[SPEAKER_09]: The way of the hollow star as a tame candle's horror story, please take care of yourself and check the content warnings for each episode.
[SPEAKER_09]: Listener discretion is advised.
[SPEAKER_12]: There are distant shores only available to those that believe.
[SPEAKER_12]: Faith is the currency of the kingdom.
[SPEAKER_12]: Though sooner or later one will pay for it.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie, you often miss your family, and at this current moment you do so again.
[SPEAKER_12]: As your rifle shop rings through the rain and the coastal song, and Zoe ducks into the grass, but not before looking at you with fear in his eyes, and then betrayal, before he runs through the grass hunched down and taking cover.
[SPEAKER_10]: There's a moment after the shot rings out and I watch their back turn to me fleeing into the woods that I consider taking another shot.
[SPEAKER_10]: As I watch them run, maybe it's the way that their hair bobs as they do, or maybe it's just the silhouette, but something about them reminds me of my sister.
[SPEAKER_10]: and I don't.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie, if you would like to do some math to figure out about how much time you all may have, you can roll me 4d6 plus a 6 for your hope die.
[SPEAKER_12]: You have about 45 minutes to an hour before reinforcements would be able to drive here from the nearest city, unless they are already nearby.
[SPEAKER_10]: Good thing there's only one road in, one road out.
[SPEAKER_10]: And I'm going to begin the preparations of making sure the one road in, and one road out.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mother Holly, you hear Father Cuthitra say there is only one road in, and one road out, and that road is faith.
[SPEAKER_12]: You smell perfect.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: It looks like something doesn't
[SPEAKER_03]: feel right.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think when Holly got into this, she found a freedom that she didn't know she could have.
[SPEAKER_03]: She even brought a friend into this, thinking that it would open more
[SPEAKER_03]: and save us from what this world had to offer.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think here and now she does want to make an impact on her own volition.
[SPEAKER_03]: As hesitant as she may feel to do so.
[SPEAKER_12]: If you could roll me 40-6 to attempt to influence Father Cathedral before you declare how you want that influence to go.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have no sexes but one one.
[SPEAKER_03]: To reroll this one, I would like to burn my vase, which ironically is spainless.
[SPEAKER_13]: It's a sexist.
[SPEAKER_03]: I stand before him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Pumps, quivering.
[SPEAKER_03]: come into a power that I don't think I have.
[SPEAKER_03]: I go to grab his wrist, which I take gently.
[SPEAKER_03]: I need you to know
[SPEAKER_03]: and I don't know how you're going to take this.
[SPEAKER_15]: It's not yours.
[SPEAKER_15]: This is... This is all a lie.
[SPEAKER_15]: Isn't it?
[SPEAKER_15]: But I don't know if we should be following this if it's all a lie like this.
[SPEAKER_12]: Father Cathedral never puts his hands on you, not even during communion.
[SPEAKER_12]: But at this moment, his palms open.
[SPEAKER_12]: He gently rests them on a growing lie.
[SPEAKER_12]: He turns and walks from the room, without a word.
[SPEAKER_13]: I'm so stupid.
[SPEAKER_13]: Oh, my God, I'm so stupid.
[SPEAKER_13]: I'm so stupid.
[UNKNOWN]: I'm so stupid.
[SPEAKER_11]: Laramie sees the door to Cathedral's room.
[SPEAKER_11]: Door that is a simple door, but feels almost like a monolith.
[SPEAKER_11]: It feels like an insurmountable mountain place that he's never gone inside, but he knows.
[SPEAKER_11]: that that is where Holly is, and so he stops still holding on to Angela's hand and turns to them and says,
[SPEAKER_11]: Will you go where I ask?
[SPEAKER_11]: You don't have to.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm not going to make you.
[SPEAKER_11]: I just want to know.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, you mean.
[SPEAKER_08]: What do you mean if this doesn't work?
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't understand.
[SPEAKER_11]: I don't understand either.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I... I don't know how we travel from here.
[SPEAKER_11]: But I know that everything that's happening around...
[SPEAKER_11]: It just doesn't seem like it's gonna work, and I'm scared for you, and I just want to know if I ask you to go, will you go?
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't want to beat by myself.
[SPEAKER_08]: What's the point of going anywhere if I'm not with my family?
[SPEAKER_11]: He squeezes your hand, gently.
[SPEAKER_11]: You will not be alone, okay?
[SPEAKER_11]: Chenli is going to just like pull you towards the door and open the door to get the jewels room.
