S1, E9 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 8, Severn and thekids traveled first to
Millersville.
and then Lynchburg, and foundthat the strangers were busy
tearing down most of the townand the city, while going about
what appeared to be ordinaryhuman lives in the parts that

(00:51):
remained.
At the end of their tourobserving the strangers, they
headed back to the farm.
That's where we pick up episode9.
By the time they reached thefarmhouse, both kids were
sleeping.
Vi had pushed her seat back,covered herself with a blanket,
and curled up as if she were athome in her bed.

(01:12):
Her hair had grown out long andcurly over the winter, and had
spilled down one side of herface.
Severn glanced at her now andthen as she slept, taken by how
much she had changed since thenight of the first lurching.
She looked like a kid then.
With her short hair and wirybuild, now she was looking more
and more like a young woman.

(01:33):
There were the obvious things,her breasts developing and her
limbs growing shapely.
But beyond that, there wassomething in her face now that
was no longer childlike, thatwas in fact womanly and mature.
Something that suggested bothdepth and warmth.
Watching Vi, Severn felt atenderness toward her, a wish
that she might grow up to live afull and fulfilling life.

(01:55):
And as soon as he thought that,he smiled.
That feeling, darker thoughtsand darker feelings followed.
What chance did any of them havenow for anything like a
fulfilling life?
He could have imagined, when hehad thought of the lurchings as
a natural catastrophe, a worldin which Tommy and Vi started
all over again, raising a familytogether, building a life for

(02:17):
themselves in the midst of ruin.
He dreamed that there might beother survivors, and thus other
families, and in time a newworld.
A human world begun again, butnow, now what hope was there for
any of them?
He had adjusted to thelurchings.
He had built a hopeful narrativefor the kids, one in which the

(02:37):
world began again, and then thiseven weirder twist came along.
Now he'd have to figure outeverything all over again.
And so far, he was not makinggood progress.
The only world he could envisionnow was one in which Tommy and
Vi spent a lifetime hiding.
A lifetime in which they wouldnever not need him.
Before the strangers, all theworld's resources were there for

(02:59):
the taking.
Food, gasoline, goods, whateverthey wanted or needed would have
been available to them.
Now the strangers were tearingthings down, taking the world's
resources for themselves, andthat meant that everything would
be different.
That meant everything needed tobe reconsidered.
He'd have to think it allthrough again and build a
different narrative, some kindof story in which Tommy and Vi

(03:23):
thrived and prospered.
And right then, that night.
As the Hummer approached thefarmhouse with Vi asleep
alongside him and Tommystretched out in the backseat
and Sage half on top of Tommyand half wedged into the seat
cushions, at that moment hecouldn't dream up a story in
which any of them lived anythinglike a decent life.

(03:45):
The night was moonlit and starstrewn, bright enough to see
nearby things through the dark.
Bright enough for the trees andbuildings to cast shadows.
Severn had taken the highwayaround Millersville because he
hadn't seen another car on theroad after leaving Lynchburg,
and it occurred to him thatperhaps the strangers didn't
drive at night, and thus if theysaw him driving alone on the

(04:05):
road past Millersville, theymight know they had missed a few
humans.
So he drove around Millersvilleand made another mental note, no
night driving.
He had begun keeping these notesin diary and he resolved to
share them with the kids in themorning and to add their notes
to the list.
This notion that they needed toobserve and thus learn

(04:27):
everything they could about thestrangers was just about the
only thing that seemed clear toSevern.
He was both wildly curious aboutwhat was happening because it
all seemed to verge on theincomprehensible and because he
believed their chances ofsurvival would increase
incrementally.
He parked the Hummer behind thefarmhouse next to the back
porch, where they had left theATVs, and he woke the kids.

(04:50):
When he opened the back door,Sage jumped out and ran into the
yard to do her business, whileTommy sat up and stretched
dramatically.
There were times and ways inwhich everything Tommy did
appeared to be for an audience,and this was one of them.
Vi sat forward and looked wideeyed out the front window at the
porch as if she was strugglingto figure out where she was.

