S1, E17 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 16, Severn and theothers get to know Red a little
better as they spend the eveningtogether and prepare a meal at
the farmhouse.
Matthew, however, is stillhostile to Red.
He walks out on the meal, Andhis anger frightens Red.

(00:54):
A moment later, Severn alsoleaves, taking Red with him back
to the cave and away from thetension of the meal.
We pick up episode 17 just asRed and Severn leave the
farmhouse.
Outside, a bank of dark cloudsrolled across the sky, and the
day changed suddenly from brightand sunlit to dull and overcast.

(01:18):
A pair of squirrels on the porchrailing chattered at each other,
scurried to the ground anddisappeared in the tall grass.
The clouds were thick and dark,and Severn figured they'd seen
the last of the sunlight for theday.
We need to stop at the garagefirst, he said, and he took Red
by the elbow and guided her downfrom the porch.

(01:39):
I hope you can be understanding,he added, about Matthew.
He's lost everyone.
We all have.
Our loved ones, our sisters,brothers, mothers, fathers,
they're all gone.
Severn stopped speaking when heheard, and was angered by, the
note of apology in his voice.
He's angry, he said.
He's more than justifiablyangry.

(02:02):
In the garage, he retrieved hisweapons from the hood of the
spider.
He strapped on the pistol andlooped the assault rifles over
his neck.
Red watched him with curiosity,and her eyes fell again to the
bowie knife still strapped tohis side.
Severn noticed and touched theknife's carved handle.

(02:22):
It's as much a tool as a weapon,he said.
Red opened the door to thespider, reached in, and came out
with the iPhone.
She turned it on as she followedSevern out of the garage and
onto the drive.
She cast a quick glance back atthe house and held the phone to
her stomach as if she didn'twant the others to see her with

(02:42):
it.
Severn noticed and said, You'renot ready to talk to the others
yet?
Red shook her head and lookedback to the farmhouse again.
When Severn stepped off thedrive and headed through the
fields toward the hills, shestarted tapping again at the
screen.
A moment later, the familiarBritish voice said, Will he hurt
me?

(03:04):
Matthew, Severn said.
No, Matthew won't hurt you.
Red cradled the phone againsther stomach and gazed ahead at
the trail.
He's angry, Severn said.
I just tried to explain that.
He paused and then added, Don'tyou get angry?
Red shook her head.
You, your people, you don't getangry?

(03:27):
Again, Red shook her head.
What happens when you havedifferences, Severn asked.
What happens when you havedisagreements?
Talk.
Red tapped on the phone.
Discuss.
No one shouts?
Severn asked.
You never raise your voices?
Red seemed confused by thequestion.

(03:49):
She tapped out.
When we're happy.
When we're pleased.
You raise your voices whenyou're happy.
Severn repeated.
But you don't get angry andshout at each other.
Red nodded.
And Severn said.
And you think you're human.
He laughed.
The phone said, Why?
Severn understood that shewanted to know why he had

(04:10):
laughed.
His thoughts, though, had turnedto a flash of anger he'd seen in
Red's eyes when they'd beentalking about the pack and how
they carried her to the cave.
It meant nothing to him then,but now he was curious.
Red, he asked, Are there thingsabout you that make you
different from the rest of yourpeople?

(04:30):
Could that be why they put youout?
Red shook her head.
Same, the phone said.
Severn considered pressing herand decided against it.
He changed subjects.
Do you know, I asked her, howthey did it?
How they killed us all off?
Red shook her head rapidly.

(04:51):
She looked as if the questionfrightened her.
I'm just curious at this point.
Severn did his best not to soundthreatening.
We figured out pretty quick thatif we were asleep we could
survive.
He turned to meet Red's eyes.
But I still have no idea howthat could work, he said.
We're curious, we humans.
If you want to be us, you shouldunderstand that.

(05:15):
Red nodded, as if she didunderstand.
Not scientist, the phone said.
Don't know.
Severn said you have no idea.
Red frowned and her look turnedinward.
When she started hesitantlytyping words on the phone
screen, Severn leaned close toher and read over her shoulder.

(05:35):
Sometimes she'd type a word ortwo and then skip down on the
notebook page while she searchedfor the next word.
Something we put in youratmosphere, she wrote.
Creatures, sentient creatures,all have signature patterns.
This disrupts them, blocks them,through the atmosphere.

(05:57):
When she saw that Severn wasreading what she wrote, she
didn't bother making the phonespeak.
I guessed something like thatSevern said.
And whatever you put into theatmosphere causes the storms,
but then, why doesn't everyliving thing die?
There are patterns, she wrote,species unique.

(06:18):
So you're able to determine thepatterns, electrical patterns,
which must be different awake orasleep, conscious or
unconscious, of the species youwant to eliminate?
Severn asked.
Before the British voice had achance to respond, he added, you
interrupt or block thosepatterns somehow and you can
eliminate an entire species?