[SPEAKER_12]: Father Kathidra leaves this space at the exact moment you bow the end turned.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mother Holly still kneeling on the ground in center stage light, the shadow is long in the corners of the room.
[SPEAKER_11]: Taking his left hand, his left hand over his right hand, where he's holding Angela and just gently pat and release both hands and walk over Neil Down in front of Holly.
[SPEAKER_11]: So Lee calmly put his hands on her knees.
[SPEAKER_03]: As soon as you touch her, she is like lunging at you looking for an embrace and wraps her arms around your shoulders.
[SPEAKER_11]: Shocked, uh, but quickly, uh,
[SPEAKER_11]: embraces you back and hold on tight and looks concerned and like hold you and like stroke your hair and he can like do the smell of cathedrals room.
[SPEAKER_11]: He can smell this familiar lavender scent on you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Molly, what happened to her?
[SPEAKER_11]: Are you?
[SPEAKER_11]: Is everything okay?
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just... I don't know what's going on.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I don't think this is real.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think I'm this is real.
[SPEAKER_04]: I told Cathedral.
[SPEAKER_04]: I told... I told them.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_11]: Like looking over Holly's head,
[SPEAKER_11]: looks at Angela to see if they are catching any of that.
[SPEAKER_11]: And then sort of like the in-spec inputs puts his hand on a holly space and just says, I don't think it's really there.
[SPEAKER_11]: But I know what's happening right now.
[SPEAKER_11]: Things are getting worse.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: I helicopter fell out of the sky.
[SPEAKER_11]: is handling all of that, I guess.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I, I want to get you out of here, okay?
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh, I'm going to go, oh, come somewhere.
[SPEAKER_05]: You said I'll let go of your crash.
[SPEAKER_05]: What is going on?
[SPEAKER_11]: I don't, I don't know, but we need to leave.
[SPEAKER_11]: Let's leave.
[SPEAKER_11]: And he turns, like, holding onto you, turning to who Angela?
[SPEAKER_03]: She can see her eyes are just running with shock and fear in her face.
[SPEAKER_05]: She says, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry that I have forgotten you.
[SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_05]: Where?
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, where, where is a father?
[SPEAKER_01]: Where's, where is he?
[SPEAKER_05]: He... Left, I, there's, there's, I just, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if any of this is real, and I, and I told him, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and,
[SPEAKER_05]: And I'm just sorry, I'm sorry that I have stopped.
[SPEAKER_08]: Stop it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Stop.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't want to hear.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't want to hear any of this.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't... we need to go.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I... I don't care.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't care if it was real or not, because our family was real.
[SPEAKER_08]: I had what we have is real.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's what matters to me.
[SPEAKER_08]: That's all I ever wanted was to be here with you.
[SPEAKER_12]: Sister Angela, how were you planning on killing everyone at the end of the night?
[SPEAKER_08]: The first time father could be a drill brought me into this room.
[SPEAKER_08]: It was to tell me a story.
[SPEAKER_08]: They told me about how beautiful it will be.
[SPEAKER_08]: on the store.
[SPEAKER_08]: The family all together brought together in joy and peace.
[SPEAKER_08]: Never having to be afraid again being full and warm and safe and never alone.
[SPEAKER_08]: and they told her how it would be done the prophecy that there was a reason why he chose this campsite, the mushrooms that grow in this place that would be enough, that would put everyone into a final, restful peaceful slumber from which they would never wake, but they would be safe.
[SPEAKER_08]: When everyone else was at dinner, Sister Angela was in the forest.
[SPEAKER_08]: Collecting the mushrooms, making sure they would be the most fresh and potent so they would do exactly what needs to be done.
[SPEAKER_08]: Before she got the note,
[SPEAKER_08]: She had been on her way to see sister hen.
[SPEAKER_08]: To give her the mushrooms to put into the food.
[SPEAKER_08]: But she never made it that far.
[SPEAKER_08]: She got this note and suddenly everything was thrown off balance.
[SPEAKER_08]: There were supposed to be eight of them.
[SPEAKER_08]: It doesn't feel like enough now.
[SPEAKER_08]: Now Neil's dead, he didn't go the way that we were supposed to go together for the Reggie took that piece from him.
[SPEAKER_12]: Sister Angela, if you could roll me four D-6 to see if you can get out of the way.
[SPEAKER_12]: The fuck do you mean, Robert?
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you mean, get out of the way?
[SPEAKER_08]: Well, I rolled 16 and 11, so... A success and our dice pool is down to three for this scene.
