Sincerely, Jennifer x

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

20th April 2069

I’ve been so busy that I’ve barely had time for one of these since I got here. All my official logs are done, but here is where I can actually get honest about this whole mess.

They went back and forth about it on the news for years, and in the house of commons, but eventually, it was decided that Camp Ascension would be opened. The plan had been called “impossibly expensive” but the government pressed on anyway, because they wanted to hide all of their problems away where the voting public couldn’t see them.

The Celestia project was a big success, with no issues reported from the government’s insane little space prison, so I suppose that they thought they may as well try out this old chestnut and see what they could make of it. My sister Mia is serving on HMP Celestia, actually. We haven’t heard from her for a while, but it’s busy work, so I’m not surprised.

Camp Ascension was the government’s recycled, rehashed and microwaved answer to the “small boats crisis”. They were obsessed with it. People in full time work were using food banks, previously middle class people were struggling to get by, and the government responded by sending prisoners to the moon and building a very expensive camp on a volcanic island to house the survivors who made it across from France on small boats.

Insane.

It really would have been less expensive and more productive to just introduce safe and legal routes, but you know what the government is like.

Anyway, I couldn’t complain, because Camp Ascension offered me a promotion. I was to be in command across the whole camp, and I couldn’t exactly look a gift horse in the mouth, because like everybody else, I needed the money, even if getting the money required moving to a remote island for a few years.

It was exactly as I expected.

We weren’t given the resources we needed to really help and support the vulnerable people being passed into our care, because supporting them wasn’t the point. Our real job was to just hold them here, out of sight of the voters, until the government could find their country of origin and arrange for them to be returned there.

I didn’t feel good about it. A lot of the people that I met had seen the worst things imaginable. War, famine, terror, and I was supposed to treat them with suspicion.

I did my job, but I tried to do it with compassion. I instructed all the officers under my command to do the same. It was the least that we could do.

They weren’t any trouble. Just people trying to find somewhere safe, and so we tried to make the place as comfortable as we could, within the ridiculously small budget the government gave us.

The island was beautiful, but the prefabs we built up in the hills to house everyone were hideous. We were ordered to build as far away from the towns and villages as possible, again, so that the people would stay hidden, and we had no choice but to obey.

Still, everyone did their best. The camp was just past the NASA tracking station, hidden behind trees on a hill. We had enough supplies to last us a few years, but it wasn’t of the best quality, unsurprisingly. Still, we did what we could, and once everything was built and everyone was settled, I thought it would be quite easy work.

For the most part, it has been. We had a bit of a kerfuffle a few days ago, because one of our maintenance crew got lost in Devil’s Ashpit. It’s just a name, but it’s still kind of freaky, you know. It’s a hill with a big chasm, just by the NASA station. I’m still not sure what she was doing up there, to be honest, but she was too distressed to really answer questions.

Her name is Laurie. She’s a great kid, sweet to all of our residents and hard working.

She had been sent to check on some plumbing issues, but she never arrived to meet her co-worker. After a while, the alarm was raised, and I sent everyone I could spare out to look for her.

There’s no real danger from our guests, or from any animals, but the island can be difficult to navigate, and the hills, sharp and treacherous, especially in the dark, so I wanted her found as soon as possible.

I was searching down by Devil’s Ashpit with a few junior officers, just in case she had lost her way and stumbled down there, and as I walked along the path, a hand shot up from the chasm. I fell back in shock, scrambling back from the edge and pushing the juniors behind me.

Another hand joined it, scratched up and covered in blood, and a moment later, Laurie began trying to pull herself up over the chasm. We rushed to her, yanking her up over the edge and onto the ground. She was covered in scratches and… well… bite marks. It was awful. She didn’t stop crying until Doctor Williams sedated her.

Laurie hasn’t really been right since then. I’ve had Doctor Ryan sign her off of duty for the rest of the week, but I’m not sure if she’ll be ready to get back into it next week. She won’t talk about what happened. She just sits in her room, staring out of the window with wide, worried eyes.

-x-

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

23rd April 2069

Laurie still isn’t her old self. In fact, she’s gotten worse.

