We've got a surprise visitor here folks, and we're not sure he is who he says he is...
SPOILERS IN SHOW NOTES.
The voice of Martha is Day Chase. The voice of Tanner is Chuck Raymond. The voice of Dr Clark Olsen (?) is Shaun Pellington.
Check out Shaun's work on the awesome Wake of Corrosion, a stunning sci-fi horror show with two seasons out, and a third on its way!
This episode also features a trailer for the new addition to the Somewhere, Ohio universe: The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio, another wonderfully weird midwestern sci-fi horror from Rat Grimes (Dead Letter Office of Somewhere, Ohio; Nine to Midnight). Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, and featuring our very own Jess Syratt, check it out wherever you get your podcasts!
Sound effects in this episode thanks to Freesound.org contributors: sheyvan, tabook, kd-jack, lightningjimmy88, and nigelwright.
Nowhere, On Air is created, voiced and produced by Jess Syratt. Cover art by Moon Hermit Crab on Instagram.
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at nowhere.onair@gmail.com. Or, find us on twitter, @NowhereOnAir
We've got a surprise visitor here folks, and we're not sure he is who he says he is...
SPOILERS IN SHOW NOTES.
The voice of Martha is Day Chase. The voice of Tanner is Chuck Raymond. The voice of Dr Clark Olsen (?) is Shaun Pellington.
Check out Shaun's work on the awesome Wake of Corrosion, a stunning sci-fi horror show with two seasons out, and a third on its way!
This episode also features a trailer for the new addition to the Somewhere, Ohio universe: The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio, another wonderfully weird midwestern sci-fi horror from Rat Grimes (Dead Letter Office of Somewhere, Ohio; Nine to Midnight). Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, and featuring our very own Jess Syratt, check it out wherever you get your podcasts!
Sound effects in this episode thanks to Freesound.org contributors: sheyvan, tabook, kd-jack, lightningjimmy88, and nigelwright.
Nowhere, On Air is created, voiced and produced by Jess Syratt. Cover art by Moon Hermit Crab on Instagram.
We'd love to hear from you! Email us at nowhere.onair@gmail.com. Or, find us on twitter, @NowhereOnAir
[THEME MUSIC]
JESS: Hello, listeners. Welcome back. The evening sun hangs low in the cold, empty sky, blood red with the weight of the ending day. If you keep your eyes peeled as it gets dark and night slowly creeps up on us like a wild thing, stalking in the growing dark, you might see- or, I guess, not see- the stars. The possible lack of stars. We mentioned it last time, you may recall, that Herman relayed to us a message about potentially disappearing stars. We don’t have any more information or insight on that right now, but considering the cosmic implications and the way it lived rent-free in my brain all day, I just wanted to mention it again.
As the night knocks on the closing, dusk-hued door of the day to visit us like it always does, maybe keep your eyes upwards and… uh, look for absence, I guess. Look for the lost. Cast your eyes up to the skies and see if you can see what is no longer there. Or, maybe, I guess it's more of a… knowing. Absence is this… sensation of cold grief. Emptiness, but only in very specific places where it had never been before. So, if you look up and are filled with that sort of harrowing, then… let us know.
While we’re on the topic of disappearing- [STOPPING HERSELF] Actually, that's a really bad segue. Uh, geez. Sorry listeners, not to stop myself on my own train of thought but, uh, that wasn’t the right tone.
Um, but I guess I’ve already introduced the fact that there’s a new topic to transition to, so maybe we’ll just- switch, and let this be the worst, dare I say clunkiest, transition topic-wise of my radio career thus far.
This morning, we awoke to find a note, a goodbye note, handwritten, on our dining table– written in a hand familiar to us, signed with two names we know quite well. Yesterday’s events, which I haven’t yet gotten around to recapping, seem to have ended up being a kind of sign or catalyst for… a surprise farewell.
