Episode 91: "The Lake which Burneth” – The Sheridan Tapes
CONTENT WARNING: Severe existential dread and despair, depictions of a dystopian police state and imprisonment, elements of pyrophobia and the uncanny, gun violence, squelching sound effects, implied transphobia, character betrayal, and loud noises including alarms and screams
????2020_02: Within the towering walls of Oslow, Sam and Ned bear witness to the nightmare their city has become.
Starring Adrian Gibbs as Adrian Briggs, Van Winkle as Sam Bailey, Ezra J. Wayne as Ned Leroux, Sophie Borjón as Detective Ramos, Mike Kennedy as Edgar Morrison, and Sarah Karnes as Lara Smith, with original music by Jesse Haugen. Written by Van Winkle and produced by Virginia Spotts, with dialogue editing and sound design by Van Winkle.
For more information, additional content, and episode transcript, visit thesheridantapes.com
This episode was made possible by our supporters at Patreon.com/homesteadcorner, ko-fi.com/homesteadcorner, and our backers on Seed&Spark.
Script
Transcript
CONTENT WARNING: Severe existential dread and despair, depictions of a dystopian police state and imprisonment, elements of pyrophobia and the uncanny, gun violence, squelching sound effects, implied transphobia, character betrayal, and loud noises including alarms and screams
[The burned-out ruins in the canyon of Shamson Mine echo with the howls of fear and pain from a mine monster]
[Eventually, the roar of approaching diesel engines, tires on desert soil]
[The sound of approaching boots]
[An electric scream, and the marching continues]
[Whispering, echoing, creaking, cries of the creature as it is captured]
Adrian Briggs (continuous in background, distorted through speakers)
By the decree of our gracious lord and protector, the one who redeemed us out of the dark for glorious salvation, the god-king of Oslow; these words go out to all who resist his gift of peace and holy redemption. From this day forward, all lands upon this Earth and all worlds beyond are under the command of the Lord of all life by the divine right of conquest. Those within his domain are hereby ordered to lay down arms and cease all resistance immediately, and submit themselves to the god-king’s mercy and judgment without delay. Fear not this judgment, however: for those deemed to be unworthy shall be given a new life and a chance to be redeemed through fire and light within his holy city of Oslow. But those who continue to resist — those who flee the light of our glorious redeemer — shall face the justice that awaits them for their crimes against the king of all worlds past and present and still to come. For behold — the God-King has come, and his reward is with him.
[Cassette noises]
[Click]
[Main Theme]
Recording Begins
[Cassette noises]
[Click]
[Static fades]
[Two sets of footsteps in a quiet, claustrophobic street]
[Distant sounds of engines, electricity humming]
[Wind occasionally whines through the streets]
Sam Bailey
You’re being awfully quiet. For once.
Ned Leroux
Not the time to be a smart ass, Bailey.
Sam Bailey
Oh come on… we haven’t seen one of those — uh…
Ned Leroux
Faceless police officers?
Sam Bailey
We haven’t seen them for a while now.
Ned Leroux
Doesn’t mean they’re not listening, Bailey. We’re taking enough of a risk being here in the first place.
Sam Bailey
If they were going to stop us, they would have done it at the gate. I think you were right, we’re… hidden from these things, somehow.
Ned Leroux
This is still Morrison’s domain. I’m not leaving anything to chance in here.
Sam Bailey
If you’re so worried about it, you could have just stayed at the house. Helped take care of Bill and Rob.
Ned Leroux
Kate and Jerry can take care of them just fine. And I wasn’t about to let you blunder in here alone and risk all of our safety.
Sam Bailey
Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence. [pause, more genuine] I’m glad you’re here, by the way. [they stop walking] I mean it.
Ned Leroux
Save it, Bailey.
Sam Bailey
No, I’m serious. After what happened in the Source, I really feel like—
Ned Leroux
—Seriously Bailey, shut up — I think there’s someone coming.
[Distant sounds of organized boots approaching their way]
Sam Bailey
Shit… quick, down this alley.
