The Grey Gull Sanitarium - Part Three

   I was shaking like a drunk without a beer. Not because of what Bryce had just done to me moments ago in the adjacent room. The room I walked into was furnished. Furnished with the strangest medical or scientific equipment I had ever seen. It had beakers the size of those 5 gallon plastic drums you get delivered to your house from a water company. Garden hose size rubber tubing going to each one. There were microscopes, autoclaves, pipettes, bioreactors, a DNA amplifier, and a whole bunch of other equipment I was clueless about since they didn't have any labels on them.

   Somebody was doing experiments here. What kind? I wasn't brave enough to find out. I burst back out the door had I come through and didn't see Bryce anywhere.
   He must have gone to the second level to search around, like I had asked him to do, I thought to myself. Unless he found something up there, he doesn't know that this place is still in use.
   I sprinted up the stairs as quickly and as silently as I could. I didn't want to yell out to him in case the occupant of the building was at home and if they heard us, call the constable.
   Now I was regretting the fact that we decided to leave our cellphones at home. We figured that we would be together and wouldn't need them. "The noise from an unwanted call could warn the Bobbies where we are if they come looking for us," Bryce said. So we left them.
   I had to search each room as quietly as possible, hoping I could find Bryce right away so we could get out of here with no one being the wiser.
   Of course my luck was going from bad to worst. He was nowhere to be found upstairs.
   I did make one discovery though. None of these rooms were furnished. So I had a brief moment of happiness thinking that whomever had the laboratory downstairs, they weren't living here because there wasn't a bedroom on the two main floors.
   Then I realized, what about the basement?
   Surely if someone was living here and didn't want prying eyes noticing bright lights beaming out of the windows at night, you would make your residence in the basement. That also meant, whatever kind of experiments they are performing here can only be done during the day.
   I wasn't sure if these facts were in our favor or if it meant we just haven't alarmed anyone yet with our presence.
   I had to find Bryce, and find him now!
   After going down to the first level, I quickly looked around the first floor rooms again to see if I had missed him or if he had double back without me noticing him.
   Nothing.
   There were two options left. First; he went down to the basement without telling me. So, when I find him and if he isn't dead already, I am going to kill him myself. Second; if he left the building and went home without me. Again, I will kill him, when I see him.
   My only choice now was to search the basement for my friend.
   I went into the laboratory to find myself a weapon. If need be, I would break one of the smaller beakers and use a shard of glass from it like a knife.
   Instead, I grabbed a pipe off the lattice type structure which was holding up the larger beakers. I had a club now. Less chances of me hurting myself with the pipe than with broken shards of glass.
   I took a deep breath, told myself to be ready for anything, and made my way to the basement door.

End Of Part Three

This is,

Even I Don't Know What Is Coming Next

I Am Doing This Story The Hard Way

I Sit Down

Start Typing

And See What Happens

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“I swear to you Vishnu, if this doesn’t work, I’m going to stab you in the throat with a Pipette.”
- Kyoko M. -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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I'll Be Seeing You.

The Grey Gull Sanitarium - Part Two

   Bryce and I had to walk the long way around town. If either of us took one of our cars and left it near the Grey Gull Sanitarium, that would be an easy find for the locals reporting suspicious characters or the Bobbies patrolling the neighborhood.
   We are not kids anymore. So, besides the usual community service handed down by the courts for petty crimes, they like to heavily fine blokes like us. It helps with the city budget so they don't have to raise taxes on our overtaxed townsfolk.
   It's all about the money these days.
   Like I was sayin', to start with, we had to venture along the outskirts of town. When we got to Glenburn Road, we stayed in the trees alongside til we came across the old Barkley house. Then it was just a hop, skip, and a jump to the back of the sanitarium.
   Bryce was right. There was a huge Birnam Oak tree splitting the fence in the backyard of the place. With its knotty trunk and low hanging branches, it was an easy workaround for the barbed wire.

   On the grounds, we did a walkabout to find the least conspicuous entryway of the building. What I was surprised about was the fact that there wasn't an alarm system, security bars on the windows, and just a regular household door lock on the service entryway. "Easy pickings," I said to Bryce.
   Once inside, we lit our torches and were surprised how much the place brightened up. Bryce said it was because every wall, floor, and ceiling was painted white and the employees probably whitewashed the place everyday when it was in business.
   So I asked, "Shouldn't it have faded by now?" His response was, "You're overthinking it."
   Just in case, I turned my torch off when we were in the same room together. Even though there was the slimmest of margins of us being seen through the windows, I didn't want to take any chances. Bryce was smiling ear to ear at me and thought I was being paranoid.
   "Let's split up," I said, trying to sound brave. "I'll check this level and you head upstairs to see what you can find. Afterwards, we'll both go down to the cellar and explore there. Yell if you see or find anything interesting. And remember, no vandalism or stealing, unless it's valuable."
   A still grinning Bryce says to me, "Aintcha afraid some ghosts might hear you yelling for me if you see one? Oh wait? Your screams will probably scare them away!"
   "Shut up you buggered," I said unconvincingly. "Are you trying to stall so I'll hold your hand and lead you up stairs?"
   All he did was laugh and make a run for the staircase. Hoping up two at a time as he went.
   That's when I started talking to myself, while walking from room to room. "What is he on about? I have been doing this sort of thing just as long as he has. Afraid of ghosts? What does he take me for?"
   "Boo!"
   I must have jumped 2 meters into the air. I turned around shacking and found Bryce on the floor laughing his ass off. So I kicked him in the leg and went into an adjoining room.

