Filmten

A year ago, not a soul in the world knew about our small town. Well, besides all of us here who called it home. Now, "Filmten" has been seen across every newspaper's head line, and heard from every reporter's mouth. From Alaska to Japan, no one can forget it. Last year there was around a hundred and forty people living in our quiet town. Only once a month or so we'd get someone coming through: lost, or looking for some place to get lost. Here was the place to do it. If someone didn't want to be found, Filmten was the place to run to. No one would have ever thought of looking here. Like I said, that was a year ago. Now, no one can stay away.
It's all that stupid junky's fault: Jake Rams. The fucking idiot just had to get high as shit that night, and decide it was a good idea to go out for a walk. We could have probably gone another few years without finding "it." That would have given me some time to finish school and get out of here. But that wasn't how it happened. Because that dumb ass found "it" while he was high out of his mind. Now, our town isn't our safe haven anymore.
I don't like to admit it, but I did know the guy. Not well, but I knew enough. He was a quite a few doors down from my family's house, but that didn't stop us from hearing his house parties every other weekend. Not a lot of us liked him, except for of course half  the high school. With not much to do in town, parties gave the kids something to look forward too. I only ever went once. I definitely don't remember what happened that night, but waking up hungover and pants-less in his kitchen made me make the decision not to go again.
The night he left, to go for a two-in-the-morning walk, was not one of his party-nights. But it was one of those night where he decided there was nothing better to do then get high. When they searched his room, they found a couple different drugs in there, but they never found out which one was his choice that night. The only reason they knew about his high, late night walk was because of Sue, the owner of the town's bar. She was coming home late that night after closing up, and saw him stumbling down Bear Claw Trail, right at the end of our street.
We believe she was the last one to see him before they found what they found three days later.
When he didn't come down for breakfast later that morning, his parents went up to check on him. They of course freaked and called the police when they didn't find him. This wasn't unheard of, especially for a kid like him, and they classified it as a runaway for the first day.
Everything changed when Sue heard about it and told them what she saw. That's when the case took a turn. All, 140 residents of Filmten were on alert. A drugged up kid was missing and possibly lost in the woods. Bear Claw Trail wasn't the most rugged trail, but it was the longest one we have in town. If you go off the trail just a few yards, the path could completely disappear and you could easily be spending the night out there. The temperature also dropped significantly at night, so when they started searching the woods, they weren't expecting a rescue. They started planning for a recovery of a body. Jake's family was expecting the worst; however, their "worst", was not the worst. What they found on the third day of their search was quite possibly the worst his parents couldn't even imagine.
Jake's Uncle, his mom's brother, was the one who found it. Three days earlier, when he had learned that his nephew was missing, he helped lead the search party, along side the town's nine police officers.
I heard that after he called in what he discovered, they found him in a sobbing mess. I've also heard that he didn't even call it in, and they found him by following his screaming and yells. Whatever was true, we knew that he didn't take it well. He killed himself the same way he believed his nephew died. He was the first victim, at least the first one we knew of. He was a victim to The Pit.
A "pit" was sincerely the best way to describe it. It was probably ten feet across and was cut in a perfect circle. When the team first saw it, they knew it was in no way natural. It had to be man made, but they had no idea who or what had made it.
They knew this was where Jake had ended up. His shoes were left a few yards from the pit. Mud was surrounding the hole and everyone who had met Jake knew that he would have never stepped near that mud with his precious shoes on. His parents and the police guessed he had taken them off to get a closer look in the pit. At the edge of the massive hole, it could be seen where Jake must have slipped in the mud and fallen, to what many think, his death.
It only took a day for word to get out about Jake's end and the hole out in the middle of the woods.
Many people visited, took pictures and even dared taking a look in. No one could see the bottom. All forms of trying to find the bottom the pit failed. There was no way with what we had available in our small town they were going to reach the bottom.
Three days after the discovery, the first news van showed up. No one in Filmten had ever imagined dealing with the media. That next week, almost a dozen other reporters came to see. No one was sure how they found out, but it was most likely a post to some social media that got the attention of the news companies, and eventually the government.
When they showed up, we thought it was another news van. But when they emerged with full suits and no cameras, we knew they weren't there for a normal interview. Jake's parents dealt with the first few media interviews, but around the fifth or sixth van arriving, they didn't want to talk. They needed to heal, but the two men who showed up that afternoon didn't take that answer.
