S2: E02 - Severance

S02-E02: Severance

[Intro music - 5 sec]

Narrator: Wake Of Corrosion Season 2 - Episode 2: Severance

[Radio Tuning]

[Muffled sounds can be heard as someone switches on a recording device and moves it into the correct position]

Prof Ryan: [spoken in a solemn voice] This is Professor Ryan of Bunker A:12. This is a public broadcast to any Survivors out there. Before I begin, please be aware that I advise listener discretion going forward, as some of the content of this broadcast can be unsettling or disturbing.

[SFX: Morse code]

Ryan: I’ve reviewed some more of the evidence since our last broadcast survivors. I’m not going to say much else before I continue with where we left off. However, I did have to fast forward the recording by about an hour. It...well it wasn’t easy to keep dropping in on Elliots suffering. I’m going to play one moment of note before I start the main bulk of the audio. It was only a few seconds, but...well, I think you should hear it.

[SFX: Recording click]

Elliot: [panicked breathing] It’s okay. You’re still alive. It’s okay.

[SFX: Interference on recording. Sounds - alien, abhorrent]

Elliot: Oh God, oh God. [shaky breaths] Ssh, ssshhh Elliot.

[SFX: Radio]

Ryan: I’m not sure what on earth that was but this is the only instance I found of this sound for the entire time Elliot was there. I’ve never heard anything like it. And you, of course survivors, know what I ask of you in times like this.

I’ll start it back up, this is about 15 minutes after the previous section.

[SFX: Fast Forward]

[SFX: Recording click]

Elliot: [heavy, panicked, slow breaths, whisper] F-f-for anyone who’s listening. This isn’t a joke. This isn’t made up. I’m paralysed and numb from the neck down and there is this, I don’t even know. Bat-like? Creature that has me trapped here. It’s so dark I can’t see. The guy who was next to me. I think, I think he’s gone. Eaten, I think. He called the creature The Gorgon, it was like he wanted to be eaten.

Please, if you’re listening to this. Find somewhere safe. Lock yourself in. Do not go...just...anywhere. Don’t.

Roman: [distant, whispered] Elliot?

Elliot: Roman? Roman, I’m here.

Roman: Ssh, ssh. Listen, I got the torch on the dimmest setting. We’re going to have to play a little game so that I can find you.

Elliot: Roman, what? This isn’t the time. I can’t move.

Roman: I know, I know-

Elliot: How do you kn-

Roman: It doesn’t matter at the moment. Look, just, keep it quiet. But when I call, I want you to respond. I’m working my way toward you.

Elliot: Okay.

[SFX: Slow movements. Shuffling]

Roman: Elliot.

Elliot: Roman.

Roman: Elliot.

[SFX: Shuffling, louder]

Elliot: Roman.

Roman: Elliot.

Elliot: Roman - I see your torch. 

Roman: Okay, ssh. [a pause] Okay, I see you. Jesus Elliot, what th...nevermind.

Elliot: You’re going to have to carry me. 

Roman: I think I’ll be dragging you before anything else. [grunts with exertion]

Elliot: I-I’m sorry.

Roman: Shut up. Listen, if you get any feeling back let me know. And if you don’t, then you can be sorry. [grunts again] God damn it, for a skinny man you’re such a lump.

Elliot: I can only feel things in my hands and feet at the moment. [a pause] Wait...Okay, just one hand. I can’t feel the other at all.

Roman: When was the last time you saw that thing?

Elliot: I’m not sure, hours maybe?

Roman: Mate [grunts with exertion] It’s only been just over an hour you’ve been gone.

Elliot: Well, there you go then. How hasn’t it got you?

Roman: Quiet and slow Elliot. Quiet and slow. [grunts] Okay, I think I can stand up here.

Elliot: Roman, howcome-

Roman: We’ll talk about it when we’re out of here. For now, we’ve got to move.

Elliot: Would if I could. Listen, there was someone else in there with me and….well before he died. He suggested that it hunted by sound more than anything else.

