This site has been frozen pending investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Please contact Joel Selznick, investigation lead for more information.

This site has been frozen pending investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Please contact Joel Selznick, investigation lead for more information.

This site has been frozen pending investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Please contact Joel Selznick, investigation lead for more information.

I Like Trees: September 2011

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Update #10

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last update. I know you guys were probably more than a little concerned, given everything that has happened, and I suppose I oWe you an explanation.

Not long after my last update the phone I have been using stopped working altogether. The screen was black and it wouldn't turn on. I'm not exactly sure what had kept it running so long anyway - but at any ratE, it wasn't functioning, so I couldn't update, check e-mail, or anything of the sort. I tried to find a phone on the bodies, but was unsuccessful. I was cut off from the outside world completely.

With nothing else left to do, no leads to follow or things to investigate, I decided to go back through the door back to the redwood forest where I found Jack and that creature. I approached the door and then the whispering sound that I heArd back in the redwood forest showed up again, but much louder this time. I was able to make out two short phrases in the loud mess of voices: "you aren't done yet" and "the agent is coming".

I ran from the door quicKly and went back to my cave, staying there the rEst of the night, listening to the voices over and over in my memory. They're haunting. I can still hear them very clearly. The next day, after vaiN attempts at sleeping, I decided to go back to the door. When I got there, however, it was wide open. The photo of the redwoods was on the ground again, so the door was opened into the forest I was in. I approached It carefully, and wheN I got right next to the frame, the creature Glided straight in front of me.

I didn't move. I was frozen with fear. The thing looked - well, it doesn't have eyes, but if it did - looked straight into mY eyes and stared for a few seconds. The longer it stared, the more oddly relaxed I became. It took a step - well, sort of glided, I didn't see its legs move - backward and extended a hand, beckoning me step forward through the door. BefOre I could react my legs moved forward and the door closed behind me.

It was just me and the creature in the clearing on the other side of the door. I didn't dare look at it again, for fear of the odd hold it seemed to have over my mind and body. I heard the door behind me open again, and the creature glided throUgh and once again beckoned me through to the other side. This time, however, there was a large expanse behind the door - dark, with a very dim light off in the distance. Once again I stepped through not of my own volition, but by this point I didn't really care - I wanted to see what this creature was doing.

It was a hallway - stone, maybe. I walked and the creature glided for what felt like hours , but eventually we reached the light at the end. It was still very dimly lit, but in the room was an odd altar-like structure with five glass orbs resting on it. More important, Jack sat in the corner. There was no evidence of the gunshot wound from my previous attempt to kill the creature. He didn't seem to notice that we had entered until I called his name, and even then he very slowly looked up and said hello very halfheartedly, as if he wasn't surprised to see me.

Then he started talking.

Now, I warn you: this may be rather alarming given past events in the blog. You may think I have gone crazy, but I can assure you that I am in my right mind in every way and that everything I say is true.

Jack told me that the creature is called the Agent. He said that we have to help him. I asked him what we needed to help him do, and why we should help him given what he has done to us. He didn't say anything. He walked over to the altar with the glass orbs - I noticed then that there were spots for two more - and picked up a pink one and placed it in my hands.

I looked inside, and saw what looked like the creature shackled and tied to a wall. An unseen being was striking the Agent with a blunt instrument. The message was fairly clear - this creature was a slave.

Jack took the orb and placed it back on the altar, then picked up the candle that was illuminating the room. He walked over to the wall and beckoned me over. On the wall in an untidy scrawl were written hundreds of short messages. The most important ones were "blackthirteen" (all as one word) and "he kills and killed them".

Jack says we have to help this creature, the Agent, and end "blackthirteen" so that we can go home. I have no choice but to trust him.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Update #9

That was an incredibly stupid thing to do.

I'm not sure what exactly came over me... but as you can see from the past few updates, I clearly flat out tried to attack that thing.

