Incident ongoing
Lost in
Lost in
Amsterdam
A stag weekend in Amsterdam. Five friends. One apocalypse.
A stag weekend in Amsterdam. Five friends. One apocalypse.
Amsterdam Clinical Research Hospital // FILE 7743-09
Summary
Ethan's stag do was supposed to be forty-eight hours of canal bars, terrible decisions, and a wig he'd never live down. Then the hospital lights start flickering red, the corridors fill with something that used to be patients, and a stranger's blood-soaked trial bracelet becomes the only clue to what's coming. By the time the sun comes up over the dunes at Zandvoort, "worth it" doesn't cover it anymore — and staying friends might be the least of anyone's problems.
Dr. de Groot,
This letter confirms receipt of your facility's incident report and the accompanying CCTV footage from Trial Wing corridor cameras 14 through 17, timestamped 02:41–02:53. Corporate Security has reviewed the footage in full.
The individual identified entering the restricted storage room adjacent to the ALZ-00 compound vault is not, to our knowledge, hospital personnel, a trial participant, or anyone on your facility's authorised access list. His method of entry remains under review by our systems team, given that room's clearance requirements.
We are treating this as a deliberate breach rather than an accident, and are proceeding accordingly. A specialist containment and apprehension team has been dispatched from our Munich field office and is expected to arrive in Amsterdam within ████████. Current assessment places the individual as still within the hospital grounds or immediate vicinity as of this writing. Please ensure Trial Wing access remains restricted to essential personnel only until our team arrives, and that the footage in question is preserved and not shared beyond this distribution list.
I recognise the wider situation developing across the city is placing considerable strain on your staff and facilities. We are aware that emergency admissions citywide have risen sharply over the past ████ hours, and that the presenting symptoms in several cases bear resemblance to early-stage trial adverse events. To be clear: we have not yet confirmed a vector, and I would caution strongly against assuming a direct causal link until our internal review is complete.
The Ministry has agreed, at your facility's request, to hold public communications at the current level while containment efforts are underway. This arrangement is not indefinite. We would ask that any further correspondence on this matter be routed through this office rather than local authorities, for the time being.
We will update you as our team's assessment progresses.
We have a name.
Passport control and airline manifest cross-reference confirms the individual in your Trial Wing footage as Matius Pavel, travelling on a Belfast–Amsterdam EasyJet service, seat 14C, arriving 21:40 the evening prior to the incident. No return booking on file. No hotel booking under his name within city limits. He has not used a bank card, phone, or passport control since landing.
What you do with this information is up to you. I've done my part. That makes me square with whoever asked me to find him, and I intend to stay that way.
This email does not exist. It was not sent, and you did not receive it. If it surfaces anywhere — your internal systems, a press office, a courtroom — I will deny writing it, and I will make sure it is your name attached to it, not mine.
— R.
This is to inform you, formally and with regret, that as of 06:00 tomorrow the Kingdom will suspend all commercial air and maritime traffic through Schiphol, Rotterdam, and all secondary ports. This decision was not taken lightly.
Your company's containment assessment from Sunday indicated the situation remained localised to the Amsterdam metropolitan area. That assessment is now nine hours old and, frankly, obsolete. We have confirmed cases as far as Utrecht and Almere, and reports — as yet unverified — from Rotterdam.
I do not need to remind you what is at stake for Vantora if it becomes public knowledge that a compound developed under your company's trial licence is responsible for what is happening in this country. I would remind you, however, that the Kingdom's patience for containing this quietly is not infinite. We are giving your team until ████████ to identify the vector. After that, this stops being a corporate matter.
SITUATION. To date, a very small number of infected individuals have reached the United Kingdom via undisclosed points of entry. Confirmed cases remain in single figures. However, modelling drawn from the Amsterdam outbreak indicates a transmission rate without precedent in any modern containment scenario.
DECISION. Following today's COBRA session, it has been agreed that identified and suspected cases will be transported to Northern Ireland and held there under quarantine measures effective immediately. Northern Ireland will be sealed from the rest of the United Kingdom, and from the Republic of Ireland, pending further review.
PUBLIC LINE. Media and public communications will attribute the closure of the Northern Ireland border to an unrelated matter — specifically, a temporary measure to manage an unprecedented number of migrant crossings requiring processing capacity. This line is to be maintained across all departments without exception. England, Scotland and Wales will continue to operate under normal public messaging; there will be no national emergency declaration at this time.
CONTAINMENT MEASURES. Construction of a permanent steel perimeter fence along the Northern Ireland border is authorised with immediate effect. Manned checkpoints will reinforce existing crossings at Armagh, Enniskillen, and Newry. Personnel are authorised to use lethal force against any individual attempting to cross the perimeter in either direction without clearance.
This directive is not to be discussed outside of listed distribution.
// remaining entries sealed pending clearance
"Honestly, it's a good look."
The voice was low and slightly cracked, as if it had been dragged over gravel before reaching Ethan's ears.
He turned from the oval window of the EasyJet A320 and looked across the aisle. The man sitting opposite him was studying him with the kind of quiet amusement usually reserved for drunks, street performers, or men in wigs wearing cocktail dresses at thirty thousand feet.
The plane banked left.
Ethan's stomach rolled with it.
He hated this part. Always had. The descent. The pressure building somewhere deep behind his eyes. The tightening in his ears. The strange, helpless sensation that the aircraft was no longer travelling so much as surrendering to gravity in a slow, controlled panic.
"It helps me with my fear of flying," he said, trying to keep a straight face. He lasted all of two seconds before a laugh broke through as a snigger.
"I'm on my stag do," he explained. "The lads stitched me right up."
Still, worth it.
"I enjoyed this, a good start to a series hopefully. Well written, funny and creepy. Ended pretty abruptly but hoping there is more to come. Well done Sir."
"Loved this - could not put it down. Look forward to the next one."
Find out how far five friends will go to make it out of Amsterdam.
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