[They duck into a nearby alley]
[Several “Officers” pass by, marching in lockstep]
[Eventually they pass, and Sam and Ned peek back out]
Ned Leroux
That’s way more of them in one place than we’ve seen before.
Sam Bailey
Roving patrol, maybe?
Ned Leroux
Didn’t look like it to me.
Sam Bailey
I think they’re heading for that big building in the middle of town.
Ned Leroux
The pyramid-looking thing?
Sam Bailey
I still think it’s more of a ziggurat, but yeah… that looks like where they’re heading.
[A distant bloodcurdling scream, muffled in a building]
[Sam and Ned react in quiet alarm]
Ned Leroux
What the hell was that?
Sam Bailey
I’m not sure. It… it sounded human, though. Maybe… [static and distortion rises] Oh god.
Ned Leroux
What? What is it?
Sam Bailey
Everyone else in Oslow… all the people Morrison trapped in the Source… they’re still here.
Ned Leroux
What? No, no, we haven’t seen anyone but those… “officers” since we got here.
Sam Bailey
These apartment blocks aren’t for decoration, Ned. They’re full. All of them. 12,000 suffering souls, sealed inside these rooms.
Ned Leroux
What for? What does Morrison want with all of them?
Sam Bailey
I don’t know, but… they’re suffering, Ned. Suffering like I’ve never felt before.
[Sam steps out of the alley, almost sleepwalking]
[He stops, and speaks of what he feels through these walls]
Sam Bailey
Behind these walls, they do not sleep, they do not wake, they do not eat or drink — they are still alive, but only in the loosest sense of the word. The curtains are heavy and thick and never opened. For if they look out their windows, they may see things the god-king does not desire them to see… the open sky. The moon and stars. The sprawling labyrinth of walls and watchtowers their city has become.
The passage of time means nothing in this place — all moments are eternal, and eternity is but a fleeting whisper. Each apartment has a clock mounted to the wall… but it is a liar, and the hands run backwards as often as they move forwards. Not that it is often seen. The only light comes from a small television placed against the far wall, casting the single room in ghostly, flickering shades. The only furniture is a single, uncomfortable wooden chair, mounted to the floor in front of it. You may stand or you may lie on the uneven carpet covering the floor… but if you wish to sit, you must stare at that screen, and the images playing endlessly upon it.
[He takes a few steps, feeling]
The lawyer cannot remember his name. He cannot remember how he came to be in this place, though the words on the television tell him he has passed through darkness and water to find this place of redemption. He does not remember such a passage, but he feels that, were he to dream, he would dream of such a place. He does not know how long he has been in this room. His mind is hazy, and somewhere inside him he knows that he must sleep… but sleep never comes, and the television is never quiet. How long has it been since he last slept? He remembers trying to keep track of the days when he first found himself in this room, but the more he tries to remember, the fainter and fuzzier it becomes. He thinks he counted out a full month before the tally began to slip from his mind, and he could not find anything sharp enough to carve it into the concrete walls imprisoning him. How… how long ago was that? The clock seems to lie more and more with each passing day, and more than once he’s tried to tear it off the wall and smash it… but like everything else, it’s firmly bolted in place. So all he has left to do is watch the television, and the images the god-king sees fit to send down the wires.
Once in a blue moon, he sees his lord and jailor in the square, making some speech the lawyer can barely understand — full of grand pontification and talk of worlds beyond the one he used to know, worlds that will fall before the might of the god-king… But such speeches are rare, and ended quickly. What plays at all other times, at all hours of the… day? Night? He cannot say. But no matter the hour, the images dancing across the screen remain the same — every crooked, guilty client he ever took on, knowing he would be well paid for keeping them and their friends out of jail. Every innocent person he turned away because they could not pay his fee, leaving them to their fate in a court that would show them no pity. Even some things he knows he never saw — the actions of his clients, the assaults and robberies and murders he helped them walk away from… the full depth and breadth of the injustice he sowed, despite the oath he took to uphold it. And he sees his mother — overworked and exhausted at the end of a long shift — telling him once again what a disappointment he is. How she slaved away day after day to provide for this family, and he couldn’t even bother to keep the house clean. How he never came to visit when he was away at law school. And even when she laid dying in that hospital bed, all she could talk about was how his neglect and carelessness had somehow put her there.
