Signing Off

by Eric Mosher

It was at that late point of night that was almost considered morning when Howard heard her. As usual, he had fallen asleep in his recliner watching the Doctor Terror Show and that evening's film, The Dead Hate the Living. Usually, he would have stayed awake for it but a particularly tough week at the office filing insurance claims had worn away what vigor he had. The few drinks he imbibed while watching didn't help matters.

The sound of a woman's voice speaking pulled him out of his slumber. The station Doctor Terror was on was one of the few that still signed off at night, this one to an all-brass rendition of the national anthem. He vaguely remembered it startling him for a second or two before he lapsed back into sleep. There shouldn't have been anything else on. That meant someone was in the room with him--and he didn't have a roommate or a girlfriend.

Howard jolted awake and looked around his apartment, but he was alone. On the screen, through a haze of static, a beautiful woman with raven hair and dark eyes was speaking.

It was a repetition of numbers that she recited stoically, unblinking. Static overpowered her words at a few points but the majority of it was clear. At the end of the sequence, the woman said "Epsilon," and then began again.

Entranced, Howard watched the bizarre display for several minutes until the screen returned back to only static after the latest repetition. He got up and approached the screen cautiously, wondering if the signal was lost from some shift in the antenna. Nothing seemed amiss and the few other channels still on the air came in clear.

"Weird," he grumbled to himself shut the TV off before heading to take a piss and go to bed properly.
The woman's face and her robotic delivery haunted his dreams.

***

She was still on his mind at breakfast the next morning with his best friend. Jacob was in the insurance industry as well, though he was a claims investigator. They got along famously, bonding over a love of horror movies and a hatred of pretty much every one else they worked with.

"You sure you weren't drunk?" Jacob asked, sipping a coffee and hardly believing the tale his friend had told him. "It sounds a little crazy."

"It was a little crazy and I was a little drunk, but it happened," Howard replied, irritated but understanding why Jacob didn't believe him entirely.

"Did you tape it?"

"No. I had just woken up and was a little confused. If it is on again I will. Promise. You can come over tonight and see. We can play some cards and have a beer or three."

"Sorry, Howard, but I can't. I'm going geocaching with Rachel in the morning and I'll need my sleep."

"Who's Rachel?"

"The barista from Holy Grounds that you always gawk at when we pop in."

"Oh. I don't know how you can do all that outdoorsy stuff all the time. It's so tiring. That one hike you took me on damn near killed me."

"That's because you brought whiskey instead of the water I told you to fill your canteen with."

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Howard said, shrugging sheepishly. "I find it refreshing."

"Let me know if you see anything tonight. Tape it and I can pop in after I drop Rachel back home and we can go over it together."

"Deal."

The only problem with that, Howard found, was that the woman wasn't on that night. Or the next. Only dead air at 2am when the station went off for the day. The whole thing had him thinking that he really did dream it or having some drunken hallucination. Except he had no idea what he watched or read that might have triggered such a vision. Maybe it was just random broadcast interference.
Howard decided that he was going to give it one more night and set up his ancient VCR so it would record at a moment's notice as well. Of course, since it was work night, he wasn't going to stay up the whole time, drinking and thinking and killing time in inappropriate ways. No, he was going to set his alarm for a little bit beforehand and so he would be ready and awake if the woman appeared again. That was assuming she was even on a schedule and he didn't catch a one-off appearance or some glitch in the system.

Waking up at quarter to three in the morning after a day of work and then a night of casual drinking was rough. Howard was almost tempted to hit record on the VCR and go back to bed, but he felt like he needed to see this through, to witness the woman with his own eyes once more to make sure she wasn't merely a phantasm brought on by alcohol.

Despite that vow, Howard still dozed a bit and was only shaken back to wakefulness by the sound of the sign off. Cursing his laziness, he sat up straight and prepared himself for whatever might come next. He didn't have to wait long.

After a few minutes, the static seemed to part and the ethereal apparition of the airwaves slowly faded into view. A musical chime was the first thing that he heard, like the opening bars to an old song. Then the woman began speaking.

"Alpha," she said, the word rolling off her tongue like sex. The numbers that followed were similarly inflected with an almost robotic quality of exactness.

Howard hit the record button on the VCR remote and the machine whirred to life. Then he started jotting down the numbers as the woman repeated the sequence, sans "Alpha" several times before stopping and fading back into the static.

The numbers made no sense to Howard. They were too long to be a phone number or an IP address. It didn't matter, because now he had evidence that he could show Jacob to prove he didn't dream it all. With that small triumph under his belt, he hit STOP and headed back to the bedroom to get some more sleep.

***

"I finally got it," Howard proclaimed the next morning upon seeing Jacob.

"You did? I was beginning to think that you were pulling my leg."

"Nope."

Howard pulled the tape from his messenger bag to show that he did indeed have evidence.

"Wanna go to the conference room and play it? I think they still have it set up with the TV from last week's meeting."

"You bet."

Howard couldn't wait to show his friend the woman to see what he made of it all. Unfortunately, upon inserting the tape, he found that static was the only thing that recorded.

"Are you sure you had it hooked up right?" Jacob chided.

"Yes. I used it the other day to snag some scenes from Movie Macabre for a video I was working on."

It wasn't a lie. One of Howard's passions was making music videos featuring scenes from his favorite movies. There wasn't any money it in but it was a good way to pass the time, especially since he was single once again. The like-minded individuals who followed him on YouTube seemed to enjoy them as well and there was something validating about strangers applauding his work.

"That's odd. Maybe something happened to the tape. God knows how many times you've recorded on it."

"Could be. I do tend to run them into the ground before popping in a new one. Not like they are easy to come by anymore, what with everything moving to digital."

"What channel was it on and what time? I'll set an alarm and see for myself."

"I was watching channel 62 and it was around 3AM. I think it is sporadic though, as she wasn't on Saturday or Sunday."

"Hmmm. Maybe it is only on during the work week. You have me intrigued. I swear this better not be some ruse to mess with my sleeping schedule."

"You know I wouldn't do that. I mean, it isn't a terrible gag, but I swear I'm telling the truth."

