Not Flies

• Entry must be approved and supervised
• Use provided airlocks to prevent security breach
  
• Follow acquisition policy for additional specimens

A collection of dead flies, usually with one (1) living specimen. Currently, there are twenty-seven (27) specimens housed in Chamber 619.

Item 619 is unusual to Floor Fifty-Four in being not a single item, but several. Biologically identical to a common housefly, each of the specimens that form item 619 have a number of differences to their natural counterpart. Most apparent is that the living specimen will change over time, with dead specimens ‘resurrecting’ and the living specimen ‘dying’. Researchers are unsure if item 619 is a collective entity, sharing life willingly, or if each ‘Not-Fly’ is stealing consciousness from the previous specimen. One commonly accepted theory is that item 619 is in a ‘low power’ state, reserving energy whilst still enabling one specimen to observe their shared surroundings.

Whether alive or dead, specimens cannot be crushed, vapourised, severed or permanently altered in any way. Despite their physical composition suggesting otherwise, they will leave dents in titanium plates attempting to compress them (see experiment 54-619-X17).

When an individual human being enters the chamber, item 619 undergoes significant change. Multiple specimens will revive over time, until all specimens are ‘alive’. This is not based on proximity, but rather a human being occupying the same space as item 619. Specimens will display no increased probability of revival if human test subjects linger in the airlocks - even when touching the opposite side of the glass. Likewise, if a second human being (or more) enter the room, item 619 will slowly return to its normal state, of only one (1) living individual specimen. It is extremely rare, though not unknown, for all contained specimens to be in a ‘dead-state’.

Once in the presence of a lone human being, behavioural differences of ‘Not-Flies’ and common insects become more distinct. Notable examples include:

• Flying towards test subjects eyes and ‘dying’ mid flight.
• Attempting to climb into the orifices of test subject, as a single connected mass. [Attempt was unsuccessful - item 619 was able to prise open test subject’s lips, but not their teeth]
• Crawling in a curved line along the floor, and drawing intricate geometric patterns around test subject.
• Collectively buzzing in time to create simple, agitating melodies.
• All specimens simultaneously dying mid-flight and showering test subject in their corpses. Reviving almost as soon as they hit the ground, only to fly above the test subject and die again. This repeated until test subject terminated the experiment. [8 minutes 17 seconds]
• Landing on the test subject's skin/clothing and only being removed through physical force. Test subject was only able to remove one specimen at a time, which quickly rejoined as they attempted to remove the next. [Note - extraction of test subject proved difficult following this behaviour.]
• Landing on the glass in the shape of a human eye, and crawling together to make it ‘blink’. The pupil of this eye followed the test subject around the room.

As well as their own unusual behaviour, item 619 also seems to cause increasingly severe changes in behaviour of any individual sharing the room with them. Test subjects experienced increased heart rate, pupil dilation and described intense feelings of irritation, agitation, paranoia and disgust. Even during periods of relatively non-invasive behaviour, human test subjects will become more agitated over time. The longest test period currently attempted was ninety-three (93) hours, at which point the test subject had to be forcibly removed due to safety concerns.

During initial experiments, it was also observed that item 619 can influence several species of house flies. Whilst a house fly will never become an additional specimen of item 619, the common insect will behave differently when occupying chamber 619 along with a lone human being. It appears that item 619 can directly control house flies, typically resulting in the death of the insect and increased provocation of the human being. Further testing with live insects is not currently permitted.

Perhaps most alarming with regards to item 619 is our inability to confirm how many exist. When item 619 was first relocated to Floor Fifty-Four, there were only sixteen (16) specimens. It is also unknown whether bringing multiple specimens together is appropriate, or even safe. Since specimens cannot be destroyed and do not appear to reproduce, it is hypothesised that there are a specific number in existence. Researchers theorised that because so little is known about item 619, it would be wise to prevent a ‘complete collection’ from occupying the same space.

As a precaution, a single specimen is stored on Floor Nineteen, in an enclosed storage unit. [MANAGEMENT] suggested as a further precaution, the next captured specimen should be contained within Chairman 54’s storage facility in an airtight box. This suggestion has been accepted.

Floor Nineteen has, on numerous occasions, attempted to re-engineer materials that would have the same properties as item 619. Project leads hoped to create a new ‘super-material’ based on the apparent invulnerability of item 619. Extract from report 19-619-L9:

Failure
As per previous reports - what we are being asked to accomplish here is impossible. They are flies’ legs. We cannot take flies’ legs and make what you are asking. It shouldn’t exist. We cannot replicate what shouldn’t exist.We can prove the sample is invulnerable, but we cannot prove why. It is time to stop asking.

Experts from Floor Six, Floor Eight, Floor Thirteen and Floor Twenty-Eight have also been consulted on item 619, but without any positive results. In every single test ‘Not-Flies’ display no physical difference to a common housefly (barring attempts to destroy them). After exhaustive observation and testing, we do not know what they are, how they exist, why they exist, why they react to humans, why they agitate humans, or whether bringing them all together is exactly what they want. All we know is that they are definitely not flies.

Following exit interviews with test subjects, it was noted that many of the test subjects described the experience as “torture”. During document processing, [MANAGEMENT] proposed that Chamber 619 could be used as an interrogation room. Chairman 54 intervened, stating that the proposal “wouldn’t get past the ethics division”.

When the matter was discussed during a Cross-Chairman briefing, Chairman 30 expressed interest in the chamber being used as a method of punishment for particularly bothersome prisoners. Chairman 54 offered use of the chamber in exchange for contributions towards Floor Fifty-Four’s monthly budget. Chairman 30 has neglected to formalise this offer.

Additional instances of item 619 likely still exist in the outside world, in unknown numbers. Individual specimens have been acquired following cases of suicide where the victim had no previous record of depression, anxiety or self-harm. Without exception, these suicides have been committed indoors, and the method speaks of desperation. Typically, the individual appears to have been attempting to kill item 619 an failed, or was attempting to kill both themselves and item 619.

Floor Fifty-Four agents dispatched by [MANAGEMENT] to crime scenes with the above criteria are advised to search the area for dead flies. There is a simple test to determine if any nearby dead flies are actually ‘Not-Flies’ - Agents will attempt to crush it with their finger. This simple method has resulted in the capture and acquisition of eleven (11) additional specimens during the lifetime of Floor Fifty-Four, though there has been a decreasing trend of instances over the past ten years. This suggests either the number of specimens remaining is negligible, or the remaining specimens are somehow learning not to get caught. Unfortunately we have no way of determining which is true.