[SPEAKER_12]: Sister Henrietta wobbly on her feet emerges from her quarters with a shotgun, so he's least weighed, so easily broken, faithless, and the shotgun in her hands fires, missing you but scattering buckshot through the space.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think Angela still falls backwards in surprise.
[SPEAKER_08]: The annoyance is startling her out of everything.
[SPEAKER_08]: She falls back, scraping up her hands.
[SPEAKER_12]: Luke, warm mother fuckers.
[SPEAKER_08]: Lisa, you don't have to do this.
[SPEAKER_12]: Rather layer me if you could roll me three D6 to see how fast you are in this moment.
[SPEAKER_11]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_11]: God's on whose side I wrote three-sixes.
[SPEAKER_11]: And pops out and shoots this gun.
[SPEAKER_11]: Let me, he's prepared, he's skeptical.
[SPEAKER_11]: And he doesn't trust this room that he's never been in before this room that he sees as Halle's prison.
[SPEAKER_11]: at least one of the doors the prison that she is in and so his hand immediately goes to her stomach as he steps in the way and sees up the shot maybe missed but maybe not Angela is on the floor.
[SPEAKER_11]: and he is scared and concerned and reacting.
[SPEAKER_11]: His adrenaline has already been so high, he was trying to run away, he was in flight mode, but now it is all fight.
[SPEAKER_11]: As he quickly slings his shotgun from his shoulder, cocks it, aims and fires straight into his chest.
[SPEAKER_12]: Every single day, someone in the world learns that they're not a chosen one.
[SPEAKER_12]: Today is Sister Henry at his day to learn.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie, we see you having blocked off and fortified the lone road that goes in or out, suddenly looking towards the main house as you hear gunfire.
[SPEAKER_12]: Where do your thoughts go at the sound?
[SPEAKER_10]: I think I know where I would want my thoughts to be going, and as much as I would want for my thoughts to linger on the voice of God.
[SPEAKER_10]: I think the only face that comes to mind is Angela's.
[SPEAKER_10]: I trust Laramie, I told them to make sure that they were all safe.
[SPEAKER_10]: But even I have doubts, and I can't be wrong about this, and so I'll run back.
[SPEAKER_12]: As of this morning, would you say that you're a true believer or a soldier?
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't think those things are mutually exclusive.
[SPEAKER_10]: Being a soldier requires faith.
[SPEAKER_10]: belief that what you're doing is right, that the orders that you've been given are right, that ultimately you'll do good, that you'll protect what you want to protect.
[SPEAKER_12]: So you've failed at two things today.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, well, you've got to protect family.
[SPEAKER_12]: We see Father Cathedral going down a ladder in a thin tube of metal, whispering to themselves.
[SPEAKER_12]: There was always going to be one, or maybe two, but this time, just one.
[SPEAKER_12]: They reach a large summer rain-type door, put in a coat and the door opens.
[SPEAKER_12]: Inside we see rows of food of water, generators, and a single crib.
[SPEAKER_12]: They close the door and seal it tight.
[SPEAKER_12]: We ascend to see Henrietta no longer a sister, leading out in front of you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Laramy first quickly turns to Holly.
[SPEAKER_11]: Are you okay?
[SPEAKER_11]: Sort of like quickly checking across the body, making sure there's no blood.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Lairn, he could you roll me 3-D-6 as you examine for wounds quickly.
[SPEAKER_12]: Oh, you're... Shut up.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I rolled us six with no wounds, I got it.
[SPEAKER_11]: Don't even... don't even try me.
[SPEAKER_12]: For now, all the wounds just seem to be emotional.
[SPEAKER_14]: Okay, what is going on?
[SPEAKER_14]: What is going on?
[SPEAKER_14]: We need to get out of here.
[SPEAKER_11]: We need to leave.
[SPEAKER_11]: Let me just make sure Anj is okay, okay?
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm going to go check.
[SPEAKER_14]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_11]: And rush over and to look at Angela on the floor.
[SPEAKER_08]: Angela is terrified, but otherwise unharmed, except for the scrapes that are now on her hands.
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, yeah, let me help you okay you you everybody looks okay I'm sorry about what happened We need to leave do either of you know how we where do we go?
[SPEAKER_08]: There's one road, there's the road out, I don't.
[SPEAKER_08]: Wait, there's the woods, but I don't know how's the fire.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_08]: We have to, is this brother Reggie caught me?
[SPEAKER_11]: Brother Reggie is a soldier.
[SPEAKER_11]: If I knew them, I would guess he's at the road, getting ready for war.