(06:38):
He took a quick step ahead ofRed and then turned to look back
at her.
It's like you've learned how toflip a switch that turns off the
power.
You know how to destroy anentire species, every man,
woman, and child.
Red didn't respond.
She slipped the phone into herpocket, apparently finished with
communicating for a while.

(06:58):
She pressed her arms flatagainst her body and her fingers
fidgeted and tapped on her legs.
She walked along side by sidewith Severn like this, both
silent, until they entered thepine woods, where she retrieved
the phone from her pocket andtyped, Tell me about your
family.
Please.
Severn took his iPhone from hispocket and navigated to the

(07:21):
photos.
He found a picture of Sarah fromsoon after they were married.
They had lived in an apartmentfor a while with a garage out
back, and in the picture Sarahwas wearing a Greenpeace tee
that pictured whale fins inrainbow colors.
She was kneeling outside thegarage by their car, an old

(07:42):
Mustang with a rusted out trunk,washing the tires, her arms
covered with soap suds.
She was beaming.
She looked like there was no onehappier anywhere in the
universe.
My wife Sarah, Severn said, andshowed the phone to Red.
Red took the phone, studied thepicture, and then handed it back
to Severn.

(08:03):
On her own phone, she typed, Didyou have children?
No, Severn answered.
He slipped his phone back in hispocket.
Lots of nieces and nephews,though.
An even dozen.
Six on Sarah's side, six on myside.
Red looked to where Severn hadput the phone in his pocket, and
he understood that she wanted tosee more pictures.

(08:25):
Sorry, he said.
It's painful.
To look at pictures of all thepeople we've lost.
It's painful.
Red ran her fingers through thelong strands of her hair and
gazed around at tall skinnytrees rising through the murky
daylight.
The place they were in was quietand lonely.
A pocket of silence blocked bythe woods from the outer world.

(08:49):
Red issued a series of birdnotes, beginning with a low
warble and then dropping downthe musical scale.
Severn stopped, surprised by thesound of Red's own voice and
language on her lips.
Are you trying to say something?
he asked.
Red closed her eyes.
As if in intense concentration.

(09:10):
When she opened them again, herlips parted and she said, Sorry.
The two syllables came outscratchy and slightly distorted.
But nonetheless unmistakable.
She stepped into Severn, wrappedher arms around him, pressed her
cheek against his chest, andsaid it again.
Severn, to his surprise andembarrassment, responded with

(09:33):
tears.
He felt like he might dissolvein her arms.
You can speak, he said.
He wiped the tears away.
You can speak our language.
Red stepped back.
She retrieved her phone andtyped, Painful, difficult and
painful.

(09:53):
Thank you, Severn said, and thewords came out sounding stupid
and inadequate.
He was quiet watching Red, herface open and vulnerable.
He appreciated her apology.
He realized once she said itthat, like Matthew, he had
needed to hear it.

(10:13):
He also realized how meaninglessand insignificant it was.
A single word of apology from asingle stranger in the face of
seven million dead.
He took red by the elbow.
Come on, he said.
He pointed to a place ahead ofthem where the woods opened onto
the silt and rock at the foot ofthe hills.
We're near.

(10:34):
The cave is up ahead.
Severn climbed the rest of theway in silence.
Red, alongside him, seemedcontent with the quiet.
Once they had gained someheight, she gazed around her at
the woods and fields as iftaking in her surroundings.
A low roof of dark cloudshovered close to the hilltops,

(10:55):
where a pair of turkey vultureswere perched on an outcropping
of rock, a slight breezeruffling their feathers.
When they reached the boulders,Severn offered Red a hand,
helping her up step by stepuntil they were on the ledge at
the mouth of the cave.
This is it, he said.
We stay here at night to protectourselves from the packs.

(11:17):
Red nodded quickly.
Severn was getting to the pointwhere he could read Red's
gestures as if they were alanguage of her own.
The way she had nodded said,Yes, I know.
This is where you found me,remember?
They have it set up like afortress, Severn said.
He touched the small of Red'sback and guided her into the
cave.

