just easily dismissing everything I had discovered like I was delusional. He was treating my case like it was nothing. I got up out of my chair and stormed out of the office.

“Wait, is there anything else you want to get off your che…”
I slammed the door on him before he could finish his sentence. In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best idea, but my judgment was clouded by anger at the time. For some reason, my life became a lot more difficult after my meeting with the Chaplain. One day I received a random room inspection and they apparently found a bag of weed on my desk. I don’t know how it got there or where it came from but somebody was definitely setting me up. I was then sent to Captain’s Mast as a result of my “actions” to receive a punishment.

I stood in my dress blues before the Captain in his office, stiffly at attention. Standing beside him was the Executive Officer and the Command Master Chief. There was a line of chiefs on both sides of me glaring with distaste. I was like a small lonely fish surrounded by a sea of sharks. The Commanding Officer then proceeded.

“Seaman Murphy, we are here to discuss your intolerable behavior and conduct on this base.” He then proceeded to list off articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that I had supposedly broken. Afterward the Command Master Chief spoke.

“Shipmate, what you did…” He paused. “Was egregious!” He then continued to scold and admonish me. I wasn’t paying attention to single word he was saying though. Everyone in the room seemed to take turns telling me what a shit bag I was, but I drowned out all of the voices.

Suddenly the Captain said, “Shipmate, do you have anything to say for yourself?”

My mind snapped awake. I began to plead my case in what I thought was a very logical and well thought out argument with plenty of compelling points to make. However, none of them seemed to get through to the Captain. He then proceeded to give me my sentence.

“Seaman Murphy, you are found guilty under the UCMJ and will be dishonorably discharged from the Navy.”

I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. My life had changed so quickly. I know I didn’t do anything wrong. I tried my best to study hard in class, stay out of trouble, and be an asset to the Navy. Who could possibly hold a grudge against me? Why would someone do this to me? I didn’t deserve this. I didn’t want to go back to the life I led before the Navy. The Navy was all I had. This day couldn’t have gotten any worse except for the fact that I had duty as well.

That night, I slept deep in my rack trying to forget about the earlier events of the day. I had a very vivid and almost lifelike dream. There was a group of four or five people wearing black cloaks with hoods in a small room that was dimly lit by candles. They stood in a circle around a small table. On top of the table stood a tall man with a noose around his neck. It was the Master Chief.

He pleaded, “Listen, you don’t have to do this! I swear I won’t say anything!”

A voice in the group responded. “Oh we’ll make sure that you don’t.”

The Master Chief shouted back, “You’ll never get away with this! Someone is going to discover you guys and expose you to the public!”

The voice responded, “You poor fool. You could have easily avoided this fate if you wouldn’t have stuck your nose where it didn’t belong. All of the hooded figures began to speak in unison. I couldn’t understand what they were saying though. The Master Chief started shouting at the top of his lungs.

“Help! Help me, somebody! I’m in here!”

“Your screams are futile,” responded one of the voices. That didn’t stop the Master Chief though. He yelled desperately for help that wouldn’t come. The figures in the robes then pushed the table out from under the Master Chief’s feet and watched him as he helplessly kicked and squirmed. The look he had on his face was the same as when I first saw him. I tried to look away but I was not in control of the dream. What kind of sick bastards would do this to somebody? All of a sudden somebody raced into the room. He was a young sailor of no significant rank. The poor guy looked at what was happening in horror. The robed figures turned their heads toward him. “Looks like we will have an extra offering tonight.”

I abruptly woke up to a loud banging on my door. I got out of bed to see who it was. I opened the door. It was the rover of the barracks building.

“You have watch,” he said bluntly.

“Where and when,” I replied disgruntled.

“You have the midnight watch as the rover at Grey Hall.”

My head immediately perked up. I closed the door on the rover and started to get dressed. This would be a perfect chance for me to disclose the information that was hiding in the room on the 13^th deck. I now understood what the Master Chief was trying to tell me. He wanted me to continue his investigation and bring these bastards to justice. I had a plan, but it was risky. I would bring my phone with me into the building and take pictures of the room and the contents inside. I wasn’t allowed to bring my phone inside since it was a secure building, so I had to make sure that I was careful not to get caught. I slipped my phone into my pocket and headed downstairs. I quickly rushed outside into the cold wintry night.

As soon as I got to Grey Hall, I stared up at the top of the building. “I’m going to finish what you started Master Chief,” I whispered under my breath. I then raced into the building and wasted no time signing into watch. Afterward, I quickly roved each deck, eager to get to the top Deck. I wasn’t even bothered a bit by the paintings of the admirals or the ghostly reflections of myself in the windows.

Finally, I reached the 13^th deck and headed straight for the machinery room. Without hesitation, I opened the door and entered the room. To my surprise, this time the square hole in the wall was open. Perhaps somebody else discovered it too. I walked up to it to get a closer look. All I could see was darkness in the room. I climbed in through the hole and fell onto the floor. I then turned on the flashlight and practically had a heart attack. Standing in front of me were the black robed figures in my dream. Their faces were masked by the shadow of their hoods. One of them chuckled.

“We knew you would come back here.”

“Why do you think you got assigned watch here?” another voice said.

Anger and frustration began to swirl in me like a maelstrom. I had been played like a fiddle and had no idea. “So it’s True what the articles say,” I replied. “You guys really are selling secrets to the communists.” They looked at each other and laughed.

“That was just what the people thought during that time period,” one of them said. “We had to get rid of that meddling Master Chief before the public found out who we really were.”

“So you hung him and made it look like a suicide,” I said.

“We didn’t but our predecessors before us did. However, it was more than just that. He was used as a sacrifice to bring us strength.

