Episode 8: Dead Letter Overflow

JASMINE: She’s gone. Scarlet, can you hear me? Scarlet! Damn it.

VIOLET, through static: (monotone) …wasting my time. Help. SOS. Distress call. Danger. And so on.

JASMINE: Yes, hi, hello, is someone there? This is Jasmine Control. What’s your sign?

VIOLET: Virgo.

JASMINE: Oh, no color name? Are you maintenance, too?

VIOLET: I guess they just hand out Admins to anyone now. I’m Violet Lull, HR. I’m stuck in the mail room.

JASMINE: Okay. I lost Scarlet, but I’ve been through some shit already. Maybe I can help. Where’s the mail room?

VIOLET: She’s not with…Nevermind. I’ll take my chances alone.

JASMINE: What? No. If you tell me where to go, I can get you out. As long as there’s no sharks in the way.

VIOLET: I don’t know what that means, but this isn’t really my job.

JASMINE: What are you talking about?

VIOLET: Try Scarlet again, maybe she can help you.

*beep, static*

JASMINE: No, she’s gone. I’ve just got you.

VIOLET: Oh. Um…do you see anyone else around? Big idiot with lights coming out of his head?

JASMINE: Nope, took care of him. There’s a ton of mail out here.

VIOLET: Hold on.

*static, silence for a moment*

VIOLET: I can’t get anyone else on the line.

JASMINE: I haven’t seen anyone else here the whole time, other than Gabe.

VIOLET: The…janitor?

JASMINE: Yeah, they helped me get down here.

VIOLET: They shouldn’t…Something’s wrong.

JASMINE: I’d say so. Didn’t you hear the sirens?

VIOLET: Something is way wrong.

JASMINE: Just sit tight, Violet. I’m moving now. I’ll find you.

VIOLET: Tell Scarlet I’m sorry. If she ever picks up.

JASMINE: You can do it yourself. I’m going to get you out of there.

VIOLET: Guess I had a decent run. Wait, no, it actually really sucked. But it was a run. I never got to see Prague. Goth as hell cathedral.

JASMINE: I’m crossing the room now. God, there’s a lot of mail. It’s piled up like little spires.

VIOLET: Guess I’ll die in a kind of cathedral. Corporate gothic. What was the point of it all, anyway? Felt like I was always building up to something, then it just…never came. Death is, though. Death’s coming. Is that how it goes? You spend your life waiting for death?

JASMINE: How did you end up in the mail room?

VIOLET: I trusted my coworkers. And they used me like a worm on a hook.

JASMINE: For who?

VIOLET: Who do you think? God, this place sucks. Why did they hire you in the first place? I’m gonna give Sterling so much grief in hell. Hopefully when the Larks kill me, they go for the head first so I don’t have to–

*beep*

NARRATOR: Jasmine turned off her communicator and crouched behind a particularly large box. She had heard something, some movement in the halls ahead. And she’d heard enough of Violet talking in circles. She tried to slow her breathing. What would it be next? Another Lark, a giant butterfly, or some other fresh terror she couldn’t conceive of? The sounds ahead were getting closer. Her left side was pressed against the wall, and to her right was a small office. The desk inside was stacked high with envelopes, and boxes littered the floor around it. Jasmine ducked across the open hall and into the office, then snuck around the desk and slid under it. She could see the hallway through a gap in the desk. Soon after someone walked by. Fully human, with a watch like hers. Hope rose in her for the first time since she came here. She slowly stood up from the desk, intending to ask for help. Then she heard what the person was saying.

JADE: Someone’s been here. Over.

*static*

JADE: Permission to activate tracking? Over.

*static*

JADE: Acknowledged. The intruder will be eliminated. Jade Operator, over and out.

NARRATOR: There were no responses from the other end. None that Jasmine could hear, anyway. She did catch “operator,” though. Something Scarlet had said when they first spoke. Something about an operator and a weapon. Security guards.

The operator clicked on a flashlight and drew a weapon from their right side, holding both in front of them as they moved down the hallway and out of Jasmine’s sight.

JASMINE: A weapon…eliminated…am I the intruder?

*beep*

JASMINE, quiet: Violet, there’s someone out here. Jade Operator, they said.

VIOLET: Seriously? It’s Jade? Did they at least have keys or anything useful?

