The Masks of Nyarlathotep: Australia pt 5

Extracts from the Personal Diary of Dr Eliza Jamieson

I don’t know how long I was out but I awoke in a land of pure horror. I am in a cage which is one of many laid out in a line within an unfathomably huge underground cavern as I am unable to see the roof or anything other than one rock wall that is at the rear of the cage. The only lighting in the area are the occasional standing lanterns which emit a harsh white light. The nearest of these is some distance away so my cage is somewhat poorly lit. The stench is also unbearable as there does not appear to be any sanitation. Though I suspect the cages are cleaned occasionally judging by the lack of human detritus.

Looking at the cages in detail I note that there are both men and women imprisoned down here and that most appear to be Indigenous Australians. Most of the people in the cages appear to be in an almost catatonic state though I note that a few are moaning or sobbing quietly. I also note that all the prisoners are naked.

Adjacent to our position there is a cage containing six Indigenous Australian females and most appear to be in various states of pregnancy. While on my other side there appears to be one unfortunate who appears to be in the early stages of labour.

I do notice that there are two buckets outside my cage, one of which contains water and a wooden ladle, while the other contains some sort of animal feed, which does not look overly pleasant but will probably be sufficient to provide food for the prisoners.

The cage I am imprisoned in appears to be an exception as I am with two other Caucasian females, almost as if we are being kept separate. One of these is an Australian while the other is seemingly an American. Both of them appear to be pregnant. While the Australian is barely showing I estimate that she is twelve to fourteen weeks. The American on the other hand appears to be going into her third trimester.

It is approximately thirteen to fourteen Celsius in this cavern, which causes my cage-mates to huddle close together for warmth so I decide to join them. While the American’s mind appears to have completely gone, the Australian still appears to have maintained a tenuous grip on her sanity though it is clear she has spent many nights crying herself to sleep. She speaks English so I am able to ascertain her name and how she came to be here – she is named Kyra and she was captured when she and her boyfriend, Greg, were touring the Canning Stock Route last October. Greg was captured with her but she’s not seen him since.

I try to encourage her as best as I can in an effort to stop her teetering over the edge into insanity while also attempting to ascertain how many guards she had seen in the area.

There are lots of guards, almost all men, of several types. Some are aboriginals, but of a different type to the locals – Kyra knows a few words of Pintubi but she can’t understand whatever they’re speaking. Then there are the non-aboriginals, men mainly drawn from Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Then there’s a bunch of people, about half aboriginal and half Caucasian, who seem almost mindless, like they’ve been lobotomised.

“But their boss is a completely insane American named Huston – it’s him who directs their rituals. You wanna watch out for him, girl, he’s pure evil.” Kyra doesn’t know how many there are all told, at least three or four dozen, probably far more.

As to my own condition I, like everyone else here, am completely naked and judging by some of the marks on my body I sense that they were not sensitive when undressing me and that my clothes were literally torn off. I also feel some discomfort in my most sensitive area and while I am unable to confirm or deny this I have been sexually abused and most likely raped.

Without a weapon as such and devoid of even my underwear it is very unlikely that I will be able to manufacture an escape so I have to hang on and hope for a rescue. Still I suspect that things are going to get worse before they get better and I only hope that my iron resolve will sustain me until that time.

I decide that it would be advisable to discover what exactly is going on so I ask Kyra why they are operating, what in all intent and purpose is, a baby factory and she informs me that this is not really a baby factory as the children being produced here are literally monsters and she will go no further than this other than stating that I do not want to know more.

However I am soon to discover the true horror as the Koori woman in the next cage goes into labour and though I am able to see two men lurking nearby neither makes any effort to assist. I attempt to help but am too far away and they won’t let me out to help.

The imminent mother is likely in too much pain to hear my advice and her moans last for four hours before rising to sobs as the contractions hit. Though as the contractions get closer together these become screams of agony, which in turn become almost constant howls of agony and abject terror – before the end she also begins tearing at her own flesh.

Finally a horrific form flops out, looking like a two foot bat with baby legs and a reptilian tail, which makes bubbly mewling noises. The mother does not survive this horrific birth and she passes in a mess of blood and excrement.

The two lurking men then move forward, open the cage and snare this thing with a hoop on the end of a pole, a device similar to that used by professional dog-catchers. Then then drag it away before returning in a few minutes for the mother’s body. After this they ‘clean’ the cage by hosing it down, soaking me, Kyra and the American woman in the process.