(05:11):
At the back of the Hummer,Severn slipped his old carbine
over his shoulder and thenhanded the two assault rifles to
the kids.
Vi, not yet fully awake, lookedat the assault rifle as if she
had no idea why Severn had justhanded it to her.
Why do I need this to go to bed?
For the time being, Severn said,we'll keep these at our sides at

(05:32):
all times.
Tommy closed his door and said,even when we're sleeping, dude?
Quickly he corrected himself andsaid, I mean, even when we're
sleeping?
Even when we're sleeping, Severnanswered, at least until we have
a better sense of what's goingon.
You mean, how much danger we'rein, Vyse said.
She worked her arms through thestrap of the rifle and started

(05:54):
for the house.
Tommy followed at her heels.
Severn pointed to the ATVs.
We're sleeping at the campsite.
That's why we set it up beforewe left.
Vyse said, pleading, Oh, please,Severn.
Do we have to, tonight?
Severn said, yes, we have to.
On the trail to the campsite, amile beyond the road where

(06:16):
they'd parked the RV and theATVs, they trudged through the
dark, bent under theirbackpacks.
The moon was bright enough thatthey hadn't needed flashlights
on the road, but once they werein the woods, the treetops cut
out too much light and they hadto stop and dig the flashlights
out of their packs.
They walked with three beams oflight pointing at the ground in
front of them, at the gnarledroots of trees, at the rocks and

(06:39):
muddy ground that constitutedthe trail.
The trees around them were thickenough that Severn didn't think
they'd be visible from the road,even with the flashlights.
At one point, Tommy scared up abird of some kind, and the thick
flapping of wings made all threeof them crouch down as if some
monster were flying at theirheads.
What was that?
Vi said.
It sounded huge.

(07:00):
Owl, Tommy said.
Probably.
I hear them hooting at night.
Vi said, Are they that big?
Severn said, Can we keep itdown, please?
When he thought about it for asecond, he didn't know why he
bothered.
Between the flashlight and thesound of them trudging up the
trail, a little conversationwasn't going to make things all
that much worse.

(07:21):
They had done a good enough jobcamouflaging the campsite that
Tommy almost tripped over hisown tent.
We're here, he said.
And he turned and waited forSevern to tell him what to do
next.
I'll keep watch where we said.
When it starts to get light,I'll wake you, Tommy, and you
take the next watch.
I need to get cleaned up beforeI can go to sleep, Vi said.

(07:43):
I've got mud all over my face.
Severn shined the flashlight onVi.
Her face was smudged with dirtand grime from the ATV ride.
Tommy behind her had gone into atent where they were keeping
supplies and he came outcarrying a red 10 gallon water
cooler with a white plasticspigot.
Atop the cooler were a pair ofwashcloths.

(08:03):
Vi said, Looks like Tommy's gotit covered.
Get cleaned up and get somesleep, Severn said.
We'll work on a long term planin the morning.
That ought to be interesting,Tommy said.
Can't wait to hear.
Me too, Vi said.
Severn watched the kids as theywet the washcloth and went at
the dirt on their faces and intheir hair.

(08:24):
They seemed to have instantlyforgotten him as they washed up
in the beams of theirflashlights, which they had
propped up on top of the watercooler.
They stood each on one side ofthe cooler, bent down to the
spigot, and splashed water ontheir faces as they chatted
about what they'd seen inLynchburg and Millersville.
Tommy said something abouthaving to learn bird talk, and
then did a terrible imitation ofthe strangers in the Hummer.

(08:47):
Fi laughed.
And their conversation turnedabruptly to friends and family
and what they would think ifthey could have been with them
today.
And then they both laughed atwhat they imagined would be the
disbelief if they had somehow totry to tell their friends about
all this.
A bright bolt of affection litup Severn as he watched them.
Apparently, just about anythingimaginable or even unimaginable

(09:10):
could happen to them, and theycould call up a reserve of
spirit that allowed them to notjust push on, but to find the
heart to laugh and make jokes.
When he left them, he followed atrail to the lookout, feeling
both grateful and old.
Grateful because both kids wereholding up as well as they were,
and because their spirit wasinfectious.

(09:31):
It made him feel like it waspossible to go on.
Old, because he couldn't imaginea future for himself that felt
worth living.
And clearly, the kids didbelieve in such a future for
themselves.
They didn't have to say it.
They might not even think it.
But in the way they talked toeach other, the way they shared
their feelings with each other,in the way they washed up

(09:52):
together, bent over a cooler inthe dark of the woods, there was
an energy, a spirit.
In the midst of this horror,Severn felt in the interactions
of Tommy and Vi a kind of joy.
A joy at being together, acompanionship.
He recognized it in the kids,but felt nothing like it in
himself.

(10:13):
Himself, he felt a deep sense ofresponsibility.
He felt warmth and affection forTommy and Vi, but he was lonely.
And every day, just to keepgoing, he had to swim up out of
an ocean of grief.
and climb into hisresponsibilities.
At the lookout spot, Severnleaned over the boulder and
gazed down at the farm inmoonlight.

(10:35):
The scene was idyllic.
A red farmhouse, a deep rust inthe moonlight, surrounded by
fields and barns.
The big green John Deere out inthe middle of an empty lot cast
a shadow over the matchingtiller behind it, waiting for
Tommy to hook it up.
In the corral behind the horsebarn, a pair of mirrors stood
head to head, probably sleeping.