"You'd better hope you aren't. Text me when it comes on to be sure I'm awake and we'll reconvene in the morning to discuss our findings."

***

That night, at the same time as before, moments after the sign off, Howard heard that familiar tune he couldn't quite place and the woman appeared, speaking a single word, "Beta," before continuing with the numbers. After shooting off a text to a most likely still sleeping Jacob, Howard started copying down the numbers again.

The sequence was different this time around, he found while jotting them into his notebook. More than that, it was incomplete, as the static rose up and obscured several of the set in the same spot each time it was repeated.

Odd, Howard thought, and wondered if it was deliberate or just an error in the broadcast.
The phone buzzed next to him with a call. It was Jacob.

"You were telling the truth. What the hell is this?" Jacob asked when Howard picked up. "It's so bizarre."

"I was hoping you knew. Maybe it is some sort of engineering test for the broadcast that they can't do during the day."

"I don't know. It's pretty weird for a test. The way she's blending in over the static makes it seem like it might be a pirate signal."

"But why do this? Why not show some cool movies or something?"

"I don't know but I'll do some research in between claims tomorrow to see if anyone else knows what it is. I suggest you do the same, ok?"

"Sounds like a plan. Going back to bed?"

"You bet I am. It's late. See you in the morning."

***

One thing that Howard found while trying to research the numbers was that there weren't any records of anyone else seeing the broadcast. However, he did get a lead in the form of numbers stations, which were primarily radio-only and were theorized to be sending coded messages to spies. There wasn't any record he could discover of them every being sent on pirate signals over the TV, though maybe this was a newer method.

Jacob came to the same conclusion with his findings. They both thought that the answer lay in the numbers, so they wanted to see what the next few nights held for them and how often the numbers changed or were repeated. If it was a code, that could be a significant clue for them and give them the means to break it.

Their hunch was correct, as over the next few nights the numbers changed, as did the word that preceded them. Gamma. Delta. Then epsilon, where it all started for Howard. Aggravatingly enough, the numbers in those sets were incomplete as well, suffering from the same technical issue that made hearing it or reading the woman's lips and guessing them impossible.

Friday's numbers sounded close enough the ones from the first night he saw her that he figured they were on a weeklong cycle. That meant they had one complete set to work from and could set out trying to extrapolate what meaning lie behind the numbers from that.

Jacob came to the rescue on that front, finding the answer in short order while Howard tried to see if there was a hidden message in them using ciphers he found on the internet as if he were hunting the Zodiac Killer.

"They're coordinates," the man said as they sat there at Howard's kitchen table, drinking a Pabst Blue Ribbon and running through their theories.

"Like on a map?"

"Exactly like that. I can't believe I didn't think of it before after all those times I've been geocaching."

"Ok, I'm lost now. What is that, anyway? I keep pretending I know what you're talking about whenever you mention it. Since you were doing it with girls I always thought it was code for sex."

"Sometimes I worry about you, Howard. Geocaching is sort of like a little quest. You get a geocode, or a set of numbers that you plug into your phone and it gives you the spot you need to go to. Then you have to hunt for whatever buried knick knack that someone hid there."

"And why do people do this?"

"Because it's fun, you shut in. Some people actually like to go outdoors."

"Yeah yeah. I go outside to grill and drink beer. That's enough for me. So are these numbers one of those geocode thingies?"

"Sort of. These are actually latitude and longitude. Same thing, essentially, but without the extra code."

"So we can use these to find a place on a map?"

"Yep. All we have to do is plug them into our phones."

Jacob took out his cell phone and launched an app Howard didn't recognize and punched in the numbers. Then he turned it around to show Howard the resulting map that popped up. It was such a simple thing that Howard cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner. The marker on the map was in the middle of the Black River forest, which wasn't too far from where they lived in upstate New York. They zoomed in with the satellite view but couldn't seen anything of note there.

"So that's it? I don't see anything."

"You usually can't. Not until you go there and hunt it out, at least. The satellite can only show you so much and I don't think Google does street views that far out into the wilderness."

"We have to hike there? I don't know man. That sounds weird, going to a spot some lady on the TV told us to. Isn't that how people get killed?"

"Nonsense. It's probably some sort of promotion for a new horror movie or something. I'm sure all we'll find are flyers or a DVD and other promotional materials. Worst case, we get some nice fresh air in a scenic area."

Hiking all over tarnation wasn't exactly Howard's idea of a nice and relaxing weekend. Still, it was only an hour away and there were worse things he could do than hang with Jacob. There were some fine microbreweries dotting the region too, so if they didn't find anything, they go for a hike and then try lots of beer on the way home.

"Ok. I'm in."

"Good. Wear comfortable shoes and bring a hat to keep the sun out of your face. I have some canteens and trail mix in the car from last weekend. We'll fill them up and be on our way. This is going to be fun."

"We'll see," Howard said, having his doubts.

***

He would never tell Jacob, but Howard was actually having a good time. It was a pleasant drive up and the weather was perfect with a refreshing breeze and warm sun that kept him from sweating his ass off while they hiked. That didn't mean his legs weren't aching like hell after the several mile trek to the location on the map. The water helped a bit to keep his energy up, but Howard thought a beer would have been nicer.

"Don't worry, we're almost there," Jacob said, noticing his friend's lack of enthusiasm for the outdoors returning.

"How much further?" Howard asked.

"According to the map, there should be a clearing right up ahead."

"That's good. I think I could use a nice spot to sit after all of this walking. Oh..."

The clearing was there, just as Jacob had promised. However they were shocked to see an old phone booth standing in the middle of it, looking quite out of place among the grass and rocks. Besides being a peculiar sight, there was something almost a little ominous about it and slightly unnerving.
How did it get there and why?

"I guess we found what we were supposed to. I wasn't quite expecting that, though."

"Yeah. Me either. Might as take a look."

There was nothing unusual about the booth, outside of its location, Howard saw as he approached. The elements had rusted and stained it horribly and some weeds were growing around it, but it was otherwise intact and clearly not a recent addition to the spot. Inside, the phone hung on the cradle, cord attached and looking about as you would expect a phone in the middle of nowhere to look.