What I’m trying to say in few clear terms– sorry I am not on my game tonight– is that Officer– uh, former officer Carlton- and David Pradlick left sometime during the night last night– or, I guess, early hours of this morning. I’m not sure when, though I did hear the sound of shuffling, and a door closing around 3 in the morning and didn’t think too much of it at the time… um, yeah.
I’m not going to read the note out on air, as Carlton specifically asked I refrained from doing so, and likewise will but there is a part of the note they did want me to share. I’ll summarize, though.
While they are and were always free to make their own choices, and they in no way need to explain or justify themselves, Carlton explained that he was leaving because following the events yesterday– the void opening and those… creatures appearing– he apparently spoke with Herman Blanchard at some point, and was extended an invitation to quote unquote “get things done” with Farmer Daniels and the rest of that group, y’know, the one that reportedly broke him out, so he has decided that’s what he’d like to be doing. Getting things done.
And David said he was homesick and worried about his house plants.
Lastly, and most importantly: they’ve both promised to keep their heads down and their mouths shut, and both are willing to make a blood pact to that effect with any officials who would be interested in instigating that, so… Stephen, if you’re listening, I hope you were right.
Don, David– dear friends, we wish you all the best, and you have all our thanks and support–
[NOISE- DOOR SLAMMING]
JESS: Uh, River, what’s going on?
CLARK: Jess, thank God–
JESS: Uhhh…
TANNER: Who the hell are you?
[BREAK. MUSIC]
CLARK: I- I assure you, this isn’t necessary– you don’t have to tie me up–
TANNER: We’ll be the judge of that.
[CLARK WINCES, A POLITE ‘OW!’]
MARTHA: Sorry.
CLARK: Tanner- it's me. I swear. Remember, when you re-appeared? I made sure you were okay, I–
TANNER: Yeah, you’re gonna have to try a little better than that. How the hell did you know we were here? Did they send you?
CLARK: Who?
TANNER: Don’t play dumb– Stephen gets out, you show up– do you think we’re stupid? How did you know where to find us?
CLARK: I - I don’t… I didn’t. I woke up on the bank of the river a few hours ago, not far from the building, and I- I’m not sure–
TANNER: Of what?
CLARK: I’d had this dream, and…
MARTHA: You had a dream that we were here?
CLARK: No, no– sorry, that’s not what I meant–
TANNER: Then how did you know?
CLARK: River appeared, through the undergrowth and the trees and, and told me to follow them.
JESS: River came and found you?
TANNER: River?
CLARK: Yes! They brought me here– and—
JESS: And how did you know he was going to be there?
[RIVER WALKS AWAY]
JESS: Okay, great. Very helpful, thanks. [TO TANNER] Um, take him downstairs for now, I’m gonna get back to… [SIGH] We’ll figure this out.
TANNER: [FARTHER, TO CLARK] Come on.
CLARK: [FARTHER AWAY TOO] Wait–
{JESS SIGHS]
MARTHA: You okay?
JESS: Just a headache. You okay?
MARTHA: Yeah.
JESS: You sure?
MARTHA: Promise.
[APPROACHES THE MIC AND SITS]
JESS: Whoops. Sorry about that. Listeners. I don’t know how much you’ve heard, but there has been an… interesting development. And, with all the goings on we’ve been subject to here in Braedon, interesting for our purposes means strange, unsettling, and unprecedented.
It's a day of unexpected goodbyes and hellos, apparently.
There is a gentleman once again detained in… well, our basement this time. [BEAT] It isn’t Stephen, in case you were thinking that it might have been and didn’t hear all that. He’s… gone. Still not sure why. Hopefully that won’t come back to bite us, but… I’m not too worried.
No. This particular person, one it’s important to note, possesses a face, voice, and overall physical form completely unfamiliar to us, claims to be none other than the previously missing Dr. Clark Olsen.
In all honesty, folks, we’re not sure what to do or how to go about this. If anyone feels like submitting advice, please do so, just as safely as possible. We had considered recounting prior conversations and seeing if he recalls them, but with the security system’s longstanding presence in our community, and our admittedly low understanding of its scope and depth, we don’t know if this information is the most secure test of truthful identity.
