S1, E6 The Strangers

In  Episode 5, Severn and the kids—Tommy and Vi—awakened from a medicated sleep to find storms still raging. When they attempted to leave the house briefly, they were attacked by a pack of vicious dogs—and one gentle one, named Sterling, who made it safely back into the house with them. At the end of the episode, they’ve taken more of Sarah’s pills in an effort to sleep through the storms, and they all three have fallen into a drugged sleep. That’s where we pick up Episode 6

Transcript

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This is Ed Falco on the air, reading The Strangers. In episode 5, Severn and the kids, Tommy and Vi, awakened from a medicated sleep to find storms still raging. When they attempted to leave the house briefly, they were attacked by a pack of vicious dogs, and one gentle one named Sterling, who made it safely back into the house with them. At the end of the episode They've all taken more of Sarah's pills in an effort to sleep through the storms. And they all three had fallen into a drugged sleep. That's where we pick up episode six. Somehow, even in his sleep, Severn knew that he had been out for a long time when the first of a rapid succession of lurchings nudged him up toward consciousness. In his sleep, it felt as though someone had taken him by the shoulder and was shaking him, or as if the whole house was shaking, or he was sleeping through an earthquake. The lurchings came quickly, one after another, like the finale to a firework show. As he rose up out of a deep cavern of sleep, Severn realized there had been other lurchings, many of them, while he slept. They came in his dreams of falling, and being thrown, and jumping. And then a finale, a dozen of them, one after the other, shaking him. Shaking the house, and still he hadn't awakened. And now it had been still and silent for a long while, and somewhere in his sleep that registered, the long period of stillness and silence. And he fell again into a deep sleep, only to be awakened by the braying of a donkey that sounded like it was coming from under his bedroom window, the high pained squeal, the familiar long drawn out agony. And still, he didn't open his eyes for a good while. He heard the donkey, and he drifted up toward the surface of the world. But he lay a long while in the warmth of his bed, and only after he was sure that he was awake, and that he wouldn't fall back to sleep, no matter how long he lay there quietly in the darkness, only then did he open his eyes. Tommy lay beside him on his back, his hands folded over his chest, and Vi lay curled up in a ball, with Sterling at her feet and Sage behind her. Severn realized that he could see. It was dark in the bedroom, but it was the familiar darkness of night, the kind of darkness Severn's eyes could adjust to, so that he could see the shapes and dimensions of things. He got out of bed, picked up the carbine, and went to the window. When he pulled up the shade He could see out to the fields and woods, and he saw that the sky was clear and thick with stars. He shook Tommy until the boy muttered, and then he knelt by Vi and did the same. When both kids were awake, he pointed them to the windows and the starlight. They both seemed to realize at once that the weather had cleared, and they pulled themselves out of their beds and went to look. Vi said, It's so quiet without the rain. She turned to Severn and asked, How long did we sleep? I think we slept through the whole day. I think it's the next night from when we went to sleep. It feels like it, Tommy said. It feels like I've been asleep forever. Then he added, Look at this. And he pointed to the foot of the closed bedroom door. What? Severn left the window where he was standing behind Vi. He went around to the bed to see what Tommy was pointing at. Tommy said, Is that light coming under the door? Severn held the carbine in one hand, and with the other he opened the bedroom door. After taking a few steps along the hallway, he saw two crossed beams of light cutting through the darkness. The flashlights he had left lying on the kitchen counter were both working. There was one on either side of the kitchen, and their beams crossed as they shot out into the living room like a small version of grand opening beacons. Tommy pushed past Severn and flipped the kitchen light switches. Still no electricity. Vi said, But the flashlights are working. Tommy said, No kidding, genius. And Vi told him to shut up. Severn tossed Tommy one of the flashlights and handed the other to Vi. Why would the flashlights suddenly start working, he asked, talking mostly to himself. Tommy said, Why weren't they working in the first place? Let me have that for a minute. Severn took the flashlight back from Tommy. In the living room, he found his iPod and held down the button to turn it on. Instantly, the familiar apple with a bite taken out of it appeared in the LCD screen, and a moment later the device shifted to home screen. Which was a bright, beautiful picture of Sarah in the snow, wearing a white quilted jacket and a red knit cap. Above Sarah's head, the time and date appeared. Tuesday, April 22nd, 3. 