Whitefall | CreepCast

Welcome back to Creepcast. Today we are reading a fan favorite author C.K. Walker and we're doing a story that we haven't seen but I've seen actually a lot of people I don't know if you've seen this as well but people have been saying that this story is uh like a lot of people's favorites so I am excited it feels like it's uh this is something we would have read at like the beginning of the podcast it seems like a lot of people are like this one's my favorite it's called White Fall once again as always and forever I have never heard of this before I was actually curious if you've heard of this one uh so when people would talk because when I was you know younger and reading C.K. Walker's stuff it was like Boroska was like the heavy hitter um so that was the one I always heard in relation but once we read it for the podcast a bunch of people started to recommend C.K. Walker's other stories and similarly to you White Fall was one of the ones that people recommended a ton yeah um so I've mostly heard about it through our comment section and things like that uh because C.K. Walker look I I said this in the Boroska part five regardless of any qualms I have with her she put me on the path to want to talk about scary stories online so you know I love her regardless for that and some of her stories are absolute bangers uh obviously you know the first Boroska and um we've read six of her stories now right or this will be the six we've read five of her I mean dude we've chosen like yeah we've had such a great time with stuff like Mayhem Mountain and stories like that so I love her as an author in my book she is on the Mount Rushmore is what I say of course I think of this podcast I believe that C.K. Walker is uh I don't know which president she's in I don't know which president she's in I don't know which president the the the fans can decide who's who on the mountain but I will say that I do think that uh in terms of where we started where we've ended up and stuff I think that like so many of the things we've read have all come back to just like comparing our feelings to the first time reading her stories and I think that's always so cool and anytime we can you know it's always like we we read the Mayhem Mountain one on our live show um so I'm excited to actually sit down here and uh record a new one again without the audience and stuff and just uh kind of get immersed and I think this is kind of a longer story too so I'm excited I'm excited for it as well I'll also mention uh because we always try to shout out authors you know on the story who have new works out and stuff like that and with C.K. Walker it almost seems redundant she's published so many stories has so much stuff out but I will mention recently a paperback copy of Borosco yep um so if you want the classic you know where it all began for for a lot of us and for the podcast for a large part um we'll have her website link in the description below so if you want to read it the website linked in the description you can pick up a paper copy of Borosco she also has her ebooks out that looks like there's more volumes for uh called cold thin air which I've heard people talk about highly as well um and I mean again she has so many stories so you guys have done a uh a great job supporting the authors and stuff that's like one look that is like the coolest thing about our community I feel like is that people actually go and they pick up physical copies and stuff a lot of times too the authors in these physical copies have different writings or different things that would like either self-published or however they go about it so but like even uh our buddy Travis strange accounts his uh book is doing amazing on Amazon right now just wanted to shout out that book again because he's uh you know I mean he's a favorite of ours I think he's becoming a fan favorite as well yeah um but just happy for him and just very grateful that you guys do go out and uh pick up these books and stuff because they're really I mean you know it helps the authors a lot you know and I think that also you just there's so much with online that freaks me out of like it would just suck one day if it's like oh yeah for some reason the website got deleted so it's gone physical media is very important so I agree if you guys can be sure to support the author pick up the book I'll also I'll also point this out about uh CK Walker um she I've talked about this before but she's also done writing for like Netflix shows yeah so she wrote on The Haunting of Hill House The Haunting of Bly Manor and the upcoming on her website the upcoming um recognized huge uh industry talent um and it's really cool to see someone who started making creepypastas online go on to like a professional writing career so that's awesome for uh lover stuff like I said it'll be linked in the description but you all have recommended white fall to us so I'm excited to read about it yeah I'm excited to get into it today and for everyone who isn't on uh YouTube watching us right now uh thank you for listening on either Spotify Apple podcast or really anywhere that I think you can get a podcast I think we have it and thank you for giving us a good rating if you have because it does help us out and also just want to shout out our patreon we've been doing uh live streams and we've been reading all kinds of new stories and stuff so if you're looking for some extra content as well if the if the daily fix or the you know the weekly fix isn't enough uh consider going over there and supporting the channel it helps us out uh without further ado I am ready to jump in to white fall I'm ready to jump into it as well uh so I scrolled down real quick and looked at it there are a ton of quotes so this is I'm ready I'm ready oh I'm I'm frothing at the mouth for it all right you know you ain't gonna phrase it that way also I will say uh I I started a toy that's I've seen the toys that we released or the toy yeah yeah the Margaret yeah that's going really well um and uh just want to say that uh one day I'm going to make a giant toy of your lips one million percent it's going to be I wanted to make a conch shell I thought you were about to say something encouraging or like happy about like oh thank you to the fans and stuff like that well I guess it was going to lead into well it was going to lead to me being we should make some kind of toy or figurine or statue from the show but I'm like immediately I was just like it's got to be your lips or something I also want to take that photo of your dentist thing and put it on a shirt and sell it like uh like a piece of street wear I think that would be hot you know if you go to like my uh my mentions right now on Twitter most of them are just I literally okay dude I don't know you know if you go to like my uh my mentions right now on Twitter most of them are just I look okay dude I don't know if you go to like my uh my mentions right now on Twitter most of them are just I look okay dude I literally just opened Twitter to prove this point I went to my notifications okay yeah uh and I scroll down to something a few hours ago my gosh dude um this was just the most recent thing somebody had said to me accurate I thought it was a picture that's just happy that's constant that's just it does kind of look like happy happy doesn't it it does that's just constant that's all the line it was never brought up no one ever said a word about my lips till I met you okay well yeah I think they're they're beautiful pump lips and I will I'll never joke about them again you can believe it what's that merch that what's that merch you wanted well that was before now I'm saying now oh okay that's the old you not the new year okay Whitefall you ever look back at the end of the fight with someone you love and think how did we get here it was almost 30 years ago and I don't remember how the argument with Melody started but I'll always remember how it ended with me packing my stuff and her crying in the bathroom if I had to guess it was probably about money we were in our early 20s neither of us had much family job apartment life but we had each other loved each other they told me that would be enough but damn it wasn't even close to enough three days of not talking to each other avoiding each other I don't even think either of us were mad anymore just tired too tired to push the wall down this time and then I got a call from my aunt and uncle in Washington come to Thanksgiving work with my uncles through the holidays they needed help on their farm I didn't even think about it I just said yes when I told Melody I could tell she knew what I was really saying to her something my aunt and uncle didn't even know I was going to Spokane for Thanksgiving and I wasn't coming back afterward Melody didn't fight it he just went numb like me I spent 42 on a bus ticket from Buchanan to Spokane which left me with 22 for food to eat on the three-day trip leaving Mel I was tired just thinking about it my heart felt scalding hot the one-way ticket in my pocket is heavy as steel pulling me down bags were packed and I was here at the bus terminal the station was as most bus stations were no cell phones back then no TVs just a smattering of Humanity lounging and hard plastic chairs waiting for their number to be called took a long drag off my camel pulled out my ticket looking for mine Christopher Stikes bus 881 Buchanan Virginia to Spokane Washington parts 1 35 PM could you this just may be my show of my ignorance uh you can get a 20 bus ticket from Virginia to Washington is it not I guess it's Spokane Washington like Washington State yeah because it's not Washington 42 okay you can spend 42 dollars to get from Virginia to Washington I mean to be fair I I've never ridden like a Greyhound that far so I have no idea that feels extremely cheap but I'm not sure it it has to be that's that's like the ultimate form of travel if you can survive it's worth it you have to do it I glanced at the clock on the wall 118. my eyes slid to the door involuntarily I want to leave this station go home to Mel find her and tell her I was sorry and that I wasn't going anywhere but a small piece of me stubborn peace just kept me sitting there we had done this dance again and again and again it never worked love was the luxury the poor couldn't afford bus 881 to columbus ohio is boarding at bay 7 please proceed to bay 7 for bus 881 shit no time to finish my cigarette i smashed the button to the nearest ashtray and stood up my eyes going straight to the front door what was i waiting for a solution to our problems striding in easy as pie sign courage to leave go back to her god i wanted that i wish i had that mel was everything to me but not enough you leaving turn toward the voice a small woman with smoke in one hand and a baby in the other she gestured to my seat took one last look at the front door all yours picked up my bag and headed toward bay 7 there were six people ahead of me but the driver was quick taking bags and checking tickets that's all he asked waving toward my backpack yep buddy you know you're going all the way to the other coast washington it's on your ticket you should that's all you got yeah i'll just keep it with me the driver shrugged i headed toward the bus door waiting in line to board i wish for the 50th time i could have afforded a flight you can't into columbus to indianapolis to chicago to minianapolis to billings to spokane with bus changes in indianapolis and some place called whitefall in north dakota it's going to be a long three days man that is a nightmare rotation the cross-country traveling is it's just a literal prison sentence though yeah because also the the buses are always packed i've never been on one that isn't just absolutely packed to the brim it's different when you're cross-country traveling and you have control of the vehicle or you know the people in control of the vehicle it's like a friend group or whatever it's completely different yeah sticking on like a time schedule with that one is it's brutal brutal brutal as the woman in front of me boarded i looked back toward the bus station again this was it i would never come back to buchanan it was done it was over we were over and it felt so wrong it was me and melanie always we struggled but we always came back to each other poverty was a prison but we were in it together and now i was escaping alone leaving her behind the bars i couldn't do this hey you're going to what guy behind me was short a lot older than me and clearly travel weary he also didn't spell the greatest but that was par for the course on these buses well come on man i just want to sit down coughed and readjusted the bag on my neck sorry i turned back towards the door and stepped up onto the bus my feelings were strong but not logical i loved melody but if i went back now everything would be the same this was a chance for her too i picked a seat near the front so i could be first off for cigarette breaks there was a window seat available and i took it hoping no one would sit beside me i leaned my head against the window and watched the rest of the passengers board lots of men traveling alone a few families and one girl who couldn't be more than 18 or 19 she looked nervous and like me kept glancing back at the bus station did she have reservations about leaving buchanan too the longer i watched her the more certain it became that it was actually the opposite she was nervous all right it seemed like she couldn't wait to get on the bus my guess was that she was running from someone her eyes slid to the bus station and back so often it was almost funny she hopped foot to foot an inch closer to the bus door every second as the driver checked her ticket and took her bag i was watching her close enough that i saw the little sum she made when someone came through the door i noticed the movement in my periphery someone bolting toward our bus i set up ready to go out there and intervene if things got violent between the girl and whoever was after her when i turned toward the threat i recognized that long curly brown hair heart-shaped face and wild green eyes immediately i tripped over seats and legs in my desperation to get off the bus as soon as i stepped down onto the pavement mel was there throwing her arms around me her slight body racked with great heaving sobs chris i'm sorry i'm sorry i thought i thought i missed you i thought you were going to tell you mel mel calm down it's all right it's fine it's fine i'm right here chris i'm right here i'm always right here i ran my fingers through her long hair letting the curls wrap around my fingers as i had done a million times before i i thought i'd missed you you didn't miss me baby you weren't coming back chris i had nothing to say because i didn't know what i was doing or even why anymore i was gonna let you go i was i i knew it was what you wanted and you were dying and buchanan suffocating i was i was gonna let you go and never come back i swear well what's happening mel i whispered into her hair driver slammed the door of the luggage compartment and walked around us boarding the bus two minutes romeo and we're out of here mel baby what's happening i'm sorry i'm sorry i didn't know it was an accident i just i was sick over us i i wasn't sleeping or eating but i i was still throwing up throwing up all the time so i i checked i went to the dollar store and i checked and i'm i'm pregnant chris my hand froze in her hair for a few seconds pregnant mel was pregnant my sign from the door my baby my girl uh mel i'm sorry i just i thought you should know she whispered i hugged her tied her and breathed into her neck i was an idiot i can never give mel up even trying proved how much of a fool i was she was mine they were mine it's gonna be okay i'll make it okay this is our baby our family i should never have left mel i hate this for you and don't you you want a new start somewhere else no no there's no new start without you listen buddy we gotta go driver yelled down from his seat kiss your girl goodbye i pulled back from mel right in and along the side of her face actually i'm not going i just need to grab my bag no mel shouted pulling away from me no you should go go be with your family my face tied and pulling into a frown i'm not leaving you especially now make up your mind kid i ain't missing my connection for this shit i recognize that voice is the travel weary man that had been behind me in the line my eyes went back to the bus driver above me you can go no no mel pulled my face down to look at her you wanted a new start in spokane well well so so do i you have family there i'll i'll keep working here when i can afford a ticket i'll come to you no no i'm not leaving you alone and pregnant in our shit apartment in our shit neighborhood i'll be fine i want this for you for for us chris i don't want to stay here either i hate buchanan you're always the best thing about it and i have a piece of you with me she touched her belly in my hand went to cover hers i'm still staying with me it's safe it's cheaper i'm fine on the couch for a few weeks fuck the apartment go to spokane work with your uncles i'll keep working at freddy's for a while save money buy a ticket and follow you no chris pulled me closer and closed her hands around the side of my face i don't want to raise our baby here not here you look close to crying she was right buchanan was the prison poverty was the bars i don't want to raise our family here either a deep breath look at me let's go romeo last call i will call you every day when we stop yes every night at spokane she nodded trying to blink away the tears that ran down her face three weeks you'll be in spokane in no more than three weeks or i'm coming back she threw her arms around me and hugged me tight you know mandy's number i love you chris hugged her back i love you too both of you everything's gonna be okay fuck it let's go said the travel weary man only this time his voice was joined by the agreement between the two of them and he said i don't want to raise our baby here moans of the other passengers a call every day every day baby i kissed her head and then pulled back squeezing her hand one more time before letting go three weeks mel nodded and then smiled for the first time and i don't know i remember when mel used to smile felt like years ago i got how beautiful it was like pure light bounced up the stairs hopped over legs and jumped into my thankfully still empty seat then i turned to look at my gorgeous girl out the window she was still smiling though it was less brilliant and more warm tint that's how i felt too fulfilled like no matter what everything was going to be all right because i was going to make sure it was and nothing was going to stop me from taking care of my girl finally someone mumbled nearby driver shifted into gear and with a stutter the bus began to pull away from the station mel waved to me she was still crying but she seemed at peace because she believed in me we were going to make sure everything was okay watched her until we turned onto 19th street the bus station my girl disappeared around the corner but i continued to look backward because i could still feel her there i wasn't leaving her behind we were a team we're 11 minutes behind you know what i jerked forward at the voice it was the weary traveler sitting up in his seat and looking over the back of it i finally gave him a good hard once over he was grizzled from the road but well kept he had to be in his 60s the man's hair was an interesting spatter of brown and gray in his close green blue collar tradesman his brown eyes were focused on me narrowed and unhappy we're not 11 minutes behind because of me i held up the bus for maybe five sorry i got a connection to make i better not fucking miss it because of you i'm sure we'll make up 11 minutes by the time we get your connection you better fucking hope so i'm going to post falls to see family just stared at him wondering why he was volunteering this information that's in idaho man shook his head little shit dropped back into his seat i leaned my head against the headrest and stared out the window watching buchanan slip away the last 20 minutes had left me with a lot to process i was going to need to convince my cousin lloyd to take me on full time not just through the holidays i was gonna have to work hard save money that meant no drinking but i should probably cut that out anyway since i had a baby on the way a baby holy shit well now we're gonna be parents good afternoon everyone my name is bradley and i'll be a drive all the way to saint louis if our first stop is going to be columbus ohio where those of you going to pittsburgh cleveland and louisville will make bus changes that should be in about six and a half slung my headphones over my head and press play on my walkman closing my eyes is the sweet notes of guns and roses patience drifted in smell and i song so okay so there's there's an asterisk there yeah yeah so i think um good spots this is big talk from a guy who abandoned his wife yeah well i was gonna say i don't know it seems like a uh there's there's a lot of there's a lot of different things happening which is we get introduced to a guy who's like i'm devastated my relationship is over right this kind of thing i'm going up to see family i'm gonna go live with them then all of a sudden his supposed ex comes up she's like by the way i've been feeling fucking sick i'm actually pregnant and then i don't care i don't care who you are just wait a couple more weeks until you can afford tickets for both of you am i mean am i wrong him him leaving right there feels insane to me if they are so poor that he had 62 dollars to his oh it's true it's true and he used two-thirds of his savings to buy one bus ticket i feel like it's like hey i have a job lined up in washington i have to go to that the it's it's mostly like the such a bombshell you know what i was thinking though the entire time was i was like a guy's like i'm lost we need to break up whatever this place is a shithole and then immediately it's like a pregnancy comes in it's like well you know the baby that's the best thing to fix a marriage or the best thing to fix a relationship is introducing a baby you know you know what pulled me out of poverty and a love lost another relationship another child yeah yeah yeah yeah that's gonna fix this um which you know i understand like him being in the situation where kind of all hope's lost it's like hey you would now have a life that you created that you're responsible for and stuff like that and that kind of almost sobering him up a bit to any discontent he had towards mel um but it does feel a little out of left field just because we don't get a ton of context as other than just saying that they were poor which it's like yeah i mean that makes sense but you wouldn't leave someone you loved over it so i'm wondering how much of that introduces it to his character though if because you're it's kind of interesting because when you when you said it you were like well you're not going to be able to do it because you're not going to be able to do it he has a job that he needs to do you know it's there which yeah you know um buchanan could just be a place where there's no work just you know it's horrible but it also does seem it's just like you didn't have a job there like it's it's it's we have i don't think that we fully revealed this character yet you know what i mean it's like all these little things where it's like well all i have is this much money to my name and then now he's supposed to support a kid and it's just a little bit like i went over when we were first reading it which i doubt it's this i was almost like they sound like crack addicts or something don't they yeah they seem like kind of like a wiry like unemployed couple that's just like tumultuously that had tumultuous relationship where he's like well fuck it i'm gonna leave and go back home to my family i mean that's kind of again there's not a lot of context given he talks about he probably can't drinking's the first thing that came to his mind yep so it kind of implies that maybe he was an alcoholic or an alcoholic yeah yeah he has some kind of vice that maybe contributes or was a cause of the poverty uh and maybe you could say that just being in that state of poverty both of them were so depressed that that's what made them draw away from each other