I looked at them dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?” They sighed in annoyance.

“Do you know how when you want one of your favorite sport’s teams to win and you pray to god for your team to triumph over the other?” I nodded in reply.
“Well it’s foolish and ineffective!” said one of the voices. “God doesn’t pick favorites between sides. He stays out of the way of human affairs. However, his counterpart is much more willing to oblige if you pay him the right price.” I was still confused.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Why do you think we have one of the most powerful Navies in the world?” asked one of them.

“Because we are technologically advanced.” I replied. They shook their heads in disappointment.

“It’s because we sacrifice the most to Satan!”

I laughed. “You’ve got to be joking.”

“How do you think we won so many wars when the odds were against us? Think about it.”

My heart sank. Could what they were saying possibly be true? Was everything I learned in history a lie?

“Sometimes Satan requires animal sacrifices, other times he just needs us to perform a simple action, and sometimes…” the voice paused. “He requires human sacrifice.”

I shuddered at the thought. These were some really fucked up weirdos.

“Since you decided to stick your nose in our business, we will use you as a sacrifice. No one will even notice you’re gone since you’re supposed to be getting discharged anyway.”

I clenched my fists. “How did you guys know that?” I shouted. The robed figures began to pull back their hoods. My jaw dropped immediately. It was the Captain, the Executive Officer, the Command Master Chief, and the Chaplain.

“Who else is part of your little group!” I demanded.

“There more of us scattered throughout all branches of the military. There aren’t too many of us, but just enough people who are in the right places,” replied the Captain. The four of them proceeded to enclose around me. I suddenly realized what the Master Chief was really trying to tell me. He was trying to keep me away from this room. That’s why he initially appeared to me, so that I wouldn’t get my nose too deep in all of this nonsense. The dream was meant as a warning of what my fate would be if came back to the room. I suddenly felt foolish and stupid. What was I thinking? I should’ve just minded my own business and never gone snooping around.

Suddenly, I remembered that I brought my phone into the building. I took it out of my pocket and quickly put it on the camera feature. I then pointed it at the four of them. “Say cheese motherfuckers.” I pressed the button on my phone and the camera flashed and pierced their eyes.

“Hey, you can’t have a phone in a secure building!” shouted the Command Master Chief.

“Well you also can’t sacrifice people to the Devil,” I replied. The four of them began to charge towards me. I instantly dove out through the hole in the wall. Just before my whole body could exit, one of them grabbed a hold of my leg. I frantically kicked at their arm with my free leg. One of them winced in pain and let go of my leg. I fell to the floor and immediately started to race out of the machinery room once again. Before I could exit, one of them shouted, “Wait!” I turned around.

“What do you want?” I shouted.

“If you don’t post the pictures of us in this room, we will let you stay in the military and drop the charges against you.”

“Screw you guys, I’m going to bring you bastards to justice!”

I turned around and proceeded to exit when the Captain shouted something in Latin. All of a sudden, Master Chief Hart’s ghost hung before me and grabbed my throat.

“I…thought…you…were…on…my…side!” I screeched out as the Master Chief strangled me. I turned my head and realized that the Captain was controlling him with his hands through the hole in the wall. My vision began to blur and the world around me began to grow black. I needed to escape before it was too late. I still had my flashlight in my hand. Perhaps if I could throw it at the Captain, it would momentarily distract him. It was kind of a far shot considering I had a relatively small target and I was being choked to death. I figured it was worth a shot though. I craned my arm behind my back, said a small prayer, and chucked the flashlight as hard as I could.

I couldn’t see if I hit the Captain or not, but I figured I did because the ghost of the Master Chief dropped me. I’m not very religious but perhaps God was working in my favor that night. My head was spinning like a whirlwind and I barely remained conscious. The only thing that kept me going was my fear. I quickly got up and dashed out of the machinery room onto the quarterdeck and pulled the fire alarm. The Petty Officer Of The Deck looked at me wide eyed. “What’s going on?” he asked

“There’s no time, just call emergency and get out of the building.” I then rushed outside and stared up at the top level of the building. I could see the Captain, XO, CMC, and the chaplain staring down at me through the windows. They looked like wraiths through the opaque windows. I started to notice smoke on all levels of the building. There was actually a fire going off in the building. Whatever caused it remains unknown to me till this day, but I have a few pretty good guesses.

The Petty Officer Of The Deck stormed out of the building. “I’ve never had this much excitement on watch in my life!” he exclaimed. Shortly after, the base fire department showed up to the scene. By the time they got there, the building was blazing with fire. Heavy black smoke polluted the night sky and enveloped the base.

The rest of the night was very busy and tiresome. I had to answer questions from the fire department, the OOD, and the CDO. I kept my story short, simple, and most of all, believable. After speaking with everybody, I went back to my room to get some well-deserved rest. I slept like a rock for the few hours I had before morning muster.

After the incident, I was never harassed again by anyone and the charges on me were dropped- a huge mistake on their part. After the fire, Grey Hall was shut down. The classified documents that survived the fire were salvaged and stored in another building. Somehow the Captain and his band of merry men escaped the building without anyone noticing. I don’t know if what they told me was true about worshipping Satan to gain favor over other countries, but I am going to try to get the word out to as many people as possible just in case there are more Satan worshipping human sacrificing nut jobs out there. Unfortunately, the picture I took on my phone came out blurry and unfocused, but they don’t know that.

I just recently graduated from my “A” school and will be going on deployment soon. If anyone else in the military reads this, be vigilant of your surroundings. Pay attention to who your superiors are and what they’re up to. If you see something suspicious, investigate it. Probe around. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you do decide to heed my advice, just remember that you may find more than you were hoping for.