Lost Signals
Page 41
UltimaTech recently cancelled the release of its much-anticipated title Galactic Recon (for reasons unknown at press time), which the thirty-year-old McKay called his “dream project” in interviews conducted during the game’s development over the last two years.
McKay is survived by his mother and one sister.
***
UltimaTech Entertainment
INTERNAL MEMORANDUM
Re : existing copies of “Galactic Recon” (Job# UT-477644 / 0)
ATTN : ALL EMPLOYEES
Note that pre-production of the UltimaTech property “Galactic Recon” has ceased, and the project has been cancelled. All existing (prototype) copies of the game should be DESTROYED immediately. This includes copies approved for home use, product testing, etc—NO EXCEPTIONS.
Please see your immediate supervisor or the Human Resources Department with questions or concerns.
***
From an abbreviatedFox Newsinterview with UltimaTech Entertainment C.E.O. Edmund W. Stern—January 5, 1995 :
STERN : Darren McKay suffered from severe depression, and any speculation that he took his own life because of his work on a videogameis not only ridiculous, it is offensive to my friend’s legacy as one of this industry’s most brilliant programmers. Now, I am not a vengeful man. But you all should know that UltimaTech will seek swift legal action against those who choose to libel the company’s good name with talk of . . . ahem, I can barely say it with a straight face . . . a game that kills anyone who plays it ? Asinine.
(STERN’S ATTORNEY) : No further questions. Let us pass. Ladies and gentlemen, no further questions !
***
The boss wants to make this all go away. But even if by some miracle Stern is able to save his company what we’ve I’VE done will never go away.
People Innocent CHILDREN are dying.
Don’t know why it only affects the kids. All I know is, it’s MY fault.
It’s something in the CODE. Something that causes a glitch in their brains. Some kind of “fatal error” that shuts down the will to live after playing the game for more than a few hours.
I’ve tried to find my mistake. But I’m not as good as everyone said I was. The wunderkind is a fraud. I am a MURDERER.
Please God forgive me. I wish I never created that fucking game.
—note found in a spiral notebook in Darren McKay’s condo the day after his suicide
***
BILL OF LADING
DATE : 11 / 29 / 94
SHIPPED FROM : UltimaTech Entertainment
212 Bonham Avenue
Jakesboro, NC 28778
SHIPPED TO : Polk County Solid Waste Disposal &
Recycling Center
884 Stone Mountain Rd.
Midnight, NC 28782
DESCRIPTION OF CARGO : game cartridges
QUANTITY : approx. 2,000,000 (two million)
COMMENTS : destroy upon receipt
***
From the Asheville Citizen-Times—February 3, 1995 :
Authorities reported that an as-yet-unidentified shooter killed six people and wounded four others late yesterday at the offices of UltimaTech Entertainment in Jakesboro.
Early reports suggest that the suspect was a disgruntled employee, and that the victims were all members of upper management. One of the deceased, it has been confirmed, was the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Edmund W. Stern.
***
REVISED BILL OF LADING
DATE : 12 / 01 / 94
SHIPPED FROM : Stahl Transportation—Western NC Hub
442 Warren Avenue
Hendersonville, NC 28791
SHIPPED TO : U.S. Department of Defense
Washington, DC
DESCRIPTION OF CARGO : game cartridges
QUANTITY : approx. 2,000,000 (two million)
COMMENTS : contents are now property of U.S. government
***
From U.S. Business Daily–May 1, 1995 :
It was announced last week that UltimaTech Entertainment will cease operations at the end of this month. No official statement regarding reasons for the sudden closure was available at press time.
***
From Paranoid Punks (Internet podcast), Episode #113 :
CYNICAL STEVE : By this time, Uncle Sam’s sporting a boner the size of the Washington Monument over Galactic Recon. Can’t wait to get his hands on it. What this programmer guy inadvertently created, it’s too valuable to end up in some landfill somewhere.
MISS RAVEN : Brings to mind the MKUltra experiments from the ’60s that we talked about in Episode #100. Thirty years later Sam finally strikes gold, thanks to a glitch in avideogame.
