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CONTENT WARNING: Paranoia, dread, and implied death and transformation

11142019: A series of moments in the Meriwether Facility.

Starring Mike Kennedy as Edgar Morrison, Sam Taylor as Ren Park, James Cain as Peter Slate, Amitola Lomas as Maria Sol, Trevor Van Winkle as Sam Bailey, Airen Neeley Chaconas as Anna Sheridan, Chris Martin as Robert Quincy, Virginia Spotts as Kate Sheridan, Maurice Cooper as Jerry Price, and Jesse Steele as Bill Tyler, with original music by Jesse Haugen. Written by Trevor Van Winkle and produced by Virginia Spotts, with dialogue editing and sound design by Trevor Van Winkle. This episode was made possible by our supporters at Patreon.com/homesteadcorner, ko-fi.com/homesteadcorner, and our backers on Seed&Spark.

For more information, additional content, and episode transcript, visit thesheridantapes.com

Script

Transcript

CONTENT WARNING: Paranoia, dread, and implied death and transformation

[Crumbling ruins of the PMKCTS facility]

[Howling wind, occasional fall of rubble, animal movement]

[Metal door flings open, crashing on opposite wall]

[Edgar Morrison pants heavily, then snarls like a wild animal]

[A filing cabinet is yanked open, paper scattering]

[Morrison growls]

[He tears through handfuls of old magnetic tape from a long-dead computer, then grabs a set of outdated hard drives, hurling them at the ground]

[He stops and catches his breath, coming to himself]

Edgar Morrison

What is… Why did I — 

[He cuts off as a low, pulsing noise starts up in the background]

[His voice is different: purposeful]

Edgar Morrison

Burn it out. Let it all burn… 

[A low wind]

The serpent still endures.

[Cassette noises]

[Main Theme]

Recording Begins

[Cassette noises]

[Static fades away]

[Ren leans back in his chair]

Ren Park

I hope you don’t mind if I record this? For internal use only, of course.

Peter Slate

Yeah… sure thing, Ren.

Ren Park

So you do remember me… I was worried you’d forgotten.

Peter Slate

Honestly, you’re kind of hard to forget.

[Ren laughs]

Ren Park

I get that a lot. Shall we begin?

Peter Slate 

Uh… yeah, great.

Ren Park

Right: Doctor Ren Park of the Institute for Stellar Propulsion, Heuristics, and Aeronautics, conducting Meriwether clearance interview for Mr. Peter Slate of Des Moines, Iowa. Interview begins.

[A clock ticks on the wall]

Can you confirm your name, please?

Peter Slate

Uh, yes, that’s correct.

Ren Park

Date of birth?

Peter Slate 

April 9th, 1981.

Ren Park

Occupation?

Peter Slate

Stay at home father, formerly general contractor.

[Ren types notes as he talks]

Ren Park

Any allergies?

Peter Slate

Amoxicillin… but Andrew does have a nut allergy. Do you have that written down somewh— 

Ren Park

Don’t worry Peter — Kate already told us. Several times.

Peter Slate

[sighing happily] Of course she did.

Ren Park

Any medical history we should be aware of? Histories of certain cancers in your family, major surgeries, that sort of thing?

Peter Slate

I’ve got a plate in my right arm — football injury.

Ren Park

Really?

Peter Slate

That makes it sound cooler than it is… I slipped on a patch of ice junior year and never played again.

Ren Park

At least you had athletic ability at some point… Some of us weren’t so lucky. Just stay away from F-Wing, and you should be fine.

Peter Slate

What’s F-Wing?

Ren Park

Magnetic imaging and radiology… It’s all shielded, but you might get your arm stuck to the wall if something breaks.

Peter Slate

I’ll… keep that in mind.

Ren Park

To your knowledge, have you or anyone in your family had previous contact with Chief Edgar Morrison of the Oslow County Police Department?

Peter Slate

Should I know who that is?

[Ren glances up and takes a moment]

Ren Park

No, I don’t think you should. 

That’s all I need Peter… Thank you for your time. Could you please ask Robert to come in?

