Z2012SITEDTHEMANSION

Matilda’s Secret The Admiral’s wife stood outside the house, looking towards the eastern wing for anything that would give her away. From the outside, one would never know that the house really housed fugitives who had escaped from the annex and infirmary. She had never planned on going against her husband’s work, so intentionally. Her husband, the admiral, was in charge of the “experiments” taking place in these areas. He said they were for the betterment of society, that they would help thousands. She couldn’t bear the thought of experimenting on helpless individuals, yet she couldn’t voice her opinions towards him, as she had to be the obedient wife who he believed her to be. However, on that cold, dismal night, she couldn’t imagine saying no. Two men, both about eighteen or nineteen pounded on her door almost 3 months ago. Her husband wasn’t home, yet she still answered. They said they had escaped from the Annex. Malnourished, wearing clothing that hardly fit their bodies, Matilda had taken them in. She hid them in a secret room on the top floor. Her husband knew of its existence. However, he believed it was primarily used for storing cleaning supplies and old family treasures. Each day she would bring them food, water, and fresh linens when her husband left for work. They remained silent the entire day, the only sound heard from the room was occasionally a soft padding, one which Matilda told her husband, was surely from the rats. Three months later, and this operation, as she called it, was still taking place. It had grown rather rapidly… Eventually after the initial men gained back their strength, and acquired some possessions and money, they attempted to escape the Naval base. She would never know if they were successful. After that, more and more escapees, began to arrive in the dead of night. Eventually, so many came, that she was forced to say no to some. She glanced at the house again, retreating from her thoughts. The old pillar, holding up the house’s foundation, caught her eye. Within the pillar, there was a small opening, small enough for a doll. Matilda had placed a small faceless doll there to communicate with the escaped individuals. When the doll was there, that signified that she had room left in the attic. However, when the doll was removed, it meant that the fugitives had to continue to the next safe-house. Looking at the doll flooded her with memories. Tears brimmed upon her eyes as she recalled the horrible capture of her own daughter. Mildred had only been six when she was taken away in the middle of the night. Matilda could only hope that she had escaped and fled to a safe-house such as the one she ran. She knew it was wishful thinking, perhaps it was why she was so insistent upon helping these people. She knew Gertrude would be proud of her. Matilda walked towards the house, holding back tears. Her husband would be home soon and she couldn’t tell him why she was upset without giving away the operation. She entered the house, something was not right. Creaks and voices could be heard from upstairs. She climbed the stairs, two steps at a time, attempting to squelch the noise as quickly as possible. Upon entering the room she noticed the unrest of the men and women inside. They glanced nervously around as they paced the floors. The room was silent yet incredibly loud at the same time. That was when Matilda noticed Gladys’s eyes. They had taken on a pale yellow color, hardly visible, unless one looked closely enough into them. Gladys, only a young child, looked sickly and exhausted. It was a disaster. Matilda knew this couldn’t end well. One girl with Frei fever would eventually grow to six, maybe including herself. Gladys would infect everyone, and then die….it was the way the disease worked. Matilda ran out of the room, through the house, and into the surrounding woods. She couldn’t think, she couldn’t breathe, everything was coming down around her. How had Gladys contracted the disease? How was it possible, she had been fine a day ago. Matilda then remembered, a possible injection which could be given to prevent others from contracting the disease. It was being worked on in the Annex, being forced upon those infected. It hadn’t been perfected, and could be highly dangerous, but it was the only way she could ensure the survival of the fugitives and herself. There was no cure to the disease, only death ended it….Gladys would die, no matter what the outcome.

That night, Matilda brought the old phone, tugging at the cord, with her into the bedroom she shared with the Admiral. He had an official looking officer over to discuss secret plans. She wasn’t welcome in their conversations and didn’t wish to be. It gave her the perfect opportunity to leave the room and call Dr. Flootenstein. She dialed his number from memory, careful to hit the correct buttons. The phone rang once, and he immediately picked up.

“Hello?” he said inquisitively.

“This is Matilda….I desperately need your help. It’s an emergency.”

“What is it? Are you ok?”

