After the startling discovery at the end of the last episode, the four friends venture deeper into the woods. In the sweltering night, they find an unexpected ally and a new enemy.
(CWs: smoking, food, body horror, some gore, worms)
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CREDITS:
Cast of episode 2: Jesse Syratt, Em Carlson, Tatiana Gefter, Dexter Howard, Mystic Waterz.
Art by NerdVolKurisu
Written, scored, edited, and narrated by Rat Grimes.
Transcripts available in episode notes at somewhereohio.com
ALEX: I’m seeing…two? Two moons? Did a horse kick me in the head?
OLIVIA: No, it’s not just you. I can see it too. They’re parallel, like…well, kind of like…I mean--
NADIA: Eyes. You don’t want to say it, but they look like eyes.
OLIVIA: No, that’s just not possible…
DARYLL: Wow, I don’t know how you did it, but you all got me good. How long have you been planning this? Is it like a hologram? Or did you all knock me out and this is a coma dream?
ALEX: Daryll, this totally isn’t us. Look at me. I’m shaking, Liv’s about to throw up, and I think Nadia is levitating.
DARYLL: Oh. This is for real end of the world type shit, huh.
OLIVIA: S-seems that way.
DARYLL: Then we need to get the fuck out of here.
OLIVIA: Seems that way. I’ll grab the telescope. Alex, gather the blankets and—
ALEX: Leave the blankets! Doesn’t matter if those two fuckin orbs are real or if we’re all just huffing toxic swamp gas, either way, we need to move. Now. Come on, Nadia.
Alex took Nadia’s hand and charged forward down the gravel path. Nadia was pulled forward, struggling to keep pace with Alex, sweating and swearing with every step. Daryll wiped his forehead on his sleeve and followed. Olivia fished her phone out of her pocket. Her trembling hands flipped it open. No signal, of course.
OLIVIA: It wouldn’t be a proper nightmare if there was.
The trail ahead was dappled with moonlight. Probably safer to follow the path than venture into the deep unknown beyond the trees, Alex figured. But she was wrong. The silver glow was far more dangerous than its opposite.
OLIVIA: Hey, Alex, I think we should stay off the trail.
ALEX: Why the hell would we do that?
OLIVIA: The light. Whatever’s happening, if we’re lit up like this–
ALEX: *sigh* We’re easy targets on the trail.
OLIVIA: Right.
ALEX: So we’re just going deeper into the woods?
OLIVIA: We’ll still get to the jeep, we’re just taking the…scenic route. I think it was Frost who said, “the best way out is through.”
ALEX: Sounds like some nerd bullshit to me.
OLIVIA: Would you stop joking for one second and listen to me?
*pause*
*rustling ahead*
Out of the treeline lurched a tall silhouette in silver light. The four halted, and the shadowy figure turned their direction. On its head was a round wide hat. It stepped into a moonbeam, and its face appeared in the sharp light.
ALEX: Oh thank god, it’s the park ranger!
OLIVIA: *exhaling hard* That’s a relief. We’re sorry for being out here, like super sorry. We just…
AbLEX: Got lost!
OLIVIA: That’s right, we got lost trying to find the group, and…hey, do you have any idea what’s going on? We thought you were going to be like a monster or something.
ALEX: Or a cop.
NADIA: Same thing.
ALEX: Shut up, chairman.
The figure took another staggering footstep toward them.
OLIVIA: Figure??
ALEX: What?
Its torso bent forward, then its hands snapped to the side of its head. It pressed its palms against its temples and a pained grimace contorted its face. Looking it over, Olivia realized why the ranger had seemed so familiar. The palms pushed harder, veins bulging, eyes shut hard. The ranger had her father’s eyes.
OLIVIA: Everyone always said I had his eyes…
Rich chestnut brown. A guttural wail crawled from the thing’s lips and rang in their ears like a siren. One last press and its head burst open in a glistening blossom of bone and flesh. Its hat tumbled and swayed to the ground, landing in the sticky puddle of winedark liquid pooling around its feet. Shreds of tissue and hair hung about its shoulders like a gruesome collar.
