Episode 18 The Strangers

Transcript

0:30

This is Ed Falco on the air, reading The Strangers, a novel in 19 episodes. One of the pack, the Grey, attacks Severn and Red in the cave. To defend Severn, Red metamorphoses into a beast and she fights and kills the Grey before changing back into her human form. Only now she can also speak. These changes are dramatic and exhausting and at the end of the episode, Severn has left Red to recover on the cave ledge and gone back down to the cave floor. That's where we pick up. Episode 18. In the quiet of the massive chamber, Severn located a dry spot and sat down in the darkness. He tried to think. and found that he was nearly incapable of it. Or, rather, his mind was so busy reviewing and calculating and analyzing in a realm just below the level of conscious thought that there was no room left for simple calculations. For example, questions like, for instance, What was he supposed to do next? He sat in the dark and the quiet and stared at a tall, limestone encrusted stalagmite. It occurred to him that he was resting and that he needed rest. A good bit of time passed in that quiet space, with Severn nearly motionless in the dark, half thinking, half dreaming, seeing again everything that had happened, going over again every impossible thing that had turned out actually to be possible, and wondering what incredible thing might happen next. In that whispering dark, Severn lost track of time. He didn't move again until he heard Tommy shout something and Vi shout back. He knew they had to be close because the configuration of the cave muted sound from outside. He calculated they had started the climb up the boulders. Matthew and A'isha would be with them. He didn't know what he would say. He couldn't figure out where to begin. Someplace in the back of his mind a quiet battle was being fought with telling them the truth on one side and lying on the other. He wouldn't abandon Red. Once the others knew, he didn't know how they'd respond. He picked himself up and found the gray where it was sprawled on the chamber floor with a hole in its chest and his ripped out heart near its feet. He tried to shape how he would tell it, all that had happened. And then he wondered for the first time, why the Grey was alone? Why did the Grey come to the cave by itself? The pack travelled together, they attacked together. It appeared to Severn that everything they did was coordinated. Where was the rest of the pack? Severn was entertaining these questions when Matthew startled him. What? Matthew's voice drifted off as if he couldn't make enough sense of what he was seeing to pose a coherent question. What? He said again, and then he turned a flashlight beam on Severn in the gray. Severn turned to find Matthew and A'isha side by side at the entrance to the chamber. A moment later Tommy and Vi joined them. It's dead, Severn said, and stepped back from the gray. He almost said, I killed it, but stopped himself. We can see that, A'isha said. Vi pushed past the others and hurried to Severn, with Tommy close behind her. You're hurt, she said. Tommy took Severn by the shoulders and held him at arm's length, examining him. Overhead, one of the krypton bulbs flashed on, casting its light throughout the chamber. We need to get some antibiotics and bandages on you, Tommy said. Vy's attention had fallen to the grey. Did you do this? she asked. She was looking at the ripped out heart. They all were. Behind them, Matthew was exploring the chamber, looking from place to place as if searching for clues to what had happened. A'isha repeated Vy's question. Did you, she asked Severn? Did you cut its heart out? That thing's heart was ripped out, Matthew said, still exploring the cave. That's the only wound. He rejoined the others gathered around Severn in the gray. Where's Red? The others all looked to Severn, the same question in their eyes. Red's okay, he said. Give me a minute, he said. It's hard to explain. Matthew was shaking his head as if he was reviewing theory after theory and instantly discarding each one. Where's the rest of the pack, he said. They don't travel alone. What killed this thing? You didn't, Sev. Look at you. You're not even armed. Quickly, he snatched the bowie knife from Severn's side, found the blade pristine and tossed it to the ground. What the hell happened? Again, Severn said, give me a minute. He looked over the grey and wondered about its lack of a sex. How did these things reproduce, he asked, as much to give himself another moment to think as that of genuine curiosity. Matthew brushed past him and with the toe of his boot found and pushed back a flap of skin between the grey's legs. A long thick penis spilled out. When I killed