My First Day On The Job At A Substation In Texas Was Nothing Short Of Terrifying

We finished our second smoke session and headed back inside. We decided to power-smoke through the joint, which was nearly as big as the first, on account of the cold that continued to grow even colder. Ricky grabbed one of the old metal chairs from the break room and carried it back to the security room. I turned off the VCR for the break-room camera. I figured that was the most expandable.

I rummaged through the box for a moment. Each VHS tape had a title quickly scratched onto the label in black marker. I decided to start with a tape that read “July 1989 #4”. I pushed the tape in and it hit play. Ricky grabbed a slice of pizza from the box on the control panel and so did I. We both leaned forward in anticipation as the snow began to fog up the screen then gradually fade away to reveal the Endless Walk. The date in the corner read 07/1989, but the Walk looked exactly the same as the tunnel I’d been in just a couple hours before. At first, it was just the tunnel on screen. After about a minute, I grew impatient and began to fast forward. Before too long, a figure began to walk into frame in fast motion and I hit the play button.

The motion on the playback slowed to a normal pace and there was a man in a pair of blue overalls making the Endless Walk. His head was down as he strolled the long tunnel, focused on his clipboard and tapping his pen on the top. He didn’t look anything like me, but seeing him make the Walk gave me a tinge of deja vu.

“Wonder who that dude is,” Ricky wondered out lout.

“Probably another sad shit like me. Looks like he worked here in the 80s,” I said as I tapped the date in the corner of the screen.

We watched Mr. Blue Overalls walk the Endless Walk down the tunnel, stopping at meters every so often to take his notes. The video switched cameras as he walked further down. That immediately struck me odd. I would’ve assumed the tapes would all be from one camera each. Otherwise, that would have to mean these tapes were edited. I didn’t have much time to think about it, because things started to get weird right about then.

The video flickered a bit of snow, and changed cameras to show Mr. Blue Overalls up close. He had thick blonde muttonchops and a pair of coke-bottle glasses. He looked like half the engineers I’ve ever known. He neared the camera and stopped for a moment. He was at the end of his route. I could tell by the red hanging light that swung next to the last meter. Something seemed to catch Mr. Overall’s eye and it made him freeze in his tracks. His pen stopped tapping, and I could just barely make out a confused and worried face behind those mutton chops. Right at that moment, I noticed the fog beginning to creep in around his feet and flow past him.

Mr. Overalls’ expression grew from worried to dreadfully grim in an instant, and though there was no sound, I could tell he screamed. He spun around and hauled ass back towards the elevator, dropping his clipboard and pen. Just as he left camera range, the wall of white mist rushed into frame. A split second after that, the screen went snowy.

I was afraid that was it, but then it cut to another camera angle. Mr. Overalls came running into camera range, his hair blowing back and his chest heaving with each stride. The wall of fog was right on him, and catching up quick. The lights swayed violently as the fog hit each one, and they quickly flickered off once the white mist rushed over them. My predecessor didn’t make it very far. The fog washed over and past him, the last light just over his head exploding into a shower of sparks before darkness. There was no audio, but in my head, I could hear him scream again. And I imagined that scream quickly cut off. The fog seemed to halt suddenly just a few yards past where it had consumed him. Like it had done what it was there to do, and it had no reason to go any further. The horrifying mist lingered on camera for just a few seconds longer before the feed quickly snowed up and then cut to black.

“What the fuck?” Ricky shouted through a mouthful of pizza and a genuinely puzzled expression.

I didn’t answer. Instead I pressed fast forward until the snow returned and the date read 03/1992 in the corner. There was a young black guy with an afro. He was in the same control room we were in, and it looked exactly the same. Same lack of light, same old office chair. I kept it in fast motion and it skipped ahead to him in the break room, building a house of cards. Then it cut to him making the Endless Walk. I slowed the tape down to normal speed.

He made the walk just like Mr. Overalls and just like I do — stopped at each meter, scribbled on a clipboard, and moved on. He wasn’t even up to the red light when he stopped and peered ahead. The camera was right above his head, the rounded lens extenuating his already large afro. He didn’t even seem to truly understand what he was seeing before the light went out above him and there was only shadows on screen. They flashed on for less than a second, and Mr. Afro was backing up with a look of panic. The lights flashed off. The lights flashed on again, and Mr. Afro was turning around, ready to run away. But there was no longer open tunnel for him to run through. There was now a wall of white fog… and something else, just within the fog. The light only flashed on for a moment, but I caught a glimpse of a white figure in the mist. Impossibly tall and reaching out, ready to great Mr. Afro with long, open arms. The screen flashed snowy then faded black again before we could see anything else.

Ricky and I slowly turned to each other. He finished chewing a mouthful of bacon, olives, and cheese, then gulped down and spoke in a hushed tone.

“When did you say you have to go down there again?” Ricky asked.

I turned from Ricky to look at the control panel and he followed my gaze to do the same. The little red, digital numbers read 2:52AM.

“Fuck me, right?” I said with a sigh.

“You don’t have to do it, dude. We’ll just turn off the cameras for a minute, no one’s the wiser, right?” Ricky suggested with a worried smile.

“Last time I shirked my walk, something bad happened,” I said, recounting the clicking and skittering of whatever the hell passed over the box. It felt like they were crawling on my skin, and I did not want that to happen again. What if they weren’t content with just passing by this time, whatever “they” were.

“Uh, ok… I’ll just assume ‘something bad’ is not something we want. Cool, cool. If you gotta’ do the walk, I’ll stay up here and keep an eye on the cameras. If I see anything bogus before you, I’ll give you the heads up and you can book it back to the elevator. I’ve got walkie-talkies in my ride. Whatya’ think?” Ricky offered as he scratched his head and smiled.