The Piedmont Performance
The monster maker.
Act Three:
The scene changes again. You will be given no choice as to your driving direction. You will pull away from the apartment building and drive down the street. At the first street on the right you will make a right turn, a right turn, and then a final right turn. If you attempt to deviate from any of these turns, you will immediately perish and be deposited at the Piedmont Distribution Center. We lost volunteers #6-#8 because they failed to follow the instructions to turn right.
After the last series of right turns, you have arrived at your destination. It’s another immense building, but not a skyscraper. Once again, the scene changes.
Volunteer #9 was an officer who was being granted the opportunity to retire, rather than being forced out of the service. He received the pistol and the sedative. He was the first to be given an old-fashioned mechanical pencil and a memo book, so that he might record his experiences.
#9 reclined against the Piedmont and died within 15 minutes. He was the first to show us how the encounter begins to wind down. He also sent back some written information.
Act Four:
#9’s Experience:
You are now inside the building. It’s an enormous shopping mall. It is cavernous, with a high ceiling and a rough tan tiled floor. There are stores and shops all around, like any mall, except this one is much larger. You can’t see the end of the mall in any direction you look.
You don’t go far into the mall until you see what is obviously a bookstore on the right side of the hallway. You walk to it, but you do not enter. The store holds a huge amount of books, but you must not let these distract you. However, if you do attempt to enter the nameless bookstore, you will immediately perish and be transported to the Piedmont Distribution Center.
Volunteer #9’s camera displayed the entrance of the bookstore. He wrote on his memo pad, noting that he could see a salesperson inside (we did not see it on the camera). She was waving at him, as though to invite him into the store. He intended, he wrote, to go inside and speak to this woman. #9 perished and returned to the Piedmont building.
#10’s Experience:
#10 was another willing participant, and another military prisoner of some sort. #10 did very well in his performance. He memorized all the data, and he made it to the bookstore in Act Four. He ignored the store and began to take note of his surroundings.
Outside the bookstore is a wheeled bookshelf, the kind that bookstores normally place outside daily for advertisement purposes. You look closely at the shelf with the thought of purchasing a book. Do not attempt to touch or pick up a book, or you shall perish. #10, as noted, did very well in his performance - up to this point. He could not resist the books on the shelf, and this was his undoing. The exploits of #11, a civilian prisoner, led to the same deadly result.
#12 was another civilian convict being held in a military prison. I do not believe that I was ever informed of his crime. I do not think that I ever knew where he was imprisoned. He did best of all.
Participant #12 made it to the bookshelf and successfully resisted the temptation to pick up and open a book. He then noticed that the shelf contained powerful, horrible, obscene books of magic. Book 141 was on the shelf, as was an English translation of The Codex Baalham. The Dreams of Alheid was there, and many other books were on the shelf as well. One curious volume depicted, on the outside covers, gross shapes that were both reptilian and ranine in nature. It seemed especially focused on an evil-looking species of intelligent frogmen. #12 reported being drawn to purchase one of these books. Mostly, participants are surprised to see such dangerous and evil books being put on “public display.”
Frightened, #12 turned away from the bookstore and began to walk around. This happened to a few others, or so I have been told. Whether the participants knew anything about the books beforehand, they all reported that they knew what they were—and that they felt fear in the presence of these volumes.
At this time you are free to walk the hallway, but you cannot enter into any of the stores, even if you try. You may walk in any direction you choose. You are very close to the ending.
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