JASMINE: I…I don’t know. I didn’t introduce myself. They pulled out some kind of gun and said they were “eliminating the intruder.”

VIOLET: There’s no intruder. This isn’t that kind of thing. Who were they talking to?

JASMINE: I don’t know. I just heard static on the other end.

VIOLET: Cool. Jade’s losing their mind. Annoying AND dangerous. Great. Cool.

JASMINE: What should I do?

VIOLET: I spell-check the payroll. Do I sound like a combat strategist?

JASMINE: Okay, tell me about this floor then. Maybe I can figure out a way to you and then to the stairs.

VIOLET: All the mail that doesn’t fit in any of the Dead Letter Offices gets sent here. There’s a lot of it, and it’s usually not bombs. Then there’s the mail room where everything gets sorted. I’m…I’m not actually in the main hall, though. I’m in the stairwell past it.

JASMINE: Oh, shit, then go! Keep moving down. I’ll manage my way out.

VIOLET: Yeah, there’s a problem with that.

JASMINE: What?

VIOLET: The next floor is Sterling’s lab.

JASMINE: So?

VIOLET: They didn’t prep you at all, did they. If things are bad all over, the lab’s going to be the worst of it all. If any of his “samples” got out…

JASMINE: Wait. Those stairs, were they in the same place yesterday?

VIOLET: Yesterday was sunday.

JASMINE: Ugh, I mean the last time you were here. Were they somewhere else?

VIOLET: Didn’t Scarlet tell you we’re in Asymmetry? The building can change stuff around. Yeah, they’re usually somewhere else.

JASMINE: That’s what I thought. So, if it can move rooms like it’s nothing, why can’t it do floors?

VIOLET: Like…just move floors around?

JASMINE: Right, exactly. If we can figure out a way to get the building to shift floors, make a new configuration, maybe we could get a safer floor below us. Like shuffling a deck of cards.

VIOLET: Sounds…completely deranged. I like it. How would we do it?

JASMINE: Scarlet said the building will try to keep us from leaving, right?

VIOLET: It’s one big tower of doom.

JASMINE: Cool, so what if we wanted to get to Sterling’s lab? What if getting there would help us out. Then the building would try to prevent us from going there by any means it could.

VIOLET: I don’t know if we can…trick a building.

JASMINE: What if it’s not a trick. What if there’s something there that’s worth the risk. Is there something in Sterling’s lab we could use?

VIOLET: Well, yeah. He’s got all kinds of stuff there. Most of it isn’t finished though. I think he has a prototype jaunt hanging on the wall in his office, though.

JASMINE: Great, you know how to use it?

VIOLET: HR. Insurance. Art school.

JASMINE: That’s a no, then. I’m sure we can figure it out. We need that jaunt as soon as possible. Stay in the stairwell, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. Then we’re going to Sterling’s lab.

VIOLET: You better pray to whatever twisted muse gave you this idea that it works.

JASMINE: What idea?

VIOLET: The fl–oh. Right. Secret.

JASMINE: All right, Violet, I’m coming your way. Radio me if you hear the operator nearby.

VIOLET: Will do, Capitán.

**********

JADE: I can hear the intruder making noise. Like whistling. Very distracting. Over.

*watch beeping*

NARRATOR: Jasmine ducked between leaning towers of paper and vaulted low over toppled boxes. The lights overhead flickered, casting the office in sick fluorescence and total darkness by turns. She could barely hear it, but Jade was correct: there was something on the air.

JASMINE, quietly: Shit, shit, shit.

NARRATOR: With each blip, the operator’s watch sought out Jasmine’s.

JADE: Just turn yourself in and you won’t get hurt. You have my promise.

NARRATOR: The operator followed in Jasmine’s wake, drawing closer and closer. A cat and mouse game in a paper maze. Jasmine wasn’t familiar with the floor’s layout, while Jade had patrolled it nearly every day. Jasmine struggled to keep her lead. The operator was closing in, gun in hand, ready to end the Department’s rat problem.

*box falls, paper spills*

JASMINE: Shit, shit!

NARRATOR: The operator heard the box fall and turned on their heel to face Jasmine. She panicked, and pushed over the rest of the box tower. Out of the boxes spilled an assortment of colored envelopes. Among them was an old video game cartridge, a tamagotchi keychain, and a mirror. She ran as hard as her tired legs would allow, but as she turned a corner, she came face to face with the Operator.

