S1, E13 The Strangers

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Episode Transcript

(00:30):
This is Ed Falco on the air,reading The Strangers, a novel
in 19 episodes.
In episode 12, Severn and thekids retreat to the cave Matthew
and A'isha have outfitted as afortress against attacks by the
dogs.
in part by turning dumpstersinto fortified sleeping units.
As the episode concludes,they've all gone to sleep for

(00:53):
the night.
And that's where we pick upepisode 13.
The smell woke Severn first, andthen he bolted upright when he
noticed a fluctuation in thelight visible through the narrow
window above his head.
Sometime before retiring,Matthew or A'isha must have
turned the lights on over allthe dumpsters.

(01:15):
They hadn't all been on beforehe fell asleep, but now as he
peeped out into the cave andreadied his assault rifle, he
saw a semicircle of light beamssplashing off the rock floor of
the cavern, illuminating thechamber.
He heard movement in one of thedumpsters, and then saw the
barrel of an assault rifleappear in one of the windows.
The dogs, if they were in thecave, would be staring up into

(01:39):
the krypton lights.
They shouldn't be able to see athing.
From a dumpster almost directlyacross from him, Matthew's deep
voice came booming through thequiet.
They're here, he yelled.
They're near.
Get ready.
A moment later he yelled again,Let me know you hear me.
When no one responded, Severnthought the others must be

(02:01):
thinking the same thing.
They didn't want to give awaytheir position.
Matthew, as if reading Severn'sthoughts, yelled, They can
locate us by smell.
There's no hiding.
I'm ready, A'isha yelled.
After Tommy and Vi echoed her,Severn called out, I'm good.
He had the urge to shout aquestion, Has anyone seen them?

(02:22):
But he repressed it.
The smell made it obvious thatthey were near.
The cavern reeked of them.
Given the intensity of the odor,he guessed they were close,
hiding in the shadows or in anyone of the myriad corners,
crevices and niches surroundingthe stalagmites rising around
the circumference of the chamberfloor and the stalactites
hanging from the ledge and theintricately patterned roof of

(02:45):
the cave.
In the white beam of light fromthe Krypton lamps, the rock
formations of the chamber tookon an eerie, orangish glow.
Some of the stalactites at thetop, where the limestone was
thickest, seemed to glow with adelicate, lemon ice tinge.
There were rough shadows andbulging tunnels and hidden
corners everywhere.

(03:07):
A million places to hide aroundthe circumference of the empty
chamber floor.
Severn put his ear to the narrowwindow and concentrated on
listening for movementunderneath the constant sound of
dripping water and the low,barely audible hum that was the
sound of the chamber, of air andwater moving quietly through it,
of rock formations themselvesadding weight and heft at a

(03:29):
glacial pace.
The metal of the dumpster wallwas cold against Severn's cheek
where it touched the narrowrectangular opening.
He leaned into it and waited.
For an eternity that wasprobably only a few minutes, he
heard nothing, and then a soundlike someone stepping in a
puddle of water.

(03:49):
He quickly scanned the cave,looking for the source of the
sound.
A shadow near the entrance ofthe chamber moved and took the
shape of a dog on all fours.
He aimed quickly.
But before he could pull thetrigger, the dog had leapt in a
blur, and by the time it hit thecavern wall, it looked more like
an ape than a dog, transformingmid leap.

(04:09):
Severn pulled the trigger, andwas jolted by the kick of the
rifle as it spit out rounds.
Even as he was firing, and asthe others joined him,
unleashing a cacophony of rapidgunfire, he knew the dog was
gone, safe from their bullets.
The thing had hit the cavernwall and bounded up to the ledge
and out of sight.

(04:31):
In quick succession, Matthewscreamed, On the ledge! On the
ledge! And A'isha shouted, Lookbehind you! Followed by Tommy
yelling, Here! Here! And firingat the cave wall over his
dumpster as first his light wassmashed and went dark and then
the other lights behind each ofthe dumpsters were smashed or
knocked.
Severn's case, he was sure blownout by his own fire, as he

(04:53):
started shooting before seeingthe dog.
He had hoped to anticipate whereit was going, and to fire before
it got there, as Matthew haddone.
He succeeded only in doing thepacks work for them, and
shooting out the light himself.
The gunfire stopped for aninstant, and then started again,
this time down into the chamber.