mine it fell out like that before they dragged it away. Makes sense, Severn said. More efficient for fighting. No one responded. They were all facing Severn, looking at him as if he was the teacher at the head of the class and they were waiting for him to speak. Behind them, the black and the chocolate entered the chamber on all fours, with the two bays following. Only Severn saw them. The others didn't turn to face the pack until the smell reached them. Matthew looked to Severn as if hoping Severn might have an idea. Severn was watching the pack, the black and the chocolate together, the two bays together, the Roan missing. He recalled the buck kill, the two bays attacking as a team, the roan and the grey attacking as a team. The dog he killed must have been the roan, and she must have been the grey's mate. I killed its mate, Severn said. That's why it came alone. He said the words aloud, but he was talking to himself. Vi had pressed herself close to Severn on one side, Tommy was on his other side. Tommy said, They're just looking at us, dude. And as soon as he said it, the dogs backed up, turned, and left the chamber. Matthew took a quick step towards Severn. You know something you're not telling us. For Severn, the pieces of the complicated puzzle were snapping together, clicking solidly in place. I didn't a moment ago, he said, but now Severn, Vyse, said, What do you know? It's about mating, Severn said, and he looked down at the grey and its sex sprawling between its legs. All this, he said to Matthew, why they didn't kill you and A'isha? Why they didn't kill me, Red? It's about mates and mating. They could have killed Red, but they brought her to me. The grey came to kill me because I killed its mate. A'isha said, Are you okay, Severn? I am, Severn said. And he quit talking while he tried to figure out how to put the words together to explain what he was thinking.'They brought red to you, A'isha said.'Why?'Listen, Severn said to A'isha. He ran his hands through his hair, trying to straighten himself out, as if if he made himself more presentable they'd believe him.'They didn't kill Matthew when they could have, because he proved himself to be dangerous by killing one of them. And then they didn't kill you. To Tommy and Vi, he said,'They didn't kill us the first time in the woods, because of you, he nodded to Vi. They came back for me the next night because I was the older and presumably the weaker male, he said, talking to Matthew again. If they had killed me, they'd have left Vi for Tommy. When I killed one of them instead, when they saw I too was dangerous, they let me live. In the next morning, they brought me Red. Fai said, They didn't bring you anyone, Severn. They were about to breakfast on Red when we saved her. Matthew said, No, that never made any sense. They don't kill birds. They made it look like we were saving her, Severn said. It was a bruise. They brought her to me, for me. Why? A'isha shouted, and then immediately took a step back and lowered her voice. What does being dangerous have to do with anything? What is all this about mating? What are you talking about? They're hunters, Severn said. The pack, they're hunters. The rest of the earth's creatures are defenseless against them. They want dangerous prey to hunt. That's what we are to them. Prey. And mating? I asked. Matthew answered. They're breeding us, the bastards. They want us to survive. They want us to reproduce until they have a big enough stock. They don't want to hunt us to extinction. That was exactly Severn's conclusion. But the blood drained from his face on hearing Matthew say it aloud. Matthew looked to A'isha. They herded us here, he said. We were headed to New York. They pushed us here. They wanted us all to find each other. Vi said, Are you saying they're not going to kill us? She looked to Severn. Matthew said, Let's find out. He pushed Vi's Severn, picked up the Grey's bloody heart in his hand, and jammed it back into the creature's chest. He looked up to Severn and said, I need to know. He grabbed the Grey by the feet. They're still out there. I can smell them. They're waiting. A'isha said, What the hell are you thinking, Matthew? Matthew took off his weapons one by one and tossed them to the ground. I'm tired of being half crazy with fear, he said. He looked to Severn. I want to know. Severn went around to the Grey's head and knelt to lift it by the arms. Vi put her hand on Severn's shoulder to stop him. You're being stupid, she said. You can't just go out there unarmed, dragging one of the pack. If Severn's right, Matthew said, there's nothing to fear. They'll take the grey and leave. There was a new gentleness in his voice as he addressed Fi. It was as if some