In the meantime, uh… I’m not sure. Let me find my notes again, what were we talking about?
Well, I guess we’re talking about the opposite of what we were talking about earlier. Instead of disappearing, reappearing. Possibly. Hopefully.
If he’s telling the truth– that would be the best news, wouldn’t it? Something lost coming home. Being found. How long has it been? How little do we actually get that? Have the lost returned? We could use some good news right now. I mean, I don’t want to hope because– what are the chances, and, and hope is tough. But, yeah, it’d be nice.
[MUSIC]
Um, in other, arguably less interesting or noteworthy happenings comparatively, and totally off the top of my head because I was just suddenly reminded of it and I misplaced my script in the earlier commotion:
I saw the carcass of a three-eyed deer on a walk earlier today. Apologies for the somewhat gruesome tidbit incoming, folks, but it felt… significant? Grimly so. Like I saw it and something went– cold inside me. A corpse; the visual, obvious absence, but– I don’t know, I was just struck by the explicit presence of nature and the way it is so… still and final.
I don’t know, I felt… is it weird to say I felt seen? Even though, as far as I was aware, I was alone, though, walking in the woods alone, you’re probably never actually alone. But I felt acknowledged and even though it was- it was odd, and I don’t want to say it looked like the deer had been, killed by something with a large, wide mouth and teeth because I didn’t get so close I’d be able to tell for sure, and I don’t want to worry anyone by saying there’s no guarantee that all those creatures that crawled through that shimmering void yesterday are gone, but…
I don’t know, maybe this sounds super weird and concerning and macabre but I’ve never been comforted so much by the pure indifference of nature. But it was like- yeah. Things die but they don’t disappear. I think that was it. Maybe things die and there’s more blood and jaw and- bone and heat than you’d hope, maybe things end suddenly, in some way you don’t expect, a shadow lurking in the shade and shape of the trees that rises up behind you, before you can turn around to face it, but…
The dead linger. A haunting, not in a frightening way, but in a… that deer will slowly decompose and erode, but even then, even when you can’t see it anymore, it will still be there, part of the earth, part of the soil, in the stomach of every creature that helped it settle into rest and– at least in my memory as long as I’m around, and in your memory as long as you’re around now that I’ve told you about it. That kind of way.
I guess it had me thinking about and questioning what true absence is. Maybe. Maybe death isn’t absence, simply something else. Or, somewhere else. I’m not sure how well I’m articulating this and I can see River giving me a look— [PULLED BACK] It's not premonitions about my death, just… thoughts about absence. I haven’t had coffee in days and I have the headache to prove it.
And, I mean, its not lost on me that the season’s starting to turn, and as the three-eyed deer come out in the warmer, brighter times of the year. That this is some visual, natural metaphor for the incoming season of darker days and colder nights and unkind storms.
I wonder if the trees get this feeling, when the first cold day comes. The sudden, clicking into place of the sense that something is ending, the feeling of their own leaves rotting at the base of their roots… but summer comes again. You have to hope that it does– that there’s something next. Somewhere. Somewhere out there, but also, something next. Something warm at the end of this.
MARTHA: Hey, Jess?
JESS: [SNAPPING OUT OF IT] Hey- what’s up?
MARTHA: I just had an idea. Do you remember-- god, it was a while ago, an old broadcast-- Town Council sent us a segment about uh, shifting’s disease or whatever it was called?
JESS: Yeah, I thought we’d agreed that was one of those fake story things-? No cases were ever confirmed—
MARTHA: No no, but I mean, the whole- appearance changing part of it. I thought his story sounded familiar…
JESS: Are you saying… it's real?
MARTHA: No, no, I mean it was before his time but I’d talked to Clark about it and he said it wasn’t medically possible… not that that means much in the grand scheme of Braedon, but now I’m thinking maybe it was a cover.
