Ok this whole situation has been ongoing for a little while now so I feel that it is going to need some explanation before going on. Please bear with me and I’ll try to keep it relatively short. As this story pertains to my job I am going to keep specific details out of it. I am sure you all understand that I would rather not lose my job by bringing specifics into this whole thing. Let’s just say that I work overnight security at a large manufacturing site with multiple different buildings. The site itself is massive and there are probably about 30 buildings on site ranging from the size of studio apartments to 3 story office buildings. Essentially what I’m trying to emphasize is that, not only is the site itself massive, but many of the buildings are quite large.
That being said there has been a push in recent years to consolidate the site and reduce its size. Some buildings have essentially been cleared out leaving them completely abandoned save for old office furniture and equipment. These buildings have been marked for demolition but progress has been slow and many of them have gone empty and unmaintained since I started here 6 years ago. For the sake of time ill refer to these buildings as the abandoned buildings and the others on site as occupied. Trust me this is going to come into play later.
Generally when conducting our nightly rounds we are not required to go into the abandoned buildings, in fact for the most part all power has been cut to these buildings. At most we check for signs of forced entry from the outside and rattle the doors to make sure they are fully secure. The site itself is largely inaccessible from the outside so we normally don’t need to worry about non employees wandering the site and making trouble. There are a few weak spots however that, for one reason or another, have never been addressed.
These weak spots have led to a handful of incidents where random people have somehow ended up wandering onto the site. Incidents of this have been extremely rare happening maybe 3 or 4 times the entire time that I have worked here. Normally it’s a drunk guy wandering out of the bar or strip club down the road who mistakes the site for a series of hotels in the opposite direction. When that happens they will usually make their way over the fence and one of the guards will find them wandering drunkenly on site somewhere. The cops will be called and they will be escorted away; pretty standard procedure for any site like this.
As you would imagine we have an alarm system and a pretty extensive camera system throughout the site. The main problem with this is that, again, the abandon buildings have no power. Otherwise the cameras are generally focused on the occupied portion of the site with the majority of them being positioned on the exteriors of various buildings and the interiors of more important buildings. Essentially only buildings with product in them have cameras set up inside. For the most part the exterior cameras can all be moved though they are often focused on specific areas. Namely potential access points in the fence line and intersections around the site.
On nights there are always 3 guards on post; one at the access gate, one monitoring cameras and alarms, and one conducting physical rounds. Communication is maintained via radios that the guards and site maintenance technicians carry at all times. This is something else that comes in to play later as well. Well now that we have all of that out of the way we can get down to the real reason why I am writing this. I believe that there is someone on this site who isn’t supposed to be here. When you consider the size of the site and the fact that some of these abandoned buildings have upwards of a hundred or more rooms in them it isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
To spite the fact that we are given a vehicle I generally walk the rounds; we are given about 3 hours to complete them and the walk is a nice break from scanning cameras all night. I have been at this for about 6 years so I am used to the eeriness that seems to settle in around 2 or 3 in the morning. That time when the world is silent save for those quiet little noises that gnaw at the back of your brain. The rustle of leaves just outside of your range of sight, A shadow that seems just a little too big to be an animal, the sound of wind blowing through trees that sounds suspiciously like breathing. The brain can take these usually ordinary sounds and twist them when you can’t directly see their source.
I bring up the fact that I’m used to these things not to brag but to add weight to what I am about to say; I believe that there is someone following me when I do rounds. I am not sure how long it has been going on but I know that it has only been a few weeks since I first noticed it. It began when I swore that I heard footsteps following me around the abandoned part of the site. As I checked doors I swore that I could hear someone attempting to match my footsteps. After serving in the Marines I know the distinct sound of someone marching out of step. These footsteps never matched mine perfectly so there was almost always a slight echo effect. Often they would stop a pace or so after my last step; this would cause me to spin around only to find nothing behind me.
I chalked it up to my mind playing tricks on me and kept on doing my rounds. A few days went by without incident until one night when I saw something strange reflected in a building window. It happened to be a full moon in a clear sky that night. I was making my way towards a building when I heard the footsteps shuffling behind me again. I stopped suddenly just to confirm what I heard and, sure enough, they stopped a pace or so after I did. This time I didn’t spin around, instead I kept walking and eyes the window in front of me. In it I could see my reflection but nothing else. After a few seconds however I started to see movement behind me. A shadowed figure stepped out from behind a construction dumpster and began matching my pace.