neither it's really capable of giving emotion or feedback to another person so they kind of both just lost any love they felt and then i could see how a child would you know reawaken that feeling um but yeah i think it's more so the language switch for me where it goes from like i'm just done i gotta go and then she's like i'm pregnant he's like my sweet angel my beautiful lovely honey baby it's like delusional that's that's tough talk from a guy that was gonna just never look back now it's like three weeks or i'm back it's like okay yeah very like but like you said it could just it is kind of symptomatic of an addict or someone who is very short-term thought process does stuff quickly i have learned learn my lesson isaiah from the spire in the woods character okay what do you mean by the spire in the woods connection i guess at the beginning we were like this guy's really down on his luck and then later he turned he turns out to be a fucking monster i'm saying i've learned i've learned to be like i don't know here's the difference here's the difference spire in the woods we had all of those clues literally shoved in our face in some occasions and we just ignored all of them didn't think and you know what it was it's because we were being we were being we were young and free we were being too guy about it we were being too much of guys but it's the first little section and there have been no clues laid out to give us that so i'm confident in my stance now if we get another 18 chapters uh and there's more stuff about you know a girl i still i still think i won't be my uh my reading my uh comprehension or my like media literacy or whatever i bet it you it's like a giant red flag and i'm like god that's a great blue flag yeah hey wake up we're stopped i jerked awake folding upright in my seat where your traveler was giving me a dirty look everybody has to get off you're holding us up again lean forward and dragged my hands down my face wondering how long i've been out where are we charleston come on get the fuck off the bus so the driver can lock it he needs to take his break man grabbed my arm and began to pull me out of my seat get off me i'm going shook him off and stepped out into the aisle grabbing my bag and slinging it over my shoulder not trying to hold you up damn yeah well you are i have to make my connection me too man i've got places to be climbed down off the bus and nodded at the driver we were in a mcdonald's parking lot thank god i could take down half a dozen big macs right now now that i had my girl back come on see it's that it's that language that gets me now that i had my girl back it's like why did you not have her that's right you were abandoning her now that my girl's pregnant now that my girl has a fucking baby she's a fucking baby she's a fucking baby fetus inside of her i love her again now that she will never get away from me i just want to say i would rock that fucking old man's face i would deck him oh someone an old guy physically grabbing you to pull you up and handle me out that chair i dude i'm my heel your temple i'm talking roundhouse kick boom he's blind on the ground oh my god where am i where am i i'm like just fucking put him in a choke hold you know i really like the the idea of you just like kicking someone unconscious on a that'd be awesome can you imagine my like fat stubby legs actually getting up that high and being the p the the guys who are like the most dangerous fighters are huge and it's because when they get that weight around there it is a truck yeah god for god forbid it makes a connection yeah if if that if if if one of their bones makes contact with one of yours they win every every one of their bones and that's why it's so dangerous and i'm not even going to lie to you about something scary your health i know i don't go in the doctor as much as i should if i'm feeling sick i'll just lie in bed and sleep it away but that's only because i don't want to have to deal with the appointments insurance and blah blah blah blah blah that's why i have zocdoc zocdoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in-network doctors choose the right one for your needs and click to instantly book an appointment we're talking about in-network healthcare providers across every specialty from mental health to dental health eye care to skin care and much more and the nice thing about zocdoc is that you can filter for doctors that take your insurance are nearby and are highly rated it's super easy to use and you can find an appointment time that works for you with the right doctor for your needs plus zocdoc appointments happen fast typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking you can even score same day appointments you don't want to admit it but you should probably see a doctor so stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to zocdoc.com slash creepcast to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today that's z-o-c-d-o-c.com slash creepcast zocdoc.com slash creepcast thank you zocdoc for sponsoring the episode back to our spooky story now that i had my girl back my appetite was too I started walking toward the door, already tasting those amazing burgers. Then I thought about how I only had $22 to eat for three days. Plus, I wanted to call Mel every day. That'd be long distance, and I wanted to talk to her for more than a few minutes. Maybe I should wait to eat until we got to Columbus. The bus station would probably have cheaper food, like vending machines. It wasn't ideal, but it would get me through. I pivoted and walked over toward a crowd of smokers standing against a wall. I had nine cigarettes left, and I knew I couldn't afford to buy another pack on the road, so this would be it. Probably for the best. Baby on the way and everything. Wow, a baby. Excuse me? I turned at a voice and looked down at a girl from my bus. She was the nervous one, the runner. She didn't seem to be any more relaxed, but then again, we were only a few hours away from Buchanan. Not far enough for her comfort, I'm sure. She was pretty. Dark eyes and skin. Long hair. Though she was clearly on edge, there was a directness to her. Strength. Um, I don't have any money to spare that I can give you, but I was wondering if I could bum a cigarette? Shook one loose and held the pack out to her. She took it with thin fingers. Thank you. Got a light? She shook her head. I don't have much at all, really. I lit it four and then lit mine. So, where are you headed? She took a drag off her cigarette and looked away, playing it close to the chest. That's smart. Got a name? Yeah. You got one? This girl's gonna be just fine. Fair enough. Well, thanks for the cigarette. I usually smoke when I drink, but. Aren't you a little young to be drinking? Instead of laughing or responding to my bullshit, she looked away again. I tried to carry her voice away, but I heard her words anyway. I'm a little young for a lot of things. Oof. Jesus. Honor. What? I just, uh, didn't like that comment. I know, dude. The shiny, the shiny gentleman. The shiny gentleman rises again. It's peeking over the horizon like that fucking Howl's Moving Castle. Looks like a Ghibli machine just, like, bouncing around. I'm like, no! Not again! The giant silver meat grinder. You know what, you know what would actually be, like, the greatest trick our audience pulled? Is if this is, like, an interim story of Boroska. When, you know, um, um. Hey, hey, yo, they got sandwiches. What's your name? Kimber. Hey, okay. To remember her name, I had to remember the name. Hey, yo, Kimber, they got sandwiches. Yeah, um. If this is just an interim story of Kimber on the run, and our audience kept that secret from us until we read it, I'd be impressed. I'd be impressed. I'd be kind of hyped on that, actually. Yeah. I'd be down. But, um, yeah. Here we. Here. I don't think it'll be that, but I do think that theme will be in it, as was just mentioned. Shouldn't have tried to tease her. This girl was not in a place for that. I cleared my throat. Here. She turned back toward me and frowned at my outstretched hand. No. Here, take them. Shook the pack of cigarettes at her again. What. What do you want for them? Nothing. They're yours. She continued to eye the pack warily. I promise. Look, I just. I just found out I'm going to be a father in, like. I don't. I don't. Eight months or something. I want to quit anyway. Her eyes jerked up to mine. The girl at the station? Yeah. That's my girlfriend. The girl's eyes drifted back down to the cigarettes. Beside. Her name is Mel. That seemed to be enough. Just giving this girl that much of me. Nodded. My eyes still leery and cautiously took the cigarettes out of my hands. Thanks. She pocketed the smokes in a rack of bags slung across her chest. We exchanged. No more words. The driver eventually climbed back onto the bus and people began boarding. This was my last cigarette. Ever. If I was strong enough. Damn. I just wanted to enjoy it. Savor it. But that meant I was the last person to board the bus. Again. Rude traveler took exception. As I dropped into my seat, he shook his head at me. Of course. You've got no respect for other people, son. Grew off. Shot out of his seat. What the fuck did you say to me? Said, Screw off. Grabbed me by the jacket and shook me twice. For a small guy, he was stronger than he looked. My knees banged against the metal chair supports. I grabbed his wrist and squeezed. Pushed him back. Get the hell off me. You entitled little piece of shit. You've made the entire bus wait for you three fucking times and you've only been in this goddamn thing for four hours. Hey! Heard the driver shout. Let go, you crazy shit. I hissed at him, shoving him back while trying to avoid the other passengers sitting in aisle seats. If I miss my connection, I will punch your fucking lights out. I've got people waiting for me. Hey! Knock it off right now and sit down! Driver yelled again. No one was intervening. Look, I apologize for what happened in Buchanan. The last time I fell asleep, and I'm damn sure I'm not going to apologize for that. Just now you held up the whole goddamn bus to smoke a cigarette. I got on the bus right after that family sitting in the back. You're the one holding the bus up right now, son of a bitch. Sit down immediately or you're both being kicked off the bus. This time the driver stood, where he traveled or released me instantly and shoved me back. I fell into my seat. That's a crazy asshole. Gave me a disgusted look and sat back down in his seat in front of me. Driver glared at us both. If I see anything like that again, we'll both be left on the side of the road. You're scaring people. There's kids on this bus. Do you get that? I saluted him with two fingers, and the guy in front of me just grunted something agreeable. Driver nodded. That's your only warning. Sat down and put the bus in gear, finally pulling out of the parking lot. What do you think is up with this guy? I'm like, I can't. I can't get a read on him. I don't think he's just. I don't think he's just a weird old man. I feel like there's. There's something happening. I don't know. I don't like it. The line, I have people waiting for me, felt suspicious. He just keeps saying it. You don't understand. I have people waiting for me. It almost sounds like he. Maybe. I don't know. I have no idea what the supernatural or the threat is in the story or something like that, but he's got to be a part of it, and the I have people waiting for me felt odd. Might be too common, but. It is interesting. It's like our main character is going to meet up with his family in kind of. Maybe not as urgent, but there's a parallel between both of them where they're both going to a destination to meet up with family in some kind of way. I don't know if that has. I don't know if that will. I don't know if that's going to have any correlation or whatever, but just. I don't know. Yeah, it could be someone he's going to meet or something like that. I don't know, but we also have no idea what the threat is yet. Exactly. It's hard to. Yeah. Sometimes in these stories it's supernatural. Sometimes it's not, you know, with C.K. Walker, so we'll see. I was done with cigarettes. I wouldn't be like that, Dad. More cars passed us. I started to make up stories about who they were and where they were going. The Lincoln. New York to oversee a company merger. Pick up with the trailer. Louisville to buy a horse. The minivan with the smiling parents. Disneyland on a family vacation. Yeah, I would do that too. Take my kid to Disneyland. Something neither Mel nor I had ever gotten to do. Yeah, I wanted to do that for her too. M&M's? I whipped my head around as someone dropped into the seat next to me. It was the runaway. I was confused. What about them? She frowned. Do you want some? He held out a yellow bag. Sorry, they're peanut. They're the only ones I could grab when I was. When I left. Trailed off and looked down at the bag. So, do you want some? Held my hand out. Hell yeah, I'm starving. Peanut M&M's are the shit. The peanut M&M's are objectively the best M&M as well, so. Disagree. They're good. She smiled then. It was a small one. One that didn't reach her eyes. One that was more of relief than happiness, but there it was. And like my Mel's smile, it was beautiful. She tipped the bag into my waiting hand and didn't stop until the bag was empty. Aren't you sure? Cause I got no issue eating all these, but they're your M&M's. She nodded and then crumbled up the wrapper, shoving it into her big bag. I'm sure. She stood up and looked toward her seat at the back of the bus. Thanks. She said as I shoved it in. I shoved M&M's into my mouth by the dozen. She looked back down at me. You're welcome. Then she leaned down a little and lowered her voice to a whisper. Maybe go easy on him though, okay? She nodded to the seat in front of me. Oh, come on. You're on his side? I whispered back, mouth full of chocolate. She shook her head. No, I just don't think he's trying to be mean. I'm pretty good at reading people's intentions. I think he's just anxious. Anxious about what? He said he's going to visit his family. I don't know. I asked him. Then she got up and moved back to her seat. I rolled my eyes. I wouldn't be asking him shit. With any luck, he'd be boarding a different bus in Indianapolis. I wasn't quite sure where Post Falls, Idaho was, but I hoped to God it wasn't by way of Chicago. Night came slowly. The gray asphalt whizzing by outside, fading to black, and the cars alongside the bus darkening to unrecognizable colors. I could see city lights ahead of us. Not warm and welcoming, but bright and sharp. I could find something in the vending machine here. up my water bottle from the fountain smoke a cigarette well damn scratch that last one i could already feel the itch under my skin but i ignored it food water bathroom call mail these were the things i was focused on the bus took an exit and continued down several busy downtown streets before pulling up at the columbus bus station the doors opened and i stood a stretch glaring at the clock on the front of the bus i smiled a few minutes early screwed the weary traveler all right folks everyone will have to disembark here please do not leave any personal items of the bus if you're continuing on bus 881 to indianapolis we will be boarding at 825. if you're continuing on the other destination it has been a pleasure traveling with you and thank you for riding with us my first stop was the bathroom then the water fountain then the vending machine i bought a pack of strawberry pop-tarts and a bag of nuts and sat down to eat by eight i was antsy to talk to mel i found a payphone in the corner and spent the 25 cents to call her the line connected immediately hello i was disappointed when i heard mandy's voice through the line hey mandy uh it's chris can i talk to mel hey chris she's actually working right now i look at devil she said if you call to tell her that she'll be home around two in the morning damn it mandy's voice grew soft i know i'm sorry i tried to charge her i tried to charge her nothing for rent so she could save money but she said no she'll pay i have a feeling i have a feeling she'll be working as many doubles as she can is that is that okay being on your feet so much when you're i didn't know what mella told mandy pregnant she'll be okay our girl is strong right thanks mandy tell her i won't be able to call her until tomorrow morning and tell her tell her i'm right here can you yeah i'll tell her chris thanks bye mandy i hung up grateful i hadn't wasted more than a quarter on a call where i couldn't even talk to my girl i noticed there was a line at door nine for bus 881 i wanted another window seat so i got behind a tall lanky guy around my age he hadn't been on the bus from buchanan but there was a lot of new faces a lot of old ones too including runaway and to my immense disappointment the weary traveler this is a fun concept for just getting new people in and out of the story i think yeah yeah a bus trip yeah the amount of like random strangers that would come and how do they interact in the side it's just a fun narrative device well i was also thinking like i had the thought when the story started like okay if the story is about him on a farm in spokane why are we spending this time so much earlier at the beginning of the bus trip but now i'm seeing the story is about the bus trip yeah i think that it's like there's almost entirely about the bus trip is right i think i think it i think the whole thing will be the bus trip especially because he mentioned the last connection to spokane was in whitefall so i think that being the title of the story and all we have this interesting setup almost like an odyssey venture where we have this kind of nebulous end goal we have to reach not only for the sake of himself for the sake of mel and for the sake of their child um but whatever threat appears along the way is going to stand in the way of that well it's a very interesting concept it's a road trip horror story the um the concept here too of like i believe something's going to like what hops on the journey with him you know yeah and that's and i'm waiting for that threat and i'm i'm yeah it's weird because i keep making assumptions or in my mind but i'm like nope well so far uh other than the weary traveler being kind of suspicious with i have people waiting for me comment there's been zero horror or supernatural or creepy donations anywhere just people running away from their problems or uh running away from yeah i mean just essentially it seems like people running away from problems i don't know it's a it's a cool concept i like the idea of a bus horror story it's neat i want to take a moment to thank today's sponsor ridge wallman i've had a ridge wallet for the past five years and i am never going back this thing is leagues above bifold or a trifold wallet that is uncomfortable and takes up a ton of space in your pocket i've dropped this thing off i don't know how many hillsides and it's still holding up that's because ridge has some of the most durable and stylish wallets on the market plus recently ridge took their design and made it even better with ridge 2.0 they're 10 lighter and more modular with an improved money clip or cash straps the wallet holds up to 12 cards plus cash and comes in over 50 designs including your favorite college and pro teams plus ridge has a built for life warranty so even if your wallet is lost or stolen they've got you covered plus as someone who spent eight hours the other day i'm not joking looking for their wallet to the point they drove to the grocery store and asked if anyone had seen it i can tell you that the ridge tracker card that lets you always know where your wallet is at is also a huge plus ridge is my go-to gift for people and you should give a gift to yourself and get in on their offer that's because for a limited time our listeners can get 10 off your order at ridge by using discount code creepcast at checkout that's right 10 off all you have to do is head to the link in the description at ridge.com and use discount code creepcast and once you check out if you could let them know we sent you it would really mean a lot thank you to ridge for sponsoring the show their link will be in the description and we are now back to the episode i boarded after lanky guy and ended up across from him in a window seat so i flipped my g and r and i had to go to the store taped to the other side i noticed lanky guy took out a notebook and started sketching or maybe doodling it's hard to tell i watched his hand move quickly and deliberately over the page must be one hell of an artist there's no hesitation in its movements it's a landscape a mountain range huh i've been so focused watching his hands i didn't even realize he caught me staring his eyes shot up to mine briefly my girl likes mountains i nodded cool man you going to see your girl yet cool and that was it lanky kept sketching and i relaxed back into my seat only a few hours to indianapolis and i'd be changing buses hopefully i could stay out of weary traveler's way i smiled noting i've been on the bus before him this time he was near the back with runaway about halfway between us i drifted to sleep quickly hoping i'd stay asleep until he stopped again at midnight hey jerked awake at lanky's voice what i said my voice raspy you dropped your a bag was on the floor spilling out of it god damn it been over and started shoving stuff back in you sleep heavy i know my girl sleeps heavy too he smiled a little then looking down at his drawing which appeared to be finished haven't seen her in a while i guess sitting back up i didn't always like to get into conversations on transcontinental bus rides but lanky seemed cool yeah almost a year what's her name i asked he hesitated i understood that i didn't give out personal details to strangers either sarah she's an accountant smart way smarter than me she likes me anyway though that's cool my girl's way smarter than me too how long you been together about four years off and on i think this time it's for real though i really hope he's not this isn't about the 18 or 19 year old girl i hope not too that'd be awful uh but she would have he would have noticed her i'd imagine freak out or something um also it's funny to me that as soon as you start reading someone who's an artist doodling and sketching you immediately do like a uh heavy lisp nerdy geeky voice i always paid whenever i uh whenever i'm like if i'm ever drawing or something in a sketchbook i always feel like a kind of a dork or something so i'm always just like yeah i draw my book i always like to kind of just joke around like that but also also i have i have this character until your self-depreciation yes yes yes yes okay so is that what you're about to say when you said i have to oh no i i just i have uh i have only so many voices so i'm trying i'm trying to differentiate them yeah yeah yeah good for you man thanks he said closing his notebook chipping in his bag well that's indianapolis turn to look out my window we were definitely heading into a big city i could use a stretch and a cigarette i can't even think about anything else i need a nicotine damn then i remembered the dad with smoke clouding around his baby in the car no bathroom water bus change there's no point in calling mel it's only a little after midnight we reached the station and i bought another pack of pop tarts for the morning time i checked my ticket and saw it was boarding bus 950 at door one in about 10 minutes people were lining up already so of course i did too again hoping weary traveler was on literally any other bus but there he was in line near the front when he saw me he shook his head in disappointment well i don't like you either buddy runaway and lanky were also in my line i was happy about these two they were all right company the driver checked our tickets and let us board this time i was near the back runaway was a few rows behind weary traveler even farther back and lanky was closer to the front i ended up without him seat partner again and smiled at my good luck after a few minutes the driver climbed on she was pulling the door shut when we heard a loud bang on the glass the woman frowned down at whoever it was and then reopened the doors she nodded politely at the guy who climbed the stairs he smiled and shoved his ticket at her you almost