(11:38):
Once through the small entrancecave and into the central
chamber, Severn pointed to thebanged up dumpster lying on its
side with its lid open, amattress, bedding, weapons and
electronics scattered around it.
The cave was shadowy, but therewas enough light to make out the
big details.
That, he said, meaning thedumpster, was originally up

(11:59):
there with the rest.
Severn stopped abruptly when Redspun around and backed into him
as if something had frightenedher.
An instant later, theunmistakable stench of the pack
wafted into the cave, and hetook Red by the arm and yanked
her toward the dumpster.
He managed a couple of stepsbefore he slipped on the slick
surface of the cavern floor andfound himself lying on his back,

(12:21):
stalactites.
Red knelt at his side, her facepasty and distant, as if she had
fallen into herself and wasbarely aware of her
surroundings.
Severn had been jarred by thefall.
His head had smacked hardagainst the stone floor of the
chamber, but his senses werestill sharp and clear.
He sat up and looked around andsaw nothing but shadows and

(12:43):
darkness.
The beasts were in the chamber,though.
The intensity of their smellmade that obvious.
Severn grasped his rifle in onehand and with his free hand took
Red by the arm and pulled herback with him.
Twice, before he reached thedumpster, he fired short bursts
into the darkness, imagining theplace where one of the dogs
might descend on him.

(13:05):
Red seemed barely conscious.
He was mostly dragging heralong, her body tense and rigid,
frozen with fear.
At the dumpster, he tried toshake her out of her stupor.
He called her name and shook herviolently, but with no effect.
Her muscles were stiff andtight, as if her whole body had
spasmed and locked up in a knot.

(13:25):
Red, he whispered, leaning closeto her, wrapping his free arm
around her shoulder.
If she heard him, she gave nosign of recognition.
Her skin was growing cold andclammy, her body temperature
dropping rapidly.
Severn wondered if this muchfear might possibly be fatal to
a stranger.
He had read of earth creatureswho simply shut down and died

(13:47):
when cornered by a predator, andhe wondered if something like
that might possibly be happeningto Red.
She looked like she was failingrapidly, her skin growing cold,
her eyes distant, her bodyrigid.
Red, he said again.
And then was quiet when he heardthe rattling crow cackle of a
dog close by in the darkness.

(14:07):
Severn fired a long burst in thedirection of the sound, and then
scuttled into the dumpster,dragging Red with him.
He stood, and with a tremendoussurge of effort, tipped the
dumpster over so that he and Redwere protected on all sides by
its thick green walls.
It occurred to him that Red wasmore in danger from herself,
from her fear, than she was fromthe pack.

(14:29):
The pack hadn't killed her whenthey had the chance.
According to Matthew, the packdidn't kill strangers at all.
Still, There were the facts ofher abandonment by her people
and her abduction by the dogs,none of which made much sense.
Perhaps she was in danger.
They were chasing her when theyfound her.
They had wounded her, and shewas terrified.

(14:51):
Perhaps they had been toyingwith her, which was something
they seemed to do.
Perhaps I was right.
Enred was minutes away frombeing the pack's morning meal.
Severn leaned close and touchedher face, and was startled by
the feel of her skin, which wascold and clammy as a corpse.
He put his head to her heart.

(15:11):
And had to wait a few secondsbefore he heard a single faint
beat.
The urge to call out for helpcame over him before he gathered
himself.
He slid away from Red and peeredout one of the thin windows into
the shadows of the cave.
He waited and watched, his headmomentarily empty.
When he saw no movement anywhereand heard only the constant

(15:33):
echoey drip of water splashingagainst stone, he started to
turn back to Red and thenstopped.
He realized that he was afraidhe'd find her dead.
He steeled himself, and then,when he turned around, the
dumpster was lifted and thrownthrough the air like a cardboard
box.
When it hit the ground, he wasspit out and tossed across the

(15:54):
chamber floor.
He bounced off a stalagmite andwound up sprawled on a slick
expanse of rock.
He sat up and called out forRed, but heard nothing in
response beyond the drip ofwater and the hum of air
circulating through the chamber.
When he reached for his assaultrifle, he found nothing.
Most of his shirt had beenripped away, and he was cut

(16:15):
somewhere.
His hand came away from hischest wet with worn blood.
He found the pistol at his sideand pushed himself to his feet.
He scanned the darkness lookingfor red.
Instead, he saw a single dogemerge from the shadows on two
legs and approach him.
He steadied the pistol, aimedcarefully, and the next thing he

(16:38):
knew he was sailing backward,his wrist gashed where he had
been holding the gun.
He understood that the dog hadto have leapt at him and swiped
the gun out of his hand, but hehadn't seen it.
One moment he was aiming thegun, the next he was sailing
back and bouncing off the cavewall.
Somehow, he had never lost hisfeet.

(16:59):
He wound up standing, holdinghis bleeding arm against his
bleeding chest, looking straightin front of him at the same dog
on two legs, looking back athim.
They were close to the entranceof the cave, where there was a
little more light, and Severnsaw that it was the Grey.
It seemed to be alone.

(17:19):
If the rest of the pack wasnear, they weren't showing
themselves.
The Grey took a long, slow steptowards Severn, and again the
crow cackle, that guttural call,spilled out into the chamber.
It sounded like it issued fromthe dog's chest, and it felt as
if the creature might be talkingto someone or something unseen

(17:41):
in the shadows.
This was as close as Severn hadever been to one of the pack.
The creature towered over him,watching him closely, his dog
eyes dark and burrowing.
The smell was nearly unbearable,an odor so thick and offensive
it felt like a substancesurrounding him, something
liquid in the air and terriblyfoul.

