Date: 5/25/09, Three Days After Hammer Down Protocol

Time: 1500 Hours

Location: Arlington County, Virginia, The Pentagon

Case Assigned: "Cloverfield"

Mia waited impatiently, her right finger tapping on the steering wheel as she waited for the light to turn green. Usually, she had more patience when she was driving to work, knowing that her bosses wouldn't mind her coming in late. This time though, she knew what would be waiting for her when she arrived at the Pentagon. There would be workers running all over the place trying to organize the paperwork they've been getting, police officers barking orders at security guards to look after certain areas, and frantic janitors speeding down the parking lot looking for a spot.

All this panic, because of that day in New York, on May 22nd. She still couldn't believe what had happened, even though it was only three days ago when Manhattan was destroyed. She kept seeing the news reports at her home, replaying the event every single day. When she left her house, she heard people talking about it on the streets, talking about family members that were there when it happened. Since she works at the Pentagon, random reporters would swarm her and try to ask for interviews on her thoughts.

With all of that in mind, Mia didn't try to think too much into how crazy her job would be today, after all, she had to get to work as fast as possible, even if she wasn't so excited about the job they assigned her. She breathed in and out, very slowly as she concentrated on the light, waiting for the moment it changed its color. Other people around her seemed to be doing the same, watching the light as if their lives depended on it.

Then the light turned green. She practically stomped on the accelerator when it changed. Soon, Mia was racing down Washington Blvd, along with the thousands of other cars who had other places to go. Her eyes never left the road, but she did glance at the clock to see what time it was. It said 3:06 PM. She had a little time, but she needed to be there in four minutes.

Thankfully, she could see the Pentagon in the distance, so she wasn't too far now. She started to drive faster but made sure to stay under the speed limit, so she didn't get pulled over, she was already in enough trouble with her boss when she begged him if she could skip work. The rest of the drive went on smoothly, she made it to the Pentagon without problems. As she pulled up, a guard came up and asked for her ID. She showed the guard her card and drove on into the parking lot.

The parking lot was full of cars, and she could already see lots of people waiting for spots. It almost seemed like she wouldn't find a spot, but luckily, she saw a green car pull out near the entrance. She made it to the spot just in time, ignoring the swears of another driver behind her, whoever they were sped off in look for another spot that was unoccupied. She sighed and leaned back into her seat, relieved that she made it to the pentagon and found a spot, but now came the hard part.

Mia realized that she was nervous, she was breathing a bit faster then usual. Mia couldn't really figure out why yet, but that didn't matter now. She tried calming down by breathing slowly, but that didn't seem to work, her breath was to shaky. Something bothered her about the day, although she couldn't quite tell what it was, why was she so nervous? Was it her assignment for today?

It's going to be okay Mia, she reassured herself, it's just a quick questioning about some random dude's experience during the attack, I can handle that. Mia was nodding slowly, trying to convince herself that she could do this one job, after all, wasn't she also curious about what happened first hand during the attack? Mia looked at a photo taped to her dashboard, it was a picture of her father, who died when she was a little girl, that picture could help her decided over any decision, no matter how tough. After a lot of debating, she decided she would do it. With a sharp nod, Mia opened her car door and stepped outside, confident that she would be able to handle the answers that the stranger would give her.

The pentagon seemed to loom over her, it's huge walls towering over the area. It felt like a fortress to her, which was good, it's design was probably the reason she always felt safe when she worked in there. Today though, she dreaded walking up the steps toward the big doors that entered the lobby. Mia couldn't control her breathing, it wasn't that she was nervous, but more like she was dreadful of what the day had in store for her.

She made it to the front doors and pushed them open. She could already hear the madness before she could see it. Everyone was shouting, running with papers about things she wasn't interested in, but were probably important. She could see the guards storming around the place, running over anyone in their path. She almost got run over herself when a woman in a black business suit came sprinting over to her, she looked tired, and out of breath, like she's been running around a lot.

The women was a bit taller than Mia, but if put together side by side, they would look like they were the same height. She had curly red hair done in a pony tail, which somehow made Mia think she looked Irish. The women had white skin, and she had light blue, almond shaped, eyes. Right now, she was wearing a business suit.

