I found an extremely bizarre internet survey.

Let’s start with me and my friends. We’ve known each other for as long as any of us can remember. Every year we all go camping together. It’s always at the same campsite, on a mountain in the middle of nowhere. We always have the same two campsites next to each other. We’ve always arrived on the same day, at the same time, and have always left on the same day, at the same time. The trip is always perfectly planned. This year was different. <br><br>We arrived at about 7:00 PM instead of the usual 3:00 PM. It was dark, so we decided to just set up camp for the night and get the fire going. We were all sitting there when one of our phones got a poor quality text message from an unknown number.<br><br>*Hello. Click this link: some random collection of letters and numbers dot com.*<br><br>Yeah, real spammy. We all got a good laugh out of it. After the night went on for a while though, more and more of us were getting the same message. It was then that I decided to look at the message again, and the link wasn’t the jumbled mess of random letters and numbers it was before. It was:<br><br>*Hello. Click this link: takeoursurvey.net*<br><br>The rest of us tried to look at the link, and sure enough, it had changed for all of us. We decided to all go to the link together on our phones, just for the hell of it. The first thing we were met with was a login page.<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>*Login*<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>*Username: ________________________<br><br>Password: ________________________*<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>None of us knew what our login information was, and we all had the same sinking feeling that we knew exactly what we were going to do. We all looked at each other, and all of our phones lit up with another message from the same unknown number.<br><br>*Use the first letter of your first name as your username, and the last four digits of your phone number as your password.*<br><br>&#x200B;<br><br>I don’t know why, but my first instinct was to delete the message. I didn’t want to see it again. The other five of us did the exact same thing. We all clicked login without saying anything, and we continued on with the survey. It was 10 or 11 questions asking the most random shit I’ve ever seen. <br><br>*What is the name of the campground you are at?*<br><br>*What time did you arrive?*<br><br>*How many people are with you?*<br><br>*How many sites does your group occupy?*<br><br>*What are your and your five companions names, in order from east to west?*<br><br>I didn’t know how to answer the last one, until I realized that I knew exactly where each and every one of us was sitting around the campfire. <br><br>*What is the order of the phones around the campsite, from east to west? Iphone, Galaxy, Nexus, Iphone, Iphone, Iphone*<br><br>*What is the make and model of your car, and which direction is it facing from the campsite?*<br><br>*What are the license plate numbers of all the vehicles at your site?*<br><br>*How long is the walk to the nearest public restroom from the site?*<br><br>At that point, the survey ended and we were met with a short paragraph. <br><br>“We have been watching you your entire lives. We know everything about you, and we will continue to watch you. We will continue to test you. Since you completed our survey, we have given you a gift. Until you leave this campground, you may ask us one question each, and we will answer truthfully. Good luck, and remember: we’re always watching.”<br><br>We were all dumbfounded. What the hell was this? None of us said a word until one of my friends broke the silence.<br><br>“What should we ask them?”<br><br>We all looked at each other, and one of us jokingly said “What’s the meaning of life?” Everyone laughed, and I jokingly went along with it.<br><br>“Yeah that’s a good one.” And I clicked the “ask a question” link that was below the message.<br><br>*What is the meaning of life?*<br><br>It instantly sent, and we all got a message back a few seconds later.<br><br>“The meaning of life is whatever you make it. What will you make it?”<br><br>At this point, we were all freaked out. What the hell was this? Was this some sort of cult? Who were they? And how did they know so much about us? We all decided to ask our questions, with the same consensus as mine: what the hell was going on? <br><br>After the night went on for another hour or so, we all decided to go to bed. We were all in our tents, and the fire was already dying out. That’s when I heard footsteps. I’m sure they were just the park rangers walking around making sure everything was good, but with everything that had happened that night, I was terrified. I decided to text my friends, who were only about 25 feet away.<br><br>*Hey guys. If you’re awake, text me back.*<br><br>I got responses back from everyone almost instantly. The responses all consisted of some variation of “yeah I’m awake.”<br><br>We continued to text back and forth until one of my friends texted me this:<br><br>*I’m gonna go check on the fire. I’ll be right back.*<br><br>Even though I was in my tent, I could still see some light from the moon coming through the fabric. I looked out the window of my tent to try and see inside my friends tent. <br><br>*It was empty.*<br><br>*Oh shit.*<br><br>*Oh shit oh shit oh shit.*<br><br>I tried to text all of my friends, but none of them responded. I texted and texted and texted. <br><br>*Hello?*<br><br>*Hello?*<br><br>*Guys, are you okay?*<br><br>*Is everything alright?*<br><br>*Hello?*<br><br>*Is anybody there?*<br><br>*Hello?*<br><br>*Hello?*<br><br>Nothing. Silence. The only way I can describe it was deathly silence. <br><br>Nothing happened for what felt like hours. The silence was unbearable, and I couldn’t sleep. I had to sleep though. I had to get through the night. I had to find out what happened to my friends. I could feel myself dozing off. <br><br>*Just a few more minutes.* <br><br>*Just a few more minutes.* <br><br>I didn’t have a few more minutes. I woke up at about 5:00 AM. I felt groggy and sick. I somehow managed to get out of my tent, and I realized it was freezing. It was the middle of summer and I couldn’t even see my breath. I looked around, and that’s when I heard the footsteps again. I had to see for myself. <br><br>I stumbled out of the campsite, into the woods in the direction I heard the sound. I walked for what felt like hours, until I saw a light in the distance. I had to get to it. I had to know what it was. I had to know if I could find my friends. I got closer and closer, until I was right next to the source of the light. I couldn’t believe my eyes.<br><br>It was the campsite. <br><br>Everything looked perfectly normal. It was the same as it always had been. I walked closer to the fire until I saw it. <br><br>My five friends, sitting around the fire. <br><br>Then, I heard the footsteps behind me. I turned around. <br><br>It was me. <br><br>I don’t know what happened next. <br><br>I don’t know when or if I’ll be able to update again. <br><br>If I do, I’ll let you know.