missed the bus it's after departure the driver a woman in her late 40s told him before smiling back glad you made it yeah i gotta make it to chicago i wouldn't miss my bus baby he said to her and i automatically hated his voice slithered over your skin like a wave of grease clinging and sour all right well why don't you take your seat she said clearly put off being called baby by some nut sack in his late 20s or maybe younger with a hard life behind him the closer he came the better i could see him he was scraggly jerky itchy possibly high or something and he stank the guy moved toward the back of the bus studying everyone in every seat as he did i had a sick idea of what he was looking for he spun around to look for runaway she was sitting alone with the nervous look on her face as he came closer she was getting the same vibes we all were and she was the only single woman on the bus it was clear as day when scraggle noticed her his eyes lit up and he moved a bit faster i started to stand up hoping to move back to the seat next to her but he was too close i saw movement out of the corner of my eye and glanced back weary traveler has moved up to sit next to her he saw my intention and nodded at me he had her covered i looked back towards scraggle who was now frowning he instead took a seat directly behind her weary traveler and i exchanged a look that may as well have been a conversation he would stay right next to her and i was there if he needed help i fell back into my seat and saw lanky eyeing the entire exchange scraggle wasn't very big but he was a great man he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could look up to he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to and he was the only person i could talk to yeah well it's what the runaway said that also i like how none of them have names so it's scraggle runaway traveler but yeah it vibes it flows um very it's what runaway said where it's like he's just anxious about something for some reason the driver sandra she introduced herself as over the pa got the bus on the road and headed out towards chicago i was looking forward to getting there it would be early morning and i'd be able to call my girl and then again in minneapolis things were quiet for most of the ride as other passengers were slept the only sounds on the bus were quiet talking light snoring and lanky scribbling i still kept my headphones off in case of trouble and trouble was what we eventually got it was early sunrise when i heard runaway shout don't touch me i spun around just in time to see scraggle pull his hand back between the seats we look so peaceful sleeping there beautiful like a princess i heard a murmur where a traveler was already turned around in the guy's face you don't touch women who don't give you permission to touch them calm down old man lanky smiled as he relaxed back in his seat i just brushed your hair off her face that's not all you touch oh you liked it baby i saw you were still asleep and you purred for me you curse was loud enough to wake most of the back of the bus stood up and nodded at scraggle maybe you should switch seats with me scraggle sneered at me i'm good where i am wasn't a request the seats in front of my row are empty so you should be able to keep yourself yeah and what if she doesn't want me to keep my hands to myself believe me i do runaway spat where your traveler stood up nodded in my direction i think you should go no scraggle laughed then she can move up i said and held up my hand to run away she squeezed by weary traveler and dropped into the seat next to me now leave that girl alone that can you do that voice again now leave that girl alone kind of like kermit kind of suddenly i look to my left and kermit the frog of muppets fame is sitting in the seat next to the lane you let her go stop touching her yeah kermit standing up for women's rights no means nobody hey kermit wood dude he's a g you have a wood i'll break your fingers hey look at me pipsqueak i'll you up you you see me all right jesus just calm down man just calm down i'll skin your bra bastard what when you talk you skin my you heard me a little sick little it's been a completely normal story no supernatural it's no creature and then just cry oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god kermit the frog rotates around in his chair just actually just like to think it's jim henson and he's under the seat with his arm up puppeting he can cut a hole in the chair so that he can puppet kermit yeah a man from the back of the bus said into the silence perfect another woman said quietly though we all heard it it's crackle turned around who said that who the said that let it go man almost to chicago yeah why getting off in chicago are you how about that fine piece of woman you got there is she shut the up boy weary traveler said and scraggle laughed the pa suddenly boomed over us waking the front of the bus to let us know we were in chicago and for those of us continuing on bus 950 the bus would pre-board within the hour not much time at this point i needed a cigarette badly it was a little too late to be honest i even thought about me one back off runway but i couldn't stop thinking about the dad in the car his baby in the back i could be strong for mel as soon as i was off the bus i was shoving a quarter into a payphone mel picking up on the second ring hey baby hey where are you chicago i know you just got to sleep a couple hours ago there was silence i'm sorry i just needed to hear your voice i needed to hear yours too i miss you hey mel so i'm almost positive this isn't how your voice sounded in our first interaction at the beginning of the story and i feel like there's some trickery afoot that has now reduced you to whatever this comical character is for a bit that some narrators about a prolific moment i don't know how to feel about it i'm pregnant i'm gonna i'm gonna hang up the phone now bye i'm asleep because the baby is that how it works i need to hear yours too i miss you you want you want to hear mine too what oh you now now that hey mel so now the guy narrating your voice is now trying to go back to the story and read the lines like this is normal so i guess i have no recourse as the other narrator of this podcast but who cares i have to continue the narration like this i miss you too how are you feeling good tired and lonely but i'm glad you win we need to do this i leaned against the payphone i know but i hate it so do i it's just a couple months weeks baby it's weeks it's all a guess i think it's just a guy screaming yeah it's like it's like a uh red zolo cup with a string tied to it and there's another guy who has another string tied off underneath please deposit 25 minutes to continue this call the whole like him laying against the paper i'm like oh i miss you so much baby i can't bubble he was abandoning her earlier that day i just want to say that it's also any time i like i'm dreading the story now because every time we do these calls i have to call you like we're talking to each other as if like i just so i wasn't i wasn't gonna i hate this interaction between towards it i wasn't gonna draw attention to it that's that's why i was going like 809 silly because at first it was like hearing you'd be like i know but i hate it i was like jesus that first interaction where she stopped him i know i didn't want to say anything it was rough i didn't want to say anything because i didn't want to derail but me and you talking to each other and going like no baby i'll just i did not like it i did not like it it was too much it was too much all i'm saying is he better stop he better stop calling her there there better be like he better get robbed or something so we can stop doing those goddamn conversations i need mel to be dead so that i don't have to keep yeah like i was melish bed by a truck in here watch mel was mel struck by a by a giant cement truck oh my god that's all that's how it needs to end that's what i need to happen now i can't i can only i can only like give you bedroom eyes vocally for so long yeah that or during the conversation yeah we just hear the horn blasting and then you know what was that what was that game guys would play it was like high school guys no not tummy sticks we're like you're both sitting down and it's like uh oh i i okay they called it gay chicken you know i'm talking about now what is that it's so it's like it's something that guys would do okay there's no way i can describe this that it's not gonna sound terrible did you play did you play no gun chicken is that why everyone kept whatever you met your friends not not not gun chicken not gay chicken no i said gay chicken yeah yeah well it would be like if they're a group of guys together and it was like one of you touches one of the other's knee and vice versa and then someone moves their hand up your leg or whatever and still someone's like i can't this is too much i can't i can't i'm out whatever right yeah when they played at your house they always won didn't they well see that's the problem that's the problem with explaining this story because then people are like well what if no one backs out yeah because that's yeah that's the problem with explaining this story because then people are like well what if exactly what happened that's why they kept calling you chicken little all throughout high school didn't they you're like uh i'm not gonna yeah this rooster's not crowing this morning i say i don't want to play this anymore though the way i like don't phrase it that way with the i don't want to play this yeah i was just saying cut that last part that sounds awful um my point is i i got a like ptsd flashback to that um my point is i i got a like ptsd flashback to that um i was just saying cut that last part that sounds awful um my point is i i got a like ptsd flashback to that um i was just saying cut that last part that sounds awful man i need you to know yeah yeah hunter as my friend i need you to know i don't like this i don't like doing this all i'm saying is i better i better not look back at the footage i better not look back at the footage and you're not on your tummy and you're like kicking your feet up in the air you're kicking your feet as if you're finding this yeah i've got like i've got the cord for the microphone i'm like twirling it around my finger like yeah if i could never quit you yeah exactly i quickly dug in my pocket looking for another quarter shit long distance on a payphone was a quarter a minute damn chris yeah it's okay i'm gonna go back to sleep call me from minnesota i sighed of course she was tired i couldn't keep her on the phone just to hear her voice yeah baby i'll call in a few hours okay love you chris love you too good night i hate it so much i'm i just hate that i've completely lost the track that this is even voice i feel like it's just people it's just i feel like i'm just talking to you on the other end okay i love you isaiah i love you too baby good night yeah where the fuck is like the where the fuck are like the killer robots or like the weird sheriff yeah what happened to the shiny gentleman where's the ghost i thought this was a story about vampires or something like what's going on with all this yeah this is this is what what the true horror is just literally isaiah confessing his uh his insistent need to play the game gay chicken with his friends this is this is the scariest story i've ever read because it's just me this is the scariest story just because i have to be intimate in fact to be intimate in conversation with my friend isaiah that that that makes this the most horrifying story of all yeah well ck walker has done it again also i'm so tired of hearing you say baby i it's fucking driving me insane it's it's there's not a good way to say it dude there's not a good way to say it you've done it you've done it a couple different ways they'd be like baby i'm like baby you said you said it like a couple different ways and each time i'm like uh yeah i feel like there's not a good way to be like oh babe you can't say oh baby in a way that's like sounds like the character also isn't awful it's just it's a rough play oh baby that'd make it worse than make it worse all right now you're getting a little too into it now all right fuck it i'm going all in fuck it i'm going 110 i can't i can't do that i hung up the headset and ran my hands through my hair shit walking over to the vending machine i paid for a water and another pack of pop tarts if i had to eat nothing but pop tarts all the way to washington i would nothing would stop me from calling mel every day for as many minutes as she would talk to me passengers traveling on bus 950 to minneapolis please line up at bay 16 i walked over to door 16 and was for once happy to see weary traveler in line but unfortunately so was runaway and scraggle a few people behind her hey runaway i called she looked around for a minute till she found me why don't you come back here with me runaway saw where i was looking and i'd scraggle as she passed him he made a really loud noise and i was like oh my god i'm gonna die i'm gonna die and she looked away that's disgusting she said when she neared me i know i thought we'd let him pick his seat first runaway nodded and then thank you stepped a little closer but didn't touch her you're welcome i know he's saying he didn't touch her in the sense of like she needs space she's obviously but too like it makes sense but it's it's a little it just creeped me out okay okay okay i'm glad you felt the same because i was like what the fuck you should be i'm like i'm i never assumed you did i stepped closer but i did not lay a finger on her not one hey buddy none of us were thinking that you were gonna do that thanks for clarifying i guess i like i go almost instinctively wanted to like put my hands up like all right dude damn because i and again i get it because it's like you know yeah she's being touched by weird people has a history so he's like he's acknowledging your space but the way it's worded is i stepped a little closer i didn't touch her didn't touch her i said you're welcome since we were at the back there was only single seats left runaway i was happy to see sat next to lanky i ended up next to a woman who hadn't been on our bus before and looked like she'd been traveling for months she gave me a weary nod and then looked out the window closed my eyes for the first time in hours what is like even drawing he's drawing uh hills and like meadows mountains right okay like landscapes it sounds like yeah all right i didn't know if he was just drawing like mechs or something he's like i like gundam you like gundam that'd be awesome this is a guy just got kermit the frog in one seek and then the other guy over there is like i love evangelion yeah exactly yeah yeah kermit's like i really like evangelion like he's like shut the fuck up the rebuilds are total best you know it kermit is on this bus to me by the way like when i think of an overview of it he's like two rows back left side behind the driver like which also to be fair end of evangelion is the official ending to me so i just want to put that out there so this is crazy but i still have never watched evangelion i'm surprised because i feel like you'd be right up your alley shinji is probably is literally you by the way i hate that i hate that because i do that voice and you tell me that shinji yeah no it's it's it's just like that okay that's not a good thing to say about me but um i like attack on titan's like one of my favorite things ever so i never finished it i never i never finished it i never finished it i heard people really like it i just remember hearing like how far did you get i i don't care remember i couldn't tell you all i know is the people kind of told me what happened towards the end and i was like this sounds kind of silly it was a little silly no no no no but i'm also a pessimistic man so i'll say it this way uh attack on titan watching the full series is one of the best things i've ever seen like of a movie of a tv show of anything like that i would easily put it in the top yeah i would easily put it in the top probably three shows i've ever seen were you happy when you found out like inside the castle walls there's like the giant people that's the end of season one yeah that's the end of season one okay yep yep there's four seasons and then season four is the length of all three other seasons combined and between season three and four the show completely changes what it is so dramatically but it had subtly set it up so well it's one of the most impressive writing decisions i've ever seen done in a story that the show was so much one thing and became something else in a way that was set up but i never would have realized until i got to the end and by the end i was like wow that completely took me for a loop if like really if if you want to watch uh anything i would recommend giving attack on titan another shot okay i'm watching doctor who right now but i'll watch it here pretty soon i watched uh i know we're just talking now not even reading the story but i watched uh i was really into doctor who when i was young and i was like oh my god i'm gonna watch this longer and i watched all of nine ten and eleven and i quit a little bit into twelve i did i'm not watching doctor who it was a lie okay all right well so you got me with that one i thought maybe it was for a video or something like that so there's like a realm of no no if i have to see that fucking clip of like the van gogh episode again i'm gonna actually put a gun in my mouth and pull the trigger oh where he goes to the artwork and there's the flowers that he painted for amy and he's like see people love your heart and he's like this is crazy he's like crying it's really i don't know i've seen that clip so many times now when people are like show name now and i'm like i feel like everyone should know this is just that doctor who it doesn't matter we should just keep going you want it you want to know maybe gosh i don't even know if i should share this online oh wow i'm gonna tell you this because it came up and this is funny careful but i need i need you hunter to not think less of me for this that's gonna be hard go ahead so when i was i want to say 11 maybe 12 uh no it was my freshman year of high school wasn't it dang that's i had to be 13 okay i was so into doctor who and that episode specifically the van gogh one i loved so much that i wrote a fan fiction about you about vincent van gogh's suicide after with within the context of him meeting doctor wow you know you you did a lot of interesting interesting things little boy are you saying this is a gay fan fiction about van gogh and doctor who is that what you're saying no no no no no no no no no no no there's no role in this romance involved by fanfic i mean it was it was like it was it was a description of like van gogh's suicide but his inner monologue why did you do this because i liked that episode so much so that you wanted to write a fan fiction about a guy killing himself it was no because van gogh really did kill himself so it was like it was a historical suicide with the context of like him thinking about what the doctor showed him and all that it was it's it's insane it is absolutely horrific and i completely memory hold that until you brought that episode back well that's uh i feel like there's other parts that still have not been revealed i still feel like there's some kind of some kind of uh there was no there was no homoeroticism there was no romance there's no stuff like that we cannot prove or deny that technically uh so in the air it's it's it's tentative is how it's how i'm reading it okay um but you just uh gosh i needed that was that was this was like a catholic confession for me because i remembered it it felt like i was in like the uh the little the the the prayer box or whatever the fuck the confession booth yeah in the confessional i'm like on the other side of the screen just like looking at you you're you're trying to make eye contact with me through the screen telling me about this and i'm like desperately side i'm just like trying not to make eye contact with you just side eyeing you uh so yeah that uh that's the thing that happened you've been revealing a lot about your childhood this this is usually usually it's i i'm the one who has to talk about my weird that's that's what i just said it's one of the worst things i've ever done it took a piece of my humanity that gives so many that just gives so much context to like so many underlined issues i had to have had and problems and being sheltered and i just love the idea of you watching that episode of doctor who and like holding the tv remote turning off your tv and just being like wow that was incredible i know what i must do there's no i've i've no i have nothing to say to make it better that's just a thing that you know what it's i i think it's a perfectly innocent thing you did that's not bad i think it's funny but it's uh as soon as we're done recording i'm gonna get a text from her that's like i can't keep doing this show all right i have to before this episode goes live i have to try to track that down and make sure that's not posted anywhere i wish you all the luck in the world i hope not okay anyway it was somewhere near madison that the trouble started woke up to yelling and looked back to see lanky taking a punt weary traveler trying to hold back scraggle in the aisle runaway practically standing in her seat trying to get the bus driver's attention ready to treat the seats now scraggle punched lanky in the stomach again weary traveler not able to do much to hold him back fuck off lanky hit back but it didn't slow down scraggle where he tried to wrestle him down in the aisle sit back in your goddamn seat scraggle knocked him off easily then turned around and kicked weary a man clearly on the other side of 60. the entire bus erupted in outrage but no one seemed to want to intervene like he tried to push him away from runaway again but scraggle took him down with one punch to the face yeah anybody else want some scraggle sat down in lanky's seat and stroked runaway's leg as she tried to kick him off come on baby you can sit right in my lap i was over my seat and down the aisle before he could yank her down on him i grabbed scraggle by his shirt and hauled him up weary was old lanky wasn't accustomed to taking a punch but i did manual labor for a living and got into a lot of bar fights even high as a kite and freakishly strong scraggle had nothing on me i dragged him down the aisle as he yipped and cursed a few passengers got in a kick or two as he was pulled between them where the fuck are you taking me you're getting off the bus the fuck i am they attacked me first i was just trying to talk friendly to that girl yeah looked real friendly sandra who must have caught some of the commotion was already pulling the bus over get off me ma'am ma'am this man is assaulting me and i would like the police called scraggle choked as i dragged him down the stairs of the bus sandra scoffed look more like you were harassing that poor girl and kicking an old man i don't told i don't tolerate that sort of behavior on my bus you're getting off here she opened the doors and i pushed him out landed on his feet and spun around quickly you can't fucking do this i paid i'm calling corporate bus 950 and you can't just leave me here you have my bag backpack came flying out the door behind me and landed in a dirty puddle further down the embankment there's your fucking bag runaway said then turn and walked back to receipt safe travels i smiled at him as the bus driver pulled the doors closed in front of me i watched scraggle try to chase the bus and we pulled away other passengers flipped him off or insulted him out the window some gave me high fives or nodded approvingly at me i will say that moment felt a little too everyone stood up and clapped you know it's a little marvel-esque but i'm here for the ride yeah yeah runaway was helping weary back to his seat and lanky was already next to him i pulled out some kleenex that mal had put in my backpack ages ago so i offered it to them hey you got you good lanky lanky laughed my name's dylan dylan i'm chris mac weary interjected from next to lanky i'm i'm mac nice to meet you chris thanks for stepping in yeah i was getting my ass beat dylan laughed oh you were not the dude was