They didn't say much or stay too long. They talked to the Rams, took a few pictures of the hole and left.
We thought they would be back, shut it down or even tell us never to talk about it again. But they probably knew what was going to happen though. There was no way they could keep it under raps. It was only a month after the first van showed up when it was the only thing on the news across America. It only took another month before it was world wide.
People came from all over to see it. Hundreds would show up each day. People even started calling it the Filmten Pit.
A company came at one point to measure the pit. They hit their limit of four miles and there was no sign of the bottom. They came back a week later with a measurement of 8 miles and they still didn't find the bottom. When that was discovered, it was added to headlines already circling.
"Worlds deepest hole, still with no end!"
"Will we ever reach the bottom of the Filmten pit?"
My personal favorite was a translation from a French newspaper's headline: "Giant man-made pit to hell or Alien dumping hole?"
Some saw it as a joke, but not our town. Our once quite town was now a tourist attraction. Companies came from all over trying to make deals with our mayor, businesses and even Jake's family.
Thing only got worse. April 25, almost exactly 3 months after Jake went missing, was when we had our first Jumper. That's what we call them now. There's so many we rarely say their names. It may seem insensitive, but it's what we had to do to avoid the emotional part of it. If we do address the reality of the Jumpers, none of us would be able to continue living a normal life. At least as normal as we could make it.
The first Jumper's name is the only one I can remember right now. Katie Kelleher, a 23 year old college student from California. She had come to see the pit by herself. Witnesses say one moment she was standing there looking at the pit, the next she was climbing over the guard rail we put in. They tried to stop her but they were much too late. She jumped and was gone like that. The people around her sat in silence for a minute, seeing if they could hear her hit the floor, but they never heard anything.
911 was called, but I don't know why. There was nothing they could do. She had left her jacket behind on the ground in front of the rail. They found a note in her pocket. It made sense that is was a suicide note. The usual, she was stressed, didn't have friends, felt hopeless and our pit was her "perfect" solution. But not all the Jumpers were like her. Some jumped in to end it all, yes, but others saw it as life rather then death.
There has been full cults who have jumped in thinking it was a gateway to salvation. Others jumped in thinking it was a portal to a new world. There have been stories that during the night some people would dump bodies and even live people into the pit, never to be hear from again. I didn't believe those stories.
The saddest Jumper was only a month or two ago. They called it a Jumper, but this was different. A woman came to the pit with her 3 week-old baby girl. No one noticed them until she climbed over the rail like most of the Jumpers did. This time they were able to get to her before she jumped; however, they didn't think to grab the bundle in her hands. She dropped it into the pit before anyone could comprehend what had happened. This time I understand why the police were called. They arrested her. After a day of questioning, we learned that she was a young mom that didn't know how to deal with her unexpected pregnancy. They contacted her boyfriend, and he was inconsolable. He didn't know how to handle it. I found out a few weeks ago he became a Jumper too, just like Jake's uncle.
Today, our town is a mess. Out of the hundred and forty residents, about fifty have left, and another twenty have become Jumpers. I'm one of the only seventy original residents left. My parents left with my younger sister a little after Katie became the first Jumper. I started working with the local hunting shop and finished up high school. After graduation, I started working with the research team that were left investigating the pit. I've been working with this team for half a year, and I never thought I'd say it. But I'm going to be a Jumper. Not to kill myself, not for a cult or belief. I'm doing it to finally know. I've lived here all my life, and I'm not willing to live another day on this world without knowing what is at the bottom of that hole. Today, I'm jumping. And I don't know what I'm going to discover, but I am going to admit one thing. Jake probably had the best fall. Being high as hell probably took away a lot of the panic and fear. And I'm not going to lie. I'm scared as hell, but I'm ready. I think I've been ready for a long time. But today is the day I'm coming to terms that I'm ready. What ever is down there, I have a feeling that the Filmten Pit will be the last place I'll know and I'll just be known as one of the hundreds of Jumpers. I've never heard the sound of a Jumper hitting the bottom of the pit, but I'm sure I'll hear it soon. I wonder if anyone down there will hear it too.

Journal recovered from the jacket of Jumper #134.
Name: Sam Grey
Gender: M
Age at jump: 20
Jump date: 1/27/20
Recovery date: 3/6/32
Identification: wallet with name and picture