JESS: So you think he’s telling the truth?
MARTHA: I think it's possible. I think it's worth really considering. I also think that many other explanations are possible. But, if Town Council needed something to explain why people might change appearance, maybe it can happen. Not a disease, but just… something. And they knew it could happen. Maybe those things we disregarded as fake or just, unsubstantiated stories were… just, covers.
JESS: That’s… a really interesting idea.
MARTHA: Anyways. Just wanted to tell you. [WALKS AWAY]
JESS: Right- okay, thanks.
TANNER: Hey.
[TANNER APPROACHES, SITS DOWN]
JESS: Uh, hey. How is he?
TANNER: Surprisingly calm, and uh, cooperative. He’s in River’s room, they offered again– [SEEING] What’s that face for?
JESS: Hmm?
TANNER: What’re you thinking about?
JESS: [SIGHS] We can’t just keep locking people in a room and tying them to a chair when we don’t trust them.
TANNER: Yeah, but we don’t even know who that is.
JESS: He says he’s Clark. Maybe he is and he’s… just a new person.
TANNER: Can that actually happen?
JESS: I don’t know.
TANNER: If someone hadn’t let Stephen go, maybe we could’ve asked him.
JESS: Why did you look at me when you said that?
TANNER: Because I’m talking to you?
JESS: I didn’t let him go.
TANNER: I didn’t say you did.
JESS: You had a look.
TANNER: I didn’t mean to, okay?
[More silence.]
TANNER: Who do you think did?
JESS: I don’t think it's a helpful thing to talk about.
TANNER: But, seriously. Obviously we can’t trust someone here.
JESS: All we should be worrying about is whether or not that guy is Clark. Whether or not we can trust him. Because there are concerning possibilities either way. If he is… how? If he isn’t… who is he and why is he lying?
TANNER: I mean, if you’re asking what I think…
JESS: Sure.
TANNER: I don’t have a reason to trust him, but- I trust River.
JESS: Yeah?
TANNER: They brought me back. They brought you back. Is it that far fetched to think maybe they brought Clark back too?
JESS: Something just feels… off.
TANNER: About Clark?
JESS: I don’t know. Just- in general.
TANNER: Thought you weren’t drinking coffee anymore.
JESS: I’m not. But, don’t you feel it?
TANNER: Feel what?
JESS: This secret- hanging over us. All of us. Some unspoken thing.
TANNER: And you think River’s, what? Hiding something?
JESS: I think they’re the one most likely to keep a secret.
TANNER: Doesn’t mean they are.
JESS: Who else would?
TANNER: I mean, you? Coming from you this is pretty ironic, actually.
JESS: This isn’t about that. This isn’t about me.
TANNER: Sure. [SIGHS] I don’t know what to tell you.
JESS: Except that you trust River.
TANNER: Yeah. I do. Don’t you?
JESS: I-...
MARTHA: Hey- [SHE’S INTERRUPTING] sorry.
TANNER: [GETTING UP] It's all good. I’m gonna– get something to eat. Who cooked tonight?
JESS: Me. A while ago. You might need to heat it up. What’s up?
MARTHA: He wants to talk to you.
JESS: Okay. Sure. Why don’t you bring him out here, he can sit with me and… yeah, I’ll talk to him. See if we can’t figure this out.
MARTHA: On air?
JESS: Why not? I’m feeling a little like my old self, I guess. Sharing things on air I maybe shouldn’t. Besides, I just- no room for secrets, that way.
[MARTHA STARTS WALKING AWAY]
MARTHA: Sure.
JESS: Martha…
MARTHA: What?
JESS: You can like, fight me on this. If you disagree.
MARTHA: Okay.
JESS: Are you okay? Seriously.
MARTHA: I’ll go get him.
[MARTHA LEAVES]
JESS: Alright, folks, we’re– well, I’m, I’ve made the decision that we’re gonna keep this broadcasting because… because, well, if any of you have any answers or suggestions, or something he says sounds familiar or suspect to any of you… well, you knew him too. We all knew him.