just super messed out runaway chimed in and thank you all of you i'm i'm gracie well that was eventful hopefully some of you are getting off in minnie for good nope i'm going through to idaho weary now mac said get us my wyoming dylan crazy hesitated feelings montana i don't know anybody there but i don't know i heard it's a nice place i nodded smoke ain't for me it's like we're all in for the long call here sit mac nodded at me why you need to clean that clean what he bit you in the arm i looked down at my arm damn he had broke skin too in my head back and closed my eyes don't worry about it i'm sure you're fine did you know what happened to him i thought it was a dream but it wasn't a dream i thought it was just a dream i'm glad you're okay dylan laughed and then poured hydrogen peroxide on my arm that he'd gotten from god knows where i must have fallen asleep again because the next thing i knew mac was gently nudging me hey you want some jerky i blinked and set up what jerky you look like you haven't eaten in days he hasn't i heard gracie from across the aisle set up and rubbed my eyes and took the strip back where are we the border which border we're almost in north dakota i shot up what happened to minneapolis you slept through it soundly said you were going through to washington didn't seem any reason to wake you no reason i was supposed to call my girl well you can call her from whitefall that's a terminal a lot of people are changing buses there mac and me are well how far is whitefall i asked exasperated dylan's arm came over the back of my seat and hugged the headrest a couple hours but you really didn't miss anything pay for bake was crazy in minneapolis i supposed to call my girl sarah that wasn't time call him whitefall god i knocked my head back against the seat rest damn it i didn't know what time i'll work today i was supposed to call her from minnesota what if you didn't know what time i'll work today i was supposed to call her from minnesota what if you what if you didn't know what time i'll work today i was supposed to call her from minnesota what if you was worried about me was worried about me was worried about me couldn't get to whitefall soon enough max couldn't get to whitefall soon enough max couldn't get to whitefall soon enough max shared his entire bag of jerky with me shared his entire bag of jerky with me shared his entire bag of jerky with me silently and i was grateful silently and i was grateful silently and i was grateful maybe wasn't so bad after all just had maybe wasn't so bad after all just had maybe wasn't so bad after all just had some place to be some place important i some place to be some place important i some place to be some place important i guess the snow started just a after we hit the border first gentle flakes then a flurry finally a full-on whiteout i had no idea how the driver could even see through it and even though whitefall was only supposed to be about two hours or so from the border it felt more like five it even seemed like the sun was setting by the time the pa came on wasn't until then i realized we had switched bus drivers and many folks this is richie your driver we're pulling into whitefall station now looks like we've got a few other buses parked which is great for you folks making transfers everything should move on schedule provided the weather cooperates which as you can see is pretty nasty out there this is going to be a 20 minute stop ordinarily i'd give mention to some of the fast food restaurants in town if you want something hot to eat but i don't recommend leaving the bus station in whitefall it's a real blizzard out there he was right it was hard to see anything at all in fact slowly the clean walls of the red brick bus station materialized out of the building white it was a sizable terminal not quite as big as indianapolis the bus pulled to a stop and the doors opened please take everything with you off the bus everyone must get off even if you are continuing on with us to rapid city we're going to reboard at 5 40. the current time is 5 20. 5 20. this was supposed to be an unhurried three hour stop for me but it seems i would only have 10 minutes to find a board bus 414. was the weather that bad had we been going that slow i stood up quickly hoping to be the first people off nice meeting you all good luck mac we only got 10 minutes before our bus leaves i saw the bus station was madness there had to be 70 people inside including us and it wasn't as big on the inside as it had looked from the outside everyone was shouting people were snapping at each other baby screamed bloody murder on the other side of the room it was absolute chaos hell heard mac beside me whatever let's just figure out what door we need to be at the ticket window was empty of a station employee so i went to the board near the front of the room i found bus 414 but across from it where the door number should be there was nothing it was blank in fact they were all blank what the hell is going on the guy who answered my question was standing underneath the board leaning up against the wall he had on a chief's t-shirt and looked like he just pulled up in his daddy's lexus buses are canceled all of them board has been like this since the first one rolled up this morning from kansas city that i have a connection to make i gotta make it to post falls mac was red-faced and heaving he was pissed stranger laughed but there's no humor in it start walking then you little mac yelled and tried to take a step toward the other guy put an arm across his chest relax mac he's just some guy having a bad day like the rest of us yeah we've all got places to be max so play nice the douchebag taunted we walked away and mac shook my arm off play nice that guy all the buses really canceled i gotta get on the 414 to post falls someone's meeting me at 9 00 p.m i told her 9 p.m i can't be late i promised gracie appeared 312 to billings is canceled too also i just want to say mac like i said there's a there's a correlation between him needing to get there like it's now we're finding out that it's also like a woman that he's meeting so there's just that connection is kind of interesting but there's more information coming out yeah yeah back of the board inside doesn't look like any of us are going anywhere should we find someone to talk to crazy snorted i tried there's not a station employee or driver to be found i haven't tried knocking on the employee's only door and no one answered dylan had suddenly left the building and he was just sitting there waiting for the bus to get out of his car dylan had suddenly left the bus and he was just sitting there waiting for the bus to get out of his car suddenly appeared behind us as well suddenly appeared behind us as well suddenly appeared behind us as well i gotta call sarah yeah i gotta use the i gotta call sarah yeah i gotta use the i gotta call sarah yeah i gotta use the phone too phone too phone too mac mac mac no no i don't no no i don't no no i don't i don't have her phone number just an i don't have her phone number just an i don't have her phone number just an address and a letter won't make it in address and a letter won't make it in address and a letter won't make it in time time time yeah yeah yeah i had a mac on the shoulder that followed i had a mac on the shoulder that followed i had a mac on the shoulder that followed dylan to the pay phones dylan to the pay phones dylan to the pay phones there were two and only one was free you there were two and only one was free you there were two and only one was free you go ahead go ahead go ahead thanks man phone ring so long i didn't thanks man phone ring so long i didn't thanks man phone ring so long i didn't think mel was going to answer she did think mel was going to answer she did think mel was going to answer she did the connection was pretty bad damn it the connection was pretty bad damn it the connection was pretty bad damn it i could hear i could hear i could hear i'm like i'm like i'm like god damn it let that go to god damn it let that go to god damn it let that go to voicemail holy voicemail holy voicemail holy don't make us do this don't send us back um well he said the connection is bad so they'll probably just be like oh you're breaking up or something right it's better so i could hear about 70 of everything she said but that was it i apologized for minneapolis and she understood i told her it looked like there'd be a delay getting to spokane and then i was stuck in a blizzard of north dakota that's terrible how bad is it remember new york four years ago oh my god but worse said something that i didn't catch i asked her to repeat it doctor an appointment maybe monday you have an appointment on monday mel phone disconnected i stared at it a few seconds before pulling another quarter out of my pocket don't bother you'll get the same shitty connection weren't a tall blonde woman next to me kept digging oh i just want to try save your money son an older man said from beside her she's right the storm is interfering might as well wait until it calms down some took a look outside but all i could see was white you think it'll calm down it better i have to get to chicago right just came from there man next to her nodded minneapolis bus that's how you come in stuck out his hand name's john pollock this is my daughter emily i shook it chris dykes held my hand out to emily and she took it as well in a pretty crushing grip better settle in for the night styx nobody's getting out of here until morning yeah who said that come over the pa while you're on the phone i exchanged a look with dylan not good especially not good for mac nice meeting you i said currently before dylan and i headed towards the last place we'd seen the weary old traveler found him sitting down in a chair near the door when he had come in from gracie was next to him smoking a cigarette god i could use one of those right now how you doing mac you talked to your girl bad connection looked over at dylan and you you get a hold of your girl dylan shook his head didn't see much of a point mac nodded so we're all fucked i sat down across from him noticing for the first time most of the people on our bus were seated in this area too what do we do now just wait gracie nodded yep we're stuck here until morning anybody want anything for the fast food place yes thank you a man i recognize from our bus asked i'm gonna chance the storm see if i can find a mcdonald's nearby or something awesome this is perfect dude i'll tell you what you are a trooper right now there's like nine characters so i i keep changing fucking up the voices i'm trying so hard bro this is rough i'm glad i took the protagonist because oh my gosh man i do not envy you right now a few people raised their hands and handed him money god knew it was tempting but i needed to save as much as possible for the payphones opted for a snickers bar from the vending machine instead i watched him walk to the front door that flap in his arms runs outside there's puppet strings above him swinging his legs back and forward jim henson on a rolly chair he's like laying like a he's like on one of those mechanic chairs in a uh like a garage yeah uh floor dolly yeah i watched him walk to the front door of the station he struggled with the way okay i got like he struggled with the wind and the door and in the end all he left behind was the dusting of snow that escaped into the building when he left i never knew he was going to be able to get out of the building but he was going to be able to get out of the building his name we never saw him again whoa i wonder if this is coming i wonder if this is i wonder if this is like becoming the mist almost seems like a purgatory kind of story or something you know everyone's got somewhere to be yeah yeah but then now they've gotten there now there's no connection it's like there's no this you can't even make it to the real world or i don't know it just seems kind of odd a very like ghost slay almost yeah you know that too i almost get missed vibes too of like yeah we're all stuck inside of the structure can't go out past the veil you know yeah we all did our best to get comfortable in our chairs the baby wherever it was stopped screaming around nine gracie who was stretched out on the floor dropped off first settled between me and a chair on a ride and dylan and mac and chairs on our other side the station quieted down and by 1am there were only whispers and wind to keep me company i tried calling mel again around 1 30 and i think i got mandy but the distortion was so bad it was impossible to tell i finally fell asleep around 3am and didn't wake again until 8. people were up and moving around by then the sun might have been out but there was no way to tell an impossible amount of snow seemed to have fallen overnight and the windows were almost completely covered by the drifts there had to be seven feet of it out there it was ludicrous hey you i rubbed my eyes and then looked over at a vaguely familiar man me yeah you what's your name dykes okay styx well that guy took my money last night for a burger and he never came back okay probably took all our cash and got a hotel for the night okay well what are you gonna do about it what do you mean i didn't give him any money yeah but you're the guy who sorts problems like the meth head on the bus i got a problem so help me sort it look man i don't know where you got that idea but i can't do anything about your money if he went to a hotel he'll be back this morning to board his bus take it up with him then i left the guy and headed to the bathroom the line for the women's wrapped around the wall and that morning i couldn't have been happier to be a dude bathroom was blessedly silent and i reveled in that too i can feel an undercurrent of anxiety and distress everywhere wash the terminal from wall to wall here i was happy to be removed from it and alone good morning folks cracked the pa above me this is the station master speaking on behalf of your drivers and the gray lure company i'm sure you're all very eager to board your buses and get on the road to your destinations we sympathize wholeheartedly our passengers so we are disappointed to have to inform you that the storm is not predicted to let up until this evening i could hear groans and curses and even yelling from the other side of the door our vending machines are fully stocked with food and drinks so we ask that you do not attempt to step outside as winds are in 65 mile an hour range and visibility is zero for your safety please do not attempt to leave the station fuck you i heard someone yell through the door this was bad real bad there were a couple of machines on each wall but hardly enough to feed 70 people for an entire extra day the one i had used last night was already almost empty i tried my hands and walked out the door heading back to our group section as soon as i sat down gracie offered me a cigarette i know you're stressed i am are you sure you don't want one i had to pack hungrily then i thought of the man in the car well i'll have one matt grumbled the rest of the day passed slowly talked about tv movies video games places we visited but nothing personal i had pop-tarts and goldfish from the vending machine tried to call melligan and exchanged maybe eight words i could understand with her by nightfall things were dire we've been waiting all day to hear about the storm in our buses but no one showed up at the ticket windows and no one addressed us over the loudspeaker around six i watched the stranger in the chief's t-shirt bang on the employee door with a couple other guys they tried pounding on it i tried shouting hell they even tried kicking the door in but nothing broke it had now been over 20 four hours that we had all been stranded here the baby screamed from somewhere man fought with another over the last moon pie in the vending machine frustrated people tried the phones what do you think chris dylan fell down into a chair next to me i think this place is a breaking point and we're gonna hit it tomorrow night you give them that long we don't hear something over the pa before then yeah what do you think they're doing back there i shrugged drinking coffee sleeping on the couches laughing at us mac looked out the window and i thought that was it i was like what are you doing back there i shrugged drinking coffee sleeping on the couches laughing at us i shrugged drinking coffee sleeping on the couches laughing at us mac looked out the window and i was like what are you doing back there i shrugged drinking coffee sleeping on the couches laughing at us mac looked out the window and i was like the storm doesn't look that bad i had to the storm doesn't look that bad i had to the storm doesn't look that bad i had to disagree disagree disagree sleep came easier that night due to my sheer sleep came easier that night due to my sheer sleep came easier that night due to my sheer exhaustion exhaustion exhaustion i slept from 10 at night to 8 in the i slept from 10 at night to 8 in the i slept from 10 at night to 8 in the morning and was only woken by shouting morning and was only woken by shouting morning and was only woken by shouting a man was trying to leave the station and a man was trying to leave the station and a man was trying to leave the station and two people i recognized father and two people i recognized father and two people i recognized father and daughter i'd met two days before we're daughter i'd met two days before we're daughter i'd met two days before we're trying to stop him trying to stop him trying to stop him i have to get out of here i have money i have to get out of here i have money i have to get out of here i have money i'll find the cops or the red cross or i'll find the cops or the red cross or i'll find the cops or the red cross or something i'll send help something i'll send help something i'll send help andy no andy no andy no emily polak yelled you'll die out there emily polak yelled you'll die out there emily polak yelled you'll die out there i can't stay in here anymore i can't i can't stay in here anymore i can't i can't stay in here anymore i can't andy stop emily yanked back in his arm andy stop emily yanked back in his arm andy stop emily yanked back in his arm as he tried for the door again as he tried for the door again as he tried for the door again we need you more importantly son we need you more importantly son we need you more importantly son it's not safe out there father chimed it's not safe out there father chimed it's not safe out there father chimed in in in oh let him go stranger with the chief's oh let him go stranger with the chief's oh let him go stranger with the chief's t-shirt laughed he's an adult you can t-shirt laughed he's an adult you can t-shirt laughed he's an adult you can decide what he wants stay out of this decide what he wants stay out of this decide what he wants stay out of this church group in the corner but if any of church group in the corner but if any of church group in the corner but if any of them wanted to leave of their own free them wanted to leave of their own free them wanted to leave of their own free will i would let them will i would let them will i would let them emily polack laughed emily polack laughed emily polack laughed that's because you don't care now that's because you don't care now that's because you don't care now off you pretty mama's boy my name is off you pretty mama's boy my name is off you pretty mama's boy my name is acker but thanks for the compliment acker but thanks for the compliment acker but thanks for the compliment hey hey hey there's no need for that there's no need for that there's no need for that well it looks like you're a daddy girls well it looks like you're a daddy girls well it looks like you're a daddy girls too you stupid too you stupid too you stupid i do like to think that the they the i do like to think that the they the i do like to think that the they the kansas city chiefs guy is just like a kansas city chiefs guy is just like a kansas city chiefs guy is just like a super sassy gay man i really love that super sassy gay man i really love that super sassy gay man i really love that yeah yeah yeah it's a dude if you close your eyes it's a dude if you close your eyes it's a dude if you close your eyes right now it sounds like you're having a right now it sounds like you're having a right now it sounds like you're having a mental breakdown i know i feel like kind of i know i feel like kind of i know i feel like kind of schizophrenic schizophrenic schizophrenic just yelling just yelling just yelling hey there's no need for that well it hey there's no need for that well it hey there's no need for that well it looks like your little daddy's girl too looks like your little daddy's girl too looks like your little daddy's girl too don't deal with your own group acker don't deal with your own group acker don't deal with your own group acker she's after the man she's been holding she's after the man she's been holding she's after the man she's been holding the hostage took them over to jerk away the hostage took them over to jerk away the hostage took them over to jerk away from her throw open the door and bolt from her throw open the door and bolt from her throw open the door and bolt through it was on my feet in seconds what through it was on my feet in seconds what through it was on my feet in seconds what the hell how did he get through the the hell how did he get through the the hell how did he get through the drifts drifts drifts villain was behind me as we ran over villain was behind me as we ran over villain was behind me as we ran over there it was impossible snow was higher there it was impossible snow was higher there it was impossible snow was higher than the windows than the windows than the windows it should have ran into a wall of snow it should have ran into a wall of snow it should have ran into a wall of snow i threw the door open and found myself i threw the door open and found myself i threw the door open and found myself looking at a long narrow hallway of snow so high on both sides i could hardly see the top the passage went on so long i thought i'd lost until i spotted the dark figure of a man hurrying away what don't like that huh like a maze like a giant like shoot like a giant hedge maze thing but yeah made of snow yeah it's very weird very surreal whoa what the heck okay i was pulled back and the door slammed in my face emily pollock was there glaring at me you idiot it's bad enough he went out there who carved that path who cares it goes nowhere we sent a girl out last night to see if she could find help but she never came back you sent someone out there i asked horrified i addressed this question more to john as he seemed the more rational of the two i did not agree to that but the girl and my daughter did she went out on her own volition that's insane you sent some poor girl out there i collared for my left she won't make it a hundred yards in this she knew the risk anger pollock snapped but it went nowhere and now we've lost someone we actually needed what do you mean needed i'm like clincher john stared at me father just shook his head neither volunteered an answer he was a nurse she needed him hacker shrugged from the periphery of the argument needed him for what someone's sick emily laughed everyone is sick or will be soon this is our third day here without no contact with the outside world the vending machines are practically empty the woman's bathroom is overflowed people who are supposed to get us out of here refuse to open the door or even speak to us they don't care what happens out here people haven't slept the phones aren't working and if we don't find a way to leave or get help we'll all starve i looked around the station my bus had come in late evening two days before as i studied the room i noticed that people seemed to have huddled into four groups one of them being ours passengers from the minneapolis bus there has to be another nurse or doctor here yeah well why don't you ask around the minneapolis group because we had no medical professionals on the kansas city side so if you have one send them over i'll ask around you do that hacker smiled and i had a feeling i was missing something mac pulled me back to our row of seats and sat me down you ever read lord the fly son no what's going on greasy ass flinging