(18:03):
He held his ground and met thedog's gaze.
He didn't know what to expect.
He had been in their graspbefore and they had let him
live.
This dog, though, this dogdidn't look forgiving or playful
or curious.
It looked regal.
It stared down at him with animperious gaze.

(18:24):
Severn felt as though he wasbeing examined and judged and
found wanting.
So, he said, and he wassurprised to hear his voice firm
and clear, not even angry, justa question.
So, again, the grey cawed.
Only this time it was slow andominous, drawn out and directed

(18:45):
clearly at Severn.
Its pit bull face tightened intoa snarl, revealing a line of
sharp white teeth.
Up close, its coat was grittyand sleek, the individual hairs
bristling with what appeared tobe tiny barbs.
It looked like it might drawblood to run a hand against the
grain.

(19:06):
Its chest was broad and therewas nothing between its legs, no
sign of either sex, only thesame sleek grey coat.
While Severn watched and waited,it opened its arms slowly, in a
movement that was dance like, akind of Tai Chi's slow opening
of the arms that had the feel ofritual.

(19:26):
When its arms were fullyextended, and the phalanges
spread, the half inch long razorlike nails at the end of each
finger grew in length to sixinches or more.
Severn thought of old horrorfilms, of movie boogeymen, whose
hands turned into a fistful ofswords.
It looked like that, onlyinstead of shiny metal knives,

(19:47):
these blades were pearl whiteand fat through the length of
them till they tapered down topencil thin points.
Severn was certain that in asecond those claws would descend
on him.
Oddly, crazily, he wasn'tafraid.
He took a step back and droppedhis hands to the bowie knife
still strapped to his side.

(20:09):
He was surprised, once hegripped the handle, to find that
he was still in one piece.
He had expected the grey toreact to his movement.
Instead, its knees bent slightlyagain with the look of ritual
movement.
Severn waited.
The Grey's arms were extended,its knees bent.
When it looked like it was aninstant away from uncoiling and

(20:31):
striking, Severn pulled thebowie knife from its sheath.
The Grey seemed not the leastconcerned.
It rose up suddenly, its armsflying over its head.
And then something disturbedwhat had appeared to be the
moment of attack.
Something jarred it.
It took three quick steps back,leapt high into the air, and

(20:54):
disappeared somewhere among themaze of stalactites.
Severn returned the bowing knifeto its sheath and called out for
Red.
In the murky shadows along thecave wall, he made out an
unnaturally sharp corner.
As he stared at it, the shapeand dimensions of the dumpster
came into focus.

(21:14):
He started toward it, andsomething simultaneously flashed
across the open space of thechamber, a blur of movement like
an afterimage, a trail ofmotion.
He stopped and it happenedagain, this time the motion
going in the opposite direction.
He scanned the roof of thechamber, caught a flash of
something moving, and found thegrey hanging from a huge lemon

(21:37):
colored stalactite, one armdangling at its side, the other
grasping the limestone as if itwere a ladder rung.
It dangled from the chamber roofcomfortably, swaying slightly as
it stared across the chamber andslightly down toward the ledge
and a pair of dumpsters.
Severn seemed to hold nointerest for the creature.

(21:59):
Whatever it was looking at, itwasn't him.
He started again for thedumpster, hoping to find Red,
took a couple of steps, and thenAnd then there were two shapes,
two blurs of motion.
Severn backed toward the chamberwall.
He found the grey again, thistime standing on the ledge where
it had been looking a momentearlier.

(22:20):
When Severn turned back to wherethe grey had been, he saw a
second dog, a bay, not as big asthe grey.
It was dangling, as the grey hadbeen, from a stalactite, its
gaze locked on the ledge and thegrey that was watching it in
return.
Severn called out again for Red.
Red.
Neither of the dogs so much asturned their heads in his

(22:42):
direction.
Even from a distance, evenlooking up through the shadows
of the chamber, Severn could seeclearly that the dogs were
focused only on each other.
Simultaneously, they again flewacross the chamber, each of them
leaping at precisely the sameinstant, and crossing within
feet of each other, turningsideways in the air as they
crossed.
A pair of stunning acrobats,their leaps so powerful they

(23:05):
appeared to be defying gravity.
This time, they hadn't landedand perched for an instant
before they leapt again.
They appeared headed to collideuntil they somersaulted an
instant before impact, each ofthem striking out at the other,
neither of them connecting.
The grey landed on one end ofthe chamber floor, the bay on
the other.
Again, in a heartbeat, theyleapt at each other, and again,

(23:28):
acrobatically fainted andtumbled away from the other's
blows.
Severn pulled himself away fromthe spectacle of the beasts
fighting and continued to searchfor Red.
He wasn't at all sure she wasstill alive.
Her heartbeat had been so faint,her skin so cold.
He made his way to the battereddumpster on the chamber floor
and quickly found one of hisassault rifles and a flashlight.