She hadn’t left her room for a day or so, and so one of the troops went to check on her. He found her collapsed on the floor, her scratches raw again, like they were fresh injuries.

According to his report, he carried her to the medical bay, and as he lay down on the bed, she began to shake violently, like she was having a seizure.

Foam fell from her mouth and her eyes were open, wide like the full moon, and then, just as quickly as it began, it was over and she fell back against the sheets, still and silent.

She’s been bed bound for the last few days in sick bay, and nothing that the doctors try is helping with her symptoms.

Both Doctor Ryan and Doctor Williams are baffled. They’ve never seen anything like it.

Her temperature is through the roof one minute, and plummeting the next. She can’t stand the light, so her room has to be as dark as we can get it, and no matter how much she drinks, she’s always thirsty.

The doctors thought it might be an infection, but nothing they’d normally do is working.

She falls in and out of sleep, mumbling to herself quietly in her waking moments, but never anything that makes sense. She doesn’t want anyone near her, and any time somebody tries to get close, she freaks out.

We’ve thought about taking her to the hospital in Georgetown, but they’ve got much the same set up as we have here, so it would be a wasted trip.

I am considering having her transported over to Brazil for treatment. The docs don’t like the idea of a flight all the way back to the UK, but Laurie might manage one to Brazil, and Brazil’s government signed up to The Celestia Project, so the small print says that they have to lend a hand with other government business too.

I’ll put a call in and try to get something sorted in the morning if things don’t improve. Hopefully I won’t need to, and she’ll just magically recover overnight.

It’s a silly thought, but it would be nice all the same.

-x-

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

24th April 2069

I’m waiting to hear back from Brazil, but there’s been some positive noises from their health department, so I’m hopeful.

I popped into the ward to see how Laurie was doing this morning, and things still weren’t great. She looked exhausted, deathly pale, and still covered in scratches. No matter how much time passes, they always seem fresh. Maybe it’s the infection? Her immune system could be shot?

I couldn’t get much out of her. She talks a lot, but it’s not comprehensible. There was only one word that any of us could understand. She said it again and again. In French. In Spanish. In English. Again and again. Over and over. Just the same word.

Viande.

Carne.

Meat.

We thought she was hungry, so I sent for breakfast, but she didn’t touch it. She just pushed it around the plate, staring over at the open window, sniffing and sighing as the seconds turned to minutes. She repeated those same words, again and again for as long as I was there, and apparently for the rest of the night.

Viande.

Carne.

Meat.

-x-

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

25th April 2069

We’ve been given approval by the Brazilian government to send Laurie over. They were really nice, offering to send over some of their own medical staff in case anyone else was ill, and offering supplies.

They’ve done a damn slight more than our own government. They grumbled about us using one of our planes to fly her over, the cost of extra treatment for her. It was just non stop complaints. They didn’t seem bothered that she was really ill.

Still, it’s all sorted now. Laurie has been boarded to the plane, and I’ve sent a few troops and one of the nurses to go over with her. They’ll be leaving at sundown actually, so I’d better sign off so that I can head to the runway and wish them well.

I really hope that the doctors in Brazil can help Laurie. We can’t do anything for her here. We’re doing our best, but it’s a bit much for us to handle. Our medical staff are really only here to patch people up and deliver vaccinations, so this is way above their pay grade.

She even bit Doctor Williams this morning, so he’s feeling a bit under the weather right now.

Thank God we brought a spare doctor, eh?

-x-

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

25th April 2069

The plane didn’t make it to Brazil.

I was waiting in the tower with a few of my troops, gathered to watch the takeoff, and everything seemed good on the radio.

The weather was good. It was a clear night with a big moon, and the pilot was confident. They were just about to begin the takeoff procedures when the radio crackled back to life, and we heard a horrifying scream.

There was chaos. I couldn’t understand what was happening, and as the noise from the other end rang out, and we called through to try and get a response, I saw the plane begin slowly moving down the runway.

Viande.

Carne.

Meat.

There it was again. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but rising up through the screaming and confusion on the radio were those words from Laurie, louder every time.