some book she was reading onto the seat next to her look around do you see how the station is divided yeah by random groups not random by buzz mac nodded and seemed relieved as if the burden of knowledge was off of him over there the guy with the chief's t-shirt that group was on the bus that came from kansas city and over there that dad and daughter we met the first night that whole group is from denver and what about that group crazy ass pointed to the largest group all of him said against a wall far side of the terminal it's all like city i was talking to a woman from the group earlier went over to ask if anybody had a stamp she was polite but basically told me to off right why does any of this matter max lit his eyes to me it means that the situation is developing into every man for himself more accurately every camp for themselves i think we can assume the loudest ones are the self-appointed leaders dylan rolled his eyes right the guy in the chief shirt acker seems to speak for the kansas city group the loud woman and his dad seem to run denver i'm gonna guess the woman who stood up when i approached with the wall is speaking for salt lake city that leaves us right and that's obviously chris me why no one shrugged after the meth heads incident it just seems natural mac seemed to agree and simply nodded at me great okay so you have another little section um so i like that i love the just random mage showing up outside right yeah i i can't tell if the story is going like surrealist prison uh like weird mist vibe or if it's like there's a whiteout blizzard and this is just going to go into straight lord of the flies like basically like absolute chaos which is still kind of missed too to be fair yeah but i don't i'm afraid it will do a boroska where it's like they all kill each And then at the end, it's like, this was an experience. experiment conducted by you know the government to blah blah blah something like that right but i think it's way cooler if there's a supernatural storm they find themselves at not monsters or anything but it's just like there's this kind of weird liminal almost maze that develops outside they have to choose to try to transverse or not um like a time gap but i i really don't like the segment where it's like have you ever read lord of the flies well we've elected you know we've democratically appointed leaders of our camps it's like what are what it's quick like if that happens naturally that's one thing but to explain it as have you ever read lord of the flies is so i don't like that it's on the nose for sure yeah it's it's similar to me as the whole like hey buddy back off from the bus with the scraggly guy yeah there's a little bit of uh you know it's it's i can't be probably the wrong word but i mean it definitely has a few of those moments but i don't know if it's a good thing i don't know if it's a good thing i don't know if it's a good you know i'm remaining optimistic i'm you know i'm having a good time you know what it is it's millennial it's millennial millennial he says it's millennial are you jinzi how what are you i'm jinzi jinzi i'm on i'm 99 so it's like on the line later that night i woke several people up cursing at the phone i still called mel or mandy still answered but i can never make out a word they said but i still called because she had to know i was always here and i was trying i slammed the phone back onto the cradle after it disconnected for the third time and reached into my pocket for more quarters since all i had left were bills i decided to break one in a vending machine i should probably eat anyway i've been an entire day since i'd had anything and one of my favorite ones with strawberry pop tarts vending machine was against salt lake city's wall a woman sitting on the floor next to the machine narrowed her eyes at me as i approached what what are you getting pop tarts how how many just a package why telling my voice was no longer pleasant because i need to know lady i'll be damned if i'm gonna explain why i'm buying a pop tart she laughed then seemed to surprise her as well and was a pleasant sound she stood up and stuck out her hand i'm amanda hewan you're minneapolis right chris dykes said warily all right stikes you in charge of there no one's in charge i'll just wait for our buses you didn't say anything for a moment just died me instead let me give you a word of advice no one here is your friend what what i know did you did you stumble what do you mean i mean okay this kind of thing happens in airports you know it's i don't know about bus stops if we're already in tribe mentality like this i just want to say it has happened so fast so so fast if we're going if we're if i'm down to go the lord of the flies route but i will say that it's it's obnoxiously fast to the point where someone's like i need to know for resource we're gathering resources and then just being like no one here's your friend especially not you during during covid weren't people like stuck in airports for like weeks that i i mean man i'm not i guess they had food brought to him but what what what do you mean no one here okay i got that not even me no shit i just met you she stared at me for a moment longer than shrugged and sat back down enjoy your pop-tart stykes all right qn i have my pop-tart in silence watch the room settle down for the night people were more restless baby cried louder for longer i could hear crying a whole situation was disintegrating maybe that's what mac and amanda huen and even emily had all been trying to tell me things were dire to roll your wagons uh real quick seemed like an over what um is there just an obnoxious amount of like fucks in this story yes okay but it didn't have that barrasca did it really um i feel like part five did yeah yeah well yeah oh oh gosh yes it did remember remember me we also called that out in part five in part five yeah but i guess i counted i i guess when i referred to a barrasca i was just thinking like one through four the original yeah yeah in part five it happened so often that i started to say like make fun of it and jokes and stuff like that yeah yeah it seemed like an overreaction and i went to sleep thinking so till i was woken at four in the morning by glass breaking was out of my seat instantly mac too some guy had just been bashed to a long glass shadow box on the wall and acker and some other dude were screaming at him did you think we wouldn't see you that we wouldn't have someone awake the other guy yelled in the dude's face you're trying to steal from us no man it's just it's just a vending machine the now bloody guy stuttered as acker held him in a chokehold it's our vending machine use the one in your area ours only has soda in it so drink a fucking soda acker laughed and punched the guy in the face again right before i got there i yanked acker back and the guy dropped to the floor all of acker's group were suddenly out of their seats and surrounding us the situation was getting out of hand i felt mac behind me and then gracie and dylan broke through the hurt on my left i flung acker against the wall what the hell's wrong with you the guy was just trying to eat yeah acker straightened and pulled his cuffs down like nothing at all it just occurred he can get through from denver area you heard him there's no food there it's just a vending machine man really well then let him get food out of one one by your group he can no one would stop him what about two days from now or three or a week what about when there's a barely any food left then would you let him of course your group is totally fucked might as well let that five-year-old lead it he laughed and pointed at a kid and his mom who'd gone on with us in columbus you're insane it won't come to three days or a week they can't leave us here that long it's been four days dykes no one has come no one over the pa take a look outside the buses are gone we're alone we've been abandoned get that through your head or don't hell makes things easier for kansas city you hear that everyone when you're hungry make sure you go to minneapolis's vending machine it's a free-for-all over there his group laughed and then seemed to melt back into their territory matt grabbed my arm and led me away again i could hear emily screaming at the bloody guy in the hallway she seemed pissed he'd gotten into it with kansas city i also caught a man's eye walking back to our area i could read what she was telling me in her eyes now you know the way things are be smart what? three days? what? three days? three days? they're like beating each other to death tribe mentality has happened after 72 hours is crazy you see that the buses are gone no what the heck is going on pop tarts are gone man i'll be outside yeah when the pop tarts are gone i'll be outside pop tarts and doritos cool ranch flavor is gone it's going to be a fucking bloodbath in here and kansas city is not going to be friends with anybody you hear me the next day seemed the next day seemed different my eyes were open to the actual dynamics of the situation all the things that have been going on in the background while i ate my pop-tarts and pined away for melody again there's no pa announcement that day and again people try to break down or disassemble the employees only door the employees area we could get to had already been raided there's nothing useful that morning i asked dylan to take everything out of our vending machines and stockpile it in the corner when he said he didn't have enough money i told him to break the class which he did within an hour the other groups followed suit breaking into their vending machines as well so hold on hold on hold on they're going to start beating each other to like unconsciousness but they didn't break the they were still paying with quarters yeah they were all they had they had the uh they had the the right mind to at least still pay with the quarters yeah there's like a shaman at the front like sitting in front of where the pa desk is with like a book he wrote and he was like the great text says we must abide by the rule of the quarter i tried like hell to get to the quarters but they were in a locked metal box i just wanted them for the rest of the day and i was like oh my god i'm gonna have to wait for the pay phones to hear the line connect to listen to the static tell mel i was always right here i couldn't get to them we didn't have a doctor or nurse in our group but we did have a nursing student named miles he was able to calculate body weights and with mac's help rationed all our food individually and we could last 18 days at minimum levels for survival i hope to god we didn't need that long that's also not true if you have water you can go way more than 18 days if you already have food but whatever so i hope to god we what i said whatever survivor man i mean you'd be miserable but you if you are eating food and rationing it going to live a lot longer than that i can only have one if you're just sitting there i can only have one ding dong and one mamba a day yes that's all you get i'd actually i'd live off that mambas and ding dongs are you kidding me that sounds like heaven honestly that sounds great i feel like if you're in this situation you just be like why are you all so weird why is everyone being so weird right now yeah uh i mean don't be wrong it would be uncomfortable but at the same time i'd be like why are we all acting like tribes can we it's like is are you role playing what is happening yeah what how long it takes till they kill somebody and they cook and they cook like a body or something like that uh it's got to leave four days four days they're gonna cannibalize someone in the united states just in the middle of a blizzard blizzard you "i hope to god we didn't need that long i can only hope the other groups rationing their food as well and if not we had a schedule of centuries okay all right they got centuries hunter the fuck are centuries we had a schedule of centuries yeah centuries yeah centuries are guards okay oh i see okay yeah yeah yeah that's why yeah it's not didn't even say we had a schedule of guards century an old roman word for god i was just saying it lost me yeah they're just like spartan warriors standing there yeah they they have bronze shields and spheres yeah no so that's why everyone they have the giant red brush helmets so that two people from our group were always awake and watching for trouble we melted snow for water tried to wash clothes everyone stunk whole station by the fifth day the situation was critical people cried all the time arguments fistfights yelling i watched a woman from divert i watched a woman from denver shove a woman from kansas city into the wall it erupted into chaos on both sides kansas city came after denver and soon dozens of people on both groups were fighting kansas city having the clear advantage i was halfway across the room when acker finally intervened calling his group back with the laugh and telling them to play nice "play nice!" on the sixth day we finally got news the crackle of the pa after so long probably scared everyone in the building but we hung on every word that came after "good afternoon folks station master here just wanted to give you a quick update we still have quite a blizzard outside so we are not able to depart any buses at this time however we are hoping the weather will clear up in the next couple days so sit back grab a cup of coffee or tea if that's your thing and settle in please also remember that this is very important that you do not leave the station for your own safety thanks folks will you know when we have something more the room which had been quietly gasping and cursing during the announcement became loud and chaotic when it ended i felt the same a few more days days delicate ecosystem of human suffering would not support days more of this damn it damn is right as all mac said and then sat down to work on a document he had been writing for the last few days he was often writing or erasing and rewriting i knew better than to ask him about it but gracie seemed to think he needed to do it dude the thing i said about like writing a book like a religious text yeah it's becoming reality now it's becoming reality um also it's funny to imagine that before a group of guys are like even hey i'm going to tie a rope to the door and try to look around the side of the building where like the back entrance is and stuff before they try any of that they're like we're going to start bashing people you know it's i'm curious to see when it starts like when we start figuring out what exactly is outside also too i'm surprised that like also there hasn't been more of an attempt to break down the door to where the people are sitting at the station master you know actually i just i just had a thought when i was talking about like people trying to figure it out you know what kind of story this reminds me of what this reminds me of an m night shamalan story i can see that like a little twisty kind of thing yeah i could see that yeah like there's a twist at the end and people are like turning on each other and there's a group we got there's like a cast of characters who each have like a quark about them or something like that and i'll try to figure it out you know yeah i don't suppose you got any more of those m m's gracie i asked one day when i caught her counting out individual nuts for the rations i wish most of the last couple days for me had been getting to know the other people in the minneapolis group and playing cards gracie was the best at poker and often ended up with all the peanut shells which we've been using as chips mac played two but seemed less and less as usual jovial read the sarcasm there self as the days passed dylan drew a lot and talked about sarah how he met her work why they'd broken up his fear of commitment when he realized he loved her ran into her years later at a new year's eve party and how it was going to be different this time which he didn't have all worked out but he had faith it almost seems like all of it's like it's it's it's almost like a lovesick tour bus you have mac who like who got broken up and he doesn't even have the girl's number he's just meeting her there you have uh gracie with her like messed up boyfriend who's like obviously abusive and assaulting her dylan broke up with his girl and i was like trying to win her back and then now even uh even uh stykes is like right like he he is desperately trying to be with her but it's like almost like the universe is splitting them apart but he initially like was going on the uh bus to flee her i'm almost literally wondering if his love for his love for his uh for mel is what's it's like what it's what's causing the storm or something that um i think that would be an interesting idea if there's uh if there's some connection between the love stuff and the storm you know maybe i don't know i hope it doesn't go nowhere that'd be sad but the following day was the seventh day a milestone an entire week we all had horrible headaches from the ever a light bright fluorescent lights we weren't eating as much as we should and we were all bored to tears this was the mood when amanda and john pollock approached us with two other denverans in tow the group had all kept strictly to themselves since the night of the fight between denver and kansas city so i was immediately wary i met them at the top of the aisle with mac and dylan at my sides pollux what can we do for you john cleared his throat we're actually just taking stock of food our our area had a cigarette machine and a soda machine so we've run out of actual food fairly quickly we're hoping we need all the groups to donate food to denver and interrupted we're dying you're dying yes or we will if we don't get any food what do you have to trade are you kidding this is a matter of life and death you heartless exactly so what do you have to trade we're not trading anything pity gracie said standing up on her chair next to us you can't get something for nothing you know cigarettes we can trade your cigarettes and soda dad no they don't need any of that we'll take it keeping up morale is important too cigarettes and soda will help you got any weed gracie asked if she leered over the exchange why don't you just give us some food and when you want cigarettes no we have 12 people to feed including a kid you have 15. you want food you trade i'm guessing you really want food fine we will make a trade one moment i walked back into the minneapolis group and let them know what was happening most people were okay with the trade as long as we got enough back and as long as there is enough for us to survive for another week the mother and her son were less enthusiastic about it but as a parent i want to trade food my child could eat for soda and cigarettes either but there were other people in the station who could starve if we didn't i returned to the polox with my offer we want 20 sodas 20 pack of cigarettes we'll give you 15 packs of nuts five packs of trail mix and 10 assorted candy bars in trade that is a horrible trade that's absurd we need more we have 15 people then i suggest you ration it emily sneered and step up in mac's face i tensed sure she was gonna try something but all she did was stare and then tell him you stink twitch mac laughed all we've been able to have makeshift showers in the bathroom we exchanged what was promised and then i watched as the polox made a similar deal with salt lake they had more people so offered less but emily kept her temper in check this time finally i saw them make their way over to kansas city or i could even wonder how that go acker's voice carried across the entire building keep walking honey you don't have anything we want she said something back to him and acker laughed hopefully whatever she got from us and salt lake would be enough to get by for a couple more days but the tenth day at white fault tenth day but the tenth day at white fall no one was crying or screaming or fighting anymore most people slept a lot conversations were quietly spoken i occasionally saw people quietly leave out of the station when it was my turn for watch it looked like they've had enough never came back i just want to say too after 10 days this is when i would believe that people are starting to get tribal and like very i think i think i think around 10 days if you combine the beginning of the tribal stuff with uh they keep sending more people to look who aren't coming back then i think the tribal thing begins like if you have someone who's like i'm just gonna hug the wall and look over this back wall that guy doesn't come back someone's like here i'm just gonna hold a few belts together it'll be like five feet out never gonna come back comes back combine that with 10 days and then i think the tribal stuff starts you know yeah because that's when people get like hungry you know salt lake was the first to really struggle they had the biggest group but still had tried to share with denver they were down to half rations before any of the other groups we offered them what we could spare still 16th day a rumor spread that someone had died watch them haul the girl out into the snow he was very slight to begin with not an ounce of fat on her her skin looked gray made it look shell-shocked i knew she felt responsible girl was hers from salt lake city group i'll remember that look for the rest of my life but the 18th day 18 just casually on just another fucking week passes good lord almost reminds me the the flow of this almost reminds me of like infinite ikea or something oh yeah it does it does kind of feel like that a bit doesn't it yeah but the 18th day i realized the baby wasn't crying anymore oh that's a great ooh that was a good like point of dread right there just that because it doesn't elaborate further that's all it says i forgot about the baby but that's menacing that i like that part we were i mean obviously not the dead baby but you get what i mean like the i like the dead terrifying horror podcast uh-huh yeah we were dangerously low on food miles had dropped us to half rations still called mel just to hear the static but i talked to her all the same told her how much i loved her and our growing baby told her i was always right here the boredom had really gotten to people they laid around staring at walls half catatonic they begged miles keeper of our food for something to eat he'd just shake his head every time not saying anything he looked to be cracking too mac worked on his pages dylan drew gracie counted almonds over and over again people played cards who waited for us on day 19 we were awakened from our stupor by the loud crack of the pa again it'd been weeks and most of us were too shocked to react to the noise morning folks just wanted to give you another update we've heard from the national weather service that the storm shouldn't let up for another 10 or 12 days not what you wanted to hear i'm sure but chin up help yourself for a coffee or tea and please of course let us know if you need anything or have any concerns we can't wait to get you back on the road that's fun drive me insane well i mean it's obviously like yeah the voice being like 10 to 12 days it's like uh whatever entity is controlling all this is just speaking in the voice of the pa person you know yeah i imagine whenever the pa person left the desk and they can't get into the doors into the back rooms that's when like the supernatural thing took over maybe the actual workers there died or something like that you know it's almost like it's not as good quality i wouldn't say but it's a little left right game to me where it's like you get on the road and you enter this other dimension right but the rules are different and there's something happening behind the veil and all that it's still so uh it's still so vague though of what is besides like the idea that's like okay well they're stuck in some kind of like loop or maybe it is just chaotic weather but right now it's still extremely there's no way it's chaotic i can't be chaotic but still i'm just saying for no people are just yeah yeah people are disappearing out in the void and stuff like that i would like less about the lord of the flies stuff and i would like more um supernatural storm myth stuff myself or at least let the lord of the fly stuff shows like because like you said in the mist they do get to the lord of the flies point it just takes a