OLIVIA: I’m gonna be sick….
Then from its neck cavity rose an undulating tendril. No wider than a cat’s tail; longer though, much longer, and more agile. It whipped the air around it into a sharp whistling tone. The body still had life within it, or a sick imitation of life, as the figure’s hands reached out toward Olivia and her friends once more. It moved with purpose down the path after them.
OLIVIA: Oh, I’m gonna be sick…
The only way out was through the trees.
M-maybe we can lose it in the woods.
ALEX: I trust you.
*music intensifies, running sounds*
The bloody warbling of the tendril followed them into the forest. Alex lead with wordless gestures, trying to find a path to safety through the thick undergrowth. What was once the park ranger must have been after them now, must have had some mean purpose, to give chase in such twisting wood.
The thing was fast, moving with no regard for its bodily safety, stomping through thornbushes, slamming shoulders into branches. Alex pulled Nadia out of the way and into a patch of moonlight peeking through the leaves. Now exposed, the two froze in place. Daryll and Olivia stopped and watched as the tendril danced. They were out in the open, right in the spotlight, but this thing kept searching and groping in the dark. The wormlike appendage stretched out further from the flowered skull, glistening black in the night, and stood straight in the air. It was waiting for something. It was listening.
OLIVIA, harsh whisper: Don’t move, don’t make a sound!
NADIA, quietly: Why would we stop--
ALEX: Shh, shhh….
The horrid thing snapped to attention and faced Alex and Nadia. Alex picked a rock off the ground and threw it back the way they came. The figure spun around and gave chase.
*warbling and footsteps grow distant*
ALEX: Holy shit, I don’t think it can see us.
OLIVIA: It’s following sound.
ALEX: Then we gotta step lightly. Come on.
***
DARYLL: Hey, uh, can we take a break for a second? I’m sweating through my…everything.
OLIVIA: I don’t hear the ranger anymore. I could use a breather.
ALEX: We should be almost to the jeep by now, five more minutes, tops.
NADIA: It’s so humid, I feel like I’m swimming.
OLIVIA: The dewpoint has to be super high.
ALEX: Look, there’s something in the trees ahead. It’s gotta be the jeep.
NADIA: Finally, let’s get the hell out of this place.
*footsteps slow*
DARYLL: That is so totally wicked not the jeep.
OLIVIA: It’s a sign. Like a billboard or something? The back’s covered in vines.
ALEX: Stay here, it could be some other fucked up nightmare trap. I’ll go check the front. Maybe it’s a big trail map or something.
Alex crept up to the weathered sign. The back was overgrown with creeping ivy and stagnant moss, and the front was splattered with dried mud and debris. Alex brushed the detritus aside.
ALEX: “Welcome”
She chipped away at the dirt with spit and determined fingernails.
ALEX: “to”
Alex picked up a loose branch and thwacked the sign, shaking loose the remaining cruft, and potentially alerting anything nearby. The last word was now visible.
ALEX: “Ohio.”
NADIA: No way.
DARYLL: We’re like 30 miles away from the border, at LEAST.
ALEX: Bro, I’m just telling you what I saw. It said “Welcome to Ohio,” and there was a slogan. “The Heart of it All.” Some kind of fantasy shit, too. “Fiat justice route callum” or something.
NADIA: Uhh that’s latin, babe. Never been to mass?
ALEX: Oh, uh, totally. What’s it say?
NADIA: Well, I’ve been to mass, but never paid any attention to mass. No clue.
OLIVIA: Don’t look at me like that Alex! I don’t speak latin.
DARYLL: Who cares? It’s hella weird that it’s here.
OLIVIA: Did it look like it had been moved recently? Like were the stakes pulled up or anything?
ALEX: Nah, it was just…there.
