Alpine Passage

Venture into the darkest places of the earth on this edition of Octoberpod AM classic horror podcast with this tale of subterranean horror. Your horror host Edward October straps on his mining & cave exploring gear to bring you an epic chiller that will take you from the highest peak to the lowest depth's of man's soul (with a lot of strange creatures in between).

First up: A group of friends from university hike the alps and explore a long-abandoned Alpine Passage, through the heart of the mountain: a journey which ends in murder and madness. Then, during the Intermission, Edward October sits down with author Amy Koto to discuss TV, vampires, and all things horror. Plus: What is the terrible secret of the grotesque demons they call the Meat Bags? Featuring special guests Ari Shey, Adam Turner (Diabolical Podcast), Nikki Young (Serial Napper), and Mike (Brew Crime). Two all-new, all-original tales written by Amber Jourdan (Witches Talking Tarot) and Annie Morgan (The Podcast Inside Your House) 

Tighten your nerves because we're serving up a smorgasbord of arcane alpine adventures with all the Nordic terror and gore you can stomach. You're in for a very strange journey on this edition of Octoberpod AM: the retro horror podcast for bold individualists. 

// LINKS & REFERENCES
Additional editing by Kevin (The Jury Room podcast)

// PROMOS
Back Look Cinema
Chatsunami
Chick Lit

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm Edward October. The sound you hear is snow melt
trickling through an alpine stream. This is the start of
October pod. Today's the equinox, and the trails boggy with

(00:29):
mud and slime concealed beneath bluish clumps of fragrant creete
moss fed with three months worth of snow melt. Our
boots sink in, and with every step we risk twisting
an ankle or taking a nasty tumble. Comes summer, it
won't be as boggy and oozy. Today's not summer, though

(00:51):
not yet. We all expected we might get a little
wet on our trek, though none of us figured on
soaking it up through our trousers. From below, there's five

(01:12):
of us trapesing through the torret and Alps singer a
man as warm and likable as the monster in a
kid's closet.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Come along, you old bastards. You're do worry about like
a bunch of.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Old pensions Polanski pushover and a toady who nobody really
cares for but who always seems to be tagging along.
We are not the mountaineers that we used to be
back in the university. We know that old my little sister,
Sarah Jane, a sweet.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
Girl back on the mountain, just like old times. I
suppose this is to be something of a last flame
before you and Singer get married.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
And Singer's girl Lenny, who is not so sweet.

Speaker 4 (02:00):
Let's just settle for the last but for one, shall we?

Speaker 1 (02:05):
So why do I run with this din of snakes
for Sarah Jane? I guess they met in the med
at the University of Torret, not me, though I was
just a third wheel, another hanger on watching over my
kid's sister. Singer rang us all up to get together

(02:27):
again for the first time in over a decade. We're
on the third day of our planned four day hike
through a little traveled edge of the Alps, spanning between
tithr Stadt and beth Gilderon. We're due to reach the
Ophiric Pass by midday. It's a tunnel that was dug

(02:47):
through the mountain a century ago by the Royal Corps
of Engineers. That's why Singer dragged us out here. After
years of being an out of work engineer, He's now
a partner in one of the big firms. The core
of engineers is where all das uber badasses of the
field go. He says, sure, I don't enjoy Singer's company,

(03:09):
but at least he's useful to us as an alpinist.
Unlike his comrade Polanski. That guy's no help. He's like
a damned child, always in the way. Sarah Jane points
out the Alpine Passage off in the visible distance. With
any luck, we can make it down to beth Gilderon
by nightfall, maybe spend a night in one of those

(03:32):
little cottages. We'd planned our route based on a map
that Singer had drawn up, so if things go tits up,
we'll know who to blame. Alpine Passage narrated by Edward October,

(04:00):
starring Ari Shay, Adam Turner of Diabolical Podcast, Nicky Young
of Serial Napper podcast, and Mike co host of Brew
Crime Part one, Last Fling, written especially for October Pod
by Amber Jordan from an original idea by Edward October.

(04:33):
The peaks of the June Shroud and the ophir those
massive arbiters of our fate glower down at us as
we stare into the yawning mouth of the Ophiric pass.
Everyone seems to feel the presence of this place like
a dark hand grasping for us, crackling with electric energy

(04:53):
that excites your goose flesh. Blanski tries to break the
spell with his nervous laughter, but the power does not dissipate. No,
it grows heavier, more ominous. The opening seems to taunt us,
as if as if the portal will disappear if we

(05:15):
do not enter it. Moving forward down this path feels heavy.
The pull attracts us. I take the first few steps
towards the passage, and the world seems to exhale as
I do. Then the rest move forward. Singer, of course,
has to be an asshole and elbows me aside to
overtake me and become the leader of the pack. I

(05:39):
grab his elbow, bringing him to a swift halt. Look,
I don't know who the hell you think you are,
I snarl, but I share as hell. Ain't somebody you
can shove around like Polanski. He stares me down for
a moment and sees I'm not playing walks over to Lenny,
wrapping his arm around her shoulders with a grin that

(06:00):
seems to convey the punchline to an unspoken wise crack.
We stop in the center of the opening to the
alpine passage and look up. The sky has gone purple
in the gathering twilight, and from our vantage point, the
peaks of the June Shroud on the right and the

(06:22):
ophir on the left perfectly flank the man made arch
of the Ophiric Pass. The slick rock faces of the
two mountains burn canary yellow in the last rays of
evening sunshine. We strap on our helmets and headlamps and
venture into the darkness. And the electric feeling I had

(06:44):
noticed seems to have vanished. I wonder if anyone else
had felt it. I can't tell. No one's talking about it.
Making our way through the pass seems to take no
time at all, and yet the pass it seems to
go on forever. In three quarters of an hour, it

(07:04):
feels as though we've only traveled a few meters away
from the entrance. Must be some kind of optical illusion,
where at least that's what I'm telling myself. It's silent
in the tunnel except for the sounds of dripping water
and our footsteps echoing off the walls of the tunnel.

(07:24):
The walls are wet and glisten in the light of
our headlamps and battery operated torches. It's an environment that's
oppressive and other worldly in ways that I don't have
the art to convey with mere words. Today there are
probably a dozen passages through the torretent Alps, well through

(07:45):
the more accessible portions of them, but this was the first.
It was originally intended to be part of a railway
connecting Tidarstadt and beth Gilderon. The Corps of Engineers began
excavating this tunnel during the first phase of the project
because it was the task that presented the most difficulty
and the highest risk of death. Hundreds of men died

(08:08):
to dig this tunnel. The Crown was unbothered by the
cost in life, but the cost in gold and silver
was far too high. Just as the through hole to
the beth Gilderan side had been completed, the Transalpine rail
line was scrapped. The Crown redirected the corp of Engineers
to the task of building a much less efficient, far

(08:31):
less elegant railway system that went several kilometers around this
particular mountain, the Ophiar. Those trains are still running today,
with talk of streamlined high speed trains in the next
five years, maybe even atomic powered trains over the next
decade or two. To my surprise, the tunnel sprawls out

(08:59):
and all dic into the deep. Theopheric Pass was not
so much a tunnel as it was a spider's web,
a catacomb, shooting off in all directions, with what appeared
to be countless tributaries and maintenance tunnels. The stone walls
cut through the heart of the mountain seemed to sparkle
like starbursts in the light of our headlamps. I have

(09:22):
no idea where all these passages go. Singer's map supposedly
has them all listed, but there's no way he could
have mapped all this out with any precision, not unless
he'd been here before, and I know he hasn't. The

(09:46):
Torrid and Alps are the longest mountain range in the
known world, over twelve hundred kilometers long and seven kilometers
from sea level to its loftiest peak, and these halls
follow every direction impossible. I'm careful not to stray from
the main tunnel, which leads to beth Gilderon and to

(10:06):
daylight when the sun comes back up, that is, but
the others keep breaking off. I warned them how dangerous
it would be to go down the wrong corridor and
get lost down here. I'm not sure that any of
them realize that Singer doesn't even have the map. I'm
the one holding the map, as I'd suspected they. We

(10:30):
are all in some sort of trance, not really paying
attention to where we're headed. I pull a stump of
graphite from my shirt pocket, spread out the map on
the stone floor and try to mark our path, and
then I convince everyone that Sarah, Jane and I should
be in charge of the map from now on. They

(10:52):
really must be in trance, because Lenny and Singer both
have egos till Tuesday and normally would never seed control
of anything, particularly to me. Of course, if anything goes wrong,
I'm sure they'll be quick to heap all the blame
on my shoulders, but that ain't going to happen. If
anyone can get us safely through this passage, it's me.