(10:58):
Over it all, an inky black skythick with stars spread out like
a tarp covering the farm and thefields, the horses and the cows,
mud and grass, hills and trees,all of it, everything, including
Severn on his hilltop lookout,the kids in their tents, and the
strangers in Lynchburg andMillersville who had come down

(11:20):
out of that blackness to inhabitthe earth.
Severn had to say that tohimself over and over again,
because it was so hard tobelieve.
Every once in a while he'd stopand ask himself if there might
not be some other possibility,if things might somehow be other
than they seemed.
Then he remembered the sound oftheir voices, the way they sang

(11:42):
like birds, and he knew theyweren't human.
And if they weren't human, whatelse could they be?
They had cleansed the earth ofits infection by human
organisms, and then they hadcome down out of the blackness
of space.
Now they were in the process ofmaking Earth their home.
In his backpack, Severn found acanteen and took a long drink.

(12:06):
In Lynchburg, in all three ofthe stores that they had driven
past, the signs were all inEnglish.
Did that mean the strangerscould read English?
Except for the missing cashregisters, which Severn wouldn't
have noticed if not for Tommy,everything about the stores
appeared unchanged.
He closed his eyes and tried torecall what he had seen.
A line of customers inStarbucks.

(12:28):
A woman behind the counter.
She had on a name tag.
He could see the oval pin aboveher breast.
Were their names the same ashuman names?
How could that be possible?
Or were they wearing the oldname tags or the old names?
Why would they do that?
Had they manufactured new nametags in exactly the same style

(12:49):
as the old ones?
Would their written languagelook anything like English?
Would he have noticed if theinscription on the badge was
something other than cuneiform?
Probably not.
It was only at a glance and at adistance.
Still, it was all so impossibleto comprehend.
And what did it mean that therewere no cash registers?

(13:11):
Did they have some other methodof exchange?
That seemed likely.
Coins and bills were alreadyfeeling antiquated on the
prelurshing's earth.
He splashed water on his faceand wiped the resulting mud away
with his forearm.
He'd look like a savage if hecould see himself in a mirror,
dirt streaked and wild haired.

(13:32):
He fished his iPod out of hispack, sat at the base of the
boulder to hide the light of theLCD, and flipped through his
pictures.
Sarah doing this, Sarah doingthat, their home, their friends.
He had looked through thesepictures a hundred times
already, his feelings shiftingover the long course of the
viewings from intense griefearly on, to something like

(13:54):
nostalgia and warmth, to what hefelt now, which was a curiosity
about his old life, as if hewere reading a history book,
only it was his own personalhistory that was recorded.
The warmth and nostalgia weregone.
Replaced with somethingdifferent.
Not bitterness, but coldness.
Something akin to anger.

(14:16):
He flipped through the picturesquickly, touching a face here
and there.
And then switching to music.
Flipping through album coversuntil he came to Pablo Casals,
the cellist he'd listened to thenight of the lurchings with
Sarah.
He considered listening toBach's Cello Suite No.
1 in G Major, which he loved.
It was the opening, what did youcall it, refrain, motif, that

(14:40):
phrase that opened the suite andthen repeated.
He wished that he knew moreabout music.
He wished he knew more abouteverything.
If saving a record ofhumankind's accomplishments was
going to be left to him, well,that would be sad.
He knew so little.
About music, about art, aboutscience and technology.

(15:02):
He had a vague notion of howthings worked.
Television cameras broke downimages into signals which were
sent out in waves to televisionsets that read and interpreted
those signals.
Computers coded informationusing ones and zeros.
Electricity was the flow ofelectrons and protons.
The knowledge he had of howthings worked was tantamount to

(15:25):
knowing nothing.
He couldn't build a televisionset or a computer in a million
years.
He had no practical knowledge.
He couldn't build a damn thingfor that matter.
He knew little or nothing aboutmaking anything from a chair or
a dresser to let alone a houseor a computer.
He hadn't ever had to know howto build anything.

(15:45):
He bought what he needed.
He went to a store, handedsomeone a credit card, and they
gave him a computer.
Now he was sorry for that.
He was sorry for Vy's andTommy's sake that he knew so
little.
He chose Feels Like Home, puthis earbuds in, and found
himself listening to You HumbleMe, Sarah's favorite Norah Jones

(16:07):
song.
It pained him to hear it, but hewaited out the distress and then
settled in and listened as hewatched the unmoving panorama
below him.
He didn't really know what hewas watching for.
A cavalry of strangers marchingon the farm?
A stranger's cop car rollingtoward the farmhouse?
Anything really.

