AS A REMINDER, ALL FILES WITHIN THIS DOCUMENT ARE CONSIDERED CLASSIFIED. THE EVENTS CONTAINED HEREIN ARE NOT CONFIRMED TO HAVE OCCURRED. THIS IS A RECORD OF RELEVANT FILES, WHICH CONTINUE TO BE ADDED, IN AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION.

  ANY FOUND TO BE LEAKING THESE DOCUMENTS WILL BE PUNISHED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.

  --File 054: Fire Power--

  The video begins with Blaine recording from inside of the car. It would appear all five of the main group are now traveling together; Jakub Bartosz is driving in the front driver's seat, Jim Anders is now in the passenger, and Alex, Emma, and Blaine- in that order- are now piled into the back.

  They appear to have stopped outside of a convenience store.

  Blaine: "Bartosz didn't say anything about why we're here?"

  Anders: "You heard the same thing I heard. He said 'hang on', hopped out of the car, and that was it. That's all the warning we got."

  Alex: "He doesn't explain much of what's going on in his head, does he?"

  Emma: "At this point, you know him better than I do."

  Alex: "Not exactly. Father- Father Perez knew him better. I was a... recent addition."

  Blaine: "Speaking of, how's remembering anything helpful going?"

  Alex: "How's not killing Emma going?"

  Emma: "Oh, my God, you're like toddlers."

  Anders: "There he is."

  The driver's door opens a second later, and in comes Bartosz. He drops a brand new backpack on Anders's lap- a simple, two zipper affair typically used by teens starting up at high school, no name brand- and it's already loaded with something that clinks ominously. Anders immediately unzips it and exclaims in surprise.

  Anders: "Hairspray? You planning on doing someone's hair up?"

  Bartosz: "Front pocket, asshole."

  Anders snorts and pops open the front pocket, displaying a large menagerie of lighters.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Anders: "They let you walk out with all of this? Seriously?"

  Blaine: "Flamethrowers?"

  Bartosz: "Bingo. We need some kind of weapon against these buzzin' nightmares, and guns ain't gonna cut it. Fire's the only thing."

  Alex: "Not all hairspray works the same."

  Bartosz: "Trust me, kid, I know my flammable substances. That brand- [REDACTED]- that's the good shit. We're not talkin' several feet worth of fire, but it'll keep burning if you keep spraying. All we need is fire and flammable fuel."

  Anders: "That'll do it, I guess."

  Emma: "But how did they seriously let you buy all of that?"

  Bartosz: "Word's spreadin'. Haven't you noticed? The streets are empty as hell. Folks're scared stiff of us. After what happened at the diner yesterday, they wanted me out of that store ASAP."

  Alex blanches visibly on the camera. Emma closes her eyes and tightens her fists, but says nothing.

  Anders: "All right, then. So, to Grantham's?"

  Bartosz: "The road's being watched. I don't think they'll really stop us, but I also don't really want to test it. We're going back to the church, and then we're taking a straight line to the lake."

  Blaine: "But not OVER the lake. We need to go around it."

  Emma: "Like hell I'm touching that water. There's something in there."

  Bartosz: "We'll be lucky if we make it there by evening."

  Anders: "Better that than dealing with... whatever the kids saw."

  Bartosz: "Hmm."

  Blaine: "You've seen a walking hivemind, Bartosz. What more do you need to believe other shit's going on?"

  Bartosz: "It's hard. I've spent my whole life searching for an unreality, with everyone telling me I've cracked. I've watched colleagues- respected colleagues, people who knew what I went through- and young people, people with families, people with lives ahead of them, people with kids and grandkids and even great-grandkids... I've watched nearly all of them, one by one, off themselves. There's so few of us Lost Ones left. The strain of dealing with the things we saw back then was too much. Now, I've got everything laid out before me, and I'm scared to fuckin' pieces to accept that all of it is real, because what the fuck does that mean for the rest of the world?"

  Emma: "What... do you mean?"

  Blaine: "He's saying that this can't be the only thing going on."

  Bartosz: "Exactly. Kid gets it. We're just dealin' with what's happenin' on our side of the pond, we're just lookin' at what's targetin' us right here, right now. What's someone else dealin' with that we don't know about?"

  Alex: "I think I'm going to be sick."

  Bartosz: "Exactly."

  Alex: "No- I- look-"

  Blaine leans around the seat almost at the exact same time that Bartosz suddenly slams on his breaks. He'd been so busy talking that he hadn't realized something has changed about the church.

  The building has been razed to the ground, perfectly; on either side, the other buildings stand totally untouched. In the center of the road leading up to where the church once stood, stabbed into the asphalt in a display of inhuman strength, is a giant, upside down cross with Father Perez's horrifically mauled, bloated, maggot filled corpse hanging from it.

  Silence sits heavily on the car.

  Emma: "Oh, Alex-"

  The video cuts short.

  --END TRANSMISSION--