Please note: this story was provided by the author and published as is.
Hi, you’ve reached the home of Vincent and Katherine McGreggor. Please leave a voicemail, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad… it’s me. Um, I know it’s been a while…
I just… I wanted to call you and say that you were right. You were right about everything… about Jason, and moving to Montana, and… well, everything.
Uh… I’m calling from a payphone at a gas station right now, which is probably why you don’t recognize the number and didn’t pick up. Or maybe because it’s the middle of the night… um, I’m somewhere in Wyoming, I think… I’m not really sure. Hah, I guess it doesn’t help that I’m so directionally challenged. This is the only building I’ve seen for miles, and it’s abandoned. Just my luck, right? Maybe the police will be able to trace where this call came from later. I wish I knew where I am…
Look, they’re… they’re going to find me soon. I’ve been running for two days, and I’m… I’m so tired. My head hurts, my feet hurt, I haven’t slept… I don’t- I don’t think I’m going to make it out of this.
And Mom I know what you’re going to say – yes, I’ve tried calling the police. That’s the first thing I did when I got to this phone, but when I dial 911, it doesn’t go anywhere… it just makes this horrible beeping noise, like you’ve dialed a number that’s out of service or something. But 911 can’t be out of service, and I got through to you on this phone, so… I don’t know what happened. And there isn’t another payphone around for me to try. I used up my last quarters making this call, anyways…
So… God, I’m sorry, but… I’m going to tell you what happened – or, as much as I can, anyways. I don’t think anyone’s ever made it out before, and I- I don’t think I’m going to make it home. So maybe you can take this voicemail to the police.
Created by Danny Ingrassia
Jason lied. The farm, his family, his… community… they weren’t what he made them out to be. It all seemed fine, at first, when we got there. Everyone was so nice, so nice. We made all of our own food, there was a bonfire every night, singing, dancing… Dad, I think you would hate it. But it was fun. I felt like I’d found “my people,” you know? No one talked about their lives before the farm, it was like, this unspoken rule. No internet or cell service either, which is partly why I didn’t call. I’m sorry I didn’t.
And Jason, he was… wonderful. I wish I could say something terrible about him, like, looking back you’d think I would have noticed that something was off. You did. I still don’t know how you knew, but… you did. I wish I had listened to you.
The first two months were the best time of my life. Seriously. But after that, things started to get… scary. It started when one of the girls in my bunk went missing… she was two beds down from me on the left. Her name was Hannah. She was always so quiet, kept to herself… I didn’t like her at first, if I’m being honest. But one night, she just… vanished. When everyone found out she was gone the next morning, there was this… crazy hostility towards her. Like she had somehow betrayed everyone. No one was worried… I was, of course, because Hannah was 15, and who wouldn’t be worried about a 15-year-old going missing? But things really went insane when they found that a few cans of food were missing.
Mom… Dad… I’ve never seen anyone lose their minds over something so small like that. They were saying that she had stolen from all of us, and that was basically like trying to kill us… I was so confused, because it’s not like we were starving. We had plenty of food, none of us ever went hungry, and so a few cans of fruit didn’t really mean anything. But the way they were all shouting… the way a group of men got in their trucks… the way Jason led them into the woods to go find her…
And they did. I was hoping they wouldn’t, honestly, because I was worried they would try to hurt her.
I… I don’t think I can say what they did to Hannah. But… Jesus… Mom, Dad, it was… she… she was only 15 years old, and I couldn’t help her. I wanted to – please, believe me, I wanted to, I wanted it to stop, I tried to make it stop, but Jason… Jason held me back. We were at the back of the crowd and he was holding me back and I was screaming but everyone else was screaming too and I… I tried… God, you couldn’t even tell she had been human…
…
I’m probably running out of time on here. I’m surprised I’ve been able to leave a message this long, I thought you only got like a minute or something. Maybe it’s a glitch. Maybe it’s a miracle or something, who knows.
After Hannah… after Hannah, we packed up the camp and moved. That’s why I don’t think I’m in Montana anymore – they woke us up in the middle of the night with whistles and yelling and flashlights in our faces, saying we had to go. They said the cops were after us because they didn’t like our way of life and how we did things… and looking back, I don’t know if that was true. Maybe they learned about Hannah? I don’t know. But that night we packed everything up and piled into trucks and just… drove and drove. I wanted to lean over and ask Jason where we were going, but the truck I was in was dead silent. Like, for hours. Just staring straight ahead. Silent. And the look on his face…
We got to the new camp at about noon the next day. I think it’s in Wyoming? I don’t know, I could be in Canada for all I know… does 911 still work in Canada? Or do they have a different number?
I guess it’s too late now. God, I’m so tired. I know they’re looking for me – I’ve seen their headlights and heard them yelling for me… and Jason’s with them…
Should I describe the camp? I think I should… maybe it’ll help someone find it. And someone needs to find it. I don’t know where it is exactly, but it’s pretty big. More permanent buildings – the one in Montana was mostly tents… the bunks were buildings, though. Anyways, there are more people at this one. Lots of farmland, everyone working. But this one… well, things aren’t so “peace and love” like back in Montana.
Um, what else… there’s a group of people who lead the camp – they call themselves “The Council,” if you can believe that name. There are four of them: Jacob, Martha, Lewis, and Faith. I don’t know their last names, I don’t even know if those are their real names. If you can pass those names on to the police, maybe they can find them. But the four of them… they’re monsters. There was one time when they cut out a guy’s tongue because he said he was allergic to the one meal we had that day. Right there, at the table, they held him down and used a kitchen knife all because he couldn’t eat corn.
Public shaming, torture… executions… I didn’t know people could be so cruel… I tried to keep my head down, stay under the radar… and I was doing okay, you know? I mean, I’ve been here three years – when you’re in a situation like that, you adapt. But two days ago, I made a stupid, stupid mistake.
I was working in the kitchen, and there’s this rule that when you’re cooking, you don’t eat any of the food until everyone does. It’s so stupid – like, who doesn’t taste the food you’re cooking? But they’re all about “equality”, especially when it comes to food – everyone gets exactly the same amount of everything. And I hadn’t done that job before, and so when I was cutting up some carrots, I ate one. Like, I didn’t even think about it, I just did… and I realized my mistake right away, of course, because you’re always so on edge about everything, and so I looked around to see if anyone had seen me, and this other girl, Francis, was staring right at me…
And she just silently put down her knife and left…
And I remembered what happened to Hannah. I didn’t want that to happen to me… I still don’t want that to happen to me… and so I ran. But I have no idea where I am, and I’m so tired, and I just want to go home… God, I would give anything to hear your voices again.
…
I see headlights. I think… I think that’s them. If it’s them and they’ve seen me on the phone, then… shit, I think it is… sorry, language, I know.
It’s them. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I- I love you two so much. I’m sorry.