This whole incident places me in a sort of dissociative fugue and I am only brought back to my senses when I hear Kyra sobbing in despair. He exact words are, “That’s what’s going to happen to us!” as she hugs the drooling Louisa-Mae to her bosom while stating that this is Louisa-Mae’s second time around. I also realise that as I had likely been raped that this was likely to be my future if I was not rescued.

The men then come to my cage as they have orders to take me to see Houston, but before this can occur I am also ‘cleaned up’, which involves me being stood against a wall and having the hose played over me. Well I suppose it is one way to get rid of the foul smell, and this also has the effect of leaving me looking like a drowned cat.

Following this I am taken to one side and thrown a dress which I’m told to put on thought it is clearly two sizes too big for me and I am not supplied with either underwear or footwear or even an opportunity to dry myself off. Which means that the dress clings somewhat revealingly to my wet body. I also notice while I am dressing that there are at least half-a-dozen men watching me but none of them make any effort to help me.

One thing is for sure, I am not just going to give up, and if I am going to meet my end I am going to face it with my chin up and with as much dignity as I can manage. So I put my shoulders back, straighten myself up and sweep my hair behind my ears before striding out.

Following my impromptu clean-up, I am marched across a large hexagonal chamber some four hundred feet across and past a number of Houston’s goons, noting as I do so that there are more men than I had first thought as there appear to be several dozen, all of whom are armed.

I also notice that virtually all the men take a good look at me as I am led past and I can literally feel their depraved eyes lingering on my body, especially where the dress is clinging to my skin, which makes me feel even more exposed than if I had been naked. I also overhear one man say something to his companion in a language I don’t recognise which causes the second man to laugh and make lewd thrusting motions with his hips. (I took a mental note of this for I intend some form of retribution should I be lucky enough to escape.)

Finally I am dragged up a ramp leading away from a near corner to the right that climbs at an angle to the left. At the top of the ramp I am met by a medium-height, sparely built male in his late middle-age who emerges from a room where he had positioned himself in order to overlook the plaza. This man is clearly Houston, but before he turns to me he gives a short speech to his own people stating, “Ladies and gentlemen, you all know we have intruders on the premises. So please do not allow this young lady to distract you from your duties”. This is spoken with a strong East-coast American accent and upon hearing this I notice that there are also a handful of women among the cultists.

Following this Houston turns to me, greets me warmly and invites me to have dinner with him, almost like we were on a blind date. “Just because we’re on opposite sides is no excuse to be uncivilised.” This truly stuns me when you consider what had occurred in the last few hours, which indicates to me that Houston is madder than a box full of frogs. It is also clear that there are degrees of insanity, for not only has his cheese completely slipped off his cracker but it has also slipped down a hole as deep as the San Andreas Trench.

I am led into a room which has a folding table set up in the middle with a crate positioned on each side to sit on. The table is also carefully laid out with plastic plates and cutlery. (Damn! I was hoping that I may acquire something I could use to escape.) Fortunately the food itself comes from cans, which is a blessing.

Meanwhile the chamber itself is fifty feet across and I notice that there are three other exits, all in the middle of the walls opposite the entrance I came in by. Each of these are covered by bead curtains. Around the walls I also notice a number of larger folding tables, all containing a wealth of salvaged Yithian equipment which appears to have been serviced by Houston. Several of these items appear to be fully functional, including one very similar to the device that caused Fatima’s weird fugue back in Sydney. I also note that two guards remained stationed just inside the door.

Houston steps forward and pulls one of the crates out for me, akin to a gentleman holding a chair out for a lady in an Edwardian drawing room. Once he has ensured that I am seated he pushes my ‘chair’ in before moving off to sit opposite. He then begins with introductions, “Hello, my dear! My name is Dr Robert Houston – what’s yours?” As it is highly likely that he is already aware of my true identity, and I feel it would be churlish to lie, I give my real name, “Dr Elizabeth Anne Jamieson”, and I even resort back to my natural Scottish accent.

Maybe if I am careful I may be able to use this meal to gain some insight as to what actually happened in regard to the Carlisle expedition as he clearly survived and hopefully he may let slip the location of the others and reveal what it is they are doing here.

I already suspect that they encountered Alpha One in the Bent Pyramid, as did we, so it may be useful to discover what happened during this encounter. Though in saying this I also suspect Alpha One may already have been exerting pressure on Mr Carlisle as I suspect that Carlisle’s so called voodoo woman is actually yet another of Alpha Ones aspects.