really long time right yeah dead silence reigned after the pa shut off shock silence appalled silence so some guy from denver broke it why some fucking concerns he screamed ran full force at the employees only door using his head as a battering ram again and again i could see the blood spreading across the metal door from across the room people sprung up out of their seats not to help him no they flung him aside and began battering the door over and over piles of people running into the door shoving against it again and again i could hear the metal buckling from the other side of the room i was honestly surprised people had the strength after eating so little but then i noticed most of those battering the door were kansas city they hadn't shared any of their rations with the other groups allowed crack and the door broke in people trampled each other to get inside and mac and i were hauling ass over there immediately as well grab what you can i yelled to the rest of the group who followed us in okay so now i'm annoyed because i thought it was just like a supernatural thing they couldn't open that door right um but are you telling me they could have broken that if they just tried hard enough this whole time and no one did that well maybe i mean we don't know yet we don't know yet we don't know yet we don't know yet i mean we're still there's maybe there's something in there with the door you know what i mean beyond the door was anarchy people grabbing and tearing at everything from coffee grounds for the staff coffee pots rolls of paper towels to books i could only hope my group was hoarding as well the inside of the room was pretty disappointed in the end carpeted room with lockers a couch and a few nicer chairs and another smaller room with manifest route maps and the pa system where the fuck are they dylan yelled where indeed there were no drivers here i want to make the announcement there was nothing no one so where'd they gone where was the man who's been speaking to us five minutes ago i became aware of a commotion at the same moment that mac tried to clue me into it acker and a couple others of his group trying to push people out what the hell hacker this ain't your show i said coming into the main room turned to me and spat on the floor at my feet this is kansas city territory this room and everything in it is ours this is kansas city territory this room and everything in it is ours fuck you that's not happening gracie said and then picked up an empty coffee pot and hurled it at the wall now now play nice little girl hey i snapped my fingers in his face to get his attention back on me you think you own this room because the door is near your so-called territory yeah if you want to dispute that we'll gladly reconsider i didn't need to look around the room to know that would never happen acker's group was surprisingly healthy looking and had more men than women or children the other groups even mine were pale and tired if you wanted a carpet and a couch he could have them books i said let us take as many books as we want we won't dispute your claim to this room some brunette standing next to acker laughed take the fucking books you got anyone knows radios in your group mac asked him acker narrowed his eyes and mac is debating if he should answer and then nodded tightly try to rig the pa system to call out or maybe look around for the system that will we don't want to be here any more than you do old man fine i'll turn to my group take the books as many as you can handle it'll help with the boredom yes everything take everything i wasn't about to leave them a single page manda hewin seemed to agree and her group bigger as it was took even more than we did i saw someone with a copy of the shining and plucked it right out of her hands the shining huh gracie said noticing the book in my hand yep stephen king genius stuff something to pass the time since we only hear from the pa once a month yeah what i want to know is where's the fucking coffee and tea group kept to themselves for the rest of the day kansas city locked behind the employees only door i could only imagine what was going on in there so far they hadn't screwed with anybody so i was happy to let them keep to themselves just a couple days later maybe nine o'clock at night that the first murder occurred most of us were reading a few of us sleeping gracie and dylan were playing cards i was in conversation with miles the food even at half rations would only last a few more days things were dire it's time to drop to quarter rations like salt lake and denver had days before what about boiling clothes or leather or something he shook his head we'll do it but it's not gonna be enough damn maybe we can talk to kansas city why kansas city they're dangerous likely to stab me for just asking because you're not gonna be able to talk to me you're not gonna be able to talk to me you're not gonna look at them they're not weak not one person in the group is showing signs of malnutrition they have food denver and slc are as fucked as we are i sighed and looked toward their door shit the word was hardly out of my mouth before the door was flung open and a guy from denver was pushed through it he was young 20s baby he was small fuck acker followed the stumbling man out where the fuck are you woman she emerged from the hallway her group had been using bored look on her face what is it what are you doing with jeremy you mean you're a little spy we caught him creeping through our vent trying to get into our area you know anything about this of course not what do you think i'm stupid jeremy for his part looked terrified he said not a word tried to catch himself as acker and the brunette i think her name was natalie shoved in between them violently you're saying you didn't send this little prick to steal from us no we wouldn't do that you have nothing we want you forget we've all been inside your little room acker studied her a moment longer and then picked up jeremy and shoved him at her feet the rest of the kansas city group seemed to materialize behind her and healthy and strong just as miles had said the deal with them in front of everyone here spread out his arms and gestured to the entire station show us how you deal with thieving spies or we'll deal with you since you seem to speak for denver i i wasn't going to take anything jeremy protested but then emily kicked him in the ribs and he gasped yeah hacker smiled and leaned back against the wall folding his arms that's a good start emily didn't even hesitate she kicked him again then again and because she was too weak to do any more damage she addressed her group participate in jeremy's punishment all of you a couple members of her group stepped forward also looking hesitant the other stayed back emily stepped away and gestured at jeremy again who was moaning on the floor and bleeding from his mouth participate or you don't eat today or tomorrow god my golden mac who had appeared alongside me agreed it was brutal the kicks the punches they were weak jeremy like his attackers was frail went on for an entire minute before i couldn't take it anymore that's enough emily you're going to kill him he yelled as i left my group to approach the chaos yes that's quite enough i would say he's learned his lesson everyone stop no emily said quietly but it didn't matter that the words were soft her group wouldn't have heard them anyway they were mad with bloodlust punching kicking angry angry at their situation the hopelessness of it they're likely impending deaths but not as jeremy who by now had gone silent and when the last of them finally ran out of steam and collapsed on the floor next to him jeremy breathed his last death rattle oh my god i heard crazy whisper from somewhere behind me emily ordered the body dragged outside kansas city went back into their room salt lake city looked on as if nothing had happened and i dropped into a seat next to dylan who continues to sketch mountains for his sarah everything's gonna be different now he said without looking up from his book and he was right that was the night the power went out it had been over three weeks and we had all gotten used to the blinding fluorescent lights which never dimmed and always hummed i didn't mind the darkness so much at first we had lighters and someone had found a couple candles among the books in the employee break room it was heat we missed most that became an issue within the first hour i'd everyone pull out all the clothes in their bags and then assign them so that everyone in my group would stay as warm as possible next we inventoried matches and lighters when that was done we dragged two metal garbage bins in our territory into our area and piled all the wood we could find chairs small tables wall paneling into the corner of our section next to the food i watched as the other groups did the same salt lake city and minneapolis each had piles and piles of books which would work for kindling denver as far as we could tell only had a few books or none at all no one had any idea what was happening behind the closed doors of kansas city's new territory but it wasn't long before we saw the orange glow of a fire underneath the crack in the door that made sense they have years of paper manifesting charts back there smoke with nowhere to go hovered over us i had to crack the door for ventilation which only seemed to make it colder time became confusing miles lost track of when to feed people my watch kept running but the time never seemed right day blood tonight and back today slower than i thought it should have life became a slow boring painful nightmare we burned the book slowly took turns in front of the fire denver struggled with the fire they started eating snow which miles had already told me it was one of the worst things you could do burns energy to warm snow up in your body we tried to tell them but emily told me to screw off and then one day amanda came to speak to me i just hung up the phone my hundredth call to melody to listen to the static tell it that i was always there i hadn't heard melody's voice in weeks styx i looked up to find the tall woman standing at the payphone next to me she was pale and thin and her skin was purple in places imagine i looked much the same i nodded at her how have you been ah could be better i guess don't know the feeling have you lost anyone not yet but soon everything felt heavy in my chest we would lose someone soon an older woman named valerie or possibly even mac who was more absorbed in his letter writing every day people were starting to get sick we lost someone last night i'm sorry amanda we have a bigger group it's bound to happen to you first yeah he got sick alex he was business third he's healthy but he just got sick i'm sorry she took a deep breath we went to bring him out of the snow to bury him where we buried andrea she she was gone what do you mean she wasn't dead no she she was definitely dead my brain was cloudy slow to work slow to process are you saying she got up and walked away no i'm saying someone took her someone took her body yes styx someone took her body what for we don't know but you know natalie from kansas city yeah i know that i'm gonna say yeah i know the yeah well yesterday when she came out of these she came out to use the restroom she was she was wearing andre's jacket the one we buried her in they're eating them by the way but yeah go ahead i don't i don't think that's what's happening you don't think so i fear this is going to become another weird sex thing no i don't think you think so i don't think so just the note earlier about gracie with like oh she knows too much for age and the guy on the bus who was touching her and then like the the thing with him having a girl and she's i think people are i think people are related to love and i think people are dying mentioned over and over that kansas city is primarily men i think that they're primarily the people are dying and they're digging them up and they're eating them and they're like stripping them with their clothes and is what i think that's also why they look so healthy i'm just saying and if that's right there might be i feel like kansas city is going to want to trade for gracie you know right yeah because this is a this is a cj walker story we'll see we'll see i hope i'm wrong but we'll see okay so kansas city stripped her corpse for clothes i think there's more to this than that chris you think they're abusing her corpse i didn't know a politer way to say it no stikes come on think about it they're eating her i heard gracie before i saw her she'd been standing next to me god knows how long eating her we think so too our wall is near the door we smell meat cooking sometimes do you remember when they were first moving in that room they were almost as starving as we were right and have you seen them lately i groaned this was something this was wrong eating dead bodies so what i'm saying is be careful of kansas city even more than you have been andrea's dead jeremy's dead and now alex what's going to happen when they run out of supplies i gotta talk to mac i ran a cold numb hand through my greasy hair listen maybe we can agree to some sort of alliance we'll we'll watch your back you watch ours she nodded i think that's necessary at this point i nodded goodbye and then stalked over to mac who's viciously erasing a sentence from his letter we gotta talk oh yeah about what kansas city what they do now salt lake thinks they're eating the dead mac nodded and kept writing that makes sense mac this is a big deal they got the first girl that died and that kid jeremy and amanda lost someone last night but he was sick not sure if they'll eat him you're worried about what happens when they run out of the meat stock recoil that is phrase yeah if that's what they're doing they're stronger than we are yeah well we've got a big a problem than that what problem i don't know if you've been watching but never don't have no fires today i threw up my hands we've had enough to deal with trying to protect in our own people and have salt like i can be concerned with denver getting cold mac stopped riding and flipped the page over he looked at me with hooded eyes what do you mean now salt lake what did you promise them just that we watched their back and they would watch ours are you kidding me we don't have the resources for that or the energy we don't have the resources for that or the energy we don't have the resources for that or the energy we don't have the resources for that or the energy their big group in this territory has strategic disadvantage especially for defense that human woman means well but that group is they have huge numbers we huge numbers don't mean nothing if they can't even stand up what was i supposed to do mac huh she didn't have to warn me about kc like i said we've got bigger problems than some cannibalism bigger problems like what like the fact that acker and the polacks have been talking an awful lot lately dylan dylan was the most observant person i'd ever met he was a good person to have this conversation come here dylan handed his notebook to dan five-year-old in our group dan was pale and thin definitely showing signs of malnutrition but he was also eating the best out of all of us we made sure of it dylan sat down next to mac and nodded at the letter get it right yet getting there not like she'll read it just passes that time i was curious what he meant who it was for but like mac said we had bigger problems what do you think about the polacks and the acker dylan shook his head i don't know looks kind of like they made a deal about something possibly food more likely a power lines though that doesn't make any sense sense. Denver is the weakest group. Acker wouldn't have chosen the worst. Not necessarily. Denver is also the most ruthless of the three of us. Which means whatever deal they were trying to make is not good for us. Damn. Dylan shrugged. We'll just have to wait and see. No. No, we don't. We need something to defend ourselves with. The metal from the chairs or something. We can break them and then bend them into big metal pipes. If we have the energy and we can try. So we did. It was exhausting and what we got out of it may not have been worth the effort. The fruits of our labor were seven jagged, sharp, curved pieces of shiny metal. It wasn't great, but it was better than nothing. It could have been hours or it could have been days later that the raid happened. By the time I was woken up, it was already over. Dylan and Jessica had been on watch and it seemed that was all they'd done. What happened? I asked, looking over at the Salt Lake City group, who looked scared and a little shell-shocked. Kansas City and Denver went over. Acker and Pollock exchanged some words with Amanda. It didn't seem to go well. Emily grabbed some girl from Salt Lake and shoved her head into the broken glass on the vending machine. She was bleeding everywhere. Salt Lake is big. They tried to fight it, but they're just so weak. With Casey backing them, the fight was quick. Lots of injuries in Salt Lake. Denver and Casey together. Chris, there was nothing we could have done. Even if you were awake. "I promise that. damn it. What did they take? Their food?" "Their books," Vaughn answered. That was when I noticed that Salt Lake City didn't have a burn barrel for warmth. Denver did. "Shit. I'll go talk to Amanda." She was curled on her side, laying against a wall. When I had met her weeks ago, Amanda had been a confident, strong, vibrant woman, but now she looked like a different person entirely. I kneel down next to her. "I heard about what happened last night. I'm sorry." "There's nothing you or your group could have done. Denver and Casey together, we were too weak to fight it." "We've got a decent supply of books. Why don't you come join our group? We'll figure out food and then at least you'll be warm." "I suggest that this morning, with what's left of Salt Lake City, they don't want anything to do with the other groups. It wasn't included." "Amanda, they'll die. Do they realize that?" "Yes. They're tired. They're tired." "I don't know what to do with them. I don't know what to do with them." "We're tired. We're all tired. No rescue is coming. They've accepted it. Before long, we'll all be eating each other." "No, we won't." She gave me a half-smile that didn't reach her eyes, and she closed them and coughed. "I hope you survive this, Stikes." I'm curious where the. It just doesn't seem like a normal. I'm wondering where the paranormal or the surreal moment is coming in, because right now, it really does just read like people stuck in a snowstorm. I mean, if it is a purgatory thing, then maybe it's. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's like a test, you know?" Listening to the static, Dylan, talking softly down the line, Sarah, or whom he imagined was Sarah, I assume, there was very little to keep us saying after a month at Whitefall. Acker, Natalie, and a few larger members of Kansas City approached Denver's hallway. John stepped out first, followed by his daughter, Emily, the rest of Denver stayed back against the wall. "So?" Acker started. "Denver. We provided us. That wasn't the deal." Emily folded her arms. She tried to appear casual, but it was obvious from the sweat on her brow that she felt anything but. "Holding out on you how? You got what was promised." "Did I? Because it seems to me that while you got the books you begged for, we did not receive the payment you promised. So where is it?" Emily shifted on her feet. "We delivered the boy. That was not the deal. You were very aware of the terms when we agreed to assist you in finding fuel for your fires. Where is the woman?" "Emily dropped her arms." "We're starving too. There are fourteen people in my group. We need to eat. We only had cigarettes and soda in our territory. That's not my problem. Where's the woman? She's gone. She was gone days ago. You don't know what it's like in that hallway. That is not my problem either. I was promised an adult and I didn't receive one. You lied to me. Deceived us. That won't stand." "Acker looked at me and said, 'You're not the one who's going to get the money. You're the one who's going to get the money. You're the one who's going to get the money." "Acker looked over at a large, red-haired man in his group. He was standing in the back of the car. He was sitting in the back of the car. you know i mean his name's judge holden right yeah yeah i wouldn't really yeah i would say more so it it fits like the religious leader judge holden's whole thing is um he demands to be the god of effectively his own god of creation that wars man's ultimate calling um this is more so i mean lord of the flies is a decent time i forget the name of the leader of the jocks in that but it's kind of reminiscent of that sort of thing but i mean a lot of stories about like i mean they're all kind of like stranded and breaking up into groups it's it's it's the same theme of the woman like the religious woman who becomes like the kind of nut job leader of uh the group in the store yeah which depending on how you view that story her death is actually the sacrifice that makes the mist go away she don't know why the mist ends she dies and then the mist leaves the uh emily's selling out her dad there was pretty crazy that was pretty wild too yeah yeah just absolute just all of them become monstrous selfish that that shot me pretty bad i mean usually in stories like that it's usually it's uh like obviously a parental relationship or like a father-daughter usually they're like gonna be really tight-knit but in this one like almost a meet i mean it's not immediate but it is surprising that it's just like oh yeah fuck it take my dad not me yep well we'll keep on chugging next part emily died the next day from what we heard she never spoken again last words the ones that ordered her own father's execution further penance for their crimes kansas city had taken all of denver's books and wood and half of their remaining food which left them with one pack of nuts for 12 people they began to die one by one over the next three days most were sick already like salt lake and as they died the bodies were either tossed out into the snow or hauled away by kansas city depending on if they died of sickness or starvation but dying mack told me one night some of us won't last until the end of tomorrow i know i don't know what to do about it i said and the scratch of dylan's pencil stopped when the words left my mouth yes you do i'm open to suggestions what do we do then what if we have to gracie told me a surprisingly amount of fire in her words for as weak and broken as we all were i did not survive everything that happened in my life only to die in a fucking bus station what do you guys want to do eat people is that it want to become cannibals like kansas city it's not just kansas city it's salt lake too nod toward the wall that had once supported over 20 people but now there were only 13 i was starving i was unfocused i hadn't noticed but it was true washington whore is a man from salt lake carved strips of flesh out of a dead woman's leg and handed it over to another woman what looked like her daughter they draped the pieces over a metal rod above the meager fire they could afford and watched them cook i rose and went to talk to the man with a pocket knife you're eating the dead yeah except without bothering to look up at me manda's allowing this man wiped his face on his sleeve his eyes were runny they were also a blink amanda's dead when this morning but how could you why would she would never have wanted this it goes against your humanity it goes against she's the one who insists upon it he said and then gestured to the body he was carving and it was her there's a t-shirt draped over her face but i would have recognized her long auburn hair now dull and brittle anywhere i stumbled back oh my god matt grabbed my arm and dragged me back to our camp shoved me into a chair son listen to me we can't afford humanity anymore those people want to survive and so do ours you're saying we should we should just i'm saying that i'm dying here anyway so i won't but you should they should said gesturing back to our sick dying group of bus mates i'm not gonna die here mac yes i will maybe we all will but you should at least try for it you've got something to live for don't you i swallowed my