Roman: Well then, let’s shut the fuck up and get a move on. Can you walk yet?

Elliot: I can feel my legs a bit more. There’s no way I can walk though.

Roman: Alright [grunts] Here we go then. Slow and steady. Let’s fuck off.

[SFX: Shuffling and laboured sounds]

[SFX: Creature call]

Elliot: Fuck.

Roman: Ssh!

[SFX: Shuffling stops. Slow breathing]

[SFX: Creature call again]

[a pause]

[SFX: Slow shuffling]

Elliot: Do you know the way out?

Roman: Yeah, about that. I’m hoping the staff entrance isn’t locked up.

Elliot: Fuck Roman, what happened?

Roman: Afterwards. C’mon, get those legs moving.

Elliot: Yeah, okay. I think I can manage a shuffle.

[SFX: Tins rattling. Claw like sounds]

Roman: There, I can feel a breeze. One sec.

[SFX: Torch click]

Roman: See it? At the end of the torch light?

Elliot: Let’s go.

[SFX: Labored shuffling]

[SFX: metallic sound (something falling from Roman)]

Roman: Fuck.

[SFX: Creature call, loud. Claw sounds]

Roman: Run!

Elliot: [panicked breaths, shuffling] I can’t, I can’t!

Roman: For God’s sake [grunts as he grabs Elliot]

[SFX: Rapid scuffing footsteps]

[SFX: Creature call]

Roman: [exertion grunt]

[SFX: Window smashing sound]

Roman: Argh, fuck!

Elliot: Roman, get up, get up, let’s go!

[SFX: Creature call, loud, angry]

Elliot: Here, behind this car.

[SFX: Running on concrete]

Elliot & Roman: [panicked breaths]

[SFX: Creature call - Distant. Howling wind]

[long pause]

Roman: I don’t think it wants to come out here.

Elliot: I’d say the light, but it’s getting dark.

Roman: Perhaps it’s still light enough for now. Let’s not wait to find out. Move away, slowly.

Elliot: One sec, sorting my bag. [SFX: Bag movements] Oh holy fuck.

Roman: Wha-

Elliot: [whimpering] M-my hand. Roman...My hand. My hand. My hand.

Roman: Whoa, okay, okay. Just breathe. Sit down, sit down. [a pause]

Elliot: Aahh [hyperventilating]

Roman: [said with sfx: bag movements - As he’s searching] Look at me, look at me. You see that big old clocktower over there. Just beyond the car park. Don’t you dare take your eyes off that. You look at the thing real hard and you tell me if the hands are still moving, alright? And I don’t want no second guesses. I want to know for certain. So it’s gonna take some time alright? But just breathe, breathe and watch that clock.

Elliot: Roman, I-I-[breathing heavy]

Roman: C’mon bro, you can’t have figured it out yet. Listen, in through the nose, out through the mouth. Eyes on the clock. That’s it.

[SFX: Various first aid kit sfx]

Elliot: Aaah-[sharp intake of breath]

Roman: It’s okay, just a one more-[release of breath] There we go.

Elliot: Fuuuucckk. It’s not moving. It’s not moving. It’s not moving!

Roman: Oh. Yeah I knew that.

Elliot: You fucker!

Roman: Hey, it worked didn’t it? Didn’t hurt too bad, right?

Elliot: Roman, I didn’t feel a thing.

Roman: Well what was all that complaining about?

Elliot: I...I was expecting it to hurt. I thought it hurt. But I mean, seriously, I can’t feel anything. 

Roman: Shock maybe?

Elliot: But it’s completely numb Roman. It was the whole time. Am..Am I missing-

Roman: [abruptly] Yeah, two. On the end.

[long pause]

Elliot: How did you sort it so quickly?

Roman: Elliot, they...well they weren’t mutilated. They weren’t cut. They were just…

Elliot: Gone.

Roman: Yeah mate. [a long pause] Do you remember that bird?

