Content Warning:
This article contains mild descriptions of gore and visuals which may trigger entomophobia.
There are orders. They must be completed.
There are dreams. They must be realized.
There are obstacles. They must be demolished.
For just a fleeting moment, you will understand why.
And then you will follow my orders. You will realize my dreams. You will demolish my obstacles.
And then you will shake in reverence.
Doctor Smith stared at the patient that had been stretched out on the table below him as Doctor Bierre began to wheel in some meager supplies— and several more patients— from the other wings of the building.
The man was clearly suffering from some sort of ruthless infection, but Smith had never quite seen a viral entity like this before. As he thrashed in seemingly agonizing pain, several small chambers began to erupt upon the surface of his skin, bringing with them terrible streams of blood and pus. The affliction was something like an intense form of Urticaria, a common disease whose greatest claim to infamy was causing intense rashes across the body…
But the lesions that affected the patient? He could tell they were more than just simple rashes.
The bound subject gasped and attempted to claw at his skin in spite of his restraints. As he thrashed around, some of the lesions began to rupture as they were twisted and creased, discharging copious amounts of blood. Smith wiped the sweat off his brow and began to administer what little medicine he had available. A bottle of rubbing alcohol and a single dose of morphine would never manage to treat the monstrosity below him, but it was all he had to work with.
For a brief moment, Smith looked up from the table and glanced through the window of his area. From there, he could see the main wing of the hospital, where other doctors were working on patients in similar conditions as his. He could even hear muffled yelling from the other side of the glass, where Doctor Bierre was fervently arguing against bringing yet another patient over to Smith's wing of the hospital. By this point, nearly every room in the building was occupied by dying patients.
With a scoff, he returned to the worsening condition of his patient only to realize that he had finally died. Surrounding his corpse and attempting to enter the open lesions on his skin were more of those damned wasps— a nasty new entity that The M.E.G. suspected had some sort of connection to the plague which Level 11 had been experiencing. Although he chose not to speculate on that theory, he knew for certain that something about the corpses was attracting the bugs.
The Doctor exited the area and entered the aforementioned main wing of the hospital, where he bore full witness to the intense chaos that afflicted the other doctors. As he continued to stare at the disheveled state of the hospital, it began to look more like a graveyard.
FILE #013
Locations: Currently present in Level 11, potential habitats unknown.
An infestation of U-13 adults within a quarantined household.
Description: Entity U-13 refers to a newly discovered species of insectoid creatures which are characterized by highly advanced growth stages and an acute, collective intelligence. Their extremely destructive and aggressive behavior could imply that they are an invasive species to The Backrooms, possibly originating from somewhere outside of it.
Adult U-13 specimens are indistinguishable from the common wasp at a glance. The anatomy behind members of the U-13 species suggest that they have evolved to visually imitate other, more docile species of insects, likely in order to lure prey into a sense of security before launching an assault.
I linked up with a small group of estranged settlers shortly after the outbreak occurred. At the time, it seemed like nobody knew what the hell was going on, but The M.E.G. had been trying their hardest to get people out of the level as quickly as possible.
We took shelter in an old hospital that used to be a makeshift "community medical center" in Level 11— a place where former doctors could continue to practice their medical ability in The Backrooms. By the time that the wasps had started to spread, however, more and more people started to flood the hospital and overwhelm the small group of doctors.
When we arrived there, it was completely empty. The only indications of any human life were a couple of corpses that the doctors had likely failed to dispose of when it came time to completely evacuate the area.
Exhausted and focused on securing a proper resting place, I entered a small side-room which seemed to have hosted an impromptu autopsy at some point, although the subject that was likely strapped onto the bloody table had long since escaped.
Next to a box of dirty medical equipment was a pile of documents and schematics, all signed by one "Doctor Smith". Confused, I slowly began to sift through the papers one by one, although I soon realized that they only offered more questions than answers.
-
FILE #013
Groups of Entity U-13 will frequently use the corpses of other entities, especially humans, as hosts for their colonies. Researchers believe that they use the bone marrow from within the body in order to build the chambers that they use as their hives, much to the intense pain and eventual death of the individual which they have attacked.
The breeding and nesting chambers are usually constructed within the victim's stomach, and eggs are stored in the ocular and oral cavities. Within a matter of weeks, what little bone remains of the original subject will have been replaced with common nesting materials such as mud, chewed wood, and clay.
After a hive has been constructed inside the host and a queen has been born, the U-13 colony will attempt to "move" the corpse by manipulating any remaining muscle tissue. The success of a hive's attempt to guide the host's body is often indicated by how decomposed its tissue has become. The most successful hives have managed to gain complete control of most facets of the expired body and have even been seen using the corpse to move from place to place by forcing its leg muscles to "walk".