[Peter stands, walks to the door, and stops]

Ren Park

Is there something else?

Peter Slate

Is Kate going to be safe here? Working with you?

Ren Park

Peter, our staff is fully trained to handle any medical emergency— 

Peter Slate

That’s not what I mean. 

[Peter sighs]

Is what you’re asking Kate to do safe? Is she in danger?

[Moment of silence]

[Ren sighs and stands up]

Ren Park

Mr. Slate… When I found Kate, she was infiltrating an abandoned underground facility to confront a very dangerous man. She was trying to rescue a friend he’d taken captive… Trying, and succeeding, I might add. With my help, but still — she chose to go down there. She knew the danger. And I think she’d do it again, under the same circumstances. I can’t promise you that Kate will be safe… But I don’t think anyone can decide that besides Kate.

What I can promise you is that Kate is better off working with us than on her own, even if it doesn’t feel like it. And I swear that I will do whatever I can to keep all of you safe… within ISPHA’s mission parameters, of course.

Is that all?

[Footage ends]

[Someone taps on a keyboard, accessing a crackly, distorted audio source]

[An electronic lock disengages and a door opens]

Maria Sol

Home sweet fucking home.

[Maria throws her bags on the floor, then flops down on the small bed with a sigh]

[She taps on her phone]

Still no signal.

No, I don’t want to join “isphaPublic,” thank you. God, what’s the world coming to when secret research facilities have free wifi?

[She sets her phone on the nightstand and groans loudly]

“Nice easy mission,” Ren said — “Little softball to get you started,” they said… Yeah, tell that to the zombie cultists chasing us through the woods. And the fact they expected me to just carry on carving shivs to fight them off… 

[Maria scoffs]

[A pause]

So much for living my own life, huh Anna?

[Distorted audio ends with a beep]

[Silence]

[Click]

[Sam sighs and begins]

Sam Bailey

Samuel Isaac Bailey, recording for ISPHA internal records – daily log, November 14th, 2019 at 2:21pm Mountain Standard Time.

[He groans]

God, I’m still sore. You’d think it would’ve worn off now were out of that tree, but no — still feels like I’ve got a knot in back. And about twelve new scrapes and bruises from all the tests they were doing. I don’t know how many vials of blood they took before they were convinced I wasn’t exposed to the fungus.

Anyway, I was the last one to clear quarantine, so I’m guessing everyone else is already back in their rooms. They aren’t actually that bad… at least, compared to where we spent last night. It looks more like a cheap hotel room than anything else  — except for the windows. Or… lack thereof. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised with how far underground we are, but still… after the cabin, it feels even more claustrophobic than usual. Even if it is a little bigger than my apartment in Oslow. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

[Sam touches a nearby case]

With all that in mind, there is one silver lining to all this. After Jerry and Rob arrived, Ren decided to give me all the recordings Anna made while she was working here at Meriwether, in addition to her old tapes. Maybe he thinks it’s some kind of peace offering for what he put us through in Pennsylvania. Add that to the fact that Maria finally agreed to lend me Anna’s old copy of Udolpho, and I have the key text and all of the tapes for the first time. Which means… 

[He rifles through the tapes, picking one]

I can focus on the relevant recordings instead of picking them out at random. Hopefully that’ll save me a few gray hairs this time.

[The tape is fed into a second player]

[It rewinds slightly, then begins]

[Familiar hiss of static]

[Anna is in a small, echoey room]

Anna Sheridan

And here we are at last… the Meriwether Facility, somewhere in Northwestern New Mexico. I’d be more specific than that, but it wouldn’t help — it’s one of those out-of-the-way places so far from the nearest town that you have to find it by coordinates rather than an address. From what Ren’s told me, it used to be an old industrial metalworks that boomed during World War II and went bust soon afterwards, built on the cheapest land developers could turn around quickly… which turned out to be the middle of the New Mexico desert. When ISPHA bought the place in the 80’s, they pretty much gutted the interior before tunneling ten stories down into the rock, making halls, labs, and living quarters out of concrete, stone, and steel as quickly as they could. All of that means my room’s a bit spartan, but since I live most of my life out of a van, I can’t really complain.