other Matthew had suddenly emerged out of the shell of the old one. A'isha touched Matthew's shoulder. She seemed to have heard the change in his voice too, and she touched him as if she were welcoming him back. Do you think he's right? she asked. It adds up, Matthew said. It explains a lot. A'isha took up her weapons and dropped them alongside Matthew's. Maybe you two should stay here, she said to Tommy and Vi. With Red. Tommy said to Vi, You go stay with Red. We shouldn't leave her alone. He said it without looking at Vi as he crouched beside Severn and took hold of one of the Grey's arms. Ba'ai looked up to the ledge and then back to A'isha and Matthew at the Grey's feet and Tommy and Severn at its head. She's got her people, she said. She'll find someone to take care of her. She looked around the chamber as if searching for some new idea, some other possibility, and then she turned her gaze to Tommy and said, OK, let's go. For all the bulk and muscle and size of the Grey, it was surprisingly light. They lifted it easily and carried it out to the ledge. It was dusk, the day's light fading over the pond woods and the stream and the surrounding fields and hills. A flock of sparrows swirled in the darkening sky over the treetops, dipping and spooping and finally disappearing as they lighted somewhere in the quiet woods. Severn and the others laid the grazed body on the ledge and stood over it, searching for the pack whose smell lingered in the air. Vi had stayed back in the mouth of the cave. She alone was armed. Where are they? she said. The chocolate in the black, as if answering Vi's questions, leapt up to the ledge from somewhere out of sight below, and the bays lighted beside them, dropping from the hills above. They landed in front of the grey, blocking it from view, facing Severn and the others. The chocolate was the biggest of the pack. Almost a full head taller than the others. It let its gaze linger first on Severn and then on Tommy, before it turned and knelt to the Grey, examining the bloody hole in its chest. It reached into the wound, removed the severed heart, and held it in its hands. It looked the heart over carefully, before it placed it back in the Grey's chest. It appeared to be considering the evidence of the Grey's death. It appeared to be thinking. When it lifted itself up again to its full height, its lips pulled back in a snarl. It took a step toward Vi and issued a low, guttural, growl like caw that was clearly directed beyond Severn and the others and into the cave. Vi said, Should I shoot the damn thing, Severn? What should I do? Severn didn't answer. The possibility was occurring to him that he might be wrong about everything, but he knew for certain that if Vi fired, she'd be wasting her ammunition. The pack had proved that much. Matthew looked like he was about to say something when Red stepped out of the cave's shadows dressed in Vi's clothes. She stood beside Vi, close, pressing shoulder to shoulder. The chocolate took a step back at the sight of Red. It observed her a long moment, then turned, knelt to the grey, lifted it in its arms, and leapt from the ledge with the rest of the pack following. Severn watched the dogs as they disappeared into the woods and reappeared again in the fields beyond. They walked four abreast, the chocolate carrying the grey. They never slowed or cast a glance back behind them. Matthew and A'isha stood on one side of Severn and Tommy and Vi on the other. They watched the pack in silence until it disappeared into the shadows of the oncoming night. When they turned around, they found the mouth of the cave empty, and Red, nowhere in sight. Matthew turned to Severn. Tell us what the hell is going on, he said. Tell us who killed the Grey. Red killed it. Severn leaned back against the slab of rock, slid down, wrapped his arms around his legs, and recounted the events of the last several hours. The others made a circle around him as they listened. They looked like kids at a campfire listening to a storyteller. The last of the light drained from the sky and a full moon rose above the trees. When Severn was done with the telling, the others watched him a while with uniformly blank expressions as if they were all struggling to make sense of what they had been told. Vi was the first to speak. The Grey came here to kill you, she asked, because you killed its mate? Severn nodded. Vi was repeating what he had already told her, looking for confirmation. It was acting on its own, for revenge, he said, trying to further explain his thinking. It was acting against the pact's wishes. That's all that makes sense. And Red saved you, Vi said? Red? She seemed unable to put into words what she'd just been told. Think of