(11:23):
We ventured deeper into the depths of the Ophir, a
mountain named after one of the death eating Titans of Torreton.
Myth Singers walking a few paces ahead of me. He's
made a game of punching Polanski between his shoulder blades
every few meters or so. To Singer, it's a childish gag,

(11:45):
and why not Polanski takes it and choose it, and
swallows it and asks for another. And every time Singer
squeals with laughter that echoes down kilometer after kilometer a
bare rock. For the life of me, I can't see
how Sarah Jane got mixed up with these clowns.

Speaker 4 (12:05):
Grandpere used to scare us with stories about the little
gnomes that used to live in the mountains and in
the deep places of the earth. He said they were
so wicked that the great god, oh Fear himself cursed
them to never know the warmth of a sunrise.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh fa, was it a god? He was just a tartan.

Speaker 4 (12:34):
As you wish either way. Grand Pere said that when
the industrialist came to the mountains and destroyed the nests
of all the mountain gnomes, the unluckiest of whom met
their demise in the very walls around us.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Now, when you say they met their demise, what kind
of carnage were we talking about?

Speaker 6 (12:55):
Really?

Speaker 1 (12:56):
Were they decapitated or crushed into peace? What do you think? No,
look like we'd only rationed enough food to get us
as far as beth Gilderon and to the hearty dinner
we planned to eat there. We were supposed to arrive
there by nightfall. We've been walking for hours with no
sign of the exit in sight. The map confirms as much.

(13:20):
I decide not to share this realization with everyone. Not yet,
we marvel at the vast empty chambers that open up
before us. Some of these chambers could fit both my
home and my church inside, with plenty of room in between.
Each chamber is octagonal, with eight tunnels branching off from it,

(13:42):
one on each wall. The map does not reflect any
of these offshoot tunnels, so we sometimes make an educated
guess as to where our true path should lead, until
we find ourselves at last, at the end of the
map and in an unfamiliar chamber. Each of the tunnels

(14:06):
connected to this chamber is split. That is, each of
these tunnels bisects into two smaller tunnels beyond the chamber. Again,
there's nothing like it on the map. We decide as
a group to keep moving east. Sarah Jane's compass as
yet to lead us astray. As we approach the fifth

(14:27):
unmapped chamber, we see that all tunnels to the south
are blocked with rubble. The rock walls here do not
catch the light of our headlamps and torches. Oh, here,
they seem to absorb the light. I suppose there's less
quartz in the rock to reflect it. Now, as a

(14:47):
geologist for a big fuel oil concern, I know that
if there's no quartz, then that means we've traveled all
the way through the last fifty thousand years worth of
deposits that make up the Alps, which were formed some
forty five to sixty million years ago. So the rock
formations we're seeing now must have formed two hundred and

(15:09):
fifty thousand years ago, give or take.

Speaker 6 (15:12):
Now.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
I know how cool this is, and Sarah Jane has
the capacity to appreciate it, but these other assholes won't
get it. I take a moment to marble at the rough,
ruddy stone walls, knowing that the very first of our
species crawled out of here so many millennia ago, at
least that's what the good book teaches us. Out of

(15:35):
the cracks with the steam and the sulfur, the first
folk crawled on their knuckles and their hands and knees.
They were low creatures who crawled before they walked, and
they subsisted on the lowest forms of life. They ate
the bugs and beetles, stones and sticks, bones and bellies.

(15:58):
But as we as a species ease moved closer and
closer to the light of the sun and the light
of the Word, we moved off of our bellies and
then onto our hands. And when we moved off of
our knees we could stand. We rose up above what
we had been, and lived off of what we could

(16:20):
grow in the light we came from the cracks. Now
we live in the light of the sun and in
the light of the Word. That is what the Good
Book says. It is night, and we've been wandering the
alpine passage for hours with nothing to eat since our

(16:43):
sunrise breakfast of jerky and crusts of oat bread. Exhausted,
we elect to find a cozy corner to bed down
and conserve the batteries for our torches and headlamps. The
atmosphere here so deep in the tunnels that honeycomb this
mountain is profoundly oppressive, darker, heavy. And then I hear

(17:12):
Lenny yelling, her voice echoing through the chamber down the corridors,
bouncing all around, but just like us, not finding a
way out. Sarah Jane stiffens and bulks off. I pick
up my pace. I had gotten quite a ways down
this corridor. Apparently, Polanski, Singer and I all reached the

(17:34):
main chamber at the same time, and we follow the
sound of the girl's excited chatter together. Going down the
third quarridor to the left, we find the girls in
a small, nearly hidden room inside our rows and rows
of bunk beds, with a vast wardrobe at the end,
containing white jump suits with Royal corps of engineer patches.

(17:59):
Singer tells us that this must be a barracks for
workers excavating the passage. They worked year round and lived
down here for weeks at a time. The extreme chill
didn't penetrate this deep in the mountains, so they could
live quite comfortably year round. It's far from cheerful, and
no one's looking forward to spending the night here, but

(18:20):
it makes sense to bed down here, and the bunks,
which are really just folding cots, seem comfortable enough, more
so than cold naked stone wining the walls or a
dozen doors and utility closets. Maybe we try a few
of the door handles, but no dice. I guess someone

(18:41):
locked up before abandoning this passage. What we discover next
is beyond belief. Around the corner from the bunk and
wardrobe area we find a common area with seating, radios
and a small table in the corner for checkers and backgammon.
But at the center of the room stands the impossible,

(19:02):
a long picnic style table type you'd find it a
beer garden, all laid out for us. Two big candelabras
stand on the table top with flickering candles and a
roaring fire in the fireplace, casting a warm orange glow
over the whole chamber. There are five place settings and

(19:24):
five plates covered with stainless steel domes, you know, the
kind you'd see in the tea room at the hotel
Segris bar to bourgeois for a rustic excavator's barracks. The
table linens are clean and pressed. The napkins are folded

(19:45):
with creases so tight you could cut yourself on them.

Speaker 3 (19:50):
How marvelous we must be expected for?

Speaker 2 (19:55):
Are you playing out just some sure egg?

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Who me? Are you nuts? I've never been here in
all my life. Well, it certainly doesn't smell.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
It a gag.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Polanski lifts one of the domes and fragrant steam flies
up from the plate, revealing piping hot portions of alpin
verst with pickled red cabbage, cheese, rare bit with spicy mustard, potato,
parsniped crapes and pears poached in sour mead, earthen caraffts
of branch water, sour mead, and ophyrvine like the candelabras.

Speaker 4 (20:34):
We'll sleep with our bellies full tonight. An elegant fair too.
I'll wager that the finest chef in beth Gilderon prepared.

