sad stories

*Recording begins*

Um, i-i-is this on? There’s, there’s the light…

M-my name is Adam Rodeburg. I am- I, I was a, a researcher at – no, there’s no point in lying, not on this tape. I, I was a doctor, at the Kansas Institue for the Study of Extranormal Activity. I, I don’t think I’m gonna be that for much longer. A researcher, I mean. Or, or an institute. You ever see those, those pictures that guy did, about how New York would look after humanity was gone? A-all grown over? It’s, it’s gonna be like that.

I, I better tell whoever finds this – if, if anyone finds it – what we were doing here. But um, it’s gonna be kind of obvious. We were looking at, at the scarecrows. Cutting them open and stuff, trying, t-to find out what made them work, how they moved, how they thought, If they thought. You know, science stuff. I- I never really got to do much, to be honest. I was there to, to look after the staff, not those, those things. But, um… rumors got out. I guess.

It wasn’t hard to get a scarecrow. All of Kansas is, like -

[SECTION CUT]

- but you’d just find them, sort of, shuffling around, or you could pull one off of the little racks they made for themselves. So it can’t have been that hard to, to get one. But cutting it open, or whatever they did, that must have b-been something else. They’ve got, like, thorns, see? So touching them cuts you up. And I, I think they have poisons and stuff too, so…

I- I don’t even know what they look like on the inside. H-how do they even w-walk?

A-Anyway, I’d been stationed here f-for a couple of weeks. I was assigned to Medical, to look after the s-security teams. They’d do perimeter sweeps around the f-facility, making sure the area was free of the corn. Sometimes they’d, they’d find a scarecrow, and then they’d g-get the flamethrowers out and b-burn it because that meant they w-were trying to spread out.

So it was, maybe my sixth week there, and one of the guys s-said that the corn was growing faster th-than normal. Like, he said, it was growing back faster, and they h-had to keep cutting it back e-every d-day. I, I didn’t believe him, I thought he was crazy. B-but then the others were saying the s-same thing, the corn was growing faster. So they kept cutting it back. Bu-but then it got t-to the point where it was b-beating them, it was growing inwards faster than they c-could prune it, s-so they got the flamethrowers out. And all the while we kept bringing scarecrows back and c-cutting them up and g-god knows what.

And th-then, after a few weeks, it, it was getting harder to burn the corn up to a certain point, it was becoming all, sort of, waxy, and I know because one of the guys g-gave me a bit t-to look at. They went out for like, five hundred yards, and all the corn was t-the same, all w-waxy like that. So they, they were getting old chainsaws and m-mowers and stuff out of the storerooms, but t-they were getting clogged up, and the corn k-kept growing inwards. And we s-stopped finding scarecrows so near the place, and then, then they were too far out. It, it got to the p-point where you just had this, this ring, of hung-up scarecrows around the place, and one of the guys swears he –

[SECTION CUT]

- and we didn’t know what t-to say to that. We all thought we, we weren’t gonna get out. We, weren’t gonna get out, like, maybe we’d walk a few yards and then one of them would get us. So, we all, we all decided to stay.

And then, and then Billy got cut. One of the bastards fell out of the corn and got him, across the forearm, with an old billhook, and I, I treated him for infection and sent him away but, but they must have put something in, in his blood because –

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- and it was MY FAULT, I didn’t check, I could have done something, anything, I could have SAVED him, but instead he just walked out there to die and we could have stopped him and we didn’t and it’s MY FAULT, IT’S MY FAULT, I COULD HAVE -

[SECTION CUT FOR BREVITY]

I, I’m sorry. I, I lost control of, of…

They attacked in the night. The corn was right up to the door, it wouldn’t burn anymore and they wouldn’t burn, so we got shotguns and pistols and when we didn’t have ammo we were cutting at them and, and Marcia went down and I had to, had to do, what I could, and then we burnt her body so they couldn’t take her away, and then...

I think I’m the last one left.

[BRIEF PAUSE ON THE TAPE]

Maybe they, they heard. You know? Like, like they heard their, their friends, all being cut up or something, maybe they knew what we were doing down here. I sure as shit didn’t. And that, that’s stupid, but I was talking to Billy one day, after he, he got, and he said that he heard one of the scientists talking about –

[SECTION CUT]

- so maybe they –

I c-can hear them. At the, the door. I, I’m not sure it’s g-gonna h-hold much longer.

I- I’m g-gonna turn this o-off now.

P-please don’t t-tell mom they got me.

*recording ends*