(16:27):
Anything at all coming down thatroad wouldn't be good.
Scouts or surveyors were mostlikely.
Strangers sent ahead to scoutout houses and farms to either
inhabit or tear down.
He didn't get the tearing downpart.
Why would they invest theirresources in tearing down
buildings?
First, given where they camefrom, why didn't they have

(16:49):
technology superior to ourbulldozers and wrecking balls?
That was just aboutincomprehensible.
Why didn't they just zap awaywith some beam whatever they
didn't want, if they felt theyhad to get rid of it?
And again, why?
Why were they apparently tearingdown and disposing of most of
the stuff of humans, houses andcars, and all the things in the

(17:12):
houses and cars?
Severn laid his head down on topof the boulder.
He was standing and thus thoughtthere wouldn't be much danger of
sleeping, but he closed his eyesand almost immediately felt
himself drifting off.
He had a little argument inwhich one voice said a nap
wouldn't be a big deal, nothingwas likely to happen, and

(17:33):
another voice said it was hisresponsibility to stay awake and
make sure nothing happened.
Eventually, he compromised,figuring that as long as he was
on his feet, he wouldn't sleepfor very long, and so he let
himself float away into thecomforting darkness.
When he opened his eyes again,he had no idea how much time had
passed, except that his legshurt, and And his back ached,

(17:57):
and the side of his face thathad been pressed into the
boulder felt swollen.
He found his canteen and pouredwater over his head.
Then he walked around theboulder once, and when he
arrived back where he started,he picked up the binoculars and
peered down at the horses whowere moving around in the
corral, a half dozen of themnow, out of the barn.

(18:18):
One of the colts whinnied in hisstall, and then a couple of the
mares followed suit.
He scanned the barns and corralsfor dogs but saw nothing.
He climbed up higher on theboulder and scanned the
farmhouse and the fields and thebarns and the surrounding hills
and up and down the road toMillersville and he saw nothing
out of the usual.

(18:38):
But he did notice that the skywas getting lighter, and he
realized that he must have beensleeping for hours.
For a while, things grew quietagain, and then birds started
chattering as stars disappearedfrom the sky.
He was amazed that he had sleptthrough a big chunk of the night
on his feet, with a boulder fora pillow.
He knew that he'd been tired.

(19:00):
He hadn't slept much at all thenight before, but he wouldn't
have thought that he was thattired.
He considered waking Tommy sothat he could go back to his
tent and get at least anotherhour or two of more restful
sleep, but he decided against itbecause, remarkably, he felt
pretty good.
Sore, but pretty good.
He rummaged through his pack,found a bag of breakfast bars

(19:22):
and ate two of them slowly whilehe watched the sky grow lighter.
When he was done with hisleisurely breakfast, he packed
up and scanned at the farm againwith the binoculars, intending
to take one last look aroundbefore waking Tommy.
On the road from Millersville,in the distance, a buck trotted
into sight.
Even from his hilltop vantagepoint, at least a mile from the

(19:44):
road, Severn could tell that thebuck was winded from the way it
lifted its legs and its headnodded with each breath.
It had come out of the darknessaround a bend into a clear
stretch of road and then stoppedabruptly, digging its forelegs
into the ground.
When Severn steadied himself andfocused the binoculars, he saw
white swatches of sweat underthe buck's neck and on its chest

(20:08):
and haunches.
He counted ten points on itsrack as the big animal lowered
its head, turned in a tightcircle, and then reared back on
its hind legs briefly whensomething else appeared on the
road in front of it.
Whatever it was that had comeout of that same darkness behind
the buck, out from around thebend in the road, Severn didn't

(20:29):
recognize.
Watching it through thebinoculars.
Where the creature had stoppedand remained motionless,
Severn's blood slowed, and allthe various functions of his
body steadied.
He became a quiet, still thing,all observation, as quiet and
still as the dark around him.

(20:49):
He knew, the way he knew when hefirst heard the strangers
singing voices, that thecreature was not of the earth.
In size and conformation, itlooked like something between a
very big dog, a Great Dane sizeddog, and a small horse.
Its coat was black and short, asleek second skin, again, like a

(21:11):
horse.
Its head, though, was the headof a dog, with a short snout,
like a pit bull's snout.
The pit bull was the closestearthly comparison that came to
Severn's mind.
The creature had the muscularbody of a pit bull, with alert,
intelligent eyes, pointed, stiffears that looked as if they'd

(21:31):
been cropped, and ferocity.
Along the back of its neck, downto its shoulders, a black mane
of long, fine hair stoodstraight up for a couple of
inches, like a mohawk, beforefalling loosely to either side.
While Severn watched in silence,the creature remained perfectly

(21:53):
still, its four legs graspingthe ground with feet that looked
more like claws or talons.
It seemed to grip the gravelroad, its eyes fixed on the buck
with a look that suggestedcasual interest.
Behind the buck, another two ofthe creatures came into view,
moving more like cats than dogs,with a liquidity of movement

(22:15):
that reminded of a leopard or apanther.
They stalked into view, theirbodies hunched and lowered,
flowing over the ground.
One was pure grey, and the otherwas a roan, and they varied only
slightly in size, both somewhatsmaller than the black one that
remained motionless, watchingthe buck.