She paused. She knew he would agree to what she was going to ask him to do, although it was highly dangerous. He had been in love with her for years, he’d do anything for her. She didn’t want to take advantage of him but at this point she had no other options. It was now or never.

“I…I need you to steal several vials of the shot which prevents people from getting Frei fever.”

“What? Why?” he said incredulously.

“I can’t tell you why over the phone. Maybe I can’t even tell you in person. But let me just say, these are not small potatoes.”

She paused.

“Please….just bring them. Leave them in the crawlspace tomorrow.”

With that she hung up. If anyone found out about him he would surely lose his job or worse. Worse was unimaginable and incomprehensible, however she felt as though she had no other alternatives.

The next day Matilda awoke to find Gladys in worse shape. She was continuously sneezing and coughing. Her eyes had grown from a pale yellow to a much deeper shade. Those around her began to cover their mouths with blankets to avoid catching the disease. At noon, Matilda ventured outside and began to walk towards the crawlspace. She opened the small wooden door and peered underneath. Vast emptiness and slithering bugs and snakes appeared before her, but no vials. She couldn’t move, she was so worried. Unsure of what to do, she sat down, tears flowing down her face. She couldn’t stop them, she sat and cried for several minutes, until she noticed a small wooden box peaking out from underneath the soil.

“Could this be it?” she murmured out loud.

She unearthed the dirty wooden box, and carefully held it to her bosom. She gingerly carried it inside and undid the clasp which slid away easily. Inside were four doses of the vaccine. A note inside read, “Matilda, If you do not hear from me again, I have been discovered. I obtained these in the dead of night; however, I am unsure as to whether or not I got enough doses. It was the most I could risk taking without being found out. The vaccine is highly ineffective, so far it has only worked on one out of five people. This newest vaccine which I have given you, has not yet been tested. Perhaps it will yield better results than the last doses did our patients. Unfortunately, you will be the test subject for this experiment, assuming you are the one who needs it. I hope I could be of service, and I will forever love you, no matter what the outcome of this situation is. –George R. Flootenstein”

Matilda examined the clear vials filled with the blue liquid. She had to administer the shots immediately. It was a gamble, yet she had no other choice but to take it. Her life and several others depended on it.

Matilda silently entered the hidden room and looked at the amount of people. There were seven, while she only four doses. Not counting the sick girl, she only had six people to give the shot to. She was unsure of how successful the antidote would be, if the prescribed amount was not given yet she clung on to hope. She gave a full shot to herself, and one other, then proceeded to divide the remaining vials into two. In between the shots, she cleaned the needle carefully in alcohol, as there was no need for anyone to contract another disease while preventing one.

Over the duration of the next few days, Matilda noticed no improvements in Gladys’s condition. She continued to grow worse and worse, her fever heightening. Oftentimes she was unable to stop coughing, it was a loud phlegmy cough, one easily noticeable from other parts of the house. The other survivors were forced to cover her mouth, soothing her, and caring for her, as if there was a chance she would or could survive. Everyone remained optimistic, although it was hard to. Although no one had contracted the sickness yet, there was always the worry each day, that someone would wake up wheezing and coughing, eyes yellowed from the fever. Matilda felt perfectly normal, she had a few symptoms, but she largely accredited them to hay fever, something commonly felt in the Southern United States, due to the warm and floral environment. Matilda’s husband, the Admiral, appeared to have no knowledge about his wife’s secret agenda. Each day as he kissed her good-night, she winced, expecting him to hit her in his rage due to her betrayal. The blow never came though, through each loud cough, he continued to appear somewhat oblivious, like he had more important things on his mind, things that dominated his every waking thought. A few days passed in this manner, until she received an odd phone call from him on an odd Monday afternoon.

She picked up the phone tentatively, “Hello? Who’s calling, If I may ask?”

“It’s me,” he gruffly whispered into the headset.

“The operation has nearly been completed, sweetheart.”

“What operation?”, she inquired?

“The one that is going to change everything, it’s the reason for my discretion with you over the past few months….”

Matilda wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but he had sparked her curiosity greatly.