Elliot: I...I do. [panicked breaths again]

Roman: Well…

Elliot: [getting angry] Yeah I get it. Holy shit, what am I supposed to-

Roman: [interrupting] It’s okay brother, it’s okay. It seems like whatever that creature paralysed you with also helped the blood coagulate before you bled too much.

Elliot: [wretches] Please stop.

Roman: Listen, I’ve cleaned it and covered it. We’ll take another look when we make it to the bunker. Just, try not to think about it.

Elliot: Easier said than done. [long sigh] Alright. Let’s do this.

[SFX: Backpack, walking]

[SFX: Radio click]

Ryan: I have a couple of theories on what happened here. Ones I’ve been thinking about overnight since I listened ahead. Either, the creature that took Elliot was somehow able to sever his fingers in an alarmingly precise and particular way. And that same creature, or most likely, another of the same kind, did it to the bird the brother’s mentioned and of course the person Claire saw.

Or... [exasperated sigh] It’s so far fetched. I...Or, going off so many other things that have happened, Elliot’s fingers were somehow caught in some disturbance molecular level. By which I mean, the way the bird's wing was severed perfectly. The way a creature seemed to appear in Roman’s  garage floor and grow from there. Not to mention the things we spoke of on the last broadcast regarding Claire’s findings and Mia’s report. There’s something more going on here. Something that I’m missing, something that I fear is beyond me. All of these severances are too perfect, too clean. My only guess is that it is something so precise as to disturb the very particles things are made up of. I’m curious to know more and explore more instances of this...and I’m painfully aware that finding out more might mean someone else has to encounter another one of the occurences.

[sighs] I’m getting ahead of myself. In this world of uncertainties I’m suggesting things that shouldn’t be possible. At least not to my knowledge. As always, we must endeavour to discover more and for that...well for that we need patience.

Let’s move on now, to a journal entry by Elliot. I can't be sure of the exact time that Elliot wrote this, but it’s content relates to their most recent encounter.

[SFX: Writing]

Elliot: Glad it wasn’t my left hand. I would’ve been a lot more pissed if it was my left hand. That and I think I would’ve finally crumbled under the weight of all these thoughts whirling round my head. To whoever is reading this, as though someone actually will, let me explain. I need this journal. And I don’t mean need like when someone says ‘I need my phone’ or ‘I need a new outfit’. I mean, seriously, need this journal. For lack of a better way of putting it. It keeps me sane. Without it, I’d be a goner.

[SFX: Writing] 

Do you know what phantom pain is? Or a phantom limb? Damn it, I can’t even remember what it’s called anymore. Anyway, that thing. Phantom something. I think I’ve got that. I say I think, because I’ve never actually had it before and there’s not a doctor here to tell me ‘Yep, that’s it’. So whenever I’m doing something, anything, just standard things, as far as standard goes anymore, I swear I can still feel my missing fingers. It’s the last two on my right hand. So when I’m picking up my backpack, running my hand on a railing or grabbing a bottle of water. I can feel them grabbing, touching. 

I expected the feeling to go away when I looked down at my hand to be greeted by the bandaged mass that it’s become. But it doesn’t, I can still feel them. Is that the phantom limb? Phantom appendage? Is my brain so determined to hold on to what it’s known for 28 years that I can’t even override the feeling by looking at it? By visually accepting it?

At first it just annoyed me. But now it’s starting to freak me out a little. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I’m just painfully aware that I have no idea where my fingers are and the most likely thing is that they’re still in that nest? Den? Wherever the fuck that creature had me.