JASMINE: No…please no…

JADE: Found you, little rat.

JASMINE: Wait! I work here. I’m not an intruder. Look, I–I’ve got a badge. Clearance 3.

JADE: Copper? No. Cornered little rat. Cat and the rat.

JASMINE: It’s my first day, I’m just trying to get out right now.

JADE: HA! Lucky you. Lucky strikes. Bowled a perfect 300.

JASMINE: What? Just let me go, I can prove it.

JADE: Prove for 1 hour or until doubled in size. You don’t belong here.

JASMINE: Wait, Jade, answer this: how is a raven like a writing desk?

JADE: Raven. Large black bird. Birds sang in the woods, near the treehouse. The desk in my office is made from a tree that used to hold a treehouse. Not anymore. Nevermore. Writing on the wall says it’s the end times, that’s why we have to stick to the rules. Help make some order…

NARRATOR: From behind the operator, Jasmine saw a massive fleshy creature rise. Not like the Larks, no, there were no tendrils, no colors. Just a giant, gangly person with a hanging maw. Jade was in its way. It swung its long arm into Jade, knocking them hard into the wall. Jasmine quickly stepped aside as the tall sinewy thing brushed past her. It rummaged through the boxes she’d spilled earlier until it found a small keychain. It struggled to push a button on the electronic device with its large hands, until it finally succeeded. Its body turned grayscale, its form pixelated, and then it disappeared.

JADE, pained: *grunt* What the hell did you just do, young lady?

JASMINE: I didn’t do anything! But it sounds like you snapped out of it. Look, I work here and–

JADE: Out of what?

JASMINE: You sounded like one of those big things. The Larks.

JADE: You still struck an officer--former officer of the law.

JASMINE: W-what are you going to do?

JADE: What I have to.

NARRATOR: Jade moved down the hallway to the painting hung at its fork. They slid the painting to the side, revealing a solid black safe. Jade tapped out a series of numbers and the safe door swung open. Inside was an off-white phone, spiral cord wrapped around the receiver and base.

JASMINE: W-what are you doing? I thought those weren’t allowed.

NARRATOR: Jade untangled the cord slowly, purposefully. They set the base back in the safe and lifted the receiver. Jasmine ran down the hall, unsure which direction she should be heading. She saw a slight shadow at the end of one corridor. It looked like a hand, faint against the eggshell wall, beckoning her. She took one last look back at Jade. They put a fingertip in the 0 notch and spun the rotary dial. Jade put the phone to their ear and said one word.

JADE: Operator.

And Jade was gone. Jasmine let herself regain some composure now that she wasn’t being tailed. But the birdsong still floated gently on the air. Whatever was calling to Jade couldn’t be far off now. She moved down the hallway toward where the shadowy hand had indicated.

****************

*office ambience*

JADE: Violet.

VIOLET: Oh, hi, Jade.

JADE: Looks like you’ve got a sandwich today.

VIOLET: Yeah. Turkey club.

JADE: Turkey? That’s on the list, Violet.

VIOLET: That’s a whole turkey, slices aren’t banned.

JADE: Hmmm. Are you sure? Did you ask Grey?

VIOLET: Uhhh no, but it’s fine.

JADE: Well, I hate to be that person, you know. But I would just check with Grey first, right?

VIOLET: For a sandwich.

JADE: For turkey. We all have to follow the rules.

VIOLET: Could you just let me eat?

JADE: I’m just ensuring compliance. I used to be highway patrol, you know. Before I saw…what I saw. I still have connections in a lot of places. Now, I’m not trying to disturb your lunch, ma’am–

VIOLET: Ughh, don’t call me “ma’am.” I’m not that old yet.

JADE: It’s not about age, ma’am, it’s about respect.

VIOLET: So what. Should I just throw it away? Out of respect?

JADE: If you have any respect for the law, and those wh–

*watch beeps*

JADE: *sigh* Well, it’s already in here, so it’s too late for that. You can finish eating. But in the future, check with Grey before you bring in anything that could be variant. Or with me.

VIOLET: Got it. Thanks.

