Fishermen of Men

The Midnight Article "Fishermen of Men Terrorize Tromsø" was written by u/MatgamarraAlt3 and posted to r/MidnightPaper.

The text of the Article was as follows:

FISHERMEN OF MEN TERRORIZE TROMSØ

It must be hard being a coastal-water fish. Not only your life consists on swimming forever and endlessly, escaping from predators and avoiding pollution, you must also beware fishermen. Fishermen have been a source of great peril to all sorts of water dwellers since immemorial times. The human species always took advantage of being on top of the food chain, and now all species of Earth are subject to our wills and commands, from the microscopic organisms on the bottom of Mariana’s Trench to the possible organisms outside the boundaries of our atmosphere. Or so we thought.

A typical day in the city of Tromsø, northern Norway, was interrupted when what has been described as a gigantic hook connected to some sort of rope fell from the sky, suddenly impaling an unidentified street-sweeper who was working near a Polse stand (The Norwegian hot dog), and then taking him all the way to the sky, where he reportedly disappeared after passing through “waves similar to water”.

People initially attributed the occurrence to diverse perpetrators, ranging from a vengeance from the pagan Nordic God Njörðr, to aliens and even a nefarious Soviet/Russian plot to attack Norway. However, a few hours later several other hooks fell onto the skyline of the small city, but all of them apparently were quiet, like “Fishermen waiting for fish” according to locals. The fact that the city was undergoing the initial days of Polar Night, in which the sun doesn’t shows up for two months due to proximity with the North Pole, was not helpful as well.

Residents either quickly took refuge inside their homes or tried to escape to the sea or countryside. Those who tried to escape were shocked when they discovered there were enormous webs, described being several kilometers long, blocking all known exits, and extending up to the sky.

The night of the first day was tense but quiet, and the following morning the colossal hooks had disappeared. People were still scared, but some decided to carry on with their lives, since fleeing was still impossible. Some local restaurants opened up, and the residents went to have lunch.

One of these residents was 48-year-old Svetlana Bonjer, who went to a local fishery to devour a fresh and delicious stingray. When she put the fish and her mouth with the fork and bit, a hook suddenly appeared impaling her head, as if she had bit the hook and it had perforated her nose. The fishing weapon was also connected to a rope, which passed through a allegedly previously nonexistent hole in the ceiling. It’s unclear how the hook was able to enter the location in the first place, because a few seconds after the thing brutalized her, she was pulled upwards, crushing the ceiling in the process.

This incident was just the beginning. More and more people who were having lunch suddenly had their heads perforated by hooks and then pulled upwards, destroying ceilings and roofs and severely damaging apartment blocks. These people all disappeared in waves similar to which the street-sweeper vanished the day before. The local police chief, when interviewed, reported the authorities were informed of sixteen abductions.

Mass hysteria ensued, with people hiding underground, armed citizens (both legally and illegally) shooting at the sky, and people fruitlessly trying to burn the web-like structures that blocked the town’s exits. The Royal Norwegian Air-Force tried to help the city by sending military jets and helicopters in failed efforts to destroy the aforementioned webs.

People started to avoid eating and going outside. Tromsø, which had in the past called itself “Paris of The North”, was now nothing but a ghost town. The hooks also seemed tense and impatient, going deeper and deeper into the city and “roaming” around. People also reported seeing gigantic burgers floating around.

On the third day, three cars were taken by the hooks, according to the local branch of a famous insurance service.

After five days of starvation, the hooks lost their patience. They were replaced by bigger hooks and webs, and the entire city was tormented by the sound of endless buzzing and non-stop flashing lights. Entire buildings were “fished” into the sky, and people felt unsafe and fled into the streets running in panic, falling on the floor and having seizures. Webs fell across the streets, collecting dozens upon dozens of frightened citizens, and then vanishing with them upwards.

The spectacle of insanity went on for ten hours, when the webs around the town disappeared and the hooks where nowhere to be seen. The leftovers of the police went around surveying the damage. The town had lost nearly one fifth of it’s total population during those dreadful weeks. The starved citizens, not able to wait for confirmation of safety, began eating again, and were glad that no hooks were suddenly appearing now.

Armed forces from Norway and NATO quickly came to the town and the entire place was evacuated, with all people being forced to sign terms of discretion. The news, however, were covered up and censored by news channels and filtered by social media. Informers from Google told the Midnight Paper that informal accordances were made by the world’s governments and big enterprises to avoid the spread of the news in order to not harm other fishing-depending towns and services by creating panic.

The entire remaining population of Tromsø was relocated to a nearby refugee camp, while the authorities conducted scientific and military studies in the affected location. There were four thousand people who had been confirmedly abducted by the anomalous objects, and almost twenty thousand disappearances. Not to mention the deaths caused by starvation, suicides, seizures and accidents. The primary goal of the militaries was to locate those people and determine what happened, but it was all to no avail.

