Episode 11 The Strangers

Transcript

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This is Ed Falco on the air reading The Strangers, a novel in 19 episodes. At the conclusion of episode 10, Severn and the kids are shocked when they hear two strangers they've just encountered speak. After only a few words, they realize they're not strangers at all, and they run to greet each other. That's where we pick up episode 11. You're human, Severn said, announcing what was obvious to everyone at that point. Where did you come from, the girl asked. They'd stopped abruptly when they reached each other, suddenly awkward. They weren't looking for us, the guy said, watching Severn. They didn't expect us to show up here any more than we expected them. That's right, Severn said. We thought you were strangers. Tommy, seeing the couple's confusion, explained. That's what we call the aliens. We call them strangers. Birds, the guy said. We called them birds. Vi, who had been hanging back slightly, walked around Tommy to Severn and approached the girl. She looked like she was about to say something when instead she threw her arms around her. The girl appeared momentarily taken aback before she returned the embrace. Ah, honey, she said. I know exactly what you're feeling. She looked to Severn and Tommy. How long have you had to put up with these two guys? She turned to her companion and then said to Vi, Imagine thinking you'd have to spend the rest of your life and only men to hang out with. Dude. Tommy extended his hand to the skinny guy. I'm Tommy. I'm Matthew, the guy said, shaking hands. And that's A'isha. Severn shook hands with Matthew. Vi waved to him, one hand still around A'isha's waist, as if they were instantly best friends. My name's Vi, she said, short for Violet, but nobody calls me that. A'isha gestured towards Severn. Is this your dad? Severn was our neighbor, Vi said. He's been watching out for us. Matthew looked at Sage, who was sitting at Severn's foot, her tail wagging in the grass. I don't understand the dog, he said. That's got me confused. Why? Vi asked. Because dogs won't have anything to do with us since the birds got here, A'isha said. They hate us, Matthew added. Not Sage. Tommy knelt to Sage and petted her. She stuck with us even when those monster dogs showed up. The pack? Matthew said. The what? The big dogs, A'isha said. They run in a pack. She looked to Severn. If they found you, she asked, how'd you survive? Mystery, Severn said. This morning was our first encounter with them. They surrounded us, and then the sun came up, and they left. What did they look like, Matthew asked. There were six of them, Severn said. Two beige, a roan, and a grey. And the other two, one was black, and the other was a patchy brown, more chocolate. A'isha and Matthew exchanged a look. Same pack, A'isha said. Same as what, Vi asked. Same pack that's been chasing us. A'isha turned to Matthew again. We should go inside, Matthew said. We've got a lot of catching up to do. Severn joined Matthew and the two of them walked slightly ahead of A'isha and the kids, though they all kept turning to each other and talking as a group, stopping now and then when they told their stories. Matthew and A'isha had met as first year students at the University of New Mexico. A'isha At the time of the lurchings, they were seniors. They were to graduate in May and get married in June. Then the lurchings happened in April and put an end to all that. The weekend of the events, they had gone with a group of friends to Carlsbad Caverns on a caving expedition. There were 14 of them that made the trip, all guys and A'isha, who was their guide. And they were trapped underground when the storms hit. They were stuck in the flooded caves for more than a week, and when they came up, everyone above ground was dead. A'isha, A'isha, A'isha One Friday night, A'isha said, we were a bunch of kids on a caving trip. A week later, the 14 survivors had cleared out an apartment building and established a base from which they tried to locate other survivors. And then in December, the birds arrived. Everywhere, and all at once. Followed rapidly by the pack. Their group ran, traveled east together, doing everything they could to defend themselves. Over the winter, the pack killed off everyone but Matthew and A'isha. For the past month, the couple had been living in the surrounding caves at night. During the day, they used the farmhouse for a base. But before it got dark, they retreated to the caves, where they had made a fortress for themselves. The conversation went on animatedly after they returned to the house. Neither Matthew nor A'isha had any idea what happened while they were underground, and they listened as if entranced while Severn and the kids explained the sequence of events as they had experienced them. Matthew made them repeat again and again the details of how they survived by sleeping through the lurchings. He kept shaking his head, perplexed by what he was hearing. Severn shared his theory of death by disruption of humans waking electrical impulses, but Matthew was skeptical. It's hard to comprehend, he said. Severn agreed. Best I can come up with, he said. He added, Where my thinking is now is that it doesn't matter. We know the strangers