Ghosts and Ghoulies

[Zombie]

So, tomorrow night is Fright Night.   The night when, according to ancient folk lore, supernatural creatures and spirits are abroad and meet with the living in the corporeal world.

 

But Hallowe'en is just dressing up in a joke costume, making scary noises and trick or treating.  Having fun like Yang Bang and all the other posters in his thread. You don't really believe in such things.

At least, not when the sun is shining,  and the sound of friends and laughter is in the air.

But later, when the shadows lengthen as the sun sets and it gets colder?  When you're alone.  On All Hallows Eve.

Sometime in the night you sit up, suddenly wide awake.  In the dark.  What was it that woke you?  A sound perhaps.  Of course, it was just the wind.

Or was it.  Was it something ... breathing?

And over there ... in the corner, that shadow.  No, not a shadow.   More like ... a shape.

Didn't it just move?

 

Still don't believe?

Edited October 30, 2011 by Zombie

[Y_B]

That is gave me the heebie jeebies

[DragonMando]

First unexplainable encounter happened weeks away from Halloween, but that's because fixed date holidays are inaccurate ^^ It's actually when the moon enters Scorpio that stuff gets real--not that encounters are impossible other times of year. Anyway, firm believer that there's something creeping and we're getting into the time so I'm extra watchful in the moderately curious variety. *Steeples fingers*

[JamesSavik]

Pandoria

 

 

After clearing security and going down two different elevators, I guessed that I was at least 500 meters underground. The corridor had heavy steel blast doors with key card locks and bio-hazard signs every 50 meters. The deeper into the facility that we went, the higher the biohazard protection level of the labs that lined the corridors.

 

I asked the guard what the USAMARID needed from the Dept. of Homeland Security and he told me that answer was well above his pay grade.

 

We finally entered a lab marked BL-5 and I followed the guard inside. We had to strip and leave our clothes in a locker. We passed through a chemical shower and another steel door to a locker room where we put on surgical scrubs. We passed through a final airlock where a computer sat in front of the final door.

 

The guard told me to go log into the computer in the corner of the room. He then excused himself saying that this was as far as he goes. The computer asked me to input my name, rank and agency:

 

McGrath, Scott Special Agent Department of Homeland Security.

 

The computer then asked for me to to state my name, surname first. "McGrath, Scott."

 

The computer screen turned green and displayed: Voice Print ID verified. Agent McGrath clear for access to Pandora.

 

The big steel door popped open and I entered the lab.

 

A group of eleven men were waiting: two scientists and nine other agency representatives. As soon as I entered, the senior scientist said, "Good. Now that Homeland Security has arrived, we can begin."

 

"Gentlemen. Everything that you see here is above top-secret. The code word is Pandora and its very appropriate."

 

"Several years ago CIA and NSA received intel that there was a BL4 bio lab somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan just across the border from Afghanistan. They also found that over several years that appropriate equipment for such a lab from Germany, France and Russia had been diverted from legitimate projects and had ended up somewhere in Pakistan."

 

"We've been looking for that lab ever since. We finally found it two weeks ago. As soon as we located the lab, a joint team of SEALs and Delta Force operators were sent in on a covert raid to bag and tag it. What we found was horrifying. Please follow me."

 

As I looked around I saw a few familiar faces: Colonel Will James was a troubleshooter for the Joint Chiefs. SAC Gwen Heller was FBI's Senior Agent in Charge of the counter-terrorism desk. The imminent epidemiologist Dr. Tom Ross with CDC was looking very troubled. Most of the others I had never seen before but their very bearing screamed military or spook.

 

We entered a room with black boards and display monitors. The scientist continued the briefing: "We found that the lab was working on a number of weaponized pathogens. All of the familiar horrors like Anthrax, Marsburg and Smallpox and one that we've never seen before. It is a chimera virus that we have code named Pandora. It's why we're here and it may be the scariest damn thing I've ever seen in a bioweapon."

 

"Pandora began as a flavivirus called VEE or Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus. Through years of manipulation and gene splicing, it has become this."

 

The big monitor in the room came to life and showed an electron microscope image of a spherical virus.

 

The scientist said, "This little horror is a blood borne pathogen that attacks the brain. It causes fever and chills and then the victim falls into a coma. While the victim is in a coma the virus continues to attack the brain and eventually destroys the cerebellum while leaving the lower brain function essentially in tact. At this point about a third of the victims die. The rest wake up from the coma and attack the very first person that they see. They continue attacking everyone in site until they are killed."

 

"When we raided the lab, three of our guys got bitten and succumbed to the infection. This is what they look like now."

 

The scientist pressed a button that caused a panel to retract. Behind thick glass were three people that had once been elite special forces operators that had been transformed by the virus. As soon as the panel retracted and they saw us, they attacked the glass with such violence that the glass was smeared with their black blood. It was clear that anyone that those things got their hands on would be in very serious trouble.

 

The scientist caused the glass to retract and continued: "Bites spread the virus. That's how our three operators got infected. The infection runs its course from 24 to 36 hours. They are vulnerable to tasers and gun fire. They retreat from fire but attack pretty much everything else: people or animals. The virus leave the brain in a continuous state of rage that causes their hostility and the only thing that will stop them are kill shots. You can shoot them to pieces but unless you get their head or their heart they just keep coming."

 

"We brought you here to see it with your own eyes. This is no bullshit. Pandora is real and we know that the terrorist have it. It's only a matter of time before they use it. When they do, we had better be ready because the epidemiology of this thing is terrifying. Once this virus is established and starts spreading by secondary vectors like mosquitoes, there simply aren't enough bullets to stop it."

[K.C.]

I love Halloween, the chill in the air, the big bright full moon, the scary movies. I just love it, but I also freak myself out, you know too many scary movies and I think I see someone out of the corner of my eye and when I turn I scream at my own reflection

[Zombie]

I love Halloween, the chill in the air, the big bright full moon, the scary movies.  I just love it, but I also freak myself out, you know too many scary movies and I think I see someone out of the corner of my eye and when I turn I scream at my own reflection

 

Please everyone, please, no cruel jokes now

Edited October 31, 2011 by Zombie

[W_L]

I love ghost movies on Halloween; even though, I am scared of ghosts.

 

Anyone ever saw a real ghost?

[MikeL]

Happy Halloween! Here's an e-card I got from my honey:

 

http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3125133/graphic1

[NightOwl88]

I love ghost movies on Halloween; even though, I am scared of ghosts.

 

Anyone ever saw a real ghost?

 

If you mean like a fully manifested spirit than no but I have seen things I can't really explain. I've always been into the 'supernatural' side of life, ever since I was a kid. My grandmothers house isn't too old, maybe fifty some years, and she's lived there since it was built but I remember being a kid and seeing things in the house that I couldn't explain. I remember one time when I was about 10 or so i was spending the night at her house. i was sleeping in the living room on the couch and I watched a shadow move across the ceiling. It scared the heck out of me.

 

I've had a for more encounters but I won't bore anyone with them here lol.

 

best.

Owl