Episode 10 The Strangers

Transcript

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This is Ed Falco on the air, reading The Strangers, a novel in 19 episodes. In episode 9, on their first night back on the farm after observing the strangers in Millersville and Lynchburg, Severn, Tommy, and Vi have their first encounter with the pack. Creatures that behave like a pride of lions, look like big dogs when on all fours, but almost human when on two legs. To escape them, they decide to travel to a farmhouse Severn knows, where he hopes they'll be safer. That's where we pick up Episode 10. After an all night trek along overgrown trails, across a wide stream and through swampy meadows, they reached the farmhouse, an ancient Victorian surrounded by fields, with a pond behind it, and encircled on three sides by limestone hills. The sun was directly overhead by the time Vi collapsed on the porch steps and looked out at the hills, making it clear she wasn't stepping foot in the house until someone else checked for corpses. Tommy said, I'll go in. You stay here with Vi. Severn gestured toward the hills. Keep your eyes open. Why? Vi jerked her head toward Severn. You think those things may still be following us? Just be alert. Severn tried the door, found it unlocked, took a few steps into the house, and then almost backed out again. The front door opened onto a great room with a long, polished wood dining table surrounded by eight chairs. A pair of MacBook Pro computers with their familiar Apple logos were opened across from each other on the table, with stacks of books between them and surrounding them. An extension cord ran from a wall outlet to a power strip under the table, and both computers were plugged into the power strip. He found a line of light switches on the wall and flipped them up and down. Nothing happened. Both computer screens were blank, but the keyboards weren't dusty. Nothing was dusty, in fact, which was the first thing he noticed. That and the absence of the musty basement smell of abandonment he had expected. The interior of the house hadn't suffered any damage from the storms. The hardwood floors still gleamed and the furnishings were in good condition. A grand piano occupied one corner of the room, its lid propped open. He held, Is there anyone here? Outside Tommy laughed and answered, Just us ghosts. Chairs were pulled up to each of the computers and slung over the back of them were a pair of matching automatic rifles. He checked the clips and found them both fully loaded. The books on the table alongside the computers were mostly technical manuals about computer programming, along with a couple of novels and a stack of Dilbert books. He picked up Seven Years of Highly Defective People and opened it to find a coffee stain on the first page. He could hear Tommy and Vi talking outside, their voices coming through the partially open front door. He considered warning them, but he wasn't sure what he would be warning them about. He moved cautiously through the great room and into an old fashioned library, where built in bookcases lined three walls, the shelves packed with both hardcover and paperback titles. Most of the books were novels and biographies and histories. One shelf had what looked like the complete works of Mark Twain, alongside the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, including The Leatherstocking Tales, which Severn had fond memories of reading as a boy. There were also books by Emerson and Thoreau, Hawthorne and Melville, and dozens of other American classics. Severn allowed himself a few minutes to browse through the tiles and then made his way upstairs, climbing a long polished wood staircase with a gleaming thick banister. In her master bedroom, he found a pair of leathery skeletons side by side in bed, each with a book resting in the space where its lap would have been. Stringy gray hair still clung to what was left of their scouts. Severn took in the scene for a minute, then locked the bedroom door from the inside and pulled it closed. A quick check of the rest of the upstairs turned up nothing unusual. Two more bedrooms, a sewing room, a study. None of the rooms looked lived in. He flipped a few switches to confirm that the power was out. When he checked the bedroom and confirmed that there was no running water, He found the medicine cabinet filled with over the counter meds. Aspirin, ibuprofen, various creams and potions, and digestive aids. From the front porch, Vi's voice came into the house, checking on him. He called back to her, said he'd be right out, and then sat at the top of the staircase. Those two people, the old couple in the master bedroom, they were, or had been, well off. They appeared to have been educated and cultured, with their library of books and their grand piano. And now they were, like everyone else. Very much dead. Severn massaged his temples, closed his eyes, and rested a moment in his own darkness. On the porch, Vi and Tommy were chattering, the way they always chattered. An endless supply of talk issuing from them like an underground stream fed by an ocean of this and that and the next thing. Inside was the quiet of the house, and outside were Vi and Tommy's voices, along with a bird