Speaker 7 (20:45):
It for us.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
I'll drink to that. What fools, What a bunch of mindless,
vapid boobs. I try to tell them that this is
not a good sign. This means that there's someone living
down here, that there's obviously something off about all of this.

(21:07):
I've tried to convey to them that in my heart
I feel we're in mortal danger. We can't even explain
how the smoke from the fire and the candles gets
vented out of the chamber. This deep down, shouldn't we
be suffocating from it. But the enchantment they all felt
when they first entered the Ophyric pass has likely overtaken

(21:29):
their good senses once more.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Oh, don't be so cynical. An hour ago, I was
mentally preparing myself for a miserable night sleeping on ice,
cold stone, and no supper. Now we have caught a
hot meal. I say that this is a sign our
luck has changed.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Perhaps the enchantment has taken over me now as well.
Perhaps the smell of alpinverst and poached pears playing upon
my empty stomach are making me forget all my misgivings.
So I sit with the rest of my companions and
I eat.

Speaker 2 (22:06):
Jeer up, you old trouts. In situations like these, it's
best not to look a gift horse in the mouth.
I mean, look at this spread. It's a damn fi dinner,
I must say.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
We eat near silence, never once considering the possibility that
the food might be poisoned or tainted, never once questioning
who or what our unseen host is. Before settling into
our cots for the night, we sipped the Ndelion tea
we brewed from a few leaves Sarah found in the

(22:42):
bottom of her pack. Singer grows pensive and chatty picturery.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
One hundred years ago, this place is crawling with life,
people everywhere, sixty thousand workers coming in and out. This
mounted a daily basis, thirty thousand laborers working and living
here around the clock. At any given moment, half of

(23:10):
the laborers would be in their barracks, sleeping, eating, playing backgammon.
The other half in the unfinished or not yet started passages,
chipping away at the rough rock with their little pick axes.
Can you imagine how many pickaxes it took to create
this place, all one whack at a time by end

(23:35):
well pick axes, an earthty dosa player, perador and dynamite,
And of course, all the while there would be government
officials and military personnel coming and going. The priests came
regularly too.

Speaker 8 (23:52):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Indeed, as the superstitious workers were all sure the tunnels
were really alive, halted and all that silly rot. They
believed the old stories in the good Book. They believed
our ancestors crawled out of the cracks, that the workers
were widening one swing at a time. By all accounts,

(24:15):
these workers were terrified that our ancestors would become angry
at our intrusion and emerged from the large openings. Disturbed
out from their eternal summer, the workers refused to sleep
in any chamber that had not been first blessed by
the priests with incantations and holy oils. Just look at

(24:38):
the markings all around us, holy Salvotanic rooms. They are
never fading. After all these years, you've read of the
great rocks, thy right, Oh well, it's quite well known.

Speaker 9 (24:54):
You see.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
There's mostly an active foul line running beneath the else
The tunnels they planned had been dug too deep, and
somehow it triggering an earthquake, probably dynamite. Outside. Up on
the surface, it would have felt like a mild tremor,
but down here it was a cataclysm of the likes

(25:18):
of which one could only find in the ancient texts.
The workers in the Orphic pass on that day, convinced
they were surrounded by an immovable stone, would have felt
the earth shooting up at them from below. The ground
beneath their feet were swelling, And then as gently as
it swelled up, it went down. Then the stone erupted

(25:41):
violently as the earth shook, Great cracks lid up the
walls of their chamber, creating ghastly long shadows. One of
the priests pointed above their heads and screamed that judgment
was upon them. At that moment, an enormous crash resounded.

(26:02):
The ceiling of the Southern tunnels had burst in as
a peak of the old fire slept down from above.
Everyone in the chamber was sprayed with blood and guts
and bits of bone from the workers uddled in the barracks.
They were immediately eviscerated. The weight of the rock obliterated everything.

(26:24):
What was left of them began to pull as a
thick goo on the floor. Human beings reduced to meet
bags in the blink of an eye, faster than the
mines could comprehend that they were being crushed. It starts
to get prime ordial. Among those who survived the initial collapse.

(26:47):
They all started pushing for the exits, not blocked by rubble,
or so they thought. In reality, the rubble was just
a few feet out of sight. Folk started running to
get free and are blocked by the rubble from the damage.
So now folks start to get pushed down. So those
behind them just run over them, and it's like some

(27:10):
wicked pilot begins and now three of the four remain
in exits are blocked off by human flesh, the living,
the wounded, and they're dead. And since this shift just started,
another shift wouldn't arrive for six days. Of course, that
doesn't matter. It will be much longer than that for

(27:32):
the passages to be clear. They don't know that outside
the walls of the Alpae passage that the quake had
done so much damage. Most no one was really thinking
about the folk that were inside the passage at the time.
No one came looking, and after a few days the

(27:53):
ones who were left in here, well, they started to
get hungry. The barracks not destroyed and being locked off
by those inside safety measures and all, so no food
for those in the main chamber, nothing except the dead
bodies that were blocking their exit. So one by one

(28:16):
they flayed the skin from the bodies, save in the
bones to make tools for later, and ate the flesh.
Some began drinking the blood directly from the bodies as
they were being skin but after those who were already
deceased had been devoured, the people inside were still hungry.

(28:38):
By the end, rescuers entered the chamber to find two
and maysheed women. They rambled on about some kind of
monstrous creatures that crawled up from the cracks. They licked
their lips and their eyes twinkled when they spoke as
they told the world of our eating their fellows. Survius

(29:04):
right oos ready for bed ah nagged.

Speaker 1 (29:08):
We laugh, though our laughter is uneasy. His story is
true enough, and proof of his tail is in the
stone all around us. Even a slight smell, unpleasant and familiar,
the tang of blood in the air, still after all

(29:29):
these years. And then we hear it, a soft rustling
or scratching. Singer turns around deliberately as the rest of
us fixed terrified eyes on the door marked one. The
rustling gets a little louder, it gets closer. We can
hear it directly beyond the door. Now did anyone check

(29:52):
that door?

Speaker 10 (29:53):
I ask.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Some of the doors had been tried when we were
looking for food and water earlier, but none had budged.
Everyone shakes their head. No, no one tried to open
door number one. And then we hear a squeak and
see the knob turn slowly. The door begins to fall open,
inch by inch. My heart is racing, and I can

(30:16):
feel a cold sweat spring out of every pore in
my body. The door pops the rest of the way open,
as though given a nudge from inside. I want to run,
but there's literally nowhere to go. And then it walks
out of the shadows, well crawls rather. I've never seen

(30:42):
anything like this. It looks something like a small hairless
monkey or leamur, though I've never seen one up close,
Just wrinkly black skin that has markings that make it
look like its bones are on the outside. They're not
really the thing's bones, just marking is like a zebra's

(31:03):
stripes or the skull on a death's head moth. As
none of us have yet approached the thing, it seems
less scared, and it scampers fully out of the doorway,
crawling on all fours. It stays low and moves sleekily,
swelt and swift. Emboldened by our lack of action, it

(31:24):
starts crawling up the wall and flipping backward off it.
The girls start laughing and cheering. The thing is spurred
on to more antics with their gleeful reaction. It begins
chasing its own tail and a figure eight, doing backflips
every few moments. We start grabbing little scraps of food

(31:44):
off our plates and tossing them to the creature. The
monkey thing likes this, it seems, and starts flipping and
jumping around, almost like it's doing tricks to get us
to throw at more food. Every time it comes close
to Polanski, it hisses at him. Get away from me.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
Ha ha ha.