CYNICAL STEVE : Fast forward a few months. People who used to work for UltimaTech—the ones who might have some clue what really went down ? They start dropping like flies. Some of them pull a Jimmy Hoffa and disappear altogether. Eventually, the only ones talking about Galactic Recon and what it did to the kids in that town were the loonies in the tinfoil hats. The conspiracy freaks.
MISS RAVEN : The paranoid punks.
CYNICAL STEVE : You know it.
***
From Faded Dreams, Forgotten Places : Exploring the Ghost Towns of America by James L. Heatherly :
Unlike similar communities that once flourished but were eventually left to the mercy of the elements, a walk through the desolate streets of Jakesboro, North Carolina gives one the impression that its citizens left suddenly. As I explored each residence, I was reminded of the Lost Colony of Roanoke : I saw dusty tables set for supper, bathtubs drawn before bedtime now filled with stagnant green water, and children’s playthings rotting in weed-choked backyards. I stumbled upon one home where a dog had been chained to a tree then cruelly abandoned ; a small pile of bones lay at the edge of a cracked driveway as if Fido still waits for a family that will never return for him.
Jakesboro’s fate is one associated with bizarre urban legends and conspiracy theories. Such rumors and speculation will not be repeated here. Most likely, it was the demise of a once thriving software company that killed Jakesboro in the mid-1990s. Seventy percent of the town’s population was employed by said company ; seemingly overnight, several thousand residents lost their jobs and were forced to move elsewhere.
Today, the empty buildings that were once the company’s headquarters overlook the dead town like a weary parent doomed to gaze forever upon the repercussions of his past sins.
***
FROM : U.S. DEPT OF JUSTICE, IN CONJUNCTION W / THE N.S.A.
OFFICIAL NOTICE
Re : existing copies of LOST SIGNALS
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN :
By order of the U.S. Government, all existing copies of the Perpetual Motion Machine anthology LOST SIGNALS (edited by Max Booth III and Lori Michelle) must be immediately forfeited for destruction.
Further review, use, disclosure, production, and / or distribution of this publication—particularly of the segment titled “*SOME 344 TH343434 344ING IN THE 44234 (CODE : 234)” by James Newman, which contains confidential information previously seized by the N.S.A.—is prohibited.
Non-compliance with this order will result in legal action by the federal government, with maximum penalties allowed by the law (up to and including treason, an offense punishable by death).
[CREDITS]
Max Booth III (editor) is the editor-in-chief of Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing and the managing editor of Dark Moon Digest. He’s the author of several novels, including How to Successfully Kidnap Strangers and the forthcoming No Sleep ’Til Dying. A columnist for LitReactor, Slush Pile Heroes, and Gamut, Max resides in a small town outside San Antonio, TX. Follow him on Twitter @GiveMeYourTeeth.
Lori Michelle (editor) is the CFO and layout specialist at Perpetual Motion Machine and the editor-in-chief at Dark Moon Digest. Lori is also the author of the novel, Dual Harvest, and has several sto
ries appearing in anthologies such as the Bram Stoker® nominated Qualia Nous and Slices of Flesh. She spends her time working as a graphic artist for a trophy shop, teaching dance for a baton twirling group her daughter belongs to and telling her son to quit playing iPad. You can find Lori on Facebook.
Matthew Revert (cover design) is the author of Basal Ganglia (Lazy Fascist Press), How to Avoid Sex (Copeland Valley / Dark Coast Press), The Tumours Made Me Interesting (LegumeMan Books) and A Million Versions of Right (LegumeMan Books). Revert has had work published in Le Zaporogue, The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade, In Heaven Everything Is Fine : Fiction Inspired by David Lynch, The New Flesh, The Bizarro Starter Kit (Purple) and Gone Lawn Journal among others.
Luke Spooner (interior illustrations) currently lives and works in the South of England. Having graduated from the University of Portsmouth with a first class degree he is now a full time illustrator working under two aliases ; ‘Carrion House’ for his darker work and ‘Hoodwink House’ for his work aimed at a younger audience. He believes that the job of putting someone else’s words into a visual form, to accompany and support their text, is a massive responsibility as well as being something he truly treasures.
Scott Nicolay (introduction) writes Weird Fiction. One of this stories won an award. He also hosts the Weird Fiction podcast The Outer Dark. The Outer Dark won an award too. His second collection, And at My Back I Always Hear, will appear in 2017.