[SPEAKER_08]: They wouldn't leave us, they wouldn't leave us, they wouldn't, they wouldn't do that.
[SPEAKER_11]: Either way, we can't stay in wait, we got to make a choice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, we got to, we got to go and Holly tries to get up off the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on, we have to, come on, we have to go.
[SPEAKER_11]: There may or may take your other side.
[SPEAKER_11]: and we'll just kind of walk out of this room that now smells of gun smoke and blood.
[SPEAKER_10]: I believe that before
[SPEAKER_10]: any of this went down.
[SPEAKER_10]: We had a plan for ways in which we would shut down the road.
[SPEAKER_10]: I believe that we had specific vehicles and like wooden constructions that can be latched onto them that are moved into place to block off the road at this kind of choke point between the forest
[SPEAKER_10]: That is just what Reggie has obviously done.
[SPEAKER_10]: Less obvious than that is that the trucks are rigged with grenades to prevent them from being moved, or if they are moved, well, grenades.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie, if you could roll me 3D6 plus your hope die to see how safely and well you have put all of this together.
[SPEAKER_12]: That is 1-6-1-1.
[SPEAKER_12]: That is a success and we are down for two dice for this scene.
[SPEAKER_12]: All that is left of the family, now fatherless, see one another, half of the empty cabins are currently on fire, which seems like an accurate ending.
[SPEAKER_10]: The moment that I see all of you, I, or I guess more specifically, the moment that I see Angela,
[SPEAKER_10]: There is a great weight lifted from the pin of my stomach.
[SPEAKER_10]: As I run towards all of you and says, Oh, thank Heaven's y'all are all right.
[SPEAKER_10]: Where's Father Cathedral?
[SPEAKER_10]: Where's Henrietta?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know where Cathedral went, but Henrietta is dead.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all good.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's still got to happen.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's to not the night.
[SPEAKER_04]: No.
[UNKNOWN]: What?
[SPEAKER_10]: We mean, no.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_11]: Lairmy's got his arm over your shoulders, and he's watching Reggie like a hawk.
[SPEAKER_11]: Trying to see this reaction.
[SPEAKER_12]: If you could roll me two D-6 as you attempt to read, rather Reggie.
[SPEAKER_11]: A five and a four.
[SPEAKER_12]: These things are true.
[SPEAKER_12]: The world is dark.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mother Holly begins to feel pain.
[SPEAKER_08]: Sister Angela still has the mushrooms on her person.
[SPEAKER_10]: Brother Reggie, nose, kiffy jules cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we leave, our alive.
[SPEAKER_12]: There is the sound of a distant gunshot in the wood behind Mother Holly's shoulders, splinters, a flash of red as she is grazed, but not hid.
[SPEAKER_11]: Everybody, let me already holding on to your shoulders, feels this heat, this hot wetness, and goes down with you.
[SPEAKER_11]: And I think immediately like gets into position over your body, as best as he can, as he tries to figure out where that came from.
[SPEAKER_08]: at her core Angela has always just wanted to protect her family and right now she feels wofully unequipped to do that.
[SPEAKER_08]: So I think as all of us go down she does reach into the back of Larby's way of spend to grab the gun that he thought he put away before she could see.
[SPEAKER_12]: Sister Angela, if you could roll me 3d6 as you attempt to grab this gun quickly, without his noticing.
[SPEAKER_08]: Not it.
[SPEAKER_08]: Two fours in a five.
[SPEAKER_12]: These things are true.
[SPEAKER_12]: The world is dark.
[SPEAKER_08]: There's a boat on the shoreline.
[SPEAKER_08]: That bullet was meant for Laramy.
[SPEAKER_12]: You all see a co-scard boat filled with agents pull up onto the shore.
[SPEAKER_06]: Polly.
[SPEAKER_10]: Mother Holly.
[SPEAKER_06]: I don't know, I just feel bad.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's just stress, it's not good for the baby.
[SPEAKER_10]: Okay, we need to find a way onto that boat.
[SPEAKER_08]: On to?
[SPEAKER_10]: Look, it's right now, it's one of the few ways out of here.
[SPEAKER_10]: It's either on that boat, or going down into the bunker, but... bunker, what bunker?
[SPEAKER_10]: But the fuckly tuck him, every G. Father Cathedral.
[SPEAKER_10]: Father Cathedral, he's got this bunker.
[SPEAKER_10]: It was...
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm not supposed to know about it, but you know, you do security for long enough, you know, your bodies are buried.
[SPEAKER_10]: He's probably there.
[SPEAKER_08]: Why wouldn't he take us with him?