Speaker 4 (32:05):
Look, Sarah, Jane, Look how Polansky is cowering behind your
brother Pasotic.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Now Singer is laughing and cheering the little guy on
along with the ladies. The creature keeps scurrying around, having
a grand old time, and then charges Polanski, sending Singer
and Lenny into roaring laughters. Then we hear a grunt

(32:40):
much too deep to have come from our little friend.
It's coming from behind him in the shadows of the
open doorway. It sounds like a swine, small grunts emitting
from the darkness. Even the little monkey like creature has
stopped and is watching the doorway. A small little man
thing walks out from the shadows. He has elongated arms,

(33:05):
knuckles dragging to the ground. He has pinkish white skin
with no hair. His brow is very prominent over a
big snipe nose. His eyes are uncomfortably close together. His
mouth is purple and gaping, with grotesque gray lips and
a thick black tongue. He's dressed in rags fashioned from

(33:28):
scraps of gray overalls, the kind of miner would wear.
He moves slowly and wilfully into the room, his knuckles
dragging skin so rough you can hear the scraping on
the floor. It almost sounds like rock on rock. As
he grunts, he pulls his lips back, revealing rows of hideous,

(33:50):
jagged teeth. They're stained pink from whatever this thing eats,
likely flesh. I see that as this thing has advanced
into our room, our little monkey guy has retreated from
where he was. He's backing up almost to the wall
at this point. This makes me more nervous. These things

(34:14):
both came from the same place. We may not know
what this is, but that little monkey does, and he
wants nothing to do with it. The knuckle dragger sniffs
the air, snaps his head toward the monkey thing, and roars.
It makes my heart pound and the alpin versed. I
just ate starts heaving in my stomach, wanting to come up.

(34:38):
The man thing uses those dragging knuckles to add speed
as he launches himself across the room at the other creature.
His movements are unsettling, but no one else seems to
feel the same dread that I feel. Singer laughs, like
this is some sort of entertainment. Lenny joins him and
starts rooting for the little monkey creature. He darts away

(35:02):
from the spot he was just on as the knuckle
dragger reaches it. Even Sarah Jane, my sweet little kid's sister,
is cheering on the monkey, like this is some kind
of punch and Judy play, some pantomime for our amusement,
bread and circuses. But what can I do? Everyone's enjoying it,

(35:24):
and I don't know enough about these creatures to try
and stop it. Polanski, I see, is the only one
as uncomfortable as me. He's shrinking farther and farther from
the creatures. A Singer is standing square in the fighting grounds,
grinning with sadistic glee. At first, it seemed this little
monkey creature would have no defense against the miniature knuckle dragger,

(35:48):
this mountain gnome. The monkey thing has nasty claws that
pop out on all his fingers and toes. He pounces
on the mountain gnome with those razor sharp claws. He
pounces on the mountain Gnome. His razor sharp claws flash
in a streak of white and slice deep into the flesh.

(36:12):
The gnome keeps catching him mid air and hammering him
at the wall. Blood squirts out of every pore, each time,
a fine spray of blood. It's disgusting. How is Singer
okay with this horror show? How can any of them?
Then Singer, in one fell swoop, grabs Polansky's waist and

(36:36):
swings him up to his feet. The momentum thrusts Polanski
into the battle, and Singer steps back to watch. Before
any of us can truly react, Polansky screams out, and
we're all sprayed by a thick mist of blood, spurting
out of Polansky's wrist in torrents and puddling on the floor.

(36:56):
Kolansky's bloody, severed hand flies across cross the room and
slaps Lenny square in the face. But Singer, for one,
has never seen anything funnier in his life. He giggles
like a child, pointing at the bloody handprint on her cheek.
Now the creatures both stop their action, tilt their heads

(37:17):
and sniff deep they smell blood. How could they not?
Singer still has his hand in the air as if
to hold us back from interfering. Both creatures jump on
Polanski's blood soaked form. The Gnome rams his bulk into
Polansky's chest, knocking him backward as the monkey thing lands

(37:38):
on his face and starts ripping into it with those
razor claws. Fits of flesh and trails of blood are
flying all through the air. The Gnome tears into Polanski's torso.
Viscera is disappearing down its throat as blood oozes over
the sides of his open body cavity as it all

(38:01):
pools beneath him. I think back to Singer's story. My
mind conjures up images of people vaporized or reduced to
oozing meat bags by the collapsed tunnel. Polanski's screams quickly
come to an end, and I'm thankful but terrified now

(38:22):
that they've finished him off. Want's to say that their
bloodlust is satisfied.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
We're all complicit. We didn't lift a single finger. Singer,
you bastard, were all responsible for this man's murder.

Speaker 10 (38:35):
It wasn't us.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
We didn't do anything.

Speaker 9 (38:38):
We just watched.

Speaker 4 (38:40):
We were just observers or whatever.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
I snatched Sarah Jane by the hand and shout, let's
get the hell out of here. I don't care how
creepy it is out there, it's killer in here. We
run past rows of cots and slam into a wall.
It's like the doorway just disappeared. I can't even detect
the door frame. I creep slowly and quietly back with

(39:05):
Sarah Jane in tow towards the common area. Again, there's
literally no noise coming from back there. Now we have
no idea if the creatures are still there or what.
Now we see the monkey thing perched on the GNOME's
shoulder like a witch's familiar. The Gnome brings his gnarly
face up to look at the rest of us. His

(39:27):
mouth turns into a snarl, showing endless rows of jagged teeth.
His face is a twisted mass of rage. His eyes
look at us, full of judgment, just like the oppressive
long shadows overhead in the main chamber earlier. We all
freeze in horror as the other eleven doors all pop

(39:48):
open in unison. Unlike the first door, there are lights
beyond these newly opened door doorways. We see long shadows
across the floor and the bright spheres of light thrown
from the doorways. They look down upon us in judgment,

(40:12):
just like this little mountain gnome. We see long shadows
across the floor and the bright spheres of light thrown
from the doorways. They keep approaching. They emerge from the
deep as gaunt and spinly, as spiders, legs, their minds
full of primordial horror.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
A man's been murdered, and we stood by and watched
him die. We are all complicit, and these are to
be our judges.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Monsters do have their place in the zoo, in your nightmares,
in the deep, in your favorite horror movies, but not
on your phone during an ad break. Politically motivated interests
are seeking to influence you through the ads placed on
this podcast. Hi, I'm your host Edward October, reminding you

(41:29):
that we have very limited control over the ads you
hear on October Pod. Please remember that only the ads
and promos I read with my own voice carry the
endorsement of Edward October and October Pod. Furthermore, I and
the makers of October Pod repudiate any entity advertised which

(41:49):
seeks to promote hatred, anti American or anti democratic sentiments,
or the spread of misinformation. Now with that in mind,
October Pod will return after this brief ad break. It's

(42:12):
intermission time, folks. I'm your host, mister Edward October. Today
I'm catching up with an old friend of the show,
author Amy Coto. Longtime listeners may remember her as the
writer for a number of October Pot episodes. She's also
a TV and movie critic and the author of several horror,

(42:34):
dark fantasy, and crime thriller novels, including The Search for
Alice and Make It Through the Night. And she's graciously
agreed to join us today to be peppered with questions
for a lightning round interview.

Speaker 11 (42:50):
Thank you so much for having me now.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
For some reason, perhaps it's because you frequently post about
Buffy and Angel on social media, I always associate you
with vampires, so perhaps that's the best place to start.
There have been some big vampire movies coming out in
the last six months or so. Have you seen Sinners
and Nosferatu? And if so, which one did you think

(43:14):
was better?

Speaker 11 (43:15):
I love vampires so much, and which is two? But
I'm so excited about vampire films making an epic comeback.
I have seen both movies. I personally love Sinners more.
It was so fresh and fun, the performances were phenomenal.
I thought nos Faratu was beautifully shot, but Sinners is
really more my speed.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Yeah, I'm gonna have to agree with you. I think
Sinners is both a great horror picture, but also it's
an important film. Twenty years from now, I think we'll
be talking about Sinners as a milestone of the genre.
And you know, I went into nos Feratu with high hopes,
and while Eggers succeeded in making the film he set
out to make, ultimately it just doesn't do anything for me.