After that last blog post, I went through the door into the redwood forest. I walked around for about three hours before I started hearing things. It was sort of like a person talking, but it was very hushed as if they were whispering so that a person only right next to them could hear. I couldn't make out what it was saying. At this point I realized that I had drawn the gun I found in the other forest. I was somewhat disoriented by that, and walked away confused.

Another few hours passed. I found another door - or maybe it was the same door? I couldn't tell. At any rate, I approached with caution - due caution, in fact, as moments later I found myself tackled to the ground. I fought back briefly before seeing that it was Jack, with a sort of glazed look in his eyes. I tossed him off of me and saw the creature not far behind him, standing off to the side. I reached for my gun and took aim, and fired a shot.

The bullet hit the creature in the head, but nothing happened. The creature slowly tilted its head to the left, as if studying me. As I took aim again, I saw its arm make a very slow motion. I fired another shot. Jack jumped in front of the creature, and the bullet hit two of his fingers on his left hand. I heard his anguished cry and glanced over at him for a brief second before turning back to the creature to take aim. In that instant, the creature was upon me and I felt myself shoved through the door nearby back into the other forest, with the door slamming shut behind me.

What made me think that creature could be harmed - much less outright killed - by normal bullets is beyond me, but it was foolish, rash, and dangerous, and I only ended up hurting Jack even more. But now I know I have to find some way to save him, after seeing what that creature has done to him.

(Oh, and a parting note: While the phone is clearly still operational, the brief brawl with Jack led to the screen cracking a good deal. I can still read it and use the touch screen, but it isn't in perfect condition anymore. I hope it continues to work.)

Monday, September 12, 2011

Update #8

Oh shit. Looks like that thing is using Jack to make blog posts again. Fortunately, I can still get in. Unfortunately, for some reason, I can neither change the password nor delete the post. I'm not sure what to make of it, but I don't really care. Whatever the hell that thing is, it's once again using Jack as a proxy for whatever twisted schemes it has in store.

I found a weapon on a corpse today with some ammunition. I fired a shot off to make sure it worked; I'll have to get used to the recoil, but otherwise it's fine. I also found a knife and some food rations, since there aren't likely to be a bunch of corpses in California.

I checked on the door again today, and it appears to be in working order still. I'm going through tomorrow after resting tonight.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Hi guys. Did you miss me? Sorry its been so long since my last post i went on vacation.

Update #7

Today is a new day.

I gathered up my strength and went back to the door. I didn't bother opening it or doing anything of the type with it this time; rather, I simply searched around it for clues as to where Jack was taken. And by some divine luck, I found something.

A photo of tall redwood trees lying not far from the door. The redwoods look to be the same type that you find in California.

The creature has taken Jack to California. I'm going after him.

Now I know you guys will say I'm walking into a trap. But I know this, and I want to walk right into it. This thing abducted me, abducted Jack twice. I'm going to find it. And I'm going to kill it.

I'm going to remain here for a few days and gather supplies, and hopefully a weapon. Then I'm going through the door. Let that creature find me - I'll kill it.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Update #6

I can't believe I let it happen.

We were walking through the forest, moving locations again. Jack was more himself than he has been since we found Brandon and Emily.

And then we found another door.

This one was almost identical, but it didn't have the symbol scratched into the paint. Otherwise they were indistinguishable. Different this time, however, was the surrounding area. Whereas the other door was in the middle of an area just as heavily wooded as the rest of the forest, this one seemed to be in a large, circular clearing - as if it were designed to be placed here.

I ran a typical scan of the door. Hinges, doorknob, everything was intact. I then tried opening the door, and to my great surprise, it did. There was no photo in the frame this time, however, so upon opening the door I just saw the forest behind it. Jack was suddenly interested, now seeing that there was no danger, and came up beside me.

I stepped through the door frame, wondering if the forest on the otherside was the same. There were no outward differences that I could immediately ascertain. I turned around.