End Of Part Two

This is,

Why Didn't I Do This Sort Of Thing With My Friends When We Were Young

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“When you go out hunting wicked spirits, it's the simple things that matter most. The silvered point of your rapier flashing in the dark; the iron filings scattered on the floor; the sealed canisters of best Greek Fire, ready as a last resort.”
- Jonathan Stroud -

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The Grey Gull Sanitarium - Part One

   It was a Friday night, just like any other night. Dark, windy, with a light fine mist making everything damp. Nothing unusual for the city of Lochgilphead, Scotland.
   The town sits along the shores of Loch Gilp which leads directly to the Atlantic Ocean. I don't know why they call it a loch since it is more of a bay than a lake.
   Well, that night, Bryce and I were watching a video on a streaming site where these five Americans find abandoned buildings and they search these premises for ghosts or anything else spooky they can find.
   After drinking a couple of the finest ales that we could afford, I suggested that we go explore the old Grey Gull Sanitarium. It is strictly off limits, with barbed wire topping the fence that circles the place and large signs everywhere reading; Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted.
   But that never stopped Bryce and I before.
   When we were youngins, still in school anyways, anytime a petty theft happened, joyride of an unlocked car, or just poorly sprayed graffiti showed up, the Constable always came knocking at our houses first. Much to the chagrin of our parents.
   "Everybody knows everybody in small towns," the Chief Constable would say every time, while smiling at the both of us. "We get to know the character of certain individuals mighty quick around here."
   But now that we are older, we have moved past that sort of thing. Sort of.
   Tonight we were both feeling a little frisky after the 12 pack of ale and neither one of us had to work in the morning. The perfect combination for a little mischief.
  I don't know why we have never ventured into the old Grey Gull before, but Bryce didn't hesitate for a second once I mentioned it to him.
   We have both seen the Bobbies on occasion patrolling past the sanitarium at night. Shining their big spot lights from their patrol cars towards the building, searching the grounds and illuminating the windows to see if anyone is inside. I figured some rich guy owned the building and asked the local police to check in on it once in a while so the likes of Bryce and I wouldn't vandalize the place.
   I went inside my room and came out with a bolt cutter. Bryce asked me, "What is that for?" I said, "To cut through the fence so we don't have to climb over the barbed wire." He replied smiling, "I have been casing the place for some time now. I know of a tree in the back of the place where it splits the fence in two. We can get in and out without anyone the wiser."
   We grabbed a couple of torches, some gloves, hoodies, and made our way to the Grey Gull Sanitarium on foot.
   Not a local, tourist, or cabbie driving a hackney carriage was in sight that perfect night, as we made our way in the mist.
   We agreed beforehand that this was an exploratory mission, to find ghosts. Not to vandalize the place or steel anything. Unless it was valuable.

End Of Part One

This is,

I Cannot Wait To See What Happens Next

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

 “Stephen had never seen a landscape so calculated to reduce the onlooker to utter despair in an instant. "This is one of your kingdoms, I suppose, sir?" he said. "My kingdoms?" exclaimed the gentleman in surprise. "Oh, no! This is Scotland!”
- Susanna Clarke -

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I'll Be Seeing You.

Space Walk

This is,

At Least Trump Hasn't Messed With Space

Jim Hauenstein,

And,

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
- Carl Sagan -

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Crooks Hijack “Black Lives Matter” To Spread Zombie Malware

I have nothing to do with this story

and all rights are the property of

Naked Security

 for

Sophos

by

Paul Ducklin

These crooks aren’t piling on any pressure; they aren’t playing on emotions such as guilt or fear; and they aren’t even requiring you to get involved under your own name. If you get one of these, don’t open the attachment – it’s a trap! We opened it so you don’t have to, and we must grudgingly admit that the trick the crooks have used here is easy to fall for. Remember that Word documents can contain what are commonly known as macros – embedded program code written in the Visual Basic for Applications programming language, or VBA for short. The problem with macros is that the term sounds safe and innocent – the word harks back to the days of really simple keystroke recorders that you could use to automate simple tasks in word processors or spreadsheets. But VBA today is as powerful and as dangerous as C, C++, Delphi, Perl, Python or any other programming language that’s associated with full-blown, standalone applications that you install and run locally. VBA needs an Office application running (usually Word, Excel or PowerPoint) to make it work, but once you agree to let VBA code run from inside an Office file, it has full access to your computer just as if the VBA program were running outside Office. In other words, VBA inside a Word file isn’t like JavaScript in your browser – there’s no sandbox or walled garden to restrict the damage it can do.

Example subject lines:
  Give YOUR Feedback anonymous about "Black Lives Matter"
  Leave a review nameless about "Black Lives Matter"
  Speak out confidentially about "Whose Lives Matter"
  Tell your government your opinion nameless about "Whose Lives Matter"
  Vote anonymous about "Black Lives Matter"

Example email first lines:
  Give your opinion anon about "Whose Lives Matter"
  Let us know your opinion nameless about "Whose Lives Matter"
  Speak out confidentially about "Whose Lives Matter"
  Tell your government your opinion anonymous about "Black Lives Matter"
  Vote anonymous about "Black Lives Matter"

Example attachment descriptions:
  Assertion included
  Claim in attached file
  Contention included 
  Form in attached file
  Statement included

Example attachment filenames:
  e-vote_form_1324.doc
  e-vote_form_32411.doc
  e-vote_form_41429.doc
  e-vote_form_83110.doc
  e-vote_form_9017.doc

 This is,

Letting You Know So You Can Stay Safe

Jim Hauenstein

And,

“Every conceivable layer of the election process is completely riddled with vulnerabilities, so yes, hacking elections is easy!”
- James Scott -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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I'll Be Seeing You.