After taking a few breathes, the women handed her a folder. "This is the person you will be questioning today." The women said. Mia looked down and took the folder, reading what it said on the front. It was marked with a red stamp saying, "Cloverfield Witness". None of the words made sense to Mia, so she waited for the women to explain, but she was already gone, flying down the hall for her next assignment.

Mia stood there, confused by her behavior, wondered why she didn't explain anything to her. She knew the basics of the job she had to do, go into a room under the pentagon, ask questions to some guy who was there during the attack, and give her results to her boss, but she didn't know why she had to do it, and she was more confused of why she was nervous about meeting the man.

She silently opened the folder and studied its contents carefully. There were two files, and two pictures of the man she was meeting. The man's name was apparently Simon Marc, he was 23 and is an upcoming photographer. The second file detailed on his family members, apparently, he was meeting them for a family reunion on May 22nd. She then looked at the two photos there were of him. One of them was a picture of him during the attack, it was kind of blurry, but it looked like it was him and someone else, a girl, running down the street toward the evacuation helicopters, the second photo showed him in a camp, sitting on a bed with military men giving him water and food.

He had brown wild hair, with a light stubble on his face, with light brown almond eyes. He was wearing a long striped sleeved shirt during the attack, along with black jeans, and normal shoes. He is a bit thin, but very tall, almost the size of a small car. He is white, and so are some of his family members as well.

This was the man she was going to question today, the man who she was going to have to pry open his mind to get him to talk about his experience, to record in the history books. She had seen the news during that day, so she knew only the outsiders point of view, but now she was going to talk to someone who was there, in New York, when the creature appeared. She could only imagine what he went through.

Mia knew she had to do her job, the boss made sure she knew how important Simon was too the Cloverfield case during their phone call yesterday, even if she didn't know why he was so important. Scared she was going to be late, she went down the right hallway toward a staircase that would lead her to the underground part of the pentagon, where she would meet Simon, who was being kept for questioning. Mia walked down the steps carefully, for she was wearing high heels and didn't want to slip and fall.

Finally, after making it down the staircase and sliding her card to allow her accesses to the hallway, she made it to the door. Behind it was Simon, who was probably sitting in a lonely room with nothing in it, waiting for a woman like Mia to open his harsh memories of that day. Mia breathed faster, she was still scared, even after that awful pep talk she gave to herself earlier.

"Mia!" Someone shouted.

Mia jumped, this was the first time someone talked to her today, and by the sound of its voice, she wasn't excited about who it might be. It sounded deep and loud, like a commander's voice in battle so his men can hear him, and Mia knew only one person who sounded like that. She could hear the foot tapping fast in impatience.

Mia turned around to see her boss, Mr. Almac, standing right in front of her, his face looking angrier than usual. Mr. Almac's first name was Bryan, although he only let Mia call him by his first name since he knows that she is such a hard worker. On a good day, he is quite friendly and cheerful, but after what happened, Mia knew that he probably wasn't in the mood for a little chit-chat.

He was very tall, wearing a black suit with all sort of badges on it. He wore an ear piece in his ear, insuring that he could receive news from anytime and anyplace. He had mixed skin, with a muscular appearance, which kind of did remind Mia of a military general for some reason. He had slicked back brown hair, although it was greying, and she stared into his light brown eyes, not because she found them attractive, but because as long as you made eye contact with him, he wouldn't scream so loud.

"Where have you been!" he shouted, "We've been waiting on you for the past three minutes! You better not have been chatting it up with Kate!"

She didn't regnoixze the name, it wasn't anyone she knew, so she concluded that Kate must have been that women who gave her the folder earlier.

"No sir, I wasn't talking to Kate. I was just reading the folder she gave me to know who I was going to be questioning today." Mia replied.

"Good, it's important to know who this man is, we've been going through all sort of crap to get him to come here."

Mia was again confused, and scared. She thought it she was stupid for even being nervous, why was she so scared to talk to this man? She didn't even know why he was so important, so she would ask him, but she didn't think about her fear though, she only focused on Mr. Almac.

