Hello, my name is Michael Barrington.
I hope I succeed this test. Here, let me explain: Around noon one day I started feeling dizzy, sleepy almost, and I couldn't even walk or concentrate.
I called in sick and went back home, but the moment I stepped inside the feeling got worse, like if someone had hit me over the head with a freaking hammer. My vision was blurry, and I couldn't take it anymore. I wandered around my house for a bit before falling unconscious.
I woke up in a chair in a dark room. I couldn't move, even though there were no bindings tying me up. Something kept me still, a force, or... I don't know what it was.
My head was pounding, my throat was aching, my vision was still blurry, and from what I could make out I was alone in the room. I tried to scream but no sound came out, it only made my throat hurt more. Tears were soaking my face at this point, just as my sweat soaked my body. My breathing heavy, I scanned the room once more before noticing I was not as alone in the room as I first thought. There was someone else in the room, a man. I couldn't really make out many details about him, but as far as I could see he was in a suit, sitting and watching me.
He began to speak, his voice soothing, comforting. His voice made the pain go away. I stopped sweating and my tears dried up.
He told me I would be part of a social experiment and that my ability to speak would be returned if I succeed. I began to have hopes that I could make it out of there alive. He gave me my instructions: I was to be thrown in the middle of a barbaric species that kill their own kind for the sole sport of killing, a species that would kill me outright if they thought I was the least bit a threat. He said that they see utilizing a type of radiation I could not, and they communicate on a frequency I would be unable to hear. He continued to say that I would be given one day to choose something in my house to defend myself while among this species. After a long moment of silence, simply staring in his direction, I started to think of running away. He was setting me free, I could go to the police; they would hide me somewhere that he would never find me.
I couldn't quite see his face but somewhere in my mind I knew that he smiled when I thought that. He told me that the more people I involved in this test, the more cleaning up he would have to do. After a brief pause he said, in a much colder voice, "I dare you to run, Michael. It will be fun chasing you."
I'm writing this at my house. I have my combat knife, my Kevlar vest and my colt that I still carry from my army days. I need to survive this, I must survive this!
Mary, I love you, I always have. I'll do anything for you... wish me luck.
This note was found in Mr. Barrington's house. He was convicted for killing thirteen people with a combat knife and a single army-issue Colt M1911 in Brookfield Mall last week. After he was subdued, the police found he had been rendered both blind and deaf, but could find no adequate reason why.