The plane hurtled down the runway, its wheels lifting from the ground as it took flight.

I could hear a struggle, and as the plane soared over the water, it suddenly nose dived down into the waiting waves of the ocean, and the radio fell silent.

I have no idea what happened. I sent a boat out to see if we could find any survivors but there was nothing. It seems to have sunk. We don’t have the resources to search for a wreckage.

I’m… well…

I’m really shaken up if I’m honest.

Nobody was supposed to die here.

It wasn’t ever going to be a pleasant place, but everyone was supposed to get out alive.

In the space of a few seconds, I’ve lost a nurse, three soldiers, a pilot and one of our maintenance crew. They all had lives back home. They had families and friends, plans for when their deployment was over.

I’m still in the tower, watching, as if the plane will just burst from the blue ocean and return them to me.

I need to call their families. I’m supposed to let the ministry of defence do it, but they were so unbothered when I called and told them what happened, I’m worried they’ll butcher it and make the impending awfulness even worse for the relatives, so I’ll do it.

Having thought about it, it’s actually quite weird. I called the MOD and told them that a member of staff had become violently ill, and then hurtled towards the bottom of the sea with a planeful of people, and they didn’t even seem shocked.

Heartless bastards.

-x-

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

26th April 2069

A long night of rough phone calls with the families of everyone we’ve lost.

Doctor Williams is also really rough now, so from our best estimate, this infection is spread through bodily fluids. Doctor Ryan still has no clue how to treat it. Williams is in sick bay, showing all the same symptoms as Laurie, and the bite mark on his hand looks brand new, despite being days old.

Our slight breakthrough comes with a major downside though. We know that it spreads through bodily fluids, and now, we also know that Doctor Williams bit one of the migrants.

Apparently it happened while I was watching the plane take off. The migrant is a young lad from Eritrea named Isaias, and he was so frightened by the whole thing that he’s locked himself away in his prefab with the others he’s bunking with. They’re all refusing to come out, which I can understand, but we need to examine him.

I don’t know why, but Doctor Williams seems to be getting worse a lot quicker than Laurie did.

We’ve been trying to coax Isaias out of the prefab but nothing works, and Doctor Williams is getting restless. God knows what’s going on in there.

Viande.

Carne.

Meat.

It sounds crazy but I’m hearing it everywhere.

Doctor Williams keeps repeating it, and just a minute ago, I was outside the prefab, trying to persuade Isaias again, and I could hear it from behind the locked door. A whisper at first, but then firm words, and finally frenzied screams.

Not just him, but the others too.

I wish I knew what it meant, or how I could help them.

-x-

Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

27th April 2069

Viande.

Carne.

Meat.

Meat.

Meat.

We are the meat.

I think that Laurie had it easy. That sounds crazy, but that plane never came up and there’s no sign of her, so I can only assume she drowned.

Maybe for a minute or two before the plane went down, she was like them, but then, it was over.

I don’t know when it will be over for those that were left behind. She infected Doctor Williams, and he infected Isaias, and he infected a prefab full of people, and…

It’s not going to end.

It was never supposed to end.

I used to think that people weren’t supposed to die here, but now I know the truth.

It all makes sense. The government weren’t interested when I asked for help, they’ve basically abandoned us. They knew that this place was cursed. They must have known. They surveyed this island again and again. There’s no way that they missed this.

We were all collateral damage. Our lives traded for votes. They can send migrants here to die, again and again, because they know that the curse will get them.

It all started down in the chasm. Something evil is in the ash pit, and it’s found its way inside so many of us. More and more of them have been infected and it won’t stop until they all succumb to it.

It’s a sickness, born of the devil, baring its teeth and hungry for meat.

The infection spread through the camp when the moon hung high above us, watching in stunned horror as the infected fell to their knees, howling and hurtling towards the others. Their bodies were devoured by dark fur, fangs snapping and shining in the moonlight.

Laurie probably wasn’t even patient zero. This curse is ancient, and it’s hard to tell if she was infected by a local or one of the officers that was already here. We’ll probably never know.

It doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all over.