Individual hives of U-13 colonies may link up with other successful hives from other colonies in order to maximize their efficiency. U-13 colonies have also been seen using rudimentary psychological tactics in order to lure more humans towards them, likely with the intention of creating more hives.
After we made sure that the hospital was completely empty, we began barricading the doors and dividing rations amongst ourselves. We sat in silence after that for quite a while.
Weeks started to pass. We would hear very little from the outside street; maybe a stray bang or scream at best. The wasps moved in large, sweeping swarms in the middle of the day but stayed mostly dormant at night. M.E.G. patrols in the area disappeared quickly.
One morning, someone in the group woke the rest of us up in a panic. She told us that she had seen people walking down the neighborhood— live people— although she didn't get a good enough look at them.
We decided to ascend the building and gaze at them from the roof. Sure enough, there were two figures lazily stumbling across the street, albeit a good distance away from us. After some time had passed, one of them apparently saw us perched atop the building and began to gesture in our direction to their companion. The two walked off in a hurry after that.
We thought that we had just blown our only chance of contacting another group of survivors, until a whole crowd of them showed up later that evening in the same spot as before. They carried with them some torches and a large sign, displaying a message that had evidently been written for us:
SAFE. COWARD BUG EXTINCT. JOIN US.
As we descended the stairwell and began unblocking the doors to the hospital, we whispered anxiously amongst ourselves. We were all hopeful of the message, but terrified of the endless possibilities. But they knew what what was waiting for us. And as soon as we unlocked those doors, they unleashed their attack like it was clockwork.
In that final moment I could tell there was something more to them. They had devised a plan this time— the assault was far too calculated to be the results of a mere swarm of insects coming out to eat. We were bearing witness to a new kind of intelligence, and that was what scared me more than anything else.
FILE #013
Entity U-13 is considered to be an incredible threat to the stability of The Backrooms. Quarantine methods within Level 11 have proven ineffective thus far, seeing as the entity continues to spread at a rapid rate. Methods of combating U-13 via extermination have also been unsuccessful due to an overwhelming lack of resources. Major areas within the level are now devoid of any human presence, and many of its remaining settlements have ceased communication with The M.E.G. entirely.
The threat that U-13 poses to The Backrooms could be considered existential if one assumes that it is capable of traveling in-between levels. It is then only a matter of time before it begins moving to more populated areas, and perhaps even to The Frontrooms.
They begin to herd us like cattle. They raise our young to become future hosts.
They force us to work. They pick those who have lasted the longest and begin transforming them into hives.
They build strange new cities on top of our ruins. They devise plans to grow and to enter more levels. They wage wars with one another.
We grovel and cower in the darkest, loneliest corners. We learn to fear chitin.
-
As it reveled in its first kill, the gigantic worker drone stared at the colonized cityscape that sprawled in front of it. Although its cool and unsympathetic gaze suggested otherwise, its head was suddenly alight with a wave of thought. The Mother Bug's plans had just begun to click into place within its mind; and only now did it understand the full scope of her orders.
First it saw the conquest which they had already accomplished. It saw Level 11, now covered in gigantic nests and chambers. It saw the other interconnected levels and the slow, methodical spread of the drones that were currently assigned to their transformation. It saw the growing potential of their takeover.
But as its understanding grew further, it began to sense her vision of the future. It saw their escape to a new reality and the subsequent incorporation of Earth's more primitive Hymenoptera. It then saw the results of such an acquisition; a thick layer of bark and egg which swept across the entire planet. If it focused hard enough, it could even feel the vibration of mankind's abundant but ultimately pointless structures being torn down and transformed into scrap materials, utilized for their own purposes.
Looking even further beyond that gave way to fuzzy visions of significantly larger operations. There began rough outlines of ships and inter-galactic cruisers which had yet to be finalized, all accompanied with fleeting images of great banners and flags waved across steel corridors. And at the very end of everything— through eras not yet charted and battles not yet planned— was a single gut feeling. Though its brutal pheromones could not fully comprehend the emotion, it still knew the sensation well:
It was satisfaction. Perhaps even revenge.
Now, hunched over the roof it crept on, it mused at how the two emotions were not very distinguishable from one another. It then glanced behind itself at the recently amassed pile of bodies and abruptly stopped the aforementioned train of thought to resume executing the great many orders it had been given. The wasp continued its work, one pair of wings beating amidst a sea of many.