"Can you tell me why this man is so important? I don't know what to ask him if he has anything important on this case." Mia asked.

Mr. Almac sighed, as if he expected that Mia knew this Information. It made Mia feel dumb, and she didn't like it when someone made her feel that way.

"We believe, that during the attack, Simon found something out about the creature that the military is still trying to solve. If we can get that information out of him, we can maybe harness something frim the creature to use it as our own," He replied, "So make sure to ask him about the creature as much as possible."

Mia's face darkened at the thought of the creature. After watching the news, she promised herself she would never try and think of that thing. So, she always talked about it like it was an attack from terrorist instead of a monster, but it was impossible. That thing made her, and maybe everyone on the planet, really question what they know about the ocean, and what horrors may be lurking underneath. It made her feel like she didn't really know anything about the world.

"How do you know?"

"Listen, Mia, I am done explaining, just do your job and try not to mess it up."

Then the boss put his hand-on Mia's shoulder, gently squeezing it. He no longer looked angry, but looked tired, maybe even guilty of something.

"I know your probably scared of talking to this guy, and I'm sorry about that, it's hard to talk to people who have been through a traumatic time. But think about how much help it would be if you found out something amazing behind the creature, that we could use to help humanity."

Mia started to calm down at that thought, because maybe it would be true that she would be in discovery of a new resource, or energy, as long as she talked to this guy about the creature. Wouldn't that be worth it? Even though Mia was still scared, she pushed that aside and tried to focus on the task at hand.

"Thanks, Bryan, I'll try." Mia said.

"No problem, and don't call me that."

Mia lightly smiled. After thinking that her bosses funny side was gone, it was refreshing to hear it again. Suddenly, her bosses ear piece started making weird noises. He held his finger on it, to hear whoever was talking a little better.

"My bosses want you in the room now, I told them your almost there, so you should hurry and get in. Now I got to go take care of something, but you report to me as soon as your done talking to him, ok?"

Mia nodded in agreement, and her boss smiled as he let go of her.

"Good, I'll see you soon."

Then Mr. Almac walked to the staircase Mia came from, no looking back at her as he opened the door. Mia stood there, with the folder in her hand. She still wasn't excited to talk to this man, but she would do it, she wanted to find out what he knew about the monster, and maybe, she wanted to find out why she was so nervous. With new confidence, she opened the door.

Mia expectations were low to begin with, but the room was worse than she thought. Inside the room was absolutely nothing, no paintings or plants, not even mirrors. Mia was sure there were people looking through one-way windows, getting their pencils and notebooks ready to write everything Simon says. The room made her feel intimidated, she didn't like how empty it was. The only few things in the room was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, and a table with two chairs near it.

Then she saw him, Simon Marc, who was sitting quietly at his seat, not making a sound. He was wearing the same striped long-sleeved shirt in the photo, only it was clean, with no blood on it. His eyes looked tired, with dark circles under them. He didn't move, the only thing he did was only lightly look up at Mia, only to look back down at the table.

Uncomfoterble by the setting and at Simon, Mia was ready to turn right back when someone closed the door behind her. She didn't bother to turn around to look, she knew it was closed and she was stuck with this man. She was going to have to do her job anyway, so she slowly walked over to her seat and placed her things on the table. She watched Simon as she put down her notepad, which she would use to write any information, and the folder with its files.

She didn't like this one bit, not only was she creeped out by the room, but Simon didn't look very well either, like he was dreading this moment as much as Mia, but she still sat down in her chair. Watching Simon, she tried to figure out what to talk about, she didn't want to start out with how the attack was, so she decided to start small.

"Your name?" Mia said.

She already knew that his name was Simon, but something bothered her about just asking him about the creature the second she sat down.

"Simon." He repeated.

Mia wrote down his name in her notepad, along with his age and occupation, she also put slots for his family members if he brought them up while they talked.

"Okay, Simon, I'm going to ask you a few questions and as long as you answer them, we can get through this together very quickly. So, let's begin."

Simon just nodded.