[Pause, machinery booms faintly in the distance]

I mean, I guess I’m kind of complaining anyways. I really don’t think I should be here. Ever since I told Ren about my dreams, he’s been obsessed with finding a way of testing them, and he finally forced the issue by inviting me to stay here in exchange for his help with the Beechwood Monster. I might have found another way to deal with it, but… well, they had a rather elegant solution, and there’s no way I could get access to that kind of tech without them. So here I am: a guest of the Experimental Projects division of the Institute for Stellar Propulsion, Heuristics, and Aeronautics… of Ren and his boss, essentially. You’d think the fact that I’m friends with him would make that easier to accept, but… it doesn’t.

I don’t know — Maybe it’s just the fact that I don’t like being cooped up or told where to go, but… I can’t help feeling trapped in here. The facility is mostly abandoned, but I feel like I keep seeing things at the end of the corridors that vanish just before I round the corner. And much as I try to ignore it… I’m sure that there are too many shadows in my room when I try to count them.

[Click]

[Silence]

[Ren starts his recorder again – present day]

Ren Park

Alright, that… looks like it’s rolling. Can you please confirm your full legal name?

Robert Quincy 

Huh? Oh, uh — Robert Alexander Quincy.

[Ren taps on his keyboard throughout]

Ren Park

Dr. Ren Park, ISPHA Experimental Projects division, conducting entrance interview for Mr. Robert Quincy. I know you’ve been through a lot, so we’ll try and get this over with quickly, alright?

Robert Quincy

Alright.

Ren Park 

Date of birth?

Robert Quincy

29th of April, 1988.

Ren Park

Occupation?

Robert Quincy

Uh… Unemployed, currently. Before that, I was— 

Ren Park

We’ll get to that later. Allergies?

Robert Quincy

Uh… latex and… and just seasonal allergies, but they’re both pretty mild.

Ren Park

Anything in your medical history our doctors should be aware of?

[Robert breathes out, thinking]

Robert Quincy

Not that I can think of… I think Bill’s family has a history

of lung cancer, but— 

Ren Park

I already asked Bill, and we have that on file. Now… 

To your knowledge, have you or anyone in your family had previous contact with Chief Edgar Morrison of the Oslow County Police Department?

[A clock ticks on the wall]

Robert Quincy

Why would you need to ask me that?

Ren Park

I need an unbiased answer, Rob.

[A moment’s silence]

[Rob sighs, frustrated]

Robert Quincy

I worked for Chief Edgar Morrison for nearly ten years. Oslow PD was just about the only department outside Vegas willing to hire a gay couple with little to no experience in law enforcement, and he went to bat for us more than once. I trusted him. I respected him. But there were a lot of things I had to overlook to make that work… And then one day… 

One day, Bill told me that Morrison ordered him to make Sam disappear. One of his own officers. Someone I knew. Morrison broke that trust. And all the respect I had for him was gone the moment I saw past that facade. If I never see him again, it won’t be soon enough.

[A moment of silence]

Ren Park

While I certainly appreciate the sentiment… I need to know where your loyalties lie with regards to the entire department, not just Morrison. If you were confronted by a fellow dispatcher or an old co-worker about your activities here, do you believe you’d be able to uphold our non-disclosure agreement? If they appealed to you personally?

Robert Quincy

Are you asking if I’d lie to them?

Ren Park

Not in so many words.

Robert Quincy

I would… certainly try to. 

Yes, I… I think I could. If it meant keeping Bill safe, then… yes. I could lie to them.

[Ren’s recording ends]

[Silence]

[Crackly, distorted audio begins, someone tapping on a keyboard to access it]

[Someone unpacks a suitcase]

[An electronic lock opens across the room]

Peter Slate

Hiya Katey.

Kate Sheridan

Is Andrew asleep?

[Footsteps into the room]

Peter Slate

Yeah… He’s wiped out from the drive.

[Kate sighs]

Kate Sheridan

I know the feeling.

Peter Slate 

You okay?