(05:14):
By the time Severn turnedaround, the last of the lights
down there were also out, andthe cave went black and silent.
Matthew's deep voice issued outof the darkness.
They're so damn fast, he said,with a note of awe, and then he
laughed quietly.
Vyse said, in a calm and smallvoice, I'm lying on my back,

(05:36):
with both rifles pointing at thelid of this thing.
They still have to come get us.
Muffled by metal walls, hervoice sounded like it was coming
from the bottom of a well.
Severn called out, Turn on thelights inside the dumpsters.
That'll help us see who they goafter.
He had hardly finished speakingbefore the lights went on almost

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simultaneously in fourdumpsters.
He reached for his own lampalongside his mattress, but
before he could turn it on, hewas jolted by an impact that
felt like being rear ended in acar.
It threw him across thedarkness, where he cracked his
head into the ragged edge of themetal from one of the windows,
and then he was flying over theledge and tumbling through space

(06:18):
with warm blood sticky in hishair and on his shoulders, the
crate and the mattress and thesecond assault rifle banging
around him as if he was inside awashing machine.
When he hit the ground, the fallwas cushioned by the mattress
and pillows in what might ormight not have been a piece of
good luck.
If he survived the fall, only tobe killed and eaten by the dogs,

(06:41):
that was no luck at all.
Dazed, he felt around for thegun.
Still in a dreamy haze ofthought and action, and
somewhere in the midst ofgroping through the darkness, he
came fully awake and startedfrantically feeling around for
one of the assault rifles.
He found it.
And strapped it over hisshoulder just as the dumpster

(07:03):
was hit again, the impactlifting it high in the air.
This time he grasped themattress and held it under him
and when the dumpster hit theground it again cushioned his
blow before he tumbled out ofthe thrown open lid and landed
on the slick rock surface of thecavern floor surrounded by dark.
He scurried back until his headhit the ragged rock of what he

(07:25):
guessed was a stalagmite.
It was round and rough and thickand wet, and he pushed back
against it until he was sittingup.
All this took only a fewseconds, and then he was by
himself in the dark holding anassault rifle in both hands and
listening to the confusedshouting of Vi and Tommy calling
out questions to Matthew as theytried to figure out what had

(07:46):
happened.
From his position on the chamberfloor, the light shining out of
the dumpsters were like an arrayof lighthouse beacons, each
rectangular beam shooting outseveral feet into the
surrounding blackness.
The light beams hovered over himand left him with a sense of
being underwater.
Looking up from the bottom of adeep pool of night.

(08:09):
When the lid of one of thedumpsters flew open, a wash of
dim light shot up to the chamberroof, suddenly lighting a field
of stalactites.
Matthew's booing voice shouted,Tommy! Before his echoed
syllables could be soaked up bythe wet black air, a second
dumpster flew open, releasingits portion of light, and then

(08:29):
A'isha was yelling too, shoutingat Vi.
Severn understood that the kidshad figured out what had
happened, that his dumpster hadbeen thrown over the ledge.
He wanted to shout up to them,to tell them to stay where they
were, but the words were frozenin his throat, and he realized
that he was listening, listeningwith his whole body.
He didn't dare speak for thenoise of his voice interfering

(08:52):
with his listening.
He heard nothing but the distantvoices from the ledge.
Around him, all was still, butfor a nearby drip of water
against rock.
He smelled the pack.
The rank, disgusting odor ofthem was all around, close
enough that he could taste it.
He was waiting.
He didn't know exactly what for,a sign of some kind, the

(09:14):
slightest sound.
He had never in his lifelistened so intently.
It was almost like watching,like seeing every sound.
From the cave wall behind him anoise like an animal sliding and
scurrying interrupted thesilence and was followed by
barking and vies shouting forsage and then almost

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simultaneously by a crash and apathetic whelp of pain and then
again silence.
Severn knew what had happened asif he had seen it.
Sage had climbed down throughthe chambered tunnels coming for
him.
One of the creatures had barredSage's way.
Sage has barked and the creaturehad killed her with a single

(09:55):
swipe of its talons.
Severn knew what had happenedand he felt nothing.
His senses were a spotlightfocused on only one thing.
The sound.
The sign that would tell himwhen they were coming for him.
The shouting from the ledge grewmore intense.
Severn seemed to havecompartmentalized his listening.

(10:17):
He could hear what was going onabove him, but he was paying it
no attention.
Tommy and Vi had strapped onminers lanterns and were
starting down the chamber wall.
Their light had swooped acrossthe chamber floor, though they
hadn't located him.
He was near the entrance to thechamber, blocked from their view
by a fence of stalagmites.