(22:35):
The buck snorted, turnedsideways, and bounded into the
woods, or tried to bound intothe woods.
Midway through its leap, withits four legs tucked back, the
creatures slammed into it, thegrey and the roan, and two more
appearing out of nowhere, bothbays, one a deeper reddish brown
than the other.

(22:55):
They hit the buck like bullets,knocking it sideways and over.
Moments after it hit the ground,It was already in pieces, the
legs severed from the body.
Severn took the binoculars awayfrom his eyes, revolted by the
savagery of the attack andshocked by the speed of it.
The cat like dog creatures musthave leapt, must have sprung

(23:17):
into the air at the firstflexing of the buck's muscles,
but they moved so fast thatSevern hadn't caught the motion.
One instant the Grey and theRoan were crouched on the road,
and the next instant there werefour of them crashing into the
buck and pulling it apart withteeth and claws.
When Severn looked again, therewas a sixth creature, this one

(23:39):
the biggest of the lot, with amottled brown coat.
It came out of the shadows andsat beside the black one which
hadn't moved throughout theattack.
Once the brown creature wasseated beside it, the black one
went to the buck and with asingle bite and simultaneous
swipe of its claws tore open thetorso and buried its muzzle in

(23:59):
the innards.
Only after it had come away witha great mouthful of gore did the
brown one follow suit and do thesame.
From his distant perch, Severnwatched the six creatures where
they stretched out leisurely inthe road, each of them feeding
on pieces of the book.
They were grouped in pairs.
Lying side by side, the grey andthe roan, the two bays, the

(24:22):
black and the brown.
They were not of the earth, buttheir behavior was recognizable.
They reminded of a pride oflions, leisurely feeding on a
kill.
They moved like cats, too,though faster.
One moment they were on theroad, the next they were tearing
the buck apart.
Except for the oddness of thecreatures, Pitbull looking

(24:44):
things that moved like cats, hadclaw like feet with talon like
digits and were the size of apony.
The scene of their feedingseemed familiar, like something
Severn had seen before on ahundred National Geographic
specials.
As he watched, leaning over theboulder, the binoculars in one
hand, the carbine in the other,he went back and forth between

(25:05):
fascination at the bestialsimplicity of the scene and
horror at the ferocity of it, atthe ferocity of these creatures.
Big and vicious as they were, hethought the automatic rifles and
the machine pistols in theirarsenal ought to be enough to
stop them, if they could get offa shot quickly enough.
Given how fast the things moved,that was a big if.

(25:28):
He looked down at the surface ofthe boulder, at the cold,
mottled, grey stone.
Now he wished that the ATVs wereat the campsite instead of a
mile away at the trailer.
He checked the clip on hiscarbine and cursed himself for
not taking one of the newerassault rifles.
It seemed impossible to him thatthe sudden appearance of these

(25:48):
creatures was not connected insome way to yesterday's outing.
Why now?
Why the night after their carwas spotted by two strangers,
after Sterling ran off withthose strangers, why now do
these creatures turn up on theroad to the farm?
Severn couldn't put the piecesof this particular puzzle
together, but he sensed again akind of dread that reminded him

(26:09):
of the first night of thelurchings.
He leaned the carbine againstthe boulder and lifted the
binoculars to his eyes with bothhands.
There, on the moonlit road, thesix creatures remained lazily
hunched over their kill, theirmuzzles stained with blood and
dripping gore.
He watched one of the bayswrestle a chunk of meat from the

(26:29):
buck's thigh, and then he spunaround.
Dropped the binoculars andreached for the carbine as he
heard something running at himfrom behind out of the woods.
By the time he realized it wasSage, the binoculars had already
clattered over the boulder andlanded on the ground.
He skittered around the big rockand found the binoculars in the
leaves.