Mia felt an odd vibe from Simon, why was he so…quiet and dead? She didn't want to piss him off, so she started by simple things she already knew.

"So, your first question, what is your job?"

Simon looked down while he said this.

"I'm becoming a photographer"

His voice sounded tired and dead as well, which made Mia wince a bit as he talked.

"Okay, so, since your becoming a photographer did you bring camera to New York during your visit?"

"Of course, so when I got back I could print them up."

Mia trudged on.

"What kind of pictures did you take?"

"Why is any of this important Mia?"

Mia looked up in shock, surprised that he knew her name. Simon smiled a bit as he lifted his head, revealing a scar cut right across his right cheek.

"They told me who would be meeting me. I expected you would try and dodge the question on everyone's minds of course, but I didn't expect you to be this obvious."

"What do you mean, exactly?"

"Well, we all know why I'm here, to answer the question on the government's mind, where did this monster come from? Why did it attack? What brought it here? I know some of the answers, but to think that the questioner is avoiding it is amusing to me, wouldn't they be most curious about it?"

Mia, a little annoyed by the question, decides to attack back as Simon.

"Okay fine, let me get to the point, what happened while you were there? And what did you find out about the monster?"

Simon stares Mia right in her eyes, leaning back in his chair, his arms crossed, looking tired, almost bored with Mia's performance.

"I don't have to answer that." He says.

Mia starts to get more annoyed. Didn't he tell me to get to the point? She looked at the walls, wondering if the people behind them were shaking their heads about what Mia was doing, it made Mia upset. Now she was no longer nervous and wondered why she even was before, now she was angry.

"Listen, Simon, I don't have time for this, I don't even want to be here, but we both have no choice, just answer the question-."

"What are you so afraid of Mia?"

Now her nervousness was returning, but she was tired of being interrupted. She didn't want Simon to know that she was nervous about this meeting.

"I'm not afraid."

"But you are, I can see that look in your eye, it's the same look my mother- "Simon stops talking for a few seconds before starting again, "it's the same look my mother used to have."

Did her mother die? Mia wonder. It seems plausible after that comment Simon gave, and judging by the look he gave, she might have died when the creature attacked. Now Mia felt some sympathy for Simon, but she was still annoyed by his behavior.

"The same thing happened to Jake, and Paul, and Andrea," Simon continued, now shaking, "they all had that look before, right before they died!"

His sudden shouting made Mia lean back a bit, surprised at the sudden turn in the conversation.

"Who died, your family?" Mia asked.

"Oh yes they did, I watched them all get slaughtered, one by one by one. And now I'm here, listening to you asking me questions, that don't even matter!"

Simon is silently crying, looking at Mia with a wild look in his eyes. Mia herself is sitting quietly in her chair now, looking at Simon. She shows no sign of alarm, maybe a little shocked, but she sits still, like a creature who is frozen in place when an animal is about to strike.

"I'm sorry about your family Simon, I really am. I lost my father when I was a girl, and I didn't really get over it until I was a teen."

Mia though maybe by talking about her experience, it might calm Simon down into telling his story, or hopefully it would just calm him down in general. It did the trick, he sat down slowly, wiping away his tears from his face. Mia just stared at him, as he did all this, careful not to make a single word.

"You know, maybe if you talk about what happened, then maybe it will help you heal."

Mia watched Simon carefully, trying to read his mind. Hopefully he would tell her, but wasn't she afraid of this? To pry into his mind and force him to tell her his story, a story that was probably full of death and pain? Mia didn't know what to think, she just looked at Simon as he slowly nodded.

"Okay."

HELLO! I hope you all enjoyed that, it took me weeks to put together, and if it's bad then sorry. I LOVE the Cloverfield movie (the first one, the second one is meh and the third one I didn't even watch) so I HAD to make a fanfic story based from it. As you all know, this story takes place in the first movie, our two main characters are Simon and Mia. I wanted to make a story that had another survivor's perspective on the attack, but I wanted it to be unique. So, I came up with Mia, who would question Simon on his experience. I might write more chapters soon, since I love this story already, and I am still planning what happens in my other stories. Hope you enjoyed!

Take Care

CandleFire45