(10:38):
He had been able to map hislocation in the few moments of
their searching, the beams fromthe lanterns crisscrossing the
cavern as they shouted his nameover the background shouts of
Matthew and A'isha urging themto return to the protection of
the dumpsters.
Now they were descending thecave wall coming for him.
And it reminded himself ofMatthew's recounting of the

(10:59):
previous attack.
The packs peel off one victim.
And leave the others for anothertime.
He was the one they had peeledoff.
He was the one they would comefor.
He waited, and someplace in hismind a voice speculated on the
malleability of time.
From the moment he had beenthrown down from the ledge to

(11:19):
the current moment of hiswaiting, he guessed only a few
minutes had gone by, and yet itfelt vividly to him like a much
longer span, hours at least.
He thought that thought aboutthe malleability of time and
then he heard what he waswaiting to hear.
A sound like air disturbed by abird's wings.
A disturbance of air like aflutter.

(11:42):
All this time, he had beenholding the assault rifle in
both hands, aiming it directlyin front of him.
And at the sound of thefluttering air, he pulled the
trigger.
The Recoil From The FiringSlamming The Stock Into His
Chest And Shoulder.
He Held It Tight And Kept FiringEven After The Bulk Of One Of
The Dogs Hit The Ground To TheLeft Of Him And Slid Away A

(12:03):
Dozen Feet Into The Dark.
He Held It Tight Until TheMagazine Was Empty And The Rifle
Went Silent And Lifeless In HisHands.
Wrapped In Darkness The otherbeasts came.
He couldn't see them, but heknew they were there.
He could hear their feet movingover rock.
He could hear their breathing asthey approached him and stood

(12:26):
around him in a semicircle.
He nearly choked on theunbearable stench.
One of them made a muffled, crowlike noise that sounded
agonized, and another made asharp, command like cackle, and
then they moved away.
He heard them pause and then ashuffling and shifting of weight
that he knew was the lifting ofthe dead one, the one he had
shot and killed.

(12:48):
Behind him, two beams of lightcrossed the chamber floor.
Like Matthew before him, he hadno idea why the pack had spared
him.
They had peeled him off.
Surely they had intended to killhim.
Then he killed one of them andthey spared him.
Like Matthew, before him.
The beams of light moved slowlyover wet rock.

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Severn hesitated another moment,trying to piece together the
puzzle.
And then he let it go as onemore mystery and called out to
Tommy and Vi.
They're gone, he called.
I'm here.
And then Tommy and Vi werestanding over him in their ninja
outfits.
Vi's long hair pulled back in aponytail.
You should have listened toMatthew and A'isha, he said.

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And he surprised himself withthe anger in his voice.
You should not have risked yourlives like that.
It was foolish.
They didn't seem to hear him.
Tommy sighed in a way that saidhe was relieved to find Severn
alive.
Vi said, you're hurt, and kneltto him.
She pulled off the black top ofher outfit, revealing a white
cami beneath it, and went aboutgently blotting away blood from

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Severn's face.
From the ledge came the boomingsound of dumpster lids thrown
open, and Matthew yelling, Arethey gone?
Tommy called back that theywere, and that Severn was alive,
and then he too took off the topof his outfit and joined Vi
intending to Severn's wounds.
You're a mess, he said.
You're covered in blood.

(14:16):
What the hell happened?
In the light from the kidslanterns, Severn saw that his
clothes were streaked withblood.
Must be the dog's blood.
He remembered the splash ofsomething wet hitting him as he
fired.
He had pulled the trigger andfelt the hot splash and sensed
the creature veering away in midair, changing directions at the
last moment.

(14:37):
The firing of the gun, the washof blood, the creature crashing
to the ground beside him andsliding away into the dark.
It all happened simultaneously.
In an instant.
You got one of them?
Vi asked.
She had dipped her black top ina nearby pool of water and was
dabbing it his forehead.
Severn nodded.

(14:57):
The others could have killed meand didn't.
Like Matthew, Tommy said.
Like Matthew?
Severn answered.
Vi folded the top into arectangle and tied it around
Severn's forehead.
Where's the body?
She asked.
Severn looked toward theentrance to the chamber, which
was dimly visible in the lightfrom Tommy's lantern.
They carried it away.