(26:50):
He was a mile away from thecreatures and high above the
road, and still he was sure thesound of the binoculars
clattering over the boulderwould carry.
Sage sat beside him and lickedhis face once before Severn
elbowed him away.
The binoculars had gone out offocus and he feared that an
internal lens might be damaged.
He rattled them for the sound ofbroken glass and when he heard

(27:11):
nothing he lifted them to hiseyes again and worked the
focusing knob until the roadcame sharply into view.
Five of the creatures werestanding upright and looking at
him as if they were only a fewfeet away.
Upright on their hind They weretransformed.
They looked as human as they didanimal.
Severn was reminded of the way ahorse appears transformed when

(27:34):
it stands up on its hind legs,and the way the chest and
shoulders suddenly look human.
But horses are obviously offbalance standing upright.
They lean forward over haunchesnot meant to carry their full
weight.
Their forelegs stick outawkwardly, like malformed arms.
The creatures on the road belowSevern appeared to be perfectly

(27:54):
balanced, as comfortable uprightas they were on all fours.
What had been forelegs nowlooked like arms hanging loosely
at their sides.
Their haunches looked likemuscular thighs.
Their claws were hands.
The talons long, weapon likefingers.
They looked like something outof human mythology.
They weren't the werewolves oflegend.

(28:16):
Though fur covered and dogfaced, and they brought
werewolves to mind, nor werethey the Egyptian god Anubis,
though closer to Anubis than awerewolf.
They were a ferocious mix of thetwo, with the muzzle of a pit
bull, the posture of a man, andthe hands claw mix of man, wolf,
and bird.
While Severn watched, themottled brown creature, the only

(28:39):
one of the six not standing,rose on all fours, moved to the
front of the pack, and stood.
He was the biggest of thecreatures, though not by a lot,
maybe a few inches.
When he stood upright, thetransformation was liquid and
quick.
His haunches and shouldersbulged, shifted, and then
settled.
Severn could almost see thejoints swiveling and snapping

(29:00):
into place beneath the skin.
In seconds, the mottled browncreature went from a four legged
animal to a two legged mix ofanimal and man.
It looked up at Severn, baredits teeth, and screamed.
Even over the distance betweenSevern's hillside perch and the
road from Millersville, thesound was clear and sharp, a

(29:21):
rattling screech.
Like nothing he would have everexpected from a dog like
creature, a high pitched,rattling, crow like rumble and
squeal.
Its effect was to lift Severninstantly to his feet.
He bolted, with Sage following,for the kids in the campsite.
Awakened by Sage, both Vi andTommy were already sitting up in

(29:44):
their sleeping bags when Severnstumbled into their dark tent.
Get up, get dressed, he said,and as succinctly as possible he
explained the situation.
When he described the creaturesas dogs that could walk on two
legs like men, Vi pressed thepalm of her hands over her ears,
as if she couldn't bear to hearit.
Tommy said, They walk like us?

(30:06):
Severn had left out theslaughter of the buck.
And they move fast, he said,really fast.
Whoa, Tommy said.
So?
So we're getting out of here.
Where?
Vi asked.
Where are we going in the middleof the night?
It's not the middle of thenight.
It's almost dawn.
Here, Tommy said.

(30:27):
He reached into a duffel bagalongside a pile of his gear,
withdrew a machine pistol, andhanded it to Severn along with a
pair of clips.
Severn jammed the two extraclips under his belt.
He had told Tommy to leave themachine pistols and extra clips
at the trailer, and the kid hadignored him.
Vi's idea, Tommy said, meaningshe had made him take the

(30:48):
additional weaponry.
Vi, who had been bent over inthe shadows by her sleeping bag,
turned and crouched in thecenter of the tent.
She had an M16 assault riflestrapped across her chest, a
barrette in her belt, and abaseball bat in hand.
Tommy and Severn both stared ather.
What's the baseball bat for?

(31:08):
Tommy asked.
In case the M16 and Berettadon't work?
Exactly, Vi said.
Sage backed into Severn andpressed against his leg.
Moments later, a stench filledthe air.
A smell like rotten meat tingedwith human waste.
Thick and offensive.
Tommy put a hand over his nose.

(31:30):
Vi said, Smells like a portapotty.
Severn flung back the tent flapand stepped out into a patch of
moonlight illuminating thecampsite.
Sage had followed alongside him,close, her shoulder bumping his
leg with each step.
Tommy and Vi kept pace behindSevern.

(31:51):
They stopped when he raised hishand and stood motionless,
listening.
Vi whispered, What are we doing?
And Tommy touched her shoulder,meaning she should be quiet.
The End.
The night had turned chilly,with a slight breeze rustling
leaves on the ground and in thesurrounding trees.
Other than the wind, the woodsaround them were quiet.

(32:14):
In the moonlight, the trees andleaves were all patches of
darkness, wavering shadowsagainst a sky growing lighter by
the moment.
Stars, where visible, wererapidly fading.
If not for the stench in theair, Severn would have guessed
that the creatures had gone ontheir way.
But the smell made it obviousthat something was out there,

(32:34):
and Severn was betting on itbeing the same creatures he'd
seen take the buck.
He looked around him, as ifmiraculously he might notice
some higher ground, some moredefensible position.
They were in a small clearing inthe woods, surrounded by trees
and darkness.
He could hardly invent a lessdesirable position given their
situation.

