Mercury's Wake – Before Chaos (the novella before the tilt)
Every story has an alternate reality. A white Cadillac stands like a sentinel in the New Mexico desert. Inside it lies a book about an astronaut’s first mission to Mars. How that book becomes a bestseller is bewildering; how it transforms those who read it is a mystery yet to be unravelled. Mercury’s Wake Before Chaos is the original novella that inspired the series — a high-concept indie audio drama that blends sharp sci-fi, psychological mystery, and reality-bending speculative fiction. Set in a landscape reshaped by loss and sudden change, the narrative follows ordinary people discovering extraordinary internal power, rebuilding their lives and themselves through defiant acts of courage that ripple outward in unexpected ways. This is indie storytelling at its boldest: raw, character-driven, and unapologetically strange. Blending atmospheric sound design with an intimate, slow-burn mystery, this series explores a world where found family is a means of survival, and kindness is a radical, aggressive force against chaos. Perfect for fans of Wolf 359, The Far Meridian, Starship Iris, and Midnight Burger. In this universe, hope isn’t naïve — it’s steel. Themes: • Hope — Gothic grit & resilience • Defiant connection & found family • High-concept mystery with psychological depth • Atmospheric, reality-bending sci-fi • Rebuilding after global disruption • Intense, character-first storytelling If you love razor-sharp speculative fiction, atmospheric weirdness, and stories where ordinary people refuse to break, you’ll find your home in Mercury’s Wake. This podcast captures the raw, foundational groundwork recorded during the isolation of Lockdown, when the world tilted and never quite slid back. Parallel universe? Decide for yourself. For the definitive, fully updated exploration of these themes, look out for the upcoming book, THE SNAKE EATS ITS TAIL, releasing soon.
Episodes
Eight strangers cross paths in Las Vegas. It begins with a Cadillac, a mysterious book, and a road trip to Mars. The journey begins.
Luck-junky Bozzy O’Reilly races to Vegas chasing fortune. But when he meets Imani Cosmos in a pop-up Keno room that may be an interdimensional rift, his luck takes a dangerous turn. Every journey has a left turn.
Behind the bar at Caesars, Bozzy encounters Joe—a man with eyes as black as locusts, writing a screenplay about a horrific Vegas event. Is Joe a prophet, or something far darker? The storm is coming.
Music industry maverick Rhea Quackenheimer arrives for a “Weirdo Cool” event. But as reality fractures, she must ask: is she alive, or already dead? Vegas is for opportunists—but opportunity has a price.
Bozzy delivers room service to a Mafioso’s suite. What should be routine becomes a karmic dance between fate and chance. Is this the end—or just the beginning? The long weekend accelerates toward chaos.
“I am a motorcyclist in a hailstorm, recklessly speeding by the grace of a slipstream.” — John K. Mercury
John K. Mercury — the first astronaut chosen for humanity’s journey to Mars — vanished before the mission could be completed. No signal. No wreckage. No answers.
Decades later, his mission journal is rediscovered in the New Mexico desert. A printed book that should not exist. A text that ap...
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