did it. They have a way of targeting humans only and whatever it is, you have to be awake for it to do its damage. Severn looked at Tommy as if making the argument to him. The details don't seem all that important to me now. They had already returned to the house when Vi realized that they'd left their weapons. She was panicked a moment, believing they were defenseless, before Matthew led them up to the attic, which turned out to be, in addition to a comfortable living space, a small armory. There were dozens of automatic rifles and pistols, along with crates of ammunition and a variety of miscellaneous weaponry stacked neatly along the walls. In each of the four corners of the attic there were windows that gave a 360 degree view of the surrounding hills and fields. The windows were long and narrow and Severn saw right away that Matthew and A'isha had to have installed them themselves. They were designed to give a view of the surroundings and to be adequate for shooting out of and yet too small to allow excess. Tommy picked up a tube like weapon. From watching old war movies, he guessed it was a bazooka. AT 4, A'isha said, taking the weapon from him and leaning it against the attic wall. Matthew took a seat at a table in the center of the room. An 84mm unguided portable single shot recoilless weapon built in Sweden by Saab, he said, referring to the AT 4. I was in the Corps of Cadets. He sat across from Severn at the table. I wanted to be a weapons specialist. They make a lot of noise, A'isha said, but against the dogs they turn out to be useless. She took a seat next to Matthew and Severn and motioned for Vi and Tommy to join her. Everything turned out to be useless against the dogs. They're too fast and too smart. Wherever you fire, they're not there anymore. Sage moved away from one of the windows, where she had been staring at the fields. She stretched out beside Severn. The table was cluttered with a pair of desktop computers, various electronics, and a maze of wires plugged into surge protectors and USB hubs. Severn followed a pair of fat wires to a hole cut in the floor in a far corner. Where's the generator? He asked Matthew. Matthew was watching Sage. Basement, he said. We're conserving gasoline, A'isha said, explaining why the generator wasn't running. We're running low, she grinned. The Ferrari's drinking it up. Matthew squeezed his upper lip between his thumb and forefinger in a way that made everyone wait for what he was about to say. He looked almost as if he was taking a pinch of snuff. Listen, he said finally. And he turned from Severn to Vi. I can see that you're all attached to the dog, but she makes me nervous. I'm sorry, he said, and he leaned back in his chair. But I don't think it's safe to keep her with us. Why? Vi asked. And her eyes moved from Matthew to A'isha. They're dangerous, A'isha said. They're friendly to birds. Vi made a kissing sound, and Sage was instantly on her feet. She hurried around Severn and jumped upon Vi to lick her face. Sage is part of our family, Vi said. She's been with us from the start. Why do you think she's dangerous? Severn asked. I understand, he added, that our dogs, human dogs, seem hostile to us. We've had our own run ins with them, but Sage has been unfailingly loyal. That's a mystery, Matthew said, but I won't argue with you. He gestured to Sage, I can see. She's reminding me of the way dogs used to be. She's making me miss Roxy, A'isha said to Matthew. To the others, she explained, Roxy was our family dog. Matthew said, problem is that they can communicate with the birds. The strangers, you went on, switching to the way Severn and the kids refer to the aliens. The strangers can communicate with dogs, cats, and horses that we're sure of, that we've seen for ourselves. Oddly though, A'isha said, not birds, real birds. Not common birds anyway, Matthew said. I wouldn't be surprised if they could communicate with the smarter ones, like parrots or miners. And you've seen this, Severn asked? You've seen them talking, too? We spent some time living among the birds. Strangers, Matthew said. We figured out pretty quickly that the pack wasn't attacking strangers, only us. And the strangers, on the other hand, were passive. What do you mean, passive? They're not violent, A'isha said. She pushed her hair back off her forehead and held it there, her hand resting atop her head. But, Vyse said, they killed off the human race, how can you think they're not violent? They're not, Matthew said. When they realize there are humans around, they go into their homes and lock their doors. Matthew grabbed one by the arm once, A'isha said, and it looked shocked, like it had no idea how to react. He looked indignant, Matthew said. This guy, several years older than me and bigger, too. Matthew wound up letting him go. Why were you living among them, Vi asked. You explain, A'isha said to Matthew. I'm going to get myself something to drink. Anybody else? I'd love a beer, Tom, he said. Severn said, Me too, if you don't mind. Before Vi could ask for a beer, he added, And I saw some cans of coke in the fridge. Vi? Sure, Vi said. Thanks, A'isha. I'll have a beer, Matthew said. Really? A'isha said to Matthew, with obvious sarcasm, I'm shocked. I like my beer, Matthew said to