The door slid open after a little effort knocked the rust off of the hinges. Shrugging, Howard picked up the phone. He wasn't very surprised to find there wasn't a dial tone as there were no lines running to it. On a lark, he punched in the coordinates for the location but heard nary a beep with each press.

"It's dead," Howard said and hung it back up and moved to leave. "Maybe the promotion is over."

The phone ringing behind him nearly made him piss himself with its unexpected loudness. It wasn't a pleasant ring. The sound was that of a call you instinctively knew not to pick up because it was going to be bad news, like a late night ring from family to tell you your grandmother just passed away in a bloody massacre.

Howard wasn't the only one scared by it, as several birds in the trees around them took flight towards quieter pastures and away from the sound. Even Jacob looked a bit rattled.

"I thought you said it was dead," Jacob said, a slight nervous twinge in his voice.

"It was."

"Are you going to pick it up?"

"Do you think I should?"

"We came all this way. You might as well. Unless you're scared."

Never one to back down from a challenge--especially one from Jacob--Howard turned and picked up the handset.

"Hello?" he asked, afraid of who might answer.

There was nothing at first, but he could tell the line wasn't dead this time, instead connected to an unknown source. Then a familiar female voice started reading off numbers.

Howard cursed and began rummaging through his pants for a pen and the paper he had just put away. He found the latter but not the former. Thinking fast, he started etching the numbers being read to him into the dirty window next to him.

Unlike the broadcast, these did not repeat and once done, the line went dead again.

"Who was it?" Jacob asked.

"I didn't get a chance to ask. It was just the woman reading numbers again."

They looked over what Howard had written down. The numbers matched the Beta set they already possessed, but with additional ones that completed the set of coordinates. Without wasting a second, Jacob punched them into his phone to see where their next destination would be.

"Hmm. It's about fifteen miles away, over by Lake Pleasant."

"That's a hell of a walk."

"Not if we go back to the car and drive it."

"Smart plan. You wanna do it today?"

"Why not? We have to head that way to get home and there's still a lot of daylight left. You haven't had your fill of the outdoors yet, have you?"

"Negative. Nothing could stop me now. I am officially intrigued."

Both men jumped slightly as the phone rang again. They shared a nervous glance and Howard tentatively picked up the handset. Before he could even lift it to his ear, they heard a piercing scream come out of it that raised the hair on the back of their necks. Howard slammed the phone back down quickly.

"Let's get the hell out of here," Howard said.

"Agreed."

"So do you think this is for a horror movie?" Jacob asked as they drove to the next location. It was going to be a similar amount of hiking and Howard wondered why they couldn't put this stuff where people could actually get to it easier.

"It sure seems like it. I don't know why else someone would make it so creepy. That scream was something else. Kinda sounded like Debbie Rochon. Do you think it is one of her flicks?"

"I hope so. She does have one of the greatest set of pipes in the business. After Sheryl Lee, of course. That scream in the revival of Twin Peaks was legendary."

"Preach."

To Howard's legs, the hike to the next location from the car seemed even longer. That might have just been fatigue setting in, but he had a hunch it wasn't. It was with great relief when Jacob pronounced that they were at their intended location.

Of course, it was hard to miss that fact. Instead of something benign like a phone booth, they had wandered right to the edge of a small cemetery. The woods were littered with them in this area as years ago towns sprung up, buried their dead and then disappeared, leaving only the grave markers behind to show that they were there.

Still, the fact the coordinates led them right to the middle of one had to be intentional.
They started their search and Howard heard his friend absently whistling "This Must Be The Place" as they strolled around the place. The graveyard was old but looked like someone was maintaining it as the grass and weeds weren't out of hand, though they were still tall enough to make the men wonder how many ticks might be trying to latch onto them with each clump they brushed past.

Howard didn't know what they should be looking for. Last time, it was made rather obvious. All the headstones here looked pretty much alike, with names and dates worn down to nigh unreadability by the weather and time. The shape of it was irregular too, so there was no distinct center to discern and make a beeline for.

Something resting on top of one of the headstones caught Howard's eye. It had looked like an animal at first but as he got closer, he saw it was baby doll and, more disturbingly, that its eyes had been gouged out.

"Well that's unsettlingly out of place," Jacob remarked after Howard pointed it out. "I guess that's what they wanted us to find."

"Yeah, but the grave doesn't have any numbers on it. Everything has been eroded away."

Jacob saw that as well, and wondered if there was anything on the back of the stone and they had merely come at it from the wrong direction. While there was nothing carved onto the back, he did see that the doll was the kind with a pull string attached to it.

"Hey, there's a cord on the back of this. Maybe the doll will tell us the next set of numbers."

"If it still works. Give it a pull."

"No way. This is your quest. You do the dirty work. I mean, I wouldn't want to take away all the glory from you. I'll jot down the numbers, if there are any, as your penmanship is terrible."

Rolling his eyes, Howard stepped up and pulled the cord. The second he let it go, the doll came to life and started speaking using the voice that they had become so familiar with.

Jacob, true to his word, wrote down the numbers as they were uttered. There was only time for the doll to speak them once before the cord had rewound completely. However, there was one more addition to the set. A few words that sent a shiver down Howard's spine. Jacob didn't hear them as they were uttered at a whisper only someone right next to it could hear.

"Help me."

That was something he decided to keep to himself. Between the scream and the doll's last message, Jacob might decide to call off their little adventure. Honestly, even though those words chilled Howard, they also exhilarated him and it got his blood pumping. This may all be leading up to the best horror moment of his life, and despite his initial misgivings, that was something he didn't want to give up on so easily now. Whatever movie it was for had to be amazing.

"Something wrong, Howard?"

"Nothing. Should we see where those coordinates will send us next?"

"I think it's too late for that. We'll be pushing dusk by the time we get back to the car. How about we stop at the Roadhouse Tavern and get some grub and a few stouts? We can plan out the next trip from there."

Howard's stomach rumbled its approval. After eating only trail mix and some peanut butter sandwiches for the majority of the day, some solid food and cold beer sounded like it would hit the spot.

"Let's do it. Who knows, with a little Googling of what we've found today, maybe we can see what is in store for us next."