(43:59):
I thought that trail of count Orlock was interesting. Some
choices we're definitely made. Now, do you have a favorite Dracula.
Do you prefer Bella Legosi or Christopher Lee. I'm a
Christopher Lee guy myself.

Speaker 11 (44:16):
Honestly, I have to rewatch a both films to really
be able to give an answer to that. But thank
you so much for reminding me to do this, so
I'm definitely adding that to my list. I do love
that one episode of Buffy where they do include Dracula,
so I guess that would be my highlight for now.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
I am not nearly as familiar with Buffy as you are,
so I've missed that particular incarnation of Dracula, so I've
got something to go back and revisit too. Is Buffy
your favorite vampire TV show?

Speaker 11 (44:46):
Obviously Buffy. Nothing will ever hold a candle to that one.
It raised me. It just speaks to me. I love
it so much. I'm a huge fan. I am also
a fan of True Blood and what we do in
the Shadows the TV show was really fun as well.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
Oh, I forgot about True Blood. That's a good pull.

Speaker 11 (45:04):
Favorite vampire movie that's a little bit tougher, I guess
I would say Thirty Days of Night. I love Josh
Hartnett and I thought that movie was so creepy. It
still gives me nightmares to this day and was so
well done. But I also really love Bleed Abigail and
Sinners is honestly right up there too. An Underworld with
Kate Beckensale I really like as well.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Going back to TV, another giant of the vampire subgenre
is Dark Shadows. Did you ever get around to seeing
the Tim Burton version?

Speaker 11 (45:36):
Okay, Dark Shadows, the movie I do remember it. I
did see it once, I would definitely have to go
back and rewatch it.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
Yeah, it's actually an awful movie, but I you know,
I kind of like the fact that Burton is just
using it as a vehicle to do his own spoof
or remake of Dracula AD nineteen seventy two, which is
one of my all time guilty pleasures. It seems like

(46:06):
every few years we hear talk of Dark Shadows getting
another TV reboot. I think there was even supposed to
be a reboot for the WB network right around the
time Buffy was popular.

Speaker 11 (46:18):
I think I could use a reboot, although we are
having so many reboots lately, but I think that would
be one I would enjoy.

Speaker 1 (46:25):
So what would be on your mount rushmore of TV horror?

Speaker 11 (46:31):
Okay, TV horror? My favorite one has to be Buffy,
but I also really love Screen Queens that definitely needs
another season. The series Slasher is so underrated and fantastic.
I love Ash Versus Evil Dead, and The Haunting of
Hill House and mary Anne on Netflix is a lesser

(46:52):
known horror gem that is definitely worth a watch.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
You know, I'm still mad at Netflix for canceling mind Hunter.
What are you watching currently.

Speaker 11 (47:02):
Well, I just finished a few, so I guess I
will give you some of those. The Pit was fantastic,
which that's normally not in my wheelhouse. I'm not really
into medical dramas at all, but that show was so
intense and I keep recommending it to everyone, and there
is a lot of gore in it, I mean real
life gore. But there was definitely some stomach turning moments

(47:23):
in that, so that's definitely on my list. And then
I also really enjoyed The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon that
is on Prime, I believe, and it had like an
Ash versus Evil Dead vibe, so I really enjoyed that.
And I just finished the final season of You, which
I thought was solid overall.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
And how did you.

Speaker 4 (47:44):
So?

Speaker 1 (47:45):
Your handle on social media is TV Fanatic Girl. How
did you become the TV fanatic Girl.

Speaker 11 (47:55):
That's a great question. I've always been addicted to television shows,
and I got to a point where I said, well,
maybe I should just start writing about these shows and
connect with other fans, and TV fanatic World just seemed
like the perfect fit. I think it was seven years
ago that I started my TV Fanatic Girl site and

(48:16):
went on Twitter, and it's been quite the journey, but
I have connected with so many more fans and it's
really brought back my love of television, So I guess
that's where it came from.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Now, when you're not writing about movies and TV, you're
writing fiction. You're the author of several self published novels.
Self publication is something that used to be looked down upon,
but in the Internet age, there are quite a few
big name authors who have embraced self publication, or authors

(48:52):
who have become big through self publication as a way
of bypassing the gatekeepers in publishing.

Speaker 11 (49:02):
Writing is a long and tedious process, but it's also
one of the most rewarding and I'm very proud to
be an independent, self published author. I think it's so
important to get stories out there. They deserve to be told,
and this gave me the avenue to do exactly that.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
So what works from the horror genre would you say
have inspired you the most as a writer.

Speaker 11 (49:25):
Nineties slashers and thrillers definitely inspired my writing. I've always
loved the simple cat and mouse approach and just an
overall fast paced feel, and that's what I've always tried
to channel and accomplish with my own books, and hopefully
I am able to do that.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
So what are you working on currently?

Speaker 11 (49:45):
I actually have a new novel that was just released
on May second. It's called We Hope You Enjoy Yours Day.
It's a crime mystery thriller centered around a bed and
breakfast and a guest who goes missing. I'm really excited
about this one. This one took me a little bit
longer to write than normal, but I really love the

(50:06):
way it turned out, and I hope everyone does too.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Okay, so tell everyone out there where we can find
you and read your work.

Speaker 11 (50:16):
My books are all available on Amazon, and you can
find me on x, Twitter, Blue Sky, Goodreads, and book
Bub as either Amy Coto or TV Fanatic Girl.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
And that's Amy Coto spelled Amy Koto. I also have
to mention that you've written a handful of stories for
October Pod. One of them is Thanksgiving Roadchip, which was
nominated for a Rondo Award a few years back, and
the other is a true ghost encounter involving you and
your very brave dog, Honey. So I have to ask

(50:51):
how is Honey doing and has she asked about me lately?

Speaker 11 (50:55):
Thank you again? For inviting me to collaborate on those
they were a blame as to write and contribute to
the Thanksgiving Road trub. It still gives me nightmares. It
was so chilling and I still think about it to
this day, so that one definitely stands out for me.
Honey is doing great, and of course she always asks
about you all the time. You know, she's my horror sidekick.

(51:18):
She watches all the movies with me, and she sits
there with me through my writing, so I adore her.
So thanks for asking.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
We've been speaking with author and media critic Amy Codo.
Thank you so much for stopping by the chat with us.

Speaker 11 (51:31):
Amy, Thank you so much again for having me. I
am a big fan of the October Pond podcast. I
love what you're doing and I'm excited to see some
of your future projects as well, so thanks again.

Speaker 8 (51:42):
Buy now.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
All right, friends, we're not done with you just yet.
Get ready to return to the darkness of the Alpine passage,
because Act two of October Pod starts.

Speaker 6 (52:04):
Now.

Speaker 3 (52:16):
A man's been murdered, and we stood by and watched
him die. We are all complicit and these are to
be our judges.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
I watched as two of the strange inhabitants of the
Opheric Pass had taken down and consumed a fully grown man.
And I had no idea how we were going to
handle more of them, but we were going to try.
I had a camping knife, and Sarah Jane held her
torch out protectively. Those other two bastards, Lenny and Singer,

(52:46):
started shuffling around in their packs as well, but I
didn't see what they grabbed to fight with because the
doors were finally spilling out their contents. Dozens of creatures,
like the mountain and the monkey thing spilled out from
the twelve open doors. They were all impish and small.
All were hairless, but some were shaped more like dogs

(53:09):
or cats or elongated people. Alpine Passage, Part two meat Bags,

(53:32):
written especially for October Pod by Annie Morgan, featuring characters
and situations created by Amber Jordan from an original idea
by Edward October. I got in front of Sarah Jane
for all the good it would do, and held out
my crummy little pocket knife. It was over. Logically, I

(53:53):
knew it was over, but I wasn't going to accept that.
A tiny, hellish scream brought my attention back to Singer
and Lenny, and I saw that he'd sliced one of
the known things in half with a machete that he'd
apparently had this whole time, but didn't use to help Polanski.