OLIVIA: Okaaaay…Hm.
ALEX: We didn’t like…walk that far, right?
DARYLL: M-mmmh. No way.
ALEX: And teleportation’s still not like…a thing, right?
DARYLL: Dude, come on.
ALEX: Well, I didn’t think tentacles coming out of people heads was either, but here we are.
OLIVIA: That means one of two things—this place used to be in Ohio, or we’re actually in Ohio right now.
ALEX: Hey, here’s something dumb. What if Ohio like…took a bite out of Michigan?
NADIA: What does that even mean.
ALEX: I don’t know! It’s so hot I can barely think. And then there’s this thing.
OLIVIA: W-what the hell is that? It looks like an effigy.
ALEX: I don’t know. A little twig doll or something? Maybe some squirrels got crafty. It was hanging on the sign.
OLIVIA: Let’s keep it in mind, but for now, we should keep going. Maybe find some water, if possible.
NADIA: Which way, though?
ALEX: I-I don’t know. I’m all turned around now.
DARYLL: Might be just a hunch, but I’m feeling North.
ALEX: No shit. But which way’s north?
DARYLL: Uhhh…up?
ALEX: That’s not how it works in 3D, you dunce.
OLIVIA: Hold on. If I can get a look at the stars, I can help. Okay, so, hmmm. There! That’s ursa minor. The tail, that’s Polaris. That’s north.
ALEX: Look at you, all that dorkazoid shit’s paying off. Let’s go.
They walked for some uncountable minutes, the stars overhead stayed still, and the air remained stagnant. Ahead they saw a twisted yellow birch. Its branches were hung with little tokens on fishing wire, like strange ornaments. They had come upon several symbols by then, or suggestions of symbols. Hidden omens, unuttered phrases, the curl of a leaf and the angle of a branch. There were more obvious sigils, too: a handful of twigs woven together, a superficial mark on a tree trunk. They subconsciously strung themselves along the path of the seer, and were soon encountered by a woman. Older than Olivia was even in the here and now. Her mom’s age, maybe.
OLIVIA, quietly: Maybe a few years older.
She was sitting on a stump near some chicken wire, taking long drags and ashing her cigarette into a plastic film canister. She didn’t look their direction, didn’t seem to acknowledge their presence at all, until they were near her cabin.
GERTRUDE: Suppose you’re hungry. D’jeet dinner yet?
OLIVIA: Oh, uh, no. Not really.
GERTRUDE: Come on in. Grab a few tomatoes to take with you. Some eggs if you got room. I’m up to my ears in them out here.
The woman finished her cigarette and tossed the butt into the can. She rose slowly, careful not to aggravate any of the aches she already had, and waved them to follow her. They walked past a small family of chickens, red tomatoes on the vine, blackberries so dark and full they shone like jewels, elderberries and raspberries and carrots and pulled radishes hanging out to dry.
GERTRUDE: Now, out there, lot of this ain’t in season yet. Or was already. But I make it work here. Go ahead, try one if you’re peckish.
ALEX, mouthful of berries: Guh they’re so good.
GERTRUDE: Glad to hear it. Now, if you’ve got any mobile telephones, turn em off asap.
Through the threshold of the cabin, they could see herbs hanging over doorways, a pottery spinning wheel, stacks of books, and an old german shepherd sleeping near her chair. On one wall, a series of polaroid photos were pinned to a corkboard. The subjects of the photos were dark, blurry, hard to make out, like the exposure was too long and the photographer couldn’t keep still. The woman surveyed the exhausted trio.
GERTRUDE: Name’s Gertrude, friends call me Hecks. You’ve seen some of my wards out there. And I’m guessing with those looks on your faces, you’ve seen something else, too.
ALEX: You too? How much do you know about that thing?
GERTRUDE: Gonna have to be more specific than that. There’s lots of “things” out here. If you mean the dangerous ones…not much. I’ve seen what they do, and I want no part of it. Always nattering on about the old times. *spit* They’re things of the past, oughta stay there.