48 AM. It's nearly four in the morning, he said to the kids. It's Tuesday. When he turned to look at Vi, he saw that she was looking at Sarah's picture. Tommy said, What do you think is going on, Sev? He gestured to the iPod. What's this mean that it's working? And the flashlights. Vyse said, Batteries are working again, and they weren't before, so So what, Tommy said. What's that mean? Outside in the starlight, Severn didn't see anything moving. Through the living room window, he could see the lawn and the trees and his garden, and the blacktop road winding past his house. The treetops were moving in what looked like a light breeze, and the road still appeared to be wet. I don't see any dogs, he said, and he started for the kitchen. To Tommy, he said. Do you have the pistol? Tommy took the gun out of his pants pocket and showed it to him. Severn opened the kitchen door slowly, sliding the barrel of the carbine into the opening, but the porch was empty except for the body of the big dog Tommy had shot. A second dog's body lay half on the grass and half on the driveway. He pushed the dog off the porch and went back into the house where he found both kids and both dogs standing grouped together in the middle of the kitchen as if someone were about to take a picture. If batteries are working, he said. I'm thinking car engines might run. Tommy tried the kitchen light switch again, with obvious frustration. If we've got electricity back, how come the lights aren't working? Because the power plants would have all shut down, Vi said. And then she paused a moment before heading. And there's no one to start them up again. That, Severn said. And power lines are probably down everywhere from the storms. Okay, Tommy said. So where are we driving? If the car engine works, Severn said, mine wouldn't work when I tried to roll start, so So if they're working, Tommy pushed, where are we going? Gathering information, Severn said, looking around, seeing what we see, seeing what we can figure out. Maybe there are others left alive, A'isha said. When neither Tommy nor Seven responded, she added half heartedly, we're alive. Ricky has a pair of Hummers, Severn said. Tommy said, Mr. Wrightson. Severn nodded. And he has kids your age, too. So there'll be clothes there for both of you. Plus guns, Vi said. He was always shooting guns back there. So, Severn said. Both the kids were shoeless and he gestured toward their feet. Go get your shoes on and let's go. To Mr. Wrightson's? Should we take anything from here, Tommy asked? Just the guns. When the kids went back to the bedroom to get their shoes, Severn thought better of that and retrieved the medicine backpack from the bathroom, not for the drugs and supplies as much as for the extra carbine clips. In the doorway to the bathroom he hesitated, debating with himself over whether or not it would be wise to bring the sleeping pills. He doubted a storm could gather so fast that he wouldn't be able to get back for the pills, but he took them anyway, emptying the medicine cabinet into the backpack with a few sweeps of his hand. The night was clear and warm. Severn stood on the wet driveway with the kids and took in the familiar surroundings. The bottom of Ricky's land had flooded, as it always did in a hard rain, and now the field had turned into a small lake reflecting a bright array of stars. Water was spilling off the mountain and down the road, and the sound of it was a constant counterpoint to the occasional breezes in the treetops and the yapping of the kennel dogs which had started the moment he opened the front door and stepped outside. It was dark. But a starlit, clear night, and Severn's eyes had so adjusted to darkness that it looked almost bright out. The kids both clicked off their flashlights. The air was thick with the smell of honeysuckle. Tommy said, What are we waiting for? Nothing, Severn said. And the three of them started off across the field, with Severn in front, Vi in the middle, flanked by Sterling and Sage, and Tommy at the rear. The field was muddy, and before they had gone very far, Vi stopped and looked back to the cannon. We should let the dogs out, she said. They're going to starve in there. Severn said, we can't let them out. They're not bred to be friendly to trespassers. At the very least, they'd