(54:15):
Lenny was similarly armed with a large fixed blade knife,
like something you'd carry in the army. What have they
been planning on using those for? In this desolate place?
There wasn't even that much brush to clear on the
wooded trails that led here. I waited for the creatures
to make a move, hoping to take at least a
few down with me, but none of them so much

(54:38):
as tried to bite us. They were actually moving around us,
and even more strangely, they weren't attacking each other. There
were squabbles and bites here and there, but both groups
of beasts had something more pressing than either tearing us
apart or each other. My heart, already beating out of
my chest, fluttered even faster when I realized that they

(55:00):
were running from something. We didn't have long to wait
to see what they were afraid of. Out of the
doors closest to us came something new and terrible. The
big ones were as tall as each of us, if
not taller, and The smaller ones were the size of children.
I was ready to fight, my heart pumping and breaking

(55:23):
out into a cold sweat, but I couldn't help but
notice something strange. I hadn't seen anything come out of
the last two doors. If we made it out of this,
that could be our way out. Sarah Jane was still
behind me, ready to fight, but shaking, and I told
her what I knew was a lie, It's going to

(55:44):
be okay. She didn't answer. The creatures got closer to us,
and I wondered if we were in hell. The other
things that had come before me made sense and resembled
perhaps creatures unknown to science, but the thing is coming
at us now were not rational creatures. They looked like

(56:04):
tortured souls, fresh from whatever level of hell involves flaying
someone alive. They had no skin, just bare flesh and sinew,
yellow fat, and green intestines peeked out where there wasn't
enough muscle to hold them together. They were walking meat

(56:26):
bags and meat bags. Right away, four of these creatures
swarmed on me and Sarah Jane. The others went for
Lenny and Singer. At that point, I wasn't sure who
I was rooting for. Sarah Jane's friends or the meat bags.
The monsters were upon us, and it was all slashing
and stabbing and kicking. I was operating on animal instinct,

(56:50):
instincts that I hadn't known I possessed because I've never
really needed them. I've never had to fight for my life.
Sarah Jane and I were holding the beasts off remarkably well,
and I realized why when I had a moment to breathe,
a moment, granted, when one of the larger beasts reach

(57:10):
out its fleshy, bloody hand just inches from my eye,
trying to claw it out, and another creature stopped it.
The meat bags were fighting each other while some of
them anyway, two were just lapping up the blood stains
that Polanski had left behind. But the rest, it was
like they'd grouped up into pairs to fight, as if

(57:33):
half of them wanted to protect us and half wanted
to kill us, or perhaps they were just a bloodthirsty,
thoughtless things that only knew strife. A bloody, fleshy hand
yanked Sarah Jane and pulled me back into the struggle.
The four that were on us, comprising three big ones
and one smaller one, so I went for that one first,

(57:55):
thinking if I could kill it, then just maybe I
could focus more on the others. This meat bag looked
to be female, if they even had genders, and was
busy trying to bite the one that looked to be
a larger female. It was old and hunched, and its
bones crunched when it moved, so I figured I had

(58:17):
a chance. I went right for her jugular, which I
could actually see pumping in front of me. My knife
met resistance the scabby sores that covered them, offering some
kind of insulation, apparently not enough to keep out steel.
Though the creature was blood red, her actual blood was

(58:38):
black and spewed out all over me, like viscous oil
from some machine. Second to touch my skin, I was
transported to another place. I was in a city, but

(59:04):
it didn't look like any I knew. The lights were strange.
They cast a bluish hue instead of amber. It made
the street feel cold, even in the sudden summer heat.
I looked down at my hands and they were thinner, feminine,
and wrinkled with age. A voice to my left said,

(59:27):
are you sure, and I jumped. There was an old
man holding out some kind of bundle. He looked ragged
and tired, his brown eyes filled with apprehension. I didn't
say anything back, and he just kept looking over his shoulder.
He repeated again, Are you sure? I haven't got all night?

(59:50):
And people are starving? The bundle was dripping red. I
didn't know what to say, so I said yes, and
the voice that came out of me was oddly feminine.
What the hell was going on? I looked around me,
my eyes adjusting to this new light, and realized that
something terrible had happened in that city. Windows were blown

(01:00:13):
out and there were no cars on the street, not
even parked.

Speaker 3 (01:00:18):
What is this place?

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
I asked, in that girl's voice once again. Then I
realized it sounded familiar. The vision dissolved around me, and
I was back in that wretched tunnel with those wretched beasts.
Then in front of me, I heard the voice I'd
just been listening.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
To help, For God's sake, help.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
It was Sarah Jane. One of the larger meat bags,
one that looked male, was biting her arm and shaking
it like a dog. I sprinted over, but before I
started stabbing it, I had the presence of mine to
pull my coat down over my arm. I could only
assume the blood had been what had given me the
strange vision, and I couldn't afford to be distracted. I

(01:01:07):
stabbed the beast in the back of its neck, but
it didn't even notice. Blood trickled out, but hadn't hit
anything important. Across the room, Singer was screaming. Another one
of the large ones had him and was biting his leg,
blood spewing out near the thigh at his feet. One
of the smaller creatures was motionless, defeated. Lenny was close by,

(01:01:30):
but battling her own demons. I didn't have time to
worry about them, though, not that I even should. I
pulled out my knife and tried again, this time closer
to the side of the neck, all the while Sarah
Jane was sobbing. I tripped. Then, when my world turned
upside down, the wind was knocked out of me, and

(01:01:52):
when I gathered myself enough to stand up, I saw
that I'd stumbled over the body of one of the
larger creatures. Either Sarah Jane had killed it while I
was having my hallucination, or one of the other beasts had.
Across the room, I caught a glimpse of one of
the creatures desperately trying to pull another one off of Singer.

(01:02:14):
Why were they attacking each other? I didn't have time
to ponder that question. Sarah Jane was bleeding even more now,
and I had to kill the beast attacking her. I
got back up a knife, but the ready, but when
I reached down to swing, a cold bloody hand stopped me.
One of the big creatures had me. I knew if

(01:02:36):
he got my knife it was over, using all my strength,
straining the muscles in my arm past the point of
pulling apart. I got the knife free and stabbed him
in the wrist, hoping to open his veins, though this
one was as bloody red as all the rest. On
the outside, his blood was gold got on my fingers,

(01:02:59):
but nothing happen. And then it did the strangest thing.
It spoke, it's too late for her, You'll only get
yourself killed. The thing then gripped me tight into a
bear hug, and I couldn't move. I tried in vain
to get out, but I knew the beast was right.

(01:03:21):
The creature attacking Sarah Jane was biting into her neck now,
and her struggling had long since stopped.

Speaker 12 (01:03:29):
We have to get you out of here. I just
sobbed dead. My baby's sister dead. What was the point
without her? What was the point after all of this?

(01:03:50):
I looked out at the rest of the barracks and
took in the carnage. Lenny was still holding her own
entangled with two creatures that seemed to be fighting each
other for the right to tear her apart. Singer was
completely still and two of the creatures were, but it
looked as if he might already be dead. Then I

(01:04:10):
noticed something strange. The creatures that had been eating up
Polanski's remains were gone, with the pile of gore where
he'd been looked larger. Why the hell were these things
attacking us in pairs? Why were they fighting each other?
The creature holding.