it as metamorphosis, Severn said. Like a caterpillar to a butterfly, only much, much faster. Tommy looked out over the ledge and toward the long moon shadows of trees cast over the fields. Doody said, too weird, but she saved you, if I repeat it. As if she needed to be absolutely clear on the point. She killed the Grey to save you? Severn said, That's what happened, Vi. And the pack, they're done with us? They gonna let us live? That's what I think, Severn said. Vi picked herself up and considered the assault rifle dangling over her chest. She took it off and laid it on the ground. I'm going in to see Red. She looked weak. Good, Severn said. He thought that Red was probably wondering once again what would become of her. And that Vi going to her would be reassuring. He couldn't figure out a way to say any of that though, and so he just repeated himself and said, good. A'isha said to Vi, I'll come with you. Severn handed A'isha his flashlight. Don't need it out here, he said, glancing up at the moon. Before the girls disappeared into the cave, Matthew asked Severn, are you sure Red is safe to be around? A'isha and Vi stopped and waited for Severn to answer. I'm certain of it, Severn answered. A'isha said to Matthew, I trust him. One more thing Severn said. She can speak. Red can speak now. How? Bai asked. She can speak, like us? Exactly, Severn answered. And she walks like us too. It's a kind of evolution, I think. Eventually, they're all, all the strangers. They'll all be exactly like us. This is too weird, Tommy said. Look, Vi said, all I know is that she saved your life. She took A'isha by the hand and they walked off together into the shadows of the cave. Tommy stood and stretched. He shook his wiry body from head to foot as if trying hard to rattle himself back into his everyday blitheness about things. Too weird, he repeated, and then added, asking Severn, you really think it's over with the dogs? Just like that. Severn did his best to be reassuring. I think we're okay for the time being, he said. The strangers present no threat to us. The packs? They're going to let us be until we're around in larger numbers. He looked out at the pine woods as if reviewing his thoughts one more time. When he turned back to Tommy, he said, I do. I think we'll be all right. And then, So there'll be no doubt, he said. I think it's all over with the dogs. Matthew agreed. What Severn said, it makes sense. Tommy scratched the back of his neck as if he were still thinking things over. Too weird, he said again. And then he shrugged. Let me see what's going on with the girls. He glanced at Vi's assault rifle. Won't miss lugging guns around. He nodded to Severn. And then he started for the cave. Matthew and Severn watched Tommy until he was outta sight, and then Matthew as if picking up a conversation that had been ongoing said she can speak, but she's not us. She's not human. Severn let his head fall back against the rock wall behind him. He gazed at the moons still low in the sky over the pine trees. A breeze had come up as if out of the night itself. He had rusted the tree tops and swayed the tall grass in the moonlit fields. He agreed with Matthew that Red wasn't human, but he didn't believe that they needed to fear her, which is what Matthew was really saying. No, she's not us, Severn said. She's not human. He looked at Matthew. But she's with us, he said. She saved my life. She came back. Because of me. For me. Matthew shifted around and sat alongside Severn. He didn't say anything, but he was listening carefully. Red doesn't understand herself what happened to her, Severn said. She believed that her people had already undergone the change, the metamorphosis, generations ago. That that was done with for them. He turned sideways to face Matthew. They believe that they're human, he said. They've become human, they believe. And that's it. They're human forever, generation after generation. So how does she explain what happened? She doesn't, Severn said. She doesn't know what happened. All she says is, I became and I became again. As if she's amazed herself. She doesn't know. But you, Matthew said. You think you know, don't you? Severn nodded. She said twice now, when I asked her about the packs. She said, quote, they are always with us. He paused as if working through his thinking one more time. They're always with them, he said, because they are them. The dogs, the packs, they're the earth form, the original form of the strangers. The birds, millenniums back, before they evolved to who they are now. Always, wherever they go, whatever species they become, some tiny percentage of them, one in many millions, reverts to their original form. One in many millions, Matthew asked. Why