mouth was dry my lips were cracked who is that you call every day mel melody my girlfriend she she's pregnant with my kid a family that's enough that's worth living for what about you mac who's that letter for who's in post falls mac leaned back in his seat and smiled first time in weeks my daughter yeah you got grandkids too smile fell a little i don't know she wouldn't say he was quiet for a moment i was a dumb kid knocked up a girl i knew nice girl but i didn't want to be tied down left her some money in my car and i split i never came back i never saw her again thought about my kid a lot over the years finally did some digging about 10 years ago and found out i had a little girl elaine she's in her 40s now it took me a decade to gather up the courage to reach out to her she was mad he laughed brutal sound she's still mad not that i blame her after a couple years of me bothering her every few days she agreed to meet me in post falls just her if she has kids she don't want me around them but i don't blame her for that either i don't deserve to know my grandkids i was silent for a few minutes thinking about mac when i met him how desperately he'd want to make his connections and get to post falls on time gonna meet her mac what i'm gonna do is finish my letter before i die when i go you have permission to use my body to fuel yours damn it mac i have faith in you romeo he said and patted me on the shoulder before laying down on the floor to sleep max love a lot these days it's a good man mac good man mac i agree and all my qualms about the story i really like that moment that was a good moment i like it feels earned feels like it was kind of alluded to like we talked about early like why has he got to get a post fall so hard and he's anxious because that he messed up doesn't deserve it can help someone else i like that good character good moment all that it's a fun full circle moment for the relationship too yeah yeah between like mac and his daughter versus uh chris and getting melody pregnant and now he's about to be a father doesn't want to make the same mistakes yeah yeah well it's literally also it's a younger version of i think max sees uh styx is the man that he sees himself yeah the version of himself he wishes he was you know yeah yeah not doing what uh because mac did what chris almost did at the beginning of the story and ran off and left a woman he knocked up yeah but now he's changing that so yeah next part denver's gone what denver's gone the last four decided they'd rather die making a run for it than expire here against a wall and be eaten. I watched all of them leave an hour ago. I nodded my head. That I can understand. Chris, we have a decision to make. When I was in the bathroom, I heard Kansas City go through the wall. I heard them say that people are dying of natural causes, had no muscle, and wasn't enough to eat. They were arguing. Arguing about what? About who in their group to sacrifice for food. In their own group? Yes, Chris, things are really bad. They're cannibalizing themselves because they aren't getting enough meat off the dead. They've been starving for a month, maybe more. I don't even know how long it's been. I know. But we're out of food, completely. The peanut shells, the leather, everything's gone. We have to do what we have to do to survive. I know. Hey, Stikes. Dylan interrupted, sat down next to Gracie, and gave me a long look. We, uh, we lost somebody last night. Wh-wh-who? Who did we lose? Miles. I ran my hands down my face. Damn it. He wasn't eating all of his rations back when we had food. He was trying to make sure there was enough for Dan and his mom. Damn it, Miles. We need to. Before he died, explain to me how to. prepare meat for consumption. I heard him. I knew what he was saying. I looked around the eleven remaining members of my group. We wouldn't last much longer. Miles was only the first. Okay. Do it. I mean, which is a completely reasonable decision to make. Yeah, I mean, come on, yeah, 100%. Yeah, I mean, no reason. Also, the real reasonable decision to make, I feel like, was what the rest of the Denver people did and just run for it. I think you just gotta get out of there, fuck it, yeah. You just gotta get out of there, even if you die in the snow or there's some giant, like, monster in the maze. Yeah. You just gotta go. Yeah. I think the easiest thing to do, I mean, you can even make a system where, like, you leapfrog it. If it turns, keep people at each corner, you know, to keep track of how far you can go and take turns and stuff like that. Yeah. But they're too weak to do that now, but they should have done something like this. like that earlier before they're eating each other but yeah in this situation you have to eat them yeah it happened at what i can only assume was night the fire barrels were burning low more people were asleep than awake in fact we had long given up the idea of sentries no one could stay awake more than an hour anymore our bodies were shutting down i woke up to screams half-hearted weak ones from my own group it didn't take long to figure out what was wrong the entire salt lake city group had been slaughtered while everyone slept most of them had their throats cut next straining blood onto the floor kansas city's door was wide open i could see the bodies being harvested inside i stumbled on my feet and crossed the long room to the door i could sense dylan and gracie at my back i saw akri immediately he was standing over a grill an entire weber grill flipping pieces of meat over with a fork everything smelled of dead flesh paper plates full of blood of meat lined bookshelves the scene was absurd you murdered them was the only thing i managed to push through my teeth hey styx yeah we found this thing in the closet a whole weber grill better than the garbage can salt lake was cooking over right you murdered them launched myself at acker ready to tear him apart but the red-haired guy caught me in the chin with a fist went down against the wall dylan helped me back up easy play nice acker handed the fork over to someone else in his group and approached me casually hands in his pocket it was mostly a waste you know all of those people were sick and those that weren't barely had any meat on them they weren't going to survive styx both of them had only hours left what we did was humane none of this is humane how many people have you murdered in the station by now we're starving man look around look at our group we're alive not at death's door nobody's running a marathon but but we're more healthy than your people and the other groups we do what we do to survive and at the end of the day we're all animals would you blame an animal for killing to survive animals aren't people no but people are animals and you're starting to figure that out last night we saw you your people cutting up that kid in the jet's jacket you're gonna heat him it was always gonna come to that you should have done it sooner now it's too late just like salt lake is that a threat maybe it would have been but judging by what we're getting off of these fucking people it wouldn't be worth it let me ask you something acker what's the point of surviving if you lose your humanity leaned into me and i could smell the stench of the people on his breath that's easy surviving i stared at him as he reached back and pulled a strip of meat from a paper plate and held it out to me i tied my jaw and he smiled shoving it into his mouth and chewing never breaking eye contact with me come on chris let's go smell of cooking meat was strong permeated the entire building by now as much as i hated it my mouth watered and my mind could think of little else miles have been stripped and prepared meat was cooking nearby dan watched it excitedly as did the other members of my group my only request had been that dylan and the others harvest the body away from the side of our little camp but dan was a smart kid and he probably knew but he was beyond caring most of us were the meat was passed around but i declined i'd known miles talked to him strategized with them i knew he'd been on the way home from college for thanksgiving break he was excited about seeing his mom and his twin brother so when the makeshift scrapped of metals serving as a plate got to me i passed on yeah i was starving but this was a person me i couldn't eat a person especially not someone i knew kansas city kept their door cracked most of the time to allow the smoke from the weber to escape sometimes we would hear arguments sometimes out and out brawling before things would go quiet again mac didn't work on his letter much anymore he spent a lot of time listening to dylan talk about sarah mac had a fondness for young love i think gracie hung out with dan a lot as his mother was getting weaker and sicker by the day she had also passed on the message that she had been eating meat though she encouraged dan to eat his fill and forbid anyone from admitting what it actually was or who dan had liked miles for my part i still called melody every day and told her i was always right here i also told her i was sorry that i was never going home that i never see her again how our child could watch how great of a mother she would become time was strange it drifted by in unfamiliar increments hunger was constant cold relentless fire seemed to lose much of their heat as the hours passed we were out of meat for miles body on the first day then an older man harry died in his sleep his wife told us it was his wish to contribute so we cooked him and ate him too except for me couldn't bring myself to eat a man in front of his wife and then came the last day very last day we spent at whitefall who knew what day that was started with a lot of yelling it was acker of course and some of his people a kid who couldn't have been more than 18 ran out of the employee break room he seemed to be going for the front door but acker caught him threw him on the floor you know the rules clarkson you've been enjoying them long enough he turned to natalie get the hammer i rose to my feet shaky and weak i hadn't eaten anything but leather in days but whatever was about to happen would be bad if i was gonna die anyway maybe i could stop it stop this one bad thing from happening what are you doing i asked as i reached them acker did a table take and then started laughing holy sikes is that you you look horrible acker chuckled as i pushed my way into the middle of the melee what is all this what are you doing to this kid nothing to do with you i want to know anyway sure you wouldn't rather just toddle along go finish dying in the corner what are you going to do with him well see in the kids city group we have a rule about the greater good and whatever the greatest good is that you can offer the group well that's what you got to do and what's his greatest good acker took the hammer from natalie and pointed at the kid it's meat that's all he's got left to offer at this point gracie's voice rang out from behind me you're going to kill a perfectly healthy person for their meat natalie laughed oh honey it wouldn't be the first time you've been cannibalizing your own group we're surviving aren't we you've snapped acker that kid can't be more than nine teen pick an older person our older person have other skills we can use he doesn't anyway this isn't a debate styx i've satisfied your curiosity now off boomer hold him down large red-haired man flipped the kid over and sat on his back holding his head between his meaty hands the kids screamed bloody terrified murder i don't think i've ever heard more fear in a voice before or since it was all too much for me as acker turned toward the kid i rushed him from behind and sucker punched him in the back of the head he went down and the hammer skittered across the floor they were on me in an instant kicking punching even biting and i couldn't fight back i was big guy but i was thin now trained of energy didn't have the strength i heard mac there fighting trying to pull them off me mac wasn't a great fighter in the best of times but now days from his death i heard them beat him i felt them beat me at one point i was lying on the floor looking across it getting kicked from behind mac was in the fetal position covering his head gracie was trying to get him throwing punches of her own she really was a little scrapper but the hits seemed louder when they made contact with her body i tried to call them off call them all off but no sounds came out of me that's where my memories end i woke up to someone dumping water down my throat it was dylan i was on my back on the floor in our camp i would recognize those ceiling tiles anywhere i've been staring at them for what felt like years take it easy you got it pretty bad dylan said i set up anyway with great effort my vision was blurred and my mind was slow everything hurt gracie she's okay a little banged up but she's tough i nodded it sounded like her handed the bottle to me and i took another sip of water and mac dylan didn't respond looked over at him but he was looking out the window the paint of black snow and mac mac mac was i was mac was hours away from dying anyways chris and did he the fight was too much for him god no mac not you he said to tell you that he finished his letter i pushed my palms into my eyes i couldn't see anything i couldn't see anything eyes where is it i put it in your backpack seemed like you'd know what to do with it right to everyone else you're scared but they seem a little stronger they're eating who dylan said nothing harry dylan took a deep breath speaking of you need to eat chris what about the kid from kansas city did he tell you about it dylan shook his head they were never gonna let him leave you know that so he died anyway after all that yeah and i got mac killed too mac was done for anyway i said nothing and drank more water gracie was nearby i could hear her singing to dan at least i hadn't gotten her killed only by the grace of god though it's fairly sure god long ago abandoned whitefall chris you need to eat you're weak your body needs to repair itself i looked down at the plate in dylan's lap it's filled with chunks of gray meat that smelled like rot and death but also made me salivate with need i can't i heard what you said to mac about your girl and your baby have you ever told melody that you would do anything for her my eyes snapped to his face screw you would you do anything for your kid he is he's gonna need you melody is it gonna need you is that why you do it sarah almost quiet for a minute no not for sarah there is no sarah i never was i'd do it for sam there's no sarah everything i told you was true but i'm not saying i'm not sarah i love him look down at the mate he was holding he really must do this to go against nature everything that made him human he did it for sam i lifted my eyes to his face sam who loves mountains dylan nodded and his eyes fell back to the meat he sounds great man dylan smiled a little at that and offered to play to me again do it for her do it for them i let out a long slow breath i'm not going to do it for her i'm not going to do it for her i'm not going to do it for him i let out a long slow breath i let out a long slow breath i let out a long slow breath you know mac would smack you upside the head if you didn't i wanted to laugh but it wasn't in me i wanted to laugh but it wasn't in me i wanted to laugh but it wasn't in me mac had never eaten someone he'd known mac had never eaten someone he'd known mac had never eaten someone he'd known he died before having to suffer than he died before having to suffer than he died before having to suffer than indignity indignity indignity i knew what i was eating i knew what i was eating i knew what i was eating good idea of who i was eating good idea of who i was eating good idea of who i was eating i couldn't do it i couldn't do it i couldn't do it but it didn't matter if i couldn't but it didn't matter if i couldn't but it didn't matter if i couldn't because i had to because i had to because i had to i was starving i was dying mac died for i was starving i was dying mac died for i was starving i was dying mac died for me me me mel needed me our baby needed me mel needed me our baby needed me mel needed me our baby needed me so i reached over and picked up a chunk so i reached over and picked up a chunk so i reached over and picked up a chunk of silvery meat of silvery meat of silvery meat it's well done and looked like it was cut it's well done and looked like it was cut it's well done and looked like it was cut for a stew for a stew for a stew smell was sickening but saliva filled my smell was sickening but saliva filled my smell was sickening but saliva filled my tough tasteless but i still swallowed it tough tasteless but i still swallowed it tough tasteless but i still swallowed it practically whole practically whole practically whole i took another piece and ate that and i took another piece and ate that and i took another piece and ate that and another another another and another and i was a rabid barrel and another and i was a rabid barrel and another and i was a rabid barrel starving starving starving i'll say um so this story has i'll say um so this story has i'll say um so this story has dramatically won me back dramatically won me back dramatically won me back the more it gets near the end with like the more it gets near the end with like the more it gets near the end with like the chaos and stuff the chaos and stuff the chaos and stuff specifically the stuff around mac and specifically the stuff around mac and specifically the stuff around mac and all that um and that moment about sam all that um and that moment about sam all that um and that moment about sam with or the moment with dylan with uh with or the moment with dylan with uh with or the moment with dylan with uh sam who loves mountains that was a sam who loves mountains that was a sam who loves mountains that was a touching moment i like that yeah touching moment i like that yeah touching moment i like that yeah i saw him so i consumed more and more i saw him so i consumed more and more i saw him so i consumed more and more of the meat of the meat of the meat acker standing in the doorway of his acker standing in the doorway of his acker standing in the doorway of his room watching me room watching me room watching me a smug smile on his face but i didn't a smug smile on his face but i didn't a smug smile on his face but i didn't care care care right until only one piece of meat right until only one piece of meat right until only one piece of meat remained as i reached down to take it remained as i reached down to take it remained as i reached down to take it the cackle of the pa popped overhead the cackle of the pa popped overhead the cackle of the pa popped overhead some of us screamed in shock others some of us screamed in shock others some of us screamed in shock others gasped and all fell silent gasped and all fell silent gasped and all fell silent good evening folks i've got good news good evening folks i've got good news good evening folks i've got good news the storm has let up the snow has been been dug away from the main doors we're going to get you out of here within the next 30 minutes or so so please check the overhead board in the terminal and line up at the corresponding doorway to your bus i know many of you making the bus changes at whitefall so please be sure to double check your ticket before lining up our drivers on the bus is warming up for you as we speak and we'll be all on our way in a few minutes we'd like to thank you for your patience during this delay that's so uncanny in the midst of that i love that yeah it was over it was over and we were leaving the power in the station suddenly clicked back on and we were washed in bright white light and in it we could see our crimes more fully the half-eaten bodies the pools of blood the class the broken things our sunken cheeks and the ribs in our chest the gray piece of meat in front of me what's my friend i could see the sinewy strings of muscle and i ate that last piece right then because we were leaving but i was still hungry we all rose picked up what was left of our bags and checked the board in a trance i was at door four dylan was at two gracie one we stood next to each other as we read the board and we stared at each other as we got in our respective lines but no one spoke there was nothing to say not even goodbye all i had left in my bag was mac's letter some scraps of clothing and six dollars in cash in a daze i watched the bay door open dug in my pocket for my ticket which was still there after all these weeks now bloody and torn richard our bus driver from before took my ticket and punched it without a word i boarded the bus and took a window seat facing the station there were only a handful of people on the bus everyone else was dead or lost we were all in shock not quite believing it was real that we were escaping that we weren't going to die in whitefall as we pulled away from the terminal i noticed that the blizzard was over and i could see for miles there was no town beyond the bus station and i could see for miles there was no town beyond the bus station and i could see for miles there was no town beyond the bus station and i could see for miles there was no town beyond the station there never had been those that had ventured out and never returned were lost in the white nothingness i felt a body fall into the seat next to me my eye snapped over to find acker shoving his ticket into his backpack hey styx didn't think you'd be on my bus you headed seattle too i stared at him spokane nice i'm going to see my girlfriend i feel he lives there too the thanksgivings at my dad's and are always unpleasant because of his wife i didn't even want to tell him i was coming i'm just gonna hide out in my girl's house i didn't respond are you gonna see your girl my family sucks to be you then he ends up the top of his bag and dug around a bit and pulled out a king-size milky way want one i have a couple stared at the candy bar you had candy acker shrugged i was saving it it's my favorite i tore it out of his hands and stood and pushed against his legs to get out name's luke by the way i didn't answer just moved to the back of the bus and set in an empty row i tore into the candy bar and was gone in under a minute the first stop we made with the fast food restaurant i got off and bought the three biggest things on the dollar menu and then filled my water bottle for free i couldn't think about the events of white fall my body told me to eat rest eat mel why fall would get its time later first thing i did when i got out of the receipt was glance at the date it was tuesday the 20th two days before thanksgiving that would mean we were only at white fall for one night one night it was impossible i ran straight to the payphone on the outside of the building inserted the quarters i'd made sure to get his change and dialed mandy's number hello mel hey baby where are you mel when was the last time you talked to me what she asked confusion in her voice when was the last time i called yesterday the connection was bad i was trying to tell you about my doctor's appointment did you hear me the line was really bad i tried to breathe deeply yeah baby i heard you good how's the trip mel did you hear me on the line yeah you told me you loved me and that you you were always there yeah and i am mel i know you told me you loved me and that you you were always there yeah and i am mel i know i do anything for you i do anything for you i do anything for you you and our daughter oh it's a curl now you and our daughter oh it's a curl now you and our daughter oh it's a curl now yeah i really yeah i really yeah i really think it is think it is think it is i heard the driver whistle then told mel i i heard the driver whistle then told mel i i heard the driver whistle then told mel i loved her again and i would call her loved her again and i would call her loved her again and i would call her from billings from billings from billings tried to stagger the burgers so i tried to stagger the burgers so i tried to stagger the burgers so i wouldn't make myself sick i was still wouldn't make myself sick i was still wouldn't make myself sick i was still starving and weak starving and weak starving and weak first burger almost made me throw up i first burger almost made me throw up i first