[LOG.START//07.19.26//S7UW//JERY//LVL4]

recording initiated.

this is researcher jery. log entry forty-one. site 7 underground wing.

six months. i almost didn't come back and finish this one. i keep telling myself i will, then i don't, then something happens and i have to.

i'm the only one left from the original team.

kowalski transferred out in march. no explanation, no forwarding contact, just an empty desk and a note in the system that said "reassigned, classification pending." dr. mehta stopped showing up in April. i asked dr. jinx where she went. he looked at me for a long time before he answered. said she requested medical leave. i've known mehta for six years. she doesn't take leave. she barely takes lunch.

i'm the only one who was here for the interaction test who's still on this level.

S4 stopped needing the nutrient increases in February. it stopped needing food almost entirely. dr. jinx logged it as "metabolic transition, subject stable." i logged it as impossible and got told to revise my entry.

S1, S2, and S3 don't perform their behaviors anymore. not the tapping, not the drawing, not the circling. they just wait. all three of them face the same direction now, at the same time, without any signal I can detect. they face S4's chamber. always. even through solid rock and reinforced walls, even when S4's chamber is three floors down. I checked the schematics myself.

the sound is back. more than once now. dr. jinx keeps saying the audio logs show silence. i started running my own handheld recorder, off the books, taped under my badge. i haven't played it back yet. i'm not sure I want to.

the pressure behind my eyes doesn't go away anymore. it's not constant, but it's not gone either. some days it's a background hum, like standing too close to a transformer. other days it's worse. yesterday it was worse. yesterday i wrote half a page of symbols in my own notebook, in my own handwriting, and I don't remember writing them. they look like what S2 drew on the floor in January.

the suits came back last week. three of them this time. they didn't wear badges either. one of them looked directly at me through the observation glass, which shouldn't be possible from that angle, and smiled like he already knew my name.

dr. jinx has started calling S4 "the anchor" when he thinks the mic is off.

i requested a transfer this morning. i haven't heard back. i don't expect to.

if anyone below level 4 ever reads this: don't approve the next interaction test. whatever they're accumulating toward, S7 isn't the containment site anymore. i don't think it ever was.

i'm going to listen to the handheld recording now. if the next entry doesn't sound like me, don't trust it.

[LOG.END//07.19.26//S7UW//JERY//LVL4]

recording initiated.

this is researcher jery. log entry three. site 7 underground wing.

the interaction test happened.

they opened the barriers between chambers. all four subjects in one space for the first time. dr. jinx was watching from the upper observation deck with two people i've never seen before. suits. no lab coats. no badges.

S1, S2, and S3 moved toward S4 immediately. not aggressive. more like... reverent. they circled it. S2 started drawing again. this time on the floor. not circles. not triangles. symbols. patterns i don't recognize. S1 began tapping again but in a different rhythm. faster. S3 just stood there. watching S4. and for the first time since it arrived, S4 moved.

it made a sound. low. almost like a hum. the other three stopped everything. completely frozen. then they all turned. not toward S4. toward the observation window. toward me.

i felt something. in my head. like pressure behind my eyes. like a thought that wasn't mine trying to push through. it only lasted a second. then dr. jinx called the test off over the intercom. barriers went back up. subjects returned to their chambers like nothing happened.

i asked dr. jinx about the sound S4 made. he said there was no sound. said the audio logs confirmed silence the entire test, i know what i heard.

tomorrow they're increasing S4's nutrient intake. doubling it and no one will tell me why.

[LOG.END//01.19.26//S7UW//JERY//LVL4]

...recording initiated.

this is researcher jery. log entry two. site 7 underground wing.

they introduced a fourth subject. S4. they didn't tell us where it came from. just wheeled it in on a sealed transport cart and dropped it in chamber four as if it was a part of routine. it's smaller than the others. almost fragile looking. but something about it feels off. the air in the wing changed the moment it arrived. heavier. like static before a storm.

the strange part is how the other subjects reacted. S1 stopped tapping. completely still for the first time in days. S2 wiped its drawings off the glass. S3 finally moved. turned its back to the observation window. facing S4's chamber instead.

dr. jinx says this is normal territorial behavior. says we're making progress. i asked him what the goal of phase two actually was. he smiled and said i'd find out soon enough. i don't like the way he said it.

i tried to access S4's intake file. classified. level six clearance. i'm level four.

the fluorescent lights flickered twice during lunch. maintenance says the electrical grid is fine.

i'm not so sure anymore.

tomorrow they're running the first interaction test between S4 and the others. i don't know what to expect.

[LOG.END//01.18.26//S7UW//JERY//LVL4]

...recording initiated.

this is researcher jery. log entry one. site 7 underground wing. i probably shouldn't be doing this. personal recordings are against protocol. but something is wrong here and i need a record that isn't going through official channels.

we have three subjects in containment. S1, S2, S3. standard procedure says feed them the nutrient paste twice daily and log behavioral changes. simple. clinical. but nobody told us they could learn.

S1 started mimicking the feeding schedule. tapping the glass exactly twelve hours apart. before we even arrive. S2 has been drawing shapes in the condensation on its chamber walls. circles mostly. sometimes triangles. today it drew a door. S3 just stares. never blinks. never moves. but every time i look away i swear it's closer to the glass than before.

i reported the mimicking behavior to dr. jinx. he told me to stop anthropomorphizing the subjects. said it was contaminating my observations. maybe he's right. maybe i'm just tired. we've been down here for nine days straight. the fluorescent lights are starting to feel like they're humming inside my skull.

tomorrow we begin phase two testing. nobody will tell me what that involves.