[He takes a few more steps, feeling]
In the cell… apartment… cage next door, a girl sits before the flickering box, transfixed by the images it shows. Faintly, she remembers other boxes, other screens — ones she chose to look at, and ones which did not simply play her own memories back at her in an endless, torturous loop. She recalls that she used to see her friends on those screens… the ones who lived far away, but who shared a closer kinship with her than the one she shared with her own family, or most everyone who lived in this place. Oslow, she thinks it was called… but the name feels off, like a half-remembered dream. Like someone else’s life.
And on the screen before her, that’s what she sees. A person who looks and sometimes sounds like her, but who dresses in clothes which do not fit her, speaks words she does not believe, answers to a name that is not hers… even if she can’t remember her own name in this place. She sees herself standing in front of a mirror, staring at her reflection through tears and wondering why her body does not look the way she wants it to, the way she feels, the ways she’s always wanted it to be. She feels that pain through those images as sharply as she’s ever felt it, as she hears her father’s voice rumbling through the TV’s speakers, saying that she will never be good enough, that she will never be who she wants to be, that it would be easier to stop pretending and just give in… but her father never said those words. She never told him how she felt, who she truly was… and the voice on the TV sounds strangely like the voice of the god-king.
[He takes a few more steps, feeling]
And in the apartment below her, a… [Sam falters slightly, feeling an odd sense of familiarity] detective paces the floor, as she has many times since she found herself in this place. In her mind, she chants what little she knows for certain like a mantra, trying desperately to hold onto her sense of self, her sense of identity. It feels like she has been here for years, but she knows that isn’t possible — she has not eaten, drank, or slept since she arrived, and she knows that only a few days could have passed — otherwise, she’d be dead. She ignores the clock on the wall and the TV whenever she can… the images playing there are maddening, and she refuses to look. Once more, she recites what she knows. That she was a police detective before the world went mad and she forgot her name. That the man calling himself the god-king is nothing more than her old boss, though he looks worse for wear every time she sees him on the screen. That all of this is utterly wrong, and she needs to escape this place.
Once more, she glances over to the door. It isn’t locked… it’s never been locked. None of the doors in this place have keys or latches or deadbolts — for if you’re living in the light of the god-king’s grace, what have you to hide? She knows that she is being surveilled… that the TV can see her as easily as she can see the images upon it. But she has long since ceased to care. And as the voice of Morrison’s herald begins to speak, announcing that a special address from the god-king is about to begin, she knows she will not have a better time than this. She bolts for the door and throws it open, fleeing into the open street as the blazing sun burns her eyes—
[As he speaks, a door bursts open, and someone runs out]
Ned Leroux
Ramos?
[Sam comes to]
[Ramos panting, out of breath]
Sam Bailey
Wait… what?
Ned Leroux
That’s Detective Ramos… what is she doing here?
[A low, pulsing alarm through the street speakers]
[Sam steps towards her]
Sam Bailey
Shit — Ramos! Ramos!
Detective Ramos
Who… who are you?
Ned Leroux
Ramos, it’s me… it’s Ned. You need to come with us, now.
Detective Ramos
No… no, no, I know what you are now. I’ve seen it. You’re like them — both of you. You aren’t human.
Ned Leroux
Ramos please, listen to me, we’re trying to help—
Detective Ramos
Stay away from me!
[Ramos bolts up the street]
[A squad of “officers” approaches around the corner]
Detective Ramos
No no no no, please… I’m a police officer, I don’t deserve this! I’m one of you! Please… please!
[She turns and points at Sam and Ned]
Take them! Take them instead, they’re not supposed to be here! Please!!!
[They seize Ramos and drag her back to her apartment cell]
Take me to Morrison! There’s been a mistake, I’m not supposed to be here! Just let me talk to him, I know he’ll listen! He’ll want to talk to me! Please! Please!!!
[They reach her door, open it, and throw her inside]
[The alarm stops as she screams in rage, muffled through the door]
[The “officers” depart, marching away]
[Sam’s breathing is heavy with anger, distortion and static rising]
Ned Leroux
Bailey — don’t.