[SPEAKER_10]: I think my silence answers more than any words I could have said.
[SPEAKER_10]: No.
[SPEAKER_11]: We could, we got, we got a y'all on here.
[SPEAKER_08]: You should all go, you should all go.
[SPEAKER_08]: I have to, you have to what?
[SPEAKER_04]: Angela, what is this?
[SPEAKER_08]: Please, please, look, look, and she's going to take Halle's face into her hands.
[SPEAKER_08]: You're going to be okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: I have to stay, I have to, I have to finish this.
[SPEAKER_08]: Reggie, where's the bunker?
[SPEAKER_08]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'll take you there.
[SPEAKER_10]: You'll need the code.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Laramie, you'll keep her safe?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yeah, yeah, of course.
[SPEAKER_11]: Fuck, okay, yeah.
[SPEAKER_11]: Laramie, like, gets into position to just pick Holly up.
[SPEAKER_08]: But what is I'll see you later, okay?
[SPEAKER_10]: Larry, I'll make a distraction.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'll draw them away from the boat and away from camp.
[SPEAKER_10]: Two of you go for it.
[SPEAKER_07]: No, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_10]: What a highly-year-old going to make it.
[SPEAKER_10]: You're going to be out of here and you are going to get birth to the brightest star this world has ever seen.
[SPEAKER_10]: With one hand under.
[SPEAKER_11]: Holly's shoulders, the other under her legs.
[SPEAKER_11]: He grabs on to Angela's skirt.
[SPEAKER_11]: Angela, you said you didn't want to be alone.
[SPEAKER_11]: I don't think this is a good idea, just come with us.
[SPEAKER_08]: I won't be alone.
[SPEAKER_08]: Angela, it's OK, it's OK.
[SPEAKER_08]: This is always going to be... This is always going to be what it was for me.
[SPEAKER_08]: Go.
[SPEAKER_08]: All right, we're going to go.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: Goodbye, my sister.
[SPEAKER_10]: As Reggie and Angela start to run off, I think we make our, we start like making our way a little bit like out of the forest and back towards the camp and Reggie is going to stop reach into their pocket and take out the last grenade they had.
[SPEAKER_10]: pull the pin and just toss it as far off into the woods in the opposite direction of where Laramie and Holly are to direct the swap team to go in the direction of the explosion.
[SPEAKER_12]: Breather Reggie, if you could roll me 2d6 plus your hope die,
[SPEAKER_12]: The explosion is perfect, they no longer have full control of the situation, fearing they may be being flanked half of the agents head toward the sound while the other three continue to move forward.
[SPEAKER_11]: I think he just starts to run into the woods.
[SPEAKER_11]: I think he's trying to go in a direction that's like sort of away through the trees towards the shore, but trying to skirt around the SWAT team.
[SPEAKER_11]: And as he's carrying the haulie, he's just saying, I'm just going to get you to safety, OK?
[SPEAKER_11]: No matter what, you'll get out here.
[SPEAKER_04]: They're going, they're going, they're not going to come up with us.
[SPEAKER_11]: That's the OK.
[SPEAKER_11]: They're going to be OK.
[SPEAKER_11]: I promise, I promise, they'll be okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: I promise they'll be okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: Reggie, Reggie will take care of it.
[SPEAKER_11]: Angela knows what she's doing.
[SPEAKER_11]: I promise you they're gonna be okay.
[SPEAKER_14]: Laramie, are we gonna be okay?
[SPEAKER_11]: Yes, we're free.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're free, Holly.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie, if you could've rolled me to D6 as your heart broken nephew, takes another shot of brother Laramie with the gun you taught him, how to hunt with.
[SPEAKER_10]: So that's a six.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Lairmy, as though in prayer, you take a knee as a bullet passes through your thigh.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mealine holding the light bear as the storm flashes and cracks around the sky behind you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Ah, fuck, oh shit!
[SPEAKER_11]: Fuck, it just give me a second.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm so sorry, Ollie, fuck.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay, and he tries to stand up And he just can't his leg is so fucked right now If you could roll me to these six as you try to stand up Yeah, I love that word Try Five and a four
[SPEAKER_12]: We watch you struggle, so devout, but the prayer holds you down.
[SPEAKER_12]: These things are true.
[SPEAKER_12]: The world is dark.
[SPEAKER_03]: We're all being tracked, and we don't know how.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we...
[SPEAKER_10]: The bunkers beneath the compound, there's a secret passageway in the back rooms where members weren't allowed to be, and only cathedrals eyes ever really saw.