Be right back.
[MUSIC]
JESS: And, we’re back. We have a- a special guest with us, who may or may not be our very own Clark Olsen. Why don’t you say hi to the folks at home.
CLARK: Uh, hi. Jess- I’ve tried to reason with the others– are the restraints really necessary?
JESS: Just for now. Just until we can figure this out. Sorry. Do you want some coffee? We have straws.
CLARK: I’m alright, thank you. I’m happy to wait, if you wanted to make some for yourself–
JESS: I’m still not allowed to drink it, though, I’m not sure anyone could really stop me.
CLARK: Not allowed?
JESS: River said it was making me psychic. Basically. They implied it, I guess is more accurate.
CLARK: Are you sure they didn’t say anxious? Or- paranoid? That starts with a “p.”
JESS: Why, do you think I seem paranoid?
CLARK: I think you all seem a little on edge.
JESS: How much do you know, or remember, about what’s going on?
CLARK: I remember you.
JESS: Well, that’s a good start. Easy, though. I’m gonna need more details.
CLARK: Like what? My name is Clark Olsen, I’m from-–
JESS: Not about who you are, where you’re from, that sort of thing. That’s not specific stuff, we have to assume at least they could know that. And we have no way to verify it.
CLARK: I give you my word–
JESS: Unfortunately, it's only that. There are some things I’ll take simply on the merit of their sound, but… you’re gonna have to prove it.
CLARK: Remember when you were hit by that car and, and you were concussed–
JESS: Everybody knows about that, we were broadcasting.
CLARK: Yes, but, I drove you to the clinic. And we talked.
JESS: Yeah, we did. Still common knowledge, with a side of a given likelihood.
CLARK: You asked me how I liked it here. Whether or not I was planning to stay, or return… I said no. I told you that I didn’t think I belonged here, I didn’t feel like I did. I still don’t.
JESS: Okay…
CLARK: And you told me why you couldn’t leave, that blood pact promise you made.
JESS: Right.
CLARK: I didn’t understand, to be perfectly honest, but I asked, if you could, whether you would leave. You said “I don’t think so anymore.” That you didn’t know where else you would go. You also didn’t think you belonged here, but you said being trapped here was the next best thing. If you can’t belong, at least be trapped. And- and you told me about those dreams you have. The ones you never told anyone else, about waking up back home. In your parent’s house, in your old life. And how you thought they were actually nightmares, because the idea that you didn’t belong there anymore terrified you more than never going back.
JESS: [CLEARS HER THROAT] Okay. Okay. That’s pretty good. I’ll admit, your memory of that night’s probably a little better than mine.
CLARK: Understandable.
JESS: You remember that there’s a system in town that, as best we could tell, could hear everything we were saying?
CLARK: I recall.
JESS: So, if you were… an agent, for lack of a better word, of those responsible for that system…
CLARK: I’d know everything, whether I’m me or not. But I am me. I am.
JESS: And I want to believe you. We all do, I promise. We just- you understand we have to be careful, right?
CLARK: I will tell you what I can. Whatever you want to know.
JESS: Let's start with what happened.
CLARK: It was, it was the day things started to happen. When the trucks came into town, these men- they came to my door and gave me an out.
JESS: An out?
CLARK: I could leave Braedon, return to some kind of life. I- I never planned on staying, you know that. This was just— an inbetween place, no offence.
JESS: None taken.
CLARK: [BEAT. HE’S REMEMBERING, BUT IT STARTS TO GET DIFFICULT] And, I don’t feel good about it. I don’t. But, I said- yes. I said I wanted it. To leave with no fuss, get out before- before whatever was coming came.
JESS: But?
CLARK: But- something happened. I— they took me… somewhere. And there was this– a bright singing, pulling light– and… Oh, God–
JESS: What’s wrong?
CLARK: My head hurts. This- remembering this part, gah it hurts.