singing somewhere close. A repetitive song he recognized but couldn't name. He wasn't going to tell Vi or Tommy about the couple. He didn't want to move them out of their bed. Let them stay buried where they were, side by side, in the mausoleum of their bedroom. A swelling part of him wished that he and Sarah both had been awake that first night so that they both might now be sleeping together, side by side, like the upstairs couple. The biggest part of Severn wanted to be with Tommy and Vi, to protect them in whatever way possible. But the thought of living too much longer alone, without Sarah to touch and hold and talk to, the thought of that was like a shroud that kept wrapping itself around him and weighing him down. He took the iPod from his pants pocket, considered looking through his pictures, and then shoved it back in his pocket again. He had taken to rationing the amount of time he could spend browsing the picture library. The iPod batteries had a limited lifespan, and when they were gone, the last of his old life would be gone with them. At the bottom of the stairs, Tommy appeared with an old Louisville slugger on his shoulder. Look what Vi found. He took a couple of big swings with the old wooden bat. Where'd she find it? On the porch, leaning against the railing, like it was waiting for her. She needs two baseball bats now? Tommy looked out to the porch, as if pondering the mysteries of Vi. He ignored the question. What do you make of the guns and computers, he asked. Looks to me like there are strangers living here. He searched the upstairs. Empty, Severn answered. They drink Heineken's, Tommy said. Who does? Strangers. The bottom half of the fridge is stocked with Heineken's. Could have been from before the lurching, Severn said. Nope. Still cold. Severn descended the stairs. You mean cold like cooler than room temperature? I mean cold like sweating condensation. How's that possible? Severn looked around, trying to figure where the kitchen would be. This way, Tommy said. In the kitchen he found the cupboard stocked with canned food and the refrigerator packed with beer and wine. He located a bottle opener in a drawer beside the sink, took two honeykins from the fridge and opened one for himself and one for Tommy. Tommy took a swig of beer and pulled up a seed at a small kitchen table situated in front of a window. He scanned the fields before turning back to Severn. So, he said, what are you thinking? Do we keep going? Look for someplace else? Where do you think the power is coming from, Severn asked. Gotta be a generator, Tommy answered. Probably in the basement. Severn nodded in agreement. There was no need to check. There had to be a generator somewhere. He pulled up a seat next to Tommy and rubbed his thumb over the mouth of the beer bottle. There's no mess anywhere. Nothing looks used. The upstairs rooms look like they haven't been disturbed in years. Did you check the bathrooms? They're stocked, Severn said. He went over again what he had seen in the upstairs bathroom. He had assumed then that the supplies belonged to the dead couple. Any clues? Female supplies, Severn said and shrugged, like it didn't tell him much. So we've got stranger women living here? Also men's supplies, an electric razor. But that stuff could have belonged to the owners, the people who lived here before. Someone's living here now, Tommy said. Someone's drinking beer. That's like the strangers. Say what you want about them. They've got good taste. I don't think anyone's living here. Severn was thinking of the skeletons in the bedroom, but again chose not to mention them to Tommy. Who would live in a house and leave corpses in the master bedroom? Where's the clutter? Except for the computers and the guns, does this place look lived in to you? Not really, Tommy said, and then he straightened up suddenly. What's Vi doing? Severn followed Tommy to the open front door, where they both saw Vi stretched out in the grass across from the porch, sleeping in the sunlight with her head on her backpack and her automatic across her chest. Sage lay beside her, head between her paws, looking back at them. The sun was shining brightly and the day was growing warmer. I'm tired too, Tommy said. Tired, dirty and smelly. He was still dragging the Louisville slugger around with him. And he nudged Severn with it. You too, he said. We know next to nothing about the strangers. Severn took the baseball bat from Tommy and leaned it against the wall. Maybe they have a militia or a police force that's armed. Maybe this is an outpost, someplace they stop to take a break when they're patrolling. Or hell, maybe this is a hunting lodge, maybe they hunt dogs from here. Whatever, Tommy said. He sighed in a way that said he wanted Severn to tell him what to do next. We'll stay here at least for the night. Severn stepped out onto the porch. The place is defensible against dogs. We'll have power for light once we locate the generator. He walked out in front of the house and pointed to the hills. If the dogs find us and come after us, they'll be vulnerable coming across these open spaces. We can see anybody coming from a long way off. If they make it to the house, they'll have to come up the stairs or through a