[SPEAKER_10]: But I know, I saw the pages, I saw the blue prints, and I can give us there.
[SPEAKER_12]: You hear gunfire in the distance, but you are able to make your way to where you want to be.
[SPEAKER_12]: There is ash, fire, smoke, and thunder, and the ever approaching sound of the garden being invaded.
[SPEAKER_10]: Who's all going to hand, but who knew who was going to hand like this?
[SPEAKER_08]: Maybe he did.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, maybe he did.
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm not letting you go there alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not going to be what you think.
[SPEAKER_10]: No matter what it is, as long as I know you're safe, that's all that really matters.
[SPEAKER_08]: Oh, Reggie.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't think there is, say, for any more.
[SPEAKER_08]: But if I have to be in danger, I'm glad that it's with you.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_10]: Yeah, don't worry, and shooks down any thought to say what they're thinking and try to focus on the task.
[SPEAKER_08]: She trusts you completely and she'll go wherever you lead.
[SPEAKER_12]: You guide sister Angela to Father Cathedral's closet where you find a latch in the floor that leads to a thin metal shaft in a ladder.
[SPEAKER_12]: There are wires leading down behind the ladder.
[SPEAKER_10]: All right, I'll uh, a little down first and then uh, yeah, just follow me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Lair me is still down on one knee in front of Mother Holly with dusk not as near as it could be.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm so sorry.
[SPEAKER_11]: I think I need to let you down for a second.
[SPEAKER_14]: No, no, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_14]: Is it okay?
[SPEAKER_14]: It's okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: Let me sense her down against the
[SPEAKER_11]: trunk of a tree, and it looks at his leg that is bleeding.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm a holly listen.
[SPEAKER_11]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_11]: I know that I probably can't carry you any longer, but I will walk as long as I can walk.
[SPEAKER_11]: We need to get into that boat.
[SPEAKER_11]: those pieces of shit out there.
[SPEAKER_11]: They're not going to shoot you.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay, you're pregnant.
[SPEAKER_11]: You just say it as loudly and as often as you can, as you get close to them, I promise you you're going to be okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know.
[SPEAKER_11]: I know.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're not in this anymore.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're free now.
[SPEAKER_11]: Listen, everything that's happened over these past few years, however long it's been,
[SPEAKER_11]: It doesn't make any sense anymore, but one thing that does make sense is that you are not bound to him or to anybody else, not even to me.
[SPEAKER_11]: You are free.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay, you are your own person, you are free no matter what happens.
[SPEAKER_11]: That baby is going to be free too, so we need to get up and walk.
[SPEAKER_11]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_12]: You hear shouts and footsteps as someone catch a sight of you, the tree splinters again as a bullet strikes it.
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm pregnant!
[SPEAKER_06]: Please stop!
[SPEAKER_06]: I'm pregnant!
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie, you reached the bottom of the ladder well.
[SPEAKER_10]: I can't necessarily say that Bond diffusen or wire maintenance is in my skill set.
[SPEAKER_12]: Well, what are you good at, Reggie?
[SPEAKER_10]: I thought I was good as protecting people, but even that unfailing out today.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't know, maybe I'm not good at anything.
[SPEAKER_10]: I look back up towards Sister Angelah all the way up there.
[SPEAKER_10]: All right, you can come down.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm going to start working on this door.
[SPEAKER_10]: Pretty sure I'm able to code.
[SPEAKER_08]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I start going down the ladder.
[SPEAKER_08]: One hand and foot at a time.
[SPEAKER_12]: Sister Angela descends to the landing with brother Reggie.
[SPEAKER_12]: Both of you having to stand so near.
[SPEAKER_12]: So close.
[SPEAKER_10]: After I've made sure that sister Angela has made it all the way down safely, I'll squeeze my way through towards the door and from memory try to recall the code that I've seen once on a set of sheets who knows how long ago.
[SPEAKER_10]: One, two, three, four.
[SPEAKER_12]: The door clicks open.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Lairmy spits blood as one officer after another takes turns striking him across the face.
[SPEAKER_12]: Dozens of their comrades dead here at the distant shore.
[SPEAKER_11]: fucking useless pieces of shit as he's getting hit and his face begins as well and his eyes begin to close he just reaches out
[SPEAKER_11]: Somewhere along the line of him letting down Holly and trying to turn a gaze like he reached into his pocket.
[SPEAKER_11]: And in his hand, as he reaches out towards Holly and gets inches away from her legs, there is a tried piece of lavender in his hand.