A lot has happened since I lost those fingers. On our trek away from the supermarket though, Roman filled me in on what happened whilst I was paralysed. I won’t give you all the details, but it’s fair to say that he went to some pretty risky lengths to save me. Turns out he quickly figured out the thing was hunting us by sound and all the noise we were making and not by seeing us. He said he caught sight of the thing at one point and thought he could blind it with the torch light, given that it was pitch black in the shop. As I’m sure you’ve already guessed, it didn’t work. He didn’t do a great job of describing what it looked like though, I think he’s pushed it so far to the back of his mind that whatever picture he does have of it now is seriously blurred. He said it’s skin was like grey oil, he was quite specific about that part at least. And he made sure to mention that it had no eyes that he could make out, so that’s why he couldn’t blind it. Then finally, he described a viscous fluid that was dripping from its maw, he used that word specifically. Said it didn’t have teeth, there was something sharp. But not teeth... And that was it. That’s all he could, would remember.

Anyway, after discovering this Roman made his way to where our trolley was - loaded up as much of the food and water as he could and took it outside knowing that if he could get me back, then he’d have to be as nimble and quiet as possible. And a backpack full of camping gear and supplies wasn’t going to help much. Then he headed back to the battery stand, grabbed a few packs of double and triple As then over to the kids toy aisle and after quietly unpacking a couple of the toys, he let loose his master plan.

And now I’m writing this down, I’m only just realising how ridiculous this sounds. He literally baited some fucked up oil skinned-paralysing-saliva-creature with kids toys, in a supermarket. I can’t believe it.

Of course, it wouldn’t have been a plan from Roman if it didn’t go slightly wrong, or in this case, almost catastrophically wrong. Roman himself wasn’t sure what happened, but in the commotion of it all said he heard the creature crashing around by the entrance to the shop. When Roman circled back round to release more of the noisy toys in his desperate search for me, that’s when he noticed the doors we’d squeezed in through had been bent out of shape by, he assumed, the creature somehow and knew there’d be no way we’d make it back out through them.

And, well after that, that’s when he found me and, well...you know the rest. It’s all in the recording. Assuming you’ve got that as well. If you haven’t, well Roman and I got lucky and found a way out even though he, he had to drag me most of the way. And somehow I didn’t bleed to death from losing two fingers.

I…I still don’t know how that happened…I’m trying not to contemplate too much on what actually happened to them and how on earth they were cut off so precisely. When we stopped for a break and Roman changed the bandages and I willed myself to look. I expected mutilation, I expected gore. But it wasn’t like that at all. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t perfect and I couldn’t ignore the sickening feeling of missing fingers, but the actual wound itself was so clean that it was just, I don’t know. It didn’t feel grotesque like I expected. And if you’ve been reading this for a while, well, that’s makes a change for me

I keep expecting to have a bit of a meltdown about it, less has sent me over the edge. But there’s something real and visceral about this. It’s almost like something I can focus on, to see and come to terms with it being real. Whilst the precision of the cut is slightly unrealistic, the wound itself isn’t, I can see it, I can feel the absence of my fingers...sometimes...and well, it’s a part of me. Or lack of.

It’s not like the creature in the supermarket or the breathing mould in Roman’s house or...well, whatever the hell was in the forest a couple of days ago. No matter how many times I think of these things or the more I encounter or even the more I hear them screeching or howling in the distance, I can’t bring myself to believe that they’re real. I’m absolutely incredulous at the thought of those things being a reality. It’s ridiculous. Whereas my hand, now that I can see and I can believe. It’s good, it’s good to focus on. Brings me back.

Sometimes I try to flex my missing fingers. Sometimes I swear I feel them move.

Sometimes.

[SFX: Radio]

Ryan: I’m sure, you’re feeling much the same as I am survivors. That the events of the last week of Elliot and Roman’s lives have begun to take their toll on Elliot, perhaps even Roman too. It seems as though it may take him some time to truly come to terms with the loss of his fingers as well as the world he finds himself now a full part of.

Before we end the broadcast for tonight, I wanted to share with you a short radio communication I received from Claire yesterday evening. Whilst I was dealing with something in the bunker at the time, my setup was able to record her message.