window. We'll have every advantage. Great, Tommy said. Not surprisingly, he didn't sound excited. Severn looked Tommy over and grinned. The kid was filthy. The armpits and back of his shirt were soaked through with sweat. Dude, Severn said. You are one dirty kid, look at you. Tommy glanced down at the mud and dirt splattered on his sneakers and jeans. And then he pointed at Severn. You should see you, he said. You've got mud all over your face. Let's go for a swim in the pond and get cleaned up, Severn said. I'll wake up Sleeping Beauty. Good idea. Tommy turned back to the house. I'll find us some clean towels. There's a linen closet, Severn said, top of the stairs. Tommy disappeared into the house and Severn called after him. Bring a sheet or a blanket. We'll make a picnic of it. Good idea, Tommy called back. Severn listened to Tommy bound up the stairs and then crossed the grass to wake up Vi. His shadow reached her first, sliding over her face and chest. We're supposed to go for a swim and a picnic, Vi said, without opening her eyes, her voice full of sleep. Are you serious? Yes. We're dirty and smelly. He knelt to her and brushed the hair off her face. He wanted to give her a kiss on the forehead but resisted. It'll do us good. Vi opened her eyes. Did you get the bodies out of the house? Not a problem. The house was empty? Not quite, Severn said, and he explained what they had found. What if they come back, whoever it was that's been there? Strangers don't strike me as being especially dangerous. Vi threw an arm over her eyes as if she couldn't bear to look at Severn. They killed off the entire human race and they don't strike you as being especially dangerous? Not at the moment, no. They don't seem dangerous. And by the way, they didn't kill off the entire human race. Vi said, softly, I can't imagine what you're thinking, Severn. You're either some kind of weird optimist or you're crazy. Severn squinted at Vi. You don't sound like a fourteen year old. Fourteen, Vi said? I feel like I'm a hundred and fourteen. Behind them, Tommy came out of the house balancing a stack of blankets, towels, and clothes in his outstretched hands, with two plastic grocery bags slipped over his arms and dangling from his elbows. Found some clean clothes in that linen closet he called to Severn. He paused at the foot of the porch steps, as if he were considering going over to Severn and Vi. Then he started for the pond. Fai held a hand over her eyes to block the glare of the sun. You think it's warm enough for a swim? Not really, Severn said, but we can wrap up in blankets after if we're cold. Vi pulled herself to her feet and leaned against Severn. Sage followed suit, stretching, standing, and pushing her bulk up against Severn's leg. At the porch, Vi made Severn wait while she ran into the house and returned with the two rifles slung over her shoulder. No sense leaving them there. The three of them followed Tommy down a slight hill covered with tall grass to the pond, where Severn rigged up a blanket and divider behind which Vi could undress down to her underwear. He hung the blanket from a branch of a small tree, a mostly symbolic gesture to Vi's modesty. It wasn't really necessary, since Tommy and Severn simply turned their backs to her as she undressed. But Severn knew that she would appreciate it. Tommy quickly stripped down to his briefs. His body was thickly muscled. Severn himself was in excellent shape. Everyone else in the world might be dead, but he was in the best physical condition of his life. Tommy took a bar of soap from one of the plastic bags and trotted off into the pond, followed by Vi. The kids yelped and howled and then laughed and chattered about the temperature of the water, which they both claimed was freezing. Severn went in after them, and though he neither yelped nor howled, he did loudly agree that the water was unbelievably cold. Thigh. In her hurry to get cleaned up and out of the pond, had lost some of her modesty. She was in water up to her thighs, scrubbing her hair and face with soap suds, back to back with Tommy. Her soaked panties weren't covering up much, and Tommy kept dipping his head to the water as he washed his hair. Severn could see that he was peeking at Vi. He considered stepping between them, blocking Vi from Tommy's view, and then laughed at himself, climbed out of the pond, and left the kids to finish bathing. Along with the towels and blankets, Tommy had found some boxer shorts and white cotton panties and a couple of bras. Severn laughed at the size of the bras, which had belonged to a woman who hardly needed a bra, which was not the case with Vi. The rest of the underwear would be useful though. Severn cocooned in his blanket, quickly toweled off and slipped into the dry boxers before pulling his clothes on. When the kids called for him, he gathered up the towels, blankets, clothes, and clean underwear and carried them to the pond. He turned his back as they shivered into the blankets and got dressed. Vi laughed and Severn turned to see her dangling a bra in front of Tommy. Really? She said and raised her eyebrows. Tommy said, that's all that there was. I figured better than nothing. Vi smirked and said, huh, as if Tommy was a mystery to