fight with our dogs. Then can I give them some food and water? They're going to starve. When we get back, Severn said, it'll be light out in a couple of hours. Tommy said, I'll help you. To Severn he said, maybe we can let them out once Sage and Sterling are in the house. Severn said, let's get to Ricky's and see if we can start one of his hummers. He didn't answer about the kennel dogs. When they reached Ricky's house, his maroon Hummer was parked in the driveway in front of an open garage door. The garage was huge, with two big doors. The second door, the one farther from the house, was closed. As they neared the driveway, they smelled them first, and then saw Ricky and his oldest son, Johnny Lee, sprawled out on the garage floor, each of them beside toppled folding chairs, one on either side of a small refrigerator. Severn only had to look around to find the beer cans where they had rolled out onto the driveway. The second Hummer, the bright yellow one, was parked in the garage. Severn pointed to the maroon Hummer in the driveway. Why don't you guys wait in the car, he said. I'll try to find the keys. Vi looked at the bodies and then turned to look at the Hummer. Okay with me. Tommy, she said, meaning that she wanted him to lead the way. Tommy said, I'd better stay with Severn. And he clicked on his flashlight and turned the beam on the interior of the garage. You keep the dogs with you. Shit, Vi said. Surprising Severn, and apparently Tommy too, who laughed a small, shocked laugh in response to the curse. She seemed to think she had no choice but to go in the house with them if Tommy wouldn't stay in the car with her. Elizabeth and Mandy are going to be in there. Tommy said, wait in the car, take a flashlight and the dogs. Vi shook her head. I'd better get some clothes and stuff and get changed. Alright, then put the dogs in the car first, Severn said. We don't need them sniffing around the house. Vi went to the Hummer which was parked in the darkness under the overhanging branches of an oak tree and called the dogs to follow her. Sterling hadn't left her side since exiting the house, but Sage, who was still moving gingerly, looked at Severn first before lumbering after her. When Vi opened the rear door of the Hummer, a girl a little younger than her fell out onto the driveway. Sterling bolted to Severn at Vi's scream, but Sage stood his ground and barked at the figure of the girl lying on the wet driveway. That's Mandy, Vi said, sounding as angry as she did frightened. She backed away from the body, her face scrunched up in revulsion at the smell that had blast that of the car along with the body. Help me with her, Severn said to Tommy, and he felt his heart hardening as he looked at the girl who, like her father and the brother in the garage, was already bloated and swollen. Damn, Tommy said as he positioned himself at the girl's feet. He pulled his shirt over his head to work against the smell. Then he glanced up into the car and said, Oh God. What? Severn took a few steps forward to get a look into the back seat without waiting for Tommy to reply. Vi said, Is Elizabeth in there too? Yes, Severn said. He was looking at a sixteen year old girl who a few days ago had been beautiful. Now her face was a horrid, bruised hue of blue and green as she slumped against the car door, her eyes open, looking back at him monstrously. To Tommy, he said, let's put her in the back with her sister. They'll be safe from the dogs in there. Tommy bent to the girl's feet again, looking like some kind of secret militant with his shirt pulled over his head. Severn started to pick up Mandy, then stopped and pulled his own shirt over his head, willing to try anything to mitigate the smell. Once they had her in the car, they closed the door and both stepped off the driveway and went a few feet into the woods to breathe the sweet, wet smell of dirt and rain. Vi called to them. Let's get this over with, please. Severn opened the second garage bay door and then, after checking out the yellow hummer which was empty, its doors unlocked, called the dog stand. He opened the front passenger door and tossed his backpack onto the seat. When he opened the back door, Sterling leapt in. Sage he had to lift. She weighed a ton. She looked at him sorrowfully as he placed her down on the back seat as if she were apologizing for the trouble she was causing. The house, blessedly, didn't reek. Which surprised Severn, since he had expected to find Ricky's wife and younger son in there. He considered looking for them, and when he couldn't imagine what the point of that would be, he went into the kitchen with the flashlight and searched for the car keys, while the kids went to the bedrooms and shared the