OLIVIA: Is this an art piece? I love the photos.
GERTRUDE: Well, yes and no. I do like the look myself, a little avant-garde, but it’s more like a cage than a painting.
OLIVIA: A cage for…what? Anything like the worm thing we saw?
GERTRUDE: A lot of those are pictures of the dangerous ones–call em Crickets on account of their music.
OLIVIA: Oh, I know those. I’ve heard them called Larks.
GERTRUDE: Rose is a rose is a rose. Whatever name you give em, they’re mean, and tough as nails. If you can catch em early enough in their transformation, you can save them. Some of them. Kid a couple weeks ago almost got sucked in. That’s the one, third polaroid down. Found their way here, too, but I sent em home. Wasn’t ready for this kind of life yet. A lot of em, it’s too late, and the best I can do is bury em with the memories they keep trying to dig up. They’re things of the past, they can be undone by the past. Made whole again in the future, god willing and the creek don’t rise. So I take my photos and hang them up like a little memorial. Keeps them away, for a time. More than one way to do that, but this is my favorite. That thinhead you saw–the worm critter–those ones sometimes have a sliver of consciousness in em. If the head’s burst open like an August blackberry, though, it’s too late.
OLIVIA: Have you been dealing with these Larks–Crickets–for a while now?
GERTRUDE: With other creatures, sure. The crickets are newer, meaner than the old ones. Most of what people are afraid of, you can live with. You can respect them–hell, you can even make nice. People just afraid of what’s different. Now these Crickets and thinheads, they’re…something else. From somewhere else. Driven mad by a song, those Crickets, and the thinheads have some kind of parasite in em. The mothman’s not out here kidnapping folks from town, is he. He just comes down for a snack from time to time.
ALEX: Are you alone out here? Seems kind of…well, lonely.
GERTRUDE: Junie passed about…christ, eight years ago now. See the doc out on walks sometimes, got a few local rodents of note, and Alice stops by when her whims deem it so. I do love that woman, but by god is she flighty. Like fey folk herself. She’d be better to jet off to New York City and all. Folks don’t care much who you are there, but it’s all too fast for me. Yes ma’am, no sir, rush rush rush. Can’t grow my carrots living in a damn metal box. You want a pop or something? Got root beer in the fridge.
DARYLL: Hell yeah, root beer! Got any ibuprofen? It’s been a rough night so far.
*can cracks open*
OLIVIA: So you see things all the time? Like, supernatural things?
GERTRUDE: If you want to call em that, sure.
OLIVIA: This place I… I’ve heard about, they call it variance. Psychic abilities, cryptids, specters, all of it. And they study this stuff and try to keep it contained, to keep people safe.
GERTRUDE: Of course they do. But it’s only “variant” because of what’s around it. You’re variance out here. And your friend’s a variant back in Deerland. Queer folk aren’t exactly welcomed everywhere.
ALEX: Whoa, hey, nobody’s gay, here, okay?
GERTRUDE: Sure, sure. Couple years back, they might have even tried to contain you. What’s that say, huh? Half the reason I’m out here…It ain’t like the other side. There’s other ways to live, you know. Don’t need to always be afraid–or try to learn away the fear–of everything you don’t know about. You can live with that discomfort, live with the unknown. Even live with the unknowable. Tear down the wall. Take a seat at the end of the world and watch the sun go down.
OLIVIA: Yeah, I agree it’s not all bad. I helped this one creature out of its cage. I’ve seen some dangerous things on the loose though, too. It’s just…complicated.
GERTRUDE: Ain’t that the truth. Can’t say much for the Crickets. They’re something else, and I can’t say I’d be sad to see them gone. Well, I suppose I should let you get going.
ALEX: This is going to sound mega dumb, but before we go, is this…Ohio?
GERTRUDE: It’s all Ohio now, hun, but Ohio’s just started to figure that out.