[SFX: Recorder click]

[SFX: Ambient wind]

Claire: Come in Bunker A:12, over. [pause] Bunker A:12, this is Claire, come in, over. [pause]

Damn it Ryan, I hope you’re recording this one cus I’m not waiting around on this message. [sighs] Today has been, well it’s been pretty awful. And yeah, I know, how could I expect a good day when wandering a wasteland, right? 

Even for a wasteland this was a bad day. I’ll give you the brief on what happened but before I continue, as I’m sure you’ll be worrying yourself. I’m safe and I’ve set up camp somewhere that I believe is secure. I made some decent progress on the journey too, despite some...distractions.

[SFX: Radio bleep x2]

So, much like you, Ryan, I expected to encounter whatever the hell these nightmares are that are stalking the streets here. I can’t say I’m prepared for them, because, well let’s face it, how could anyone be? They’re almost completely unknown to us in most ways. Hell, I’m not even sure I could accurately describe what one looks like. 

However, what I encountered today, I can’t say I expected. It was people, it was a group of people actually. And I know what you’re thinking. ‘Survivors, hallelujah’ Except, they’re not. Not in the way you want them to be. And yeah, when I was staying with you I warned you about some unsavoury people who were still left in the world. These are worse.

I saw them before they spotted me. They seemed to be based out of a convoy of mobile homes and vans. I’ll be honest, I was excited at first. I thought it’d be great to find safety with others and hitch a ride to Ralford.

But when they stopped and grabbed some people from the back of their van and…[sighs] I don’t even want to explain the rest. I’m not going to go into detail, not at the moment. But it looked like a sacrifice Ryan, like an Old Gods of ancient times sort of sacrifice. It was in front of this town hall-like building and I swear I...fuck...I swear I heard something inside grumbling as they did it. 

Ryan, I think these people have started to worship some of these creatures. [Becoming a bit wound up and emotional] They were killing other humans God damn it. When there’s so few of us left, they just slaughtered like five people! And for what?

[sighs, exasperated] I stayed and watched, despite my better judgement and that’s when one of them snuck up on me. They must’ve seen me and I hadn’t noticed one of them breakaway. I’m not happy about what I did, but the way that person looked...the look in their eyes. It wasn’t human Ryan and they didn’t see me as anything more than an animal, I can assure you. I’ve got a few bruises but not much more. I think I only knocked them out, but part of me….[thinking of the reality of what she’s saying] part of me hopes it was more.

Remember earlier when I said I made good progress on the journey? I haven’t run that long in a while. I’m hoping they weren’t able to follow me. I covered my tracks as best I could and I heard their convoy in the distance, it seemed to be getting quieter.

You know Ryan, I think there’s still a part of me that remembers my past beyond what I already know. All these things I seem capable of, almost instinctively. I don’t know how I know them but I’m seriously glad I do.

I don’t want you to worry about me Ryan or try to get me to come back. I’ll be fine out here, I can handle myself.

I saw Ralford in the distance earlier, it won’t be long now I’m sure. Just gotta stick to travelling in the day and laying low at night. I’ll get there and I’ll get the answers you...we’re looking for.

I’m heading to sleep for the night now. Claire out.

[SFX: Radio]

Ryan: Okay, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned about Claire given the nature of that message. I would be lying as well if she wasn’t right in what she’d said about my reactions. It seems she knows me better than I thought! [slight laugh but let it die away to a more serious tone]. 

However, the implications of what Claire shared with us are massive. I sincerely hope that there was some sort of misunderstanding but I don’t want to call what she saw into question, therefore I’m inclined to believe it. The fact that there could be people out there who are willing to kill others for those things is beyond all reasoning and a harrowing suggestion. 

Survivors, I…, I urge you, if you’re out there and you know anything else regarding these sacrifices, get your message to us and remember, if you can make it to any of the Bunkers, there is hope for you. Whatever situation you find yourself in.

I must go now, whilst I have already discussed what Claire found with the others in A:12 there are other matters that we must come together to solve.

Need I remind you survivors? Especially now. Don’t wander in the dark.

[Credits]