Matthew M. Bartlett (“If He Summons His Herd” & “Where Night Covers”) is the author of Gateways to Abomination, Anne Gare’s Rare Book and Ephemera Catalogue, Rangel, Creeping Waves, and the illustrated chapbook The Witch-Cult in Western Massachusetts. His short stories have appeared in Xnyobis #1, Resonator : New Lovecraftian Tales From Beyond, Faed, and High Strange Horror. He lives in Northampton, Massachusetts with his wife Katie and an unknown number of cats.
T.E. Grau (“Transmission”) is an author of horror, crime, and dark fiction whose work has been featured in dozens of anthologies, magazines, literary journals, and audio platforms. His debut book of short stories, The Nameless Dark : A Collection (Lethe Press) was nominated for a 2015 Shirley Jackson Award for Single-Author Collection, and ranked as the bestselling book published by Lethe Press in 2015. A novella, They Don't Come Home Anymore, will be published in late 2016 through This Is Horror. Grau lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter, and is currently working on his second collection and his first novel.
Josh Malerman (“The Givens Sensor Board”) is the author of Bird Box and the singer / songwriter for the band The High Strung.
Joseph Bouthiette Jr. (“From : Item L51610RDE, ‘The Dangsturm Interruption’”) is co-editor of Carrion Blue 555 and an avid board gamer. He put more work into this bio than he did his contribution to this anthology.
David James Keaton’s (“Sharks With Thumbs”) fiction has appeared in over 50 publications. His first collection, FISH BITES COP ! (Comet Press), was named the 2013 Short Story Collection of the Year by This Is Horror. His second collection, Stealing Propeller Hats from the Dead (PMMP), received a Starred Review from Publishers Weekly, who said, “Decay, both existential and physical, has never looked so good.” He lives in California.
Tony Burgess (“Bad Lieutenant”) lives in Stayner, Ontario, with his wife Rachel and their two children. He is the author of The Hellmouths of Bewdley, Pontypool Changes Everything, Caesarea, Fiction for Lovers and Idaho Winter. Pontypool was made into a film by Bruce McDonald.
Michael Paul Gonzalez (“How the Light Gets In”) is the author of the novels Angel Falls and Miss Massacre’s Guide to Murder and Vengeance. A member of the Horror Writers Association, his short stories have appeared in print and online, including Gothic Fantasy : Chilling Horror Stories, 18 Wheels of Horror, the Booked. Podcast Anthology, HeavyMetal.com, and the Appalachian Undead anthology. He resides in Los Angeles, a place full of wonders and monsters far stranger than any that live in the imagination. You can visit him online at MichaelPaulGonzalez.com.
George Cotronis (“Darkhorse Actual”) lives in the wilderness of Northern Sweden. His stories have appeared in XIII, Years Best Hardcore Horror and forthcoming in Futuristica Vol 2.
Betty Rocksteady (“The Desert of Wounded Frequencies”) is an eclectic author and illustrator from Canada. Her early exposure to Stephen King, The Weekly World News, and EC horror comics shaped her into the woman she is today. With art and fiction, she explores personal fears and resonances. Her debut novella, Arachnophile, is part of Eraserhead Press’ 2015 New Bizarro Author Series. Her short fiction has been published by Halloween Forevermore, Grievous Angel, and Nothing’s Sacred. Learn more, and check out her macabre pen and ink art at www.bettyrocksteady.com. Keep in touch and keep up to date at www.facebook.com / bettyrocksteadyart.
Christopher Slatsky (“Eternity Lie in its Radius”) is the author of Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales. His stories have appeared in the Lovecraft eZine, Innsmouth Magazine, Dunhams Manor Press, and others slated to appear in the Year’s Best Weird Fiction v. 3, Strange Aeons, Nightscriptv. 2, and elsewhere. He currently resides in the Los Angeles area.
Amanda Hard (“Rosabelle, Believe”) is a former journalist and magazine editor currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction) at Murray State University. A 2015 finalist for Glimmer Train’s “New Writer Award,” her horror fiction has appeared in (or is forthcoming from) Ruthless Peoples Magazine, several flash fiction anthologies from the Daily Nightmare, two volumes of the State of Horror series from Charon Coin Press, and the anthology Idolators of Cthulhu from Alban Lake Press. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association and lives in the cornfields of southern Indiana.