The nightmare was yet not over, though. One week and three days after the hooks left, something fell from the sky, splashing in the street in a mist of gore and blood. Before anyone could check, a rain of hundreds of such unidentified objects happened. Both newly constructed and old surviving structures and vehicles were bombarded and painted red by it. Fortunately, the objects did not land upon or harmed anyone, only destroying property.

When the rain was over and the officers went out of hiding and activated their flashlights to check, they were petrified. All of the abducted children and not tall enough adults were returned to the “sea”. The few survivors were not allowed by the government to give interviews to us under the pretense of them ”knowing state-confidential secrets”, and were taken into government custody.

It’s unclear when the people of Tromsø will be able to safely swim home and if fishing season is really over. Regardless, the Midnight Paper will keep it’s serious work that distinguishes us from the other fish in the sea, and will keep striving to always catch the big fishy news that our readers enjoy. Stay on hook next Tuesday for the next Midnight Paper.

Description:

The "Fishermen of Men" phenomenon is a Location-Type Oddity. It's comprised of the unexplained appearance of what seem to be massive fishing implements coming down from the sky in order to "fish" for the human beings inhabiting the town of Tromsø. These implements include gargantuan fishing nets and gigantic fishing hooks. The hooks and nets came down from from the sky, skewering people who were standing out in the open and eventually, when the townspeople began hiding, the hooks pulled houses and vehicles up in an attempt to "catch" the people inside.

Eventually, after the townspeople remained hidden away for several days, the nets and hooks vanished.

However, things would soon get even more horrifying, as bodies began raining from the sky, splattering against the streets and buildings below. These bodies appeared to be discarded and belonged to children and adults who were of less than average height.

Fishermen:

he title of the Article is very telling. "Fishermen of Men" obviously refers to the fact that there is something, most likely a Biological or Entity-Type Oddity, actively "fishing" for humans. Given the size of the nets and hooks, it can be inferred that whatever is casting them down is much larger than the prey below. Indeed, the massive fishing implements seem to be suited for a gargantuan creature.

It is interesting to note that, whatever is fishing for people and inhabiting the sky, is using tools that are exactly the same as the ones human beings use to fish. It is possible that these beings have observed human beings using tools such as these and have thus imitated them, but given the fact that these beings were never seen by witnesses, it is almost a certainty that these beings have limited vision of the town below. What seems to be more probable is that "Fishermen" beings have a very similar anatomy to human beings, and are different to us only because of their enormous size.

It is also important to highlight the fact that these beings have at least some awareness of human beings and their eating habits, as they attempted to use large burgers of some kind to lure hungry people out of hiding.

Hooks:

The Fishermen beings' hooks possess some strange qualities as well. The Article shows that they were able to enter a building without damaging it. Given the fact that their prey was indoors, it is also strange that, whatever was controlling the hook, was able to tell when a hungry woman took a bite out of a fish. The hook impaled her just as she took a bite, as if the hook were using the food as bait.

The hooks were also reported hanging in the sky quietly, just like those of human fishermen when they're waiting for their prey to take the bait.

People in the town began attributing human qualities to the hooks as well, stating that they "were quiet, like 'Fishermen waiting for fish.' The townspeople also noted that the hooks grew impatient, and began delving deeper and deeper into the city in order to find prey.

It is likely, then, that these hooks are more complex than any used by human fishermen.

Release:

Whatever the "Fishermen" beings are, they saw fit to "release" any human specimens that failed to meet their expectations. The Article mentions that only children and adults of less than average size were thrown from the sky. This further cements the similarities between the Fishermen beings and human fishermen, as human fishermen perform a similar action when the fish they catch are underdeveloped. Human fishermen usually "release" their catch if they are too small because they later weigh in their catch. This weighing practice originates from the fact that human fishermen are usually fishing to consume their catch, or to sell it so that others may consume it. The implications of the Fishermen beings performing the same practice, then, are horrifying. The fact that they use hooks to impale their prey also further hints at this horrifying fact, as they do not mind harming their prey in the process of catching it. Hooks would be too primitive and too harmful to be implements for catching specimens for scientific study. So only one possibility remains: the Fishermen beings are catching humans to consume them, or to sell them so that other beings of the same kind may consume them.

Origins:

What exactly lives in the sky that has taken to fishing for humans is entirely unknown. It's a mystery, too, how long they have dwelt there. It is interesting to note that a witness stated that a man was pulled "all the way to the sky, where he reportedly disappeared after passing through 'waves similar to water.' What effect caused the sky to exhibit this strange, wave-like appearance is entirely unknown. It is possible that the sky appeared like water because the Fishermen beings are not actually dwelling in the sky. Indeed, if they were, planes, and other aerial objects such as satellites, would have been able to spot the beings.

Alternate Dimension:

It is likely, then, that the Fishermen beings are not inhabiting the sky, but are present in another dimension entirely separate from our own. The could create portals that appear, to us, like water, and drop their hooks and nets through them. Once they have caught their prey, they pull it up through the same portals to do with as they please.