JESS: Okay. Just- don’t push it. Don’t force it. That’s- that’s good enough for me, for now.
CLARK: I- can’t remember why but, I couldn’t go. I couldn’t. People– needed–
JESS: Just take it easy. It's okay.
[HE COMPOSES HIMSELF FOR A BREATHLESS MOMENT. JESS RISES, GETS HIM SOME WATER. HE CLEARS HIS THROAT.]
CLARK: Sorry.
JESS: Here.
CLARK: Thanks.
JESS: Hope the pink straw’s okay.
CLARK: [LAUGHS, DRINKS FOR A MOMENT.] What– you’re staring, what is it?
JESS: It’s good to see you again. It's been a while.
CLARK: You- you believe me?
JESS: I do. I mean, it's you, right?
CLARK: Yes, it is. It's me.
JESS: Well then. Let me-
[SHE UNTIES HIM]
JESS: There we go.
CLARK: Thanks. [BEAT] God, Jess, what happened to you?
JESS: What happened to me? You should be more worried about what happened to you. You’re different. You’re… british.
CLARK: I mean- I mean no offense, of course. But, you disappeared, and then… look at you. What happened? You’ve lost weight. Some of these scars still look… fresh. And, when was the last time you slept? Like, properly?
JESS: Ask me again another time. What about you? You’ve been missing for… for at least a week. A very long week.
CLARK: A week? It- it felt like a moment.
JESS: Where did you go?
CLARK: Nowhere.
[JESS LAUGHS LIGHTLY]
CLARK: I mean– as far as I’m aware, I never left.
JESS: Interesting. Well, we’ll have time to catch up later; you must be exhausted. Let’s- go to a break, get you settled. You hungry?
CLARK: Starved.
JESS: Well, it was my turn to make supper and I made mac and cheese from a box, or, several boxes sure there’s leftovers.
CLARK: Sounds great.
[MUSIC]
JESS: Alright, we’re back, folks.
I just want to say a quick thank you for your patience. I really mean today specifically, with this whole development of who I’ve determined is definitely, most probably, Clark, but also just in general. I know things have been- slow going in some respects. This weird quarantine, town shut down thing doesn’t seem like it's going anywhere. We’re really quite limited in terms of things we can share with you, and when things do happen, all we can really do is… tell you about it. In most ways, we’re really just sound. I’m just sound.
Maybe one day I’ll stop sounding like an exhausted broken record but, thank you for putting up with us. As things are always weird and awful and changing and– I know sometimes I say things– [TANNER APPROACHES] We literally just got back on air, can it wait-?
TANNER: You decided it was him? And you just, let him go without asking us first?
JESS: [SCOFFS] Don’t you trust me?
TANNER: How do you know? How can you be sure?
JESS: His eyes. They’re the same. I just- know.
TANNER: You can’t keep doing this.
JESS: Doing what?
TANNER: Things. Things that should be decisions we all make. You keep—-... you keep acting like you know something.
JESS: What do you mean?
TANNER: What do you know?
JESS: I don’t know anything.
TANNER: You just said— and, that look in your eyes.
JESS: What look in my eyes?
TANNER: You’ve had it since you’ve been back--
JESS: You said you trusted River--
TANNER: --I thought it might have just been… I don’t know, but now…
JESS--Because they brought us back.
TANNER: I do.
JESS: That trust doesn’t extend to him?
TANNER: The circumstances are different.
JESS: We trusted you when you came back different. 15 years older, remember? Clark, all of us, we trusted you then.
TANNER: And we're trusting you now.
[PAUSE]
JESS: Well, I guess we’ll see what happens.
TANNER: Yeah, I guess.
[I KNOW ITS AUDIO BUT THEY MAKE EYE CONTACT FOR A SOLID MOMENT AS HE LEAVES]
JESS: Well, listeners, why don’t we actually call it there? We’ve got some stuff going on over here. Sorry for the unconventional… and tense… sign off. Thanks for tuning in.