Jack was standing on the otherside of the frame, looking straight through the center. Directly behind him, towering over him, was the creature.

I'm not sure if I screamed or not, but I was paralyzed with fear. Suddenly the door slammed shut as I lunged forward to save Jack. I opened the door, but on the otherside, both Jack and the creature were gone.

I shouldn't have messed with it. I should have focused on getting out of the forest. He was right. I was wrong. Now he's gone and it's all my fault. I'm alone now - I don't know what is going to happen to me.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Update #5

This was just sent to me from the same number.

97 72 82 48 99 68 111 118 76 50 74 112 100 67 53 115 101 83 57 117 87 107 112 82 100 109 115 61

If you guys translated those last messages correctly, then this creature thing must be the "agent"; and I don't like that. It implies it's working for something greater than it, which is a horrifying thought.

As for "black 13 is notleased"; that didn't make much sense to me, either. I went back to the original text and compared it to my post, and when I was posting it, it looks like I left out two numbers.

1862 2052 1843 1881 2033 608 931 969 608 1995 2185 608 2090 2109 2204 608 2128 2052 1919 1843 2185 1919 1900 874

That is the full text; I've double checked. See if it makes any more sense.

I haven't seen the creature yet, and Jack seems a little more himself today, so that is a good thing. We're still moving pretty often though.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Update #4

The creature found our cave last night. We quickly put out the fire and I think we avoided being noticed; at any rate, the creature just left - though I'm nearly certain that as he turned around, he made brief eye contact - if he had eyes at least - with me before leaving.

As soon as dawn hit, Jack started running faster than he's ever run here. I was only just able to keep up with him. He didn't stop for almost an hour. As we ran I caught a few glimpses of terrain features around us; the trees appeared to be growing denser, and I could have sworn I saw either the same door we had previously found or another one like it.

We've found a new cave, but we've decided to move caves more often now; the creature appears to be better at finding us than we thought.

As for those messages, still not sure what to make of them. "return to the agent"? I'm going to keep digging through this phone to see if I can find anything to make better sense of it.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Update #3

Punxtr decoded the message for us in the comments: "you will not escape. the cycle will not be broken." I don't like the sound of that.

Since we have figured out that these can be translated, there are a few more that look like the same encoding.

Sent August 17th, 2011: cmV0dXJuIHRvIHRoZSBhZ2VudCBub3cgb3IgbWVldCB0aGVpciBmYXRl

Sent August 20th, 2011: ZG8geW91IGxpa2UgdGhlIHRhc3RlIG9mIGNvbnRyb2w/IGl0IGlzIGZsZWV0aW5nLg==

Then there is this one, sent August 22nd, 2011: 1862 2052 1843 1881 2033 608 931 969 608 1995 2185 608 2090 2109 2204 2052 1919 1843 2185 1919 1900 874

I have a feeling that making sense of these messages is going to be crucial at some point. I haven't told Jack about them, though. I don't want to trouble him if I don't have to.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Update #2

Jack is still disturbed. He's opened up a little more, but not much. He still spends much of his time blankly staring off into space. I don't want to imagine what must be going through his mind right now. I think this may even be the first time he is fully realizing the danger this creature poses - his own actions back in Alabama may be hitting him full force for the first time.

Anyway, I decided to take a better look through this phone. I have found it odd to say the least that this phone has managed to stay charged for several weeks. So I opened up the battery door. There was just a normal battery in there, nothing out of the ordinary. After that I decided to inspect the device's software. Everything appeared fine until I started reading old text messages.

Here is one message, from the number "252-2513"; there was no area code: "eW91IHdpbGwgbm90IGVzY2FwZS4gdGhlIGN5Y2xlIHdpbGwgbm90IGJlIGJyb2tlbi4=" It was sent on June 18th. Jack's birthday.

There are a lot like this, but this one message was sent three times on the same day for some reason.

Also: Jack's middle name is Anderson.