(23:52):
Red was nowhere in sight.
Behind him, the dogs wereengaged in their elaborate
acrobatics, flying and tumblingat each other.
He could see them out of thecorner of his eye, their forms
blazing across the cavern,leaping, tumbling, pirouetting,
as he searched the darkness forRed.

(24:12):
The shadows were deep at thecavern walls.
He felt his way along, the palmof his hand pressed against
limestone as he took each step.
He gave up on calling for Red.
She had to have heard himalready, which meant she was
incapable of responding.
He tried to remember where thedumpster had been before the
grey tossed it across thechamber.

(24:33):
He backed up and felt fur andflesh against his neck.
He jumped and spun around, therifle raised to fire, and found
Sage, where he had left her,perched on a ledge.
He spun around again as ascreaming cackle filled the
cave.
He saw nothing.
Both dogs out of sight, and thenagain, out of the shadows the

(24:54):
dogs hurled themselves at eachother and again tumbled and spun
out of striking range, and thenagain leapt at each other,
making another pass, and againneither drawing blood.
Severn considered running forthe exit to the cave while the
dogs were distracted, and thatthought made it more important
for him to find Red.
If he could find her while thedogs were battling, they might

(25:15):
both escape.
He moved quickly through theshadows, toward a trio of
stalagmites, each of them tallenough to hide a body from view.
When he was nearing them, hestepped into something slimy.
He recoiled from it and tried toshake it from his foot.
It was gluey and thick and itclung to his shoe.
He scraped it off against a rockand then bent to examine the

(25:38):
pool of slime.
It reeked with a mix of the packand putrefaction, and he had to
cover his nose and the crook ofhis elbow as he peered into the
nacreous gunk.
He leaned closer and saw chunksof flesh suspended in the slime,
bits and pieces of a human bodyhorribly warped, sheets of skin
and clots of bone, tendons,hair, and what looked like

(26:01):
fabric bleached of color.
He backed away from the pool,found his flashlight, and shined
it on the mess.
Trapped in the pearly slime werepockets of red fluid that he
took to be blood and long redfilaments like spider vines.
Slowly, the possibility tookshape in his mind that he was

(26:22):
looking at the remains of Red,at her body melted and
dissolving.
Was it possible that a livingthing could shut down and then
literally melt away out of fear?
He asked himself that question,shining fleshlight into the pool
of filth and blood, with puscolored streams running through
it, and reminded himself thatanything was possible now, that

(26:43):
anything always had beenpossible, and all this, all that
was happening, it was the proof,the evidence.
Behind him, he heard an agonizedcrow scream, a long, terrible
caw, and he didn't even turn tolook.
He continued examining thepuddle of slime at his feet.
He saw that almost the entirepool was contained in a long,

(27:05):
green, sheath like skin, eightfeet long and four or five feet
wide.
Once again he was mystified.
He had no idea what to make ofit.
He turned away, half hoping thewhole thing was a hallucination.
But when he looked back again,it was all there under the
flashlight beam.

(27:26):
The gore, the putrefying flesh,and then, unmistakably, settled
side by side on a clot of pearlygristle, vise jade earrings, the
pair of them, so neatlypresented they could have been
on display in a jewelry store.
Severn let the flashlight dropto his side, darkness and

(27:48):
silence surrounding him, hisbody hollow as a drum, filled
only with the steady beat of hisheart.
He turned back to the chamberand saw the bay perched over the
body of the Grey.
The Grey was sprawled on itsback, with one leg bent at an
impossible angle and its arms atits side.
The bay held a clump of gore inits hands, near its mouth, as if

(28:10):
about to take a bite.
Severn shined his flashlight onthe scene.
He wasn't thinking anything atall.
His mind was a perfect vacuum.
He saw the two dogs and heshined his flashlight on them.
It was almost as if he wasn'tthere.
He was empty and thoughtless, avessel with just enough
curiosity to lift his arms andaim the flashlight beam.

(28:35):
The bay turned toward him, andin the flashlight beam he saw
that its mane was bright red andit was holding a clump of bloody
meat in its claws.
When he lowered the flashlightto the gray, he saw the hole in
its chest.
And he gathered that the bay washolding the grey's heart speared
in its claws, about to take abite of it.

(28:56):
He lifted the flashlight to thebay's face and it turned its
dog's head away from the light,looked down at the heart, let it
drop, and then turned again toface Severn.
It backed away from him like achild who had been caught doing
something terribly wrong.
It backed into the shadows andthen leapt up to the ledge and
disappeared.