Severn. So why were you living with the strangers, Vi asked Matthew. Behind her, A'isha pushed open the trap door and dropped the ladder. She waited, watching Matthew, as if interested in how he'd tell the story. We figured out that they weren't attacking the strangers, just us. We had already lost half our number. These were our friends, and we were losing them at a rate of one every ten days or so. Someone had the idea. It was Jamie's idea, A'isha interrupted. We didn't know what to think about the birds, the strangers, Matthew went on. We saw evidence that the dogs weren't attacking them. Only wild animals, A'isha said. They were only attacking and eating animals that couldn't be domesticated. We came to the conclusion, Matthew continued, that the dogs were there to protect the strangers from any animal that might be a danger to them, or any animal they couldn't talk to and control, A'isha threw in. Jamie thought maybe if we lived among the birds and showed them that we were no danger to them, maybe the dogs would stop killing us. Didn't work, A'isha said. She said it softly, with a touch of bitterness, and then descended the ladder. Matthew watched A'isha disappear, and then was silent until her footsteps faded on the stairs. They still attacked while you were living with the strangers, Tommy prodded. When we'd move into a house, the strangers would move out, then the dogs would come. They took us one at a time. Always just one of us. Why do you think? It was like they were playing with us. As if they were enjoying the battle and the killing, so they spread it out. Dude, Tommy said, we tried forcing the birds to live with us. We wouldn't let them leave the house at night. Matthew paused and got a faraway look, as if he were still trying to figure it out. They understand us. They understand English. The strangers, they can't speak it, but they understand it. How do you know that, Severn said. We tell them to do something and they do it. This just gets crazier and crazier. Keeping the strangers in the house with us didn't work, Matthew went on. The dogs came anyway. They attack from every angle. The pack. They're so fast that they're there one instant and then they're gone before you can pull the damn trigger. He looked to the trap door as if suddenly anxious for A'isha to be back with his beer. Didn't make any difference that the birds were in the house. They peeled one of us off and took him away. The next day, someplace nearby, we'd find what was left, which was never very much. And the strangers, Vi said, they just watched all this? We buried the remains of our friends, and they went on about their lives. They were indifferent to us. We're like animals, A'isha said, coming up through the trapdoor with a tray of drinks. Not worth their concern. That makes me furious, Vi said, and when Severn glanced at Vi, he saw that her face was indeed red with anger. We thought about killing them, Matthew said, softly. Who, Tommy said? The birds. Matthew took his beer from A'isha and thanked her. We were divided on that, A'isha said. I didn't want to do it. I did, Matthew said. I wanted to gather them in a house with us and start blowing them away at the first smell of dogs. A'isha retook her seat at the table. She wasn't making eye contact with Matthew. It was obvious that this was an old argument. I thought, Matthew went on, that it was worth a try. I thought it might keep the dogs off. And we hadn't been able to find any other way. They were killing us off, one at a time. Severn was quiet then, as were Tommy and Vi. They all seemed to be thinking over the argument. Matthew tilted his head back and downed half his beer. Tell us about the lurchings again, he said to Severn. He held his beer bottle in front of him on the table, both hands wrapped around that as if to steady himself. His skinny frame and bald head with dark glasses and yellow croquis, which looked so strange at first, had already settled into a look that was more unique than ugly, that one could even see as intriguing, or. As appeared to be the case for A'isha, attractive. Severn understood that Matthew wanted to change the subject and so once again went into a long and detailed account of events beginning with waking in bed to find Sarah dead alongside him and ending with the morning the dogs surrounded them. Vi and Tommy added stories and details throughout the telling while Matthew and A'isha once again listened as if mesmerized. A'isha said, It's amazing you found a way to survive. Severn said, Nothing made any sense, but eventually it was clear what was happening, that anyone awake was dying, and the sleeping or unconscious were surviving. Matthew said, Whatever it was, whatever they were doing, it had to be something projected down onto the earth's surface, because we escaped it underground. See, I don't get that, Tommy said, suddenly sitting up straight. If being underground could protect you, there'd have to be more survivors, people in basements, people living underground, like in missile silos, people in submarines, if I added, people working in tunnels. Not really, Severn said. The lurchings went on for four days and nights. People in tunnels and basements would have come up from underground, especially once they figured out something was