do you He stopped abruptly as if a thought had just occurred to him. That's why they put her out, he asked. That's what they do when one of them is going to revert? They put them out for the packs to find, Severn said. The dogs, every one of them, has the same brilliant green eyes that Red has. She told me that she'd never seen another of her kind with green eyes. And she didn't even know her eyes had turned green until I told her. She thought her eyes were brown. She didn't know they had changed. Why so few? Matthew asked again. Why one in millions? What makes you say that? Because that's what Red told me. There are never very many of them. So, let me see if I understand all this, Matthew said. The strangers, the birds, they started out on all fours as wild creatures, and they evolved to beings that walk upright, over millennia, to highly civilized beings capable of space travel. And these highly civilized beings have the capability to metamorphose into other species. Or at some point, Severn interrupted, biologically engineered themselves to have that capability. Then they find a planet, Matthew went on, full of savages like us. And a few hundred million of them metamorphose into the new species and travel over many years and multiple generations, and when they arrive, knowing everything there is to know about the planet, they eliminate the savages and take it over. But they can't entirely engineer out the beasts they started as. And always a few of them revert and form packs. Why don't the packs attack the birds? Probably a symbiotic thing. If they attacked, the strangers would have no choice but to kill them before they revert instead of letting them run free. And their speech and the way they walk? Some changes, apparently, Severn guessed, are held off until they've lived on the new planet for a time. Matthew was shaking his head as if he was having problems believing what Severn was telling him. How would the pack know where to find a stranger who was put out like that if there was only a few of them with so much ground to cover? Severn made a face that dismissed the question. I don't know what the mechanism is, he said. They know somehow. The strangers know to put them out. The pack knows to find them. And Red just happened to be available to give to you. Looks like that, Severn said. It solved their problem. They didn't want to kill me. They needed a mate for me. They knew about Red. Again, Matthew was shaking his head. If Red was due to revert, to change into one of them, how does she work as a mate for a human? Matthew had come quickly to the most troubling piece of the puzzle. My best guess, Severn said, is that creatures like Red can serially metamorphose. They can change at will to other creatures. What I just saw happen in the cave would suggest that. But maybe it's the work of the pack to teach them how to do it. How to change. And if they didn't teach her, they hoped she might remain in human form. If that's true, Matthew said quickly, then the pack should have the ability too. They should all be able to change at will. Maybe, Severn said. And maybe not all of them. If the dogs can change, Matthew said, following his own reasoning and disregarding Severn's objection, why don't they? Why would they stay dogs? Because they like it, Severn said. It was a question he had no problem answering. They like killing. I've seen them. They revel in it. They're warriors. Matthew's expressions suggested that he agreed with Severn and that he was angry. I've seen them too, he said, raising his voice. I've seen them take one of my friends apart piece by piece and devour him. Suddenly there were tears in his eyes and he roughly brushed them away. I see it every damn night. He pulled himself to his feet and brushed dirt from the seat of his pants. If you're thinking of letting Red stay with us, he said, if you're thinking of being with her, do it. I'm gonna have a huge problem with that. It's wrong. She may look like us, but she's one of them. She's one of the pack. He paused, watching Severn's eyes, and then repeated himself. It's wrong, Severn. You being with her, letting her stay with us. It's wrong. You might be right, Severn said. He picked himself up, except that she changed, on her own, to save me. And she changed again, to come back to me. You didn't see it, he added. It was terrible. The changing is terrible. It looks to me like it nearly killed her. How could we ever trust her, Matthew said. She ripped that dog's heart out. Maybe she liked doing it. How can you even know she did these things for you? She told me, Severn said. She said it. For you. To you. She changed for me. She came back to me. Behind him, Severn and Matthew heard the others