“What will it change? I don’t understand.”

The line hung up abruptly. Her question hung in the air, unanswered, and confused. She entered her small Volkswagen, and drove to his office, needing to know what had occurred. She knocked on his door. There was no answer. She slowly turned the knob, adjusting to the bright lights in the room when she opened the door. She screamed. A body lay on the floor writhing in agony. The admiral looked up towards her, his eyes tinged yellow.

Several years later a new family moved into the house. They were a small family of only three, a mother, a father, and a fifteen year old daughter. Gertrude, the daughter, was exploring the house one day when she came across an inconsistency in the wallpaper. She tapped the wall in several places to discover that it was indeed hollow in a large area. She tapped the wall until she heard a lever click, and the door open. Inside, Gertrude was shocked to find 4 small cots, a tiny hidden window, covered by black curtains, items of clothing from decades past, and a small tin lunch pail. She examined the room, scrutinizing what was there, this small room hadn’t been mentioned when the real estate agent had shown the house. Nobody had known about it, perhaps that’s why it appeared to be untouched from when it had been left. She opened the tin lunch pail carefully, afraid to dent or break it, although it was surprisingly in pretty good condition. Inside were several letters and one empty syringe, tainted with blue liquid, which had dried and hardened into the glass. Each letter was addressed from Matilda to a Dr. Flootenstein, who had evidently worked in the Annex. Matilda had been secretly hiding hostages in her attic until one of them contracted Frei fever. Dr. Flootenstein had provided her with the anecdote to prevent the other fugitives and Matilda from catching the fever. In her haste, Matilda had forgotten her husband unknowingly was subject to the disease. He contracted it, and him and the infected girl died within a month. The other fugitives escaped from the Naval base, and without a leader, the base began to fall apart internally. Matilda remarried to Flootenstein who later was arrested and convicted for his experiments on human subjects, and Matilda, died from a sudden case of tuberculosis after what was referred to as an “event” occurred. Gertrude shuddered. Her new home had suddenly turned into a morgue before her very eyes. Who knows how many had died, how many had hid, within the house… Gertrude returned everything to its original state, making sure everything appeared untouched, as she exited the small room. She thought if she hid all of the reminders, she could forget what she had read. Several nights passed, everything seemed typical, unchanging. Nobody knew of the secret room, she didn’t mention it, and she would have forgotten about it had not a strange event occurred. Gertrude’s room was located directly across the hall from the small attic room, the walls were paper thin, so one could hear any noise transmitted throughout the house in the silence of night. Exactly 7 nights after she found the letter, she awoke to a strange noise, coming from outside of her room. An eerie silence followed closely behind, after several moments, Gertrude decided it was her imagination, and closed her eyes. The sound occurred again, it seemed to be some sort of shuffling noise. She opened her eyes and glanced through the darkness towards the hidden panel of the door across the hall. She quietly picked up her baseball bat, slipped in to her slippers, and silently glided across the hall. Prepared to assault someone, she threw open the door to find an open window. A tree branch scratched the wallpaper, creating the shuffling noise she had heard. She sighed with relief, before she noticed a hole the branch had poked through. Inside was hollow, and several more letters were found. The letters detailed the experiments conducted at the infirmary and the Annex. Hundreds of innocent people had been tortured and abused in order to “find a cure for the Frei fever”. According to the letters, this torture had been sanctioned by the United States military, although no other reasons were specified other than a cure. Flootenstein had been a traitor; he had given away the most precious dose of antidote to Matilda. Gertrude could ignore it any longer. Gertrude’s diary was found by the scribes decades later. According to her entries, she contacted a government administration on October 17, 1980. She told them of her findings, and of the operations that she claimed were occurring or had occurred on the naval base. She encouraged the government to look into the strange occurences and experiments which had occurred in the infirmary and Annex. Gertrude’s family was not found when government officials arrived at the Naval Base. The mansion had been abandoned, with no one on the naval base, knowing of her family’s whereabouts. When the house was searched, nothing was found. However, throughout the search, the officials noted that they heard a shuffling and scratching noise coming from an unknown location.