(32:56):
He waited, hoping the smellwould dissipate.
When it only grew more intense,he dropped to one knee and
signaled for the kids to do thesame.
They made a small circle withsage between them.
They're watching us, Severnsaid.
I feel it.
Me too, Vi said.
They stink.
Why don't we shoot into thewoods?

(33:16):
Tommy asked.
Waste of ammunition, but itmight scare them away, Vi
sounded like she liked the idea.
Really, she said.
Severn, don't you think?
Severn was considering goingalong with the kids when the
pack appeared around them,emerging out of the shadows.
Up close, their claws lookedlike an eagle's talons.

(33:39):
They had paws that were fleshydown to the knuckles and most of
the way along each of the sixdigits.
At the tip of each digit, in aplace roughly comparable to
where a human fingernail wouldbe, an inch long hooked talon
protruded.
Unlike a human fingernail, whichsat atop a finger, their talon
seemed to be an extension of thebone within the flesh of each

(34:01):
digit.
The talon sliced cleanly throughground cover as they moved, so
that unlike animals burdenedwith paws that crunched leaves
under their weight, thecreatures moved in silence.
If not for the vile smell, therewould have been nothing to give
away their approach.
In a small, tight voice, Viasked, Should we fire?

(34:23):
The two bays had stopped thetree line.
They were motionless, their eyeson Severn.
How many do you see?
Severn asked.
What color are they?
Three, Tommy whispered.
One's all gray, the other'smostly gray, and the biggest
one's black.
They all have green eyes.
Same pack, Severn said.
He could see the black and theone of the greys, the rhone and

(34:46):
his peripheral vision.
They too all had green eyes.
One's missing, he said.
Oh my god, A'isha, her voicequavering, as the mottled brown
creature, the biggest of thepack, moved out of the darkness
and past the two bays, deeperinto the clearing, green eyes
glittering in the moonlight.

(35:07):
We should just start shooting,Vi said.
Severn?
Severn recalled the big buckturning and bolting and being
torn apart in the air.
Don't move, he said.
Keep your fingers on thetrigger.
He was thinking that if they hadto start shooting, it would
already be too late.
The creatures were too close andtoo fast.
The mottled brown seemed to belooking down at Sage.

(35:30):
Who was lying flat on theground, her body pressed into
the leaves.
She looked back at the creaturewith abject surrender in her
eyes.
She looked like a dog who hadbeen repeatedly beaten, gazing
up submissively at her abuser.
A low, crow like gurgle issuedfrom the brown's throat.
Be still, Severn said.

(35:51):
I don't think they're going toattack us.
That's good, Tommy said, causethey're huge.
Vi said, barely audible, I thinkI might throw up from the smell.
Don't, Severn said.
When the buck was taken, themodel LeBrown hadn't joined the
others until the kill was over.
That wasn't a whole lot ofevidence to go on, but was

(36:12):
enough to give Severn hope.
Perhaps there wasn't going to bea kill.
Behind Severn, another crow likegurgle.
And then another.
Vi said, I think they're talkingto each other.
As if in response to Vi, thebrown bared his teeth and made a
high pitched cat like hiss.

(36:33):
That doesn't sound good, Tommysaid.
And then the others took up thesound, all six of them hissing
and baring their teeth.
The little bit of hope Severnhad been clinging to fell away.
If they move, he said.
And before he could finish hissentence the first rays of the
rising sun cut through the treesand the creatures turned in
unison and disappeared.

(36:55):
Again.
Their movements had been soquick, they were hard to follow.
One moment they were there, andthe next nothing.
Severn and the kids didn't moveuntil a breeze blew away the
last of the stench.
Vi held her head in her handsand sobbed.
Severn knelt in front of her,and Tommy touched her shoulder.

(37:16):
Birdsong started up all around,and grew quickly to a raucous
chatter.
It occurred to Severn that thebirds had been quiet throughout
the morning and hadn't startedup with their racket until the
creatures had departed.
He made a note of it.
He did good, he said to Vi, andhe touched her knee.
Tommy knelt behind Vi.

(37:37):
I thought you said they walkedon two legs.
They do.
Severn crossed his legs underhim and sat down.
I saw them.
They looked like great big dogsto me, Vi said, wiping away
tears roughly with her arm, withlike bird feet.
Tommy looked off into the woods,which were filled now with
sunlight filtering throughleaves.