(15:18):
The body?
Matthew emerged from the shadowsbehind Tommy and Vi, followed by
A'isha.
They both had miners lanternsstrapped to their head.
You killed one of them, Matthewsaid.
Are you sure?
A'isha stood back behindMatthew, the beam of her lantern
fixed on Severn.
It hit the ground like it wasdead, Severn said, and it never

(15:39):
moved again.
I'm figuring it was dead.
Plus there's this, he said, andlooked down at the blood all
over him.
He pulled himself to his feet,took off his shirt, crunched it
into a ball and used it to wipeblood from his chest.
You don't look like you're hurttoo bad, Matthew said.
Severn held out his arms andexamined himself.

(15:59):
Don't appear to be.
Good, A'isha said.
Let's get back up on the ledge.
It's not safe here.
Vi grasped Severn's forearm, asif to keep him from leaving.
Sage, she said.
When everyone was quiet inresponse, she added, she could
still be alive.
It's possible.

(16:20):
Severn took an uncertain stepforward and was pleased to
discover that all this partseemed to be in working order.
Other than a slight throbbing inthe back of his head and a
little soreness all over, hefelt alright.
You might not want to see this,he said to Vi.
We'll look, Matthew said.
And he and A'isha started forthe cave wall.

(16:43):
A'isha put her hand on the smallof Matthew's back as she moved
alongside him.
Severn and the kids watched andwaited in silence as Matthew and
A'isha searched for Sage.
In the corner of the chamberfloor, Severn's green dumpster
lay on its side, the mattress,pillows, rifle, and electronics
scattered in front of its openlid.

(17:06):
It didn't take long to findSage.
While Matthew waited near thechamber wall, A'isha returned to
explain that Sage was stillalive, but needed to be put
down.
Are you sure?
Vi asked, and then said, let mesee her before you do it, when
A'isha nodded, indicating shewas sure Sage couldn't be saved.
Sage lay stretched out in apuddle of water and blood when

(17:30):
they reached her.
Matthew had covered her with hisblack pullover and he knelt
beside her bare chested, hishand gentle on the back of her
neck.
From the way the pullover wasdraped over her body it was
clear that her entrails werespilled out.
The big lad's eyes were open butunfocused and she didn't

(17:51):
register any response as Tommyand Vi knelt by her head.
Vi kissed her and then got upand started to climb back up to
the ledge without a word.
Tommy patted Sage's head onceand then followed Vi.
Matthew said to Severn, Whydon't you go with them?
I'll do this for you.
You too, he added to A'isha.

(18:13):
You don't need to stay.
Severn said, She doesn't look tobe in any pain.
He had been standing back alittle bit watching.
He was bare chested and bloodsoaked and already thinking
about washing up in that hiddenchamber's pool of clean water.
I'll do this, Matthew saidagain.
You go on.

(18:35):
Severn knelt to Sage, meaning topat her one last time before he
gratefully left Matthew to dowhat needed to be done.
When his hand touched the lab'shead, though, Her eyes suddenly
sparked to life with a familiarlight of recognition and her
tail wagged once weakly, movingthe pullover.
Sage, Severn said, the wordcoming out soft as a whisper.

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Girl, he said, as he patted heragain.
With Matthew watching, his mouthdropped open in surprise.
The lab's response only lasted afew seconds, and then the light
went out of her eyes.
And a moment later, her jaw wentloose and her tongue flopped
against her teeth, the tip of ithanging out of her mouth.

(19:20):
Matthew touched Severn gently onthe shoulder.
When Severn looked up, he sawtears in Matthew's eyes.
It's okay, he said.
The words felt devoid ofmeaning, but he found them
comforting and so repeated them.
It's okay.
Matthew seemed to dissolve atSevern's words.

(19:41):
He buried his head in his kneesand quietly sobbed.
Severn put his hand on the youngman's back and waited in the
dark for him to regain hiscomposure.

(20:04):
That was episode 13 of TheStrangers.
New episodes will be availabletwice a week on Mondays and
Fridays until the novel iscompleted.
If you want to read ahead, aninexpensive digital edition of
The Strangers is available fromAmazon, Barnes Noble, and other
online bookstores.
This podcast is an experiment inalternatives to traditional

(20:26):
publishing.
If you'd like to support it, Andmore like it in the future,
please consider becoming asubscriber or supporter.
If enough listeners choose to doso, that will go a long way to
help ensuring the podcast'ssuccess and continuation.
In any event, I'm Ed Falco, Iwrote The Strangers, and I hope

(20:47):
you'll come back for the nextepisode.