As I sit facing Houston I consider what he had just preached to his men and I feel a memory come to the fore, though this is not so much a memory and was to be accurate some sort of half waking dream/nightmare that involved my companions and an attempted raid which failed miserably which was understandable when you consider the odds they were facing, which were in the region of six to one.

While I am not overly clear in regard to the time line here I suspect that the dream itself occurred between the time of the most recent birthing and me being taken from my cage as the dream started with me sitting huddled in the corner of my cage staring out into the darkness when suddenly three large humanoid figures emerged from the dark of the tunnel (as it appeared that I had spent so long staring into the darkness that my eyes had become naturalised) noting as I did so that the leading figure appeared to have an unusual shaped head (which was probably caused by his goggles).

Judging by his size I was able to assess that this was Leroy and that the two figures behind him were Ginger and Winston and that they were attempting to be stealthy however this was ruined when Leroy tripped and fell, probably over one of the buckets, and in doing so discharged his shotgun, instantly alerting the goons in the main area.

Following this I saw both Ginger and Winston react as both of them discharged weapons and while Ginger’s shot was the resounding thud of .303, Winston’s shot involved the hissing crack of a lightning bolt which caused two cries of pain and shock to emerge from behind me as two of the cultists were hit.

Unfortunately this also resulted in some return fire from the cultists and a realisation on my part that I was in the line of fire and that I was effectively one of those little tin men that appear on fairground shooting galleries also that I was in a big metal cage that could be hit by a stray bolt of lightning turning me and my cellmates into crispy critters.

Realising this, I quickly hit the dirt while shouting to Kyra and Louisa Mae to do the same, and I also ensured that we were as close to the centre of the cell as possible and as far away from the bars as we could get. Just as I got down however I heard someone call out my name, I think it was Dave, so I acknowledged his call, and he then asked how the cages were locked.

I replied that they were locked with padlocks and following this I heard him rattling the locks and talking to someone and I think it was Saeed though I could only see one figure. He then asked why I had not used my sparkler to unfasten my cell and I was ready to tell him why when something weird happened for everything changed as events seemed to reset to the start of the dream somewhat akin to a computer game resetting to a previous save point. Surely, he should have realised I would not have my needle and I heard him talking to Saeed so should have been able to get the door unlocked as he had access to the same sparkler.

I noted that Dave appeared to be trying to create items out of nothing and this reminded me that we are in the ‘Dreamtime’ and that this place operated much like the Dreamlands so if or when I get put back in my cell I will have to see whether I can put my own dreaming ability to some use. Though just in case it may be advantageous to watch the jailers and hope to discover where the keys to the cells are kept.

I am able by force of will alone to maintain my smile and feign interest in his small talk in hope that he will let some information slip as to the purpose of this place and hopefully I can garner some information in regard to the other members of the Carlisle expedition and I also suspect that I am only able to recall this dream because of my connections to the supernatural.

Now I am fully aware that this meal was taking place within the Dreamtime, and that Houston was not some kind of movie villain which meant it was very unlikely that he would act like a gloating idiot and it will be up to me try and winkle out any information by guiding the conversation and literally using all the weapons I still have at my disposal namely my intelligence and my looks.

As I have chronicled all of our exploits to date it is likely that he will be trying to reciprocate so I need to be careful and take my time before answering any questions either by slow chewing or picking at invisible spots on my clothing I have to try and answer any questions with a question of my own and on no account should I lose my cool as this is a pivotal moment.

Of course, I have vast amounts of outdated and non-relevant information which I could use at a pinch but I will try to keep those in reserve still I suspected that Houston will be good at reading emotions mind you Adam had some issues with reading me due to my strong will and he knew me considerably better than Houston.

It took Delta Green a week to garner details of our earlier exploits from me when I was co-operating so hopefully I could hold out here. Still if I could garner some information as to what occurred when they had encountered Alpha One at Pisa and he had convinced them to move their operations from Egypt then it would be great.

I also wanted to ask him why he had forsaken the oath he had sworn to do no harm in order to run a horror show that was akin to the death camps in World War Two. (I can understand the operations in Africa, Egypt and Europe even though I am repelled by them but this operation in Australia is another level of madness).

Unfortunately, I was unable to garner any information, but he did let slip that the so-called massacre of the Expedition was a total sham as I had long suspected. So, it appeared that the rest of the expedition are involved in the other operations.

