The Immortality Project

The Immortality Project is something I stupidly signed up for 3 days ago. It was only a 2-day job, and previous experience was not a necessity. I first heard about the project on Craigslist while I was browsing through job openings. Just like everybody else would have been, I was skeptical when I saw the bland ad, but I couldn’t help but be a little interested.

You see, I’m a 27-year-old that still lives with his parents. They both make a decent living so they never felt pressured to get rid of me. I have tried moving out once before, but after going through a brief 3-month marriage that ended in a divorce that lasted even longer, I just never felt comfortable moving out, but for the past three months, I have wanted to live out on my own again. I wanted to feel the absolute freedom I briefly had, but I just don’t have the money to move out. My ex-wife took pretty much everything from me. Now, I don’t blame her for where I am now, but it helps me sleep better at night.

The Immortality Project has been in progress for the last 12 years, but recently, we have made a breakthrough. We are currently looking for 8 participants for the next two days. Your job will not be hard. In fact, it is quite simple. The tasks may be a bit tedious at times, but we the compensations will make up for that. Please arrive at 825 Smith Road by 3. Late arrivals will not be considered,

Pay Rate: $25,000 to be paid at the end of the 2nd day.

Please note that if you decide to leave in the middle of the project, you will not be paid. We will receive full consent from all participants prior to beginning and we will give all of the specifics before you sign our forms.

The first thing I noticed when I arrived at the location was how new the building looked. The red bricks that covered the house still had an undisturbed deep red color to it, and the immaculate glass door and windows glistened in the sun. There were 7 others waiting outside, and after a quick glance at everyone I stood off to the side and remained silent.

Normally, I’m quite social, but I’m sure we were all a bit thrown off because we all looked somewhat similar. We were all around 5 feet 8 inches, sandy blonde hair, and a little bulky. There weren’t any females, and though we all had certain distinct characteristics, any person that passed by us would think we were all related.

After a couple of minutes, I walked up to the building and tried looking inside, but the only thing I could see was the white floors, white walls, and a small black desk placed in the middle of the room. While I was staring through the doors I heard someone walk up to me and without even giving me a chance to turn around he said, “Shit is weird, isn’t it? I thought they would open the doors a little earlier when we came, but fuck, I don’t even think anyone is inside.”

He walked up beside me and stuck out a hand.

“Hey man, call me Jeff, do you know if we are staying here for the two days?”

I took his hand and shook it while saying, “I don’t know. That ad didn’t really tell me much. William, but everyone calls me Will. Where did you hear about this?”

“Shit, Will, my buddy from Kansas told me about it. Told me that they were coming here. I tried asking him what it was, but all he told me was that they were giving us 25k to do some easy shit. I figured I don’t have much to lose. I’ve been living off of my brother for the past two years, and he told me he was gonna have to kick me out since his fiance is moving in with him.”

As he finished speaking, the door rattled a bit and I jumped back. An older man slowly opened the door and motioned for us to come inside. I quickly walked through the doors and Jeff walked closely behind me. Once we were all inside the older man walked around us and to the back of the desk. One of the other guys tried to walk up to the desk, but the man held out his hand and said, “Stay where you are. He will come out soon, and he will tell you what you need to do.

I looked around the room. There was a glass door behind the desk and another door on the right side of the room. The floors were completely clean except the spot that we walked on, and everything besides the desk was completely white.

While I was looking around the room, a small beeping sound came from behind the desk and a man walked out of the door behind the desk. Every single one of us stared at the man with looks of shock apparent on our faces. The man looked like the perfect version of all of us. He was wearing a gray fitted suit and had zero flaws on his face.

He looked at each of us before smiling confidently and saying, “Hello everyone. My name is Sam, and I’m sure you are all curious why you are here. Well, 12 years ago, I created something called the “Immortality Project”. We haven’t been exactly successful until several weeks ago. After our first successful test run, I decided to risk my life and test it on myself. As you can see, it worked. Now, don’t worry. You don’t have to get the procedure. We only need 4 people to go through the procedure and the other four must monitor the guys after the procedure for two days.”