*ambience for a moment*

STERLING: What’s the hubbub?

VIOLET: Just Jade being a cop. What are the Primaries shoving on you now?

STERLING: Actually, we’ve just finished the preparation stage for something quite extraordinary.

VIOLET: Oh yeah? Spill it.

STERLING: Well, I was hoping you might actually want to participate.

VIOLET: No thanks. Last time I took one of the psychs I saw god’s face and they looked like that sun baby from the teletubbies. Didn’t sleep for two days.

STERLING: *laughs nervously* No, no, nothing like that. You’d be one of the observers this time. Or, if you’d prefer, a confederate–err, accomplice perhaps is more appropriate.

VIOLET: Hmm. What are you up to?

STERLING: Come to the lab after lunch. We can discuss the details there.

VIOLET: Ughh fine.

STERLING: Oh, by the way, I saw your sister at the supermarket yesterday.

VIOLET: Emily?

STERLING: Oh, no, the older one.

VIOLET: Eva. What’s she doing back in Ohio?

STERLING: She was let go from her old position. A firm in town hired her for some design work.

VIOLET: Oh, that sucks. Thought she got out of here for good. Why bring it up, though?

STERLING: I had figured…it’s a shame to be disconnected from one’s family, don’t you think? I still worry about you.

VIOLET: I know. I appreciate it. It’s not like I hate them or anything–

STERLING: Right, of course–

VIOLET: –we’re just like…really different. They don’t get it. I can only sit around and eat ham and talk about church for so long before I want to impale my head on a candle.

STERLING: Right. How are you and Scarlet doing?

VIOLET: Fine.

STERLING: What does “fine” mean, Vi?

VIOLET: She’s really cool. And great to hang out with. But I’m just like…burnt out on it. I don’t know. We’ve got this stupid game night coming up…

STERLING: Oh, how fun!

VIOLET: Maybe it was a mistake, doing this with her.

STERLING: Ah, I see. Do you really think so?

VIOLET: I thought maybe this time, since we’d been friends for so long… you know…but it’s not working. I try and try, but it always collapses. Everyone thinks I just stop loving them. That’s bullshit–it’s just different love. The long term romance stuff just doesn’t work for me.

STERLING: With no offense intended, I’d have to concur. Having been on the receiving end. On that topic, when I was talking with your sister, Eva, I *beep* – Oh, shoot, it’s 1 already. I have to finish my write-up for Blue. We’ll chat after your break.

******************

Soon, Jasmine found herself in the mail room. Vacuum tubes lined one wall above a wide desk. Mail sat in mounds across the floor. Jasmine stepped through the mess like walking through sand dunes, envelopes and postcards loosing from the pile with the odd footfall. And all around the office hung thin shadows. About her height, some taller. Whatever these things were, one of them had shown her the way. They all stood motionless aside from the flicker at the edges of their forms. Only one made its way toward her. She flinched, but didn’t retreat. The approaching shadow reached out a faint hand, and extended an index finger. Jasmine lifted hers to meet it. A familiar flash played across her mind. Then the shadows dissipated, and ahead of her was a door awash in EXIT sign red. Through the window, Jasmine saw a woman in a black shirt with white pointed collar. Her dark bob of hair shifted as she looked up from her watch.

*door opens*

VIOLET: Hey. You must be Jasmine.

JASMINE: Violet? Good to finally see another person face to face.

VIOLET: Nice work out there. Guess I was a little harsh with the admin comment.

JASMINE: It’s okay. Let’s get moving.

*beep*

JASMINE: Scarlet, can you hear me? Over…Scarlet?

*steps on stairs*

JASMINE: Still nothing. Wait, “nice work”? Were you watching from the stairwell or something?

VIOLET: I…I’m not sure what to tell you.

JASMINE: I’m tired of being in the dark here.

VIOLET: It might break everything.

JASMINE: It’s already broken! We’ve got to share everything we know. People are dying here.

VIOLET: Well, they weren’t supposed to.

JASMINE: Of course they weren’t…

VIOLET: No, this wasn’t part of the plan.

JASMINE: Plan? What plan?

VIOLET: I guess it’s too late now, I might as well tell you. The alarm, the lock-in, Scarlet on the line. This whole thing. It’s part of your training, Jasmine. You’re still in orientation.

END