Abby DeVan - Hi5 Studios – 28th September 2020 – 23 years old
Just over three weeks have passed since the exciting discovery of the daunting, mysterious Mercury Mountaineer. While at home I have sent my boss, Matt, some of my curiosities and suggestions like I was asked to, but to be honest, I would have done it anyway, it's just one of those things where I just can't help but be curious. Not a lot of progress has been made on those advances however, because I need the original team to be with me while I investigate, but I can't do this if my boss isn't present unfortunately.
Matt has been spending time with his wife and two kids and everyone else, including myself have been either going on little vacations or working to keep up and be on schedule. Not only that but more renovations have begun in the studio, especially blue base. Though, some of my co-workers, like Woods, have had to step up to help poor Izzy by building furniture for Matthias because the company's dedicated handyman has gotten sick.
The good thing is that Matt is coming back into the studio from his well-earned break today. I have no doubt in my mind that he will come to me at some point to get the investigations flowing. A big thing that the two of us have agreed on checking is the NEST cameras footage to see how long the car has been sat there.
My phone that's been set down on my desk pings with a message. It's Woods.
"Hey, Matt's just come into blue base if you wanna talk to him."
"Thanks buddy. Heading over now."
I make quick work of saving my work and shutting off my Mac to rush over with eagerness to my boss' office only to be met halfway by the man himself. "Ah. Abby. Perfect timing, I was just about to come get you."
"That's funny, I was going to find you." I chuckle with Matt who turns around to go back the way he came across the main parking lot.
Hearing the familiar beep of the electrical magnetized security system, I follow Matt a few steps into the building to turn right into his new office.
"Hey. You got mega desk running!" I notice.
"Heck yeah! Mega desk has begun." Matt replies deepening his voice. He's always one for the dramatics and theatrics. But who else isn't around here?
Now standing in front of his desk waiting to start the investigations both myself and my colleagues are eager for I realize we both have a bit of an audience that consists of Woods, Cat and Sierra through the window frame that is yet to have glass re-fitted. "We just have a bunch of hecklers over here."
"Okay guys, we're trying to discuss stuff here." Says Matt. They all quickly scatter back to their respective tasks. "So, Abby. What were you telling me the other day about the NEST cameras?"
"Is there a camera near the car? If there is, then we should look back on the footage or the footage of any of the other cameras to see if it pops up." I explain simply.
"Okay, so, I've avoided looking through the footage." He begins, opening up the desktop app. "Cameras just go offline. Also, this footage isn't supposed to be viewed by anyone except myself and Kevin because I want my employees, like yourself, to have their privacy."
I nod my head in understanding while he scrolls through different pieces of footage.
"See, over here, Sierra just frivolously wasting time." He jokes, opening the live camera footage that records the entryway of blue base where Sierra is stationed.
I hear her sass from outside the room. "I'm off the clock."
"It doesn't matter, I still see you scrolling Sierra, and you're wasting your time."
"I'm trying to order dinner." Sierra shoots back.
Moving himself on from their banter, Matt comes across the outdoor cameras.
He locates the one he believes to be the most promising, although it is a very strange angle for a security camera. It seems to be diagonal, peering down the side of red base.
Even though the car cannot be seen from the angle chosen, it would have been exposed to the camera on the far left had the device been placed to stretch further outwards from the wall. Matt begins to believe that there are no possible angles that would have the image of the vehicle. With that, he scrolls down to observe the other cameras available, well he would if they would load. "This is why I don't wanna look through the NEST cameras. We've been stood here for 10 minutes while these cameras load." Matt vents Woods and I, the former had decided to make another appearance.
"Oh!" I exclaim once the camera previews spring to life. "Look at that one." I point to one on the right-hand side of the monitor screen. "You can just see where it's parked up." He quickly follows your instructions.
"It's too far away." The man next to me states after examining the scene on the screen.
"Can you zoom in?" Woods asks from the other side of the barren window frame.
"It's not like in the movies where everyone's like 'Enhance, enhance, enhance!' Matt jokes. "You know what? I'm just going to go to the last one we looked at and just watch all of the footage."
Paying close attention to the screen in front of me, I watch for a short time while Matt begins the long sift through 30 days' worth of footage. As time goes by, I strike up a casual conversation with Woods who remains at the window frame, with Matt commenting every once in a while. The conversation, however, dies down to companionable silence. I just stand with my back leaning on the black painted wall behind me, registering that it's nearly been half an hour.
I hear Matt gasp to my left.
Snapping around to face him, I see him lean closer to the monitor with his jaw dropped to the floor as if he can't quite believe what he's seeing.
"What? What is it?" I ask, taking two paces towards him. Then I see it.
It's moving. Someone drove the car past Red Base, but they drove eerily slowly.
"Woods. Woods?" Matt calls to the man who was stood behind us not 5 minutes ago. He looks through the window frame, "Oh great. Everyone left? Hello?"
How late is it? It can't be past 5 O'clock yet. Oh, wait. It's 5:11pm.
Despite everyone having seemingly left, Matt's excitement soon rekindles. "Yo, dude. When was this?"
"What does it say on the timeline?" I urge.
"August 22nd, 9:17am. You've got to be kidding me."
"What? That's nearly a month ago."
"Oh my gosh, that's so creepy. It's literally in our parking lot. Where does it go? Is it really the same car?" Matt rattles off.
I have no answers for him. I'll be completely honest; I don't know if I should be concerned or not about a car moving around. Matt replays the clip. "Why's it moving so creepily slow? No one was even here."
I hear a slight movement coming from the corridor beside the small room we stand in. "Woods?"
"Yes?" Woods appears once again at the window frame at the back of the office.
"Come here."
The tanned man decides to jump through the window instead of using the door like a normal person. Matt steps aside slightly to let out friend see what we're seeing.
"Wait. What is this?" He questions.
"This was a month ago." Matt explains.
"A month ago, before we found it?"
"When did we find it?"
"We found it literally three weeks ago." I answer.
Matt goes to look at the car from a different angle when he quickly realizes that it's all for nothing. That specific only gives out live feed, not recorded.
"We need to up our security bro." Woods comments.
"I know. I know dude." The taller man sighs, noticing some tiredness that seeped into my expression. "So, in conclusion, the car moved recently. The 22nd of August."
"But we have the key." I point out.
"Then someone has another key. That key that we have has been in the wall for who knows how long."
"We can't really see who's in the car either." I add, examining the image briefly.
Matt scrolls a little further through the footage. "It comes back the other way?!"
"Try to see who's in it." Woods speaks. The other man zooms in as much as he can.
"That doesn't even look like a person."
"Let it go a little further."
"It's too fast" I say.
With it now being 5:20pm I call with slight regret that, despite this new discovery, we should all rest up and go home for the day to come back to it with a fresh mind and discuss it with the rest of the people involved in finding the car. The two men agree, albeit reluctantly when they notice how tired all of us really are.
Collecting my backpack and laptop I head over to my car in front of Red Base, though not before peering down the right-hand side of the base. There it sits, still collecting dust in the same place we left it those weeks ago. Only now can I deem it safe to leave and return home.