Four people, including Jeff, decided to go for the experiment, and I decided to stay because I knew I could deal with handling one person for the next two days. Sam led the four through the door behind the desk and they were gone for the next 2 hours. I tried speaking to the other three guys, but they all ignored me and nervously stared down at the ground. The older man walked up to us and handed each of us a form. I signed it after reading the three rules written on the sheet.

You can talk about what happened in here, but please do not report us to any sort of law enforcement. We will find out and we will deal with you accordingly.

Once you walk into your room, you and the one you are monitoring will not be able to leave. If you need anything, there is a button by the door. Press it and then request it through the speaker.

If the person you are monitoring hurts either you or themselves we are not liable. Please understand all of the rules before signing at the bottom of the form.

After I signed the form, the old man took my form and handed me a sheet to fill out my bank account information. Once that was filled out, I sat on the ground and thought about what I was getting myself into.

Jeff was the first to walk back out through the door, and the others followed closely behind. Sam didn’t come out with them. Instead, each of the guys walked up to us and stood silently. The older man looked up at us, gave a small grin, and said, “The one that is standing to the right of you will be the person you will monitor for the next two days. They will be mostly quiet for the first couple of hours, but afterward, they should be speaking to you with ease. Follow me to your rooms.”

I was slightly glad that Jeff was the one that was standing by me. It felt like he was the closest thing to a friend I had in here.

The old man opened the door on the right side of the room and revealed a small hallway with four doors. We walked up to the first door, and the old man turned around and stuck his hand out towards me.

“We have taken Jeff’s phone already. We need anything you can contact the outside world with.”

I handed him my phone and walked into the room with Jeff.

The door closed, and instantly, it felt like I was locked away in prison.

The room was completely gray. The two beds on opposite ends of the room were tiny but somewhat comfortable. The small tv was barely visible from my side of the room, but it only had two channels, the local news and PBS. I left the tv on PBS and sat down on my bed. Jeff was lying down, staring at the tv with a blank expression on his face. He didn’t really look any different. He had a small scar on the right side of his mouth, and his arms were covered with small scratches. I tried talking to him, but he just looked at me with a sad look on his face and kept staring at me until I looked away.
I fell asleep to the sound of cheesy animation theme music and awoke to Jeff shaking me while whispering, “Wake up. They won’t stop talking to me. I can’t handle it. They just won’t stop and I need to get them out. Please.”

I pushed him off of me and sat up on my bed. The lights were off in the room, but I could see that Jeff was knelt down beside my bed. He kept whispering the same thing over and over again. I got out of bed and helped Jeff to his feet. Despite the room being warm, his entire body was cold. Once I got him back onto his bed, Jeff became silent, slowly fell back onto the bed, and immediately began snoring.

It took a long time for me to fall back asleep. I know I had someone next to me, but I felt absolutely lonely. A couple of times throughout the night, Jeff started to whisper again, but I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. As the light turned back on in our room, I fell back asleep.

The smell of food woke me back up. I opened my eyes to see that Jeff was already taking the last bites of his food. There was a tray with eggs, a piece of toast, and two strips of bacon placed at the end of my bed. I scarfed the food down and as I shoved the last strip of bacon in my mouth, I looked up and saw Jeff staring at me.

Jeff cleared his throat before saying, “Man. Last night. I didn’t want to wake you up, but I woke up and I didn’t remember anything after I signed the form in the back room. I tried to sleep, but it felt like something was crawling inside of me. All over me. Fuck, I could feel something swimming in my goddamn eyes dude. Shit is weird as fuck. What the hell is wrong with me?”

I shook my head and asked, “Did you see anything back there? Did Sam say anything before you blacked out?”

Jeff let out a sigh and shuddered before mumbling back, ”No, I don’t remember shit man. I can still feel them. This shit doesn’t feel right at all. Do me a favor man. Put your hand over my arm and tell me how many you feel.”

He held his arm out towards me and I placed a hand on his arm and immediately recoiled back. It felt like millions of tiny bugs were crawling around.