***

The internet had no further information for them on the clues they had found so far, or any tales from those who had followed the quest already. They did get an idea of where to go next from the now finished coordinates. It was set deep in the woods of the Little Moose Mountain Wilderness. Jacob had a date later on, so they agreed to meet on Sunday afternoon so they would have plenty of time to get to the place as it seemed like they would have a longer hike ahead of them this time.

"This is turning out to be a pretty fun hunt. I never thought you would be the one to bring me an adventure that actually involved going out into mother nature, Howard."

"Me either. It's weird. I hate the outdoors, but now I can't get enough of it. See you tomorrow, mate. Good luck on the date," Howard said, chuckling slightly at the rhyme.

Jacob just rolled his eyes.

"Thanks."

With the a night ahead of him alone, Howard filled it with the thing he thought most fitting. Watching horror movies set in the woods and drinking lots of local rye.

***

It was a good thing that they weren't meeting until later, because Howard's head was killing him and he was tired as hell the next morning thanks to too much drink. By the time Jacob came to get him, Howard was semi-functional, at least.

Not that it mattered for his mood, because the fine weather of the day before had given way to a cold and grey one that cast shadows all over the woods and made them dark and foreboding. And chilly, too. As they walked along through the trees towards the spot Jacob had marked on the map, Howard questioned watching all of those horror movies as he found himself skittish and jumping at the slightest crack of a branch or caw of a bird.

"What do you think we'll find this time?" Howard asked, trying to take shake the feeling he had of being watched.

"After the cemetery, I can only imagine. I'm betting on an old church. Or maybe a cave. It's got to be someplace creepy, that's for sure."

"You think it is safe?"

"As safe as directions you get from a ghostly lady on TV and from random spots in the woods can be. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

But that was a lie. Howard couldn't get the words the doll said to him out of his head and he felt his enthusiasm starting to waver once again. At least it was giving him some good memories. Nobody was going to believe the tale when they got to the end of this strange hunt.

"I can't blame you for wondering. God knows I am. It's almost getting too creepy for me. As long as it doesn't get dangerous though, I say we keep going for it. Almost halfway there now, assuming there are only five locations."

The woods got darker and darker as the men walked into the heart of the forest. The deer trail that they were using became lost in the overgrowth and brambles. Some parts were so thick with vegetation that Howard and Jacob had to circle around to find a way through. Others they managed to force an opening in after much work thanks to a machete that Jacob brought along for safety.

"I'm glad you have one of those."

"Me too. Didn't expect to use it after the leisurely hike for the others. Maybe we came in from the wrong direction."

"That would suck. At least we have a path for the way out now."

The brush started to subside after another mile, perhaps because the canopy overhead was so thick that there wasn't any light being let through for anything under it to grow.

Their destination wasn't much further after that change. The dilapidated cabin sat there, alone and forgotten by its owners, windows broken and door nearly hanging off the hinges. What paint had been on it was long gone, leaving only the weathered grey of the exposed shingles.

"Oh, this looks delightfully terrifying," Jacob said.

"No kidding. I wonder how many rats and bed bugs are in that place?"

"It's probably been sublet to them by this point. Maybe even grandfathered in."

"Do you think we should knock?"

"Only if we want to knock the door off. Looks pretty rotten."

Howard slowly approached the porch, cringing as the boards creaked dangerously underneath, threatening to collapse with each step. All of the holes in the walls and windows made it easy to see that nobody was inside waiting, so that lessened his trepidations, but only by the most meager of amounts.

Following close behind him was Jacob, machete out and ready to ward off anything that might attack them from inside. There was nothing to worry about on that account. The house was empty.

At least of living inhabitants.

There was sign that it had occupants at one time. At least, Howard assumed that the blood on the bed they found in the back of the room was human. Whatever movie this was for, the set decorator responsible for the whole place did a good job, as it had a feel of grisly authenticity that gave him the willies. Even Jacob seemed to be a little unnerved by it all. At least it didn't smell much.

On a desk across the room from the bed was an ancient, reel to reel tape recorder that looked to be a little dusty but in otherwise working order.

"Get your pen out, Jake," Howard said, examining the device and seeing it looked to be in working order despite the grime. "I'm fairly certain that the numbers we're looking for are on that recorder."

"I'm surprised they're so straightforward with it."

"Probably spent the budget on the house and the bed and didn't have anything left to make it fancy. I kind of dig it. Very slasher film-like."

"Yeah, a little too like it for my tastes. I'm ready when you are."

As he moved to push the button, Howard noted that the dust didn't cover the controls entirely. From the outline, it looked like a fingerprint from someone had pressed 'Play' recently.
Howard hoped whoever came before them didn't destroy the message and make all of their hunting for naught.

The reels spun as he pushed the button and the tiny speaker set into the box of the device filled the room with an unholy, five second scream of anguish that set their teeth on edge before segueing to the number reader's voice. When the set finished, the speaker played only static.

"You get them?" Howard asked, hitting stop.

"Yep. Let's get out of here."

When they stepped out onto the porch, the pair realized that they were no longer alone. A stranger stood off in the shadows of a tree. The man was gaunt and thin as a rail, with long and dirty black hair that matched an equally filthy beard. His eyes were shot through with blood and he breathed heavy as he watched them, as if he had just run onto the scene even though it was clear he had been standing there for some time. The black suit he wore was torn and stained, hanging off his bones like laundry on a clothesline.

Howard and Jacob made no move to engage the man or acknowledge him. Their path led them away from him so they saw no reason to go near lest they provoke the stranger.

Without a word, the man began to lumber after them. He closed the distance quickly with his shuffling gait and then maintained a following distance behind them. When Howard and Jacob sped up, so did the man. Through the woods the man stalked them, breaking through the brambles that the duo so carefully avoided, as if he couldn't feel the cuts the thorns inflicted into his pale flesh.

"What's his deal?" Jacob asked, nervous and glad he brought the machete. If things got bad, maybe that would deter him.

"I don't know. I don't think he could get more creepy looking, though. Looks like he rolled out of a coffin. How much further to the car?"

"Probably a mile, at least. Why?"