At this point my heart was pounding but I struggled to stay calm as I went about my rounds like I never saw the figure. I did however cut the abandoned building checks short and quickly made my way back to the occupied part of the site. I realized as I passed one of the buildings that I no longer heard the footsteps and turned to look behind me. Sure enough there was no figure; I still didn’t feel as if I were alone however. I felt as if someone was watching me as I made my way back to the control center.
When I got back I pulled up the camera logs and went through the few exterior cameras that were still operational on the abandoned part of the site. While I did so the other guard headed out to walk his set of rounds. I was still looking through the cameras when I received a call on the radio that the other guard had just seen something moving near one of the abandoned buildings. He advised me that he was going to investigate and would report in if he found anything. He came back in later that night and told me that he hadn’t found any one but he had thought that he heard movement at the other end of the building and noted that one of the window was opened.
We explained the night to our boss on the morning shift and a few guards were sent over in the daylight. The searched through the entire building and couldn’t find any one in there. They did however find signs of someone being in one of the buildings recently. No one seemed to think anything of it however because the maintenance crew has been known to use these buildings as hideouts to take naps. The problem is that, as I said earlier, the building is huge; even if someone was in there they could have easily hidden. Without power the building is also relatively dark during the day with some rooms even requiring flashlights. The window was secured and new locks were placed on the doors with only security and the head of maintenance being given keys.
Over the next few weeks nothing out of the ordinary happened; we walked rounds with no extra footsteps. Building inspections were done without the unwanted presence of a shadowy figure. Everything seemed normal and I had just started to believe that I may have just been someone on the maintenance team fucking with us. Then the footsteps started back up tonight.
I was halfway through my rounds when my radio started to beep signaling a dying battery; great they didn’t charge them last shift. I called into the control center on my phone to let the other guard know and continued on with my rounds. I got through the entirety of the abandoned building checks without hearing or seeing anything. I was heading towards one of the buildings that was still occupied but in the process of building cleared out, For the sake of storytelling let’s call this building A.
Building A has no exterior cameras and guards use the rear entrance of the building where no other exterior camera has a good view of the building. Since this building is right on the fringe of the abandoned portion of the site the back parking lot and entrance are relatively dark. As I approached the door I started to feel uneasy again and stopped walking. I didn’t hear any footsteps and didn’t see any movement so I convinced myself that nothing was wrong and made my way into the building. Everything was fine until I entered into the stair well on the 5th floor. That was when I heard he door to one of the lower levels shut below me. At this point it’s one in the morning, there is NEVER any one in this building at one in the morning. In fact the entire time I have worked here the latest I have ever seen some one stay is 11 pm.
To be on the safe side I called the control room and had the guard run a check on badge swipes for this building. This showed that I was in fact the only person that had gone into or out of the building since 6 pm. Heart pounding I slowly made my way downstairs straining my ears to listen for any movement. I had no way of knowing if someone below me had entered or exited the stair well. When I reached the bottom floor I called into the control center and left my phone on speaker while I searched the building from the ground up. The first thing I found was the door that I had come in to propped open with a wooden stick.
The doors close automatically and seal with a mag lock after only about 5 or 6 seconds which means that whoever propped the door open had to be very close behind me. I closed the door and started slowly making my way through the building knowing now that someone was definitely in there with me. I was on the third floor when I was told by the control room guard that the alarm signaling the door being opened just sounded. I rushed down to find the door closed and no one around. I made sure the door was securely locked and finished inspecting the building. In the 3rd floor break room I found the refrigerator still open. I can only imagine that whoever was in the building went down the second stairwell opposite of the one that I was in and left the building that way.
I called my boss and we are going to review the cameras when she gets in. I’m not sure what we will find because there are not many internal cameras in this building. I can only think of one camera that may have seen the person but that camera is aimed into a secure room. If it did catch anything it would have been at a very awkward angle. Maybe it will be enough to at least get a look at the person who’s been fucking with us. Ill post more tomorrow after I find out more information on what is going to happen. Until then I’m going home to have a few drinks and TRY to sleep.
Submitted February 25, 2016 at 04:12PM by moshpitmachine http://ift.tt/1T8WUHI nosleep
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