second flashlight as they looked for clean clothes. He was about to call out for the kids when he heard them laughing. They were sitting squarely in the middle of the end of the world, surrounded by corpses and mad dogs, and something one of them had said to the other had made them both laugh. That seemed to Severn to be a kind of miracle, at least a little miracle, and he was amazed by it. Instead of calling to the kids, he went out to the back porch, where he shined the flashlight through the screen, And so the younger boy and his mother are lying face down on the back lawn, their bodies bloody and torn where the dogs had been at them. He turned off his flashlight and went back into the kitchen. Tommy and Vi were waiting for him. Both kids appearances had undergone a sudden shift toward normalcy. Their faces were clean, their hair combed back, and they were wearing sneakers, jeans, and t shirts. Vi's t shirt was blue and pictured a Native American in full traditional garb, holding a giant dreamcatcher up to a stormy sky. Three big huskies behind him, looking out at the viewer. Her sneakers were bright pink. When Vi caught Severn staring at the tee, she said, You should have seen the other choices. Tommy said, Lots of flags and eagles. He pulled up his shirt, which he was wearing inside out. It pictured a swooping eagle with tattered bars and stripes in its talons and the inscription live to ride, ride to live. Cute, Severn said. How'd you manage to get cleaned up? Bath up upstairs is full of clean water, Tommy said. We dunked our heads. Looks like someone drew a bath and didn't get to take it, Vi said. You guys mind waiting a minute while I go dunk my head too? Severn pointed at the fridge. Why don't you find some food for us and the dogs? Good idea, Tommy said. I'm hungry. He went to the fridge with Vi following. And then, Severn added, keep looking for the car keys, they're probably in the kitchen or garage somewhere, or in Mr. Wrightson's pants pockets, Vi said, looking over Tommy's shoulder into the refrigerator. Not likely, Severn said, but I'll check if I need to. Oh, he said, stay out of the backyard. Vi said, Mrs. Wrightson, and the boy. Severn found the stairs with his flashlight and started for the bathroom. After a few steps he saw a pile of clean laundry waiting to be carried up. He pulled out a towel and a blue New York Yankees t shirt. He carried these with him up the flight of stairs where he found the bathroom and, as promised, a tub full of relatively clean water. Though he imagined it had been a lot cleaner before the kids. He pulled off his shirt and dunked his whole body up to the waist. When he was done, he dried and combed his hair and, finding a straight razor and shaving cream in the medicine cabinet, quickly lathered up and shaved. Without a couple of days of scruffy beard to hide the bruises and swelling, his face looked even worse. He smiled at himself, brushed his teeth with someone else's toothbrush, and then picked up the carbine and the flashlight and went out into the dark hall. On the way to the stairs he passed one of the older boy's bedrooms, or so he assumed giving the sexy posters that covered the walls. He made a quick search of the room. In a bottom dresser drawer, he found a sawed off shotgun and a bag of shells. He broke the gun down and found that, as he suspected, it was loaded. From downstairs, he heard an engine turn over and then start with a roar. When he reached the garage, Tommy and Vi were sitting in the front of the Hummer, with Tommy behind the wheel and the Hummer idling peacefully. Nice going, Severn said, standing beside the vehicle, looking up at Tommy. Where'd you find the keys? Tommy pointed a flashlight at a key rack hanging on the wall. So will you teach me to drive, he asked. No way, Vyse said. You're not old enough to drive. Tommy said, I don't think the rules apply anymore. To Severn, he said, Do you? Severn said, We'll be making our own rules for a while. And then he tapped the door, meaning Tommy should get out of the driver's seat. Tommy complied quickly, climbing into the back of the car, and Severn got behind the wheel. This thing's a tank. Severn stuck the sawed off shotgun down between the seats and dropped the bag of shells into the console before adjusting the rear view and side mirrors. Dude, Tommy said, touching the stock of the shotgun, these guys were badasses. Vi said, they're all gun nuts, the whole family. Mandy told me she fired a cannon once. Severn handed the carbine to Tommy. Keep this back there with you, he said. And then he worked the clutch and found reverse on the shifter. How come I don't get a gun, Vi said. I should have one too. Tommy said, you got your baseball bat, dude. Nobody's