"I think he's starting to gain on us."

A quick glance back confirmed to Jacob that this was the case. Slowly the deranged looking stranger was closing the gap that had been holding at about fifty yards. At his current pace, the man would be upon them before they made it to their vehicle.

"Damn. That's not good. We're going to have to make a run for it."

"That's a long way to run," Howard said, not relishing the idea of pushing his body across that distance. The last time he had run was to get a TV during a Black Friday Sale, and they had more ground to cover than a dash from the front door to the electronics section of Walmart.

"We could stop and see what he wants."

"No way. Whatever that man has on his mind, it isn't a friendly chat. Just promise not to leave me behind if I stumble."

"Likewise. On your mark. Get set. Go."

The two took off running through the woods towards the car. It wasn't their top speed, as neither would be able to sustain that for the time needed, But it was fast enough.

Behind them, the man started running as well, loping along and little by little, catching up.

The man was getting a little too close for comfort when Howard finally caught sight of the car. His lungs were burning and his legs were sore but there was no way he was going to stop and risk getting caught.

"I see the car," Howard panted.

"Let's make a push for it. I don't want creepy right on top of us when I'm trying to open the door."

Howard nodded and the two dug deep into their reserves to push themselves and run as fast as their bodies would take them. It worked, and the man fell behind them by a few feet and then a few yards. Jacob vaulted across the hood and hit the button for the locks while Howard ran to the passenger side and jumped in. They slammed the doors shut and hit the locks as the man ran at full speed into the side of the car.

"Come on man, let's get out of here," Howard cried, waiting for Jacob to start the car.

His friend rammed the key in as the man started beating on the windows in a violent fervor. Flesh slapped against the glass. Then, blood started to appear as each blow mangled the man's hands more and more. The stranger didn't care and was intent only on getting to those inside.

Not waiting to see if the glass would crack under the assault, Jacob shifted into drive and the car zipped away from their assailant. They saw him standing there as they drove off, bloody hands by his side, frothing at the mouth. Then they hit a bend in the road and he was gone.

"I don't think we should do this anymore," Jacob said after a moment of driving in silence as they caught their breath and tried to stop their hearts from racing. "It's getting too dangerous. That guy wanted to kill us and I don't think he was part of any movie promotion."

"We're so close. We only have two more places to find."

"And what's the next one like? What if that guy is there too? What if he has friends?"

"Hey, we outran him once."

"We might not be so lucky the next time. Either way, I'm out. I suggest you do the same. If you're really a friend, you'll do it."

"Don't be like that. You'd stop being my friend over this?"

"No, but I don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"I won't let it. I think I want to see how this ends."

"Then I'll drop you off and head home. Sleep it off and see how you feel in the morning."

"How do I know you won't destroy the numbers?"

"Maybe I should. I could throw the pad out the window right now and let the wind take them. But no, you can take it. I don't want them or anything to do with this mad quest."

"Thanks. I'll let you know what I find at the end."

"Whatever it is, I hope it's worth it."

***

The new coordinates were for a spot in the Ferris Lake Wild Forest, Howard saw after plugging them into the map app on his phone. That was good. It was closer than the others and he wasn't sure his own car would be up for too far a trip as it was just shy of 200k on the odometer and had been making odd noises as of late. He figured the old girl still had life in her and would be able to make the necessary trips he needed. After calling out of work and then making a quick stop at the store for some camping supplies and snacks the next morning, he was on his way.

The drive wasn't the same without Jacob along. It was maddeningly quiet and made it seem twice as long.

The hiking was even worse.

Howard trudged along, keeping a wary eye out for anything hiding in the bushes. He half-expected the strange man to leap out with bloodied hands and crazed eyes like in the dreams that Howard had all night. But the woods, like everything else, were boring and normal. That was fortunate, because he sure as hell didn't feel like running for his life again.

Still, it beat going to work and sitting in the cubicle for eight long hours.

As the path became sparser and more overgrown, Howard realized he should have done a little more investigating, as the ground underneath was becoming spongier and marsh-like. Nothing would suck the fun out of an already gloomy day faster than losing a sneaker in the swamp. Or getting bit by a water moccasin.

Howard tread carefully, making sure each step was going to be on solid ground and that there weren't any snakes about. His shoes and pant legs were getting filthy and damp and his socks clung to his ankles wetly, but he was making good time and didn't lose his shoes.

According to the map on the phone, in another ten minutes he would be at his destination. That's when he heard her.

"Help!" the woman cried out from behind a copse of trees to his right.

Quickly and carefully, Howard clomped his way through the muck to see what was amiss.

She was stuck halfway into a large marshy area. Maybe it was quicksand. Howard didn't know. He hadn't seen it in real life, only in the movies. Whatever it was, she couldn't get out and needed a hand that he was determined to give to her.

"You rang?" Howard asked as he stepped to the edge of the water to see how exactly he was going to get her out.

"Don't come too close. The edge drops off and then you'll get stuck in the mud like I am."

"Are you sinking?"

"I don't know, but the more I struggle, the harder it is to move. So maybe? Can we talk about it once I'm out? Do you have any rope?"

"No, but hold on. I have an idea."

There was a particularly dead-looking tree nearby that had branches that would be long and sturdy enough to reach to where the woman was trapped. A mighty pull snapped one off at the base and Howard extended it out. The damsel in distress grabbed it and with great effort, he managed to extract her back to solid ground.

"Thanks," she said once out completely and brushed the muck off of her. Her clothes were soaked, but she was happy enough to be alive. "I owe you one."

"You're welcome. Couldn't just leave someone to drown. That would probably leave me open to all sorts of bad karma and hauntings."

"Yeah, I guess it would," she laughed. It was a pretty laugh from, Howard noted as she wiped off the dirt with a towel from her bag, a very comely girl.

"So what are you doing out here all alone?" Howard didn't mean for the question to come out as creepy as it did.

"Um, geocaching. And yourself?"

"The same," he said, and curious, decided to ask what as on his mind. "This is going to sound kind of weird, but did you get the coordinates from a strange woman on channel 62?"

The woman looked at him curiously for a moment and bit her lip, as if she were deciding what to say. Then she came clean.