[SPEAKER_12]: Would you like to roll me 1D6 to find out where we go from here?
[SPEAKER_11]: I rolled the one and I would like to use my virtue.
[SPEAKER_11]: Because my virtue is that I am absurd and of course I see who happens next.
[SPEAKER_12]: another one.
[SPEAKER_12]: You do see the next and final swing coming.
[SPEAKER_12]: It's easier to see coming because of the large rock in his hand.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mother Holly sees it as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: And here, washing this happen, I can't just, I can't just sit by anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I pushed myself from the tree that I pulled myself up from.
[SPEAKER_03]: And lunch at Laramie in the SWAT team beating him.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I fight to get in there and stop it and just stop.
[SPEAKER_05]: Stop, stop, stop, stop it.
[SPEAKER_12]: The door is opened at the bottom of the latter well, as brother Reggie and sister Angela enter into a sacred space.
[SPEAKER_12]: You see, Father Cathedral, foam around the mouth of vomit across his chest, body distorted and angled horribly.
[SPEAKER_12]: It appears that he still believed at the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, oh.
[SPEAKER_10]: of Lord Father and I think the only thing that Reggie can think of is to go and be at the foot of God and struggle wordlessly and helplessly to, I don't even know,
[SPEAKER_10]: like a child at the watching their parents cry, unsure of the magnitude and weight of whatever it is that they had to deal with and only being able to see the consequences of it, wanting to do something, wanting to help.
[SPEAKER_10]: But I'm just a child.
[SPEAKER_10]: helpless in this moment.
[SPEAKER_08]: on the other side of the coin.
[SPEAKER_08]: Angela feels nothing but betrayal.
[SPEAKER_08]: I think a betrayal that had been brewing inside of her since the moment that Reggie said that he thought father might be here in this place.
[SPEAKER_08]: When Angela said that, no, they wouldn't go.
[SPEAKER_08]: They wouldn't leave us here.
[SPEAKER_08]: Even Reggie didn't think that was true at the time.
[SPEAKER_08]: And now, he's gone to that place that he promised us alone.
[SPEAKER_08]: And the mushrooms that Angela had been planning on using,
[SPEAKER_08]: her, all of them here in this bunker now, just way heavy in her pocket, and she looks around, and sees evidence of a coward who, in his last moments instead of wanting to be with his family, hid
[SPEAKER_08]: As, the rest of us were going to die.
[SPEAKER_12]: There is a wall of small monitors connected to cameras outside.
[SPEAKER_12]: Mother Holly's struggling trying to stop them, but the shadows of the officers pass over them both darkly in this grainy image.
[SPEAKER_08]: I approach the wall of monitors.
[SPEAKER_08]: I look for the cowards way out.
[SPEAKER_12]: The tea is right there.
[SPEAKER_08]: Now that's not enough, that won't stop them, they're going to tear apart this place and tell our story and it's going to be wrong and twisted, that's not right.
[SPEAKER_08]: Better that it go up in flames than it be torn from us.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's our story.
[SPEAKER_08]: Angela doesn't answer further edgy as he asks what to do, instead she waits.
[SPEAKER_08]: She waits for the sounds of boots to approach overhead, and when she thinks that they're close enough, she flips this wedge.
[SPEAKER_12]: The explosion fills the latter well, sealing it with dirt with flesh and with stone.
[SPEAKER_12]: As a comet begins its approach, far from where you are now.
[SPEAKER_12]: Holly, how much prison time do they sentence you, too?
[SPEAKER_12]: Are you able to convince them that you are a victim instead of a villain?
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to say, I hope that she can.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think her tales of what happened
[SPEAKER_03]: to her, to her family, to everyone.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think they... I think they serve her case well.
[SPEAKER_03]: I still think she serves a while, because actions still have consequences.
[SPEAKER_12]: I think so too, and maybe one day you will meet winter.
[SPEAKER_12]: Brother Reggie and Sister Angela, which one of you watches the other die first?
[SPEAKER_10]: Now that it's come to it now that all the variables have changed, now that we're not all together, I'm afraid of it.
[SPEAKER_10]: If what death would have to be like now, so lonely, I don't think I'd be first.
[SPEAKER_08]: know you wouldn't be even after all of this part of her still believes.
[SPEAKER_08]: And I think she tried to be so kind to you.
[SPEAKER_08]: She tried to prepare you for what it would be like leading up to it to that final decision.
[SPEAKER_08]: And she tells herself that she is doing it for the same reasons that he did, but does it really matter in the end.
[SPEAKER_08]: She makes the two of them a final meal, hers with the mushrooms that she had picked so diligently for her family.