approaching. Vi was talking about Sage. And Tommy reminded her that Sage should be buried soon. Matthew said, lowering his voice, What are you thinking, Severn? She's one of the pack. She's one of them. When Tommy and Vi appeared out of the shadows of the cave, Red and A'isha were behind them. The four stopped and looked concerned at the sight of Matthew and Severn. Vi said, What's wrong? You guys arguing? Having a discussion, Severn said. Red, alongside A'isha, couldn't figure out what to do with their hands. Red, alongside A'isha, couldn't figure out what to do with their hands. She folded them in front of her, put them on her hips, and finally pushed her fingertips into the pockets of Vi's jeans, which were so tied on her she couldn't button the waist. The unbuttoned edges of the jeans poked out into the fabric of the blouse she was wearing untucked. Vi's sneakers apparently didn't work at all because she was wearing a pair of Tommy's, which were too big, but laced tight over multiple pairs of sweat socks they were serving the purpose. She seemed to be leaning towards Severn, as if she wanted to go to him but was unsure. Her eyes went from Severn to Matthew and then down to her feet before she picked up her head again as if it required some mustering of courage and returned her gaze to Severn. A'isha said, if there's no danger from the packs anymore, we're tired of sleeping in caves. Joint decision, Vi said. We all voted to go back to the farmhouse and sleep there. All of us, Matthew said, his eyes on red. When no one answered immediately, Severn said, Yes, of course, all of us. He thought about it for a second and decided it was best to push the issue. Why, Matthew, he asked. What were you thinking? Matthew looked like there was a war going on behind his eyes. He pushed off his glasses, let them dangle over his chest attached by the croquis, and went about cleaning them with the edge of his shirt. Finally, he said calmly, I think A'isha and I will stay here in the cave. Vi went to Red and looped an arm around her elbow. She saved Severn's life. She's one of us. She squeezed Red's arm. You're with us now, right? Red answered softly. I am with you. Yes. She looked to Matthew and repeated herself. I am with you now. You may be with us, Matthew said. And in his voice responding to Red, there was a surprising kindness, even gentleness. But you are not one of us. He went to A'isha and put his arm around her. We'll spend the night here, he said to Severn. And then he walked away into the cave without looking back or waiting for A'isha. Before she followed Matthew back into the cave, A'isha covered her eyes with her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose. She hesitated before she turned and disappeared into the darkness without so much as a glance at any of the others. Tommy said softly, that's just wrong. Em went to Red and stood alongside her. The bright circle of the moon hovered over the shadowy fields beyond the ledge and Severn gazed up at it before turning back to the others. To Tami, he said, Let's go get Sage. We need to bury her. To Vi, he said, Take Red back to the farmhouse. We'll meet up with you. Uh uh. Vi said, I'm not ready to go walking through the woods alone. We can wait. Red was still speaking softly but clearly, just slightly more than a whisper. To The krypton lights illuminated the inner chamber of the cave. Matthew and A'isha were out of sight, but occasionally sounds drifted down from the ledge as Tommy and Severn went about wrapping Sage's body in a blanket they found inside Severn's beat up dumpster. When they emerged from the cave with Sage and Tommy's arms, Red and Vi were waiting there where they had left them, both gazing out over the ledge. Red upright with her arms crossed under her breasts. Vi crouched beside her, arms wrapped around her knees. Severn went to Red and stood close to her, his arm touching her arm. Below them an owl hooted, and a few seconds later rose from the pine forest and flew across the fields and out of sight. Severn said to no one in particular, Thou's a barn owl. Red said, Beautiful, yes. Behind them, Tommy said, Uh, guys, Sage is getting seriously heavy. Severn offered to take Sage, but Tommy refused. I'll carry her, he said, till we get through the woods. You can take her from there. Vi watched Red. She looked worried, as if she still hadn't adjusted to hearing Red speak. Severn took Vi by the elbow and helped her up. Are you alright, he asked. Sure, Vi answered. I'm fine. That was episode 18 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, please 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, I'm Ed Falco, I wrote The Strangers, and I hope you'll come back for the final episode.