"I did. So you saw it too, huh?"

"Yep. Caught it a week ago but only saw that there was a repeating sequence of different ones come Monday. Then my buddy Jake figured it was coordinates."

"Wow, you guys move fast. I've been puzzling over it for months. Didn't think to watch the whole week at first. I thought it was only on Friday nights after the horror show."

"You watch Doctor Terror?"

"I have good taste, so yeah."

"My name's Howard, by the way," extending a hand that she shook with her own filthier one.

"Amelia. So we're going to the same place, huh?"

"Looks like. Mind if I tag along? It's been lonely since Jacob punched out of the hunt."

"Oh?" Amelia said, raising an eyebrow. "He get tired of hiking?"

"No. It got too weird for him. Especially after the man started chasing us."

"Wait, what man?"

"We saw him outside of the cabin after we played the tape. Chased us all the way back to the car and didn't stop until we drove away. You didn't find him?"

"Hell no. Glad I didn't. I guess we're not the only ones searching too. He tries that shit with me, I'm going to knock his block off."

"I don't know. He was pretty creepy."

"Even creepy bleeds if you hit it hard enough. Come on, let's get to the coordinates so I can get back to the car and change my clothes."

Howard liked having someone to talk to again, even if he was trying not to prattle on too much and seem like a motormouth or a weirdo. Fortunately, Amelia didn't seem to mind and enjoyed talking about horror movies and the Doctor Terror show to pass the time.

Their path only brought them deeper into the swamp and the going became more of a slog until they were almost forming a human chain to get from one solid patch to the next. Then they were there, standing in the middle of a bunch of sunken mannequins that were posed to look like they were crawling out of the mire. Each of their faces were carved into a hideous screaming visage.

That wasn't the only thing that had been etched into them. Neatly hewn into the wood of their skulls was next set of numbers. It was unnerving, but it was better than listening to the scream from the last one again. They jotted the information down quickly and then headed back. There was no reason to stay longer and get creeped out and they both craved a warm car and even warmer clothes.

It turned out that Amelia was parked across the lot from him. Howard didn't remember seeing her car there but then again, he wasn't really paying attention when he pulled into the parking lot as he was too busy drinking coffee.

"Listen, do you want to, you know, go together to find the next location?" Howard asked before they parted.

"I think that would be a good idea. Who knows what would have happened if you didn't come along. The woods are no joke and there is safety in numbers. Besides, you saved me once. You're like my good luck charm now."

"Awesome. When do you think we can go looking?"

"I say tomorrow. I took the week off of work for this and I'm not stopping until we're done. Only one more to go. We don't want someone else to get there first, do we?"

"No way. You think there's a prize at the end of this?"

"There has to be. What other reason would you do it for. I'm just surprised we haven't seen any chatter about it online. I guess people are keeping it to themselves. Or they haven't seen it. I'm hoping for the latter. I know I'm not going to say anything. The less people out and about, the better."

"Damn straight," Howard agreed, thinking about the crazy man that he saw yesterday. If the other contestants were like him, that could be bad news.

The two exchanged numbers and parted ways. Amelia sent him a text to make sure he didn't give her a bogus number and promised to be in touch once they had time to change and shower and look up the coordinates. Secretly, Howard had hoped she would want to do dinner but the siren call of warm clothes put a kibosh on that. Maybe he would have a chance after this whole thing was over.

After a shower of his own, Howard couldn't blame Amelia for cutting out. It felt damn good to get the chill and dirt off of him. He had just sat down with a microwave pot pie to eat and Google the coordinates when a text came in from Amelia who had just done the same.

The location was one that Howard was actually familiar with--the old Hudson Central Psychiatric Hospital. Those types of places were a gold mine for kids looking to get their rocks off and a few cheap thrills they tried to blame on ghosts. It was a holdover from the days of electroshock and other such horrible ways to cure people's minds, but had closed down in the 1950s and stayed shuttered ever since. There was a Halloween special focusing on haunted places in New York that had a segment on it that he had watched twice it creeped him out so much.

Howard had never been there before and it excited him that the opportunity came as part of the hunt. It almost seemed fitting.

***

They made their plans to meet at a diner outside of Albany that was halfway between their houses. They were leaving after the rush but still on the early side as it was going to take awhile to get out there. If they had to search the whole building, that could take all day and neither of them wanted to be poking around there after dark, strange men or no.

The drive out was easy, though long. Howard was glad he had company for this one. They took his car, as he offered to drive and it seemed like the gentlemanly thing to do. He just hoped it didn't break down in the middle of the trip.

Following the directions from Amelia, Howard took a right off the local road to a dirt path that wound through the woods until the imposing shadow of Hudson Central loomed in front of them. Even in the daylight, the building was creepy, its white exterior streaked with rust from the windows so it looked like it was crying. Or bleeding.

Howard parked the car and they got out with their packs that had snacks and water in them. As an afterthought, he strapped the boot knife he got from army surplus years ago to his leg that he kept under the seat. There were too many places to hide in there and he wasn't going to take any chances if someone decided to waylay them.

"Where do we begin?" Howard asked as they stood there, slightly intimidated by the appearance of the place.

"Let's start at the furthest wing and work our way back. That way if it does take longer than expected, we won't have to backtrack in the dark."

"You sure you want to go in?"

"Absolutely. I want to see what is at the end of this rainbow."

The building had seen better days, that much was certain. The rooms were decorated in filth and mold with a sprinkling of trash and graffiti for good measure. Spooky or not, the secluded nature of the asylum made it perfect for some raging parties you didn't want the authorities to get tipped off to.
Splitting up would have cut down the time they were searching in half, but neither of them wanted to do that. There were two stories to the place. However, only the first was traversable since the roof had collapsed in after a past storm. That still left a lot of rooms to cover between the two wings.

Amelia was smart and had brought a walking stick to push aside debris as they looked for clues if they had been buried by the rubble. Without one of his own, Howard had to settle for moving things with his feet and promising his clothes that he would burn them later to get rid of any strange diseases or mold that might get picked up.