Speaker 1 (01:04:27):
Me seemed to read my mind and said, we're you,
don't you see it? With that, I looked down, I
mean really looked down at the dead one at my feet.
I tried to picture her face with the skin back
on and her body shape. I knew it well. The

(01:04:48):
beasts that had been killed while I was off in
my dreamland resembled a perfectly skinned to Sarah Jane. I
looked up at my sister, now just a corpse, and
forced myself to look at the thing attacking her, and
realized that the body language reminded me of myself. I

(01:05:11):
didn't cry, I didn't scream. I asked calmly. For some reason,
what's happening? Come on quickly so we can tall. But
this new revelation was tabled by something even more horrific.
The beasts that had been eating Singer and had finished
their meal. It looked like they were dissolving. It was

(01:05:34):
like acid had been poured all over them as they
collapsed into a puddle of wet blood and bones. I
wasn't the only one transfixed. Lenny and what I can
only assume were her doppelganger looked on as well, and
the little one that had been struggling with them saw
it as a chance to escape.

Speaker 13 (01:05:56):
Moved now, while they're distracts, I let the me thing
drag me closer to the last two doors, the ones
that hadn't held any horrors.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
I need you to tell me which door feels right.
Do not overthink it, don't question it, just focus. I
didn't know what that meant, but I listened. It was
me talking after all. I stared for just a moment,

(01:06:31):
and soon realized that I felt a pull to the left.
I pointed that one, my bloody doppelganger nodded, and together
we went through. I was about to ask questions or
try to will myself to wake up from this nightmare,
but I didn't get the chance. Something else spoke first.

Speaker 4 (01:06:54):
It's just the bad ones left now, A little.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Girl's boy behind us, I dreaded. Seeing the owner of
that voice, I turned. It was a small meat bag,
a flayed child. The other me stared at her for
just a moment, thinking if I hold them off, can

(01:07:22):
you get me out?

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
I'll try. Don't let the heather move.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Out, Okay, I won't, And with that he turned back,
heading into the room that was now filled with snarls,
but not screams. The little creature took my hand, but
neither of us thought about the black blood on her palm.
Suddenly I was in a village under a blue sky.

(01:07:48):
It was chilly, but the air smelled of flowers in spring.
I took it in for a moment, enjoying the reprieve
from all the horror, before a man's voice once again
brought me out of my trance. Hurry up, the voice said.
I looked over and it was a young man in
a suit holding a single rose. You don't want to

(01:08:12):
miss it. His voice was soft, as though he was
trying to make it soothing, but there was a performative
quality to it as well. He held out his hand.
When I took it, I discovered my hand was the
hand of a child. The man smiled, and together we
ran down the street towards some great unknown. Then a

(01:08:33):
slap to the face brought me back to that hellish
chamber under the mountain.

Speaker 7 (01:08:39):
You don't want to see what happens.

Speaker 1 (01:08:41):
Next, trust me what I will. But what's happening where you?

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
Just at different times, from different places, can't you see?
I'm Lenny. Before she went bad like rancid meat.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
I heard it then, more youthful, less cruel, but it
was her. It was Lenny. Then we heard a scream
coming from behind us. It sounded like me. We sprint
it to the next set of doors, then, as fast
as we could go. I stared at the doors hard,
trying desperately to figure out which one felt like home,
but neither one evoked anything. You have to choose now,

(01:09:28):
so I did. We got slightly farther from the screams
and the carnage, and I felt a bit safer. But
soon there was another set of doors. We'd have to
keep doing this until we got free. Little Lenny squeezed
my hand with her fleshless one as a gesture of comfort.
I tried not to look at her. I asked myself,

(01:09:49):
what feels like home? I thought of Sarah Jane. Then
that wouldn't get me back home, though she was gone
in my world. Now the doors felt the same, but
I took a breath and really really looked. The right
one felt slightly better. Behind us, I heard the screams

(01:10:12):
stop completely. Let's go this time. I took Little Linny's
fleshless hand in mine. After that crossing, we stopped hearing
anything behind us, and we slowed down a bit. I'm
going to need you to explain more, I said, how
are you all here? Are we in Hell?

Speaker 13 (01:10:33):
Close to it but not quite?

Speaker 4 (01:10:36):
These mountains aren't really mountains. They're a sort of anchor
point for all kinds of different places. You can get
here from one world, one reality, and end up in another.
And if you get lost, I mean really lost, you

(01:11:00):
end up in Hell or maybe heaven, but I've never
found it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:07):
Why are you in hell if you're just a kid.

Speaker 4 (01:11:10):
It's complicated. Uh, we don't have time for this.

Speaker 1 (01:11:18):
We hit another door and I let my emotions guide me.
Is that what I'm picking with these doors? What reality
I'm going to?

Speaker 4 (01:11:27):
Yes, but we might not make it back to the
right one. We just want to get you as close
as possible.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Does that mean we might find one where where Sarah
Jane is still alive?

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
It's possible, but don't think about that. If you don't
focus on the right one, you could end up anywhere.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Even before she was done talking, I knew I wasn't
going to listen. Each time we hit another doorway, I
thought of only one thing, my kid's sister, Sarah Jane.
As we walked, I asked little Lenny why she was
small like a kid.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
This is when I turned bad. This is me before
I was condemned to help?

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Then why was the other me that flayed me? Why
was he my age.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
Because of the choice you're about to make. What choice,
the choice that could condemn your.

Speaker 7 (01:12:26):
Soul to help?

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
What about the other other me, that meat bag who
killed Sarah Jane?

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Those are just echoes they're here because you're not supposed
to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:12:42):
I didn't understand that one. But before I could ask
for clarification, I heard footsteps behind us. They were faint,
but they were there. We sped up what happened to
you to make you the way you are?

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
Bad things that this version of me has done those
bad things to others, not yet. That's why I'm not
stuck here. I'm just visiting.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
What will the big Lenny meatbag do if she catches us?

Speaker 4 (01:13:11):
You don't want to know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
I didn't ask, and I focused on Sarah Jane and
getting out of there. The footsteps were closer now, and
I didn't want to know what would happen when they
found me, whatever version of me or Lenny that was.
I thought of the bad version of me then, wondering
what kind of mortal choice I might face when I
got out. Would I find Sarah Jane alive and happy again?

(01:13:37):
Would I be tempted to go live in a reality
where my sister is alive? Or would I be totally lost?
Would I end up somewhere with strange lights and bombed buildings,
offered some kind of food that I knew I shouldn't
take that would somehow condemn my soul to Hell. I
realized then that because Sarah Jane had faced her mortal

(01:13:59):
choice when she was old, I needed to be there
to guide her to save her soul from Hell, or
at least some version of her. Would the Sarah Jane
i'd find in this new place face a different choice.
It was all so confusing. We hit a bend in
our path and suddenly there was light.

Speaker 7 (01:14:23):
This is it, last choice?

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
What happens to you when I leave?

Speaker 4 (01:14:27):
I think I'll go and find the bad meat. I
wanted to make sure she doesn't get out. Maybe I
can give another me a better chance. In another light.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
I looked out at the last two doors, both leading
to daylight, and picked the one that felt like Sarah Jane.
Good luck, little Lenny.

Speaker 4 (01:14:48):
You do. I hope you end up in the right
place and the right.

Speaker 1 (01:14:53):
Time, the right time. I didn't even pause to ponder
the full meaning that sentence as I walked out into
the sun. My eyes take a minute to adjust, and

(01:15:27):
when they do, I feel a sense of dread that
that I hadn't felt, even when battling a flayed echo
of my own soul, even when watching my sister die
in front of me. The town of beth Gilderon is
supposed to be on the other side, at the foot
of the mountain, but it isn't there. Neither is the mountain.

