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6/25/2018

Episode 6: The Man Behind The Mask - Part 3

Memory File: 0013
Time: 3:45 P.M.

       I haven’t tried to create many of these recordings, but I seem to be getting the hang of it. Finding that Meryle was safe with Ms. Walker, I can take a moment to myself and try to review what has been happening to me. Documenting a live account of what is going on in my head still seems strange. I just hope that they don’t realize how quiet I am right now. I don’t understand fully what has happened to me, but I know I’m not human anymore. That fact that I’m capable of recording my own memories and then playing them back in my mind is proof enough. When I think back to this moment, I’ll be able to hear the words that I am currently thinking with surprising clarity.
       But this ability is by far the most subtle of all the ones that I now posses. Even so, I’ve decided that if my memories can be salvaged in some way, that I want someone to know my story. I don’t remember very well what happened to me, but there is much that I can recall. I certainly know who I am, Jonathan Masters. I’m thirty years old and I was raised by my father, Kyle Masters. My father worked for Brea Pharmaceuticals before Dynatech bought out the company. Father ended up working for Dynatech’s medicinal branch after the buy out, a decision that would change both our live forever.
        I never wanted dad to stay with Dynatech, but he needed the job to pay for my education. I was pretty disciplined as a kid and even more so when I was a teenager. I kept my nose is the books during class and even sought tutors outside of school. I was lucky to attend a school that offered a number of fields that allowed me to apply for a scholarship, but I was crushed when I told my father that I failed to get any. I saw what Dynatech was doing to my father long before even he noticed, and I had hoped that he could quit if I had gained the money for college on my own.
        I ended up working for a mechanic to earn what little money I could to help pay for school, but what I was able to earn was never even close to enough. Eventually, I noticed that my boss was tuning up bikes for street racers that were competing illegally at night. He was making money had over fist and the prospect of doing the same was too tempting. I attempted to offer to do the same for one of the racers when my boss was away. I must have made a mistake when working on one of the bikes because it apparently malfunctioned and the rider lost his leg in an accident. His friends weren't pleased, and they tracked me down the next morning and shattered my femur with a crowbar.
        When my father heard about the incident, he dove far deeper into his work than ever before. I think a part of me knew even then that I was going to see less and less of my father. He had more than enough to put me through college, which I made sure to not let go to waste. I majored in biology and planed to follow in my father’s footsteps, hoping to become something of use for him. But shortly after I had managed to get my degree, misfortune crept back into my life... I’ll have to stop here for now, we’ve arrived and I don’t want Ms. Walker or Meryle thinking I’m ignoring them.

Recording Ceased





Memory File: 0014
Time: 4:10 P.M.