Sam Bailey
I can feel it, Ned… how easy it would be to tear those things apart. They’re barely being held together… I doubt Morrison would even notice.
Ned Leroux
Because he can just make more. You said it yourself — these apartments don’t even have locks. The guards aren’t what’s keeping the people here.
Sam Bailey
You knew her, Ned! Same as me… Are you really okay with just leaving her here like this?
Ned Leroux
No. But I don’t think she really wants to see me right now.
Sam Bailey
So we just… move along?
Ned Leroux
There’s nothing else we can do, Bailey. Not right now.
[Sam takes a deep, shaky breath as the static falls away]
Sam Bailey
…Fine.
[They reluctantly continue walking up the street]
[They reach a corner and slow to a stop]
Sam Bailey
Is… is that…
Ned Leroux
OCPD headquarters. What Morrison’s turned it into, at least.
[The sound of wind in a large, empty space]
Sam Bailey
No, no it can’t be… it’s too big to be the old HQ.
Ned Leroux
And yet…
Sam Bailey
What is it supposed to be then, some kind of… temple? Fortress? Palace?
Ned Leroux
All of the above, I guess. What else would satisfy Morrison’s ego?
[A street loudspeaker crackles to life]
Adrian Briggs (distorted)
People of Oslow, stand ready and prepare for an address from your gracious lord and master, the god-king reborn.
[A John Philip Sousa march begins playing on the speakers, and the “officers” begin marching into formation]
Ned Leroux
We should get off the street… I don’t like the look of this.
Sam Bailey
Same here.
[They move quietly to a nearby alley, peeking around the corner]
Ned Leroux
How many officers do you think there are in that courtyard?
Sam Bailey
I’m not sure… hard to tell through the gate. There probably aren’t that many there normally… Right?
Ned Leroux
Hell if I know.
[A keening wail above the music, Sam winces]
Sam Bailey
What the hell was that?
Ned Leroux
It sounded like…
[The wail is cut short by a thud]
Ned Leroux
Wait, you can see it now… look.
Sam Bailey
What the hell is that?
Ned Leroux
One of the monsters from Shamson mine… we had a run in with them back when Kate was first in Oslow, then Morrison and I captured one for the psychic wheel.
Sam Bailey
What’s it doing here? I thought Morrison sent them all away, like Amanita.
Ned Leroux
I don’t know. Maybe it was trying to get home?
[The creature whines again]
[The music ends and all noise quiets down]
[A church bell begins to chime]
[Large doors open with a creak]
[A slow pair of boots steps from the doorway]
Sam Bailey
Is that…
Ned Leroux
Yeah… that’s Morrison all right.
[Morrison continues walking to a podium]
Sam Bailey
Is that what he looked like when you found him in the tunnels?
Ned Leroux
No… I mean, he was in bad shape then, but… at least he was all in one piece.
Adrian Briggs (distorted, over speakers)
Behold and tremble, children of Oslow! Your lord and master descends from his palace to face a fugitive from justice, recaptured from the wild lands beyond the borders of your sacred city — One who dared long ago to strike the god-king a blow that was meant to be mortal… but his power and grace were so great that he rose upon his own might and remade himself into the image of the divine. Praise HIM! Praise the god-king and his justice!
Ned Leroux (over Adrian)
Holy shit.
Sam Bailey
What?
Ned Leroux
Morrison said that when the creatures escaped, the mine monster tore out his heart.
Sam Bailey
What does that have to do with anything—
Ned Leroux
Quiet, I think he’s talking to it.
[Indistinct conversation, the monster whines in response]
[Creaking from the creature as it moves]
Sam Bailey
What is it?