Towards the main office, they stumbled upon a curiously still-shut door. Every other room in the place had been busted open or the door ripped off the hinges. This one looked as if it had been spared from the ravages of time. Howard tried the handle and it was indeed locked.

"Curiouser and curiouser," Amelia said, examining it.

"I don't suppose you know how to pick a lock, huh?"

"I sure do."

Howard expected her to pull out some lock picks. He was curious to see what they looked like as he had only read about them in books. Instead, Amelia took a step back and then let out a kick that broke the lock and sent the door flying open.

"Was not expecting that."

"It's quicker and it isn't like we're trying to sneak around anyone."

Off in the recesses of the building, it sounded like something moved in response to the noise, like it was startled. Then all was quiet. They both spun to turn and see if anything was coming, but the sound didn't repeat itself.

"Let's hurry, ok?"

Amelia nodded. The room beyond the door was a stark contrast to the others in that it was almost pristine in its cleanliness. It was also completely empty. The only thing they found was a black star painted onto the wall. Above that was the symbol for omega.

"What the hell?" Amelia swore as they looked around. "Did someone get here before us and take the prize?"

"We don't even know if there is a prize. The other locations had some oddities to them. What if there's something behind the star?"

The woman ran off to examine it and started to scrape it away with her fingernail in case it was covering a message.

"Nothing. It's just paint."

"There has to be something we're missing. Maybe if we--"

The sound of footsteps on the second floor cut him off. It was one person, running. Those footsteps were joined by more in a stampede to get to what Howard assumed were the stairs. He had a sinking feeling that they didn't want to see who those footfalls belonged to.

"Let's get out of here," Amelia said, fear lighting in her eyes.

"I'll be right behind you."

Without another word, Amelia took off running towards the front doors. Unfortunately, they were still secured by a rusty but heavy chain. The doors rattled but wouldn't budge far enough to open completely to even let Amelia's slight frame out.

The footsteps were growing louder and sounded like they were almost to the first floor. It was hard to tell with all of the echoes, which only added to the fear welling up inside of him. They had to get out of there and fast.

Howard grabbed Amelia's hand and led her down the wing they had intended on searching last. It would bring them to the car faster. There was debris everywhere, but they hoped that anything that slowed them down would do the same for their pursuers.

There was an emergency door at the end. Howard breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was not secured, and, following Amelia's lead from before, kicked it open so that they were in daylight once again. With the light coming in, Howard could see the faces of those chasing him. It was a mass of people, a horde of filthy and terrible faces that he thought he saw the stranger from the other day amongst.

And they were closer than he had thought.

"Run," Howard yelled.

The two tore out into the yard as fast as their legs would take them. Howard had the longer legs and had a step or two on Amelia. She was keeping pace well though. Then she hit the gopher hole.

Amelia cried out as her ankle twisted and she fell to the ground, hitting so hard the wind was knocked out of her.

The others were drawing closer, flowing out of the door, a river of frenzied men and women. They saw Amelia down on the ground and homed in on her, detecting their prey.

"Howard, help me," she screamed in pain as she tried to get up but collapsed again.

But he was already running. He wanted to help her, he did. The sight of that man again put a fear in Howard he couldn't control and before he knew it, he was at the car and driving off.

Howard didn't look in his rearview mirror until he was  back on the local road and sure that he wouldn't see Amelia in there.

***

The first instinct he had was to get as far away as possible. Once the flight reaction subsided, Howard pulled over to a gas station and called the police to give them an anonymous tip. Maybe Amelia was still alive and they could save her.

Then he remembered the way her screams had turned from calling for help to the terror of incredible pain. They had cut off abruptly after that. Maybe her voice gave out. Maybe.

When he got home, Howard started drinking. He started with a beer, drank about a quarter of the can and then dumped it in the sink. He moved to the whiskey after that and stuck with it until he couldn't remember anything except blackness.

Howard awoke in the middle of the night to his phone buzzing. It took him longer than he would like to admit to realize what it was as he was still half in the bag. At first he thought it might be Amelia, but the display showed it was restricted.

Against his better, drunken judgement, he answered it. Amelia's screaming filled his ears, rattling the speaker in his phone. Howard hung up, shaking and pale and feeling quite sober at the moment.
The phone buzzed again. It wasn't a call, but a message this time. Howard went to swipe it away but opened it by accident. Inside was a picture of a mutilated body in a pool of blood. He could tell by the hair that it used to be Amelia. Another popped up. Then another.

Fumbling with the power button, Howard tried to shut it off, but the photos kept on coming. Then it started sending pictures of another dead body. His own.

The phone buzzed one last time. Then it switched over to screaming, loud and wailing and sounding like two voices layered over each other, married in pain.

Howard awoke in a sweat, head pounding and feeling sick to his stomach. The phone sat there, still. He continued to ignore it in case it did ring and ran to the bathroom to throw up when he remembered what it showed him.

After he called out of work once more, Howard tried to go back to sleep, but images of Amelia in his dreams appeared each time. He checked the news to see if there were any reports that would clue him into her fate, but there was nothing.

He considered going to the cops about the numbers and calling the whole hunt off after what it had cost. But there was something in him overriding the fear, that grim determination that he would find out who was responsible for this and make them pay.

But so far, he had no leads. The last place had no further coordinates or anything remotely useful.

Maybe the game was from long ago and he had just stumbled up on it playing by accident. Howard felt in his gut that there had to be something more.

Taking out a map, he put all of the locations down on, taking care to get the coordinates down as close as possible. They weren't in a line, even though they were fairly equidistant, so Howard couldn't just go to either end and see if there was another, unmapped location.

There was something he was missing, he was sure of it. The star played into it, as did the other symbol. Each of the other sets of coordinates had a Greek letter assigned to it.

Alpha. Beta. Gamma. Delta. Epsilon.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

The symbol was Omega. That meant then end. What Howard didn't know was that if it meant the end of the hunt or if it was trying to tell him where the last spot was.

Looking at the map, something clicked. Grabbing a pen, Howard drew a line from each of the points, forming not a boundary but the shape inside--a star. Then he drew more lines and found where each intersected with the others.

Howard's heart skipped. He had found Omega.