Gabino Iglesias (“The Last Scream”) was born somewhere, but then moved to a different place. He has worked as dog whisperer, witty communications professor, and ballerina assassin. Now he hides near a dumpster in Austin, Texas, where he works as a freelance journalist and impersonates a PhD student. His nonfiction has appeared in places like The New York Times, Z Magazine, El Nuevo Día, and others. The stuff that’s made up has been published in places like Red Fez, Flash Fiction Offensive, Drunk Monkeys, Bizarro Central, Paragraph Line, Divergent Magazine, Cease, Cows, and a few horror, surrealist, and bizarro anthologies. He is the author of Zero Saints.
Dyer Wilk (“The Man in Room 603”) is a bit of a writer. Often he’s known to pull an all-nighter. Dedicated he is to weirdstuff and words. Known some to dabble in things quite absurd. But bios are not his strong suit, he’ll warn ya. He lives and he writes in North California.
Ashlee Scheuerman (“The Sound of Yesterday”), author of The Damning Moths and its looming sequel, has also written short apocalyptica which can be found nestled within the award-winning anthologies of horror, Surviving the End and Qualia Nous. Hidden in Western Australia with her collection of pine cones, Ashlee renders speculative fiction, takes too many photos of pigeons, toadstools, and moss, and probably has enough pets—for now.
Matt Andrew (“Children of a German Autumn”) is a retired US Marine officer who lives and works near Dallas, Texas. His fiction has appeared in Thuglit, Blight Digest, and Pantheon Magazine, among others.
H.F. Arnold (“The Night Wire”) is another “lost” author from the days of the pulps, something that is quite surprising since “The Night Wire” was considered the most popular story ever published in Weird Tales. What few sources give any information about his life say that he was born in 1901, worked as an author and journalist and died in 1963, but even these sketchy details (and his actual name, for that matter) may, or may, not, be true. All that is known as fact about Arnold, is that his fictional output, at least in the fields of science fiction and horror, consisted of only 3 works : “The Night Wire”, appearing in Weird Tales in 1926 ; “The City of Iron Cubes,” serialized in the March and April issues of Weird Tales and a two-part serial “When Atlantis Was,” that appeared in the October and December 1937 issues of Amazing Stories. Outside of that
, Arnold remains an enigma.
John C. Foster (“Armageddon Baby”) was born in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and has been afraid of the dark for as long as he can remember. A writer of thrillers and dark fiction, Foster lives in New York City with the actress Linda Jones and their dog, Coraline. Dead Men was released by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing on July 22, 2015 and Mister White by Grey Matter Press on April 5, 2016. Mister White the Short Story was included in the anthology Dark Visions Vol. 2 in 2013, also by Grey Matter Press. For more information, please visit johnfosterfiction.com.
Vince Darcangelo (“The Small Hours”) is the author of The Red Tags, published by Comet Press. He is also an award-winning journalist, author and photographer.
Regina Solomond (“Hush”) is a technical writer by day and fiction writer by night. Besides literature, her other loves are good sandwiches, bad pop songs, and her hamster, Chad. Her short stories and poems have been published by Eunoia Review, Every Day Fiction, and Eye Contact.
Joshua Chaplinsky (“Feedback Loop”) is the Managing Editor of LitReactor.com. He has also written for the popular film site TwitchFilm and for ChuckPalahniuk.net, the official website of Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk. He is the author of Kanye West—Reanimator. His short fiction has appeared in Zetetic, Motherboard, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Thuglit, Dark Moon Digest, Cracked Eye, Pantheon Magazine, and more. More info at joshuachaplinsky.com.
Damien Angelica Walters (“Little Girl Blue, Come Cry Your Way Home”) is the author of Paper Tigers and Sing Me Your Scars. Her short fiction has been nominated twice for a Bram Stoker Award, reprinted in The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror and The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and published in various anthologies and magazines, including Nightscript, Cemetery Dance Online, Nightmare Magazine, and Black Static. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls. Find her on Twitter @DamienAWalters or on the web at www.damienangelicawalters.com.