As the meal ended I was to encounter a more unpleasant side of Houston as he indicated that I should move to the wall, where there were some chains, as he was clearly unsatisfied with the information he had garnered from me and he was going to commence an interrogation. This would include some torture which I informed him was a poor way to acquire information as victims will tell you what you want to hear whether it be the truth or not. I decide to resist to the best of my limited abilities, but he used a sparkler to overcome my resistance.

Eventually he was able to acquire a lot of information about my colleagues though I like to think that I was able to force him to use more of his magical power than he would have liked by dragging my feet and adding superfluous and essentially useless information. Still he was able to acquire not only our cover names but also codenames and real names and while I had hoped this would at least have drained his power, it appeared that he had unlimited power. Once he was satisfied, and he finally let me free of his control.

He also tried to convince me to change to the winning team and join him and his friends but I made it clear that I would rather die than sell my soul to Alpha One and I was able to punctuate this by spitting in his face in a final act of defiance.

In return for this I was handed over to his torturer who had just begun his ministrations when fate gave me a helping hand as there was the sound of gunfire from the main hall.

Houston’s minion quickly dropped his torture devices and picked up his weapon before heading for the main hall with Houston and as they departed, I exhaustedly slumped into my chains and strained to hear what was happening.

I don’t know what happened but there was a considerable amount of shooting and a lot of shouting and I heard Houston using commands that activated his sparklers and, even though the fight seemed only to last only a minute or so, I was aware that time is very fluid here.

Just as the fighting died-down I heard a familiar voice exclaim from just the other side of the curtain ‘Oi watch me f***ing fingers, ya psycho bastard’ and I was able to identify this as Mad Ginger, mainly due to the accent and the somewhat colourful language so I called out.

The curtain was then pulled aside, and my friends entered the room and even though I must have looked a sight with my dress a torn rag and my hair a tangled mess, I was ecstatic to see that they were well as they came over to release me. I noted that they had also acquired a new friend who also called himself Dave. He was either an ex-prisoner or a reformed cultist who appeared to be a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

They informed me the attack had been successful due the aid of some allies which consisted of a Yithian named Kakatak, and a dozen denizens of this foul place split evenly between Mimi’s and Ghouls, two of which were leader cast and had the names Dame Nellie Melba (who was actually male) and Greg, which was a name I instantly recognised and I certainly did not want Kyra to find out that the real Greg was gone and a ghoul had eaten his flesh and had essentially taken on his thoughts and dreams as this would destroy her in her present fragile state.

So, I quickly made my way to the cages where I found that Kyra had only just been informed that Greg had passed on and I made every effort to comfort her in relation to her loss. It appeared Dame Nellie had got involved and had been able to not only keep Greg away from Kyra but also had convinced him to give up on his goal and this had ensured that she would remain blissfully unaware of Greg’s actual fate.

As well as me and Kyra, the team where able to rescue Louisa May, four other local Koori women, one white man and two Koori men. Unfortunately, Louisa May, two of the Koori women the white man and one of the koori men have been here too long and their minds have gone so they will probably need to be institutionalised for the rest of their lives, though it has to be said that all of us would require some counselling.

Also, it should be noted that all but one of the female prisoners were clearly pregnant. As I would not want anyone to experience the horror show of one of these births, I suggested that we would arrange abortions for anyone who wanted one and with a shudder the three who still had their wits agreed. As to the others I felt that unfortunately we would still need to perform these abortions, despite the somewhat dubious ethical issue that this will entail. In saying this I suggested that the one girl who didn’t look pregnant should also be checked just to be sure, together with me.

Five of Houston’s strangely vacant male followers were still standing after the fight in the main hall and these were the ones that Kyra had identified when I first came to in the cell, who appear to be on a par with Voodoo style zombies for they are still alive and can apparently be healed. It appears that these were slaves used for menial tasks and they were not actually cultists. Kakatak appeared to know how to reverse this process and was successful with four of the victims, though one failed to survive the process.

The Mimi’s wish to hunt down and eliminate the few cultists that fled the battle though there were two to who had taken refuge in the larder which we were able to coax out and these were taken prisoner in order that they be sent to Delta Green for questioning.

As to the three male prisoners, they were all of advancing years. While all three men were clearly just being kept as sacrifices, the second Koori male stood out for he was still sane, was blind and was covered in colourful tattoos.

Even stranger, though, was the reaction he got from the Mimi’s for all took a knee as he passed, and as I watched the old man became taller and thinner and took on the appearance of a Mimi. I also noted that they were repeating the same word over and over, “Jalkawarrinya”, which Ginger informed us was the local name for the Rainbow Serpent. I also noticed that his tattoos were actually moving.