There was no waiting and even less prep for this journey. Preparation didn't save Amelia and it would likely have killed him if she hadn't fallen first. No, this was something that Howard wanted to get over and done with to see if it was at all worth the cost.

Throughout the drive, the images from his dream kept replying in his head, pictures of Amelia lying dead. He was responsible for that. There was a good chance if he ran to her and helped her up, they both could have escaped. That was on him now. Howard was almost grateful for the short hike ahead of him as it helped to clear his mind. Between navigating the trail and looking out for anyone or anything suspicious, he didn't have time to think about much else.

After the asylum, the final location was almost a letdown. Howard wasn't sure what he expected it to be. Maybe a castle ripped straight from a Corman movie or a gothic mansion from the old dark house pictures. Instead, it was just a boring stone bunker set into the side of a mountain. A small broadcast antenna jut out from the top of the rocks above it, Howard noted. That's probably how whoever was inside was sending their signal.

A small sign sat off to the side of the rusted metal door. There was a name on it once. Now it had been so exposed to the elements and the work of vandals who had found the place and marked it with a title of their own that read, "Welcome to the Gates of Hell."

Title aside, the place didn't look that imposing. Maybe it was worse inside. Like the asylum, he thought with a pain in his heart. Howard pulled out his knife and held it at the ready. This time, he wouldn't be caught unaware by those crazies. If they were around, he would be the one who struck first. He would get vengeance for Amelia. It was the least he could do.

The door was tough to move, but with a little force, it pulled open and revealed the ancient tunnels that stretched out before being swallowed in complete darkness. Deep inside he could hear the sound of machines, whirring and buzzing along in an even rhythm. Taking a deep breath, he flicked on his flashlight and followed them down.

Howard didn't know how far he walked in that darkness. The beam barely penetrated it, revealing only the walls and then the occasional empty, ransacked room. He could have been walking for hours, the only sounds to accompany him besides the mechanical noises were his footsteps and the sound of his heart pounding. There was a feeling that he was not alone, but he attributed that to just phantoms of the imagination. If anyone was there, he would have seen them by now.

Wouldn't he?

Then he heard them, sets of footsteps that were not his own. Too many of them to count in the echoes of the hallway, but Howard could guess who they belonged to. The others had found him, and he felt a panic set in. Unlike the asylum, there wasn't any place to run to and be safe. There was only the forward, through the pitch. So that's where he went, hoping only that the poor visibility he experienced was slowing them as well.

Ahead, the darkness seemed to lighten a bit. Howard switched off his light and saw that there was a door set at the end of the hallway, cracked so some light came through it. With no other options, he ran for it.

Those behind him heard his quickened pace and followed suit, a stampeding cacophony that rattled off the cold stone walls.

Howard counted the seconds that passed to take his mind off the way his lungs burned and his legs protested the crazy dash through the dark. The sounds of pursuit grew louder and he could hear the panting and grunting of the madmen behind him.

Bursting through the door into the light, Howard immediately turned and slammed it shut. The weight of multiple bodies being hurled against it caused it to buckle, but not break.

With a moment to catch his breath, Howard looked around the room and saw that it was set up into a makeshift studio, with and impressive array of cameras, computers and broadcast equipment. The setup was one that the local station would have killed for.

Then he noticed that he was not alone.

On the far side of the room were couches and chairs set around a coffee table to form a lounge of sorts. Sitting in them was a motley crew of men and women of incredible looks and an aura that set Howard's teeth on edge.

And in the middle of them, looking quite different from the last time he had seen her, was Amelia.

She looked regal, wearing a leather gown that could have been stolen from a science fiction movie. Her long hair was done up in a high bun and she wore makeup that drew severe lines on her face that was a stark contrast from the soft kindness he had known.

"Amelia?" he choked out so softly that he wasn't even sure he had uttered the words.

"The one and only," she replied, her voice thick and familiar with an accent he had heard so often the week before reading numbers.

"How are you alive?"

"Not thanks to you. And here I thought that you were gentleman. Yet you left me behind like I was nothing."

"I didn't want to. I was scared."

"You should have been," she grinned. "They wanted to kill you. Don't worry though. I wouldn't have let them. Or maybe I would have."

"I don't understand. You're behind all of this?"

"Not just me. It's a group effort. The numbers are just one phase of it. We have other ways to get what we want."

"And what's that?"

Amelia smiled, her mouth full of teeth that were sharp and gleamed in the light.

"Blood."

The man felt himself go pale and his knees threatened to give out as he quaked in fear. Unfurling herself from her chair, Amelia stood up and strutted toward him.

"You're cannibals?"

"No silly. Don't you remember those movies you watched on that horror show? We're vampires."

"They don't exist."

"Yet you believe in strange scavenger hunts based on numbers said to you by a strange woman on television."

"But why do this?"

"We don't need to feed much. Not as much as you would think, anyway. Still, going into town to grab a victim tends to get you noticed. However, we've found that those who disappear on their own don't get nearly as much investigation, and surely, nobody expects vampires are the cause. Do you know one of our cousins sits in a sewer, reading, waiting until prey wanders down? How boring an unlife. This is much more exciting."

"You're mad."

"No, I'm hungry. Being out in that swamp really took it out of me, but I knew that after the cabin, you might have been wavering in your resolve and needed a friend."

The vampire stood in front of him and held out a finger and traced it under his chin. There was a twinge of pain and then she brought her nail back, red with his blood, and licked it clean.

Howard recoiled and held the knife out in front of him, not knowing what good it would do but he didn't have many options left. Then he drove it right into her chest. Amelia's eyes went wide in horror and he felt just the smallest bit of hope.

Then she smiled that toothy and horrible smile again.

"Don't you remember the movies? It has to be a stake," she purred.

Drawing close, Amelia clamped that mouth down on his neck and bit him. Howard felt pain, intense and burning and he screamed and screamed again. Then, after an eternity, it all went black and he felt no more. The vampire just enjoyed the meal and the others did too. Food was just so much more delicious when it had been through their little gauntlet of fear. Offhandedly, she wondered if Howard's friend would come to look for him. Amelia hoped he did. After all, she had worked up such an appetite playing this game.