(29:17):
Severn turned back to the puddleof slime and the pod like skin
at the bottom of the pool.
He had seen something in theflickering green of the bay's
eyes.
Something he recognized butcouldn't place.
A sensation like almost knowinga word.
Feeling it shimmering on theedge of discovery.
He shined the flashlight up intothe ledge where the bay had

(29:40):
disappeared.
And then flicked it off when hesaw nothing but limestone in the
bright green of the dumpsters.
When he heard a low whistlingflowing from the chamber, a note
sustained and grief filled.
He unlooped the assault riflefrom his neck, dropped it at his
feet.
And made his way up the cavernwall and through the wormhole to

(30:00):
the ledge, where he located andturned on one of the Krypton
lights.
He found everything, much as hehad left it.
The line of dumpsters, the couchand rug and coffee table looking
like they belonged in a livingroom somewhere.
The whistling was coming out ofthe darkness nearby, in the
shadows.
It sounded like breathing now,the notes warbling and changing

(30:24):
tones slightly on the inhale andexhale.
Severn followed the whistlingand found the bay huddled in a
niche carved out of the cavernwall.
His gaze fell first on thebright red mane and next on the
glittering green eyes.
The creature looked up to Severnand then away, as if unable to
meet his gaze.

(30:45):
Severn knelt close to it, hisstomach lurching at the stench.
He wanted it to look at himagain.
He wanted to see its eyes.
In response to his closeness,the bay huddled up into an even
tighter knot and buried its headin its chest.
When Severn touched thecreature, his fingers landing
gently on its shoulder, itburrowed deeper into itself.

(31:11):
Gently, he grasped its head andturned it to face him.
He'd resisted at first beforemeeting his gaze.
And again, Severn saw somethinghe recognized in the green of
the bay's eyes.
They looked at each other for along moment, and then the bay's
eyes went cold and distant, thelight slowly fading from them,

(31:32):
until they were dark andlifeless.
Severn held his hand to thecreature's chest, feeling for a
heartbeat.
Thirty seconds or more passedand all he felt was the heat
rapidly fading from the bay'sflesh.
He was about to give it up fordead when its heart thumped, a
faint beat from someplace deepin the chest.

(31:54):
He leaned back and fell into acrouch.
The light going out of its eyes,the body temperature dropping,
the heartbeat fading.
He recognized all that.
Severn was motionless but histhoughts were scurrying
frantically.
When the bay suddenly stiffened,its legs and arms shooting out

(32:15):
in straight, rigid lines, hescuttled away, frightened, his
heart beating wildly.
The jerking motion of the bayappeared to be a convulsion, a
single spasm, and then it wasstill and lifeless again.
Severn waited until his heartquit pounding, and then moved
closer.
He touched the bay's leg andfound it cold and stiff, like a

(32:37):
body might feel well into rigormortis.
He looked the creature over andsaw that patches of its coat had
fallen away to reveal skintinged with a slight green
patina.
He leaned over the bodytentatively, intending to look
more closely at the revealedskin.
As he did so, a wet green sheathpoked out from between the bay's

(33:00):
legs, like a baby's headcrowning.
Except the sheath had sliced itsway through the skin, sending a
shower of blood pulsing into theair.
Again, Severn backed away.
Though the sheath appeared to beorganic, it also looked to be
razor sharp.
He found the flashlight in hispocket and shined it on the bay.

(33:22):
More patches of hair werefalling away, revealing larger,
greenish swatches of skin.
As a child, Severn had seen afilm of salmon fighting their
way upriver and had been shockedat how rapidly their bodies fell
apart after spawning.
He thought of that film as hewatched the bay's skin
decomposing.
He shined the beam of light onthe sheath and almost as if in

(33:45):
response to the light beam itshot out from between the roan's
legs another foot or more,ripping open much of the belly,
splattering blood and meateverywhere.
Severn wiped gore from his faceand neck as the sheath continued
pushing its way out of the bodyuntil it split the bay in half
from the neck down.
Severn watched with fascination.

(34:05):
For the first time, he had aninkling of what might be
happening.
The green sheath wasapproximately six feet long And
it swelled as he watched,growing fatter as a pearly fluid
spilled out from a single longthin seam that ran along the top
length of it.
Under the skin like sheath, thebay was rapidly dissolving,

(34:28):
falling away into a growing poolof slime and chunks and pieces.
Severn watched with anticipationas the volume of fluid from
within the sheath increased,pushing at the seam as it
spilled out onto what was leftof the bay.
The smell was nearly unbearable.
He gagged on it and movedfurther away, holding his nose

(34:50):
in the crook of his arm.
His eyes, though, remainedfastened on the expanding
sheath, which had begun pulsing,slowly rising and falling, as if
it was breathing.
The bay was largely lost in thepuddle of slime, only bits and
pieces of its body, the clawsand snout and teeth still
recognizable.