           The girls seemed to be getting along nicely over at the bar. I’m happy that Meryle has taken a shine to someone else; though I’m getting the suspicion she’s hiding something from me. In either case, I’ll take this moment to finish up what I wanted to record, now that I have a beer to excuse my tongue from conversation. As I stated earlier, misfortune seems to be cyclical in my life, and it came around once more after I completed my undergraduate studies.
My Father passed away in a laboratory accident only a few days after I received my diploma. When I had my fill of grieving, I approached the Dynatech chairman that my father worked under, Elizabeth Cain. She was in charge of the European branch and had handpicked my father to work at her main laboratory in London. After numerous failed attempts to contact her and arrange a meeting, I was forcefully brought in to meet with her.
Elizabeth Cain is what I would best describe as a manipulative and psychotic bitch due to the fact I have nothing flattering to say about her. She had me brought to her office by force and essentially blackmailed me to work for her. According to that harpy, my father had claimed the patent to a number of projects developed using Dynatech facilities in order to save money to send me to medical school. My father would never have tried to deceive Elizabeth, even if she deserve it. Elizabeth offered to not press charges if I agreed to work for her. She promised me that I would be trained by some of greatest medical minds in the world, and that I would never gain the same caliber of education in any medical school. I accepted, but only because I knew I had no choice, unless I wanted my father’s name to be destroyed.
For eight long years I toiled for that devil, enduring every condescending remark and attack on my father’s good name. Elizabeth was having me learn from her team of scientists and doctors to help cultivate a virus that had been in development for nearly a decade. I was always assigned to simply aid someone else and I began to understand that the virus was mutagenic in some way. It had the ability to change those infected, but in ways I couldn’t comprehend, at least not then.
I had been wearing an articulated brace on my damaged leg since college in order to get around, but my leg never stopped me from training my body the best I could. Had I not had the will to continue strengthening my spirit, I do not believe that I would have had the courage to do what I did that day... I wanted to be free, to pay that bitch back for all her mistreatment towards my family. I had no idea how I would do it, let alone make sure I no one knew I was involved, But I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to do something.
I had planned for months to devise a way that I could disrupt the work that was being conducted behind the locked doors of Elizabeth’s facility. When I finally made my move, I got far more than I bargained for. I had planned to find some evidence that what I was assisting to create was dangerous and hopefully present it to the inspectors that came to visit the lab every six months. When inspection day arrived, I managed to access the lower levels of the lab using an expired key card that I was able to re-activate back into the security system.
I don’t know what I was expecting, documents, photos, samples, even just signs of sloppy work would have been better than what I discovered. Dynatech was creating a monster, a creature, born of the very virus that I had been helping to create. I was sickened to my core, and as a result, I failed myself in the worst possible way... I gave into rage. I grabbed the nearest and heaviest object I could find, a fire extinguisher, and began to assault the large vat that contained the humanoid creature. Several employees heard the noise and tried to stop me, but my anger helped me to overpower them. I was not so weak in body that I could not overtake them, but the guards would be another matter entirely. When I had either dispatched those who tried to capture me or let the frightened flee, I continued to assault the tank containing the demon born of my ignorance.
When the tank shattered, my screams of anguish and pleads for justice were washed away by the tide of medicinal fluids that the creature was submerged in. As I regained consciousness, the security offices were raising me to my feet. Then, like crimson lightning, blood flashed before my eyes. The creature was alive and screaming in an inhuman voice as it cut down the men around me. I fell back in horror witnessing my anguish violently come to life in the form of this horrid abomination. I rose, not to flee, but to pay for my participation in such a hideous act. I steeled my heart to die as a man repentant of his faults among the flames and corpses created by the creature’s rampage.
After that, my mind is hazy. I remember the beast knocking me away, but that is the last moment I remember from that day. I know that I was being transported after that, possibly when I was being sent here to Kingston Heights. I also recall a man in green surgical clothing, spattered red with blood, my blood. Beyond that, I remember awaking with the image of a young girl in my mind and struggling to navigate through a ruined Dynatech complex here in Kingston Heights with my leg in perfect working condition. This was only a few months ago, and in that time, I have identified the young girl in my mind as Meryle, and I feel driven to protect her with everything that I am.
I have managed to get a job teaching science to the children at Kingston Heights Elementary so that I may keep a close eye on Meryle, to wait for the day when I discover why I am so driven to protect her, and perhaps learn what has become of me. Speaking of which, it’s hard to say what has exactly happened to me since my near death experience. But Ms. Walker has seemed to occupy Meryle with one of the pinball machines here in the bar, and I can tell she is ready for some answers to her questions. I’ll create a new recording later tonight-

Two of them just walked in...

They're approaching Ms. Walker and Meryle.

They're infected, Walker doesn’t know, how could she...

I need to get them out of here, outside, away from the people, especially Meryle and Walker.

Not leaving, shit. They're eyeing Walker... Why her?

Dammit Kate... Get them outside! Stop arguing with them- SHIT!

UGH!... Had to take the hit, Walker wouldn’t have survived it. Couldn’t even tell which one of them hit me. Sent me flying through the bar and- Oh no... not here!

They must be insane to transform in public. The people are screaming, running for their lives, Walker just seems angry and confused. Meryle is hiding behind her crying.

Gotta stand up... They’re surprised. Good. Meryle seems happy I’m okay, Walker seems frightened... I’ll show them, I have no other choice.


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