her. Severn said, okay, let's. He was about to hand out a list of things to do to get the house ready for the night when he stopped abruptly, just as Sage leapt to her feet and spun around to face the road. An instant later, they all heard the roar of a car engine as a flash of bright red flying over the road appeared in the distance. From the pond, they looked out past the house and beyond the long expanse of surrounding fields to where patches of road were visible here and there through stands of trees. Behind them was the pond and the stream and a narrow strip of woods at the foot of a curving line of steep limestone hills that towered over everything. In front of them was the house and fields and woods, beyond which was a paved road where they were now following the bright red flashes of a car speeding toward the farm, appearing and disappearing through gaps in the trees. Vi went for the weapons and tossed rifles to Tommy and Severn. Sage started toward the house and Severn called her back. He tried to negotiate with a barrage of contradictory impulses. To run forward to the protection of the house or backward for the woods. To spread out or stay together. The car, however, was moving faster than Severn's thinking. Before he could make a decision, it was racing down the long driveway. That's a spider, Tommy said, and shook his head in reluctant admiration. Only the best of the best for the strangers. What's a spider, Vi asked. She had dropped to one knee and was holding the automatic in both hands. The car, Tommy said. He stood alongside Severn, also holding his rifle at ready. It's a Ferrari Spider. The car, fire engine red and sleek as a laser, hit the brakes midway down the driveway and came to a screeching stop. Vi said, Looks like they see us. Severn didn't say anything, but it struck him immediately that the strangers were surprised to find them there, thus the sudden screech and stop. Point the guns at the ground, he said. When they didn't respond immediately, he turned to them and gestured for them to lower their weapons. They're not looking for us, he said. We've surprised them. They weren't looking for us here, Vi said. That doesn't mean they're not looking for us at all. Severn said, Point the rifles at the ground. There's no need to signal that we're hostile. Tommy and Vi lowered their weapons. The spider started moving again, slowly. It moved off the driveway and onto the grass as it approached the pond. Bright red, Effortlessly liquid in design, it seemed to slither over the greenery of the field, pushing the grass aside and carving a wide channel as it approached. Behind a sloping windshield, two faces came into view, the barrel of a rifle rising alongside each of them. The driver was black and male, with skin so dark it seemed a shade of blue. The passenger was a woman, also dark skinned, though compared to the driver she looked almost white. They were both young. When the car was a hundred feet from the pond, it came to a stop. It had been moving at a crawl, the engine humming softly under a hood so bright red in sunlight it looked wet. The moment after it stopped, the driver cut the engine, and he and the passenger watched Severn and the kids across the short distance with blank, mildly curious expressions. They looked as though they didn't know what to make of the situation. They didn't appear in the least nervous or frightened. When they finally stepped out of the car, they stood behind the protection of the open doors with their rifles in hand but pointed at their feet. They each had a second rifle slung over their shoulder and a pistol holstered at their side. The guy was skinny with a shaved head. He had big ears and huge eyes that were magnified by thick black glasses secured with bright yellow croquis dangling over the back of his neck. He was wearing khaki slacks and a solid green tee. If he wasn't ugly, he was at least funny looking, especially in comparison to the young woman across from him, who was beautiful, with long black hair and perfect skin. For several seconds, everyone stood their ground, silently staring at each other, until Sage, tail wagging, barked twice, as if in greeting. and bolted toward the car. Vi took a step toward Sage and yelled, Stop. Come back here. Sage stopped, looked back and forth from the car to Vi, and reluctantly returned to her and sat at her feet. At the sound of Vi calling to Sage, the girl's face paled. The guy had taken a step back. You can speak, he said. His voice was deep and robust and sounded like it should be coming from someone big and heavy rather than this odd looking, skinny guy with yellow croquis. Tommy looked at Severn. Dude, he said, I think these guys are human. Vi threw Tommy a puzzled glance and then splintered at the couple as if trying to get a better look. She yelled, Who are you? Oh my god, the girls said. In the next instant, they were gone. They were all hurrying toward each other. Only afterwards did they realize that they had thrown down their weapons. That was episode 10 of The Strangers. 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 a 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 Falcom, I wrote The Strangers, and I hope you'll come back for the next episode.