going on. No one was answering phones, communications were down. And we weren't just underground, A'isha said. We were in Carlsbad, in thy Lechub Giyah. We were pretty deep, Matthew threw in, like a thousand feet underground or more. He asked Severn, Do you know anything about caving? Tommy said, I know a little. When Vi and Severn both looked at him with surprise, he said, What, I know some things. Lechuch Giyah is like the longest, deepest cave in the world. Not in the world, Matthew said. Not even in the U. S., A'isha added. But it's long and deep. She reached across the table and touched Tommy's hand, as if to reassure him about being wrong. And she took a breath, signaling she would not tell a story. We went in, appropriately, through misery holes, she said. We had no intention of going anywhere near that deep or staying anywhere near that long. Matthew laughed, and though he probably didn't intend it, the laugh sounded pained. It was supposed to be a weekend trip. A'isha said, I'm a guide. I take people on trips all the time. When we went in on Friday morning, she continued, the sky was clear and the weather was supposed to be excellent all weekend. The plan was to explore all day Friday and Saturday and come up on Sunday. Then Saturday night the tent started floating away, Matthew said. It was literally a river coming at us. That was Saturday night, A'isha said. So now we know for sure those freak storms hit in New Mexico and Virginia. Matthew said, we can safely assume the whole planet. We couldn't go up, A'isha said, so we wound up going deeper and deeper, till I'm guessing we were somewhere way down when the water finally stopped coming. We spent almost a weekend underground, Matthew said, up to our butts in water, cold water. It's a little miracle we survived, A'isha said. We spent a week down there, Matthew said, and when we came up, no more world. Well, he added, the world was still there, just the people were all gone. The conversation paused then for a moment. They had been talking non stop from the instant they realized they were all human, and the sudden pause didn't feel awkward. It felt more like everyone taking a breather. Outside the wind was picking up and the sky was clouding over. The corners of the attic were hidden in shadow. Around the table, the five of them were lost in their own thoughts, their eyes distant. The quiet lasted only a few seconds, while the sound of the wind blowing over the roof filled the attic space. The house creaked and somewhere in the wooden frame of the building something made a knocking sound. The break in the talking, the few moments of silence brought with it a shift in mood, as if everyone was realizing at once that their situation had not changed. Nothing had really changed, except now they all had more company, more human company. The world still belonged to the strangers. The dogs were still out there. A'isha was the first to break the silence. It's getting late, she said. We should have something to eat and then head back over to the cave. Severn asked A'isha to give him another second. When you were living with the strangers, he said, what was it like? What are they like? Matthew was fiddling with his glasses. He took them off and tapped a rubber coated earpiece on the table. It's crazy, he said. They read our books, watch our movies. They play baseball, tennis, basketball, A'isha interrupted. The end. Matthew pointed to the computers. The internet is working fine everywhere, all over the world. Every country we check, we find web pages, social networks, Facebook, and Twitter, and Instagram. And everything's the same. Everything we had before the kill off, we still have. Except now, it's them, and not us. They have Facebook? It's Matthew struggled a moment and then gave up, unable to find the right words. They don't appear to have their own written language, he went on. Whatever country we monitor, their written communications are in the language of that country. We go to Italy Italian, we go to Vietnam Vietnamese, etc. That doesn't make sense, Severn said. Tommy asked, How can they be advanced enough for space travel and not have their own written language? Matthew has a theory, A'isha said. My degree is in biology, Matthew said, or would have been, he corrected himself, if the lurchings had held off for about another month. My degree would have been in English Lit, A'isha said to the table. The world ended. And we're both still pissed off that it happened before we got our diplomas. Tommy said, you were robbed. So what's your theory, Vi asked Matthew. We think they adapt themselves to the cultures they inhabit right down to the use of written language. A'isha said, they don't have to change anything that way. From books to signs to instruction manuals. Nothing. They move into a culture and use everything exactly as it is. Severn thought back first to the shopping center in Lynchburg. To Target and Starbucks. To all the store signs that were in English while all the shoppers were strangers. It's a theory, he said. It's an interesting idea. Dude, Tommy said. And he leaned over the table toward Matthew. When we checked out the shopping center in Lynchburg, everything was the same except no cash registers. What's that about? They don't use