[SPEAKER_08]: She puts none on his plate because she knows how scared he is.
[SPEAKER_08]: She knows that he'll take care of her when she's gone.
[SPEAKER_11]: I'm not sure if you'll ever get this.
[SPEAKER_11]: How to be honest, I don't remember where you live, exactly, I've kind of floated around for a while, constantly in a haze, constantly dreaming.
[SPEAKER_11]: One day, I found I was looking up in the shore.
[SPEAKER_11]: I had made some commitments, I guess.
[SPEAKER_11]: I tried to believe.
[SPEAKER_11]: Sometimes I really did believe.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're supposed to call her mother, but I think she might just prefer Holly.
[SPEAKER_11]: She's pregnant, just like my sister.
[SPEAKER_11]: She's carrying the light, Mom.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're going to travel in this woman whose body isn't ready to bring this child into the world as supposed to bring the light.
[SPEAKER_11]: We're going to travel, Mom.
[SPEAKER_11]: It's got to work, right?
[SPEAKER_11]: We deserve better than this.
[SPEAKER_11]: That baby deserves better than anything I ever had.
[SPEAKER_11]: I don't have much.
[SPEAKER_11]: I don't know how this letter will get to you, or if it ever will.
[SPEAKER_11]: If it doesn't, then I guess traveling worked.
[SPEAKER_11]: I love scratches that out.
[SPEAKER_11]: Goodbye, Mom.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I see the way you look at me.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know it's difficult, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Having so many eyes on you.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then having yours.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's hard.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just...
[SPEAKER_03]: And it just changed me so much because I got it, it makes me feel like I had given up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then this happens and suddenly things are different, I mean.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's a new problem.
[SPEAKER_03]: But why does it give me so much hope?
[SPEAKER_03]: Hope for, hope for what I had before, I got involved in all this.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm scared, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think I'm scared.
[SPEAKER_08]: Mama, I know you're worried and it's okay, I have a friend, she found me, she told me about this place, this wonderful place, where I won't have to worry so much, where I'll be safe, and I'll have a purpose.
[SPEAKER_08]: I know you don't understand, I know you've never understood, but I promise I'm going to be okay.
[SPEAKER_08]: This is for the best.
[SPEAKER_08]: I don't know if you're ever going to hear from me again, but if you don't, I hope you know that I'm happy, but I will be happy in that you didn't do anything wrong.
[SPEAKER_08]: It's just this world, it's not made for me, but with him and with my new family, everything will be okay, I promise, I love you so much, bye.
[SPEAKER_10]: All right, I think the real light means it's all okay, well, if you're watching this, that means you're too late.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm all ready gone.
[SPEAKER_10]: We all are going off to that better place
[SPEAKER_10]: No, that's Father Cathedral back there.
[SPEAKER_10]: God incarnate.
[SPEAKER_10]: He was the first to go, I think, had to go get everything ready, of course, for all of us.
[SPEAKER_10]: Had to go hollow that star.
[SPEAKER_10]: And this here is...
[SPEAKER_10]: Mrs. Strangel, is she scorned off, too?
[SPEAKER_10]: And just like Mother Holly and Brother Laramie, I'm hatching.
[SPEAKER_10]: Everybody's gone, said for me, but I'll be catching up to them real soon.
[SPEAKER_10]: I guess I just had a couple of things I wanted to get off my chest.
[SPEAKER_10]: You know, I've been part of this family for years.
[SPEAKER_10]: Worked my way hip from serving in the cafeteria to being ahead of family security.
[SPEAKER_10]: You know, every single day through all the hard work and all the pain and the loss.
[SPEAKER_10]: no longer suffocating and all this inherited emptiness.
[SPEAKER_10]: About truly feeling like I was part of a family.
[SPEAKER_10]: Like I was loved and like I was free to love and return.
[SPEAKER_10]: Everything I did, everything we did was out of love.
[SPEAKER_10]: I love eating steel in us.
[SPEAKER_10]: But now that he's gone,
[SPEAKER_10]: now that she's gone, another, they're all gone.
[SPEAKER_10]: There's nothing left from me here.
[SPEAKER_10]: I don't think.
[SPEAKER_10]: No more love in the world.
[SPEAKER_10]: So, uh, I guess I'm, I'm gonna go.
[SPEAKER_10]: I'm gonna go catch up to them.
[SPEAKER_10]: Go be in that good place.
[SPEAKER_12]: These things are true.
[SPEAKER_12]: The world is dark, but community is important.