(01:15:52):
In fact, there are no snow capped peaks, no torred
in alps, only gently rolling green hills that have yet
to be molded by the ebb and flow of time's ocean.
I take a moment to marvel at them, knowing that
the very first men would one day crawl out from

(01:16:15):
their depths. At least that's what the Good Book teaches us.
Out of the cracks with the steam and the sulfur.
The first folk will crawl on their knuckles and their
hands and knees. They are low creatures who must crawl

(01:16:37):
before they walk, and subsist on eating the lowest forms
of life. They shall eat the bugs and beetles, stones
and sticks, bones and bellies. But as we move closer
and closer to the light of the sun and to
the light of the word, we move off of our knuckles,

(01:16:59):
and then onto our hands. And when we move off
of our knees, we can at last stand. We rise
up up above what has been, and live off what
we can grow in the light. We come from the cracks,
and one day shall live live in the light of

(01:17:24):
the sun and in the light from the word. Stick

(01:18:04):
around after the credits for a brief word from some
of our fellow indie podcasters, creators and friends. There may
even be some bloopers, outtakes, and bonus content as well.
You have been listening to Octoberpod. Octoberpod is produced, edited
and directed by Edward October. The series co producers are
m J McAdams and Amber Jordan. Logo and banner graphics

(01:18:28):
by Jessica Good Edward October. Character design by Nick Calavera.
Select still photography courtesy of unsplashed dot com. Select music
cues by Doctor Dreamchip and various other stock music and
sound effects courtesy of freesound dot Org. Music from Bigfoot
Apocalypse and Thorax theme from Octoberpod composed by Nico Vittaesi.

(01:18:52):
All other images, music, and FX cues, except where noted,
are sourced from within the public domain. Follow us on
YouTube at Octoberpod, home video, on Instagram and the app
I Still Call Twitter at octoberpodvhs, and on TikTok and
Blue Sky at Octoberpod, or find us and all of

(01:19:13):
our links on the world wide web at octoberpodvhs dot com.
For business inquiries or story submissions, email octoberpodat gmail dot com.
If you enjoyed this program, we'd be very pleased if
you told your friends about us, and while you're at it,
write us a five star or equivalent review. Wherever you

(01:19:34):
were listening, the man who spoke to you was mister
Edward October.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
Hi.

Speaker 7 (01:19:40):
I'm Karen and I'm Aubrey and this is Chicklin, a
literature comedy podcast where we enjoy getting lit and talking
about books we love and love to roast. We also
talk about personal opinions and quote the office so much
that we've made it.

Speaker 4 (01:19:53):
Into a drinking game.

Speaker 7 (01:19:54):
We've been friends for over a decade, so grab your
drink of choice and join us for some Shenanigans.

Speaker 8 (01:19:59):
Wellcome to chat Tsunami, a variety podcast that discusses topics
from gaming and films to anime and general interests.

Speaker 9 (01:20:07):
Previously on Chats and Army, we've analyzed what makes a
good horror game, conducted a retrospective on Pierce Brosnan's runs
James Bond, and listen to us take deep dives into
both the Sonic and Halo franchises.

Speaker 14 (01:20:18):
Also, if you're an anime fan, but don't forget, to
check us out on our sub series Chatsu Nanni, where
we dive into the world of anime. So far we've
reviewed things like Death Notes, Princess Mainoke, and the hit
Bay Blade series.

Speaker 8 (01:20:29):
If that sounds like you're a cup of tea, then
you can check us out with Spotify, iTunes and all
with podcast stamps.

Speaker 14 (01:20:35):
As always today say.

Speaker 9 (01:20:37):
Stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated.

Speaker 5 (01:20:41):
Hello friends, are you feeling down? Do you need to
pick me up? We'll look no further for I have
a solution. Just go Genius Podcast or pick up a
box of Backlick Cinema the podcast. That's right, folks, Backlicks Cinema,
the podcast will cure with alte This sweet's smooth and
gentle chit chat or the movies that Yester year will
fulfill your aching nostarta and approve your over our well being.
Something sounds of your host, so bridgetson. Talking about your

(01:21:02):
favorite moments of these classic films is guaranteed to lift
your spirits. The behind the scenes trivia that you'll learn
will filled with awe and wonderment. Don't hesitate, try back
look cinema the podcast now with no artificial flavors or colors.

Speaker 14 (01:21:16):
Money Definitely, you claim up in prout love being always
a kid to any ali it cannot be substantive.

Speaker 1 (01:21:21):
One. Why did I say that? Like the fucking.

Speaker 10 (01:21:27):
One?

Speaker 1 (01:21:29):
Like like, I'm not going to cut that out. It
comes a corker of an opening again. Fuck in case

(01:21:50):
you're unting, this is one. This is one. I'm a
fu batman, all right, I'm Edward October. The sound you
hear is snow melt trickling through an alpine stream. This

(01:22:13):
is the start of October pod music. Interesting, So I
gather everyone around me for a map check, as i'd
suspect shut the fuck up.

Speaker 4 (01:22:28):
Grand Pair used to scare us with stories about the
little gnomes that used to live in the mountains and
in the deep places of the earth. He said they
were so wicked that the great God Oh Fear himself

(01:22:51):
cursed them to never know the warmth of a sunrise.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
Podcast host drinking doctor pepper from a plastic cup as
the wind blows and a plane passes overhead. You're listening
to ASMR Theater.

Speaker 4 (01:23:21):
How marvelous well the more accessible portions of them.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
But this was the first mother fucking fur because Act
two of October, Part because Act two of October, Part
what mother.

Speaker 3 (01:23:43):
Thirty nine Version three. I'm gonna try my best to
be hysterical here.

Speaker 1 (01:23:51):
A'lpine two electric bugaloo, forty blustery intro.

Speaker 11 (01:23:58):
I definitely need to read more. A few standout authors
I've recently read are Carmela Howllett and Max Gounsler. They
both were on Twitter. I believe they still are. But
I've read a couple of their novels and I thought
they were fantastic, and hopefully more readers will discover them

(01:24:19):
because they're truly great.

Speaker 1 (01:24:21):
That what that can that would can fuck me.

Speaker 4 (01:24:26):
We'll sleep with our bellies full tonight. And it's elegant
fair too. I'll wager that the finest chef in Beth
Gilderon prepared it for us.

Speaker 1 (01:24:55):
That's the sound of refreshment. Why don't you grab yourself
a doctor pepper at our convenient snack bar? Hey when
a note to self, when when he snaps into these
alternate realities, let's do a hard transition into a very

(01:25:23):
different soundscape. So that city we would have like a
sort of post apocalyptic soundbed, and for the one we
just had, it will do like a springtime soundbed. Singer
is standing square in the fighting grounds, grinning with sadistic glee.

(01:25:45):
At first, it seems the monkey creature would have no
defense against our miniature knuckle gritter. Fuck what is.

Speaker 4 (01:25:55):
Look Sarah, Jane, Look how Polanski is coworrying behind your brother.
Oh pathetic. Look Look how Polensky is cowering behind your brother. Pathetic.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
We see long shadow. God fucking damn it.

Speaker 4 (01:26:24):
But it wasn't us. We didn't do anything. We just watched.
We were just observers or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
Zap. So now, just just so you know, in the
future me, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna our verb
tenses change from past tense to to to present tints again,
and we're gonna have like another hm that sound bait here,

(01:27:03):
some kind of prehistorical thing. Okay, last paragraph, and I'm
so fucking stoked. Fuck yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:27:42):
Mhm fi fi fi fi fi fi Fi fifty four

(01:30:08):
fie fi fi fu