Finally he stopped and graciously thanked everyone present for fighting against his rival, the Father of Bats, even though the fight can never be over as it will continue in perpetuity. (Surely as a god he could have escaped at any time and he merely used us to defeat his enemy?)

In thanks for this he offered everyone either a blessing or the offer of the sparkler ‘Enter Dreamtime’, which would require taking up the worship of the Rainbow Serpent and the relinquishment of my Catholic faith, so I declined his offer and just took the blessing, though Ginger seemed to be quite interested. Jalkawarrinya then had a few words with him before leaving with the Mimi’s.

Before everyone split up there was one thing I wanted to ask which. Could anyone define the trigger word that would unleash the full potential of Sayeed’s amulet? Which now appeared to be in the possession of David, as Sayeed was presently nowhere to be seen. Unfortunately, they are unable to elucidate whether it even has a function that can be actuated by a trigger word. Which was the answer I was expecting, if I’m honest, for while Kakatak is likely from a time before this thing was created, he/she belongs to a species that despises magic in all of its form and the Mimis work almost exclusively in pictograms and this is clearly an artefact that is very likely to be linked to the Outer Gods.

Dame Nellie also took his leave together with his troupe but not before making it clear that the bodies were theirs by way of payment for their assistance, though I noted that Greg was still disappointed that Kyra would not be accompanying him.

Kakatak collected all the lightning guns and Yithian artefacts in Houston’s chambers and that had been both employed by the team and the cultists and locked them back up before departing back to his/her own time though He/she left Abiya a communication device. This was only a partial departure as the Yithian’s physical form could not move through time and hence it would remain here as a mindless automaton.

As a team we decided to check out Houston’s quarters before leaving to see if we could garner any clues about the Carlisle Expedition’s remaining members. Our search revealed an archive of correspondence mainly from Penfold, who it appears is based at Grey Dragon Island, in China, and Clive, who is still in Egypt. The more recent letters appear to be concerning the whereabouts of Paymaster and Gunner who have apparently been missing since the expedition was in in Uganda/Kenya. Though there is a recent unconfirmed report that Gunner has been seen in Hong Kong.

This is interesting as we already know that Gunner never entered Pisa and did not appear to be involved in the conspiracy and this information implied that Paymaster may also not be involved.

Reading some of Houston’s ramblings, it is clear that he had fully embraced the mythos and he was expecting to be presented with a position of power and be spared from the fate of mankind once the gate was opened that would allow the Outer Gods access to the Earth once again. We also found a six-hundred-page type-written manuscript that details all the plans leading to this outcome, which he had entitled ‘Gods of Reality’ and I was willing to read this as the others had already sacrificed so much in coming to my rescue.

As we were searching, however, Sayeed re-appeared. As he did so, I noted that Leroy was avoiding looking at him, which puzzled me until Ginger informed me that Leroy had killed Sayeed after he had attempted to shoot Leroy – it appeared that Sayeed had suffered a severe mental breakdown and had become a cultist. This had also caused David to suffer a mental breakdown and in doing so he had apparently created a Dreamtime version of Sayeed which would likely disappear once we left the Dreamtime. However, Winston appeared to have a sparkler that could send Sayeed to the Dreamlands and he was able to employ this.

(Wow this is a bag of worms that psychiatrists would likely write books about and have a field day as a simple explanation of what happened was giving me a serious headache.)

Mad Dave decides that he too has had enough of this place, but with his background as a likely ex-cultist we may need to defend him against Delta Green because this is a man who has stood on the ledge and has altered his views and that must be respected. He will probably be questioned about the global plot and Houston’s part in it. But this man put his life on the line for me so I will defend him to the hilt.

Taking the freed prisoners and Houston’s documents, we made our way out of the city via the front door. There was a moment of panic as one of the Living Winds swooped towards us but David’s amulet quickly saw it off. Leroy and Ginger then set off to collect the vehicles, which were some distance off. However, it was clear that with all our new friends and the two prisoners we would not have enough spaces, so we needed to employ one of the trucks which I would be willing to drive as my recent training had involved larger vehicles and fortunately one of them was roadworthy and once Leroy and Ginger got back, I once again had access to my own clothing and cross, which helped to instil some of my old confidence.

Finally, to put a line under everything the scans showed that I had not been impregnated but I had been sexually abused so I would need to get some counselling and it was the same diagnosis for the final Koori girl.