burger almost made me throw up i had half a burger every few hours after had half a burger every few hours after had half a burger every few hours after that i was nervous about post falls that i was nervous about post falls that i was nervous about post falls we arrived in the evening close to nine we arrived in the evening close to nine we arrived in the evening close to nine it was cold not as cold as the terminal it was cold not as cold as the terminal it was cold not as cold as the terminal at whitefall had been at whitefall had been at whitefall had been i clutched mac's letter in my hand as i i clutched mac's letter in my hand as i i clutched mac's letter in my hand as i exited the bus exited the bus exited the bus i saw her immediately she had dark hair i saw her immediately she had dark hair i saw her immediately she had dark hair and was short like mac and was short like mac and was short like mac the thing that stopped me dead were the the thing that stopped me dead were the the thing that stopped me dead were the kids in her arms kids in her arms kids in her arms toddler on her hip and a little boy toddler on her hip and a little boy toddler on her hip and a little boy holding her hand holding her hand holding her hand and he looked a whole lot like his and he looked a whole lot like his and he looked a whole lot like his grandfather grandfather grandfather took a deep breath the woman looked took a deep breath the woman looked took a deep breath the woman looked nervous but excited nervous but excited nervous but excited she rocked from foot to foot and a man she rocked from foot to foot and a man she rocked from foot to foot and a man behind her rubbed her shoulder and behind her rubbed her shoulder and behind her rubbed her shoulder and whispered into her ear whispered into her ear whispered into her ear i was glad he was there i needed support i was glad he was there i needed support i was glad he was there i needed support after i gave her the letter after i gave her the letter after i gave her the letter i walked over to mac's daughter and i walked over to mac's daughter and i walked over to mac's daughter and waited for her to notice me but she waited for her to notice me but she waited for her to notice me but she didn't even see me so intense was she on watching the stairs on the bus Elaine she started and her eyes shot to mine her eyebrows pinched in confusion yes I held the letter out to her this is from your father she took it slowly then glanced back at the bus where is he he uh he really wanted to come it was all I could say I could only hope that Mac told her the rest he's not coming tears filled her eyes no but he really really wanted to Elaine more than he wanted anything else I don't understand I nodded at the paper in her hands read the letter I turned and headed toward the payphones wait she called I turned back to her do you know my father I'd like to think so maybe he never told me his real name she was quiet a moment Arthur Warren McKenzie that's his name nodded thank you for the letter she said then turned back to her husband I walked toward the phone bank ready to call my girl you were wrong Mac your whole family was here waiting for you man you know what that got me that that that that Al that's uh your whole family not us choking back tears right now C.K. Walker man no character no dialogue it's like I think that's the strongest part of her yes for every for all my qualms there will be these like grand slam moments like that your whole family is here waiting for you just well done I got off the bus in Spokane I did a turn around Hacker was still on it I always spent most of his time listening to his headphones and playing pocket poker my walkman was gone out of the fire weeks ago then I changed my mind climbed back onto the bus walked right to his seat didn't wait for him to see me and punched him in the face kneed him in the nuts I used his hair to jerk his face upright his nose was already bleeding how's that for playing nice Hacker I threw him off the bus onto the floor while Richard the bus driver yelled at me to get off promising I'd never ride a Grey Lord bus again my family was there to meet me at the Spokane terminal took me home I ate rested and eventually got my strength back my uncles gave me a job I worked three weeks and then used the money to buy a ticket for my girl a plane ticket Mel gave birth to our daughter in May we named her Amanda Gracie Stikes ouch the bus company thought I was crazy when I called to "complain" they told me there was no station in Whitefall in fact there are no stops between Fargo and Great Falls, Montana furthermore they said there was no city called Whitefall anywhere in the continental United States since my ticket was long gone there was no way to prove it had been real other than the deaths I often wondered about those missing persons investigations and where it led the detectives if there was no Whitefall there was nowhere to look it must have decided all those people had simply vanished into thin air and maybe they had I try not to think about Whitefall anymore 30 years later but it's there at night in my dreams the ones that turn to nightmares I never really escaped because I always go back and in my dreams I always will end so I just want to say this this is my immediate reaction to that ending is is this not Max like it feels like there's a huge connection between everything between all these like different characters and stuff it almost feels like the story is being told as if it's the letter that Mac wrote that's the letter that he gave to Elaine and like Elaine is that like it's that relationship that could have happened it feels like there's like not I'm not saying that that's like literal but it almost seems like that's the case it's like this weird kind of thing he would told her that's where this record of it comes from it's almost like it's almost like the Whitefall is it is a which this might sound really stupid which you know me I say a lot of stupid things on the show it almost feels like it's different like dimensions or times that are crossing over at the same point like it almost feels like to me like Mac was like a representation of him from the future where he did abandon his kid it almost it almost even seems like Gracie and like other people other characters could have been like his Mel could have been his daughter all through these different time periods where they have intersected because of like this one act of like a person at the very beginning which is the catalyst of this conflict which is like Mel showing up being like I'm pregnant and how did this version of these people respond it almost seems because right now there's a lot of things that like I don't know if I'm if it's just going completely over my head right but it seems like one the set up in this like almost like the first half of the story almost felt like almost like a little bit like a nothing burger once again though if I went back and reread it maybe I would catch new things but it felt like it was just like it took a while to get there it took a while to get there in the sense that the first half of the story is legitimately who are these characters and why are they on the road in the way that like we didn't even and like who are these characters and why are they on the road it's more so like who are these characters like who is Stikes and who are the accompanying characters in this bus or whatever like even Gracie and her boyfriend there's points where I was like man you know it would have been really nice if that guy would have stayed and he would have been the one to initiate this like weird cannibalism thing because we've seen how crazy he is and like there would have been more motive in with Gracie's boyfriend but one thing that's kind of interesting is that nobody's everybody's who either running away from something or trying to get somewhere is not on this bus or they're like not a part of this white fall terminal it's like they're all outside sources that are not like crossing at this point which is also why I think once again it's like this weird mashup of like I don't know it's just this weird crossover between all these parallel universes and stuff it's very interesting I don't know like I said it just feels like really the beginning of the story is cheesy kind of cornball-ish in a lot of ways and then it kind of picks up in this weird where it almost just feels like it's a love letter to the mist and it's kind of like doing this thing where people are isolated and then you get like at the end it just feels like towards the end you get all these things where yeah it's cannibalism but you get all these great character moments and these great character pieces where people are kind of like they're either fighting for something or they're able to let go of something like even Mac being like I don't think I'm going to survive this I think it's really him as a character saying not that he doesn't deserve it but he's like my life with my daughter is gone whatever and like this I just wanted to tell her this like this I would never have the relationship that I wanted with my daughter and like you know I fucked up and I did this thing so it feels like there's like all these nice resolutions that are happening and it feels like the same way that like when the guy shoots all those people in the car or whatever in the knees at the end of the mist yeah and then the thing clears at the end of the mist it almost feels like these resolutions or almost even it seems like as soon as Stikes was able to almost eat somebody or consume Mac or whoever it was on the ground that's whenever the speaker's like hey by the way we're cleared up the moment the moment everyone in because he was the last holdout so it was the moment everyone was either dead or a cannibal everyone has been eaten or and that doesn't feel that doesn't feel random I feel like there's just something I'm not seeing of course not and I'm curious what some of the commentators say to me what it is is everyone who was on here had at least the ones we get from our group everyone who was on here had a determination to change or do something or survival or something like that right so our main character's obvious Mel gonna be a father stuff like that you have Mac who was determined to see his daughter you had Gracie who was determined to be a survivor and get away from what they had done and then you had Dylan who had the determination to go see Sam and like the relationship hadn't worked before but this time he was gonna make it work so you had all these people who were going to change things they had done a lot wrong in their life or had a lot done wrong to them and now they were getting away from it so it is almost in that sense that the White Falls Station acts as purgatory not in the way a lot of us think of like oh it's a place we wait until we get to pass on to the other side but purgatory in a traditional Catholic sense of a place of penance right where you have to be put into and you have to either be lost forever or you have to rise to the occasion you have to meet the challenge it seems a challenge here if we want to take cannibalism as a stand in for determination it was a dedication to the to survive, even if it means throwing away what you know of your humanity. or purpose because the whole time our main character was chris was fighting back against the idea of cannibalism because it's losing your humanity it's throwing it away but it is through sacrificing his humanity that he manages to live so it's almost like a message of these people have to lose everything they know in order to find something new and those that aren't able to do that not only drag themselves down but everyone else down who dies in the meantime right there's also a lot of selfishness seen from the people that do die acker's a survivor but other than him you have like uh the polox right the daughter who sacrifices her father and then she herself dies and you have the the people making deals with kansas city to kill the others and all kinds of stuff like that so there's all these you have good okay what were you saying no go ahead um so you have people who are determined to be selfish from the get-go but it's almost like in a thematic sense they don't make it because they were sacrificing for the sake of self right there was no greater determination where you have salvation through our characters sacrificing for the sake of something greater um if that be to get to sam if that be to get back to you know be a father to be with mel and things like that you have sacrifice with purpose versus you have sacrifice with purpose and you have sacrifice with purpose versus a throwing away of a humanity you don't care for for selfishness like yeah sure you know emily gave up her dad but then she died the next day it meant nothing um so to me it feels like which i have to brew on it a bit more but it feels like the whitefall station is a stand-in for a payment of a bus ticket almost of something you have to pay for something to go through that's only one night but feels like months for the people that are in it which it corresponds really well with uh feed the pigs there that's i was when we were reading i didn't want to say that it had that it had that same theme of like a feed the pig kind of me yeah you got to crawl through it to get through it yeah that being said there was still a couple things because i agree i think that like all of it feels like payment it also feels like fighting uh people who have maybe which maybe not so much for gracie but i guess it's people that are standing up for themselves or for the things that they want the most like gracie being like i'm not going to be abused anymore and i'm going to leave this like a but i feel like for um stykes it's like a matter of doing basically like changing his life for the things that he wants in terms of like his like family and shit the only thing that the only thing that i thought was interesting is that ackner is the opposite of everybody there so far a little bit ackner is ackner was mostly yes mostly the guy who was taking his family for granted and one thing i really wish happened um was that whenever the buses came to pick him up like maybe he lost his ticket or he wasn't able to leave or something him kind of getting this this this i mean like yeah he gets punched in the face at the end but it's like he still gets out of it it's like i'm i'm still i really like he lost his ticket that sounds awesome you know what i mean like something everyone else is dead or leaves and then like the bus leaves without him gosh that would have been oh that would have been so well but once again it does feel random i'm wondering like i would love to hear i'm sure some people that were reading this were more maybe more receptive to it but i would love to to know people's basically like description or decipher of his character because i will say i really liked him as a villain like i know we did the i did the flaunty uh kind of like bombastic voice or whatever but it like honestly i was kind of getting into it just because of like how overly evil and like selfish and disgusting like his like economical like using that voice and it like fit you know um but i'm just i'm still lost on that it seems like so many people maybe maybe if you view it like objectively like not in a sense of morality but in an objection of like if you want to get through you've got to be willing to you know put away your humanity maybe that's just easy for someone like acker who wasn't held on to it because he did have something he was trying to get for in that final line where he's like oh i'm going to see my girlfriend so there was something he wanted to get on the other side of but when he was pregnant he was like oh i'm going to see my girlfriend so there was something he wanted to was like you have to abandon your humanity to get out he said no problem and just dove into it so the maybe maybe then it's kind of a harsh lesson but similar to lord of the flies maybe it's just the idea of those who are willing to throw off societal ties for the sake of their own survival tend to be you know tend to be the ones who survive without a system of governance might does make right when it comes to living this had a kind of uh maybe not a poignant but like lord of the flies has this great ending where the people show up and all the kids basically return to being children and they're just crying you know that's a great that's the best moment of the book to me that makes the whole book exactly and the uh in this part with actner pulling out the candy bars which is not like that would have saved him but it's just this idea that's like you had this thing but yet you still i i love him pulling out the can i thought that was a great moment i thought that was the strongest moment i just thought that was really fun there's a lot to chew on man i don't know like i mean there is it's weird because story that i underestimated at the midway point and was getting upset with kind of i mean i thought we were falling into some of the tropes yeah full transparency i mean like we went to use like a restroom break whatever and we were just kind of sitting there being like i don't know like i'm just not really sure and luckily i don't know like this is the and this is the second time recently where we've read something and like it's one of those images to me which this is going to be stupid and i really i kind of hate these like meme templates and i don't know like i don't know like i don't know like i don't know like engagement base engagement base engagement bait post but it's like that thing where it's like a stick figure horse at the beginning and then turns into like a fully rendered drawing or whatever and people are like what's what movies started is like this you know i mean where it's like beginning like that the fully rendered part's awesome and then the stick figures like it went to shit to me it's literally that moment though where it's just like this first half was just like it's just so cheesy so cornball like them rooting for me like he beats up the guy and they're all like yeah and they throw him off and it's like this kind of weird moment but once again ck walker just does this great thing where she's able to uh i don't know she just makes you give a fuck about characters really strong with dialogue that's the weird thing too is it's either sometimes it's like so comically marvel or cringe you know and then other moments it's like she has you in the palm of her hand it's very i i that that dynamic is so polarizing but i think that's also what makes it so fun makes you want to stay around one second but yeah any final thoughts or is that it okay i don't know what happened but while i was in the discord call it showed that i joined it twice uh and then it wasn't letting me when i'd leave it wouldn't let me come back in so i'm now talking to you on the phone oh well the ending of white fall was so good it's almost like maybe she has these ideas for moments like the ending of white fall and the bus station and all that and then she draws out the moment she wants and they're excellent and she's like i don't know what's going on and she's like i don't know what's going on and then she's like all right and i'm gonna have fun in between and i feel like you which you know funny enough this is the thing i was going to say earlier that i said it's safe to the end her writing reminds me so much of stephen king because personally i don't like stephen king's writing that much i think he's a great writer and i love a lot of his concepts but i don't like reading stephen king books because in my opinion they so often have excellent ideas and these really cool premises uh and obviously he's a horror juggernaut right the reading of it like the in-between will have so much fluff or it will meander or it'll have these goofy moments throw you off from the main point that it feels like a lot of his to me a lot which again who am i to talk about stephen king um a lot of his stuff i almost feel like would be better as a novella sometimes and i think his best writings are his novellas um things like uh the shawshank redemption and i think the green mile was also one wasn't it yep or maybe wrong yep no it is um because when it's more concise it's like i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know what it's like but when it's more concise it sticks with it and i was thinking about how ck walker's writing reminds me of stephen king and then there's that scene where it's like oh stephen king he's a mastermind so you know there's probably a bunch of people including our audience who do not mind the goofiness at all who don't mind of course being like playing nice and they can still but it doesn't take away from the seriousness yeah also for me i have such a problem with it pulling down the weight of everything else around it and don't get me wrong in my opinion certainly pull itself back up by the end that i was hooked and i was in it but for me the quips bring it down so much but there's a lot of people who probably like that and it doesn't bother them and i more power to you yeah no i mean you're right and it's just a subjective thing i mean that's just all personal taste and that's just for our you know that this is just our opinion so definitely if i wouldn't say that that's just all subjective i guess i would like if someone's like oh i like it i wouldn't be like how you know it's just of course i get it yeah it was more than worth reading for uh the ending i think so i mean absolutely i enjoyed it it makes so much sense to me and this will be my last thing is it just makes so much sense that she's had success with screenplay writing that ending shot with him walking up and the people waiting at the the bus station so much of what she writes i'm just i just picture it i'm like i'm it's just so clear in my head and i'm like that must translate so naturally to like i mean screenplays for something for for you to watch and be you know just sit back the bus appearing from the whiteness and then man when he pulled out that candy bar i could see it in my head yeah like the focus arriving on it as it comes out did you picture did you picture the rappers being like super super clean i did i was like oh my polish super polished and i imagined chris next to it just staring at it open mouth it hasn't seen a candy bar in weeks yeah and he just had one the whole time just excellent stuff like that i do so i do see how it makes sense for acker to live from the sake of like hey maybe might makes right but gosh i love the idea you said if he forgot his ticket i just it to me that's when i i was like waiting for it too i was like oh my god i was like waiting for a moment for me to like stand up and be like yeah because fuck that guy but yeah just i don't know i once again i feel like someone's gonna have a comment or something that's just perceives in some way where i'm gonna be like oh yeah exactly exactly well i uh yeah i i'm really glad we read it uh ck walkers needs no introduction obviously uh we will be making so much similar we will be linking the book uh the boroska of course which you know the og uh and we'll have her website linked in the description as well and yeah i agree with you it makes so much sense that she's so successful as a screenwriter because similar to king who i like more as a screenwriter typically than uh the actual books um so a lot of this the visuals are so beautiful translate so well so i get it um so yeah i enjoyed it we'll have her stuff linked in the description one of the juggernauts of the creepypasta or online horror space uh so we certainly enjoyed and hopefully you all do too guys if you're uh listening on spotify or apple podcast take a second to maybe give us a nice rating it does help us out and then also thank you to our patrons who do support the channel and help us just kind of keep this thing going and have some fun stuff some extra goodies on the side so thank you so much but until next time guys stay creeped and we'll see you in the next one stay creeped and uh you know moral of the story maybe sometimes you got to eat an old man i don't know when you'd find yourself in that situation but uh you should try it sometime bye Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching! Thank you for watching!