Kate Sheridan

Yeah… I mean, decontamination took way longer than they said it would, and they had to run a whole other set of tests after they saw Sam’s bloodwork, so— 

Peter Slate 

No, I mean — are you okay?

[Kate hesitates, and sighs heavily, sinking onto the bed]

Kate Sheridan

I don’t know. It’s… I thought I had a handle on Anna’s world, but this? Cults and mushroom zombies and… telepathic warfare? It’s all just… 

I don’t know if I can do this.

[Moment of silence]

[Peter sits next to her, taking her hand]

Peter Slate

If there’s anyone who can handle this — I know it’s you. If you still feel like you have to do this… then you can. I know you can. Just — don’t feel like you have to bottle it up anymore. [Kate sighs] Whenever you need to talk to someone… Whenever you need someone to talk to… I’ll be here.

Kate Sheridan

And if what I have to tell you about sounds… impossible?

Peter Slate

Then I guess we’ll just have to deal with it the same way we deal with everything — together.

[Distorted audio ends with a beep]

[Silence]

[Anna’s tape begins again]

Anna Sheridan

I don’t know if it’s loud enough to be picked up on the recorder, but… I just heard something move out in the hall. It’s almost midnight, and I’m supposed to have this wing to myself — so there shouldn’t be anyone else out there. I haven’t been able to get to sleep, but I was just starting to doze off when I heard… 

[Pause]

Saying it out loud… it may be possible that I just — imagined it. That I was dreaming and scared myself awake. If I’m actually awake right now. Guess I’ll just have to check the tape in the morning to see if this is still— 

[Faint sound of hissing movement from the other side of her door]

Okay, I definitely didn’t dream that. There’s someone out in the hall — or something.

[Anna crosses the room, trying her key card in the door]

[Door rattles and doesn’t open]

What the hell?

[She tries again]

Okay… my key card isn’t working. I’m locked in. Ren said they wouldn’t… 

Goddamnit, Ren.

[She moves to the intercom and types a number on the keypad]

Ren? Ren, are you still awake? Is this you?

[No reply]

[She presses the talk button several times]

[She tries turning on the lights in her room – nothing]

The power’s out. That’s… not great. But I’m sure they’ll turn it back on before— 

[The hissing movement is outside her door again]

Shit.

[Anna moves farther across the room]

[She calls Ren on her cell phone]

Ren Park

Anna? What time is it?

Anna Sheridan

Ren, listen — I’m locked in my room, and I think there’s something outside.

Ren Park

What? How are you calling me? Cell phones aren’t supposed to work down here.

Anna Sheridan

Ren, nothing’s working the way it’s supposed to right now.

Ren Park

What?

Anna Sheridan

The power’s out in my room. The lights, the intercom, the door… they’re all broken.

Ren Park

That… Anna, that isn’t possible. The facility has three redundant power systems and battery storage for two days minimum. It can’t just go out.

Anna Sheridan

Well then you try it!

[On Ren’s end: faint sounds of movement, Ren attempts to use the intercom]

Ren Park

Engineering?

Ren Park to engineering, come in. Reggie, are you there?

You’re right… it’s dead here too.

Anna Sheridan

So you’re locked in?

Ren Park

No, thankfully… the lock on my door broke last week, and maintenance hasn’t gotten around to fixing it.

Anna Sheridan

Can you get down to engineering from where you are?

Ren Park

I believe so… I don’t think there are any locked doors between here and the server room, if I take the access tunnel. I should be able to cycle the power from there.

[The sound outside Anna’s door grows louder]

Anna Sheridan

Ren — please hurry.

[Ren’s footsteps faintly echo as he makes his way through corridors, and a short ladder, to the lower levels of the building]

Ren Park

Alright… I’m at the door to the server room.

Anna Sheridan

It doesn’t need a key card, does it?

Ren Park

Thankfully not… just a good old fashioned tumbler lock.

[Keys jingle]

Anna Sheridan

Really?

Ren Park

Didn’t used to be, but last year the server went down, and we all realized how stupid it was to keep the command terminals behind a door that needed a network connection to open. Ended up having to cut our way in with a blowtorch.