messing with you. Severn said, give her the handgun, Tommy. When Tommy passed the gun to Vi, Severn pointed to the glove compartment. Why don't you put it in there for now? Later, we'll do some target practice with it, so you know how to use it. Dude, Tommy said, he just pulled the trigger. That's all I did. I never shot one before. Severn let the clutch up slowly, and the Hummer rolled backward out of the garage. When he turned on the lights, The garage seemed to explode. Vi said, Oh God, that's blinding. Dude, Tommy said. Severn continued backing the vehicle out to the driveway, where he made a three point turn and started for the road. From the field, the coons were yapping frantically. And then, from out in the darkness beyond the woods and fields, he heard more dogs barking. Tommy asked, What's this all about? They hear the car engine, Severn said. They probably chained up or fenced in. The end. Vi said, They're all going to starve, aren't they? She was looking around the field toward the kennel. She added, There's probably millions of them. Tommy said, Look, and his tone of voice suggested he was trying to comfort Vi. We still don't know what's happening. Maybe it's not everybody. The car was quiet then, and Severn suddenly remembered the radio. He jumped to turn it on and startled Vi. Oh, not good, she said, when only static came through the speakers. Severn hit the seek button and watched the digital numbers flash through two complete loops before he turned it off. Tommy said, it could be that the broadcast equipment is still all screwed up here or something like that. The radio towers. Vi said, what are you talking about? Tommy grunted as if frustrated at not being able to express himself. Like maybe there are stations broadcasting, he said, but the equipment to get the broadcasts, the towers and such, they're not working here. To Severn, he said, you get what I'm saying. Severn had just reached the end of the driveway and turned onto the road. It's a good point, he said, because we're not getting any signal here as not proof that no one is broadcasting anywhere. Yeah, Vyse said, sounding old again, but it's not a good sign. Severn drove slowly. On the side of the road, he passed his CRV. The windshield cracked where his head had hit. Water was still running off the mountain in little streams at the side of the road. When he passed the spot where he had pulled the lunatic's body off the road and saw nothing, he guessed that it had been washed away earlier, when the rain was driving, and these little streams would have been wider and stronger. Tommy shined his flashlight into the driveway as he passed Vi's house. Vi had turned away and was looking in the other direction. Before reaching the bridge, Severn brought the car to a halt and turned on the brights. The bridge was completely submerged, the stream having turned into a river. In the high beams of the Hummer, the water rushed by fast and smooth and black. It carried the bodies of people and animals, mostly people. Now and then a cow or a deer floated past, but every few seconds there was a human body and sometimes a cluster of them. In the few minutes they watched, with Tommy pushing into the front through the space between the seats, a dozen bodies sailed past, bobbing in the black rush of water. Tommy said, Where ought all those bodies be coming from? Evanston's my guess, Severn said. Evanston? Tommy asked. Vi said, It's that town where all those new houses are. Signs are not looking great. Severn turned the car around and headed up the mountain. Where we going? Tommy asked. Vi said to Severn, Long way to town? Severn nodded. Bodies littered even the rural back roads. These were roads that cut mostly through woods and farmland, but still there were bodies sprawled on the blacktop or gravel floating in ditches, and in one case, folded over the limb of a tree. The body in the tree was a boy's, a teenager, and when Tommy had wondered aloud how he could have gotten up there, neither Vine nor Severn had responded. Severn guessed that he had been chased there by dogs and was perched there when a lurching killed him. He had neither the energy, though, nor the willingness to explain his theory to Tommy. He suspected, anyway, that the question was more of an expression of surprise than a real question. When they reached town, Severn found pretty much what he expected. Bodies everywhere on the streets and sidewalks half out an open window in storefronts here and there. Dogs were at the bodies. The roads were maze of wrecked cars that had to be navigated. What he hadn't counted on was the smell, which was overwhelming. Even in the car. The whole town smelled like a rotting corpse, probably seven thought 40,000 