(35:11):
Where only minutes ago there wasa living creature, now there was
a pulsing green mass halfimmersed in a pool of filth.
When, slowly, the sheath beganto open, pushed apart by the
nacreous fluid spilling out ofit, Severn, despite the terrible
odor, moved closer.
He felt, in fact, as though hewas being pulled closer, the

(35:33):
desire to see what would emergefrom within the sheath
irresistible.
He ripped off what was left ofhis shirt, held it over his
face, pushed up near the edge ofthe pool of slime, and tried to
peer down into the splittingseam of the sheath.
He picked himself up on his toesas the seam gave way completely,
and the sheath fully opened, thetwo halves falling away to

(35:56):
reveal a semi opaque sac,exactly like a human animal's
amniotic sac, a thin membrane aslong and wide as the sheath from
which it had emerged.
To get closer to the sack,Severn stepped into the slime.
Upon opening, the sheath skinhad sunk rapidly to the bottom
of the puddle, and in the weaklight from a single krypton

(36:18):
bulb, the slime took on agreenish tint.
Severn stood up to his ankles ingore.
Inside the opaque membrane ofthe sack, streams of
multicolored fluid swirled.
He could make out bright yellowsand reds and muted blues and
greens.
And while he watched,fascinated, the sack moved.

(36:40):
And with a sudden thrust, a pairof human hands ruptured the
membrane, which rapidly toreaway, disgorging a wave of black
and yellow waste and blood andfetid slime that washed over
Severn's feet.
Despite the disgusting smell andthe gore, he didn't retreat.
His eyes were fixed on Red'sbody, floating in the pool of

(37:01):
filth.
Her face was smeared with bloodand waste.
As was the rest of her body.
She was dressed in filth, herhair matted in ugly clumps, her
legs and thighs and torsodistorted by hunks of gluey
substances stuck to her likegrowths.
Severn spoke her name, and hereyes and mouth opened, and she

(37:25):
gasped as if shocked to findherself alive and in the world.
When Severn said her name again,she tried to pick herself up on
her elbows, but collapsed as iftoo exhausted to move, almost
inaudibly, but with noscratchiness at all in her
voice.
She said, Weak.

(37:45):
Severn knelt in the slime besideher.
She turned her head to look athim and then, as if ashamed,
looked away.
Severn said, Do you know me,Red?
Do you know where you are?
Do you know what happened?
Without looking at him, Rednodded.
Again, so softly she was barelyaudible, she said, Please.

(38:11):
The smell.
You can speak, Severn said.
Red nodded again and said,Please.
Severn immersed his hands andarms in the slop at Red's knees
and under her neck and he liftedher out of the pool.
She came up in his arms withstreams of slime hanging from
her like drool.
He held her there a long moment,looking down at the blood

(38:32):
smeared, filth encrusted body.
His head was filled with amillion questions.
What was it that he had justwitnessed?
How is it that she could speak?
But when he finally opened hismouth, he said, Red, will you be
alright?
Red nodded.
Her eyes were regaining some oftheir natural light.

(38:54):
They had looked dark at first,shocked and wild, as if they had
just seen something unspeakable.
Slowly, in her eyes and infeatures of her face, she was
becoming more recognizable, evensmeared with filth and gore.
Severn put his questions onhold.
He carried Red along the ledgeand to the pool, laid her down

(39:15):
gently in the circle of waterand turned on one of the krypton
lights, illuminating thechamber.
He found soap and shampoo,washcloths and towels.
And went about bathing her.
Red's eyes would remain open fora short while while watching
Severn as he worked to scrubaway the gunk clinging to her
and then they would close lazilyas she drifted in and out of

(39:39):
sleep.
When he finished washing thefilth from her legs and torso he
wet a washcloth and took it toher face, gently scrubbing away
the dried blood and black waste.
Red watched his eyes as heworked.
Again, Severn asked if she wouldbe alright.
You look so weak, he said.

(40:00):
Red nodded, meaning she would bealright.
Twice, she said.
Becoming.
Twice becoming, Red repeated.
Red looked distant, as if shewas trying to think through a
problem.
I became, she said.
Twice becoming, Severn againsaid.

(40:23):
Red nodded.
Weak, she said.
Severn wanted to ask a hundredquestions, but Red's exhaustion
was obvious.
He put his hand under the backof her neck and lifted her head.
Your hair, he said.
I'm going to dunk you under thewater.
Red closed her eyes.
You called me back, shewhispered.

(40:44):
As if explaining something toherself.
Severn hesitated, trying todecipher her meaning.
And then immersed her head inthe water and soaked the
cascading length of her hair.
When he pulled her up, shegasped and her body went loose,
relaxing in his arms.
Are you okay?
He asked.