(37:58):
How come we didn't see them allwinter, he asked.
I'm guessing they weren'tlooking for us before and now
they are, Severn said.
The buck probably provided atreat they couldn't pass up.
They may walk upright, butthey're still animals.
Tommy and Vi said in unison,What buck?
After Severn explained about thekill, Vi said, So maybe they

(38:20):
were full.
They'd just eaten, so theydidn't need to bother with us.
That's possible.
So what?
Tommy said.
Are they like the stranger'sguard dogs?
The stranger's sick them onanything they don't want around?
Vi turned to face Tommy.
You think they'd sick them onus?
You think that's what'shappening?

(38:40):
Tommy looked to Severn for ananswer.
I don't know, Severn said, butthey showed up the day after
those stranger kids ran off withSterling.
Like I said, I think they werelooking for us.
But we don't know that for sure,Vyse said.
We don't know anything for sure.
But they found us.
Tommy sat upright, and theydidn't do anything.

(39:01):
Maybe they're not going to.
Could be, Severn said.
Or could be they just weren'thungry after eating the buck, Vi
said.
So what are we supposed to do,wait and find out whether or not
they plan on making a meal ofus?
No.
Severn looked around, taking hisbearings.
Listen, he added.
They look like flesh and bonecreatures to me.

(39:22):
In that sense, they're nodifferent than any other
dangerous animals.
These guns, he said, tugging onthe machine gun pistol dangling
from his neck, should be morethan enough to stop them if need
be.
He noticed that both kids werelistening to him closely.
The problem, he said, is thatthey're fast.
If they get around us the waythey did just now, we won't have

(39:43):
a chance.
They'd be on us before we couldget off a couple of shots at
most.
So we find the right place, Visaid.
Someplace where they can't getclose without us knowing.
That's what I'm thinking.
Severn pulled himself to hisfeet.
With the adrenaline easing outof his system, he remembered
again how tired he was.
They don't seem to like thedaylight, he added.

(40:04):
They took off as soon as the suncame up.
I'm thinking they're nocturnal.
And, Tommy said, so?
So I know a farmhouse about tenmiles from here.
It backs up against a hillsideriddled with caves.
Sarah and I used to go exploringthere.
I'm thinking we pack up, hike tothe farmhouse, and barricade

(40:26):
ourselves in.
We'll make sure there's no easyway for them to get to us.
We'll have weapons.
We should be good.
Why not just stay here, Tommyasked.
We know the layout better.
Vi said, because they alreadyknow we're here.
Maybe we can lose them.
Severn, agreeing with Vi, saidit's worth a try.
Vi said, maybe they'll forgetabout us.

(40:48):
Not likely, Tommy said.
And he looked to Severn.
Then why don't we take the ATVs?
Too easy to track, Severn said.
If they're nocturnal and we putsome distance between us, maybe
we can buy some time.
Vi looked up through the treesat a patch of blue sky.
Tommy went back to the tent togather up his gear.

(41:08):
When Severn started to followTommy, Vi touched his arm.
They can stand and walk like us,she said.
How do we know they're not likeus in other ways?
How do we know they're notintelligent?
How do we know they're not humanin other ways if they're human
in the way they walk?
They're animals, Severn said.
They're animals that haveevolved in a way that allows

(41:29):
them to walk on two legs.
Exactly, Severn said.
Just like us.
We walk on two legs.
They walk on two legs.
That makes them like us.
Like humans.
Severn found himself gettingannoyed with Vi and tried to
tamp it down.
Walking upright isn't what makesus human.
He wasn't managing to sound aseven tempered as he hoped.

(41:53):
Humans don't hunt in packs andrip apart prey with teeth and
claws.
Really?
Vi said, a touch of teenageinsolence in her tone.
That's what makes us human?
Not only that, Severn gave up ontrying to hide his annoyance.
We think, he said.
We conceptualize.
We're self aware.

(42:13):
How do we know they don't do allthose things?
Because they don't havelanguage.
How do we know that?
Sounded to me exactly like theywere talking to each other.
Those were screeches and growls.
So, at best, it's primitivelanguage.
Severn turned away from Vi.
For reasons he didn'tunderstand, probably largely

(42:33):
because he was tired, he was onthe edge of screaming at her.
He took a breath and put hishands in his pockets.
No opposable thumb, he said.
They can't possibly write orhave written language.
They're animals.
Vi looked at Severn, reading hisface.
In a whisper, she said, We werehuman before we had written

(42:53):
language.
Severn wasn't sure that wasentirely true.
Once again, he was impressedwith all he didn't know.
Were we entirely human before weeven had rudimentary written
language?
We can talk about all thislater.
For now, let's get our stufftogether.
He gestured toward the tent.

(43:14):
Vi took a step away, stopped,turned, gave Severn a quick hug
around the waist.
And then followed Tommy into thetent.

(43:34):
That was episode nine 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

(43:56):
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, this is Ed Falco,I wrote The Strangers, and I

(44:17):
hope you'll come back for thenext episode.