Creepypasta: Zalgo's Experiment

Creepypasta: Zalgo’s Experiment

Well. When things go wrong, boy, do they ever go wrong. You, one of the trio of astronauts sent on the first manned mission to Mars, are completely stranded. One of the frequent dust storms hopelessly disoriented you while you were out on recon, and you have no idea where you are in relation to base camp now. Everyone knew this was a very real risk, so it’s not really a surprise, but that nevertheless does little to comfort you.
Electromagnetic interference from rare earth metals in the powdery planet’s surface have effectively rendered your communications gear useless, which you had to ditch anyway about four clicks back because it was weighing you down far too much. Fatigue is taking its hold on your perceptions, and you know you must find a safe spot for the approaching Martian night that is shielded from the sandstorm. As you turn the corner of a rocky outcropping you see some steps leading into a cavern and think you’ll-

Wait. Steps. That’s not right.

The hairs on your neck instantly stand upright as your fevered mind races through all the possibilities. In the space of a few seconds you form two theories. Either this is the remnant of some secret Russian mission to the moon from the Cold War era, or extra-terrestrials. You think back to watching the Alien flicks as a kid and dearly hope there’s nothing but a bunch of long-dead cosmonauts down there. The storm is growing fierce, and if you stay exposed outside for even another hour it could seriously damage your air recycler. Grudgingly you take a few tension-soaked steps down into the cavern’s recesses, and before long the din of the sandstorm has faded considerably.

As you descend lower and lower the steps become more clear and distinct in shape, and you absentmindedly note that they seem to be perfectly sized for human feet. Eventually the lighting gets exceedingly dim and you activate your helmet’s floodlamp. You inhale sharply at what you see. Petroglyphs are inscribed all over the ceiling and walls of this place, each done in exquisite detail. As you regain your composure, you are floored a second time when you realize what they portray: scenes from human history, starting precisely at the turn of the 1900’s and continuing to the 1950’s at the portion of the cavern where you are. Further down the cavern it seems to stretch down the decades to the 60’s, 70’s, and so forth, all the way up to the 2000's at the edge of your vision.

You begin walking briskly, looking at the images that have somehow survived in this acrid environment. The Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Soviet occupation of Afgahnistan, the fall of the Berlin wall, the World Trade Center bombing and subsequently 9/11, it’s all there. Eventually it changes in tone though. It is showing scenes that only you would recognize.

Because these are all events from your childhood.

The time you got a concussion when you biked without a helmet, the time you got suspended for pushing a bully down the stairs, your first kiss. Now onto the young adult years, the backpacking trips you took across Southeast Asia, your graduation, and now right up until the present. The last petroglyph shows a human figure standing in front of a door. Indeed, a mundane wooden door like you would find in any house on Earth is set into the wall facing you. You hear a muffled voice call from beyond the door. It is a low baritone, and judging from the intonation sounds like six mouths speaking at once.

“Welcome, Human. I am He who Waits Behind the Wall, and I have been awaiting your arrival. The experiment isn’t quite over yet. I still need you to open the door, for you to see what lies beyond. All your life you trusted your reality as an absolute. It is time to stop seeing the universe with your third eye blind, Human.”

Now it is all up to you. You did always wish to see things in a different light, things that no one else before you had laid eyes on. That was the reason you wanted to be an astronaut, your childhood dream that you had finally fulfilled. But now it is time to make the ultimate leap. Dare you open the door?