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Post Mortem · InkandNeon | Speculative Fiction Stories

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This is UCPA officer Alan Parker time is 1800
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hours Sunday August 12th 4046 With most of my
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department having been reassigned to the master
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case Sweeping utility tunnels and Dragon maintenance
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pawns for clues on this serial killer. It's not
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that I do not understand the mandate with 17
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butchered bodies. The degree of mutilations is
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enough to make anyone sweat. But. It's not hard
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to see what this really is. It's theatre. It's
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no secret across the precinct floors or even
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the public that the UCPA barely held its council
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seat during the centenary ballot. One vote and
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a single filthy corporate proxy vote mired in
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bribery and backroom death threats. That lone
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ballot was and is only barrier keeping this entire
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association from being dissolved into scrap sharing
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the same cramped grave as the yoke military alliance
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mega corporations want us off the ledger they
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want their own private military bank they don't
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know what they ask I am not alone when I say
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that I fear what will happen the day the Megacorps
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do get control, when their vanity clouds their
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judgement. Until that day, I will continue to
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serve, and so the brass chases ghosts to justify
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our funding, while I get reassigned due to my
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proclivities. Not that I am arguing Going from
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chasing some corporate killer to some lost adult
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It's good to do some actual police work Someone
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that actually matters This is case 006529 The
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disappearance of Elliot Archer Known on the public
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comms network as Riz, the streamer and content
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maker, one of the tens of thousands that clutter
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up Pacific City's bandwidth with synthetic dopamine
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hits. The Department of Labor loves them, calls
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them essential psychological assets. claims they
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caused a 12 % bump in civilian compliance. I
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call it for what it is, a 20 -something year
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old kid in high -end streetwear selling lies
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to people who have never even felt the cold air.
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Let it be known for the record, I refuse to call
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him by his stage name, Riz. Elliot's brand was
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simple. He claimed to be a survivor of the trenches.
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Told his chattened followers he was born in the
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bottom sediment of layer 8. And he clawed his
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way up to Pacific City with nothing but his two
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bare hands. A story we'd all like to fall in
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love with. But anyone with an operational neuron
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knows that's garbage. You don't survive the trenches
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and come out with porcelain skin and a corporate
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paycheck. If you actually did manage to climb
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out of that hell pit, your ID, it already tags
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you as lower tier scum. You get sent straight
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to the asteroid haulers of the offworld strip
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mines. If you're lucky, maybe an intersolar courier
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crew will take you on. Elliot disappeared mid
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-broadcast, a live feed in front of nearly a
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hundred thousand witnesses, but why still remains
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a mystery. I'm keeping the inquiry open. This
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is Parker, signing off of log one. Alan Parker.
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Log 2. Monday, 1800 hours. We managed to find
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Elliot's body. Well, what was left of him? His
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corpse was recovered, wedged between the primary
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trash and takepipes on the lower silt rim, just
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below the residential district 7. This was thanks
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to an anonymous tip. that came through on an
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encrypted board, hours after it was posted online.
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Turns out that after some digging, Elliot's metrics
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were dropping. The comments and public sentiment
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were turning against him, calling him a fraud,
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and demand for proof of his tragic origins was
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skyrocketing. Why suddenly after five years this
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became such an issue I do not know but Terrified
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of losing his sponsor stipend and getting thrown
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into what I assume would be a regular job He
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somehow managed to get his hands on the black
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market transit key This key was the only thing
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left on his body that wasn't destroyed This key
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linked to an obsolete freight hoist, one that
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rests in Sector 3. Now I still don't know how
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someone like Elliot was able to slip past the
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multiple defences that lay in the inner workings
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of the layer, nor was able to pass through the
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other layers with such precision timing as he
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didn't get guillotined. But he did it, and he
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brought with him his entire hundred thousand
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audience. The coroner's preliminary assessment
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just finished. DNA and facial scans confirm this
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body is in fact Elliot Archer. The wounds are
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chaotic to say the least. Multiple punctual acerations
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from crude and filed iron shanks. Some still
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waged firmly within his body. The coroner estimates
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a mob of at least 14 individual attackers. None
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of the strikes show augment talk or mechanical
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leverage, leading us to believe that these were
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relatively weak individuals, probably no stronger
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than a child of 13 years of age. What is most
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distressing, however, is almost all of the wounds
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are clustered around his shoulders and lower
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abdomen meaning his killers wanted him alive
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inflicted maximum pain coroner unfortunately
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also reports that with his throat slit his jack
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was also fried but it was done in such a way
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that it had to have been purposeful Unfortunately,
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Elliot laid in that ditch, paralyzed as his body
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slowly, slowly shot down on him, unable to even
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call for help. No distress pings on the precinct
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monitors. The raw feed from his missing camera
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drone was intercepted by Pacific City's automated
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firewalls, but it had been scrubbed too. Unrecognizable
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commercial static. Making finding our last of
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that remaining footage my next task. I'm heading
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out to find anyone who might have recorded the
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stream. Any possible moderators, super fans,
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or editors. Surely someone must have a recording
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that pre -exists the data scrub. Parker. Ending
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log two. UCPA officer Alan Parker. it's wednesday
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2100 hours august 14th the funeral was this afternoon
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a public procession as per archers contractual
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clauses with his talent agency there were a lot
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of crocodile tears cameras and recordings alongside
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dozens of other creators rubbing shoulders for
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a lot of high ranking network executives too
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busy looking at their wrist displays to even
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know what was happening. Luckily, I managed to
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corner one of his mod team that attended the
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funeral. I managed to stop them from entering
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the service elevators and disappearing from my
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jurisdiction. I cited Section 2 of the UCPA Moral
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Justice Code and they agreed to help. They shared
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with me an unsanctioned, unscrubbed local data
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cache. I was wrong in my original assessment.