Ned Leroux
I think that’s his heart—
[A sound of a fleshy impact, and Morrison cries out as he pushes his heart back through scar tissue on his chest]
[Crackling, fleshy noises, then silence]
[Morrison recovers, then laughs softly]
[The laugh builds, along with the sound of fire]
[The sound of tearing as the monster screams, distortion rises]
[The monster is heard no more as it is thrown into the void, the sound of flames slowly dying out]
Sam Bailey
Oh my god…
[Morrison walks to a nearby mic on a podium]
[The whine of the microphone]
Edgar Morrison (amplified)
My loyal subjects, soldiers, and children… this is a day of solemn celebration. For what was once stolen and lost has been restored, and the thief punished and dispatched to the depth of perdition. I have spoken to you many times of redemption and reconciliation, and this, my children, is what that means: the fulfillment of debts, the closing of ledgers, and the balancing of the scales of justice. For all born into this world owe a life debt to the society which birthed them, clothed them, taught them right from wrong and good from evil. And that debt must be paid in duty, obedience, and loyalty day after day after day. But for those who scorn that gift of grace — those who steal, those who lie, those who rebel against the authorities placed over them, living lives contrary to the natural order — that debt must be collected more… drastically. One might say that that they did not choose to live in the society they were born into — that one’s place and one’s station is in and of itself an injustice. But I say to you that such structures exist for the good of all beneath them. Someone must be on the lowest rung for the ladder to be balanced, so that in time all may climb higher and higher towards paradise… but only if no one tries to supplant the ones above them. So rejoice in your station and your place within this glorious realm, and know that there are only two paths placed before you… perdition, or paradise. Know my mercies and live, or scorn my gifts and…
[As Morrison speaks, Sam’s angry breathing rises along with static]
[Distortion rises]
[Morrison trails off]
Ned Leroux
What the hell are you doing Bailey? He’s looking right at us—
[Morrison sighs, pauses]
Edgar Morrison (amplified)
Bring them to me.
[A low alarm blares]
[The gates are thrown open, and “officers” rush into the street]
Sam Bailey
Shit — run!
[Running footsteps, then they stop]
Ned Leroux
Which way, which way?
Sam Bailey
Uhhh… we came in through the west gate… what time is it?
Ned Leroux
How the fuck should I know?
[Marching footsteps appear ahead of them]
Sam Bailey
This way! It’s still open!
[They sprint away from the footsteps]
[Another regimented group of “officers” is ahead of them]
Ned Leroux
Shit, where did they come from?
Sam Bailey
I don’t know! Morrison must be coordinating them somehow.
Ned Leroux
So much for being hidden. [He notices something] Quick, down here!
[They run down another narrow alley]
[Sam and Ned pant]
Sam Bailey
If they know we’re here now, how are we supposed to get out through the gates?
Ned Leroux
We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it Bailey, right now we just need to keep moving—
[BANG! A bullet ricochets off the ground]
Sam Bailey
Sniper in the watchtower!
Ned Leroux
Yeah, I fucking got that!
[Another gunshot]
[Sam and Ned rush for another alley, breathing hard]
[They stop]
Sam Bailey
We need to figure something out… if the watchtowers can see us now, there’s no way—
Ned Leroux
I know Bailey! I know, just… let me think…
[More marching footsteps approaching down the street, Sam peeks around the corner]
Sam Bailey
They’re coming this way.
Ned Leroux
Well let’s move then!
[They bolt down the alley]
[Two gunshots from a sniper]
[They continue running]
Sam Bailey
Shit… it’s a dead end.
Ned Leroux
Let’s double back, we should be able to…
[Footsteps approach closely, suddenly]
[Ned ducks back inside the alley]
Ned Leroux
Fuck. They’ve got us pinned.
Sam Bailey
They kettled us. There’s no way out.
Ned Leroux
Well… there’s still one way out.
Sam Bailey
We can’t fight these things Ned! There’s too many of them!
Ned Leroux
I don’t see any other choice, do you? Backs to the wall, Bailey — I don’t know about you, but I’m going down swinging.
[Ned stretches, cracking and shifting his form]
[Sam tries to slow his breathing, distortion rising with his powers]
[The “officers” round the corner, rapping their batons on the walls]
[Sam and Ned steady themselves]
[A gunshot, and an officer falls]
[In the quiet, we just barely hear the distant alarm]
[Several more gunshots, taking down more officers]
[The chaos fades, and the alley is quiet]
[A window unlatches above, and someone leans out]
Lara Smith
Still alive, you two?
[Clack]
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