Jeff chuckled and asked, “I figured you you’d find that shit disgusting. So what did it feel like? They stop moving whenever I try to feel them. Is it a couple?”

I nodded my head and said, “Yeah man. You’re good. Probably just something from the procedure.”

He let out a sigh of relief and slammed his body back into the bed before watching a couple of unimportant news stories. Lunch time came around and I was given a small sirloin steak with a couple of french fries. Jeff was given a small bowl of what looked like green oatmeal. Before I even managed to cut out a piece of steak, Jeff was already finished with his food. I looked at him with a weird look on my face, and he laughed before saying, “Shit dude. I thought it would taste like shit, but that has got to be the best thing I have ever eaten in my life.” I shrugged my shoulders and watched tv with him.

A couple of hours later was when I heard screams coming from the room next to us. I pressed my ear against the wall and tried to listen in, but I heard a loud thud and the door next to us swung open. A couple of seconds later, our door opened and one of the guys fell into our room and looked up at us with desperation in our eyes.

”Please help. I’m going to die. I’m fucking. Fucking. It’s crawling. Everywhere. Crawling. Help.”

He vomited green shit in our room and fell face flat.

Sam walked up behind the fallen participant and shook his head before grabbing him by the ankles and dragging him out. While being dragged his legs fell off of his body and hung limply from Sam’s hands.

Thick blood poured out, but as the blood landed on the ground, the liquid split apart into thousands of tiny red creatures and started to crawl back into the man’s body.

He was barely speaking. His face was a pale white, and he let out a scream before going completely silent. Sam dragged the rest of his body out of the room silently and closed the door.

Jeff only talked to me once for the rest of the night.

Jeff- ”So, that dude is probably dead, huh?”

Me- “Yep. probably. You feeling any better?”

Jeff- ”Well I know what the fuck is inside of me now, but I wish I didn’t. You know something? I feel smarter now. I know that sounds weird, but I couldn’t add worth shit, but I’m actually doing some mental math, and I feel like I’m saying the right answers.”

Me- “Anything else seem different?”

Jeff- ”Not really. I mean I feel a little more energetic, but that could just be because I saw that fucker’s leg pop off. I’m going to sleep. Feel free to wake me up if my body explodes.”

He was snoring before I could respond, and I fell asleep shortly afterward.

I woke up yesterday morning and instantly checked on Jeff. He was already awake eating his breakfast of green mush. He gave me a green-toothed smile, and that was the last interaction between us.

Sam walked into our room as soon as I finished my breakfast, and led me out of the room. Jeff was still sitting on his bed when I left.

We walked through the first door and Sam ran behind the counter and handed me my phone. I looked around the room and realized that it looked like it had aged by centuries. The floor was caked with dirt as well as various other unknown stains, and the walls were peeling in over a dozen areas. I walked out of the building with Sam and looked at the outside of the building. The bricks were littered with cracks, gaps, and mold. Sam saw the confusion on my face and laughed before saying, “Don’t worry. The building just likes to give off a good first impression.”

I was ready to get out of there, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I turned around and asked Sam my final question.

“What is going to happen to Jeff?”

He gave me a sad smile and said, “Jeff is fine. In fact, he will make more money than he will be able to spend for the next 3 years. We are going bigger with this. This time, three out of four participants came out fine, and soon they will begin to look completely different. They will start doing what I did for this project. Hopefully, soon, we will have this go world-wide. The body type and facial structure make you guys the ideal candidates. It’s fun and easy to mold, but soon, we will be able to do the procedure on everyone. Go home. Forget about us. Enjoy the money in your account.”

That was yesterday. I came back home and my parents didn’t even ask where I was. They hardly cared anymore, but I’m planning to move out soon anyway. I tried looking up The Immortality Project, but there isn’t anything about it anywhere.

So I’ll take Sam’s advice. I’m going to try to forget it and live my life, but if you happen to come across an ad for it, I highly suggest against going for the procedure.

 

Credit: Hayong