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The unedited recording was nearly six hours long,
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not the original presumed three and a half hours
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with the 30 minutes being 30 minutes of missing
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footage. Due to the Samaritan Act, I wiped the
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kids' network identity from my record. This will
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allow them to keep their job and their identity
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safe. I have no further cause to believe that
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this individual was in any way involved in his
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death. After putting the recording through multiple
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scrubbers and finding the legitimacy of it, I
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sat down and watched all six hours of it, and
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to say the least it is deeply unsettling. Whoever
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this escort was that went down with Elliot didn't
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die alongside him. It would seem they lured poor
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Elliot into this place, and they broke off from
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him at some point. And once the two had separated,
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this is when Elliot seemed to run into troubles.
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But credit where credit is due, Elliot soon found
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his composure and continued filming. It was by
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now the stream had begun to take a turn. The
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trenches don't care about your subscriber tier,
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your wealth or your luxuries. Down there you
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aren't an artist. Your 30 kilos of salvageable
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muscle waged between two clean optic implants.
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The chat seemed to have figured it out before
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he did. and soon mockery and laughter turned
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to sympathy with people genuinely trying to warn
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Elliot of the dangers it was somewhat heartening
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to see how many people begged him to return and
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the help that he received from them some even
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going so far as to relay detailed maps on how
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he could return safely but it begs to question
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with that sentiment Why were there no distress
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calls logged? Why did nothing reach the authorities
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to reach us to UCPA? A manner for another time,
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but now... For all his vanity, Elliot's camera
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drone had captured something unprecedented. UCPA
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doesn't have a good cartography of layer 8. the
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plankton, the silt, the suspended carbon dust
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and the suffocating heat and humidity rise the
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optical senses of any of the standard surveillance
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units and anything where the capability to record
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seeing is much slower more dense and is often
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shot down or stolen Archer's high -end personal
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drone However, managed to take just under six
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hours of full continuous unedited documentary
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footage of Coral City, but more importantly of
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the trenches itself. Not a complete map of the
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under city, but a pretty good diagnostic one.
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Fortunately, this drone was lost. Just moments
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after capturing the ambush From the scuffle and
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the shuffling of the deformed bodies that attacked
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him It would seem that he fell victim to the
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group known as the rats We haven't seen an organized
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swarm of them near Pacific City and reports from
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the CCPD Elsa said they have been quite quiet.
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They seem to chase him back into the storm drains.
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On the recording, what was remaining of it, you
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can hear him screaming in the dark. I do believe
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he got in a good lick or two. And that was when
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the transmission cut. This is CPA Officer Alan
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signing off of log three. Alan Parker. Log 4.
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Thursday. My final report on case 006529. I tracked
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down the intake pipe that Elliot crawled from.
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I investigated the rust scrapings on the pipes
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and the amount of drag marks within. My original
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assessment was correct. Elliot didn't outrun
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his attackers. It didn't seem that he crawled
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his way back up through the drainage pipe alone.
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If I am to guess, his attackers seemed to have
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followed him. With him being wounded enough,
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or possibly egged on, they violently assaulted
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him, kept him bleeding and in pain, but... did
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not destroy him enough that he couldn't move
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or Elliot laid there for hours unable to move
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alone and terrified I am sorry Elliot truly truly
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I am I looked into the possibility of precinct
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malpractice But despite the hundred thousand
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followers and those screaming for help, apparently
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not a single call was made to the authorities.
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I do not have any evidence to assume otherwise,
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so I have to dismiss it as just bad luck, I suppose.
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Legally, the investigation is now closed, with
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the rats being classified as non -registered
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citizens under the corporate charter. If you
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aren't a citizen, there's no arrest that can
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be made and no warrant can be issued. The corporate
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board and the UCPA don't want to spend one more
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ace chasing this case. so the department solved
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it the way corporate wanted them to solve it
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buried it buried it under 12 drums of industrial
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mercury poured into the intake borehole and then
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sealed the grating shut out of sight off the
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quarterly crime statistics at least the council
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seat is safe but they're up here now walking
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through the crosswalks standing under the street
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lamps wearing dry clothes our clothes blending
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in I don't know what it is that they want but
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if they weren't here before they are now this
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is UCPA officer Alan Parker case file 006529
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disappearance of Elliot Archer case closed ruling
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accidental death some some bullshit