rotting corpses as he found his way slowly along Main Street. Vi slumped down in her seat and closed her eyes. Tommy in the backseat was silent, but he was looking at everything. At the center of town, near the bodies piled up outside Behringer's, Severn stopped the car and leaned on the horn for a long time before Vi begged him to stop. There's nobody alive here, she said. Probably not, Severn said. But if somehow there is, they'll have heard that. Then they were all silent for several minutes as they waited for what they all knew wasn't going to happen. Someone else driving up the road. Someone else coming out to meet them. Finally, Tommy said, what now? Vi said, we've got to get away from here. This smell is making me sick. That's exactly what I was thinking, Severn said. Soon, if it wasn't already the case, Town would be a sinkhole of disease and rot. The water would be poisoned and undrinkable. What would be the consequences of 40, 000 rotting corpses in a relatively small area of land? Disease and pollution, certainly. And more beyond that, he was sure, but he didn't feel the need to speculate. Disease and pollution were enough. To the kids, he said, we need to get ourselves someplace rural, far away from towns and cities. From any place where there are lots of people. Tommy said, your place is out of town. Not far enough, Severn said. You saw the bodies in the stream. There'll be bodies decomposing everywhere. The water will all be fouled. Vi was crying silently, but when she spoke she didn't sound like she was crying. I'm with Severn, she said. I don't want to be someplace where there's a dead body every ten feet. Okay, fine, Tommy said. He leaned into the front of the car and looked at Severn. So what, he asked. Where can we go? I Severn twisted to look past Tommy into the back of the vehicle, where the dogs were side by side, the big lab sitting, its head almost touching the top of the car, the terrier standing on its back legs, its front legs propped up on the back seat, and its head only coming up to Sage's chest. Sarah's parents own a farm a couple of hours from here, he said. The farm itself is a hundred acres, and it's bordered by much bigger farms. There are only a handful of people in a several mile radius. Severn paused to think. He was considering the farm, the fact that it would have cattle and horses and farm equipment, in addition to satellites for cable TV and high speed internet. Sarah's father was a gentleman farmer, a stockbroker, who had retired to live his dream of running a small farm. I think we should go there, Severn said. We'll have what we need to sustain ourselves, and we'll be able to rig the cable satellites to scan for radio and TV signals. You mean right now, Tommy said? Without going back to the house? Outside the car, a dog was loping down Main Street with something in its mouth, and a pair of cats that had been hiding under a wrecked car bolted into the street. The dog dropped what was in its mouth and went after them, barking. The cats screamed. Then other dogs started barking. Dogs chained up in yards. Dogs locked in houses and apartments. Might as well go, Vi said. Iris and Rose wouldn't want me to see them the way they probably look by now. Severn started to reach across the seat to put a hand on Vi's knee, meaning to comfort her. He changed his mind when she huddled up against the door and closed her eyes. She looked as if she wanted to be far away and alone. Guess so, Tommy said. Guess we might as well. He stretched out in the backseat and crossed his arms under his head. Be glad to get away from this evil smell, he added. And again he pulled his shirt over his head. Severn turned the car around and headed toward the interstate. As he drove carefully around the wrecks and the seemingly endless scatter of bodies, the sky was already beginning to grow lighter. In a little while, he'd watch the sun rise. He decided to concentrate on that, on another day, and the sun rising. That was episode six of The Strangers. And the conclusion of part one of the novel, which was titled The Lurchings. New episodes will be available twice a week on Mondays and Fridays until the novel is completed. If you want to read ahead, an inexpensive digital edition of The Strangers is available from Amazon, Barnes Noble, and other online bookstores. This podcast is an experiment in alternatives to traditional publishing. If you'd like to support it, and more like it in the future, please consider becoming a subscriber or supporter. If enough listeners choose to do so, that will go a long way to help ensuring the podcast's success and continuation. In any event, this is Ed Falco. I wrote The Strangers. And I hope you'll come back for the next episode.