(41:05):
Red nodded and closed her eyesand seemed to drift off to sleep
as Severn lathered her hair withshampoo, feeling for clumps of
grit and gore and massaging themaway.
When he was done, he lifted herhead again and lowered it slowly
into the water until she openedher eyes.
One more time, he said, and thenwe'll be done.
Red closed her eyes again andSevern immersed her head in the

(41:26):
water.
He ran his fingers through herhair, let the current in the
pool wash the suds away, andthen lifted her out of the pool.
He found a pile of sky blue bathtowels and draped one over her,
put a second towel under herhead, and carried the third with
him back out to the ledge in thecouch, where he spread one towel
as bedding for red, gently puther down, tucked the second

(41:49):
towel around her like a blanket,and started to work at drying
her hair with a third towel.
The green in her eyes sparkledunder the light from the krypton
bulb, and though she stilllooked exhausted, He could see
life's energy coming back intoher, animating her.
What happened, Red, he asked.
Can you tell me?

(42:10):
How is it you can talk now?
Red closed and opened her eyes.
She seemed to be gathering herstrength to speak.
We evolve, she said.
We become.
Evolve?
Severn could tell she was tootired to speak, but questions
were coming with a will of theirown.

(42:31):
She ran a hand along her mouthand throat.
In time this changes, she said.
And Severn saw by the way shewas touching her throat that she
meant vocal cords, the physicalapparatus of speech.
In time, she added, we becomeyou, all of us, exactly.
Severn continued drying herhair, wringing water from it and

(42:53):
blotting it dry with a towel.
That's why you use our writtenlanguage, as he said.
Eventually, you'll speak them aswell as write them.
Red nodded.
And what happened here in thecave, Severn asked.
You can change?
You can undergo thismetamorphosis at will?
No, Red answered.

(43:14):
She looked up into Severn'seyes, as if pleading with him
not to ask more questions.
So tired, she said.
Try, please, Red, he asked.
I need to know.
She nodded, agreeing to try.
We become, and we don't becomeagain.
Only once.
But you did, Severn said.

(43:35):
You changed twice.
Red whispered, I don'tunderstand.
She was quiet, thinking, andthen added, again in a whisper,
I became, and I became again,and you don't understand how it
happened?
Red shook her head, meaning no,she didn't understand.
She looked up at the roof of thechamber and seemed suddenly far

(43:57):
away, lost in thought.
We become only once, she said,as if repeating a piece of dogma
that had suddenly been throwninto question.
I was me and not me.
In the tone of her voice, herconfusion was evident.
She turned to Severn and added,For you, to you, and then shook

(44:20):
her head as if she knew shewasn't adequately explaining
herself.
Severn blotted moisture from herforehead with the corner of the
towel.
Okay, he said, meaning he wouldquit asking her questions and
let her rest.
And then immediately he askedher another question.
Your green eyes, he said.
Are they unusual?

(44:40):
Among strangers, are green eyesrare?
Red nodded.
How rare?
Red took a minute to think andthen said, No one, okay Severn
said, I'll let you rest now.
He wrapped her hair in the toweland then turned to look for the
dumpster where Vi had spent thenight.

(45:01):
He was thinking that herbackpack would be in there and
he could bring Red a change ofclothes.
Vi's clothes would be tight onRed, but the fit looked fairly
close.
He stood and then unable to helphimself, asked another question.
Red, he asked, you said that youare many before you become one.

(45:23):
Have they done this before?
On other planets?
Become other species?
Red nodded.
Many, she said.
Throughout the ages.
Okay, Severn said, as if he wasfinally done asking questions.
And then again he asked, And inall of the many species you've
become, are the dogs, the packs,are they always there?

(45:46):
Always part of the new world?
They are always with us, Redanswered.
Exactly as she had answeredbefore.
Severn knelt over Red and kissedher on the forehead.
Red nodded.
And at the touch of his lips,her eyes brightened.
I'm gonna go get you someclothes, he said.
For when you're ready to get up.

(46:07):
Vi's backpack was on the groundoutside the nearest dumpster.
Severn unzipped it and dugthrough it for a set of clothes,
which he placed on the coffeetable when he found Red sleeping
soundly.
Her head turned into thebackrest, her knees pulled up to
her chest.
In another dumpster, he found ablanket.
Covered red with it, and thenclimbed down from the ledge to

(46:28):
the cavern floor.
That was episode 17 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

(46:50):
The Strangers is available fromAmazon, Barnes Noble, and other
online bookstores.
This podcast is an experiment inalternatives to traditional
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

(47:10):
help ensuring the podcast'ssuccess and continuation.
In any event, I'm Ed Falco, Iwrote The Strangers, and I hope
you'll come back for the nextepisode.