ALEX: Sorry? How?
GERTRUDE: All the meanest people in the world got together, decided what was worst for all of us and made us eat it. They feed us the same shit day and night and try to make us think it’s good. They took it all and left the rest of us picking over scraps. It’s the same pretty much wherever you go, they all got the same goal. If they can make a dollar when a hundred people will die, a hundred bodies’ll be on the news by 11. If they can make a dollar when a thousand, a million, a hundred million die, then that’s how many there’ll be. Doesn't hardly matter where you are anymore; Florida to Utah, suburbs to fields, it’s all flat, it’s all mean, it’s all Ohio. We’re just too broke and tired to stop it.
OLIVIA: That’s…short-sighted. There has to be something more to it we’re not seeing, right? They’re greedy but they aren’t dumb.
ALEX: Yeah man, you gotta be like hella smart to be that rich and powerful.
OLIVIA: Right. Won’t it burn them in the long run?
GERTRUDE: Oh, honey, there’s no long run. They know the curtains are closing on this place and they’re just trying to pry out the last few gold fillings before the corpse starts to stink.
OLIVIA: Maybe.
GERTRUDE: You’re young. You’ll see the world as it is with time. Or maybe you won’t. Depends on if you’re willing to lift the blindfold.
OLIVIA: I just…I have a hard time believing they’d let us suffer for nothing.
GERTRUDE: Believe it or not–it’s up to you–but we’ll all smell the rot eventually. Me personally, I think we should take them out back and do em like old yeller. Anyway, didn’t mean to talk your ear off. I figure you’re looking for the planetarium?
OLIVIA: Not specifically, but that would be great. We’re kind of lost here.
GERTRUDE: It’s about a mile up the path behind the cabin. Follow the trail markers covered with unfathomable runes. Can’t miss it.
OLIVIA, quieter: Can I ask you something a little…weird?
GERTRUDE: Shoot.
OLIVIA: What…what is this place? It’s not just a cabin, is it?
GERTRUDE: I carved out my own little place on the border. You could, too.
OLIVIA: What border? The state line?
GERTRUDE: The border between where they come from and where you come from. Like I’m living in a storybook.
OLIVIA: I don’t think I follow.
GERTRUDE: The world of those…Larks, you called em, and our own world are a lot closer than you might think. You can make a hole in the wall, if you’ve got the will and the wits to do it.
OLIVIA: Hmm.
GERTRUDE: Watch yourselves out there, and think about what I told you. Think about if the way these “variance” folks do things is the way you want to go with.
OLIVIA: We will. Let’s go.
NADIA: Cute dog.
OLIVIA: Yeah, looks just like the one I had growing up.
GERTRUDE: What dog?
***
YELLOW: As you may have heard, Green has…retired from the Department. Given all the destruction the new hire and her little “buddies” caused before they disappeared, we’re going to need someone who can repair the building. Someone to tap into it like Green did and right the ship. Look at this: broken glass, warped walls, elevators downed. But we think you’re up to the task. You’ve shown stunning aptitude in the psychokinetic training lab, you worked directly with Green, and, to be frank, we just love your can-do attitude. You’ve got the kind of stick-to-it-iv-ness, the grit we look for in management. So I need your help, Lapis, to fix this mess, and finish my project. What would you say to a transfer? You’d be working directly with me, as my executive assistant.
LAPIS: Oh, my. It does sound like quite an ordeal. I would always like to do what is helpful. But how may I help? I am simply the librarian.
YELLOW: You can start by showing me what Green taught you.
LAPIS: I…I was instructed not to do so.
YELLOW: It’s fine, you won’t be reprimanded. Go ahead and try to straighten that beam at the end of the hallway.
LAPIS: Like this?
*metal groans*
YELLOW: Oh, yes, like that indeed, darling. You’ll be just perfect.
LAPIS: I am grateful for the opportunity, Yellow. But if I may ask one question: where did Green go?
END