[Ren opens the door with the key]

[Footsteps]

Ren Park

Reggie? Are you in here? 

Huh. That’s weird.

Anna Sheridan

What is?

Ren Park

The server’s still powered on. I guess the backup power is working — just, only in here.

[The sound is outside Anna’s door again]

Anna Sheridan

Can you get it working out here? It’s getting seriously paranoic where I’m at.

Ren Park 

Right… just a mo’.

[Ren crosses to the main terminal and types in a few lines of command]

[The sound outside Anna’s room grows louder, closer]

Anna Sheridan

Ren… 

[Ren hits enter]

[The lights in Anna’s room come on with a buzz]

Ren Park 

Alright — power restored and systems rebooting from last saved state. “You are now free to move about the cabin.”

[Anna swipes her key card and rushes into the hall]

Anna Sheridan

There’s… there’s nothing here.

[Facility intercom crackles to life]

Ren Park (over intercom)

Reginald Smith, Reginald Smith, please report to server room alpha for your scheduled shift — Reginald Smith, please report to server room alpha.

[Silence]

Technician first class Reginald Smith, please respond.

[Silence, and a cold draft down the hall]

[Tape ends]

[Silence]

[Ren starts his recorder again – present day]

Ren Park 

Uh… Right. Okay. Let’s get started then: Dr. Ren Park, conducting Meriwether entrance interview for Jerry Price of Oslow, Nevada. Interview begins.

[Clock ticks on wall]

Jerry Price

About time.

Ren Park

Yes — sorry about the wait. Again. Can you please confirm your name, for the record?

Jerry Price

Last time I checked.

Ren Park

Great. Date of birth?

Jerry Price 

October the 23rd, 1985.

[Ren taps on his keyboard]

Ren Park

Occupation?

Jerry Price

Sole proprietor of Oslow City Auto Repair and Towing.

Ren Park

Allergies? 

Jerry Price

No.

Ren Park

Anything in your medical history we should know about?

Jerry Price

Nothing I want to tell you about.

Ren Park

Mr. Price, I understand why you might be hesitant to trust us— 

Jerry Price 

This isn’t hesitation. I don’t trust you.

Ren Park

And yet you went with our operatives when they collected you.

Jerry Price

I went with Rob. He was in no state to go off anywhere with anyone, but he refused to stay when they told him you had Bill.

Ren Park

Ah. Right. Still, I’m sure you can see you’re both safer here than in Oslow— 

Jerry Price

I really don’t see how you can come to that conclusion. At least in Oslow, there are people who would notice if we went missing.

[Ren sits back in his chair]

Ren Park

On that subject — just one last question. To your knowledge, have you or anyone in your family had previous contact with Chief Edgar Morrison of the Oslow County Police Department?

Jerry Price

Yes. 

Ren Park

Can you be a bit more… specific?

[Jerry sighs]

Jerry Price

My livelihood largely depends on income from towing and impounding vehicles for OCPD. I’m not proud of it, but for now, that’s how it is. Before that, I worked for Sheriff Carson of the Agate Shore Police Department. He worked under Morrison. I met him several times at department functions, though he was never all that friendly to me. After Sam’s escape from Oslow, I was arrested and interrogated by Morrison for aiding and abetting. And more recently, I housed a group of individuals working to undermine Morrison’s extra-legal activities.

Ren Park 

And will any of that affect your ability to keep what happens here secret from members of the police department? Are there any feelings of loyalty that might cause you to— 

Jerry Price

Listen, Park — I might not trust you. Heck, I might not trust this [mocking] “ISPHA/Eyes-pha/Osha” organization you claim to work for. But the last time I saw Morrison, he threatened me with jail time for doing what I assumed was my job. Eight years I worked for Agate Shore PD, and he treated me like I was some punk he picked up off the street. He let me go with a warning, but believe you me: if he asks me where to find this place — he can go to hell before I tell him anything.