money, Matthew said. Severn asked. Is it digital? Automatic? No system of exchange at all. It's free to them. Everything. Nobody has to pay for anything. Severn said, I'm mystified. That's Think about it, Matthew said. All the goods they need, everything they could ever want, is already here. They don't have to mine the natural resources. They don't have to build anything. Whatever they have to do, delivery, service, maintenance, farming, that kind of work, they seem to share those responsibilities. So let's just say, unlike Earth's indigenous population, Us, who all had to work our butts off, they don't really have to do hardly anything at all. And what about when the goods and materials and natural resources that have already been mined and refined and built, etc, what about when they run out? They won't, Matthew said. They'll never run out. Every place we look, we see the population decreased by all but a tiny fraction of the people who used to be there. We can just Google whatever we want to know, A'isha said. Google works like nothing changed. Population of New York, pre kill off, Matthew said, 8. 2 million. Now, 400, 000. Tokyo pre kill off, 12 million. Now, about 600, 000. Albuquerque pre kill off, 550, 000. Now, about 30, 000. That extrapolates worldwide, A'isha said. Which means the population of the Earth is now someplace around 350 million, down from 7 billion, Matthew said. Population of the Earth, when Shakespeare wrote, was more than 400 million. You see our point, A'isha said? There's now 350 million creatures on a planet that had goods and resources and infrastructure, the farms and factories, the industries and communications, et cetera, to support 7 billion creatures. All they have to do, Matthew added, is maintain some things, restructure other things, while they share the minimal amount of necessary work to provide for a much smaller population. And they've inherited a paradise. That's just, Severn said. It's starting to seem easy, but let it hang. That's not even the most interesting part of the theory, A'isha said, and she looked to Matthew. We know that there are species on earth that can change their form to mimic other species, Matthew said. He hesitated and looked away, as if he might drop the whole thing, but then pushed on. It seems possible to me that the birds not only mimic our culture, but also our physical form. That would explain the slightly different way they walk and their inability to actually speak our language. The mimicry is less than perfect. Close, but not perfect. Severn closed his eyes and tried to absorb what Matthew was saying. Vi said to A'isha, could this get any creepier? Severn said, I suppose that's possible, but it's also possible that lots of species throughout the universe evolve in forms roughly similar to our human form. It seems more likely to me that they chose our planet in the first place because we were so much like them. Tommy spoke as if he hadn't even heard Severn. So wait a minute, Matthew, he said. You mean they don't really look exactly like us? They just changed into us? A'isha said, it's a theory, Tommy. Vi said to Matthew, what do you think they really look like? No, wait, she added quickly, this is getting too scary for me. She got up and stood beside Severn. Severn put his arm around Vi's waist. Nothing is too bizarre for me to believe anymore. Matthew said, really, Vi, it's just a theory. Trust me, he added. If you knew me better, you wouldn't put too much stock in my theories. But you think he could be right, Severn? Severn said, I think A'isha is right. We should get something to eat and head over to the cave before it gets dark. He pushed his chair back, stood, and put an arm around Vi's shoulder. A'isha pried the top off a crate of weapons. We need to get you guys ready. She pulled an automatic rifle from the crate, loaded it with a full clip, and handed it to Tommy. Tommy took the weapon, slung it over his shoulder, and started for the trap door. Uh uh, A'isha said. She took him by the arm, pulled him back, and gave him a second rifle. Always carry two, she said. She pulled another crate close, opened it, and took out a pistol and a leather holster. And a handgun, she added. She put the pistol in the holster and offered it to Tommy. Why, two rifles, Severn asked. He and Vi stood beside Tommy and took the weapons from A'isha as she handed them out. Matthew was waiting at the trap door. Because when the dogs attack, there's no time to reload. We figured that out pretty quick, A'isha said. The dogs will let you shoot to your heart's content. Then the second your hand touches the clip to reload, that's it. They're on you. Smart creatures, Severn said. Oh yeah, Matthew said. Smart, but mostly just fast. Unbelievably fast. Fi held her pistol in front of her and looked it over. I don't get this, she said. If he just unloaded two automatics and that didn't do the trick, what's this going to do? A'isha put her arm around Vi and guided her to the door. Honey, she said, that's not for the dogs. That, if it's needed. That's for you. Oh, but I said, indicating she understood. Great. That was episode 11 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, I'm Ed Falco, I wrote The Strangers, and I hope you'll come back for the next episode.