[Ren tentatively taps at keyboard]

Ren Park 

Right. Well… I guess that answers our questions. Thank you, Mr. Price… I’ll have someone take you to your room so you can get settled in. Will you need any assistance?

Jerry Price

No, I’m… 

[He notices something]

What’s that?

Ren Park

What? Oh… Robin’s Run by Thurgood Vice [he picks up the book] — you heard of it? I’m not normally one for thrillers, but it’s actually pretty good.

Jerry Price

Yeah… I’ve heard of it. Could I… uh, borrow it once you’re done?

Ren Park

Uh… sure. Fair warning though, I’m a pretty slow reader when it comes to fiction — not enough hours in the day, you know?

Jerry Price

Yeah… tell me about it.

[Jerry stands and walks to the door, opening it and leaving]

[Click]

[Silence]

[Someone taps at a keyboard, accessing crackly, distorted room audio]

[An electronic lock opens across the room]

Bill Tyler

[laughing hesitantly] Hey love. Told you I’d be right— 

Robert Quincy

What the hell is wrong with you?

Bill Tyler

Rob, I— 

Robert Quincy

Why did you think going to Morrison would help anything? [Footsteps across room] Did you really think he’d let you leave after you told him what you know? What the hell is wrong with you, you stupid, stupid, stupid… 

[Rob hits Bill’s chest on each repeated word, his voice growing fainter each time]

[Rob cries into Bill, they hold each other in the quiet]

Bill Tyler

I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to yell at him. I was so angry. I’d been hiding it for so long, and I… I couldn’t stop myself.

You’re right… It was stupid. Selfish.

Robert Quincy

No, no… it’s… it’s okay. I get it.

[Faint, hissing swish nearby]

Bill Tyler 

Do you hear that?

Robert Quincy

Hear what?

Bill Tyler

That noise — sounds like some kind of static?

[Electronic static increases]

Robert Quincy

Is it coming from the intercom?

Bill Tyler 

Not unless you turned it on.

[Footsteps, Bill taps on the intercom]

Robert Quincy

I don’t think I did… Not unless I bumped it on the way in earlier— 

[Intercom cuts out]

[Silence]

[Anna’s tape resumes]

[Faint noises of a busy day at ISPHA in the background]

Anna Sheridan

Well… I didn’t get any sleep after all. That’s not too unusual for me, but… still. It’s never a welcome occurrence.

I’m still not sure what happened last night, and even Ren’s being more secretive than usual about it. As far as I can work out, the power failed almost immediately after lights out… 11pm, when the labs were closed and most everyone was already in bed. That in and of itself is fairly unusual — like Ren said, the facility runs on solar and geothermal power, or a backup generator if those two fail, and the battery reserves were basically full when the power went out. The only system that didn’t go out was the server… which is a lucky break according to Ren, because that would’ve wiped out a whole lot of very expensive research data. But the question remains: why did the servers still have power, and not the rest of the facility?

I probably shouldn’t worry about it. Like Ren said, it takes a lot of very complicated equipment to manage a power system like this, and there was probably just a glitch in the code. I mean, the technician on duty — Reggie — should have noticed the problem and fixed it before the power went out. Only problem is, nobody’s seen him since his shift started last night. And what remains of the security footage doesn’t show him leaving the server room. Ever. I might be tempted to chalk it up to industrial espionage and say Reggie was some kind of saboteur… but I caught a glimpse of the crash log when I got to the server room. It was mostly gibberish — and I don’t just mean code, I mean a complete mess of random characters that Ren couldn’t make heads or tails of. But when I looked closer, I noticed a few English words mixed in. “Where.” “Help.” “Lost.”

If it was truly random, then there is a small chance those words could have shown up accidentally… a very small chance, but not impossible. But further down the page, I noticed something else… A name. “Reginald Smith.” I couldn’t shake the feeling that the characters pressing in and around it were burying it… suffocating it in code.

The odds of that name appearing in that file randomly are so astronomically low, I’d need Ren’s help to put it into words. So either this is all some kind of sick joke… or Reggie Smith — and whatever took him — still haven’t left that room.

[CLACK]

Recording Ends

End Theme & Credits